“China’s factory activity unexpectedly deteriorated in July to a six-month low despite a tariff truce with the US, as early signs emerge exports are slowing and weak domestic demand persists,” Bloomberg reports.

“The United States on Wednesday made good on its threats to apply 50 percent tariffs on Brazil two days ahead of schedule and slapped sanctions on the Supreme Court justice overseeing the criminal case against former President Jair Bolsonaro,” the New York Times reports.

“The dual measures showed that, just as Brazilian officials sought dialogue, the White House sharply escalated the growing diplomatic crisis between the Western Hemisphere’s two most populous nations.”

“The tariffs against Brazil are the highest of any levy President Trump has imposed this year, though they exclude many of Brazil’s key exports to the United States, like commercial aircrafts, energy products and orange juice.”

“President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had reached a trade deal with South Korea ahead of a self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline before broad new taxes on imports kick in, though he also cast doubt on striking a deal with India, another of the United States’ largest trading partners,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump wrote that South Korean imports will face a 15 percent tariff rate instead and that the country will invest $350 billion in the U.S., directed by the White House, plus purchase $100 billion in American energy.”

A federal appeals court is set to weigh in tomorrow on the legality of President Trump’s “use of tariffs to address a range of commercial, political and diplomatic issues he has labeled emergencies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The case is expected eventually to reach the Supreme Court; if Trump wins, legal experts say he could claim broad unilateral power to regulate the economy.”

Associated Press: “The ranks of Mexico’s missing exploded in the years following the launch of then-President Felipe Calderón’s war against drug cartels in 2006. A strategy that targeted the leaders of a handful of powerful cartels led to a splintering of organized crime and the multiplication of violence to control territory.”

“With near complete impunity, owing to the complicity or inaction of the authorities, cartels found that making anyone they think is in their way disappear was better than leaving bodies in the street. Mexican administrations have sometimes been unwilling to recognize the problem and at other times are staggered by the scale of violence their justice system is unprepared to address.”