An aerial view of a cargo ship being loaded with shipping containers at the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 7, 2025.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
Even as tariff-related ruction appears to be settling down for the summer, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is still reshaping global trade and industry.
After the Trump administration hinted it could be open to Nvidia exporting more powerful chips to China after their revenue-sharing agreement, the semiconductor darling was reported to be developing a new chip for Beijing.
And Intel’s bounty from the CHIPS Act, formalized by the previous administration under Joe Biden, might come with a price tag of giving the current U.S. government a stake in the company.
Meanwhile, the effects of tariffs continue to creep into everyday life.
The costs incurred by fires in the U.S. — think of the tragic Los Angeles wildfires in January or the one near the Grand Canyon just last month — are already growing, not just in terms of the physical damage but also the price of insurance premiums.
And now that Trump has added fire extinguishers to a list of steel products that will face a 50% import tariff, even the price of relatively more benign and contained fires, such as those you start to burn photographs of your ex-partner, will be more expensive to put out. That’s a truly protest-worthy tariff.
What you need to know today
And finally…
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, amid negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 18, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Trump promised Ukraine ‘security guarantees’: Here’s what they could look like
The most significant development from Monday’s talks between U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders was Trump’s statement that security guarantees for Ukraine would be “provided” by European countries in “coordination with the U.S.”
French President Emmanuel Macron hinted Tuesday that the “first security guarantee we are working on — and it is the most important — is a strong Ukrainian army, composed of several hundred thousand men, well equipped, with defense systems and higher standards.”
— Holly Ellyatt