Australia told it can lift defence spending if Europe, NATO can: White House
Anthony Albanese is on a collision course with Donald Trump after dismissing calls to increase defence spending.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The White House says Australia and other Asia-Pacific allies of the US should follow the example of NATO partners and increase defence spending in line with President Donald Trump’s demands.
Two days after NATO allies met Mr Trump’s calls to dramatically lift defence spending to five per cent of gross domestic product, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said partners outside of Europe should do the same.
“I mean look if our allies in Europe and our NATO allies can do it, I think our allies and our friends in the Asia-Pacific region can do it as well,” Ms Leavitt said.
“But as for our specific relations and discussions, I will let the President speak on those.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the call saying he would stick to the current plans endorsed by the Australian people.
The Trump administration wants Australia to boost defence spending to 3.5pc of GDP, but the current trajectory aims to reach 2.3pc in the next decade.
“What we did is we put forward our budget, we took it to an election and received … overwhelming support,” he said in Sydney.
“We continue to invest in whatever capabilities Australia needs – we’ll continue to do that.
“My job is to look after Australia’s national interest, that includes our defence and security interests, and that’s precisely what we are doing.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth last month told the Australian government to urgently lift the defence budget to 3.5 per cent of its gross domestic product.
The US President has already flagged plans to retaliate against Spain which has refused to meet his defence budget expectations, placing further pressure on Australia.
“We’re negotiating with Spain on a trade deal, we’re going to make them pay twice as much,” Mr Trump said.
“I’m actually serious about this.”
Anthony Albanese had been due to meet with the US President to discuss tariffs and the defence partnership on the sideline of the G7 last week.
However the meeting was cancelled when Mr Trump raced back to the White House to deal with the unfolding conflict in the Middle East.
Ms Leavitt said the President was yet to reschedule the meetings he had planned with other world leaders who “understood the situation”.
“And obviously that was the right call,” she said of his decision to return to Washington DC.
“But he has made up a couple of those meetings and he has had direct phone calls with some of those leaders he was supposed to meet with as well … not all.”
Mr Albanese had hoped to use the meeting with Mr Trump to discuss the trilateral AUKUS submarine deal which is currently under review by the Pentagon.
It comes days before Foreign Minister Penny Wong is due to meet with Quad partners in Washington DC.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the foreign ministers from Australia, India, and Japan for the 2025 Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting on July 1.
Mr Rubio’s office said the Quad meeting was his first diplomatic engagement after taking office. “...and next week’s summit builds on that momentum to advance a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific,” a spokesman said.
FOLLOW UPDATES BELOW:
RFK PANEL VOTES AGAINST FLU INGREDIENT TARGETED BY ANTI-VAXXERS
A newly appointed US medical panel voted to oppose the use of a vaccine ingredient long targeted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over debunked claims it causes autism.
Thimerosal, a preservative that prevents bacterial and fungal contamination in multidose vials, has been extensively studied, with authorities including the World Health Organization finding no evidence of harm beyond minor injection-site reactions.
Although the substance is now rarely used in US vaccines, the recommendations by the influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices alarmed experts, who say the move has effectively embedded talking points championed by the anti-vaccine movement into national policy.
Across three votes, his new panelists recommended that thimerosal be removed from influenza vaccines for children, pregnant women and finally all adults.
Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth University and the lone voice of dissent, said: “The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent risk as far as we know from thimerosal,” adding that he was worried about the decision’s global impact.
Although 96 percent of US flu vaccines in the 2024-2025 season did not contain thimerosal, the preservative remains important in lower income countries because they are more likely to use lower cost multidose vials that must be punctured repeatedly, raising the risk of contamination.
JOURNOS, DEMOCRATS UNDER FIRE FOR DOWNPLAYING IRAN STRIKES
US President Donald Trump has suggested that CNN and the New York Times will axe the reporters who publicly revealed a preliminary, “low confidence” Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment that Saturday’s strikes on Iran likely only set the Tehran regime’s nuclear program back by several months.
Mr Trump made the unverified claim on Truth Social, writing: “Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong.”
The president has vehemently disputed the conclusions of the DIA assessment and argued that Iran’s three facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz were “totally obliterated.”
“Lets [sic] see what happens?” Mr Trump added, without citing a source for the scuttlebutt.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press briefing Thursday morning to hit back at reporting on the DIA assessment and unveil additional information.
CNN and the New York Times have stood by their reporting amid Mr Trump’s criticism.
A network spokesperson appeared to deny Mr Trump’s claim that the cable news giant was contemplating firing the reporter who broke the news on the preliminary DIA assessment.
“We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities,” a CNN spokesperson told The Post.
“CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence,” the spokesperson added. “We do not believe it is reasonable to criticise CNN reporters for accurately reporting the existence of the assessment and accurately characterising its findings, which are in the public interest.”
The Times did not immediately respond to Mr Trump’s Truth Social blast — but issued its own statement standing by its report.
“President Trump called this ‘fake news.’ But he and his entire national security team subsequently confirmed that the Defense Intelligence Agency did in fact produce the preliminary assessment described in a report by The Times and others,” that statement read.
“So their statement was fake, not The Times’s reporting.”
Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine briefed reporters on Thursday, US time, on the strikes against Iran and provided granular details about how the GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) heavy-duty bunker buster bombs work. Gen. Caine stressed that unlike many bombs, MOPs don’t leave behind a massive crater, meaning satellite imagery of the aftermath of the strikes doesn’t necessarily paint a full picture of the damage.
The Pentagon released footage showcasing exactly how 30,000-pound heavy-duty bunker-buster bombs work such as the ones used against Iran’s nuclear sites demolished fortified targets deep underground.
The video showed a GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) crashing into a target and kicking up a massive plume of dust moments before a blinding inferno appeared in a shaft during a test detonation.
Pilots who dropped the MOPs on Iran called the blast “the brightest explosion” they ever saw, saying, “it literally looked like daylight.”
The president expressed satisfaction with the Hegseth and Kaine performance, calling it “[o]ne of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen! The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologise to our great warriors, and everyone else!”
Later on Thursday, Mr Trump said congressional Democrats leaked the intel about the strikes, and should be prosecuted.
“The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said shortly before Mr Trump’s claim that Democrats in Congress may have been responsible — though she too described no specific evidence and said no conclusions had been made.
“It could have been someone in the intelligence community, or it could have been someone on Capitol Hill who had access to this document. The FBI is searching for that person,” Leavitt told reporters.
NETANYAHU THANKS TRUMP FOR ‘HEARTFELT SUPPORT’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday thanked US President Donald Trump for his “heartfelt support”, after President Trump called for the Israeli premier’s corruption trial to be cancelled.
“I was deeply moved by your heartfelt support for me and your incredible support for Israel and the Jewish people,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X, sharing a copy of Mr Trump’s Truth Social post in which the US leader described the case against Mr Netanyahu as a “witch hunt”.
But Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said in an interview with news website Ynet “[T]he president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country.”
Mr Lapid, of the centre-right Yesh Atid party, backed a statement by one of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition allies, Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionism party, who called for Mr Trump to stay out of the court case.
“It is not the role of the president of the United States to interfere in legal proceedings in the State of Israel,” said Mr Rothman, who chairs the Israeli parliament’s judicial affairs committee.
WHITE HOUSE: DEADLINE FOR HIGHER TARIFFS MAY BE EXTENDED
The Trump administration could extend a July deadline when higher tariffs on imports from dozens of countries are set to kick in, the White House said Thursday.
While Mr Trump has imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on most US trading partners this year, he unveiled - then halted - steeper rates on dozens of economies while negotiations took place.
That pause is set to expire July 9.
Asked if there were plans to further the pause, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters:
“Perhaps it could be extended, but that’s a decision for the president to make,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters when asked if there were plans to further the pause on steeper rates unveiled earlier this year.
‘NOT U.S. STANDARDS’: EX-MARINE SPEAKS OUT OVER FATHER’S DETENTION
For Alejandro Barranco, a Marine veteran, it’s difficult to process the way his father, a Mexican gardener, was detained in a raid in California as part of President Trump’s immigration crackdown in the United States.
“They handled this situation in a very unprofessional manner. These are not the standards of the United States government,” Alejandro said in an interview with AFP.
Narciso Barranco, father of three Marines, was intercepted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while trimming a garden at a restaurant in Santa Ana, a city south of Los Angeles.
The incident was captured by witnesses in videos that spread like wildfire on social media. From different angles, Barranco, 48, is seen running with a weed whacker in hand before several agents beat, subdue and pepper-spray him.
“It’s very hard to watch,” said Alejandro, 25.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement to AFP that Barranco tried to flee and “brandished a weed whacker directly at an officer’s face,” so officers took appropriate action.
McLaughlin added that they used “the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation in a way that prioritised the safety of the public and our officers.” But Alejandro disputes the claims.
“The video shows (Narciso) moving the weed whacker. I think it’s natural instinct because he was sprayed with something seconds before … but he never brandished it directly at an officer,” he said.
“There’s a guy holding his gun sideways, finger on the trigger pointing at a vehicle. I don’t see how that makes sense. The minimum amount of force doesn’t include restraining a man and repeatedly hitting him in the neck and face areas. I think that’s the maximum amount of force short of lethal force.”
The case has sparked criticism in California, in part because Barranco’s three sons are in or have been in the United States Marine Corps.
Alejandro saw his father for the first time on Tuesday at a detention centre in downtown Los Angeles.
He told AFP that his father is being held in a cell with at least 70 other people, with only one toilet, very little food, and “minimal water, like once a day.” Narciso, with wounds and bruises, received medical attention Tuesday night, Alejandro said, adding that his father hasn’t been able to wash and still has blood on his shirt, the same one he was wearing when he was arrested.
“There needs to be a change,” Alejandro said in a calm but sad tone, referring to Trump ‘s immigration policy. “They’re taking away workers who came here to make this country even greater.
“They came to give their children a good education and teach them to serve, to give back, and to be grateful for this country, as my brothers and I are.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Australia told it can lift defence spending if Europe, NATO can: White House
Join the conversation
‘900 hours’: How Lauren became billionaire Bezos’ bride
Lauren Sanchez Bezos has shared intimate behind the scenes images of her transformation for her lavish wedding to billionaire Jeff Bezos. SEE THE PHOTOS, VIDEO
Read more
Kylie Jenner slammed for controversial dress
Fans have chastised Kylie Jenner for breaking a fashion rule with her choice of gown to attend Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s star-studded Italian wedding.
Read more