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Markets are searching for stability, governments are struggling to project control, and tech companies are once again betting on devices that promise to change how people interact with the world. Today’s stories trace the growing overlap between politics, business, and consumer technology at a moment when confidence feels increasingly fragile.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth absorbed a rare bipartisan grilling from a Senate Appropriations panel Tuesday over the Iran war's rising cost and unclear end game. Senators from both parties pressed him on dwindling US weapons stockpiles and a campaign stretched well beyond its initial scope.

Hours later, the White House and Pentagon publicly claimed control of Hormuz as ceasefire talks collapsed and Kuwait reported fresh Iranian attacks. Oil traders read the gap between the rhetoric and the reality, and benchmark crude held firmly above $100.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is stepping down after a rocky tenure that drew sustained complaints from pharma CEOs, anti-abortion activists, and the vaping lobby. His exit makes him the latest senior health official ousted under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Makary drew bipartisan criticism over vaccine and drug policy decisions during his short stint at the agency. No successor has been named, leaving the FDA without a confirmed leader during a fragile stretch for drug approvals and pandemic preparedness.

President Trump landed in Beijing with more than a dozen CEOs — Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Larry Fink, and the bosses of Meta, Visa, JPMorgan, and Boeing. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang joined late after a personal Trump call, with Nvidia's chips at the heart of US-China rivalry.

The summit is expected to produce a shared pledge on Hormuz, alongside tentative progress on rare earths and Taiwan arms sales. Trade reset talks remain bracketed by an unresolved fight over advanced AI chips — the very chips Huang's company sells under new export uncertainty.

An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader warned Trump on Monday not to read the current pause in fighting as a victory ahead of the Beijing summit. Iran's ambassador to China publicly called Beijing "an important force for reducing tensions."

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath began a four-day visit to Belarus on Tuesday, with high-level talks scheduled with President Alexander Lukashenko on bilateral trade, agriculture, and security cooperation. The trip signals Colombo's deepening alignment with the Eurasian bloc.

India's air safety regulator is expected to release its AI-171 crash final report within a month, with Air India already grappling with mounting losses. CEO Campbell Wilson faces growing pressure as the carrier — Tata Group's biggest loss-maker — confronts the political weight of 260 deaths.

President Trump Tuesday renominated Cameron Hamilton to permanently lead FEMA, a year after firing him over his congressional testimony defending the agency. The Senate vote heads into Atlantic hurricane season with FEMA's first permanent administrator of Trump's second term on the line.

The South Carolina Senate voted against extending its session for a Trump-pressured congressional redistricting effort. The rebuff blocks the White House's drive to redraw the South Carolina map ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he will not back down after a bomb scare at his Georgia campaign office. Police evacuated the building and Raffensperger said he plans to keep campaigning for governor as usual.

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Education software giant Canvas said hackers returned the stolen data after a multi-week ransom standoff that disrupted thousands of US schools. Parent company Instructure said no money changed hands and a forensic review is ongoing.

Brent crude climbed past $108 a barrel Tuesday as Trump's Iran combat hints and Hormuz disruption revived energy supply fears. Saudi Aramco's East-West pipeline is running at full seven-million-barrel capacity to bypass the strait.

Samsung Electronics clawed back a $66 billion intraday wipeout Wednesday after Seoul moved to defuse a strike threat involving 41,000 workers. Korean authorities urged both sides back to talks as the chipmaker continued to wrestle with labor pressure on its memory business.

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are outselling every competitor, and women are increasingly discovering they were secretly filmed only when those clips go viral online. Legal recourse is thin — most public photography remains broadly legal in the US and UK.

A new trial of orforglipron, a daily pill, showed patients leaving GLP-1 weight-loss injections held onto most of their loss for a year afterward. Approval is already in hand in the US, with a UK launch expected soon.

A University of Sydney trial found 65 to 75 year olds on a four-week low-fat plant-based diet showed measurable drops in biological age markers. Researchers said the study offers early evidence rather than definitive proof of aging reversal.

Victor Wembanyama bounced back from a Game 4 ejection with 27 points and 17 rebounds as the Spurs blew out Minnesota 126-97. Keldon Johnson added 21 and Stephon Castle 17, with San Antonio leading the semifinal 3-2 ahead of Friday's Game 6.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored at 4:10 of overtime to beat Anaheim 3-2 and push the Golden Knights to a 3-2 series lead. Carter Hart stopped 34 shots, and Jack Eichel finished with two assists in a tense Game 5 in Las Vegas.

Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke died at 29, the team announced, with no cause of death disclosed in initial reports. Clarke played seven NBA seasons and was a key bench presence on the Grizzlies' core.

The Tampa Bay Rays edged Toronto in 10 innings on Taylor Walls' go-ahead single and a Jonathan Aranda sacrifice fly. Tampa is now 16-2 over its last 18 games, vaulting up the AL East standings.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is making its first appearance at Cannes this year with director Aiko Roudette and the Hairouna Film Festival anchoring the Caribbean nation's debut on the Croisette. Roudette will join a Caribbean Day panel May 16.

Stephen Colbert and a slate of fellow late-night hosts united on air Monday as his Late Show approaches its scheduled finale. Industry watchers are reading the cameo cascade as a closing-curtain solidarity moment for the entire format.

Madonna will premiere a visual film at the Tribeca Festival tied to her upcoming album "Confessions II," a sequel to her 2005 dance landmark. Warner releases the album on July 3, with Sabrina Carpenter featured on lead single "Bring Your Love."

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What it is: A new Congressional Budget Office assessment puts the price of President Trump's proposed 'Golden Dome' missile shield at roughly $1.2 trillion over twenty years, nearly seven times the administration's original $175 billion claim. Modeled loosely after Israel's Iron Dome but designed at vastly larger scale, the system is meant to defend the continental United States against incoming ballistic and hypersonic threats.

The detail: The CBO breakdown includes long-range radar networks, hundreds of new interceptor batteries, and a constellation of space-based sensors that does not yet exist outside the laboratory at any operational scale. Independent defense analysts say even the trillion-dollar figure assumes near-flawless integration across military services, prime contractors, and three continents of basing.

Why it matters: A $1.2 trillion price tag would make Golden Dome the largest single defense procurement program in modern history, dwarfing the F-35 fighter program at its peak by a wide margin. CBO analysts also concluded the system might not actually stop an all-out missile salvo from a peer adversary, leaving Congress to weigh a budget-busting shield with a built-in technical gap.

What to watch: House and Senate appropriators are now forced to decide how much of the $1.2 trillion to fund up front versus stretching across the next four defense budgets, with a final markup expected before recess. Defense contractors with skin in the game — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, and a wave of newer space-tech entrants — are already lobbying hard ahead of the first committee votes.

Thanks for starting your morning with Five Minute Daily. We’ll be back tonight with the stories that moved the world after the opening bell.

—The Five Minute Daily Team