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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

A Federal Court in the United States has found Olusegun Adejorin, a 32-year-old Nigerian, guilty of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and unauthorised access to a protected computer, following a sophisticated cyber fraud targeting two US-based charitable organisations. Adejorin, who was extradited from Ghana to stand trial, was convicted for offences committed between June and August 2020, according to prosecutors. The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said…

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…

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…

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…

Earlier this month, the Trump administration ordered USCIS to pause all immigration petitions from nationals of countries listed under the travel ban first announced in June.

The Trump administration has announced a major package of arms sales to Taiwan worth more than $10bn, including medium-range missiles, artillery systems and drones, prompting a sharp response from China. The US state department confirmed the sales late on Wednesday, during a nationally televised address by President Donald Trump. Trump made little reference to foreign policy and did not mention China or Taiwan. Relations between Washington and Beijing have fluctuated…