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Venezuela’s UN ambassador denounces US military strikes and naval blockade at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Venezuela has told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that the United States has “continental ambitions” over much of Latin America as it wages an unofficial war to remove the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“It’s not just about Venezuela. The ambition is continental,” Venezuela’s UN ambassador, Samuel Moncada, told a meeting of the 15-member UNSC on Tuesday.

“The US government has expressed this in its National Security Strategy, which states that the future of the continent belongs to them,” Moncada said.

“We want to alert the world that Venezuela is only the first target of a larger plan. The US government wants us to be divided so it can conquer us piece by piece,” he said.

Venezuela, earlier this month, requested that the UNSC meet to address the “ongoing US aggression”, which began in September when the White House launched air strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The White House claimed, without providing any evidence, that the vessels were trafficking drugs to the US.

At least 105 people have been killed so far in the attacks by US forces, which legal experts and Latin American leaders have branded “extrajudicial killings”, but which Washington claims are necessary to stem the flow of drugs to US shores.

At the UNSC meeting, Moncada also accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of violating both international and US domestic law, since the White House has been acting without the approval of the US Congress, whose authority is required to formally declare war on another country.

Moncada said that Trump’s imposition last week of a naval blockade on all Venezuelan oil tankers sanctioned by the US was a “military act aimed at laying siege to the Venezuelan nation”.

“Today, the masks have come off,” Moncada said. “It is not drugs, it is not security, it is not freedom. It is oil, it is mines and it is land.”

US envoy denounces ‘Maduro and his illegitimate regime’

US forces have seized at least two Venezuelan oil tankers and confiscated at least 4 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, according to Moncada, in a move he described as “a robbery carried out by military force”.

The US has defended its naval blockade of Venezuela as a “law enforcement” action to be carried out by the US coastguard, which has the authority to board ships under US sanctions. A naval blockade, by contrast, would be considered an act of war under international law.

The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the UNSC that Latin American drug cartels remain the “single most serious threat” and that Trump would continue to use the full power of the US to eradicate them. Waltz also said that Venezuelan oil is a critical component in funding the cartels in Venezuela.

“The reality of the situation is that sanctioned oil tankers operate as the primary economic lifeline for Maduro and his illegitimate regime,” he said.

The White House earlier this year designated several international drug cartels, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as terrorist organisations. Washington also added the “Cartel de los Soles,” which it claims is headed by Maduro, to the list in November.

The Venezuelan leader has denied the US allegations and accused the Trump administration of using the drug trafficking claims as a cover to carry out “regime change” in his country.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN separately warned that US “intervention” in Venezuela could “become a template for future acts of force against Latin American states”.

China’s ambassador told the UNSC that the US actions “seriously infringe” on the “sovereignty, security and legitimate rights” of Venezuela.

The United States has imposed visa bans on five Europeans, including a former European Union commissioner, accusing them of pressuring tech firms to censor and suppress “American viewpoints they oppose”.

In a statement on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterised the individuals as “radical activists” who had “advanced censorship crackdowns” by foreign states against “American speakers and American companies”.

“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose,” he said on X.

“The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship,” he added.

The most prominent target was Thierry Breton, who served as the European commissioner for the internal market from 2019-2024.

Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary for public diplomacy, described the French businessman as the “mastermind” of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a landmark law intended to combat ​hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation on online platforms.

Rogers also accused Breton of using the DSA to threaten Elon Musk, the owner of X and a close ally of US President Donald Trump, ahead of an interview Musk conducted with Trump during last year’s presidential campaign.

‘Witch hunt’

Breton responded to the visa ban in a post on X, slamming it as a “witch hunt” and comparing the situation with the US’s McCarthy era, when officials were chased out of government for alleged ties to communism.

“To our American friends: Censorship isn’t where you think it is,” he added.

The others named by Rogers are: Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German organisation, and Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index (GDI).

French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot “strongly” condemned the visa restrictions, stating that the EU “cannot let the rules governing their digital space be imposed by others upon them”. He stressed that the DSA was “democratically adopted in Europe” and that “it has absolutely no extraterritorial reach and in no way affects the United States”.

Ballon and von Holdenberg of HateAid described the visa bans as an attempt to obstruct the enforcement of European law on US corporations operating in Europe.

“We will not be ‌intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who stand ⁠up for human rights and freedom of expression,” they said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the GDI also called the US action “immoral, unlawful, and un-American”, as well as “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship”.

The punitive measures follow the Trump administration’s publishing of a National Security Strategy, which accused European leaders of censoring free speech and suppressing opposition to immigration policies that it said risk “civilisational erasure” for the continent.

The DSA in particular has emerged as a flashpoint in US-EU relations, with US conservatives decrying it as a weapon of censorship against right-wing thought in Europe and beyond, an accusation Brussels denies.

The legislation requires major platforms to explain content-moderation decisions, provide transparency for users and grant researchers access to study issues such as children’s exposure to dangerous content.

Tensions escalated further this month after the EU fined Musk’s X for violating DSA rules on transparency in advertising and its methods for ensuring users were verified and actual people.

Washington last week signalled that key European businesses – including Accenture, DHL, Mistral, Siemens and Spotify – could be targeted in response.

The US has also attacked the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, which imposes similar content moderation requirements on major social media platforms.

The White House last week suspended the implementation of a tech cooperation deal with the UK, saying it was in opposition to the UK’s tech rules.

Talks held between Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani, Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and the Russian president.

Syria’s foreign and defence ministers met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and held discussions on expanding “strategic cooperation in the military industries sector”, Syrian state media has reported.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) ⁠said that Putin’s meeting on Tuesday with Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani and Minister of Defence Murhaf Abu Qasra ‌focused on political, economic and military issues of “mutual interest”, but that “particular emphasis” was on defence.

According to SANA, Putin and the Syrian ministers discussed a range of defence-related matters, including developing military cooperation to strengthen the Syrian army’s capabilities and ‌modernising its equipment, transferring expertise and cooperation in research and development.

“During the meeting, both sides reviewed ways to advance military and technical partnership in a manner that strengthens the defensive capabilities of the Syrian Arab Army and keeps pace with modern developments in military industries,” SANA reported.

The two sides also discussed political and economic issues, including the “importance of continued political and diplomatic coordination between Damascus and Moscow in international forums”, according to the news agency.

On the economic front, the talks addressed expanding Syrian-Russian cooperation, including in reconstruction projects, infrastructure development and investment in Syria.

Putin also reaffirmed Russian “steadfast support” for Syria and its territorial integrity, while renewing “Moscow’s condemnation of repeated Israeli violations of Syrian territory, describing them as a direct threat to regional security and stability”.

The ministers’ visit to Moscow is the latest by Syria’s new authorities since the removal from power last December of the country’s longtime ruler and Moscow’s former ally in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad.

Russia was a key supporter of al-Assad during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, providing vital military aid that kept the Assad regime in power, including Russian air support that rained air strikes on rebel-held areas.

Despite al-Assad and his family fleeing to Russia after the toppling of his regime, Moscow is eager to build good relations with the new government in Damascus.

Moscow, in particular, is hoping to secure agreements to continue operating the Khmeimim airbase and the Tartous naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, where Russian forces continue to be present.

In October, Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, visited Russia, where he said his government ‍would honour all the past deals struck between Damascus and Moscow, a pledge that suggested that the two Russian military bases were secure in the post-Assad period.

Putin said ‍at the time of al-Sharaa’s visit ⁠that Moscow was ready to do all it could to act on what he called the “many interesting and useful beginnings” discussed by the two sides on renewing relations.

Russian ‌state media on Tuesday quoted the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, as saying that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would also hold talks with ‍his Syrian counterpart, Al-Shaibani, during the Syrian delegation’s visit.

During a visit to Moscow in July, Al-Shaibani said his country wanted Russia “by our side”.

“The current period is full of various challenges and threats, but it is also an opportunity to build a united and strong Syria. And, of course, we are interested in having Russia by our side on this path,” Al-Shaibani told Lavrov at the time.

Dec. 23 (UPI) — An explosion Tuesday afternoon at a nursing home in eastern Pennsylvania killed at least two and left many injured and missing, local officials said.

The explosion took place at 2:15 p.m. EST at the Silver Lake Nursing Home in the borough of Bristol. It originated in the nursing home’s basement and caused a fire and part of the building to collapse, a Bucks County spokesperson told NBC News.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to the nursing home’s location and told media a gas leak is suspected of causing the deadly explosion and fire.

Shapiro commended the actions of police, firefighters and other first-responders to help others and minimize potential casualties.

The nursing home has 174 beds, most of which were occupied, and a worker told WCAU that about 50 people usually are inside the building.

The nursing home is located about 20 miles south of Philadelphia, and most of its residents are between ages 50 and 95.

The explosion shook nearby buildings and caused a response from fire departments and first responders in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery, Bucks and Philadelphia Counties, plus another from Burlington County in New Jersey.

This is a developing story.

Hindutva activists tried to storm the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, India as they rallied against the neighbouring nation for failing to protect its Hindu minorities. The demonstration comes after a 25-year-old Hindu man was lynched and burned publicly following allegations of blasphemy.

Dec. 23 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Education has signaled that next year it will resume garnishing wages of people who’ve defaulted on their student loans.

The change, reported by multiple news outlets, comes after a years-long respite on garnishment that began as a pandemic-era economic relief measure. The resumption follows other Trump administration efforts to recoup past-due student loan debt.

The department intends to notify about 1,000 borrowers who have defaulted on their debt that it will begin seizing parts of their paychecks, The Washington Post reported Monday. The initial notices will go out the week of Jan. 7, with more going out to borrowers each month, according to the paper.

Roughly 5.3 million borrowers have not made student loan payments, with many having fallen behind before the federal government stopped collecting on defaulted loans nearly six years ago, the Post reported.

A borrower is considered to be in default on their loan when they have not made a payment for more than 270 days. Up to 15% of their pay can be garnished as a result.

After returning to power earlier this year, the Trump administration has sought to undo Biden-era policies meant to ease the burden of student loans on borrowers. The department announced in April that it would again require defaulted borrowers to make payments on their loans and has sought to tighten rules for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The Trump administration has defended its approach, saying it’s holding irresponsible borrowers accountable for loans that have cost taxpayers billions.

However, the Student Borrower Protection Center criticized the department for resuming garnishments, saying the measure is used without oversight and has been used to unjustifiably seize wages from hundreds of millions during the pandemic.

“At a time when families across the country are struggling with stagnant wages and an affordability crisis, this administration’s decision to garnish wages from defaulted student loan borrowers is cruel, unnecessary, and irresponsible,” Persis Yu, the group’s deputy executive director and managing counsel, said in a statement. “As millions of borrowers sit on the precipice of default, this administration is using its self-inflicted limited resources to seize borrowers’ wages instead of defending borrowers’ right to affordable payments.”

Dec. 23 (UPI) — A Delaware state trooper and a shooting suspect are dead after an incident occurred before 2 p.m. EST at a Division of Motor Vehicles office in New Castle, Del.

Neither the deceased officer’s name nor the suspect’s name were released as law enforcement investigated the matter, USA Today reported.

No information has been provided about potential injuries to others, but local police are assessing them.

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer confirmed the shooting and said there was no active threat against the public in a post on X.

“Law enforcement acted swiftly to secure the scene, and the shooter has been confirmed deceased,” Meyer said. “State and local law enforcement are on the scene and coordinating response efforts.”

He asked the public to avoid the area and said updates would be released when available.

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings sent “senior prosecutors” to the scene to help with the investigation, WDEL reported.

No information was initially provided regarding the shooting’s circumstances, and all Delaware DMV offices were closed for the day as of 3 p.m.

Hessler Boulevard and Route 13 were closed in the area near the New Castle DMV location.

New Castle is about 6 miles south of Wilmington, Del.

As the year comes to an end, a deal between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces was expected to come into force.

Instead, fighting has erupted between the two sides in the northern city of Aleppo.

They later agreed to stop the fighting, while blaming each other for the violence.

That deal was supposed to lead to the SDF integrating with the army, but it is stalling on how that should be implemented.

This renewed tension comes as Damascus faces other threats, ranging from ISIL (ISIS) to recurrent conflicts with the Druze community and continuing attacks by Israel.

So what does this complex security situation mean for Syria, a year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests

Haid Haid – Researcher at Chatham House

Steven Heydemann – Professor and Middle East Studies programme director at Smith College

Omer Ozkizilcik – Nonresident fellow for the Syria project in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programme

Dec. 23 (UPI) — At least four law officers were injured Tuesday in La Paz during clashes between marchers from the Central Obrera Boliviana, the country’s largest labor federation, and police as protests intensified over the government’s decision to end fuel subsidies.

President Rodrigo Paz issued a decree Dec. 18 eliminating fuel subsidies that had been in place for nearly 20 years. He also declared an “economic, financial and social emergency” to justify the reform and paired the measure with a 20% increase in the minimum wage to cushion its impact.

As a result of the decision, gasoline and diesel stopped being sold at state-controlled prices of about 53 cents per liter and shifted to prices reflecting the real cost of imports, leading to increases of nearly 200% for consumers.

According to reports by the Bolivian newspaper El Deber, the incidents that left police officers injured occurred near Plaza Murillo, close to the government palace, when miners and transport workers attempted to approach areas secured by law offivers.

The Ministry of Government said the injured officers were attacked with stones and blunt objects while carrying out public order duties.

Police said a miner was detained for allegedly throwing fireworks and dynamite. Labor leaders, meanwhile, criticized using tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Union leaders warned that protests will continue unless their main demand is met — the repeal of the decree that eliminated fuel subsidies.

Bolivia’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office said that after the fuel price changes, fares for interdepartmental, interprovincial and urban transportation rose by as much as nearly 200% in several regions, according to La Razón.

After inspections at transport terminals and hubs in La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the ombudsman’s office documented widespread and unilateral fare hikes that in many cases doubled or even tripled prices, directly affecting the cost of living for Bolivian families.

El Deber reported that similar protests were recorded in Santa Cruz, including temporary road blockades and clashes with police, amid growing public anger over the impact of higher fuel prices on transportation and household expenses.

Authorities reiterated calls for dialogue and warned they will not tolerate violence, while unions said they will maintain mobilizations until the government reviews the measure.

The Israeli government is cracking down on critical media outlets, giving it unprecedented control over how its actions are presented to its citizens.

Among the moves is the so-called Al Jazeera Law, which allows the government to shut down foreign media outlets on national security grounds. On Tuesday, the Israeli parliament approved the extension of the law for two years after it was introduced during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza to essentially stop Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel.

Separately, the government is also moving to shut down the popular Army Radio network, one of two publicly funded Israeli news outlets. The radio station is often criticised by the Israeli right wing, which views Army Radio as being biased against it.

Israelis are still reliant on receiving their news from traditional outlets with about half relying on broadcast news for information on current affairs and about a third similarly relying upon radio stations.

The tone of the media that is allowed to publish and broadcast is important. According to analysts inside Israel, the selective broadcasting of Palestinian suffering during Israel’s war on Gaza has helped sustain the carnage and reinforced a sense of grievance that allows for Israel’s continued assaults on Gaza as well as regional countries, such as Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

Despite what observers characterise as a media environment firmly rigged in its favour, the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which contains ministers convicted of “terrorism” offences and others who have repeatedly called for the illegal annexation of the occupied West Bank, is looking nevertheless to bypass legal checks on its control of the media and bring more of Israel’s information feed under its control.

Let’s take a closer look.

Because the government believes it is too critical.

Israeli politicians have long complained about how the war in Gaza has been covered in both the international and domestic media.

But the government added a new accusation in November, partly blaming the media for the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

“If there hadn’t been a media entirely mobilised to encourage refusal [to volunteer to reserve duty] and reckless opposition to the judicial reform, there wouldn’t have been such a rift in the nation that led the enemy to seize the opportunity,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said as he introduced a bill to increase government control of the news environment, referring to attempts by the Israeli government to reduce the independence of the judiciary.

In addition to the ‘Al Jazeera Law’, there are three items of legislation under way: a plan to privatise Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, the move to abolish Army Radio, and an initiative to bring the media regulator under government control.

Both Army Radio and Kan, the other state-funded outlet with editorial independence, have carried numerous reports critical of the government.

This week, Kan aired an interview with Netanyahu’s former spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who told the broadcaster that the prime minister had instructed him to develop a strategy to help evade responsibility for the October 7 attacks.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, justifying the move to shut down Army Radio, said on Monday that the outlet had become a platform to attack the Israeli military and its soldiers.

Israel is also potentially changing the way it regulates its media. In November, the Israeli parliament pressed ahead with a bill that would abolish existing media regulators and replace them with a new authority appointed by the government, potentially allowing for even greater state interference.

Lastly, Israel has also codified into law the emergency legislation banning foreign media outlets whose output it disagrees with. It was first enacted as emergency legislation in May 2024 when Israel used it to ban Al Jazeera from its territory, and it was then used in the same month to halt the activity of The Associated Press after the government accused the United States-based news agency of sharing footage with Al Jazeera.

Under the new law, the communications minister – with the prime minister’s sign-off and the backing of a ministerial committee – may halt a foreign broadcaster’s transmissions if the prime minister accepts a professional assessment that the outlet poses a security threat. The minister can also shut the broadcaster’s offices, confiscate equipment used to produce its content and block access to its website.

Have the moves been criticised?

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the United Kingdom’s National Union of Journalists have criticised Israel’s decision to legislate against foreign media platforms it deems a security threat.

In a statement, IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “Israel is openly waging a battle against media outlets, both local and foreign, that criticise the government’s narrative: that is typical behavior of authoritarian regimes. We are deeply concerned about the Israeli parliament passing this controversial bill, as it would be a serious blow to free speech and media freedom, and a direct attack on the public’s right to know.”

The attempt to shutter Army Radio has also been heavily criticised with Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara declaring the move unlawful and accusing Netanyahu’s coalition of making public broadcasting “weakened, threatened and institutionally silenced and its future shrouded in mist”.

Baharav-Miara has also criticised the move to place media regulation under government control, saying the bill “endangers the very principle of press freedom”.

Not very.

The Israeli media have overwhelmingly been a consistent cheerleader of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, where more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, and in the occupied West Bank.

The suffering of Palestinians is rarely shown, and when it is, it is often justified.

Even as Israel has killed more than 270 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the Israeli media have provided cover for the actions of its government and military.

That means Israelis often don’t recogise the hypocrisy of their government’s statements.

An example came in June after Iran struck an evacuated hospital during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. The Israeli government called the incident a war crime, and the Israeli media reflected that outrage.

But the attack came after Israel had been accused by a variety of organisations, including the United Nations, of systematically destroying Gaza’s healthcare system with medical workers targeted for arrest and frequently tortured despite their protection under international law.

“The Israeli media … sees its job as not to educate – it’s to shape and mould a public that is ready to support war and aggression,” journalist Orly Noy told Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem in the wake of the strike on the Israeli medical centre. “It genuinely sees itself as having a special role in this.”

Dec. 23 (UPI) — U.S. consumers showed steady confidence this holiday season, with retail spending up 4.2% from last year, according to preliminary data via Visa released Tuesday.

Despite ongoing economic challenges, shoppers continued to buy especially tech and personal items. The analysis — based on Visa payments data from Nov. 1 over a seven‑week period — excluded auto, gas and restaurant categories and wasn’t adjusted for inflation.

Michael Brown, principal U.S. economist at Visa, said the “underlying surprise” was that U.S. consumer spending “is holding up reasonably well in light of softer consumer confidence than we had this time last year and a number of headwinds and concerns about inflation.”

In-store purchases made up 73% of total spending, though online sales rose by 7.8% and were the main source of growth fueled by convenience and early holiday deals.

Brown said the 2025 holiday season signaled a clear change in shopping habits, driven in part by artificial intelligence reshaping how consumers discover products and compare prices.

“We are seeing consumers use AI in a big way in comparison shopping and then helping to narrow down that perfect gift,” Brown told CNBC.

Electronics saw the strongest gains, with sales up 5.8%, driven by demand for newer, high-powered devices linked to the AI boom.

Apparel and other accessories rose 5.3% and general merchandise retailers offering one-stop shopping recorded a 3.7% increase.

But home-focused categories lagged. Spending on building materials and garden supplies slipped 1% and furniture and home furnishings were nearly flat edging up just 0.8%.

Although overall retail growth appears solid, the figures are not adjusted for inflation, meaning actual inflation‑adjusted gains were likely smaller once Consumer Price Index data was fully factored in.

Meanwhile, a recent survey found that 41% of Americans intended to cut back on holiday spending this year, which was up six points from 2024.

“This is the first holiday shopping season where roughly half of the consumers in that survey responded that they are going to leverage AI for one of those two tasks,” Brown added.

Motorcyclists wearing pirate costumes rode through Caracas in a protest against US President Donald Trump, after Washington ordered the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers under a blockade targeting vessels linked to sanctions.

Dec. 23 (UPI) — The Department of Justice Tuesday released a third cache of files from the Jeffrey Epstein case, including flight logs that show President Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s plane more than has been reported.

The logs show Trump flew on Epstein’s plane at least eight times in the 1990s. One of those flights included an unnamed 20-year old woman.

The documents are released to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which became law on Nov. 19, though the Justice Department didn’t release all the files on time.

Epstein was an American billionaire financier who was a convicted sex offender. He died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial.

The information about the flights comes from an email sent in January 2020 from a New York federal prosecutor to an unnamed person. The email doesn’t accuse Trump of any wrongdoing.

“For your situational awareness, wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a [Ghislaine] Maxwell case,” the email said.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice, is serving time for sex trafficking.

It said Trump “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric,” it said.

“On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old [redacted]. On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case.”

The Justice Department said there were multiple references to Trump in the latest release. It called some of the mentions “untrue and sensationalist claims.”

“The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the department said on X.

“Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.”

Dec. 23 (UPI) — The federal government is suing Washington, D.C., to ease its gun-ownership laws, which are the strictest in the nation.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed the suit Monday in federal court seeking to declare the laws unconstitutional and prevent the District from enforcing them. The laws ban most semiautomatic rifles and other firearms from being registered with the police department. This makes any possession of those guns illegal. AK-47s and AR-15s are among those that are illegal. Those owning those guns can face misdemeanor charges and fines.

The action “underscores our ironclad commitment to protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Washington, D.C.’s ban on some of America’s most popular firearms is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment — living in our nation’s capital should not preclude law-abiding citizens from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

The suit cites District of Columbia v. Heller, which was decided by the Supreme Court in 2008. Before Heller, the District made it illegal to carry unregistered firearms but it also banned the registration of handguns. The Heller decision said that people can have guns in their homes for self-defense.

After Heller, the District updated its gun laws and included a registry and training requirements. But it still makes assault rifles impossible to register.

The suit filed by the Justice Department argues the merit of the law.

“D.C.’s current semi-automatic firearms prohibition that bans many commonly used pistols, rifles or shotguns is based on little more than cosmetics, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories, and fails to take into account whether the prohibited weapon is ‘in common use today’ or that law-abiding citizens may use these weapons for lawful purposes protected by the Second Amendment. Therefore, the District’s restrictions lack legal basis,” the filing said.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday, reported by the Washington Post, that the District would “vigorously defend our right to make decisions that keep our city safe.”

“Gun violence destroys families, upends communities, and threatens our collective sense of safety. MPD has saved lives by taking illegal guns off our streets — efforts that have been praised by our federal partners,” Bowser said. “It is irresponsible to take any steps that would lead to more, and deadlier, guns in our communities, especially semi-automatic rifles like AR-15s.”

Lawyers from Everytown Law, a gun safety organization, said the city’s gun bans are legal.

“The legal consensus is clear: assault weapon bans are constitutional. Since the Supreme Court’s rulings in Bruen and Rahimi, federal courts have repeatedly affirmed that these laws are consistent with the Second Amendment,” Bill Taylor, deputy director of Second Amendment litigation at Everytown Law, said in a statement. “Assault weapons are designed for mass devastation, and we look forward to supporting D.C. as it defends this critical common-sense safety measure.”

District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told prosecutors in August not to enforce felony charges for the city’s ban on openly carrying rifles and shotguns in public or the city’s ban on magazines that hold more than 10 bullets.

Russian forces have struck Ukraine’s southern Black Sea port of Odesa, damaging port facilities and a ship, the region’s governor says.

The attack late on Monday followed another at the weekend when Moscow carried out a sustained barrage of drones and missile attacks on the wider area around Odesa, which is home to ports crucial to Ukraine’s overseas trade and fuel imports. They followed Russian threats to cut “Ukraine off from the sea”.

The escalation in Russia’s assault on Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest port city, has unfolded as Washington steps up diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war. Ukrainian officials met members of a US delegation on Friday in Florida while US envoys held talks with Russian representatives on Saturday.

“The situation in the Odesa region is harsh due to Russian strikes on port infrastructure and logistics,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Monday. “Russia is once again trying to restrict Ukraine’s access to the sea and block our coastal regions.”

What happened in the latest Russian attack on Odesa?

On Tuesday, the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleh Kiper, said Russian strikes overnight had damaged a civilian cargo vessel and a warehouse in a district of Odesa while the roof of a two-storey residential building had caught fire.

Meanwhile, strikes on Saturday on the port of Pivdennyi near Odesa damaged storage reservoirs, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said. Those came just one day after a ballistic missile strike, also in Pivdennyi, had killed eight people and wounded at least 30.

These are just the latest strikes in an escalation of hostilities in the area over the past few weeks.

Last week, Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war on the Black Sea region, damaging energy infrastructure and causing a power outage in Odesa, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without electricity for several days.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence did not immediately comment on the strikes, but the Kremlin has previously described Ukraine’s economic infrastructure as a “legitimate military objective” during the nearly four-year war.

On the Telegram messaging app, Kuleba said on Friday that Russian forces were targeting power infrastructure and a bridge over the Dniester River near the village of Mayaky, southwest of Pivdennyi, which was struck five times in 24 hours.

That bridge links parts of the region separated by waterways and serves as the primary westbound route to border crossings with Moldova. It is currently out of operation. Kuleba said the route normally carries about 40 percent of Ukraine’s fuel supplies.

Why is Russia targeting Odesa?

“The focus of the war may have shifted towards Odesa,” Kuleba said, warning that the “crazy” attacks could intensify as Russia tries to weaken Ukraine’s economy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said Moscow wants to restrict Ukraine’s Black Sea access in retaliation for Kyiv’s recent drone attacks on Russia’s sanctions-evading “shadow fleet” of vessels, which carry a variety of commodities.

Ukraine said those vessels are used to illegally export sanctioned oil, which provides Russia with its main source of revenue for financing its full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

How important is the port of Odesa to Ukraine?

Odesa’s port has long been central to Ukraine’s economy. Called a “pearl by the sea”, Odesa is Ukraine’s third most populous city after Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Black Sea ports – including Odesa and two others close by, Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk – and Mykolaiv to the east handled more than 70 percent of Ukraine’s exports before the war.

But Odesa’s role as a trading hub has grown in recent years as ports in the Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions have been occupied by Russia.

Since the war began in February 2022, Ukraine has continued to rank among the world’s top five exporters of wheat and corn – largely through Odesa.

By targeting Odesa’s shipping facilities with missiles and drones, Ukrainian officials said, Putin aims to destroy Ukrainian trade and business infrastructure.

Zelenskyy, who has previously accused Russia of “sowing chaos” on the people of Odesa, said: “Everyone must see that without pressure on Russia, they have no intention of genuinely ending their aggression.”

What would it mean for Ukraine if Odesa were destroyed?

If the port of Odesa were badly damaged, the economic impact for Ukraine would be severe. The city and its surrounding areas would suffer major job losses in the shipping and logistics industries, seriously squeezing local incomes. Meanwhile, port-dependent businesses would falter and investment would fall away.

Nationally, Ukraine’s export capacity would be hit hard. As a key gateway for grain and other commodities, disruptions there would raise transport costs, slow shipments and reduce export volumes, choking foreign currency earnings and piling pressure on the hryvnia, Ukraine’s currency.

Elsewhere, farmers would suffer from lower prices for their produce as well as storage bottlenecks with knock-on effects across rural economies. The government would also lose customs revenue just as reconstruction costs would rise, weakening the country’s overall economic resilience.

What other acts of maritime warfare have Ukraine and Russia engaged in during the war?

Over the past six months, maritime warfare between Ukraine and Russia has intensified. Both sides have targeted naval and commercial assets across the Black Sea and beyond.

Ukrainian forces have increasingly used underwater drones and unmanned surface vessels to strike ships tied to Russia’s shadow fleet.

Several shadow fleet tankers, including the Kairos and Virat, were hit by Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea near Turkish waters in late November.

Kyiv has expanded its reach elsewhere, claiming drone strikes in the Mediterranean on December 19 on the Qendil, a Russian-linked tanker, marking an expansion in Kyiv’s maritime operations.

At the same time, Russian forces have ramped up attacks on commercial targets, including a Turkish-flagged ship carrying trucks and other freight near Odesa with drone attacks on December 13.

These actions reflect a shift towards what is referred to as “asymmetric naval warfare”, in which drones and improvised systems play a growing role in disrupting each side’s economic and military support networks at sea, experts said.

A mother and her teenage son died in fighting between the Syrian military and Kurdish-led SDF forces in Aleppo. The violence began shortly after talks in Damascus on integrating SDF forces into the army. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna is in Aleppo, where a truce has been called.

The Africa Cup of Nations is more than a football tournament.

Hosted this year in Morocco, it brings together a global African audience. AFCON offers a rare glimpse of how nations connect with each other and the diaspora through football.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot says star forward Alexander Isak will be on the sidelines until at least late February.

Alexander Isak is expected to be out of action for two months after fracturing his leg against Tottenham, with Liverpool manager Arne Slot accusing Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven of making a “reckless challenge”.

The Sweden striker was injured in a tackle from the defender in the act of scoring the opening goal in Saturday’s 2-1 victory and limped off the pitch.

Liverpool said in a statement on Monday that the forward had had an operation on an ankle injury that included a fibula fracture.

“It’s going to be a long injury, for a couple of months,” Slot told reporters on Tuesday, “So, yeah, that’s a big, big, big disappointment for him. And as a result, also of course for us.”

Slot described Van de Ven’s tackle as “reckless”.

“I think I said a lot about the tackle of Xavi Simons [sent off earlier in the game for Spurs], which for me was completely unintentional, and I don’t think you will ever get an injury out of a tackle like that.

“The tackle of Van de Ven, if you make that tackle 10 times, I think 10 times there’s a serious chance that a player gets a serious injury.”

Isak’s challenging year continues

Isak’s injury is the latest setback for the forward after he signed from Newcastle for a British record 125 million pounds ($168m) in September.

A dispute with Newcastle meant he did not have a proper preseason programme and arrived at Liverpool well behind his teammates in terms of fitness.

His season was then interrupted by a groin injury.

The 26-year-old has scored just three goals in 16 appearances since completing his protracted move to Anfield.

Isak’s absence will be a major blow for Reds boss Slot, with Mohamed Salah at the Africa Cup of Nations and Cody Gakpo not ready to return from a muscle injury until early in the new year.

It leaves Slot with Hugo Ekitike, who has five goals in his past four games, and the little-used Federico Chiesa as his only senior forwards.

Liverpool, whose Premier League title defence collapsed after a shocking run of results, have climbed to fifth in the table after extending their unbeaten league run to five games.

Isak’s injury raises the prospect of Liverpool moving to boost their attack in the January transfer window, with Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo linked with a move to Anfield.

It may also change the conversation around Salah, who had been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia following his recent claim that he had been thrown under the bus by the club and no longer had a relationship with Slot.

Salah’s rant, which came after he was left on the bench for three successive matches, prompted Liverpool to leave him out of the squad for a Champions League match at Inter Milan.

But he returned to action as a substitute against Brighton before leaving for international duty.

Liverpool host bottom side Wolves on Saturday.

When Qatar helped secure a peace deal to end ongoing conflict between the M23 rebel group and Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) government last month, there was hope among many Congolese that a permanent ceasefire would soon emerge to end the fighting that has uprooted close to a million people in the country’s troubled east, and give war-racked communities some respite as the new year rolls in.

Since late 2021, the group, which the United States and the United Nations say is backed by Rwanda, has clashed with the Congolese army in heavy offensives that have killed at least 7,000 people this year alone. Several regional attempts at resolution have failed. Still, when M23 representatives and Congolese government officials met for negotiations in Doha and proceeded to sign a peace deal in November, exhausted Congolese dared to hope. This deal, some reckoned, could be different.

So when the rebels launched yet another offensive and temporarily seized the strategic city Uvira this month, hopes for lasting peace were painfully crushed, as some concluded that those at the helm of the talks were playing politics.

“It’s clear that they don’t have any will to end this conflict,” Congolese lawyer and political analyst Hubert Masomera told Al Jazeera from the M23-held eastern city of Goma, blaming both sides. “Despite the number of deaths and the extent of the destruction, there is still procrastination over the implementation of the peace agreements and compliance with the ceasefire. People here feel abandoned to their sad fate.”

Fears that the conflict will not only continue, but that it could soon take on a regional dimension, are deepening, too – a sensitive prospect in a DRC where two civil wars in the past were prompted by its neighbours.

Uvira, the newly captured city the rebels then withdrew from as a “trust-building measure” following US pressure last week, is a major transport and economic hub in the huge South Kivu province. It’s strategically located on the border with Rwanda and is just 30 kilometres from the Burundian capital, Bujumbura. The city was the last eastern stronghold of the Congolese army and its allies – local “Wazalendo” militias and about 3,000 Burundian soldiers. Early this year, M23 also seized control of South Kivu’s capital city, Bukavu, as well as Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Experts say M23’s advance on Uvira widens the group’s area of control significantly, puts it at the mouth of the mineral-rich Katanga region, and positions Rwandan proxies right at Burundi’s doorstep at a time when both governments are ramping up a war of words and accusing each other of backing rebels.

Rwanda, for its part, continues to distance itself from accusations that it backs M23.

DRC conflict’s complex history

The recent scenes in eastern DRC appear like an eerie playback of a tragic tale, conflict monitors say.

Similar peace negotiations in late 2024, led by the African Union and Angola, seemed ready to deliver peace ahead of a new year. But they collapsed after a highly anticipated meeting between the presidents of Rwanda and DRC was called off. Both sides accused each other of foiling the talks.

“There’s a sense of deja vu,” Nicodemus Minde, East Africa analyst at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said. “It’s symbolic because we were exactly here last year … the prospects for peace are dire.”

Conflict in the DRC has long been mired in a complex mix of ethnic grievances, poor governance and interference from its much smaller neighbours. It goes back to the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda, which displaced millions into neighbouring eastern DRC, making them a minority there. Rwanda has since viewed the DRC as a hiding place for Hutu genocidaires, however, and its hot pursuit of them toppled a government in Kinshasa and led to the first and second Congo wars (1996-2003). The UN also accused the Rwandan and allied Ugandan forces of looting the DRC’s vast mineral wealth, including gold, coltan and tin, during the conflict.

Scores of militias emerged as governments armed and counter-armed civilians in the wars, many of which are still active in the DRC. The M23 itself is only the latest iteration of a Tutsi militia that fought in the Congo wars, and whose fighters integrated into the DRC army. In 2012, these fighters revolted, complaining of poor treatment by the Congolese forces. Now, the M23 claims to be fighting the marginalisation of ethnic Tutsis, some of whom say they are systematically denied citizenship, among other complaints. The M23 and its allied Congo River Alliance (AFC) have not stated goals of taking Kinshasa, even though members of the group have at times threatened to advance on the capital. Officially, the rebels claim to be “liberating” eastern DRC communities.

In 2012, M23 initially emerged with enough force to take the strategic city of Goma, but was forced back within a year by Congolese forces and a special UN intervention force of troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi. When the M23 resurfaced in late 2021, though, it was with much more ferocity, boosted by about 4,000 Rwandan troops in addition to its own 6,000 fighters, according to the UN. Lightning and intensely bloody offensives have since seen it control vast swaths of territory, including the major cities of Goma, Bukavu – and now, Uvira.

On the map, M23 appears to be eking out a slice of Congolese territory wedged between the DRC and neighbouring Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. If it gains control of the two Kivus in their entirety, it would lord over a resource-rich area five times Rwanda’s size with easy access to Kigali and Kampala.

“They are trying to create some sort of buffer zone which the neighbouring countries, particularly Rwanda but also Uganda, have an interest in controlling,” analyst Paul-Simon Handy, also of the ISS, told Al Jazeera.

Kigali officially denies backing M23, but justifies its actions based on accusations that the DRC supports a Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The FDLR did exist for many years in the DRC, but it simply no longer poses a significant threat to Kigali, analyst Minde said.

Rwanda’s tensions with Burundi have similar historic correlations, as Hutus who perpetrated the 1994 genocide similarly fled there, and Kigali alleges the government continues to back rebels. In 2015, Burundi accused Rwanda of sponsoring an abortive coup in Bujumbura. Kigali denies this.

Does the US deal have a chance?

Several African countries have attempted to help solve the crisis, militarily and diplomatically, but all have failed. The regional bloc, the East African Community, of which the DRC is a part, deployed about 6,500 Kenyan-led peacekeepers to stabilise eastern DRC, as Kenyan diplomats developed a Nairobi Peace Process in 2022 that was meant to see several rebel groups agree to a truce. The agreement collapsed only a year later, however, after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi grew frustrated over the force’s refusal to launch offensives against M23.

Then, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), of which the massive DRC is also a part, deployed troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi in May 2023. There was hope that the trio, which proved crucial in driving back the first M23 insurrection, would again record success. They appeared no match for the new M23, though, and withdrew this June.

Meanwhile, the Angola-led Luanda Peace Process collapsed after President Joao Lourenco stepped back in March, citing frustration with both sides amid constant finger-pointing.

Qatar and the US stepped in to broker peace in June this year, using a unique two-pronged approach. The Doha peace talks, on the one hand, have focused on negotiations between the DRC and M23, while the Washington talks focus on the DRC and the Rwanda governments. Some experts warned that Washington’s motivation – aside from President Donald Trump’s fixation on being a global peacemaker figure – was a clause in the deal that guarantees US extraction of rare earth minerals from both countries. The agreement was unlikely to hold on that basis, rights groups said.

After a few no-shows and wobbles, the M23 finally agreed to the Doha framework on November 15. The agreement includes eight implementation protocols, including one on ceasefire monitoring and another on prisoner exchange. On December 4, President Trump sat next to a smiling Paul Kagame and Tshisekedi as all three signed the US-peace deal in Washington, which mandated both Rwanda and DRC to stop supporting armed groups. There were pockets of fighting as the signatures were penned, but all was supposed to be largely peaceful from then on.

What happened in Uvira barely a week after was the opposite. The Congolese government said at least 400 people were killed and 200,000 others displaced as M23 fighters pressed on the city. Thousands more were displaced into Burundi, which already homes some 200,000 Congolese refugees. Fleeing Uvira residents shared accounts of bombed villages, summary killings and widespread sexual violence by both sides, according to medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Is there hope for peace?

Even though M23 began withdrawing from Uvira on Thursday, analysts are still scrambling to understand what the group was hoping to achieve by taking the city, shattering the peace agreements and angering Washington.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio directly scolded Rwanda after Uvira’s capture, saying Kigali had violated the deal. Last week, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau met with DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner in Washington and promised that the US “is prepared to take action to enforce adherence” from Rwanda.

What that action looks like is unclear, but what’s certain, Minde said, was that the agreement seemed to favour Kigali more than Kinshasa.

“If you look at the agreement, the consequences [of either party breaching] were not forthright, and this points to the weakness of the deal,” he said, adding that there is much more at stake for DRC if there is a breach, including escalating conflict and mass displacement within the country. But that was not taken into account, the analyst explained.

Uvira’s fall, albeit on hold, is not only a blow to Trump’s peacemaker reputation but also sharpens tensions between Burundi and Rwanda, with analysts saying it could lead to direct clashes.

Bujumbura accuses Kigali of supporting the antigovernment Red Tabara rebels – a charge Rwanda and the rebels deny – and tensions between the two governments have led to border closures since last year. Last week, M23 announced that it captured hundreds of Burundian soldiers during the Uvira offensive.

Fears of a regional spillover also prompted the UN Security Council to extend the mandate of the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission for a year, ahead of its December 20 expiration. The 11,000 troop force has been in place since 1999, but has a complicated relationship with the DRC government, which says it has not done enough to protect civilians. MONUSCO forces initially began withdrawing in 2024, but then paused that move in July amid the escalating M23 offensive. Ituri, the force’s headquarters, is held by M23, meaning the troops are unable to do much.

Amid the chaos, the finger pointing, and the political games, it’s the Congolese people who are feeling the most despair at the turn of events so close to the new year, analysts say. After more than three decades of war that has turned the green, undulating hills of eastern DRC into a perpetual battlefield, Masameko in Goma said it’s locals, more than anyone else, with the most at stake.

“People have suffered enough and need to breathe, to sleep with the certainty that they will wake up tomorrow,” he said. “[They need] to live in their homes without fear of a bomb falling on them. That is all the people in this part of the republic need.”

Dec. 22 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s presidential office said Monday it “respects the National Assembly’s decision” after the ruling Democratic Party backed the opposition’s call for a special prosecutor to investigate matters linked to the Unification Church.

A senior presidential official said the office has consistently supported a thorough investigation regardless of party or religion and described the move as consistent with that stance.

“The presidential office has consistently advocated for a strict investigation regardless of party or religion, so a special prosecutor aligning with that stance is only natural,” the official said, adding that the party’s shift should be seen as reflecting the presidential office’s position.

Democratic Party floor leader Kim Byung-ki said during a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly that he supports a special probe that would include politicians from both the ruling and opposition parties.

He said the People Power Party appears to believe the Democratic Party is avoiding a special investigation and urged proceeding with a special prosecutor focused on the Unification Church.

Democratic Party leader Chung Cheong-rae also said there was no reason not to accept the proposal and called for a full accounting that includes any People Power Party figures involved.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Dec. 22 (Asia Today) — South Korea has surpassed 100 million barrels in government-held oil reserves as it seeks to bolster energy security against global supply disruptions, the industry ministry said Monday.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the government’s secured stockpile exceeded 100 million barrels after the final tanker shipment of the year arrived at the Korea National Oil Corporation’s Geoje oil reserve base.

Including about 95 million barrels held by private companies, South Korea now has enough oil to cover more than 210 days under International Energy Agency standards in an emergency, the ministry said.

South Korea, which relies on imports for its oil, adopted a national stockpiling plan in 1980 and has expanded reserves over about 45 years after experiencing global supply shocks during past oil crises, the ministry said.

The country now holds the fourth-largest oil reserves among the agency’s member countries, the ministry said, describing the stockpile as an energy safety net that can help respond to supply crises.

The ministry said it plans to strengthen crisis response capabilities and shift focus from simply expanding volume to improving the quality of reserves.

In its fifth petroleum stockpiling plan prepared earlier this month, the ministry said it would restructure reserves to prioritize oil grades better suited to domestic demand.

An industry ministry official said oil reserve bases operate under strict safety requirements and the government will phase out aging equipment and strengthen disaster response systems.

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.