Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

China and Russia have voiced support for Venezuela as it faces a US blockade of oil tankers, amid escalating pressure from Donald Trump on the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. The US president has repeatedly called on Maduro to step down, while defending Washington’s seizure of Venezuelan oil shipments in recent weeks. Trump said the US would either keep or sell the oil taken off the Venezuelan coast. Asked whether the aim was to remove Maduro from power, Trump told reporters it would be “smart” for him to leave office, warning that further resistance would have serious consequences. Following Trump’s announcement…

US Coast Guard officials said on Sunday that they were tracking an oil tanker in international waters close to Venezuela, according to multiple unnamed US officials quoted by American media. The move marks the second such operation over the weekend and the third within a week, as Washington intensifies pressure on Venezuela’s oil sector. Officials described the operation as an “active pursuit” in the Caribbean Sea. It came a day after the coast guard seized another tanker off Venezuela’s coast. Unnamed officials told the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse that the vessel was part of what they described as Venezuela’s…

El Salvador has announced prison sentences for hundreds of gang members, with some of those convicted receiving terms running into the hundreds of years, as President Nayib Bukele’s hardline security campaign continues. The attorney general’s office said on Sunday that 248 members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) street gang had been handed what it described as “exemplary sentences” for crimes including 43 murders and 42 enforced disappearances. In a statement posted on X, the office did not specify when the sentences were handed down or whether the defendants were tried collectively or in separate proceedings. According to the statement, one…

Israel has approved plans for 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, pressing ahead with an expansion drive that further undermines prospects for a Palestinian state. The decision brings the number of settlements approved in recent years to 69, a record, according to the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a leading advocate of settlement expansion. Two of the newly approved sites were previously dismantled during Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. The approval by the security cabinet represents a sharp increase during the tenure of the current government. In 2022, there were 141…

While the disclosure was largely limited, the FBI report has drawn renewed scrutiny of how authorities handled early warnings.

Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, including a baby, in an attack on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to hospital officials. The deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed by Israel to 401 since the October ceasefire came into effect. The Palestinian civil defence said Israeli troops fired across the ceasefire line, striking the school and wounding several others. It said rescue teams were only able to recover the bodies after coordinating with the United Nations, to avoid further fire. At Gaza City hospital, dozens gathered to mourn the dead. Five body bags were placed outside the…

Denmark’s postal service will deliver its final letter on 30 December, bringing to an end more than four centuries of letter delivery. PostNord, the company formed in 2009 from the merger of the Swedish and Danish postal services, announced earlier this year that it would stop delivering letters in Denmark. The decision will lead to 1,500 job losses and the removal of 1,500 of the country’s iconic red postboxes. The company cited the “increasing digitalisation” of Danish society, describing Denmark as one of the most digitalised countries in the world. Demand for letters, it said, has fallen sharply, while online…

Elon Musk’s controversial $56bn pay package from Tesla has been reinstated by the Delaware supreme court, two years after a lower court struck it down as “unfathomable”. The ruling, delivered on Friday, revives a compensation deal that could now be worth as much as $139bn, according to the New York Times. The decision comes less than two months after Tesla shareholders approved a fresh long-term pay plan that could be worth up to $1tn to Musk over the next decade. Musk, already the world’s richest person, is estimated to have a personal fortune of about $600bn. In its judgment, the…

The famine in Gaza has ended following an increase in humanitarian aid deliveries, the United Nations said on Friday, while warning that hunger and living conditions across the territory remain severe. The UN said nearly one in eight people in Gaza is still facing food shortages. Persistent hunger has been worsened by winter flooding and falling temperatures, with most of the population living in tents or damaged shelters after much of Gaza’s housing and civilian infrastructure was destroyed during the two-year war. Israel has partially eased restrictions on aid since an October ceasefire with Hamas, but deliveries remain limited and…

The US military carried out air strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack that killed American personnel, US officials said. The strikes followed a pledge by Donald Trump to respond forcefully after a suspected Islamic State fighter attacked US forces in central Syria last weekend. A US official, speaking anonymously, said the operation was a large-scale response targeting sites across central Syria. Trump said on social media that the Syrian government had fully supported the strikes and described the action as “very serious retaliation”. US Central Command said more than 70…