The US is in “active pursuit” of a third oil tanker near Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, officials have said.

It comes amid escalation from the Trump administration against Nicolas Maduro’s government, and as the US builds up a naval military presence in the region, including the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier and its support group.

The status of the attempted interception is unclear, according to Sky’s US partner network NBC News, but reports first emerged at around 2.30pm in the UK that the operation was under way.

As it happened: US in ‘active pursuit’ of third vessel

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What is behind interceptions of tankers carrying Venezuelan oil?

Two officials told NBC News the US Coast Guard was in “active pursuit” of the vessel, which is sanctioned by the US.

One told the outlet it was “a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion”.

“It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order,” they said, adding that dark fleet vessels usually do not operate exclusively for one country.

It is understood the vessel is sailing under the name Bella 1, according to British maritime risk management group Vanguard, according to NBC News and Bloomberg.

Sky News has seen Bella 1 is sanctioned by the US government, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) website, and has been included on the list since June 2024.

Read more: The real reason for Donald Trump’s Venezuela exploits

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Dramatic footage of US forces seizing oil tanker on Saturday

One US official told NBC the vessel was sanctioned under the counterterrorism authority for its involvement in the network of Houthi financial facilitator Sa’id al Jamal.

Another US official separately told the New York Times the ship did not submit to being boarded and continued onward.

If successful, it would mark the third such interception near Venezuela in the past two weeks, with a tanker being seized on Saturday and near the start of the month.

Explained: The US-Venezuela crisis

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From 10 December: Moment US seizes oil tanker off Venezuela

Trump’s ‘blockade’ of tankers

Earlier this week, the US president declared he had ordered the “blockade” of oil tankers into and out of the South American country.

He said the US military would remain in place until Venezuela returns “all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us”.

In the social media post following months of escalating tensions in the Caribbean, Donald Trump said Venezuela was surrounded by the “largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America”.

Venezuela’s government has accused Mr Trump of “violating international law, free trade, and the principle of free navigation” with “a reckless and grave threat” against the South American country.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi later accused the US of “bullying” Venezuela, and said on Wednesday: “China believes the international community understands and supports Venezuela’s position in defending its legitimate rights and interests.”

Washington has also announced sanctions on numerous oil tankers, shipping companies and family members of Mr Maduro.

President Trump has been ramping up pressure on the Maduro regime, accusing it of involvement in the drugs trade.

As part of his efforts, he has also authorised deadly strikes against vessels he claims are trafficking drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

President Maduro claims Mr Trump is trying to overthrow him with a view to seizing Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Pictures of Donald Trump were included among at least 16 documents that disappeared from the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Democrats from the House Oversight Committee drew attention to the apparent removal of an image showing two printed pictures of Mr Trump in a desk draw.

One picture had Mr Trump standing surrounded by women in bathing suits, while the second appears to be an already known picture – partly obscured – of him, his wife Melania, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

After the Democrats flagged the missing image on Saturday, Sky News went back to the files online and confirmed that it did appear to be missing, despite the fact they downloaded it when the files were initially released on Friday.

The other photos removed from the trove of documents were almost all nude paintings of women in Epstein’s home.

In a post on X on Sunday, the DOJ said the image including pictures of Mr Trump has since been reposted on to the Epstein Files page.

Sky News has seen that file number 468 is once again listed online. Mr Trump is still visible in the latest version of the image, and there is no immediate difference from the original upload.

The DOJ said that “the Southern District of New York flagged an image of President Trump for potential further action to protect victims”.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the Department of Justice temporarily removed the image for further review,” the department added.

“After the review, it was determined there is no evidence that any Epstein victims are depicted in the photograph, and it has been reposted without any alteration or redaction.”

Mr Trump has not commented on the release of the files and has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s case.

Questions over heavy redactions

Thousands of documents relating to the dead paedophile financier were made public by the DOJ on Friday – hours before a legal deadline following the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Many of the pages were either partially or fully redacted, which the DOJ says is to protect the more than 1,200 victims and their families identified in them.

Some of Epstein’s victims, legal experts and members of the public have questioned whether this is the sole reason for the redactions, while the Oversight Democrats have claimed: “This is a White House cover-up.”

Ashley Rubright, who was abused for several years after meeting Epstein in Palm Beach when she was 15, told Sky News: “Seeing […] completely redacted pages, there’s no way that that’s just to protect the victims’ identities, and there better be a good reason. I just don’t know if we’ll ever know what that is.”

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Epstein ‘was a monster’: Survivors speak to Sky News

Gloria Allred, a lawyer who has represented some of Epstein’s victims, says she has been told that despite the heavy redactions, some compromising pictures of survivors and their names were left in the files released on Friday.

“We have had to notify the Department of Justice about names that should have been redacted that weren’t redacted,” she told Sky News.

“So this is further trauma to survivors, and apparently also some of the images of some of the survivors appear not to have been redacted, and they are nude or not completely dressed.

“This is a major concern because the law clearly indicates, and the judges have indicated, that the names and any identifying information of the survivors must be redacted.”

Read more:
Epstein victims react to partial release of files
Links between Epstein and the UK revealed in new files

In a letter to the judges overseeing the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, US attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton acknowledged that a review “of this size and scope is vulnerable to machine error [or] instances of human error”.

He also said the DOJ had opted to redact the faces of women in photographs with Epstein “even where not all the women are known to be victims,” as it was not viewed as practical for the DOJ to identify every person in all the photos.

The methodology has led to some confusion and misled speculation online.

Many celebrities and public figures appear with Epstein in the photos published by the DOJ, often included without context.

There is no suggestion that these pictures imply anyone has done anything wrong, and many of those featured in them have denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Through its release, the Trump administration has claimed to be the most transparent in history, despite the fact Congress forced their hand by voting to make the files public by 19 December.

But some have been held back, with Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general and a former personal lawyer for Donald Trump, saying more would follow in the coming weeks.

Many Democrats and some Republicans have criticised the partial release as failing to “comply with law,” as have lawyers including Ms Allred.

“So clearly, the law has been violated. And it’s the Department of Justice letting down the survivors once again,” she said.

She labelled the incomplete release of the files a “distraction”, adding: “This is not over, and it won’t be over until we get the truth and transparency for the survivors.”

The earliest publicly known survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse has told Sky News there was a “wilful blindness” about the young women and children around him – as she claimed the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had “broken the law” with the Epstein files.

Warning: This article contains details of sexual assault.

In 1991, Jess Michaels, then a 22-year-old professional dancer, was introduced to Epstein by a roommate who said he had a “fabulous experience” with the financier.

They met twice, with the first meeting being an interview at his office in Madison Avenue for a role as a masseuse.

During their second meeting at Epstein’s penthouse, she said he raped her.

Speaking to Sky News presenter Barbara Serra, Ms Michaels said that while she did not meet anyone else in connection with the convicted sex offender, “the volume of wilful blindness and blatant disregard for the protection of the young women and the children” that were “very obviously around Jeffrey Epstein” was “horrific”.

Three months after her encounter with Epstein, Ms Michaels said she left New York “because of the anxiety and the insomnia”.

Six months after, she said she could “pull a pair of size zero jeans down off of my hips because I was really struggling to even eat properly”, and noted that a friend remembered she “just slept all the time”.

‘That didn’t even get us justice’

Speaking almost 35 years after her ordeal and days after the release of thousands of files relating to Epstein, Ms Michaels said her mission now “is that nothing like this happens again and that we change something”.

However, the White House has come under heavy criticism as only a fraction of the files have so far been released, with many heavily redacted and some disappearing after being uploaded.

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What was in the new Epstein files?

When asked how she felt about the latest release, Ms Michaels noted that the Epstein Transparency Act, signed by Donald Trump in November, required the DoJ to release all files by 19 December.

“The US Department of Justice has broken the law,” she said. “Blatantly so. So sometimes I hear from people or journalists, ‘so how do you feel? what comes up next?’ I actually don’t care.”

She added the DoJ had “proved the point of why we needed to get an Act of Congress to actually listen to us and try to get justice. And that didn’t even get us justice.”

Ms Michaels later said “it’s not unexpected”, and said it marked the “exact same treatment we have received across five administrations”.

It is important to note that inclusion in the Epstein files does not infer any wrongdoing.

‘What do you expect us to do?’

Ms Michaels said she had been looking for her own statement she made to the FBI about Epstein, and said many survivors “want to hear the FBI tipline recordings because it proves the volume of victims that did come forward that maybe got disregarded”.

In the wake of Epstein’s arrest in 2019, the FBI set up a telephone number for any information on his crimes. However, Ms Michaels said she “initially got disregarded” when she rang.

“When they called back in 2019, the officer said to me, ‘Well, we have to call everyone back, but it was 30 years ago. What do you expect us to do about it now?'”

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Epstein survivor demands release of ‘all’ files

Ms Michaels said she has not been able to find any information on her call to the FBI in the files released, and said it is “extremely frustrating because we don’t know how to easily search this database”.

She also noted that despite being told her statement was going to be used in Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking trial, “I never heard a word” and that “the lack of statement proves the negligence we’ve been saying all along”.

Ms Michaels is the earliest victim of Epstein to have come forward with her experience.

Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Read more:
Victims express shock and outrage over incomplete release of files
The links between Epstein and the UK revealed in new files

He did not face prosecution for crimes relating to the sexual abuse of young girls until the 2000s. He was later arrested in Florida on state felony charges of procuring a minor for prostitution and solicitation of a prostitute in 2006.

An FBI investigation also found dozens of women had accused the financier of sexual assault, and it looked likely that the 53-page federal indictment built against him would see him face a lengthy prison sentence.

Epstein instead agreed to a plea deal and was convicted on those state charges, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was registered as a sex offender.

Read more: The mysterious life and death of Epstein

At the time of his death, Epstein was being held in custody on charges related to running a sex-trafficking scheme that involved dozens of underage girls.

He had pleaded not guilty and faced up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

Epstein was specifically accused of using his private jet, nicknamed the Lolita Express, to shuttle girls as young as 14 between his lavish residences in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005.

In a post on X, US attorney general Pam Bondi said the DoJ would “bring charges against anyone involved in the trafficking and exploitation of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims”.

“We reaffirm this commitment, and ask any victim to please come forward with any information pertaining to any individuals who engaged in illicit activity at their expense,” she said.

“We have met with many victims and victims groups, and will continue to do so if more reach out. Please contact myself, DAG Blanche, or the FBI and we will investigate immediately. We believe in the equal standard of justice in this country and will ensure that Justice is served.”

The US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said the justice department was continuing to review the remaining Epstein files and was withholding some documents under exemptions meant to protect victims.

“The only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law – full stop. Consistent with the statute and applicable laws, we are not redacting the names of individuals or politicians unless they are a victim,” the justice department said, quoting Mr Blanche in a post on X.