Good morning. The U.S. in recent days seized a tanker carrying Venezuelan crude and ordered a blockade of sanctioned ships as it tries to choke off oil exports and drive President Nicolás Maduro from power.

It is still unclear, however, how the U.S. will deal with the dozens of unsanctioned tankers keeping Venezuela’s oil trade alive. Of the roughly 38 tankers that lifted crude from Venezuela in October and November, 27 were from the so-called shadow fleet shipping oil illegally, but only 14 were sanctioned, according to an analysis of Vortexa shipping data by Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

• Potential actions: Sanctions specialists say the Trump administration could further stem the flow of Venezuelan oil by sanctioning more vessels and seizing additional ships as it tries to squeeze the Maduro government. The administration accuses Maduro’s government of corruption and drug trafficking, charges the Venezuelan government denies.
   
• Spooking the maritime: The U.S. seized the Skipper Dec. 10, saying the ship had been sanctioned for carrying Iranian oil. The administration subsequently placed sanctions on six more tankers. The Skipper’s seizure has spooked some tanker operators. Five tankers headed for Venezuela have diverted to other countries in recent days, according to ship monitoring firm TankerTrackers.com, and about seven tankers have been idling at Venezuelan oil export hubs in the week since the Skipper was boarded.
   
• The background: The U.S. has for years squeezed Venezuela’s ability to sell oil. America forbids U.S. entities from dealing in Venezuelan oil with the exception of Chevron, which transports the oil under a special U.S. license. The Trump administration further discourages other countries from trading in Venezuelan oil by threatening secondary tariffs of 25% on countries that do so.

Senators introduce bill mandating sanctions on Russian oil buyers.

U.S. senators introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday mandating targeted U.S. sanctions on anyone, anywhere dealing in Russian oil. Their goal is to close key gaps in the global effort to end the Kremlin’s primary source of revenues for its war in Ukraine, Risk Journal reports.

The Decreasing Russia Oil Profits Act, co-led by Democratic Senators Chris Coons and Elizabeth Warren, and Republican Senators Dave McCormick and Jon Husted, seeks to dismantle the “global ecosystem” of intermediaries helping the Kremlin circumvent current restrictions on Russian oil exports.

EU looks to close loopholes in carbon tax ahead of January enforcement.

The European Union outlined a plan to close loopholes in its coming carbon tax amid worries that it could result in what is known as carbon leakage—in which the bloc’s strict climate policies cause its companies to move their operations to a jurisdiction with weaker environmental rules, Risk Journal reports.

On Jan. 1, the EU will implement its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, an initiative that is meant to level the playing field between European industrial producers, which have to pay carbon prices within the continent, and foreign companies exporting to the EU, which aren’t subject to any form of carbon levy. CBAM covers imports of steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, electricity and hydrogen.

• A group of Democratic senators is asking the Justice Department to explain why federal law enforcement never interviewed Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime lawyer or in-house accountant when they investigated his sex-trafficking scheme.
   
• Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr told a Senate oversight hearing Wednesday that the FCC isn’t an independent agency, contradicting a description that, until then, had been featured on the commission’s website.
   
• The U.S. Treasury has levied new sanctions on a Mexican cartel over alleged illicit fuel-smuggling operations, Risk Journal’s Max Fillion reports.
   
• The Internal Revenue Service is mounting a novel attack on Meta Platforms’ international tax maneuvers, seeking $16 billion in a move that extends and intensifies the decadelong fight between the tech company and the federal government.
   
• The Justice Department indicted Adderall startup Done Global late Tuesday, a month after its founder and top doctor were both convicted for a conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
   
• Investment advisors continue to struggle with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Marketing Rule years after it took effect, according to Barron’s. 

Spooked by AI and layoffs, white-collar workers see their security slip away.

Office workers are filled with anxiety.

Tuesday’s jobs report was the latest ominous sign in an era of big corporate layoff announcements and chief executives warning that artificial intelligence will replace workers. The overall unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6%. Sectors with a lot of office workers, like information and financial activities, shed jobs in October and November.

Hiring in many industries that employ white-collar workers has softened this year, according to Labor Department data, while the unemployment rate for college-educated workers has drifted higher.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would achieve its goals in Ukraine either through diplomacy or on the battlefield, days after U.S. and European officials met with Ukraine’s leadership to try to hammer out a deal to end nearly four years of war.
   
• One of Ben & Jerry’s co-founders said the ice-cream maker’s move to shake up the brand’s independent board is an effort by Ben & Jerry’s chief executive to seize control from the chair, and part of a wider upheaval among employees.
   
• Consumer prices in Britain cooled more than expected in November, keeping the Bank of England on course for the fourth interest-rate cut of the year this week, amid signs of weakness in the labor market and a slowing economy.
   
• Bolivia is sitting on a metal the world can’t get enough of. Now, after two decades of Socialist rule, its new pro-U.S. government is betting that lithium—and Washington—can help pull the country out of an economic tailspin.

• The two suspects in the killing of 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach spent nearly a month in a budget hotel in the southern Philippines, hotel staff said, as investigators raced to find out what the pair had been doing in the country in the weeks before the attack.
   
• Four vulnerable House Republicans revolted against Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and backed a Democratic effort to force a vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, exposing GOP fractures over surging healthcare costs headed into next year’s midterm elections.
   
• Investor Ray Dalio said he and his wife, Barbara, will donate $250 to each of the new “Trump accounts” of about 300,000 children across his home state of Connecticut.

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