Iran contradicts Trump on peace talks
Iran said Monday that it is not resuming peace talks with the U.S., despite a statement by President Trump to reporters on board Air Force One that he backed down from ordering new massive strikes against Iran so that peace talks could get underway. Trump said that Arab world leaders from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia called him and urged that he hold off ordering new attacks. Trump told reporters that new peace talks would begin on Monday afternoon but he did not specify who would be involved. This appears to be the ninth time that Trump has threatened to launch massive strikes against Iran and then quickly backed down from ordering such strikes.
U.S. military looks for ideas on Iran
In an exclusive report on Monday, CNN reported that the U.S. military command is looking for new ideas to put pressure on Iran. “We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,” an officer in U.S. Central Command’s intelligence branch wrote in a message sent to a broad group of military analysts, according to a source familiar with the message. A second source said that a message soliciting new ideas came from a senior U.S. military officer. The second source said CENTCOM is looking at everything, acknowledging it needs to reevaluate the strategy currently being used against Iran. The email preceded Trump’s threat to launch new strikes against Iran and subsequent claim that new peace negotiations are getting underway..
Blanche puts it in writing
Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has put in writing what holdout Senate Republicans who refused to vote to confirm him for attorney general insisted he put in writing. Blanche caved to demands from Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis and formally ended the $1.8 billion fund Donald Trump planned to use to pay off people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Blanche also put in writing that the tax amnesty granted to Trump, his business and family applies only to tax returns already filed, and does not apply to future tax returns. A Senate Judiciary Committee vote on confirming Blanche as attorney general now is set for Tuesday.
Cuba’s electric grid collapses again
Cuba’s energy grid collapsed again late Sunday, plunging the Caribbean country into yet another nationwide blackout. Sunday’s blackout is the first of August, and comes after the island of 10-million people suffered three blackouts in July as the U.S. continues imposing an oil blockade. Cuba has struggled to import fuel since the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, Havana’s closest ally. Mexico has also halted exports to Cuba in response to U.S. pressure. Cuba’s Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruzden in July announced the government had approved the first foreign investment venture to import and sell fuel, Reuters reported, adding that nearly 200 businesses on the island had been given permission to engage in wholesale fuel distribution but there hasn’t been enough fuel to distribute.
U.S. supports Japanese yen
The United States bought the Japanese yen for the first time in more than a decade as “a signal of friendship,” Donald Trump said Sunday. The rare bilateral intervention in Japan’s currency market was designed to prop up the yen has been made worse recently by increasing energy costs due to the Iran war Trump started. The U.S. has interests in shoring up the yen because a stronger dollar makes American exports pricier for foreign consumers. Similarly, while a weak yen benefits Japanese exporters – and foreign tourists who go to Japan – it also increases the cost of imports like oil and gas, fueling inflation. Trump said Sunday that supporting the yen would be “good for the world economy,” and that the U.S. would benefit financially from the move without explaining how.
Health Secretary Kennedy repeats falsehoods in CNN interview
In attempting to rewrite the history of the U.S. Covid-19 response, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday pinned the blame for pandemic lockdowns on Dr. Anthony Fauci, rather than state governors who ordered lockdowns, while simultaneously reviving a string of debunked assertions about vaccines, RSV and measles. Kennedy was interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash. He claimed that the U.S. had the highest death rate of any country during the Covid pandemic, which was not true. At least 10 countries had higher death rates. Kennedy said President Trump, who was in office at the beginning of the pandemic and notably downplayed the virus as a Democratic hoax, was not to blame for the government’s response. Kennedy also falsely claimed that hospital intensive care units were empty during the Covid pandemic.
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