Luke Vargas

That comes as Venezuela's National Assembly yesterday approved changes to hydrocarbon laws to allow U.S.

companies more autonomy to operate in the country.

And finally, how's this for a pre-flight checklist, passport, boarding pass, and Costco membership card?

Journal reporter Stu Wu says that with locations in 13 foreign countries, Costco-centric tourism is becoming a thing for the brand's American devotees.

And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning.

Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer.

Our supervising producer was Daniel Bach.

And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal.

We will be back tonight with a new show.

Otherwise, have a great weekend and thanks for listening.

Here is your morning brief for Thursday, January 29th.

I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal.

We start in Georgia, where FBI agents have searched the main election office in Fulton County, seeking records related to the 2020 presidential election.

The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to reexamine the president's loss to Joe Biden, with Trump promising last week that, quote, people will soon be prosecuted.

Gold has hit another high, topping the $5,500 mark for the first time as the rush to precious metals continues.

After recording its strongest annual performance since 1979 last year, the World Gold Council said that global demand for the safe haven asset is expected to remain strong this year, driven by lower interest rates and persistent geopolitical risks.

Other metals are also hitting new records this morning, including silver, copper, and palladium.

And Samsung has joined other chipmakers this week in reporting blockbuster earnings amid relentless demand from tech giants investing in the AI build-out.

Meta and Microsoft shares diverged overnight as investors punished Microsoft for its massive outlays while boosting Meta for its monetization of AI-generated ads.

With Apple due to report after markets closed today, investors will be looking to see if the strategy to integrate Alphabet's Gemini into its Siri assistant is more cost-effective than the tech companies betting on building their own AI models.