Welcome to Worldly, Vox's weekly guide to the most important stories in the world. I'm Jen Williams.

Yelchi's out this week reporting on a trip to Puerto Rico, but I'm here with Zach Beecham,

as well as our special guest, Maddie Glacius, whom most of you probably already know from our sister podcast the weeds.

Today we're going to be talking about the Iran nuclear deal which is facing a threat

this week. By Sunday October 15th President Trump is required by law to certify whether Iran is

complying with the terms of the nuclear deal, and if he doesn't, the deal's status

will be in serious jeopardy. And it sure sounds like he's not going to.

We cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover

for the eventual construction of a nuclear program.

So that's Trump speaking at the United Nations less than a month ago. Notice the less than enthusiastic applause.

The scattering of awkward applause.

But if you ask most of Trump's top national security

aides, they say that Iran actually is complying with the deal

and they support the US staying in it.

Do you believe it's in our national security interests

at the present time to remain in the JCPOA?

That's a yes or no question.

Yes, Senator, I do. So that was Defense Secretary Jim Mattis,

awkwardly waiting several seconds

to answer a question from Senator Angus King about the Iran

deal at a Senate hearing last week. So they called it the JCPOA, that stands for the

joint comprehensive plan of action.

...