The Trump administration, which struck a deal with Venezuela last week to use a substantial amount of the country’s oil, will be working with Alejandro Betancourt López as the agreement takes shape over the coming weeks.

Betancourt López, 46, is the CEO of North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), Venezuela’s second-largest private oil producer. 

Over the past decade, he has been investigated by multiple countries, including the United States, over alleged money laundering, according to The Washington Post. According to the outlet, the U.S. has not acted on an arrest warrant from Switzerland and has instead allowed Betancourt López to enter the country repeatedly for meetings with the Trump administration about the Venezuelan oil deal.

Betancourt López has been investigated by U.S., Swiss and Spanish authorities over his alleged role in a scheme that prosecutors say embezzled more than $1 billion from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA.

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A photo of Alejandro Betancourt dated Nov. 10, 2015. (Reuters / Reuters Photos)

Betancourt López has denied wrongdoing and has never been criminally charged in connection to the alleged scheme. In 2018, Abraham Edgardo Ortega, a former executive director at PDVSA, pleaded guilty in federal court to one money laundering conspiracy charge.

“Mr. Betancourt has never been charged with a crime in any jurisdiction. He is dedicated to serving the people of Venezuela by championing the country’s economic revitalization and, when helpful and appropriate, acting as an intermediary between its government and the United States,” NABEP’s general counsel, Sara Chouraqui, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Oil pumping hammers are seen in the oil field, painted with the colors of the Venezuelan flag on April 28, 2026, in Lagunillas, Zulia, Venezuela. (Jose Bula Urrutia/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)

In a statement on Monday, Betancourt celebrated the oil deal between the U.S. and Venezuela.

“Venezuela is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, hardworking people and untapped potential,” Betancourt López said in a statement on Monday. “This transaction will unleash that potential to the great benefit of both Venezuelans and Americans.”

Under the deal, the U.S. will have the right to buy 20% of the oil produced from all current and future NABEP-operated fields at the cost of production, according to the White House.

President Donald Trump during an event about drug prices in the Oval Office of the White House, on Aug. 31, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

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The agreement also gives the U.S. first dibs on purchasing the remaining 80% of NABEP’s oil production before it can be sold to other customers, allowing Washington to secure additional supplies during an energy emergency.

Without spending taxpayer money, the U.S. government received a 35% ownership stake in NABEP’s parent company through the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital. The company says the stake could eventually generate hundreds of billions of dollars in value and dividend payments.

The agreement also gives the U.S. government veto power over appointments to NABEP’s board of directors and requires a majority of the board’s members to be U.S. citizens.

The initial announcement did not identify NABEP or Betancourt López. President Donald Trump said Friday that the deal would greatly increase the U.S. oil supply and “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future.”

Venezuela’s president, Delcy Rodríguez, publicly backed the deal as well, saying in a statement Friday that it could generate more than $200 billion in tax revenue for the country.

A man rides past an operating oil pumpjack in Cabimas, Venezuela, on Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos / Associated Press)

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NABEP, which is headquartered in Barbados, produces roughly 200,000 barrels of oil per day, according to its website. A person close to the company told The New York Times it intends to take on up to $5 billion in debt to boost output to 1 million barrels per day within five years.

Betancourt López founded NABEP in April 2024, but his involvement in Venezuela’s oil industry dates back to 2011, when he bought a stake in Petrozamora, a PDVSA joint venture that operated mature oil fields in Lake Maracaibo, according to The Times. Those fields later became the foundation of NABEP’s operations.

After the Trump administration ousted Nicolás Maduro from power in January, U.S. officials began looking for partners who would advance American interests in Venezuela, The Times reported.

Because of Betancourt López’s track record of increasing oil production in the fields his company manages, U.S. officials wanted to work with him on this public-private oil deal, according to The Times.

Customers of Ally Bank began reporting trouble accessing their online banking accounts Tuesday morning, according to outage-tracking sites, with users describing difficulty logging in and reaching account services through the company’s website and mobile app.

Outage-tracking service Downdetector logged an increase in user reports beginning around 10:27 a.m. Eastern time, according to a summary of the issue posted to the online forum DesignTAXI Community. A number of Ally customers separately took to social media to report problems accessing the bank’s services around the same time. As an internet-only bank, Ally offers checking and savings accounts, auto loans and investing services entirely online, without any physical branch locations, meaning digital access issues carry outsized significance for a customer base that has no in-person banking alternative to fall back on.

Separate outage-tracking platform DownRightNow indicated Tuesday that Ally Bank was experiencing issues, estimating that banking services typically restore within one to two hours during this type of disruption, based on the site’s historical tracking of similar incidents. Other monitoring services offered a less clear picture of the disruption’s scope. Outage tracker Outage.Report showed no incidents recorded for Ally over the preceding 12 months as of Tuesday, while still allowing users to submit real-time reports describing specific problems, including login failures, that customers experienced Tuesday.

Ally has faced periodic complaints about service reliability in the past, according to user reviews and outage reports compiled across several tracking platforms. One user review posted to outage-tracking site UpDownRadar described the bank’s mobile app being unavailable for a full week during an earlier incident, writing in frustration, “An internet only bank without a functioning app. Something is going on with Ally. They need to come clean about this issue.” Other historical reports on the same platform described repeated difficulty logging into accounts, delays in accessing investment account information, and general concerns about how frequently app outages have occurred given the bank’s fully digital service model.

For customers unable to access their accounts during outages, financial guidance published by DownRightNow outlines several available options. Because deposits at Ally Bank are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation up to 250,000 dollars per depositor, funds remain protected regardless of any temporary access disruption. The guidance also suggests customers experiencing extended outages consider using peer-to-peer payment services such as Zelle or Venmo as a temporary workaround for urgent transactions, and notes that customers can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov if they believe a bank’s service issues warrant regulatory attention. Customers can also verify a bank’s regulatory standing directly through the FDIC’s BankFind tool.

Ally Financial Inc., the bank’s parent company, is a United States-based financial services provider offering a broader suite of products beyond consumer banking, including auto financing, home loans and investment services, built around what the company has marketed as a customer-centric, fully digital banking platform. The company’s reliance on digital-only infrastructure, without physical branches to fall back on during technical disruptions, has made service reliability a recurring point of scrutiny among both customers and outage-tracking services whenever access issues arise.

As of this report, Ally had not issued a public statement addressing the scope, cause or expected resolution timeline for Tuesday’s reported access issues. Customers experiencing ongoing problems have been encouraged to monitor the company’s official channels directly, and to contact Ally’s customer service line, which the bank maintains around the clock specifically to assist customers with card-related and other urgent account issues during any period of technical disruption.

American Airlines will match the federal government’s $1,000 contribution to Trump Accounts for eligible employees’ children as part of a new benefit launching in 2027, the carrier confirmed to FOX Business.

The airline will make a one-time $1,000 contribution for each eligible child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, who has established a Trump Account and qualifies for the federal government’s $1,000 contribution.

The match applies on a per-child basis, meaning an employee with two qualifying children could receive two $1,000 federal contributions and two additional $1,000 contributions from the airline. The benefit will be available to all U.S.-based American Airlines employees.

American will also allow eligible employees to direct up to $2,500 in pretax earnings each year into their dependent children’s Trump Accounts beginning in 2027.

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Roughly one-third of American Airlines’ workforce has children who qualify for a Trump Account. (Reuters/Sarah Meyssonnier, File / Reuters Photos)

Approximately one-third of American’s workforce has children who would qualify for a Trump Account and could therefore take advantage of the pretax contribution option, according to the airline. American did not provide an estimate of how many employees or children could qualify for the company’s $1,000 matching contribution.

American Airlines Chief People Officer Cole Brown announced the new benefit to employees Monday, telling team members the airline was looking for additional ways to help them build long-term financial security for their families.

“American will support eligible team members who choose to participate in the new Trump Accounts program by matching the federal contribution,” Brown said. “For eligible children born between 2025 and 2028 who have established a Trump Account, American will match the federal government’s one-time $1,000 contribution with an additional one-time $1,000 contribution of our own.”

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American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, left, attends an aircraft unveiling in Dallas. AA announced Monday it will match the federal government’s $1,000 contribution to Trump Accounts for eligible employees. (Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images, File / Getty Images)

The airline said the benefit is part of a broader effort to give employees more ways to save for their children’s futures, alongside benefits including its 401(k) program, healthcare and career development resources.

Trump Accounts, also known as 530A accounts, are tax-advantaged investment accounts for children. Eligible children born between 2025 and 2028 can receive a one-time $1,000 federal contribution after an account is established.

Parents, guardians, grandparents and others can contribute up to $5,000 annually to the accounts until the year before the beneficiary turns 18, according to CNBC. The Treasury Department has also proposed regulations that would allow employees to fund dependent children’s accounts with pretax earnings directly from their paychecks.

American Airlines announced the new benefit to employees Monday. (File)

More than 50 companies have committed to contributing to Trump Accounts for their workers in some capacity, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that have also offered to match the government’s $1,000 contribution, CNBC reported.

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American said it is working to implement the new benefits and plans to provide employees with additional information about how to participate in the coming weeks.

Hudson County, New Jersey, Democratic leaders are calling on Attorney General Jennifer Davenport to withdraw the state from its involvement in a lawsuit seeking to stop the merger between Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery.

In an op-ed published by the New Jersey Globe, Bayonne Mayor Sharon Ashe-Nadowski, Hudson County Executive Craig Guy, state Sens. Raj Mukherji, Brian Stack and Angela McKnight, in addition to state Assembly members Jerry Walker, William Sampson, Ravi Bhalla, Katie Brennan, Larry Wainstein and Gabriel Rodriguez urged Davenport to withdraw from the lawsuit, citing potential economic benefits for the state.

The officials wrote that while they trust Davenport’s independent judgment, “The extraordinary stakes for New Jersey in this matter, however, give rise to this rare but consequential disagreement.”

“New Jersey has spent years building a film and television industry capable of competing with New York, California, Georgia and production centers around the world including the U.K., attracting transformational investments from Netflix and Lionsgate,” the officials wrote. “Paramount has become a critical participant in that effort and has committed to establishing a substantial, long-term production presence in Bayonne.”

The Paramount Pictures logo is displayed on the water tower in Los Angeles, California, on Feb. 17, 2026. An aerial view of the Warner Bros. Studio lot on July 13, 2026, in Burbank, California. (Michael Yanow/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The group said the plan to develop 1888 Studios in Bayonne is the most consequential economic opportunity Hudson County has had in years.

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“This is the creation of an entirely new economic ecosystem and a self-sustaining creative economy in our state: careers for electricians, laborers, carpenters, stagehands, technicians, artists, and countless others; new customers for our small businesses; and, critically, accessible pathways into a growing industry for young people and working families who too often have been excluded from the prosperity being created around them. Its economic reverberations will extend well beyond the studio gates,” the Hudson County officials said.

The project would bring in roughly $1.2 billion in capital expenditures in the Paramount campus, permanent soundstages and post-production facilities in the county, as well as permanent jobs, according to the officials.

The Hudson County elected officials also raised concerns over the cost of the litigation.

Jennifer Davenport, New Jersey attorney general, speaks during a news conference in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. Meta Platforms Inc. is headed to court over claims that it deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage compu (Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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“We are increasingly concerned that New Jersey taxpayer dollars are being committed to litigation whose merits appear uncertain while its potential costs to the State and to our economy continue to escalate,” they wrote. “After an exhaustive eight-month investigation involving review of more than 2 million documents, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that the transaction was unlikely to harm competition in streaming, linear television, or theatrical film.”

They urged the attorney general to withdraw New Jersey from the coalition.

“Now that New Jersey is a party to this litigation, whether or not we might have chosen a different course at the outset, the question is how best to protect the interests of the State going forward. We respectfully urge our Attorney General to withdraw our state from this action or work toward a prompt and reasonable resolution of this matter and to be a voice of reason in the room,” they wrote.

“The State should have an exceptionally compelling reason before spending taxpayer dollars on multi-state litigation of uncertain merit that may undermine those very investments,” the county leaders added.

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New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill told Fox News Digital in a statement, “We are excited to welcome Paramount to Hudson County because film is in New Jersey’s DNA — we’re Hollywood East and the only state where film shoots are up this year. New Jersey is open for film business, so we are going to keep building, keep filming, and keep making it easier for companies like Paramount to create good-paying jobs and lay down roots in the Garden State.” 

Davenport’s office told Fox News Digital they had no comment on the Hudson County officials’ opinion piece.

Davenport’s office, in a July press release, said that she was joining the coalition to challenge the merger, which included other states such as California, Colorado and New York, saying, “The proposed merger would combine two of Hollywood’s five major film distributors and two of the five major basic cable companies, extinguishing competition between Paramount and Warner Bros. and inflicting substantial harm on movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and, ultimately, consumers nationwide.”

Paramount headquarters. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“New Jersey is the birthplace of the American film industry, and the state is now a burgeoning hub for film and television production. Given our state’s leadership in the film and television industry, we must protect our residents when corporate media monopolies threaten to upend the industry by raising prices and reducing content choices,” Davenport said at the time.

“The proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will hurt our state’s residents, plain and simple,” she continued. “We will always stand up against corporate monopolists that seek to exploit hardworking New Jerseyans by driving up prices and turning a massive profit at their expense.”

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A drone view shows a sign for Paramount in front of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, California, Dec. 8, 2025. (Daniel Cole/Reuters / Reuters)

Seth Schachner, managing director of Strat Americas and former chairman of Florida’s Film & Entertainment Advisory Council, told Fox News Digital that the lawmakers have a legitimate argument.

“These lawmakers have a legitimate argument, as no one really benefits from extensive legal delays over a merger that could still go forward, albeit with asset sales,” he said. “The states’ legal case is a bit limited though, as it ignores the broader competitive reality that all locales — including New Jersey — are operating in with respect to film and TV production, as streamers like Netflix are essential parts of the case.”

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He also said the lawmakers were “not unbiased here,” as they are supportive of the commitment of Paramount’s 1888 Studios in Bayonne.

Representatives for Paramount-Skydance and California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office were expected to meet last week to discuss a potential resolution to the lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to reports.

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Federal regulators announced a significant safety recall affecting nearly 150,000 Ford Mustang vehicles over a critical defect that could cause a sudden loss of engine power while driving. 

The recall, dated Aug. 25 and initiated by Ford, affects 148,663 vehicles manufactured between 2024 and 2026, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). 

The defect can cause the vehicles to suddenly stall and lose their ability to accelerate or maintain speed, drastically increasing the risk of a crash, officials said. 

“The engine compartment wiring harness ground connections may fracture and result in a loss of drive power,” the notice said. 

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File — The seventh-generation 2024 Ford Mustang is unveiled in Detroit, Michigan, Sept. 14, 2022. Ford recalled nearly 150,000 vehicles over a defect that could cause sudden power loss while driving. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

Officials said the defect could also cause other essential vehicle components, including the headlights, windshield washing system, washer fluid pump, air conditioning system and engine cooling fan, to become inoperable. 

“An inoperable headlamp may reduce the driver’s visibility and/or make the vehicle less visible to other drivers, increasing the risk of a crash. An inoperable windshield washing system increases the risk of a crash,” the notice said. 

Drivers may receive warning signs, including a Check Engine light, other dashboard warning messages or an audible warning chime, shortly before experiencing a sudden loss of power.

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FILE — Ford Mustang vehicles are displayed for sale at a dealership in Austin, Texas, June 24, 2025. Owners of recalled vehicles can receive free repairs from authorized Ford dealers when replacement parts become available. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images)

According to NHTSA, adhesive from the engine wiring, which was wrapped with adhesive-lined heat-shrink tubing, may have spilled over and contacted wiring terminals, or metal eyelets, that anchor the wires to the vehicle’s frame. 

The hardened adhesive may have prevented the metal eyelets from sitting flush against the engine surface, the notice said. The eyelets could then bend around the hardened adhesive when bolted down during manufacturing, creating stress points that make them more susceptible to breaking from engine vibrations. 

Once an eyelet fractures, the electrical connection can be lost, causing several critical vehicle systems to suddenly shut down. 

Approximately 1% of the recalled vehicles are estimated to contain the defect, according to the recall notice. The affected vehicles were manufactured between Sept. 7, 2022, and June 9, 2026. 

FILE — A Mustang logo is displayed on a vehicle parked in Mexico. Nearly 150,000 Ford vehicles were recalled over a defect that could disable engine power, headlights, windshield washers and other critical vehicle systems. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

As of Aug. 18, 2026, Ford was aware of eight warranty claims, four of which occurred within three months of service. 

The company reported no accidents, injuries or vehicle owner questionnaires (VOQs) related to the defect.

To address the safety issue, authorized Ford dealers will replace the faulty terminals with redesigned, stronger metal parts at no cost to vehicle owners. 

Dealers were notified Aug. 28, 2026, and official notifications are scheduled to be sent to affected consumers between Aug. 31 and Sept. 4. 

The full repair remedy is expected to become available by March 2027, once the redesigned parts are available. 

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Owners can check whether their vehicle is affected by calling Ford Customer Service at 1-866-436-7332, contacting a local Ford or Lincoln dealer or entering a vehicle’s 17-character VIN on the NHTSA website. 

Cristiano Ronaldo had not issued any new public statement as of Tuesday regarding Lionel Messi’s retirement from the Argentina national team, though the Portuguese star’s decade-old response to Messi’s first, short-lived international retirement in 2016 has resurfaced widely across sports media in the days following Messi’s announcement.

Messi, 39, announced Monday that he was stepping away from Argentina’s national team after 21 years, closing out an international career that included the 2022 World Cup title and finished with 125 goals in 207 appearances, making him the country’s all-time leading scorer. The announcement came weeks after Argentina’s runner-up finish at this summer’s World Cup and shortly after the death of Messi’s father and longtime agent, Jorge Messi, on Aug. 8.

While Ronaldo has not commented directly on Messi’s latest and final retirement from Argentina duty, multiple outlets covering the story this week, including NewsX and India.com, have republished remarks Ronaldo made in 2016, when Messi first announced he was quitting international football following Argentina’s penalty-shootout loss to Chile in that year’s Copa America Centenario final. At the time, Ronaldo, then preparing to lead Portugal in the Euro 2016 semifinals, offered a sympathetic response to his longtime rival’s decision. “Messi has taken a tough decision, and people should understand,” Ronaldo told the Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo at the time, according to Sky Sports. “He is not accustomed to defeats and disappointments, not even finishing second. Missing a penalty does not make you a bad player.”

Ronaldo went further in that 2016 interview, expressing hope that Messi would eventually reconsider the decision. “It hurts to see Messi in tears and I hope he returns to his country, because he needs it,” Ronaldo said at the time. That hope proved well-founded: Messi reversed his 2016 retirement within weeks, returning to Argentina’s squad in time for World Cup qualifying matches later that year, a decision that ultimately set the stage for the international trophies, including the 2021 and 2024 Copa America titles and the 2022 World Cup, that followed over the subsequent decade.

The Messi-Ronaldo rivalry has stood as one of the defining storylines in men’s soccer for nearly two decades, with the two players trading Ballon d’Or awards and record-breaking statistics throughout their overlapping careers at Barcelona and Real Madrid, and later at Inter Miami and Al-Nassr, respectively. Despite the competitive intensity between the two, moments of mutual respect and sympathy, like Ronaldo’s 2016 comments, have periodically surfaced throughout their careers, feeding into a broader narrative among fans and commentators about the genuine regard the two rivals have held for one another off the field.

Ronaldo, 40, continues to hold the outright lead over Messi in career international goals, having scored 146 for Portugal compared with Messi’s 125 for Argentina, and he has given no public indication that he intends to follow Messi into international retirement anytime soon. Messi briefly held the record for most career World Cup goals during this summer’s tournament before finishing one goal behind France’s Kylian Mbappe in that specific tally, according to figures reported by Yardbarker.

As of this report, neither Ronaldo nor his representatives have issued a fresh statement specifically addressing Messi’s Monday retirement announcement, and outlets covering the story have relied entirely on the resurfaced 2016 remarks to frame Ronaldo’s historical perspective on his rival stepping away from international competition. Should Ronaldo choose to comment directly on Messi’s latest and, this time, seemingly final departure from the Argentina national team, any such remarks would mark the first time in nearly a decade that he has publicly addressed Messi’s relationship with international soccer.