Donald Trump orders new sanctions against Iran's supreme leader and associates
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Donald Trump has signed into force new "hard-hitting" sanctions against Iran, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as tensions continue to rise between Washington and Tehran
Mr Trump said that the issue of the US drone downed by Iran last week “could probably add that into this” but that the sanctions were “something that was going to happen anyway.”
The president is also facing criticism on multiple fronts as the week begins, including domestic outcry over the treatment of migrant children held in “filthy” border detention centres. Meanwhile, questions have been raised after documents were released showing the president's transition team "red flagged" the appointed of a senior general for a top administration post over his opposition to the use of torture.
After postponing the mass deportation of immigrants at the request of Democrats over the weekend, the president gave an interview to NBC’s Meet the Press in which he fielded questions about possible Russian election hacking in 2020, the state of the US economy, and the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Meanwhile, as Mr Trump went after Iran, the 2020 race to take on the president is in full swing.
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The biggest headlines of the day on that front came from Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. Mr Sanders drove the day by introducing an ambitious plan to make public college and universities free — and a significant reduction in American student loan debt.
Mr Buttigieg, meanwhile, faced conflict in South Bend, where an officer involved shooting of a black man has laid bare the racial tensions in that city and across the country.
Ravelry - a social networking site for knitters - has banned its users from expressing their support for Donald Trump because it cannot condone “white supremacy”.
Trump and Pence are lunching today as The Wall Street Journal runs a comment piece suggesting the latter should be ousted as Veep to make way for former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley on the 2020 ticket. Spicy.
In 2020 news, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is offering up a new plan to eliminate all $1.6 trillion worth of student loan debt in the US.
The plan was previewed in the Washington Post and would call for the elimination of student loan debt for some 45 million Americans. At the same time, the plan would make public universities, trade schools, and community colleges tuition-free.
The plan goes further than the plan proposed by the other prominent progressive in the race, senator Elizabeth Warren, who released her plan earlier this week and would forgive $640 billlion in student loan debt.
But, like Ms Warren's plan, Mr Sanders likewise wants to pay for his package through a tax on the rich — specifically, in his case, a tax on Wall Street that would raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years.
Mr Sanders is announcing the plan on Monday alongside progressive House members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Pramila Jayapal.
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