| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1947, the Hughes Flying Boat — better known by the name its detractors gave it, the "Spruce Goose" — made its first and only flight. Howard Hughes flew the massive aircraft for about a minute after taking off from Long Beach Harbor. | | |  | The big idea | | Biden makes a tariff deal with Europe. American distillers are smiling |  (Washington Post illustration; Evan Vucci/AP; iStock) | | | President Biden just took a big step toward curing a Trump-era hangover upsetting transatlantic trade relations, announcing a deal to ease American tariffs on European steel and aluminum. And few people are happier than craft distiller Sonat Birnecker Hart of Chicago. Biden's agreement, announced over the weekend while he attended the Group of 20 summit in Rome, has won praise from organized labor, staunch Republicans in Congress, environmentalists, Harley Davidson and, yes, American producers of spirits. "This is going to do wonders for the confidence of our distributors abroad, for the (European) retailers who choose to make a spot for us on our shelves," Birnecker Hart told The Daily 202. "It will mean success for small businesses like mine on both sides of the Atlantic." When former president Donald Trump slapped tariffs on European aluminum and steel exports to the United States in 2018, claiming they harmed national security, the European Union retaliated with tariffs on a wide range of American products — motorcycles, boats, peanut butter and whisky, among others. Biden's deal doesn't completely do away with Trump's tariffs. It sets up a tariff rate quota on European steel and aluminum, permitting a limited quantity to enter the U.S. market without a tariff. But above that amount, tariffs still apply. The European Union, meanwhile, will lift its retaliatory measures. | | The question of whether and when to end Trump's tariffs has been something of a political headache for Biden. Tariffs on Chinese products are broadly popular, especially among sectors of organized labor that back his election last year, and in key states like Pennsylvania. Even the European tariffs had their supporters. | | Back in April, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters at the White House "there is a place for tariffs …. tariffs on steel and aluminum have, in fact, helped save American jobs in the steel and aluminum industries." Europe's 25 percent levy on whisky — which had been set to double come December — did significant damage to American distillers, for whom the continent is the largest export market. Between 2018 and 2020, American whisky exports to Europe plummeted 37 percent, from $702 million to $440 million, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) an industry trade group. Over the same period, exports to the United Kingdom, the fourth largest export market, slumped 53 percent, from $150 million to $71 million. (As I noted back in March, when I first flagged this issue, "while 'American whiskey' necessarily evokes Kentucky and Tennessee, 37 states were exporters in 2020, according to DISCUS. They included California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Virginia, New York, Nevada and Vermont.") For KOVAL Distillery, where co-founder Birnecker Hart is president, things were even tougher. As a craft distiller (the first in Chicago since Prohibition, according to the company's promotional materials), KOVAL just didn't have the kind of cushion that it's "humongous" competitors had, she said. "Before the tariffs we were increasing our exports about 25 percent every year," she said. After the tariffs "our exports dropped over 50 percent … it just became really difficult for us." Winning over European distributors and retailers is harder for smaller companies, which need to convince their business partners that they will provide a steady flow of product over the long haul to seize precious space on trucks and shelves. KOVAL had to accept "that we were going to eat the costs" associated with the U.S.-E.U. trade spat, said Birnecker Hart. European partners made clear "they don't want to pay for it, and they don't want the consumers to pay for it." In terms of jobs, KOVAL isn't very large — fewer than 40 employees ensure their products reach 55 export markets, said Birnecker Hart. But the company was using exports to build its brand and pad its bottom line. | | The broader potential impact of Biden's deal is huge. American manufacturers who use European steel or aluminum will see their costs fall, while the price of American goods targeted by E.U. tariffs will drop as well. On a Saturday conference call organized by the White House, Raimondo noted the deal had defused the risk of European duties climbing to 50 percent come December. "A business can't survive with a 50 percent tariff," she said. "There's 1.7 million Americans supported by the distilled spirits industry, 5,600 manufacturing workers at Harley Davidson. And all of their jobs are safer today because of this deal." So did KOVAL's leaders break out the good stuff when they heard the news? "Of course we did," Birnecker said with a laugh. "It was our bourbon. Bourbon is the American spirit — in addition to rye. It's sorta like our Champagne." | | Craft distiller Sonat Birnecker Hart said of a U.S.-E.U. trade deal | "This is going to do wonders for the confidence of our distributors abroad, for the (European) retailers who choose to make a spot for us on our shelves." | | | | | | | | |  | What's happening now | |  Christopher Murphy casts his ballot at Evergreen Mill Elementary School Tuesday in Leesburg, Va. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) | | It's Election Day! And it could be a long one. | | "Voters are headed to the polls Tuesday to pick governors in Virginia and New Jersey, offering a test for Democrats in the first major elections since President Biden's arrival in the Oval Office and a possible preview of what's to come in next year's congressional midterms," John Wagner reports. | | Follow along with The Post's coverage, including analysis of the close race between Virginia gubernatorial candidates Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, here. | - Eyes on Virginia: "Although Virginia has trended blue in recent years, Youngkin has gained momentum in the past few weeks in advertisements and stump speeches about parental involvement in public schools. Recent polls suggest that the contest is a toss-up," Teo Armus reports.
| Minneapolis voters weigh replacing police department | | "Minneapolis voters may decide on Tuesday to scrap their police force for a reimagined department that takes a holistic approach to crime and its causes, 18 months after the murder of George Floyd sparked global protests for racial justice," Reuters's Brad Brooks reports. | - "Supporters say what the ballot calls a Department of Public Safety is badly needed after decades of failed attempts at police reforms."
| Rev. Jesse Jackson hospitalized after fall | | "Jackson was hospitalized Monday after falling during a visit to Howard University, in support of students protesting living conditions on the Washington campus," Paulina Firozi reports. | - Jackson was entering a campus building when he fell and hit his head, a spokesman for Jackson told The Post.
| Blasts and clashes in Kabul kill at least 20 | | "Two suicide blasts and gunfire erupted Tuesday at the main military hospital in the Afghan capital, in an attack that killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more, a doctor and a Taliban official said," Susannah George and Ellen Francis report. | - At least 20 were killed and more than 37 wounded. The death toll is expected to rise.
| | "Yahoo has shut down access to its services in China, becoming the latest American tech company to exit the country. It pulled the plug 'in recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment,'" CNN's Jordan Valinsky reports. | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | | Post deep dive on DHS Secretary Mayorkas |  Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | The man in the middle on immigration | | "The left says Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is too tough on immigrants. The right says he is too soft. Can his moderate path fix an intractable crisis?" Manuel Roig-Franzia seeks the answer. "Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under President Donald Trump, paints Mayorkas as 'a social activist' who "has single-handedly directed our borders to be open and less secure than they have been in our lifetime." But then there are the more than 100 activist groups that recently excoriated Mayorkas and the Biden White House in an open letter, accusing them of using 'cruel, unlawful, and ineffective deterrence-based policies that extend rather than dismantle the previous administration's approach to migration.'" | - Mayorkas says "it is not his job to 'reconcile' those competing viewpoints; it's to 'execute' the law. Still, the question dangles out there: Can he find the right words to lower the temperature at both ends of the extreme?"
| A wave of 'constitutional sheriffs' and their bargaining power | | The label "refers to a movement of sheriffs who argue that their power to interpret the law is above any state or federal authority — even the president," Kimberly Kindy reports. "The constitutional sheriffs movement has capitalized on anger at pandemic restrictions. While it's unclear exactly how many law enforcement officials embrace the ideology, one group that promotes it claims up to a 10th of the nation's sheriffs as due-paying members, and numerous candidates for sheriff now on the ballot echo its rhetoric." |  An announcement is taped to the outside of a municipal building. (Stephanie Keith/Reuters) | | The EPA allows polluters to turn neighborhoods into "sacrifice zones" where residents breathe carcinogens | - "Our analysis found that ethylene oxide is the biggest contributor to excess industrial cancer risk from air pollutants nationwide. Corporations across the United States, but especially in Texas and Louisiana, manufacture the colorless, odorless gas, which lingers in the air for months and is highly mutagenic, meaning it can alter DNA."
| Twitter to try new "pre-bunk" method to fight misinformation | | "Twitter on Monday will roll out a new program designed to "pre-bunk" climate misinformation, or get ahead of false narratives about climate by exposing people to more accurate information about the crisis on its platform," Axios's Sara Fischer reports. "In a statement, the company said it's taking these actions because it anticipates that climate misinformation tends to spread more around the annual UN climate conference." | | |  | The Biden agenda | | Methane in spotlight in Washington and Glasgow |  Biden reacts as he delivers a speech onstage during a meeting, as part of the World Leaders' Summit of the COP26 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, today. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP) | | Biden's new rules to curb methane, from oil and gas operations | | "The Biden administration unveiled a sweeping set of policies Tuesday to cut emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas operations across the country. The proposals, announced at the U.N. climate summit known as COP26, represent one of the president's most consequential efforts so far to combat climate change," Dino Grandoni and Steven Mufson report. | - The new policies "mark the first time the federal government has moved to comprehensively tackle the seepage of methane across U.S. oil and gas infrastructure."
- Meanwhile more than 90 countries announced they would curb methane emissions at U.N. climate summit
- "Brazil's membership in the Global Methane Pledge, which the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry announced via tweet Monday night, is significant because of its status as the world's second-largest beef producer. Roughly a third of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions come in the form of methane from cattle," Post colleagues report from the conference.
- More from Glasgow in real-time here.
| White House expected to release vaccine requirement details this week | | "The Labor Department said Monday morning that the Office of Management and Budget had completed its regulatory review of the rule, called an emergency temporary standard. The rule is one of the Biden administration's most ambitious attempts to increase vaccination rates to corral the pandemic, after the surge of the delta variant this summer showed the country's continued vulnerability to the ravages of the virus," Eli Rosenberg reports. | - "The rule will apply to companies that have more than 100 employees, and it has already been drawing fierce opposition, both in and out of court, from the anti-vaccine faction of the country's right wing. A number of Republican state attorneys general have vowed to challenge the rule once it is made public."
| | |  | Virginia from blue to red to blue again, visualized | | | "Virginia Republicans have faced a growing challenge in the past decade as urban and suburban areas, especially in Northern Virginia, have grown and diversified. Following a long stretch where Virginians almost always sided with Democrats, the Commonwealth began shifting between red and blue starting in the 1950s." Scroll through the maps to see how the state voted for governor over the decades. | | |  | Hot on the left | |  Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger discusses his new book, "Integrity Counts," during an interview on Thursday in Atlanta. (Ron Harris/AP) | | New book details Trump's pressure to change Georgia election results | | Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's (R) new book, "Integrity Counts," hit shelves today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Mark Niesse reports. It's already making waves. The book "makes clear how he views Trump's badgering for him to 'find' nearly 11,780 votes — one more than he needed to overcome his deficit to Democrat Joe Biden. Raffensperger's account of the call could be used as part of ongoing criminal investigations and congressional hearings." | | |  | Hot on the right | |  Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing. (Rod Lamkey/Pool via AP) | | Tim Scott is on the Trump 2024 train | | "U.S. Sen. Tim Scott said he'd support former president Donald Trump if he makes a run for a second term in the White House, curbing some speculation the South Carolina Republican could himself be a 2024 candidate," the Post and Courier's Thomas Novelly reports. "When asked if he'd support a Trump run he answered 'of course' but deflected further questions if he has a desire to run for the Oval Office as well." | | |  | Today in Washington | | | Biden will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. The president will leave Edinburgh, Scotland, at 5:55 p.m. to return to D.C. | | |  | In closing | | | Somehow, it's already November. And Mariah Carey didn't waste any time this year before getting in the holiday spirit. One day into the month, "All I Want For Christmas Is You" had returned to the Top 50 of US Spotify — its fastest jump ever. | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
