A trial which could see social media giant Meta forced to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp is set to begin in the US.

The tech giant, which also owns Facebook, faces an antitrust lawsuit from the US government which alleges the firm bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate competition, creating a social media monopoly in the process.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the acquisitions at the time but as a competition watchdog has continued to monitor the outcomes, and experts say if it wins the case and forces a sale to break up Meta, it could change the landscape of the social media sector.

Mike Proulx, vice president research director at analyst firm Forrester, said the case’s possible ramifications, and the ongoing uncertainty around the future of TikTok, could see a “new social media world order” appear.

“The ramifications of this trial, coupled with TikTok’s future in limbo, potentially puts the very core of the social media market at play. No longer would Meta be its centre of gravity,” he said.

“We haven’t seen anything like this since around 2006-2011 – social media’s earliest days.

“We’d likely see a renaissance of social media start-ups looking to grab a piece of new social media world order.”

Proulx said that, although Facebook was the original and centre pillar of Meta’s empire, it could struggle to compete as a social media power and may need to redirect its focus.

“Meta is trying to make Facebook cool again, but the company’s social media ‘insurance’ is – and has been for a while – Instagram,” he said.

“Without Instagram and WhatsApp, what really is Meta? Could Facebook seriously compete with a stand-alone Instagram? Can Threads monetise at scale? Doubtful. And the company absolutely should not hang its hat on its fledgling metaverse ambitions.

“Its AI (artificial intelligence) glasses are a bright spot, as is its broader AI work.

“That means, in a broken-up Meta, the company’s AI initiatives would usurp its social media roots.”

The trial, which begins in Washington DC on Monday, is expected to last several weeks, with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg both expected to give evidence.

Meta is not the only US tech giant under scrutiny over holding an alleged monopoly, with Google also facing the prospect of being forced to sell its Chrome web browser and break up its online search empire.

After a judge ruled that the firm does hold a monopoly in online search last year, the US Department of Justice demanded that a court require Google to sell Chrome, among other remedies to end its market dominance – a position it reiterated last month.

Teachers are pushing back on suggestions they’re to blame for Australia’s low maths proficiency, after a study questioned “faddish” classroom methods.

A Grattan Institute study found not only were students struggling with maths but many teachers lacked confidence to teach it even at a year six level.

But the teachers’ union said the institute did not understand the reality of classrooms around the nation.

Grattan called for a number of government commitments, including a long-term goal of 90 per cent numeracy proficiency on NAPLAN testing, clearer guidance to schools on teaching methods and more professional development for teachers.

The union said some of the proposals – including “beefing up school and principal reviews” and setting up an independent oversight body to drive the curriculum – were not the answer.

Instead, the focus for all curriculum areas should be on ensuring high-quality teacher education and ongoing professional development, addressing escalating workloads and fully funding public schools.

“It’s time for the Grattan Institute to leave teaching to the highly qualified and trained teaching profession,”  Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said.

Just 13 per cent of Australian year four students excelled on a 2023 international maths test, compared with 22 per cent in England, 16 per cent in Ireland and 32 per cent in Japan.

At year eight level, just 11 per cent of Australians excelled.

Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter said Australia had deprioritised maths for decades.

“Governments have also been too slow to rule out faddish but unproven maths teaching methods,” she said.

“To turn rhetoric into reality, governments need to take seriously the evidence base on how humans, including children, learn maths most effectively.”

The institute’s survey found some teachers lacked the confidence to teach year six maths, while many were concerned about their colleagues’ ability to teach the subject.

Dr Hunter said a 10-year “maths guarantee strategy” would only cost about $67 per primary school student a year.

La Trobe University education expert Joanna Barbousas said the study made it clear action was needed to halt the “numeracy crisis”.

“The lifetime impact for students who fall behind on these core skills is substantial,  affecting long-term employment, health and social outcomes and perpetuating cycles of disadvantage,” she said.

“Teachers are telling us they feel unprepared for the classroom … when half of our 15-year-olds fail to achieve national standards in maths, it’s not the students who are failing, it’s our approach to education.”

Education Minister Jason Clare pointed to the government’s funding agreements with states and said the money was tied to practical reforms, including an early years numeracy check.

“We’re also improving teacher training at university to make sure teaching students are taught the fundamentals about how to teach children to read and write and do maths and how to manage disruptive classrooms,” he said.

China’s President Xi Jinping has called for stronger ties with Vietnam on trade and supply chains amid disruptions caused by US tariffs, as he kicked off a three-nation trip to Southeast Asia in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

The visit, planned for weeks, comes as Beijing faces 145 per cent US duties, while Vietnam is negotiating a reduction of threatened US tariffs of 46 per cent that would otherwise apply in July after a global moratorium expires.

“The two sides should strengthen co-operation in production and supply chains,” Xi said in an article in Nhandan, the newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, posted ahead of his arrival on Monday.

He also urged more trade and stronger ties with Hanoi on artificial intelligence and the green economy.

“There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars, and protectionism has no way out,” Xi said, without mentioning the US specifically.

“We must firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, maintain the stability of the global industrial and supply chains, and maintain the international environment for open co-operation,” he said.

Under pressure from Washington, Vietnam is tightening controls on some trade with China to make sure goods exported to the United States with a “Made in Vietnam” label have sufficient added value in the country to justify that.

Vietnam is a major industrial and assembly hub in Southeast Asia. Most of its imports are from China while the United States is its main export market. The country is a crucial source of electronics, shoes and apparel for the United States.

Xi will visit Vietnam from April 14 to 15, and Malaysia and Cambodia from April 15 to 18. He last visited Cambodia and Malaysia nine and 12 years ago, respectively.

Xi’s trip to Hanoi, his second in less than 18 months, aims to consolidate relations with a strategic neighbour that has received billions of dollars of Chinese investments in recent years as China-based manufacturers moved south to avoid tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration.

The two Communist-run countries are set to sign about 40 agreements in multiple sectors, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son said on Saturday.

Despite strong economic ties, tensions frequently surface between the countries over contested boundaries in the South China Sea.

Vietnam’s concessions to the US to avoid tariffs may also irritate Beijing, as they include the deployment of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communication service in the Southeast Asian nation, in addition to the crackdown on some trade with China over possible fraud on rules of origin.

The two other countries on Xi’s Southeast Asia itinerary, Cambodia and Malaysia, are facing US duties of 49 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, and have already begun reaching out to the US to seek a reprieve.

China’s exports rose sharply in March after factories rushed out shipments before the latest US tariffs took effect, but an escalating Sino-US trade war has darkened the outlook for factories and growth in the world’s second-biggest economy.

US President Donald Trump has ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese goods to hefty levels that many economists say will profoundly impact global trade flows and business investment.

Exports rose 12.4 per cent year-on-year, a five-month high, handily beating 4.4 per cent growth expected in a Reuters poll of economists. Exports grew 2.3 per cent in January-February.

Trade uncertainties have rocked financial markets this month after Trump announced sweeping tariffs on many countries on April 2.

Trump unexpectedly paused the higher duties on a dozen economies days later, but slapped even stiffer levies on China that Beijing has dismissed as “a joke”.

Economists warn the March export figures will be eclipsed by a fast deteriorating outlook.

“Export growth accelerated in March, as manufacturers rushed to ship goods to the US ahead of ‘Liberation Day’,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics, in a note to clients.

“But shipments are set to drop back over the coming months and quarters.

“We think it could be years before Chinese exports regain current levels.”

Trump levied 10 per cent tariffs across all Chinese imports into the United States, effective on February 4, and followed that up with another 10 per cent in March, accusing Beijing of not doing enough to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

Washington’s fresh round of tariffs lift duties on China to an eye-watering 145 per cent, prompting Beijing to jack up levies on US goods by 125 per cent in an intensifying trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

Monday data also highlighted a soft underbelly in domestic demand in China, meaning policymakers will have their work cut out in trying to guard against any sharp trade downturn.

Inbound shipments fell 4.3 per cent, compared with a 2.0 per cent decrease forecast in a Reuters poll, and an unexpectedly steep contraction of 8.4 per cent at the start of the year.

Markets in China were up modestly, but much of the activity was linked to mixed messages from Trump over the weekend regarding exemptions on smartphones and other electronics. China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index climbed 0.3 per cent.

China’s March trade surplus was $US102.64 billion ($A162.83 billion), down slightly from $US104.8 billion in December, the most recent comparable reading.

More importantly, China’s trade surplus with the United States in the first quarter came in at $US76.6 billion, up from $US70.2 billion a year earlier.

This will likely keep the production powerhouse in Trump’s sights given that improving the trade gap is at the top of his agenda.

Beijing has vowed to fight US tariffs to the end and protect the economy from “external shocks”, with markets widely expecting authorities to roll out further fiscal and monetary stimulus measures in coming months to underpin growth.

An increase in violent attacks on tobacconists could put further pressure on overworked emergency departments, a peak medical body warns, as authorities play “whack-a-mole” on the lucrative trade.

Queensland is the latest state to experience a rise in firebombings and ram raids on tobacconists as illegal sales ramp up across Australia.

There have been more than 100 firebombings in Victoria in two years while seven men have been arrested across Sydney over the theft of illegal cigarettes and chop-chop, or loose tobacco, in the past year.

It is believed the attacks and thefts are a result of ongoing wars between criminal gangs over illegal tobacco profits.

Peak health body the Australian Medical Association Queensland is concerned the rise of the illegal trade will make tobacco cheaper and easier to buy.

“We are also concerned that a growing black market could see increased violence leading to avoidable emergency department presentations and pressure on our doctors and nurses,” president Nick Yim told AAP.

Dr Yim has thrown his support behind the Queensland government’s recent hike in fines for individuals and companies caught selling illegal tobacco.

Individuals can be fined $32,260, up from $3226, and corporations can be slapped with $161,300, up from $16,130.

It follows laws introduced in September enabling authorities to close offending businesses for up to six months – a penalty no other state has introduced.

The strict legislation included extra investment in Queensland Health officers to stamp out black market operators selling vapes but Dr Yim said the same funding was needed for illegal tobacco enforcement.

“We urge (the government) to back the laws with adequate enforcement,” he said.

There are 5000 retailers in Queensland with hundreds more estimated to be selling illegal tobacco, Health Minister Tim Nicholls told ABC Radio on Monday.

There have been 36 raids across the state in April, with 820,000 cigarettes, 180kg of tobacco and 24,000 nicotine pouches seized.

“As soon as these pop-up shops open up and are closed by our hard-working teams, they open up yet again in another location,” Mr Nicholls said. 

“It’s a bit of a whack-a-mole game at the moment, but we’ve got to attack it.”

Mr Nicholls hoped increasing the fines tenfold would “break the back” of the illegal tobacco trade but said a combined effort with federal authorities was required to stop product from entering the country.

Shadow health spokesman Mark Bailey said the federal Labor government was pouring funds into cracking down on the illegal tobacco market.

“This is a national issue that requires a national response, which is why the Albanese Labor government’s $156.7 million investment to tackle the tobacco black market is so critical,” he told AAP.

The federal government announced in March it would pump $157 million into federal health, crime and tax agencies across two years to strengthen enforcement and target crime gangs.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says US tariffs have the potential to disrupt the global economic order, issuing his strongest warning to date about the damage President Donald Trump’s decisions could inflict on the world economy.

But he stressed Japan will seek common ground with the US on how the two countries can co-operate on issues ranging from trade and national security.

“In negotiating with the United States, we need to understand what’s behind Trump’s argument both in terms of the logic and the emotional elements behind his views,” Ishiba told parliament on Monday.

“I am fully aware that what’s happened so far has the potential to disrupt the global economic order,” he said.

Ishiba also said the government is not thinking of issuing a supplementary budget now but stood ready to act in a timely fashion to cushion the economic blow from US tariffs.

The remarks come ahead of the start of bilateral trade talks on Thursday that are expected to cover themes ranging from tariffs and non-tariff barriers to exchange rates.

In the latest back-and-forth on tariff pronouncements, Trump said on Sunday that he would be announcing the tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week.

Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s top negotiator on trade talks with the US, said any discussion on currency rates will be held between Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Both countries share the view that excessive market volatility would have adverse effects on the economy,” Kato told parliament.

As major parties push big-ticket election pledges on housing and tax offsets, an economist warns of an “over-the-top” spend-a-thon that will do little to improve the budget bottom line.

Labor and the coalition have unveiled policies costing billions of dollars to boost housing supply in the coming years while offering incentives for first homebuyers in the interim.

Voters have also been promised a one-off tax offset of up to $1200 under the coalition, while Labor has pledged instant tax deductions of $1000.

The measures would cost $10 billion and $2.4 billion respectively.

But AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said the big-spending policies were at odds with previous pledges from the major parties to maintain fiscal responsibility.

“It’s all inconsistent with spending restraint or getting the budget back under control and it seems over-the-top this time around,” he told AAP.

“Major parties should be resisting the temptation to spend more.

“If they are going to provide tax relief, it should be on a permanent, logical basis rather than arbitrary sugar hits.”

The major announcements came at coalition and Labor campaign launches on Sunday, a week before pre-poll voting begins.

Touring a housing development in Adelaide on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended his plan to allow people to secure a mortgage with only a five per cent deposit with the government going guarantor.

He’s also pledged 100,000 new homes solely for first homebuyers under a $10 billion plan if Labor is re-elected on May 3.

“These two policies will make a significant difference to increasing supply but also importantly, to getting first homebuyers and particularly young Australians into their first home,” Mr Albanese said.

With housing a critical issue among voters, the coalition announced it would allow interest payments on the first $650,000 of a mortgage for new houses to be tax deductible for first homebuyers.

That could save the average first homebuyer $10,000 a year.

The plan has found few friends among economists, who say it would disproportionately benefit high-income earners, push up house prices by increasing demand, and blow a hole in the federal budget.

But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton remains adamant it will incentivise housing supply as builders would be confident they had a buyer at the end of construction.

It’s on top of the coalition’s $5 billion kitty to unlock hundreds of thousands of homes by providing critical infrastructure to quicken builds.

The deductions are the “missing pieces of the picture”, Mr Dutton said in Brisbane, where the coalition is trying to win back seats from the Greens.

“To allow support for young people to get the finance in the first place so that the banks will lend them the money and importantly obviously to be able to service the loan, to make the repayments,” he said.

Tori Gibson, who is in her 30s, said she didn’t think she would ever be able to afford to buy her own home without an inheritance.

She said the coalition’s offer of tax-deductible repayments would probably be the better long-term solution for first homebuyers, but neither proposal solved the underlying problem.

“Essentially, we need more houses, that’s really what we need,” she said.

Dr Oliver said the rollout of large campaign promises did not send a good message after the major parties pledged to work to bring the budget into better shape.

“I can see why they want to (implement big-spending policies) because they want to be elected,” he said.

“It’s almost as if the pandemic has unleashed out-of-control spending by both sides of policies and taken spending to record highs.”

Donald Trump will announce the tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week, but there will be flexibility with some companies in the sector.

The US president’s pledge means the exclusion of smartphones and computers from his reciprocal tariffs on China likely will be short-lived as Trump looks to reset trade in the semiconductor sector.

“We wanted to uncomplicate it from a lot of other companies, because we want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he travelled back to Washington on Sunday from his estate in West Palm Beach.

Trump declined to say whether some products such as smartphones might still end up being exempted, but added: “You have to show a certain flexibility. Nobody should be so rigid.”

Earlier in the day, Trump announced a national security trade probe into the semiconductor sector.

“We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations,” he posted on social media.

The White House had announced the exclusions from steep reciprocal tariffs on Friday, creating some hope that the tech industry might escape being ensnared in the escalating conflict between the two nations and that everyday consumer products such as phones and laptops would remain affordable.

However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, made clear that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.

Trump’s back-and-forth on tariffs last week triggered the wildest swings on Wall Street since the COVID pandemic of 2020. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down more than 10 per cent since Trump took office on January 20.

Lutnick said Trump would enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computers and other electronics products in a month or two, alongside sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. 

The new duties would fall outside Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, under which levies on Chinese imports climbed to 125 per cent last week, he said.

“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in an interview on ABC’s This Week, predicting the levies would bring production of those products to the US.

Beijing increased its own tariffs on US imports to 125 per cent on Friday in response. On Sunday, before Lutnick’s comments, China said it was evaluating the impact of the exclusions for the technology products implemented late on Friday.

“The bell on a tiger’s neck can only be untied by the person who tied it,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s run for president but who has criticised the tariffs, called on him to pause the broad and steep reciprocal tariffs on China for three months, as Trump did for most countries last week.

If Trump paused Chinese tariffs for 90 days and cut them to 10 per cent temporarily, “he would achieve the same objective in causing US businesses to relocate their supply chains from China without the disruption and risk”, Ackman wrote on X.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes excluded from the import taxes. It featured 20 product categories, including computers, laptops, disc drives, semiconductor devices, memory chips and flat panel displays.

Australian shares have started the week on a positive note after the latest White House tariff surprise, following days of market turbulence.

The S&P/ASX200 has lifted 82 points, or 1.07 per cent, to 7,726, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 80.8 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 7,934.5.

“In an effort to reduce disruption and likely preparing to impose a new sectoral tariff, the Trump administration exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from its reciprocal tariffs,” Westpac senior economist Mantas Vanagas said.

“Materially benefiting big US tech firms whose supply chains run through Asia.”

The improvement in local stocks follows a Wall Street rally on Friday, with the S&P500 up 1.81 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rallying 1.63 per cent as futures point to gains extending in Monday trade.

Markets whipsawed during the previous week as the US launched, delayed and expanded tariffs, fuelling a tit-for-tat trade war with China that resulted in steep duties on goods flowing between the two massive economies.

Ten of 11 local sectors were trading higher on Monday, led by a 1.9 per cent surge in materials stocks and a 1.5 per cent boost to real estate stocks, after the federal government and opposition pitched their housing policies to voters over the weekend.

After grinding lower during most of April’s tariff chaos, iron ore miners BHP and Fortescue were both gaining more than two per cent on Monday as Rio Tinto lifted 1.1 per cent.

Miners were leading the top-200, with Westgold up more than five per cent as the precious metal again hovers below yet another all-time high, after breaking above $US3,240 an ounce last week.

Whitehaven Coal and Nickel Industries also notched more than three per cent gains.

Energy stocks were up 0.7 per cent, thanks in part to an improvement in oil prices as markets considered the impact of the tariff exemption for electronics, which account for roughly 23 per cent of US imports from China.

Positive US-Iran talks on Tehran’s nuclear program also helped settle crude prices, with Brent futures trading at $US62.65, up from just above $US60 on Friday afternoon.

Financial stocks were a mixed bag, edging 0.2 per cent higher as CBA as Westpac eked out a 0.6 per cent gain, ANZ was up 0.4 per cent and NAB grinded 0.2 per cent higher. Macquarie Group was down 2.2 per cent.

The Australian dollar has been gaining ground on the greenback after selling off last week, as the US-China tariff battle weighed on Beijing’s growth expectations.

The Aussie is buying 63.08 US cents, up from 62.02 US cents on Friday at 5pm.

Looking ahead for the week, the Reserve Bank will release its April meeting minutes tomorrow, and Australian unemployment data is due on Thursday.

Investors will be looking to US first-quarter earnings for a sense of company expectations in the coming months, along with any updates from progressing trade partner negotiations.

US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is due to speak overnight on Thursday, which will be closely watched for clues to the central bank’s next interest rate move in a rapidly evolving macroeconomic environment.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for stronger industrial and supply chain co-operation with Vietnam and wider collaboration in emerging fields, amid heightened trade tensions prompted by hefty US tariffs.

Xi starts a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia this week, beginning with Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday, and Malaysia and Cambodia from Tuesday to Friday.

The trip aims to consolidate economic ties with some of China’s closest neighbours at a time when the world’s top two economies are locked in a tariff tussle.

The visit comes as Beijing faces 145 per cent US duties and after China hiked its levies on imports of US goods to 125 per cent on Friday, hitting back at US President Donald Trump’s decision to single out the world’s number two economy for higher duties.

Xi also urged strengthening co-ordination and co-operation through regional initiatives such as the East Asia Co-operation and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, the Chinese foreign ministry said, citing an article by the Chinese leader published in Vietnam media.

He called such efforts necessary to “inject more stability and positive energy into a chaotic and intertwined world”.

“There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars, and protectionism has no way out,” Xi said, without mentioning the US specifically.

“We must firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, maintain the stability of the global industrial and supply chains, and maintain the international environment for open co-operation,” he said.

Last week, China sought to get ahead of US negotiators, holding video calls with the EU and Malaysia, which is chairing ASEAN this year, as well as Saudi Arabia and South Africa, by way of reaching out to Gulf countries and the Group of 20 and BRICS nations.

In hope of avoiding punishing US tariffs, Vietnam is prepared to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped to the US via its territory and will tighten controls on sensitive exports to China, according to a person familiar with the matter and a government document seen by Reuters.

In the article, Xi said China welcomes more high-quality imports from Vietnam and encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest and start businesses in the Southeast Asian country.

Both countries should expand co-operation in emerging fields such as 5G, artificial intelligence and green development, the article said.