5 Big News Stories Overnight - Wednesday, May 13, 2026

U.S.: Inflation

Bloomberg reports:

Inflation accelerated in April on both rising fuel and grocery costs driven by the US-Israel war with Iran, exceeding wage growth in a double-slap to already strained consumers—most of whom oppose the conflict and blame Donald Trump for high gas prices.

The consumer price index rose 3.8% from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division of the US Department of Labor, the most since 2023. After adjusting for inflation, wages fell for the first time in three years.

The figures show how the war is finally hitting the US economy full force as energy costs surge—something likely to continue with the Strait of Hormuz shut and the Trump administration still struggling for a way out of the conflict.

The government data indicated gas prices rose almost 28% over the past two months. Grocery prices, rents and airfares also saw large increases from a month earlier. A sustained pickup, especially in the cost of essentials, could lead consumers to cut back on spending.

But even without the war’s collateral damage to prices, the numbers show inflation still would be rising. And while Americans—despite high inflation—have spent at surprising levels since the pandemic, executives are beginning to worry it all might be too much. Consumers are putting less away as they try to keep up, with the savings rate dropping in March to the lowest in three years.

U.S.: Walmart Cutting 1,000 Jobs

WSJ reports: 

Walmart said Tuesday it would cut or relocate about 1,000 corporate workers as it looks to combine more of its global-technology and product teams, according to people familiar with the situation.

This past summer Walmart hired Daniel Danker, who was an Instacart executive, to fill a new role as head of global AI acceleration. Since then Danker and Walmart’s head of global technology, Suresh Kumar, have reviewed their internal structures and decided to streamline some teams to operate more efficiently, the leaders said in a memo sent to staff Tuesday and viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“In some cases, we’ve had different teams working on similar problems,” they said in the memo. Affected staff can apply for open roles within the company, they said. 

United Kingdom: "Three-quarters of UK millionaires would be happy to pay more tax, research finds"

The Guardian reports:

Nine in 10 UK millionaires are proud to live in Britain and three-quarters would be willing to pay more tax to ensure public assets get the funding they need, according to research.

Despite widely reported concerns that the wealthy are choosing to leave the country owing to higher taxes, the survey found millionaires were much more concerned about medical workers moving away than wealthy people emigrating.

The research was carried out on behalf of Patriotic Millionaires UK, a nonpartisan network of rich people which campaigns for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy, with members including the musician Brian Eno and the YouTuber and former financial trader Gary Stevenson.

Its survey of millionaires found 88% agreed with the statement “I am proud to live in the UK”, while 43% said the group they were most concerned about leaving Britain, in terms of impact, was doctors and other qualified health staff.

Iran: U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities

New York Times reports: 

The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.

Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway.

People with knowledge of the assessments said they show — to varying degrees, depending on the level of damage incurred at the different sites — that the Iranians can use mobile launchers that are inside the sites to move missiles to other locations. In some cases they can launch missiles directly from launchpads that are part of the facilities. Only three of the missile sites along the strait remain totally inaccessible, according to the assessments.

PHOTO: Moslem Daneshzadeh

China: Taiwan, US committed to peace: MOFA

Taipei Times reports:

Taiwan will continue to work with the US to protect peace and stability in the region by building strong deterrence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, adding that China’s opposition to US arms sales to Taiwan is unreasonable, groundless and an attempt to distort the truth.

MOFA spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) made the remarks at a news conference in Taipei in response to a question about US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) scheduled meeting in Beijing this week.

The Trump-Xi meeting is being closely followed not only in Taiwan, but also around the world, as high-level US-China interactions carry significant geopolitical and economic implications, he said.