The US has imposed fresh sanctions on six more ships said to be carrying Venezuelan oil, a day after seizing a tanker off the country's coast.

Sanctions have also been placed on some of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's relatives and businesses associated with what Washington calls his illegitimate regime.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the seized vessel, called the Skipper, had been involved in "illicit oil shipping" and would be taken to an American port.

Caracas has described it as an act of "international piracy".

It marks a sharp escalation in the US pressure campaign against Maduro, which has seen dozens killed in strikes on boats alleged to have been carrying drugs from Venezuela, and US warships moved within striking distance of the South American country.

The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of funnelling narcotics into the US. Venezuela - home to some of the world's largest proven oil reserves - has, in turn, accused Washington of seeking to steal its resources. Maduro had previously said that Venezuela would never become an "oil colony".

But defending the US military action, Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Thursday that the US was committed to both "stopping the flow of illegal drugs" into the country and enforcing sanctions.

She would not be drawn on whether the White House planned to seize more ships transporting Venezuelan oil.

"We're not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world," Leavitt said.

She added that the US planned to seize the oil on board the Skipper, after the necessary legal process.

Leavitt also said Trump would not be concerned "at all" to hear Russian President Vladimir Putin had called Maduro earlier in the day to offer Moscow's support "in the face of growing external pressure".

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said that imposing sanctions on three of Maduro's nephews, alongside a number of businesses and ships, would tackle the leader's "dictatorial and brutal control".

In a post on X, he said the Trump administration was "holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes".

On Wednesday, the White House released dramatic video footage of the raid that showed camouflaged soldiers dropping down onto the vessel from a helicopter, and walking its deck, weapons drawn.

The Venezuelan government strongly denounced the seizure of the Skipper, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello calling the US "murderers, thieves, pirates". This was how the country had "started wars all over the world", he added.

The US Treasury department sanctioned the Skipper vessel in 2022, CBS reported, for alleged involvement in oil smuggling that generated revenue for Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

The US had ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea, which borders Venezuela to the north, in the days prior to the raid.

It involved thousands of troops and USS Gerald Ford - the world's largest aircraft carrier - being positioned within striking distance of Venezuela, BBC Verify reported.

Reddit has launched a challenge in Australia's highest court against the nation's landmark social media ban for children.

The online forum is among 10 social media platforms which must bar Australians aged under 16 from having accounts, under a new law which began on Wednesday.

The ban, which is being watched closely around the world, was justified by campaigners and the government as necessary to protect children from harmful content and algorithms.

Reddit is complying with the ban, but in its case will argue that the policy has serious implications for privacy and political rights. It is the second such legal challenge, with two Australian teens also awaiting a High Court hearing.

"There are more effective ways for the Australian government to accomplish our shared goal of protecting youth," Reddit said in an update on its website.

Australia's Communications Minister Anika Wells has previously said the government will not be swayed by legal threats.

"We will not be intimidated by big tech. On behalf of Australian parents, we will stand firm," she told parliament after news of the first legal challenge broke last month.

In that case, which the High Court has agreed to consider at an as-yet undecided date next year, two 15-year-olds from New South Wales are claiming the social media ban is unconstitutional as it infringes "the implied freedom of communication on governmental and political matters".

"Democracy doesn't start at 16 as this law says it will," Macey Newland told the BBC after their case was filed.

The ban, which has excited global leaders and worried tech companies, has also been criticised by some who argued blanket prohibition is neither practical nor wise.

Experts fear kids are going to circumvent the ban with relative ease - either by tricking the technology that's performing the age checks, or by finding other, potentially less safe, places on the net to gather.

And backed by some mental health advocates, many children have argued it robs young people of connection - particularly those from LGBTQ+, neurodivergent or rural communities - and will leave them less equipped to tackle the realities of life on the web.

Various governments, from the US state of Florida to the European Union, have been experimenting with limiting children's use of social media. But, along with a higher age limit of 16, Australia is the first jurisdiction to deny an exemption for parental approval in a policy like this - making its laws the world's strictest.

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The English section of South Korea's gruelling college entrance exam, or Suneung, is notoriously difficult, with some students comparing it to deciphering an ancient script, and others calling it "insane".

So intense was the criticism around this year's test that the top official in charge of administering it resigned to take responsibility for the "chaos" it caused.

"We sincerely accept the criticism that the difficulty of questions... was inappropriate," said Suneung chief Oh Seung-geol, adding that the test "fell short" despite having gone through several rounds of editing.

Among the most daunting questions are one on Immanuel Kant's philosophy of law and another involving gaming jargon.

The latter, worth three points, asks students to pick where a sentence should fit in a given paragraph. Here's the sentence in bold, followed by the paragraph:

The difference is that the action in the game world can only be explored through the virtual bodily space of the avatar.

A video game has its own model of reality, internal to itself and separate from the player's external reality, the player's bodily space and the avatar's bodily space.

(1) The avatar's bodily space, the potential actions of the avatar in the game world, is the only way in which the reality of the external reality of the game world can be perceived. (2) As in the real world, perception requires action. (3) Players extend their perceptual field into the game, encompassing the available actions of the avatar. (4) The feedback loop of perception and action that enables you to navigate the world around you is now one step removed: instead of perceiving primarily through interaction of your own body with the external world, you're perceiving the game world through interaction of the avatar. (5) The entire perceptual system has been extended into the game world.

The correct answer is 3.

Many have criticised the way the question and several others were worded. One user on Reddit called it "fancy smart talking" while another said it was "awful writing [that] doesn't convey a concept or idea well".

Students are given 70 minutes to attempt 45 questions. Just over 3% of this year's test-takers scored the highest grade for the English section, compared to 6% last year.

"It took me a long time to figure out [several questions] and understanding the texts themselves was tricky... [Some] answers looked similar to each other. So I was unsure until the last minute," said Im Na-hye, a senior in Hanyeong High School.

But English language professor Jung Chae-kwan says it is a misnomer to call the English test tough.

"The texts aren't necessarily impossible, but... maddeningly confusing. It's a pain because it makes the material useless for actual education, " says Prof Jung, who previously worked at the institution that administers the Suneung, and now teaches at Incheon National University.

"Teachers end up drilling test-taking hacks rather than teaching English.

"You don't even really need to read the full text to get the points if you know the tricks."

Some pointed out that several passages used in the questions are excerpts from books that have been taken out of context, making them hard to comprehend. The above passage, for example, comes from Game Feel, a game design guide written by Steve Swink.

Others, however, believe the difficulty of the test reflects its intended purpose.

"It measures students' reading comprehension and whether they can handle the level of material they'll encounter in university," says Kim Soo-yeon, an English literature professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

The passages chosen have "some degree of specialisation", which allows the test to assess such comprehension skills, he told The Korea Times.

South Korea's Suneung, held every November, is an infamous eight-hour marathon of back-to-back exams that not only dictates whether people will be able to go to university, but can also affect their job prospects, income and future relationships.

Students attempt about 200 questions across various subjects, which include Korean, maths, English, social and natural sciences, among others.

Many teenagers spend all their lives preparing for these exams - some of them sent to private tuition centres known as "cram schools" from as young as four.

The Suneung is a monumental event for the rest of South Korea too, as it brings much of the country to a standstill for a single day.

Construction work halts, planes are grounded and military training gets suspended to facilitate an optimal testing environment.

Only four of the 12 Suneung chiefs since the exam debuted in 1993 have served out their full three-year terms. While most stepped down because of errors in test questions, Mr Oh is the first to resign over a test's difficulty.

Additional reporting by Hyojung Kim and Jake Kwon in Seoul

A judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported in March and brought back to the US to face criminal charges, from immigration custody.

"Since Abrego Garcia's return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority," Judge Paula Xinis wrote in her order.

Mr Abrego Garcia was sent to a prison in El Salvador earlier this year, which the US government later admitted was in error. He was returned to the US to face human smuggling charges and has been held since then.

Judge Xinis also wrote that the government did not have a removal order, which blocks it from deporting Mr Abrego Garcia "at this juncture".

The Trump administration contends Mr Abrego Garcia is a member of the violent criminal MS-13 gang, which he denies. This spring, the administration flew a large group of migrants it alleged were in the gang to El Salvador's CECOT prison. But a previous court order had barred the US from sending Mr Abrego Garcia to the country.

Mr Abrego Garcia also has pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges, which are part of a trial in Tennessee.

Judge Xinis, who was hearing his challenge to deportation in a federal court in Maryland, said he must now follow the conditions of his release from jail in Tennessee.

The US has imposed fresh sanctions on six more ships said to be carrying Venezuelan oil, a day after seizing a tanker off the country's coast.

Sanctions have also been placed on some of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's relatives and businesses associated with what Washington calls his illegitimate regime.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the seized vessel, called the Skipper, had been involved in "illicit oil shipping" and would be taken to an American port.

Caracas has described it as an act of "international piracy".

It marks a sharp escalation in the US pressure campaign against Maduro, which has seen dozens killed in strikes on boats alleged to have been carrying drugs from Venezuela, and US warships moved within striking distance of the South American country.

The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of funnelling narcotics into the US. Venezuela - home to some of the world's largest proven oil reserves - has, in turn, accused Washington of seeking to steal its resources. Maduro had previously said that Venezuela would never become an "oil colony".

But defending the US military action, Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Thursday that the US was committed to both "stopping the flow of illegal drugs" into the country and enforcing sanctions.

She would not be drawn on whether the White House planned to seize more ships transporting Venezuelan oil.

"We're not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world," Leavitt said.

She added that the US planned to seize the oil on board the Skipper, after the necessary legal process.

Leavitt also said Trump would not be concerned "at all" to hear Russian President Vladimir Putin had called Maduro earlier in the day to offer Moscow's support "in the face of growing external pressure".

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said that imposing sanctions on three of Maduro's nephews, alongside a number of businesses and ships, would tackle the leader's "dictatorial and brutal control".

In a post on X, he said the Trump administration was "holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes".

On Wednesday, the White House released dramatic video footage of the raid that showed camouflaged soldiers dropping down onto the vessel from a helicopter, and walking its deck, weapons drawn.

The Venezuelan government strongly denounced the seizure of the Skipper, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello calling the US "murderers, thieves, pirates". This was how the country had "started wars all over the world", he added.

The US Treasury department sanctioned the Skipper vessel in 2022, CBS reported, for alleged involvement in oil smuggling that generated revenue for Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

The US had ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea, which borders Venezuela to the north, in the days prior to the raid.

It involved thousands of troops and USS Gerald Ford - the world's largest aircraft carrier - being positioned within striking distance of Venezuela, BBC Verify reported.

The government has promised to create 50,000 more places for children with special educational needs (Send) in mainstream schools in England.

It plans to invest £3bn over the next three years, partly funded by cancelling the building of some planned free schools.

Councils - who will receive the funding - have argued the money needs to be diverted to the right areas and to the people who know what is needed in their local communities.

Nearly 1.7 million pupils receive support for special educational needs in schools in England, with the number rising every year.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the investment would lay the groundwork for the Send reforms announced in the schools White Paper early next year. The White Paper had been due to be published in the autumn, but was delayed.

The government says it plans to cancel the building of 28 new mainstream free schools following a consultation and that it is reviewing a further 16 sites.

"We have made the decision not to go ahead with some schools where we've seen falling rolls because of pupil numbers and investing that money into provision for children with Send", Ms Phillipson told the BBC.

Councils will be able to use the money from the cancelled projects to adapt existing school buildings and create more specialist spaces, so pupils are less likely to have to travel far for their education.

For example, they could create areas like breakout spaces for children who may need more support, or rooms to support children with autism or ADHD who may feel overstimulated in the classroom.

There are also 77 proposed special free schools which local authorities can decide to build, or similarly, use the funding to create the equivalent number of specialist places elsewhere.

Councillor Amanda Hopgood from the Local Government Association says the Send places needed to be in the right location.

"If we build a big school in the middle of nowhere that we have to transport everyone to, then that's money that isn't used on education".

"And those children are not being educated in their local communities where they live with their friends".

Local authorities spent £1.5bn on transport for under-16s with Send in the 2023-24 financial year, about two-and-a-half times what it was in 2015-16.

Headteachers' unions have welcomed the plans.

However, the school leaders' union NAHT says investment in buildings is only one part of the picture, and that there would need to be sufficient teachers and leaders "with the right level of specialist training".

At Ninestiles, an academy in Birmingham, just under 50 students with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) - a legal document outlining the support that a young person is entitled to - spend around 70% of their time in mainstream lessons.

The rest of the time, they take part in bespoke lessons to support their needs, where they get access to specially-trained staff and a tailored curriculum.

Demand for these places is high and the government says the extra investment means councils would be able to meet local need faster.

But Principal Alex Hughes says "the devil will be in the detail" and in "what it translates to" for individual schools.

Student Brendan, 14, who attends Ninestiles has access to the full curriculum but also can attend the resource hub, where he is supported by teachers.

He has the "best of both worlds", according to his mum Laura Jerram who says the pastoral support he has received has been "the key to keeping him in the school".

But Brendan's journey to get to this point has been "really difficult".

He missed a lot of primary school before he came to Ninestiles and the process of getting an EHCP was "a horrible journey", Ms Jerram explains.

"It's a bit of a bun fight [to get an EHCP] and the most resourced families tend to come out on top, unfortunately.

"I feel that for Brendan, if he'd had support much earlier on, he may not have fallen out of education the way he did."

Many parents are unhappy and frustrated with the way the system is currently working with the National Audit Office (NAO) warning that despite increased investment, outcomes for students have not improved.

The number of parents taking councils to court over issues with Send provision reached a record high in 2024-2025, figures by the Ministry of Justice revealed on Thursday.

There were 25,000 Send appeals, up 18% from the previous year, with most disagreements over the content of EHCPs.

The free schools which will not go ahead will now go through a consultation period.

Plans by Eton College to open selective sixth-form centres in Dudley and Oldham have been approved, but its Middlesbrough proposal is earmarked for cancellation.

Free schools are publicly funded but are privately run by academy trusts, universities, charities, or faith groups.

Additional reporting by Kate McGough and Hazel Shearing

Spoiler warning: This article reveals the winners of Celebrity Race Across the World.

Broadcaster Roman Kemp and his sister, singer-songwriter Harleymoon, have triumphed in the latest series of the BBC's Race Across the World.

They reached the final checkpoint ahead of the three other pairs of contestants after a 33-day, 5,900km (3,600 mile) quest through Central America.

The pair reached the finish line two minutes before EastEnders actress Molly Rainford and her fiancé, TV and radio host Tyler West, with broadcaster Anita Rani and her dad Bal finishing six hours later.

Derry Girls actor Dylan Llewellyn and his mum Jackie came fourth - having decided to leave the race earlier in the episode because of limited funds.

Wednesday's final episode covered the last stage, a 1,000km route from Medellín to the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia.

In previous stages, the teams had to make their ways through countries including Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama.

They did so without using phones or air travel, and with a budget of £950 per person - the equivalent cost of flying the route.

This was the BBC's third celebrity series of Race Across the World and has been attracting about six million viewers.

Roman and Harleymoon Kemp are the children of Spandau Ballet's Martin Kemp and wife Shirlie.

Roman is know as co-host of BBC One's The One Show and Capital's former breakfast show DJ, while Harleymoon is a country singer who has been releasing music for five years.

The final journey saw them take a 4x4, boat ride and race by foot up a cliffside, with Ronan describing it as "the most adrenaline, most emotion that I've had ever".

Harleymoon added: "I've never run like that in my whole life."

Rainford, 25, is known for playing Anna Knight in EastEnders since 2023 and reaching the final of Strictly Come Dancing in 2022.

She met Kiss radio host West when he was also a contestant on the same series of Strictly, and they announced their engagement earlier this year.

Rani is known as co-host of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and BBC One's Countryfile, and was racing with her dad Balvinder Singh Nazran, a semi-retired businessman.

Dylan Llewellyn, who has been racing with mum Jackie, is known for playing James in hit sitcom Derry Girls, as well as for roles in Big Boys and Beyond Paradise.

Russia could attack a Nato country within the next five years, the Western military alliance's chief has said in a stark new warning.

"Russia is already escalating its covert campaign against our societies," Mark Rutte said in a speech in Germany. "We must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured."

He echoed similar statements about Russia's intentions made by Western intelligence agencies, which Moscow dismisses as hysteria.

Rutte's warning comes as US President Donald Trump tries to bring an end to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

Earlier this month, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said his country was not planning to go to war with Europe, but it was ready "right now" if Europe wanted to - or started a war.

But similar reassurances were given by Moscow in 2022, just before 200,000 Russian troops crossed the border and invaded Ukraine.

Putin has accused European countries of hindering US efforts to bring peace in Ukraine - a reference to the role Ukraine's European allies have recently played in trying to change a US peace plan to end the war, whose initial draft was seen as favouring Russia.

But Putin was not sincere, Nato's secretary-general said in the German capital, Berlin.

Supporting Ukraine, he added, was a guarantee for European security.

"Just imagine if Putin got his way; Ukraine under the boot of Russian occupation, his forces pressing against a longer border with Nato, and the significantly increased risk of an armed attack against us."

Russia's economy has been on a war footing for more than three years now - its factories churn out ever more supplies of drones, missiles and artillery shells.

According to a recent report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Russia has been producing each month around 150 tanks, 550 infantry fighting vehicles, 120 Lancet drones and more than 50 artillery pieces.

The UK, and most of its Western allies, are simply not anywhere near this point.

Analysts say it would take years for Western Europe's factories to come close to matching Russia's mass-production of weapons.

France and Germany have both recently moved to revive a system of voluntary military service for 18-year-olds.

So-called "hybrid" or "grey-zone" warfare, which includes events that are often deniable, such as cyber-attacks, disinformation and the alleged launching of drones close to airports and military bases in Nato countries, have been ramping up this year.

But worrying as these are, they pale compared to the crisis that would be triggered by a Russian military attack on a Nato country, especially if it involved seizing territory and people being killed.

Nato includes 30 European countries - as well as Canada and the US, the alliance's most-powerful military member.

Under pressure from Trump, its members have pledged to increase military spending.

"Nato's own defences can hold for now," Rutte warned in Berlin, but conflict was "next door" to Europe and he feared "too many are quietly complacent, and too many don't feel the urgency, too many believe that time is on our side.

"Allied defence spending and production must rise rapidly, our armed forces must have what they need to keep us safe," the Nato chief said.

Women are rallying behind Oscar-winning actor Catherine Zeta-Jones after she faced criticism on social media over her looks at a recent red carpet event.

Zeta-Jones attended a Netflix event in Los Angeles on 9 November where a TikTok interview about her role in the latest Wednesday series was overshadowed by comments about her appearance.

Laura White, 58, and this year's winner of Miss Great Britain Classic, called the backlash "complete nonsense", adding that "men don't have this sell-by/use-by date that women do".

Beauty journalist Sali Hughes, 50, said unlike men, women were unfairly judged for aging and Zeta-Jones should be free to look however she liked.

In the video, which was also posted on Facebook and had more than 2.5m views, Zeta-Jones, who is from Mumbles, Swansea, talked about how much she enjoyed exploring her character, Morticia Addams, in season two.

But many of the hundreds of comments focused on her age and were disparaging about her appearance.

The online backlash sparked widespread defence of Zeta-Jones, including a viral video from one Facebook user which said: "You bully women when they get too much work done and bully them when they don't have enough."

Commenters also came to her defence, with one writing: "It's called ageing naturally and she looks beautiful."

Others described her as "gorgeous" and "so pretty", while someone else said that "she looks her age - that's called reality."

Ms White arrived for her interview at BBC Radio Wales Breakfast earlier makeup-free to "prove a point" and to show there was no set "template" for what a woman in her 50s should look like.

Like many women her age, she said she "takes care of herself" not to look younger but to feel "better" and look "healthy".

"Aging is a privilege and if we can do it the best we can, that's what really matters," she added.

She argued that men were not held to the same beauty standards, adding "no-one questions how old Tom Cruise, George Clooney or Tom Jones are - they just look 'great'."

She said it was one of the reasons she entered Miss Great Britain's category for over-45s, to "show that midlife women are still here" and "still have it".

Hughes, an author and presenter from Wales, said that while Zeta-Jones was "gorgeous" it was "not the point", adding she should be free to look however she liked without her age being scrutinised.

She said the online abuse showed no woman was "immune" and that women do not deserve the "constant narrative" that they are not good enough or young enough - a problem that is "galling, regardless of who the victim is".

Asked if men face the same scrutiny, she said "no, never", noting women were attacked simply for having the "audacity" to exist online as they age.

Despite the beauty industry promoting "longevity", Hughes said women were still criticised whether they aged naturally or underwent treatments like plastic surgery or injectables.

"If you age naturally, people say you should do more; if you get work done, you're accused of not aging gracefully enough," she added.