Por Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN en Español

El levantamiento parcial de las sanciones de EE.UU. sobre bancos de Venezuela es una medida clave para la estabilización de la economía del país en un momento en que algunos indicadores permanecen fuera de control, según analistas que destacaron que la decisión debe estar acompañada por reformas fiscales que permitan aliviar la alta inflación.

La decisión publicada el martes por la Oficina de Control de Activos Extranjeros (OFAC, por sus siglas en inglés), que depende del Departamento del Tesoro, indica que las empresas de Estados Unidos podrán realizar operaciones financieras con cuatro bancos estatales de Venezuela: el Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV), Banco de Venezuela, Banco Digital de los Trabajadores y Banco del Tesoro. Es además una de las principales demandas de la gestión de la presidenta encargada, Delcy Rodríguez, que cada vez tiene más presiones por mostrar resultados económicos.

El efecto más inmediato tiene que ver con la disponibilidad de divisas en el país, un tema que representa un dolor de cabeza para muchas empresas en una economía que importa gran parte de lo que consume.

“Al levantar esas sanciones, el mercado cambiario tiene más libertad para que los bancos puedan acceder a las corresponsalías, manejar más efectivo, facilitar las transacciones, con lo cual se espera que haya una menor presión sobre el tipo de cambio en Venezuela, que tiene una tendencia clara a la devaluación”, explicó el economista y exdiputado José Guerra, quien fue gerente de Investigaciones Económicas del Banco Central de Venezuela.

El investigador afirmó que las medidas “van encaminadas” a la fase de estabilización, la primera de tres etapas diseñadas por el Gobierno de EE.UU. tras la captura del derrocado presidente Nicolás Maduro en enero.

“Con el alivio de sanciones, EE.UU. permite a Delcy Rodríguez reconectarse con el sistema financiero global, que era uno de los principales problemas del Gobierno”, dijo a CNN el economista José Manuel Puente, profesor del Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA), quien agregó que hay que esperar por los detalles de la implementación. “En principio lo sensato sería que Venezuela pueda disponer de manera autónoma de los ingresos petroleros. Implica una mayor flexibilidad para que el BCV pueda recibir los dólares”, explicó.

Desde hace casi una década, los bancos estatales no podían realizar transacciones financieras al exterior, al no tener entidades corresponsales. “La medida elimina gran parte de los problemas que tenía (el sistema bancario). Se les permite hacer transacciones al extranjero y varias cosas importantes”, explicó a CNN el economista Julio Rodríguez, investigador de la consultora venezolana Ecoanalítica.

La decisión podría reducir cuellos de botella que frenaban giros a empresas, importaciones o hasta el pago de salarios. Actualmente, las divisas se subastan con asignaciones determinadas por el Banco Central, un proceso que suele dejar fuera a muchas pequeñas y medianas empresas, o con un acceso muy limitado, y se ven obligadas a buscar dólares en el mercado paralelo.

A mayor disponibilidad de divisas, Venezuela se ve menos obligada a emitir dinero sin respaldo, lo que a su vez reduce la presión inflacionaria. “Es importante recordar que si no se estabiliza la tasa de cambio en Venezuela, que está hoy fuera de control, no habrá un proceso de disminución de la tasa de inflación, que es el enemigo número 1 de los venezolanos”, dijo Guerra, quien destacó que en marzo la inflación interanual llegó al 650 %.

El economista Rodríguez coincidió con ello: “Es uno de los pasos primordiales para que la inflación cesara. A medida que permee y e

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By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — Europe doesn’t want to hear any more excuses from tech platforms for why they can’t verify users’ ages.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday announced a new European age verification app that will give users a sort of digital ID card to prove their ages online — without sharing their sensitive personal information with every site or app they want to access.

The move comes as tech platforms face growing global pressure to better protect young people online. But some tech leaders have raised practical and privacy concerns around collecting users’ sensitive information to verify their ages.

Europe’s new app will provide a centralized solution that removes the burden for tech platforms to verify users’ ages.

“Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app. So there are no more excuses,” von der Leyen and EU Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said in a statement. “Europe offers a free and easy to use solution that can shield our children from harmful and illegal content.”

Users will verify their age on Europe’s new app by uploading a passport or ID card, according to the statement. Tech platforms can then access the app to verify whether a user is above or below a certain age — for example, 16 years old or 18 years old, depending on local requirements — but the user’s birthdate and other personal information won’t be shared.

Von der Leyen said the app will have the “highest privacy standards in the world” in a Wednesday post on LinkedIn.

Concerns around the impact of tech platforms, especially social media sites, on young people’s wellbeing have only escalated since a California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman with addictive features last month. A New Mexico jury separately found Meta liable for enabling child sexual abuse on its platforms.

Regulators around the world have pushed tech companies to create more safeguards for young users, or to restrict teens from accessing social media altogether.

Australia passed a world-first law banning children under 16 from accessing social media in December, and a handful of other countries, including in Europe, want to follow suit. In the United States, several states have passed legislation to force tech platforms to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent when minors create accounts.

But some tech companies have raised practical and privacy concerns about age verification requirements. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has advocated for app stores to act as age verification clearinghouses that can share age information with app operators; Google and Apple have argued that Zuckerberg’s proposal would force them to collect unnecessary personal data even from adult users who want to access innocuous apps.

Europe’s

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump made false claims about NATO, NASA, foreign policy, taxes, immigration and other subjects in a Fox Business interview that aired Wednesday morning.

Here is a fact check of some of his remarks to Fox host Maria Bartiromo, who let almost all of the falsehoods go unchallenged.

Foreign policy

US spending on NATO: Trump declared, “This country should not be paying trillions of dollars to NATO.” At another point in the interview, he asked “why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO” if it will not support the US on the Iran war. But the US does not actually pay NATO trillions of dollars or spend hundreds of billions per year on NATO. Trump appeared to be doing what he has done for years: mix up the country’s own military spending, which is tracked by NATO, with the country’s direct contributions to NATO itself.

The US certainly spends hundreds of billions per year on defense — in the neighborhood of $1 trillion in the 2026 fiscal year — and the Trump administration has made a $1.5 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2027. But only a tiny fraction of that spending is sent to NATO. Under an agreed formula, the US is responsible for about 15% of NATO’s direct funding, which NATO says is about $6.3 billion in 2026 (at current exchange rates) — so under $1 billion in 2026.

Even if the US provides additional funding for NATO initiatives, and even if Trump is counting US defense spending in NATO member countries, Trump’s claims about “paying trillions of dollars to NATO” and “spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO” are way off.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf countries: Trump, talking about Iran’s attacks on Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, claimed that they were “shocked when they got hit” and added, “You know, these countries were not expected to be hit.” We can’t speak for the countries themselves, but numerous experts on the region had publicly said that they expected Iran to strike its Gulf neighbors if it was attacked.

Trump and wars: Trump repeated his false claim that “I ended eight wars.” While Trump has played a role in resolving some conflicts (at least temporarily), the “eight” figure is a clear exaggeration. As we’ve repeatedly noted, his list includes two situations that were never actually wars (a diplomatic dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia and a mystery situation between Serbia and Kosovo) and at least one war that didn’t actually end (involving Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo), among other issues.

Other presidents and wars: Trump also repeated his false claim that no other president has ever ended a war: “Nobody’s ever ended one war. Who’s ended one? Nobody.” In reality, US presidents have played a major role in ending various wars by wi

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