Dallas Seavey, the four-time Iditarod champion who skipped last year's race after being accused in a dog-doping scandal, will race again this year in Norway even though he has been cleared of any wrongdoing by officials in the Alaska race.
Seavey said Friday that he plans to compete in the Finnmarkslopet race in Norway, which starts about a week after the Iditarod, considered the world's most famous sled dog race. The Iditarod begins March 3.
After the 2017 race, in which Seavey placed second, race officials said some dogs on his team tested positive for an opioid painkiller. They said they could not prove he gave the drug tramadol to his dogs and didn't punish him.
Seavey adamantly denied giving his dogs drugs and sat out the 2018 race in protest, opting to race in Norway instead.
This past year, after four new board members were installed on the race's governing body, the Iditarod Trail Committee, the board cleared Seavey of any wrongdoing.
"After several meetings with Dallas Seavey, and review of all relevant information and evidence, the board does not believe that Dallas had any involvement with, or knowledge of, the events that led to the positive test in his team," a December release said. "The ITC concludes that it is not credible that Dallas was involved, and he is found to have committed no wrong doing. Whatever happened was completely beyond his control."
Seavey told The Associated Press on Friday that no one should interpret this as him having hard feelings against the Iditarod. Instead, he has unfinished business in Norway, where he came in third last year.
"It's a puzzle I haven't yet figured out, and I want to go back over there and give it another run," he said. "I feel like I'm much better prepared now to set my team up for success on the race, knowing what the race is like."
The 31-year-old Seavey said he has been around the Iditarod since he was 5 years old, and his family's history with the race traces back to his grandfather, Dan Seavey, who ran the first two races in 1973 and 1974.
"I'll be back to the Iditarod," he said, describing the draw of the Finnmarkslopet this year as "an exciting adventure."
Chas St. George, the interim head of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, said he believes the decision to run in Norway was the right one for Seavey. Besides the Iditarod, Seavey has also won the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race between Canada and Alaska.
"He is a competitor, and I'm sure he would like to be the first to win all three," St. George said in an email.
Seavey said he doesn't have a major sponsor, and the only hitch in this plan would be funding. The Alaska man needs to raise about $25,000 for training and travel costs associated with getting himself and at least 14 dogs to Norway and back.
He also needs to offset the lower prize money in Norway. Last year, he said, he collected about $5,000 for finishing third. By contrast, Dallas' father, Mitch Seavey, picked up just over $39,000 for placing third in last year's Iditarod. Norwegian Joar Ulsom collected about $50,000 and a new pickup for winning his first Iditarod.
Dallas Seavey won the Iditarod, the annual thousand-mile race between the Anchorage area and Nome, in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s parliament on Tuesday approved a measure that criminalizes a broad range of activities that can hinder navigation and commerce in the South American country, such as the seizure of oil tankers.
The bill — introduced, debated and approved within two days in the National Assembly — follows this month's seizures by U.S. forces of two tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in international waters. The seizures are the latest strategy in U.S. President Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign on Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro.
The tankers are part of what the Trump administration has said is a fleet Venezuela uses to evade U.S. economic sanctions.
The unicameral assembly, which is controlled by Venezuela's ruling party, did not publish drafts on Tuesday nor the final version of the measure. But as read on the floor, the bill calls for fines and prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes, requests, supports, finances or participates in “acts of piracy, blockades or other international illegal acts” against commercial entities operating with the South American country.
Venezuela's political opposition, including Nobel Peace laureate María Corina Machado, has expressed support for Trump's Venezuela policy, including the seizure of tankers. Machado and Trump have both repeatedly said that Maduro's days in power are numbered.
The bill, which now awaits Maduro’s signature, also instructs the executive branch to come up with “incentives and mechanisms for economic, commercial and other protections” for national or foreign entities doing business with Venezuela in the event of piracy activities, a maritime blockade or other unlawful acts.
The U.S. Coast Guard on Saturday seized a Panama-flagged vessel called Centuries that officials said was part of the fleet moving sanctioned cargo. With assistance from the U.S. Navy, it seized a rogue tanker called Skipper on Dec. 10. That ship was registered in Panama.
Trump, after that first seizure, said the U.S. would carry out a “blockade” of Venezuela. He later demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of the blockade against sanctioned oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country.
At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by Venezuela, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz on Tuesday stressed that sanctioned oil tankers “operate as the primary economic lifeline for Maduro and his illegitimate regime.”
“Maduro’s ability to sell Venezuela’s oil enables his fraudulent claim to power and his narco-terrorist activities,” Waltz said. “The United States will impose and enforce sanctions to the maximum extent to deprive Maduro of the resources he uses to fund Cartel de los Soles.”
Maduro was indicted in 2020 on narcoterrorism charges in the U.S. and accused of leading the Cartel de los Soles, which the Trump administration designated as a foreign terrorist organization last month. But the entity is not a cartel per se.
Venezuelans began using the term Cartel de los Soles in the 1990s to refer to high-ranking military officers who had grown rich from drug-running. As corruption expanded nationwide, its use loosely expanded to police and government officials as well as activities like illegal mining and fuel trafficking.
At Tuesday's meeting, Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada accused the U.S. of acting “outside international law” and its own domestic laws, by demanding that Venezuelans vacate the country and hand it over to the Trump administration, including all its oil fields.
“What right does the United States government have to appropriate, to date, almost 4 million barrels of Venezuelan oil?” Moncada asked, referring to the cargo of the two seized tankers. “This alleged naval blockade is essentially a military act aimed at laying siege to the Venezuelan nation, degrading its economic and military apparatus, weakening its social and political cohesion, and causing internal chaos to facilitate aggression by external forces.”
Many countries expressed concern about violations of international maritime law and adhering to the United Nations Charter, which requires all 193 member nations to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every other country. The United States’ actions were supported by a few countries, including Panama and Argentina.
Associated Press writer Edith Lederer in New York contributed to this report.
Lawmaker Giuseppe Alessandrello gives a speech during an extraordinary session at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito port in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
