Biden lifts sanctions on ICC officials
President Joe Biden on Friday lifted sanctions that then-President Donald Trump had imposed on two top officials of the International Criminal Court, undoing one of the past administration’s more aggressive moves targeting international institutions and officials.
In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that the U.S. still strongly disagreed with some actions by the court, which is a standing body based at The Hague in the Netherlands charged with handling genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The U.S. is not one of the about 120 member countries of the court.
“We believe, however, that our concerns about these cases would be better addressed” through diplomacy “rather than through the imposition of sanctions,” Mr. Blinken wrote.
The removal of the sanctions was the latest signal that the Biden administration is intent on returning to the multilateral fold. The Trump administration had unapologetically removed the U.S. from numerous international institutions and agreements and harshly criticized others, including the ICC, deeming them flawed and working against American interests.
Since Mr. Biden took office, his administration has rejoined the World Health Organization, re-engaged with the U.N. Human Rights Council, returned to the Paris climate accord and on Friday started talks aimed at returning to the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Trump had pulled out of all four.
The U.S. has not joined the ICC, which began operations in 2002, because of concerns the court might be used for politically motivated prosecutions of American troops and officials.
Dutch gov’t pauses use of AstraZeneca vaccine
The Dutch government said Friday it is temporarily halting AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccinations for people under 60 following reports of very small number of people suffering unusual blood clots after receiving the shot.
The decision comes three days after German authorities stopped using the AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the under-60s, citing fresh concerns over unusual blood clots reported in a tiny number of those who received the shots.
A Dutch organization that monitors vaccine side effects said it had received five reports of blood clots with low blood plate counts following vaccinations. All the cases occurred between seven and 10 days, and all the people affected were women between 25 and 65.
The organization said some 400,000 people were vaccinated in the Netherlands with the AstraZeneca shot.
Italy pizza shop owner is off U.S. sanctions list
On the very last day President Donald Trump was in office in January, his administration announced new sanctions targeting a catering company in Verona, Italy.
According to the U.S. Treasury, the measures were designed to defeat a “network attempting to evade United States sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector.”
But for Alessandro Bazzoni, the owner of the catering company, it was a confounding move. He was not involved in sanctions evasion with Venezuela. And yet his bank accounts were blocked.
The Treasury announced this week it was removing the company — a catering firm that shares an address with his pizza shop, Dolce Gusto — from its blacklist.