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 · StateDrug-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 · StateCuban 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 · StateLithuania 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 · StateAeroflot 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 · CommerceF-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 · DODAssad-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 · DOJAbbey 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 · DOJSanfilippo 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
This week
Canadian import bans.
Three proclamations signed September 11 barred certain Canadian motor vehicles, dairy and alcoholic beverages from entering the United States, and five more on September 14 widened the product scope (Sept 13 and Sept 14 briefs). The authority is Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act, which allows outright exclusion rather than duties. Tariffs on the same goods had taken effect August 22.1Sep 11–14 · Fed. Reg.Procurement exclusion.
A presidential memorandum signed September 16 directed budget and trade officials to strip Canadian-origin goods from the federal civil procurement system, citing Canada's “Buy Canadian” preferences (Sept 17 brief). Canadian firms currently have access to more than $280 billion in U.S. federal contracts. It was the third escalation against Canada in six days, and the first to reach government purchasing rather than the border.2Sep 16 · WHRate increase.
The Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 on September 16 to raise the benchmark rate a quarter point, to 3.75–4 percent, saying inflation remains elevated and the move supports a timelier return to its 2 percent goal (Sept 17 brief). No member dissented. The statement said the Committee “will deliver price stability.”3Sep 16 · FedPower-plant carbon rules.
The Environmental Protection Agency repealed most of the 2024 greenhouse-gas standards for fossil-fuel power plants on September 17, dropping carbon-capture requirements for coal units and new gas turbines, and sought comment on rescinding the rest (Sept 17 brief). It follows the Energy Department's September 11 order keeping Unit 2 of Washington's Centralia coal plant available to run through December 11; it had been scheduled to close at the end of 2025.4Sep 17 · Fed. Reg.Kremlin murder-for-hire case.
Justice charged five Russian intelligence operatives on September 15 with financing terrorism and murder-for-hire, alleging they paid people to surveil and kill targets in the United States and to attack infrastructure in European states backing Ukraine (Sept 16 brief). All five remain at large. Commerce separately renewed orders stripping export privileges from Aeroflot, UTair and Azur Air on September 17.6Sep 15 · DOJGoogle ad-tech remedy.
A federal court in Virginia ordered relief on September 16 in the Justice Department's advertising-technology monopolization case, requiring Google to integrate closely with rivals including the open-source Prebid, share data, and stop preferencing its own bids (Sept 17 brief). The order governs how Google must run the exchange rather than requiring a sale of it.7Sep 16 · DOJ
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 FCDOAlliance 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 · NATONorth 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
Voices
“Today's action exposes how international digital asset exchanges have provided the Iranian regime, including the Central Bank of Iran, with a gateway to the international financial system.”
Spokesman Thomas Pigott, State Dept. · Sep 171
“While my Administration has successfully secured our borders from invasion, Canada and Mexico need to do far more to stop the flows of deadly drugs into our country.”
Presidential Determination for Fiscal Year 2027 · Sep 162
“President Trump remains committed to a Cuba governed by its people, not by a military class that treats the island's future as its own private inheritance.”
Sec. of State Marco Rubio · Sep 173
“Operation Arctic Vanguard demonstrates that austere conditions and vast distances present no barrier to NORAD's collective defense.”
Lt. Gen. Robert D. Davis, Alaskan NORAD Region · Sep 176
“Samir Alsheikh is the highest-ranking former member of the Assad regime to be tried and convicted in person outside of Syria.”
AAG A. Tysen Duva, DOJ Criminal Division · Sep 177
“The United States will pursue, capture, and bring to justice anyone, anywhere in the world, who takes part in the killing of our servicemembers or citizens.”
AAG John A. Eisenberg, DOJ National Security · Sep 168
Sources
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Operation Economic Outcast Dismantles Iran's Sanctions Evasion Network,” September 17, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/operation-economic-outcast
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2027,” September 16, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/major-drug-transit-determination-fy2027
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Further Sanctions on Cuba's Mineral Wealth and Military Modernization Apparatus,” September 17, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/further-sanctions-on-cubas-mineral-wealth
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kėstutis Budrys at the Critical Minerals Framework Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony,” September 17, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/critical-minerals-framework-lithuania
- Federal Register (Commerce Dept., Bureau of Industry and Security), “PJSC Aeroflot, Moscow, Russia; Order Renewing Temporary Denial of Export Privileges,” September 17, 2026. Companion orders renew denials for UTair Aviation JSC and Azur Air. federalregister.gov/…/aeroflot-temporary-denial-order
- U.S. Dept. of War, “NORAD F-16s Deploy to High North Under Operation Arctic Vanguard,” September 17, 2026. war.gov/News/News-Stories/…/operation-arctic-vanguard
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, “Former Syrian Prison Official Sentenced for Torture and Immigration Fraud,” September 17, 2026. justice.gov/opa/pr/…/former-syrian-prison-official-sentenced
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, “ISIS-K Terrorist Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Role in Abbey Gate and Other Terror Attacks,” September 16, 2026. justice.gov/opa/pr/…/isis-k-terrorist-sentenced-abbey-gate
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “FDA Approves First Gene Therapy for Pediatric Patients with Sanfilippo Syndrome Type A,” September 17, 2026. fda.gov/news-events/…/first-gene-therapy-sanfilippo-syndrome
- UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, “We deeply regret today's veto of the Iran Panel of Experts mandate renewal: UK Explanation of Vote at the UN Security Council,” September 17, 2026. gov.uk/government/speeches/…/iran-panel-of-experts-veto
- NATO, “Prepare, protect, prevail: NATO publishes Baseline Requirements for Resilience,” September 17, 2026. nato.int/en/news-and-events/…/baseline-requirements-for-resilience
- Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Public Attribution on North Korean Cyber Actor Group ‘WaterPlum,’ and North Korean IT Workers,” September 18, 2026. mofa.go.jp/press/release/…/waterplum-public-attribution