U.S. Defense SecretaryLloyd Austinon Thursday spoke with Israeli Defense MinisterYoav Gallantto discuss Iran's actions in the Middle East, other regional threats and aid into Gaza, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Austin discussed "the importance of increasing and sustaining" the flow of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, including via a new route from Ashdod Port in Israel, the Pentagon said.
Israel recently reopened the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and allowed the temporary use of Ashdod port in southern Israel after U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to impose conditions on support for Israel unless it took steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel has faced growing international calls to do more to help civilians in Gaza, where nearly all of the 2.3 million population is displaced and enclave also suffers widespread hunger.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday food trucks entered the blockaded Gaza Strip from Ashdod Port for the first time since the government approved the opening of the port to aid shipments.
The Pentagon said Austin and Gallant discussed what it called "destabilizing actions" from Iran in the Middle East. Over the weekend, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles in a retaliatory strike after a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria.
Most of the drones and missiles were downed before reaching Israeli territory. Israel has been considering a response.
Israel's assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's military offensive has killed over 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local health ministry.
Airlines quickly changed flight paths over Iran, diverted to alternate airports or returned planes to their departure points on Friday in response to airspace and airport closures after an Israeli attack on Iran, flight tracking data showed.
Iran closed its airports in Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan after the attack and cleared flights from the western portion of its airspace for a few hours after the attack, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
By 0445 GMT the airports and airspace had reopened, and closure notices posted on a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration database had been removed.
Before the airports reopened, Flydubai said it had cancelled its Friday flights to Iran. One of its earlier flights turned back to Dubai, it said.
An Iran Air flight from Rome to Tehran was diverted to Ankara, Turkey, Flightradar 24 showed.
Emirates, Flydubai, Turkish Air, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi and Belavia were among the carriers continuing to fly over the part of Iran's airspace that remained open in the initial hours after the attack early on Friday, the tracking website showed.
"We are monitoring the situation closely and will make changes to our flight paths in consultation with the relevant authorities," Flydubai said in a statement.
The airspace and airport closures in Iran compounded a difficult week for Dubai-based carriers after record rainfall in the United Arab Emirates.
Since Tuesday, 1,478 flights have been cancelled to and from Dubai, approximately 30% of all flights, according to FlightRadar24.
Many Western and Asian airlines had already been steering clear of Iran and its airspace before the Israeli attack, which came days after Iran's missile and drone attack on Israel.
Germany's Lufthansa on Wednesday extended a suspension of flights to Tehran until the end of the month, citing ongoing security concerns in the region.
Australia's Qantas Airways said on Saturday it was rerouting flights between Perth and London on concerns about the Middle East, adding a fuel stop in Singapore as it avoided Iran's airspace.
Explosions heard in Isfahan were a result of the activation of Iran's air defence systems, an Iranian official told Reuters on Friday, adding that no missile attack was carried out against Iran.
The lawsuit challenging the regulations for passenger vehicles, finalized on March 20 by President Biden’s administration, was filed by attorneys general from states led by Kentucky and West Virginia in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The EPA rules aim to cut fleetwide tailpipe emissions for cars and light trucks by nearly 50% over 2026 levels in 2032, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.2 billion tons through 2055.
The EPA rules aim to cut fleetwide tailpipe emissions for cars and light trucks by nearly 50% over 2026 levels in 2032, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.2 billion tons through 2055.REUTERS
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said the rules would harm the American economy, threaten jobs and raise prices while undermining the US electricity grid. Coleman also said there is very little consumer interest in electric vehicles in his state.
Republican state officials have said the rules amount to an attempt by the administration to transform the American passenger vehicle market improperly through strict rules that make it difficult for manufacturers to not go electric.
“The Biden administration is willing to sacrifice the American auto industry and its workers in service of its radical green agenda. We just aren’t buying it,” Coleman said.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called the rules “legally flawed and unrealistic, to say the least.”
The EPA declined to comment.
The regulations are among the most significant environmental rules implemented under Biden, who has made tackling climate change a key pillar of his presidency. The EPA has forecast that between 35% and 56% of new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 would be electric under the rules – a range that reflected the flexibility the agency has said automakers have to pursue different pollution-cutting technologies.
The regulations are among the most significant environmental rules implemented under Biden, who has made tackling climate change a key pillar of his presidency.AP
Republican state attorneys general during the public comment period before the rules were finalized had said that they go well beyond the EPA’s authority under the landmark anti-pollution law called the Clean Air Act, and amount to a “top-to-bottom attempt to restructure the automobile industry.”
After resistance by auto workers and the auto industry, the final version of the regulations was scaled back compared to an earlier proposal in order to give automakers more flexibility in meeting the emissions reduction goals. The EPA gave automakers more freedom to meet emissions standards with gas-electric hybrids, which many environmentalists have opposed as a half-measure that delays the EV transition.
The EPA said the final rule cuts emissions by 49% by 2032 over 2026 levels compared with 56% under its previous plan. EPA chief Michael Regan said the rule impose “absolutely no mandate” on manufacturers to adopt electric vehicles.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said there is very little consumer interest in electric vehicles in his state.MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Other states that joined the suit included: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
The EPA on March 29 separately said it was finalizing tighter tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like semi-trucks and buses, but those regulations were not part of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is the latest example of Republican attorneys general turning to the courts to challenge various aspects of the Biden administration’s climate agenda.
Republican-led states also have challenged the Securities and Exchange Commission’s corporate climate disclosure rules, the Energy Department’s pause on approvals for new liquefied natural gas export facilities and EPA rules toughening standards for air pollution, among other things.
Finance chiefs from economies large and small are scrambling to keep pace with the Federal Reserve's rapid resetting of rate-cut expectations as U.S. inflation data roils markets from London to Brazil.
All insist they are setting policy independently of the Fed and basing it on local conditions. But those conditions are now being buffeted by a sudden likelihood of U.S. interest rates staying higher for longer than had been expected as the year began after a run of hotter-than-expected inflation data.
It's an unexpected turn that has supercharged the U.S. dollar, stressing other currencies in return and raising the prospect of currency intervention in Asia. It has also forced Latin American central bankers to tailor their rate-cut plans, and even left officials in developed countries wondering whether new constraints on their own easing plans may emerge.
"When the March (U.S. inflation data) scare came, there was a drastic reversal of expectations, and this changed the mood significantly regarding how economic variables will behave worldwide," Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.
"Everything else depends somewhat on this."
The dollar's 4.75% appreciation against a basket of currencies this year is creating headaches in many quarters of the globe, but its gains of 9.6% against Japan's yen and 6.5% versus South Korea's won have been especially troublesome for two key U.S. trading partners. Those moves led officials from Japan and South Korea this week to huddle urgently with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in hopes of stemming the slides, holding out the possibility of intervention if needed.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the Japanese central bank may raise interest rates again if the yen's declines significantly push up inflation, highlighting the impact currency moves may have on the timing of the next policy shift.
Japan's Nikkei share average dropped more than 3% on Friday to their lowest levels in more than two months as chip-related stocks tracked losses in Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC, while an escalation in the Middle East turmoil also dented risk appetite.
Russian oil and gas company Bashneft has equipped key facilities at its refineries with anti-drone nets, the RIA news agency cited the head of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, as saying on Friday.
Khabirov said the company headquartered in Bashkortostan was in talks with Russia's defence ministry about boosting the security of its refineries, following a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on such facilities in many parts of Russia.
