Leaders all over the world were attempting to put contingencies in place after Trump’s tariff threats turned to reality at a minute past midnight Washington time on Thursday.
The Brazilian government said it was planning a state aid plan for companies affected while its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called the duties “unacceptable blackmail”.
Switzerland said it was seeking new talks with the US after a last-gasp mission to Washington by its president, Karin Keller-Sutter, failed to stop a 39% tariff blow that industry group Swissmem described as a “horror scenario”.
Tariffs are now at a level not seen in the US in almost 100 years, with Americans expected to pay an average of 18.3% more for imported products – the highest rate since 1934 – according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a nonpartisan policy research center.
Despite the uncertainty, the White House is confident businesses will ramp up new investments and jump-start hiring in ways that can rebalance the US economy as a manufacturing power.
Here are today’s key stories at a glance:
60 countries scramble to respond to Trump’s latest tariffs
More than 60 countries around the world are scrambling to respond to the latest wave of US tariffs announced by Donald Trump which came into force on Thursday.
Industry representatives in rich and poor countries warned of job losses as the tariffs upended a decades-old world trading system with rates ranging from 10% to 39%, 40% and 41% for Switzerland, Brazil and Syria.
The Guardian has also compiled a full list of countries targeted by the new tariffs.
You can see the full list here
Trump says he will meet Putin despite Kremlin’s refusal to talk to Kyiv
Donald Trump has said he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin despite the Russian leader’s refusal to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy – dispelling speculation that direct talks between the two warring presidents were a precondition to a high-level US-Russia summit.
Trump calls for resignation of Intel chief
Donald Trump has called on Intel’s chief executive to resign, alleging Lip-Bu Tan had ties to the Chinese Communist party and sending the stock of the US chipmaker falling.
Trump calls for new exclusionary US census
Donald Trump announced that he has ordered the commerce department to conduct a new census that would exclude undocumented immigrants from the official count. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the census would be “based on modern day facts and figures” and use “results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024”. He added that “people who are in our country illegally will not be counted”.
Read the full story
Scientists decry Trump energy chief’s plan to ‘update’ climate reports
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, is facing growing criticism from scientists who say their “worst fears” were realized when Wright revealed that the Trump administration would “update” the US’s premier climate crisis reports.
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US judge orders halt to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ construction
A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to construction of an immigration detention center – built in the middle of the Florida Everglades and dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” – as attorneys argue whether it violates environmental laws.
Democrats alarmed by Trump’s reported plan for Qatari jet
Leading Democrats are sounding the alarm over Donald Trump’s reported plan to divert funds from the US nuclear arsenal to convert a luxury jet gifted by Qatar into a new Air Force One.
In a letter obtained by the Guardian, senators Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Ed Markey and Adam Schiff, along with representatives John Garamendi and Jamie Raskin, demanded answers from Troy Meink, the secretary of the air force.
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Senators seek UnitedHealth records after Guardian investigation
Two Democratic senators are asking UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest healthcare conglomerate, to disclose internal documents about its efforts to reduce hospital transfers for nursing home residents and the bonuses it has given to nursing homes which help it to do so. The document demand letter follows a Guardian investigation into the initiative.
Read the full story
What else happened today:
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 6 August 2025.
