US exerts more pressure on Venezuela
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Hi, I'm Ankur Desai, and in the early hours of Friday, the 12th of December, these are our main stories. Donald Trump heaps more pressure against Venezuela, including sanctions against shipping companies and the family of President Nicolas Maduro. President Zelensky says the fate of land in eastern Ukraine is still a key point of disagreement with Washington over how to end Russia's full-scale invasion. Also in this podcast, Disney and OpenAI announced a $1 billion deal to allow AI to create short videos of Disney's famous characters from Mickey Mouse to Darth Vader. The best thing we can do is educate ourselves to try to figure out all the possible revenue streams that can come from AI and just lean into it.
Many football fans react with anger at the cost of tickets for next year's men's World Cup finals. And cameras attached to killer whales have captured extraordinary footage of whales swimming and foraging with dolphins and catching fish together. The United States has imposed new sanctions on relatives of Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, as well as a businessman close to him and six shipping companies. The White House says the tanker, its forces seized in the Caribbean on Wednesday, is being taken to a port in the US where the oil it was carrying will be seized. The White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, was repeatedly asked about the issue at a news briefing.
Was this a one-off, or is it safe to say the administration is taking a more active look at the oil industry in Venezuela, whether targeting other oil ships or perhaps Venezuelan oil production facilities in Venezuela? Well, I won't broadcast any future actions from the administration, but I will just reiterate that the Trump administration is executing on the president's sanction policies and the sanction policies of the United States. And we're not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world.
The sea ship is owned by a Russian businessman who is himself the subject of sanctions. President Putin has given his support to Mr Maduro in the face of what Venezuela called growing external pressure. Our State Department correspondent Tom Bateman reports.
The American seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast marks a further sharp escalation in the Caribbean Sea. The region is already bristling with US military hardware and has for three months seen dozens killed in lethal airstrikes on boats the US alleges are drug smugglers helping fuel the Venezuelan regime, a claim for which it has yet to provide evidence. Speaking before a hearing in Congress, the Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, linked the boat strikes with last night's capture of the oil tanker. It was a successful operation directed by the president to ensure that we're pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs and killing our next generation of Americans.
The ratcheting up of tensions is the clearest sign yet that Mr Trump seeks to further target Venezuela's economy, which is heavily dependent on oil exports. His administration, or at least the most hawkish within it, hope to force the left-wing authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro from power. They point to a rigged election win in a country with vast oil and mineral deposits. But Mr Trump's America First foreign policy means he is unlikely to risk any American casualties, creating a potential deterrent despite the huge show of force in the Caribbean.
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