May 8 2025

Trump Announces US-UK Trade Deal

"Very Big Announcement" Teased: Trump Aims to Lower Drug Prices, Sparking Pharma Showdown

Trump Taps "Make America Healthy Again" Advocate Dr. Casey Means for Surgeon General

Trump Offers to Mediate India and Pakistan Crisis

Putin, Xi Show United Front Against US-Led Order at Moscow Victory Day; Russia Links WW2 Triumph to Ukraine War

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1. Trump Announces US-UK Trade Deal

Donald Trump is set to announce a trade deal with the UK on Thursday, making Britain the first country to reach an agreement with the US since the White House announced sweeping tariffs last month.¹ UK officials expect the deal to be limited in scope and focused on the car and steel industries, those hit hardest by Trump’s trade war, with 25 per cent tariffs on their US exports. “This should be a very big and exciting day for the United States of America and the United Kingdom,” the US president said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, as he announced a White House press conference at 10am local time. Trump described the agreement as “a full and comprehensive one”, adding: “Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!” The trade deal would be the second in a week for UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who sealed a pact with India on Tuesday.² Britain is expected to cut duties on US imports as part of the deal, with potential reductions to its 10 per cent tariff on car imports along with levies on meat and shellfish products. There has also been discussion of the UK reducing its digital services tax, which hits US tech groups.³

FT

2. "Very Big Announcement" Teased: Trump Aims to Lower Drug Prices, Sparking Pharma Showdown

President Donald Trump plans to revive an effort to dramatically slash drug costs by tying the amount the government pays for some medicines to lower prices abroad, three people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.⁴ Trump early next week is expected to sign an executive order directing aides to pursue the initiative, called “most favored nation,” for a selection of drugs within the Medicare program.⁵ The idea would use the administration’s authorities to force prices down. The president on Tuesday teased a “very big announcement” within the next week that one of the people familiar characterized as a reference to the drug pricing proposal. The other two did not know whether it was the big announcement but confirmed the drug price plan was likely to be announced in the next week. “We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make — like as big as it gets,” Trump said. “It will be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject.” Should Trump go ahead with the order, it would represent a major confrontation between the White House and the deep-pocketed pharmaceutical industry.

POLITICO

3. Trump Taps "Make America Healthy Again" Advocate Dr. Casey Means for Surgeon General

WASHINGTON—President Trump said he would nominate Casey Means, a California doctor and wellness influencer, to be the next surgeon general.⁶ Means has become more prominent with the rise of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement. She and her brother, Kennedy adviser Calley Means, wrote a book, “Good Energy,” that became popular with Trump campaign staffers and later with Kennedy. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, praised her MAHA credentials. He said she would work with Kennedy “to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans.” Casey Means studied at Stanford University before dropping out of her surgical residency on her 30th birthday, frustrated by what she saw as her field’s inability to treat patients’ underlying, chronic causes of ill health.⁸

WSJ

4. Trump Offers to Mediate India and Pakistan Crisis

Donald Trump’s administration is pushing to prevent Indian missile strikes against Pakistan from spiralling into a nuclear stand-off, offering to mediate in what is the first big international crisis to erupt since the inauguration.⁹ The US president said he hoped “they can stop now”. “If I can do anything to help, I will be there,” he said on Wednesday. “My position is I get along with both, I know both very well and I want to see them work it out.” India and Pakistan face their worst clash in more than two decades, after New Delhi struck what it called “terrorist infrastructure” sites and Islamabad said it shot down Indian aircraft and promised to retaliate for the missile strike.¹⁰ Pakistan’s armed forces spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Thursday that the country’s air defences shot down 25 Indian drones near several cities — including major urban centres Karachi and Lahore — that had killed one civilian and injured four soldiers, bringing the toll in Pakistan this week to 32 killed and 61 injured.¹¹ He called the alleged drone attack “yet another blatant military act of aggression against Pakistan”. Indian officials did not reply to a request for comment. Meanwhile, retaliatory strikes on Wednesday by the Pakistani military on the Indian side of the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, killed 13 civilians and injured 59, Indian officials said on Thursday.

FT

5. Putin, Xi Show United Front Against US-Led Order at Moscow Victory Day; Russia Links WW2 Triumph to Ukraine War

A. Xi Jinping has drawn a parallel between modern-day US “hegemony” and the “arrogant fascist forces” of 80 years ago, ahead of Thursday’s Moscow summit with Vladimir Putin and second world war Victory Day celebrations. The Chinese and Russian presidents are using the meeting to signal the strength of their alliance against the US-led international order, as President Donald Trump unleashes tariffs on Beijing and tries to push Moscow towards a peace deal with Ukraine.¹² Putin hailed Xi as his “dear friend” on Thursday as the summit, the first between the Russian and Chinese leaders since Trump took office in January and stepped up the trade war, got under way.

B. Russia will celebrate the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat on Friday with visiting heads of state and a show of armed might in Red Square, staged as a display of global clout, grandiose and intimidating, and a portent of eventual triumph in the war against Ukraine.¹⁴The annual military parade below the walls and towers of the Kremlin is expected to be the largest since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, a commemoration the government and its cheerleaders have used to raise support for the war, conflating what may be the greatest source of national pride with the far more divisive current conflict. “Our great victory 80 years ago is a new narrative, new conception of Russia’s current standoff with the West,” Sergei Lyaguzin, an international relations professor, said on Russian state television this week.

FT; NYT

May 8, 1945: Allied nations worldwide celebrate V-E Day

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Sources

1. https://www.ft.com/content/81151da7-0b2d-4d4b-a315-a995a7fc5e2d
2. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/07/trump-sweeping-medicare-drug-price-plan-00334167
3. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-taps-a-maha-movement-leader-for-surgeon-general-81756dfa?mod=hp_lead_pos6
4. https://www.ft.com/content/81e9eb04-d6e1-4817-b2ad-d8330d114f14
5. https://www.ft.com/content/9e5366af-ee4a-4771-9138-6ac17b6a06ff
6. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/world/europe/russia-military-parade.html