Politics

US Energy Secretary visits Venezuela to scope oil…

Published

1 month ago

February 13, 2026

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — United States Energy Secretary Chris Wright arrived Wednesday in Venezuela for a firsthand assessment of the country’s oil industry, a visit that further asserts the U.S. government’s self-appointed role in turning around Venezuela’s dilapidated energy sector.

Wright met Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez at the Miraflores presidential palace in the capital, Caracas. He is expected to meet with government officials, oil executives and others during a three-day visit to the South American country.

Wright’s visit comes as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump continues to lift sanctions to allow foreign companies to operate in Venezuela and help rebuild the nation’s most important industry. It follows last month’s enactment of a Venezuelan law that opened the nation’s oil sector to private investment, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

“I bring today a message from President Trump,” Wright told reporters as he stood next to Rodríguez with flags from both countries behind them. “He is passionately committed to absolutely transforming the relationship between the United States and Venezuela, part of a broader agenda to make the Americas great again, to bring our countries closer together, to bring commerce, peace, prosperity, jobs, opportunity to the people of Venezuela.”

Rodríguez was sworn into her new role after the brazen Jan. 3 seizure of then-President Nicolas Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Caracas. She proposed the overhaul of the country’s energy law after Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.

Rodríguez on Wednesday acknowledged that Venezuela’s relationship with the U.S. has had “highs and lows” but said both countries are now working on a mutually benefiting “energy agenda.”

“Let diplomatic dialogue … and energy dialogue be the appropriate and suitable channels for the U.S. and Venezuela to maturely determine how to move forward,” she said.

Rodríguez’s government expects the changes to the country’s oil law to serve as assurances for major U.S. oil companies that have so far hesitated about returning to the volatile country. Some of those companies lost investments when the ruling party enacted the existing law two decades ago to favor Venezuela’s state-run oil company, PDVSA.

The new law now grants private companies control over oil production and sales, ending PDVSA’s monopoly over those activities as well as pricing. It also allows for independent arbitration of disputes, removing a mandate for disagreements to be settled only in Venezuelan courts, which are controlled by the ruling party.

Foreign investors view the involvement of independent arbitrators as crucial to guard against future expropriation.

Wright told reporters the reform “is a meaningful step in the right direction” but “probably not far and clear enough to encourage the kind of large capital flows” the U.S. would like to see in Venezuela.

Wright planned to visit oil fields Thursday.

Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day, has long relied on oil revenue as a lifeblood of its economy.

Trump imposed crippling sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry during his first term, locking out the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. of the global oil markets in an attempt to topple Maduro. That pushed his government to rely on a shadowy fleet of unflagged tankers to smuggle deeply discounted crude into global supply chains.

In December, Trump ordered a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” entering or leaving the South American country, ramping up pressure on Maduro in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on Venezuela’s economy. U.S. forces that month also began seizing oil tankers off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.

Since Maduro’s Jan. 3 ouster, the Trump administration set out to control the productionrefining and global distribution of Venezuela’s petroleum products and oversee where the revenue flows. The administration also began lifting broad sanctions, but also continued seizing tankers — now in agreement with Venezuela’s government — including one this week in the Indian Ocean after it was tracked from the Caribbean Sea.

Wright on Wednesday told reporters the blockade is “essentially over” as the U.S. is “flowing Venezuelan crude out, selling it at a much higher price than Venezuela was selling it before,” and the revenue is being used in specific projects benefiting Venezuelans.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Politics

Ex-ICE attorney who told judge ‘this job sucks’ is running for Congress

Published

58 minutes ago

March 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Mar. 14, 2026, 7:31 AM EDT

A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney who made headlines last month for telling a judge “this job sucks” is seeking a gig with its own set of problems: She’s running for Congress.

Julie Le, 47, is formally launching her bid to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Saturday, according to her campaign website. Le will face both Omar and Latonya Reeves in the Democratic primary in August, and the general election will take place in November.

The”https://x.com/PaulBlume_FOX9/status/2018785125857902645″>made her headline-grabbing comments to a federal district judge in February, while she had stepped in to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in her home state as it was experiencing a surge of immigration-related cases, driven by the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation tactics. In response to the judge’s question about why ICE was repeatedly ignoring court orders, Le replied: “The system sucks, this job sucks.”

“I am here to make sure the agency understands how important it is to comply with court orders,” she added, according to KMSP-TV in Minneapolis.

Le also reportedly told the judge she hoped he would hold her in contempt so she could get 24 hours’ sleep.

The comments got her removed from her temporary assignment.

She told the Washington Post — which first reported the news of her campaign — that she realized as she was leaving the courtroom that, as an attorney, she lacked the power to change the system she railed against.

“Legislators are the only ones that can change the law, or update the laws, or do something, so that we can have this under control,” Le told the newspaper.

Le’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry from MS NOW.

Le is one of hundreds of former federal workers turned candidates who is now running in state and local elections following mass firings brought about by the Trump administration.

Her campaign website outlines three pillars: immigration reform, education funding and health care access. The site says Le will “fight for humane, sensible immigration policies” after seeing “the system’s failures up close,” calling it “outdated and inefficient.”

A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s question on Friday about the circumstances of her departure from government service.

Despite her focus on immigration reform, Le told the Post she used to be proud to work for ICE. “You apply the law to everyone. Everyone has to follow it,” she said.

Omar has represented the solidly blue 5th Congressional District, which includes and surrounds downtown Minneapolis, since 2019. She does not appear to have publicly commented on the news of her new challenger, and a spokesperson for her re-election campaign did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

Le told the Post she was challenging Omar “not because she’s not doing the job” but “for what I could bring to the table.” She also told The New York Times she would be more moderate than Omar, who has called for abolishing ICE.

Like Omar, who was born in Somalia, Le is an immigrant: She was born in communist Vietnam, partially raised in the Philippines and arrived in the U.S. with her family as refugees in 1993.

Fallon Gallagher contributed reporting.

Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.

Politics

Trump’s FCC chair threatens news networks over Iran war coverage

Published

2 hours ago

March 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Mar. 14, 2026, 4:59 PM EDT

President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman is threatening to revoke the licenses of news broadcasters over their coverage of the Iran war.

Brendan Carr, the head of the agency, warned broadcast news organizations on Saturday to “correct course,” following the president’s rants over news coverage of his war with Iran, including stories about U.S. aircraft tankers sustaining damage in a strike.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr said in a post on X, without naming any media outlets. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

The FCC did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

Carr referenced a Truth Social post from Trump Saturday morning denying reports that five U.S. Air Force refueling planes were struck at a military base in Saudi Arabia. Trump directed his screed at the The Wall Street Journalwhich first reported the news, The New York Times and “other Lowlife ‘Papers’ and Media,” claiming they “actually want us to lose the War.”

In his own social media post later in the day, Carr pointed to Trump’s 2024 election win as an example of the lack of trust in the media from the American people.

“When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong,” the FCC chairman said.

Carr’s threat was met with immediate blowback from free speech advocates and political figures.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the threat “flagrantly unconstitutional.” Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a frequent Trump critic on the right, condemned it as “unacceptable and unamerican.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment advocacy group, called Carr’s statement an “authoritarian warning,” adding, “Again and again, Carr’s tenure as FCC chairman has been marked by his shameless willingness to bully and threaten our free press. But even by Carr’s standards, today’s hypocrisy is shocking — and dangerous.”

Brendan Carr’s authoritarian warning — that networks risk their broadcasting licenses for Iran war reporting that the government doesn’t like — is outrageous. When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very… https://t.co/Cl8gOSYw5s

— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) March 14, 2026

Carr, an author of Project 2025 whom Trump hand-picked to run the FCC, has sought to use his powerful position to bend media outlets — and late-night talk show hosts — to the Trump administration’s will. Under his watch, the FCC has opened investigations into multiple news outlets and threatened to strip the licenses of broadcasting companies deemed to have covered the administration and the president unfavorably.

But his latest missive took the administration’s assault on what the president routinely calls the “fake news” a step further. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said in an X post, “This is a clear directive to provide positive war coverage or else licenses may not be renewed. This is worse than the comedian stuff, and by a lot. The stakes here are much higher. He’s not talking about late night shows, he’s talking about how a war is covered.”

Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly bemoaned the media coverage of the war. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused the press of being too focused on American troops’ deaths than the military’s successes.

“But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news,” Hegseth said. “I get it; the press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality.”

He again criticized the press on Friday for reporting on the economic fallout of the war.

“Some in this crew, in the press, just can’t stop,” he said.

Late on Friday night, Trump railed against coverage of the war, saying on Truth Social: “The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran.”

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.