🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡️ — Venezuela’s oil ministry has halted 19 production-sharing agreements with private firms that were signed during President Nicolás Maduro’s administration, according to Reuters.

➡️ The move has not yet affected national oil and gas production, as state energy company PDVSA continues to market the crude generated under the suspended deals.

➡️ The United States and Venezuela are now reviewing the contracts, and Washington could ultimately advise canceling some of them altogether.

➡️ The agreements involve Chinese, U.S., South American, and Venezuelan companies and cover operations in difficult areas such as Lake Maracaibo, as well as efforts to boost output in the Orinoco Belt. In some cases, participating firms had subcontracted the oilfield operations to third parties.

🇺🇸🇨🇺⚡️ — The Trump administration’s decision to ease fuel shipments to Cuba’s private sector is part of a broader strategy to deepen the island’s reliance on U.S. supplies, thereby expanding Washington’s leverage to push for political and economic reforms, Bloomberg reports.

➡️ The plan involves assuring energy companies they are permitted to sell oil and fuel to Cuban small and medium-sized private businesses, as well as allowing the resale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba under specific conditions.

🏴❌🇧🇫 — JNIM terrorists have captured a military base in the city of Méné, northern Burkina Faso, following the withdrawal of the army.

🇺🇸🇮🇶⚡️ — U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack meets with former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to inform him of Washington's rejection of his nomination for the position of Prime Minister, according to Al Araby TV.

🇮🇱⚡️ — The deputy mayor of Beersheba in southern Israel, Shimon Tubul, has announced that all shelters in the municipality are being opened.

🇦🇫❌🇵🇰 — Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Tasnim News that Taliban forces killed 55 Pakistani soldiers in overnight attacks and are holding 23 bodies of Pakistani troops.

➡️ He said some Pakistani personnel were captured alive and that two large Pakistani military bases were destroyed.

➡️ Mujahid also stated that 19 small outposts along the Durand Line border were completely destroyed and that two Pakistani tanks were knocked out during the operation.

➡️ He acknowledged Taliban casualties as well, saying 13 fighters were killed and 22 wounded. In addition, he said 13 civilians were injured in Pakistani strikes at various locations overnight.

🇵🇰❌🇦🇫 — Pakistan’s military announced that 12 of their soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in border clashes with Afghanistan, with one soldier reported missing in action.

➡️ The army claimed it killed 274 Taliban fighters, injured more than 400, destroyed 74 Afghan posts, and captured 18 personnel during the operations.

➡️ 115 tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery systems were destroyed. At least 83 military posts were destroyed and 17 captured.

➡️ Strikes were carried out at 22 locations across Kabul, Khost, Kandahar, Paktia, Nangarhar, and Paktika provinces.

➡️ Targeted sites included brigade, battalion, and sector headquarters; ammunition depots; and logistics bases that were said to be sheltering members of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.