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Chapter 1: What are the current interest rates and their implications?
This is a Squeeze podcast, where your shortcut to being informed.
Our podcast today is brought to you by Medicine Sans Frontier. MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, works in more than 70 countries worldwide, providing impartial, life-saving medical care to millions of people each year. You can find out more at msf.org.au. Good morning. I'm Alice Dempster. And I'm Anna Pikett. It's Wednesday the 17th of June.
In Your Squeeze today, interest rates hold steady, the UK follows in our social media footsteps, digging into our news trends, and the Williams sisters make their return. This is Your Squeeze today. If you're a mortgage holder, you might have been breathing a sigh of relief yesterday after the Reserve Bank decided to leave interest rates on hold at 4.35%.
It's a bit of a reprieve after three interest rate rises since December. Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock says they've slowed down the economy as they're meant to, but she hasn't ruled out more hikes down the track.
She was pretty insistent about that. When I was watching her press conference yesterday, she said she wants to be very clear that inflation remains too high. But still, the Reserve Bank's board voted unanimously to keep rates steady. The thinking behind that is that they'll let a little more time lapse so they can see what effect the past rises are having on household spending.
The Reserve Bank says there are signs that people have been tightening their belts, but inflation is still at 4.2%, which is above the target range of 2% to 3%.
And as we said yesterday, disruptions from the US-Iran war have added to that in the way of rising fuel costs. And analysts reckon that it's becoming more and more clear that that's pushing other prices up along the supply chain, meaning it will take a while for inflation to come back down.
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Chapter 2: How is the UK implementing social media restrictions for minors?
With that in mind, economist Harry Murphy-Cruz predicts rates won't move back down until the end of next year. He says don't expect rate cuts anytime soon. There has been some better news with the ceasefire being agreed to by the US and Iran, which is due to be finalised on Friday in Switzerland.
We also spoke about that yesterday and many experts say we could be waiting a while for global oil supplies to get back on track. Our Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the government is aware of that. And in his words, he says the government is realistic about how long it'll take for the global economy to normalise.
The first step back to normality could be the return of the full amount of the fuel excise from the 1st of July. It's been half to 26 cents a litre for the past three months at a cost of $2.5 billion. PM Anthony Albanese, though, says the government will make a call on whether or not to extend it next week.
If you see or hear a bit about Carl Sanderlands today, reports say the radio host has agreed to a deal with his former company that'll pay him $5 million a year over three years. It comes after his $100 million contract was torn up in March.
Yeah, this is the latest in a fairly long-running saga, Alice, and this is far less than what he was originally seeking, but it means that he'll avoid a battle in the federal court. Reports say that this has been signed just before he was due to submit evidence.
To remind you, this all started back in February when the high profile Kiss presenter had an on-air fight with his co-host Jackie O. That led to their long running show being axed and both co-hosts launching separate lawsuits claiming they were wrongfully sacked, which ARN, their company, denied.
It's faced months of ups and downs on the share market, but it's expected to lodge a statement with the ASX today. It still faces a lawsuit from Henderson, and that returns to the federal court on Thursday. So expect to hear more about that.
Anna, Andrew and I spoke a lot about the social media ban for under-16s when it was brought in here in Australia, and it seems like now UK PM Keir Starmer reckons it's a good idea.
Yeah, following in our footsteps, he's announced a social media ban for under-16s to help keep kids safe online. The British government says it'll cover Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, and it will impact millions of children.
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Chapter 3: What insights does the 2026 Digital News Report provide about news consumption?
Just like when it was rolled out here, tech companies aren't particularly happy. They say it will move youngsters into a less safe online environment. But it has been dubbed Australia Plus because it includes additional measures.
Yeah, so things like limits on doom scrolling, overnight curfews and restricting live streaming features and ways for children to speak to strangers on gaming apps. The legislation still needs to go through Parliament in the UK, but if it passes, Starmer says it'll come into effect next year. A message from Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as MSF or Doctors Without Borders.
When emergencies strike around the world, MSF works fast. They work in more than 70 countries and they're often already on the ground when conflicts break out or disasters occur. Nearly 90% of MSF staff are local to the countries where their medical humanitarian programs operate and they're supported by specialised international teams, including Australians,
to help people get the urgent medical care they need. We just spoke about social media and while we're on the topic of the changing media environment, the University of Canberra's 2026 Digital News Report has delivered some interesting findings about our news consumption habits and the state of Australia's media industry.
We'll get into those in a second, but some background on this study. It's part of an international survey and it found that overall interest in news has increased in the past year, particularly for women and young people. The big thing there, though, is that they're not turning to mainstream media.
It found more than half of Aussies under the age of 25 have never read a newspaper or listened to the radio to keep up to date with the news. So it might not come as a surprise that it found we're increasingly turning to social platforms, publisher websites and Alice podcasts. Keeping us in business.
It also found people are turning to AI chatbots for news. And a big change to note, experts say although TV is still the main source of news, 43% of Aussies do get their news from influencers online too. In the 18 to 24-year-old cohort, that jumps to 70%.
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Chapter 4: What are the latest updates on the Williams sisters' tennis return?
If you want to dive into the report, we'll link to it in the episode notes today. Anna, I don't know if you're a tennis fan, but the tennis world is buzzing this morning. Serena and Venus Williams have announced that they'll be teaming up to play together at Wimbledon in the women's doubles.
Oh, to be there. This is pretty exciting if you're a tennis fan or just a fan of the Williams themselves. They're two of the best players ever. They've won 14 major doubles titles together, and it's been 10 years since they last donned their whites and lifted the trophy together at the All England Club. That was back in 2016.
This time round, it's already being called one of the most highly anticipated wildcard announcements in recent memory. This comes just after Serena made her surprise return to professional tennis at Queens earlier this month. How fitting. And overnight, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has been in action in the first round of the Berlin Tennis Open.
Yeah, she suffered the first loss of her tennis comeback with her new partner, Carolina Mohova. She said, though, that it felt pretty good to be out there. She's more nimble and more sturdy than the first match in Queens. So sounds like it's onwards and upwards for her and Venus. Wimbledon starts on the 29th of June, and you can watch it all on Channel 9 and Stan Sport. Squeeze the day now.
Quick reminder that the third episode of our Squeeze special series in partnership with Mindaroo on all things AI will be published around 5pm Sydney, Melbourne time tonight. As we said on Monday, in this episode, Andrew speaks to Professor Ian Langford.
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Chapter 5: How are global events affecting interest rates and inflation?
They talk about how artificial intelligence works in with our national security.
And this won't be news to Rugby League fans, but Game 2 of the Men's State of Origin series is on tonight from 8.05 Sydney Melbourne time. The Blues won Game 1, so the Maroons will be looking to even things up. They're playing at the MCG in Melbourne. If you haven't nabbed tickets, don't worry, you can watch it on Channel 9 or 9Now. That's us done today.
Thanks for listening and we'll be back with you again tomorrow.