Presented by BP.

Good morning. It is Monday, May the 12th, and this is Jack Blanchard, Playbooks Managing, editor and author.

Good morning. I'm Dasha Burns, Chief Playbook Correspondent, and this is the Playbook

podcast. It is, and as you can hear, as of today, this podcast that you already know and love is getting a little bit of a makeover with myself and Dash. You might hear some new sounds. You might hear some new artwork. You're going to hear a lot of us. For those of you that you don't know us yet, we'll tell you a little bit more about ourselves at the end of the podcast, but fear not. It is basically still the same one-stop shot for everything you need to know to start your day every morning. Dasha and I are going to dig into the biggest stories of the day and get you some insider scoops too and what's going on in D.C. and all around the world, should we get on with it, Dasher? Let's do it. Because, oh my God, there is so much happening this morning and this week.

Oh, boy. This is like the craziest weekend I've seen of news in ages. I was seeing around on Sunday afternoon watching the news on full. Right. And Dasha, you're not in your normal hot seat either. Have you been away this weekend? I have been at the wedding of my brother-in-law, Matt and his beautiful bride, Tatiana.

It was a beautiful celebration, and a lot of news happened while they were saying their nuptials.

Were you checking your phone all the way through the wedding reception, be honest.

Don't tell my family. I'm sorry, they might be listening to this, but I may have looked a couple of times.

Okay, check out all this. This morning, Monday morning, Donald Trump is heading off on the first

overseas tour of his second term. He is flying to the Middle East to Saudi Arabia. He's going

on to Qatar and Abu Dhabi. While he's doing this, Dasha, some of the biggest deals of his presidency

are absolutely critical moments, right?

Just go through the stuff that's happening this week.

We've got new details this morning about this trade agreement with China that were being

finalised over the weekend in Switzerland.

Then there's this massive showdown happening this week over Ukraine.

Don't forget Donald Trump promised to end that on day one.

We've seen this back and forth diplomacy all weekend.

Zelensky saying he wants to meet Putin in Turkey on Thursday.

And we've got progress happening in the Middle East as well, Dasher, with Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East,

cutting a deal with Hamas over the release of the last American hostage in Gaza.

Right. And don't forget that Bee BB's Gaza deadline is looming too.

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