White House senior adviser Jared Kushner told CNN on Tuesday that he expects more Arab countries to follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in normalizing relations with Israel before Palestinian leadership agrees to a peace deal.
Why it matters: After hosting a White House signing ceremony on Tuesday that formalized diplomatic ties between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, President Trump told reporters that he expects seven to nine more countries — including possibly Saudi Arabia — to agree to a similar move.
Joe Biden's campaign is turning its focus to Puerto Rican constituents this week, planning policy rollouts and in-person meetings as polls show his soft support with Hispanic voters in some crucial battleground states.
Why it matters: Both sides are fighting in the lead-up to the election to split the Hispanic vote. President Trump is going for Cuban-American and Venezuelan-American voters, while Biden tries to appeal to the growing number of Puerto Ricans on the mainland.
Joe Biden has a 24% lead over President Trump among Asian Americans, with 14%of voters in the demographic still undecided, a poll out Tuesday from AAPI Data, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and APIAVote indicates.
Why it matters: Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the country and saw the highest increase in turnout in the 2018 midterm elections alongside Hispanics.But there has been relatively little outreach from either political party, the new numbers suggest.
President Trump presided over U.S.-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates at the White House on Tuesday, cementing formal diplomatic ties between the countries through deals with few public details.
Why it matters: "The last Arab state to make peace with Israel was Jordan, in 1994. Egypt was the first, in 1979. The agreement is also significant for relegating the Palestinians to the sidelines," WashPost reports.
By this time next week, we should all know if TikTok will be allowed to continue operating in the U.S., in partnership with Oracle, or if it will be in the process of being banned by President Trump.
Axios Re:Cap digs into the perspective from China, where TikTok's parent company is based. Our guest is CNBC Beijing bureau chief Eunice Yoon.
The Louisville Metro government on Tuesday announced a $12 million settlement package with the family of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot in her own home by police officers in March. The settlement also includes a series of police reforms.
The big picture: The settlement is the largest ever paid by the city's police, per the Louisville Courier Journal. It will close out the wrongful death lawsuit filed in April by Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer. Other legal proceedings related to Taylor's death have not yet concluded.
The U.S. has suffered a steep decline in its global image and reputation in the aftermath of its response to the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey from the Pew Research Center shows.
The big picture: Since the start of the Trump administration in 2017, the global view of the U.S. has steadily declined. However, positive views of the U.S. are now at record lows according to Pew, and in none of the 13 countries surveyed "do more than a fifth think the U.S. has done at least a somewhat good job dealing with the virus."
A bipartisan group of 50 House members known as the Problem Solvers Caucus unveiled a roughly $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill on Tuesday amid frustration with congressional and White House leaders for failing to deliver desperately needed aid to Americans.
Why it matters: The legislation, which is widely viewed as unpassable, is a last-ditch effort by centrist lawmakers to force party leaders back to the negotiating table before the November election.
Scientific American backed former Vice President Joe Biden for president on Tuesday — marking the first time the publication has made a presidential endorsement in its 175-year history.
The big picture: The magazine's editors excoriated President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic in an op-ed — arguing that he "rejects evidence and science," contributing to the country's death toll of nearly 200,000.
The Justice Department has convened a grand jury to criminally investigate whether former national security adviser John Bolton disclosed classified information in his recent book, issuing subpoenas to Bolton's publisher and literary agent, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
Why it matters: Bolton has denied that his memoir contains any classified information, but the White House says he published it prior to completing a full pre-publication review. Bolton has claimed that he underwent a four-month review process and that the White House attempted to block the book at the last minute because it contained damaging information about the president.
Former House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Ed Royce, a Republican from California, has registered as a lobbyist for Chinese tech giant Tencent, which helps implement the Chinese Communist Party's censorship and surveillance regime.
The catch: While in office, Royce was an outspoken critic of the Vietnamese Communist Party's human rights abuses and backed several bills targeting China.
On Friday in the Pro Rata newsletter, we noted that both Facebook and Old Navy were giving employees paid time off to work polls on Election Day, due to anticipated staffing shortfalls caused by the pandemic. Then we challenged you to do the same in an effort to help prevent long lines at best, or polling location closures at worst.
Driving the news: The response was tremendous. And deserving of recognition. So instead of a traditional Pro Rata column (sign up to get it in your inbox), below are the companies and firms that wrote back...
A World Trade Organization panel ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration's tariffs on over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods violate international rules, Bloomberg reports.
Why it matters: It may be a rhetorical victory for Beijing, which has denounced Trump's trade war, but the ruling will have no binding effect. President Trump has blocked all new appointments to the WTO's dispute-resolution court, rendering the international body effectively toothless.
President Trump on Tuesday confirmed that he wanted to order an assassination against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but former Secretary of Defense James Mattis "was against it."
What he's saying: "I would have rather taken him out. I had him all set. Mattis didn't want to do it," Trump said on "Fox & Friends." His comments confirm a detail reported in journalist Bob Woodward's 2018 book "Fear."
The devastating West Coast wildfires have, at least for now, put a hot glare on the role of climate change in the 2020 presidential election.
Catch up fast: Joe Biden called President Trump a "climate arsonist" Monday in a speech that argued his dismissal of consensus climate science is a threat to people nationwide.
On publication day for journalist Bob Woodward's "Rage," 'the DNC War Room is marking the moment with a TV ad, "Red Handed," using Woodward's recordings of President Trump.
The state of play: Trump told Woodward in February that he was downplaying the coronavirus to the public in order to avoid panic. The president continued to compare COVID-19 to the common flu and insisted it would "disappear.
If President Trump defies today's swing-state polls and pulls off another upset, what will we have missed that could have been a clue?
Here's a big one: Trump flotillas ... Trump flags bigger than American flags ... Trump truck rallies ... Trump shirts ... Trump underwear ... lawns that don't have a Trump-Pence sign or two but 50 or even 100 — a forest.
Gen Z may be more immune to the lure of misinformation because younger people apply more context, nuance and skepticism to their online information consumption, experts and new polling suggests.
Why it matters: An innate understanding of social media influence, virality and algorithms among Gen Z — defined by Pew as the cohort born between 1997 and 2012 — could disarm the misinformation and disinformation racking the U.S.
An overwhelming number of companies this year are giving employees paid time off to work the polls on Election Day.
Why it matters: The push from corporate America comes amid a shortage of poll workers, with many older people who would typically do the job planning to stay home because of COVID-19.
The Department of Justice inspector general's office has launched an internal investigation into Attorney General Bill Barr's intervention in the sentencing of President Trump's associate Roger Stone, the DOJ confirmed Monday night.
Why it matters: The probe centers around Barr's February decision to seek a lighter sentence after career prosecutors recommended seven to nine years in prison for Stone, who was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress, NBC News first reported.
The nationwide halt on most evictions is a Band-Aid for millions of renters who are at risk of losing their homes, Matthew Desmond, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor who leads Princeton University's Eviction Lab, said in an interview with "Axios on HBO."
Why it matters: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's order halting evictions expires on Dec. 31 — throwing more uncertainty into the lives of renters who could still owe months' worth of rent without any improvement in their hopes of finding a job.
Melinda Gates told "Axios on HBO" that the Trump administration has neutered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and continued to bungle its coronavirus response, concluding that only a "lack of leadership" explains why far more people have died in the U.S. than in other developed countries.
Why it matters: The comments mark the sharpest rebuke yet from the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has emerged as the largest funder of the World Health Organization after the U.S. yanked funding earlier this year.
Xtreme Manufacturing was hit with a $3,000 fine Monday from the City of Henderson, Nevada, for hosting an indoor rally for President Trump over the weekend.
Why it matters: The indoor rally was Trump's first since June. The City of Henderson warned Xtreme Manufacturing prior to the event that they would be fined for hosting a large number of people.
Bob Woodward shared an April clip with late-night show host Stephen Colbert Monday where President Trump spoke of the dangers of the coronavirus, noting he "bailed out" of a White House room after someone sneezed.
Why it matters: Trump's comments to the veteran journalist regarding the coronavirus pandemic deeply contrast with what he has said publicly. The president argued for weeks that the virus would "disappear" and slow-walked economic lockdowns.
