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US special forces raided a cargo ship travelling from China to Iran in November that was allegedly transporting "dual-use military technology," according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Friday.Citing unnamed US officials, the WSJ revealed that a special operations team boarded the ship several hundred miles from Sri Lanka and seized the cargo, which was described as “dual-use components that could be used either for civilian applications or to make conventional weapons."Image source: US Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class William FarmerieThe ship's name, its owner, and the flag under which it was sailing...

The US Department of the Treasury has lifted sanctions imposed on the Brazilian supreme court justice who oversaw the conviction of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. Justice Alexandre de Moraes had been under Global Magnitsky sanctions, which target individuals accused of human rights abuses, since July. His wife Viviane Barci de Moraes – who was added the sanctions list in September – was also removed from the register on Friday. The move had been repeatedly requested by Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in negotiations with Donald Trump to roll back the 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports. The decision...

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and arm of the Iranian military, seized an oil vessel allegedly carrying “smuggled diesel” in the Persian Gulf, Tehran revealed on Thursday. The unidentified ship was reportedly flying the flag of E-Swatini and was part of what Iran alleges is a massive trafficking scheme to steal Iranian oil and sell it abroad. The IRGC revealed the news on the same day that the Iranian government condemned the United States for staging a similar seizure of a ship accused of carrying illicit oil in the Caribbean following an appropriate warrant process....

Moment U.S. forces seized massive oil tanker off Venezuela “As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” Trump said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”

This is the dramatic moment that US commandos stormed a Venezuelan oil tanker in a breathtaking airborne takedown amid ratcheting tensions in the Caribbean. Footage released by the Trump administration on Wednesday showed American forces swooping on the tanker in helicopters and rappelling down ropes. Troops with guns drawn darted up stairs to the bridge to take control of the vessel off the coast of Venezuela. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a statement on X: 'Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a...

The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on Russia-based people and entities working to help procure weapons and commodities — including stolen Ukrainian grain — for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, the Treasury Department said.

Austrian businessman Bernd Bergmair, former majority owner of Pornhub, has approached the U.S. Treasury about buying assets of Russian oil major Lukoil after the Trump administration sanctioned the company. "Obviously Lukoil International GmbH would be a great investment and anybody would be fortunate to have the privilege of owning those assets,” Bergmair told Reuters. "I don’t comment on potential investments as a matter of course," he added.Last month, U.S. Treasury issued the greenlight for companies to begin talks with Lukoil for its foreign assets, with U.S. oil and gas giants Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) have already expressed interest....

Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s top economic envoy, arrived in the United States with holes in his sails and no wind to push him forward. He was a man on a desperate mission. A phone call between Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, had not gone well. The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, expected to take place within two weeks, was shelved. The US president had finally lost patience with his Russian counterpart’s refusal to support a ceasefire in Ukraine. On Wednesday, he slapped Moscow’s largest oil firms with crippling sanctions. With...

Kellogg Fired Over Leaking 28-Point Plan – Proposal Designed To Trap Putin It seems that Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, got fired over leaking news of the 28-point ‘peace plan’. Let’s follow the traces. On Tuesday the 18th November someone ‘leaked’ to Axios reporter Barak Ravid who then wrote the first story of Trump’s new plan for Ukraine. Scoop: U.S. secretly drafting new plan to end Ukraine war The plan’s 28 points fall into four general buckets, sources tell Axios: peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine. … Trump’s...

Oil prices jumped and energy companies helped the FTSE 100 to a record high after Donald Trump announced new sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil producers.Brent crude increased by 5.2% to $65.83 a barrel – a two-week high – after the news of the fresh restrictions on Rosneft and Lukoil, as the US president ramps up pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.The jump in oil price also boosted shares in the energy companies Shell and BP by about 3%, which in turn helped to drive the FTSE 100 to a record high of 9,594.82.

The White House has hit President Putin with a “substantial” package of sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies in a sign of President Trump’s growing impatience over the war in Ukraine. Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said last night: “President Putin has not come to the table in an honest and forthright manner, as we’d hoped.” Announcing a raft of new penalties, Bessent added: “Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support...

The Senate and House are on a collision course over whether to repeal comprehensive sanctions on Syria, a rare area where there are bipartisan coalitions on both sides of the debate. Discussion centers on whether to completely repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, a severe sanctions mechanism that blocked nearly all U.S. and international cooperation or engagement with the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Legislation to repeal Caesar is included in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2026. But an amendment to the House version of the NDAA to repeal Caesar...

Britain, France, and Germany have triggered the so-called snapback mechanism of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to reinstate UN sanctions against Tehran. The European trio, known as the E3, wrote to the UN Security Council on August 28 to initiate the process, which takes 30 days. In a statement, the E3 foreign ministers said, "We will use the 30-day period to continue engaging with Iran regarding our extension offer or any meaningful diplomatic efforts to restore its compliance with commitments." They emphasized that they "share the fundamental objective that Iran must never seek, acquire, or develop a nuclear weapon." This...

The first American sanctions on Iran since a moderate cleric won the presidential election there on June 14 went into effect on Monday, expanding the number of penalized industries and imposing rules that theoretically could halt all gold and currency trade by the country. Proponents of the latest round of sanctions said they could deprive the Iranians of billions of dollars of income that had evaded earlier rounds — particularly with the new prohibition on gold trade. Bullion dealers in other countries who flout the prohibition risk severe American penalties, including expulsion from the United States precious metals market.

A new and potentially significant source of demand is that of demand from Iran. Iran imported a massive $1.2 billion worth of precious metals from Turkey in April alone. Turkish exports of gold, precious metals, pearls and coins to Iran rose to $1.2 billion in April from a tiny $7,500 a year earlier, according to figures released by the state statistics institute in Ankara yesterday. This is a massive increase in demand and suggests that there may be official involvement in the imports from the Central Bank of Iran. This trend continued in May when Turkish gold imports leapt by...

A federal judge in Maine on Friday barred the Trump administration from enforcing sanctions on two U.S. citizens and human rights advocates who work with the International Criminal Court (ICC).On April 11, Matthew Smith and Akila Radhakrishnan, a human rights nonprofit leader and lawyer, respectively, filed a 39-page lawsuit against President Donald Trump and several other members of his administration over an executive order that imposes sanctions on the ICC, prohibits certain interactions with designated ICC officials, and threatens both civil and criminal penalties for any such violations.The lawsuit was premised on the idea that the sanctions "violate their First...

6/22/04 - NEWARK, NJ) — A man was arrested Tuesday and charged with trying to sell parts for sophisticated military fighter jets to Iran without a license. Hamid M. Butt, 71, formerly of Humble, Texas, was arrested Tuesday afternoon after getting off a flight from Malaysia that had landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Christie said. A Pakistani native, Butt had been living in Malaysia for several years, and was arrested upon his return to the United States. He also is a naturalized U.S. citizen, authorities said. The criminal complaint against Butt was signed...

Slovenia has become the first country in the European Union to ban all weapons trade with Israel over its war on Gaza. The move by the government comes two weeks after the Central European nation declared Israeli ministers persona non grata. The arms embargo was announced by Prime Minister Robert Golob after a government session on Thursday. *** Amid the devastating war in Gaza, where “people … are dying because humanitarian aid is systematically denied them”, it was the “duty of every responsible state to take action, even if it means taking a step ahead of others”, the statement said....

The fact that Trump is threatening sanctions against India for buying Russian oil and to hammer Russia to somehow force Putin to his knees and accept whatever terms Europe demands, proves that Trump is now taking advice from Lindsey Grachm, NATO, their puppet EU leaders, and the Neocons with the likes of Cheney in the background witgh a HUGE smile on her face. When we look at sanctions, history shows us that this Neocon tool that they always deploy out of hatred, has never worked even once. It just makes the Neocons feel all warm and fussy inside as they...

U.S. officials warned Chinese authorities that they could face higher tariffs if they continue purchasing oil from Iran and Russia, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters after two days of meetings in Stockholm. “It’s no secret the Chinese are buying 90% of the Iranian oil,” Bessent told reporters. The U.S. officials also informed the Chinese of a bill moving through Congress that would authorize the president to impose tariffs of up to 500% on nations that import Russian oil, saying that they believed other nations would follow suit. “We explained the nature of the...