China exemptions, India-Pakistan, DOGE and "Vladimir, STOP!"
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Today, China grants some exemptions from U.S. tariffs. Trump says a Ukraine peace deal is close after telling Vladimir Putin to stop. Rising tensions between India and Pakistan after a deadly attack on tourists. And 100 days in, is Doge actually boosting efficiency? It's Friday, April 25th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool. There's a good chance you're dealing with a middleman like me when you get your medicines. That's because PBMs and insurers are often the same company. We even own big chain pharmacies and are buying your doctor's office.

We decide what medicines you can get, where you get them, and how much you pay. It's a win-win for me. When middlemen own it all, you lose. Visit prma.org slash middlemen to learn more. Paid for by Pharma. Kicking off with headlines today and a softening stance in Beijing.

China has handed out some exemptions on U.S. imports. It means certain goods can dodge its 125% tariffs. It's the biggest sign yet that China is worried about the economic fallout from its trade war with Washington. After Russia pounded Kyiv with missiles and drones, killing at least 12 people, U.S. President Donald Trump posted "Vladimir STOP" on social media. STOP in all caps.

Trump telling reporters at the White House later that his administration was applying a lot of pressure on Russia. He said significant progress had been made in peace negotiations and that the Kremlin had made a pretty big concession by being open to stopping taking the whole country. The U.S. is set to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth over $100 billion. That's according to six sources.

The proposal is due to be announced during Trump's visit to the kingdom in May. Tensions are rising between India and Pakistan after a deadly attack on Indian tourists earlier this week, where militants opened fire and killed 26 men. India has said there were Pakistani elements involved in the attack, a claim which Islamabad denies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to chase the perpetrators to the ends of the earth.

Joining us is Krishna Das in New Delhi with the latest developments. The Indian army chief is now in Kashmir. He's visiting soldiers and trying to understand what's going on there. India has so far named three suspects.

And India said two of them are from Pakistan. One is a Kashmiri from Kashmir. So they have demolished the house of the local person whom they suspect was involved in the attack. Diplomatic ties, which are already really low, they have gone down further. India has suspended a long-held water sharing treaty.

Pakistan in retaliation said they will close the airspace for Indian Airlines. Lots of Indian planes, they actually have to fly over Pakistan to reach the Middle East and other places. There have been some calls for military retaliation. What might happen next?

I think the rhetoric has been pretty strong from India. The killings are really shocked most of India. Tourism was surging in Kashmir and suddenly you have this attack. And so that has really shaken a lot of Indians. So the government of India, obviously under pressure to act. Lots of former army veterans and other people are demanding for military retaliation. Both sides say they are prepared for any eventuality.

So, so far the rhetoric has been really strong and we don't really know what will happen, but I don't think a lot of people think it will stop at here. And what about calls from the rest of the world to dial down the escalation?

The United Nations has clearly weighed in. They said, you know, they have asked for restraint. They have obviously monitored whatever both countries have done. The U.S. so far has stood by India in a sense. The U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance, was in India when the attack happened. He has said that they will stand with India.

Businesses across multiple industries are hiking prices and backing away from previous financial guidance due to uncertainty over Trump's tariffs. That's what's emerging from first quarter earnings this week. Executives at some of the biggest consumer companies worry that Trump's shifting stance on tariffs and his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will hurt confidence on Main Street. Companies editor David Gaffin has more.

There are a number of companies that have reported earnings this quarter that have made it clear that it is either the tariffs themselves or the attendant uncertainty that is caused by

the tariffs that have made consumers reluctant to make certain purchases, and that has had a dramatic and immediate effect on them. Airlines are a very good example. Several airlines, including Southwest, United, and Delta, have all pulled their outlooks for the coming quarters or coming year, depending on which company. That

that really tells you that they have no idea what demand is going to be like and what's going to happen at all. A number of the big consumer products companies have talked of it as well. Now, many of these companies over previous years had diversified themselves away from China, which is what faces the highest tariffs under the White House's current tariff regime. However, it doesn't matter if they only import about 10% of their materials or goods from China.

A tariff at the rate of 145% is just so cost prohibitive that either they are spending tons and tons of money just to bring those products here or they have to explore new supply lines. It's been nearly 100 days since Elon Musk's Doge, otherwise known as the Department of Government Efficiency, made its debut in Washington. Its stated goal has been to cut costs and boost efficiency. Has it?

Our reporter Tim Reid is part of a team investigating Doge and its impact. It's still probably too early to be definitive, but there's a lot of evidence out there that in many instances, Doge has made things less efficient and less cost effective. And while Doge claims to have saved US taxpayers $160 billion in cost cuts so far, that's extremely difficult to determine because the

The only glimpse we have into those claims is Doge's own website, but it's very opaque and it's been riddled with errors and corrections. We asked Doge and the White House for evidence of how they've made things more efficient and they didn't give us any examples of that. And we found 20 examples in 14 different agencies where the cuts have really caused a lot of chaos and created some quite absurd events.

Inefficiencies. Like what? Well, one of the most striking...

is because we've now got over 260,000 civil servants who've left government since Doge came in. So many people who deal with the public in social security field offices across the country have left that higher paid completely untrained workers from head office in Baltimore, lawyers and statisticians and HR people and people from the press office are now being sent to these field offices to process claims but

but they don't know how to do it because they've never been trained. And it takes two years to train someone up. At the same time, they're on a higher salary level than the people who've left. So you've got higher paid people being flown into the field offices to process claims and they don't know what they're doing and they're being paid more money, which, as one social security expert told me, that is really the opposite of efficiency. It's just gross inefficiency. And now Musk says he'll be stepping back from his role overseeing Doge.

Can it survive? A couple of governance experts I spoke to this week believe, you know, the trains left the station because so many political appointees who head up these government agencies now, Trump appointees, and they're very much bought into the whole Doge mission. Doge's mandate does not expire until July the 4th of next year. So Doge is not going away. Strutting across lawns, screeching from rooftops,

and even attacking their own reflections. Peacocks have become a fixture of daily life in Pinecrest, a leafy suburb of Miami.

Now, a unique effort is underway to manage their booming population through vasectomies. Dr. Don Harris says he believes the program is the first of its kind in the U.S. and nearly 400 male peacocks have undergone the procedure without a single complication. The vasectomy merely disconnects the testicle from the rest of the reproductive tract

We don't remove the testicle, so we don't eliminate any of the secondary sex characteristics. He retains his beauty. He retains his tail. He retains his dominance. Location, the lab. Quentin only has 24 hours to sell his car. Is that even possible? He goes to Carvana.com. What is this, a movie trailer? He ignores the doubters, enters his license plate. Wow, that's a great offer.

It's Friday, so we have a recommended listen for you. A special weekend episode all about the legacy of Pope Francis and the future of the Catholic Church.

It'll be out tomorrow when you can also follow along with the latest from his funeral on Reuters' dedicated live page. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player and we'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show.