July 10 2025
Brazil / copper tariffs; Biden's doctor refuses testimony; DOJ probes Comey, Brennan; X CEO Yaccarino exits; China pushes engineering degrees
U.S. to Hit Brazilian Goods with 50% Tariff; Global Copper Imports Also Targeted
Biden's Former Physician Refuses to Testify in GOP Probe, Citing Fifth Amendment
Justice Department Confirms Criminal Probes into Ex-FBI and CIA Chiefs Comey and Brennan
Yaccarino Exits as CEO of Musk's X Months After AI Takeover
Driven by Government Push, Chinese Youth Flock to Engineering Degrees
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U.S. to Hit Brazilian Goods with 50% Tariff; Global Copper Imports Also Targeted
The U.S. will charge a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods starting on Aug. 1, President Trump announced in a letter to the Latin American country’s government on Wednesday, citing legal action against its former President Jair Bolsonaro and U.S. tech firms as justification for the levies. The 50% tariff is the highest level announced so far in Trump’s flurry of letters to world leaders this week, which were sent after he pushed back the deadline to impose his so-called reciprocal tariffs to Aug. 1. They had previously been set to take effect on Wednesday, after being paused since April. Trump also announced on social media Wednesday night that he’ll impose a 50% tariff on global imports of copper beginning on Aug. 1. Trump wrote that he had received a national security report underlining the importance of copper.
WSJ
Biden's Former Physician Refuses to Testify in GOP Probe, Citing Fifth Amendment
Kevin O’Connor, who served as Joe Biden’s physician while the former president was in office, refused to testify in a closed-door interview as part of the House GOP probe into Biden’s mental acuity and whether his inner circle sought to conceal his limitations from the public. O’Connor Wednesday morning asserted doctor-patient privilege and his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to a statement from his attorneys. He had repeatedly argued his duties as a doctor complicated his ability to testify under oath about his patient, preventing him from sharing some sensitive information.
Politico
Justice Department Confirms Criminal Probes into Ex-FBI and CIA Chiefs Comey and Brennan
The Justice Department acknowledged Wednesday that it had opened criminal probes into former FBI director James B. Comey and former CIA director John Brennan — two frequent targets of President Donald Trump who played roles in the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia. In an highly unusual statement, a department spokesperson referenced a “criminal investigation” into the two men but said the department does not comment on ongoing investigations. The statement came hours after Fox News Digital, citing anonymous Justice Department sources, reported that both men were under scrutiny for their roles in the collusion probe, which Trump has repeatedly dismissed as the “Russian hoax.”
Washington Post
Yaccarino Exits as CEO of Musk's X Months After AI Takeover
July 9 (Reuters) - Linda Yaccarino, one of Elon Musk's top deputies as CEO of his X social media site, is exiting the company in a surprise move just months after the platform was acquired by the billionaire's AI startup, xAI. Yaccarino, 61, made the announcement in a post on X suggesting it was her decision, though Musk has a history of dismissing deputies suddenly. "I've decided to step down as CEO of X," Yaccarino wrote.
Reuters
Driven by Government Push, Chinese Youth Flock to Engineering Degrees
Over half of China’s young people now complete some form of higher education, which is provided by 3,000-odd institutions. In China, as elsewhere, an abundance of degrees has made each one less valuable. And as the economy has slowed in recent years, the youth unemployment rate has risen, even among graduates. It was 14.9% in May, according to the government. To stand out, young people want to get the most impressive credentials. In 2022, the latest year for which data are available, 36% of all Chinese undergraduate entrants—about 1.6m people—picked an engineering degree, up from 32% in 2010 (see chart). In Britain and America, which have far fewer students to start with, the proportion hovers around 5%. It is not because Chinese teenagers are especially fond of screwdrivers. Rather it is because China’s government is strikingly good at getting young people into the high-tech fields it wants to dominate.
The Economist
July 10, 1832: Andrew Jackson vetoes re-charter of the Second Bank of the U.S.
Andrew Jackson's July 10, 1832 veto of the Second Bank of the United States—which he denounced as corrupt and serving only the country's elite—presaged the populist anti-banking sentiment that would resurface nearly two centuries later following the 2008 financial crisis. Just as Jackson's "Bank War" represented a forceful challenge to centralized financial institutions he viewed as benefiting the wealthy at ordinary Americans' expense, the modern populist movements of the 2010s and 2020s have similarly targeted Wall Street and major banks as symbols of a rigged system. The Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011 explicitly echoed Jacksonian themes by positioning itself against the "1 percent" and financial institutions seen as responsible for economic inequality and crisis. This continuity between past and present populism was perhaps most symbolically embodied when Donald Trump, himself a populist challenger to political establishments, prominently displayed a bust of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office—a visual reminder that the tension between democratic populism and elite financial power remains a defining feature of American politics across the centuries.
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Sources
- https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/trump-threatens-50-brazil-tariff-citing-bolsonaro-trial-93a95e7b?mod=hp_lead_pos2
- https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/09/congress/biden-doctor-refuses-to-testify-00443736
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/09/trump-comey-brennan-justice-investigation/
- https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/x-ceo-yaccarino-step-down-surprise-move-2025-07-09/
- https://www.economist.com/china/2025/06/26/chinas-new-army-of-engineers
Contact: greg@loql.ai
