Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald

The world's leaders are heading home from UN General Assembly week, and Donald Trump gave them plenty to talk about: a threat to annihilate Iran, and a line about "the spoils" of victory that Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Ravi Agrawal says shocked him more.Agrawal argues Trump's coercive power may have peaked, with US munitions depleted by the Iran war, an unpopular presidency and midterms looming.So who fills the gap? He tells Geraldine Doogue and Latika Bourke he sees no clear successor, but he does see countries de-risking from Washington through new defence pacts and trade deals.He also warns that Ukraine faces a brutal winter as Russia scales up jet-powered drones.Plus: Israel's isolation ahead of its October election, and a surprising reason for hope.Guest: Ravi Agrawal, editor in chief of Foreign PolicyGet in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Four years after Kabul fell, hundreds of Afghans who worked for the Australian Defence Force, diplomats and NGOs are still waiting on promised visas, while facing lethal risk. Waleed Aly and Hamish Macdonald speak to security consultant Dr Tony Murney and Azadi-e Zan's Susan Hutchinson, both of whom have spent years trying to get Australia's locally engaged employees to safety, about the human cost of a promise made by several successive governments and, they argue, broken by all of them.Plus, how Canada is leading the world in sponsoring refugees, and how Australia's current political climate is making it harder than ever to bring Australian allies homeGUEST: Dr Tony Murney, security consultant & Susan Hutchinson, executive director of women's rights organisation Azadi-e ZanGet in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

A month after catastrophic floods and glacial collapse swept through Nepal, thousands are still missing and entire mountain communities have been wiped off the map.The Australian's Asia Pacific correspondent Amanda Hodge, just back from the disaster zone, tells Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald what she saw on the ground — including a shelter where 70 children have lost every member of their family — and unpacks the stark contrast between Nepal's response and Beijing's heavily censored silence.Plus: a story that's had almost no coverage in Australia — how Sri Lanka's High Court has just convicted 14 men over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, and why a former president now faces imminent arrest over explosive allegations regarding the attack. Guest: Amanda Hodge, Asia Pacific correspondent, The AustralianGet in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Australian author Richard Flanagan joins Global Roaming to talk about his new essay collection Heresies. He tells Hamish Macdonald and Waleed Aly why he thinks Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter echoes the public punishment of heretics in the Spanish Inquisition, why he believes Australia is a uniquely conformist nation unable to reckon with its colonial history, and the extraordinary story of a plan to build a Jewish homeland in the wilderness of southwest Tasmania.Plus: why Flanagan says hope, not despair, is the truly heretical position in 2026.Guest: Richard Flanagan, author of HeresiesVote in Radio National's Top 100 Australian books hereGet in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts. 

China controls as much as 95–99% of the world's heavy rare earth processing.Your phone, your car, the wind turbines on the horizon, the F-35 fighter jet; all of them run on permanent magnets made from a handful of obscure elements, and nearly every gram of it passes through Chinese hands before it reaches the rest of the world. Beijing didn't seize this position overnight. It's the result of three decades of Western capital and regulation walking away from an industry China chose to dominate. Now, with export freezes already hitting Japan and rattling European car makers, analyst and author Tomasz Nadrowski explains how deep the West's dependency really runs and whether Australia's own rare earth deposits can help close the gap before it's too late.Guest: Tomasz Nadrowski, author of Mineral War: China's Quest for Weapons of Mineral Destruction. Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.