Albanese hoping to secure meeting with Trump
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is hoping to secure a private meeting with US President Donald Trump at the G7 Summit.
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ABC News
27 minutes ago
- ABC News
Why Trump and Musk were stronger together
Sam Hawley: Breaking up can be hard and fascinating to watch from afar. So where is the disintegration of the relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk up to now? Today, Geoff Kabaservice from the centre-right think tank, the Niskanen Center, on the real-world consequences of the split and whether there's any chance of reconciliation between the President and the billionaire. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Donald Trump, US President: I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot. People leave my administration, some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile. I don't know what it is, it's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it. News report: Within hours of his Oval Office comments, their once-close relationship had disintegrated. The world's richest man firing back in a barrage of hostile posts on X. News report: Mr Musk, until recently a major ally of the President, continues to publicly criticise a government spending bill, even agreeing that Mr Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President J.D Vance. News report: Donald Trump also fired off on his truth social platform. He posted, I asked him to leave, I took away his EV mandate and he just went crazy. News report: Elon Musk then claimed that Trump is in the files about child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein tweeting, that is the real reason they have not been made public. Sam Hawley: Geoff, talk about a clash of the titans, if we could put it that way. How would you describe the last few days? Geoff Kabaservice: Well it's good to be with you Sam and of course this feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk is causing plenty of amusement for anyone who pays attention to US politics. The memes practically write themselves. Is this alien versus predator? Is this the gayest thing to have happened during the whole of Pride Month so far? You know, it's amusing but it's also quite consequential in the sense that Elon Musk is not just the richest man in the world but somebody whose businesses directly impacts US national security and the fate of global affairs. And of course Donald Trump is the most powerful man possibly in the world. So it's entertaining but it's also disturbing. Sam Hawley: So there is deeper implications to all of this. One of them of course for Donald Trump is that the richest man in the world could switch his allegiances to the other side of politics. If he really wants to annoy Donald Trump he could back the Democrats, right? Geoff Kabaservice: You know, Elon Musk is unlike anyone who Trump has ever had in his circle because he's not a creature of Trump. He is independent. He has his own base in the world of business and of course his vast fortunes and the companies that he controls. So it's entirely possible that Musk could say I am flipping over to the Democrats or as he has already tweeted during the course of his epic meltdown that he is going to support a third party. Anything's possible. But of course there are also some people wondering if maybe this is a big put on of some kind, if maybe this was staged, if there's going to be an immediate kiss and make up session - to be determined. Sam Hawley: Well during an interview on NBC, Donald Trump did warn Elon Musk against that move. He said there'd be serious consequences although he didn't mention what those consequences would be. And even though he kept saying that he doesn't spend any time thinking about Elon Musk, he was happy to keep answering questions about Elon Musk. Reporter: What's your view on Elon Musk as of today? I mean, have you heard from him at all? Donald Trump, US President: I've been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran, working on so many, I'm not thinking about Elon. Geoff Kabaservice: This is a breakdown that I've been predicting for a while. I can at least say that I was correct in foreseeing that egos this Titanic could not comfortably coexist for long on the same team. But you know, Elon Musk has considerable cards, shall we say, because he is, as we've said, the world's richest man. He actually has a number of businesses that are critical to how government and the world works. Just as an example, SpaceX has under its umbrella Starlink, which does I think 80% of satellite communications launches in this country. It had a material impact on the outcome of the Ukraine war and the conduct of that war. And, you know, Elon Musk also controls a very important social media platform. It is as though he were the head of, let's say, the Washington Post 50 years ago. This is a person with a lot of formidable weapons, should he choose to go to all out war with Donald Trump, as opposed to just flinging insults at each other and calling each other paedophiles. Sam Hawley: Yes, because of course, Elon, without evidence, accused the US president of being named in the Epstein sex trafficking files, a post which he later deleted. So let's just delve a bit further, though, into what Elon Musk could actually do to harm President Trump. As we said, he also has, of course, this very large social media platform with millions of followers. Could he use that against the president, do you think? Will he want to? Geoff Kabaservice: Well, Elon Musk has a lot of say over what messages get broadcast on his platform, X, which is his new name for Twitter, of course. And it's entirely possible that he could actually go up against some of Trump's biggest supporters on that platform and simply suppress their messages, as well as putting out his own using one of the world's biggest microphones. But that's an entirely foreseeable outcome. Sam Hawley: And of course, as we mentioned, he could also set up a new political party, support the Democrats. Geoff Kabaservice: Well, you know, Elon Musk doesn't really have a lot of followers among Democrats. And in fact, a lot of people on the left have fled his platform for Blue Sky and others. But Elon Musk does have considerable amount of influence over the so-called tech right. Elon Musk is one of the biggest beasts in Silicon Valley, and a lot of people do look up to him and have followed his lead in being willing to support Donald Trump, even despite the fact that Silicon Valley's institutional political perspective, if that makes sense, is really quite different from Trump's populism. So there's a lot of points of stress in politics that if Elon Musk chooses to exacerbate them could widen the divides within the Trumpian coalition such as it is. And that might or might not benefit the Democrats. It's hard to say, but at least would weaken Trump. Sam Hawley: Mm hmm. All right. Well, there's also, of course, a number of ways that Trump could also make life very difficult for Elon Musk. You mentioned SpaceX. Donald Trump, he's threatened to tear up all of the contracts that Musk companies have with the federal government. And that includes, of course, SpaceX. Can Trump actually do that, do you think? Geoff Kabaservice: Well, Trump has certainly threatened other institutions with the withdrawal of federal funds, most notably Harvard University, which stands to lose close to $3 billion if Trump's actions are upheld by the courts. So it's certainly not an idle threat to take action against Elon Musk's companies. Certainly, SpaceX would be the most vulnerable to that kind of Trumpian threat because they get something on the order of $20 billion a month from the federal government. And in many ways, Trump's threat, it would really matter, would not just be to withhold funds from SpaceX, but actually to nationalise it. And Steve Bannon, who is in so many ways Elon Musk's antagonist, has actually called for Trump to do just that. And there's a real argument that somebody who does so much of the United States rocketry business, who has such an incredible sway over its Starlink and satellite apparatus, who in many ways is almost a sovereign entity at this point, you could make a real argument that nationalisation of SpaceX should happen. And I'm sure you would actually find a lot of Democrats supporting that motion as well. Sam Hawley: Trump could also suspend his security clearances, right? Which would make life somewhat difficult. Geoff Kabaservice: You know, Trump in extremis could even deport Elon Musk, who after all is from another place, shall we say. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And Steve Bannon, a former advisor to Trump, he's actually raised that, hasn't he? Geoff Kabaservice: He has indeed. Sam Hawley: That Donald Trump should investigate the immigration status of Elon Musk, even though, of course, he is an American citizen. Geoff Kabaservice: Right. Sam Hawley: Well, of course, the stoush also did send Tesla stocks plummeting, Geoff. So that's another way, I suppose. This could harm Elon's business operations. And also Trump could tighten regulations, couldn't he, to make it harder for Elon to do business? Geoff Kabaservice: Sure. You know, it's been interesting to see the way the narrative has shifted over the last several months since Elon Musk came aboard. When Elon invested something on the order of $250 million in the 2024 political campaigns, which included not just Trump's election, but also a number of other Republican candidacies in Congress and elsewhere, this seemed like actually a remarkably astute payoff because Elon Musk's personal net worth soared in the first few months. But, you know, there's been incredible pushback, even from some Republicans, against the Doge project of cutting the government that Elon Musk has engaged in. And Elon never quite seemed sure as to what his purpose was in helming that Doge effort. Was it to just help Trump extract political payback against woke enemies and the so-called deep state? Or was it actually to try to genuinely cut the deficit or make government work more efficiently? You know, the blow up between Musk and Trump got its start when Elon started criticising the Republican budget bill, which truly is a fiscally incontinent budget buster, which will add something on the order of over $3 trillion to debt. News report: Tech billionaire Elon Musk has issued a blistering criticism of US President Donald Trump's spending bill. News report: He has said that I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. Geoff Kabaservice: So, you know, there's a lot of things that are going wrong in the Trump-Musk relationship in the ways that they're not seeing each other eye to eye. And Elon is not very political. So in that sense, Trump could actually have the upper hand on him and could make his life difficult in many ways. And, you know, since you mentioned Tesla, you know, Tesla's stock has really cratered in recent months. People on the left really don't want to be associated with Elon Musk, but the right has never gone in for electric vehicles in the first place. And even Donald Trump's shilling for Teslas on the White House lawn hasn't really done much to encourage people on the right to buy Teslas. And one would imagine that they will be even less willing to do that now. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And Donald Trump, of course, says he's going to sell his Tesla. I wonder if this might be better for Tesla, then Elon might have somewhat of a recovery when it comes to Tesla if he's not so closely associated with Donald Trump. Geoff Kabaservice: It's kind of amusing. Like I said, this is this sandbox, quarrel of these two extremely powerful men flinging poo at each other. But, you know, let's not forget that the United States is no longer the world's unquestioned superpower. It no longer, in some sense, has the luxury to actually engage in this kind of infantile are facing a serious technological threat from China, which undoubtedly will translate into global mastery of some kind. And frankly, Elon Musk's Tesla is also losing shares not just because of politics, but because it's actually lost the technological edge to some of these other Chinese companies. And the same is true of a number of critical technology areas where the United States is almost visibly falling behind China. And certainly our manufacturing capability, we've now been dwarfed by China, which is why Tesla does so much of its manufacturing in China. So one hopes that cooler heads are going to prevail. And I strongly suspect that both Trump and Musk are looking for ways to back down from this feud. But that doesn't mean that the political alliance that existed between them can be resurrected. Sam Hawley: Yeah. I was going to say, is there a way back from the brink? And if there isn't, who do you think will be the ultimate winner of this stoush, the billionaire or the president? Geoff Kabaservice: Oh, that's awfully hard to say because it's not clear what winning would look like here. I mean, at the end of the day, Elon will still have more money than any human being has had in history, as well as however many children he wants to have, however many consorts he wants to have. One suspects Elon will be fine. And at the end of the day, Donald Trump will still be president as well. And it's unlikely that the Republican Party is going to get out from under his brand of populism anytime soon, whether or not he chooses to run for a third term in 2028, despite the constitutional prohibition on that happening. So it's hard to say who is actually going to come out winners, you know, but I think there's a fair case to be made that they were stronger together than they will be apart, and that they will never quite wield the same power and influence or even be able to affect the cultural vibes in quite the same way. Sam Hawley: Geoff Kabaservice is from the Niskanen Center, a centre right think tank based in Washington episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Adair Sheppard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley, thanks for listening.
Herald Sun
an hour ago
- Herald Sun
Unrest in Los Angeles over immigration raids as troops sent by Trump fan out
Don't miss out on the headlines from Breaking News. Followed categories will be added to My News. Police ordered the public to disperse from downtown Los Angeles after further unrest, with cars torched and security forces firing tear gas at protesters, in the wake of Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to America's second-biggest city. Protests in Los Angeles, home to a large Latino population, broke out on Friday, triggered by immigration raids that resulted in dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members. Critics say the US president -- who has made clamping down on illegal migration a key pillar of his second term -- was deliberately stoking tensions with his deployment of California's National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the state governor. Demonstrators told AFP the purpose of the troops did not appear to be to keep order, with one calling it an "intimidation tactic." "You have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our First Amendment rights," protester Thomas Henning said. California Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump's order a "serious breach of state sovereignty" and demanded the president to rescind the order and "return control to California." He also urged protesters to stay peaceful, warning that those who instigate violence will be arrested. "Don't take Trump's bait," he said on social media platform X. Authorities declared downtown Los Angeles a place of "unlawful assembly" by late Sunday evening. Local media showed a heavy police presence blanketing mostly deserted streets in various areas. A few protesters remained scattered, with some lobbing projectiles and fireworks according to local aerial TV coverage. Trump called the protesters "insurrectionists," and demanded authorities "ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!" "BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!!" he wrote on his Truth Social platform. At least three self-driving Waymo cars were torched as demonstrators thronged around downtown Los Angeles earlier on Sunday, and local law enforcement deployed tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters. An Australian reporter was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet fired by a police officer while on live television. Her employer 9News said she was unharmed. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers established containment lines some distance from federal buildings by Sunday afternoon, preventing contact between angry demonstrators and the scores of armed National Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team who had gathered in helmets and camouflage gear. Law enforcement had arrested at least 56 people over two days and three officers had suffered minor injuries, the LAPD said. Police in San Francisco said on Sunday about 60 people had been arrested in similar protests in the northern Californian city. - 'Troops everywhere' - Trump was unrepentant when asked about the use of troops, hinting instead at a more widespread deployment in other parts of the country. "I think you're going to see some very strong law and order," he told reporters. Responding to a question about invoking the Insurrection Act -- which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force -- Trump said: "We're looking at troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country." US Northern Command, part of the Department of Defense responsible for national defense, said "approximately 500 Marines... are in a prepared-to-deploy status should they be necessary to augment and support" the ongoing federal operations. The National Guard is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities. Trump's deployment of the force -- the first over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement -- was criticized by Democrats, including Kamala Harris. The former vice president called it "a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos." Newsom said Trump was "putting fuel on this fire." "Commandeering a state's National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral," he said on X. "California will be taking him to court." - 'Intimidation' - However, Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback. "I have no concern about that at all," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, accusing Newsom of "an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary." Demonstrator Marshall Goldberg, 78, told AFP that deploying Guardsmen made him feel "so offended." "We hate what they've done with the undocumented workers, but this is moving it to another level of taking away the right to protest and the right to just peaceably assemble." Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump's immigration policies so far. bur-hg/dhc/pbt Originally published as Unrest in Los Angeles over immigration raids as troops sent by Trump fan out
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
BTN Episode 16, 2025
BTN Transcript: Episode 16 — 10/6/2025 Yaama. I'm Jack Evans and you're watching BTN. Here's what's coming up. We'll find out why Taylor Swift had to buy back her own music, learn more about this precious metal and hear about a competition to try and talk to animals. Tariffs Update Reporter: Jack Evans INTRO: But first up to something you've probably heard a lot about for, well, a while now and that's tariffs. We've told you before about the US President's controversial plans to tax goods coming in from other countries but since then, a lot has happened. Let's find out more. KING: Alright, what else is on the list of imports. RIGHT HAND: We've got Iced Tea imported from England. KING: Tariff. RIGHT HAND: Olives imported from Spain. KING: Tariff. RIGHT HAND: Towels imported from Turkey. KING: Tariff. RIGHT HAND: And turkey imported from Maine. KING: Tariff. JACK EVANS, REPORTER: When we last left our King, he was only getting started with this whole tariff thing. KING: I want Tariffs, that is my simple request. All things… RIGHT HAND: Tariffed. KING: Bigger and better is best. And just like this made-up kingdom, the real world has seen something similar. In case you need a reminder. A tariff is a tax or an extra cost that governments put on products that come from another country. Since first implementing tariffs earlier this year, US President Donald Trump, has put a tariff on just about every country, even places where there isn't anything to tariff. KING: Right, I've marked out all the kingdoms I plan to tariff. RIGHT HAND: But this is the whole map? KING: It's not the WHOLE kingdom. I left out there. On the 2nd of April, which President Trump declared as… DONALD TRUMP, US PRESIDENT: Liberation Day. He announced a baseline 10% Universal Tariff on imports from every country, except Canada and Mexico. As well as Reciprocal Tariffs of up to 50% on countries that Mr Trump said were engaging in unfair trade practices. DONALD TRUMP: Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years. But it is not going to happen anymore. It's not going to happen. Here in Australia, on top of the 10% universal tariff, we also got Reciprocal Tariffs including a 25% tariff on Steel and Aluminum, although recently Mr Trump said that Tariff would be doubled. The liberation day tariffs caused a massive ripple effect across the world and wiped billions of dollars from the stock market. But on the 9th of April when the Reciprocal Tariffs were meant to kick in Mr Trump announced a 90-day suspension for all countries. Oh, except China which ended up seeing Tariffs of up to 145%. To which China kicked back with its own tariffs that peaked at 147.6%. But before it could turn into an outright Trade War, the US and China agreed to a 90 day suspension on some tariffs. SCOTT BESSENT, US TREASURY SECRETARY: We have reached an agreement. RIGHT HAND: Are you sure we should be tariffing so much? KING: Of course, I'm using them as a tool for negotiation. RIGHT HAND: Like a hammer? KING: More like wrench, applying pressure on other kingdoms to enter trade agreements with us. Some, including Mr Trump, say that's partly what all these tariffs are about. DONALD TRUMP: Tariffs are very powerful both economically and in getting everything else you want RIGHT HAND: Oh, well that sounds tariff-ic. But also, do we need to be running this past the Court of International Trade or something? KING: Who? At the end of May the US Court of International Trade ruled that most of Trump's tariffs weren't allowed. Saying that the president had overstepped his authority. But the next day the president's team appealed the court decision and won which means for now the tariffs are still in place. DONALD TRUMP: Without the tariffs, our nation would be in peril. RIGHT HAND: Right, I think that's just about everything we can tariff. KING: Oh, well what about the moon? Is there anything we can tariff on the moon? News Quiz Lee Jae-myung has been elected president of which country? North Korea or South Korea? It's South Korea. Lee Jae-myung, from the Democratic Party, won the top job after months of political chaos. The former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was removed from office after trying to bring in martial law, that's when the military takes control of a country's law and order. Mr Lee, a former lawyer, says he's focused on bringing back trust in democracy and boosting South Korea's economy. Australia's Fair Work Commission has announced a 3.5% increase of the minimum wage. It means Aussie workers who are over 21 and not under any other agreement will earn at least what? $14.95 an hour, $24.95 an hour or $30.95 an hour? It's 24.95 an hour. A pay rise is on the way for millions of Aussie workers earning the minimum what? One of the world's most famous, and most active, volcanoes has erupted. Where is Mt Etna located? Iceland, Italy or Hawaii? It's in Italy, on the island of Sicily, to be exact. Eruptions are nothing new for Mt Etna. This latest one happened after part of the volcano's southeast crater collapsed, triggering an explosive reaction. Music Rights Reporter: Wren Gillett INTRO: Now, to some big news in the music world. Last week, Taylor Swift officially bought back all of her old music. If you're wondering how or why she didn't own it in the first place, well, Wren can fill you in. WREN GILLETT, REPORTER: So, you've made it. You wrote a surprisingly catchy song about… ROCKSTAR: Highlighters. Random, anyway, you manage to hit number 1 on the charts, announce a global tour, and people everywhere are asking for your autograph. But ahh, while you might have achieved fame, the fortune part isn't necessarily guaranteed. ROCKSTAR: WAIT WHAT. WHY? Look, there's a bit to unpack here. So, ahh, buckle up. While your favourite artists might have big fan bases these days, there was likely a time when nobody knew who they were. Like this guy. RECORD LABEL: Don't worry, I'll get your name out there. Enter the record label. Record Labels are basically companies with money and connections in the music industry. When they see potential in an artist, they invest time, money and other resources into hopefully making them a big success. RECORD LABEL: I see it. 'You light up my page' that's our first album title. Bang. They might help to cover the costs of recording, producing, advertising, and making sure the artist's music is actually played and heard by people. They also help with a lot of the legal stuff, like copyright, and helping the artist navigate the music world. Every time the artist's music is sold, streamed, played, or used, they're paid a share of profits, called royalties. But quite often, it's the label that owns the recording, because of all the help they provided at the start. Meaning they get to keep more of the money. RECORD LABEL: I'd give more of this to ya, but ahhh, you owe me. Remember? NIC KELLY, MUSIC JOURNALIST: It's not always split evenly, and especially once the artist has made back the money that the label has loaned them in the first place, then things start to feel a little bit unfair. Yeah, sometimes it can actually be pretty hard for artists to make money from their own music. Streaming services don't always pay artists a whole lot of money, and quite often, a lot of what they do earn goes to their labels. It's why some artists create their own record labels, why a lot of your favourite singers will go on tour, release merch or perfumes, and why some artists like Taylor Swift decide to re-record their music. TAYLOR SWIFT: I think that artists deserve to own their work, I just feel very passionately about that. Back in 2019, Taylor Swift's former label, Big Machine, sold the recordings of her first six albums. Taylor wanted to own them, but says she wasn't given the chance to buy them directly. So, she started releasing Taylor's Version, a re-recording of her old albums that she could fully own and control. But now, after years and years of trying, Tay Tay has finally bought back her early music, for a measly ahh 360 million buckaroonies. These days, a lot of artists are trying to hold onto more of their independence, which, thanks to new tech and social media, has never been easier. NIC KELLY: No longer do you have to ask a record label to put your song out and beg them to give you the funding to record it. Things can be recorded on a phone or a laptop that you can buy for 1000 or 2000 dollars, and you can upload that song to every single platform on the Internet for free. There are also calls for artists to be treated better by their labels. CHAPPELL ROAN: I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a liveable wage and health care, especially to developing artists. NIC KELLY: There's definitely a really exciting opportunity now for these relationships between these record labels, who are still a massive and deeply important part of the music ecosystem and the artists that they represent to have fairer conversations, fairer splits. So, artists like you can continue doing what ya love. ROCKSTAR: THANK YOU EVERYONE. Quiz Which of these albums has Taylor Swift not re-recorded? Lover, Midnights or The Tortured Poets Department? Ah sorry, it's a trick question. None of these albums have been re-recorded by Taylor Swift because she owns the rights to them. Gold Price Reporter: Tatenda Chibika INTRO: Now to a precious metal that's particularly precious right now. Gold. Gold prices have gone up so much that several old mines in Queensland may soon reopen. Tatenda digs into why this shiny metal has held such high value throughout history. Take a look. Dora and the Lost City of Gold: We're on to something big Dora, an ancient city made of gold. Finding Ohana: My kids are inside a mountain looking for some Spanish gold?. Uncharted: It's the biggest treasure that's never been found, five billion easy. Tatenda Chibika, Reporter: Gold isn't just something people are obsessed with in movies. Right now, it's so valuable, just a kilo costs around $160,000 dollars. While there are rarer metals out there, experts say gold has properties that make it unique. Professor Rick Valenta, UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute: It doesn't tarnish. It doesn't oxidise if you have a piece of gold now, you can leave it out in the backyard, in the rain and the cold weather and the hot weather and bury it in the dirt and dig it up again and it will still be shiny. Gold has been a part of many civilisations throughout history. The Sumerians moulded it into jewellery, like these earrings gifted from King Shulgi. Egyptian Pharaoh's like Tutankhamun were buried with it believing it was the "Flesh of the Gods". And the Mali Empire's Mansa Musa is considered one of the wealthiest people in history because of how much gold he had. The precious metal has also been used as a form of currency for ages. From the 1870s to the 1920s, many countries around the world adopted the gold standard where the value of money was directly linked to real gold held in the vaults of banks. It was called the Gold Standard, and it ensured cash was worth the same as something that had a lot of value like gold. While the policy was used here in Australia because of our ties with Britain our history with Gold was shaped in the mid-1800s. Although people had discovered gold before then, authorities didn't trust the convict population, so they kept it a secret. But their attitudes changed when the California gold rush began. It brought a lot of money to America but lured much needed workers away from Australia. So, governments in New South Wales and Victoria, offered rewards to anyone who found a gold deposit big enough to be mined. In 1851, Edward Hargraves and a group of prospectors discovered a bunch of gold flakes in a town near Orange in New South Wales. Edward showed the gold to officials and was eventually given 10,000 pounds for the discovery which he didn't share with the others. Word of the discovery quickly spread and within months, hundreds of diggers flocked to the area. It sparked the beginning of Australia's Gold Rush which brought hundreds of thousands of migrants to the country and helped make the nation rich. Today, Australia is the third-highest gold producer in the world behind China and Russia. As for the value of gold nowadays. Professor Rick Valenta: The price of gold is very high right now. There's no doubt about that. The last time the gold price was this high was in 1980. Experts say when things aren't going well in the global economy gold prices tend to go up. Professor Rick Valenta: People can't print more gold coins. You have to go find more gold. So, people look at that and they say it's you know, it's something that has a tangible value of a value that you can sort of rely on. So, are we entering modern gold rush era? Well Professor Valenta says while things are going well now people shouldn't get too carried away. Professor Rick Valenta: One of the most dangerous things always to say is 'ohh this time is different'. This time probably isn't different. It's probably the same as other gold price spikes in the in the past and it's probably gonna come back. Animal Communication Reporter: Wren Gillett INTRO: Ever wished you could have a conversation with an animal? Well, it's something scientists have been working on and now, a major competition is offering a huge cash prize for anyone who can crack the code of interspecies communication. Here's Wren. PRINCESS: If you listen closely, you'll hear their voices, their songs. Ahh, music to my ears. Oh, hello there, how are you? BIRD: Yeah, I'm good mate how are you? PRINCESS: Oh, I wasn't expecting that accent. WREN GILLETT, REPORTER: Okay, while talking to animals might seem like something only fictional characters can do. It's an idea scientists are taking seriously. Over the years we've discovered lots about the ways animals communicate. Take octopuses for example. They can change the colour and texture of their skin to communicate mood. PRINCESS: Other animals use their voices, like us. Male humpbacks sing long, detailed songs during mating season. And some animals even use names. Like elephants and dolphins. A while ago, scientists worked out that each individual dolphin whistles something completely unique to them. Something called a signature whistle. LAELA SAYIGH, PROFESSOR OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: So, these are these individually specific whistles that are very much like our names. This is Laela. She's been researching dolphins for 40 years. And recently, her research team won the first phase of a competition called the Coller Dolittle Prize. It's a massive competition, offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to scientists who can help us get closer to… BIRD: Talking to us animals. PRINCESS: Yes. What he said. LAELA SAYIGH: So, the whistles have very distinctive shapes that we call contours, and they really are just so distinctive. Laela says when dolphins aren't busy saying their own names, the other whistles they make might actually mean something. She thinks these non-signature whistles could work a bit like words that dolphins use to talk to each other. Like for instance, sounding an alarm. LAELA SAYIGH: So, when I first saw that, I honestly thought I was going crazy. I just thought I've never seen anything like this. I almost thought nobody was going to even believe me that I was seeing it. But there's still so much we don't know. Which is why some researchers are enlisting the help of AI. Like Yossi, he's part of the team who started the Dolittle Prize, and recently, he's been studying the language of bats. YOSSI YOVEL, PROFESSOR IN ZOOLOGY: So, we put bats in large cages for a short period of several months and then we release them. But during this period, we video them continuously and record everything. Yossi and his team recorded 15,000 vocalisations of bats, along with who was making the call, who to, and what the bats were doing when they made the call YOSSI YOVEL: Then we fed this into an AI machine. So, AI is a big advantage in that indeed it is very good at trying to identify patterns that might be hidden. What they found after it was given the detailed data, was that the AI was able to take a random sample and say who was calling, the context of the call, whether the bats were fighting or playing, and in some instances who the call was addressed to. YOSSI YOVEL: But again we're humans and often we don't understand exactly what the animal is doing. So, I mean collecting data and filtering the data and annotating the data. That's all very, very challenging. Right now, researchers say it will be a long time before humans, not just fairytale princesses, can properly talk to animals. But they say everything we're learning is important. LAELA SAYIGH: I think that the more we learn about animals, it can only increase everyone's empathy for them. BIRD: Alright. I'll see ya round. PRINCESS: Oh of course, I'll speak to you later. goodbye now. Did You Know? Did you know honeybees communicate with a "waggle dance" to tell hive-mates where food is located. Sport It was a big win for Carlos Alcaraz against Jannik Sinner concluding a five-hour final at the French Open, the longest ever. And in the women's, after a rocky start, Coco Gauff turned it around to defeat Aryna Sabalenka making her the first American to take home the title since Serena Williams a decade ago. Phwoah. Now let's keep that win streak going with our Australian Olympic champion, Jess Fox, who's snagged her 34th gold in the C1 at the Women's Canoe World Cup leg in Spain. And let's finish with a plunge into a different kind of win with the 11th annual AFL Big Freeze. Every year, well-known Aussies dressed in costume of course, take to the slide and the icy cold waters at the bottom all to raise awareness for the fight against motor neurone disease. This year's dress code: "Iconic Australians". Gee, you get cold just watching it, don't you? Dino Footprints Reporter: Tatenda Chibika INTRO: Now to rural Queensland, where some school kids have found out more about a very special rock that sits in their foyer, which, apparently, has one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints ever seen in Australia. Here's Tatenda with more. STUDENT: I was absolutely shocked; I thought this boulder was fake. STUDENT: I was pretty shocked that the fossil was really important STUDENT: I had no clue. It's honestly just another rock to me STUDENT: I just thought it was a normal display in the office, nothing important really. From a distance, this slab of rock at Biloela State High isn't much to look at. David Hall, Deputy Principal: You walk past it every day, you talk to kids every day and you have very different conversations and it's just a backdrop to everything we do in our school. In the early 2000s, a Geologist saved it from being destroyed in a nearby mine and donated to the school. But that's not what makes this old rock interesting. If you look closely, there are dinosaur footprints on it a lot of them. Dr Romilio, Palaeontologist: Hi, my name is Dr Anthony Romilio. I'm a palaeontologist from the University of Queensland. And when he finds out about it Dr Romilio drove 6 hours to get a look. Dr Romilio: The rock itself is around 200 million years old, so in the lower part of the Jurassic. He used a silicon mould to make a copy of the fossil and studied it in his lab. That's where he discovered the slab had 66 footprints on it he says they came from an Anomoepus scambus dinosaur. Dr Romilio: Overseas, they've kind of done the hard work for us where they've done the Cinderella effect where they've matched the Dinosaur foot bones to this particular shape of footprint and so that's why we know these were made by a bipedal, a two legged, small dinosaur known as an Ornithischian. Dr Romilio reckons these guys were moving at around six kilometres per hour and used the slab like a highway. Dr Romilio: Most of them are heading this direction or that direction which kind of indicates to us that they were either crossing a river this way or that way or maybe they were going up and down a river. This discovery is a pretty big deal because it's rare to find Dinosaur fossils from the early Jurassic period and it's not only palaeontologists who are excited about uncovering this part of our dino history. The school is working with Dr Romilio to make a copy of the fossil so they can share this find with even more people. STUDENT: It's so exciting that our school has been recognised for such a such an old fossil and now it's just I want to know more about what dinosaurs were here and how many more. STUDENT: There's no way that they just disappeared and there's no other continuation of where their footprints are. So, I think that if you were to dig deep enough or go looking hard enough, you'd definitely find some. STUDENT: We should all start a big search for more fossils because I'm just quite excited that this could bring the community together. Closer Well, that's all we have for you, but we'll be back next week with more. In the meantime, you can catch Newsbreak every weeknight right here in the studio and there's plenty to see and do on our website. Have an awesome week and I'll see you next time. Bye.
