Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) phoned Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) during the August recess and told her he would back her over other primary candidates should she decide to run against vulnerable Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), multiple sources told The Hill.

Schumer also placed a phone call with Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, another Democrat who had been eyeing a Senate bid, and told him he was going with Sinema, the sources said.

The phone calls are the clearest sign yet that Sinema, 41, a centrist Democrat serving her third term in the House, is gearing up for a Senate run in the Grand Canyon State.

An announcement is expected any day.

It’s not even certain that Sinema would face her former House colleague, Flake, in a general-election match-up. He’s deeply unpopular in Arizona and has been locked in a months-long feud with President Trump, whose allies are working to unseat Flake for his disloyalty.

A HighGround poll in Arizona found that one Trump-inspired GOP primary challenger, former state Sen. Kelli Ward, is leading Flake 43 percent to 28 percent. That same poll showed Sinema beating Flake in a potential match-up 41 percent to 33 percent.

“She’s done a very effective job working across the aisle. And she voted against Nancy Pelosi twice for Speaker,” said former Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), whom conservative groups have unsuccessfully tried to recruit to challenge Flake in a primary.

“I think she will be a formidable challenger to whoever she runs against,” Salmon said.

Spokespeople for Sinema, Stanton and Schumer all declined to comment for this story. Schumer’s blessing essentially clears the path for Sinema and means she would have access to staffing and other resources from the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Schumer once led.

Stanton, who is in his second term as Phoenix mayor, is also eyeing Sinema’s House seat. But because hers is a swing-district seat, candidates from both parties will be lining up to run.

Iran said new sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday break the terms of its nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers, and vowed an "appropriate and proportional" response.

Trump, who during his election campaign called the nuclear agreement - negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama - "the worst deal ever", signed the new sanctions into law along with measures against Russia and North Korea.

Iran had already said it would complain to the body that oversees the 2015 deal - under which it accepted curbs on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief - about the measures passed in Congress last week in response to a missile development program and human rights abuses.

"In our view the nuclear deal has been violated and we will show an appropriate and proportional reaction to this issue," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with state TV, according to the ISNA news agency.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/03/iran-says-new-us-sanctions-violate-nuclear-deal-vows-proportional-reaction.html

Montana GOP Candidate Owns Stake In Company Accused Of Paying Off ISIS

A Republican congressional candidate owns a stake in a French-Swiss cement company accused of making payments to the Islamic State militant group in Syria, according to financial disclosures HuffPost reviewed.

Greg Gianforte, the millionaire GOP contender for Montana’s open seat in the House, reported owning $47,066 worth of shares in LaFargeHolcim as recently as December in an individual retirement account at TWP, a brokerage firm and private wealth manager. He and his wife, Susan Gianforte, are listed as trustees on the account.

LaFargeHolcim operated a factory in the north Syrian town of Kobane for three years after civil war broke out and most foreign companies fled. The company evacuated foreign employees in 2012, but kept the business going with local workers until ISIS fighters seized the factory two years later. Payments made to local armed groups to secure the factory may have unwittingly ended up in ISIS coffers, the French newspaper Le Monde reported last year. CEO Eric Olsen resigned from the firm last month.

PHILADELPHIA(CBS/AP)– Candidate Larry Krasner has won the democratic seat in the race to be Philadelphia’s next top prosecutor.

Krasner , a civil rights lawyer who has defended Black Lives Matter and Occupy Philadelphia protesters, is poised to become Philadelphia’s next district attorney.

Krasner, 53, strongly opposes mass incarceration and the death penalty. He has said that none of his clients have been sent to death row in 25 years of defending capital cases. Pennsylvania under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has a moratorium on executions.

“Tonight was not about a campaign or a particular person. It was about a vision,” Krasner said in statement. “A vision of a criminal justice system that works for everyone. A society that builds people up instead of tearing them down.”

Krasner pulled ahead in a crowded field to win the Democratic nomination Tuesday over several veteran prosecutors and a former city manager. He will face the only Republican candidate, Beth Grossman, in the fall.