Reuters World News - Tariffs, Lula, semiconductors and ChatGPT-5

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump’s higher tariff rates come into effect hitting dozens of global major trading partners - and semiconductor chips are next in his sights, with 100 percent tariffs threatened for companies who don't manufacture in the U.S. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says he sees no room for direct talks with Trump for now. And OpenAI readies to release the long-awaited GPT-5. Listen to On Assignment podcast here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read 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

Today, tariffs on almost every item coming into the US are now in effect. Reuters sits down with Brazil's president, who says he will not be humiliated by Trump. President Trump threatens 100% tariffs on semiconductor chips. And OpenAI debuts ChatGPT 5. It's Thursday, August 7th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. every day. I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. US President Donald Trump's plans to reorder the global economy are now in full swing.

As of one minute past midnight eastern, the US started imposing tariffs on dozens of trading partners, with huge rates for those who haven't struck a trade deal. That means countries importing to the US will pay a levy of between 10 and 50% on their goods. David Lauder is in Washington, D.C. David, how soon will ordinary consumers start feeling this? What we've seen is that companies from all sectors have imported so much stuff to try to beat the tariffs that there's a huge amount of inventory still available in the U.S.

Things like copper, things like consumer goods. It's unclear how long they will last and how long we're going to have to start to replace those with goods that are subject to the tariffs. You know, there's starting to be some signs of price increases on some consumer goods like furniture and some of the larger household goods, appliances, things like that, which depend on a lot of imported components.

So it's starting to leach into the system, but economists and trade experts say it'll take time. A White House official says President Trump could meet in person with Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as next week. No location has been disclosed for the meeting. News of the sit-down follows what the White House is calling a highly productive meeting between U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff and Putin. One meeting that won't happen, senior Trump officials were set to gather at Vice President

J.D. Vance's residence to discuss topics including the administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. But a source familiar with the matter says that meeting has been cancelled after reports about it leaked. A spokesman for Vance denied such a meeting had been scheduled. Brazilian former President Jaya Bolsonaro is appealing his house arrest as he awaits trial of allegations of plotting a coup. The development is increasing tensions between his supporters and detractors and between the US and Brazil.

President Trump is a supporter of Bolsonaro and that's straining his relationship with Brazil's current president, Lula de Silva. Reuters sat down with President Lula, who described Washington-Rio relations as being at a 200-year low. Lula says Bolsonaro should, in fact, face new charges for inciting the United States against Brazil. Brazil bureau chief Brad Haynes interviewed the Brazilian president. Brad, a defiant tone here from Lula. Well, he's had a defiant tone for weeks now, and it was clear that he was not letting down his guard. He said he could call Trump.

He's willing to talk, willing to negotiate, but he does not see Trump as willing to negotiate on even footing. And he said multiple times he was not going to humiliate himself for Trump's sake. He drew parallels even to the experience of the South African. president, Ukrainian president, in their visits to the White House. He said Trump humiliated them. That is not normal. That is not how president should be speaking to each other. Why is he, unlike many other world leaders, not folding under Trump's tariff pressure? Well, the Brazilian economy is relatively closed, especially compared to other big economies in the Western Hemisphere, like Mexico and Canada that send about three quarters of their exports to the United

States. Brazil only sends 12%. It exports much more actually to China. And a lot of the other exports to the United States are commodities that could easily be sent to other markets at a minor discount. So this is not expected to derail the Brazilian economy. And that gives a little more room for Lula to maneuver. There's also on the political side, there's a chance that it may actually pay some dividends for him domestically. All of a sudden, there's a sudden, there's a little bit of a sudden, This crisis has given him someone else to blame for Brazil's economic troubles. Brazil is facing a 50% tariff, so Lula has his work cut out. He says he's planning to call leaders from the BRICS group of developing nations,

starting with India and China, to discuss the possibility of a joint response to U.S. tariffs. India is also facing a 50% tariff from the U.S. after Donald Trump doubled down on New Delhi, citing its continued, purchase of Russian oil. And Trump says China should prepare for higher tariffs for the same reason. And in yet more bad news for those without a trade deal. President Trump now says semiconductor chip companies who don't manufacture in the US or don't have plans to do so in the future will face tariffs of 100%. It likely only impacts nations without an existing trade deal, which narrows it down to companies in parts of Asia

and consumers buying electronics from there. Miang Kim is in Singapore and Max Cheney is in San Francisco. Miong, first off, who and what is going to be impacted by this? It seems big companies like TSMC and Samsung, they are all okay because they have a multibillion dollar investment projects going on right now in the U.S. and that will be used to supply the likes of Apple, Tesla, and Vyda, and other big U.S. tech clients.

But chipmakers in China and Southeast Asia look quite vulnerable, and they largely produce a lot of what the industry calls legacy chips. And they are quite heavily used in a lot of products like electric vehicles, refrigerators, televisions, or microwaves, or many other electronic home appliances. Max, why is this so important? Sips are essentially the modern oil for the economy. They're used in almost every device and certainly every technological device that we make from iPhones to computers to cars to home appliances. And then there's, of course, there's like the national security component where it's crucial for any military in the world that wants to have advanced weapon systems.

Trump made that semiconductor tariff announcement during a press briefing alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook in the Oval Office. The two men announced that Apple will invest in additional $100 billion in the U.S., a move which could help it sidestep potential tariffs on iPhones. Another tech giant, OpenAI, is about to release ChatGPT-5, along. long-awaited update of its AI model. Anna Tong is in San Francisco. Anna, what have early testers said about the new model? They've said that it's quite good at coding.

It's quite good at math and science. But that it doesn't seem like the big step up that GPT3 to GPT4 was. But I think OpenAI needs to prove that GPT5 will be very, very useful to businesses and that businesses will pay for it because they need to prove return on investment for the enormous amounts of capital that have been sunk into AI. President Trump has expected to announce a new Federal Reserve Governor and a new jobs data chief in the coming days, two appointments that could have significant impact on global financial markets.

Trump's firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has put trust in US data on the line, something we get into in this week's episode of Reuters Econ World podcast. What happens to Statistics Bureau's personal? personal is something we look at quite a lot in emerging market. Right. And it's not unheard of that, you know, the numbers come out the wrong way. And generally, the messenger is the one who gets it in the neck in that instance.

We'll put a link to that show in today's podcast description. You can also find that on the Reuters app. Just go to podcasts or check it out on your favorite podcast platform. Five U.S. soldiers are wounded after a gunman opened fire at the Fort Stewart base in Georgia. A suspect is in custody who is also an American soldier. French firefighters tackle the country's biggest wildfire in almost 80 years. The blaze in the southern Uldre region has burned 15,000 hectares. That's an area bigger than Paris. For today's recommended read, the U.S. administration launches a lobbying campaign against the European Union's Digital Services Act,

which Washington says stifles free speech and imposes costs on US tech companies. We'll put a link to that exclusive story in the podcast description. 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 and we'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.