The Headlines - A Breakthrough on U.S.-China Tariffs, and a New Summer Air Travel Warning

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Plus, For Sale: The pope’s childhood home.On Today’s Episode:U.S. and China Agree to Temporarily Slash Tariffs in Bid to Defuse Trade War, by Daisuke Wakabayashi, Alan Rappeport and Ana SwansonFlights Could Be Disrupted Across U.S., Transportation Secretary Warns, by Troy ClossonHamas Says It Will Release Its Last American Hostage, by Adam Rasgon and Aaron BoxermanTrump Is Poised to Accept a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One, by Maggie Haberman, Eric Schmitt and Glenn ThrushAuction to Dine With Trump Creates Foreign Influence Opportunity, by Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-BellanyIndia and Pakistan Agree to a Cease-Fire: What We Know, by Zia ur-Rehman, Mujib Mashal, Anupreeta Das and Pragati K.B.Leo Lived Here: The Price Goes Up for the Pope’s Childhood Home, by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Debra KaminTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, May 12th. Here's what we're covering. Early this morning, the US and China said they've reached an agreement to temporarily suspend the sky-high tariffs they've imposed on each other. The suspension will last 90 days, giving the world's two largest economies time to try and negotiate and defuse the escalating trade war between them. The agreement came after U.S. and Chinese officials met over the weekend in Switzerland. Under the deal, the U.S. will temporarily drop its tariffs from the 145 percent that

President Trump ramped them up to down to 30, and China will lower its from the 145% that President Trump ramped them up to, down to 30. And China will lower its from the 125% it retaliated with, down to 10. Global markets have jumped at the news. The trade standoff had previously sent stocks tumbling and rocked businesses worldwide. This is a developing story this morning, and there will be more details at NYTimes.com. Bottom line, is it safe to fly in the United States right now? Listen, we are the safest airspace for sure and traveling by air is way safer than any other mode of transportation which is why I take it, my family takes it.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says flying in and out of Newark International Airport is safe, despite recent air traffic control outages and staffing shortages. But he said Americans should take the upheaval at one of the country's busiest airports as a sign of what's to come. We have to fix this because what you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country. It has to be fixed. In an interview on NBC this weekend, Duffy called the recent issues, which have triggered

widespread delays and cancellations, the result of, quote, stress on an old network. Are there other airports that you are concerned about right now, Mr. Secretary? I'm concerned about the whole airspace. The equipment that we use, much of it we can't buy parts for new. We have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down. Duffy said more U.S. airports could face disruptions and delays just as the busy summer travel season begins. He claimed the country and Congress have not paid enough attention to

the aging systems that underpin airport operations. The secretary recently put forward a proposal to modernize and overhaul the country's air traffic control systems. Duffy predicted the project could take three or four years and didn't provide a cost estimate, except that it would be in the billions of dollars. Last night, Hamas announced that it plans to release the last living American hostage it's holding in captivity. 21-year-old Eden Alexander is an Israeli-American who was raised in New Jersey and went to Israel to join the military after high school. He was abducted from a military outpost, one of about 250 people who were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.

Hamas said Alexander could be set free as soon as today, and his parents have traveled to Israel to be ready for their son's release. It's not clear what, if anything, Hamas has demanded in exchange for his freedom. U.S. and Israeli officials said it was simply a gesture of goodwill toward the Trump administration. It could be an effort by the militant group to curry favor with President Trump,

since it came just as he's headed to the region for his first major foreign trip this term. Today, Trump is starting a four-day swing through Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Notably, he's not stopping in Israel, after some signs of division have started to show between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, two other updates on the Trump administration.

Ahead of the president's visit to Qatar, the Times has learned that he plans to accept one of the biggest foreign gifts ever given to the US government, a luxury Boeing 747. The plane would be used as Air Force One before being donated to Trump's presidential library, potentially allowing him to use it for personal trips after he leaves office.

The move has outraged democratic lawmakers and alarmed ethics experts, with the head of one consumer watchdog group telling the Times that accepting the gift, quote, makes clear that U.S. foreign policy under Donald Trump is up for sale. Trump suggested that the free plane would save taxpayers money, and he called people questioning the ethics of the gift, world-class losers. Also, today is the last day of bidding in a cryptocurrency auction promoted by President Trump that has raised more ethics concerns. The president announced last month that the top buyers of his family's crypto coin would get a private dinner with him and a tour of the White House. The contest has added billions of dollars to the coin's value on paper,

earned the Trump family over a million dollars in trading fees, and raised questions about who's buying in. By working with some crypto analytics experts, we were able to work out the identities behind some of these people. What's clear is that a lot of them are likely based overseas. My colleague David Yaffe-Bellany has been covering the Trump family's crypto ventures. He says that while non-citizens can't legally contribute to political campaigns, there's nothing stopping them from buying Trump coins to potentially

try and influence the president's agenda. You can see from public transaction records that they bought these coins on crypto exchanges, which are a kind of marketplace, that aren't open to U.S. users. So that was sort of the first clue. Then working with a company called Nonson, we were able to identify some of the actual individuals behind these purchases. One that stood out to us was an Australian crypto entrepreneur named Kane Warwick. I spoke with him and he explained to me that he wants to go to this dinner

partly because it's an opportunity for him to speak with President Trump or to speak with people in Trump's inner circle and push them on crypto policy, to make the case to them for why they should help crypto expand in the United States. When pressed by reporters about potential ethics issues surrounding the crypto auction, the White House rejected any criticism. There are at least some people who are buying this coin who

seem to view it as an opportunity to influence the president's views. If buyers are buying for that reason, are they wasting their money? Look, I can assure you the president acts with only the interests of the American public in mind, putting our country first and doing what's best for our country full stop. That's's his intention and that's what he's focused on.

India and Pakistan are now about a day and a half into a very fragile ceasefire. It appears to be holding despite some initial skirmishes across their borders. The truce brought an end to four days of rapidly escalating drone attacks, shelling and airstrikes that left many civilians dead, wounded or displaced. Indian Pakistan have been arch enemies for 75, 80 years. But what we saw in the past week was the most intense fighting we've seen almost in half a century. My colleague Mujeeh Mashal is based in Delhi. He says the fighting between India and Pakistan, which was set off by a terrorist attack in Kashmir, offered a preview of how much technology

has changed the stakes for the long time adversaries. It was for the first time that we saw huge use of drones, where basically it was a massive escalation in the skies. Both sides were hitting targets in cities deep into each other's country along the border, but there were no ground forces moved. And that signals the future of what conflict in this part of the world,

especially between these two countries that share a long border, will likely look like. It probably won't mean moving large number of ground forces or tanks, it will mean massive infiltration of cheap drones that there isn't a huge political cost if you lose drones like that because they're not piloted. So what it does is, because of how easy it is to use these drones and this new sort of

age technology, it compresses the time of escalation. Things move so fast and you sort of burn through the escalation ladder. And then what we need to remember is both these countries are nuclear armed. And what happens when things escalate at such a rapid pace where it doesn't allow time for communication and back channels and it allows a lot of room for mistakes that could push things out of control. Mujib says the two sides ultimately came to a ceasefire agreement under intense international pressure. The United States stepped in, as did Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, to try and cool tensions. India and Pakistan are expected to talk again today to discuss extending the truce.

And finally, a real estate listing for a three-bedroom, two-bath house south of Chicago went up a couple months ago. The owner bought it last year for about $66,000 and redid the whole thing, but then it sat on the market until last week when it came out, that little brick house for sale was the childhood home of the Pope. Robert Francis Prevost, before he became Pope Leo, was born and raised in Illinois, and his father owned the house until the 1990s. Once the address was traced back to Leo, the first ever American Pope, the offers started pouring in, to the point it's now been pulled off the market while the owner tries to figure

out what to do next. His real estate agent told a local radio station he isn't totally sure what he'll do now. Field more offers, turn it into a museum, it's all up in the air. He says he wants to see what he can learn about the house before making any more plans, including figuring out which bedroom was once Leoos. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.