| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. This one is via the Associated Press. On this day in 1941, the Chicago Daily Tribune said of Japan: "She cannot attack us. That is a military impossibility. Even our base at Hawaii is beyond the effective striking power of her fleet." Stay humble, colleagues. | | |  | The big idea | | Five things to watch on Biden's European trip |  (Washington Post illustration; Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post; iStock) | | | President Biden is scheduled to leave Thursday for Rome, the first stop on a five-day trip to Europe that will take him from an audience with Pope Francis, to meetings with Group of 20 leaders, and finally a hunt for consensus at a United Nations climate summit known as COP26. Biden's trip opens on Friday with his first meeting as president with Francis, followed by talks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi, then a bilateral get-together with French President Emmanuel Macron. Over the weekend, the president will attend G-20 events. At COP 26, in Glasgow, Scotland, Biden will give a speech at what could be the last major international summit before some of the effects of the climate crisis become irrevocable. Here are five things to watch during Biden's trip: | First, his audience with Pope Francis: How public will it be? What will they discuss? | | | | ADVERTISEMENT | | Content from Comcast | | A network with one simple purpose – to keep customers connected |  | | We've created a network with one simple purpose: to keep customers connected. In the last 10 years, Comcast has invested $30 Billion – and $15 billion since 2017 alone – to keep America's largest gig-speed broadband network fast, secure, and safe. Because more Americans rely on Comcast to stay connected, we work around the clock to build a better network every single day. Learn how the network keeps you connected. | | | | | | | | The media will get a limited look at this meeting, Biden's third with Francis but his first since taking office in January. There's a possibility American reporters following the president might not get more than a distant glimpse of a handshake and inaudible pleasantries. Unlike other face-to-face meetings with world leaders, there's no traditional sharing of public statements, during which they might lay out areas of disagreement or agreement. So the first thing to watch is how publicly the two embrace. And, after the meeting, reporters will pore over the official summaries from either side, as well as reporting in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper. | Second, Emmanuel Macron: Is the Australian sub dispute truly over? | | Back in September, France denounced Biden's announcement the United States would form a defense partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom. As part of the new arrangement, negotiated in secret, the U.S. and U.K. will share nuclear submarine technology with Australia, which dropped a $66 billion submarine contract with France. French officials compared Biden to former president Donald Trump, and condemned the new pact as the betrayal of an ally. Since then, French officials have been coolly professional, while their American counterparts have been eager to say relations are back to normal. This would be the highest-profile opportunity to embrace the journalistic adage "show, don't tell." | Third, the G-20: What actually gets done? | | Presidents have been known to privately shrug at large multilateral summits like the G-20 as "small talk in big rooms" because they so rarely convene with the goal to reach concrete agreements, as opposed to deals-to-make-a-deal, or mere statements. At a pre-trip briefing Tuesday, Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan made it pretty clear that the president has one clear "deliverable." "We do need the G-20 to ultimately, as I said at the top, cement progress at the end of the day and have leaders fully put their blessing on the global minimum tax," he said. That levee would run 15 percent and would affect some of the world's most profitable companies. Sullivan noted Biden's agenda at the G-20 would cover a wide range of other issues — efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear program, lubricate the jammed global supply chain, "and so much else," but action on the tax, which has won approval in other international forums, seems like the most likely concrete achievement. | Fourth, China and Russia will be absent: Does it matter? | | Chinese President Xi Jinping will only be present virtually at the G-20 and COP26. Same with Russian President Vladimir Putin. How will that affect both gatherings? At Tuesday's briefing, Sullivan said the U.S. "can have constructive conversations with both of them" but allowed "it will be more difficult to do in this circumstance." Other officials have expressed concerns that easing Sino-U.S. tensions is harder via teleconference than in person. And there are worries China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, might be less inclined to work for a compromise if Xi is back home. | Five, Climate: What if Congress doesn't give Biden a pre-trip victory? | | For months, U.S. officials have said publicly and privately they'd prefer to have the president arrive in Glasgow bearing fresh American commitments rather than old American promises. Why would other leaders risk political capital if the U.S. isn't taking concrete action, the thinking goes. But with Republicans in lockstep opposition, that will depend on finding intra-Democratic compromise, which has proven elusive. On Tuesday, Sullivan played down the potential impact. "You've got a sophisticated set of world leaders who understand politics in their own country, and understand American democracy, and recognize that working through a complex, far-reaching negotiation on some of the largest investments in modern memory in the United States — that that takes time," he said. But those sophisticated world leaders are also aware history teaches Biden's Democratic majority will be gone after November 2022, and with it the likelihood of ambitious, necessary action on climate. | | National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan | "We do need the G-20 to ultimately, as I said at the top, cement progress at the end of the day and have leaders fully put their blessing on the global minimum tax." | | | | | | | | |  | What's happening now | |  A man walks past the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/AP) | | Senate Dems unveil new billionaires' tax proposal | - Fewer than 800: "Under [Sen. Ron] Wyden's emerging plan, the billionaires' tax would hit the wealthiest of Americans, fewer than 800 people, starting in the 2022 tax year."
- The nitty-gritty: "It would require those with assets of more than $1 billion, or three consecutive years of income of $100 million, to pay taxes on the gains of stocks and other tradeable assets, rather than waiting until holdings are sold."
- "A similar billionaires' tax would be applied to non-tradeable assets, including real estate, but it would be deferred with the tax not assessed until the asset was sold, though interest would have to be paid.
- "Overall, the billionaires' tax rate would align with the capital gains rate, now 23.8%. Democrats have said it could raise $200 billion in revenue that could help fund Biden's package over 10 years."
| U.S. lawyers say Assange can safely be extradited from U.K. | | "Lawyers for the United States launched a fresh attempt on Wednesday to have Julian Assange extradited from Britain, arguing that concerns about the WikiLeaks founder's mental health should not prevent him from facing U.S. justice," Reuters's Estelle Shirbon reports. | Milley calls China's hypersonic weapon test close to a 'Sputnik moment' | | Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that "what we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system," Sara Sorcher reports. | - "As China is in the midst of a rapid expansion of its strategic and nuclear weapons systems, its demonstration of hypersonic and orbital capabilities — first reported by the Financial Times — was less noteworthy to analysts for the technology, which its military has been developing for years, than for the fact that Beijing decided to test it."
| After Blinken statement, China says Taiwan has no right to join the U.N. | | "In a statement marking 50 years since the UN General Assembly voted to seat Beijing and boot out Taipei, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday he regretted that Taiwan had been increasingly excluded on the world stage," AFP reports. Unsurprisingly, China disagreed. | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | |  A pill bottle without a label is among the signs of addiction. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) | | HHS commits more resources toward harm reduction for drug users | | As deaths continue to soar, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra outlined the Biden administration's strategy for curbing drug overdoses, Lenny Bernstein reports. | - "The four-part strategy also includes measures to prevent drug addiction, in part by continuing to reduce the inappropriate prescribing of opioids; expand medication-based treatment, which research has shown to be the most effective approach; and improve support for people recovering from substance use disorder."
- "Though some officials oppose it, many experts consider harm reduction a more promising approach than prosecution of drug users or the many failed campaigns to keep drugs from coming into the United States."
|  A state district map is shown as a three-judge panel of the Wake County Superior Court presides over the trial of Common Cause, et al. v. Lewis, et al, in Raleigh, N.C. (Gerry Broome/AP) | | Americans don't trust congressional maps to be drawn fairly. Can anyone change our minds? | | "Many Americans think maps that intentionally favor one party is a serious issue in U.S. elections. According to an AP-NORC poll conducted in March, 67 percent of Americans thought that states drawing such maps was a 'major problem.' In fact, respondents to that survey thought gerrymandering was a bigger problem than disenfranchisement or voter fraud," FiveThirtyEight's Mackenzie Wilkes reports. | - "It's unclear whether independent commissions will be enough to help build trust in the redistricting process. For some, the redistricting process is simply 'the most political activity in American politics,' according to Michael Bitzer, a professor of politics and history at Catawba College."
| Supply chain issues are hitting restaurants hard | | "Input from chefs and owners at 30 businesses reveal that almost everything is 20 percent more expensive than before the pandemic, and proteins are at least $2 to $4 more per pound," Washington City Paper's Laura Hayes reports. The list of items restaurants cannot get their hands on is extensive and ranges from Champagne to take out containers. | | |  | The Biden agenda | | Biden's ambassador problem |  Biden participates virtually during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting on Tuesday. (Tom Brenner/Bloomberg News) | | Biden heads off to global summits with just a handful of ambassadors in place | | "To date, only four of Biden's choices to be a U.S. ambassador to a foreign government have been approved by the Senate — three of them just on Tuesday. That means Biden is lagging considerably behind his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, who at this point in his presidency had 22 such U.S. ambassadors confirmed, 17 of them by voice vote," Seung Min Kim reports. | - "The delays stem from threats by some Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz (Tex.), who has been angling for a fight with the Biden administration over matters of national security."
| Climate spending in Dems' bill set at up to $555 billion | | "While the package will exclude Democrats' proposed system of payments and penalties to push power companies to increase renewable energy, the plan being developed will allow President Joe Biden to head to the global climate talks next week in Glasgow, Scotland with a framework for the largest-ever U.S. investment in fighting climate change," Politico's Zack Colman and Laura Barrón-López report. | - "Democrats have worried that the U.S. delegation would arrive at the United Nations talks with no domestic agreement on how to address climate change, a failure that would damage the nation's credibility on climate while giving other countries an excuse to do less."
| Republican lawmakers are pressuring Biden to drop vaccine requirements for federal defense contractors | | "The Washington Examiner reviewed a letter Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville sent to the White House Tuesday afternoon claiming that Biden's 'federal contractor vaccine mandate will have negative effects on our national security' and called on the president 'to remove — or, at a minimum, delay and clarify — vaccination requirements on private companies and academic research institutions that are actively supporting the Department of Defense,'" Christian Datoc reports. | Senators ask Biden to avoid India sanctions over deal with Russia | | "Two U.S. senators have urged President Joe Biden to waive sanctions against India over its purchase of Russia's S-400 air defense system, saying such a punitive measure would endanger growing cooperation," Reuters's Sanjeev Miglani reports. | - "India signed a $5.5 billion deal with Russia in 2018 for five of the surface-to-air missile systems for defense against long-time adversaries Pakistan and China."
- "The proposed transfer has caused friction with the United States, which passed a law in 2017 under which any country engaged with Russia's defense and intelligence sectors could face sanctions."
| No White House trick-or-treat this year | | "Biden and first lady Jill Biden will be in Europe on Halloween and won't be at the White House to help hand out candy and other treats. Instead, the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House will be lit up in orange light to celebrate the spooky holiday," the Associated Press's Darlene Superville reports. | | |  | Facebook feed, visualized | | | "Facebook's news feed algorithm has been blamed for fanning sectarian hatred, steering users toward extremism and conspiracy theories, and incentivizing politicians to take more divisive stands." Our colleagues explain how the algorithm works. | | |  | Hot on the left | | What's lost in a climate compromise | | The American Prospect's Alexander Sammon has a bone to pick with the Build Back Better plan's climate provisions relying heavily on nuclear energy and carbon capture. So what's the issue? Well, Sammon writes: "The inconvenient problem is that those technologies don't exist, at least not in any meaningful way." | - Nuclear: "The only current nuclear project in development in the country, Georgia's Vogtle plant, was supposed to be finished in 2016; just yesterday, its completion was delayed yet again, until September 2022. That single project has run astonishingly over budget, now clocking in at $27.8 billion and counting."
- Carbon capture, utilization, and storage "has also been around for decades and is, if anything, even more theoretical as a policy. There are currently 21 large-scale CCUS commercial projects in the entire world, where carbon dioxide is taken out of factory emissions. As of last year, there were only two active carbon capture–equipped power plants in the world."
| | |  | Hot on the right | | Mitch McConnell endorses Trump-favorite Herschel Walker | | Despite early skepticism from Senate GOP leaders, Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker seems to have won over his party, Amy B Wang and Eugene Scott report. "McConnell's support means the leaders of the party's establishment have just about fully thrown its weight behind Walker, who entered the race with former president Donald Trump's blessing." | | Mitch McConnell | "Herschel is the only one who can unite the party, defeat Senator Warnock, and help us take back the Senate. I look forward to working with Herschel in Washington to get the job done." | | | | | | |  | In closing | | | Daniel Nichanian, founder of What's on the Ballot, tweeted out his cheat sheet to the 2021 elections — mayors, sheriffs and prosecutors included — that you should keep an eye on. | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
