The Headlines - A Game of Chicken With China, and How Much Plastic Is in the Human Brain

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Plus, the theme park wars heat up. On Today’s Episode: Asia Grapples With Punishing Tariffs as Its Stocks Sink Again, by Yan Zhuang and Keith BradsherTop I.R.S. Officials Said to Resign After Deal to Give ICE Migrants’ Data, by Andrew DuehrenTrump Signs Orders Aimed at Reviving a Struggling Coal Industry, by Brad Plumer and Mira RojanasakulTrump Administration Freezes $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern, Officials Say, by Michael C. Bender and Sheryl Gay StolbergIn Trump Cases, Supreme Court Retreats From Confrontation, by Adam LiptakWhat Are Microplastics Doing to Our Bodies? This Lab Is Racing to Find Out, by Nina AgrawalEpic Universe Is Coming. Here’s a Sneak Peek, by Brooks BarnesTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, April 9th. Here's what we're covering. I know what the hell I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. And you know what I'm doing too. That's why you vote for me.

As of 12.01 a.m., the latest round of President Trump's aggressive tariffs have taken effect, hitting nearly all of America's trading partners with significant new surcharges. With Trump escalating a global trade war, stock markets around the world have been plummeting for multiple days. But Trump defended his plan yesterday, repeating his claim that other countries have been ripping off the U.S. for decades. But now it's our turn to do the ripping. That's okay. We're going to make our country even stronger, stronger than it ever was.

Trump's taking particular aim at China, furious that the country has been retaliating with tariffs of its own. When Beijing didn't take his ultimatum to back down, Trump increased the tariffs on Chinese goods to 104% as of today. Now we're at this place where the total tariff on Chinese goods is more than 100%. It's just crazy, right? But there's also no end in sight. Alexandra Stevenson is the Times Shanghai bureau chief. She says the soaring tariffs could disrupt hundreds of billions of dollars in trade between the two countries

and jack up the prices on everyday goods from baby clothes to paper plates that American shoppers have gotten used to buying cheap from China. When you look at what the Trump administration has been saying, they're saying like, we're teaching these countries a lesson, they're going to come to us, and then they're going to do what we want. And Beijing is saying, no, no, this is their opportunity to show that they're not willing to back down, that they too are a global superpower and that this is not how you treat an economic superpower. So if you want to talk, we'll come to the table, but not if you're going to continue to talk about punishing China.

So there's a huge amount of uncertainty around the world when the two biggest economies are at loggerheads and there seems to be no end in sight to this trade war. Even as Trump's tariffs cause chaos worldwide, the president said more are coming. Last night, he said he'd announce a major tariff on pharmaceuticals soon. Trump's tariffs cause chaos worldwide, the president said more are coming. Last night, he said he'd announce a major tariff on pharmaceuticals soon. The IRS is preparing to give protected tax data to immigration officers, which could help the Trump administration ramp up its deportation efforts. That kind of private data is tightly guarded under federal law, but there is a narrow exception

for criminal investigations, and the Trump administration is trying to use that to get the data so it can find undocumented immigrants. For years, the government has encouraged workers to file taxes even if they aren't authorized to be in the U.S. That allowed the migrants to potentially get tax refunds, and for the government, it raised hundreds of billions of dollars. According to one former IRS official, sharing the data, which could contain names and addresses, would be, quote, unprecedented, and the Times has learned that several top officials at the tax agency, including its acting commissioner,

are now preparing to resign. Now, three more quick updates on the Trump administration. I call it a beautiful, clean call. I tell my people never use the word call unless you put beautiful, clean before it. At the White House yesterday, the president signed a flurry of executive orders to boost the mining and burning of coal, which is one of the main drivers of global warming. Trump has said he wants to revive the struggling industry. But experts say a major turnaround is unlikely, since other sources of electricity,

like wind, solar, and natural gas, have become cheaper, and hundreds of coal plants in the US have already been shut down. Also, the administration has made its biggest moves yet against America's elite universities. The Times has learned that it's frozen a billion dollars in federal funding for Cornell and almost 800 million for Northwestern. The pause on grants and contracts comes as the

government is scrutinizing the schools for alleged anti-Semitism and for their efforts to promote diversity. Cornell and Northwestern were two of dozens of other universities, including state schools and smaller colleges, that the administration has said it's investigating. And at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the administration notched another victory as the court blocked a federal judge's order that would have required it to rehire thousands of fired government workers. Like the other recent wins for the administration, this one was on procedural grounds and is potentially temporary. And my colleague Adam Liptack, who covers the Supreme Court, says that's part of a pattern he's noticed as the court has heard a wave

of challenges to the administration's policies. Adam Liptack, Ph.D., Ph.D. The court has retreated to technical rulings, minor rulings, ones that kick the can down the road. And it's at least possible that it's doing that to stay out of the political fray, and perhaps most important, to avoid a showdown with President Trump, who has indicated he may not follow the requirements of Supreme Court rulings. Plastics are everywhere. They're in our furniture, our food supply, our clothes, cosmetics, and they don't really biodegrade. They just get smaller and smaller in the environment. And because they're so small, they can get everywhere, into our soil, air, into the food chain, and

into our bodies. My colleague Nina Agrawal has been reporting on some of the leading research into microplastics and what they could mean for human health. She recently visited a lab at the University of New Mexico where a team of researchers and toxicologists published a striking finding earlier this year. After studying two dozen human brains, they found that the average brain

contained roughly seven grams of plastic. That's as much as a disposable spoon or five water bottle caps. Nina says that the lab's early research also found a correlation between high levels of plastic in the brain and dementia, though they're still investigating that potential link. They're also looking at possible connections to heart disease, fertility issues, and multiple sclerosis. One thing that was really notable from the lab's research was that the concentration of microplastics in our brains is increasing over time. They showed that from 2016 to 2024, the concentration of microplastics in human brains increased

by almost 50%. And that coincides with what we know about how plastic production has been increasing over time. It's estimated to double every 10 to 15 years. Not all experts agree on what we can do to reduce our exposure, but there are several things that scientists say can't hurt. One is not drinking from plastic water bottles, especially when they've been out in the sun. Another is not eating food in plastic. But while we can certainly try to take steps to reduce our individual exposure, there's a lot about plastic production that's not in our control. And most

scientists and public health experts say that that's something that has to be dealt with at the policy level. level. And finally, you'll enter underneath the Kronos, the first portal where all the planets will line. The theme park wars in Florida are heating up. Disney remains on top bringing in 50 million guests a year to its Orlando parks, but Universal is making a big swing. Wow, I can't believe it. I'm going through the portal. Its new park, Epic Universe, opens next month. It sprawls over 100 acres, was almost a decade in the making, and is estimated to have cost $7 billion.

The Times got a look before opening day. It's essentially split into four mini-theme parks, pulling from Universal's vast IP holdings. You could call it random, or you could say there's something for everyone. There's a park for the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. There's a Super Nintendo World, complete with Mario Kart. There's a mini-park for Harry Potter. And there's one for Universal's deep catalog of old movie monsters, where Frankenstein, the Wolfman, and the Mummy roam around. It's a little different than bumping into a Disney princess.

Times Entertainment reporter Brooks Barnes, who previewed the park at its soft opening, said, wherever you go, it's immersive. Each world is themed down to the music, the smells, the landscaping, even the toilets, depending on what world you're in. When it opens, Epic Universe will be hoping to avoid some of the bumps that Universal has hit when it's opened new parks in the past. In 1990, major rides malfunctioned on opening day. And when it opened the Wizarding world of Harry Potter, there was a six hour wait just to get inside the gates. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, an interview with the president of Princeton

University as the Trump administration ratchets up its attacks on higher education. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.