• Markets: Stocks closed mixed yesterday as chip stocks…dipped following reports that Nvidia is raising some of its prices. Sandisk and Micron were among the companies that fell.

Embargomaxxing

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Trump administration announced trade measures aimed at economically isolating Iran yesterday that it had previously teased as “economic D-Day”…but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was more of a “warning shot” than a full-scale assault.

Dubbing the plan “Operation Economic Outcast,” Bessent said the US will impose devastating sanctions against countries that enable Iran to illicitly trade in oil, crypto, aviation, gold, technology, and shipping in order to cause the “economic asphyxiation” of the regime:

• But Bessent said the US is giving countries time to “remedy their bad behavior” and that it wouldn’t want to “blow up the global financial system” with immediate action.
• He also announced immediate sanctions against 60 entities, individuals, and vessels the US says are enabling the Iranian regime’s “recklessness.”

Bessent noted that the UAE, Iran’s biggest import partner, already cut off all trade ties with Iran last week and said President Trump was asking other countries to do the same.

China-shaped elephant in the room

When a reporter asked Bessent about enforcement against China—which purchased 80% of Iran’s oil before the war—Bessent said no one would be exempt. But analysts say it’s unclear if the Trump administration will risk antagonizing the country with sanctions amid a tenuous trade truce and before its leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the US next month.

However, Iran’s oil exports to China have already reportedly fallen since the US began blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

Will it work?

The Trump administration is banking that economic punches will force Iran to lift its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, which has pushed up energy prices ahead of the US’ midterm election.

But while Iran’s currency fell to a record low against the dollar ahead of Bessent’s announcement, worldwide markets reacted with a shrug. Some experts say that while additional sanctions might deepen economic pain for ordinary Iranians, after years of sanctions, the US doesn’t have much economic ammo left in its arsenal that would force Iran’s leadership to acquiesce.

Iran has vowed to retaliate, possibly militarily.

Diplomacy is also ongoing: Oman is continuing negotiations with Iran about easing navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, and Pakistan’s army chief arrived in Tehran yesterday to urge renewed peace talks with the US.—SK

      

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World

Tour de headlines

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

🇺🇸 🇨🇦 Trump threatens 50% tariffs on Canadian autos as trade war escalates. With the US and Canada at odds after failing to reach a deal to avert new US tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods last week, President Trump upped the ante yesterday by threatening to raise tariffs on Canadian autos. He said on Truth Social that the tariff would be increased to 50% on “all Cars, Trucks, both large and small, Automotive Parts, and Steel” as of January 1. Canada has already vowed to retaliate dollar for dollar on Trump’s recent tariffs. Yesterday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford told the AP that if the trade dispute gets worse he would cut off US access to his province’s electricity and critical minerals.

🗞️ Washington Post ordered to rehire opinion writer fired over Charlie Kirk posts. An arbitrator ordered the newspaper to reinstate Karen Attiah, who was terminated over Bluesky posts she made in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder that the paper considered “gross misconduct.” Attiah challenged her dismissal, and the arbitrator ultimately determined that firing her was “absolutely disproportional” and ordered the Post to give her full back pay and benefits. Attiah, who was the only Black female opinion writer at WaPo, called her win “victory for journalists everywhere.” Meanwhile, the Post told news outlets that it respects the arbitration process.

🌡️ Ocean temperatures hit their hottest on record. If you thought you’ve been hot this summer, the fish are probably even hotter, as the world’s ocean temperatures reached 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) last Friday and Saturday. With a brewing El Niño and climate change pushing the mercury up, the data from the European climate service Copernicus is the highest reading ever recorded, surpassing a record set in March 2024. One University of Ottawa professor speculated on X that it might be the warmest “for the entire Holocene period, and possibly even as far back as the last Interglacial 125,000 years ago.”—AR

The crypto also rises

VCG/Getty Images

After laying dormant for the last year, your crypto cousin is probably popping off in the family group chat right now. Bitcoin ended yesterday near $80,000 after its biggest three-day rally since March 2023. It has jumped over 22% in the last seven days, following the US Treasury Department’s announcement that it would buy back more bonds.

What’s going on? Since hitting an all-time high of $126,000 last October, bitcoin has steadily fallen as investors rotated into the AI trade and enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency faded.

But then Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to boost the flailing bond market last week. That…didn’t really work—but it did help to revive bitcoin:

• The move spooked investors. Even billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio urged folks to buy bitcoin and gold to hedge their investments from growing US debt.
• Some investors are calling what’s happening the “debasement trade,” or the trend of ditching currency (like the weakening dollar) and putting money in “safer” assets like gold. Bitcoin is still pretty volatile, but it’s more insulated from monetary policy.

There’s a divide on whether the bump will stick. President Trump hosted a crypto summit last week and urged Congress to pass the Clarity Act, which creates a legal framework for regulation. The bill, which the Senate could vote on next month, has mostly stalled, with some lawmakers arguing it needs stronger language to prevent politicians from profiting off their own crypto.—MM

      

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Niv Bavarsky

You know screen fatigue is at an all-time high when people yearn for ancient communication methods: Usership is booming for two new slow-tech apps that deliver messages via virtual carrier pigeons, several outlets recently reported.

Welcome back, letter-writing:

• One of the apps, Carrier Pidge, features digital pigeons that travel up to 110 mph, with a 0.2% chance of dying or getting lost. For example, it took Carrier Pidge’s developer nearly nine hours to send his first message from New York to a friend in Chicago.
• The other app, Roost, offers 1,000 “animals,” including a snail that sends your “u up?” text at 1 mph.

This month, Roost reported reaching 650,000 downloads, and Carrier Pidge said it surpassed 75,000+ users. Both were launched in April. The concept isn’t totally novel: Gizmodo writer Mike Pearl noted that a pen pal app called Slowly—which counts 10+ million users globally—has been on the slow-messaging beat since 2017…albeit without Roost and Carrier Pidge’s nods to Tamagotchi nostalgia.

Zoom out: In a time of constant notifications, “Some things are better when they’re worse,” one Carrier Pidge user told the New York Times. That also explains why younger generations are buying dumb phones and social-media-blocking hardware like Brick. As one sociologist declared in January, this is the year of “friction-maxxing.”—ML

      

Matty’s work-life balance

It’s August. Do you know where your teen is?

Andersen Ross/Getty Images

On Tuesdays, the Brew’s Matty Merritt brings you the news you need to make life a little easier during your 9-5, 5-9, or OOO.

If it’s recently been feeling like everyone behind the register is cooler than you, it might be because the teens are working more than last summer. About 35.5% of US teens aged 16 to 19 are employed for at least part of the summer, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of federal data.

• That represents a slight rebound from last summer’s 33.8% (which also included August data).
• But it remains way down from the heyday of the late 90s when about half of teenagers had summer jobs.

Was Kim K right about nobody wanting to work these days? The summer job ritual has been declining for decades. Covid shuttering tourist destinations and restaurants cratered teen employment in the early 2020s, but the age group took its biggest hit after the Great Recession in 2010 and 2011, when teen summer employment dipped to 29.6%. Now, there are fewer entry-level jobs available and more high schoolers focusing on volunteer hours and college courses during the summer months.—MM

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News

What else is brewing

• The Supreme Court cleared the way for some of President Trump’s restrictions on mail-in voting to take effect before the midterm elections in November.
• California AG Rob Bonta canceled planned settlement talks with Paramount in the state’s lawsuit seeking to block the studio’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, accusing the company of acting in bad faith and leaking details of the planned discussions. Paramount denied leaking the information.
• Hugging Face, the AI company best known for getting hacked by rogue OpenAI agents, has reportedly been approached about being acquired at a $13 billion valuation.
• Redfin will resume its rental advertising business within six months as part of a settlement that resolved a lawsuit in which the FTC and several states accused Zillow of improperly paying Redfin $100 million to stop competing with its rental listings. The suit was scheduled to go to trial yesterday.
• The Trump administration is proposing new $100k+ H-1B Visa fees for skilled workers, despite a similar effort being blocked by a federal judge who ruled it would require Congressional approval.
• San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York was arrested on suspicion of engaging in prostitution and pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges.

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Today in history

All of the following events happened on this date, August 25th, in history. Can you put them in chronological order, from earliest to most recent?

• The first mass-market instant ramen is developed
• The Wizard of Oz opens in US theaters
• Sean Connery is born
• Matthew Webb becomes the first known person to successfully swim across the English Channel

Answer

• Matthew Webb becomes the first known person to successfully swim across the English Channel (1875)
• Sean Connery is born (1930)
• Wizard of Oz opens (1939)
• Mass-market ramen developed (1958)

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: asphyxiation, meaning “deprivation of oxygen that can result in unconsciousness and often death.” Thanks to Jessica from Minneapolis for a suggestion that took our breath away. Submit another Word of the Day here.