📊 German Cabinet, Trump Tariffs, and American Express

Coalition reshuffle, double-digit duties, and profit growth.

Jul 24, 2026

Greetings! Happy National Cousins Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇩🇪 Merz reshuffles Germany’s government as the far right advances. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz changed senior posts less than 15 months after taking office. His coalition remains deeply unpopular as Europe’s largest economy struggles to escape years of stagnation. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has gained support from that discontent. Merz moved after parliamentary leader Jens Spahn resigned amid accusations of hypocrisy over surrogacy. Chief of staff Thorsten Frei will replace Spahn as the Union bloc’s parliamentary leader. Health Minister Nina Warken will move into the chancellery. She will become the first woman to hold that coordinating post. Christian Democratic Union General Secretary Carsten Linnemann will replace Warken as health minister. Merz said further Cabinet changes are still coming. The coalition faces three difficult regional elections in September. AfD hopes to win a majority in Saxony-Anhalt and control a state government for the first time. Merz is also pursuing pension reform, gradual retirement-age increases, income-tax cuts, and less bureaucracy. Those proposals follow months of coalition infighting and weak public confidence. Warken recently steered health-insurance reforms through Parliament despite resistance. Merz is betting that personnel changes can make an exhausted coalition look capable of motion. September’s ballots will determine whether the reshuffle changed the government or merely rearranged it.

🇫🇷 France and Spain evacuate 80K as wildfires rage. Uncontrolled fires forced an estimated 80K people from homes and vacation towns. More than 60K evacuated in southwestern France. Another 20K fled areas around Madrid and Ávila in central Spain. Flames consumed roughly 100 square kilometers near France’s Cap Ferret peninsula. About 1.5K people escaped the tourist area by boat to Arcachon. Hundreds of French firefighters attacked the blaze with ground and aerial reinforcements. Another major fire farther south remained uncontained as strong winds frustrated crews. France and Spain asked fellow European Union (EU) members for assistance. Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, and Greece offered aircraft or helicopters. Spain declared its first national wildfire emergency. Two fires west of Madrid merged after scorching about 30 square kilometers. Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz-Ayuso called it the worst fire in the region’s history. A separate Ávila blaze burned about 90 square kilometers and displaced another 1.5K people. Temperatures were forecast to exceed 102 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of Spain. Spain has already lost 1.14K square kilometers to fire this year. Heat, wind, and dry terrain turned evacuation routes into the continent’s newest front line.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

🧾 President Trump replaces expiring tariffs with broader duties. Trump imposed double-digit import taxes on dozens of trading partners. The new tariffs range from 10% to 12.5%. They cover 60 partners responsible for 99% of American imports. The administration says those governments inadequately police goods produced through forced labor. United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended the policy as overdue enforcement. The duties replace temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expiring at 12:01 a.m. The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s earlier emergency tariffs in February. The ruling forced refunds to importers that had already paid them. Trump then used Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 for a 150-day bridge. He is now shifting to the more durable Section 301. That authority targets unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory trade practices. Oil, gas, fertilizer, and qualifying North American trade goods are exempt. India’s proposed rate fell from 12.5% to 10% after stronger enforcement. Brazil faces 12.5% and is preparing retaliation and a World Trade Organization complaint. Another investigation covers 16 countries supplying 70% of American imports. The tariff wall survived its legal defeat by changing statutes rather than strategy.

🏫 Colt Gray pleads guilty to all 55 school-shooting counts. The 16-year-old entered the pleas without an agreement with prosecutors. Gray admitted responsibility for the September 4th, 2024, attack at Apalachee High School. Students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, were killed. Teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, also died. Another teacher and eight students were wounded. Seven of those victims were struck by gunfire. Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm confirmed that Gray understood the consequences. Gray answered each question with “Yes, your honor.” The murder pleas require at least a life sentence. Primm must decide whether parole will ever be possible. Gray was 14 during the shooting but was charged as an adult. Investigators said he carried the rifle onto a bus with its barrel wrapped in poster board. They said he emerged from a bathroom and fired inside a classroom and hallway. A notebook contained step-by-step plans and projected as many as 26 deaths. Gray’s father, Colin, was convicted in March after prosecutors said he supplied the rifle. Victim families began describing losses that a guilty plea can acknowledge but cannot repair.

🗂️ MISC

💳 American Express profit rises as affluent spending holds. American Express ($AXP) reported an 8% increase in second-quarter profit. Earnings reached $3.11B, or $4.53 per share. The company earned $2.89B, or $4.08 per share, one year earlier. Analysts had expected $4.40 per share. Higher card spending and fewer delinquencies supported the results. Premium Platinum and Gold products also attracted more customers. The average cardmember spent $6,759 during the quarter. That was up from $6,393 one year earlier. American Express added another 3M customers. Three-quarters selected cards carrying annual fees. Its affluent customer base has benefited disproportionately from continued economic growth. Many cardmembers charge most purchases and clear their balances monthly. Competition is intensifying from JPMorgan Chase ($JPM), Citigroup ($C), and Capital One Financial ($COF). Quarterly expenses rose 12% as marketing and product investments increased. American Express raised its revenue outlook but left annual profit guidance unchanged. It also plans greater technology and AI investment. Stronger customers produced stronger earnings, but keeping them is becoming more expensive.

📉 Stocks wobble as oil retreats below $100. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) rose 0.1% in uneven trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 133 points, or 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%. Micron Technology ($MU) dropped 6%. Broadcom ($AVGO) lost 2.3%. Their size weighed on indexes even as most S&P 500 members advanced. Wall Street remained headed toward a second consecutive losing week. That has not happened since March. Brent crude fell 3.5% to $97.19 per barrel. Oil had climbed above $100 one day earlier after starting the month near $72. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.67% from 4.71%. Fresh tariffs on nearly all American imports added another inflation risk. Companies generally pass at least part of those costs to consumers. Traders assigned nearly a 36% chance to a Federal Reserve rate increase next week. Regular gasoline averaged $4.10 per gallon nationally. American Express ($AXP) fell 6% despite reporting higher profit. Cheaper oil offered relief, but war, tariffs, and expensive technology kept markets pinned.