‘Start Here’: Iran sanctions planned, mass deportations delayed, climate vote dodged

FAN Editor

It’s Monday, June 24, 2019. Let’s start here.

1. Waiting for Iran

The U.S. is set to impose more sanctions on Iran today with hopes of forcing Tehran to the negotiating table amid a deepening crisis.

Iran has held firm against the crippling sanctions so far, according to ABC News Foreign Correspondent James Longman, who says on “Start Here” that the country sees the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” tactic as “tantamount to war.”

“They use this phrase, ‘economic terrorism,’ so for them, these sanctions have already waged a war,” Longman tells us.

The sanctions are the latest response to Iran’s shooting down of an unmanned U.S. military drone last week. President Donald Trump on Thursday called off a retaliatory military strike, instead authorizing a cyberattack on Iranian computer systems used to control rocket and missile launches, a source familiar confirmed to ABC News.

Iranian TV has broadcast images of the downed drone v @nasseratta5

2. Deportations delayed

The president has delayed nationwide deportation raids of more than 2,000 undocumented immigrants for two weeks to allow members of Congress more time to make a deal addressing the border crisis.

At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!

When Trump called off the raids, multiple cities had already announced they wouldn’t cooperate and warned residents to make sure they had functional locks on their doors, advising that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers don’t have the right to forcibly enter a home without a warrant signed by a judge.

“If you’re an immigrant living in this country … just because the president has said now on Twitter that this is going to be delayed by two weeks, that doesn’t give you comfort that somebody isn’t going to come knocking at your door to take away your loved one at some time in the future,” ABC News’ Lana Zak says.

There is also growing criticism over the deplorable conditions at U.S. immigration holding centers. A board-certified physician who observed facilities with lawyers firsthand in Texas compared conditions to “torture facilities,” according to a medical declaration obtained exclusively by ABC News.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement it has limited resources and is leveraging all of them to “provide the best care possible to those in our custody, especially children,” adding that “all allegations of civil rights abuses or mistreatment in CBP detention are taken seriously and investigated to the fullest extent possible.”

3. Lawmakers on the lam

Republican state lawmakers in Oregon remain in hiding after walking out of the state Capitol last week to block a vote on a climate change bill.

The legislation would establish a carbon cap to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s likely to be approved by the Democratic-controlled legislature, but lawmakers can’t vote on the bill without a quorum.

While Oregon Governor Kate Brown dispatched state troopers to bring senators back to the Capitol, the whereabouts of the GOP lawmakers remains unclear, according to The Oregonian’s Hillary Borrud.

“We’ve been hearing all different kinds of reports of where these guys are,” she says. “Sometimes that they’re just in their local diner, in their community that they live in, or, in one case, I talked to a guy last Thursday when he was crossing the border into Idaho.”

4. ‘Intense emotion’

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was off the campaign trail and back at home on Sunday where he was grilled at an emotional town hall by members of his community over the deadly shooting of a black man by a white police officer.

“Shouting, booing, clapping, people being escorted out,” ABC News’ Tara Palmeri says, describing the fiery exchanges. “There was a lot of raw, intense emotion at this event.”

Buttigieg pledged for an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of 54-year-old Eric Logan by Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, whom prosecutors said did not have his body camera turned on during the June 16 incident.

“Start Here,” ABC News’ flagship podcast, offers a straightforward look at the day’s top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn or the ABC News app. Follow @StartHereABC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for exclusive content and show updates.

Elsewhere:

‘Blacked out’: A missing medical student whose friend was killed in Mexico can’t remember what happened.

‘Consistent in appearance with an alligator encounter’: A missing man’s body is found.

From our friends at FiveThirtyEight:

2019 Women’s World Cup Predictions: The U.S. and France remain heavy favorites as the Round of 16 commences.

Doff your cap:

‘Tis the season.

Today we are celebrating summer in photographs.

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Iran says U.S. cyber attacks fail, hints at possible talks

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as he leaves after a meeting at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., June 20, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo June 24, 2019 By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin LONDON (Reuters) – Iran said on […]