Australia warns travellers of strikes on Dubai hotel; US deploys ‘drone speedboats’

Thank you for reading tonight. We’ll be back after midnight with Saturday’s edition of the Need to Know blog.

Here’s what we learnt today:

• Iran and Israel exchanged missile fire and Tehran targeted several Gulf states even as Donald Trump insisted Iran was “begging” for a deal.

• The Australian government has issued an urgent alert for a possible attack at the Le Meridien hotel in Dubai after Iran threatened to target hotels used by US soldiers across the region.

  Trump admonished Australia for not doing enough to support his war in Iran. He also railed against the UK and NATO.

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday it would ban any shipping intended for the US, Israel and their allies.

• Trump has extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and says the US will not attack Iran’s energy infrastructure for 10 days.

• The United Arab Emirates has told allies that it would participate in a multinational maritime task force intended to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.