Shipping

French billionaire Vincent Bolloré has been ordered to stand trial in Paris to face charges that he bribed a foreign public official in Togo among other allegations, in a long-running case tied to the Bolloré Group’s business activities in West Africa.

A trader identified by The Wall Street Journal as a central figure in Russia’s shadow fleet has revived his oil business after the Iran war disrupted supplies from the Persian Gulf and boosted demand for Russian crude that had been stranded at sea.

The United States on Wednesday issued a general license broadly authorizing U.S. companies to do business with Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA, a move that could unlock new investment and eventually increase the country’s crude production capacity.

Illicit Iranian oil shipments continue to move through Asian waters toward China, generating a critical revenue stream for Tehran and helping Beijing build large crude stockpiles despite sanctions and heightened regional conflict.

The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a second temporary authorization allowing buyers to take delivery of Russian oil cargoes already at sea, broadening a waiver granted last week to India alone as Washington seeks to ease pressure on crude prices during the ongoing conflict in Iran.

Hungary returned two seized armored bank vehicles to Ukraine on Thursday but continued to hold cash and gold worth about $82 million as part of an alleged money-laundering investigation.

Senate Democrats are pressing for a congressional hearing on the Trump administration’s decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil, arguing that the step could benefit Moscow even as the Kremlin is providing support for Iranian forces.

West Africa has become a major and expanding logistics, warehousing, and redistribution hub in the global cocaine trade, with the market in the region larger than ever and increasingly damaging to public health, governance, and security.

Guyana’s rapid economic expansion and new port development could make the country a more important cocaine transshipment point as U.S. military strikes in and near Venezuela disrupt established trafficking routes.

Russian military veterans, including former Wagner mercenaries and men linked to the GRU, have been deployed aboard tankers in Moscow’s “shadow fleet” moving sanctioned oil through the Baltic Sea.