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Capital Journal
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
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GM Strike: GM factory workers went on strike in the UAW’s largest work stoppage in over a decade. UAW leaders voted Sunday to authorize the move, instructing nearly 46,000 workers to walk off the job or stay home.
Oil Markets: The loss of nearly 6% of global oil output after weekend strikes in Saudi Arabia sent crude prices soaring. OPEC and Russia are so far holding off pumping more oil to fill potential gaps in global supplies.
Trump's Day: President Trump presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to baseball great Mariano Rivera, and then meets with the crown prince of Bahrain. He later travels to a campaign rally in Albuquerque, N.M.
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VIDEO: Iran rejected U.S. accusations it was involved in drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities. PHOTO: SHAGUL TAMIL VIA STORYFUL
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Riyadh and Washington rushed to respond to attacks that threatened to spark a broader clash with Tehran. Iran denied American accusations that it was behind Saturday’s strikes on Saudi oil facilities, report Summer Said in Dubai, Dion Nissenbaum in Beirut and Vivian Salama in Washington.
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U.S. officials on Sunday said there are strong indications the fiery blasts were the result of cruise-missile strikes launched from Iraq or Iran.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was no evidence that the attacks emanated from Yemen, contradicting claims by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen that their drones struck the two Saudi oil plants.
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President Trump signaled the U.S. was ready to respond militarily to the attacks, once it determined who was responsible.
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Saudi Arabia said it was racing to restore roughly a third of the disrupted production by the end of Monday, after the attack dealt a blow to global supplies unlike any since the first Gulf War.
President Trump said he had authorized the release of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve if needed to stabilize markets. Global benchmark Brent crude was recently up 10.4% at $66.54 a barrel, after having jumped as much as 19.5%.
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GM Strike Could Test President Trump
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A labor strike at General Motors could create a public test of President Trump’s ability to hang onto a key voting bloc heading into the 2020 election.
With GM factory workers nationwide going on strike Monday morning, labor issues are set to become a more visible issue on the campaign trail. Many Democratic presidential candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, voiced their support on Sunday for the United Auto Workers and its members, which takes place as the UAW and GM are negotiating a new labor contract.
“Proud to stand with @UAW to demand fair wages and benefits for their members. America's workers deserve better,” Mr. Biden, who leads the Democratic field by some metrics, tweeted on Sunday.
Mr. Trump, for his part, called on both sides in the negotiations to reach an agreement without indicating that he supported the strike.
“Here we go again with General Motors and the United Auto Workers. Get together and make a deal!” the president wrote. Earlier in the year, he urged GM and the UAW to reach a deal to avoid shutting factories.
Mr. Trump’s success with manufacturing workers in the Midwest is often credited with helping deliver him his unexpected victory in the 2016 election. While the leadership of unions often support Democrats, Mr. Trump’s efforts to revitalize U.S. manufacturing has won support among rank-and-file members. Many Democrats see recapturing the region—and the loyalties of union members there—as central to winning in 2020.
While the Trump administration has taken executive actions that have weakened organized labor in the U.S., the strike could bring more public attention to broader labor issues. Of course, a multitude of factors influence how anyone—including union members—vote. But Mr. Trump's stance could help determine whether he keeps enough blue-collar votes to get a second term.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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President Trump’s advisers have said currency intervention is off the table, but the president has insisted he hasn’t ruled it out. PHOTO: EDUCATION IMAGES/UIG/GETTY IMAGES
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President Trump has disavowed support for a strong dollar, and officials have considered whether to use currency intervention as a weapon in their trade war. This has raised a host of questions among investors and traders: How and under what circumstances would U.S. officials intervene? Would it work? What would other countries do in response? Kate Davidson offers some answers.
Some Senate Republicans are trying to team up with Democrats to reassert congressional authority over the levying of tariffs, but the legislation is a long shot given President Trump’s popularity in the GOP and his veto power. In Sen. Jerry Moran’s home state of Kansas, support for President Trump remains high. But so does anxiety among farmers and manufacturers about the economic fallout from the tariffs Mr. Trump has imposed, reports Lindsay Wise.
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From left, moderator Allison Orr Larsen with federal judges Amy Coney Barrett, Kevin Newsom, Cornellia Pillard and Stephanos Bibas at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Va., on Saturday. PHOTO: DAVID F. MORRILL/WILLIAM & MARY LAW SCHOOL
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Federal judges including potential Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett bemoaned a partisan political environment that has seen President Trump and some others label them as extensions of the presidents who appointed them. Judge Barrett backed Chief Justice John Roberts’s public statement last year that judges shouldn’t be seen as ideological mirrors of their patrons, which came after Mr. Trump called a ruling that he opposed on immigration the product of an “Obama judge,” reports Jess Bravin.
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Political sparring over Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s October 2018 confirmation to the Supreme Court flared up Sunday. That followed a fresh news report, with some Democratic presidential candidates calling for his removal from the bench and President Trump defending his court pick, reports Catherine Lucey.
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Democratic leaders urged President Trump to support a House-passed background check bill, as lawmakers wait to see what measures the White House will endorse to reduce mass shootings. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York spoke with the president Sunday morning by phone at their request, reports Catherine Lucey.
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Mr. Trump visited Jerusalem in 2017. Mr. Netanyahu has sought to draw support from voters’ approval of Mr. Trump’s Israel policies. PHOTO: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to capitalize on his alliance with President Trump in an election on Tuesday. But the relationship has a flip side: It deepens a rift between Israeli and some American Jews, reports Yaroslav Trofimov.
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New U.S. sanctions against North Korean hackers and revelations about North Korean malware show how Pyongyang’s cyber operations have become a crucial revenue stream and a security threat that soon could rival its weapons program, U.S. and industry officials say. The officals say North Korea’s hacks of financial systems and critical infrastructure world-wide reveal sophisticated cyber capabilities, report Ian Talley and Dustin Volz.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has a history of accusing Iran of misdeeds without providing evidence. (The American Conservative)
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Former national security adviser John Bolton departed office after disagreeing with President Trump's suggestion he might lift some sanctions on Iran to pave the way for negotiations. (NBC News)
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Populism is surging around the globe not because it is a clear ideology, but because its adherents simply promise to make people happy. (The Hill)
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This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
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