US PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Sunday said his administration was examining US Treasury debt payments for possible fraud and suggested that the country’s $36-trillion debt load might not be that high.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump said administration officials who have been combing through payment records in an effort to identify wasteful spending have turned their attention to the debt payments that play a central role in the global financial system.

“We’re even looking at Treasuries,” Mr. Trump said. “There could be a problem — you’ve been reading about that, with Treasuries and that could be an interesting problem.”

He added: “It could be that a lot of those things don’t count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we’re finding is very fraudulent, therefore maybe we have less debt than we thought.”

It was not clear whether Mr. Trump was referring to debt service or other government payments made by the Treasury Department.

The United States currently has $36.2-trillion public debt outstanding, according to the US Treasury, equal to more than 120% of Gross Domestic Product. Because the US government spends more money than it collects, Mr. Trump and his fellow Republicans who control Congress will have to authorize more borrowing sometime this year to avert a debt default that could have catastrophic consequences.

Mr. Trump’s proposed tax cuts would add trillions of dollars more in debt, independent budget watchdogs say.

Mr. Trump has tasked Elon Musk with an ambitious overhaul of the federal government, sparking street protests in Washington and accusations that the Trump administration is breaking the law.

Mr. Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has disrupted operations at several federal agencies and has raised privacy and security concerns while accessing sensitive payroll and spending records.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Mr. Musk’s team on Saturday from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments, citing a risk that sensitive information could be improperly disclosed.

After the ruling, Mr. Musk said a do-not-pay list of entities that should not receive government payments should be updated at least weekly, if not daily.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a Trump appointee, said last week that Mr. Musk’s team had “read only” access to the payment system, which would not give them power to make changes.

Mr. Trump’s attempt to freeze wide swaths of domestic aid has been blocked in court, but project managers across the country say billions of dollars nevertheless have been withheld for clean energy and transportation projects.

Some health clinics say they have been forced to lay off staff and shutter facilities because they have not been able to access federal funding. — Reuters

SYDNEY — Australia’s Trade minister said its steel and aluminum exports to the US create “good paying American jobs” and are key to shared defense interests, as Canberra presses Washington for an exemption to President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs.

Mr. Trump said on Sunday he will introduce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US, on top of existing metals duties, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Monday that Australia, a key US security ally in the Indo-Pacific, was making the case for “free and fair trade, including access into the US market for Australian steel and aluminum” in meetings with the Trump administration.

“Australian steel and aluminum is creating thousands of good paying American jobs, and are key for our shared defense interests,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Farrell is yet to meet with his US counterpart who has not been confirmed in the role, but Australian officials have been making representations on aluminum and steel exports for several months, seeking to secure a similar exemption from tariffs it won during the previous Trump presidency in 2018.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told national parliament on Monday he was scheduled to talk with Mr. Trump and would raise the matter.

“We will continue to make the case to the United States for Australia to be given an exemption to any steel and aluminum tariffs,” he said in parliament.

Defense Minister Richard Marles met his US counterpart Pete Hegseth in Washington on Friday, with Australia making its first $500-million payment to boost production in the US submarine industry under the AUKUS defense project that will see Australia buy several US nuclear-powered submarines and also build submarines.

Australian processed steel was purchased by the largest US military shipbuilder as AUKUS partners Australia, Britain and the US seek to integrate defense supply chains, the Australian government said last year.

Shares in Australian-listed BlueScope Steel rose nearly 2% on expectations its US business would gain from the tariffs. It operates the North Star Mill in Ohio and employs around 4,000 people in the United States. — Reuters

HONG KONG — Marriages in China dropped by a fifth last year, the biggest drop on record, despite manifold efforts by authorities to encourage young couples to wed and have children to boost the country’s declining population.

More than 6.1 million couples registered for marriage last year, down from 7.68 million a year earlier, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.

Declining interest in getting married and starting a family has long been blamed on the high cost of childcare and education in China. On top of that, sputtering economic growth over the past few years has made it difficult for university graduates to find work and those that do have jobs feel insecure about their long-term prospects.

But for Chinese authorities, boosting interest in marriage and baby-making is a pressing concern.

China has the second-biggest population in the world at 1.4 billion but it is aging quickly.

The birth rate fell for decades due to China’s 1980-2015 one-child policy and rapid urbanization. And in the coming decade, roughly 300 million Chinese — the equivalent of almost the entire US population — are expected to enter retirement.

Measures taken last year by authorities to tackle the problem included urging China’s colleges and universities to provide “love education” to emphasize positive views on marriage, love, fertility and family.

And in November, China’s state council or cabinet, told local governments to direct resources towards fixing China’s population crisis and spread respect for childbearing and marriages “at the right age.”

Last year saw a slight rise in births after a lull due to the pandemic and because 2024 was the Chinese zodiac year of the dragon  — with children born that year considered likely to be ambitious and have great fortune.

But even with the increase in births, the country’s population fell for a third consecutive year.

The data also showed that more than 2.6 million couples filed for divorce last year, up 1.1% from 2023. — Reuters