Category: Middle East

ClosePutin sends navy escort as Trump ‘plans to seize’ banned Venezuelan oil tankerU.S. officials say the Trump administration plans to control Venezuela's oil indefinitely in order to force the country to act in America's interests.
Energy Secretary Wright said the U.S. would market stored Venezuelan oil first and then sell future production indefinitely, with revenues deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S.President Donald Trump has also announced that Venezuela will only purchase “American-made” products with the money made from its oil deal with America.
The U.S. seized two sanctioned Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday in an operation that also involved the British armed forces. The Ministry of Defence said the U.S. asked Britain for assistance, and RAF surveillance aircraft and a Royal Navy support ship took part in the seizure.
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. military special forces, bearing a judicial seizure warrant, apprehended the M..

At least two people have been killed and six others injured during a shooting Wednesday evening at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to authorities.
Of those injured, three are in critical condition, the Salt Lake City Police Department said. Police spokesperson Glen Mills told The Salt Lake Tribune the conditions of the other three people are unknown because they were transported to the hospital in private cars.
Authorities say a fight broke out in the parking lot of the church during a funeral, which erupted into gunfire, per ABC 7 Chicago. Police were called to the church at around 7:30 p.m. local time.
Police are currently searching for suspects in the shooting.
“The suspects are still outstanding, but our officers have obtained solid leads and are working to locate those involved,” Salt Lake City police wrote on X Wednesday night.
open image in galleryAt least two people have been killed and six others injured during a..

Vice President JD Vance has posted a bigoted meme mocking Congressional Democrats who were holding a candlelight vigil to remember the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In an X post, Vance’s post edited images of sombreros onto a freeze-frame of Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries with their colleagues on the Capitol steps Tuesday. Democrats were marking five years since the riot that saw police officers beaten and government property destroyed.
On that day, supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building as Congress held a joint session to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win. The failed attempt to overturn the results and keep Trump in office came after the president and his allies repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the election was stolen from him.
Vance’s meme riffs off those Trump circulated last fall. At the time, Republicans were baselessly claiming Democrats were refusing to support a spendin..

On the first anniversary of the most destructive wildfires in the L.A. area, the scant home construction projects stand out among the still mostly flattened landscapes.
Fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt in Los Angeles County since Jan. 7, 2025, when the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted, killing 31 people and destroying about 13,000 homes and other residential properties.
For those who had insurance, it’s often not enough to cover the costs of construction. Relief organizations are stepping in to help, but progress is slow.
Among the exceptions is Ted Koerner, whose Altadena home was reduced to ash and two chimneys. With his insurance payout tied up, the 67-year-old liquidated about 80% of his retirement holdings, secured contractors quickly, and moved decisively through the rebuilding process.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, Koerner was among the first to finish a rebuild in the aftermath of the fires, which were fueled by drought and hurricane-force winds.
But most do not have..

CloseZelensky claims Russia lost 35,000 military personnel in DecemberDonald Trump’s senior negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Kyiv's European allies in Paris today in the latest push for a peace deal.
More than 27 leaders will converge on the French capital to finalise a proposal on security guarantees that can be taken to Russia.
The key issues to be discussed by the Coalition of the Willing-led talks include which countries are prepared to deploy peacekeeping troops and what the remit of any force overseeing a ceasefire might be. Russia has said it won't accept troops from Nato countries on Ukrainian soil.
Zelensky says the allies need to ensure that Russia doesn't repeat its invasion if a peace agreement is signed, and has signalled that Ukraine is ready to fight on if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky carried out a top-level reshuffle of his administration and replaced the..

Donald Trump has issued a catalogue of threats against several countries after American troops captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
The US president has followed Mr Maduro’s shock arrest with threats against Colombia, Mexico, Greenland, Iran and Cuba.
Mr Maduro will appear in a New York court at 12pm ET (5pm GMT), where he faces charges of narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. He faces decades to life in prison on each count if convicted.
As the fallout over Mr Maduro’s arrest continues, The Independent looks at every country Mr Trump has recently threatened, after his boast that “American dominance in the Western hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
VenezuelaFor months, the US has been striking what it describes as Venezuelan “drug boats”, which it claims are carrying narcotics to the US.
Since the first strike in September, Mr Trump has orde..

CloseRussia releases video of drone it says was used in alleged attack on Putin residenceDonald Trump denied that Ukraine targeted Russian president Vladimir Putin’s residence last week, days after saying news of the drone attack had left him “very angry”.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force ‍One on Sunday, Trump said that while “something happened nearby”, US officials did not find Putin's residence was targeted specifically.
“I don't believe that strike happened,” he said. European officials claimed Moscow had made the allegation to undermine peace efforts.
Last week, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine had fired a wave of drones at Putin’s residence in northwestern Novgorod region.
As Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange attacks in the new year, Kyiv recorded its first civilian casualty of 2026 in the early hours of Monday.
The Russian defence ministry accused Ukraine of targeting Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far, saying this was an escala..

Close'Captured' Maduro walks DEA hallway: Official White House account releases videoVenezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was set to appear in a New York court on Monday to face drug and weapons charges after he was captured by U.S. forces.
Maduro is set to appear in the court of district judge Alvin Hellerstein at noon ET.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio suggested that America would not govern Venezuela day-to-day other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine”, a walkback on president Donald Trump’s insistence that Washington would run the South American country.
Rubio insisted that the U.S. was not at war with Venezuela after some Democratic lawmakers described the military operation to seize Maduro as an “act of war”.
Trump, meanwhile, warned that Venezuela's new leader Delcy Rodríguez could end up with a fate worse than Maduro if she “doesn’t do what’s right” after she was sworn in as acting president.
He also threatened military action could extend to Colombia, urg..

CloseWitness to Swiss blaze 'shocked for life' after seeing victims burningSwiss authorities have opened an investigation into two managers of the bar where a fire at a New Year's party left 40 people dead.
The two are suspected of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and causing fire by negligence, police said in a statement, days after the deadly blaze at Le Constellation in the popular ski resort of Crans-Montana.
Swiss authorities have identified the first eight victims from the devastating Le Constellation bar fire as Swiss nationals aged between 16 to 24 years.
Sparkler candles on champagne bottles have been identified as the likely cause of the incident that also injured 119.
The families of the 40 killed in the New Year's Eve fire have faced an agonising wait for information, with several saying they have been given no details at all in the days since.
“I'm living a nightmare, a nightmare. Either I find my son in the morgue, or I find him in critic..

Zohran Mamdani called Donald Trump personally to object to the U.S. military action in Venezuela, saying that the operations in South America would “directly impact New Yorkers.”
“I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act,” Mamdani said at a press conference Saturday, adding that he had told the president he was “opposed to a pursuit of regime change [and] to the violation of federal and international law.”
The New Yorker mayor, who officially assumed office Thursday, did not share any further information about the call, though his aides said that he had been the one to initiate the call – which was described as “brief.”
“I registered my opposition, I made it clear and we left it at that,” he said.
Mamdani, who once referred to the president as a “fascist,” also expressed his dismay at the operations online Saturday, and the intention of the administration to hold captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro at a detention center in Brookl..