Search Results for: sanctions

A referendum to remove Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo failed on Sunday following low turnout. The Central Commission of Elections of Kosovo declared that until 15:30 only 203 citizens voted in the referendum, with around one percent turnout at the end of the process. The referendum comes at heightened tensions between [...]

Axios reported Saturday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) battalion “Netzah Yehuda” for human rights violations in the West Bank, according to three informed sources. The battalion is a special IDF unit mainly comprised of ultra-Orthodox soldiers. According to the report, the sanctions [...]

A group of four US congressmen called on Friday for President Joe Biden to sanction Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (commonly known as Hemedti), for gross violations of human rights. Senators Benjamin Cardin and James Risch of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, together with Representatives Michael McCaul and [...]

The US House of Representatives voted 360–58 Saturday to pass a sanctions bill that includes a provision forcing Chinese company ByteDance to divest from popular social media app TikTok, which would be banned in the US if ByteDance does not comply. The bill, formally entitled the “21st Century Peace through Strength Act,” designates TikTok as [...]

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed new sanctions Friday on multiple entities that back extremist settlers in the West Bank, including the Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich. These sanctions were a response to both the Mount Hebron Fund and Asiraich’s involvement in fundraising campaigns for violent extremists Yinon [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled against former Republican campaign consultant Jesse R. Benton on Friday, upholding Benton’s conviction for allegedly funneling $100,000 in campaign donations from a Russian businessman to his consulting firm. Of the $100,000, Benton was convicted of keeping $75,000 of the donation for himself and giving the [...]

The 2024 US presidential election will be historic on several fronts. It will be the first rematch between presidential candidates since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower faced down Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1956. At 81 and 77 respectively, incumbent candidate Joe Biden and his adversary Donald Trump are the oldest major party frontrunners in the history [...]

German federal prosecutors announced on Thursday the arrest of two German-Russian nationals suspected of spying and planning sabotage attacks on US military targets in an attempt to undermine military support for Ukraine. Reacting to this, German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock summoned the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry for an explanation. Two citizens, Dieter S. [...]

Canada announced on Monday that it would impose additional sanctions on 21 Belarus officials under the Special Economic Measures (Belarus) Regulations. These sanctions come in response to the ongoing human rights violations occurring in Belarus since the 2020 presidential election. According to Global Affairs Canada’s statement, the sanctions serve as a response to the systematic [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the Italian government on Friday to amend their planned reforms to defamation legislation to comply with European and international law. This comes days after amendments to this proposed legislation were revealed to include a potential ban on working as a journalist as well as increased fines. RSF heavily criticized the [...]