Venezuela and the United States have taken first steps towards restoring diplomatic ties after a dramatic US military raid led to the capture and ouster of Venezuelan ex-President Nicolas Maduroand his wife Cilia Flores last week. Venezuela said on Friday that it had launched talks with the US on reestablishing relations as a team of US diplomats and a security detail visited the South American country.
US Southern Command said in a statement that Marines and sailors, working in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and captured the tanker, Olina, "without incident." It appears to be the first time that the US has directly acknowledged the Ford's involvement in the five boarding and seizure operations that began in early December. However, the government has indicated that the carrier was used for at least one of the other missions.
Graham's Sanctioning Russia Act, drafted with Democrat Richard Blumenthal, would give Trump the authority to impose a tariff of up to 500 percent on imports from countries doing business with Russia's energy sector. This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin's war machine, Graham said in a statement, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The United States of America is a rogue nation, run by a violent criminal who operates outside the rule of law. The bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president, Nicolás Maduro, so that he can stand for a show trial in New York, is a flagrant violation of international law. It is proof positive that the United States, under Trump, is the biggest "bad guy" on the international stage and should be treated accordingly.
German prosecutors say they will drop an investigation of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, over possible breaches of sanctions and money laundering rules after he agreed to pay a 10 million euro (about $11.8 million) fine. The Uzbekistan-born Russian billionaire and metals magnate, who was reelected as the president of the International Fencing Federation last year, has been facing European Union sanctions imposed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Bank of Russia has set out a new framework to regulate cryptocurrencies, proposing tiered access that would allow everyday investors to buy digital assets alongside professional market participants, while maintaining tight controls on risk and usage. In a concept paper released Tuesday and submitted to the government for review, the central bank said both qualified and non-qualified investors would be permitted to acquire crypto assets, but under different rules, limits and testing requirements.
A trial got underway in Seoul last week for 46 South Koreans, mostly men in their 20s, accused of participating in online scam operations in Cambodia. Since mid-October, South Korea has repatriated 107 nationals from Cambodia where officials estimate upwards of 1,000 of its citizens are working either "voluntarily or involuntarily" in scam compounds. The repatriation effort follows public outrage over the death of a South Korean college student, who was reportedly lured to Cambodia and forced to work in a scam center.
The new chief of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, will warn of "the acute threat posed by Russia" when she makes her first public speech later. She will highlight so-called hybrid warfare, which includes incidents such as cyber attacks and drones suspected of being launched near critical infrastructure by Russian proxies. Ms Metreweli will describe this as "an acute threat posed by an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia".
After the US government placed sanctions on the United Nations' special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, her life turned upside down. Credit cards stopped working, she told Al Jazeera. A hotel reservation booked by the European Parliament was cancelled. Medical insurance was denied. For Albanese, the consequences of her work on Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza were not just professional they were personal, too.
The Australian government has imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan's Taliban government, citing the deteriorating human rights situation in the country, particularly for women and girls. Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement on Saturday that Canberra had established a world-first autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, which would allow it to directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed a $7.1 million fine on a New York-based property management firm Thursday, accusing it of violating sanctions by managing luxury real estate properties for oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said Gracetown Inc. had received 24 payments between April 2018 and May 2020 totaling $31,250 on behalf of a company owned by Deripaska. OFAC says it gave Gracetown notice that dealings with Deripaska were prohibited, but the firm proceeded anyway.
The United States has designated Venezuela's so-called Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization, marking the latest escalation in US-Venezuela tensions. Washington alleges Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro heads the organisation, which, the US says, is involved in widespread corruption and drug trafficking. Maduro denies the accusations amid growing fears of potential US military action in the region, and his government has called the cartel an invention.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is barring South Africa from participating in the Group of 20 summit next year at his Miami-area club and will stop all payments and subsidies to the country over its treatment of a U.S. government representative at this year's global meeting. Trump chose not to have an American government delegation attend last weekend's summit hosted by South Africa, saying he did so because its white Afrikaners were being violently persecuted. It is a claim that South Africa, which was mired for decades in racial apartheid, has rejected as baseless.
Europeans are seething over US President Donald Trump's suggestion that billions in Russian assets frozen in European countries may be used to the benefit of the US government and firms. After a Trump proposal on how to end Russia's war in Ukraine that called on Ukraine to give up territory and reduce the size of its armed forces, Europeans rushed to damage control and have now floated a counter offer.
Donald Trump on Monday began the process of designating certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, a move would bring sanctions against one of the Arab world's oldest and most influential Islamist movements. Trump signed an executive order directing secretary of state Marco Rubio and treasury secretary Scott Bessent to submit a report on whether to designate any Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, according to a White House fact sheet.
