Federal Reserve looking to ‘tank' US economy to ‘hurt' Trump
Everything the doomsdayers said would happen under Donald Trump's second term 'isn't happening', according to former Trump senior advisor Christian Whiton.
'This should be a green light for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates because there is no inflation,' Mr Whiton said.
'You have a Federal Reserve that I think wants to tank the economy to hurt Trump.'
This comes as the Albanese government has intensified its criticism of US President Donald Trump's decision to double tariffs on imported Australian steel but will not retaliate.
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West Australian
34 minutes ago
- West Australian
Australian news and politics live: Greens Leader Larissa Waters responds after Dorinda Cox joins Labor
Scroll down for the latest news and updates. The Prime Minister has confirmed publicly he is seeking to meet with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada later this month. Canadian leader Mark Carney invited Anthony Albanese to attend the meeting of global leaders when they spoke shortly after the May 3 election. Mr Albanese confirmed on Tuesday the widely speculated meeting with Mr Trump was being organised to take place in Alberta rather than Washington.. 'That's what we hope to do there,' he told ABC Perth. He said his approach in dealing with Mr Trump was to be 'consistent and clear and unambiguous'. 'That is what I've been. I've had three really constructive discussions with President Trump, but it's important that you don't jump around and take different positions from day to day,' he said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on ABC Perth talking about Dorinda Cox and the North West Shelf. He says Senator Cox had decided after much thought that her values aligned more closely with those of Labor rather than the Greens, leading to her defection. 'We know that the Greens have lost their way,' Mr Albanese said. 'That's one of the reasons why they lost three of their four seats in the House of Representatives, and the domination of issues that certainly aren't environmental have been their concerns.' Asked how someone who has so stridently spoken out against the extension of the North West Shelf project can now be on board with Labor, Mr Ablanese points out the Greens including Senator Cox voted for the safeguard mechanism as the primary way to cut emissions. 'The North West Shelf, like other projects right around Australia, the top 200 emitters, are all subject to that (safeguard mechanism) that requires emissions to be brought down each and every year or to be offset as part of getting to net zero,' he said. 'We have not just a policy of net zero. We have a plan to get there… You can't change the way that the economy functions through just good will or good thoughts.' Having worked as a delivery driver at Pizza Hut, as a cleaner, in a newsagency and at a call centre, Sally McManus used to depend on an award wage. Now, the 53-year-old firebrand leading Australia's top union body is calling for a 4.5 per cent pay rise for nearly 3 million workers who live pay-to-pay on an industry award or minimum wage. The Fair Work Commission will on Tuesday release its annual wage review decision. Ms McManus says it's essential the nation's lowest-paid workers receive a pay rise above inflation. 'It's about whether you can keep up with your bills or not, it's whether or not your life gets slightly better, whether it stays the same or whether it goes backwards. It's everything,' she tells AAP. 'When you're on those wages, you're not saving money. Everything you earn, you spend.' Read the full story here. With two Aboriginal women now having left the Greens, the party is facing questions about its representation and approach to First Nations issues. 'I think there's two very different reasons why those strong First Nations women made the decisions they made. It was definitely their call to make,' she told ABC News Breakfast. 'Senator Thorpe has gone on to be a really strong voice in the Parliament and I'm sure Senator Cox will continue to work for the issues that are meaningful for her,' Waters explained. 'But the Greens remain entirely committed to strong advocacy on truth telling, on treaties, on justice, on healing, on reparations. Our policies are still very firm for First Nations justice and we won't be changing course in that regard.' Read the full story here. The Greens are reeling after WA Senator Dorinda Cox announced her move to Labor, but party leader Larissa Waters says there's no animosity and wishes her well. 'Dorinda spoke for herself yesterday and said her values aligned more closely with the Labor Party. And people need to have values fit with the party they seek to represent,' she told ABC News Breakfast. 'Dorinda called me an hour before her press conference with the Prime Minister. And we had a very calm and measured conversation about it. And I did genuinely wish her all the best. 'There's no animosity there. It's disappointing for us to lose a Greens senator. But Dorinda says her values lie there. You need to be true to yourself, don't you?' Read about Dorinda Cox's surprise move here. Mental ill health and poor father-son relationships have been revealed as key factors that could contribute to men's violence against women. A longitudinal study conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) surveyed men and boys in 2013/14 and again in 2022 for critical insights into factors influencing the use of violence. The research has produced the first national estimate of male intimate partner violence perpetration, with the 2022 study finding more than one-in-three Australian men aged 18 to 65 have used intimate partner violence in their lifetime. This is up from one-in-four men who reported ever having used intimate partner violence among the same cohort surveyed in 2014. The latest study also found an estimated 120,000 men nationally were starting to use violence for the first time each year. Read the full story here.
West Australian
40 minutes ago
- West Australian
In China, The Great American burger is now made with Australian beef
At his restaurant in Beijing, Geng Xiaoyun used to offer a special dish of salt-baked chicken feet — or 'phoenix talons' as they are called in China — imported from America. With prices climbing 30 per cent from March due to tariffs, the owner of Kunyuan restaurant had to pull the Chinese delicacy from the menu. 'American chicken feet are so beautiful,' Xiaoyun said. 'They're spongy so they taste great. Chinese [chicken] feet just aren't as good.' Geng can now source chicken feet from Brazil or Russia but said they just don't stand up to the American ones. He keeps a small stash for himself but hopes to serve his American phoenix talons once again. 'The price of American chicken feet will come back down,' Xiaoyun said, 'as long as there are no big changes in the world's political situation.' But the 90-day tariff pause agreed by China and the US in Geneva in May is now under threat as both sides have accused each other of breaching the terms. On Monday, the Chinese Commerce Ministry responded to President Donald Trump's claim that the country 'totally violated its agreement'. The ministry pointed at recent US artificial intelligence chip export controls as actions that 'severely undermine' the Geneva pact. As the world waits and watches, American agricultural products have been vanishing from Chinese stores and restaurants and losing ground to other imports. US Department of Agriculture grade beef has been a draw for years at Home Plate, a Beijing restaurant known locally for its American-style barbecue. However, staff said the restaurant stopped serving American beef last month. Dishes like The Great American burger are made with beef imported from Australia. Australian beef has zero duty under the terms of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, though China does maintain the right to a safeguard limit on those imports. Liu Li, a beef supplier at the Sanyuanli market for three decades, said the tariffs have disrupted supply, hiking the price of US beef by 50 per cent compared to before the tariff fight. 'US beef is fattier and tastier,' Li said. 'It's a shame we're in a trade war. The high price is just too much to bear.' CNBC
West Australian
an hour ago
- West Australian
'No animosity': Greens accept senator's defection
The federal Greens are taking the sudden defection of one of their senators to Labor on the chin, saying they have no animosity toward her. Standing alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Perth on Monday, West Australian senator Dorinda Cox announced she was quitting the Greens to sit with Labor in the upper house. The surprise move is a setback for the minor party, which has now lost its only Indigenous representative after losing three of its four lower house seats in the May federal election. Leader Larissa Waters said she received a phone call from Senator Cox an hour before her press conference with Mr Albanese. "We had a very calm and measured conversation about it, and I do genuinely wish her all the best," she told the ABC on Tuesday. "There's no animosity there. It's obviously disappointing for us to lose a Greens senator, but Dorinda has said her values lie there." But Senator Waters appeared to question this while pointing to Labor's decision to extend the North West Shelf gas project off the West Australian coast, which she said would impact ancient Indigenous rock art. "Those values are not consistent with Greens values," she said. "We've opposed that. But Senator Cox has made her decision that that party is a better fit for her, and we wish her nothing but the best." Asked about Senator Cox becoming the second Indigenous woman to quit the Greens - after now-independent senator Lydia Thorpe - Senator Waters said they had "very different reasons" for leaving. "The Greens remain entirely committed to strong advocacy on truth telling, on treaties, on justice, on healing, on reparations," she said. Senator Cox, a Yamatji-Noongar woman, joined the upper house in 2021 to fill a Greens vacancy and had been the party's Indigenous affairs spokesperson. In 2024, she suggested the Albanese government was "not interested" in closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. But on Monday, Senator Cox said she felt her values and priorities were better aligned with Labor than the Greens. "I've worked hard to make Australia fairer and much more reconciled, but recently, I've lost some confidence in the capacity for the Greens to assist me in being able to progress this," she told reporters. While she was not required to run in the May election after winning a six-year term in 2022, Senator Cox reportedly had concerns about her likely position on the WA Greens senate ticket going into the 2028 poll. Mr Albanese said Senator Cox, the first Indigenous woman to represent WA in the upper house, approached him about the switch. Senator Cox was accused of bullying Greens staffers in 2024, with as many as 20 employees leaving in three years and complaints made to parliament's workplace support service. Mr Albanese said the allegations had been examined. "They were all dealt with in Senator Cox's case and dealt with appropriately," he said. Labor will still require the support of either the Greens or the coalition in the Senate to pass legislation.
