Trump Admin Sanctions Flotilla Activists, Baselessly Claims Ties to Hamas

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned four Gaza flotilla activists, baselessly smearing them as part of “Hamas support networks.” The four activists — Saif Abukeshek, Jaldia Aueda, Hisham Abu Mahfuz, and Mohammed Khatib — are part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a flotilla attempting to break Israel’s siege of Gaza in order to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
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Cuba Runs Out of Oil Amidst Suffocating US Blockade

Cuba’s government has announced that it has run out of oil. On Wednesday night, Cuba’s energy minister Vicente de La O Levy said that the country has completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, and that the national grid is in a “critical” state. He further described how in the capital city of Havana, “the blackouts today exceed 20 or 22 hours.” “The situation is very tense…
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Judge Blocks US Sanctions Against UN Palestine Expert Francesca Albanese 

A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a UN expert on the occupied Palestinian territories, concluding that the sanctions violated her right to free speech after she called for Israeli officials to be charged with war crimes. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said that the sanctions against Albanese violate her right to free…
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EU Approves Sanctions on Violent Israeli Settlers. Critics Say It’s Not Enough.

Israeli settler groups committing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank could now be sanctioned by the European Union, after 27 foreign ministers of EU countries greenlit imposing sanctions on violent settlers and settler groups on Monday. The ministers also decided to sanction Hamas leaders. The decision came at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, which discussed major Middle…
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On Iran, Trump Has Backed Himself — and Much of the World — Into a Corner

U.S. efforts to force an end to the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz by attempting to escort a few U.S.-flagged ships through the Iranian closure will not only fail to relieve the worsening global fuel crisis and disruption of supply chains, it risks a resumption of full-scale war. The Trump administration has rejected Iran’s suggestion for negotiating an end to the blockade followed by a…
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Trump Expands Cuba Sanctions; Díaz-Canel Says Nation Won’t “Surrender”

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez of Cuba on Saturday responded with stark and defiant words to the latest attacks coming from U.S. President Donald Trump, who on Friday signed a new executive order authorizing even more aggressive sanctions against the island nation and later threatened to invade the country. “The President of the United States escalates his threats of military aggression…
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