作者： root

US social media legislation gains momentum as key Republican senator pledges support

2026-05-12 8:28 PM UTC / Reuters

By Courtney Rozen

May 12, 2026 8:28 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) USA 2026 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, in Grapevine, Texas, U.S. March 28, 2026. REUTERS/Callaghan O’Hare Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – U.S. legislation that would require social media ​companies to take more responsibility for how their ‌apps affect children and teens overcame a key hurdle on Tuesday, when a leading Republican senator said he would back the bill.

U.S. Senator ​Ted Cruz said at an event in Washington ​on Tuesday that he will back the Kids Online Safety ⁠Act, opens new tab, which would require social media companies to “exercise reasonable ​care” when designing features that contribute to harms to minors, ​according to the legislation. The list of harms includes eating disorders, depression and sexual harassment of minors, among others.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Cruz’s support is significant because ​he chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, the panel typically ​responsible for vetting and approving the legislation before the rest of the ‌chamber ⁠votes on it. Cruz supported similar legislation in the past, but so far had not arranged a formal committee vote on the bill during the 119th Congress, the legislature’s current ​session.

“We are ​going to pass ⁠it out of the Commerce Committee, we’re going to pass it in the Senate,” he ​said at an event outside the U.S. ​Capitol on ⁠Tuesday with parents who say they lost their children to online harms.

A spokesperson for Cruz did not provide details about ⁠what ​he would do next with the ​legislation, adding that his support for the bill was “consistent” with his previous statements.

Reporting ​by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Edward Tobin and Jamie Freed

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

US plans $22 billion rebuilding of Washington Dulles airport

2026-05-12 21:12:37 UTC / Reuters

By David Shepardson

May 12, 2026 9:12 PM UTC Updated 3 hours ago

Passengers make their way through the terminal as they travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, U.S., November 22, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Tuesday that the federal government plans a $22 billion rebuilding ​of Washington Dulles airport.

“We’re going to rebuild Dulles,” Duffy said at a Washington ‌conference, saying it would cost roughly $22 billion.

The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. Sign up here.

President Donald Trump has been pushing for a massive rebuilding of the airport that is the main international gateway for the national capital region. The airport is also ​a major United Airlines hub.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Airport Architecture, a website, reported on Monday it had ​reviewed a $22 billion proposed revitalization plan shared with airlines in May that ⁠includes a terminal expansion and four new concourses to be completed by 2034.

Duffy told ​Reuters after the remarks it would be a “brand-new airport” but added there were still details ​being worked through. He declined to say how much of the project the government’s share might be.

On February 25, Trump held a meeting on the airport’s future that included United Airlines UAL.O, opens new tab CEO Scott Kirby, ​whose company handles nearly 70% of the traffic at Dulles. United did not immediately comment.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

In ​December, Trump said he has a new design in mind for Dulles “because it’s not a good airport. ‌It ⁠should be a great airport… They have a great building and a bad airport.”

Critics say Dulles needs modernization and gripe about slow vehicles that transport passengers across the tarmac. USDOT in December criticized the “jet fuel smell in the concourses” and the “paltry” number of gates in ​the main terminal.

The airport ​is operated by ⁠the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority under a 50-year lease approved by Congress. MWAA did not immediately comment Tuesday.

In 2025, the airport authority ​approved a master capital plan to spend at least $7 billion overhauling ​Dulles in coming ⁠years.

The airport, about 25 miles (40 km) from the U.S. capital, opened in 1962 and had a record year in 2025, handling 29 million total passengers, up 6.4%. This fall, it ⁠will ​get a new 435,000-square-foot (40,412-square-meter), 14-gate concourse serving United customers.

Finnish ​architect Eero Saarinen designed the airport’s terminal building, a distinctive structure with a sloping roof that sweeps up toward ​the sky on opposite sides.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Putin hails Russia’s test launch of new ICBM known as Satan II, calls it “most powerful missile in the world”

May 12, 2026 / 5:23 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Russia on Tuesday test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile as part of efforts to modernize the country’s nuclear forces, a launch hailed by President Vladimir Putin just days after his claim that the fighting in Ukraine is nearing an end.

Putin said that the nuclear-armed Sarmat missile would enter combat service at the end of the year. It was built to replace the aging Soviet-built Voyevoda.

“This is the most powerful missile in the world,” Putin declared, claiming that the combined power of the Sarmat’s individually targeted warheads is more than four times higher than that of any Western counterpart.

The Russian leader has repeatedly brandished the nuclear sword after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to try to deter the West from ramping up support for Ukraine.

In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on May 12, 2026, Russia’s new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is test launched at an unspecified location in Russia. AP

After overseeing a military parade on Red Square on Saturday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, which for the first time in nearly two decades didn’t include heavy weapons, Putin declared the conflict in Ukraine is coming to an end.

Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has overseen efforts to upgrade the Soviet-built components of the Russian nuclear triad – deploying hundreds of new, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, commissioning new nuclear submarines and modernizing nuclear-capable bombers.

Russia’s effort to revamp its nuclear forces pushed the United States to launch a costly modernization of its arsenal.

Nuclear arms pact expired

The last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the U.S. expired in February, leaving no caps on the world’s two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century and fueling fears of an unconstrained nuclear arms race.

That same month, the U.S. and Russia agreed to reestablish formal, high-level military communications that were suspended in late 2021, prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Sarmat — designated “Satan II” by NATO — is meant to replace about 40 Soviet-built Voyevoda missiles. Its development began in 2011 and before now, the missile had only one known successful test and reportedly suffered a massive explosion during an abortive test in 2024. A satellite image analyzed by CBS News at the time showed a large crater and remnants of a possible explosion on a launchpad at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

The Sarmat is classified as a “heavy” ICBM and is capable of carrying up to 10 tons in payload, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project.

Putin said Tuesday that the Sarmat — part of a slew of new weapons that Putin revealed in 2018, claiming they would render any prospective U.S. missile defenses useless — is as powerful as the Voyevoda but with a higher precision. It is capable of suborbital flight, he said, giving it a range of more than 21,700 miles and an extended capability to penetrate any prospective missile defenses.

Moscow’s new weapons include the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound. The first vehicles have already entered service.

Russia has also commissioned the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, and used its conventionally-armed version twice to strike Ukraine. Oreshnik’s range of up to 3,100 miles makes it capable of reaching any target in Europe.

Putin also announced Russia was in the “final stages” of the development of the nuclear-armed Poseidon underwater drone and the Burevestnik cruise missile powered by miniature atomic reactors. The Poseidon is designed to explode near enemy coastlines and cause a radioactive tsunami. The Burevestnik has virtually unlimited range thanks to nuclear propulsion, allowing it to loiter for days, circling air defenses and attacking from an unexpected direction.

Putin has described those new weapons as part of a Russian response to the U.S. missile shield that Washington developed after its 2001 withdrawal from a Cold War-era U.S.-Soviet pact that limited missile defenses.

Russian military planners have feared a missile shield could tempt Washington to launch a first strike that would knock out most of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal in hopes of intercepting a small number of surviving missiles fired in retaliation.

“We were forced to consider ensuring our strategic security in the face of the new reality and the need to maintain a strategic balance of power and parity,” Putin said.

The nuclear treaty that expired in February was a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Russia, which have about 4,300 and 3,700 nuclear warheads respectively, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Meanwhile, the governments of the U.S. and Ukraine have drafted a memorandum outlining the terms of a potential new drone defense deal between the countries, three sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.

Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.

Schumer backs GOP’s plan to bring the pain during future shutdowns: ‘I’m going to vote for it’

May 12, 2026 4:18pm EDT / Fox News

Sen John Kennedy’s resolution would withhold lawmakers’ $174,000 salary until a shutdown is resolved

By Alex Miller Fox News

Mullin blasts Democrats’ ‘reckless’ ICE rhetoric after record-long DHS shutdown

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warns that the ‘historic’ 76-day government shutdown has left the nation’s security agencies struggling to recover while accusing Democrats of holding border funding hostage to satisfy the far-left base.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Listen to this article

2 min

Senate Republicans’ gamble to inflict pain on themselves to thwart future shutdowns just got an unlikely backer: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The upper chamber is set to vote on Sen. John Kennedy’s, R-La., resolution on Wednesday that would prevent senators from getting a paycheck during a government shutdown. It’s a tool that Republicans hope will give them leverage in preventing Democrats from again shuttering the government in the fall.

And Schumer, who has led Democrats through two shutdowns in the last year, plans to support it.

SENATE WEIGHS NEW, PAINFUL LEVERAGE TACTIC AS FEARS OF ANOTHER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN GROW

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news briefing with Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., after a Senate Democratic luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2026.(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“I’m going to vote for it,” Schumer said. “And I think it has a lot of support.”

Kennedy’s resolution would direct the Secretary of the Senate to withhold lawmakers’ pay until a shutdown is resolved. A rank-and-file senator earns $174,000 per year, while a leader of either party can earn over $193,000 per year.

His resolution would only pertain to the Senate, too. However, it wouldn’t take effect until after the November midterm elections, and some Republicans fear that Schumer and Democrats will again shut the government down before voters hit the polls.

KENNEDY PUSHES PLAN TO HALT CONGRESS PAY DURING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., returns to his office after speaking on the Senate floor and addressing reporters at the U.S. Capitol on March 11, 2026.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Still, with the blessing of Schumer and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who teed up the measure for a vote earlier this week, it’s likely to pass.

That could lessen the desire of lawmakers to thrust the government into yet another shutdown in the next few months as Congress is still reeling from the growing frequency of closures, and the messes that they leave behind.

The latest partial shutdown lasted 76 days, the longest in U.S. history, and was spurred by Democrats’ demands for stringent reforms to immigration operations in the country. Last year, Democrats refused to fund the government for 43 days in pursuit of an extension to now-expired Obamacare tax credits.

REPUBLICANS EYE ENDING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS FOREVER OVER FEARS DEMS WILL DO IT AGAIN

Republicans are now sprinting through the budget reconciliation process to shore up loose ends from the previous shutdown and fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three and a half years.

Thune noted that the only reason Republicans turned to that option was because of Democrats’ refusal to fund those agencies, but still hoped that Kennedy’s resolution could be the silver bullet to put an end to shutdowns in the future.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“And if this — passing this and applying it to senators, maybe it will provide an additional incentive to prevent Senate Democrats in the future from shutting the government down again,” Thune said.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Searing U.S. energy prices are driving the hottest inflation in years

May 12, 2026 / 4:19 PM EDT / CBS News

The global oil supply shock stemming from the Iran war is scorching U.S. motorists and other consumers, new federal data makes clear.

Higher energy prices accounted for 40% of the total jump in inflation in April, when the Consumer Price Index surged at an annual rate of 3.8% — the fastest increase in nearly three years.

The index for gasoline prices last month was up more than 28% from a year ago, the Department of Labor found. Overall energy costs — which includes gas, heating oil and electricity — last month rose nearly 18% from a year ago.

For millions of workers, the spike in prices over the last two months means inflation is now outpacing wage growth, Wall Street analysts noted.

“That is a very clear illustration of the impact that higher energy prices are having in squeezing households’ real wages,” Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, said in an email, warning that headline inflation could top 4% by the time the government releases the next CPI report in early June if oil prices remain elevated.

A gallon of gasoline around the country now costs an average of $4.50, up more than $1.50 since the war started, according to AAA. And in a forecast on Tuesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that retail gas prices will average $3.88 per gallon over the rest of the year and $3.62 per gallon in 2027.

Before the Middle East conflict erupted in February, the national average for a gallon of gas hovered just below $3.

Patrick De Haan, a petroleum expert at GasBuddy, estimates that Americans have spent an additional $28 billion on gas since March 1 due to higher prices. Of that figure, he estimated that $22 billion in additional fuel costs stem directly from the Iran war.

Trump administration officials have said they expect the disruption in oil flows due to the Middle East conflict to be temporary and that U.S. gas prices will quickly recede once crude supplies resume.

“The April CPI report reinforces, however, that President Trump’s long-term economic agenda continues to deliver despite these disruptions: Drug and hospital services prices are declining thanks to the President’s Most-Favored-Nation and price transparency initiatives, while trillions in investments continue to drive robust real wage growth for manufacturing and construction workers,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to CBS News.

Pain beyond the pump

Electricity prices around the U.S. also are shooting up, rising an average of 6.1% in April from a year ago. The increase comes as technology companies race to boot up data centers capable of supplying the vast amounts of energy needed to power AI services.

In a recent report, Goldman Sachs analysts said they expect increased electricity demand from the data center boom to boost inflation over the next two years.

Airfares are another area where consumers are feeling the sting, with ticket prices up nearly 21% in April from a year ago, the CPI data shows. Airlines are hiking their prices to absorb higher jet fuel costs, which are up by more than $1.50 since before the war started, according to data from Airlines for America, a trade association.

Consumers could also see higher grocery prices as the Iran war drives up the cost of diesel, which is widely used in transportation, shipping and agriculture. Diesel averaged $5.64 a gallon on Tuesday, just 18 cents below its record high in June 2022, according to AAA.

Food prices in April were up 3.2% from a year ago, according to the latest CPI data.

Where could inflation go from here?

Economists expect U.S. inflation to accelerate in the coming months as the impact from the war works its way through the economy.

“Even if the war in Iran were to end today, the tail of the economic crisis it has created will last months or longer, from gasoline to food to utility prices,” Janelle Jones, visiting senior fellow at the progressive Century Foundation and former chief economist at the Department of Labor, said in an email.

Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, thinks the annual rate of inflation will surpass 4% in May, while core inflation (which strips out volatile food and energy costs) will approach 3%. Core inflation in April was 2.8%, just above the 2.7% predicted by economists polled by FactSet.

With inflation drifting further from the Federal Reserve’s 2% target rate, many economists now predict the central bank won’t cut interest rates at all this year.

Edited by Alain Sherter

US consumer finance agency to bring staff back to office year after closure

2026-05-12 20:51:24 GMT / Reuters

By Douglas Gillison

May 12, 2026 8:51 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

The name and logo for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB) is seen scraped off the door of its building in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – Leadership at the U.S. consumer finance watchdog plans to recall staff to the office more than a year after the Trump ​administration shuttered its Washington headquarters and tried to eliminate the workforce, according to ‌three people with knowledge of the matter.

The return-to-office plan for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has not yet been announced to staff and timing remains uncertain, the people said.

Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

The ​agency’s downtown headquarters are now partly occupied by the Office of ​Management and Budget, whose Director Russell Vought also leads the CFPB, ⁠the three sources and two others briefed on the occupancy said.

It was ​unclear whether staff would be recalled to CFPB headquarters and whether the mandate ​would include agency staff based outside Washington, three of the people said.

CFPB representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. The Trump administration in February canceled the ​lease on the CFPB’s headquarters and handed the property to the General ​Services Administration, as Reuters previously reported.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

After calling for the CFPB’s outright elimination last year, top ‌administration ⁠officials now say they have scaled back plans to slash the agency’s workforce. A judge’s provisional order blocking this remains in place after a lower court previously found that the administration planned to wipe out the CFPB before the legal ​system could decide whether ​this was legal.

With ⁠agency work sharply curtailed and its future uncertain, many CFPB employees have left the agency, which was created following ​the 2008 financial crash to protect the public from predatory ​practices ⁠in consumer finance. Headcount is down about 30% since the start of the Trump administration, according to court filings.

Top administration officials including President Donald Trump have described ⁠the CFPB ​as a politicized burden on free enterprise, ​while Democrats and agency defenders have described efforts to eliminate it as a giveaway to corporations at ​the expense of consumers.

Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Taiwan watches Trump-Xi meeting for signs China will test US resolve

2026-05-12 6:00pm EDT / Fox News

Over the past week, more than 50 Chinese aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line or entered its air defense identification zone

By Eryk Michael Smith, Fox News

Published May 12, 2026 6:00pm EDT | Updated May 12, 2026 6:01pm EDT

Trump-Xi China summit: Taiwan reportedly fears ‘off-script’ policy shift amid military buildup

Fox News contributor Michael Pillsbury discusses the upcoming Trump-Xi Jinping summit in Beijing. Taiwan reportedly fears Trump may go ‘off-script’ on its fate, while China pushes for it as a top priority. Pillsbury details the complex trade and security issues.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Listen to this article

6 min

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan:President Donald Trump’s meetings with communist China’s supreme leader Xi Jinping in Beijing will be keenly watched here in Taiwan, from the presidential office to military command centers and semiconductor company boardrooms. The key question many are asking is whether Trump negotiates with China from a position of strength, or leaves Taiwan exposed?

The de facto independent nation of 23 million people has spent decades living under threat from the Chinese Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as its territory despite never having ruled it for even a day.

Observers here warn that Xi may try to offer Trump a deal: cooperation on tariffs, fentanyl, U.S. business access, or global flashpoints like Iran and Ukraine in exchange for Trump accepting a larger Chinese role in Taiwan’s future.

CHINA ORDERS FIRMS TO IGNORE US IRAN SANCTIONS, DARING US TO ENFORCE CRACKDOWN

The PLA Navy and the PLA Army conduct a cross-day, all-factor live-fire red-blue confrontation drill in Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, China, on Aug. 24, 2022.(CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images)

Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu recently told Bloomberg News, “What we are the most afraid is to put Taiwan on the menu of the talk between Xi Jinping and President Trump.”

Huang Kwei-bo, a professor in National Chengchi University’s Department of Diplomacy, told Fox News Digital that Taiwan shouldn’t assume nothing will change. “Taiwan shouldn’t rule out the possibility that the United States and mainland China could reach an understanding behind the scenes, agreeing to reduce arms sales to Taiwan, or become less active in helping us meaningfully participate in international space,” he said.

In comments on Monday, President Trump acknowledged China’s dislike of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, and said the topic would be “one of the many things I’ll be talking about.”

CHINA LAUNCHES LARGEST MILITARY DRILLS OFF TAIWAN IN 8 MONTHS WITH LIVE-FIRE EXERCISES CAUGHT ON CAMERA

China launched rockets near Taiwan during live-fire drills as the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command surrounded the island with warships and aircraft amid rising tensions.(PLA Eastern Theater Command/Reuters)

Over the past week, more than 50 communist Chinese aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line or entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.

Those numbers are not a dramatic new escalation. In Taiwan, they are increasingly seen as part of a new normal: a sustained pressure campaign that falls short of war but keeps Taiwan’s military on alert. China also intentionally damages the undersea cables that connect Taiwan to the internet, hacks into Taiwan’s computer systems daily, and floods social media with content that praises the communist party.

FILE: In this undated file photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, a Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet flies in an undisclosed location(Taiwan Ministry of Defense via AP)

Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is a major concern for Washington. The island is home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, the dominant producer of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Those chips are used in smartphones, cars, artificial intelligence systems and U.S. defense technology. Any conflict or blockade that cuts Taiwan off from global markets would ripple through American factories, consumers, technology companies and military planning.

However, as the leaders of the two nations most closely intertwined with Taiwan’s future meet, there is no outward sense of panic here.

President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping prepare for a key summit in May.(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images)

“Most people here are not obsessed with China every day,” Audrey Chiang, who runs a tourist souvenir shop in Kaohsiung, told Fox News Digital. Chiang has a son who is just a few years away from serving one year as a military conscript, a 2024 response to China’s invasion threats. “We go to work. We worry about the next big test at our kids’ school. We complain about traffic. But everyone knows things can change very quickly.”

Taiwan’s legislature on May 8 passed a near US$25 billion supplemental defense spending bill, meant in part to signal to Washington that Taipei isn’t simply depending on America to protect itself. But the package was smaller than the almost US$40 billion requested by Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s administration.

Taipei-based American political analyst, Ross Darrell Feingold, told Fox News Digital that many in Taiwan assume that the U.S., and possibly Japan, will come to the island’s defense in the event of a war. “Going back to the Cold War when the U.S. had a treaty obligation to defend Taiwan, and even after the treaty was abrogated, the consistent assumption is that the U.S. president will send in the military to save Taiwan. More recently, there is a growing assumption Japan will do so as well. But Taiwan still must do what is necessary to prove to its partners that Taiwan’s own people will be on the front line,” he said.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fabrication plant in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 3, 2025. TSMC plans to invest an additional $100 billion in U.S. plants to increase chip production and support President Donald Trump’s goal of boosting domestic manufacturing.(Rebecca Noble/Bloomberg)

CHINA PROMISES ‘COUNTERMEASURES’ TO US ARMS SALE TO TAIWAN

Taiwan’s main political parties have major differences in their approaches to China, but broadly support U.S. arms purchases and agree that Beijing is a threat to democratic Taiwan.

Chinese officials insist Taiwan’s status is an “internal affair.” Taiwan’s elected government rejects that, and so do most Taiwanese, who see Taiwan’s future as something only they should decide.

National Pingtung University Associate Professor Paul Lee is among those who think Xi Jinping is going to push the U.S. president hard on Taiwan. Speaking by phone, he told Fox News Digital that “Xi Jinping almost certainly wants one clear change from the U.S., he’ll want Trump to say the United States ‘opposes Taiwan independence’ rather than the language it uses now that is closer to ‘does not support Taiwan independence.’ To be frank, I don’t think President Trump sees Taiwan as that important – except as the producer of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, and as a source of some revenue from weapons sales.” Lee notes that the difference between “doesn’t support” and “opposes” may not seem like much for Trump, but for Xi, it would be viewed as a major victory.”

A procession of Taiwanese armed military vehicles patrols outside Songshan Airport in Taipei on Oct. 14, 2024, following China’s announcement of the Joint Sword-2024B military exercise encircling Taiwan.(Daniel Ceng/Anadolu)

For Taiwan’s ruling party, and anyone in Taiwan who supports moves by Lai and his predecessor to establish at home and abroad that Taiwan is not part of China, such a change in language would come as a blow as it implies that the U.S. does not agree with the people of Taiwan having the right to self-determination on their future, Lee explained, and he said Xi Jinping wouldn’t be satisfied with Trump simply saying a few sentences.

“Trump has roughly three years left on his second term, and Xi will want to ensure the ‘oppose independence’ language translates into a new framework with new rules such as not letting Taiwan President Lai transit through the U.S., as one example. Xi knows U.S. presidents come and go, so the goal is to create a tacit agreement that Taiwan is in the Chinese sphere of influence, he said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed the Chinese Communist Party to assert influence for the country globally through a “United Front” strategy. He reviews troops during his inspection of the People’s Liberation Army garrison in the Macao Special Administrative Region on Dec. 20, 2024.(Li Gang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Lee said China has been patiently waiting for an opportune moment, and the war in Iran, tariffs and other issues facing President Trump is presenting exactly that.

Lee said Taiwan’s government and academic community will closely scrutinize the official translations of what the two sides “agree” on. “Put simply,” Lee said, “if Xi Jinping agrees to help make things easier for Trump, Xi will not be satisfied with cryptically worded official press releases. He will want to see the beginning of a new U.S.-China framework for dealing with Taiwan.”

Eryk Michael Smith is a Taiwan-based correspondent who since 2007, has worked both as a broadcast journalist for the island’s only English-language radio station, ICRT, as well as with numerous other publications and local news outlets. Smith’s journalism focuses on Taiwan-China relations, local politics, as well as science and technology developments in the greater China region. He is based in Taiwan’s largest southern city, Kaohsiung.He can be followed @ErykSmithTaiwan

Businesses starting to receive their IEEPA tariff refunds

May 12, 2026 5:05 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

Businesses across the U.S. began receiving federal refunds on Tuesday for tariffs imposed by President Trump in 2025 and struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

Sarah Wells, whose small business makes accessories and apparel for breastfeeding mothers, told CBS News that about half of the money she is owed by the U.S. government had been deposited into her bank account.

In April, Wells filed claims for refunds of two different tariffs her business imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — one for a shipment from China and the other for goods she imported from Cambodia.

The Supreme Court ruled in February that Mr. Trump lacks the legal authority to impose tariffs under IEEPA.

“My refund claim had been accepted, and I’d been checking the status feverishly to see if anything was in my bank account,” she told CBS News. “Earlier this morning at around 7, I got the money from the first container that came from China.”

Sarah Wells said she received a partial tariff refund from the federal government on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Courtesy of Sarah Wells

Wells said the refund was for $10,000, which covers the 20% tariff she paid on the goods, plus interest. She expects another $10,000 federal payment for other IEEPA tariffs her business absorbed.

As of 7 a.m. ET on Monday, the federal government said it had approved nearly 87,000 refund requests covering more than 15 million IEEPA duty payments. More than half of those entries have been finalized, amounting to refunds of $35.5 billion, including interest, CBP official Brandon Lord said in a filing with the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York.

Ryan Peterson, CEO of supply chain management company Flexport, told CBS News that as of Monday, the company’s clients had received a total of $137 million in IEEPA tariff refunds from the U.S. government.

“I’m kind of impressed the government built and launched this technology pretty quickly,” he said. “A lot of government timelines can be way longer than that.”

The Trump administration owes importers roughly $166 billion in refunds.

Imports remain subject to a 10% tariff that Mr. Trump imposed in February under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. In March, the White House also announced investigations into foreign nations’ trade practices under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows U.S. trade officials to unilaterally retaliate against countries engaging in unfair trade practices.

“We have an order in production in Cambodia arriving in July or August that we’ll have to pay 10% on, and possible Section 301 tariffs could be put in place,” Wells said, adding that “we are in a cycle of having to plan for the unplanned.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

As Trump visits China, will he seek investment to build American “dark factories” of the future?

May 12, 2026 / 7:50 PM EDT / CBS News

Zhuhai, southern China — When President Trump arrives in China this week for a high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping, securing investment from Chinese companies — including to help modern American factories — is expected to be on his list of priorities.

But if Mr. Trump is hoping to secure investment to help bring blue-collar jobs back to America, a CBS News visit to a massive Chinese factory suggests that ship may have sailed.

Inside a cavernous industrial building on the outskirts of Zhuhai, in southern China, there’s a factory of the future. Hundreds of yellow robotic arms move in sync along a 1,500-foot assembly line, putting together some 4,000 components every 10 seconds for air conditioning units.

Owned by Gree, China’s largest air conditioning maker, the facility is what’s known as a “dark factory.” It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, controlled by artificial intelligence.

Gree general manager Chen Huadong says it’s the future of manufacturing.

“This is how future intelligent factories will look like, with AI-supported robots everywhere,” he told CBS News, “working in real time.”

In the nerve center of the operation, giant screens show real-time data on production, global sales and delivery.

About 60% of Gree’s production is exported overseas, including significant sales in North America.

The company has even been advertising in Times Square.

China already accounts for roughly 30% of global manufacturing output overall, and that’s expected to rise to almost 50% over the next four years.

According to Chen, Chinese manufacturing has more to offer Western markets than products, however.

“Gree is not only capable of manufacturing high-quality air conditioners, but also high-quality factories,” he told CBS News.

A factory the size of Gree’s would typically employ around 10,000 workers. But the dark factory only needs 1,000, a third of whom are engineers. It is real-world evidence of the dramatic rate at which machines are replacing humans in the workforce.

“I think in the future, physical work will get less and less,” Chen told CBS News. “But the skills and workers to maintain AI equipment will grow. … artificial intelligence has transformed the way businesses operate.”

Chen’s assessment is that factories around the world will move “toward high levels of automation,” with robots doing more and more of the work, but “as a result, future production lines will require a large number of engineers to design, plan, install, inspect and maintain them. This will create a significant number of job opportunities.”

“Our workers are transitioning and upgrading in this direction,” he added.

The question is, will America’s?

What’s Trump’s game plan in China?

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-game-plan-china-amid-iran-war/

Democratic lawmakers grill FBI’s Kash Patel over report alleging excessive drinking

2026-05-12T22:21:47.976Z / Reuters

By Andrew Goudsward

May 12, 2026 10:21 PM UTC Updated 45 mins ago

Summary

• FBI Director Patel denies the Atlantic report
• Democrats accuse Patel of undermining national security
• Patel appeared before Senate panel on proposed budget

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday pressed ​FBI Director Kash Patel over a media report that episodes of excessive drinking ‌interfered with his ability to lead the premier U.S. law enforcement agency, drawing an angry response from Patel.

At a hearing before a Senate budget panel, Patel defended his leadership of the FBI against ​Democratic accusations that his conduct, including the reported drinking, had undermined national security ​and demonstrated poor judgment.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

It was Patel’s first appearance before Congress since his beer-drinking ⁠celebration at the Milan Winter Olympics and the publication of an article in the ​Atlantic magazine drew renewed scrutiny to his tenure. Both matters were raised in the hearing.

Patel ​testified in support of the Trump administration’s proposed $12.5 billion 2027 budget for the FBI and defended his performance, saying violent crime had fallen over the past year while FBI arrests had increased.

[1/5]FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before a Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on U.S. President Donald Trump’s FY2027 budget request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the United States… Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tabRead more

Senator Chris Van ​Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, questioned Patel about the Atlantic report, which detailed instances ​of “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” during his tenure that had alarmed officials at the FBI and the ‌Justice ⁠Department. Patel has sued the Atlantic and its reporter over the article, accusing them of defamation. The magazine has said it stands behind its reporting.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

“If true, they demonstrate a gross dereliction of your duty and a betrayal of public trust,” Van Hollen said at the start ​of the hearing.

Patel, who ​was nominated to ⁠the post by President Donald Trump, denied what was reported in the article, calling it a “total farce.”

He then accused Van Hollen of “slinging ​margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar,” a reference to ​the senator’s ⁠trip last year to visit Kilmar Abrego, a Salvadoran migrant from Maryland who was imprisoned in El Salvador following wrongful deportation by the Trump administration.

Van Hollen responded that Patel’s statement was “provably ⁠false.” ​Photos of the trip showed Van Hollen and Abrego ​with cocktail glasses on a table, but Van Hollen later said the glasses were placed there by Salvadoran government ​officials to undermine the credibility of the meeting.

Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Edmund Klamann

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.