外媒每日新闻 Trade & Climate Edition

Americans are deeply frustrated with President Donald Trump's handling of the economy and rising prices, with most panning his performance and blaming his policies as higher costs threaten his party's chances in November. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of the Republican president's handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low. A majority, 65%, now blame Trump's policies for persistently high costs more than factors outside his control, signaling growing weariness over his aggressive use of tariffs and continued unhappiness with the war with Iran. The dismal numbers come just weeks before midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress. Trump's approval on the economy is a 14 percentage point drop from March 2025, just after he took office for the second time — a significant departure from his first term, when the economy was often a point of strength.^[1]

G20 trade ministers failed to reach an agreement Thursday to curb the flooding of markets with overproduced, underpriced goods — a practice the Trump administration says undercuts American manufacturers. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said talks were constructive despite no consensus on "excess capacity," with nearly all countries agreeing the issue requires action but that current trade remedies are inadequate. The gathering in Milwaukee bore no signs of breakthrough on the biggest trade dispute of the moment, between the U.S. and Canada. Animosity between the two countries has grown since the summer, when Trump slapped 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, leading Canada to counterpunch with tariffs of its own. It further devolved this week, with Trump banning nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles. Trade leaders also failed to reach a deal on forced labor, an issue the Trump administration has used as justification for double-digit tariffs on more than 60 countries covering 99% of U.S. imports.^[2]

Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think tank. The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy, cumulatively through 2040. In five states — Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming — households will pay roughly $9,000 more. The California-based think tank said there will be more demand for natural gas for electricity because the administration is canceling new clean energy projects, and more demand for gasoline for transportation because Trump and Congress are revoking policies that encouraged efficient and lower-emissions vehicles. Higher demand drives prices up. Electricity bills are already rising faster than inflation in much of the U.S., blamed in some areas on demand from data centers, while the Iran war has sent oil and gasoline prices sharply higher.^[5]

Amazon is investing more than $1 billion over the next five years into communities where it operates data centers — for education, job training, water and energy preservation projects and other local priorities — as it reacts to a growing backlash from politicians and consumers to the tech industry's rollout of massive data center buildings. Matt Garman, Amazon's CEO of cloud computing, said Amazon is no longer using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies and hosts open houses in communities to share information. He warned against misinformation about data centers' environmental impact, citing the dangers of over 100 moratoriums against data centers being considered across the country. "If these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations," he wrote. Amazon said in July it now expects to spend $220 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, up from $200 billion. About 6 in 10 Americans support limiting new data centers, including most Democrats and Republicans, with a majority concerned about their impact on electricity prices and water supply.^[6]

Hurricane Rachel has been upgraded to a Category 3 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast as northern Mexico and parts of the U.S. Southwest were reeling from flooding and damage from the remnants of Hurricane Polo earlier this week. With maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, Rachel was located about 235 miles south of the southern tip of Baja California and expected to strengthen further before weakening this weekend. The NHC warned of life-threatening surf and rip-current conditions. Meanwhile, hundreds of people remained displaced or had their homes destroyed by Polo in northern Mexico, with at least 13 municipalities still flooded. In the U.S., storm remnants drenched Texas, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa. Wednesday was the wettest day on record for Lincoln, Nebraska, which received 6.1 inches of rainfall. In Omaha, the fire department responded to 80 water rescues over three hours, with floodwaters reaching depths of 8 feet. The Pacific has seen an unusually busy hurricane season, attributed by experts to El Niño.^[8]

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that its inspectors detected cyclospora at the Mexican farm blamed for the largest foodborne illness outbreak of the parasite in U.S. history. Despite the finding, the FDA said it's unclear how the parasite got into lettuce at Taylor Farms' facility. The outbreak led to nearly 13,000 cases of diarrhea and other illnesses across the U.S. FDA inspectors found cyclospora in two places: a wastewater tank and a drainage ditch used for lettuce cultivation. The samples provide "strong epidemiological data" linking the outbreak to the Taylor Farms site. Taylor Farms attributed the contamination to an independent grower "who is no longer part of our supplier program." Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea "with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements," according to the CDC. The parasite is spread through human feces. The outbreak was declared over last month following years of declining FDA foreign food safety inspections after the COVID-19 pandemic.^[9]

Four astronauts pulled up at the International Space Station on Thursday after launching on an eight-hour express flight that set a U.S. speed record. SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for NASA after a three-week delay to fix their Dragon capsule's leaking fuel system. Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit. The quick transit was enabled by the space station's convenient orbital position at launch time. The crew includes NASA's Luke Delaney, Canada's Joshua Kutryk (whose wife is due to give birth to their third child while he's away), and Russia's Sergey Teteryatnikov. They will replace four astronauts who have been living at the orbiting laboratory since February. This was SpaceX's 13th crew launch for NASA. SpaceX is on a roll: three hours after Crew-13 blasted off, SpaceX launched another Falcon rocket from California with more than 100 mini satellites, and another Falcon was set to soar later that night from Florida with a classified satellite. All this comes the same week the company's massive Starship reached orbit for the first time.^[11]

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary of independence, leaders of the Smithsonian Institution are turning to artificial intelligence to better understand items in its collection tied to the American Revolution. The goal is to allow the public and scholars to both search the institution's vast collection and draw connections between artifacts that were previously unknown to be related. The Smithsonian holds more than 155 million objects, only a fraction of which have been digitized or cataloged in detail. AI is helping researchers identify links between items scattered across 21 museums and the National Zoo — everything from a Revolutionary War officer's sword to a tea set from the period. The project, called "American Revolution Crossroads," is part of a broader effort to use technology to make the Smithsonian's collections more accessible. Officials say AI helps solve a fundamental problem: the collection is so vast that human curators can't possibly know everything in it. The 250th anniversary celebration has sparked renewed interest in revolutionary-era history and artifacts.^[12]

The AP-NORC poll showing Trump's economic approval at a record-low 26% exploded across X on Friday, with #TrumpApprovalLow rocketing to the number one trending topic worldwide with over 4.2 million posts by midday. The numbers sparked a fierce partisan battle about who is responsible for the sour economy. Critics of Trump posted the 26% number alongside images of gas station price signs and grocery receipts, arguing "he owns this economy" and that his tariffs and Iran war are directly responsible for soaring costs. Trump supporters pushed back hard, dismissing the poll as "fake news" and arguing that the "Biden hangover" from the previous administration is still working through the system. "26%? Even his own base is bailing," wrote one political commentator in a post shared 180,000 times. The hashtag #MidtermMassacre also trended as Democrats expressed cautious optimism about their chances in November, while Republicans fretted about a potential wave election. Many users shared personal stories of struggling to afford basics.^[14]

News that Hurricane Rachel had strengthened to Category 3 off Mexico's Pacific coast sent #HurricaneRachel surging to the top of global trending topics Friday, with over 1.8 million posts as coastal communities braced for impact. Coming on the heels of devastating flooding from Hurricane Polo just days earlier, the rapid succession of storms reignited the debate about climate change and extreme weather. "How many Category 3 storms does it take before we take climate change seriously?" asked one climate scientist in a post shared 95,000 times. Users shared dramatic footage of flooding in Texas and Nebraska, where Polo's remnants dumped record rainfall and triggered 80 water rescues in Omaha alone. Others posted images of destroyed homes in northern Mexico, where hundreds remain displaced. The hashtag #ElNiñoIsHere also trended, with meteorologists explaining how the climate pattern is supercharging this year's Pacific hurricane season. The discussion got political quickly, with many blaming Trump's rollback of environmental regulations for worsening the problem, while others said the storms are simply natural weather patterns.^[15]