A newly unsealed warrant shows the U.S. Coast Guard seized the M/T Skipper, a crude oil tanker intercepted off Venezuela, just before the warrant was set to expire on Wednesday.
Why it matters: The move comes as the Trump administration layers on new U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan oil shipping networks and Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's inner circle, aiming to raise the risks for companies moving the country's crude.
Oil prices are generally sinking this weekdespite the U.S. seizure of a tanker off Venezuela's coast, saber rattling about doing it again, and Ukraine hitting a Russian tanker in the Black Sea.
Why it matters: Geopolitical strife historically shoves prices upward, especially when oil and oil producers are involved. So what's going on? A few overlapping things...
Residents in the Pacific Northwest face "catastrophic" and potentially life-threatening flood threats after days of heavy rains, the National Weather Service warns.
The big picture: Washington's governor declared a statewide emergency Wednesday to respond to the flooding that's already prompted water rescues, closed roads, caused power outages and left tens of thousands under evacuation orders in the state and across the border in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
