Good morning. The U.K. sanctioned a vital figure in Russia’s oil trade, stepping up economic pressure on Moscow to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in peace negotiations.

The clandestine activities of Etibar Eyyub were earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal last year.

• What happened? Britain said its “largest ever sanction package” will target dozens of tankers Russia uses to transport oil and five traders from Azerbaijan. They were Eyyub, his business partner Tahir Garayev and three associates. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday that Russia’s “shadow fleet” of aging tankers bankrolled the war and threatened critical subsea European infrastructure.
   
• Why does it matter? It is the first time a Western country has sanctioned any of the main oil middlemen who came to Moscow’s aid after Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022. Russia found workarounds to previous rounds of sanctions that had mostly targeted smaller players, as well as tankers and the shell companies that conceal the people moving Moscow’s crude.
   
• Potential impact: Whereas sanctioned firms can easily be replaced, there are a finite number of people and tankers able to distribute oil, said Moody’s sanctions analyst Hera Smith. She said the sanctions appear to be the most potent by Ukraine’s allies to date. The sanctions could complicate Russia’s ability to transport and finance its oil exports, the economy’s lifeblood. 

Also see: Elliott Eyes Bet on Pipeline Carrying Russian Gas

Google faces potential $3.3 billion antitrust lawsuit in Italy.

Italy’s price comparison site operator Moltiply Group is suing Alphabet’s for 2.97 billion euros ($3.33 billion) in damages over what it called anti-competitive behavior.

The lawsuit, which leans on a key European Commission ruling, alleges that the tech giant abused its market dominance to suppress competition from Trovaprezzi.it, a comparison platform operated by Moltiply subsidiary 7Pixel.

• Kyiv’s European allies threatened new sanctions against Russia, including a permanent block on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Russia to Germany, if the Kremlin doesn’t agree to President Trump’s 30-day cease-fire in its war with Ukraine.
   
• President Trump said he would name Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be Washington’s top federal prosecutor on an interim basis, after his first choice for the job failed to gather enough Republican support.
   
• The U.S. Treasury Department declared sanctions on a Chinese “teapot” refinery and three port terminal operators in Shandong Province for facilitating the delivery of Iranian oil shipments.
   
• The Trump administration’s global tariffs face their first major legal test this week when a little-known Manhattan court considers one of the president’s most sweeping assertions of executive power.
   
• The European Union has notified several entities it intends to maintain terrorism-related sanctions against them while amending the statements of reasons for their designations, according to a notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Thursday.
   
• A federal judge ordered prison time for the architects of the biggest private-equity fraud since the collapse of Abraaj Group in 2018.
   
• The bold step to pursue Israeli's Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes built support at the international court for prosecutor Karim Khan as allegations of sexual abuse were surfacing. Khan denies any misconduct.

Surprise U.S.-China trade deal gives global economy a big reprieve.

A few days ago, it would have seemed almost impossible, but on Monday, to the surprise of global investors and everyday businesses fearing a trade war, the U.S. and China agreed to a major de-escalation.

The world’s two biggest economies unwound for now most of the tariffs they had imposed on each other since April in a tit-for-tat battle that had threatened to upend the global economy.

The U.S. agreed to lower to 10% the so-called reciprocal tariffs levied on China, which President Trump had ratcheted up to 125%. China, similarly, agreed to cut its retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods to 10% from 125%.

• China to Crack Down on Rare-Earth Materials Ahead of U.S. Trade Talks
• China Struggles With Persistent Disinflationary Pressures as Tariffs Bite

How tariffs are crushing small businesses: ‘Nobody in power seems to care.'

The owner of a San Francisco card-game company cashed in his money-market funds. The founder of a tent maker is looking for investors. A watch and jewelry company in Colorado is holding off on signing a new office lease. And a New Hampshire consumer-product company has laid off more than half its staff.

Around the country, small businesses that import goods made in China are taking actions—big and small—to try to outlast the current 145% tariff regime on items from that country. But many are worried that their companies won’t survive.

• North Korea is conducting large-scale coal and iron ore exports to China using sophisticated sanctions evasion techniques, with at least six foreign-flagged vessels making 18 voyages to deliver prohibited commodities since September 2024, a new report by the U.K.-based Open Source Centre (OSC) said.
   
• Taiwan’s leaders have embarked on an urgent overhaul of the island’s defenses to prepare for what they see as the possibility of a Chinese invasion by 2027. The purpose: be able to hold on long enough for the U.S. to come to the rescue.
   
• A fragile cease-fire between India and Pakistan to halt the worst violence between the two nuclear-armed rivals in years, appeared to hold through the weekend, despite initial accusations by Indian officials that Islamabad had violated the pact.
   
• The U.S. said it was encouraged by talks with Iran on Sunday after a meeting here, but the two sides remain divided on key questions, including whether Tehran will be allowed to enrich its own uranium.
   
• Canada’s jobs market is showing signs of cracking under the strain of the trade war with the U.S., as April’s unemployment rate pushed to a five-month high and hiring all but ground to a halt.
   
• The U.S. could run out of cash to pay all its bills in August without a debt-limit increase, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers on Friday, urging them to raise the borrowing cap by mid-July.
   
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky challenged Vladimir Putin to meet him in Istanbul this week, after President Trump swung behind the Russian president’s offer of talks before a cease-fire.

• President Trump’s administration is in talks with the Qatari government about accepting a luxury Qatari plane for his use as president and potentially beyond, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• House Republicans are releasing their plan to cut Medicaid spending, with the program’s defenders in the GOP appearing to win the intraparty clash over how aggressively to change the system that provides health insurance to more than 70 million low-income and disabled people.
   
• President Trump on Sunday said he would sign an executive order aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs, looking to implement a policy that ties U.S. drug prices to what other countries pay.
   
• Hamas said on Sunday that it would release the last American hostage held in Gaza after discussions with the U.S. over a cease-fire and a deal to allow humanitarian aid to enter the strip.
   
• On screen and in ceremonies, Russia and North Korea are brandishing a partnership that has steadily deepened.
   
• President Trump, who has pledged to buy or conquer Greenland, views the Arctic as a zone of future commerce and potential conflict. He has called for the U.S. to make a new fleet of icebreakers—and engineers from Finland are lining up to help.

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