Video released by Russian state media is said to show a US coast guard vessel shadowing a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic. The US says the tanker has now been seized. Washington claims the tanker has been transporting oil from Iran and Venezuela, in violation of US sanctions.
Fighting in Aleppo between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has forced thousands of people to flee from areas declared as ‘closed military zones’ by the government. Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar is there.
Who: Arsenal vs Liverpool
What: English Premier League
Where: Emirates Stadium in London, United Kingdom
When: Thursday, January 8, at 8pm (20:00 GMT).
How to follow: We will have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our text commentary stream.
Table-topping Arsenal entertain defending champions Liverpool in a mouth-watering offering in the English Premier League on Thursday, with glory on offer for the former but pride heavily at stake for the latter.
The Gunners are searching for their first league title since 2003, while the Reds are licking their wounds from a season that has almost inexplicably imploded following their runaway success last term.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at the match in which a home win is fully expected, but nothing can ever be taken for granted in the Premier League.
The Gunners have stormed to top spot as manager Mikel Arteta looks to go one better than three consecutive second-placed finishes in the English top flight.
Only one defeat in 21 matches to begin the season – the loss coming at Liverpool – has marked Arsenal as the team to stop on all fronts. Free-scoring in front of the goal and miserly at the back, Arteta appears to have finally cracked the code.
The gap with second-placed Manchester City is six points, ahead of Pep Guardiola’s side welcoming Brighton and Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
Aston Villa are level on points with City, and travel to Crystal Palace on Wednesday, but their 4-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal on December 30 was regarded as a serious dent to their title ambitions.
The Reds enjoyed a stunning start to the new campaign, which made their demise this season all the more alarming. Slot’s side won their opening five league matches as part of a seven-game winning run in all competitions.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot insists his reigning champions can still do “special things” this season.
“It is nine games unbeaten but we have definitely had two draws too many,” Slot told a pre-match news conference on Wednesday.
A great deal of the focus for the Reds’ slide, which saw them lose the following four Premier League games on the bounce after their fine start, has focused on the fallout with their iconic forward Mohamed Salah.
Slot has insisted the club have moved on since Salah’s departure for international duty with Egypt at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, but questions remain across the park.
“We haven’t had the consistency but we’ve already beaten some very good teams, so that tells you the talent is definitely there but the consistency isn’t,” he said.
Only 41 goals were conceded by Liverpool last season, but 28 have already been let in during their 20 games so far this season.
The massive summer spending spree, which was headlined by Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz as marquee signings, has seemingly unsettled the balance of a side that stormed to the title last season.
The talent of both, and the rest brought in, is quite clear, but whether Slot can gel them into a side capable of salvaging this season and beyond remains to be seen.
The manager believes his side are still in the reckoning in the league.
“There’s a lot of importance on this match because we still have a lot to play for in the Premier League,” said Slot.
Liverpool secured a 1-0 win against Arsenal in an early-season encounter between the sides in the Premier League on August 31 at Anfield.
Dominik Szoboszlai scored the only goal of the game with an explosive free-kick in the 83rd minute of an otherwise tight match.
The sides could not be separated in last season’s Premier League match at Emirates Stadium, although Liverpool had to twice come from behind – including a late Mohamed Salah leveller – to snare a 2-2 draw.
Bukayo Saka and Mikel Merino had given the Gunners the lead twice in the first half with Virgil van Dijk netting in between.
The Reds, however, had to nervously wait until the 81st minute for Salah to secure a point.
Arsenal’s last win against Liverpool came three seasons ago, courtesy of a 3-1 victory at Emirates Stadium in February 2024.
A fiery match saw nine yellow cards shown and Reds defender Ibrahima Konate sent off in the 88th minute when his side were still searching for an equaliser.
Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli scored in either half to twice give the Gunners the lead, either side of Gabriel Magalhaes’s own goal.
Leandro Trossard rounded off the scoring in the 90th minute.
The Gunners are on a seven-game winning streak, during which they have netted 13 goals and conceded only six – two of which came in the win against Brighton in their last game.
The north Londoners are the only team to retain an unbeaten home record in the Premier League at this stage, winning nine of their 10 matches at Emirates Stadium. The Gunners have fired in 26 goals in front of their own fans in the league this season, and conceded only five.
Bukayo Saka, such a huge part of the Gunners’ form of recent seasons, is aiming to become the first Arsenal player to score in four straight league home games against Liverpool.
Liverpool are unbeaten in nine matches, winning five, but have drawn their last two – both in the league.
The Reds have kept only one clean sheet in their last seven league matches – a 2-0 home victory against Brighton and the 0-0 draw at Leeds two games ago.
Eight goals have been shipped in that time, with 12 scored.
Four of their six defeats this season have come on the road – where they have also won four and drawn two – with 18 goals conceded on their travels and only 17 scored.
Even bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers have not shipped so many goals away from home.
Liverpool are unbeaten in three matches against Arsenal, winning the last match and drawing twice.
That victory for the Reds, however, ended a six-match winless run in the league, during which the Gunners won twice.
The last victory for the Reds prior to that stretch was the last time the Merseysiders won at Emirates Stadium, back in March 2022, with goals from Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota.
The Gunners have won two of the three league meetings in London since then.
This is the 246th meeting between the sides, with Liverpool winning 95 of the matches and Arsenal emerging victorious on 81 occasions.
Max Dowman and Cristhian Mosquera miss out, with both struggling with ankle problems, while Riccardo Calafiori is a doubt due to an unspecified injury.
Kai Havertz was rested from the squad that was named for the win at Bournemouth and may have to make do with a place on the bench at best as his recovery from a previous injury is managed.
Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice; Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard
Salah remains at AFCON with Egypt, while Isak is a long-term absentee with a leg injury.
Fellow forward Hugo Ekitike missed the draw with Fulham due to a muscle problem and remains a doubt.
Florian Wirtz is nursing a hamstring problem but is expected to continue to play through the issue.
Giovanni Leoni and Wataru Endo remain longer-term absentees.
Alisson; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Mac Allister, Gravenberch; Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Jones; Gakpo
The United States military has commandeered a Russian-flagged oil tanker with links to Venezuela in the North Atlantic after a weeks-long pursuit, drawing a sharp rebuke from Moscow.
The US military’s European Command said the Marinera oil tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, was seized on Wednesday “for violations of US sanctions”.
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“The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT – anywhere in the world,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on social media.
The operation came after the Marinera slipped through a US maritime “blockade” of sanctioned tankers going to and from Venezuela and rebuffed US Coast Guard efforts to board it.
American officials have said the tanker is part of a so-called shadow fleet that has carried oil for countries such as Venezuela, Russia, and Iran in violation of US sanctions.
Two unnamed US officials earlier told the Reuters news agency that Wednesday’s operation was carried out by the US Coast Guard and military.
Russian state broadcaster RT reported US forces boarded the Marinera from a helicopter, and it published an image of the aircraft hovering near the ship.
RT cited an unnamed source as saying a US Coast Guard vessel has been following the tanker and an attempt to seize it during a storm had already been carried out.
US forces have been pursuing the Marinera in the Atlantic Ocean since last month in the lead-up to the country’s military operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which was carried out on Saturday.
In a statement, the Russian Transport Ministry said the US seizure was a violation of maritime law.
“In accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation applies in the high seas, and no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states,” it said in a statement.
The ministry added that contact with the vessel, which it said received “temporary permission” to sail under the Russia flag on December 24, had been lost after US naval forces boarded it “in the open sea, beyond the territorial waters of any state”.
Tracking data from MarineTraffic had shown the tanker nearing Iceland’s exclusive economic zone on Wednesday before it was seized.
Reuters said a Russian submarine and warship were in the vicinity as the operation unfolded, but there were no indications of any confrontation between US and Russian forces.
Reporting from Moscow, journalist Dmitry Medvedenko said there had been at least two attempts in the past weeks of “this cat-and-mouse game to seize this tanker”.
The Russian government has not confirmed whether it sent any vessels or submarines to accompany the Marinera, Medvedenko said.
He added that the Russian Foreign Ministry had been calling the US pursuit “disproportionate”.
The ministry had been cited by state media as saying the ship was in international waters and calling on Western countries to respect the vessel’s right to freedom of navigation.
“For reasons unclear to us, the Russian vessel is receiving heightened attention from the US and NATO militaries – attention that is clearly disproportionate to its peaceful status,” it said.
The ship was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The US Coast Guard tried to board it in the Caribbean in December as it headed for Venezuela. The ship refused boarding and headed across the Atlantic.
Wednesday’s seizure was the latest in US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela.
After capturing Maduro on Saturday, Trump said his government would “run” the South American country and develop its vast oil reserves. On Tuesday, the US leader also said Venezuela would hand over 30 million to 50 billion barrels of sanctioned oil to the US.
Separately, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said a second vessel – supertanker M Sophia – was seized by American forces “in international waters near the Caribbean”.
Reuters said the vessel was Panama-flagged and under US sanctions.
It had departed from Venezuelan waters this month as part of a fleet of ships carrying Venezuelan oil to China in “dark mode”, or with its transponder off, according to shipping data and sources, the news agency added.
In a social media post, Noem said both the M Sophia and the Marinera were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it”.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said the seizures are a “significant” development.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s new chief of staff has reported “concrete results” have already been reached in ongoing talks over an end to the war and post-conflict security guarantees with Western allies.
Kyrylo Budanov offered the update on Telegram on Wednesday, as talks continued in Paris at the largest-ever summit of the “coalition of the willing” – a group of 35 countries that have pledged to support Kyiv against Russian aggression.
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“Ukrainian national interests will be defended,” Budanov insisted, although he gave no details about the progress made.
In a subsequent social media post, Zelenskyy said that the talks on Wednesday, which will again include United States envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would address “the most difficult issues” in the discussions to end the nearly four-year war.
In light of Russia’s demands that Ukraine cede four of its eastern regions, territorial questions are the toughest for Kyiv. Within that topic is the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“Ukraine does not shy away from the most difficult issues and will never be an obstacle to peace,” Zelenskyy insisted, repeating a mantra designed to ward off accusations from Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump that Ukraine is not serious about ending the conflict.
“Peace must be dignified,” he added. “And this depends on the partners – on whether they ensure Russia’s real readiness to end the war.”
The updates come a day after the United States pledged to back security guarantees for Ukraine, including leading a truce monitoring mechanism, while France and the United Kingdom said they would deploy forces to Ukrainian territory if a ceasefire was agreed.
The progress, hailed by both European leaders and US envoys, came amid days of high tension due to Trump’s aggressive foreign policy lunge in Venezuela and subsequent threats regarding his desire to take Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.
Russia, which occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory and has not signalled any willingness to compromise on its fundamentalist demands, has given no indication that it would accept a settlement backed by foreign troops inside Ukraine.
As talks continued in Paris, Ukraine and Russia continued to trade attacks on the ground.
Ukrainian drones hit an oil depot in Russia’s Belgorod region overnight, the commander of the drone forces said.
The strike ignited a fire at the depot that was eventually extinguished, the Vesti state television channel reported, citing the regional Russian governor.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had launched air, drone, artillery and missile strikes on Ukrainian long-range drone launch sites, ammunition depots, military equipment and troops.
Amid the ongoing fighting, President Vladimir Putin attended a Russian Orthodox Christmas service where he hailed his troops’ “holy mission” to defend the country.
He has increasingly leaned on patriotic and religious symbolism as the conflict grinds on.
“Russia’s warriors have always, as if at the Lord’s behest, carried out this mission of defending the fatherland and its people, saving the motherland and its people,” Putin said at the St George Victory Bearer church, near Moscow, after the service.
“At all times in Russia, this is how people have regarded their warriors, as those who, as if at the Lord’s behest, carry out this holy mission.”
The Syrian army has declared Aleppo’s Kurdish areas “closed military zones” and ordered civilians to leave as clashes with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) extended into a second day.
The Syrian Army Operations Command told Al Jazeera that all SDF military positions in Aleppo neighbourhoods are legitimate targets as sporadic fighting between the government forces and Kurdish-led SDF continued on Wednesday after violence flared the previous day.
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The clashes, which killed nine people on Tuesday, according to officials, are the fiercest fighting since the two sides failed to implement a March deal to merge the United States-backed semiautonomous Kurdish administration and military force with Syria’s new government.
The Syrian army announced that two neighbourhoods in Aleppo would become “closed military zones” from 3pm (12:00 GMT). In the meantime, it said, it would operate “humanitarian corridors” to allow civilians to leave.
All “military sites of the SDF organisation within the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo are a legitimate military target for the Syrian Arab Army, following the organisation’s major escalation towards the neighbourhoods of Aleppo city and its perpetration of numerous massacres against civilians,” the Army Operations Authority said in a statement.
The SDF noted a large deployment of Syrian army vehicles near the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods, labelling it a “dangerous indicator that warns of escalation and the possibility of a major war”.
The army, meanwhile, said it “urges our civilian population in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo to immediately stay away from the SDF positions”.
The state news agency SANA reported that the Syrian Civil Defence Forces and Syrian Arab Red Crescent are providing aid to people evacuating.
The Civil Defence said it had evacuated 850 civilians from Aleppo by about midday, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions and shelling by the SDF.
A Syrian security source reported to Al Jazeera that prisoners have escaped from al-Shafiq prison, which is run by the SDF, to safe areas in Aleppo. He did not specify the number of prisoners that absconded.
Both sides have blamed the other for sparking the violence, which broke out after talks this week between government officials and the main SDF commander stalled with “no tangible results” achieved, according to state media.
The incorporation of the SDF, which controls large chunks of Syria’s north and northeast, into state institutions has remained a subject of consternation since President Ahmed al-Sharaa took office a year ago.
The deal reached in March, in which the SDF agreed “all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria” would be merged into “the Syrian state, including border crossings, the airport, and oil and gas fields”, has yet to be carried out.
Al-Sharaa’s efforts to amalgamate power and quell sectarian tensions among the numerous groups across Syria after the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad have not been helped by Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has carried out persistent raids and bombardments in a bid to demilitarise southern Syrian regions bordering Israel.
Over the past year, Israel has launched more than 600 air, drone and artillery attacks across Syria, averaging nearly two a day, according to a tally by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.