Donald Trump, a long time electric vehicle sceptic, is now the owner of a brand new Tesla. 

But can the US president’s new found love for EVs save the brand, with Tesla stock tumbling since CEO Elon Musk took on his high profile role in the Trump administration?

Today, an EV expert on all things Tesla and where EV sales are heading in Australia. We also speak with an Australian Tesla owner who’s struggling with having a Musk-mobile in her driveway. 

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‘Vanessa’, Tesla owner

Giles Parkinson, founder and editor of The Driven

The Prime Minister has agreed insurance companies are ripping us off and there are many Australians who would have experienced that firsthand.

So, how will they respond as tens of thousands of claims are lodged after flooding in the wake of ex-Cyclone Alfred? 

Today, national consumer affairs reporter Michael Atkin on why premiums keep rising and what can be done to level the playing field.   

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Michael Atkin, ABC national consumer affairs reporter

Donald Trump will impose tariffs on Australian aluminium and steel imports this week, but in the lead up, the government was still hoping for an exemption. So, how should we be dealing with the US president? 

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, for one, isn’t holding back. His criticism of Donald Trump has landed him in the president’s firing line.

But the real casualty of Trump’s trade policies can be seen on the stock markets, which are suffering heavy falls as the president refuses to rule out a recession.

Today, chief business correspondent Ian Verrender on what’s got the markets so worried and what a Trump recession could mean for all of us.

Update: After we published this episode, the White House confirmed Australia would not be granted an exemption on aluminium and steel imports. 

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Ian Verrender, chief business correspondent

The world was shocked by Donald Trump’s oval office clash with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The US president has been aligning himself with Russia’s view of the war in Ukraine and pressuring the Ukrainians to start negotiating, without any iron-clad security guarantees. 

As Donald Trump takes a less adversarial approach to Vladimir Putin, who else wins? 

Today, Dan Blumenthal, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a centre right think tank, on what it all means for China’s ambitions in our region and around the world. 

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Dan Blumenthal, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

Just before midnight on Friday millions of people living in south-east Queensland were told to take shelter, to go to the strongest room and stay there. 

Tropical Cyclone Alfred was coming their way and for most residents it was the first time they’d faced such a threat. 

By the next morning Alfred would be downgraded to a tropical low, even before it reached the mainland. 

So what happened? How did it unfold and how should we assess the warnings, preparation and response?

Today, we speak to a cyclone expert and go to Lismore in northern New South Wales where the community is breathing a sigh of relief. 

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Jonathan Nott, professor of Geoscience at James Cook University

Jenny Dowell, Red Cross deputy team leader and former mayor of Lismore

For so many experts and politicians, the answer to Australia’s housing crisis is simple. Rejig zoning rules, build more homes and get Australians into increasingly dense developments. But is the supply ‘solution’ the cure-all it’s made out to be? 

In this final episode of our series, ABC business editor Michael Janda looks at what really needs to be done on supply and demand to make it just a little bit easier for people to buy a home. 

We’ll also take you to Melbourne, where apartment prices have flatlined over the past five years and first home buyers are flooding into the market. 

We’ll explain what it will take to finally free Australia’s housing hostages. 

Has a housing bubble ever burst without devastating pain across the economy and society? 

New Zealand is in a recession and home values are more than 17 per cent lower than the post-COVID peak. In Ireland, a massive house price surge and crash in the 2000s saw house prices in Dublin more than half. 

So, does Australia need a crash and what would that mean for all of us? 

Some economists think recessions are needed occasionally to reset the economy. In this episode ABC business editor Michael Janda explains how a shock wave would ripple through the economy if the housing bubble bursts. 

Is the medicine worth the pain? 

How did Australia go from a place where most middle-class people could own their own house, to one where even a small apartment is out of reach for so many? 

You can pick your villain. Is it immigrants, investors, Howard and Costello, the big banks, or something else? 

In this episode, ABC business editor Michael Janda identifies the key moments and policies that cemented property as a lucrative investment, creating a mismatch in supply and demand and sending house prices to extraordinarily high levels. 

Imagine it’s 2050 and the housing bubble in Australia never burst. Where do we live, how do we pay for it and what is day to day life like?

Exorbitant home prices not only keep Australians in the crowded and expensive rental market, but they also change life plans and society. 

In this episode, ABC business editor Michael Janda explains why housing crisis is the country’s biggest issue. It locks people into debt, delays retirement, creates stress and insecurity, contributes to falling birth rates and exacerbates inequalities between the generations. 

We’re hostage to housing. 

Housing has become a dream for investors and a nightmare for those struggling to get a slice of the pie. We find ourselves increasingly mired in a debt trap at both an individual and economy-wide level. 

This is Housing Hostages; a five-part series from ABC News Daily. With the help of ABC business editor Michael Janda, we’ll get to the heart of the housing crisis and explain why we’re all hostage to housing. 

Imagine owning dozens of properties at once. In this episode, investing expert Margaret Lomas explains how climbing the property ladder over decades delivered her housing and financial security. We meet desperate first home buyers and explain why emulating Margaret’s property success is now impossible. 

In this series, we’ll scrutinise the possible culprits for this crisis and look at how our housing fortunes influence everything from birth rates to retirement plans. Is it time for the housing bubble to burst and what lessons are there from overseas about what happens next?

Finally, we examine the supply solution that so many vested interests reach for and ask; what really needs to be done to boost the supply of housing and dampen demand for it, to try to make things just a little bit better?   

It was Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting of his second term, sitting at a table with his controversial picks, all dressed in suits and smiling for the cameras.

But it was a man dressed all in black, wearing a T-shirt, jeans and a black MAGA cap who dominated the room. 

Elon Musk is the man of the moment, as he goes about slashing government spending and jobs. 

Today, Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, on what Musk and Trump are really trying to achieve. 

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Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic