Australia news as it happened: Albanese could put US cattle back on table; Musk loses $52 billion in one day as Trump feud boils over

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the day’s major stories:

• Farmers insist that the nation’s strict biosecurity regime must not be watered down to appease Donald Trump, following news the Albanese government will make moves to enable US beef exports into Australia as part of a plan to gain an exemption from the US president’s tariffs.
• Elon Musk’s very public, extremely online feud with Trump sliced into his vaunted status as the world’s richest person, erasing $US34 billion ($52 billion) from his personal net worth in one day.
• Home buyers could be delivered a financial windfall just in time for Christmas as markets and economists grow increasingly confident the Reserve Bank will deliver a string of interest rate cuts to protect the economy.
• The families of six children killed in a primary school jumping castle accident in Tasmania are angry and in disbelief after a court dismissed a workplace safety charge against the castle’s operator.
• Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has vowed to fight and win a snap election after he lost a no-confidence vote, but speculation is growing his Liberal colleagues will deny him the chance.
• In Queensland, detectives have alleged teenager Pheobe Bishop was murdered by her two housemates and her body was moved more than once.
• In Victoria, state and federal police conducted raids in Melbourne’s north as part of their investigation into last year’s firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue.

Thanks again for joining us. This is Cassandra Morgan, signing off.

The Australian sharemarket closed in the red today as Commonwealth Bank shares retreated from historic highs and the technology sector lost ground, after a plunge in Tesla shares weighed on Wall Street amid an escalating feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

The S&P/ASX200 dropped 23.2 points or 0.3 per cent to 8515.70, with nine of 11 industry sectors in negative territory. Technology and healthcare were the weakest sectors, both falling 0.7 per cent, while financials and consumer discretionary stocks also dropped. The Australian dollar was trading at US64.97¢ in the afternoon.

The decline in the ASX followed a 0.5 per cent slide on Wall Street overnight, with Tesla tumbling 14.3 per cent as Musk and Trump exchanged insults in public.

Click here to read the full five-minute recap of the trading day.

Back to world news, and US President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to visit Beijing, as he declared a trade deal with China was in good shape after a phone call with President Xi Jinping – their first since Trump returned to power in January.

The long-awaited call between the two leaders included a renewed joint commitment to reaching a deal, a promising sign after a fragile truce struck in Geneva last month appeared on the verge of collapsing after both countries accused each other of not honouring their terms.

However, there was some divergence in their respective accounts of the call, which, according to Trump, lasted 1½ hours and focused almost entirely on trade issues without addressing the war in Ukraine or concerns about Iran’s nuclear technology.

A meeting between the two leaders is also on the horizon, with Trump saying Xi had invited him and first lady Melania Trump to visit China – an invitation that was confirmed in the Chinese side’s read out of the discussions, though it made no mention of Trump’s reciprocal invite for Xi to visit the US.

Read the full story from Michael Koziol and Lisa Visentin here. 

Home buyers could be delivered a financial windfall just in time for Christmas as markets and economists grow increasingly confident the Reserve Bank will deliver a string of interest rate cuts to protect the economy.

Softer-than-expected growth figures, ongoing signs that inflationary pressures are moderating, and concern over the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariff war have sharply lifted market expectations of a rate cut when the RBA next meets in early July.

Markets, which have proven more accurate than economists in anticipating the RBA’s changes to rate settings, started the week putting the chance of a quarter percentage point July cut at three-in-four. By the end of the week, expectations were at 95 per cent.

Through the rest of the year, markets and many economists believe the bank will bring the official cash rate down from 3.85 per cent to 3.1 per cent.

Read the full story from Shane Wright here.

Now to world news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has “activated” some clans of Palestinians in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas, in the first public acknowledgment that Israel is backing armed Palestinian groups in Gaza.

Netanyahu made the comments on social media as the Trump administration said it was imposing sanctions on four judges from the International Criminal Court, including two who issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest last year.

It is not immediately clear what role the Palestinian groups – based around powerful clans or extended families – were playing in Gaza, but one Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu was referring to the so-called Popular Forces led by a Rafah clan leader, Yasser Abu Shabab.

That group has said its fighters were helping protect aid shipments to the new Israeli-backed food distribution centres, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), but some Palestinians say the Abu Shabab group has also been involved in attacking and looting aid convoys.

Read the full story here.