Luke Vargas

Federal lawmakers recently introduced bills aimed at curbing private equity's influence in a range of industries, including health care and housing.

And finally, for years, a thirst for fine wine in China has been a boon for the world's top growing regions, with producers in California, Australia, and France in particular cashing in.

That's the journal's John Emott.

He says that in 2018, about $3 billion of foreign wine was brought into China, but that last year that fell by about half, in part because of a souring economy.

But another major factor was Xi Jinping's crackdown on so-called unbecoming behavior by Communist Party officials, who apparently were too often becoming uncorked at government events.

Australia's Treasury Wine Estates, one of the world's largest wine companies, recently said that wine valued at about $150 million was just sitting in warehouses in China, while European drinks giants Pernod Ricard and Diageo reported double-digit drops in China sales.

Yeah, that's it for What's News for this Wednesday morning.

Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach and Hattie Moyer.

Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff.

And I'm Luke Vargas with The Wall Street Journal.

We will be back tonight with a new show.

Until then, thanks for listening.

Signs of progress in the Senate as lawmakers push to fund the TSA.

Plus, oil rebounds as traders assess potential long-term hits to global energy supplies.

And the EU and Australia ink a free trade deal as the world's middle powers link up.

It's Tuesday, March 24th.

I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

Senators say they are closing in on a deal to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, including the TSA, as security lines continue to grow at airports nationwide.

Carved out of the potential agreement, according to Democratic senators, would be funding for an ICE division that carries out immigrant arrests and deportations.

Delaware Democrat Chris Coons said the deal would broadly require ICE to wear body cameras and display identification, though it's not clear if it would address other core Democratic demands, including a ban on agents wearing masks.