SBS News In Depth

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Woodside Energy CEO Meg O'Neill and BHP CFO Vandita Pant following their profit results, while FTSE Russell Julia Lee goes through the day's market action including why investors slammed CSL.

The latest diplomatic crisis between Israel and Australia is threatening to undermine a 76-year relationship. The Albanese government's decision to recognise a Palestinian state in an upcoming meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, combined with its denial of a visa for an Israeli politician, has led to significant backlash. The Israeli government is accusing the Australian government of inciting antisemitism and has now revoked visas for Australian diplomats in the occupied West Bank.

United States President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have held a meeting at the White House. The leaders have expressed hopes that trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin could be on the cards in the hope of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Wednesday August 20th is World Mosquito Day - and it may seem strange to set aside a day for an insect which accounts for around a million deaths a year. Nearly 700 million people contract mosquito-borne illnesses every year. The mosquitoes act as vectors, carrying bacteria, viruses, and parasites that cause illness in humans. Malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika virus, West Nile virus, and Japanese encephalitis are some of the most prominent diseases spread by mosquitoes. Things have improved, however - according to one survey, nearly half the world population was at significant risk from malaria in the 19th century with a 10% mortality among those infected. Today, it's feared global warming could potentially lead to a wider spread of mosquito-borne diseases due to increased mosquito populations and geographic range. Professor Beth McGraw is the head of biology at Penn State University in the US - she admits having a special day for such a killer seems odd at first glance.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves takes a look at the stock that surged 2900 per cent in one day, and discusses the day's market news with David Walsh from Sarto Advistory.

Top economists, business leaders and unions will gather in Canberra this week to attend a national roundtable on boosting Australia's productivity. It comes as Australia has followed other advanced economies and recorded consistently low productivity growth in the past several decades. Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers says has a realistic, but also optimistic expectation of the roundtable’s outcomes

European leaders are set to join a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and United States President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine. The UK, Italy, Finland and France will attend the meeting in support of Ukraine's President, who is under pressure from the U-S to accept a quick peace deal. It follows Mr Trump's face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which did not include Ukraine, and ended without achieving a ceasefire.

AI systems can do amazing things, but they can sometimes suffer from a drawback called “catastrophic forgetting”. Researchers at Arizona State University hope to learn how to solve the problem by probing the brains of sleeping bees. The pay-off could be more reliable, more memory-efficient artificial intelligence. When AI systems learn one task — say, how to recognize dogs — and are later trained on a new task — like identifying cars — they often forget the first thing they learned. This is called ctastrophic forgetting. Ted Pavlic is an associate professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU, with a joint appointment in the School of Life Sciences. He leads a unique interdisciplinary research project that blends biology and computer science.

The suffering caused by the war in Gaza has grabbed the world's attention. But that suffering isn't just limited to the enclave's human inhabitants.

A team of researchers say they’ve found fossils that add two new ancestors to our human family tree. While these two creatures appeared to have lived at the same time - and in the same place - they are two distinct, different hominins. The team says one set of fossils appears to be a fit for the genus Homo. That’s the same genus as modern humans. The other seems to fit Australopithecus, the same genus as the famous Lucy fossil. Fossil teeth and bones from both creatures were found at Ledi-Geraru in Ethiopia. It’s a desert site about 30 miles from where the famous Lucy fossil was found. But the research team concluded that the Ledi-Geraru Australopithecus teeth are a new species, rather than belonging to Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis. The new Homo teeth also don’t appear to match any known Homo species. These new fossils date between 2.6 and 2.8 million years ago, and shed new light on human evolution. They are younger than the Lucy fossil, which is dated as being about 3.2 million years old. In this edition of Weekend One on One we hear from two members of the research team, Chris Campisano and Kaye Reed from Arizona State University in the US.

After an almost three-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Donald Trump emerged with no deal to end the war in Ukraine. Mr Trump says he sees the next step as a three-way meeting with Mr Putin, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy - and potentially himself.

Junior rodeo riders from New Zealand, the US and Australia have been competing in this year's Mount Isa Rodeo in outback Queensland. These young athletes are among the 700 competitors taking part in the biggest rodeo in the Southern Hemisphere.

As international aid dwindles, refugees worldwide face worsening food insecurity. Among thousands displaced by ongoing conflict in Myanmar, experts warn a humanitarian crisis is looming. Those who’ve found refuge in Australia are working to keep culture alive.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Cochlear CEO Dig Howitt after the group's full-year results annoucement about the future of implants, while Stephanie Youssef discusses the role of EVs with CAR Group CEO William Elliott; while Grady Wulff from Bell Direct goes through the numerous records the Australian sharemarket hit during the week.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin face off for the first time in six years, with the future of Ukraine hanging in the balance. Anthony Albanese announces Australia will recognise a Palestinian state, sparking praise and condemnation. Plus, the Haitian gang leader with a US$5 million bounty on his head, and the world’s worst would-be assassin?

Experts are warning of the dangers of battery fires. They say there were more than 500 battery fires globally in electric bikes, scooters and skateboards just in the first six months of 2023, causing 138 injuries and 36 deaths.

Wildfires continue to rage across southern Europe, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. In Spain, a third volunteer firefighter has died from severe burns, and as residents across the continent grapple with the loss of homes and possessions, the E-U has sent assistance to Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania.

Thousands of people have gathered in Tel Aviv for a concert to honour the victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Nova music festival in Israel. The event comes as international aid agencies continue to call for more essential humanitarian relief to reach people struggling in Gaza as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, Australian time, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will sit down for a one-on-one meeting in Alaska, talks the US President hopes will lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine. The Russian leader has praised what he called ‘sincere efforts’ by the US to end the war… and floated the prospect of a nuclear arms deal. Kyiv and its European allies have urged Trump not to make any deals that carve up Ukrainian territory and put the continent’s long-term security at risk.

Advocates in Australia are calling on the federal government to expedite and conclude the outstanding visa applications filed by Afghans who were employed with Australia's mission in Afghanistan.