Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. Unclaire Harvey with the
Speaker 1: Front's afternoon headlines, Fuel relief is coming for the Bush.
Speaker 1: Energy Minister Chris Bowen says fuel quality standards will be
Speaker 1: temporarily lowered to get more fuel into the market quickly. Basically,
Speaker 1: it means more sulfur will be allowed. Sulfur is a
Speaker 1: natural part of crude oil, which, when burnt in engines,
Speaker 1: causes air pollution and can lead to acid rain. Most
Speaker 1: of it is refined out of the diesel and petrol
Speaker 1: we buy it the pump. Until last year, Australia had
Speaker 1: some of the world's dirtiest fuel for the labor Government,
Speaker 1: led by Bowen, imposed a stringent improvement of standards that's
Speaker 1: only been in effect for a few months, dramatically slashing
Speaker 1: the sulfur limits on petrol and diesel. Now, Bowen says
Speaker 1: relaxing those standards in the short term will prevent us
Speaker 1: running out of fuel.
Speaker 2: This will, as I said, enable that supply to be
Speaker 2: blended into the Australian existing supply and we'll see one
Speaker 2: hundred million liters extra of fuel each month for the
Speaker 2: two months for which I will have provided the relaxation.
Speaker 2: I have asked for and received an assurance from AMPOLE
Speaker 2: that this extra supply will be prioritized for regional Australia
Speaker 2: and for the spot market to take pressure off those
Speaker 2: regional areas feeling such pressure. Such pressure, mister Speaker and
Speaker 2: I have received that.
Speaker 1: The International Energy Agency has agreed to the biggest ever
Speaker 1: release of public emergency stocks of oil and it sent
Speaker 1: oil prices up instead of down, as jittery markets interpret
Speaker 1: the release as a sign the Iran war really is
Speaker 1: going to create an energy crisis. Sixteen hundred at Lassian
Speaker 1: employees are back on the job hunt after the Australian
Speaker 1: tech giant sacked ten percent of its workforce. About a
Speaker 1: third of those are based in Australia and they were
Speaker 1: told they've been let go via email. At Lassian founder
Speaker 1: Might canon Brooks is blaming rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3: It's an incredibly hard decision, but I still believe that
Speaker 3: it's the right one. We're focused on moving faster, staying
Speaker 3: disciplined on costs, and proving that we can grow profitably
Speaker 3: over the long term by staying responsive to the world
Speaker 3: that we have to operate in.
Speaker 1: The redundancies are expected to cost at Lassian as much
Speaker 1: as one hundred and seventy four million US dollars. You
Speaker 1: can read the inside story of how at Lassian's massive
Speaker 1: job cuts unfolded right now on the Australian dot com
Speaker 1: dot AU. Intelligence agencies say they might not be able
Speaker 1: to produce full evidence to the Antisemitism Royal Commission, and
Speaker 1: some information has been redacted. That's as former spyboss Dennis
Speaker 1: Richardson abruptly quit the investigation, saying he was surplus to requirements.
Speaker 1: Check out those stories live right now at the Australian
Speaker 1: dot Com dot a U and come back to the
Speaker 1: front first thing in the morning for a peek behind
Speaker 1: the scenes at one of The Australian's biggest ever podcast productions,
Speaker 1: Seek to Death