Israel's pending ground invasion overshadows Albanese's US visit
While the prime minister wants to talk about new Australian jobs in tech, critical minerals and clean energy in Washington DC, Israel looms large in the background.
Eight speeches in four days. That was the plan for Anthony Albanese heading into this week’s state visit to the United States at the invitation of President Joe Biden, but the prime minister may not deliver all of the addresses that have been drafted by his office.
Israel's pending ground invasion of the Gaza strip and the Republicans' failure to settle on a Speaker of the House of Representatives have thrown the schedule into a state of flux. A joint address to Congress has been ruled out and the state dinner on Wednesday is still liable to be scrapped if Israeli forces march into Gaza.
Albanese started his first full day in the country laying a wreath at Arlington Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument to deceased American soldiers whose remains have never been found.
Then, alongside Microsoft's president Bradford Smith and its Australia boss Steven Worrall, Albanese announced that the company would spend $5 billion in Australia on cloud services and artificial intelligence, including nine new data centres spread across the country. On Tuesday, the prime minister will announce he will double the finance available to critical minerals exporters from $2 billion to $4 billion to unlock Australia's reserves of lithium, nickel and other essential elements for batteries and renewable energy.
