Blockade

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.

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 plight of Sudan’s two million Christians has become extremely dire as the brutal civil war between former junta partners Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo grinds on.

Threats to commercial vessels around the Arabian Peninsula are growing after U.S. airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ misleading claims, after the progressive Vermont senator falsely accused Israel of committing a war crime by blocking aid to Gaza.

The feud between Libya’s two governments for control of its central bank intensified on Wednesday as more oil fields shut down and the eastern government demanded the return of ousted bank governor Sadiq al-Kabir.

The congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the plight of Armenian Christians trapped by an Azerbaijani blockade in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region. The commission heard testimony from experts who said Azerbaijan’s actions clearly constituted genocide, with complicity from Turkey and the Islamist forces it has dispatched into the region.

Communist China threw a massive temper tantrum in the waters around Taiwan on Wednesday, bracketing the island with live-fire military drills and demanding large regions of restricted airspace.

The Port of Oakland was shut down for the third day in a row on Thursday as truckers continued to protest a California gig worker labor law that could impact an estimated 70,000 truckers.

Russia will lift its blockade of the Black Sea and allow grain to be exported again from Ukraine once Western nations lift sanctions, the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister has said.

An EU plan to export Ukrainian grain using the country’s train networks to alleviate the global food crisis is “highly unlikely” to work, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.

Members of Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion in Finland blocked a train they say contained Russian coal from reaching a port.

Police confirmed that a border crossing in the province of Manitoba has been blockaded by anti-mandate truckers.

Truckers have resumed a border blockade in southern Alberta, demanding the return of more freedoms after the vax pass was scrapped.

Alberta’s ruling Conservatives denied members had negotiated with anti-mandate truckers, but noted that vax passports could end within days. 

French anger around the British reclaiming their territorial waters post-Brexit and the British response to it took a bizarre turn as a tricorn-wearing re-enactor was seen firing a flintlock musket as French fishermen prepared to blockade a British port.

The socialist regime in Venezuela announced on Thursday it will stop sending oil to its U.S.based oil refinery Citgo after the Trump administration handed control of the company to President Juan Guaidó.

President Donald Trump confirmed on Thursday he is considering a quarantine or blockade of Venezuela.

Ukraine’s Border Guard Service on Monday accused Russia of effectively blockading the Kerch Strait by subjecting vessels bound for Ukrainian ports to an extremely slow approval process that allows only a few ships to pass per day.

The Qatar blockade is working. It must remain crystal clear to the men of Doha that only real change, and not paid campaigns, will ever serve to rescue them.

Turkey has begun a modest and long-planned, but perhaps politically significant, joint military exercise with Qatar, the Gulf state shunned by several of its Sunni Muslim neighbors in a bitter diplomatic dispute.

On Thursday night, the Associated Press reported that Kuwait, acting as an emissary for the other nations blockading Qatar, presented the Qatari government with a list of thirteen specific demands, with just 10 days to comply.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump brought carrots and sticks, respectively, to the dispute between Qatar and several other Arab nations on Friday. Soon after Tillerson called for an end to the diplomatic crisis, Trump said a news conference that Qatar “unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.”

James O’Keefe and Project Veritas released a new undercover video on Tuesday showing left-wing activists with the “DisruptJ20” effort plotting to stop Donald Trump’s inauguration by chaining D.C. Metro trains and blocking roads.

TEL AVIV – The Israeli navy intercepted a women-only flotilla aimed at breaching the security blockade of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, about 35 miles off the coast.  

Iran state-media outlets are reporting that Iran has begun to blockade imports from the United States.