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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Guardian staff

Afternoon Update: Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine; Queensland braces for Tropical Cyclone Alfred; and the secret lives of giant worms

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House
US president Donald Trump meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

The Trump administration has suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, according to US media reports, blocking billions in crucial shipments as the White House piles pressure on Ukraine to sue for peace with Vladimir Putin.

The decision affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles and other equipment including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president.

It comes after a dramatic blow-up in the White House on Friday during which Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with” a third world war. The Ukrainian president was told to come back “when he is ready for peace”.

Anthony Albanese has said his government will consider any proposal to send troops to Ukraine as part of a multinational peacekeeping force, as Europe considers a “coalition of the willing” to enforce any peace deal.

Top news

In pictures

Plum blossoms flower at a wetland park in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, as captured in the Guardian’s picture editors’ selection of photographs from around the world.

What they said …

***

“Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.”

Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years and also the inspiration behind Parton’s iconic hit Jolene, has died aged 82. Parton met Dean outside the Wishy Washy laundromat the day she moved to Nashville at 18.

In numbers

A new study has predicted one in two children in Australia will be obese or overweight by 2050, unless decision makers correct “monumental societal failures”.

Before bed read

Australia has a huge diversity of worms on land, sand and sea. The giant Gippsland earthworm can stretch up to three metres long, while a sea worm species found in the Kimberley region is long enough to be slung around your neck like a feather boa, Dr Pat Hutchings, a senior fellow at the Australian Museum, explains.

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: BITT. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

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