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US Aircraft Carrier Heads West from S.China Sea amid Mideast Tensions

An Israeli fuel tanker aircraft is seen flying over the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, 16 June 2025. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli fuel tanker aircraft is seen flying over the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, 16 June 2025. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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US Aircraft Carrier Heads West from S.China Sea amid Mideast Tensions

An Israeli fuel tanker aircraft is seen flying over the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, 16 June 2025. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli fuel tanker aircraft is seen flying over the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, 16 June 2025. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz left the South China Sea on Monday morning heading west, according to data from ship tracking website Marine Traffic, after a reception for its planned port call in central Vietnam was cancelled.

The carrier had planned to visit Danang City later this week, but two sources, including one diplomat, said a formal reception slated for June 20 had been called off.

One of the sources said the US Embassy in Hanoi had informed him about the cancellation, due to "an emergent operational requirement.”

The embassy didn't immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group conducted maritime security operations in the South China Sea last week, as "part of the US Navy's routine presence in the Indo-Pacific," according to the website of the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet.

Data from Marine Traffic showed the carrier on Monday morning was moving west in the direction of the Middle East, where the battle between Israel and Iran is escalating.

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Macron: French Navy Intercepted Another Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Tanker

France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
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Macron: French Navy Intercepted Another Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Tanker

France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron addresss the press at the end of the meeting of state leaders of the European Group of Five (E5) and the NATO Secretary General, on June 24, 2026 at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that his country's navy had intercepted an oil tanker as it transited near the coast of Sicily, in what he called his country's latest action against the 'shadow fleet' Russia uses to ship oil and gas and ⁠to skirt Western ⁠sanctions.

"This new action against the shadow fleet, conducted days after a similar operation by Britain, shows Europeans' determination," Macron said in ⁠a post on Instagram, adding that the interception took place on Tuesday.

"We will not let the shadow fleet evade sanctions and finance the Russian war effort," Reuters quoted Macron as saying.

Macron posted a video showing Marines descending from helicopters onto the ⁠Deliver.

⁠France has intercepted at least five tankers it says are part of Russia's shadow fleet, old vessels that Russia has relied on to ship oil and gas and to skirt Western sanctions.

Moscow has called such actions illegal.

World

Ukraine Drone Attacks Kill 5 in Russia, Crimea

FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
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Ukraine Drone Attacks Kill 5 in Russia, Crimea

FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Explosion at Moscow oil refinery after Ukrainian drone attacks on the city, in Moscow, Russia june 18, 2026, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS

Ukrainian drone strikes killed five people, including two children, in Russia and on the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula, in attacks that also triggered a fire at a major oil depot in the country's south, local officials said Thursday.

Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russia in recent months in retaliation for Moscow's near-daily barrages of drones and missiles throughout its five-year offensive, AFP reported.

Russia's defense ministry said it downed 269 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russia and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

In Crimea, which Ukraine is trying to cut-off from Russian logistics and supply routes, the Russia-appointed governor Sergey Aksyonov said: "Two people, including a child, were killed and two others wounded ... as a result of overnight enemy attacks.

Drone strikes also killed two people in the border Bryansk region -- a 23-year-old driver and 15-year-old girl -- and one in the Belgorod region, regional authorities said.

Kyiv insists that the Ukrainian army first and foremost targets military installations and energy infrastructure, in a bid to deprive the Kremlin's war chest of vital fossil fuel revenues.

In Russia's southern Krasnodar Krai region, debris from a drone strike triggered a fire at an oil depot, authorities said Thursday.

"Following the fall of UAV debris, a fire broke out at the Poltavskaya oil depot," Aleksandr Kharitonov, head of Krasnoarmeysk district in Krasnodar Krai, wrote on Russia's state-run Max platform.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 90 drones and an Iskander missile -- launched from Crimea -- at Ukraine overnight, adding that 83 of the drones had been shot down.

But Ukraine's state railway operator said a crew member was killed in a strike on a train in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

World

Iran Warns Against Hormuz Crossings Without Authorization

FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Iran Warns Against Hormuz Crossings Without Authorization

FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday warned against any crossings of the Strait of Hormuz without authorization, saying vessels not complying "will be dealt with.”

The future of the strait, a vital route for energy shipments that was blockaded by Iran during the war, is a key sticking point in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

Tehran has said it plans to impose what it calls maritime service fees, as opposed to tolls, while the United States argues it is an international waterway and therefore should not be charged.

"The only authorized route for passage through the Strait of Hormuz is the route announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military.

Any crossing without authorization is "unacceptable and extremely dangerous,” they warned in a statement.

According to AFP, they also denounced what they said was a new route through the waterway announced by "certain authorities.”

The statement did not elaborate but it appeared to be a response to an announcement overnight of a temporary corridor by Oman, which also borders the strait.