US Archives

US midterm elections: Polls open in key vote on Trump presidency

November 6, 2018 By administrator

US midterm elections

Polling stations in the eastern US states have opened, with voters set to decide whether Republicans or Democrats will control Congress. The vote is seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency.

Polling stations in several East Coast states were the first to open on Tuesday as people in the US began casting their votes in critical midterm elections.

Interest in this year’s midterm elections is higher than ever, and this is the first major test by voters of Donald Trump’s presidency.Republicans are concerned about maintaining their majority in Congress over the Democrats.

What’s at stake:

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, are up for grabs.
A total of 35 seats are at stake in the 100-member Senate.
Another 36 states will also elect governors as well as numerous seats in their state legislatures.
Should the Democrats gain control of one or both houses of Congress, Republicans worry that President Trump’s political agenda will be blocked over the next two years.

Key races to watch:

Texas — Incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz is facing off against progressive Democrat Beto O’Rourke in a battle for reliably Republican Texas. O’Rourke has drawn enthusiastic support from people in Texas’ major cities, while Cruz has been doing better in the state’s massive rural areas.

Florida — The state’s former Governor Rick Scott is running to unseat Democrat Senator Bill Nelson, with gun control issues dominating the debate. The race to replace Scott as governor has also been tight — with Democrat Andrew Gillum hoping to become the state’s first African-American governor. Gillum is facing off against Republican Ron DeSantis, who is a big Trump supporter.

Arizona — No matter which candidate the voters choose, one thing is clear — Arizona is getting its first woman senator. Two women are competing for the spot, Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

Georgia — Many will also be watching the race for governor in the southern state of Georgia. Democrat Stacey Abrams is running against Republican Brian Kemp. Should Abrams win, she would become the first African-American woman to be a governor of a US state. Kemp faces allegations that he attempted to prevent thousands of black voters from casting their ballots.

What time do polls close? Polls will begin to close at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) in Kentucky, but voting in many key states will be closing around 7 p.m., including in Georgia, Indiana and Virginia. Results from other key states like Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania will begin to roll in between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. The last batch of states will close their polls at 1 a.m. EST on Wednesday night.

Record numbers of early voters: At least 36.4 million people voted early in this year’s midterms, according to data from 49 states. In certain states, the number of ballots from early voters exceeded the total number of ballots for the last midterm election in 2014.

What are the key issues? Both Trump critics and supporters are keen to make their opinions known in the polls about the controversial US leader’s first two years in office. Immigration, the economy, women’s rights issues, race and other cultural issues are weighing heavy on voters’ minds.

Why Europe is closely watching the US vote: While US midterm elections typically do not generate great interest abroad, Germany and others in the European Union are paying close attention, since the outcome could have a significant impact on Trump’s foreign policy. Experts told DW that should the Democrats gain control of Congress, the win could push Trump to focus more on foreign policy since his domestic agenda will be met with more roadblocks.

US imposes new $200 billion tariffs on China

September 17, 2018 By administrator

The latest US salvo against China threatens to escalate a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. China has vowed to retaliate against the latest punitive duties on its goods.

The United States has announced fresh tariffs on $200 billion (€171 billion) of Chinese goods, spooking markets worried about an escalating tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s largest economies.

The Trump administration said Monday that tariffs would start at 10 percent next week and increase to 25 percent starting January 1.

Washington has already imposed 25 percent duties on $50 billion of Chinese goods over what it alleges are unfair trade practices. With the new tariffs, about half of China’s imports to the United States are covered by punitive trade measures.

‘China will have to take countermeasures’

Beijing has vowed to retaliate on a range of US products valued at around $60 billion.

“If the US launches any new tariff measures, China will have to take countermeasures to firmly ensure our legitimate rights and interests,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters ahead of the expected announcement.

China has already imposed retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion worth of US goods in response to Washington’s previous measures. However, because China exports more to the US than it imports there are limits on the amount of tariffs Beijing can impose on American goods. This has raised concerns that China could retaliate with non-tariff trade measures.

In a statement announcing the new round of tariffs, President Donald Trump said if China retaliates the United States “will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports.”

‘US in a very strong bargaining position’: Trump

Earlier Monday, Trump praised his aggressive trade policy that has also damaged ties with Canada, Mexico, Asian allies and the European Union.

“Tariffs have put the US in a very strong bargaining position, with billions of dollars, and jobs, flowing into our country — and yet cost increases have thus far been almost unnoticeable,” Trump said on Twitter.

US industries have generally opposed tariffs, arguing they increase prices for consumers and could hurt economic growth.

Officials from the US and China have met several times to address trade issues, most recently in August, but were unable to make much progress.

cw/cmk (AFP, AP, Reuters)

US dollars set on fire in Azerbaijan in support of Turkish dictator Erdogan

August 15, 2018 By administrator

US dollars were set on fire in Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku, as a sign of support for Turkey on which the US has imposed sanctions.

The action took place outside the Turkish embassy, reported Minval.az.

The demonstrators chanted slogans condemning US policy and supporting Turkish economy.

Turkey: Detained US Pastor Brunson Vilified by State-Supporting Media

July 29, 2018 By administrator

by Uzay Bulut,

It appears that Pastor Andrew Brunson, as both an American and a Christian, has become a perfect scapegoat for the Turkish government and its media outlets. If Ankara were a genuine ally of the West, Brunson — who lived and worked peacefully at a small Protestant church in Izmir for 23 years — would not have been arrested in the first place, let alone robbed of his freedom and prevented from returning to the US.

Andrew Brunson, the American pastor detained in Turkey for two years on false terrorism and espionage charges, was released from prison on July 25, only to be put under house arrest until the resumption of his trial in October. The court ordered him to wear an electronic ankle-bracelet at all times and banned him from traveling outside Turkey.

Moreover, according to the Washington Post‘s Carol D. Leonnig:

“President Trump thought he had a deal with Turkish President Erdogan to free Andrew Brunson, the American pastor imprisoned in Turkey for the last two years on what the administration considered bogus terrorism charges.

“As part of the deal, on July 14, Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to release Ebru Ozkan, 27, a Turkish woman who was detained in Israel on charges of acting as a smuggler for Hamas. The day after Trump and Netanyahu spoke, Ozkan was deported from Israel.

“Several U.S. officials insisted there had been no misunderstanding of the terms of the deal, but the Turks, transferring Brunson to house arrest, failed to send the pastor home.”

Brunson, detained in October 2016, is accused, with no evidence, of working for two groups that Turkey lists as terrorist organizations. One is a movement led by the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, referred to by the Turkish government as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), and whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of organizing the failed military coup attempt in July 2016. The other is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). If convicted, Brunson faces up to 35 years behind bars.

Erdogan has made it clear that his intention is to make the US administration extradite Gülen in exchange for Brunson’s release. In September 2017, Erdogan said:

“America wants us to return a priest… You also have a priest. You should give him to us too. Then we will try and return the one here.”

Brunson’s 62-page indictment states, among other allegations:

“The suspect… under the guise of being an evangelical church pastor… acted as an agent of unconventional warfare, per the doctrine of intelligence and psychological warfare and… acted within a group of personnel, most of whom had received special training and had military and intelligence backgrounds.”

Brunson’s release to house arrest came a week after US President Donald Trump posted a message on Twitter calling Brunson’s detention “a total disgrace” and urging Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “do something to free this wonderful Christian husband & father.”

On July 26, the White House threatened to impose sanctions on Turkey if it fails immediately to return Brunson to the United States. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded angrily on Twitter: “Noone dictates Turkey. We will never tolerate threats from anybody. Rule of law is for everyone; no exception.”

Members of the pro-government media in Turkey have been demonizing Brunson since his arrest two years ago. In May 2017, for instance, the newspaper Takvim referred to him as an “imposter-spy,” adding:

“Brunson worked as a military officer in the American army and supported both the FETO and the PKK… Meanwhile, he quickly rose in the ranks of the CIA… There have been claims that if the [coup] had been successful, Brunson would have been appointed head of the CIA.”

During a July 15, 2018 panel discussion on CNN Turk, Nedim Şener — a columnist for the newspaper Posta — accused Brunson of “aim[ing] to Christianize Kurds,” and claimed that “Brunson’s computer contains the names of CIA agents.” Şener added, “Brunson denies all of these things, but this is an attitude of FETO that we are familiar with.”

In a July 27 article entitled “Arrest the Priest Again,” the pro-Erdogan newspaper Yeni Safak wrote:

“That Priest Brunson, who has been tried for committing crimes on behalf of FETO and the PKK, was released yesterday and put under house arrest has received negative reactions from the public and the exorbitant threats coming from the US have been the last straw. The best response to Trump’s words, ‘We will impose large sanctions on Turkey,’ will be to put the priest in jail again, just as he deserves.”

In a July 27 column in the news outlet Aydinlik, author Ceyhun Bozkurt at first claimed that many missionaries in Turkey had a secret agenda to cause chaos in and Christianize the country. He wrote, in part:

“Missionaries continued their plans against Turkey in the 2000s, as well. In 2006, they carried out their activities by partitioning Turkey into 11 regions….

“Since 1800s, the unconventional warfare methods of missionaries who entered the Anatolian region have been effective in starting Turkish-Armenian conflicts, Bulgarian rebellions and Kurdish nationalistic movements. The missionaries who worked for their head organization, the American BOARD, provoked Armenians and Bulgarians and forced Kurds to rebel by Christianizing them through organizations they established, such as schools and hospitals… For about 200 years, we have faced too many Brunsons who were much more than pastors, and we will continue facing them.”

He then, however, appears to call for respect for the rule of law:

“What is important is to engage in a political struggle against them in a correct and lawful way.”

Then there is Ahmet Hakan, a Brunson critic and a well-known columnist. In a piece for the newspaper Hurriyet on July 27, Hakan stated that Turkey “should not bow down to the threats from the US… After this rampage, Brunson should not be told: ‘You are free, you can go.'”

It appears that Brunson, as both an American and a Christian, has become a perfect scapegoat for the Turkish government and its media outlets. If Ankara were a genuine ally of the West, Brunson — who has lived and worked peacefully at a small Protestant church in Izmir for 23 years — would not have been arrested in the first place, let alone robbed of his freedom and prevented from returning to the US.

Let us hope that the Trump administration’s threats of sanctions will be effective in securing Brunson’s release.

UN report slams US for criminalizing poverty as destitution grows

June 2, 2018 By administrator

The report concludes that the persistence of extreme poverty in the US is a political choice made by people in power. It also criticizes US policy for making health care a privilege, rather than a right.

Poverty in the United States is widespread and worsening under President Donald Trump, according to a human rights investigator for the United Nations.

Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, said the Trump administration appears determined to pull the social safety net out from under millions of poor people while rewarding the wealthy with tax cuts.

In his report, Alston called on the US to address the underlying problems facing the underclass rather than “punishing and imprisoning the poor.”

He noted that welfare benefits are being slashed and access to health care has become more difficult during Trump’s presidency. This, in conjunction with “financial windfalls” for the super rich and big corporations, has accelerated inequality.

Since President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty in the 1960s US social policy towards the poor has been “neglectful at best,” Alston said.

“But the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship,” he said.

In a country of about 325 million people, nearly 41 million live in poverty — including 18.5 million in extreme poverty. Alston said children accounted for 33 percent of the poor. No other industrialized country had so many children mired in poverty, he said.

Poverty and unemployment

The data used to compile the UN report only covers the period through 2016, so there are no comparative figures that could measure poverty levels before and after Trump took office in January 2017.

Alston, a veteran UN rights expert and New York University law professor, will present his report to the UN Human Rights Council later this month.

His report is a compilation of data in conjunction with his travels to various part of America, including rural Alabama, a Los Angeles slum, and the US territory of Puerto Rico.

Alston cited “shameful statistics” linked to entrenched racial discrimination. He said African Americans are 2.5 times more likely than whites to live in poverty and their unemployment rate is more than twice as high.

Read more: Black America in photos

Women, Hispanics, immigrants and American Indians also suffer disproportionately high rates of poverty and unemployment.

He criticized the criminal justice system, noting that it sets large bail bonds for a defendant seeking to go free pending trial. This means wealthy suspects can afford bail while the poor remain in custody and often lose their jobs as a result, even if they are ultimately acquitted.

“There is no magic recipe for eliminating extreme poverty and … government must make its own good-faith decisions,” he said. “At the end of the day, however, particularly in a rich country like the United States, the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power.”

bik/rc (Reuters)

Voting in the United States of America is obsolete; lobbying is the new norm.

May 14, 2018 By administrator

What is missing from the list of Israeli lobby AIPAC spent about $3.5 million.

US Chamber of Commerce	$82,190,000
National Assn of Realtors	$54,530,861
Business Roundtable	$27,380,000
Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America	$25,847,500
Blue Cross/Blue Shield	$24,330,306
American Hospital Assn	$22,094,214
American Medical Assn	$21,535,000
Alphabet Inc	$18,150,000
AT&T Inc	$16,780,000
Boeing Co	$16,740,000
Open Society Policy Center	$16,110,000
DowDuPont	$15,877,520
National Assn of Broadcasters	$15,460,000
Comcast Corp	$15,310,000
Lockheed Martin	$14,464,290
Amazon.com	$13,000,000
Southern Co	$12,970,000
National Retail Federation	$12,890,000
NCTA The Internet & Television Assn	$12,790,000
Oracle Corp	$12,385,000

Source: info@crp.org

US sets up new base in Syria’s Manbij region after Turkish threats: SDF official

May 9, 2018 By administrator

An official from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group says US military forces established a new base in Syria’s Kurdish-populated northern town of Manbij months after Turkish authorities threatened to attack the area in the fight against terrorists from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Sharfan Darwish, the spokesman for the so-called Manbij Military Council of the SDF, which is spearheaded by the YPG, said the new garrison also houses French troops.

“After the Turkish attack on Afrin and the increase in Turkish threats towards Manbij, coalition forces built the base to monitor and protect the border (between the combatants),” Darwish pointed out.

On April 6, Helil Bozi, the commander of the Military Council of Manbij, said the United States, together with Britain and France, had been setting up new outposts in northeastern Syria, regardless of an authorization from the Damascus government to have military presence on the Syrian soil.

“The United States and France have increased the number of their military in Manbij. British forces, too, had been deployed to the same territories,” Bozi said at the time.

He underlined that the increased presence was clearly a bid to counter a potential Turkish military offensive into Manbij.

Bozi added that the increased presence proved that the US had no intention of leaving the Kurdish-dominated territories in northern Syria — as demanded by Turkey.

Speaking in an interview with the official Anadolu news agency on March 22, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country’s armed forces would move to push US-backed Kurdish militants away from Manbij if it did not reach an agreement with Washington on a plan to remove them from the northern Syrian border town.

“If this plan is not realized, the only option left will be clearing away terrorists. This is not just valid for Syria, but also for Iraq,” he said then.

Two killed, over dozen hurt in mortar attacks on Damascus

Meanwhile, two civilians have lost their lives and 14 others sustained injuries when foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists launched separate mortar attacks against residential areas in the central part of the Syrian capital city of Damascus.

An unnamed source at Damascus Police Command said the projectiles slammed onto al-Hamra Street as well as Maysat Square.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.

Source: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/09/561144/US-base-Syria-Manbij-Turkey-SDF

Trial of US pastor Brunson resumes in Turkey on terror-related charges

May 7, 2018 By administrator

The trial of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who faces up to 35 years in jail on terror and spy charges, resumed in Turkey on May 7.

Brunson, leader of a small Protestant Christian church in the western city of İzmir named “Yeniden Diriliş” (Resurrection) and described by U.S. President Donald Trump as a “fine gentleman,” was detained in October 2016.

Statements on the Armenian Genocide By US, French and Turkish Presidents

April 30, 2018 By administrator

Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The Presidents of the United States, France, and Turkey issued statements on April 24, the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Of the three, only the French President Emmanuel Macron had the honesty and courage to call the tragic events by their proper name — Genocide. Pres. Trump avoided using the term genocide, while Pres. Erdogan, not surprisingly, issued a denialist statement!

Pres. Macron stated in his April 24 letter to Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian: “With you, we remember April 24, 1915 and the murder of 600 Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople that marked the start of the first genocide of the 20th century. We will never forget those murdered men, women and children who perished on the road to exile, from hunger, cold and emaciation…. Together with Great Britain and Russia, France, as early as May 25, 1915, described those massacres as a crime against humanity and civilization. In September 1915, the French fleet, under fire, managed to save over 4,000 refugees from Musa Dagh.” In his compassionate letter, the French President accurately defined the mass killings of Armenians as Genocide — several times.

Pres. Donald Trump, on the other hand, repeated his last year’s statement avoiding the term genocide and using the Armenian words ‘Meds Yeghern’ which is meaningless to most Americans. ‘Meds Yeghern’ (Great Crime), among other terms, was used by Armenians, before the word genocide was coined by Jewish-Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin in the 1940’s. While ‘Meds Yeghern’ is simply a description of the Turkish atrocities against Armenians, genocide is a terminology of international law, according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the United Nations on December 9, 1948. Pres. Trump used the words ‘Meds Yeghern’ simply to avoid the term genocide in order to appease the Turkish government. It is shameful that Pres. Trump, a non-traditional leader who prides himself on taking unorthodox stands on many national and international issues, would follow the evasive tradition of his predecessors and go along with the denialists in Ankara!

On April 24, the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, in response to a journalist’s question, confirmed that Pres. Trump had simply copied the language of his predecessors. Sanders stated: “The resolution that the President signed was consistent with past administrations as well.”

Using verbal gymnastics, Pres. Trump referred to the Armenian Genocide as “one of the worst mass atrocities,” “the horrific events of 1915,” and “painful elements of the past.” Pres. Trump’s advisers are providing a poor service by urging him to replace the term genocide with ‘Meds Yeghern.’ Rather than winning over Armenian-American citizens, this terminology is antagonizing them. If Pres. Trump does not have the courage to use the right word, he should not issue any statement at all on April 24. Previously, Pres. Ronald Reagan had issued a Presidential Proclamation on April 22, 1981 acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. In addition, the US House of Representatives had adopted two resolutions in 1975 and 1984 recognizing the Armenian Genocide, and the US government had filed a report with the World Court in 1951 mentioning the Armenian Genocide. Consequently, the Armenian Genocide has been repeatedly recognized by the United States government. All Pres. Trump has to do is to reaffirm the U.S. historical record on the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of America denounced Pres. Trump’s “failure to lead an honest remembrance of the Armenian Genocide…. Pres. Trump’s ‘Turkey First’ approach tightens Erdogan’s grip over U.S. policy on the genocide of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and other Christians.” Furthermore, the Armenian Assembly of America described Pres. Trump’s April 24 statement as “a missed opportunity to unequivocally reaffirm the Armenian Genocide.”

Not surprisingly, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a press release on April 25, 2018 to counter Pres. Trump’s April 24 statement: “We reject the inaccurate expressions and the subjective interpretation of history in the written statement by Mr. Donald Trump, President of the USA, released on 24 April 2018 regarding the events of 1915. Our expectation from the US Administration is a fair assessment of a period during which all the peoples of the Ottoman Empire suffered tremendously.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement, as expected, contains several major factual errors:

1) It equates the deaths of “500,000 Muslims” during World War I to the murder of 1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women, and children. Genocide victims and war casualties are not the same thing.

2) It repeats the same lie that the Turkish government has opened its archives to researchers and offered to establish a ‘Joint Historical Commission.’ In fact, Turkish authorities have cleansed the Ottoman archives of incriminating documents, and the Joint Historical Commission is simply a ruse to delay the Turkish admission of guilt.

3) It boasts about Turkish President Erdogan’s statement sent to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul on April 24, 2018 to commemorate the “Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives in the conditions of World War I.” We need to remember that the Armenian Genocide is unrelated to World War I, just like the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust were not casualties of World War II.

We hope that Presidents Erdogan and Trump will have the courage to call the Armenian mass killings by their proper name — Genocide. French President Macron has done it, so should Erdogan and Trump!

Goodbye, America: Russia sanctions could hit US medical, tech industries

April 17, 2018 By administrator

Rare earth metals, medication and software: Russia’s strongest response yet to United States sanctions is taking shape. Now, Washington and its Western allies are in the crosshairs.

The cult 1985 song, “Goodbye, America,” by the Soviet rock band, Nautilus Pompilius, was a melancholic tune from the pro-Western Perestroika generation that cast off American mythology: “Your worn jeans have become too small for me. We’ve been taught for so long to love your forbidden fruit.”

These lyrics could describe the draft legislation that has come before an emergency meeting of Russia’s upper house of parliament. In a show of solidarity, the draft was introduced last week by Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin along with the heads of the parliament’s four factions.

It serves as Russia’s answer to US sanctions from April 6, which are the most severe since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Targeting top Russian companies and public officials, the sanctions take aim at Russia’s stock and currency exchanges for what the US calls Russia’s “malicious activities” around the world, including in Ukraine and Syria.

Tree bark for medication?

Russia’s reaction forms a legal basis for tit-for-tat sanctions, stemming from the US Congress’s passing of CAATSA (Countering Americas’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) in the summer of 2017. US-Russia trade is not particularly large: $24 billion (€19 billion) in 2017, according to Russian state news agency RIA, with $17 billion of Russian goods and services sold to the US and $7 billion sold to Russia. That makes it difficult for Russia to hurt the US with sanctions.

The draft legislation proposes restrictions on US agricultural, food, alcohol, tobacco and medical imports. Medication for which there is no Russian replacement would be exempt. A Russian parliamentarian caused a stir when he suggested on a talk show that Russians try tree bark or shrubbery as an alternative to US-produced medicine. It was meant to be a joke, he said.

Boeing and Microsoft likely to be impacted

The sanctions bill also threatens to end US-Russian cooperation in the fields of atomic energy, aircraft production and rocket systems. That could affect Boeing, which imports titanium from Russia. An end to sales of rare earth metals could cause trouble for private US space companies, such as United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. ULA’s Atlas V rocket uses the Russian RD-180 engine. The US Congress has already that requested the country’s aerospace sector stop buying Russian-made engines following the Crimea annexation, but lacking alternatives, sales continued.

Russian lawmakers also want to limit the use of US software in government agencies, such as Microsoft products installed on many Russian computers.

The draft legislation could make travel to, and business in, Russia more difficult for US citizens. US airlines may encounter additional fees for use of Russian airports, for example.

Push to move quickly

The bill is scheduled for its first reading on May 15 and there is a push to get it passed by the Duma and signed by President Vladimir Putin quickly so it can come into force as soon as possible. Putin will be inaugurated again and his new government formed early next month, after which the law could be implemented. Based on the initial draft, it’s not just the US that is being targted — its allies that are part of or that support the sanctions against Russia may also be affected.