A bipartisan group of US senators has agreed to push forward a bill that would let the government sanction any country or company that buys oil or gas from Russia or Iran, not just Russia and Iran themselves.
Beijing hit 14 EU entities with export controls and called it payback for Europe's newest Russia sanctions — opening a second, major-power front in the sanctions war, though the details that decide whether it bites remain undisclosed.
A week ago the question was whether Graham's signature Russia bill could survive without him. The answer is arriving fast: Trump and Thune have taken it up as a memorial, and a Graham will keep sitting in the Senate.
The EU's 21st sanctions package against Russia remains stuck days before a self-imposed deadline. Bulgaria's veto over Patriarch Kirill, French and Italian resistance to an entry ban on Russian soldiers, and a fight over cod quotas show how a single capital can reshape continent-wide policy — and why negotiators are trading substance for unanimity.
Lindsey Graham died a day after his last visit to Kyiv, leaving his "sanctions from hell" Russia bill without its author at the moment it might pass. The tributes framing his support for Ukraine, trans-Atlantic ties and Israel double as a map of what Washington's allies just lost.
US Senator Lindsey Graham, a driving force behind the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill and one of Congress's most influential voices on Ukraine, has died at 71. His death leaves the legislation's most visible champion gone just as it heads toward a vote.
Senator Lindsey Graham says the White House has agreed to a version of his Russia sanctions bill, clearing the way for a Senate vote and threatening 500 percent tariffs on countries that keep buying Russian energy. The announcement lands the same week Turkey's foreign minister says Washington is moving to lift its own sanctions on Ankara — a reminder that in this administration, sanctions are less a fixed wall than a lever.