Axios

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s much-awaited Iran speech yesterday was symbolically important but lacking in new substance. The Trump administration, as Pompeo put it, will one way or another force Iran's Islamist regime into a corner, but he did not specify how or to what end.

Why it matters: Pompeo’s speech had for weeks been touted as the moment Washington would unveil its grand strategy to end the Islamic Republic, but its approach is still unclear. What's clear, at least for now, is that the main U.S. tool of pressure against Tehran remains the imposition of stiff sanctions.

Special counsel Bob Mueller’s request that five witnesses be granted immunity in exchange for testifying against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was granted today, per Talking Points Memo.

The details: The five witnesses — Donna Duggan, James Brennan, Conor O’Brien, Cindy Laporta, and Dennis Raico — all have been linked with Manafort’s finances, according to NBC News. Manafort is facing charges of financial crimes allegedly committed while working for pro-Russian factions in Ukraine before he worked for the Trump campaign.

Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology, a Chinese vaccine manufacturer, gave hundreds of thousands of defective vaccine doses to children as part of mandatory vaccination protocols in China, reports CNN.

The big picture: The Chinese government is walking the line between reforming its health care system and rapidly increasing access to care. "[A]uthorities are understandably keen to open the floodgates in terms of patient access to more affordable treatment," but making sure thousands of local drugmakers are following safety regulations is tough, Sophie Cairns, an Asia-Pacific health care analyst at IHS Markit, tells Axios.

Russia wants to push Iranian forces, Hezbollah and Pro-Iranian Shiite militias 65 miles from the Syrian-Israeli border in the Golan Heights, a senior Israeli official said after a meeting today in Jerusalem between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Why it matters: President Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed the security situation in southwest Syria last week in Helsinki, and Israel coordinated closely with both the U.S. and Russia before the summit. The Russians are helping the Assad regime to regain control over territory close to Israel and Jordan, but want to prevent an armed clash between Israel and Syria.

President Trump's national security adviser John Bolton issued a statement to reporters reiterating the president's fury at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which was expressed in a late Sunday night tweet.

"I spoke to the President over the last several days, and President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before."

Go deeper: The story behind Trump's tweet about Iran

President Trump tweeted an explosive, all-caps threat directed at Iran's president Hassan Rouhani late Sunday:

Why it matters: Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in May and reimpose sanctions escalated tensions between the two countries.

Speaking on Sunday before a partially Iranian American audience at the Reagan Foundation in southern California, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran’s leaders of stealing the country’s resources to spread revolution abroad and oppress Iran’s 80 million people.

Why it matters: Pompeo’s heavily advertised speech was the biggest installment yet in a Trump administration information campaign designed to pressure and, if possible, destabilize the Iranian government.

The Israeli government's refusal to pass a legislation allowing LGBT couples to have children through surrogacy prompted a massive protest in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Sunday, reports the Washington Post.

The details: Thousands of demonstrators voiced frustrations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initially said he supports a key change to the existing surrogacy law, but later joined his coalition partners, in­cluding conservative and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, to vote against the measure last week. The approved legislation allows single women and heterosexual couples to use the surrogacy process to have children, but it was not extended to men.

A big Chinese trade counter-assault may be on its way: a deliberate devaluation of the yuan, with the aim of offsetting the impact of U.S. tariffs, experts tell Axios.

If they are right, China will be mimicking an ultra-successful stratagem used by Russia to weather four years of withering western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday issued a stern warning to President Trump against provoking Tehran through sanctions, telling Trump that "America should know ... war with Iran is the mother of all wars," Reuters reports.

“Mr Trump, don’t play with the lion’s tail, this would only lead to regret"

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May ruled out the prospect of Northern Ireland remaining in the EU's shared "customs union" and "single market" during a speech in Belfast on Friday, reports BBC News.

Why it matters: The "backstop" arrangement to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is a key part of Brexit negotiations proposed by the EU. On an island where peace and borders are inextricably linked, the vulnerable prime minister is staring down some high-stakes Brexit complications.

Russia’s governing party, United Russia, has proposed legislation seeking to impose an $800,000 fine on websites for "inaccurate" posts if they fail to remove the content, and will hold social networks accountable for comments users post the government deems erroneous, reports the New York Times.

The details: Critics see the legislation, which passed one of three series of votes in Parliament, as a crackdown on digital rights. Internet companies, who would be required to remove such posts, argue that the number of posts and comments by readers make it impossible for for moderators to thoroughly review within 24 hours, per the Times. Under current law, social media users could be prisoned or face a fine for content that promotes homosexuality, seen as a threat to public order or "extremist" in nature.

President Donald Trump has expressed private frustrations over the lack of immediate progress in nuclear talks with North Korea, the WashPost reports.

The details: The North Koreans, trained in "the art of delay and obfuscation," have made life difficult for U.S. officials by repeatedly canceling meetings and failing to maintain communications, as intelligence reports suggest Pyongyang may be be working to hide key details of its nuclear program. Trump, meanwhile, has fumed privately to aides while publicly touting the success of his meeting with Kim Jong Un.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielsen faced a mini-firestorm after her interview at the Aspen Security Forum Thursday: Some listeners (and news coverage) understandably but inaccurately saw her as contesting that Russia's 2016 election-tampering was meant to help the Trump campaign.

Between the lines: Nielsen danced around providing a clear soundbite to that effect — though she did say she agreed with the intelligence assessment saying exactly that. But much of the criticism she faced is based on misunderstandings of security jargon that the Aspen audience would know.