The FBI has searched an election office outside Atlanta, Georgia, pursuing US President Donald Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the ​result of widespread voting fraud.

The FBI said in a brief statement its agents executed a warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Centre in Union City, a large, warehouse-like facility opened by Georgia ⁠officials in 2023, and called it a “court-authorised law enforcement activity”.

The warrant “sought a number of records related to 2020 elections”, the Fulton County government said in a brief statement.

The FBI agents were looking to seize computers and ballots they believed were held at the facility as part of an investigation into possible election interference, a law enforcement official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The search was conducted a week after Trump reiterated during comments in Davos, Switzerland, his longstanding and debunked claim the 2020 voting “was a rigged election”.

“People will soon be prosecuted for what they did,” Trump said in Davos.

FBI director ‌Kash Patel was appointed ​to his post by Trump in 2025.

Joe Biden, a Democrat, won Georgia and defeated Trump, a Republican who was seeking re-election in 2020. Trump returned to the ‍presidency for a second term in 2025 after winning the 2024 election.

The Trump administration separately began a lawsuit in December to get hold of Fulton County’s 2020 ballots.

In the suit, the administration said the ballots and other records being sought were in the custody of the Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta. It was not clear where the ballots were being stored.

The administration has asked a federal judge to order Che Alexander, Fulton County’s court clerk, to hand over “physical ballots, stubs and absentee ballot envelopes for the 2020 General Election”.

Alexander in January asked the court to dismiss ​the lawsuit, noting the ballots she holds are under seal under state law, and the administration ‌should instead ask the county Superior Court for an order to unseal them. Alexander did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic-leaning county is home to Atlanta, Georgia’s biggest city, and backed Biden by a wide margin in ​the 2020 election.

Trump unsuccessfully sought to overturn the 2020 election result, pressuring Georgia’s top election official to “find” votes that would allow him to claim victory.

Several reviews and a hand ‍audit of ballots confirmed Biden narrowly won the state.

Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis in 2023 obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

That case was dismissed in November after courts barred Willis and her office from pursuing it because of an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a prosecutor she had hired to lead the case.

Under Trump, the Justice Department has also sued several states besides Georgia, demanding they turn over large volumes of voter data.

States have challenged the demands as an unconstitutional infringement on their authority to manage elections. A few judges have tossed out the lawsuits, most recently this week in Oregon.

A succession of people who have criticised Trump or resisted his agenda have found themselves investigated by the Justice Department, led by Trump appointee Pam Bondi, in the past year.

The department unsuccessfully tried to prosecute former FBI director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who both led previous investigations into Trump.

It also brought charges against former national security adviser John Bolton, a prominent Trump critic, and has opened investigations into nine Democratic lawmakers, a former CIA director and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who has resisted ‍Trump’s pressure to rapidly lower interest rates.

With AP

Poor productivity growth and persistently strong government spending will give the Reserve Bank no choice but to hike interest rates next week, economists say.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers emphatically denied the government was contributing to a resurgence in inflation, after the Reserve Bank’s preferred quarterly trimmed mean measure came in above its forecast on Wednesday.

Money markets are pricing in a three-in-four chance of a rate increase on Tuesday after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported core inflation came in at 3.4 per cent in 2025.

If the inflation spike was down to a temporary lift in a few volatile components such as electricity and travel, the Reserve Bank might be able to write it off as a transient phenomenon and wait it out.

But it was just the latest in a string of recent data showing the economy is running hotter than the central bank expected in November, following strong jobs and household spending figures.

Ultimately, the resurgence in inflation was a result of Australia’s economy running above its speed limit, which has fallen as a result of anaemic productivity growth, HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said.

“The question is, how are we going to get the economy to slow down? And the answer is, the RBA is going to have to lift interest rates to make that happen,” he told AAP.

“But it’s not a particularly pleasant story, because the economy is not growing particularly quickly.”

While Dr Chalmers has made boosting productivity growth a priority of this term of government, lifting the economy’s supply capacity will take time.

A good example is the rise of housing costs, with rents up 3.9 per cent and new dwelling costs up three per cent.

The Reserve Bank is particularly considered about the price of shelter, as it makes up a large component of the CPI basket and is stickier than other items.

Demand responds quickly, as evidenced by the surge in applications for the government’s expanded first-homebuyer deposit guarantee scheme.

But supply responds much longer, as evidenced by dwelling completions continuing to lag new home targets.

Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien laid the blame squarely at the government’s feet.

“While the treasurer is desperate to shift the blame, there is no doubt this Jimflation crisis is homegrown,” he said.

But Dr Chalmers said the rise in inflation was the result of a strong recovery in private spending, not a reflection of public spending.

“Public final demand growth went down, not up, over the past year when it comes to contribution made to our economy,” he said.

But Treasury forecasts government spending will hit 27 per cent of GDP this financial year, which would be the highest level since the 1980s, outside the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though private demand is gaining strength, blow-outs in public spending were crowding out the private sector, Mr Bloxham said.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver also said government spending was contributing to higher inflation.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry policy and advocacy chief David Alexander called for the government to bring public spending to less than 25 per cent of GDP.

Not everyone was convinced that a rate hike was necessary.

Deutsche Bank chief economist Phil O’Donaghoe said there was too much focus on the legacy quarterly trimmed mean, and the statistic bureau’s newer monthly measure revealed a definite downward trend.

“We do not see a compelling case for a rate hike in February,” he said.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is pushing for reunion talks with the Nationals after their spectacular break-up, but the meeting won’t happen straight away because of an impending leadership spill.

Ms Ley wrote to her Liberal colleagues on Wednesday, saying she had asked for a meeting with Nationals leader David Littleproud and other senior party officials, “without any preconditions and as a priority”.

The opposition leader said it was in the national interest to maintain a “strong and functioning relationship between the two parties, regardless of whether they are in a formal coalition”.

Liberal sources have told AAP Ms Ley still holds hopes of uniting the coalition after its messy divorce last week.

But if a meeting happens between the leaders, it won’t be until next week at the earliest, because Mr Littleproud is staring down an impending challenge to his leadership.

Mr Littleproud issued a statement on Wednesday night saying a time would be scheduled to meet with Ms Ley, “once the spill motion is determined in our party room meeting”.

That gathering is slated for Monday afternoon.

Mr Littleproud said it was important to “respect the process” of the leadership spill.

Ms Ley said the Liberals would talk to “whoever the Nationals elect as their leader, because whether we are in a coalition or not, it is our responsibility to hold the Albanese government to account”.

Queensland Nationals MP Colin Boyce has declared he will challenge Mr Littleproud for the party’s leadership when politicians return to Canberra next week.

“The National Party is committing political suicide by removing itself from the coalition,” he told Sky News.

“(If my colleagues) follow the course they’re on now, we are going over the political cliff.”

But insiders believe the push to unseat Mr Littleproud is unlikely to succeed because the rogue MP does not have the numbers.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who has previously challenged Mr Littleproud for the party’s top job, said the attempt to roll his leader came as a surprise.

“This was news to me,” he told AAP.

“I won’t be supporting the spill. I think now is the time for cooler heads to prevail.”

The former cabinet minister also raised hopes of a reunification between the Liberals and Nationals.

“Everybody would like to see us get back together,” he said.

“The disagreement we had last week is in the past.”

Other Nationals have struck a more defiant tone after the split, which was triggered by a disagreement over hate speech laws.

In a video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie declared the party was “never going to fold on our principles”.

“It’s not who we are, and it’s not what we do,” she said.

Mr Littleproud defended his time as leader, saying the party had held all its lower house seats at the last election.

“I stand by my record as leader of The Nationals and what our party room has achieved, through important policy work and standing up for regional, rural and remote Australia,” he said in a statement.

Australians are being warned an ongoing heatwave in many parts of the nation is a public health emergency and lives are at risk.

From Queensland to South Australia, states are roasting in an extended heatwave that has shattered records as the mercury soars towards 50C in many areas.

Severe to extreme inland heatwave conditions in the inland are expected to persist into the weekend before easing.

The prolonged and frequent heatwaves needed to be treated as a public health emergency, health expert Kate Charlesworth said.

“Heat is a silent killer,” said Dr Charlesworth, from the Climate Council.

“It has killed more Australians than all other extreme weather events combined – with more than 1000 lives taken during heatwaves between 2016 and 2019.”

Extreme heat warnings have been issued for Victoria, NSW, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT.

Locations likely to be impacted include Broken Hill and Bourke in NSW, Roxby Downs and Marree in South Australia expected to reach 49C, Birdsville and Thargomindah in Queensland as well as Canberra and Belconnen in the ACT.

The severity of Victoria’s heatwave, where bushfires have been raging, is comparable to previous ones in January 2009 and January 1939, the Bureau of Meteorology’s David Crook said.

Data from the bureau shows a long-term increase in heatwave frequency and intensity particularly since the year 2000 because of climate change.

Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch said the state would get eight consecutive days with temperatures above 40C.

Victoria smashed its own heat record as Walpeup in the state’s north hit 48.9C on Tuesday.

It has also been a particularly scorching week for Wilcannia in northwest NSW with temperatures hitting more than 47C for three days in a row and predicted to reach the same mark on Thursday.

The NSW Rural Fire Service has issued a total fire ban for the Northern Slopes region for Thursday amid a forecast for hot, dry and windy conditions.

The fire ban, which begins at midnight, covers Gunnedah, Gwydir, Inverell, Liverpool Plains and Tamworth.

Shares in Australia’s biggest oil and gas producer have climbed to their highest level in seven weeks after the Perth-based company beat guidance with a record year of gas production.

Woodside Energy shares on Wednesday finished at $24.98, up 2.7 per cent from Tuesday and their highest level since December 9.

Preliminary figures show Woodside produced 198.8 million barrels of oil or oil equivalent in 2025, beating guidance of 192 million to 197 million barrels.

Interim chief executive Liz Westcott said the performance was driven by sustained production at Woodside’s Sangomar gas field off the coast of Senegal and its Pluto LNG plant in WA operating at 100 per cent reliability in the second half of the year.

Production dipped four per cent in the fourth quarter, driven by bad weather and lower demand from Australia’s east coast, Woodside said.

Analysts Nik Burns at Jarden and Saul Kavonic at MST Marquee said it was a strong production result for Woodside.

Woodside reported revenue of $US3.04 billion ($4.4 billion) in the December quarter, up from $3.48 billion ($4.97 billion) a year ago and beating consensus estimates of $US2.84 billion ($4.06 billion).

But Woodside said it expected production to drop in 2026, as it would have to take its Pluto plant on the Burrup Peninsula offline to prepare it for processing output from the Scarborough gas field. 

It forecast production of just 172 million to 186 million barrels.

The controversial Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia is now 94 per cent complete, on track and on budget, Woodside said, while indicating it wouldn’t meet its most optimistic schedule to begin operations.

The $18.6 billion project would produce its first gas in the fourth quarter of 2026, Woodside said, which was at the tail end of the previous schedule of the second half of the year.

A massive semi-submersible platform known as a floating production unit arrived at the site 375km off Karratha in mid-January after being slowly towed from China – a voyage that took two months.

Once operational, the Scarborough project will provide up to eight million tonnes of LNG for export a year, as well as up to 225 terajoules of gas per day for domestic consumption.

It had been fiercely opposed by environmentalists for its emissions impact but survived court challenges.

Woodside also reiterated on Wednesday that it planned to appoint a new chief executive in the first quarter to replace Meg O’Neill, who resigned on December 18 to take a similar role at BP.

Germany’s Puma and ‍fierce rival Adidas have their roots in the very same house where brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler launched their shoe business a century ago, before a major fall-out between the siblings split ​the company in two.

From the split of the original company Geda, Rudolf founded Ruda – later renamed Puma – while Adolf founded Adidas. The two firms’ headquarters remain just a short walk from ⁠each other in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach.

Now Puma is set to come under the wings of China’s top sportswear firm Anta, which would become its biggest shareholder in a $US1.8 billion deal aimed at turning around one of Europe’s most iconic sports brands that has fallen sharply from grace.

Puma, with its leaping wildcat logo, has struggled to win consumers to its sportswear and Speedcat sneakers, even as Adidas has streaked ahead with its retro Terrace shoes – widening a sales gap between the two firms.

“Puma became … too dependent on maybe lifestyle products rather than performance sports ‌shoes, which really drove ​this industry,” said Morningstar analyst David Swartz, adding its lower revenues meant it had less to spend on star names boosting the brand.

“So they don’t ‍have the visibility.”

Puma was the No.3 in sportswear after Nike and Adidas until recent years, competing to churn out cool sneakers and win top athletes and soccer-team sponsorships. But as newer brands like On Running and Hoka grew, Puma fell off the pace.

“Puma has become too commercial, overexposed in the wrong channels, with too many discounts,” Puma’s CEO Arthur Hoeld, formerly sales chief at arch-rival Adidas, said in October.

The Anta deal for the 29 per cent stake held by the Pinault family behind Gucci-owner Kering, could give the firm an opportunity to regain ​some ground lost – including in China.

“We have ‌a lot of insight how to make Puma more successful in China,” Wei Lin, global vice president for sustainability and investor relations at Anta, told Reuters. “It is one of the most valuable brands in this industry.”

The Anta ​deal values Puma at some $US6.2 billion. Its enterprise value is around one times its forecast sales for 2027 using Visible Alpha analyst estimates, relatively cheap compared to rivals including ‍Adidas, Nike and Swiss firm On.

Puma, founded in 1948, has a long history of outfitting athletes with track spikes and soccer boots, then made in its Herzogenaurach factory and now mostly sourced from factories in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

While Adidas boomed, Puma climbed too and its stock hit a peak of 115 euros ($A197) ​in ​late 2021. Since then, though, it’s slid, losing 80 per cent of its value. ​Its market cap on Tuesday was 3.2 billion euros, an eighth of the size ​of Adidas.

Trade war uncertainties have hit the retail sector as a whole in recent years, but Puma has particularly suffered.

It has been under pressure as sportswear competition intensified and its recent sneaker launches, including the Speedcat, have been overshadowed by Adidas’ Samba and other “terrace” shoes – retro models inspired by soccer fans’ footwear in the 1970s and 1980s.

CEO Hoeld, in charge since July last year, announced in October a turnaround plan aiming to cut 900 corporate jobs, to discount less, improve marketing and reduce its product range.

Felix Dennl, retail analyst at German bank Metzler, said Adidas had put pressure on Puma by getting a “head start” on sneakers.

“Adidas was a first mover in capitalising on the retro sneaker trend, roughly six months before Puma,” he said.

“This not only allowed Adidas ‍to get a head start… but also transfer the brand heat generated across lifestyle footwear into performance franchises.”

Reuters

China is flagging new economic sanctions for Australia if the Albanese government goes ahead with a plan to take back control of the Port of Darwin.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged during the 2025 federal election to return the port to Australian hands, despite it being under a 99-year lease to the Chinese company Landbridge.

Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian said there had been talks between the two governments and his nation was “watching closely”.

“If anything happens, like the port will be taken back by force or forceful measures, then we have obligation to take measures to protect the Chinese company’s issues. This is our position,” he told reporters at the Chinese Embassy in Canberra on Wednesday.

“Should Landbridge be forced to leave that port, I think it might also affect the substantive investment co-operation trade between Chinese companies with that part of Australia.

“That is not in any interest of Australia.”

Mr Xiao said he hoped the situation would not get to a stage where “the Chinese side has to do something”.

China last imposed trade sanctions on Australian products in 2020 after the previous Morrison government called for an inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beijing progressively removed the sanctions worth $20 billion after Labor came to office in 2022.

The port was leased in 2015 by the Northern Territory government to the Chinese-owned company, which immediately raised concerns about one of Australia’s most strategic assets.

Both Labor and the coalition promised to bring the port back to Australian ownership during the election campaign.

Mr Albanese reiterated his pledge in Darwin on Tuesday, with a deal yet to be finalised.

“There are commercial negotiations and those commercial negotiations are continuing,” he said.

Assistant Defence Minister Peter Khalil said the national security committee was assessing the port.

“There’ll be announcements made from the government when the time is right,” he told ABC News on Wednesday.

Australian National University associate professor Graeme Smith said Mr Albanese was unlikely to be taking this step solely for political gain, but noted a “performative element”.

“China will have to do something if we (Australia) take back the Port of Darwin and trade sanctions do look the most likely to happen now,” he told AAP.

Mr Xiao said Australia and China were “friends not adversaries” but issued a warning over Taiwan.

“We’re somewhat flexible in managing some of the issues or differences in our two countries, for example, trade relations … but Taiwan is not a question that we can compromise or be flexible,” he said.

Beijing considers Taiwan, a self-governed democracy, to be a part of its territory.

In a joint communique in 1972, Australia “acknowledges” the position of the Chinese government, but stops short of accepting Beijing’s claim to Taiwan.

Australia does not recognise Taiwan as a country, but maintains unofficial contact.

The dollar was on the ropes near ‍multi-year lows on Wednesday after investors sold it aggressively when US President Donald Trump seemed to shrug off its recent decline, ​while Wall Street marched on to fresh record highs.

The dollar’s dive has hoisted the euro over $US1.20 ($A1.72) for the first time since 2021, ⁠sent the Australian dollar above 70 cents to a three-year high and lifted gold and commodity prices, which are counted in dollars, sharply.

The ailing yen shot further away from recent lows, before trade steadied in the early hours of the Asia session.

“Dollar’s doing great,” Trump had replied, when a reporter asked him if he thought it had fallen too much lately.

Ahead ‌of the comment, ​the dollar had notched its biggest three-day drop since the fallout from last April’s tariff blitz, and ‍markets were unnerved by Trump’s erratic Greenland diplomacy and signals the US was willing to help Japan to boost the yen.

“FX market participants are always looking for a trend to jump on,” said Steve Englander, head of global G10 currency research at Standard Chartered in New York.

“Often officials push back against abrupt currency moves but when the President expresses indifference or even endorses ​the move it emboldens USD sellers to keep pushing.”

Last week the ‌New York Federal Reserve checked prices for the dollar’s rate against the yen, a source told Reuters at the time, which the market took as ​a signal that US authorities wouldn’t mind and may even help if Japan pushed the yen higher.

A turbulent first ‍year of Trump’s second term already had the dollar slide more than 9.0 per cent in 2025 – the largest fall since 2017 – as his attacks on the Federal Reserve’s independence, his spending and foreign policy unsettled investors.

The weaker ​dollar ​helped gold strike a fresh record of $US5,188.95 ($A7,443.31) an ounce ​overnight and US crude to break through its 200-day moving ​average for the first time in six months to $US62.54 ($A89.71) a barrel.

Bitcoin has largely missed out on the rally and remains pinned below $US90,000 ($A129,101). Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were a fraction higher in Tokyo at 4.237 per cent.

On Wall Street, health insurers plunged as the Trump administration proposed a much smaller rise in government payouts to insurers than investors had expected.

The S&P 500, however, rose 0.4 per cent to a record closing high and futures inched 0.1 per cent higher in Asia.

Around regional markets Australian shares made small gains, South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 1.7 per cent to ‍a record high and Japan’s Nikkei, which tends to move inversely to the yen, fell ​0.7 per cent.

David Littleproud will face a challenge for the leadership of the Nationals when parliament resumes.

Backbench MP Colin Boyce, who represents the Queensland electorate of Flynn, said he would launch a spill motion against Mr Littleproud in the coming week.

The move, announced on Wednesday, followed the Nationals walking away from their coalition partnership with the Liberals over hate-speech laws.

Mr Boyce will run for the leadership of the party at a meeting due to take place on Monday.

He said the coalition needed to reunite.

“The reality is, (if) they follow the course they’re on now, we are going over the political cliff,” he told Sky News.

Israel’s president Isaac Herzog will make a five-day visit to Australia for talks with federal leaders and will meet with survivors of the Bondi terror attack.

Mr Herzog, who was invited by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to Australia in the aftermath of the terror shootings, will visit from February 8 to February 12.

“President Herzog will visit Jewish communities across Australia to express solidarity and offer strength to the community in the aftermath of the attack,” a statement from his office released overnight said.

“A central part of the visit will be dedicated to official meetings with senior Australian leaders, including the governor general and the prime minister of Australia, as well as with leaders across the political spectrum.”

During the terror attack a father and son opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people.

The Israeli president’s visit, which was announced by Mr Albanese following the shooting, prompted legal groups to urge the Australian Federal Police to investigate Mr Herzog for allegedly inciting genocide.

A UN Human Rights Council inquiry examining the war in Gaza found comments made by the president following the October 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel were evidence of genocidal intent.

The president has denied the allegations and has said the remarks were taken out of context.

Calls were also made by the Labor Friends of Palestine group to rescind the Israeli president’s invitation.

Confirmation of Mr Herzog’s visit comes as former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison told an anti-Semitism conference Australian Islamic preachers should be subject to accreditation following the Bondi attack.

He also called for sermons to be translated into English and for there to be a crackdown on links to foreign Islamist groups.

“Some will seek to characterise these remarks as hostile to Australia’s Islamic community, and even multiculturalism itself, trolling out the usual accusations of Islamophobia,” Mr Morrison said in the speech.

“To the contrary, I am advocating reforms I believe will help religious leaders in our Islamic community keep the wolves from their flock.

“After December 14, all options to combat anti-Semitism must be on the table without fear or favour. This includes how Islam is practised and governed in Australia.”

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said the ideas put forward by Mr Morrison had merit.

“Unfortunately, there has been a mutation of Islam in Australia and other Western countries where they have sought to kill other citizens, not just Jewish people, but other citizens,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

“That’s something that needs to be completely removed from our society.

“We have to make sure we are not in a situation where religious teachings are inciting violence.”

But Labor minister Pat Conroy said the calls from the former prime minister would do little to improve social cohesion in the community.

“I found the entire approach really problematic and troubling … we’ve been very clear about these acts were committed by people who believed an extreme perversion of Islam,” he told ABC Radio.

“To try and hold the entire Islamic community responsible for these acts, I think is anti social cohesion. It’s incredibly unfair and it’s not a recipe for taking this country forward.”