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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the eighth of April twenty twenty six. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know in just five minutes. O. Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five stories in five minutes. Let's go with story number one.

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Speaker 1: The arrest and charging a former soldier and Victoria Cross

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Speaker 1: recipient Ben Roberts Smith on war crimes offenses after allegations

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Speaker 1: that he had murdered unarmed Afghan civilians and prisoners has

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Speaker 1: split politicians across the divide and has really set the

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Speaker 1: scene for what is the most significant war crimes prosecution

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Speaker 1: in Australian history. Robert Smith was charged late yesterday afternoon

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Speaker 1: with five counts of murder following a joint investigation between

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Speaker 1: the Office of the Special Investigator and the Australian Federal Police.

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Speaker 1: The offense of war crimes murder carries a maximum penalty

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Speaker 1: of life imprisonment. The arrest of the highly decorated former

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Speaker 1: Special Forces soldier comes after a five year investigation secure

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Speaker 1: the cooperation of SAS eyewitnesses. According to nine Media.

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Speaker 2: They're expected to testify that they saw Robert Smith executing

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Speaker 2: or directing junior soldiers to execute defenseless detainees during his

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Speaker 2: time in Afghanistan between two thousand and six and twenty twelve.

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Speaker 2: When Robert Smith was allegedly involved in the twenty twelve executions,

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Speaker 2: he was the most decorated Comwealth soldier to serve in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: Now. Ben Robert Smith has already unsuccessfully contested claims that

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Speaker 1: he committed war crimes, including murders, in a defamation case

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Speaker 1: that he fought all the way to the High Court.

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Speaker 1: The High Court last September refused him leave to appeal,

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Speaker 1: a full Federal Court decision that in turn backed the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three judgment of Federal Court Judge Anthony Bossenko

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Speaker 1: that the Age and Sydney Morning Herald had proved a

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Speaker 1: number of the same allegations true to the civil standard.

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Speaker 1: The standard approval will be much higher in the new

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Speaker 1: case than in the civil case. And it is very

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Speaker 1: important to note that we haven't heard from Ben Robert Smith.

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Speaker 2: Yet, that's right. The arrest yesterday drew a stern no

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Speaker 2: comment from the Prime Minister, the Opposition leader Angus Taylor

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Speaker 2: said he hoped it would not detract from the efforts

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Speaker 2: of the armed forces. Robert Smith has attracted the support

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Speaker 2: of many high profile Australians, including billionaire Kerry Stokes in

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Speaker 2: Australian War Memorial chairman Brendan Nelson yesterday won Nation leader

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Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson said she remained steadfast in her support of

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Speaker 2: Robert Smith. Former Prominence Attorney Abbot said it was strong

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Speaker 2: to judge the actions of men in mortal combat by

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Speaker 2: the standards of ordinary civilian life. No doubt, we have

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Speaker 2: never had a trial for war crimes of such a

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Speaker 2: decorated soldier. It will set a precedent for decades to come.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, it will okay story number two Sean. The ASX

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Speaker 1: yesterday closed up one point seven percent, hitting a four

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Speaker 1: week high tech stocks and mining stocks they both found

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Speaker 1: plenty of friends, even though US President Donald Trump's deadline

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Speaker 1: for the reopening of the Strait of Humus is coming

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Speaker 1: up later today. The S and PA Sex two hundred

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Speaker 1: closed up one hundred and forty nine points to eighty

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Speaker 1: seven hundred and twenty eight points. At one stage it

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Speaker 1: was up two percent. All the big banks did well,

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Speaker 1: Comwealth Bank, nab Westpac jumping around two and a half percent.

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Speaker 1: BHP was up more than three percent, Blue Scope steal

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Speaker 1: up almost four percent. Was Sea Green, So.

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Speaker 2: It was oil. So why shares coming up? Who knows? Basically,

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Speaker 2: it's funny. The training comes as a deadline for the

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Speaker 2: reopening of the trade off on Moore's closes in. Trump's

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Speaker 2: warn is going to bomb civilian infrastructure, but investors just

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Speaker 2: don't believe him. Now, if they thought he was going

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Speaker 2: to start bombing, the market would have taken a dive yesterday.

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Speaker 2: We'll see what happens in the next couple of hours.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, story number three Sean Prime Minister Anthony Ubneasy says

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Speaker 1: the government will take every action to shield Australians from

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Speaker 1: oil driven inflation shocks, including high level talks with Singapore

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Speaker 1: on securing trade in petrol, diesel and LNG. Meanwhile, federal

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Speaker 1: ministers insist that rationing isn't being considered, while emphasizing that

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Speaker 1: the focus is keeping supply flowing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Anyway, We've spoken plenty about the

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Speaker 2: inflationary impact of fuel prices. There's also this national security flavor. Now,

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Speaker 2: when leaders start talking about resilience and independence and energy

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Speaker 2: supply chains. They're basically saying that the just in time

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Speaker 2: model doesn't hold up so well. As part of the

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Speaker 2: government's efforts to sure up supply, Albineasi is heading to

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Speaker 2: Singapore tomorrow to that meet his counterpart Lawrence Wong. There

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Speaker 2: was some good US yesterday. Taiwan, our fourth largest supplier fuel,

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Speaker 2: particularly diesel, promised to keep supply flowing.

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Speaker 1: Story number four Sean Goosmany Gomez has delivered a strong

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Speaker 1: third quarter sales update, with network sales up nearly twenty

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Speaker 1: percent and Australian comparable sales growth accelerating seven percent. Investors

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Speaker 1: seem to love it. Yesterday, the shares closed up nearly

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Speaker 1: twenty percent. Comparable growth at six point six percent was solid.

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Speaker 1: It is well down on the eleven percent plus pace

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Speaker 1: from a year ago, so it seems that the growth

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Speaker 1: is continuing, but it seems to be normalizing, which isn't

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Speaker 1: unusual for a fast scaling brand, especially in a tight

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Speaker 1: consumer environment.

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Speaker 2: The company pointed to delivery as a key driver of

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Speaker 2: those figures, and new partnership with Ubert it seems to

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Speaker 2: be working. Also, transaction growth is outpacing cells growth, so

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Speaker 2: in plain English, more people are visiting. Average spent per

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Speaker 2: visit is lower, which kind of fits the cost of

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Speaker 2: living narrative. Customers still want the treat they might be

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Speaker 2: training down to cheaper items.

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Speaker 1: Finally, story number five, Shawn, the one I've been waiting for.

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Speaker 1: The Artemis two astronauts, having traveled further into space than

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Speaker 1: any human before them, have gone around the Moon, they

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Speaker 1: are heading now back to Earth. The four astronauts, three Americans,

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Speaker 1: one Canadian, have now seen the far side of the

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Speaker 1: Moon and beaten the previous record of distance from Earth

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Speaker 1: that was set by the Apollo thirteen mission back in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy.

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Speaker 2: Artemis two's lunar orbit is the highlight of the nearly

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Speaker 2: ten day test flight, which will end with a splashdown

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Speaker 2: in the Pacific on April eleven. All things going okay,

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Speaker 2: Venturing as close as six five hundred and forty five

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Speaker 2: kilometers to the Moon, the astronauts zipped through a list

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Speaker 2: of more than two dozen targets, using powerful cameras to

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Speaker 2: zoom in on impact creators and other intriguing lunar figures.

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Speaker 2: They were, at one point more than four hundred and

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Speaker 2: six thousand kilometers from Earth. The furthest man has ever been.

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Speaker 2: Can't wait to see the NASA images when they release them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty extraordinary. All right, there we go, the top

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Speaker 1: five business stories in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank

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Speaker 1: you Michael. It is Wednesday, the eighth of April twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty six. Remember to hit follow on the podcast and

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Speaker 1: in five minutes isn't enough. You can find our longer

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Speaker 1: daily show called Fear and Greed where ever you listen

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Speaker 1: to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson and that was the fast

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Speaker 1: five business news by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.