The bromance between Trump and Putin hasn’t resulted in Ukraine ceasefire progress. The Justice Department is investigating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. And the rules around Covid vaccine rollouts are changing.
Here’s what to know today.
How the long-running Trump-Putin bromance is still not delivering
President Donald Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine and has made no secret of his desire to do lucrative deals with Russia reintroduced to the international financial fold. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown little desire for any sort of ceasefire and he’s more than happy to keep delaying any definite decisions.
So, maybe predictably, the phone call this week between the two presidents didn’t achieve great strides on reaching a ceasefire deal. However, one thing was clear by the end of their conversation: The bromance is real.
This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
“The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent,” Trump said of his two-hour conversation, adding that Putin is a “nice gentleman.” Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov, meanwhile, said Trump and Putin called each other by their first names and “neither of them wanted to end the conversation.”
But a question lingers: What does this bonhomie actually deliver for the men in the White House and the Kremlin?
For Putin, it’s time. If the Russian leader’s call with Trump delays making any decisions, then “I think Putin will see it as a good job done,” one expert said. But if an in-person meeting between Putin and Trump takes place, “then Trump will have to leave with something.”
More politics news:
- A federal judge told the Trump administration to “maintain custody and control” of a group of immigrants it’s trying to deport to war-torn South Sudan.
- Trump will host South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House today in an effort to improve relations between the two countries.
- In a surprise move, the Senate passed the “No Tax on Tips Act,” which would create a new tax deduction worth up to $25,000 for cash tips. The bill now goes to the House.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem struggled to define habeas corpus during a Senate hearing.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has signed a directive for his department to take truck drivers off the road if they are not fluent in English.
- Vice President JD Vance has spent the past few days shuffling between meetings with presidents and prime ministers, but it was his meeting with Pope Leo XIV that could prove to be the most consequential.
- Joe Biden was not diagnosed with prostate cancer until last week, and the last time he was screened for the disease was more than a decade ago, a spokesperson said, as the former president faces scrutiny over a recent diagnosis.
DOJ investigates Andrew Cuomo
The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, over testimony he gave to Congress last year, a source said. House Republicans had requested a federal investigation into Cuomo, arguing he lied to the House Oversight Committee when he said he had not been involved in reviewing a report from the New York Department of Health about the state’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic from when he was governor.
A spokesperson for Cuomo questioned the timing of the announcement, which comes during his run for New York mayor against Mayor Eric Adams. “This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple,” the spokesperson said. Federal corruption charges against Adams were dismissed after he began cooperating with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement. Read the full story here.
Meanwhile, former FBI director James Comey — who last week sparked a firestorm on the right and a Secret Service investigation over an Instagram photo showing seashells arranged in the shape of “8647” — brushed aside the chance that he might face criminal charges during a book signing this week at a Barnes & Noble in New York City. Amid the new scrutiny on Comey, he expressed dismay that the Trump Justice Department continues to target political foes, as well as universities and law firms.
“My thing, to me and I hope everyone else, is just a distraction that goes away in a weekend,” he said. “But there’s something much more important going on here — the use of power to aim at individuals eroding the rule of law.” Read more about Comey’s reaction to the second Trump administration.
FDA makes big changes to Covid vaccine rollouts
Updated Covid vaccines for healthy children and adults likely won’t be available this fall — and possibly in subsequent years — as the FDA plans major changes for how Covid vaccines are released and who will be able to get the updated shots. The mandate comes before tomorrow’s FDA vaccine advisory committee meeting where outside experts will discuss which strains should be included in the next round of Covid shots.
In a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and Dr. Vinay Prasad, the agency’s new vaccine chief, wrote that any new Covid vaccine now must undergo placebo-controlled clinical trials and track participants for at least six months. That means it’ll be near impossible for Pfizer and Moderna to complete new trials in time for the fall season. In a question-and-answer session, Makary and Prasad also suggested that the vaccines may not be updated every year.
The rule changes aren’t expected to affect the fall rollout for older adults and other people at high risk for severe illness because drugmakers are exempt from additional testing for those groups. Here’s what else to know.
Read All About It
- Actor George Wendt, who once played the ever-loyal Norm on “Cheers,” has died at the age of 76.
- Two students at University of Wisconsin-Platteville died after a “targeted and isolated” shooting on campus, officials said.
- Columbia University’s acting president was met with boos and chants of “Free Mahmoud” at yesterday’s graduation ceremony.
- A friend of the 20-year-old man who fell from the stands onto the field during a Pittsburgh Pirates game was charged with giving him alcohol.
- In a major step for the NFL, owners voted to allow players to participate in the 2028 Olympics.
- Buy now, pay never? Some Klarna customers are having a harder time paying back their loans.
Staff Pick: How the fall of Saigon fueled a refugee crisis that’s still felt today
The world is looking to the past to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. But advocates say what happened then is also part of the present and future. That’s because America’s insufficient resettlement efforts decades ago has made Vietnamese refugees particularly vulnerable to deportation under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, experts say.
Many of the refugees facing orders of removal fall under what immigration experts refer to as the “migration to school to prison to deportation pipeline.” Advocates say it points to how those who resettled in the U.S. were given few resources, became entangled in the criminal justice system and were threatened with deportation upon serving their sentences. — Kimmy Yam, NBC Asian America reporter
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
The NBC Select team tested over 50 white T-shirts to find the best options on the market including brands like Buck Mason, Gap and more. We wore the shirts for multiple days, washed them to test shrinkage and meticulously considered details like the construction of the shirt, hand feel and more. Plus, now is one of the best times of the year to shop for a mattress, and Mattress Firm’s Memorial Day Sale has savings of up to 78% off.
Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week.
Thanks for reading today’s Morning Rundown. Today’s newsletter was curated for you by Elizabeth Robinson. If you’re a fan, please send a link to your family and friends. They can sign up here.
The post DOJ investigates Andrew Cuomo and FDA targets Covid vaccine rollout: Morning Rundown appeared first on NBC News.
