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US sanctions renewed against Venezuela's oil sector
The United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on four companies that it claimed were operating in Venezuela’s oil sector, along with associated oil tankers. This comes as the administration of President Donald Trump increases pressure on Venezuelan?President Nicolas Maduro. The sanctions are the latest in Trump's campaign to pressure Maduro. This has also included an increased U.S. presence in the area and more than 20 strikes on vessels suspected of trafficking drugs along the Pacific Ocean or Caribbean Sea. Trump had announced earlier this month that he would block all vessels sanctioned by the United Nations from entering or leaving Venezuelan waters. This was part of his strategy to put pressure on Maduro. The move has contributed to a drop in Venezuela's oil production this month of about half compared to November. In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had imposed sanctions against oil traders who were involved in sanction evasion on behalf of Maduro's regime. Four tankers were targeted, and the Treasury accused some of being part of the "shadow fleet". The term "shadow fleet" is used to describe ships that transport oil under sanctions. The ships are usually old, the ownership is opaque and they do not have top-tier insurance to meet international standards. The Treasury stated that "Today's actions further signal that those who are involved in Venezuelan oil trade continue to face substantial sanctions risks." The Venezuelan Communications Ministry, which is responsible for all government press inquiries, did not respond immediately to a comment request. According to documents and tracking data from Venezuela's PDVSA, ships with the flags of Panama, Guinea, and Hong Kong, as well as Nord Star and Lunar Tide, all tagged Panama, have shipped Venezuelan crude oil or fuel to destinations in Asia and Caribbean this year. According to PDVSA records, the Hong Kong-flagged Valiant, owned by Aries Global Investment LTD (one of the sanctioned companies), has never carried Venezuelan crude. After the U.S. The Coast Guard attempted to intercept two other Venezuela-related ships in the Caribbean Sea and are now on their way to Asia. Washington had earlier in the month named four vessels as terrorists. Six Venezuelan-related tankers Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that President Trump was clear in his statement: "We will not allow Maduro's illegitimate regime to profit from oil exports while it floods us with deadly drugs." Maduro, his government and the U.S. have all denied any involvement in criminal activities. The U.S. wants to change the regime of Venezuela and take over its vast oil reserves. Reports earlier Wednesday stated that the U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan tankers have kept exports from the country almost paralyzed. The accumulation of fuel in Venezuela's onshore storage tanks has forced the state-owned PDVSA into extreme measures to avoid shutting down its refining units.
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Sources say that the residuum fuel in Venezuelan tanks is almost non-existent as exports are nearly paralyzed.
Four sources claim that the accumulation of fuel in Venezuela's onshore tank stores is forcing the state-owned PDVSA company to take 'extreme measures' to avoid shutting down?refining facilities. Meanwhile, a U.S. ban on sanctioned tanks entering and leaving the country has almost paralyzed exports. Venezuela produces a lot of residual fuels, mainly high-sulfur oil. These are exported to Asia. According to shipping and company documents, the U.S. Blockade has cut down on?those shipments?to a minimum over the past two weeks. PDVSA, as part of its floating storage strategy, has stored crude oil and fuel oil on tankers after topping up the tanks on land almost entirely. One source said that the company has a limited capacity because it already has 25 million barrels of residuals in storage. PDVSA is now trying to ?reopen idled tanks and has ?begun sending residual fuel to oil waste pools in the country's western ?region, an extreme solution to avoid shutdowns of operational units at the country's 955,000-barrel-per-day Paraguana Refining Center, another source said.
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Finland suspects ship damaging cable in Baltic Sea in latest incident
The Finnish police announced on Wednesday that they had seized a ship believed to be responsible for damaging an undersea cable connecting the Estonian capital Tallinn to Helsinki, across the Gulf of Finland. This area has been plagued by alleged sabotage in recent years. The police declined to identify the ship, its nationality or provide any other details about it and its crew. Eight NATO countries border the Baltic Sea which borders Russia. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they have been on high-alert after a series of outages along power cables, teles links and pipelines running along the relatively shallow seabed. NATO has increased its presence in the Baltic Sea with aircraft, frigates and naval drones. Police and the Finnish Border Guard Authority said that the vessel suspected of being responsible for the damage was dragging an anchor in the water and had been directed into Finnish territorial waters. Police said that the cable belonged to Finnish telecoms group Elisa. Alexander Stubb, the President of Finland, said that he is monitoring the situation. Finland is ready to face any security challenge, and we will respond as needed," he said on X. In December 2024, Finland boarded the Russian oil tanker Eagle S. Investigators claimed that the Eagle S had damaged an electrical cable and several telecoms links by dragging its anchor in the Baltic Sea. The Eagle S captain and other crew members were dismissed from a criminal case by a Finnish court on October 28th. They ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove any intent, and that the flag state of the ship or the home country of the crew should be prosecuted for any negligence. Essi, Terje, and Alexandra Hudson contributed to the reporting. Louise Heavens edited.
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After power failure, passengers of the Channel Tunnel Rail face a second day of disruption
Train companies announced that services between Britain, continental Europe and Canada would resume on Tuesday but warned about further disruptions after technical problems suspended travel on Monday and left some passengers stranded on trains for the night. Chaos in rail services between London, Paris and Brussels, as well as Amsterdam, one of Europe's most busy international rail corridors, hit at the height of New Year travel. Eurostar, the company that runs passenger rail service, announced on Wednesday morning that services were resumed after "a power problem in the Channel Tunnel yesterday" and other issues with 'rail infrastructure overnight". It said: "We intend to run all our services today. However, due to knock-on effects there may be some delays and possibly last-minute cancellations." On Tuesday, a power failure forced the suspension of travel in?the 50 km (31 mile) tunnel. The UK network was hit by a technical issue in the evening, which made the situation worse for passengers. Some were trapped overnight in trains as some trains began to run. Eurostar 9152 arrived at Lille, in northern France, from London, at 0630 GMT, eleven hours later than expected. The trip usually takes 80 minutes. Herve, a passenger on the train, told BFM TV: "We are annoyed because we're tired and don't have hot drinks. It's a very unpleasant situation. A passenger named?Ghislain planque said, "People had accepted the situation." We could not do anything. Water was given to us. "We weren't abandoned completely." Eurostar was used by nearly 20 million passengers last year. Le Shuttle, a second rail service that transports passenger vehicles and trucks under the Channel Tunnel, also worked to minimize the impact of the shutdown after it had also suspended its operations on Tuesday. Getlink, the company that operates tunnel infrastructure and Le Shuttle service, said "the tunnel has recovered its maximum capacity."
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Drivers in Poland are stuck in tailbacks up to 20 km long due to heavy snowfall
Police reported that heavy snowfall caused a 20-kilometer (12.43-mile) tailback on an autobahn between Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, and Gdansk, a Baltic port town. The police report was made on Wednesday. According to the police, hundreds of people were trapped in their vehicles in freezing temperatures. However, the traffic was moving again by early Wednesday morning. Tomasz Marcowski, a police spokesperson in Olsztyn, said that the difficult situation started 'yesterday afternoon after 4 pm, when the first truck on the S7 route began to have difficulty approaching the slopes. This?led to an?overnight traffic jam that stretched approximately 20 kilometers." Stanislaw Bulkowiec, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, told a news conference that no one was injured as a result the traffic situation. Anna Karczewska is a spokesperson for the Ostroda police. She said that officers tried to assist drivers who were stuck. Ostroda is located on the highway, about 40 km west of Olsztyn. She said, "We did our best to help, and the Ostroda City Hall prepared hot tea and coffee for the drivers." State news? Agency PAP reported there were also some disruptions to rails and airports but that services are returning to normal.
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Eurostar announces the return of train services, but warns about delays and cancellations
Eurostar announced that it will resume all of its cross-Channel service on Wednesday, but warned that there could be delays and cancellations at the last minute after a power failure had suspended train trips throughout much of Tuesday. A fault in the overhead power supply caused a disruption on Tuesday that disrupted plans for thousands of passengers across 'London, Paris and Amsterdam during one of the busiest weeks of travel. On its website,?Eurostar announced on Wednesday that services had resumed following an electrical problem in the?Channel Tunnel yesterday as well as some additional?issues with rail equipment overnight. It said: "We intend to run all of our services today, but due to knock-on effects?there could still be some delays or last-minute cancellations." (Reporting and editing by Thomas Derpinghaus; Dominique Vidalon)
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Monorail train crash in India leaves over 100 injured
A district official reported that two monorail trains collided late on Tuesday at a hydropower plant being built in India’s?northern?state of Uttarakhand. At least 109 employees were injured. The official said that the majority of workers suffered minor injuries. Four workers suffered fractures. The trains collided in a 'tunnel' in Pipalkoti. This is the site of a upcoming 'hydropower project owned by Tehri Hydro Development Corp. (THDC) and NTPC Ltd. Gaurav Kumar, top?administrative official in the?area, said by phone that the accident happened on Tuesday night, after brakes of a monorail train failed. The trains were used to transport workers and construction materials. Kumar stated that the tracks were cleared and work on the project will resume on Wednesday. About?51 gigawatts (about 505 gigawatts) of India's installed power capacity is hydropower. Uttarakhand has more than 10 operational hydropower plants, each with a capacity of around 2.0 gigawatts. Reporting by Saurabh sharma; editing by Raju gopalakrishnan
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Three children among the four injured in Russian attack on Odesa
Regional authorities reported a drone attack by Russia on Ukraine's Odesa Region overnight. The drone caused damage to?residential structures and infrastructure, and injured four people, including three children. Odesa is a major Black Sea Port that has been repeatedly attacked by Russian drones and missiles over the past four years. Strikes have often?hitted energy, transport, and port infrastructure, as well as residential areas. Oleh Kiper said that drones had attacked the residential, logistic and energy infrastructure of?our region on the messaging app?Telegram. Serhiy lisak, head of Odesa’s military administration, told Telegram that four people, including a 7-month-old baby, two children and a man aged 42, were injured in Odesa, the?administrative?centre for the wider Odesa area. He claimed that drone debris, direct hits and window damage caused by high-rise apartment blocks. Lisak shared images of a smoke billowing from an apartment building with several windows showing flames and what appears to be the water jet of a firefighter aimed towards the facade. Could not independently verify reports. Russia did not immediately comment on the Odesa attacks. (Reporting and editing by Saad Saeed in Melbourne, Lidia Kelly from Melbourne)
Trump's next target in Washington? Public golf courses
The Trump administration canceled this week the lease of three public golf course in Washington held by the nonprofit National Links Trust. This was a new opportunity for President Donald Trump to stamp his mark on an important part of the city's life.
In a letter sent to NLT on Tuesday, Trump's Interior Department announced that it would terminate the 50-year lease the group had received in 2020 for the management of the golf courses. The agency claimed that the nonprofit had failed to invest in the properties as required and not paid rent.
NLT denied the claims that it had not paid its rent or defaulted. The Interior Department, it said, had given little information on the matter.
In an email, it stated that "our lease allows rent to offset by course improvements. Rent?offsets have been approved by the National Park Service." "NLT worked with the National Park Service for?five years, and we first heard about a rent issue in the last couple of weeks after we got the default notice."
The National Park Service belongs to the Interior Department. Trump, the Republican who returned to power in Washington earlier this year, is sweeping the city on many fronts. He has deployed the National Guard for street patrols, renamed the Kennedy Center performing-arts center as the Trump-Kennedy Center through a board that he installed and threatened to take control of the city government. Locally, the?president is mirroring his national actions.
Trump, a golf enthusiast himself, owns golf courses around the world including one in Virginia. The NLT oversees three public golf courses in Washington, including East Potomac Park Rock Creek Park and Langston Golf Course. In its letter, the Interior Department stated that NLT did not make capital improvements or renovations to each course as required by?the lease. It also claimed that NLT failed to show that it had any plan for doing so.
The letter read: "NLT failed in its duty to assure NPS that NLT had the funding, capability or plan to meet its capital investment obligations." A copy of the letter was obtained by. The organization stated that it would continue to manage the golf courses to keep them open for now. It said that long-term renovations would stop.
The White House has not responded to a question about whether Trump plans to build golf courses.
The Interior Department issued a statement saying that the Trump administration is proud of its ability to get the job done and partner with other organizations who have the same goals. NLT stated that it would remain in touch with the administration, and was "stubbornly optimistic" about finding a way to preserve "affordable public golf in Washington".
NLT stated that since taking over the stewardship for Rock Creek, East Potomac and Langston golf courses five years ago, NLT had consistently adhered to all lease obligations in order to work towards ensuring a bright future for public-access golf in DC. "We fundamentally disagree with the administration's description of NLT being in default on the lease." (Reporting and editing by Colleen J. Jenkins, David Gregorio, Ryan Patrick Jones. Additional reporting by Jeff Mason.
(source: Reuters)