Hi podcast listeners, the US keeps ratcheting up the rhetoric with Iran now designating

the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, but a top Iranian official joins me on the show tonight

saying that if the US actually

implemented that it would mean war in the Persian Gulf because the US is there and

so is the Iranian force. Also he tells me that there are no US efforts or negotiations to bring back any

Americans held in Iran right now. Then I talk to Emily Baselom she is pushing for criminal justice reform in the United States, the

arc of public opinion is turning towards that, and she says being a tough prosecutor may no longer

be a great platform for would-be candidates for president.

And then Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Senator John McCain, talks about the human

side of her husband's legacy legacy helping wounded warriors and trying to stop

trafficking of human beings. Of course all of this as President Trump keeps up his

attacks on the late senator.

Enjoy the show. Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christina Wancour in London. The Trump

administration keeps ratcheting up what it calls its maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

From pulling out to the nuclear deal last year and reimposing a wide range of tough sanctions

to now declaring Iran's revolutionary guard a terrorist organization.

So where is all this pressure headed?

Senator Rand Paul says that he's worried the White House may be angling to use a 2001

authorization for the use of military force which allows US troops to fight

entities responsible for the 9-11 attacks to lay the groundwork for military action against Iran

and when he pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeii on that

the Secretary hardly set those fears to rest.

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