The World Today

Hemp Industry advocates in the United States say changes to federal laws on cultivation there have been very positive for farmers, after dozens of states passed local laws to either legalise commercial production or research hemp further. The comments come ahead of a roundtable in South Australia today, on the viability of hemp and medicinal cannabis industries in that state.

The US President Donald Trump has flagged the possibility of a hefty tax on Mexican imports to pay for a 3000 kilometre border wall. The proposal is the latest salvo in an escalating war of words between the US and Mexico. Already the Mexican President has snubbed Donald Trump by cancelling a scheduled meeting in Washington.

Donald Trump this week spoke encouragingly of particular practices which are now outlawed, saying they're 'effective' for collecting intelligence. The US President has described waterboarding as an effective intelligence-gathering tool and says the practice would need Cabinet approval if it were to be re-introduced. The International Commission of Jurists believes President Trump's comments set a concerning precedent.

The Trump administration has indicated that it will substantially change US policy direction in the Middle East. There are suggestions that President Trump will move the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognise it as the capital of Israel, and that he will take a more benign view towards Israeli settlements. Former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer opposes the nomination of David Friedman as the new ambassador, saying his pro-settlement stance and vilification of pro-peace Jewish activists will do the United States no favours.

The Prime Minister is calling for the installation of more bollards in areas like the Bourke Street mall, after the deadly car attack there. One security expert says the Prime Minister is right, but bollards are not the only way of improving security.

Donald Trump's impulsive and unpredictable style of leadership means Australia will have to negotiate an increasingly complicated global landscape. In his first week in office, the new President has withdrawn from a major trade deal, endorsed torture and threatened a big new tax on its Mexican neighbour. But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull insists that the new US administration won't change Australia's relationship with America, and that he trusts the President to remain a strong presence in the Asia Pacific. Meanwhile, on the home front the PM is also facing pressure from his backbench to find a solution to the increasing cost of housing.

There are mounting calls from the RSL New South Wales rank and file for the state council to stand down, amid a police investigation into alleged financial misconduct. Vice-president Peter Stephenson stood down last week and urged his fellow councillors to do the same. The entire council could be expelled from the League if internal disciplinary charges, levelled by the RSL's national board, are proven at a hearing next week. It comes as police step up their investigation into the RSL, amid allegations of financial misconduct.

New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner has quit politics, after refusing a demotion from her portfolio. Her decision means that the state will soon have a second by-election, following on from the resignation last week of premier Mike Baird. Skinner, a long-serving Coalition MP, has been health minister since 2011 and has had to contend with several major scandals within the state's health system, including cases of chemotherapy under-dosing, the gassing death of a newborn baby and the mistaken cremation of still-born babies at Royal North Shore Hospital. Election analyst Antony Green speaks with The World Today's Emily Bourke and analyses the two electorates at stake.

An Indonesian couple who lived in Australia for several years will today undergo another day of questioning about their links to the terrorist group, Islamic State. The couple were deported from Turkey this week to Bali. Their three children include an eight-year-old boy who was born in South Australia.

Scientists say the world is closer to catastrophe than at any time since the height of the Cold War. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of its symbolic Doomsday Clock forward by thirty seconds overnight, citing nuclear weapons, climate change and the election of US president Donald Trump as reasons for the move. It's the closest the clock has come to midnight in 64 years.