Good morning. In this edition:

• 📝 Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are in effect—for now
• 🏕️ Adult summer camps
• 📰 Weekly news quiz

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.76-minute read (999 words).

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"Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it."

–Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Starting today, dozens of countries face higher US tariff rates after President Trump’s trade-deal deadline for nearly all US trading partners expired at 12:01 am this morning.

But they may not remain in place for very long. Trump’s trade strategy faced its biggest legal test to date yesterday, when a panel of appeals court judges heard arguments over whether the President’s use of emergency powers to enact his tariff agenda is legal.

The Trump tariff legal saga

In late May, two federal courts found that Trump lacks the authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the 1970s-era emergency legislation he invoked for many executive orders. Those rulings were later placed on hold by a federal appeals court until a hearing could occur.

• In that hearing, held yesterday, the Trump admin argued that America’s trade imbalances have grown into an emergency over recent years, and that judges lack the power to overrule the President’s judgment regarding emergency declarations.
• But the appeals court judges appeared to side more with arguments from 12 Democratic-led states and five businesses, who said the 1970s-era emergency legislation can’t be used to enact tariffs—and even if it could, America’s current trade situation doesn’t rise to the level of an emergency.

The panel of judges isn’t expected to rule until next week at the earliest. But regardless of the outcome, the losing party is widely expected to appeal to the Supreme Court,

Meanwhile, US tariffs will remain in place

An updated slate of reciprocal tariffs are now in effect for dozens of countries that failed to reach deals, featuring higher rates across the board than previously reported, President Trump announced last night.

But many US trading partners—including the EU, UK, Japan, and China—avoided those higher rates by reaching agreements ahead of the deadline, including a series of last-minute deals in recent days.

• South Korea agreed to “give to the United States $350 Billion Dollars for Investments owned and controlled by the United States” in exchange for lowering blanket US tariffs from 25% to 15%, Trump announced Wednesday.
• Mexico received a 30-day pause from Trump’s plan to bump up their blanket tariff rate from 25% to 30%.
• US trade deals with Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia are also in the works, per Bloomberg ($).

Looking ahead…All of America’s recent trade deals are more akin to frameworks, meaning they have yet to be fully ironed out. Trump admin officials say the finer points will be determined in the coming months, as a complete bilateral trade agreement with each country isn’t realistic given the short timeframe.

📊 Flash poll (long-form): What are your general thoughts on America’s trade situation following the Trump admin’s latest deadline? The most thought-provoking and insightful answers will be featured in Monday’s newsletter.

• Click here to leave a response.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🤝 Best Buy to put Ikea kitchen- and- laundry showrooms in 10 US stores in limited test.
• 📈 Figma shares triple in first day of public trading; design software firm ends the day with a market cap of ~$68 billion (up from $19.3 billion at the beginning). | Microsoft becomes second company to hit a $4 trillion market cap, joining Nvidia, who eclipsed the mark earlier this month.
• 📊 Apple stock rises 2% after-hours on record Q3 earnings and better than expected iPhone sales. | Amazon reports better-than-expected Q2 sales and profit; shares fall in aftermarket trading after cloud business growth lags behind rivals.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with MorningSave

• 🏈 LA Chargers defeat the Detroit Lions 34-7 in the NFL Hall of Fame Game; marks first game of NFL preseason.
• ⚾ Carlos Correa traded from the Minnesota Twins back to the Houston Astros prior to MLB trade deadline; see all the deals across the league by clicking the link.
• 📝 Singer/actor Justin Timberlake reveals Lyme disease diagnosis in Instagram post. | Kamala Harris announces 107 Days, an upcoming book about her presidential campaign; it’ll be released Sept. 23. | Amazon’s upcoming James Bond movie to be written by Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight; directed by Denis Villeneuve.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💤 Humans may hold the genes for hibernation, new research indicates; discovery could open the door to new treatments for obesity and diabetes.
• 🏥 President Trump says he asked 17 major pharmaceutical companies to start cutting US drug prices within 60 days.
• 🌌 UK appoints first female Astronomer Royal in 350-year history of position; planetary scientist Michele Dougherty is best known for research revealing the possibility of extraterrestrial life on one of Saturn’s moons. | Martian glaciers are mostly made of pure ice, instead of up to 70% rock, suggesting they could be useful to future human explorers.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏃 Presidential Fitness Test coming back to US public schools, per new Trump executive order.
• 📵 Australia bans YouTube accounts for children under 16.
• 🏛️ Texas GOP unveils redistricting map aimed at picking up five new House seats for the party. (Dive deeper: US lawmakers are locked in a redistricting arms race)

☝️ You’re looking at some of the top editor’s choices from The Independent Photographer’s Black & White photo competition.

🤔 Did You Know? Director Quentin Tarantino became very paranoid of leaks after a draft of The Hateful Eight’s script became public ahead of its 2014 release. When filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood years later, only Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie were allowed to read Tarantino’s script in its entirety before production.

📰 Worth a Read: How to alter the passage of time to feel fast or slow

🖱️ Clickbait: Adult summer camps are on the rise

Think your anxiety, muscle tension, and irregular heartbeat are just part of getting older? Think again. Groundbreaking research reveals how a single mineral deficiency could be behind dozens of common complaints after 50. 

Even more intriguing? Many of the medications commonly prescribed to older adults might be making this deficiency worse. Before you accept another prescription, there's something crucial you need to know about magnesium.

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

💰 Roughly 1 in 10 US adults is a millionaire, with America adding new members to the two-comma club at a rate of ~1,000/day, per Swiss bank UBS.

📱 Apple is shutting down one of its stores in China—for the first time in 17+ years of operating in the country.

🏢 33% of new US CEOs have started on an interim basis so far this year, a sharp increase from 9% in the same period of 2024.

🏈 The Texas Longhorns football program is worth ~$2.4 billion, or roughly half-a-billion dollars more than any other school, according to “back-of-the-envelope” projections from The Athletic.

👶 China’s government is offering to pay families $500 per child until each little one turns three, in an attempt to incentivize more births.

How well did you pay attention this week? Find out here.

💉 Learn: About nitazenes, the drug stronger than fentanyl that’s killing hundreds every year.

✉️ Pushing the envelope: Vote here to bring back your favorite postage stamp.

⌨️ What a headline: Exhausted man beats AI model in world coding championship

🏋️ Chalk talk: Sign up for the Morning Chalk Up newsletter and get access to expert analysis, breaking news, and exclusive interviews about the Crossfit community 5x/week.*

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*A message from our partners

Below are three lists of ingredients. Your job is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Thick cut bacon
• Yellow onion
• Green cabbage
• Sugar
• Salt & pepper

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Cremini mushrooms
• Shrimp
• Olive oil
• Scallions
• Chicken stock
• Garlic
• Soy sauce
• Rice
• Sesame seeds

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Flour
• Sugar
• Salt
• Butter
• Sour cream
• Egg
• Cream
• Plums
• Cinnamon
• Lemon juice
• Orange zest
• Tapioca

👏 The heroic hand..: A former truck driver who lost all four fingers of his right hand in a work accident has been fitted with a novel 3D-printed device from UK company Open Bionic, which allows him to grip and hold things on his own. 

+Note: This story previously appeared in a June 2024 edition of Positive DONUT, our weekly newsletter surfacing all the good things you don't hear about in the news.

☝️ Recipe #1: Southern fried cabbage

✌️ Recipe #2: Shrimp and mushroom stir fry

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Plum galette

+Clue for the Games newsletter: Today’s Conjoiner sequence is widely beloved…unlike Dolores Umbridge.