The World Today

For women in film, 2016 was a good year. A new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film in California has tallied the number of female protagonists in hit films and found 2016 was a record high for women in lead roles. 29 per cent of the top 100 grossing films in 2016 had a female lead, that might sound small but it's up seven per cent from 2015.

The latest proposal to fix Federal Parliament's terms at four years is receiving a cautious response because it would give Senators eight years in Parliament before facing another election. Liberal MP David Coleman is putting up the idea as a way to give the business and general community more certainty. Constitutional and political observers say it would do that, but they that voters may balk at giving senators such a long term.

US President Donald Trump is talking up his new National Security Adviser as 'a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience'. The President has appointed General HR McMaster to replace his disgraced former adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned last week.

One of the key challenges for President Trump's new National Security Adviser will be how to deal with Chinese activities in the South China Sea. The US has just sent a fleet to the region, drawing a strong Chinese response. Research Fellow at the United States Studies Centre Ashley Townshend says China is trying to deter the more confrontational positions under Donald Trump's presidency and to send out a message to the region that the US is causing the militarisation in the area, rather than China's placement of military assets on artificial islands.

The movement and transfer of major weapon systems is now larger than at any time since the Cold War. The latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has found while the Middle East is a key destination, there is also an arms build-up in Asia.

In a corporate scandal playing out in courts this lunchtime with Seven West Media, former employee Amber Harrison's lawyers are fighting the extension of an injunction that prevents her from leaking more confidential corporate documents.

At the child sexual abuse Royal Commission the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn Christopher Prowse has again admitted it was a mistake not to attend a healing ceremony for Marist abuse victims last year. Archbishop Prowse is a former Bishop of Sale, which commission data shows is the diocese with the highest percentage of priests accused of abuse in the country. The Archbishop told the commission the opportunity for priests in country dioceses to become very familiar with their parishioners was a possible reason abuse was rife in Sale.

Famine has been declared in South Sudan, in areas of the country's war-torn south. Around 100,000 people are at immediate risk of starvation, while another five million face severe shortages of food. But aid authorities say the famine is entirely man-made and the UN blames the government for blocking food supplies as a civil war drags on into its third year.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, has died suddenly while at work in New York City. The 64-year-old spent more than a decade as the country's top UN envoy and he is being remembered as a passionate advocate for Russia.

Ride-sharing company Uber has announced an urgent investigation into claims of sexual harassment and discrimination in the organisation and threats from management against those who complain. A blog post by the former employee who has made the allegations has gone viral. Women working in the tech industry say what's been detailed in the post is sadly not surprising.