Radio National Breakfast

Agenda-setting news coverage, breaking news and stories impacting the lives of all Australians.

In Sydney, the golden sands on some of the city's beaches are blanketed in seaweed, and lots of it. 

It comes as much of southern and eastern Australia will be baking hot, subjected to temperatures soaring as much as 15 degrees above the average.

For some, the Sydney seaweed is an eyesore, for others a rich ecosystem.

It's all aboard the Elvis express, as thousands of Elvis fans and tribute artists make make their way to the annual festival centred on the King of rock'n'roll in Parkes, in Central New South Wales.The pilgrimage holds a seminal moment for Maria Phillips, now known as the Platinum Elvis. 

Australian author, broadcaster and comedian Mikey Robins shares his summer reading list with Barbara Miller.

Currently reading:

• Metamorphoses, Ovid (translated by Stephanie McCarter)
• The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 

2025 reads:

• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
• 1984, George Orwell
• The Quiet American, Grahame Greene
• Gargantua, François Rabelais
• The Belljar, Sylvia Plath
• The Odyssey, Homer
• Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
• Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
• The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
• Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Ulysses, James Joyce 
• The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
• The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

To read list: 

• Works by Ralph Ellison

European leaders have rallied behind Denmark and Greenland, after renewed and emphatic statements by US President Donald Trump that he is intent on taking control of Greenland... an autonomous territory of Denmark. 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that any US attempt to take control of Greenland would effectively spell the end of NATO. 

• Guest: Jamie Shea, former NATO official, and now a Professor of Strategy and Security at the University of Exeter
• Producer: Anne Barker 

Sources within the Federal Government say the Prime Minister is preparing for a possible backflip on calling a Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack. Samantha Maiden was the first to report the story with the government indicating it doesn't want to oppose the sentiment of the victims of the tragedy. 

Federal parliament could be recalled in the next fortnight, as the government furiously drafting legislative changes to gun laws, hate speech and visa restrictions.

Independent MP Allegra Spender wants the government to criminalise speech that could incite violence - and protect discriminated communities beyond Jewish Australians.

• Guest: Allegra Spender, independent MP for Wentworth
• Producer: Jason Whittaker

Queenslanders are bracing for more wild weather this week. Floodwaters have already isolated regions further west, with primary producers reporting more than 19,000 head of livestock are missing or dead.

Yesterday, the state and federal governments announced an additional $38 million in disaster recovery funding.

• Guest: Kristy McBain, Minister for Regional Development and Emergency Management
• Producer: Jason Whittaker

Amy Sherwin could be the most famous Tasmanian you've never heard of... but a memorial project led by former Greens leader Dr Bob Brown aims to change that.

Her remarkable rags-to-riches story unfolds in the 19th century, when a girl from the bush became Australia's first global opera star... known as the "Tasmanian Nightingale." 

• Guest: Dr Bob Brown, President of the Amy Sherwin Fund and former leader of the Greens 
• Producer: Eddy Diamond 

For some time now, health experts and advocacy groups have been pushing for junk food ads to be banned in Australia.

Well now the UK has done just that...  prohibiting before 9pm TV and all online ads for high-fat, salt and sugar products in a bid to tackle childhood obesity.

• Guest: Dr Duane Mellor, dietitian and science communicator at Aston Medical School in the UK
• Producer: Eddy Diamond