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New York CNN  —  One of America’s closest allies recently raised eyebrows for threatening to fire off the ultimate financial weapon against Washington in trade talks: dumping US debt. Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, whose country is the biggest holder of US Treasuries, said on Friday that selling the assets is a “card on the table” in tariff negotiations, according to The Associated Press. “It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said. Two days later, the Japanese official walked back the comment, stressing on…

A version of this story appeared in CNN Business’ Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. New York CNN  —  President Trump’s trade war had, until Sunday night, centered on goods — cars, toys, food, clothes, the tangible stuff we put in and out of virtual and physical shopping carts. But those goods make up less than a quarter of the American economy. The bigger chunk of our economic pie is known as services — think Google, Netflix, Facebook, the plumbing of the internet, banking, insurance. And, yes, Hollywood films, the industry Trump now…

CNN  —  US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered senior Pentagon leadership to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20% across the military, according to a memo signed by Hegseth dated Monday and obtained by CNN. As of 2023, there were 37 four-star generals and admirals across the entire military. The memo also directs the Pentagon to cut the number of general officers in the National Guard by 20%, and to cut the total number of general and flag officers across the military by 10%. There are currently about 900 general and flag officers…

CNN  —  A desperate search for two children missing in a rural part of Canada’s Nova Scotia province has stretched into its fourth day, with dozens of rescuers combing the dense woods in search of the siblings. Six-year-old Lily Sullivan and her brother Jack, 4, were last seen Friday morning at their home in Pictou County, about 70 miles from the province’s capital city of Halifax, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Police said on Saturday they believe the pair wandered away from their home. In the days since, more than one hundred searchers as well as helicopters, drones…

President Donald Trump says tariffs on Chinese imports to the United States will eventually be lowered, after both Beijing and Washington appeared to soften their positions about potential trade talks. “At some point, I’m going to lower them because otherwise you could never do business with them,” he said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker,” which taped on Friday. “They want to do business very much … their economy is collapsing.” Weeks of tit-for-tat escalation between the world’s two largest economies have driven US tariffs on Chinese products to a staggering 145% and Chinese levies…

CNN  —  A ship that US and Philippine forces planned to sink beat them to it. A former US World War II-era warship, which survived two of the Pacific War’s most important battles, was supposed to go down in a blaze of glory in a live-fire exercise off the western coast of the Philippines as part of annually held joint military drills. Instead, before the bombs and missiles could fly, it slipped slowly beneath the South China Sea Monday morning, age and the ocean catching up to it before modern weaponry could decimate it. The ex-USS Brattleboro was to be…

CNN  —  When President Donald Trump welcomes his new Canadian counterpart to the White House on Tuesday, among the questions looming over their Oval Office encounter will be whether Trump will agree to attend a major summit Prime Minister Mark Carney is hosting next month in Alberta. Trump and his aides have not made a final decision on attending the Group of 7 meeting in Kananaskis scheduled for mid-June, according to three US officials familiar with the matter. American presidents have long attended the yearly conference of the advanced economies, and skipping it would amount to a major step away…

Jerusalem CNN  —  Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, cuts an unmistakable figure in the dark corridors of the ancient, stone patriarchate in this troubled corner of the world. He moves quickly, in long, deliberate strides, the seams of his black cassock billowing like a swimmer’s stroke ahead of his arrival. He was born in Bergamo, northern Italy, but after 35 years immersed in the concerns of his flock here, he says, “I have no idea what people in Italy are talking about most of the time.” His elderly mother still ties him to the land of his…

CNN  —  Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow for the second consecutive night, halting flights at four airports in the Russian capital as it prepares to host a major military parade expected to be attended by world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a Telegram post Tuesday that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to the capital overnight, one night after Russian air defenses shot down four drones near the city. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties, but debris from downed drones fell on a major highway, Sobyanin said.…

A Credit Suisse unit has pleaded guilty to US charges of helping ultra-wealthy Americans evade taxes and will pay a fine of more than $510 million. Credit Suisse Services pleaded guilty and was sentenced Monday for conspiring to hide more than $4 billion from the US Internal Revenue Service in at least 475 offshore accounts, the US Department of Justice said in a release Monday. The guilty plea stems from the Swiss bank maintaining accounts in Singapore on behalf of US taxpayers who were using offshore accounts to evade US taxes and reporting requirements, according to the release. “Among other…