Radio National Breakfast

Australia's road toll has been heading in the wrong direction since 2020... and more than 12 hundred fatalities had been recorded by the end of November, up about three per cent from the same time last year.

The National Roads and Motorists' Association says that while defensive measures like reduced speed limits and more cameras are easy to implement, they're not having the desired impact.  

• Guest: Milad Haghani, Associate Professor in Urban Risk and Resiliance at the University of Melbourne 
• Producer: Tyler Hall

The Dionne sisters- five identical girls born in Canada in 1934- became the first quintuplets in recorded medical history to survive infancy, then global sensations but their lives were also marked by exploitation, after they were removed from their family and installed in a tourist attraction dubbed 'Quintland'.

Now the last surviving Dionne quint has died Annette Dionne was 91.

• Guest: Craig Baird, host of the Canadian History Ehx podcast
• Producer: Kate Uebergang

It's been almost 12 years since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 vanished with 239 people on board after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.

A new search to finally locate the aircraft is set to start today and run for 55 days in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean.

• Guest: Charitha Pattiaratchi, Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the University of Western Australia
• Producer: Jessica Lukjanow

Just when it seemed there might be momentum in the push for peace in Ukraine, Russia has made an explosive claim - accusing Kyiv of launching a drone attack on President Putin's residence south of St Petersburg.

Moscow says it's reviewing its position in peace negotiations following the attack - which it says it foiled... while Ukraine has dismissed the allegation as lies.

• Guest: Sean Bell, military analyst and a former Air Vice-Marshall in the British airforce
• Producer: Anne Barker

Coverage and analysis of national and international events.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cheek Media Co. Hannah Ferguson shares her Summer reading list with Barbara Miller.

Summer list:

• The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden
• Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

European cinema lost a legend over the weekend.

Brigitte Bardot, one of France's longest living actors, has died at age 91. 

• Guest: Stephan Lehembre, Saint Tropez tour guide
• Producer: Tyler Hall 

US President Donald Trump called it a Christmas present- strikes targeting Islamic State militants in Nigeria's north-west.

Mr Trump says militants have been specifically targeting Christians in the region- a claim Nigeria contradicts.

• Guest: Nnamdi Obasi, International Crisis Group's Senior Adviser for Nigeria 
• Producer: Tyler Hall 

It was a rough race of attrition with broken ribs, buckets of sea sick and dozens of yachts retired.

But the surviving supermaxis made it mostly in one piece to Hobart last night with Comanche taking line honours for the 80th Sydney to Hobart - in a time of two days, five hours and about 3-and-a-half minutes.

• Guest: Comanche skipper James Mayo 
• Producer: Kate Uebergang

A decade after the Cambridge Analytica scandal- which saw the personal data of millions of Facebook users stolen by the British consulting firm- victims in Australia will finally be compensated.

Some 300,000 Australians are eligible for payouts with claims closing on the final day of the year-- this Wednesday.

• Guest: Graham Greenleaf, Honorary Professor, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University
• Producer: Eddy Diamond