Morning Rundown: Iran nuclear deal talks, RFK Jr.’s heated hearings, and mountain climber survives 200-foot fall
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Confusion swirled around high-stakes peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that were called for by Russian President Vladimir Putin today, as the Kremlin confirmed that Putin himself would be skipping the negotiations.
Uncertainty over the start date, location, and whether either side would even participate made for chaotic scenes in the Turkish capital Ankara, Antalya and Istanbul — outside whose Ottoman-era Dolmabahçe Palace some 200 journalists and crew were massed with no clear idea of when talks would get underway.
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The Supreme Court today weighs whether to allow Trump’s radical reinterpretation of the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship to go into effect, at least in part, while litigation continues.
In an unusual move, the court is hearing oral arguments on a series of Trump administration emergency requests seeking to limit the scope of nationwide injunctions that blocked the plan almost as soon as it was announced in January.
A decision siding with the administration would not only provide a boost to Trump’s birthright citizenship proposal but would also help the administration implement other policies via executive actions, many of which have also been blocked nationwide by lower court judges.
The justices have not agreed to take up the bigger legal question of whether Trump’s plan comports with the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
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Trump touched on everything from arms deals to efforts to commemorate WWII and the future of Gaza in a speech to U.S. armed forces at a base in Qatar today.
The president praised the assembled troops and aviators as “the finest we have in the battle to defend civilization” and lauded a multibillion-dollar package of business and defense agreements with Qatar sealed this week, including a $96 billion order of Boeing 787 planes.
Trump mentioned that he had spoken to several European leaders this month, who were commemorating the anniversary of the end of WWII, repeating his promise to designate two days as national holidays in the U.S. to mark the occasion.
“Everybody was celebrating but us and we won the war! We won the war. Without us they don’t win the war, we’re all speaking German, maybe a little Japanese too,” he said.
Referring to France’s national holiday, he said: “I think we did a little more than France to win the war. When Hitler made the speech at the Eiffel Tower, that wasn’t exactly ideal.”
Trump won applause by pledging to increase salaries for the armed forces, but he added: “You don’t have to take it, for the good of the country.”
The third day of President Donald Trump’s Middle East tour started with a breakfast with business leaders at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Doha, Qatar. He then travelled to Al Udeid Air Base to address a large crowd of U.S. troops.
A day after 59 white South Africans were welcomed to America as refugees, more than 86,000 South African farmers — who are mostly white — are gathering this week at the NAMPO Harvest Day trade fair, an annual agricultural exhibition considered the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Over four days, the attendees will discuss innovations in technology, collaborations and various other elements of an industry that last year generated nearly $14 billion in revenue.
Notably, according to one participant, there is no planned discussion of violence against white farmers or “Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored, race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation” without compensation, as Trump wrote in a Feb. 7 executive order that opened the way for the 59 South Africans to come to the U.S., despite a ban on refugees from other nations.
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A top Iranian official is responding to President Trump’s new message to Iran. Trump says Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but that he is open to negotiating a new nuclear deal. NBC News’ Richard Engel is in Tehran.
Reporting from Qatar
Reporters are awaiting President Trump at Al Udeid Air Base, a vast facility outside Doha that is home to the headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command.
The president will give remarks to troops in a hangar in Al Udeid, the biggest U.S. military facility in the Middle East, later this morning against a backdrop that reads “Peace Through Strength.” “Eye of the Tiger” and other campaign rally favorites are playing.
Reporting from Doha, Qatar
Trump began his day in Qatar at a breakfast with business leaders from American aerospace and defense companies including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics.
Among others in attendance were Abdulaziz Al-Rabban, the chairman of Al Rabban Capital, and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
Qatar’s delegation included the chair of the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, a partner of the president’s family real estate business helping to build Qatar’s first Trump-branded project.
Later, Trump will give remarks to troops in a hangar at Al Udeid Air Base, a sprawling facility and home to the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. The president is on the second leg of his three-country tour of the Middle East, where he is meeting with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
President Donald Trump met Wednesday with Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in an effort to forge a new relationship with the country, the first time a U.S. president has met with its leader in decades. But what kind of relationship Washington will have with a person it once called an Al Qaeda terrorist remains unclear.
“We’re living in a very unusual world where suddenly people who professed hatred of the West and in particular the United States are now being accepted as potential allies and partners,” said Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation.
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Iran is ready to sign a nuclear deal with certain conditions with President Donald Trump in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader told NBC News on Wednesday.
Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military and nuclear adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is one of the most senior Iranian officials to speak publicly about the ongoing discussions.
He said Iran would commit to never making nuclear weapons, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium which can be weaponized, agree to enrich uranium only to the lower levels needed for civilian use, and allow international inspectors to supervise the process, in exchange for the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions on Iran.
Asked if Iran would agree to sign an agreement today if those conditions were met, Shamkhani said, “Yes.”
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