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Muscat silent about plans – opposed by US – to charge fee and demand details on nationality of all transiting shipsOman has been caught in geopolitical crossfire after Iran said it was coordinating with Muscat over the future management of the strait of Hormuz, including Tehran’s plans – opposed by the US – for fees to be paid by commercial shipping to a new Iranian government agency.The Omani exclave of Musandam lies to the south of the contested waterway, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil traffic but has been blockaded for 10 weeks since since the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February. Continue reading...

One Nation leader and Barnaby Joyce flew on Gina Rinehart’s plane from the Sunshine Coast to Mount Isa before taking charter to tour flood-affected communitiesPauline Hanson billed taxpayers almost $16,000 in private charter flights to travel around flood-affected Queensland on the suggestion of billionaire Gina Rinehart, despite previously claiming the trip was at “no cost to the taxpayer”.In January, Hanson and Barnaby Joyce flew on Rinehart’s luxury Gulfstream G700 from the Sunshine Coast to Mount Isa, after which they travelled on charter flights to flood-affected communities around Julia Creek to meet local mayors. Continue reading...

• Adelaide United beat Adelaide Olympic 1-0 at VALO Football Centre to move into the last eight of the national cup. • Football Australia said the win was the club’s fourth straight quarter-final appearance, extending its record in the competition. • The milestone matters because cup runs can shape club momentum, revenue and qualification pathways in Australian football.

Secretary of state says US made clear America’s position on Taiwan, as Trump-Xi talks continue for second dayXi warns Trump of ‘clashes and even conflicts’ with US over TaiwanAnalysis: For anxious Taiwan, Trump’s silence after Xi talks is best possible outcomeDonald Trump and Xi Jinping are set to meet on Friday to wrap up a high-stakes two-day state visit that has featured pomp and business deals but also a stark warning from Xi that mishandling the Taiwan issue could push US-China relations to “a very dangerous place”.Trump is on the first visit by a US president to China since 2017 and has been hoping for tangible results that might improve his sagging approval ratings ahead of the crucial midterm elections.Trump told Fox News that China had agreed to order 200 Boeing jets – its first purchase of US-made commercial jets in nearly a decade. But markets were expecting a much higher number, with earlier news reports suggesting 500 or more could be involved, and Boeing shares fell more than 4% after the comments.Xi’s remarks on Taiwan, the democratically governed island Beijing claims, represented a sharp warning during a pomp-filled summit that otherwise appeared friendly and relaxed. They came in a closed-door meeting that ran for more than two hours, Beijing said.US secretary of state Marco Rubio told NBC News that Taiwan was discussed, saying the Chinese “always raise it ... we always make clear our position and we move on to the other topics”. Rubio is among a large contingent of US officials and business leaders who travelled with Trump to China.At a lavish state banquet on Wednesday, Xi called the China-US relationship the most important in the world and added: “We must make it work and never mess it up.” Trump earlier told Xi their two countries were “going to have a fantastic future together”.The summit has been aimed at maintaining a fragile trade truce struck when the leaders last met in October and Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of vital rare earths.With news agencies Continue reading...

Visit comes after US-Cuba relations deteriorated significantly, with Washington imposing a fuel blockade on the island in JanuaryCIA director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as a way to improve dialogue between the US and the communist-run island, the Cuban government said.The meeting took place “in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations, with the aim of contributing to the political dialogue between both nations”, a statement said. Continue reading...

Mike Banks, who led Trump’s border crackdown, resigned weeks after reports of prostitution allegationsSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailMike Banks, the border patrol chief who oversaw the most aggressive militarization of the US southern border in recent history, has resigned with immediate effect.“It’s just time,” Banks told Fox News in an interview. “I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, most disastrous, most chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen.” Continue reading...

Transcripts reveal billionaire Ted Waitt’s relationship with Epstein accomplice and $7.2m breakup payoutSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Ted Waitt, the billionaire cofounder of the Gateway computer company, told lawmakers during a closed-door interview that he was in a romantic relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell from 2004 to 2010, but said that “if I knew then what I know now about Ms Maxwell, I never would’ve befriended her or allowed her to be around my four children”, according to a transcript of his testimony released by the House oversight and reform committee.“I never would’ve spent six years in a romantic relationship with her,” Waitt said in his opening statement before the committee on 30 April, according to the transcript released on Wednesday. His testimony provided new details about his relationship with Maxwell, and he also disputed Maxwell’s previous statements that their relationship ended after a mysterious blackmail attempt related to Epstein’s civil cases. Continue reading...