The briefing for Friday, July 24.

President Trump announced new tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on 60 trading partners covering 99% of U.S. imports, claiming these countries inadequately enforce bans on goods produced by forced labor. The tariffs took effect Friday morning, replacing temporary 10% levies that expired after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's broader tariff program in February. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the action addresses both human rights abuses and distortive trade practices.

The administration invoked Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows tariffs against countries engaging in unjustifiable or discriminatory trade practices. This legal mechanism survived court challenges during Trump's first term when used against China. Countries that have committed to adopt forced labor import prohibitions face the 10% rate, while others receive 12.5%. Some products including oil, gas, and fertilizer are exempted, as are goods qualifying under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Brazil called the move arbitrary and unjustified, announcing plans to trigger its reciprocity law and file a World Trade Organization complaint. The Brazilian government said the U.S. is manipulating human rights issues to support protectionist trade policy. Congressional Democrats criticized the administration for cheapening forced labor enforcement into a tariff pretext, while the administration has also launched separate investigations into whether 16 countries accounting for 70% of U.S. imports have overproduced goods.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday, potentially widening the Iran conflict as international oil prices topped $100 per barrel for the first time since May. The attacks threaten a second critical shipping route while the world economy already reels from Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas transited before the war. The U.S. and Iran traded strikes for a 13th consecutive night as President Trump threatened major military punishment against both Iran and the Houthis.

The escalation comes as a June ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran has completely collapsed. That 14-point memorandum had called for halting military operations and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but Trump declared it over three weeks later following Iranian attacks on ships. On Thursday, Iran claimed drone strikes on U.S. facilities across the Middle East and attacks on Kuwait, while sirens sounded in Bahrain and Jordan. U.S. Central Command said it targeted Iranian military command centers, drone facilities, and maritime capabilities.

Brent crude oil spiked more than 6% Thursday to about $100 a barrel. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi visited Tehran calling for peace and dialogue, while Gulf states grow increasingly pessimistic about finding an off-ramp to the conflict. The number of wounded U.S. personnel has grown to over 500 troops, higher than official Pentagon tallies. With U.S. midterm elections approaching in the fall, polls show the war's unpopularity among Americans facing higher gas prices and new casualties.

President Trump said Thursday that the landmark U.S.-Saudi nuclear agreement announced a day earlier is contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords and recognizing Israel. The condition was not mentioned in Wednesday's announcement by the U.S. Energy Department or the Saudi government, adding an unexpected requirement almost certain to complicate congressional approval. Trump posted on Truth Social that the deal is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the accords, while also stating there will be no enrichment of nuclear material.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had discussed the condition with Saudi leaders on numerous previous occasions, stating if they don't join the Abraham Accords, the deal is off. Saudi Arabia has previously made clear it will not normalize relations with Israel without establishment of a Palestinian state, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected as untenable for Israel's security. The Abraham Accords, brokered by Trump in 2020, secured historic normalization between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, with Sudan, Morocco and Kazakhstan later joining.

The agreement described as a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement will now be sent to Congress for review. Some lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about nuclear proliferation risks, though Trump's Republican Party controls both chambers and opponents appear to lack votes to block it. Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat said Israel can manage Saudi Arabia having nuclear power for peaceful purposes, while former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that every military nuclear program begins with a civilian one. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it looks forward to receiving the request for verification measures.

The Education Department announced Thursday it will no longer consider school policies that disproportionately harm one group of students as discriminatory unless the discrimination is intentional. The rule change eliminates disparate impact provisions from regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on race or national origin. The standard has most notably been applied to school discipline policies, where data shows Black students are more likely to receive suspensions, expulsions and transfers to alternative schools.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the changes empower schools to address classroom issues without fearing the federal government will weaponize antidiscrimination laws. The department claimed disparate impact had forced schools to engage in racial balancing for fear of federal enforcement. The rule was published and took effect immediately without public comment, an unusual step for major regulatory change. The Trump administration previously directed the Education Department to issue new school discipline guidance through an executive order.

Sixty civil rights and educational advocacy organizations condemned the move in a letter, stating it has no basis in law or morality and is evidence the administration is determined to undermine civil rights laws and deny systemic discrimination. Michael Pillera of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said the change removes a critical guardrail, warning districts may continue discriminatory practices knowing the department won't investigate policies with discriminatory impact. Several other federal agencies including the EEOC, Justice Department and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have also moved away from disparate impact standards.

More than two dozen states sued the Trump administration Thursday for requiring them to comply with election and immigration conditions to receive billions of dollars in federal disaster funding. The lawsuit filed in Rhode Island challenges FEMA and Department of Homeland Security policies that require states to change their election systems and help DHS with immigration enforcement. The conditions would also allow DHS to terminate grants at any time and for any reason. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said the administration is using Americans' safety as collateral by attempting to bully states into relinquishing their constitutional rights.

The states argue that placing conditions on congressionally appropriated funding violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution's spending clause. Among the requirements being challenged, states must transition to paper-ballot systems, conduct manual audits, reconcile voters and verify citizenship of every registered voter. States failing to comply risk losing at least 20% of their Homeland Security Grant Program funding used to protect against cyberattacks and terrorism. Trump has groundlessly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud since his 2020 election loss, despite repeated audits finding it was free of widespread fraud.

FEMA called the lawsuit partisan pushback and said they expected left-wing politicians to oppose common-sense measures for election security. The lawsuit is one of scores challenging the administration's strategy of withholding federal funding to force mostly Democratic states to comply with its priorities, a tactic used on education funding, domestic violence grants and highway funding. Courts have repeatedly found this strategy unlawful and unconstitutional, with a ruling last year barring the administration from putting conditions on other FEMA funding and another blocking redirection of DHS funding away from non-supportive states.

The Ebola outbreak in Congo has killed more than 1,000 people, reaching the grim milestone nearly three times faster than the 2014-2016 epidemic considered the worst on record. Data from Congo's Ministry of Health shows the outbreak declared May 15 has recorded 2,536 confirmed cases including 1,033 deaths as of Wednesday. The 2014-2016 outbreak took eight months to reach 1,000 deaths from the first recorded case, while this outbreak reached that toll in just over two months. The current outbreak has also recorded 2,500 cases almost three times quicker than the deadliest outbreak.

This outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant with no approved vaccines or treatments. The Bundibugyo outbreak is largely restricted to Congo except for a few cases in Uganda, and within Congo it's limited to five provinces in the eastern region near the Uganda border. The outbreak has a case fatality rate of 40%, with officials blaming most deaths on patients reporting symptoms late. In comparison, the 2014-2016 outbreak caused by the more common Ebola virus had a 66% fatality rate and spread widely across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Officials say the peak could still be ahead because patient zero has not been confirmed and the majority of new cases come from outside monitored contacts. Contact tracing continues to lag with only 77% of known contacts monitored nationwide, well below the 95% target needed to interrupt transmission. The World Health Organization assesses risk as very high inside Congo and high in neighboring countries, but low globally since Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids rather than through the air. CDC researchers found in a worst-case scenario, the outbreak could approach the scale of the West Africa epidemic which caused over 11,000 deaths.