SUMMARY: Acting Sec. of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan recently met with El Salvador's new president, Nayib Bukele, about efforts to stem the tide of migrants heading north toward the U.S. McAleenan sits down with Amna Nawaz, who also made the trip, to discuss what migration levels would be acceptable to the Trump administration and the U.S.-Mexico “partnership” to manage their shared border.
SUMMARY: Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan is currently on a three-day trip to Central America to discuss migration and border security with leaders in El Salvador. Reporting from San Salvador, Amna Nawaz joins Judy Woodruff to talk about McAleenan's agenda, gang violence, and whether the Trump administration’s strategy to reduce Central American migration to the U.S. will succeed.
SUMMARY: Israel says it will bar two U.S. congresswomen from entering the country. At President Trump's urging, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reversed his earlier decision to allow Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both Muslims critical of Israeli policies, to visit. Amna Nawaz talks to Danny Ayalon, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif).
SUMMARY: The leaders of the two biggest economies in the world met in Osaka, Japan at the G20 summit to discuss the on-going trade war between them. And while no resolution has been reached, the U.S. is holding off on further tariffs on China for now. NPR’s chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley joins to discuss the President’s meeting with Xi and his Twitter invitation to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
SUMMARY: Even before he landed at Buckingham Palace, President Trump had caused a stir in the United Kingdom. Crowds gathered to protest the state visit by Trump, who recently renewed his feud with London’s mayor, insulted a member of the royal family, and shattered diplomatic protocol by weighing in on British politics. Yamiche Alcindor reports on political fragility in the UK during Trump's trip.
SUMMARY: After Monday’s royal welcome of President Trump in the UK, Tuesday was reserved for business and a final meeting with outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May. Trump took jabs at London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, and also said he didn’t see much in the way of crowds protesting his visit. Yamiche Alcindor reports and talks to Judy Woodruff from London.
SUMMARY: President Trump welcomed controversial Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to the White House Monday, breaking with recent presidents who shunned the right-wing nationalist. Like Trump, Orban has made restricting immigration a cornerstone of his agenda. William Brangham talks to Charles Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations and Georgetown University about the significance of the alliance.
William Brangham (NewsHour): For people who have not been following Viktor Orban's career or really appreciate where he sits in the orbit of European politics, tell us a little bit more about him.
Charles Kupchan, Georgetown University: Well, as your piece said, he starts off as a disheveled liberal post-communist progressive.
He has one bite at the apple as prime minister from '98 to 2002. And then he comes back in 2010. And he's been there ever since. And he essentially tracks from the left to the right to the further right over the course of his political career, and, in many respects, is a person that's ahead of his time, in the sense that he became anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, close down the borders, take over the media, compromise the independence of the judiciary, well before it became mainstream.
You now see it happening in Poland, in Italy. The far right is gaining ground in Germany. It's a widespread phenomenon. He was in many respects the person who blazed that path.
William Brangham: Former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon once referred to Viktor Orban as Trump before for Trump. Is that an accurate characterization of him?
Charles Kupchan: There's no question that there is an ideological affinity between Trump and Orban.
There is, I think, an effort to create what you might call an illiberal alliance, in which Trump sides with Orban, Salvini the head of the League in Italy, Kaczynski the head of what's called Law and Justice Party in Poland, Alternatives for Germany in Germany, the National Rally in France.
They're trying to create a political movement that pushes democratic politics to the right and in the anti-immigrant direction. I don't think it's any accident that this meeting today occurred less than two weeks before votes for the European Parliament.
It's a bellwether election. No question that the far right, the anti-E.U., the anti-immigrant forces will gain ground. The question is, how much ground will they gain? How much influence will they wield in the new [EU] Parliament?
SUMMARY: Somewhat ominous developments have occurred recently around two flashpoints of American foreign policy: Iran and North Korea. On Sunday, National Security Adviser John Bolton announced a carrier strike group was moving into the Persian Gulf because of unspecified threatening action, purportedly from Iran. Meanwhile, North Korea conducted a missile test. William Brangham talks to Nick Schifrin.
SUMMARY: Iran said it plans to cease complying with portions of the nuclear deal it signed with Western powers in 2015, though it didn't withdraw from the agreement altogether. But the announcement increases already escalating tensions with the U.S. Nick Schifrin talks to Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, about why Iran made the decision now and whether it can trust President Trump.
SUMMARY: Iran announced its partial withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear treaty on Wednesday, citing the failure of other member nations to deliver promised economic relief after the U.S. pulled out of the deal a year ago. What does the development mean for the relationship between the U.S. and Iran, already tense? Judy Woodruff talks to Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran.
SUMMARY: A year after the Trump administration withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Iran itself warned that it will stop complying with the agreement unless it receives promised economic benefits. Judy Woodruff talks to Ambassador Wendy Sherman, who served as lead U.S. negotiator for the nuclear agreement with Iran during the Obama administration, about the impact of recent U.S. policy toward Iran.
SUMMARY: The White House says Americans will now be able to sue businesses operating on land confiscated by the Castro regime. Previous administrations declined to enforce the related Helms-Burton Law. Canada and the EU, which have private-sector interests on Cuban land, decried the move. Nick Schifrin talks to National Security Advisor John Bolton about that, plus U.S. policy on Venezuela and North Korea.
SUMMARY: President Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. will now recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic 40-mile strip of land on the Syrian-Israeli border. The decision, which Trump announced via Tweet, overturns decades of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The Woodrow Wilson Center's Aaron David Miller joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the implications for both politics and policy.
SUMMARY: At the White House on Tuesday, President Trump welcomed Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, in the latter’s first bilateral foreign visit. The two leaders share many similar views, as they reiterated at a press conference, and Bolsonaro represents Brazil’s first pro-U.S. leader in decades. Nick Schifrin reports on how the two presidents hope to align their countries on trade and politics.
SUMMARY: For more than 70 years, global security has been underwritten by the alliance between the U.S. and its European partners, but those bonds have frayed since President Trump took office. The tension was on display recently at the annual Munich Security Conference. Nick Schifrin talks to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md), and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind) about rhetoric vs. policy and Trump's "tough love" approach.
SUMMARY: The U.S. has withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, saying Russia was violating the arms control deal that dates back to the Cold War. Now, Russia plans begin to building mid-range nuclear missiles. Nick Schifrin speaks with Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson about whether the U.S. can avoid a new arms race.
SUMMARY: Over the weekend, President Trump told CBS News that the U.S. mission in Iraq should expand to include watching Iran -- a change that would exceed what Iraq has invited the U.S. to do in its country. The statement sparked criticism from Iraqi leadership, as well as reassurances from the top American commander in the Middle East that the U.S. respects Iraq's wishes. Nick Schifrin reports.
SUMMARY: Six months after a landmark summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seemed to keep the two nations from the precipice of war, Kim says North Korea won't make, test or give away nuclear weapons -- plus he's ready to meet Trump again. Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Jenny Town of online policy journal 38 North discuss with Amna Nawaz.
SUMMARY: President Trump announced over the weekend that the U.S. will quit the 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Trump claims that Russia has violated the terms. Russia is now warning of countermeasures if the U.S. follows through. Judy Woodruff speaks to Richard Burt former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and Rebeccah Heinrichs senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
SUMMARY: At the annual United Nations General Assembly, President Trump met Monday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to talk about trade and the auto industry, as well as diplomatic outreach to North Korea. Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff to discuss what they said, and what to expect from the rest of the week.
SUMMARY: In his first official address, national security adviser John Bolton took aim at the International Criminal Court, but also at the Palestine Liberation Organization, announcing the closure of the PLO's office in Washington [DC]. Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the connection to Middle East peace efforts, and Bolton’s world view.
SUMMARY: Former Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he’s “never” seen an administration in as much disarray as President Donald Trump’s, and warned that other countries were “taking advantage” of the chaos in Washington.
“There are certain people who are readily and happily taking advantage of this President,” including China and Russia, Kerry told PBS NewsHour anchor and Managing Editor Judy Woodruff. “I think people all over the world are holding their breath and wondering what’s next.”
Kerry criticized Trump’s foreign and domestic policies, saying the President had a “disdain for fact,” and argued that congressional gridlock and partisanship in the U.S. was having a “horrible effect” around the world.
SUMMARY: President Trump turned a simmering conflict with Turkey to a boil, tweeting that he would double tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey was at economic war, as the country's currency tumbled as much as 20 percent to a record low. Already, U.S.-Turkey relations have been strained over an array of conflicts. Nick Schifrin reports.
SUMMARY: National Security Adviser John Bolton on Monday criticized North Korea’s denuclearization efforts, saying leader Kim Jong Un was not living up to the commitment he made to President Donald Trump at their June meeting in Singapore.
“What was significant about Singapore was the North Korean commitment to denuclearize, and they have not taken effective steps to do that,” Bolton said in an interview with PBS NewsHour correspondent Nick Schifrin. Closing the Punggye-ri nuclear test site with no international observers present, as North Korea did in May shortly before the summit, does not qualify, he said.
After the summit in Singapore, critics argued Trump failed to reach a substantive deal with Kim on winding down North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The President and senior administration officials have claimed the meeting was a success.
Bolton said the Trump administration was working to send Secretary of State Mike Pompeo back to Pyongyang to meet with Kim again. Pompeo was in Singapore for the summit and has led the United States’ negotiating effort.
“We’re not looking for rhetoric here. We’re looking for performance of North Korea’s own commitment made to us, made to South Korea beforehand, to denuclearize,” Bolton said.
