News – U.S. Plan for Venezuela’s Oil, Gaza Ceasefire Phase Two, Iran Protests w/ Matt Lech and Negar Mortazavi

American Prestige

Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

History, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Subscribe now to skip the ads. Derek welcomes Matt Lech to the show to bring you the news while an infirmed Danny convalesces. This week: Trump pushes U.S. oil companies to reenter Venezuela and outlines plans for a long-term U.S. takeover of the Venezuelan oil industry (1:34); opposition leader Maria Corina Machado presents Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal (7:01); Southern Transitional Council leader Aidarus al-Zubaidi flees Yemen as the group fractures amid competing leadership claims (8:50); Somalia cuts ties with the United Arab Emirates following the latter’s support for Somaliland and the evacuation of Yemeni separatist leaders through Somali territory (12:05); the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire begins as Israel continues to restrict humanitarian aid (14:27); UK Palestine Action prisoners conduct hunger strikes as part of a broader campaign against repression and arms manufacturing, with Matt relaying a statement from the group (18:11); Sudan’s military government announces its return to Khartoum while preparing a major operation against the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur and Kordofan (21:22); China records a $1.2 trillion trade surplus despite U.S. tariffs (24:09); Japan’s prime minister moves toward snap elections amid high approval ratings and ongoing political instability (26:30); the UN reports 2025 as the deadliest year for Ukrainian civilians since 2022 (28:40); American, Danish, and Greenlandic officials meet in Washington as Trump continues to press claims over Greenland (31:06); the Trump administration halts immigrant visa processing for 75 countries (33:15); and the New York Times reports on possible U.S. war crimes involving the use of disguised military aircraft in “anti-smuggling” operations (34:23). Derek then speaks with Negar Mortazavi, journalist and host of The Iran Podcast, about the causes, trajectory, and implications of Iran’s recent nationwide protests (37:11). Find more of Matt’s work over at Left Reckoning, The Majority Report, and The Jacobin Show. Here is the complete statement from UK Palestine Action. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to American Prestige.
0:02.7	To listen ad-free, you can subscribe at Americanprostagepod.com.
0:08.3	Find the link in our show notes.
0:13.0	That's kind of conversation to your soul.
0:18.8	That's conversation.
0:34.9	To your soul. I'm the night. Hello, Hello, American Prestige listeners. It's Derek here with the weekly news roundup. Danny is sick,
0:40.0	quite ill, actually, apparently this week. So we're sending our best wishes to him for a speedy recovery.
0:47.4	And so we're doing something a little bit different this week. The second half of this episode,
0:51.8	I'm going to be interviewing Negar Mortazavi about the protests in Iran.
0:56.0	So stay tuned for that. We won't be covering them in the roundup portion of this.
1:00.0	But to help me get through the rest of the news this week, I've dipped into the celebrity guest pool, as they do on the Tonight Show or the like.
1:09.0	And I'm very grateful, I'm very pleased to welcome Matt Leck to the program.
1:14.9	Matt is from Left Reckoning, The Majority Report, The Jacobin Show. He's all over the place.
1:20.6	Matt, thank you. This was on very short notice, I know, so I want to thank you for doing it.
1:26.2	Oh, no, I'm happy to do it. It's an honor to be here,
1:28.5	and I wish Danny Bessner best of a quick recovery. There you go. We're not even going to make
1:35.3	any jokes about this because he is apparently very sick. So get better, Danny. All right, Matt,
1:41.7	you want to start us off? Take us through what's going on this week.
1:45.3	Yeah, so let's start with Venezuela. Trump is meeting with oil executives and preparing a long-term takeover of the Venezuelan oil industry.
1:54.6	Yeah, it's going to be fun stuff for everybody. Trump met with a bunch of oil executives on Friday to urge them all to dive back into the
2:03.6	Venezuelan market to the tune of at least $100 billion in investment, which is what they
2:09.5	think they're going to need to get Venezuelan oil production back up to the levels that
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