US President Donald Trump said that the United States will send a representative to participate in talks in Europe over Ukraine over the weekend if there is a good chance of progress on the ceasefire agreement, Reuters reported.
"We will see if we will be at the meeting", Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "We will be at the meeting on Saturday in Europe if we think there is a good chance. And we don't want to waste too much time if we think the chances are slim."
Trump signed an executive order on artificial intelligence that will try to prevent the growing number of state laws regulating the technology from being set at a national standard, Reuters reported.
"We want to have one central source of approval," Trump told reporters, surrounded by his top advisers, including Treasury Secretary Scott Besant.
The executive order will give the Trump administration tools to roll back the most "burdensome" state regulations, White House artificial intelligence adviser David Sachs said. The administration will not oppose rules governing artificial intelligence and child safety, he added.
Major players in the field of artificial intelligence have said that the federal government, not states, should regulate the industry.
However, state leaders from both major political parties have said they need the authority to set limits on artificial intelligence, especially since Congress has consistently failed to pass laws regulating the technology industry.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has proposed an artificial intelligence bill of rights that would include privacy, parental controls and consumer protections. California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state is home to several major AI companies, signed a law this year requiring major AI developers to explain their plans to mitigate potentially catastrophic risks.
Other states have passed laws banning AI-generated non-consensual sexual imagery and unauthorized political deepfakes.
The US president told reporters at the White House that the US would soon launch strikes to intercept drug shipments being transported from Venezuela to the US by land routes, Reuters reported.
Trump has repeatedly threatened in recent weeks to launch strikes against drugs smuggled overland.
Meanwhile, the US imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, imposing restrictions on three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro's wife Maduro, as well as up to six oil tankers and shipping companies linked to them, as Washington steps up pressure on Caracas, Reuters reported.
The new sanctions against Franky Flores, Carlos Flores and Efrain Campo came a day after Donald Trump announced that the United States had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on six shipping companies transporting Venezuelan oil, as well as six crude oil tankers, which it said "have engaged in fraudulent and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro's corrupt narco-terrorist regime," Reuters reported.
Four of the tankers, including the 2002-built "H. Constance" and the 2003-built "Lattafa", are Panamanian-flagged, while the other two are Cook Islands and Hong Kong-flagged.
The ships affected by the measures are supertankers that recently loaded crude oil in Venezuela, according to internal shipping documents from state-owned oil company PDVSA.
Frankie Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuela's first lady Celia Flores, were dubbed the "narco-nephews" after their arrest in Haiti in 2015 in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) operation. They were convicted in 2016 on charges of attempting to carry out a multi-million dollar cocaine deal and sentenced to 18 years in prison, but were released in 2022 in a prisoner exchange with Venezuela.
The Venezuelan Ministry of Communications, which handles government press releases in Caracas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maduro and his government strongly deny any links to crime.
The U.S. Senate has rejected competing proposals from Republicans and Democrats to address the looming health care crisis, leaving about 24 million Americans vulnerable to significantly higher insurance premiums that will take effect on Jan. 1, when a federal subsidy expires, Reuters reported.
Unless there is a late breakthrough, Congress will begin its Christmas recess sometime next week and will not return until Jan. 5, after new premiums are set for those who relied on the increased subsidy under the Affordable Care Act.
In a series of votes along party lines, Democrats and Republicans blocked each other's bills.
The House of Representatives could try to pass some legislation next week that has not yet been announced. Even if it passes, Senate Democrats and possibly some Republicans will oppose it and could use their votes to block it.
"After today's vote, the crisis in American healthcare is 100 percent on their shoulders," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said of Republicans.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune dismissed the Democrats' bill as a "political ploy" and said "Republicans are ready to get to work. I'm not sure Democrats are interested yet."