CC™ VideoSpective
Wednesday
European powers tell UN they are ready to reimpose Iran sanctions
By Staff
Britain, France and Germany have told the United Nations they are ready to reimpose UN-mandated sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program if no diplomatic solution is found by the end of August, according to a communique obtained by CC™
The letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council says the three European powers are “committed to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon” unless Tehran meets the deadline.
The foreign ministers from the so-called E3 group threaten to use a “snapback mechanism” that was part of a 2015 international deal with Iran that eased UN Security Council sanctions.
Under the deal, which terminates in October, any party to the accord can restore the sanctions.
All three have stepped up warnings to Iran about its suspension of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
That came after Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June, partly seeking to destroy its nuclear capability. The United States staged its own bombing raid during the war.
“We have made clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism,” foreign ministers Jean-Noel Barrot of France, David Lammy of Britain and Johann Wadephul of Germany said in the letter.
All three countries were signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the United States, China and Russia that offered the carrot and stick deal for Iran to slow its enrichment of uranium needed for a nuclear weapon.
President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018 during his first term and ordered new sanctions.
The European countries said they would stick to the accord. But their letter sets out engagements that the ministers say Iran has breached, including building up a uranium stock more than 40 times the permitted level under the 2015 deal.
“The E3 remain fully committed to a diplomatic resolution to the crisis caused by Iran’s nuclear program and will continue to engage with a view to reaching a negotiated solution.
“We are equally ready, and have unambiguous legal grounds, to notify the significant non-performance of JCPOA commitments by Iran … thereby triggering the snapback mechanism, should no satisfactory solution be reached by the end of August 2025,” the ministers wrote in the letter first reported by the Financial Times.
The United States had already started contacts with Iran, which denies seeking a weapon, over its nuclear activities.
But these were halted by the Israeli strikes in June on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Even before the strikes, the international powers had raised concerns about the lack of access given to IAEA inspectors.
Iran halted all cooperation with the IAEA after the strikes, but it announced that the agency’s deputy chief was expected in Teheran for talks on a new cooperation deal.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the UN last month saying that the European countries did not have the legal right to restore sanctions.
The European ministers called this allegation “unfounded”.
They insisted that as JCPOA signatories, they would be “clearly and unambiguously legally justified in using relevant provisions” of UN resolutions “to trigger UN snapback to reinstate UNSC resolutions against Iran which would prohibit enrichment and re-impose UN sanctions.”
Tuesday
South Africa denounces ‘deeply flawed’ US human rights report
By Staff
South Africa has denounced a “deeply flawed” US report highlighting its “deteriorating” human rights situation, days after Donald Trump’s administration slapped 30 percent tariffs on many of the country’s exports.
In its annual human rights report released Tuesday, the US State Department accused South Africa of taking “a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of so-called Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities”.
Hit with the highest US tariffs of any sub-Saharan country, South Africa has been a regular target of Trump, who has criticised land and employment laws meant to redress lingering racial inequalities.
Pretoria’s foreign ministry responded Tuesday by expressing “profound disappointment” in the US report.
“We find the report to be an inaccurate and deeply flawed account that fails to reflect the reality of our constitutional democracy,” it said.
A law signed this year by President Cyril Ramaphosa and denounced by Trump allows for the expropriation of land without compensation in rare circumstances.
Land ownership remains a contentious issue in South Africa, with most farmland still owned by white settlers, a full three decades after the end of apartheid.
Pretoria still hopes to strike a deal with Washington, its third-largest trading partner, to save tens of thousands of jobs in the agricultural, automotive and textiles sectors that are highly dependent on the US market.
Monday
Saturday
Mexico rejects reported U.S. military plan to target drug cartels
By Staff
Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum has dismissed the possibility of U.S. troops operating on Mexican soil, following reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had authorized the Pentagon to prepare for military action against Latin American drug cartels.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”
Her comments came after The New York Times reported that Trump had secretly signed a directive granting the Pentagon authority to conduct direct military operations against drug cartels abroad.
The reported order follows Trump’s earlier executive designation of eight cartels as terrorist organizations, six of which are based in Mexico.
While the White House did not confirm the directive, it reiterated in a statement to the BBC that the president’s “top priority is protecting the homeland.”
Sheinbaum said her government was informed in advance that new measures targeting cartels were planned but stressed they involved no U.S. military deployment in Mexico.
“It is not part of any agreement, far from it. When it has been brought up, we have always said ‘No’,” she added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said Thursday, that the terrorist designation would allow Washington to use intelligence and defense resources against cartels.
“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug-dealing organizations,” Rubio said.
Despite the tensions, Mexico and the U.S. have recently intensified cooperation on border security and anti-narcotics efforts.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows June recorded the lowest number of illegal border crossings on record, while fentanyl seizures dropped by more than half compared to earlier this year.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson praised the joint efforts on X, writing that cooperation between Sheinbaum and Trump had left cartels “going bankrupt” and both countries “safer because of it.”
Wednesday
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs seeking Trump pardon, says lawyer
Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is to be sentenced in October for his conviction on prostitution-related charges, is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.
“It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” Nicole Westmoreland told CNN in an interview.
Trump has indicated, however, that he is unlikely to grant a pardon to the 55-year-old Combs.
“I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great, and he seemed like a nice guy,” Trump said in an interview on Friday with Newsmax. “I didn’t know him well, but when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”
Asked if that meant he was not inclined to pardon Combs, Trump said: “I would say so, yeah.”
A New York jury found Combs guilty last month of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
He was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges after a marathon trial in which he was accused of harrowing abuse.
Combs’ sentencing has been set for October 3.
Tuesday
Willful blindness nourished by hate and bigotry is why America elected a treasonous conman as president
CC™ VideoSpective
NowThisImpact
Saturday
Trump refutes own job numbers and fires Labor Statistics head with a view to cooking future numbers
The U.S. posted the worst jobs report in half-a-decade and what did Donald Trump do? He fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, claiming falsely (as he always does when things don’t go his way), that the report was ‘rigged to make him and the Republicans look bad.’
According to the jobs report released by the Department of Labor, U.S. employers only added 73,000 jobs in July amid Trump’s sweeping tariffs, his gestapo-like immigration crackdown and massive federal layoffs.
Even worse was the report that 260,000 fewer jobs were added in May and June, than previously believed, as the unemployment rate also shot up from 4.1 to 4.2 percent.
This is classic Trump and typifies the now-all-too-familiar template of institutionalized corruption he has always sought to employ, with the acquiescence of the rubber stamp Republican Congress.
There can be no gaslighting here by Trump, as these are his own job numbers published by his own Labor Department.
Thursday
Trump’s govt threatens sanctions on ‘corrupt’ judges in other countries
By Staff
President Donald Trump’s administration has issued a stern warning to so-called ‘corrupt’ judges in various countries of the world.
The warning comes after Trump’s government sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for alleged abuse of power.
This was made known in a post on X on Wednesday by the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, threatening similar punitive actions to other countries.
Rubio announced that Justice Moraes was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act for serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detentions and violations of free speech.
He said: “@POTUS and @USTreasury have sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program for serious human rights abuses. Let this be a warning to those who would trample on the fundamental rights of their countrymen—judicial robes cannot protect you.”
The Global Magnitsky sanctions involve financial restrictions and travel bans targeting individuals found guilty of gross human rights violations.
The law is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who exposed corruption, was imprisoned, and died under suspicious circumstances in 2009.
Wednesday
US President Donald Trump (a convicted felon) declares Venezuelan President Maduro wanted for drug trafficking with $25m bounty
By Staff
The United States government has declared Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and two of his close allies, Diosdado Cabello Rondón and Vladimir Padrino López, wanted for drug trafficking.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of State announced a combined reward of $65 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the three Venezuelan officials.
A reward of $25 million was placed on President Maduro, while Cabello and Padrino carry rewards of $25 million and $15 million, respectively.
The U.S. authorities accused the trio of being leaders of the Cartel de los Soles, which was recently designated a terrorist organisation by the U.S. Treasury Department.
According to the Department of State, the cartel is responsible for trafficking drugs into the United States.
“@USTreasury just sanctioned Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist group. Run by the corrupt and contemptible Nicolás Maduro, it is responsible for trafficking drugs into the U.S.,” said the department.
It added, “Help us take down Maduro and his cronies Diosdado Cabello Rondón & Vladimir Padrino López!”
A wanted poster issued by the U.S. describes President Maduro as a “designated global terrorist cartel de los soles leader”, and outlines charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and conspiracy to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of a drug crime.
The announcement comes just one day after Maduro marked the one-year anniversary of his re-election—a vote the U.S. and its allies have described as fraudulent.
The United States has long refused to recognise Maduro’s government and has imposed multiple sanctions targeting Venezuela’s political and economic leadership.
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