Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is a Squiz podcast, where your shortcut to being informed. Good morning, I'm Alice Dempster.
And I'm Andrew Williams.
It's Wednesday the 15th of April. In your Squiz today, Middle East peace talks are back on the table, Australian aviation tightens the belt, a change for world aquatics and a supersized mammal. This is your Squiz today. Andrew, I don't know about you, but we're nearly seven weeks into the war in Iran, and it's hard to guess what news we'll wake up to on it each morning.
The latest is that after the US blockade on the Strait of Hormuz began yesterday, President Donald Trump is saying this morning that peace talks may pick up again in Pakistan over the next two days.
It's tricky to keep up. It's hard to know what will and won't happen on any given day. But if those talks do end up going ahead, and it's not just Trump, there are other sources saying that they would potentially happen at the end of this week. They'll follow separate negotiations that have just finished in Washington DC this morning between Israel and Lebanon.
It's the first time that diplomats from those two countries have held direct talks in over three decades.
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Chapter 2: What recent developments are there in the Middle East peace talks?
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a historic gathering that we hope to build on. They've gathered for those talks after the U.S.-Israel-Iran ceasefire was announced last week. And it's notable because there was confusion about whether that ceasefire covered the fighting going on between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
So Iran and the mediators of the ceasefire, Pakistan, said that it did, but the US and Israel said that it didn't.
And on that, since the war broke out, fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 2,000 people and at least 14 Israelis. And so Lebanon's government is looking for a ceasefire. Before that happens, though, Israel wants the Lebanese government to start disarming Hezbollah.
And while analysts aren't expecting anything to be locked in from this round of talks, and Hezbollah have also said that they won't abide by whatever's decided, hopes are high that it'll lead to something concrete, especially because if the conflict continues in Lebanon, that could reduce the chances of a lasting peace agreement between the US, Israel and Iran.
So it's all connected up with each other. And of course, that's not all that's going on in relation to this conflict. Something to keep an eye on is that Australia is joining a summit co-hosted by France and Britain later this week as a part of a peaceful effort to try and restore shipping to the Strait of Hormuz.
The goal is to get Iran to reopen the Strait and relieve the global fuel crisis, but neither Iran nor the US will be involved in that.
No, they're both still running competing blockades on the strait. Some ships have been passing through, but the latest update from the US is that its military has warned six ships trying to make it through to turn around, and all six did. So there's still not much movement happening there until there's a diplomatic breakthrough. Music
While we're talking about the global fuel crisis, it is officially hitting the aviation industry here in Australia. Yesterday, Qantas said it'll be raising its airfares and cutting domestic flights in response to the rising cost of fuel.
And just to put a figure on that rising cost, the airline says that the fuel that needs to operate its flights is likely to go up in expense by as much as $800 million. in the second half of this financial year. So that's why it's cutting some domestic routes and making some changes.
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