Also on the daily podcast: Europe’s rising number of STIs and a tribute to Mary de Rachewiltz
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Aug 21st 2026|1 min readListen to this podcast
The rise of generative AI has put new urgency into ancient questions. What is consciousness, and can machines ever have it? We dive into the data that reveal a surge in sexually transmitted infections in Europe. And our obituaries editor considers the life of Mary de Rachewiltz, translator and tireless defender of her father, Ezra Pound. 24 min
#OnThisDay 1907 The Fusiliers’ Arch at the Grafton Street entrance to St. Stephen’s Green was opened. The Arch commemorated the men from the Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War. In Dublin vernacular, it’s known as “Traitor’s Gate”. #Ireland#History
During the Nuremberg Trials, Hermann Göring explained to psychologist Gustave Gilbert how leaders persuade ordinary people to support wars they never wanted:
“Of course the people don’t want war… But in the end, it’s the leaders of a country who determine policy.”
Gilbert reminded him that democracies were different because people had a voice. Göring’s response was chilling:
“All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nuremberg Diary, April 18, 1946 Sound familiar? “We are being attacked.” “We had no choice.” “We are defending ourselves.” “The enemy is at the gates.” “Anyone who opposes the war is a traitor.”
Different century. Different television screens. Different flags. Same mechanism. Convince people they are the victims. Manufacture an existential threat. Turn fear into patriotism. Turn dissent into treason.
Then send ordinary people to kill and die for decisions made by men sitting safely behind enormous desks.
Göring wasn’t offering a warning. He was explaining the recipe. And 80 years later, humanity is still falling for it.
China and Russia are trying to turn the Arctic into their new shortcut to Europe.
A Chinese container ship left China’s east coast on August 15 and is now taking Russia’s Northern Sea Route to Europe. The trip should take around 20 days.
That route is a pretty big deal for China. It skips Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb, the Red Sea and Suez, basically a bunch of places where Chinese trade can get squeezed or disrupted.
It’s still early, with only around eight trips planned this season, but China and Russia are already working on making the route usable year-round.
Russia is moving oil through there too. Around 6 million barrels have already headed toward Asia through the Arctic this season, mostly to China.
And all of this runs past the Bering Strait, with Russia on one side and Alaska on the other.
So yeah, the U.S. is watching. China and Russia are getting more comfortable up there, and Washington clearly doesn’t want to wake up one day and find them running the Arctic.
Venezuela interim President Delcy Rodriguez (C) looks on next to Sectoral Vice President for Economy and Finance Calixto Ortega (L) and Minister of Petroleum and Hydrocarbons Paula Henao during a press conference after a signing of an agreement ceremony between Chevron Venezuela and the national government at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas on April 13, 2026.(Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP via Getty Images)
Venezuela’s new petroleum minister sees her South American home not as a dilapidated former oil giant, but as an emerging energy economy ripe for U.S. and foreign investments in new oil and gas exploration, both onshore and offshore.
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Paula Henao, who took over as the hydrocarbons minister in March after the forced U.S. removal of former leader Nicolás Maduro, told an overflowing Houston energy audience on Wednesday that Venezuela is much more than just its famed heavy-grade crude oil. There are more than 916 exploration opportunities awaiting foreign investment, she said, including natural gas and other untapped oil basins. She cited an estimated 192 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, as well as the country’s world-leading proven oil reserves of more than 300 billion barrels.
“It’s an entire world waiting to be discovered, just waiting for us to reach these agreements so we can develop these new areas,” Henao said in Spanish to the crowd at the posh Post Oak Hotel in Houston.
Henao and leaders of the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, were in Houston this week for meetings and a showcase event in advance of a bigger Venezuela Energy Week in February in Caracas.
“Go to Venezuela to invest, go to Venezuela to develop businesses there,” said PDVSA Vice President Jovanny Martinez, also speaking in Spanish. “We are at the right place at this historical moment. We have the energy that the world requires.”
After decades of cycling between energy reform and renationalization, including the most recent 2007 appropriation of assets from ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and others, there’s still a lot of hesitancy to invest in Venezuela as it again changes its hydrocarbon laws in the aftermath of Maduro’s ouster. There’s a recognition that this could be the last great chance for the Venezuelan energy sector to thrive.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted U.S. oil companies will spend more than $100 billion in Venezuela to dramatically rebuild its failing infrastructure but, apart from Chevron which never left, large U.S. energy companies are mostly taking a wait-and-see approach, despite Exxon expressing optimism. Others, such as BP and Shell, plan to invest in offshore Venezuelan gas fields near Trinidad and Tobago.
Otherwise, it’s a bevy of smaller, private U.S. oil producers jumping in first.A day prior to the Houston event, Venezuela signed new oil production agreements with the Dallas-based, private producer Hunt Oil and the major oilfield services firm SLB, which already works with PDVSA and Chevron in Venezuela. Hunt CEO Hunter Hunt said in a statement that the company is “proud to be one of the first American companies to sign an agreement with PDVSA to help expand Venezuela’s oil and gas production, and we are looking forward to expanding our presence in the country.”
Crossing continents
One of the next deals signed is expected to be with Denver-based Crossover Energy, which sees more upside in Venezuelan oil—both mature and exploratory oil fields—than in pricier shale oil and gas acreage in the U.S.
“Hopefully we can jump the line by taking a little more risk,” Crossover CEO Eric McCrady told Fortune at the Houston event. “We think that’ll open up more opportunities on the back end with more fields, and growth beyond what we have today.”
Crossover already has acquired a local Venezuelan operator to develop an on-the-ground presence and workforce and expects to sign new productive participation contracts (CPPs) with a “few days or a few weeks,” McCrady said.
The plan is to begin operating Venezuelan wells in January, he said, delayed a few months because of the devastating and fatal earthquakes that rocked the country in June.
“In the oil industry you’re always managing risks,” McCrady said. “I think the risks here are more above-ground—the labor force, equipment availability, the political situation—versus below-ground geologic risk, well failure risk, things like that. We’re comfortable taking risks. I think by being one of the leading companies to get in, it gives us an opportunity to hire the right team and hopefully get moving first so we have access to services and equipment.”
He said more work is needed within the country to build up its power grid, develop infrastructure to transport and process natural gas, and further tweak the laws for regulatory and contract certainty.
Since last year, Venezuela’s oil production has risen from just under 1 million barrels per day to more than 1.2 million barrels daily, an increase of almost 250,000 barrels each day. Largely led by Chevron, that increase primarily relied on optimizing existing oil wells, and not by bringing in new drilling rigs and teams.
Venezuela’s oil industry last churned out more than 3 million barrels daily at the beginning of this century and was still above 2 million barrels a day a decade ago.
Simon Sjøthun, a partner with the Rystad Energy research firm, said the world will need Venezuelan oil over time as existing resources run dry—especially with global oil demand projected to remain stubbornly high for decades—and that Venezuela could again exceed 3 million barrels daily by 2040.
McCrady is more optimistic, he said. He believes Venezuela can grow to 3.5 million barrels a day within five to 10 years, citing how quickly West Texas’ Permian Basin boomed to new heights in the last decade. Modern U.S. drilling techniques could do wonders in Venezuela, he said. “Venezuela has been isolated from the world stage for almost 25 years,” he said.
“With the right legal framework and bringing U.S. investment in, I think 3.5 million [barrels daily] will be reached a lot faster than 15 years. We see tremendous opportunity.”
Fortune Daily breaks the traditional barrier between audience and newsroom. The show transforms Fortune’s trusted reporting into actionable, conversational, and entertaining insights for an emerging class of business leaders. Watch here.
Jordan Blum is the Energy editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of a growing global energy sector for oil and gas, transition businesses, renewables, and critical minerals.
