Trump Considers "Massive" Iran Attack, Imposes New Tariffs

Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.   

On today's podcast:   

1) President Trump said he’s considering a “massive attack” on Iran to push the nation to negotiate a peace deal. The president told Axios that Iran isn’t ready to make a deal and “they haven’t received enough pain yet,” and that he was “close to making a decision” on attacks that would be “bigger than ever before.” The US has launched strikes intended to degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in Hormuz, and Trump has threatened “major military punishment” on Iran and the Houthi militant group it backs in Yemen if they target commercial ships.   

2) President Trump is rebuilding his tariff strategy with new levies on 60 economies. The US will collect duties of between 10% and 12.5% on imports from most major trading partners, following an investigation into the alleged failure of around 60 economies to prevent forced labor in their supply chains. Goods from some trading partners deemed to have adopted forced-labor restrictions will be subject to 10% tariffs, including Mexico, the UK, Canada and India, while duties on items from the European Union and Taiwan won’t exceed 10%. The rates under the new authority took effect Friday at 12:01 a.m. New York time, with certain exemptions, such as for products that can’t be produced in the US or where tariffs would cause economy-wide disruptions.   

3) Intel delivered a revenue forecast that shattered Wall Street estimates, indicating that booming data center spending is helping fuel a long-awaited turnaround. Sales will be $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion in the third quarter, with the low end of that range easily clearing the $15.1 billion average analyst estimate. The outlook underscores Intel’s gains with data center customers, which are clamoring for chips to satisfy demand for artificial intelligence computing, with sales in that segment soaring 59% last quarter.

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