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LIVE from NPR News. In Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. President Trump says the United States has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, as NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, a Navy FL assembled in the Caribbean.
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President Trump says the tanker was very large, and he promises more news about Venezuela soon. This comes on top of the biggest US Military buildup in the Caribbean in decades and threats to Venezuela's leader. The US has offered a $50 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro, who the US Claims is a narco trafficker. Trump has said the US May soon begin striking targets inside Venezuela's borders. Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, with about 1 million barrels produced daily. US 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.
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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 Flor 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.
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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 continued to decline.
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Powell says the Fed's inflation Target remains at 2%. U.S. markets rose on word of another rate cut, but NPR's Maria Asman reports that some Fed policymakers had reservations.
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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 Aspen, NDR News, New York.
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The Fed rate cut sent stocks higher on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrials rose 497 points, the Nasdaq gained 77 points, and the S&P 500 added 46. U.S. futures are lower. This is NPR.
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A series of storms continue to dump heavy rain along the Pacific Northwest coast, causing flooding and the threat of landslides. More than a foot of snow is possible in northwestern Wyoming from the same system. Another storm, however, is gripping areas from the upper Midwest to New England, causing lake effect snow and bitter cold. Investigators in Paris say the thieves who carried out the heist at the Louvre museum escaped just 30 minutes before police arrived. As NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports, investigators say they managed to get away because of broken security cameras and a lack of monitors.
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The probe was ordered by the Culture Ministry after the embarrassing daylight heist. Agents in the security control room did not have enough screens to follow the images in real time. While a lack of coordination meant police were initially sent to the wrong place, the head of the investigation told the Senate Culture Commission that give or take 30 seconds, the thieves could have been prevented from escaping. The findings also stressed that the riverside balcony targeted by the thieves was a weak point. The report says measures such as a modern CCTV system, more resistant glass and better internal coordination could have prevented the loss of the more than $100 million of French Royal jewels. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris.
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Sophie Kinsella, author of the popular Shopaholic book series, has died at the age of 55. Kinsella, whose real name was Madeline Wickham, sold tens of millions of copies of her books. Two of them were Adapted into a 2019 movie called Confessions of a Shopaholic. This is NPR News.
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