Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela, Ukraine’s bargaining position with Russia, and M23 rebels seizing a strategic town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Full Steam Ahead
U.S. forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed late Wednesday, marking a new escalation in the White House’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela, Ukraine’s bargaining position with Russia, and M23 rebels seizing a strategic town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Full Steam Ahead
U.S. forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed late Wednesday, marking a new escalation in the White House’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
A senior U.S. administration official told CNN that the oil tanker, known as the Skipper, was carrying Venezuelan crude when it was apprehended in international waters. Washington sanctioned the Skipper in 2022 “due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X. This included allegedly facilitating oil trades for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanese Hezbollah, a proxy group of Tehran. According to CNN, the tanker was flying a Guyana flag but is not registered in that country.
This was the first U.S. seizure of Venezuelan oil cargo since Trump first imposed sweeping oil sanctions on the country in 2019. Caracas denounced the seizure as “blatant theft and an act of international piracy,” and the Iranian Embassy in Venezuela called it a “grave violation of international laws and norms.”
Asked on Wednesday what would happen to the captured oil, Trump said, “We keep it, I guess.”
Trump has repeatedly said he is considering U.S. military strikes inside Venezuela as part of a broader operation against what the administration has labeled “narco-terrorism” in Latin America. That operation has included more than 20 U.S. strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing 87 people; a massive buildup of U.S. military assets in the region; and the designation of Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, which Trump has accused Maduro of overseeing.
Maduro claims that Trump’s actions are part of a wider scheme to enact regime change in Caracas and take control of the country’s oil resources; Venezuela has the largest crude reserves in the world.
Many legal experts have said the U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats are likely illegal under both U.S. and international law. Opposition toward the Trump administration’s actions has also grown in the United States. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this month, nearly half of all Americans surveyed do not approve of the strikes, including roughly one-fifth of Republicans.
This comes as U.S. lawmakers express concerns that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order to conduct a double-tap strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2 violated international law. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a spending bill authorizing a record $901 billion to the defense budget. However, the legislation mandated that the Pentagon send Congress the full, unedited video of the strike, adding that it will withhold 25 percent of Hegseth’s travel budget if it fails to comply. Earlier this week, Hegseth said he is still weighing whether to release the video.
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What We’re Following
Possible territorial concessions? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky convened talks on Thursday with members of the so-called coalition of the willing—a group of more than 30 countries that back Ukraine—to discuss the terms of a potential peace deal with Russia. The meeting comes as the United States is putting intense pressure on Kyiv to accept territorial concessions, among other demands by Moscow.
Trump spoke to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday, during which he warned that Kyiv “has to be realistic” about its bargaining position. The U.S. president has previously called Ukraine’s European allies weak while claiming that Russia has the “upper hand” and will likely win the war.
On Thursday, Merz confirmed that Ukraine has sent a revised peace plan to the United States that addresses which territorial concessions Kyiv might be prepared to make. At the end of the day, though, the decision must be made by Zelensky and the Ukrainian people, Merz said, adding, “It would be a mistake to force the Ukrainian president into a peace that his people will not accept after four years of suffering and death.”
It is unclear what Kyiv might be willing to surrender to Moscow. Russia has demanded that Ukraine relinquish control of the entire Donbas region, despite Ukrainian troops still holding around 14.5 percent of the area. Zelensky has previously considered such concessions a red line, saying Kyiv has no “legal” or “moral” right to cede any land.
Battlefield advantage. M23 rebels seized control of the strategic city of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday, threatening an already shaky U.S.-brokered peace deal between Congo and Rwanda and aggravating fears of spillover violence into neighboring Burundi. United Nations experts have said that Rwanda provides military support for M23, which Kigali denies; the U.S.-brokered deal did not include the rebel group.
Uvira has served as the base for Congo’s provincial government in South Kivu since February, when M23 captured the provincial capital of Bukavu. Uvira is located along Congo’s border with Burundi, which has joined Congolese forces in recent months, as Burundi relies on Uvira for access to essential supplies, such as fuel. Between Dec. 5 and 8, the neighboring nation also saw nearly 25,000 displaced Congolese escape into its territory. Capturing Uvira means that M23 now essentially controls both the North and South Kivu regions in eastern Congo.
Taking on China. Mexican lawmakers approved up to 50 percent tariffs on Chinese imports on Wednesday amid growing pressure from Washington to counter Beijing’s influence. The bill, which passed the Senate by a 76-5 vote (with 35 abstaining), also affects other countries that Mexico does not have trade agreements with, including India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Thailand.
China is the second-largest exporter to Mexico after the United States, accounting for $130 billion worth of goods last year. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that the tariffs, which will cover everything from automotive parts to textiles to steel and aluminum, are necessary to boost domestic production.
They are also being seen as an attempt to appease Trump, who has accused Mexico of being a backdoor for Chinese goods entering the United States. In recent months, the White House has imposed tariffs on Mexican goods made with Chinese parts, forcing some Mexican industries to shift their supply chains away from Beijing. Mexico City has made it clear that it does not want to lose its No. 1 trading partner, as U.S. goods to Mexico totaled $334 billion in 2024—nearly three times the size of China’s sales.
On Thursday, Beijing’s Commerce Ministry condemned Mexico’s legislation, warning that it would “substantially harm” Mexico City’s trading partners. But Sheinbaum is expected to approve the bill in the coming days, meaning duties will take effect in January.
Odds and Ends
Mamma mia! On Wednesday, the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, recognized Italy’s national cuisine as an “intangible cultural heritage”—paying tribute to pizza, pasta, and risotto, among others dishes. The country hopes that the accolade will boost tourism, with industry experts estimating that recognition could bring in an additional 18 million overnight stays. Truly, in crust we trust.
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