Beijing is taking U.S. sanctions head-on with its latest round of restrictions targeting U.S.-based firms that gather open source data about business links to Xinjiang.

Why it matters: The sanctions expand on Beijing's previous efforts to criminalize certain kinds of research, intimidate individual researchers, and make it harder for companies to comply with U.S. sanctions against China. The escalating sanctions fight between the U.S. and China risks forcing companies to choose between the world's largest markets.

The Biden administration on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 13 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel and four Sonora, Mexico-based firms accused of trafficking fentanyl and other drugs into the United States.

The latest action follows a series of measures taken this year against members of the Sinaloa cartel, cash couriers and cartel fraud schemes.

A House Republican wants to leverage congressional action to make the Biden administration enforce U.S. sanctions on Iran following the devastating terror attacks by Hamas in Israel. 

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said that the Biden administration, over the past year, has waived sanctions on Iran which facilitated roughly $50 billion to the country. 

President Biden's administration announced sanctions against roughly1,000 entities and individuals that Iran uses to support terrorism Wednesday morning.

The sanctions include 10 senior members and "financial facilitators" of the Hamas terrorist group, as well as roughly 1,000 individuals and entities connected to Iranian terror financing. The sanctions struck Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror organizations in the Middle East that a senior Treasury official said were part of "a massive financial network."

Two dozen armed police and five FBI agents fanned out across the harbor here early one morning last year. They raided the Alfa Nero, a 270-foot megayacht believed to be owned by Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, a Russian phosphates magnate sanctioned by the U.S. for links to President Vladimir Putin. 

The U.S. and the U.K. imposed sanctions on Iran near the first anniversary of the death of Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini, who died while in custody of Iran's "morality police" for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic's mandatory dress code.

The U.S. on Friday enacted a new set of sanctions against Iran in anticipation of the anniversary of Amini's death on Sept. 16, 2022. Subsequent protests throughout Iran denounced police brutality and the overbearing governance of the Iranian regime.

The U.S. on Friday imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Iran ahead of the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, which prompted a mass wave of protests across the Middle Eastern country against police brutality and oppressive government control last year.

The State Department slapped sanctions on 25 Iranian individuals, three Iranian state-backed media outlets and one Iranian internet research firm.

The United States has imposed sanctions on dozens of Iranian officials and entities accused of being involved in the “violent suppression” of anti-government protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in Tehran last year.

The sanctions, which targeted top security officials and state-affiliated media outlets on Friday, came as the US and Iran are expected to exchange prisoners as early as next week as part of a newly announced deal.

Western sanctions on Russia are tougher than ever and the impact is clear to see in trade figures.

Germany’s exports to the country were down by 54pc in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2019, according to an analysis by the Institute for International Finance (IIF).

In the initial months of the war, Russian imports plunged as the West turned its back. In dollar terms, monthly imports in March 2022 were down by 30pc year-on-year.

Yet they bounced back within months.

Former top FBI agent Charles McGonigal appears to be on the cusp of pleading guilty to charges over him allegedly working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

A judge’s order issued on Monday said McGonigal, a retired special agent who led the New York FBI Counterintelligence Division, “may wish to enter a change of plea.” The order scheduled a “plea proceeding” in New York next week.