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Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened to halt all oil and gas exports from the Middle East, warning that regional energy would flow "either for everyone or for no one," after the US reimposed its blockade on Iranian ports.

This comes as the EU rejected Trump administration claims that the international criminal court threatens US sovereignty, and as China detained a US seismologist who tracks nuclear tests on espionage charges.

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2️⃣ 🇪🇺🇺🇸 EU rejects US claim that ICC threatens sovereignty: An EU spokesperson pushed back against the Trump administration's assertion that the international criminal court poses a threat to US sovereignty, a day after Washington vowed to "systematically disable" the tribunal. Spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said the court does not target sovereign states and that attacks on its officials are unacceptable, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed the court threatens every aspect of the US political and legal system.

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5️⃣ 🇨🇳🇺🇸 China detains US seismologist on espionage charges: China has held US seismologist Chen Youlin, who tracks nuclear tests, for nearly two years on espionage charges, his family said, after he was arrested in Beijing in November 2024 while visiting relatives. His wife said the allegations are wrong and that his work on North Korea's nuclear tests was collaborative and transparent, while China's foreign ministry said there was "no such thing as so-called wrongful detention."

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🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran threatens to halt all Middle East energy exports

Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened to cut off all oil and gas exports from the Middle East, declaring that regional energy would flow "either for everyone or for no one," after the US reimposed its blockade on Iranian ports over Tehran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. 

The warning threatens to draw the wider region into a conflict over the waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas passes in peacetime, as both sides fight for control of the strait. 

The US carried out a further wave of strikes on dozens of targets over seven hours as it reimposed the blockade, while Iran launched dozens of missiles and drones at Gulf Arab neighbours, with missile alerts in Bahrain and Kuwait and Jordan saying it shot down three incoming missiles. 

More than 260 people were wounded in the latest overnight strikes and more than 30 have been killed in recent days, according to Iran's Health Ministry and a government spokesperson. 

President Donald Trump told Fox News that more strikes were coming and that bridges and power plants could be hit next week unless negotiations resume, warning "you better make a deal, or you're not going to have anything left," after dropping an earlier plan to charge a 20% fee on ships passing through the strait.

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Other News

1️⃣ 🇰🇷🇰🇵 South Korea raises alarm over North Korean DMZ activity: South Korea's Defense Ministry told the United Nations Command it was concerned about North Korean engineering work along the demilitarized zone, including new fences, anti-tank berms, trenches and minefields, some carried out less than 100 meters from the military demarcation line. Seoul said such work so close to the line breaches the 1953 armistice, though the UN Command said construction and fortification do not automatically constitute violations and that it was still investigating reports of fences crossing the line.

2️⃣ 🇪🇸 Spanish PM's brother banned from office after misconduct conviction: A court banned David Sánchez, brother of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, from public office for nine years after finding him guilty of administrative misconduct over a job he was given by a socialist-led council in 2017, though it cleared him of influence peddling. The conviction is one of a series of corruption cases involving the prime minister's family and party, which the prime minister has called a politically motivated "harassment and bullying operation."

3️⃣ 🇧🇬🇷🇺 Bulgaria defends push to spare Patriarch Kirill from sanctions: In exclusive comments to Euronews, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova-Chamova said Sofia worked to remove Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill from the EU's proposed 21st sanctions package to avoid fuelling EU scepticism. She argued that purely symbolic measures with no economic impact on Russia risk brewing anti-European sentiment in an Eastern Orthodox country such as Bulgaria.

4️⃣ 🇪🇺🇸🇩 EU bans gold imports from Sudan to choke war financing: The EU banned the purchase, import and transfer of Sudanese gold, saying the trade has become a key source of funding for the civil war that erupted in April 2023, and also barred exports of the mining chemicals mercury and cyanide. Both the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces rely on gold revenue, and by some estimates as much as 70% of Sudan's gold is smuggled out each year, often through Egypt, Chad and Libya toward Dubai.

5️⃣ 🇨🇳 China expels Politburo member in anti-corruption campaign: China's Communist Party expelled Politburo member Ma Xingrui, the former party chief of Xinjiang, over a list of violations ranging from accepting gifts and money to "power-for-sex" and "power-for-money" transactions. He is one of three current Politburo members purged under Xi Jinping's long-running anti-corruption campaign, which analysts describe as a tool to enforce loyalty as well as root out graft ahead of next year's party congress.

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