Jul 9, 2018

How to watch tonight's Supreme Court showdown

Axios

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

President Trump will tie Barack Obama tonight for Supreme Court nominees, announcing his second choice after only 18 months in office.

The bottom line: Absent a major Trump surprise in primetime, this nominee will shift the court substantially to the right.

His shortlist: Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas Hardiman and Raymond Kethledge. [Go deeper]

As Axios' Sam Baker noted on Twitter: "Do you think Trump will nominate the very conservative appellate judge, the very conservative appellate judge, the very conservative appellate judge, or the very conservative appellate judge?"

Be smart... You can ignore most of the reactions to tonight's choice. We're paying attention to the following list:

  • Vulnerable red state Senate Democrats: Claire McCaskill, Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Joe Donnelly, Bill Nelson and Heidi Heitkamp.
  • Moderate Republicans: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski.
  • Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
  • Legal experts: Neal Katyal, Elizabeth Wydra, Steve Vladeck, Randy Barnett, Orrin Kerr, Ed Whelan.

Stay tuned: We'll alert the name when Trump says it, and we'll have the above list's reactions on Axios.com as soon as we can.

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Kim Hart

This year's census may be the toughest count yet

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Community leaders are concerned that historically hard-to-count residents will be even harder to count in this year's census, thanks to technological hurdles and increased distrust in government.

Why it matters: The census — which will count more than 330 million people this year — determines how $1.5 trillion in federal funding gets allocated across state and local governments. Inaccurate counts mean that communities don't get their fair share of those dollars.

Go deeperArrow1 hour ago - Politics & Policy
Axios

Live updates: Coronavirus spreads to Latin America

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

Brazil confirmed the first novel coronavirus case in Latin America Wednesday — a 61-year-old that tested positive after returning from a visit to northern Italy, the epicenter of Europe's outbreak.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,700 people and infected over 81,000 others. By Wednesday morning, South Korea had the most cases outside China, with 1,261 infections. Europe's biggest outbreak is in Italy, where 374 cases have been confirmed.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 1 hour ago - Health
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian

Scoop: Census Bureau is paying Chinese state media to reach Americans

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The 2020 Census Paid Media Campaign, which sends U.S. taxpayer dollars to community media outlets to run ads about the upcoming census, is including a Chinese state-run broadcaster as one of its media vendors.

Why it matters: After China's yearslong campaign to co-opt independent Chinese-language media in the U.S., Washington is now paying Beijing-linked media outlets in order to reach Chinese Americans.

Go deeperArrow2 hours ago - World