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Apr 2, 2026 - World

Prime minister also announces further cut to fuel tax in National Press Club address. Follow live updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast‘Might as well have told us what he was going to have for dinner’: shadow minister lambasts address to the nationThe quips continue coming in thick and fast against Albanese’s address to the nation. The shadow minister for energy, Dan Tehan, tells ABC Radio:He might as well have told us what he was going to have for dinner last night. There was nothing new in it. He didn’t take the Australian people into his confidence.He made no commitments to transparency … there was no commitment from the prime minister to tell us whether ships have been cancelled, whether they’re being delayed, what our stock holdings are at the moment, where the shortages are, how many service stations are out of fuel, what they’re doing to make sure they’re getting fuel to those service stations – nothing.We will be participating in that. It’ll be a virtual meeting as I understand the next 24 hours and the foreign minister will be representing Australia at that meeting.It follows on from Australia signing up to the UK-led statement … all of those countries and very much Australia have an interest in seeing the straits of Hormuz opened as soon as possible. We will look to what Australia can do. Continue reading...

Apr 2, 2026 - World

President used speech to justify the war and offer a timeline for its completion, as he faces falling poll numbers and a global energy crisis‘We have all the cards’: Trump says US war on Iran ‘nearing completion’Israel hits Iran with waves of attacks and says it killed top Hezbollah commanderTrump has claimed that Iran was “right at the doorstep” of gaining a nuclear weapon.Earlier on Wednesday the president said he did not care about Iran’s stock of highly enriched uranium (HEU), arguing it was deep underground and could be monitored by satellite.From the very beginning my campaign for president in 2015, I said I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This regime has been chanting death to America, death to Israel. Continue reading...

Apr 2, 2026 - World

A former presidential envoy said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump signaled the U.S. plans to escalate the war in Iran during his primetime address to the nation. Trump spoke for about 40 minutes on Wednesday, where he addressed a lot of outstanding questions people have been asking about the war in Iran, which has gone on for about five weeks. Trump said the U.S. is nearing completion of its objectives in the war, and called on the rest of the world to figure out how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranian regime has effectively blocked since the war began. Brett McGurk, a former White House coordinator, told CNN's Kaitlin Collins on Wednesday night that he didn't hear much of a plan for exiting the war. "My takeaway is that we might be in for an escalation to this war," McGurk said. "He said, if there is not a deal put back on the table.""If we thought we were going to hear a deescalatory speech, that this might be over in just a couple of weeks, I heard something different," he added. "My takeaway was that we might be in for an escalation of this war," @brett_mcgurk says. pic.twitter.com/Mw2weRABAA— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 2, 2026

Apr 2, 2026 - World

President says ‘little journey’ to Iran close to achieving US aims but offers few details on plan to wind down conflictMiddle East crisis – live updatesDonald Trump used a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday evening to declare the month-long war in Iran a success “nearing completion”, despite a spiraling conflict that has caused economic turmoil across the globe, fractured transatlantic alliances and eroded the president’s approval ratings.In remarks from the White House, Trump argued that the US’s “little journey” to Iran had nearly accomplished “all of America’s military objectives”, but offered little clarity on how he planned to wind down the conflict over the next “two to three weeks”. Continue reading...

Apr 2, 2026 - World

Ukrainian president says ceasefire could show diplomacy works, while Russia dismisses statement as ‘PR stunt’. What we know on day 1,499Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticised Russia for responding to an offer of an Easter truce with airstrikes. The Ukrainian president said on Wednesday he had spoken to US negotiators about an Easter ceasefire but Russian forces had fired more than 700 drones – many of them Iranian-designed Shaheds – targeting parts of western and central Ukraine in a rare daytime attack. Zelenskyy said: “Russia is responding [to the Easter ceasefire offer] with Shahed drones and continues its terrorist operations against our energy sector, against our infrastructure,” adding that he had discussed ways of advancing diplomacy with US negotiators. “A silence over Easter could be exactly the signal that tells everyone that diplomacy can be successful.” Russia’s foreign ministry rejected Zelenskyy’s proposal as a “PR stunt”.The Ukraine president said talks with US mediators aimed at resolving the four-year conflict were “positive”. The talks were held remotely on Wednesday with the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the US senator Lindsey Graham, with Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, also joining the call amid the alliance’s continuing tensions with Washington. Zelenskyy thanked the US for its efforts to bring about peace and said the Ukrainian and US teams had agreed to strengthen a document outlining US security guarantees for any future peace deal. “This is precisely what could pave the way for a reliable end to the war.” In recent weeks Zelenskyy said the US had been pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to bring a quick end to the conflict after the US and Israel launched the war on Iran in late February. Talks with Russia are deadlocked over the question of land, with Ukraine refusing to cede to Moscow’s demands that it relinquish the eastern region of Donbas.Russia claimed to have full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region on Wednesday, which Kyiv denied. Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the entire Luhansk region – part of the Donbas – but a Ukrainian military official said small areas were still held by Ukrainian forces. Russia has previously made false claims of advances. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement: “Units have completed the liberation of the Luhansk people’s republic.” But Viktor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukrainian forces, said there were no changes to report in that region. “Unfortunately, we only hold small patches [in Luhansk], but those positions have been held by 3rd brigade for a long time,” Trehubov told the Associated Press. Russian claims of progress have in the past proved to be inaccurate. The Moscow-appointed head of Luhansk announced its full capture last June. Ukrainian officials have said that Moscow makes false claims of advances to persuade US negotiators a Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable.Russia fired hundreds of drones at Ukraine, killing at least five people and destroying a postal terminal, Ukrainian officials have said. Ukraine’s Nova Poshta mailing company published an image on Wednesday of a warehouse in the western city of Lutsk in flames, with thick smoke pouring from its roof. As well firing 339 drones at Ukraine overnight, Russia launched more than 360 drones during the day, the Ukrainian air force said. One drone killed four people in the central Cherkasy region, while an earlier drone strike on a car in Ukraine’s frontline Kherson region killed a woman and badly wounded two other people, regional authorities said. Continue reading...