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Call it socialism, imperialism, corruption or theft — senators, conservatives, journalists, former ambassadors and economists all agree President Donald Trump's "deal" to control 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil is a very bad move. Trump's Truth Social announcement on Friday of a deal with Delcy Rodríguez — who became Venezuela's acting president in January after the U.S. military captured former President Nicolás Maduro — spurred an uproar over cries of corruption."Using our troops for a private oil grab is corruption at epic scale," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). "Here’s a guarantee—this will pad the pockets of Trump family and Big Oil companies and delay transition to cleaner energy."Kaine was not the only U.S. senator to condemn Trump's deal with Venezuela — or to claim corruption was the cause. "This isn't a win," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). "This is proof Trump put our service members at risk to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies. Putting our soldiers’ lives on the line for private profit is a gross dereliction of his constitutional duty." Independent journalist Juliet Jeske of Decoding Fox News also looked at the deal from a humanitarian perspective. "Trump is stealing oil from country that just had a catastrophic earthquake and where most of the populace lives in extreme poverty," Jeske wrote on X. "I don’t think he ever really cared about Maduro. He just wanted their oil."This perspective was shared by Michael McFaul, a Stanford University professor of political science who served as U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014."Delcy Rodriguez is a dictator," McFaul wrote. "Cutting a deal with her to steal Venezuelan oil to benefit Americans is both immoral and impractical. The Venezuelan people will never go along with this deal." McFaul fumed that Trump had yanked the U.S. back to the 19th century and the age of imperialism."We are now acting like a typical imperialist empire," McFaul said. "His Venezuelan oil deal is just that- straight-up imperialism, using military force to seize the assets of a country in the south. Deeply regrettable."CNN's Jim Acosta echoed this concern — arguing the president had taken the U.S. back to the 1700s — but added a jab at Trump's rising gas-price problems."Trump is desperate," Acosta wrote. "Trump is choosing oil over freedom for the Venezuelan people. Experts say this won’t lower gas prices right away."Even some conservatives fumed at Trump's fuel fix, among them conservative think tank Cato Institute economics expert Scott Lincicome. "So, after taking 31 US government equity stakes in private companies over the last year, Trump just announced a MAJORITY-STATE-OWNED oil company?" wrote Lincicome. "This isn't even 'creeping' socialism anymore."Independent journalist Aaron Rupar likened the "deal" to a form of socialism as well — National Socialism. "Nazi Germany also pillaged the natural resources of countries it conquered," Rupar wrote.

President Donald Trump admitted to befuddlement late Friday night when he took to Truth Social to rage at a political foe. Trump lashed out at New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) after she refused to start calling Lake Ontario "Lake America" and cast blame on the president for prioritizing semantics over serious issues such as inflation."Governor Kathy Hochul is for Canada, a Country that has been ripping off New York State for years, especially under her Administration, instead of the good ‘ol U.S.A," Trump raged. "Can you imagine her saying that she won’t respect or acknowledge LAKE AMERICA."While Trump argued "Dumocrats" such as Hochul were "bad for our country," Hochul argued his mounting war with Iran and trade war with Canada were worse. "New York families are being hit with higher costs for energy, groceries, and prescription drugs because of Trump's actions," Hochul wrote on X. "Instead of fixing these issues, the president is trying to rename Lake Ontario. Shame on him for deflecting from the real needs of Americans. Hochul also argued Trump's rename was telling, as it changed the acronym students use to remember the great lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior) from HOMES to SHAME.Trump's Thursday order to rename Lake Ontario has drawn much criticism from analysts who say it's risky to antagonize one of the nation's top trading partners with a rehash of a past move that was deeply unpopular ahead of the midterm elections.

Fighters in legal limbo after accepting ‘total peace’ plan of Petro government just days before hardliner Abelardo De la Espriella took overIn mid-June, 99 guerrilla fighters were flown by helicopter to a small settlement in a rural area of southern Colombia where they lined up and, one by one, handed their weapons to government officials: rifles, pistols, machine guns and grenade launchers.They also stripped off their heavy tactical vests, field packs and camouflage uniforms, which were each piled into a bonfire to mark the beginning of a new life away from an armed conflict that has claimed nearly half a million lives in the last six decades. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed‘The flood took everything I have’: survivors grieve for relatives and homes swept away in NepalVisual guide: how the deadly flooding unfoldedTell us: have you been affected by the flash floods?More now on the Nepali army’s rescue operation to save about 100 people trapped in a tunnel at a hydropower project swamped by Wednesday’s flooding.“Two helicopters have been dispatched but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel,” army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.Relief efforts are also under way to provide the rescued people what they need.The army is still working to safely evacuate more than 100 people trapped in the same tunnel. Continue reading...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe's secret trip to Russia came at the personal direction of President Donald Trump while senior White House aides were kept in the dark.According to a Thursday report by the Wall Street Journal, the covert diplomatic mission to Moscow was tightly held as Trump dispatched his top spy to carry a message to top Kremlin figures. Trump's move bypassed aides and military brass who would ordinarily be looped in beforehand, The Journal noted.The choice to send Ratcliffe as an envoy also marked a shift, The Journal pointed out. Earlier rounds of talks were led by other Trump confidants but failed to halt the fighting in Ukraine. Trump then turned to Ratcliffe, according to anonymous U.S. officials who talked to The Journal.Ratcliffe reportedly also took a secretive route into Russia as he flew into Moscow aboard an unmarked U.S. C-17 military cargo plane out of Latvia, according to The Journal. European officials told The Journal that the move sent them scrambling to figure out what had happened once word got out about Ratcliffe's mission.Two European officials told The Journal that they were briefed on the meeting. Ratcliffe used the sit-down to stress Washington's continued backing of NATO's mutual-defense pledge and to warn Russia off any strike on alliance members, they told The Journal and later reporting revealed.Trump brushed off worries about Russian aggression when reporters asked him about Ratcliffe's mission on Thursday, The Journal noted. Putin "won't attack NATO territory," Trump told reporters.He also downplayed Ratcliffe's trip when he told conservative radio host Glenn Beck in an interview that the mission was "semi-routine," The Journal noted.Officials along NATO's eastern edge struck a similarly calm tone, according to The Journal. Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs addressed the matter in a video posted to social media, The Journal reported."There is currently no reason for concern," Kulbergs said. "Latvia's level of military threat hasn't changed. The risk of direct military invasion threats to Latvia is currently low."Former senior U.S. intelligence official J.C. Lintzenich, now at the German Marshall Fund, struck a graver tone when talking to The Journal, however."Putin has a tolerance for extraordinary risk and is even potentially willing to escalate to compel de-escalation," Lintzenich said. "But he is unlikely to roll the dice on actions that could threaten the Russian state."

A Wall Street Journal piece is warning that GOP candidates are "running scared" from President Donald Trump as voter frustration grows in Iowa.A Thursday opinion piece published by The Journal highlighted the growing frustration among Iowa voters, which it tied to the hits to farmers caused by tariffs and the war in Iran, and how it's causing GOP candidates to create some separation with Trump."So many people are just so angry," Terry Arbogast, an Iowa nurse, told The Journal. "Things are hitting us more negatively," Dave Struthers, an Iowa farmer, added. "It's frustrating when you don't get your stuff going," southern Iowa limestone miner Brian Schaer said. "Iowans are frustrated, discontented, and downhearted," The Journal piece summed up. "That bodes ill for Republicans in November, and many GOP candidates are running scared—ducking interviews, avoiding issues, seeking a MAGA stance that doesn't involve praising Donald Trump. They're trying to be as generically Republican as they can."According to the Journal, Iowans say that they're downbeat because they've seen a 53 percent decline in net farm income between 2022 and 2024, and rural voters aren't convinced that the GOP has done enough to help them recover."Tariffs, wars, corporations taking advantage, lack of competition," Struthers, the farmer, told The Journal. "Those kinds of things that are on Iowa farmers' minds.""Right at the onset of the Iran war, fertilizer prices increased sharply due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz," economist Christopher Pudenz told The Journal. "The longer that conflict drags out, the more likely that it's going to impact fall fertilizer needs and then spring 2027 fertilizer needs."Trump won Iowa three times, and the entire congressional delegation is Republican, The Journal noted. However, the state has a couple of "competitive" races that have attracted national political figures, including Barack Obama, who filmed a video of him playing basketball with Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek, the Journal noted.Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn told The Journal that "the first polling that came out pre-primary had me down about 10 points," and although he closed the gap somewhat, the Cook Political Report determined his race "leans Democratic." An August Emerson poll has Lahn's Democratic opponent, State Auditor Rob Sand, up 48 percent to Lahn's 43 percent. Sand is the only elected statewide Democrat in Iowa.

President Donald Trump lashed out at a Fox News correspondent on Thursday over what he called "a particularly inaccurate report” about the U.S. war with Iran.“Jonathan Hunt of FoxNews did a particularly inaccurate report on the Failing Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I don’t want to meet, they do. In fact, they are begging to make a deal.”Trump concluded his heated post by demanding action from one of Fox News’ top anchors. “Bret Baier should straighten out his flunkies, for a change!” the president told his followers.

CNN's Erin Burnett was floored on Wednesday's broadcast of "OutFront" by video of a catastrophic flash flood in Nepal that has left at least 150 people dead and more than 47 Americans missing. Reports indicate that the flooding was caused by a half-mile-wide chunk of a glacier breaking off. CCTV captured footage of a wall of black, muddy water destroying buildings and cars as it tore through a town. Officials expect that toll to rise in the coming days, Burnett reported. Burnett highlighted one segment that showed a seven-story building enveloped in water, looking as if "a bomb hit it.""This is unforgettable," Burnett said. "You can't unsee that. You see that black wall of water? That looks like a bus depot of some sort, and it rolls through. And then, just as if they were matchbox cars, we don't even know how many innocent people's lives were lost in that instant."