Plus: Dutton’s ‘isolationist’ student plan
͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌      ͏ ‌     
Trump threatens more China tariffs, Dutton’s ‘isolationist’ student plan, Fowler fires up Matildas | The Guardian

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The US president said ‘all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated’.
08/04/2025

Trump threatens more China tariffs, Dutton’s ‘isolationist’ student plan, Fowler fires up Matildas

Anna Macdonald
 

Good morning. As Donald Trump’s tariffs announcement continues to reverberate around the world, causing stock markets to tumble, the US president is showing no sign of cooling the trade war. Instead he has threatened an additional 50% excise on imports from China after the country imposed retaliatory 34% tariffs.

Trump also met with the visiting Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who came to talk tariffs but also discussed Iran’s nuclear program.

Back in Australia, a peak higher education body has accused Peter Dutton of using Trump’s playbook for the opposition’s plan to cut international students to 240,000 a year. And our Last chance series examines the plight of the eastern curlew, the ultimate avian endurance athlete.

Australia

University students sit at desks working.

Higher education | The peak body for higher education says the Coalition has played an isolationist “Donald Trump anti-migration card” with its election policy to slash international students.

Last chance | Populations of the world’s largest migratory bird have dwindled as their habit comes under threat. It’s the latest in our series on the extinction crisis that is being ignored this election.

Schoolyard politics | The education minister has written to the peak independent and Catholic school bodies, warning a Peter Dutton government will “dictate” what students are taught and promising private school funding will remain unchanged under Labor.

Doctor strike | The doctors’ union in NSW has called a strike from Tuesday to Thursday this week after pay negotiations with the government broke down. Here’s what you need to know.

Good dogs | Wildlife detection dogs have successfully sniffed out 13 critically endangered earless dragons in Melbourne’s west, thanks to a training program launched by Zoos Victoria in 2023.

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World

The Nasdaq Marketsite with Trump’s Truth Social post on screen.

Trump tariffs | Trump has threatened extra 50% tariffs on China if the country does not withdraw its retaliatory levies. Global stock markets have been plagued with volatility as the world economy reacts. The EU has said it offered the US a “zero-for-zero” tariff deal on cars and industrial goods weeks before Trump launched his trade war.

Leaders meeting | The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is in Washington for a second meeting with Trump since the US president’s return to office, where the pair are expected to discuss the 18-month-old war in Gaza, Iran’s nuclear threat and US tariffs. Follow the live blog here.

Music | Clem Burke, the drummer whose backbeats powered Blondie to huge chart success across multiple decades, has died of cancer aged 70.

Request denied | Director Yorgos Lanthimos was refused by Greece’s culture ministry when he applied to shoot scenes for sci-fi comedy Bugonia at the Acropolis.

Aristocratic subterfuge | Police in the Brazilian state of São Paulo have uncovered that a judge spent 23 years working under a false identity – and a distinctly British one: Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield.

 
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The dark digital lives of teenage boys

The new Netflix series Adolescence has become one of the streaming service’s most popular shows. The drama follows the arrest of a 13-year-old boy for the murder of a female classmate, exploring the growing risks of online radicalisation. Nour Haydar speaks with anti-violence advocate Tarang Chawla about fostering healthy masculinity in a digital world awash with misogyny.

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In-depth

Image of Peter Dutton, and the same image reversed

Peter Dutton has backed down on plans to make public servants work from home and to cut federal government jobs. The turnaround comes after months of little explanation about how the opposition’s plans to manage the bureaucracy would work. Josh Butler examines how junking a signature policy for the Coalition could be the circuit breaker his campaign needs to get back on track – or ripping the Band-Aid off may expose an ugly wound.

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Not the news

Historic Nightcap Track, Mount Kaputar national park.

Whenever Georgina Woods is hit with a sense of melancholia, her favourite refuge is the natural world. The feeling is so powerful it can cut through political, social and economic divisions. She writes: “Nature shows me that we don’t have to choose between beauty and freedom on the one hand, and good living on the other.”

Sport

Mary Fowler about to hit a soccer ball.

Soccer | Mary Fowler gave the Matildas cause for optimism ahead of next year’s Asian Cup after a fine first-half finish and some second-half wizardry helped secure a second friendly victory over continental rivals South Korea.

Rugby | World Rugby insists there is no medical evidence that 7-1 bench splits will lead to more injuries and the governing body has no plans to outlaw the tactic as a result.

Athletics | A huge throw elevated Matthew Denny into rarefied air on Sunday as the discus athlete recorded the fifth longest effort of all time while becoming the first Australian to eclipse the 70m mark at the Oklahoma Throws series in the US.

Media roundup

Superannuation funds are urging their members not to panic after nearly $100bn was wiped from the S&P/ASX 200, reports the Australian Financial Review. Sand pumping has begun on the Gold Coast to restore beaches eroded by Cyclone Alfred, per ABC News. News.com.au reports on who won the Australian Idol finale last night.

What’s happening today

Melbourne | A man charged with antisemitic abuse of federal and Victorian MPs will have his first hearing.

Wagga Wagga | There will be a hearing for the Pfas inquiry.

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