International
Houthi rebels to allow burning Red Sea oil tanker to be salvaged
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they would allow a burning tanker to be salvaged from the Red Sea, bowing to international pressure to avert a huge oil spill following an attack on the ship by the militant group. The Houthis made their decision after being contacted by “several international parties”, particularly in Europe, the group’s spokesperson Mohammed Abdel Salam said in a statement. The announcement marked an apparent change of tack by the Yemeni group, which was accused by the US of threatening to attack two tugboats that had tried to salvage the Sounion. It comes as a relief to officials globally, who had grown increasingly concerned about the risk of a spill since the Houthis disabled the ship in a missile assault last week, before starting a fire by setting off explosives on decks. The EU task force to combat the threat has warned that any deterioration of the situation on board the Greek-owned vessel, which is carrying 1mn barrels of crude, “could lead to a severe ecological disaster with potentially devastating effects on the region’s biodiversity”. The incident marked the latest attack in the Houthis’ campaign to target commercial ships transiting the maritime passage, a move they have said is in support of Gaza’s Palestinians during Israel’s war with Hamas. The Sounion fire threatens the first ecological disaster caused by attacks that since November have claimed the lives of four seafarers and severely disrupted trade globally. The EU task force said on Thursday that it was “assessing the situation and the feasibility of protective measures”, including towing the vessel. But it also warned that its operation lacked “the specialised equipment or assets for such a task”, adding that it would “do its utmost to facilitate this effort”. Dimitris Maniatis, chief executive of private maritime security group Marisks, said military vessels built for high speeds would struggle to tow such a large ship, adding that arranging this would be the responsibility of the owner and its insurer. The Sounion, whose cargo is equivalent to 150,000 tonnes, is owned by Delta Tankers. It is the third ship belonging to the Greek group that has been targeted in the Red Sea this month, according to security analysts, despite criticism of shipowners and their customers who choose to continue crossing the high-risk area. A leak from the ship would be likely to produce the most serious hydrocarbon spill since the Sanchi tanker disaster, which in 2018 led to 113,000 tonnes of natural-gas condensate spilling into the South China Sea after a collision. Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, the UN body where national delegations co-ordinate on shipping matters, said on Wednesday that he was “extremely concerned about the situation regarding the tanker Sounion”. “The risk of an oil spill, posing an extremely serious environmental hazard, remains high and there is widespread concern about the damage such a spill would cause within the region.”
Ryan Salame and Caroline Ellison, FTX executives convicted for their roles in the notorious crypto fraud led by their former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, have both shaved time off their lengthy prison sentences.
Salame, a former top executive of FTX, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform, pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges in September 2023, and was sentenced in May to 7 1/2 years in federal prison. He began his sentence in October. But the Federal Bureau of Prisons currently lists his release date as March 1, 2031, more than a year earlier than his initial release date in April 2032. Business Insider first reported Salame’s new release date.
Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and the former CEO of FTX’s hedge fund arm, Alameda Research, was sentenced to 2 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to seven federal counts of fraud and conspiracy and was a key witness against Bankman-Fried. Her current release date is listed as July 20, 2025, three months earlier than her initial release date.
Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, does not have a release date listed on the prisons website.
The Bureau of Prisons didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. However, in several past statements about early release dates, the bureau has told CNN that it does not comment on the conditions of any individual inmate, but inmates can earn good conduct time that is calculated into their projected release date.
Qualified inmates are currently eligible for up to 54 days of GCT time for each year of the sentence imposed by the court. Inmates have other ways of earning time credits while incarcerated, including participation in various prison programs.
FTX was a high-profile crypto startup that allowed people to buy and sell digital assets. It had its name emblazoned on an arena in Miami and on every Major League Baseball umpire’s jersey. The exchange had several celebrity endorsers and was widely believed to be a gold-standard for safety and security.
But FTX collapsed in November 2022 when customers pulled their funds as rumors spread about FTX’s unusually close ties to its founder’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda
This time last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the doldrums.
“He started very low,” said Nadav Shtrauchler, a political strategist who has worked closely with Netanyahu. “The lowest point that he had.”
Many Israelis accused him of being asleep at the wheel on October 7, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Some even said he enabled it by funding Hamas.
His political support was dismal – even if the Gaza war let him brush aside calls for an election. Polls suggested support for his Likud Party was down 25% from just three months prior.
On its face, the year that followed was hardly uplifting. It brought tens of thousands of deaths, regional conflict, indictments, and accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide. And yet, Netanyahu ends the year having transformed his standing in Israel.
“I am running a marathon,” he told a Tel Aviv courtroom earlier this month, facing charges – which he denies – of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. “I can run it with 20 kilos on my back, and I can run it with 10 kilos on my back.”
International
‘It’s a scary time’: US universities urge international students to return to campus before Trump inauguration
Fear and uncertainty are spreading across many US college campuses ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration, with some schools advising international students to return early from winter break amid promises of another travel ban like the one that stranded students abroad at the start of Trump’s last term.
In a country where more than 1.1 million international students enrolled in US colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year, the former president has pledged more hardline immigration policies upon his return to the White House, including an expansion of his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and the revocation of student visas of “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners.”
International students generally have nonimmigrant visas that allow them to study in the US but don’t provide a legal pathway to stay in the country.
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