Friday News Roundup - International

With guest host John Donvan.

Iran was the target of a Twitter message from President Trump at the beginning of the week. National Security Adviser John Bolton will convene a meeting on the administration’s Iran policy, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Four days after President Trump's stern warning via Twitter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, national security adviser John Bolton is scheduled to hold a meeting Thursday of Pentagon and other top officials on the administration's emerging strategy on Iran.

The meeting, which follows Mr. Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord and reimpose tough economic sanctions on Tehran, comes as key elements of the administration's Iran policy remain unclear.

Among them: what the U.S. might give in return for a new agreement with Tehran, and whether Washington is prepared to use military force along with economic pressure to roll back Iran's assertive posture in the Middle East.

Trump’s broadsides have left some observers wondering whether he’s using the same playbook on Iran that he did with North Korea.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee “armed” with a statement that the US won't recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

And in North Korea, satellite images showed a missile testing site being dismantled. This step is one Trump says he had asked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for previously.

In Pakistan, the likely new prime minister is former cricket star Imran Khan. BuzzFeed News breaks down what we should know about him, though his win was not confirmed at the time of publication.

Aside from efforts to woo the religious right, his success is due in a large part to support from the all-powerful military, which has long wielded power in Pakistani politics.

Critics say the army has intervened to give Khan’s party privileged access to the media and pressured members of rival parties to defect — allegations he denies.

Despite that support, Khan in his victory speech said that he was ready to help end the longstanding tensions between Pakistan and India. The nuclear-armed countries have fought three wars since they were partitioned in 1949. As it stands, the disputed territory of Kashmir remains a hotspot where clashes still occur.

“If India’s leadership is ready, we are ready to improve ties with India,” Khan said. “If you step forward one step, we will take two steps forward.”

His election comes after “a suicide bomb in the western city of Quetta killed at least 29 people, less than a month after 149 people were killed at an election rally in Mastung, Baluchistan province. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for both attacks,” per BuzzFeed.

And just because it’s been a busy news week, it doesn’t mean we’ve spaced out.

From National Geographic:

Liquid water is refreshingly abundant on moons in the outer solar system, but it has proven surprisingly tough to find in reliable quantities on Mars—until now.

Radar scans of the red planet suggest that a stable reservoir of salty, liquid water measuring some 12 miles across lies nearly a mile beneath the planet's south pole. What's more, the underground lake is not likely to be alone.

GUESTS

David Lawler, World news editor, Axios; @davidlawler10

Barbara Plett Usher, State department correspondent, BBC; @BBCBarbaraPlett

Yochi Dreazen, Former foreign editor, Vox; author, “The Invisible Front”; @yochidreazen

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

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