WSJ What’s News - Trump Takes Aim at Venezuela’s Maduro With Tanker Blockade

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

A.M. Edition for Dec. 16. President Trump orders a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. Plus, WSJ deputy finance editor Quentin Webb discusses the appetite for IPOs in 2026, after Medical-supplies distributor Medline completes the biggest initial public offering of the year. And America’s white-collar workers are filled with anxiety. WSJ economics reporter Rachel Louise Ensign unpacks the latest jobs report, which is an ominous sign in an era of big corporate layoffs and CEOs warning that AI will replace workers. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada can be a global leader in reducing the harm caused by smoking, but it requires actionable steps. Now is the time to modernize Canadian laws so that adult smokers have information and access to better alternatives. By doing so, we can create lasting change. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you smoke, quit. If you don't quit, change.

Visit unsmoke.ca. The U.S. escalates its campaign against Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro with a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers. Plus, a look at what the biggest IPO of the year can tell us about going public in 26 and layoff worries mount at the office. It really seems like this is an age of anxiety for the white-collar workers, and it's showing up a bit in the jobs report, but where it's really showing up is on surveys, and it's pretty clear that office workers. workers are really nervous about losing their jobs right now. It's Wednesday, December 17th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

President Trump has ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers in and out of Venezuela. In a social media post, Trump wrote that U.S. forces now had the country completely surrounded, and he also threatened a larger American military presence. Unless the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro returned what he claimed were stolen assets, an apparent reference to U.S.-linked holdings nationalized by the Venezuelan state. Well, to put these developments into context, I'm joined by Jorge Leon, the head of geopolitical analysis at Ryestad Energy. Jorge, how big of a deal is this blockade? And we should specify that it is just a partial blockade because it appears to exclude Chevron,

which has a license exempting it from U.S. sanctions. I think it's pretty significant. Let me give you some numbers. Right now, Venezuela exports around 700,000 barrels per day. Out of that, 150,000 barrels per day are from Chevron, and Chevron is exempted. So that leaves us with 550,000 barrels per day. Now, the important thing about those barrels is not just the number, which is significant, of course, but it's where those barrels are flowing. Those barrels are flowing to China. So this is part of a broader geopolitical. political confrontation. And importantly, the oil that China receives from Venezuela is heavily discounted. So yes, I'm sure China could replace those barrels somewhere else, but those bars

would not be as cheap as the ones that they get from Venezuela. As for Venezuela here, Jorge, Trump has said the country could be in for a shock. What kind of financial impact could this partial blockade have? This would be devastating for the Venezuelan economy. Venezuela and economy very heavily relies on oil revenues. And essentially, those old revenues will be, in practical terms, halted. So this would be devastating. Let's not forget that Venezuela now, it's starting to phase again a period of hyperinflation. So I wouldn't be surprised if this will have very, very negative consequences for the Venezuelan economy. Yeah, definitely. And according to shipping monitor tankertrackers.com, several vessels that had been scheduled to load oil in Venezuela in the coming

weeks have now made U-turn, so this pain will likely drag on, and yet the oil price rise that we're seeing today doesn't seem that dramatic. Brent up around 1.5%, 2% currently. Years ago, this would have been a $5.10 per barrel increase. This is the case because we're entering into a period in the oil market of surplus, massive surplus in the oil market, the price is coming down. So it is good timing for the U.S. administration to put so much pressure in Venezuela right now because we're in, again, we're in a period of oversupply. So if you're ever going to put pressure on an oil-producing country, it's better to do it now as opposed to a few years ago. When prices were high, there was a high risk of supply disruption that would impact

oil prices. Right now, prices are at the lowest level since February 2021. So timing is really favorable for the U.S. administration. That was Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rysdad Energy. The Trump administration has expanded its travel ban to cover five additional countries and has added partial bans on an additional 15, including Africa's most populous country, Nigeria. According to a White House announcement, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria are joining the list of countries whose citizens are nearly all banned from immigrating to or entering

the U.S. In total, citizens of 39 countries plus Palestinian nationals are now subject to full or partial travel bans. Trump ordered the legal immigration crackdown after an Afghan national was accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington last month. And prosecutors in Los Angeles have charged Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder in the death of his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner and photographer Michelle Reiner. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hockman said the 32-year-old is being held without bail. These charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. No decision at this point has been made with respect to the death penalty.

Coming up, we'll look at what the year's biggest public offering says about the appetite for IPOs in 2026 and call it the age of anxiety for white-collar work. workers as AI job loss fears mount. We've got those stories and more after the break. There is a new holder of the crown of year's biggest IPO. Medical supplies distributor Medline says it's raised more than $6.5 billion dollars on a more than $50 billion valuation ahead of its trading debut on the NASDAQ today. The listing marks a major win for private equity Giants Blackstone and Carlisle, which along with Helman and Friedman acquired Medline in 2021 in a massive leveraged buyout. And as General Deputy Finance editor Quinton Webb explained, it builds momentum into what is expected to be a busy IPO year in 26. We are looking at

an enormous IPO calendar potentially for next year. Elon Musk's SpaceX is an obvious one, already worth $800 billion in the private markets, open AI, it's rival anthropic. Then on the other side, we've got, for example, some of the mortgage giants that are owned by the US government, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, could potentially go public. Industry dynamics are extremely important and profitability and competitive landscape of individual companies matters a lot. But then, on top of that, there is often this kind of broad sense that momentum in the IPO market is a bit wider. And so if you have a couple of big deals that go well, investors will be more confident about buying into the next big deal because they don't feel like they're likely to

be left with the stock that trades badly after listing. California regulators have given Tesla 90 days to change how it advertises its driver assistance features or face a 30-day suspension of its dealer and manufacturing licenses in the state. That's after a judge found that Tesla deceived consumers by implying that its cars could drive on their own, a case that dates back to a 22 complaint from California's DMV about the company's use of the product names autopilot and full self-driving capability. A lawyer representing Tesla in hearings over the summer said the company had never misled consumers. In a statement, the EV maker said sales in California will continue uninterrupted. Well, yesterday's jobs reports for October and November put some numbers behind

the chilly mood in the U.S. labor market. November job growth may have topped expectations, but readings from August and September were rounded down, and unemployment is ticking up. According to the Labor Department, hiring in many industries that employ white-collar workers has softened this year, while the unemployment rate for college-educated workers has drifted higher. And amid big corporate layoff announcements and CEOs warning that AI will replace workers, journal reporter Rachel Ensign told me there's a lot of anxiety among office workers heading into the new year. So there's data from the New York Fed. They poll Americans of different levels of education. And what they found is that Americans with bachelor's degrees are higher, they put the average probability of losing their jobs in the next year at 15%. And that's up from 11% three years ago. And what's really interesting is that these more educated workers now think that losing a job is more likely than people with less education do, which is a complete reversal from a few years. ago right when the pandemic was ending and places couldn't hire enough white collar workers.

And these workers were getting recruited. They were getting huge raises. They were getting big promotions. And now they know that a lot of their companies are doing layoffs. They know that if they get laid off, it's probably going to be pretty tough for them to find something new quickly. In the jobs report, you can see that there are some sectors like information and financial activities, which did shed jobs in October and November. So if you're employed in one of those sectors, there's a good chance that you look around and you see that your company isn't only not expanding.

They're downsizing. And they are also worried about AI. You know, there have been a lot of CEOs out there who are saying AI will replace workers. The CEO of Ford said AI is going to replace half of all white color workers in the country. So all of those things taken together have made it a pretty spooky time to be a white-collar worker. Well, after that, let's close things out on a slightly higher note,

starting in the UK where the annual rate of inflation pulled back to 3.2% last month its lowest level since March. That's likely to keep the Bank of England on pace to cut interest rates for a fourth time this year tomorrow. A move its governor has described as an early Christmas present for borrowers, in spite of wider concerns about weakness in the labor market and a slowing economy. And signs of strength in the Japanese economy are supporting expectations for a rate hike there this week. Exports rose for a third straight month in November, and a jump in machinery order suggests companies are pushing ahead with investments in spite of tariffs.

The BOJ's rate decision is expected Friday. And that's it for what's news for this Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer was Daniel Bach, and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with the new show. And until then, thanks for listening.