Hi from CNN, I'm Josh and Shana with the Five Things You Need to Know for Monday,

December 22nd.

The US is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela.

An official said the US Coast Guard tried to board the ship as it moved toward Venezuela to

pick up oil, but the tanker refused to stop.

The ship is called Bella One and is under U.S. sanctions for its links to Iranian oil,

and this is now the third American operation on tankers related to Venezuela's oil industry

this month.

The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the centuries tanker on Saturday, while the skipper was

seized on December 10.

Venezuela's foreign minister has condemned what he calls acts of piracy by the U.S. government,

while President Donald Trump's crackdown on the Venezuelan oil industry has sparked criticism

from lawmakers in his own party.

Republican Senator Rand Paul spoke to ABC yesterday.

I considered a provocation and a prelude to war and I hope we don't go to war with Venezuela.

Look, at any point in time, there are 20, 30 governments around the world that we don't like.

They're either socialist or communist or have human rights violations.

But it isn't the job of the American soldier to be the policeman of the world. We've got more news coming up, including how the government's release of the Epstein files is facing major blowback.

Lawmakers are accusing the Justice Department of flouting the law by releasing only some of the Epstein files.

Since Friday, the agency has released thousands of documents related to the convicted

sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, many featuring heavy redactions.

Democrat Rokhanna says he's spoken to survivors.

...