AS IT HAPPENED: Albanese picks a side in the Trump-Pope dispute; Refinery fire to have 'catastrophic' impact on Aussie fuel supply; Latest figures on petrol stations without fuel; Trump claims Israel-Lebanon meeting to happen tomorrow

Thanks for joining us today for our live coverage of the Middle East conflict.

Here were the key events from today, April 16:

- A massive fire ripped through an oil refinery in Geelong overnight. The plant, owned by Viva, had some of its gasoline and aviation gasoline supplies affected, though this has no relation to jet fuel. Viva insists its petrol production will not be hugely impacted by the fire.

- Anthony Albanese signed a Joint Statement on Energy Supply with Malaysia today, the third on his tour of Asia. The deal does not explicitly say more fuel than before will be sent to Australia from Malaysia, which is a major supplier of diesel.

- The two leaders also backed Pope Leo's call for peace, following extraordinary criticism by US President Donald Trump.

- It has been reported that US President Donald Trump spoke to a White House advisor before posting an AI image of himself in a Christ-like manner.

- The president also claimed Lebanon and Israel would engage in history-making talks tomorrow, although there has been conflicting evidence from both sides on whether this is actually true.

There have been mixed messages on whether Israel and Lebanon will officially meet for the first time in 34 years.

While US President Donald Trump boldly proclaimed hours ago that a meeting would happen tomorrow, according to AFP, Lebanese sources have no knowledge of any such meeting.

"We are not aware of any planned contact with the Israeli side, and we have not been informed of any through official channels," the source said.

However, CNN reports that Israeli officials have confirmed Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak with Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun.

The US Navy appears to have lost one of its most expensive aircraft over the Persian Gulf last week.

A report from Navy Safety Command released Tuesday lists an MQ-4C Triton drone as crashed on April 9. The location of the crash is shown as undisclosed, for operational security reasons.

A CNN search of data from flight tracker FlightRadar24 shows an MQ-4C departing Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy and disappearing over the Persian Gulf on April 9.

The aircraft had been flying over the Strait of Hormuz, but after it left the skies over the strait, it dropped from an altitude of 50,000 feet to 9000 feet, before losing radar contact.

Flight data shows the Triton squawking 7400 during its flight, meaning contact with its pilot on the ground had been lost, and then 7700 – indicating an emergency – about 70 minutes later as it dropped to 44,000 feet. It continued squawking at 7700 until 10.12AM UTC when it dropped off radar at an altitude of 9250 feet.

Despite damage to the MOGAS unit of the refinery, Viva Energy oil refinery general executive manager Bill Patterson said petrol, diesel and jet fuel continue to be produced, albeit at a "lower rate".

"As a result of last night's incident we have taken some steps to make sure the rest of the refinery is running as safely as possible," Patterson said.

"Typically that doesn't mean stopping everything, it just means bringing the rates down.

"It's fair to say that we're still making petrol, diesel and jet fuel at a pretty decent rate.

You can read more about the impact of the fire on fuel supply here.

Several state-owned Chinese airlines have started canceling flights ahead of one of the country's busiest travel seasons as global fuel prices surge, with destinations in South East Asia and Australia among those affected.

More than a dozen Chinese travelers have confirmed to CNN that their flights to popular vacation spots, operated by various Chinese airlines, were canceled over the past few days.The sudden cancellations have left some travelers stranded. Li Huoyu, a 24-year-old vacationing in Melbourne, Australia, said she received a text from Sichuan Airlines saying her return flight to China at the end of April was canceled.

Li said she had planned to go to work the day after her return."If you cancel at the last minute, I won't be able to make it to work the following day, and I'll have to explain everything to my boss," she said.

It adds more pressure to Aussie expats trying to return home for Christmas; read more analysis from 9Travel here.

Fuel giant Ampol has offered to step in and assist Viva where it can, after the latter had a severe fire at its Geelong refinery.

In a short statement seen by nine.com.au, Ampol said its thoughts were with Viva as it manages the fallout from the fire, which could have a serious impact on Australia's fuel supply.

"Ampol will provide assistance to Viva if requested and where it is practical to help ensure the continuity of Australia's fuel supply," the company said.

"Our Lytton refinery continues to operate at full capacity, and we remain committed to safely prioritising the fuel needs of our customers."

Energy Minister Chris Bowen reiterated there was no evidence of sabotage in the Geelong refinery fire.

"There's no evidence of that. It appears to have been… very accidental," he said.

"Making petrol is a highly dangerous and flammable exercise. I think that's pretty self-evident. It works safely, 99.99 per cent of the time.

"[Viva] will examine what's gone wrong here, but they do have a very good safety track record. There's been a terrible incident last night, but let's let the inquiry and reviews and fire safety investigations take their course."

Fire Rescue Victoria's deputy commissioner has called efforts to extinguish the blaze at the Viva Energy oil refinery in Corio overnight as "pretty incredible", as more details about the fight emerge.

The fire in the MOGAS (motor gasoline) unit awas brought under control at 12.05 pm, after crews were first alerted to flames around 11pm.

"The fire was brought under control and extinguished within 13 hours, which is pretty incredible given the size of this refinery," FRV deputy commissioner Michelle Cowling said.

"This has been an amazing effort by all crews involved."

FRV Incident Controller Anthony Pearce said Viva Refinery crews, who initially responded to the blaze, battled active explosions at the refinery last night.

"In the early stages of the fire it was very, very dangerous and there were explosions occurring.

"The work they've done to be able to isolate the fuel supply to the area affected has been amazing.

"That early intervention is what's made this fire be brought under control so quickly."

As is now tradition, Energy Minister Chris Bowen has provided a daily update on the number of petrol stations without one or all types of fuel across Australia.

Here are today's figures:

- NSW: 56 service stations without diesel, down 24 on yesterday and down 56 on a week ago, 13 with no fuel.

- VIC: 18 with no diesel, 10 with no unleaded.

- QLD: 35 with no diesel, 17 with no unleaded- SA: Four with no diesel, 14 with no unleaded.

- WA: 10 with no diesel, 36 with no unleaded.

-TAS: 11 without diesel, 22 without unleaded.

- NT: 3 with no diesel, 1 with no unleaded.

-ACT: 0 without diesel, 1 without unleaded.

This means there are 136 stations without diesel, approximately 1.7 per cent of all service stationz in Australia.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Viva, the company that runs the oil refinery in Geelong that caught fire this morning, is adamant it will be able to replace any shortfalls in petrol production caused by the fire.

He said there would be "some" delay, but that he had received assurances from the company that it would not be a costly one."

They will be able to replace the impacted petrol production with imports," he said.