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Good morning blog readers – this is Rafqa Touma, and I’ll be taking you through the day’s live news updates. Thank you to Martin Farrer for getting us rolling this morning.
More than 125,000 properties are in the dark as crews work to restore power across QLD and NSW in Alfred’s aftermath.
Continue reading...Australia unlikely to escape US president’s global steel and aluminium tariffs despite intense lobbying to be carved out
Australia’s chances of escaping America’s global steel and aluminium tariffs appear all but extinguished, with the US president reconfirming his commitment to a comprehensive tariff regime he argues will be “the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a country”.
“We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money,” Donald Trump told reporters on board Air Force One flying from Florida to Washington DC.
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Continue reading...Donald Trump’s brinkmanship and stop-start approach to tariffs rattle investors
The risk that the US economy will enter recession this year is rising, according to economists, as Donald Trump’s chaotic approach to tariffs continued to hit markets.
Shares on Wall Street fell sharply on Monday as investors bet the president’s unpredictable tariff trade war and handling of the economy would hit growth, amid a recent plunge in business and consumer confidence.
Continue reading...Chris Wright signals abandonment of Biden’s ‘irrational, quasi-religious’ climate policies at industry conference
The world needs more planet-heating fossil fuel, not less, Donald Trump’s newly appointed energy secretary, Chris Wright, told oil and gas bigwigs on Monday.
“We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less,” he said in the opening plenary talk of CERAWeek, a swanky annual conference in Houston, Texas, led by the financial firm S&P Global.
Continue reading...KPMG/REC report shows decline in people being placed in roles continues, while unemployment is rising, says BDO
Companies are putting the brakes on hiring new staff amid a “subdued” economic outlook and rising wage bills, according to the latest business surveys.
In signs of a weakening UK labour market, the consultancy KPMG and the trade body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said a marked decline in the number of people being placed in permanent and temporary roles continued in February, although hiring declined at a slower pace than in January.
Continue reading...Former central banker will be only second prime minister in Canadian history without a seat in parliament
Mark Carney, the former central banker who oversaw the response to financial crises in North America and the UK, will become the next prime minister of Canada after winning the race to lead the country’s federal Liberal party.
Carney, 59, takes on the role as Canada is locked in a potentially catastrophic trade war with the US, long its closest ally and largest trading partner. Last week Donald Trump announced a 25% tax on all Canadian goods, with a carveout for the automotive and energy sectors. The tariffs have the power to push Canada’s fragile economy in a recession.
Continue reading...Even Berlin and Brussels are bending fiscal rules in the face of Russia’s threat. Will the chancellor still stick to hers?
As the Nobel laureate Robert Lucas quipped during the 2008 financial crisis: “I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole.” Donald Trump’s upending of the postwar security consensus has underlined the enduring wisdom of Lucas’s observation. But now, instead of bank bailouts and emergency bond buying, European firepower is being directed at bombs, tanks and drones in the desperate fight to secure the continent’s border with Russia.
Berlin and Brussels – typically capitals of financial orthodoxy – have been convinced that this approach is required once again. Under the plan put forward by Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, Berlin is on the brink of relaxing its “debt brake” rule to pave the way for spending on defence and infrastructure worth an additional €1tn (£840bn) over the coming decade.
Continue reading...Center for Political Accountability, which advocates for corporate disclosure, warns of fallout from Trump’s efforts
A new report warns of “profound risks” in American politics as cryptocurrency companies increase their political spending and Donald Trump oversees regulatory retreat while promising to create a “crypto strategic reserve”.
The situation “illustrate[s] the profound risks that unchecked corporate political spending presents, particularly within the volatile and often unpredictable cryptocurrency industry”, reads the report, from the Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a non-profit that advocates for corporate political disclosure.
Continue reading...Officials said to be looking at whether producers have conspired to increase prices or have held back supply
The justice department has reportedly opened an investigation into what is driving the sharp rise in egg prices, including whether top producers have conspired to increase them.
Officials are also said to be looking at whether companies have held back supply. Their investigation is in its early stages, and may not lead to any formal action, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the matter.
Continue reading...Nigel Higgins asked if FCA would drop investigation into Staley’s relationship with Epstein if CEO quit
The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, was accused by the Barclays chair of having “destroyed” Jes Staley, a court heard on Friday, after the City watchdog led by Bailey at the time launched an investigation into the banker’s ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Nigel Higgins, who made the accusations and is still the Barclays chair, also asked in 2019 whether the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) would be willing to drop its investigation if Staley resigned.
Continue reading...King Okpabi, ruler of Ogale, says Shell has caused chronic pollution, while oil firm argues it is not responsible
His Royal Highness King Godwin Bebe Okpabi has carried bottles of water drawn from the wells of his homeland in the Niger delta to the high court in London.
It stinks. “This is the water that Shell has left for my people,” said the ruler of the Ogale community in Ogoniland, Nigeria. “This is poison, and they are spending millions of dollars to pay the best lawyers in the world so that they will not clean my land.”
Continue reading...Average property price dips to £298,602 in February despite analysts expecting rush before stamp duty rises
UK house prices unexpectedly fell last month as concerns over the sluggish economy outweighed an anticipated rush of people trying to complete purchases before stamp duty increases in April.
The average property price dipped by 0.1% in February to £298,602, having hit a record high in January, according to Halifax.
Continue reading...Government considering such a move over state-owned firm set up by Labour in June’s spending review, say reports
The UK government is making plans to cut the funding for GB Energy, the state-owned company set up by Labour to drive renewable energy and cut household bills, in June’s spending review.
Cuts to the £8.3bn of taxpayer money promised over the five-year parliament would be another blow for Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, after he was overruled by the government when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, backed the expansion of Heathrow’s third runway.
Continue reading...Walgreens Boots Alliance sold to Sycamore Partners and ends almost a century of trading on public markets
The US owner of the high street pharmacy chain Boots is to be taken private in a $10bn (£7.8bn) deal that will bring an end to almost a century of trading on public markets for Walgreens Boots Alliance.
The company, which operates more than 1,800 Boots stores in the UK, has been sold to the US private equity firm Sycamore Partners after struggling in the internet era as customers have turned to online shopping for cheaper products.
Continue reading...US president paused tariffs on Mexican products covered by USMCA and later stayed tariffs on many Canadian imports
Donald Trump pulled back from his trade war with Canada and Mexico on Thursday, temporarily delaying tariffs on many goods from the two countries once again.
Two days after imposing sweeping tariffs on all imports from his country’s closest trading partners, the US president announced that duties on a wide range of products would be shelved until April.
Continue reading...Bank says it has fixed mobile and telephone service outages after people unable to make payments
Santander has fixed the problems affecting its banking services after many customers were left unable to access their accounts.
The bank apologised for any “inconvenience caused” and said no customers would “be left out of pocket” as a result of the outages.
Continue reading...Treasury secretary Scott Bessent defends the new administration’s aggressive trade strategy
Buying cheap products is “not the essence of the American dream”, Donald Trump’s top economic official has declared, amid warnings that the US president’s trade wars risk increasing prices.
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, defended the new administration’s aggressive trade strategy on Thursday, two days after it imposed sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico and hiked duties on China.
Continue reading...Levies on tourists and cruise ships considered by some local authorities in attempt to plug funding gaps
Council tax costs in Scotland will hit record levels next month after local authorities agreed to raise rates by up to 15%, with some planning new levies on tourists and cruise ships.
All of Scotland’s 32 local authorities have announced council tax increases from April of at least 6%, with the majority raising them by about 10%, after years of successive cuts to their grant funding.
Continue reading...Disability employment provider Help asked jobseekers to perform telephone appointments before later clarifying they were voluntary
Private employment agencies across Queensland have given jobseekers the impression they still need to perform their mutual obligations, despite there being a pause across large swaths of the state while it prepares for Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The mutual obligations scheme forces jobseekers to complete tasks such as applying for jobs or attending training, or risk their payments being stopped.
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Continue reading...The Victorian premier said she would be introducing legislation to' ‘bring about that change … very soon’. Follow today’s news live
Chalmers defends Australian defence spending as Trump administration says nation should spend more
Jim Chalmers has defended Australia’s defence spending as having already gone up “considerably”, amid suggestions from the Donald Trump administration that Australia should spend more.
That is a very, very substantial pick-up in defend spending and one of the reasons we’re doing that is to be able to work more effectively with our allies and partners like the United States … We do pay our own way on defence. We are substantially increasing defence spending.
We have got a good relationship with the Americans, particularly that economic relationship which is of mutual benefit, and these are the sorts of things that we have been talking about with our American counterparts as they finalise some of the policies on things like tariffs.
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