Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the latest updates on fuel relief measures?
This is a Squeeze podcast, where your shortcut to being informed. A message from Anthropic. Prezian, a physical AI company for heavy industry, used Claude to help cut critical safety events by over 70% in three months. That's what Anthropic built Claude for, partnering with you to solve real problems. Good morning, I'm Alice Stempster. And I'm Anna Pikett. It's Monday the 22nd of June.
In your Squiz today, fuel relief is extended for another month, questions about Keir Starmer's future, a heatwave in Europe and a famous tree meets its end. This is your Squiz today. Anna, we mentioned last week that PM Anthony Albanese was under pressure to explain what would happen after the 30th of June when the government's fuel relief measures are set to expire.
Yesterday, he confirmed that it will continue for another month.
Yes, but at a tapered down rate. It means the fuel excise, which as a reminder is the sales tax levied by the government on petrol and diesel, is going to be halved to 16 cents from the 1st of July through to the 2nd of August. with the government saying it'll save drivers around $11 on average per tank refill.
We'll be hearing a bit about this today because it's set to be discussed at a national cabinet meeting.
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Chapter 2: What challenges does Keir Starmer face as UK PM?
The feds want the state and territory leaders to continue their support to help pay for it.
So it's been a while since the fuel excise came into effect after the US and Israel's war in Iran began and fuel prices began to rise. So as a refresher, how this works is The Commonwealth collects GST and then passes it on to the states and territories. Over the last three months, some of that GST has funded a portion of the fuel excise cut.
And now Albanese says that he's confident the states and territories will continue to, in his words, do the right thing and continue supporting it.
He might be in luck there when they meet today. Leaders from Victoria and New South Wales already say they're on board. Yesterday, the coalition broadly supported the plan, but there were varying levels of enthusiasm. PM Albanese says he hasn't ruled out extending the discount again if things remain all over the place in the least.
Of course, the fuel price rises are all linked back to the Strait of Hormuz closure. And although the US and Iran's agreement to extend the ceasefire last week included its reopening, yesterday the Iranian military said it had shut the shipping route again in response to Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
The US has pushed back on that messaging. It says that traffic continues to flow through the Strait. And if you're wondering what's in store longer term, experts say that global supply chains could take up to a year to recover fully.
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Chapter 3: How is the heatwave affecting Europe?
and petrol prices are unlikely to stabilise for months to come. Also to note, US Vice President J.D. Vance is in Switzerland for negotiations with Iran to try and nut all of this out. So we might be hearing more from him. It could also be a big day in the UK. Some of the reports up high on international sites this morning say that PM Keir Starmer could be about to resign.
Could we be about to see the seventh British Prime Minister in just 10 years? This is after a by-election in England's north, which Labor candidate Andy Burnham won on Friday night. Now, if you don't know who he is, he's the man who reports say could be about to replace Starmer as leader. He was previously the greater Manchester mayor. I was watching his press conference.
And if you're interested in one of the quirks of the UK election system is often candidates run in fancy dress. So there's some quite funny photos coming out on Friday night. Burnham was standing in between a man with a bin on his head and another in a fox costume when he was announced as the winner. So some of the photos really are excellent.
Chapter 4: What happened to the famous Major Oak tree?
His win comes after Starmer's been under pressure for months. His party suffered big local election losses last month and his appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to the US also went down badly. Burnham, on the other hand, is a popular Labour figure.
He's heading to London today to take his seat as an MP and word is that he could launch a challenge quickly if he reckons he has the numbers to topple Starmer, which is why there's speculation that the PM could try to get ahead of this and resign himself.
If you want to read up on Burnham and how he came by the nickname King of the North, I'll include a link to an explainer that I was just reading in the episode notes. If you heard or saw a bit about bird flu over the weekend, it's because a deadly variant of avian influenza has been detected in two birds on the West Australian coast.
It's the first time the H5N1 strain, as it's known, has been recorded on Australia's mainland.
Now, first things first, Julie Collins, our federal agriculture minister, says H5 bird flu is a low health risk to the public as it rarely affects humans unless there's direct and close contact with sick birds. But for birds, it's another story. These infections have biosecurity experts concerned about what an outbreak could do to our endangered species.
There are fears it could cause possible extinctions, as well as drive up domestic poultry prices if farms have to cull their birds.
Yeah, for context, H5N1 has infected millions of birds worldwide and having now reached Australian shores, it's now spread to every continent on the planet. But the University of New South Wales Professor Raina McIntyre reckons there is something to be optimistic about. She says we're very well prepared to deal with these cases.
If you're planning on escaping the winter cold by heading over to Europe for a holiday anytime soon, just know you'll be getting some extreme heat.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of bird flu detected in Australia?
Forecasters say it could reach 45 degrees in some countries this week.
In fact, it's so hot that alcohol was banned at music festivals in France yesterday to keep people safe. This heat wave has already been going for days and it's impacted several countries, including the UK, where it's set to be 38 degrees later this week, which is just horrible. Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland are also among these countries.
It comes just after the World Meteorological Organization says we could start seeing El Nino conditions soon, including here in Australia.
Yeah, if you missed that story last week, scientists say if waters off Australia's northwest cool over winter, the rest of the year might be quite dry. But if those same waters get warmer, it's less likely that a drought will develop. So they're still watching that situation.
Staying over in the UK now, you might remember Andrew and I talking about the Sycamore Gap Tree in northeast England being felled by two men in 2023 and then their sentencing over that last year. Now the famous Sherwood Forest Major Oak has died.
It's been a very tough period for dendrophiles, which is a fancy word for tree lover that I discovered yesterday. If you're not familiar with the major oak, it's the 1,200-year-old giant said to have sheltered Robin Hood, so it's pretty famous for that reason.
But as you say, it's now been confirmed dead, and experts say it's down to two centuries of admiring visitors compacting the soil so much that rain couldn't reach its roots, Lots of reports saying it's quite literally been loved to death, as well as something we just talked about before, prolonged periods of drought in England over recent years.
So unlike the sycamore gap tree, which is showing some signs of a second life with some green shoots, there's no such hope for this oak.
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Chapter 6: How are global supply chains impacted by current events?
It will continue to stand up for years to come. It's said to be important to the local ecosystem, even though it's no longer alive. But we'll have to make do with its genetic offshoots grown from acorns that have been sent around the world over the years. Squeeze the day now. We've already mentioned a couple of things that we're keeping an eye on today in the Middle East and the UK.
But here at home, federal parliament's returning for two weeks of sittings from today in Canberra. And some Tasmanians are going to have a busy morning.
And a chilly one too. In a couple of hours, around 7.40 Eastern time, the nude solstice swim is on in Hobart. You might have heard about this before or maybe you've seen photos. It's part of dark mofo, so it does always get a bit of attention.
Yeah, kudos to them for getting out there in that freezing water this morning. And that's us done. Thanks for listening today. We will be back with you again tomorrow.