The Navy’s Supply Chain Struggle, and Trump’s Unusual Oil Deal in Venezuela

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From the New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Will Jarvis, in for Tracy Mumford. Today is Monday, August 31st. Here's what we're covering.
In the Middle East, the US military has carried out its first attack against Iran in more than a month. According to US Central Command, American forces opened fire on Iranian rocket launchers near the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. It said they were getting ready to disperse mines into the waterway. In response, Iran retaliated by firing a barrage of missiles towards Jordan, where several thousand US troops are stationed. Those missiles were intercepted.
While the back and forth appeared to be limited, it underscores how the US is still struggling to secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war passes the six-month mark. The Trump administration has been urging commercial vessels to make the journey through, with guidance from the US Navy, and military officials say they are prepared to launch new attacks on Iran if shipping traffic is threatened. As part of that, the Navy continues to have an array of ships stationed in and around the Persian Gulf, including aircraft carriers, destroyers and other vessels.

**John Ismay** (1:43)
Keeping a force this large out at sea requires the transfer of an enormous amount of material. Think of, if you have 20,000 sailors at sea, each of them wants three meals a day. You spread that across 16 or more ships, you're talking about hundreds of thousands of meals every week.

**Will Jarvis** (2:04)
My colleague John Ismay is a former naval officer and he's been covering the supply chain issues the Navy has been facing. Those issues burst into public view recently as reports spread of deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier.
But John says that even though that ship has been swapped out, the other Navy vessels in the Middle East are facing similar resupply challenges. That's because the Navy's main base in the region, in Bahrain, was largely destroyed by Iranian forces early in the war. Instead, the Navy's had to rely on getting supplies from the tiny British-controlled island of Diego Garcia, way out in the Indian Ocean. That includes food and other critical provisions, along with huge amounts of fuel.

**John Ismay** (2:47)
While the aircraft carriers, they use nuclear reactors for propulsion, all the other ships need liquid fuel, and the single greatest consumer of fuel goes to the aircraft on these aircraft carriers.
So you think about all the fighters, the airborne surveillance planes, the helicopters, you're talking about dozens of planes that are flying six days a week. So that just requires millions and millions of gallons of fuel to keep all these ships going, and all of that has to come from a tiny island 2,200 miles away.

**Will Jarvis** (3:23)
Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has downplayed issues with keeping the Navy's fleet running at full steam, telling reporters earlier this month that the US could keep its naval blockade on Iran, quote, as long as we need to, indefinitely.
In Venezuela, The Times is covering a new, highly unusual deal by the Trump administration that will give the US significant control over Venezuela's vast oil reserves. President Trump announced the agreement on Friday, claiming it's the biggest oil deal in world history, and Venezuela's president, Delci Rodriguez, said it would generate hundreds of billions of dollars for her country by developing more than a dozen new oil fields. Rodriguez was put into power by the Trump administration earlier this year, after US special forces captured her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, and since then, Venezuela has been effectively run from Washington. The Trump administration has said it wants to help revitalize the country's economy and transition it to democracy, but there are no elections in sight, and millions of Venezuelans are still in poverty, which has many people wondering, when it comes to this new oil deal, what's in it for us?

**Julie Turkewitz** (4:37)
My colleagues and I have been speaking to Venezuelans across Venezuela, across the political spectrum, and there was a lot of apprehension and skepticism about this deal. Of course, the US has promised to bring major investment to the country, but what many people really want is an overall economic change and an overall political change.