The World Today

The Federal Government has launched a review of the opportunities for Australia's space industry. One option under consideration is the establishment of the nation's own space agency.

The White House is brushing off an impeachment article, filed against President Donald Trump, by a Democrat politician. The article is unlikely to succeed in the Republican majority house. Meanwhile the fallout continues after Donald Trump Junior's admission that he met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer last year, in the hope of getting dirt of his father's presidential rival Hillary Clinton. The President has again called talk of a Russia connection to his campaign as a 'witch hunt'. However, that's not the view of the man tapped to head up the FBI.

The latest developments involving Donald Trump Jr have led to renewed discussions about the role of the President's family in the White House. The World Today speaks to Bruce Wolpe, who was a Democratic member of staff during Barack Obama's first term as US President.

The Liverpool Plains community, in north west New South Wales, is divided over the State Government's decision to buy back more than half of Shenhua Watermark Coal's exploration licence. While many were vocally celebrating the decision, there's uncertainty about the challenges ahead.

Questions are being raised about the wisdom of the New South Wales Government's decision to buy back a majority of the controversial Shenhua Watermark Coal exploration licence. The decision means any future mining in the Liverpool Plains in the state's north-west will be restricted to the ridge lands. While the affected farmers are delighted, is the decision ultimately in the state's, or indeed the country's, long term economic interests?

International pressure is mounting on China to allow Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo to leave the country, for life-saving medical treatment. The hospital treating him says he's in a critical condition with respiratory failure. He was imprisoned over his role in the Tiananmen Square democracy protests in 1989.

Brazil's most popular democratically-elected former president has been sentenced to nearly a decade in prison, after a judge found him guilty of corruption and money laundering. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led Brazil for eight years and is credited with lifting millions out of poverty. His lawyers are appealing the conviction. The ruling comes as Brazil's Parliament debates whether to put the country's current president on trial too.

Amid concerns it's a backward step for democracy, the Indonesian Government has introduced the equivalent of a presidential decree to ban mass organisations that don't support the country's ideology. It's clearly aimed at hard-line Islamic groups, that most recently led mass protests against Jakarta's now jailed Christian Governor. In the firing line are groups such as Hizbut Tahrir, which is also active in Australia.

The US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has ended talks with ministers from Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states over how to end a month-long rift with Qatar but there's no immediate word of any breakthrough. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed sanctions on Qatar last month accusing it of financing extremist groups, and siding with the Gulf Arab states' arch-foe, Iran. It's the worst dispute in decades among the US-allied Gulf Arab states.

The Kentish council in Tasmania is asking local councils to allow their local communities to have a say on whether fluoride should be added to their drinking water. The practice is regulated by the State Government but the council wants local communities to be able to vote on whether they want fluoride water in their supplies or not.