Top World News

Jul 24, 2026 - World

Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralian exports sent to the US will be hit with a 12.5% tariff as the US president imposes levies on more than 80 nations.The Trump administration unveiled the latest tranche of tariffs for countries over their “failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour”.This, in our view, makes no sense.Forced labour is definitely something which needs to be combated around the world, so we support that objective.We absolutely need to see the strait of Hormuz be open and for freedom of navigation to happen there, for commercial shipping to be allowed through, and we very much call on Iran to allow that to be the case.We need to see a restoration to the normal global fuel supply chain because it’s having a significant impact around the world. Continue reading...

Jul 23, 2026 - World

Canada, Mexico, Australia, EU, UK and China among dozens of economies listed in US president’s renewed ⁠effort of near-global import taxes after supreme court struck down his ‘liberation day’ tariffsSign up for the Breaking News US emailBy a vote of 214-208 lawmakers in the House passed a war powers resolution to curb the Trump administration’s military action in Iran, ahead of the lower chamber’s August reccess.Four Republicans, Brian Fitzpatrick, Warren Davidson, Tom Barrett and Thomas Massie, voted yes, alongside all Democrats. Continue reading...

Jul 23, 2026 - World

Australia’s trade minister, Don Farrell, says tariff regime is unjustified and inconsistent with free trade agreement with USFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastDonald Trump has hit Australian exports with new trade tariffs, claiming the country is not doing enough to combat forced labour, but the Albanese government has demanded he remove them immediately.The United States announced on Friday morning (AEST) that many Australian exports now attract a new 12.5% tariff as part of a broader regime affecting dozens of countries. Continue reading...

Jul 23, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump is moving ahead with yet another plan to impose enormous tariffs around the world.According to The New York Times, the new tariffs are imposed on 60 countries deemed by the administration to allow products made with forced labor into their markets. "The tariffs will range from 10 percent to 12.5 percent and take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, replacing a global 10 percent duty set to lapse at the same time."The United States, noted the report, "has prohibited the importation of goods made with slave labor for nearly a century, though it still allows prison labor under conditions that labor organizations consider coercive. In 2021, the United States passed a law banning imports from a region of China where it had found forced labor to be rampant." However, experts believe this is a pretextual argument for Trump's new tariffs.Georgetown Law School visiting scholar Peter Harrell argued this ruling “just brings home that [the U.S. Trade Representative] is using this forced labor investigation as a pretext to impose tariffs that Trump wants to impose for his own economic theories and preferences.”Among the affected entities are Canada and the European Union, which already have bans either in place or set to take effect, but which the Trump administration accuses of not properly enforcing.Trump initially tried to enact global "reciprocal tariffs" based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). A string of federal courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court, struck down this policy, ruling IEEPA doesn't grant the president unilateral tariff powers.Since this defeat, Trump has been searching for other ways to enact similar taxes on imports, even as economists have warned his tariff policies are causing a slowdown of growth and worsening inflation.

Jul 23, 2026 - World

New tariffs to replace 10% global duty set to expire on Friday as administration cites concerns over ‘forced labor’Donald Trump’s administration has imposed a fresh wave of sweeping tariffs on dozens of US trading partners to replace a 10% global duty that was set to expire early Friday morning – the latest attempt to instate aggressive trade policies despite challenges from the country’s highest court.The US will impose between a 10% or 12.5% tariff on more than 80 countries, which includes the United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Australia, India, China, and the 27 countries that make up the European Union. It effectively replaces the blanket 10% tariff that Trump imposed in February, right after the US supreme court declared that his many of his earlier tariffs were illegal. Continue reading...