Senate blocks bill against tariffs. A bill to undo some of Trump’s tariffs narrowly failed in the U.S. Senate yesterday. Three Republicans voted with Democrats to deauthorize the tariffs. The vote came alongside news that the U.S. economy contracted at an annualized rate of 0.3 percent last quarter, in part due to importers rushing to buy supplies before tariffs hit. Separately, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state media issued a lengthy post today saying there is “no harm” in U.S.-China negotiations on trade, citing unnamed sources who said U.S. officials had “proactively reached out to China” hoping for talks.
UK launches strikes against Yemen. The United Kingdom (UK) announced yesterday that it joined the U.S. strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the first time during the Trump administration. The UK had previously cooperated on some such strikes under President Joe Biden. The U.S. military said it has hit more than eight hundred Houthi targets since March. The Houthis recently shot down seven U.S. Reaper drones, unnamed U.S. officials told the Associated Press.
TikTok data centers in Europe. TikTok will build a $1.1 billion data center in Finland as part of ongoing work to locate such centers in Europe, a company spokesperson said. The Chinese-owned app is banned from phones of European Union policymakers over privacy concerns; the company has called those bans misguided. In 2023, TikTok launched a new data security regime, through which a data center in Norway went online last month.
Belarus frees U.S. detainee. Belarus released Youras Ziankovich as it tries to “warm relations with the United States,” U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Response Adam Boehler said. Ziankovich was detained in Moscow in 2021 and transferred to Belarus where he was accused of plotting a U.S.-backed coup. The U.S. State Department rejected those accusations and classified him as wrongly detained.
UAE reports munitions seizure. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seized munitions slated to be illegally transferred to Sudan’s army, state media reported. Reuters was unable to reach two people named as part of the scheme for comment. The news came after Reuters said the UN was reviewing reports of weapons originally exported to the UAE being found on Sudanese paramilitary convoys. Sudan’s army rejected the Emirati state media report and is accusing the UAE of arming their rivals, the paramilitaries, in a case at the International Court of Justice.
Legal troubles for South Korean candidate. South Korea’s top court overturned an acquittal for opposition presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung in an election law case today. The move could bar him from running in the June 3 election, where he is a frontrunner. Prosecutors in the case said Lee broke an election law in 2022 by making “false statements”–charges he rejects. The case went back to an appeals court.
Israeli strikes in Syria. Israel said yesterday that it conducted a strike in Syria against “an extremist group” that targeted members of the minority Druze community. It was Israel’s first announcement of military action in support of the Syrian Druze since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December. Israel’s action followed a spate of violence that killed Druze members near Damascus. Syria’s foreign ministry said it rejected “all forms of foreign intervention” and pledged to protect the Druze.
Pro-Palestine activist released. A district judge has ordered the release on bond of Mohsen Mahdawi, a U.S. permanent resident and activist who was detained at his citizenship interview in April. The Trump administration seeks to deport Mahdawi under a seldom-used law that allows deportations when there is “reasonable ground” for “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” arguing that Mahdawi’s involvement in Columbia University protests could undermine the Middle East peace process. The judge cited “substantial claims” that Mahdawi’s detention was “retaliation for protected speech.” Mahdawi has not been charged with a crime.
