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Jobs, NASA, World Cup: Your Friday Evening Briefing

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Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. The U. S. jobs report for May showed a sharp decline in the pace of hiring, adding to concern that the economy is slowing.
The report said 75,000 jobs were created last month; analysts had expected a gain of about 175,000 jobs. It also revised previous months’ numbers down by 75,000, meaning that the blockbuster spring job creation rates were considerably more modest.
Jobs in manufacturing and construction, like that above in Miami, were among the industries that slowed to a crawl.
This is the clearest evidence yet of an economic slowdown, our economics correspondent writes. The Federal Reserve has signaled that it would consider an interest-rate cut in the event of economic weakness, and May’s data is likely to be an important factor in its decisions.
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2. A Russian destroyer and a U. S. Navy guided missile cruiser narrowly avoided a collision in the Philippine Sea. Each side blamed the other for the episode.
The ships came within 50 to 100 feet of each other, the U. S. Navy said. It was the first potentially catastrophic near miss involving Russian and American naval vessels so far from Russian shores since the end of the Cold War.
Separately, tucked into a White House push to sell arms to Saudi Arabia is a provision to take closely guarded U. S. technology there to build bomb parts. It raises concerns about the Saudis’ ability to produce their own versions of American precision-guided bombs.
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3. The Hyde Amendment, a 1976 measure banning federal funding for abortion, has drawn new scrutiny in the 2020 race.
On Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden became the only candidate in the Democratic primary race to say he supported it; by Thursday, almost all of the other 22 candidates were on the record calling for the amendment’s repeal. Less than 48 hours after his initial statement, and intense criticism, Mr. Biden changed his mind.
His abrupt about-face illustrates the intense pressure he faces to run as a moderate.
Opposition to the amendment has also gained steam in Congress.

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