MILAN (AP) — AC Milan and Inter Milan passed a major hurdle in owning their own stadium after the city council approved the sale of San Siro to the clubs early Tuesday after a nearly 12-hour overnight debate.
The vote to sell the existing stadium and the surrounding areas was passed 24-20 at about 3 a.m.
The clubs plan to tear down the 99-year-old stadium and jointly build a new 71,500-seat arena.
Milan and Inter released a joint statement calling the vote “a historic and decisive step for the future of the clubs and the city.” It “will lead to the creation of a new stadium meeting the highest international standards — a world-class facility destined to become a new architectural icon for Milan and a symbol of the passion of football fans around the world.”
The San Siro stadium and the surrounding area have been valued at 197 million euros ($233 million), according to Italy’s tax agency.
The sale will have to be finalized before Nov. 10, when the second tier — which was completed 70 years ago on that date — takes on historical significance and would become almost impossible to tear down.
Last week, the clubs announced agreements with architectural firms Foster + Partners and Manica to design a new stadium, after the city council issued preliminary approval for the sale.
The new venue will be part of an urban regeneration project covering approximately 281,000 square meters (more than 3 million square feet).
The existing San Siro is slated to host the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February.
The idea is to have a new stadium ready for when Italy co-hosts the 2032 European Championship with Turkey. The San Siro in its current state is not considered modern enough for UEFA to approve it for hosting tournament matches.
“We believe that we’ve done the right thing,” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said.
But an opposition group, the populist 5-Star Movement, denounced the sale as “shameful” and “pure real estate speculation.”
The 5-Star group said the sale would be “a 1.3 billion euro ($1.5 billion) deal that would tear down the historic Meazza stadium and replace it with offices, shopping malls, luxury hotels and — only lastly — a new stadium,” adding that “real estate speculation in Milan has reached unsustainable levels and now the San Siro is also being sacrificed on the profit altar.”
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FILE -An external view of the San Siro Stadium site of the Opening ceremony at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno), File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.
The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.
Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships from conducting trade, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com.
Madani said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.
The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.
As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”
However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)
