The US has received its first shipment of Venezuelan oil under Donald Trump’s opaque and highly controversial deal with the South American nation. The president claimed on Truth Social that the pact with Venezuela’s Washington-backed interim government would bring the US “BILLIONS of Barrels” of oil. But many Venezuelans view it as an illegal surrender of its natural resources to a colonial US – and fears have been fanned by Trump’s suggestion that “someday soon” Venezuela might “become a prosperous 51st state”.

What are the terms of the deal?
The Trump administration has taken a 35% stake in North American Blue Energy Partners (Nabep), a private firm run by Venezuelan billionaire Alejandro Betancourt López that has been handed control of 17 of the country’s oil fields. The deal allows the US government to purchase its first million barrels of Nabep’s crude oil for $30 (£23) each – less than a third of current market prices, sources told The Washington Post.

“The agreement has raised eyebrows, to say the least,” said the BBC. Betancourt has been subject to multiple investigations for corruption and money laundering, although he has never been charged and denies any wrongdoing.

Why is it so important for Trump?
Oil prices have rocketed across the US since the outbreak of war with Iran, sending Trump’s approval ratings to record lows ahead of next week’s midterm elections. This first shipment “gives Trump a chance to tout access to cheaper crude as ​evidence his policies are delivering economic benefits”, said Reuters.

But the deal is “not expected to have a significant impact” on prices at US pumps, said The Washington Post. US refiners are already operating at maximum capacity, and thick, heavy Venezuelan crude is particularly difficult to refine.

What’s in it for Venezuela?
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has insisted that Caracas retains sovereignty over its massive oil reserves. The benefits of this oil deal are “endless”, she said in a televised address, citing revenues of more than $209 billion (£154 billion) and the potential to become an “energy powerhouse”.

But the deal has “provoked outrage” across Venezuela’s political spectrum, said The Guardian. It’s a “massive land grab” by a “rapacious, mafioso” US, an unnamed Venezuelan opposition figure told the paper.

The Bayeux Tapestry “holds a particular position in British public consciousness”, said The Wall Street Journal. For many, seeing it during its British Museum residency “is akin to a birthright”. But a “class war” has broken out, with would-be visitors complaining about “being treated like Taylor Swift fans on Ticketmaster” while “tech billionaires, luxury hotel guests and museum sponsors get to skip the line”.

Flying visit
As ordinary folk scrabble for tickets via the museum’s online queuing system, luxury hotel One Aldwych is offering guests a package that includes a viewing at the time and date of their choosing. “Art critics and journalists” are also being “permitted by museum marshals to stop and appreciate the thing”, said Lara Brown in The Spectator. But “the rest of us commoners will have no such luck”. I waited an hour to reach the display during a recent visit, only to find that the focus of the staff was to get us through “as fast as humanly possible”. I realised that “hundreds of thousands of people want to visit”, and I’m “grateful to have seen such an important piece of English history”. But I would have been “even more grateful if I had been allowed to properly look at it”.

Smoother experience
“The reason the queue is going slowly is because people are dawdling inside,” said Giles Coren in The Times. And “they are hustling people along inside because they don’t want the queue to be too long”. So “how, exactly, Einstein, do you think they can solve both” of those problems?

British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan acknowledged that “the experience has not been as smooth as we would have liked”, and has announced new measures including longer opening hours, an audio guide and extra seating for those stuck in the queue. But his statement “stopped conspicuously short of an apology”, said The Telegraph. “The question now is whether the museum’s attempts to right the ship will prove enough, or be seen as too little, too late.”

Humboldt penguins feast on fish served in carved pumpkins, during a photo shoot to promote London Zoo’s Halloween events. 

Henry Nicholls / AFP / Getty Images

Almost four years on from his last London stage spectacular, “ever affable illusionist” Derren Brown is back with his signature blend of “pop psychology, nimble storytelling and an instinctive ability to bond with his audience”, said Clive Davis in The Times.

While “Only Human” doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of “Showman”, said Chris Harvey in The Telegraph, it’s a “thoroughly entertaining, at times mind-warping exploration of how magical we still find the idea of being able to predict the future, five centuries after Nostradamus”. Brown injects his live performances with “warmth and vulnerability”, but also with a hint of a “Hannibal Lecter-like figure lurking within that revels in the feeling of tricking us all”.

The stunts featured in the first half don’t feel “all that high-powered”, said Brian Logan in The Guardian. Predicting whether an audience member will say yes or no to a series of questions is “amazing” but “low stakes”. But act two “raises the bar”. Without giving anything away, it kicks off with a routine that is “extraordinary and disconcerting in equal measure”. The audience is left reeling as Brown then puts in motion “one gasp-inducing stunt after another”.

I found the new show “far more unsettling” than “Showman”, said Grace Beard in Time Out. Brown pushes the boundaries by bringing his “more extreme psychological manipulation, usually reserved for television, to the stage”. Parts of it will leave you feeling “completely baffled”. But “in a show all about uncertainty, one thing is certain”: this is Brown “at his astounding best”.

Liz Truss has brought our divided nation together – in mockery of her
Emma Brockes in The Guardian
In these divisive times, writes Emma Brockes, the publication of Liz Truss’ new book is “an opportunity to come together” and “warm our hands around a single point of scorn”. It’s “impossible to summon anything but rage and derision” for this woman of “chaos unrelieved by charm”. Yet she’s achieved the “seemingly impossible” in creating this moment of “unity”. So as she “stares out” from her book cover, “provoking howls of laughter and explosive diatribes from everyone”, I want to say, “thank you”.

Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Bennett must put Israel first and talk unity
The Jerusalem Post’s editorial board
Israeli voters “have had their say”, says The Jerusalem Post. Now comes the “difficult task of turning those votes into a functioning government”. Before coalition negotiations “descend into the familiar arguments”, Benjamin Netanyahu, challenger Gadi Eisenkot and former PM Naftali Bennett should “sit down together and talk” about a “broad Zionist government” that wouldn’t need to negotiate “every significant” national security decision with more “uncompromising coalition partners”. Governing together wouldn’t be easy but “they owe the country at least a serious conversation”.

Why are there suddenly so many dessert cafés in London?
Angus Colwell in The Spectator
The “increasingly common” dessert café comes “in varying degrees of garishness”, writes restaurant reviewer Angus Colwell, but each caters “for the bizarre need of someone who, at 10 p.m, wants to head out for banana chocolate French waffle toast”. Just reading the menus gives me “indigestion”, but they’re popular with “Uber Eats and Deliveroo customers, for whom the pandemic never ended” and “for whom Tupperware has replaced plates”. Yes, it all “tastes weirdly good”, but that’s “because it’s all sugar”.