WSJ What’s News - The U.S. Oil Blockade of Venezuela Is Pushing Cuba Toward Collapse

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

A.M. Edition for Dec. 23. Cuba was already suffering from food shortages and blackouts. Now the U.S. oil blockade of Venezuela means the Communist island also faces the loss of cheap oil from Nicolás Maduro. The Journal’s South America bureau chief Juan Forero explains. Plus, the U.S. bans new China-made drones from DJI and Autel Robotics, sparking outrage among pilots. And think you know business etiquette? Take our quiz and find out. Daniel Bach hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Denmark and Greenland call on President Trump to respect the island's sovereignty. Plus, Trump's pressure campaign on Venezuela is pushing Cuba toward collapse. And a new guide on workplace manners is stirring up debate among readers. And they propose that if somebody sort of just wipe their nose after sneezing or just wiped their nose and then extended their hand to you, that you should take that hand. You should shake that hand and just wash it right after. It's Tuesday, December 23rd. I'm Daniel Bach for the Wall Street Journal filling in for Luke Vargas. And here's the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

The leaders of Denmark and Greenland are calling on President Trump to respect the sovereignty of Greenland after he appointed a new special envoy to the Arctic territory. On Sunday, Trump named Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, as envoy for the island, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark and makes up 98% of its territory. Landry, in turn, said he aimed to make Greenland a part of the U.S. In a joint statement, the Danish and Greenlandic prime ministers said that international law guides national borders, adding, quote, the U.S. shall not take over Greenland. Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago yesterday, Trump said Greenland was of strategic importance. We need Greenland for national security.

And if you take a look at Greenland, you look up and down the coast. You have Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need it for national security. We have to have it. Denmark said it wasn't informed about Landry's appointment, adding to a sense in Copenhagen that it's being kept in the dark about Washington's ambitions. Denmark's foreign minister said he would summon the U.S. ambassador to express his discontent and demand an explanation.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is recalling almost 30 career diplomats from posts in at least 29 countries. The Chiefs of Mission, both ambassadors and senior staffers appointed during the Biden administration were told last week that their posts were ending in January. That's according to two officials. The State Department declined to comment on specific numbers or ambassadors affected, but it defended the changes, calling them a standard process in any administration. Also in Washington, efforts to ban popular drones made in China have finally paid off. The Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on the tech yesterday.

It was prompted by a White House-led group that informed the Commission the drones posed unacceptable risks. The ban covers all drones in critical components made in a foreign country, including from major Chinese manufacturers like DJI and Hotel Robotics. The move has been met with uproar from many of the nearly half a million American commercial drone pilots, many of whom say that American drones just can't compete. DJI said it was disappointed with the FCC's decision and reiterated the security of their products. O'Telle didn't respond to a request for comment. U.S. regulators have approved the first GLP1 weight loss pill, a tablet formulation of

Novo Nordisk's OZempic and Wagovi. The drug makers said the pills could be available in the U.S. in early January, and will cost $149 a month for the starting dose. The move into pill format is expected to broaden the use of the drug. So far, the obesity market has been dominated by weekly shots, which put many people off the idea of taking it, either due to cost, insurance coverage, or a fear of needles. Well, as we get closer to 26, talk of midterm elections is only growing louder in Washington. And there will be a lot of open races. According to Ballotpedia, 52 lawmakers will not be seeking re-election. Our Washington coverage Chief Damian Pelletta says that number could soon surpass the 54 who retired in 2018, which was

the most in any election cycle going back to 2012. It used to be considered quite prestigious to be a senator or a congressman. He can shape laws in U.S. policy. But a growing number of these lawmakers they're deciding this is not for them anymore. They've said there's just too much grief. Congress has become too insignificant. So much is getting done by the White House. And even the courts have clawed away the powers that Congress used to have. So there's a growing number of lawmakers now in both parties who are deciding this is not for them. What you're losing, quite frankly, or you're losing a lot of experience and using lawmakers who might have felt like they had a specialty and a certain policy that could benefit voters in their districts.

So what you might be gaining then is openings. So it does create opportunity for people on both the left and the right who might have the chance of a lifetime. In markets, investors are looking ahead to the delayed third quarter US GDP data coming at 8.30 a.m. Eastern, stock features are muted and gold prices are continuing their assent with futures topping $4,500. dollars. Coming up, we look at how Trump's pressure campaign on Venezuela is pushing Cuba towards collapse. Plus, we brush up on the new world of hybrid workplace etiquette after the break.

For months, the Trump administration has been dialing up the pressure on Nicholas Maduro, the Venezuelan strong meant that the White House accuses of letting immigrants and drugs flow into the United States. And though the recent blockade of oil tankers is meant to choke off a key source of revenue for Caracas, people in Cuba are really feeling the impact of this move. Already in the throes of a prolonged crisis, Cuba's economy risks collapsing if shipments of cheap oil supplied by Venezuela are cut off, which could lead to even more people trying to flee the country. For more on this, I'm joined by the Journal's South America Bureau Chief Juan Ferreiro. One, first off, give us a sense of how heavily Cuba relies on Venezuela.

Well, Cuba relies on Venezuela more than any other country in the world. Back in the day, when Venezuela was in much better economic shape, it used to ship more than 100,000 barrels a day in cut rate oil, which is just a huge amount. Cuba would sell some of that on the spot market, and then it would use the rest to keep its economy working. Now, because Venezuela has over the last decade or so almost suffered an economic collapse, the amount of oil going to Cuba has also fallen dramatically. And that means that Cuba is going through long and protracted blackouts in some parts of the country. The lights are off for 18, 20 hours a day.

And given the situation now, is there anything that Cuba can do and how long could this last? I think Cuba is entering into a period. It hasn't experienced before in exactly the same way. We're seeing a lot of hunger in Cuba. We're seeing people suffering from diseases like dengue and chikungunya. There's a lot of garbage in the streets. People there tell us. So it's a really prolonged and deep economic crisis. You hear Cuban officials from the president on down talk about how the people, problems are severe. They will openly talk about it, but they won't openly talk about what the solutions are. So I don't see where there is much of a change in Cuba because it is a hardline communist regime. And this is not a government that has shown that it is open to change. And just lastly, Juan, there are some pretty staggering statistics in your story, including recent polling that found almost 80 percent of people say they intend to flee the island. What could that mean for the United States?

Yeah, the migration numbers are just startling. One highly regarded Havana-based demographer told us that more than 2.7 million people had fled the island since 2020. Now, that's a quarter of the island's population. And we have to keep in mind that those are people who are young. They're ambitious. They're the people who are willing to take risks. They're the people who are able to get the money together. get off the island, which is not cheap to do. So this is a serious blow to Cuba because it's increasingly

an island filled with older people. The fertility rate in Cuba is also incredibly low. Now, if the situation gets far worse, we would expect that more would be leaving from Cuba trying to leave. The United States under Trump has been cracking down on migration. So it's unclear if they'd be able to get into the United States, but they might try to test the United States. That's the Journal's South America Bureau Chief Juan Ferraro. Juan, thank you for this. Thank you. And finally, as you prepare to celebrate the holidays this year, you might be switching into family mode in leaving any thoughts of work behind until the new year. But if you're looking

for something to do over the Christmas period or need a goal for 26. How about using the time away from the office to polish up on your workplace manners? The office etiquette quiz idea came from the publication of a new version of Emily Post Business Etiquette. That's Ray Smith, who covers career and workplace issues for the journal. When I saw that book come out, it got us to thinking we should do something on where people are with office etiquette, work etiquette, especially post-COVID, as we're all adjusting, still adjusting to hybrid work. Ray says one question in the quiz in particular has become the subject of rigorous debate among journal readers, whether phones are okay in meetings. People really feel strongly

about their ability to have their phone on in a meeting. Even if it's unsilent, there was a lot of debate about whether you should have it unsilent, whether you should have it on d&D, like do not disturb mode before you enter the meeting. whether you should have it off. There are a lot of people saying, I need my phone on. You know, my kids are trying to reach me. We learned that people are really struggling with electronic etiquette. Think you've got perfect office manners.

We've left a link to take the quiz in our show notes. The average score here on the What's News team was about five out of ten. We're definitely okay with our colleagues taking phone calls in the newsroom, but we might be wary of shaking your hand if you just sneezed on it. And so you know, fewer than 5% of readers answered eight or more questions correctly. And that's it for What's News for this Tuesday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer was Chris Zinsley with help from Christina Rocca.

And I'm Daniel Bach for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening. Thank you.