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WSJ Politics & Policy |
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau. We write this newsletter each weekday to deliver exclusive insights and analysis from our reporting team in Washington. Sign up. |
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Biden Administration: President Biden is scheduled to host an anniversary event for the Affordable Care Act at the White House at 1 p.m. ET. He and the first lady are set to depart at 4:40 p.m. en route to Ottawa, where they will meet with Mary Simon, governor general of Canada, at 6:40 p.m. At 8:25 p.m. Mr. Biden and the first lady will be greeted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife. Economy: The Labor Department is set to report at 8:30 a.m. initial jobless claims for the week ended March 18. Claims fell in the prior week, showing the labor market remains strong. |
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📰 Catch up on the headlines, understand the news and make better decisions. Sign up for What’s News, free in your inbox on weekday evenings and Sunday afternoons. |
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| | More than 20 TikTok personalities with wide followings traveled to the U.S. Capitol at the company’s invitation to lobby lawmakers. PHOTO: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES |
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TikTok's CEO is set to testify at a congressional hearing that the Chinese-owned app isn't a security threat. | |
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Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have already signaled concerns that Beijing could influence TikTok content and harvest user data, report John D. McKinnon and Ryan Tracy. In his prepared testimony, Shou Zi Chew pledged to firewall U.S. user data from foreign access and shield the platform from government interference. He also said the platform would work to ensure a safe environment for young people, another concern of committee members. |
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TikTok CEO, Veteran of Singapore Army, Harvard and Goldman Sachs, Tries to Reassure America (Read) |
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TikTok Stars Rally in Washington Against App’s Potential U.S. Ban (Read) (Watch) |
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🎧 What’s News podcast: John D. McKinnon explains the TikTok CEO’s likely defense of the company and whether it has any allies on Capitol Hill. (Listen) |
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| “It would be difficult to be able to support a candidate that would take away something that is so integral to the direction we’re going as a society.” | — Baedri Nichole, a bakery owner from Columbus, Ohio, whose “hot cocoa bomb” confection is a hit on TikTok |
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A federal judge concluded that Donald Trump likely misled his own lawyers about his retention of classified documents. | |
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Judge Beryl Howell made the finding Friday in a sealed decision siding with federal prosecutors in their bid to bypass attorney-client privilege claims raised by one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers and compel him to provide more grand jury testimony, report C. Ryan Barber and Sadie Gurman. A three-judge appeals court panel on Wednesday denied Mr. Trump’s request to halt the order, saying the lawyer, Evan Corcoran, must relinquish documents related to special counsel Jack Smith’s probe. |
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Grand Jury Weighing Trump Hush-Money Payment to Return Today After Cancellation (Read) |
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In other politics news... |
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Ron DeSantis Clarifies Comments on Ukraine War, Calls Russian Invasion Wrong (Read) |
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Biden Administration Launches Overhaul of Organ Transplant System (Read) |
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USDA Proposes Expanding School Meal Programs in Low-Income Areas (Read) |
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| | ▶️Video: At a news conference after the interest-rate decision, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said officials had considered skipping a rate increase after banking stress intensified last week, and he hinted that this could be their last increase for now. PHOTO: ALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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The Fed raised interest rates but signaled that banking-system turmoil might end its rate-rise campaign sooner than planned. | |
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The decision to increase rates by a quarter percentage point marked the central bank’s ninth consecutive rate increase aimed at battling inflation over the past year, reports Nick Timiraos. Officials sent a hint that they might be done raising interest rates soon in their postmeeting policy statement, though they added that it was too soon to tell how much recent banking stress would slow the economy. |
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Capital Account: Fed Walks Tightrope Between Inflation and Bank Turmoil—but for How Long? (Read) |
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Yellen Says Treasury Isn’t Considering Guaranteeing All Bank Deposits (Read) |
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What the Fed’s Interest-Rate Increase Means for Your Money (Read) |
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In other economic news... |
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What Does ‘Made in America’ Mean? In Green Energy, Billions Hinge on the Answer (Read) |
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| | A-10 attack planes at an air base in Tucson, Ariz. The U.S. military is looking to send the older A-10s to the Middle East. PHOTO: ASH PONDERS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
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The U.S. plans to send aging attack planes to the Middle East and shift more modern fighters to the Pacific and Europe. | |
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The U.S. military is transitioning to a new era of “Great Power” competition with China and Russia, and has for years sought to shrink its footprint in the Middle East only to run up against an array of challenges, reports Michael R. Gordon. |
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Russia-Ukraine War Threatens to Trigger New Nuclear Arms Race (Read) |
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▶️Video: Zelensky Visits Bakhmut After Russian Strikes Kill Seven in Kyiv (Watch) |
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China Is Starting to Act Like a Global Power (Read) |
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| | Starbucks Workers United has submitted to the National Labor Relations Board hundreds of unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks. The company is contesting the charges. PHOTO: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES |
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House Republicans subpoenaed labor authorities in the union dispute at Starbucks. | |
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The House Committee on Education and the Workforce asked a regional National Labor Relations Board official to provide documents as lawmakers look into whether the agency mishandled union elections at Starbucks Corp. cafes in ways that favored unionizing workers, reports Heather Haddon. |
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In other regulatory news... |
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FAA Tries to Ease Flight Congestion at New York Airports (Read) |
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Celebrities Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul Illegally Touted Crypto Assets, SEC Says (Read) |
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SEC Plans Lawsuit Against Coinbase, According to Exchange (Read) |
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| | A bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey next to a ‘Bad Spaniels’ dog toy. PHOTO: JESSICA GRESKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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Jack Daniel's tangled with a dog toy at the Supreme Court. | |
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The distillery argued that a novelty company's squeaky dog toy shaped like a bottle of its brown spirit infringed on its trademark, reports Jess Bravin. Jack Daniel’s won its trademark infringement lawsuit before an Arizona federal court, but the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco, found the toy, whose label reads, "Bad Spaniels: The Old No. 2 on Your Tennessee Carpet,” to be parody, a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. |
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President Biden's approval rating slipped to 38% this month, down from 45% in February and near the lowest point of his presidency, according to new poll. (AP) Republicans can't go back to ignoring the limits of American power, and should accept a restrained foreign policy. (Foreign Affairs) Armed Russian jets have flown over a U.S. military garrison in Syria nearly every day in March, violating a 4-year-old agreement between the U.S. and Russia and risking escalation, according to the U.S. general in charge of air operations in the region. (NBC News) |
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Yesterday, we asked about the effect of a possible indictment of former President Donald Trump on his standing in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. It will likely be a wash. Mr. Trump’s supporters will become stronger in their support, and his opponents will become stronger in their opposition. Republican nonsupporters and independents will split on the political prosecution issues and concerns. In the end, it’ll be political noise and drama that will be forgotten by this time next year. –Scott A. Mugno, Alabama I am a 75-year-old Goldwater Republican. Mr. Trump has driven me and many others in my cohort out of the GOP. He represents the most dangerous and seditious group of so-called patriots in existence today. He wants to be the ruler of the U.S., a la Vladimir Putin. He needs to be prosecuted and jailed for his crimes, regardless of his former presidency. –Thurman McGarian, Georgia I believe an indictment would hurt Mr. Trump. I find ever increasing comments from contemporaries that Trump’s appeal is fading, and an indictment would add concern. I think the premise of the reported investigation is flawed, and politically charged, but still it casts aspersions on Trump. –G.W. McDonald, Kansas Responses have been condensed and edited. |
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