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.

Barcelona’s towering Sagrada Familia basilica has reached its maximum height, though the magnum opus of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí remains years away from completion.

A crane on Friday placed the upper arm of a cross atop the Tower of Jesus Christ, the church’s soaring central piece, which now stands 172.5 metres above the city, the church said. 

While the unfinished monument is already the world’s tallest church, with Friday’s addition, the Sagrada Familia inched closer to being done.

The first stone of the Sagrada Familia was placed in 1882, but Gaudí never expected it to be completed in his lifetime. 

Only one of its multiple towers was finished when he died at the age of 73 in 1926, after being hit by a tram.

In recent decades, work has sped up as the basilica became a major international tourist attraction with people around the world visiting Barcelona to see the monument, enthralled by Gaudí’s radical aesthetic that combines Catholic symbolism and organic forms.

The inside of the Tower of Jesus Christ is still being worked on and its exterior is flanked by construction cranes and scaffolding. 

But topping the central tower, which soars above the transept, has been a priority ahead of celebrations this June that will mark the centenary of Gaudí’s death.

The scaffolding surrounding the central tower is expected to be removed by June, in time for the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ, the church said.

As Gaudí had planned, the cross has four arms so its shape can be recognised from any direction, said Sagrada Familia’s rector, the Reverend Josep Turull. 

If Barcelona’s city government allows it, the original plan also includes a light beam shining from each of the cross’s arms, symbolising the church’s role as a spiritual lighthouse, he added.

Millions of tourists visit the Sagrada Familia every year, and entrance fees largely fund the ongoing construction. 

This year, the Sagrada Familia will hold several events to celebrate the Catalan Modernist’s legacy, which includes other stunning buildings in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain.

The Sagrada Familia became the world’s largest church last October, when it rose above the spire of Germany’s Ulmer Münster, a Gothic Lutheran church built over 347 years starting in 1543. 

That church tops out at 161.53 metres. 

A prayer verse from the Gloria that Catholics recite at mass is installed at the base of the cross installed Friday afternoon at Sagrada Familia, the church’s rector said.

It reads: “You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High.”

US economic growth slowed more than expected in the fourth quarter amid disruptions from last year’s government shutdown and a moderation in consumer spending, but ‌tax cuts and investment in artificial intelligence were expected to support activity this year.

Gross domestic product increased at ‌a 1.4 per cent annualised rate last quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its advance estimate of fourth-quarter ‌GDP on Friday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP rising at a 3.0 per cent pace.

The survey was, however, completed before data on Thursday showing the trade deficit widening to a five-month high in December.

The economy grew at a 4.4 per cent pace in the third quarter.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the government shutdown would subtract ‌1.5 percentage points ‌from fourth-quarter GDP through ⁠fewer services provided by federal workers, lower federal spending on goods and ​services and a temporary reduction in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

The CBO forecast most of the lost output would eventually be recovered, though between $US7 billion ($A10.0 billion) and $US14 billion ($A20 billion) would not.

Ahead of the release of the report, President Donald Trump posted on social media that the “Shutdown cost the USA. at least two points in GDP. That’s why they are ⁠doing it, in mini form, again. No Shutdowns! Also, LOWER ‌INTEREST ​RATES.”

The report, which was delayed by the record 43-day government shutdown, highlighted a jobless economic expansion as well as ​a “K-shaped” economy, ‌in which upper-income households are doing well while lower-income consumers are struggling amid high inflation from import tariffs ​and stalling wage growth.

Those conditions have created what economists and Trump’s opponents call an affordability crisis.

Only 181,000 jobs were added last year, the fewest outside the pandemic since the 2009 Great Recession, ​and ​down from 1.459 million in 2024.

Growth ​in consumer spending slowed from the third quarter’s brisk 3.5 per cent ‌pace.

Economists say spending has largely been driven by higher-income households and has been at the expense of saving as inflation eroded buying power.

Consumer spending could get a tailwind from what economists anticipate will be larger tax refunds this year because of tax cuts.

Economists estimated AI, including data centres, semiconductors, software and research and ​development, accounted for a third of GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2025, blunting the ​hit from tariffs and reduced ⁠immigration.

The stale report will probably have no impact on monetary policy.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pledging to break with “excessive fiscal austerity” and boost long-term investment, underlining her administration’s commitment to revitalising the economy.

At the same time, in a nod to growing ‌market concerns about Japan’s worsening finances, she vowed to set specific indicators to measure progress in getting the nation’s fiscal house in order.

Takaichi’s remarks highlight a core financial risk – her flagship spending plan must rejuvenate the world’s fourth-largest economy without triggering debt jitters that could unleash another slide in the yen and government bonds.

In a policy speech to parliament on Friday, Takaichi repeated her resolve ‌to pursue “responsible, proactive ‌fiscal policy” ⁠aimed at increasing investment in areas such as artificial intelligence, chips and shipbuilding to lift ​Japan’s potential growth.

“My administration will break with the longstanding trend of excessive fiscal austerity and chronic underinvestment for the future,” Takaichi said, adding that Japan should not hesitate to increase spending to support private investment.

Known as an advocate of loose fiscal and monetary policy, Takaichi led her ruling party to a landslide victory in a general election on February 8 ⁠with a pledge to boost spending and suspend by two ‌years a ​consumption tax on food.

Her calls for big spending and tax cuts sparked a sell-off in government bonds and ​the yen in late 2025 as investors fretted over how Japan – labouring under the developed world’s highest debt burden – would fund ​her big spending plans.

Takaichi said that to make government initiatives more predictable for firms, her administration would overhaul the way state budgets were drafted such as by promoting multi-year budgets and long-term investment funds.

In Japan, ​the ​government sets single-year budgets where expenditure is appropriated ​for one year instead of spanning several years to ensure ‌spending is scrutinised by parliament.

“For crisis-management and growth investments that generate returns exceeding the investment cost and contribute to GDP growth, we will manage them under a separate, multi-year budget framework,” she said.

“At the same time, we will not adopt reckless fiscal policies that undermine market confidence,” she said, pledging to seek revenues through cuts to some existing ​subsidies.

The government would also keep the pace of debt increase within the rate of economic growth and ​steadily lower Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio to ⁠ensure fiscal sustainability, she said, adding it would set specific indicators to measure ​progress.

Christine Lagarde expects completing her mission as president of ‌the European Central Bank will take until the end of her term, ‌she has told the Wall Street Journal, amid ‌reports of an early resignation.

“When I look back at all these years, I think that we have accomplished a lot, that I have accomplished a lot,” she said in an interview, adding, “We need to consolidate and ‌make sure that ‌this ⁠is really solid and reliable. So my baseline ​is that it will take until the end of my term.”

Lagarde’s comments come after the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that the ECB president plans to leave her job early, ahead of next year’s French presidential ⁠election, to give outgoing French leader ‌Emmanuel ​Macron a say in picking her successor.

Lagarde sent a private message ​to fellow policymakers later ‌on Wednesday, reassuring them that she was still concentrating on her ​role of leading Europe’s most important financial institution and that they would hear it from her, rather than the media, ​if ​she wanted to step ​down, sources told Reuters.

Lagarde told the Journal ‌that she views her mission as price and financial stability, as well as “protecting the euro, making sure that it is solid and strong and fit for the future of Europe”.

She also said the ​World Economic Forum was “one of the many options” she was ​considering once she left the central bank.

Australia’s tobacco commissioner has faced scrutiny over claims that changes to the cigarette excise would not curb the illegal tobacco trade.

Tensions have been rising over the excise as states and economists pressure the federal government to consider freezing the policy.

The federal tax has leapt to $1.50 a cigarette, prompting many of the nation’s 1.7 million daily smokers to turn to cheaper options on the booming black market.

While acknowledging tax is a factor in the widening price gap, Commissioner Amber Shuhyta on Friday defended turning her focus elsewhere.

The solution, she said, lay in stronger inter-agency collaboration, centralised data and intelligence sharing, and tougher legislative and licensing reforms.

“I’m trying to give a more comprehensive picture of a trustworthy source of advice for government,” Ms Shuhyta told a NSW illicit tobacco parliamentary inquiry.

“Excise has not been found, in the evidence in front of me, (to be) the sole or primary driver of this issue. If it was simple as that, I would be putting that advice to government.

“I need to hold the health outcomes of Australia at the same time as looking at excise, this isn’t purely a financial problem to solve.” 

Excise revenue has declined sharply from a peak of $16.3 billion in 2019/20, with treasury estimates at $5.5 billion for 2025/26.

A tripling in the excise rate over the past decade has pushed the average price of a pack of legal cigarettes towards $50, while a black market equivalent can be readily purchased for less than $15.

Australian cigarettes are among the least legally affordable in the world, fuelling an underworld war to control the lucrative illegal market.

It has led to 200 fire bombings, at least three murders and countless acts of intimidation and extortion, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission chief executive Heather Cook said in a November speech.

Ms Shuhyta said there was no evidence on hand that proved changing the excise would drive down the illegal trade.

“I don’t have anything to substantiate what difference the price change would make,” she said. 

“There (are) a number of countries around the world with very different excise settings but very sizeable illicit markets.”

The inquiry heard that strengthened law enforcement activity within the past year had helped curb the illegal trade.

Border Force told the inquiry officers were detecting illicit tobacco at least 50 times a day across airports and cargo ports.

More than one billion illegal cigarettes were blocked from entering Australia in the last six months of 2025.

The issue has been earmarked by new federal opposition leader Angus Taylor as a key area of policy development ahead of the 2028 election.

It follows Liberals successfully prosecuting the matter in NSW, winning bipartisan support for crackdowns on black market tobacconists and those selling under the counter.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has demanded excise cuts but is yet to convince federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers they will dampen illegal activity.

However, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher left the door open to change when asked at Senate estimates last week. 

“The government keeps all of these matters under review,” she said.

Regular excise hikes over the past three decades and other anti-tobacco measures have been credited with lowering smoking rates.

About 8.3 per cent of Australians aged over 13 smoked daily in 2023, down from 11 per cent in 2019 and less than half of 2001 rates.

A senior government minister has accused some of the Islamic State-linked women in Syria of child abuse, as the opposition demands the group be barred from returning home.

A group of 34 women and children linked to Australians who travelled to the Middle East to fight for IS have been trying to travel home from a Syrian refugee camp in recent days.

Senior Labor minister Tanya Plibersek delivered some of the strongest criticism yet of the women who took their children to the Middle East during the rise of Islamic State.

“Taking children into a war zone like this is child abuse,” she told reporters in Melbourne.

“It is important to understand the responsibility that these parents took in making this decision.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed the women have been issued with Australian passports – generally a right held by all citizens.

But additional powers should have been used to reject the the women’s passport applications, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said.

“There are powers to refuse passports, and the government has not answered the most basic questions about why those things are not being used, or to what extent they have sought to use them,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

A two-year ban on entering Australia has been imposed on one of the women because of national security concerns, and government officials have said the group could face criminal charges if they return home.

The group is believed to be made up of the partners and children of Australian men, who travelled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS before the caliphate was toppled in 2019.

The government has repeatedly claimed it is not providing any assistance to the women and children, apart from its legal obligation to give them travel documents.

Asked about the opposition’s demand to deny the group passports, senior minister Mark Butler said while the government was open to suggestions on how to deal with the situation, the provision could only be used in certain circumstances.

“The grounds are very specific and they’re very tight and they’re determined ultimately by our national security agencies,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“I’m sure Angus Taylor knows that there are very strict constitutional limits on what any government, Labor or Liberal, is able to do in the area of citizenship and passports,” Mr Butler said.

Australia’s largest chicken supplier has plucked its full-year forecast by millions of dollars after rising costs dented interim earnings, pushing its shares down by more than 16 per cent.

Inghams Group, which farms, processes, and sells chicken and turkey products, saw its first half net profit plummet by almost 65 per cent to $18.1 million – the lower end of analysts’ expectations.

Revenue for the six months from its Australian and New Zealand operations ended December 23 was flat at $1.6 billion, while underlying earnings dipped 33.8 per cent to $139.2 million, albeit better than expected.

Inghams CEO Ed Alexander said the first-half result was disappointing and reflected the cost of managing excess inventory – mainly processed chicken and turkey – and supply chain transition.

The poultry supplier also faced cost headwinds in its Australian operations, as group costs for the half rose five per cent to $69.7 million.

Cost inflation was seen across labour, ingredients and cooking oil, utilities and packaging.

Inghams also continued to move its poultry growers to performance-based contracts – a process that’s been going on for 18 months – resulting in an operating cost of $29.5 million.

“I want to emphasise that the fundamentals of our business are strengthening,” Mr Alexander told analysts on an earnings call.

“The improved inventory position has enabled a return to normal production settings, which is supporting improved unit costs.

“We have clear actions in place to reduce supply chain costs and … this implies a materially stronger second half performance relative to the first.”

Inghams sells a lot of products to supermarket giant Woolworths, which received lower volumes in the half, although this was offset by gains for other retailers.

In total, it funnelled through almost 233 kilo tonnes of chickens and turkeys in the first half, as the core net selling price increased 1.4 per cent to $6.43 per kilo – its best in at least four years.

But the core price for quick service, or fast food, restaurants fell 1.2 per cent after it struck a new supply agreement with Nandos, and after taking into account a lower price per kilo for McDonalds, which offers McWings meals.

Inghams cut its full-year underlying earnings guidance range to between $180 million and $200 million, from $215 million to $230 million previously.

But Mr Alexander said the guidance change was driven by the timing of the flow through of benefits from business changes, and he expected to see improved earnings momentum going into 2026/27.

Its share fell by more than 16 per cent in morning trading before recovering somewhat to $2.10, down 14 per cent.

Inghams will pay an interim dividend of four cents.

Shares in Mexican-themed fast food chain Guzman y Gomez have tumbled as the cost from its United States expansion grows.

The group’s statutory net profit grew almost 45 per cent to $10.6 million on revenue of $261.2 million, for the half year ended December.

Group underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a key measure of profitability, lifted 23.3 per cent to $33 million, as as sales rose by 18 per cent to $681.8 million.

The earnings figured missed the lower band of consensus estimates, which had projected a figure between $34.9 million and $35.9 million.

Weighing on the figure was a $8.3 million in its US business’ equivalent line item, as new restaurants dragged on margins.

“During the half corporate restaurant margins declined, primarily due to the opening of new restaurants,” Guzman’s chief financial officer Eric du Plessis told investors at a briefing.

“In existing restaurants, increased labour productivity was offset by temporarily elevated costs in core protein.”

However, the new sites helped boost US sales by more than two-thirds on the equivalent half to $8.2 million.

The company remained focus on driving sales and brand awareness in the US, while improving restaurant profitability.

The numbers and the reasoning weren’t enough to impress investors, which offloaded Guzman y Gomez shares down to $18.21, wiping more than 10 per cent of the company’s value in early trade on Friday.

Its core Australian business generated network sales of $673.6 million and earnings of $41.2 million.

Margins in its corporate stores (as opposed to franchise stores) were down on the equivalent half to 17.6 per cent.

“Our corporate network is still weighted to non drive through restaurants, particularly those in CBD locations, which tend to operate at lower margins and have higher delivery sales,” Australian chief executive Hilton Brett said.

“As we continue to shift the corporate portfolio toward drive-throughs, our strongest format, we expect corporate margins to strengthen.”

Some 17 new restaurants were opened during the half, including 14 in Australia, one in Singapore and two in the US, leaving it with 272 in total.

Guzman y Gomez has announced it will enter an exclusive delivery arrangement with Uber Eats, but its Australian boss couldn’t shed any light on the deal’s impact on margins.

“However, I can say that the deal is designed to drive sales over the long term, and that’s in having more offers to our guests, a more compelling value proposition, and just being more front of mind with our guests on the UE platform,” Mr Brett said.

Guzman y Gomez will pay an interim dividend of 7.4 cents.