The World Today

Scientists are concerned Australia's space industry is being left behind other nations because it doesn't have a dedicated space agency. They say it's putting at risk a sector that employs thousands of people and is worth billions of dollars. It's a stance backed by the head of the French Space Agency who is currently in Australia.

Digital rights advocates are calling for everyone to get and use a virtual private network when using the internet. Today is the deadline for internet providers to be compliant with the country's metadata retention scheme, which was passed two years ago.

Religious leaders have condemned a decision to schedule an AFL match on one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar. This will be the first-year fans are treated to a match on Good Friday, with North Melbourne squaring off against the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne. But the game's time slot has caused unease in the Christian community, with leaders arguing fans are being forced to choose between footy and faith.

The Federal Government has signalled its commitment to cutting the amount of food the nation wastes in half by 2030. Business leaders and retailers are gathering for a roundtable discussion to nut out the strategy in Melbourne today. Food organisations say it's a historic moment but how the country measures food waste needs to be improved.

Five days after US President Donald Trump ordered a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airfield he's ruled out invading the country. The President's emphatic statement comes as other senior officials continue to shape America's policy towards Syria. The Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has arrived in Moscow, blunting telling Russia to drop its support for the Assad regime. And the US Defence Secretary James Mattis is insisting that America's top priority remains the defeat of the Islamic State group.

A leading analyst says US pressure on Russia to abandon its support for Syria's President is a sharp change in American policy. Peter Jennings says the Trump Administration is deliberately changing the American policy towards Syria that was sent by the previous Obama Administration.

Can Russia be convinced to abandon its support for the Syrian regime? Dr Leonid Petrov is a visiting fellow at the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. When I spoke to him earlier I began by asking what he thinks about the US Secretary of State urging Russia to cut ties with the Assad regime

White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, has apologised for tone-deaf comments he made, saying that Adolf Hitler never used chemical weapons on his citizens. Sean Spicer had been attempting to point to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. He has since apologised for his statement, but there are calls for him to be fired.

US President Donald Trump has issued a stern warning to North Korea, as the rogue nation threatens to launch a nuclear attack on America if it's provoked. President Trump has tweeted that 'North Korea is looking for trouble', and the White House says he's put Pyongyang 'on notice'. A senior Australian Government Minister, Christopher Pyne, has described the North Korean situation as the 'most dangerous in the world right now'. For more on the tensions on the Korean peninsula, we spoke with Bates Gill. He's a professor of Asia Pacific strategic studies at the Australian National University.

Police in Germany haven't yet uncovered a motive for a series of explosions in the city of Dortmund which appears to have targeted a top German soccer club. The three blasts happened as the team bus left for the Champions League quarter final match. One player was injured.