Playbook PM: Negotiators near a new nuclear deal

Presented by Facebook: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington.

Aug 08, 2022 View in browser   By Garrett Ross Presented by BIDEN'S NEXT BIG WIN? — As President JOE BIDEN continues an historic stretch of legislative success, plus a successful operation that killed an al Qaeda leader, he may be homing in on another major foreign policy feather in his cap: a suddenly resurrected Iran nuclear deal. Our colleague Stephanie Liechtenstein reports : "Indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal are expected to conclude Monday in Vienna, putting the final draft of an agreement in front of negotiators from Washington and Tehran. "Western officials told POLITICO on Monday that they had finished negotiating technical questions that had remained open in the final draft text circulated by the European Union foreign policy chief JOSEP BORRELL on July 21. The final draft determines the steps that Iran and the U.S. will have to take to return to full compliance with the original 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action." What's next: "On Monday, The EU will officially circulate the final draft document to participants and will ask the U.S. and Iran to agree on it. If there is agreement, foreign ministers are expected to return to Vienna to formally restore the 2015 nuclear accord. 'There is a real chance for an agreement but there are still a number of uncertainties as always,' one senior Western official told POLITICO." WHERE'S POTUS — The president and first lady JILL BIDEN are in Kentucky today, touring flooding damage with Gov. ANDY BESHEAR and Rep. HAL ROGERS (R-Ky.). Biden will deliver remarks later this afternoon. Biden surveys flooding damage in Kentucky. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo COMING INTO FOCUS — Meanwhile, as we approach a year since the Biden administration's pullout from Afghanistan, it's becoming clear that the new focus is squarely on China. "Biden and top national security officials speak less about counterterrorism and more about the political, economic and military threats posed by China as well as Russia. There's been a quiet pivot within intelligence agencies, which are moving hundreds of officers to China-focused positions, including some who were previously working on terrorism," AP's Nomaan Merchant reports . "Intelligence officials stress that the counterterrorism fight is hardly being ignored. Just a week ago it revealed a CIA drone attack killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in Kabul. But days later, China staged large-scale military exercises and threatened to cut off contacts with the U.S. over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. It underscored the message CIA deputy director David Cohen had delivered at that meeting weeks ago: the agency's top priority is trying to understand and counter Beijing." — To wit: "China extends threatening military exercises around Taiwan," AP — As he left the White House this morning , Biden was asked how worried he is about the situation between China and Taiwan. "I'm not worried, but I'm concerned that they're moving as much as they are," Biden said . "But I don't think they're going to do anything more." On a followup: "Do you think it was a wise move of the Speaker to go to Taiwan — looking at it now?" Biden responded: "That was her decision." (BTW, Pelosi will be on "Morning Joe" on Tuesday to discuss her trip to Taiwan.) ONE YEAR OUT — Speaking of the one-year mark since U.S. troops left Afghanistan, there's a couple of interesting reads up today looking at the road that led to the decision and where things stand now: — David Petraeus writes in The Atlantic: "Afghanistan Did Not Have To Turn Out This Way : If we are to sustain our position as the leader of the Western world, we must understand why one of our signature campaigns resulted in such frustration." — Matthieu Aikins has a deep-dive report for NYT Magazine on "The Taliban's Dangerous Collision Course With the West : After barring girls from high school — and harboring an Al-Qaeda leader — the regime now risks jeopardizing the billions of dollars of global aid that still keeps Afghans alive." A message from Facebook: Facebook is taking action to keep its platform safe Over 40 million people use Facebook Privacy Checkup each month. That's nearly 60 times the population of Washington, D.C. That's just one example of the work we're doing to create safer connections. Learn more about our work ahead.   Good Monday afternoon. Apparently scientists "recorded the shortest day on Earth since the invention of the atomic clock" on June 29 — my birthday! — which came in "1.59 milliseconds short of the normal 24-hour day," per CNN . Worst birthday ever! Get in touch: gross@politico.com . JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH BREAKING — @kyledcheney : " RUDY GIULIANI has made an emergency motion to postpone his scheduled Fulton County deposition. A hearing on his motion is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon." CONGRESS HOW THE CHIPS FELL — The Boston Globe's Tal Kopan has the story on how Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO became "Congress' favorite Cabinet secretary" through her work with members on the CHIPS+ bill. "Raimondo is the rare politician who draws high praise from such disparate sources as conservative Mississippi Senator ROGER WICKER and progressive 'Squad' member and Michigan Representative RASHIDA TLAIB." Said Wicker: "Gina Raimondo might be the best appointment Joe Biden has made during his time in office." Said Tlaib: "I've never had a secretary this transparent." "Top congressional players on the bill touted Raimondo's bipartisan and business sensibilities as a former venture capital executive as crucial in the negotiations on the legislation, which is designed to alleviate the nation's supply chain issues by spurring semiconductor manufacturers to build factories in the United States." THE ECONOMY HOW IT'S PLAYING — WaPo's Cleve Wootson Jr. has a good read from Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pa., on how his policies have — and, perhaps more importantly haven't — impacted the eastern Pennsylvania city. "Biden leaned hard into his upbringing in this blue-collar city in his bid for the White House, and his presidential speeches and anecdotes are peppered with references to Scranton," he writes. "But if his election showed how far a self-described 'kid from Scranton' could go, two years of his presidency have exposed the limits of what Biden — maybe any president — can do for a place like this. If Biden's political goal is to help people like his former neighbors, it's not clear he's succeeded, at least not yet." MEET MR. FIX IT — "Can Global Shipping Be Fixed? One Regulator Will Try," by NYT's Peter Goodman: "The Federal Maritime Commission, traditionally obscure, has been cast by Congress and the administration to help lead the campaign to tame inflation."   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today .     ALL POLITICS PRIMARY COLORS — Wisconsin Lt. Gov. MANDELA BARNES is, ostensibly, running in the Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. But in reality, he's already looking ahead to the general election against Sen. RON JOHNSON (R-Wis.). Barnes has all but cleared the field in his primary and moved on to attacking Johnson. How he got here: "To consolidate the support, Mr. Barnes, who is the state's first Black lieutenant governor and would be its first Black senator if he were to win, ran a tight campaign squarely centered on jobs and rebuilding the middle class," NYT's Jazmine Ulloa reports . REDISTRICTING READ — In Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio, judges have ruled that Republican officials illegally gerrymandered their states' election maps, "or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did," NYT's Michael Wines writes . Generally, the districts would be redrawn and the election would ensue. "But a shift in election law philosophy at the Supreme Court, combined with a new aggressiveness among Republicans who drew the maps, has upended that model for the elections in November. This time, all four states are using the rejected maps, and questions about their legality for future elections will be hashed out in court later." THE NEW GENERATION — "New Kid on the Block: New York's First Gen-Z Politician Has Fights Ahead," by Calder McHugh for POLITICO Magazine: "From the fashion scene to a protest movement, he was the avatar of a new style of politics. But CHI OSSÉ has a new motif — the boring nuts and bolts of governance."   A message from Facebook:   ABORTION FALLOUT THE RIPPLE EFFECT — As abortion bans take effect in states across the country, doctors and patients are realizing that it's not strictly abortion medications that are at risk of falling under regulation. Even in situations that have nothing to do with pregnancies, patients are finding a minefield, WaPo's Katie Shepherd and Frances Stead Sellers report . "Medicines that treat conditions from cancer to autoimmune diseases to ulcers can also end a pregnancy or cause birth defects. As a result, doctors and pharmacists in more than a dozen states with strict abortion restrictions must suddenly navigate whether and when to order such drugs because they could be held criminally liable and lose their licenses for prescribing some of them to pregnant women." THE PANDEMIC THE VACCINATION PUZZLE — In the effort to get as many people vaccinated as possible, toddlers are lagging far behind the rest of the population. "More than a month after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended shots for about 17.4 million children ages 6 months through 4 years, about 4% to 5% of them have received a shot, according to the most recent agency data and population estimates from the American Academy of Pediatrics," per WSJ's Jared Hopkins and Jon Kamp . "By contrast, the vaccination rate for children 5 to 11 years reached about 18% a month after the CDC first recommended shots last November. The rate now stands at about 38%."   INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY .     WAR IN UKRAINE HARROWING READ — "In My Homeland, the Smell of Death on a Summer Afternoon," by Ukrainian reporter Natalia Yermak for the NYT AMERICA AND THE WORLD WHO WAS AL-ZAWAHRI — In announcing the killing of AYMAN AL-ZAWAHRI, Biden described him as "a mastermind" behind a 2000 bombing and someone who was "deeply involved" in the planning of the 9/11 attacks. "But as a matter of historical accuracy, Mr. Biden's words went well beyond how the government and terrorism specialists have described al-Zawahri's record with regard to those two particularly notorious attacks," NYT's Carol Rosenberg and Charlie Savage report from Guantánamo Bay . "Mr. Biden's portrayal of al-Zawahri as a key plotter of the Sept. 11 attacks was echoed in many news accounts about his speech, including in The New York Times. But it surprised counterterrorism experts, as did the characterization of al-Zawahri's role in the Cole bombing." MEDIAWATCH AXIOS SELLS TO COX — "Axios Agrees to Sell Itself to Cox Enterprises for $525 Million," by NYT's Benjamin Mullin PLAYBOOKERS IN MEMORIAM — "David McCullough, Best-Selling Explorer of America's Past, Dies at 89," by NYT's Daniel Lewis: "David McCullough, who was known to millions as an award-winning, best-selling author and an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for recreating the great events and characters of America's past, died on Sunday at home in Hingham, Mass. He was 89. … "Mr. McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies, 'Truman' (1992) and 'John Adams' (2001). He received National Book Awards for 'The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal' (1977) and 'Mornings on Horseback' (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt and his family." MEDIA MOVE — Carlos Lozada will be an opinion columnist at the NYT. He most recently has been nonfiction book critic at WaPo, where he won a Pulitzer. Announcement TRANSITIONS — Max Bodach is now operations manager at the Lincoln Network. He previously was a senior associate at Keybridge Communications. … Katie Everett is now press secretary for Rep. Michael Burgess, (R-Texas). She previously was press secretary for Concerned Women of America and is a John Kennedy and Louie Gohmert alum. ENGAGED — Joe Radosevich, chief of staff to Pennsylvania A.G. Josh Shapiro and an Amy Klobuchar alum, and Brian Krebs , VP of elections and advocacy at flytedesk, got engaged Saturday evening at Crispus Attucks Park. Afterward, the two celebrated with friends at All Souls, the site of their first date. Pic — Lauren Greenwood, policy analyst for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and Vijay Menon , legislative assistant for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) got engaged on Saturday at Monet's Garden in Giverny, France. The couple met through the organization Faith and Law. Pic … Another pic  WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Nicollette Kirby, an associate in the antitrust group at Cooley, and Patrick Kirby, a senior managing associate in the public policy group at Dentons, welcomed Hayes Maxwell Kirby on Thursday. Pic … Another pic Corrections: Friday's Playbook PM misstated the name of Rebecca Tallent's new place of employment. It is Anywhere Real Estate. It also misstated the change in the Cook Political Report's rating of Rep. Don Bacon's district. The rating moved from likely Republican to toss-up.   Sponsored Survey WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: Please take a short, 1 minute survey about one of our advertising partners.     Follow us on Twitter Rachael Bade @rachaelmbade Eugene Daniels @EugeneDaniels2 Ryan Lizza @RyanLizza Eli Okun @eliokun Garrett Ross @garrett_ross   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters Follow us

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California Today: Sacramento’s underdog moment

The capital city, often overshadowed by San Francisco and Los Angeles, is taking pride in the success of its lower-tier Sacramento Republic F.C. over Major League Soccer teams.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story August 8, 2022 By Mark Kreidler It's Monday. Sacramento soccer fans are still buzzing over their team's wins over three big-league squads. Plus, an Orange County city rejects a proposal to declare itself an anti-abortion sanctuary. Fans during the U.S. Open Cup semifinal game in July between Sacramento Republic F.C. and Sporting Kansas City at Heart Health Park in Sacramento.Erin Chang/ISI Photos — Getty Images SACRAMENTO — A veteran of international soccer, Mark Briggs did not need to be told that his second-division Sacramento Republic Football Club had done something significant, shocking three straight Major League Soccer opponents to advance to the finals of the all-comers U.S. Open Cup. "It's an opportunity for us to showcase ourselves, and fortunately, we've been able to grab it," Briggs, a native of England, said. Still, even after successive upsets of big-league teams from San Jose, Los Angeles and Kansas City, it's possible that the coach couldn't fully embrace the larger resonance of Republic F.C.'s underdog achievement. After all, he's not from here. The Sacramento region, with 2.5 million residents, would be a dominant metro area in almost any other state. But in California, it has long had to fight for respect in the shadow of San Francisco and Los Angeles, not to mention San Diego and the Silicon Valley. As a sports town, Sacramento operates in a near-perpetual state of acid reflux. Spurned by Al Davis after a relocation tease by the N.F.L.'s Raiders in the 1980s and ignored as a future landing spot for the Oakland A's, the city has a long and dyspeptic history of playing host to an array of second-tier enterprises and oddball sports ventures. Its lone local entry among the five major U.S. leagues, the Sacramento Kings, has gone 16 seasons (and counting) in the N.B.A. without a playoff appearance — a league record nobody wanted. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Republic F.C.'s march through the Open Cup is a bittersweet gift. The city's attempt to advance the franchise out of the United Soccer League and join M.L.S. has become a yearslong courtship, yet unrequited. The league invited Sacramento to join in 2019, then looked elsewhere after the chief investor, Ron Burkle, pulled out of the deal in 2021. "We are a major league city in every way," insisted Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento. "No matter what happens going forward, we are still fighting to win a franchise" in M.L.S. Steinberg said that plans for a new soccer stadium were progressing in the rail yards area near downtown — a slimmed-down version of an idea originally hatched to accommodate M.L.S.-size crowds. Sacramento is still struggling to rebound from pandemic closures of downtown businesses and state office buildings, and a stadium could be a potential catalyst to jump-start activity in the city core. The region has drawn renewed interest from coastal residents in an era of remote work, attracted to lower prices and more living space. And Republic F.C.'s run to the Cup finals has raised anew a sense of what's possible among Sacramento's typically devoted sports fans. The club's pulsating semifinal win over Sporting Kansas City, which was decided by a thrilling penalty kick shootout, was played before a wild sellout crowd of 11,500. "I think many of them came because they realized we had a chance to show the M.L.S. that they made a mistake," said Brad Hill, 37, a Republic season ticket-holder who has followed the club since its inception in 2014. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT During the Kings' run of success in the early 2000s, Sacramento fans locked onto the Los Angeles Lakers as their rivals, only to be met with studied indifference or casual insult by Los Angeles stars, including Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. Republic F.C.'s run has tapped into that emotion. "Our players go out there and have a chip on their shoulder, something to prove, and I think that's very representative of Sacramento," said Todd Dunivant, the team's president and general manager, himself a five-time M.L.S. champion during his playing days. "As a city, as a region, we're not the first thought when you think of California, but we're proud of what we do and who we are." The club will need that attitude Sept. 7, when it travels to face M.L.S. power Orlando City SC in the tournament finals. Win or lose, though, it has already provided Sacramento's tortured fans with a surprising, upbeat moment in another long sports year. "There's a thirst for a winner here, and there's a fire in the belly to get an M.L.S. team," said Francis Avoce, 24, who played high school soccer in nearby Davis, participated in Republic F.C.'s first academy development class of young talent, and has spent the past two years competing internationally. "It's the message it sends to the rest of the country: Sacramento belongs here." Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Mark Kreidler was The Sacramento Bee's lead sports columnist for 15 years and has lived in the Sacramento area for three decades. Subscribe Today We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times with this special offer. Autopilot, which can steer, brake and accelerate a Tesla on its own, has been available since 2015.Mike Blake/Reuters The rest of the news Tesla: California's Department of Motor Vehicles has accused Tesla of falsely advertising its driver-assistance technology in two complaints that could affect the company's ability to sell cars in the state. ID cards: A new bill calls for California to issue ID cards to any resident regardless of their legal status, whether they drive or not, The LAist reports. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Abortion rights: A resolution to ban abortion in San Clemente faced serious backlash from the community, and the City Council on Saturday removed the proposal from a future agenda, Voice of OC reports. Crash arrest: The woman arrested in connection to a car crash that killed five people last week in Los Angeles has been released from the hospital and is now in police custody, The Los Angeles Times reports. CENTRAL CALIFORNIA No phones allowed: Bullard High School will require students to lock away their cellphones during the upcoming school year, but the initiative has parents worried, The Fresno Bee reports. Death Valley: After near-record-breaking rains hit Death Valley National Park on Friday, hundreds of tourists trapped by flash flooding were able to leave as crews cleared a pathway through mud and rocks, The Associated Press reports. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Wildfires: Lightning strikes from a thunderstorm on Friday ignited a dozen fires in the Six Rivers National Forest, forcing evacuations in rural areas of Trinity and Humboldt Counties, The Los Angeles Times reports. McKinney update: The state's largest blaze this year, the McKinney fire in Siskiyou County, is now 40 percent contained, CBS 13 reports. Housing crisis: With nowhere else to go, ski resorts have leased campgrounds from the U.S. Forest Service to lodge their employees, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. Tear gas: The Berkeley City Council will not discuss suspending a tear gas ban after People's Park clashes, The Mercury News reports. Christopher Testani for The New York Times What we're eating The easiest, most adaptable kung pao recipe. Left to right: Judithe Hernández, "Juarez Quinceañera," 2017; and the artist's "La Santa Desconocida de la serie Juárez (The Unknown Saint from the Juarez series)," 2017.Carlos Jaramillo for The New York Times Where we're traveling Today's tip comes from Meg Sullivan, who lives in Los Angeles. Meg recommends a trip to Riverside: "My husband and I had a great time this weekend in Riverside, which is having A Moment. We went to check out its new museum devoted to Chicano art, but found so much more to love. The Cheech didn't disappoint with its abundance of great hits, especially from the 1990s. We stayed across the street in the historic Mission Inn, which was lovely as ever and teaming with beauties posing for quinceañera photos. An excellent tour by the affiliated nonprofit museum provided access to all kinds of nooks and crannies that we wouldn't have found on our own. We also toured the California State Citrus Park, and we're still snacking on samples from the wide range of citrus trees on display there, some super weird. (Hello, Buddha's fingers!) We ignored Google Maps and inched into town along historic Victoria Avenue, which is lined with palm trees, orchards and horse farms and smacks of Old California. Meals were extraordinary at the Mission Inn's lovely interior courtyard; at Tio's Tacos with its delightfully outrageous sculptures made from recyclables; and at the hipster Food Lab food court. (Mi Vida Gorda's Michelada, dripping with homemade chamoy syrup, was to die for.) We just happened to hit the pedestrian Main Street when a farmers' market was laid out with perfect California produce. The trip reminded me of everything that blew me away when I moved to Southern California four decades ago. By driving just over an hour from our home, we felt like we journeyed back in time." Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter. And before you go, some good news Danny Park wants his store, Skid Row People's Market, to be more than just its inventory. His mission statement is painted on the wall in English and Korean: "A safe space for Skid Row community to heal ourselves and develop healthy identities." Employees at the Los Angeles store sometimes serve as therapists, social workers, confidants or mediators. They try to help customers build self-esteem, express themselves, display their art, even take steps toward building credit. "We all believe, in whatever work we do, that we are doing some kind of good for humanity no matter what it is," Park told The Los Angeles Times. "So why can't that be the product?" The story of why the store tries to do so many things has a lot to do with Park, but it really started long before, on a Saturday morning in 1991. Read more from The Los Angeles Times. Thanks for reading. We'll be back tomorrow. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Conductor's stick (5 letters). Soumya Karlamangla, Allison Honors and Jack Kramer contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for California Today from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018