- The US has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said, a move that sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.
- US nuclear-capable bombers flew over the Sea of Japan alongside Japanese fighter jets, Tokyo said, in a show of force following Chinese and Russian drills in the skies and seas around Japan and South Korea.
- Russia's capture of Pokrovsk appears to be a matter of 'when' not 'if', and while its fall will not trigger a collapse in Ukraine's defenses, it weakens Kyiv at a sensitive juncture in US-led negotiations to end the war.
- In the past week, Trump and senior Republican lawmakers have presented starkly different views of a top US national security challenge: Russia, its war in Ukraine and the threat it poses to Europe and the United States.
- Recent electoral victories have given Democrats increasing hope of taking back one and perhaps both houses of the US Congress in next year’s midterm elections. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests that some of that enthusiasm may be premature as Republicans hold a greater advantage with older voters, who are more likely to turn out during non-presidential years.
- The US House of Representatives passed a massive defense policy bill authorizing a record $901 billion in annual military spending, paving the way for the must-pass measure to become law for a 65th straight year.
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took aim at young people parading themselves on social media a day after a world-first ban on under-16s went live, saying the rollout was always going to be bumpy but would ultimately save lives.
- As winter bites in Gaza, displaced Palestinians set out every day to homes destroyed by Israel. There they rip out iron rods from the walls and use them to prop up their flimsy tents or sell them to scratch out a living in an enclave that will take years to recover from war.
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