The Morning Edition

The Sydney funnel web spider is the deadliest spider on earth. Actually, let me correct that. It was, until a new species of the Sydney funnel web was recently discovered.

The original wasn’t exactly a species to be toyed with. Just last month, a so-called miracle baby - born from a transplanted uterus - was left in critical condition after being bitten by one. But the new species is - and here I’ll quote our science reporter, Angus Dalton -  “a certified monster.”

Today, Angus joins me to discuss how deadly this new funnel web is. And why we don’t know exactly where it is.

Exhausted firefighters are making slow progress against three fires raging in Los Angeles. The fires have claimed at least 24 lives and displaced over 100,000 residents. 

The world watched on in horror as the elderly were evacuated in wheelchairs against a fiery backdrop, Hollywood’s biggest stars’ mourned their scorched homes on social media, and abandoned cars were bulldozed in a heap to clear roads.

But the worst may not be over, with extreme wind conditions forecast over coming days and no sign of significant rainfall. 

Today, national environment and climate editor Nick O’Malley on the unique and frightening weather patterns caused by a warming climate, and whether or not Australia is prepared.

So, Donald Trump wants to expand the United States - in a big way. But why is he considering seizing Greenland, of all places - and by military force, no less? And why does he want to reclaim the Panama Canal, and absorb Canada?

Trump’s comments aren’t just, as one commentator put it, “untethered from international law”. They’ve also angered many world leaders. And made others laugh. One president responded with a troll of her own.

Today, North America correspondent Farrah Tomazin, on what this all means, for the next four years. And what the history of American domination over other parts of the globe can teach us.

When opposition leader Peter Dutton proposed nuclear energy reactors on almost every mainland state in June last year, he reignited divisive public debate. 

It’s a debate Indigenous Australians are unwillingly at the heart of. A story that starts in the 1950s, when radioactive fallout from bomb tests caused illness among Aboriginal communities that were not adequately protected by the government of the day. 

Today, audio producer Julia Carr-Catzel brings us a special edition of The Morning Edition on the resistance in Aboriginal communities to a potential nuclear energy industry in Australia.

Hi there, I’m Jacqueline Maley, the host of Inside Politics, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald’s weekly politics podcast. 

We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2024, before we return in early February for the election year.

Last year was a big one for the Greens, often called the third party of Australian politics.

They took what was seen as a hardline stance backing Palestinians in the war with Israel, owned the issue of affordable housing, and controversially came to the defence of the CFMEU in the wake of revelations the union had been infiltrated by criminals.

National affairs editor James Massola and federal political correspondent Paul Sakkal bring you this episode today, on January 10.