Month: July 2019

Joe Biden no longer plans to turn the other cheek.
 
His front-running status fragile, the former vice president is embracing an aggressive plan to confront Democratic rivals who have tried to undermine his popularity with black voters.
 
After ignoring his Democratic competition for much of the year, Biden and his team shrugged off the risks Thursday and leaned into a deliberate campaign to push back against New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris, the only high-profile African-American candidates in the race.
 
Biden’s team highlighted Booker and Harris’ past praise of Biden while raising questions about their own records related to race. And Biden’s allies made clear that the former vice president was prepared for a fight in next week’s debate. They also point to numerous surveys showing Biden with durable support among black voters that far exceeds that of Booker or Harris.
 
“He’s going to forcefully defend his record and not let it get distorted,” declared Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana congressman and national co-chairman of Biden’s campaign. The comments echoed Biden’s own from the night before in Detroit when he warned his competitors that he was “not going to be as polite” in the upcoming prime-time faceoff, where Biden will share the stage with both Booker and Harris.
 
Biden’s shift underscores the escalating racial rift roiling the Democratic primary just days after President Donald Trump issued racist calls for four female congresswomen of color to leave the country, even though all of them are American citizens. For Democrats, the evolving fight represents an unwelcome distraction away from Trump’s record.
 
In some respects, however, it is only beginning.

 
Both Harris and Booker have hit Biden in recent weeks by highlighting his support for criminal justice reform that disproportionately hurt the minority community and his willingness to cooperate with segregationist senators in the 1970s, among other trouble spots from his nearly four-decade career in Congress. Booker this week called Biden the “architect of mass incarceration” for his support of a crime bill in 1994.
 
Biden struggled to defend himself against Harris on race in the first debate, but his team insists he won’t be caught off guard again.
 
The strategy marks a critical test for Biden, who has worked in the past month, with varying degrees of success, to stress his eight-year partnership with President Barack Obama over a 36-year Senate career he long saw as worthy of the presidency.
 
In the past month, he has sought to move beyond those early Senate years, attempting to untangle himself from awkward comments lauding his collaboration with segregationist colleagues and his opposition to federally mandated busing. Instead, he has stressed key roles alongside Obama and married his own policy proposals to gains made during that administration.
 
During a speech in South Carolina last month, he apologized for anguish caused by the segregationist comments, but also said he did not plan to relitigate in 60-second debate answers his long Senate career, a sentiment reflected in some supporters’ observations that Biden has appeared defensive or dismissive.
 
Biden’s preemptive criticism of Booker’s time as Newark, New Jersey, mayor suggests Biden sees value in a level of defiance. But in some cases, he has come off as defensive and dismissive, even to his supporters.
 
In an interview, the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose support many candidates covet to help win votes from African Americans, said he didn’t know if Biden could execute the delicate strategy.
 
“In the past he has had fumbles. We’ll see if he can operate with discipline now,” Sharpton said. “He needs to be cautious.”
 
Indeed, Biden’s strategy pits an older white male against two younger people of color at a time when the Democratic Party’s most passionate voters are demanding a new generation of diverse leaders.
 
So far, Biden can take comfort in polls that show him with a commanding edge among black voters. A survey released Thursday by Monmouth University found that 39% of likely South Carolina Democratic voters supported Biden. That was more than any other candidate — including Harris, who had support from just 12%, and Booker, with 2%. Biden’s support was particularly strong among black voters, winning 51%.
 
Biden strategist Kate Bedingfield used his strong support from black voters as ammunition to attack Booker on social media on Thursday, tweeting pictures of poll results that showed Biden far ahead of Booker among black voters.
 
The day before, she released a statement condemning Booker’s tenure as mayor of Newark, where, she said, he ran “a police department that was such a civil rights nightmare that the U.S. Department of Justice intervened.’ She also highlighted Booker’s “zero-tolerance” policy for minor infractions and a stop-and-frisk policy that disproportionately hurt African Americans.
 
Biden himself noted this week that Harris has been a vocal supporter long before she used his record on school busing to attack him in the first debate.

 
At the 2016 California Democratic convention, Harris heaped praise on then-Vice President Biden. “I say from my personal experience that the Biden family truly represents our nation’s highest ideals, a powerful belief in the nobility of public service,” she said.
 
To complement the campaign against his Democratic opponents, Biden has also tweaked his message on the campaign trail.
 
Since the first debate, he has almost completely dropped references to his Republican friendships and focused instead on his eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president.
 
“I think anybody in this race would love to have the record of achievement alongside Barack Obama that Joe Biden has,” Bedingfield said. “If they want to tear it down, I’d say best of luck to them.”
 
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright worries about the long-term consequences of sustained Democratic attacks on Biden’s commitment to minority communities, who will play a vital role in the November 2020 general election. Still, he says Biden has a real opportunity to project strength ahead of a prospective general election matchup against Trump.
 
“When you get swung at, you don’t have to swing back, but you also have to show that you know how to fight,” he said.

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The U.S. government plans to resume executions after a 16-year hiatus, picking five killers of children to be the first to die.

The five men — four white and one black — range in age from 37 to 67. They are being held in a high-security federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where they will be executed.

Here is a look at the five men and their crimes:

Daniel Lee, 46, is scheduled for execution Dec. 9.

Lee, a white supremacist, was convicted in 1999 for killing an Arkansas gun dealer, along with his wife and 8-year-old daughter.

Lezmond Mitchell, 37, is scheduled for execution Dec. 11.

Mitchell was convicted in 2003 for killing a 63-year-old grandmother and her 9-year-old granddaughter in Arizona. After stabbing the grandmother to death, Mitchell and his accomplice forced the child to sit next to the body for a more than 50-kilometer drive, before fatally slashing her throat.

Wesley Purkey, 67, is scheduled for execution Dec. 13.

Purkey was found guilty in 2003 for raping and killing a 16-year-old girl before dismembering and burning her body in Missouri. Months before that murder, Purkey had used a hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who suffered from polio.

Alfred Bourgeois, 55, is scheduled for execution Jan. 13, 2020.

Bourgeois was found guilty by a Texas court in 2004 of the murder of his 2-year-old daughter. Witnesses, including family members, told the court that Bourgeois had repeatedly beaten the child before her death. An autopsy found the girl had sustained more than 300 injuries. Bourgeois is the only African American man on the list.

Dustin Honken, 51, is scheduled for execution Jan. 15, 2020.

Honken was found guilty in 2004 for the shooting deaths of five people in Iowa, including two men, a single mother and her daughters, ages 6 and 10. The Justice Department has said the two men were drug dealers who planned to testify against Honken, a methamphetamine dealer.
 

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The U.S. House on Thursday approved legislation aimed at protecting thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States from deportation by granting them Temporary Protected Status.

The measure was adopted on a 272-158 vote after a debate that required a simple majority for passage. The same bill failed earlier this week when 154 Republicans voted against it under a procedure for quick passage that required approval from two-thirds of the 435 House members. All 158 votes against the bill Thursday were Republicans, while 39 Republicans voted in favor.

Similar legislation has not moved forward in the Senate since it was introduced in February.

Arguments for, against

Temporary Protected Status is usually granted by the Department of Homeland Security to people from countries ravaged by natural disasters or war and lets them remain in the U.S. until the situation improves back home.

Rep. Doug Collin of Georgia, the top Republican on the House judiciary panel, said he opposed the bill because recent court rulings have blocked the Trump administration from terminating the TPS designation for some countries.

“We should not ensure renewal is automatic,” Collins said. “If we do not do that, we can continue the same broken TPS designation process.”

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, a Republican who was a co-sponsor of the measure, urged other members of his caucus to support the bill.

“This is not to be confused with issues dealing with immigration,” Diaz-Balart said. “This is to deal with a specific case of the Venezuelans who are struggling under this oppressive regime and we should not return people back.”

200,000 Venezuelans

The Trump administration was one of the first to recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of the South American nation, a step that has been taken by more than 50 other governments. Those countries contend President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was fraudulent.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates 200,000 Venezuelans currently living in the United States could receive TPS. Under the measure, Venezuelan nationals would be eligible to get migratory relief and work permits valid for 18 months if they have been continuously present in the U.S. since the bill’s enactment and apply paying a $360 fee.

Stuck in the Senate

Rep. Darren Soto, a Florida Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said after the vote that “we want this to be as bipartisan as possible because it gives us a better chance in the Senate.”

The TPS legislation is the fourth Venezuela-related bill adopted by the House so far this year, but none has made it yet to the Senate floor.

“Our hope is the vote today will really light a fire in the Senate to get going on the Venezuela bills,” said Rep. Donna Shalala, also a Florida Democrat.

The United Nations estimates that at least 4 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years because of a chronic scarcity of food and medicines and a hyperinflation that reached 130,000% last year.

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A federal judge is considering whether to order Georgia to immediately stop using its outdated voting machines, even as state officials prepare to announce their replacement.

A lawsuit filed by election integrity activists argues that the paperless touchscreen voting machines Georgia has used since 2002 are unsecure, vulnerable to hacking and can’t be audited. It seeks statewide use of hand-marked paper ballots.

A law passed this year and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp provides specifications for a new system, which state officials said will be in place for the 2020 presidential election.

But the plaintiffs are asking U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg to order the state to immediately stop using the current system, which it plans to use for special and municipal elections this year and which the plaintiffs fear would be used in 2020 if a new system isn’t implemented in time. Totenberg has scheduled a hearing Thursday on those requests.

Georgia’s voting system drew national scrutiny last year during the closely watched governor’s race in which Kemp, a Republican who was the state’s top election official at the time, narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams.

The plaintiffs in this case _ the Coalition for Good Governance and individual voters asked Totenberg last August to force Georgia to use hand-marked paper ballots for the November election. While Totenberg expressed grave concerns about vulnerabilities in the state’s voting system and scolded state officials for being slow to respond to evidence of those problems, she said a switch to paper ballots so close to that election would be too chaotic.

The plaintiffs argue the state has done nothing to address the problems, and the outdated machines should not be used. They argue a switch to hand-marked paper ballots would be relatively easy since the state already uses such ballots for absentee and provisional voting, and the scale is smaller given that there are no statewide elections this year.
 
They cite problems they say arose in last year’s election, including malfunctioning voting machines, long lines, electronic poll book errors and an extreme undervote in the lieutenant governor’s race on ballots cast using voting machines.

In addition to the use of hand-marked paper ballots, they asked the judge to order the state to take some other immediate steps, including post-election audits to verify results.

Lawyers for state election officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, argue concrete steps have been taken to address the concerns, including arranging for the purchase of new voting technology statewide and adding security measures to existing systems.

They also argue that paper ballots have vulnerabilities and that putting an intermediate system in place while the state is moving to a new voting system “places an impossible burden on both state and local election officials and may result in voter frustration and disaffection from the voting process.”

The new law calls for voters to make their selections on electronic machines that print out a paper record that is read and tallied by scanners. The state is expected to choose a vendor soon. The request for proposals specifies that vendors must be able to distribute all voting machine equipment before March 31, which is a week after the state’s presidential primary election is set to be held on March 24.
 
The plaintiffs argue the ballot-marking machines provided for in the new law have many of the same fundamental flaws as the machines they’re replacing. They say any system that puts a computer between the voter and the permanent record of the vote can’t be effectively audited and is unconstitutional. They’ve said they plan to challenge the new system once the state announces which machines it plans to use.

The plaintiffs also say the state’s plan to implement a new system statewide in time for the 2020 elections is extremely ambitious and that putting a hand-marked paper ballot system in place now would be a secure and constitutional backup plan, unlike using the current system.

This lawsuit is one of several that challenge various aspects of Georgia’s election system. Another, filed by a group founded by Abrams, alleges systemic problems in the election system and accuses election officials of mismanaging the 2018 election.

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Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls, was found unconscious in a Manhattan jail cell with injuries to his neck, media reported late on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources.

Epstein was found by guards sprawled on the floor of cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Wednesday, media reported. Some media reported that his face appeared blue.

The billionaire financier was taken to hospital, the New York Post reported, but it was unclear where he was taken or what his condition was.

It was not clear how he suffered his injuries.

Neither a representative for the correctional center nor Epstein’s attorney returned calls or email inquiries from Reuters.

Epstein was recently denied bail, a move his lawyers plan to appeal according to a court notice made public on Tuesday.

Epstein was expected to ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the judge’s July 18 rejection of his request to remain under house arrest in his $77 million mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Epstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges and the appeal for bail was expected. His lawyer Reid Weingarten did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan declined to comment.

The charges, concerning alleged misconduct from at least 2002 to 2005, were announced more than a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida.

In denying him bail, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan said the government had shown by clear and convincing evidence that Epstein would pose a danger to the community if released pending trial.
 

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Americans love ice cream so much that in 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. VOA’s Karina Bafradzhian traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to try ice cream at a legendary parlor that has been making the cool treat for almost a century. 

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The Trump administration’s new asylum rule survived an initial court challenge Wednesday, keeping in place a directive that disqualifies a significant proportion of mostly Central American asylum-seekers who reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly denied requests to block the rule while a pending court case goes forward, saying, “It’s in the greater public interest to allow the administration to carry out its immigration policy.” 

Announced earlier this month, the new rule bars asylum for migrants who reach the U.S. southern border without having applied for and been denied asylum in any country they passed through on their way to the United States.

The case was brought by two immigrant rights organizations: the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and RAICES, or Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. Both organizations argued the asylum rule would harm migrants fleeing dangerous situations.

Kelly, who serves on the U.S. District Court in the nation’s capital, voiced doubts that plaintiffs could demonstrate the administration exceeded its authority by issuing the asylum rule. 

The White House’s legal victory could be short-lived, as a federal judge in San Francisco was to consider a separate challenge filed by the American Civil Liberties Union later in the day.

“We’ve filed suit to stop the Trump administration from reversing our country’s legal and moral commitment to protect people fleeing danger,” the ACLU tweeted.

Trump administration officials have said the new rule is meant to ease the strain on the U.S. asylum system. 

In a recent statement, U.S. Attorney General William Barr noted a “dramatic increase in the number of aliens” arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, adding that “[o]nly a small minority of these individuals” qualify for asylum. 

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he will visit China next week for two days of talks to end the  year-long trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Mnuchin said on CNBC Wednesday that he and Chinese officials will discuss “a lot of issues,” and he acknowledged later at the White House he doesn’t expect that all of them will be resolved.

The White House said in a statement the talks are “aimed at improving the trade relationship” between the two countries and will cover “a range of issues,” including the trade deficit and “forced technology transfer.”

The upcoming talks will be the first face-to-face meetings since they collapsed in May after President Donald Trump accused China of backpedaling on its commitments.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in Japan last month to cease further hostile actions while the two superpowers work to revive negotiations.

The two countries have imposed tariffs on $360 billion in two-way trade, and despite the cessation of hostilities, Trump has threatened additional punishing tariffs on Chinese goods.

Mnuchin said he will be accompanied by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer when the talks get underway next Tuesday in Shanghai.

Mnuchin said follow-up talks, probably in Washington, likely will be needed before any agreements are reached.

Senior U.S. and Chinese officials have spoken by phone twice in recent weeks in an effort to jumpstart the Shanghai talks. 

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Boeing Co reported a nearly $3 billion quarterly loss on Wednesday, its largest in a decade, as the world’s largest planemaker struggles with the prolonged grounding of its best-selling 737 MAX jet, sending its shares down slightly in premarket trading.

Chicago-based Boeing has been unable to deliver any 737 MAX aircraft since the single-aisle plane was grounded worldwide in March after two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia killed 346 people in a span of five months.

The total cost so far of the 737 MAX crisis now exceeds $8 billion after Boeing disclosed a $4.9 billion charge last week that includes compensation the planemaker will have to pay airlines for the delayed deliveries.

The second-quarter loss was Boeing’s biggest quarterly loss in 10 years.
 

Boeing has embarked on a campaign to restore faith in its most popular jet and has pledged to remove any risk by reprogramming the software pinpointed as a common factor in both crashes as it faces pressure to convince MAX operators and
global regulators that the aircraft is safe to fly again.

“This is a defining moment for Boeing and we remain focused on our enduring values of safety, quality, and integrity in all that we do, as we work to safely return the 737 MAX to service,” Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said on Wednesday.

Investors on a conference call later on Wednesday morning will be eager for information on how Boeing plans to increase production, repair its image with the flying public and stem its loses, as well as more details on General Electric Co. engine delays on the 777X widebody program.

Boeing said its first flight of the 777X is now delayed until early 2020 due to the engine problems announced last month, while its current plan for a first delivery to customers in late 2020 faced significant risk.

Initially, the 777-9 was scheduled for a first flight in the fourth quarter of 2018 with delivery to the first customer in the second quarter of 2020, according to a Boeing certification plan seen by Reuters.

The grounding of the 737 MAX has sent shockwaves through the industry and also pushed back the launch of a new Boeing aircraft, a twin-aisle jet for the middle of the market. That jetliner, known as NMA, is not just a crucial piece in Boeing’s fight with archrival Airbus in the lucrative longer-haul market but also for the eventual development of a 737 replacement, industry sources have said.

Boeing said free cash flow fell to a negative $1.01 billion in the quarter, the first full quarter of operations since the MAX was banned commercially, though that was narrower than the negative $2.09 billion analysts had expected, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

“Although the headline numbers for 2Q look pretty grim, they are not as bad as we had been forecasting,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Robert Stallard said in a note. “So while the 777X news is a negative, Boeing’s shares may go OK today – after all, it could have been worse.”

Boeing reduced the number of single-aisle aircraft it produces monthly in the Seattle area from 52 to 42 after the second crash in Ethiopia while suspending deliveries of the aircraft to airlines, cutting off a key source of cash and hitting margins.

The lower rate means Boeing has to pay more for parts, which are priced according to the volume Boeing buys. Boeing said it was working toward building 57 of the 737s a month in 2020, and that airplanes produced during the grounding and included within inventory will be delivered over several quarters following return to service.

The company said it would issue a new 2019 outlook at a future date, as the current forecast, which was suspended in April following the two deadly crashes, does not reflect the recent charges.

Boeing’s net loss for the first full quarter of operations since 737 MAX commercial flights were halted was $2.94 billion, compared with a profit of $2.20 billion, a year earlier.

Sales slipped 35% to $15.75 billion and also came in below the average expectation of $18.55 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Global airlines have had to cancel thousands of flights and use spare aircraft to cover routes that were previously flown with the fuel-efficient MAX, eating into their profitability.

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Opening up another legal front against the Democrats investigating him, President Donald Trump on Tuesday sued the House Ways and Means Committee and New York state officials to prevent his state tax returns from being turned over to the congressional committee.
 
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to block the application of a new New York state law that could allow the Democratic-controlled House and Ways Means Committee to obtain the returns. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, comes amid a furious White House attempt to prevent the president’s tax returns to wind up in Democratic hands.
 
“We have filed a lawsuit today in our ongoing efforts to end presidential harassment,” said Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s lawyers. “The targeting of the president by the House Ways and Means Committee, the New York Attorney General, and a New York tax official violates article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The harassment tactics lack a legitimate legislative purpose. The actions taken by the House and New York officials are nothing more than political retribution.”
 
The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, said the act “will shine a light on the president’s finances and finally offer transparency to millions of Americans yearning to know the truth.”
 
“President Trump has spent his career hiding behind lawsuits,” James said in a statement, “but, as New York’s chief law enforcement officer, I can assure him that no one is above the law — not even the president of the United States.”
 
Trump’s tax returns have been a source of mystery — and contention — ever since the celebrity businessman broke with tradition and did not release his returns during his 2016 presidential campaign.
 
The House Ways and Means Committee sued the Treasury Department and IRS officials this month in an attempt to enforce a law that allows its chairman to obtain any taxpayer’s returns. Its chairman, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., hasn’t indicated whether he would use the New York law, focusing instead on the federal lawsuit.
 
The lawsuit echoes what has become the White House consistent argument: that the committee’s pursuit of the president’s tax returns, as well as most of the Democrats’ investigative efforts, lack a legitimate legislative purpose and thus is outside Congress’s authority.
 
The suit also argues that the committee can’t have a legislative purpose in getting state records because its jurisdiction is limited to federal taxes. However, New York officials have argued that the state returns would contain much of the same information found on the president’s federal returns.
 
Trump has cited repeated IRS audits as a reason not to disclose his returns, but he isn’t legally prevented from releasing returns while under audit.
 
“Ultimately, this issue was litigated in the 2016 election,” the lawsuit said. “Voters heard the criticisms from Secretary (Hillary) Clinton, and they elected President Trump anyway. Democrats in Congress and across the country, however, have only become more eager to disclose the president’s tax returns for political gain.”
 
Democrats have argued that they need to review the returns in their search for potential conflicts of interest or corruption.
 
The administration and the Trump’s business have repeatedly tried to stall Democrats’ investigations by filing lawsuits and not cooperating. The White House has blocked several current and former officials from testifying, has refused to comply with document requests and the president has considered invoking executive privilege to stifle a series of probes.

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It’s been called the Deal of the Century by U.S. President Donald Trump, but it’s still a tightly held secret in Washington.

Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser Jared Kushner and special negotiator Jason Greenblatt have been working on the Israeli-Palestinian peace project for two years.

On Tuesday, Greenblatt addressed the U.N. Security Council, disclosing only that the document is 60 pages long.

Afterward, he told a small group of reporters that he is ready for “withering criticism” once the plan is revealed, which he says is likely to be in the next few months.

“We are going to air it at a time when we think it has the best chance of success,” Greenblatt said. “I really hope it doesn’t take beyond the Israeli election/government coalition.”

Israel is facing new parliamentary elections in mid-September after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to form a coalition government after winning April’s election.

Palestinian stance

Greenblatt says he and Kushner have talked to wide swaths of Israeli and Palestinian society in creating their proposal, including political and religious leaders, academics, experts and ordinary citizens. They have also gathered input in regional capitals and in Europe.

“I don’t think there will be many surprises in the plan,” Greenblatt said. “We test ideas, we see the reactions … we know where the hot buttons are.”

The Palestinian Authority has essentially rejected the plan sight unseen after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017 and moved the U.S. embassy there last year. The city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, has been for decades one of the most sensitive final status issues.

The U.S. negotiator hopes the Palestinians will soften their stance once the plan is released.

“It would be tragic for the Palestinian people themselves if their leadership just chooses to ignore it,” he said.

Iran factor

But Greenblatt is betting on there being enough “exciting things” in the political plan to persuade the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table, although an effort to get them to Bahrain in June for the roll out of potentially $50 billion in economic incentives was unsuccessful.

He adds that while one of the biggest challenges in the plan is Israel’s security, another is a potential spoiler.

“Even if I had a great peace plan, if we don’t figure out to make sure that Iran doesn’t spoil it, how much success are we really going to have?” he asked, noting that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is Iran’s “worst nightmare.”

Greenblatt and Kushner are scheduled to return to the region next week and will be joined by the administration’s point man on Iran policy, Brian Hook.

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