Top Stories Today – May 9, 2019
Top Stories Today – May 9, 2019
US slaps new sanctions on Iran
President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions Wednesday on Iran, hours after the Iranian president said he was pulling out of parts of the 2015 nuclear deal struck with world powers. Trump said in an executive order there would be new sanctions on Iranian metal exports: steel, aluminum, copper and iron.
US sanctions on Iranian oil, its No. 1 moneymaker, have had a devastating effect on its economy. Iran’s metal industry is another major source of income. Earlier Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced he was backing out of parts of the nuclear deal and would take further action in 60 days if European nations did not help Iran deal with the effects of US sanctions. The Voice of America
Montenegro jails Russian coup plot leaders
A court in Montenegro has handed five-year jail terms to two pro-Russian opposition politicians for trying to topple the government in October 2016. The court also found 12 others guilty including two Russians – alleged GRU secret agents – tried in absentia. Prosecutors said the plotters had Kremlin support to assassinate the then-prime minister, Milo Djukanovic and block NATO accession. Russia has called the coup inquiry absurd.
Russia has condemned Montenegro’s June 2017 accession to NATO. NATO membership remains highly controversial in the small Balkan country, which became independent in 2006. Serbia and Montenegro – both bombed by NATO planes in the 1999 Kosovo war – were originally one country after the break-up of Yugoslavia. At that time there was Russian support for the Yugoslav government. BBC
Senate Intel subpoenas Trump Jr.
The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. to answer questions about his previous testimony before Senate investigators in relation to the Russia investigation, sources with direct knowledge told Axios.
It’s the first congressional subpoena — that we know about — of one of President Trump’s children. The subpoena sets up a fight that’s unprecedented in the Trump era: A Republican committee chair pit against the Republican president’s eldest son. It’s also a sign that the Russia investigations in Congress aren’t over despite the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying it’s time to move on from the Russia probe. Axios
US House vote to hold AG in contempt
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jerry Nadler, voted along party lines Wednesday to advance a resolution to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report, after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over Mueller’s findings.
The moves marked an escalation in tensions between Democrats and the Trump administration, and set up a likely battle in the courts as Democrats work to review Mueller’s conclusions. ABC News
Venezuela’s V President of opposition group arrested
Venezuelan intelligence agents have detained the vice-president of the opposition-run national assembly in Caracas as a crackdown against politicians involved in last week’s failed uprising against Nicolás Maduro intensified.
Edgar Zambrano was towed in his car to the notorious political prison El Helicoide after he refused to leave his vehicle when he was approached by agents from the Sebin intelligence agency. It was the first arrest of an opposition figure since the botched revolt. The Guardian
N Korea fires an unidentified projectile
North Korea fired an unidentified projectile on Thursday, the South’s military said, less than a week after its leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of multiple rockets and a missile. The projectile was fired at about 4:30 p.m. (0730 GMT) from the northwest town of Sino-ri, in an easterly direction, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It did not immediately release further details.
A South Korean official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the projectile was believed to have flown around 420 km (260 miles). Reuters