US politics news updates: Royals pay respects, meet victims’ families at 9/11 memorial; Iran war has cost $US25 billion to date, Pentagon confirms

Ukraine will seek clarification from US President Donald Trump’s team on details of Russia’s short-term ceasefire proposal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

“We will clarify what exactly this is about – a few hours of security for a parade in Moscow, or something more,” he said in a post on X.

Zelensky added that Ukraine’s proposal was for a long-term ceasefire, “reliable and guaranteed security for people, and a lasting peace.”

Reuters

This concludes our coverage for today. We will resume our rolling news coverage early tomorrow morning.

The day after Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that China had taken “the first step” towards resuming jet fuel exports to Australia, she has released a joint statement with the South Korean government saying the two nations want to maintain steady supplies of diesel and other fuels – and that Seoul has agreed to give Australia warning of any fuel shortages or trade disruptions.

South Korea is Australia’s largest supplier of diesel, exporting 8716 megalitres here in 2025. Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced he had produced an extra shipment of diesel from South Korea, about 50 million litres.

“The Republic of Korea is Australia’s top supplier of diesel. These imports enable Australia to continue being a reliable exporter of energy, food and other commodities to our region,” Wong said.

The joint statement noted that Australia is South Korea’s largest supplier of liquid natural gas.

New York: King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the site of the September 11 attacks, met schoolchildren and business titans and socialised with celebrities during a busy swing through New York on Wednesday – the first visit to the city by a reigning British monarch in 16 years.

Charles laid flowers at the National 9/11 Memorial and the royal couple spoke with victims’ relatives, first responders and local dignitaries before travelling to other events midway through a four-day diplomatic trip to the US to mark 250 years of American independence.

The royal couple capped their whirlwind day in the city with an appearance at an early evening reception for one of the king’s charities, the King’s Trust, where Charles spoke of the enduring cultural bond between the people of the UK and the US as one “rooted in shared creativity, enterprise, and values”.

“Reminding us that we are truly greater together, that’s the point,” he said.

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Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa overnight (Ukraine time), for the second time this week, wounding at least 18 people and damaging residential buildings, officials said on Thursday.

The strikes caused the worst damage in the central Prymorskyi district, where high-rise and five-storey residential buildings were damaged, said Serhiy Lysak, the head of the local military administration. The attacks triggered large fires in upper floors and on a roof, which have since been contained, Lysak said on Telegram.

Emergency services said the number of injured could still change. Odesa, a major Black Sea port and a focal point for Ukrainian exports, has been a repeated target of Russian attacks during more than four years of Russia’s war. Fourteen people were injured in an attack on Monday.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched one ballistic missile and 206 drones at the country since 6pm on Wednesday (10am Thursday AEST), of which 172 drones were downed or neutralised. One missile and 32 drones hit at 22 locations, it added.

Reuters

A recent video out of Iran has drawn attention over its inclusion of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a commemorative display of top regime figures martyred in the war, writes political scientist and writer Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

Since he was elected in March following the death of his father Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba has been neither seen nor heard by a nation at war and under fire, emerging only in cardboard cutout form in a viral clip (that later turned out to be AI-generated) which inspired derision, countless memes and parodies at diaspora anti-regime protests.

Mojtaba was elected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a body largely made up of ultra-loyalist clerics, some of whom reportedly had to be strong-armed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps into choosing him.

Reuters has published reports that Mojtaba is receiving treatment for severe limb and facial injuries sustained in the bombing that killed his father. Quoting sources within the regime, The New York Times has claimed that the new supreme leader is sequestered away in a high security medical facility being treated by doctors including, bizarrely, current Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who in his former life was a heart surgeon. As a fig-leaf leader with seemingly even less power than before the war, one can imagine that Pezeshkian would have the time.

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US President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking the participation of other countries to form an international coalition to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a State Department cable seen by Reuters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the creation of the Maritime Freedom Construct (MFC), according to a cable dated April 28, which it described as a joint initiative by the State Department and the Pentagon.

“The MFC constitutes a critical first step in the establishment of a post-conflict maritime security architecture for the Middle East,” the cable said. “This framework is essential to ensuring long-term energy security, protecting critical maritime infrastructure, and maintaining navigational rights and freedoms in vital sea lanes.”

The component of the initiative led by the State Department would serve as the diplomatic hub between partner countries and the shipping industry, while the Pentagon component operating out of the US Central Command headquarters in Florida would co-ordinate real-time maritime traffic and communicate directly with vessels transiting the strait, the cable said.

Reuters.

Washington: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth noted the Albanese government’s commitment to boost military spending but indicated Australia still had more to do before it would be considered a “model ally” in the Indo-Pacific, writes US correspondent Michael Koziol.

Hegseth also confirmed the cost of the US military campaign in Iran was at least $US25 billion ($35 billion), while lashing out at Democrats for labelling the two-month-old war a “quagmire”.

In a formal statement to Congress, Hegseth reiterated that the Trump administration was prioritising burden sharing in the Indo-Pacific and praised South Korea as a model ally. Seoul has announced it will raise its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035.

Japan, too, “clearly recognises the threat environment confronting all of us, and has signalled that it will raise defence spending and align investments accordingly”, Hegseth said in the statement.

“Australia likewise understands the need to increase defence spending and Canberra has taken another step with the release of its latest National Defence Strategy,” he said.

Read the full story here.