US-Venezuela: Russian-Flagged Tanker Seized By US Military
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the US has seized two oil tankers — one Russian-flagged vessel in the North Atlantic and another ship in the Caribbean. Both vessels have links to Venezuela.
The UK supported US efforts to seize the Russian-flagged ship, which is accused of breaking US sanctions by shipping Iranian oil.
What do we know so far and is this the closest Russia and the US have been to confrontation since the Cold War? Adam is joined by BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen and Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.
Also in the studio is BBC economics editor Faisal Islam, who’s back from a visit to Google HQ in California, where they are developing a quantum computer which could have capabilities beyond anything the world has yet seen. Faisal fills us in on what he learned from his trip.
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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Rufus Gray with Shiler Mahmoudi and Laura Cain. The social producers were Beth Pritchard and Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Stephen Bailey. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, if you were listening to the last episode of Newscast, you will have heard Shashank Joshi from The Economist talking about the importance of the Greenland-Icelain-Uk gap and how it plays a very important part in the Tom Clancy novel about a Russian submarine, The Hunt for Red October. |
| 0:22.2 | Well, today, there was some real-life maritime drama in The Gap. |
| 0:26.9 | The Americans, with British help, seized a Russian-flagged oil vessel with links to Venezuela. |
| 0:33.3 | And then very soon afterwards, the Americans seized another Venezuelan-linked vessel in the Caribbean. |
| 0:38.3 | We'll discuss what's going on and what it means in this latest episode of Newscast. |
| 0:43.3 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 0:45.6 | Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. |
| 0:48.5 | I was the tattletail in the class. |
| 0:49.9 | Can I have an apology, please? |
| 0:51.2 | I trust almost nobody. |
| 0:52.9 | That daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio, and shortly I'll be joined by Faisal Islam, who's going to tell us the latest news in computing from the |
| 1:11.7 | quantum realm, which we will explain what all that is. Don't worry. But first of all, today's |
| 1:16.0 | big international story has been the US dramatically seizing a Russian-flagged oil vessel, |
| 1:22.7 | which was linked to Venezuela. And this all happened in the sea in between Iceland and the UK. And the US did |
| 1:30.4 | this with British help. The ship was called the Marinera. Previously, it'd be known as the Bella |
| 1:36.4 | 1 because it had only recently transferred its international flagging, as is done in the shipping |
| 1:42.2 | industry, to Russia. And then shortly after that, |
| 1:45.7 | the US Coast Guard seized a second vessel linked to Venezuela, but this time in the Caribbean. |
| 1:51.8 | There is a lot to unpick here. So the people who are going to help us are here in the newscast studio. |
| 1:57.1 | Please welcome back for 2026, the BBC's international editor, Jeremy Bowen. Hello, Jeremy. Hello, nice to be back here. Busy year for an international editor so far. I know, it's only the first week of January. Yes, and also joining us. Our favourite shipping expert is Michelle Vizi Bokman, who's a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward. Hello again, Michelle. Hi, Adam. You were last on newscast when that ship got stuck |
| 2:18.6 | in the, it was the Panama Canal, wasn't it? Suez Canal. At the Ever Given. Was that the massive |
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