The World Today

Suggestions that the federal government might agree to relax a ban on importing a high-capacity shotgun in order get support for its industrial relations legislation have sparked angry scenes in parliament. Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm is using the ban, which he opposes, as a bargaining chip for his support for the legislation, leading the opposition to accuse him of trading public safety for support in the senate.

The governor of the Reserve Bank says the election of Donald Trump as US president would not be a 'benign event' for the global economy. Dr Philip Lowe says while there is no specific scenario planning for an increasingly unlikely Trump victory, the RBA prepares for events that could rock financial markets. In his first official speech as RBA governor, Dr Lowe said the rise of protectionism was at the top of a list that was making him more worried.

In Iraq, tens of thousands of soldiers are advancing on the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi and US military leaders are expressing confidence that they will recapture the city from Islamic State. But it's likely to be a long and difficult campaign. IS claims to have destroyed Iraqi armoured vehicles, using suicide bombers. Up to a million civilians are expected to flee the fighting.

Humanitarian agencies have raised concerns that around 1.2 million civilians are trapped in Mosul with no safe passage out of the city, as the campaign to reclaim it from Islamic State militants advances. The Norwegian Refugee Council is asking the Iraqi Government and forces to put in place safe routes. Becky Bakr Abdulla from the Norwegian Refugee Council is currently in Irbil, Iraq, and spoke to The World Today.

More than half of the baby bottles on the Australian market have measurement markings that are missing or just plain wrong. It's a situation infant health experts say could be potentially life threatening in extreme cases. They're calling for a national standard for baby bottles which can be enforced.

Would our politicians take a more rational and fact-based approach to governing if more of them had a background in science? Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of New South Wales and vice-president of Science and Technology Australia, Professor Emma Johnston, says more scientists in politics would lead to a more rational, evidence-based approach to governing and problem solving.

Melania Trump has come to her husband's defence, insisting he was 'egged on' to make crude remarks about women. Donald Trump's 2005 remarks were recorded by an Access Hollywood crew.

It's generated decades of legal wrangling, and now the birthplace and family home of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler looks set to be demolished. But one historian has told the World Today the site should be saved.

As the Commonwealth argues state renewable energy targets are too high, one of those state's own government-controlled power generators appears to have backed the concerns. Queensland's Stanwell Corporation says the nation's costly renewable energy policies stymie economic growth, while neglecting security and reliability, which it says led to South Australia's black-out. The Federal Government has echoed the comments, made in Stanwell's submission to an electricity review, while the Queensland Government points to an expert panel backing its policies.

Melbourne researchers have debunked the decades-old theory that cancer cells of one form of leukaemia evade chemotherapy by 'hiding' in the body. Using technology inspired by Google Earth, the researchers have found the cancer cells actually engage in a cat-and-mouse game with drug treatments.