On October 21, 2026, the Bahamian Parliament continued taking steps to abolish bearer shares to comply with international entity transparency standards by deliberating on  the 2026 Companies (Amendment) Bill.  Addressing the bill in Parliament, Chester Cooper, the deputy prime minister, explained that the bill would align Bahamian company law with the law already in place under the International Business Companies (IBCs) Act and international best practices.

               On July 9, 2025, the Protocol amending the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism was adopted by the Member States of the Council of Europe (CoE) (respectively, ‘2026 Amending Protocol’ and ‘Convention’). It opened for signature in Strasbourg on May 26, 2026.[2] The Convention had been adopted twenty years earlier, on May 16, 2005.[3] The purpose of this note is to examine the 2026 Amending Protocol and to set out some questions concerning its content. Before that, there will be some brief references on the Additional Protocol to the Convention, which was adopted on October 22, 2015 (‘Additional Protocol’).[4]

               On October 26, 2026, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine submitted its latest report to the UN General Assembly at its eighty-first session. The Commission has found out that the Russian authorities have committed war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects and the crimes against humanity of other inhumane acts with continuous attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.[2]

                At its 33^rd sitting on September 30, 2026, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted its Resolution 2605 (2025) and Recommendation 2315 (2026) setting the legal, financial and political measures aimed at solving the problem of how to ensure the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concerning the Russian Federation.

                On October 21, 2026, the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) announced that, as part of Operation Economic Outcast and pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13902, it sanctioned Panama- and Greece-based law firm Karnakis and Karnakis, which allegedly has supported illicit Iranian shipping activity for years.  Hence, OFAC alleges the firm indirectly helped Tehran’s ability to generate revenue to fund its military, weapons, and nuclear programs.

                On October 15, 2026, Sweden extradited Russian national Alexander Suvorov, 52, to the Northern District of New York on export-control and sanctions-evasion charges. The case suggests the United States’ ability to obtain custody of a defendant whose alleged conduct ran through a third jurisdiction, here Hong Kong, even though Sweden did not incorporate the treaty provision that shields such offenses from dual-criminality objections.

                Operation Madre Tierra VIII, an INTERPOL coordinated operation between nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, successfully dismantled several criminal networks related to environmental crime.  The operation, which took place between June 1 and July 31, 2026, made 233 arrests, the recovery of over 1,000 animals and the identification of 60,000 hectares of illegally cleared forest.  Madre Tierra VIII involved Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.

              On October 13, 2026, the United States Department of the Treasury announced enforcement actions taken by the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.  The actions include the third-largest penalty in Treasury’s history and the largest in OCC history.[1]

                In the last eighteen months efforts by the United States and the Caribbean to combat arms trafficking has made some positive strides and has incurred some significant setbacks.

            On October 16, 2026, President Donald Trump released an executive order waiving Russian sanctions in the Lindsey Graham Act, just days before they were to take effect. Section 115 of the Act allows for the president to waive the application of any sanctions provision with respect to a foreign person, any restriction with respect to a person, and any duty under the Graham Act, subject to the Congress of a written certification that such a waiver is in the national interest of the U.S., and a report explaining the basis.