WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, June 24, 2019

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1/ Trump signed an executive order imposing new, "hard-hitting" sanctions on Iran in response to the downing of an unmanned U.S. drone last week. The new sanctions will deny Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and eight Iranian military commanders access to "key financial resources and support." Trump also warned that U.S. "restraint" has limits. (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / Wall Street Journal / CNBC)

• Trump approved an offensive cyberstrike that disabled Iranian computer systems used to control rocket and missile launches. U.S. Cyber Command launched the cyberstrikes against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last week. (Washington Post)

2/ Trump delayed planned nationwide ICE raids for two weeks to see if Congress can "work out a solution." Immigration agents had planned to sweep and deport people living the U.S. illegally in 10 major cities beginning Sunday. Hours after defending the plan, Trump delayed the raids on Saturday. Earlier in the week, Trump threatened to arrest and deport "millions of illegal aliens" next week. ICE leaders expressed concerns that officers' safety would be in jeopardy because too many details about the raids had been made public. (Associated Press / New York Times / CNN / Politico / ABC News)

• The Trump administration moved most of the children from a remote Border Patrol station in Texas following reports that more than 300 children were detained there with inadequate food, water and sanitation. (Associated Press)

3/ The Trump administration stopped promoting dozens of taxpayer-funded studies about the impacts of climate change. The studies include a discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment, a finding that climate change would exacerbate allergy seasons, and a warning to farmers about an expected reduction in the quality of important grasses used to feed and raise cattle. All of the studies were peer-reviewed and cleared through the Agricultural Research Service. (Politico)

• More than 70 medical and public health groups warned that climate change is "a health emergency." The health organizations' policy recommendations are at odds with Trump's approach. (Associated Press)

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