23/12/2025

TUESDAY | DEC 23, 2025

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U.S. COAST GUARD PURSUES THIRD OIL TANKER WASHINGTON: The US Coast Guard was pursuing another allegedly sanctioned tanker on Sunday, a US official said, as Washington ramps up its pressure campaign targeting Venezuela’s vital oil sector. The “active pursuit” in the Caribbean Sea was happening a day after the Coast Guard seized its second vessel off Venezuela in two weeks. “The Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion. It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order,” a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in a statement to AFP. News outlets identified the ship involved as the Bella 1 , an oil tanker under US sanctions since last year. – AFP SEIZURES A SERIOUS VIOLATION, SAYS CHINA BEIJING: China’s Foreign Ministry said the seizure of ships was a serious violation of international law. Venezuela has the right to develop relations with other countries, ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. China opposes all “unilateral and illegal” sanctions. A White House spokesperson said the “falsely flagged vessel” carried sanctioned oil and was part of Venezuela’s shadow fleet. The Venezuelan government called the tanker interception a “serious act of international piracy”. China is the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude, which accounts for roughly 4% of its imports. – Reuters FOREIGN MINISTER URGES JEWS TO MOVE TO ISRAEL TEL AVIV: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Sunday for Jews in Western countries to move to Israel to escape rising antisemitism, one week after 15 were shot dead in Sydney. “Jews have the right to live in safety everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening, and we have a certain historical experience. I call on Jews in England, France, Australia, Canada and Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said at a ceremony, held with leaders of Jewish communities and organisations worldwide. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Western governments to better protect their Jewish citizens. – AFP PRESS GROUP WELCOMES GAZA ACCESS DEADLINE TEL AVIV: The Foreign Press Association on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to set Jan 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza. Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023 Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the territory. Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory. The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the supreme court last year, seeking access for international journalists. – AFP LOUISIANA GOVERNOR IS ENVOY TO GREENLAND WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday the appointment of Louisiana’s governor as the country’s special envoy to Greenland, the Danish autonomous territory coveted by Washington. After his return to office in January, Trump said that he “needed” Greenland, for US security, repeatedly expressing his wish to seize it. Greenland, backed by Copenhagen, rebutted that it was not for sale and would decide its own future. “I am pleased to announce that I am appointing Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as the special envoy to Greenland,”Trump said. – AFP

BR I E F S

The damaged car lies at the scene in Moscow. – REUTERSPIC

Car blast kills Russian general hours after US talks

o Investigators probing link to Ukrainian special forces

about yesterday’s killing, which came after three days of talks in Miami as the United States intensifies its efforts to broker an end to the four-year war. Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and US special envoy Steve Witkoff hailed “progress” in the negotiations on Sunday. Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev also met the US team, which included Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Witkoff had also called those meetings “productive and constructive”. An initial 28-point plan to end the war put forward by Trump adhered to Moscow’s core demands, triggering panic in Kyiv and European capitals. Ukraine and its allies have since been working to refine the plan, though Kyiv says it is still being asked to make massive concessions, such as giving up the eastern Donbas region to Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed scepticism over whether Russia really wants to end the war. – AFP

detonated in a residential quarter of southern Moscow. The scene had been cordoned off by security forces, and investigators were sifting through the debris. “We absolutely didn’t expect it. We thought we were safe, and then this happens right next to us,” local resident, Tatiana, 74, told AFP. “The windows rattled, you could tell it was an explosion,” said Grigory, 70, who also declined to give his surname. “We need to treat it more calmly. It’s the cost of war.” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was “working through various lines of inquiry. One of them involves the possible organisation of the crime by Ukrainian special services.” Sarvarov fought in North Caucasus, including Chechnya in the 1990s, according to his official biography. He also commanded Russian forces in Syria in 2015-16. The Kremlin said Putin had been informed

MOSCOW: A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces”. The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Russian General Staff’s training department, was killed when the bomb, which had been placed under his parked car,

Israel demolishes Palestinian homes TEL AVIV: Israeli bulldozers tore through a four storey residential building in east Jerusalem yesterday, displacing scores of Palestinians in what activists said was the largest such demolition in the area this year.

The building, in the Silwan neighbourhood near the Old City, comprised a dozen apartments housing 100 people, many of them women, children and elderly residents. It was the latest in a series of buildings to be torn down as Israeli officials target what they describe as unauthorised structures. “The demolition is a tragedy for all residents,” said Eid Shawar, who lives in the building. “They broke down the door while we were asleep and told us we could only change our clothes and take essential papers and documents,” said the father of five. With nowhere else to go, Shawar said his seven-member family would have to sleep in his car. Three bulldozers began ripping into the structure early yesterday as residents looked on, their clothes and belongings scattered across nearby streets. Israeli police cordoned off nearby roads, with security forces deployed across the area and positioned on rooftops. Built on privately owned Palestinian land, the building had been slated for demolition for lacking a permit, activists said.

Israeli forces demolishing a residential building in East Jerusalem yesterday. – REUTERSPIC Palestinians face severe obstacles in obtaining building permits due to Israel’s restrictive planning policies.

to replace the land’s owners with settlers.” The Jerusalem municipality said the demolition of the building was based on a 2014 court order, and “the land on which the structure stood is zoned for leisure and sports uses and construction, and not for residential purposes”. Activists, however, accuse Israeli authorities of frequently designating areas in east Jerusalem as national parks or open spaces to advance Israeli settlement interests. – AFP

The building’s destruction “is part of a systematic policy aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinian residents and emptying the city of its original inhabitants”, the Jerusalem governorate, affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, said in a statement. “Any demolition that expels residents from their homes constitutes a clear occupation plan