By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four firms operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and designated four additional oil tankers, which the U.S. accuses of being part of a shadow fleet serving Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, as blocked property.

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The action is part of the Trump administration’s monthslong pressure campaign on Maduro. U.S. forces also have seized two oil tankers off Venezuela’s coast, are pursuing another and have conducted a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

A set of strikes announced Wednesday increased the death toll from the attacks to at least 110 people since early September. And in a new escalation marking the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil, the CIA carried out a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by drug cartels.

The latest sanctions from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control target ships called Nord Star, Lunar Tide, Rosalind and Della, and their registered ownership companies.

“Today’s sanctions continue President Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro and his cronies,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “The Trump Administration is committed to disrupting the network that props up Maduro and his illegitimate regime.”

The sanctions are meant to deny the firms and tankers access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. People, banks and financial institutions that violate that restriction expose themselves to sanctions or enforcement actions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States “will not allow the illegitimate Maduro regime to profit from exporting oil while it floods the United States with deadly drugs.”

President Donald Trump has announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of the South American country. He has demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago and has said Maduro’s government is using oil profits to fund drug trafficking and other crimes.

“The Treasury Department will continue to implement President Trump’s campaign of pressure on Maduro’s regime,” Bessent said.

According to the websites that crunch NHL numbers, the San Jose Sharks currently have a sub-20 percent chance of making the playoffs. Which is really good news for the Minnesota Wild, as they more than likely won’t have to see those teal helmets again this season.

The Sharks had Minnesota’s number in their three meetings this season, winning a pair of overtime games in St. Paul and closing out 2025 by matching that feat at home, beating the Wild 4-3 in a shootout on Wednesday afternoon at SAP Center.

Minnesota Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt (30) deflects a shot during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Minnesota finishes its season series with San Jose with a mark of 0-0-3.

Vladimir Tarasenko’s first-period goal gave Minnesota a lead, which slipped away only to have the visitors force a third-period tie. Jesper Wallstedt had 25 saves in the loss, allowing goals by Macklin Celebrini and William Eklund in the shootout.

Marcus Foligno finally got his first goal of the season in the third period for the Wild, who trailed 3-1, only to pull back to level with a Mats Zuccarello goal.

Celebrini, still just a 19-year-old, continued to cause trouble for the Wild with a goal and an assist. That gives the former Hobey Baker Award winner 15 points in six career games versus Minnesota.

In the first period, Minnesota’s power play continued its recent dry spell, managing just one shot on the game’s initial man advantage. But Ryan Hartman’s poke pass out of the defensive zone kicked off a 2-on-1 rush that Tarasenko finished off, slipping a shot past San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov.

It was the eighth goal of the season for Tarasenko.

Leading 1-0 after a period, the Wild could take some defensive pride in holding Celebrini without a shot in the first. But the former top overall draft pick made his presence felt just 74 seconds into the middle frame, setting up rookie Igor Chernyshov for the tying goal.

For Celebrini, it was his 40th assist of the season, which is currently second in the NHL.

The Sharks got their first power play of the game later in the second, scoring with four seconds left in the man advantage on a long-range shot that Wallstedt could not see due to strategic traffic in front of the Minnesota net.

The Wild just missed a chance to tie things back up late in the second when Marcus Johansson came in alone on the San Jose net but elected to pass instead of shoot.

After Celebrini made it 3-1 for the home team, Foligno slipped a rising shot past Askarov, and Zuccarello forged a tie before the third period’s midway point.

Askarov finished with 20 saves for the Sharks, including thwarting Quinn Hughes on an overtime breakaway. He stopped Zucarello and Matt Boldy in the shootout.

The Wild will begin 2026 with a three-game Southern California stretch in the midst of their two-week road trip, facing the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, then playing two versus the Los Angeles Kings.

San Jose Sharks right wing Collin Graf (51) and Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin (25) collide during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Walt Disney World worker in Florida was injured while attempting to stop a large runaway prop boulder from rolling into seated spectators at the Indiana Jones live show.

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The worker at the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios park was knocked to the ground by the 400-pound prop boulder after it moved off its track on Tuesday and started rolling toward audience members. Another worker stopped the boulder before it reached the spectators.

Disney on Wednesday wouldn’t disclose the worker’s injuries, citing privacy reasons.

One of the attraction’s scheduled shows was canceled Tuesday after the accident, and Wednesday’s shows were modified to exclude the prop boulder. Disney said it was reviewing why the prop rolled off the track.

“We’re focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering,” Disney said in a statement. “Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened.”

The show is based on the Indiana Jones films and recreates an early scene in the first film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Child care providers and Minnesota Democrats gathered Wednesday to warn that an estimated 20,000 children could be affected by the federal child care funding freeze announced Tuesday.

The press conference was arranged after U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said the federal government has frozen all child care payments to Minnesota after claims of child care center fraud resurfaced over the weekend.

Gov. Tim Walz responded Tuesday on X, saying President Donald Trump is “politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”

Amanda Schillinger, director of Pumpkin Patch Childcare & Learning Center in Burnsville, said Wednesday that more than 20,000 children in more than 4,000 programs across the state could be affected by the freeze.

“Their families will not be able to go to work because they don’t have child care; our child care center and others like us will have to close our doors. Seventy-five percent of the children in our program qualify through the state for child care funding,” she said. “We can’t afford to continue to operate if we lose 75% of our enrollment without child care assistance funding. Our center will close within a month.”

Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, DFL-Eden Prairie. (Courtesy of the candidate)

Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, DFL-Eden Prairie, co-chair of the House Children and Families Committee, said Wednesday that she takes fraud seriously and is “working every day to improve our systems, hold those criminals accountable and move our state forward.”

“That’s why it’s incredibly frustrating to me that Donald Trump and Republicans want to use this as a political vehicle to cut funding entirely to our state,” she said. “It’s irresponsible at best, and it’s despicable at worst, to cast blanket dispersions on those caring for our littlest Minnesotans, particularly those of Somali American descent. Imagine if a few people stole food from one of the nation’s largest grocers, and instead of strengthening their safeguards, they just decided to stop selling food entirely.”

Maria Snider, a St. Paul child care center director with 15 years of experience with child care assistance, said there are randomized audits to check for fraud “all the time.”

“They come. They ask you for your attendance records. It is extremely detailed. Any information that you don’t provide to them on that day, you cannot go back and say, ’Oh wait, I forgot this one,’ or, ’Oh, maybe this one was wrong. Can I correct it?’ There’s no room for that. They’re looking at very detailed things, like, for example, if you have an ’x’ instead of an ’A’ for absent, that’s considered a ding against you, that’s something that they’ll write you a letter that says, ’This is a citation for suspected fraud for an ’x’ instead of an ’A.’ So imagine my surprise at this narrative that it’s so easy to scam child care assistance,” she said.

Attorney General Keith Ellison said his office is “exploring all our legal options to ensure that critical child care services do not get abruptly slashed based on pretext and grandstanding.”

“This hasty scorched earth attack is not just wrong, it may well be illegal, and my team and I remain committed to protecting the people of Minnesota to the fullest extent of the law,” the Wednesday statement said.

The federal freeze comes after Nick Shirley, a right-wing YouTuber, posted a video Friday alleging millions of dollars of fraud at some of Minnesota’s day care centers. The video has received millions of views on his YouTube channel and X account.

State officials have responded to the claims in Shirley’s video, saying on-site visits have been conducted and children were seen at the centers, and that investigations into some of the centers have not uncovered any fraud.

“It’s my understanding that some of these more recent allegations of fraud are based on the idea that there aren’t any children in these centers and that there are falsifying attendance records to gather taxpayer dollars for children who aren’t actually attending the program, but when DCYF (Minnesota Department of Youth Children and Families) investigators go and check on health and safety visits, they usually see children at the center,” Kotyza-Witthuhn said Wednesday.

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At a press conference Monday, Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said her caucus has been “working to expose fraud for years, including working with Nick Shirley and agency whistleblowers to get the information out to the public.”

In a statement from a House GOP spokesperson on Wednesday, the caucus provided some clarification about its involvement with Shirley for his video.

“Some of the information they used, including day care locations, (Child Care Assistance Program numbers), violations, etc., came from caucus staff who found it in the official DHS licensing database and other publicly available sources,” the spokesperson said.