Like children, many adults are also struggling with the urge to endlessly scroll and feel like they can’t escape the pull of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms. 

Some experts are comparing social media addiction to casinos, opioids and cigarettes.

The companies that designed your favourite apps have an incentive to keep you glued to them so they can serve up advertising that makes them billions of dollars in revenue. 

Resisting the pull of the endless scroll, the dopamine hits from short-form videos and the ego boost and validation that come from likes and positive interactions can seem like an unfair fight. 

For some people, “rage-bait,” gloomy news and arguing with internet strangers also have an irresistible draw. 

Much of the concern around social media addiction has focused on children. 

But adults are also susceptible to using social media so much that it starts affecting their day-to-day lives. 

Dr Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and the medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, defines addiction as “the continued compulsive use of a substance or behaviour despite harm to self or others.” 

During her testimony at a landmark social media harms trial in Los Angeles, Lembke said that what makes social media platforms so addictive is the “24/7, really limitless, frictionless access” people have to them. 

Some researchers question whether addiction is the appropriate term to describe heavy use of social media, arguing that a person must be experiencing identifiable symptoms. 

These include strong, sometimes uncontrollable urges and withdrawal to qualify as addiction. 

Social media addiction is not recognised as an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is the standard reference psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners use to assess and treat patients. 

That’s partly because there is no widespread consensus on what constitutes social media addiction and whether underlying mental health issues contribute to problematic use. 

But just because there is no official agreement on the issue doesn’t mean excessive social media use can’t be harmful, some experts say. 

“For me, the biggest signpost is how does the person feel about the amount, and how viewing it makes them feel,” said Dr Laurel Williams, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. 

“If what they discover is they view it so much that they are missing out on other things they may enjoy or things that they need to attend to, this is problematic use. Additionally, if you leave feeling overwhelmed, drained, sad, anxious, angry regularly, this use is not good for you.”

In other words, is your use of social media affecting other parts of your life? 

Are you putting off chores, work, hobbies or time with friends and family? 

Have you tried to cut back your time but realised you were unable to? 

Do you feel bad about your social media use?

Ofir Turel, a professor of information systems management at the University of Melbourne who has studied social media use for years, said there was “no agreement” over the term social media addiction, and he doesn’t “expect agreement soon”.

“It’s obvious that we have an issue,” Turel said. 

“You don’t have to call it an addiction, but there is an issue and we need, as a society, to start thinking about it.” 

Before setting limits on scrolling, it’s helpful to understand how social media feeds and advertising work to draw in users, Williams said. 

“Think of social media as a company trying to get you to stay with them and buy something — have the mindset that this is information that I don’t need to act on and may not be true,” she added. 

“Get alternate sources of information. Always understand the more you see something, anyone can start to believe it is true.”

Ian A Anderson, a postdoctoral scholar at California Institute of Technology, suggests making small, meaningful changes to stop you from opening your social media app of choice. 

Moving the app’s place on your phone or turning off notifications are “light touch interventions,” but more involved options, like not bringing your phone into the bedroom or other places where you tend to use it, could also help, Anderson said. 

Tech tools can also help to cut back on tech overuse. 

Both iPhones and Android devices have onboard controls to help regulate screen time.

Apple’s Screen Time controls are found in the iPhone’s settings menu. 

Users can set overall Downtime, which shuts off all phone activity during a set period of their choice. 

The controls also let users put a blanket restriction on certain categories of apps, such as social, games or entertainment or zero in on a specific app, by limiting the time that can be spent on it. 

The downside is that the limits aren’t hard to get around. It’s more of a nudge than a red line that you can’t cross. 

If you try to open an app with a limit, you’ll get a screen menu offering one more minute, a reminder after 15 minutes, or to completely ignore it.

If a light touch isn’t working, more drastic steps might be necessary. 

Some users swear by turning their phones to grey-scale to make it less appealing to dopamine-seeking brains. 

On iPhones, adjust the colour filter in your settings. 

For Android, turn on Bedtime Mode or tweak the colour correction setting. 

Downgrading to a simpler phone, such as an old-school flip phone, could also help curb social media compulsions. 

Some startups, figuring that people might prefer a tangible barrier, offer hardware solutions that introduce physical friction between you and an app. 

Unpluq, for instance, is a yellow tag that you have to hold up to your phone in order to access blocked apps. 

Brick and Blok are two different products that work along the same lines — they’re squarish pieces of plastic that you have to tap or scan with your phone to unlock an app.

If that’s not enough of an obstacle, you could stash away your phone entirely. 

There are various phone lock-boxes and cases available, some of them designed so parents can lock up their teenagers’ phones when they’re supposed to be sleeping, but there’s no rule that says only teenagers can use them.

Yondr, which makes portable phone locking pouches used at concerts or in schools, also sells a home phone box.

If all else fails, it may be a good idea to look for deeper reasons for feeling addicted to social media. 

Maybe it’s a symptom of underlying problems like anxiety, stress, loneliness, depression or low self-esteem. 

If you think that’s the case, it could be worth exploring counselling that is becoming more widely available.

“For people struggling to stay away — see if you can get a friend group to collaborate with you on it. Make it a group effort. Just don’t post about it! The more spaces become phone-free, the more we may see a lessened desire to be ‘on,'” Williams said. 

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Like children, many adults are also struggling with the urge to endlessly scroll and feel like they can’t escape the pull of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms. 

Some experts are comparing social media addiction to casinos, opioids and cigarettes.

The companies that designed your favourite apps have an incentive to keep you glued to them so they can serve up advertising that makes them billions of dollars in revenue. 

Resisting the pull of the endless scroll, the dopamine hits from short-form videos and the ego boost and validation that come from likes and positive interactions can seem like an unfair fight. 

For some people, “rage-bait,” gloomy news and arguing with internet strangers also have an irresistible draw. 

Much of the concern around social media addiction has focused on children. 

But adults are also susceptible to using social media so much that it starts affecting their day-to-day lives. 

Dr Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and the medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, defines addiction as “the continued compulsive use of a substance or behaviour despite harm to self or others.” 

During her testimony at a landmark social media harms trial in Los Angeles, Lembke said that what makes social media platforms so addictive is the “24/7, really limitless, frictionless access” people have to them. 

Some researchers question whether addiction is the appropriate term to describe heavy use of social media, arguing that a person must be experiencing identifiable symptoms. 

These include strong, sometimes uncontrollable urges and withdrawal to qualify as addiction. 

Social media addiction is not recognised as an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is the standard reference psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners use to assess and treat patients. 

That’s partly because there is no widespread consensus on what constitutes social media addiction and whether underlying mental health issues contribute to problematic use. 

But just because there is no official agreement on the issue doesn’t mean excessive social media use can’t be harmful, some experts say. 

“For me, the biggest signpost is how does the person feel about the amount, and how viewing it makes them feel,” said Dr Laurel Williams, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. 

“If what they discover is they view it so much that they are missing out on other things they may enjoy or things that they need to attend to, this is problematic use. Additionally, if you leave feeling overwhelmed, drained, sad, anxious, angry regularly, this use is not good for you.”

In other words, is your use of social media affecting other parts of your life? 

Are you putting off chores, work, hobbies or time with friends and family? 

Have you tried to cut back your time but realised you were unable to? 

Do you feel bad about your social media use?

Ofir Turel, a professor of information systems management at the University of Melbourne who has studied social media use for years, said there was “no agreement” over the term social media addiction, and he doesn’t “expect agreement soon”.

“It’s obvious that we have an issue,” Turel said. 

“You don’t have to call it an addiction, but there is an issue and we need, as a society, to start thinking about it.” 

Before setting limits on scrolling, it’s helpful to understand how social media feeds and advertising work to draw in users, Williams said. 

“Think of social media as a company trying to get you to stay with them and buy something — have the mindset that this is information that I don’t need to act on and may not be true,” she added. 

“Get alternate sources of information. Always understand the more you see something, anyone can start to believe it is true.”

Ian A Anderson, a postdoctoral scholar at California Institute of Technology, suggests making small, meaningful changes to stop you from opening your social media app of choice. 

Moving the app’s place on your phone or turning off notifications are “light touch interventions,” but more involved options, like not bringing your phone into the bedroom or other places where you tend to use it, could also help, Anderson said. 

Tech tools can also help to cut back on tech overuse. 

Both iPhones and Android devices have onboard controls to help regulate screen time.

Apple’s Screen Time controls are found in the iPhone’s settings menu. 

Users can set overall Downtime, which shuts off all phone activity during a set period of their choice. 

The controls also let users put a blanket restriction on certain categories of apps, such as social, games or entertainment or zero in on a specific app, by limiting the time that can be spent on it. 

The downside is that the limits aren’t hard to get around. It’s more of a nudge than a red line that you can’t cross. 

If you try to open an app with a limit, you’ll get a screen menu offering one more minute, a reminder after 15 minutes, or to completely ignore it.

If a light touch isn’t working, more drastic steps might be necessary. 

Some users swear by turning their phones to grey-scale to make it less appealing to dopamine-seeking brains. 

On iPhones, adjust the colour filter in your settings. 

For Android, turn on Bedtime Mode or tweak the colour correction setting. 

Downgrading to a simpler phone, such as an old-school flip phone, could also help curb social media compulsions. 

Some startups, figuring that people might prefer a tangible barrier, offer hardware solutions that introduce physical friction between you and an app. 

Unpluq, for instance, is a yellow tag that you have to hold up to your phone in order to access blocked apps. 

Brick and Blok are two different products that work along the same lines — they’re squarish pieces of plastic that you have to tap or scan with your phone to unlock an app.

If that’s not enough of an obstacle, you could stash away your phone entirely. 

There are various phone lock-boxes and cases available, some of them designed so parents can lock up their teenagers’ phones when they’re supposed to be sleeping, but there’s no rule that says only teenagers can use them.

Yondr, which makes portable phone locking pouches used at concerts or in schools, also sells a home phone box.

If all else fails, it may be a good idea to look for deeper reasons for feeling addicted to social media. 

Maybe it’s a symptom of underlying problems like anxiety, stress, loneliness, depression or low self-esteem. 

If you think that’s the case, it could be worth exploring counselling that is becoming more widely available.

“For people struggling to stay away — see if you can get a friend group to collaborate with you on it. Make it a group effort. Just don’t post about it! The more spaces become phone-free, the more we may see a lessened desire to be ‘on,'” Williams said. 

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beyondblue 1300 22 4636

Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($A150 billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes, Hungary’s foreign minister says. 

Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since January 27, after Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone attack damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian territory and into central Europe.

Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies.

In a video posted on social media Friday evening, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Ukraine of “blackmailing” Hungary by failing to restart oil shipments. 

He said his government would block a massive interest-free loan the EU approved in December to help Kyiv to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.

“We will not give in to this blackmail. We do not support Ukraine’s war, we will not pay for it,” Szijjártó said. 

“As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favourable for Ukraine.”

Hungary’s decision to block the key funding for Ukraine came two days after it suspended shipments of diesel to its embattled neighbour until oil flows through the Druzhba were resumed, and only days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. 

Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. 

Yet Hungary — an EU and NATO member — has maintained and even increased its supply of Russian oil and gas.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued that Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse — an argument some experts dispute.

Widely seen as the Kremlin’s biggest advocate in the EU, Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war. 

His government has frequently threatened to veto EU efforts to assist Ukraine. 

Not all of the EU’s 27 countries agreed to take part in the 90-billion-euro ($A150 billion) loan package for Ukraine. 

Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opposed the plan, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the loan and were promised protection from any financial fallout.

US trading partners in Asia have started weighing fresh uncertainties after President Donald Trump vowed to impose ‌a new tariff on imports, hours after the Supreme Court struck down many of the sweeping levies he used to launch a global trade war.

The court’s ruling invalidated a number of ‌tariffs that the Trump administration had imposed on Asian export powerhouses from China and South Korea to Japan and Taiwan, the world’s largest chip maker and a key player in tech supply ‌chains.

Trump said he would impose a new 10 per cent duty on US imports from all countries starting on Tuesday for an initial 150 days under a different law, prompting analysts to warn that more measures could follow, threatening more confusion for businesses and investors.

In Japan, a government spokesman said Tokyo “will carefully examine the content of this ruling and the Trump administration’s response to it, and respond appropriately”.

China, which is preparing to host Trump in late March, has yet to formally comment or launch any counter-moves with the country on an extended holiday. ‌

But a senior financial ‌official in China-ruled Hong Kong ⁠described the US situation as a “fiasco”.

Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s secretary for financial services and the treasury, Trump’s new levy ​served to underscore Hong Kong’s “unique trade advantages”, Hui said.

“This shows the stability of Hong Kong’s policies and our certainty … it shows global investors the importance of predictability,” Hui said at a media briefing on Saturday when asked how the new US tariff’s would affect the city’s economy.

Hong Kong operates as a separate customs territory from mainland China, a status that has shielded it from direct exposure to US tariffs targeting Chinese goods.

Before the Supreme Court’s ruling, Trump’s tariff push had strained Washington’s diplomatic relations across ‌Asia, particularly for export-reliant ​economies integrated into US-bound supply chains.

Trade policy ​monitor Global Trade ‌Alert estimated that by itself, the ruling cut the trade-weighted average US tariff almost in half from 15.4 per cent to 8.3 per cent.

For those countries on higher US tariff levels, the ​change is more dramatic.

For China, Brazil and India, it will mean double-digit percentage point cuts, albeit to still-high levels.

In Taiwan, the government said it was monitoring the situation closely, noting the US government had yet to determine how to fully implement its trade deals with many countries.

Taiwan has signed two recent deals ‌with the US – one was a memorandum of understanding in January that committed Taiwan to invest $US250 billion ($A354 billion) and the second was signed this month to lowering reciprocal tariffs.

Thailand’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office head, Nantapong Chiralerspong, said the ruling might even benefit its exports as uncertainty drove a fresh round ​of “front loading”, where shippers race to move goods to the US, fearing even higher tariffs.

From European wine makers to chemical companies and distillers, the US Supreme Court ruling knocking down a large part of President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs comes with a sting in ‌the tail: an even more uncertain trade outlook. 

In a decision that will ripple through the global economy, the top US court struck down Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under a law meant ‌for use in national emergencies, handing a stinging defeat to the Republican president. 

But while many businesses cheered after lengthy legal battles against tariffs, European trade groups, companies and analysts worried the ruling might make trade relations even more messy after hard-struck trade deals in 2025.

“This ruling … risks creating a boomerang effect, producing further uncertainty and a freeze on orders while operators wait for a clearer regulatory framework,” said Paolo Castelletti, secretary-general of Italian wine association UIV.

The US is the top market for Italian wines, with some 1.9 billion euros ($A3.2 billion) in exports in 2024, ‌making up almost a quarter ⁠of Italy’s total wine shipments globally. 

Many firms cautioned that Trump would likely look to other avenues to impose similar ​tariffs, dulling the benefit of lower levies, while the move could stoke tensions between the US and major trade partners. 

Tariff refunds will also be hard to get.

Responding to the ruling, Trump announced new global tariffs of 10 per cent for an initial 150-day period and acknowledged it was not clear if or when there would be any refunds.

Steve Ovara, chair of the International Trade Practice Group at law firm King & Spalding, said companies his firm advised, from large US manufacturers to consumer and technology groups, mostly expected any ⁠relief from tariffs to be short-lived.

“The major issue everybody’s going to be dealing with for ‌at least the short term ​is some additional uncertainty,” he said.

Wolfgang Grosse Entrup, managing director of German chemicals and pharmaceutical lobby VCI, which represents firms such as BASF, Bayer and Evonik, agreed.

“Anyone who believes this means the tariff conflict is over is mistaken,” he said. 

“New tariffs based on ​a different legal basis are possible at any time.”

French ​cosmetics ​association FEBEA, which has firms such as L’Oreal as members, said it was “very cautious” ​on the ruling and would watch how the US government responded, including with potential new ‌tariffs.

“We are all used to the twists and turns on this subject of customs duties,” said FEBEA secretary-general Emmanuel Guichard.

The former wife of media titan Rupert Murdoch and mother of their children James, Elisabeth and Lachlan, has died aged 81.

Anne de Peyster, formerly Anna Murdoch, died in Palm Beach, Florida, following a long illness, according to reports in the Murdoch-owned New York Post.

In its coverage of her death, the paper said “many worlds loved Anna”.

“Devoted mother, handsome lady, sharp wit, love of writing and lifetime commitment to helping children in need.”

Ms De Peyster married real estate developer Ashton de Peyster in 2019, having divorced Rupert Murdoch two decades earlier.

Born in Scotland the eldest of four children in 1944, Ms de Peyster moved with her family to Sydney as a child.

Raised a Catholic, she attended Our Lady of Mercy College at Parramatta before finding work as a journalist.

She and Mr Murdoch married in 1967 after he divorced first wife Patricia Booker.

After working at both Sydney’s Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph, Ms de Peyster eventually served on the board of Murdoch family company, News Corporation, for eight years.

According to her Wikipedia page citing Britain’s Independent newspaper, the people who in 1969 kidnapped and killed Muriel McKay, the wife of Mr Murdoch’s deputy Alick McKay, had originally intended to kidnap her instead.

Confusion arose when the McKays used of one of Murdoch’s vehicles.

Following her divorce from Mr Murdoch, Ms de Peyster reportedly received $1.7 billion, including $110 million in cash, from the settlement.

Ms de Peyster had a Master’s degree in literature wrote three novels: In Her Own Image, Family Business and Coming to Terms.

She was also a noted philanthropist and socialite in Palm Beach and Southampton.

Ms de Peyster was also married for 17 years to financier William Mann.

She is survived by Mr de Peyster, her three children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

According to the New York Post, she died on Tuesday, surrounded by family.

US President Donald Trump says that he would ‌impose a 10 per cent global tariff for 150 days to replace some ‌of his emergency duties that were struck down in a US Supreme ‌Court ruling.

Trump said that his order would be made under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and the duties would be over and above tariffs that are currently in place.

The statute allows ‌the president ‌to ⁠impose duties of up to 15 per cent for up to ​150 days on any and all countries related to “large and serious” balance of payments issues. 

It does not require investigations or impose other procedural limits.

The Supreme Court declared illegal his broad global tariffs ⁠imposed under the International Emergency ‌Economic Powers ​Act, ruling that he had overstepped his authority under that law.

“We ​have alternatives, great ‌alternatives” Trump said. 

“Could be more money. We’ll take in ​more money and we’ll be a lot stronger for it,” Trump said of the alternative tools.

Trump said his administration ​was also initiating several Section 301 ​unfair trade practices investigations “to protect our country ‌from unfair trading practices of other countries and companies”.

Trump’s decision to lean on other statutes, including Section 122, while initiating new investigations under Section 301 had been widely anticipated. 

But the 10 per cent tariffs ​he announced Friday can only remain in effect for 150 days, ​and Section 301 ⁠investigations generally take months to complete. 

An Australian adult comedy based on a popular animated web series, that follows the antics of a “mischievous” eight-year-old boy, has been acquired by the BBC.

Deano is based on a short-form animated comedy, titled Childish Deano.

According to the BBC, the web series has reached a global audience and garnered millions of views since it first aired on social media in 2022. 

The new eight-part series, created and written by Dean Thomas and David Ferrier, follows the titular character navigating life in a “tough neighbourhood”. 

Deano has been described as having a “heart of gold” and is said to embrace everyone equally, and is clueless to the fact the “chips are stacked against him” due to his background. 

The series will follow the antics of Deano and his timid best friend, Kit, who is from “the wealthy side of town”. 

According to Screen Australia, the show is inspired by a true childhood and in the web series, creator Thomas voices the eight-year-old protagonist. 

Deano will be available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer and will also be made available to stream on Disney+. 

The series will be produced in Brisbane, Australia, and the creator of hit children’s TV show Bluey, Australian animator and director Joe Brumm, will be the script editor. 

It will be co-produced by Australian animation studio Hooligan Animation, as well as BBC Studios and 20th Television Animation. 

“I cannot wait for BBC viewers to meet Deano,” Sue Deeks, head of scripted pre-buy acquisitions at the BBC, said.

“He is such a mischievous, engaging, and irrepressible character, and the series is full of irreverent humour, warmth, and optimism – what a delight we have in store.”

US President Donald Trump will travel to China late next month a White House ‌official says, setting dates for a highly anticipated encounter amid tension between the world’s biggest economies.

Trump ‌is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of the extended visit March 31 to April 2, as the ‌two sides weigh whether to extend a trade truce that paused a tariff escalation, said the official.

“That’s going to be a wild one,” Trump told foreign leaders on Thursday about the China trip. 

“We have to put ‌on the biggest display ‌you’ve ever ⁠had in the history of China.”

The visit would be the ​leaders’ first talks since February and their first in-person visit since an October meeting in South Korea, where Trump agreed to trim tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming US soybean purchases and keeping rare earths exports flowing.

While the October meeting largely sidestepped the sensitive issue of Taiwan, ⁠in February, Xi raised US arms sales to ‌the island.

Washington ​announced its largest-ever arms sales deal with Taiwan in December, including $US11.1 billion ($A15.8 billion) in weapons that could ostensibly ​be used to ‌defend against a Chinese attack. Taiwan expects more such sales.

China views Taiwan as its own ​territory, a position Taipei rejects. 

The United States has formal diplomatic ties with China, but maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and is the island’s most important arms supplier. 

The United ​States ​is bound by law to provide Taiwan ​with the means to defend itself.

According to Trump, ‌Xi also said during the February call that he would consider further increasing soybean purchases. 

Soybeans are key because struggling US farmers are a major domestic political constituency for Trump, and China is the top consumer.

Although Trump has tagged China as the reason for several hawkish policy steps from Canada ​to Greenland and Venezuela, he has eased policy toward Beijing in the past several months in key ​areas, from tariffs to advanced ⁠computer chips and drones. 

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to China next week for talks on political and economic ties, as well as security issues.

It will be his first visit to the country since taking office.

Merz is to be received with military honours on Wednesday by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, followed by a joint lunch. 

In the afternoon, he is scheduled to hold a one-on-one meeting with President Xi.

Trade tensions between Berlin and Beijing are simmering, particularly over rare earths.

German and European manufacturers have reported shortages of these materials linked to restrictive Chinese trade policies. 

with DPA

The US Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs, handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda. 

The 6-3 decision centres on tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on nearly every other country.

It’s the first major piece of Trump’s broad agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape with the appointments of three conservative jurists in his first term. 

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.

The Republican president has been vocal about the case, calling it one of the most important in US history and saying a ruling against him would be an economic body blow to the country. 

But legal opposition crossed the political spectrum, including libertarian and pro-business groups that are typically aligned with the Republican Party. 

Polling has found tariffs aren’t broadly popular with the public, amid wider voter concern about affordability.

The Supreme Court ruling comes despite a series of short-term wins on the court’s emergency docket that have allowed Trump to push ahead with extraordinary flexes of executive power on issues ranging from high-profile firings to major federal funding cuts.

The tariff decision doesn’t stop Trump from imposing duties under other laws. 

While those have more limitations on the speed and severity of Trump’s actions, top administration officials have said they expect to keep the tariff framework in place under other authorities. 

The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy tariffs. 

But the Trump administration argued that a 1977 law allowing the president to regulate importation during emergencies also allows him to set tariffs. 

Other presidents have used the law dozens of times, often to impose sanctions, but Trump was the first president to invoke it for import taxes. 

Trump set what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries in April 2025 to address trade deficits that he declared a national emergency. 

Those came after he imposed duties on Canada, China and Mexico, ostensibly to address a drug trafficking emergency.

A series of lawsuits followed, including a case from a dozen largely Democratic-leaning states and others from small businesses selling everything from plumbing supplies to educational toys to women’s cycling apparel. 

The challengers argued the emergency powers law doesn’t even mention tariffs and Trump’s use of it fails several legal tests, including one that doomed then-President Joe Biden’s $US500 billion ($A711 billion) student loan forgiveness program. 

The economic impact of Trump’s tariffs has been estimated at some $US3 ($A4.3) trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

The Treasury has collected more than $US133 billion ($A189 billion) from the import taxes the president has imposed under the emergency powers law, federal data from December shows. 

Many companies, including the big-box warehouse chain Costco, have already lined up in court to demand refunds.