US seizes two Venezuela-linked tankers

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2:33This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and at 16 hours GMT on Wednesday the 7th of January, these are our main stories. The United States says it seized a Russian tanker sailing in the North Atlantic and another one in the Caribbean, both linked to Venezuelan oil. China denounces the US after President Trump says Venezuela will turn over tens of millions of barrels of oil to his control. The UN human rights chief says Israel is subjecting Palestinians in the West Bank to severe and intensifying racial discrimination and segregation, likening it to apartheid.

3:17Also in this podcast... In all those boxes in this room, like the crates in the Indiana Jones film, we think the answer might lie because we can treat the room like a time machine. Could decades-old bowel cancer samples help to solve the mystery of why the disease is on the rise in young people?

3:41The United States says it seized two oil tankers with connections to Venezuela. One that the US had been pursuing for weeks since intercepting it off the Venezuelan coast was boarded in the North Atlantic between Iceland and Britain. During the chase, the ship, which is reported to be empty of cargo, changed its name and adopted a Russian flag. Before the tanker was seized, Russian naval support, including a submarine, had been on its way to escort it. The second vessel, which was carrying oil and sailing under a Cameroonian flag, was seized in the Caribbean. It's now being escorted to a US port.

4:19A former Russian deputy foreign minister, Andrei Fedorov, told the BBC Moscow would take the US action very seriously. For Russia, it's a very important thing because if there will be attack from US, it will be considered as attack on Russia and it could lead to very critical or maybe even crisis situation in relations between Russia and US. The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams is following developments from Washington DC and gave this update on the seizures. The first of the two tankers was the Marinara, the vessel previously known as the Bella One. Now, this has been the subject of interest to the American authorities since an initial attempt to intercept it near the Caribbean or in the Caribbean last month.

5:10It managed to avoid being captured at that point, headed back out into the North Atlantic, where it has finally been apprehended about 200 kilometers off the south coast of Iceland. despite, it seems, the presence nearby of a Russian submarine, which was sent apparently in an effort to escort this tanker, this tanker which had only in the last, what, 10 days or so, re-flagged itself, taken a Russian flag and changed its name. So that's the Marinara. The second of the two tankers was the Sofia, seized somewhere much closer to Venezuela. I think this brings to four the number of vessels that the Americans have seized since early December, vessels which they say are part of a shadow fleet involved in the transportation of Venezuelan oil in defiance of American, not international, but American sanctions.

6:06sanctions. And so, you know, despite the capture of President Maduro and taking him to New York the other day, this effort to interdict and control Venezuela's oil exports continues, with President Trump, of course, saying overnight that he would be making sure that the proceeds from Venezuelan oil would go to benefit the American and Venezuelan people and would be controlled by him. Why are the Americans so determined to stop this tanker, though, Paul? It is an interesting question, Matthew. I mean, is this just a rusting, empty part of the shadow fleet that has been involved in the transportation of Venezuelan oil?

6:51Or is there something else? Now, interestingly, the Bella One, as it was then known, was initially sanctioned by the US Treasury Department during the Biden administration for the alleged links of its owner to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. And so it was regarded as having that connection in addition to any Venezuelan connection. So whether or not there is an Iranian angle to this remains to be seen. But it is interesting that the Americans have devoted considerable resources to tracking and intercepting it. And it seems the Russians were prepared to devote resources to trying to protect it, even if those efforts came to nothing in the end.

7:34So that is a lot of interest and a lot of resources being devoted to a single member of this shadow fleet. Paul Adams speaking to Matthew Amrolywala. Well, only hours before he was seized by the US military, the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had praised his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as an older brother. China has invested heavily in Venezuela and is the leading buyer of Venezuelan crude. So it's no surprise that the US nighttime raid over the weekend has been denounced by China as a blatant breach of international law, even as some within the country are calling for a similar operation in Taiwan, long regarded by China as a breakaway province.

8:18Beijing, also condemned President Trump after he said the interim government in Venezuela would, in his words, turn over tens of millions of barrels of oil to him. Mr. Trump says the oil will be sold to benefit both Americans and Venezuelans, but he will control the money raised. Mao Ning is a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The United States has brazenly resorted to the use of force against Venezuela and demanded that America first be applied when Venezuela disposes of its own oil resources. This is a typical act of bullying, a serious violation of international law and a grave infringement on Venezuela's sovereignty.

9:01So strong words from Beijing. Our China correspondent is Stephen McDonnell. Yeah, absolutely. And you might expect that, of course. I mean, there's China, the number one buyer of Venezuelan oil. And then there are these reports that the Trump administration has been leaning on the interim leader in Venezuela to basically stop oil sales to China in favour of the US. What's more, she was asked today, the spokesperson, Mel Ning from the foreign minister that we just heard from, she was asked about the more general push from the Trump administration for Venezuela to cut off all economic relations with Russia, Iran and Cuba as well as China.

9:42So yeah, to China, this is of course, a violation of international law. And the Chinese government would say the Venezuelan government can sell its goods to whoever it wants to. I mean, who is Donald Trump to come along and start demanding this and demanding that? How big a blow is this to China? How easily will it be for China to replace the oil it's no longer getting from Venezuela? And how much loss of influence is it seeing in Latin America? I mean, I think for China, it's not so much the short term hit of this oil, as much as a sort of more longer term consideration. So they'd be thinking, well, all these years have been trying to build up links with these Latin American countries.

10:28Along comes Donald Trump now, and he's sort of threatening not only Venezuela, but other countries as well, saying that this is our sphere of influence, we'll do what we like basically around here. Now for China, the two ways they've been looking at it is one, they're thinking, well, that's potentially problematic for us in terms of our dealings with Latin America. It also, though, does present itself with a bit of an opportunity because, of course, Beijing can then say, well, what about Asia? This is our sphere of influence. You can stick your nose out of dealings with Taiwan, the South China Sea, Japan, what have you, because we'll do whatever we want to do here.

11:03And Russia might say the same thing in terms of its invasion of Ukraine. So in some ways, these words from Donald Trump and actions for that matter have been a bit of a blessing for these other countries. Stephen McDonnell, buoyed by the success of the US military operation in Venezuela, President Trump is now contemplating something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, taking over Greenland, a semi-autonomous area of Denmark. This could include the US using its military potentially against a fellow NATO member. This despite European leaders hours earlier issuing a joint statement rallying behind Denmark.

11:42But Mr Trump maintains that the vast Arctic island is vital for US security. Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Laker Rasmussen said that while the security of the Arctic region was important, the US concerns were exaggerated. it. The image that's being drawn that there are Russian and Chinese ships right inside Nuk-Fjord and massive Chinese investments, it is not a totally correct picture to express it very, very diplomatically. And therefore, we think it makes sense to try and have a meeting with our American counterparts in order to solve some of the misunderstandings that might be there. Our correspondent in Washington, David Willis, told us more about what the White House is discussing.

12:31The White House says that Mr. Trump and his advisers are considering what it calls a range of options in that regard, including the possible use of military force. But Wall Street Journal newspaper here says that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, informed lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the Trump administration would much rather buy Greenland than invade it. Donald Trump sees Greenland as a potential staging post for seeing off adversaries such as Russia and also as a potential source of natural resources, rare earth minerals, which are thought to lie beneath the Arctic ice caps of Greenland.

13:19minerals which are necessary for high-tech development and production of items such as batteries, cell phones and so on. David Willis. So what can the Europeans do in response to Mr. Trump's threatened takeover of Greenland? Our Europe editor is Katja Adler. At the beginning, so if we look back to the first time in office, a lot of European leaders behind closed doors laughed at the idea. They really did. But after Donald Trump's controversial action in Venezuela at the weekend, nobody is laughing anymore. The Prime Minister of Denmark says that Donald Trump's threats to take Greenland unilaterally have to be taken seriously.

14:00She says if the US does go ahead with that, which Donald Trump says he's absolutely determined to do, that she said would spell the end of the defence alliance NATO. Now, we know that Donald Trump is not a huge fan of the defence alliance. He's spoken many times about his dislike of Europe's reliance on the United States for defence and security. And he's got promises from European leaders to spend more on their own defence. But for the Europeans, they do rely on NATO. They've relied on NATO and its bigger member of the United States for their security since the end of the Second World War. So whereas an end to that alliance may not upset the US president, it would pose a big problem for the Europeans.

14:41The thing is, what can they do? Well, we had a joint communique issued on Tuesday by six major European powers. The only ones who could decide the future of Greenland would be Greenland itself and Denmark. But Donald Trump isn't listening. Denmark and Greenland have tried repeatedly to get a meeting with Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, throughout last year. They've tried again. But Donald Trump seems absolutely intent. And the thing is, if we have a look at how European leaders have dealt with Donald Trump since his re-election into office. They tend to try to manage him rather than confront him.

15:17They don't want to risk his ire. And right now they really, really need his buy-in over Ukraine because we had a very big meeting. I was there in Paris on Tuesday talking about future security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure its sovereignty after aggression with Russia ends. And also Europeans are divided. That's statement backing Denmark was only signed by six European leaders. So clearly divisions there. Yeah, it was signed by six leaders. I mean, they were major European powers and were then supported by several more countries who sort of expressed their support for that communique online.

15:56However, absolutely, this communique was issued on the sidelines of that Ukraine meeting at which there were so many European leaders present. But as you say, only six signed that communique. And that goes back to what I was saying about how different European countries are dealing with Donald Trump. Often, if you look particularly at the UK or Italy, safeguarding what they believe are special bilateral relations with Donald Trump. And despite promising to invest in their own defences, they do still heavily rely on Washington for air capabilities, for example, command and control for intelligence and Washington knows this full well.

16:33Our Europe editor Katja Adler. And for more on this story, you can go onto YouTube, search for BBC News, click on the logo, then choose podcasts and global news podcast. There's a new story available every weekday. Cancer is mostly seen as a disease of old age. But in recent years, that picture has been changing. Take bowel cancer, for example. Data shows it's increasing among people under the age of 50, yet scientists are unclear as to why this is. Holly was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer when she was 23. It is really unfair, and there are some days where I'm screaming and crying because it all feels really unfair, and I think, oh, why me?

17:22And then other days you just get on with it. Well now, researchers are hoping that tens of thousands of preserved bowel cancer samples, some of which date back to the 1960s, could help to unlock the mystery of why the disease is rising in the young around the world. One of the scientists taking part is Professor Trevor Graham from the Institute of Cancer Research. He spoke to my colleague Justin Webb. The number of cases of bowel cancer in young people that's defined by people under the age of 50 has more than doubled in the last few decades and we don't know the reasons why. It is a worldwide thing, so it's seen in countries around the world, but the rate of increase differs between countries.

18:05So in the UK the rate's roughly doubled in the last couple of decades, whereas in the US the rate of bowel cancer in young people is even higher than it is in the UK. We want to find out why, of course, and there are lots of possible reasons that could be causing this increase but whatever the reason is something's changed over the past few decades with my fantastic colleague professor kevin monahan at saint mark's hospital in london that's the uk specialist bowel hospital we're going to try and find out why saint mark's is a long-running hospital and it has discovered many of the important things about how bowel cancers grow and because of this proud history they've been collecting samples for many many years of bowel cancer specimens for more than a decade we think and they're stored in the basement of the hospital in this wonderful room which we think of as a treasure trove for research really it's this this room stacked floor to ceiling with boxes reminds me a little bit of the um the end of the film indiana jones and the last crusade you know the warehouse all those crates stored in there and somewhere and in all those boxes in this room like that like the crates in the indiana jones film we think the answer might lie because we can we can treat the room like a time machine it documents what's happened over the past decades from the storing of these samples in this room i see so it's a sort of so you're looking at what the markers are then that seem to be increasing because it's not clear to me exactly how previous cases of bowel cancer lead to you then working out what's going on now yes exactly so whatever is causing this increase in bowel cancer in young people that thing itself must have increased over the past decades and so what we need is a time machine you know this is how we think of it to be able to go back into those past decades and ask well what was rare in the past but is common now and so that's what we can do we can take samples from this fantastic archive and look at what's increasing over those decades compared to the present day.

20:11Professor Trevor Graham. Still to come in this podcast,

20:22archaeologists uncover a rare find, a near-complete Iron Age war trumpet that may be linked to an ancient British tribe led by the warrior queen, Boudicca.

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22:06this advertisement feature is paid and presented by poland's ministry of foreign affairs looking for the perfect place to grow your business for over 30 years poland has been and a launch pad for innovation at the heart of Europe, powered by world-class research and ambitious young talent. From bold startups to established powerhouses, Poland offers the momentum, resources, and reliability you need to take your business further. Poland, where businesses don't just grow, they're built to last. Find out more at polandyourplacetogrow.com. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed?

22:41In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed. Hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

23:13Since Israel's war in Gaza began in October 2023, concerns have grown over the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. But never before has a United Nations rights chief described the conditions there as an apartheid system. Now, a new UN report points to the asphyxiating impact of Israel's laws, policies and practices on the daily lives of Palestinians living in the occupied territory, saying decades-long discrimination and segregation is intensifying. Shima Khalil reports from Jerusalem. This is the first time a UN rights chief has used the term apartheid to describe the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

23:56Volker Turk said there was a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians, whether in accessing water, education, going to hospital, visiting family or harvesting olives. He added that every aspect of life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank was controlled and curtailed by what he described as Israel's discriminatory laws, policies and practices. This latest UN report said Israel treats settlers and Palestinians under two distinct bodies of laws and policies. It added that since the Gaza War began following the Hamas-led attack on the 7th of October in 2023, the Israeli authorities had further expanded the use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention and torture.

24:33Mr. Turk called on Israel to repeal all laws, policies and practices that perpetuate systemic discrimination against Palestinians. The report also says that Palestinians continue to be subjected to large-scale confiscation of land. The UN said settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank had reached its highest level since 2017. The most recent decision by Israel to approve the recognition of 19 new settlements has brought the total number of settlement approvals over the past three years to 69. Shaima Khalil. While many Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25, millions of people around the world observe it on January 7.

25:11Coptic and Orthodox Christian communities in Africa, Europe and the Middle East mark the birth of Jesus Christ nearly two weeks after most of the Western world. It's traditionally a time when families gather to share a feast and celebrate the end of the fast. For some, however, the holiday is far from joyful. We've been hearing from Alganesh Gibrigzyeber, an Ethiopian from Tigray, who fled from one war to another in Sudan. When war broke out in November 2020, I fled my hometown of Humara to Sudan. After staying in Hamdait refugee camp for about three months, I moved to another camp, Tenetba. We're surviving as best we can, but life is extremely hard.

25:56The situation is very harsh. Refugee life has been reduced to almost nothing. Because it is the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we give thanks simply for bringing us this far. Some of us are still alive, even though we are facing very difficult conditions, and we're grateful to have reached this holiday.