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How the Commonwealth Bank tried to stop a royal commission by using dirt files, intimidation, threats and surveillance against whistleblowers and journalists. Reporter Adele Ferguson investigates.

Can you guess this week's tweeter?

Australian trailblazer Rebecca Johnson is chief scientist at the Smithsonian Museum and before that she made history as the first female science director at the Australian Museum’s since it was founded in 1827.  But to find out about the year that made her, we go back to Johnson’s teenage years, and her dreams of being a dancer.

Digital rights non-profit Access Now have released their annual report on global internet shutdowns, reporting the worst year on record. Incidences of shutdowns combined with human rights abuses and violence are on the rise, we ask what can be done to curb this growing concern.

Mavis Ripper was once hailed as Australia’s first woman of fashion, designing costumes for Australian films, and pioneering the use of Australian wool for her designs. So why is it that not one of Ripper’s designs or costumes is known to exist today? Social archivist and curator Tom McEvoy is still searching and will give an address about Mavis Ripper to the Sydney Fair antique next weekend.

British writer and former US correspondent Matt Frei will explore the question, Can America be saved from itself? in this year’s Christopher Hitchens Lecture at the Hay Festival.