Morning Wire is The Investigative Journal’s daily overnight digest — what changed in government, courts, and international affairs while you slept, with primary-source links beneath every claim.
Government
Federal Circuit hands Trump tariffs a temporary lifeline. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 12 issued a short-term administrative stay pausing the Court of International Trade’s May 7 ruling that the administration’s 10 percent global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 was unlawful, according to court filings reported by U.S. News & World Report. The stay keeps the duty in place against the three importers — two small businesses and Washington state — that had won the lower-court reprieve.
Section 122 permits temporary import surcharges of up to 15 percent without congressional approval for 150 days. The trade court had found the administration lacked statutory justification for the levy, as summarized in a May tariff alert by Greenberg Traurig. Government lawyers warned that if the trial-court ruling took effect immediately, thousands of importers paying the duty would flood the trade court with their own suits seeking refunds.
The Federal Circuit is now considering a longer pause while the appeal proceeds. The decision keeps revenue flowing into Treasury collections while the legal architecture of the second-term tariff regime is litigated.
House appropriators receive Pentagon budget testimony. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine testified Tuesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee on the Department of Defense’s fiscal request, as reported by Stars and Stripes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled for back-to-back appropriations hearings this week, with discussion expected to focus on shipbuilding, the Indo-Pacific posture, and the cost of the Strait of Hormuz blockade.
Separately, the Space Force awarded Anduril Industries a $100.3 million contract to further deploy sensors for the Space Surveillance Network, according to Defense Department notices. The Pentagon also cleared eight technology firms to deploy artificial-intelligence systems on classified networks, formalizing a procurement pathway that had been ad hoc for much of the year.
Justice Department charges Dali ship managers in Key Bridge case. Federal prosecutors on May 12 returned a criminal indictment against Synergy Marine Private Limited, Synergy Maritime Private Limited, and shoreside superintendent Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair over the March 2024 destruction of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to WYPR’s reporting on the indictment. The charges include conspiracy, failure to immediately notify the U.S. Coast Guard of a known hazardous condition, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and false statements.
The collapse killed six construction workers and severed a primary East Coast shipping artery for months. The indictment marks the first criminal charges in the case; the companies have not yet entered pleas. Allegations remain unproven at this stage and the defendants are presumed innocent.
In a separate matter, the Justice Department announced a $30 million civil settlement with PayPal Inc. resolving a fair-lending inquiry into an investment program for minority-owned businesses, per the department’s press release index.
Courts
Section 122 tariff fight moves to Federal Circuit briefing. Beyond the administrative stay, the Federal Circuit will now set a briefing schedule on the merits of the trade court’s ruling that the Section 122 surcharge exceeded statutory authority. Trade lawyers tracking the case observe that the appeals court has historically given the executive branch substantial deference on trade-remedy questions, but the 1974 statute’s text is unusually constrained, according to Law.com’s coverage of the appellate posture. Importers seeking refunds will likely have to wait until a merits ruling.
Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool suit advances. A federal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenges the General Services Administration’s recoloring of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, filings reviewed by the Washington Post indicate. Plaintiffs argue the project bypassed required environmental and historic-preservation review under the National Environmental Policy Act and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The administration has not yet filed a response.
SCOTUS docket — opinion-watch week. The Supreme Court enters one of the busiest stretches of its October Term 2025 calendar, with opinions expected on pending cases addressing election law, agency authority, and First Amendment questions. The Court’s February ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump previewed how the justices may treat downstream challenges to executive tariff authority. Decision lists are released most Mondays and Thursdays through June.
International
Russia–Ukraine: 200-plus drone barrage as ceasefire collapses. Russia launched more than 200 drones at Ukrainian targets overnight on May 12, hours after a U.S.-mediated three-day truce expired, according to a statement from President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine’s air force reported intercepting 192 of 216 incoming drones across Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv oblasts and Kyiv itself. Strikes killed at least one person and injured six, including damage to a kindergarten.
Ukrainian drones in turn struck the Russian city of Orenburg, roughly 1,200 kilometers from Ukraine’s border, damaging a residential building’s roof and windows, per a Kyiv Independent report drawn from local Russian channels. Zelensky said Moscow “itself chose to end the partial silence.” The collapse of the Victory Day ceasefire complicates the White House’s effort to bracket the war ahead of the President’s departure for Beijing.
Trump–Xi summit opens in Beijing Thursday. President Trump arrives in Beijing on May 14 for a two-day state visit, the first by an American president since 2017, according to the Washington Post’s pre-summit reporting. Trade, the Iran war, AI-chip export controls, and Taiwan policy dominate the agenda. Analysts at the Council on Foreign Relations note that Chinese readouts of prior Trump–Xi exchanges have increasingly centered on a request that Washington restate its position on Taiwan as “opposing” rather than merely “not supporting” independence, as the CFR analysis describes.
Expectations are calibrated toward symbolic deliverables — a Chinese purchase of U.S. agricultural products or Boeing aircraft — rather than structural change. The summit was originally scheduled for March but was postponed following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
Strait of Hormuz blockade continues; Iran imposes transit authority. The U.S. Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports remains in force as Iran’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority continues to vet and tax vessels seeking passage, per crisis-tracker compilations of public reporting on the standoff. Roughly 58 ships have been redirected and several tankers disabled since the campaign began. The April 8 ceasefire between Washington and Tehran is technically in force, but the blockade and Iran’s transit-authority demands have prevented full restoration of commercial flows.
EU adopts 20th sanctions round, approves €90 billion Ukraine loan. The European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council, meeting in Brussels on May 11, adopted its twentieth round of sanctions against Russia, this time targeting 16 individuals and seven entities linked to the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, according to the council’s published meeting outcomes. Ministers also approved a €90 billion loan facility for Kyiv and extended the mandate of the EU Advisory Mission Ukraine.
Worth Watching
Wednesday hearings and rulings to track. The House Appropriations defense subcommittee continues its budget review with Secretary Hegseth at the witness table; the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds a closed briefing on the Strait of Hormuz campaign. The President is expected to sign a final pre-departure executive order before boarding Air Force One for Beijing.
Federal Reserve leadership transition. Chair Jerome Powell’s term expires May 15, and the White House has not yet formally named a successor, per the Federal Reserve’s most recent FOMC statement holding rates at 3.50–3.75 percent. Markets are watching for an announcement before the end of the week. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to release April CPI data, with consensus expectations pointing to continued elevation driven by energy costs.
Beijing arrivals. Trump-Xi opening sessions begin Thursday morning local time. Joint readouts are expected late Thursday Washington time; expect parallel statements on trade, AI-chip exports, and Taiwan that may diverge significantly in emphasis.
Tariff appeal timeline. The Federal Circuit’s longer pause decision is expected within days. A ruling against the administration would not automatically reopen refund claims — those require separate litigation — but would shift the political center of gravity on the second-term tariff regime.
The Investigative Journal will update this briefing if material developments emerge during the trading day. Tips and document submissions: editor@tij.news.