☕️ The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire explained

Just a reminder that TDA has a daily emoji game that you can play called Picture This. We set the riddles every morning, and coming up with the riddles makes me laugh every morning. I’m most proud of the one below – can you get it? The theme is movie character.

Answer is in the tidbit!

“This epidemic is the worst year for whooping cough in Queensland on record.”
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer John Gerrard speaking to AAP. A baby has died of whooping cough in the state, as case numbers in Australia and New Zealand increase.

1
How many days Senator Lidia Thorpe will be suspended from the Senate, after she threw papers at fellow Senator Pauline Hanson during a heated debate about racism. Thorpe won’t be allowed to enter the Senate today, the last sitting day of the year.

1893
New Zealand women voted in an election for the first time, having won the right to vote earlier that year.

Prices rose by 2.1% in the year to October 2024, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The annual inflation figure is the same as the last month, which was the lowest inflation rate since July 2021.

However, the annual trimmed mean (which is the rate of inflation once you remove extremes on either side) increased from 3.2% to 3.5%.

Inflation measures price growth. When inflation is high, your money buys less.

The latest ABS figures show prices increased by 2.1% from October 2023 to October 2024. This means everyday goods and services cost 2.1% more in October than they did a year ago.

Despite some fluctuation, the rate of inflation has been gradually trending down from a peak in December 2022.

The price of alcohol and tobacco rose by 6%, while the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 3.3%.

The biggest fall in prices was electricity, which dropped 35.6% from 2023 to 2024. This is the largest annual fall in the price of electricity since records began. According to the ABS, this fall was driven by government discounts on energy bills.

Inflation is a key factor used by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to decide the cash rate.

The cash rate is what the RBA charges banks for short-term loans, which affects interest rates all over the economy, including home loans. The cash rate has been at 4.35% since November last year, which is its highest level in about a decade.

The RBA aims for the annual trimmed mean (mentioned above) to be between 2-3%.

Reporting by Lucy Tassell.

Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire after nearly 13 months of fighting.

U.S. President Joe Biden said the ceasefire is “designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities”.

Hezbollah is based in Lebanon and receives funding and training from Iran. Australia lists the group as a terrorist organisation.

On 8 October 2023, one day after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, Hezbollah started regularly launching missiles and rockets at Israel.

Since that time, around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel. According to Israeli authorities, Hezbollah attacks have killed at least 75 people in Israel.

According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli forces have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon over the past 13 months.

In September this year, Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon.

Around 900,000 Lebanese people have been displaced.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by Israeli forces earlier this year.

Over the next 60 days, both Israel and Hezbollah will be required to retreat from their current positions.

Hezbollah will be required to move north, away from the Israel-Lebanon border. The Lebanese army will be deployed to take control of the territory in southern Lebanon. The army will be responsible for ensuring that any remaining Hezbollah infrastructure is removed and can’t be rebuilt.

The Israeli army will be required to withdraw from Lebanon over this same period, as the Lebanese army moves into place.

The U.S. and France will “ensure this arrangement is fully implemented and enforced”.

However, Biden confirmed no U.S. troops will be deployed to southern Lebanon.

He also said that “if Hezbollah or anybody else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, Israel retains the right to self defence”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “a good deal is a deal that is enforced, and we will enforce it”. He added: “The length of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the deal is “a fundamental step towards establishing calm and stability in Lebanon and the return of the displaced to their homes and cities”.

The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah will not end the hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

On this, Biden said yesterday: “The people of Gaza have been through hell... their world is absolutely shattered.”

He confirmed that over the next few days, the U.S. will make “another push” with Türkiye, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and have the remaining hostages released.

The last pause in hostilities in Gaza was in November last year.

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In doing so, she beat the existing record-holder – her brother, Peter! While Peter was 17 years and 11 months old when he passed the bar just last year, Sophia was 17 years and 8 months old. Park started studying law at the age of 13 while she was also finishing high school. She graduated law school at the start of 2024. Park plans to work as a licensed lawyer when she turns 18 next March, joining her brother at a local county district attorney’s office in the city of Tulare.

Sophia said: “As a prosecutor, I will work to see justice served and ensure that victims’ voices are heard”.

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

We’ve heard about drugs being smuggled in mysterious packages: Lego boxes, and laptops or computers. But, here’s a new one to add to the list: a soaked cow onesie.

A man in the U.S. was headed to Australia when he was stopped by authorities and found to be carrying clothes soaked and caked with meth. A cow onesie was in the mix.

The clothing was stiff in texture and coated in a white residue, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Attorney Martin Estrada said: “Drug dealers are continually inventing creative ways of smuggling dangerous narcotics in pursuit of illicit profit.”

The clothing weighed around 32 kilograms. Authorities extracted over a kilogram of the drug from the clothing.

Reporting by Nandini Dhir.

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Picture This answer: Dumbledore.

Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire after nearly 13 months of fighting. The agreement came into force yesterday and is "designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities". Over the next 60 days, both Israel and Hezbollah will be required to retreat from their current positions in order to meet the demands of the deal. In today's podcast, we discuss how this ceasefire came about, what is included in it and what happens next.