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An oil tanker seized by American forces off the Venezuelan coast will be brought to a port in the United States, the White House said Thursday, as fears mount of open conflict between the two countries.Washington took control of the tanker in a dramatic raid that saw US forces rope down from a helicopter onto the vessel in an operation that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said was aimed at leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s “regime.”President Donald Trump’s administration has been piling pressure on Venezuela for months with a major naval build-up in the region that has been accompanied by strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that have killed close to 90 people.Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed support during a phone call with his ally Maduro, but with Moscow’s forces tied down in a grinding war in Ukraine, its capacity to provide aid is limited.”The vessel will go to a US port and the United States does intend to seize the oil,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists of the tanker.”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.”Earlier on Thursday, Noem told a congressional hearing that the tanker operation to ensure “we’re pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs” — a reference to US allegations of narcotics smuggling by Maduro’s government.A video released Wednesday by US Attorney General Pam Bondi showed American forces descending from a helicopter onto the tanker’s deck, then entering the ship’s bridge with weapons raised.Bondi said the ship was part of an “illicit oil shipping network” that was used to carry sanctioned oil.- ‘Blatant theft’ -Venezuela’s foreign ministry said it “strongly denounces and condemns what constitutes blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday expressed concern over the escalating tensions and urged restraint.”We are calling on all actors to refrain from action that could further escalate bilateral tensions and destabilize Venezuela and the region,” his spokesperson said.US media reported that the tanker had been heading for Cuba — another American rival — and that the ship was stopped by the US Coast Guard.Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday he questioned the legality of the tanker seizure and that “any president, before he engages in an act of war, has to have the authorization of the American people through Congress.””This president is preparing for an invasion of Venezuela, simply said. And if the American people are in favor of that, I’d be surprised,” Durbin told CNN.Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a “narco-terrorist” organization last month, and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.Trump told Politico on Monday that Maduro’s “days are numbered” and declined to rule out a US ground invasion of Venezuela.The Trump administration also alleges that Maduro’s hold on power is illegitimate and that he stole Venezuela’s July 2024 election.Maduro — the political heir to leftist leader Hugo Chavez — says the United States is bent on regime change and wants to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Democratic lawmakers called for US Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem’s resignation Thursday as she defended the Trump administration’s mass deportation program at a fiery congressional hearing.”You promised America that you would go after the worst of the worst,” Democratic Representative Seth Magaziner said.But the vast immigration crackdown launched under Republican President Donald Trump has swept up veterans of the US military, their relatives, pregnant women, children and even some American citizens, Magaziner said.”There are many problems with your leadership but the biggest problem is this: You don’t seem to know how to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys,” he told the House Homeland Security Committee hearing, which was interrupted by demonstrators on several occasions.The panel’s ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson said Noem has “diverted resources from critical Homeland Security agencies and programs to carry out an extreme immigration agenda.””Black and brown Americans in particular, have been racially profiled, detained and locked up,” Thompson said.”So rather than sitting here and wasting your time and ours with more corruption, lies and lawlessness, I call on you to resign,” he said.While Democrats on the committee lambasted Noem and the Trump administration, Republicans praised her department for securing the US-Mexico border and rounding up undocumented migrants for deportation.Noem defended the tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and accused the administration of Democrat Joe Biden of allowing “millions of people to come into our country illegally.”She denied US citizens have been detained although she said there have been occasions when they were held until their identity could be confirmed.”We have never once detained or deported an American citizen,” Noem said.”(When) we are doing our targeted enforcement operations against criminal illegal aliens, individuals that are in that area may be detained until we verify who they are, and then they are released.”Trump ran for the White House promising to deport millions of undocumented migrants and Noem, as head of the Department of Homeland Security, oversees the operation.

Millions of Americans are bracing for soaring health care costs after the US Senate on Thursday rejected rival Republican and Democratic plans to avert the expiry of key insurance subsidies — a fight set to dominate next year’s midterm elections.President Donald Trump has remained largely disengaged from Capitol Hill negotiations, according to lawmakers in both parties, reluctant to spearhead a major health care push and declining to endorse any credible proposal to address the crisis.Without action in the next three weeks, insurance payments for more than 20 million low- and middle-income Americans are projected to more than double, raising the political stakes as Washington edges into a campaign season defined by cost-of-living pressures.Democrats were promised a vote on a three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies as part of a deal that ended a record 43-day government shutdown last month. While Republican Majority Leader John Thune agreed to hold the vote, he had not promised its success, and Republicans were almost unified in opposition.Under pressure from moderates and senators up for reelection, Thune had also agreed to bring forward a Republican alternative for a vote alongside the Democratic bill. This plan would have replaced subsidies with contributions to Health Savings Accounts to help cover out-of-pocket expenses. But reaching the 60-vote threshold in the 100-seat Senate always looked like a longshot, with only 53 Republicans making up the majority — and Democrats duly blocked the bill.The average payment is expected to rise by roughly 114 percent — an extra $1,000 to $1,500 in annual premiums for a typical family, according to health policy research group KFF. – ‘Life and death vote’ -Up to seven million ACA enrollees could lose their coverage altogether, statistical modeling indicates, and most are expected to become uninsured rather than switching to other plans. Thune, however, has signaled that Thursday’s defeats might open the way for talks in 2026. “When we get through this exercise this week the question is, ‘Are there enough Democrats who want to fix the problem?'” he told reporters on Wednesday, adding that he believed there was “a path forward.””Obviously we don’t have a lot of time to do this, but I think there are ways in which you could, where there’s a will.”Republicans say they are unwilling to back a clean extension but believe the broader issue of rising health costs can be addressed early next year, potentially as part of negotiations over government funding due to expire on January 30. They are hoping to use special Senate procedures to circumvent the 60-vote rule and go it alone, arguing that Democrats have little incentive to compromise in an election year — a calculation the minority party denies.In the House, the landscape is even more fractured. Multiple Republicans — including the leadership — unveiled a plethora of ideas aimed at lowering costs, though none includes extending ACA subsidies or looks to have sufficient backing.With competing petitions, no unified House strategy and little sign of leadership buy-in, the chances of a bipartisan compromise emerging before year’s end now appear extremely slim.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gave an impassioned floor speech ahead of the vote on the Democratic bill, setting out what he saw as the stakes. “This is not a political fight. This is not a symbolic vote,” he said. “This is a life and death vote, because people who will lose their health care could face that horrible, horrible end.”

A US federal judge on Thursday ordered the immediate release of a Salvadoran man who was wrongly deported in March and then returned to the United States after months of legal battles and detained again.The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident married to an American woman, has become a lightning rod for those opposed to President Donald Trump’s efforts to carry out mass deportations across the country.He was among more than 200 people sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison in March. The Trump administration alleges he is a violent MS-13 gang member involved in smuggling other undocumented migrants, which he denies.After his return to the United States in June, Abrego Garcia was detained again in Tennessee on human smuggling charges. He was then released under strict conditions in August, pending a trial.But after returning to Maryland, he was detained again by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation to one of four African countries. He declared himself instead ready to go to Costa Rica, which had been willing to take him.In her ruling Thursday, Judge Paula Xinis concluded that Abrego Garcia has been held in ICE detention “absent a lawful removal order.””His detention has been for the basic purpose of effectuating removal, lending further support that Abrego Garcia should be held no longer,” her ruling said.She ordered the government to release him from ICE custody immediately while his legal challenge against his deportation moves forward. The government must report back to the judge by 5:00 pm local time (2200 GMT) on Thursday, according to the ruling.Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin accused the judge of “judicial activism.””This order lacks any valid basis and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” she wrote on X.Trump has made combating illegal immigration his top priority, claiming an “invasion” of the United States by “foreign criminals” and pressing for the mass deportation of immigrants. But his program has been hampered by numerous court rulings on the grounds that those targeted must be able to assert their rights.

Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.”We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.”With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.”The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured. “But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.””We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.” 

Walt Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing deal Thursday that will allow users to create short videos featuring beloved Disney characters through artificial intelligence.The deal marks the first time a major entertainment company has embraced generative AI at this scale, licensing its fiercely protected characters — from Mickey Mouse to Marvel superheroes and Star Wars’s Darth Vader — for AI content creation.The partnership represents a dramatic shift for an industry that has largely been battling AI companies in court.Disney and other creative industry giants had been suing AI firms like OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic, accusing them of illegally using their content to train their technology.The entertainment giant continued that legal campaign on Wednesday, separately sending a cease and desist letter to Google over the illegal use of its intellectual property to train the search engine giant’s AI models.For OpenAI, the deal comes at a sensitive time as it faces increasing questions about the sustainability of its business model, with costs skyrocketing far faster than revenue despite nearing one billion daily users worldwide.Under the agreement, fans will be able to produce and share AI-generated content featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises on OpenAI’s Sora video generation platform and ChatGPT.The partnership includes a $1 billion equity investment by Disney in OpenAI, along with warrants to purchase additional shares in the ChatGPT maker.Disney shares rose as much as two percent on Thursday after the announcement.”The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry,” said Disney CEO Robert Iger, adding the collaboration would “thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling.”Characters available for fan creations will include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Elsa from Frozen, and Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Captain America, as well as Star Wars icons including Darth Vader and Yoda.The agreement excludes talent likenesses and voices from actors amid deep concern in Hollywood about the impact of AI on the creative industry.”This does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all — in fact the opposite. I think it honors them and respects them, in part because there’s a license fee associated with it,” Iger told CNBC.- 30 seconds -Iger, in a joint interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on CNBC, insisted that the deal only includes videos no longer than 30 seconds and that the technology wouldn’t be used for longer form productions.Beyond licensing, Disney will deploy OpenAI’s technology to build new products and experiences for Disney+, the streaming platform, and will make ChatGPT available to its staff.”Disney is the global gold standard for storytelling,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly.”Both companies emphasized their commitment to responsible AI use, with OpenAI pledging age-appropriate policies and controls to prevent illegal or harmful content generation and protect creator rights.In Disney’s complaint against Google, OpenAI’s biggest rival in the AI space, the entertainment giant accuses Google of infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale by copying a large corpus of content without authorization to train and develop AI models and services.”We’ve been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we’ve gone after other companies that have…not valued it, and this is another example of us doing just that,” Iger told CNBC.

Time magazine named the “Architects of AI” as its Person of the Year on Thursday, highlighting the US tech titans whose work on cutting-edge artificial intelligence is transforming humanity.Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk are among the innovators who have “grabbed the wheel of history, developing technology and making decisions that are reshaping the information landscape, the climate, and our livelihoods,” Time wrote.One of two covers of the magazine is a homage to the famous 1932 photograph of ironworkers casually eating lunch on a steel beam above New York City.In the Time illustration, sitting astride the city are Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, AMD chief Lisa Su, Musk, Huang, Altman as well as Google’s AI boss Demis Hassabis, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li. “Racing both beside and against each other, they placed multibillion-dollar bets on one of the biggest physical infrastructure projects of all time,” the magazine said of the group.”They reoriented government policy, altered geopolitical rivalries, and brought robots into homes. AI emerged as arguably the most consequential tool in great-power competition since the advent of nuclear weapons.”Alongside popular AI models like ChatGPT and Claude, Time credited investors like SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who has plunged billions of dollars into the technology.Time’s Person of the Year selection is an acknowledgement of the year’s most influential figure. The title last year went to president-elect Donald Trump. Others have included singer Taylor Swift and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.- ‘Gravitational center of 2025’ -According to the magazine, which is owned by Silicon Valley billionaire Marc Benioff, 2025 was the year AI shifted from promise to reality and when ChatGPT usage more than doubled to 10 percent of the world’s population.”This is the single most impactful technology of our time,” Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia — the most valuable company in the world — told Time. He predicted that AI will eventually grow the global economy from $100 trillion to $500 trillion.But the magazine also pointed to AI’s darker side.Lawsuits have alleged that chatbots contributed to suicides and mental health crises, sparking debates about “chatbot psychosis,” where users may devolve into delusions and paranoia.In one case, the California parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine are suing OpenAI after he took his own life. They claim that ChatGPT provided information about suicide methods.Time noted too looming job displacement as more companies race to replace workers with AI models.Yet the magazine notably steered away from using AI to generate its cover art, opting instead for human artists.Thomas Hudson, chief analyst at US research firm Forrester, said the Person of the Year choice rightly reflected AI’s heavy influence this year.”AI has been the gravitational center of 2025 for the economy and the source of endless discussions on how it will shape the future of our societies,” he said in a statement.

US senators were set to vote Thursday on dueling health care plans that are both expected to be rejected, with millions of Americans facing soaring premiums and the issue poised to be a major flashpoint in next year’s midterm elections.President Donald Trump has remained largely disengaged from Capitol Hill negotiations, according to lawmakers in both parties, reluctant to spearhead a major health care push and declining to endorse any proposal to extend expiring subsidies.Without action, insurance payments for more than 20 million low- and middle-income Americans are projected to more than double in January, raising the political stakes as Washington edges into a campaign season defined by cost-of-living pressures.Neither the Democratic nor Republican proposal has much chance of advancing, however, leaving looming uncertainty over enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that expire on December 31. The vote on the Democratic plan — a three-year extension of the subsidies — was secured last month as part of the deal that ended a record 43-day government shutdown. But while Republican Majority Leader John Thune agreed to hold the vote, he has not promised its success, and Republicans appear unified in opposition.Under pressure from moderates and senators up for reelection, Thune agreed to bring forward a Republican alternative for a vote alongside the Democratic bill. This plan would replace subsidies with contributions to Health Savings Accounts to help cover out-of-pocket expenses. But it too has little hope of reaching the 60-vote threshold, with only 53 Republicans making up the majority.The average payment is expected to rise by roughly 114 percent — an extra $1,000–$1,500 in annual premiums for a typical family — according to health policy research group KFF. – ‘Half-baked ideas’ -Up to seven million ACA enrollees could lose their coverage altogether, statistical modeling indicates, and most are expected to become uninsured rather than switching to other plans. Thune, however, signaled that Thursday’s defeats might open the way for talks in 2026. “When we get through this exercise this week the question is, ‘Are there enough Democrats who want to fix the problem?'” he told reporters on Wednesday, adding that he believed there was “a path forward.””Obviously we don’t have a lot of time to do this, but I think there are ways in which you could, where there’s a will.”Republicans say they are unwilling to back a clean extension but believe the broader issue of rising health costs can be addressed early next year, potentially as part of negotiations over government funding due to expire on January 30. They are hoping to use special Senate procedures to circumvent the 60-vote rule and go it alone, arguing that Democrats have little incentive to compromise in an election year — a calculation the minority party denies.In the House, the landscape is even more fractured. Multiple Republicans — including the leadership — unveiled a plethora of ideas aimed at lowering costs, though none includes extending ACA subsidies or looks to have sufficient backing. With competing petitions, no unified House strategy, and little sign of leadership buy-in, the chances of a bipartisan compromise emerging before year’s end appear slim.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Republicans to abandon their “hodgepodge of half-baked ideas” in a floor speech Wednesday and back the Democratic health care effort.”What we need to do is prevent premiums from skyrocketing, and only our bill does that,” he said. “It’s the last train out of the station to avoid these sky-high premiums from going up and up and up.”

Walt Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing deal Thursday that will allow users to create short videos featuring beloved Disney characters through artificial intelligence.The deal marks the first time a major entertainment company has embraced generative AI at this scale, licensing its fiercely protected characters — from Mickey Mouse to Marvel superheroes and Star Wars’s Darth Vader — for AI content creation.The partnership represents a dramatic shift for an industry that has largely been battling AI companies in court. Disney and other creative industry giants had been suing AI firms like OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic, accusing them of illegally using their content to train their technology.The deal comes at a sensitive time for OpenAI, which faces increasing questions about the sustainability of its business model, with costs skyrocketing far faster than revenue despite nearing one billion daily users worldwide.Under the agreement, fans will be able to produce and share AI-generated content featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises on OpenAI’s Sora video generation platform and ChatGPT.The partnership includes a $1 billion equity investment by Disney in OpenAI, along with warrants to purchase additional shares in the ChatGPT maker.Disney shares rose by about two percent on Thursday after the announcement.”The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry,” said Disney CEO Robert Iger, adding the collaboration would “thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling.”Characters available for fan creations will include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Elsa from Frozen, and Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Captain America, as well as Star Wars icons including Darth Vader and Yoda. The agreement excludes talent likenesses and voices from actors.Beyond licensing, Disney will deploy OpenAI’s technology to build new products and experiences for Disney+, the streaming platform, and will make ChatGPT available to its employees.”Disney is the global gold standard for storytelling,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly.”Both companies emphasized their commitment to responsible AI use, with OpenAI pledging age-appropriate policies and controls to prevent illegal or harmful content generation and protect creator rights.

The US trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in September to the smallest since 2020, delayed government data showed Thursday, with imports rising just slightly as President Donald Trump’s new tariffs set in.The overall trade deficit fell 10.9 percent to $52.8 billion, the lowest since mid-2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.This came as exports rose 3.0 percent to $289.3 billion, while imports edged up 0.6 percent to $342.1 billion, the Commerce Department said.The trade figures are the latest in a series of official economic reports postponed due to a record-long government shutdown between October and mid-November.The stoppage had left officials and companies to navigate policy and business decisions without key indicators on the health of the world’s biggest economy. But reports are now trickling out.Thursday’s figures also showed how Trump’s new tariffs this year continue to weigh on trade, after sweeping increases targeting dozens of trading partners hit the country’s imports in August as well.On August 7, Trump’s steeper global tariffs took effect on goods from economies ranging from the European Union to Japan.Trade flows have been heavily swayed this year by the president’s fast-changing duties, as importers rushed to stock up on inventory ahead of various planned hikes in tariffs.The Budget Lab at Yale University estimated as of November that consumers face an overall average effective rate that is the highest since the 1930s.In particular, Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff escalation earlier this year that took duties to prohibitive triple-digit levels, snarling trade flows.Both sides have since agreed to a de-escalation, although the truce has been uneasy.Trump has moved to end the “de minimis” exemption allowing lower value shipments to enter the country duty-free as well.Surveys of economists conducted by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal had instead expected September’s trade deficit to widen to $62.0 billion.But Oliver Allen, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, warned in a note that “the marked drop in the overall trade deficit in September tells us little, since it was almost entirely due to a big jump in exports of gold bullion.”He expects this export strength to unwind in the fourth quarter of the year.He noted that “tariffs have so far failed to spark a big wave of import substitution.”In September, US goods imports increased as a whole, but those of capital goods like computers and electric apparatus dropped, according to Commerce Department data.US goods exports climbed as well, with those of consumer goods like pharmaceutical preparations and industrial supplies rising.