Traci Mumford

Now, that doesn't mean the country is facing an imminent fiscal crisis, but experts say the rising debt will make it more expensive for the country to borrow money in the future.

And it does need to borrow money, since tax revenue doesn't fully cover the U.S.

's expenses.

My colleague Tony Rahm says economists have been warning about this milestone for years.

But in Washington, the response has been largely muted.

It's now been four months since U.S.

special forces swept into Venezuela in the middle of the night and seized the country's president, Nicolas Maduro.

Since then, there's been a flood of questions about the country's future.

What will happen politically, economically, with a lot of forces jockeying for power and influence?

And oddly, one place to see that playing out is a Marriott hotel in Caracas.

My colleague, Simone Romero, covers Venezuela.

He says the hotel has definitely seen better days.

Good luck getting that elevator door to open.

The whole thing is kind of run down, but it's become the place to be to try and talk deals over a $32 breakfast buffet with soggy scrambled eggs.

U.S.

diplomats are camping out at the hotel because the actual U.S.

embassy is not functional right now.

For many Venezuelans in the country, they are left waiting to see what may come out of all of this dealmaking and negotiations, with one political advisor telling The Times, quote, much of the awaited transformation is being guided from the Marriott.

And finally, the Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week, and the Fiction Prize went to the novel Angel Down by Daniel Krauss.

It's about a soldier in World War I who encounters an angel knocked down on the battlefield, stuck in barbed wire.