Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald

ABC Asia editor Karishma Vyas joins Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald to unpack a week of fast-moving stories across Asia. In India, a youth protest movement – born after the the chief justice of India offhandedly called unemployed graduates “cockroaches and parasites” – has taken to the streets of New Delhi following the government's decision to strike 130 million names from the electoral roll, triggering a police crackdown, mass arrests and detention of the movement's leaders. Meanwhile, in Laos, China has opened its first foreign air base, a former Vietnam War-era facility now repurposed with Beijing’s backing. Vietnam is watching the development closely given its own territorial disputes with China.Plus: the trial date is set for Simon Carman, the Australian man accused of murdering 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla in Pattaya, and what the case reveals about Pattaya’s sex tourism economy.Guest: Karishma Vyas, the ABC's Asia editorRecommendations:Karishma – NAZA documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel SzorHamish – 2026 ABC Boyer Lecture SeriesGeraldine – David Brooks, authorGet 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.

Gold is the ultimate rainy-day investment. So why are countries around the world shoring up their stockpiles?And what does it mean when the price of gold drops after reaching record highs?Geraldine Doogue and Latika Bourke are joined by Adrian Ash, the director of research at leading gold market BullionVault, to explain how China and Russia use gold to avoid sanctions, build wealth, and collect cultural capital.Plus, why are countries like France and the Netherlands moving their gold out of U.S. vaults back to their territory? And how did the world change when we moved away from the gold standard?Guest: Adrian Ash, director of research at BullionVaultGet 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.

His father’s in jail for attempting a coup, but Flavio Bolsonaro currently stands as the likeliest candidate for president of Brazil after the first round of voting.But as Brazil’s continues to rely heavily on Chinese trade, could the Trump-aligned leader find himself caught between his ideological goals and Brazil’s economic needs?This week, Laura Tingle and Latika Bourke speak with Brazilian political analyst Thiago de Aragão about the shock result in Brazil’s first-round election, the deep polarisation of Brazil’s electorate, and why president Lula’s pitch did not resonate with voters as much as he had hoped.Plus, as the EU-Mercosur trade agreement builds steam, could Brazil’s future lie with Europe?Guest: Thiago de Aragão, Brazilian political analyst, director of Arko Advice consultancyGet in touch:If you'd like to attend the 2026 ABC Boyer Lectures in Sydney on October 14th, please email us at [email protected] Please note tickets are limited.

As long-held relationships between the US and traditional allies like Canada and the UK unravel, does Australia need to start eyeing the emergency exit? Does Australia need a plan B? That was the topic at a major United States Studies Centre debate in Sydney held earlier this month between former department of Foreign Affairs secretary Peter Varghese and former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezullo, hosted by Global Roaming's Geraldine Doogue.On today's episode of Global Roaming, Geraldine Doogue and Nick Bryant discuss the major arguments of the debate, the assumptions and myths underpinning the relationship between Australia and the US, and whether Australia might be more independent in its foreign policy than some detractors might have thought.Plus, what countries are the best candidates for Australia to forge closer relationships with? And how has the Australian-US relationship changed from Menzies and JFK to Trump and Albanese?Guests: Peter Varghese, former Secretary of the department of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Mike Pezullo, former secretary of the Department of Home Affairs.Get in touch:If you'd like to attend the 2026 ABC Boyer Lectures in Sydney on October 14th, please email us at [email protected] note tickets are limited.Find all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Three years after October 7, the Middle East that emerged from the attacks looks very different from the one that existed before them.In this special Global Roaming roundtable, Geraldine Doogue, Laura Tingle, Latika Bourke and Hamish Macdonald examine how the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the war that followed have reshaped Israel, Palestine and the wider region.They discuss the trauma that still defines Israeli society, the unresolved questions around security failures on the day, and why many Israelis remain focused on accountability for what happened.The conversation also explores Gaza's future, the decline of Hamas's leadership, and whether new governance plans backed by regional and international actors could eventually create a path forward.Plus, the role of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey in a region whose balance of power is still shifting.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.

China's ultra-rich have started quietly selling down stakes in their own companies ahead of a looming October 22 deadline that will close a decades-old tax loophole on offshore family trusts. Geraldine Doogue and Nick Bryant ask International Intrigue's Jeremy Dicker what's driving Xi Jinping's push to tax China's wealthy under the banner of "common prosperity," and what a historic property crash and hundreds of billions in capital flight reveal about the health of the world's second-largest economy. Plus: what this year's aviation awards reveal about the soft-power battle being waged in business class, and a cold war turns up the heat in South Korea after a landmine blast on the DMZ. Is North Korea to blame?Guest: Jeremy Dicker, managing editor, International IntrigueGet in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Richard Walsh has spent decades publishing books. He thinks the physical book is surviving for a reason.As Radio National prepares to reveal Australia's Top 100 Books, Walsh joins Geraldine Doogue and Waleed Aly to explain why print continues to endure, even as reading habits decline and digital platforms dominate almost every other form of media. He argues that books offer a deeper reading experience than screens, helping readers remember, reason and engage with ideas in ways technology struggles to match.The conversation ranges from the changing economics of publishing to the rise of Amazon, book influencers, writers' festivals and book clubs. Walsh explains why individual book sales have fallen, why launching new authors has become harder, and why Australia remains one of the strongest book-reading nations in the world. Along the way, he reflects on some of the most influential books and authors he has worked with across a long career in Australian publishing.It's also a conversation about what books represent in a digital age. Are readers looking for authenticity? Why do physical books continue to matter? And what do we lose if reading moves entirely onto screens?Geraldine Doogue and Waleed Aly speak with veteran publisher Richard Walsh about the future of reading, publishing and the strange resilience of books.Guest: Richard Walsh, Australian publisherMentioned: Radio National's Top 100 Australian booksGet 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]

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.

Argentina's President Javier Milei is suffering in the polls. The Falkland Islands may help with that.Javier Milei's radical style of leadership has earned him more than just the nickname 'El Loco', it's engendered a serious turnaround in Argentina's economy, slashing inflation down from triple digits. However, with his approval rating dropping and an election approaching, Milei has returned to a long-standing issue to drum up some support - Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands.Hamish Macdonald and Waleed Aly are joined by Constanza Sanhueza, a senior lecturer in comparative politics at ANU, on why exactly the issue of the Falklands (or Malvinas) resonates so strongly with the Argentinian people, and whether there's any bite behind the president's bark.Plus, will Trump back Argentina's claim in order to punish the UK over the Iran conflict? and why is Argentina struggling with such a persistent poverty rate despite their economic turnaround?Guest: Constanza Sanhueza, senior lecturer in comparative politics, ANUGet in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Tech giants from OpenAI, Anthropic, and X have all warned in the same week that AI could threaten humanity itself, as former employees go public with their concerns.Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald ask foreign correspondent Anna Fifield if calls for regulation are credible, and if Donald Trump is even listening.Plus, how does China feel about AI? Models like DeepSeek have grabbed media attention, but internal voices have been raising concerns that widespread AI use could undermine the party line.Meanwhile, China and the U.S. vie for allies in the Pacific islands. Can America be taken seriously as a diplomatic force when they haven't had a resident ambassador in a Pacific island nation for over a decade?And Russians have gone to the polls for the first parliamentary elections since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion. It doesn't take a fortune teller to predict that Putin's Russia United party would be successful, but is his political grip beginning to slip?Guest: Anna Fifield, Independent journalist and foreign affairs commentator. Author of the Between Giants Substack.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.

Nine years after Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb, the businessman accused of arranging her assassination has walked free. A jury acquitted Yorgen Fenech of complicity and criminal association by an 8–1 vote, despite his own admission that he paid €50,000 to the middleman who recruited her killers and passed him confidential police information. Geraldine Doogue and Latika Bourke speak to Daphne's sister, Corinne Vella, about the verdict she calls "shocking," the political web the case exposed, reaching Malta's former prime ministerial chief of staff and energy minister, and why she believes prosecutors' promised appeal is the family's last real shot at justice.Guest: Corinne Vella, sister of Daphne Caruana GaliziaGet 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.

Global debt has passed 300 per cent of world GDP, bond yields are climbing across the world, and the U.S. war with Iran is putting pressure on households.Could we be facing the beginning of another global financial crisis?Geraldine Doogue and Latika Bourke sit down with the Financial Times Asia and Australia editor Robin Harding to explain how the bond market works, why it has such an impact on the economy, and why U.S. interventions have been lambasted by high-profile economists.Plus - how Australia passing one trillion dollars in debt might actually put us in a pretty safe spot, and how AI companies creating their own funding system could blow up in their faces.Guest: Robin Harding, Asia editor at the Financial Times Get in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]