
The United States is shifting the USS Gerald R. Ford, its largest aircraft carrier, from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East in a move that would place two US carrier strike groups in the region as President Donald Trump presses Iran to reach a deal over its nuclear programme.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to travel to Venezuela, while acknowledging that no date has been set. “I’m going to make a visit to Venezuela,” he told reporters at the White House.

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been placed on administrative leave as ICE and the Justice Department (DOJ) open a joint probe following video evidence that undercut parts of the official account of a Minneapolis arrest in which a Venezuelan man was shot in the leg.

Washington has issued new authorizations that allow oil-and-gas-related transactions in Venezuela for companies including BP, Chevron, Eni, Repsol and Shell, in a shift that could unlock stalled projects and settle payments previously constrained by US sanctions.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration has withdrawn the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding,” a determination that has long provided the legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The White House and the EPA framed the move as a major shift in federal climate policy and a broad deregulatory push affecting the auto sector.

President Gabriel Boric’s government said on Thursday it will send humanitarian aid to Cuba, as the island faces a deepening economic and energy crisis.

Venezuela’s acting President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez met on Wednesday at Miraflores Palace with US Energy Secretary Chris Wright to discuss what the Venezuelan government described as “an energy agenda that benefits both nations,” as bilateral contacts continue to reopen.

Venezuela said it has reopened its commercial airspace after restrictions that had disrupted international routes since late 2025, a shift that airlines are beginning to translate into a phased return of flights to and from Caracas.

Poland and Italy said they will not join U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, adding to the list of Washington allies that are staying on the sidelines, at least for now.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is traveling to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, with Iran at the top of the agenda, after pushing to move the meeting forward from its originally planned date.