On Friday, King Charles III and Queen Camilla will arrive in Australia for their first visit since Charles became the reigning monarch. Charles, it’s safe to say, has one of the more scandalous personal histories in a long line of monarchs. Who can forget so-called “Tampon-gate”, back in 1989?

Certainly not journalist Tony Wright. A reporter for five decades, he has a unique insight into the relationship between Australians and the royal family, having witnessed Charles and Diana-mania, first-hand, when he lived near the Woomargama station outside Albury, where the pair stayed during their iconic visit to Australia in 1983.

Today, Wright joins me to discuss whether the monarchy has any relevance to our lives now. And just how much - or how little - Australians realise that Charles is actually King of Australia.

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A year on from the stunning October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli towns, our parliament - on the other side of the world - is again convulsing over the widening war.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese jets off to the influential ASEAN summit in Laos, he is trying to lower the temperature on a polarising domestic debate about antisemitism and Australia’s level of support for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

One of the most prominent Australian backers of the Palestinian cause, Labor defector Fatima Payman, has started a new party just days after Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton split on the question of how to commemorate the October 7 attack.

Today, political editor and international editor Peter Hartcher and political reporter Natassia Chrysanthos join Paul Sakkal on the fallout from the October 7 motion.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.

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China has experienced a mass exodus before. People fled the country, for instance, after the collapse of Chinese nationalist Chiang Kai-shek’s regime in 1949.

But lately, the country is seeing something new. Millionaires, in particular, are running away in record numbers. And taking jaw-dropping amounts of wealth with them.

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher, on how Chinese president Xi Jinping - the most repressive leader the country has had in decades - might respond to a trend that’s being seen by some as a humiliating blow to the country.

Audio credit:

• 'Quiet quitting' was happening in China before the rest of the world caught on, CNBC International.

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Humans, we know, are full of contradictions. Even so, the disconnect between what we’re shown in the media, about how Australians feel about the war in the Middle East, and what people themselves say, is surprising.

Record numbers of Australians, for instance, turned out around the country over the weekend, to protest the war. And the Greens, it would seem, have galvanised support for their party over their full-throated support for Palestinian rights. But exclusive results from our latest survey suggest a far more complicated picture.

Today, chief political correspondent David Crowe, on what Australians are really feeling about this conflict. And how it might sway the next Federal election.

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There are the classic autocracies that we know well - like China and Russia - but what would it take to morph a democracy like the United States into an authoritarian country?

It’s a question that’s not so far-fetched for the States, a month out from its presidential election, and it’s one that Pulitzter prize winning journalist David E. Sanger has been grappling with.

So with a second Donald Trump presidency looming large, what are the chances that Trump could turn the United States into an autocracy, or something close to it?

Today, Sanger, the national security correspondent for The New York Times, on what he has learned about autocrats in his more than 40 years of reporting.

Further reading:

• David E. Sanger's 'New Cold Wars'.

Audio credit:

• President Clinton's China visit, AAP
• Donald Trump: 'We need a military operation' to stop border cartels, News Nation

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It’s been a year since Hamas attacked Israel, in a vicious and sometimes sadistic assault. The murder of innocent civilians sparked a severe and sustained counter strike by Israel on the Gaza Strip, which is struggling with mass deaths and famine.

We don’t know how, or when, this war, which recently spread to Lebanon, will end. Israel is now locked in a battle against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon's south, while Iran itself has twice launched missile attacks on Israel.

But what has this conflict done to the long-term prospect of peace in the Middle East? Is it as catastrophic a set-back as the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin?

Foreign affairs and national security correspondent, Matthew Knott, travelled to Israel and the West Bank, in October last year. And he’s just returned to the region.

Today, he joins me to discuss how this war has impacted some of the most bitterly divided groups in the world.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wanted to talk about the budget surplus and the crack-down on the big supermarkets over their alleged ill-treatment of customers this week, but that was derailed by the escalating conflict in the Middle East. 

While the government struggled to find the right form of words to respond to the crisis between Israel and its neighbours, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton labelled the Prime Minister weak, and said he needed to stand more firmly with Israel. 

The result was an ugly week where both men vied to position themselves to voters as the best leader to handle a crisis, showing off their very different styles. 

Deputy federal politics editor Nick Bonyhady and federal political correspondent Paul Sakkal join Jacqueline Maley to discuss.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.

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It’s been  the question on everyone’s minds, since Iran launched a direct attack on Israel on Wednesday, shooting dozens of ballistic missiles into the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate. And Iran has warned that any retaliation will result in a “more crushing and ruinous” response. 

Today, international and political editor, Peter Hartcher, on how this attack differs from Iran's first attack on Israel, earlier this year. And if Benjamin Netanyahu might see this moment, as one former Israeli prime minister said this week, as “the biggest opportunity in the past 50 years” to change the face of the region.

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The suicide of a 12-year-old Sydney school girl last month sent shockwaves across the country. It became the tragic flashpoint for a national discussion about bullying in our schools, and the complex set of issues facing students, parents, teachers and administrators.

Bullying in schools isn’t a new problem, but according to experts it remains a major one. And in Australia, it’s been notoriously difficult – and oftentimes, costly – to tackle.

Today, chief reporter Jordan Baker on the culture of bullying in our schools, and what needs to change.

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A new conflict has opened up on the troubled border between Lebanon and Israel.

It started with pagers and walkie talkies exploding in the very hands of their owners, and then it moved to airstrikes - the deadliest in decades - before the latest news that Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed.

Today, foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott on the likelihood of an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon.

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