BUENOS AIRES (AP) — At a dance hall in the heart of Buenos Aires, 14 men in elegant dark suits sat at separate tables while across the room, 14 women in dresses and high heels waited to be asked for a dance.
As the first notes of a popular tango began to hum, the male dancers signaled to the women and crossed the dance floor in search of partners. Moments later, the couples' legs traced the gracious movements of tango at an event that ensures every woman gets to dance.
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Professional tango dancers known as "Taxi Dancers" take a break at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Women dance with professional tango dancers at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Beth Wolff, of German-Argentine, front right, dances with a professional tango dancer at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Antje Rickel, of France, left, dances with professional tango dancer Jared Ramos at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Antje Rickel, of France, right, dances with a professional tango dancer at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
The women book their sessions in advance with an organizer via WhatsApp, securing a dance and avoiding the interminable wait they’ve endured at other “milongas,” or dancing gatherings, where women outnumber men.
Among the dancers on a recent Wednesday was Antje Rickel, a 69-year-old French woman in a semi-transparent red blouse and with her hair coquettishly styled up. Her dancing partner was a young man about 5 inches shorter than her. But the difference in age and height was irrelevant to the couple, who felt in perfect communion as they glided across the dance floor to the rhythm of a tango.
“He has great control,” said Rickel of her young dancing companion, Jared Ramos, a professional tango dancer with the Che Che Tango Premium “milonga,” where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers.”
Held on Wednesdays and Fridays, the program offers dance aficionados like Rickel the opportunity to practice tango steps, going from one dancer’s arm to another’s. A two-hour session goes for 55,000 pesos (about $37) for foreigners and about $30 for Argentine nationals and residents.
The dance events are organized by dancers Alejandro Justiniano and Sara Parnigoni, who present it on social media as “a tango space where you can be sure you’ll dance like you’ve always dreamed.”
Justiniano said that the male dancers are carefully chosen, with most being professional dancers or tango teachers who perform at different events. “We’ve looked for dancers with a lot of experience,” he said.
He came up with the idea after observing the “long faces” of many women who would spend evenings at dance events watching from the sidelines. Justiniano created what he calls a “mini milonga,” something a little more intimate so that “for two hours they can reach their full potential in their dancing.”
Ramos, a professional tango dancer, said women face several challenges at other “milongas.”
“There are 10 women for every man,” he said, which means many women are left out. Adding to the problem, he noted, is the fact that “not all of them dance well.”
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Professional tango dancers known as "Taxi Dancers" take a break at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Women dance with professional tango dancers at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Beth Wolff, of German-Argentine, front right, dances with a professional tango dancer at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Antje Rickel, of France, left, dances with professional tango dancer Jared Ramos at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Antje Rickel, of France, right, dances with a professional tango dancer at the Che Che Tango Premium, where people can book guaranteed two‑hour dances with professional partners known as “Taxi Dancers," in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court are trying to live and work under the same U.S. financial and travel restrictions brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Osama bin Laden.
Nine staff members, including six judges and the ICC's chief prosecutor, have been sanctioned by U.S. President Donald Trump for pursuing investigations into officials from the U.S. and Israel, which aren't among The Hague court's 125 member states.
Typically reserved for autocrats, crime bosses and the like, the sanctions can be devastating. They prevent the ICC officials and their families from entering the United States, block their access to even basic financial services and extend to the minutiae of their everyday lives.
The court's top prosecutor, British national Karim Khan, had his bank accounts closed and his U.S. visa revoked, and Microsoft even canceled his ICC email address. Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, who was named in the latest round of sanctions in August, immediately lost access to her credit cards, and Amazon's Alexa stopped responding to her.
“Your whole world is restricted,” Prost told The Associated Press last week.
Prost had an inkling of what would happen when she made the list. Before joining the ICC in 2017, she worked on sanctions for the U.N. Security Council. She was targeted by the Trump administration for voting to allow the court’s investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan, including by American troops and intelligence operatives.
“I’ve worked all my life in criminal justice, and now I’m on a list with those implicated in terrorism and organized crime,” she said.
The sanctions have taken their toll on the court’s work across a broad array of investigations at a time when the institution is juggling ever more demands on its resources and a leadership crisis centered on Khan. Earlier this year, he stepped aside pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. He denies the allegations.
How companies comply with sanctions can be unpredictable. Businesses and individuals risk substantial U.S. fines and prison time if they provide sanctioned people with “financial, material, or technological support,” forcing many to stop working with them.
The sanctions' effects can be sweeping and even surprising.
Shortly after she was listed, Prost bought an e-book, “The Queen’s Necklace” by Antál Szerb, only to later find it had disappeared from her device.
“It’s the uncertainty,” she said. “They are small annoyances, but they accumulate.”
Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, a sanctioned Peruvian judge who was involved in the same Afghanistan decision as Prost, told the AP that the problems are “not only for me, but also for my daughters,” who can no longer attend work conferences in the U.S.
Deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan echoed her colleagues’ concerns, saying “You’re never quite sure when your card is not working somewhere, whether this is just a glitch or whether this is the sanction."
Meanwhile the staffers, some of whom also face arrest warrants in Russia, are worried that Washington might sanction the entire ICC, rendering it unable to pay employees, provide financial assistance to protected witnesses or even keep the lights on.
The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. It only takes action when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute those crimes on their territory.
The court has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants, making it very unlikely that any U.S. or Israeli official would end up in the dock. But those wanted by the court, like Putin, can risk arrest when traveling abroad or after leaving office — the ICC took custody this year of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is accused of crimes against humanity for his deadly anti-drugs crackdowns.
When explaining Trump's executive order sanctioning the ICC in February, the White House said the move was in response to the “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel."
"The United States will not tolerate efforts to violate our sovereignty or to wrongfully subject U.S. or Israeli persons to the ICC’s unjust jurisdiction," Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in response to questions from the AP.
There is little the staff can do to get the sanctions lifted. Sanctions imposed during the first Trump administration against the previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, weren’t removed until Joe Biden became president.
Ibáñez, a former prosecutor in Peru, vowed that the sanctions wouldn't have any impact on her judicial activities in The Hague. “In my country, I prosecuted terrorists and drug lords. I will continue my work,” she said.
Prost, too, is defiant, saying the sanctioned staff “are absolutely undeterred and unfettered.”
FILE - Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan attends a hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool Photo via AP, file)
FILE - Presiding judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza prepares to rule on a request to release former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (Lina Selg/Pool Photo via AP, file)
An exterior view of the International Criminal Court, ICC, where Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, a leader of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, will hear the court's verdict, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
