Done deal? Iran nuclear agreement to be announced Monday, report says

An agreement aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief will likely be announced Monday, according to a published report. 

Two diplomats involved in ongoing talks in the Austrian capital of Vienna told the Associated Press Sunday that final details of the pact were still being worked out. Once it is complete, a formal, final agreement would be open to review by officials in the capitals of Iran and the six world powers at the talks, they said. The diplomats involved demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly.
The envoys had said that it was possible for a provisional agreement to have been reached Sunday evening. However, senior Iranian and U.S. officials told the AP there was not enough time to do so.
"We are working hard, but a deal tonight is simply logistically impossible," the Iranian official said, noting that the agreement will run roughly 100 pages.
The senior U.S. official declined to speculate as to the timing of any agreement or announcement but said "major issues remain to be resolved."
Despite the caution, the negotiators appeared to be on the cusp of an agreement.

ObamaCare Ruling May Stop Obama's Immigration Action

The Justice Department on Friday urged a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel to lift a lower-court injunction and let it start granting temporary legal presence to up to 5 million illegal immigrants.

The Obama administration is expected to lose this round because two Republican-appointed judges on the three-judge panel rejected an initial request to lift the injunction in May, writing that "the government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its appeal."
The case could be on a fast track to the Supreme Court, with a decision due in 2016. But last month's King v. Burwell opinion helping to preserve President Obama's signature health care law suggests that the justices may not uphold his administration's aggressive legal interpretations. That includes his controversial executive action to grant de facto legal status to millions of illegal aliens.The ObamaCare case hinged on whether the IRS was justified in providing tax subsidies to people in states that had never set up their own health insurance exchange. Conservatives argued that the plain text authorized subsidies only via an "Exchange established by the State" and not by the federal Healthcare.gov.
The Obama administration argued that the law's context was clear. But if the justices deemed the text unclear, then they should rely on the "Chevron deference" precedent. In the 1984 case Chevron v. NRDC, the court ruled that it should accept the executive branch agency's interpretation of what Congress meant as long as it is plausible.
'Deep Significance' Test
That was too much for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who called it "a drastic step" to let the IRS decide whether to award billions of dollars in subsidies without clear congressional intent.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in his opinion siding with the administration, agreed: The availability of billions in subsidies "is a question of deep 'economic and political significance'; had Congress wished to assign that question to an agency, it surely would have done so expressly."
Instead, Roberts wrote, it was up for the judicial branch to determine the statute's meaning.
"The Court's invocation of the 'major questions' doctrine, and various justices' increasingly vocal skepticism of judicial deference doctrines in general, could prove significant," said Adam White, counsel at Boyden Gray & Associates focused on regulatory law. "Certainly as to the immigration controversy, but also other unilateral actions by this administration, such as environmental regulation and Internet regulation."
Reasonable Discretion?
The Obama administration has said its deferred action program granting three-year legal presence is a reasonable form of the prosecutorial discretion to which it is entitled. Further, granting legal presence doesn't automatically legalize employment. That step is allowed based on prior legislation that permitted people applying for asylum and others to get work authorization as their status was determined.

Muslim hired as British government terror watchdog is extremist who called US ‘vicious world empire’

 

A British government worker who helped regulate the country’s anti-terror planning was fired after superiors learned of his Islamist sympathies, the Telegraph reported.

Abdullah al Andalusi said the brutal exploits of ISIS were “no different to the history of some Western armies” and supported the right of youths to venture to Syria to fight.
“If merely going to fight overseas is condemned as terrorism, shouldn’t the UK arrest British volunteers joining the Israeli Defense Force which kills civilians in Gaza in a war against the Gazan government?” al Andalusi wrote in a September 2014 article for the Muslim Debate Initiative, a group he co-founded.

"IS’s crime is being actually a good student of the West"
- Abdullah al Andalusi

He compared ISIS to Western armies “and even some of the ‘Founding Fathers’ of Western nations” in a June 2014 post on his own website.
“IS’s crime is being actually a good student of the West, right down to their corporate structure and organization and ability to use social media!” al Andalusi wrote.
During a Jan. 16 talk at Queen Mary University, he dismissed the 9/11 terror attacks as “the day a vicious world empire found a publicly-acceptable excuse to bomb others, invade non-threatening nations, torture political dissidents and kill at least 300,000 innocent people,” according to the Telegraph.
But al Andalusi says his words have been taken out of context, and on Sunday he posted to his website a full-throated, 2,300-word rebuttal.
“I have never worked in any government counterterrorism work, team or department,” he wrote, before offering a point-by-point refutation of the claims made in the Telegraph.
Even his denial, however, contained a few questionable passages.
“Do I support the re-establishment of a Caliphate? Of course, because a Caliphate is a part of Islamic belief, so integral is it to Islam that Sunnis and Shias originally split merely due to the question of who should be the Caliph,” al Andalusi wrote.
Al Andalusi, whose real name is Mouloud Farid and who has used at least one other alias according to the Telegraph, worked for nearly two years at the London office of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, which assesses police forces and activity “ranging from neighborhood teams through serious crime to the fight against terrorism.”
HMIC said al Andalusi passed an initial security vetting and had been promoted to a management-level position, according to the Telegraph. He didn’t handle classified material, HMIC said; however, a former MDI colleague told the Telegraph that al Andalusi talked about having access to sensitive information.
“His work did involve security areas,” said the colleague, who was quoted anonymously. “He said he had a role in overseeing the police response to terrorism and there were areas he couldn’t talk about.”
At least one member of parliament can’t believe al Andalusi’s statements didn’t raise a red flag earlier.
“The man’s unsuitability for sensitive work should have been obvious from the start,” Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said.

Walker announces 2016 White House bid

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced his bid Monday for the Republican presidential nomination, entering a crowded 2016 field amid high expectations. 

Walker, known for his high-profile battles with the powerful public-sector unions, announced his plans on social media and in a fundraising email. He becomes the 15th Republican candidate.
In his email to supporters, Walker pointed to his record in Wisconsin as a potential model, saying "it's time to take the successes we have created in Wisconsin and apply them to Washington."
Walker, set to kick off his campaign at a rally in Waukesha, Wis., later Monday, joins the race after signing a controversial budget. His tenure in Wisconsin has been turbulent, but the governor has enacted major changes in the state.
A campaign video released Monday is heavy on images of Walker speaking to a crowd in an Iowa cornfield, as well as his 2010 battle with unions. The video includes Walker speaking directly to the camera touting his willingness to take on big fights.
"We didn't nibble around the edges," he says.
Walker enacted policies weakening the unions' political power and became the first governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall election.
He also cut income and corporate taxes by nearly $2 billion, lowered property taxes, legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, made abortions more difficult to obtain, required photo identification when voting and made Wisconsin a right-to-work state.
His budget this year, which plugged a $2.2 billion shortfall when he signed it into law Sunday, requires drug screenings for public benefit recipients, expands the private school voucher program, freezes tuition at the University of Wisconsin while cutting funding by $250 million and removing tenure protections from state law.
Such achievements may appeal to conservatives who hold outsized sway in Republican primaries, yet some could create challenges in a general election should Walker ultimately become the GOP's nominee. Voter ID laws, abortion restrictions, liberal gun policies and education cuts are not necessarily popular among swing-state independents.

World Market Cartoon

Trump blasts US immigration policy, trade agenda

PHOENIX –  Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump criticized U.S. immigration and trade policies on Saturday in speeches that veered from accusing Mexico of deliberately sending criminals across the border to professing respect for the Mexican government and love for its people.

Speaking to a gathering of Libertarians in Las Vegas before headlining an event in Phoenix, Trump repeated his charge that Mexico was sending violent offenders to the U.S. to harm Americans and that U.S. officials were being "dumb" in dealing with immigrants in the country illegally.
"These people wreak havoc on our population," he told a few thousand people attending the Libertarian gathering FreedomFest inside a Planet Hollywood ballroom on the Las Vegas Strip.
In the 4,200-capacity Phoenix convention center packed with flag-waving supporters, Trump took a different view -- for a moment -- and said: "I love the Mexican people. I love `em. Many, many people from Mexico are legal. They came in the old-fashioned way. Legally."
He quickly returned to the sharp tone that has brought him scorn as well as praise. "I respect Mexico greatly as a country. But the problem we have is their leaders are much sharper than ours, and they're killing us at the border and they're killing us on trade."
His speeches in both venues were long on insults aimed at critics and short on solutions to the problems he cited. When he called for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the audience in Las Vegas groaned.
In a break from the immigration rhetoric that has garnered him condemnation and praise, Trump asserted that he would have more positive results in dealing with China and Russia if he were president and said he could be pals with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked by an audience member in Las Vegas about U.S.-Russia relations, Trump said the problem is that Putin doesn't respect Obama.
"I think we would get along very, very well," he said.
Trump has turned to victims of crime to bolster his argument that immigrants in the U.S. illegally have killed and raped. In Las Vegas and Phoenix, he brought on stage Jamiel Shaw Sr., a Southern California man whose 17-year-old son was shot and killed in 2008 by a man in the country illegally. Shaw vividly described how his son was shot -- in the head, stomach and hands while trying to block his face -- and how he heard the gunshots as he talked to his son on the phone.
Shaw said he trusted Trump, and encouraged the crowds in both cities to do the same.
Trump's speeches were filled with tangents and insults leveled at business partners such as Univision and NBC that have dropped him in the wake of his comments that Mexican immigrants bring drugs and crime to the U.S. and are rapists. He also directed familiar barbs at other presidential contenders, including Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton ("the worst secretary of state in the history of the country"), news media figures ("lyin' Brian Williams") and President Barack Obama ("such a divisive person"). He called journalists "terrible people."
As Trump lambasted Univision for cancelling its broadcast of the Miss USA pageant, one of his many business enterprises, a group of young Latinos unfurled a banner pointed toward the stage and began chanting insults. They were quickly drowned out by the crowd, and nearby Trump supporters began to grab at them, tearing at the banner and pulling and pushing at the protesters. Security staff managed to get to the group and escorted them out as Trump resumed speaking.
"I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over here," he said. "I think so."
Arizona's tough-on-immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio introduced Trump in Phoenix after outlining the things he and the candidate have in common, including skepticism that Obama was born in the United States. He went on to criticize the federal government for what he called a revolving door for immigrants, saying many of them end up in his jails.
"He's been getting a lot of heat, but you know, there's a silent majority out here," Arpaio said, borrowing from a phrase Richard Nixon popularized during his presidency in a speech about the Vietnam War.
A single protester standing outside the room where Trump spoke in Las Vegas was more concerned about the businessman being tied to the Libertarian Party.

Clinton to deliver economic speech Monday, with tax policy at issue

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton is set to give a major economic speech Monday, after weeks of deferring about her plans to improve the U.S economy including whether she’ll raise taxes.

The focus of her economic agenda will be to increase middle class income and wages. And she will argue that stagnant paychecks is the biggest challenge facing the U.S. economy.
Clinton's campaign on Saturday provided a preview of her speech, which will also include the argument that the real income of everyday Americans must rise steadily alongside corporate profits and executive compensation.
Clinton declined in a CNN interview earlier this week to say whether she would raise taxes on big corporations or the country’s highest wage-earners, as primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed.
“I think we have to grow the economy faster and fairer,” she said. “So we have to do what will actually work in the short term, the medium term and the long term. … then, I’ll look forward to the debate.”
While top-tier Republican candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has called for an annual growth rate of 4 percent, Clinton will assert that the nation's economy should not be judged by a specific growth figure but rather by how much income increases for middle-class households.
"For a typical working American, their income has not been rising anywhere near as fast as it should be rising, and that is the challenge we face," said David Kamin, a New York University law professor who has advised Clinton's campaign. "It's not a new problem, and it's going to take a holistic vision."
The Clinton campaign said the former first lady and New York senator in her speech at The New School, a university in New York City, will point to economic progress during her husband's two terms in the 1990s and more recently under President Obama.
But she will aim to identify ways of improving upon the uneven nature of the nation's recovery since the Great Recession, bolstering wages even as the unemployment rate has fallen to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent.
Clinton is also expected to begin outlining a series of specific economic proposals this summer on issues like wage growth, college affordability, corporate accountability and paid leave.
In Clinton's approach to the economy, more Americans would share in the prosperity and avoid the boom-and-bust cycles of Wall Street that have led to economic turbulence of the past decade.
Clinton, who is seeking to become the nation's first female president, is also expected to address ways of making it easier for women to join the workforce.
Clinton will attempt to meet the demands of liberals within her own party who are wary of her willingness to regulate Wall Street while inspiring confidence among a larger electorate who will judge her policies if she wins the Democratic nomination.
Progressives encouraged Elizabeth Warren to seek the presidency, but the Massachusetts senator, who has railed against Wall Street and corporate excesses, declined to run. Many of those same liberals are now packing large gatherings held by Sanders, who has made economic inequality the chief plank of his campaign.
Alan Blinder, a Princeton University economist and former economic adviser to Clinton’s husband, President Bill Clinton, said she has expressed interest in policies to curb excessive risk on Wall Street, such as a financial transactions tax on high-frequency trading, taxes on large Wall Street banks based on their risk profile and eliminating the so-called carried interest loophole that allows managers of hedge funds and private equity firms to pay a lower tax rate than most individuals.
Clinton has said she will take nothing for granted in the primary contest, but the economic message will allow her to begin contrasting herself with Republicans.
In recent speeches, she has portrayed the Republican presidential field, including Bush as supportive of "top-down" economic policies and large tax breaks for the wealthy.
"They're back to the trickle down, cut taxes on the wealthy and everything will be fine," Clinton said last week in Iowa. "This will be the biggest economic debate, because they know the only way they can win the White House back is to somehow convince voters that what we have done didn't work."

Iran's supreme leader calls for continued anti-US struggle

Iran’s supreme leader called for the continued struggle against the U.S. Saturday even as negotiations at Iran’s nuclear talks make headway.

The negotiations entered their 15^th day Saturday with no indications of a major breakthrough after three more extensions and four targets for a deal, and diplomats said it remained unclear whether an agreement could be reached by Monday, Iran and the world powers’ latest deadline.
Iran and the U.S. have both threatened to walk away from the table unless the other side made concessions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments suggests Tehran’s distrust of Washington will persist whether a deal gets done or not. His remarks are likely to add skepticism over the outcome of the long negotiations.
Iran’s state-run Press TV cited Khamenei as calling the U.S. an “excellent example of arrogance.” It said Khamenei told university students in Tehran to be “prepared to continue the struggle against arrogant powers.”
Khamenei’s comments have appeared to be a blow to U.S. hopes than agreement will lead to improved relations with the country and possible cooperation against Islamic rebels.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani indicated talks could go either way.
"We behaved so skillfully that if talks won't succeed, the world would accept that Iran is for logic and dialogue and never left the negotiating table ... and if we succeed by the grace of God, the world will know that the Iranian nation can resolve its problems through logic," his website quoted him as saying.
The supreme leader’s comments also come after it was learned Saturday that the Islamic Republic’s spies have been seeking atomic and missile technology in neighboring Germany as recently as last month.
Iran’s illegal activities have continued since talks between Iran and the P5+1 - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as rotating member Germany - began with a Joint Plan of Action in 2013, according to German intelligence sources. The JPOA was intended to stop Iran’s work on a nuclear weapon until a comprehensive agreement is reached.
"You would think that with the negotiations, [Iranian] activities would drop," a German intelligence source said. "Despite the talks to end Iran’s program, Iran did not make an about-turn."
With a final agreement to restrict Iran’s nuclear program set for Monday, the intelligence data from Germany raises disturbing questions about the success of the deal.
Tehran has sought industry computers, high-speed cameras, cable fiber, and pumps for its nuclear and missile program over the last two years, according to German intelligence sources. Germany is required to report Iran’s illegal procurement activities to the UN.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Secretary of State John Kerry met again this time with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini present. Of the chief diplomats of the six countries negotiating with Iran, British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond and Foreign Ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany and Laurent Fabius of France also are already in Vienna. Kerry spoke by telephone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Chinese and Russian foreign ministers have said they will come to Vienna if a deal appears close.
Friday, Kerry suggested that some progress had been made, telling reporters that the “atmosphere is very constructive,” but stressing that “Very difficult issues” remained to be resolved. Since the start of the current round 15 days ago, Kerry has said twice that the neogtiations couldn’t be open-ended and warned that the U.S. was prepared to call an end to the talks.
Any deal is meant to clamp long-term and verifiable restrictions on Iranian nuclear programs that are technically adaptable to make weapons in exchange for sanctions relief for Tehran.
The scope of access to U.N. inspectors monitoring Iran's nuclear program remains a sticking point. The Americans want no restrictions. Iranian officials say unrestricted monitoring could be a cover for Western spying. Diplomats say Iran's negotiators have signaled a willingness to compromise, but hardliners in Iran remain opposed to broad U.N. inspections.
Another unresolved matter is Iran's demand for a U.N. arms embargo to be lifted as part of sanctions relief, a stance supported by Russia and China but opposed by the U.S. and some Europeans.
The current round was supposed to conclude on June 30, but was extended until July 7, then July 10 and now July 13. The sides had hoped to seal a deal before the end of Thursday in Washington to avoid delays in implementing their promises.
By missing that target, the U.S. and Iran now have to wait for a 60-day congressional review period during which President Barack Obama can't waive sanctions on Iran. Had they reached a deal by Thursday, the review would have been only 30 days.
Iran is unlikely to begin a substantial rollback of its nuclear program until it gets sanctions relief in return.

Germany reportedly preparing for Greece exit from eurozone

Germany has reportedly began preparing for Greece to be rejected from the eurozone, as the European Union faces less than 24 hours to save the country from collapse.

Greece failed to give its creditors in the 19-country eurozone proof that it can deliver on its promises to implement tough austerity and reform measures in return for billions more in bailout money.
Finance ministers canceled a European Union summit meeting Sunday in an effort to do everything it takes to get a deal done or to decide to eject Greece from the eurozone.
Should a deal fall through, The Telegraph reports the German government has prepared to negotiate a temporary five-year euro exit, giving the country humanitarian aid while it makes the transition. The plan backed by Germany’s finance ministry gives Greece two options: either submit a proposal to make drastic changes such as placing 50 billion euro in a trust fund of sorts to pay off its debts and have Brussels take over its public administration or agree to a temporary exit from the eurozone.
German vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said it was the only options Greece has in the matter as creditors voiced mistrust with Athens, a week after the Greek government held a referendum in which it urged voters to reject bailout conditions that it now has signed up to.
Early Saturday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras got the backing from Parliament on a package of economic reforms and further austerity measures, in hope that it would convince European creditors to back a third bailout of the country.
Still, the measures proposed, which include changes long-demanded by creditors, such as changes to pensions and sales taxes, weren't enough to unlock an agreement in Brussels. Following months of deteriorating relations, creditors are demanding firm legislative action to back up the proposals at the very least.
However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble lashed out against the Greek government, saying it will have to do a lot more than just say it wants to reform if it’s going to get more money.
"We will definitely not be able to rely on promises," he said. "We are determined to not make calculations that everyone knows one cannot believe in."
The Telegraphs reports there is an open revolt among the eurozone’s 19-member states as a group of small creditors threatening to reject the rescue plan.
Finland is on the brink of withdrawing its negotiating mandate from the government, which would force creditors to set an emergency voting procedure to pass a new rescue deal. Finland’s True Finns party has threatened to bring down its young government if it supports a new Greek deal, according to the paper.
"It's still very difficult but work is still in progress," Jeroen Dijsselbloem said, the eurozone’s top official said leaving the meeting.
One of the few supports Greece has in its fight to secure more money is France. Ministers have urged smaller, poorer eurozone countries to help Greece, according to The Telegraph.
French Finance Minister Michel Sapin is hoping to get confidence again to be able to agree to a rescue plan for Greece. He called the latest proposal a “brave” step forward.
The eurozone ministers have to give their blessing to Greece's bailout request to the European Stability Mechanism. Traditionally, eurozone ministers agree by mutual consensus, though in exceptional circumstances a unanimous vote may not be needed.
Greece has received bailouts totaling 240 billion euros in return for deep spending cuts, tax increases and reforms from successive governments. Though the country's annual budget deficit has come down dramatically, Greece's debt burden has increased as the economy has shrunk by a quarter.
The Greek government has made some form of debt relief a priority and will hope that a comprehensive solution will involve European creditors at least agreeing to delayed repayments or lower interest rates.
Tsipras has made much of the need for a restructuring of Greek debt, which stands at around 320 billion euros, or a staggering 180 percent or so of the country's annual GDP. Few economists think that debt will ever fully repaid. Last week, the International Monetary Fund said a restructuring was necessary for Greece.

Sanctuary City Cartoon