SBS News In Depth

One in five Australians, or around three-million adults, have low literacy or numeracy skills - and it can have a big impact on how people are able to engage in every day life. Programs are in place across the country to help people improve their skills and achieve their life goals. Including one in Tasmania, helping adults become work ready.

The prospect for an alien invasion of Earth has been flooding the Internet in recent weeks thanks to the object 3-I-ATLAS currently hurtling through our solar system which some have warned may be an alien spacecraft that can attack our planet. Spoiler alert - NASA says it isn't. But even so, the fears of alien invasion are nothing new: in the final years of the nineteenth century, in his novel War of the Worlds, British author H G Wells wrote that 'minds immeasurably greater than our own, across the gulf of space, made their plans against us'. So what is the likelihood of an alien invasion? In this edition of Weekend One on One, Jason Wright, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Centre looks into whether it could happen here.

New data shows Australians experiencing homelessness are more likely to die from overdose, suicide or coronary heart disease, with potentially nine avoidable deaths every day. Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that around 43,200 people with a history of homelessness died between 2012 and 2013 alone from these types of causes. The median age was 55 years, far lower than the Australian median life expectancy of 81.1 years for men and 85.1 years for women. For women, gendered violence remains a leading cause of homelessness across Australia, impacting almost 67,000 people every year. Kate Colvin is the CEO of Homelessness Australia and she's been talking to SBS's Cameron Carr.

The civil war in Sudan has been raging for two and a half years and has generated arguably the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet. Often called the forgotten war, the conflict has torn apart the Northeast African country of 50 million people leaving around 12 million displaced from their homes and often with very little access to food, clean water and medicine. Reena Ghelani is the CEO of Plan International - one of the humanitarian organisations seeking to make a difference on the ground.

A decade after a landmark study proved that feeding peanut products to young babies could prevent them developing life-threatening allergies, a new US study has shown it's making a big difference in the real world. The study has found about 60,000 children in the United States have avoided developing peanut allergies after new guidance was issued in 2015 about when to introduce the allergen to youngsters.

Anangu traditional owners have marked 40 years since Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park was handed back to their people. The handback was a landmark moment for Aboriginal land rights in Australia and a powerful recognition of the enduring connection between First Nations peoples and Country. The official celebrations have included a trip to London for a delegation of nine Anangu traditional owners, who met with High Commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith, and King Charles, as part of the official commemorations.

The ASX-200 has ended the week in the red, as investors await the outcome of Donald Trump’s much-anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC Summit next week. Attention is also turning to the release of key September CPI data in the US, despite the government shutdown.

The only soldier ever prosecuted over a massacre of civilians in 1972 that became known as Bloody Sunday has been found not guilty of murder and attempted murder charges. The presiding judge at Belfast County Court has ruled that while he was satisfied the former paratrooper was among a group of soldiers who shot at civilians after a civil rights march, there was not enough evidence to convict him of the killings.

Australia is deploying one ADF liaison officer to a new US-led coordination centre in Israel to support the fragile Gaza ceasefire and President Trump's 20-point peace plan. However, a local analyst has heavily criticised the contribution as purely symbolic.

More aid is entering Gaza under a fragile ceasefire, but humanitarian agencies say it remains far from enough to meet the needs of its starving population. But discussions on how to achieve – and maintain – peace have coincided with Israel's Knesset narrowly advancing a bill to apply Israeli law to the occupied West Bank. It's being widely condemned as a preliminary step to approving total annexation.

The United States has unveiled its most forceful move yet to pressure Russia into ending the war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump has announced broad sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil giants, Rosneft and Lukoil. The measures mark a decisive shift in tone from the US, targeting the lifeblood of Russia’s economy in a bid to choke off Russia's Ukraine war funding

It finally happened - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with US President Donald Trump. It took 10 months, and SBS Chief Political Report Anna Henderson breaks down how that benefited Albanese as he faced his biggest test on the international stage.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves takes a look at the day's market action and an RBA research report on critical minerals with Elizabeth Tian from Citi, plus Mahnaz Angury speaks with workplace law expert Giuseppe Carabetta from University of Technology Sydney about the impact of a recent work from home ruling in favour of a bank employee, to reject a request to return to the office.

Counter-terrorism police forces across Australia have launched a new campaign that aims to educate people about how to protect themselves in the event of an armed attack. Authorities say Australia is at risk from weapons attacks, especially in crowded places, while the country's terror threat level remains at probable.

In this episode: Behind the scenes of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s highly anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump, while Ukraine’s leader Vlodymyr Zelenskyy walks away from the White House without his Tomahawk missiles. Plus, more threats to the Gaza ceasefire despite optimism from US Vice President JD Vance, the ‘high-stakes’ meeting between the Australian and Indonesian military chiefs, and how a daring daylight robbery unfolded at the Louvre.

The International Court of Justice has issued an advisory opinion, stating that as the occupying power, Israel has failed to provide adequate humanitarian supplies to Gaza’s civilian population. The Israeli parliament has just narrowly approved a preliminary bill to apply Israeli civil law to the occupied West Bank, a move viewed internationally as a step towards annexation.

Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has promised to "work like a horse" to get the country back on track. As the country's first female Prime Minister, Ms Takaichi will have to deal with the growing domestic dissatisfaction over economy, wages and cost of living.

The 31st Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum was hosted in Canberra on Monday [[Oct 20]], focusing on the implementation of the historic mutual defence treaty signed between the two countries earlier this month. The 'puk-puk' treaty will see Australia invest millions of dollars in the PNG defence force. A key part of the deal is a taskforce to recruit PNG citizens into the Australian Defence Force, but this has been criticized by former PNG defence personnel who claim the pact is harmful because PNG does not share Australia's fear of China.

The gold price has seen its worst one day fall in 12 years as gold stocks tumble after their recent run. Similarly, rare earths also slide. SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Cameron Gleeson from Betashares and Scott Phillips from The Motley Fool to find out why some investors are pressing the sell button and offers a reality check.

More than a week into the Gaza ceasefire, senior US officials have visited Israel to discuss ways to progress to the next stage of Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan. Flareups of violence in recent days has threatened to unravel the ceasefire. Meanwhile, the United Nations says it is important the ceasefire holds - to allow for aid deliveries to be scaled up in Gaza.

Diplomacy has overtaken the battlefield in the Ukraine war, with Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv offering starkly different paths to peace. The Kremlin says no Trump-Putin summit date is set, while Washington insists leverage not concessions will end the war.

Australian researchers have found breastfeeding can protect women against breast cancer by building up their immunity. According to a new study, pregnancy and breastfeeding produces infection-fighting T-cells that help guard against abnormal cells that could develop into cancer.

The former President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, has begun his 5-year prison sentence, becoming the first French leader to be jailed since World War Two. He was convicted of a criminal conspiracy to finance his election campaign with funds from a Libyan dictator. The 70 year is appealing the decision, claiming the case was politically motivated.

Australia's newly sealed critical minerals deal with the United States has sent the share market skyrocketing. The industry and investors are responding to billions of dollars in new investment aimed at disrupting China's dominance over global rare earths supply chains.

The Australian sharemarket hit a record high for a second time in a week as the US and Australia strike a rare earths supply deal, but it was BHP that was a real stand out today. SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Catherine Allfrey from Wavestone Capital to find out if the sector is worth the hype and what else is driving investors.

In a historic meeting between Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese, the AUKUS agreement remained unchanged as the two leaders unveiled a multi-billion-dollar critical minerals deal to secure supply chains and reduce reliance on China. The agreement involves major US investment in Australian mining and processing projects, but has sparked criticism over fears it could give the US too much control over Australia’s resources and sovereignty.

A massive internet outage has taken out thousands of websites, apps and services globally. The technical fault originated with U-S data centres operated by Amazon Web Services, which controls 30 per cent of the world's cloud computing market that underpins web-based services like apps and websites.

Diplomatic efforts have intensified in the Middle East as the United States works to preserve the fragile Gaza ceasefire following a weekend of renewed violence. The truce, part of US President Donald Trump’s multi-phase Gaza plan, was shaken after a Palestinian attack killed two Israeli soldiers, triggering Israeli airstrikes that left dozens dead.

Safety on the streets of Melbourne has been brought into question after protesters pelted police with rocks and bottles filled with broken glass at a weekend protest. Victoria Police expect to make more arrests after two officers were injured during the demonstrations on Sunday.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in the US meeting President Donald Trump but has a delicate balancing act considering how important China is to Australia. SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Shane Oliver from AMP and David Scutt from Forex.com to find out what it means for Australia and the market reaction.

This week, more than a billion people around the world are celebrating Diwali, the religious festival celebrating the victory of light over darkness. It's an important time for Australia’s South Asian communities. But one family is going a step further, travelling to India for the occasion. SBS caught up with them in Gujarat, on India’s west coast. This story was produced in collaboration with SBS Gujarati Executive Producer Vatsal Patel.

French President Emmanuel Macron says everything is being done to catch the people behind a spectacular jewel heist at the Louvre, the latest in a series of museum robberies. After the brazen theft of some of France's crown jewels in broad daylight, staff and union representatives say not enough has been done to guard the objects and people at one of the world's most famous galleries.

Diwali is the biggest festival in India and many South Asian countries, marking the victory of good over evil and the triumph of light over darkness. It is celebrated by more than a billion people around the world, including diaspora communities in Australia.

In Australia, around one in four people aged over 65 experiences at least one fall each year and it is the leading cause of injury, hospitalisation, and death among older Australians. Preventing falls isn’t simple, especially when language stands in the way of awareness. But in Perth, two Chinese university students are turning that challenge into change, using their culture and compassion to protect some of those most vulnerable.

Dogs can become so attached to particular toys that they display behaviour that would be associated with addiction in humans. Researchers say when the dogs were deprived of their toys in the study, they became so fixated on what they'd lost that their blood pressure increased and they ignored everything else.

A long-lost diary from a Chinese war veteran has been discovered, detailing the participation of China's participation in D-Day. The 80-page diary was discovered in an abandoned Hong Kong flat, and details Lam Ping Yu's brush with death during the world's largest-ever sea, land and air armada on D Day during World War Two.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Oreana Private Wealth Chief Investment Officer Isaac Poole in Asia, who says some traditional gold buyers are tapping out of the market at current record levels, plus a look at the day's market action.

Israel is pressing Hamas to honour the ceasefire agreement and return the bodies of hostages still held in Gaza. This comes as satellite images show limited aid convoys entering the enclave through Kerem Shalom, while displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis endure worsening living conditions amid shortages of food, fuel, and clean water. With more than 67,900 Palestinians killed since 2023 and uncertainty over Rafah’s reopening, fears are growing that the fragile truce could collapse.

An internal Vatican report has delivered scathing criticism of the Catholic Church's handling of decades of allegations of sexual abuse from around the world. It's calling for financial reparations and sanctions for abusers and their enablers. AND A WARNING THAT THE CONTENT OF THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRESSING FOR SOME LISTENERS

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says the government is working on the possibility of an offshore recognition of skills. He says this will help save time and money for skilled migrants looking to move to Australia. In his address the Press Club in Canberra Mr Burke also flagged changes to inactive bank accounts to combat money laundering.

Israeli hostages have been released and Palestinians prisoners freed, but is the Trump-brokered truce a turning point or just a timeout? This in-depth episode explores the deal, the delivery of aid, and the future of Gaza.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Chris Brycki from Stockspot while Stephanie Youseff talks with Alex Joiner from IFM Investors about the rise in the unemployment rate to a near four year high, what it means for interest rates and why the sharemarket hit a record as a result.

Australians' sense of belonging has been declining over time. That's the major finding from this year's social cohesion report, from the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute. But while the report suggests there is ongoing strain in peoples' sense of belonging, trust, and identity, the Foundation remains optimistic, saying most Australians still report happiness and a strong sense of community.

Germany and NATO allies have pledged billions in new aid to Ukraine as the war nears its fourth winter, with Kyiv urging urgent air-defence support amid a sharp drop in foreign assistance. Meanwhile, Russia is grappling with fuel shortages following Ukrainian strikes, as President Donald Trump renews his criticism of Vladimir Putin over the prolonged conflict and Russia’s faltering economy.

Two more bodies of deceased hostages have been handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas, following Israel's accusation that the militant group were failing to abide by the terms of the ceasefire deal. Aid is continuing to roll into Gaza despite threats from Israel that they would cut supplies and close border crossings. But there are heightened concerns for the fragile ceasefire, amid reports US President Donald Trump is considering allowing Israel to resume its military activities.

Despite a growing awareness around mental health, research shows burnout in the workplace is still a major challenge. Experts say without proper training and healthy boundaries in the workplace, more and more Australians will consider leaving their jobs in the next year.

The New South Wales coroner says the state has hit a grim milestone with First Nations deaths in custody reaching record levels. 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody in the state this year, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. The distressing figures have prompted the state coroner to issue a rare public statement, condemning the deaths and vowing to investigate each one independently and thoroughly.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with McCrindle Social Researcher Ashley Fell about thegrowing trend for Australians to have fewer kids, and later in life; plus Luke Laretive from Seneca Financial Services looks through the day's sharemarket moves including what he is telling his clients.

The Eurozone's second-largest economy is battling a deep political crisis. It all started when French President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections last year in an attempt to consolidate his power. Instead, they resulted in a hung parliament and gains for the far right. Now, France’s sixth prime minister in under two years has been forced to abandon one of the president’s key achievements just to hold his government together.

Hamas has returned more bodies of Israeli hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza. Questions remain over sustainable peace in the Middle East, with uncertainty about how to resolve sticking points in Donald Trump's 20-point plan.