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What you need to know
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Good morning and welcome to the national news blog.
Here are the top headlines from Australia and around the globe:
- Police are ready to arrest multiple women with links to Islamic State when they arrive in Australia tonight. Four women and nine children are expected to touch down in Sydney and Melbourne.
- Iran said it was reviewing a new US proposal, after sources said Washington and Tehran were closing in on a one-page memorandum to end the war. President Donald Trump said the US has had “very good talks” with Iran in the past 24 hours, and “it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal”, hours after threatening to resume bombing Iran if it did not agree.
- An American fighter jet shot the rudder of an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it tried to breach a blockade, US Central Command said.
- Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group was announced on April 17. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strike targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.
- Australia’s reserves of diesel and jet fuel will be boosted to 50 days of average use under a $10 billion funding package.
- Nationals leader Matt Canavan has vowed to run the “mother of all campaigns” against the cancellation of the final stages of the Inland Rail project.
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Elon Musk’s Texas chip factory could cost $164 billion
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX estimated a chip factory it plans to build along with Tesla will cost as much as $US119 billion ($164 billion), with total investment potentially exceeding the amount the rocket maker aims to raise from a record initial public offering.
The “next-generation, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing and advanced computing fabrication facility” will cost at least $US55 billion and may be located in Grimes County, Texas, according to a public notice. The estimated total capital investment could rise to if additional phases of the project are completed.
Musk first detailed plans for the SpaceX-Tesla Terafab project in March, emphasising the need to begin manufacturing chips for his robotics, space and artificial intelligence projects. He said the joint venture was essential because the semiconductor industry was moving too slowly to keep up with the number of chips needed for his initiatives and the broader tech industry.
“We either build the Terafab or we don’t have the chips, and we need the chips, so we build the Terafab,” he said.
Bloomberg
Jump in early voting for Farrer byelection
By Daniel Lo Surdo
The Australian Electoral Commission has revealed 36,000 people have voted early ahead of Saturday’s byelection in Farrer, the south-west NSW electorate vacant following the resignation of former opposition leader Sussan Ley.
The number of early voters is about 2000 more than was cast at the same stage of last year’s federal election.
There have been 16,000 postal vote applications for Saturday’s byelection, 3000 more than last year’s poll, with 9000 completed so far.
Disenchanted voters in Farrer have indicated they will back either One Nation contender David Farley or independent Michelle Milthorpe at the byelection, which will also be contested by Liberal and National candidates.
There are 12 candidates vying for the seat of Farrer, a previously safe Coalition seat, held by Ley since 2001. The electorate has been represented by the Liberal or National parties since its 1949 inception.
Paterson seizes on One Nation altercation
By Brittany Busch
Coalition frontbencher James Paterson said One Nation’s contradicting reactions to one of their volunteers grabbing his phone at a polling booth reflected broader disunity in the party.
He said leader Pauline Hanson, Farrer candidate David Farley, and chief of staff James Ashby had apologised to him for the incident, before Ashby appeared on Sky News to say Paterson deserved to have his phone snatched.
“Something’s going on in One Nation. I know they’ve contradicted each other many times on policy over the last few weeks, with David Farley advocating for higher immigration and increased foreign aid funding contrary to One Nation’s policies, but now they’re contradicting each other on apologies as well,” Paterson told Sky News this morning.
“I know James Ashby was speaking figuratively, when he said I need a kick up the backside, but I really hope none of the One Nation volunteers take that literally because the last thing we need is violence on polling booths in Australia.”
Netanyahu speaking with Trump ‘almost daily’
By Daniel Lo Surdo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is speaking to US President Donald Trump on an “almost daily basis”, as Trump hailed “very good talks” with Iran as the nations near a deal to settle the war.
In remarks at the start of a security cabinet meeting hours ago, Netanyahu said his government was in “continuous contact” with the Trump administration, signalling he would speak with the president later on Wednesday (Jerusalem time).
“There is full coordination between us; there are no surprises,” Netanyahu said. “We share common goals, and the most important objective is the removal of all enriched material from Iran and the dismantling of Iran’s enrichment capabilities.”
The comments came as Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group was announced on April 17.
The last strikes in Beirut were on April 8, when a series of massive Israeli strikes, including in central Beirut, killed more than 350 people.
Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s strike, which came unexpectedly, targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.
Paterson won’t press charges after One Nation altercation
By Brittany Busch
Coalition frontbencher James Paterson said he would not press charges against a One Nation volunteer after the man snatched his phone during an argument at a polling booth in Albury.
The clash came as the pair disagreed over this masthead’s revelation that One Nation’s contender David Farley, a former Nationals member, had previously attempted to stand for the Labor Party and supported independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe at last year’s election.
Paterson said he was grateful One Nation leader Pauline Hanson had apologised and commended the party for removing the volunteer off the booth.
“I don’t feel the need to press charges personally. I am perfectly fine. It was a bit of a scuffle, but I am okay,” he told Sky News last night.
But Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby later contradicted the apology, telling Sky News Paterson needed a “kick up the backside” after “rage baiting” a pensioner.
Clare backs AFP ahead of IS-linked families return
By Brittany Busch
Education Minister Jason Clare said Australians should trust the country’s law enforcement to manage the return of 13 women and children with links to Islamic State fighters.
“They know what they’re doing. This is not their first rodeo,” Clare told the ABC.
“When the Liberal Party let 40 foreign fighters into the country, they took the steps that they needed to take to keep Australians safe. And I trust in the words of the AFP Commissioner yesterday, when she said that some of these women will be arrested when they arrive, and others will be subject to further investigation.”
Asked whether the returning children, some of whom had never left their internment camp in Syria, would be forced to participate in community integration programs, Clare said: “Kids don’t get to choose who their parents are”.
“These children have seen sorts of things that no child should ever be exposed to, and it’s going to take time for these children to reintegrate into Australian society,” he said.
“I would expect that the federal police would want to run countering violent extremism programs with all of the children that return.”
Argentina to test rodents at origin of hantavirus-hit cruise ship
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Argentina’s health ministry will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak.
Officials are reconstructing the itinerary of Dutch citizens who travelled in Argentina and Chile and later presented symptoms of hantavirus on the cruise, the statement said.
The government’s leading hypothesis is that the Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird-watching in Ushuaia before boarding the MV Hondius.
They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing.
Two patients with hantavirus and one suspected of infection were evacuated on Wednesday from the cruise ship, the UN health agency said. The ship then departed Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board – isolated in their cabins – and headed to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Health officials said passengers and crew members still on the ship were without symptoms. Their journey to the Canary Islands will take three or four days, Spain’s health ministry said, adding that the arrival “won’t represent any risk for the public”.
Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo said he worried about the risk to the population and demanded a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Reuters, AP
IS-linked Australians look forward to returning: ABC
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The group of IS-linked Australian women and children are looking forward to returning to Australia this evening, according to remarks in an ABC report attributed to the cohort.
Some of the women in the group, talking to the public broadcaster while boarding a flight in Doha, said that Australia would be “like paradise” to their children, most of whom were born in Syria, where the group is travelling from, and had never visited Australia.
“We just want our children to be safe. It was like hell [in Syria] for them,” one said.
At least three women and five children were reported to have travelled from Damascus to Doha, before flying on to Melbourne. Another woman and her child were expected to board a flight for Sydney. The group comprises four women and their nine children.
“One of the boys has an Australian accent, even though he’s never been to Australia,” one of the women told the ABC.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed on Wednesday the group had booked flights to Australia, while Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said some group members will face arrests and charges after arriving in Australia.
Charges could include crimes against humanity and terrorism offences. The ABC reported that when asked about impending arrests, the women refused to comment.
France moves aircraft carrier group toward Strait of Hormuz
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France’s aircraft carrier strike group is moving south of the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea in preparation for a potential French-British mission in the Strait of Hormuz, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
The deployment puts Europe’s most powerful warship closer to the strait. The defensive effort is distinct from the US “Project Freedom” that was paused by President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening.
The repositioning of the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and its escorts comes as part of a proposed mission championed by France and Britain to restore maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as conditions allow.
It “may help restore confidence among shipowners and insurers”, Macron said on X. “It remains distinct from the parties at war.”
Macron, who spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday, said he also intends to raise the matter with Trump.
“A return to calm in the Strait will help advance negotiations on nuclear issues, ballistic matters, and the regional situation,” Macron wrote. “Europeans … will play their part.”
Colonel Guillaume Vernet, spokesperson for the French armed forces chief of staff, stressed that the Hormuz coalition – drawn up by France, Britain and more than 50 nations – will not begin operating until two thresholds are cleared: The threat to shipping must come down, and the maritime industry must be reassured enough to use the strait.
Even then, he told The Associated Press, any operation would require the agreement of neighbouring countries. That would include Iran, which borders the strait and effectively closed it by attacking and threatening ships after the war began.
AP
Israel launches strikes on Beirut
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Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group was announced on April 17. Fighting has continued since then in southern Lebanon.
The last strikes in Beirut were on April 8, when a series of massive Israeli strikes, including in central Beirut, killed more than 350 people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s strike, which came without warning, targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.
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