Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Tariff missive: US President Donald Trump posted on social media a round of tariff letters notifying trading partners of the rates they’ll face from 1 August. In letters posted to Truth Social, he first announced 25% tariffs on all imports from Japan and South Korea. The letters cited “significant Trade Deficit[s]” and said the tariffs are “separate from all Sectoral Tariffs.” He warned any retaliatory tariffs would be matched, transhipped goods would be penalised and said the rates could be adjusted “upward or downward, depending on our relationship.” Trump then posted the letters to Malaysia (25%), Kazakhstan (25%), South Africa (30%), Laos (40%) and Myanmar (40%). Stocks fell on the news, with Toyota, Honda, SK Telecom and US indexes down. The White House said Trump would today sign an order formally delaying the 9 July deadline to 1 August. Yesterday, Trump also threatened an additional 10% tariff on countries aligned with BRICS policies. (Capital Brief)(Donald Trump posts)(Bloomberg)(Reuters)
2.
Courtroom code: Australia’s chief justice, Stephen Gageler, declared artificial intelligence an “existential threat” to the justice system, forcing courts to reconsider the role of a judge. In an exclusive interview with Capital Brief — his first with an Australian outlet since taking over from Susan Kiefel as chief justice in November 2023 — Gageler said the rapid development of programs such as ChatGPT “calls into question the adversarial system”. “If you're a plaintiff and you have an AI system formulating your arguments, and there's a defendant who has an AI system formulating the defendant's arguments, is a judge going to have another AI system judging between these two computer generated arguments? “Or do you have one AI system? I mean, really, it's that big an issue.” He revealed the court would conduct a “modest” AI trial later this year, but only after it had established guardrails for every step of the experiment. (Capital Brief)
