Shumita Basu

I'm Shemita Basu.

This is Apple News Today.

On today's show, inside the last-minute battle over healthcare subsidies, how Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

came to be the most powerful figure in national public health, and Disney cuts a major AI deal that could transform how their creations are used by fans.

But first, the latest on the escalating conflict with Venezuela and a closer look at the country's Nobel laureate opposition leader.

This week, the U.S.

took aim at a central piece of the Venezuelan economy, oil, after it seized a tanker.

The operation was the focal point of Press Secretary Caroline Levitt's briefing yesterday.

The same day, the Trump administration announced it had sanctioned half a dozen more ships, as well as three of President Maduro's nephews.

As his government contemplates its next move, dozens of other vessels wonder about theirs.

As Reuters reports, many more sanctioned shipments could be targets if they set sail.

For this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, leading Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the tanker seizure was a, quote, decisive moment.

She spoke from Norway after receiving the Nobel Prize, though she just missed the ceremony.

Many thought it was unlikely she would make an appearance at all, given the dangers of leaving her home country.

In some exclusive reporting, the Wall Street Journal has been looking into how Machado escaped and what she might do now.

Vera Bergengruen is a national security correspondent for The Journal.

She told us that a private American extraction team played a crucial role, but it was far from smooth sailing.

And Bergen-Gruen told us the boat Machado used was similar to the alleged drug boats being targeted.

So Machado's team had to warn DOD officials, some of whom were keeping track of their live location.

It might be a one-way journey.