And in the US, lower-income consumers get squeezed.

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Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Trump's tariffs are expected to stay in place long term, and the US economy is at risk of a wobble as lower-income consumers get squeezed. Elsewhere, a powerful 6.3 quake kills at least 20 in Afghanistan, and a British man is charged after train stabbings.

Plus, how the US is preparing a military staging ground near Venezuela.

 

Today's Top News

 

Trade and tariffs

  • The US Supreme Court is considering the legality of President Donald Trump's global tariffs this week. Under one legal authority or another, Trump's tariffs are expected to stay in place long term. Jan Wolfe tells the Reuters World News podcast about his conversation with one of the plaintiffs.
  • Within days of the US president announcing his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs in April, toymaker Rick Woldenberg was looking for a law firm to help him sue the Trump administration.
  • The world's big manufacturing economies struggled to fire up in October, business surveys showed, as weak US demand and Trump's tariffs hit factory orders.

In other news

  • US President Donald Trump said that, for now, he is not considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain long-range Tomahawk missiles for use against Russia.
  • The US military is upgrading a Cold War base in the Caribbean it abandoned 20 years ago. Experts say it’s a step towards sustained operations in the region.
  • As the US government shutdown disrupts paychecks for federal workers across the country, it is exacerbating the financial woes of lawyers who defend the poorest members of society when they are accused of federal crimes.
  • A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif early, killing at least 20 people, injuring hundreds and damaging the city's historic Blue Mosque, authorities said, with the death toll likely to rise.
  • Trump said the US military could deploy troops to Nigeria or carry out air strikes to stop what he called the killing of large numbers of Christians in the West African country.
  • Pope Leo appealed for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors in Sudan, saying he was following with "great sorrow" reports of terrible brutality in the city of Al-Fashir in Darfur.
  • Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn into office for her first elected term after winning a landslide victory in an election that set off deadly protests across the country.
  • British prosecutors charged a 32-year-old man with ten counts of attempted murder following a mass stabbing on a London-bound train that left multiple passengers injured on Saturday.
 

Business & Markets

 

People display merchandise for pedestrians around Times Square, in New York. December 25, 2023. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

  • The US consumer's durability as a prop for the economy may be tested in coming weeks as family budgets, particularly among the less affluent, are stressed by rising healthcare costs, the potential loss of federal food benefits, and a wobbly job market outlook that is already taking a toll on earnings.
  • Artificial intelligence giant Nvidia's most advanced chips will be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, Trump said.
  • Data center owner and operator IREN said it has signed a nearly $9.7 billion cloud services contract with Microsoft to provide the tech giant with access to Nvidia's GB300 processors over a five-year period.
  • OPEC+ agreed a small oil output increase for December and a pause in increases in the first quarter of next year as the producers' group moderates plans to regain market share due to rising fears of a supply glut.
  • Glencore is planning to close its Horne smelter, Canada's largest copper metal-producing operation, due to environmental issues and the millions of dollars needed to upgrade the facility, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
  • Watch our daily rundown for more on global markets.
 

'We're not a violent city': Chicago locals take on ICE block-by-block

 

Protesters outside the Broadview ICE facility, Chicago, Illinois. November 1, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska 

Chicago, a city of 2.7 million, has long been known as a patchwork of close-knit neighborhoods. And since the city took center stage of Trump’s immigration crackdown in September, those neighborhoods have mobilized against enforcement efforts, sometimes block-by-block.
Read more
 

And Finally...

Astronaut Wu Fei before taking part in the Shenzhou-21 spaceflight mission to China's Tiangong space station, at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov 

China's Shenzhou-21 space rocket and its crew including the youngest member of its astronaut corps blasted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, Chinese state media reported.

It was the seventh mission to the permanently inhabited Chinese space station since it was completed in 2022.