Hello and welcome to our live rolling coverage of US politics and the current conflict in the Middle East.
The US has launched new strikes on Iran, targeting sites that threaten US military and commercial shipping, according to an official. US President Donald Trump has met with his cabinet in the US, and says he won't be rushed on Iran and doesn't care about the effect of the unpopular war on the US mid-term elections.
Israel is expanding military operations in southern Lebanon, warning residents in the area to leave.
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CNN, quoting a US military official, has provided more updates on the US strikes.
The official said US Central Command shot down four Iranian attack drones.
US forces also struck an Iranian ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.
The official reportedly characterised the strikes as "measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire".
The US military carried out new strikes in Iran overnight, targeting a site that posed a threat to US forces and commercial traffic, according to a US official.
The US also intercepted drones being launched from Iran, the official added.
Reuters first reported the strikes.
Trump has announced the US and Armenia will soon "break ground" on the "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity".
The TRIPP, announced last year, would connect Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhchivan via a 43km route.
Incidentally, the route could also open up a new path for Europe-Central Asia trade, bypassing both Russia and Iran.
In a Truth Social post today, Trump said the route "will transform the South Caucasus, and help our wonderful American Energy Companies gain access from Central Asia all the way to the United States".
In the same post, he announced several unspecified "deals" between Armenia and the US.
Trump also endorsed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for re-election.
The Trump administration played a role in brokering a peace arrangement between Armenia and Azerbaijan last year, including a meeting between leaders at the White House in August.
Despite the federal government's recent $53 billion defence spending announcement, Australia is still falling behind a global arms buildup, a new report says.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says Australia's military will be asked to do more with less in the interim as spending focuses on the future.
"Australia continues to fall behind the pace. Our rank in the regional defence spending league, having held inside the top five at the start of the decade, now sits outside it," ASPI said in its response to the 2026 federal budget's defence measures.
"On current growth rates, we will not regain that position by 2035."
While funding for the constrained Defence workforce rose by $815 million, ASPI noted acquisition funding fell by $724 million, sustainment by $283 million, and whole-of-government defence spending dropped by $799 million before back-loaded growth in 2027-28.
"Defence is buying a future force, and it is doing so by accepting that the ADF will be able to do less today," ASPI said.
"Fewer spare parts in stockholdings. Less training intensity. Less platform availability. Less ammunition consumption. Less time at sea, in the air and in the field."
Three explosions were heard to the east of Bandar Abbas, a strategic Iranian port city and naval base near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported this morning.
The blasts were reported at around 1.30am (8am AEST) local time and caused the air defence systems of Bandar Abbas to be briefly activated, according to Fars, a media outlet with links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"The exact location and source of these sounds are still unknown, and follow-ups are continuing to determine them," Fars reported.
Former first lady Jill Biden has said in an interview she feared her husband, then-President Joe Biden, was having a stroke during his disastrous 2024 debate with Donald Trump.
The debate all but sealed Biden's political doom despite his strong showing in the primaries, as he mumbled, made mistakes, and appeared confused against the challenger.
"I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never," Jill Biden said in an interview with CBS.
"As I watched it, I thought, 'Oh, my God, he's having a stroke'. And it scared me to death."
Jill Biden is promoting her book coming out next week – "View From The East Wing: A Memoir".
Trump made Biden's mental acuity a frequent theme of his vituperative political attacks, dubbing him "Sleepy Joe".
Trump's own physical and cognitive health have come under scrutiny in his second term in particular, but the president declared this week he had passed his latest check-up in perfect health.
Iran's foreign minister has called for solidarity between Muslim countries in the Middle East, on the occasion of the major Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
"Solidarity and cooperation among the region's countries today acquire paramount importance," he said.
"Muslim leaders, advocates of peace, stand as one to pave the way toward peace and harmony. And this event at this moment of utmost sensitivity will remain etched in the memory of history."
Iranian politicians have previously, both on social media and via state news outlets, criticised or made veiled threats against US-aligned countries in the Gulf region.
Tehran has also been accused of attacking countries such as the UAE.
A new report suggests it will take at least three years for the US to replace the missiles and munitions expended in the recent conflict with Iran.
This won't substantially affect any resumption of conflict with Tehran, but it does weaken the US military elsewhere, including in our part of the world.
"The United States has enough munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, but the depleted inventories have created a window of vulnerability for a potential Western Pacific conflict," the report from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said.
"The time needed to rebuild those inventories has thus become a major concern."
The report was provided to the Associated Press.Trump has expanded defence spending that already had begun accelerating under Joe Biden, and the US military budget remains by far the world's largest.
But the report said while money was not a factor, time was.
"It takes time to expand production capacity and to build these complex systems," the report said, adding that the window of vulnerability will last "for several years until inventories return to their previous levels and another several years before they get to the levels that war planners desire."
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