The Headlines - Four Key Facts About Trump’s New Tariffs, and a Town Hall Showdown

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

Plus, inside the weight-loss drug wars. On Today’s Episode:Staggering U.S. Tariffs Begin as Trump Widens Trade War, by Tony RommTrump Threatens 100% Tariff on Chips, With a Big Caveat, by Tripp Mickle and Ana SwansonTrump and Putin to Meet in ‘Coming Days,’ Kremlin Aide Confirms, by Nataliya VasilyevaA G.O.P. Congressman Faced Hometown Voters. It Wasn’t Pretty, by Annie KarniAnother Pakistani Woman Is Killed for ‘Honor,’ but She’s Not Forgotten, by Elian Peltier and Zia ur-RehmanHow Ozempic’s Maker Lost Its Shine After Creating a Wonder Drug, by Eshe NelsonTune 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's Thursday, August 7th. Here's what we're covering. At midnight last night, after months of negotiations, threats, stock market whiplash, and shifting deadlines, President Trump's tariffs snapped into place on goods imported from more than 90 countries. Here are four things to know and to watch for on that. First, the scale. Many of the tariffs aren't as staggering as the ones Trump first rolled out. A lot of countries talked their way down to somewhere in the 15 to 20 percent range.

But they're still way higher than when Trump took office. According to the budget lab at Yale, the average tariff rate hasn't been this high in almost 100 years. Second, the tariffs have already started to take a toll on the U.S. economy. The most dire predictions, like a full-blown recession, haven't played out. Experts say that's partly because Trump has backed down from his most dramatic threats. But prices have started to climb as companies shift some of the tariff-related costs onto customers. Procter & Gamble, Adidas, Walmart, and many other companies have warned that they have or will raise prices. The tariffs could end up costing the average American household an extra $2,400 per year, according again to the Budget Lab.

The third thing to know, the tariffs are making the U.S. government money, and a lot of it. Even before this latest round of surcharges kicked in last night, revenue from taxes on imported goods grew dramatically this year, generating $152 billion through July. That's roughly double the amount from the same period last year. Experts say the federal government could start to rely on this new source of income, especially considering the level of the national debt. And it could get to the point that future politicians of either party may be reluctant to roll them back. And number four, Trump is not done yet. The president's shown that he's willing to jack up tariffs as punishment. Yesterday, he doubled the rate on goods from India to 50 percent because the countries refused to stop buying Russian oil.

More countries could see their tariffs go up if they're at odds with Trump. And the president's also targeting not just countries but whole industries, as he tries to boost U.S. manufacturing. We're asking our businesses to invest in America, and they're coming in at levels that we've never seen before. He's threatened new surcharges on pharmaceuticals, and yesterday he took aim at semiconductors, the chips that are essential to AI,

but also to basically any device with an on-off switch. He threatened a 100% tariff on chips made overseas. But if you've made a commitment to build, or if you're in the process of building, as many are, there is no tariff, okay? The only way to avoid that, he said, would be for tech companies to agree to build out their U.S. production. Yesterday, Apple took him up on that,

announcing a $100 billion investment in American manufacturing. The tech giant made similar smaller pledges during the Biden administration and Trump's first term, though the company has yet to follow through on some of them. Yesterday, President Trump surprised world leaders when he announced that he plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as next week in what would be the first in-person meeting between a U.S. and Russian president in more than four years. Trump said he plans to then follow up the one-on-one with a meeting that would include both Putin and Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky. The White House said, quote, President Trump wants this brutal. war to end. Trump shared his plans on a call with European leaders who were caught off guard

and were skeptical that the talks would be effective at brokering a peace deal. If the meeting happens, it could be seen as something of a victory for Russia. Since it invaded Ukraine, NATO allies, including the U.S., have largely isolated Moscow and refused to deal with Putin directly. Trump, though, has had a number of phone calls with him since taking office, and the White House said Russia requested these in-person talks. Trump continues to present himself as a dealmaker who can single-handedly bring an end to the bloody years-long conflict.

While campaigning, he promised to end the war in 24 hours, and over the last few months, he's made several ultimatums to try and force a deal, though the fighting has continued. opportunity to tell you and talk to you about health care in the bill we just passed. Around the country, members of Congress are on a six-week recess, many of them going back to their districts for the first time since the passage of President Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill. And quite frankly, from where I sit, there's been a lot of misinformation out

there about the bill. Polls show that the bill, which makes cuts to Medicaid, food benefits and other programs, is widely unpopular. And the Republicans who pushed it are now having to try and sell it to voters back home. And more than anything, I truly believe this bill protects Medicaid for the future. In Lincoln, Nebraska this week, Republican Representative Mike Flood took the stage in front of a crowd of more than 700 people, many of whom were angry about the bill. We didn't make it two minutes in before it was heckling and yelling and shouting. And it continued. for an hour and a half. Times, congressional correspondent

Annie Carney was at the event. People were on their feet chanting tax the rich. It was one of the most raucous political events I've ever witnessed. I need you to be a call for just a second. I need to be able to hear the question.

Republicans always like to say paid protesters are showing up and flooding them with people who will have a negative reaction. But the people I spoke to seem to just be people who live in Lincoln, Nebraska and heard about it. through local media.

Annie says what happened in Lincoln underscores why fewer and fewer Republican lawmakers are holding public in-person events at all. The chairman of the House Republican campaign arm early this year actually told them he encouraged them not to do town halls. For exactly this reason, he told them this,

what we just witnessed here is not productive. And there's no win here that there's better ways to talk to voters. So we've seen them do teletown halls. The benefit of a teletown. Mall is you don't hear any booing because the caller just gets cut off after they ask the question and you just get to give your answer and move on to the next caller. In Pakistan, there's been a surge of anger over how authorities have responded to a brutal, so-called

honor killing that was caught on camera. Back in June, a 35-year-old married mother of five was accused of having an affair with another man. and a tribal leader ordered both of them to be killed. They were shot at close range as a crowd of men looked on, some of them filming the double execution on their phones. For more than six weeks, officials did nothing, until video of the killing, which captured the woman's defiant last words, went viral.

You can shoot me, she said, but nothing more than that. The shocking video and lack of action from authorities set off protests and widespread condemnation from politicians. Eventually, police opened an investigation, though the man who fired the shots is still at large. Human rights advocates say the case underscores how efforts to prevent gender-based violence in Pakistan are falling short. They say that modern laws designed to protect women and girls are often ignored in favor of centuries-old tribal codes, and hundreds of women are reported killed each year for things like refusing forced marriages or trying to get a divorce.

Experts say that number of honor killings is likely an undercount. The head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan told the Times, quote, Incidents every now and then get traction in the media, but it continues in a shameful way. And finally, the Times has been covering the meteoric rise and dramatic downturn of the company behind OZempic, Novo Nordisk. Mozempic came on the market back in 2017. It launched Novo Nordisk from being a relatively obscure Danish company to being one of the most valuable in the world. Doctors called the drug, which can be used for drastic weight loss as well as reducing the risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses, a game changer. And the company started racking up billions in sales.

At one point, Novo Nordisk's market value exceeded the size of the entire Danish economy. But that did not last. They couldn't make enough of the drug fast enough to keep up with soaring demand, particularly in the U.S. So even though they'd patented their big breakthrough, American regulators stepped in to let competitors make copycat versions to deal with the shortage. That started to erode the company's profits, and its stock value took a steep dive. Even if the company's dominance is ending, though, the craze around weight loss drugs is not. By some estimates, one in In eight adults in the U.S. has already taken OZempic or a medication like it. And researchers believe that if developments that are on the horizon, like taking it as a pill instead of an injection, come through, that number could go up dramatically.

Those are the headlines. Today on the Daily. How President Trump has revived one of his most controversial immigration policies from his first term, separating children from their parents. You can listen to that in the New York Times. Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.