Latest / The Morning Edition / Trump or Netanyahu – who pushed who into the Iran war?

Transcript

Trump or Netanyahu – who pushed who into the Iran war? · The Morning Edition

0:01
S1: When will this war end? As it enters its seventh week,
0:05
S1: the question hovers over each bit of reporting on the
0:08
S1: ongoing destruction in Iran and more recently, in Lebanon.
0:12
S2: The war has caused thousands of deaths in the Middle
0:15
S2: East and disrupted the global economy particularly.
0:18
S1: But as with so many wars, how and why it
0:21
S1: ends is often determined by the strong personalities of the
0:24
S1: leaders involved. I'm Samantha Selinger Morris, and you're listening to
0:29
S1: Morning Edition from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Today,
0:33
S1: international and political editor Peter Hartcher on who's driving this war.
0:38
S1: American President Donald Trump or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
0:43
S1: It's April the 16th. Welcome, Peter, back to the podcast.
0:50
S3: Pleasure to be here, Samantha.
0:51
S1: Okay. Well, first off, there's been so much discussion ever
0:54
S1: since this war began more than six weeks ago about
0:57
S1: just who pushed who into this war. So can you
1:00
S1: briefly walk us through the latest evidence that suggests that
1:03
S1: it was Israel that pushed the US into this war?
1:06
S3: HMM. Trump's critics love to say that he's just some
1:10
S3: sort of an agent for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister,
1:14
S3: and that he's credulous or that he's a captive. And
1:19
S3: the latest evidence was the New York Times piece last
1:23
S3: week by our former colleague Jonathan Swan, together with Maggie Haberman,
1:29
S3: where the piece opened with a meeting in the Situation
1:32
S3: Room in the white House, where Trump and his top
1:36
S3: officials received Netanyahu in person to brief them on his
1:41
S3: pitch for why they should join him in waging war
1:45
S3: on Iran. And behind Netanyahu. Displayed on the screens were
1:49
S3: the heads of Mossad and the military, and he proceeded
1:52
S3: to spend an hour pitching this war to Donald Trump,
1:56
S3: at the end of which Donald Trump, according to the
1:59
S3: New York Times reporting, said, sounds good to me and
2:03
S3: sat back.
2:04
S1: Yeah.
2:05
S3: So it doesn't sound like a hard sell. No. And
2:09
S3: I should add that although the Israeli side has quibbled
2:13
S3: with the content and nature of the meeting, there have
2:17
S3: been no substantive denials from the US side about that meeting.
2:21
S3: That was February 11th. The war started a couple of
2:22
S3: weeks later. So that's taken as evidence by many to
2:27
S3: to mean that Donald Trump simply was a sap in
2:32
S3: Netanyahu's war plan.
2:34
S1: Okay. And we know that that's not a narrative that
2:35
S1: is that is solely presented there, that others definitely have
2:38
S1: this view as well. Because you and I were speaking
2:40
S1: before recording about Tucker Carlson, who obviously has long been
2:45
S1: an ally of Trump. Now they've fallen out. But he
2:47
S1: went so far the other day as saying that Trump
2:50
S1: is a slave to Netanyahu.
2:52
S4: I don't think it's as simple as he's under the
2:55
S4: control of Netanyahu. Um, but, you know, you could summarize
2:59
S4: it that way and you wouldn't be totally inaccurate. And again,
3:01
S4: we know this because the single biggest mistake Trump or
3:06
S4: any American president in my lifetime has made was going
3:08
S4: to war with Iran in an effort to change its regime.
3:12
S4: The whole thing is a fantasy.
3:14
S1: Now they are in a feud. So we can take
3:16
S1: that with a grain of salt. But of course, there
3:17
S1: are others. Trump's former counterterrorism in chief, Joe Kent, but
3:21
S1: you've just written, you know, a strong take against this narrative.
3:24
S1: So why do you think it isn't so clear cut
3:26
S1: that Trump is just some lackey of.
3:28
S3: Netanyahu and the original source to confirm the appearance that
3:32
S3: this is Netanyahu's war with Trump following came from Marco Rubio,
3:36
S3: who is both secretary of state and national security advisor
3:38
S3: to Donald Trump, where Rubio said, we knew the Israelis
3:43
S3: were going to strike Iran, whether or not America was involved.
3:47
S3: That would have provoked the Iranians into attacking American assets
3:50
S3: in the Middle East and our bases. Therefore, we decided
3:53
S3: to join the war preemptively.
3:56
S5: We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.
3:58
S5: We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.
4:02
S5: And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after
4:04
S5: them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher
4:07
S5: casualties and perhaps even higher those killed.
4:10
S3: But Trump himself took issue with this and said, no,
4:13
S3: that's not right. If anything, I forced Israel's hand in
4:17
S3: this war. But then there are the other. There's a
4:19
S3: countervailing evidence, some of which you mentioned. Um, I make
4:24
S3: two points. First of all, for Netanyahu to be invited
4:28
S3: into the Situation Room, which is not a place where
4:31
S3: foreign leaders go to make a pitch to Trump and
4:35
S3: his top officials in that organized, uh, manner strongly implies
4:41
S3: that Trump was already pretty well inclined towards the war,
4:45
S3: which Netanyahu had spent a year talking Trump into anyway. Uh,
4:49
S3: so it looks like Trump was already pretty keen on
4:53
S3: the whole thing, which is why he didn't want to
4:55
S3: interrogate Netanyahu's pitch too closely. We also have plenty of evidence,
5:02
S3: plenty of comments from Trump over the months about how
5:05
S3: Iran deserved to be hit and what a dreadful regime
5:08
S3: they were. And we also have the the word of
5:11
S3: the Israeli ambassador to the US, who has said that
5:16
S3: the two were actually working in a close partnership. They
5:18
S3: were both in favor of the war. And that seems
5:22
S3: to me to be the most likely and plausible characterization
5:27
S3: of the whole thing. That won't stop the Trump critics.
5:29
S3: They love to make him look weak and and feeble minded,
5:33
S3: which may or may not be true, but in this case,
5:36
S3: to suggest that Netanyahu dragged him against his will into
5:38
S3: this war, I think looks. The historians might correct me
5:41
S3: when they get around to it. Yes, but based on
5:44
S3: everything we know now, it looks like Trump did not
5:46
S3: need to be drafted into this war. He was up
5:48
S3: for it from the beginning.
5:49
S6: Okay, well, let's pull back.
5:50
S1: For a minute. Can you walk us through like, why
5:52
S1: does it matter who drew who into this war in
5:56
S1: the first place.
5:57
S3: Well, it matters for a couple of reasons. As some
5:59
S3: of the Democrats have said about Trump, are we such
6:02
S3: an enfeebled nation that we let the Israelis dictate when
6:08
S3: America goes to war, and against whom and when? That's
6:12
S3: a pretty tough accusation, and it undercuts American credibility. Trump's
6:17
S3: own standing and credibility, of course, as well. It also
6:21
S3: matters because how the war started will have a lot
6:25
S3: to do with how the war finishes. We know that
6:28
S3: Trump's only ally in starting the war was Netanyahu. So therefore,
6:34
S3: I mean, everybody now is consumed by the question of
6:37
S3: how long this thing will go on for, because that
6:40
S3: dictates so much, including whether we end up with a
6:43
S3: global recession or not. So with everybody paying intense attention
6:49
S3: to that question, we also have to pay a little
6:51
S3: bit of attention to, Well, he went into this war
6:54
S3: with Israel. So how is it going to end? And
6:58
S3: does he need Israel to be on board before he
7:00
S3: decides to end the hostilities?
7:02
S6: Okay, well, let's walk through this.
7:03
S1: The different agendas that Trump and Netanyahu have in terms
7:07
S1: of why they wanted this war, what they want out
7:09
S1: of this war, what it would mean for each of
7:11
S1: them for this war to be a success for their
7:13
S1: respective countries, for their respective personal agendas, because they're quite different, right?
7:17
S3: Yeah. And quite quickly, this war developed from being a
7:21
S3: single front war against Iran into a second front war
7:26
S3: between Israel and Lebanon. Four days into the war, the
7:29
S3: Hezbollah terrorists who occupy part of Lebanon fired rockets into Israel,
7:36
S3: and Israel took the opportunity to respond. And that's now
7:39
S3: developed into a fully fledged war where the Israelis are
7:42
S3: attacking Hezbollah, doing a lot of collateral damage in Lebanon
7:47
S3: in the process, more than 2000 civilians killed, according to
7:51
S3: the Lebanese government, one and a bit 1.1 million people
7:56
S3: are relocated dislocated from their homes in southern Lebanon and
8:00
S3: forced north as Israel enforces what it calls a buffer
8:03
S3: zone of 6 to 8km deep into Lebanese territory, with
8:08
S3: questions about whether that's going to remain a permanent buffer,
8:11
S3: whether it will be extended, whether it turns into a
8:13
S3: new Israeli occupation or not. So there's now two wars
8:18
S3: involved here, and the second of those is Israel, Hezbollah.
8:22
S3: Hezbollah operating from Lebanon, and the first of which is
8:25
S3: the larger one that's getting most of the attention.
8:27
S1: So tell us then the different agendas, you know, because Trump,
8:29
S1: Trump has reasons to want to either be in this
8:33
S1: or end it. And Netanyahu has reasons to want to
8:35
S1: be in it and end it. And they're completely different.
8:38
S1: So what are they? Peter.
8:39
S3: Yeah, and I would say that Trump's motivation to keep
8:43
S3: the war with Iran going is a lot less than
8:47
S3: Netanyahu's interests in keeping one or both of those fronts going.
8:51
S3: Trump had trouble for weeks articulating the whole purpose and
8:54
S3: point of this war. As we all know.
8:56
S1: It changed daily.
8:57
S3: It changed daily, sometimes hourly. So the current articulated point
9:03
S3: of the war, according to Donald Trump and, you know,
9:06
S3: check what time of day it is, it might change.
9:09
S3: That's right. By the time we finish this podcast. That's right.
9:12
S3: Is to is that he said 99% of it is
9:15
S3: that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon at the
9:18
S3: end of this. But he's also said and is now
9:22
S3: mounting this operation in in the Strait of Hormuz, to
9:24
S3: say that Iran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And
9:27
S3: until it does, we're going to do it. We're going
9:29
S3: to blockade it.
9:30
S1: Blockade their blockade.
9:31
S3: Yeah. Blockade there. And on a technical but important point here,
9:35
S3: while the Iranians were de facto blocking the entire strait
9:39
S3: and only allowing their allied and their own oil through
9:44
S3: mostly to China, uh, Trump says we're not blocking the
9:48
S3: whole strait. The Americans are blocking X access into and
9:52
S3: out of Iran and allowing other commercial traffic through the strait.
9:55
S3: So that is an important distinction. And apparently 20 commercial
9:59
S3: vessels went through were allowed through because they were non
10:02
S3: they weren't heading to Iran or out of Iran in
10:04
S3: the first 24 hours of that blockade. So that's an
10:06
S3: important distinction nonetheless. So Trump's Trump's got those stated goals.
10:14
S3: Now it's a bit different when it comes to Netanyahu
10:16
S3: with Netanyahu. Well he's his defense minister overnight our time.
10:22
S3: Israel Katz said that the threshold issue for Israel is
10:27
S3: the nuclear capability. And what is the nuclear capability? The
10:32
S3: consensus of experts is that there is still around 400
10:37
S3: up to 440kg of enriched uranium, enriched to about 60% purity,
10:44
S3: which is in Iran, very likely buried underground in facilities
10:50
S3: deep underground, where access to them has been blocked off
10:53
S3: by American and Israeli bombing. And the bombing has sealed
10:57
S3: the entrances under, you know, enormous volumes of rubble. So
11:02
S3: that is there. And both the US now, as Trump stated,
11:06
S3: latest top priority, but also Israel calling it a threshold
11:09
S3: issue that now is the biggest demand that both the
11:13
S3: Americans and the Israelis are making. So that is quite
11:16
S3: complicated in how that is resolved. And the Iranians have
11:21
S3: yet to make any concessions on on that point. Then
11:25
S3: there's the political motivation.
11:26
S1: Now, this is where it really sort of.
11:28
S3: This is where they diverge. Yeah. Much more. Yeah. And
11:31
S3: this also brings in the second front, which is the
11:33
S3: Israeli war against Lebanon. So to deal with the Iran
11:37
S3: war first. Amazing that this on the first day Trump
11:41
S3: said this may take a couple of days or might
11:44
S3: take 4 or 5 weeks. We're now in the sixth week.
11:47
S3: And yet we are still. We are still talking about
11:50
S3: a two fronted war that shows no sign of being solved,
11:54
S3: even though we're in a two week ceasefire, at least
11:56
S3: on the Iran front. So Trump's motivation here is to
12:03
S3: be able to declare victory in this war, to achieve
12:07
S3: his at least one or more of his stated objectives.
12:10
S3: Who knows which ones they'll be? Yeah. But in terms
12:13
S3: of his domestic political and economic needs, he needs to
12:17
S3: get the pressure off the oil price and take the
12:21
S3: inflationary pressure out of the US economy well before they
12:24
S3: get to the November midterm elections. On the current outlook.
12:28
S3: He's not going to achieve that because even if the
12:30
S3: war is stopped tomorrow, the inflationary impulse that's going through
12:34
S3: the US economy, partly because of the tariffs that he
12:37
S3: spent the last year imposing, but then more recently, on
12:41
S3: top of that, the inflationary effect of higher oil prices
12:44
S3: and petrol prices in the US has pushed inflation up
12:47
S3: to 3.3% in the US already, and that will continue
12:50
S3: to build regardless of what happens, even if the war
12:52
S3: is finished now. So his priority is to try and
12:55
S3: take the sting out of that and to be able
12:57
S3: to declare victory and say and look. And now petrol
13:00
S3: prices are going to come down again.
13:03
S1: We'll be right back. Do we know at least when
13:09
S1: we're recording this, like, what would it would require for
13:11
S1: Trump to put as much pressure on Netanyahu as possible,
13:15
S1: like end this now? Because, I mean, realistically, he's not
13:18
S1: going to get rid of Iran's enriched uranium.
13:21
S3: Well, it does seem that the, uh, the processing and
13:27
S3: bomb making capabilities of the Iranians have been savagely impaired.
13:32
S3: But the existence of 60% uranium 440kg apparently is enough
13:37
S3: to make dozens of nuclear warheads. So it is a
13:39
S3: potential problem. That is a problem that's only going to
13:42
S3: be solved, at least in the interim. In the short term,
13:46
S3: by diplomacy, the Iranians would have to agree on the
13:51
S3: treatment of that uranium, whether to leave it in the ground,
13:53
S3: retrieve it, under what circumstances, and all all the accompanying
13:57
S3: questions that that has not even been seriously, as far
14:01
S3: as we know, addressed in the peace talks. So, uh,
14:04
S3: what would it take that would take a lot, but
14:06
S3: then to get. So, so then on the second front, uh,
14:12
S3: where Netanyahu is waging a very determined war against Hezbollah. Uh, Netanyahu,
14:21
S3: his stated aim is to destroy Hezbollah and prevent it
14:26
S3: from being able to fire weapons into Israel. And that's
14:30
S3: going to be tough. Um, as soon as Trump announced
14:32
S3: the main ceasefire in Iran, within a few hours, Netanyahu's
14:37
S3: forces fired their biggest single volley into Lebanon. It was
14:41
S3: obviously a defiant message. No, Trump, you know, you can
14:44
S3: have your ceasefire in Iran, but we're not going to
14:46
S3: give you a ceasefire in Lebanon. And you, Hezbollah, you're
14:49
S3: in you're in big trouble. And just in the last
14:51
S3: 24 hours before we speak now, another 30 or so
14:54
S3: missiles have flown from Hezbollah into Israel. Hezbollah forces is
14:58
S3: not showing any sign of running out of munitions or
15:01
S3: will to wage this war, even though there were there
15:05
S3: was a negotiation, the beginning of a negotiation, again, in
15:07
S3: the last 24 hours. This whole thing moves pretty quickly.
15:11
S3: For the first time since 1993, between the Israelis and
15:15
S3: the Lebanese over this border war.
15:19
S7: Israel and Lebanon have begun direct negotiations in Washington, DC.
15:23
S7: Lebanese authorities are hoping to stop Israeli attacks in the country,
15:26
S7: but Israeli officials are focused on Hezbollah's disarmament.
15:29
S5: A historic opportunity. We understand we're working against decades of
15:33
S5: history and complexities that have led us to this unique
15:35
S5: moment and the opportunity here. I know some of you
15:38
S5: are shouting questions about ceasefires.
15:40
S3: The Lebanese government desperately wants the war to finish, but
15:42
S3: it's the parasite in the Lebanese host body, which is.
15:45
S3: Hezbollah is desperate to continue the fight against Israel, which
15:49
S3: of course is the whole reason that Hezbollah exists.
15:52
S1: Right. And so this is the real sticking point, right?
15:54
S1: Because Iran says or did recently that Israel must cease
15:58
S1: its war on Hezbollah as a condition of any peace
16:00
S1: agreement that Tehran reaches with the US. So will you
16:04
S1: walk us through this, because you've written quite extensively in
16:06
S1: your latest column about just how much Israelis are determined
16:12
S1: that Netanyahu continue to prosecute this war on Hezbollah, regardless
16:17
S1: of any negotiations imposed by the US. Tell us about this,
16:20
S1: because you spoke to a veteran Israeli political commentator who, Ari,
16:24
S1: and he told you about this?
16:25
S3: Yeah. That's right. And there's also polling which tells the
16:29
S3: story as well, which is that the war was and
16:33
S3: is very popular with Israelis. They are very much in
16:37
S3: favor of a strong majority in favor of trying to
16:41
S3: defeat Iran. And just as strong a majority to try
16:45
S3: and defeat Hezbollah. You know, a proxy arm of Iran.
16:50
S3: I think it's around 70% on the polling that I've seen.
16:54
S3: Want the war to continue on both fronts. And the
16:58
S3: level of disappointment or disapproval of Netanyahu for agreeing to
17:03
S3: stop bombing Iran is quite is quite strong. So he's
17:07
S3: got every political incentive to keep going. Yeah. On both
17:10
S3: fronts if he can. But certainly with Hezbollah, which is
17:12
S3: what he's exactly what he's doing. Yeah. Ehud Yaari made
17:15
S3: the point that the the perception in Israel will be
17:18
S3: that the war is not finished in Lebanon or Iran
17:23
S3: until the nuclear threat is disarmed, is removed, until the
17:30
S3: ability of Iran to fire missiles into Israel is ended.
17:36
S3: And until Hezbollah is disabled. And until then, this is
17:39
S3: unfinished business for Israel. And of course, while Trump faces
17:43
S3: a November election. Yes, the midterms for which he's trying
17:46
S3: to clear this. Clear this up.
17:48
S1: End it.
17:49
S3: Essentially end it with. With maximum. Maximum attempt to claim
17:53
S3: maximum grounds for victory and minimum economic pain. On the
17:57
S3: other hand. Netanyahu's in the middle of a war that
18:01
S3: is very popular, and the pressure on him is to continue.
18:04
S3: And he has an election that he has to call
18:06
S3: by late October. So the pressure on him is to
18:09
S3: keep running it as hard as he can, with as
18:13
S3: much determination as possible. It's favored by all the voters
18:16
S3: of all political persuasions, um, in, uh, Israel. So that's
18:22
S3: two very different sets of incentives. Trump wants to wind
18:25
S3: it up as quickly as possible. Netanyahu wants to keep
18:28
S3: it going as hard as he can for as long
18:29
S3: as he can ahead of that election, and not to
18:31
S3: be seen to be retreating or giving up against Israel's
18:35
S3: existential enemies.
18:36
S1: Because it has to be said. I mean, this war
18:38
S1: with Iran and now with Lebanon. It's such a win
18:42
S1: politically and personally for Netanyahu, right? I mean, we've spoken
18:45
S1: about it before that he's had other personal reasons, arguably,
18:49
S1: for wanting this war to continue as long as possible, because,
18:53
S1: of course, when when, when the wars end, whether in
18:56
S1: Gaza or with Iran, he is going to face charges
19:00
S1: of corruption that have yet to go through the courts. Yeah.
19:03
S1: Not to mention, of course, his arguable failures that led
19:06
S1: up to the October 7th attacks on Israel in the
19:09
S1: first place. So is Trump just in this for as
19:11
S1: long as Netanyahu wants? Then at the end of the day,
19:13
S1: because Netanyahu is a, by many accounts, very stubborn. This
19:19
S1: is this is this is what he's wanted for decades, right?
19:21
S1: He's wanted this opportunity to attack Iran. No other American
19:25
S1: president would back him in this. Finally, he's got this opportunity. So, yeah.
19:30
S1: Does it look like Trump will just be dragged into
19:32
S1: this as long as Netanyahu wants?
19:34
S3: It's very difficult to tell, but the different incentives suggest
19:38
S3: that Trump will try to call the war to an
19:40
S3: end and call off at least, at least in the
19:44
S3: Iran front, and to call off Netanyahu. Will Netanyahu pay
19:48
S3: him any heed? He might well pay lip service.
19:51
S1: Like, what incentive would Netanyahu have to to agree to that?
19:55
S3: The only incentive he has, really, is to preserve his
19:57
S3: friendship and alliance with Trump and the US and be
20:01
S3: seen to be a good ally. But in terms of
20:04
S3: his own domestic politics, his own priorities, and he's under,
20:10
S3: you know, savage attack from the opposition parties. Yair Lapid,
20:15
S3: the opposition leader and former prime minister of Israel. Probably
20:20
S3: his best line is he says Hamas still rules Gaza.
20:24
S3: Hezbollah is still ruling Lebanon. Instead of an 86 year
20:29
S3: old Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, there is a 56 year
20:33
S3: old Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. what's this guy Netanyahu doing?
20:38
S3: So he's got very strong incentives, especially with that election
20:42
S3: coming up. Yeah. So Trump might try to call him off.
20:46
S3: But we know that Trump's got limited leverage and limited
20:50
S3: willpower when it comes to enforcing his diktat on leaders
20:55
S3: with whom he feels some empathy or, I don't know
20:59
S3: what you'd call it, what Trump feels. That's for a
21:02
S3: whole psychological.
21:03
S1: That's.
21:04
S3: Right obsession. We haven't even got a couch here.
21:06
S1: Yeah.
21:07
S3: Um, so for example, with Putin, he thought he could
21:11
S3: force Putin to come up with a peace deal with
21:13
S3: Ukraine in a day. And it's it's now over a year.
21:17
S3: So he has limited leverage and limited willpower to enforce
21:23
S3: his demands on on those people he sees as allies.
21:26
S3: So it could well be that the US pulls out.
21:30
S3: And then he has to try to talk Netanyahu into
21:33
S3: limiting his warfare and it's only. We can only guess
21:38
S3: how that might go, but we can observe. Yeah. Clearly
21:41
S3: that they have different incentives, different different pressures, and that
21:45
S3: Netanyahu want to keep this going for as long as
21:46
S3: he can.
21:47
S1: And just to wrap up, Peter, I mean, just hours
21:49
S1: before we started recording this on Wednesday morning, the United
21:52
S1: States announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to launch
21:54
S1: direct negotiations to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon,
21:58
S1: as you said before. So, yeah, is there any hope
22:01
S1: that this might accomplish anything? Because if Hezbollah is not
22:04
S1: part of these talks, doesn't that perhaps render them useless?
22:08
S3: Well, Hezbollah has said they refuse to talk to Israel
22:11
S3: and they're hell bent on destroying Israel. This is a
22:14
S3: problem for Lebanon, of course, because it doesn't want the
22:17
S3: Israeli bombardments and the war, but it can't force Hezbollah
22:22
S3: to the table because it's too feeble and Hezbollah is
22:24
S3: too strong within the Lebanese political system. It's got cabinet
22:28
S3: ministers in the Lebanese government. It's got a big political
22:31
S3: support base. Hezbollah is a big force all by itself.
22:35
S3: So what Marco Rubio said in hosting these talks in
22:39
S3: Washington between Lebanon and Israel is that the intention is
22:42
S3: to start a process to isolate Hezbollah. So for both Lebanon,
22:47
S3: Israel and the US to work towards, uh, isolating Hezbollah,
22:53
S3: exactly how they do that. Who knows? It'll be interesting
22:56
S3: to see. But that's their stated intention. So if they
22:59
S3: can make any progress, then the talks will have some value.
23:03
S3: But that remains to be seen. It's day one.
23:07
S1: Well, it's always good to talk things over with you, Peter.
23:09
S1: So thank you again.
23:10
S3: Plenty to talk about.
23:12
S1: Thanks so much.
23:12
S3: Pleasure.
23:15
S1: In other news today, David Warner's position as Sydney Thunder
23:18
S1: captain is in jeopardy after he was charged with drink
23:22
S1: driving earlier this month. Half the crop growing farmers in
23:25
S1: Australia may not grow anything this season, as the skyrocketing
23:28
S1: prices of fertilizer and diesel make the production of staples
23:32
S1: like wheat, barley and canola unaffordable. And according to some
23:37
S1: of the nation's top military, the Australian Defence Force will
23:40
S1: be dangerously unprepared for the growing security threats the nation
23:44
S1: faces unless the Albanese government announces a major increase in
23:48
S1: defence spending this week. You can read more at the
23:51
S1: ajcosta or smh.com.au. Today's episode of The Morning Edition was
24:02
S1: produced by Julia Carcasole. Our executive producer is Tammy Mills.
24:06
S1: To listen to our episodes as soon as they drop,
24:09
S1: follow the Morning Edition on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you
24:12
S1: listen to podcasts. And to stay up to date, sign
24:15
S1: up to our Morning Edition newsletter to receive a summary
24:17
S1: of the day's most important news in your inbox every morning.
24:22
S1: Links are in the show notes. I'm Samantha Selinger Morris,
24:25
S1: thanks for listening.