Australia news LIVE: US to ‘guard’ Strait of Hormuz as ceasefire with Iran collapses; PM to deliver major speech on AI

Hello and welcome to our live national news coverage for Tuesday, July 14. Here’s what’s making headlines today.

US-Iran ceasefire collapsing: The US will “guard” the Strait of Hormuz and charge ships a fee of 20 per cent of their cargo value to pass safely, President Donald Trump said.

Oil price surge: Oil is up again after days of missile exchanges across the Strait of Hormuz. The US is set to blockade Iranian ports today.

House price poll: A growing majority of Australians want house prices to fall, in some cases by more than 20 per cent, new polling shows.

Major AI announcement: AI giants’ offer to create a fund to pay artists in exchange for a copyright exemption has been rebuffed, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to deliver a major speech on the technology today.

CFMEU pressure: A former senior official who oversaw the redevelopment of a Victorian hospital says the state government intervened to make public servants sack a company disliked by the CFMEU.

Sam Neill farewelled: Tributes continue to flow around the world for beloved actor Sam Neill, who died aged 78 in Sydney on Monday.

US President Donald Trump sent Congress formal notification that hostilities against Iran resumed on July 7, a letter his administration sees as opening a new 60-day window to use the military in the region without congressional approval.

“I directed this military action consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States’ national security and foreign policy interests,” Trump said in the letter, dated July 10, and seen by Reuters on Monday.

The letter outlines Trump’s actions including ordering a two-week ceasefire on April 7, which was extended, and his administration’s efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

The US began attacking Iran on February 28, alongside Israel.

Earlier this morning, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright revealed that a growing number of Australians believe house prices should fall to help first home buyers crack into the market.

This view is held by a majority of homeowners, according to the Resolve poll.

Do you fall into this category? Our journalists would love to hear about your circumstances and why you feel this way.

US President Donald Trump just threw out a demand of a 20 per cent reimbursement on cargo shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, or roughly US$30 million, or about $43 million Australian dollars, on full supertankers carrying oil.

That’s based on current oil prices of about US$80 per barrel, or $119 Australian dollars. Supertankers can hold about 2 million barrels of crude.

In contrast, Iran had been charging as much as US$2 million per voyage on an adhoc basis, people familiar with the matter have said.

Trump on Monday reinstated the US blockade of Iranian ships transiting Hormuz and said the US would become the waterway’s “GUARDIAN,” and said that the US “as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20 per cent on all cargo shipped.”

Most of the people who were killed in a huge fire in a Bangkok music bar were found trapped in windowless bathrooms where they may have sought to escape the flames that claimed at least 27 lives, authorities said as investigations began.

The blaze at the Na Ladprao Beer House bar was the city’s deadliest in 17 years. The fire left 25 people hospitalised in critical condition, city officials said.

The bar’s street-facing windows were blown out, and debris littered the sidewalk, including charred television sets, speakers and an electric guitar.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said most of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation.
National Police Chief Kittharath Punpetch said most of the dead were found trapped in windowless bathrooms near one of the rear exits, where they may have sought shelter from the flames.

He said the exit was not used, and people may have been blocked from reaching it by a table set up in a hall to sell candy, or because it was too dark to find the way out.

Access to another exit near the kitchen might also have been narrowed by shelving units and lockers, Kittharath said. There were also signs some of the exit doors might have been locked.

Yemen’s Houthi movement fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group.

Saudi Arabia intercepted missiles “launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the southern region”, the spokesperson for a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on Monday (Yemen time).

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said they had targeted the international airport in Saudi Arabia’s Abha, the capital of a mountainous southern region bordering Yemen.

The strikes are the first claimed by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia since an informal truce went into effect in March 2022.

Earlier, the Houthi movement, which controls northern Yemen, accused Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes against the international airport in Sanaa.

Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan – Australia’s former trade minister – has just been asked on Radio National for his reaction to the United States reintroducing blockades in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as a proposal from President Donald Trump to apply tolls of 20 per cent on the value of shipments.

This was Tehan’s response:

“Freedom of navigation is an essential part of how our international waterways work, and any long-term strategy or plan which would start to see international waterways tolled would be very alarming.

“We obviously need to hear more – whether this is now an official US government policy, whether it’s part of some sort of negotiation to try and get Iran to properly free the waterway and allow international passage, especially of oil through it. So we’ll have to wait and see what developments take place.

“But on the surface, it would be quite a break with tradition since the Second World War, where freedom of navigation has just been absolutely essential to how the global world has worked.”

Telephone help lines for the country’s largest super funds are routinely fobbing vulnerable Australians off to their websites, with one major fund failing to answer nine in 10 incoming calls within a designated time frame.

Super Consumers Australia, which commissioned testing of 20 funds through mystery customers calling with questions ranging from how to join a fund to getting early super access due to hardship, says the results show a need for mandatory customer service standards in the sector.

Super Consumers said 23 per cent of prospective new customer calls were directed to the brand’s website as their only solution for more information, instead of receiving help over the phone.

In calls in which someone rang on behalf of a customer with limited English skills, 58 per cent “shifted responsibility back to the caller instead of offering direct support”. Only one of the 20 funds tested offered an interpreter.

The news report is here.

British counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into the alleged murder of former cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe after new evidence emerged into her death last Wednesday in her home in south-west England.

The former MP, who was a Conservative Party minister before shifting to the Brexit Party and later Reform UK, was found dead at her home in Devon hours before she was due to appear on a television talk show to discuss British politics.

In a separate incident, police arrested a dozen people over an alleged plot against an Islamic event at a country estate in southern England, heightening concerns about extremism.

The death of the former MP revived fears about threats to political leaders, although police initially said there was “no information to suggest” Widdecombe’s alleged murder was terrorism related.

Europe correspondent David Crowe has the latest here.

In NSW, a leading schools funding expert says state and federal governments must audit Catholic Schools NSW to ensure no taxpayer money has been funnelled into political donations amid revelations the education body is embroiled in an explosive corruption inquiry.

Trevor Cobbold, a former Productivity Commission economist and national convenor of public schools advocacy group Save Our Schools, said the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission should investigate Catholic Schools NSW, a registered charity.

The state’s anti-corruption watchdog is examining whether Catholic Schools NSW struck a secret agreement to hire Liberal Party operatives who then used their consulting fees to bankroll a major branch-stacking scheme.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has confirmed influential chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW Dallas McInerney was a focus of its broader investigation into the links between hard-right Liberals and fugitive Sydney property developer Jean Nassif.

The full story is here.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has been taking questions – and the occasional comment – from 2GB listeners this morning.

One caller was a man who said he had been volunteering for the Coalition on-and-off for almost 50 years.

“Why is Angus Taylor so against One Nation?” the man asked. “I’m appalled at his comments against One Nation and Pauline Hanson.“

Here is a taste of Taylor’s response: