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Job growth is slowing, but still bigger than expected. US employers added 139,000 jobs last month, government data released yesterday shows—that’s less than the downwardly revised 147,000 new jobs that were added in April, but more than economists had predicted. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate held steady. Overall, the highly anticipated jobs report reflects employers growing more cautious in the face of the economic uncertainty brought on by the trade war, but so far, there doesn’t seem to be a steep dropoff in the labor market. That could give the Fed reason to stay in wait-and-see mode on interest rates, though President Trump still used the occasion to urge Jerome Powell to cut rates “a full point” on Truth Social.

US and China to talk trade in London next week. Representatives for the world’s two biggest economies plan to meet in England on Monday to discuss trade. There will probably be some awkward stares across a tea set since tensions have run high ever since President Trump announced tariffs in April and China retaliated. Talks last month in Geneva resulted in a preliminary tariff truce, but both sides have accused the other of violating it. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will attend the London talks, which President Trump said “should go very well” after he and his Chinese counterpart spoke on the phone this week.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the US to face criminal charges. The Trump administration has brought Abrego Garcia—whose deportation to El Salvador in March became a flashpoint in immigration debates after the government admitted it was wrongful in court—back to the US, where he now faces an indictment accusing him of belonging to a gang and unlawfully transporting illegal aliens for financial gain. Returning him to the US while charging him with federal crimes gives the administration a potential way out of its standoff with the judiciary after the Supreme Court ordered it to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, something the government claimed it couldn’t do because he was in Salvadorian custody.—AR

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