• CHINA SENDS IN THE BIG GUN: “China said Tuesday its top trade negotiator will visit the United States for talks with American counterparts this week even as Washington stepped up pressure with plans to hike tariffs and complaints that Beijing was backtracking on its commitments.” (Agence France-Presse)

• CHINA HARNESSES NSA TECH: “A leading cybersecurity firm found evidence Chinese intelligence operatives repurposed National Security Agency (NSA) hacking technology in 2016 to attack American allies and private firms in Europe and Asia.” (The Hill)

• TREASURY REBUFFS DEMOCRATS: “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a letter Monday, denied House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal’s request for President Trump’s tax returns, saying the request lacked a ‘legitimate legislative purpose.’” (Fox News)

• WITCH HUNTERS PURSUE CONTEMPT CHARGE: “The House Judiciary Committee will proceed with a vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress on Wednesday, Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) confirmed late Monday, as the Justice Department attempts to fend off the effort ahead of a negotiating session with the Democratic-led committee on Tuesday.” (Politico)

• BOOKER’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL GUN PROPOSAL: “New Jersey senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker released a sweeping gun control plan [yesterday]. Its most noteworthy aspect is a proposal that all prospective gun owners be required to obtain a federal license, which they’d have to renew every five years.” (Reason)

• SOLDIER PARDONED: “Trump signed an executive grant of clemency, a full pardon, for former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, of Oklahoma… Behenna was convicted of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone after killing a suspected al Qaeda terrorist in Iraq. He was paroled in 2014 and had been scheduled to remain on parole until 2024.” (CBS News)

• WATERMARK PRO-LIFE WIN IN GEORGIA: “Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed into law the state’s [‘Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act,’] a piece of legislation that would prohibit abortion after a heartbeat is detected in an embryo. That is something that usually happens between five and six weeks into a women’s pregnancy. … At the bill signing, Governor Kemp recognized that the bill will likely be ‘challenged in the court of law’ but that Georgia will ‘always continue to fight for life.’” (CBS News)

• A REPUBLIC — IF YOU CAN KEEP IT: “A majority of voters now support eliminating the Electoral College in favor of electing presidents by popular vote, according to a new poll. About 53 percent of voters would scrap the Electoral College system in favor of the popular vote, while 43 percent prefer the status quo, according to the NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey released Monday.” (National Review)

• CLIMATE ALARMISM: “A sweeping report assessing the state of the natural world found that humans are having an ‘unprecedented’ and devastating effect on global biodiversity, with about 1 million animal and plant species now threatened with extinction.” (NBC News)

• HUMOR: Facebook SWAT team arrests man for illegal possession of conservative views (The Babylon Bee)

• POLICY: Poorest Americans are benefiting most from strong economy (The Daily Signal)

• POLICY: No, U.S. sanctions are not killing Venezuela. Maduro is. (Forbes)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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