National Security

Polish lawmakers on Friday approved a bill regulating cryptocurrencies as a scandal over the collapse of the country’s biggest crypto exchange widened and questions deepened over whether President Karol Nawrocki, who has twice vetoed similar measures, will sign it into law.

Federal authorities Friday announced the arrest of a senior commander of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah, accusing him of directing nearly 20 terrorist attacks across Europe and Canada and plotting to strike Jewish institutions in New York, Los Angeles, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

U.S. officials believe Chinese companies have been negotiating arms sales to Iran and plotting to route the weapons through third countries to disguise their origin.

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have named former presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak as an official suspect in a 460-million-hryvnia ($10.5 million) money-laundering scheme, marking a significant escalation in a graft investigation that has shaken President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.

Artificial intelligence is amplifying the cyber threats facing the global financial system and could trigger a system-wide shock unless regulators and banks build stronger defenses, the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Cuban military-controlled conglomerate, one of its top executives, and a Cuban nickel-mining joint venture, in the first round of designations under a new executive order targeting the island-nation. 

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on Iraq’s deputy oil minister, three senior leaders of Iran-aligned militias, and four Iraqi companies, accusing them of diverting Iraqi oil to benefit Iran’s government and its proxy forces.

The United States is preparing to lift sanctions on Eritrea, according to an internal U.S. government document seen by Reuters, a move analysts told the news agency was driven by the Horn of Africa nation’s strategic position on the Red Sea shipping route.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order authorizing penalties against foreign banks and other companies anywhere in the world that do business with the Cuban government. 

The United States imposed sanctions on former Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila, accusing him of supporting armed groups that Washington says have fueled conflict and instability in eastern Congo.