‘Political band-aid’: cutting Australia’s fuel excise could make petrol shortages worse, economists say

• Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary in a 54-45 Senate vote, replacing fired Kristi Noem to oversee mass immigration raids and deportations. • Republican Rand Paul voted against Mullin, calling him a 'freaking snake' during hearings, while Democrats John Fetterman and Martin Heinrich crossed lines to support him. • Confirmation occurs as DHS partial shutdown risks extending into April amid staffing shortages, with ICE agents deployed to airports to ease security lines.

• President Donald Trump stated the US is negotiating with Iran to end the three-week-old war, citing two days of 'very good and productive conversations' after Iran reportedly reached out, with talks set to continue this week. • Trump refused to name the 'top' Iranian official involved, only saying it was not new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, and claimed he would 'jointly control' the Strait of Hormuz with 'whoever the next Ayatollah is'. • US and Israeli airstrikes continued across Iran, targeting Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan, Karaj, gas facilities, and a pipeline, with Iran reporting over 1,500 civilian deaths since February 28.

February annual rate in line with analysts’ expectations but outlook has shifted because of effects of conflictThe UK inflation rate was unchanged at 3% in February, before Donald Trump’s Iran war drove up global energy costs, threatening a renewed price jump.Official figures showed the consumer prices index (CPI) remained at 3%, in line with economists’ expectations but still well above the government’s 2% target. Continue reading...

Constituents’ frustration with Richard Tice reflects growing problem for party and its leaders’ climate-sceptic stance“The worst part of it was the smell,” says Audrey Crook, 58. A full-time carer who lives with her 20-year-old son, Crook woke up at 11pm one night to find a foot of flood water on the ground floor of her home. “It was like black water. It had sewage and everything in it, it was absolutely disgusting.”Crook’s home – along with more than 30 others on Wyberton West Road and Park Road in Boston, Lincolnshire – was flooded in January last year when heavy rain swept across the region, raising river levels and exceeding flood defences. Continue reading...

Storm is not likely to make a direct hit on Perth, though the city may experience heavy rainfall on Friday and SaturdayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTropical Cyclone Narelle was again intensifying into a severe storm off Western Australia’s Kimberley coast on Wednesday with communities in the state’s world heritage-listed Shark Bay preparing for a potential direct hit on Friday night.Narelle had made a rare trip for a cyclone system by forming in the Coral Sea off Queensland and maintaining structure all the way west to the Indian Ocean, where it was expected to build into a major category four system. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: The first woman to hold the position of archbishop of Canterbury arrives at a time of transition with hopes that she can restore the church’s reputationGood morning. At a ceremony later today, Sarah Mullally will be installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury. The first woman to take on the role in its near 1,500-year history, she becomes de facto head of the Anglican communion at a difficult and painful moment for the Church of England.Mullally takes over an institution grappling with safeguarding failures, internal division and questions about its place in modern British public life. So what exactly is the job she is stepping into – and how much power does it still carry?Middle East | The US is poised to deploy airborne troops to the Middle East as strikes intensified across the region on Tuesday and Donald Trump claimed the US was in “very good” talks with Iran to end the war.UK politics | Rachel Reeves has ruled out universal support to deal with any future rise in energy bills, saying any government help would be targeted, and criticised the support offered by Liz Truss’s government as unaffordable and irresponsible.Health | The meningitis B vaccination programme will be expanded to include year 11 pupils at schools affected by the outbreak in Kent, health officials have said.Meta | A New Mexico jury has ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation, against its users.Environment | Ofcom to investigate climate change denial complaints for the first time since 2017. Continue reading...

One Nation leader says voters ‘want to get rid of the Labor party, by all means’ but rejects possibility of formal power-sharing partnershipFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPauline Hanson says One Nation wants to work with the Liberals and Nationals – including on preferences deals – to defeat Labor and has offered to prop-up a future minority Coalition government.But Hanson ruled out forming an official coalition with the two conservative parties, declaring she will never agree to an arrangement “where I will be told what I can say, what I can do”. Continue reading...

President urges people to reduce consumption after power line passing through Ukraine damaged by drones; Moscow spring offensive steps up. What we know on day 1,491Moldova declared a state of emergency in the energy sector after a key power line with Europe was disconnected following Russian strikes in Ukraine. The declaration comes into effect on Wednesday and lasts for 60 days. The prime minister, Alexandru Munteanu, appealed to people to “avoid unnecessary consumption, especially during peak hours” and “stay united”, according to a statement from parliament. The former Soviet republic imports electricity from neighbouring EU member Romania, mostly via a power cable that passes through southern Ukraine. Moldovan authorities said crashed drones had been identified in Ukraine near the line and that “demining operations” were needed before repairs could be done. Restoring the power line itself was expected to take up to seven days, the energy minister, Dorin Junghietu was quoted by the Moldovan media outlet Ziarul de Gardă as saying. “Russia alone bears responsibility,” the Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, wrote on X, while the foreign ministry also condemned the Russian attacks. Russia has frequently targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since it invaded its neighbour in 2022.The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has accused Russia of “absolute depravity” after Moscow fired an unprecedented daytime barrage across Ukraine, including on the historical centre of the western city of Lviv. “Iranian ‘shaheds’ [attack drones], modernised by Russia, are striking a church in Lviv – this is absolute depravity, and only someone like [Vladimir] Putin could find this appealing,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address. “The scale of this attack makes it abundantly clear that Russia has no intention of actually ending this war,” Zelenskyy added, vowing that Ukraine “will certainly respond to any attacks”.Russia’s military said on Wednesday it had shot down 389 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of the largest attacks to date. Russian regions bordering Ukraine, as well as Moscow and northwestern Leningrad were the main areas targeted, according to the military.Moscow appears to be stepping up a spring offensive intended to break Ukrainian resistance, writes Pjotr Sauer. Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired nearly 400 long-range drones and 23 cruise missiles overnight, followed by another 556 drones in an unusual daytime assault on Tuesday, hitting cities across the west of the country and killing at least seven people. Taken together, the barrage marks one of the largest aerial bombardments of Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion more than four years ago. One Russian drone struck the Bernardine monastery, a 16th-century church in Lviv’s Unesco-listed medieval centre, causing damage, local authorities said.North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said his country would always support Russia in a thank-you letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Ties between the two have grown closer since Putin began the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Pyongyang sending ground troops and weapons systems to aid Russia’s war effort. “I express my sincere thanks to you for sending warm and sincere congratulations first on my reassumption of the heavy duty as president of the state affairs,” Kim said in the message on Tuesday, the official Korean central news agency said. “Today the DPRK and Russia are closely cooperating to defend the sovereignty of the two countries,” Kim said, using the initials of the North’s official name. “Pyongyang will always be with Moscow. This is our choice and unshakable will,” he added. South Korean and western intelligence agencies have estimated that the North has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia, primarily to the Kursk region, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems. Analysts say the assistance has been provided in exchange for Russia’s provision of food and weapons technologies. Continue reading...

Dozens of former Israeli military, police and spy chiefs describe situation as ‘organised Jewish terrorism’Middle East crisis – live updatesIsrael has not prosecuted its citizens for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade, , a Guardian analysis of legal data and public records show, creating impunity for a campaign of violence.Attacks have spurred former prime minister Ehud Olmert to call for an intervention by the international criminal court (ICC), to “save the Palestinians and us [Israelis]” from state-backed settler violence, carried out with the complicity and sometimes participation of the police and military. Continue reading...

Iran Guards said they fired missiles at Israel and US forces in bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain; crude oil prices fall sharply in early tradingTrump’s rehashed 15-point Iran plan unlikely to appease TehranDisruptions to international fertiliser supplies caused by the closing of the strait of Hormuz will cause food scarcity and high prices, the World Trade Organisation’s deputy director general, Jean-Marie Paugam, told Agence France-Press.A third of the world’s fertilisers normally transit the strait, which has been virtually closed by Iran since the start of the war. Continue reading...

Foreign minister reiterates condemnation of Iran over the strait of Hormuz, and says Australia does not want to see occupation of southern Lebanon by IsraelPenny Wong has told her Israeli counterpart that Australia supports Lebanon’s sovereignty and does not want to see the southern part of the country occupied by Israel, after the Netanyahu government revealed plans to pursue a “defensive buffer” against Iran-backed armed group, Hezbollah.It comes as Israel vowed to continue striking Iran, dimming hopes of de-escalation even as US president Donald Trump talked up the prospects of a deal to end the conflict. Continue reading...