Politics live: Australia to deploy aircraft to Gulf to protect civilians; PM praises ‘brave women’ of Iranian soccer team after visas granted
Prime minister says the United Arab Emirates alone has already been forced to shoot down over 1,500 drones and rockets. Follow updates liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBurke confirms Trump has called AlbaneseBurke has confirmed the US president, Donald Trump, has spoken with Anthony Albanese (who will be up to speak in Canberra shortly).I do know that the president called the prime minister and the views of the president put on this, I think, reflected what all good people have been thinking. Everybody’s been looking at this situation and saying, surely, is there something we can do?We’ve been making sure that we had the options, that the women had the opportunity to come forward, and there’s been a good police presence at different points … But can I say the first conversation didn’t have an immediate case of the women saying that they decided. This was a difficult decision for them, and I think we all understand exactly why.I don’t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night, it was joy, it was relief, and people were very excited about embarking on your life in Australia.They were moved from the hotel to a safe location by the Australian Federal Police … I made final confirmation with the director general of Asio Mike Burgess to make sure that he was completely comfortable in terms of security clearances for the people who I was about to make the offer to. Continue reading…