18/12/2025

THURSDAY | DEC 18, 2025

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US to blockade sanctioned oil tankers

GENEVA: The UN rights chief voiced alarm over diminishing freedoms in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, saying restrictions were tightening on freedom of movement, expression and religion. Volker Turk painted a grim picture to the UN Human Rights Council. “In Russian-occupied territories, our findings include tightening restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and religion,”Turk said as he presented his office’s latest report, covering June 1 to Nov 30. “Internet and messenger services have been further limited. “There are growing concerns about property confiscation by the Russian authorities, in violation of international humanitarian law. “As of November, more than 38,000 homes had been registered as potentially abandoned in occupied regions. Ukrainians reported being unable to verify the status and retain ownership of their private property, due to procedural obstacles.” Turk said: “As peace negotiations continue, war is intensifying, causing more death, damage, and destruction.” He lamented that most attention was on the high-profile peace efforts, “whereas the daily suffering of the people fades away”. Turk said that as part of negotiations on a ceasefire and a sustainable peace, he encouraged “confidence-building measures”. – AFP Concern over freedoms in occupied Ukraine Laurence des Cars is due to answer questions from the French Senate. – Reuters EX-MANAGER JAILED FOR SELLING PARTS WASHINGTON: A former morgue manager at the Harvard Medical School was sentenced on Tuesday to eight years in prison for stealing and selling body parts donated for scientific research. Cedric Lodge, 58, pleaded guilty in May to trafficking the stolen remains, which include internal organs, brains, skin, hands, faces and dissected heads. He was fired from the university in May 2023. Lodge and his wife, Denise, shipped body parts to buyers in other states. Denise Lodge, 65, was sentenced to one year in prison. The Justice Department said many of the remains were resold at a profit. Several of those buyers have been sentenced to jail or were awaiting sentencing. – AFP LOUVRE MUSEUM REMAINS SHUT PARIS: Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, remained closed yesterday, as its staff continued discussions on whether to extend a strike over pay and working conditions that started on Monday. The strike comes after a spectacular jewel heist in October, as well as recent infrastructure problems, including a water leak that damaged ancient books, which have exposed glaring security gaps and revealed the museum’s deteriorating state. Unions said staff are overworked and mismanaged, and they are calling for more hiring, pay increases and a redirection of spending. Louvre director

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump ordered on Tuesday a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in Washington’s latest move to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro’s government, targeting its main source of income. It is unclear how Trump will impose the move against the sanctioned vessels, and whether he will turn to the Coast Guard to interdict vessels. The administration has moved thousands of troops and nearly a dozen warships, including an aircraft carrier, to the region. Venezuela’s government said it rejected Trump’s “grotesque threat”. American presidents have broad discretion to deploy US forces abroad but Trump’s asserted blockade marks a new test of presidential authority, said international law scholar Elena Chachko of UC Berkeley Law School. Blockades have traditionally been treated as permissible “instruments of war”, but only under strict conditions, she said. “There are serious questions on the domestic law front and

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Iranian or Russian oil. Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro has included a ramped up military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, which have killed at least 90 people. Trump has also said that US land strikes on the South American country will soon start. Maduro has alleged that the US military build-up is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the Opec nation’s oil resources, which are the world’s largest crude reserves. In interviews with Vanity Fair , Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, said Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle”. – Reuters

o Venezuela rejects ‘grotesque threat’

international law front.” US Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, called the blockade “unquestionably an act of war”. “A war that the Congress never authorised and the American people do not want,” Castro said on X. There has been an effective embargo in place after the US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure. Since the seizure, Venezuelan crude exports have fallen sharply, a situation worsened by a

cyberattack that knocked down state-run administrative systems this week. While many vessels picking up oil in Venezuela are under sanctions, others transporting the country’s oil and crude from Iran and Russia have not been sanctioned, and some companies, particularly the US’ Chevron, transport Venezuelan oil in its own authorised ships. Since the US imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, traders and refiners buying Venezuelan oil have resorted to a “shadow fleet” of tankers that disguise their location and to vessels sanctioned for transporting

Two US Marine Corps Ospreys taking off at Mercedita International Airport on Tuesday in Ponce, Puerto Rico. – AFPPIC

Trump imposes full travel bans on seven more countries

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday sharply expanded a travel ban by barring people from seven more countries including Syria, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, from entering the United States. The latest move brings to nearly 40 the number of countries whose citizens face restrictions in coming to the United States solely by virtue of nationality, with Trump also tightening rules for routine travel from Western nations.

as Canada and Mexico. The Trump administration has promised to let in athletes for football’s signature competition, but has made no such promises for fans of blacklisted countries. Other countries slapped with partial restrictions were from Africa or largely Black nations in the Caribbean – Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – plus Tonga. – AFP

Other countries newly subjected to the full travel ban came from some of Africa’s poorest countries – Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan – as well as Laos. In a series of new actions, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the World Cup set to be played next year in the United States as well

It comes as Trump orders mass deportations and takes an increasingly strident tone against non-white new Americans. The White House in a proclamation said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans. Trump also wants to prevent foreigners in the United States who would “undermine or destabilise its culture, government, institutions or founding principles”, the proclamation said.