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The Trump administration has announced unspecified plans to further tighten sanctions on Iran, threatening other countries, including China, in the process. We speak to sanctions expert Nicholas Mulder about what he calls the "rhetorical" and "psychological warfare" of the announcement. For Iran, says Mulder, the announcement was not "really materially all that meaningful. And to the extent that they are, they hurt ordinary Iranians and not the government." The impact on the U.S. relationship with China, however, could be much greater. If the U.S. does place secondary sanctions on Iran's trading partners, the "U.S.-China trade truce might be unraveling," warns Mulder. "The space for maneuver that the U.S. has in using these tools of very coercive economic statecraft has narrowed."
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Progressive California state lawmaker Aisha Wahab made history last week in a special election that will make her the first Afghan American in Congress. Wahab overcame a flood of attack ads from pro-Israel groups to beat her Democratic rival, Melissa Hernandez, in a race to replace disgraced Congressmember Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Wahab tells Democracy Now! she appreciates voters in her district for "seeing through" the "lies that were spread by AIPAC," referring to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She also discusses her history of fighting caste discrimination in California and calls on the United States to engage with the Taliban government of Afghanistan as part of an effort of "steering them in the right direction" on human rights.
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The U.S.-Canada trade war is deepening after talks collapsed without a deal on Friday. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the Trump administration of issuing demands that would compromise Canada's sovereignty and undermine key industries. On Saturday, the United States slapped 50% tariffs on around $20 billion worth of imports from Canada, and Carney announced retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion of U.S. products set to go into effect on September 8.
"Canadians are sick of this," says Avi Lewis, leader of Canada's progressive New Democratic Party. He says that while the Liberal government has correctly identified voters' anger, its policies still favor international investors and the fossil fuel industry rather than truly "Trump-proofing" the economy.
We also speak with trade expert Lori Wallach, who says the U.S.-Canada trade war is pitting Trump's vision of "oligarchic trade grift" against a dead neoliberal consensus represented by Carney. The two countries have balanced trade, and Wallach says the United States is being far more lenient with China despite Beijing's much more serious threat to the U.S. and wider global economy through its "beggar-thy-neighbor" policies.
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