The UK provided “enabling support” to the US military in seizing the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera, the British Defence Ministry has said.

The oil tanker was interdicted on Wednesday in international waters to the northwest of Scotland. The Pentagon claimed the vessel, formerly known as ‘Bella 1’, had been involved in alleged “violations of US sanctions.”  

The UK assisted the US during the operation at Washington’s request, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. 

“Our UK Armed Forces showed skill and professionalism in support of a successful U.S. interception of the vessel Bella 1 while on its way to Russia. This action formed part of global efforts to crack down on sanctions busting,” it said.

Britain claimed the interdicted vessel has a “nefarious history” and allegedly acted as a “part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion.” The US, meanwhile, said the seizure of the tanker was related to the “blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil.” 

Moscow has acknowledged the capture of the vessel. The country’s Transport Ministry stated that the Marinera had received a temporary permit to fly the national flag on December 24. The ministry accused the US of violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which ensures freedom of navigation in international waters.

The tanker made international headlines late last year when it was first targeted by the US military after allegedly approaching Venezuela. At the time, the ship’s crew refused to allow the US Coast Guard servicemen on board, heading to the Atlantic instead with US forces in pursuit. During the chase, the vessel changed its name and flag.

Shortly after the capture of the Marinera, the US said it seized another tanker in the Caribbean Sea, the ´Sophia´. The US military described the vessel as “a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker.”  

“The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The US Coast Guard is escorting M/T Sophia to the US for final disposition,” the US Southern Command has said.

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The UK will spend nearly $270 million on equipping troops it plans to deploy in Ukraine after a ceasefire is reached, British Defense Secretary John Healey announced during a trip to Kiev on Friday.

Russia has repeatedly said it would not allow Western soldiers to be stationed in Ukraine and has warned that it would treat foreign troops as legitimate targets.

Nevertheless, Healey said the funds would be invested in units intended to form part of a multinational force aimed at providing “long-term security guarantees” to Ukraine.

“We are surging investment into our preparations following the prime minister’s announcement this week, ensuring that Britain’s Armed Forces are ready to deploy and lead the Multinational Force Ukraine, because a secure Ukraine means a secure UK,” Healey said.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Denis Shmigal said after the meeting that the UK would begin producing 1,000 Octopus interceptor drones per month in February and deliver them to Ukraine.

Despite their continued support for military aid, some European countries, including Germany and Italy, have refused to commit to sending troops to the country.

NATO members Hungary and Slovakia have declined to send weapons to Kiev, urging the West to focus on diplomacy instead. The US, which has been attempting to mediate a truce between Russia and Ukraine, has also ruled out sending American soldiers to the country.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated on Thursday that Moscow would treat “the stationing of military units, sites, depots and other Western infrastructure in Ukraine as a foreign intervention posing a direct threat to Russia’s security.”

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The G7 should not be positioned as an anti-BRICS group, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

France assumed the presidency of G7 this year, coinciding with India assuming the same role in BRICS.

France’s G7 presidency will put it at the heart of multilateralism, Macron said in his annual address to French ambassadors outlining the country’s foreign policy priorities on Thursday.

“The G7 should not be an anti-China club or an anti-BRICS club,” Macron said, adding “we can’t let the BRICS be an anti-G7 club either.”

The French president stressed the need to fight the “fragmentation of the world.”

“With India being at the presidency of the BRICS, I hope to work with it to be able to create bridges…Bridging these groups–G7 and BRICS, is a very important priority for me,” he said. 

Bringing together these clubs is important and working with BRICS is essential, given the demographic weight of these important countries, Macron added.

The comments also came as India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar visited France to hold bilateral talks, and amid the global reaction to the US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

The French President also confirmed his visit to India in February.

Macron’s comments about BRICS assume significance as US President Donald Trump has publicly revealed his distaste for the group. Last year, Trump threatened an extra 10% tariff on countries that align with BRICS.

Trump has also reportedly backed a proposed bill to introduce new sanctions legislation against Russia’s partners, targeting India and China.

The bill, authored by Senator Lindsey Graham, a noted hawk, would authorize tariffs of up to 500% on imports from countries that continue to buy Russian energy products.

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US President Donald Trump has said he supports a bipartisan bill in Congress that would authorize him to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia’s trade partners.

Trump made the remarks after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the president had “greenlit” legislation that would allow tariffs of up to 500% on countries that buy Russian oil and gas. Graham introduced the bill last year alongside Democrat Richard Blumenthal.

“I support it. I hope we don’t have to use it,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview aired Thursday. “You know, we have big sanctions on Russia right now. Russia’s economy is very bad, but they are much bigger than Ukraine,” he added.

Trump has expressed frustration that his attempts to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine over the past year have been unsuccessful, at times blaming both countries.

In November, he proposed a roadmap for peace that Ukraine and its European backers rejected as favoring Russia, while accusing Moscow of stalling talks.

Russia, in turn, accused Ukraine and the EU of making unrealistic demands and sabotaging the prospects of a deal.

In October, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s largest energy companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

Earlier this week, the US Coast Guard seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic for allegedly evading sanctions, prompting Moscow to call the operation illegal under international maritime law.

Russia has long maintained that the primary objective of Western sanctions is to eliminate economic competition and limit the development of individual states rather than help Ukraine.

“Their aim is obvious: to cling to their diminishing domination and rob [other] countries of the right to make independent political decisions,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last month.

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Two US majors, Chevron and Quantum Capital Group, are lining up a bid to take control of the international portfolio of sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil, with the administration of President Donald Trump signaling its support for the proposal, the Financial Times has reported.

Washington imposed sanctions on Russia’s second-biggest oil producer last October as part of its broader effort to pressure Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, forcing Lukoil to divest its overseas holdings worth $22 billion. Due to the sanctions, any transaction requires a specific license from the Treasury Department to proceed, with the clearance for negotiations extended until January 17.

Chevron and Quantum will bid for the whole portfolio of Lukoil’s international assets, FT wrote on Wednesday, which includes three European refineries, stakes in oil and gas fields in countries such as Iraq, Kazakhstan, several African nations, and Mexico, plus a retail network of over 2,000 fuel stations worldwide.

A senior US official welcomed the Quantum-Chevron proposal to the FT, stating, “We are looking for a divestment that places ownership of these assets into the hands of an American owner and operator ad infinitum.”

Other parties reportedly eyeing the assets include ExxonMobil, the Hungarian firm MOL, the Emirati International Holding Company, private equity major Carlyle, and Saudi Arabia’s Midad Energy. A previous offer from Swiss-based trader Gunvor Group collapsed in November after the US Treasury accused the firm of having Kremlin ties.

Moscow has consistently condemned Western sanctions as politically motivated and illegal, warning they will backfire. Following the collapse of the Gunvor deal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the situation with Lukoil highlighted that “illegal trade restrictions” imposed by the US are “unacceptable and hurt international trade.”

Chevron has faced a decades-long legal and public relations battle primarily over massive environmental damage from Texaco’s former operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon, culminating in a contested $9.5 billion judgment against it in 2011. The company also faces broader criticism for its environmental record, including allegations of greenwashing and operational incidents globally.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US lawmakers that President Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland from Denmark rather than take the Arctic island by military means, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Rubio reportedly made the remarks during a briefing after top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer asked whether Trump was planning to use the military in places like Greenland and Mexico.

Trump, who initially voiced his intent to acquire Greenland during his first term in office, has linked ownership of the strategically located island to national security and competition with Russian and Chinese navies.

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. She added that using the military is “always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.”

European NATO members released a statement on Tuesday backing Denmark and affirming Greenland as its self-governing territory. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stressed that no NATO member “should attack or threaten” another member, and that an armed conflict between the US and Denmark would render the alliance pointless.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also asserted that a US invasion would be the end of NATO. “If the United States attacks another NATO country, everything stops,” she said.

Greenland’s leading political parties have long advocated gaining either independence or greater autonomy from Copenhagen. Icelandic singer Bjork posted a message to her 2 million Instagram followers on Monday stating that she supports the island’s fight for independence, while expressing hope that Greenland could follow the example of Iceland, which broke away from Danish rule in 1944.

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India’s top refiner has denied a Bloomberg report that said it might have resumed purchases of Russian oil despite US sanctions.

The media outlet reported last week that three vessels laden with 2.2 million barrels of Russian crude “are indicating Reliance Industries Ltd.’s plant on India’s west coast as their next destination, after the refiner restarted some purchases for domestic production.”

Reliance said in a statement on Monday that the report based on vessel tracking data from Kpler was “blatantly untrue.”

It added, “Reliance Industries’s Jamnagar refinery has not received any cargo of Russian oil at its refinery in the past three weeks approx. and is not expecting any Russian crude oil deliveries in January.”

The US government imposed sanctions on Russian state-owned oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil in October of last year, saying the measures were intended to increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector due to the Ukraine conflict.

The sanctions gave global companies, including Indian refiners, a November 21 deadline to wind down transactions with the two majors.

The restrictions also applied to 34 subsidiaries of Lukoil and Rosneft located in Russia.

In 2024, Reliance and Rosneft signed a long-term deal for the supply of 500,000 barrels per day.

Russia has been India’s top oil supplier since 2022, providing 36% of the Asian nation’s imports.

In August, US President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on India as a penalty for buying Russian oil, claiming the country’s purchases were helping Russia prolong the Ukraine conflict.

Moscow insists that imposing sanctions and tariffs on its partners infringes on their sovereign rights.

New Delhi has dismissed criticism of its Russian oil imports, maintaining that its energy policy is driven by its national interests, though it is also expanding trade with the US.

India’s oil imports from Russia were expected to remain steady in December despite US sanctions on Moscow’s top two producers, Reuters reported.

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A nationwide internet blackout was reported in Iran on Thursday, global monitoring group NetBlocks said. Protests have been erupting across the country since late December, prompted by hyperinflation and an enduring economic crisis in the sanctioned Islamic republic.

No further information on the internet outage was immediately available.

The nationwide unrest, the worst in recent years, rapidly spread to multiple cities and reportedly led to deadly clashes with the Iranian authorities, with some protesters demanding the reinstatement of the monarchy.

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s late Shah, who was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, called for more protests in a video post on X on Wednesday.

Reports say at least 21 people have been killed during the protests. Tasnim news agency has also posted a video from Qazvin city in the northern part of the country, appearing to show a brutal attack on a security officer. According to the outlet’s sources, the officer was not armed and “was only inviting the people present in the street to express their protest without insults and damage to public property.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian warned domestic suppliers against hoarding or overpricing goods, state media reported on Thursday. He said people should not experience shortages and urged the government to ensure sufficient supplies and closely monitor prices nationwide.

However, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that rioters must be “put in their place.” The country’s top judge has also accused the demonstrators of “operating in line” with the United States and Israel.

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Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro will emerge as an enduring political symbol similar to Simon Bolivar, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara, secretary of the Decolonial International Network Foundation, Sandew Hira, has told RT.

Maduro was kidnapped along with his wife, Cilia Flores, during a US raid on Caracas on Saturday. Washington accuses the Venezuelan leader of narco-trafficking and weapons offenses – charges he has denied.

Hira drew parallels between Maduro’s detention and the fate of anti-imperialist leaders throughout history, arguing that attempts to remove such figures often elevate their political stature rather than diminish it.

“Maduro has now been kidnapped, and Washington thinks that is the end,” he said. “But this is just the beginning of the next phase of the liberation struggle.”

Hira compared Maduro’s situation to that of Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture, who was captured by French forces in 1802, two years before Haiti achieved independence. The author of ‘Decolonizing the Mind’ highlighted that Venezuela’s political tradition is closely tied to earlier liberation movements across Latin America and the Caribbean, including those in Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada.

According to Hira, calls to free Maduro and his wife could become a powerful rallying cry, similar to international campaigns surrounding figures such as Nelson Mandela. “Maduro will grow into an international figure,” he said, “like Bolivar, Fidel and Che.”

He also argued that leaders opposing US influence are routinely portrayed negatively in Western media, while enjoying strong support at home and across the Global South.

“All anti-imperialist forces are branded as enemies,” Hira said, adding that such narratives are increasingly questioned outside the West.

Hira maintained that the removal of Maduro would not weaken Venezuela’s political system, saying state institutions continue to function and the country remains under domestic control rather than foreign administration.

The US military on Wednesday seized the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera in the North Atlantic, after pursuing it all the way from the Caribbean Sea.

The vessel, previously named Bella 1, was intercepted for alleged “violation of US sanctions” in the international waters to the northwest of Scotland.

The action was taken by the US Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security in coordination with the military, the US European Command has announced.

“The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro,” it said.

The action against the tanker supports US President Donald Trump’s “proclamation targeting sanctioned vessels that threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere,” the command noted. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that the seizure of the vessel was related to the “blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil.”

The tanker first came into the US crosshairs after reportedly trying to approach Venezuela late last year. The US Coast Guard attempted to detain the vessel, yet the crew declined to let the Americans on board, and headed for the Atlantic. During the pursuit, the vessel changed its name and switched to the Russian flag.

Shortly after the capture of the Marinera, the US Southern Command said it had seized another vessel in the Caribbean Sea, describing it as “a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker.” 

“The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The US Coast Guard is escorting M/T Sophia to the US for final disposition,” the command stated.

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