While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Aug 8, 2025
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People walking past a Tissot store on Fifth Avenue in New York as President Trump’s new tariffs come into force, on Aug 7.
PHOTO: REUTERS
US partners seek relief as tariffs upend global trade
President Donald Trump’s steeper global tariffs came into effect on Aug 7, leaving dozens of US trade partners scrambling to secure relief from soaring levies that are rewriting global trade practice.
Shortly before the new rates kicked in, Washington also announced it would double India’s tariffs to 50 per cent and hit many semiconductor imports with a 100 per cent duty.
Mr Trump’s tariff policy is a demonstration of economic power that he hopes will revive domestic manufacturing by keeping out imports, but many economists fear it will trigger inflation and lower growth.
In his latest move, the president raised import duties from 10 per cent to levels between 15 per cent and 41 per cent for a list of trading partners.
Netanyahu wants Israel to take control of all of Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Aug 7 Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza, despite intensifying criticism at home and abroad over the devastating almost two-year-old war in the Palestinian enclave.
“We intend to,” Mr Netanyahu said, in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer when asked if Israel would take over the entire coastal territory.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.”
Ukrainians sceptical about Trump-Putin summit
Ukrainians have reacted with caution and deep scepticism to the suggestion that President Donald Trump can deliver an end to Europe’s deadliest war in generations.
A Kremlin aide, Mr Yuri Ushakov, on Aug 7 confirmed that a meeting was being planned between Mr Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia in “the coming days.”
Despite the promise of talks, many Ukrainians expressed fear that the White House is again being strung along by the Kremlin.
US V-P Vance to meet Lammy during UK ‘holiday’
British foreign minister David Lammy will on Aug 8 meet US Vice-President J.D. Vance, who is on holiday in the country, Britain’s government confirmed.
Mr Lammy will host Mr Vance and his family at his country retreat in Chevening in Kent, south-east of London, the Foreign Office said in a statement on Aug 7.
The statement said the pair “will discuss shared priorities and the strength of the UK-US relationship,” without elaborating further.
OpenAI releases ChatGPT-5 as AI race accelerates
OpenAI on Aug 7 released a keenly awaited new generation of its hallmark ChatGPT, touting “significant” advancements in artificial intelligence capabilities, as a global race over the technology accelerates.
ChatGPT-5 is rolling out free to all users of the AI tool, which is used by nearly 700 million people weekly, OpenAI said in a briefing with journalists.
Co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman touted this latest iteration as “clearly a model that is generally intelligent.”
