Apple News Today
The U.S. and China agree to cut tariffs for 90 days. What to know.
Mon, 12 May 2025
The U.S. and China reached an agreement to temporarily lower tariffs on each other’s products. After another radar outage affecting Newark airport, the secretary transportation warned that flight disruptions could spread to other U.S. airports. NBC News reports. Also, a roundup of recent immigration news, as the Trump administration welcomes a group of white South Africans to the U.S. Plus, Hamas is releasing its last living American hostage, Trump is planning to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar, and what the pope said in his first Sunday sermon as pontiff. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: Who is hosting today's episode?
Hey there, it's Shamita. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review too. It helps other people find our show and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks. Good morning. It's Monday, May 12th. I'm Shamita Basu.
This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the administration's threat to suspend a core constitutional right. Why the chaos at Newark could soon spread to other airports. Plus, why Trump accepting a Qatari jet is raising ethics concerns. But first, to major breaking news on tariffs. The U.S. and China reached an agreement to temporarily lower tariffs on each other's products.
By Wednesday, the U.S. says it will reduce its 145 percent tariff rate on most Chinese imports to 30 percent. And China says it will reduce its 125 percent tariff rate on U.S. goods to 10 percent. Here's U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant speaking from Geneva.
We concluded that we have shared interest and we both have an interest in balanced trade. The U.S. will continue moving towards that.
The reduced tariff rates between the world's two largest economies will last for 90 days while the two sides continue negotiations, offering a major sigh of relief to the global economy. Global trade was effectively halted because of the previous tariff rates. Here's CNN's international correspondent Mark Stewart reporting from Beijing for The Network this morning.
There's also a very symbolic accomplishment that's important. Number one, we are having this joint statement. The fact that both of these nations put out a statement together to say that they are committed to some kind of economic fairness between them, that's a very big deal. It's just not something we see that often.
Also important, Stewart points out, there's now an established open line of communication between Washington and Beijing.
China really prefers diplomacy 101, back-channel conversations, whereas President Trump, if he had his way, he would call President Xi directly. That's just not in the Chinese style. But while there are certainly high hopes, a lot of optimism, there's also some caution. We're hearing very guarded statements from Chinese government officials.
Like this statement from China's vice premier.
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Chapter 2: What is the new U.S.-China tariff agreement?
At least two people were arrested, including a 16-year-old girl whose mother had been detained by ICE. Hundreds of protesters gathered yesterday afternoon to oppose the arrests and ICE presence. Meanwhile, Trump is showing no signs of slowing down any of these efforts. He recently announced an order for 20,000 more deportation officers, though as yet it's unclear how that would be funded.
That would mean more than quadrupling the number of ICE officers who focus solely on rounding up and deporting immigrants. Now let's turn to major disruptions at U.S. airports. On Friday, there was another complete radar outage at a facility in Philadelphia that lasted about 90 seconds. It comes after a similar outage the week before.
The outages meant that for those 90 seconds, air traffic controllers at Newark Airport could not communicate with airplanes. a critical function that ensures that planes don't crash into one another. And the fallout lasts for days. Speaking to NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that these problems, caused by aging infrastructure, could soon go beyond Newark.
Congress and the country haven't paid attention to it, right? They expected to work. And so now I think the lights are blinking, the sirens are turning, and they're saying, listen, we have to fix this because what you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country. It has to be fixed.
There were other issues this weekend, too. Yesterday, on Mother's Day, Newark had to ground flights for about 45 minutes due to an air traffic equipment issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. There was also a ground stop at Atlanta's airport on Sunday due to a runway equipment issue. Duffy said that it is safe to fly, but stressed just how dated some of our technology is.
I'm concerned about the whole airspace, right? The equipment that we use, much of it, we can't buy parts for new. We have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down. You're dealing with really old equipment. We're dealing with copper wires, not fiber, not high-speed fiber. And so this is concerning.
Duffy has proposed a multibillion-dollar plan to modernize and overhaul the country's air traffic control system. He wants to upgrade radio systems, raise the mandatory retirement age for air traffic controllers, and invest in digitizing data management tools. But even if Congress approves his proposals, don't expect a quick fix.
It takes time to build the infrastructure. I'd say it's going to be three to four years to build it all, but we're going to focus on Newark first. We're going to start to see Newark be far more resilient in the near term. But air traffic controllers, we're 3,000 short on air traffic control. I can't snap my fingers and bring in these highly skilled air traffic controllers.
Meanwhile, he said travelers shouldn't be surprised if there are disruptions through the summer. Some passengers at Newark expressed their frustration on MSNBC.
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