Trump administration imposes fresh sanctions on four ICC officials
Washington designated Nicolas Yann Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal, and Kimberly Prost of Canada, according to the U.S. Treasury and State Department.
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
Guillou is an ICC judge who presided over a pre-trial panel that issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Khan and Niang are the court's two deputy prosecutors.
The move comes less than three months after the administration took the unprecedented step of slapping sanctions on four separate ICC judges, saying they have engaged in ICC's "illegitimate and baseless actions" targeting the U.S. and close ally Israel.
ICC, which had slammed the move in June, describing it as an attempt to undermine the independence of the judicial institution, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ICC, which was established in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the U.N. Security Council. The United States, China, Russia, and Israel are not members.
It has high-profile war crimes investigations under way into the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as in Sudan, Myanmar, the Philippines, Venezuela, and Afghanistan.
The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the U.S. financial system.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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Business Standard
3 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Texas House approves redrawn maps sought by Trump ahead of 2026 elections
The Texas House has approved redrawn congressional maps that would give Republicans a bigger edge in 2026, muscling through a partisan gerrymander that launched weeks of protests by Democrats and a widening national battle over redistricting. The approval on Wednesday came at the urging of President Donald Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding onto the US House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable seats, need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov Greg Abbott before they become official. But the Texas House vote had presented the best chance for Democrats to derail the redraw. Democratic legislators delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest, and they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's session. The approval of the Texas maps on an 88-52 party-line vote is likely to prompt California's Democratic-controlled state Legislature this week to approve of a new House map creating five new Democratic-leaning districts. But the California map would require voter approval in November. Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month. Texas maps openly made to help GOP Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their party's interest. State Rep Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the US Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes. The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance, Hunter, a Republican, said on the floor. After nearly eight hours of debate, Hunter took the floor again to sum up the entire dispute as nothing more than a partisan fight. What's the difference, to the whole world listening? Republicans like it, and Democrats do not. Democrats said the disagreement was about more than partisanship. In a democracy, people choose their representatives, State Rep Chris Turner said. This bill flips that on its head and lets politicians in Washington, DC, choose their voters. State Rep John H Bucy blamed the president. This is Donald Trump's map, Bucy said. It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows that the voters are rejecting his agenda. Redistricting becomes tool nationwide in battle for US House The Republican power play has already triggered a national tit-for-tat battle as Democratic state lawmakers prepared to gather in California on Thursday to revise that state's map to create five new Democratic seats. This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country, California's Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. And we're going to fight fire with fire. A new California map would need to be approved by voters in a special election in November because that state normally operates with a nonpartisan commission drawing the map to avoid the very sort of political brawl that is playing out. Newsom himself backed the 2008 ballot measure to create that process, as did former President Barack Obama. But in a sign of Democrats' stiffening resolve, Obama Tuesday night backed Newsom's bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP's Texas move. I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party's main redistricting arm. The incumbent president's party usually loses seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes. Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. He's pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Maryland's and New York's maps as well. However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California's or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can't draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. Texas Democrats decry the new maps In Texas, there was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice. Democrats noted that, in every decade since the 1970s, courts have found that Texas' legislature did violate the Voting Rights Act in redistricting, and that civil rights groups had an active lawsuit making similar allegations against the 2021 map that Republicans drew up. Republicans contend the new map creates more new majority-minority seats than the previous one. Democrats and some civil rights groups have countered that the GOP does that through mainly a numbers game that leads to halving the number of the state's House seats that will be represented by a Black representative. State Rep Ron Reynolds noted the country just marked the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act's passage and warned GOP members about how they'd be remembered if they voted for what he called this racial gerrymander. Just like the people who were on the wrong side of history in 1965, history will be looking at the people who made the decisions in the body this day, Reynolds, a Democrat, said. Republicans hit back at criticism Republicans spent far less time talking on Wednesday, content to let their numbers do the talking in the lopsided vote. As the day dragged on, a handful hit back against Democratic complaints. You call my voters racist, you call my party racist and yet we're expected to follow the rules, said State Rep Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson. There are Black and Hispanic and Asian Republicans in this chamber who were elected just like you. House Republicans' frustration at the Democrats' flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable. The GOP used a parliamentary maneuver to take a second and final vote on the map so it wouldn't have to reconvene for one more vote after Senate approval. House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later. One Democrat who refused the 24-hour police monitoring, State Rep Nicole Collier, had been confined to the House floor since Monday night. Some Democratic state lawmakers joined Collier Tuesday night for what Rep Cassandra Garcia Hernandez dubbed a sleepover for democracy. Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug 3, and Republican Gov Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Business Standard
3 minutes ago
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Microsoft staff protests spark arrests amid review of Israel military ties
Worker-led protests erupted at Microsoft headquarters this week as the tech company promises an urgent review of the Israeli military's use of its technology during the ongoing war in Gaza. A second day of protests at the Microsoft campus on Wednesday called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business ties with Israel. The police department began making arrests after Microsoft said the protesters were trespassing. We said, Please leave or you will be arrested,' and they chose not to leave so they were detained, said police spokesperson Jill Green. Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Forces used Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Microsoft's standard terms of service prohibit this type of usage," the company said in a statement posted Friday, adding that the report raises precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review. The company said it will share the findings after law firm Covington & Burling completes its review. The promised review was insufficient for the employee-led No Azure for Apartheid group, which for months has protested Microsoft's supplying the Israeli military with technology used for its war against Hamas in Gaza. In February, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the American tech giant's close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, with military use of commercial AI products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel's in-house AI-enabled targeting systems. Following The AP's report, Microsoft acknowledged the military applications but said a review it commissioned found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review or say who conducted it. Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the contracts, and in April, fired two others who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration.
Economic Times
3 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Texas House approves redrawn maps sought by Trump ahead of 2026 elections
AP Protesters gather in the rotunda outside the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol as lawmakers debate a redrawn U.S. congressional map in Texas during a special session, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Austin, Texas. The Texas House has approved redrawn congressional maps that would give Republicans a bigger edge in 2026, muscling through a partisan gerrymander that launched weeks of protests by Democrats and a widening national battle over redistricting. The approval on Wednesday came at the urging of President Donald Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding onto the US House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable seats, need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov Greg Abbott before they become official. But the Texas House vote had presented the best chance for Democrats to derail the redraw. Democratic legislators delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest, and they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's session. The approval of the Texas maps on an 88-52 party-line vote is likely to prompt California's Democratic-controlled state Legislature this week to approve of a new House map creating five new Democratic-leaning districts. But the California map would require voter approval in November. Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month. Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their party's interest. State Rep Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the US Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes. "The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance," Hunter, a Republican, said on the floor. After nearly eight hours of debate, Hunter took the floor again to sum up the entire dispute as nothing more than a partisan fight. "What's the difference, to the whole world listening? Republicans like it, and Democrats do not." Democrats said the disagreement was about more than partisanship. "In a democracy, people choose their representatives," State Rep Chris Turner said. "This bill flips that on its head and lets politicians in Washington, DC, choose their voters." State Rep John H Bucy blamed the president. "This is Donald Trump's map," Bucy said. "It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows that the voters are rejecting his agenda." The Republican power play has already triggered a national tit-for-tat battle as Democratic state lawmakers prepared to gather in California on Thursday to revise that state's map to create five new Democratic seats. "This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country," California's Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. "And we're going to fight fire with fire." A new California map would need to be approved by voters in a special election in November because that state normally operates with a nonpartisan commission drawing the map to avoid the very sort of political brawl that is playing out. Newsom himself backed the 2008 ballot measure to create that process, as did former President Barack Obama. But in a sign of Democrats' stiffening resolve, Obama Tuesday night backed Newsom's bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP's Texas move. "I think that approach is a smart, measured approach," Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party's main redistricting arm. The incumbent president's party usually loses seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes. Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. He's pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Maryland's and New York's maps as well. However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California's or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can't draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. In Texas, there was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice. Democrats noted that, in every decade since the 1970s, courts have found that Texas' legislature did violate the Voting Rights Act in redistricting, and that civil rights groups had an active lawsuit making similar allegations against the 2021 map that Republicans drew up. Republicans contend the new map creates more new majority-minority seats than the previous one. Democrats and some civil rights groups have countered that the GOP does that through mainly a numbers game that leads to halving the number of the state's House seats that will be represented by a Black representative. State Rep Ron Reynolds noted the country just marked the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act's passage and warned GOP members about how they'd be remembered if they voted for what he called "this racial gerrymander." "Just like the people who were on the wrong side of history in 1965, history will be looking at the people who made the decisions in the body this day," Reynolds, a Democrat, said. Republicans spent far less time talking on Wednesday, content to let their numbers do the talking in the lopsided vote. As the day dragged on, a handful hit back against Democratic complaints. "You call my voters racist, you call my party racist and yet we're expected to follow the rules," said State Rep Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson. "There are Black and Hispanic and Asian Republicans in this chamber who were elected just like you." House Republicans' frustration at the Democrats' flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable. The GOP used a parliamentary maneuver to take a second and final vote on the map so it wouldn't have to reconvene for one more vote after Senate approval. House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later. One Democrat who refused the 24-hour police monitoring, State Rep Nicole Collier, had been confined to the House floor since Monday night. Some Democratic state lawmakers joined Collier Tuesday night for what Rep Cassandra Garcia Hernandez dubbed "a sleepover for democracy". Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug 3, and Republican Gov Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.
