The World Today

In Queensland, there's a glimmer of hope for the residents of Rockhampton with flood predictions for the Fitzroy River being revised down slightly to nine metres on Wednesday, but hundreds of properties are still under threat. A levy has been constructed a few streets back from the river to save homes from inundation. Some locals are nervous. They tell The World Today about how the community has been working together to prepare.

A new program providing unpaid internships of up to 12 weeks has been launched even though the Senate has not passed the legislation. The Government argues it will help young people move from welfare to work but Labor says the Government should not be subsidising businesses to take on unpaid labour.

The Northern Territory Government has issued a warning to the National Broadband Network saying it is too often rolling out 'technically inferior' satellite services. In a submission to a parliamentary committee, the NT Government says the technology is likely to fail precisely when it's needed most.

Australians are struggling to eat enough fruit and vegetables, with four in five failing to meet the recommended servings per day. Young people are putting a greater reliance on restaurants and take away food for their nutrition needs, raising questions over their responsibility to provide healthy options.

The former intelligence chief, Allan Gyngell, is calling on Australia to develop a more ambitious foreign policy. Mr Gyngell joined the then Department of External Affairs back in 1969 and has just published a history of Australia's engagement with the world which he's called Fear of Abandonment. He's has been telling the ABC's defence and national security correspondent, Andrew Greene, why he wants to a radical change in Australia's approach to the world.

Audiences around the world will soon have the chance see what life is like inside one of Australia's offshore detention centres. Iranian refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani is preparing to release a film about the Manus Island detention centre that he shot entirely on his mobile phone from inside its walls. He worked with a Dutch-Iranian director to put it together, giving audiences an insight into a world the media is not allowed to cover.

US President Donald Trump's executive order on energy last week dealt a blow to his predecessor's climate change policies, but climate scientists have been feeling the effects of President Trump's climate approach for far longer. They say the administration appears to be engaged in a crackdown on postings by all agencies who track the effects of global warming. Victoria Herrmann, managing director of the Arctic Institute, has seen decades of work simply removed from the Internet over the past few months.

A desperate search continues in Colombia, where hundreds of people are confirmed dead following a massive mudslide triggered by torrential rains at the weekend. It's expected the death toll, which is already more than 200, will continue to rise as the search continues through tonnes of mud and debris that engulfed entire neighbourhoods in the city of Mocoa.

One of the world's largest domestic markets for elephant ivory is winding down. According to the State Forestry Administration, China has closed one third of its ivory factories and retail stores. And by the end of the year, they'll all be closed down.

Stand-up comedy is not for the faint of heart. Amateur and open mic rooms in Australia and around the world are known as no holds barred environments. Stand-up is also renowned as overwhelmingly a white man's game. But a new approach to live comedy aims to change that.