Australian news and politics live: Trump’s new copper tariff targets Aussie mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto

A prominent Australian lawyer has been found dead at a Thai massage parlour, just minutes from the location where cricket legend Shane Warne passed away in 2022.

Christopher Saines, the 43-year-old CEO of Brisbane-based law firm GLG Legal, was discovered unresponsive around 6am on Monday at the Siam Touch Massage parlour on the popular tourist island of Koh Samui.

Emergency services were called to the shop in Bo Phut, close to the villa where Warne died, around 7am after a masseuse noticed the lawyer wasn’t breathing.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Phumaret Inkong from Bo Phut Police Station said officers found Mr Saines “lying dead” when they arrived at the parlour near Chaweng Beach.

“He had just finished getting a massage, dressed, and went to the bathroom. Then, he asked to sit and rest on the bed for a moment, and he simply fell asleep,” he said.

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Bob Katter, the Independent member for Kennedy, has praised Donald Trump’s tariffs as evidence of “America’s bid to protect its industries” and warned that they highlight “Australia’s dangerous failure to do the same.”

In a statement, Mr Katter said: “Trump’s protecting his industries from the uncontestable, government-backed mega-production coming out of China.”

He contrasted China’s economic approach with Australia’s, saying: “The Chinese government doesn’t throw money away on ego monuments and feel-good ‘net-zero’ whims. It builds factories that produce things, freeways and tunnels that create wealth and economic generation.”

Mr Katter accused the “Australian Government, on the other hand, of having obliterated our production sector in favour of ideology and self-indulgence.”

He said his party and other regional cross-benchers will pitch an Omnibus Bill “to reshape Australia’s economy and re-establish essential industries.”

His warning was clear: “This delusion must stop. Australia must follow America’s lead and start protecting our own industries, primary producers and manufacturers.”

In the first Cold War between America and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers fought each other by proxy.

Something similar is happening in America’s trade war with China. After conciliatory talks in Geneva and London, the two sides are no longer bashing each other with new tariffs.

Instead, America is waging its war indirectly, through unfortunate third countries.

Its new deal with Vietnam and its fresh tariff threats issued to many other countries seem designed to reduce China’s role in their supply chain. Countries that had hoped to stay out of the new cold war now fear they are being forced to pick a side.

To appease the world’s biggest market, they must anger the world’s biggest trader.

On July 7, Donald Trump, America’s president, sent letters to Japan, South Korea and a dozen other trading partners pushing back the deadline for their trade talks from July 9 to August 1 and tweaking the tariffs they will face if talks fail.

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The Australian Greens have made fresh calls for Environment Minister Murray Watt to scrap his provisional approval of the North West Shelf gas project off WA amid a UNESCO bid over nearby rock art this week.

Mr Watt has left Paris to join Traditional Owners in advocating for the rock art to be placed on the World Heritage list.

Their push comes after UNESCO’s draft decision, released in May, said the committee wouldn’t list it while industrial operations continue in the area.

Greens leader Larissa Waters on Wednesday called on Senator Watt to rescind his North West Shelf approval to give Murujuga cultural landscape the best chance of World Heritage Listing.

“To give Murujuga’s ancient rock art the best chance of World Heritage listing, Minister Watt should cancel the draft approval for Woodside’s 45 year extension on operating its gas proposal,” she said.

Senator Waters said The Greens stand with Save Our Songlines advocate Raelene Cooper, who has also travelled to Paris to push for the listing but unlike other groups, wants the North West Shelf extension axed.

One of the Republican Party’s most senior figures has blasted the “self-indulgent restrainers” inside the Trump Administration, querying AUKUS.

Veteran Republican Mitch McConnell, who served as Senate party leader for 18 years and is a Senator for the state of Kentucky, said that President Donald Trump was having to continually mop up after the messes made by internal restrainers.

He did not name anyone specifically, but was commenting on Mr Trump’s pledge to restart supplies of weapons to Ukraine, which had been halted by the Pentagon’s Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Elbridge Colby.

The Pentagon has described as “flat out wrong” a report by US Politico claiming that Mr Colby’s decision to pause munitions to Ukraine, after conducting an internal review of supplies, caught President Trump’s allies by surprise.

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US President Donald Trump has announced he will reveal at least seven more countries targeted for new trade measures on Wednesday US time, with additional nations to be named later in the day.

The move comes as part of Mr Trump’s aggressive push to secure what he calls “fair and reciprocal” trade, following a wave of tariff threats against 14 countries earlier this week​​​​​​., including Japan and South Korea.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said: “We will be releasing a minimum of 7 countries having to do with trade, tomorrow morning, with an additional number of countries being released in the afternoon.”

The White House recently extended the deadline for higher tariffs to August 1, giving countries a final window to negotiate deals or face new duties of up to 40 percent​​​​​​.

Australia’s mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto are set to be impacted by a new 50 per cent tariff on copper imports announced by US President Donald Trump, as part of what he says is a broader push to boost American manufacturing.

The tariff, which could take effect this month or on August 1, comes as copper prices surged to record highs in New York following Mr Trump’s comments.

While Australia sends little copper directly to the US, less than one per cent of its total copper exports, both companies could see a direct impact from their global operations, including the Escondida mine in Chile.

Mr Trump also flagged a possible 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals, saying companies would have about a year to adjust before the levy is imposed.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australia’s copper exports to the US are “actually quite small” but warned that the pharmaceutical sector is much more exposed to the American market.

Qantas has revealed the scope of the cyberattack on a third-party call centre last week,and has confirmed that 5.7 million customers were affected.

After removing duplicate records, the airline’s cyber experts found 1.2 million customers’ details were limited to name, and email address, with another 2.8 million included those details plus the frequent flyer number, including tier.

A small subset had points balances and status credit details.

The remaining 1.7 million customers had far more details stolen in the attack, with the airline confirming that 1.3 million customers’ residential or businesses addresses were included in the data breach, although for some they were hotel addresses for lost luggage delivery.

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Environment Minister Murray Watt will travel to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris this week to join a delegation Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation to bid for world heritage listing.

The delegation argues the culturally significant Murujuga rock art near Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project should be added to the World Heritage List.

Their trip comes after a draft decision issued earlier this year recommended Australia block any further industrial development near the Murujuga Cultural Landscape.

“It is a great privilege to support the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Murujuga in their efforts to have this globally significant cultural landscape included on the World Heritage List,” he said.

The UNESCO Committee will also consider formalising the renaming Fraser Island to K’gari and hear updates on other iconic Australian sites like the Great Barrier Reef and Gondwana Rainforests.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has aknowledged that there will be millions of Australians around the country who were desperately hoping for more rate relief today after the the Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates on hold at 3.85 per cent.

“I think there are good reasons why Treasurers don’t make predictions about movements in interest rates, and I don’t predict them. I don’t preempt them, I don’t second guess decisions once they’re taken. I think it’s certainly the case that the market was surprised,” he told ABC RN.

“I think certainly economists were surprised by the outcome, and I think it’s fair to say as well that there were millions of people who were hoping for more rate relief yesterday and didn’t get it.

“We’ve helped Australians with the cost of living in the most responsible way that we can. And that’s why we’re seeing inflation come down so substantially and now in a sustained way, and it’s also why that’s given the Reserve Bank the confidence to cut interest rates twice in the course of the last five months.”