Politics
U.S. and European allies bar Russian banks from crucial SWIFT banking network
The U.S. and its European allies agreed Saturday to bar some Russian banks from the SWIFT worldwide community and to sanction the nation’s central financial institution, ratcheting up the West’s response to Moscow’s intensifying and unprovoked conflict towards Ukraine.
“Russia’s conflict represents an assault on elementary worldwide guidelines and norms which have prevailed because the Second World Warfare, which we’re dedicated to defending. We are going to maintain Russia to account and collectively be certain that this conflict is a strategic failure” for President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. and European allies wrote in a joint assertion that outlined the brand new measures.
“As Russian forces unleash their assault on Kyiv and different Ukrainian cities,” they added, “we’re resolved to proceed imposing prices on Russia that can additional isolate Russia from the worldwide monetary system and our economies.”
Approaching the heels of sanctions imposed final week towards a number of Russian banks, rich people and Putin himself, Saturday’s actions underscored how unified the world’s strongest democracies stay in response to Russian aggression.
Amid a swelling tide of worldwide outrage over the invasion, there was no mistaking the rising conviction amongst NATO allies to punish Putin, regardless of the heightened threat of upsetting a retaliatory response from Moscow.
Ukraine’s leaders had been pushing for Western nations to dam the entry of Russian banks to SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Monetary Telecommunication, a safe worldwide messaging community utilized by greater than 11,000 banks world wide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video posted on-line, thanked the U.S. and Europe for going additional in punishing Russia.
“Our diplomats fought across the clock to encourage all European nations to agree on a robust and honest determination to disconnect Russia from the worldwide interbanking community. We even have this victory,” Zelensky mentioned. “That is billions and billions of losses for Russia — a tangible value for this vile invasion of our nation…. Ukraine received the eye of all the civilized world. And the sensible outcome? Right here it’s — SWIFT … disconnecting from world monetary civilization.”
Zelensky, whose name to arms and refusal to flee his capital have roused his nation and the world, vowed within the video that “we’ll struggle so long as it takes to liberate the nation.”
President Biden mentioned on Friday that some European nations weren’t able to bar Moscow from SWIFT, explaining why the U.S. and its allies hadn’t but taken that step, one which analysts have mentioned might show devastating to the Russian financial system.
However because the Kremlin’s missiles and tanks continued to pummel Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and different areas of the nation on Saturday, their place clearly had shifted.
The transfer “will be certain that these banks are disconnected from the worldwide monetary system and hurt their capacity to function globally,” based on the assertion issued by the leaders of the U.S., the European Fee, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Canada.
A senior White Home official, briefing reporters on the situation of anonymity, mentioned the banning of choose Russian banks from the SWIFT community had not been finalized. The banks already sanctioned in current days are seemingly candidates, however the final determination will come from Europe, as SWIFT is below Belgian jurisdiction. However the impression, the official mentioned, might be “chilling.”
“In all chance, most banks world wide will merely cease transacting altogether with Russian banks which might be faraway from SWIFT,” the official mentioned.
Moreover, the leaders dedicated “to imposing restrictive measures that can forestall the Russian central financial institution from deploying its worldwide reserves in ways in which undermine the impression of our sanctions.”
Particularly, the transfer will forestall Moscow from shoring up its forex by not permitting it to faucet into its greater than $600 billion in international reserves.
“With out with the ability to purchase the ruble from Western monetary establishments,” the official mentioned, “Putin’s central financial institution will lose the flexibility to offset the impression of our sanctions. The ruble will fall even additional, inflation will spike and the central financial institution might be left defenseless.”
Summing up the West’s response to this point, the senior administration official declared that “Russia has change into a world, financial and monetary pariah.”
There’s little precedent for such a transfer, which is a significant escalation of the West’s financial stress marketing campaign towards Putin.
The U.S. and its allies, of their joint assertion Saturday, additionally vowed to restrict the flexibility of rich Russians with ties to Putin’s authorities to purchase citizenship in different nations — acquiring so-called golden passports — and to entry their monetary methods.
The Western leaders additionally introduced the creation of a process pressure to supervise the implementation of the brand new sanctions.
The objective of the duty pressure, the senior official mentioned, can be to “seek out the bodily property of sanctioned Russian firms and oligarchs, their yachts, jets, fancy vehicles and luxurious houses.”
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
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The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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