Australian news and politics recap: Chinese jet targets RAAF plane, NSW anti-Semitic video, Ukraine peace hope

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park says authorities are investigating the two nurses at the centre of the anti-Semitic video scandal and whether they are “responsible for any adverse patient outcomes”.

“Now what we will start to do is, through their supervisors, which will be a very thorough tailed and extensive search, examine if there have been any adverse outcomes that may be attributable to this type of view that was shared by the two individuals in that shocking video,” Mr Park told Sky News.

Don Farrell has declined to provide further information about how the volumes of steel and aluminium exports that Australia had been reporting to the US Commerce Department, Nicola Smith reports.

“I’m sure that we comply with all of the obligations that America imposes on those companies that are supplying into the United States,” he said.

But Mr Farrell faces tough negotiations ahead when he meets with his US counterpart Howard Lutnick - who has yet to be confirmed – after Australia was accused by Washington of breaching an earlier verbal deal to keep aluminium exports to the US in check.

“We have been complying with all of the arrangements that were in place,” insisted Mr Farrell.

Trade Minister Don Farrell has denied Australia is killing the American aluminium market after accusations from one of US President Donald Trump’s top advisers.

The President’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro accused Australia of “just killing our aluminium market” shortly after Mr Trump agreed to consider an exemption from the 25 per cent levies that are slated to come into effect on March 12.

“I don’t believe we have,” Mr Farrell told ABC Radio Breakfast. “I don’t believe we have done at any stage anything that has not been agreed to by the American government,” he said.

Donald Trump says he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

In a post on his social media platform, Trump said he and Putin had “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelensky, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.”

Zelensky’s office said Trump and Zelensky had spoken by phone for about an hour.

Zelensky said on X that they had had a meaningful conversation and talked about “opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together at the team level, and Ukraine’s technological capabilities”.

The Kremlin said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet in the call that lasted about an hour and a half, with Putin inviting Trump to visit Moscow.

“The Russian president invited the US president to visit Moscow and expressed his readiness to receive American officials in Russia in those areas of mutual interest, including, of course, the topic of the Ukrainian settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“Putin and Trump also agreed to continue personal contacts, including arranging a face-to-face meeting.”

The Minister for Health in NSW, Ryan Park, is set to visit Bankstown Hospital today to address staff after the video of two nurses making death threats against Jewish patients emerged.

Mr Park says he will head to the hospital with a strong message for staff.

“I’ll be having a conversation with staff to remind them of their responsibilities but also to let them know we appreciate that they do incredible work,” Mr Park said.

Strike Force Pearl run by the NSW Police have ramped up their investigations into the two nurses who posted a sickening video threatening Jewish patients with death at Bankstown Hospital.

CCTV from the hospital has been seized as authorities zero in on the pair and the threats made to an Israeli social media influencer.

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that one of the nurses, Ahmad Rashad Nadir, made a short statement from his house in Sydney saying the whole incident was a “joke”.

“The entirety of what happened is just a joke, OK? It was a misunderstanding,” Mr Nadir said.

​Read the latest on the police investigation here. ​

Stay in touch with all the latest breaking news and updates from around the nation and the world this Thursday.