China Navigates Diplomatic Tightrope Between Iran Peace Efforts and Trump Summit 
South Korea Denies U.S. Intelligence Restrictions Over North Korean Nuclear Site Disclosure 
Anthropic CEO Meets Trump Officials to Discuss Powerful New AI Model Mythos 
Trump's Iran Claims Spark Market Confusion Over Strait of Hormuz 
House Republicans Near Deal on FISA Extension with Limited Reforms 
Iran's Internal Power Struggle Threatens Strait of Hormuz Stability 
Iran-Lebanon War: Ceasefire Reached as U.S. and Iran Edge Closer to Nuclear Deal 
UNICEF Condemns Killing of Aid Workers Delivering Water in Gaza 
North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Eastward Amid Rising Global Tensions 
France and Britain Lead 40-Nation Talks to Reopen Strait of Hormuz 
IMF and World Bank Resume Ties with Venezuela, Opening Door to Billions in Funding 
Peru Election 2025: Vote Count Delays Spark Calls to Remove Electoral Chief 
North Korea Fires Multiple Ballistic Missiles Amid Growing Nuclear Ambitions 
Australia Extends Fuel Sulphur Relaxation Amid Iran War Supply Disruptions 
U.S. and Philippines to Build 4,000-Acre Tech Hub Under Pax Silica Initiative 
Strait of Hormuz: why even neutral and distant countries like Switzerland can’t escape the fallout 
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced visit to Ukraine last week. Garland was invited by his Ukrainian counterpart amidst an international effort to hold Russia accountable for the war.
A US Justice Department official said Garland made an unannounced visit to Lviv in Ukraine on Friday last week. Garland’s visit was at the invitation of the Ukrainian prosecutor general, where he held several meetings in an international effort to hold Moscow accountable for the crimes committed in its war in Ukraine.
On the same day, Washington also imposed sanctions on six Russians allegedly involved in the arrest, detainment, and prosecution of opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who criticized the war in Ukraine.
Kara-Murza was arrested in April and was declared by Moscow a “foreign agent.” Kara-Murza is being detained on suspicion of spreading false information about the Russian armed forces under the new laws that were passed eight days after the invasion of Ukraine last year.
“The United States reiterates its call for Kara-Murza’s immediate and unconditional release and is committed to ensuring that Vladimir Putin’s attempts to silence critics will not succeed,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement. The sanctions were announced by both the State and Treasury Departments.
The sanctions target Russians Elena Anatolievna Lenskaya, Andrei Andreevich Zadachin, and Danila Yurievich Mikheev for human rights abuses under the US Global Magnitsky Act. The State Department, in a separate action, sanctioned Russian deputy justice minister Oleg Mikhailovich Sviridenko, judge Diana Igorevna Michchenko, who ruled that Kara-Murza be arrested, and judge Ilya Pavlovich Koszlov, who rejected Kara-Murza’s appeal of the arrest ruling.
According to the Treasury, Zadachin, who is a Russian special investigator, ordered that a criminal case be filed against Kara-Murza for the speech he made to the Arizona state House of Representatives. Mikheev appeared as an expert witness for the Russian government to review the speech and provide a report that resulted in charges against the opposition leader. Kara-Murza, who also has British citizenship, was an aide to Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in 2018.
Kara-Murza has also called on Washington, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom to impose Magnitsky-style sanctions on human rights abusers and corrupt individuals in Russia, the Treasury said.
