How Iran’s Ghost Fleet Sidesteps U.S. Sanctions

Happy Wednesday! To file under “you had one job”: Coca-Cola recently recalled thousands of cases of Minute Maid lemonade labeled as “zero sugar” that … contained sugar.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Israeli government agency tasked with delivering humanitarian aid—the Coalition of Government Activities in the Territories—announced on Wednesday that it allowed for the passage of aid directly into the northern Gaza Strip, including fuel, food, shelter equipment, hygiene products, and baby formula. The announcement comes one day after U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed that the Biden administration demanded Israel allow more supplies into Gaza and improve conditions for the region’s civilians. Several media outlets reported earlier this week that the Biden administration would consider cutting military aid to Israel if its concerns were not addressed. 
• Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday it struck Hezbollah targets—including military headquarters and munitions storage facilities—in an airstrike on the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh. Lebanese officials said the airstrike destroyed local municipal buildings, killing 16 people, including the mayor, and injuring more than 50 others. The IDF said Hezbollah militants intentionally stationed their infrastructure near civilian buildings, “using the civilian population as a human shield.”
• The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled new sanctions against three individuals and four companies linked to a sanctions evasion network that helps channel funds to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group based in Lebanon. In addition, the U.S. sanctioned three people involved in the illegal production and trafficking of Captagon—a highly addictive psychoactive amphetamine—that provides funding for entities including Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. 
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday presented to the country’s parliament his “victory plan,” which he said is designed to strengthen Ukraine’s standing in the war and bring about a negotiated peace deal with Russia on terms amicable to Ukraine. Zelensky outlined five key points that include Ukraine’s eventual invitation to join NATO and strengthening the country’s defenses against Russian military action, though details remain sparse. Also on Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine, including air defenses, armored vehicles, and munitions “to meet Ukraine’s urgent needs,” the White House said. 
• The U.S. Navy said Wednesday that a fighter jet crashed just after 3 p.m. on Tuesday near Washington state’s Mt. Rainier during a training flight. The jet’s two crew members—whose conditions are unknown—were still missing as search and rescue operations continued Wednesday. While the Navy has pinpointed the site where the EA-18G Growler aircraft—a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet—crashed, teams have been unable to reach the location because of “mountainous terrain, cloudy weather, and low visibility.” Navy officials are still investigating the cause of the crash. 
• A fuel tanker overturned, spilling fuel that exploded late Tuesday night in northern Nigeria, killing at least 153 people and injuring some 100 others. Local police said they attempted to block off the area where the fuel had leaked prior to the explosion but were overwhelmed by a large crowd attempting to recover the spilled gasoline. 
• The Italian parliament on Wednesday passed a bill making it illegal for Italian citizens to seek a surrogate abroad, extending a surrogacy ban inside the country that has been in place since 2004. Now, Italian nationals who have a surrogate child in foreign countries where such practices are legal—like the U.S.—could face criminal penalties. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tweeted her approval, calling the bill “a common sense rule against the commodification of the female body and children.”
• Vice President Kamala Harris sought to put distance between herself and President Joe Biden in a combative interview Wednesday night with Fox News’ Bret Baier. “My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency, and like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas,” she said. During the roughly half-hour exchange that often turned tense, Baier particularly pressed Harris on immigration, and she repeatedly pivoted to former President Donald Trump’s opposition to the bipartisan immigration bill that failed earlier this year.  
• Amazon on Wednesday announced that it had reached agreements with three energy companies in three states to invest in developing nuclear power projects via small modular reactors (SMRs). Although SMRs—miniature nuclear power plants—produce about one-third the energy of traditional reactors, the smaller design helps keep down construction and maintenance costs. Google on Tuesday announced a similar deal to purchase SMR-generated nuclear energy from the company Kairos Power. There are not yet any active SMRs in the U.S., and both companies do not expect the SMRs to be functional until 2030 at the earliest. 
• The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday voted 3-2 to finalize a rule requiring companies to provide a “simple mechanism” to cancel paid subscriptions and memberships. The “click-to-cancel” rule—scheduled to go into effect 180 days after publication in the Federal Register—mandates that canceling a subscription be “as easy” for consumers as it was to first subscribe. The regulatory decision was quickly criticized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business advocacy group. “Imposing heavy-handed regulations that micromanage business practices and pricing is the wrong approach, inevitably raising costs for consumers,” said the group’s executive vice president, Neil Bradley. 
• Nebraska’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a state law passed in April that restored voter eligibility to convicted felons who have completed their sentences. In July, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen ordered local election officials to take previously convicted felons off of voter registries—in contravention of the state law—citing Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers’ opinion arguing the law violated the Nebraska constitution. However, the state Supreme Court did not find the law unconstitutional, and ordered that Evnen reverse his July decision. 

Going After Iran’s Ghost Fleet 

Last week, the U.S. Treasury and State Departments announced new sanctions that represent the latest salvo in their fight against so-called “ghost fleets.” And that’s not a reference to Davy Jones or the Flying Dutchman. 

Rather, the Biden administration slapped penalties on vessels and companies associated with the Iranian government that have enabled an illicit and far-reaching trade in oil to help fund the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and proxy military forces throughout the Middle East. 

The “ghost fleet” phenomenon—and the black market it enables—points to the larger success of Iran, Russia, China, and other Western adversaries in working together to evade economic sanctions. Their increased collaboration in this effort is an enduring foreign policy challenge for the U.S.—and indeed for the next president. 

The U.S. and its allies have tried to choke off Iran’s oil exports, which provide revenue to fuel the regime’s activity at home and across the region. U.S., European Union, and United Nations sanctions target Iran’s oil and gas exports and its petrochemical industry and also cut Tehran off from the global banking system—largely excluding it from …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our 1,822-word item on Iranian efforts to evade oil sanctions is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• The criminal conviction of British Islamic extremist Anjem Choudary may “mark the end of Choudary’s influence in British society,” Shiraz Maher wrote for The New Statesman. But “his journey over the past three decades has nonetheless been a remarkable one, from weed-smoking and beer-swilling law student to the country’s most notorious hate preacher. His story, and that of the network that spawned him, stand as a personification for the growth of radical Islam in 21st-century Britain, and its growing conflict with the security state. And his involvement with extremism is almost as long as the history of organised Islamist agitation in Britain itself. Through his rise and fall, we can better understand the trajectory of the ideology behind him – and how best to combat it.”
• What does the political media landscape look like these days—and what does it signal for the future? “As a conservative with an interest in moral decline, I was familiar with ‘Call Her Daddy,’ but I confess I had never heard of ‘Flagrant’ before clips from the Trump interview started populating my social media feed,” Ross Douthat wrote for the New York Times. “Which is par for the course for this campaign: The nominees and their running mates have consistently submitted to interviews with shows and personalities who were barely on my radar screen. …  The emerging dispensation has room for a few Rogan-level leading lights. But almost everybody else is much more niche, part of a kaleidoscope of tiny lights that’s regularly spun around by the personalized algorithms of social media, so the small lights often show up as the pinpricks of a single viral scene or post or clip. …  The new landscape will almost certainly be more mysterious, less legible, making it harder for newspaper columnists to generalize and harder for campaigns to strategize.”

Presented Without Comment

CNN: Trump Declares Himself ‘Father of IVF’ at Town Hall With All-Female Audience

Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: Jimmy Carter Casts His Ballot for Harris in Georgia

In the Zeitgeist

Seems like one thing you should plan for if you’re making a claymation movie is … needing a lot of clay. But maybe the crew of Wallace & Gromit is just out of practice after 19 years on the shelf, because animation studio Aardman nearly ran out of the fairly indispensable material while making the latest installment in the stop-motion movie series out early next year. 

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics team dove into the Wisconsin senate race and the one key demographic that may decide the election, Scott offered (🔒) a reality check on Trump’s tariff agenda, Jonah weighed (🔒) the best- and worst-case scenarios for conservatism, and Nick tried  (🔒)to make sense of Harris’ media hits with unfriendly outlets. 
• On the podcasts: Non-members can catch a free preview of Tuesday night’s special State of The Dispatch livestream, and Sarah and David are joined by Leon Neyfakh on Advisory Opinions to revisit the 2000 recount.
• On the site: Charlotte explores how Israelis are thinking about Kamala Harris and the upcoming election, and in our next Dispatch symposium, experts weigh in on what Harris or Trump will mean for economic policy.