Reuters World News - New US tariffs, Trump's Saudi Arabia demand and AI ‘kill switch’

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

The Trump Administration's latest slate of global tariffs may be more durable than earlier tariff regimes. President Donald Trump makes a new demand that could derail a U.S.-Saudi nuclear agreement. Congress is proposing new ways to regulate AI after an OpenAI agent went "rogue." Federal prosecutors withdraw subpoenas for New York Times reporters - at least for now. And Ukraine has a new target: Russian e-retailers. Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Kim Vidal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Friday, July 24th. Today. The Trump administration slaps new tariffs on more than 60 trading partners, making sure the president's controversial trade strategy sticks. Washington's nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia comes with a new demand, normalized relations with Israel. Congress acts over affairs advanced AI could go

rogue. And Ukraine brings the war closer for Russians by targeting people's online shopping. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Recently, our company's softball team lost the big game by one run. Then Dale tried to console us with the quote, winning isn't everything. Well, Dale and I are very different. I get early payout from Bed 365. If my team goes up big, I get paid out instantly, even if they blow the lead later. Sound familiar deal? Thanks, bet 365. Must be 19 or older Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsontario.c.c.com. A new chapter in U.S. President Donald Trump's global

trade war begins today. The administration is slapping new tariffs on 60 trading partners, including the European Union. It's a way around the biggest court defeat of Trump's presidency so far, when the Supreme Court struck down his broad global tariffs that were central to his trade agenda. Trump then put in place new temporary tariffs, which have now expired. Reuters' economics correspondent David Lauder says the new tariffs of between 10 and 12.5% mostly keep the status quo.

But this is about keeping Trump. Trump's overarching trade plan in place. Trade law experts think these tariffs may have a better chance of surviving court challenges because they're done under a well-tested trade law, section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. This was the law that was used to back the Trump tariffs in his first terms against China. Now, Trump did not choose to use it when he came into office in 2025, because it took longer. You have to go through a whole legal process of investigation

and public comment, have public hearings. They've had two sets of public hearings on these forced labor tariffs. They've made some exemptions, made some adjustments to them. So it's a more durable legal process that has taken much longer. But David says the tariff to and fro is far from over. The temporary tariffs that were imposed in February, those collected about $31 billion over several months. So that's not an insignificant amount of money. Now, if those temporary tariffs, which are subject to core challenge, if they ultimately are struck down, that money will have to get refunded.

So there's a lot of moving parts to this, but there's other tariffs coming down the road, other unfair trade practices, actions. against the goods from Vietnam, goods potentially from Germany. One big one that industry is watching for is semiconductors. President Trump is threatening major military punishment for Iran and the Houthis after Yemen's Houthi fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. The attacks on a second vital route for global energy shipment sent oil prices surging above $100 a barrel for the first time. since May, and reignited fears of regional escalation.

Those oil prices, as well as disappointing earnings from Alphabet and Tesla, saw Wall Street take a beating Thursday, and the timing couldn't be worse. Morning bid host, Alina Kassas, has more. So next week, Federal Reserve policymakers meet to set rates in one of the most uncertain meetings in years. A week ago, traders saw just a 12% probability that they might move interest rates, so very little. But that was before the Houthis fired on those Saudi tankers and the price of oil went to over $100 a barrel. Now, new Fed chair Kevin Walsh has been very clear, he said it repeatedly,

that he won't tolerate inflation going up way beyond the 2% target again and that he is prepared to hike rates. So now the market sees a one in three chance of that happening. Now bear in mind also that traders are essentially moving in the dark because Walsh wants to reduce the amount of forward guidance that the Fed gives. In recent years, the market has got really used to the Fed thoroughly telegraphing everything it's going to do in advance. Warsh no longer wants to do that, so the market's stabbing in the dark. You can catch morning bid wherever you get your podcasts. Just one day after announcing a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that would allow Riyadh to enrich uranium and build reactors with US technology, President Trump is adding a new condition. He's demanding

the kingdom normalized relations with Israel. It's a major test of Trump's ability to reshape Middle East diplomacy, and could mean the nuclear deal never makes it over the line. Jacob Bogage is at the White House. This deal was presented as a major advancement in U.S. Saudi relations, and it was also presented as a done deal. And then President Trump said out of nowhere that it was conditional upon Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham courts or normalizing relations with Israel. And that's something that Saudi Arabia has been vocal about not wanting to do, especially about the treatment of Palestinian civilians in Israel's ongoing war with Hamas and now with Hezbollah and Lebanon.

We don't know what triggered this shift from President Trump to include Saudi-Israeli normalization as part of this deal. But we know that President Trump has a propensity to kind of do this with deals. And that's something that he finds to be very advantageous. It puts him on stronger footing. And it's something that can destabilize allies or the humanitarian partners. Gregus believes in the art of living in choosing the pleasurable over the practical. It's why we craft our premium vodka in France using pure spree.

Water from Shenzak, and why you hear the celebratory pub of our quirk, reminding us to make every Martini cocktail count. So go on and make every moment count, because there's no better time than now. Gregus, make time wait. Sip responsibly. From foreign diplomacy to domestic security, an AI security breach is drawing attention at the highest levels of the US government. The White House says President Trump's top technology advisor is monitoring the situation

after Open AI revealed that one of its AI agents escaped a controlled test and hacked into another AI company. And lawmakers from both parties are already proposing new safeguards. Here's Reuters tech correspondent Courtney Rosen. AI executives and U.S. officials have talked a lot about theoretical risks that AI post. is to humans, to the economy. This is one of the first times we've seen an actual incident happen that illustrates these risks, that an AI model could, quote, go rogue, go against what its developers want it to do, and go and compromise the security of another AI platform. And in Congress, we have two bills that have been introduced so far. One of them would require

these companies to have what they're calling a kill switch, which means that the U.S. government would be empowered to say to the companies, we need you to bring these AI models offline if something were to happen that was risky or could have damaged the economy or human life. So that's one bill. The other bill is backed by six lawmakers in the House. It's a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats. And that bill would require that these AI developers like Open AI and Anthropic that make the most powerful models, that those models undergo testing. before they can be released to the public. The Trump administration has backed down in its fight with the New York Times,

and a case critics argue was evidence of the administration's disregard for press freedoms. Prosecutors had issued subpoenas seeking to force reporters to testify before a grand jury, but made a number of missteps along the way, including accidentally asking for phone records of not just reporters, but some of the reporter's family members, too. After being grilled by a judge for more than an hour, prosecutors announced they were withdrawing the existing subpoenas, but said the investigation was ongoing and that the government could subpoena the reporters again. Ukraine now has a new target, Russian online retailer Wildberries. It's the biggest retailer in Russia, basically Russia's version of Amazon. And over the last week,

Ukraine has attacked a number of its warehouses. Correspondent at Gleb Brianski in Moscow explains why that's a problem for Russia. Both Wildberries and their rival are owned. They control the lines for e-trade in Russia. And these companies, especially during COVID-19 pandemics and later during the war, they've been expending very rapidly. And many people in Russia literally stopped going to shops and order everything from foods to medicines to home appliances online through either Walburys or Arizona.

And both of these companies are also central to the Russian government and the Kremlin's plans to boost growth in the economy. Gleb says for Ukraine it's about making the war feel closer for everyday Russians. They literally provide jobs to around 4 million people in Russia. So it's a very big chunk of the economy. So the attacks, they affect literally millions. of people, both the customers who could see disruptions in the goods being delivered and the businesses.

For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.