US-Iran war: US preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran as Yemen’s Houthis enter war with attacks

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has signalled he will not introduce mandatory “COVID-style” measures in response to Australia’s growing fuel crisis.

Ahead of a national cabinet meeting on Monday, Albanese will meet with ministers to finalise the Government’s emergency response to rising fuel costs and supply concerns. Options on the table include working-from-home directives, fuel purchase limits, and potential tax relief.

“We will get through this. We are not going down the path of COVID-style mandated demand management measures,” Mr Albanese told ​The Sunday Telegraph​, emphasising a preference for voluntary and negotiated solutions.

The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, the Washington Post reports, as the war stretches into its fifth week.

The plans could involve raids by Special Operations and conventional infantry troops, the Post reported on Saturday, citing US officials.

Whether US President Donald Trump would approve any of those plans remains uncertain, according to the Post.

The Trump administration has already deployed Marines who arrived in the Middle East on Friday and is planning to send thousands of soldiers from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne to the region.

​Read more.​

“I’m pro-American, and I have been for a long time,” he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning.

“We can be critical of bad strategic decisions. Iran has been able to hold the whole world economy to ransom,” Mr Hastie said.

Hastie added that the best-case scenario for the conflict’s resolution is late April, but cautioned it could drag on for longer. He also highlighted the situation as a reminder of “the need for [Australia] to be self-reliant as a nation.”

Opposition industry and sovereign capability spokesman

“There wasn’t consultation with allies because, had we had a bit more lead time, we wouldn’t be in the current crisis we are now,” the former SAS soldier told the ABC.

Despite his criticism, Mr Hastie said he ultimately supported the actions taken by Israel and the United States.

“If I have to choose between the United States and Israel, and Iran, I’m going to choose democracies rather than a murderous regime which has ambitions to build a nuclear weapon and potentially use it against Israel and the US and allies,” he said.

Millions of people took to the streets on Saturday, joining thousands of No Kings rallies across the US and around the globe.

Protesters voiced their opposition to the Trump Administration’s aggressive deportation policies, the war in Iran, and other measures they see as authoritarian and law-defying.

Below are some striking images from the rallies worldwide.

Police in Tel Aviv broke up a massive protest against the US-Israeli war on Iran, in what is thought to be the largest demonstration of its kind in Israel since the conflict began on February 28.

Rallies were held in around 20 cities across the country, including Jerusalem and Haifa.

Officers later dispersed the crowds, citing violations of the nation’s home front command guidelines.

“The police violently dispersed 1,500 protesters against the war and against the government,” said Alon-Lee Green, co-director of the Jewish-Palestinian activist group Standing Together, in a post on X.

He added: “The police’s actions won’t stop us. We will continue to fight to stop the eternal war and to bring down the government of death.”

Below are some striking images from the protest.

A meeting of Anthony Albanese and state and territory leaders on Monday could bring calls for people to work from home in order to save fuel as prices skyrocket because of the war in Iran.

Unions are already calling for higher fuel reimbursements for workers, while business groups say “we don’t want to go backwards” on working from home and the CBD business ecosystem needs to be protected.

Over the past week, the number of service stations around the country running dry continued to climb despite the government saying the amount of fuel in the country had not decreased.

Whether it’s people hoarding fuel, major sellers squeezing the independents, people panic buying or the global oil prices, Aussies are paying more at the bowser.

Swinburne University organisational psychology expert Timothy Bednall says Australia cannot afford to waste fuel on avoidable commuting.

“We’re in a slightly unusual situation at the moment, where the costs of commuting are largely borne by employees rather than employers,” he told NewsWire.

“From that perspective, there isn’t a strong direct financial incentive for employers to actively support remote work.”

Read more.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has warned that American universities in the Middle East could be targeted, following what it described as US-Israeli attacks that destroyed two Iranian universities.

“If the US government wants its universities in the region to be free from retaliation… it must condemn the bombing of the universities in an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time,” the Guard said in a statement carried by Iranian media.

The statement further cautioned: “We advise all employees, professors, and students of American universities in the region and residents of their surrounding areas” to remain at least a kilometre away from campuses.

Several US institutions maintain a presence across the Gulf, including Texas A&M University in Qatar and New York University in the United Arab Emirates.

The warning follows overnight strikes on Tehran from Friday into Saturday, which hit the University of Science and Technology in the city’s northeast. According to reports, buildings were damaged, but no injuries were reported.

The Israeli military has killed three Palestinian men in the Gaza Strip in two separate air strikes, local health officials and medics say, in the latest round of deadly violence despite a US-brokered ceasefire that is more than five months old.

Palestinian health officials said one man was killed in an air strike on a car in the Khan Younis area in the south of the enclave while medics said two adult brothers were killed in Shujiaya, a neighbourhood east of Gaza City.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the two air strikes.

The military has killed more than 680 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a ceasefire with Hamas came into effect in November, local health officials say.

More than 72,000 have been killed since the war started in October 2023.

Read the full story.

At least four loud blasts were heard across the city on Saturday night, shaking buildings and sending people rushing into the streets in panic, according to the New York Times.

Journalist Abdi Latif Dahir, reporting from Beirut, said the explosions came after a few “relatively quiet nights in the city.”

The developments follow an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon that killed three journalists covering the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict, their employers said.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that 47 people were killed and 112 wounded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths since March 2 to 1,189.

Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine also said nine paramedics were killed in strikes on Saturday, pushing the number of healthcare workers killed to 51.