Reuters World News - Tankers, Obamacare, Bulgaria and Disney

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

The U.S. plans to intercept more Venezuelan oil tankers. The U.S. Senate shuts down two competing healthcare bills as Obamacare tax credits near their expiration date. Bulgaria’s government resigns in the face of mass anti-corruption protests. And Walt Disney will allow OpenAI’s Sora video generator to use its characters.    Listen to Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Christopher Waljeper in Chicago. It's Friday, December 12th. Today, the U.S. is preparing to seize more tankers off Venezuela. The Senate rejects dueling health care proposals. Mass protests topple Bulgaria's government. And Disney's characters could soon be coming to SORA's AI video editor. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.

A Reuters exclusive has confirmed that the U.S. is preparing to intercept additional ships transporting Venezuelan oil. U.S. foreign policy editor, Don Durfi, has the latest. Season tankers is definitely an attempt to escalate the financial pressure on the Maduro regime, and we've heard from sources that they've developed a target list of several more sanctioned tankers. The U.S. has been building up a really remarkably large force in the Caribbean in the past weeks. And in addition to that military pressure, taking the tankers, you know, is a way of cutting off a major source of revenue to the regime. And it is a step that the U.S. can take that is short of actual direct military intervention,

which is something that Trump has threatened multiple times. He's threatened strikes on land inside Venezuela, but the U.S. hasn't gone there yet. Don says the escalation could put the Trump administration in a tight spot, regardless of what comes next. I think this campaign that the Trump administration has been running around Venezuela, it is a little bit boxing themselves in because they have so many forces now situated in the Caribbean. If the end goal is for Maduro to step down, there's this question of, well, what happens if he doesn't step down? Does that mean U.S. military intervention inside Venezuela? That's incredibly risky.

Does it mean backing away from the whole situation, which carries another kind of risk because you've escalated only to step away from it? So it's not an easy situation for the U.S. at this moment. Here's Elena Casas from our Morningbid podcast with more on what all this means for the markets. This week, the seizure of that oil tanker has barely changed anything for oil traders. There's a few reasons why. One is that Venezuela has been under U.S. sanctions on its oil since 2019, so it's struggling to sell much of its oil abroad anyway. Most of it's going to China, and it's being sold

at a steep discount to the global oil price. Another factor is that even though Venezuela does have the world's largest oil reserves, they're not being exploited very much at the moment. The state oil company is pumping less than a third of the oil that it was 15 years ago. So even if Venezuela's sanctions on oil were to be dropped, even if that supply were to come back on to world markets, It's a relatively small amount of oil that we're talking about here. And if there were to be a change of regime in Venezuela and foreign oil companies were again able to start pumping that oil, it would require billions of dollars in foreign investment to use that spare capacity. Venezuela's oil installations are in a terrible state. So all of these factors mean that the oil price has barely moved this week.

Thanks, Elena. You can catch morning bid wherever you get your podcasts or ask your smart speaker to play Reuters MorningBid. Dueling health care bills have failed in the Senate, all but ensuring rising health care premiums in the new year. Senate Republicans blocked a bill by Democrats that would have extended Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years. A Republican bill that would create a federal subsidy to help Americans fund health savings accounts also fell short of the 60 votes that were needed to advance. The issue is likely to dominate next year's midterms, but for some, it's much more serious.

In my case, I don't have a choice. I don't get to have another option without insurance. For 35-year-old Himali Patel, health insurance isn't optional. It's the only thing keeping her alive. Patel has battled multiple autoimmune and connective tissue disorders for years, conditions that have led to dozens of hospital stays every year.

Patel says the loss of subsidies would leave her her effectively uninsured. A U.S. judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador became a flashpoint in President Trump's immigration crackdown. The ruling found the government never formally secured deportation orders for Abrago. In March, Abrago was sent to an El Salvador prison. in June, he was brought back to face criminal charges and has been in immigration detention since August.

Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister has announced he's dissolving Parliament clearing the way for earlier than expected elections. The move by Prime Minister Anutin-Chon-Vittekul comes as the conflict along the border with Cambodia rages, and just ahead of a plane. and no confidence vote. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to talk to the Thai Prime Minister later today.

In Bulgaria, it was the government that was supposed to oversee the country's entry into the Eurozone in the new year. But the Prime Minister and the government have now resigned. It comes after weeks of mass protests against state corruption and a new budget that would have increased taxes. Our Balkans Bureau Chief, Ed McAllister, has more. We're looking at a situation where Bulgaria might fall back into a cycle of repeated snap elections. Bulgaria's had seven elections in four years. The last government lasted nearly a year. But with this collapse, we're looking at a potential for elections again, maybe in March or April,

if a new government can't be found because the parliament is simply too fragmented to you form a strong coalition. And we'll be attending the meeting on Saturday in Europe if we think there's a good chance. And we don't want to waste a lot of time. We think it's negative. President Trump pledging to send a representative to Ukraine talks in Europe this weekend if there's a real chance at a peace agreement. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Keeves given Washington a revised 20-point plan for ending the war, but says seating territory remains a major holdup.

He says the U.S. is offering a compromise, the creation of a free economic zone in the Ukraine-controlled parts of the eastern Donbos. It's an area that Russia has demanded Kiev gives up. Zelensky says the idea is Ukrainian troops withdraw from the Denedzka region in the Donbos, and that in return Russian troops won't enter. Who would govern this territory remains unclear. Walt Disney is investing $1 billion. dollars in Open AI and licensing its Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel characters for SORA, the startup AI's video generator.

It's a landmark deal that marks Hollywood's biggest embrace of generative AI yet. Media business reporter Don Chimilusky is here to explain. It does feel like a milestone. Disney is embracing the memeification, if you, of culture, that we, as consumers of culture, not only are passively watching, but also reinterpreting, users of SORA will be able to create short videos featuring their favorite characters and share those videos on social media with certain parameters established. Disney obviously doesn't want Mickey Mouse to be seen, I don't know, smoking a cigarette or doing drugs or something else that's inappropriate. So Sora has agreed to put in

some guide rails to prevent Disney's characters from being depicted in ways that Disney would not normally permit. Other advantages of this deal, Disney hopes that it will be able to take advantage of SORA's artificial intelligence products to refine its own production pipeline, to use AI in ways that make its operations more efficient. Now, that's not to say that it will suddenly take the place of actors on screen. This is simply a way for Disney to begin to use the power of AI to get through some of the kind of back-end production more quickly, much like you or I might use AI to kind of speed up or work. Hollywood's unions, which are monitoring the expanding use of generative AI, have reacted cautiously to the deal. The Animation Guild has said compensation for artists is a concern

that the union will raise. And for today's recommended read, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved its first at-home device for depression. Flow Neuroscience says its at-home brain stimulation device offers an alternative to typical antidepressants that can cause side effects with long-term use. You can read more about it by following the link in the podcast description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back

tomorrow with our daily headlines show.