When Putin, Xi and Modi Get Together, and a Legal Blow to Trump’s Tariffs

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0:32From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, September 2nd. Here's what we're covering.

0:43This week, more than 20 world leaders, mostly from Central and South Asia, gathered in China for an annual security summit. And one widely photographed moment quickly went everywhere. It was footage of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese President Xi Jinping standing together and smiling like good friends. This is a really remarkable scene. Putin came walking hand in hand with Modi, smiling, and the three of them, along with Xi, embraced, essentially, and just stood there talking for a little while. My colleague Paul Soni is covering the summit. He says the moment was vastly different than just a few years ago, when Russia faced a chilly reception and was isolated for its invasion of Ukraine.

1:28Now, the war seemed almost forgotten at the gathering. And India, facing harsh tariffs from the United States, seemed to be signaling that it wants to shore up its relationships with other countries. One of the really interesting things about the summit this year was that in many ways it was playing off of or answering what has been going on with the United States. So Donald Trump has come in. He has been a very disruptive force in world trade. He's put tariffs on a lot of countries. And what you saw in the summit was China and also Russia, to some degree, trying to communicate that we can be these stable partners that are not going to suddenly turn around and disrupt everything.

2:05This argument isn't new. Russia and China have been arguing for an end to U.S. dominance for many, many years. But what's different is that the United States has changed. Their long-term argument that the United States is a force for chaos, you know, was rhetoric for many, many years and was not taken seriously. But now I think there are countries around the world, India being an example that are seeing these really disruptive trade policies coming from the United States and the U.S. swinging from friend to apparent enemy in a matter of days and thinking, well, maybe there is something to that.

2:42Paul says many differences remain between Russia, China, and India, including territorial disputes, distrust, and questions over trade. But their gathering was still a powerful moment of optics, not only for the U.S., but also for any countries that may be frustrated with the U.S.'s policies. Tomorrow, China will host more world leaders, this time for a military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Putin is expected to attend, as is North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

3:20In Washington, over the last few days, the Trump administration has faced major legal setbacks to some of its most ambitious policies. First, on trade. A federal appeals court has ruled that many of the president's tariffs are illegal, saying he did not have the authority to impose them. Trump was relying on a 1970s economic emergency law that does not even mention the word tariff and that no other president has used in this way. For now, nothing changes. The judges have kept the tariffs in place until mid-October to give the White House time to appeal to the Supreme Court. But if the ruling holds, some experts say the U.S.

4:01may have to pay back the billions of dollars in tariff revenue that it's already collected. Trump quickly condemned the decision, writing on social media that if the tariffs go away, quote, our country would be completely destroyed. Then, on immigration, a federal court ruling chipped away at a key method the White House has used in its mass deportation efforts, expedited removals. Early in Trump's term, immigration authorities began fast-tracking deportations, in many cases, removing migrants without court proceedings if they couldn't prove that they lived in the country for more than two years.

4:38Those kinds of quick removals have been carried out for decades with people apprehended near the U.S.-Mexico border, but the White House expanded the policy nationwide, making it the default practice as far away as New York. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the administration had acted recklessly in doing so, likely violating due process rights and risking wrongful detention for citizens and non-citizens alike. The government may appeal the decision, which an administration official claimed, quote, ignores the president's clear authorities. And in a last-minute ruling over the weekend, also on immigration, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting dozens of Guatemalan children.

5:20The order came down after the children had already been loaded onto planes that were waiting to take off from an airport in Texas. The U.S. government has claimed that the children were going to be reunited with family in Guatemala, but lawyers for some of the minors disputed that. They also said the children were denied due process and that the government ignored special protections for minors who crossed the border alone. For now, the children will stay in federal custody while the case is pending.

5:51In Afghanistan, rescue workers are still searching for survivors after a devastating earthquake struck Sunday night, killing at least 800 people. Officials say the death toll will likely rise. It's been difficult to reach some of the isolated mountainous villages that were hardest hit, and they've had to rely on helicopters after landslides left many of the roads impassable. The disaster comes as Afghanistan has been facing overlapping humanitarian and economic crises. Before the earthquake, more than half of the country's 42 million people were already in need of aid, according to the UN. But many countries have cut back on their support, as the Taliban's continued to harshly restrict the lives of women and girls.

6:32There have also been concerns that the aid wasn't being distributed fairly and was diverted to Taliban fighters. This year alone, hundreds of hospitals and health centers in Afghanistan have closed after the U.S. cut its foreign aid programs.

6:56And finally, this time of year in Puerto Rico is usually the slow season for tourism. It's hurricane season. Hotel prices can drop as much as 50 percent by one estimate. But this year, the artist Bad Bunny, who is from Puerto Rico, has been holding a three-month-long 30-show concert series that seems to have single-handedly caused a surge in the island's economy.

7:23His residency will wrap up next week, and in total, one analysis predicts it will have had an economic impact of$250 to$400 million. The spending is not just on concert tickets and hotels. The over 600 ,000-plus concertgoers have also been filling restaurants, bars, and shops. Bad Bunny, of course, is certainly not the only artist to give a local economy a little boost. But mega tours from the likes of Beyonce or Taylor Swift usually only stop by a city for a weekend, not three months. Notably, Bad Bunny wanted to make sure he wasn't playing only for tourists. Tickets for the first nine nights of his shows were open only to Puerto Rican residents.

8:07Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily. How President Trump has inserted himself into the business dealings of major American companies, from NVIDIA to Intel. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.