Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stephens.
Chapter 2: What recent actions has the U.S. taken regarding Venezuela?
President Trump says the United States has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker. As NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, a Navy fleet is assembled in the Caribbean.
President Trump says the tanker was very large, and he promises more news about Venezuela soon. This comes on top of the biggest U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean in decades and threats to Venezuela's leader. The U.S. has offered a $50 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro, who the U.S. claims is a narco-trafficker. Trump has said the U.S.
may soon begin striking targets inside Venezuela's borders. Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, with about one million barrels produced daily. U.S. sanctions aim to strangle Venezuela's oil revenue, and the country is selling what it can at a steep discount, mostly to China. Quill Lawrence, NPR News.
At least 30 oil companies, including Shell and BP, are offering $300 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Interior Department began taking bids on Wednesday for the first time in two years. The Trump administration also plans to sell leases for new drilling projects off Florida and California for the first time in decades.
The Federal Reserve Board has lowered its key interest rate by another quarter point for the third time this year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says that limited data suggests the outlook on inflation and the job market hasn't changed since the Fed's October meeting.
Although official employment data for October and November are delayed... Available evidence suggests that both layoffs and hiring remain low, and that both households' perceptions of job availability and firms' perceptions of hiring difficulty continue to decline.
Powell says the Fed's inflation target remains at 2 percent. U.S. markets rose onward of another rate cut, but NPR's Maria Aspin reports that some Fed policymakers had reservations.
The cut was widely expected, but unusually contested. Two members of the Federal Reserve's Rate Setting Committee wanted to keep rates steady. while a third member, appointed by President Trump on a temporary basis, voted for a deeper cut. The Fed is trying to shore up a weakening job market, which it usually does by cutting rates.
But it's also trying to keep inflation under control, which it usually does by keeping rates higher. Policymakers had to vote without seeing some of the latest jobs and inflation data, which was delayed by the six-week government shutdown. Now Chair Jerome Powell says the Fed is ready to wait and see how the economy evolves. Maria Aspin, NPR News, New York.
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