What you need to know
Thank you for joining our continuing live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East and King Charles and Queen Camilla’s state visit to the United States, as well as developments in Australia.
Here’s what you need to know this morning:
- King Charles III and Queen Camilla have met with families of victims and first responders at the 9/11 memorial in New York City before separate events at a community organisation in Harlem and a celebration of literature at the New York Public Library on the third day of their four-day state visit to the US.
- The war in Iran has cost the United States $US25 billion ($35 billion) to date, the Pentagon has confirmed.
- US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday (US time), discussing the wars in Ukraine and Iran. “I suggested a little bit of a ceasefire, and I think he might do that,” Trump said. “Even if it’s a little ceasefire, there’s so many people being killed, it’s ridiculous.”
- Trump told US news site Axios Iran was “choking like a stuffed pig”, amid reports he is preparing to oversee an extended naval blockade on Iranian ports. In a Truth Social post, including a mock-up of him holding a machine gun, he declared: “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong has confirmed China has agreed to take a “first step” to resume critical exports of jet fuel to Australian businesses. The news came after an earlier incident, when Chinese officials attempted to usher Australian media out of a room at The Great Hall of People before Wong had completed her remarks.
King visits urban farming program, Queen heads to library
While in New York on day three of his US tour, King Charles toured an after-school, urban farming effort in Harlem that works with young people affected by food insecurity.
At Harlem Grown’s 134th Street Farm, Charles planted lavender and mustard seeds with primary school children and visited a chicken coop. He watched a live food demonstration that educated children about food and nutrition while showcasing vegetables harvested at the farm.
“I like your hair,” a student told the king, who replied, “Do you? Good.”
Queen Camilla, meanwhile, visited the New York Public Library, where she chatted quietly with actress Sarah Jessica Parker during a walk in the building as a massive crowd of onlookers watched from behind barricades across Fifth Avenue.
Israel intercepting Gaza aid ships far from its shores: army radio
Israel has begun taking control of aid ships bound for Gaza far from Israeli shores, Israeli army radio cited an Israeli source as saying on Wednesday.
The report did not specify the number of vessels involved or their exact location.
On April 12, a second flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza sailed from the Spanish port of Barcelona, aiming to try to break the Israeli blockade.
Reuters
Questions raised over whether gunman at correspondents’ dinner shot agent
A US government court filing has raised questions about officials’ initial assertions that a gunman shot a Secret Service officer while allegedly attempting to assassinate Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, fired a shotgun “in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom” where Trump, other administration officials and members of the press were gathered on Saturday night, according to the pre-trial detention motion, which offered the government’s most extensive account yet of the incident.
In the motion, prosecutors referred to an officer firing five times, but the document does not mention that officer, or any other, being shot.
A spent cartridge was found in the suspect’s shotgun, according to Wednesday’s motion.
‘It’s great’: Trump’s verdict on UAE’s oil cartel exit
Donald Trump said the United Arab Emirates’ decision to leave OPEC would help lower energy prices, which have spiked due to the war in Iran and continue to climb.
“I think it’s great,” Trump said Wednesday (Washington time) at the White House, when asked about the move.
“It’s a good thing for getting the price of gas down, getting oil down, getting everything down.”
There was little evidence to back up Trump’s argument, as oil continued to rise even after the UAE announced its exit from the cartel of oil-producing nations.
‘No more Mr Nice Guy’: Trump shares mock-up image holding machine gun
US President Donald Trump has issued a veiled warning to Iran as he shared a mock-up image of himself in dark glasses and wielding a machine gun with the caption “No more Mr. Nice Guy”.
“Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a non-nuclear deal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“They’d better get smart soon! President DJT”
In pictures: King Charles and Queen Camilla in NYC
Iran ‘choking like a stuffed pig’, says Trump; oil rises to nearly $US120 a barrel
The price of Brent crude oil shot up more than 7 per cent overnight to nearly $US120 ($168), rising for the eighth consecutive day.
In the US – which is less impacted by soaring global oil prices than most countries – the national average price of petrol climbed above $US4.20 a gallon.
It comes amid reports US President Donald Trump is preparing to oversee an extended naval blockade targeting ships transiting to and from Iranian ports, as he seeks to squeeze Tehran into submission.
Trump told US news site Axios on Wednesday (US time): “The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing. They are choking like a stuffed pig. And it is going to be worse for them.”
While Trump said he would stick with the blockade, US military commanders have prepared a plan for a short and powerful wave of strikes on Iran to raise pressure on the regime, Axios said, citing people with knowledge of the preparations.
with Bloomberg
Trump, Putin discuss wars in Ukraine and Iran
Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday (US time), discussing the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
“I suggested a little bit of a ceasefire, and I think he might do that,” the US president said. “Even if it’s a little ceasefire, there’s so many people being killed, it’s ridiculous.”
Trump said Putin offered to help the US obtain Iran’s remaining stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.
“I said I’d much rather have you be involved with ending the war in Ukraine … before you help me, I want to end your war.”
Asked which conflict he believed would end first, Trump briefly confused the two, stating that Ukraine had been militarily defeated, before listing US military achievements against Iran.
King Charles, Queen Camilla pay their respects at 9/11 memorial
King Charles and Queen Camilla have travelled to New York for the third day of their four-day state visit, where they commemorated victims of the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.
The streets around the 9/11 memorial plaza were barricaded, with the Secret Service scanning for weapons at limited access points.
The couple laid a bouquet of flowers at the memorial, where waterfall-ringed reflecting pools mark the footprints of the World Trade Centre twin towers, destroyed when Islamist militants flew two planes into the skyscrapers.
War in Iran has cost $35 billion to date: Pentagon
The Pentagon has confirmed for the first time that the cost of the war on Iran to date is approximately $US25 billion ($35 billion).
Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst provided the figure during a House Armed Services Committee oversight hearing in Washington.
“Most of that is in munitions,” he said, though it also included operations and maintenance costs, and equipment replacement.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth affirmed the figure. Asked about additional costs to replace munitions at today’s dollars, he said he would defer to Hurst on any further adjustments to the cost.
Hegseth also said the Pentagon was still investigating the circumstances of the missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed approximately 175 people in the first 24 hours of the war.
The US has not taken responsibility for the strike 60 days later, despite a preliminary internal investigation finding it was at fault, according to The New York Times.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
