US seizes sixth tanker as Venezuela’s interim leader vows oil sector reform
United States forces have seized an oil tanker in the Caribbean that the Trump administration said had links to Venezuela, the sixth tanker vessel detained as Washington moves to take full control of Venezuelan oil resources, Aljazeera reported.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the US Coast Guard had boarded the tanker Veronica early on Thursday.
Noem said the vessel had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean”.
Final death toll from Hong Kong fire placed at 168
Hong Kong police have confirmed that 168 people died in the massive blaze that ripped through an apartment complex in Hong Kong last November - seven more than previously announced, BBC reported.
The ages of the victims ranged from six months to 98 years old, police said in a statement on Thursday. Of the victims, fifty-eight of them were male and 110 were female. Many of them were elderly residents who had lived in the apartment complex for decades.
The fire at Wang Fuk Court was the deadliest that the city had seen in decades, according to BBC.
Canada PM hails new partnership with China in wake of ‘new global realities’
Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China as he held talks in Beijing with president Xi Jinpingon Friday, the first visit there by a Canadian leader in eight years, The Guardian reported.
Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said that “together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities”.
Engagement and cooperation would be “the foundation of our new strategic partnership”, he said. “Agriculture, energy, finance, that’s where we can make the most immediate progress.”
Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act to quell anti-ICE protests in Minnesota
US President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to quell unrest over federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, BBC reported.
He threatened to send in troops following a night of protests and vandalism in the Minnesota city after an agent shot a man in the leg.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said an officer opened fire after he was attacked by three Venezuelan nationals with a shovel and broom handle, according to BBC.
