Washington, DC

1. Cornyn crushed
2. Cabinet meets today
3. Hectic House
4. Bondi’s lawyer
5. Carney in NY
6. China’s rural bet
7. AI in classrooms

PDB: Paramount seems to sway DOJ on merger approval

Fed’s Cook speaks on AI and the financial system … Chipmaker SK Hynix tops $1 trillion in market value … Oil eases to $96 a barrel

GOP tries to coalesce around Paxton

Senate Republicans remain unhappy that President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over current Sen. John Cornyn — but they are shifting their focus to the general election after Cornyn’s blowout loss to Paxton Tuesday night. Party leaders in Washington had deemed Cornyn the more electable candidate, but Republicans can’t afford to lose that seat and keep their majority. “The voters of Texas made their voices heard and Ken Paxton was victorious last night. He has my full support in this race,” said Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., this morning, calling Democratic nominee James Talarico a “commie.” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso backed Paxton, as did Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, the likely next chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., chair of Democrats’ campaign arm, said Paxton’s win puts her party “one step closer to winning a Senate majority.”

— Burgess Everett

Iran looms over Cabinet meeting

Trump will host a Cabinet meeting today as questions mount over the prospect of US-Iran peace talks. The meeting will take place at the White House rather than Camp David, a switch Trump attributed to inclement weather reports. The US and Iran still appear willing to reach a peace deal despite American strikes and Tehran’s threats of reprisals — but the global economic fallout from the conflict has deepened. Bangladesh pressed the IMF for new financial support, while the African Development Bank forecast slowing growth across the continent this year as a result of higher fuel prices, supply chain struggles, and worsening global financial conditions. Asian countries, meanwhile, are grappling with plummeting currencies that have depleted central banks’ foreign exchange reserves and threatened to accelerate already high inflation. And in Latin America, two Atlantic Council experts projected slower growth and accelerating price rises.

Everything the House saved for later

The House may be out of town, but Republican leaders still face a mountain of legislative headaches when they return next Tuesday. The House stares down a vote on a Democratic-led Iran war powers resolution previously punted by GOP leaders. Foreign surveillance powers are set to lapse on June 12, but House and Senate Republicans are at odds over the House’s inclusion of a provision banning a central bank digital currency in the surveillance measure. Also hanging in limbo is the massive agriculture and nutrition legislation known as the farm bill. That’s not to mention the multiyear Department of Homeland Security funding bill Republicans hope to pass through the party-line reconciliation process, a surface transportation bill, or even Iran war funding. With just 10 weeks in session before Election Day, the House has dwindling time to get it all done.

— Nicholas Wu

Pam Bondi’s unusual representation

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify this Friday before the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Democrats stormed out of her closed-door briefing with the panel in mid-March, though members of both parties are likely to pepper her this time with questions about Bondi’s handling of the Justice Department’s Epstein probe, especially following her ouster. In an unusual arrangement, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has been serving as Bondi’s lawyer despite Bondi no longer serving in the Trump administration. “DOJ’s presence is solely to ensure accurate representation of Department processes, facilitate any necessary clarifications, and support a complete factual record for the Committee,” said a department spokesperson, who noted other department officials would also attend the deposition. Dhillon has been floated for the full-time attorney general job herself.

— Nicholas Wu

Carney pitches NY investors on Canada

As trade tensions between the US and Canada simmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is making a trip to New York to encourage US private investment up north. Carney arrives in New York City today to meet with top executives, entrepreneurs, and capital managers, according to the Canadian government, and plans to give a speech at the Economic Club of New York tomorrow. There’s no word of any stops in Washington or meetings with Trump administration officials, as a review of the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact edges along. Trump’s top diplomat in Ottawa accused Canada last week of erecting new trade barriers against the US by increasing how much US-based online streaming companies must contribute to local programming, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the US is “going to have tariffs,” regardless of USMCA talks.

View: China bets on rural spenders

China’s migrant armies built modern Beijing and other megacities, working as scaffolders and welders, carpenters and plumbers, plasterers and painters. This population of rural laborers, now 350 million strong, has largely been excluded from settling with their families in the gleaming urban centers they constructed. That may be about to change, as Chinese leaders grow desperate to find a new engine of growth with the economy sputtering. Last week’s move by the State Council to ease residency restrictions preventing migrant workers from accessing social insurance where they work could be an economic game-changer, enabling rural families to leave their farms for large cities with better jobs. In doing so, temporary workers, now big savers, will become permanent urban residents, who will spend. But daunting challenges stand in the way of the government’s plan to turn China’s armies of migrants into swarms of consumers.

Teachers lack formal guidance on AI

Artificial intelligence may be transforming the classroom, but teachers aren’t getting a lot of training on how to use this fast-moving technology. Only 18% of K-12 teachers reported receiving formal guidance from administrators on how AI tools should be used across various classroom tasks, according to new polling from the Walton Family Foundation and Gallup. Nearly half reported receiving some kind of informal guidance, such as through verbal conversations, while 34% said they’re getting no guidance at all. The figures are even starker for specific tasks: Nearly seven-in-10 said they’ve had no guidance about how to use the tech in tutoring. This is despite six in 10 teachers saying last year that they use AI tools for work (and three in 10 saying they use it weekly). Younger Americans are using the technology more, too, but they’re also feeling more negative about it.

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Blindspot: Immigration and FCC

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: France’s hardline justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, floated a three-year moratorium on legal immigration.

What the Right isn’t reading: The only Democrat left on the Federal Communications Commission is “on an increasingly urgent mission to press media companies to more forcefully combat an administration she says is cracking down on free speech,” The Associated Press reported.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: “The advertising price tag for this Republican primary alone: $130 million. But the general election price tag will make the primary look like child’s play.”

Playbook: Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign raked in $600,000 in the two hours following Ken Paxton’s primary win, the strongest two hours of his campaign so far.

Axios: Luxury home prices are rising more quickly than middle-market houses — a trend indicative of a K-shaped economy where the wealthy thrive and everyone else stagnates or declines.

White House

• Work is underway on the Ultimate Fighting Championship fighting cage on the White House lawn, ahead of the bout scheduled for June 14, President Trump’s birthday.
• Trump appointed former Attorney General Pam Bondi to the White House’s AI council. — Axios
• Brazil’s right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro met with Trump in Washington to seek support for his fledgling election bid, as corruption allegations mount.