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Speaker 1: Today's biggest News from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with

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Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. As Iran prepares to bury assassinated

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Speaker 1: Supreme leader Ayatola Ali Khamena, reports are emerging that the

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Speaker 1: so called Assembly of Experts, a group of dozens of

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Speaker 1: senior religious leaders, has elected a new Supreme leader, the

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Speaker 1: Ayatola's son, Motchaba Khamane. He's fifty six years old, an

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Speaker 1: Islamic cleric, and is strongly supported by the Islamic Revolutionary

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Speaker 1: Guard Corps, the all powerful paramilitary organization that parallels Iran's

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Speaker 1: official defense forces. His elevation would suggest Iran's hardliners are

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Speaker 1: in control of the regime, although some figures close to

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Speaker 1: Kamenay Junior has suggested he would actually use power to

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Speaker 1: moderate the strict religious and social restrictions on Iranian's freedom.

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Speaker 1: There are reports the government is reluctant to publicly confirm

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Speaker 1: his election for fear of making him a target of

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Speaker 1: the American and Israeli assaults that have devastated the country

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Speaker 1: and triggered Iranian retaliation against the entire Arabian Peninsula, as

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Speaker 1: well as Israel and American forces in the region. If elected,

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Speaker 1: he'd be the third supreme leader since the overthrow of

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Speaker 1: Iran's monarchy in nineteen seventy nine. The first Ruhollah Khomene

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Speaker 1: served until his death in nineteen eighty nine, and was

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Speaker 1: best known internationally for declaring a fatwa or death sentence

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Speaker 1: on British author Selman Rushti over his novel The Satanic Verses.

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Speaker 1: Khomene's grandson, Hassan Komene, also a sheer cleric, is considered

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Speaker 1: a more moderate rival to the hardline Khamene family. The war,

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Speaker 1: now in its fifth day, has seen the US's Operation

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Speaker 1: Epic Fury deploy more than two thousand munitions, striking nearly

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Speaker 1: two thousand targets. That's according to Admiral Brad Cooper, the

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Speaker 1: commander of US Central Command.

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Speaker 2: Many of you me remember the Shock and Awe strikes

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Speaker 2: of two thousand and three. The first twenty four hours

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Speaker 2: of this operation will nearly double the scale, and we

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Speaker 2: continue with twenty four to seven strikes into Iran from

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Speaker 2: seabed to space and cyberspace. We have severely degraded Iran's

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Speaker 2: air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran's ballistic missiles, launchers

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Speaker 2: and drones. And in simple terms, we're focused on shooting

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Speaker 2: all the things that can shoot at us. We are

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Speaker 2: also sinking the Iranian navy, the entire navy. Thus far,

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Speaker 2: we've destroyed seventeen Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian

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Speaker 2: submarine that now has a hole in its side. Now

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Speaker 2: in retaliation, the Iranian regime has launched over five hundred

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Speaker 2: ballistic missiles and over two thousand drones. To be clear,

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Speaker 2: Iran is indiscriminately targeting civilians as they've launched these missiles

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Speaker 2: and drones. You've seen it on TV. The evidence is

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Speaker 2: crystal clear and overwhelming. Having said this, we are seeing

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Speaker 2: Iran's ability to hit US and our partners is declining,

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Speaker 2: while our combat power, on the other hand, is building.

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Speaker 1: Australians who publicly mourned slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamena

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Speaker 1: should be prosecuted by police. That's according to members of

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Speaker 1: Australia's Jewish community, who say the courts should decide if

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Speaker 1: those memorials constitute support for a terrorist organization. Iran's Islamic

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Speaker 1: Revolutionary Guard Corps was designated a terrorist organization by the

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Speaker 1: Australian government in November after an investigation by ASIO found

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Speaker 1: the group responsible for the twenty twenty four fire bombings

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Speaker 1: of a synagogue in Melbourne and a Delhi in Sydney.

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Speaker 1: The designation noted and I quote as Iran's supreme leader

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Speaker 1: Iotola Ali Kamena ultimately controls and appoints the heads of

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Speaker 1: the IGC. It's against the law in Australia to support

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Speaker 1: a terrorist group or associate with its members. Executive Council

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Speaker 1: of Australian Jury CO Chief Executive Alex Rifchin told The

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Speaker 1: Australian publicly mourning Karmena at Shechite mosques in Sydney sends

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Speaker 1: the wrong message and added Australians shouldn't stand for it.

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Speaker 1: The New South Wales Police say they'll investigate any breaches

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Speaker 1: of the law, and Victorian officers say they're monitoring the situation.

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Speaker 1: You can check out those stories live right now at

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Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au and come back to

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Speaker 1: the front first thing in the morning for our close

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Speaker 1: look at a massive media blow up the end of

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Speaker 1: the Carl and Jackie O Show after decades of controversy

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Speaker 1: on and off the air. That's right here Thursday morning,