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The News Roundup For August 8, 2025

A sign showing a photo of President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is displayed ahead of a news conference with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
OLIVER CONTRERAS
/
AFP via Getty Images
A sign showing a photo of President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is displayed ahead of a news conference with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

After months of delays, President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs went into effect on Thursday. A majority of U.S. imports will now come with a baseline 10 percent duty. The overall average tariff rate is 17 percent — the highest since during the Great Depression in 1935.

President Trump claims the Bureau of Labor Statistics had issued "phony" jobs numbers during the Biden administration to help Democrats hold the White House, only to revise them downward after Trump won the 2024 election. He fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the BLS last week.

A planned strategy meeting among top Trump administration officials whether to release the transcript from the Department of Justice interview with Ghislaine Maxwell was cancelled.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government considers a total takeover of the Gaza strip. The UN warns the move could risk "catastrophic consequences."

Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of Donald Trump's Friday deadline for peace in Ukraine.

Rwanda has agreed to accept 250 migrants from the United States becoming the latest nation to strike a deal to take in Trump administration deportees.

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