|
Capital Journal |
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. |
|
|
Biden's Day: President Biden delivers remarks on the drawdown in Afghanistan at 1:45 p.m. ET. Later, he and Vice President Kamala Harris discuss voting rights with the leadership of civil rights organizations. Jobless Claims: New applications for unemployment benefits held steady last week, interrupting a downward trend and showing the labor market’s recovery remains uneven, at a time when many states are discouraging workers from tapping jobless assistance. Miami: The 14-day effort to find survivors of the collapsed condo was called off, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. “We have truly exhausted every option available to us,” she said. Auditor Watchdog: The SEC dismissed the entire PCAOB board after a report said the chairman’s botched reform plan led to whistleblower complaints and infighting. |
|
|
|
|
| The Biden administration says the low number of players in the U.S. freight rail business has enabled companies to charge unreasonable fees. PHOTO: MATT ROURKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
|
|
|
The administration will push regulators in the ocean shipping and railroad industries to confront consolidation and perceived anticompetitive pricing as part of a broad effort to blunt the power of big business to dominate industries, reports Ted Mann. An executive order is expected this week. The executive order will also call on the Federal Trade Commission to adopt rules that curtail noncompete agreements and to ban unnecessary occupational licensing requirements. |
|
President Biden on Wednesday sought to rally public support for a multitrillion-dollar education and child-care plan at the core of his domestic-policy agenda, as Democrats in Congress debate the size and scope of the package, Andrew Restuccia and Kristina Peterson report. The president is simultaneously pressing Congress to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the education and child-care plan, which Democrats hope to approve without Republican support. |
|
|
|
Sen. Bernie Sanders is pushing for the government to negotiate drug prices in Medicare. Not all Democrats are on board. The party is debating whether to fold the measure into a budget package or try to pass the measure on its own, as some centrist Democrats work with Republicans on a narrower agreement, report Kristina Peterson and Stephanie Armour. |
|
PHOTO: SHAWN THEW/EPA/BLOOMBERG NEWS |
|
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had an early victory when the U.S. secured international backing for a global minimum corporate tax. She may have a harder time convincing Congress to back it, Kate Davidson reports. |
|
|
|
185,125,237 cases world-wide and 4,002,924 deaths. 33,771,942 cases in the U.S. and 606,220 deaths. Source: Johns Hopkins University, as of 7:30 a.m. ET. |
|
|
Some U.S. hospitals are starting to mandate that workers get Covid-19 vaccines as new immunizations flag and variants of the virus spread nationwide, with employers in some cases willing to fire those who don’t comply. |
|
Japan declared a new state of emergency due to Covid-19 that will continue through the Summer Olympics, making it likely the organizers will drop plans to allow some spectators at the Games. |
|
|
Federal Reserve officials suggested at their June meeting they might need to pull back their extraordinary support for the economy soonerthan they had anticipated because of stronger-than-expected growth this year, reports Nick Timiraos. The meeting minutes showed officials still expect recent surges in inflation to be temporary. |
|
Job openings rose at the end of May to 9.2 million jobs, the Labor Department said, setting a new high in records dating to 2000. Services industries, such as leisure and hospitality, led the figures and maintained momentum in May as the pandemic eased, reports Bryan Mena. |
|
|
|
Kaseya, the company whose software was exploited a massive ransomware spree, was notified in early April of a cybersecurity vulnerability used in the attack, according to the Dutch security researcher group that discovered the issue, report Dustin Volz and Robert McMillan. |
|
|
The Department of Homeland Security is expected to announce John Cohen as acting head of its intelligence branch, reports Rachael Levy. The move would come more than six months after that branch failed to issue any warnings about the Jan. 6 assault on Capitol to its partner law-enforcement agencies. |
|
|
| "We’re going to hold big tech accountable," Mr. Trump said at a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on Wednesday. PHOTO: SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
|
|
Former President Donald Trump is the lead plaintiff in class-action lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter and Google, seeking to restore his online profile after he was suspended from most social-media platforms after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, report Michael C. Bender and Sarah E. Needleman. The suits were filed in U.S. District Court in Miami. |
|
Three dozen states and the District of Columbia have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet's Google, alleging that the company operates an illegal monopoly with its Google Play app store, Ryan Tracy and Tripp Mickle report. In a blog post, Google said it provides an open operating system in which customers are free to download apps directly from developers’ websites. |
|
A judge ruled the U.S. Air Force bears most of the responsibility for the 2017 mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, because it failed to enter the gunman’s criminal history into a federal database used for gun purchases, report Dan Frosch and Elizabeth Findell. |
|
|
The Taliban attacked the capital of Afghanistan’s northwestern province of Badghis Tuesday night, enabling more than 200 inmates of a local prison to escape, as the insurgent group expanded its recent offensive against government forces, report Ehsanullah Amiri and Gordon Lubold. Many of the well-educated people who prospered in the new Afghanistan and hadn’t dreamed of leaving have concluded that staying put is no longer an option. |
|
Four suspected killers of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were fatally shot by National Police in a gun battle in the affluent district where Mr. Moïse resided, Haiti police chief Leon Charles said Wednesday evening. Two others were captured. |
|
The U.S. has assured the U.K. Julian Assange won't be held in a Supermax jail if extradited, and could serve any custodial sentence in his native Australia if the WikiLeaks founder is convicted on espionage charges, reports Jason Douglas. |
|
|
|
|
South Korea's spy agency sees no sign that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been vaccinated against the coronavirus, or that his country has received foreign vaccines. (Associated Press) Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford is getting heat back home for not showing enough fealty to former President Donald Trump. (Daily Beast) The world needs to harness market forces to combat climate change. (Barron's) |
|
|
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 [email protected]. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter. |
|