The United States issued new sanctions targeting Venezuela on Thursday, imposing curbs on three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro's wife, as well as six crude oil tankers and shipping companies linked to them, as Washington ramps up pressure on Caracas.
The action comes amid a large-scale U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean and as U.S. President Donald Trump campaigns for Maduro’s ouster.
On Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. had seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on six shipping companies moving Venezuelan oil, as well as six crude oil tankers that it said “have engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.”
Four of the tankers, including the 2002-built H. Constance and the 2003-built Lattafa, are Panama-flagged, with the other two registered in the Cook Islands and Hong Kong.
The targeted vessels are supertankers that recently loaded crude in Venezuela, according to internal shipping documents from state oil company PDVSA.
Franqui Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, were also hit with sanctions. The two were dubbed the “narco nephews” after their arrest in Haiti in 2015 in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation.
Maduro and his government have denied links to crime and say the U.S. is pursuing regime change to take control of Venezuela’s oil reserves.
"The imperialists thought that our people would falter, but here no one faltered and no one will ever falter," Maduro said in reference to previous sanctions.
Wednesday’s seizure was the first of a Venezuelan oil cargo during U.S. sanctions that have been in force since 2019. It is the Trump administration’s first known action against a Venezuela-related tanker since he ordered a large military buildup in the region.
The administration is planning further tanker seizures, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that the FBI, Homeland Security and Coast Guard, with support from the U.S. military, carried out a seizure warrant for a crude tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
The move pushed oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caraca
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The explosion at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday afternoon killed at least 12 people and injured a further 309, according to Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority. The airport remains closed until further notice.
One person was killed and nearly a dozen hurt in a fresh attack on Riyadh's international airport on Sunday, Saudi authorities reported, a day after a strike claimed by Yemen's Houthis killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
Yemen's Houthis renewed warning to airlines, airport workers, and travellers against using Saudi airports, saying the warning should be taken seriously and that the kingdom “bore responsibility for failed interceptions”, a day after an attack on Riyadh's international airport that killed 12 people.
The Houthi movement has escalated their attacks on Saudi Arabia, targeting the airport in Riyadh and other cities, killing more than a dozen people.
Ukraine is ready to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries if Moscow also halts strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
The Kremlin on Monday rejected a 60-day ceasefire idea proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to allow his country to hold presidential elections, saying it wanted an overall peace deal instead.
Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 12 October 2026 with the top five natural disasters happening around the world.
The Houthi movement has escalated their attacks on Saudi Arabia, targeting the airport in Riyadh and other cities, killing more than a dozen people.
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China has announced sanctions against Belize’s foreign minister and Paraguay’s communications minister over their countries’ diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The move comes as Beijing continues to pressure the few remaining nations that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei.
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