China on Monday accused the U.S. of violating international law in seizing oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, appearing to take the side of Caracas as Washington looks to take a third oil tanker this month.
“The U.S. practice of arbitrarily seizing other countries’ vessels grossly violates international law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters, according to Bloomberg, adding that Beijing opposes anything that “infringes upon other countries’ sovereignty and security, and all acts of unilateralism or bullying.”
Lin added that Venezuela “has the right to independently develop mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries,” and Beijing supports Caracas in “defending its own legitimate rights and interests.”
The comments come as the U.S. on Sunday sought to seize a third oil tanker in an effort to cut off funding for the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
But the effort in the Caribbean Sea by the U.S. Coast Guard was thwarted when the tanker, the Bella 1, refused to submit and sailed away. Washington last year placed sanctions on the ship for transporting Iranian oil.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will present plans for a possible fresh attack on Iran to US President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Washington, NBC News reported Saturday, citing several unnamed officials.
The Ukrainian army was battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region, it said on Sunday, following reports that Moscow forcibly moved 50 people from a border village there.
The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the US diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of Donald Trump’s “America first” priorities.
Israeli occupation forces and illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers carried out widespread violations across the occupied West Bank on Saturday, including home invasions, abductions, shootings, among them the killing of two Palestinians, including a child, road attacks, and coordinated colonizer assaults on Palestinian towns and villages.
On Thursday evening, as rumors about the Brown University gunman swirled, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
