Today, the US has seized two oil tankers — one Russian-flagged vessel in the North Atlantic and another ship in the Caribbean. Both vessels have links to Venezuela.

The UK supported US efforts to seize the Russian-flagged ship, which is accused of breaking US sanctions by shipping Iranian oil.

What do we know so far and is this the closest Russia and the US have been to confrontation since the Cold War? Adam is joined by BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen and Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.

Also in the studio is BBC economics editor Faisal Islam, who’s back from a visit to Google HQ in California, where they are developing a quantum computer which could have capabilities beyond anything the world has yet seen. Faisal fills us in on what he learned from his trip.

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Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Rufus Gray with Shiler Mahmoudi and Laura Cain. The social producers were Beth Pritchard and Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Stephen Bailey. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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