This Week In The News: What To Watch For

With Eric Westervelt

Top reporters share what they’re watching for in the week ahead in Washington and around the globe.

Lisa Desjardins, correspondent for the PBS Newshour. (@LisaDNews)

Zack Beauchamp, senior reporter at Vox covering foreign policy, host of Vox's "Worldly" podcast. (@zackbeauchamp)

Matt Viser, deputy Washington bureau chief at the Boston Globe. (@mviser)

New York Times: "President Admits Trump Tower Meeting Was Meant to Get Dirt on Clinton" — "President Trump said on Sunday that a Trump Tower meeting between top campaign aides and a Kremlin-connected lawyer was designed to 'get information on an opponent' — the starkest acknowledgment yet that a statement he dictated last year about the encounter was misleading. Mr. Trump made the comment in a tweet on Sunday morning that was intended to be a defense of the June 2016 meeting and the role his son Donald Trump Jr. played in hosting it. The president claimed that it was 'totally legal' and of the sort 'done all the time in politics.' "

NPR: "Pompeo: Iran Needs 'Enormous Change' To Reverse Reimposed U.S. Sanctions" — "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the White House is ready to enforce sanctions against Iran that will be re-imposed starting Monday — an effort by the U.S. to 'push back' against Tehran's 'malign activity.' The renewed sanctions follow President Trump's decision in May to withdraw the U.S. from the multi-nation nuclear accord with Tehran. The 2015 agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, of JCPOA, brought a suspension of U.S. sanctions in exchange for Tehran's agreement to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs."

Washington Post: "I lived in an Iran under sanctions. Here’s what it’s like." — "This weekend, new U.S. sanctions on Iran’s economy will go into effect. The Trump administration promises they will be the most punitive in history. The ones that President Barack Obama placed on Iran in 2012 were already among the stiffest by any country in modern times. I lived in Tehran then and reported extensively on the impact the sanctions had. If that experience is a predictor of what is about to hit the people of Iran, here’s a preview of what ordinary Iranians can expect in the weeks and months ahead."

New questions about a Trump campaign meeting with Russians in 2016 that may prove central to the special counsel's investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. election. Also, renewed sanctions on Iran take effect today. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says sanctions will remain a pillar of U.S. policy until Iran behaves "like a normal country."

This hour, On Point: We'll look at the week ahead in Washington and the world with our panel of top reporters.

— Eric Westervelt