Axios

Nearly half of America's annual imports from China could soon come with a 25% tax, the end result of tariffs affecting everything from individual consumer buying decisions to long-term corporate investments.

The latest: China has threatened to tax another $60 billion worth of U.S. imports, a proportionate response to a $200 billion threat from the U.S. on Wednesday. The list of threatened goods ranges from foodstuffs to machinery and auto parts.

China is planning on hitting the U.S. with "differentiated tariffs on about $60 billion of U.S. goods," according to Bloomberg.

The big picture: This comes days after reports that the White House was considering increasing the tariffs on Chinese goods from 10% to 25%. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that if the U.S. follow through, "China will inevitably take countermeasures and we will resolutely protect our legitimate right."

Members of the media are speaking out after President Trump launched a series of attacks on the press referring to them as an "enemy of the people."

Why it matters: Trump has long been critical of the mainstream media, but going so far as to call the media an "enemy of the people" is meant to fire up his base and further stoke distrust of the reporters he often clashes with.

A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the parents of Seth Rich, the former DNC staffer who was murdered in 2016, against Fox News, a reporter and a guest commentator over a retracted news story that tied his death to a conspiracy theory, CNN reports.

The details: Judge George B. Daniels from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York cited the plaintiff's "failure to state a claim." He explained that "each of the Plaintiffs' claims fail to adequately allege essential elements of the causes of action asserted," according to CNN.

Sonos, a maker of smart speaker systems, went public today after raising $208 million in its IPO.

Axios spoke with CEO Patrick Spence about the IPO, competition from Apple and if it will begin offering digital services. The quick read:

• He's open to someday offering digital services, in addition to devices.
• He blames a low IPO price on "tech headwinds."
• Many investors viewed Sonos as only a hardware business, not realizing the amount of software involved.
• He acknowledged that Sonos can't maintain backward capability forever on older products, but says it will do so for newer ones.

Brookstone — the retail chain known for massage chairs and electronic gadgets — has filed for bankruptcy and plans to close all of its mall locations, CNN Money reports, citing a company filing. The retailer plans to keep its website running and its 35 airport locations open.

The bottom line: Brookstone is one of the many brick-and-mortar stores that have been clobbered by the rise of online retail — primarily Amazon. In a statement, CEO Steven Goldsmith pointed to the "extremely challenging retail environment at malls" as the reason for Brookstone's demise.

Ivanka Trump said at an Axios event on Thursday that she doesn't view the media as the "enemy of the people," breaking with President Trump's repeated public statements.

Why it matters: Ivanka noted that she herself has been the subject of stories she knows to be false, but that she doesn't believe the media is the enemy.

More from our interview with Ivanka Trump:

• Trump discusses her time in the White House
• Trump on paid family leave: "Not in this Congress"
• Trump says family separation was White House "low point"
• Trump: American farmers are going to thrive long-term

White House adviser Ivanka Trump told Axios' Mike Allen on Thursday that paid family leave is an issue that will require bipartisan compromise in Congress to pass — and, therefore, will not happen during this session.

"We're still at zero weeks of paid leave. We're the only country in the developed world that that's true of. ... The president has called for maternity and paternity and adoptive leave and we're working to make that happen."

More from our interview with Ivanka Trump:

• Trump discusses her time in the White House
• Trump: American farmers are going to thrive long-term
• Trump breaks with her dad on media as "enemy of the people"
• Trump says family separation was White House "low point"

White House senior adviser — and President Trump's eldest daughter — Ivanka Trump sat down with Axios' Mike Allen on Thursday to talk paid family leave, the fate American workers caught in a trade war, and some of her father's most contentious policy points and comments.

The big picture: While Trump maintained a united front with her father on most accounts, she notably broke with him on his view of the media and his administration's separation of undocumented families at the southern border.

Update... President Trump tweeted this afternoon about Ivanka's media comments: "They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!".

White House adviser Ivanka Trump defended the Trump administration's tariffs on steel and other products as a "temporary pain" at an Axios event Thursday, claiming that farmers will "thrive" long-term as NAFTA and other trade deals are renegotiated in the coming weeks.

"They're patriots and they know that there's some temporary pain, but that the president's fighting for them and that he's going to fix it — and that long-term, they're going to thrive...at some point you do have to right the ship. And we're not looking for — to create an uneven playing field for other countries. They're looking for fair and reciprocal trade deals."

Go deeper with more from the interview: Ivanka breaks with her dad on media as "enemy of the people."

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American-made cars are among the hardest-hit products in the U.S.-China trade war, facing a 40% import tariff in China — and some automakers are weathering the storm by doubling down on Chinese operations.

Why it matters: Moving into China is a natural step for big automakers looking to crack the world’s fastest-growing car market, but tariffs provide a big incentive to accelerate those plans. Their investments in factories and in research and development on Chinese soil could give China a long-term advantage when it comes to building the electric and autonomous vehicles of the future.

A majority of business owners, including small business owners, surveyed in a new poll support additional tariffs on China, Mexico, Europe and Canada, although most expect negative effects on the economy if there's a trade war, according to new UBS polling provided exclusively to Axios.

Why it matters: Trump has faced trade retaliation from allies and harsh criticism over his tariffs from both sides of the aisle —most recently from the conservative Koch network, but this polling paints a more nuanced picture of public opinion on the issue.