Dear Australia, from Hong Kong, China11 Helmi 2025

Trump, tariffs, a telephone call; Aussie NFL history; Liam Leeson flogs a house in Mulgrave

A nation hangs on the words of a phone call… Aussie PM Anthony Albanese informs the nation he has called up Donald Trump to ask please, mate, alliance partner, international trading partner with trade surplus, maybe you could exempt Australia from a 25% tariff on all imports of steel and aluminum. Australian metal exports to the USA approx 240,000 tonnes of steel - HKD #2 billion worth - per year and around 167,000 tonnes of aluminum - worth HKD$4.9 billion HKD.

After the call Albanese said Trump would “consider an exemption”.

After the call Trump told his press pack there would be “no exceptions or exemptions.”

But this is White Potus series 2: in the last season back in 2018 Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull made several calls to get a tariff exemption. In this series Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles yesterday handed over a cheque of US$700 million to newly installed US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth, who reportedly honoured the occasion by declaring “the cheque had cleared” to the press. Also yesterday the unelected shadow president Elon Musk ordered his teenage Red Guard team of hackers into the Pentagon and the US defence and ship building departments.

Australian sports history news: Jordan Mailata from Bankstown in Sydney has become the first Australian player to play in a winning Super Bowl team. The first game he ever watched was in 2017, now he’s a lineman with the Philadelphia Eagles. His natural talent builds on his natural gifts of stature: 6'9" and 176 kg.

Coincidentally the NFL has announced plans for a multi-year commitment to hold regular season games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). While many Sydney fans express disappointment that their rectangular stadiums weren't chosen, others are laughing at the tiny proportions of the US American football field. A nice place for Aussie rules football, a cricket match or an event like a Rolling Stones gig, or Taylor Swift’s largest ever concert crowd - but the standard NFL rectangle field is only a third of the width of the MCG…

Meanwhile, the ancient forests of south western Tasmania are burning, and Liam Neeson is leasing his “Taken” voice for a real estate ad in Melbourne.

It’s a weird month.

Songs played on RTHK3:

Katalyst - Uprockin’

INXS - One X One

The Night Parrots - Winter Flowers

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Jaksot(31)

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