Good morning. President Trump said he would lift U.S. sanctions against Syria, giving its new rulers a financial lifeline after a lightning campaign overthrew its decadeslong dictator late last year.

“Now it’s their time to shine,” Trump said in remarks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the first of a four-day Middle East visit. “We’re taking them all off.”

His overarching message was that the U.S. will remain engaged and close to the region as long as its money pours into the American economy.

Trump also sealed $300 billion in deals with the Saudis, with an eye toward doubling that total within four years. Heaping praise on the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, he encouraged Riyadh to move toward normalizing relations with Israel, despite the continuing war in Gaza that has left Palestinians no closer to self-rule, a longstanding Saudi precondition.

On May 15, Dow Jones will host an event for risk & compliance professionals in Stockholm discussing the intersection of geopolitical risk and compliance, and sanctions and export controls.

Speakers are Bjorn Fagersten, chief executive of Politea, Lothar Lieske, chief compliance officer, Volvo Group; Haider Mannan, founder & CEO of BIGTXN; Sabina Ausfelt, head of compliance & risk control of Juni; Meri Djerf, corporate counsel for compliance at Atlas Copco Group. You can register here.

Justice Department to reward tipsters reporting tariff cheats.

The Justice Department wants to reward people who tip authorities about companies involved in immigration crimes or tariff evasion, in a move intended to leverage lucrative federal whistleblower programs for President Trump’s policy priorities.

The Justice Department said that it would also pay for tips related to procurement fraud and violations that result in support for terrorists, drug cartels and other criminal groups. Whistleblowers will be eligible to reap up to 30% of any funds forfeited to the government, as long as the proceeds exceed $1 million.

Justice Department calls for caps on corporate monitorship costs.

The Justice Department announced policy changes aimed at cutting costs that come with the compliance monitors it imposes on some egregious corporate criminal offenders.

In a memo issued Monday, Justice Department Criminal Division Head Matt Galeotti said the department will require corporate monitors to cap hourly rates they charge companies to overhaul compliance programs, among other changes meant to reduce monitorship costs that can sometimes total nine figures.

• The U.S. has sanctioned nearly two dozen firms it says are involved in Iran’s international oil trade as the Trump administration continues what it calls a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at Tehran.
   
• Dutch energy giant Shell is facing a fresh legal challenge over its role in contributing to climate change, from activists seeking to halt new developments of oil and gas projects by the company.
   
• Elliott Investment Management scored a key endorsement this week in its heated proxy battle at oil refiner Phillips 66, which is nearing a shareholder vote later this month.
   
• States are putting the screws to big food companies.
   
• The Trump administration’s potential plan to relax export controls on the United Arab Emirates could provide China with backdoor access to chips that could be used for advanced artificial intelligence applications, prominent Democrats warned.

China exults in Trump’s tariff pullback.

A U.S.-China agreement to pause bruising tariffs was cheered in Beijing as vindication for leader Xi Jinping and his defiant response to President Trump’s trade war, while providing a much-needed boost to China’s ailing economy.

During talks in Geneva this past weekend, U.S. and Chinese officials put the brakes on a spiraling trade war between the world’s two largest economies. They agreed to a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs they had imposed on each other since April and pledged further negotiations.

• China Lifts Restrictions on Boeing Plane Deliveries

Mild April inflation captures early stages of tariff effects.

Inflation was relatively mild in April, but economists said tariffs will end a recent lull and push up more prices in the coming months.

The consumer-price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in April, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Analysts interpreted the report as good news primarily because it didn’t reveal bad news, including meaningful effects of higher tariffs that could show up later this summer. That month-over-month reading matched the forecasts of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

“You can’t take a lot of comfort in this report,” said Andy Schneider, U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.

• Two major Japanese automakers have warned that earnings will be hit hard by U.S. tariffs, underlining the risk of an industrywide downturn that could stunt Japan’s economic recovery.
   
• Israel’s military targeted Hamas’s top leader in Gaza on Tuesday in an airstrike, which if successful would mark an important military victory at a time when the country is under pressure to wrap up its 18-month-long war in the enclave.
   
• South Korea’s state-run think tank halved its growth forecast for the country this year, citing higher U.S. tariffs as a major downside risk to the export-led economy.

• United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby told customers in an email that it is “absolutely safe” to fly in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport following two weeks of technology and air-traffic control staffing issues that have plagued the New Jersey transit hub.
   
• Microsoft is laying off thousands of employees across various divisions around the world in an effort to shed layers of management.
   
• Cisco will enter a multi-year artificial intelligence partnership with Saudi Arabia.
   
• The Trump administration is cutting another $450 million in grants to Harvard in its escalating pressure campaign against the nation’s most prominent university.
   
• Few industries are happier about President Trump’s tariffs deal with China than California’s pistachio farmers.
   

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at max.fillion@dowjones.com, Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at richard.vanderford@wsj.com.

You can also reach us by replying to any newsletter, or by emailing our editor David Smagalla at david.smagalla@wsj.com.