President Trump, Japan's Abe Agree to Intensify Trade Talks

“President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday they had agreed to intensify trade consultations between the two longtime allies, with an aim to expand investment and trade between their countries,” Steve Holland reports for Reuters. “President Trump and I agreed to start talks for free, fair and reciprocal trade deals,” Prime Minister Abe said at a joint news conference with the President.

Holland notes that President Trump “reaffirmed his desire at the news conference to address trade imbalances with Japan, saying he preferred one-on-one talks to negotiate a bilateral deal aimed at trimming the U.S. trade deficit.”

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Christian Whiton writes in The Hill that “by essentially all accounts, Pompeo performed extremely well as CIA director, managing and reforming that sprawling bureaucracy and helping to defeat ISIS, among other accomplishments.” Whiton adds that after his successful meeting with North Korea, Director Pompeo has “shown himself to be adept at tough diplomacy even without the title and trappings of being secretary of State.”

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MarketWatch reports that jobless claims fell to 232,000 this month, according to the Department of Labor. Jeffry Bartash writes that “the rate of layoffs in the U.S. fell slightly in April and clung near a 45-year low, reflecting a booming jobs market in which work is easy to find.”

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“The Trump administration released $485 million worth of grants to states and territories to combat the opioid epidemic, the second round of grants aimed at curbing abuse,” Robert King reports for the Washington Examiner. “These funds will help support evidence-based efforts at the state level to prevent misuse of opioids in the first place, expand access to effective treatment options for people in need and support recovery for those who have prevailed,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.