By Dave Sherwood and Marianna Parraga

HAVANA/HOUSTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. move this week to seize an oil tanker out of ​Venezuela is poised to make a bad situation worse for a ​crisis-stricken Cuba already struggling to source enough oil to power its ailing economy and electrical grid.

The Communist-run nation, a nearby neighbor and ⁠long-time foe of the United States, suffers daily, hours-long rolling blackouts that have decimated productivity and tested the patience of its exhausted residents.

Former Iraqi president Barham Salih is set to become the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, according to a document seen by AFP on Friday, taking over an agency tackling swingeing budget cuts.

Salih, 65, was president of Iraq from 2018 to 2022. He will replace Filippo Grandi, who is leaving at the end of December after 10 years as the UN refugees chief.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of ​displaced Gazans face flooding of ​their tents and shelters by heavy rains, and materials for shelters ⁠and sandbags are not being allowed to enter the enclave, the UN International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

Torrential rain ​swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding ‍hundreds of tents sheltering families ​displaced by two years of war, and leading to the death of a baby girl due to exposure, local health officials said.

GENEVA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - ​Iraq's former ​president Barham ⁠Salih has been chosen as the ​next high ‍commissioner for ​refugees for the United Nations, a letter ⁠showed on Friday.

The letter signed by United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres ​and dated ⁠Dec. ⁠11 says Salih has been appointed for a ‌five-year term ​beginning January 1, 2026.

The appointment is provisional ‍and needs to be approved ‌by UNHCR's ‌Executive Committee, the document showed.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, ⁠Editing by Friederike Heine)

ANKARA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Turkey and the United States are ​discussing the U.S. sanctions and obstacles ​to Ankara rejoining the F-35 jet programme but nothing has changed ⁠with respect to its possession of Russian S-400 air defences, the defence ministry said on Friday.

The NATO allies have been ​at loggerheads since 2020 when Washington removed Ankara ‍from Lockheed Martin's fighter jet ​programme and imposed sanctions over Turkey's acquisition of the S-400s, which Washington calls a security threat.

By John O'Donnell and Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Ireland’s planned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods, ​a minister told Reuters, offering the first clear signal on the scope of ​the contested legislation and rejecting accusations that the country is antisemitic.

Ireland has been preparing a law to curb trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, facing ⁠pressure at home to widen the scope of the ban from goods to services, while Israel and the United States want the bill scrapped.

His only official job title at the White House is son-in-law. But Jared Kushner has staged a remarkable -- and sometimes controversial -- comeback to President Donald Trump's inner circle.

Four years after Kushner left the White House, Trump has handed the husband of his daughter Ivanka a key role in the Gaza and Ukraine peace talks.

This week, the 44-year-old also emerged as an investor in a bid by Paramount to buy Hollywood giant Warner Bros., which if successful could mean the Trump family partially owning CNN, the president's most-hated news channel.

By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Four U.S. lawmakers on Thursday said there has been no accountability for an October 2023 ​attack by the Israeli military that struck a group of journalists in ​Lebanon, killing a Reuters correspondent and wounding others.

U.S. Senator Peter Welch from Vermont, the home state of one of the journalists wounded in the ⁠attack, accused Israel of not conducting a serious investigation into the incident, saying he had seen no proof of that.

ZURICH, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Swiss Eurovision winner Nemo on Thursday said they were ​handing back their trophy in the latest ​protest about Israel's continued participation in the contest over the war in Gaza.

Nemo, the ⁠non-binary singer who won in 2024 with "The Code," a drum-and-bass, opera, rap and rock song, said Israel's continued participation went against the contest's ideals of inclusion ​and dignity for all people.

Dec 11 (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, ​said on Thursday he ​would travel to Beirut for talks after ⁠receiving a formal invitation from his Lebanese counterpart, who a day earlier had declined to ​visit Tehran for direct talks.

On Wednesday, ‍Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef ​Raji said "current conditions" prevented him from travelling to Tehran, but stressed that the move did not mean rejection of dialogue with ⁠Iran.

Raji told Reuters late on Wednesday that he had invited Araqchi "in a formal diplomatic letter to come to Beirut to hold talks."