US-Iran war updates: Trump’s terrifying threat to Iran, Albanese speaks after fuel crisis Cabinet meeting

Aviation giant Cathay Pacific has suspended all flights to and from Dubai due to the conflict in the Middle East.

The Hong Kong company typically operates flights from Perth, Melbourne and Sydney to the UAE city.

“In view of the developing situation in the Middle East, all Cathay Pacific flights to and from Dubai have been cancelled up to and including 30 April 2026,” the company said in a statement.

The airline also warned travellers that further changes to flights “may be needed” in the coming days.

The former director of the United States National Counterterrorism Centre, Joe Kent, is being investigated by the FBI according to media reports.

It is understood the investigation centres around alleged leaks of classified information.

Kent was the first senior official in the Trump administration to quit over the Iran war.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” he wrote in a statement shared to X on Tuesday.

CBS reports that the investigation into Kent pre-dates his shock resignation.

New fuel tsar Anthea Harris is regarded as of Australia’s most experienced energy regulators with a career spanning across several high-profile leadership roles.

The former chief executive of the Australian Energy Regulator and Energy Security Board has been named as the national coordinator of a new fuel supply taskforce amid shortage concerns in the Middle East.

She has previously served as as the deputy secretary of the energy group within the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning.

Ms Harris will lead the new taskforce that will be established within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

She will work with representatives appointed by each state and territories as a central hub for the national coordinated effort to shore up supplies and best distribute it across the country.

A projectile has hit a ship off the coast of Qatar, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre.

The incident occured off Ras Laffan, a crucial natural gas supply point in Qatar that has been repeatedly hit by Iranian fire overnight.

UKMTO has said the ship’s crew are safe.

It is unclear if the vessel had been deliberately targeted or was hit by falling debris.

The South Pars is the largest natural gas field in the world and is one of Iran’s key assets.

The field, which is shared by Iran and Qatar, is estimated to hold between 14 to 51 trillion cubic metres of natural gas.

80 per cent of power in Iran comes from natural gas, with most of this being produced in the South Pars.

This means any impact on the field’s ability to produce gas would majorly hinder the Iranian energy supply.

Reuters has reported the South Pars is also crucial in providing gas to neighbouring Gulf countries like Iraq, which relies on Iranian gas to supply 40 per cent of their gas and power needs.

US President Donald Trump has told Iran he will blow up the “entirety of the South Pars Gas Field” if the regime attacks Qatar again, following retaliation strikes from Iran.

On Thursday, Israel conducted strikes on the South Pars gas field in Iran, something that Mr Trump now claims happened without the US being informed.

“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack.”

Following the attack, Iran hit back, striking Qatar, which has largely stayed out of the growing conflict.

“The country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen,” Mr Trump said.

“Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility.”

​Read the full story. ​

Australian shares have been pummelled as escalating attacks on major gas facilities in the Middle East triggered a surge in oil prices and increased the threat of protracted pain at the petrol pump.

The S&P-ASX200 index was 1.6 per cent lower at 8506.3 points at 7.35am and on track for its lowest close in four months. Energy was the only sector to gain ground, up 2 per cent as Woodside Energy added 3.5 per cent and Santos rose 3.4 per cent.

The market’s sharp retreat came after oil prices rose 4 per cent overnight on damaging Iranian retaliatory attacks on the world’s biggest LNG export plant in Qatar.

Iran earlier had warned of retaliation on regional oil and gas infrastructure after its own huge South Pars gas project was struck.

Qatar said its Las Raffan complex, which suspended LNG exports soon after the war erupted in late February, had suffered “extensive damage”.

​Read more.​

The competition watchdog has broken with tradition amid widespread claims of price gouging by fuel retailers and revealed an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive conduct by four major players.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Thursday said it had received reports concerning the availability of diesel at independent wholesalers and distributors servicing regional and rural Australia.

A preliminary enforcement investigation has now been launched into Ampol, BP Australia, Mobil Oil Australia and Viva Energy Australia.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said it was not the watchdog’s usual practice to publicly announce investigations, but given “the significance of the issue” it was confirming the probe.

Diesel prices skyrocketed again in Perth on Thursday to a staggering average of 279.5¢ a litre, up 6.6¢ from Wednesday. In Sydney, it’s 271.1¢, with some charging as much as 289.9¢.

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Asked how long the crisis will last, Anthony Albanese says that Australians “are not participants in the conflict” but will continue to argue for de-escalation to curtail it as soon as possible.

“It’s not certain, that’s the truth, how long this will last, but I’m hopeful that you can see an end point,” he said.

“The objectives of denying Iran the opportunity to have a development of a nuclear weapon have been secured. So that was objective number one. Iran’s ability to engage in attacks in the region have also been undermined by this process as well.”

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