Tuesday morning news: July 9, 2019

UN confirms Iran violation of nuclear deal » The United Nations atomic watchdog confirmed on Monday that Iran is in fact violating the 2015 nuclear deal. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency verified Iran’s claims that it is now enriching uranium at 4.5 percent. That’s well beyond the roughly 3.7 percent limit in the agreement.  

And Tehran is now threatening to restart deactivated centrifuges … further ramping up its nuclear program. 

Speaking in Washington, Vice President Mike Pence pledged once more that the U.S. will not allow Iran to build a nuclear bomb. 

PENCE: Iran should not confuse American restraint with a lack of American resolve.

And National Security Adviser John Bolton said Iran’s behavior makes clear … that sanctions are squeezing the Iranian regime.

BOLTON: I am here to tell you today President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran is working.

Iran is pressuring European countries to find a way to counteract the impact of U-S sanctions. 

DOJ shakes up team handling effort to add citizenship question to census » The Department of Justice is shaking up the legal team that’s handling the campaign to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. 

The agency did not explain the reason for the change. But some in the Trump administration may feel the process has been mishandled. 

Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli … said President Trump is determined to see the question added to census forms. 

CUCINELLI: He’s noted that the Supreme Court didn’t say that the question can’t be asked. They said that they didn’t appreciate the process by which it came forward the first time. So the president is determined to fix that and to have it roll forward in the 2020 census.

The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the question late last month. 

The federal government has already started to print census questionnaires without the citizenship question. 

Pompeo announces new human rights panel » Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that it’s time to review “the role of human rights in American foreign policy.” 

And he’s forming a new panel to advise him. It will be called the Commission on Unalienable Rights. 

POMPEO: The commission is composed of human rights experts, philosophers, and activists. Republicans, Democrats, and independents of varied backgrounds and beliefs will provide me with advice on human rights grounded in our nation’s founding principles and the principles of the 1948 universal declaration of human rights.

Pompeo said some international groups aimed at protecting human rights have “drifted from their original mission.” And he said human rights discourse is sometimes “corrupted and hijacked for dubious or malignant purposes.” 

Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon will head up the new commission. 

GLENDON: Basic human rights are being misunderstood by many, manipulated by many, and ignored by the world’s worst human rights violators.

Some Democratic senators said in a letter last month that they were dismayed that the commission was being assembled without congressional oversight. They said several people reported to be on the panel … have supported policies that in their view … discriminate against LGBT people.

New Greek prime minister sworn in after election win » Greece has a new prime minister … after Kyriakos Mitsotakis took the oath of office on Monday. His New Democracy party secured 158 of 300 seats in parliament in last weekend’s election. 

MITSOTAKIS: We almost reached 40 percent, which is an incredible number given the context of our fragmented political landscape. And I feel that I have a strong mandate to deliver on my agenda.

Mitsotakis promised to cut taxes, attract investment, and improve the job market. The victory for the conservative-leaning party bucks the rising European trend that has seen populist parties take control. 

Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for the election three months early after his party suffered defeat in European Union elections … and in local elections earlier this year. 

Rep. Swalwell drops out of presidential race » The Democratic presidential field shrank by one on Monday. California Congressman Eric Swalwell is the first contender to bail out of the race. 

SWALWELL: Today ends our presidential campaign.

He had signaled that he would consider quitting his campaign … if he was in danger of missing the cutoff for the next Democratic debates. Those are now just a few weeks away. 

The next debate will once again be split into two nights, July 30th and 31st. Both will be broadcast on CNN. To make it on stage, candidates must meet a certain threshold in several qualified polls or in campaign donations.

(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) From left to right, spokesman for Iran’s atomic agency Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran’s government spokesman Ali Rabiei and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, attend a press briefing in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 7, 2019.

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