Good morning. ExxonMobil is close to signing a preliminary deal to explore investments in several Venezuelan oil fields, negotiating a potential return to the country nearly two decades after its exit.

Exxon could sign a memorandum of understanding with state-run Petróleos de Venezuela as soon as this month to explore a deal to invest in a number of developed and undeveloped fields, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal talks could still fall apart or extend beyond September, the people said.

• 50 billion barrels: The deal could encompass fields that collectively have 50 billion barrels of oil buried underground, one of the people said. Venezuela says it has around 300 billion barrels of oil reserves, which would make its reserves the largest in the world.

• Inching closer: The U.S. oil giant has sent teams to Caracas this year to negotiate a possible deal following President Trump’s push for American oil producers to revitalize the Latin American country’s rundown oil sector. The company has inched closer to a deal with Venezuelan officials over time and was expected to continue those talks at the G-20 Energy Abundance Ministerial in Houston this week, one of the other people said.

• Competitor deals: Exxon’s chief rival, Chevron, earlier this month inked a deal to invest $7 billion in Venezuela over five years through its joint ventures there, aiming to double its output to 600,000 barrels a day. On Wednesday, billionaire oil baron Harold Hamm signed a preliminary deal for his Oklahoma-based Continental Resources to explore an undeveloped oil field in the state of Anzoátegui.

• Hesitancy: Several large oil-and-gas companies have hesitated to commit capital to Venezuela, wary of financial and legal problems that could arise in making yearslong investments in a country with a track record of nationalizing private companies’ assets. Exxon and ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, are both still seeking restitution for billions of dollars in losses following Hugo Chávez’s move in 2007 to nationalize their assets.

EU chief reveals plans for curbing children’s access to social media.

The European Union’s top official said Brussels has plans to stop children under 13 from accessing social networks and restrict what teenagers can do online.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, on Wednesday revealed details of a plan for a new EU-wide law curbing minors’ access to social networks as more countries in the bloc have started work on their own rulebooks.

SEC recommends end to its shareholder proposal oversight.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a proposal to remove a rule that put the regulator in charge of overseeing investor proposals, reports Risk Journal’s Clara Hudson. (free link)

The SEC has long mediated shareholder proposals, weighing in on whether they should be voted on at corporate annual meetings. The regulator on Wednesday said it wants to leave shareholder proposal regulation up to state law, adding it doesn’t have the authority to determine whether a matter is appropriate for shareholder voting.

• The House of Representatives voted to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress following his refusal to comply with House committee subpoenas related to his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and nondisclosure agreements.

• U.S. automakers have been eager to consign AM radio to the history books. Instead, they have triggered the nearly unthinkable: a bipartisan push from Congress to save the century-old broadcast band.

• The U.K.’s financial watchdog set out its latest guidance on crypto assets, ahead of new rules governing digital currencies due next year, reports Risk Journal’s Yusuf Khan. (free link)

• The U.S. State Department has lifted longstanding sanctions prohibiting arms sales to Syria, Risk Journal’s Archie Monk reports. (free link)

The percentage of North-America-headquartered companies that reported higher costs from physical climate impacts last year, according to a joint survey by corporate sustainability ratings firm EcoVadis and consulting firm Kearney.

Fed delivers first rate hike in years with unanimous vote.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday for the first time in three years, a sharp reversal that began taking back cuts it made last year and implicitly undercut the White House’s insistence that inflation isn’t a concern.

The increase, approved unanimously, will raise the benchmark federal-funds rate range by a quarter point to between 3.75% and 4%. The vast majority of officials penciled in one more hike this year in interest-rate projections released after their meeting.

• The Key Takeaways From Kevin Warsh’s Press Conference

• U.S. Markets Sell Off After Fed’s Warsh Says Inflation Is Still ‘Too High’

• Trump Says He Backs Warsh After Central Bank Raised Interest Rates

• Why the Bank of England Didn’t Follow the Fed in Raising Interest Rates

What CEOs really think about the AI apocalypse threat.

Chief executives aren’t buying President Trump’s argument that AI’s threats to humanity are a hoax.

At an invitation-only gathering of dozens of America’s top executives in Washington this week, business leaders overwhelmingly disagreed with the president’s assessment that dangers posed by artificial intelligence are being exaggerated. In a flash poll of attendees at the Yale School of Management event, 93% said Trump was incorrect in calling the technology’s potential catastrophic dangers a hoax, as he did earlier this week.

• Forget the AI apocalypse—the real threats are already here, Christopher Mims writes in a column.

• The Anonymous Math Geek Who Quit Anthropic—and Became the Face of AI Safety

• OpenAI disclosed previously unreported incidents on Wednesday as the company announced a new framework for reporting instances of misbehavior by its artificial-intelligence models.

• The House passed legislation Wednesday that gives President Trump new authority to level tariffs and is intended to squeeze the biggest importers of Russian oil and gas, a measure designed to punish Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.