De Moraes’ wife and the Lex Institute, which she leads, were also taken off the list, according to documents from the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control. Brazil’s government celebrated the move, which came after a weekend phone conversation between President Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Trump administration had sanctioned the judge in July, accusing him of using his position to authorize arbitrary pretrial detentions and suppress freedom of expression in Brazil.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes during the plenary session of the supreme court on Dec. 10, 2025.
Ton Molina/NurPhoto via Getty Images
In August 2024, de Moraes also ordered that Elon Musk’s X platform be suspended in Brazil over allegations it was not doing enough to target misinformation. The ban on the site was lifted two months later. At the time, Musk was a major ally of Mr. Trump and was helping finance his presidential campaign.
A senior Trump administration official said the sanctions were lifted since the U.S. saw the passage of an important amnesty bill by Brazil’s lower house as a signal that lawfare conditions in Brazil are improving. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s views on foreign policy interests.
The move represents a thawing of sorts in the frosty relationship between the two governments and follows a number of meetings and calls that both have described in positive terms. Mr. Trump had seen Lula’s predecessor Bolsonaro as an ally, with the Brazilian leader even dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” when he came into office.
During Bolsonaro’s trial, Mr. Trump called his treatment an “international disgrace.” In a July 9 letter to Lula posted to social media, Mr. Trump said the trial was a “witch hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
And in announcing de Moraes’ sanction in July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio alleged that the judge had “abused his authority by engaging in a targeted and politically motivated effort designed to silence political critics through the issuance of secret orders compelling online platforms, including U.S. social media companies, to ban the accounts of individuals for posting protected speech. Moraes further abused his position to authorize unjust pre-trial detentions and undermine freedom of expression.”
Bolsonaro was accused of masterminding a plot to stay in power despite his 2022 election defeat to Lula.
He was convicted and sentenced to more than 27 years in prison. The embattled 70-year-old leader started serving his sentence last month while still requesting to be put on house arrest due to his poor health. The massive upheaval his allies expected upon his arrest did not materialize, though he remains a politically powerful figure ahead of next year’s elections.
Brazil’s current government characterized the lifting of sanctions as a “big defeat” for Bolsonaro’s family.
“It was Lula who put this repeal [of the sanctions] on Donald Trump’s desk, in a dignifying and sovereign dialogue,” said Gleisi Hoffmann, Brazil’s minister for institutional relations. “It is a big defeat for the family of Jair Bolsonaro, traitors who have conspired against Brazil and the judiciary.”
Lula’s leftist administration has long accused Eduardo Bolsonaro, a lawmaker and son of the former president, of misleading Mr. Trump on de Moraes and other members of the court. Eduardo Bolsonaro said he received the news of the sanctions being lifted from de Moraes “with regret.”
The younger Bolsonaro, who announced in March that he would start living in the U.S. in order to lobby the Trump administration to help his father avoid jail, said he would continue to fight for Jair Bolsonaro.
“The lack of internal cohesion and the insufficient support for initiatives pursued abroad contributed to the worsening of the current situation,” Eduardo Bolsonaro wrote on his social media channels, after Mr. Trump’s reversal. “We sincerely hope that President Donald Trump’s decision will be successful in defending the strategic interests of the American people, as is his duty.”
In initially sanctioning de Moraes, the Treasury Department had cited the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets perpetrators of human rights abuse and corrupt officials. De Moraes said the use of the act against him was “illegal and regrettable.”
Also in July, the Trump administration imposed a 40% tariff on Brazilian products on top of a 10% tariff imposed earlier, justifying the tariffs by saying that Brazil’s policies and criminal prosecution of Bolsonaro constituted an economic emergency.
However, last month the White House announced it was removing the 40% tariffs on certain Brazilian imports, including beef and coffee. The U.S. ran a $6.8 billion trade surplus last year with Brazil, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Mr. Trump and Lula started mending fences at the United Nations’ General Assembly in September, which was followed by their first private meeting in Malaysia in October and subsequent phone conversations.
The Brazilian president has said he wasn’t only trying to reverse the increase on tariffs but also to end the sanctions on de Moraes and some members of his government who were also hit by the measure.
Separately, Lula has urged Latin American states to help avoid a conflict in Venezuela as the Trump administration orders military action against vessels allegedly linked to drug cartels.
Regarding Quico Toro’s essay “
Another U.S. Attempt to Topple Maduro Would Be a Disaster” (Review, Nov. 8): Venezuela’s economic collapse and migratory crisis began in 2013, at least four years before the U.S. imposed broad U.S. sanctions. From 2013 onward, Venezuela experienced the highest inflation rate in the world and a precipitous decline in gross domestic product, driven directly by the devastating economic policies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, including widespread nationalizations, reckless monetary and fiscal policies and the implementation of universal price and currency controls.
Mr. Toro neglects the consequences of the Biden administration’s policy of accommodation. Far from improving conditions, diplomatic passivity has allowed the government to dig in its heels, intensifying repression and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
President Donald Trump has said Iran has asked whether U.S. sanctions could be lifted, calling the current measures “very heavy” and noting he is “open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens.”
Speaking at the White House late Thursday, Trump offered no timeline or conditions for engagement but signalled a potential opening for dialogue between the longtime rivals.
Newsweek has reached out to the State Department and Iran’s Foreign Ministry for comment.
Why It Matters
Any easing of U.S. sanctions would mark a significant shift in American foreign policy toward Tehran. Trump’s administration has pursued a “maximum pressure” campaign, including strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and tight economic restrictions.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran stalled after a 12-day war sparked by a surprise Israeli attack earlier this year. Any change in policy could influence the balance of power in the Middle East, affect global oil markets, and reshape relations with U.S. allies in the region.
What to Know
Trump told reporters: “Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. Iran has got very heavy U.S. sanctions and it makes it really hard for them to do what they’d like to be able to do. And I’m open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens, but I would be open to it.”
The president has not committed to any specific steps, but his openness indicates a potential recalibration of U.S. strategy toward Tehran.
The “maximum pressure” strategy, reinstated early in his second term, was designed to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and limit its regional influence. Previous negotiations, including the 2015 nuclear deal, collapsed after the U.S. withdrew, citing inadequate oversight.
Trump on Israel-Iran Conflict
Trump also addressed the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, providing new details on U.S. involvement.
“Israel attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that,” he said. “When Israel attacked Iran first, that was a great day for Israel because that attack did more damage than the rest of them put together.”
The Israeli assault on June 13 killed several top Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, along with numerous civilians. Iran responded with hundreds of missile strikes against Israel, after which the U.S. joined the conflict by bombing Iran’s three major nuclear facilities.
Iran’s Stance
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaking in Tehran on Monday ruled out cooperation with Washington as long as the U.S. maintains military forces in the region and supports Israel.
Iran has also resisted international demands to limit uranium enrichment, a key sticking point that has derailed past nuclear negotiations. Any movement toward easing sanctions would likely require verifiable guarantees from Tehran—a condition it has so far refused to meet.
What People Are Saying
Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking in Tehran on Monday: “Only if the United States completely cuts its backing for the Zionist regime, removes its military bases from the region, and ceases interfering in its affairs, their request for cooperation with Iran, not in the near future but much later, could be examined.”
What Happens Next
While Trump’s remarks open the door for dialogue, progress will depend on Tehran providing concrete assurances about its nuclear program. Negotiations are expected to proceed slowly, with extensive diplomatic maneuvering before any tangible change in U.S. sanctions policy.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had trouble refueling his plane on a trip to the Middle East after being sanctioned by the United States, his government said Thursday.
Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said that the presidential plane stopped in Madrid to refuel on the way to Saudi Arabia but that officials at Barajas airport, Spain’s biggest, refused to fill it up.
After negotiations with Spain’s left-wing government, the plane landed at a military base to refuel.
President Donald Trump’s administration has accused Petro of enabling drug cartels and placed him on the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list.
“Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week when annoucing the sanctions.
Petro, his wife Veronica Alcocer, eldest son Nicolas, and Benedetti are banned from traveling to the United States and any U.S. assets they have are frozen.
U.S. companies or companies with US capital are also banned from doing business with them.
Writing on X, Petro thanked the “kingdom of Spain” for helping him reach Riyadh at the start of a three-country tour that will also take him to Qatar and Egypt.
Benedetti said that the aviation refueling company at Barajas was afraid of breaching U.S. sanctions on Petro.
“The companies that sell fuel or provide cleaning services or the boarding stairs (at airports) are almost always American,” Benedetti said.
“They refused to provide the (refueling) service because of the OFAC (list),” he said, referring to harsh financial sanctions slapped by Mr. Trump on the leftist Petro, one of his most vociferous critics.
The sanctions imposed on Petro on October 24 followed months of friction between Trump and Petro over U.S. migrant deportations and strikes on suspected drug boats off the coast of South America.
In an exclusive conversation with CBS News earlier this month, Petro claimed some of those killed by the U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats have been innocent civilians, and he reiterated his accusation that the attacks violate international law. The White House has denied that innocent civilians were killed in the boat strikes.
Petro, a former left-wing guerrilla, has vehemently denied any involvement in drug trafficking and argued that the cocaine trade is being fueled chiefly by demand in the United States and Europe.
Last month, the U.S. State Department announced it was revoking Petro’s visa after he participated in a New York protest where he called on American soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump’s orders.
The department said on social media that Petro “stood on a NYC street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence. We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.”
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he would “love to meet” Kim Jong Un this week and that he is willing to travel to North Korea to discuss sanctions relief.
Trump made the remarks in response to reporter questions aboard Air Force One, speaking off the cuff but not raising the issue himself.
Ukraine’s leader welcomed a raft of new economic sanctions against Russia being imposed by the Trump administration and the European Union on Thursday, calling the increased pressure on Moscow “very important.”
CBS News correspondent Ramy Inocencio says the new U.S. sanctions, announced by the Treasury on Wednesday, essentially block Americans from dealing with anyone at the Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, or with any companies that are more than 50% owned by them.
The sanctions are a win for Zelenskyy. But despite President Trump’s open frustration with Russia’s strongman leader, who has refused to negotiate a truce, American pressure on Moscow has increased only economically so far, not with the provision of long-range additional weapons, or even with overt permission to launch attacks deeper inside Russia.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent encouraged allies to “join in” as he announced the new U.S. sanctions on Wednesday, and the European Union quickly did.
“We waited for this. God bless, it will work. And this is very important,” the Ukrainian leader said in Brussels, where EU countries attending a summit announced the bloc’s latest round of sanctions.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) and European Council President Antonio Costa arrive for a European Council meeting gathering the 27 EU leaders to discuss Ukraine and other matters in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 23, 2025.
MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty
Posting earlier on social media as he arrived in Brussels, Zelenskyy thanked Mr. Trump for a “resolute and well-targeted decision,” calling the U.S. sanctions a “clear signal that prolonging the war and spreading terror come at a cost.”
“It is a strong and much-needed message that aggression will not go unanswered,” he said, adding a call later for other nations to join in sanctioning Russia.
Russia dismissive, but ex-president calls sanctions an “act of war”
Russia, however, dismissed the sanctions announced by Ukraine’s Western partners as counterproductive, with the country’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency declaring that they would be “painful, as usual, but not deadly. Also as usual.”
“Pressure or no pressure, it won’t make things any sweeter for Zelenskyy. And what’s more, it won’t bring peace any closer,” Komsomolskaya Pravda, a popular pro-Kremlin tabloid, said.
Former president and current chair of the Russian state Security Council Dmitry Medvedev went further, as the outspoken figure often does, declaring the U.S. sanctions “an act of war.”
“The U.S. is our enemy, and their talkative ‘peacemaker’ has now fully embarked on the warpath with Russia,” Medvedev wrote in a message posted on social media. “The decisions taken are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully aligned himself with loony Europe.”
The measures are a long-sought triumph for Zelenskyy, who has campaigned for the international community to punish Russia more comprehensively for attacking his country.
Despite U.S.-led peace efforts in recent months, the war shows no sign of ending after more than three years of fighting, and European leaders are increasingly concerned about the threat from Russia.
Ukrainian forces have largely held Russia’s bigger army at bay in a slow and ruinous war of attrition along a roughly 600-mile front line that snakes along eastern and southern Ukraine.
Almost daily Russian long-range strikes have taken aim at Ukraine’s power grid ahead of the bitter winter, while Ukrainian forces have targeted Russian oil refineries and manufacturing plants.
Trump frustrated with Putin, but so far offering sanctions, not missiles
Energy revenue is the linchpin of Russia’s economy, allowing Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation and avoiding a currency collapse.
The EU measures target Russian oil and gas, the Russian shadow fleet of hundreds of aging tankers that are dodging sanctions, and Russia’s financial sector. A new system for limiting the movement of Russian diplomats within the 27-nation EU will also be introduced.
Zelenskyy urged more nations to punish Russia. “This is a good signal to other countries in the world to join the sanctions,” he told reporters in Brussels.
International crude prices jumped more than $2 per barrel Thursday on news of the additional sanctions.
Senior officials in Europe and the United States have debated for months over how best to crank up pressure on the Kremlin.
As the sanctions were announced in Washington on Wednesday, Mr. Trump denied a Wall Street Journal report that he had eased U.S. restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons to target deeper inside Russia, calling it “fake news.”
“The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!” Mr. Trump said in a post on his own Truth Social platform.
Mr. Trump has also, so far, disappointed Zelenskyy in his long-running bid to secure American-made Tomahawk long-range missiles to use in his country’s defense.
Zelenskyy also reiterated on Thursday that Ukraine would not agree to cede any land occupied by Russia as part of a ceasefire agreement. Mr. Trump said this week that the fighting should be paused with the battle lines frozen where they stand — with Russia’s invading forces in control of about 78% of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, he said.
Zelenskyy has called that a reasonable starting point for negotiations, but on Thursday he was quoted by the Euronews outlet, after he arrived in Belgium, as saying a ceasefire agreement could include “no territorial concessions” to Russia.
The new EU measures took almost a month to decide. The 27-nation bloc has already slapped 18 packages of sanctions against Russia over the war, but getting final agreement on whom and what to target can take weeks. Moscow has also proved adept at sidestepping sanctions.
The U.S. sanctions came after Mr. Trump said that his plan for a swift meeting with Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.” It was the latest twist in Mr. Trump’s hot-and-cold efforts to end the war as Putin refuses to budge from his demands.
President Trump expressed frustration with Putin at the Oval Office again on Wednesday, telling reporters that “every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”
In what appeared to be a public reminder of Russian atomic arsenals, Putin on Wednesday directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces.
With no peace in sight, Ukraine and Russia keep fighting
The two sides continued to pummel each other with strikes overnight.
In a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, Russia conducted a so-called double-tap drone strike, hitting the same place a second time when first responders arrived at the scene of the first strike, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said. One emergency worker was killed and five of his colleagues were injured, Syniehubov said.
Russian drones also attacked three districts of Kyiv, injuring eight people, according to city’s prosecutor’s office.
The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, reported intercepting and destroying 139 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and the annexed Crimean peninsula overnight.
It did not comment on unconfirmed reports that Ukrainian drones hit another oil refinery and an unspecified energy facility.
The European Union (EU) has approved its 19th sanctions package against Russia, including on its lucrative gas sector for the first time and its “shadow fleet”, to heap pressure on Moscow to end its war on Ukraine.
The approval comes a day after the Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, also seeking to crank the pressure on Moscow to make peace.
A proposed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, intended to bring peace in Ukraine closer, was postponed when it became clear the Kremlin would not agree to a ceasefire.
“We’re keeping the pressure high on the aggressor,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a post on X.
“For the first time we are hitting Russia’s gas sector – the heart of its war economy. We will not relent until the people of Ukraine have a just and lasting peace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has labeled his military’s strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure “the most effective sanctions.” Meanwhile, reports indicate that alongside urging Europe and India to halt purchases of Russian oil, Washington plans to share additional intelligence with Ukraine on Russian refineries, pipelines and other energy infrastructure.
Most discussions about these “sanctions” have focused on their financial implications for Russia. Vladimir Putin relies heavily on corruption and patronage, with oil and gas serving as key revenue streams. Disrupting the flow could force Mr. Putin to choose between sustaining the war and maintaining the payouts to oligarchs and citizens that secure his political backing—though such an economic squeeze would take some time.
President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migrationTrump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.“I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leadersTrump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.“Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speechTrump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.Trump has Oslo dreamsDespite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.___AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
UNITED NATIONS —
President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.
His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”
The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”
World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.
After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.
Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”
Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.
He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.
The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.
Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.
The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.
Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migration
Trump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.
He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.
“I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”
Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”
The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.
Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders
Trump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.
General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.
“Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.
Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.
The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.
Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech
Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.
France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.
Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.
“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”
Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.
It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.
European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.
Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.
Trump has Oslo dreams
Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.
“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.
He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.
“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”
Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.
___
AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
When Russia invaded Ukraine it sparked international outrage. It also triggered a wave of international sanctions designed to cripple Russia’s economy so badly…it couldn’t fight the war.
And yet…two-and-a-half years later, the fighting continues and the International Monetary Fund predicts, this year, Russia’s economy will grow over 3%. More than the U.S. and Europe.
The architect behind the United States sanction strategy is Daleep Singh – the deputy national security advisor for international economics at the White House.
We first interviewed him in the weeks after the 2022 invasion…when he told us he expected a barrage of sanctions to bring Russia’s economy to its knees.
Earlier this month, we went to Washington to ask Daleep Singh about those early predictions of a nosedive.…and he told us something we don’t hear very often on 60 Minutes.
Daleep Singh: So let’s be– let’s be honest. This is not the nosedive that I predicted two years ago. But– I don’t think anybody should mistake Russia’s rebound with resilience. On the surface, Russia’s economy may appear to be a fortress, but underneath the foundations are fragile.
Hours after the invasion, the U.S. began striking that foundation.
At the White House, Daleep Singh announced the administration’s strategy…
Daleep Singh
60 Minutes
Within 72 hours, the U.S. and its allies…. blocked Russia’s central bank from accessing $300 billion it stashed around the world, then froze the foreign bank accounts of dozens of Russian billionaires …later, seizing their trophies for good measure.
Since then, 45 countries have directed over 5,000 sanctions at Russian targets… everything from diamonds and semiconductors to Vladimir Putin himself. And yet…
Sharyn Alfonsi: The war is still raging. The Russian economy is growing. It looks like sanctions have been a failure.
Daleep Singh: No, not at all so he’s turbo-charged government spending to fuel the war machine. He’s frozen infrastructure and education spending. And– yes, that’s lifted GDP growth. But there’s a cost. Sky-high inflation, almost 9%. Nosebleed interest rates, almost 19%. Both are choking off growth.
But the sanctions have not been able to curb the flow of cash from the Kremlin’s most valuable asset… oil. Russia is the third largest producer in the world…and this year, its oil and gas revenues are expected to increase 2.6% to nearly $240 billion.
We wondered how – despite all those sanctions- the Kremlin is still making so much money from its oil. We found the answer in an unexpected place.
Twenty miles off the coast of Greece.
We went there with Samir Madani….
Madani runs a company from Stockholm that tracks oil tankers for dozens of international clients…such as insurance companies or shippers…who want to know exactly where oil is moving in case of a spill or accident.
Samir Madani
60 Minutes
But he took us to see this oil tanker…called the Sprite. It’s part of Russia’s “dark fleet” – one of an estimated 200 ships that move a million barrels of Russian oil around Western sanctions every day.
Madani and his team monitor satellite images, signals from ships, and photographs from the ground to track tankers.
He told us, one day, in January 2023, he noticed something suspicious on his dashboard…a tanker sending signals from a port in Japan…a country that doesn’t export crude oil.
Samir Madani: That didn’t make sense. So I was able to review that with satellite imagery and saw that there was no vessel at the port. Instead– it was a spoof where in fact we saw the vessel in Kozmino, in Russia.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So they’re able to lie about their location?
Samir Madani: Yes: in real time.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And so that allows them to move wherever they want to move–
Samir Madani: Absolutely.
Sharyn Alfonsi: –undetected.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And that happened how quickly after the sanctions took place?
Samir Madani: Immediately. Immediately.
Sharyn Alfonsi: When you’re sitting at your dashboard and you’re watching all of this, what makes you know that’s part of the dark fleet?
Samir Madani: Yeah. The ownership– will change, the vessel– age is beyond 15 years– that’s a red flag. And so these vessels were supposed to be scrapped. And then somebody makes a bid in the last minute, with a– with a million dollars, and gets to extend the life of this tanker.
The Sprite is one of those tankers. 21 years old, it was last purchased in February and is registered to a shell company in the Caribbean. So what was it doing floating off the coast of Greece?
Samir Madani: SPRITE here is acting as a dropbox for Russian oil. If you can see on her starboard side on the right side there you have the 4 buoys. And that means they placed those there for contact with other vessels.
The Sprite
60 Minutes
Other dark fleet vessels that will transfer oil onto or off of the Sprite…Madani spotted one of them, the Zambra, a mile away.
These are images Madani’s team provided of Zambra moving oil from Russian ports on the Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey and then transferring it onto the Sprite just off the coast of Greece.
Sharyn Alfonsi: We were there with you, we’re watching you know transfer, transfer, transfer. What’s going on there?
Samir Madani: The transfers are an additional layer of obfuscation when it comes to– transferring oil. So when you have a “floating dropbox” act like that, you know, where it’s able to take in any kind of oil, and then output any other kind of oil, it confuses things.
The point of this tanker shell game is to get around Western sanctions…specifically a price cap that was supposed to limit Moscow’s oil profits.
In 2022, the G-7, which includes the U.S., Canada, Japan, and four European countries…banned the import of Russian oil. But they didn’t want to risk a global price spike. So, they allowed Russian oil to continue to flow internationally but imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on the purchase of Russian crude oil.
Russia’s workarounds are paying off…. almost all of its crude oil is selling above the price cap. In the last two years, Russia’s dark fleet has moved an estimated $45 billion worth of crude oil.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And where is all that oil going?
Samir Madani: Yeah. Most of the oil that– departs Russia by sea– nowadays is going to China and India.
60 Minutes analyzed four years of data from India’s Ministry of Commerce. We found the value of India’s imports of Russian crude oil increased by more than 2,000% since the invasion of Ukraine.
Much of that crude goes to an Indian port called Sikka…where it is refined into other oil products, such as gasoline. But those products don’t necessarily stay in India.
Sam Madani helped us track a tanker of “refined products” from India’s port … around the tip of Africa …across the Atlantic Ocean…and ultimately, here …to New York.
Sharyn Alfonsi: We saw the ship coming from India into the New York Harbor. How often is that happening?
Samir Madani: It happens around– twice a month, and they bring in around half a million barrels of refined product. Fuel.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So, is the Russian crude oil untraceable?
Samir Madani: After it becomes refined it’s untraceable. Yeah.
The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned 38 Russian “dark fleet” tankers… but Sam Madani says he’s identified 170 others that are still active, moving Russian oil.
Sharyn Alfonsi: They’re not doing it in the middle of the night. They’re doing it in broad daylight. How do you stop that?
Daleep Singh: First, identify them. Second, let them know– that– they’re subject to our sanctions. And then, three, deliver those sanctions. Any player in Russia’s shadow fleet network would be subject to our sanctions.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Why not do it right now?
Daleep Singh: What we’re trying to balance right now is– is to continue to move the global oil market into balance, to continue to have– a downward movement in the level of inflation across the world, and to sustain unity. We can’t sanction Russia’s shadow fleet by ourselves: so, there’s a diplomatic component to this too. This is about stamina more so than it is about shock and awe.
There’s another market the U.S. is trying to keep in balance – American nuclear energy.
The U.S. is still paying Russia $1 billion a year for enriched uranium to help fuel 94 nuclear reactors that provide about a fifth of America’s energy needs.
In May, Congress took notice and banned the import of Russian-enriched uranium. But the ban won’t go into full effect for four years.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Does the U.S. have the capacity right now that it needs for enriched uranium?
Amir Vexler: No. So un– unfortunately– about 25% of it to 30% has been imported from Russia.
Amir Vexler
60 Minutes
Sharyn Alfonsi: We don’t have it.
Amir Vexler: Right. We– we are dependent.
That’s because the United States stopped making enriched uranium a decade ago. Amir Vexler runs Centrus Energy.
Last year, Centrus began enriching uranium inside this Piketon, Ohio facility. The only American company with that capability.
Vexler showed us how it’s done — those 40-foot-tall centrifuges spin uranium gas until it’s enriched and can be used as nuclear fuel.
But these 16 centrifuges can only make a fraction of the enriched uranium the U.S. needs. See those squares…on the ground? Those are placeholders for 11 thousand more centrifuges Centrus wants to build.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And how long in the best-case scenario would it take to get those up and running?
Amir Vexler: It will take about six to seven years to get to full capacity.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And to not be reliant on Russia.
Amir Vexler: That is correct.
In Russia, businesses quickly pivoted. When Western companies left the country at the start of the war, Russian versions replaced them. Starbucks with Stars Coffee…Zara with Maag. Coca Cola …Dobry Cola. even authentic Western products– such as the latest iPhones are still getting into the hands of Russians.
Sharyn Alfonsi: When we first started hearing about sanctions against Russia, we anticipated seeing, you know, bread lines in Moscow. Has that happened?
Richard Connolly
60 Minutes
Richard Connolly: In a word, no. The most goods that Russians would have accessed before the war are available now.
Richard Connolly is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London and a specialist on the Russian economy.
Richard Connolly: Sanctions prohibit the sale of western cars to Russia, Mercedes or Chryslers. But a lot of them are still making their way to Russia via third parties, like Georgia and the South Caucasus, or Kazakhstan, or China. Now, of course, if you’re gonna have to send an American or German car on this roundabout route to reach Russia, the price of that car when it’s sold is much higher than it was before the war. But, a lot of Russians with a lot of money in their pocket who are prepared to pay that higher price. There’s an incentive for lots of Russian small businesses to acquire goods on foreign markets from sanctioning countries, bring them back to Russia, and sell them at a very healthy markup.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So evading sanctions has become good business in Russia–
Richard Connolly: It’s become a business– sector of its own in Russia, yes.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What kind of businesses are we talking about?
Richard Connolly: Some people are selling goods that were previously sanctioned. They’re producing them at home. The number of small- and medium-sized businesses registered in Russia is at an all-time high. Before the war Russia had a big problem. It wasn’t investing enough. But since the war began the single biggest source of investment is in trade and logistics.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It almost sounds like, from an economic perspective, that the war’s the best thing that’s happened to Russia.
Richard Connolly: It certainly changed the economic trajectory. This is the fastest it’s grown for a consecutive period in over a decade and a half. Whether they can sustain that over time is, of course– the big question. It’s possible they may confound expectations in the future as well.
Produced by Lucy Hatcher. Associate producer, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Robert Zimet.
Kazan, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday presided at the closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, praising its role as a counterbalance to what he called the West’s “perverse methods.” The three-day summit in the city of Kazan covered the deepening of financial cooperation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, efforts to settle regional conflicts and expansion of the BRICS group of nations.
The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa when it was founded in 2009 has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.
The summit was attended by leaders or representatives of 36 countries, highlighting the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine. The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia.
Speaking at what was dubbed the “BRICS Plus” session, which included countries that are considering joining the bloc, Putin accused the West of trying to stem the growing power of the Global South with “illegal unilateral sanctions, blatant protectionism, manipulation of currency and stock markets, and relentless foreign influence ostensibly promoting democracy, human rights, and the climate change agenda.”
“Such perverse methods and approaches — to put it bluntly — lead to the emergence of new conflicts and the aggravation of old disagreements,” Putin said. “One example of this is Ukraine, which is being used to create critical threats to Russia’s security, while ignoring our vital interests, our just concerns, and the infringement of the rights of Russian-speaking people.”
Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine more than two years ago, and Russian forces now occupy an estimated 20% of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, which Putin has claimed at various stages was either a response to NATO’s eastward expansion, or a defense of pro-Russian populations in eastern Ukraine.
Support from the U.S. and its NATO allies has helped Ukraine prevent Russia’s complete takeover, but many in the region fear the November U.S. presidential election could bring a second term for former President Donald Trump, who’s seen as more sympathetic to Putin and less likely to maintain current levels of support for Kyiv.
Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT, which would enable Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with its partners — some of which are also heavily sanctioned by the U.S. and its allies — more easily.
In a joint declaration Wednesday, participants voiced concern about “the disruptive effect of unlawful unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions,” and reiterated their commitment to enhancing financial cooperation within BRICS. They noted the benefits of “faster, low-cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimizing trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin stands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as other participants in the outreach/BRICS Plus format meeting pose for a family photo during the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 24, 2024.
MAXIM SHIPENKOV/Pool via REUTERS
China’s President Xi Jinping has emphasized the bloc’s role in ensuring global security. Xi noted that China and Brazil have put forward a peace plan for Ukraine and sought to rally broader international support for it. Ukraine has rejected the proposal.
“We should promote the de-escalation of the situation as soon as possible and pave the way for a political settlement,” Xi said Thursday.
Putin and Xi had announced a “no-limits” partnership weeks before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. Moscow declared its intention at the time to forge a new “democratic world order” with China. Putin and Xi met again twice earlier this year, in Beijing in May and at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July.
Russia’s cooperation with India also has flourished as New Delhi sees Moscow as a time-tested partner since the Cold War despite Russia’s close ties with India’s rival, China. While Western allies want New Delhi to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the fighting in Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.
Putin, who held a series of bilateral meetings on the summit’s sidelines, was set to meet Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is making his first visit to Russia in more than two years. Guterres’s trip to Kazan drew an angry reaction from Kyiv.
Addressing the BRICS Plus session, Guterres urged an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan. “We need peace in Ukraine, a just peace in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions,” he said.
Russia’s Kremlin-controlled media touted the summit as a massive policy coup that left the West fearing the loss of its global clout. State TV shows and news bulletins underscored that BRICS countries account for about half the world’s population comprising the “global majority” and challenging Western “hegemony.”
TV hosts elaborately quoted Western media reports saying that the summit highlighted the failure to isolate Moscow. “The West, the U.S., Washington, Brussels, London ended up isolating themselves,” said Yevgeny Popov, host of a popular political talk show on state channel Rossiya 1.
Madrid — Spanish authorities on Tuesday said they had arrested four people suspected of orchestrating a sanctions-busting commercial network after intercepting more than 14 tons of chemical products bound for Russia.
“During the investigation, it was proven that internationally sanctioned chemicals, some of them possible precursors for chemical weapons or nerve agents, had been exported in the past using this company structure,” Spain’s national police force and its tax authority said in a joint statement, according to the Reuters news agency. The agencies did not say what chemicals had been seized.
The chemicals were discovered in a shipping container at the port in Barcelona, on Spain’s northeast coast, the authorities said, while the suspects were taken into custody in three villages near the city. A video posted on the National Police’s social media account showed officers unloading dozens of drums of unidentified chemicals at the port.
🚩 Interceptado un envío de 13.000 kilos de productos químicos con destino a #Rusia, en una operación conjunta con la Agencia Tributaria
There have been no confirmed uses of chemical weapons by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion in February 2022, though the U.S. warned his government against taking the step later that year amid debunked claims from the Kremlin that Ukraine had used such weapons.
Spanish authorities said they had uncovered a company managed by “citizens of Russian origin,” who had developed a network to illegally supply chemical products to Russia, according to the joint statement from the law enforcement agencies.
The firm sent the goods to its Moscow-based subsidiary through a series of shadow companies in countries such as Armenia or Kyrgyzstan, with the deliveries reaching Russia by land, the police said.
The U.S. has seized a plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over alleged sanctions violations. The jet in question has been transported from the Dominican Republic to Florida. CBS News correspondent Cristian Benavides has more from Fort Lauderdale.
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In a policy step to ease pressure on Cuba, the Biden administration removed the communist island from the roster of countries “not cooperating fully” with anti-terrorist efforts, a list the U.S. State Department issues every year.
According to the certification sent to Congress by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, the State Department determined that “the circumstances for Cuba’s certification as a ‘not fully cooperating country’ have changed from 2022 to 2023,” and that the department is no longer keeping Cuba on that list.
A State Department spokesperson said Cuba’s “refusal to engage” with Colombia on extradition requests for National Liberation Army guerrilla members who were in Havana for peace talks “supported” Cuba’s certification in 2022. But in August 2022, Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered Colombia’s Attorney General to suspend the arrest warrants against 17 ELN commanders, including those in Cuba.
“Moreover, the United States and Cuba resumed law enforcement cooperation in 2023, including on counterterrorism,” the spokesperson said. “Therefore, the Department determined that Cuba’s continued certification as a ‘not fully cooperating country’ was no longer appropriate.”
The State Department said that four countries – the North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela – were certified as “not fully cooperating” in 2023.
Cuba remains on a separate, more important list of state sponsors of terrorism — also kept by the State Department — since the Trump administration included it in 2021.
In the notice sent Wednesday to Congress, the State Department said that the designation of state sponsors of terrorism “is wholly separate” from the certification process of countries seen as not cooperating enough with U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
“U.S. law establishes specific statutory criteria for rescinding” a state sponsor of terrorism designation, the notice said. Any review of Cuba’s status on that list “would be based on the law and the criteria established by Congress.”
A section the U.S. Arms Export Control Act was amended in 1996 to give authority to the secretary of state to determine which countries are not doing enough to cooperate with the United States in preventing terrorism. The U.S. cannot sell or license defense equipment or services to those countries. The section is one of the four laws used by the secretary of state to designate countries that “have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism” as state sponsors of terrorism, according to the Department’s website.
The immediate effects of removing Cuba from the annual list of those not cooperating on counterterrorism are unclear. The United States does not sell weapons to Cuba anyway because the U.S. embargo prohibits it, and the country is still officially considered a sponsor of terrorism.
The removal comes after the Cuban government has signaled it is not willing to take a first step to improve relations with the United States, including releasing any of about 1,000 political prisoners it is currently holding, if the Biden administration does not remove Cuba from the list of states sponsoring terrorism first.
In a long interview published Monday on Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel made that position explicit.
“We do not ask for favors, nor do we have to make any gesture to have the blockade removed; it is simply a right of the Cuban people,” he said.
In the interview with Spanish left-leaning journalist and activist Ignacio Ramonet, Diaz-Canel denied there has been a crackdown on people criticizing his government (“protesting against the Revolution is not met with a repressive response”) despite the number of people Cuba has detained and convicted for protesting, and did not take responsibility for the severe economic crisis Cubans have endured under his watch, blaming instead U.S. sanctions and Cuba’s designation as a sponsor of terrorism for the debacle.
Reactions in Miami
Despite the State Department’s assurances, Cuban-American members of Congress from Miami immediately criticized Cuba’s removal from the “not fully coopeating” list, fearing it might be a first step towards a potential delisting of the island as a sponsor of terror.
“This latest move is, without a doubt, another sign that the Biden Administration is paving the way to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terror,” said Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs.
“How is it possible that a dictatorship that finances terrorism in Latin America, supports Hamas and harbors international terrorists in its territory ‘cooperates’ with the United States on anti-terrorism?” Salazar said in a statement. Cuba has provided asylum to several fugitives of U.S. justice it deems as political refugees, an issue that has been an obstacle to better relations.
“The White House is either being naive or is actively complicit with the Castro/Díaz-Canel regime,” Salazar said.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said he has already reached out to the State Department to get answers about this “absurd move.”
“President Biden is making it abundantly clear he wants to remove the Cuban dictatorship from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The criminal and illegitimate regime in Havana supports foreign terrorist organizations in Colombia, and harbors ETA terrorists and fugitives wanted by American courts.”
In a posting on X, Rep. Carlos Giménez of Miami used capital letters to say that Cuba “must remain” on the list of states sponsoring terrorism.
“The dictatorship supports Hamas, Hezbollah, Putin’s illegal invasion of Russia, repression in Venezuela and Nicaragua,” he said. “They should be treated like the outcasts they are!”
Nora Gámez Torres is the Cuba/U.S.-Latin American policy reporter for el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald. She studied journalism and media and communications in Havana and London. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from City, University of London. Her work has won awards by the Florida Society of News Editors and the Society for Professional Journalists.//Nora Gámez Torres estudió periodismo y comunicación en La Habana y Londres. Tiene un doctorado en sociología y desde el 2014 cubre temas cubanos para el Nuevo Herald y el Miami Herald. También reporta sobre la política de Estados Unidos hacia América Latina. Su trabajo ha sido reconocido con premios de Florida Society of News Editors y Society for Profesional Journalists.
Tel Aviv — Israeli leaders have lashed out at the prospect that the Biden administration may cut off aid to one of the Jewish state’s army battalions over accusations that it’s committed human rights abuses in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. According to a report by Axios, sanctions against the Israeli army’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion could be announced in the coming days.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested a decision had been made on Friday when he was asked about internal investigations under a U.S. law that prohibits military aid being sent to foreign forces found to be violating human rights.
Asked about the U.S. probe, Blinken said Friday that it would be “fair to say that you’ll see results very soon. I’ve made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead.”
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man greets volunteers during a military graduation ceremony on May 26, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel, for members of the Netzah Yehuda battalion, which was formed in 1999 to allow ultra-Othodox Israelis to enlist.
Lior Mizrahi/Getty
The government has been investigating the IDF unit since 2022, a U.S. official told CBS News. The battalion came under heavy criticism after a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man was found dead in January of that year after being detained by IDF soldiers at a checkpoint in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted angrily to the possibility of his military being sanctioned over the more than two-year-old accusations as it continues its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, I will fight it with all my strength,” said the Israeli leader.
In a separate statement, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant lauded the Netzah Yehuda battalion, heaping praise on it for fighting Hamas’ ally Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and “most recently, they are operating to dismantle Hamas brigades in Gaza.”
“The battalion’s activities are carried out in accordance with the values of the IDF and in accordance with international law,” Gallant said, insisting that “any event that deviates from the aforementioned standards is addressed accordingly” by the IDF and Israel’s justice system.
“Any attempt to criticize an entire unit casts a heavy shadow on the actions of the IDF, which operates to protect the citizens of Israel. Damage to one battalion, affects the entire defense establishment — this is not the right path for partners and friends,” he said. “I call on the U.S. Administration to withdraw its intention to impose sanctions on the Netzah Yehuda battalion.”
A U.S. official pointed out that the U.S. is not and has not been considering sanctioning units in the IDF clarifying that “without confirming what may be under consideration, under the Leahy Act, certain units would be ineligible for American security assistance until the violations are remedied.”
The suggestion that the U.S. could cut off aid from a military unit of its long-time ally has turned the spotlight on the IDF as Netanyahu and his military continue dealing with a domestic backlash for failing to thwart Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 terror attack, which sparked the war in Gaza.
In the first top-level fallout from that failure, the IDF announced that the head of Israel’s military intelligence agency, Major General Aharon Haliva, would be resigning as soon a successor was appointed.
Haliva said last year, not long after Oct. 7, that he accepted responsibility for the intelligence failures that allowed Hamas to launch its unprecedented attack on Israel. That assault saw Hamas kill about 1,200 people and take more than 200 others hostage.
Israel’s war of retaliation against Hamas, with which Netanyahu has vowed to destroy the Palestinian group, has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties, but a majority of those killed have been women and children, according to the United Nations.
A Palestinian hospital worker stands next to the bodies of Palestinian men in the mortuary of Tulkarm Hospital, after Israel’s military said 14 terrorists were killed in an operation at the Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 21, 2024.
WAHAJ BANI MOUFLEH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
The IDF released video that it said was of a counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank city of Tulkarm over the weekend. The IDF said 14 militants were killed, but residents, just like Palestinians in Gaza, say they have borne the brunt of Israel’s retaliation.
When the IDF forces pulled out of Tulkarm, they left massive destruction in their wake, and residents told CBS News they had seen nothing like it before in the occupied Palestinian territory, which is considerably larger than Gaza.
During the mission, Israeli bulldozers smashed through homes and shops, tore up roads and severed pumps and power lines — cutting off electricity and water supplies.
“The attack was wild,” said resident Salah Yousif. “They came from four different sides.”
Relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike mourn as they take the dead bodies from the morgue of El-Najar Hospital to be buried in Rafah, Gaza, April 21, 2024.
Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty
In Gaza, meanwhile, the war grinds on toward the seven-month mark, with officials in the Hamas-run enclave saying nearly 15,000 children have been killed. That includes members of a family killed in a strike over the weekend on the southern city of Rafah. Gazan officials said 16 people were killed in that strike, most of them children.
The U.S., along with other Israeli allies, has warned Netanyahu against carrying through with his plan to launch a major military ground operation in Rafah, fearing it could lead to huge civilian casualties in the city, where an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge. It is the only major city in Gaza that IDF forces have yet to invade since Oct. 7, but Netanyahu has vowed to order the incursion as he says there are still a couple Hamas combat units hiding out there.
Tucker Reals and Sara Cook contributed to this report.
Debora Patta is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in Johannesburg. Since joining CBS News in 2013, she has reported on major stories across Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Edward R. Murrow and Scripps Howard awards are among the many accolades Patta has received for her work.
On the anniversary of Putin’s aggression, however, uncertainty and irritation were undisguised in Kyiv. Ukrainians wanted to know why Western sanctions on Russia are not working, and why Moscow keeps getting components for its missiles from Western companies. Why Ukrainians have to keep asking for weapons; and why the U.S. is not pushing through the crucial new aid package for Ukraine.
“We are very grateful for the support of the United States, but unfortunately, when I turn to the Democrats for support, they tell me to go to the Republicans. And the Republicans say to go to the Democrats,” Ukrainian MP Oleksandra Ustinova said at a separate Kyiv conference on Saturday. “We are grateful for the European support, but we cannot win without the USA. We need the supply of anti-aircraft defenses and continued assistance.”
“Why don’t you give us what we ask for? Our priorities are air defense and missiles. We need long-range missiles,” Ustinova added.
U.S. Congressman Jim Costa explained to the conference that Americans, and even members of Congress, still need to be educated on how the war in Ukraine affects them and why a Ukrainian victory is in America’s best interests.
“I believe that we must, and that is why we will decide on an additional aid package for Ukraine. It is difficult and unattractive. But I believe that over the next few weeks, the US response will be a beacon to protect our security and democratic values,” Costa said.
The West is afraid of Russia, Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s security and defense council secretary, told the Saturday conference.
“The West does not know what to do with Russia and therefore it does not allow us to win. Russians constantly blackmail and intimidate the West. However, if you are afraid of a dog, it will bite you,” he said.
“And now you are losing not only to autocratic Russia but also to the rest of the autocracies in the world,” Danilov added.
Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine and one week after dissident Alexey Navalny died in an Arctic prison, the Biden administration has announced more than 500 new sanctions against Moscow. CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang has more.
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Washington — The Biden administration announced more than 600 sanctions and penalties on Russia and its military industry Friday — the largest round of sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago — as it tries to exert more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion and the sudden death a week ago of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
Friday’s actions include State Department sanctions on three Russian officials the U.S. says were connected to Navalny’s death, as well as sanctions from the State and Treasury Departments on 500 entities linked to Russia’s war effort. Another 90 companies were added to the Commerce Department’s “entity list,” which restricts their ability to do business in the U.S.
President Biden warned of the sanctions earlier this week after blaming Putin for Navalny’s death. Mr. Biden had said there was “no doubt” Putin’s government was responsible. On Thursday, he met with Navalny’s wife and his daughter, Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya, in California. He addressed the new sanctions at the White House on Friday.
“I assured them his legacy will continue to live around the world, and we in the United States are going to continue to ensure that Putin pays a price for his aggression abroad and repression at home,” Mr. Biden said while addressing the nation’s governors.
The new Russia sanctions
President Biden speaks to a bipartisan group of governors in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 23, 2024.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
The sanctions target top Russian companies, including Mechel, the leading manufacturer of specialty steel used in Russia’s attack helicopters, and JSC SUEK, a railroad logistics company. MIR, the Central Bank of Russia’s national payment processing system, has also been sanctioned, along with business leaders inside and outside of Russia.
The sanctioned entities outside Russia are mostly connected to businesses providing materials to Russia’s military. Friday’s sanctions include 26 entities outside of Russia and people in 11 countries, including China, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Liechtenstein.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told reporters Thursday that Putin has essentially “tasked the [Russian security and intelligence services] with looking for ways to evade our sanctions, especially when it comes to getting access to key components like semiconductors and machine tools.” He went on to say the U.S. strategy is making it more difficult for Russia to “use the supply chain to build the weapons that they need,” and the administration would continue “to put sand in the gears of Russia’s military industrial complex.”
The U.S. sanctions have been issued in partnership with sanctions from the United Kingdom and European Union. These sanctions do not target Russian sovereign assets, nor the important Russian fertilizer market.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters Tuesday that the sanctions were devised to “hold Russia accountable” for its brutal war against Ukraine, as well as for what happened to Navalny.
Russian officials said last Friday the 47-year-old lost consciousness while he was on a walk in the Arctic penal colony where he was transferred last year. Navalny has been imprisoned since 2021 after surviving an assassination attempt by poisoning.
Kirby said it was “difficult” to trust the Russians’ explanation about what caused the dissident’s death.
“Whatever story the Russian government decides to tell the world, it’s clear that President Putin and his government are responsible for Mr. Navalny’s death,” Kirby said.
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow on Feb. 23, 2024.
ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The death of Navalny, a staunch critic of the war in Ukraine, comes as the conflict enters its third year and Washington remains divided over providing more aid to Ukraine.
“One of the most powerful things that we can do right now to stand up to Vladimir Putin, of course, is to again pass the bipartisan national security supplemental bill and support Ukraine as they continue to fight bravely in defense of their country,” Kirby said.
The Biden administration has imposed a range of economic sanctions on Russia since the start of the war, including cutting off Russian banks and companies from western financial markets and freezing billions in Russian assets.
The latest round follows an agreement by European Union members earlier this week to impose more Ukraine-related sanctions targeting about 200 additional entities and individuals, including those involved in helping Russia obtain weapons and those involved in kidnapping Ukrainian children.
Still, Russia’s economy is expected to grow steadily by 2.6% in 2024 after having “stronger-than-expected” growth in 2023, the International Monetary Fund said in a January report.
The West’s effort to cap Russia’s oil revenues since the start of the war hasn’t starved the Kremlin’s revenues. The U.S. led its international allies in late 2022 to impose a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian oil shipments, but there’s been widespread circumvention, Christopher Swift, a national security lawyer with Foley and Lardner LLP who previously helped enforce Treasury sanctions, told CBS News.
Swift said sanctions targeting the energy sector have been less effective than those on the banking sector, but noted that there’s been a fair amount of effort from Russian oligarchs to evade sanctions.
“There’s only so many yachts that an oligarch can lose before they start finding other places to hide their money,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean sanctions overall haven’t been effective, because they “are designed to make things harder for the adversary; they’re not designed to defeat the adversary,” Swift said.
“The sanctions that the U.S. and its allies have imposed have been highly effective in doing the things that those sanctions are designed to do, which is cut Russia off from the West,” Swift said, pointing out that Russia has simply found other markets. “What Russia has done is it’s just adapted and it’s gone to China and India and Iran.”
The U.S. is expected to announce Friday new sanctions on Russia over the death of Alexey Navalny. Meanwhile, the mother of the Russian opposition leader is demanding Russian President Vladimir Putin to turn over her son’s body. CBS News contributor Samantha Vinograd, who formerly served as the DHS secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention, has more.
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