Ukraine claimed Saturday to have struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in a drone attack, starting a fire at the facility more than 700 miles into Russian territory.

The attack on the Taneco refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan – one of the largest and most modern refineries in Russia – was the second time the facility had been struck by Ukrainian forces within the space of a year, according to Lieutenant Andrii Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.

Despite the footage, the press service of the Republic of Tatarstan denied there had been a fire at the plant, insisting instead that it had been carrying out a mock evacuation as a safety exercise and that the images of the glowing facility in fact showed “the work of the plant’s torches.”

The Taneco refinery has a refining capacity of over 16 million tons of oil per year and “plays a key role in supplying fuel to the Russian army,” according to the Ukrainian official Kovalenko.

“The destruction of refineries and oil depots directly affects Russia’s ability to wage an intense war,” he added.

Kovalenko said the refinery had also been hit in the spring of 2024, in an attack that damaged its primary processing unit.

The attack last April was at the time the farthest into Russian territory Ukraine had struck since the beginning of the war.

A former child star from Australia died when the Los Angeles wildfires ripped through his family’s Malibu estate in California earlier this week, according to his mother.

Rory Callum Sykes was at the family’s 17-acre Mount Malibu TV Studios estate, where he had his own cottage, when it burned down on January 8, his mother Shelley Sykes wrote on X Thursday.

Shelley Sykes described her son, who appeared on the 1998 British TV series “Kiddy Kapers,” as “beautiful” and “wonderful” and said she was “totally heart broken” by his death.

She said she had tried to put out the wildfire cinders on her property’s roof using a hose but couldn’t because the water wasn’t working.

“He said, ‘mom leave me’ and no mom can leave their kid. And I’ve got a broken arm, I couldn’t lift him, I couldn’t move him,” Sykes told Australia’s 10 News First.

Her son, 32, was born blind with cerebral palsy on July 29, 1992, and had become famous for his speeches on overcoming disability. He was the co-founder of Happy Charity, which according to its site offers, “Hope, Happiness & Health to those that are Hurting.”

“He overcame so much with surgeries and therapies to regain his sight and to be able to learn to walk. Despite the pain, he still enthused about traveling the world with me from Africa to Antarctica,” Shelley Sykes wrote on X.

She said her son was born in Britain but lived in Australia, then America. He was “a gift born on mine and his grandma’s birthday,” she wrote.

On his website, Sykes describes himself as a professional speaker and consultant for many companies including the Tony Robbins Foundation, and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

In an appearance with his mother on Australian television show “Mornings with Kerri-Anne” in 2003, he discussed going on a trip to the United States to speak at a Tony Robbins motivational conference.

“It doesn’t matter what happens to you in life, it’s what you do about it that counts,” he told viewers.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to his family. Our thoughts are with them,” DFAT told 9News. “Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.”

Israel will send the chief of its Mossad intelligence agency to Qatar to continue talks over a potential ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, in a possible sign the negotiations may be advancing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Saturday it had directed the chief of the Mossad, David Barnea, to head a delegation “to depart for Doha to continue advancing a deal for the release of our hostages.”

It did not say when Barnea and his delegation will arrive in Qatar.

The delegation will also include Nitzan Alon, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ hostage’s unit and Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Netanyahu’s decision came on the heels of a meeting with US “negotiators of both the incoming and outgoing administrations,” his office added.

Netanyahu met Saturday with Steve Witkoff, US president-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy to the Middle East.

Despite talks appearing deadlocked, with Hamas claiming that Israel has introduced new conditions and Egyptian mediators sounding downbeat about progress, Netanyahu’s decision could be a sign that talks are advancing.

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have carried on even as official negotiations have been deadlocked for months, with the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden pushing for a deal.

This is a developing story. More to come.

Two trams collided in Strasbourg in eastern France on Saturday, causing dozens of injuries, though none critical, authorities said.

The accident took place during the afternoon in a tunnel leading to the station near the city’s central train station.

An additional 100 people, though uninjured, were assessed for shock or stress, said René Cellier, director of the Bas-Rhin Fire and Rescue Service.

Emergency services deployed 130 firefighters, 50 rescue vehicles and established a wide safety perimeter.

“Around 50 people are in a state of relative emergency, with injuries such as scalp wounds, clavicle fractures and knee sprains. But there are no critical injuries. It could have been much worse,” Cellier said.

The exact cause of the collision was unclear but local media reported that one of the trams was reversing at the time.

Mayor Jeanne Barseghian, who visited the site, described the incident as a “brutal collision” and expressed her gratitude to emergency responders.

“I am at the station with the injured and rescuers. Thank you for your mobilization,” she said on X. She urged the public not to obstruct rescue operations.

Images shared on social media showed two severely damaged tram cars, one of which had derailed in the tunnel.

Strasbourg, the first major French city to reinstate tram services in 1994, had not experienced a significant tram accident until now, according to French media. Authorities launched an investigation to determine what caused the collision.

Cleanup operations continued Saturday evening, and residents were advised to avoid the area around the train station.

Germany is working to secure a drifting Russian oil tanker, believed to be part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” used to fund its war in Ukraine, after it lost control in the Baltic Sea.

The Eventin tanker, carrying nearly 100,000 tons of oil thought to be from Russia, lost power near the German island of Rügen on Friday, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies (CCME) said. By Saturday, three tugboats were still working to tow the 274-meter-long Panamanian-flagged tanker to safety.

The Eventin departed from Russia and was headed for Egypt, according to MarineTraffic, a monitoring group.

CCME said the tugboat convoy was working to tow the Eventin to Sassnitz, a port on Rügen, but that the stormy conditions were “slowing the towing process considerably.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the “decrepit” oil tanker was another example of the danger Russia poses to European security.

Since Western countries sanctioned Russia’s oil exports, the Kremlin has relied on old, sometimes Soviet-era tankers – known as its “shadow fleet” – to transport oil to buyers across the world.

“With the unscrupulous use of a fleet of rusting tankers, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin not only circumvents sanctions but also deliberately accepts the risk of halting tourism in the Baltic Sea region,” Baerbock said Friday.

The Kremlin, which has previously refused to respond to accusations that it uses a “shadow fleet,” has not yet commented on the incident.

The West has grown increasingly alarmed by Russia’s dependence on this aging fleet, which has wreaked environmental havoc in the Black Sea and implicated in damage to vital undersea cables off the Baltic coast.

In December, two Russian tankers were wrecked off the coast of occupied Crimea, spilling thousands of tons of fuel into the Black Sea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the ships – nearly 50 years old – “shouldn’t have been in operation at all.”

Those two tankers carried around 10,000 tons of fuel between them – 10 times less than the Eventin.

Later in December, Finnish authorities seized a tanker traveling from Russia, on suspicion it had used its anchor to damage an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia.

German authorities said no oil leaks had been detected after the Eventin lost power on Friday, but warned of strong winds and waves of up to 2.5 meters (over 8 feet).

Zelensky called the tanker “an oil bomb that, fortunately, didn’t detonate.”

“Every day, Russia bombards Ukraine, and it finances its missiles, strike drones, and guided bombs, in part, with profits from its tanker fleet. Russia jeopardizes the environment solely to sustain its ability to kill people,” he said Friday.

Also on Friday, the outgoing Biden administration targeted Russia’s energy sector, including its so-called “shadow fleet,” with some of its harshest sanctions to date. Zelensky welcomed the move.

The sanctions target nearly 200 oil-carrying vessels, many thought to be part of the fleet. A senior administration official said: “We expect our actions to cost Russia upwards of billions of dollars per month.”

In December 2022, the Group of Seven (G7) nations capped the price of Russian oil at $60 per barrel. The cap was designed to be enforced by companies that provide shipping, insurance and other services for Russian oil. If a buyer agreed to pay more than the cap, the companies would withhold their services.

To dodge these sanctions, Russia has used aging, often uninsured tankers flagged in countries that do not observe the G7 sanctions.

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Finnish think-tank, said 420 vessels exported Russian crude oil and oil products last month, of which 234 were “shadow tankers,” and 30% of these were at least 20 years old.

Venezuelans once again watched as Nicolás Maduro was sworn into office on Friday, donning the executive sash and declaring himself president despite irregularities and questions around his election.

He repeated his attacks against the United States and any foreign leaders who did not recognize his return to power and vowed to squash all of those who oppose him.

“I come from the people. The power I represent belongs to the people and I owe it to the people,” Maduro told allies and supporters in his inauguration speech.

For many Venezuelans, there will have been a sense of déjà vu as Maduro assumed his third six-year term in office following the contested July 28 election.

The country’s National Electoral Council, the body responsible for supervising and certifying the vote, which is stacked with some of his closest loyalists, had declared Maduro the winner without providing detailed evidence or data to support his victory.

But the opposition disputed the claim, releasing tens of thousands of voting tallies from around the country claiming that their candidate, Edmundo González, had actually won with 67% against Maduro’s 30%.

Several nations, including the United States, have since recognized González as Venezuela’s rightful president-elect and have issued new sanctions against Maduro and some of the country’s electoral authorities.

Fellow opposition leader Maria Corina Machado accused Maduro of a coup d’état in a video posted to social media after he was sworn in for the third time. She said that with his inauguration “they decided to cross the red line” and “they stomp on our constitution.”

“Today, Maduro did not put the presidential band on his chest, he put it on his ankle like a shackle that would tighten more every day,” she added.

A contested comeback

This is not the first time a Maduro victory has been called into question. In fact, every presidential vote in which he’s been a candidate, dating back to when he first took office nearly 12 years ago, has been disputed.

Maduro first became president following the death of his predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez in March 2013. The larger-than-life populist strongman – who had enshrined himself in power for nearly 15 years as the anti-establishment leader and transformed the country under his socialist-leaning Bolivarian Revolution – had hand-picked Maduro as his successor.

Despite the endorsement, Maduro struggled in the polls and only beat his then-challenger Henrique Capriles by a razor-thin margin of 1.49%. It was considered at the time as one of the closest ballots in decades and the opposition claimed irregularities and fraud in the vote.

Capriles, who had run against Chavez six months earlier and lost by 12%, called for an audit with the National Electoral Council and appealed the results with the Supreme Court. Both bodies were stacked with Chavez and Maduro supporters and the opposition’s claims were discredited.

By the time Maduro’s second presidential election was scheduled to take place, Venezuela had fallen into a deep economic and political crisis. The once oil-rich country was suffering from hyperinflation and widespread economic woes. There were massive food shortages, rampant crime and millions of people had fled the country in fear and desperation.

Many opposition leaders, including Capriles, were banned from running for political office with some arrested or forced into exile due to trumped-up accusations and charges.

Maduro was reelected to his second term in May 2018, in what the opposition and many foreign leaders called a sham election due to the low voter turnout and an opposition boycott following the bans against its candidates. Only 46% of the country’s population participated in the vote, the National Electoral Council said at the time, and Maduro was sworn into office in January 2019.

Massive protests broke out in the streets of the capital Caracas and throughout the country, questioning his legitimacy and calling for him to step down. This was not the first time the country had seen protests, but they were heavily repressed by the Maduro-supporting National Guard, police forces and militia groups and led to several deaths, injuries and arrests.

Global leaders shun Maduro return

As Maduro takes office for the third time, he finds himself more isolated than ever.

His inauguration lacked the usual pomp and pageantry that normally surrounds the event. Cuba and Nicaragua were the only two countries with their presidents in attendance. Meanwhile, the ceremony itself was markedly lowkey in comparison to previous events, held in a small room of the National Assembly rather than the building’s main hall.

Protesters also returned to the streets of Venezuela and the country’s growing diaspora staged marches in Ecuador, Spain and Mexico, among other locations.

Biden administration officials met earlier this week in Washington DC with González, who was recognized by the US as Venezuela’s rightful president-elect.

González, who has been living in exile after being accused of terrorism by the Maduro government, had vowed to return to the country to challenge the inauguration but said the “conditions for his entry” were not met. He posted a video message to his social media accounts from the Dominican Republic, in which he also accused Maduro of staging a coup.

“Maduro has violated the Constitution, and the sovereign will of Venezuelans expressed on July 28,” González said. “He carried out a coup d’état and crowned himself a dictator.”

US President-elect Donald Trump issued a harsh warning against Maduro following reports that Machado had been briefly kidnapped following a protest. The Maduro government denied any involvement.

Shortly after the inauguration, the US announced a $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro and his closest officials, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. Washington also announced an 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status for eligible Venezuelan nationals, which could benefit some 600,000 people living in the US.

Nearly 8 million Venezuelans have left the country over the last decade, the second largest displacement in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The strongman leader may have succeeded in reclaiming Venezuela’s highest office but with so many – both at home and abroad – still questioning if he stole the election, he could find himself struggling for allies on the world stage.