Tariffs Deadline, Witkoff In Israel, Gaza/Rabbi Letter

Summary

Up First from NPR: August 1, 2025

Episode: Tariffs Deadline, Witkoff In Israel, Gaza/Rabbi Letter

NPR's Up First delivers a comprehensive overview of the day's most pressing news in a concise, ten-minute format. In this episode released on August 1, 2025, hosts delve into significant developments in U.S. economic policy, ongoing humanitarian concerns in Gaza, and notable actions taken by Jewish leaders regarding the situation.

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1. White House Implements New Tariff Rates

Overview: The episode opens with a critical update on the U.S. economic landscape as the White House enacts new tariff rates hours before President Trump's midnight trade deadline. These tariffs impact imports from nearly every country, marking a substantial shift in U.S. trade policy that has been under consideration for months.

Key Details:

• Effective Changes: President Trump signed executive orders imposing tariffs on goods from 68 countries, including the European Union (EU). Notably, tariffs on Canadian imports have increased from 25% to 35%, excluding goods covered by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which accounts for approximately 40% of Canadian imports [00:02–03:10].

• Implementation Timeline: While some tariffs take immediate effect, many are delayed. For example, tariffs on Mexican goods are postponed for 90 days, and agreements with the EU and South Korea introduce tariffs up to 41%, effective in a week [02:04–04:10].

Notable Insights:

• Economic Impact: Economist commentary suggests that these tariffs may modestly weaken the U.S. economy by raising prices and slowing economic activity, though a recession is not imminent [05:05].

• Legal Challenges: A federal court ruling earlier in the year deemed many of these tariffs illegal. The administration has appealed, and the outcome could jeopardize the implementation of the tariffs [05:05].

Notable Quote: Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR White House correspondent, explains, “These new tariffs range up to 41%. So some are quite high, and they take effect in a week” [02:48].

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2. Diplomatic Efforts in Gaza Amidst Humanitarian Crisis

Overview: The episode shifts focus to the Middle East, highlighting the visits of two American officials—Steve Witkoff, President Trump's Middle East envoy, and Mike Huckabee, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel—to Gaza. Their mission centers on assessing and aiding the humanitarian situation exacerbated by ongoing military conflict.

Key Details:

• Humanitarian Concerns: Reports indicate that over 1,000 people have signed a letter urging Israel to permit more humanitarian aid into Gaza, with accusations that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war [00:36–06:03].

• Israeli Response: The Israeli government denies claims of starvation, labeling them as exaggerated and a form of international propaganda. They maintain that negotiations continue to focus on the release of hostages and a potential military strategy [06:03–08:08].

• Public Sentiment in Israel: While the official stance denies a starvation crisis, public demonstrations in Tel Aviv show a minority of Israelis protesting the situation in Gaza. Reactions among the populace range from indifference to active support for Israel's actions [08:08–09:32].

Notable Insights:

• Propaganda Accusations: Critics argue that the Israeli authorities are using the diplomatic visits as propaganda tools to downplay chaos and oppression at food distribution sites [06:03–06:58].

• Demonstrations and Public Opinion: A demonstration in Tel Aviv to end the perceived war on starvation faced hostility from passersby, indicating a polarized society [08:08–09:32].

Notable Quote: Eleanor Beardsley, NPR correspondent in Tel Aviv, notes, “As we know, a number of Palestinians have been shot at these sites trying to get food. And critics are calling this a propaganda visit by the army” [06:58].

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3. Jewish Leaders Advocate for Increased Humanitarian Aid to Gaza

Overview: The episode highlights a significant move by over 1,000 rabbis and Jewish leaders from the U.S. and England who have signed a public letter urging Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. This collective action underscores internal dissent within the Jewish community regarding the ongoing crisis.

Key Details:

• Content of the Letter: The rabbis condemn the use of starvation as a weapon of war and express concern that Israel's actions are damaging not only the country's reputation but also Judaism itself. Despite their call for increased aid, the letter affirms unwavering support for Israel's fight against Hamas [09:55–10:12].

• Significance and Risks: The letter represents a rare public dissent among mainstream Jewish leaders, who traditionally show strong support for Israel. The move risks alienating members of their congregations and could lead to divisions within the Jewish community [10:23–12:13].

• Impact on American Jews: The statement aims to create a distinction between American Jews and the Israeli government, especially in the context of rising antisemitism and violence against Jewish communities in the U.S. [12:33–13:23].

Notable Insights:

• Generational Divide: Younger Jews are increasingly critical of Israel's actions in Gaza, viewing them as unjust and immoral, which is causing some to distance themselves from mainstream Jewish institutions [12:13–12:33].

• Fear of Antisemitism: Incidents of antisemitic violence, such as the killing of Israeli embassy staffers and attacks on pro-hostage marches, heighten fears among American Jews, making public discourse more challenging [12:45–13:23].

Notable Quote: Yonat Shimron of Religion News Service comments, “These signatories to this letter...focus on starvation and the humanitarian crisis, not against the war. The signatories still say they unequivocally support Israel's battle against Hamas” [10:20–11:03].

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Conclusion

This episode of Up First encapsulates significant developments in U.S. trade policy with far-reaching implications for international relations and the global economy. Concurrently, it sheds light on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, highlighting the complex interplay between military actions and civilian suffering. The collective stance of Jewish leaders against the humanitarian situation marks a pivotal moment of introspection within the community, reflecting broader societal and generational shifts in perspectives on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Stay informed with NPR's Up First, your essential news briefing to start the day.

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Notable Speakers and Attributions:

• Imy Martinez: Co-host providing updates and transitions [00:02–various].
• Steve Inskeep: Co-host leading discussions and interviews [00:07–14:17].
• Danielle Kurtzleben: NPR White House correspondent analyzing tariff developments [02:15–05:37].
• Eleanor Beardsley: NPR correspondent in Tel Aviv reporting on Gaza and Israeli responses [06:03–09:35].
• Yonat Shimron: Religion News Service correspondent discussing the rabbis' letter and its impact [10:19–13:26].

Timestamps Referenced:

• [00:02–03:10]: Introduction to new U.S. tariffs.
• [02:04–04:10]: Details on tariff implementation and delays.
• [05:05]: Economic impact and legal challenges of tariffs.
• [06:03–06:58]: Diplomatic visits to Gaza and propaganda accusations.
• [08:08–09:32]: Public demonstrations in Tel Aviv.
• [09:55–10:12]: Announcement of the rabbis' letter.
• [10:23–12:13]: Significance and risks of the letter.
• [12:45–13:23]: Fear of antisemitism and its effects on American Jews.

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Produced by: Dana Farrington, Larry Kaplo, Daniel Burke, Jana Williams, and Alice Wolfley
Engineered by: Stacey Abbott
Technical Director: Carly Strange
Executive Producer: Jay Shaylor

Support NPR's reporting by subscribing to Up First+ and unlock sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/upfirst.

Transcript

[Imy Martinez]

The White House issued new tariff rates last night just hours before President Trump's midnight trade deadline.

[Steve Inskeep]

The taxes affect imports from nearly every country. Which imported goods will face the highest.

[Imy Martinez]

Rates and when I'm a Martinez, that is Steve Inskeep. And this is up first from NPR News.

[Steve Inskeep]

Two American officials visited Gaza today. Steve Witkoff is the envoy of President Trump who has expressed concern about people starving. Mike Hockaby is the US Ambassador to Israel. Their job is to visit an American Israeli backed food distribution site.

[Imy Martinez]

Also, more than 1,000 Jewish leaders from the US and England sign a letter urging Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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[Steve Inskeep]

President Trump last night signed executive orders imposing tariffs on imports from scores of countries, which is, of course, a big shift in US Economic policy that has been months in the making.

[Imy Martinez]

But surprisingly, most of those tariffs do not take effect today, as the White House had earlier indicated. It's yet another twist after a wave of other tariff news that happened this week.

[Steve Inskeep]

NPR White House correspondent Daniel Kurtzleben is here to walk us through. Danielle, good morning.

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

Hey, good morning.

[Steve Inskeep]

Okay, so I heard about this executive order and immediately wondered what's up here and how does this compare to all the tariff news that's come before? What did the president sign?

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

All right. Last night we got two executive orders. One imposes 35% tariffs on Canadian goods, and that's effective today. Now that's up from 25%. And importantly, it doesn't apply to goods covered by the usmca, which is a trade agreement negotiated in Trump's first term. Last year, around 40% of Canadian imports fit that bill.

[Steve Inskeep]

Okay.

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

Still, that's a big deal. Canada is a massive trading partner, and that means many of their goods would be now tariffed at 35%. Then the other order imposed tariffs on 68 other countries, plus the EU those are a lot of the tariffs Trump has talked about. These new tariffs range up to 41%. So some are quite high, and they take effect in a week.

[Steve Inskeep]

Just to be clear, you said the EU they made an agreement with the European Union for 15% tariffs. Does the executive order say that?

[NPR Sponsor]

Yes.

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

Yeah.

[Steve Inskeep]

Okay. So in some cases, these are deals that have already been made. Others have been in process for months.

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

Right, right. We heard about this round of tariffs on April 2nd. That's the first time we heard about it. When there was that big White House announcement, Trump famously held up that big table of tariffs. Well, then markets got spooked. So Trump delayed the tariffs till July. Then he delayed them again until today. And during that period, he did announce some preliminary agreements. Importantly, many of these, almost all of these, are not done deals. And he also sent letters, tell countries what rates he wanted to impose. But all along, most of these were expected to take effect today. And now that's not the case.

[Steve Inskeep]

Yeah, we were told there would absolutely be no further delays. Now there are some delays, but also some tariffs in effect. And we have even more wrinkles here because there have been other tariffs that have been posed on the way along the way since April 2, right?

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

Yes, many, many. And even this week, we got a 50% tariff on many Brazilian goods, 50% tariffs on copper goods. Trump closed a tariff loophole that will heavily affect E commerce. But on top of all that, we got another delay. This week, he and Mexican President Claudia sheinbaum said the US will delay tariffs on Mexican goods for 90 days. There's one more bit of news that happened this week. The administration announced, like you said, some broad tariff agreements with a handful of trading partners like the EU and South Korea. But again, details on those are very sketchy. We know very little. And some negotiations are still underway. Announcing these has allowed the administration to tell the story that they're getting things done, but they're not done deals.

[Steve Inskeep]

Okay, so a lot of this is still in the air and confusing, but a lot of countries have not necessarily retaliated against the United States making a broader trade war. As the president vindicated to some extent.

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

Well, he's getting what he wants, but it's not clear that what he wants is good for the US Economy. As one economist told me yesterday, tariffs are modestly weakening the economy for no good reason. It might not drag us into a recession, but. But it certainly seems like it might raise prices, slow things down. One other big legal question also looms over all of this. A federal court ruled earlier this year that many of these tariffs are illegal. The administration appealed, and so an appeals court heard the case this week. So these tariffs may be in jeopardy depending on how that ruling goes.

[Steve Inskeep]

NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, thanks so much.

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

Thank you.

[Steve Inskeep]

Steve Witkoff, who is President Trump's Middle east envoy, and Mike Huckabee, who is the US Ambassador to Israel, are in Gaza today, both of them visiting a U S. Israeli backed food distribution site as international outrage over starvation grows.

[Imy Martinez]

The Israeli government says claims of starvation are exaggerated. Negotiations to release hostages and pause the war continue.

[Steve Inskeep]

NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is following all of this from Tel Aviv. Hi, Eleanor.

[Eleanor Beardsley]

Hello, Steve.

[Steve Inskeep]

Okay, where are the diplomats going?

[Eleanor Beardsley]

Well, we've received a picture of the ghf, the Gaza humanitarian facility. These are the food distribution sites run by the Israeli army and US Contractors. We've got a photo and a video being distributed by the army. It's taken from a ways back and it shows a site set up amidst sand dunes. You can see soldiers, barriers and a line of Palestinians waiting, including women. Now, we've been told by our reporter on the ground there, Anas Baba, that the number of people in the photo is about a tenth of the number of people who usually crowd the site. The picture looks orderly, but we've seen other videos and reporting from such sites that show chaos. And as we know, a number of Palestinians have been shot at these sites trying to get food. And critics are calling this a propaganda visit by the army.

[Steve Inskeep]

Oh, this is very, very interesting. But in any case, the envoys are going, the envoy and the ambassador are going. They're representing President Trump, who himself has said he believes the reports of starvation out of Gaza, believes the pictures, the images that he has seen. All of this is happening during an ongoing military operation, military conflict. People had been talking in terms of looking for a ceasefire in that conflict. Where did negotiations stand?

[Eleanor Beardsley]

Well, Hamas says people are starving and they'll fully negotiate when aid gets in. They're clearly using this for their purposes, the international outrage. But aid groups do say that the aid is not getting in. It's a drop in the bucket of what needs to come in. We're hearing something different, Steve, from the Israeli side. Israeli media is reporting. Senior officials say the there's no longer time for, quote, partial deals. And an anonymous senior Israeli official told NPR that an understanding is emerging between Israel and the US that the approach must shift from a framework for the release of some hostages to a release of all of them. So there's sort of a change in language. Israeli media is reporting that the government is laying the diplomatic and information groundwork not for a ceasefire, but for a renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip.

[Steve Inskeep]

Okay. How are Israelis reacting to all of this news?

[Eleanor Beardsley]

Well, the government, as you say, continues to deny their starvation, calling it an international propaganda campaign against Israel and the Israeli population. The majority doesn't really think there's real famine either. People still talk about Hamas stealing the aid. I spoke with columnist Gideon Levy at Haaretz newspaper yesterday. His columns are widely read in English. He told me how Aretz is the only media outlet in Israel reporting on the starvation and what's really going on here.

[Danielle Kurtzleben]

He is, you know, the last American in Omaha, Nebraska saw more of Gaza than an average Israeli in Tel Aviv. We are one hour drive from Gaza and Israelis have no clue what's going on there and they don't want to know what's going on there.

[Eleanor Beardsley]

Now, Steve, last night I was at a large demonstration in Tel Aviv specifically to end the war on the starvation. One of the first like this, where the hostages weren't the main focus. Protesters held signs of starving children, but people admitted we're the minority. Most people don't know what's going on. And here's 62 year old Julia Resnick explaining why.

[Yonat Shimron]

Because they don't want to be the bad guys. They were raised believing we are good, we are moral, the most moral. And then you shoot people waiting for food. So they prefer not to know. If I don't see it, it's not happening.

[Eleanor Beardsley]

And Steve, I'm going to add that NPR saw passersby spitting at these protesters and a mother recoiling and snatching her children back from it.

[Steve Inskeep]

NPR's Eleanor Beardsley, thanks for your reporting as always.

[Eleanor Beardsley]

You're welcome.

[Steve Inskeep]

She's in Tel Aviv. In this country, more than 1,000 rabbis and other Jewish leaders from the United States and elsewhere have signed a public letter urging Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

[Imy Martinez]

The rabbis say they cannot keep silent about what they call the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied there is starvation in Gaza, but the rabbis disagree. And they say Israel's actions damage not just the country's reputation, but Judaism itself.

[Steve Inskeep]

We have called Yonat Shimron, who covers Judaism for Religion News Service in partnership with npr. Good morning.

[Yonat Shimron]

Good morning.

[Steve Inskeep]

How significant is this letter by a thousand religious leaders?

[Yonat Shimron]

Well, this letter demonstrates that there may be a line that many rabbis are not willing to cross. They've been able to put up with a lot with regard to Israel's actions, but the starvation crisis in Gaza is giving them pause. These signatories to this letter, they're mainstream rabbis from many denominations in the US And England, and there's more than a thousand signatures. It's significant in that it focuses on starvation and the humanitarian crisis, not against the war. The signatories still say they unequivocally support Israel's battle against Hamas.

[Steve Inskeep]

Useful to know that stipulation. Nevertheless, I wonder, in a divided populace where emotions are so high, are there some risks even for Jewish leaders to speak in this way?

[Yonat Shimron]

Many mainstream American rabbis are very committed to Israel and very supportive. Support for Israel is in many ways a pillar of American Judaism. They say a prayer for Israel every Shabbat. Their congregations raise millions of dollars for Israel. They travel there frequently. They send their kids on all kinds of programs there. Many Jewish leaders are loathe to speak out against Israel because it might alienate members of their congregation. Many are afra of losing members, losing financial support and relationship. This issue threatens to tear many congregations apart.

[Steve Inskeep]

Oh, well, that last point about tearing many congregations apart. I am imagining that there are groups or factions among American Jews who support Israel's government or perhaps minimize what we've seen out of Gaza or feel that it is Hamas's fault or anything else. There must be a big divide here.

[Yonat Shimron]

Yes, many American Jews still support the war and they're strongly behind Israel. But growing numbers feel that it's gone on too far. And younger Jews in particular feel this is an unjust and immoral assault on Palestinians and they're stepping away from mainstream Jewish institutions.

[Steve Inskeep]

How are American Jews feeling about the way that their attachment to Israel, the way that they may be perceived in the United States as Israel's government, is blamed for what's happening in Gaza?

[Yonat Shimron]

Yeah, so many Jews are frankly afraid. They see instances of antisemitism, such as the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, the firebombing of a march to bring back the hostages in Colorado. And that makes many American Jews fear attending communal gatherings and other public events. They understand that people are angry at Israel and not at American Jews, but they fear more violence, and that makes it difficult to talk about this. That's where statements like this one from rabbis can help, because it puts some distance between American Jews and Israel.

[Steve Inskeep]

Yonat Shimran is with Religion News Service. Thanks so much.

[Yonat Shimron]

Thank you.

[Imy Martinez]

And that's up first for Friday, August 1st. I'm Imy Martinez.

[Steve Inskeep]

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Up first comes your way on the weekend, too. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Imy Martinez]

Today's episode of up first was edited by Dana Farrington, Larry Kaplo, Daniel Burke, Jana Williams and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Buch, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Shaylor. Join us again on Monday.

[Steve Inskeep]

If you insist.

[NPR Sponsor]

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