When a shark viciously attacked Coogee mum Leah Stewart back in June, Charlie Verco didn’t flinch, he paddled straight towards danger. He joined Fran in the studio fresh from his victory in the Paddleboard World Championships in Hawaii.

It’s been a record breaking summer across Europe with deadly heat waves, raging bushfires, droughts and major rivers at all time lows, so low that WW2 Nazi ships and woolly mammoth remains have been exposed in the dried out Danube river. Australian, Dr Samantha Burgess is Deputy Director of the EU based, Copernicus Climate Change Service, she says it’s too early to tell, but there's a chance 2026 could be the hottest year on record, making the reality of climate change impossible to ignore for Europe's leaders. 

The National Census takes place next Tuesday night, and we’ve been reading your questions on the text line and from across the ABC, Jenny Telford, the General Manager of the Census has the answers. 

A folksy Congresswoman is taking on a progressive Muslim dubbed the Mamdani of the Midwest in the high stakes Democratic primary in the US state of Michigan — which is being seen as a referendum on the future direction of the party still licking its wounds from the brutal 2024 presidential election defeat. Emily Lawler, the State Government and Politics Editor for the Detroit Free Press, previews the race. 

We know Artificial Intelligence has a huge appetite for all the good things that make us human, like music and art, now it seems it’s coming for our rare and out of print books. Emanuel Maiberg from independent online journal 404 Media explains how a sudden and unexplained surge in demand tipped booksellers off to this strategy, whilst Australian bookseller Karl Slotte says he's had some curious requests of his own lately. 

Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme has provided access to affordable medicines for nearly 80 years, but recently our tough talking government has met with some fierce resistance. That's partly because US President Donald Trump is insisting that American's pay the same for their drugs as other countries, like Australia which subsidises medicines. Dr Elizabeth Deveny, CEO of Consumers Health Forum of Australia and Philip Clarke, Professor in Health Economics at Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne say Australia needs to hold the line with Big Pharma but reform of the PBS is long overdue. 

A University degree was long considered a ticket to career success and prosperity .. but with the cost of degrees soaring and AI transforming the way students learn, academics like Dr Kylie Moore Gilbert say the experience may not be worth the money or brain rot. 

Psychedelics were used to treat mental health disorders like depression long before peace, love and rock n roll. Now decades on, scientists are reclaiming them as therapies to treat  conditions like PTSD with remarkable results. Dr Paul Liknaitzky is head of Monash University's Clinical Psychedelic Lab and 'Andrea' is one of his patients. 

For 14 years Louise Herron has been in charge of one of our most important public institutions - The Sydney Opera House. She made peace with the Utzons after a famous falling out over its design and saw off a campaign by Alan Jones to have her fired. Now she’s stepping down on her terms. 

It’s one of Mount Everest's most ghoulish landmarks. For thirty years the body of a climber known as ‘green boots’ has been a frozen reminder of the perils facing mountaineers as they enter the death zone above 8 thousand meters. Now authorities are planning to bring him down from the roof of the world. Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa has spent years guiding on Everest and leading body recovery missions, giving him a rare insight into one of mountaineering's most challenging tasks.

Alan Joyce is the man Australia came to hate; notorious for firing baggage handlers and and, in the eyes of many, trashing a beloved national icon. When he quit as CEO of Qantas, much of the country cheered. Three years on he’s back with a memoir to sell and a reputation to restore.

They’re the happy snaps that parents love to see but now the e-Safety commissioner warning teachers and parents to reconsider posting images of students on social media amid a spike in sexualised AI content targeting children and teachers. UNSW Professor of Criminology Michael Salter says children in uniforms are particularly vulnerable to some of the internet's worst offenders.  

It's been one year since Palestinian community leader Owdah Hathaleen was shot and killed by an extremist Israeli settler in the Hebron Hills. His friend and fellow peace activist, Israeli American Elly Oltersdorf says the violence and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank is only intensifying. 

With pressure mounting over their billion dollar property holdings, Edmund Rice Education Australia has caved to public pressure, announcing it will pay all outstanding financial claims for victims of sexual abuse by Christian Brothers and sparing survivors another legal battle. Dean Paatsch, director of Ownership Matters says its a stunning victory for abuse survivors. 

Another seven suspected cases of bird flu have been detected in South Australia, including on one of Adelaide’s most popular beaches. Dr Carol Booth from The Invasive Species Council is warning that the deadly virus could now be spreading within native bird populations. 

And out of the kitchen and into the frying pan; Oz Harvest is getting ready to host its annual CEO CookOff, where the big bosses get down and dirty for a great cause.  

Stacey Duguid spent two decades building a career as a fashion editor which took her to the couture houses of Prada and Paul Smith, but 16 months ago that career stalled. Since then the 52-year old has submitted hundreds of job applications, and almost all were met with silence. After posting online about here suspicions that her resume is being screened by and AI and filtered out because she's tool old, she was inundated with similar stories from women all over the world. Now she's on a crusade against AI ageism. Alysia Blackham is a professor at Melbourne Law School and an expert on age discrimination law, she says experiences like Stacey's aren't unique but recruiters aren't transparent about how they're using AI to screen candidates. 

Technology has dramatically changed modern warfare and in Ukraine it’s also enabling civilian participation - from fundraising for equipment on the frontline to applications that warn of incoming drones, it turns out when your country needs you, you just pick up your phone. This phenomenon is the focus of Dr Olga Boichak's work at the University of Sydney. She's one of the ABC’s Top 5 residents - a group of early career scholars who are given an opportunity to become the best communicators in their specialist research areas. 

The Tate brothers are blamed for promoting and monetising a culture of often violent misogyny and now Britain is seeking their extradition from the US to face multiple charges of rape and human trafficking. The New Yorker’s Heidi Blake has interviewed them both - her account of their exploits will shock you. 

The countdown is on to Australia’s national Census and this year there’s an expanded list of questions, like whether you ride an e-bike to work, your sexual orientation and ancestry. Jenny Telford is the general manager responsible for this massive record keeping exercise.

In the age of AI and algorithms - is there still a role for music critics? Sosefina Fuamoli has been at it for 15 years and says she's not giving up yet. 

Britain's new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham wants to bring back hope to Britain. He arrived at Number 10 Downing Street promising to end rough sleeping and offering immediate cost of living relief. Anne McElvoy, host of Politics at Sam & Anne’s podcast says his cabinet appointments show he's determined to tread a middle path.  

Former UN head of the UN Development Program and member of The Elders, Helen Clark has just returned from a tour of the West Bank where she says the prospect of a two-state solution is rapidly slipping away. She says Palestinian towns are being encircled by barbed wire and Israeli settlements.

And she’s the most brilliant 18th century composer you’ve never heard of, Marianna Martinez was top of the pops in the court of Austria’s empress Maria Theresa. 250 years on, her work is being newly discovered and performed by contemporary musicologists like Dr. Judith Valerie Engel.  

Police in Western Australia are claiming success following the rollout of controversial facial recognition technology that's already identified dozens of wanted people, by scanning them in real time. Professor Ed Santow, Co-Director of the Human Technology Institute at University of Technology Sydney says this technology will be rolled out across Australia very quickly and now is the time to ensure it has guardrails.      

More than four hundred and forty thousand Australians are believed to be living with dementia, a disease that kills more of us than any other. But according to the latest guidelines published by the World Health Organisation our risk of developing it could be nearly halved by taking action now. Scientia Professor Kaarin Anstey is Director of the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute and Principal Senior Research Scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia, she’s also the only Australian researcher on the World Health Organisation’s dementia panel.

Spain have lifted the football world cup, defeating Argentina, meanwhile US president Donald Trump reckons it was the best tournament ever - by a factor of four, maybe even five - SBS Sport’s lead commentator David Basheer says he might just be right.