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US exerts more pressure on Venezuela
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Washington imposes sanctions on six more ships said to be carrying Venezuelan oil
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Hi, I'm Ankar Desai and in the early hours of Friday 12th 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 one billion dollar 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 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 and 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 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. 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. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Carina Machado, newly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, spoke of the possibility of US Military action. I was asked if you were supporting an intervention from the United States, and I said that Venezuela has been already being occupied by forces from totalitarian regimes such as Russia, Iran, Cuba, and criminal groups such as Hezbollah, the drug cartels and the Colombian guerrilla. Her comments came as the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had reaffirmed his support to Mr. Maduro in a phone call with his longtime ally. The expression of warm ties between Russia and Venezuela will not please the White House, especially while Mr. Trump seeks to push Moscow into a peace deal with Ukraine. The Russian leader, however, appeared to be showing he would still vocally support Mr. Trump's adversaries. Well, let's hear more about the impact on Venezuela and what we've heard from President Nicolas Maduro's government. Ione Wells is our South America correspondent. I think the seizure is likely to add to that pressure that has been building on the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, because oil is one of the main revenue producers for Venezuela. And I think it is significant that even though it was both Iranian and Venezuelan oil on this tanker, this happened in the region off Venezuela's coast and certainly I think is designed to put pressure on Venezuela's government, even if that isn't explicitly what the US is saying this is about. Venezuela has responded to this seizure yesterday saying that from their perspective this is piracy, that this is theft. And they have argued that this isn't about tackling migration or the illegal drug trade or even about democracy. They believe this is about the US trying to seize Venezuelan resources like oil. I think what's been notable is the sort of vague detail from the US about whether this is now the start of a different chapter in their military campaign and potentially we could see more tankers like this seized going forward. Ione Wells reporting now to the proposals and counter proposals to try to end the war in Ukraine. President Zelenskyy has said the main sticking points in a U S backed peace plan are what happens to parts of the EAS eastern region of Donetsk still controlled by Ukraine and the fate of a Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which is in Russian hands. He sent the US an updated 20 point peace plan. Although details of the proposals haven't been published. President Trump said that he is considering sending a representative to meet European leaders on Saturday. There's a meeting on Saturday. We'll see whether or not we attend the meeting. We said we'll attend the meeting if you think there's a good chance. They want me to attend, they want us to attend and we'll be attending the meeting on Saturday in Europe if we think there's a good chance and we don't want to waste a lot of time, we think it's negative. We, you know, we, we want it to get settled. We want to save a lot of lives. For more on what we know about the new proposals, here's our defence correspondent Jonathan Beale in Kyiv. The original draft U.S. peace plan, which sounded very similar to Russia's demands, talked about Ukraine giving up the entire Donbas region. That's where Ukraine is fighting hard at the moment to defend the last remaining bits of it. This revised U.S. peace plan, according to President Zelensky, suggests setting up a free economic zone, Essentially that is a demilitarized zone where Ukrainian forces would withdraw from the Donbas and President Zelenskyy has been highlighting with journalists today some of the problems of this suggestion. And that is, he says, if Ukraine is being asked to withdraw its troops 5 to 10 kilometers, well, why isn't Russia being asked to do the same? He's also saying, who is going to police this territory to make sure that Russia doesn't take it in the future? Now he's not ruling it out. He is saying that this is something that would have to be decided, as he always has, by the people, either in an election or a referendum. And then you're into the practicalities. How do you hold an election or referendum in wartime when your country's under attack? I think the truth is that most people in Ukraine would have the same questions President Zelensky has raised if it was put to them. Essentially, how do we know Russia is not going to take that territory? How do we know that they may not try to take more? So it's back to security guarantees there, which clearly has to be resolved, too. So I do not see this revised U.S. peace plan as being any more acceptable to Ukraine as the last peace plan. But clearly President Zelensky is not ruling it out because he still needs American support. He wants to keep America on side. He has the Europeans backing him, and he clearly wants to try and get some kind of deal that can end the war. Jonathan Beale reporting from Kyiv. Meanwhile, the head of NATO has warned that many European leaders are too complacent about the threat posed by Russia. Mark Rutte warned that members of the alliance must move to a wartime mindset and are Russia's next target. Our Europe editor Katya Adler told us more about the speech. Mark Rutter is known to favor quite colorful, bombastic language at times, but he had a message he wanted to send loud and clear to three very different audiences. First of all, to European members of NATO, to the UK To Italy, to France, Germany and others to say spend, spend, spend on defense, not sometime in the future, but now because Russia's at your door. He was also talking to Donald Trump in Washington, desperately trying to keep him on side. The US remains NATO's most important and powerful ally. If it walks out of the door of NATO. There's a question mark over the whole organization and wider security in Europe. And we have heard, as we were hearing that from Jonathan Beale, real impatience from the US President over Ukraine and even questioning whether Europeans can be relied on as allies. Don't give up on us. Mark Rotter was saying today we will do more for our own defense just like you asked us to. But finally, he was also speaking to Moscow. Don't even think of invading a NATO nation, he said, because we will be armed and we will be ready. But just last week, we heard from President Putin who said he'd be ready for a war of Europe if it comes to it. Now, of course, you can dismiss this as saber rattling from Moscow or bombastic language from NATO, but on the ground, the temperature and the tensions really are rising. Our Europe editor, Katya Adler. Now, for more on one of today's big stories, you can go on YouTube and search for BBC News, then click on the logo and then choose Podcast and Global News Podcast. There's a new story available every weekday. Next. Many football fans have reacted with anger at the cost of tickets for next year's men's World cup finals. The prices for specific games were revealed by the sport's global governing body, FIFA. The fan group Football Supporters Europe called them extortionate and called on FIFA to review them. So how much are they and how do you get them? Manny Jasmy from BBC Sports spoke to Alex Ritson. Well, this is the third phase of ticket sales, but the first in which fans know who's playing whom. And the easiest way, I guess, is to register on the FIFA website so you get an ID so that you can purchase them if you like. But unlike previous World Cups, when ticket prices in every round were the same for every game, these tickets vary according to the perceived attractiveness of of the fixtures. For example, since the draw games involving Lionel Messi's Argentina and Ronaldo's Portugal have tripled or quadrupled in price, there's a big game in the first round between Croatia and England. The cheapest seats for Croatia fans in that is $265 going up to 700 in the top category. That's three times the price of a similar ticket from the last World cup in 2022. For the World cup final, tickets start at get ready $4,185 in the cheap seats, which is seven times the cost of an equivalent ticket in 2022. Wow. Okay, so this is a World cup for the rich, then? Well, that's the instinctive conclusion, really. Certainly the majority of hardcore fans who watch their teams in the flesh will have to reconsider either whether they go at they cut down on the amount of games they're hoping to watch. And this is all before the cost of hotels. I'll just give you one example. The opening match of the tournament is In Mexico City, one hotel cost 150 per night in late May. Three weeks later on the eve of that match, it's nearly $4,000 a night. Wow. The reaction from fans well England fans group has described it as a slap in the face football supporters. Europe, whom you quoted earlier, has called it a monumental betrayal of the traditions of the World cup and has called on FIFA to halt the ticket sales and engage in consultation and review the prices until a solution that respects the tradition, universality and the cultural significance of the World cup is found. End of quote. We'll see how many are actually sold in the end, but FIFA says that already 2 million have gone and and that as a non profit making organization all of the World Cup's revenues will be put back into football development. Manny Jasmi From Italian cooking to handmade sea salt in the Philippines and ceremonial dances in Kenya, UNESCO, the UN's cultural agency, has awarded the status of intangible cultural heritage to a diverse range of traditions this year, and eyeliner, or specifically curl eyeliner, is among them. Stephanie Prentice has this report. Unlike monuments or historic sites, intangible cultural heritage refers to living practices, traditions, skills, rituals and social customs. Dark coal eyeliner, known for its intense black pigment, is used around the modern world, but formulations of it have been made for centuries in Middle Eastern, African and South Asian cultures. Its uses there go beyond cosmetic and Arabic. Coal has been recognized by UNESCO's panel as a craft and a social practice. Zara Hankir is the author of A Cultural History. The tradition of wearing coal, or kohal, dates back thousands of years, and in those early civilizations, and indeed through to the modern day, it served practical, spiritual and aesthetic purposes and also medicinal. So it protected the eyes from the glare of the sun, it treated the eyes of infant infections and various other medicinal ailments, and it also symbolized a divine protection, so it protected against the evil eye. The methods of preparing and applying coal have changed with time, but in the Global south it's often still made from natural materials and that aspect is being recognized. It's very important to note that kahal is actually quite distinct from modern eyeliner in that it is crafted from natural materials. Western eyeliner as we know it is highly processed. In ancient Egypt it would have been something like ground antimony. Then in other parts of the Global south you would see different formulations, so they may have used things like roasted date pits. One of the most interesting formulations was the bile from the gallbladder of a hyena. I think the common denominator here is that it's a process of grinding, filtering and storing the powder itself, so I think there's a lot of craftsmanship that goes into it. Coal was submitted jointly by several Arab states, aiming to preserve the types of product as well as the rituals around it. UNESCO says coal can strengthen community bonds and transmit shared knowledge, marking it as a living tradition to be recognized and protected. Stephanie Prentice reporting. Still to come on this podcast, when the killer whales are feeding on their own, they've got their lights on looking for the buffet. But when the dolphins show up, it's as if they're hunting with the high beams on. Why it's bad news for salmon when dolphins and orcas join forces. Hear that? It's holiday cheer arriving at Ulta Beauty with gifts for everyone on your list. 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The problem it's had up till now is the videos most people want to make feature copyrighted characters, and this has led to threats and lawsuits from media giants. But now Sora's owner, OpenAI, has struck a deal with Disney, the owner of some of the most iconic characters around. Can I get a chihu? No, I am your father. That's no blizzard. That's my sister. If we can't protect the earth, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it. To infinity and Beyond. Toy Story Disney's agreed to take a 1 billion dollar stake in the company in exchange for OpenAI being able to use more than 200 of Disney's most famous characters in its content. Alicia Cooper is a comedian and actress best known for the Oscar winning film Spider Man. Into the Spider Verse. I think it can be a good thing in the long run. It's just frightening right now, but the best thing we can do is educate ourselves as best we can to try to figure out all the possible revenue streams that can come from AI and just lean into it. Our tech correspondent Lily Jamali has more. Yeah, Mickey Mouse as well as Elsa from Frozen. My daughter will be very excited about that. Why are they doing it? I think, you know, I think Disney may be feeling some FOMO fear of missing out when it comes to AI. I know that they have some internal projects that they've been working on to figure out how to do moviemaking in the AI era. But this gives them a real stake in the AI race. And it's interesting to watch the flow of money. So OpenAI is getting access to more than 200 Disney characters for three years, exclusively for the first year starting in 2026. But the money is flowing from Disney to open AI that 1 billion doll invest. I think, again, this gives them, gives Disney a stake with a company that frankly has riled a lot, ruffled a lot of feathers in Hollywood. Think back to Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, approaching Scarlett Johansson to voice a voice assistant. She said no. And what they put out, one of them actually sounded quite a bit like her. And then of course, you know, there's so much concern in Hollywood about how AI is affecting their work, their livelihoods. I was on the picket line interviewing actors and writers back in 2023 when they went on strike, largely because of concerns about AI and how that would change their livelihoods. Lily Jamali reporting. In Austria, the government's passed a law banning under 14 year olds from wearing head coverings such as hijabs or burqas in school. The conservative led coalition has described the new law as a clear commitment to gender equality, but critics say it's discriminatory and could be unconstitutional. Our Vienna correspondent Bethany Bell spoke to James Menendez. Well, the government says this is about empowering young girls. This is specifically a ban on head coverings, traditional Muslim head coverings such as hijabs or burqas. And in future, when the law comes into force, girls under 14 won't be allowed to wear hijabs or burkas in schools. And this is public schools, this is private schools across Austria. If they violate that, then there'll be a series of discussions with the student and their legal guardians. Eventually, as a last resort, families or guardians could be fined up to €800. And the government says, really, they, they want to empower young girls. They don't want to force them into a situation where they're having to wear headscarves. But this has caused quite a lot of concern in other parts of Austria about whether this is constitutional or not. Yes. Because what, a previous law, similar law that was struck down, is that right? Yes. In 2020, the then government brought in a similar headscarf ban for girls under the age of 10 that was struck down by the Constitutional Court because it specifically targeted Muslims. And although the law today was passed by the coalition, which is three centrist parties, the Conservatives, the Social Democrats and the liberal neos, as well as the opposition far right Freedom Party, there are still concerns that this could still be on the constitutional and could eventually also be struck down because this is something that those critics say specifically targets Muslims and not others. Yeah, so those are the sort of legal arguments, but who else has come out to oppose it? I mean, what are they saying could be potentially damaging about this law? Well, the opposition Green Party voted against the law. They said that it was clearly unconstitutional. And Austria's official Islamic community said the ban violates fundamental rights and it says it will split society. In a statement on its website, it said that instead of empowering children, it would just mean that they would be stigmatized and marginalized. And it says it's going to do as much as it can to review the constitutionality of the law and take all the necessary steps. And it pointed out that the Constitutional Court already in 2020 said that such a ban like this was unconstitutional because it was specifically targeting a religious minority. And just on the political context, you mentioned the far right Freedom Party in opposition. I mean, is there a sense that the coalition is responding to pressure from the right? I mean, I think it's an interesting situation in Austria because the far right Freedom Party did actually win last year's elections, but it was unable to form a coalition. So the present governing coalition is this three party coalition between the Conservatives, the Social Democrats and the Neos. And they have made fighting illegal immigration a big pillar of their program. And some critics say they are actually trying to go ahead with this, which will fuel anti Muslim sentiment. Our Vienna correspondent Bethany Bell, talking to James Menendez. Cameras attached to killer whales have captured extraordinary footage of what scientists say is cooperative hunting, the whales swimming and foraging with dolphins and catching fish together, the scientists say. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Scientific reports, are some of the first recorded evidence of the two species working together. Victoria Gill is the BBC science correspondent. She's been finding out about a salmon hunt that took marine scientists by surprise. Large groups of killer whales and Pacific white sided dolphins are often seen in close proximity off the coast of British Columbia in Canada. But when scientists there used drones and camera tags to understand what the animals were doing together, they found something surprising. Researchers saw whales and dolphins synchronizing their movements while they were foraging. So not only were the killer whales orienting towards the dolphins at the surface, but when the dolphins started to dive, our tagged killer whales would start to dive and they would trail behind the dolphins. That's lead researcher Dr. Sarah Fortune from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia in Canada to work out what was happening beneath the surface. She and her colleagues used devices with inbuilt cameras and other sensors that physically attach to the orcas bodies with a suction cup. This is some of the sound that those tags recorded. And it was key to this study because both orcas and dolphins use sound to hunt. They produce clicks that they use to find their way around, picking up echoes from objects in their environment, including the prey they're hunting. And Dr. Fortune said the sound recordings suggested that the two species might be listening to each other. It could be that they're eavesdropping on each other and sort of using that to help inform their movements underwater. When the killer whales are feeding on their own, they've got their lights on, looking for the buffet. But when the dolphins show up, it's as if they're hunting with the high beams on and they have like a larger acoustic field of view. The researchers also saw evidence of the animals sharing food. Killer whales brought salmon they caught to the surface and broke it apart. And since they're not the cleanest of eaters, Dr. Fortune says this meant there were plenty of leftovers for the dolphins. There are bits that escape the whale's mouth, and so when you see that on camera, it makes sense if there are animals nearby like the dolphins, that could quickly pick off those bits that would otherwise be lost. The researchers think this association could be about more than food, though. The more diminutive dolphins might benefit from sticking close to a group of much larger, more powerful killer whales. A kind of interspecies protection from other predators. Whatever the motivation, this was a remarkable insight into cooperation between two powerful marine predators apparently working together in the wild. The BBC science correspondent Victoria Gill reporting. We're eight weeks away from the Winter Olympics starting in Milan in Italy. And if you're watching Team usa, you might see a slightly unexpected face coaching the athletes from the sidelines. With more, here's the newsrooms we'll chalk. If you're looking for an Olympic coach, you might pick an expert in the sport, someone who's got experience competing at an elite level, or a renowned psychologist. You could look for all of those things, or you could just get a world famous rapper. Team USA have gone for the latter option and named Snoop Dogg as an honorary coach for the games. I should say for clarity, they do also have other coaches too. But the U.S. olympic Committee says coach Snoop will join the team behind the team to offer his unique expertise. If you're thinking one of the most iconic rappers of all time is an odd fit for an elite sports setup, you would normal be right, but in Snoop Dogg's defense, this isn't his first rodeo. Now mp how does one get fast in Z pool? Wingspan Lung power In one of the more unexpected twists of last year's Paris Olympics, Snoop Dogg went viral multiple times while traveling with Team usa, taking swimming lessons with Michael Phelps, for example. Let me give it a try again. Let's do or commentating for broadcaster NBC on events ranging from equestrian to badminton. The rapper is also a huge sports fan. Not only does he run a non profit American football league for children who might otherwise not get the opportunity to play, but he also has ties to several professional teams in various sports, including in the UK Sport now and Swansea City have announced that rapper Snoop Dogg has become a core owner and investor. Leicester Team USA called Coach Snoop a natural fit for the role, saying he has a mutual respect for the athletes. Offering genuine curiosity and a lot of laughter, the rapper said he can't wait to drop a little wisdom from the sidelines. The newsroom's will chalk reporting and that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment, comment on this episode or the topics covered in it. You can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk and you can also find us on X@ BBC World Service. You can use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Chris Hansen and the producer was Charles Sanctuary. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm Ankur Desai. Until next time. Goodbye. If you're the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant, you know having a trusted partner makes all the difference. That's why hands down, you count on Grainger for auto reordering. 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