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• The entire interview with Zarif, conducted by the National Interest’s Jacob Heilbrunn, is worth reading. Zarif talks about how he doesn’t like the term “fake news,” suggests mediation with Saudi Arabia and reprises his regime’s usual talking points about the perils of American intervention in the Middle East. He also calls on the White House to recognize Iran’s political freedoms, such as they are, compared to their Arab neighbors across the Persian Gulf. “The White House has to look at Iran as the only country in the region where people stand in line for ten hours to vote,” said Zarif. “It has to put aside those self-serving assumptions that some members of this administration have repeatedly stated. It has to set aside the assumption that it can create turmoil in the region and draw financial benefits from it.” • Meanwhile, in Iran itself, the arrest of a U.S. scholar highlights an escalating power struggle between Zarif’s immediate boss, President Hassan Rouhani, and hard-liners opposed to him and the nuclear deal itself. Here’s my colleague Erin Cunninhgam again: “But the moves by Iran’s judiciary — including the sentencing of a Princeton graduate student, Xiyue Wang, to 10 years in prison for spying — also undermine Rouhani’s attempts to build better relations with the West, which more-reactionary Iranian institutions such as the judiciary oppose. And they suggest an effort by ruling clerics to pressure the president to back down from confrontation on the domestic front, particularly ahead of the official inauguration of his second term next month, when Rouhani will pick his new cabinet. “More broadly, however, the actions by the judiciary and Khamenei paint a picture of a hard-line establishment hitting back at an outspoken and popular president who has promised to curb some of the regime’s worst excesses.” • In the latest sign of the “Islamization” taking place in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish government announced a new school curriculum that excluded Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The curriculum also mandates that the once stoutly secular country’s increasing number of religious schools teach the concept of “jihad” as a form of national patriotism. The head of a prominent science teachers’ union panned the move, telling Reuters: “The bottom line is: generations who ask questions, that’s what the government fears.” • And, yet again, it’s time for a Trump-and-Russia story: It emerged on Tuesday that President Trump had a second, unofficial meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg. My colleagues Karen DeYoung and Philip Rucker reported that the hour-long conversation took place unexpectedly over a dinner for the G-20’s leaders; the White House confirmed that the talk took place, but countered that it was merely a “brief conversation.” From my colleagues’ story: “Halfway through the meal, Trump left his own seat to occupy a chair next to Putin. Trump was alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter. “The encounter underscores the extent to which Trump was eager throughout the summit to cultivate a friendship with Putin. During last year’s campaign, Trump spoke admiringly of Putin and at times seemed captivated by him… “The only version of the conversation provided to White House aides was that given by Trump himself, the official said. Reporters traveling with the White House were not informed, and there was no formal readout of the chat.” As the story points out, the conversation — and the lack of other Americans taking part in it — will not help the White House’s efforts to put its Russia problems to bed. |
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An opposition activist holds a flag reading “No more dictatorship” during protest against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 18. (Juan Barreto/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Collateral damage When it comes to sanctioning Venezuela, the Trump administration has not dragged its feet. In February, the White House slapped a sanction on the country’s vice president, allegedly because of his involvement in drug trafficking. In May, officials did the same to members of the country’s Supreme Court after it attempted to strip power from the opposition-led National Assembly. President Trump said these policies were designed to punish the country’s increasingly autocratic leaders. Venezuela has “been unbelievably poorly run for a long period of time. And hopefully that will change,” he said at a press conference. That change has not materialized so far. For months, thousands of activists have taken to the streets to decry President Nicolás Maduro’s efforts to dismantle the country’s democracy. More than 100 people have died, most at the hands of the army or police officials. Now the U.S. is poised to tighten sanctions even further. It’s a response to Maduro’s latest maneuver: He’s endeavoring to replace the National Assembly with a new “Constituent Assembly,” which could rewrite the constitution — presumably in Maduro’s favor. A national referendum on the move will be held at the end of the month. President Trump called Maduro a “bad leader” and “aspiring dictator,” warning that Maduro’s actions would bring about a “strong and swift economic” response. What that will look like, though, is still unclear. Bloomberg has reported that the White House is considering measures that would target a couple of top officials who have committed human-rights violations. Others are pushing for a broader ban on crude oil imports from Venezuela. The country is the third-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, and America is Venezuela’s biggest buyer. Experts say that if the U.S. wants Maduro to step down, it needs to impose this kind of broad sanction. “Sanctions on oil exports … would be much more explosive” than targeted strikes against particular officials, said Edward Glossop, a Latin America economist with the London-based economic think tank Capital Economics, to CNN. The big risk is that lots of innocent people will be hurt. “There is no real indication that the U.S. is willing to go as far as sanctioning the oil industry because it’s not clear who that hurts,” said Glossop. “It might hasten the end of Maduro’s regime but would also definitely make the humanitarian crisis worse in the near-term at least.” — Amanda Erickson
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 17. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press) The big question The Republican plan to end Obamacare died two separate deaths in 24 hours. On Monday, two Republican senators came out against their party’s health-care bill, ending its chances of passage in the Senate. The next morning, the same thing happened to the backup plan of simply repealing Obamacare without a replacement and crafting a new bill later. President Trump seemed untroubled. “We’ll just let Obamacare fail,” he said. “We’re not going to own it.” But plenty of observers are placing blame at his feet for not leading an effective campaign in support of the health-care overhaul. So we asked reporter Aaron Blake of The Fix, the Post‘s politics blog: Is the latest health care failure Trump’s fault? “In large part, yes. “Passing large-scale health legislation, which undoes what basically amounts to an entitlement program, was always going to be difficult — especially in the Senate, where Republicans only have two votes to spare. “As we’ve seen throughout this process, there is plenty for everyone to hate in these proposals. To conservatives, they leave too much of Obamacare intact. To moderates, they cut too much from Medicaid and will likely kick too many Americans off their insurance. “In situations like that, you need a cohesive team. You need to believe your leadership has your back — or that running afoul of your leaders will have consequences. Trump has failed on this in two ways, by 1) Not really having a core set of beliefs on what this bill should look like and making them clear, and 2) Not applying presidential pressure. “Trump has done little to suggest he cares or even knows about what’s in these bills. In fact, he has regularly suggested he’s not enamored of them. He called the House’s bill ‘mean’ and said the Senate’s version needed ‘more heart.’ After the bill was effectively killed on Tuesday, he basically gave the members who killed it a pass. ‘They’ll have to explain to you why they did, and I’m sure they’ll have very fine reasons,’ said Trump. “That kind of comment has to drive Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) nuts. The one guy who could arguably bring the pressure needed to pass this bill basically thumbed his nose at the whole thing. Once it was over, he effectively shrugged his shoulders.The message to GOP lawmakers is now clear: Trump doesn’t really care if you don’t fall in line. That doesn’t bode well for equally difficult things like tax reform.” |
President Trump is also getting flack for his Iran policy from the right, as a piece in the New York Times shows, with some conservatives seeing him as too soft. A soft approach may be the ticket on the North Korean issue, though, and South Korea may have the leader to pull it off. Meanwhile, Slate looks at how the investigation into President Trump by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III could be tripped up, while The Post has a shocking warning about the U.S.’ silence on child sexual abuse among our allies in Afghanistan.
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The average American’s chance of being struck by lightning is about one in a million, according to the National Weather Service — except if you’re in Florida. The New York Times recounts the incredible stories of four strike survivors from the state with more lightning than any other. Meanwhile, Reuters shows how women from rural areas are losing access to maternity care because of an increasing number of hospital closings, while Quartz explains how the trucking industry’s move toward automation will devastate the small towns that rely on human truckers’ business.
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As you can tell from this shot, India’s Ganges River is polluted — almost unbelievably so. Shortly after Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014, he pledged to spearhead an effort to clean up the river, but the estimated $3 billion cleanup plan has faltered. “The Ganges is getting dirty day by day but nobody cares. Not even its children,” said one Hindu priest. Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui traveled the supposedly dying river to
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