President Donald Trump announced a "total and complete blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela on Tuesday, via a post on Truth Social, escalating U.S. military pressure on President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

In the Truth Social post, Trump declared, “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” warning it would “only get bigger” and that the “shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.” He demanded Venezuela return “all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us,” and stated he was ordering “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.” He also designated the Maduro regime a “FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION” due to alleged terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.

The move, a response to alleged drug trafficking and illicit financing, was accompanied by a significant U.S. military buildup in the region, including hundreds of troops and warships, with Venezuela accusing the U.S. of "international piracy" and "grotesque threats."

In response, Venezuela’s government rejected the blockade as a “grotesque threat” and an “act of war,” accusing the U.S. of seeking to steal its national wealth.

Venezuela deployed its navy to escort oil tankers departing its main port from Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, reaffirming its sovereignty and vowing to defend its homeland against what it calls imperial aggression.

President Maduro, speaking before Trump’s post, vowed to defend “every inch” of Venezuela and condemned U.S. actions as colonialist attempts to seize the nation’s oil, gas, and mineral resources.

The blockade follows the U.S. seizure of the oil tanker 'Skipper last week, a sanctioned vessel carrying approximately 1.8 million barrels of oil, which the U.S. claimed was falsely flagged and involved in illicit trade. Since September, the U.S. has conducted over two dozen military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels near Venezuela, resulting in the deaths of at least 90 people, sparking concerns over extrajudicial killings and war crimes.

The White House has defended the actions as necessary for national security, but critics have labeled the blockade “an act of war” that the U.S. Congress never authorized. The Trump administration has also repositioned a large naval force to the Caribbean, the largest deployment since the Cuban Missile Crisis, and has accused Maduro of leading the “Cartel of the Suns,” a claim the Venezuelan government denies.

The U.S. has also imposed sanctions on Maduro’s relatives and businesses, and reissued a permit for Chevron to operate in Venezuela under strict conditions, though no proceeds can go to the Maduro government.

Hollywood director Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found dead in their Brentwood, Los Angeles, home on Sunday, with their throats slit, according to multiple sources. Their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested and booked for felony murder in connection with the double homicide, which police are investigating as a possible domestic incident following an argument.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was called to the residence at approximately 3:30 PM, where they discovered the victims, and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division has taken over the investigation.

The couple’s daughter Romy, who lives across the street, is reported to have discovered the bodies. According to sources, she told police that a family member should be considered a suspect due to being “dangerous,” and police are questioning an unnamed family member.

Dispatch audio from the scene reveals Los Angeles Police Department(LAPD) called for backup at the Brentwood mansion around 3:30 PM.

Nick has previously spoken publicly about his struggles with drug addiction, which began in his early teens and led to periods of homelessness. He is in custody and being held without bail.

The investigation is ongoing.

Reiner, known for directing iconic films such as This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, Misery, and A Few Good Men, had a long and celebrated career in Hollywood.

The 78-year-old was previously married to actress Penny Marshall, with whom he had a daughter, Tracy, whom they adopted. He married Michele Singer Reiner in 1989 after meeting on the set of When Harry Met Sally…; they had three children: Jake, Nick, and Romy.

Michele Reiner was a photographer and producer who worked on several of her husband’s projects, including Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and the 2023 documentary Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, and was an executive producer on the upcoming series *Wind River: Rising.

Tributes poured in from several Hollywood celebrities, and politicians.

In a provocative Truth Social post Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote that Reiner died “…reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS... He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”

The post drew bipartisan criticisms on social media. However the president doubled down while speaking to reporters in the White House.

"I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a DERANGED person, as far as Trump is concerned," Trump said. "He knew it was false - that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia. The Russia hoax - he was one of the people behind it. He hurt himself career-wise... He became deranged - Trump Derangement Syndrome. I was not a fan of Rob Reiner. At all. In any way, shape, or form. I thought he was very bad for our country."

Two Iowa National Guard soldiers and one U.S. civilian interpreter were killed in a terrorist attack in Palmyra, Syria, on December 13, 2025, by a lone gunman suspected to be affiliated with ISIS. The attack occurred during a key leader engagement as part of ongoing counterterrorism operations in the region, and the gunman was killed during the incident.

The attack took place near Palmyra, a historically significant site in central Syria, during a meeting aimed at expanding security cooperation between U.S. and Syrian forces.

The gunman, identified as a member of Syria’s internal security forces, was reportedly under evaluation for extremist views and was set to be fired the following day; authorities are investigating whether he was a direct ISIS member or merely espoused the group’s ideology.

Meskwaki Nation Police Chief Jeffrey Bunn confirmed that his son, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, was one of the two Iowa National Guard members killed. The identities of the victims including Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, were not officially released until after next of kin were notified, but the Pentagon confirmed the deaths of two soldiers and one civilian interpreter. Three other U.S. soldiers were injured, two in critical but stable condition, and one with a superficial injury.

The U.S. military emphasized that the soldiers were carrying out their mission with courage and professionalism, and the attack has prompted a renewed focus on security cooperation with Syria’s new government.

President Donald Trump vowed "very serious retaliation" against those responsible, stating the attack was an ISIS attack against the U.S. and Syria, and that Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa was "extremely angry and disturbed" by the incident.

The U.S. has approximately 1,000 troops deployed in Syria as part of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, with 200–250 Iowa National Guard members among them, deployed since May 2025.

President Trump, in a Truth Social post and subsequent remarks, emphasized that the U.S. would hunt down and eliminate those who target Americans, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoing this stance on social media.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst expressed deep sorrow, calling the fallen soldiers heroes and reaffirming the strong bond within the Iowa National Guard family.

The last death of an Iowa National Guard member in service occurred in 2011 in Afghanistan, making this the first such fatality since then.

President al-Sharaa, who led the rebel forces that toppled Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, has since improved relations with the U.S., including a historic visit to Washington in November 2025, but the attack has raised concerns about the vetting of former rebel and Islamist fighters integrated into the new security forces.