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China’s rare defiance of US sanctions sparks showdown over banks
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Strait Times
May 4, 2026
While China has often railed against unilateral sanctions, it has in the past quietly allowed companies to comply to avoid blowback on its economy and preserve access to the US financial system.
China has ordered companies to defy US sanctions for the first time, in a step that threatens to put its banking sector in the crosshairs of competition between the world’s largest economies.
The decision, announced on May 2, risks becoming a watershed moment. While China has often railed against unilateral sanctions, it has in the past quietly allowed companies to comply to avoid blowback on its economy and preserve access to the US financial system.
Beijing is now signalling a far firmer stance against such restrictions by directing companies not to abide by US sanctions on five domestic refiners linked to the Iranian oil trade.
A commentary on the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily app called the announcement “a pivotal step in the transition of China’s foreign-related legal weapon from institutional reserves to practical application”.
The move represents Beijing’s most aggressive action to date in countering Washington’s financial statecraft, setting up a showdown before a long-awaited meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later in May.
It comes with the US sanctions system already under strain, as Washington vacillates on restrictions against Russia, Venezuela and Iran.
China is deploying a blocking measure introduced in 2021 that was aimed at protecting its firms from foreign laws it deemed unjustified. The refiners – including Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, which was sanctioned in April, and several other privately owned processors – had been facing asset freezes and transaction bans.
Lenders working with Hengli and other private processors are scrambling to understand the decision and are seeking clarity from the banking regulator. Public holidays in China this week allow them some time, since business is on hold, as does the grace period provided by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
“Judging by its specific provisions, the prohibition order primarily targets the concrete US sanctions imposed on particular Chinese firms,” law professor Ji Wenhua, an adviser to the Commerce Ministry, wrote in an opinion piece for the state-run Economic Daily. “Its central objective is to nullify their legal effect within Chinese territory, rather than simultaneously resorting to more aggressive retaliatory measures.”
The US measures unlawfully restrict normal trade with third countries and breach international norms, the country’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement on May 2. It banned recognition, enforcement and compliance with the sanctions aimed at the five companies. “The Chinese government has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions that lack authorisation from the United Nations and a basis in international law,” the department said.
While the blocking measure is not likely to derail the Xi-Trump summit, Washington’s reaction to it will indicate if the matter escalates, according to analysts from Eurasia Group. “The refineries primarily work with Chinese banks that have not yet been directly sanctioned,” the analysts led by Mr Dominic Chiu wrote in a note. “If the US extends secondary sanctions to those institutions, or major state-owned entities, Beijing would likely respond with more forceful countermeasures.”
China has long been the single largest buyer of Tehran’s oil shipments, many of them arriving indirectly and through private refiners and then turned into petrol, diesel and other oil products. Chinese Customs data does not reflect that trade, with the last official shipment recorded several years ago.
Before Hengli, and wary of the economic and diplomatic fallout, Washington’s efforts to cut off Tehran’s oil revenue had targeted smaller Chinese companies and facilities. Hengli, by contrast, is representative of the most modern of China’s private refiners, with a sprawling oil-processing and chemicals complex in the north-eastern province of Liaoning. While the country does still have an army of small independent players – the original so-called teapots – the larger entities are now giant operations. Altogether, the private sector accounts for as much as a third of refining capacity in a country where energy security is a priority.
The injunction “allows the refineries to seek compensation in Chinese courts from entities that comply with US sanctions, including domestic actors – such as banks, investors and downstream customers that have ceased dealings – as well as foreign firms with a presence in China”, the Eurasia analysts said, adding that the move signals Beijing is taking a more assertive approach to countering sanctions.
“By activating its blocking measures for the first time since adopting the rule in 2021, China is demonstrating a lower threshold for deploying its legal and regulatory toolkit to counter US sanctions,” they said.
[…]
Italy opens torture probe over Israeli kidnapping of Gaza flotilla activists
This undated file picture shows boats and vessels of the Gaza-bound Sumud-2 Flotilla at an undisclosed location.
Press TV
Italy has opened an investigation into the detention of Italian nationals following Israel’s interception of the humanitarian Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters off Greece.
The Rome Prosecutor’s Office launched the investigation on Monday after receiving three formal complaints. Two of the complaints concern activists Thiago de Avila and Saif Abukeshek, who were reportedly seized from Italian-flagged vessels and remain in detention.
The case also targets Israeli military forces on charges of kidnapping, robbery, and causing damage that risked shipwreck.
Investigators are expected to submit a request for international judicial cooperation — known as a letter rogatory — as part of the inquiry.
Late on Wednesday, Israeli forces attacked 22 of the 58 aid boats traveling through international waters toward the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Global Sumud Flotilla was intercepted near the Greek island of Crete, approximately 600 nautical miles from its destination in the blockaded Palestinian territory.
Israeli forces abducted the pro-Palestinian activists near Crete and transferred them to Shikma Prison in Ashkelon, in the southern part of the occupied territories.
Testimonies indicate that Gaza aid flotilla activists were tortured in Israeli custody following their abduction.
A number of activists have reportedly begun a hunger strike since their abduction, consuming only water.
The vessels form part of the second Global Sumud Flotilla, which has attempted in recent months to break Israel’s blockade by delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
The boats departed from the Spanish port of Barcelona on April 12.
The Global Sumud Flotilla has criticized European governments for failing to protect the activists despite their legal obligations.
It stated that European authorities permitted the forced transfer of civilians from international waters into Israeli custody.
The group urged the governments of Spain, Sweden, and Brazil to take immediate diplomatic action to secure the release of their nationals.
It also called on international organizations and human rights bodies to intervene without delay.
The case of these pro-Palestinian activists has highlighted the detention practices in Israeli custody, particularly as thousands of Palestinians continue to be held without charge.
Rights groups have long documented widespread abuse, including torture and denial of due process.
Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007, pushing the territory’s 2.4 million residents to the brink of starvation.
The occupying entity launched a brutal two-year genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, killing more than 72,500 people, injuring over 172,000, and causing massive destruction across the blockaded Palestinian territory.
[…]
UKMTO confirms ship struck 36 Nautical Miles north of Dubai about three hours ago
NEW: UKMTO confirms that a ship was struck 36 Nautical Miles north of Dubai about three hours ago
This is the South Korean ship that we reported about earlier.
No commercial ship or oil tankers transiting Strait of Hormuz
File photo shows a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
Press TV
No commercial vessels or oil tankers have transited the Strait of Hormuz in the past several hours, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said Monday, dismissing recent US claims as “baseless and outright false.”
In a statement issued by the IRGC’s Public Relations Office, the elite force stressed that maritime movements in breach of its declared naval regulations will face serious risks, and that any violating vessel will be stopped forcefully.
“No commercial or tanker vessels have transited the Strait of Hormuz in the past several hours,” the statement read. “US officials’ claims are baseless and outright false.”
The US military said earlier that two US Navy guided-missile destroyers had entered the Persian Gulf and that two American ships had transited the Strait of Hormuz, after the Iranian Navy said it repelled a US warship approaching the strategic waterway, which has remained under Iranian control since the early days of the war.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced the so-called “Project Freedom” to escort ships out of the Strait of Hormuz.
The unified command of Iran’s armed forces responded by warning American forces to stay out of the Strait, lying between the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
Iran has restricted transit through the vital waterway responsible for a fifth of global oil demand since the early days of the illegal US-Israeli aggression on the country that began on February 28 and halted in a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire on April 8.
Authorities say, however, that coordinated passage through the Strait is allowed for all ships except for those linked to the US and the Israeli regime and associated entities.
[…]
US Claim of Sinking Iranian Boats a Lie
A senior Iranian military official has rejected a claim by the United States military that it has sunk several Iranian boats as part of an operation to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Press TV
A senior Iranian military official has rejected a claim by the United States military that it has sunk several Iranian boats as part of an attempt to open the Strait of Hormuz, the IRIB News reports.
The statement by the unidentified commander was cited in a Monday report by the IRIB News, where the official reacted to comments by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) about an alleged confrontation between Iranian and US naval forces in regional waters earlier in the day.
“The US claim regarding the sinking of a number of Iranian combat boats is a lie,” said the commander.
Head of CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper said earlier on Monday that the US military had destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted missiles and drones fired at US warships, as he acknowledged that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had acted to stop Washington’s attempts to break Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.
That came after US President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the US military to begin an operation to break Iran’s control over the Strait and allow commercial ships to pass through, after more than two months of being stranded in regional waters because of the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
The IRGC warned in response that any attempt by US military or commercial vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without coordination with Iranian authorities would be met with swift and decisive action.
Iran has controlled the Strait since the early days of the US-Israeli aggression that began in late February, allowing only ships that are deemed non-hostile and that observe security protocols announced by the Iranian military to transit the waterway.
The control has left nearly 3,000 ships and some 20,000 sailors stranded on both sides of the Strait, while causing a major surge in international oil prices.
The IRIB also quoted the Iranian military official as denying reports that Iran had attacked targets in the United Arab Emirates, saying Tehran had no such plans.
That came after UAE authorities said they had intercepted missiles fired at the Persian Gulf country while failing to stop drones exploding at an oil site.
[…]
Israel occupying 62% of Gaza as it expands control beyond ceasefire limits
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau
Press TV
A senior Hamas official has said that Israeli occupation forces are expanding their control in the besieged Gaza Strip beyond the boundaries set by the ceasefire that took effect in October 2025.
On Sunday, Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, stated that Israel has shifted a newly imposed “orange line” by an additional 8% to 9% into Palestinian territory.
This move has increased the area under Israeli control to more than 62%, leaving Palestinians with roughly 38% of the blockaded Strip.
The expansion has drastically reduced living space for Palestinians and worsened an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
It follows Israel’s earlier establishment of the so-called “Yellow Line,” which originally defined the limits of its military deployment under the first phase of the truce.
Local sources report that Israeli markers have been gradually moved deeper into Gaza, effectively redrawing the boundaries on the ground.
This advance has triggered fresh waves of displacement, especially in Khan Yunis, eastern Gaza City, and parts of northern Gaza.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed the development, noting that Israeli authorities have introduced a new boundary beyond the “Yellow Line” — now referred to by humanitarian teams as the “orange line.”
“Now there’s another color line. A so-called orange line has been presented to our humanitarian colleagues,” Dujarric said.
He added that UN teams were informed any movement beyond this line must be coordinated in advance with Israeli authorities.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the “Yellow Line” was intended to separate zones of Israeli military presence in the east from areas where Palestinians could remain in the west, originally covering about 53% of the territory. However, Palestinian sources say Israel has steadily pushed this boundary westward in recent months.
Instead of withdrawing as required by the agreement, Israeli forces continue to seize more Palestinian land across Gaza.
For Palestinians, these layered “lines” are shrinking their living space and reshaping life in the Strip.
More than two million people are now confined to ever-narrower areas amid deteriorating humanitarian conditions and ongoing restrictions.
Analysts warn that these evolving boundaries risk becoming a permanent reality on the ground.
Earlier this year, Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir described the “Yellow Line” as a “new border line.”
In March, the Israeli regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that more than half of Gaza was already under Israeli control.
Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, killing hundreds of Palestinians and injuring thousands more since it took effect.
The truce was intended to end a two-year Israeli genocidal war on Gaza that killed over 72,500 Palestinians, wounded 172,000 others, and destroyed nearly 90% of civilian infrastructure.
[…]
‘Spies inside the Vatican’: US espionage campaign targets Pope Leo XIV
(Photo credit: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)
The Cradle
APR 24, 2026
Independent US journalist Ken Klippenstein says Washington stepped up intelligence activities against the Vatican following Trump’s spat with the Pope
The administration of US President Donald Trump has been “spying” on Pope Leo XIV as part of a years-long intelligence campaign by Washington against the Vatican, US investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein said in a report released on 24 April.
Klippenstein – an independent, Washington-based investigative journalist who formerly wrote for The Intercept – cited sources as saying that Trump’s recent comments on the new Pope were taken by the intelligence community as “a directive to prioritize spying on the Vatican.” Trump had said earlier this month that Pope Leo was “terrible on foreign policy” and “weak on crime.”
According to Klippenstein’s sources, Washington has “for years” been spying on the Vatican.
“The CIA has human spies working inside the Holy See bureaucracy. The NSA and CIA seek to intercept telecommunications, emails, and texts. The FBI investigates crimes committed against and by the Vatican. The State Department closely follows the ins and outs of Papal diplomacy and politics. All of these agencies liaise with the Vatican’s own foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies,” the report stated.
Klippenstein pointed to a “longstanding – and quietly extensive – relationship between the US national security apparatus and the Vatican” involving diplomatic, law enforcement, and cybersecurity cooperation.
Much of it is “genuine” but also serves as a “convenient cover for collecting intelligence.”
“The first Trump administration sought to beef up its coordination with Italian intelligence agencies and Vatican officials on things like cybersecurity, white collar crime, human trafficking, art theft, and other issues. One particular project was to help the Vatican actively thwart cyber intrusions into its networks. The FBI also regularly provides threat intelligence to the Pope during his travels,” Klippenstein cited FBI documents as saying.
“The State Department, meanwhile, maintains a daily Vatican-centric news digest circulated to diplomats worldwide … The department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research has analysts dedicated to producing classified assessments on Vatican affairs,” he added, referring to other documents he obtained.
“Even the US military has a Vatican-specific language code on its books as a distinct linguistic capability. ‘QLE’ designates Ecclesiastical Latin – the Vatican’s preferred liturgical register – as distinct from classical Latin.”
The report follows recent tensions between Trump and the Holy See.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the US … And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the US,” Trump said earlier this month.
Prior to that, the pope had condemned what he called the “delusion of omnipotence,” fueling the US-Israeli war against Iran.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!” he said.
The pope also recently said that a “handful of tyrants” were ruling the world, before later clarifying that his comments were not meant as a jab at Trump and were written before the US president criticized him.
Additionally, the papacy referred to Trump’s threat to wipe out the Iranian civilization as unacceptable.
Pope Leo’s remarks came weeks after dozens of US lawmakers demanded a probe due to hundreds of complaints from service members saying that military commanders portrayed the war on Iran as “divinely ordained” and linked to biblical prophecy, including claims that Trump had been “anointed by Jesus.”
Well over 2,000 people have been killed by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and the country’s infrastructure has been ravaged.
Only about one-third of the infrastructure destroyed in Iran’s capital during the US-Israeli war was military-linked, Bloomberg revealed on 21 April in an analysis of the damage caused by Washington and Tel Aviv.
[…]
House Bill Cuts Federal Funds for Online Censorship
The bill defunds the same disinformation programs that Washington spent the last decade building.
A new House appropriations bill does something unusual for Washington legislation. It tells federal agencies they cannot spend money pressuring platforms, advertisers, or foreign governments to silence speech that Americans are legally allowed to make.
H.R. 8595, the national security and State Department appropriations bill, runs hundreds of pages and buried throughout are provisions that would shut off federal funding to a wide range of speech-suppression activities.
The restrictions cover direct platform pressure, ad boycott campaigns aimed at US media companies, blacklists, and cooperation with foreign censorship regimes that target American tech firms.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
What the Bill Actually Stops
The headline provision is on page 252. It bars the use of any appropriated funds to “deplatform, deboost, demonetize, suppress, or otherwise penalize” online speech, social media activity, or news outlets producing content that would be lawful under US law. The language is deliberately wide and it catches the obvious things, like government agencies asking a platform to take a post down, and the less obvious ones, like funding research projects that pressure advertisers to abandon publishers.
That second category has been doing real damage for years. Brand “safety” programs, hate speech classifiers built with federal grant money, “disinformation” tracking outfits that exist primarily to attach scary labels to inconvenient reporting.
Federal money cannot flow to programs designed to impose “legal, regulatory, financial, reputational, commercial, or political costs” on American tech companies, social media platforms, online intermediaries, or digital publishers for hosting First Amendment protected speech.
There is also a prohibition on funding work that pushes foreign governments to do the censoring instead. American agencies cannot use these appropriations to support foreign laws, regulations, codes, or enforcement mechanisms that punish US platforms for carrying speech that would be lawful here.
The whole architecture of routing American speech restrictions through Brussels or London or Canberra, then importing the results back home through global compliance regimes, runs into a federal funding wall.
Blacklists are out. Censorship cooperation with supranational bodies is out. Inducing advertisers to “cut off, reduce, redirect, or otherwise interfere with advertising, sponsorship, payment, or other revenue on the basis of lawful online speech” is out.
Protection for US Media and News Companies
A separate section on page 99 builds a tighter ring around American media and news entities specifically. Federal funds cannot be used to push for the censorship of their social media content, to influence consumer or advertising behavior toward them, or to characterize US independent news organizations as producers of “disinformation, misinformation, or malinformation.”
Those three terms have done enormous work over the past five years, and the bill treats them as the censorship vocabulary they are. Once an outlet gets labeled a disinformation source by a federally funded project, the consequences cascade; algorithmic suppression, ad networks pulling out, payment processors getting nervous. The bill cuts off the funding that powers the labeling machinery in the first place.
Codifying the Anti-Censorship Executive Order
Page 98 takes Executive Order 14149, President Trump’s “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” order, and locks parts of it into appropriations law. Funds cannot be spent in contravention of the order.
Executive orders can be rescinded by the next administration with a signature. Appropriations restrictions are harder to dismantle. They get reviewed every funding cycle, and reversing them requires Congress to actively vote to put the censorship machinery back online.
FOIA Improvements
Page 90 contains provisions to speed up Freedom of Information Act response times. FOIA is the main legal mechanism Americans have for finding out what their government is actually doing and federal agencies have spent decades treating it as a nuisance to be slow-walked. Long delays have become a passive form of information control.
Tightening response times pushes back against that.
The One Exception
The bill is not absolute on counter-speech work, though. A provision on page 98 authorizes “counter disinformation” programs in certain circumstances, but only narrowly. Appropriations for these programs “may only be made available for the purpose of countering such efforts by foreign state and non-state actors abroad.”
The carve-out is geographic as well as directional. Funds can target foreign disinformation operations operating outside the United States but they cannot be turned inward on American speech, and they cannot be turned on Americans speaking abroad.
The history of “counter disinformation” funding is that it tends to drift. Programs justified as targeting Russian or Chinese influence operations have repeatedly been documented working on domestic speech, often through contractors and NGOs that flag American journalists, researchers, and ordinary users.
The narrow drafting here is an attempt to prevent that drift, though enforcement is the question. A prohibition only works if someone is willing to enforce it when the program inevitably starts catching Americans in its nets.
Why This Bill Looks Different
Most legislation touching online speech in the past decade has moved in one direction. More authority for governments and quasi-governmental bodies to determine what counts as acceptable expression. More pressure on platforms to comply. More funding for research outfits whose practical output is lists of accounts and outlets to suppress.
H.R. 8595 inverts the pattern. It treats federal involvement in suppressing lawful speech as a problem to be defunded, names the specific tactics that have been used, and tries to block each one. The legislative text reads like it was written by someone who has watched the censorship apparatus grow over the past several years and wants to take its budget away one line item at a time.
The bill is currently moving through the House. Whether the anti-censorship language survives reconciliation with the Senate, and whether agencies actually comply once the funding restrictions take effect, will determine how much of this becomes real protection rather than paper protection.
[…]
Via https://reclaimthenet.org/house-bill-cuts-federal-funds-for-online-censorship
Spain demands immediate release of Spanish-Palestinian activist detained by Israel
Spanish pro-Palestinian activist Saif Abu Keshek arrives at a court in Ashkelon, Israeli-occupied territories, on May 3, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
Press TV
Spain has called for the “immediate release” of Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Palestinian activist, who was detained by Israeli forces following the violent interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla in international waters.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry made the appeal in a statement issued on Sunday after an Israeli court ruled to extend his detention for an additional two days earlier in the day.
In its statement, the ministry condemned the “illegal detention” of Abu Keshek, emphasizing its demand for the activist’s immediate release while noting that the claims against him are unfounded.
According to the ministry, the Spanish consul in Tel Aviv was present at the court hearing in Ashkelon to support Abu Keshek.
Abu Keshek was captured as a crew member of the Global Sumud Flotilla, along with Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, that aimed to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and deliver humanitarian supplies to the besieged territory.
Both activists were apprehended by Israeli forces during the flotilla’s journey, which set sail from European ports including France, Spain, and Italy.
According to the rights group Adalah, which is providing legal assistance to the detained activists, Abu Keshek and Ávila were subjected to severe mistreatment during their detention by Israeli forces.
The group reported that Ávila experienced “extreme brutality” during the seizure, detailing having been beaten and kept in isolation without proper care.
Similarly, Abu Keshek was reportedly hand-tied, blindfolded, and forced into uncomfortable positions from the moment of capture until their arrival in Israel.
Israel’s foreign ministry has alleged that both activists are linked to the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), an organization accused by the United States of having connections to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and conducting activities that undermine the Israeli regime.
The accusations have been met with significant backlash from Spain, which categorically rejects the claims against Abu Keshek.
The flotilla’s organizers assert that the interception by Israeli forces occurred [in international waters] over 620 miles away from Gaza, reporting that their equipment was destroyed, leaving them in a “calculated death trap at sea.” After the interception, many activists were sent back to the Greek island of Crete.
Late on Wednesday, Israeli forces intercepted 22 out of the 58 aid boats travelling through international waters and bound for the besieged Gaza Strip.
The vessels make up part of a second Global Sumud Flotilla attempting in recent months to break an Israeli blockade by carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
The Sumud Flotilla stated in a statement that 31 activists were wounded in the Israeli assault.
The Most Revolutionary Act 