Trump's higher tariffs on major trading partners officially kick in
The US Customs and Border Protection agency began collecting the higher tariffs of 10 per cent to 50 per cent from at 12:01am US east coast time on Thursday, after weeks of suspense over Donald Trump's final tariff rates and frantic negotiations with countries seeking to lower them.
The increases bring the US's average import duty to its highest rate in a century, and are part of Mr Trump's strategy to shrink America's trade deficit with trading partners.
Among leaders vowing to hold out on making a deal with Mr Trump are Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The US president has frequently modified his plans since unveiling his "liberation day" tariffs in April.
Recently, he slapped higher rates on imports from some countries, including 50 per cent for goods from Brazil, 39 per cent from Switzerland, 35 per cent from Canada and 25 per cent from India.
He announced on Wednesday a further 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, to be implemented in 21 days over India's purchases of Russian oil, on top of the 25 per cent already imposed.
Tariffs are ultimately paid by companies importing the goods, and passed on in full or in part to consumers of end products.
Mr Trump's top trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, said the US was working to reverse decades of policies that had weakened its manufacturing capacity and workforce.
"The rules of international trade cannot be a suicide pact," he wrote in a column published by the New York Times.
"By imposing tariffs to rebalance the trade deficit and negotiating significant reforms that form the basis of a new international system, the United States has shown bold leadership."
Eight major trading partners accounting for about 40 per cent of US trade flows have reached framework deals for trade and investment concessions to Mr Trump, including the European Union, Japan and South Korea, reducing their base tariff rates to 15 per cent.
Australia is currently on the base rate tariff of 15 per cent.
Britain negotiated a 10 per cent rate, while Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines secured rate reductions to 19 per cent or 20 per cent.
Center for Strategic and International Studies trade expert and senior fellow William Reinsch said the tariffs would likely stoke inflation.
"There'll be some supply chain rearrangement. There'll be a new equilibrium," he told Reuters.
Countries with punishingly high duties, such as India and Canada, "will continue to scramble around trying to fix this," he added.
US import taxes are one part of a multi-layered tariff strategy that includes national security-based sectoral tariffs on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, autos, steel, aluminium, copper, lumber and other goods.
Mr Trump said on Wednesday the microchip duties could reach 100 per cent.
China is on a separate tariff track and will face a potential tariff increase on August 12 unless Mr Trump approves an extension of a prior truce.
He has said he may impose additional tariffs over China's purchases of Russian oil as he seeks to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine.
The US president has also a vast increase in federal revenues from his import tax collections, with his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying on Fox Business Network on Thursday that he expected revenue from tariffs to reach $US50 billion a month.
Mr Lutnick said more increases were expected from separate duties on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals that should be announced soon.
The increase in duties will drive average US tariff rates to around 20 per cent, the highest in a century and up from 2.5 per cent when Mr Trump took office in January, the Atlantic Council estimates.
US Commerce Department data released last week included more evidence that tariffs were driving up prices for American consumers, including for recreational goods and motor vehicles.
Costs were also mounting for companies, including bellwethers Caterpillar, Marriott, Molson Coors and Yum Brands.
Reuters
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Chaos: Trump drops weather BOM, super tax delay demand, EVs power down
The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable."
West Australian
4 hours ago
- West Australian
JD Vance to kick off UK visit with tensions high
US Vice President JD Vance kicks off a trip in the United Kingdom with a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Friday that will bring renewed scrutiny of Vance's sharp criticism of Britain and its governing Labour Party. Vance, his wife, Usha, and their three young children are expected to land in London at the start of a trip that includes staying with Lammy at Chevening, the country residence used by the foreign minister. They will later stay in the Cotswolds, a picturesque area of English countryside and a popular retreat for wealthy and influential figures, from footballers and film stars to media and political figures. The visit to the United Kingdom comes amid heightened transatlantic tensions, domestic political shifts in both countries and increased attention on Vance's foreign policy views as he emerges as a key figure in President Donald Trump's administration. A source familiar with the planning described the trip as a working visit that will include several official engagements, meetings and visits to cultural sites. Vance is also expected to meet with US troops. Vance has championed an America First foreign policy and once said last year's election victory for the centre-left Labour Party meant Britain was "maybe" the first "truly Islamist" country with a nuclear weapon. He also attacked the United Kingdom for undermining freedom of speech and placing the "basic liberties of religious Britons in the crosshairs." Lammy once called Trump a "far right extremist" and a "neo-Nazi" but since coming to power has brushed off his remarks as "old news." Despite their differences, the pair has developed a warm friendship, bonding over their difficult childhoods and shared Christian faith, according to two officials familiar with the relationship. Lammy attended mass at the vice president's Washington residence during a visit in March, and the two leaders met again in Rome in May for Pope Leo XIV's inaugural Mass, the officials said. The bilateral meeting on Friday lacks a formal agenda, officials said, but is likely to touch on the Ukraine and Gaza crises, along with trade issues. The United Kingdom has been pushing Trump to support Ukraine in its war with Russia and to accelerate efforts to bring a humanitarian crisis in Gaza to an end. But Lammy is unlikely to press aggressively, said Bronwen Maddox, a director at the think tank Chatham House. "It's a chance to get UK perspective in there, but they're not looking for conflict," Maddox said, adding that British officials are content with the trade deal they struck with Trump. Vance's visit comes shortly after Trump travelled to Scotland for a private visit that included meetings with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who struck a framework trade agreement with the US imposing a 15 per cent import tariff on most European Union goods. Trump is also scheduled for a full state visit to the United Kingdom in September, making him the first elected political leader in modern times to be hosted for two state visits by a British monarch.
Sky News AU
4 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Trump's heartfelt response when asked if he misses Elon Musk
US President Donald Trump has offered a rare and sincere defence of Elon Musk in spite of their recent disagreements. President Trump's remarks on Wednesday come as a recent Gallup poll found Musk to be the most unpopular public figure in the US. Just a third of Americans view Elon Musk positively, while 61 per cent hold an unfavourable opinion, according to the Gallup poll. Asked at the White House about the poll – and whether Musk is missed – President Trump said he wasn't sure the numbers were accurate. 'I don't know if the poll's accurate," he said. "I think he's a good person, and I think he had a bad moment, a really bad moment, but he's a good person. I believe that.'
