By BEN FINLEY, ERIC TUCKER, KEVIN FREKING and JOSHUA GOODMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela’s coast is raising new questions about the legality of his military campaign in Latin America, while fueling concerns that the U.S. could be edging closer to war.

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The Trump administration says its blockade is narrowly tailored and not targeting civilians, which would be an illegal act of war. But some experts say seizing sanctioned oil tied to leader Nicolás Maduro could provoke a military response from Venezuela, engaging American forces in a new level of conflict that goes beyond their attacks on alleged drug boats.

“My biggest fear is this is exactly how wars start and how conflicts escalate out of control,” said Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. “And there are no adults in the room with this administration, nor is there consultation with Congress. So I’m very worried.”

Claire Finkelstein, a professor of national security law at the University of Pennsylvania, said the use of such an aggressive tactic without congressional authority stretches the bounds of international law and increasingly looks like a veiled attempt to trigger a Venezuelan response.

“The concern is that we are bootstrapping our way into armed conflict,” Finkelstein said. “We’re upping the ante in order to try to get them to engage in an act of aggression that would then justify an act of self-defense on our part.”

Republicans largely are OK with the campaign

Trump has used the word “blockade” to describe his latest tactic in an escalating pressure campaign against Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the U.S. and now has been accused of using oil profits to fund drug trafficking. While Trump said it only applies to vessels facing U.S. economic penalties, the move has sparked outrage among Democrats and mostly shrugs, if not cheers, from Republicans.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Trump going after sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela is no different from targeting Iranian oil.

“Just like with the Iranian shadow tankers, I have no problem with that,” McCaul said. “They’re circumventing sanctions.”

The president has declared the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels in an effort to reduce the flow of drugs to American communities. U.S. forces have attacked 26 alleged drug-smuggling boats and killed least 99 people since early September. Trump has repeatedly promised that land strikes are next, while linking Maduro to the cartels.

The campaign has drawn scrutiny in Congress, particularly after it was revealed that U.S. forces killed two survivors of a boat attack with a follow-up strike. But Republicans so far have repeatedly declined to require congressional authorization for further military action in the region, blocking Democrats’ war powers resolutions.

Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, has essentially ended his panel’s investigation into the Sept. 2 strike, saying Thursday that the entire campaign is being conducted “on sound legal advice.”

Venezuela pushes back

Trump announced the blockade Tuesday, about a week after U.S. forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast. The South American country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and relies heavily on the revenue to support its economy.

The U.S. has been imposing sanctions on Venezuela since 2005 over concerns about corruption as well as criminal and anti-democratic activities. The first Trump administration expanded the penalties to oil, prompting Maduro’s government to rely on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains.

The state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, has been largely locked out of global oil markets by U.S. sanctions. It sells most of its exports at a steep discount on the black market in China.

Nicolás Maduro Guerra, Maduro’s son and a lawmaker, on Thursday decried Trump’s latest tactic and vowed to work with the private sector to limit any impact on the country’s oil-dependent economy. He acknowledged that it won’t be an easy task.

“We value peace and dialogue, but the reality right now is that we are being threatened by the most powerful army in the world, and that’s not something to be taken lightly,” Maduro Guerra said.

Pentagon prefers the term ‘quarantine’

It wasn’t immediately clear how the U.S. planned to enact Trump’s order. But the Navy has 11 ships in the region and a wide complement of aircraft that can monitor marine traffic coming in and out of Venezuela.

Trump may be using the term “blockade,” but the Pentagon says officials prefer “quarantine.”

A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to outline internal reasoning about the policy, said a blockade, under international law, constitutes an act of war requiring formal declaration and enforcement against all incoming and outgoing traffic. A quarantine, however, is a selective, preventive security measure that targets specific, illegal activity.

Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he was unsure of the legality of Trump’s blockade.

“They’re blockading apparently the oil industry, not the entire country,” said Smith, who represents parts of western Washington state. “How does that change things? I got to talk to some lawyers, but in general, a blockade is an act of war.”

The U.S. has a long history of leveraging naval sieges to pressure lesser powers, especially in the 19th century era of “gunboat diplomacy,” sometimes provoking them into taking action that triggers an even greater American response.

But in recent decades, as the architecture of international law has developed, successive U.S. administrations have been careful not to use such maritime shows of force because they are seen as punishing civilians — an illegal act of aggression outside of wartime.

During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy famously called his naval cordon to counter a real threat — weapons shipments from the Soviet Union — a “quarantine” not a blockade.

Mark Nevitt, an Emory University law professor and former Navy judge advocate general, said there is a legal basis for the U.S. to board and seize an already-sanctioned ship that is deemed to be stateless or is claiming two states.

But a blockade, he said, is a “wartime naval operation and maneuver” designed to block the access of vessels and aircraft of an enemy state.

“I think the blockade is predicated on a false legal pretense that we are at war with narcoterrorists,” he said.

Nevitt added: “This seems to be almost like a junior varsity blockade, where they’re trying to assert a wartime legal tool, a blockade, but only doing it selectively.”

Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech law professor who previously served as the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues and has been critical of the Trump administration’s boat strikes, said he was not convinced the blockade was intended to ratchet up the conflict with Venezuela.

Instead, he suggested it could be aimed at escalating the pressure on Maduro to give up power or encouraging his supporters to back away from him.

“You can look at it through the lens of, is this an administration trying to create a pretext for a broader conflict?” Corn said. “Or you can look at it as part of an overall campaign of pressuring the Maduro regime to step aside.”

Goodman reported from Miami. Associated Press reporters Stephen Groves and Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

By FERNANDA PESCE

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A blunt critique of Mexican bread by a British baker sparked a cascade of social media outrage, ultimately leading to a public apology.

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In an interview for a food-themed podcast that resurfaced online, Richard Hart, the co-founder of Green Rhino bakery in Mexico City and a well-known figure in international baking circles, said Mexicans “don’t really have much of a bread culture,” adding that “They make sandwiches on these white, ugly rolls that are pretty cheap and industrially made.”

His comments quickly rippled across Instagram, TikTok and X, with many Mexicans accusing him of being dismissive and insulting of Mexico’s traditional breads.

What began as a dispute over bread soon ignited a national debate over food identity — not only over who defines Mexican culinary traditions, but also over the growing influence of foreigners in a capital already tense from a surge of U.S. expatriates and tourists.

“He offended the community of bakers in Mexico and all the people in Mexico who like bread, which is almost everyone,” said Daniela Delgado, a university student in Mexico City.

‘Don’t mess with the bolillo’

Social media was soon flooded with memes, reaction videos, and passionate defenses of Mexican bread. Users took to social media to praise everyday staples — from the crusty bolillos used for tortas to the iconic conchas found in neighborhood bakeries. In many cases, these simple street foods act as a uniting factor across social groups and classes, and often cut to the core of the country’s cultural identity.

While wheat bread was introduced to Mexico during the colonial period, the classic food staple evolved into a distinct national tradition, blending European techniques with local tastes and ingredients. Today, small neighborhood bakeries remain central to daily life in cities and towns, serving as social hubs as well as food sources.

People buy pastries at a bakery in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

The incident prompted many to question why a foreign entrepreneur would publicly disparage a staple so deeply embedded in Mexican life. For many, Hart’s remarks echoed long-standing frustrations over foreign chefs and restaurateurs receiving disproportionate prestige, as well as concerns over gentrification in the capital.

“Don’t mess with the bolillo,” warned one viral post on X.

‘An opportunity to learn’

As criticism mounted, Hart issued a public apology on Instagram, saying his comments were poorly phrased and did not show respect for Mexico and its people. He acknowledged the emotional response and said he didn’t behave as a “guest.”

“I made a mistake,” Hart said in his statement. “I regret it deeply.”

The Associated Press reached out to Green Rhino, but representatives of the bakery declined to comment.

Hart previously worked at high-profile bakeries in the United States and Europe and has been part of Mexico City’s growing artisanal bread scene. That market caters largely to middle and upper-class customers, many of them foreigners, seeking sourdough loaves and European-style pastries, often at prices far above those of neighborhood bakeries.

The apology did little to immediately quiet the debate. While some users accepted it, others said it failed to address deeper concerns about cultural authority and who gets to critique Mexican traditions.

Bolillos, a traditional Mexican bread, sit for sale at a street stand in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

“If you want to be part of Mexican culture by owning a restaurant or bakery, you have to educate yourself,” Delgado said.

Others, like Josué Martínez, a chef at the Mexican Culinary School, said he was happy that the debate was happening because it opened the door for a more robust and nuanced discussion.

Mexican bread has long been criticized domestically for its industrialization and reliance on white flour and sugar. But many like Martínez say those conversations are different and more nuanced when led by Mexicans themselves rather than by a foreign entrepreneur.

“It’s an opportunity to learn about the culture of Mexican breadmaking and pastry, to take pride in it, to highlight the richness of our ingredients, and to stop thinking that the so-called first world represents the ultimate standard,” Martínez said.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

By HOLLY RAMER

Even the most dedicated doomscrollers smile once in a while. Here’s a look back at some of the Associated Press stories that captured attention around the world and provided moments of brightness throughout 2025:

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Art and intrigue

The brazen heist at the world’s most visited museum in November wasn’t just a whodunit, it was a “who wore it.” Hours after thieves snatched the French crown jewels from the Louvre, an AP photographer snapped a picture of a sharply-dressed young man striding past police.

Who was this mysterious “Fedora Man?” A 15-year-old boy who favors elegant clothing inspired by history and fictional detectives.

“I didn’t want to say immediately it was me,” Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux said a week later. “With this photo, there is a mystery, so you have to make it last.”

September marked the solving of another art-related mystery when scientists confirmed the source of the blue color in one of Jackson Pollock’s iconic paintings. While the origins of the reds and yellows splattered across the abstract expressionist’s “Number 1A, 1948” were well known, it took chemistry to confirm the rich turquoise as manganese blue.

FILE – David Brenneman, director of collections and exhibitions at the High Museum, talks about Jackson Pollock’s painting “Number 1A” on display as part of an exhibit in Atlanta on Oct. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, a cat called Leonardo da Pinchy had more in common with the Louvre thieves than the artist who inspired his nickname. The felonious feline with expensive taste in clothing spent a year stealing laundry from clotheslines before his embarrassed owner posted photos of his hauls on Facebook. Those who showed up to claim their belongings in July included a woman who recognized her pink and purple underwear.

“He only wants stuff he shouldn’t have,” said Leonardo’s owner, Helen North.

Tales — and fins and feathers — of survival

Also in the animals behaving badly category: a humpback whale that briefly swallowed a kayaker off Chilean Patagonia in February.

“I thought I was dead,” Adrián Simancas said. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”

Simancas’ father captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to remain calm, and they both returned to shore uninjured.

Animals elsewhere this year were often facing their own challenges.

FILE – Hundreds of chicks mill around a stall at First State Animal Center and SPCA on May 16, 2025, in Camden, Del. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau, File)

Roughly 7,000 baby chickens and other birds perished in an abandoned postal service truck in Delaware in May. But another 5,000 chicks who endured three days without food and water were rescued by a local animal shelter, where workers spent weeks caring for them and finding them new homes. Some of the adopters took hundreds, hoping for egg-laying hens, while others took them as pets.

And though they weren’t in mortal danger, elephants at a San Diego zoo showed off their survival skills in April when a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California. Video from their enclosure showed three older, female elephants scrambling to encircle and shield two 7-year-old elephants, named Zuli and Mkhaya.

“It’s so great to see them doing the thing we all should be doing — that any parent does, which is protect their children,” said Mindy Albright, curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Celebrating girls, goddesses and the wise

For some parents in Nepal, child-rearing involves competing to have their daughters selected and sequestered as living goddesses. In October, 2-year-old Aryatara Shakya was celebrated as the new Kumari, or “virgin Goddess,” a position she will hold until she reaches puberty.

FILE – Nepal’s newly appointed living goddess, Kumari Aryatara Shakya, is carried toward Kumari Ghar, the temple palace where she will be residing in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha, File)

“She was just my daughter yesterday, but today she is a goddess,” her father, Ananta Shakya, said.

Another father’s involvement in his daughter’s milestone came in August, when 2,000 people turned out for 15-year-old Isela Anahí Santiago Morales’ quinceañera in Axtla de Terrazas, Mexico.

After few guests showed up to mark her symbolic passage from childhood to womanhood, Isela’s father posted about the leftover food on Facebook. An outpouring of support ensued, leading to a redo in August with a dozen music groups performing on two stages. Wearing a sparkly tiara and glittering pink ballgown, the soft-spoken Isela asked attendees to donate toys for vulnerable children instead of bringing gifts.

Meanwhile, some women elsewhere turned away from glamorous looks and ditched makeup altogether in 2025, perhaps inspired by actor Pamela Anderson’s barefaced appearance at fashion shows and film premieres.

FILE – Deborah Borg discusses how to pull off the no makeup makeup look at the women’s clothing store Dalya on Aug. 27, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)

“I’m not trying to be the prettiest girl in the room,” Anderson told Vogue during Paris Fashion Week. “I feel like it’s just freedom. It’s like a relief.”

While experts in September offered tips for going makeup-free, the world’s oldest woman offered more universal advice in the spring.

Ethel Caterham, 116, became the world’s oldest living person earlier this year. She described her method for longevity from her nursing home in Surrey, southwest of London:

“Never arguing with anyone,” she said. “I listen, and I do what I like.”

Mounds View native Jordan Boll had just watched the Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night at AT&T Stadium. He was walking back to his rental car with a few friends when he heard an engine revving in the distance.

The rest is a blur.

Minnesota Vikings fan Jordan Boll, 30, of Mounds View, seen Dec. 14, 2025, in Arlington, Texas, was leaving after the Vikings’ victory over the Dallas  Cowboys that evening when he was hit by a truck in the parking lot. He fractured his spine, and local police are still looking for the driver. (Courtesy of Jordan Boll)

Boll, 30, was struck by a pickup truck in the parking lot. The vehicle immediately fled the scene. Arlington, Texas, police are investigating to  determine the identity of the driver is ongoing.

“I kind of blacked out,” Boll said Thursday in an interview with the Pioneer Press. “I woke up to some random woman squeezing my hand, and they put me in the back of an ambulance.”

After being evaluated at a local hospital, doctors determined Boll suffered a fractured vertebrae in the incident. He was discharged and flew back to the Twin Cities on Tuesday afternoon and is staying with his parents as he recovers.

“Just getting out of bed is a chore,” he said. “They’re basically taking care of me until I can get back on my feet.”

Boll said he was wearing an Adrian Peterson Vikings jersey at the time.

According to FOX4 in Dallas, Arlington police said they took statements from several witnesses who described seeing a pickup being driven erratically in the parking lot before hitting Bell. Witnesses said the truck didn’t stop and exited the lot.

It’s unclear how long it will take Boll to get back to full strength. He said he’s scheduled to see a specialist this week. He’s He’s currently self employed and works mostly in snow removal during the winter and said he hopes to get back to work sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, a GoFundMe has been set up to help Boll with some of his medical expenses

“This is when I make most of my money,” he said. “I’m not making any money right now.”

If an arrest is made in the near future, Boll said he plans to press charges.

“I’m not the crying type, and I’ve been crying,” he said. “This is going to affect every part of my life. A good vacation turned into a nightmare in an instant. It really sucks.”

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