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.
$US25 billion Iran war price tag underestimates cost: analysts
Top Pentagon officials finally put a price tag on the war in Iran so far during a contentious congressional hearing, but analysts say the $US25 billion ($35 billion) figure they cited underestimates the total cost by a large amount.
The cost of some munitions, destroyed equipment and operating expenses total as much as $US14 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Pentagon data.
That includes $US8 billion for some munitions, $US5 billion to replace destroyed aircraft and equipment and $US1 billion in operating costs for two aircraft carriers and 16 destroyers across 39 days of near-constant strikes.
That sum doesn’t factor in the cost of repairing facilities damaged around the region, such as the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, which was hit repeatedly by Iranian strikes. It also doesn’t include operational costs of all ships and aircraft in the buildup before February 28 and in the current blockade.
Batteries flattening grid’s ‘solar duck’ supply and demand discrepancy
Returning briefly to energy security, the latest news in Australia should provide confidence that renewables combined with batteries can provide a stable grid, as conflict in Iran sends the price of oil up.
As Mike Foley and Nick Toscano report, the figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator released overnight reveal the number of household and grid batteries have doubled in a year.
What is incredible is the way this has flattened the energy supply and demand curve in a short space of time.
For years, those who care about the energy grid have been wringing their hands about a phenomenon called the “solar duck”.
Charity and business events end royals’ NYC visit
King Charles and Queen Camilla capped their whirlwind day in New York City with an appearance at an early evening reception for one of the king’s charities, the King’s Trust, where Charles spoke of the enduring cultural bond between the people of the UK and US as one “rooted in shared creativity, enterprise, and values”.
“Reminding us that we are truly greater together, that’s the point,” the king said.
The four-day trip is Charles’ first state visit to the US since he became king.
His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the US. Her last visit to New York was in 2010.
National Security Committee agree to Bondi report’s 14 recommendations
The National Security Committee has met this morning and agreed to implement the 14 recommendations of the interim report of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which was published today.
The recommendations include increased security measures at “high-risk Jewish festivals and events”, the participation of the prime minister and key ministers in counter-terrorism exercises, and urge the states and territories to prioritise the National Gun Buyback Scheme.
“The first task of the Royal Commission, the priority, was to look at the security elements of [counter-terrorism] issues. I can confirm that the National Security Committee has met this morning, and we have adopted and will implement all the recommendations of the interim report that are relevant to the Commonwealth,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference in Sydney this morning.
“A number of the recommendations relate to state and territory jurisdictions, aimed at ensuring a nationally consistent approach to implementation, and we’ll work constructively with state and territory governments on those issues.”
Watch: Prime Minister speaking on interim report on antisemitism
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke are speaking in Sydney after the release of the interim report from the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
Fossil fuel phase out in focus as Iran conflict shakes energy security
France has unveiled a national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels as the war in Iran focuses the global community on long-term energy security.
France was one of 50 nations including Australia that attended two days of talks in Santa Marta, Colombia on phasing out fossil fuels, a spin-off from the COP climate talks.
The French sector-by-sector plan includes:
- A target of 66 per cent of new car sales being electric by 2030
- A 25 per cent increase in public transport use by 2030
- The decarbonisation of industry through an approach involving the 50 largest industrial sites in France
- An 85 per cent reduction in oil-fired boilers in tertiary (service sector) buildings, and a 60 per cent reduction in the residential sector, aiming to phase out fossil oil for heating by 2035
- Objectives for renewable energy, nuclear power hydrogen, biogas and alternative fuels
US forces seek approval to use hypersonic missile against Iran
US Central Command has asked to send the Army’s long-delayed Dark Eagle hypersonic missile to the Middle East for possible use against Iran, seeking a longer-range system to hit ballistic-missile launchers deep inside the country.
If approved, it would mark the first time the US will have deployed its hypersonic missile, which is running far behind schedule and hasn’t been declared fully operational, even as Russia and China have deployed their own versions.
The Request for Forces submission justifies the move by saying Iran has moved its launchers out of range of the Precision Strike Missile, a weapon that can hit targets at more than 480 kilometres, a person with direct knowledge of the request said.
The person asked not to be identified discussing a request that hasn’t been made public. No decision has been made yet on the request, the person said. US Central Command declined to comment.
Mayor encourages diamond’s return to India as King visits New York
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he encourages Britain’s King Charles to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond to India, with his comments coming during the British monarch’s ongoing US visit.
“If I were to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond,” Mamdani, who is Indian American, said when asked at a press conference, hours before a ceremony that commemorated victims of the deadly September 11, 2001 attacks.
Later in the day, the king spoke with Mamdani at the ceremony. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request to comment on whether Mamdani brought up the issue with the king. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
India has previously repeatedly demanded that Britain return the 105-carat diamond.
Australian among Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israel
At least one Australian sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza has been intercepted by Israel in international waters west of the Greek island of Crete.
The vessel carrying Sydney law student Ethan Floyd, 22, was boarded by Israel’s Defence Forces about 8.30am on Thursday (AEST), after a warship approached and launched an inflatable tactical boat for interception.
Newcastle activist Zack Schofield, aboard a separate vessel nine hours from Greece’s territorial waters, is anticipating interception soon. He has lost contact with at least 11 vessels of the 100-strong flotilla so far, and says drones have been flown above their ships and warships are on the horizon.
“I am absolutely shocked that the Israeli navy feels such impunity to start essentially kidnapping humanitarian volunteers in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea,” Schofield, 26, told this masthead from his vessel shortly before 2am local time.
Trump says US reviewing troop numbers in Germany amid Iran tensions
Donald Trump said the US is reviewing its troop levels in Germany and will decide shortly whether to reduce that number, escalating tensions between the allies over the war in Iran.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday.
Trump’s announcement comes with Washington and Berlin increasingly at odds over Iran.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier this week criticised the US handling of the conflict, saying that American negotiators were being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership as talks drag on, with little sign that the conflict is nearing an end.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
