Many backpackers find themselves owing money over their quest to stay in Australia. The deception often begins at recruitment.

At this point in their respective presidencies, almost every leader since Harry Truman has been enjoying a honeymoon with approvals in the high 50s and up. The current President has set a record low.

If you listen to the experts, the Reserve Bank is under mounting pressure to lift interest rates, but they're wrong and here's four reasons why it won't happen, according to ABC business editor Ian Verrender.

Ethicists explain why they believe courts should err on the side of a chance of life when deciding the future of seriously ill 11-month-old British baby Charlie Gard.

Space exploration is just about the purest expression of humanity at its glorious, brilliant best — and it makes sense for Australia to be part of it, Andrew P Street writes.

From the fall of Mosul, it would be easy for people to think the campaign against Islamic State is nearly at an end. But that is not the case, writes Rodger Shanahan.

Australian workers either feel they are going backwards financially or not getting ahead, so whoever can solve the wage-growth puzzle will be best-placed to secure government in 2019, writes Andrew Probyn.

Yet again, we are paying no heed to our farmers. We're stepping over them for a big coal company from another country.

Everything is going Bill Shorten's way, with Tony Abbott rampaging against his colleagues and the Sunday penalty rate cut giving the Opposition Leader a clear policy to sell, Michelle Grattan writes.

Even if Australia decided to invest in ballistic missile defence, it would provide little-to-no protection from a nuclear-armed North Korean ICBM.