Australia news LIVE: Alleged killer of five-year-old NT girl moved to Darwin after riots in Alice Springs; Trump tells US Congress operations in Iran have ‘terminated’

Good morning and welcome to the national news blog. Follow along for live coverage of breaking news in Australia and around the world.

Here’s the news you need to know:

• US President Donald Trump has told lawmakers that American military operations in Iran have “terminated” as he skirts a deadline to gain congressional approval for the war that began two months ago.
• Trump said he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s latest proposal, after saying he would stick with the “incredible” naval blockade of Iranian ports amid concerns that the vital Strait of Hormuz would not reopen anytime soon.
• After a riot broke out in Alice Springs on Thursday night, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for calm, saying word of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s death “breaks your heart”, and that he understood the anger and frustration of community members.
• King Charles is on a state visit in Bermuda, after concluding his four-day tour of the US.
• On Friday, prominent surgeon Dr Reza Adib, the partner of former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, was charged with three counts of rape following a police raid on his Gold Coast apartment. Adib’s lawyer said the charges would be “vigorously” defended.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was approving military sales totaling over $US8.6 billion ($12 billion) to Middle Eastern allies Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The announcements came as the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran marked nine weeks since its start and more than three weeks since a fragile ceasefire came into effect.

Friday’s announcements by the State Department included approving military sales to Qatar of Patriot air and missile defense replenishment services costing $US4.01 billion ($5 billion) and of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) costing $US992.4 million ($1.3 billion).

They also included approval of the sale to Kuwait of an integrated battle command system and to Israel of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems.

Reuters

Any shippers paying tolls to Iran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, including charitable donations to organisations such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society, are at risk of punitive sanctions, the US Treasury warned overnight.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically vital maritime routes, with about 20 per cent of the world’s seaborne ​crude oil ​and liquefied ⁠natural gas flows passing through it.

Tehran has proposed fees or tolls on vessels passing through the strait, as part of proposals to end the war with Israel and the United States.

The advisory, from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said the US was aware of Iranian threats to shipping and demands for payments to receive safe passage.

The Washington Post is reporting that US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran is now as unpopular among Americans as the Iraq War during the year of peak violence in 2006 and the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found 61 per cent Americans say using military force against Iran was a mistake, while fewer than two in 10 believe US actions in Iran have been successful.

About 40 per cent say it has been unsuccessful, while the same amount says it is “too soon to tell”.

But support for the war among those who identify as Republicans remains high, with 79 per cent saying it was the right decision.

Independents who lean toward the Republican Party are roughly split.

London: A divisive claim about police brutality has deepened Britain’s public row on antisemitism and forced the nation’s Greens leader to apologise for maligning police just days away from national elections.

Greens leader Zack Polanski apologised for sharing a social media post that rebuked the police over the tactics they used to stop a man accused of stabbing two Jewish men on a London street.

Bodycam footage released by police showed officers yelling “drop the knife” before Tasering the suspect.

Amid a fierce debate about the threats to British Jews, the criticism of the police drew support from some on social media but derision from public leaders.

Read the full story here.

America’s biggest oil companies are warning that global crude markets may be nearing an inflection point of higher prices the longer the Strait of Hormuz stays closed.

Every day the waterway remains shut, the world is using up commercial stockpiles, strategic reserves and crude that was stored in vessels before the US and Israel launched the Iran war, Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said this week.

These supplies have helped mitigate prices over the past two months but are now running short, Chevron chief financial officer Eimear Bonner said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Friday.

“A lot of the inventory and spare capacity has been depleted already,” she said. “There’s very little of the buffer left.”

The cost of sending some aid to Sudan to ease the world’s largest displacement crisis has more than doubled since the Iran war disrupted shipping, pushing up transport costs and delaying deliveries, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

Heightened insecurity around key Persian Gulf shipping routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, along with port congestion, rising fuel prices and higher insurance premiums, have hampered aid deliveries, particularly to Africa, the agency said.

“People in dire need are receiving things that are ready later than what’s needed,” UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Wolf told reporters in Geneva.

Aid shipments that previously travelled from Dubai through the Strait of Hormuz are being rerouted, with supplies moved overland and shipped via Aqaba in Jordan for deliveries to Chad, and via Oman for shipments to Port Sudan, she said.

Our colleague Hannah Murphy, who is on the scene in Alice Springs, has given us a glimpse into the short life of Kumanjayi Little Baby.

Murphy writes that the five-year-old, whose death has sparked a national outpouring of grief and riots in the central Australian desert town, didn’t speak much.

But when it came to one tiny tabby kitten she loved, she was able to utter one word – “Yellow”.

Read the full story here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is leading calls for calm in Alice Springs as a massive police presence heads to the town to help maintain a fragile peace after the arrest of an accused child killer led to vigilantism and street riots.

There are now calls for inquiries and the central Australian town has brought in an alcohol ban as part of the efforts to prevent further outbreaks of violence after Jefferson Lewis handed himself into a town camp near Charles Creek. He was beaten unconscious by community members.

Lewis, 47, was arrested by police on Thursday night after one of the Northern Territory’s biggest manhunts following the disappearance of five-year-old girl Kumanjayi Little Baby, who was abducted from her bed at Old Timers Aboriginal Camp on Saturday and found dead by a river bed five days later. The cause of death is yet to be determined.

The national commissioner for Indigenous children called for an investigation into the correctional systems that allowed the recent release of Lewis.

US President Donald Trump said he’s “not satisfied” with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end war between the countries.

“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters on Friday (Washington time) at the White House.

Trump did not elaborate on what he sees as the proposal’s shortcomings.

The president said negotiations had continued by phone after he called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week. He expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, which he described as fractured.

“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” he said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”

AP

US President Donald Trump has told lawmakers that American military operations in Iran have “terminated” as he skirts a deadline to gain congressional approval for the war that began two months ago.

A 60-day deadline from the onset of the conflict was due to pass without event on Friday (US time) anyway, because Republicans are deferring to the president rather than enforcing the War Powers Resolution.

In letters to House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate president pro tempore Chuck Grassley, Trump pointed to the ongoing ceasefire that began on April 7 and claimed: “The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026 have terminated.”

However, Trump left the door open to further strikes on Iran, and there is mounting speculation in Washington that he will do so, with peace talks seeming at an impasse.

He noted Iran and its regional proxies still posed a threat to US interests, and therefore the Department of War would continue to reposition assets in the region as required. Such changes were outlined in a classified letter that was not made public.

Trump said in the letters he would continue to direct the armed forces as commander-in-chief and keep Congress informed on any “noteworthy changes”.