The Biden administration granted oil giant Chevron Corp. a license to resume oil production in Venezuela after U.S. sanctions halted all drilling activities almost three years ago.

The reprieve coincided with the resumption of talks by Venezuela’s battling political factions on Saturday with a deal to work together on a humanitarian spending plan.

Chevron received a six-month license that authorizes the company to produce petroleum or petroleum products in Venezuela, according to a general license from the US Treasury Department.

The San Ramon, California-based driller is also allowed to resume exports of crude oil that had been been halted since 2019, when the US ratcheted up sanctions against the OPEC producer. In 2020, before the US ordered a complete halt of drilling operations, Chevron’s share of Venezuelan crude oil production was 15,000 barrels a day.

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The sanctions relief comes after Norway mediators announced the restart of political talks between President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition this weekend. The return of Venezuela to the negotiation table was a key condition for the easing of curbs on the oil-dependent nation’s crude production.

Read more: Venezuela to Restart Opposition Talks, Hoping US Eases Curbs

With the European Union set to ban imports of crude oil from Russia on Dec. 5, the US is seeking to alleviate an energy crisis that has sparked inflation and slowed growth across the globe.

The reprieve doesn’t mean oil production will soar in the short term. It might take “months and years in order to begin to maintain and refurbish fields and equipment and change any investment activity,” Chevron’s CEO Mike Wirth said in October.

Once sanctions are lifted, Chevron’s projects could triple oil production to around 200,000 barrels a day in a period of six months to a year from 150,000 currently, a person with knowledge of the situation said earlier this year.

Oil production in Venezuela has rebounded this year to 679,000 barrels a day but it’s still far from the 2.9 million barrels it produced a decade ago. Output slumped following sanctions and mismanagement of oil fields and refineries under the socialist rules of Hugo Chavez and Maduro.

Previous rounds of talks between Maduro and the opposition have collapsed, most recently in October 2021. Since then, interest in resuming negotiations have gained momentum as Venezuela faces increased competition of Russian and Iranian barrels in Asia, the top destination for its crude production.

Venezuela’s state-owned energy company PdVSA won’t receive dividends from the resumption of oil production and sales by Chevron’s joint ventures, according to the license. Chevron will be prohibited from any transactions with Iran or dealings with Russian-owned or controlled entities in Venezuela.

OFAC’s decision also allows for US service oil providers Halliburton Co., Schlumberger Ltd., Baker Hughes Co. and Weatherford International Plc. to restart work, the Treasury said. The license is valid through May 26, 2023.

(The Hill) – Elon Musk said he would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) if he runs for president in 2024. 

In a tweet responding to a user question on Friday, Musk said that he would support DeSantis after claiming he would prefer a “sensible and centrist” candidate. The latest post follows a tweet in June in which the billionaire said he was leaning toward supporting the governor in the next presidential election. 

“My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist. I had hoped that would the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far,” Musk tweeted Friday. 

Musk added that he was a “significant supporter” of the Obama administration and “reluctantly” voted for President Biden over former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election. 

Musk made the comments about the potential 2024 contender in a series of posts responding to an article from a conservative news outlet about the Twitter and SpaceX CEO restoring Trump’s account. 

Trump’s account had been suspended in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, but he indicated after his ban was lifted that would not return to Twitter. He said that he preferred to stay on his Truth Social platform that he created after the suspension. 

“I’m fine with Trump not tweeting. The important thing is that Twitter correct a grave mistake in banning his account, despite no violation of the law or terms of service,” Musk said. “Deplatforming a sitting President undermined public trust in Twitter for half of America.” 

The news from Musk comes as DeSantis has seen increased support in hypothetical match-ups for the GOP nomination in 2024 following a disappointing performance from the party in the midterm elections. 

Many Trump-backed candidates in key races lost to their Democratic opponents, but DeSantis won reelection by almost 20 points, and Republicans across the state performed well. 

Members of his own party have criticized the former president, blaming him for high-profile losses. Some in the GOP have expressed concern that Trump’s 2024 announcement made earlier this month could hamper Republican nominee Herschel Walker’s chances in an upcoming Georgia runoff election against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) for a seat in the upper chamber.

DeSantis, for his part, has sought to position himself as a leader, championing conservative values.

The Florida governor has received sharp criticism from Democrats for what critics have dubbed the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and for chartering a flight to transport migrants from the southern border to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, among other things.

Chevron Corp on Saturday received an expanded U.S. license allowing the second-largest U.S. oil company to resume production in Venezuela and to import the South American country’s crude into the United States.

The decision allows Chevron to revive existing oil projects in the U.S.-sanctioned country and bring new oil supplies to refiners in the United States. However, it restricts cash payments to Venezuela, which could reduce the amount of oil available to Chevron.

License terms are designed to prevent Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA from receiving proceeds from Chevron’s Venezuelan petroleum sales, U.S. officials said. The license lasts for six months and will be automatically renewed monthly thereafter, according to the U.S. Treasury.

A Chevron spokesperson said the company was reviewing the license terms and declined immediate comment.

The U.S. issued the license on the same day that Venezuela and opposition leaders began a political dialogue in Mexico City by agreeing to ask the United Nations to oversee a fund to help provide food, health care and infrastructure to Venezuelans. read more

Terms bar Chevron from helping the OPEC member develop new oilfields but provides a way for the company to recoup some of the billions of dollars owed by PDVSA through the oil sales. The United States said it reserved the right to rescind or revoke the license at any time.

“This action reflects longstanding U.S. policy to provide targeted sanctions relief based on concrete steps that alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy,” the U.S. Treasury Department statement said in a statement.

The authorization could provide limited new supplies of crude to a market now struggling to replace Russian barrels shunned by Western buyers over its invasion of Ukraine. Chevron and other U.S. oil refiners could benefit from supplies of Venezuela’s heavy crude flowing to their U.S. Gulf Coast processing plants.

Analysts cautioned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is likely to bristle at the restrictions included in the license, including the lack of cash payments that his administration sought. Proceeds due Venezuela from Chevron’s oil sales would go into a humanitarian fund rather than to PDVSA.

Terms will “require significant reporting by Chevron on financial operations of their joint ventures to ensure transparency,” a U.S. official said, adding other sanctions on Venezuela and its officials remain in place.

“There is not a big incentive in the short term” for Venezuela, said Francisco Monaldi, an expert on Latin American energy policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Terms could be relaxed over time depending on how the talks in Mexico City proceed.

“We’ll see how Maduro’s government reacts to it and how many cargoes will be assigned to Chevron after,” Monaldi said.

LA PAZ (Reuters) – A 36-day general strike in Bolivia’s key farming region of Santa Cruz came to an end on Saturday, as lawmakers approved a guarantee to hold a population census in 2024, which will likely hand the region more tax revenues and seats in Congress.

“We are lifting the strike and the blockades,” local civic leader Romulo Calvo told reporters. Bolivia’s economy ministry estimates the strike has cost the country over $1 billion.

The census law, which Bolivia’s Chamber of Deputies passed early Saturday morning with over two-thirds of votes, has been sent to the Senate for review before it is enacted by President Luis Arce.

Regional leaders in soy-rich Santa Cruz said they would remain on standby until the law is approved.

While the government called for a return to normality, regional and opposition groups had said La Paz’s socialist government was delaying the census as it could be disadvantaged by recent years of migration from rural areas to Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city.

The census, which will allow the redistribution of seats ahead of the country’s 2025 general elections, will mark its first in more than a decade.

Under the new law, the census will be held on March 23, 2024, and the results will be delivered the following September, so they can be used to redistribute the region’s political representatives and economic allotments.

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U.S. retailers discounted heavily on Black Friday to clear out bloated inventories but customers responded with only modest traffic, leaving profitability in doubt for many chains.

Crowds were thin in the late morning at Connecticut’s Stamford Town Center mall, with few shoppers at Kay Jewelers and just a small line at Forever 21. A couple at a Walmart Inc. supercenter near Dallas reveled in the lack of crowds as they bought presents for their grandchildren. At the Stonestown mall in San Francisco, shoppers were few and far between.

“It feels like a normal day,” said Miguel Martinez, 35, a warehouse supervisor walking through a Target Corp. store on Chicago’s North Side with his 12-year-old daughter, Jaylen. Martinez said he’s been cutting back on cable TV and Netflix to afford presents for his four children. He described the Black Friday discounts as “pretty good” as he picked up a couple of Amazon Echo Dot speakers, Nerf guns and a Disney Encanto doll.

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U.S. consumers are still spending, but they’re growing more cautious after contending this year with the highest inflation rates in four decades. They’re also keeping a sharper lookout for deals, and retailers — many of them still heavy with inventory after misjudging an erosion in demand — are trying to stand out by dangling the deepest discounts since before the pandemic.

Modest Growth

The US holiday shopping season is likely to see modest to break-even growth in annual sales, said Melissa Minkow, director of retail strategy at digital consultancy CI&T. “That’s still a win,” she said, contrasting the outlook with the UK, where high inflation has caused consumers to pull back noticeably on spending. Still, the steep Black Friday discounts are likely to squeeze retailers.

“Profits will not be where retailers want them to be,” Minkow said. That’s in part because they “couldn’t pass all of the inflationary costs off to consumers.”

Read more: Bloomberg tracks Black Friday across the country

E-commerce spending on Black Friday rose 2.3% to $9.12 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.

That’s far less than the US inflation rate of almost 8% during the 12 months ended in October. Salesforce Inc. said the average consumer discount on Black Friday was expected to be greater than 30%, up from 28% last year and close to the 33% rate in 2019. The biggest discounts were in home appliances, apparel and health and beauty.

But shoppers are cutting back in reaction to higher prices, said Rob Garf, Salesforce’s vice president of retail.

“People are just plainly buying less products because their dollar isn’t going as far as it used to,” Garf said.

Lonely Middle

At Crossgates Mall in Albany, New York, low-cost brands and higher-end buzzy retailers had the most foot traffic, while the middle-market stores were desolate.

Gap Inc.’s Old Navy, which was offering 60% off most items, had a line so long that some shoppers turned around as soon as they entered the store.

Drawing big crowds at the higher end were athleisure favorite Lululemon Athletica Inc., which had only a few racks of discounted merchandise, and American Eagle Outfitters Inc.’s Aerie, a popular intimates brand among Gen Z shoppers. Meanwhile, stores like Gap’s Banana Republic, Macy’s Inc. and Urban Outfitters Inc. had no lines at all, and only a handful of shoppers.

The healthy traffic at some retailers shows that many US consumers are still spending at a robust clip. A crowded Best Buy Co. store near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had half a dozen cars pulled up by the door to pick up large televisions and other electronic goods. Grapevine Mills, a nearby discount mall, was so crowded that Shawanda Miller threw up her hands and left.

“I don’t even want to talk about it, it was so crowded in there,” said Miller, 43. “I’m going to come back another day.”

No Wait

But crowds like that appeared to be an exception. The checkout line at the toy section at a Macy’s in Stamford, Connecticut, had no wait and the cashier said the store had prepared for more shoppers. A Walmart in suburban Dallas also had cashiers standing at the ready with no lines, which was just fine with Veronica Gonzalez and Carlos Garcia, a couple visiting from Corpus Christi, Texas.

“What’s good about it is you don’t have to come in at 5 o’clock in the morning, and everything is here that we’re looking for,” Gonzalez said. Garcia said “everything’s for the grandkids” as he pushed a shopping cart full of bed sheets, suitcases and toys.

The era of Black Friday crowds came to a halt with the pandemic, and it probably isn’t coming back as more consumers shop online and spread their spending out over a longer period. “The historic raucous atmosphere of Black Friday may be in the past,” Edward Yruma, a retail analyst at Piper Sandler, said in a report.

Behind the moderate crowds are people such as Therese Pociask, 60, who was shopping at Target in Chicago for her small day-care center. She was also looking for gifts for her nieces and nephews. In her cart were an Epsom-salt gift pack, Fujifilm Instax camera film, three stuffed dinosaurs and a puzzle.

Pociask said she’s planning to spend about $2,000 during the holidays — about the same as last year. But with inflation high, her money isn’t going as far as it did.

“I’m trying to stay within my budget, but I’m finding I have to spend more for it to look the same,” she said.

NEW YORK — Oscar, Golden Globe and two-time Grammy winning singer-actress Irene Cara, who starred and sang the title cut from the 1980 hit movie “Fame” and then belted out the era-defining hit “Flashdance … What a Feeling” from 1983’s “Flashdance,” has died. She was 63.

Her publicist, Judith A. Moose, announced the news on social media, writing that a cause of death was “currently unknown.” Moose also confirmed the death to an Associated Press reporter on Saturday. Cara died at her home in Florida. The exact day of her death was not disclosed.

“Irene’s family has requested privacy as they process their grief,” Moose wrote. “She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films.”

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During her career, Cara had three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Breakdance,” “Out Here On My Own,” “Fame” and “Flashdance … What A Feeling,” which spent six weeks at No. 1. She was behind some of the most joyful, high-energy pop anthems of the early ’80s.

Tributes poured in on Saturday on social media, including from Deborah Cox, who called Cara an inspiration, and Holly Robinson Peete, who recalled seeing Cara perform: “The insane combination of talent and beauty was overwhelming to me. This hurts my heart so much.”

She first came to prominence among the young actors playing performing arts high schoolers in Alan Parker’s “Fame,” with co-stars Debbie Allen, Paul McCrane and Anne Mear. Cara played Coco Hernandez, a striving dancer who endures all manner of deprivations, including a creepy nude photo shoot.

“How bright our spirits go shooting out into space, depends on how much we contributed to the earthly brilliance of this world. And I mean to be a major contributor!” she says in the movie.

Cara sang on the soaring title song with the chorus — “Remember my name/I’m gonna live forever/I’m gonna learn how to fly/I feel it coming together/People will see me and cry” — which would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for best original song. She also sang on “Out Here on My Own,” “Hot Lunch Jam” and “I Sing the Body Electric.”

Three years later, she and the songwriting team of “Flashdance” — music by Giorgio Moroder, lyrics by Keith Forsey and Cara — was accepting the Oscar for best original song for “Flashdance … What a Feeling.”

The movie starred Jennifer Beals as a steel-town girl who dances in a bar at night and hopes to attend a prestigious dance conservatory. It included the hit song “Maniac,” featuring Beals’ character leaping, spinning, stomping her feet and the slow-burning theme song.

“There aren’t enough words to express my love and my gratitude,” Cara told the Oscar crowd in her thanks. “And last but not least, a very special gentlemen who I guess started it all for me many years ago. To Alan Parker, wherever you may be tonight, I thank him.”

The New York-born Cara began her career on Broadway, with small parts in short-lived shows, although a musical called “The Me Nobody Knows” ran over 300 performances. She toured in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” as Mary Magdalene in the mid-1990s and a tour of the musical ”Flashdance” toured 2012-14 with her songs.

She also created the all-female band Irene Cara Presents Hot Caramel and put out a double CD with the single “How Can I Make You Luv Me.” Her movie credits include ”Sparkle” and “D.C. Cab.”

MILAN — Heavy rainfall triggered a massive landslide early Saturday on the southern Italian resort island of Ischia that destroyed buildings and swept parked cars into the sea, leaving at least one person dead and up to 12 missing.

The body of a woman was pulled from the mud, the Naples prefect Claudio Palomba, told a news conference.

With raining continuing to fall, rescuers were working gingerly with small bulldozers to pick through some six to seven meters (yards) of mud and detritus in the search for possible victims. Reinforcements arrived by ferry, including teams of sniffer dogs to help the search efforts.

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The force of the mud sliding down the mountainside just before dawn was strong enough to send cars and buses onto beaches and into the sea at the port of Casamicciola, on the north end of the island, which lies off Naples.

The island received 126 millimeters (nearly five inches) of rain in six hours, the heaviest rainfall in 20 years, according to officials.

Streets were impassable and mayors on the island urged people to stay home. At least 100 people were reported stranded without electricity and water, and about 70 were housed in a community gymnasium.

There was early confusion over the death toll. Vice Premier Matteo Salvini initially said that eight people had been confirmed dead, followed by the interior minister saying that no deaths had yet been confirmed, while 10 to 12 were missing.

“The situation is very complicated and very serious because probably some of those people are under the mud,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told RAI state TV from an emergency command center in Rome.

ANSA reported that at least 10 buildings had collapsed. One family with a newborn that was previously reported missing was located and was receiving medical care, according to the Naples prefect.

Video from the island showed small bulldozers clearing roads, while residents used hoses to try to get mud out of their homes. One man, identified as Benjamin Iacono, told Sky TG24 that mud overwhelmed three adjacent shops that he owns, completely wiping out his inventory. He estimated damage at 100,000 euros to 150,000 euros ($104,000 to $156,000).

Firefighters and the Coast Guard were conducting search and rescues, initially hampered by strong winds that prevented helicopters and boats from reaching the island.

The densely populated mountainous island is a popular tourist destination for both its beaches and spas. A 4.0-magnitude quake on the island in 2017 killed two people, causing significant damage to the towns of Casamicciola and neighboring Lacco Ameno.