President poised to further impose taxes after Beijing announced a 34% tariff on US imports as global markets fall
Donald Trump has threatened to impose an additional 50% tariff on imports from China on Wednesday unless the country rescinds its retaliatory tariffs on the United States by Tuesday.
The news comes on the third day of catastrophic market falls around the globe since Trump announced his trade war last Wednesday with tariffs on the US’s trading partners.
Continue reading...The value of one Australian dollar dropped to a low of 59.64 US cents, its lowest point since April 2020
Consumers and travellers will face higher prices after the Australian dollar fell to Covid-era lows, as markets reel from Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff plan.
Fears of a global recession dragged the Australian dollar sharply lower on Monday against the country’s major trade partners and to its lowest point against the Euro, pound and US dollar since 2020.
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Continue reading...Fund boss Kristalina Georgieva says it is important that US and trading partners avoid escalating trade war
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Donald Trump’s implementation of swingeing tariffs poses a “significant risk” to the global economy, as stock markets were hit by a punishing worldwide sell-off by investors.
Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, said it was important that the US and its trading partners avoided further escalating Trump’s trade war, while stock markets plunged on Friday as China retaliated against the tariffs.
Continue reading...Justice committee said the majority of public submissions oppose the legislation, which seeks to reinterpret the country’s founding document
A parliamentary committee has recommended a bill that seeks to radically reinterpret New Zealand’s founding treaty between Māori tribes and the British Crown should not proceed.
The treaty principles bill, which was introduced to parliament by the minor coalition Act party, seeks to abandon a set of well-established principles that guide the relationship between Māori and ruling authorities in favour of its own redefined principles.
Continue reading...Removed president says he is ‘very sorry’ to have not lived up to expectations. This blog is now closed
Yoon violated his duty as South Korean commander-in-chief by mobilising troops, says Justice Moon, the constitutional court’s acting president says. The president’s martial law declarations violated parliament’s rights, he says as the ruling continues.
Justice Moon says it is difficult to see the South Korean opposition’s actions as a severe national crisis to justify Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration, Reuters is reporting as he continues delivering the ruling.
Continue reading...The court said Yoon had ‘committed a grave betrayal of the trust of the people’ over his ill-fated declaration of martial law in December
South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been removed from office after the country’s constitutional court voted unanimously to uphold parliament’s decision to impeach him over his ill-fated declaration of martial law in December.
After weeks of deliberations and growing concerns about the future of South Korea’s democracy, all eight justices voted to strip Yoon of his presidential powers.
Continue reading...Myanmar, which is reeling from a huge earthquake and civil war, faces 44% rate amid suspicions that the underlying target is China
Developing nations in South-east Asia, including war-torn and earthquake-hit Myanmar, and several African nations are among the trading partners facing the highest tariffs set by US President Donald Trump.
Upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war, Trump on Wednesday announced a raft of tariffs he said were designed to stop the US economy from being “cheated”.
Continue reading...Pacific country this week declared state of emergency over power cuts that have caused huge disruption to businesses and daily life
Samoa is in the grip of an “energy crisis” prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said this week, as she declared a state of emergency over power outages that have swept the country for weeks, causing huge disruption to businesses and daily life.
The government is scrambling to provide relief to affected businesses and households, with temporary power generation units due to arrive next week.
Continue reading...Beijing continues drills in Taiwan strait, practising hitting key ports and energy infrastructure
The US has accused China of putting the region’s security at risk after it launched a second day of military drills targeting Taiwan with a rehearsal blockade and attack.
The China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began the joint drills without notice on Tuesday morning, sending 76 aircraft and more than 20 navy and coastguard ships, including the Shandong carrier group, to positions around Taiwan’s main island.
Continue reading...Report finds police mistook girl for missing woman in blunder that has appalled political leaders
An 11-year-old girl was restrained, injected with anti-psychotic drugs and placed on a mental health ward after New Zealand police mistook her for a missing woman, a report found on Wednesday.
Health officials and police have scrambled to explain the mix-up, which has appalled political leaders and stoked outrage across the country.
Continue reading...Defence secretary’s trip to Asia shows the Trump administration is engaged with the region, but analysts warn Taipei to tread carefully
On Tuesday China’s military launched joint drills around Taiwan, sending ships, planes and some bizarre propaganda videos across the strait to both warn and punish Taiwan’s government over what Beijing calls “separatist activity”.
The purported provocation was recent assertiveness by Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, who in March designated China a “foreign hostile force” and announced 17 measures to counter its espionage and influence operations.
Continue reading...Taiwan says it has detected nearly 20 vessels off its coast as Beijing orders large scale sea and air exercises and calls leaders in Taipei ‘parasites’
China has launched large-scale military drills around Taiwan, accusing its leaders of being “separatists” and “parasites” who were pushing the democratically run island into war.
The drills, accompanied by a propaganda campaign, were launched without warning on Tuesday morning. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said they were a “stern warning” to Taiwan’s democratically elected government over what Beijing claims is separatist activity.
Continue reading...World Health Organization issues flash appeal for $8m of emergency support amid frantic search for survivors
AFP has spoken to relatives anxiously waiting at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok.
Daodee Paruay said she had been at the site for two days, hoping for a miracle. Her brother was an electrician working on site, and he is believed to be under the rubble. “We wait, we wait.” she said.
Continue reading...Brief moment of relief as rescue workers carry a woman from the rubble of a hotel in Mandalay after a five-hour operation
A woman trapped beneath the remains of a hotel building for nearly 60 hours after a devastating earthquake struck Myanmar was pulled alive from the rubble on Monday, officials said, in a rare moment of hope for rescue teams scrambling to find survivors.
Rescuers, many of them unequipped volunteers, have spent days trying to free people from buildings collapsed following Friday’s huge earthquake, which killed more than 1,700 people in the country and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand.
Continue reading...Red Cross says devastation is of a level not seen in Asia for over a century as more than 1,700 people killed
Rescue volunteers, many of them poorly equipped local people, raced to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings across central Myanmar, two days after a huge earthquake killed more than 1,700 people in the country and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand.
Red Cross officials said Myanmar was facing “a level of devastation that hasn’t been seen over a century in Asia”, after a 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the centre of the country on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
Continue reading...United States Geological Survey said the quake was shallow, at a depth of just 10km (six miles) with the epicentre near the central city of Mandalay
A 30-storey skyscraper under construction for government offices has collapsed in Bangkok trapping 43 workers, police and medics said, after the city was rocked by a strong earthquake.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the building in the north of the Thai capital was reduced to a tangle of rubble and twisted metal in seconds after the 7.7-magnitude quake in neighbouring Myanmar.
Continue reading...Witnesses in Bangkok more than 1,000km away said people ran out onto the streets in panic
An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 has struck Myanmar, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, causing hundreds of people to pour out of swaying buildings in Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand 1,400km away.
USGS said the quake on Friday was shallow, at a depth of just 10km (six miles) with the epicentre near the central city of Mandalay, about 50km (30 miles) east of the city of Monywa.
Continue reading...Defence secretary’s Philippines visit, aimed at bolstering ties in Asia-Pacific, comes amid rising tensions with Beijing and calls for his resignation
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has met with the Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos, in Manila saying the two countries must stand “shoulder to shoulder” in the face of the threat represented by China.
Hegseth’s meeting at the presidential palace comes as he opens a tour of Pacific allies that risks being overshadowed by a mounting scandal over leaked plans for military strikes.
Continue reading...Canadian PM says Donald Trump has permanently altered relations, as countries around the globe insist import taxes are harmful to all, including Washington
Canada’s prime minister has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over”, as governments from Tokyo to Berlin to Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.
Mark Carney warned Canadians that Trump had permanently altered relations and that, regardless of any future trade deals, there would be “no turning back”.
Continue reading...Officials point to ultra-dry conditions as death toll reaches 27 and fires threaten Unesco heritage sites
Authorities in South Korea are battling wildfires that have doubled in size in a day in the country’s worst ever natural fire disaster.
At least 27 people have died and hundreds of buildings destroyed in the south-eastern province of North Gyeongsang, with the country’s disaster chief saying the fires had exposed the “harsh reality” of global heating.
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