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Good morning from the WSJ Washington bureau. We produce this newsletter each weekday to deliver exclusive insights and analysis from our reporting team in Washington. Sign up.

 

What We're Watching

Biden Administration: President Biden receives a briefing on the Atlantic hurricane outlook and preparedness efforts. Vice President Kamala Harris will host a listening session on the digital divide. 

Wuhan Lab: A U.S. intelligence report on sick staff at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology could add weight to calls for a fuller probe of whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory.

Epic-Apple Trial:  Epic’s courtroom battle against Apple is expected to end today. The case’s outcome will reverberate far, as Apple faces scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators and software developers who say the company exercises too much control and restricts competition within its App Store.

Arizona Election Audit: A Republican-ordered audit of 2020 ballots in Maricopa County is scheduled to restart this week. Critics say it is mismanaged, while supporters say it will address election questions.

 
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The White House and Congress

President Biden has focused on what he considers his all-important domestic agenda. PHOTO: ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES

World crises are crashing President Biden’s home-front agenda, report Gordon Lubold and Alex Leary. As world problems mount and with the end of the Covid-19 pandemic coming into view, Mr. Biden has begun to increase his involvement in foreign-policy matters, though his emphasis on domestic matters is unlikely to shift in the near-term.

If a stalemate over infrastructure continues, Democrats may try to move on their own using budget reconciliation rules. Republicans said the Biden administration’s $1.7 trillion counteroffer in infrastructure talks didn’t go far enough, reports Richard Rubin. The bipartisan discussions have had a soft Memorial Day deadline.

  • Democrats and Republicans are also far apart over plans to establish an independent commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
  • Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), a Republican whose vote would likely be needed for bipartisan deals on both measures, said the administration’s insistence on social spending makes an infrastructure deal difficult.

PHOTO: JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A vocal progressive wing is putting more pressure on Democratic leaders over hot-button issues including U.S. military aid to Israel, Capitol security funding and policing practices. report Eliza Collins and Siobhan Hughes. President Biden is playing down their influence in challenging party unity in Congress.

  • Progressive Democrats and Mr. Biden are facing the political reality that far-reaching healthcare overhauls aren’t likely to succeed in the short term.
 

Inside Look: Infrastructure

Why Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Is Facing Roadblocks

By Jerry Seib

Republicans and Democrats both support spending on America’s infrastructure, but an agreement on a bill is still a long way from coalescing. Here's why skepticism is growing on both sides about whether the two can come together on this topic. 

Photo illustration: Ang Li

 

Middle East

A building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip. The United Nations has estimated that more than 77,000 Palestinians had been displaced by Israeli airstrikes along the Gaza Strip and hundreds of buildings and homes destroyedduring an 11-day conflict. PHOTO: JOHN MINCHILLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The U.S., Israel and other governments are looking for ways to rebuild the Gaza Strip without channeling funds to Hamas, report Felicia Schwartz and Dov Lieber. Israeli officials accuse Hamas of siphoning off reconstruction funds from past conflicts to build rockets and dig tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip and into Israel.

  • Complications: While funds have flowed through the Palestinian Authority in the past, the split between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah complicates these efforts. Hamas wants aid routed through the militant group.
  • Israel-Gaza cease-fire: What you need to know about the conflict

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday there would be no halt on arms sales to Israel, as some Democrats have raised concerns that military aid could be fueling the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, reports Sabrina Siddiqui. He also emphasized the need to send immediate relief to address “the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

  • “We’re committed to giving Israel the means to defend itself, especially when it comes to these indiscriminate rocket attacks," he said.
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has introduced a resolution to block a $735 million weapons sale to Israel, saying the U.S. needs "to develop an evenhanded approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
 

Coronavirus and the Economy

167,219,723 cases world-wide and 3,464,799 deaths.

33,117,920 cases in the U.S. and 589,893 deaths.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, as of 7:30 a.m. ET.

Vaccines aren't the main driver of the U.S. spending revival, data show. Vaccinated Americans are increasingly going out this spring—but not as much as their unvaccinated counterparts, who have eagerly embraced the return to normal, reports Sarah Chaney Cambon.

PHOTO: BING GUAN/BLOOMBERG NEWS

The Outlook: Western consumers are starting to indulge in services that were off limits during the lockdown. Businesses, economists and policy makers are trying to discern whether that shift will mean a cutback in spending on goods, Paul Hannon reports.

  • 🦠 Latest updates: Both the seven-day average and the 14-day average of daily new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. have fallen below 30,000, and are steadily decreasing.
  • New face-mask rules for vaccinated people have put grocery workers back in the middle of a national debate. The issue is also dividing entire communities, including Sandusky, Ohio.
 

Business and Regulation

Lina Khan is awaiting Senate confirmation for a Democratic seat on the five-member Federal Trade Commission. PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/PRESS POOL

FTC nominee Lina Khan, 32, favors transforming antitrust policy into a bulwark against corporate power, report Brent Kendall and Ryan Tracy. She has argued for hawkish positions that would overhaul legal doctrine and go well beyond the approach of recent antitrust enforcers. Her views have prompted a debate on whether her approach is realistic and potentially so sweeping that it could prove jarring to the economy. 

A U.S.-backed consortium beat out a Chinese-backed one for a contract to build Ethiopia’s 5G-capable network—handing Washington a victory in its push to challenge Beijing’s economic influence around the world, Stu Woo and Alexandra Wexler report.

 

What We're Reading

  • Policing disproportionately burdens minority communities, but it also disproportionately benefits them. (Washington Post)
  • Conservatives have launched a campaign to stop the Biden administration's plan to expand the staff and activities of the Internal Revenue Service. (Politico)
  • The conditions may be ripe for President Biden to be a peacemaker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (New York Times)
 

About Us

This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Kate Milani, Troy McCullough, James Graff, and Toula Vlahou. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.

 
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