Live updates: US defence boss lashed as ‘failure’ in fiery hearing

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has admitted that city authorities do not have the power to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit the city.

Netanyahu, who has been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court, is expected to visit New York in September for the United Nations general assembly.

Mamdani earlier in the week said he was in “active” discussions with law enforcement, after having consistently labelled Netanyahu a war criminal over the Gaza invasion.

In a video posted to social media today, Mamdani acknowledged that it would be impossible to carry out an arrest in the name of the ICC.

“My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York could execute the ICC’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here,” he said.

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.

“The federal government, however, does and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.”

Donald Trump has already said Netanyahu would be safe from arrest in the US. The US is not a part of the ICC.

Mamdani made it clear his opinion of Netanyahu had not changed, saying in the video the Israeli leader was responsible for the deaths of over 73,000 people in the latest Gaza campaign, including children.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City,” Mamdani said.

US missiles today came close enough to Iran’s capital of Tehran to activate its air defences, Iran’s state media has reported.

“Tehran’s air defences were activated once again a few minutes ago in the eastern and western parts of Greater Tehran and appear to be engaging hostile targets,” news agency Tasnim said.

The country’s Revolutionary Guard confirmed their latest round of counter-assaults was underway.

Republican Senator John Kennedy has told reporters that while he has great respect for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the American people deserved better answers out of this morning’s committee hearing.

“I have enormous respect for General (Dan) Caine. I think this guy is just doing a breathtakingly good job, and I have enormous respect for the secretary of war,” Kennedy said.

“But we need to come up with a way to explain to the American people why we went in and how we’re going to get out, and in doing so, how we’re going to undermine Iran’s ability to get a nuclear weapon.”

It’s another small sign that Republicans are wary of over-emphasising their support for the unpopular war, even if it means going against Trump.

The US military has completed its latest wave of strikes against Iran - a briefer bombardment than has been delivered in recent days.

After beginning at 9am AEST (7pm Tuesday ET), it ended just over an hour later at 10.15am AEST (8.15pm ET).

“CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military operations centres, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities, and military logistics infrastructure to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a post.

“Over the past three months, Iran has attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the international waterway vital for regional and global trade.

“The unwarranted attacks have endangered hundreds of innocent mariners and undermined freedom of navigation.

“Despite Iranian aggression, the Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel transit. Since early May, CENTCOM forces have helped facilitate the transit of approximately 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil.”

Iran’s foreign ministry has shot a warning across the bow to Bulgaria, as the European nation mulls a US request to station military aircraft within its borders.

“Bulgarian government is well aware that US military attacks constitute a blatant aggression and a gross violation of the United Nations Charter and international law,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told Iranian outlet IRNA.

Any party involved in military aggression against Iran would be held accountable, he said.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev is asking the country’s parliament to approve a US request to station tanker planes at a Bulgarian airfield, to support Middle East operations.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has suggested Trump’s biggest misstep in the war with Iran was to seek peace after the initial attacks, calling on him to “unleash the armed forces of the United States”.

Pence, who was Trump’s VP in his first term, said Trump was right to “take the fight” to Iran directly.

“Our troops went in and struck 13,000 sites in four weeks, but then the decision was made to cease hostilities, to seek a peaceful solution,” Pence told CNN.

“I support the president’s desire to bring a cessation of hostilities, but I think what the Iranians have demonstrated in the 30 days following the memorandum of understanding, is that it was a memorandum of misunderstanding.

“They have no interest in a peaceful solution, reopening the strait, abandoning their nuclear ambitions, stopping to support terrorism.”

He said his hope was that the US military would continue its actions in the region.

“I will tell you that there’s an old adage in military tactics that says one does not make peace with one’s enemy,” he said.

“One makes peace with one’s defeated enemy, and my sense is that whoever is controlling those ballistic missiles and drones in Iran, they haven’t figured out that they’ve been defeated.”

The US military has identified the fourth service member killed in the Middle East in the past weekend.

Sergeant Angel S Rampersad, 28, was among three soldiers killed in an Iranian drone attack on an air base in Jordan.

He was initially listed as missing, but the US said they were working to identify human remains.

He is now believed to have been killed, the US Department of Defence confirmed.

Rampersad and his fellow soldiers at the Jordan base, Tyler James Feehan, 25, and Isabella Gonzales, 19, were deployed at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

US Central Command has embarked on an 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran.

Beginning at 9am AEST (7pm Tuesday ET), the attacks “are designed to continue degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said.

Trump’s rather off-hand promise to attack a site believed to house a hidden Iranian nuclear facility sparked an angry response from Tehran.

The US president earlier this morning said the military would attack Pickaxe Mountain in Iran “pretty soon”.

“If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that,” he told reporters in the White House.

“But we’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily.”

US authorities suspect the deep underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain is being used to store nuclear material.

In 2020, Iran told the UN the facility would be used to make centrifuges.

Now, Tehran has responded to Trump’s threat, saying it would bring about a much wider war, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

“The criminal United States has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and other sensitive sites,” Iran’s military headquarters said in a statement.

The statement said such an act would be regarded as “an expansion of the war in the region”.

And then, “all US interests, as well as those of its allies and supporters, will become targets of powerful attacks by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Hegseth blames the Biden administration for the Pentagon’s need for US$87.6 billion (about $125 billion) in emergency war funds.

“Why exactly are billions of dollars more for the National Guard and this administration’s illegal strikes in the Caribbean urgently needed for the Iran war?” Democrat Senator Patty Murray asked during this morning’s ongoing senate hearing.

“Well, Senator, I wouldn’t of course agree with your characterisation, but why this kind of spending is needed is because of the gross negligence and neglect of the Biden administration inside our department,” Hegseth said.

He said the Biden administration ran the Defence Department “like a bureaucracy” and abandoned the US “strength posture”.

“So we’re having to reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth said.

Biden-blaming is a favourite go-to for the Trump administration.

The 46th president was initially considered more temperamentally hawkish than Trump, and his administration provided vast amounts of military aid to Ukraine and Israel.