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Police arrested dozens of Jewish Voice for Peace agitators after they stormed Trump Tower in New York to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Hamas Columbia University activist in ICE custody.

“We want justice. You say how, free Mahmoud Khalil now,” the JVP activists chanted. “We will not comply, Mahmoud, we are on your side.”

As Jews, we are taking over the Trump Tower to register our mass refusal. We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalize Palestinians and all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people. And we will never… pic.twitter.com/t2Ql8qRBgw

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) March 13, 2025

They also held banners proclaiming, “Fight Nazis, Not Students,” “You Can’t Deport A Movement,” “Come For One, Face Us All,” and “Free Mahmoud, Free Palestine.”

BREAKING: Hundreds of U.S. Jews and friends are taking over the Trump Tower to say: Come for one, face us all. pic.twitter.com/m14JGQIxwU

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) March 13, 2025

The NYPD warned the demonstrators before moving in to make arrests, carrying some away by their hands and feet. NYPD did not immediately provide an exact figure of how many were arrested.

https://twitter.com/ScooterCasterNY/status/1900223154066244004

Liberal billionaire George Soros’s philanthropy, the Open Society Foundations, has given $525,000 to JVP to fund its human rights work in the Middle East. The philanthropy has reported giving another $650,000 to JVP’s lobbying arm and political action committee, awarding it a three-year grant in 2023.

“Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, the Trump regime is using attacks on the movement for Palestinian freedom as an opening to dismantle civil liberties and the entire progressive movement, ” JVP, which calls itself the “largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world,” wrote in an Instagram post Thursday. “This is how fascism works. We refuse to be divided or silenced.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jewish Voice for Peace (@jewishvoiceforpeace)

“We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalize Palestinians and all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide,” the group added in a post to X.

The protest came one day after Khalil and his legal team appeared in court. The Trump administration’s efforts to deport the Columbia student activist and foreign national over his pro-Hamas campus organizing are on hold as proceedings play out.

One of Khalil’s attorneys, Ramzi Kassem, has defended al Qaeda terrorists including Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Kassem also defended multiple Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a “close associate” of Osama bin Laden. He went on to serve as an immigration policy adviser to former president Joe Biden on the White House’s Domestic Policy Council.

The Obama-appointed federal judge overseeing the case, Jesse Furman, is a prolific Democratic donor, contributing over $20,000 to Democrats, including President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee. He also once threw out a terrorism lawsuit against the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations sued Columbia and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Thursday on behalf of Khalil and several anonymous Columbia and Barnard students. They aim to stop Columbia and the panel from releasing disciplinary documents related to anti-Israel students’ activities.

On Tuesday, meanwhile, anti-Israel agitators in New York clashed with police over the detainment of Khalil, which also led to several arrests. The demonstration was part of a coordinated nationwide walkout by students and faculty at elite colleges across the country. Among the crowd was Aidan Parisi, a Columbia graduate student who was arrested last spring for storming Hamilton Hall and suspended for his role in an event featuring terror-tied speakers who called for violence against Jews.

Tuesday’s crowd first gathered at Washington Square Park before marching to City Hall as part of a protest organized by New York University’s Faculty and Students for Justice in Palestine chapters and joined by the anti-Semitic group Within Our Lifetime. During the event, billed as a “rally against compliance with fascist policies,” hundreds chanted in unison, “We want justice. You say how, release Mahmoud Khalil now.” One attendee sported a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine headband, while others displayed posters of militants holding rifles with the caption, “Palestine will be free.”

The post NYPD Arrests Dozens After Jewish Voice for Peace Storms Trump Tower To Demand Release of Pro-Hamas Columbia Activist appeared first on .

GitLab addressed two critical authentication bypass vulnerabilities in Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE).

GitLab released security updates to address critical vulnerabilities in Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE). The company addressed nine vulnerabilities, including the two critical ruby-saml authentication bypass issues respectively tracked as CVE-2025-25291 and CVE-2025-25292.

GitLab CE/EE versions 17.7.7, 17.8.5, and 17.9.2 addressed the issue. GitLab.com is already patched.

“GitLab has remediated two privately disclosed security issues (CVE-2025-25291, CVE-2025-25292) identified in the ruby-saml library which GitLab uses when SAML SSO authentication is enabled at the instance or group level.” reads the advisory published by the company. “On GitLab CE/EE instances using SAML authentication, under certain circumstances, an attacker with access to a valid signed SAML document from the IdP could authenticate as another valid user within the environment’s SAML IdP.”

Attackers with a valid signed SAML document can impersonate users within the same SAML IdP, risking data breaches and privilege escalation.

“Attackers who are in possession of a single valid signature that was created with the key used to validate SAML responses or assertions of the targeted organization can use it to construct SAML assertions themselves and are in turn able to log in as any user.” reads a technical analysis of the two critical flaws. In other words, it could be used for an account takeover attack.”

GitLab Dedicated customers receive automatic updates, while self-managed users must apply updates manually.

“We strongly recommend that all installations running a version affected by the issues described below are upgraded to the latest version as soon as possible.” continues the advisory. “When no specific deployment type (omnibus, source code, helm chart, etc.) of a product is mentioned, this means all types are affected.”

GitHub doesn’t use ruby-saml for authentication but found its vulnerabilities in GitLab and alerted their security team to mitigate potential attacks.

“GitHub doesn’t currently use ruby-saml for authentication, but began evaluating the use of the library with the intention of using an open source library for SAML authentication once more. This library is, however, used in other popular projects and products.” continues the analysis. “We discovered an exploitable instance of this vulnerability in GitLab, and have notified their security team so they can take necessary actions to protect their users against potential attacks.”

Below is the full list of flaws addressed by the company:

Customers unable to update GitLab CE/EE should enable two-factor authentication, disable SAML two-factor bypass, and require admin approval for new users.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, newsletter)

As tempers flared last month during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s disastrous Oval Office confrontation with US President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, Trump offered a blunt assessment of Ukraine’s limited leverage in any future negotiations with Russia. “You don’t have the cards,” he told Zelenskyy. It is a message the US leader has repeated on multiple occasions as he seeks to broker a peace deal and end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Trump’s logic is easy enough to understand. After all, Ukraine is currently locked into a brutal war of attrition against a far larger and wealthier enemy. For over a year, the Russian army has been slowly but steadily advancing as Ukraine struggles to address mounting troop shortages and encounters regular issues with the flow of military assistance from the country’s Western allies. If this continues, most observers believe Moscow’s overwhelming advantages in terms of manpower, firepower, and funding make eventual Russian victory virtually inevitable.

The Ukrainians are acutely aware that the odds are stacked against them. However, they also understand that Russia’s invasion represents an existential threat to their nation. This helps to explain the remarkable resilience displayed by Ukraine’s army and Ukrainian society as a whole. Faced with a fight for survival against a military superpower, Ukrainians recognize that they cannot realistically expect to match Russia in terms of conventional military strength. Instead, their country’s trump card in this uneven struggle is the innovative and rapidly expanding Ukrainian defense tech sector.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion just over three years ago, an improvised industry of defense tech startups has mushroomed in garages, workshops, and warehouses across Ukraine. This trend has benefited from the country’s vibrant prewar IT industry, with many existing IT businesses and tech entrepreneurs switching their focus in 2022 to support the Ukrainian army.

This has led to dramatic increases in the domestic production of key items such as surveillance and attack drones, with Ukrainian developers engaged in a relentless daily race to stay ahead of their Russian adversaries. Hundreds of Ukrainian companies are now engaged in drone manufacturing, compared to a mere handful in 2021. The Ukrainian government recently unveiled plans to purchase around 4.5 million first person view drones in 2025, more than doubling last year’s number. This is enhancing Ukraine’s reputation as a global defense tech hub and boosting the country’s efforts to reduce its reliance on military aid from the West.

Eurasia Center events

Public Event
Tue, March 25, 2025 • 11:00 am ET

Lucian Kim on “Putin’s Revenge” and Russia’s war on Ukraine

Human Rights
Politics & Diplomacy

Ukrainian drones are playing a key role in transforming the modern battlefield and are now responsible for around two-thirds of Russian losses, according to a recent report by the Royal United Services Institute. Ukraine’s progress has been so groundbreaking that leading Western defense companies are increasingly looking to learn from the country. For example, Silicon Valley companies are tapping into the know-how of Ukrainian drone makers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The impact of Ukraine’s defense tech prowess is perhaps most evident in the Black Sea. At the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s navy was virtually nonexistent, while the dominance of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was taken for granted. Three years on, Ukraine has successfully leveraged low-cost, high-impact naval drones to offset Russia’s initial advantages and break the blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports.

Ukraine’s maritime drones have repeatedly proved their effectiveness, sinking or damaging numerous Russian warships and forcing Putin to withdraw the bulk of his fleet from Crimea to the safety of Russia itself. Despite the distances involved, Ukrainian naval drones are able to pose a threat to Russian shipping far from Crimea. In summer 2023, Ukraine launched a long-range drone attack that reportedly damaged a warship close the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, around six hundred kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian naval bases in the Odesa region.

Ukraine’s naval drone fleet continues to evolve at a rapid pace. In recent months, a new model equipped with missiles reportedly shot down a Russian helicopter over the Black Sea. Marine drones have also been developed as launch craft for aerial drones. Ukrainian officials claim these “miniature aircraft carriers” have already been used to hit Russian military targets in occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine. Looking ahead, the use of naval drones as platforms for aerial attacks could create opportunities for Ukraine to bypass Russian front line defenses and launch strikes from unexpected angles.

As Ukraine enters a fourth year of full-scale war against one of the world’s leading military powers, the need for continuous innovation on the battlefield and at sea remains critical. Ukraine’s remarkable success in the Battle for the Black Sea is an indication of what can be achieved when the Ukrainian military makes the most of the country’s innovative defense tech industry. Kyiv’s partners should take note of the key role being played by Ukrainian defense tech innovators and maximize their support for this strategically crucial sector.

David Kirichenko is an associate research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society.

Further reading

UkraineAlert
Mar 11, 2025

Pressure is now on Putin as Ukraine agrees to Trump’s ceasefire proposal

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine has agreed to a United States proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia, representing a potentially significant breakthrough in US-led diplomatic efforts to end the largest European conflict since World War II, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert
Mar 6, 2025

US peace initiative can help bring Ukraine’s abducted children home

By
Kristina Hook, Iuliia Hoban

Securing the return of the thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia since 2022 must play a part in the peace efforts recently initiated by US President Donald Trump, write Kristina Hook and Iuliia Hoban.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert
Mar 4, 2025

Europe has the resources to defend itself and back Ukraine against Russia

By
Agnia Grigas

By leveraging its economic strength, demographic advantage, and military potential, Europe can confidently counter Putin’s imperial ambitions and provide Ukraine with the support it needs to resist Russia’s invasion, writes Agnia Grigas.

Conflict
Defense Industry

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Ukraine’s innovative defense tech sector is the country’s trump card appeared first on Atlantic Council.

After former president Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 race in favor of his vice president, Kamala Harris, he “demanded” loyalty from Harris so that he could protect his legacy, a new book reveals.

Biden “had no interest” in giving Harris room to “forge her own path” ahead of the election, journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes write in their forthcoming book, Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, according to excerpts published by The Hill.

During Harris’s campaign, Biden “would say publicly that Harris should do what she must to win,” a book excerpt reads. “But privately, including in conversations with her, he repeated an admonition: let there be no daylight between us.” He had used the same phrase in 2008 to tie John McCain to George W. Bush, Allen and Parnes note.

Former Biden aides, who filled major roles in Harris’s campaign, reinforced that message at every turn, according to the book.

Hours before Harris faced Republican nominee Donald Trump during the September 10 debate, Biden called her with another reminder of “the loyalty he demanded.”

“No daylight, kid,” Biden told Harris, making clear that he “expected Harris to protect his legacy”—no matter “whether she won or lost the election.”

Harris, however, did have control over one aspect of her campaign—the size of her chair. Her team thought she had appeared small next to her running mate, Tim Walz, in an interview and became fixated on ensuring that she would project a more imposing presence on camera.

“For the rest of the campaign, her team required that she be provided a chair that met certain specifications,” the book states: “‘Leg height no less than 15 inches; floor to top of seat height no less than 18.9 inches; arms on chairs may not be very high, arms must fall at a natural height; chairs must be firm.'”

The post New Book: Biden ‘Demanded’ Loyalty From Harris Campaign—’Whether She Won or Lost the Election’ appeared first on .

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered an evasive initial response to US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, backing the idea in principle while listing a series of additional demands that make any meaningful progress unlikely. Officials in Kyiv will be hoping Putin’s reluctance to embrace the US-led ceasefire initiative will help convince their American colleagues that the Kremlin dictator is not genuinely interested in ending the war.

Many in Ukraine have been dismayed by recent US suggestions that Russia is ready for serious peace talks, and have pointed to the Kremlin’s consistently hardline negotiating position as proof of Putin’s determination to fight on. They argue that the current debate over possible compromises and territorial concessions reflects a fundamentally flawed understanding of the maximalist motives behind Russia’s invasion.

Ukrainians feel they have a far more realistic view of Russia’s true intentions. They are convinced Putin will never be satisfied with limited territorial gains because he is not actually fighting for land in Ukraine. Instead, he is waging a war against the very existence of a separate Ukrainian state and nation. This chilling objective undermines the entire concept of a compromise peace. Put simply, there can be no meaningful middle ground between Russian genocide and Ukrainian national survival.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

The Trump White House is not the first to misjudge the extent of Putin’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine. On multiple occasions, the preceding Biden administration declared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “strategic failure” while pointing to the extremely high cost paid by the Kremlin in terms of military casualties and economic damage. This practical assessment of the invasion assumes that Putin is guided and constrained by the same logic as his Western contemporaries. In reality, however, he is not.

While democratic leaders must worry about approval ratings and economic indicators, Putin has removed virtually all possible sources of domestic opposition and is free to focus on securing his place in Russian history. Since the early years of his reign, he has made no secret of the fact that he views the collapse of the USSR as a tragedy, and regards the post-Cold War world order as an injustice. Crucially, Ukraine has come to embody both of these grievances. Putin firmly believes he cannot hope to achieve his historic mission of reversing the verdict of 1991 and reviving the Russian Empire without first extinguishing Ukrainian independence.

Putin’s obsession with Ukraine has become increasingly apparent over the past two decades as his campaign to subjugate the country has escalated from political interference to military intervention. In 2004, his efforts to rig Ukraine’s presidential election and install a Kremlin-friendly candidate backfired disastrously and helped spark the Orange Revolution. Ten years later, he responded to another Ukrainian pro-democracy revolution by seizing Crimea and invading eastern Ukraine.

In the years following the onset of Russia’s military aggression, it gradually became more and more obvious that the limited invasion of 2014 was not delivering the desired outcome of a pro-Russian Ukraine. On the contrary, Russia’s attack was only strengthening Ukraine’s commitment to turn westward and pursue a Euro-Atlantic future. Rather than acknowledging the counter-productive consequences of his military campaign, Putin chose to raise the stakes even further by launching the largest European invasion since World War II.

Over the past three years, Putin has become increasingly open about his intention to erase Ukraine altogether. He has declared occupied Ukrainian regions to be “Russian forever,” and has compared his invasion to the eighteenth century imperial conquests of Russian ruler Peter the Great. Vicious anti-Ukrainian rhetoric has become so normalized in the Russian state media that UN officials believe it may constitute “incitement to genocide.” Meanwhile, throughout areas of Ukraine under Kremlin control, Russia is systematically suppressing all traces of Ukrainian statehood and national identity.

Eurasia Center events

Public Event
Tue, March 25, 2025 • 11:00 am ET

Lucian Kim on “Putin’s Revenge” and Russia’s war on Ukraine

Human Rights
Politics & Diplomacy

Despite the horror and trauma of the Russian invasion, Ukrainians have so far refused to back down. This defiance is a personal humiliation for Putin. It directly undermines his carefully crafted strongman persona, and makes a complete mockery of his insistence that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.” Rather than securing his place among the most celebrated rulers in Russian history, Putin is now at risk of being remembered as the man who lost Ukraine.

Losing Ukraine is Putin’s worst nightmare. Ever since witnessing the collapse of Soviet power while serving as a young KGB officer in East Germany, he has been haunted by visions of people power movements overthrowing empires. This helps explain his increasingly violent opposition to the robust and often unruly democratic culture that has taken root in post-Soviet Ukraine. Since the 2004 Orange Revolution, he has viewed the consolidation of Ukrainian democracy as an existential threat to his own authoritarian regime and a potential catalyst for the next stage in Russia’s retreat from empire.

Putin knows that the invasion of Ukraine will define his entire reign and decide the future fate of the Russian Federation. While he may be prepared to discuss a strategic pause in hostilities if ceasefire terms can be made to favor Moscow, he will never accept the existence of a separate and genuinely independent Ukrainian state on Russia’s border. This does not mean that current US-led peace efforts are entirely futile, but it is vital to recognize that freezing the conflict along the current front lines will not be enough to end the war.

For decades, Western leaders have made the mistake of viewing Putin through the prism of their own political pragmatism, while underestimating the importance of his revisionist imperial ideology. After three years of total war in the heart of Europe, there is no longer any excuse for such wishful thinking. Putin has bet everything on the destruction of Ukraine and is confident he will be judged favorably by the tribunal of history. Unless he is deterred by the overwhelming might of the collective West, he will continue to wage war against Ukraine until he achieves his chilling goal.

Mykola Bielieskov is a research fellow at the National Institute for Strategic Studies and a senior analyst at Ukrainian NGO “Come Back Alive.” The views expressed in this article are the author’s personal position and do not reflect the opinions or views of NISS or Come Back Alive.

Further reading

UkraineAlert
Mar 11, 2025

Pressure is now on Putin as Ukraine agrees to Trump’s ceasefire proposal

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine has agreed to a United States proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia, representing a potentially significant breakthrough in US-led diplomatic efforts to end the largest European conflict since World War II, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

UkraineAlert
Mar 6, 2025

US peace initiative can help bring Ukraine’s abducted children home

By
Kristina Hook, Iuliia Hoban

Securing the return of the thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia since 2022 must play a part in the peace efforts recently initiated by US President Donald Trump, write Kristina Hook and Iuliia Hoban.

Civil Society
Conflict

UkraineAlert
Mar 4, 2025

Europe has the resources to defend itself and back Ukraine against Russia

By
Agnia Grigas

By leveraging its economic strength, demographic advantage, and military potential, Europe can confidently counter Putin’s imperial ambitions and provide Ukraine with the support it needs to resist Russia’s invasion, writes Agnia Grigas.

Conflict
Defense Industry

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Vladimir Putin does not want peace. He wants to subjugate Ukraine. appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The Trump administration slapped fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil minister and a host of maritime service providers that have helped Tehran ferry its illicit crude across the globe, the latest in a bevy of measures meant to cripple the hardline regime’s financial networks.

For the first time, Iranian minister of petroleum Mohsen Paknejad was included in a sanctions package, signaling the Trump administration’s desire to target a central figure in the country’s oil smuggling operation. Paknejad “oversees the export of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil and has allocated billions of dollars’ worth of oil to Iran’s armed forces for export,” according to the Treasury Department.

Additional sanctions were placed on entities from several countries, including India and China, for their role in shipping Iranian crude across the globe. This includes “a vast shadow fleet of vessels” that disguise the Iranian oil and export it primarily to Beijing at significantly reduced prices.

The sanctions are the most significant and wide-ranging to date. They were issued by both the State and Treasury departments as part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which is meant to bankrupt the hardline regime. Oil remains one of the Islamic Republic’s chief sources of revenue, helping it fund regional terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. In announcing the new sanctions, U.S. officials said they intend to “reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero.”

“The Iranian regime continues to use the proceeds from the nation’s vast oil resources to advance its narrow, alarming self-interests at the expense of the Iranian people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Treasury will fight and disrupt any attempts by the regime to fund its destabilizing activities and further its dangerous agenda.”

The fresh sanctions come just a day after the White House warned Iran that military options remain on the table if it does not consent to negotiations around its contested nuclear weapons program. The White House National Security Council reaffirmed this threat on Wednesday, telling the Washington Free Beacon that there are only “two ways Iran can be handled: militarily or by making a deal.”

Sanctions are a key tool in this pressure campaign. The Iranian regime raked in billions of dollars from its oil smuggling ring during the Biden-Harris administration, which failed to enforce sanctions that were already on the books.

Now flush with cash, the Iranian regime rejected recent diplomatic overtures from the Trump administration, going so far as to dare the United States to attack. But with sanctions in full force, the regime could quickly change its calculus and sit down at the bargaining table.

The inclusion of Paknejad, Iran’s oil minister, in Thursday’s sanctions is certain to get the Iranian regime’s attention. He is responsible for allocations of “billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil to the Iranian armed forces,” including the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Around 200,000 barrels of Iranian crude are allocated to the armed forces each day to supplement their budget, according to information provided by the Treasury Department.

Iran intends to increase this allocation over the next year, according to the Trump administration’s assessment, which points “to a four-fold dollar increase in oil allocations, exceeding 10 billion dollars annually and totaling over 500,000 barrels per day.”

“By the end of 2025,” the Treasury Department said, “over half of Iran’s total oil revenues will be allocated to its armed forces.”

Outside of Iran, the United States is targeting a network of oil tankers and maritime companies that ferry Iranian crude across the globe. While many of these ships were already known to facilitate Iran’s oil smuggling operation, the Biden-Harris administration refrained from taking action for four years.

One Hong Kong-flagged vessel, the PEACE HILL, was identified by the United States as transporting “millions of barrels of Iranian oil” from the Changxhing port in Dalian, China, “on behalf of the Iranian military.” Another, the San Marino-flagged SEASKY ferried “tens of thousands of metric tons of fuel” to China on behalf of Iran’s national oil company.

Both ships were hit with sanctions, as well as their two China-based operators: Heshun Transportation Trading Limited and Seasky Marine Co., Limited. A third Hong-Kong-based firm, Sun Science International Co. was also sanctioned for operating a ship called the CORONA FUN, a Panama-flagged vessel that has illicitly offloaded Iranian crude.

An additional assortment of tankers and firms—including those in Bangladesh, Africa, Liberia, Marshall Islands, and Sri Lanka—were sanctioned for running similar operations on Iran’s behalf.

Parallel sanctions were announced in tandem by the State Department, which targeted three firms and three ships complicit in Iran’s oil ring. The entities named by the State Department provide ship-to-ship oil transfer for Tehran, which helps it “disguise the Iranian origin of the cargo,” according to the announcement.

This includes the Indonesia-based PT. BINTANG SAMUDRA UTAMA and Singapore-based SHIPLOAD MARITIME PTE. LTD. Both firms operate vessels that have conducted ship-to-ship oil transfers for Iran, according to the State Department.

“The United States is acting under President Trump’s policy of maximum pressure on the Iranian regime to stop the flow of revenue it uses to fund these destabilizing activities,” the State Department said.

The post Trump Admin Slaps Fresh Sanctions on Iran’s Oil Minister and ‘Shadow Fleet’ Ferrying Illicit Iranian Crude appeared first on .

The habitual criminal from Brooklyn who was busted on Friday, March 7, for slugging a pregnant woman in the face while she rode a J train in Jamaica last month was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Saturday.

Christopher Benitez, 33, of Throop Avenue in Williamsburg, was criminally charged with assault and harassment for the unprovoked attack of a 37-year-old woman.

At 5:50 p.m. on Feb. 25, the victim was on the J train at the Jamaica Center Parsons/Archer station when Benitez allegedly approached her and punched her in the face. Benitez then allegedly fled the train on foot to parts unknown.

The victim, who was seven months pregnant, suffered a laceration, bruises and pain to the right eye as a result of the assault but was not hospitalized.

Benitez, a recidivist with 16 prior arrests for assault, criminal mischief, and public intoxication, was taken into custody at a relative’s home in Brooklyn on Friday morning, brought back to Queens and booked at the Transit District 20 headquarters at the Briarwood subway station that afternoon.

A detective from the Queens Transit Squad who obtained and reviewed surveillance video from the station where the attack occurred created still images and showed the images to Benitez, who admitted that it was him, according to the criminal complaint.

“I hit the lady,” Benitez told the detective. “She sat right in front of me and gave me a f**king attitude, bro.”

Benitez was arraigned on Saturday afternoon and the judge set bail at $15,000.

UrbanGlass Gallery in Downtown Brooklyn invites visitors to become part of its latest neon art installation, “At a Time Like This,” which explores human connection and the passage of time.

The room-sized piece, “We Are Magic,” needs at least two people to illuminate the display. Two pedestals are purposely placed just far enough apart that no one person can reach both ends.

A small electrical current runs from one pedestal to the other, but it can only be transferred through human touch — when participants clasp hands, they complete the circuit, bringing the artwork to life.

The work only comes alive once that connection is made. 

“There’s this exuberance to the moment when contact is made, and then this thing builds into this crescendo of light and sound,” curator Andres Page told Brooklyn Paper. “ People come in [and] sometimes it’s a stranger that they’re holding hands with. And that’s a really neat experience.”

The light sequence lasts two minutes, building in waves before enveloping the participants. If the connection is broken, the sound and lighting stop abruptly.

“When two people let go, the piece goes dark slowly — it becomes quiet,” Page said. “And there’s also something very intense about that experience.”

The work was created by multimedia conceptual artist Alicia Eggert, with support from local neon craftsman James Akers and music composer Marco Buongiorno Nardelli.

On the exhibition’s opening night, participants tested the limits of the artwork’s ability to generate connection. A chain of 30 people stood together, holding hands to see if the neon light would still switch on.

The neon flickered on despite the length of the chain. The maximum number of people who can complete the circuit remains unknown.

Finding connection despite political divisions

The artwork pulses with uplifting colors, enveloping the participants. Eggert said the music adds another dimension, evoking something more solemn and “not necessarily overtly joyful.”

The exhibition’s title, “At a Time Like This,” evokes the country’s current political divide.

“For me, it’s really important for people who believe in the same thing to come together and to rally around a cause and to see what kind of change is possible, [and] making sure our voice is being heard,” Eggert said.

Her previous works include “Ours,” a 2022 collaboration with Planned Parenthood. The neon sculpture cycles through the statements “OUR BODIES,” “OUR FUTURES,” and “OUR ABORTIONS.” It was displayed outside the U.S. Supreme Court a few months before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Eggert’s work uses signage and language to captivate viewers. Her piece “The Light You See (Infinity)” features an infinity mirror with a neon sign that switches its wording in a captivating loop.

“You’re standing there with it, right?” said Eggert. “On one hand, they’re very meditative and sort of calming in the way that they cycle through.”

The sign reads, “ALL THE LIGHT YOU SEE IS FROM THE PAST.” As words fade, the message shifts to “ALL YOU SEE IS PAST.”

“On the other hand, it’s really reminding you of time passing and sort of moving on with or without you,” Eggert said. “For me, it creates a little bit of [a] sense of urgency, of making the most of the time that we have.”

The exhibition is hosted by UrbanGlass, a nonprofit founded in 1977 that promotes the art of glassmaking through gallery exhibitions, studio spaces and workshops.

“At a Time Like This” will be on display at UrbanGlass, 647 Fulton St. in Downtown Brooklyn, until May 4.

In the first real showdown since the election, Senate Democrats seem poised to give President Donald Trump and Elon Musk everything they want while pretending to oppose the Republican spending bill. The proposed maneuver would allow Democrats to feign opposition to the new administration’s power grab, while also giving the GOP enough votes to push their agenda through.

Senate Republicans do not have enough votes for cloture, a legislative procedure to end debate and move for a vote. Republicans only have a 53-47 seat majority, and 60 votes are needed to invoke cloture. If Democrats don’t provide enough votes for cloture, the government is almost certainly headed toward a shutdown Friday.

Despite promising a fight, Senate Democrats are reportedly considering a vote swap. In exchange for providing enough votes to end debate on the GOP spending bill, Senate Republicans would allow a Democratic amendment to continue to fund the government at current levels for the next month to come to the floor, known as a continuing resolution, or CR. The Democratic amendment is almost certain to fail.

Democrats opposed to the GOP bill would then be allowed to vote “no” on the broader spending bill, allowing them to seem like they’re voting against the GOP measure despite providing the needed support to bring it to the floor. Democrats have criticized the GOP plan, which would give Musk and Trump more power to slash the federal government and also cut $1 billion from Washington, D.C.’s local budget.

Nina Smith, a Democratic strategist, said this kind of wheeling and dealing is exactly why Americans have lost faith in the party.

“What has been so detrimental to the Democratic Party brand is exactly the sort of threading the needle that we’re seeing here,” said Smith. “We really have to focus that energy and use it in a way that’s very strategic so that we rebuild the trust of the American people because they don’t trust us, and it’s [because of] this sort of doublespeak, backroom deals.”

Some Democratic lawmakers have called out these plans, arguing that Democrats weren’t put in office to pretend to fight. 

“Some Senate Democrats are being tempted to pretend to fight the Trump-Musk funding bill today, then quietly agree to give up on blocking it,” wrote Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, in a statement to The Intercept. “That would be a disastrous decision. Voting for cloture on a bill that allows Musk and Trump to steal from taxpayers is the same as voting to allow Musk and Trump to steal from taxpayers. Everything is on the line. Democrats weren’t elected to put up a fake fight.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also weighed in, arguing that voters wouldn’t be fooled. “I hope Senate Democrats understand there is nothing clever about setting up a fake failed 30-day CR first to turn around & vote for cloture on the GOP spending bill,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez on X. “It won’t trick voters; it won’t trick House members. People will not forget it.” 

Even Senate Democrats who support passing the spending measure have called out party leadership for “performative resistance.”

“The weeks of performative ‘resistance’ from those in my party were limited to undignified antics. Voting to shut the government down will punish millions or risk a recession. I disagree with many points in the CR, but I will never vote to shut our government down,” posted Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on X.

Republicans have also called out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreeing with Fetterman that this is bad political theater. 

“[Fetterman] is absolutely correct, because you got to remember when it was Leader Schumer, he had all seven bills sitting on his desk since January 31,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told The Intercept. “He chose not to bring up one spending bill. And now, he wants us to believe he’ll do it in 30 days. It’s not going to happen.” 

Smith, the Democratic strategist, argued that part of what’s happening here is leadership acting as if it’s business as usual in Washington. “There’s a tension and a struggle between the way folks know how to do things in Washington and the reality we’re seeing on the ground,” said Smith. “I think Democrats aren’t exercising the only power they have, and that sucks, but I think there’s also room for us to get creative and think differently about how to do these things.”

The post Senate Dems Look to Give Trump Everything He Wants After a “Fake Fight” on Spending Bill appeared first on The Intercept.

On March 12, Forward Defense senior fellow Robert Soofer was interviewed by Ankit Panda, host of the “Thinking the Unthinkable” podcast on War on the Rocks. The episode discussed the Trump administration’s plan for an American “Iron Dome” and the questions it raises for US missile defense and the strategic vulnerability in the United States today.

Fellow

Robert Soofer

Senior Fellow

Forward Defense

Arms Control
Defense Policy

Forward Defense, housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, generates ideas and connects stakeholders in the defense ecosystem to promote an enduring military advantage for the United States, its allies, and partners. Our work identifies the defense strategies, capabilities, and resources the United States needs to deter and, if necessary, prevail in future conflict.

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The post Soofer interviewed on War on the Rocks podcast about Trump’s ‘Iron Dome’ appeared first on Atlantic Council.