Author: Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY

The U.S. sanctions are aimed at ratchetingup pressure on embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro but could increase gas prices in the U.S.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Elliott Abrams will travel to New York with him Saturday for a meeting of the United Nation’s Security Council.

While the U.S. president’s online missives are often meant to punch and provoke, the Irish ambassador’s tweets are designed to soothe and enchant.

American diplomats in Venezuela are in the middle of an escalating dispute between the Trump administration and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

A top Russian official warned theTrump administration against military intervention in Venezuela, saying it would create a “catastrophic scenario.”

Trump’s Twitter threat comes as the U.S. and Turkey are engaged in delicate negotiations over the fate of the Syrian Kurds.

Critics don’t expect a forceful reprimand of the Saudis from Pompeo. Some experts said the real audience for his message on Khashoggi may be Congress.

Secretary of State Pompeo argued that the Trump administration has “reinvigorated” and “rebuilt” American’s leadership role in the region.

Secretary of State Pompeo’sstop in Iraq was part of a swing across the Middle East aimed at reassuring American allies in the region.

Trump’s advisers are trying to calm jittery U.S. allies amid Trump’s Syria withdrawal announcement. But experts say they have lost credibility.