CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Nothing has shaped what it means to be Venezuelan today more than oil.

For more than 100 years, in good times and bad, Venezuelans’ identity has been built around the belief that their country’s bountiful oil resources belong to the people, not a government or a company.

This belief, and a troubled nation’s pride, took a bruising last week when acting President Delcy Rodríguez agreed to give the United States control of roughly one-fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves – the largest in the world.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump launched the war with Iran in late February, he initially forecast it would last four weeks to five weeks. Six months later, there still is no off-ramp in sight despite Trump's repeated assertions that the war has been won or a deal to resolve it was nearly complete.

A June memorandum of understanding was designed to pave the way to end the war but has fallen by the wayside. U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have diminished and the Republican administration has pivoted to pressuring Iran economically rather than conducting more strikes.

Democrat-led states and voting rights groups re-filed lawsuits Wednesday to block the Trump administration from executing a new regulation to restrict mail-in voting, while a federal judge lifted a nationwide pause on the policy in line with this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that handed the administration a procedural win.