Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sweeping new sanctions Thursday on senior Iranian officials and regime-linked financial networks, saying Tehran’s ruling elite are “rats fleeing the ship” as they frantically wire tens of millions of dollars out of the country amid mounting unrest.
Starmer set up for showdown with the U.S. as he threatens to ban X, formerly known as Twitter, prompting sanctions warnings from Washington.
Wednesday’s seizure of a rogue Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic marked a significant escalation of U.S. efforts to shut down the dangerous “shadow fleet” of sanctions-defying invisible ships created by Russia, China, Iran, and other hostile powers – a fleet that poses serious threats to the environment, maritime safety, legitimate global shipping, and the world’s economic security.
A young Iranian law student protesting in the streets of Tehran and speaking from inside the capital says life under the Islamic Republic has become “unbearable,” fueling nationwide protests she calls “the final battle,” as she expressed hope President Trump will “keep his promise” and the West will “arm the youth” or strike the regime’s forces before an “unprecedented threat” of exported extremism and a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic “destabilizes the world.”
Ship tracking services detected around a dozen ships identified as loaded oil tankers departing from Venezuela in the first week of 2026, all of them targeted by U.S. sanctions.
The Swiss federal government announced on Monday that it has frozen “any assets held in Switzerland by Nicolás Maduro and other persons associated with him, with immediate effect.”
The Iranian regime — reeling from mass protests that could be the most severe threat to the tyranny of the ayatollahs since the 1979 Islamic revolution — denounced President Donald Trump’s arrest of Venezuelan narco-terrorist dictator Nicolas Maduro in the harshest terms, and demanded United Nations intervention on Maduro’s behalf.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four companies and four tankers aiding Venezuela’s socialist Maduro regime evade U.S. oil sanctions.
The Chinese Communist government on Friday imposed sanctions against 20 American defense-related companies over arms sales to Taiwan.
The Trump administration’s “blockade” of illegal Venezuelan oil shipments is among the few serious efforts at controlling the “shadow fleet” or “dark fleet” – the vast armada of tankers flying false flags, submitting false paperwork, shutting down their identification equipment, and helping rogue nations like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela evade U.S. sanctions against their oil industries.
The EU expressed indignation and vowed retaliation on Wednesday over U.S. sanctions on the bloc’s former censorship chief Thierry Breton.
Maritime tracking data released on Monday showed that international oil tankers have dramatically scaled back loading activity at Venezuelan ports, fearful of a crackdown by the Trump administration on illegal sanctions-busting oil shipments.
The growing initiative by the administration of President Donald Trump to curb Venezuelan profits from its illicit oil and drug industries is alarming socialists in Caracas – and their patrons and partners in crime on the other side of the world.
President Donald Trump said Monday that “it would be smart” for Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to give up power.
On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” CNN Senior Political and National Security Analyst and New York Times White House and National Security Correspondent David Sanger is going after ships that are under sanction and “many of these sanctions go back to
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday denied accusations from the European Council (EC) that Tehran has been assisting Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.
Europe pulled in two directions over whether to approve a financial structure using frozen Russian assets to enable a mega loan to Ukraine.
Syria has approved the first Jewish organization to be officially recognized since Syria became an independent nation in the 1940s.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) responded to the seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast by saying that even if the administration got a warrant to take the ship into custody,
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi on Thursday for meetings with top officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday suggested maintaining economic pressure against Venezuela’s socialist regime as a means to promote change in the country.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained on Meet the Press that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) would remove eight persons from its sanctions list on Monday, arguing that the Europeans are the real “laggards” in sanctions on Russia.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) documented a drop in Russian oil export revenue of over $13 billion between October and November in a report published on Thursday, a potential signal that President Donald Trump’s sanctions on Russia’s oil industry imposed in late October have begun to affect the market.
A senior Syrian official, backed up by a senior official from another part of the Middle East, said on Monday that Islamic State terrorists have made at least two serious attempts to kill Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former leader of al-Qaeda who was present for the foundation of ISIS.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with President Donald Trump at the White House, hoping to get sanctions lifted permanently.
Russian energy company Lukoil on Monday declared force majeure at West Qurna-2, a huge oilfield in Iraq. The Iraqi government has reportedly halted all payments to Lukoil due to U.S. sanctions imposed in October.
The United Nations Security Council voted almost unanimously on Thursday to lift sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, an al-Qaeda affiliated jihadist who led the terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) before seizing power in Damascus.
Russian crude oil exports at sea fell to their lowest point in almost two years in the past week, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, a significant decline in the aftermath of the administration of President Donald Trump imposing sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil.
The United States on Tuesday prepared a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that would lift sanctions against Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Khattab ahead of their visit to the White House on November 10.
President Zelensky “emphasised” to the leaders of his backers that they “must” provide financial aid for another “two or three years”.
Russian oil giant Lukoil issued a statement on Monday saying it would sell many of its international assets spread out across 11 different countries under intense pressure from President Donald Trump’s latest round of sanctions.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in Italy for meetings with his counterpart Giorgia Meloni and leaders at the Vatican, told reporters on Monday that he would travel to the White House soon to discuss sanctions on Russia, which he argued disproportionately hurt Hungarians.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview on Friday that his country was not planning to abide by President Donald Trump’s recent sanctions imposed on the Russian oil industry and was studying ways to “circumvent” them.
Indian oil refiners were reportedly unhappy with Wednesday’s news that President Donald Trump imposed heavy sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded to the U.S. Treasury Department’s latest round of sanctions against Russian oil on Thursday by dismissing them as irrelevant, claiming Russia will “not face any particular problems.”
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his administration is raising sanctions on Russia in a pressure campaign to bring a close to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Saturday that his agency believes “the majority” of Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium survived bombing runs from Israel and the United States in June.
The Chinese government on Thursday insisted its massive oil imports from Russia are “legitimate and lawful” and threatened “countermeasures to firmly defend its sovereignty” if President Donald Trump pressures Beijing to stop buying Russian oil.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry on Tuesday announced sanctions against five subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilding company Hanwha Ocean.
Syrian Christians USA is urging Congress to repeal the Caesar Act and all accompanying secondary sanctions.
