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| | | | 12/03/2025 Ukraine accepts truce plan, tariff deadline looms, Palmer’s ad splurge |
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| Martin Farrer |  |
| | | Morning everyone. Ukraine has accepted a US plan for a 30-day truce in its war with Russia, and Washington will resume intelligence sharing with Ukraine defence forces. We have full reports and live coverage for you this morning. At home, Australia is bracing for the imposition of metal tariffs on exports to the US, due to begin later today. Plus at home, Clive Palmer trumpets his policies, why airline passenger rights could be weakened, and how footy clubs are gambling on long-term deals. |
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Australia | |
| Fossil find | A slab of rock that sat in a school playground for 20 years has been revealed as holding 60 dinosaur footprints, one of the highest concentrations of fossilised footprints ever documented in Australia. | Carat and stick? | A run on gold in America – fanned by fears of a global trade war – gave Australia its first trade surplus with the US in decades, which undermined the government’s key argument for exemption from Donald Trump’s impending global tariff regime. The US president doubled tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium to 50% in retaliation for Ontario slapping a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the US (which it has just rescinded). Stock markets reacted in horror to the moves. In breaking news this morning, the White House told Australian media there would be no tariff exemptions for our steel and aluminium. | ‘We feel hopeless’ | Children are malnourished, living off cereal and missing school “because their bellies are empty” as a worsening social crisis grips Western Australia’s most disadvantaged community, say leaders in the East Kimberley. | Flight fail | Labor’s proposal to bolster airline customers’ rights to empower them against poor service and disruptions offers weaker protections than those Australians are already entitled to under consumer law, Choice has warned. | Bail out | Victoria’s government is poised to bring in what it calls Australia’s “toughest bail laws” to combat a crime crisis. But is the situation really that bad or just a media beat-up? asks Benita Kolovos. |
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World | |
| Ukraine talks | Ukraine says it is ready to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire in the war with Russia, and the US says it will lift its ban on sharing intelligence with Ukraine and resume security assistance. Trump officials met Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia (pictured) for crunch talks focused on ending the war with Russia. Follow the developments at our live blog. The meeting follows the death of three people in Ukraine’s biggest ever drone attack on Moscow. | Duterte departs | The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has left Manila on a plane headed to The Hague, hours after he was served with an arrest warrant from the international criminal court over the killings resulting from his “war on drugs”. | Birthday blunder | Sierra Leone’s president has fired the head of the immigration service days after footage was published showing him receiving a birthday gift from a fugitive Dutch drug kingpin. | Tesla trouble | Donald Trump has signalled he intends to buy a “brand new Tesla” to support Elon Musk’s boycott-hit electric vehicle company, and USAid employees have been told to destroy classified documents. Follow developments in Washington live. In Greenland, the prime minister said voters had a “fateful choice” as they went to the polls amid claims by Trump that he might annex the country. | Wurst of times | Volkswagen may be struggling with car sales but its latest figures revealed it has a tasty bestseller in its product lines – the VW currywurst. |
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Full Story | |
| Trump v Turnbull and the looming threat of tariffs Political reporter Dan Jervis-Bardy tells Reged Ahmad what the latest argument between Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump means for trade – and the delayed election. | | |
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In-depth | |
| Clive Palmer’s new party, the Trumpet of Patriots, is already outspending the major parties as the shadow election campaign gathers pace. The mining mogul has invested in Google ads at a higher rate than even the Western Australian Liberal and Labor parties ahead of the state election last week, and has created controversy with newspaper campaigns. Josh Butler and Dan Jervis-Bardy get down to brass tacks. |
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Not the news | |
| The trauma plot – where a character can only really be properly understood by the revelation of something in their past – became a familiar one in books, film and television in the first decades of the century. Fleabag and True Detective to name but a couple. But Australian novelist Diana Reid argues that although it came to act as a kind of therapy for audiences, it has lost its impact and even descended into cliche. |
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Sport | |
| Sport finance | With the Newcastle Knights locking Dylan Brown in for 10 years and AFL teams also inking long-term deals, are the clubs gambling with their futures? | Football | Manchester United have confirmed their intention to build a new 100,000-capacity stadium in the Old Trafford area, leaving their home of 115 years. | Champions League | Liverpool defend a 1-0 lead in the second leg of their tie against Paris Saint Germain this morning, plus Inter v Feyenoord. Barcelona and Benfica have already kicked off. |
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What’s happening today | Canberra | Climate activist Simon Holmes à Court speaks at the National Press Club. | High court | Ruling on federal government’s appeal against a court decision on $700m potential compensation for Yunupingu’s Gumatj clan over bauxite mining at Gove in north-east Arnhem Land. | Sydney | The research group e61 Institute hosts an event to discuss unlocking the potential of women in the economy. |
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Brain teaser | And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. | |
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Contact us | If you have a story tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email. If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and/or digital subscriptions, please email customer.help@guardian.co.uk |
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A message from Lenore Taylor editor of Guardian AustraliaI hope you appreciated this newsletter. Before you move on, I wonder if you would consider supporting our work as we prepare for a pivotal, uncertain year ahead.
The course of world history has taken a sharp and disturbing turn in 2024. Liberalism is under threat from populist authoritarianism. Americans have voted to install a president with no respect for democratic norms, nor the facts that once formed the guardrails of public debate.
That decision means an alliance critical to Australia’s national and economic security is now a series of unpredictable transactions, with a partner no longer committed to multilateralism, nor efforts to curb global heating, the greatest threat we face. We just don’t know where this will lead.
In this uncertain time, fair, fact-based journalism is more important than ever – to record and understand events, to scrutinise the powerful, to give context, and to counter rampant misinformation and falsehoods.
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| Lenore Taylor
Editor, Guardian Australia |
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