The Latest: Closing arguments begin in Tupac Shakur murder trial

Jurors are hearing closing arguments Monday in the trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

They come after nine days of testimony from detectives, former gang associates and documentarians. The trial has revisited the night nearly 30 years ago when Shakur was shot while on his way to perform at a club in Las Vegas.

Davis is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s 1996 death after he previously said he was in the Cadillac when it pulled up beside Shakur and gunfire erupted. Prosecutors argue Davis orchestrated the shooting, but his attorney argues there is no physical evidence connecting his client to the crime.

Here's the Latest on the trial:

Davis told the truth during a 2008 interview with federal law enforcement because he was required to under a deal that would allow him to avoid life in prison in a different investigation, Palal said.

In fact, he took steps to correct investigators when they had something wrong in their narrative of the shooting, Palal said.

Davis was trying to “thread a needle,” Palal said, by being accurate enough and consistent enough to qualify for the deal, while avoiding implicating himself in Shakur’s murder. But he didn’t succeed, Palal said.

The prosecutor pointed out that Davis described details about the moments after the murder that weren’t previously publicized, like the direction another car in Shakur’s entourage went after the shooting.

Heather Collins, who was born and raised in Las Vegas, watched Monday’s proceedings from the overflow courtroom. She was also in court on the first day of trial.

For Collins, the case has been part of the fabric of Las Vegas for as long as she can remember. Born in the 1990s, she said it feels surreal that a verdict could come just ahead of the 30th anniversary of the shooting.

Collins said she is torn over the case. She feels sympathy for Duane “Keffe D” Davis because she said he’s “not in good health” but believes the justice system should determine responsibility.

“If I was on the jury, I probably would’ve been like, ‘He didn’t actually kill him. He was just a part of it,’” Collins said. “Maybe let him go, but definitely give him some kind of sentence, but not the full sentence.”

Palal reminded jurors of the four statements Davis previously made that were the focus of the trial: the 2008 proffer interview with federal law enforcement, the 2009 interview with Las Vegas police, the 2017 Death Row Chronicles interview, and Davis’ 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”

Davis was incentivized to tell the truth in the 2008 proffer interview as a deal to get out of a life sentence in prison, Palal said. Davis would push back and correct investigators when given something that wasn’t true, Palal said.

Palal said Davis’ statement does not make sense as a lie and argued that Davis could have said he was just a witness rather than make himself legally liable for the murder.

Palal showed a slide show with photos of Davis, replayed surveillance footage from the MGM showing Anderson, and clips of recorded interviews.

He reiterated what witnesses said about the rivalary between the South Side Crips and the Mob Piru, and how that rivalry evolved to include Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records.

And Palal talked about the aftermath of the shooting: A gang war that led to multiple people getting shot, including the death of a young girl.

“It’s not a war between two random gangs,” Palal said.

There were more than 50 gangs in the region at the time, but Mob Piru –- the gang in which Shakur and Knight were involved –- and South Side Crips were central to the gang war, Palal said.

Judge Carli Kierny is reading the instructions that jurors must keep in mind while they decide if Davis is guilty or not.

Many of the instructions detail the difference between first- and second-degree murder. First-degree murder requires a finding of premeditation and deliberation, Kierny says.

For instance, first-degree murder can apply to cases where a jury finds that a defendant specifically intended for a coconspirator to kill someone. Second degree murder can apply in cases where a jury determines that a death caused by a co-conspirator was the foreseeable result of a defendant’s actions.

There are 16 people on the jury panel, but only 12 of them will ultimately be tasked with deciding Davis’ guilt or innocence. Four people will be identified as alternate jurors after the closing arguments are done.

Having alternate jurors available helps to ensure the case doesn’t end in a mistrial if a juror gets sick or can’t serve for some other reason.

More than two dozen people filled an overflow courtroom Monday morning, where spectators who could not fit in the main courtroom watched the proceedings on a video feed.

Signs bearing the case title, “State of Nevada v. Duane Davis,” and red arrows throughout the courthouse drew the attention of curious onlookers, who wondered who Davis is.

A packed courtroom filled with fans, media, and family has arrived for closing statements. Shakur’s family sat in the front row as they have throughout the trial and said hello to family friends who sat behind them. Prosecutors and the defense chatted breezily before the session started.

Davis walked into the courtroom wearing a black suit and tie.

Throughout the nine days of testimony, jurors asked witnesses questions after attorneys were finished asking their own.

One juror asked a former Las Vegas detective if he was able to confirm whether Davis was actually in the white Cadillac the night Shakur was shot in Las Vegas. With a former FBI agent, a juror asked if anyone in the FBI had verified the information Davis gave in a law enforcement interview.

The questions show how jurors are taking into consideration whether Davis’ words are enough to convict him, or if there is alternative physical evidence.

Earlier in the trial, Ingrid Stokes testified that she and her friends were heading home from Las Vegas when they encountered Shakur and Knight, who were friends with a woman in Stokes’ group.

Knight invited them to a nightclub, she said, and they decided to meet them there.

The car Stokes was riding in was one lane over and a car length ahead of Knight’s vehicle, when they heard gunshots.

Stokes said they drove off in fear and almost hit a white four-door vehicle in the process.

When they returned to the scene, police made them sit on the sidewalk and treated them like suspects, she said. Stokes was scared to be seen in public talking about the case, worried about poor treatment from law enforcement and the potential for retribution.

“Snitches get stitches,” she said.

Shakur’s siblings, “Mopreme” Shakur and Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, and other family members sat in the front row of the courtroom as both prosecution and defense presented their evidence throughout the trial.

Most days, they sat quietly, looking ahead at the witnesses or television screens as prosecutors played Davis’ previous statements. They left the courtroom ahead of prosecutors’ showing jurors Shakur’s autopsy photos, grisly images of the late rapper and the wounds he sustained.

Mopreme Shakur previously told The Associated Press the trial would be retraumatizing for the family, but that they’d sit through it in hopes the musician would see justice.

Dr. Lisa Gavin, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner for Clark County, Nevada, described Shakur’s injuries and explained his cause of death during earlier testimony in the trial.

Shakur’s cousin Zayd Akinyela said he wanted to stay in court to learn more.

“I feel like the details, especially for people that are close to him, honestly for me helps, helps the grief process. I think we’ve been waiting 30 years to grieve properly,” Akinyela told The Associated Press outside the courtroom. “A lot of people don’t get to grieve until they understand what happened to their loved one and how it happened.” He added, “That’s why I wanted to stay and just see for my own personal closure.”

Seeing the photos of Shakur’s body made him feel “Very angry, very angry, to say the least, very sad,” Akinyela said.

Shakur remains a cultural icon. He is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time and had a burgeoning film career as an actor. He died as his popularity was peaking at age 25, and his legend has only grown in the years since.

Zayd Akinyela, Shakur’s cousin, said, “I’m very spiritual, so just seeing the body doesn’t affect me the same way as it might some people. I do believe that his spirit is still around and still lives on through his family and through his legacy.”

The story of the drive-by shooting has long gripped the hip-hop community, partly because no one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023.

The other three men riding in the Cadillac have all died in the years since.

Retired Las Vegas police officer Garry Dale was the first of the witnesses the prosecution called.

He testified that he and another officer stopped Knight and Shakur’s car for missing a license plate, warned them and let them go.

About 10 minutes later, the officers responded to a shooting call and found EMTs pulling Shakur from the car. Dale said Knight had been grazed by bullets, but told the officers to take care of Shakur.

Dale jumped in the ambulance and asked Shakur who shot him. The retired officer said that Shakur said something like “no, we’ll take care of it.”

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in the passenger seat of a black BMW that Knight was driving when a white Cadillac pulled up on their right side and gunfire erupted. Knight was wounded but survived. Shakur died a week later at the age of 25.

That night, three others were with Davis in the Cadillac, but none of them faced charges in Shakur’s killing before they died.

Here’s what we know about who was in both vehicles from authorities, court records, grand jury testimony, interviews and Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”

Tupac Shakur: Shakur is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. He had five No. 1 albums, was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

Marion “Suge” Knight: Knight founded Death Row Records, a Los Angeles-based music label that represented Shakur at the time of his death.

Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson: Law enforcement authorities long suspected that Anderson was the gunman. He was 22 at the time. Though Davis was his uncle and 12 years older, he described their relationship as that of brothers, friends and even father-son.

Deandrae “Freaky” Smith: Also known as “Big Dre,” Smith was in the back seat of the car that night, sitting next to Anderson. Although authorities have said they believe Anderson pulled the trigger, the grand jury testimony challenged that theory.

Terry “Bubble Up” Brown: Brown was driving the Cadillac from which the shots were fired.

A prosecutor said during the trial that while few have been willing to speak about the 1996 killing of Shakur, Davis is the “one person who has a hard time being silent.”

“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors at the start of Davis’ Las Vegas trial.

“Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”

Davis, 63, could get life in prison if he’s convicted of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer in the defense opening called the prosecution’s narrative “fiction.”

Davis co-authored “Compton Street Legend,” a book about the shooting and Davis’ time in the Crips gang.

His attorneys unsuccessfully fought to block the use of the book in the trial. They argued it was fictionalized, and that because it had a co-author, it’s impossible to know which portions Davis wrote.

The memoir says Shakur and his entourage “crossed the line” when they beat up Davis’ nephew at a Las Vegas casino. Prosecutors have alleged Davis’ anger over the beating is part of what motivated the shooting, though they have decided to focus more on Davis’ documentary and police interviews rather than his book.

Davis, wearing a blue suit and tie, sat quietly with his hands folded on the table in front of him, occasionally nodding along as his attorney gave his opening, and often scanned the room during testimony to see who was in the gallery.

“What they are telling you, they are representing as fact, when it’s really fiction,” Michael Sanft said. “There’s no facts.”

He said Davis wasn’t previously charged because law enforcement knew that he was “full of crap.”

The defense attorney also pointed to missing documents in the original investigation and distrust between police departments.

He called one detective’s work “biased,” “sloppy” and “incomplete.”

Sanft said outside court that he thought the 30 years that had elapsed would help Davis.

“The length of time is going to be a huge problem for people trying to recall things, to remember things,” the lawyer said. “That’s just not how it works.”

Asked about the oddity of calling his client “full of crap” and similar things, he said, “We all have a family member who’s like that.”

In a 2008 interview with a federal task force investigating the killing of Shakur’s rival, the Notorious B.I.G., Davis instead talked about the Shakur shooting. He described handing a gun to the men in the backseat of a white Cadillac that fired on a black BMW with Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight inside.

As prosecutors played audio of Davis explaining the moment Shakur was shot, members of Shakur’s family, including his stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, stared ahead and listened intently from the audience.

Palal told jurors Davis held onto a visceral hatred for Shakur for decades that drove him to speak.

He said the defendant talked to the FBI in 1998 and again in 1999, admitting he had been in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.

In 2009, he admitted to his role in the killing in an interview with Las Vegas police, Palal said.

“And now 30 years later, we’re going to ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable,” Palal said.

He also showed jurors the 2019 memoir that Davis co-authored, “Compton Street Legend,” that the prosecution will use and that the defense fought to keep out of the trial, along with several of the defendant’s interviews.

Prosecutors say Davis called the shots for the attack on Shakur nearly three decades ago.

Davis’ defense attorney says the prosecution’s narrative is fiction, and that there isn’t enough evidence to justify a conviction.

The prosecution will likely rely on Davis’ own prior statements in police interviews and documentaries to drive home their closing arguments. In multiple interviews, Davis said he handed the gun to the back seat of the car just before the fatal shots were fired.

But Davis’ defense attorney has told jurors that Davis’ statements were nothing more than untrue braggadocio and that he made the claims to make money.

On trial is Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a self-proclaimed former leader of the South Side Compton Crips. Davis is not accused of pulling the trigger that killed Shakur, but rather of orchestrating the shooting and providing the gun.

If the jury finds him guilty of murder, he could receive life in prison. The jury will not make recommendations on the sentencing, which will be determined by the judge at a later date.

Davis’ attorneys said the 63-year-old left the narcotics trade in 2009 and worked a steady job before illness forced him to retire in 2014.

Defense attorney Michael Sanft, left, and Chief Deputy District Attorneys Marc DiGiacomo, center, and Binu Palal confer in the courtroom before closing arguments in the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Pool Photo via AP)

District Court Judge Carli Kierny prepares to read jury instructions before closing arguments in the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Pool Photo via AP)

Duane Davis enters the courtroom before closing arguments in his murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026.. (Steve Marcus/Pool Photo via AP)

District Court Judge Carli Kierny, top right, reads jury instructions before closing arguments in the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Pool Photo via AP)

Former Las Vegas Metro Police officer Charlie Mangrum listens to Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo during the Duane Davis trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

FILE - People take pictures and gather beneath a new sign during a street renaming ceremony for Tupac Shakur in Oakland, Calif., Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Defense attorney Michael Sanft reacts after making an objection during the Duane Davis trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

FILE - Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996. (AP Photo/Frank Wiese, File)

Duane Davis enters the courtoom during his trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

Venezuelans are expressing outrage and the oil industry is waiting for details on President Donald Trump’s announcement that Venezuela ’s acting president has agreed to give an unnamed U.S. company control of vast amounts of the South American country’s untapped oil reserves, at cost. Trump called it “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” but critics say U.S. consumers won’t benefit for many years.

Global crude prices are rising again after renewed warfare between the United States and Iran, the first significant military action in a month. The global energy supply shock has for the first time kept average prices Americans pay at the pump above $4 throughout August, according to the AAA.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told The Associated Press ahead of the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting he’s hosting in Asheville, N.C., on Monday and Tuesday that the Trump administration is prepared to exact “financial violence if we have to” as it pressures allies to join in “economic D-Day” sanctions on Iran.

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Justice Samuel Alito reported being paid a book advance of just over $33,000 last year, according to an annual financial disclosure report that also disclosed two paid European trips for conferences.

His first book is titled “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country.” It is expected to be released Oct. 6 and focus on his judicial philosophy.

Most justices have now written books. Some have reported advances worth millions, often for personal memoirs. Other payments have been reported across multiple annual disclosure reports.

Alito also reported paid travel to Italy, the United Kingdom and Arizona for participation in conferences and events.

Required financial disclosure reports for the other justices were released in June, but Alito routinely requests extensions. He did not report any gifts.

The White House said that Trump on Tuesday will meet with a mix of large and small refinery companies to discuss ways to increase America’s capacity to refine oil into gasoline.

The meeting occurs as the Iran war has driven prices at the pump to a national average of $4.08, a 28% increase over the past year, according to AAA.

The White House has said that increasing the number of refineries and expanding the capacity at existing facilities would eventually reduce prices for consumers. The administration also sees the need for more refineries to process oil from Venezuela.

Also attending the meeting will be Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Jarrod Agen, the director of the White House National Energy Dominance Council.

The highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military says there are no plans to send troops to polling places during November’s midterm congressional elections, addressing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration could use the military to interfere with the vote.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement in a letter to Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who recently asked Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to confirm they won’t send troops to the polls.

“The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections,” Caine wrote. “Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material.”

Brian and Linda Brennan were waiting to see the vice president in the suburban Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights on Monday.

Brian Brennan, 77, said he doesn’t know if he’s optimistic about Republicans’ chances in the midterms because of the Iran war and concerns about the economy, but said he hopes conservative voters will turn out. He views issues with affordability as short-term pain for long-term gain.

“You’ve got to suffer a little bit for the end result,” Linda Brennan, 76, said.

She noted gas was up to $5 a gallon in 2022 during former President Joe Biden’s time in office.

The couple said they expect Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to fight for the Republican nomination for president in 2028 and would be happy with either.

“We’re Catholics. We’re conservatives,” Linda Brennan said. “We’re just for faith and family. Not real complicated.”

The vice president spoke to reporters before he flew to Michigan on Monday about the AI video that Trump posted on social media over the weekend that featured a stylized imaginary attack on Iran’s Kharg Island, which is key to its oil exports and Trump has repeatedly threatened.

Vance then said the president “would be the first to say he doesn’t make announcements about military actions on social media, but I think that he’s sending a message to the Iranians.”

Despite the vice president’s puzzling comment, Trump makes virtually all of his announcements on military action and most other matters on his social media account.

Vice President JD Vance tried to clarify Trump’s critique on social media that data center opponents would leave their communities “backwards and poor.”

The vice president told reporters that Trump was stressing the importance of data centers for artificial intelligence and that “ 99% of the backlash to data centers has come in areas where building a data center means higher utility and higher electricity (prices) for the people on the ground.”

Vance said companies building data centers should build power plants to generate their own electricity in accordance with the administration’s policies.

“If you build a data center, you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out, and if that is happening, I don’t think the data centers are that controversial,” Vance said.

The vice president’s speech Monday is an opportunity for him to assuage concerns among conservative Jewish activists about his views toward Israel and his association with controversial figures like Tucker Carlson. It’s closed to the news media and comes at an extraordinarily sensitive time for Jewish Americans and the U.S. relationship with Israel.

Concerns about antisemitism have surged across the political spectrum ahead of the midterm elections. Republicans are eager to portray Democrats as hostile toward Jews and Israel, but they’re also dealing with their own internal schisms, with younger Republicans more likely to say the U.S. is too supportive of Israel.

Vance suggested last month that some Israeli officials have sought to manipulate U.S. public opinion in order to prolong the war with Iran. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said in June.

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The online prediction market platform Kalshi said Monday that it has permanently banned former U.S. Rep. George Santos after concluding the former Republican congressman likely engaged in insider trading when he bet against his attendance at the State of the Union address.

The convicted ex-congressman had repeatedly discussed his intention to attend the State of the Union, which came just four months after he was granted clemency by President Donald Trump in a fraud case that led to his expulsion from the U.S. House. On the eve of Trump’s speech, Kalshi put the odds of Santos attending at close to 75%.

Then, minutes into the speech, Santos posted on X that he had been waylaid at the airport. Immediately, several social media users accused him of running another scheme.

The president posted on social media that U.S. communities that don’t have data centers will “end up being backwards and poor.”

“If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame,” Trump told the public. “China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement.”

There has been a backlash across the country to the construction of data centers needed to further develop artificial intelligence. The public has expressed concerns about their use of electricity and water, and their secretive development by tech companies. Many Americans are also worried that AI could increase economic disparities and cause widespread job losses.

Data center advocates stress that the local taxes these facilities pay can help fund public schools, reducing the financial burden on homeowners.

As Scott Bessent hosts meetings of the Group of 20 finance ministers in Asheville, North Carolina, on Monday and Tuesday, he aims to focus on relatively uncontroversial issues, from economic growth to addressing mounting debt, along with pressuring allies to join in “economic D-Day” sanctions on Iran.

Bessent told The Associated Press on Sunday that the Trump administration is prepared to exact “financial violence if we have to.”

The U.S. has disrupted the international order by imposing aggressive tariffs on Canada and other major allies and launching a costly, unpopular war. Now hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have renewed, dampening hopes for a resolution.

Daniel Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the George W. Bush administration, said the U.S. may “find it difficult to rally its usual friends and allies” under the circumstances.

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Trump allies called it a win. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said it was a historic deal that helps both countries.

“If it were up to DC Democrats, Maduro would still be in power, Venezuelan oil would be going to China at half price, and the people of Venezuela would be getting robbed by a corrupt regime,” Moreno wrote on social media.

Democrats condemned it, saying Maduro’s capture was always about Trump getting Venezuela’s oil. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., branded it “corruption at epic scale.”

“Will prices come down for Americans? Who knows but likely not as much as Trump has forced them up thru his idiotic Iran War,” Kaine said on social media.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Trump “put our service members at risk to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies.”

Amos Hochstein, who was a senior energy adviser under President Joe Biden, said the deal is uncharted legal and diplomatic territory that carries tremendous risk for any companies thinking about getting involved. Democrats could challenge the deal if they regain power in Washington, as could future administrations in Venezuela.

“There will be a lot of challenges to what was just announced,” Hochstein said. “I can only say, if it were me, I’d be nervous. And if I’m back in my old job in the next administration, then they should be nervous.”

Many important details remain unclear, including the identity of the private operator that apparently now has rights to the untapped oil fields for 100 years, becoming the world’s second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Persuading big American oil companies to return to the region could prove a challenge given the political uncertainty and damaged infrastructure. Chevron, the only U.S. oil company actively producing in Venezuela, declined to comment.

By Collin Binkley and Juan Pablo Arraez

“Venezuelans will not respect this illegitimate deal and no major US oil company will take it seriously because they know it will not last,” Ricardo Hausmann, now a Harvard University professor, said on social media. He said Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president, “has no legitimacy or constitutional power to commit Venezuela to any such deal.”

“One thing must be absolutely clear: Venezuela retains ownership and sovereignty over its resources,” Rodríguez said in her national address. She said the goal is to reach other agreements with transnational private companies such as Chevron, Repsol and Shell.

She added: “We want to be an energy powerhouse, a major oil producer, a significant gas exporter, and a major national petrochemical developer.”

It goes against what they’ve been told for decades: Venezuelan resources are for Venezuela, and no leader would cede control of those resources to the U.S. government.

At a market in eastern Caracas, Douglas Borjas said he’s upset that Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez apparently agreed to 55% U.S. control of oil fields that could produce 65 billion barrels.

“I think they’re doing it to cling to power,” Borjas said. “The Venezuelan people deserve better. Venezuela has resources that can be exploited, but for the benefit of the people, not for the benefit of the corrupt elite.”

Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 3.4% to $91.10 per barrel on Monday. U.S. benchmark crude oil was trading 3.6% higher at $86.40 per barrel.

That has created its own form of economic pressures globally, including in the U.S.

The national average for gasoline in August has been above $4 per gallon every day in August for the first time ever, according to the AAA. It has been the most expensive August at the pump on record, outpacing even the enormous supply chain crunch during the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2022.

U.S. markets are sliding after American forces struck Iranian rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz, the first military action in a month.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both declined 0.2% on Monday. Nasdaq futures slipped 0.1%.

Meanwhile oil prices surged more than 3% after the U.S. strike on Sunday broke a lull in fighting in a war that has lasted more than six months. The Trump administration has announced a new economic campaign against Iran, but there is a significant risk of escalation in fighting.

“The Middle East had finally gone quiet enough for oil traders to start sanding some of the war premium out of crude,” wrote Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management. “Then Sunday arrived, with a reminder that quiet in the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as peace.”

The United Arab Emirates’ air force intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters Monday, the Defense Ministry said, an attack that comes after the United States and Iran exchanged fire on the weekend, the first significant military action in a month.

During the lull in fighting, the U.S. has been ratcheting up economic pressure on Iran with the hope of forcing concessions out of Tehran, including reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz to shipping.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Iran established a chokehold on the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passed in peacetime, slowing ship traffic to a trickle.

As the fighting resumed, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed above $90, up about 25% from the start of the war, presenting a growing problem for Trump ahead of the midterm elections.

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Trump has frequently suggested he wants to seek a third term, posting about mounting another campaign, donning 2028 caps and discussing ways to make it happen — even as he’s acknowledged the Constitution prohibits it.

But lately, Trump has begun showing signs that even he doesn’t really believe another run will happen.

During recent speeches, the Republican president has begun describing life after the White House when his term ends in January 2029, predicting he’ll be at home and agonizing as his successor claims credit for his accomplishments.

“Your next president is going to say, ‘What a great job I did,’” Trump told an event on Long Island, New York, this month. “He’ll be sitting around, watching television. A real stiff. Unless you vote Republican, of course.”

A sitting president talking about becoming a former one is always politically fraught. But with midterm elections now just nine weeks away, Trump is approaching the point of his presidency where there will be more and more reminders that his power will soon wane.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford answered Trump’s “Lake America” decree Saturday with a billboard-sized message on the Canadian shoreline — “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” — as Canadian leaders met the move with ridicule rather than outrage.

The display followed Trump’s executive order directing U.S. federal agencies to call Lake Ontario “Lake America.” After months of tariffs, threats to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and personal attacks on its leaders, the reaction in Canada has mixed defiance with mockery.

Ford said Trump was trying to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were “standing up for ourselves” and argued the name would outlast the president.

“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.

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Besides a social media post from Trump, the White House has said little about what he is calling “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” in Venezuela.

Trump said the agreement announced Friday night would give the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, a step toward his goal of extracting energy from the country after American forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in a middle-of-the-night raid in January and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, described the deal as a step toward economic recovery that will modernize the country’s oil industry.

Earlier on Saturday, she said the oil reserves would “cease to be an inert, cold statistic and will instead become concrete solutions. Housing is one of them.”

But the answers to many questions, including how soon the reserves could be drilled and who will pay to make it happen, were not immediately clear. No text of any agreement has been released.

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President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration has entered a sweeping agreement with Venezuela that, if realized, could give the U.S. access to vast amounts of the South American country’s untapped oil reserves, at cost.

Trump, in a social media post announcing the agreement, said it was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez.

Rodríguez’s government in a statement said the deal involves the development of 17 fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. It said the agreement could draw $100 billion in investment into Venezuela’s oil industry and yield over $209 billion in taxes for Caracas.

Rodríguez in a posting on Telegram predicted the deal “will have a significant impact on our nation’s revival.”

The agreement allows for the United States to partner with an unnamed private operator in Venezuela to create a new private company to take hold of the reserves, according to a U.S. official familiar with the contours of the deal.

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In the photo of a computer screen, a Google map showing Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America is seen Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Venezuelans protest against President Donald Trump's deal giving the United States a stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves in Caracas, Saturday, Aug 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)

President Donald Trump walks to board his presidential limousine after arriving on Marine One from the Ellipse near the White House, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington, on return from Houston. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)