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Qantas now says first Project Sunrise flight due to take off in November 2027. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGood morning, it’s Nick Visser here again to take you through the day’s news. A lot on deck, let’s get to it.Joyce stops short of confirming outright ban on certain migrantsThe greatest driver of our economy is small business. If you arbitrarily say, well, we’re just going to put up wages and somehow magically the small business that’s already struggling … is going to be able to somehow charge $10 for a cup of coffee and everybody will buy it, it won’t. Continue reading...

Senior US officials read out MOU text to journalists, insisting down-blending is a starting point; deal says sanctions relief tied to nuclear actionAnalysis: Where does Iran deal leave US-Israel relationship?Trump also addressed media reports of a leaked US-Iran deal (see post at 11:57), denying claims it includes a $300bn reconstruction fund for Tehran.“We’re not putting up 10 cents,” he said. “We are not investing and we do not have a fund.”It’s not final. It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head.If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, okay, because they’ve misbehaved for 47 years.” Continue reading...

Details of 14-point agreement revealed as senior US officials claim ‘major win’ despite significant concessions to TehranMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe Trump administration has released the text of its 14-point agreement with Iran, claiming it delivered a “major win” for the United States – even as it made significant political and financial concessions to Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz and prevent a “worldwide depression”.In extraordinary remarks on Wednesday, Donald Trump went from threatening Iran with a new wave of attacks to suggesting the country had basic rights to enrich uranium for civilian use, that he would not pressure Tehran to abandon its ballistic missiles programme and the US was “going to have to give back” billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. Continue reading...

Senate intelligence committee chair Tom Cotton says hearing postponed after Trump ordered Jay Clayton to not appear; delay extends lapse of powerful US surveillance toolTrump derails confirmation process for Jay ClaytonSign up for the Breaking News US emailDonald Trump also denied (again) that the memorandum of understanding includes a $300bn fund for Iran, and denied that he had asked the Gulf states to commit funding.“It’s false,” Trump told reporters as he sat alongside Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “You can invest if you want. What am I going to do, say no one is ever allowed to invest? We’re not investing, we’re not putting up 10 cents and people can decide to do it. That’s up to them.”In short, what it does is it opens the strait of Hormuz immediately … It also provides a framework whereby if the Iranians give us what we need – on stopping the funding of terrorism, on no longer pursuing a nuclear weapon – then they can get some benefits, be re-invited into the world economy. Continue reading...

New York judge imposes life without parole after emotional statements at Rex Heuermann’s sentencingSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailThe families of eight women killed by Rex Heuermann spoke at the Gilgo Beach killer’s sentencing in Riverhead, New York, on Wednesday, more than three decades after the 62-year-old Manhattan architect began his killing spree.Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted to the killing of an eighth victim in April. Just before being sentenced to life in prison without parole on Wednesday for his admitted crimes, Heuermann offered a weak, generalized apology for his actions. Continue reading...