Arson strikes Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence and evolving tariffs cause more uncertainty: Weekend Rundown

One person is in custody in relation to the fire set at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence in Harrisburg early Sunday, officials said.

Cody Balmer will be charged with attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault against an enumerated person, Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said at a news conference.

In a statement on social media, Shapiro wrote that his family woke up at 2 a.m. to banging on the door from state police. He added that he and his wife, Lori, were “eternally grateful” for authorities who helped evacuate the family.

“Thank God no one was injured and the fire was extinguished,” Shapiro wrote. “Every day, we stand with the law enforcement and first responders who run towards danger to protect our communities.”

The evolving world of Trump’s tariffs

President Donald Trump exempted smartphones, computers and other tech devices and components from his new tariffs, new guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows.

The administration imposed 145% tariffs on products from China this month, a move that threatened to take a toll on tech giants like Apple, which makes most of its products in China.

The White House said Saturday the exemptions were issued because Trump wants to ensure that companies have time to move production to the United States.

The evolving policy has caused uncertainty in Washington and on Wall Street. Here’s what else to know:

• Sen. Cory Booker calls for investigations: Booker, D-N.J., said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that there is “enough smoke here” for Congress to look into any possibility of insider trading after Trump encouraged people to buy stocks before he reversed his tariff policy last week. However, Democrats have not yet produced evidence to support their allegations.
• Recession prediction: Ray Dalio, the founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said he is “worried about something worse than a recession” if Trump does not properly handle tariffs and other economic policies.
• Bond market shakes: Government bonds have unusually been selling off while stocks have plunged, raising concerns that global investors are losing some of their long-standing confidence in America.
• ‘Unluckiest generation’: Millennials already have had several recessions during formative stages of their lives, from the burst of the dot-com bubble to the Great Recession and the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, as tariffs raise fears of another recession, the generation is using dark humor on social media to express its frustration and fatigue with the economic instability that has haunted it. 

Meet the Press

Top White House trade adviser Peter Navarro denied that there are tensions between him and Elon Musk, days after Musk called Navarro a “moron.”

“Everything’s fine with Elon,” Navarro said NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “I’ve been called worse.”

A CNBC interview last week prompted Musk to criticize Navarro in a series of posts on X, in which he called Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks.” He followed that with a sarcastic apology, saying the comparison was “so unfair to bricks.”

Navarro laughed off reports of tensions between the two men, going on to praise Musk’s efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency, saying he has made a “tremendous contribution to America.”

Politics in brief

• ‘Deep state’ claims: The FBI has placed on leave an analyst whose name was on a list of alleged “deep state” actors in a book written by Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
• Who’s running: The fight for the Senate in 2026 is beginning to take shape, but both parties are still waiting to see whether they can persuade a governor to try to flip one of their top targeted states next year.

One of the country’s leading Alzheimer’s projects is in jeopardy

A pause in federal NIH funding has researchers scrambling for contingency plans at the University of Washington’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in Seattle, which is preserving more than 4,000 brains in the hope of better understanding the condition.

The program is in limbo because the Trump administration has upended the system that funds biomedical research, with thousands of grants caught in what critics say is an unprecedented slowdown of the American research system that is threatening to upend universities and halt progress toward medical innovations, treatments and cures.

So what will happen to patient care and the brains banked for research?

“We’ve gone through a bunch of contingency planning,” said Dr. Thomas Grabowski, the center’s director. “When it starts to look like multiple, multiple, multiple months, then there’s not a good answer to your question.”

‘You’re not getting little rats anymore. They’re getting cat-size.’

A thick stench hangs over Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, as a six-week standoff between striking garbage truck workers and the City Council over pay has led to mountains of uncollected trash lining the streets.

Worse than the pungent smell, said shop owner Ghulam Murtaza Qureshi, are the “rats and mice,” whose population has grown exponentially as the piles of waste outside his store have gotten bigger and bigger.

Resident Charlie Wilson said as she sat on her front porch: “You’re not getting little rats anymore. They’re getting cat-size.”

So bad is the situation that local lawmakers declared a “major incident” this month in the city, where some residents say their quality of life is worse than in developing countries and held it up as an example of “Broken Britain” — which is how some describe the perceived breakdown of public services in the country.

In case you missed it

• Gen Zers and millennials are putting creative twists on book clubs, driven by a renewed love of reading and a growing desire for off-screen connection.
• A grieving relative has paid tribute to the family that perished in a sightseeing helicopter crash in New York City.
• A Russian ballistic missile strike killed at least 31 people and injured more than 80 others in the Ukrainian city of Sumy in one of the deadliest single attacks on the country this year.
• An Israeli airstrike has partially destroyed the last functioning hospital in Gaza City, according to local health officials, as Israel continues to bomb the enclave with no ceasefire deal in sight.
• The Trump administration’s revocation of student visas has spread to the South, with universities across the Sun Belt reporting that students’ statuses as welcome scholars have been revoked or otherwise changed.