Sanctions

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz stated that having U.N. backing on sanctions on Iran has been helpful and sometimes other countries “need that stamp of international law”

A report in a Kremlin-friendly publication claimed that the Russian government is “expected” to send oil to Cuba.

Mexico, China, and Russia vowed to provide assistance to the ailing Cuban regime this week — but none offering to provide the oil that the ailing communists desperately seek.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that India has not indicated it will stop buying Russian oil, as claimed by President Donald Trump on Monday.

The State Department announced on Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “took action this week to revoke the privilege of Iranian senior officials and their family members to be in the United States,” as a consequence of Iran’s bloody crackdown on protesters earlier this month.

President Donald Trump has been briefed on U.S. intelligence assessments describing Iran’s regime as being in its weakest position since the 1979 revolution, citing internal dissent, economic collapse, and growing instability, according to officials familiar with the briefings.

“The Iranian regime is engaged in a ritual of economic self-immolation,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday, as the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil-export “shadow fleet” amid a widening crackdown on protesters and mounting U.S. pressure across the region.

The French armed forces used helicopters to board and capture a Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker transiting the Mediterranean on Thursday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed the United States for Iran’s crises, accusing Washington of imposing “inhumane” sanctions while warning that any challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would amount to an “all-out war” against the Iranian nation.

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 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.

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.