Category: Full Text Articles – Audio Posts

At 6:40 p.m., 20 minutes before Xanadu Roller Arts reopens for its celestially-themed Space Bounce event, a line of anxious skaters in holographic outfits forms below the rink’s burgundy awning, stretching outside into the cold.

“Ay, what’s the holdup? We already signed our waiver,” yells a patron.

A security guard retorts, “You gotta wait for us to open, man.”

On June 19, 2024, Xanadu opened its doors at 262 Starr St. in the heart of Bushwick, quickly reinvigorating the skate community and amassing nearly 50,000 Instagram followers.

Inspired by Robert Greenwald’s 1980 cult classic, the rink is the latest immersive venture from Verun Kataria, the visionary behind Bushwick’s The Turk’s Inn and Sultan Room. Stepping onto the 7,000-square-foot, hand-painted Canadian Maple rink in a pair of Riedell skates is your ticket onto their “intergalactic cruise ship,” where a booming sound system creates an otherworldly experience.

“Sometimes I feel like there must be some single-celled organism squirming beneath the floor. This place is something else,” said Lily Landau, Xanadus’ brand marketing and community manager. 

When it opened, Xanadu filled a void left by the closure of the city’s iconic rinks, including the Roxy, Skate Key, Empire Roller Skate, and, most recently, RollerJam USA in May 2024. With these losses, many “OG” skaters were left without a floor to glide their wheels – until now.

Inside, a 63-year-old man with curly gray hair and a blue bandana tied around his forehead whizzes past novice skaters struggling to find their balance. He’s been skating since the 1970s, witnessing the rise and fall of local rinks and traveling across the country to experience other skate styles from “Speed” and “Rhythm” to “Detroit” and “Chicago.” 

Known on the floor as “Diablo,” his favorite style is “Jammin’,” an approach that blends dance and gymnastics. But he insists he’s developed his own flair, one that newcomers are always trying to imitate.

​​Xanadu has its own vibrant subculture akin to drag or street dancing. By day, skaters are Clark Kent; by night, they transform into Superman, adopting new personas, names, and styles.

Tracy Mitchell, 59, known on the rink as Tray Halladay, is a roller-skating legend from the Lower East Side. A skater for 52 years and an instructor for 30, he dominated the now-closed Empire Roller Disco, Skate Key, and Hot Skates, remaining undefeated in every battle. 

In the world of roller skating, battles are high-energy showdowns where skaters go head-to-head at the center of the rink, showing off their best footwork, spins, and tricks. Just as vogueing fuels queer subculture, battles intensify skates. Mitchell mixes Jam Skating with “Artistic,” a style akin to figure skating, and involves jumps, spins, and choreographed routines. 

He credits Xanadu for preserving an art form that has been a source of liberation for the Black community since the 1970s. 

“Empire had the same crowd of people. It was divided by gentrification. But here, there’s everyone: all races, cultures, and genders. I love this,” said Mitchell.

Now, he’s focused on passing the baton to a new generation of skaters.

One of those skaters is Joanie Lit, a 51-year-old dental hygienist by day and skate instructor by night. Known as Miss Lit on the floor, she first laced up her skates during the pandemic after a friend encouraged her to give it a try. Mitchell is her main coach.

“Meeting the skate community was a game changer. We learn from each other, and you can teach the same move, but everyone has their own flare,” said Lit.  

She now teaches skaters of all ages at Xanadus’ Dreamland Glow-Up night. 

Then there’s 45-year-old Michael Natter from Harlem also took up skating during the pandemic after his wife, Janette, started. Without access to a rink, they practiced on the streets, quickly realizing the toll it took on their skates. To protect their expensive boots from scuffs, they invested in $20 toe caps. 

“She immediately scuffed ’em and cried. So I looked at her and was like, ‘I can’t make you cry on this journey of skating, so I’m gonna make these,’” said Natter.

He taught himself how to sew and began crafting toe caps from everyday materials, including curtains and old viny. Now, he makes them for the folks at Xanadu. He calls them “the skate fam.” 

Landau has a custom pair with iridescent lily flowers and her Instagram handle. 

“I’ve made an embarrassing amount. I just kind of give them out as gifts,” said Natter. 

Since Janette’s skate name is Squeels, Michael dubbed himself @squeelsandhubs, a name he proudly displays on his toe caps.

Natter favors Rhythm-Style skating and credits Xanadu’s diverse events – like Bollywood Night, Goth Night, and Yacht Rock – with encouraging him to step outside his comfort zone.

“I’m being introduced to music I would’ve never turned on. And because I’m skating, I’m having to find the music in my body. It takes me somewhere else,” said Natter. 

At least 14 people were injured Thursday in central Israel after a Palestinian terrorist rammed his vehicle into pedestrians and stabbed 2 police officers, local authorities confirmed.

The terrorist, a 50-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank, critically wounded a 17-year-old girl and left two people in serious condition, the Jerusalem Post reported. At least three others suffered moderate injuries. The attacker “ran over several people at a bus station, then proceeded to stab others with a screwdriver and crashed into a police vehicle,” Israeli police said.

He was later shot dead by police, according to the Times of Israel.

Victims “were near a bus stop at the Pardes Hanna Junction, in the westbound lane, when the vehicle hit them,” a paramedic told the Post. “When we arrived, they were lying in the back area. We immediately began providing medical treatment, including stopping bleeding and bandaging wounds.”

The attack comes just days after three buses exploded just south of Tel Aviv in what authorities called a “suspected terror attack.” The explosions resulted in no casualties and were caused by makeshift bombs with timers that likely originated from the West Bank. One unexploded bomb has a note that reads “Revenge from Tulkarem,” referring to an Israeli counterterrorism operation in the West Bank.

The post Terror in Central Israel: At Least 14 Wounded in Car-Ramming, Stabbing Attack appeared first on .

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Oscar-winner Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog were found dead in different rooms of their Santa Fe home, and they had apparently been dead for some time, according to investigators.

Hackman, 95, was found dead Wednesday in a mudroom and his 63-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead in a bathroom next to a space heater, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office detectives wrote in a search warrant. There was an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on a countertop near Arakawa.

Denise Avila, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, said there was no indication that any of them had been shot or had other types of wounds.

The detective who gave the affidavit, meanwhile, called the circumstances “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”

The New Mexico Gas Co. is working with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation, spokesperson Tim Korte told The Associated Press.

The utility tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn’t find any signs of problems. A detective noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide may not show signs of poisoning.

Chris Ramirez, spokesperson for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which runs the state’s medical examiner operations, declined to comment on whether any conclusions had been reached on the cause and manner of deaths of Hackman and Arakawa.

The gruff-but-beloved Hackman was among the best actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

He routinely showed up on Hollywood lists of greatest American actors of the 20th century. He could play virtually any kind of role, from comic book villain Lex Luthor in “Superman” to a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite “Hoosiers.”

Hackman was a five-time Oscar nominee who won for “The French Connection” in 1972 and “Unforgiven” two decades later. His death comes just four days before this year’s ceremony.

Tributes quickly poured in from Hollywood.

“The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity,” director Francis Ford Coppola wrote on Instagram.

Hackman met Arakawa, a classically trained pianist who grew up in Hawaii, when she was working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s, The New York Times reported in 1989. They soon moved in together, and by the end of the decade had decamped to Santa Fe.

Their Southwestern-style ranch on Old Sunset Trail sits on a hill in a gated community with views of the Rocky Mountains.

The 2,300 square-foot home on one acre (0.4 hectares) was built in 2000 and had an estimated market value of a little over $1 million, according to Santa Fe County property tax records. It is modest compared to the sprawling estate next door, which was valued at $7.9 million.

Hackman also co-wrote three novels, starting with the swashbuckler “Wake of the Perdido Star” with Daniel Lenihan in 1999, according to publisher Simon & Schuster. He then penned two by himself, concluding with “Pursuit” in 2013, about a female police officer on the tail of a predator.

In his first couple decades in New Mexico, Hackman was often seen around the historic state capital, which known as an artist enclave, tourism destination and retreat for celebrities.

He served as a board member of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in the 1990s, according to the local paper, The New Mexican.

In recent years, he was far less visible, though even the most mundane outings caught the attention of the press. The Independent wrote about him attending a show at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in 2018. The New York Post reported on him pumping gas, doing yard work and getting a chicken sandwich at Wendy’s in 2023.

Aside from appearances at awards shows, he was rarely seen in the Hollywood social circuit and retired from acting about 20 years ago. His was the rare Hollywood retirement that actually lasted.

Hackman had three children from a previous marriage. He and Arakawa had no children together but were known for having German shepherds.

Hackman told the film magazine Empire in 2020 that he and Arakawa liked to watch DVDs she rented.

“We like simple stories that some of the little low-budget films manage to produce,” he said.

An email sent to his publicist was not immediately returned early Thursday.

Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Arizona, and Melley reported from London. Associated Press writers Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Sylvia Hui in London contributed.

Russia’s shadow fleet plays a pivotal role in financing the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, serving as a blueprint for nations seeking to circumvent international sanctions while exporting natural resources by sea. These vessels enable Moscow to continue shipping crude oil and petroleum products—critical revenue streams that sustain its war effort and fund covert operations abroad. An analysis of five ships—GURUDEV (IMO: 9253234), VISION (IMO: 9260067), AILAMA (IMO: 9232888), SAVITRI (IMO: 9289752), and SEA HONOR (IMO: 9315654)—reveals the defining characteristics and operational tactics of this clandestine maritime network.’

The aforementioned vessels share common traits that indicate their involvement in illicit operations and sanctions evasion:

Frequent name and flag changes. For instance, the tanker GURUDEV has changed its name three times since 2013 and switched flags twice. VISION and AILAMA have followed similar patterns. These tactics make tracking more difficult and allow the ships to evade sanctions lists.

For example, the frequency of GURUDEV’s name changes between 2004 and 2025 increased significantly after 2014, indicating its targeted use in Russia’s shadow operations. Moreover, all of the listed vessels changed their names and/or flags after being included in Western sanctions lists.

Anonymous ownership structures. All five vessels are linked to opaque corporate networks that obscure their true owners. This is a common strategy to shield real beneficiaries from legal consequences.

AIS manipulation or deactivation. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a key tool for vessel tracking. Disabling AIS suggests an intent to conceal routes and violate international maritime regulations. SAVITRI and SEA HONOR, in particular, have systematically deactivated their AIS to obscure their activities. Russia refined this practice between 2015 and 2019 during the illicit export of agricultural goods from occupied Crimea and Donbas.

Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfers. This is one of the most common methods used to disguise the origin of Russian oil. A vessel loads crude near Russian ports and then transfers it to another ship in neutral waters. SAVITRI, for example, conducted 54 STS transfers in 2024 alone. In response to such tactics, Ukraine has expanded its contiguous zone of Ukraine (a maritime belt adjacent to its territorial sea, extending up to 24 nautical miles (44.4 km) from the baseline of the coastline) at the legislative level, allowing authorities to inspect vessels that disable AIS while conducting offshore cargo transfers.

Challenges and Risks

Russia’s shadow fleet operations pose significant challenges not only to sanctions enforcement but also to environmental security:

1. Risk of ecological disasters. Most of these vessels are aging and fail to meet modern environmental standards, increasing the likelihood of oil spills with catastrophic consequences. A stark example is the contamination of the Black Sea and the Crimean coastline with three tons of fuel oil following accidents involving the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239.
2. Destabilization of the global energy market. The shadow oil trade creates an uneven playing field, undermining efforts to reduce dependency on Russian energy resources.

Countermeasures

Effectively blocking Russia’s shadow fleet requires a comprehensive approach that combines sanctions, diplomatic efforts, and advanced technology:

1. Strengthening sanctions on shipowners and intermediaries. The U.S., U.K., and EU should expand their sanctions lists to include not just vessels but also companies involved in ownership, insurance, and maintenance. Additionally, flag states such as Panama, Gambia, Djibouti, and Guyana, frequently used by Russia, must be held accountable for registering sanctioned vessels.
2. Leveraging advanced monitoring technologies. Greater oversight of AIS deactivations is needed, along with the development of alternative satellite-tracking technologies to monitor illicit shipments. A more extensive analysis of Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfers can help identify and disrupt the routes used for Russian and other sanctioned oil exports.
3. Collaboration with financial institutions. Stricter financial controls should be imposed on banks facilitating transactions involving Russian oil. Special attention should be given to blocking payments for crude that has been re-exported through STS operations.
4. Implementing a “blacklist” mechanism for ports. An international registry of vessels involved in illicit Russian oil shipments should be established, barring these ships from accessing ports in G7 and EU nations.

Conclusion

Only a comprehensive set of measures can effectively halt Russia’s illicit oil exports and deprive the Putin regime of a critical revenue stream used to finance its aggression.

With news reports that the Trump administration is preparing to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to facilitate the deportation of immigrants in the United States, we recommend analysis by leading experts recently published at Just Security:

Elizabeth Goitein and Katherine Yon Ebright, Trump’s Doubly Flawed “Invasion” Theory: The president is wrong about what an invasion is—and what powers it triggers (Feb. 19, 2025)

William Banks, What Just Happened: The Framing of a Migration “Invasion” and the Use of Military Authorities (Jan. 29, 2025)

Ilya Somin, What Just Happened: The “Invasion” Executive Order and Its Dangerous Implications (Jan. 28, 2025) 

Elizabeth Goitein, Deployment of the U.S. Military for Immigration Enforcement: A Primer (Dec. 3, 2024) 

Katherine Yon Ebright, What Should Courts do if a Future President Invokes the Alien Enemies Act to Deport Immigrants? (Feb. 27, 2024)

Find comprehensive analysis of the Trump administration’s actions in our Collection, and a broad range of analysis on immigration-related issues here. 

Image credit: A US Army soldier monitors the US-Mexico border in Seco Mines, Texas  (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

The post What to Read on the Alien Enemies Act appeared first on Just Security.

Gas prices in NYC? Surprisingly, not terrible.

New York City ranks among the top major cities in the United States when it comes to the most affordable gas prices, according to a report from the financial services company CashNetUSA.

One gallon of gas in New York City costs approximately 12.56% of the local average hourly wage. This is the fifth-lowest percentage for a major city in the country, trailing only Boston, Massachusetts (11.35%), San Jose, California (11.7%), Denver, Colorado (11.76%), and Washington D.C. (11.79%).

While the average hourly wage fluctuates across each state and city in the country, New York City residents do not have to devote much of what they earn per hour towards filling up their vehicle with a gallon of gasoline.

These numbers were reached by CashNetUSA based on the average cost of gas per gallon in cities and states with populations exceeding 500,000 in 2024, based on data from AAA.com. Affordability was determined by calculating the local hourly salary of each city needed to afford one gallon of gas based on data obtained from the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The gas prices at each New York City borough were also examined, along with eight of the more popular gas stations in the area: Exxon, Amoco, BP, Shell, Mobil, Gulf, Sunoco, and CITGO. When examining each borough of New York City and some of the more popular gas stations, the cheapest fuels were found at Amoco in the Bronx and Exxon in Queens. The average price per gallon at Bronx Amocos was $2.98. Exxon stations in Queens were right behind, at $2.99 a gallon.

Exxon also offered the best rates in Manhattan and Staten Island. On average, gas is $3.09 a gallon in Manhattan Exxon locations and $3.07 on Staten Island.

The best average gas prices in Brooklyn were found at Mobil, with one gallon there costing $3.06 a gallon.

When it came to the most expensive stations across each borough, the study found that Bronx-based Gulfs cost the most on average, at $3.79 per gallon. Sunoco had the highest prices in Brooklyn and Queens, at $3.19 and $3.27 respectively. In Manhattan, Mobil stations were the most expensive, at $3.48 a gallon. Shell costs the most on Staten Island, at $3.20 a gallon, edging out CITGO, which costs $3.19.

It’s been a lousy week for the White House Correspondents’ Association. President Donald Trump cut the organization off at the knees when he announced on Tuesday that the White House, not the WHCA, would select the members of the presidential press pool, the rotating group of reporters and photographers who cover the president in places like the Oval Office and Air Force One where space is tight. Cue the hysterics.

The White House has always had the discretion to grant or deny reporters access to White House grounds and, once on those grounds, over which reporters are called on in press briefings. It stands to reason that the White House has the right to decide which outlets get access to tight space that the White House itself is providing.

But taking control of the press pool, the WHCA says, is an assault on the First Amendment. “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” the organization’s president Eugene Daniels said Tuesday, shortly after announcing his departure from Politico for MSNBC. “For generations, the working journalists elected to lead the White House Correspondents’ Association board have consistently expanded the WHCA’s membership and its pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.”

Would that it were true! And, if it were … we might even join the fight!

Alas, in the real world, participation in the presidential press pool is hardly an equal-opportunity affair. The White House Correspondents’ Association restricts participation to outlets that hold a congressional press pass.

For many outlets, those are doled out by another journalistic cartel known as the Periodical Press Gallery, which requires news outlets to demonstrate they are supported “chiefly by advertising or by subscription.” That gallery is controlled by an executive committee composed of reporters from Politico, The Hill, and Punchbowl News, among others.

Not a single one of our colleagues in the mainstream media has raised hackles over this assault on our First Amendment rights—one that has for over a decade been in their power to rectify.

House Speaker Mike Johnson would be wise to follow in the White House’s footsteps and exercise his constitutional prerogative to take control of the congressional press gallery, too. The result would be a press corps on Capitol Hill and the White House that is freer and more inclusive—not less.

The post Trump Is Right on the White House Correspondents’ Association—and Speaker Johnson Should Follow Suit appeared first on .

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Katy Perry and Gayle King are headed to space with Jeff Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sanchez and three other women.

Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin announced the all-female celebrity crew on Thursday.

Sanchez, a helicopter pilot and former TV journalist, picked the crew who will join her on a 10-minute spaceflight from West Texas, the company said. They will blast off sometime this spring aboard a New Shepard rocket. No launch date was given.

Read More: Why Messy Rocket Launches From SpaceX and Blue Origin Are Actually Good News

Blue Origin has flown tourists on short hops to space since 2021. Some passengers have gotten free rides, while others have paid a hefty sum to experience weightlessness. It was not immediately known who’s footing the bill for this upcoming flight.

Sanchez invited singer Perry and TV journalist King, as well as a former NASA rocket scientist who now heads an engineering firm Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen and movie producer Kerianne Flynn.

This will be Blue Origin’s 11th human spaceflight. Bezos climbed aboard with his brother for the inaugural flight.

A French media outlet has reported that the US President wanted to cancel his Ukrainian counterpart’s visit until President Emmanuel Macron intervened.

As debates continue about sanctions relief for Syria and peace talks are being planned for the Russia-Ukraine War, Western leaders and foreign affairs officials face an uncomfortable reality: they have absolutely no idea how to lift economic and financial sanctions once a war ends and elongated sanctions regimes need to be changed. This intractable problem of economic statecraft is one that few understand or are willing to acknowledge.

To be more specific, Western leaders, and particularly those in the United States, have not developed a successful strategy for leveraging sanctions to negotiate major concessions that end hostilities. Nor have they constructed a toolkit for how to provide timely sanctions reduction that would clarify, incentivize, or reciprocate such concessions. At best, leaders often lament that it is always easier to impose sanctions than to adapt or terminate them in a ripe-for-resolution crisis negotiation.

An adaptive, serious schematic for aiding the transition of a devastated sanctioned economy to a functioning one without sanctions is as critical a step for ending hostilities as de-mining operations, reciprocally reducing frontline troop numbers, and the complete exchange of prisoners. Failure to develop scenarios and actions that produce sanctions-leveraged agreements with the targets of those penalties is both irresponsible to the millions of innocents suffering from sanctions but also risks adding a poison pill to any ceasefire deal at conception. It may even prevent a final peace deal from being signed. In fact, the tools for potential success in reducing sanctions exist; they just need to be heeded by the sanctions-imposing entities’ policymakers and political leaders involved.

During the past 10 years, there have been at least three clear cases of failed sanctions relief in similar circumstances of opportune political compromise as today’s Syria situation: Iran (2016-2018), Colombia (since 2016), and Sudan (2017-2021). In the case of Iran, one of us (Stephen) witnessed the immense struggle the United States and its allies faced trying to deliver sanctions relief after 2016 and how lingering sanctions eroded confidence and good faith between parties. This weakening set the stage for President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018.

In Colombia and Sudan, private actors were reluctant to pursue new business ventures while any government sanctions remained. Similarly, U.S. and Venezuelan negotiations appeared to have agreed which sanctions reduction would produce which specific changes in Maduro’s conduct of the 2024 national election, but when Venezuela failed to deliver some of these changes, the United States reinstated the sanctions, and Maduro falsified the election results to remain in power. So again the economic quagmire remains: Sanctions become the policy rather than the tool of a policy of crisis resolution.

Sanctions Relief and Adaptation Have Been Too Slow and Uncoordinated

The Jan. 27 meeting of the European Union on Syrian sanctions reduction prompted optimism that a roadmap would soon be forthcoming. Yet beyond some loosening of restrictions affecting the energy sector and enabling some emergency humanitarian relief, the ministers appeared to struggle with “technical issues” and debate a “snap back” of sanctions if needed. But in a significant move on Monday, European Union countries suspended a range of sanctions against Syria with immediate effect, including restrictions related to energy, banking, transport and reconstruction.

To its credit, the Biden administration was quick to issue General License 24 for Syria in early January, permitting economic transactions in the energy sector and with official Syrian government institutions. But it expires on July 7. The Trump Administration, which stated early that ‘Syria wasn’t our fight’, now appears to have shifted to full uncertainty about its policy direction. U.S. inaction, even on extending GL 24, becomes even more problematic and irresponsible as it may undercut Europe’s efforts unless issues of U.S. secondary sanctions jeopardy are quickly addressed.

These Western discussions and uncoordinated sanctions relief in the humanitarian sector unfold almost three months after the fall of the Assad regime. While the prospect of a post-Assad Syria prompts optimism, now is the time for cooperative action that produces tangible relief. Otherwise, as argued recently by seasoned analysts, the West will make the same mistakes of sanctions reduction timidity and slow direct diplomatic engagement that it did with Afghanistan in 2021.

Why a Working Playbook for Sanctions Relief Is So Difficult

A significant blockage to effective action is the West’s inability to sort through the different views held by various sanctions targets of what constitutes sanctions relief. One of the first requests to the international community from the new, interim Syrian government led by the armed group that toppled Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was sanctions relief in the energy, telecoms, roads and airports, education and healthcare sectors, to meet the basic needs of its citizens. Leading a country devastated from 14 years of war, HTS envisioned a coordinated, rather massive and immediate response, largely because the dictator had fled and a new, however imperfect Syrian order was unfolding. But Western cautions and lack of plans for the intricacies of reversing sanctions jeopardize peace and progress in Syria, and further destabilization in the region.

Sanctions relief has been directly stated last week by Russia in its summit with the U.S. Russia views Western sanctions as a long-term economic containment strategy to box it in, not a nimble policy tool. This has fueled Russia’s pivot to alternative trade partnerships and economic models like the 10-country BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. These States increasingly coalesce into a parallel economic system that is immune from Western pressure. Furthermore, Russia’s relationship and transactions with Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, and Syria under Assad has led them to be labeled “the axis of the sanctioned.”  To deal with this collective demands a well-conceived and implementable plan.

Additionally, experience with the outcomes of political decisions to reduce or remove sanctions shows that they often naively assume that a market-based economic and business resurgence will miraculously appear. But when the free market is forced into a position of hard de-coupling and de-risking for several years, it does not return to its pre-sanctions or pre-war position. It opts instead for a recalcitrant “wait and see” approach, hedging against the risk of further political shifts when what is needed is an “act and see” strategy in which business and investors sense at least enough economic stability to resume at least some degree of risk-taking.

This vexes policymakers since they consider the market as the same medium they rely on for delivering relief from economic pressure. Without solving this conundrum, there remains a significant likelihood that gradual sanctions relief without incentives for the market to return to risk-taking will lead to political conflicts. And without any sanctions relief, there will be no binding armistice or enduring peace, neither in these days of Syrian transition nor in an end of the Ukraine-Russia War.

Finally, a major mental block manifest by sanctions imposers continues to be their approach to sanctions reduction and relief discussions as if they engaged in an arms control negotiation. The former is an asymmetric confrontation, the latter seeks a trade-off bargain between equals.  With sanctions, deep bruising of the target remains, especially from regional and global financial institutions, long after these economic weapons are formally decommissioned. Moreover, sanctions-imposing  governments and their diverse departments with different sanctions jurisdictions — financial, counterterrorism, trade, and political — assume unravelling these overlapping restrictions will occur in a logical and timely fashion. Recent cases prove otherwise.

The Opening for Meaningful Action is Slipping Away

To operationalize sanctions relief effectively, Western diplomats must engage the real-world recommendations from sanctions experts and prioritize the policy groundwork for sanctions reduction. A serious toolkit exists for delivering humanitarian relief when sanctions are in place. That provides a model for a possible toolkit for sanctions reduction in emergency recovery and for the resumption – or start —  of economic exchanges. This sanctions relief toolkit must include establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for sanctions relief to define and track the target State’s compliance and progress with whatever political deals about target behavior are forged. These KPIs must define clear snap-back provisions to address violations, while simultaneously addressing private-sector hesitancy through regulatory assurances.

Such steps would ensure credibility and reduce uncertainty for all engaged parties. Diplomats must design a sanctions relief roadmap that incentivizes early and substantial re-engagement by humanitarian organizations and then by financial institutions whenever a new political opportunity for ceasefire or peace presents itself. Without such preparation, market actors will remain cautious, preventing economic recovery, and undermining long-term peace efforts.

As the rapid end to the Assad regime illustrates, and as sudden U.S.-Russian meetings on Ukraine have thrown allies of the United States and Ukraine into a scramble, Western nations are now in the last minute of new political openings and peace negotiations with no sanctions plan. They must urgently formulate negotiation strategies and the master technical mechanics for the immensely complex suspension or termination of the multiple restrictions on the work of humanitarian organizations, as well as on commercial trade, finance, and development assistance.

IMAGE: Newborns receive oxygen at Damascus Hospital on January 28, 2025 in Damascus, Syria. After 14 years of civil war, Syria’s healthcare system is both economically and technically strained. Following the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad by opposition groups in a quick offensive on December 8, the country is looking to gain economic momentum after years of global sanctions on the Assad-led government. Arab and Western countries have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria’s new de facto authorities, headed by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. Fourteen years of war have left the Syrian economy damaged, with tens of thousands of residents living on or below the poverty line. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The post To Support Peace Efforts, the West Needs a Coordinated Way to Effectively Reduce Sanctions appeared first on Just Security.