The Trump administration on Friday expanded its sanctions targeting Iran's oil trade and maritime networks, issuing a new Iran-related general license and updating its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list with entities and oil tankers tied to Iran's petroleum sector.
The Iran-related General License T, issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), authorizes "limited safety and environmental transactions and the offloading of cargo involving certain persons or vessels blocked on January 23, 2026."
Meanwhile, OFAC updated its SDN list, adding multiple shipping companies and nine oil tankers in alleged links with Iran. The move is expected to effectively block their U.S. property and prohibit U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions with them.
"OFAC is targeting nine shadow fleet vessels and their respective owners or management firms that have collectively transported hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Iranian oil and petroleum products to foreign markets," the Treasury Department said Friday in a press release.
"As previously outlined, Treasury will continue to track the tens of millions of dollars that the regime has stolen and is desperately attempting to wire to banks outside of Iran," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on X.
The move came after a series of U.S. sanctions and other measures adopted earlier this month, seen as part of a broader U.S. effort to cut off funding streams supporting Tehran amid ongoing tensions.
U.S. expands sanctions targeting Iran's oil trade, maritime networks
Li Li, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) from southwest China's Guizhou Province, has made it her mission to preserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of the Buyi people, particularly their traditional clothing.
Born and raised in a village of Qinglong County, Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Li began learning the intricate handicrafts of the Buyi people from her mother at a young age.
After spending over a decade working away from home, she felt a strong calling to return and safeguard her cultural roots. In 2015, she returned to her roots to start a business with the vision to revitalize Buyi clothing.
"Starting my own business was really tough in the beginning. If you want to make a Western-style suit, you could just buy some fabric and copy an existing design. But ethnic clothing is different. It requires constant innovation, and that takes a huge amount of time. Traditional fabrics tend to fade, and I spent months just trying to figure out how to fix the color. This problem had kept me up for a long time. But eventually, I tackled the challenges one by one," Li said.
Her persistence has paid off. This year, Li's team tapped into the cultural symbolism of the Year of the Horse, creating a range of horse-themed products that have quickly gained popularity.
"This year is the Year of the Horse, so we created a lot of horse-themed items. They are very popular and orders have been pouring in. Every year, we design our cultural products and clothing based on what the market wants. We started with a 300-square-meter workshop, and now we have our own intangible cultural heritage center. Over the years, we've trained more than a thousand embroiderers," she said.
As a grassroots NPC deputy, Li prioritizes listening to the voices of ordinary people. During work sessions with embroiderers, she takes time to listen to their concerns and offers flexible schedules for those with special needs.
The preservation of ethnic clothing and culture has always been at the heart of her work.
"During this year's 'two sessions', I will continue to focus on the preservation of ethnic clothing and culture. I want to encourage more young people to get involved in cultural inheritance. For example, I've been going to schools to teach students because I hope that intangible cultural heritage can take root in children's hearts from an early age. I want them to grow up knowing how remarkable our ethnic culture is and to develop a strong sense of cultural pride," Li said.
The "two sessions" refer to the annual meetings of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Conference, China's top political advisory body,which usually convene in early March.
NPC deputy from Guizhou revitalizes Buyi culture through inheritance and innovation
