Australian news and politics live: Albanese not budging on Port of Darwin despite calls to resolve issue

US President Donald Trump has signalled he is preparing to announce tariffs of up to 200 per cent on imported pharmaceuticals, with official details expected before the end of July.

Mr Trump has said the tariffs will start low, giving pharmaceutical companies about a year to adapt before the rates rise sharply.

“The pharmaceuticals will be tariffed probably at the end of the month,” Mr Trump said on Tuesday evening US time, before boarding Air Force One in Maryland.

“We’re going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, then we’re going to make it a really high tariff.”

“There’s two ways to do it: you make money or you have them move here so they don’t have to pay the tariffs.”

“Pharmaceuticals are moving back to America where they should be.”

Health Minister Mark Butler has responded to the death of Bradley John Murdoch — the convicted murderer of British backpacker Peter Falconio, saying it offers another chance to grieve with the young victim’s family.

Speaking on ABC News Breakfast, Mr Butler said there was “not much reason” to mourn Murdoch, who died from throat cancer in the Alice Springs Hospital palliative care unit this week.

“It’s another opportunity to mourn the loss of a young life, Peter Falconio, and to grieve with a family that still doesn’t have that closure, still don’t know where the remains of their loved one has laid for so many years now,” he said.

“Just an awful tragedy, a young life snuffed out at that age.”

Murdoch was serving a life sentence for the 2001 murder of Falconio, who was shot on a remote stretch of the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek. His partner Joanne Lees managed to escape and raise the alarm, but Falconio’s body has never been found.

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Thousands of families across Australia have been told their children must undergo blood and urine tests for sexually transmitted infections, in one of the nation’s biggest childcare safety scandals.

The tests are part of a widening investigation into former childcare worker Joshua Bown, who has been charged with child abuse offences in Victoria and previously investigated in Queensland.

Education Minister Jason Clare appeared on Sunrise this morning, saying the current system had failed families and urgent reforms were needed.

“More parents are put through the ringer. All the fear and anxiety that their kids might be sick and the trauma that kids have to go through. It’s not just blood tests, it’s urine tests as well,” Mr Clare said.

“The company should have picked this up in the first place… This highlights an example of why you need a database or a register so you know where all childcare workers are and where they’re moving from centre to centre.”

Mr Clare confirmed new legislation would be introduced to prevent childcare centres that fail safety standards from receiving government funding and said systems must be in place so authorities can quickly identify where staff have worked:

“You should be able to press a button and know exactly where he was and when he was working.”

Elbridge Colby, the man reviewing AUKUS inside the Pentagon, thinks he can replicate MAGA’s success in scolding, berating and bullying Europe into lifting defence spending in Australia and the Indo-Pacific.

But his cut-and-paste approach may not only fail, but backfire.

This is because his hectoring approach fails to recalibrate for the important ways that Europe differs from Asia.

Mr Colby’s demands that Indo-Pacific allies raise defence spending are legitimate in Australia’s case.

But he is far from the first person to raise the issue.

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Today marks a historic highlight in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to China, with a walk along the Great Wall planned before he heads to Chengdu.

This follows a landmark series of meetings in Beijing’s Great Hall with President Xi Jinping, Chairman Zhao Leji, and Premier Li Qiang, where Albanese emphasised Australia’s ongoing commitment to engaging China in areas of mutual benefit, while not shying away from disagreement when needed.

The diplomatic talks have already yielded tangible results for both nations. On Tuesday, six new agreements were signed, including one that will soon see sweet, tangy Chinese jujubes available on Australian shelves—while, for the first time, apples from mainland Australia will be exported to China.

“In recent years, co-operation has encountered headwinds,” Chinese Premier Li admitted as the two countries move to deepen trade cooperation amid broader global uncertainty.

Albanese echoed these sentiments, stating, “My government believes unequivocally in free and fair trade as a driver of global growth, and I know the discussions that we’ve had today have been very constructive”.