Gutted: The administration wants to lighten the federal budget by $163 billion while raising defense and border-security spending. The proposal includes reducing U.S. health spending, cutting billions for projects in renewable energy, climate change and EV chargers while devoting Energy Department funding toward technologies aimed at gas, coal, minerals and nuclear reactors. The U.S. has $36 trillion in debt and analysts say cuts to the IRS could add another $5 trillion even as Trump seeks to extend 2017 tax cuts.
You are where you live: Trump’s negotiators think the only way to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is for Kyiv to acknowledge that it won’t retake the land that Moscow’s troops have seized. Most Ukrainians don’t buy that idea by a country mile. Ukraine’s parliament will vote on May 8 on whether to ratify a minerals deal signed with the U.S. Zelenskiy lauded his meeting with Trump at the Vatican as the best they’ve had.
Gaza supplies dwindle:Fights are erupting over ever-decreasing food supplies in the strip, a U.N. official said, and stocks collected since Israel’s ceasefire are running out because of an Israeli blockade. Looting of food stores and community kitchens is spreading. Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to expand its operations in Gaza. A ship bound for Gaza that was carrying humanitarian aid was bombed by drones in the waters off Malta. Its organizers blamed Israel.
Both sides of the line: Fear is running high near the line of control separating India and Pakistan in Kashmir after a deadly attack on tourists that India blamed on Pakistan. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Washington hopes Pakistan will cooperate with India to hunt down the militants. Pakistan said it has intelligence suggesting India soon will launch military action.
Conflict-zone latest: Israel bombed an area near the presidential palace in Damascus, its clearest warning yet that it intends to defend Syria’s Druze minority. The U.S. is pushing Congo and Rwanda to sign a peace accord at the White House in about two months, accompanied by minerals deal that would bring billions in Western investment into the region. M23 rebels in the DRC face a task as daunting as fighting: governing. A U.N. panel is investigating how mortar rounds exported from Bulgaria to the United Arab Emirates ended up in the hands of militia forces in Sudan.
This is where it hurts: Quarterly results from consumer and retail companies, as we call them, show that American shoppers are curbing their spending because of U.S. trade policies. I promised my editor not to use the phrase “de minimis” in this newsletter, so have a look at this story the next time you can’t buy some items that come from outside America. And here is a look at which companies have withdrawn their financial forecasts because of tariffs.
Stocking up: Amazon’s smaller sellers are trying to make sure they have enough wares to sell to avoid further tariffs on merchandise, but analysts say it may not help. Amazon said it considered listing import charges for goods on its low-cost haul unit, but denied exploring doing the same thing on its main website after the White House called it a hostile political act.
Before I forget…
The Gates Foundation and other philanthropies set up a fund to help save the lives of newborns and mothers in sub-Saharan Africa.
