Briefer News

U.S. sanctions crypto network funding Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Today's events

• Iran's crypto pipeline.

  The United States sanctioned two companies and three people over digital-asset exchanges that gave Iran's central bank and Revolutionary Guard a route into the global financial system, among them BitBank, tied to financier Babak Zanjani.¹Sep 17 · State
• Drug-transit list.

  Trump named 23 countries as major drug transit or producing states — among them China, India, Mexico, and Venezuela — and found Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia had failed to meet counternarcotics obligations.²Sep 16 · State
• Cuban nickel and arms.

  Rubio sanctioned eight Cuban enterprises and three military officers — four state firms that engineer, survey, and service the island's nickel industry, and four military research centers building weapons, naval, and simulation systems.³Sep 17 · State
• Lithuania minerals pact.

  Rubio and Foreign Minister Budrys signed a critical-minerals framework committing both governments to pick priority projects and line up financing within six months. Lithuania is the European Union's incoming Council president.⁴Sep 17 · State
• Aeroflot export ban.

  Commerce renewed the orders stripping export privileges from Aeroflot, UTair, and Azur Air, finding each has shown a pattern of continuing violations of the aviation export controls imposed on Russia in February 2022.⁵Sep 17 · Commerce
• F-16s to Greenland.

  The North American air-defense command sent F-16 fighters from Alaska to Goose Bay, Canada, then into Greenland for Operation Arctic Vanguard, a September 13–26 series of missions with Danish and other NATO forces.⁶Sep 17 · DOD
• Assad-era warden.

  A federal court sentenced Samir Ousman Alsheikh, who ran Syria's Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008, to 60 years for torturing prisoners and lying to immigration officials to enter the United States.⁷Sep 17 · DOJ
• Abbey Gate conspirator.

  Mohammad Sharifullah drew 20 years for a decade of support to Islamic State's Afghan branch, including scouting the route for the 2021 Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and about 160 civilians.⁸Sep 16 · DOJ
• Sanfilippo gene therapy.

  The Food and Drug Administration approved Fayuvi, the first treatment for Sanfilippo syndrome type A, a rare inherited disease that progressively strips children of cognitive and language ability. The one-time infusion delivers a working gene.⁹Sep 17 · FDA

Allied Governments

• Iran monitoring vetoed.

  Russia and China vetoed renewal of the United Nations panel that monitors Iran sanctions; Britain's ambassador said the sanctions themselves remain “fully in force, binding on each and every UN Member State.”^aSep 17 · UK FCDO
• Alliance resilience baseline.

  NATO published its Baseline Requirements for Resilience for the first time, setting expectations for keeping energy, food, water and healthcare running under hybrid attack. Resilience policy directors met at headquarters September 15.^bSep 17 · NATO
• North Korean hackers named.

  Japan's police and cybersecurity agencies, with American, Australian and German counterparts, published the methods of the North Korea-backed group “WaterPlum” and of North Korean technology workers infiltrating company hiring.^cSep 18 · Japan MoFA

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