Situation Reports

U.S. security forces launched an operation to seize an oil tanker, the Russia-flagged Marinera, formerly known as the Bella 1, in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Iceland, despite Russia's deployment of naval vessels to escort the ship and a request that the United States stop pursuing the tanker, BBC reported on Jan. 7.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was still no clear answer on whether Ukraine's partners would deliver a strong response to renewed Russian aggression after a ceasefire, noting that any security guarantees would require parliamentary approval, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reported on Jan. 7.

Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi began his annual start-of-the-year tour of Africa, during which he will visit Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Lesotho, Reuters reported on Jan. 7.

South African trade minister Parks Tau amended the country's anti-trust rules to allow companies operating in "industries in distress" to jointly negotiate the purchase of power as well as collaborate on backup energy generation capacity and alternative energy supply, News24 reported on Jan. 7.

Chinese security forces detained six members of the Early Rain Covenant Church, an unregistered "house church," in Chengdu on Jan. 6, Reuters reported the next day.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela would turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil worth up to $2.8 billion to the United States, Reuters reported on Jan. 6.

China's commerce ministry on Jan. 7 commenced a 12-18-month anti-dumping investigation into Japanese imports of dichlorosilane, a chemical used in semiconductor manufacturing.

The Kawthoolei Army, a splinter group of the Karen ethnic community that has broken away from the larger Karen National Union, or KNU, proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Kawthoolei and announced a provisional government during a ceremony near the Thailand-Myanmar border, though the KNU quickly rejected the declaration, The Nation Thailand reported on Jan. 7.

Yemen's Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council, or PLC, expelled Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of the separatist, Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Council, or STC, from the ruling coalition, referring him to the attorney general for treason charges, AP reported on Jan. 6.

Ukraine's allies, representing the "Coalition of the Willing," agreed in Paris, France, to extend multilayered international security guarantees as part of a U.S.-brokered peace proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, AP reported on Jan. 6.