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Capital Journal
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
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Trump's Day: The president swears in Kimberly Reed, the new Export-Import Bank president, has lunch with the vice president and meets with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Campaign 2020: The Democrats said this morning that ABC News and Univision would host the party's third presidential debate on Sept. 12 with the possibility of a second night on Sept. 13, and announced tougher qualification rules for candidates.
Disaster Aid: House Democrats' effort to quickly pass a $19.1 billion disaster-aid package under special rules was turned back Tuesday by Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.). Democrats said they'd try again on Thursday.
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National security adviser John Bolton said the U.S. is trying to be prudent in attempting to avoid war with Tehran. PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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National security adviser John Bolton said the White House isn’t planning a military offensive response to a U.S. assessment that Iran was behind recent attacks on tankers off the United Arab Emirates, Rory Jones reports. He said the U.S. responded by agreeing last week to deploy 1,500 troops and military equipment to the Persian Gulf as a deterrent.
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Mr. Bolton is expected to meet today with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed to discuss regional security as tensions continue.
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Mr. Bolton declined to offer specific evidence that Iran was behind the attacks. “Who else would you think was doing it? Somebody from Nepal?” he said.
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PHOTO: CAROLYN KASTER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The Supreme Court sidestepped major abortion cases on Tuesday, letting stand a lower-court ruling that Indiana can’t ban abortions for sex, race or disability selection. It did, however, allow the state to regulate disposal of fetal remains, Jess Bravin reports. The court’s unsigned opinion appeared the product of a compromise over perhaps the most divisive issue on the docket.
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The court left in place a lower court ruling in favor of a Pennsylvania school district's policy allowing some trangender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
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The court will consider whether U.S. border-patrol agents can be held liable for damages for shooting people on the Mexico side of the border.
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The Supreme Court ruled that police couldn’t be sued for arresting a festivalgoer in Alaska who had contended officers targeted him for exercising his First Amendment rights, reports Jess Bravin.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear that if a Supreme Court seat were to open next year, he would seek to confirm President Trump’s nominee to fill it, despite having blocked former President Obama’s high-court pick during an election year, Kristina Peterson reports.
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Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti pleaded not guilty in federal court in New York to two separate indictments, telling a judge he was “100% not guilty” as prosecutors said they were ready to turn over evidence in both cases, reports Corinne Ramey.
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The Democratic National Committee is making it more difficult for presidential candidates to qualify for some primary debates. To qualify for the fall debates, candidates must raise money from at least 130,000 donors, including 400 each in 20 states, and show 2% support in four polls, reports Ken Thomas.
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States looking to change abortion laws would have to meet requirements modeled on the 1965 Voting Rights Act under a new proposal from Sen. Kamala Harris’s campaign, reports Tarini Parti.
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How Drug Prices Work: Explaining the Complicated Supply Chain
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Drug pricing is complicated. Experts and politicians argue that the complexity of the supply chain is part of why prices have grown so high. To help you understand the debate, WSJ explains how the flow of money, drugs and rebates may drive up the price of prescription drugs for consumers.
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As China Trade War Drags On, Risk to Trump and GOP Grows
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The lack of a resolution to the U.S.-China trade dispute could soon become a political liability for President Trump and Republicans across the country.
A Monmouth University poll this month found that 47% of respondents thought Mr. Trump’s tariffs on U.S. trading partners hurts the economy, up from 38%.
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill, especially members who represent agricultural areas, have grown increasingly critical of Mr. Trump’s trade strategy after the U.S. and China did not reach an agreement earlier this month. The Chinese have targeted many U.S. agricultural exports to retaliate against the U.S. tariffs, and Mr. Trump last week announced a $16 billion aid package to farmers hit by the trade conflict.
“I’m not where the president is with regards to the good use or proper use of tariffs. We always take it first in agriculture. There’s a lot of feeling in farm country that we’re being used as pawns in this whole business,” Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kan.), the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said earlier this month.
The Monmouth poll found that 62% of Americans are either very or somewhat concerned that the trade war with China could harm their local economy. That same share of respondents also reported fearing that American consumers will bear the brunt of the tariffs’ cost.
Many Republican elected officials and voters have stood by the president’s trade agenda, hopeful that new trade terms with China would be beneficial in the long term. But as the possibility of an agreement seems to grow distant, that loyalty may begin to fray.
“We will benefit tremendously if we get a good deal, so we’re hanging in there with the president, as opposed to hanging separately,” Mr. Roberts said. “We just hope for price recovery as soon as we can get it.”
Any impact of the trade war with China will likely be mitigated by the strong overall performance of the economy. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted between April 28 and May 1, when a deal with China seemed likely, found that 51% of respondents approved of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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Correction: The Central Park jogger attack was in 1989. Tuesday's newsletter incorrectly said it occurred in 1985.
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China's Huawei asked a judge to quickly rule in its favor in its challenge to overturn a law that restricts its business in the U.S., saying American officials haven’t provided evidence that it poses a security threat, reports Dan Strumpf. “Politicians in the U.S. are using the strength of an entire nation to come after a private company,” Song Liuping, Huawei’s chief legal officer, said in a statement.
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Repairing even short stretches of the crumbling interstate highway system can cost billions of dollars. Crews reconstructing I-4 through Orlando, Fla., must work in a tight corridor and juggle tasks with two dozen utilities. Price to redo 21 miles: $2.3 billion. The I-4 Ultimate exemplifies, in extreme form, the challenges facing urban areas across the country, Arian Campo-Flores and Paul Overberg report.
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The Treasury Department passed on a chance to designate China as a currency manipulator but continued to highlight the nation’s currency practices as a source of concern, reports Josh Zumbrun.
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Optimism about the economy continued to recover in May, following a dip during the government shutdown. The Conference Board's consumer-confidence index rose to 134.1 from 129.2 in April. Economists cautioned about the effects of a renewed trade fight, David Harrison reports.
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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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