10 things you need to know today: August 24, 2019

Trump announces China tariff increase after stock markets tumble, Bolsonaro plans to send armed forces to fight Amazon fires, and more

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

1. Trump announces China tariff increase after stock markets tumble

President Trump announced Friday that current tariffs on China would be increased after China announced retaliatory tariffs earlier in the day. Tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods currently taxed at 10 percent would jump to 15 percent starting Sept. 1, and tariffs on a separate $250 billion would be upped from 25 percent to 30 percent on Oct. 1, Trump tweeted. China's $75 billion in tariffs announced earlier Friday prompted Trump to tweet that "we don't need China," and then he went on to question "who is our bigger enemy" between Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell or China's President Xi Jinping. The attacks sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling down 623 points for the day, marking the Dow's and the other two major indexes' fourth straight week of decline.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.