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Capital Journal
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
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Trump's Day: President Trump signs an executive order on "the economic empowerment of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders" and meets with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the White House.
Pompeo: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet in Brussels with European allies to discuss "threatening actions and statements by Iran."
Trade: China plans to raise tariffs on certain U.S. imports, effective June 1.
Markets: Volatility could cause market pain but few analysts believe the bull market is necessarily in danger of an imminent end. Stocks in Europe and Asia fell today as investors grappled with the impasse in the trade talks.
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Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Beijing. PHOTO: POOL NEW/REUTERS
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Frustration, Miscalculation: Inside the U.S.-China Trade Impasse
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By Lingling Wei, Vivian Salama, Michael C. Bender and Bob Davis
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The U.S. and Chinese governments both sent signals ahead of their trade talks last week that a pact was so near they would discuss the logistics of a signing ceremony. In a matter of days, the dynamic shifted dramatically. President Trump decided to up tariffs, and the Chinese nearly didn’t show.
So far, the trade talks have provided little evidence that the two nations have found a formula for how to negotiate successfully since Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping met in Buenos Aires Dec. 1, which paved the way to Washington last week. Here are new details from inside the latest breakdown.
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China has invited U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to Beijing to continue trade negotiations, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said.
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Mr. Trump is enjoying a moment of widespread support for his fight with China. That support won’t necessarily remain if the administration cuts a deal that disappoints leading Democrats and China hawks.
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"You can be nice to someone, but sometimes you need to say ‘stop screwing me.’ ”
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— A person involved in the trade discussions on the U.S. side.
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Robert Mueller is reluctant to be in the political arena; this runs headlong into Democrats’ desire that he explain why he avoided conclusions on obstruction of justice in his report on Russian election interference. Any testimony from Mr. Mueller is unlikely this week, report Siobhan Hughes and Sadie Gurman.
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“He should tell his story to the American people so that they can decide...how we should collectively proceed,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
President Trump sought former White House counsel Don McGahn’s denial, reports Rebecca Ballhaus. The president sought to have Mr. McGahn declare he didn’t consider the president’s 2017 directive that he seek Mr. Mueller’s dismissal to be obstruction of justice, but Mr. McGahn rebuffed the request, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Republicans are looking to avoid a runoff in Tuesday’s primary for North Carolina’s do-over Ninth Congressional District race, a possibility that seemed unlikely in March when 10 candidates filed for the empty seat, reports Valerie Bauerlein.
In an only-in-New York twist, Doug Rutnik, Kirsten Gillibrand's father, once worked for Donald Trump, who Ms. Gillibrand is campaigning to unseat as president, Jimmy Vielkind reports. Mr. Rutnik was one of 10 lobbyists and firms that Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. paid around $300,000 in the first half of 2000, according to records.
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Democratic Candidates' Next Debate: Big Tech
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Whether to break up major technology companies like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google may be the next policy skirmish in the Democratic presidential primary.
Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), one of the more than 20 Democrats running for president, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he wouldn’t seek to break up specific companies if he were elected in 2020. One of his primary competitors, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), has promised to undo a number of recent mergers if elected, and slice Amazon.com Inc., Facebook, and Google into several smaller companies.
Mr. Booker criticized Ms. Warren’s proposal on Sunday, comparing her to President Trump as he insisted that the fellow Democratic senator was a friend.
“We do not need a president that is going to use their own personal beliefs and tell you which companies we should break up,” Mr. Booker said. “We need a president that's going to enforce antitrust laws in this country, and I will be that person.”
“That sounds more like a Donald Trump thing to say, ‘I'm going to break up you guys,’" he added.
The Warren campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A push for closer regulation of the largest tech companies has gained bipartisan traction in Washington in recent years. A string of mergers, breaches of private user data and the proliferation of misinformation online have fed scrutiny of the industry. The Federal Trade Commission created a new task force this year to examine potential antitrust violations in the industry.
While lawmakers in both parties have indicated a desire to more closely regulate the tech industry, they haven’t agreed on a specific method. On CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), who is also running for president, said that “we have to seriously take a look at” breaking up Facebook.
“There are very few people that can actually get by and be involved in their communities or society or in whatever their profession without somehow, somewhere using Facebook,” she said. “It is essentially a utility that has gone unregulated. And as far as I'm concerned, that's got to stop.”
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged President Trump to support a Libyan warlord, he did. The shift reflects the prince's continued sway in the White House, report Vivian Salama, Jared Malsin and Summer Said. The policy reversal leaves the U.S. on the opposite side of the U.N.-backed government.
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Gen. Khalifa Haftar's offensive has resulted in a full-blown proxy battle, pitting Middle Eastern and Western powers against one another in a fight for control of a major oil-exporting state on Europe’s doorstep.
Two Saudi oil tankers were sabotaged in an attack near the Strait of Hormuz, the kingdom’s energy minister said, sending oil prices higher amid heightened military tensions in the Persian Gulf.
Sweden reopened an investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, complicating U.S. efforts to bring him to trial over a massive leak of classified documents almost a decade ago.
Cuba will ration sales of basic goods. Tighter U.S. sanctions and the economic implosion of key ally Venezuela has put more pressure on the Communist regime to import food staples, reports José de Córdoba.
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In case of a shooting situation, U.S. students are being taught to avoid, barricade, hide and, as a last resort, confront. But the recent deaths of two students who confronted shooters are prompting officials to question the last option, reports Tawnell D. Hobbs.
Wayne LaPierre billed the NRA’s ad agency $39,000 for a day of shopping at a Beverly Hills clothing boutique, among other expenses, according to newly revealed internal documents. Mr. LaPierre didn’t respond to a request for comment sent through the NRA, reports Mark Maremont.
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Acela is the nearest approximation in the U.S. to the high-speed trains that whisk travelers among major cities in Europe and Asia./PHOTO: LIBBY MARCH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The first of 28 new Amtrak Acela train sets are being built in upstate New York, part of a $2 billion fleet of high-speed trains due to begin running from Washington, D.C., to Boston two years from now, Ted Mann reports. For Amtrak, it means a chance to relaunch a service that has been both a commercial success and a procurement headache.
Boeing Co.’s MAX plane could return to service this summer after being grounded since March. Convincing passengers about the MAX’s safety will be one of the aviation industry’s toughest consumer-relations challenges in decades, write Alison Sider and Robert Wall.
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President Trump's aides assume he will win re-election, and already are laying plans to slash spending in a second term. (Axios)
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President Trump's rhetoric mirrors the right-wing populism of the New York Daily News of the 1940s and 1950s, when it was the nation's largest newspaper and likely one the president read growing up. (The Atlantic)
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British Prime Minister Theresa May is signaling she is willing to go back to the European Union to tweak the exiting Brexit deal to satisfy her Labor Party opponents, but it may be too late to save the agreement. (Bloomberg News)
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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 during the day on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
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