September 2: Homeland Security Voter-Roll Search and Venezuela Oil Deal

Federal voter-roll search The Trump administration has reportedly assigned hundreds of Homeland Security agents to a weeks-long search for noncitizens on state voter rolls. The effort comes despite no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. Investigators are said to be matching birth dates and partial Social Security numbers, and in some cases entering personal data into public election websites, raising privacy and data-security concerns. Energy and shipping Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, has signed an agreement granting U.S. companies majority control over 65 billion barrels of crude oil, a potentially major shift in access to the country’s oil reserves. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has condemned an Iranian attack on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz that killed two Filipino crew members. Other governments in the region also denounced the strike, adding fresh risk to one of the world’s most important shipping routes. Nicaragua’s opposition ban The United States says it will seek to isolate Nicaragua through a regional bloc after lawmakers changed the constitution to bar most political opposition. The move further tightens the government’s control over formal electoral competition. Work and poverty in Britain The number of children in UK households where no adult has ever worked has risen to 252,000, its highest level in 13 years. The increase comes as job vacancies have fallen to their lowest point outside the pandemic in nearly 12 years. A possible return for the American chestnut The USDA has deregulated Darling 54, a genetically engineered American chestnut designed to withstand the blight that devastated native chestnuts in the last century. EPA approval is still required before public release, and researchers have raised questions about the tree’s growth and survival. Other efforts are pursuing blight resistance through conventional crossbreeding.