“Venezuela’s legislature on Thursday approved opening the nation’s oil sector to privatization, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades. The National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Venezuela’s capital. The bill now awaits the signature of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who proposed the changes in the days after U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.” (01/29/26)
“Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Thursday officially threw her hat in the ring to run for governor of Minnesota. … Her gubernatorial bid comes after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) announced earlier this month that he will not seek a third term amid scrutiny over his handling of a massive welfare fraud scandal in the North Star State.” (01/29/26)
“President Donald Trump reminded everyone of what some politicians have long joked — no one likes Ted Cruz — while floating his name yet again, for a potential Supreme Court nomination. ‘If I nominate Ted Cruz for the Supreme Court, the Democrats will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out,’ Trump said at an event promoting his ‘Trump accounts’ on Wednesday. ‘And the Republicans will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out, too.’ Trump shifted from discussing the federal program that allocates funds to eligible children, to spotlighting Cruz, suggesting the Texas senator could be a nominee likely to secure approval for the nation’s highest court.” (01/28/26)
“At the Stock & Barrel Gun Club’s two locations near Minneapolis, the classes for people seeking a permit to carry a firearm almost always draw large crowds. ‘It’s usually in the hundreds,’ David Taylor, the club’s CEO, said. But since immigration enforcement agents flooded the city, sparking clashes in the streets and the [murders] of two protesters, interest in the classes has only grown. In just the past two weeks, Taylor said, his club has received four times the usual number of sign-ups. That does not appear to be an anomaly. Five firearm instructors in the Minneapolis area told NBC News they have seen a similar trend.” (01/29/26)
“An alleged leaked sex tape featuring two prominent government officials in Montenegro — a married presidential adviser and a striking underling — has led to both politicians resigning in disgrace. Mirjana Pajković, the glamorous now-former director general for the promotion and protection of human rights at the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, announced her resignation on Friday, according to Montenegrin newspaper Pobjeda. The government has been embroiled in the sex scandal since a video was leaked online, allegedly showing Pajković engaging in sexual activity with Dejan Vukšić, the married former national security agency director and ex-adviser to President Jakov Milatović. … Pajković said her departure was due to personal reasons — but took several swipes at Vukšić, accusing him of threatening her with the tape to remain quiet.” (01/29/26)
“The Justice Department said Tuesday it will release the full Epstein files in the ‘near term,’ after reviewing and redacting millions of pages. Blowing more than a month past its legal deadline, the DOJ still has not set a clear date on when documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will go public, as other developments with the Trump administration garner widespread attention. Hundreds of employees have reviewed the millions of materials to minimize the risk of victim-identifying information, Attorney General Pam Bondi, deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a Tuesday filing.” (01/28/26)
“China has executed 11 members of a notorious family that ran scam centres in Myanmar, state media report. A court in Zhejiang province sentenced the Ming family members for crimes including homicide, illegal detention, fraud and operating gambling dens in September. … their scam empire came crashing down in 2023, when Myanmar authorities arrested them and handed them to China, as part of a crackdown prompted by pressure from Beijing.” (01/29/26)
“The Trump administration sued a Virginia woman for almost $1 million as part of an escalating drive to get undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S. by levying court-imposed fines. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Richmond, seeks $941,114 plus interest from Marta Alicia Ramirez Veliz for allegedly failing to leave the U.S. for more than three years after a Justice Department appeals panel ruled against her in an immigration case in 2022. Officials appear to have arrived at the whopping sum by imposing a $998 daily fine for each of the 943 days that passed between the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissing Ramirez Veliz’s appeal and Immigration and Customs Enforcement sending her a formal bill last April.” (01/29/26)
“A man was arrested after repeatedly crashing his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City on Wednesday night while people were gathered for prayer at the deeply revered Hasidic Jewish site. No one was injured when the driver struck a door of a building in the complex before reversing and striking it several more times. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while it was too early in the investigation to speculate on the driver’s motives, the incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.” (01/28/26)
“The U.S. Department of Education announced on Wednesday that a California policy allowing school districts to keep students’ gender transition from their parents violates federal law. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said a federal investigation found that California education officials ‘egregiously abused’ their authority by pressuring school districts to withhold information about students’ gender transitions from their parents. … The findings of the federal investigation could put at risk the nearly $8 billion in education funding the federal government gives the state each year if state officials do not work with the Trump administration to resolve the violations.” (01/29/26)
