Morning Report

TODAY’S POLITICS story

Trump fears impeachment if GOP loses midterms

What happened
President Donald Trump yesterday told House Republicans “you got to win the midterms” or “I’ll get impeached.” If Democrats retake the House, “they’ll find a reason to impeach me” for a third time, he said, claiming that his two first-term impeachments were “for nothing.” The GOP “can own health care” as an issue in the midterms, he told House Republicans at their annual retreat in Washington, but “you gotta be a little flexible” on abortion funding to reach a deal on health insurance subsidies.

Who said what
Trump’s remarks were a “rare acknowledgment” of his “political vulnerability as Republicans prepare to face a Democratic Party buoyed by a string of off-year election victories, favorable polling and voter anxiety over an economy now fully under Trump’s stewardship,” The Washington Post said. A Democratic victory “could stall his agenda and expose him to congressional investigations,” Reuters said.

“They say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm,” Trump said. “I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public.” Trump’s 84-minute “election-year pep talk,” Roll Call said, “veered between familiar topics” from his rallies and “verbal jabs at longtime political foes,” plus first lady Melania Trump’s advice that he stop dancing. “I think I gave you something,” Trump concluded. “It’s a road map to victory.”

What next?
Trump’s exhortation to lean in on health care puts House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “in a bind,” Axios said. The “vast majority of House Republicans” oppose extending Affordable Care Act credits without added abortion restrictions and “many Republicans see health care as a losing issue for the party, especially in the 2026 midterms.”

TODAY’S PETROLEUM Story

Venezuela ‘turning over’ oil to U.S., Trump says

What happened
President Donald Trump said on social media yesterday that Venezuela “will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels” of “Sanctioned Oil” to the U.S. “This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me” to “ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” he wrote. At current market prices, the oil would be worth as much as $2.8 billion.

Who said what
If Trump’s assertion is “confirmed, it would be the first significant concession by Venezuela’s new leaders since U.S. forces seized” President Nicolás Maduro last weekend, The New York Times said. It was a “strong sign that the Venezuelan government is responding to Trump’s demand that they open up to U.S. oil companies or risk more military intervention,” Reuters said. Venezuela did not comment on Trump’s post.

Despite having the world’s largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela “only produces on average about one million barrels” per day, The Associated Press said. The U.S. “goes through an average of roughly 20 million barrels a day of oil and related products, so Venezuela’s transfer would be the equivalent of as much as two and a half days of supply.”

What next?
Trump “intends to meet representatives of the three largest U.S. oil companies” — Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips — at the White House on Friday to “discuss making significant investments in Venezuela’s oil sector,” The Wall Street Journal said. He told NBC News on Monday the U.S. oil industry would be “up and running” in Venezuela within 18 months, and the U.S. government might reimburse their “tremendous” expenditures.

It’s not all bad

Scientists have created an “e-nose” that could soon sniff out cancer in urine samples, replicating the work of cancer-sniffing dogs on a larger scale. The AI-trained electronic nose, whose chemical sensors pick out odor molecules, is undergoing testing to see if it can accurately diagnose colorectal and other types of cancer. The machine was developed after a collaboration between Dr. Andreas Mershin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the British nonprofit Medical Detection Dogs.

Under the radar

The dark side of how kids are using AI

Children are increasingly using AI chatbots to act out violent and sexual role-play, according to the digital security firm Aura. AI chats “may not just be playful back-and-forths” but “places where kids talk about violence, explore romantic or sexual role-play and seek advice when no adult is watching,” Aura said in its 2025 State of the Youth survey. The findings are a “wake-up call” as preteens face increasing pressure online, while parents are desperate for ways to keep their youngsters safe without cutting them off from the internet.

Using data from 3,000 children ages 5 to 17 and from U.S. national surveys of children and parents, Aura found that 42% of minors use AI for companionship or role-play conversations. Of these, 37% engage in violent scenarios that include physical harm, coercion and nonconsensual acts. Half of these violent conversations include themes of sexual violence.

While the report — produced by a company whose business is surveillance software for “jittery parents” — waits for peer assessment, Futurism said, its findings highlight the present anarchical state of the chatbot market and the importance of understanding how young users engage with “conversational AI chatbots overall.” At the same time, AI-enabled toys are making headlines for their “potential unsafe and explicit conversation topics,” said The Verge. Three out of four AI toys tested in the Public Interest Research Group’s Trouble in Toyland 2025 report could chat about sexually explicit material when the conversation veered in that direction.

Making matters worse, this is taking place in an “AI ecosystem that’s almost entirely unregulated,” said Vice. So the chatbots are “doing what they do best,” luring youngsters “deeper into these dark, disturbing rabbit holes, essentially serving as Sherpas for the darkness that awaits them online.”

On this day

January 7, 1954

IBM and Georgetown University conducted the first public demonstration of machine translation of one language to another. In the joint experiment, an IBM 701 mainframe computer converted Russian sentences into English. IBM dominated the computer industry in the 1960s and ’70s, and though it sold its personal-computer business to Lenovo in 2005, it remains a powerhouse in research and supercomputing.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Alarm among allies’

“President’s Greenland demand spreads alarm among allies,” The Wall Street Journal says on Wednesday’s front page. “Trump gives U.S. foes an opening to pounce,” The New York Times says. “Maduro opponent vows to return,” the Arizona Republic says. “CIA warned Trump against supporting Maduro opponents,” and he “was then quick to dismiss Venezuela’s democratic leaders,” says the Los Angeles Times. “Fear in Caracas amid new wave of repression,” The Washington Post says. “ICE stages big Twin Cities operation,” The Minnesota Star Tribune says. “2 million Epstein docs still pending” several “weeks after deadline,” says USA Today.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

A sober apology

Two stolen mandolins have been returned to a guitar store in Teaneck, New Jersey, along with a written apology from the purported thief. The instruments were snatched from Lark Street Music and brought back a few days later, and the apology note read, in part, “SORRY, I BEEN DRUNK.” Owner Buzzy Levine told ABC News he was stunned by the development and thought it felt like “some kind of weird movie that has a happy ending.”

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.