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Again, text PDB to 989-89-. It's Thursday, the 18th of December. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your

eyes and ears on the world stage. All right. Let's get briefed. First up, tensions are climbing in the

Caribbean as Venezuela orders its Navy to escort oil tankers in response to the U.S. naval blockade, raising the risk, of course,

of a direct showdown with American warships. Later in the show, the U.S. designates Colombia's

clan de Gulfo cartel as a terrorist organization, a move that could open the door to expanded

military action against the group. But first, today's

afternoon spotlight. As we covered yesterday here on the PDB, President Trump announced a naval

blockade targeting U.S. sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers. It's a move designed to cut off a major

source of revenue, of course, for the Maduro regime. Now today, well, we're

seeing Caracas respond. President Nicholas Maduro has ordered Venezuelan naval vessels to escort

oil tankers as they leave Venezuelan ports and move through surrounding waters. On its face,

well, that sounds like a direct challenge to the U.S. blockade, and it's certainly meant to look that way.

But here's the key detail that matters right now.

None of the tankers are being escorted so far are on the U.S. sanctions list.

That distinction is important because, at least for the moment, this move remains largely symbolic.

Maduro is signaling defiance without actually crossing the line that would force a U.S. response. He's climbing the escalation ladder, so to speak, but he hasn't reached the wrong where things could get ugly, primarily for him.

Still, this move matters because once you introduce naval escorts,

of course, you change the character of the situation. What had been a sanctions enforcement

...