Mike Pompeo's visit to Paraguay last weekend — the first by an American secretary of state in half a century — marked a new turn in the U.S. relationship with a country long seen as a friendly backwater.
Why it matters: Paraguay has taken on greater strategic importance in light of new hemispheric issues: the Venezuelan crisis, China’s rise in Latin America and the Trump administration's efforts to build ties with conservative governments across the region.
"Billionaire Jack Ma again encouraged tech workers [in China] to embrace the industry’s extreme-overtime culture, defying a growing social media backlash," Bloomberg's Lulu Yilun Chen reports.
The big picture: "In a lengthy Sunday blog post, China’s richest man expanded on comments from last week, in which he dismissed people who expect a typical eight-hour office lifestyle." He once again endorsed the Chinese tech sector's standard "996" schedule, which consists of a 72-hour workweek: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
"The deep chill in U.S.-Russian relations is stirring concern ... that Washington and Moscow are in danger of stumbling into an armed confrontation that, by mistake or miscalculation, could lead to nuclear war," AP's Bob Burns writes.
Why it matters: "Unlike during the Cold War, when generations lived under threat of a nuclear Armageddon, the two militaries are barely on speaking terms."
Iran's economy has been in free-fall since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed strict sanctions on its government. And the administration's unprecedented move on Monday designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization is expected to further damage its economy.
The impact: The International Monetary Fund forecast an even deeper recession for Iran in its World Economic Outlook, released Tuesday. The IMF said it now expects Iran's economy to contract by 6% this year, compared to October's prediction of a 3.6% drop.
Much of Washington has spent the weekend on pins and needles preparing for this week's release of the Mueller report. But in one particular quarter, people seem quite relaxed.
Behind the scenes: Two of the president's top advisers who will be handling the response to Mueller’s report were watching the Masters when I called them about it this weekend. By all accounts, the president himself is also taking a fairly blasé approach. The subject has barely come up, if at all, in recent senior staff meetings, according to two sources with direct knowledge. And in recent calls to aides and allies, Trump has barely mentioned it.
President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House on March 26 that if Israel doesn't limit its ties with China, security cooperation with the U.S. could be reduced, according to Israeli officials.
Why it matters: The Trump administration and the Netanyahu government are aligned on virtually every issue, but relations with China have emerged as a main point of contention. The Trump administration has already asked the Israeli government several times to limit its ties with China, and the fact that Trump himself raised it with Netanyahu indicates the White House may be growing impatient.
