--:-- Traci Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Monday, May 12th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Early this morning, the U.S. 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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. China will lower its tariffs from the 125 percent it retaliated with down to 10.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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 you can find more details at nytimes.com.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Bottom line, is it safe to fly in the United States right now?
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says flying in and out of Newark International Airport is safe, despite recent air traffic control outages and staffing shortages.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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 that could easily affect the whole country.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Are there other airports that you are concerned about right now?
--:-- Traci Mumford: I'm concerned about the whole airspace, right? 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Today, Trump is starting a four-day swing through Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Notably, he's not stopping in Israel.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Recently, some signs of division have started to show between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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 U.S. government, a luxury Boeing 747.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Trump suggested that the free plane would save taxpayers money, and he called people questioning the ethics of the gift world-class losers.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Also, today is the last day of bidding in a cryptocurrency auction promoted by President Trump that has raised more ethics concerns.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: By working with some crypto analytics experts, we were able to work out the identities behind some of these people.
--:-- Traci Mumford: What's clear is that a lot of them are likely based overseas.
--:-- Traci Mumford: My colleague David Yaffe Bellany has been covering the Trump family crypto ventures.
--:-- Traci Mumford: He says that while non can legally contribute to political campaigns, there's nothing stopping them from buying Trump coins to potentially try and influence the president's agenda.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: So that was sort of the first clue.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Then working with a company called Nonson, we were able to identify some of the actual individuals behind these purchases.
--:-- Traci Mumford: One that stood out to us was an Australian crypto entrepreneur named Cain Warwick.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: When pressed by reporters about potential ethics issues surrounding the crypto auction, the White House rejected any criticism.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: If buyers are buying for that reason, are they wasting their money?
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: That's his intention and that's what he's focused on.
--:-- Traci Mumford: India and Pakistan are now about a day and a half into a very fragile ceasefire.
--:-- Traci Mumford: It appears to be holding despite some initial skirmishes across their borders.
--:-- Traci Mumford: The truce between the nuclear powers brought an end to four days of rapidly escalating drone attacks, shelling and airstrikes that left many civilians dead, wounded or displaced.
--:-- Traci Mumford: India and Pakistan have been arch enemies for 75, 80 years.
--:-- Traci Mumford: But what we saw in the past week was the most intense fighting we've seen almost in half a century.
--:-- Traci Mumford: My colleague Mujeeb Mishal is based in Delhi.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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 longtime adversaries.
--:-- Traci Mumford: It was for the first time that we saw huge use of drones where basically it was a massive escalation in the skies.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Both sides were hitting targets in cities deep into each other's country along the border, but there were no ground forces moved.
--:-- Traci Mumford: And that signals the future of what conflict in this part of the world will likely look like.
--:-- Traci Mumford: It probably won't mean you know moving a large number of ground forces into each other's border areas or, you know, tanks.
--:-- Traci Mumford: It will mean massive infiltration of cheap drones that, you know, there isn't a huge political cost if you lose drones like that because they're not piloted.
--:-- Traci Mumford: So what it does is, because of how easy it is to use this new sort of age technology, it compresses the time of escalation.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Things move so fast, and it allows a lot of room for mistakes that could push things out of control.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Mujeeb says the two sides ultimately came to a ceasefire agreement under intense international pressure.
--:-- Traci Mumford: The United States stepped in, as did Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, to try and cool tensions.
--:-- Traci Mumford: India and Pakistan are expected to talk again today to discuss extending the truce.
--:-- Traci Mumford: And finally, Steve, you have a very interesting property in Dalton, Illinois.
--:-- Traci Mumford: A real estate listing for a three-bedroom, two-bath house south of Chicago went up a couple months ago.
--:-- Traci Mumford: It's just a cute Chicago Cape Cod.
--:-- Traci Mumford: The owner bought it last year for about $66,000 and redid the whole thing.
--:-- Traci Mumford: But then it sat on the market.
--:-- Traci Mumford: We started at around $225,000. We did, you know, a few price drops.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Until last week, when it came out, that little brick house for sale was the childhood home of the Pope.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Robert Francis Prevost, before he became Pope Leo, was born and raised in Illinois.
--:-- Traci Mumford: And his father owned the house until the 1990s.
--:-- Traci Mumford: 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.
--:-- Traci Mumford: His real estate agent told a local radio station he isn't totally sure what the owner will do now.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Field more offers, turn it into a museum, it's all up in the air.
--:-- Traci Mumford: On the pope's part, his new accommodations at the Vatican are arguably an upgrade, depending on how attached you are to the greater Chicago area.
--:-- Traci Mumford: The Apostolic Palace even has a tennis court tucked away.
--:-- Traci Mumford: It's good news for Pope Leo, who once said in an interview that he considers himself, quote, quite the amateur tennis player.
--:-- Traci Mumford: Those are the headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
