More than 80 House and Senate Democrats urged the Biden administration to sanction two Israeli officials -- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir -- for spurring destabilizing activity in the West Bank, including settler violence against Palestinians and “illegal and dangerous” settlement expansion.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, introduced a bill Nov. 13 that would authorize the president to sanction foreign individuals and companies that are most responsible for exacerbating climate change and deforestation.
The incoming Trump administration likely will end the Biden administration’s temporary pause on pending decisions for liquefied natural gas exports, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said late Nov. 13.
Switzerland this week sanctioned three people and one entity with ties to the Myanmar military and human rights violations in the country. The designations target Saw Chit Thu, Mote Thun and Tin Win, officials involved with the Karen National Army, an armed group linked to the country’s military. Switzerland also sanctioned Chit Linn Myaing Group, a group of companies controlled by Saw Chit Thu.
The U.S. this week designated 26 companies, people and vessels linked to the sanctioned Al-Qatirji Company, a Syrian conglomerate that OFAC said generates hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Yemen-based Houthis by selling Iranian oil to Syria and China.
Companies have not encountered any major hurdles as they seek to comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s new interim final rule extending sanctions-related record-keeping requirements from five years to 10 years, according to two trade lawyers interviewed.
A subsidiary of American insurance firm MetLife will pay $178,421 to settle allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions by maintaining insurance policies for entities controlled by the Iranian government.
The Trump administration would be unwise to expand its export controls to cover older-generation semiconductors destined to China, but it could pursue new restrictions over less advanced versions of the tools used to make certain chips, technology policy analysts said in interviews, particularly if it’s willing to be more aggressive than the Biden administration in talks with the Dutch and Japanese.
Restrictive trade measures from 20 of the world's leading economies "significantly increased" over the past year, the World Trade Organization found in its 31st Trade Monitoring Report. While the Group of 20 countries also imposed 141 trade facilitating measures, the report said that from October 2023 to October 2024, G20 nations imposed 91 new trade-restrictive measures covering around $828.9 billion worth of goods, up from about $246 billion worth of goods in the last report, which covered restrictions imposed from mid-May to mid-October 2023.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement Nov. 13 that she expects to become the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee in the next Congress, which begins in January.