Exxon Mobil held secret meetings this year with Rosneft, Russia’s largest energy company, to evaluate a potential return to the massive Sakhalin oil and gas project in the Russian Far East. According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, the plan would depend on a potential peace agreement in Ukraine and the easing of sanctions against Moscow.
Michael Paarlberg is a Political Science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2020 he served as the Latin America advisor to Bernie Sanders.
The fifth presidential meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) concluded with a joint declaration that, while reaffirming the eight member countries’ willingness to defend the rainforest, highlighted the deep divisions regarding the future of hydrocarbons in the region.
Moscow and Caracas have taken a new step in strengthening their strategic relations by preparing to sign an agreement on the exchange of convicted persons—a measure that transcends judicial matters and is part of the growing political and diplomatic cooperation between both governments.
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it will reduce its projects in Venezuela by half during 2025 due to a lack of international funding. The measure will directly affect vulnerable communities, especially rural schools where the agency had concentrated a large part of its efforts in recent years.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated that he has begun organizing a meeting between the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and that of Russia, Vladimir Putin, following a summit this Monday at the White House with Zelensky and European leaders. Trump said he discussed the plan with Putin in a telephone call made during his negotiations with the European delegation. While London spoke of “real progress” and the “Coalition of the Willing” expanded to 30 countries to work on security guarantees for Kyiv, Berlin and Paris insisted that any negotiation first requires a ceasefire. Moscow, for its part, welcomed the focus on “lasting peace” and confirmed its support for direct talks
The lawyer had reported political persecution in Venezuela and faced sanctions from the Supreme Court (TSJ) for demanding the publication of the records from July 28. Bogotá confirmed that she had been granted asylum since January 2025.
The DECIDE Network (Red DECIDE in Spanish) warns of the risks of political violence and external intervention in Venezuela, emphasizing the need for a respectful and constructive national dialogue to advance toward sustainable democratic solutions.
In Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are meeting in a summit that, while officially focused on the war in Ukraine, carries multiple geopolitical, historical, and diplomatic dimensions. The meeting, from which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was excluded, takes place amid international tensions and economic sanctions.
The Canopus Voyager, flagged in the Bahamas, has initiated the resumption of Venezuelan oil shipments to the United States under the current sanctions framework, with a limited load scheduled for August.
