Democratic senator breaks rank, announces he will vote against Iran deal

GlobalPost

Editor's note: This is Chatter, our morning rundown of what you need and want to know around the world. Fortunately for us all, you can have Chatter emailed to you every day. Just sign up here!

NEED TO KNOW:

The world knows well the long and tedious process of an American presidential election. It starts early, like over-a-year early, with heavy campaigning by a crowd of candidates, most of whose names will be forgotten by the time the actual voting comes around.

The world got a good look at the 2016 crowd last night when Fox News held a debate among the Republican contenders for their party's nomination. It wasn't exactly pretty, but it was colorful. The frontrunner and billionaire businessman Donald Trump came off as near-maniacal at times. And the performance of Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and older brother of President George W. Bush, has been generously described by some as “tepid.”

It's so early, though, that hardly any of this matters. The frontrunner is likely to shift weekly as the primaries get going in earnest next year. (But since we are a global news organization we looked at what some of these candidates have said about foreign policy, and how they'd make the world a better place. GlobalPost's Timothy McGrath wrote this essential breakdown for you.)

During the debate, it appeared most of the candidates had settled on growing the US military as a strategy for dealing with the rest of the world. Former Governor Mike Huckabee and Dr. Ben Carson, for instance, both seized on the fact that the US Navy is the smallest it has been since 1917 and the US Air Force is the smallest it's been since 1940. That's true. It's also true that our jets, boats, and other military technologies can do a lot more now than they could a century ago.

Most significantly, none of the GOP hopefuls like Obama's deal with Iran, which if approved by the US Congress at the end of the summer would require Iran to stop enriching uranium (which could be used for nuclear weapons) in exchange for lifting sanctions. Few of the arguments were well articulated. And, anyway, these impassioned voices were quickly overshadowed by another American politician — one who wasn't even part of the debate.

Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, announced Thursday that he would vote against the Iran deal. This break in party ranks could lead to more Democrats defecting (it already has). Schumer said his primary concern is that the deal only covers the next decade, leaving Iran potentially free to build a nuclear bomb when that time is up.

Schumer's statement was perhaps the most serious blow so far to Obama's fevered campaign to get this deal done.

WANT TO KNOW:

A year ago, the United States launched its first airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The decision was hardly a surprise. The use of airstrikes to defeat terrorist groups has been the preferred strategy of US President Barack Obama almost since the day he took office. But how has that strategy fared?

In the early summer months of last year, the Islamic State burst onto the scene in Iraq, easily driving the American-trained Iraqi army out of numerous towns, and even major cities. The terrorist group, which already controlled significant parts of Syria, was suddenly on the doorstep of Baghdad.

A year later, the United States and its allies have spent billions of dollars and carried out 5,885 airstrikes, killing an estimated 15,000 Islamic State fighters and some 450 civilians. But while the terror group's advance has almost certainly been slowed, analysts told GlobalPost Senior Correspondent Richard Hall that its operational capacity is as strong as ever.

“It’s like squeezing a balloon. You can squeeze in one part but it only increases the pressure in other areas,” one expert told Hall. And despite losing some of its leaders to airstrikes, the ranks of the Islamic State continue to grow. And it continues to gain new territory. The ancient city of Palmyra fell to the militants in May after they routed Syrian government forces, and there are signs they plan to move south. Meanwhile, the group has consolidated control of its key cities, Mosul and Raqqa, and looks set to remain there for some time.

So will the strategy change? Obama himself acknowledged that it would take more than a military solution to dismantle the Islamic State, calling in February of last year for more to be done to address poverty, human rights abuses and corruption, which all allow groups like the Islamic State to thrive. It's an interesting idea.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

American presidential candidates have online stores where you can buy things like T-shirts to support them. You can wear your shirt at campaign rallies. And the money you spend on the shirt will no doubt help the candidates who hold those rallies.

The products on offer are most importantly campaign advertisements, of course, which means the branding can get pretty entertaining. There is a lot more than just T-shirts. For instance, the Bush campaign offers a “Guaca Bowle.” It's a mortar and pestle with which you could maybe make some guacamole. You see, Jeb Bush likes guacamole. Oh sorry, that's Jeb! Bush.

Rand Paul takes things up a notch, offering an NSA spy-cam blocker at his online store. Marco Rubio offers something called a “hero T-shirt,” which seems a little presumptuous. Trump offers a bunch of hats, which makes sense. And Ted Cruz has some creative bumper stickers. You can see all the best stuff here.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.