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Dead ceiling deadlock leads President Biden to cut short a key trip to Asia, plus new abortion

restrictions in North Carolina and America's rivals scrambled to attract foreign workers.

Coming out of the pandemic, lots of wealthy countries have extremely low unemployment and very

large amounts of job vacancies. And also the labor force is suddenly starting to shrink as baby

boomers retire in larger numbers. It's Wednesday, May 17th. I'm Luke Vargas with the Wall Street

Journal and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your

world today.

We begin again in Washington a day after President Biden and top lawmakers failed to reach a

deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avoid the country's first ever default. And with the

so-called ex date nearing the day when the Treasury Department will run out of room to sell new debt,

the debt ceiling impasse is now hamstringing other US priorities, leading Biden to cut short

a planned trip to Asia. Journal White House reporter Annie Linsky is in Tokyo ahead of that trip.

All right, Annie, what's the state of play this morning?

Yeah, there's been a lot of rejiggering going on with the President's schedule. I'm in Tokyo right now

and heading to Hiroshima for the G7, which was supposed to be the first stop on Biden's trip

through Asia and has become now the only stop on his trip through Asia. So there's a lot of

smoothing over that the administration is doing right now with various allies who'd expected meetings

and visits by the United States President. It does change the way Biden's trip is seen in the

world and the way his message is received in the world. It's also really underscoring just how

...