Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at expanding U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rare trip to Tibet, and the terms of the EU-U.S. trade deal.
‘Flagrant Attack’
The Trump administration on Wednesday intensified its crusade against the International Criminal Court (ICC) by imposing sanctions on four officials, including two prosecutors and two judges.
The new U.S. sanctions amount to an expansion of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against the Hague-based court, which is the world’s first global war crimes tribunal.
In its announcement of the sanctions, the State Department railed against what it described as the ICC’s “transgressions” against the United States and Israel, citing the court’s prior investigation into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan and its decision to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli officials.
The ICC “continues to disregard national sovereignty and facilitate lawfare through efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute American and Israeli nationals,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X on Wednesday. “We will continue to hold accountable those responsible for the ICC’s morally bankrupt and legally baseless actions against Americans and Israelis.”
The four targeted individuals aren’t the first ICC officials to face U.S. sanctions since Trump’s return to office. Earlier this year, the United States also sanctioned the court’s chief prosecutor and four other judges, freezing any of their U.S. assets and prohibiting them from entering the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s beef with the U.N.-backed court stretches back to his first term in office. During the first Trump presidency, the ICC launched an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. troops and intelligence officers in Afghanistan—infuriating Trump and sparking an initial round of U.S. sanctions.
The ICC’s recent actions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have only added more fuel to the fire. Last year, the court issued arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials—including Netanyahu—citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Netanyahu, for his part, called the allegations “absurd and false.”
Since neither the United States nor Israel have ratified the 2002 Rome Statute, which underpins the ICC, the Trump administration has accused the court of attempting to infringe upon U.S. sovereignty. But both Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories are party to the Rome Statute, which the ICC says authorizes it to investigate alleged crimes in their borders.
The ICC condemned the latest sanctions, calling them “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution.”
“The relentless intensification of U.S. reprisals against international institutions and their personnel must stop,” U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said on Thursday. “Sanctioning judges and prosecutors at national, regional or international levels, for fulfilling their mandate in accordance with international law standards, is an assault on the rule of law and corrodes justice.”
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What We’re Following
Tightening grip. Chinese President Xi Jinping made a rare trip to Tibet this week to mark the 60th anniversary of Tibet’s contested establishment as a Chinese autonomous region. The two-day trip was designed to tighten Beijing’s grip at a pivotal moment: The 14th Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist and spiritual leader of Tibet, recently turned 90 and confirmed that he will have a successor “in accordance with tradition.” That will likely pave the way for a succession fight with Beijing, which argues that only China can select the next Tibetan Buddhist leader.
In Lhasa, Xi told officials that Tibetan Buddhism must be tailored to China’s socialist system and said that Tibetans must use more standard Chinese. “Tibetan affairs are China’s internal affairs, and no external forces are permitted to interfere,” senior Chinese Communist Party leader Wang Huning declared to a crowd in Lhasa. “All schemes to split the motherland and undermine stability in Tibet are doomed to fail.”
New trade terms. Nearly one month after the United States and the European Union announced they struck a trade deal, the agreement’s exact terms are coming to light. In July, both parties agreed that the EU would broadly face a 15 percent tariff rate, commit at least $600 billion in investments, and make $750 billion worth of U.S. energy purchases.
On Thursday, after further negotiations, U.S. and European officials announced more details. Tariffs on Europe’s pharmaceutical sector, for example, will not exceed 15 percent or add onto other EU-wide tariffs. Once Brussels introduces legislation to lower the rate of industrial tariffs, a 15 percent tariff for European autos and U.S.-bound auto parts will also kick in.
“This is the most favorable trade deal the U.S. has extended to any partner,” EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic told reporters on Thursday. “A wide range of sectors—including strategic industries, such as cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and lumber—will benefit from this cap.”
Seeking refuge. Guatemala on Wednesday issued temporary humanitarian status to 161 people fleeing organized crime and cartel violence in Mexico. The 161 Mexicans include 39 families and 69 children, according to the Guatemalan Immigration Institute, and will be housed in rented homes, temporary shelters, or by relatives. Guatemala has long been a destination for Mexicans seeking refuge and safety abroad; last July, almost 600 Mexicans fled their home country for Guatemala.
Some Mexican officials have rebuffed the idea that those individuals are fleeing the country as a result of crime. In a post on X, Eduardo Ramírez, the governor of the Mexican border state of Chiapas, claimed, without offering evidence, that the 161 Mexicans are related to arrested individuals who are facing criminal charges.
“The organized crime that operates in the neighboring country of Guatemala wants to discredit our public safety strategy that has given tranquility and social peace in Chiapas,” Ramírez wrote. “I categorically deny that fact.”
Odds and Ends
During last week’s highly watched Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage, Russia gifted one Alaska man an unusual present: a $22,000 Ural motorcycle. Mark Warren, a retired fire inspector, was running errands on his own Ural bike earlier in August when he encountered a Russian television crew. After Warren shared how tough it was to purchase new parts, his interview went viral in Russia—and he later learned that he would soon receive a brand-new bike. The news baffled Warren, who thought it might be a scam. “I dropped my jaw,” he said. “I went, ‘You’ve got to be joking me.’” But they were serious—so long as he agreed to a photograph, interview, and having a cameraman document his first ride.