The Cost of Trump’s New Tariffs, and the $100 Million Popcorn Bucket Market

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0:37Today's Friday, July 24th. Here's what we're covering.

0:46Just after midnight, the Trump administration imposed new tariffs of 10 percent on more than 80 countries, the latest move in its aggressive, controversial trade policy. For years, President Trump has argued that higher tariffs are necessary to encourage domestic manufacturing and protect American industries from foreign competition. Since retaking office, he's used them repeatedly, but that's often resulted in court challenges. In February, the Supreme Court struck down one major set of tariffs he'd put in place, so Trump turned to a different trade law as a stopgap. That had a strict time limit, though, that was set to expire today.

1:27So now Trump is using yet another trade law to put in place these new tariffs. Technically, the law he's basing the latest surcharges on allows the president to impose tariffs on countries the U.S. says are engaging in unfair or discriminatory trade practices. But this is the first time this particular provision has ever been used to slap tariffs on dozens of countries simultaneously. Critics say the administration's new claims about unfair trade, including that other countries aren't doing enough to stop forced labor, are simply a convenient way to reimpose levies that had been struck down in the courts.

2:04In the coming weeks, the administration is expected to roll out additional tariffs on top of other recent surcharges like a new 50 percent tariff on many goods from Canada that Trump announced earlier this week. The flurry of new surcharges echoes what happened last year when Trump first started rolling out an ever-changing list of tariffs that roiled the global economy and sent businesses scrambling to understand how they'd be affected. For consumers, if Trump's full slate of new tariffs survives expected legal challenges and importers have to pay the new fees, an analysis by the Yale Budget Lab found that American households will face an average of about$1 ,100 in additional annual costs.

2:53Now, a few quick updates on the war with Iran. First, global oil prices hit$100 a barrel yesterday for the first time since May. The spike came as the U.S. and Iran have returned to daily attacks, and after the Iran-backed Houthi militia said it hit two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. The group has been threatening a partial blockade of those waters, potentially choking off what has become an alternate route to the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed. The cost of oil is now roughly 40 % higher than it was before the war started. Also, the Times has learned that President Trump sent a new ceasefire proposal to Iran through mediators from Iraq.

3:38But according to Iranian and Iraqi officials, Iran rejected the deal yesterday. Details of the proposal are not clear, but Iran's foreign minister told a state media outlet that, quote, the problem is America's outlook, which is illogical, greedy and controlling. With no new peace deal in sight, strikes by both the U.S. and Iran continued, with explosions reported across Iran this morning and Iranian officials saying they'd launched new attacks on U.S. military targets in the region. Meanwhile, in Washington yesterday. On this vote, the yeas are 214, the nays are 208. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a new measure pushing back on Trump's campaign against Iran.

4:24Democrats, along with four Republicans, directed Trump to either end the conflict or get congressional authorization to continue it. The House and the Senate passed similar measures last month, but they don't have the force of law, and Trump ignored them. Still, Democrats continue to push these kinds of votes as they try to convince Republicans to stop deferring to the president and demand an end to the unpopular war. According to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll released last week, just 29 % of Americans support the conflict.

5:06In India,

5:10Protests, led by a growing group of angry and frustrated young people, have been spreading for over a month. And this week, they reached ahead, with thousands of people gathering in the capital and police cracking down with force. The epicenter for the protest movement, which is growing and multiplying, happens to be virtually across the street from the New York Times South Asia Bureau here in New Delhi. We could hear the pop of tear gas cannons going off right outside the office building throughout these days. My colleague Alex Trevely covers India for The Times. He says the protests first erupted in May after a kind of messy administrative disaster, when the answers to the nationalized exam to get into medical school were leaked, forcing millions of students to retake the test.

5:59But that fed into more widespread anger about what protesters say is government mismanagement of the education system and a lack of opportunity under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The movement is being called a Gen Z movement. That's a term that all of these youth-led protests around this part of the world especially have been called in recent years since Nepal protesters brought down their country's government. They are distinctive in being young, being very savvy with their memes, having a sense of bitter, sometimes dark humor. And they are also the Indians who are most bearing the brunt of a certain kind of crisis that pits very educated young people with a job market that just doesn't have room for them.

6:43You can see that when you look at how the unemployment statistics break down. The more educated and the younger people are, the less likely they are to have a job. 40 % of India's youngest university graduates have nothing good to do. That's been going on for a long time, but the proportion of the country that is educated and young keeps growing bigger and bigger. And the amount of money that they've piled into these educations has become much, much greater. So the number of Indians who are stuck in this position and the leverage on them and their families is like it's never been before. Some students I've talked to, when asked about test administration or some of the smaller and concrete demands of the protest movement, start instead by saying, we feel like we're living under a dictatorship.

7:30They start off by talking about democracy, not about test results. There's a sense that this moment, this chance to make their complaints heard, is a kind of thing that they've been waiting for. Modi has been in power now for 12 years, and it's becoming hard to remember a time when the country felt like it could stand up and say no to the government.

7:57And finally, in the U.S. in the past few years, there's been a lot of talk about movie theaters struggling. But there's been one very unexpected bright spot. This is the Cinemark-exclusive Grogu popcorn bucket. It's so cute. popcorn buckets. Are you wearing the Devil Wears Prada 2 popcorn bucket purse? Yeah, I am. It's called Fashion, sweetie. The bag also comes with a little charm of like a stiletto heel. The elaborate plastic creations have kind of inexplicably hit it big with people losing their minds for the$70 replica of a Trojan horse for the Odyssey or a soon-to-be-released Harry Potter broomstick that holds your buttery snack in the bristly end.

8:37The precise industry term is collectible concession vessel, and they've become astonishingly lucrative. AMC Theaters estimates that buckets will generate$100 million in revenue this year, and other chains have seen big merch bumps too. When the designs are good, they can sell out super fast, so good luck trying to get a$50 bucket made to look like the IMAX camera Christopher Nolan used to film The Odyssey. Those were gone almost immediately. Not every design hits, though. The beaver dam buckets for the Pixar movie Hoppers were not a fan favorite. One AMC executive told The Times the whole thing has been wild to watch.

9:21Quote, I would never suggest that popcorn buckets are the reason people go to the movies, or that movie-themed merch is saving the industry. But over the last few years, they've become a big part of the conversation. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jake Lucas, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabel Anderson, Sam Dolnik, Miles McKinley, and Zoe Murphy. Now, time for the quiz. Every week we ask you a few questions about stories The Times has been covering.

10:03Can you get them all?

10:08We're kicking off this week with a speed round that will put your memory to the test. How closely have you been paying attention to the news? Here we go. This country got a new prime minister on Monday. It's seventh in just 10 years.

10:27That's Britain. This group in the Middle East said it's launching a partial blockade of the Red Sea. The Houthis. The food-borne parasite at the center of an outbreak in the U.S. is called...

10:44Cyclospora, wash your produce. On Wednesday, the U.S. signed a contentious nuclear agreement with... Saudi Arabia. Also this week, the White House said that this will be temporarily taken out of service soon for, quote, upgrades and enhancements. They were talking about the new Qatari-donated Air Force One. And last one of the speed round. The musician who played the iconic saxophone part on this classic movie theme died this week at age 94. Name the movie.

11:22That was the slinky theme to the 1960s classic The Pink Panther with Plas Johnson on saxophone.

11:37Okay, next question. Nowadays, if you want to go to Olive Garden and get unlimited pasta, you got it. This isn't complicated stuff. Recently, Republican lawmakers across the country have been talking a lot about Olive Garden. Heck, you even need to present a... to utilize the Olive Garden's never-ending pasta pass. The chain restaurant has been invoked in interviews. House committee hearings, and even on the floor of the Senate, all for one specific reason. In other words, Madam Chair, we're protecting our breadsticks more than our across this country. Your question, what hot-button political issue are they using Olive Garden to try and make a point about?

12:24The answer? Voter ID. Republicans are drawing the comparison because the chain restaurant just announced a new rule around its popular never-ending pasta pass. In order to use it, customers must show photo ID. That quickly became a talking point on the right as some rushed to claim that Olive Garden has tighter security than U.S. elections. The comparison's a little apples to oranges, though, or linguine to tortellini, because three dozen U.S. states already do require voters to show ID, and the remaining states verify people's identities in other ways.

13:00And last question. This unusual yet adorable furball is none other than Jimothy. Recently, a very oddly shaped raccoon prowling the streets of Seattle has become something of an internet icon. The creature joins a storied hall of other animals that have gone viral in recent years. We're going to play some clips here. You name the kind of animal that became a star. First. When Neil comes to town, everybody knows about it, because this big boy is revved up. This ginormous marine mammal made headlines this summer in Australia for his unruly behaviour. What is Neil?

13:44Neil the seal loves to wrestle and will break anything in his way. Neil is a 2 ,200-pound southern elephant seal. Ready for the next one? He's very picky when it comes to food. So black walnuts are probably his favorite thing. Next to the line is definitely avocado. This bushy-tailed critter named Peanut was a social media sensation before his story took a sad turn in 2024. Peanut was a...

14:16...squirrel. He'd been kept as a pet for seven years before authorities in New York seized and euthanized him to test for rabies. That set off a complete uproar. The state agency involved faced a wave of bomb threats, and conservative politicians jumped on the story, saying Peanut's death was an example of government overreach. And last viral animal here. The hottest, hottest new it girl on the planet. She's got chubby pink cheeks, a distinct potato shape. We're talking about Mu-Tang. This mammal named Mu-Dang became a worldwide sensation a few years ago, turning her zoo in Thailand into a major tourist destination.

14:58Mudang is a what?

15:04She's a hippo, specifically a pygmy hippo, who got so popular the zoo put out a line of hippo-themed clothing, said it would trademark her name, and even released an official Mudang song.

15:22That is it for this week's news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, our email is theheadlines at nytimes.com. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back on Monday.