Venezuela eases

control of oil

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has signed a law that will open the nation’s oil sector to privatization.

The move reverses a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades. Lawmakers in the country’s National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law earlier in the day, less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Venezuela’s capital.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez then signed the reform into law before a large group of state oil workers and government supporters.

Klobuchar will

run for governor

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s increasingly one place that U.S. senators want to be — anywhere but Washington.

Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota became the fourth sitting senator to seek leadership of a home state in 2026 when she announced her campaign on Thursday. That’s the most in recent history, according to an Associated Press analysis of congressional retirements.

She joins Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn and Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville, who are all doing the same thing.

Former Illinois

deputy sentenced

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A former Illinois sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, a Black women who dialed 911 asking for help.

Sean Grayson was convicted of second-degree murder in October. He was sentenced on Thursday. The white former deputy killed Massey on July 6, 2024. The 36-year-old single mother had called the police saying she feared there was a prowler outside her Springfield home. Grayson shot her in the face.

Grayson can shorten his sentence by half with good behavior. He has been incarcerated since he was charged in Massey’s killing.

Trump appeals

to Putin

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Donald Trump says he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to target the Ukrainian capital and other towns for one week as the region experiences frigid temperatures and Putin agreed, but Russia hasn’t confirmed that.

Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, leaving many around the country without heat in the dead of winter. Trump said Thursday during a Cabinet meeting he “personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this … extraordinary cold.”

A Kremlin spokesman declined to comment on a possible mutual halt on strikes on energy facilities.

Cold snap

snarls South

BELZONI, Miss. (AP) — Hundreds of National Guard troops have been mobilized in ice-stricken Mississippi and Tennessee to clear debris and help people stranded in cars and homes still without power as the Southern states brace for another blast of dangerous cold weather.

Nearly 1,000 linemen were working Thursday to restore lingering outages in Nashville, Tennessee The National Weather Service says arctic air moving into the Southeast will cause temperatures to plunge into the teens Friday night in cities like Nashville, where more than 85,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity five days after a massive storm dumped snow and ice across the eastern U.S. People stuck at home without power are growing increasingly desperate in the South, a region that’s not used to prolonged cold.

Impersonator

arrested in NY

NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say a man claiming to be an FBI agent showed up to a federal jail in New York City and told officers he had a court order to release Luigi Mangione. The man was arrested and charged with impersonating an FBI agent in a foiled bid to free Mangione from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is held while awaiting state and federal murder trials in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

A criminal complaint filed against Mark Anderson did not did not identify the person attempted to free but a law enforcement official confirmed it was Mangione. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.