Crosstalk: June 24, 2019

Below is a brief list of news items covered by Jim on this week’s edition of the ‘Round-Up.’

–A U.S. high altitude Navy drone was shot down on Wednesday by an Iranian surface-to-air missile in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz.

–U.S. officials told Fox News that Iranian-backed forces fired cruise missiles into Saudi Arabia Wednesday evening, hitting a power plant.

–A senior advisor to the Iranian government said war is inevitable if the U.S. does not lift sanctions against Iran.

–President Trump ‘tweeted’ that he backed off from retaliation against Iran for the drone strike upon finding out that about 150 Iranians would die in the effort.  He didn’t believe that loss of life was proportionate to the downing of an unmanned drone.

–The U.S. is now sending an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East.

–The FAA has issued an emergency order prohibiting U.S. operators from flying over a section of airspace that’s controlled by Iran.

–The networks ignored a ‘tweet’ sent by sitting Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar when she blamed the U.S. for Iran shooting down one of our military drones.

–The European Union will chair a meeting of the nation’s involved in the embattled Iran nuclear deal in Vienna on June 28th.

–A rocket hit a compound in southern Iraq used by Exxon-Mobile Corporation and other international oil firms.

–New Zealand’s official government website displayed a fact sheet this week that included a map labeling the entire area of Israel as Palestine.

–President Trump declared his candidacy for the 2020 election at the Amway Convention Center in Orlando.

–President Trump slammed abortion and Democrat extremism on abortion at Orlando rally.

–The Human Rights Campaign has launched their 2020 campaign to turn out the vote in opposition to the Trump/Pence team and what they call an assault on LGBTQ progress.

–EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler finalized the agency’s plan for replacing Obama-era regulations on emissions from coal fired power plants.

–The Trump administration has proposed expanding access at federally controlled  wildlife refuges and also fish hatcheries by more than 1.4 million acres.

–The former Sheila Jackson Lee staffer who posted the private information of the Republican senators during the final hearing for then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been sentenced to four years in prison for his crime.

–A 40 foot WWI memorial in the shape of a cross can remain on public land in  Maryland according to the Supreme Court.

–A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed the Trump administration to deny federal funding to entities that commit abortions on site.

–The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case of Melissa and Aaron Klein of Sweet Cakes Bakery by Melissa back to the Oregon Court of Appeals in light of the June 2018 decision of the Masterpiece Cake Shop Case.

–The National Guard facility in Pennsylvania has refused to allow a Trail Life U.S.A. scouting troop to tour their facility because of the group’s religious affiliation.