# Episode 132

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/asia-pacific-defence-reporter-6383527/episode-132
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/asia-pacific-defence-reporter-6383527/episode-132.md
Podcast: [Asia Pacific Defence Reporter](https://stenobird.com/podcast/asia-pacific-defence-reporter-6383527)
Published: 2026-03-23T23:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://asiapacificdefencereporter.com
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6461aa4dcd2b40001119e5eb/e/69c1c1127878605e11a58d98/media.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/asia-pacific-defence-reporter-6383527/episodes/episode-132
Duration seconds: 1123

## Resource

The situation in the Middle East risks spiralling out of control with Donald Trump threatening to destroy Iran's electricity grid and that country saying it will retaliate by targeting water desalination plants throughout the region. Australia will not send a warship to the region at the moment, even if one were available, because the nature of warfare is being radically altered. The information about the ship was provided to the public by Transport Minister Catherine King because the PM, Defence Minister and Foreign Minister were all too scared to say anything that might displease the US. Our government's slavish attachment to Washington continues. Australia needs to seriously consider the possibility of being inadvertently drawn into committing war crimes. We conclude with some very wise words from retired AVM John Blackburn, who says AUKUS is a waste of money and should be scrapped. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/asia-pacific-defence-reporter-6383527/episodes/episode-132/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/asia-pacific-defence-reporter-6383527/episode-132.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.