Morning Brief: A New Pope, Trump Secures U.K. Trade Deal & Fraud Uncovered In African Aid

American-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is chosen as the next pope, the Trump administration signs a trade deal with the United Kingdom, and a Daily Wire investigation uncovers fraud in an African Aid group.

It’s Friday, May 9, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.

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A New Pope

Topline: The world has a new pope – the first American in history — Pope Leo XIV.

A new pope was named on Thursday. Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago native, was elected pope on the second day of the conclave. Leo XIV, the Church’s 267th pope, will lead 1.4 billion Catholics around the world.

Pope Leo appeared visibly emotional as he appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and addressed the massive crowd in the square.

“Peace be with you all! Dearest brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the resurrected Christ, the good shepherd who has given up his life for God, and I should also like this greeting of peace to enter our hearts and your families and to all those people wherever they are. All peoples throughout the world, peace be with you.”

Leo was born in the United States, but spent much of his priesthood in Peru. He became Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru for eight years until 2023, when he was made a cardinal by Pope Francis. He also led the Augustinian Order. Francis then made Prevost the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops — this means he was a Vatican official responsible for recommending priests to be made bishops around the world. Prevost was not considered the most likely cardinal to become pope, but Vatican officials are often considered for the position.

Pope Leo has been strong on Church doctrine, but he has overall been seen as a centrist on political issues.

Trump Secures U.K. Trade Deal

Topline: President Donald Trump announced a trade agreement with the United Kingdom on Thursday, and the markets responded well amid hope of more trade deals to come.

Ever since President Trump rolled out his Liberation Day tariffs, he’s promised that U.S. trading partners would come to the negotiating table and that deals would follow — and on Thursday, we saw the first such deal. The president announced a “full and comprehensive” trade agreement to “cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.”

“This morning, I’m thrilled to announce that we have reached a breakthrough trade deal with the United Kingdom,” Trump said. “Today is a victory day in World War II, we won the war together, so there could be no more perfect morning to reach this historic agreement.”

The president held firm on the ten percent universal tariff he put in place last month, but did offer concessions elsewhere –  for example, he agreed to lower the tariff on British automobiles from 27.5% to 10%, while the rate for steel and aluminum will fall to zero.

For their part, the British agreed to open their markets to American ethanol, beef, and poultry — the White House said that means billions of dollars in new profits for our farmers and ranchers. They also agreed to purchase $10 billion of Boeing airplanes in exchange for the elimination of U.S. tariffs on Rolls-Royce engines and plane parts. Tech stocks skyrocketed when it was announced that the Brits would also eliminate a digital tax on American tech companies.

Trump hinted that he was “very close” on “numerous deals,” adding that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would be heading to Switzerland for negotiations with China. He also made sure to note that, rather than taking a piecemeal approach with the rest of Europe, he’s working on a single comprehensive deal with all of the EU – but the president also suggested that future deals would be unlikely to lower tariffs to the same degree.

Fraud Uncovered In African Aid

Topline: A new Daily Wire investigation uncovers how one government agency went to great lengths to block a DOGE audit.

The African Development Foundation was deemed a resistance hero by the media for stonewalling DOGE auditors, including locking their doors. A small federal agency with 30 employees and a $45 million budget, by law, the foundation is tasked with giving grants of up to $250,000 for economic development in Africa, and it’s only allowed to give to African-run entities.

Employees at the African Development Foundation refused to let DOGE in, and said they wouldn’t recognize Trump’s appointee to lead it – Peter Moracco, who was also dismantling USAID. They also filed a lawsuit claiming DOGE was intruding on their privacy. Ultimately, the Trump administration seized the building with the assistance of U.S. Marshals.

A Daily Wire investigation found that the African Development Foundation would give money to African organizations and then require them to redirect that money back to the United States to pay officials, their friends, or former employers. Americans who worked at the headquarters of this agency in D.C. were wired money from African entities.

“I literally have a receipt for $17,000 from Kenya to a woman who was working as the assistant to the African Development Foundation’s CEO,” Daily Wire Investigative Reporter Luke Rosiak told Morning Wire. “The CEO, CD Glin, would actually push unwanted projects on Africans as a way of steering money to his friends. In one case, they told African groups that they’d give a grant to manufacture COVID masks, but they had to subcontract it to Glin’s friend in Colorado. The African groups said there’s no demand for that, we already have all the COVID masks we need, but Glin didn’t care.”

USAID inspector general agents suspect that at least some of the refusal to cooperate with DOGE was an attempt to cover up criminal conduct. The African Development Foundation’s chief financial officer, Matthieu Zahui, repeatedly steered about a million dollars in grants and contracts to an African company called Ganiam Ltd. without competition. One of them was for “travel” during COVID, when international travel dropped precipitously. USAID IG seized Zahui’s phone and found that Ganiam was owned by Zahui’s friend, and every time he gave it a contract, the friend sent money to Zahui’s personal bank account. But Zahui was never arrested.