United News of Bangladesh

President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Republican lawmakers facing difficult reelection races to campaign on his record in the White House despite his declining popularity, while pledging to campaign in all of the roughly three dozen contests expected to determine control of Congress. Voters' negative views of the economy and the war in Iran have put Republicans in a difficult position as the midterm election season enters its final stretch. But at a dinner in the Rose Garden — one of the White House spaces he has controversially renovated since returning to office last year — Trump told some of his party's most vulnerable lawmakers that they had a strong record to present to voters. “All you have to do is talk about it, and you're going to win and you're going to win big,” Trump said, a week before Republicans are scheduled to gather in Dallas for an unusual midterm convention. The Republican lawmakers listened quietly throughout Trump's remarks, occasionally applauding as many sipped cocktails before dinner. Yellow gingham-covered menus described the event as an “end of summer BBQ” featuring cheeseburgers. Trump highlighted economic investment in the United States, lower drug prices and reduced border crossings, though some of the figures he cited were significantly inflated. Trump said control of Congress would be decided by about 35 races. He pledged to spend the 30 days before the election campaigning aggressively in those battleground contests, recalling his extensive travel schedule before his own White House victory two years ago. “I'm going to go to every one of those 35 places, and we're going to see if we can get everyone elected,” Trump said. He said his efforts would focus on both House and Senate races. He specifically mentioned Senate contests in Alaska, where Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is facing Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola, and Texas, where Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton is running against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. Trump endorsed Paxton during this year's primary despite his scandal-plagued past. However, Trump also joked Monday about Paxton's appearance and performance on the campaign trail. “You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews,” Trump said. “But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps. He was one of the best in the entire country. And that speaks a lot louder than the suit he's wearing that doesn't look so great.” Trump suggested that the Republicans' difficulties in the midterm elections were part of a broader pattern faced by nearly all modern presidents. “Whether you're a good president or a great president, you lose the midterms,” Trump said. “We're going to turn that around because there's no reason for it.”

US oil giant Chevron has confirmed plans to expand its operations in Venezuela after President Donald Trump announced an ambitious deal aimed at developing the country's vast oil reserves and giving the Pentagon a share of the profits. Chevron, the only major US oil company with a significant presence in Venezuela, said Wednesday that it had been allocated additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt, where it already operates. The company plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years, aiming to more than double its current production to around 600,000 barrels per day. “Chevron's history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country's deep resource potential,” CEO Mike Wirth said in a prepared statement. Venezuela has the world's largest proven crude oil reserves, with more than 303 billion barrels, according to OPEC's 2025 Annual Statistical Bulletin. Saudi Arabia ranks second with 267 billion barrels. However, Venezuela's severely deteriorated energy infrastructure and international sanctions have kept its daily oil output at just over 1 million barrels, compared with Saudi Arabia's 10 million to 11 million barrels a day. US production is nearly 14 million barrels per day. Chevron expansion follows US-Venezuela deal Chevron, the second-largest US oil company, has operated in Venezuela since 1923. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright attended a ceremony in Caracas on Wednesday where Chevron, Italian energy company Eni and other firms signed agreements with the Venezuelan government. “President Trump's mission in Venezuela is straightforward. The mission is to bring peace, freedom, opportunity and prosperity to the people of Venezuela,” Wright said in Caracas. “I believe the deals that are signed today — tens of billions of dollars of investment, ultimately many thousands of jobs — are critical in starting this ball rolling of peace, opportunity and prosperity for everyone in Venezuela.” The White House confirmed Monday that it is partnering with North American Blue Energy Partners, or NABEP, as part of Trump's efforts to expand US involvement in Venezuela's oil sector. The agreement, however, has drawn skepticism from energy experts who say it could take years to restore Venezuela's oil industry, which has deteriorated after years of neglect. Questions have also been raised over whether Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, has the authority to grant NABEP 100-year rights to 17 oil fields containing an estimated 65 billion barrels of reserves, and whether future Venezuelan or US administrations could reverse the agreement. US pushes back against criticism Venezuela's constitution requires arrangements of this nature involving the United States to be approved by the National Assembly, which has not taken such action, wrote Ian Vásquez, vice president for international studies at the Cato Institute. “The deal lacks legitimacy since it was agreed to with a dictatorship that has clung to power for decades through violence and by committing what was probably the largest electoral fraud in Latin American history in 2024,” Vásquez wrote. He also said the agreement was reached under significant US pressure, including military pressure, and argued that any future democratic government in Venezuela could challenge the deal, potentially undermining confidence in the arrangement. The ruling-party-controlled National Assembly expressed support for the agreement during its Tuesday session, but lawmakers neither debated the deal nor voted to approve it. Wright on Wednesday rejected the criticism, describing the agreement as “a massive win” for both countries. “What it's going to do is take resources that are underground, not helping anyone, and invest capital and money and technology and bring them to the surface to better the lives of Venezuelans, better supply energy to Americans,” Wright said at a joint news conference with Rodríguez. Trump has been focused on Venezuela's oil industry since the capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro in January and has pushed for US businesses to return to the country. “We have Exxon going in, we have Chevron going in. We have our big oil companies going in,” Trump said at the time. He again suggested Monday that other major US oil companies were preparing to return, although there is no evidence of such plans beyond Chevron. Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said in January that Venezuela was “uninvestable.” An Exxon spokesman said this week that “nothing has changed.” US oil majors remain hesitant The history of US oil companies in Venezuela helps explain their reluctance. Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in 1976 and established the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. A second nationalization took place in 2007, when then-President Hugo Chávez required foreign oil companies to enter state-controlled joint ventures and seized the assets of companies that refused. Chevron agreed to participate in a joint venture, while Exxon and ConocoPhillips refused, prompting Venezuela to seize their assets. Trump has said the agreement with Venezuela will “substantially lower” gasoline prices in the United States. Analysts, however, have repeatedly warned that Venezuela's aging and damaged oil infrastructure will require years of rehabilitation and tens of billions of dollars in investment. “It could take 2 to 4 years to get new greenfield facilities online in the Orinoco region,” Amy Jaffe, director of the Global Energy, Climate, and Sustainability Lab at New York University, said in an email. “Other places where there is no pipeline and other kinds of support infrastructure could take longer.” Meanwhile, the national average price of regular gasoline rose overnight to $4.12 a gallon, according to the motor club AAA, up 93 cents from the same point last year.

An American journalist has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government in the United States, the US Justice Department said. Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, pleaded guilty earlier this year and does not plan to appeal, according to his defense lawyer, Charles Burnham. Pauken was also sentenced to 36 months of supervised release and barred from overseas travel, the department said in a news release Tuesday. He was arrested in February. The case is the latest in a series of federal prosecutions involving people accused of working for the Chinese government without making the required disclosures, as tensions between Washington and Beijing remain high. “Pauken betrayed his country for money” by supporting “Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) operations, recruiting, and gathering of sensitive information from potential assets,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in the news release. Pauken worked as a journalist for several Chinese news organizations after moving to China in 2010, including state broadcaster CCTV. Most recently, he worked as an editor for Xinhua, China's state news agency, a position he had held since 2024. “Mr. Pauken has accepted responsibility and respects the court's sentence,” his lawyer said, adding that “as the government agreed in court, Mr. Pauken did not provide any classified information to the Chinese.” According to court documents, Pauken worked from at least 2019 until February 2026 at the direction of people he knew were working for the Chinese government. This included a person he met in 2017 who was identified as “Cathy.” “Cathy” told Pauken that Chinese President Xi Jinping read the reports he prepared, according to a Feb. 27 federal court affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Timothy J. Healy. The Justice Department said Pauken received at least $100,000 for his work with “Cathy.” Besides preparing reports, Pauken was also asked by “Cathy” to recruit people who could provide classified information. In one instance, he was instructed to meet a person identified in the affidavit as “Person 1” and give that person a Samsung phone, a computer, passwords for Signal and Telegram, as well as access to NetDisk. Pauken was stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents after returning to the United States in January 2025. During interviews with CBP and FBI agents, Pauken said he was “80 percent sure” that a person seeking a position in the Trump administration would provide classified information to China, although he advised the person against doing so, according to the affidavit. Pauken also told investigators that “Cathy” generally paid for his trips to the United States over the years and frequently sent payments to his wife's bank accounts, the affidavit said. Pauken, a Texas native, used the alias Tom McGregor while working as a commentator and writer at his father's request. His father, who has the same name, wanted to distance himself from his son's work in China. The younger Pauken published two books under his real name, Thomas W. Pauken II. One, published in 2019, focused on US-China relations, while another, published in 2023, was about Shenzhen, a city in mainland China across from Hong Kong. Pauken's father was a former chairman of the Texas Republican Party in the 1990s and ran for governor more than a decade ago. In his most recent publicly visible Facebook post under the McGregor name, Pauken shared photos of his wife and child during a trip and wrote, “My family and I enjoying our trip to Washington DC.” He was arrested later that month.

Two people were killed and the suspect died after a shooting at a downtown Minneapolis apartment building Wednesday, police said. Three Minneapolis police officers were also injured, including two who suffered gunshot wounds, police Sgt. Garrett Parten said at a news conference Wednesday evening. All three officers were in stable condition at Hennepin County Medical Center. Police received a 911 call reporting gunshots at the building shortly after 4:30 p.m. Officers entered the high-rise within three minutes and found victims, Parten said. They then heard additional gunfire and followed the sounds to a higher floor, where they encountered “a haze that significantly limited their visibility,” he said. Parten did not provide further details about the haze. One officer suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was taken to the hospital along with the two other injured officers. One of the officers was undergoing surgery, Parten said. “This is a tremendously tragic event and our thoughts and prayers are with the families, the loved ones of those who lost their lives, those who were injured and with the injured officers and their families,” Parten said. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene after being fatally shot, while another died after being taken to the hospital, he said. Parten said authorities did not immediately know how the suspected shooter died. Hennepin County Medical Center said it received seven patients, but provided no further details about the conditions of those who were injured. Julius Bailey was outside his apartment building when he heard gunshots and saw a man he recognized as a resident holding a pistol. Bailey said he heard a woman screaming and immediately ran away. He said he counted eight shots. Bailey said he recognized the man with the gun because he was known for showing off his weapon. He said he had tried to avoid the man since moving into the building in June. “I could tell he was trouble,” Bailey said. Chris Miller, who also lives in the building, said he heard a rapid series of gunshots and quickly went outside for safety. He said he believed he knew who was responsible for the shooting and had encountered someone carrying a handgun in the hallway earlier this week. Miller said he reported that person to building management. Videos posted on social media showed police officers pointing rifles upward at an apartment tower near the Minneapolis Convention Center. Authorities warned residents to stay away from the densely populated nearby Loring Park neighborhood. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a social media post that state officials were at the scene assisting local law enforcement in responding to the shooting. “Grateful to law enforcement actively working to ensure the safety of our neighbors in Downtown Minneapolis this afternoon,” Walz said. “Minnesota is praying for our first responders.” FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency was responding to the shooting and would provide “any and all resources necessary to assist local authorities,” in a post on X.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier arrived in eastern Thailand early Wednesday following an extended deployment in the Middle East. Associated Press journalists saw the Lincoln, carrying around 5,000 service members, approaching Laem Chabang port in Chonburi province shortly after the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. passed through the area. The carrier had been involved in supporting the U.S. war against Iran. Its deployment included more than 250 consecutive days at sea, setting a record for uninterrupted time at sea. Concerns have increased over the prolonged deployment amid reports of declining mental health among crew members and shortages of essential supplies, including food and hygiene products. The USS George Washington, which is normally based in Asia, replaced the Lincoln in the Middle East in August. Many of the service members are expected to visit Pattaya, a popular beach destination near the port. Thai officials said the Lincoln's stopover was intended to provide the crew with rest and recovery before the carrier returns to its U.S. base. Officials in Pattaya welcomed the visit, saying it could provide a boost to the local economy. Authorities also said security measures were being strengthened to ensure the visit proceeds smoothly.

Tropical Storm Edouard formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and was expected to strengthen before bringing heavy rain and possible flooding to parts of Texas and Louisiana. The system was upgraded from a tropical depression Monday night, and forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said it was expected to make landfall in Texas on Tuesday. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said flooding was expected to be the storm’s main threat. Forecasters predicted 3-6 inches (7-15 centimeters) of rain across the greater Houston area, while some parts of the state’s upper coast could receive as much as 9 inches (22 centimeters). More than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain could fall in an hour in some areas, potentially triggering flash floods, particularly in low-lying and urban locations, the National Hurricane Center said. “This is our first big storm of the season, and I’ll tell you, Texas is prepared,” Orlando Alanis of the Texas Division of Emergency Management said at a news conference. Edouard was centered Monday evening about 125 miles (202 kilometers) southeast of Cameron, Louisiana, and 155 miles (249 kilometers) southeast of Port Arthur, Texas. It had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph). Abbott said crews were also working to remove dry vegetation that could catch fire if struck by lightning and allow flames to spread rapidly. Meanwhile, the remnants of Hurricane Dolly brought rain and thunderstorms to parts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas, according to the hurricane center. Storm Lowell heads toward Hawaii In the Pacific Ocean, Tropical Storm Lowell was located about 690 miles (1,110 kilometers) southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and was moving westward with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph). Forecasters warned that Lowell could strengthen rapidly and reach major hurricane status by Wednesday. Elsewhere in the Pacific, Hurricane Karina intensified Monday into a powerful Category 4 storm but posed no immediate threat to land, forecasters said. Karina rapidly strengthened after becoming a hurricane Sunday, fueled by unusually warm ocean waters far from land. The storm was centered more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and was moving westward with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

The U.S. Treasury Department is preventing certain journalists from covering a finance meeting among the world's most powerful countries, the latest example of how President Donald Trump's administration has restricted media access. Individual reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News were not granted credentials to the Group of 20 finance ministers' meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, the Times reported. The Treasury has not explained the decision. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday that “it has nothing to do with point of view.” The reporters who've been denied access include the Times' Alan Rappeport, who has been covering such meetings and the Treasury Department since 2017. However, another reporter for the Times, Berlin bureau chief Jim Tankersley, is allowed to attend. The Times said in a statement that denying American journalists access to an event in the U.S. is “not just another disturbing effort by the administration to undermine independent journalism, but a blatant attempt to evade public scrutiny.” “With the war in Iran, sanctions, the bond markets, and inflation on the agenda for the G20 finance ministers, the stakes of this gathering are significant for the global economy and the American people,” the Times said. "Excluding specific reporters and entire news organizations is a disservice to the public and an assault on press freedoms that we strongly condemn.” Bloomberg News, in a story published Sunday evening, said “numerous” journalists from the news agency, including some based in Europe and Asia, had their accreditation requests rejected. It said denying the agency access to the meeting “undermines media freedom and public accountability.” The Wall Street Journal declined to comment. Bessent is hosting the G20 meeting, which runs Saturday through Tuesday. It includes finance ministers, central bank governors and senior officials from the world's top economies. This year's G20 summit, which involves heads of state, is being held in December at Trump's golf club in Doral, Florida. Tensions have been escalating between the U.S. media and the second Trump administration, playing out both in the public arena and at times in the courts. For example, the Defense Department declared earlier this year that its press office had become a classified space inaccessible to journalists. The ouster came after the Pentagon had demanded that reporters agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, prompting most news outlets to leave the building last fall. The Associated Press has also sued Trump over access to the White House press pool. The news organization's access was curtailed for sticking with the name “Gulf of Mexico” after the administration ordered it rechristened the “Gulf of America.”

US President Donald Trump has announced what he called the “biggest oil deal in world history” involving Venezuela’s vast crude reserves, but many details of the agreement, including investment plans and the identity of a private operator, remain unclear. The White House has released little information beyond Trump’s social media announcement Friday night. No full text of the agreement has been made public. Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez described the deal as an important step toward reviving and modernising the country’s oil industry. She said it would help generate jobs, improve wages and expand access to essential public services. According to Rodríguez, the agreement covers the development of 17 oil fields with a proven potential of about 65 billion barrels. It could attract roughly $100 billion in investment and generate more than $209 billion in tax revenue for Venezuela. Under the arrangement, the US government and an unnamed private operator have established a new company with rights to develop previously untapped oil fields for 100 years. A US official, speaking anonymously because the details have not been publicly released, said the United States would receive an effective 55% share of the company’s output through an ownership stake and rights to purchase oil at cost. Some of the oil bought by the United States would be directed to the country’s strategic petroleum reserves and the military, the official said. The new company could become the second-largest corporate holder of proven oil reserves after Saudi Aramco. Trump has said the deal will eventually help lower gasoline prices in the United States. However, energy experts cautioned that Venezuela’s ageing and damaged oil infrastructure would require years and billions of dollars in investment before production could rise significantly. Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at New York University, said the agreement could be beneficial in the long term but would not have an immediate impact on US gasoline prices. The average US gasoline price was around $4.08 per gallon Saturday, compared with $3.20 a year earlier, according to AAA. Kevin Book of ClearView Energy Partners said Venezuela has substantial scope to increase production, noting that its output had previously been more than 2.5 million barrels per day higher than current levels. But he said deploying the necessary capital and increasing production would take years. The agreement has also sparked criticism inside Venezuela. Some citizens view it as a reversal of the longstanding position that the country’s natural resources should remain under Venezuelan control. At a market in eastern Caracas, resident Douglas Borjas criticised the deal, saying Venezuela’s resources should benefit its people rather than political elites. Harvard professor and former Venezuelan planning minister Ricardo Hausmann also denounced the agreement, questioning the legitimacy of Rodríguez’s government to make such a long-term commitment. The deal has drawn mixed reactions in Washington. Trump allies praised it as a major economic and strategic achievement, while Democratic lawmakers accused the administration of pursuing Venezuelan oil at the expense of US national interests. Sen. Tim Kaine called the agreement “corruption at epic scale,” while Sen. Chris Van Hollen accused Trump of putting US service members at risk to secure Venezuelan oil. Several key questions remain unanswered, including who will finance the massive infrastructure investment, which private company will operate the new venture and exactly how the US 55% effective share will be divided between ownership and oil purchases. Chevron, the only US oil company currently producing in Venezuela, declined to comment. Exxon Mobil also declined to comment. Analysts also warned that political uncertainty, security concerns and Venezuela’s deteriorated oil infrastructure could make it difficult to attract major US energy companies, even if legal protections are provided.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people during July, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration, according to new figures. The spike in immigration arrests shows that the administration has continued to advance its mass deportations agenda despite a shift in approach earlier this year from high-profile operations in large American cities that sparked a public outcry to arrests that have garnered less attention but have nonetheless been disruptive. The July arrest tally of 49,571 marks a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests a month earlier and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, according to government data that was provided by ICE to the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press. Immigration arrests the month before Trump entered office hovered a little over 8,000 a figure largely made up of immigrants transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE to remove from the country. During Trump’s first year in office the numbers started climbing as the administration loosened restrictions on where and who ICE could arrest while it also infused the agency with billions of dollars. By December, the number of arrests jumped to more than 40,177, according to the data, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

U.S. forces have struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people whom the Pentagon said were involved in drug trafficking. The U.S. Southern Command announced the strike in a social media post early Monday. The latest deaths bring the toll from the Trump administration’s campaign of strikes against boats off Latin America’s Caribbean coast and in the eastern Pacific to more than 210, following over 60 attacks. The Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific,” the statement said. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illegal drugs, it added. “We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists -- disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” said Gen. Francis Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command. The latest strike came days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. would expand its offensive to land operations in several Latin American countries. During a visit to Panama, Hegseth said Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to conduct joint military operations against criminal groups on their territory. Guatemala, however, denied reaching such an agreement. Ecuador began similar joint missions with the United States in March.