Free Republic

PARIS (AP) — France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said. French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.

Bilal Hasan al-Jasim was affiliated to gunman who killed 2 service members and interpreter in December attack U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Saturday a leader affiliated with al Qaeda, who had direct ties to an ISIS terrorist responsible for killing two U.S. service members and an American interpreter on Dec. 13, was killed in a U.S. strike in northwest Syria on Friday.CENTCOM officials said Bilal Hasan al-Jasim was an experienced terrorist leader who plotted attacks and was "directly connected" with the ISIS gunman who killed and injured American and Syrian personnel last month in Palmyra, Syria."The death of a...

…The US has accused the Marinera of breaking its sanctions by carrying oil for Venezuela, Russia and Iran. The ship, previously known as Bella 1, was boarded while south of Iceland last week and is now in the Moray Firth while a US Coast Guard ship involved in the operation is berthed in Aberdeen. US administration sources said the tanker would be subject to a judicial forfeiture process when it arrives in the US and any individuals involved in its attempts to flee face federal prosecution.… …But Moscow denounced the seizure, demanding that the US treat Russians aboard properly and...

Germany turned away a Russian-linked oil tanker from entering its territorial waters in the Baltic Sea this week, marking the first known instance of a European country blocking a vessel in Moscow's shadow fleet, Bloomberg reported Jan. 16. The Aframax-class tanker, identified by the name Arcusat, abruptly changed course earlier this week as it neared German waters, instead rerouting north toward Russia's Arctic coast,… … Shipping records indicate the tanker was delivered last year from a Chinese shipyard, though databases disagree on the flag it is sailing under, with some listing Tanzania and others Cameroon. The vessel also reportedly appeared...

Iranian-Americans in New York called the Islamic republic’s savage massacre of anti-regime protesters “heartbreaking” – as they anxiously wait to see what action President Trump takes to back demonstrators. The death toll from the protests that were sparked over Iran’s crumbling economy has reached more than 500 protesters as the government is accused of detaining more than 10,000 people – leading Trump to threaten US military force against the authoritarian regime. “Iranian government, you can’t trust them,” said a 61-year-old Great Neck man whose wife remains in Iran.

The United States will soon receive 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil from the South American nation in the near future, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday. “I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used...

The U.S. on Wednesday seized a rogue Russian-flagged tanker linked to Venezuelan oil in the North Atlantic Sea. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had earlier announced another seizure in a social media post. “In two predawn operations today, the Coast Guard conducted back-to-back meticulously coordinated boarding of two ‘ghost fleet’ tanker ships — one in the North Atlantic Sea and one in international waters near the Caribbean,” she posted. Noem said the Motor Tanker M/V Bella I (later renamed the Marinera and reflagged as Russian) and the Motor Tanker Sophia were either last docked in Venezuela or en route to...

"This trade generated as much as $70 billion for Iran, propping up the regime and its nuclear weapons program." China is reportedly using a “dark fleet” to conduct secret ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil in an effort to evade U.S. sanctions on Tehran’s tankers. CBS News sent a crew to scout an area roughly 80 nautical miles from Singapore and found four ship-to-ship transfers occurring; all the “dark fleet” tankers had their transponders switched off, and “clearly do not want to be identified,” the outlet reported. “Both ships have a net or something, a tarp, deployed over the stern, covering...

Sanctioned vessel reportedly under NATO surveillance as Russia asks US to halt pursuit A Venezuela-linked oil tanker operating in the so-called "dark fleet" painted a Russian flag on its hull, changed its name, and reflagged to Russia in an apparent bid to evade the U.S. Coast Guard, according to reports. The vessel has since been spotted off Ireland, with the U.S., U.K., France and Ireland reportedly conducting aerial surveillance after it escaped U.S. interception in December, The Times reported. Meanwhile, Russia has reportedly since deployed a submarine and naval assets to escort the tanker to its own waters, the Wall...

A popular Mexican musician who sang the praises of drug lords was shot dead in a parking lot in the west of the country, police said late Tuesday. Ernesto Barajas, a singer with the group Enigma Norteno, which has four million monthly listeners on Spotify, was gunned down in the city of Zapopan in Jalisco state. He is among several performers of so-called "narco-corridos" — a controversial sub-genre of regional music that celebrates the exploits of infamous drug cartels — to have been killed in recent months. In May, five members of the group Fugitivo were murdered by suspected drug...

According to the Chinese foreign ministry, the sanctions entail freezing the companies’ assets in China and banning individuals and organisations from accessing them. China has imposed sanctions against 20 US defense-related companies and 10 executives, a week after Washington announced large-scale arms sales to Taiwan. According to the Chinese foreign ministry, the sanctions entail freezing the companies’ assets in China and banning individuals and organisations from dealing with them. “We stress once again that the Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in China－US relations,” the...

French Connection IIBy WILLIAM SAFIRE ASHINGTON — What will the world discover, after the war is over, about which countries secretly helped Saddam obtain components for terror weapons?Last week, I wrote that French brokerage was involved in the illicit transfer of the chemical HTBP, a rubbery base for a rocket propellant, from a Chinese company through Syria to Iraq. When Christiane Amanpour asked President Jacques Chirac about it on CBS's "60 Minutes," he replied: "Because The New York Times is a serious newspaper, as soon as I read this I ordered an inquiry. I can now confirm officially, after an...

Emergency workers in Trinidad and Tobago are racing to clean up a massive oil spill after a mystery vessel ran aground near the Caribbean island, casting a pall over Carnival tourism. The spill was "not under control" as of Sunday, said Prime Minister Keith Rowley, who added that the country is grappling with a national emergency. The mystery vessel capsized Wednesday in waters off the Caribbean island, having made no emergency calls, with no sign of crew, and no clear sign of ownership.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has begun evacuating the families of diplomats from Venezuela, a European intelligence official told AP on Monday, as the United States pursues its third sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean and President Donald Trump convenes senior national security officials at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The evacuations, which started Friday and include women and children, come as Russian officials assess the situation in Venezuela in what the intelligence source described as "very grim tones." The withdrawals signal heightened concerns about stability in the South American nation as the Trump administration escalates its four-month pressure campaign against President Nicolas Maduro's...

The United States Coast Guard is seizing a sanctioned vessel off the Venezuelan coast, two U.S. officials confirm to NBC News. The operation is in progress. It was first reported by Reuters. The Coast Guard is taking the lead, both officials said. The U.S. military is supporting with helicopters that are dropping off Coast Guard personnel and observing overhead, one of the officials said. This comes after the U.S. interdicted a large, sanctioned oil tanker known as the Skipper off the coast of Venezuela last week. After that operation, the Trump administration sanctioned six more ships believed to be carrying...

US special forces raided a cargo ship travelling from China to Iran in November that was allegedly transporting "dual-use military technology," according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Friday.Citing unnamed US officials, the WSJ revealed that a special operations team boarded the ship several hundred miles from Sri Lanka and seized the cargo, which was described as “dual-use components that could be used either for civilian applications or to make conventional weapons."Image source: US Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class William FarmerieThe ship's name, its owner, and the flag under which it was sailing...

The US Department of the Treasury has lifted sanctions imposed on the Brazilian supreme court justice who oversaw the conviction of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. Justice Alexandre de Moraes had been under Global Magnitsky sanctions, which target individuals accused of human rights abuses, since July. His wife Viviane Barci de Moraes – who was added the sanctions list in September – was also removed from the register on Friday. The move had been repeatedly requested by Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in negotiations with Donald Trump to roll back the 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports. The decision...

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and arm of the Iranian military, seized an oil vessel allegedly carrying “smuggled diesel” in the Persian Gulf, Tehran revealed on Thursday. The unidentified ship was reportedly flying the flag of E-Swatini and was part of what Iran alleges is a massive trafficking scheme to steal Iranian oil and sell it abroad. The IRGC revealed the news on the same day that the Iranian government condemned the United States for staging a similar seizure of a ship accused of carrying illicit oil in the Caribbean following an appropriate warrant process....

Moment U.S. forces seized massive oil tanker off Venezuela “As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” Trump said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”

This is the dramatic moment that US commandos stormed a Venezuelan oil tanker in a breathtaking airborne takedown amid ratcheting tensions in the Caribbean. Footage released by the Trump administration on Wednesday showed American forces swooping on the tanker in helicopters and rappelling down ropes. Troops with guns drawn darted up stairs to the bridge to take control of the vessel off the coast of Venezuela. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a statement on X: 'Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a...