News live: King Charles praises ‘ambitious’ Aukus and expresses pride in Australia in speech to US Congress

Consumer price data released later this morning will confirm the Iran war is delivering a major inflationary shock to the economy thanks to soaring fuel prices.Economists at Westpac predict inflation jumped by 1 percentage point to 4.7% in the year to March, based on the monthly consumer price index figures.The Australian Bureau of Statistics also reports more established quarterly figures, and by this measure annual inflation will jump to 4.2%, from 3.6% in the year to the December quarter.Inflation was already running too high for comfort before the US and Israel began the Middle East conflict on February 28, and the latest numbers will underline the case for another Reserve Bank interest rate hike next Tuesday.Economists say inflation is set to accelerate from here as higher fuel costs spread through the economy and drive a broader lift in prices.For example, the Westpac economists expect inflation to reach 5.8% in May, and only retreat to 4.7% by the end of this year.For context, the RBA’s official target is 2.5%.But central bank officials will be aware that the Iran war will smash economic growth, and the RBA’s board will be weighing this against the need for more rate hikes.Read more here:King Charles’ address to the US Congress has been covered over in our US politics blog (check it out here).But it’s worth noting that Australia got a shout-out, and specifically the Aukus nuclear submarine program, in a section of the speech that pointedly dwelt on the importance of defence ties between the US and UK (and Nato more broadly).The king said:double quotation markOur defence, intelligence and security ties are hardwired together through relationships measured not in years, but in decades.Today, thousands of US service personnel, defence officials and their families are stationed in the United Kingdom, as British personnel serve with equal pride across 30 American states.We are building F-35s together.And we have agreed the most ambitious submarine programme in history, Aukus.And we do so in partnership with Australia, a country of which I am also immensely proud to serve as sovereign.We do not embark on these remarkable endeavours together out of sentiment.We do so because they build greater shared resilience for the future, so making our citizens safer for generations to come.Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.Consumer price data coming out today is expected to show the sharp shock that the US-Iran war has dealt to our economy (and our wallets).And overseas, King Charles has address the US Congress and found time to praise Australia and spruik the Aukus nuclear submarine program, in a section where he dwelt on the importance of defence ties between the US and UK.More on these stories and more coming soon.