SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
This is Caitlin Fitzsimmons signing off for now, and handing you over to my colleague Caroline Schelle who will be with you through the afternoon. Thanks for keeping me company.
In the news today:
Earlier, Treasurer Jim Chalmers appeared on Sky News where he was asked about the possibility of running out of petrol.
Here’s what he told host Andrew Clennell:
That’s not something we’re expecting, in fact, we have really more than enough fuel as it stands right now.
We’ve got big stockpiles of fuel, whether it’s petrol or diesel or jet fuel, and we work around the clock to make sure that Australia doesn’t run out, we’re certainly not expecting that we will.
Clennell also asked how high petrol prices could go and if they could pass $3 a litre.
The Treasurer said the government did not have a model that has petrol prices that high, but there was a lot of volatility and unpredictability in the global oil market that would flow on to the petrol bowser in Australia.
Much depended on the duration of the war, he said.
Dispatching Japanese military vessels to the Middle East to escort ships would face “high hurdles”, a senior official from Japan has said.
It comes after US President Donald Trump expressed hope that Tokyo would join the US to keep the Strait of Hormuz “open and safe.”
“While it is not legally ruled out, given the ongoing conflict, it is something that should be judged carefully,” ruling Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi told Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
Kobayashi’s response to Trump came days ahead of a planned visit to Washington by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Japan’s plans to reaffirm its alliance with the US, and discuss trade and investment deals at a March 19 summit, had already been overshadowed by the war in Iran.
Japan is heavily reliant on oil from the Middle East to power its economy. Yet the country, which has maintained a pacifist constitution for eight decades, hasn’t taken a clear stance on the Iran war.
The war in the Middle East has thrown the spotlight on Pete Hegseth, US Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defence.
The role has been rebranded as secretary of war.
During the senate confirmation hearings, we heard that Hegseth was a decorated veteran and right-wing author and television host on Fox News who had no previous expertise in government.
His scant experience in leadership roles had been tarnished by claims of mismanagement and unprofessional behaviour.
Beirut: The fishing boats are empty in the ancient harbour of Tyre when we walk along a low wall toward a group of men talking quietly at the end of a jetty.
The wind is down, and the sea is a calm turquoise, so the conditions are perfect for the fishermen here in southern Lebanon. But most are staying in port. And word is spreading that Israel is planning another airstrike on their city this morning.
It is safer to stop fishing, says Mehdi Istambouli, who owns a small timber boat moored a few steps away. He and his wife have enough food for themselves and their four young children for the moment, but the attacks have put everyone on edge.
We are talking next to a large statue of the Virgin Mary watching over dozens of boats. This port is a Christian enclave in Tyre, a city mentioned in the Gospels and known in Arabic as Sur.
Russia is supplying Iran with Shahed drones to use against the US and Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an interview excerpt aired on Saturday (US time).
The Ukrainian president told CNN it was “100 per cent facts” that Iran used Russian-made Shaheds to attack US bases.
Shahed drones have been linked to other attacks on countries in the region, although their manufacturers are not always clear.
Iran pioneered the Shahed drone, a much cheaper alternative to expensive missiles.
The United Arab Emirates suspended loading operations at the key oil-trading hub of Fujairah after a drone strike and fire on Saturday (UAE time), demonstrating the vulnerability of the country’s only export route while the Strait of Hormuz is blocked.
The blaze has since been extinguished, which could potentially allow for loadings to resume, a person with knowledge of the matter said. There were no tankers at any of the port’s oil loading points on Saturday evening, tanker tracking data show.
Exports of crude and fuels at Fujairah, which lies outside the Persian Gulf, were halted earlier as a precautionary step while damage from the incident is assessed, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as they’re not authorised to speak to the media.
Fujairah is at the end of a pipeline that allows the UAE to bypass Hormuz, the world’s most important oil channel. A drone was intercepted there earlier in the day and damage from the falling debris caused a fire, Fujairah’s media office said in a statement. There were no reported injuries. Authorities are still dealing with the fire, which was caused by debris from an air defence interception, the media office said in a later release posted on Instagram. One Jordanian suffered minor injuries.
The US Department of Defence has identified the six US airmen who were killed in a plane crash over Iraq.
The airmen were on a KC-135 aerial refuelling tanker supporting US attacks on Iran. The crash involved another aircraft, but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire and is under investigation, the military has said.
Three airmen were assigned to the 6th Air Refuelling Wing, stationed at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Florida:
- Major John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama.
- Captain Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington.
- Technical Sergeant Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky.
The other three airmen were in the 121st Air Refuelling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio:
- Captain Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana.
- Captain Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio.
- Technical Sergeant Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio.
Reuters
This is Caitlin Fitzsimmons signing off for now, and handing you over to my colleague Caroline Schelle who will be with you through the afternoon. Thanks for keeping me company.
In the news today:
The US State Department has ordered non-emergency government employees and the family members of government employees to leave Oman.
The order on Saturday (US time) cited safety risks as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues.
The Australian government’s Smart Traveller site still lists Oman as “reconsider your need to travel” rather than “do not travel”. It last raised the level of advice for Oman on March 1.
The Australian government advice says retaliatory strikes are occurring across the Middle East region following military strikes on Iran, and Australians in and around Duqm and within a 100km radius of Salalah should shelter in place if it is not safe to leave.
With Reuters
As the war in Iran wreaks chaos across global energy markets, one enigmatic Korean tycoon has seen his earnings soar.
For months, Ga-Hyun Chung has been buying up vast quantities of oil tankers — a bet of unprecedented scale that shook the global shipping market even before the conflict started. Now he’s reaping huge rewards after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drove chartering rates to never-before-seen highs.
In the weeks before the war, Chung’s Sinokor group had moved at least six empty supertankers into the Persian Gulf, where they sat idle waiting for cargoes. Now, with exports through the strait choked off and regional storage fast filling up, Sinokor is hiring ships out at eye-popping rates of $US500,000 ($716,111) a day to hold oil, brokers said — almost 10 times the level of last year.
Even in an industry known for its swashbuckling risk-takers, Chung stands out. His move to buy up a significant share of the global tanker fleet in recent months shocked old hands of the shipping market. Now, the deeply private scion of a Korean shipping family, who’s known for his militaristic approach and his love of challenging subordinates and business partners to arm-wrestling contests, is poised to emerge as one of the big winners of the turmoil in the oil trade from the Iran war.
“They’ve had a major impact,” said Halvor Ellefsen, a London-based director at Fearnleys Shipbrokers UK Ltd. “They’ve controlled a big part of the fleet, sharpened competition, and ultimately sometimes have been able to name their price,” he said.
Bloomberg
