Thursday Briefing: Trump tries to derail climate progress
Also, the film festival season kicks off.
Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition
August 28, 2025

Good morning. We’re covering Trump’s campaign to reverse global climate progress. Also:

  • India reeled from U.S. tariffs.
  • Will military spending lift Europe’s economy?

Plus, the film festival season kicked off.

A collection of wind turbines atop a hill by the water spin in the breeze.
Wind accounts for about 20 percent of the electricity mix in Europe. Michael Probst/Associated Press

Trump wants to kill clean energy abroad

President Trump is not just trying to stop the transition away from fossil fuels in the U.S. He is pressuring other countries to retreat from their pledges to fight climate change and to burn more coal, gas and oil.

Trump is applying tariffs, levies and other mechanisms of the world’s biggest economy to induce other countries to burn more fossil fuels, my colleague Lisa Friedman reports from Washington. A White House spokesman said that the administration “will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals.”

Here are some of the ways the Trump administration is trying to affect other countries’ climate policies:

  • The administration promised to apply tariffs, visa restrictions and port fees to countries that vote for a global agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions from shipping.
  • Virtually all of the administration’s trade deals include requirements that trading partners buy vast amounts of U.S. oil and gas.
  • The administration joined oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia to oppose limits on the production of petroleum-based plastics.

Energy experts and European officials called the level of pressure Trump is exerting on other countries worrisome. Scientists widely agree that to avoid worsening consequences of climate change, countries need to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal power and hydropower.

Two men working in a textile factory.
A textile factory in Uttar Pradesh, India. Elke Scholiers for The New York Times

India reeled after Trump’s tariffs took effect

Businesses across India begged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for help after Trump’s 50 percent tariffs went into effect. The government announced a program, worth $28 billion over six years, to help exporters find new markets and borrow more easily.

Industry groups pleaded with the government for money to pay workers, and for lower-priced electricity and bank loans. The levies will strike hard at businesses that provide mass employment, like the textile industry, which makes up about 2 percent of India’s formal economy.

A fighter jet with an opened cockpit sits on the runway surrounded by missiles and bombs.
A French fighter jet at the Paris International Air Show. Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

Europe’s big bet on defense

Compelled by Russia’s war in Ukraine, leaders in Europe and Britain are meeting with weapons manufacturers and pouring billions into defense. They are promoting military spending as an economic cure that will create jobs and growth.

But economists warn that the payoff is small unless serious money is spent on research and innovation rather than on stockpiles. Financing through taxes as opposed to public debt could drag growth further down. Germany has expanded borrowing to bankroll rearmament, while debt-laden France, Italy and Britain face tighter choices.

MORE TOP NEWS

People stand near destroyed homes along a riverbank that overflowed during intense flooding in Jammu.
Homes destroyed by flooding in Jammu, India, yesterday. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
  • South Korea: Lawmakers passed a bill banning smartphone use during classes, joining similar moves by China, Finland, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
  • Tech: Nvidia’s sales rose 56 percent in the last quarter, topping Wall Street’s expectations and reassuring investors that the A.I. boom isn’t slowing.
  • Iran: U.N. inspectors were allowed to return after a monthlong ban, a possible first step toward restoring oversight of Tehran’s nuclear program.
  • U.K.: Homes built to trap warmth are now overheating in hotter summers, demanding costly retrofits that go far beyond adding air-conditioning.
  • Australia: Court documents in the case of antisemitic attacks linked to Iran outlined more of a bumbling plot by a ragtag crew than a precise plan.

SPORTS NEWS

Novak Djokovic cradles his raquet to celebrate his win at the U.S. Open.
Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MORNING READ

A woman sitting in an outdoor sauna cabin and a man entering it.
Andy Haslam for The New York Times

Demand for home saunas is soaring in Britain and the U.S., as interest in sweat bathing returns. An English sauna company said that it had recently experienced an 80 percent year-on-year rise in online sales.

Why the resurgence? An author who has spent the past five years immersed in sauna culture sees it as a powerful antidote to modern life. Read more.

Lives lived: Rainer Weiss, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work helped confirm the Big Bang and Einstein’s theory of relativity, died at 92.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Travis Kelce, in a dark shirt and light shorts, kneels in front of Taylor Swift, who is wearing a striped dress. They are in a garden surrounded by flowers.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Julia Roberts, in a rumpled white shirt with cuffs undone, sits against cushions, one arm extended.
Julia Roberts in “After the Hunt.” Yannis Drakoulidis/Amazon Content Services

The film festival season kicked off in Venice

A trio of film festivals in the coming weeks is offering a launchpad for some of the most tantalizing titles of the year. The Venice Film Festival opened yesterday and will be followed by counterparts in Telluride and Toronto.

My colleague Kyle Buchanan, who covers the awards season, wrote that some star-studded films featuring the likes of Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Emma Stone will make their debuts in Italy, but some big names are skipping fests.