All posts tagged: Sanctioned

Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market

Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned $21 Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market

Published by skeptic

Xinbi Guarantee has also hosted a wide variety of other black market offerings, including harassment services that threaten or throw feces at a victim for a fee, and even sex workers as young as 14 who are likely trafficking victims. One listing Elliptic shared with WIRED, found just in recent weeks, offered a 16-year-old sex worker, including the girl’s body size measurements and available sex acts. As clearly as all of those examples contradict Telegram’s arguments for hosting Xinbi Guarantee, though, the UK government’s official sanctions against Xinbi are even more clearcut, says Elliptic’s Robinson. “It was already a weak argument, but the sanctioning of Xinbi makes the argument much weaker,” Robinson says. “There is now this official recognition that Xinbi is predominantly an illicit actor.” Telegram’s tolerance for Xinbi Guarantee is all the stranger because it did, in fact, ban the market at one point last year. After WIRED asked Telegram about Elliptic’s findings regarding Xinbi Guarantee and a then-even-larger market known as Huione Guarantee, Telegram summarily purged the accounts of both. Telegram spokesperson …

Queer Memoricide and State Sanctioned Oppression

Queer Memoricide and State Sanctioned Oppression

Published by Sam Flores

Tuesday, March 31 was the International Transgender Day of Visibility. This year’s day of visibility came at a bellwether moment as efforts intensified to suppress queer visibility, recognition and memory. Let’s not beat around the bush here. There is evil afoot, and history is repeating itself, despite warnings echoing from our collective pasts. Case in point: President Donald J. Trump has openly adopted policies that directly harm LGBTQ+ people, especially trans and gender diverse people. Through the Make America Healthy Again initiative put forth by Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the administration explicitly targeted trans youth and the supposed “genital mutilation” endorsed by “radical leftists”—health care that is otherwise medically acceptable for gender and social transition affirmation. Far-right efforts like this derived from moral panics and manufactured fears that were circulated by openly anti-trans journalists (e.g., Bari Weiss, Jesse Singal, Pamela Paul, etc.) and several media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic, CBS News, Fox News and the BBC. Without going …

US Military Boards Sanctioned Oil Tanker in the Indian Ocean After Pursuit From the Caribbean

US Military Boards Sanctioned Oil Tanker in the Indian Ocean After Pursuit From the Caribbean

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the ship from the Caribbean Sea as part of an oil quarantine meant to squeeze Venezuela, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. Hegseth vowed to eventually capture all those ships, telling a group of shipyard workers in Maine on Monday that “the only guidance I gave to my military commanders is none of those are getting away.” “I don’t care if we got to go around the globe to get them; we’re going to get them,” he added. The Trump administration has seized seven tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of the South American country’s oil. Unlike those previous actions, the Aquila II has not been formally seized and placed under U.S. control, a defense official said. Instead, the ship is being held while its ultimate fate is decided by the U.S., according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing decision-making. The Aquila II is a Panamanian-flagged tanker under U.S. …

How tanker dark fleet is moving in high seas hunt for sanctioned oil

How tanker dark fleet is moving in high seas hunt for sanctioned oil

Published by Sam Flores

The oil tanker “Grinch” (R), suspected of belonging to the Russian’s shadow fleet, is seen outside the coast of Martigues near the port of Marseille-Fos on January 25, 2026, as it’s surveilled by the French Navy. Thibaud Moritz | Afp | Getty Images President Donald Trump announced a U.S. trade deal with India on Monday which he said includes a promise from India to stop buying Russian oil and potentially buy from the U.S. and Venezuela, but data shows the shadow fleet of tankers moving sanctioned crude continues to unload at Indian ports. Global data and analytics firm Kpler’s vessel tracking shared with CNBC shows four tankers associated with Russia’s shadow fleet unloading or in the process of unloading sanctioned oil at Indian ports: the Giannis, unloading Urals at Chennai Refinery; the Nyxora, unloading Urals at Paradip Refinery; the Tiburon, unloading Urals at Vadinar Refinery; and the Seasons I, which is being tracked outside Vadinar on Tuesday morning but was yet to unload, according to Kpler. In recent months, the global shadow fleet moving sanctioned oil, …

Cuban official accuses US of ‘piracy’ against sanctioned Caribbean island | Oil and Gas News

Cuban official accuses US of ‘piracy’ against sanctioned Caribbean island | Oil and Gas News

Published by Sam Flores

Ambassador Carlos de Cespedes says US pressure ‘will not subjugate’ Cuba as Venezuelan oil exports to island dry out. A Cuban diplomat has accused the United States of “international piracy”, as Washington continues to block Venezuelan oil from reaching the Caribbean island in the wake of the US military attack on the nation and abduction of President Nicolas Maduro. Carlos de Cespedes, Cuba’s ambassador to Colombia, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the US is imposing a “marine siege” on the country. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “Cuba is facing more powerful US threats than it has in the 67 years since the revolution,” de Cespedes said, referring to decades of punishing sanctions and military threats. “The US is carrying out international piracy in the Caribbean Sea that is restricting and blocking the arrival of oil to Cuba.” Since US forces abducted Venezuela’s Maduro earlier this month, the flow of oil from the country to Cuba has all but come to a halt. Venezuela has been the main oil supplier to Cuba …

UK supported French operation to board sanctioned Russian tanker, minister says

UK supported French operation to board sanctioned Russian tanker, minister says

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON: Britain provided tracking and monitoring support for a French operation to board a sanctioned Russian oil tanker in a bid to choke off the funds that fuel Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UK defence minister John Healey said on Thursday (Jan 22). Healey said this support included a vessel, HMS Dagger, monitoring the tanker as it passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. The tanker, named the Grinch, is subject to UK and European sanctions for facilitating trade in sanctioned oil and forms part of a growing web of the so-called “shadow-fleet.” “Deterring, disrupting and degrading the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for this government,” Healey said in a statement. “I can confirm that the UK has provided tracking and monitoring in support of the French operation to board the tanker Grinch.” He said Britain and its allies were stepping up their response to so-called shadow-fleet vessels, which he described as helping finance Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Source link

Tracking the ships delivering sanctioned Russian LNG to China – The Observers

Tracking the ships delivering sanctioned Russian LNG to China – The Observers

Published by Sam Flores

Since late August 2025, China has taken delivery of at least 24 liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from two sanctioned Russian facilities, Arctic LNG 2 and Portovaya. This underscores increased cooperation between China and Russia as the Kremlin seeks to boost LNG exports in order to fund its war in Ukraine. A cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Portovaya plant was delivered to the Beihai terminal in China on December 8, 2025.  This shipment to China was highly significant: it was the first delivery since the Portovaya plant was placed under US sanctions in January 2025. It’s also a sign of increased cooperation between China and Russia. LNG is natural gas that is cooled to minus 160 centigrade for transportation in liquid form. Russia has large reserves of natural gas and is making a major effort to boost its exports.  These exports are an important source of funding for Russia’s war on Ukraine. That is why the United States has imposed sanctions on certain Russian LNG plants, including Portovaya and the major project …

Sanctioned oil tankers have broken beyond U.S. blockade in Venezuela

Sanctioned oil tankers have broken beyond U.S. blockade in Venezuela

Published by Sam Flores

At least 11 tankers under sanction were spotted this week well beyond Venezuelan waters, having escaped the U.S. maritime blockade, according to satellite-imagery analysis. Six of the tankers were in the Caribbean Sea but had moved at least 70 miles from the Venezuelan coast; one of those ships was seized on Friday. Three others had traveled more than 450 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and, according to one analyst, were being distantly trailed by what appears to be a U.S. Navy ship. Source link

US Intercepts Fifth Sanctioned Tanker as It Exerts Control Over Venezuelan Oil Distribution

US Intercepts Fifth Sanctioned Tanker as It Exerts Control Over Venezuelan Oil Distribution

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea on Friday, the U.S. military said, as the Trump administration targets sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela as part of a broader effort to take control of the South American country’s oil. The pre-dawn raid was carried out by Marines and Navy sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, part of the extensive force the U.S. has built up in the Caribbean in recent months, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the tanker called the Olina. The Coast Guard then took control of the vessel, officials said. Southern Command and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem both posted unclassified footage on social media on Friday morning of a U.S. helicopter landing on the vessel and U.S. personnel conducting a search of the deck and tossing what appeared to be an explosive device in front of a door leading to inside the ship. In her post, …