Blood is spilling across stages around the country, as an original production of Dracula pushes the boundaries of ballet.

An adrenaline fuelled show with a plot you can sink your teeth into, this is ballet for the TikTok generation.

Dracula features renowned dancers from Mariinsky Theatre, the English National Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Australian Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and it is now touring Australia and New Zealand.

Melbourne Innovation Week has been buzzing with a debate about whether the relentless pursuit of “peak optimisation” is a blessing or a curse for society, asking just because we can try and perfect some things, should we?

Does an efficient society necessarily make a happy one?

The population of feral cats, foxes, deer, pig, buffalo and camels - among other species - are exploding across the continent. 

Yet our response has been ad hoc, small target, and lacking in strategy.

Now, the Invasive Species Council is pitching a galvanising vision that could shift the dial on eradicating feral animals in Australia.

Just over four years ago the Taliban seized control of Kabul in a matter of days and established a de facto government, after decades of Western military intervention to stop exactly that. 

Despite promises of moderation and inclusion, the Taliban has established a repressive, exclusionary regime and edicts have erased women from public life.

The former US Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns is one of America’s most seasoned diplomats. He has served six presidents and nine secretaries of state.  

He joins Nick Bryant to discuss Beijing’s massive display military power to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China's moves to reframe its role in the conflict as part of its ambition to rearrange the global balance of power.

He also discusses President Donald Trump's latest executive order to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War.

For decades China’s wartime contribution against the Japanese was not given proper credit in the West.  

But now, Rana Mitter says China is picking and choosing the parts of history that best suit its current geopolitical goals - to frame to China, rather than the U.S, as the real inheritor of the 1945 global order.

The Last Thing: our regular monthly segment where guests share the last great movie they watched, book they read, or place they visited. 

Katrina Rathie is a trailblazing former lawyer who spent much of her career trying to change the Australian corporate world by pushing for women to get better jobs and higher pay, by urging firms to reflect the ethnic diversity of the country, by making their companies look more like modern Australia.  

Katrina shares the last thing that made her cry, the last great party she went to and the last book she enjoyed.

The university sector is facing a widespread budgetary crisis, hundreds of job losses, and criticism of high executive salaries.  

There's also been a reduction in the number of new overseas students coming to the country  - reducing revenue for the sector.  When you add in  the use of AI and increasing student needs - it's a very challenging time.  So how can universities rebuild?