TODAY

Russian drone strikes on Ukraine overnight have left more than one million people in the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk without heating and water supplies, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says.

Oleksiy Kuleba added that work was continuing to restore services following the large-scale attack, which damaged infrastructure across the southeast.

Electricity supplies were also disrupted for thousands more people in neighbouring Zaporizhzhia, state grid operator Ukrenergo said late on Wednesday. It has since been restored, according to the energy ministry.

Russia has recently intensified attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, aimed at paralysing power supplies during a harsh winter.

“Repair work continues in Dnipropetrovsk region to restore heat and water supply for more than one million subscribers,” Kuleba said in a statement on Telegram.

Hospitals, water facilities and other critical services were operating on backup systems, the energy ministry said, while residents were urged to limit electricity use to avoid further strain on the grid.

“Ukraine’s energy system is under enemy attacks every day, and energy workers are operating in extremely difficult conditions to provide people with light and heat,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on Telegram, adding that deteriorating weather conditions were compounding pressure on critical infrastructure.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, described the attacks as a “deliberate terror against the civilian population and an attempt to create a humanitarian catastrophe”.

DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest private energy provider, is living in permanent crisis mode because of Russian attacks on the grid, its chief executive told the BBC last month, with most of Ukraine suffering from lengthy power cuts during winter.

Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, which provides power for 5.6 million Ukrainians, said the intensity of strikes had been so frequent “we just don’t have time to recover”.

As the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches, Timchenko said Russia had repeatedly targeted DTEK’s energy grid with “waves of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles” and his company had found it difficult to cope.

The attacks come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said European allies have not given him sound guarantees that they will protect his country in the event of new Russian aggression.

Following talks in Paris on Tuesday, the UK and France signed a declaration of intent on deploying troops in Ukraine if a peace deal is reached – a move Moscow warned would make foreign forces a “legitimate target”.

Zelensky also said he believes Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine could be brought to an end in the first half of 2026. Speaking at the opening of Cyprus’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, he said negotiations with European partners and the United States had entered a new stage and stressed that the EU should play a central role in any settlement.

Jimmy John had been battling a severe toothache for days. The pain made eating and sleeping almost impossible. Early in the morning on Monday, July 7, 2025, he walked into New Boshang Hospital in Jimeta-Yola, northeastern Nigeria, hoping for relief. He queued, was registered, and eventually called in to see a clinician.

After an examination and scans, he was told that he needed a root canal, a dental procedure that removes infected or inflamed pulp from inside a tooth. Jimmy didn’t bother about the cost; the procedure is covered by his insurance under Adamawa State’s health insurance scheme. 

However, he was asked to wait. 

The hospital needed to confirm his insurance details. A desk officer explained that an authorisation code would be sent from his Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO). It would not take long, he was told. Two days at most.

Jimmy left the facility with painkillers and a promise, but the aches kept getting worse. 

“It was a terrible toothache,” he said. 

Two days passed. Then a week. “It took about three weeks,” Jimmy told HumAngle. “I had to be constantly calling and asking if it had been sent.” Each time, the answer was the same: they were still waiting for the code.

By the third week of waiting, Jimmy made a decision he had hoped to avoid. “I ended up paying ₦35,000 for something my insurance should have covered,” he said. “The money I planned to use for food was what I used for treatment.”

Growing coverage, inconsistent access 

Launched in 2020, Adamawa State’s contributory health insurance scheme has expanded in recent years. The Adamawa State Contributory Health Management Agency (ASCHMA) now covers the formal sector, informal sector, equity, retirees’, and tertiary students’ health plans. Official figures show that more than 170,000 people are enrolled across the state, a significant increase from its early years. 

Yet, Jimmy’s experience showed that being insured does not always mean being able to access care when it is needed.

Under ASCHMA’s design, access to healthcare operates at two levels. At the primary care level, enrollees are entitled to services such as malaria treatment, antenatal care, immunisation, and basic diagnostics by simply presenting their insurance ID card at their chosen facility.

According to ASCHMA’s Executive Secretary, Ujulu Amos, this process does not require involvement from HMOs. “Verification at that point only requires an ID card,” he explained. “Once the hospital cross-checks the enrollee’s number with the list sent to them, the person is entitled to access all primary care. The HMO is not involved.”

The process changes once a patient needs secondary or specialised care, such as surgery or a root canal procedure. At that stage, hospitals must request an authorisation code from the patient’s HMO before treatment can proceed. The code allows the hospital to later claim payment for the service.

Ujulu emphasised that this authorisation step is meant to be fast and tightly regulated.

“In our operational guideline, requesting a code should not take more than one hour,” he said. “Three hours is the maximum. If it takes three days, that is a problem.”

In Jimmy’s case, that process stretched into three weeks.

Where the system breaks down

At the heart of these delays is a lack of interoperable digital health infrastructure. While hospitals can confirm that a patient is enrolled, they cannot proceed with secondary care without explicit approval from the HMO, even when coverage is obvious. 

This multi-step process, often reliant on emails, phone calls, and individual responsiveness, leaves patients stuck in the middle.

Ujulu said patients are not powerless in such situations. According to him, ASCHMA operates a 24-hour toll-free call centre that enrollees can contact if authorisation delays exceed the allowed timeframe. In such cases, the agency can intervene, issue the authorisation, and later deduct the cost from the HMO. HumAngle attempted to reach the agency through the toll-free line, and the line was active at the time of reporting.

Beyond awareness gaps, however, fundamental system weaknesses are a factor. Many health facilities still rely on manual processes, and digital literacy among healthcare workers remains low, slowing down requests.

“We discovered low digital literacy among healthcare workers as one of the bottlenecks,” Ujulu admitted. “A good number of them either are not willing or don’t know how to log into the platform to request the code.”

In practice, this means insurance verification is hardly real-time or reliable. 

At New Boshang Hospital, staff say such delays are common once care goes beyond the primary level. Godiya James, a technician at the dental unit, explained that authorisation requests often stall.

“We send the diagnosis and treatment plan for authorisation,” she said. Sometimes it takes a day or two for us to get a response. Sometimes it takes longer. Sometimes there won’t be a response until we resend it.” 

Some patients, she added, can’t wait longer. 

For patients like Jimmy, long wait periods mean prolonged pain. 

What’s the issue?

Health insurance schemes like ASCHMA are designed to reduce out-of-pocket spending, which dominates healthcare expenditure in Nigeria, yet the systems that support them are not well-connected. Many facilities and HMOs rely on emails, phone calls, paper records or ad-hoc networks to verify coverage. 

Without digital interoperability, the ability for different software and data systems to talk to one another, each verification becomes a manual transaction, dependent on network stability, personal responsiveness, or manual cross-checking.

Farida Abalis Paul, Chief Operating Officer of A&M Healthcare, one of the HMOs working with ASCHMA, said verification depends largely on monthly enrolment lists. 

“Once a facility requests verification, we check the list. If the person’s name is there, they can go ahead with treatment,” she explained. However, the process is delayed when a patient’s name is missing from the list, even if they hold a valid insurance card. 

This can result from delayed updates, data entry errors, or changes in facility selection.

“You may have an ID card, but when we check the list, your name is not there,” she said. “Today you’re on the list, tomorrow you’re not. Along the line, something happened.”

When this happens, HMOs cannot approve care until ASCHMA corrects the records. 

For patients, the consequences are immediate. 

Aishatu Haliru, a lecturer at Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, was turned away from the Specialist Hospital despite presenting her insurance card.

“They told me my name was not on the list,” she said. “I couldn’t understand how that happens when nothing has changed.”

She was referred to ASCHMA, where an official confirmed that her record had been omitted during a routine database update. Although the issue was corrected the same day, Aishatu missed the clinic schedule and had to wait several more days for care.

“But the question is, why did it disappear in the first place?” she asked.

Ujulu, ASCHMA’s Executive Secretary, argued that such disappearances could result from platform migration, noting that data loss also slows down authorisation processes for patients like Jimmy.

These gaps highlight a broader challenge within Nigeria’s evolving digital health system. 

Nigeria’s push toward efficient digital healthcare systems

At the national level, Nigeria has begun laying policy foundations for digital transformation in healthcare, although implementation remains uneven. 

One of the key efforts is the Nigeria Digital in Health Initiative (NDHI), which aims to build a national digital health architecture that supports interoperable electronic medical records and efficient data exchange between healthcare facilities, insurers, and government systems. In practical terms, such a system would allow clinics to instantly confirm a patient’s insurance coverage, treatment entitlements, and provider claims eligibility, eliminating the kind of long delays Jimmy experienced.

Alongside this, the National Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Framework and the emerging Nigerian Data Exchange standards, coordinated by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), seek to promote shared digital rails for public services. These include interoperability, data security, and service integration. 

Applied to healthcare, these principles mean that insurance verification, patient identity, and claims processing should function as shared public infrastructure: secure, privacy-preserving, and accessible across institutions. In practice, a hospital should be able to instantly confirm a patient’s coverage without manual escalation.

NITDA’s ongoing strategic roadmap also emphasises inclusive access to digital infrastructure across the country and equitable digital literacy, both of which are foundational to reliable nationwide digital service delivery. 

The goal of such policies is straightforward: when systems can talk to each other securely and immediately, services like insurance verification become almost instant, reducing delays and unnecessary costs.

“Interoperability sounds like a technical word, but in reality, it’s about time, trust, and dignity,” said Muhammed Bello Buhari, a Nigerian-based digital rights activist. 

In a state like Adamawa, where insecurity and economic pressure already shape access to care, the ability of systems to speak to one another determines whether insurance works in practice or remains theoretical, leaving people insured on paper but uninsured in practice. 

Muhammed argues that without shared, real-time systems, patients are pushed into delays and out-of-pocket payments not because they lack coverage, but because institutions cannot confirm what they already know. 

“Interoperability is less about cutting-edge innovation and more about treating health information as essential public infrastructure that respects patients’ vulnerability and ensures care moves quickly, reliably, and with dignity,” he added. “When a patient arrives sick or in pain, insurance must work immediately, or it loses its value.”

This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.

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REUTERS/Tim Evans

Why is ICE in Minneapolis?

U.S. forces have secured the runaway Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera, a U.S. official has confirmed to TWZ. Elements of the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and other American aviation assets had previously deployed to the United Kingdom ahead of an apparent effort to board the ship. Readers can get caught up on the pursuit with our latest coverage here.

Personnel from the U.S. military and the U.S. Coast Guard carried out the boarding operation, according to reports from Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. Russian news outlet RT had earlier released imagery said to have been taken from the deck of the Marinera showing an MH-6 Little Bird helicopter, a type operated by the 160th SOAR, approaching the ship.

In the past several hours, open source flight tracking had also shown a large number of aircraft from bases in the United Kingdom heading north toward where the ship is located.

UPDATE 1200Z 07/JAN/2026 – We’ve confirmed a few of the earlier RAF flights are involved in other routine operations, but we now have a confirmed stream of US support aircraft, ISTAR and other platforms heading for the UK-Iceland gap, likely staging for the tanker Op!#BELLA1… https://t.co/knpNOL2oNK pic.twitter.com/wX2dBUluUQ

— DefenceGeek 🇬🇧 (@DefenceGeek) January 7, 2026

Ship tracking data available online had also shown the Marinera, which had been shadowed by a wide range of aviation assets and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter for weeks now, making a sharp turn to the south in the direction of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Marinera (IMO 9230880) formally Bella 1 made a sudden southbound turn at 11:26 UTC near 60.9386N, 16.37014W, slowing from ~9 kn to ~8 kn.

US special operations aircraft are heading north pic.twitter.com/u44FqyfjHG

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) January 7, 2026

Known until recently as the Bella-1 before it was re-registered and the crew painted a Russian flag on it, the Marinera is part of a so-called shadow fleet. These vessels are accused of transporting oil for Russia, Iran, and Venezuela in violation of sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries. On December 20, the Coast Guard had previously attempted to board the ship, which is not carrying any oil at present, as it headed toward Venezuela. However, the crew refused to allow it, and the ship began sailing back toward Europe. Reports earlier this week said that new U.S. plans to interdict the boat had subsequently been drawn up, tied to the aforementioned deployment of special operations forces and other assets to the United Kingdom.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the Russian military had sent a submarine and other naval assets to escort the Marinera. Reuters has reported that Russian Navy vessels were in the vicinity when the boarding operation occurred.

Where the Marinera may now be headed and what its ultimate fate may be remains to be seen.

TWZ will continue to update this story as it develops.

Update: 9:14 AM Eastern –

U.S. European Command released a statement about the seizure on X.

It has been pointed out that Little Birds are not capable of being refueled in flight and likely would not have had the range to reach the tanker from bases on land in the region. It is more likely that any MH-6s involved in this operation launched from a ship closer by. The 160th SOAR is known to train to operate its Little Birds from Coast Guard cutters. Night Stalker helicopters also have a long history of flying from U.S. Navy ships, including recently during the operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

We have reached out to the Pentagon and U.S. Coast Guard for more details and will update this story with any pertinent information provided.

Update: 9:32 AM Eastern –

The U.K. Defense Ministry (MoD) provided us with a statement about its aircraft observed over the North Atlantic.

“Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft were launched on 6 Jan from RAF Lossiemouth…after unidentified aircraft were tracked flying towards UK airspace. The aircraft remained outside of our area of interest (UK FIR) and no intercept took place. The launch of RAF QRA aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth and supporting AAR Voyager from RAF Brize Norton was not associated with any form of maritime surveillance operations.”

Update: 9:36 AM Eastern –

War Secretary Pete Hegseth weighed in on the seizure, saying that “the blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT – anywhere in the world.” The Marinera, however, never arrived in port and was not carrying any fuel.

Meanwhile, as the seizure of the Marinera was taking place, the U.S. also boarded another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

“In a pre-dawn action this morning, the Department of War, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker without incident,” SOUTHCOM announced on X. “The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Coast Guard is escorting M/T Sophia to the U.S. for final disposition. Through Operation Southern Spear, the Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere. We will defend our Homeland and restore security and strength across the Americas.”

In a pre-dawn action this morning, the Department of War, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker without incident.

The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and… pic.twitter.com/JQm9gHprPk

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) January 7, 2026

Officials in the U.K. would likely have had to sign off on this operation, The Times reported.

The British government would have given the green light for the American mission to seize a Venezuela-linked oil tanker, a senior UK military source tells @thetimes https://t.co/RNMph9P1zz

— Larisa Brown (@larisamlbrown) January 7, 2026

British aviation journalist Gareth Jennings notes that the Little Birds can be equipped with a 62-gallon auxiliary fuel tank, giving them an operating radius of about 670 kilometers (about 416 miles).

They can be equipped with a 62 US gallon auxiliary Goliath fuel tank to double the capacity of the 62 US gallon main fuel tank. Would give an approx 670 km operating radius.

— Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) January 7, 2026

There are several ways Little Birds can take part in a mission like this, as our editor-in-chief Tyler Rogoway notes.

Update: 9:57 AM Eastern –

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also released a statement, confirming that the Coast Guard Legend class cutter trailing the Marinera we wrote about yesterday was the Munro.

“One of these tankers, Motor Tanker Bella I, has been trying to evade the Coast Guard for weeks, even changing its flag and painting a new name on the hull while being pursued, in a desperate and failed attempt to escape justice,” Noem stated on X. “The heroic crew of the USCGC Munro pursued this vessel across the high seas and through treacherous storms— keeping diligent watch, and protecting our country with the determination and patriotism that make Americans proud.  These brave men and women deserve our nation’s thanks for their selfless devotion to duty.”

In two predawn operations today, the Coast Guard conducted back-to-back meticulously coordinated boarding of two “ghost fleet”  tanker ships— one in the North Atlantic Sea and one in international waters near the Caribbean.  Both vessels —the Motor Tanker Bella I and the Motor… pic.twitter.com/EZlHEtcufX

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) January 7, 2026

Update: 10:08 AM Eastern –

The Russian Ministry of Transport stated that the U.S boarding operation against the Marinera violated international law.

“In accordance with the norms of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a regime of freedom of navigation operates in the waters of the high seas, and no state has the right to use force against ships properly registered in the jurisdictions of other states,” the message said.

“According to the department, the ship received a temporary permit to sail under the Russian state flag on December 24th,” the official Russian RIA Novosti media outlet reported on Telegram. The vessel was boarded at 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. Eastern).

The first official statement from the Russian government following the seizure of Russia-flagged MARINERA / BELLA-1 tanker by the United States.

Russian Ministry of Transport refers to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea:

“In accordance with the provisions of the 1982 UN… https://t.co/CdF0A6Lsfg pic.twitter.com/OlCwxLolzQ

— Status-6 (War & Military News) (@Archer83Able) January 7, 2026

Update: 10:39 AM Eastern –

Flight tracking data claims to show that U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) AC-130J Ghostrider gunships were overhead during the Marinera operation. While we can’t independently confirm this, TWZ has written about the value Ghostriders can bring to this kind of maritime interdiction operation, which you can read about here.

Ok so we have N103MC, and N167MC. We’ll have to find more.

I totally think these are tactical regs/hexes they are using for ops. https://t.co/imxwlH2gfY

— 𝗦𝗥_𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (@SR_Planespotter) January 7, 2026

As we previously reported, these aircraft arrived at RAF Mildenhall on Sunday. Local photographer Andrew McKelvey shared some photos of one of those Ghostriders, ARSON17, taking off from Mildenhall at about 9:45 a.m. local time (4:45 a.m. Eastern). AFSOC declined comment.

Update: 11:17 AM Eastern –

As we have previously noted, U.S. President Donald Trump has made control over Venezuelan oil a centerpiece of operations in the Caribbean that resulted in the capture of Maduro. This includes the ongoing blockade of oil tankers and the planned takeover of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.

In a post on his Truth Social site yesterday, Trump explained that Venezuela will be turning over tens of millions of barrels of oil to the U.S. to sell.

“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump proclaimed on Truth Social. “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”

( @realDonaldTrump – Truth Social Post )
( Donald J. Trump – Jan 06 2026, 6:46 PM ET )

I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the Unit… pic.twitter.com/OKsLNqPShe

— Donald J Trump Posts TruthSocial (@TruthTrumpPost) January 7, 2026

Update: 12:04 AM Eastern –

The rhetoric from Moscow about the Marinera operation is ramping up.

“We need to attack with torpedoes and sink a couple of American patrol boats,” Alexei Zhuravlev, the first deputy head of the State Duma’s Defense Committee, said today. “The U.S. needs a military response to the Marinera situation. The U.S., which is enjoying a kind of euphoria of impunity after the special operation in Venezuela, can only be stopped now with a slap in the face like this.”

Update: 12:42 PM Eastern –

During her afternoon briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked several questions about the seizure of the Marinera, as well as the Sophia. She was also queried about whether she had any information about the Russian submarine that The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday said was deployed to escort the ship. Below are some of those interactions.

Q: ​​Russia specifically asked the United States not to seize that tanker. Does this action risk a larger conflict with Russia?

A: The vessel this morning was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. Federal Court after being tracked, and this was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that has transported sanctioned oil. And the United States of America under this president is not going to tolerate that. I would also just add the vessel had a judicial seizure order and the crew, so that means the crew is now subject to prosecution for any applicable violation of federal law, and they will be brought to the United States for such prosecution.

Q: Are you concerned about increasing tensions with Russia because of the tanker?

A: “…with respect to these ships seizures, that means enforcing the embargo against all Dark Fleet vessels that are illegally transporting oil and only legitimate commerce. To answer your question … that’s the policy of this administration, and he’s not afraid to implement it.

Q: Was there any engagement with that submarine … and what is the deconfliction on the Russian use ahead of that type of warning package?

A: Again, this was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that has transported sanctioned oil. The vessel was deemed stateless after flying a false flag, and it had a judicial seizure order, and that’s why the crew will be subject to prosecution.

Update: 12:57 PM Eastern –

The U.K. “provided enabling support to the United States at their request to interdict the vessel,” according to the MoD, which is using the ship’s previous name to reference it.

“U.K. armed forces provided pre-planned operational support, including basing, to U.S. military assets interdicting the Bella 1 between the U.K. and Iceland following a U.S. request for assistance,” the MoD said in a statement. “RFA Tideforce is providing support for U.S. forces pursuing and interdicting the Bella 1, while the RAF provided surveillance support from the air.”

“This ship, with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine,” Defense Secretary John Healey said. “The UK will continue to step up our action against shadow fleet activity to protect our national security, our economy, and global stability – making Britain secure at home and strong abroad.”

“Deterring and disrupting the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for the U.K.,” MoD added. “To date, we have imposed sanctions on 520 Russian shadow fleet vessels. This is working. For example, Russia’s critical oil revenues are down 27% compared to October 2024, the lowest since the start of the war in Ukraine.”

Update: 1:57 PM Eastern –

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill in between Congressional briefings on Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that the Venezuelans want the oil from the seized tanker Sophia to be part of the aforementioned deal Trump stated on Truth Social.

NEW: Sec. Hegseth and Sec. Rubio speak after Senate briefing on Venezuela:

“They want that oil that was seized to be part of this deal. They understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they cooperate and work with the… pic.twitter.com/EbUz1LNaA4

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 7, 2026

“We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We’re going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting. That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed in a way that benefits the… pic.twitter.com/HdUEYRi8zO

— Department of State (@StateDept) January 7, 2026

This is a developing story. Stay with TWZ for updates.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

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On the market

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Links to corruption

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Red flags

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The sweeping changes will see the US quit major forums for cooperation on climate change, peace and democracy.

United States President Donald Trump has announced that he plans to withdraw the US from 66 United Nations and international organisations, including major forums for cooperation on climate change, peace and democracy.

In a presidential memorandum shared by the White House on Wednesday evening, Trump said that the decision came after a review of which “organizations, conventions, and treaties are contrary to the interests of the United States”.

The changes would see the US cease participation and also cut all funding to the affected entities, Trump added.

The list shared by the White House included 35 non-UN organisations, including notably the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Although the IPCC was included in the list of non-UN bodies by the White House, it is a UN organisation that brings together top scientists to assess the evidence related to climate change and provide periodic scientific assessments to help inform political leaders.

In addition, the White House said it was withdrawing from 31 UN entities, including the UN’s top climate change treaty body, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN Democracy Fund and the top UN entity working on maternal and child health, the UNFPA.

Several of the UN entities targeted also focused on protecting at-risk groups from violence during wars, including the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict.

In a note to correspondents on Wednesday evening, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that the UN expected to respond to the announcement by Thursday morning.

Despite publicly claiming he wants the US to have less involvement in UN forums, Trump has not held back from influencing decision-making at the international level.

In October last year, Trump threatened to impose sanctions on diplomats who formally adopted a levy on polluting shipping fuels that had already been agreed to at an earlier meeting, effectively sinking the deal for 12 months.

The Trump administration also imposed sanctions on UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, after she published a report documenting the role of international and US companies in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

In 2017, Trump also threatened to cut aid from countries that voted in support of a draft UN resolution condemning the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the US also holds considerable power at the United Nations, as one of only five countries able to veto measures it doesn’t like, a power the US repeatedly used to block efforts to end Israel’s war on Gaza before mediating a ceasefire late last year.

Since beginning his second term in January last year, Trump has already withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Paris climate agreement and the UN human rights council.

Trump also quit these three organisations during his first administration, but the withdrawals were all later reversed by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

The US withdrawal from the WHO is set to come into effect on January 22, 2026, one year after it was ordered by the White House.

Between 2024 and 2025, the US contributed $261m in funding to the WHO, amounting to about 18 percent of the funding the organisation receives for its work encouraging global cooperation on a wide range of pressing health issues, including tuberculosis and pandemics, like COVID-19.

The Trump administration has also continued a US funding ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, that began under Biden.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Secessionist leader took a boat to Berbera and then boarded a pane that flew to Abu Dhabi via Mogadishu, coalition says.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen has announced that the leader of the secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) has fled to the United Arab Emirates via Somaliland after skipping planned peace talks in Riyadh.

In a statement on Thursday, the coalition said Aidarous al-Zubaidi “escaped in the dead of night” on Wednesday aboard a vessel that departed Aden in Yemen for the port of Berbera in Somaliland.

Al-Zubaidi then boarded a plane along with UAE officers and flew to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. “The plane turned off its identification systems over the Gulf of Oman, then turned it back on ten minutes prior to arrival at Al reef military airport in Abu Dhabi,” the statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the STC or UAE.

If confirmed, the move could deepen the feud between Saudi Arabia and the UAE that came to light after the Abu Dhabi-backed STC launched an offensive against the Riyadh-backed Yemeni government troops in December.

The STC – which initially supported Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen – is seeking an independent state in southern Yemen. It seized the provinces of Hadramout and Mahra, which border Saudi Arabia, in a campaign that Riyadh described as a red line for its national security.

The Saudi-led coalition responded with air strikes on the Yemeni port of Mukalla on December 30, targeting what it called a UAE-linked weapons shipment, and backed a call by Yemen’s internationally recognised government for Emirati forces to withdraw from the country.

For its part, Abu Dhabi denied that the shipment contained weapons and expressed a commitment to ensure Riyadh’s security. On the same day, it announced an end to what it called its “counterterrorism mission” in Yemen.

Yemeni government troops, backed by Saudi Arabian air attacks, went on to reclaim Hadramout and Mahra, and the STC said on Saturday that it would attend peace talks hosted by Saudi Arabia.

But al-Zubaidi was not on board the Yemeni Air flight that took the STC delegation to Riyadh on Wednesday, the coalition said.

The head of the internationally recognised government’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, has meanwhile announced that al-Zubaidi has been removed from the council for “committing high treason”.

Al-Alimi said he has asked the country’s Attorney General to launch an investigation against al-Zubaidi and take legal action.

Caracas, January 7, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Trump administration has vowed to control Venezuelan oil sales for an “indefinite” period in the wake of the January 3 bombings and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“Instead of the oil being blockaded, we’re gonna let the oil flow to US refineries and around the world to bring better oil supplies, but have those sales done by the US,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a Goldman Sachs conference on Wednesday, January 7.

According to Wright, the process would begin with crude that is currently loaded on tankers that have not left Venezuelan shores because of the US naval blockade, before selling future production “indefinitely, going forward.”

A “fact sheet” published by the Department of Energy went on to claim that proceeds from sales of Venezuelan crude “will first settle in US-controlled accounts at globally recognized banks to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution of proceeds.”

The document stated that a “selective rollback” of US economic sanctions will allow transactions involving Venezuelan oil products in global markets. The Department of Energy likewise announced supplies of diluents and equipment to Venezuela’s oil industry, which also require the lifting of sanctions, alongside broader US investment in the oil sector and electric grid.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio affirmed in a Wednesday press conference that the US has a “three-step plan” for Venezuela in the wake of the January 3 military attack. The first step involves “stabilizing” the country to allow for the arrival of US and Western corporations, before a stage of “national reconciliation” and finally a “transition.”

In the wake of the strikes that killed over 80 people in the Caribbean nation, Trump and administration officials have repeatedly threatened the Venezuelan government into accepting its demands, especially in the oil sector.

On Wednesday, US authorities announced the seizure of two new tankers as part of efforts to strangle Venezuelan crude exports. Rubio recently referred to the US’ naval blockade as a “lever of leverage” against Caracas. US forces had previously seized two other tankers transporting Venezuelan crude.

According to ABC, Washington has demanded that Caracas’ oil production and exports be done exclusively with US partners. In 2025, over 80 percent of Venezuelan crude exports were destined for Chinese refineries. However, Politico reported that US oil conglomerates are reluctant to invest heavily in Venezuela.

Trump had emphasized in recent weeks that the US’ main interest was control over Venezuela’s oil industry and reserves. On Tuesday, he wrote on social media that Venezuelan authorities had agreed to “turn over 30-50 million barrels” of oil to the US, in reference to the crude currently blockaded, and that he would “control” the proceeds.

On Wednesday, Trump published another social media post claiming that Caracas would only be purchasing US-made products with the oil sales revenues.

US actions have drawn domestic criticism, with Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy blasting Rubio’s “insane plan.”

“They are talking about stealing the Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for an undefined time period as leverage to micromanage the country. The scope and insanity of that plan is absolutely stunning,” Murphy told press.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, for its part, issued a statement on January 7 informing of talks for the “sale of large volumes of crude to the United States.” The communiqué made no reference to the terms alleged by US officials.

“PDVSA ratifies its commitment to continue building alliances that boost national development and contribute to global economic stability,” the text read.

PDVSA added that the prospective agreement would follow a “scheme” similar to the one that currently applies to Chevron. 

The US oil giant is a minority partner in four joint ventures with PDVSA. Under its present sanctions waiver, Chevron allocates crude for PDVSA to sell. However, under a previous license, Chevron would commercialize all the oil before transferring proceeds to its Venezuelan partners.

Acting President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez has not commented on the US officials’ claims. In a Wednesday night televised broadcast, she said Venezuela has developed “diversified economic and geopolitical relations” all around the world.

The Venezuelan oil industry has faced multiple waves of economic sanctions dating back to the first Trump administration, including financial sanctions, an export embargo and secondary sanctions.

Caracas has made repeated calls for foreign investment, including from US companies. US refineries, particularly in the Gulf Coast, are especially geared toward Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude blends. The US was the main destination for Venezuelan oil exports prior to the 2019 embargo.
The Nicolás Maduro government additionally created favorable conditions for oil partners in a bid to ramp up oil production. The 2020 Anti-Blockade Law establishes mechanisms that supersede Venezuela’s hydrocarbon legislation, including concessions whereby private companies can lift more than half the crude produced.

United States President Donald Trump has issued a stern warning to defence contractors that supply the US military, accusing them of profiteering.

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, he threatened to take action if the companies failed to take specific actions, including capping executive pay, investing in the construction of factories and producing more military equipment at a faster clip.

“MILITARY EQUIPMENT IS NOT BEING MADE FAST ENOUGH,” Trump wrote at one point in his lengthy, 322-word post.

“It must be built now with the Dividends, Stock Buybacks, and Over Compensation of Executives, rather than borrowing from Financial Institutions, or getting the money from your Government.”

Trump singled out the technology company Raytheon as the worst offender, in his eyes.

“I have been informed by the Department of War that Defense Contractor, Raytheon, has been the least responsive to the needs of the Department of War, the slowest in increasing their volume, and the most aggressive spending on their Shareholders rather than the needs and demands of the United States Military,” Trump wrote in a follow-up post.

The president threatened to sever government ties with Raytheon, now known as RTX, which earns billions from its defence contract work.

Just last August, the Department of Defence awarded the firm $50bn – the maximum possible – for a 20-year contract to supply the military with equipment, services and repairs.

“Our Country comes FIRST, and they’re going to have to learn that, the hard way,” Trump warned.

Defence spending fuels a significant portion of the US economy: As of 2024, Defence Department spending represented approximately 2.7 percent of the US gross domestic product (GDP).

Normally, the total defence budget hovers around $1 trillion. But in a Wednesday evening post on Truth Social, Trump announced that he would petition congressional Republicans to boost that amount to a record $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027.

“This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe,” Trump wrote.

Still, Trump’s threats sent stocks for defence contractors plummeting, amid uncertainty over the future of the high-stakes industry.

Since taking office for a second term, Trump has taken an aggressive, hands-on approach to private companies that have ties to national security concerns.

In June, for instance, the Trump administration was awarded a “golden share” in the metal company US Steel, in exchange for giving a green light to its merger with Japan’s Nippon Steel. That share allows the Trump administration to essentially have a veto over any major action US Steel may take to reorganise or dissolve.

Then, in August, the technology firm Intel struck a deal to sell the US government a 10-percent stake in its company, amid pressure from Trump.

The Trump administration has continued to snap up stakes in other private firms, most notably mining companies involved in the production of rare earth minerals and other raw materials used in technology.

It is not yet clear how Trump plans to enforce his demands for the defence contractors he blasted in Wednesday’s social media messages. Nor is it certain that Trump could legally enforce his orders.

But Trump aired a list of grievances against the companies, including that their executives’ pay was simply too large.

“Executive Pay Packages in the Defense Industry are exorbitant and unjustifiable given how slowly these Companies are delivering vital Equipment to our Military, and our Allies,” he wrote at one point.

At another, he called on the private firms to invest in new construction projects, a request he has made across industries, from the pharmaceutical sector to automakers.

“From this moment forward, these Executives must build NEW and MODERN Production Plants, both for delivering and maintaining this important Equipment, and for building the latest Models of future Military Equipment,” Trump said.

“Until they do so, no Executive should be allowed to make in excess of $5 Million Dollars which, as high as it sounds, is a mere fraction of what they are making now.”

He also complained that the defence companies were “far too slow” in offering repairs for their equipment.

Defence contractors are responsible for a range of services and products, from software to training to missiles and tanks. RTX, for example, designed the Patriot Missile, the US’s flagship surface-to-air missile system, and it keeps the US military supplied with spare parts and other updates.

Based in Virginia, the company boasted sales exceeding $80bn in 2024. Just this week, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded RTX a $438m contract to update its radar system.

Still, Trump maintained that too much of that income was going to shareholders, executive pay and stock buybacks, wherein a company purchases its own shares in order to limit their supply and increase their value.

“Defense Contractors are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment,” Trump wrote.

“This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!”

Images showing an MH-6 Little Bird taking part in today’s operation to seize the runaway Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera, hundreds of miles away from the nearest land, were widely met with befuddlement. This is a relatively tiny special operations helicopter that cannot be refueled in flight and has a short range. However, its small size and incredible transportability means that it can appear from virtually anywhere, on land or at sea. These are among the capabilities that have long endeared the type to the U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), better known as the Night Stalkers.

Readers can get up to speed on the operation targeting the Marinera with our reporting here.

Russian news outlet RT first published imagery said to have been taken from the deck of the reflagged Marinera, showing at least one MH-6 Little Bird approaching the ship. Fox News and CBS News have now reported that helicopters from the 160th SOAR brought in U.S. Navy SEALs to board the ship as it sailed in the North Atlantic. TWZ has been working to independently confirm the employment of the Little Birds, specifically, as well as other details about the operation. U.S. aviation assets, especially various special operations types, had been spotted pouring into the United Kingdom amid reports that an attempt to seize the tanker, formerly known as the Bella 1, looked increasingly imminent. The Night Stalkers had already had a monumental past week with their role in the operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.

U.S. Navy SEALs flown by TF 160 (“Night Stalkers”) commandeered the oil tanker previously named Bella 1 at sea between Iceland and Britain, officials say.

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) January 7, 2026

Marinera (IMO 9230880) formally Bella 1 made a sudden southbound turn at 11:26 UTC near 60.9386N, 16.37014W, slowing from ~9 kn to ~8 kn.

US special operations aircraft are heading north pic.twitter.com/u44FqyfjHG

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) January 7, 2026

The 160th SOAR currently operates a fleet of what are formally known as Mission Enhanced Little Birds (MELB), produced by Boeing. The MELBs are heavily modified with specialized avionics built to help with flying at very low-levels in complex environments and at night, as well as defensive systems and other capabilities that increase the egg-shaped helicopter’s survivability.

The MELBs can be readily configured and reconfigured as either MH-6 or AH-6 subvariants. The MH-6 is described as an “assault” configuration with planks on either side for special operators to ride on. The helicopters can land to insert those operators, or they can use the Fast Rope Insertion Extraction System (FRIES) to rappel down to their objective.

The AH-6 is a light attack configuration that swaps the personnel planks for mounting systems enabling the helicopter to carry an array of weapons, including Gatling-type machine guns, Hellfire missiles, and 70mm rockets.

Where the Little Birds that took part in the Marinera boarding operation launched from is still unknown. As noted, 160th SOAR’s AH/MH-6s cannot refuel in flight and have relatively limited unrefueled range (officially stated to be 250 miles, per the 2025 edition of U.S. Special Operations Command’s Fact Book). Night Stalker Little Birds can be fitted with various types of range-extending auxiliary fuel tanks. Even so, whether they would have been able to fly to the tanker from a base on land in the region is unclear, but it seems unlikely, especially with special operators strapped to their outsides.

As already mentioned, the helicopters more likely flew from the decks of one of the vessels that supported the mission, which included a U.S. Coast Guard Legend class cutter and the British Tide class replenishment tanker RFA Tideforce. It is possible the Little Birds could have already been embarked on the Coast Guard cutter for a prolonged period before the actual operation today, and the 160th has trained for such operations in the past.

You don’t need Ocean Trader for this, they can go anywhere. You also stuff half a dozen in the Cutter’s hangar bay.

— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) January 7, 2026

Regardless, the tanker seizure operation puts a spotlight on the unique operational independence and flexibility that the 160th’s Little Birds offer.

“It is your street fighter,” Paul Kylander, the product manager for the AH/MH-6s within U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) Program Executive Office-Rotary Wing (PEO-RW), told TWZ and others at the annual SOF Week conference last year. “When the operators want to get to your front door, this is the aircraft that they’re going to use. Very surgical strike, very precision attack, is what you’re going to get from these platforms.”

The Night Stalker’s nimble Little Birds excel at getting in and out of extremely tight spots where no other helicopter can go. They are often seen dropping commandos off on building ledges and landing in very confined areas, or even flying down the streets of huge cities.

Though they have limited reach on their own, the small size of the Little Birds means significant numbers of them can be carried inside fixed-wing transport aircraft. Air Force Special Operations MC-130 tanker-transports can carry two in a near ready-to-fly configuration at once, while larger C-17s can transport at least five at a time. The helicopters have folding rotors and other features specifically designed to allow personnel on the ground to roll them off of larger aircraft and then get them operational very quickly. This is measured in minutes, not hours.

Transport aircraft can carry the AH/MH-6 helicopters across distances of thousands of miles, directly to forward operating locations far closer to their intended objectives. Those destinations could include far-flung sites with little, if any established infrastructure, including rough landing strips. With far less requirements for fuel and other support compared to the MH-60 Black Hawks and MH-47 Chinooks in the 160th’s inventory, the Little Birds also offer a different degree of ability to operate independently for prolonged periods after arriving in a forward area. AH/MH-6s do, of course, also regularly operate directly together with other Night Stalkers helicopters in highly integrated, seamless formations, as well as with other U.S. military aircraft, to a lesser degree.

The benefits that the Little Birds offer apply to operations from ships, as well as bases on land. AH-6/MH-6s require much less deck space than most other helicopters in service across the U.S. military, and more of them can also be tucked into hangars or in the holds on vessels that were designed to accommodate larger types or even no aircraft at all. They can also just be stowed in an area on the deck of a ship. They just need enough room to takeoff from. This unlocks a near endless list of vessel types they can operate from, which drastically expands their operational flexibility and can spell real trouble for an adversary.

Some of the diminutive helicopters famously operated from U.S. Navy warships, as well as barges turned into floating bases, during the so-called “Tanker War” sideshow to the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s. In that instance, then-new “AH-58” Kiowa Warrior armed scout helicopters operated by conventional U.S. Army units eventually took the place of the Little Birds. Last year, TWZ explored the particular value of the 160th’s AH/MH-6s in maritime operations in more detail after one of the helicopters emerged wearing a blue camouflage wrap.

In addition, all of this allows for the employment of Little Birds, in general, with a very different level of discretion, as they can more readily be concealed even after being deployed. There have been claims that the 160th’s repertoire of tactics, techniques, and procedures has included being prepared to bring the helicopters to forward locations clandestinely inside civilian trucks, which we will come back to in a moment.

There is a long history of the use of members of the extended Little Bird family by U.S. special operations forces and intelligence agencies to support covert and clandestine missions, as TWZ has explored on several occasions in the past. With non-military style paint schemes, the helicopters can even blend in to a degree in the open. Versions of the Little Bird continue to see widespread civilian and commercial use globally, with the helicopter type being made famous after starring in Magnum, P.I. in the 1980s.

In his 2015 book Relentless Strike, author Sean Naylor offers a Little Bird anecdote that is especially relevant in relation to planning for a covert operation into Laos to rescue Americans captured during the Vietnam War, which was ultimately aborted. He writes:

“JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command] rehearsed extensively in Hawaii for the mission, which would involve a task force launching from the tiny Pacific island of Tinian in the Northern Marianas and using an abandoned and overgrown U.S. military airfield in Thailand as a forward staging base. With the airfield under control, C-5 transport planes would have landed, bearing JSOC’s own version of a Trojan horse: white, civilian-style eighteen-wheel trucks, each hiding two TF 160 [Task Force 160; another term used to refer to the 160th SOAR] AH-6 Little Birds with folded rotor blades. As Delta operators made their way overland to the prison camp TF 160 personnel would have driven the trucks close to the Laotian border, before stopping and launching the helicopters. TF 160 kept this rarely used technique known in JSOC as ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ after the 1977 trucker comedy starring Burt Reynolds up its sleeve for decades, because it offered a clandestine way to move a lethal capability close to a target. ‘Our guys were trained and even had the truck licenses,’ said a TF 160 veteran. The unit had its own trucks, but locally obtained vehicles would suffice ‘with maybe a couple of days’ work and some welding,’ he said. When the time came to launch the aircraft, the crew would roll them off the back of the truck and have them flying within three minutes. ‘You have to be really well trained,’ the TF 160 veteran said. ‘It’s absolutely an incredible capability.’

Go160thSOAR USASOAC Night Stalkers AH-6

While TWZ cannot confirm the details in Naylor’s book, specifics about the planned prisoner of war rescue operation, nicknamed Operation Pocket Change, including the expected use of Little Birds, have been reported elsewhere over the years. The prospect that Americans remained in captivity in Southeast Asia for years or decades following the end of the Vietnam War has been and continues to be a controversial topic.

Regardless, Little Birds can be trucked clandestinely in commercial vehicles or shipping containers, even behind enemy lines, something other helicopters within the 160th SOAR’s stable can’t come close to doing.

All this speaks to why the 160th SOAR has continued to operate Little Birds long after non-special operations units with the U.S. military stopped flying other versions of the helicopter. Night Stalker AH/MH-6s now look set to remain in service even longer than might have been expected following the cancellation of the Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program in 2024. There had been plans to replace roughly half of the Little Birds with a special operations variant of the FARA aircraft.

It’s also worth noting here that Boeing announced its intention to shutter its Little Bird production line and “transition to a focus on sustainment and support for the platform’s customer base.” Separate production of versions of the Little Bird will continue through MD Helicopters.

Overall, much is still to be learned about the U.S. operation today to seize the tanker Marinera, and the role played by the 160th SOAR. However, what has already emerged has highlighted the ability of the Little Birds to do things, go places, and hide in areas that no other Night Stalkers helicopters can.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Alan Jackson steps down as lawyer for Nick Reiner, who is accused of killing his mother and father in December.

The high-profile lawyer representing Nick Reiner, who allegedly killed his father, director Rob Reiner, and mother Michele Singer Reiner in December, has resigned.

The announcement that lawyer Alan Jackson would step down from the case means that the younger Reiner will, at least for the time being, be represented by a public defender provided by the state.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Jackson did not provide a reason for his departure, instead citing the legal and ethical reasons he could not provide more details.

“Circumstances beyond our control and, more importantly, circumstances beyond Nick’s control have dictated that, sadly, it’s made it impossible to continue our representation of Nick,” Jackson said.

He added that, after weeks of investigation, “what we’ve learned, and you can take this to the bank, is that pursuant to the laws of this state, pursuant to the law of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder. Print that.”

Jackson did not elaborate.

The lawyer had first appeared in court to represent the 32-year-old suspect just days after Rob Reiner and his wife were found dead on December 14 in their home in the upscale Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles, California.

The cause of death was determined to be “multiple sharp force injuries”, another term for stab wounds.

Jackson, whose past clients include producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey, did not explain how he was hired or who hired him after Nick Reiner was arrested for the killings.

On Wednesday, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene took over Nick Reiner’s defence in the case.

That came as the defendant, standing behind glass in a custody area of the courtroom and wearing brown jail garb and with his hair shaved, briefly appeared in a Los Angeles court, where he was meant to be arraigned and enter a plea to two charges of first-degree murder.

Instead, the arraignment was postponed to February 23.

“The Public Defender’s Office recognises what an unimaginable tragedy this is for the Reiner family and the Los Angeles community,” Deputy Los Angeles Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said in a statement following the hearing.

“Our hearts go out to the Reiner family as they navigate this difficult time. We ask for your patience and compassion as the case moves through the legal process.”

Rob Reiner’s killing resonated across the world, reflecting the global impact of his films, which included the coming-of-age drama Stand By Me, the courtroom thriller A Few Good Men and the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally.

Rob and Nick Reiner had previously worked together on a film, Being Charlie, which was partially based on the younger Reiner’s struggles with drug addiction and mental health.

The United States says it will control sales of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely” and decide how the proceeds of those sales are used, as President Donald Trump’s administration consolidates control over the South American country after abducting its president.

The US Department of Energy said on Wednesday that it had “begun marketing” Venezuelan oil on global markets and all proceeds from the sales “will first settle in US-controlled accounts at globally recognized banks”.

“These funds will be disbursed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the US government,” it said.

“These oil sales begin immediately with the anticipated sale of approximately 30-50 million barrels. They will continue indefinitely.”

The announcement comes just days after the Trump administration abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday in what legal experts say was a clear violation of international law.

The US has said it plans to “run” the country and take control of its vast oil reserves, with Trump saying on social media on Tuesday that Caracas would hand between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil over to Washington.

The US actions against Venezuela come amid a months-long pressure campaign by the Trump administration against Maduro, who has been charged in New York with drug trafficking offences that he denies.

That has included a partial US naval blockade against Venezuela and the seizure of several vessels that the Trump administration says were transporting oil to and from the country in violation of US sanctions.

Earlier on Wednesday, US special forces seized two Venezuela-linked vessels – including a Russian-flagged ship in the North Atlantic – for allegedly breaching those sanctions.

The seizures came as senior US officials briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the Trump administration’s plans in Venezuela.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said most Republicans have backed Trump’s actions while Democrats have raised a slew of questions.

That includes “how long this operation in Venezuela will continue, what it will cost, [whether] any American servicemen actually be deployed on the ground in Venezuela, and what is the Venezuelan reaction,” Fisher explained.

“The Trump administration [is] hoping to get everyone on side before the end of the day,” he added.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on social media that Wednesday’s briefing was “worse” than imagined.

“Oil company executives seem to know more about Trump’s secret plan to ‘run’ Venezuela than the American people. We need public Senate hearings NOW,” she said.

Three-phased plan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that the Trump administration is pursuing a three-phased plan that begins with the sales of Venezuelan oil.

“That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it’s dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime,” Rubio said.

The second phase would see US and other companies gain access to the Venezuelan market, and “begin to create the process of reconciliation nationally … so that opposition forces can be amnestied and released from prisons or brought back to the country”.

“And then the third phase, of course, would be one of transition,” Rubio added.

Gregory Brew, a senior analyst on Iran and energy at Eurasia Group, said the US announcement about controlling Venezuelan oil sales hints at “a return to the concessionary system” in place before the 1970s.

Brew explained in a social media post that, under that system, “producer states own the oil but it is Western firms that manage production and marketing, ultimately retain the bulk of the profits”.

A group of United Nations experts also warned that recent statements from Trump and other administration officials about plans to “run” Venezuela and exploit its oil reserves would violate international law.

Specifically, the experts said the US position contravenes “the right of peoples to self-determination and their associated sovereignty over natural resources, cornerstones of international human rights law”.

“Venezuela’s vast natural resources, including the largest proven oil reserves in the world, must not be cynically exploited through thinly veiled pretexts to legitimise military aggression, foreign occupation, or regime-change strategies,” they said.

Political situation unstable

Renata Segura, the Latin America and Caribbean programme director at the International Crisis Group, noted Venezuelan authorities have not commented on the US saying it plans to control sales of the country’s oil.

“And so we have to assume that either [the Venezuelan authorities] have accepted these terms, or that they’re just going to be forced to accept them,” Segura told Al Jazeera.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as president earlier this week following Maduro’s abduction, stressing on Tuesday that “there is no foreign agent governing Venezuela” despite US claims to “run” the country.

Segura explained, “There’s a lot of debate within the [Venezuelan] regime itself about how to move forward” amid the US pronouncements, stressing the political situation remains far from stable.

“It’s very important what the army might do,” she said.

“The military forces in Venezuela control enormous amounts of power – both economic but also on the streets – and there might be a moment in which they think they’re not going to be on board with this particular arrangement that the United States is presenting.”

In a notably low-key move, Russia has introduced to service a brand-new “rescue ship,” the Voyevoda, in the Baltic region. Meanwhile, despite being assigned to the Marine Rescue Service of Russia, there have been claims, from within Russia, that the ship is at the very least dual role, including serving as a presidential vessel. This has led to it being dubbed “Putin’s yacht” in some quarters, although there remain glaring questions about how realistic this proposition is.

The Voyevoda was delivered recently to the Baltic branch of the Marine Rescue Service (Morskaya Spasatelnaya Sluzhba in Russian) by Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. This was reported by the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategy and Technologies (CAST), a defense think tank that has been following the progress of the Voyevoda, which belongs to the Project 23700 class, drafted by the Severnoye Design Bureau. It was also confirmed by the ministry’s press service.

Russia’s Marine Rescue Service has passed through various identities in recent years, but its main responsibility continues to be rescuing people at sea, with a secondary mission of pollution control. The service’s fleet of approximately 80 vessels includes multi-purpose ships, rescue tugs, diving vessels, and auxiliaries.

The Project 23700 class is a very large cutter, with a displacement of 7,500 metric tons, a length of 111 meters (364 feet), and a beam of 24 meters (79 feet). Its performance includes a speed of 22 knots and a range of 5,000 miles. The vessel can accommodate four small boats and two helicopters.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a contract for the construction of the vessel in December 2016. Its keel was laid at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad in April 2017. The contract stated that the vessel should be delivered in November 2019, but this deadline was repeatedly pushed back. In the event, the Voyevoda was only launched in November 2019. After another four years of fitting out, it finally began shipyard sea trials in December 2023. These lasted for another two years.

Officially, the Voyevoda is intended to carry out and support a wide range of maritime rescue operations, including outside of the Baltic Sea. According to the Marine Rescue Service, the vessel can transport, deploy, and supply search and rescue equipment, including the aforementioned small boats and helicopters.

According to some reports, however, this is only half the story.

A closer look at the specifications of the Project 23700 class reveals that the vessel is suspiciously well appointed in terms of accommodation.

Based on documentation published by the Yantar Shipyard, the vessel has “enhanced comfort facilities” that appear to be far beyond what would normally be found on a rescue ship. These include eight residential units, with bedrooms, bathrooms, and offices, a conference room, a passenger wardroom with a pantry, and various walk-through areas. While at least some of these facilities would be expected, with a lower degree of comfort, on a new ocean-going vessel, it is notable that, in 2019, it emerged that Yantar announced it was seeking a contractor to carry out work “on the comprehensive equipment of the ship’s high-comfort spaces on the vessel.” The starting price for the contract was around $2.9 million, based on the exchange rate at the time.

As such, some have claimed that the Voyevoda is primarily intended to serve as a yacht for Russia’s “chief executive,” President Vladimir Putin.

Even during its construction, questions began to be raised about the ship’s actual role.

Back in 2017, shipbuilding industry sources told the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant that they “expressed doubts that the ship will be used for rescue missions.” Instead, they suggested it was more likely a “special dual-use vessel” or a “yacht for dignitaries.”

In the newspaper, Alexander Bogdashevsky, director of the Ameta company, which specializes in building private motor yachts, added:

“This vessel’s architecture and described functionality are more reminiscent of the currently popular expedition yacht type. The design, however, is very utilitarian, falling short of a full-fledged yacht for a private client, but perhaps this is intentional. I believe there is every reason to believe that the vessel’s true purpose does not correspond to its stated goals, and it will be used for the specific needs of very high-ranking government officials.”

Other notable features of the Voyevoda include the smart blue and white livery that is in contrast to the rest of the Marine Rescue Service fleet. A possible presidential seal has also been noted on the vessel in the past.

Whether carrying Putin or other officials, its long range means that it could be used for state visits further abroad, with its small boats and helicopters being used to keep it supplied and to move officials between the ship and the land, without needing to dock.

The long-standing rumors of the Voyevoda being “Putin’s yacht” may well be the reason that, according to CAST, several reports about the recent commissioning of the vessel were later removed from the internet. With the strains of the Ukrainian war and the effects of broader tensions with the West, including sanctions, being felt by much of the Russian populace, it could well be imagined that now might not be an opportune time to publicize such an investment.

Provided that the Voyevoda ends up being used as a presidential yacht, as the claims suggest, even if for only part of its duties, it would need to be equipped with facilities for critical ‘continuity of government’ missions. This would include an elaborate communications system and a capable self-defense suite, especially considering the growing threat from drones of various kinds.

It should also be noted that Russia has a track record of building dual-use vessels that blur the boundaries between civilian and military roles. A case in point is the Project 23550, an ice-breaking ship that is armed with guns, with the option to further increase its firepower in the future, including adding cruise missiles.

Putin himself is thought to be no stranger to yachts, but his full-scale invasion of Ukraine has made their operations extremely complicated.

There is Graceful, also codenamed Kosatka (meaning killer whale). This $100-million yacht was designed by Blohm and Voss in Germany and was constructed in Russia’s Sevmash Shipyard on the White Sea.

Inside GRACEFUL Yacht • Blohm Voss • 2014 • Owner Vladimir Putin

Just before the full-scale invasion, the Graceful left Hamburg, where it was undergoing a refit, apparently on Putin’s orders. It then made its way to Kaliningrad, and it has since been placed on a U.S. sanctions list.

It is far from alone, with dozens of oligarch-owned superyachts around the world having either been seized or sanctioned.

The U.S. government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) now lists the Graceful as “blocked property in which President Vladimir Putin has an interest.”

Meanwhile, the $700-million Scheherazade, rumored to be the largest superyacht the Russian president has an interest in, has been impounded in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara, where it was undergoing repairs.

With that in mind, having access to another yacht, but one that’s formally owned and operated by the Marine Rescue Service, could be one way of avoiding the same fate as some of these other vessels. On the other hand, the reality is that Russia’s leader has only a very limited possibility of using these kinds of ships, especially as long as the country remains ostracized from much of the international community and at war with Ukraine. The vessel could quickly become a top symbolic target and Ukraine has become incredibly capable at striking maritime targets far from home.

Just outfitting this vessel with basic defenses would not be enough to ensure security for such a high-profile user. It would need to be extensively equipped and under escort by a surface combatant if it intends to stray outside of Russian waters with the president onboard.

And this is all a lot of work for what would still be a far cry from a real super yacht or even a well outfitted, dedicated exploration yacht.

Certainly, it would be harder to pin its ownership on Putin or any other Russian official or oligarch, should it begin to be used for leisure duties. It may make more sense that this is something of a state-owned and operated hybrid vessel that can accommodate VIPs, from officials to industrial barons, without the fear of sanctions and a reasonable amount of baked-in security.

That’s if it is actually equipped with any decently luxurious spaces at all. The glazed deck below the bridge is of interest, but the ship doesn’t have any other luxury features that can be identified externally based on the limited imagery we have.

For now, the Voyevoda is officially working in the ranks of the Marine Rescue Service as an emergency rescue vessel, but, if the rumors turn out to be true, this may very well not be its only assignment.

It being a dedicated vessel for Putin, that assumption seems like more of a reach without further info, at least at this time.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen launched air strikes against secessionist forces in the south, after their leader failed to attend peace talks in Riyadh. Yemen’s internationally recognised government has accused Aidarous al-Zubaidi of “high treason.”

US President Donald Trump and his officials are “actively” discussing a potential offer to buy the Danish territory of Greenland, the White House has confirmed.

It is “something that’s currently being actively discussed by the president and his national security team”, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.

Both Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly stressed the island was not for sale.

Asked why the Trump administration had previously said it was not ruling out using military force to acquire Greenland, Leavitt replied that all options were always on the table but Trump’s “first option always has been diplomacy”.

Concerns over the future of the territory resurfaced after Trump’s unilateral use of military force against Venezuela on Saturday to seize its President Nicolás Maduro. Denmark, a fellow Nato ally, says an attack on its territory would end the military alliance.

The Trump administration says Greenland is vital to US security.

Despite being the most sparsely populated territory, its location between North America and the Arctic makes it well placed for early warning systems in the event of missile attacks, and for monitoring vessels in the region.

Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, has been operated by the US since World War 2.

In recent years, there has also been increased interest in Greenland’s natural resources, including rare earth minerals, uranium and iron that are becoming easier to access as its ice melts due to climate change. Scientists think it could also have significant oil and gas reserves.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he will hold talks with Denmark next week.

Trump previously made an offer to buy the island in 2019, during his first presidential term, only to be told it was not for sale.

“The acquisition of Greenland by the United States is not a new idea,” Leavitt said.

“The president has been very open and clear with all of you and with the world, that he views it in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region, and so that’s why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like.”

The White House said earlier this week that Trump had been discussing a range of options to acquire Greenland, including using military force.

“All options are always on the table for President Trump as he examines what’s in the best interests of the United States,” Leavitt said.

Earlier in the day, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Rubio had “ruled out the possibility of an invasion” of Greenland in a phone call with him.

Barrot is due to discuss the Arctic island with his German and Polish counterparts later on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, European leaders issued a joint statement rallying behind Denmark.

“Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations,” the leaders of France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark said in a joint statement.

Stressing they were as keen as the US on Arctic security, the European signatories said this must be achieved by Nato allies, including the US, “collectively”.

They also called for “upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders”.

A day after the US military action in Venezuela, Katie Miller, the wife of one of Trump’s senior aides, posted a map on social media of Greenland in the colours of the US flag, alongside the word “SOON”.

On Monday, her husband, Stephen Miller, said it was “the formal position of the US government that Greenland should be part of the US”.

Aaja Chemnitz, one of two MPs in the Danish parliament representing Greenland, told the BBC that the comments from the Trump administration were “a clear threat”.

“It’s completely disrespectful from the US side to not rule out annexing our country and to annex another Nato ally,” she said.

But Chemnitz said she saw this as unlikely – instead, “what we are going to see is that they will put pressure on us in order to make sure that they will take over Greenland over time”.

Aleqatsiaq Peary, a 42-year-old Inuit hunter living in Greenland’s remote northerly town of Qaanaaq, appeared indifferent to the potential of US ownership.

“It would be switching from one master to another, from one occupier to another,” he told the BBC. “We are a colony under Denmark. We are already losing a lot from being under the Danish government.”

Saying that he did not have “time for Trump”, he added that people were “in need”. Hunters like him, he explained, hunted with dogs on the sea ice and fish “but the sea ice is melting and hunters cannot make a living anymore”.

Additional reporting by Adrienne Murray in Copenhagen

Three schoolchildren have fallen through a window from the top deck of a bus in Greater Manchester, police have said.

A large emergency response attended following the incident on Bolton Road in Ashton-in-Makerfield shortly before 16:00 GMT.

The children have “potentially serious injuries” but they not thought to be life-threatening, Greater Manchester Police said.

An investigation was in the early stages but Inspector Simon Barrie said it “appears to be an unfortunate accident”.

“This is a serious incident that will cause disruption,” he said.

“Our priority is to make sure the children get the treatment they need in hospital. Thankfully we don’t believe their injuries are life-threatening.”

Councillor Danny Fletcher, of Ashton-on-Makerfield South ward, posted on Facebook and said some of the children had suffered potentially life changing injuries.

“I’ve spoken with our policing team this afternoon,” he said.

“As we know, three young people have fallen from a top floor side window of a school bus and have been taken to Manchester Children’s Hospital, some with potentially life changing injuries.

“I’ve contacted the schools involved to ensure they have council support if needed. Sending my thoughts and all my love to the kids and families involved.”

The road has since reopened.

Transport for Greater Manchester said: “Our thoughts are with those injured and we want to wish them a speedy recovery.

“Emergency services remain at the scene, and we are working closely with the bus operator in supporting police with their enquiries into the incident.”

Army chief hits out at foreign ‘rhetoric’ targeting Iran, threatens decisive action to ‘cut off hand of any aggressor’.

Iran’s top judge warned protesters who have taken to the streets during a spiralling economic crisis there will be “no leniency for those who help the enemy against the Islamic Republic”, accusing the US and Israel of sowing chaos.

“Following announcements by Israel and the US president, there is no excuse for those coming to the streets for riots and unrest,” said Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei on Wednesday in comments on the deadly protests carried by Fars news agency.

Amid growing unrest, Iran is under international pressure after US President Donald Trump threatened last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue”.

His threat – accompanied by an assertion that the US is “locked and loaded and ready to go” – came seven months after Israeli and US forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war.

Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the protesters on Sunday, telling ministers, “It is quite possible that we are at a moment when the Iranian people are taking their fate into their own hands.”

Following Ejei’s warning, Iran’s army chief threatened preemptive military action over the “rhetoric” targeting Iran.

Speaking to military academy students, Major-General Amir Hatami – who took over as commander-in-chief of Iran’s army after a slew of top military commanders were killed in Israel’s 12-day war – said the country would “cut off the hand of any aggressor”.

“I can say with confidence that today the readiness of Iran’s armed forces is far greater than before the war. If the enemy commits an error, it will face a more decisive response,” said Hatami.

‘Longstanding anger’

The nationwide demonstrations, which have seen dozens of people killed so far, ignited at the end of last month when shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar shuttered their businesses in anger over the collapse of Iran’s rial currency, against a backdrop of deepening economic woes driven by mismanagement and punishing Western sanctions.

The Iranian state has not announced casualty figures. HRANA, a network of human rights activists, reported a death toll of at least 36 people as well as the arrest of at least 2,076 people. Al Jazeera has been unable to verify any figures.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised not to “yield to the enemy” following Trump’s comments, which acquired added significance after the US military raid that seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran, over the weekend.

Seeking to halt the anger, Iran’s government began on Wednesday paying the equivalent of $7 a month to subsidise rising costs for dinner-table essentials such as rice, meat and pasta – a measure widely deemed to be a meagre response.

“More than a week of protests in Iran reflects not only worsening economic conditions, but longstanding anger at government repression and regime policies that have led to Iran’s global isolation,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said.

United States President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio say they want to free up the flow of Venezuelan oil to benefit Venezuelans after US forces abducted President Nicolas Maduro from Caracas.

“We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which requires billions of dollars that will be paid for by the oil companies directly,” Trump said at a media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida hours after Maduro was seized on Saturday. “They will be reimbursed for what they’re doing, but it’s going to be paid, and we’re going to get the oil flowing.”

Then, on Tuesday, the US president said he wanted to use proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan oil “to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States”. Rubio has echoed Trump in his comments in recent days.

But what has been holding back the flow of Venezuelan oil, preventing the country from attracting investments and driving the country into poverty?

A key reason is one that Trump and Rubio have been silent about: Washington’s own efforts to strangle Venezuela’s oil industry and economy through sanctions, which also have set off a refugee crisis.

What has Trump said about Venezuelan oil?

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday night, Trump said Venezuela will turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the US.

Trump wrote: “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”

Trump added that he had directed his energy secretary, Chris Wright, to execute the plan “immediately”.

“It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States,” Trump wrote.

During the news conference on Saturday, Trump said US oil companies would fix Venezuela’s “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country”.

Earlier Trump had accused Venezuela in a Truth Social post of “stealing” US oil, land and other assets and using that oil to fund crime, “terrorism” and human trafficking. Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller has made similar claims in recent days.

What does it mean for the US to take Venezuelan oil?

Oil is trading at roughly $56 per barrel.

Based on this price, 30 million barrels of oil would be worth $1.68bn and 50 million barrels of oil would be worth $2.8bn.

“Trump’s statement about oil in Venezuela is beyond an act of war; it is an act of colonisation. That is also illegal based on the UN Charter,” Vijay Prashad, the director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research based in Argentina, Brazil, India, and South Africa, told Al Jazeera.

Ilias Bantekas, a professor of transnational law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that the US involvement in Venezuela was “less about Maduro as it is about access to Venezuela’s oil deposits”.

“This [oil] is the number one target. Trump is not content with just allowing US oil firms to get concessions but to ‘run’ the country, which entails absolute and indefinite control over Venezuela’s resources.”

According to the website of the US Energy Information Administration, the US consumed an average of 20.25 million barrels of petroleum per day in 2023.

What has Rubio said about Venezuelan oil?

In an interview on the NBC TV network’s Meet the Press programme that aired on Sunday, Rubio said: “We are at war against drug trafficking organisations. That’s not a war against Venezuela.”

“No more drug trafficking … and no more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries around the world and not benefitting the people of Venezuela or, frankly, benefitting the United States and the region,” Rubio said.

Rubio said in the interview that since 2014, about eight million Venezuelans have fled the country, which he attributed to theft and corruption by Maduro and his allies. According to a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from May, nearly 7.9 million people have indeed left Venezuela.

But he was silent on the US’s own role in creating that crisis.

What are the US sanctions against Venezuela’s oil?

Venezuela nationalised its oil industry in 1976 under then-President Carlos Andres Perez during an oil boom. He established the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) to control all oil resources.

Venezuela continued to be a major oil exporter to the US for some years, supplying 1.5 million to 2 million barrels per day in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

After President Hugo Chavez took office in 1998, he nationalised all oil assets, seized foreign-owned assets, restructured the PDVSA and prioritised using oil revenue for social programmes in Venezuela.

From 2003 to 2007, Venezuela under Chavez managed to cut its poverty rate in half – from 57 percent to 27.5 percent. Extreme poverty fell even more sharply, by 70 percent.

But exports declined, and government authorities were accused of mismanagement.

The US first imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil in retaliation for nationalising US oil assets in 2005.

Under US sanctions, many senior Venezuelan government officials and companies have been barred from accessing any property or financial assets held in the US. They cannot access US bank accounts, sell property or access their money if it passes through the US financial system.

Critically, any US companies or citizens doing business with any sanctioned individual or company will be penalised and risk becoming subject to enforcement actions.

Maduro took over as president in 2013 after Chavez’s death. In 2017, Trump, during his first term in office, imposed more sanctions and tightened them again in 2019. This further restricted sales to the US and access for Venezuelan companies to the global financial system. As a result, oil exports to the US nearly stopped, and Venezuela shifted its trade mainly to China with some sales to India and Cuba.

Last month, the Trump administration imposed yet more sanctions – this time on Maduro family members and Venezuelan tankers carrying sanctioned oil.

Today, the PDVSA controls the petroleum industry in Venezuela, and US involvement in Venezuelan oil drilling is limited. Houston-based Chevron is the only US company that still operates in Venezuela.

How have sanctions hurt Venezuela’s oil flows?

Trump might today be interested in getting Venezuelan oil flowing, but it is US sanctions that blocked that flow in the first place.

Venezuela’s oil reserves are concentrated primarily in the Orinoco Belt, a region in the eastern part of the country stretching across roughly 55,000sq km (21,235sq miles).

While the country is home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves – at an estimated 303 billion barrels – it earns only a fraction of the revenue it once did from exporting crude.

[BELOW: The sentence above promises statistics that will show how much oil exports have dropped, but the next graf doesn’t deliver. We should add that figure]

According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Venezuela exported $4.05bn of crude oil in 2023. This is far below other major exporters, including Saudi Arabia ($181bn), the US ($125bn) and Russia ($122bn).

How have US sanctions hurt Venezuelans and the country’s oil infrastructure?

The US sanctions on Venezuelan oil prevent US and non-US companies from doing business with the PDVSA. Because the US is a market no one wants to lose, firms, including banks, are wary of taking any steps that could invite Washington’s sanctions.

In effect, that has meant Venezuela’s oil industry has been almost entirely deprived of international financial investment.

The sanctions additionally restrict Venezuela from accessing oilfield equipment, specialised software, drilling services and refinery components from Western companies.

This has resulted in years of underinvestment in the PDVSA’s infrastructure, leading to chronic breakdowns, shutdowns and accidents.

The sanctions have also resulted in broader economic turmoil.

The country’s gross domestic product per capita stood at about $4,200 in 2024, according to World Bank data, down from more than $13,600 in 2010.

From about 2012, the economy went into a sharp decline, driven by domestic economic policies, a slump that was later deepened by US sanctions. The resulting hardships have pushed millions of Venezuelans to leave the country – the same people who Trump and Rubio now argue should benefit from Venezuela’s oil revenues.

Does the US have any claim to Venezuelan oil?

US companies began drilling for oil in Venezuela in the early 1900s.

In 1922, vast petroleum reserves were initially discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in Lake Maracaibo in Zulia state in northwestern Venezuela.

At this point, US companies ramped up their investments in the extraction and development of Venezuelan oil reserves. Companies such as Standard Oil led development under concession agreements, propelling Venezuela to a position as a key global supplier, especially for the US.

Venezuela was a founding member of OPEC, joining at its creation on September 14, 1960. OPEC is a group of major oil-exporting countries that work together to manage supply and influence global oil prices.

But the claims by Trump and Miller that Venezuela somehow “stole” US oil are baseless under international law, experts said.

The principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources, adopted by the UN General Assembly in a resolution in 1962, is clear that sovereign states have the inherent right to control, use and dispose of their resources for their own development.

In other words, Venezuela alone owns its oil.

US President Donald Trump sees Greenland as a United States national security priority to deter Washington’s “adversaries in the Arctic region”, according to a White House statement released on Tuesday.

The statement came days after Trump told reporters that the US needs Greenland from a national security perspective because it is “covered with Russian and Chinese ships”.

Here’s what you need to know about what Trump said, whether Russia and China are present in Greenland, and whether they do pose a threat to American security.

What has Trump recently said about Greenland?

“Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on January 4.

The White House statement on Tuesday fleshed out further details on how the US would go about its acquisition of Greenland.

“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” the White House statement says.

Over the course of his second term, Trump has talked about wanting Greenland for national security reasons multiple times.

“We need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it,” he said in March.

Since 1979, Greenland has been a self-governing territory of Denmark, and since 2009, it has had the right to declare independence through a referendum.

Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to take control of the island, which hosts a US military base. He first voiced this desire in 2019, during his first term as US president.

As a response, leaders from Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said that Greenland is not for sale. They have made it clear that they are especially not interested in becoming part of the US.

On January 4, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the US needing to take over Greenland.”

“The US has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish kingdom,” she said, alluding to the Faroe Islands, which, like Greenland, are also a Danish territory.

“I would therefore strongly urge the US to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have very clearly said that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

US special forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during an operation in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, on January 3.

Hours later, Katie Miller, the wife of close Trump aide and US Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, posted a photo on X showing the US flag imposed on the map of Greenland.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen hit back in an X post, writing, “Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law – not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights.”

Why does Trump want Greenland so badly?

The location and natural resources of the Arctic island make it strategically important for Washington.

Greenland is geographically part of North America, located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean. It is home to some 56,000 residents, mostly Indigenous Inuit people.

It is the world’s largest island. Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, is closer to New York City  – some 2,900km (1,800 miles) away – than the Danish capital Copenhagen, which is located 3,500km (2,174 miles) to the east.

Greenland, a NATO territory through Denmark, is an EU-associated overseas country and territory whose residents remain European Union citizens, having joined the European Community with Denmark in 1973 but having withdrawn in 1985.

“It’s really tricky if the United States decides to use military power to take over Greenland. Denmark is a member of NATO; the United States is a member as well. It really calls into question what the purpose of the military alliance is, if that happens,” Melinda Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Eurasia Center, told Al Jazeera.

Greenland offers the shortest route from North America to Europe. This gives the US a strategic upper hand for its military and its ballistic missile early-warning system.

The US has expressed interest in expanding its military presence in Greenland by placing radars in the waters connecting Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom. These waters are a gateway for Russian and Chinese vessels, which Washington aims to track.

The island is also incredibly rich in minerals, including rare earth minerals used in the high-tech industry and in the manufacture of batteries.

According to a 2023 survey, 25 of 34 minerals deemed “critical raw materials” by the European Commission were found in Greenland.

Greenland does not carry out the extraction of oil and gas, and its mining sector is opposed by its Indigenous population. The island’s economy is largely reliant on its fishing industry.

Are Chinese and Russian ships swarming Greenland?

However, while Trump has spoken of Russian and Chinese ships around Greenland, currently, facts don’t bear that out.

Vessel tracking data from maritime data and intelligence websites such as MarineTraffic do not show the presence of Chinese or Russian ships near Greenland.

Are Russia and China a threat to Greenland?

The ships’ location aside, Trump’s rhetoric comes amid a heightened scramble for the Arctic.

Amid global warming, the vast untapped resources of the Arctic are becoming more accessible. Countries like the US, Canada, China and Russia are now eyeing these resources.

“Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic, but we will closely follow the developments and mount an appropriate response by increasing our military capability and modernising military infrastructure,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said during an address in March 2025 at the International Arctic Forum in the Russian city of Murmansk, the largest city within the Arctic Circle.

During this address, Putin said that he believed Trump was serious about taking Greenland and that the US will continue with efforts to acquire it.

In December 2024, Canada released a policy document detailing plans to ramp up its military and diplomatic presence in the Arctic. Russia is also constructing military installations and power plants in the region.

Meanwhile, Russia and China have been working together to develop Arctic shipping routes as Moscow seeks to deliver more oil and gas to China amid Western sanctions while Beijing seeks an alternative shipping route to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca.

The Northern Sea Route (NSR), a maritime route in the Arctic Ocean, is becoming easier to navigate due to melting ice. The NSR can cut shipping trips significantly short. Russia is hoping to ramp up commerce through the NSR to trade more with Asia than Europe due to Western sanctions. Last year, the number of oil shipments from Russia to China via the NSR rose by a quarter.

China is also probing the region, and has sent 10 scientific expeditions to the Arctic and built research vessels to survey the icy waters north of Russia.

Who: Arsenal vs Liverpool
What: English Premier League
Where: Emirates Stadium in London, United Kingdom
When: Thursday, January 8, at 8pm (20:00 GMT).
How to follow: We will have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our text commentary stream.

Table-topping Arsenal entertain defending champions Liverpool in a mouth-watering offering in the English Premier League on Thursday, with glory on offer for the former but pride heavily at stake for the latter.

The Gunners are searching for their first league title since 2003, while the Reds are licking their wounds from a season that has almost inexplicably imploded following their runaway success last term.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at the match in which a home win is fully expected, but nothing can ever be taken for granted in the Premier League.

How have Arsenal fared in the Premier League this season?

The Gunners have stormed to top spot as manager Mikel Arteta looks to go one better than three consecutive second-placed finishes in the English top flight.

Only one defeat in 21 matches to begin the season – the loss coming at Liverpool – has marked Arsenal as the team to stop on all fronts. Free-scoring in front of the goal and miserly at the back, Arteta appears to have finally cracked the code.

How do things stand in the Premier League title race?

The gap with second-placed Manchester City is six points, ahead of Pep Guardiola’s side welcoming Brighton and Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.

Aston Villa are level on points with City, and travel to Crystal Palace on Wednesday, but their 4-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal on December 30 was regarded as a serious dent to their title ambitions.

What has gone wrong for Liverpool in the Premier League this season?

The Reds enjoyed a stunning start to the new campaign, which made their demise this season all the more alarming. Slot’s side won their opening five league matches as part of a seven-game winning run in all competitions.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot insists his reigning champions can still do “special things” this season.

“It is nine games unbeaten but we have definitely had two draws too many,” Slot told a pre-match news conference on Wednesday.

A great deal of the focus for the Reds’ slide, which saw them lose the following four Premier League games on the bounce after their fine start, has focused on the fallout with their iconic forward Mohamed Salah.

Slot has insisted the club have moved on since Salah’s departure for international duty with Egypt at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, but questions remain across the park.

“We haven’t had the consistency but we’ve already beaten some very good teams, so that tells you the talent is definitely there but the consistency isn’t,” he said.

Only 41 goals were conceded by Liverpool last season, but 28 have already been let in during their 20 games so far this season.

The massive summer spending spree, which was headlined by Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz as marquee signings, has seemingly unsettled the balance of a side that stormed to the title last season.

The talent of both, and the rest brought in, is quite clear, but whether Slot can gel them into a side capable of salvaging this season and beyond remains to be seen.

The manager believes his side are still in the reckoning in the league.

“There’s a lot of importance on this match because we still have a lot to play for in the Premier League,” said Slot.

What happened the last time Arsenal played Liverpool?

Liverpool secured a 1-0 win against Arsenal in an early-season encounter between the sides in the Premier League on August 31 at Anfield.

Dominik Szoboszlai scored the only goal of the game with an explosive free-kick in the 83rd minute of an otherwise tight match.

What happened in the corresponding game between Arsenal and Liverpool last season?

The sides could not be separated in last season’s Premier League match at Emirates Stadium, although Liverpool had to twice come from behind – including a late Mohamed Salah leveller – to snare a 2-2 draw.

Bukayo Saka and Mikel Merino had given the Gunners the lead twice in the first half with Virgil van Dijk netting in between.

The Reds, however, had to nervously wait until the 81st minute for Salah to secure a point.

When did Arsenal last beat Liverpool?

Arsenal’s last win against Liverpool came three seasons ago, courtesy of a 3-1 victory at Emirates Stadium in February 2024.

A fiery match saw nine yellow cards shown and Reds defender Ibrahima Konate sent off in the 88th minute when his side were still searching for an equaliser.

Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli scored in either half to twice give the Gunners the lead, either side of Gabriel Magalhaes’s own goal.

Leandro Trossard rounded off the scoring in the 90th minute.

Stat attack – Arsenal

The Gunners are on a seven-game winning streak, during which they have netted 13 goals and conceded only six – two of which came in the win against Brighton in their last game.

The north Londoners are the only team to retain an unbeaten home record in the Premier League at this stage, winning nine of their 10 matches at Emirates Stadium. The Gunners have fired in 26 goals in front of their own fans in the league this season, and conceded only five.

Bukayo Saka, such a huge part of the Gunners’ form of recent seasons, is aiming to become the first Arsenal player to score in four straight league home games against Liverpool.

Stat attack – Liverpool

Liverpool are unbeaten in nine matches, winning five, but have drawn their last two – both in the league.

The Reds have kept only one clean sheet in their last seven league matches – a 2-0 home victory against Brighton and the 0-0 draw at Leeds two games ago.

Eight goals have been shipped in that time, with 12 scored.

Four of their six defeats this season have come on the road – where they have also won four and drawn two – with 18 goals conceded on their travels and only 17 scored.

Even bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers have not shipped so many goals away from home.

Arsenal vs Liverpool – stat attack

Liverpool are unbeaten in three matches against Arsenal, winning the last match and drawing twice.

That victory for the Reds, however, ended a six-match winless run in the league, during which the Gunners won twice.

The last victory for the Reds prior to that stretch was the last time the Merseysiders won at Emirates Stadium, back in March 2022, with goals from Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota.

The Gunners have won two of the three league meetings in London since then.

Head-to-head

This is the 246th meeting between the sides, with Liverpool winning 95 of the matches and Arsenal emerging victorious on 81 occasions.

Arsenal team news

Max Dowman and Cristhian Mosquera miss out, with both struggling with ankle problems, while Riccardo Calafiori is a doubt due to an unspecified injury.

Kai Havertz was rested from the squad that was named for the win at Bournemouth and may have to make do with a place on the bench at best as his recovery from a previous injury is managed.

Predicted Arsenal starting lineup

Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice; Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard

Liverpool team news

Salah remains at AFCON with Egypt, while Isak is a long-term absentee with a leg injury.

Fellow forward Hugo Ekitike missed the draw with Fulham due to a muscle problem and remains a doubt.

Florian Wirtz is nursing a hamstring problem but is expected to continue to play through the issue.

Giovanni Leoni and Wataru Endo remain longer-term absentees.

Predicted Liverpool starting lineup

Alisson; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Mac Allister, Gravenberch; Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Jones; Gakpo

Arsenal and Liverpool form guides

• Arsenal: W-W-W-W-W
• Liverpool: W-W-W-D-D

The United States military is attempting to seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker with links to Venezuela after a weeks-long pursuit, US and Russian media outlets report.

Two unnamed US officials told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday the operation is being carried out by the Coast Guard and US military.

‌Russian state broadcaster RT reported it appears US forces are trying to board Venezuela-linked oil tanker Marinera from a helicopter, and published ⁠an image of a helicopter ​hovering near the ship.

RT cited an unnamed source as saying a US ​coast guard vessel has been ‌following the tanker and an attempt to seize it during a storm had already been ‌carried out.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has been ‌cited by state media as ⁠saying the ship, which is now flying the Russian flag, is in international waters and ‌acting according to international maritime law.

It called on Western countries to ‍respect the vessel’s right to freedom of navigation.

More to come…