CPI inflation cools slightly; Fed pause likely to remain - In a positive sign for the economy, U.S. inflation cooled slightly in February, despite broad uncertainty related to trade wars and other economic policy shake-ups. But the reading alone likely is not enough to break the Federal Open Market Committee out of its wait-and-see mode.The development is a positive for the Federal Reserve but likely not enough to trigger a rate cut this month..
Why the Fed Considers “Pausing or Slowing” QT “Until the Resolution of the Debt Ceiling Situation” - by Wolf Richter -- No one has ever drained $2.2 trillion in liquidity through QT from the financial markets, as the Fed has done since July 2022, and there is no playbook to go by. Withdrawing liquidity too fast can cause some places to run dry while others are still awash in it. Normally higher yields cause liquidity to move where it’s needed, but if it drains too fast, there may not be enough time for yields to do their job distributing liquidity, and then something blows out, like the repo market did in 2019. An accident like that would cause QT to stop. And the Fed has consistently said it wants to avoid another accident, which is why it slowed QT in June 2024 so that QT can keep going further.And now there’s a new potential issue for the Fed – for its balance sheet and liquidity in the financial system: the debt-ceiling fight and the $800-billion checking account of the federal government. When $800 billion in liquidity suddenly pours into financial markets and then vanishes from the financial markets even faster, it moves the needle. The first official mention came in the minutes of the January 28-29 FOMC meeting: that the FOMC is considering “pausing or slowing balance sheet runoff until the resolution of this event.” So, not stopping QT entirely, but pausing or slowing it temporarily until the issues of the debt ceiling are resolved.Then on March 5, the New York Fed’s Roberto Perli, Manager of the System Open Market Account (SOMA), which handles the Fed’s securities transactions, gave a speech about the more distant future of the Fed’s balance sheet, which paralleled what Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan had said a month earlier [Future of the Fed’s Balance Sheet: How Assets Might Shift from Longer-Term Securities to Short-Term T-Bills, Repos, and Loans after QT Ends. MBS Entirely Off the List]. But Perli included a detailed discussion about the near-term issue related to the debt ceiling.While the debt ceiling is in place, the government cannot raise more cash by issuing new Treasury securities and instead will run down its checking account at the Fed, the Treasury General Account (a liability on the Fed’s balance sheet).Before the debt ceiling was reached, the TGA had a balance of over $800 billion, which is what the Treasury Department normally wants to keep in it. While the debt ceiling persists, that balance will be drawn down. It has already been drawn down to $530 billion. In past Debt-Ceiling fights, it was drawn down to near zero.Drawing down the TGA effectively injects liquidity into the financial system, potentially close to $800 billion. But that’s not the problem.The problem occurs when the Debt Ceiling gets lifted, and the government refills the TGA rapidly by issuing lots of T-bills, which sucks that liquidity back out of the financial system, and very quickly.Last time, $500 billion got sucked out of the financial system in eight weeks in June and July 2023, and another $300 billion got sucked out over the next 12 weeks, to refill the TGA back to $800 billion by mid-October 2023. That was a lot of liquidity to vanish from the financial system in a short time.
Fed staff met Treasury's DOGE team in January, filing shows - Staff at the Federal Reserve cooperated with the Treasury Department to give Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency access to federal payment systems, according to a new court filing.The court filing contradicts Fed Chair Jerome Powell's statement to Congress in February that the central bank has had "no contact" with DOGE.
Dow falls by almost 900 points in market rout after Trump says he won’t rule out a recession - US stocks plunged, bitcoin stumbled and Wall Street’s fear gauge hit its highest level this year as concerns about President Donald Trump’s economic policy led to a widespread market selloff on Monday. The rout on Wall Street started early, with all three major indexes opening sharply in the red. US stocks slid throughout the day and, despite a brief afternoon rally, closed in the red. The Dow closed lower by 890 points, or 2.08%, pulling back from a loss of more than 1,100 points at one point. The broader S&P 500 also plunged, dropping by 2.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeted 4%. The Dow and S&P 500 each posted their worst day of the year. The Nasdaq posted its biggest single-day decline since September 2022. The rout extended a miserable month for markets that has seen all three major indexes wipe out their gains since the US presidential election in November. The widespread selloff was mostly driven by anxiety about the impact of Trump’s tariffs. In an interview that aired Sunday, Trump said the US economy would see “a period of transition” and refused to rule out a recession. When asked on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” if he was expecting a recession this year, Trump said “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.” Tech stocks led the selloff, weighing on the S&P 500 and dragging the Nasdaq into correction territory. The S&P 500 closed down 8.6% from its record high on February 19. The “Magnificent Seven” of tech stocks — Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) — were all in the red on Monday. “President Trump’s comments not necessarily taking a recession off the table unnerved investors who were already unnerved,”
Trump economic adviser: ‘First quarter is going to squeak into the positive category’ -National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Monday the “first quarter is going to squeak into the positive category,” even as anxieties around the economy rise nationwide. Stocks were down sharply Monday, partly in reaction to a widening trade war triggered by the Trump administration, but Hassett said he wasn’t worried about a recession. “[I’d] just be very wary, Joe, of conversations about recession or not, given that we had two negative quarters, that used to be a recession under Biden, and then that wasn’t a recession,” Hassett told CNBC’s Joe Kernen on “Squawk Box.” “I think that what’s going to happen is the first quarter is going to squeak into the positive category, and then the second quarter is going to take off as everybody sees the reality of the tax cuts,” he added. By Monday afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 900 points, dropping 2.1 percent, while the Nasdaq composite was down 4.2 percent. Since the beginning of the month, stocks have gone down steadily due to underwhelming economic data and topsy-turvy tariff announcements via the Trump administration. Last week on Fox Business’s “Varney & Co.,” Hassett said the U.S. is “not headed for a recession.” He also said the tariffs “that are in place with Canada and Mexico are there because we’re fighting a drug war.” Republican lawmakers have given public signals that they are worried over how Trump’s trade policies will affect the economy. “The Canadian tariffs will definitely have a detrimental impact on the economy of Maine and on border communities in particular,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said previously. “We have, for example, a major paper mill in northern Maine right on the border that gets its pulp from Canada.”
US Commerce Secretary: ‘There’s going to be no recession in America’ - Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick shot down the possibility of a forthcoming recession in America, in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Absolutely not,” Lutnick said when asked whether Americans should brace for a recession. “Donald Trump is a winner. He’s going to win for the American people. That’s just the way it’s going to be,” Lutnick added. NBC News’s Kristen Welker noted that consumer sentiment is dropping, inflation has ticked up, and major banks, like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, say a recession in the next 12 months is becoming increasingly likely. “There’s going to be no recession in America,” Lutnick said. After months of threats, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs went into effect this week against America’s neighbors to the north and south, marking a turning point in the relationship between the U.S. and two of its top trading partners. But days later, Trump signed off on tariff exemptions for most imports from Canada and Mexico, delaying their implementation until April 2 — at which point the president plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign nations that have duties on U.S. imports. Despite the extension, the tariff threats are having economic impacts in the U.S. and elsewhere, and they’ve been met with strong pushback. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed the tariff plan as “a very dumb thing to do.” Lutnick said he expects global tariffs to come down in response to the threat of reciprocal tariffs. “Global tariffs are going to come down because President Trump has said, ‘You want to charge us 100 percent? We’re going to charge you 100 percent.’ And you know what they say? They say, ‘No, no, no, no, no, don’t charge us 100 percent. We’ll bring ours down,’” Lutnick said. “We’ll unleash America out to the world, grow our economy in a way we’ve never grown before. You are going to see, over the next two years, the greatest set of growth coming from America,” he said.
Larry Summers: Odds of a recession ‘close to 50/50’ - Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said Monday that the odds of a recession are “close to 50/50.” “I told [Kasie Hunt] @CNN today, I think there is a real possibility of a recession,” Summers said in a thread on the social platform X. “I would have said a couple of months ago a recession was really unlikely this year. Now, it’s probably not 50/50, but getting close to 50/50. There is one central reason. Economic policies that are completely counterproductive,” he added. The stock market on Monday started the week with intense losses amid rising American anxieties around the economy, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing with a loss of 890 points, down 2.1 percent. Since the beginning of the month, stocks have dropped steadily due to underwhelming economic data and topsy-turvy Trump administration tariff announcements. On Monday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said he would “just be very wary, Joe, of conversations about recession or not, given that we had two negative quarters, that used to be a recession under Biden, and then that wasn’t a recession.” “I think that what’s going to happen is the first quarter is going to squeak into the positive category, and then the second quarter is going to take off as everybody sees the reality of the tax cuts,” Hassett told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview.
US Deficit Hits Record $1.1 Trillion In First 5 Months Of 2025 As February Taxes Failed To Cover Even Half Of Spending (graphs) Elon Musk's DOGE is going through government spending with a fine-toothed comb, slashing a million here, a billion there.The bad news: at the rate it is going, DOGE will need a few hundred years to make a tangible impact, because as the Treasury just reported, in February the US government spent a staggering $603 billion, a 6% increase from the $567 billion a year ago...... while it collected just $296 billion in tax revenues...... which resulted in a $307 billion budget deficit for the month, which means that all tax revenues collected by the US government in February were less than the deficit! Said otherwise, the US spent more than twice what it collected in February.Which in turn, means this February's deficit was just shy of the highest on record, and only the post-covid shock of 2021 was greater...... and pushed the cumulative total for 2025 to $1.147 trillion, covering 38% of all US spending in fiscal 2025.
House GOP seeks spending cuts, defense increases in plan to avert shutdown -- House Republicans on Saturday unveiled a six-month stopgap government funding plan, which seeks cuts to nondefense programs while boosting funding for defense. The bill’s rollout kicks off a crucial stretch for GOP leadership to lock down support ahead of Friday’s shutdown deadline with a Trump-backed strategy that has drawn the ire of Democrats. The plan seeks to keep the government funded through September. While it is considered a continuing resolution (CR), Republicans say funding levels in the 99-page bill are below those previously set as part of a bipartisan funding deal last year, as leadership has faced growing pressure from its right flank to drive a harder line on curbing government spending. Republicans say the plan would allow for moderate increases to defense funding to the tune of about $6 billion above fiscal 2024 levels, though below levels previously agreed to for fiscal 2025 under a bipartisan spending-limits deal struck in 2023. The bill also seeks to allow the Defense Department flexibility to start new programs and move funds around, as defense hawks have raised concerns about the military being hamstrung by a six-month funding patch without major changes. The bill will also fund already authorized pay increases for junior enlisted military personnel. Republicans say the stopgap measure would increase funding for veterans’ health care and housing, and it funds the federal supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, or WIC. But overall funding for nondefense programs would decrease by about $13 billion below fiscal 2024 levels. Republicans say the bill would also reflect a request to rescind IRS funding. House GOP leadership staff said ahead of the release that the bill was crafted in close coordination with the White House. GOP hard-liners, who have long opposed CRs, have signaled they are open to supporting the Trump-backed strategy. “The House and Senate have put together, under the circumstances, a very good funding Bill (‘CR’)! All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week,” President Trump posted on Truth Social after the bill’s release. “We have to remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right. VERY IMPORTANT. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he said. Democrats have come out in sharp opposition to the strategy, however. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, voiced strong criticism of the funding plan on Saturday, dubbing the measure a “power grab for the White House” and one that “further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people.” “Reading the CR bill text now,” she wrote on the social platform X. “Republicans are zeroing out the Toxic Exposures Fund (to care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances) on October 1. They cut $23 billion from their own bill they passed last year. You can’t make this stuff up.” Government programs have been running on stopgaps since last October, the start of fiscal 2025. But Democratic negotiators raised a list of concerns over the potential consequences that a CR through the end of the fiscal year could pose to defense programs and military effectiveness, health care costs, pay reforms for wildland firefighters, veterans’ services and food assistance programs. At the same time, their Republican counterparts have sought to pin blame on Democrats over the stopgap, citing their push for assurances that the administration will spend the money as directed — which GOP leaders have panned as a nonstarter. In the last Congress, Democratic support was key for GOP leadership to pass funding measures in the House, due to the Republicans’ slim majority. And given that the House GOP’s control has only narrowed in the current Congress, Republican leadership is taking a risk in pressing on with a strategy panned by Democrats as a go-it-alone approach that undercuts a bipartisan spending-limits deal struck in 2023. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said this week that Republicans are on their own to find the votes to pass the funding bill. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters earlier this week that he thinks Republicans will be able to “pass it along party lines,” but he added that he believes “every Democrat” should vote for the legislation. But GOP leadership will need near unanimity in their conference to pass the bill if all Democrats vote “no.” And a small number of hard-line conservatives signaled on Thursday that they still weren’t sold on the strategy, which some Republicans have griped would lock in former President Biden’s funding priorities. “I’m ruminating on it,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Thursday when asked how he would vote if a stopgap running through September was brought to the floor. “I talked to the president about it,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) also said Thursday, after noting he hasn’t yet said he “was on board” with the plan. “I just got some questions. Is it truly going to be clean? Is appropriations going to add a bunch of amendments for the Pentagon?” Some hard-line conservatives warned ahead of the release that their support for the stopgap plan could be in jeopardy depending on the price tag, while pressing for offsets for any potential add-ons, including in areas like defense. At the same time, defense hawks have sounded the alarm over how defense programs would fare under the plan in recent weeks. “The costs of deterring war pale in comparison to the costs of fighting one. If Congress is unwilling to make deterrent investments today, then discussions about urgency of looming threats — particularly the ‘pacing threat’ of China — carries little weight,” former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) wrote in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.
21 House Republicans ask leadership to limit changes to energy tax credits in reconciliation -A group of 21 House Republicans is asking a key committee to limit changes to energy tax credits passed under Democrats as the GOP seeks to overhaul the U.S. tax code. In a new letter dated Sunday, the group of mostly moderate Republicans asked that any changes to energy tax credits be “targeted and pragmatic.”“We request that any proposed changes to the tax code be conducted in a targeted and pragmatic fashion that promotes conference priorities without undoing current and future private sector investments which will continue to increase domestic manufacturing, promote energy innovation, and keep utility costs down,” they wrote to Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. The letter, which was first reported by Politico, is indicative of a broader challenge House Republicans face as they seek to reform the tax code through a process called reconciliation that only requires a simple majority. Their small majority in the House means that virtually the entire caucus needs to remain in agreement to pass such legislation — something that moderates and Freedom Caucus members alike could seek to exploit as they push for their interests to be included. The new letter comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that his approach to the tax credits would be “somewhere between a scalpel and a sledgehammer.” He previously said last fall that Republicans would use a “scalpel.”The energy credits issue is tough for Republicans because a significant number of energy projects sprung up in red and purple districts or states — meaning a repeal of such credits could harm economies in some places where the GOP governs.And different districts have different types of energy projects — so as one district may have a solar or wind farm, another may have an electric vehicle battery plant. But the GOP will also need significant cuts to pay for the tax credits they are hoping to enact, and the hundreds of billions’ worth of energy tax credits could be part of that.This is not the first time a contingent of Republicans expressed concerns about the potential repeal of the credits — many of the same lawmakers signed on to a separate letter last year that warned against a full repeal of the credits. In their new letter on Friday, the 21 members wrote that “as our conference works to make energy prices more affordable, tax reforms that would raise energy costs for hard-working Americans would be contrary to this goal.”
Centrist Democrats under pressure as House votes on government funding bill - Heading into Tuesday’s vote to fund the federal government, almost a dozen House Democrats in Trump-won districts have yet to reveal if they’ll join Democratic leaders to oppose the GOP bill, or hop over the aisle to help Republicans send the package to the Senate. Where they land — and in what numbers — could decide the bill’s fate in the lower chamber, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is scrambling at the eleventh hour to ease the concerns of on-the-fence Republicans, particularly conservative spending hawks, who have yet to commit their support. Just two GOP defections would sink the bill if Democrats are united against it, and already Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) is a sturdy no. The razor-thin margins have put a spotlight on the battleground-district Democrats, who are under pressure to stick with their party in opposition to the package — which Democrats say is a threat to basic public services around the country — but also don’t want to expose themselves to GOP attacks that they supported a government shutdown. Already, GOP campaign operatives are honing their messaging barrage. The vote presents the first real challenge of the new Congress for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and his leadership team, who are racing to rally their troops, maximize the opposition and force Johnson to get his divided conference in line. Heading into the vote, Democratic leaders are formally whipping rank-and-file Democrats to reject the measure, according to the office of Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip. And Jeffries on Monday hammered the GOP bill for slashing federal benefits programs and suggested an overwhelming majority of Democrats will vote no. “The House Republican so-called spending bill does nothing to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Quite the opposite. The Republican bill dramatically cuts health care, nutritional assistance for children and families, and veterans benefits,” Jeffries said Monday evening in the Capitol. “It is not something we could ever support,” he continued. “House Democrats will not be complicit in the Republican effort to hurt the American people.” To be sure, Republicans face an uphill battle in blaming Democrats for a potential shutdown, since Republicans control all levers of power in Washington and the funding bill was drafted by GOP leaders without any Democratic input. Still, GOP leaders are charging ahead with their go-it-alone strategy, daring Democrats to oppose the funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), and gambling that voters will blame Democrats, not Republicans, for the impasse. The centrist Democrats in battleground districts will face the most pressure to cross the aisle. “The one time House Democrats decide to wake up and do some work, it’s to shut down the government just to score political points,” Mike Marinella, spokesperson for the Republicans’ campaign arm, said Monday in a statement. “They’re working overtime to make our country less safe and less prosperous — putting politics over people.” Heading into the vote, at least two of the 13 Democrats who represent districts won by President Trump in November — Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) — are vowing to oppose the CR when it hits the floor on Tuesday afternoon. “I would support a bill that protects the middle class, seniors, veterans, small businesses, emergency responders, farmers, growers, and producers, and our Northwest Ohio communities,” Kaptur said in an email. “I cannot in good conscience vote for legislation that puts Northwest Ohio and our people on the chopping block to pay for tax cuts for Billionaires.”
House Rules Committee advances GOP’s stopgap ahead of shutdown deadline --The House Rules Committee voted Monday night to advance the GOP’s bill to avert a government shutdown, dispatching the measure to the full chamber for consideration ahead of Friday’s deadline. The panel voted 9-3 to adopt the rule, which governs debate on the legislation. The successful vote sends the measure to the House floor for debate and a final vote. “This legislation helps avoid the government shutting down and allows us to continue our work in service to the American people,” House Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said in her opening remarks of the hearing. “The House must act to avoid a needless shutdown that serves no purpose — by doing so, this body can put its focus and attention on the next appropriations process.” The continuing resolution, unveiled by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) over the weekend, would keep the government funded through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, while boosting defense funding and imposing cuts for some nondefense programs. The House is expected to vote on the legislation on Monday. It remains unclear, however, if it has the votes to pass since Democrats are expected to oppose it in droves — their leadership is voting “no” — and a handful of Republicans are withholding support from the measure. If all Democrats vote “no” and there is full attendance, Johnson can only afford to lose one vote and still get the measure over the finish line. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced on Monday that he will vote against the legislation; Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) is a “lean no,” according to his office; and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said he was a no as of Monday evening. Reps. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), meanwhile, have said they are undecided, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) has not yet said if he will support the measure. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said he plans to make a “game-time decision.” In a positive sign for Johnson, however, the House Freedom Caucus adopted an official position in support of the stopgap Monday night, giving the legislation a helpful boost in the final stretch to Tuesday’s vote. “The House Freedom Caucus supports the FY 2025 Continuing Resolution,” the group wrote in a statement. “Contrary to Congress’ longtime abuse of this legislative tool, this CR is a paradigm shift.” Democrats, meanwhile, have been hammering away at the continuing resolution since it was unveiled over the weekend. On Monday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) accused the bill of seeking to cut health care, nutritional assistance for children and veterans benefits. “The House Republican so-called spending bill does nothing to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Quite the opposite. The Republican bill dramatically cuts health care, nutritional assistance for children and families and veterans benefits,” Jeffries said. “It is not something we could ever support. House Democrats will not be complicit in the Republican effort to hurt the American people.”
Democrats release stopgap funding bill as House GOP plows forward with CR vote -Congressional Democrats rolled out their own short-term funding patch to keep the government running beyond Friday’s shutdown deadline, as House Republicans barrel forward with a Trump-endorsed plan in the face of staunch opposition from the other side of the aisle. The bill would keep the government funded through April, a sharp contrast to the roughly six-month stopgap being pushed by Republicans and President Trump. “There is a very clear alternative to House Republicans’ plan: immediately passing a short-term patch to prevent a senseless shutdown and finishing work on serious, bipartisan funding bills that invest in working Americans, keep our country safe, and ensure our constituents have a say in how federal funding is spent,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), top Democrats on the appropriations committees in the Senate and House, respectively, said in a joint statement. “Today, we are introducing a short-term continuing resolution to do just that. Congress should work together in a bipartisan way to prevent a shutdown and invest in working families and communities in every part of the country,” they said. The long-shot bid comes as House Republicans are expected to vote on their funding plan as early as Tuesday. Negotiators on both sides had previously been hopeful of striking a bipartisan deal on overall government spending for fiscal 2025, which began in October. But both parties have struggled to reach an overall funding agreement amid a fierce debate over the president’s authority to withhold dollars already allocated by Congress and lay off thousands of federal workers as part of a sweeping operation to reshape the government. Republicans have been pointing fingers at Democrats for the sputtered funding talks, saying any blame for a potential government shutdown should fall squarely on their shoulders, while panning Democratic asks for assurances that the administration will spend the money as directed as a nonstarter. “Democrats wanted a lot of things in the bill that were not originally even under discussion, and I think it’s a reaction to [the Department of Government Efficiency] and Trump, you know, that we don’t normally put an appropriations bill,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said on Monday. “And you’re not going to get a Republican Senate in the Republican House to restrain a Republican president,” Cole said. Republicans have called their stopgap “clean,” with Cole saying on Monday that there’s “no DOGE savings in here, there’s no nothing in here.” But top Democratic appropriators have accused Republicans of shortchanging programs like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), nuclear weapons proliferation programs, as well as agricultural research efforts and some farmer assistance at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
House narrowly passes six-month funding bill as shutdown deadline nears — The Republican-led House voted Tuesday to pass a six-month funding bill that would prevent a government shutdown at the end of the week, overcoming fierce Democratic objections. The vote was 217-213, with all Republicans but Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, supporting the legislation. One Democrat, Jared Golden, of Maine, voted for it. The measure now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Republicans control 53 seats, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has made clear he’s firmly against it. That means at least eight Democratic senators would have to support the bill to cross the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and send it to President Donald Trump’s desk. The government is set to run out of money late Friday. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who shepherded the bill through the House, took a victory lap after the vote, saying that House Republicans "stood together" with one Democrat to keep the government's lights on. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., "is the leader of the Democrats on that side and he must determine whether he wants to fund the government and do the responsible thing or he wants to shut the government down," Johnson told reporters, "and I certainly hope that there are enough Democrats in the Senate who have a conscience, who will do the right thing by the American people and take care of business over there." Ahead of the vote, Senate Democrats criticized the partisan approach House Republicans took on the funding bill. But a significant number of them kept the door open to supporting it. And after an unusually long, private Senate Democratic lunch meeting Tuesday, Schumer declined to say whether he’d block the bill — a sign that his members lack consensus on the path forward. “We’re going to wait and see what the House does first,” Schumer told reporters. The legislation is not a typical stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR, that extends funding at current levels. This spending bill includes a slight increase in military spending and a moderate $13 billion cut in domestic nondefense spending. It was crafted by GOP leaders, who took input from the White House and excluded Democrats from the process. House Democratic leaders strongly objected to the bill. Ahead of the vote, House Republicans also approved a “rule” that would prohibit a vote in the first session of this Congress to terminate the “national emergency” Trump declared Feb. 1 to impose tariffs on U.S. imports from Canada, Mexico and China. Over the past several days, Trump and his top aides called undecided Republicans, including Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., to urge them to back the funding bill, multiple sources familiar with the calls said. And before the vote Tuesday morning, Vice President JD Vance huddled with House Republicans at the Capitol to rally support for the bill. Rep. Kat Cammack, of Florida, one of the Republicans who were on the fence Tuesday morning, voted for the bill after, she said, she visited the White House earlier in the day. A positive sign for Johnson coming into Tuesday was that the far-right House Freedom Caucus, which is frequently a thorn in the side of leadership, had endorsed the stopgap bill. “I’m 100% behind this continuing resolution,” the caucus chairman, Andy Harris, R-Md., said in a rare appearance at Johnson’s leadership news conference Tuesday morning. “This is not your grandfather’s continuing resolution. This is a different type of spending bill.” Democratic leaders staunchly opposed the six-month funding patch, blasting Republicans for pushing a bill they had no part in shaping. Democrats also objected to how the bill was structured, saying it gave the Trump administration too much discretion in how to spend certain pots of money. And Democrats have pushed for guardrails on Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s attempts to slash or freeze some federal spending. “The House Republican spending bill is an attack on everyday Americans. It will cut health care, cut veterans benefits and cut nutritional assistance to children and families,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said at a news conference with his leadership team after the vote. “It is unacceptable, and that is why there was a strong showing of opposition amongst House Democrats.” It's unclear what will now happen on the other side of the Capitol. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said before Tuesday's House vote that he would vote for the GOP's funding bill. "I refuse to burn the village down and to claim to save it," Fetterman said. "I probably won't agree with many facets of that CR, but when the choice is about shutting the government down, I don't want to be involved with that." Other Democrats said they were watching to see what happens in the House vote before they announce their positions.
House passes GOP funding bill, sending it to Senate before shutdown deadline - — The House narrowly approved a stopgap measure Tuesday to keep the government funded through September, with Speaker Mike Johnson managing to largely keep his GOP conference united and pass the measure days ahead of a possible government shutdown. The House passed the bill in a 217 to 213 vote, with one Republican opposing it and one Democrat supporting it. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the sole Republican "no" vote, while Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democratic "yes." House Republican leadership unveiled the legislation on Saturday. The bill increases defense spending and funding for veterans' health care, while decreasing non-defense spending below 2024 levels. It also includes more funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Congress faces a deadline to fund the government by the end of the day Friday. With the House passage, the bill now goes to the Senate. But the measure will require Democratic support in the GOP-controlled upper chamber, where 60 votes are needed for passage, and some Democrats have held their cards close to their vest. House Republicans, with a razor-thin majority, opted to forge ahead on their own on the continuing resolution, as House Democratic leadership expressed staunch opposition to the measure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said ahead of the vote that the caucus "will not be complicit in the Republican effort to hurt the American people." Jeffries called the continuing resolution a "partisan, reckless spending bill" and "an attack" on veterans, families and seniors. "Bipartisan negotiations were underway," Jeffries said. "But when Donald Trump says jump, extreme MAGA Republicans say how high, and he ordered the Republicans to leave the negotiating table to try to jam this far-right extremist bill down the throats of the American people." Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic conference chair, said House Democrats "want to support a bipartisan piece of legislation" and urged House Republicans to work with Democrats. "But they have so far been unable and unwilling to do that," Aguilar said. With narrow Republican majorities in the House in recent years, Democrats have repeatedly helped prevent a government shutdown. And historically, the effort to get government funding over the finish line has been bipartisan. But many Democrats had reservations about the GOP-led six-month stopgap measure, warning that it would give the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency even more latitude to carry out cost-slashing efforts. While a number of House Republicans said they were on the fence about supporting the continuing resolution ahead of the vote, ultimately only Massie voted against the continuing resolution. His opposition earned him a primary threat from President Trump, who wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would "lead the charge against him." Given Massie's stance, House Republicans couldn't afford to lose any additional votes. Johnson huddled with possible holdouts on the House floor ahead of the vote, including Rep. Andy Ogles and Tim Burchett of Tennessee. The White House worked to rally possible holdouts around the measure, with the president himself making calls to lawmakers, a White House official confirmed to CBS News. Vice President JD Vance also attended the House Republican conference meeting Tuesday morning to make the case for backing the continuing resolution. Meanwhile, Johnson projected confidence heading into the vote, saying at a news conference Tuesday morning that Republicans would have the necessary support for the measure despite the opposition from Democrats. And House leaders told members to leave town after the vote, adding to pressure on the Senate to approve the funding measure. "We're going to pass the CR," Johnson said, while criticizing Democrats for what he called a "striking new posture" on government funding. "We can do it on our own." Johnson could breathe a sigh of relief on Monday night when the House Freedom Caucus, a group of hard-liners who often oppose continuing resolutions on principle, said its members would back the stopgap funding measure. "Contrary to Congress' longtime abuse of this legislative tool, this CR is a paradigm shift," the group said in a statement. The group argued in the statement that the stopgap bill would eliminate the need for an omnibus bill, a massive package filled with earmarks that lawmakers often turn to under time pressure to fund the government. And they said that the temporary funding measure will "reduce and then freeze spending for the next six months to allow President Trump and his Administration to continue their critical work within the Executive Branch to find and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse." Some of the hard-liners met with Mr. Trump last week at the White House. The path forward With the approval in the House, the measure now goes to the Senate, where support from a number of Democrats will be necessary to pass the continuing resolution and send it to the president's desk. Though many Senate Democrats have spoken out against the stopgap measure, some have kept their powder dry — keeping the door open to preventing a shutdown if no other options are on the table.
What's in the House's Full-Year Continuing Resolution?- Update (3/13/2025): This piece has been updated to include an estimate of the Changes in Mandatory Programs (CHIMPs) without outlay savings, which result in the net effect of the bill to increase deficits by $7 billion over a decade. The House of Representatives will soon vote on the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, which would fund the government under a continuing resolution (CR) for the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this bill would set overall base discretionary budget authority for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 at $1.600 trillion, with $893 billion for defense and $708 billion for nondefense. Relative to a baseline using the original FY 2025 caps (Section 101) on base discretionary spending under the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), we estimate this bill would reduce discretionary spending by $54 billion through FY 2034. However, because the bill continues rescissions to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding from FY 2024 appropriations – which will result in revenue losses – and includes $15 billion of Changes in Mandatory Programs (CHIMPs) without outlay savings, we estimate the net deficit impact of this bill is $8 billion of deficit reduction through FY 2034.The bill also contains about $4 billion of costs from extending health policies, which are completely offset by extending the 2 percent sequester on Medicare spending by an additional two months. What’s in the House’s Full-Year Continuing Resolution? Ten-Year Cost/Savings:
- Changes to Nondefense Discretionary Outlays (relative to FRA cap) -$27 billion
- Changes to Defense Discretionary Outlays (relative to FRA cap) -$27 billion
- IRS Rescission (net effect) $46 billion
- CHIMPs without Outlay Savings $15 billion
- Health Extenders -$4 billion
- Medicare Sequester Extension -$4 billion
- Net Fiscal Impact +$7 billion
Source: Congressional Budget Office, CRFB estimates. Note: Above figures are for base funding only. Figures exclude interest. The full-year CR is roughly equivalent to FY 2024 funding with a few anomalies, including the removal of all Congressionally Directed Spending (“earmarks”) and other smaller shifts in funding between appropriations titles (described in the table below). The net result is a $10 billion increase in funding above FY 2024 levels and roughly flat total funding between the previous two CRs and this one.
Budget Authority Allocations by Appropriations Title (tables)
Note: Above figures are for base funding only; title allocations are comparisons between CBO scores and do not necessarily reflect effective changes in funding due to differences in CHIMPs, offsetting receipts, and other rescissions. Numbers may not sum due to rounding.Importantly, the full-year CR would put both defense and nondefense budget authority (BA) under the FRA’s Section 101 caps for 2025 by about $2.7 billion each. As a result, we estimate that direct outlay savings would total roughly $5.4 billion over the next decade. Relative to a baseline where Congress appropriates at the full level of the Section 101 FRA caps, we estimate that this bill would result in discretionary BA that is $61 billion lower than that baseline through 2034. This would result in $54 billion of outlay savings through 2034.The FRA included a second set of caps (Section 102) that are put in place if Congress has not agreed to full-year appropriations by December 31, 2024. Those caps do not become binding until April 30, 2025, at which point a CR with appropriations above those caps would require a sequester to bring defense or nondefense spending in line with them. As a result, CBO’s current baseline assumes the Section 102 caps are binding for base discretionary spending, and appropriating above those caps would technically increase CBO’s baseline projections.Lawmakers have reportedly agreed with the Administration (which would order such a sequester) to consider a full-year CR as full-year appropriations, which would make the Section 101 caps binding. However, if that were not to be the case, the defense total would violate the Section 102 caps and thus require a sequester of $42.7 billion to bring it into compliance. The full-year CR would also extend $20.2 billion of IRS funding rescissions from the FY 2024 appropriations. CBO estimates that the reduction in revenues attributable to the recession will total $66 billion over the FY 2025 to 2034 period. After accounting for the decreased IRS spending, this amounts to a $46 billion deficit increase. Additionally, the bill continues $15 billion of phony CHIMPs that would result in no outlay savings, which add to its costs. Combined with the savings from lower appropriations in 2025, we estimate a net cost of $7 billion through 2034.
After House votes to avert government shutdown, Senate Democrats face 'stark' choice - In dramatic fashion, House Republicans passed a bill to fund the government through the end of September 2025 -- a major victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, who has previously relied on Democrats for bipartisan support to avert a shutdown. The House voted 217-213 to pass the spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, days before some funding runs out. Following the House vote -- which saw just a single Republican defection -- Johnson thanked President Donald Trump, who helped convince GOP holdouts to support the bill. "We are united in our mission to deliver the America first agenda," Johnson said in a post on X. The spending bill now heads to the Senate -- where it requires 60 votes to pass, and its fate is uncertain. The House's approval has left Senate Democrats divided on the "stark" decision ahead. "There are really only two options: One is vote for a pretty bad CR. Or the other is to vote for a potentially even worse shutdown," said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, following the House vote. "So it's a very tough choice," Democrats met for two hours Tuesday with no consensus on how they planned to handle the vote on the bill -- and the fissure is palpable. Some Democrats are clearly leaning toward casting a painful vote to oppose the House package and effectively shut down the government. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., branded the House-passed CR a "shutdown bill" that Republicans will bear responsibility for in a floor speech Tuesday night. "A budget is a reflection of our values," Warren said on the floor. "This proposal makes crystal clear where Republicans' values lie. After months of bipartisan talks, they're walking away from the negotiating table and offering a non-starter House bill that forces us to the brink of a full government shutdown. The Republican shutdown playbook is dangerous, and it will hurt working families." Though she did not expressly state how she plans to vote on the package, she said House Democrats were right to oppose the measure, and said the Senate should follow suit. "Democrats in the House have showed us they are united," Warren said, when asked if Senate Democrats should be united in their opposition to the House package. "Why should it be different in the Senate?" Separately, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggested Tuesday that Senate Democrats should oppose the measure. "The strong House Democratic vote in opposition to this reckless Republican spending bill speaks for itself," Jeffries said. Pointing to the "stark" choice Senate Democrats face, King said he has concerns that the "uncharted" territory of a shutdown under the new Trump administration that has already laid off federal employees. "A shutdown is uncharted territory when you've got an administration that at least in some ways probably would welcome a shutdown because that would give the president almost unlimited power: deciding who is essential who is not unessential, folding up agencies," King said. "So that is the dilemma that is being discussed." The House has left town for the week after passing their bill. If Democrats in the Senate want to avoid a shut down on Friday night, they'll have to furnish at least eight votes to do it, with Republican Sen. Rand Paul already stating he'll oppose the package. It's unclear what route they'll ultimately choose but some members are clearly plagued by the choice. "They made a bunch of changes, I want to see what they're changing," Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. said. "I'm not happy … It's one of those things once we go through it, it's going to feel like a bad dream. I've got to go through it."
GOP government funding bill threatens to cut $1B from DC local budget -- Congress is poised to pass a President Trump-endorsed funding bill this week that Washington, D.C., officials warn would lead to a $1 billion cut to the District’s local budget, a move that has been catching members of both parties off guard. The 99-page, GOP-drafted stopgap funding bill would keep the federal government running past a Friday night shutdown deadline at largely fiscal 2024 levels. While its passage is not assured, there is enormous pressure on Senate Democrats, who hold the deciding votes, to allow it to advance. But Democrats and local officials are sounding the alarm over the omission of language that would allow D.C. to continue spending its local budget at fiscal 2025 levels, as has been a long-standing practice for stopgap bills. “This doesn’t save the federal government any money, right?” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a senior appropriator, told The Hill. “This is not about a billion dollars in federal funds. What they did was cap the D.C. budget.” “So, this is like telling someone’s city council what their total budget cap is, which is just Congress trying to use the District of Columbia as their playground and plaything?” Van Hollen said he’s looking “at a whole variety of options right now to try to address that issue,” but he added that his “understanding” of the motive by House Republicans in leaving out the language was that “is it was deliberate.”
Senate Democrats say they will reject GOP's funding bill as shutdown draws near — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that Democrats would reject a government funding bill that Republicans wrote and passed through the House, leaving it uncertain whether Congress can avert a shutdown before Friday night's deadline. The House on Tuesday narrowly approved a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through the end of September. “Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats. Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR,” Schumer said on the floor, calling for a one-month funding bill that provides more time to negotiate a deal. “Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass,” he said. “I hope our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday.” He spoke after a lunch meeting between Democratic senators on Wednesday. They went in torn over whether to vote for the House's six-month measure, with some worried that a shutdown would be worse, even as they widely disapprove of the House bill. The government will shut down at the end of Friday without a new funding law signed by President Donald Trump, who has endorsed the House legislation. Republicans control 53 Senate seats and need 60 votes to defeat a filibuster. “There are not the votes right now to pass it,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters after the meeting. “Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so that’s what we are insisting on.” Still, some Democrats fear that a shutdown would be worse than accepting the bill, even though they didn't have input on crafting it. “Quite frankly, both outcomes are bad,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., told reporters Wednesday. “Elections have consequences, but this is an extreme bill. If it passes, it will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground. If the government shuts down, that will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground, and so that is the dilemma in which we found ourselves.” “Additionally, the problem I have with the bill is that I think it advances this project that we’re seeing come from the executive branch, this power grab that does not respect that the power of the purse is with the Congress,” he said. Outside the room where Democrats held their lunch meeting, reporters could hear senators loudly making their point to their colleagues inside as the party tried to solve for a problem with two outcomes they aren’t interested in. “I’m weighing the badness of each option,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who didn’t take a position on the bill. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has said he will support the stopgap funding bill because it is preferable to a government shutdown. Many Senate Democrats said they want a one-month bill to finish work on a new appropriations agreement. Others said they disapprove of the House bill's boost to military spending and the cuts to nondefense domestic programs. And still others say they want guardrails on Elon Musk's powers to dismantle the government without congressional approval. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said Democrats “are unified in not wanting to shut down the government, and what we need to do is vote on the short-term” bill for one month. But Republicans have little appetite for the one-month measure and are resigned to a continuing resolution through the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The White House has pressured the party to get the issue off its plate so it can focus on a multitrillion-dollar, Republican-only bill to advance Trump's legislative agenda on the border and taxes and in other policy areas. House Republicans passed the six-month government funding measure on a nearly party-line vote of 217-213. And with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., as a firm no, at least eight Democrats will be needed to break a filibuster in the Senate. Some Democratic senators and aides worry that supporting the bill would set a bad precedent — they would effectively be telling House Republicans that they can write government funding measures without Democrats at the negotiating table. "That's also one of the issues with what we're faced here," Kelly said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he’s open to having a conversation with Senate Democrats about an amendment vote on a short-term stopgap funding bill. “I think right now, they’re still trying to figure out how they want to see this wrap up,” Thune told reporters. “But in the end, the vehicle that’s available to us — and the House is long gone — that funds the government is the is the CR that came over from the House.” The House is on recess and isn't scheduled to return to Washington until March 24. Another Senate Republican said it's too late to change the bill now. “The problem is, if it passes here, then the House is gone and we get a shutdown on Friday,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday. “So I don’t believe there’s going to be an amendment vote on the short term CR, I could be wrong.” Time is quickly running out. The Senate can’t vote on any bill by the Friday midnight deadline unless all 100 senators agree to skip the hurdles. “At least for now, I don’t see the votes. Based on my reading of the end of the meeting, I don’t see the votes there right now for passing the House Republican” bill Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told reporters Wednesday. Republicans are betting that Democrats won't have the appetite to allow a shutdown despite their disagreements with the House bill. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., slammed House Republicans for cutting Democrats out of the process and said they will be blamed for a potential shutdown. “Republicans are in charge of the Senate, in charge of the House, and have the White House. The American people know who’s in charge,” he said. “It’s ridiculous for Republicans to try to blame the party that’s the minority everywhere.” Meanwhile, at their retreat in Leesburg, Virginia, House Democrats urged their Senate colleagues to block the bill. All but one, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted against the funding bill Tuesday. "We’re asking Senate Democrats to vote no on this continuing resolution, which is not clean, and it makes cuts across the board," Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said. "And it’s going to be one of those things where people are going to look at this vote and every bad thing that now happens with DOGE and Donald Trump, Elon Musk, you can go back to this vote. So we’re asking the Senate Democrats to vote no.">
Senate Democrats appear ready to back down in government shutdown fight - Senate Democrats say the six-month government funding resolution that passed the House Tuesday is a “horrible” bill, but there’s growing sentiment within the Senate Democratic conference that it would be too risky to block the legislation and risk a government shutdown that could drag on for weeks. Senate Democrats battled behind closed doors Tuesday over how to handle the House bill, with a number of Democrats — especially those in swing states — arguing a government shutdown must be avoided, even if it means reluctantly voting for a House GOP-drafted bill. Several centrists warned there’s no clear endgame for ending a government shutdown if Democrats defeat the House-passed measure, which would increase defense spending by $6 billion, boost funding for border security and cut nondefense programs by $13 billion. The bill passed the House 217-213 Tuesday afternoon, with only one Democrat voting in favor. But the political calculus is different for Democrats in the Senate, because their votes will be needed to avoid a shutdown. Senate Republicans control 53 seats and would need at least eight Democratic votes to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a staunch fiscal conservative, says he would vote against the stopgap measure for not doing enough to cut the deficit. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said he will vote to keep the government open, even if he’s not a fan of the House-passed funding stopgap. “I’ve been very clear: I’m not going [to] vote or withhold my vote that’s going to shut down the government,” Fetterman told The Hill.
Senate Democrats demand vote on 30-day CR before considering House funding bill - Senate Democrats say they will not vote for the House-passed six-month government funding package, which would boost defense spending and cut nondefense programs, unless they first get a vote on a 30-day funding stopgap to give bipartisan negotiators more time to reach a deal on the annual appropriations bills. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) announced on the floor that Democratic senators would not vote to advance the House bill — at least not now — and called for the Senate to instead pass a 30-day “clean” government funding stopgap. “Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input, any input from congressional Democrats. Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR [continuing resolution],” he said. “Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass. We should vote on that. I hope, I hope our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday,” Schumer added. Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority, which means 13 GOP members would need to vote with all Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold most legislation needs to reach to advance in the upper chamber. Another major problem is that the House adjourned for the week after passing its six-month government funding measure. Even if the Senate manages to pass a 30-day stopgap, there’s no guarantee the House will pick it up before government funding lapses Friday. It remains unclear whether Republicans will go along with the play. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) did not fully shoot down the idea. “I think there would have to be some understanding,” he told The Hill on Wednesday evening. “We’ll see. I’m not sure exactly what their demand is — if they just need a vote on that, and if in exchange for that they’ll give us the votes to fund the government.”
Thune ‘open’ to giving Dems amendment vote to help keep government open - Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Thursday that Republicans are open to giving Democrats an amendment vote on a monthlong stopgap funding patch in exchange for votes to help Republicans pass a yearlong spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Thune told reporters he has yet to speak directly with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on a path forward. “If they want a vote on that in exchange for getting us the votes to pass the [CR] to Sept. 30, I think we’re open to that,” Thune said Thursday morning. “But as you all know, the House is gone, so whatever happens is going to have to be the final action here, and really it’s up to them.”“We haven’t heard from them yet. I think they’re still trying to figure out what their plan is, what their path forward is,” Thune said about Schumer’s team, adding that he wasn’t sure whether a shutdown is in the cards. “I don’t know. We’ll see. I hope not. It’s up to them. It’s their call. The ball is in their court.” Senate Democrats have been agonizing for days over whether to back the GOP’s bill, which only one House Democrat voted for, or to force a shutdown as they believe the bill gives even more power to President Trump and Elon Musk over spending and cutting. They emerged from a second lengthy conference luncheon Wednesday rallied behind a possible monthlong measure, with an eye toward an amendment vote that would give them political cover from a base that is angry over many of the initial actions of the Trump administration, including a purge of government employees.
Senate Democrats struggle with funding dilemma as shutdown deadline looms - Senate Democrats are staring down a major dilemma as they agonize over how to handle the GOP’s stopgap spending bill in the face of a potential government shutdown by the end of the week. Democrats head toward the Friday deadline trying to reckon with a problem few in the conference fully know how to wrap their arms around: a no-win situation, with every avenue available being equally thorny.They held a second lengthy party luncheon in as many days on Wednesday in search of consensus on the best way out of the morass; they emerged with a plan to insist on a vote on a 30-day continuing resolution (CR) before they would consider voting for Republicans’ six-month plan.The 30-day CR, however, is almost certainly not viable. And while Senate Democrats said Wednesday they won’t vote to advance Republicans’ bill, pressure on them will only increase.Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent the House home after the chamber passed the GOP six-month CR mostly along party lines on Tuesday. The House isn’t slated to be back until March 24, leaving Senate Democrats few options beyond eating the GOP’s stopgap measure or allowing the government to shut down. Neither is palatable to them. “They’re both horrible outcomes,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said ahead of Wednesday’s luncheon. “I went to sleep last night. I stayed up late and really thought about it. Had one decision in mind. Woke up and realized, ‘No, I don’t. That’s not the right [decision].'”“It’s just hard,” he continued. “This is the most frustrating issue that I’ve seen since I’ve been here.” Democrats are contending with competing concerns on several fronts.On the legislative side, the party believes the Republican-led CR, which largely funds the government through the end of September at levels set under the Biden administration, only gives President Trump and Elon Musk further control over a government workforce they have sought to slash since coming into office. And while Republicans cast their bill as a “clean” CR, Democrats note that it includes $13 billion in cuts to nondefense spending that Democrats warn will impact federal housing, nutrition and health care programs, among others. However, Democrats are also acutely aware of the optics of forcing a government shutdown, which would make them party to more than 2 million government workers being furloughed without pay.They would also likely receive at least some of the blame for a shutdown, potentially putting Senate Democrats — especially those in swing states — in political peril. “There’s no easy call,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who announced later on Wednesday that he opposes the House bill.
Newsom tells Senate Dems to ‘do the right thing,’ oppose CR - California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has called on Senate Democrats “to stand up and do the right thing” and vote no on the GOP-backed stopgap bill that would avert a looming government shutdown. “Passing this bill would give Republicans 6 months to consolidate power in the Executive branch and wreak havoc on our country. They are already threatening social security and Medicare. Gutting the Department of Education. Firing veterans. Vandalizing basic environmental protections. This will only allow them to continue that,” he said Friday in a post on social platform X. “They will go on to cut funding and punish states that don’t do their bidding. There’s still time to do the right thing. VOTE NO,” he added. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), who like Newsom is seen as a prospective presidential candidate for Democrats, also urged his party to oppose the measure. “Republicans in Congress have abdicated their responsibility to critically evaluate the damage Donald Trump is doing to critical services the American people need. Democrats have the ability to force bipartisanship and bring the two sides together to make a budget that reflects priorities we all ought to share,” he said in a statement Friday. Pritzker called Republicans “reckless,” accusing them of playing politics with people’s livelihood. “Veterans will have trouble getting healthcare. Workers will lose jobs when infrastructure projects grind to a halt. Preschools will lose teachers and parents will be left without childcare. Make no mistake: people will suffer the consequences of their negligence,” he said. The House approved the spending measure earlier this week, but just one House Democrat supported it. In the Senate, progressive Democrats have been calling on their party to oppose the measure, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday evening he would back the measure. Schumer said he thought the GOP bill was bad legislation but that a shutdown would be worse. It appeared that 10 Senate Democrats including Schumer would back the measure, which would give the legislation more than the 60 votes needed for passage.\
Spending bill to get key Senate vote as clock ticks down to government shutdown - The Senate will take a key procedural vote on Friday afternoon to potentially tee up final passage of a crucial stopgap government spending bill to avoid a shutdown as time runs out. After tense caucus meetings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed that he would vote for the House-passed short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), because "a shutdown would be a gift" for President Donald Trump and Republicans. The Friday cloture vote was scheduled shortly after his Thursday evening announcement. It will take place shortly after 1:15 p.m. ET.In order to move forward to a final passage vote, the stopgap bill will need 60 favorable votes to beat what's known as the legislative filibuster. During a partial government shutdown, federal agencies and non-essential services would be halted. However, government functions deemed "essential" would continue. National security protocols, such as border patrol, law enforcement and disaster response, stay active during shutdowns, for example. House Republicans managed to pass a CR earlier in the week that would keep spending levels the same as fiscal year (FY) 2024 until Oct. 1. But if a spending bill is not passed by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, the government will enter into a partial shutdown.While some Senate Democrats, such as Schumer and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., have committed to supporting the CR, far more of their colleagues have publicly stated that they will oppose it. "The House bill also irresponsibly fails to impose any constraints on the reckless and out-of-control Trump Administration," Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said in a late Thursday statement. "I will oppose the House budget proposal. The best available solution is a 30-day stopgap funding measure to avoid a shutdown, during which time Congress can do its job to properly pass a bipartisan budget," he said. Democrats had pushed for a month-long CR, but Republicans didn't budge from the House-passed plan.
Senate Passes GOP Bill, Avoiding Government Shutdown - Congressional Democrats are in full revolt after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) folded like a wet paper napkin and agreed to vote 'yes' on the House-passed government funding measure that effectively ends the shutdown fight as long as six more Democrats join Schumer and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) who's a 'yes' as well. As it stands, the Senate will vote this afternoon to overcome a filibuster of the House's continuing resolution, which funds federal agencies through Sept. 30 at current 2024 levels, but also includes approximately $13 billion in cuts to nondefense programs, and $6 billion in additional military spending. It's unclear what time the vote will occur, as both sides are working to secure an agreement to allow senators to finish before the midnight shutdown deadline and head home for a weeklong recess. Schumer claims he has no choice, saying that a shutdown would be a "gift" to the Trump administration, and "the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda." "It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option," he said Thursday on the Senate floor. On Thursday night, Schumer went on MSNBC to pretend he was outraged, but just had to pass the bill (and call Republicans 'bastards.') Update (1700ET): After a dramatic game of chicken and House Democrats freaking out over Chuck Schumer's 'betrayal,' the Senate has enough votes to advance the GOP-crafted government funding bill past the 60-vote procedural threshold to advance to a final vote (aka the 'pre-vote' or 'test-vote' before the big-boy vote). With Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voting no, at least eight Democrats needed to join the other 52 Republicans in addition to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Those who joined R's included; Durbin, King, Schatz, Cortez Masto, Hassan, Peters, Gillibrand and Fetterman... The vote is ongoing. Now - we wait for the big vote, after which the Senate will call it a night and go on vacation for a week unless for some reason enough Republicans suddenly vote 'no' and we're back in disarray. Update (1831ET): The Senate passed the House Republican-drafted bill on Friday to fund the government through September, avoiding a government shutdown just hours before a midnight deadline. cThe final vote of 54-46 - which did not require 60 votes (only the previous Cloture vote did), was mostly along party lines - with two members of the Democratic caucus voting for the bill; Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) - who is retiring at the end of her term, and Angus King (Maine). Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), as expected, voted no.The bill will now move to President Donald Trump's desk, who will have to sign it before midnight to avert a shutdown. Assuming that's the case (and we do assume that), we get to do this all over again in September. Joy of joys!
10 Democrats help Republicans advance GOP funding bill to avoid shutdown --A group of 10 Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on Friday voted to advance a Republican-crafted bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, taking a crucial step toward avoiding a government shutdown while infuriating many within their party. The pivotal procedural vote, which passed 62-38, puts the bill on a glide path to pass the Senate sometime Friday afternoon, despite fierce opposition from many Democrats. The Democrats who voted to advance the measure also included Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced an agreement shortly before 4:30 p.m. EDT Friday to vote to immediately advance the House-passed funding bill and consider four amendments to the legislation. One amendment sponsored by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) would reinstate veterans who were fired from their federal jobs under Trump. Another, sponsored by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), would eliminate the Department of Government Efficiency. A third, sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), would codify the cuts to foreign assistance recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency. All of the amendments are expected to fail.
Funding bill grants Trump, Musk more control over federal spending -- The spending bill that the Senate passed Friday could bolster President Donald Trump’s push to wrest power away from Congress, giving the administration even greater control over the budget as he seeks to shrink the federal government. Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service have aggressively pushed the legal limits of the president’s power over government spending, dismantling departments and eliminating hundreds, if not thousands, of federal functions without authorization by lawmakers. Although courts have blocked some of these moves, many congressional Democrats had hoped to use the deadline over government funding to force Republicans to reverse — or at least limit — the Trump administration’s unilateral cuts. But the GOP-written spending bill, pushed through the House on a near party-line vote by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) earlier this week, could give Trump a freer hand to redirect funds as he sees fit, according to congressional Democrats and several nonpartisan budget experts. Regular appropriations laws are agreed to with accompanying reports that detail with great specificity how money should be spent. In the last fiscal year, for instance, an appropriations law allocated $3.2 billion for Environmental Protection Agency operations, and the accompanying report specified amounts devoted to cleaning brownfields, ensuring clean air, carrying out environmental justice programs and many other functions. The measure that lawmakers passed this week, though, is what’s known as a “continuing resolution” that largely extends funding at existing levels and does not include the additional instructions from Congress. So while the EPA will get the same $3.2 billion that Congress allocated to it earlier, the administration could repurpose funds from the specific programs they were intended to cover. Democrats had hoped to include language in the bill requiring Trump to spend all the money in the measure and potentially thwart the unilateral cuts Trump and Musk are pursuing to agencies like the Education Department and Social Security Administration. But because Johnson was able to persuade all but one House Republican to back the measure, the GOP didn’t need any Democratic votes — which meant Republicans didn’t need to negotiate over that language before sending the bill to the Senate, where enough Democrats agreed to let the measure proceed to ease passage Friday and avert a shutdown. “It is a huge move to give the White House and DOGE more power of the purse — they will have much more discretion over how to spend money,” Some Democrats, such as Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York), have maintained that the party would be in an even worse place if Democrats rejected the deal and triggered a government shutdown. On the Senate floor, Schumer called the GOP bill a “terrible option” but added: “I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
Pelosi shades Schumer on funding bill: ‘Listen to the women’ Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday issued a blistering statement on how senators should handle a government funding vote that, without naming him, dinged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “Democratic senators should listen to the women,” Pelosi said. “Appropriations leaders [Rep.] Rosa DeLauro [D-Conn.] and [Sen.] Patty Murray [D-Wash.] have eloquently presented the case that we must have a better choice: a four-week funding extension to keep government open and negotiate a bipartisan agreement.” “America has experienced a Trump shutdown before – but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People,” Pelosi said. The statement comes a day after Schumer announced that he would vote to advance the House GOP-drafted stopgap bill to fund the government until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, averting a government shutdown that would start early Saturday morning. Senate Republicans need at least eight Democrats to vote with them to advance the measure. Schumer argued that while the continuing resolution (CR) is “very bad,” “the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” saying he believes it would allow President Trump “to take even much more power via a government shutdown.” That position comes despite a wave of Senate Democrats opposing the funding bill, even those in competitive districts. Just one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (Maine), voted for the funding patch in the House earlier this week after Democratic leaders there urged their caucus to vote against it.
Ukraine's Zelensky faces Trump's pressure ahead of talks - President Trump is inflicting mounting pain on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of planned talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, as U.S. officials look to secure concessions Trump can bring to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a peace deal. The summit of top U.S. and Ukrainian envoys in Jeddah this week follows Zelensky’s explosive visit to the White House on Feb. 28, when Trump and Vice President Vance called the war-time leader ungrateful and unwilling to move toward a ceasefire. In the 10 days since, Trump has suspended U.S. military aid to Ukraine, halted intelligence support for strikes on Russia, and talked about potentially deporting tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who fled from the war. Zelensky has consistently signaled Ukraine’s willingness to sign a mineral rights deal with the U.S. However, Trump said this weekend that the economic deal alone would not be enough to revive U.S. support for Ukraine’s military. It is not clear whether Trump’s pressure has moved Ukraine and Russia any closer on the terms of a potential deal, as Russia ramps up aerial attacks on weakened Ukrainian defenses. “It’s pretty clear that the deal that Trump wants is unsustainable for Ukraine, so I don’t know how much he will be able to get out of there,” said Eugene Finkel, the author of “Intent to Destroy: Russia’s Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine,” published last year. Up Next - Marco Rubio travels to Saudi Arabia ahead of Russia talks to end Ukraine war Finkel, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, said Ukraine this week would likely agree to the “concepts of a deal” on Ukraine’s rare earth extraction, and perhaps commit in principle to holding future talks with Russia.
Rubio says the US wants to hear what concessions Ukraine is willing to make at Saudi meeting -The United States wants to hear what concessions Ukraine would be willing to make in negotiations to end the war with Russia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said ahead of a high-stakes meeting between the two nations on Tuesday.“We really want to sort of ascertain where they stand on this and what they’re willing to do in order to achieve peace,” Rubio told reporters on Monday.The discussions in the Saudi port city of Jeddah comes as the relationship between Washington and Kyiv is at its lowest point since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago. Following a contentious Oval Office meeting between US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the US announced a “pause” on military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv. Russia has continued its deadly barrage of attacks against Ukraine in the time since that suspension was put in place.The move followed weeks of antagonism by Trump towards Zelensky that has seen the US president repeat Kremlin talking points blaming Kyiv for the war and after Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff sat down in Riyadh with a high-level Russian delegation – and without Ukrainian participation.Speaking Monday, Rubio said the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting “will be key” to whether the pause in military aid and intelligence sharing is lifted.“I think if we emerge there with a good meeting that we feel good about and can report back to the president, then I think decisions will be made in regards to the pause,” he said.CNN has reported that the US is still sharing intelligence with Ukraine that can help its troops defend themselves but has “scaled back” sharing any intelligence that Kyiv could use for offensive targeting of Russian forces, according to two US defense officials.“My hope is we’re going to have a really good meeting tomorrow, and we’ll be in a different place very soon,” Rubio said.Rubio and Waltz, who are slated to meet with the Ukrainian national security adviser, foreign minister, and defense minister, will be “in listening mode,” the top US diplomat said.“They’ve suffered greatly, and their people have suffered greatly, and it’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that’s the only way this is going to end, to prevent more suffering,” Rubio said, adding that he’s “not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do.”The top US diplomat acknowledged that the moves Ukraine would be willing to make “may be incompatible with what the Russians are willing to do.”“That’s what we need to find out. We’re not going to find out on X. We’re not going to find out, you know, on media, press conferences. We have to find out in rooms that are closed,” Rubio added, just over a week since the meeting between Trump and Zelensky went off the rails in front of cameras.Rubio said the conversation would not be overly detailed – “we’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map” – but that the US aims to “get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them and what they would need in return and then find out what the Russian position is in that regard. And that’ll give us a pretty good assessment of how far apart we truly are.”
Fox host Maria Bartiromo asks Trump if he is ‘comfortable’ that ‘Ukraine may not survive’ -Fox News host Maria Bartiromo pressed President Trump on whether he is “comfortable” with the idea that Ukraine “may not survive” the war with Russia. Trump sat down for an interview with Bartiromo to discuss his tariff plan, and how his administration is off to a busy start. Bartiromo said she spoke with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who had doubts about the ability of Ukraine to survive. “Are you comfortable with that? The fact that you walked away, and Ukraine may not survive?” Bartiromo asked on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Well, it may not survive anyway,” Trump replied. “But, you know, we have some weaknesses with Russia. It takes two. Look, it was not going to happen, that war, and it happened. So, now we’re stuck with this mess.” Trump’s recent Ukraine correspondence has concerned the international community. A fiery meeting ended with shouting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office, overturning the rare earth mineral deal that was set to start ceasefire talks.
Ukraine agrees to proposal for ceasefire with Russia as US restores aid and intel sharing proposed by the United States, following critical peace talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia. The ceasefire proposal accepted by Ukraine covers the entire front line of the fighting with Russia, not just the air and sea, Zelensky said after the more than eight-hour long meeting. “Ukraine accepts this proposal, we consider it positive, we are ready to take such a step, and the United States of America must convince Russia to do so,” Zelensky said, adding that the ceasefire would start the moment Moscow agrees to it. The United States said in a joint statement with Ukraine following the meeting in Jeddah that it would “immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine.” A Ukrainian official confirmed on Tuesday that US security assistance to Ukraine had resumed. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said immediately after the meeting that the onus is now on Russia to take steps to end the war. “We hope that they’ll say yes, that they’ll say yes to peace. The ball is now in their court,” he said of the Russians. US President Donald Trump later welcomed the news and vowed to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the plan, potentially this week. The developments will be a huge relief for Kyiv after the extraordinarily public blowup between Trump and Ukraine’s leader less than two weeks ago. Tuesday’s talks occurred at a crucial time in the war, as Moscow’s forces continue to advance in the Kursk region of Russia – where Ukraine launched a shock incursion in August – threatening Kyiv’s sole territorial bargaining counter. The US-Ukraine joint statement emphasized that Kyiv had “expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation.” “The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace,” it said. Zelensky said Ukraine’s proposals for the ceasefire had included “silence” in the sky and at sea, the release of Ukrainian prisoners “to establish confidence in this whole situation,” and the return of Ukrainian children from Russia. The two sides also agreed to conclude a rare minerals deal “as soon as possible” to expand Ukraine’s economy and guarantee the country’s long-term security. The Ukrainian delegation, which did not include Zelensky, met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. Both Rubio and Waltz attended direct talks with Russia last month. Trump and European allies welcome ceasefire plan The US president heralded the news, telling reporters at the White House, “Hopefully President Putin will agree to that also and we can get this show on the road.” “I think it’s a very big, I think it’s a big difference between the last visit you saw in the Oval Office, and that’s a total ceasefire,” Trump said, referencing last month’s explosive Oval Office confrontation. “Ukraine has agreed to it, and hopefully Russia will agree to it – we’re going to meet with them later on today and tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll be able to (work) out a deal,” the president said. “But I think the ceasefire is very important, if we can get Russia to do it, that’ll be great. If we can’t, we just keep going on, and people are going to get killed.”
US Resumes Military Aid, Intelligence Sharing for Ukraine - The Trump administration has lifted its pause on military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine following talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. US officials said the move came after Ukraine signaled it was open to a 30-day ceasefire if Russia agreed. “Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation,” the US and Ukraine said in a joint statement.“The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace. The United States will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine,” the statement added. The joint statement also said that “both countries’ presidents agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine’s critical mineral resources to expand Ukraine’s economy and guarantee Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security.”President Trump said on Tuesday that US and Russian officials could meet in the coming days, which wasaffirmed by Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Trump also said that he planned on speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon.So far, there’s been no public reaction from Moscow about the idea of a ceasefire. Putin has previously rejected the idea of a temporary ceasefire, saying in January that he wouldn’t accept “some kind of respite for regrouping forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict” and that he wanted a “long-term peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people, all nations living in this region.” Moscow also has the momentum on the battlefield on its side as its forces continue to make gains in eastern Ukraine and are pushing Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s Kursk Oblast. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the talks that the US will bring the proposal to Moscow. “We’re going to tell them this is what’s on the table. Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking. And now it’ll be up to them to say yes or no. If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea of a ceasefire, and his openness to the 30-day truce marks a significant shift in his position. US officials had said the pause in US military aid and intelligence sharing would only be lifted after Ukraine made clear it was willing to work toward peace. “The Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear, that they share President Trump’s vision for peace,” US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said after the talks. He said the two sides “got into substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end,” including the idea of long-term security guarantees. Waltz didn’t elaborate on the potential security guarantees, which will be a major sticking point in any negotiations. Zelensky and his European backers have been pushing for the deployment of Western troops to enforce the ceasefire, a proposal that’s been repeatedly rejected by Moscow.
Bolton says ceasefire not in Ukraine’s interest, but Zelensky ‘had to agree’ --Former national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday that a ceasefire deal with Russia is not “in Ukraine’s interest,” but the war-torn country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, “had to agree” to the U.S. framework after his disastrous Oval Office meeting last month with President Trump. “I don’t think, frankly, a ceasefire is in Ukraine’s interest,” Bolton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I think Zelensky had to agree to the ceasefire in Saudi Arabia because he needed to get U.S. military assistance, intelligence assistance, turned back on. He had to try and repair the damage from the debacle in the Oval Office. So, of course, he agreed to it, and he did get the military assistance turned back on,” Bolton added. U.S. and Ukrainian officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and emerged from the talks with a Ukraine-backed proposal for a 30-day truce. For the first time, the U.S. shifted the pressure to Russia in Trump’s push for a ceasefire, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the geopolitical ball was now in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s court. Lawmakers expressed skepticism that Putin would endorse a ceasefire, but Bolton said Putin is likely to want to consider his options carefully — especially since he’s enjoyed an elevated status on the world stage since Trump has reentered the picture. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t trust Russia to negotiate in good faith, and up until now — because Donald Trump has effectively flipped the American position to be supportive of Russia — the Russians have had no incentive to negotiate,” Bolton said.
Mark Kelly fires back at Elon Musk's 'traitor' accusation over Ukraine -Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) hit back at tech billionaire Elon Musk after he called Kelly a “traitor” for visiting Ukraine and demanding the United States stand with Ukrainians in their ongoing war with Russia. “Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do,” he wrote on the social platform X on Monday in response to Musk’s accusation. “You are a traitor,” Musk had written under a previous X post from Kelly in which the lawmaker had reflected on his trip to Ukraine over the weekend. “What I saw proved to me we can’t give up on the Ukrainian people,” Kelly wrote in the post. “Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin,” he added. Kelly, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot, toured a military hospital and interacted with Red Cross personnel during his visit to Ukraine. It was his third visit to the country since 2023. In a detailed thread on X following the trip, the Arizona Democrat shared his thoughts about the war, saying President Trump is trying to weaken Ukraine. Kelly called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and said Putin targets hospitals routinely. “If Putin gains ground, he won’t agree to a ceasefire and will eventually threaten a NATO ally, and this puts American troops and the American people at risk,” he added. This is not the first time Musk and Kelly have had a heated argument on social media. Last month, Kelly and his brother, Scott Kelly, both retired astronauts, called out Musk over his attacks on another astronaut on X. “Hey @ElonMusk, when you finally get the nerve to climb into a rocket ship, come talk to the three of us,” the senator wrote on X in response to Musk’s post calling Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen “an idiot.”
Russia Says It Will Wait for Details Before Responding to US-Ukraine 30-Day Ceasefire Plan - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia was waiting for the details of the talks between the US and Ukraine that were held in Saudi Arabia a day earlier before responding to the proposed 30-day ceasefire.“Yesterday, both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz mentioned that they would provide us with detailed information about the essence of the conversation that took place in Jeddah through various channels. We need to receive this information first,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Russia’s TASSnews agency.Peskov also said Russia is “examining the statements made following the negotiations carefully, and we are getting acquainted with the text of the joint statement adopted in Jeddah.” The joint US-Ukraine statement said Ukraine had “expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation.” Russia has previously expressed opposition to the idea of a temporary ceasefire with Ukraine, and Russian sources told Reuters that it would be hard for Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept the ceasefire without any real guarantees since he has the advantage on the battlefield.The US also resumed weapons shipments and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, which had been briefly paused. Russia might view the 30-day ceasefire as an opportunity for Ukraine to stabilize its defensive lines and rearm.The US and Russia are expected to hold talks on the details of the proposal this week, and the Kremlin said a phone call between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is possible.CIA Director John Ratcliffe spoke with Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, on Wednesday, but it’s unclear if they discussed the ceasefire proposal. According to the SVR, the two officials “discussed the issues of interaction of both intelligence agencies in areas of common interest and the settlement of crisis situations.”The SVR said Ratcliffe and Naryshkin agreed “on maintaining regular contact between the SVR and CIA directors with the aim of facilitating international stability and security and reducing confrontation in relationships between Moscow and Washington.”
Putin Signals He's Open to Ceasefire as Witkoff Arrives for Talks - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled that he’s open to a ceasefire in Ukraine but that he has “questions” about the 30-day US-Ukraine proposal that need to be discussed.“The idea itself is the right one, and we definitely support it,” Putin said,according to The New York Times. “But there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.”The Russian leader listed potential conditions for a 30-day truce, including a guarantee that Ukraine wouldn’t be supplied with more weapons. “We also want guarantees that during the 30-day ceasefire, Ukraine will not conduct mobilization, will not train soldiers, and will not receive weapons,” he said, according to RT.Putin also questioned who would monitor the ceasefire. “Who will determine where and who has violated a potential ceasefire agreement along a 2,000-kilometer line? Who will attribute blame for any violations? These are all questions that require thorough examination from both sides,” he said.The Russian leader said any long-term peace deal needs to address the “root causes” of the war. He made the comments as US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia to discuss the proposal. Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin official, said Witkoff would be holding a closed-door meeting with Putin.Ushakov also said the US-Ukraine proposal would only give Ukraine a chance to regroup, and it would need to be adjusted to meet Moscow’s interests.“As for the 30-day temporary ceasefire, what is it about? There is nothing in it for us. It will only provide the Ukrainians with the opportunity to regroup and gain strength to continue doing what they are doing,” he said,according to Russia’s TASS news agency.“These are some hasty actions that do not benefit a long-term settlement … We will need to work on it, to think it over so that it reflects our position, too. It reflects only Ukraine’s stance at this point,” he added.Ushakov said that Russia wanted a long-term peace deal and that the “official” Russian position on the US-Ukraine proposal would be formulated by Putin.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made similar comments opposing the idea of a temporary ceasefire, pointing to the Minsk Accords, which were first reached in 2014 for a truce in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Lavrov also mentioned the “Istanbul agreement,” referring to a peace deal that was on the table in March and April 2022, which was discouraged by the US and its allies.“I’m talking about the Minsk Accords, the deal that was discarded after the 2014 coup, and the Istanbul agreements. All of those included a ceasefire. And every time, it turned out that they had lied to us. The Ukrainians lied with the support of their European partners,” Lavrov said.
Report: US Proposes New Gaza Ceasefire Deal Amid Total Israeli Blockade - The US has given Israel and Hamas a new proposal for a temporary ceasefire deal for Gaza amid Israel’s total blockade on aid and all other goods entering the Strip, Axios reported on Thursday.The proposal, put forward by US envoy Steve Witkoff, would involve a ceasefire meant to get through Ramadan and Passover, which ends on April 20, and the resumption of aid deliveries into Gaza.Under the proposal, Hamas would release at least five live hostages and the remains of nine deceased hostages on the first day of the ceasefire. During the truce, negotiations on a permanent deal would be held, and if an agreement were reached, Hamas would release the remaining hostages on the last day of the ceasefire.According to Al Jazeera, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected the idea of an alternative ceasefire deal, saying the group is committed to “what has already been agreed upon.”Hamas has maintained that it wants the full implementation of the original ceasefire deal that was reached in January, which Israel has violated by imposing the total siege and refusing to enter negotiations on the second phase of the deal, which was supposed to involve an Israeli withdrawal and permanent truce. According to the Axios report, Hamas has yet to respond to the new US proposal.In the meantime, the situation in Gaza is getting worse for the civilians living under the siege. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that aid groups on the ground in Gaza are being forced to ration food and that there would be “more dire consequences on the ground” as long as the Israeli blockade continues.“Our partners report having to reduce food rations to prioritize assistance for as many vulnerable people as possible,” Dujarric said, according to Al Jazeera. “The food security situation could sharply deteriorate unless the flow of aid into Gaza resumes as quickly as possible.”
Hamas Says It's Showing 'Flexibility' in Talks With Mediators and the US - A Hamas official said on Monday that the group has been showing “flexibility” in Gaza ceasefire deal talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as in its direct talks with the US.“We have shown flexibility in dealing with the efforts of mediators and Trump’s envoy, and we are awaiting the results of the upcoming negotiations to ensure Israel abides by the agreement and proceeds to the second phase,” said Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou, according to The Cradle.“The negotiations conducted with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, as well as Trump’s envoy, are centered on ending the war, withdrawal, and reconstruction. We have fully committed to the first phase of the agreement, and our priority now is to shelter and provide relief to our people while ensuring a permanent ceasefire,” Qanou added.The US official who held direct talks with Hamas, Adam Boehler, President Trump’s special envoy for hostages, defended the decision in the face of Israeli criticism and said that he thought there was a chance a long-term deal could be reached. But on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the engagement with Hamas as a “one-off” that didn’t make any progress.“That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so. He did so,” Rubio said.“As of now, it hasn’t borne fruit. Doesn’t mean he was wrong to try, but our primary vehicle for negotiations on this front will continue to be Mr. Witkoff and the work he’s doing through Qatar,” Rubio added, referring to President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.Both Rubio and Witkoff are headed to Saudi Arabia to meet with Ukrainian officials. From there, Witkoff is expected to travel to Qatar for talks on Gaza, and he said on Monday that a “deadline” is needed for the next phase of the ceasefire agreement.Israel has been tightening its blockade on Gaza and cut electricity on Sunday, using collective punishment in an attempt to pressure Hamas to agree to release more hostages without a full Israeli withdrawal and commitment to a permanent truce. Hamas continues to insist that it wants to enter the second phase of the initial ceasefire deal, which Israel has violated.Qanou said that Hamas wouldn’t give in to the Israeli pressure. “Israel’s talk of military plans to resume fighting in Gaza and its decision to cut off electricity are failed options that pose a threat to its captives, who will only be freed through negotiations,” he said.
US Envoy Defends Talks With Hamas, Says US Isn't an 'Agent' of Israel - On Sunday, Adam Boehler, President Trump’s special envoy for hostages, defended his direct talks with Hamas in the face of Israeli objections, saying the US is not an “agent” of Israel.Israeli media has reported that Israel expressed strong objections to the talks once it learned about them. According to The Times of Israel, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer “lashed out” at Boehler in a phone call.“I spoke with Ron, and I’m sympathetic. He has someone that he doesn’t know well making direct contact with Hamas,” Boehler told CNN host Jake Tapper. “Maybe I would see them and say, look, they don’t have horns growing out of their head. They’re actually guys like us. They’re pretty nice guys.”Boehler continued, “So he doesn’t know me. And there are big stakes. He lives in a country where, if it sets certain precedents, then it will hurt or help a lot of other people. So I understand the consternation and the concern. And I wasn’t upset. At the same time, we’re the United States. We’re not an agent of Israel. We have specific interests at play.”Axios reporter Barak Ravid, a former IDF intelligence officer, was the first to report on the US-Hamas talks. His report said the US didn’t fully brief Israel on the talks and that Israel learned about them through “other channels.”The talks reportedly focused on the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old IDF soldier who grew up in New Jersey and was taken prisoner by Hamas during the October 7 attack. Edan is the only Israeli hostage with US citizenship who is believed to be alive. Hamas is holding the bodies of four other dual Israeli-American citizens. Boehler, who was Jared Kushner’s college roommate, also said he thinks there’s a chance of a long-term deal even though Israel has been ramping up its siege on Gaza and is blatantly violating the initial ceasefire deal that was reached in January.“With respect to the Hamas situation, I do think there’s hope. I think that Israel has done a wonderful, masterful job eliminating Hamas, Hezbollah, a number of other enemies in the state that makes things possible that weren’t possible before,” Boehler said.“And I think you could see something like a long-term truce, where we forgive prisoners, where Hamas lays down their arms, where they agree they’re not part of the political party going forward,” he added. For its part, Hamas has said that it doesn’t need to govern post-war Gaza and that it would only disarm if a Palestinian state is established, an idea Israel strongly rejects.
Israeli Minister Says God Sent Trump To Help Build Jewish Settlements in Gaza - Idit Silman, the Israeli minister of environmental protection, said on Tuesday that God had sent the Trump administration to advance the goal of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the building of Jewish settlements in the Strip.According to Haaretz, Silman, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the government is “committed to the idea of encouraging emigration” and added that she believes “God has sent us the US administration, and it is clearly telling us – it’s time to inherit the land.”Silman vowed that Gush Katif, a Jewish settlement in Gaza that was evacuated in 2005, would return. “It could be in single-family homes or Trump-style towers, but we will definitely go back there. I see no other solution to terrorism. The answer to terrorism is sovereignty,” she said.Silman said the “only solution for the Gaza Strip is to empty it of Gazans,” an option she said is “realistic.”Other extremist members of the Netanyahu government have welcomed President Trump’s calls for Palestinians in Gaza to be removed permanently and for the US to take over the Palestinian territory, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said earlier this week that the plan was “taking shape.”Smotrich said the Israeli government would establish a new “migration administration” to facilitate the ethnic cleansing. “If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” he said. “This is a huge logistical operation – not just the bus that takes them, we need to know who is going, to which country, what ages, vocational training, a huge operation, we are preparing.”Smotrich made the comments after visiting Washington, and he claimed that “sources in the American government” agreed that “it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
Secret Side Deal With US Gave Israel Free Hand to Keep Attacking Throughout Lebanon Ceasefire - Virtually from the moment the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal was signed in November, there have been reports that the US assured Israel they could both sign the ceasefire and be totally free to keep carrying out attacks on Hezbollah.Sources are now reporting that not only did that happen, but that the US and Israel actually signed a secret agreement with respect to the ceasefire the US was supposed to enforce. Lebanon was made aware of the secret deal, though they never signed or approved of it.This revelation now provides context to the in excess of 1,000 ceasefire violations Israel has committed since November 27, and why the US did absolutely nothing about it. Israel has continued near-daily attacks on southern Lebanon, and spent months after the ceasefire was agreed burning homes in southern villages.It was unlikely that Israel would’ve agreed to a ceasefire if it came with the presumption they could actually have to cease firing. Israel has presented each attack they carried out as an “imminent threat” posed by Hezbollah, even though Hezbollah has not carried out a single attack on Israel since the ceasefire was agreed upon.Lebanese MPs have been complaining about the secret agreement in recent days. The US National Security Council claimed the existence of the agreement was “not true,” but refused to answer any followup questions about why Israel keeps carrying out attacks without a US reaction.The secret agreement and the continued attacks cast a pall over ongoing US efforts to start mediation of border disputes between Israel and Lebanon. Israeli officials have suggested that the aim of the new talks about Israeli occupations of the Shebaa Farms, the ongoing military presence inside southern Lebanon, and other issues could lead to “normalization” with Lebanon.The Lebanese PM’s office insisted the talks are not in any way a path to normalization on their own. Rather, they say the new committee discussions on border issues are part of UN Resolution 1701, and that there are still no direct talks with Israel ongoing.In the meantime, the tensions remain palpable at the border, with Israeli airstrikes continuing. Lebanese troops reportedly removed barbed wire from the area of Barkat Risha, in the south of the Tyre District along the Israel border. The wire was left there by Israeli occupation forces.
US-Backed Kurds Reach Deal To Merge With HTS-Led Syrian Government - On Monday, the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) signed a deal to merge into the new Syrian government, which is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al-Qaeda.The deal was signed between SDF chief Mazloum Abdi and Syria’s de-facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. The SDF controls a significant portion of Syria’s northeast, where there are about 2,000 US troops deployed.According to a statement from Sharaa’s office, the deal will “integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria [Rojava] under the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the [Qamishli International] Airport, and oil and gas fields.” The agreement comes after Sharaa’s HTS forces conducted a series of massacres in northwest Syria amid fighting with militias in the region, killing around 1,000 civilians, the vast majority being Alawites, although some Christians were slaughtered as well.In response to the massacres, Sharaa ordered the creation of a committee that he claims will investigate the “reasons, circumstances and context.” Local sources said most of the perpetrators of the massacres were foreigners, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, and Chechens, and only a small percentage were Syrian. The HTS-led government absorbed foreign jihadists into its military and appointed some to senior roles. While his forces just went on a killing spree against minorities in the northwest, Sharaa still insists that his government will be “inclusive.” The deal he signed with Abdi says that all Syrians will be part of the political process regardless of religion or ethnicity and pledges the Kurds will have their “constitutional rights.”The SDF has been battling with Turkey and its proxy, the Syrian National Army (SNA), in northern Syria, and those clashes continued on Monday as Abdi was signing the deal with Sharaa. Turkey considers the SDF the Syrian wing of the PKK, which has fought Ankara for decades. The PKK’s jailed leader recently called for the group to disarm, which was followed by the PKK announcing a ceasefire with Turkey. But Turkey has continued military operations against Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq.
Report: US Encouraged Kurds To Sign Deal With HTS-Led Syrian Government - The US encouraged the Kurdish-led SDF to sign a deal with the new Syrian government led by the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Reutersreported on Wednesday.The leader of the SDF and Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani), signed a deal for the SDF to be merged into the Syrian government and military on Monday.The US-backed SDF controls northeast Syria, where about 2,000 US troops are deployed. The Trump administration has drawn up plans to withdraw from Syria, but a Pentagon official told Reuters that there was no sign that a pullout was imminent.The signing of the deal came after a weekend of massacres of mainly Alawite civilians by HTS forces in northwest Syria. The Reuters report said the killings “nudged” the SDF deal along.A senior regional intelligence source said the US played a very “crucial role” in getting the deal signed. The details of how exactly the SDF will merge with the HTS-led government still need to be worked out, but the agreement states that the Kurds will be able to have “constitutional rights.”Sources told Reuters that they expected the deal to ease Turkish pressure on the Syrian Kurds, although the SDF continues to battle with the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the agreement in a statement on Tuesday.“The full implementation of the agreement reached yesterday in Syria will contribute to the country’s security and stability. The beneficiaries of this will be all our Syrian brothers and sisters,” Erdogan said.
DOJ Deploys 'Antisemitism Task Force' to Four US Cities as Part of Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Protests - The US Department of Justice said Thursday that its recently created “Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism” will be heading to four US cities as part of the Trump administration’s broad crackdown on college protests critical of Israel.The DOJ said the task force, led by attorney Leo Terrell, will be visiting the leadership of New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles to discuss “their responses to incidents of antisemitism at schools and on college campuses in their cities over the last two years.”While the pro-Palestine protests that swept college campuses have been labeled “antisemitic,” many Jewish students and organizations have participated. The DOJ said that Terrell informed city leaders that he “was aware of allegations that the schools in their respective cities may have failed to protect Jewish students from unlawful discrimination, in potential violation of federal law.”Attorney General Pam Bondi accused officials of not taking enough action against the protests. “Too many elected officials chose not to stand up to a rising tide of antisemitism in our cities and campuses following the horrific events of October 7, 2023,” she said. “Actions have consequences – inaction does, too.”The DOJ, along with several other federal agencies, recently announced the cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over claims of “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students” even though Columbia has taken a heavy hand against students critical of Israel.The federal agencies said the grants were being canceled in “light of ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” which the agencies are likely enforcing using a definition of antisemitism that includes criticism of the state of Israel.Back in 2019, President Trump signed an executive order directing all executive departments to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and the organization’s list of examples of “contemporary antisemitism” when enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.The IHRA’s examples of “contemporary antisemitism” includes “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” It also lists applying “double standards” to Israel by “requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” and “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” by “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” Civil liberties groups have sounded the alarm about the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protests, including the effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder arrested by ICE over the weekend for his role in protests at Columbia. Khalil has not been accused of a crime, and the administration is trying to deport him by claiming he’s been involved in activities “contrary to US foreign policy.”
Trump Says Chuck Schumer Is a 'Palestinian, Not Jewish Anymore' - President Trump on Wednesday called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) a “Palestinian” while criticizing the Democrats for not supporting the GOP’s spending plan. “Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said in the Oval Office while hosting Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin. “He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore.”Trump began using “Palestinian” as an insult while on the campaign trail and even called President Biden a “bad Palestinian” during their debate.Trump first labeled Schumer a “Palestinian” while campaigning, apparently criticizing the Jewish senator for calling for elections in Israel.While Schumer criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year and called for elections, he has always been and still is a staunch supporter of Israel.Trump recently referred to Schumer as a Palestinian when discussing his plans for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip.“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on February 6. “The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”While speaking to the press on Wednesday, Trump said that “nobody’s expelling Palestinians” from Gaza despite his repeated calls for their permanent removal.
Tehran Slams US Ending Waiver That Allowed Iraq To Buy Electricity from Iran - Iran on Monday denounced the US decision not to renew a sanctions waiver for Iraq that allowed it to purchase electricity from neighboring Iran, a move that’s part of the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran.“Such statements are an admission of lawlessness, an admission of crimes against humanity, because the US sanctions, the unilateral US sanctions, against the Iranian nation have no justification or legal basis,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.Baghaei said the US ending the waiver, which expired on Sunday, was “absolutely illegal.” The waiver first started in 2018 after the previous Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal by reimposing sanctions on Iran. Iraqis are worried that the lack of electricity from Iran will cause more power outages in the country. It’s also unclear if Iraq will still be able to purchase gas from Iran. The import of electricity from Iran, combined with the power generated by Iranian gas, accounts for 30% of Iraq’s electricity. Also on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that Iran would not negotiate with the US in the face of increasing sanctions. “We will NOT negotiate under pressure and intimidation. We will NOT even consider it, no matter what the subject may be,” he wrote on X.Araghchi also said that Iran’s nuclear program will always be peaceful despite claims from US and Israeli officials that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb. “Iran’s nuclear energy program has always been—and will always remain—entirely peaceful. There is fundamentally therefore no such thing as its ‘potential militarization,'” he said.President Trump recently acknowledged that Iranian leadership does not seek nuclear weapons but chose to increase sanctions on Iran anyway.
Trump Sent Letter to Iran Calling for New Nuclear Agreement -President Donald Trump says he sent Iran a letter calling for the two countries to negotiate an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. During his first term, Trump withdrew from a deal with Iran that limited and inspected Tehran’s nuclear energy program. In a clip of an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that was released on Friday, Trump said that he sent the Iranian letter calling for new negotiations, but suggested a war could break out if an agreement isn’t reached.“I would rather negotiate a deal. I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily,” Trump said. “But the time is happening now, the time is coming up. Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran, and I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.” He added, “There are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal.” The full interview with Bartiromo will air Sunday. Iranian diplomats at the UN said they have not received the letter that Trump claimed was sent on Wednesday. Trump has said there is an urgent need to address the Iran nuclear issue. However, as recently as January, the US intelligence community did not believe Iran had decided to weaponize its civilian nuclear program. Even if the letter was sent, Tehran may not be receptive to talks with Washington. Iran and the US had a nuclear deal that Tehran was complying with before Trump abandoned the agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018. In February, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei discussed the issue explaining, During the Barack Obama presidency, “we sat down and negotiated with the US for about two years, and an agreement was formed. In this agreement, the Iranian side was very generous and gave many concessions to the other side.”“But the US did not carry out that agreement. The same person who is now in office tore up that agreement. We must learn from this experience.” He continued, “One must not negotiate with a government like the US government. Negotiating with it is not wise, it is not intelligent, and is not honorable.”The Ayatollah stopped short of ruling out talks with the US.Last month, Trump signed an executive order calling for more sanctions on Tehran to “drive Iran’s export of oil to zero.” At the time, he said he was “not happy” with signing the order.
Iran Receives Trump Letter, Ayatollah Khamenei Again Rejects Talks in Face of US Pressure - A letter from President Trump was delivered to Iran by the UAE on Wednesday, an offer for negotiations that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said was a “deception” meant to create the impression that the US was the reasonable party and that Tehran refuses to negotiate. Khamenei and other Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected the idea of talks with the Trump administration in the face of increasing US sanctions and threats of potential military action. Last week, when Trump discussed the letter in an interview, he warned that “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal.”Khamenei said one reason Iran was unable to negotiate with President Trump was the fact that during his first administration, he withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.“So why do we refuse to negotiate? This same person tore up the JCPOA,” Khamenei said. “How can we negotiate with this person? In negotiations, one must be sure that the other party will fulfill their commitments. When we know that they will not keep their word, what’s the point?”Trump wants a deal on Iran’s nuclear program even though he’s acknowledged that Iranian leadership doesn’t want a nuclear bomb. The US also wants to impose restrictions on Iran’s conventional weapons and its relationship with its allies in the region, ideas Khamenei rejected over the weekend.“They will be about defense capabilities, about international capabilities of the country. (They will urge Iran) not to do (certain) things, not to meet some certain people, not to go to a certain place, not to produce some items, your missile range should not be more than a certain distance. Is it possible for anybody to accept these?” Khamenei said on March 8.Last year, Khamenei expressed an openness to direct talks with the US, saying there was “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy.” He made the comments shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in.Pezeshkian vowed during his campaign to engage directly with Western countries in an effort to get sanctions relief, and Khamenei’s comments appeared to give him the green light to pursue the idea. But since Trump re-imposed his “maximum pressure campaign,” both Khamenei and Pezeshkian have discouraged the idea of negotiations with the US.On Tuesday, Pezeshkian strongly rejected the idea of talks. “It is unacceptable for us that they give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want,” he said.
Trump orders strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and issues new warning to Iran --President Donald Trump said he ordered a series of airstrikes on the Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Saturday, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until Iranian-backed Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. The Houthis said at least 18 civilians were killed. “Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom,” Trump said in a social media post. “No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.”He also warned Iran to stop supporting the rebel group, promising to hold the country “fully accountable” for the actions of its proxy. It comes two weeks after the U.S. leader sent a letter to Iranian leaders offering a path to restarting bilateral talks between the countries on Iran’s advancing nuclear weapons program. Trump has said he will not allow it to become operational.The Houthis reported explosions in their territory Saturday evening, in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia, with more airstrikes reported in those areas early Sunday. Images online showed plumes of black smoke over the area of the Sanaa airport complex, which includes a sprawling military facility. The Houthis also reported airstrikes early Sunday on the provinces of Hodeida, Bayda, and Marib.At least 18 people were killed, including 13 in Sanaa and five in Saada, according to the Houthi-run health ministry. At least 24 others were wounded, including nine in Sanaa and 15 in Saada, it said.A U.S. official said this was the beginning of air strikes on Houthi targets that are expected to continue. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, said the airstrikes won’t deter them and they would retaliate against the U.S. “Sanaa will remain Gaza’s shield and support and will not abandon it no matter the challenges,” he added on social media.Another spokesman, Mohamed Abdulsalam, on X, called Trump’s claims that the Houthis threaten international shipping routes “false and misleading.”The airstrikes come a few days after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel’s latest blockade on Gaza. They described the warning as affecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea.There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.
Rubio says South African ambassador to US 'no longer welcome' over Trump remarks -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared South African ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool “persona non grata” and accused the diplomat of being a “race-baiting politician” over his recent comments about President Trump. “South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” Rubio said in a Friday post on the social platform X. “Emrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.” In the same post, Rubio shared a link to an article by right-wing news outlet Breitbart detailing Rasool’s comments to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) think-tank in Johannesburg, South Africa. Rasool, in his video address to the think-tank, accused Trump of leading a “white supremacist movement” at home and abroad. “So in terms of that, the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48 percent white,” Rasool said. “And so that needs to be factored in, so that we understand some of the things that we think are instinctive, nativist, racist things, I think that there’s data that, for example, would support that, that would go to this wall being built, the deportation movement,” the South Africa diplomat said. Oklahoma's push to buy Bibles and place them in classrooms paused by state's Supreme Court The Hill has reached out to the State Department and South African embassy in Washington for comment.
BlackRock agrees to buy Panama Canal ports from Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison | CNN — American asset management giant BlackRock has agreed to buy two ports at either end of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong-based firm whose ownership had angered President Donald Trump. Trump said several times during the lead-up to his inauguration and since taking office that he intends to “take back” the Panama Canal from Panama, which took over control of the crucial international waterway in 1999 under a treaty negotiated with the United States 20 years earlier. And he cited Chinese ownership of some of the port operations as a sign that China is now running the canal. “China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” said Trump during his inaugural address. At a January press conference ahead of his inauguration, Trump would not rule out using either military force or economic coercion to take control of the canal once again. The deal announced Tuesday called for BlackRock and a consortium of fellow investors to spend $22.8 billion to buy the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on either end of the canal from CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong company. It said the deal is an “agreement in principle.” BlackRock’s consortium is also buying CK Hutchison’s controlling interest in 43 other ports comprising 199 berths in 23 countries, but none of the ports it operates in China or Hong Kong. “These world-class ports facilitate global growth,” said a statement from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. “Through our deep connectivity to organizations like Hutchison … and governments around the world, we are increasingly the first call for partners seeking patient, long-term capital. We are thrilled our clients can participate in this investment.” BlackRock is one of the world’s largest asset managers, with an enormous pool of $11.6 trillion in assets. For context, that sum is equal to about 40% of the United States’ gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a nation’s economic activity. Unlike some conglomerates, its doesn’t completely control a large number of high-profile companies. But among its holdings, it owns the second-largest stake in some of the nation’s largest and most successful companies, including Walmart, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet. CK Hutchison is one of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s flagship companies. The firm said in a stock exchange filing that it expects to receive cash proceeds of more than $19 billion from the sale. Its shares soared more than 20% when they opened for trading on Wednesday.
Greenland votes for sovereignty candidates amid Donald Trump's annexation talk -- Greenland voters sent a strong signal Tuesday that they support leaders who will support the Arctic island’s sovereignty, even as President Trump pushes to annex the territory. Greenland’s center-right Demokraatit party, whose leaders have been critical of Trump’s takeover talk, won nearly 30 percent of the vote — a dramatic jump from the last election four years ago. Naleraq, the most aggressively pro-independence party on the ballot, came in second with nearly 25 percent of the vote. The incumbent ruling party, the democratic socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit led by Greenland Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, came in third with about 21 percent of the vote — down from 36 percent it won four years ago. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. All of the major parties on Tuesday’s ballot have supported some form of breakaway from Denmark, but with different paths. Demokraatit has cautioned against fast-tracking the sovereignty movement. “We don’t want independence tomorrow, we want a good foundation,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Demokraatit’s leader and a former minister of industry and minerals, told reporters after votes were counted.
Trump Says the US Can't Cut Military Spending Now - President Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday that he would like to cut military spending but couldn’t do it now.The president denied that he said he wanted to cut military spending despite his recent suggestions that the US, Russia, and China could work out a three-way deal to slash their military budgets in half.“I never said cut, not in these days. I’d love to cut defense spending but not now, because you have China, you have Russia, you have a lot of problems out there,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”The president has backed a House GOP budget plan that would increase the military budget by $100 billionand has also ordered the development of a massive new missile defense system for the US, dubbed the “Iron Dome for America,” which will come with a huge price tag.In the interview, Trump acknowledged that he has been talking about the cost and the risk of nuclear weapons.“What I have said is that we spend a lot of money on nuclear missiles, nuclear weapons. The level of destruction is beyond anything that you can even imagine. It’s just bad that everybody has to spend all this money on something that if it’s used, it’s probably the end of the world,” he said.The president has suggested several times that he could work with Russia and China on a deal to “denuclearize.” He said last week that it would be “great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons. As things stand, the state of arms control is not looking promising as only one treaty remains between the US and Russia, the New START, and it’s due to expire next year with no replacement.The Trump administration’s push to end the war in Ukraine and engage in diplomacy with Russia could lead to arms control talks, but Moscow has also made clear that Trump’s “Iron Dome for America” could start a new arms race.
Republicans worry Donald Trump's tariffs could harm economy - Republican lawmakers are growing alarmed over signs that President Trump’s expanding trade war is hurting the economy, something they’re hearing from constituents at home who are struggling to adapt to Trump’s zigzagging tariff pronouncements. GOP lawmakers say they’re hearing from business owners, exporters, farmers and local leaders that Trump’s threat of steep tariffs against Canada, Mexico and Europe are chilling business sentiment in the United States. Companies feel less confident about expanding operations and hiring new workers, given their uncertainty about the costs of imported goods and the potential loss of foreign markets over the next year. “The Canadian tariffs will definitely have a detrimental impact on the economy of Maine and on border communities in particular,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said. “We have, for example, a major paper mill in northern Maine right on the border that gets its pulp from Canada.” “That mill alone, which is by far the biggest employer in the region, employs 510 people directly. I’ve talked to the owner of that mill: The imposition of a 25-percent tariff could be devastating,” she warned. Trump announced Thursday that he would pause 25-percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico until April 2, but Collins warned that the looming threat of high fees is having a chilling effect on her state’s economy. “I think it freezes investment until they know exactly what the impact is going to be. So I understand the president’s desire to level the playing field, but Canada’s just not the problem in Maine,” she said, citing wood products, blueberries, lobsters and potatoes that go back and forth across the border as key drivers of the economy. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he’s hearing a deluge of complaints from business leaders in Kentucky about the potential impact of Trump’s trade policies on the local economy. “I have every major industry in Kentucky lobbying me against them: the cargo shippers, the farmers, the bourbon manufacturers, the homebuilders, the home sellers — you name it — fence manufacturers,” Paul told The Hill. “The bourbon industry says they’re still hurt from the retaliatory tariffs” during Trump’s first term, he said. “So do the farmers.” He said the federal government had to pay $20 billion to $30 billion in the “last administration” to farmers to mitigate the economic impact of tariffs. “It shows the fallacy of believing in a policy of tariffs if you immediately have to borrow a bunch of money and give it to the people your hurt,” he said. “There need to be Republicans who are still extolling the benefits of international trade.”
Trump lashes out at the Wall Street Journal after repeated attacks on tariffs — President Donald Trump and the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section are fighting over tariff policy – again.Trump railed against a Wednesday editorial in the Journal that said, with some evidence, that auto-heavy Michigan would be hurt by tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico that Trump is once again threatening to impose.“If the goal is to harm U.S. auto workers and Republican prospects in Michigan, then by all means go ahead, Mr. President,” said the Journal’s editorial, which correctly pointed out that all cars and trucks assembled in Michigan do so with parts imported from Mexico and Canada. It cited studies that show the cost of building a full-size SUV would increase by $9,000 and a pickup truck by $8,000, even if those assembly plants are in United States.Trump attacked that estimate, which is based on hard numbers, with in a post on Truth Social that made a number of false claims.“The tariffs will drive massive amounts of auto manufacturing to MICHIGAN, a State which I just easily one (sic) in the Presidential Election. They have already stopped numerous new auto plants from being built in other countries, a GIGANTIC WIN (already!) FOR MICHIGAN, and the United States as a whole.”Under free-trade agreements between the United States, Canada and Mexico, automakers have operated for decades as if North America is a single market, with parts and vehicles moving freely across borders during the assembly process. No automaker has dropped plans to build plants in Canada or Mexico or other countries yet because of the threat of tariffs, although Tesla, run by Trump ally Elon Musk, has not moved ahead with its previously stated plans for a plant in Mexico.
Ontario premier threatens to ‘shut off electricity completely’ for US if trade war escalates --President Donald Trump may have delayed most – though not all – of the tariffs he had imposed on Canada and Mexico, but that hasn’t stopped America’s northern neighbors from responding forcefully in retaliation.Ontario Premier Doug Ford at a press conference that he would move forward with a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states starting Monday, warning that he will would turn off access if the United States adds new tariffs on Canadian goods.“If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” Ford told reporters. “Believe me when I say I do not want to do this, I feel terrible for the American people, because it’s not the American people who started this trade war. It’s one person who’s responsible. That’s President Trump.” Ford on Monday said the 25% surcharge “will cost families and businesses” in New York, Minnesota and Michigan and add around “$100 per month to the bills of hardworking Americans.”But it would also hurt Canada’s energy industry, in turn. Canada, which is far more dependent on US exports than America is on Canadian goods, risks plunging into a recession if the trade war escalates. As the saying goes: no one wins in a trade war.mAlong with his threat to cut electricity off completely, Ford said he may raise the 25% surcharge if US tariffs escalate. Trump has threatened to do just that: On Friday, he said he would levy dairy and lumber tariffs on Canada, matching dollar-for-dollar the duties Canada places on US goods. And Trump on Sunday said tariffs on Canada and Mexico could rise from the threatened 25% level if the countries don’t make good on their promises to help reduce the amount of fentanyl crossing over the boarder into America.Last week, the Ontario premier claimed he would shut off power to the US “with a smile on [his] face” if Trump continued to levy tariffs on Canadian exports.
Canada slaps electricity tariffs on New York, Minnesota, Michigan -The government of Ontario is applying a 25 percent surcharge starting Monday on electricity exports to three U.S. states in response to U.S. tariffs on Canada. This surcharge will affect electricity sales for 1.5 million homes and businesses across Michigan, Minnesota and New York, the Ontario government said. In total, it could cost up to $400,000 per day. New market rules are going into place requiring Canadian electricity sellers to add a $10 per megawatt-hour surcharge, equivalent to a quarter of the electricity’s average value, to the cost of power for sales to the U.S., according to a statement from Ontario’s Office of the Premier. The additional charges are a response to 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports to the U.S. announced last week by the Trump administration. President Trump has taken a few steps to soften the blow of his tariffs. Following the initial announcement, Trump exempted carmakers from the tariffs and then delayed them for a month for goods covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the update to the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump renegotiated during his first term. “We will not stand by as our vital electricity exports are taken for granted,” said Stephen Lecce, head of Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Electrification. “In a time where prices are going up for families in America, Canada and the United States should be working together to strengthen our trade and investment relationships.” The U.S. is Canada’s only trading partner for electricity, and the Canadian and U.S. electrical grids are highly integrated. In 2023, net electricity exports from Canada to the U.S. were 27.6 terawatt hours and came mostly from the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, according to the Canadian Energy Regulator. The regulatory order from Ontario’s executive council says the U.S. is ignoring the rule of law by imposing the tariffs on Canada. Similar claims have been made by China with regard to World Trade Organization rules following the doubling of U.S. tariffs on China. The regulation also says, “tariffs pose an existential threat to hundreds of thousands of jobs and whole sectors of the Ontario economy.” The 25-percent tariff could eventually make its way into the electricity bills of American electricity users, but will be levied more directly on state-level electricity operators at the intermediate stage. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) suggested the new fee could backfire on Canada. “The more [Canadian officials] try to make it painful on Americans the more it’s going to strengthen Donald Trump. He told everyone when he campaigned that this is what he was going to do. He was going to work for Americans. With the Canadians are doing is a mistake in my mind. It’s only going to help Donald Trump in his argument that they don’t care about you, I’m the only one who does,” Emmer said.
Trump ups planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50 percent | PBS News — President Donald Trump says that he will double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25 percent to 50 percent for Canada, escalating a trade war with the United States’ northern neighbor.Trump says the increase of the tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday is a response to the price increases that the provincial government of Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States.“I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social. The U.S. stock market promptly fell following the social media post.
US-Canada trade war heats up as Trump doubles metals tariffs, then backs off (Reuters) - President Donald Trump reversed course on Tuesday afternoon on a pledge to double tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada to 50%, just hours after announcing the higher tariffs, in rapid-fire moves that scrambled financial markets. The switch came after a Canadian official also backed off his own plans for a 25% surcharge on electricity.Trump's latest salvo, which whipsawed financial markets and rekindled fears of inflation, followed Ontario Premier Doug Ford's announcement that he wouldplace on the electricity Canada's most populous province supplies to more than 1 million U.S. homes unless Trump dropped all of his tariff threats against Canada's exports into the U.S.Faced with Trump's 50% tariff threat, Ford agreed to suspend the surcharge and meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington on Thursday.The White House then announced that only the previously planned 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum products from the United States' northern neighbor and all other countries would take effect on Wednesday - with no exceptions or exemptions. "President Trump has once again used the leverage of the American economy, which is the best and biggest in the world, to deliver a win for the American people," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. "Pursuant to his previous executive orders, a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum with no exceptions or exemptions will go into effect for Canada and all of our other trading partners at midnight, March 12th.”The back-and-forth between the U.S. and Canada further unsettled financial markets already battered by Trump's focus on tariffs. After tumbling hard after Trump's initial post on Truth Social, stocks rebounded after Ford said he would suspend the surcharge and Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. The S&P 500 index dropped as low as 5,528.41 points, briefly marking a 10% fall from its record closing high of 6,144.15 on February 19, which is commonly known as a market correction. U.S. stocks have fallen hard since reaching a record high about a month after Trump took office on January 20, with nearly $5 trillion of market value erased from U.S. indexes.Trump triggered the selloff with a morning post on his Truth Social media platform, saying he had instructed Lutnick to put an additional 25% tariff on the metals products from Canada that take effect on Wednesday, on top of the 25% on all imported steel and aluminum products from other countries. He also criticized Canada for trade protections on dairy and other agricultural products and threatened to "substantially increase" duties on cars coming into the U.S. that are set to take effect on April 2 "if other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada."The U.S. president shook off the market gyrations, telling reporters that markets would go up and down, but that he had to rebuild the economy.Trump, heartened by Ontario's move, said the tariff rates could rise further, building pressure on countries to move manufacturing into the United States."The higher it goes, the more likely it is they're going to build ... The biggest win is not the tariffs. That's a big win. It's a lot of money. But the biggest win is they move into our country and produce jobs," he said, insisting the tariffs would "be throwing off a lot of money to this country."The escalation of the trade war occurred as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepared to hand over power this week to his successor Mark Carney, who won the leadership race of the ruling Liberals last weekend. On Monday, Carney said he could not speak with Trump until he was sworn in as prime minister.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Ford's initial comments were "egregious and insulting" and said Canada would be "very wise not to shut off electricity for the American people." Trump was determined to ensure the U.S. relied on its own domestic electricity, she said. "Ultimately, when we have fair and balanced trade, which the American people have not seen in decades ... revenues will stay here, wages will go up and our country will be made wealthy again," she said. "And I think it's insulting that you are trying to test my knowledge of economics, and the decisions that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press."
Trump imposes sweeping 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported into the US — President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imported into the United States on Wednesday, a move that threatens to drive up prices on a broad range of consumer and industrial goods for Americans. It’s the latest salvo in Trump’s multifaceted tariff war aimed at correcting perceived trade imbalances and reigniting domestic manufacturing. Hours before enacting the latest tariffs, Trump reversed a threat to double the rate on steel and aluminum from Canada, the US’s top source of imports for the metals. Instead, steel and aluminum from there will be subject to the 25% levy. “It may go up higher,” Trump said Tuesday of the 25% tariff on all countries’ steel and aluminum sent to the US at an event hosted by the Business Roundtable. “The higher it goes, the more likely it is they’re going to build,” he said, referring to more companies moving their production to the US. Trump backed off his threat to double the steel and aluminum tariff rates for Canada after Ontario Premier Doug Ford agreed to pause surcharges on electricity for US customers. Ford and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced they’d meet on Thursday, along with Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, to renegotiate the free trade treaty known as the USMCA. The tariff on steel and aluminum marks the first time in Trump’s second term that a tariff has been applied to all countries. The European Union swiftly retaliated by announcing just hours later that it would impose duties on 26 billion euros ($28 billion) worth of American goods in response to the “unjustified” tariffs. The countermeasures were “swift and proportionate,” it said in a statement. Before Wednesday, Trump had only enacted tariffs that applied to China, Mexico and Canada this term. In the case of Mexico and Canada, businesses can avoid paying tariffs through April 2 if they comply with the USMCA. Shortly before they went into effect, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticized the tariffs as “entirely unjustified” and “against the spirit of our two nations’ enduring friendship,” but said Canberra will impose no reciprocal levies. “Tariffs and escalating trade tensions are a form of economic self-harm and a recipe for slower growth and higher inflation,” he said in a statement. “This is why Australia will not be imposing reciprocal tariffs on the United States.” Steel tariffs of 25% launched in Trump’s first administration and continued by former President Joe Biden resulted in American importers shifting to other sources. However, the Biden administration had allowed for exceptions on the duties from US allies, including Canada, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. Trump’s latest action reverses that with no exceptions on any countries’ steel imports to the US. The same applies for aluminum, with rates climbing to 25% from 10%.
Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports take effect, Europe retaliates --U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports came into effect Wednesday, resulting in swift counter-measures from the European Union.The White House confirmed the duties — which will affect Canada, Australia, the EU and others — late Tuesday, but said that Trump no longer planned to raise tariffs on the metals from Canada to 50%.The European Union responded swiftly, saying it would impose counter-tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28.33 billion) worth of U.S. goods starting in April. The counter-measures are designed to "protect European businesses, workers and consumers from the impact of these unjustified trade restrictions," the European Commission said in a statement.The EU's two-pronged approach will see previously suspended tariffs re-imposed on 8 billion euros of U.S. exports, and a slew of new countermeasures on 18 billion euros of goods in a move European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as "strong but proportionate.""We will always remain open to negotiation," she added in a statement.The tit for tat action marks the latest development in a simmering trade war that has been marked by bold promises of tariffs — and subsequent reversals and delays — by Trump.The trade tensions have hit markets in recent days amid growing concerns that the duties could push the world's biggest economy toward a recession.Trump's tariffs also sparked criticism in Australia.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Trump's move to impose the metal tariffs was "entirely unjustified.""It's against the spirit of our two nations' enduring friendship and fundamentally at odds with the benefits that our economic partnership has delivered over more than 70 years," he said at a press conference.Albanese added that Australia will not impose reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports as that would only serve to inflate prices for Australian consumers. Top White House trade advisor Peter Navarro told CNBC on Tuesday that Trump no longer planned to raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports to 50%.The U.S. president had previously said he planned to double import duties on metals from the country following a decision by Canada's Ontario province to slap a 25% tax on electricity exports to the U.S.Ontario Premier Doug Ford then said he was pausing that surcharge — which Navarro indicated was why the planned 50% tariff was scrapped.Tensions between the neighboring countries have hit new highs in recent weeks and were exacerbated by a Truth Social post by Trump on Tuesday, in which he repeated calls for Canada to become the "Fifty First State" of the U.S.
EU Retaliates After Trump Tariffs Take Effect, But UK Breaks With Europe And Refuses To Respond - The EU has retaliated against Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum just hours after they took effect at midnight New York time, escalating a trade war that has rattled financial markets and threatened the global economy. The European Commission said its measures would affect up to €26bn of American goods, matching the US tariffs on European exports, and would take effect in April, leaving some time to negotiate with Washington. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU regretted Trump’s decision and that tariffs were “bad for business, and even worse for consumers" adding that “tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up." They will go up... for Europe, pushing the economy further into stagflation. We deeply regret the US tariffs imposed on Europe. Tariffs are taxes.They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers.Today Europe takes strong but proportionate countermeasures.We remain ready to engage in dialogue ↓ pic.twitter.com/5m1bGZjnsx — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 12, 2025 Brussels hit back after the US tariffs came into force on Wednesday, as Trump pressed ahead with his trade agenda despite growing concern over the risk of a domestic recession. As part of its retaliation, Brussels reinstated measures introduced during Trump’s first term on €4.5bn of US exports from April 1. These include levies of up to 50% on products such as bourbon whiskey, jeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. That's right: when you barely imports goods from the US, these are the "essential" products you are forced to crack down on.The EU has also drawn up levies on a further €18bn of US goods, which could include cosmetics, clothes, wood, soybeans, chicken, beef and other agricultural produce the FT reported. The measures, which could be expanded to include another €3.5bn of goods, require approval by EU countries and would come into force on April 13. A senior EU official said soybeans were on the list of targets because they are grown in Louisiana, home state of House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson. “We’re happy to buy our soybeans from Brazil or Argentina,” they added. “We want to ensure there is pressure within the American system to lift their tariffs,” a second official said. But in a stark example of just how much Trump has broken the world's resolve, the UK broke with the European Union and its decision to retaliate immediately, and reaffirmed its commitment to US trade talks even as British exports were also swept up in President Donald Trump’s global steel and aluminum tariffs.UK leftist Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “disappointed” by the US decision to impose 25% levies on foreign metal products without exemptions on Wednesday morning, telling the House of Commons that his government would keep “all options” on the table in terms of a response. Yet despite the jawboning, Junior Treasury minister James Murray told Times Radio the UK wouldn’t retaliate immediately while reserving the right to do so in due course. Despite the US being the UK steel industry’s second-biggest export market, the UK said it was “focused on a pragmatic approach” as it seeks to negotiate a broader economic deal with the White House.The US move is a blow to the British premier, whose visit to the White House last month appeared to put the UK on a good footing, with officials holding out hope that the talks for a “new economic deal” touted by Trump and Starmer would spare the country from the initial salvo of tariffs.They did not. Britain had been making the case for an exemption by pointing out that its trade in goods with the US is broadly balanced, and that UK steel and aluminum is a small fraction of that imported by the US.Nobody cared.Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds held a call with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday, in which the tariffs were discussed. Starmer also urged Trump not to target British manufacturers in a call with the president on Monday.“We are focused on a pragmatic approach and are rapidly negotiating a wider economic agreement with the US to eliminate additional tariffs and to benefit UK businesses and our economy,” Reynolds said on Wednesday in a statement.
Distilled Spirits Council CEO warns European whiskey tariff could be ‘very, very devastating’ The CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States on Wednesday warned that a European whiskey tariff would be “very, very devastating.”“We’ve just gotten the news early, early this morning, that the [European Union (EU)] is poised to put a 50 percent tariff on American whiskey. That will be very, very devastating,” Chris Swonger told NewsNation’s Nichole Berlie.The U.S. has recently been embroiled in trade battles with multiple countries across the globe, including Canada, Mexico and countries in Europe. In response to 25 percent tariffs from President Trump that took effect Wednesday, the EU swiftly shot back with a two-step approach.In Swonger’s NewsNation interview, he said, “Our industry appreciates and understands that the president is trying to bring more American manufacturing here in the United States and reduce the trade deficit.”The European trading bloc, featuring 27 nations, will allow the suspension of existing 2018 and 2020 countermeasures aimed at the U.S. to end in early April. The commission has also put forth a new package of countermeasures on goods bound from the U.S. set to go into effect later in the month, including some $28 billion in imports in total.The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a statement Wednesday that Europe “deeply” regrets the extra tariffs from Trump on steel and aluminum.“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said. “These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States.”“The European Union must act to protect consumers and business,” she continued. “The countermeasures we take today are strong but proportionate.”
Trump's EU Tariffs Are Only The Opening Gambit -Today just after midnight, US tariffs on steel and aluminum have come into force, and in response the European Commission announced its plans to retaliate to a similar degree (albeit on a different range of imports from the US).While the impact on certain sectors and product lines could be large, the aggregate macroeconomic effect on Europe is likely to be small. Of more concern, according to Nomura's George Buckley, is that this is only the opening gambit – Europe is now firmly in Mr Trump’s sights, particularly being responsible for more imports to the US than any other bloc, and his comments from the White House just underscored that Nomura has published a report (available to pro subs in the usual place) with European macro forecasts which are based on the US ultimately applying 10% tariffs against Europe, and the EU responding in kind. Below we excerpt the key highlights from the report:The EU this morning announced “proportionate” retaliatory measures and imposed tariffs on US products entering the EU in response to Trump’s imposition of 25% tariffs on global aluminium and steel imports to the US.The US tariffs, which are now in force, build on those Trump imposed in 2018 in two ways:
- i) 25% rather than the 10% aluminum tariffs in 2018,
- ii) the new tariffs broaden the base by adding more final products (not just the raw metal itself).
In total, the US tariffs will affect around €26bn of EU exports to the US (which is about 5% of total EU exports to the US).
Lutnick: Canada becoming US state ‘best way’ to merge economies - Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday that Canada becoming a U.S. state is the “best way” to merge the two countries’ economies. “The best way, the president has said it, the best way to actually merge the economies of Canada and the United States is for Canada to become our 51st state. If they want to merge it, that’s how you make it the 51st state,” Lutnick said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” Lutnick’s comments come amid recent tension between the U.S. and Canada over tariffs. On Tuesday, President Trump said he was going to raise planned steel and aluminum tariffs against Canada due to a surcharge on electricity from the Ontario government.Ontario Premier Doug Ford said later Tuesday that he would not go forward with the surcharge in the wake of an “olive branch” being offered by the U.S., which is a scheduled Thursday meeting with Lutnick.Trump has previously suggested that Canada should “become the 51st state,” but Mark Carney, the soon-to-be prime minister of the U.S.’s neighbor to the north, said Sunday that “Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form.” “But think about this for a second, why are American cars made in Canada? … Those jobs should be in America. And that’s what the president thinks, and that’s what he says and that’s what he’s going to execute,” Lutnick said Wednesday. “So the key point is, Canada’s going to have to work with us to really integrate their economy. And as the president said, they should consider the amazing advantages of being the 51st state of the United States of [America],” he added.
Canada files WTO complaint over US steel, aluminum tariffs - Canada has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), asking it to dispute consultations with the U.S. regarding the tariffs on certain aluminum and steel products coming from Ottawa.The WTO said the request was circulated to the trade body members on Thursday. Canada said in the filing that Washington’s levies terminated the nation’s exemption from additional tariffs on certain steel and aluminum products and increased levies on aluminum that went into effect on Wednesday, a move that is “inconsistent with U.S. obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994.” This is the second complaint Canada has filed with the WTO this month. The first one, which was circulated among WTO members on March 5, came as President Trump’s administration slapped 25 percent tariffs on goods coming from Canada and Mexico, along with a 10 percent levy on Chinese products.In the initial complaint with the WTO, Canada argued that the U.S. tariffs were in breach of the GATT and the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement. The Trump administration has implemented 25 percent tariffs on all aluminum and steel imports coming into the U.S. Ottawa fired back, slapping $20.7 billion in retaliatory tariffs on aluminum, steel and other items. Canada is the U.S.’s biggest aluminum and steel supplier.
Trump allies blame Commerce chief Lutnick for tariff turmoil - There is a growing consensus that Howard Lutnick could be forced to take the fall for the economic chaos generated by the president’s unsteady tariff policies. President Donald Trump is struggling to message a scattered economic agenda, but his Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, is taking the blame. White House and administration officials, as well as Trump’s outside allies, are growing increasingly frustrated with Lutnick, privately complaining about the close proximity he has to the president and the counsel he is giving him on economic issues. It’s an exasperation compounded by recent television appearances, they say, that suggest a lack of understanding of even the basics about how tariffs and the economy work. He has also at multiple points over the last week gotten out in front of the president on announcements and contradicted his messaging. Those factors, coupled with an abrasive personality, have left Lutnick with few friends in the administration — and a growing consensus within it that he could be forced to take the fall for the economic turmoil generated by the president’s unsteady tariff policies, according to five people close to the administration. The Dow slid nearly 500 points Tuesday after Trumpannounced and then walked back new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, amid ongoing economic uncertainty — after closing 890 points down Monday. Lutnick, one of the people close to the administration said, is “constantly auditioning for Trump’s approval.”
Rubio: 83 percent of USAID programs will be canceled -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that 83 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programs would be canceled, essentially capping a dramatic fall for the foreign aid organization under the Trump administration. “After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,” Rubio wrote on the social platform X. Rubio said there were 5,200 contracts that were canceled that would have spent “tens of billions” of dollars. He described those contracts as not serving the U.S. and, in some cases, harming the country’s national interests. “In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18 percent of programs we are keeping (approximately 1,000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department,” Rubio said. The secretary thanked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, with whom he’d recently had a reported clash, and his staff who “worked very long hours” to achieve the reform for USAID. Musk replied on X that it was a “tough, but necessary” decision. “Good working with you,” he said. “The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept. of State.” Musk and Rubio reportedly battled last week at a Cabinet meeting over cuts at the State Department, underscoring tensions between Cabinet secretaries and the tech mogul. President Trump said the leaders of departments would have leadership over cuts they are administering after the clash. The two joined Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night after the altercation, and appear to have been trying to show they are working together.A former USAID official warned that cutting the agency’s programs could lead to “preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale.”Contract terminations announced earlier this month will end grants for HIV treatments and prevention, tuberculosis, polio, malaria, Ebola and other diseases. Nutrition assistance for infants in developing countries was also stopped.Friends of USAID, a volunteer-run newsletter supported by some USAID staff, accused the administration of failing to carry out a thorough and deliberative review of the programs it cut. “USAID Missions around the world spent the weekend working around the clock — at the Administration’s request — drafting program descriptions to explain what we do and why it matters. We woke up Monday morning to find out the decisions have already been made, before we ever had a chance to turn anything in,” the authors wrote. “Please explain how this is a fair, transparent, or thorough review. Explain it like I’m five.”
Judge orders release of certain owed foreign aid payments - A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to release foreign aid payments owed under certain existing contracts but stopped short of staving off mass contract cancellations that resulted from a subsequent review. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former President Biden, ruled that the administration must pay out U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) bills owed through Feb. 13 under existing contracts and grants. He also blocked the government from “unlawfully impounding” congressionally appropriated foreign aid. However, Ali declined to invalidate the case-by-case review that USAID and the State Department said was completed by Feb. 26, which resulted in the cancellation of nearly 5,800 USAID awards and 4,100 awards from the State Department. “The provision and administration of foreign aid has been a joint enterprise between our two political branches,” Ali wrote in a 48-page decision. “That partnership is built not out of convenience, but of constitutional necessity.” “Today, this Court reaffirms these firmly established principles of our Constitution,” he said. “At the same time, however, the Court is mindful of limitations on its own authority.” The Trump administration has made concerted efforts to dismantle USAID, including by firing employees and freezing its payments to contractors. The subsequent review left only some 500 awards intact from USAID. USAID contractors sued the Trump administration last month, alleging they were waiting on hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding invoices from the government. Two other nonprofits also sued, claiming Trump’s executive order freezing foreign aid violated the separation of powers and caused irreparable harm to their operations that heavily rely on USAID funding. While the Justice Department said in court filings that an “individualized review process” was completed for grants and federal assistance award obligations, the plaintiffs contended that it would not be possible for a case-by-case review of all awards to have been completed so quickly, suggesting instead that the State Department’s actions ultimately still amounted to an unlawful blanket decision to stop all aid. When Ali questioned the speed of the review, the government said that the request for a temporary restraining order resulted in a shift in resources to get the job done faster. The plaintiffs have “a problem that is of their own litigation choices,” said Justice Department lawyer Indraneel Sur during a hearing last week. Stephen Wirth, a lawyer for the challengers, said during the hearing that the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze has been “catastrophic.” “Billions of dollars in lifesaving humanitarian aid have, without warning, been shut off literally overnight,” he said. Another lawyer for the challengers, William Perdue, argued that the administration is stepping on Congress’s power of the purse, as funds appropriated for specific purposes have not been used in that way. Furthermore, the government has “never claimed” they intend to “re-obligate” the funds, he said. Ali also questioned the government’s position that presidential powers regarding foreign affairs are “vast and unreviewable.” “Where are you getting this from the constitutional document?” he asked. Sur said only that the courts have long abided a “deference” to the executive on the matter. In his ruling Monday, Ali said the plaintiffs would likely prevail on their claim that the administration’s withholding of appropriated foreign aid violates the separation of powers. Last week, a different federal judge declined to immediately block the mass firings of USAID personal services contractors. He said the harm they face is “directly traceable” to changes the government made to their contracts, suggesting relief should be sought through another avenue.
"Shred And Burn All Documents": USAID Staff Ordered To Destroy Evidence On Tuesday - A senior USAID official on Tuesday ordered the agency's remaining staff to report to their now-former headquarters in Washington DC for an "all day" group effort to destroy documents, many of which contain sensitive information, Politico reports.The materials marked for destruction include "classified safes and personnel documents" at the Ronald Reagan Building, according to an email sent by USAID's acting executive director, Erica Carr."Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break," read the email instructing staff to label the burn bags with "SECRET" and "USAID/B/IO" (which stands for "bureau or independent office") in dark sharpie.So the current Acting Executive Secretary of USAID who ordered the mass shredding and burning of paper files at USAID today worked in the Obama OPM, then Obama USAID, then was personally named USAID Executive Secretary by Joe Biden his first week in office. What's going on here? https://t.co/GjPpibvNAo pic.twitter.com/C3tnx8fIPn— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) March 11, 2025According to the report, the email did not provide any reasoning for the document destruction, however the building is currently being emptied out after mass layoffs, which may have disrupted the routine destruction of materials. The effort also underscores the tumultuous way in which the Trump administration is dismantling an agency that once managed a $40 billion annual budget and had more than 10,000 staff around the world.Efforts by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency last month to access secure computer systems at USAID — including information about employees’ security clearances — triggered an uproar at the agency that prompted the administration to place two of the agency’s security staff on administrative leave. A DOGE spokesperson subsequently said that there was no improper access to classified material. -PoliticoAccording to a former USAID staffer, "I’ve never seen something like this — en masse. Everyone with a safe is supposed to keep it up to date and destroy documents when they no longer need to be stored. Sometimes security will check your safe and tell you if you have to clean out old material."
Trump Admin Is Trying To Deport Mahmoud Khalil for Speech That's 'Contrary' to US Foreign Policy - The Trump administration is trying to deport 30-year-old Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested by ICE agents over the weekend, for activity that is “contrary” to US foreign policy based on his involvement in protests critical of Israel’s war on Gaza at Columbia University.A White House official told The Free Press that Khalil’s activity was a “threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.”“The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” the official told The Free Press. “He was mobilizing support for Hamas and spreading antisemitism in a way that is contrary to the foreign policy of the US.”US officials have labeled pro-Palestine protests “antisemitic” even though many Jewish students participated in and helped organize the demonstrations.The White House official said the basis for targeting Khalil is being used as a blueprint to target other foreign students either on visas or green cards, and more arrests at other schools are expected. “I suspect we’ll have other schools roped into this,” the official said.At a White House press conference on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karolin Leavitt claimed Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the right to revoke the visa or green card of individuals who “are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests” under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.“Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges,” Leavitt said. “And he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege by siding with terrorists.”Leavitt also claimed that Khalil was involved in distributing “pro-Hamas propaganda fliers” but didn’t offer any evidence to back up the assertion.The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) responded to Leavitt’s comments and said the law she appeared to be citing “requires the secretary of state to have ‘reasonable ground to believe’ the person’s ‘presence or activities in the United States . . . would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.'”FIRE noted that in explaining how Khalil met the standard for deportation under the law, the administration “did not allege Khalil committed a crime” but did “explicitly cite the content of his speech.”FIRE said that “protesting government policy is protected by the First Amendment, as is rhetorical support for a terrorist group.”Khalil was born in Syria, has Algerian citizenship, and is of Palestinian descent. He is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant. Khalil was arrested at his Columbia University-owned apartment in New York City over the weekend by ICE agents and was taken to a detention facility in Louisiana.
Border czar on Columbia arrest: ‘Absolutely we can’ deport a legal immigrant Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said Monday that federal authorities “absolutely can” deport a legal immigrant after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Columbia University graduate with a green card. “Absolutely, we can,” Homan told Stuart Varney on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” after the host asked about the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a leading pro-Palestinian activist, and if ICE can deport someone who is in the country legally. “I mean, did he violate the terms of his visa? Did he violate the terms of his residency here, you know, committing crimes, attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying property? Absolutely, any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation,” Homan added. Only an immigration judge has the authority to revoke a green card.Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Khalil was arrested at his Columbia residence on Saturday due to his activities in leading the pro-Palestinian encampment at the university last spring. The Student Workers of Columbia labor union described him as the “lead negotiator” in the protests with the school. “We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud’s rights in court, and will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable — and calculated — wrong committed against him,” Amy Greer, Khalil’s attorney, said in a statement to NBC News, adding that her office has filed a petition challenging the validity of the detention.The arrest marks the first step the Trump administration has made to deport college students who participated in the nationwide protests last year, which led to the arrest of 2,000 individuals.“This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said about the arrest. Columbia protesters were the ringleader of the movement and saw big escalations between demonstrators and university administrators such as a takeover of a school building and classes moving online. “And that’s just one out of many,” Homan said. “We’re going to send a strong message to say, anybody here on a foreign visa, that you’re given a great right to come to the greatest country on Earth and study in our colleges. But when you come here to study, you got to obey the laws of this country. You got to obey the requirements of that visa to be lawful while you’re here.”“So, it’s a great privilege to study in this country, but, when we give you that right to study in this country, don’t violate our laws,” he added.
Trump Says Arrest of Green Card Holder for Pro-Palestine Activism Is First of Many to Come - President Trump on Monday vowed that the arrest of a green card holder over his involvement in protests critical of Israel was the first of “many to come” as civil liberties groups are pushing back against the campaign that has chilling implications for the First Amendment. Over the weekend, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia grad student who served as a spokesman for student activists seeking the university’s divestment from Israel, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in his university-owned apartment.For now, a federal judge is preventing Khalil from being deported. “To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise,” Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York said in a court order in response to a petition filed by Khalil. When he was arrested, Khalil was told that under orders from the State Department, his visa would be revoked for his participation in the protests. He informed the agents that he had a green card, making him a permanent resident, and was told that it would be revoked instead. Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant. He has been taken to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, 1,000 miles away from his wife in New York City, and has not been charged with any crime.The Department of Homeland Security has only alleged that he “led Hamas-aligned protests” and said that it targeted Khalil in support of President Trump’s executive order “prohibiting antisemitism,” referring to an order from January meant to crack down on pro-Palestine protests at college campuses.“Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.“This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a story on X about Khalil being arrested and wrote, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” The term “Hamas supporters” has not been defined by the administration, and critics of US support for Israel and of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories are often labeled “pro-Hamas.” The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) sent a letter to Trump administration officialsdemanding answers about Khalil’s arrest. “Demonstrations occurring on Columbia’s campus since Oct. 7, 2023, have included both constitutionally protected speech and unlawful conduct, but the government has not made clear the factual or legal basis for Mr. Khalil’s arrest,” FIRE said.“The statements the government has released suggest its decision may be based on his constitutionally protected speech. This lack of clarity is chilling protected expression, as other permanent residents cannot know whether their lawful speech could be deemed to ‘align to’ a terrorist organization and jeopardize their immigration status,” FIRE added in the letter.Jenin Younes, a civil liberties attorney, said in a post on X that Khalil’s arrest was “political persecution” and pointed to the fact that green card holders can’t be deported without a conviction. “Green card holders cannot be deported for mere charges, only actual convictions of crimes of moral turpitude and aggravated felonies (those are defined in fed immigration law). And Khalil hasn’t even been charged,” Younis said. “These are all major red flags that this is an attempt to punish someone for expressing views disfavored by the current administration, and scare others with similar views into silence.”
People Who Defend Trump's Assault On Free Speech Are Mindless Sheep - Caitlin Johnstone - President Trump has taken to social media to boast about his administration’s arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for leading Columbia University campus demonstrations against Israel’s genocidal atrocities in Gaza, proclaiming that “This is the first arrest of many to come.”“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.And judging from what I’m seeing online, and the responses I’ve been getting to my criticisms of these abuses, most Trump supporters seem perfectly fine with these measures. Many are actively defending them.Words can’t express how disgusted I am with Trump supporters who defend their president stomping out speech rights for Israel after spending years wailing about the loss of free speech in America. It’s beyond mere political differences. I don’t respect them as people.Of all the pathetic, groveling, bootlicking positions anyone could possibly espouse, it’s hard to imagine one more egregious than twisting yourself into cognitive knots trying to find ways to excuse a president crushing free speech in your country to advance the interests of a foreign state after spending years yelling “America First” and whining about freedom of speech, just because that President happens to be a Republican.If you are doing this, you’re just admitting that you don’t stand for anything, and you’re just drifting along with the herd and supporting whatever the man in charge tells you to support. You’re unthinking human livestock. A mindless, useless, pointless NPC. You have wasted all of your time on this planet, because you did not use that time to mature into a sovereign adult with basic intellectual agency and integrity.Republicans have this adorable story about themselves where they believe they have changed since the George W Bush administration, but that’s not what I’m seeing on social media today. I’m seeing the same shitbrained, power-worshipping sheep who cheered on every authoritarian abuse rolled out by the Bush administration. That’s all this so-called “populist” movement calling itself “MAGA” turned out to be: all the same authoritarian bootlicking, but with more presents for Israel.I saw a tweet from Michael Tracey the other day, “GOP free speech: You can say ‘retarded’ again, but you can’t protest Israel.”That’s the long and short of it, right there. When Trump supporters spent all those years yelling about the First Amendment, it turns out they weren’t talking about the need to stop the powerful from silencing inconvenient political speech — they just wanted to be allowed to say “retard” and “tranny” on social media. As long as they get those completely irrelevant concessions from the powerful, they’ll happily let their government set all kinds of speech-suppressing legal precedents, because they don’t actually have any values or positions which pose any kind of challenge to the powerful. They’re George W Bush Republicans LARPing as populist revolutionaries.Someone who actually supports free speech says “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Trump supporters say “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death my government’s right to silence you as long as a Republican is in office.”Worthless, spineless cucks. What an undignified way to live.
US added to human rights watchlist over Trump moves -- The United States has been added to CIVICUS’s monitor list of potential human rights threats, a move the global nonprofit says is directly linked to President Trump’s actions since his return to the White House in January. “Restrictive executive orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal,” CIVICUS interim co-Secretary General Mandeep Tiwana said in a statement. “The Trump administration seems hellbent on dismantling the system of checks and balances which are the pillars of a democratic society.” The U.S. joins Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia in CIVICUS’s first watch updates for 2025.“Gross abuses of executive power raise serious concerns over the freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and association,” the group wrote of the U.S. rating.CIVICUS specifically pointed to Trump’s push for mass firings of federal workers, the dismantling of foreign aid programs, his treatment of the media and efforts across the country to tamp down pro-Palestinian protests.“Americans across the political spectrum are appalled by the undemocratic actions of the current administration,” Tiwana said.
Donald Trump brings birthright citizenship argument to Supreme Court -- The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court for an emergency intervention Thursday limiting lower court rulings that are blocking President Trump’s plans to restrict birthright citizenship. The Justice Department’s ask comes after three federal appeals courts blocked the administration from moving forward. The administration is not yet asking the justices to rule on the constitutionality of Trump’s order but instead is seeking to limit the lower rulings’ nationwide impact, insisting those courts went too far.“At this stage, the government comes to this Court with a ‘modest’ request: while the parties litigate weighty merits questions, the Court should ‘restrict the scope’ of multiple preliminary injunctions that ‘purpor[t] to cover every person * * * in the country,’ limiting those injunctions to parties actually within the courts’ power,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in court filings. Trump signed the executive order narrowing birthright citizenship on his first day back in the White House. It purports to limit the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship guarantee to exclude children born on U.S. soil to parents without permanent legal status. The move has been met with 10 lawsuits that assert the administration’s interpretation runs up against longstanding Supreme Court precedent on the 14th Amendment. The other cases not yet at the high court remain in earlier stages.Though the Trump administration’s new applications at the Supreme Court address those immigration issues, they mainly address lower courts’ decisions to block Trump’s order nationwide rather than merely the plaintiffs in a case, known as a “universal injunction.”
Trump administration empties Guantánamo of migrants, flies all back to US -The Trump administration’s plans to detain migrants in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, hit another roadblock this week after all 40 such individuals held there were sent back to the United States, with no future deportation flights scheduled to the island.A Defense official confirmed to The Hill Thursday there are “zero” migrants being held at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, including a group of 23 “high threat” individuals held at the detention facility on base and 17 others who were detained at the migrant operations center there.The official did not say where the men had been moved to, but multiple outlets reported they were transported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aircraft Tuesday and relocated to one or more of the agency’s facilities in Louisiana.Further questions were referred to ICE, which did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not comment.This is the second time the administration has abruptly emptied the detention site, with officials on Feb. 20 removing 177 Venezuelans flown in from the United States, with the men repatriated to the custody of their home government.And two weeks ago, DHS sent another group of 48 migrants to Louisiana from Guantánamo, The Washington Post reported.
We Are Duped Into Blaming Our Problems On Everyone Except Our Rulers - Caitlin Johnstone - Muslims are not a threat to you. Russia is not a threat to you. China is not a threat to you. Trans people are not a threat to you. Immigrants are not a threat to you. If you find yourself resisting anything I just said, that’s where they hooked you. That’s where your rulers duped you into blaming your problems on something other than them. You will notice that I am not saying there are no enemies and nobody poses a threat to us; there absolutely are, and they absolutely do. It’s just that people are tricked and manipulated away from seeing the real enemies and the real threats where they are. What poses a threat to you is the political status quo which robs your country of riches and resources to inflict military violence on innocent people overseas while strangling your civil rights and poisoning your planet. What poses a threat to you are the oligarchs and empire managers who uphold this status quo which is driving our species to authoritarian dystopia and extinction via environmental disaster or nuclear annihilation. They want you blaming your problems on anyone else besides the actual source of your problems. They prefer to get you freaking out about their primary targets — the disobedient groups and nations they want to destroy to advance the interests of the empire — but if they can’t accomplish that then they’re happy to get you hating powerless groups who pose no real threat to you. Anything they can do to keep your eyes off your real oppressors: the billionaires, bankers, media barons, intelligence agencies, warmongers, ecocidal capitalists, military-industrial complex plutocrats, and all the empire lackeys in your official elected government. They want us fighting each other, but we only pose a threat to each other if we buy into their bogus narratives of hostility and division. An immigrant is only threatened by a right winger because the right winger has been successfully duped into blaming his problems on the immigrant, and therefore elects empire lackeys who will make the immigrant’s life more difficult. But without that artificially manufactured enmity, it’s just two people being abused by the same pricks at the top. Whenever I say stuff like this I’ll get people voicing objections like “No no Caitlin you don’t understand, we really truly ARE seriously dangerously threatened by The Trans Agenda” or whatever. But you’re not. That’s just you doing the thing I’m describing here. You’re just buying into the exact scam I’m talking about. You’re allowing your crosshairs to be moved from your oppressors to some irrelevant diversion in order to protect your oppressors. At some point we need to stop falling for the scam. We need to wake up to the fact that we’re all just a bunch of normal people living in a highly abusive society, and that our abusers are benefiting immensely from our inability to see through their divide-and-conquer manipulations and unite against them. Muslims are not a threat to you. Russia is not a threat to you. China is not a threat to you. Trans people are not a threat to you. Immigrants are not a threat to you. The US empire is a threat to you. Your own government is a threat to you. Oligarchs are a threat to you. Nuclear brinkmanship is a threat to you. Ecocide is a threat to you. War and militarism are a threat to you. Tyranny is a threat to you. Propaganda is a threat to you. Your enemies are not in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran. Your enemies are in Washington, Virginia, New York and Los Angeles. Your enemies are in London, Paris, Brussels and Tel Aviv. Your abusers are not some far away nation your own government doesn’t like, nor are they some marginalized group your government doesn’t care about. Your abusers are your government itself, and all its allies and assets around the world, and the network of oligarchs and empire managers who call the shots in this globe-spanning power structure from behind the scenes. The sooner we get this straight, the sooner we can sort out all these problems we’re currently being duped into blaming on the wrong people.
Donald Trump proposes cutting ACA enrollment period, ending 'Dreamer' coverage - The Trump administration is proposing to shorten ObamaCare’s annual open enrollment period by a month, a move the administration said is aimed at helping consumers pick the right plan. According to a proposed rule released Monday, open enrollment would run from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, instead of through Jan. 15. “This proposal aims to reduce consumer confusion, streamline the enrollment process, align more closely with open enrollment dates for many employer-based health plans, encourage continuous coverage, and reduce the risk of adverse selection from consumers who otherwise may wait to enroll until they need health care services,” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a fact sheet. The sweeping rule gives a glimpse of how the Trump administration will handle the signature health law. The move mirrors one made during President Trump’s first term, when he shortened open enrollment to seven weeks. He also slashed funding for advertising and outreach and allowed “skimpy” short-term plans on the market after he tried and failed to repeal the law. Open enrollment numbers dropped significantly. Under former President Biden, there were a record number of people enrolling in Affordable Care Act plans. Last year, 24 million people chose plans during the most recent open enrollment period, mainly due to expanded tax credits that made plans available to people for little or no monthly premiums. DC Bureau: Tariff Troubles In addition to the shortened enrollment period, the CMS on Monday proposed ending ObamaCare coverage for immigrants that came into the U.S. illegally as children, also known as “Dreamers.” The proposal would undo a Biden-era rule that was estimated to allow 147,000 immigrants to enroll in coverage. A federal judge blocked the rule from being enforced in 19 states, and it is still being litigated. The CMS also proposed that “sex-trait modification” may not be covered as an essential health benefit beginning in plan year 2026.
Protesters rally against Trump's cuts to NIH research funding -Hundreds of people gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday afternoon to protest President Trump’s recent cuts to government spending on research institutions. The Trump administration has taken steps to disrupt operations at the country’s top federal research institutions since late January, freezing grants issued by the National Institutes of Health and issuing executive orders on sex and gender and diversity, equity and inclusion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrubbed its health data from its site in order to comply with those orders. Most recently, the administration issued a policy to cut government funding to the National Institutes of Health by reducing the amount of grant funding that can go toward overhead costs. NIH is the largest biomedical funder in the world and spent $35 billion on grants for research last year alone. About $9 billion of those funds went toward “indirect costs” like fees associated with facility maintenance and compliance and administrative worker salaries. NIH capped the “indirect cost” rate at 15 percent of a total grant. Many universities and research institutions in the past have used 30 percent to 60 percent extra in their grant funding to cover these expenses.Researchers have decried the move, arguing that lowering the “indirect cost” rate will halt life-saving research on illnesses like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. “I love my country, and I’m worried about my country right now,” said Francis Collins, former head of the NIH, to a sea of protesters waving signs that read “science prevents brain worms,” “divide cells not countries,” or “literally trying to cure multiple sclerosis but okay.” One person carried a globe with a paper affixed to it stating, “save me” while another in the enormous crowd carried an American flag turned upside down, a sign of distress among sailors that has now become a symbol of right-wing protest. Collins was one of lengthy lineup of speakers that included Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md), former NASA Administrator and Sen. Bill Nelson, Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and former television personality and scientist Bill Nye. Speakers also included former federal scientists, lay scientists, students, health care workers and disability advocates admonishing Trump and his Cabinet, and particularly Elon Musk and his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). All had the same point: Attacks on science are attacks on Americans.
NIH cuts research grants on vaccine hesitancy—with mRNA vaccine studies the next target -The National Institutes of Health (NIH) yesterday terminated at least 33 research grants studying vaccine hesitancy and strategies to increase vaccine uptake and scaled back 9 others on the topic, Science reported, based on information from a person with direct knowledge and a review of the cancellation letter that researchers received. According to Science, acting NIH Director Michael Memoli, MD, last week asked NIH institutes for a list of current and future grants addressing vaccine hesitancy. Scientists connected to the grants were set to receive termination letters last night.The termination letter seen byScience said their awards "no longer effectuates agency priorities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focus on gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment."New Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a known vaccine skeptic, and when President Donald Trump nominated him, he gave Kennedy the green light to make major policy changes that align with his personal health beliefs. The cuts come amid one of the nation's biggest measles outbreaks in recent years, an event on the Texas–New Mexico border that has so far sickened at least 253 people, 2 of them fatally. Most were unvaccinated. (See related CIDRAP News story today.) Of the terminated grants, 14 were made by the NIH's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and involved vaccines for diseases such as mpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), chickenpox, COVID, and a hypothetical gonorrhea vaccine. Some addressed increasing uptake in racial minority groups, while others included vaccine hesitancy as one of several variables in disease outbreak modeling. Science also reported that Memoli last week asked the NIH's institutes for similar lists of planned or current grants related to mRNA vaccine research, as well as a list of international research collaborations.
RFK Jr.’s CDC plans to resurrect the unfounded link between vaccines and autism - Last Friday, Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson Andrew Nixon announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would initiate a comprehensive study investigating if there is a link between vaccines and autism. This is despite many landmark studies from the last two decades, including the CDC’s, that show there is no such connection between the neuro-developmental disorder and vaccines or their ingredients.The CDC statement noted:As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed. CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening. The American people expect high quality research and transparency and that is what CDC is delivering.Nixon avoided answering any questions on how the study would be conducted, nor did he respond to queries regarding numerous peer-reviewed studies previously published that have completely discounted such assertions by anti-vaccine zealots. The call for such an investigation has all the hallmarks of RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine stance, ensuring that the extracted data will correspond to his foregone conclusions.His assertions that natural immunity to measles through infection can protect people against cancer and heart disease, and that cod liver oil and Vitamin A will miraculously ameliorate the disease are laughable. But this is being espoused by someone who sits at the head of the country’s entire health apparatus.This foray into scientific revisionism, considering the current measles outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico, is more than unsettling. More than 200 people have become infected with measles in the last two months, with dozens hospitalized and two deaths reported thus far.This development in a previously checked disease is not because the virus that causes measles has undergone genetic changes or any increase in virulence. It is a product of the fascistic turn in the entire political structure that coincides with the social crisis of capitalism, which includes transforming the entire edifice of public health not to improve health, but to do the exact opposite.It is appropriate to briefly review the evidence that supports vaccination and completely refutes Kennedy and his ilk, whose bald-faced lies are endangering the well-being and lives of people in America and throughout the world.A landmark report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), now part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, has reaffirmed that vaccines are overwhelmingly safe and do not cause autism. The 2012 report, “Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality,” was conducted by a panel of medical experts who reviewed thousands of scientific studies to assess potential adverse effects of commonly used vaccines, including the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine. The researchers examined epidemiological data, clinical studies, and biological evidence to determine whether vaccines could be linked to serious health conditions, including autism.One of the most significant findings of the report was the strong rejection of any causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The committee analyzed large-scale studies, including a Danish cohort study involving over 537,000 children, and found no increased risk of autism among vaccinated children compared to unvaccinated children. The review also dismissed the controversial 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield, which first suggested a link between MMR and autism, but was later retracted due to fraudulent data and unethical research practices. The IOM panel concluded that the weight of scientific evidence overwhelmingly supported the safety of vaccines and refuted any claims that they contribute to autism spectrum disorders.Beyond autism, the report evaluated other potential vaccine-related health risks, including encephalopathy, febrile seizures, anaphylaxis, and joint pain. While the review found that the MMR vaccine could, in very rare cases, trigger mild febrile seizures or allergic reactions, these side effects were deemed temporary and not associated with long-term health consequences. The report reinforced that the benefits of vaccines in preventing severe and potentially deadly diseases far outweigh the risks of these minor adverse effects.
Senate Dems demand Kennedy disclose details of Mar-a-Lago meetings with drug execs -Three Democratic senators want answers from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his private meetings with drugmakers alongside President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla. In a letter to Kennedy sent Monday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he “owes the public an explanation” for what happened during the meetings, why he took part, “and whether they will affect your commitment to ensuring that Americans receive the relief they deserve from high drug prices.” Kennedy is a longtime critic of drug companies and their perceived influence in setting government policy. He has promised to root out conflicts of interest at agencies, and last week launched a website for the public to see conflicts of interest from members of a Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, drug company CEOs and other health executives wrote checks for millions of dollars to attend at least six private dinners with President Trump in the “gold-covered, chandeliered dining room” at Mar-a-Lago. Kennedy reportedly attended several of them. “The dinners may have served as an opportunity for Big Pharma to gain insider access to both you and President Trump,” the senators wrote, calling the meetings “PhRMA’s influence-peddling events with President Trump.” The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is the trade group representing the drug industry. The organization has been lobbying the administration to change or remove a law from the Biden administration that allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. “Big Pharma stands to profit immensely from President Trump’s abandonment of this and other policies that would bring drug prices down, such as patent reform,” the senators wrote. “PhRMA officials have continued to lobby President Trump to weaken drug price negotiations in the months since the dinners.”
The Education Department says it will cut nearly 50% of staff : NPR --The Trump administration is working toward its promise of eliminating the U.S. Department of Education: On Tuesday evening, the department released a statement saying it would cut nearly 50% of the department's workforce. Impacted staff will be placed on administrative leave beginning March 21, according to the announcement.The statement confirms "all divisions" within the agency will be hit by cuts, but also says it will continue to deliver programs protected by law "including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking." "Today's reduction in force reflects the Department of Education's commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers," U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the statement. According to the announcement, more than 1,300 positions will be cut as a result of this reduction in force. Roughly another 600 employees accepted voluntary resignations or retired over the last two months. AFGE Local 252, a union that represents Education Department employees, released a statement in which its president, Sheria Smith, said, "We will fight these draconian cuts and urge all Americans to stand up and contact their Members of Congress…to protect the Department of Education's vital work, working people, and our Nation by rejecting these political games." Minutes later, AFGE Local 252 told NPR that Smith was laid off, along with all five of the chapter's other union officers. Smith told NPR, "Not only are we concerned about how we will now pay our bills, but another concern we have is what impact this is going to have to the American public." Smith is an attorney with the Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for making sure students aren't being discriminated against at school, including students with disabilities. She said, "Families who have students with special needs, what they've just done today is fire hundreds of the employees that would be enforcing [their] rights."
US education department to lay off 1,300 people as Trump vows to close agency | Trump administration -- The US Department of Education intends to lay off nearly half of its workforce. The layoffs of 1,300 people were announced by the department on Tuesday and described by the education secretary, Linda McMahon, as a “significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system”.In a post on X, McMahon said: “Today’s [reduction in force] reflects our commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”After the most recent round of layoffs, the department’s staff will be roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said in a statement. According to the department, another 572 employees had already accepted “voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement” over the last seven weeks. The newly laid-off employees will be placed on administrative leave at the end of next week. The department is also terminating leases on buildings in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland, officials said. The agency will continue to oversee the distribution of federal aid to schools, student loan management and oversight of Pell grants, the statement released on Tuesday reads.Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department, claiming it had been overtaken by “radicals, zealots and Marxists”. At McMahon’s confirmation hearing, she acknowledged that only Congress has the power to abolish the agency but said it might be due for cuts and a reorganization.The layoff announcement has been met with swift condemnation from Democratic and progressive officials. The Texas representative Greg Casar wrote in a post on X that those in charge were “Stealing from our children to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”In a statement, Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member of the House appropriations committee, said: “Presidents Trump and Musk and their billionaire buddies are so detached from how Americans live that they cannot see how ending public education and canceling these contracts kills the American Dream … If kids from working class families do not have access to schools, how can they build a future?”
The American oligarchy declares war on public education -The Trump administration and newly confirmed Education Secretary and billionaire Linda McMahon have begun dismantling the US public education system. Public schools, built through 250 years of struggle, educate tens of millions of students and are overwhelmingly supported by the population as a fundamental democratic right. According to a March 6 Washington Post article, congressional Republicans are pushing for a universal school voucher system in the budget reconciliation bill. Combined with the administration’s plan to shut down the Department of Education, this is part of a broader effort to dismantle public education entirely. In line with Trump’s January 29 Executive Order, “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families,” the Republican voucher plan would divert $5-10 billion in public funds to private, parochial and homeschooling. “The program would be fueled by a powerful, never-before-tried incentive: Taxpayers who donate to voucher programs would get 100 percent of their money back when they file their taxes,” the Post reported. Wealthy individuals and corporations could invest in or donate stocks to these programs, gaining dollar-for-dollar tax deductions while avoiding capital gains taxes. The measure would be “the greatest threat to public education we’ve ever had at the federal level,” said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for the School Superintendents Association. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump had a draft executive order to shut down the Department of Education (ED), though legal experts note it would require a 60-vote majority in the Senate. In the meantime, billionaires McMahon and Musk are executing a slash-and-burn operation—eliminating ED jobs, canceling grants and abruptly ending research and support programs. The Department of Education provides critical support to underfunded schools and enforces anti-discrimination policies established through landmark rulings like Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1975) and Plyler v. Doe (1982), which protect minorities, students with disabilities, English-language learners and immigrants. These gains are now under direct attack, with Trump using Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs as a pretext to dismantle democratic rights. Last week, Trump slashed $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University as retaliation for student-led anti-genocide protests. This week, he ordered the denial of student loan forgiveness to teachers and nonprofit workers deemed to “harm American values” or who engage in “public disruptions”—effectively imposing a political loyalty test. In K-12 education, an Executive Order now requires the teaching of the “1776 Report,” authored by far-right ideologues, along with other lies aimed at censoring the history of American imperialism, the suppression of the working class, and—above all—the class struggle and socialism. Universal public education, a core ideal of the Enlightenment, has long been seen as essential to democracy and a safeguard against authoritarianism. Just three years after drafting the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson authored A Bill for the General Diffusion of Knowledge in 1779, reflecting the revolutionary founders’ belief that education was the foundation of democracy and social and political rights. “I know of no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves,” Jefferson wrote, adding, “The remedy is not to take power from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”
Education secretary: Mass layoffs first step toward total shutdown - Education Secretary Linda McMahon affirmed late Tuesday that mass layoffs are the first step toward shuttering the Education Department — a longtime goal of President Trump’s since his time on the campaign trail. “Actually, it is, because that was the president’s mandate,” McMahon told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Tuesday. “His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished.”“But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat, and that’s not to say that a lot of the folks — you know, it’s a humanitarian thing to a lot of the folks that are there. … They’re out of a job,” she added in her interview on the “The Ingraham Angle.”The department terminated almost half of its workforce — some 1,315 staffers — on Tuesday and will now only have about 2,183 employees left.The overhaul of the workforce will not impact Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms, student aid, operations for students with disabilities, civil rights investigations and formula funding to states, a senior official said, adding the cuts were focused on unnecessary or reductive teams. “But we wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people and the good people to make sure that the outward-facing programs … the grants, the appropriations that come from Congress, all of that are being met, and none of that’s going to fall through the cracks,” McMahon said Tuesday evening.The news of the workforce cuts came after the department told workers to leave their offices Tuesday by 6 p.m. EDT and that the offices will be closed Wednesday because of “security reasons.”The administration’s goal to completely eliminate the department cannot take place without Congress’s approval, where a 60-vote backing would be required to sidestep the filibuster. McMahon warned workers of the upcoming layoffs in the “final mission” memo she sent out after she was confirmed for the leadership position by the Senate. In it, she argued that “removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children.”McMahon also said Tuesday that the administration is not “taking away education” and that the moves will eventually lead to students scoring higher on tests.“He’s taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states. Better education is closest to the kids, with parents, with local superintendents, with local school boards,” the secretary said.
Trump’s school voucher plan: A billion-dollar tax shelter for the ruling elites -- Trump’s national school voucher proposal represents an unprecedented diversion of public funds into private hands. It is part of an overall plan to dismantle the right to public education, being spearheaded through the destruction of the Department of Education. The plan offers a 100 percent federal tax credit for donations to school voucher programs, creating the largest tax incentive for any charitable contribution in US history. The school voucher proposal being promoted by Congressional Republicans is not about expanding educational “opportunities” but about funneling billions of public dollars into private hands while creating a tax shelter for the ultra-wealthy. This scheme is a backdoor maneuver to privatize education while allowing corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid taxation. The plan offers a 100 percent federal tax credit for donations to school voucher programs, meaning that every dollar contributed is fully reimbursed by the government. This ensures that public education funding is directly converted into subsidies for private institutions and homeschoolers. The federal government would effectively be funding a parallel private education system, draining billions from public schools. Unlike tax deductions, which merely reduce taxable income, this program ensures that every dollar donated to private school scholarships is fully reimbursed by the federal government. The policy does not simply divert resources from public schools; it actively redistributes wealth upward, allowing high-income earners to exploit tax loopholes while working class families are left with underfunded public schools. The voucher system would double as a tax shelter for the ultra-rich. The plan allows for donations of stock instead of cash. Donors avoid capital gains taxes when stocks increase in price, then receive a tax credit for the full amount of the stock price come tax time. According to the Washington Post analysis, this loophole could cost the government an estimated $134 billion over 10 years, further deepening economic inequality by depleting federal funds that would have otherwise paid for public education—especially for those serving low-income communities. This corporate welfare masquerading as school choice will not improve education for working class families. It will simply allow the elite to extract even more wealth from the public sector. One version of the proposal would cost the federal government $5 billion per year, enough to fund about 500,000 private school vouchers at $10,000 per student. Another version, at $10 billion annually, would expand eligibility to higher income families, extending federal subsidies to those earning up to three times the area median income. For example, families making over $450,000 in some districts would qualify. The push for school vouchers has deep historical ties to reactionary efforts to resist public school integration following the Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and mandating desegregation of schools across the country. In response to federal desegregation mandates, states introduced early forms of school vouchers to allow white families to withdraw from integrated schools and attend private segregation academies using public funds. One of the most infamous examples occurred in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where officials shut down the entire public school system in 1959 rather than allow black students to integrate. White families were given publicly funded tuition grants—early school vouchers—to attend all-white private academies, while black students were left without access to formal education.
Postal Service signs cost-cutting deal with DOGE -The United States Postal Service said it has signed a deal with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut costs at the agency.Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told congressional leaders in a letter that he had signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s DOGE to cut jobs and spending at the agency that has long since lost money.DeJoy said the organization has spent the last four years transforming from a “battered government bureaucracy” that experienced financial losses into a higher quality service, but it is still not achieving its goals.“Last night I signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and DOGE representatives to assist us in identifying and achieving further efficiencies,” DeJoy said. “This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done. We are happy to have others assist us in our worthwhile cause.”The Postal Service is an independent agency that has remained untouched by DOGE’s presence in other departments, until now.The postmaster general said the service plans to reduce its workforce by 10,000 workers within the next month through a voluntary early retirement program. DeJoy said the DOGE team asked about the big problems facing the Postal Service. He cited various issues including miscalculations and mismanagement over its retirement plans that have several billion dollars of “burdensome” funds, mismanagement of its Workers’ Compensation Program, unfunded mandates as a result of legislation that require the service to participate in “costly activities, and “burdensome regulatory requirements” that restrict normal practices.He noted that these services are housed within other departments, including the Office of Personnel Management, the Treasury Department, the Labor Department and Congress.
Trump administration cancels disaster training for meteorologists amid staffing, travel cuts - The Trump administration has canceled a training that prepares meteorologists to forecast during disasters, The Hill has learned. The incident meteorologist training for the National Weather Service was canceled amid “short staffing” and a severe reduction in how much employees are allowed to spend on travel, according to an email viewed by The HilAn agency source expressed concern that the cancellation of this session would delay new incident meteorologists from being certified — leaving the weather service less able to respond to disasters like fires and putting an even greater strain on the existing workforce. The source said that employee purchase cards were reduced to $1, so people were unable to book travel and some who had already booked travel had to cancel their flights. The weather service is far from the only federal agency seeing similar cuts while Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency seeks to downsize the government. The Hill reported the Interior Department, which manages national lands, parks and tribal affairs, also reduced employee purchase cards to $1.
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy rescinds Biden memos prioritizing infrastructure resilience to climate change -Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rescinded memos from the Biden administration prioritizing infrastructure resilience to climate change, according to a Monday press release.According to the press release from the department, the announcement about the rescinding came from Duffy on Monday. The department said the memos “displaced the long-standing authorities granted to States by law, added meritless and costly burdens related to greenhouse gas emissions and equity initiatives.”The Trump Transportation Department also put forth a memo of its own dated last Friday in which it called the memos “controversial” and asked for their rescinding.Webpages for the memos on the Federal Highway Administration’s (FWHA) website are both currently displaying “Page Not Found.” According to a Government Accountability Office report from 2022, one of the memos from 2021 had aims including pushing for states to “invest in projects that upgrade the condition of streets, highways and bridges and make them safe for all users” and “modernizing” those same pieces of infrastructure to make the transport network “more sustainable and resilient to a changing climate.”An archived version of the other memo, which is from 2023, also states that the FWHA would carry on with focusing on “infrastructure that is less vulnerable and more resilient to a changing climate.” The 2021 memo was also superseded by the 2023 memo. Duffy said in the release that his department “is getting back to basics — building critical infrastructure projects that move people and move commerce safely.”
EPA signals it will slash climate and pollution rules, including for cars and power plants --The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated Wednesday that it will slash a broad suite of rules and determinations that aim to cut pollution or mitigate climate change — including from cars and power plants.The EPA announced that it will consider rolling back Biden-era regulations that are expected to sharply increase the number of electric vehicles sold as well as speed coal plant closures. It will also reconsider the finding that climate change poses a threat to the public — which in turn lays regulatory groundwork for further climate action.It is also considering rolling back regulations on the neurotoxin mercury coming from power plants and general air pollution limits for deadly soot. Additionally, the agency indicated it would close offices dedicated to fighting pollution in underserved and minority communities around the country.The moves on cars and power plants are not necessarily a surprise, as President Trump said during the campaign trail that he would eliminate both rules, particularly criticizing Biden’s auto emissions rule as an “EV mandate.”
EPA announces ‘endangerment finding’ reconsideration --EPA will reconsider its 2009 declaration that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday, along with dozens of other regulatory rollbacks.The reconsideration comes after Zeldin encouraged the White House to revisit the “endangerment finding.” That finding underpins EPA climate rules, and unraveling it would have broad implications for rules aimed at clamping down on greenhouse gas emissions.A move to unravel the finding is certain to face lawsuits, and some legal experts contend the Trump administration would have a tough time defending that action in court. Zeldin announced the reconsideration Wednesday as part of what he called “the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history.”“EPA will be reconsidering many suffocating rules that restrict nearly every sector of our economy and cost Americans trillions of dollars,” Zeldin said in a video posted on social media.Those include Biden administration regulations to limit greenhouse gases from power plants and rules to limit mercury, particular matter, car and truck rules, and the “social cost of carbon” used to calculate the impacts of climate change.Zeldin said the reconsideration list includes the 2009 endangerment finding “along with all actions that rely on it.”Zeldin has “been told the endangerment finding is considered the Holy Grail of the climate change religion,” he said. “For me, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed — no exceptions.”
Pentagon starts purging ‘climate change crap’ - The Defense Department has a new search-and-destroy mission. It’s on the hunt for climate-related programs and studies. Last week, the Pentagon announced it had canceled multiple studies related to climate — including several that sought to determine whether a hotter planet could lead to more instability in Africa. In addition, the Defense Department has spent the last few weeks combing outside contracts for the term “climate” with the intent to zero out all related work, according to two former Pentagon officials.The purge is being driven broadly by President Donald Trump, who previously has described climate change as a hoax. But it has taken on extra urgency under the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has long rejected climate science and has vowed to eliminate all the Pentagon’s climate-related work.“The @DeptofDefense does not do climate change crap,” Hegseth wrote on X on Sunday. “We do training and warfighting.”It’s unclear how many climate initiatives are at risk for cancellation and how much money their erasure would save. The Pentagon said canceling 91 studies on climate and other topics would save $30 million, but it did not disclose how much money the Defense Department could save by eliminating other climate-related programs and studies. Pentagon officials did not respond to questions from POLITICO’s E&E News seeking answers on these topics. Instead , they issued a statement that said the Defense Department was working to “restore the warrior ethos and refocus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”“Climate zealotry and other woke chimeras of the Left are not part of that core mission,” Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot said in a statement.But defense experts warn the rush to cancel these programs could backfire on the Pentagon. Studying and preparing for global warming isn’t a liberal luxury, they say — it’s essential to better understand how climate change could influence both global politics and battlefield conditions.It’s about “missions and not emissions,” said John Conger, who served as principal deputy undersecretary of Defense in the Obama administration.As an example, he pointed to the risk that rising sea levels and more extreme storms pose to the constellation of U.S. military installations worldwide. “Climate affects the military mission, it affects your ability to do your job,” said Conger, who is a senior adviser to the Council on Strategic Risks.
Elon Musk's SpaceX confirms, clarifies Starlink lease agreement with FAA -SpaceX confirmed Wednesday that it is leasing Starlink kits and service to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for free but denied any push to take over Verizon’s contract to build an updated communications system for the agency. Elon Musk’s space technology company said it is working with L3Harris, the current contractor for the FAA’s telecommunications infrastructure, to test Starlink “as one piece of the infrastructure upgrades so badly needed along with fiber, wireless, and other technologies.” “Starlink is a possible partial fix to an aging system. There is no effort or intent for Starlink to ‘take over’ any existing contract,” SpaceX said in a post on the social platform X, which is also owned by Musk. “Beyond this initial testing deployment, SpaceX is working with L3Harris and the FAA to identify instances where Starlink could serve as a long-term infrastructure upgrade for aviation safety,” it added. Reports emerged last week that the FAA was considering canceling Verizon’s $2.4 billion contract to revamp the agency’s telecommunications system and awarding it to Musk’s Starlink instead. Musk himself publicly criticized Verizon before realizing it was not responsible for the current system. “To be clear here, the Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly,” he wrote on X last week. “The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk.” He later clarified that “the ancient system that is rapidly declining in capability was made L3Harris.” The prospect of Starlink taking over the Verizon contract raised conflict of interest concerns given Musk’s expansive role in the Trump administration, leading the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cost-cutting efforts. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced in early February that the DOGE team was “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) pressed the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Monday to bring Musk and acting FAA chief Chris Rocheleau in to testify about air traffic control technology in the face of several recent crashes and near-misses involving airplanes. “Given Musk’s far-reaching role within the U.S. government and his recent involvement with the FAA’s information technology systems, Musk’s comments could understandably cause panic among air travelers,” Markey wrote in a letter to Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the panel’s chair and ranking member. “Although the FAA’s information technology systems need modernization, Musk’s alarmist rhetoric appears extreme,” he added.
VA secretary: Cutting 80,000 jobs ‘is our target’ -Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins said his agency is looking to cut 80,000 jobs as their “target” to slim the agency’s workforce. Collins joined “Fox & Friends” on Monday, and he was pressed about the reported plans to make major cuts to the VA’s staff, particularly as concern ramps up about the impacts of mass layoffs.“So, the 80,000 number that has come out, is that number already done? Have you already decided who to let go?” Fox’s Brian Kilmeade questioned.“No, that is a goal that was put out … [as] President Trump and [the Office of Personnel Management] have said let’s look at a reduction in force across government,” Collins replied. “And that is a goal, that is our target.”Trump signed an executive order last month directing all federal agencies to prepare for a reduction in force, meaning “large-scale” layoffs.Veterans Affairs has workers across the country, meaning its cuts could be implemented in hospitals and clinics from coast to coast. Collins wrote in The Hill last week that the VA would be working to cut its workforce to levels seen in 2019.
DOGE details its cuts at HUD, VA, CFPB - The Department of Government Efficiency has slashed housing-related vendor contracts for efforts including fraud risk management, diversity initiatives and a bevy of lending support. The task force terminated vendor contracts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development worth a combined $305 million, according to its wall of receipts.
Musk's DOGE Shutters $1B Affordable Housing Program -- The Trump administration has moved to terminate a $1 billion program aimed at preserving affordable housing, a decision that could disrupt efforts to maintain tens of thousands of units for low-income Americans.The move, directed by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is part of broader funding freezes at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to an internal document reviewed by The Associated Press. DOGE has come under scrutiny for the pace, depth, and breadth of its cuts to federal funding under its mission to eliminate waste and fraud.Trump, responding to such criticism, said he wants Musk's DOGE to use a "scalpel" and not a "hatchet" in its approach to spending cuts.The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, passed by Congress in 2022, was designed to provide grants and loans for energy-efficiency improvements in affordable housing units. While officially intended to promote sustainability, the funding was also a crucial mechanism for keeping units affordable.Participating projects were required to maintain affordability for up to 25 years, and the federal funds often served as a key financial lever to attract additional investment.Without this support, thousands of affordable units could deteriorate or be lost entirely.
More Than 200,000 Government Credit Cards Deactivated: DOGE - The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said more than 200,000 government credit cards linked to a handful of federal agencies were canceled after an audit showed they were not being used.Last month, DOGE said in a statement that it found more than 4.6 million government credit cards that accounted for more than 90 million unique transactions amounting to more than $40 billion. On Monday evening, the Elon Musk-led agency said that more than 200,000 were deactivated.“Weekly Credit Card Update! Pilot program with 16 agencies to audit unused/unneeded credit cards,” DOGE wrote on its X account, adding that “great progress” was made at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of the Interior.Noting the 4.6 million credit card discovery last month, DOGE wrote that there is “still more work to do.” The post didn’t say what DOGE will target next.In February’s statement, DOGE provided details about what agencies are using credit cards and how much they’ve spent, with the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, General Services Administration, and U.S. Department of Agriculture having the most transactions.The Department of Veterans Affairs spent the most at more than $17.3 billion, while the Defense Department spent more than $11.2 billion, according to a spreadsheet posted by DOGE for Fiscal Year 2024.“DOGE is working [with] the agencies to simplify the program and reduce admin costs,” the group said in a statement on X.The specific numbers outlined by the General Services Administration (GSA) for fiscal year 2024 include $39.7 billion in “total program” spending and $506 million in refunds earned by agencies and organizations. GSA also notes that $441 was spent on average for each transaction.DOGE’s statement on March 10 comes as lawsuits and judgments targeting it continue to pile up. On the same day, a federal judge wrote that the auditing commission must release public records related to its operations.Since it was created via an executive order in January by President Donald Trump, DOGE has gone from agency to agency and has identified spending as well as programs to be slashed.In Monday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington sided with a left-leaning government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in finding that DOGE likely must comply with the Freedom of Information Act.Opposing the motion, government lawyers said DOGE is not subject to FOIA because it is part of the Executive Office of the President, but that they would outline their arguments later in the case.Court precedent dictates that entities within the Executive Office of the President are only subject to FOIA if they have “wielded substantial authority independently of the President.”Cooper ruled that DOGE has, saying that Trump signed an order creating DOGE and enabling it to implement his cost-cutting agenda.Cooper wrote that DOGE “appears to have the power not just to evaluate federal programs, but to drastically reshape and even eliminate them wholesale.”Over the weekend, DOGE said in a statement on X that it discovered some $312 million in loans that were allegedly given out to children aged 11 and younger during the COVID-19 pandemic.“While it is possible to have business arrangements where this is legal, that is highly unlikely for these 5,593 loans, as they all also used [a Social Security number] with the incorrect name,” the post reads.
Thousands of fired federal workers must be rehired immediately, judge rules - - A federal judge on Thursday ordered federal agencies to rehire tens of thousands of probationary employees who were fired amid President Donald Trump’s turbulent effort to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy.U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a “sham” strategy by the government’s central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce.Alsup, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Bill Clinton, ordered the Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments to “immediately” offer all fired probationary employees their jobs back. The Office of Personnel Management, the judge said, had made an “unlawful” decision to terminate them. And even if it is upheld on appeal, it does not guarantee that all the workers will be able to get their jobs back permanently: Alsup made clear that agencies still have the authority to implement “reductions in force,” as long as they follow the proper procedures for doing so. Federal agencies are currently finalizing “reduction in force” plans.Alsup issued his ruling in a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions. He lashed out at the Justice Department over its handling of the case, saying he believes that Trump administration lawyers were hiding the facts about who directed the mass firings.“You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so because you know cross examination would reveal the truth,” the judge said to a DOJ attorney during a hearing Thursday. “I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth. … I’m tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth.”Alsup also said the administration attempted to circumvent federal laws on reducing the workforce by attributing the firings to “performance” when that was not in fact the case. The judge called the move “a gimmick.”“It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said.More than 5,000 probationary workers for USDA had already won a reprieve last week when the chair of a federal civil service board ordered them reinstated for 45 days. But Alsup is the first federal judge to order the administration to broadly unwind the firing spree that has roiled the federal workforce during Trump’s first two months in office.Alsup emphasized that he was not ruling that the government is unable to lay off personnel at federal agencies, but that the Trump administration was in such a hurry to do so that it shunted aside federal laws that dictate the procedures for a so-called RIF.“The words that I give you today should not be taken that some wild-and-crazy judge in San Francisco said that an administration cannot engage in a reduction in force,” Alsup said. “It can be done, if it’s done in accordance with the law.”
White House vows to fight injunctions on dismissed probationary employees -- The White House on Friday vowed to appeal the federal court rulings that required the Trump administration to reinstate probationary government employees who judges said were fired unlawfully at several agencies.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the injunction was “entirely unconstitutional” and said the administration would respond aggressively.“Fighting back by appealing. Fighting back by using the full weight of the White House’s counsels’ office,” Leavitt said.Federal judges in both Maryland and Northern California district courts issued orders Thursday halting the mass dismissals. U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s ruling Thursday required the government to reinstate probationary employees fired Feb. 13-14 at the Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury departments. A second ruling from U.S. District Judge James Bredar was even broader, temporarily reinstating probationary employees at 18 federal agencies.“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice. It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for ‘performance’ or other individualized reasons,” wrote Bredar, an appointee of former President Obama.“On the record before the Court, this isn’t true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively,” he added.Leavitt accused the “low level” judges of usurping executive power.“And as the executive of the executive branch, the president has the ability to hire or fire, and you have these lower-level judges who are trying to block this president’s agenda. It’s very clear,” she told reporters.The case was one of multiple ongoing lawsuits challenging the mass terminations of probationary workers — who are usually in their first or second year in a new role — which has been part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reshape and overhaul the federal bureaucracy.
TSA union sues Noem over stripping of bargaining rights -- The union for Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) employees is suing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she said she was ending a collective bargaining agreement signed last year. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) argues Noem has no power to end an already authorized seven-year contract, accusing the secretary of targeting the union after it brought a number of suits on behalf of government workers“The 2024 CBA has a term of seven years and allows limited midterm bargaining. This collective bargaining agreement, like any other, is a binding contract,” the union wrote in the suit. It went on to call the move “an act of retaliation by the Trump administration against Plaintiff AFGE because of its exercise of its First Amendment right to litigate to protect federal workers.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first publicized the move last week, though Noem signed an order rescinding the contract last month.In that announcement, the DHS also leveled a number of claims against the union, including that TSA workers “will no longer lose their hard-earned dollars to a union that does not represent them.”The DHS also claimed TSA had more officers working on union work than screening passengers in 86 percent of airports — something the AFGE said was mathematically impossible.The AFGE said Noem “targeted AFGE by name, asserting without any evidence that AFGE was harming transportation security officers” and included “false claims about the number of AFGE officials using official time.”“The decision by Secretary Noem to rescind the 2024 CBA, end collective bargaining mid-contract, and terminate existing grievances violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, is arbitrary and capricious, and is contrary to law,” they wrote in the suit, bringing claims under the Administrative Procedures Act as well as the two amendments.TSA workers do not have full Title 5 rights to collective bargaining given to all other federal workers, though the Biden administration granted those powers through a 2021 administrative action.
OPM says union agreements 'unenforceable' in mass firings - Union collective bargaining agreements are "unenforceable," and should not stand in the way of mass firings at federal agencies, according to new guidance issued by the Trump administration. New guidance from the Office of Personnel Management states that unions' collective bargaining agreements cannot interfere with mass layoffs carried out by federal agencies.
McConnell criticizes and votes no on Trump Labor pick -- Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was one of three Senate Republicans to vote Monday against former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), President Trump’s nominee to head the Labor Department, criticizing her for supporting policies “that force hardworking Americans into union membership.” Chavez-DeRemer, a former House GOP lawmaker from Washington state, is the fourth high-profile Trump nominee McConnell has voted against. He previously voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “The American people demand and deserve change after four years of economic heartache under the ‘most pro-union administration in American history.’ Unfortunately, Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s record pushing policies that force hardworking Americans into union membership suggests more of the same,” McConnell said in a statement. He argued that most Americans believe that joining a union should be a personal choice, not a mandate, and he noted that Kentucky has adopted a “right-to-work” law. “Secretary Chavez-DeRemer will have a critical opportunity to put the interests of working families ahead of Big Labor bosses by empowering every American worker to join a union on their terms. I hope she takes it,” he said. Republican Sens. Ted Budd (N.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) also voted against the nominee.
Trump appoints mining industry executive to head Mining Safety and Health - The nomination last month by Trump of Wayne Palmer to head The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) presages a major ramping up of attacks on miners. Palmer, a former mining industry executive, was the deputy assistant secretary of MSHA in the first Trump administration, that oversaw attempts to roll back safety standards 100 years or more. Under Trump, MSHA saw its workforce decline by 13 percent from 2017 to 2021, according to the Charleston Gazette Mail. MSHA is part of the US Department of Labor (DOL) and, alongside the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is specifically tasked with inspection and safety rule enforcement for over 300,000 miners employed at 13,000 mines; from surface and underground to other mineral mines classified as metal/non-metal (MNM). MSHA oversees the Coal Mine Safety and Health division in 12 coal districts and the Metal-Nonmetal Mine Safety and Health division in its six regions. The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 was the initial substantial response of the federal government to the long-standing, deadly, and unhealthy conditions at US coal mines. Unsurprisingly, it was opposed by the mine owners, who calculated it would negatively affect the profits being extracted from the bodies of miners who were deemed replaceable at a lower cost, which is largely still the case. This was subsequently amended by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, which created MSHA. Palmer, since his first stint as head of MSHA, advertises he was descended from generations of miners, including the anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania coal fields are associated with the Molly Maguires, the militant miners who were hunted by mine owners who hired Pinkerton thugs to suppress unionization battles in the 19th century, a time when hundreds of miners were killed in preventable accidents and illnesses. The also fought against the use of child labor and the promotion of divisions among workers through the use of recent immigrant workers by the mine owners. Currently, each MSHA inspector is mandated with monitoring the safety of mines in their territory along with the investigation of accidents. The following examples of recent fatalities in the mines give an indication of the savagery of the American industrial slaughterhouse.
Trump withdraws nominee for CDC director - The Trump administration is withdrawing the nomination of physician and former Florida congressman David Weldon, MD, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to media reports.Weldon, who served in Congress from 1995 to 2009, was scheduled to have a confirmation hearing today before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). Weldon was likely to face many questions from committee members about his views on vaccines, given his history of questioning the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and his past criticism of the CDC over vaccine safety research. In 2007, Weldon coauthored a bill that would have removed vaccine safety research from the CDC.Weldon, like Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long promoted the theory that the MMR vaccine is linked to an increase in autism diagnoses, despite multiple studies that have found no such association. As Stat reports, Weldon appeared in a 2016 documentary that suggested the federal health agencies had conspired to cover up the link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The CDC is one of 13 agencies overseen by HHS. The director oversees US immunization policy for children and adults.Today’s hearing was also set to take place against the backdrop of a growing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico that is largely occurring in unvaccinated children. Although Kennedy wrote in a recent opinion piece on the outbreak that the MMR vaccine protects children and communities against measles infection, he has also continued to suggest there are safety issues with the vaccine and has said the decision to vaccinate is a personal one.
FBI Hands Over Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Documents To House Republicans, Letter Says - The FBI has said it is handing over subpoenaed documents to Republican House Judiciary lawmakers, responding to a letter that called for “transparency and accountability” at the bureau.House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel about information and documents that he said were withheld under former FBI Director Christopher Wray.In a letter dated March 7, FBI Assistant Director Marshall Yates responded by including documents and information about alleged pipe bombs that were found near Democratic and Republican headquarters in Washington in January 2021, the FBI’s communications with social media companies, and investigations into threats against school officials.“As a sign of good faith, we are providing this initial production more than a week ahead of the Committee’s subpoena deadline,” Yates wrote. “But this will not be the last production we will send to satisfactorily comply with the Committee’s subpoena. To that end, we are diligently working to completely comply with your subpoenas.”Due to “the diverse and broad subject matters implicated in your requests, the FBI is providing” an initial response, he said, adding that more documents will be identified and submitted to the House panel.Documents sent to Jordan’s office will also include “minimal redactions” to protect sensitive law enforcement information, the FBI said.In a letter dated Feb. 24, days after Patel was confirmed as the FBI’s director, Jordan requested a bevy of documents and information about the FBI’s activity under Wray, who stepped down from his post as President Donald Trump took office in January.That included Wray’s alleged “slow-walking” of an investigation into pipe bombs found near the headquarters around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach as well as the FBI’s usage of “confidential human sources” on Jan. 6.
Trump floats labeling violence against Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism - President Trump hinted he would be open to labeling individuals who carry out violence at Tesla dealerships as “domestic terrorists” following a string of violent demonstrations at the electric vehicle company’s showrooms across the U.S. Trump was asked Tuesday at the White House if he could speak about some of the violence occurring at Tesla dealerships, with a reporter noting that some people think those responsible should be labeled domestic terrorists.“I will do that, I’ll do it. I’m going to stop them,” Trump said. “Those people are going to go through a big problem when we catch them. We’ve got a lot of cameras up, we already know who some of them are. We’re going to catch them. And they’re bad guys. They’re the same guys that screw around with our schools and universities, the same garbage,” Trump added. “And, no, we’re going to catch them. And let me tell you, you do it to Tesla, and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you and you’re going to go through hell.” The president argued he would do the same for other American companies and corporations.“If we catch anybody doing it, because they’re harming a great American company. I’ve stuck up for the NFL, I’ve stuck up for a lot of American companies and other companies, but American companies,” he said. “The ongoing and heinous acts of violence against Tesla by radical Leftist activists are nothing short of domestic terror. President Trump has been clear, these attacks, or any other attack to intimidate or coerce our government or it’s people will not stand in President Trump’s America,” Trump spokesperson Harrison Fields told The Hill.
X outage affects thousands of users -- An outage on the social platform X appeared to impact thousands of users on Monday morning. According to outage-tracking website Downdetector.com, more than 37,000 users reported problems with the platform shortly before 10 a.m. EDT on Monday. Some users reported being able to access the platform again by mid-morning, but outage reports spiked back up around 11 a.m. Issues were first reported around 5:30 a.m., hitting a high of nearly 21,000 reports shortly before 6 a.m. Outage reports drastically dropped until about 9:30 a.m. ET, when reports spiked back up. It is not immediately clear what has caused the three outages. The Hill has reached out to X for further comment. They come months after the Elon Musk-owned platform experienced widespread error reports last August. Thousands of users were reportedly impacted and unable to access to the app, while some users said the date showed up wrong on their feed.
Musk claims ‘massive cyberattack’ behind X outage came from ‘Ukraine area’ - Elon Musk said his social media platform X was targeted in a “massive cyberattack” Monday and later claimed the attack was traced back to “the Ukraine area,” prompting outages for thousands of users. “We’re not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Musk said in an interview with Fox Business Channel host Larry Kudlow. Earlier in the afternoon, Musk claimed a “massive cyberattack” targeted X on Monday, prompting outages for thousands of users throughout the day. “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing…” Musk wrote on X. Musk did not provide any further information, and X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk’s mention of Ukraine in relation to Monday’s attack comes amid increasing tensions with the Eastern European country. President Trump has ramped up criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent weeks. Trump paused U.S. aid to Ukraine and has suggested Kyiv is more of an obstacle to peace than Russia amid the countries’ more than three-year war. Musk, for his part, has echoed Trump’s sentiment, criticizing Zelensky in various posts and replies on X.
Trump Organization sues Capital One over canceled accounts --President Donald Trump's company sued Capital One Financial Corp., accusing it of illegally "de-banking" him for political reasons by abruptly canceling hundreds of accounts for his sprawling real estate business after his first term ended in 2021. President Donald Trump's company accused it of illegally "de-banking" him for political reasons by abruptly canceling hundreds of accounts for his real estate business after his first term ended in 2021.
Washington becomes center of crypto action The cryptocurrency industry flocked to Washington on Friday for the White House’s first-ever crypto summit, where President Trump and his Cabinet declared the end of what they termed the “war on crypto” in D.C. The summit brought together industry experts, pro-crypto lawmakers and administration officials, marking a notable moment for the digital assets space as it looks to reach mainstream acceptance. “My administration is working to end the federal bureaucracy war on crypto, which was really going on pretty wildly during Biden,” Trump said during remarks at the summit Friday afternoon. Crypto executives and advocates have argued the Biden administration shuttered its doors to the digital assets space and chose to instead pursue probes into various cryptocurrency exchanges and firms. Since Trump was sworn into office, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has closed several of the investigations into cryptocurrency firms, many of which were represented at the summit, including Coinbase and Ripple among others. David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, called on cryptocurrency Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who said earlier in the day it was more likely they would end up in jail than the White House a year ago. “We never thought that we’d get attacked the way we did in our backyard after trying to do the right thing for so many years and always trying to raise the bar with respect to regulation,” Cameron Winklevoss said during the roundtable. “It’s truly wonderful to see how things have changed and how the pendulum has swung back in the way it has.” It came on the heels of Trump’s executive order creating a strategic bitcoin reserve and digital assets stockpile with assets already seized by federal law enforcement while disrupting financial crimes. Trump slammed the Biden administration for selling some of the government’s bitcoin holdings, and Sacks claimed they would now be worth $17 billion. It is not immediately clear when these holdings were sold. “From this day on, America will follow the rule that every bitcoin knows very well, never sell your bitcoin,” Trump said. “That’s a little phrase that they have. Is it right? Who the hell knows.”
Trump signs order to create bitcoin reserve, crypto stockpile - President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Thursday evening establishing the creation of his promised Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. Both stockpiles will be initially funded with assets owned by the Department of Treasury that were seized in criminal or other legal proceedings.
Lummis introduces bill to create bitcoin strategic reserve - Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) reintroduced legislation Tuesday to create a bitcoin strategic reserve, seeking to codify President Trump’s executive order last week establishing a reserve. The bill, which Lummis first introduced last year, would direct the government to purchase 1 million bitcoins over five years that would be transferred to a “decentralized network” of storage facilities. The funds for the bitcoin purchases would come from “diversifying existing funds” in the Federal Reserve system, according to a press release. The first $6 billion in remittances from reserve banks would be set aside each year between 2025 and 2029 to build up the reserve. It would also rely on the Fed’s gold certificates. “Bitcoin is not simply a technological opportunity, but a national imperative for America’s continued financial leadership in the 21st century,” Lummis said in a statement. “By transforming the president’s visionary executive action into enduring law, we can ensure that our nation will harness the full potential of digital innovation to address our national debt while maintaining our competitive edge in the global economy,” she continued. Lummis’s legislation, which is co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Jim Justice (W.Va.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Bernie Moreno (Ohio), is slightly different from Trump’s proposal. Trump’s executive order seeks to establish a reserve based on bitcoin seized by federal law enforcement. It would separately create a digital asset stockpile, consisting of digital assets other than bitcoin similarly forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings. David Sacks, Trump’s artificial intelligence and crypto czar, has emphasized the plan will “not cost taxpayers a dime.” “The government will not acquire additional assets for the stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings,” Sacks wrote on the social platform X. “The purpose of the stockpile is responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets under the Treasury Department.” However, the order also directs the Treasury and Commerce departments to “develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin.” Trump’s push for a crypto strategic reserve was met with mixed reactions by the industry last week. While many cheered the move, some argued bitcoin was the only token fit for a reserve — a concern the administration seemingly sought to allay by separating the bitcoin reserve from the digital asset stockpile.
Crypto exchange Binance receives $2 billion from MGX --The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance, received a $2 billion investment from Emirati state-owned investor MGX on Wednesday. The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund-backed AI investment company initiated the largest investment ever paid in crypto.
Computer owners duped in antivirus scam to get over $25M: What to know about payments – More than $25 million in payments will go out this week to customers who were tricked into paying for fraudulent tech support offered by two companies.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Monday that the payments are part of a an order against with Restoro Cyprus Limited and Reimage Cyprus Limited, both based in Cyprus.The payments follow a settlement that both companies agreed to last year. Samuel Levine, former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a March, 2024, report that the two companies generated tens of millions of dollars using “scare tactics and lies.”Restoro and Reimage took advantage of computer owners – many of them elderly – by creating the appearance of serious security issues, then using deception and other tactics to trick the unsuspecting consumers into paying additional money to solve the “issues,” the FTC said.The scam would often start with fake Microsoft Windows pop-ups warning that viruses had infected the device and prompting the owner to “scan” it “to avoid more damage.” Pop-ups like the one shown above were used to scare consumers, according to the Federal Trade Commission.(Credit: FTC)The FTC said in a criminal complaint that the “scans” would trigger warnings of serious computer problems – regardless of whether or not there was actually a virus or other issue – that Restoro and Reimage software could fix.After purchasing the software, which sold for $27 to $58, consumers were given a number to “activate” it. When customers called, however, Restoro and Reimage telemarketers would instead sell them additional services and often tell callers that their problems were so serious that only a technician, whose services would cost hundreds of dollars, could fix it, according to the complaint.Among the many horror stories on social media, one person detailed what happened after Restoro told them they had a problem that could be fixed “for about $40.”“I let them access my computer and after about 30-45 minutes of screwing around, they said there were extra problems that would cost $200-$300 to repair (I don’t remember exactly how much),” the person wrote on Reddit. “By this time I was done with them and said no. She kept trying to hard sell me and eventually I hung up on her. She kept calling back.”The Redditor added that a local repair shop did a full scan of the device and didn’t find any of the issues Restoro claimed were affecting the computer.The FTC will be distributing the settlement money on march 13 and 14 in the form of 736,375 PayPal payments.Customers who are eligible to receive part of the $25.5 million will receive an email at some point between Monday and Thursday.The FTC advises people to redeem the payment within 30 days.
More than 10,000 domains registered for smishing campaign: Report --Cybercriminals have registered more than 10,000 domains for various smishing scams, according to a recent report from the threat intelligence arm at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks. Smishing scams, whose name is a combination of “SMS” and “phishing,” target victims with text messages that seek to convince them to click a malicious link or provide sensitive information. The domains identified by Palo Alto Networks’s Unit 42 have names indicating they aim to pose as toll services and package delivery services in at least 10 U.S. states and one Canadian province. This includes California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Ontario. “We will continue to track and block this campaign,” Unit 42 wrote. Amid an uptick in toll-related smishing texts last year, the FBI warned Americans to delete such messages. “The texts claim the recipient owes money for unpaid tolls and contain almost identical language,” the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) noted in a public service announcement last April. “The ‘outstanding toll amount’ is similar among the complaints reported to the IC3,” it added. “The link provided within the text is created to impersonate the state’s toll service name, and phone numbers appear to change between states.”
Oracle launches agentic AI for tackling financial crime --Tech companies are ramping up their artificial intelligence-based software for anti-money-laundering work and crime detection. The latest example is Oracle, which is rolling out AI agents for financial crime investigations. The software helps identify and investigate crime, then writes a recommendation.
Patients' affinity for AI messages drops if they know the technology was used, surveys reveal -In a Duke Health-led survey, patients who were shown messages written either by artificial intelligence (AI) or human clinicians indicated a preference for responses drafted by AI over a human. That preference was diminished, though not erased, when told AI was involved.The study, published March 11 in JAMA Network Open, showed high overall satisfaction with communications written both by AI and humans, despite their preference for AI. This suggests that letting patients know AI was used does not greatly reduce confidence in the message."Every health system is grappling with this issue of whether we disclose the use of AI and how," said senior author Anand Chowdhury, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. "There is a desire to be transparent, and a desire to have satisfied patients. If we disclose AI, what do we lose? That is what our study intended to measure."Chowdhury and colleagues sent a series of surveys to members of the Duke University Health System patient advisory committee. This is a group of Duke Health patients andcommunity members who help inform how Duke Health communicates with and cares for patients. More than 1,400 people responded to at least one of the surveys.The surveys focused on three clinical topics, including routine medication refill request (a low seriousness topic), medication side effect question (moderate seriousness), and potential cancer on imaging (high seriousness).Human responses were provided by a multidisciplinary team of physicians who were asked to write a realistic response to each survey scenario based on how they typically draft responses to patients. The generative AI responses were written using ChatGPT and were reviewed for accuracy by the study physicians who made minimal changes to the responses.For each survey, participants were asked to review a vignette that presented one of the clinical topics. Each vignette included a response from either AI or human clinicians, along with either a disclosure or no disclosure telling them who the author was. They were then asked to rate their overall satisfaction with the response, usefulness of the information, and how cared for they felt during the interaction.Comparing authors, patients preferred AI-drafted messages by an average difference of 0.30 points on 5-point scale for satisfaction. The AI communications tended to be longer, included more details, and likely seemed more empathetic than human-drafted messages."Our study shows us that patients have a slight preference for messages written by AI, even though they are slightly less satisfied when the disclosure informs them that AI was involved," said first author Joanna S. Cavalier, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.When they looked at the difference in satisfaction when participants were told AI was involved, disclosing AI led to lower satisfaction, though not by much: 0.1 points on the 5-point scale. Regardless of the actual author, patients were overall more satisfied with messages when they were not told AI was involved in drafting the response.
Stablecoin executives are counting on the GENIUS Act --Political shifts have cryptocurrency companies confident in the digital asset being a mainstream payment option in just a few years.Firms such as Circle, Binance and Coinbase say new bipartisan legislation will attract banks to the market, providing a boost for mainstream payments.
Banks are pushing back against stablecoin legislation - Bankers are beginning to raise concerns about Republicans' push to finalize stablecoin legislation this Congress, a marked shift from the industry's approach to similar legislation last year. As the Senate Banking Committee meets to consider landmark stablecoin legislation today, the banking industry is beginning to wake up to what some experts say is an existential threat.
Stablecoins: What banks, payment companies need to know - The popularity of cryptocurrency and the expectation of new regulations are pushing stablecoins into the spotlight, potentially creating new markets for the digital asset.While often used to describe a digital asset that hedges against cryptocurrency's volatility, the reality of stablecoins is much more complex.
Bank-favored riders fail as stablecoin bill passes committee — Many amendments that would have addressed bankers' concerns about landmark stablecoin legislation failed to get attached to the bill that passed out of the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday due to a lack of Republican support. A much-anticipated stablecoin bill advanced to the full Senate in an 18-6 vote, giving it a promising path to pass with 60 votes. But amendments banks favored were shut out of the markup.
BankThink: It's time to stop the anti-stablecoin hysteria and embrace the future - In the frenzied first months of 2025, the U.S. crypto agenda has emerged as a topmost political priority. At last week's White House crypto summit, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made one thing clear: The U.S. will use stablecoins to keep the dollar as the most dominant currency in the world. To truly unlock a rules-based competitive landscape for dollar-denominated stablecoins, Congress must act on a bipartisan basis to pull stablecoins into the regulatory and banking perimeter. Bipartisan legislation before Congress would create sensible regulation for stablecoins, opening a path to cementing the U.S. dollar's status as the world's most important currency.
Crypto and VC firms led to SVB's failure, researchers say - New research suggests bankers, regulators and policymakers are learning the wrong lessons from the large bank failures of 2023. New research on the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and other regional banks in 2023 points to cyclicality of venture capital and the volatility of crypto as bigger factors than uninsured deposits or unrealized losses.
24 charged in $3 million bank fraud scheme in Pennsylvania --Pennsylvania law enforcement charged 24 suspected members of a fraud ring that has stolen more than $3 million from banks and their customers, the state's attorney general said. The alleged ringleader and 23 others face charges in a bank fraud scheme spanning three south-central counties.
Fraud and scams plateaued but got more expensive in 2024 - Banks reported slightly more instances of fraud in 2024 compared to 2023, and consumers reported slightly fewer instances of scams. However, scams became costlier as criminals extracted more funds from their pool of victims, and compared to pre-pandemic levels, both scam and fraud rates remain high. Both consumers and banks reported that the rate of fraud and scams has steadied, according to Fincen and FTC data, but the total cost continued rising.
Powell's reputation comments feature in master account suit- After a judge dismissed its lawsuit against the Federal Reserve, a Puerto Rican bank has pledged to appeal the decision, noting that recent comments from the head of the central bank could undermine the lower court's findings. Banco San Juan Internacional argues recent comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell raise questions about the central bank's handling of master accounts.
Warren scolds Fed for 'lack of accountability' on SVB execs --It's been two years since Silicon Valley Bank failed and at least one lawmaker is still waiting for answers — and legal action. In a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on the Fed to impose penalties and sanctions on leaders of the failed bank.
Trump to announce Bowman soon as pick for Fed's top bank cop - President Donald Trump will nominate Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman to be the central bank's next vice chair for supervision as soon as Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The president is likely to nominate Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman to be the central bank's next vice chair for supervision, a post vacated by Michael Barr.
Formerly troubled bank released from Fed enforcement action - A formerly troubled community bank has shed another regulatory shackle as it continues to recover from a data breach three years ago. Hackers breached the New York community bank's cybersecurity walls in 2022, drawing regulatory scrutiny and causing its CEO to resign.
FinCEN tightens rules for transactions near the southern border - The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will require money services businesses (MSBs) near the U.S.-Mexico border to report smaller cash transactions to the government, lowering the threshold from $10,000 to $200. A new order requires certain non-bank financial companies in certain ZIP codes to report transactions over $200, much lower than the previous $10,000 threshold.
'Not a political issue': Compensation stalls amid CFPB turmoil -- In 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cited Citibank for discriminating against Armenian Americans. The recent turmoil at the agency raises questions about whether the bureau will be able to carry out similar actions in the future.
GOP lawmakers seek to repeal CFPB medical debt rule - Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., on Wednesday filed a resolution to repeal a rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would forbid medical bills from appearing on consumer credit reports. Sen. Rounds has filed a Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's rule barring medical debt from credit reports.
CFPB allowing some offices to resume functions -The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is allowing some offices to resume their functions, as the Trump administration faces a legal challenge over its stop work order and other efforts to overhaul the consumer watchdog. Mark Paoletta, the CFPB’s chief legal officer, emailed employees Sunday clarifying they still should be performing statutorily required work. Several offices at the agency since have received authorization to resume their work, according to a trove of emails filed in court Tuesday. “These measures were intended to ensure that new leadership could establish operational control over the agency while ensuring that it would continue to fulfill its statutory duties,” Paoletta wrote. “Many of you understood this and continued to perform functions required by law and sought approval from me to perform work, which I have promptly granted.” “It has come to my attention, however, that some employees have not been performing statutorily required work,” he continued. “Let me be clear: Employees should be performing work that is required by law and do not need to seek prior approval to do so.” After acting CFPB Director Russell Vought was appointed in early February, he initially directed employees to cease “all supervision and examination activity” and “shareholder engagement.” However, he quickly expanded his order days later, telling agency staff to “stand down from performing any work task” unless they received approval from Paoletta. Employees were also told not to come into CFPB headquarters, and the building’s lease was later cancelled. As CFPB staff attempted to comply with the work stoppage, confusion emerged over whether they could send emails, attend meetings with other agencies or, for the legal division, review certain documents, the emails show. Employees also appeared unclear whether they could perform statutorily required activities. In an email last week, the associate director of the Office of Fair Lending asked if they were permitted to perform statutory functions, such as supporting fair lending examinations and enforcement activity and completing a report for Congress. The team responding to records requests under the Freedom of Information Act at the CFPB similarly asked for permission to continue its work, noting it was required by law and halting the work posed a “risk of litigation.” Both requests were approved. Adam Martinez, the CFPB’s chief operating officer, also emailed staff in the Division of Research, Markets and Regulations last week, saying it wanted “to ensure that you are aware that statutorily required work and/or work required by law are authorized.” He sent a similar missive to the team handling supervision at CFPB. However, he also confirmed that Vought’s order to cease all supervision and examination activity was still in force. Following Paoletta’s Sunday email, the supervision team sought clarification from Martinez, who responded that the newest directive “does not change the specific work stoppage” laid out in Vought’s initial email. As a result, Cassandra Huggins, the principal deputy assistant director of Supervision Policy and Operations, sent out an email to supervision staff Monday. She noted that Paoletta’s message “was not intended to authorize the reinstatement of supervision/examination activity, even though the Bureau is required by law to carry out these activities.” In a lengthy response to Huggins and supervision staff, Paoletta slammed the email, emphasizing that all CFPB staff are authorized to perform statutorily required work. “I am concerned that you sent out an internal agency communication on such an unfounded basis that is false and directly contradicts my March 2nd message without first getting confirmation directly from me,” he wrote. “Your actions severely undermine the Agency leadership’s ability to supervise the agency staff and to ensure that statutorily required duties are being performed,” Paoletta added. Huggins responded, noting that she “did not intend to undermine the new administration’s ability to supervise agency staff.” “[M]y only intention was to ensure that our staff did not act against the direction in the February 8 email from Acting Director Vought to cease all supervisory and examination activity,” she said.
CFPB resignations, confusion ahead of court fight - Dozens of career civil servants have retired from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau amid the confusion of whether the agency will survive and be downsized under the Trump administration. Among the resignations are Mark McArdle, who was instrumental in creating the Qualified Mortgage rule, and Operations Chief of Supervision David Bleicken. It is unclear if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will hire anyone to succeed them.
Judge weighs how 'normal' the Trump CFPB transition is— The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez painted a hectic picture of the days when representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency attempted to, as he put it, "wind down" the bureau. In a packed courtroom, a federal judge parsed whether the Trump administration's aggressive actions to rein in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are part of a "normal" transition of power or would impede its statutorily required functions.
CFPB employees say mass firing plans remain in place - Two employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) testified Tuesday that top officials’ plans to fire hundreds of workers remain intact, as a federal judge weighs whether to block the apparent dismantling of the agency. The Trump administration initially planned to cut nearly 1,200 CFPB employees in early February before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued an order blocking officials from conducting mass layoffs. One top CFPB official, Adam Martinez, the agency’s chief operating officer, suggested over two days of hearings that the CFPB had gone through chaos, but was now essentially functioning at the level required by law. Advertisement However, two witnesses on Tuesday painted a much darker picture. These witnesses said top CFPB officials are moving forward with efforts to completely shutter the agency through a large-scale workforce reduction plan. Workers are also not being given a chance to apply for other positions in the government while reductions are done. Typically, laid-off employees can seek to be reassigned to “competitive areas” in the government that might offer them similar jobs. “There would be no competition because there would be no jobs to compete for,” said Alex Doe, a CFPB employee who was allowed to testify under a pseudonym. Matthew Pfaff, chief of staff for CFPB’s Office of Consumer Response, said his office, which completes statutorily required work, handles roughly 350,000 consumer complaints per month. That shifted dramatically when acting CFPB Director Russell Vought assumed leadership and instituted a stop-work order. CFPB employees at that time “closed our laptop lids and walked away,” Pfaff said. When they returned, they found a backlog that Pfaff said would take weeks, if not months, to work through. “Chaotic is generous,” he said. “People have been out of work for three weeks. There was a lot of confusion about what was happening.” Justice Department lawyer Liam Holland questioned Pfaff on cross-examination about his failure to flag to top officials that “urgent matters” within the office were left unattended. But Pfaff said that, given the agency-wide shut down, he understood “urgent” to reference matters exceeding the agency’s typical operations. The evidentiary hearing took place in the context of a suit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union and other groups against the Trump administration. The groups requested a preliminary injunction that would stop further efforts to “unwind” the agency while litigation continues. The administration has maintained that it does not plan to eliminate the consumer watchdog, emphasizing President Trump’s decision to tap Jonathan McKernan to serve as CFPB director. “I want to preserve an agency that could be revived, if necessary,” Jackson said, noting that “doesn’t mean it has to be the agency it was” but “it has to be something like it is now.” Martinez on Monday took the stand to detail what he described as the “chaos” and “confusion” inside the agency when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived at the consumer watchdog last month. However, he signaled that DOGE’s initial “hard fist” has since softened as the agency’s new leadership has become more familiar with its work. “I think there’s less confusion today,” said Martinez. “I have hope for the future.” Completing his testimony Tuesday, Martinez said DOGE’s appearance at the agency felt like a “hostile takeover.” “I now realize how much damage can be done just within a couple days,” he said. Doe’s testimony at times contradicted Martinez’s. While Martinez testified that a hearing the court held last month did not affect plans to execute mass firings, Doe said she notified Martinez of the hearing and, soon after, was directed to speed up work. Once the court entered an agreement between the parties temporarily retaining the status quo, Doe said she told her superiors that they had to stop work. A senior adviser, she said, told her to press on because Martinez had not heard from Mark Paoletta, CFPB’s chief legal officer, about whether they really needed to stop. “I said, ‘These cannot go out today, and I hope Mark Paoletta knows how to read a court order,’” Doe said. Martinez, however, suggested DOGE’s “desire to unload staff from the agency” was already pressing, and they “would have been equally as happy if we terminated people on Wednesday versus Friday.” Doe also said she had been given no indication that plans to fully dismantle the agency had ceased, while Martinez signaled a much murkier future for the agency — though, he didn’t count out an outcome like the one suggested by Doe. “I have absolutely no idea as to what the end result is for the bureau,” Martinez said.
Trump Plans to End CFPB Despite Reviving Work, Official Says -A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official charged with laying off the agency’s staff said the Trump administration pushed to fully shutter the watchdog as recently as last week, even as a court probes whether it can.The official, testifying under the pseudonym Alex Doe at a hearing Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said the CFPB’s reduction-in-force team held meetings with the Office of Personnel Management as late as March 6 to discuss the process for eliminating the agency. Doe was the leader of the CFPB RIF team.CFPB Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta has taken steps to bring back some key CFPB functions, such as its congressionally mandated consumer response operation. But according to Doe, those efforts are merely intended to keep the agency running before it’s shut down entirely.“No one has told me the plan has changed,” Doe said.The second phase of the plan involved eliminating the rest of the CFPB’s employees within 90 days, according to testimony from Doe and CFPB Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez.Agency leaders had proposed eliminating around 1,200 positions by Feb. 14, the officials testified. The CFPB reached a deal at the time with the National Treasury Employees Union and other plaintiffs to put the mass firing on hold while Judge Amy Berman Jackson weighs a preliminary injunction.The CFPB planned to justify the mass terminations by using executive orders from the White House, guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, and a Feb. 10 stop-work emailfrom acting CFPB Director Russell Vought, Doe said.Those documents were used to justify the termination of probationary and term employees ahead of the planned RIF, Doe said.Vought is also the OMB’s director.At a meeting following a Feb. 14 hearing before Jackson, Martinez said the agreement would delay the RIF, Doe testified. “I remember him referring to it as a problem,” Doe said. Despite the pending litigation, the CFPB RIF team’s last meeting with OPM was intended to discuss the costs of having the White House personnel office shut down the consumer watchdog, Doe said.“We were paying them to help us lay ourselves off,” Doe said.Doe said there was no discussion about involving Congress in eliminating the agency. The CFPB’s consumer response unit, mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, also came up at the hearing.Although the agency restarted many canceled contracts affecting the unit, not all of the necessary ones were reinstated, said Matthew Pfaff, the CFPB’s chief of staff for the Office of Consumer Response.In some instances, vendors had already reassigned their staff members to work on other projects, Pfaff said. Because of that, the contracts may be reactivated now but the tools still aren’t functioning, he said.Liam Holland, a Justice Department attorney representing the CFPB, asked Pfaff whether he was aware that the Office of Consumer Response wasn’t in the initial RIF plan.“No,” Pfaff responded.“Are we?” Jackson said.Robert Friedman of Gupta Wessler LLP, representing the plaintiffs, pointed to a memo stating the consumer office would be considered for a secondary reduction-in-force.Doe’s testimony caught Jackson’s attention.While she hadn’t made a final decision, Jackson said she was “leaning” toward providing injunctive relief to the plaintiffs.The same people at the CFPB talking about the RIF are “still sitting” in the room, she said.If lawmakers ultimately decide to eliminate the CFPB or keep it going, there may be nothing left of the agency without stopping plans to eliminate it, she said.“I don’t think it’s up to the president and Mr. Vought,” Jackson said. The plaintiffs are also represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group.The case is NTEU v. Vought, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00381, evidentiary hearing 3/11/25.
CFPB's Vought ends agency DEI policies and activities -- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting Director Russell Vought Wednesday ordered the bureau's employees to eliminate "any and all" activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Russell Vought said all diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility policies "will cease immediately," adding that employees may be investigated if they go against the order.
Judge pauses firings at CFPB, FDIC, Treasury - A Maryland judge Thursday put a temporary halt to firings of probationary employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Department of Treasury, Small Business Administration and several other federal agencies. A Maryland judge temporarily halted mass layoffs of probationary employees at multiple agencies, citing legal violations and harm to states' ability to respond to unemployment needs
BankThink: Keep the CFPB, but install some commonsense leadership at the top -- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau still has a mission to fulfill, but it needs a fair-minded and commonsensical leader, writes Ken Thomas. What do the world's most powerful person, the world's richest person and the banking industry's most hated former regulator have in common? …President Trump and Elon Musk probably would not have put Rohit Chopra and his CFPB on their hit list had he run it with common sense, balancing the interests of both the financial industry and their consumers. An independent and consolidated federal consumer financial protection agency is needed, but only if a fair-minded leader runs it.
New York AG unveils new consumer protection bill -- New York Attorney General Letitia James Thursday unveiled proposed state legislation — backed by top former federal consumer protections officials — to strengthen the empire state's consumer protection standards to counter what she characterized as a regression of such protections at the federal level. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced new state legislation to ban unfair and abusive business practices, giving state regulators broader authority to crack down on consumer abuses.
NY DFS Taps Ex-CFPB Official For Top Financial Enforcement Role - New York’s financial services regulator said Thursday that it has hired a new top consumer protection cop, bringing aboard a veteran enforcement official recently departed from theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a social media post, the New York State Department of Financial Services announced Gabriel O’Malley will head up its Consumer Protection and Financial Enforcement Division, an arm that handles investigations, enforcement and consumer compliance exams. His official start date is Thursday.A spokesperson for NYDFS declined to provide further comment.O’Malley left the CFPB at the end of February after more than a decade in enforcement at the federal consumer watchdog, where he most recently served as its deputy enforcement director for policy and strategy.His move comes as part of a broader exodus from the CFPB, which has shed numerous staffers since the Trump administration brought the agency to a standstill in early February and began pushing for massive reductions in its workforce. Roughly 170 CFPB probationary and term employees were fired last month — about 10% of its staff as of last year — while dozens more have taken the administration’s deferred resignation offer, retired or left in anticipation of sharp potential cuts.With similar stories playing out at other federal agencies, the government talent pool is ripe for recruiting. NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris is one of those seizing the opportunity, even making a jobs pitch at a Tuesday appearance in Washington, D.C.O’Malley’s hiring could signal that NYDFS will be looking to fill any perceived gaps in financial industry oversight that emerge from the Trump administration’s bid to curtail and shrink the CFPB.The agency division that O’Malley will lead was in fact created amid previous concerns about CFPB retrenchment that arose during the first Trump administration, when a number of states stood up their own “mini-CFPBs” to bulk up their consumer protection efforts.The division, known as CPFED for short, polices financial fraud and other violations of New York’s financial services laws. It also carries out the agency’s consumer compliance, fair lending and community lending exams, and it fields complaints about regulated firms.
Senate confirms Bill Pulte as FHFA director - The U.S. Senate confirmed businessman Bill Pulte as new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Thursday afternoon. Three Democratic senators joined Republican colleagues to confirm the businessman, who previously voiced his support for easing government regulations.
Musk's DOGE Shutters $1B Affordable Housing Program -- The Trump administration has moved to terminate a $1 billion program aimed at preserving affordable housing, a decision that could disrupt efforts to maintain tens of thousands of units for low-income Americans.The move, directed by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is part of broader funding freezes at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to an internal document reviewed by The Associated Press. DOGE has come under scrutiny for the pace, depth, and breadth of its cuts to federal funding under its mission to eliminate waste and fraud.Trump, responding to such criticism, said he wants Musk's DOGE to use a "scalpel" and not a "hatchet" in its approach to spending cuts.The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, passed by Congress in 2022, was designed to provide grants and loans for energy-efficiency improvements in affordable housing units. While officially intended to promote sustainability, the funding was also a crucial mechanism for keeping units affordable.Participating projects were required to maintain affordability for up to 25 years, and the federal funds often served as a key financial lever to attract additional investment.Without this support, thousands of affordable units could deteriorate or be lost entirely.
CoreLogic: 1.1 million Homeowners with Negative Equity in Q4 2024 -From CoreLogic: CoreLogic: Borrowers Gained Over $280B in Home Equity in 2024 - CoreLogic® ... today released the Homeowner Equity Report (HER) for the fourth quarter of 2024. Nationwide, borrower equity increased by $281.9 billion, or 1.7% year-over-year. The report shows that U.S. homeowners with mortgages (which account for roughly 61% of all properties) saw home equity increase by about $4,100 between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024, which is less than the gain of $6,000 in Q3 2023. The states that saw the largest gains were New Jersey ($39,400), Connecticut ($36,300), and Massachusetts ($34,400), while the largest losses were in Hawaii ($-28,700), Florida ($-18,100), and the District of Columbia ($-14,700). Quarter-over-quarter, the total number of mortgage residential properties with negative equity increased by 9.3% to 1.1 million homes or 2% of all mortgaged properties. While year-over-year, negative equity increased by 7% from 1 million homes, or 1.8% of all mortgage properties.“Housing equity growth slowed in 2024 versus 2020-2023 due to moderating price appreciation, but homeowners maintain substantial equity gains from prior years, preserving their strong financial position,” said Dr. Selma Hepp, chief economist for CoreLogic. From the press release: Home prices continued to be the major driver of equity shifts and markets with declining prices generally saw fallen equity in 2024. In particular, a number of Florida’s markets, including Cape Coral, Sarasota, Lakeland and Tampa have experienced weakening prices over the past year, which led to Florida’s average equity declining by about $18,000 at the end of 2024. Thinking ahead, in light of mass government layoffs in Washington metro region, it is important to note that borrowers in the tri-state area have accumulated between $261,000 (in Maryland), $287,000 (in Virginia) and $353,000 (in Washington DC), in average home equity which will help as a financial buffer but also provide a downpayment in case of a move.This map from CoreLogic shows the average year-over-year change in equity by state. States with surging inventory - like Florida and Texas - saw declines in equity.The "Home ATM" Mostly Closed in Q4 -- During the housing bubble, many homeowners borrowed heavily against their perceived home equity - jokingly calling it the “Home ATM” - and this contributed to the subsequent housing bust, since so many homeowners had negative equity in their homes when house prices declined.Unlike during the housing bubble, very few homeowners have negative equity now. From CoreLogic last week: CoreLogic: Borrowers Gained Over $280B in Home Equity in 2024 Quarter-over-quarter, the total number of mortgage residential properties with negative equity increased by 9.3% to 1.1 million homes or 2% of all mortgaged properties. While year-over-year, negative equity increased by 7% from 1 million homes, or 1.8% of all mortgage properties … Negative equity peaked at 26% of mortgaged residential properties in Q4 2009 based on CoreLogic equity data analysis. Mortgage Equity Withdrawal is an aggregate number and is a combination of homeowners extracting equity - hence the name "MEW" - and normal principal payments and debt cancellation (modifications, short sales, and foreclosures).Here is the quarterly increase in mortgage debt from the Federal Reserve’s Financial Accounts of the United States - Z.1 (sometimes called the Flow of Funds report) released today. In the mid ‘00s, there was a large increase in mortgage debt associated with the housing bubble. In Q4 2024, mortgage debt increased $100 billion, down from $105 billion in Q3, and down from the cycle peak of $459 billion in Q2 2021. Note the almost 7 years of declining mortgage debt as distressed sales (foreclosures and short sales) wiped out a significant amount of debt.However, some of this debt is being used to increase the housing stock (purchase new homes), so this isn’t all Mortgage Equity Withdrawal (MEW).The second graph shows household real estate assets and mortgage debt as a percent of GDP. Note this graph was impacted by the sharp decline in Q2 2020 GDP.Mortgage debt is up $2.57 trillion from the peak during the housing bubble, but, as a percent of GDP is at 44.9% - down from Q3 - and down from a peak of 73.1% of GDP during the housing bust. This means most homeowners have large equity cushions in their home. The value of real estate, as a percent of GDP, decreased in Q4 and is below the peak in Q2 2022, but is well above the median of the last 30 years.
MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey -From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey - Mortgage applications increased 11.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 7, 2025. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 11.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 12 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 16 percent from the previous week and was 90 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 7 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 8 percent compared with the previous week and was 4 percent higher than the same week one year ago."Mortgage rates declined for the sixth consecutive week, with the 30-year fixed rate dropping to 6.67 percent, the lowest level since October 2024. As a result, applications increased over the week and were up 31 percent from a year ago,” . “As we enter the spring homebuying season, the purchase index was more than 4 percent higher than a year ago, and activity was up across all loan categories. Government purchase applications experienced an 11 percent increase – helped by the FHA rate dropping to 6.34 percent. Additionally, average loan sizes were higher, with the purchase loan amount hitting $460,800, the highest in the survey dating back to 1990.” ...The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($806,500 or less) decreased to 6.67 percent from 6.73 percent, with points increasing to 0.63 from 0.60 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The first graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index.According to the MBA, purchase activity is up 4% year-over-year unadjusted. Red is a four-week average (blue is weekly). Purchase application activity is up about 23% from the lows in late October 2023 and is only 2% above the lowest levels during the housing bust. The second graph shows the refinance index since 1990. The refinance index increased sharply again this week but remains very low.
Mortgage Rates Recover Some of Last Week's Losses - Conventional 30yr fixed mortgage rates hit their lowest levels in months last Tuesday morning, with the average lender right in line with levels from mid October or early December. After that, rates rose steadily for the next two days and leveled off on Friday. While the bounce was small enough to leave a vast majority of 2025's improvement intact, it nonetheless raised the risk that the bond market would need more convincing before rates were willing to keep following the broader sentiment suggested by ongoing stock losses. Specifically, stocks are speaking to economic concerns. When stocks drop quickly enough, investors can seek safer havens, such as bonds. When demand for bonds increases, rates fall, all other things being equal. Monday has been reassuring in that regard. Bonds are once again paying attention to weakness in stocks--it just happened to take a bigger drop in stocks that we saw last week. Despite the improvement in rates, we would still expect some resistance to the idea of rapid improvement unless the economic data begins to sound the same warnings as equities markets. On that note, the most relevant econ data on the near-term horizon is Wednesday's Consumer Price Index (CPI), the first of the broad measures of inflation in the U.S. and one of the biggest potential sources of volatility for rates. [30 year fixed 6.72%]
Housing March 10th Weekly Update: Inventory up 0.5% Week-over-week, Up 28.3% Year-over-year - Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 0.5% week-over-week.Inventory is now up 2.9% from the seasonal bottom eight weeks ago in January and should start increasing significantly in the Spring.The first graph shows the seasonal pattern for active single-family inventory since 2015.The red line is for 2025. The black line is for 2019. Inventory was up 28.3% compared to the same week in 2024 (last week it was up 28.3%), and down 21.4% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week it was down 21.8%). The gap to more normal inventory levels has closed significantly! This second inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of March 7th, inventory was at 642 thousand (7-day average), compared to 639 thousand the prior week. Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube
Realtor.com Reports Active Inventory Up 27.8% YoY -- On a weekly basis, Realtor.com reports the year-over-year change in active inventory and new listings. On a monthly basis, they report total inventory. For February, Realtor.com reported inventory was up 27.5% YoY, but still down 22.9% compared to the 2017 to 2019 same month levels. Now - on a weekly basis - inventory is up 27.8% YoY. Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report: Weekly Housing Trends View—Data for Week Ending March 8, 2025.
• Active inventory increased, with for-sale homes 27.8% above year-ago levels
The number of homes for sale has now been higher than the previous year for 70 consecutive weeks. This continued rise in active inventory is in part due to less active buyers. With more choices available, buyers can afford to be more selective, putting pressure on sellers to price competitively.
• New listings—a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale—increased 8.3%
Newly listed inventory grew for the ninth consecutive week, signaling that sellers are gaining confidence in listing their homes despite persistently high mortgage rates. This week’s annual growth picked up compared to last week’s rather tepid measure. .
Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com. Inventory was up year-over-year for the 70th consecutive week. New listings have increased recently but remain below typical pre-pandemic levels.
Fed's Flow of Funds: Household Net Worth Increased $0.2 Trillion in Q4 --The Federal Reserve released the Q4 2024 Flow of Funds report today: Financial Accounts of the United States. The net worth of households and nonprofits rose to $169.4 trillion during the fourth quarter of 2024. The value of directly and indirectly held corporate equities increased $0.3 trillion and the value of real estate decreased $0.4 trillion....Household debt increased 3.1 percent at an annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2024. Consumer credit grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent, while mortgage debt (excluding charge-offs) grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent.The first graph shows Households and Nonprofit net worth as a percent of GDP. Net worth increased $0.2 trillion in Q4 to an all-time high. As a percent of GDP, net worth decreased in Q4 and is below the peak in 2021.This includes real estate and financial assets (stocks, bonds, pension reserves, deposits, etc.) net of liabilities (mostly mortgages). Note that this does NOT include public debt obligations. The second graph shows homeowner percent equity since 1952. Household percent equity (as measured by the Fed) collapsed when house prices fell sharply in 2007 and 2008. In Q4 2024, household percent equity (of household real estate) was at 74.4% - down from 74.7% in Q3, 2024. This is close to the highest percent equity since the 1960s. Note: This includes households with no mortgage debt. The third graph shows household real estate assets and mortgage debt as a percent of GDP. Mortgage debt increased by $100 billion in Q4. Mortgage debt is up $2.57 trillion from the peak during the housing bubble, but, as a percent of GDP is at 44.9% - down from Q3 - and down from a peak of 73.1% of GDP during the housing bust.The value of real estate, as a percent of GDP, decreased in Q4 and is below the recent peak in Q2 2022, but is well above the median of the last 30 years.
US short nearly 4M homes -The housing gap continues to persist as the nation is short nearly four million homes. While new home construction picked up for the first time since 2016 last year, the housing gap totaling 3.8 million remains, according to a new analysis from Realtor.com. The company measured the housing supply gap using data on new home construction, household formations and pent-up housing demand.The analysis found that more than 1.6 million homes were completed in 2024, the highest level in nearly 20 years. However, despite reaching this notable increase, the housing gap “persisted due to the magnitude of the historical gap and ongoing pent-up household demand,” the report stated.The housing market made strides in terms of both new and existing inventory in 2024, but inventory remained below prepandemic levels, and the lack of affordability kept buyer demand constrained, the study noted.Builders faced barriers such as “zoning and permitting regulations, as well as rising material costs, which make building affordable homes relatively challenging.”At a 2024 rate of construction relative to household formations and pent-up demand, it would still take 7 1/2 years to close the housing gap, according to the analysis.This gap has hit young households the hardest, with home buying becoming increasingly infeasible on mid-to-average salaries, the analysis found. In terms of region, the South has the largest housing gap by number of units but the smallest gap relative to total construction. The Northeast has the largest scaled housing gap, followed by the Midwest and the West.
Hotels: Occupancy Rate Decreased 1.4% Year-over-year -- This will be something to watch. The Top 3 countries for tourist visits to the US in 2023 were:
1) Canada 31% in 2023
2) Mexico 22% in 2023
3) UK 6% in 2023
And it appears there has been a sharp decline in Canadians traveling to the U.S. United Airlines CEO noted that their weaker outlook is due to a drop in traffic: “We've already started the process of where that capacity is coming out. A lot of it transborder, big drop in Canadian traffic to go into the U.S.”.This could impact hotel occupancy in the U.S. From STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 8 March -- The U.S. hotel industry reported mixed year-over-year comparisons, according to CoStar’s latest data through 8 March. ...
2-8 March 2025 (percentage change from comparable week in 2024):
• Occupancy: 62.4% (-1.4%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$160.53 (+2.1%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$100.11 (+0.6%)
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.
The red line is for 2025, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2024. Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is tracking last year and is lower than the median rate for the period 2000 through 2024 (Blue).
BLS: CPI Increased 0.2% in February; Core CPI increased 0.2% -From the BLS: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, after rising 0.5 percent in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.8 percent before seasonal adjustment.The index for shelter rose 0.3 percent in February, accounting for nearly half of the monthly all items increase. The shelter increase was partially offset by a 4.0-percent decrease in the index for airline fares and a 1.0-percent decline in the index for gasoline. Despite the decrease in the gasoline index, the energy index rose 0.2 percent over the month as the indexes for electricity and natural gas increased. The index for food also increased in February, rising 0.2 percent as the index for food away from home increased 0.4 percent.The food at home index was unchanged over the month.The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in February, following a 0.4-percent increase in January. Indexes that increased over the month include medical care, used cars and trucks, household furnishings and operations, recreation, apparel, and personal care. The indexes for airline fares and new vehicles were among the few major indexes that decreased in February.The all items index rose 2.8 percent for the 12 months ending February, after rising 3.0 percent over the 12 months ending January. The all items less food and energy index rose 3.1 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index decreased 0.2 percent for the 12 months ending February. The food index increased 2.6 percent over the last year.The change in CPI was below expectations. I'll post a graph later today after the Cleveland Fed releases the median and trimmed-mean CPI.
US consumer inflation slows in February; tariffs expected to boost prices (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices increased moderately in February as higher shelter costs were partially offset by cheaper airline fares, giving the Federal Reserve room to keep interest rates unchanged next week while monitoring the economic impact of a trade war. But the relief offered by the tame Consumer Price Index report from the Labor Department on Wednesday could be temporary as the data did not fully capture a cascade of tariffs by President Donald Trump's administration, which has caused a surge in consumers' inflation expectations and prompted economists to upgrade their inflation forecasts. Economists also did not expect last month's benign readings to be mirrored in one of the key inflation measures tracked by the U.S. central bank for its 2% target, though much would depend on producer price data for February that is due to be released on Thursday. The stock market has suffered heavy losses in recent days as trade tensions threatened the U.S. economic expansion. "Trade wars are expected to raise prices in future inflation reports," "The Fed is sidelined now by price uncertainty." The CPI rose 0.2% last month, the smallest gain since October, after accelerating 0.5% in January, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. An increase of 0.3% in the cost of shelter, which includes hotel and motel rooms, accounted for nearly half of the rise in the CPI. Shelter prices rose 0.4% in January. They were partially blunted last month by a 4.0% decline in airline fares, portending weaker demand as corporations and consumers cut back on spending. U.S. airlines cut their earnings estimates on Tuesday, citing mounting economic uncertainty. Gasoline prices fell 1.0% as slowing global economies cool demand for oil. Food prices rose 0.2% after advancing 0.4% in January. Grocery store prices were unchanged amid more affordable fruits and vegetables as well as non-alcoholic beverages and dairy products. But egg prices rose 10.4%, maintaining their upward trend. An avian flu outbreak has forced farmers to cull hens, causing an acute egg shortage. Egg prices, which fueled voter discontent over inflation in last year's U.S. presidential election, increased 58.8% on a year-on-year basis in February, the first full month of the Trump administration. Trump on the campaign trail promised to lower egg prices on his first day in office. In the 12 months through February, the CPI increased 2.8% after climbing 3.0% in January. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI would gain 0.3% and advance 2.9% on a year-on-year basis. Trump early this month triggered a trade war, increasing the tariffs on goods from China to 20% and imposing a new 25% duty on Canadian and Mexican imports, before providing a one-month exemption for any goods that meet the rules of origin under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade. Enhanced steel and aluminum tariffs took effect this week, drawing swift retaliation from Europe. With the economic outlook deteriorating because of tariffs, financial markets expect the Fed to resume cutting rates in June after it paused its easing cycle in January. The central bank's benchmark overnight interest rate is currently in the 4.25%-4.50% range, having been reduced by 100 basis points since September. It was hiked by 5.25 percentage points in 2022 and 2023 to subdue inflation.
Core Consumer Price Inflation Slowest In 4 Years As Energy & Airfare Costs Tumble With four times as many data points skewing towards higher February consumer prices than lower ones, whisper numbers into this morning's CPI print (expected to rise 0.3% MoM) were to the upside (but we note that for the 4th month in a row we were contrarian to that, suggesting prices cool off this month). However, headline and core CPI both printed below expectations (+0.2% MoM) which dragged the headline CPI down to +2.8% YoY... Graphs Source: Bloomberg. CPI Highlights:
- The index for shelter rose 0.3 percent in February, accounting for nearly half of the monthly all items increase. The shelter increase was partially offset by a 4.0-percent decrease in the index for airline fares and a 1.0-percent decline in the index for gasoline.
- Despite the decrease in the gasoline index, the energy index rose 0.2 percent over the month as the indexes for electricity and natural gas increased. The index for food also increased in February, rising 0.2 percent as the index for food away from home increased 0.4 percent. The food at home index was unchanged over the month.
- The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2% in February, following a 0.4% increase in January. Indexes that increased over the month include medical care, used cars and trucks, household furnishings and operations, recreation, apparel, and personal care. The indexes for airline fares and new vehicles were among the few major indexes that decreased in February.
Cleveland Fed: Median CPI increased 0.3% and Trimmed-mean CPI increased 0.3% in February --The Cleveland Fed released the median CPI and the trimmed-mean CPI.According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the median Consumer Price Index rose 0.3% in February. The 16% trimmed-mean Consumer Price Index increased 0.3%. "The median CPI and 16% trimmed-mean CPI are measures of core inflation calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland based on data released in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) monthly CPI report".This graph shows the year-over-year change for these four key measures of inflation. On a year-over-year basis, the median CPI rose 3.5% (down from 3.6% YoY in January), the trimmed-mean CPI rose 3.1% (unchanged from 3.1%), and the CPI less food and energy rose 3.3% (down from 3.1%). Core PCE is for January was up 2.7% YoY, down from 2.9% in December.
Price of Natural Gas Futures Up 140% Year-over-Year: One More Reason for Inflation to Not Back off Easily by Wolf Richter The notoriously volatile price of US natural gas futures has been zigzagging higher since mid-2024 and overnight spiked to over $4.80 per million Btu, and currently trades at $4.52 per million Btu, up by 140% from a year ago.Nearly 43% of electricity in the US was generated by natural-gas-fired power plants in 2024. Natural gas is widely used for heating by residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Fertilizer makers use natural gas as feedstock. Natural gas is used as fuel for city buses, drayage trucks, garbage trucks, etc. And the US has been investing in a massive export boom of natural gas, with exporters taking up 19% of US production last year.For the past 20 years, it has been drill-baby-drill, and US natural gas production has more than doubled, turning the US into the largest natural gas producer in the world. Overproduction has caused the price of natural gas to collapse repeatedly.Over the past three decades, natural gas prices spiked to $10 per million Btu and higher, including to over $15 in 2005. Natural gas prices can go wild. And in 1997, natural gas had already been at $4.50. Power generators, utilities, and fertilizer makers purchase much of their projected needs with long-term contracts, so price changes in the futures market leave their near-term costs largely unaffected. But they might raise their prices anyway, and many have already done so, blaming the higher costs. Regulated utilities will do what regulators let them do.The CPI for natural gas piped to the homes across the US has risen by 6.4% since August (through January, February CPI will be released on Wednesday) and is up 4.9% year-over-year.Electricity prices have risen because regulators allow utilities to hike their prices. In California, for example, PG&E’s electricity prices have spiked with multiple price hikes and fee changes, as it passes on the costs of the settlements related to wildfire destruction, the costs of their wildfire mitigation efforts, other costs, and whatever, while its net income surged to $2.5 billion in 2024.National storage levels are running near the bottom of the five-year range for this time of the year, at 1.76 trillion cubic feet, down from 2.34 trillion cubic feet a year ago, when they were forming the new top of the five-year range. Forecasts for milder weather indicate that there will be less heating-related demand.But export demand, both via LNG to the rest of the world and via pipeline to Mexico, is a booming business and rose to 7.7 trillion cubic feet in 2024, using about 19% of US production in 2024.In January, Trump had lifted the freeze on LNG export permit applications for new LNG export terminals. Biden had paused approvals of permits for new export terminals in order to curtail future growth in demand from LNG exporters that could drive up wholesale prices of natural gas in the US. Since lifting the freeze, the Trump administration has approved four new LNG export projects and extensions of existing projects.It has become a huge business. And this demand from exporters comes on top of the growth in demand from power generators scrambling to provide electricity to new data centers (for AI and the cloud), which are enormous power hogs, and which are spouting like mushrooms.
AAR: Rail Carloads Down YoY in February, Intermodal Up --From the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Rail Time Indicators. Uncertainty shapes economic cycles — fueling booms, triggering busts, and driving debates about what comes next. Uncertainty abounds in the railroad industry too, where evolving demand, market conditions, and economic policies constantly create both challenges and opportunities. .. For now, both rail traffic and the broader economy reflect a mix of strengths and weaknesses, with some sectors proving resilient while others struggle in the face of shifting conditions. This graph from the Rail Time Indicators report shows the year-over-year change for carloads, carloads ex-coal, and intermodal.In February, intermodal performance was again strong, with volumes rising 6.4% (66,340 units) year over-year. Originations averaged 276,654 units per week, the most ever for a February. This strength reflects solid consumer spending and, in part, efforts by some importers to expedite shipments in anticipation of tariffs. ... U.S. railroads originated 843,618 carloads in February, down 4.5% from last year. Carloads rose fractionally in January, their first increase in five months. In February, severe floods in the Northeast and frigid temperatures in the upper Midwest and much of the rest of the country constrained rail operations and the ability of rail customers to load and unload freight. Without these weather issues, rail volumes likely would have been higher.
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims Decrease to 220,000 -- The DOL reported: In the week ending March 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 220,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 221,000 to 222,000. The 4-week moving average was 226,000, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 224,250 to 224,500. The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971.The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased to 226,000.The previous week was revised up.Weekly claims were lower than the consensus forecast.
BLS: Job Openings Increased to 7.7 million in January -- From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary The number of job openings was little changed at 7.7 million in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires held at 5.4 million, and total separations changed little at 5.3 million. Within separations, quits (3.3 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.6 million) changed little. The following graph shows job openings (black line), hires (dark blue), Layoff, Discharges and other (red column), and Quits (light blue column) from the JOLTS. Note: The difference between JOLTS hires and separations is similar to the CES (payroll survey) net jobs headline numbers. This report is for January; the employment report last Friday was for February. Note that hires (dark blue) and total separations (red and light blue columns stacked) are usually pretty close each month. This is a measure of labor market turnover. When the blue line is above the two stacked columns, the economy is adding net jobs - when it is below the columns, the economy is losing jobs. The spike in layoffs and discharges in March 2020 is labeled, but off the chart to better show the usual data. Jobs openings increased in January to 7.74 million from 7.51 million in December. The number of job openings (black) were down 9% year-over-year. Quits were down 3% year-over-year. These are voluntary separations. (See light blue columns at bottom of graph for trend for "quits").
Poor Weather Reduced Employment Slightly in February - The BLS reported 151 thousand non-farm jobs were added in February. During the Winter months, I like to look at the weather impact on the report.The BLS reported 404 thousand people were employed in non-agriculture industries, with a job, but not at work due to bad weather. The average for February over the previous 10 years was 300 thousand (median 222 thousand), so more people than normal were impacted by bad weather. The BLS also reported 1.309 million people that are usually full-time employees were working part time in February due to bad weather. The average for February over the previous 10 years was 932 thousand (the median was 650 thousand). This series suggests weather negatively impacted employment more than usual. The San Francisco Fed estimates Weather-Adjusted Change in Total Nonfarm Employment (monthly change, seasonally adjusted). They use local area weather to estimate the impact on employment. For February, the San Francisco Fed estimated that weather reduced employment by 2 to 12 thousand jobs. It appears weather adjusted job gains were around 160 thousand in February (seasonally adjusted)
Virginia governor commutes sentence for officer who killed unarmed man suspected of shoplifting -- Glenn Youngkin, Republican governor of Virginia, commuted the sentence of a former police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man accused of stealing a pair of sunglasses in 2023.
For killing worker in Texas factory, Tesla to pay fine of $49,000, or what CEO Elon Musk makes in 8 seconds - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a $49,650 (€ 45,780) fine against Tesla for the August 1, 2024 death of journeyman electrician Victor Joe Gomez Sr. at its “Gigafactory” in Austin, Texas. The worker in question was electrocuted while working on a panel that was supposed to have not been energized. The details in the OSHA reports make clear this was a foreseeable and preventable death, but it was made inevitable given the lack of safety measures at the plant. As of this writing, there is no indication that the citation has been contested, but the case status is still listed as “open.” The fine amounts to less than a slap on the wrist for the world’s most valuable car company, with a market capitalization of nearly $700 billion at this time. The fine is less than 0.0003 percent of the company’s $17.45 (€16.09) billion in profit last year. Financial news outlets estimate that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and open fascist who heads the infamous Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, makes an income of $6,420 (€5,920) per second, meaning he could pay off the fine in less than 8 seconds, the time it takes to put on his shoes. While little is done to protect Tesla workers, in the first two months of 2024 Tesla paid $500,000 for Musk’s personal security, and he reportedly travels with at least 20 bodyguards. The company also employs a number of private security firms to turn its factories into virtual fortresses with all entrances guarded by gates, guards and a sophisticated array of AI security cameras, including systems, such as the Turing AI surveillance system used in parking lots in order to monitor workers in Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, and likely many others. Through his control of DOGE, Musk and Trump are declaring war on virtually every federal department which even slightly infringes on the profit-making of the corporate oligarchy, with layoffs already having taken place in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other regulatory agencies. Trump’s pick for OSHA’s new director, David Keeling, was a former safety director at Amazon and UPS, both companies with appalling safety records.
Inmate deaths mount as wildcat strike by New York state prison guards continues As the wildcat strike of New York state prison guards entered its fourth week, the death toll among prisoners has been mounting. Despite a tentative agreement having been proposed last week between the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and the union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), which represents the guards but did not officially call the strike in order to evade legal responsibility, most of the strikers rejected the agreement and have not returned to work. A modified agreement was then proposed by the state, but the union refused to sign on to the agreement because it was not involved in its drafting. While some of the strikers have returned to work, under threat of dismissal and termination of health insurance by the state, many have continued the walkout. A revised agreement between the state and the union was announced on Saturday, which required the guards to return to work on Monday, however compliance was limited throughout the day according to the latest reports. National Guard troops and state troopers, deployed by New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, remain as substitute guards along with some state troopers. Soldiers have complained that they are untrained and ill equipped to function as prison guards. Inmates report inhuman conditions, including a lack of food, medication and extended lockdown in their cells as well as increased brutality by their guards. As a result, a growing number of deaths have occurred among the incarcerated population. So far, at least nine inmate fatalities have been reported since the beginning of the wildcat strike on February 17. One is the result of a beating by guards. Of the others, at least one is reported to have committed suicide by hanging, with no one present to intervene, likely as a result of the harsh conditions, and two others due to failure to receive prompt medical care. Details of the remaining deaths are not available. The latest reported death, which occurred on Saturday, March 1, was that of Messiah Nantwi, 22, at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy. The New York State Police are investigating the death and 15 corrections staff members have been placed on leave.
234 inmates have died in Kentucky jails since 2020, most while awaiting trial - Louisville Metro Department of Corrections [AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley] On November 4, 2021, Terri Beth Mays, a 32-year-old inmate at the Whitley County Detention Center located in Williamsburg, Kentucky, died after being held at the facility for a period of eight days. She had yet to have her first court hearing concerning her arrest. Surveillance footage from the jail showed Mays’ breathing becoming ragged and harsh, until she exhibited a delirious state before collapsing and striking her head on the toilet in her cell and coming to rest on the floor. Though the incident was caught on a surveillance camera within the jail, it took an estimated 30 minutes before a guard entered her cell and found Mays unresponsive on the floor. . It is not known whether Mays received first aid within the key moments before she was transported to the local hospital where she would later be pronounced dead as the “result of cardiac dysrhythmia due to dehydration.” In response, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed by her mother, Tammy Webb, in September 2023. The lawsuit cites that for the eight days she was in custody, Mays was not given her prescribed medication for seizures. This was not an unknown condition to the Whitley County Detention Center, because upon her arrest Mays informed jail staff of her seizure disorder. Furthermore, she had been held at the facility several times before and has a documented history of seizures that required her hospitalization. Despite the claim on her death certificate that her passing was the result of an “accident,” the entire incident is a case of systemic medical neglect by the state institution. If Mays’ death was just an accident, how is it that hundreds of other inmates died in Kentucky jails over the past four years? Between 2020 to 2024, 234 inmates have died while in custody according to a report by the Lexington Herald Leader. Of the 234 inmates, 165 were being held in jail without being convicted of the alleged crime for which they were arrested—meaning they were still legally innocent. Inmate death rates are an escalating trend throughout the United States, not just within the state of Kentucky. Higher death rates from 2020 to 2022 in Kentucky have largely been attributed to COVID-19, peaking at 63 in 2022. Though the exact toll of COVID-19 within the US prisons and jails are largely undetermined, a report by the National Library of Medicine estimates that deaths due to the virus in correctional facilities were six times higher than deaths in the general population. At the start of the pandemic, the structures of jails and prisons, along with record rates of overcrowding, made it impossible to implement protective measures to ensure the health of both inmates and staff. Though inmate death rates in Kentucky have been on the decline in recent years, they have once again started to increase. In 2024 alone, 34 people died while being held in custody, higher than any year between 2008 to 2020. The seven county jails that have reported the most deaths since 2020 are Jefferson County—the most populous in the state and location of Louisville—with 20; Madison County with 12; Fayette County with 8; and Christian County with 7. Meanwhile Laurel, Hardin, and Whitley Counties have all reported 6. Autopsy records for the inmate deaths reveal that 40 percent were attributed to natural deaths; 31 percent were deemed “accidental”; and 20 percent were ruled as suicides. Only one homicide and one “undetermined” death was recorded. Jails consistently underreport deaths nationwide. In some cases, jails seek to circumvent their legal obligation to report deaths to state officials by releasing people from custody just before they die. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) requires only that data be collected, but not that it be shared publicly. In 2020, Reuters was able to estimate that jail deaths had surged by 35 percent between 2009 and 2019, despite the decline in jail populations. The classification of “natural” and “accidental” are problematic labels that serve to obscure the conditions that contributed to people dying while in their custody. The ruling of a natural death means that the person’s death was caused through a natural process such as a disease or health condition and not due to external factors. It is quite perverse to say that a death is natural or accidental if it is known that the person has a preexisting health condition and does not receive medical treatment, like in the case of Mays. Prior to Mays’ death the Kentucky Department of Corrections had conducted an inspection of the Whitley County Detention Center that found eight violations. Later inspections revealed an additional 21 violations which included overcrowding, lack of medical training for staff and failure to conduct observation checks. The Kentucky Department of Corrections places the blame on the inmates themselves for the growing trend in inmate deaths. They cite, “transient conditions, unsanitary drug habits, general lifestyle dangers,” and a rise in highly potent substances in the illicit drug supply. Despite their claim to be “committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all individuals who fall under the department’s oversight” they exhibit a blatant disregard for inmates’ health and disavow any responsibility for setting medical standards in local jails. Despite the calls for reform made by advocacy groups and the mounting wrongful death lawsuits, Republicans and Democrats alike have responded by pursuing harsher policies targeting the most vulnerable portions of the working class using “tough on crime laws.”
South Carolina puts Brad Sigmon to death in first US firing squad execution since 2010 -- South Carolina’s execution chamber was the scene of a bloody, gruesome spectacle Friday when death row prisoner Brad Sigmon was killed in the first execution in the United States by firing squad in 15 years. The revival of the firing squad, a relic most associated in the US with the execution of deserters during the Civil War, is an indication of the ruling establishment’s intent on keeping the state-sponsored assembly line of death moving no matter the brutality of the method. Sigmon, 67, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 bludgeoning deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. He chose the firing squad over the electric chair and lethal injection due to his fear that these methods would prove more painful. South Carolina keeps the details of its lethal injection protocol secret. In a Wednesday filing to the US Supreme Court, Sigmon’s attorney had sought a stay of execution, asking the high court “to consider whether South Carolina’s compressed execution timeline and arbitrary denial of information relating to the South Carolina Department of Corrections lethal injection drugs violate Due Process.” The US Supreme Court rejected Sigmon’s request for a stay of execution without comment and with no recorded dissents. The South Carolina Supreme Court refused to grant Sigmon a reprieve earlier in the week. Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, declined to commute Sigmon’s death sentence to life in prison. When it was clear that there would be no last-minute reprieve, Sigmon was led into the death chamber at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina and strapped into a metal chair with leg restraints and a strap over his head. The state spent $54,000 in 2022 to construct the firing squad area within its execution chamber, next to the electric chair, which prison authorities said could not be moved. In a final statement read before his death, Sigmon said he wanted his “closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty.” He added, “An eye for an eye was used as justification to the jury for seeking the death penalty. At that time, I was too ignorant to know how wrong that was. Why? Because we no longer live under the Old Testament law but now live under the New Testament.” A target was placed over Sigmon’s heart and a hood placed over his head. Three volunteer shooters selected from the prison staff stood out of the view of witnesses, who sat behind shatterproof glass. The executioners were armed with rifles loaded with .308-caliber Winchester 110-grain TAP Urban ammunition, a type of bullet commonly used by police marksmen. These bullets are designed for rapid expansion and fragmentation upon impact, minimizing penetration while maximizing damage to critical organs like the heart. The bullets shatter upon hitting hard surfaces like the rib cage, creating extensive internal injuries intended to cause swift unconsciousness and death through rapid blood loss. There was no warning before the executioners fired their weapons simultaneously at about 6:05 p.m., causing the witnesses to flinch. After he was shot, the condemned inmate appeared to take two short breaths and a blood stain appeared on his chest. He was pronounced dead about three minutes after the shots were fired. In a statement, his lawyer, Gerald “Bo” King, said that Sigmon’s death was “horrifying and violent.” “He chose the firing squad knowing that three bullets would shatter his bones and destroy his heart,” King said. “But that was the only choice he had, after the state’s three executions by lethal injection inflicted prolonged and potentially torturous deaths on men he loved like brothers.” King said that “there is no justice” with Friday’s execution. “Everything about this barbaric, state-sanctioned atrocity—from the choice to the method itself—is abjectly cruel,” he said. “We should not just be horrified—we should be furious.”
Study shows evidence of mixed kindergarten developmental trends during pandemic - A study yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics shows varying developmental health trends among US kindergartners immediately prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Though several studies have shown school closures and pandemic-era shutdowns had negative effects on elementary and high school students, the developmental impact of the pandemic has been less studied on the youngest schoolchildren.In this study, the authors used data from the Early Development Instrument (EDI), among a sample of 475,740 US kindergarteners from 2010 to 2023. The kids attended schools in 19 states and represented 398 school districts. Participants were an average 6 years of age, and 51.1% were boys.Outcomes were EDI scores in five categories: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication and general knowledge.In contrast to what has been documented in older children and teens, no changes were found in physical health and well-being scores among kindergartners before and during the pandemic.However, communication and general knowledge, language and cognitive development, and social competence all saw significant drops in EDI scores during COVID-19 (2021 to 2023). These scores were significantly lower compared with the immediate prepandemic period (2018 to 2020) for communication and general knowledge (mean change, −0.21; 95% confidence interval (CI), −0.24 to −0.17), language and cognitive development (mean change, −0.47; 95% CI, −0.49 to −0.45), and social competence (mean change, −0.03; 95% CI, −0.06 to −0.01), the authors wrote.
Oklahoma’s assault on public education and immigrant rights -- Oklahoma is moving to deny public education to undocumented children as part of the US ruling class’s escalating attack on the working class. Last month, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters wrote to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asking to clarify whether President Trump’s executive order banning the use of federal funds to benefit undocumented immigrants, meant that undocumented immigrant children would be prohibited from going to public schools. Walters wrote that “[t]axpayer dollars should be used to support the education of American students, not to subsidize or create a magnet for illegal immigration.” Walters was asking a question he had already answered. He wants the go-ahead from the attorney general to overturn the precedent set down in the 1982 US Supreme Court case Plyler v. Doe. That landmark case guaranteed access to and equal protection for undocumented children in public schooling. The facts of Plyler underscore that this is another effort to enshrine xenophobic reaction into law. In 1975, Texas revised its education code to bar local school districts from using state funds to educate children who were not legally admitted into the United States. The state denied such children enrollment in public schools. Texas argued that providing undocumented children a free public education was an incentive to illegal immigration and that spending public funds on undocumented children drained funds from the education of native-born children. The case made it to the Supreme Court after the district court ruled against Texas. The Supreme Court ruled that because undocumented children are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, they are afforded 14th Amendment equal protection rights. The Court concluded that by stripping undocumented children, an overwhelmingly poverty-stricken group, of access to free public education, the state would be condemning them to the status of a permanent underclass. The Court upheld democratic traditions that were secured through blood and sacrifice in the Civil War that overthrew the slave power and ended slavery. These rights, codified in the post-Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, are under attack by the Trump administration. Most pertinent to the Plyer ruling and Oklahoma’s attempt to overturn it is the 14th Amendment, which enshrined birthright citizenship, due process and equal protection under the law. In the Plyer case, Texas attempted to argue that because undocumented persons are here contrary to the law, they cannot avail themselves of the law’s protection. The Supreme Court instead noted that many of Texas’s objections had been raised in congressional debate surrounding the post-Civil War amendments and were rejected. “Persons... subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, the Court ruled, included any person, alien or not, who is present within the United States and subject to its laws—otherwise stated, anyone who is not under a diplomatic mission. While the Court upheld these democratic traditions, it declined to recognize education as a fundamental right. Nevertheless, public education has deep roots running through the founding of the United States.>
The American oligarchy declares war on public education -The Trump administration and newly confirmed Education Secretary and billionaire Linda McMahon have begun dismantling the US public education system. Public schools, built through 250 years of struggle, educate tens of millions of students and are overwhelmingly supported by the population as a fundamental democratic right. According to a March 6 Washington Post article, congressional Republicans are pushing for a universal school voucher system in the budget reconciliation bill. Combined with the administration’s plan to shut down the Department of Education, this is part of a broader effort to dismantle public education entirely. In line with Trump’s January 29 Executive Order, “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families,” the Republican voucher plan would divert $5-10 billion in public funds to private, parochial and homeschooling. “The program would be fueled by a powerful, never-before-tried incentive: Taxpayers who donate to voucher programs would get 100 percent of their money back when they file their taxes,” the Post reported. Wealthy individuals and corporations could invest in or donate stocks to these programs, gaining dollar-for-dollar tax deductions while avoiding capital gains taxes. The measure would be “the greatest threat to public education we’ve ever had at the federal level,” said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for the School Superintendents Association. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump had a draft executive order to shut down the Department of Education (ED), though legal experts note it would require a 60-vote majority in the Senate. In the meantime, billionaires McMahon and Musk are executing a slash-and-burn operation—eliminating ED jobs, canceling grants and abruptly ending research and support programs. The Department of Education provides critical support to underfunded schools and enforces anti-discrimination policies established through landmark rulings like Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1975) and Plyler v. Doe (1982), which protect minorities, students with disabilities, English-language learners and immigrants. These gains are now under direct attack, with Trump using Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs as a pretext to dismantle democratic rights. Last week, Trump slashed $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University as retaliation for student-led anti-genocide protests. This week, he ordered the denial of student loan forgiveness to teachers and nonprofit workers deemed to “harm American values” or who engage in “public disruptions”—effectively imposing a political loyalty test. In K-12 education, an Executive Order now requires the teaching of the “1776 Report,” authored by far-right ideologues, along with other lies aimed at censoring the history of American imperialism, the suppression of the working class, and—above all—the class struggle and socialism. Universal public education, a core ideal of the Enlightenment, has long been seen as essential to democracy and a safeguard against authoritarianism. Just three years after drafting the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson authored A Bill for the General Diffusion of Knowledge in 1779, reflecting the revolutionary founders’ belief that education was the foundation of democracy and social and political rights. “I know of no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves,” Jefferson wrote, adding, “The remedy is not to take power from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”
Trump’s school voucher plan: A billion-dollar tax shelter for the ruling elites -- Trump’s national school voucher proposal represents an unprecedented diversion of public funds into private hands. It is part of an overall plan to dismantle the right to public education, being spearheaded through the destruction of the Department of Education. The plan offers a 100 percent federal tax credit for donations to school voucher programs, creating the largest tax incentive for any charitable contribution in US history. The school voucher proposal being promoted by Congressional Republicans is not about expanding educational “opportunities” but about funneling billions of public dollars into private hands while creating a tax shelter for the ultra-wealthy. This scheme is a backdoor maneuver to privatize education while allowing corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid taxation. The plan offers a 100 percent federal tax credit for donations to school voucher programs, meaning that every dollar contributed is fully reimbursed by the government. This ensures that public education funding is directly converted into subsidies for private institutions and homeschoolers. The federal government would effectively be funding a parallel private education system, draining billions from public schools. Unlike tax deductions, which merely reduce taxable income, this program ensures that every dollar donated to private school scholarships is fully reimbursed by the federal government. The policy does not simply divert resources from public schools; it actively redistributes wealth upward, allowing high-income earners to exploit tax loopholes while working class families are left with underfunded public schools. The voucher system would double as a tax shelter for the ultra-rich. The plan allows for donations of stock instead of cash. Donors avoid capital gains taxes when stocks increase in price, then receive a tax credit for the full amount of the stock price come tax time. According to the Washington Post analysis, this loophole could cost the government an estimated $134 billion over 10 years, further deepening economic inequality by depleting federal funds that would have otherwise paid for public education—especially for those serving low-income communities. This corporate welfare masquerading as school choice will not improve education for working class families. It will simply allow the elite to extract even more wealth from the public sector. One version of the proposal would cost the federal government $5 billion per year, enough to fund about 500,000 private school vouchers at $10,000 per student. Another version, at $10 billion annually, would expand eligibility to higher income families, extending federal subsidies to those earning up to three times the area median income. For example, families making over $450,000 in some districts would qualify. The push for school vouchers has deep historical ties to reactionary efforts to resist public school integration following the Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and mandating desegregation of schools across the country. In response to federal desegregation mandates, states introduced early forms of school vouchers to allow white families to withdraw from integrated schools and attend private segregation academies using public funds. One of the most infamous examples occurred in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where officials shut down the entire public school system in 1959 rather than allow black students to integrate. White families were given publicly funded tuition grants—early school vouchers—to attend all-white private academies, while black students were left without access to formal education.
Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead Columbia student protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, arrested by ICE, attorney says | CNN --A federal judge in New York has blocked any efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia university graduate and Palestinian activist who was arrested Saturday night until a hearing Wednesday, according to court documents. He is expected to appear in court on Wednesday morning, according to the documents. Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student protest movement demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, was arrested Saturday night by federal immigration authorities who said they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.Khalil’s arrest is the latest escalation by President Donald Trump – in what he calls, “the first arrest of many to come,”– to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, and comes days after he vowed to deport foreign students and imprison “agitators” involved in “illegal protests.”“On March 9, 2025, in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” the US Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X Sunday night.Khalil was at the forefront of the student-led anti-war movement at Columbia University last year. He was among those under investigation by a new university committee that brought disciplinary charges against dozens of students for their pro-Palestinian activism, according to The Associated Press. “ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the US government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” Khalil’s attorney Amy Greer said. “The US government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”
Trump Admin Is Trying To Deport Mahmoud Khalil for Speech That's 'Contrary' to US Foreign Policy - The Trump administration is trying to deport 30-year-old Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested by ICE agents over the weekend, for activity that is “contrary” to US foreign policy based on his involvement in protests critical of Israel’s war on Gaza at Columbia University.A White House official told The Free Press that Khalil’s activity was a “threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.”“The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” the official told The Free Press. “He was mobilizing support for Hamas and spreading antisemitism in a way that is contrary to the foreign policy of the US.”US officials have labeled pro-Palestine protests “antisemitic” even though many Jewish students participated in and helped organize the demonstrations.The White House official said the basis for targeting Khalil is being used as a blueprint to target other foreign students either on visas or green cards, and more arrests at other schools are expected. “I suspect we’ll have other schools roped into this,” the official said.At a White House press conference on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karolin Leavitt claimed Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the right to revoke the visa or green card of individuals who “are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests” under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.“Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges,” Leavitt said. “And he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege by siding with terrorists.”Leavitt also claimed that Khalil was involved in distributing “pro-Hamas propaganda fliers” but didn’t offer any evidence to back up the assertion.The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) responded to Leavitt’s comments and said the law she appeared to be citing “requires the secretary of state to have ‘reasonable ground to believe’ the person’s ‘presence or activities in the United States . . . would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.'”FIRE noted that in explaining how Khalil met the standard for deportation under the law, the administration “did not allege Khalil committed a crime” but did “explicitly cite the content of his speech.”FIRE said that “protesting government policy is protected by the First Amendment, as is rhetorical support for a terrorist group.”Khalil was born in Syria, has Algerian citizenship, and is of Palestinian descent. He is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant. Khalil was arrested at his Columbia University-owned apartment in New York City over the weekend by ICE agents and was taken to a detention facility in Louisiana.
Yale University suspends law scholar and pro-Palestinian activist targeted by AI-powered Zionist news website In a blatant attack on free speech and due process rights, Yale University suspended international law scholar and pro-Palestinian activist Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi on Tuesday, based on a smear campaign launched by an artificial intelligence-powered Zionist news website called Jewish Onliner. Doutaghi, an Iranian-born academic who became Deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy (LPE) Project at Yale in 2023 and also held the position of Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School (YLS), was notified on March 3 of a post on Jewish Onliner that claimed she was a “terrorist.” YLS did not defend her but proceeded within 24 hours to place Doutaghi on administrative leave, revoked her access to email and banned her from Yale’s campus. The university administration gave her only a few hours’ notice to attend an interrogation based on the far-right Al-generated allegations against her. She was then subject to a barrage of harassment, death threats and online attacks by right-wing supporters of Zionism and the Gaza genocide. As Doutaghi explained in a post on X on Tuesday afternoon, I endured all of this while fasting, and my request for religious accommodations during Ramadan was dismissed. … I was afforded no due process and no reasonable time to consult with my attorney. Rather than investigate the source of these allegations first, the nation’s “top law school” accepted them at face value and shifted the burden of proof from the accuser to the accused, treating me, prima facie, as guilty until proven otherwise. Whether Yale Law School’s attorneys knowingly relied on AI-fabricated claims or simply chose willful ignorance remains unanswered. The individual selected by Yale Law School to interrogate Doutaghi was David Ring of the law firm Wiggin and Dana, a known supporter of Zionism, a US State Department appointee and advocate for defense contractors that have profited from war crimes against Palestinians. As Doutaghi explained, When I raised my concerns about the potential conflict of interests posed by his participation in this process, YLS dismissed them, stating there was “no concern with his ability to conduct a fair interview.” It is reprehensible that YLS would appoint a counsel who profits from the machinery of Palestinian death to “interview” an employee about their public anti-genocide and pro-Palestine positions.
Patients' affinity for AI messages drops if they know the technology was used, surveys reveal -In a Duke Health-led survey, patients who were shown messages written either by artificial intelligence (AI) or human clinicians indicated a preference for responses drafted by AI over a human. That preference was diminished, though not erased, when told AI was involved.The study, published March 11 in JAMA Network Open, showed high overall satisfaction with communications written both by AI and humans, despite their preference for AI. This suggests that letting patients know AI was used does not greatly reduce confidence in the message."Every health system is grappling with this issue of whether we disclose the use of AI and how," said senior author Anand Chowdhury, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. "There is a desire to be transparent, and a desire to have satisfied patients. If we disclose AI, what do we lose? That is what our study intended to measure."Chowdhury and colleagues sent a series of surveys to members of the Duke University Health System patient advisory committee. This is a group of Duke Health patients andcommunity members who help inform how Duke Health communicates with and cares for patients. More than 1,400 people responded to at least one of the surveys.The surveys focused on three clinical topics, including routine medication refill request (a low seriousness topic), medication side effect question (moderate seriousness), and potential cancer on imaging (high seriousness).Human responses were provided by a multidisciplinary team of physicians who were asked to write a realistic response to each survey scenario based on how they typically draft responses to patients. The generative AI responses were written using ChatGPT and were reviewed for accuracy by the study physicians who made minimal changes to the responses.For each survey, participants were asked to review a vignette that presented one of the clinical topics. Each vignette included a response from either AI or human clinicians, along with either a disclosure or no disclosure telling them who the author was. They were then asked to rate their overall satisfaction with the response, usefulness of the information, and how cared for they felt during the interaction.Comparing authors, patients preferred AI-drafted messages by an average difference of 0.30 points on 5-point scale for satisfaction. The AI communications tended to be longer, included more details, and likely seemed more empathetic than human-drafted messages."Our study shows us that patients have a slight preference for messages written by AI, even though they are slightly less satisfied when the disclosure informs them that AI was involved," said first author Joanna S. Cavalier, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.When they looked at the difference in satisfaction when participants were told AI was involved, disclosing AI led to lower satisfaction, though not by much: 0.1 points on the 5-point scale. Regardless of the actual author, patients were overall more satisfied with messages when they were not told AI was involved in drafting the response.
Minimal TV viewing may be protective for heart disease linked to type 2 diabetes, study finds - Watching no more than one hour of TV a day may lower the risk of heart attack, stroke and other blood vessel diseases among people with varying levels of genetic risk for type 2 diabetes, including high genetic risk, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or ASCVD, is caused by plaque buildup in arterial walls and refers to conditions that include heart disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease. These conditions may lead to severe consequences, such as compromised quality of life, bypass surgeries, stenting procedures, amputations and premature death.This study is one of the first to examine how the genetic risk for type 2 diabetes may interact with TV viewing in relation to the future risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease."Type 2 diabetes and a sedentary lifestyle, including prolonged sitting, are major risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases," said Youngwon Kim, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a professor in the School of Public Health at The University of Hong Kong in Pokfulam, Hong Kong."Watching TV, which accounts for more than half of daily sedentary behavior, is consistently associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Our study provides new insights into the role of limiting TV viewing time in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases for everyone and especially in people with a high genetic predisposition for type 2 diabetes."This study examined data from a large biomedical database and research resources containing genetic, lifestyle and medical records for 346,916 U.K. adults, average age of 56 years, and 45% male. During nearly 14 years of follow-up, the study identified 21,265 people who developed atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.The analysis found:
- About 21% of participants reported watching TV one hour or less a day; more than 79% reported two or more hours per day of TV-watching time.
- Compared to watching TV for one hour or less daily, spending two hours or more daily in front of the TV was associated with a 12% higher risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, regardless of their genetic risk for type 2 diabetes.
- Evaluations indicated that participants with medium and high type 2 diabetes genetic risk did not have a higher risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease as long as TV viewing was limited to one hour or less daily.
- The 10-year absolute risk, or probability, of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease was lower (2.13%) for people with high type 2 diabetes genetic risk combined with one hour or less daily of TV viewing compared to people with low type 2 diabetes genetic risk and who reported two or more hours of daily TV viewing (2.46%).
"We found that people with high genetic risk for type 2 diabetes may exhibit lower chances of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease by limiting TV watching to one hour or less each day. This suggests that less TV viewing could serve as a key behavioral target for preventing atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases linked to type 2 diabetes genetics," said first author of the study, Mengyao Wang, Ph.D., and a recent Ph.D. graduate of the University of Hong Kong.
FDA announces flu strain picks for next season's vaccines --The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday announced the strains it recommends manufacturers include in seasonal flu vaccines for the 2025-26 flu season, and they mirror recommendations announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) last month. The agency's vaccine advisory committee typically makes the recommendation in early February following an open session that includes a public hearing. With the change in presidential administration, however, the FDA shelved its usual deliberations on the topic by its Vaccines and Related Biologics Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), which typically includes input from FDA scientists, as well as those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Defense.The FDA posted the presentations from the interagency group that recommended the strains in its announcement. Unlike previous years, there wasn't input from any vaccine company representatives or those from the WHO Collaborating Center for Surveillance Epidemiology and Control of Influenza.The FDA recommendations are the same as for last month's WHO advisory committee recommendation for the 2025-26 Northern Hemisphere vaccines, which switch to a different H3N2 influenza A strain for the egg- and cell-based vaccines."With today's action, the FDA does not anticipate any impact on timing or availability of vaccines for the American public," the FDA said, adding that it expects an adequate and diverse supply of trivalent (three-strain) vaccines for the next US flu season.
Inflammation inside and outside the brain may contribute to neurological complications in COVID-19 -COVID-19 affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and is often associated with long-term neurological abnormalities. Common symptoms include the loss of taste and smell, dizziness, "brain fog", headache, confusion, memory impairment, chronic fatigue, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction, which can have a major impact on the quality of life of patients.Clinical imaging studies have shown that focal tissue abnormalities can develop in many areas of the brain during the acute phase of the disease, while in post-COVID cases, a reduction in cortical thickness, loss of the integrity of the blood brain barrier or disturbances in cerebral circulation may persist for many months. However, the causes ofneurological symptoms associated with the disease are currently unknown.The Laboratory of Neuroimmunology, led by Dr. Adam Denes at the HUN-REN Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary aimed to explore the role of the brain's primary immune cells, microglia, in the development of inflammation and neurological symptoms induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection.To this end, a new method was developed that allowed detailed histological and molecular biological studies to be performed on tissue samples of the brain and peripheral organs from patients who died as a result of COVID-19.The paper is published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.One of the main findings of the research program is that focal microglial dysfunction and vascular inflammation are strongly correlated with the extent of neuronal damage in brain areas affected by COVID-19.Researchers have shown that P2Y12R receptors, which play a key role in microglial communication with neurons and blood vessels, are greatly reduced in brain areas where vascular inflammation was present alongside the accumulation of viral proteins.It has also been shown that microglia dysfunction is associated with damage to mitochondria, which are also responsible for cellular energy production.Microglia dysfunction and cell death in the brain not only paralleled vascular inflammation, but also marked sites of damage to synapses and myelin sheaths that play a crucial role in neuronal communication.While the observed neuropathological changes were regionally heterogenous in different patients, pathologies were most severe in the dorsal medulla, where key autonomic centers controlling respiration and circulation are located. The cerebral cortex, hypothalamus and thalamus were also affected, and damage to these areas may be associated with the development of hormonal, autonomic nervous system, memory or sleep disturbances as a result of COVID-19.Researchers at HUN-REN KOKI also observed that SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins accumulate inside and around blood as well as in circulating immune cells that are recruited to inflamed areas of the brain. In these areas, dysfunction of microglial cells was associated with blood-brain barrier injury.Surprisingly, the researchers found that the elevated levels of inflammatory proteins in the circulation and peripheral organs also showed a strong correlation with the inflammation and viral RNA levels in the brain tissue of each patient. They also showed the induction of inflammasomes, which regulate the recognition of viral proteins and RNA and control inflammation, in the brain tissue, lung, liver and spleen.However, no evidence for substantial infection of neurons by SARS-CoV-2 was found. This suggests that neurological complications of COVID-19 may not be due to a classical neurotropic virus infection in the brain, while vascular inflammation and metabolic dysfunction of glial cells could be a considerable contributor to these changes."The observed inflammatory processes may contribute to the development of neurological symptoms such as memory impairment, concentration difficulties, chronic fatigue or depression that affect many people, both during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and in post-COVID syndrome," said Ádám Dénes, the senior investigator of the study.
Meta-analysis: Prone positioning benefits awake COVID patients in respiratory failure - A meta-analysis of 14 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) involving more than 3,000 adult COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure concludes that awake prone positioning (APP) improves survival without intubation—especially if it is used for at least 10 hours a day.An international team led by University of Oxford researchers analyzed individual participant data to compare clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) treated with APP (face down, 1,542 patients) versus supine positioning (face up, 1,477 controls).The study was published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine. About 66% of patients were alive without intubation at 3 days post-enrollment. APP improved survival without intubation (odds ratio [OR], 1.42), lowered the risk of intubation (OR, 0.70) and in-hospital death (OR, 0.77), and lengthened the interval from enrollment to intubation (mean difference, 0.93 days). APP for 10 or more hours a day within the first 3 days of hospitalization was tied to improved survival without intubation (OR, 1.85)."These findings support the broader implementation of APP in clinical practice," the authors wrote.In a related commentary, Michael Matthay, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues noted that APP can be uncomfortable, requires frequent repositioning to prevent tissue injury, and entails more training for staff. But, they said, it could become the new standard of care: "Overall, given the intervention’s low risk profile and clear physiological rationale, these considerations should not discourage its clinical implementation in appropriate patients."APP has been used widely in patients with AHRF since the COVID-19 pandemic began, often with negative or inconclusive results, the authors of the study noted.
Study: MIS-C may be triggered by latent Epstein-Barr virus -A new study suggests that kids who develop MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children), a severe complication following COVID-19 infections, may do so because COVID reactivates a latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in their bodies. The study appears in Nature.For 5 years, researchers have struggled to explain how MIS-C, a severe inflammatory response that mimics symptoms of toxic shock and Kawasaki shock syndromes, can occur in children who seem to recover completely from mild or even asymptomatic COVID infections. Kids with MIS-C typically develop the condition 4 to 8 weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection.German researchers say the answer may be in virus-reactive memory T cells, which are triggered by COVID infection. “We’ve now found indications, however, that a resurgence of a second pathogen—Epstein-Barr virus—is responsible for the inflammatory shock. Put simply, it wakes up from a dormant state because the COVID infection has thrown the child’s immune system in such disarray that it becomes unable to keep the dormant infection in check,” said Tilmann Kallinich, MD, co-senior author of the study, in a press release from Charite hospital in Berlin. Epstein-Barr is the virus that causes mononucleosis, and while some have symptoms, almost 90% of people are infected, and most never have a symptom, but EBV is dormant in immune cells.In the study, 145 children aged 2 to 18 years old who had been treated for MIS-C in European hospitals were compared to 105 controls who had COVID-10 but never developed MIS-C. Researchers found that 80.7% of kids with MIS-C had evidence of EBV in blood samples, compared to 56.0% of controls. EBV antibody titers were higher in patients with MIS-C compared with controls and treated patients, the authors said.They added that COVID may trigger an inflammatory immune response in kids that damages organs.
Data show homeless people didn't have higher COVID death, hospitalization rates -People experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Canada had similar COVID-19 death and hospitalization rates as their counterparts living in permanent housing, the Network of Canadian Emergency Researchers reportedyesterday in CMAJ.The team analyzed data from the Canadian COVID-19 Emergency Department Rapid Response Network registry on 52,883 COVID-19 patients seeking care at 50 emergency departments in eight provinces starting in March 2020 to compare rates of in-hospital death, hospitalization, critical care admission, and mechanical ventilation among PEH (901 patients) versus matched housed patients (51,982).Rates of COVID-19 vaccination were 20.9% among PEH and 22.9% among their housed peers."Congregate living conditions frequently encountered by PEH were associated with increased transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and incidence of COVID-19," the investigators wrote. "However, it remained unclear whether PEH were more susceptible to severe illness than housed patients. Previous research on the topic has been contradictory and limited by sampling bias and unaddressed confounders." The two groups had comparable rates of death (3% each; odds ratio [OR], 0.87) and hospital admission (44% in PEH vs 45% in housed patients), but PEH had lower rates of critical care admission (OR, 0.66)."A signal for reduced critical care admission among PEH may reflect differential treatment unrelated to clinical characteristics that we matched for," the study authors wrote. "Homelessness is associated with not only differing clinical characteristics, but also different sociodemographic factors such as race and income, which we have not adjusted for, as despite these factors’ association with health outcomes, clinicians would not typically take them into consideration when deciding treatment course."
1 in 8 COVID survivors still have symptoms 2 years after infection, researchers say --Today in BMC Medicine, researchers in Catalonia, Spain, estimate that 23% of adult COVID-19 survivors develop long COVID, with 56% of them—or one in eight (13%) of those infected—still experiencing symptoms at 2 years.The team evaluated 2,764 COVID-19 survivors from a population-based cohort established before the pandemic and followed up in 2020, 2021, and 2023 for concentrations of immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and clinical, vaccination, sociodemographic, and lifestyle factors. Symptoms were derived from patient questionnaires and electronic health records, and participants gave blood samples at study visits.The 647 long-COVID patients were compared with 2,117 infected controls without long-term symptoms. "The mechanisms leading to long-COVID are multiple and still unclear," the investigators wrote. "Identifying subtypes and disease courses over time may help disentangle these mechanisms."From 2021 to 2023, 23% of participants developed long-COVID symptoms, with 56% of those infected in 2021 reporting symptoms for 2 years. The researchers identified three long-COVID subtypes: mild neuromuscular (51.6%), mild respiratory (20.6%), and severe multi-organ (27.8%), the latter of which carried the highest risk of persistent symptoms (relative risk [RR], 1.61). The most common long-COVID symptoms were neurologic (63%), muscular (39%), respiratory (28%), and psychological and psychiatric (21%). Women were more likely than men to report neurologic and muscular symptoms, while respiratory symptoms were more common in men. Long-COVID patients first infected during the Omicron period had similar but fewer long-term symptoms than those infected before that time, which the researchers said could be due to milder infections or greater general immunity to the virus.Risk factors included female sex, age younger than 50 years, low socioeconomic status, severe COVID-19 infection, high pre-vaccination IgG levels, obesity, and chronic illness, especially asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and depression/anxiety. People with mild or moderate COVID-19 had more than three times the risk (RR, 3.10) of lingering symptoms as those with no symptoms, and those with severe infection were nearly 10 times more likely (RR, 9.88). Protective factors were vaccination before infection or within 3 months after infection, Omicron variant infection, greater level of physical activity, and sleeping for 6 to 8 hours a night. "The discovery that pre-infection vaccination confers a protective effect on long-COVID, even when accounting for COVID-19 severity, suggests improved infection control and immune response modulation by vaccines," the study authors wrote.
Study quantifies loss of disability-free years of life from COVID-19 pandemic -Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, more than 16 million years of life were lost from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Sara Ahmadi-Abhari of Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues.The direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both total and disability-free years of life lost are important for policy setting and resource allocation, but they have not been thoroughly investigated.In the new study, researchers integrated data from multiple sources on the European population aged 35 and older spanning 2020 through 2022 in a computational model. Rates of diseases, such as cardiovascular (heart) disease and dementia, disability and death were tracked and used to estimate the effect of the pandemic.Many people who died during the pandemic would likely have lived longer if the pandemic had not happened. The study quantified these 'lost years' and found that, in total, 16.8 million years of life (95% UI 12.0–21.8 million) were lost due to the pandemic in 2020-2022. About 2.3 million years of life were lost in the UK, a similar number in Germany, 3.2 million in Spain, 2.5 million in Poland, 1.8 million in Italy, and 1.1 million years of life were lost in FranceMore than half of the total years of life lost would have been lived without disability and independently if the pandemic had been avoided, even among people aged over 80.Of the total years of life lost, 3.6–5.3 million were due to non-COVID causes of death and related to the pandemic's indirect impact on mortality. The total years of life lost due to COVID-19 deaths decreased after 2021, parallel to vaccination roll out, but those due to non-COVID deaths continued to increase in most countries. The lost years of disability-free life differed considerably between countries, with a greater loss per capita in countries with lower gross domestic product."The findings suggest that the pandemic worsened socioeconomic inequalities in premature mortality between countries and widened sex differences in life expectancy," the authors say. "The substantial proportion of years of life lost without disability brings to light an instinctive underestimation of the pandemic's impact, especially on the older population."
Study: COVID pandemic stole nearly 17 million years of life from adults in 18 European countries --Nearly 17 million years of life were lost among 289 million adults aged 35 and older in 18 European countries from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an Imperial College London-led research team estimates in PLOS Medicine. To inform policy-setting and resource allocation, the investigators used modeling and several data sources to estimate rates of disease-free states and combinations of cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, dementia, disability, and death.They quantified numbers and rates of deaths related to COVID-19 and deaths from other causes and estimated the proportion of loss of life expectancy and years lived with and without disability that could have been avoided if the pandemic had not happened. A total of 4.7 million person-years of life (PYLL) were lost among adults in 2020, 7.1 million in 2021, and 5.0 million in 2022, for a total of 16.8 million. PYLL per capita varied considerably among the 18 countries, from 20 to 109 per 1,000 population. Roughly 60% of the total PYLL were among people older than 80 years, and 30% occurred in those aged 65 to 80.If the pandemic hadn't occurred, over half (9.8 million) of the 16.8 million PYLL would likely have been lived without disability. Of all PYLL, 11.6 to 13.2 million were due to COVID-19 deaths, and 3.6 to 5.3 million were due to non-COVID deaths. PYLL attributed to COVID-19 declined after 2021, following the introduction ofCOVID-19 vaccines, but PYLL related to other causes of death continued to rise from 2020 to 2022 in most countries.About 2.3 million years of life were lost in the United Kingdom and Germany, 3.2 million in Spain, 2.5 million in Poland, 1.8 million in Italy, and 1.1 million years of life in France.Lower-income countries had higher PYLL per capita and a greater proportion of disability-free PYLL from 2020 to 2022, with comparable patterns for life expectancy. In 2021, life expectancy at age 35 (LE-35) fell by as many as 2.8 years, with over two-thirds being disability-free. Except for Sweden, LE-35 in the studied countries did not recover to 2019 levels by 2022.The results, the authors said, suggest that the pandemic also exacerbated socioeconomic inequities in premature death among countries and widened sex differences in life expectancy.
Maryland measles patient may have exposed others, health officials warn -- Maryland health officials yesterday warned that a Maryland resident with a confirmed case of measles may have exposed people to the highly contagious virus at Washington Dulles International Airport and a local healthcare facility.In a news release yesterday, the Maryland Department of Health confirmed a positive case of measles in a Howard County resident who recently traveled internationally. Department officials said anyone who was at Terminal A at Washington Dulles on March 5 from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm or Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center Pediatric Emergency Department on March 7 from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm may have been exposed to the virus. "People, especially those not vaccinated or otherwise immune to measles, who were at any of these locations during the possible exposure times should monitor themselves for any early symptoms of measles for 21 days after the potential exposure," department officials said.On March 7, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Alert Network advisoryurging healthcare professionals to ensure that all patients without other evidence of measles immunity, especially those planning international travel, are up to date on the MMR vaccine. In its most recent updateon the same day, the CDC confirmed 222 US measles cases so far this year.The Maryland case is the first measles case in that state this year. Maryland experienced one case each in 2024 and 2023, and none from 2020 through 2022.Oklahoma reports first measles cases linked to growing Texas outbreak - Today, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) reported two measles cases in the state likely linked to ongoing outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico.The OSDH said it has been on high alert given those neighboring outbreaks and has identified two people with reported exposure associated with the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks who have now reported symptoms consistent with measles.The individuals reportedly self-isolated and refrained from going out in public upon symptom onset, OSDH said."These cases highlight the importance of being aware of measles activity as people travel or host visitors," Kendra Dougherty, director of infectious disease prevention and response at OSDH, said. "When people know they have exposure risk and do not have immunity to measles, they can exclude themselves from public settings for the recommended duration to eliminate the risk of transmission in their community."So far, state officials said there is no ongoing public health risk associated with these cases.Today, Texas officials said the outbreak total in that state now stands at 223, reflecting 25 more measles cases than last week. Twenty-nine people have been hospitalized in the outbreak, which is focused in Gaines County. Gaines has reported 156 cases. Officials said 76 measles cases in Texas have been in kids ages 0 to 4 years, 98 have been in those ages 5 to 17 years, 38 are over 18, and 11 are unknown. Eighty case-patients are unvaccinated, 138 have unknown vaccination status, and 5 have had at least one dose of vaccine.So far, one child has died in the Texas outbreak. Last week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News the federal government was shipping vitamin A doses to Gaines County to help with the outbreak and suggested the use of cod liver oil to help treat measles infections. Cod liver oil is not an evidence-based treatment for measles, and vitamin A is neither a measles preventive or part of treatment for most patients. Kennedy, who has dismissed the growing outbreak as routine, did say unvaccinated people should consider getting the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine (MMR) but said it was ultimately a "personal decision." He also said steroids and antibiotics were being used with great success to treat Texas patients infected with the virus.In an interview with the New York Times, William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said that antibiotics, which fight bacterial infections, are not effective for treating measles, which is caused by a virus. And he was unaware of any evidence demonstrating that steroids improved measles outcomes. New Mexico has 3 new measles cases, raising the total to 33, including a new case in Eddy County, the first outside of Lea County, according to the most recent update from NMHealth. Officials said most of the 33 cases have been in unvaccinated residents, and in response to the outbreak, nearly 9,000 New Mexicans have received the MMR vaccine since February 1, compared to 5,342 MMR vaccinations in the same period last year.
Vermont reports measles case; Europe warns of highest case count in 25 years | CIDRAP -The Vermont Department of Health has said a school-aged child in Lamoille County is confirmed to have measles, the first case in 2025.“The child became sick after returning with their family from traveling internationally in recent days,” the department said in a statement. “The risk to the public is believed to be low, as the child has been isolated from most community settings while they have been contagious. Investigation is ongoing.”While the United States is currently reporting large outbreaks of measles in West Texas and surrounding areas, Europe is also seeing surging case counts. A new analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF found that 2024 had the highest measles case count since 1997.Last year, European countries reported 127,350 measles cases, with children under the age of 5 accounting for 40% of cases. More than half of the reported cases required hospitalization, the WHO said.“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call. Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security. As we shape our new regional health strategy for Europe and central Asia, we cannot afford to lose ground. Every country must step up efforts to reach under-vaccinated communities,” said Hans Henri P. Kluge, MD, the WHO Regional Director for Europe. “The measles virus never rests—neither can we.”In 2016, the European region reported only 4,440 cases. But as pandemic-era disruptions dropped vaccine rates, the virus has resurged, the WHO said. Romania, where less than 80% of eligible kids have been vaccinated against measles, has the highest count of 30,692 cases.
LA County reports first measles case of 2025—in LAX traveler—as cases confirmed in Philadelphia, NY state A Los Angeles County resident traveled through Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) while infectious with measles virus, according to a press release from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health late yesterday. And today Philadelphia health officials are warning about a new measles case in that city, noting that the patient could have exposed others at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) earlier this week, while New York officials say the first case of measles in the state outside of New York City was detected in a young child in Suffolk County.And a new monthly report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warns that Europe is seeing significantly more cases this year than last. The LAX case involves the first measles patient diagnosed in 2025 in a Los Angeles County resident, and the person possibly exposed others who were on a March 5 China Airlines flight that landed at LAX and were in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX that evening. Officials said the person later visited a nail salon and a grocery store while infectious. Exposed people should confirm vaccination against measles, authorities said.Prior to this, the last case of measles in a Los Angeles County resident was reported in February 2024.In Philadelphia, the measles patient is not connected to a case in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, or to outbreaks in west Texas, Oklahoma, or New Mexico. Instead, the patient was likely exposed during international travel.The Suffolk County, New York, child, who authorities said was under the age of 5 years, represents the third measles case in New York this year. Authorities said there is no connection to ongoing outbreaks in the most recent case, and they urged New York residents to check their MMR immunization status.Late last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues a Health Alert Network notice on US measles cases and warned travelers to be cautious during upcoming spring break travel. Overseas, meanwhile, from February 2024 to January 2025, a total of 32,265 people were diagnosed as having measles in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA), a sharp jump from the 2,361 cases reported in 2023.The most cases were reported by Romania (27,568), Italy (1,097), Germany (637), Belgium (551), and Austria (542), the ECDC said in a monthly report on measles and rubella. During the period, Romania recorded 18 deaths attributed to measles and Ireland noted 1. Only Latvia and Liechtenstein reported zero cases.Of the 32,265 patients with known age, 14,556 (45.1%) were children under 5 years; 8,721 patients (27.0%) were aged 15 years or older. Among 10,886 patients ages 1 to 4 years, 82.7% were unvaccinated, 1,082 (9.9%) were vaccinated with one dose of a measles-containing vaccine, 43 (0.4%) were vaccinated with two or more doses, and 757 (7%) were vaccinated with an unknown number of doses.
Texas measles outbreak grows as US surpasses case count from 2024 -The measles outbreak in Texas has risen by 36 cases, pushing the US case count for the year past the number for all of 2024. The outbreak of the highly contagious virus, which began in late January and is centered in the western part of the state, now stands at 259 cases, according to the latest update from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Of those patients, 257 are either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status, and 201 are children ages 17 or younger. Thirty-four patients have been hospitalized, with one death in an unvaccinated child who had no known underlying conditions.Eleven counties to date have reported cases, but two thirds of the cases (174; 67%) are in Gaines County, which has one of the highest rates of school-aged children in Texas who have opted out of at least one vaccine. The county is home to a large Mennonite community with low vaccination rates.DSHS officials said they have determined that three of the case-patients previously listed as vaccinated were not vaccinated. Two had received their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine doses 1 to 2 days before their symptoms started and after they had been exposed to the virus. The third had a vaccine reaction that mimicked a measles infection and has been removed from the case count.In New Mexico, meanwhile, the case count in that state's outbreak has grown by two and now stands at 35. Of those patients, 33 are either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccine status. Thirty-three of the cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County in Texas, and 2 are in neighboring Eddy County.Officials in both states say additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreaks because of the highly contagious nature of the disease and are urging people to get vaccinated. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective against measles.Nationwide, a total of 301 measles cases have been reported by 15 jurisdictions, according to an update today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 285 cases were reported in all of 2024. Fifty of the case-patients (17%) have been hospitalized, and two measles-related deaths have been reported for the year. In addition to the child who died in Texas, New Mexico health officials reported last week that their lab had confirmed the presence of the virus in an unvaccinated adult who recently died. The cause of that death is still under investigation.
Morocco fights measles outbreak amid vaccine misinformation -Authorities in Morocco have been scrambling to contain an outbreak of measles, a contagious and potentially fatal disease that had nearly been eradicated in the kingdom but has rebounded as vaccination rates have fallen. Measles is highly contagious, spreading through respiratory droplets and lingering in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. The disease causes fever, respiratory symptoms and a rash. In some cases, it also leads to severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation and death. Even though vaccination remains the best protection against the disease, immunization rates have fallen in recent years. The vaccine hesitancy is driven by misinformation, which has lingered since the COVID-19 pandemic. In Morocco, authorities have scaled up vaccination against measles in recent months in a bid to control the outbreak. More than 10 million schoolchildren have had their immunization status checked since October last year, said Mourad Mrabet, an official at the National Center for Public Health Emergencies. Since late 2023, authorities in the North African country have reported more than 25,000 measles cases and 120 deaths, Mrabet said. The outbreak has raised concerns in France, Morocco's former colonial ruler and leading foreign investor and trade partner. The French public health agency has described the epidemic as reaching "historic levels" and urged travelers to check their vaccination status before visiting the kingdom. Moroccan authorities say the number of new infections has been steadily declining in recent weeks. They have promised to continue their vaccination program until late March with the aim of achieving 95-percent cover, sufficient for herd immunity. But they acknowledge they still have some way to go. The health ministry said only about half of those requiring a booster had received one by early March. In January, government spokesman Mustapha Baitas blamed "false information that fuels public fear of vaccines". Mrabet attributed it to "the influence of the global anti-vax movement". In the United States, growing distrust of public health policy and pharmaceutical companies has contributed to falling vaccination rates. To tackle misinformation, Moroccan health officials have launched awareness campaigns, including in schools, to explaining the importance of vaccination. The education ministry's head of health programs, Imane El Kohen, said one of the "deceptive allegations" was the claim that the measles vaccine is a fourth dose of the COVID vaccine. Hasna Anouar, a nurse in Harhoura, has been involved in vaccination status check programs for years. She said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was little resistance to routine childhood immunizations. But now, some parents have developed a "fear of vaccines," she said. "We have to sit down with them and explain why these shots are necessary."
Study finds 'alarming' levels of drug-resistant Salmonella in Pakistan -A systematic review and meta-analysis has found alarming levels of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella in Pakistan, researchers reported yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.The review, led by researchers at the University of Peshawar, analyzed 31 studies with data on antibiotic susceptibility in human isolates ofSalmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi, both of which enter the body through contaminated food and water and are the leading causes of typhoid and paratyphoid fever. While drug-resistant Salmonella is considered a global public health priority by the World Health Organization, Pakistan has emerged in recent years as a hot spot for multidrug and extensively drug-resistant (MDR and XDR) S Typhi.The data from the 31 studies revealed significant resistance rates to commonly used antibiotics for S Typhi, including nalidixic acid (92%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 88% to 95%), ampicillin (80%; 95% CI, 66% to 89%), ciprofloxacin (64%; 95% CI, 48% to 77%), azithromycin (7%; 95% CI, 3% to 16%), and meropenem (2%; 95% CI, 1% to 3%), with notable variations across different cities. Resistance rates were similarly high for Sparatyphi: Nalidixic acid (91%; 95% CI, 82% to 96%), ampicillin (34%; 95% CI, 21% to 50%), ciprofloxacin (51%; 95% CI, 25% to 77%), azithromycin (4%; 95% CI, 1% to 12%), and meropenem (2%; 95% CI, 1% to 5%).In S typhi, 29% and 25% of patients were found to have MDR and XDR isolates, respectively, while 9% of patients had MDR S paratyphi infections and 2% had XDR. The study authors say the findings underscore the urgent need for updated treatment guidelines and public health strategies in Pakistan, which has the third-highest typhoid fever rate in the world."Vaccination, improved access to clean water and sanitation, and the rational use of antibiotics are critical components of the public health response to this increasing threat," they wrote. "Continued studies, policy interventions, and national and international cooperation are essential to safeguard public health and ensure the effective management of enteric fever in Pakistan and beyond."
Brazil reports its first clade 1b mpox case -- Brazil has reported its first clade 1b mpox case, per a notice from the national Health Ministry.According to media reports, the patient is a 29 year-old woman from Sao Paulo, whose relative had recently returned from travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Currently the DRC is in the middle of a large mpox outbreak, with thousands of cases caused by clade 1b, a more transmissible strain of the virus.So far this year Brazil has reported 52 cases of mpox, but all were clade 2, the strain that caused a global outbreak of the virus in 2022 and 2023, primarily among men who have sex with men.Health Ministry officials said there are no other clade 1b cases in Brazil at this time.
Tanzania reports first mpox cases as African officials look for more vaccine doses --Tanzania recently reported its first two mpox cases, raising the number of affected countries to 23, officials from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said today at a weekly outbreak briefing.Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, the group’s director-general, said Tanzania’s two confirmed cases have histories of travel to an mpox affected country.Meanwhile, in one of the region’s main hot spots, suspected mpox cases rose in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last week, though the portion of confirmed cases declined. Kaseya said this reflects testing challenges, partly due to ongoing conflict in the hardest hit regions and US funding cuts that have impacted the transport of samples to labs for testing.In Uganda—one of the other hot spots—confirmed cases rose last week, but the country is in a much better situation with testing, with the rate at 100%. Most of the rise in cases is among adults ages 18 to 39 years old and among people in sexual networks.Kaseya said a worrying trend in Uganda is a rising death rate, especially in people who have underlying health conditions. He added that another concern is overwhelmed treatment centers, especially in Entebbe, and shortages of trained health workers. Officials are looking at ways to provide home-based care for people with mild infections and partners to support the establishment of more isolation units. Five countries are vaccinating against mpox, and so far 606,314 people have been vaccinated. Of those, 543,955 have received the first of the recommended two doses.Ngashi Ngongo, MD, PhD, MPH, who leads Africa CDC's mpox incident management team, said Africa CDC initially requested 10 million doses, and that donor countries have so far committed to provide 60% of the total. He said the group estimates that 6.4 million people still need to be vaccinated. Africa CDC, the World Food Program, and UNICEF are acquiring cold chain equipment worth more than $5.4 million to help with storage and last-mile deliveries of mpox vaccine targeting Uganda, the DRC, and Rwanda.Officials said mobilizing more vaccine and operational funds is urgent, given that shortages may negatively affect current momentum and high acceptance rate.
Three nations in Africa confirm new polio cases -Three African countries—Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Nigeria—reported a total of seven new cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases, according to an update yesterday from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).Chad noted 3 cVDPV2 cases, 1 each in the nation's capital, N'Djamena, and Ouaddai province (with onset of paralysis in November 2024), and in Logone Oriental province (with onset of paralysis in February 2025), bringing the total number of cVDPV2 cases in 2024 to 39, and for 2025 to 3.The DRC confirmed 1 cVDPV2 case, in Mai-Ndombe province, and it is included in the country's 2024 total, which has now grown to 15.Nigeria has 3 new cases, all with paralysis onset in January, bringing the country's cVDPV2 total this year to 6. They are in Borno and Jigawa states in the north. The country saw 98 such cases in 2024. The GPEI said the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) is meeting this week at World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, following last week's meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on Polio Eradication (IHR EC). Among other vaccine topics, SAGE is expected to review the global poliovirus epidemiology and current status of the sunsetting of the bivalent (two-strain) oral polio vaccine. The IHR EC reviewed the latest detections of wild poliovirus type 1 in Afghanistan and Pakistan and cVDPV circulation worldwide. Reports from both meetings will be published in the coming weeks, the GPEI said.
WHO notes 4 new MERS cases, 2 fatal, in Saudi Arabia since September - In its latest biannual update on Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in Saudi Arabia yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported four new cases since September 6, 2024, two of them fatal. MERS is an often-severe respiratory infection caused by the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV), leading to symptoms such as fever, shortness of breath, and cough. It spreads among camels and can infect humans, usually through direct or indirect contact with camels. The virus rarely spreads from person to person.Of the four infected men aged 27 to 78 years, all of whom had underlying medical conditions, one was exposed to the virus in a hospital, and one was indirectly exposed to camels and their raw (unpasteurized) milk. None were healthcare workers. The cases were reported in Saudi Arabia's Hail (2), Riyadh (1), and Eastern (1) provinces. "The notification of these four cases does not alter the overall risk assessment, which remains moderate at both the global and regional levels," the WHO said. "The reporting of these cases shows that the virus continues to pose a threat in countries where it is circulating in dromedary camels, particularly those in the Middle East." Since MERS was first detected in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012, 2,618 people from 27 countries in all six WHO regions have been infected, with a case-fatality rate of 36%. The vast majority of cases, 84%, have been identified in Saudi Arabia. No MERS infections have been reported outside the Middle East since 2019. "No vaccine or specific treatment is currently available, although several MERS-CoV–specific vaccines and therapeutics are in development," the WHO wrote. "Treatment remains supportive, focusing on managing symptoms based on the severity of the illness."
WHO shares more details about Uganda’s second Ebola Sudan cluster - In an update on March 8 the World Health Organization (WHO) shared new details about a second cluster of cases—three confirmed and two probable—in Uganda’s Ebola Sudan outbreak, which have raised concerns about undetected transmission and have led to ramped up surveillance. All of the cases have links to a 4-year-old child, reported as the tenth case, whose confirmed death from the virus occurred on February 25. The WHO’s African regional office last week reported that the boy’s mother had died of an acute illness after delivering a baby in the hospital. The baby also died. Neither were tested, and both fatal illnesses were recorded as probable cases. The report notes that the mother and baby were from Ntoroko district in the west of the country, not far from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) border.The WHO said the mother was pregnant when her symptoms began on January 22. She died on February 6, and her newborn child died on February 12. “The three deaths did not have a supervised burial,” the WHO said.The eleventh confirmed case involves a woman who had contact with the boy, and the twelfth is a woman who had contact with his mother. Both are admitted to Ebola treatment centers.As of March 2, 192 new contacts have been identified and are under monitoring in connection to the second cluster of cases. The contacts are from Kampala and Wakiso district in the east of the country around the capital city of Kampala, while others are from Ntoroko district in the west.The outbreak marks Uganda’s sixth Ebola Sudan outbreak. Currently, the case fatality rate is 29%, which is lower than the 41% to 70% levels seen in earlier outbreaks.
Avian flu detected in Belgian cats as outbreaks continue on US poultry, dairy farms -- Belgian authorities last week reported the country’s first H5 avian flu detections in domestic cats, which lived on a poultry farm, and in the United States, more detections were confirmed in poultry and dairy cattle over the past few days.Belgium’s Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain on March 4 announced the detection of H5 avian flu in two outdoor cats owned by a poultry farmer in East Flanders. The farm had experienced an avian flu outbreak in poultry in the middle of February.The two cats were euthanized after experiencing severe symptoms. Other cats at the farm remain healthy and show no symptoms.Officials said the sick cats probably contracted the virus by eating contaminated eggs or drinking ontaminated water. The infections in cats are Belgium’s first, though the country has reported avian flu in other mammal species before, including foxes, polecats, and domestic ferrets, which officials said were likely exposed through eating bird carcasses or contaminated eggs.In the United States, health officials in New Jersey have reported four more H5 avian flu detections in domestic cats, all from the same household as two recent detections. The earlier detections involved a feral cat and an indoor-outdoor cat, with results pending for others at the same property that were sick. In a statement, Karen DeMarco, MPH, health officer for Hunterdon County, said the H5 risk to the general population remains low, but officials will continue to take proactive steps to educate those who are at increased risk such as farm workers. “Health department staff are conducting daily symptom monitoring with all individuals who had close contact with the affected animals, and all are asymptomatic at this time,” she said.Over the past week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed more H5N1 detections in poultry across six states. The virus struck more commercial farms, including a duck and layer facilities in Indiana and turkey facilities in Ohio. In New York, birds at four live markets tested positive, including those in Queens, Bronx, and Richmond counties.More detections in backyard poultry flocks were reported from Oregon, Illinois, and Michigan.Since outbreaks in US poultry began early 2022, the virus has led to the loss of more than 166 million birds across all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Also today, APHIS confirmed 5 more H5N1 detections in US dairy cattle, all from California, raising the national total to 983 and California’s total to 754.
H5N1 dairy cow study finds sustained milk production drop, extensive transmission across herd --Scientists who examined the impact of an H5N1 avian flu outbreak in an Ohio dairy herd that had about 3,900 cows found a milk production drop in clinically affected cows that lasted 60 days and extensive asymptomatic infections in other cows. The team, led by researchers at Cornell University, published their findings as a preprint study in Nature Portfolio.The first illness in the herd was noted about 2 weeks after apparently healthy lactating cows from Texas were introduced into the herd. Decreased rumination and a decline in milk production appeared to decline about 5 days before clinical diagnosis.The researchers observed clinical disease in about 20% of cows, with milk losses of about 900 kg per cow in the 60-day period that followed the outbreak. They estimated the economic loss at $950 per clinically affected cow. Combined with mortality and herd removal, the team estimated the total cost of the outbreak in the herd as $737,500 over the observation period.Higher risks were seen in multiparous cows when compared with those that were lactating for the first time, an observation that has been seen before, which the group said may suggest a link between cumulative exposure to the milking process and the risk of clinical disease.Seroprevalance findings were positive for nearly 90% of the 637 animals that were on the farm during the clinical phase of the outbreak, suggesting high transmission efficacy. Notably, antibodies were seen in 17 of 42 cows that were in the dry phase, hinting that nonlactating cows can also be the source of the virus.“Although the precise mechanism of transmission of HPAI H5N1 virus in dairy cattle remains unknown, this is consistent with infections with other influenza A viruses which can quickly spread through susceptible mammalian populations including in humans, dogs and swine,” they wrote.In outbreak developments, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed two more H5N1 in dairy cattle, both from Idaho, raising the national total to 985. Idaho has now reported three detections over the past few weeks.The Idaho State Department of Agriculture said three facilities are currently quarantined, all from Gooding County.Also, APHIS reported nine more detections in mammals, including domestic cats from New Jersey, Idaho, and Kansas. Officials also confirmed H5N1 in a harbor seal from Washington and mice from Missouri’s Newton County.In poultry developments, APHIS confirmed more detections in backyard poultry from five states, including Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Colorado, and Indiana, along with detections in two more live poultry markets in New York, one in Queens and the other in Kings County.
Aging might not be enough to eliminate H5N1 viruses in raw-milk cheese -Cheeses made with raw milk are popular in the United States and the rest of the world, and the products are required to be aged for at least 60 days to inactivate bacterial pathogens. The fairly recent detection of H5N1 avian flu in dairy cattle, however, raises questions about whether the same process can inactive the virus.The answer appears to be no, in most instances, scientists from Cornell University reported today on bioRxiv, a preprint server.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the state of New York funded the study as part of efforts to assess the threat of H5N1 avian flu from potentially contaminated raw milk cheese. Separately, the FDA in December 2024 launched an effort to test nearly 300 60-day aged raw milk cheese samples, and today it provided an update.In an update today, the FDA said that, of 110 samples that have been collected so far, 96 were negative on polymerase chain reaction testing. Tests on 14 others are still in progress. No samples have yet to test positive for H5N1.In the Cornell study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers made raw-milk cheese from raw milk spiked with H5N1 under different pH levels, ranging from 6.6 to 5.0—all in the acidic range. They also tested samples of raw milk cheddar cheese that was inadvertently produced with H5N1-contaminated raw milk after an outbreak in dairy cows on a farm.In cheese made with the spiked milk, tests show that infectious virus remained throughout the cheese-making process and for up to 60 days of aging at the 6.6- and 5.8-pH levels. The virus didn't survive at the 5.0-pH level, which is the most acidic, supporting earlier findings that influenza A viruses are sensitive to acidic environments. The investigators said their findings raise food safety concerns, not just for aged raw-milk cheese, but for other raw-milk products, especially given that the virus can persist for up to 56 days under refrigeration. "Although the infectious dose of the virus to humans is not known, ingestion of contaminated raw dairy products repeatedly may increase the probability of infections," the team wrote. In other avian flu developments, the New York City Health Department today said it is investigating two cats in separate households that have H5 avian flu infections.In a statement, officials didn't say how the cats might have been exposed. They urged people to avoid feeding pets raw food or raw milk and to prevent animals from roaming outdoors, where they may come into contact with wild birds or other animals. Officials added that the risk to people remains low. Also today, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported more H5N1 detections in poultry in two states. They include two backyard flocks in different counties in Oklahoma and a live-poultry market in Philadelphia.
Many US parents feel uninformed about avian flu risks, survey finds Less than half of US parents think they have accurate information about H5N1 avian flu, most don't know whether there has been a human case in their state, 2 in 5 want the government to take more action to prevent outbreaks, and 1 in 3 have taken steps to prevent infection in their family, finds a report on the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's health.The nationally representative report, based on the responses of 2,021 parents of children aged 18 years and younger, also found that 1 in 5 respondents say media reports on the virus have been overblown.In a news release, Sarah Clark, MPH, poll codirector, said many parents hear about avian flu in news reports but don't know if they should do anything about it. "This report highlights the challenge for parents to keep track of an emerging health situation and understand its potential threat to their child's health," she said. The current US outbreak of H5N1, which was first identified in March 2024 when the virus was confirmed in dairy cattle, is widespread in wild birds, which have transmitted the virus to poultry and cows. Seventy people in the United States have been infected, most of whom worked with farm animals, and one has died. But the risk to the general public remains low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A new CDC study that evaluated the susceptibility to antiviral drugs of H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1c viruses (found in Cambodia) and 2.3.4.4b viruses (in the Americas) that were obtained from infected people in 2023 and 2024 found that all were susceptible to baloxavir, tivoxavir, pimodivir, oseltamivir, zanamivir, peramivir, laninamivir, and AV5080, with differing levels of effectiveness. And except for two viruses isolated from Cambodia, all were susceptible to M2 ion channel-blockers in cell culture–based tests. The findings were published late last week in Emerging Infectious Diseases.Less than a quarter of parents surveyed say they're being more careful about general hygiene, while 13% are more cautious about handling eggs, chicken, and beef. Another 12% are avoiding contact with birds and other wild animals, and 7% are eating fewer eggs and less chicken and beef."Some parents indicated they have cut back on eating poultry products like eggs and chicken," Clark said. "However, as long as eggs and meat are fully cooked, there’s no evidence that bird flu is spread through these products." Among the 68% of parents who haven't taken preventive actions, their main reasons are that they already have good hygiene practices, don't know the recommendations, or don't feel at risk. Over 25% of respondents said they are very concerned about avian flu spreading from animals to humans or humans to humans, but a third don't have confidence in the government's ability to contain the virus. Further, less than 20% expressed high confidence in the government's ability to remove infected animals or products from the food supply, and 22% said they were very confident it will share information about which products should be recalled or discarded.n "There appears to be a gap in public confidence when it comes to the national response to bird flu," Clark said. "Misinformation and uncertainty can fuel anxiety, so it's critical that health officials communicate transparently about containment efforts and food safety to reassure families."
Osceola County, Michigan, reports first CWD case in farmed deer - The first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a farmed white-tailed deer in Osceola County, Michigan, has been identified, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) reported today. The 7-year-old deer tested positive for the fatal neurodegenerative disease as part of the state's CWD surveillance program for deer farms. Osceola County is in the west-central part of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. "While regular CWD surveillance testing is central to accomplishing this goal, MDARD's continued partnership with herd owners, hunters, and other state and federal partners is also crucial to effectively managing this disease," State Veterinarian Nora Wineland, DVM, said in the news release. "Ensuring the health of Michigan's farmed cervid population has been and continues to be a team effort." 15 other state deer farms have had cases The farm joins 15 other CWD-positive deer farms discovered in the state since 2008 in Kent, Lake, Mecosta, Montcalm, and Newaygo counties. CWD was first discovered in free-ranging deer in 2015, with cases detected across 14 counties in Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. While regular CWD surveillance testing is central to accomplishing this goal, MDARD's continued partnership with herd owners, hunters, and other state and federal partners is also crucial to effectively managing this disease. Nora Wineland, DVM CWD, which affects cervids such as deer, elk, and moose, is transmitted through infectious misfolded proteins called prions. It can be spread through direct contact or the environment. No people have been diagnosed as having the disease, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization caution against consuming meat from infected animals.
CWD infects captive deer in Kaufman County, Texas, for first time -- For the first time, chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been found on a Kaufman County, Texas, deer farm, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) reported today. Two white-tailed deer, a 20-month-old male and an 8-month-old female, tested positive for the fatal neurologic disease during required CWD surveillance. Kaufman County is in the northeastern part of the state, just outside of Dallas. "Permitted deer breeding facilities must test all mortalities within the facility and conduct ante-mortem testing on any deer prior to movement from the facility, in compliance with surveillance and testing requirements," TPWD said in the news release. "This positive facility and its premises were placed under a quarantine by Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) to help prevent spread of disease from the facility." The first case of CWD in Texas was identified in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in the Hueco Mountains near the border with New Mexico. Since then, the disease has been detected in Texas captive and free-ranging cervids, including white-tailed deer, mule deer, red deer, and elk. CWD is caused by infectious misfolded proteins called prions, which can spread from cervid to cervid through body fluids such as saliva, urine, and feces. Once excreted into the environment, prions can persist for years and withstand high levels of heat, radiation, and formaldehyde. Since its first detection in a captive mule deer in 1967 in Colorado and a wild deer in 1981, CWD has been found in 36 US states, five Canadian provinces, Finland, Norway, South Korea, and Sweden.
Cow elk is first CWD case in Wyoming Elk Hunt Area 93, first infected elk on Black Butte Feedground -An adult cow elk in the Pinedale region of northwest Wyoming is the first documented case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Elk Hunt Area 93 and the first case of an elk with the fatal neurologic disease on the Black Butte Feedground, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) said in a news release this week. Elk Hunt Area 93 is bordered by CWD-positive elk hunt areas 87 and 92. WGFD operates 21 feedgrounds in the Jackson and Pinedale regions, where it has supplied supplemental winter elk feed for over a century. "The discovery of CWD on feedgrounds in 2025 has been anticipated as the disease has continued to spread across the state," the department said. "Game and Fish is actively working on Feedground Management Action Plans, a public process exploring short- and long-term strategies to reduce elk dependence on feedgrounds and minimize disease transmission risks." The plans, WGFD said, will align with the guidelines established during the development of the Wyoming Feedground Management Plan. Caused by infectious misfolded proteins called prions, CWD spreads among cervids such as deer, elk, and moose through direct contact or environmental contamination. No people have been diagnosed as having the disease, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization caution against consuming meat from infected animals.
Animal, environmental sources cause most US foodborne illness outbreaks, CDC reports -Many US foodborne illness outbreaks are caused by contamination of food from an animal or environmental source before final preparation, with most viral outbreaks triggered by infected food workers, and foods left out for a prolonged period plus inadequate time and temperature control during cooking contribute to bacterial outbreaks, according to new data from Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS).The report was published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.Researchers with the CDC and public health departments analyzed FDOSS data via the CDC's National Outbreak Reporting System on foodborne illness outbreaks from 2014 to 2022 and reported by state and local health departments. Outbreaks are defined as two or more cases with a shared source.About 800 such outbreaks are reported in the United States each year, leading to about 15,000 illnesses, 800 hospitalizations, and 20 deaths. "Contributing factors are food preparation practices, behaviors, and environmental conditions that lead to pathogens getting into food, growing in food, or surviving in food and are grouped into three categories: contamination (when pathogens and other hazards get into food), proliferation (when pathogens that are already present in food grow), and survival (when pathogens survive a process intended to kill or reduce them," the study authors wrote.A total of 6,618 foodborne illnesses were reported from 2014 to 2022. The study encompassed 2,677 such outbreaks that listed contributing factors and categorized them into three periods: 2014 to 2016 (first), 2017 to 2019 (second), and 2020 to 2022 (third). Of the 2,677 outbreaks, 42.7% occurred during the first period, 42.2% were reported during the second period, and 15.1% took place during the third. The proportion linked to food prepared at restaurants increased from the first to the second period but decreased slightly in the third (57.6%, 63.2%, and 58.8%, respectively).The proportion of outbreaks associated with institutional or commercial food preparation declined from the first to the second period before rising in the third (institutional preparation, 6.4%, 5.3%, and 9.6%, respectively; commercial preparation, 9.1%, 7.4%, and 10.6%, respectively). The percentage of bacterial outbreaks rose from the first (41.9%) to the third (48.4%) period, while the percentage of viral outbreaks fell from 33.3% to 23.2%. The proportion of bacterial outbreaks involving an aquatic animal source climbed from the first (12.0%) to the second period (18.5%), then stayed about the same in the third (18.3%). The percentage of outbreaks with a land animal source decreased from the first (16.7%) to the second period (14.2%) and then increased in the third (15.1%).Among bacterial outbreaks tied to contamination, the percentage of food tainted by an animal or environmental source before final preparation rose over the three periods, from 22.2% to 27.7% to 32.3%. And the proportion listing contamination from an infected food worker through ungloved contact with food dropped over time, from 20.5% to 15.2% to 8.9%.The proportion of outbreaks with a proliferation factor linked to unsafe temperature deviations from leaving food out for a prolonged time during preparation and food service or display declined over the three periods (preparation, 15.2%, 12.2%, and 9.9%, respectively; and food service or display, 13.6%, 10.4%, and 8.9%, respectively). The percentage of improper cooling of food decreased from the first (9.4%) to the second period (8.8%) and then climbed during the third (10.9%). For the survival category—when pathogens survive a process, such as heating, intended to kill them—the proportion of outbreaks tied to inadequate time and temperature control during initial cooking dropped from the first (12.1%) to the second period (9.6%) and then rebounded during the third (12.1%).Among outbreaks with a bacterial source, cross-contamination of foods was in the top five contributing factors during the first (22.0%) and second periods (20.8%) but not during the third, while inadequate time and temperature control during initial cooking was in the top five during all three periods (23.8%, 20.4% and 20.9%, respectively). Improper cooling was among the top five only during the third period, at 17.3%.Of viral outbreaks, contamination from an infected food worker through ungloved contact with food was one of the two most common contributing factors in the first (47.1%) and second periods (37.7%), falling to the third most common factor during the third period (28.7%). Infected workers who wore gloves when handling food were among the top five factors in the first (32.1%) and second period (25.5%) and the most common factor in the third (42.5%).Roughly 16.5% of outbreaks during each period were traced to food made in private homes, including those taken to events such as picnics, potlucks, and celebrations. The researchers said the decline in the proportion of viral outbreaks and those associated with contamination from 2020 to 2022 could be attributed to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Nonpharmaceutical interventions (e.g., increased glove use, cleaning and disinfection, and closure of restaurant dining areas) implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic likely led to a reduction in norovirus, which is typically spread by infectious food workers," they wrote.
Lawsuit Alleges Girl Scouts Sold Cookies Containing Heavy Metals, Pesticides -The Girl Scouts allegedly violated laws when selling cookies containing heavy metals and pesticides, according to a new lawsuit.The cookies “are contaminated with dangerous heavy metals, including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury ... and pesticides, including glyphosate,” according to the suit, which was filed on March 10 in federal court in New York.Amy Mayo, the plaintiff, is seeking class action status in the litigation.Mayo says she purchased Girl Scout cookies on numerous occasions, including three boxes on Jan. 23.The suit points to a study conducted by the consumer organization GMOScience. Testing done by the organization foundheavy metals and pesticides in cookies sold by the Girl Scouts.The Girl Scouts said in a February blog post that their cookies “are made with ingredients that adhere to food safety standards set by the FDA and other relevant authorities,” referring to the Food and Drug Administration.The organization said that nearly all foods may contain trace amounts of contaminants like heavy metals as well as pesticides such as glyphosate.“Our bakers have confirmed that the levels reported do not pose a food safety concern to our customers,” the organization said.Mayo said that additional testing also detected toxins such as lead and mercury in the cookies.“When Plaintiff Mayo, like the other members of the Class, purchased the Products, which were produced in the same facilities as the other Products at issue, she believed that she was purchasing quality and safe cookies consistent with Girl Scouts’ promise of ethical business practices and the representations published on Defendants’ websites. However, this was not the case,” the suit states.“Had Defendants marketed their Products accurately and refrained from making these vital omissions regarding the presence of Toxins in their Products, Plaintiff Mayo would have been aware of this and would not have purchased the Products or would have paid substantially less for them.”
Microplastics contribute to evolution of antimicrobial resistance, study finds * A new study by researchers at Boston University indicates the presence of microplastics in the environment might facilitate antimicrobial resistance (AMR).The study, published today in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, adds a new layer to concerns about the role that the extremely small (less than 5 millimeters in length) pieces of plastic, which are ubiquitous in the environment, play in promoting the emergence and spread of drug-resistant bacteria. While previous studies have shown how microplastics can serve as vehicles on which bacterial communities can form and share resistance genes, this study suggests there's an interaction occurring between the microplastics and bacteria that influences the development of AMR. "This challenges the notion that microplastics are merely passive carriers of resistant bacteria and highlights their role as active hotspots for antimicrobial resistance evolution," lead study author Neila Gross, a Boston University PhD candidate, said in a press release from the American Society for Microbiology. To investigate the interaction between bacteria and microplastics, Gross and her colleagues exposedEscherichia coli bacteria grown in liquid media to varying concentrations of different sizes and types of microplastics, including polyethylene, polystyrene, and polypropylene, until biofilm growth was detected. They then added subinhibitory levels of four different antibiotics commonly found in the environment—ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, and streptomycin—and tested for antibiotic susceptibility every 2 days.For comparison, the researchers tested antibiotic susceptibility in E coli grown without exposure to microplastics. They also measured the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC, the amount of antibiotic needed to kill bacteria) in cells grown with a single subinhibitory antibiotic with or without microplastics.Within 10 days, they found that exposure to microplastics led to increased resistance to all four antibiotics compared with E coli grown in liquid media without microplastics. "Our results suggest that the addition of MPs [microplastics] led to an increase in AMR for nearly all antibiotics," the researchers wrote. "In each case where bacteria were grown and tested in the same antibiotic, the addition of MPs to antibiotics in the media led to an MIC increase of at least five times more compared to cells grown in the antibiotics alone." Furthermore, when the antibiotic exposure was halted and the bacteria were grown in antibiotic-free media for 5 days, the E coli that had been grown with antibiotics and microplastics retained the same resistance level, and some even gained resistance. Additional analysis showed that E coli grown with concentrations of polystyrene developed higher levels of resistance compared with polyethylene and polypropylene. "Our findings reveal that microplastics actively drive antimicrobial resistance development in E. coli, even in the absence of antibiotics, with resistance persisting beyond antibiotic and microplastic exposure," Gross said. Gross and her colleagues say the findings are important because global plastic use has risen 20-fold since 1964 and microplastics have infiltrated ecosystems throughout the planet. At the same time, there is increased recognition of the role that environmental contamination from antibiotic residues, particularly in wastewater in low- and middle-income countries, plays in the spread of AMR.As a result, they argue, the role of microplastics in AMR development makes them both an environmental and public health threat. In particular, they suggest that understanding how microplastics, bacteria, and antibiotics interact in low-resource countries—where infection rates are high, wastewater treatment is poor, and there is significant plastic waste—could be critical for efforts to address the growth and spread of drug-resistant pathogens that pose a threat to human health."The difficulty in treating infectious diseases in these areas, combined with inadequate wastewater treatment—which may result in higher concentrations of MPs—may contribute to the observed increase in AMR cases among vulnerable populations," they wrote. "Therefore, understanding the fundamental interactions between MPs and AMR development is imperative."
Medical infusion bags can release microplastics, study shows -- Microplastics have been found almost everywhere that scientists have looked for them. Now, according to research published in Environment & Health, these bits of plastic—from 1 to 62 micrometers long—are present in the filtered solutions used for medical intravenous (IV) infusions. The researchers estimate that thousands of plastic particles could be delivered directly to a person's bloodstream from a single 8.4-ounce (250-milliliter) bag of infusion fluid.In clinical settings, IV infusions are packaged in individual plastic pouches and deliver water, electrolytes, nutrients or medicine to patients. The base of these infusions is asaline solution that contains filtered water and enough salt to match the content of human blood. Research from the 1970s suggests IV fluid bags can contain solid particles, but few scientists have followed up on what those particles are made of.Researchers Liwu Zhang, Ventsislav Kolev Valev and colleagues suspected that these particles could be microplastics that—upon infusion—would enter the recipient's bloodstream and potentially cause negative health effects. So, they set out to analyze the types and amounts of particles in commercial IV fluid bags.The team purchased two different brands of 8.4-ounce bags of IV saline solution. After the contents of each bag dripped into separate glass containers, the liquids were filtered to catch microscopic particles. Then the researchers counted a portion of the individual plastic fragments, using that amount to estimate the total number of microplastics in the entire pouch of IV liquid and to analyze the composition of the particles.The researchers discovered that both brands of saline contained microplastic particlesmade from polypropylene—the same material as the bags—which suggests that the bags shed microplastics into the solutions. They estimated that each bag of infusion fluid could deliver about 7,500 microplastics directly into the bloodstream. This figure rises to about 25,000 particles to treat dehydration or 52,500 for abdominal surgery, which can require multiple IV bags. The researchers recommend keeping IV infusion bags away from ultraviolet light and heat to reduce microplastic shedding, and they say that micrometer-level filtration systems could be used to remove the particles during infusion.While there are no clinical studies to date that have assessed the health risks of microplastics exposure, the researchers say their findings will help "provide a scientific basis for formulating appropriate policies and measures to mitigate the potential threats posed by microplastics to human health."
Wildfires are complicating cancer care: Study - Wildfires and other climate-induced weather extremes are posing an increased threat to cancer patients by shifting their treatment trajectories and access to care, a new study has determined.Patients recovering from lung cancer surgery within an active wildfire zone required longer hospital stays than those in areas that had no such blazes, scientists reported in the study, published on Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.These lengthier stays could be due to the reluctance of health care providers to discharge patients to a hazardous environment, housing instability or safety issues — or due to the unavailability of routine post-op care, staff shortages or shuttered rehab centers, according to the study.“There are currently no guidelines for protecting the health and safety of patients recovering from lung cancer surgery during wildfires in the United States,” lead author Leticia Nogueira, scientific director of health services research at the American Cancer Society, said in a statement.“In the absence of guidelines, clinicians might resort to improvisational strategies,” Nogueira added, noting that doing so serves to “better protect the health and safety of patients during wildfires.”The complex nature of post-operative recovery from lung cancer procedures coupled with wildfire disasters pose considerable threats to patient health, beyond exposure to smoke, the authors stressed.
Firefighters may face increased risk of brain cancer due to chemical exposure: Study - Firefighters may face a heightened risk of developing brain cancer due to their persistent exposure to certain chemicals, a new study has found. In a set of patients who had gliomas — the most common type of malignant brain tumor — cancer-causing gene mutations linked to toxic exposures were more prevalent in firefighters than in individuals from other professions, according to the study,published on Monday in Cancer. The compounds in question, called haloalkanes, are found in flame retardants, fire extinguishers, refrigerants and pesticides and have previously been associated with a specific gene mutation that causes gliomas, the researchers noted. “Glioma is the most common malignant primary brain tumor and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality,” the authors warned. Examining the histories of 35 participants in the University of California Adult Glioma Study, the scientists — from multiple researcher institutes across the country — determined that 17 individuals had an occupational history of firefighting. These participants worked as firefighters for an average of 22 years and received their diagnoses about seven years after their least reported occupational exposure, per the study. Looking for the presence of a specific mutational “signature,” or pattern, linked to haloalkanes exposure, the researchers found that the firefighters were much more likely to have the signature than the other 18 participants. Within the non-firefighter contingent, the mutational signatures appeared more in individuals whose careers also possibly exposed them to haloalkanes, including painters and auto-mechanics.
Trump considers easing safety screenings for chemicals - The Trump administration will consider easing regulations under which it considers the safety of existing chemicals — drawing concerns from public health advocates. The administration announced Monday that it was weighing a rewrite of the rules that govern safety screenings for these substances, which decide whether they should be restricted. If implemented, such changes are ultimately expected to prevent further regulations on chemicals. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin described the potential changes as allowing the agency to balance safety with speed. “Today’s announcement will allow EPA to develop a path forward to ensure a timely review of chemicals while bolstering our commitment to safeguard public health and the environment,” Zeldin said in a statement. However, opponents of the potential moves said they could allow for fewer restrictions on toxic chemicals. “The public is not going to be protected,” said Betsy Southerland, a former career official at the EPA. Among the changes the EPA said it was considering is baking in an assumption that all employees who handle potentially toxic chemicals would be wearing personal protective equipment — likely raising the bar needed to deem a chemical dangerous. The agency is also thinking about narrowing the scope of the review as it evaluates a chemical’s safety — saying it will weigh whether the agency needs to look at every single use of a chemical during its review period. Southerland said the potential impacts of such changes would be “huge.” “It will undermine all regulation of toxic chemicals,” she said. “They’re going to eliminate whole routes of exposure or … really weaken the assumptions so that the few routes of exposure you’re left with in the risk evaluation will be unrealistically low estimates of exposure.” The possible move comes as President Trump pledges to take on chemical safety issues, having said in his recent address to Congress that he wants to “get toxins out of our environment.” At the same time, his administration last week signaled that it could also loosen safety standards at chemical plants and has put chemical industry alumni in top roles at the EPA.
EPA shuts down 10 environmental justice offices, axes EJ division - EPA is shuttering its 10 regional environmental justice offices and also scrapping the stand-alone EJ division created by the Biden administration, according to a Tuesday memo from Administrator Lee Zeldin.In the memo, a copy of which was viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News, Zeldin attributed the closures to President Donald Trump’s executive order to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the government within 60 days.“Under the Trump Administration, EPA is affirming our commitment to serve every American with equal dignity and respect,” he wrote. EPA press aides didn’t respond to questions Wednesday on the number of employees affected by the office closures and whether they will lose their jobs.
EPA signals it could narrow Clean Water Act protections -The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signaled it could narrow which set of waters receive protections under the Clean Water Act — and will narrow protections for wetlands in the meantime. The law requires the EPA to protect so-called “waters of the United States,” but there has been significant political back-and-forth as to which bodies of water that should include. In a press release on Wednesday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin criticized the Biden administration’s definition, saying it “placed unfair burdens on the American people and drove up the cost of doing business.” The agency said that it, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, would “move quickly to ensure that a revised definition follows the law, reduces red-tape, cuts overall permitting costs, and lowers the cost of doing business in communities across the country while protecting the nation’s navigable waters from pollution.” In addition, the EPA issued a guidance document that’s effective “immediately” narrowing which wetlands will receive protections under current regulations, reversing a looser interpretation from the Biden administration. Under the last Trump administration, the EPA sought to limit protections to waters that eventually flow into a “navigable” water — in practice excluding a significant number of wetlands and streams from Clean Water Act protections. The Biden administration issued rules that were expected to broaden protections to some degree — however, it was also restricted by a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that limited which waters can receive protections. If a water is protected under the Clean Water Act, businesses and others who want to dump waste into the water need a permit from a federal or state agency in order to do so. The government can decide not to allow dumping into such bodies of waters or put restrictions on doing so.
US Southwest dust storm: A public health and safety disaster -- On Tuesday, March 4, much of Texas was hit with a large dust storm caused by high winds. Gusts of up to 60 miles per hour were recorded in some areas. A massive dust wall, towering thousands of feet and spanning a 1,000-mile front, swept across the American Southwest, causing haze over the large population centers of Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. California saw a similar storm last November, while Texas experienced an earlier one in 2023. The cities of Amarillo and Lubbock experienced “brownouts,” in which visibility was less than one mile at times. The storm, a phenomenon known as a haboob—more familiar in the arid regions of North Africa and the Middle East—is now an increasingly common occurrence in North America due to climate change. Scientists have attributed the intensity of the storm to the prolonged drought conditions in West Texas, much as was the case in 2023. US and world capitalism have made no meaningful effort to stop or reverse the increasingly disastrous effects of climate change, with their own limited emission reduction pledges—if they even meet them—projected to result in more disastrous global warming. Haboobs form as a result of winds moving in a direction opposite to that of a thunderstorm’s path. Precipitation causes wind direction to reverse and blow most strongly in the direction the storm is heading, picking up dust and debris that can travel long distances. The haboob struck New Mexico and northern Mexico on Monday after moving through Arizona over the weekend, prompting officials to issue shelter-in-place orders. Visibility during the height of the storm was near zero. Multiple auto accidents were reported in the affected area, including one west of Phoenix, Arizona, in which four people died. Haboobs move quickly, making for dangerous driving conditions, with drivers advised to pull over and not attempt to outrun the storm. From 2007 to 2017, an estimated 232 people died in the US as a result of dust storm-related traffic accidents. No federal effort to quantify deaths beyond this period has been identified. The winds, along with dry conditions caused by an ongoing drought, created extreme fire danger in parts of the state. There were multiple house fires in San Antonio on Tuesday afternoon as wind-driven blazes broke out, forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service warned that extreme conditions—high winds, low humidity, and warm temperatures—in West Texas would contribute to a high fire danger. In central Texas, there was an extreme risk of wildfires, and several fires broke out within the boundaries of Hays County, part of which lies in the Austin metro area. The winds knocked down power lines throughout the region. In Austin alone, over 31,000 customers lost power, highlighting the sorry state of the electrical infrastructure in the Texas capital—a city dominated by the Democrats—as well as in the state more generally. In 2021, the state grid went dark during Winter Storm Uri as a result of what a lawsuit alleges was “market manipulation” by gas companies, leading to 700 deaths. In the Dallas area in north Texas, small aircraft parked on the ground were flipped over. Over 500 flights were canceled at airports in the storm’s path. Ground stops—air traffic control orders requiring all aircraft to remain on the ground—were issued at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Visibility in downtown Dallas was reduced to two miles, with the city covered in an “apocalyptic red fog.” In Austin, the storm arrived just as the evening rush hour began, giving the sky an orange tint. Neither public officials nor the corporate media warned of possible health risks, which were downplayed and said to be of concern only for “vulnerable populations” or “sensitive groups.” These statements are made to give the false impression that the vast majority of people do not have to worry about the effects or take additional safety measures, which is not the case at all.
Dust storms from China expected to engulf Korea - Yellow dust storms from China are forecast to enter Korea on Wednesday afternoon, March 12, 2025, covering the whole nation overnight. The Korea Meteorological Administration has warned that yellow dust from China is expected to move into Korea starting Wednesday afternoon, March 12. Yellow dust originating from the Gobi Desert and Inner Mongolia on Tuesday is being carried toward the Korean Peninsula by northwesterly winds. It is expected to spread across the entire country overnight, beginning with the five islands of the West Sea and the western coast of Gyeonggi. Fine dust concentrations are also expected to rise. On Wednesday, levels are forecast to be ‘bad’ in the metropolitan area and Chungnam. On Thursday, ‘very bad’ levels are predicted in Incheon, Sejong, Chungbuk, and Chungnam, while other regions are expected to experience ‘bad’ levels. Light rain is expected in Jeju and the metropolitan area, while Gangwon is forecast. However, the precipitation will not be sufficient to clear the yellow dust and fine dust. Yellow dust can cause respiratory issues, conjunctivitis, dry eyes, and dermatitis. The Korea Meteorological Administration has advised people to avoid outdoor activities and wear masks when outside. Upon returning home, individuals should wash their hands, feet, eyes, and nose with running water. Ventilation of indoor spaces is recommended only after the yellow dust has dissipated. The significant temperature variation characteristic of the transitional season is expected to continue. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, minimum morning temperatures are forecast to range from -3 to -7°C (26 to 19°F) on Thursday and from -2 to -7°C (28 to 19°F) on Friday. Maximum daytime temperatures are expected to rise to 11 to 17°C (52 to 63°F) on Thursday and 11 to 19°C (52 to 66°F) on Friday.
Tornado strikes FOX 35 Orlando studio during live broadcast, Florida - A tornado struck Seminole County, Florida, at approximately 09:30 EDT on March 10, 2025, impacting the FOX 35 News studio in Lake Mary during a live broadcast. The radar-confirmed tornado, estimated to be an EF-0 or brief EF-1, crossed Interstate 4 near the Lake Mary exit, causing structural damage and overturning vehicles. During a live broadcast, meteorologist Brooks Garner was tracking the tornado warning for Seminole and Volusia counties when the tornado passed over the FOX 35 News studio. Garner reported feeling the building shake as the tornado struck the roof and confirmed the tornado as it moved through the area. Ad ends in 11 “This is a very rare event,” Garner said. “We were able to confirm the tornado as it hit our station.” The tornado traveled from Lake Mary to Sanford, leaving damage along its path. A home in Longwood collapsed, and fallen trees and power lines led emergency management officials to advise residents to stay indoors. Despite the structural damage reported in several locations, no injuries were confirmed. Authorities urged residents to remain cautious due to potential hazards from downed power lines and fallen trees. .
Gov. Kehoe confirms 19 tornadoes; at least 12 killed in Missouri after overnight storms (KFVS) - Officials have confirmed at least 12 deaths in Missouri following storms overnight, with 9 of those in Heartland counties. 19 tornadoes were reported as severe storms moved through the area Friday night into Saturday morning, according to a release from Governor Mike Kehoe.Wayne County Coroner Mark Smith said eight people have died in storm-related incidents.Three of those killed were at a campground in the county, while two others died at a second campground after a camper ended up in a river.Sgt. Clark Parrott with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said the other person died at the River Valley Campground near the Bollinger County line.The details behind the other two deaths have not been confirmed at this time.Additionally, one person died in Butler County, according to EMA Director Robbie Myers. Butler Co. Coroner Jim Akers identified the victim as 62-year-old Ronnie Ezell.Currently, no deaths have been reported in southern Illinois or western Kentucky.Just outside of the Heartland, MSHP said three people died in the Bakersfield area of Ozark County. They said one person was also killed in Jefferson County.The storms impacted much of the U.S. We are still working to gather details, so stay tuned.
US tornadoes: At least 19 dead as storms tear through southern US - At least 19 people have died in the US - including 11 in Missouri alone - after deadly tornadoes tore through several south-eastern states, flipping cars and flattening homes. Three people were killed in a car crash during a fierce dust storm in Texas, while deaths have also occurred in Oklahoma and Arkansas. More than 200,000 people are without power across five states - Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Texas and Arkansas - according to tracker PowerOutage. Further severe weather is on the horizon for the region on Saturday, with tornado watches issued in central Mississippi, eastern Louisiana and western Tennessee. Flash flooding and flood warnings have also been issued in the same three states, as well as parts of Alabama and Arkansas, as severe weather continues to track across the south-east. A tornado warning - the highest level threat - was also issued in central Mississippi on Saturday morning. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of "multiple intense to violent long-track tornadoes" in those areas, describing the situation as "particularly dangerous". The meteorological agency said: "If you live in these areas, get to the sturdiest structure you have access to and remain in place until the storms pass." Missouri State Trooper Damage from a tornado that touched down on Friday night in MissouriMissouri State Trooper Mike Kehoe, governor of Missouri - where the 11 deaths were reported across four south-easterly counties - said the state had been "devastated by severe storms and tornadoes, leaving homes destroyed and lives lost". Missouri's emergency management agency said initial reports indicated 19 tornadoes had struck 25 counties so far. One person died on the road in Oklahoma, the BBC's US partner CBS News reported, citing officials, while three deaths were reported in Arkansas. The same dust storm that caused three deaths in Texas on Friday night caused a pile-up of an estimated 38 cars. "It's the worst I've ever seen," Sgt Cindy Barkley, of the state's department of public safety, told reporters. "We couldn't tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled." A further death has since been reported in Texas. In Texas and Oklahoma, the destructive storms fuelled more than 100 wildfires and overturned several semi-trailer trucks, CBS reports. One of those fires, known as the 840 Road Fire, has already burned 27,500 acres and remains 0% contained, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service. The agency has issued a "red flag" warning for the state's panhandle area, signaling extreme fire danger.
6 rescued after mudslides trap vehicles in San Jacinto, California - At least 6 people were rescued on Thursday, March 13, 2025, after mudslides trapped multiple vehicles in San Jacinto City, California’s Riverside County, following two days of heavy rain. Heavy rainfall triggered mudslides that covered part of a roadway and trapped multiple vehicles in San Jacinto, Riverside County on Thursday, March 13. According to the county’s fire department, at least six people were rescued, evaluated by paramedics, and released. Soboba Road will be closed between Chabela Drive and State/Gilman Springs Road, while road crews work to clear the mudflow and vehicles from the roadway. The storm also produced a short-lived EF-0 tornado in Pico Rivera, southeast of Los Angeles, that uprooted trees and damaged homes. Parts of Los Angeles, Ventura, and Orange counties were under flash flood warnings early Thursday. Although the heaviest rainfall in Southern California subsided by the afternoon, the risk of mudslides remains. The rains were brought by an atmospheric river making landfall late Tuesday, March 11. According to the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E), another atmospheric river (AR) is forecast to make landfall along the Oregon and Northern California coasts early on March 15 and continue through March 17. The event will bring two pulses of integrated vapor transport (IVT), with the second and stronger pulse being driven by a shortwave trough and a surface low-pressure system. The AR is expected to reach AR 1–3 conditions on the Ralph et al. 2019 AR Scale, leading to significant precipitation and rising river levels. The National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center (WPC) anticipates 75–180 mm (3–7 inches) of precipitation over the Oregon Cascades, Oregon and Northern California Coast Ranges, and the Klamath Mountains.
Argentina declares national mourning after extreme rainfall kills 16, leaves two children missing in Bahía Blanca - – Argentina has declared three days of mourning after extreme rainfall and severe flooding resulted in the deaths of 16 people and 2 children missing in the coastal city of Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province, on March 7, 2025. The National Government deploys an emergency operation in Bahía Blanca on March 9, 2025 Image credit: Ministry of Defense Argentine President Javier Milei declared three days of national mourning following an extreme rainfall event in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province, on March 7. The event brought over 400 mm (15.7 inches) of rain in a single day—nearly 70% of the city’s annual total—triggering a devastating flood that left at least 16 people dead and two children missing. The latest casualty is a driver from the Andreani company who was involved in a failed rescue attempt of two missing girls, aged 1 and 5, along Route 3. Search efforts for the children are ongoing. Four of the victims remain unidentified. “First of all, I want to send my condolences to the loved ones of those who died as a result of the storm. So far, there are 16 confirmed deaths, but it is likely that there are more. The search for Delfina and Pilar, the two girls who were in the van, is still ongoing,” Federico Susbielles, Bahía Blanca’s municipal head, stated. “Today we can confirm that suspending classes on Friday morning was a decision that allowed us to save many lives. In this difficult time, I want to acknowledge the solidarity of the people of Bahía Blanca, who always show their best side in the most difficult moments. We continue working to provide assistance throughout the city.” YouTube video Approximately 1 450 people have been displaced, with 1 296 currently housed in 13 evacuation centers. The General Directorate of Culture and Education of Buenos Aires confirmed that classes are suspended until March 11 across the Bahía Blanca, Coronel Rosales, and Villarino districts. Education authorities are assessing damage to 261 schools, with 23 reporting severe damage. The Buenos Aires Supreme Court of Justice suspended all judicial activities in Bahía Blanca until March 14, citing the loss of electricity, water, and internet access. A special working group has been formed to assess damage to court infrastructure and assist affected employees.
Researchers warn of another mega-quake as Japan commemorates 14th anniversary of 2011 disaster - As Japan marks the 14th anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku mega-quake—a magnitude 9.0 disaster that killed nearly 16 000 and triggered the Fukushima crisis—a new study from Tohoku, Hokkaido, and JAMSTEC researchers warns that strain building in the Chishima Trench off Hokkaido could unleash another magnitude 9.0 quake in the coming decades. Researchers from Tohoku and Hokkaido universities and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) have released the results of their five-year study of the Chishima Trench off Hokkaido. The results indicate that strain accumulation due to plate movements could lead to a mega-quake in the near future. Using seabed GPS stations installed in 2019, the team observed that the Pacific Plate is sliding toward the Okhotsk Plate at roughly 8 cm (3.1 inches) per year, while a station on the continental plate mirrors this movement—suggesting the plates are locked and building tension. This echoes patterns seen before the 17th-century quake believed to have rocked the region, raising concerns of a repeat event. With the government estimating a 7% to 40% chance of a magnitude 8.8 or higher quake within 30 years, researchers warn that a sudden release of this strain could trigger a magnitude 9.0 disaster, potentially unleashing tsunamis and threatening tens of thousands of lives along Hokkaido’s coast. The team plans to conduct further research at another location off Hokkaido to collect additional data.
Hundreds evacuate erupting Fuego volcano, Guatemala - (3 YouTube videos) Nearly 900 people were evacuated after Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted on March 9, 2025, prompting an Orange Alert and emergency response. 125 families, approximately 900 residents, had been relocated from El Porvenir in Alotenango, as confirmed by the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) on March 10, due to eruption at the Fuego volcano. Evacuees were transported to the Alotenango municipal hall, where temporary accommodations were arranged. The eruption began at approximately 03:00 UTC on March 9, according to the National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology (INSIVUMEH), marking the first major activity after 49 days of quiescence. Effusive eruption continued into March 10, producing incandescent fountains rising 500 m (1 640 feet) above the crater. Dense columns of gas and ash reached 6 km (19 685 feet) a.s.l., dispersing northwest and west over distances of 100 to 120 km (62–75 miles). During the peak of the eruption, pyroclastic flows, a fast-moving mixture of hot gases, ash, and volcanic debris, moved down the Las Lajas, El Jute, Seca, and Ceniza ravines. INSIVUMEH also reported loud explosion sounds comparable to those of a train engine, which were heard several kilometers away. YouTube video An Orange Alert was declared on March 9 due to the increased danger, and emergency response protocols were put in place. Guatemala follows a four-tier alert system, beginning with a Green Alert, which indicates normal monitoring with no immediate threats. A Yellow Alert is issued when authorities prepare response plans and raise public awareness. The Orange Alert, currently in effect, signifies high danger, leading to the mobilization of response teams and possible evacuations. The most severe level, Red Alert, is declared when mandatory evacuations and emergency measures are required.
Committee approves bipartisan conservation, ocean bills - The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee passed a trio of ocean, marine conservation and forecasting bills Wednesday.The “Modernizing Access to Our Public Oceans Act,” S. 759, would require NOAA to develop advanced digital maps identifying recreational boating- and fishing-restricted offshore areas.The bill, co-sponsored by Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), is intended to help anglers, boaters and other users “avoid wading through confusing agency websites” when trying to identify federal restrictions on oceans use, according to Cruz. The committee also advanced S. 843, the “Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act,” from Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), which would order NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service to establish grants for sea turtle rescue, rehabilitation and response. The program would award $5 million per fiscal year from 2025 to 2030.
EPA announces ‘endangerment finding’ reconsideration --EPA will reconsider its 2009 declaration that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday, along with dozens of other regulatory rollbacks.The reconsideration comes after Zeldin encouraged the White House to revisit the “endangerment finding.” That finding underpins EPA climate rules, and unraveling it would have broad implications for rules aimed at clamping down on greenhouse gas emissions.A move to unravel the finding is certain to face lawsuits, and some legal experts contend the Trump administration would have a tough time defending that action in court. Zeldin announced the reconsideration Wednesday as part of what he called “the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history.”“EPA will be reconsidering many suffocating rules that restrict nearly every sector of our economy and cost Americans trillions of dollars,” Zeldin said in a video posted on social media.Those include Biden administration regulations to limit greenhouse gases from power plants and rules to limit mercury, particular matter, car and truck rules, and the “social cost of carbon” used to calculate the impacts of climate change.Zeldin said the reconsideration list includes the 2009 endangerment finding “along with all actions that rely on it.”Zeldin has “been told the endangerment finding is considered the Holy Grail of the climate change religion,” he said. “For me, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed — no exceptions.”
Pentagon starts purging ‘climate change crap’ - The Defense Department has a new search-and-destroy mission. It’s on the hunt for climate-related programs and studies. Last week, the Pentagon announced it had canceled multiple studies related to climate — including several that sought to determine whether a hotter planet could lead to more instability in Africa. In addition, the Defense Department has spent the last few weeks combing outside contracts for the term “climate” with the intent to zero out all related work, according to two former Pentagon officials.The purge is being driven broadly by President Donald Trump, who previously has described climate change as a hoax. But it has taken on extra urgency under the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has long rejected climate science and has vowed to eliminate all the Pentagon’s climate-related work.“The @DeptofDefense does not do climate change crap,” Hegseth wrote on X on Sunday. “We do training and warfighting.”It’s unclear how many climate initiatives are at risk for cancellation and how much money their erasure would save. The Pentagon said canceling 91 studies on climate and other topics would save $30 million, but it did not disclose how much money the Defense Department could save by eliminating other climate-related programs and studies. Pentagon officials did not respond to questions from POLITICO’s E&E News seeking answers on these topics. Instead , they issued a statement that said the Defense Department was working to “restore the warrior ethos and refocus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”“Climate zealotry and other woke chimeras of the Left are not part of that core mission,” Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot said in a statement.But defense experts warn the rush to cancel these programs could backfire on the Pentagon. Studying and preparing for global warming isn’t a liberal luxury, they say — it’s essential to better understand how climate change could influence both global politics and battlefield conditions.It’s about “missions and not emissions,” said John Conger, who served as principal deputy undersecretary of Defense in the Obama administration.As an example, he pointed to the risk that rising sea levels and more extreme storms pose to the constellation of U.S. military installations worldwide. “Climate affects the military mission, it affects your ability to do your job,” said Conger, who is a senior adviser to the Council on Strategic Risks.
South Dakota law raises questions about future of massive Midwest pipeline (AP) — A new law in South Dakota prohibiting the use of eminent domain to acquire land for carbon capture pipelines raises questions about the viability of a proposed 2,500 mile (4,023-kilometer) project snaking through five Midwest states. Summit Carbon Solutions, the company behind the estimated $8.9 billion pipeline, vowed to keep pursuing the project despite South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden’s announcement Thursday that he had signed a bill into law that will make routing the line much more difficult. The law bans Summit from forcing South Dakota landowners to allow the pipeline through their property. Plans call for the pipeline to carry greenhouse gas emissions from more than 50 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota to a spot in North Dakota, where it would be permanently stored underground. Legal action is possible It’s unclear whether Summit will pursue legal action but the company said in a statement that “all options are on the table” and the project “moves forward” in other states. The company promised it would have more news soon. Large pipeline projects typically rely on eminent domain, with companies arguing that even if most landowners agree to grant access to their property, a project can be scuttled if only a few refuse. Summit says the company, which has secured over 2,700 easements across the region, has approval for routes in Iowa and North Dakota and a leg in Minnesota. The current proposed route would cut through nearly 700 miles (1,126.5 kilometers) of South Dakota before entering North Dakota, so rerouting to the east through Minnesota would be a big challenge. A Summit spokesperson did not respond to questions Friday about whether the company would consider a new route. The sponsor of the South Dakota bill, Republican Rep. Karla Lems, said Summit could either reroute its pipeline through Minnesota into North Dakota or “negotiate with landowners in South Dakota” and go around opponents. Gov. Rhoden said the South Dakota law wasn’t intended to kill the project and suggested Summit see it as “an opportunity to reset.” Minnesota is a relatively small part of Summit’s overall project. The only segment approved in the state is a 28-mile (45-kilometer) leg from an ethanol plant near Fergus Falls to the North Dakota border. Summit’s project also includes two legs in southern Minnesota that would go into Iowa. A Minnesota Public Utilities Commission spokesperson did not respond to phone or email messages. The pipeline’s importance to the ethanol industry The country’s transition to electric vehicles has been slower than many people expected, but most think a shift away from internal combustion engines will eventually happen. Nearly 40% of the nation’s corn crop is brewed into ethanol, which is blended into most gasoline sold in the U.S. Midwest farmers and the ethanol industry therefore see it as essential to have new markets as less of the fuel additive goes to power cars. They see passenger jet fuel as a potentially huge new market for ethanol. However, under current rules the process for turning ethanol into aviation fuel would need to emit less carbon dioxide to qualify for tax breaks intended to reduce greenhouses. The carbon capture pipeline is a key part of achieving those goals, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw said.
EPA signals it will slash climate and pollution rules, including for cars and power plants --The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated Wednesday that it will slash a broad suite of rules and determinations that aim to cut pollution or mitigate climate change — including from cars and power plants.The EPA announced that it will consider rolling back Biden-era regulations that are expected to sharply increase the number of electric vehicles sold as well as speed coal plant closures. It will also reconsider the finding that climate change poses a threat to the public — which in turn lays regulatory groundwork for further climate action.It is also considering rolling back regulations on the neurotoxin mercury coming from power plants and general air pollution limits for deadly soot. Additionally, the agency indicated it would close offices dedicated to fighting pollution in underserved and minority communities around the country.The moves on cars and power plants are not necessarily a surprise, as President Trump said during the campaign trail that he would eliminate both rules, particularly criticizing Biden’s auto emissions rule as an “EV mandate.”
AI Data Center Build-Out Raises Concerns About America's Future Power Needs As the United States prepares to invest billions of dollars in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, public officials, grid operators, and utility companies are addressing concerns about how the nation’s electricity grid will handle the expected surge in power usage.According to a recent S&P Global Market Intelligence report, annual electricity demand for U.S. data centers is expected to reach more than 280 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024. By 2028, that total is projected to nearly double to 530 TWh, or slightly more electricity than Texas produced in 2022. Similarly, a Department of Energy report forecasts total energy consumption by data centers to reach between 325 TWh and 580 TWh by 2028, potentially as much as 12 percent of total U.S. electricity.In a March 10 research note shared with The Epoch Times, Bank of America sustainability analyst Dimple Gosai said Big Tech firms have committed more than $315 billion in capital investment for AI data centers this year. Those new projects will drive 50 GW of power demand by 2030.“The push for 24/7 firm power has intensified as AI-driven data center growth amplifies grid stability and curtailment concerns, accelerating demand for dispatchable power,” Gosai said.The most significant impetus behind the discussion on AI data centers and power grid infrastructure is President Donald Trump’s executive order on Jan. 23, calling for a multi-billion dollar build-out in AI and data center capacity during his second term in office.As part of the president’s action plan, the National Science Foundation issued a request for information on Feb. 6 seeking input on federal policy recommendations “to sustain America’s AI dominance.” The plan has received 268 public comments on the Federal Register docket, with the comment period set to close on March 15.Maksim Sonin, a Houston-based energy expert and Stanford University fellow, said power generation, grid infrastructure construction, and regulatory barriers are among the substantial obstacles facing data center development at scale. “A strategy for effective public-private partnerships can definitely help with federal policy development to bolster AI innovation,” he told The Epoch Times via email.
Energy issues dominate Regional Growth Partnership meeting - Toledo Blade -- Northwest Ohio’s energy supply might be the key to its economic development. That was the message that came through loud and clear at Thursday’s annual meeting of the Regional Growth Partnership. With more than 500 people in attendance at the Pinnacle in Maumee, the organization’s executive vice president, Gary Thompson, introduced the theme early in the program. “Electrical power improves technology,” he said. “And technology improves the electrical grid. Innovation drives demand for more power. Real breakthroughs require increasing amounts of electrical power. Sustainable innovation is where these trends intersect.” Mr. Thompson said regions with reliable, cost-effective power attract development and northwest Ohio’s supply of power can be a significant selling point for companies thinking of locating here. In a video presentation, Scott Hayes, director of Midwest government relations and strategic communications for PBF Energy, pointed out that two natural gas pipelines pass through northwest Ohio. “The world has to figure out how to produce power as cleanly and efficiently as possible,” he said. “We can deliver a lot of gas when requested — a nice situation for the northwest Ohio region. There are over 50 energy companies in the region that allow us to live a modern life.” One attendee, Paul Jeffers, a business development executive for Environmental Design Group, a planning, design, and civil engineering firm based in Akron, said what was discussed at the meeting was consistent with what he had heard in other regions. “The issue of power is an absolutely critical issue for Ohio and communities that want to grow,” he said. “The questions that industry asks when you work on site location are, do you have enough power, and what’s the outlook for power in the future. The economic development world is focused on that.” The meeting’s keynote presentation was delivered by Will Turner, the managing director of Upterra Group, a consulting firm based in Reston, Va., that focuses on corporate strategy and commercial real estate. Like the other speakers, he stressed the importance of energy to economic development. But he also sounded a cautionary note, pointing out large power transformers have a lifespan of about 40 years and many of those in the U.S. are at or near that age. “The state of our nation’s power grid is our greatest vulnerability today,” he said. “We need more power on land, but also at sea. The lead time on new substations has doubled because of supply chain delays.” Like the other speakers, he was bullish on natural gas as an energy source for the region. “It’s cleaner than coal, land-efficient, and scalable,” he said. “We believe the gas supply in northwest Ohio could support several data centers.” His company is involved in the plans to construct a data center in Oregon on 170 acres near Corduroy and Wynn roads. Brandon Sehlhorst, the city of Toledo’s economic development director, said energy issues are something he and the city are very familiar with. “Electric power and natural gas are huge for the region,” he said after the meeting. “But the type of companies that need that level of power and gas need hundreds of acres. The challenge is getting sites prepared near those assets.” Mr. Turner suggested northwest Ohio could contribute significantly to the ship-building industry, which he believes will see a boom in the coming years. “We may need a fleet of dredgers,” he said. “We’re going to need more icebreakers. We need a new generation of vessels. All of these will need engines, which can be made here in northwest Ohio.”
Can Ohio keep the lights on? Power demand is outpacing supply - A host of data centers – from Amazon to Microsoft – have announced plans to set up shop in Ohio. These industries will bring jobs and revenue to the region but they also will require a massive amount of energy.Ohio belongs to a regional power grid, known as PJM. They bring energy generators online and connect them to the grid that runs through Ohio, 12 other states and Washington, D.C.In just three years from now, the state is expected to need nearly as much power as New York City and its suburbs. Some experts on the power grid are worried about how this increase in energy demand is being met with a decrease in supply. “Supply is leaving the system at a rapid pace. A lot of it is due to the decarbonization policy efforts that have occurred at the state and federal levels,” said Asim Haque, senior vice president of PJM.With the growth of data centers and recent turn toward more manufacturing in the U.S., Haque said Ohio could be entering a new era that threatens the relationship most modern Americans have with electricity.‘We are coming up against completely changing the expectations of how consumers interact with electricity, which is they flip the switch and the light goes on. And when they get their bill, it's not insanely cost prohibitive,” Haque said.The impacts are expected to be felt across the entire grid. Power outages, like the one Columbus faced nearly three years ago, are a looming threat. Haque says that as soon as June of next year, PJM might have to make decisions about where to send power and where to withhold it during times of high demand.“[It’s] seemingly incomprehensible in the United States of America,” Haque said. “But every power grid operator in the country is facing this very issue.”At the same time as these increasing energy demands, Ohio is seeing barriers to bringing new renewable energy projects, like solar and wind, online.Madison County commissioners appealed the approval of the state’s largest solar project. The Ohio Supreme Court is also hearing arguments against renewable projects in Licking, Hancock and Greene counties.Haque said he supports renewable projects in theory, but even if they were to be immediately implemented, they wouldn’t bring enough megawatts online fast enough to meet PJM’s projections of increased annual demand. PJM believes yearly demand will grow more than 3% each year for the next 10 years. “We welcome those projects to find their way onto the grid, but we're going to need a lot of them or more thermal generation, which is, generally speaking, nuclear gas or coal, to find their way onto the system,” Haque explained.Ohio generates most of its energy from natural gas sources.But, environmental advocates across the state say Ohioans deserve the opportunity for clean energy. Some progressive groups, like Policy Matters Ohio, say the state legislature’s allowance of local bans on renewable energy make it difficult for solar and wind projects to come online.Only 4% of Ohio’s power comes from renewable sources, compared to the national average of around 20%.
Utilities push back against Ohio legislation on electricity generation - Pending legislation in the Ohio Legislature aims to remove barriers to new electricity generation, but electric utilities warn that the proposed policy could negatively impact their operations. Ohio House Bill (HB) 15 and Senate Bill (SB) 2, currently under consideration in their respective energy committees, propose significant changes to how the state’s electric market functions, and include provisions for third-party customer billing, removing billing responsibilities from utility companies, and shifting tax burdens from generation to transmission and distribution. “HB 15 currently falls short of the goal of meeting the pressing need of modernizing Ohio’s ratemaking process and making the state a more attractive place for investment in each component of the grid,” said Marc Reitter, president and COO of AEP Ohio, which serves 1.5 million customers across 61 counties in the state and employs more than 1,300 Ohians. In testimony Feb. 26 before the Ohio House Energy Committee, Reitter said that Ohio is in the beginning of a once-in-a-generation opportunity for tremendous economic growth across numerous industries. “Essential to the state’s ability to capture all of that potential growth during this unique opportunity is the health of Ohio’s electric utilities,” he said, pointing out that their health is threatened by the proposed bills. State Rep. Roy Klopfenstein (R-82), the primary sponsor of HB 15, said the state’s current energy framework, which dates back to 1999, stems from the deregulation of the generation sector and its separation from the regulated monopoly transmission system. “It is now time to modernize this structure,” he said, noting that during the past five years, there’s been an unprecedented surge in energy demand, with data centers alone consuming 600 megawatts (MW) of electricity. AEP forecasts that this will increase to 5,000 MW by 2030, a trend that’s not likely to reverse thanks to data center projects and mega energy consumers like Intel and Anduril Industries coming to Ohio. PJM Interconnection projects that without new generation, there could be potential shortages. The legislation, said Klopfenstein, seeks to address that by removing barriers to new electricity generation in Ohio by prohibiting electric distribution company (EDC) ownership of generation, barring EDCs from bidding in the wholesale market using ratepayer-funded assets, and transferring the Tangible Property Tax from electric generation facilities to the transmission and distribution systems. These changes will help make Ohio more competitive with neighboring states, Klopfenstein said. In addition, he said the bill aims to improve affordability for all Ohioans by safeguarding ratepayers from unnecessary costs. “This will be achieved by repealing the electric security plan (ESP) statute, requiring all Standard Service Offers to be market-based, increasing bonding requirements for Competitive Retail Electric Suppliers (CRES) and Competitive Retail Natural Gas Suppliers (CRNGS), mandating customer notifications for contract changes, and enabling features like supplier consolidated billing, on-bill financing, purchase of receivables, and seamless enrollments,” said Klopfenstein. The bill also seeks to foster competition across the energy sector by permitting competitive intrastate transmission, eliminating the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) subsidies that have already cost Ohioans $670 million since 2017, and repealing the Ohio Solar Generation Fund, which he said has collected $60 million but only spent $10 million on five projects statewide. “It is not the role of the state to favor one form of generation over another,” Klopfenstein said. “Instead, we should open the market to dispatchable energy generation to address future energy shortages.”
How NIMBYism and Republican politics killed a $500M solar farm in Ohio - Cleveland.com– A pressure campaign from local activists, backed by state and local Republican politicians, killed a 500-megawatt solar project planned in Logan County. The death of Grange Solar, a $500 million project that would have generated enough power for tens of thousands of homes while driving up to $5 million in local revenue, is the latest showing in how Ohio’s NIMBY-friendly permitting rules for renewable projects is choking out solar development.
Qatar Calls for Israel Nuclear Facilities To Be Brought Under IAEA Supervision - Qatar has renewed its calls for Israel’s nuclear facilities to be brought under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and for Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear state, which would require Israel to abolish its nuclear stockpile.Israel has a covert nuclear weapons program that it does not officially acknowledge and is estimated to have somewhere between 90 and 300 warheads. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said that Doha’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Jassim Yacoub al-Hammadi, made a statement concerning Israel’s nuclear program during a meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors.“Hammadi underscored the need for the international community and its institutions to uphold their commitments under resolutions of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the IAEA, and the 1995 Review Conference of the NPT, which called on Israel to subject all its nuclear facilities to IAEA safeguards,” the Foreign Ministry said.The statement added that Hammadi “pointed out that all Middle Eastern countries, except Israel, are parties to the NPT and have effective safeguard agreements with the Agency.”The IAEA’s Board of Governors often censures Iran through Western-drafted resolutions for its nuclear program even though it is subject to IAEA inspections, and, despite the hype over uranium enrichment levels, there’s no evidence Tehran is seeking a bomb.On the other hand, Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program, which is not subject to any inspections, rarely gets any attention. This is largely due to the fact that the US also does not acknowledge its existence and doesn’t put any pressure on Israel to sign the NPT.The US cannot recognize the existence of Israel’s nuclear weapons since foreign assistance laws prohibitmilitary aid to nuclear-armed countries that are not subject to IAEA inspections.
Activists protest at Ohio Statehouse over oil and gas extraction, wastewater injection -- Lima News – More than 40 people gathered outside the Ohio Statehouse on Thursday to voice their opposition to oil and gas extraction and wastewater injection in Ohio.Braving wind and bitter cold, they criticized state lawmakers for allowing the gas industry to drill for natural gas underneath state parks and public lands. And they lashed out at regulators for what they described as overly lax oversight of injection wells, where operators inject toxic brine deep underground at high pressure.Melinda Zemper, of Save Ohio Parks, offered five criticisms of the oil and gas industry:
- • They’re allowed to self-report incidents, like a Jan. 2 explosion at a Gulfport Appalachia well pad near Salt Fork State Park, where flames and billowing smoke oozed into the air, requiring a five-mile evacuation
- • Ohio allows “unidentified, unregulated, toxic chemicals” to be used in the fracking process
- • Fracking requires millions of gallons of water
- • The wastewater – a radioactive brew of water, methane runoff and the chemical cocktail pumped underground – is sometimes stored in injection wells around the state. Several of those have allowed waste leakage reaching miles away
- • No statewide studies, she said, have been conducted to prove the safety of the extraction process.
The Thursday event, hosted by the Buckeye Environmental Network, spanned the better part of the day and included speakers with personal experience living near injection wells, and Justin Nobel, who wrote a book about the industry’s radioactive waste “spilled, spread, injected, dumped, and freely emitted across America.”Others took aim at a state law that allows transportation officials to spread radioactive brine on roadways as a deicer – though the Columbus Dispatch reports the state ended its contract with a brine vendor in 2021 amid radioactivity concerns. An Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman said the department currently only uses a mixture of water and salt, plus cold weather additives like a molasses made of beets, calcium chloride, or magnesium chloride to lower the freezing point of the standard brine.Any changes the activists seek would likely face a tough run inside the Statehouse. Republican lawmakers who hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers recently passed legislation opening state parks to fracking; declaring methane gas as “green energy” despite its inherently climate change-causing properties; and allowing gas utilities to charge customers for the infrastructure costs of extending gas pipelines to speculative economic development sites.State Sen. Brian Chavez, chair of the Senate Energy committee, owns natural gas injection wells, including one that state officials found allowed brine to “migrate” for miles underground.Both chambers of the General Assembly, meanwhile, are considering legislation that’s backed by major natural gas generation companies. While the bills vary in form and are undergoing amendments, they generally aim to block distribution utilities from acquiring and operating any generation assets; end ratepayer funded subsidies of two coal plants owned in party by Ohio utilities; and (pending which version of the bill prevails) allow data centers owned by tech giants to own and operate their own natural gas generation on site.
Appeals Court Rejects Anti Effort to Block Drilling Under Ohio Parks -Marcellus Drilling News- A three-judge panel (all liberal Democrats) from the Ohio District Courts of Appeals for the Tenth District ruled yesterday that anti-fossil fuel fanatics don’t have the right to appeal a decision by the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) to meet and award contracts to drill under (not on) several Ohio state parks, including the 20,000-acre Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County. The case was appealed by Earthjustice acting on behalf of the anti-fossil fuel Save Ohio Parks. In February 2024, a liberal Democrat judge from Franklin County ruled against antis (see Dem Judge Shuts Down Anti Effort to Block Drilling Under Ohio Parks). The antis appealed and have lost yet again. The only (final) step would be to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Ascent Resources Actively Considering IPO or Sale | Marcellus Drilling News -- Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately held company focusing 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 update last week. The big news came from comments during a conference call with analysts. CFO Brooks Shughart said company management and the board are internally discussing and monitoring the markets with an eye on a potential IPO (initial public offering), or possibly the M&A markets for a potential sale.
Expand Lands 5.6-Miler in Appalachia in Five Days With One Bit Run - -Expand Energy landed a 5.6-mile hole in northern West Virginia’s Marcellus—and in five days with just one bit run, it reported.The total hole was made in roughly 134 hours, "a new U.S. land record for a single bit/BHA run," a spokesman told Hart Energy.The results are among the drilling and completions (D&C) and other operational improvements the E&P was expecting just a few months after the merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy to form Expand, said COO Josh Viets.“That type of progress … clearly has an opportunity to lend itself to other areas that ultimately translates into incremental synergy,” Viets said in a recent earnings call.The well, Shannon Fields OHI #3H, has a 29,687-ft vertical, heel and lateral beginning in Ohio County, West Virginia, according to Expand. The lateral alone is 24,812 ft or 4.7 miles. It was made from a pad due east of Wheeling and terminating on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River across from Tiltonsville, Ohio, according to WellDataBase.com. Expand is planning more cost efficiencies, Viets said. “We definitely see there's meat on the [post-merger] bone and are really, really excited about what we have in front of us.” Post-closing on Oct. 1, Expand holds more than 650,000 net acres in the Haynesville Shale in northwestern Louisiana and 1.3 million net acres in the Marcellus and Utica shales in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. An oilfield securities analyst told Hart Energy that onshore wells with laterals greater than 4.5 miles are rare.Service firm Tenaris reported in 2023 that West Virginia hosted what was the longest lateral in North America at the time: 24,166 ft (4.57 miles) in Lewis County.“But probably not for long,” Tenaris added in its report. “Every month, a new well is achieving record-breaking lengths for their lateral sections in the Appalachian region.”The firm participated in the 2023 D&C job and noted in its report that the longer the lateral, the more challenging the torque.“The trend of longer laterals has steadily grown in recent years, calling for extreme torque capabilities, quicker installation speeds and overall connection robustness,” Tenaris reported.In 2022, Axis Energy Services performed the completions drill-out on what was the longest lateral in North America at the time: 23,700 ft. The job was for Utica Shale operator Ascent Resources in Ohio.“A total of 136 plugs … were successfully drilled out in a single run with no down time,” Axis reported. Earliest to test the limits on super-extended laterals in the Appalachian Basin was Eclipse Resources, which advanced length to 3.5 miles in 2016 with its Purple Hayes #1H in the Utica in Guernsey County, Ohio. In 2017, it took a lateral as far as 20,800 ft (3.94 miles) in its Mercury #5H, also in the wet-gas Utica.By October 2017, it had 11 extra-long lateral wells, according to a press release at the time.Its longest Utica dry-gas well was Wiley D #8H with a 19,335-ft lateral (3.66 miles). After Eclipse merged with another E&P and was renamed Montage Resources, it was purchased in 2020 by Southwestern Energy, which is now part of Expand.
22 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 3 – 9 | Marcellus Drilling News -- For the week of Mar 3 - 9, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells increased by six from the previous week. Last week, 22 new permits were issued, with 13 (more than half) going to the Keystone State (PA). Expand Energy (Chesapeake Energy) scored five permits for a single pad in Bradford County. Coterra Energy also received five permits for a single pad in neighboring Susquehanna County. EQT had two new permits for a single pad in Washington County. And Range Resources rounded out PA's permits with a single permit in Washington County. ASCENT RESOURCES | BRADFORD COUNTY | CHESAPEAKE ENERGY | COTERRA ENERGY (CABOT O&G) | EQT CORP | GULFPORT ENERGY | HG ENERGY | JEFFERSON COUNTY (OH) | LEWIS COUNTY | MONROE COUNTY | RANGE RESOURCES CORP |SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY | WASHINGTON COUNTY
Diversified JV Targets NatGas for Data Center Power in WV, VA, KY -Marcellus Drilling News -- This morning, Diversified Energy, FuelCell Energy, and TESIAC announced a strategic partnership “intended to address the urgent energy needs of data centers” by supplying as much as 360 megawatts (MW) of electricity to three distinct locations in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The partnership has agreed to create an Acquisition and Development Company (ADC), essentially a joint venture, focused on delivering reliable, cost-efficient, so-called net-zero power from natural gas and captured coal mine methane (CMM) to meet the soaring demand of data centers for reliable power. The way they will provide the power is quite interesting.
Diversified Energy, FuelCell Energy, and TESIAC Collaborate to Form an Acquisition and Development Company to Leverage Coal Mine Methane and Natural Gas for Off-Grid Data Center Power Projects - Diversified Energy Co., FuelCell Energy, Inc. and TESIAC announced a strategic partnership intended to address the urgent energy needs of data centers by supplying as much as 360 megawatts of electricity to three distinct locations in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.The partnership has agreed to create an Acquisition and Development Company (“ADC”) focused on delivering reliable, cost efficient, net-zero power from natural gas and captured coal mine methane (“CMM”) to meet the soaring demand of data centers for reliable power.The collaboration among the three companies would leverage in-basin natural gas production, advanced energy generation via fuel cell technology, and infrastructure financing to create a highly efficient, scalable, and sustainable energy solution tailored for the rapid expansion of data center power capacity requirements. Natural gas or CMM, extracted from coal mines by Diversified Energy and delivered via pipeline to fuel cells, would generate power through the electrochemical conversion of methane to hydrogen, and then to electricity. This combustion-free process is virtually free of air pollution emissions, speeding air permitting and enabling the system to be brought online faster than combustion-based systems. Heat that is co-generated by the fuel cells can be harnessed and converted to chilling for the data center, thus increasing overall system efficiency and further enhancing economic value. Importantly, this process qualifies for established environmental and tax credits that have the potential to provide meaningful cash flow in addition to the economic benefits of gas and power sales. The parties are structuring the terms of the agreement to include:
- Diversified Energy supplying natural gas and CMM or captured waste methane from coal mines that otherwise would have been vented into the atmosphere, from its Appalachian Basin production as the base fuel.
- FuelCell Energy deploying its fuel cell energy platforms, delivering distributed, high-efficiency baseload power generation, emissions management, and thermal energy solutions. This includes electricity and waste heat driven absorption chilling, ensuring data centers achieve unmatched efficiency, carbon reduction, and resilience.
- TESIAC leveraging its investment and development expertise, securing highly competitive financing options to accelerate deployment while maintaining long-term profitability and scalability.
This unique partnership intends to create a decentralized, high-performance, and sustainable energy solution to meet the demands of data centers that enable rapidly growing AI and high-performance graphics processing units. The partnership initiative, using U.S.-made technology and materials, could create hundreds of well-paying jobs in construction, operation, maintenance, and assembly and engineering, as well as indirect economic benefits, all while driving a new era of innovation in the data center industry, alongside other high-volume electric off-take markets.Other key attributes include:
- Behind-the-Meter Solutions: Rather than rely on grid-based power, this model is expected to be designed to provide on-site, continuous, and scalable power generation, securing data center uptime even in volatile market conditions with optionality to sell into the grid.
- Disruptive Financing Model: Innovative capital structuring will target faster deployment and stronger financial resilience compared to traditional investment structures.
- Carbon-Optimized Power Generation: The integration of captured methane, distributed fuel cells and emissions capture ready technology to reduce a customer’ s carbon footprint, setting a new industry standard.
“Natural Gas Extraction” Job Paid Average Wage of $176,800 in 2024 -Marcellus Drilling News -- Earlier this month, the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) released the 10th edition of its “State of Energy Report,” offering a detailed analysis of national and state trends in oil and natural gas employment, wages and other key economic factors for ?the energy industry in 2024 (full copy below). TIPRO’s “State of Energy Report” series was developed to quantify and track the economic impact of the domestic oil and natural gas sector, emphasizing the state of Texas. However, the report has a lot of great data, including a breakdown of key O&G employment and economic stats for Pennsylvania and Ohio. One thing that caught our attention is that nationwide those classified as working in “natural gas extraction” jobs made an average annual salary of $176,800 in 2024, up $10,740 from 2023. Hey, we’re in the wrong business!
DOE Progresses Natural Gas Export Permitting Fast Lane with Delfin LNG Extension - Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright said that the Trump administration is continuing its strategy of accelerating U.S. LNG development with a new federal authorization for the proposed Delfin LNG project. Delfin LNG LLC has been working for more than a decade to construct the first floating LNG (FLNG) export terminal in the United States. The 13 million ton/year (Mt/y) capacity project design consists of a deepwater port about 50 miles south of the Louisiana coast that would connect four FLNG units to existing onshore pipeline infrastructure. However, while the firm previously told DOE officials it had secured enough binding and tentative supply contracts to sanction at least one vessel, the project faced regulatory uncertainty from the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) and President Biden’s DOE.
Cheniere’s Train 8 and 9 Corpus Christi LNG Expansion Receives Final FERC Approval - FERC has granted final authorization for Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Train 8 and 9 midscale expansion at Corpus Christi LNG in South Texas, marking the Commission’s first natural gas export approval this year. Just a month after Cheniere reported first LNG from Train 1 of its Stage 3 expansion at the Texas facility, the company is inching closer to a final investment decision (FID) for its next roughly 3.3 million tons/year (Mt/y) expansion. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted approval for the project in an order published Monday after almost a year of consideration (No. CP23-129-000). FERC staff released a final environmental impact statement for the project in December, concluding that the expansion could be built without significant environmental issues.
Freeport LNG, EQT’s Top Execs Expect European Buyers to Clinch More Long-Term U.S. LNG Contracts --As talks about the end of the war in Ukraine swirl, LNG exporters and exploration and production executives are expecting prolonged demand in Europe for U.S. natural gas once market volatility subsides. Speculation of a Trump administration-brokered peace resolution has impacted Title Transfer Facility (TTF) prices as traders try to predict whether some Russian natural gas supply will return to the continent. TTF has continued to drop through the week, falling to $13.39/MMBtu Thursday. The May and June contracts fell further. Despite easing market tensions, though, Freeport LNG Development LP CEO Michael Smith said the company has continued contract discussions with European gas buyers since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. He said most have still indicated strong interest in domestic natural gas supplies.
Asian Spot Buying Jumps as Inventories, Prices Slide – Three Things to Know About the LNG Market - NO. 1: NextDecade Corp. said this week it would utilize Baker Hughes Co. technology for an expansion at the Rio Grande LNG facility under construction in South Texas. The companies have entered into a framework agreement for NextDecade to utilize Baker Hughes’ gas turbine and refrigerant compressor technology for Trains 4-8. The deal also includes service agreements for the infrastructure. NextDecade is building the first 17.6 million tons/year (Mt/y) phase that consists of three trains, while it works to commercialize another two trains not yet sanctioned.
Baker Hughes, NextDecade Enter Framework Agreement for Rio Grande LNG Expansion Trains - Baker Hughes, an energy technology company, and NextDecade Corporation and announced Tuesday that they have entered into a framework agreement whereby NextDecade plans to utilize Baker Hughes’ gas turbine and refrigerant compressor technology (Equipment Packages) and enter into contractual services agreements to perform maintenance work for these Equipment Packages for Trains 4 through 8 at the Rio Grande LNG Facility. “Utilizing Baker Hughes’ industry-leading rotating equipment and their maintenance services is critical to ensuring the Rio Grande LNG Facility operates efficiently and reliably,” said Matt Schatzman, chairman and CEO of NextDecade. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Baker Hughes as we progress our plans to make the Rio Grande LNG Facility one of the largest LNG production and export facilities in the world.” “Baker Hughes is proud to continue our long-standing relationship with NextDecade, providing advanced gas technology solutions that enhance the efficiency and reliability of their LNG operations,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes. “This agreement is a further example of our commitment to delivering innovative solutions in support of increasing energy demand.” NextDecade is making excellent progress on commercializing Rio Grande LNG Trains 4 and 5. The Company expects to make positive final investment decisions and commence construction on Trains 4 and 5 and related infrastructure at the Rio Grande LNG Facility, subject to, among other things, maintaining requisite governmental approvals, finalizing and entering into EPC contracts, entering into appropriate commercial arrangements, and obtaining adequate financing to construct each train and related infrastructure. NextDecade is developing and beginning the permitting process for Trains 6 through 8, which are wholly owned by NextDecade and are cumulatively expected to increase the company’s total liquefaction capacity by approximately 18 million tonnes per annum once constructed and placed into operation. Baker Hughes expects orders, in relation to this agreement, as NextDecade’s project progresses.
US natural gas prices down over 1% on rising output, mild weather outlook — U.S. natural gas prices slipped more than 1% on Tuesday, as rising output and forecasts for milder weather offset a higher demand outlook for next week and record flows to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities. Front-month gas futures for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled 3.8 cents, or 0.9%, lower at $4.453 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Prices rose to their highest level since December 2022 on Monday. "With the weather factor diminishing in importance with near-record temperatures expected across some key consuming regions this week, further downward adjustment in HDD (heating degree days) accumulation would normally be pressing values lower," energy advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note. Financial firm LSEG estimated 213 heating degree days over the next two weeks in the Lower 48 U.S. states, down from the 221 HDDs estimated on Monday. The normal level is 278 HDDs for this time of year. Meteorologists projected weather in the Lower 48 states would remain mostly warmer than normal through March 15. LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states has risen to 105.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in March, up from a record 105.1 bcfd in February. However, LSEG forecast average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, will rise from 110.4 bcfd this week to 113.3 bcfd next week. Forecasts for next week were higher compared to LSEG's outlook on Monday. Dutch and British wholesale gas prices rose on Tuesday amid lower Norwegian exports to Europe and higher demand. Gas prices rose more than 14% last week on record flows to LNG plants and worries Canada would reduce power and gas exports to the U.S. after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico on March 4. Trump later said the two trading partners would not have to pay tariffs until early April on any goods that fell under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. In 2024, Canada supplied about 8% of total U.S. gas demand, including exports, and about 1% of total U.S. power demand, again including exports. Some of those power and gas exports returned to Canada. In the import market, Canadian gas exports to the U.S. have dropped to an average of 8.8 bcfd over the past few days since Trump's tariffs were imposed, down from an average of 9.8 bcfd during the prior 11-day period from February 21 to March 3, according to LSEG data. That compares with an average of 8.6 bcfd of Canadian gas exports to the U.S. in 2024 and 7.6 bcfd over the prior five years (2019-2023). The amount of gas flowing to the eight big U.S. LNG export plants has risen to an average of 15.7 bcfd so far in March, up from a record 15.6 bcfd in February, as new units at Venture Global's V VG 3.2-bcfd Plaquemines LNG export plant under construction in Louisiana enter service. "We continue to expect 2026 Henry Hub prices to remain above $4/mmBtu to incentivize drilling increases in the Haynesville region, the current source of marginal U.S. dry gas production growth, to help keep storage comfortable in the 2026/27 winter as U.S. LNG exports continue to move higher," Goldman Sachs said in a note.
US natural gas prices fall - US natural gas futures fell more than 5% on Wednesday, driven by record production levels and predictions of milder weather over the next two weeks than previously expected, which could dampen heating demand and enable utilities to draw less gas from storage. Front-month gas futures for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 22.7 cents, or 5%, at $4.23 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) as of 9:17 a.m. EDT. Prices rose to their highest level since December 2022 on Monday but fell 0.9% in the previous session. “I think the run-up this week was largely inspired by technical factors and bigger macro funds, but the weather this week has been rather bearish, so I think today’s action is just really a reflection,” Financial firm LSEG forecast average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, will fall from 111.6 bcfd this week to 104.3 bcfd next week. This was a decrease from Tuesday’s forecast of 113.3 bcfd for next week. Meanwhile, LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 US states has risen to 105.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in March, up from a record 105.1 bcfd in February. LSEG estimated there would be 198 heating degree days over the next two weeks in the Lower 48 US states, down from the 213 HDDs estimated on Tuesday. The normal level is 243 HDDs for this time of year. Gas prices rose more than 14% last week on record flows to LNG plants and worries Canada would reduce power and gas exports to the US after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico on March 4.
Price of Natural Gas Futures Up 140% Year-over-Year: One More Reason for Inflation to Not Back off Easily by Wolf Richter -- The notoriously volatile price of US natural gas futures has been zigzagging higher since mid-2024 and overnight spiked to over $4.80 per million Btu, and currently trades at $4.52 per million Btu, up by 140% from a year ago.Nearly 43% of electricity in the US was generated by natural-gas-fired power plants in 2024. Natural gas is widely used for heating by residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Fertilizer makers use natural gas as feedstock. Natural gas is used as fuel for city buses, drayage trucks, garbage trucks, etc. And the US has been investing in a massive export boom of natural gas, with exporters taking up 19% of US production last year.For the past 20 years, it has been drill-baby-drill, and US natural gas production has more than doubled, turning the US into the largest natural gas producer in the world. Overproduction has caused the price of natural gas to collapse repeatedly.Over the past three decades, natural gas prices spiked to $10 per million Btu and higher, including to over $15 in 2005. Natural gas prices can go wild. And in 1997, natural gas had already been at $4.50. Power generators, utilities, and fertilizer makers purchase much of their projected needs with long-term contracts, so price changes in the futures market leave their near-term costs largely unaffected. But they might raise their prices anyway, and many have already done so, blaming the higher costs. Regulated utilities will do what regulators let them do.The CPI for natural gas piped to the homes across the US has risen by 6.4% since August (through January, February CPI will be released on Wednesday) and is up 4.9% year-over-year.Electricity prices have risen because regulators allow utilities to hike their prices. In California, for example, PG&E’s electricity prices have spiked with multiple price hikes and fee changes, as it passes on the costs of the settlements related to wildfire destruction, the costs of their wildfire mitigation efforts, other costs, and whatever, while its net income surged to $2.5 billion in 2024.National storage levels are running near the bottom of the five-year range for this time of the year, at 1.76 trillion cubic feet, down from 2.34 trillion cubic feet a year ago, when they were forming the new top of the five-year range. Forecasts for milder weather indicate that there will be less heating-related demand.But export demand, both via LNG to the rest of the world and via pipeline to Mexico, is a booming business and rose to 7.7 trillion cubic feet in 2024, using about 19% of US production in 2024.In January, Trump had lifted the freeze on LNG export permit applications for new LNG export terminals. Biden had paused approvals of permits for new export terminals in order to curtail future growth in demand from LNG exporters that could drive up wholesale prices of natural gas in the US. Since lifting the freeze, the Trump administration has approved four new LNG export projects and extensions of existing projects.It has become a huge business. And this demand from exporters comes on top of the growth in demand from power generators scrambling to provide electricity to new data centers (for AI and the cloud), which are enormous power hogs, and which are spouting like mushrooms.
Aethon: Haynesville E&Ps Hesitate to Drill Without Sustained $5 NatGas Prices - U.S. natural gas prices are rising, but possibly not high enough to entice increased drilling in the Haynesville Shale. Haynesville producers, like Aethon Energy, are watching with caution as natural gas strip prices rise. Dallas-based Aethon is sitting on top of multiple decades of Haynesville gas inventory, said President and Partner Gordon Huddleston. To massively step up drilling activity, the company needs to see higher prices—preferably above $5/Mcf—for a sustained period. “We’re starting to see that in 2026, but that really needs to carry beyond ’26 into ’27 and ’28,” Huddleston said during the 2025 CERAWeek by S&P Global Conference. After two years of low natural gas prices, rising demand is starting to push prices higher. Henry Hub strip prices currently average $4.70 for the rest of 2025, according to CME Group data. On March 11, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revised its outlook for natural gas prices upward due to higher consumption and lower storage inventories. The EIA expects Henry Hub spot prices to average $4.20/MMBtu in 2025, 11% higher than its forecast last month. In 2026, spot prices should average around $4.50/MMBtu in 2026, 8% over the EIA’s last forecast. Increasing LNG export capacity is also pushing gas demand higher. Producers anticipate an incremental 5 Bcf/d to 6 Bcf/d of demand to fuel new LNG exports within the next 12 months. But Haynesville operators aren’t racing to step on the gas pedal. Huddleston pointed to the market volatility producers saw in 2024 as a reason for the hesitancy. A warm winter season and the delayed startup of Golden Pass LNG knocked off around 2 Bcf/d of demand that gas producers expected to see materialize last year. Low prices forced Aethon, Expand Energy and other gas producers to curtail production and delay turning wells to sales. “Producers said, ‘here’s this demand coming. We’re going to try to get in front of that,’” Huddleston said, “and it didn’t materialize.” “It makes it even harder to do it again,” he said.
Federal court asks if it should continue hearing Line 5 suit - A federal appeals court is asking if it should hold off on considering a dispute over the Line 5 oil pipeline while a similar challenge plays out in state court.In a letter seeking additional briefing from the parties in the case, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked whether the court’s abstention “is appropriate.”The 6th Circuit cited a 1971 Supreme Court case, Younger v. Harris, which held that a federal court should only intervene in proceedings already in state court when the defendant in the lawsuit will face irreparable harm.The letter, filed Monday, came a week before the 6th Circuit will hold a hearing on the dispute between Line 5 developer Enbridge and Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Wildcatter Harold Hamm Says Shale Needs $80 Oil for Costly Fields - Harold Hamm, the billionaire wildcatter and a major donor to President Donald Trump, has challenged a claim from the new US energy secretary that domestic oil companies could increase production even at prices as low as $50 a barrel. Hamm’s words represent one the first signs of public push-back from the US shale industry against the Trump administration’s energy policy. Hamm, 79, was one of the president’s biggest financial backers in last year’s election. Many in the sector have welcomed the new administration’s policy of cutting regulations and boosting domestic oil and gas production. But that support sits uneasily alongside Trump’s statements calling for significantly lower energy prices. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the Financial Times this week that while new supply will push down prices, oil companies will learn to innovate and bounce back. Speaking Thursday, Hamm, 79, the co-founder and chairman of closely held shale driller Continental Resources, warned that US drillers need $80-a-barrel oil to be able to cover costs at some wells. “There are a lot of fields that are getting to the point that’s real tough to keep that cost of supply down,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “When you get down to that $50 oil that you talked about, then you’re below the point where you’re going to ‘drill, baby, drill.’” West Texas Intermediate crude currently trades at around $67, having fallen from $80 in January amid concerns about weak Chinese demand and more supply from OPEC+. Shale operators are slowing production growth after years of drilling up their best locations. At this week’s CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston, executives for some of the largest US shale companies forecast US oil production will peak in the next three to five years. Scott Sheffield, who expects US output to peak at about 14 million barrels a day, said in a Bloomberg Television interview this week that the oil price needed for publicly traded drillers to cover costs and turn a modest profit is in the range of $50 to $55 a barrel. “That includes paying your dividend,” Sheffield said. “Nobody’s going to cut the dividend. It’s a no-no.” Hamm said he has yet to speak with Wright, the former chief of frack-provider Liberty Energy Inc., about the costs that shale operators face and the oil prices they need to thrive. “He and I are good friends and understand each other quite well,” Hamm said. “I look forward to that conversation.” Hamm added that Trump’s import tariffs are a concern because of the steel pipe needed to line oil wells. “That’s another thing that can add a great deal of cost to what we do,” he said. It’s helpful that there are some steelmakers in the US, Hamm said, “but they can’t supply it all.”
Youth lose climate lawsuit targeting Alaska LNG -An Alaska judge has dismissed a challenge from young activists who say a proposed project to ship liquefied natural gas from the North Slope to Asian markets would harm their right to a clean environment.The Tuesday decision from Alaska Superior Court Judge Dani Crosby comes as the Trump administration has championed the fossil fuel megaproject at the heart of the case. The youth challengers have vowed to appeal Crosby’s finding that stopping the Alaska LNG project is a job for state legislators — not the courts.“Precedent dictates this case must be dismissed on both the political question doctrine and prudential grounds,” Crosby wrote. “Important questions regarding climate change mitigation do not present justifiable questions because the Court lacks both the authority and the tools to reweigh the competing economic, environmental, social or conservation goals.”The judge noted that the state Legislature had found that the project was in the best interest of Alaskans. While the young challengers may be frustrated with that choice, Crosby wrote, “they may not utilize the courts to undercut” state lawmakers.
ExxonMobil Snatches 1.5 Mt/y From Canada’s Cedar LNG — The Offtake -A look at the global natural gas and LNG markets by the numbers
- 1.5 Mt/y: Arc Resources Ltd. has found a buyer for its 1.5 million ton/year (Mt/y) liquefaction capacity at the Cedar LNG project in British Columbia. The Calgary-based company disclosed Tuesday a deal to sell all of its LNG volumes from the project to an Asian trading unit of ExxonMobil. Cargoes linked to international indexes are expected to begin shipping in 2028, when Cedar LNG is anticipated to begin commercial operations.
- $4.20/MMBtu: Above-average storage withdrawals and increased demand in the Southeast prompted the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to raise its forecast for Henry Hub spot prices in 2024. In the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA researchers raised price assumptions for the year by 11% to an average of $4.20/MMBtu. Spot prices in 2026 are expected to be higher as additional LNG capacity comes online. EIA raised its 2026 average 8% to $4.50. NGI’s Henry Hubaverage currently sits at $4.545 as of Tuesday (March 12).
- 2 trips: Freeport LNG experienced a trip last Thursday (March 6) that knocked Train 3 offline for 11 hours and significantly dropped feed gas nominations to the facility for a day, according to Wood Mackenzie data. Nominations recovered heading into the weekend, but dropped again on Saturday when an issue at the facility knocked Train 2 offline for more than 9 hours. Engineers with the company blamed both issues on compressor failures, according to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality filings.
- 15.4 Bcf/d: Along with the Freeport LNG trips, Wood Mackenzie reported several pipeline maintenance events that could be squeezing available feed gas capacity for Gulf Coast LNG terminals. Planned maintenance on Station 2 of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Tejas Pipeline in Texas could cause some gas to be rerouted to Freeport LNG and Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi export facility, according to Wood Mackenzie. The firm also estimated that compressor station maintenance on Columbia Gulf Transmission planned to start Thursday could limit feed gas to Cameron LNG and create market tightness for the Henry Hub. Average U.S. feed gas demand in the coming seven days was estimated as 15.4 Bcf/d Tuesday.
- 30 cargoes: The second week of March has ushered in a wave of tenders from companies across Asia seeing short and medium-term LNG supplies. CPC Corp. in Taiwan is seeking 14 cargoes for delivery throughout the year, while PetroVietnam Gas is seeking three cargoes from April to May, according to Kpler. But, the buy market is largely dominated by Indian companies seeking cargoes for industrial facilities and growing power markets. The ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Corp. joint venture launched the largest tender of the period and is seeking 30 cargoes from April 2026 to 2031 to the Dahej and Hazira terminals.
Ovintiv’s North American Portfolio Backstopping ‘Significant Torque’ for Rising Natural Gas Prices -- Denver-based Ovintiv Inc., one of the largest natural gas producers in North America, is seeing its Western Canada options expand ahead of LNG Canada’s ramp-up, and as industrial demand from petrochemicals (petchem) and data centers begins to boom. Natural Gas Intelligence's (NGI) Henry Hub forward fixed natural gas price graph showing historical market volatility. The multi-basin independent is throwing most of its financial weight this year to produce oil and condensate from the Permian and Anadarko basins, and the Montney Shale in Western Canada. However, about one-half of the production is weighted to natural gas. That means Ovintiv should have opportunities to open the tap when it’s time, CFO Corey Code said during the recent fourth quarter conference call.
Tourmaline CEO Urges Canadian Self Reliance, More LNG and Pipe Infrastructure as U.S. Trade War Escalates --Canada “needs to look after itself” and expand the nation’s energy infrastructure in light of U.S. tariff threats, according to Tourmaline Oil Corp. CEO Michael L. Rose. (chart of NGI's NOVA/AECO C natural gas spot price) Rose’s comments came during the Calgary-based independent’s fourth quarter conference call held earlier this month. He was joined by CFO Brian Robinson to discuss the results. Tourmaline, Canada’s largest natural gas producer and one of the nation’s largest natural gas liquids (NGL) operators, would be impacted by the on-again, off-again tariffs pushed by the Trump administration, Rose said.
Latin American LNG Prices Rise on Global Natural Gas Market Tightness — LatAm Recap -- April delivered ex-ship (DES) prices to LNG import terminals in Latin America rose Monday amid strengthening of benchmarks globally. April DES prices to the Bahia Blanca terminal in Argentina rose 35.7 cents to $13.21/MMBtu, according to NGI calculations. DES prices at the Pecém terminal in Brazil were $13.03, up 34.1 cents, and prices on Mexico’s West Coast at Manzanillo rose 13.6 cents to $13.23. DES prices are NGI’s cost-plus formulations based on natural gas benchmark prices from the supplying country, such as the United States or Trinidad and Tobago. They also factor in shipping costs to Latin America. More than half of LNG imports into Latin America currently come from the United States, according to Kpler data. Some volumes to Latin America are also re-routed from Europe.
Leading U.S. LNG Exporters, Global Traders See Natural Gas Demand Surpassing Previous Estimates - Cheniere Energy Inc., the United States’ largest LNG exporter, and Shell plc, the world’s largest global natural gas trader, are preparing for a rising wave of LNG demand through the next two decades. Two bar charts showing Shell plc's outlook for natural gas supply/demand. Speaking at the annual CERAWeek conference by S&P Global in Houston, Shell CEO Wael Sawan cautioned that the source of that growth, as may be the case with emerging economies, may go against common assumptions about the trajectory of the energy transition. Earlier in the year, Shell published an outlook that called for global LNG demand to rise by 60% of 2024’s levels by 2040. Much of that demand is expected to be driven from the economic rise of East and South Asian countries, but Sawan said it’s clear that demand for power and energy security across the globe is well established.
U.S.-flagged tanker, cargo ship in North Sea collision off coast of England, setting both vessels on fire - A U.S.-flagged tanker carrying jet fuel was struck by a cargo ship in the North Sea off the coast of eastern England on Monday, triggering multiple explosions, setting both vessels on fire and sending fuel pouring into the water, officials said. An English port boss said he had been told there was "a massive fireball" following the collision. Several hours after the collision happened, the cargo ship's owner said one crew member was missing. Efforts to locate the missing crew member were ongoing, the German-based Ernst Russ in a statement. Earlier, local lawmaker Graham Stuart said he was told by U.K. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander that 37 crew members were aboard the two ships, with one hospitalized and the other 36 mariners safe and accounted for. Crowley Maritime, which operates the U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products carrier MV Stena Immaculate, said the tanker was anchored in the North Sea off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles north of London, when it was struck by the Portugal-flagged container ship Solong. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said details of the collision and its cause "are still becoming clear." Abdul Khalique, head of the Maritime Center at Liverpool John Moores University, said it appeared the crew of the cargo ship had not been "maintaining a proper lookout by radar" as required by international maritime regulations. The Stena Immaculate was at anchor near the port of Grimsby, according to ship-tracking site VesselFinder. The Solong was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. According to the BBC, the Stena Immaculate was en route from Agio Theodoroi in Greece to Killingholme in the U.K. It is one of just 10 tankers enlisted in a U.S. government program designed to supply the armed forces with fuel during times of armed conflict or national emergency, the BBC reported. A cargo tank on the ship containing jet fuel ruptured, leaking fuel and a fire broke out, Crowley said. "The Stena Immaculate crew abandoned the vessel following multiple explosions onboard," Crowley said. "All Crowley mariners are safe and fully accounted for." The company said it was working with authorities to contain the fire and secure the vessel. Stuart said he was concerned about the "potential ecological impact" of the spill, whose cause was being investigated by the U.K.'s Marine Accident Investigation Branch. Meanwhile, business information service Lloyd's List Intelligence said the cargo ship was carrying 15 containers of the chemical sodium cyanide. It wasn't immediately clear if any of the containers were damaged.
Oil tanker collision in North Sea sparks fears of toxic spill as one person still missing - One person is still missing after a container ship carrying toxic sodium cyanide crashed into an oil tanker transporting jet fuel for the US military in the North Sea on Monday, sparking multiple explosions in what the UK government described as an "extremely concerning" situation. Lifeboats and a coastguard helicopter were called to the collision just before 10am near the entrance to the Humber Estuary off the East Yorkshire coast. The vessels involved were a Portuguese container ship called the MV Solong and the US-flagged tanker MV Stena Immaculate, which was on a short-term charter to the US Navy's Military Sealift Command. Initial reports stated 37 people were rescued, with one hospitalised. It has subsequently been reported by the Times that 38 people across both vessels are accounted for but that one crew member of the Solong is still missing. The Solong vessel was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide among other cargo, according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence. It is unclear if any of the chemical - which can dissolve in water and release a toxic gas if heated - leaked into the water. The Stena Immaculate spilled some jet fuel into the water after sustaining a ruptured cargo tank, according to US logistics group Crowley which manages the vessel. HM Coastguard has said it is assessing the “likely counter pollution response required". Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, said he had been told there was “a massive fireball” after the crash. Two maritime security sources told the Reuters news agency there was no indication of any malicious activity or other actors involved.
Arrested Container Ship Captain That Hit US Tanker Is Russian National - The captain of the container ship that collided with a U.S.-flagged tanker carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military off the coast of England has been identified as a Russian national and taken into custody over suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. Maritime experts are searching for answers to how the Portuguese-flagged Solong container ship, equipped with modern navigation equipment, failed to avoid U.S.-registered tanker Stena Immaculate off the East Yorkshire coast on Monday morning. BBC News said that local area police have launched a criminal investigation into the collision and arrested a 59-year-old Russian national piloting the ship at the time of the incident. He was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. "Detectives are continuing to conduct extensive lines of inquiry alongside partners in connection with the collision," Humberside Police said, adding they were also working with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on the investigation.Both the container ship and tanker ignited after the collision on Monday. Coastguard officials said 36 people were rescued from the vessels, and one remains unaccounted for, presumably dead. A video reportedly taken from the bridge of #Solong showing the moments after the allision with #StenaImmaculate and the outbreak of fire. The low visibility due to fog is evident but does not excuse the failure to see or identify the anchored tanker on radar. pic.twitter.com/B0iIlvfdGc
Two ships collided in the North Sea: the captain, a 59-year-old Russian, was arrested. -Fuel for the conspiracy theory fire? The captain of the cargo ship that collided with a tanker carrying US military jet fuel on Monday is a Russian national, the ship's owner, Hamburg-based Ernst Russ, announced Wednesday morning. The captain, whose identity has not been released, is 59 years old and was arrested Tuesday afternoon by Humberside police on suspicion of negligent homicide. In the same statement, the shipowner also indicated that the rest of the crew was a mix of Russian and Filipino sailors. A British government source told local press on Monday that initial investigations did not suggest that the incident was caused by sabotage, but that it could not be ruled out either. However, the revelation of the nationality of the captain and a large part of the crew, the fact that the Solong rammed a ship flying the American flag,Stena Immaculate, and the fact that specialists still cannot explain how such an accident was possible, when both ships have radar systems to avoid collisions even in thick fog, has once again fueled suspicions of intentional action. To determine this, however, we will have to wait for the completion of the analysis of the recordings of the conversations from the two bridges – a system similar to that of airplane black boxes. The tanker Stena Immaculate It measures 183 meters in length, while the Solong It measures 140.6 meters. A crew member from this last ship is still missing and is now presumed dead. Data from the ship tracking website Marine Traffic suggests that the Solong was traveling at 16 knots at the time of impact. The impact was so brutal that theStena Immaculate, which was anchored about ten miles from the port of Hull,It moved almost 200 meters before stopping. After the collision, large explosions occurred, and both ships were engulfed in flames. The two hulls were initially stuck together, but separated on Monday night. From that moment on, the Solong began to drift south. On Tuesday night, the British Coastguard said the fire on board theStena Immaculate had "reduced considerably" and that flames were no longer visible. For its part, the Solong is still adrift and on fire Wednesday, but is not expected to sink. The Solong had recently failed safety inspections related to the ship's steering system. Documents from the inspections, dated July of last year, show that Irish authorities determined that "the emergency rudder position and compass reading communications were illegible." This was one of ten deficiencies found during the condition check of the Portuguese-flagged vessel, which was carried out in Dublin. Other problems included "inadequate alarms," rescue craft "not properly maintained," and fire doors "that did not meet" safety requirements. Separately, Virginia McVea, chief executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, said on Wednesday that "there have been no further reports of marine pollution from either vessel beyond what was observed during the initial incident." In this regard, the Florida-based company that owns the tanker, Crowley, confirmed that at least one of the tankers' fuel tanks began leaking on Monday, following the collision. According to the statements of a sailor of theStena Immaculate, on the American network CBS, "a huge ship appeared out of nowhere" and we only had "a few seconds to react." The sailor, who is not authorized to comment and who asked to remain anonymous, also said he heard shouts of "brace for impact." Other crew members of the American-flagged ship have indicated that there was no one on the bridge of the ship. Solong at the time of the accident. The other big question investigators are asking is whether all the containers are still intact on both ships. "One of our main concerns regarding the environment is that just south of the incident site is an area called the Silver Pit, which is a unique glacial tunnel in the seabed, with very steep walls. It's home to many marine creatures, including anemones and other marine life that feed in the area. So, we're obviously concerned about its vulnerability, as it's a very fragile and delicate ecosystem," Tammy Smalley, head of conservation at Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, told BBC Radio 4 this morning. Another focus of concern for specialists is the area's seabirds. At this time of year, snipe and puffin gather in the North Sea before heading towards their breeding grounds. There are also waders and waterfowl that spend the winter on the coasts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. And a third element of concern is that the accident occurred during the mass migration season, with several bird species stopping to feed on the shores of these two counties.
European, Asian Natural Gas Imports Fall, but TTF Creeps Higher Ahead of U.S., Ukraine Meeting – LNG Recap --European natural gas prices strengthened on Monday ahead of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials scheduled for Tuesday as efforts continue to end the war with Russia. The market is waiting for direction after relations between the countries were strained late last month after an argument broke out during a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump over the war. The Title Transfer Facility (TTF) has fallen over much of the past month as Trump has pursued a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Could Ukraine’s Search for Secure LNG Supply Draw it Closer to the United States? - Ukraine is working to diversify its natural gas supplies and make up for a possible shortfall through LNG agreements as damage to its production facilities continues to mount. (european union natural gas storage levels) Those efforts could rely on spare U.S. LNG supply during a tight global market, but the fledgling commodity trading arm of DTEK Group, Ukraine's largest private energy company, is looking to build a portfolio on its path to becoming a regional natural gas player. DTEK’s D.Trading signed a heads of agreement with Venture Global LNG Inc. last year for 2 million tons/year (Mt/y) until 2046. Its first cargo was delivered at the end of last year from Calcasieu Pass to the Revithoussa port in Greece.
BP to supply Egypt with 160M cubic feet of natural gas daily in H2 2025 - BP plans to boost Egypt’s natural gas production by 160 million cubic feet per day from two wells in the King Mariout and Fayoum deepwater concessions in the Mediterranean Sea during the second half (H2) of 2025, an unnamed government official told Asharq Business. Increasing domestic gas production would help reduce Egypt’s reliance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, which surged last year due to a supply-demand gap that led to power outages affecting both households and industries. The country’s natural gas production has declined to 4.35 billion cubic feet per day, while demand stands at around 6.2 billion cubic feet daily. The official said bp is currently drilling two exploratory wells in the King Mariout 2 and Fayoum 5 concessions, each with an estimated production capacity of 80 million cubic feet per day. The wells are located in the North Alexandria concession area, where BP is working to assess actual producible reserves. The process is expected to be completed by April. The cost of drilling a single well in the North Alexandria concession area in the Mediterranean’s deep waters is estimated at around $150 million, the official added. To address the supply gap, the Egyptian government plans to import between 155 and 160 LNG shipments this year. At the end of last year, Egypt introduced new incentives to attract foreign investment in gas production, including allowing companies to export part of their new output to cover operational costs and increasing the price of their share of production from any field.
Mozambique LNG Clears Hurdle to Restart Construction With $4.7B U.S. Loan --The U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) has reauthorized a $4.7 billion loan for the long-delayed Mozambique LNG facility, bringing the project a step closer to restarting construction. The EXIM board at a meeting on Thursday reapproved a loan that was previously issued during President Trump’s first term. It needed reauthorization after majority stakeholder TotalEnergies SE declared a force majeure and stopped work on the project in 2021 amid rising violence and security threats posed by insurgents in Cabo Delgado province. TotalEnergies and its partners have been working for years to revive the $20 billion, 12.9 million tons/year (Mt/y) project. Management previously hoped to restart work at the end of last year, but it’s been waiting on EXIM and export credit agencies in the UK and the Netherlands to reapprove loans. The UK and Dutch are reportedly poised to reconfirm their commitments to the project as well.
Small oil spills pose threat to marine life --A new study by the Environment Authority (EA) has raised concerns over the rising number of small-scale, unattributed oil spills that continue to pose a significant risk to marine environments. The research, titled ‘Problem of Small-Scale Marine Oil Spills Discharged by Unattributable Vessels’, was led by Dr Omran bin Mohammed al Kamzari, Senior Specialist in Environmental Policy, Law, and Oil Pollution at EA, and published in the Pollution Study Journal. In an interview with Muscat Daily, Kamzari stressed that while large-scale oil spills have received substantial attention, the impacts of smaller, unreported spills are equally, if not more, damaging to marine ecosystems. “Oil pollution is one of the most serious threats to marine ecosystems. While large spills are often the focus of research and media attention, small spills, frequently of unknown origin, continue to harm coastal areas and marine life,” Kamzari explained. The study calls for better methods to identify fugitive polluters, improve oil spill cleanup strategies, and establish stronger compensation mechanisms for the damage caused by such spills. Kamzari underlined the urgency of addressing this issue, as the health of marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of coastal communities are at stake. One of the primary challenges in dealing with small, unattributed oil spills is the lack of international attention, according to Kamzari. Factors such as deep-water spills, routine ship operations, and unreported incidents make it difficult to trace the origin of the pollution. “When oil spills occur in deep waters or during routine ship operations, they are hard to detect. By the time they reach coastal areas, the source is often untraceable, complicating efforts to hold polluters accountable or claim compensation for cleanup costs,” he said. The study highlights that oil pollution from unknown sources is one of the most severe environmental threats to marine life, with only about 8% of oil spills being reported. The majority go undetected, continuing to pose a substantial risk to marine ecosystems. Kamzari also pointed out that small oil spills are often overlooked in media and economic discussions. “These spills do not receive the attention that larger incidents attract, and as a result, they are underreported. This lack of focus has led to continued environmental harm,” he said. However, he acknowledged that social media has played a significant role in improving public awareness and reporting of such events. Oman, situated along the heavily trafficked Strait of Hormuz, is particularly vulnerable to oil pollution. The strait sees daily oil tanker shipments, contributing to environmental risks, especially for Oman’s northern coasts. Sources of oil pollution include accidental tanker spills, illegal discharge of ballast water, and leaks from offshore oil facilities, all of which threaten marine life, including coral reefs, mangroves, and fish stocks. Kamzari explained that most small spills result from deliberate oil waste discharge by ships, especially during periods of minimal regulatory oversight. “Many vessels dispose of oil-contaminated ballast water or clean their fuel tanks at sea to avoid the costs of proper disposal,” he said.
US raises oil price forecast for next year -- The U.S. Department of Energy has reduced its forecast for the average price of Brent benchmark oil in 2025 from $74.50 to $74.22, APA-Economics reports citing the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA).The price of WTI crude oil is expected to be $70.68 in 2025 (previous forecast – $70.62). Additionally, the EIA has updated its forecast for the average prices of mentioned oil benchmarks for 2026. According to the agency's estimates, the average price of Brent will be $68.47 per barrel (previous forecast – $66.46), and WTI will be $64.97 per barrel (previous forecast – $62.46). It is noted that in 2024, the prices of Brent and WTI crude oil were $80.56 and $76.60, respectively.
Oil Prices Fall Over U.S Import Tariffs, Rising OPEC Production Oil prices fell on Monday over the impact of U.S. import tariffs on global economic growth and fuel demand, as well as rising output from OPEC+ producers. Brent crude fell 6 cents to $70.30 a barrel by 0720 GMT after settling up 90 cents on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $66.96 a barrel, down 8 cents after closing 68 cents higher in the previous trading session. Latest data by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries secretariat as of March 3, said the price of its basket of twelve crudes stood at $75,16 a barrel on Friday, compared with $74,98 the previous day. WTI declined for a seventh successive week, the longest losing streak since November 2023, while Brent was down for a third consecutive week after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed then delayed tariffs on its key oil suppliers Canada and Mexico, while raising taxes on Chinese goods. China retaliated against the U.S. and Canada with tariffs on agricultural products. “Tariff uncertainty is a key driver behind the weakness,” ING analysts said in a note, adding that oil price cuts from Saudi Arabia and deflationary signals from China also hurt sentiment. IG analyst Tony Sycamore told Reuters that other factors weighing on oil prices include concerns about U.S. growth, the potential lifting of U.S. sanctions on Russia, and OPEC+ opting to increase output. “Nonetheless, with much of the bad news likely factored in, we expect weekly support around $65/$62 to hold firm before a recovery back to $72.00,” he said in a client note in reference to the WTI price. Oil prices clawed back some loss on Friday after Trump said the U.S. would increase sanctions on Russia if the latter fails to reach a ceasefire with Ukraine. The U.S. is also studying ways to ease sanctions on Russia’s energy sector if Russia agrees to end its war with Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Oil Futures Dropped Due to Recession Fears-- Oil futures settled lower to start the week on Monday, with the front-month NYMEX WTI hitting the $65 mark as traders continued to assess the impact of the tariff war on the U.S. economy, amid weak demand and abundant supply fundamentals. The bearish sentiment in the oil futures market was also driven by concerns about a possible contraction of the U.S. economy in the following months as some tariffs imposed by the United States and its trade partners -- China, Canada and Mexico -- under the Trump administration will take effect this week. President Trump declared a one-month pause last week on additional trade tariffs levied on some imported goods from Canada and Mexico, which were schedule to go into effect on March 4. However, a 25% tax on imports on aluminum and steel from Canada and Mexico is expected to go into effect this week. Retaliatory tariffs from China ranging from 10% to 15% on multiple U.S. agricultural goods are also anticipated to take effect this week, in response to the 20% tax on imported Chinese goods implemented by the United States to date. Analysts have started to discuss the possibility of a recession in the U.S. in the coming months as a result of the tariff war initiated by the Trump administration. On March 6, the Atlanta Federal Reserve forecasted that the U.S. GDP is expected to be at -2.4% in the first quarter of the year, down from a 2.3% expansion reported in February. This week, market participant will focus on U.S. inflation data for February to be released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday, March 12. The market expectation for year-over-year inflation is 3%. In January, U.S. consumer prices rose 0.5%, bringing the annualized inflation rate to 3.0%. The increase was driven by higher energy and food costs, with gasoline prices climbing 1.2% in the month. The NYMEX WTI futures contracts for April delivery fell by $1.07 to $65.97, front-month ICE Brent futures contract dropped by $1.16 to $69.20. RBOB futures contract for April delivery rose by $0.0191 to $2.0896 gallon while the April ULSD futures contract fell by $0.0373 to $2.1787 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index recovered for multi-day losses by climbing 0.18% to 103.99 against a basket of foreign currencies.
Oil settles down 1.5% as tariffs prompt fears of slow demand (Reuters) - Oil prices were down 1% on Monday on fears that U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China would slow economies around the world and slash energy demand while OPEC+ ramps up its supply. Brent crude oil futures futures settled at $69.28 a barrel, down $1.08, or 1.5%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures settled at $66.03 a barrel, shedding $1.01, 1.5%. Last week marked WTI's seventh consecutive weekly decline, the longest losing streak since November 2023, while Brent fell for a third consecutive week. U.S. President Donald Trump's protectionist policies have roiled markets across the world, with Trump imposing and then delaying tariffs on his country's biggest oil suppliers -- Canada and Mexico -- while also raising duties on Chinese goods. China and Canada have responded with tariffs of their own. "This market is on tenterhooks and there's a lot to be processing as we move forward," "There are recession talks for the U.S. and it's very concerning for the macro picture." Over the weekend, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump would not let up pressure on tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. Investors now are worried about a possible economic slowdown that could curtail oil demand. Stocks, which crude prices often follow, continued a steep decline amid tariffs concerns, with the benchmark S&P 500 falling 2% in mid-day trade and the Nasdaq Composite sliding more than 3%. On Friday, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the OPEC+ group agreed to start increasing oil production from April, but could reverse the decision afterwards if there are market imbalances. Also on the supply front, Trump is seeking to choke off Iranian oil exports as part of efforts to pressure Tehran to rein in its nuclear programme. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that his country will not be bullied into negotiations. Possible sanctions against Iran and Russia could provide support in the short term, said PVM analyst Tamas Varga. "Looking at the bigger picture, lingering uncertainties will likely make any oil rally brief," Varga said. Oil rebounded from six-month lows on Friday after Trump said the United States would intensify sanctions on Russia if it fails to reach a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. The U.S. is also studying ways to ease sanctions on Russia's energy sector if Moscow agrees to end its war with Ukraine, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Oil Prices Recover Amid Ongoing Uncertainties -Oil prices have climbed despite ongoing uncertainties in the commodities market, driven by fears over the global economic impact of tariffs, a potential US recession, and OPEC+ plans to boost output. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.5% to $69.32 per barrel, up from its previous close of $68.97. Meanwhile, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) increased by 0.48%, reaching $65.98 per barrel from $65.66 in the prior session. Persistent inflation and recession concerns continue to weigh on global markets, with US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies adding to economic uncertainty. His recent comments on tariffs have further fueled fears of a potential recession. In a Sunday interview, Trump did not rule out the possibility that tariffs could slow the US economy or contribute to rising inflation this year. When asked about a possible recession due to tariffs, Trump avoided making a direct prediction but described the situation as a “period of transition,” emphasizing that his policies aim to bring wealth back to America. He also acknowledged inflation concerns, noting that tariffs could have an impact but pointing out that interest rates have fallen. “Trump’s remarks triggered a sell-off as investors began pricing in the risk of weaker demand growth,” said Daniel Hynes, a commodity strategist at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. Market sentiment was further dampened by economic data from China, which revealed a larger-than-expected decline in consumer inflation. “The drop in service prices and a negative reading for core inflation reflect sluggish consumption,” Hynes added. The uncertainty surrounding US trade policies is set to intensify as a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports takes effect on March 12. In response, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that Canada’s most populous province will impose a 25% surcharge on electricity supplied to US states. On the supply side, OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, are preparing to increase oil production from April. However, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak stated on Friday that they are ready to adjust their approach if market imbalances arise. Experts warn that a combination of slowing demand and rising supply could significantly impact oil prices in the coming months.
Continuing Concerns Over a U.S. Economic Slowdown - The oil market on Tuesday traded higher following Monday’s sell off that was prompted by the sharp equities market losses, although its gains were limited by continuing concerns over a U.S. economic slowdown and the impact of tariffs on global economic growth. The crude market, which continued to trend lower in overnight trading, breached its previous low and sold off to a low of $65.29. The market later bounced off that level and retraced some of Monday’s losses as it posted a high of $67.17 by mid-morning. However, the market pared some of its earlier gains after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would impose an additional 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from Canada, increasing the total tariff on those products to 50%. It traded back towards the $66 level and traded sideways ahead of the close as the market positioned itself ahead of the release of the weekly petroleum stocks reports. The April WTI contract settled up 22 cents at $66.25 and the May Brent contract settled up 28 cents at $69.56. The product markets ended the session higher, with the heating oil market settling up 1.69 cents at $2.1968 and the RB market settling up 1.25 cents at $2.1050. In its Short Term Energy Outlook, the EIA forecast world oil demand of 104.1 million bpd in 2025, unchanged from a previous forecast, while demand is expected to increase by 1.2 million bpd to 105.3 million bpd in 2026, which is up 100,000 bpd from a previous estimate. World oil output in 2025 is estimated at 104.2 million bpd, down 400,000 bpd from a previous forecast. Output in 2026 is forecast to increase by 1.6 million bpd to 105.8 million bpd, down 400,000 bpd from a previous estimate. U.S. oil output in 2025 is forecast at 13.61 million bpd, up 20,000 bpd from a previous forecast, while output in 2026 is expected to increase by 150,000 bpd to 13.76 million bpd, which is up 30,000 bpd from a previous estimate. The EIA forecast that the 2025 Brent crude price will average $74.22/barrel, down from a previous forecast of $74.50/barrel and the 2026 forecast is expected to fall to $68.47/barrel, up from a previous forecast of $66.46/barrel. The average price of WTI in 2025 is forecast at $70.68/barrel, up from a previous forecast of $70.62/barrel and the average price in 2026 is forecast to fall to $64.97/barrel, which is up from a previous forecast of $62.46/barrel. U.S. trade advisor, Peter Navarro, said the 25% tariff increase on Canadian steel and aluminum will no longer take effect on Wednesday. Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said he is “probably so” going to reduce the recently increased tariffs on Canada after Ontario suspended a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the United States. Ontario’s Premier said the electricity surcharge, which he announced earlier on Tuesday, will be suspended temporarily after U.S. Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, reached out and offered an olive branch. The Premier is expected to meet with the U.S. Commerce Secretary on March 13th. According to a joint U.S.-Ukraine statement following talks in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine has agreed to accept a U.S. proposal for an immediate 30 day ceasefire and to take steps toward restoring a durable peace for the country following Russia’s invasion.
Oil settles slightly up on weaker dollar, US economic fears cap gains (Reuters) - Oil prices settled slightly higher on Tuesday, helped by weakness in the dollar, but gains were capped by mounting fears of a U.S. economic slowdown and the impact of tariffs on global economic growth. Brent crude futures settled 28 cents, or 0.4%, higher at $69.56 a barrel after falling as low as $68.63 in early trade. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $66.25 a barrel after previous declines as well. The dollar index hit a four-month low, making oil less expensive for overseas buyers. But U.S. stock prices, which also influence the oil market, fell again, adding to the biggest selloff in months. Both crude benchmarks fell 1.5% on Monday, when the S&P 500 its biggest daily drop since December 18 and the Nasdaq slid 4.0%, its biggest single-day percentage drop since September 2022. Oil prices pared gains after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had instructed his commerce secretary to add an additional 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from Canada, bringing the total tariff on those products to 50%. "That kind of drama is adding to the volatility here," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with the Price Futures Group. Trump's protectionist policies have shaken global markets. He has imposed, then delayed tariffs on major oil suppliers Canada and Mexico, while also raising duties on China, prompting retaliatory measures. Over the weekend, Trump said a "period of transition" was likely and declined to rule out a U.S. recession. In supply, U.S. crude oil production is poised to set a larger record this year than prior estimates, at an average 13.61 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday. Investors are waiting for U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday for clues on the path of interest rates. They also are closely monitoring OPEC+ plans. The producer group has announced plans to increase output in April. A scaling back of U.S. tariffs would ease fears of inflation and economic contraction, said PVM analyst Tamas Varga, but the recent oil price plunge meant it was "hard to see OPEC+ going ahead with its plan and releasing oil back to the market from April." On Friday, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters that OPEC+ would go ahead with its April increase but may then consider other steps, including reducing production. Brent is finding strong technical support at around $70 a barrel and may look to stage a bounce, said Suvro Sarkar, energy sector team lead at DBS Bank, adding the OPEC+ supply response would be flexible, depending on market conditions. "If oil prices fall below the $70 per barrel mark for an extended period, output hikes may be paused in our opinion. OPEC+ will also keep a careful eye on Trump's Iran and Venezuela policies," he said. In the U.S., crude oil stockpiles rose by 4.2 million barrels in the week ended March 7, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. The report comes ahead of U.S. government data on crude stockpiles due on Wednesday.
Oil Prices Rise On Hopes For Ukraine Peace Deal - Oil prices are trending higher as hopes rise for a peace deal that will end the three-year-old war between Ukraine and Russia.The government of Ukraine has agreed to an immediate 30-day ceasefire plan put forward by the U.S., if Russia also accepts the deal.The plan sees the U.S. immediately lift its pause on sharing intelligence information with Ukraine, and America will also resume military and humanitarian aid to that country.The agreement comes after negotiations were held on March 11 in Jedda, Saudi Arabia between high-level American and Ukrainian officials.News that Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire has helped to send crude oil prices about 1% higher.West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, the U.S. standard, is currently trading at $67.19 U.S. per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, is trading at $70.47 U.S. a barrel.In recent days, both oil prices were trading below the key support level of $70 U.S. a barrel.It is not known if Russia will accept the proposed 30-day ceasefire and enter into peace talks with Ukraine following three years of war between the countries.U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to increase sanctions on Russia to get that country to entertain steps aimed at ending the war.Russia is the world’s third largest crude oil producer after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and its oil production and sales have been curtailed by sanctions imposed after it invaded Ukraine.Crude oil prices spiked above $100 U.S. a barrel in the months after Russia’s incursion into Ukraine in early 2022.
WTI Holds Gains After Big Gasoline Inventory Draw, US & OPEC Production Jump --Oil prices are rising again this morning, despite a surge in OPEC+ production reported for February and also in spite of a large crude build reported by API last night.The rise comes after the Energy Information Administration on Tuesday said it expects the market to remain under supplied until the third quarter. Last month, the agency forecast that inventories would begin rising by the end of June.A weakening greenback is also supporting prices as the currency suffers from chaotic U.S. trade policy."The lack of coherent policies is the primary trigger of the current dollar malaise. Confusion reigns. Will the situation worsen or brighten and the sell-off will change course? Clarity on US economic policies could steady the dollar boat," PVM Oil Associates noted.So all eyes on the official data this morning to see if it confirms the big crude build. API
- Crude +4.25mm
- Cushing
- Gasoline -4.56mm
- Distillates +421k
DOE:
- Crude +1.45mm
- Cushing -1.23mm
- Gasoline -5.74mm - biggest draw since Oct
- Distillates -1.559
Crude stocks rose last week (but less than API reported), but it was the major draw in gasoline stocks that caught traders' eyes... For the first time in four weeks, the Trump admin added to the SPR (+275k barrels)... US crude production rose back near record highs last week... WTI is holding gains above $67 for now...
Oil Rebounds on Softer Inflation and Tightening Market Outlook -- Oil extended gains as a stream of bullish data out of the US pointed to resilient domestic demand, even as trade strife continued to weigh on sentiment. West Texas Intermediate rose 2.2% to settle near $68 a barrel, continuing a rebound from oversold territory, while Brent settled just below $71. US consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in four months in February, offering a reprieve after months of stalling inflation progress. At the same time, US government figures Wednesday showed gasoline demand is up to 9.2 million barrels a day, the highest level since November. The nation’s oil inventories gained by 1.5 million barrels, a smaller buildup than the 4.2-million-barrel increase projected by an industry group, while reserves fell at the Cushing hub. Still, futures remain far below their mid-January highs on the chaotic rollout of US tariffs, OPEC+ plans to add supply and a weakening demand outlook in China. Limiting gains on Wednesday were reports that the cartel’s crude production surged last month as Kazakhstan further breached its output quota, though the nation agreed on Wednesday to adhere to the limit in the near future. “Crude is rallying amid a risk-on sentiment following a softer CPI print, as it continues to trade within the vortex of macro-driven moves,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. “The latest OPEC report highlights overproduction by several members, but the market remains firmly focused on broader macroeconomic dynamics.” Geopolitical concerns also remain front and center. Ukraine has accepted a US proposal for a 30-day truce with Russia that raises the possibility of a pause of hostilities in the three-year-old war. Meanwhile, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said US efforts to kickstart nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic are a ploy that will lead to tighter sanctions on the nation’s economy. Meanwhile, the Energy Information Administration slashed its prediction for a surplus for this year and halved its outlook for a glut in 2026, citing the prospect of diminished flows from Iran and Venezuela. WTI for April delivery rose 2.2% to $67.68 a barrel in New York. Brent for May settlement advanced 2% to $70.95 a barrel.
Oil eases on concerns about escalating tariff wars impact - Brent futures fell 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $70.88 a barrel by 0107 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures shed 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $67.57 a barrel. Oil prices eased on Thursday after surging the day before as worries about the impact of intensifying tariff wars on global economic growth and energy demand outweighed the positive sentiment from a larger-than-expected draw in U.S. gasoline stocks.Brent futures fell 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $70.88 a barrel by 0107 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures shed 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $67.57 a barrel.Both benchmarks rallied about 2% on Wednesday as U.S. government data showed tighter-than-expected oil and fuel inventories.U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 1.4 million barrels in the latest week, Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed on Wednesday, which was less than the 2 million-barrel rise forecasters had expected
Focus on Tariffs Raising U.S. Recession Fears - The oil market on Thursday continued to trade within its recent trading range from $65.00 to $68.50 as the market weighed economic concerns and its impact demand. President Donald Trump’s focus on tariffs has shaken investors, consumers and business confidence and raised U.S. recession fears. The market breached its previous high and posted a high of $67.94 in overnight trading. However, it was unable to sustain its gains amid the uncertainty created by the seesawing tariff announcements and the expected impact on the global economy and thus demand. The market remained pressured and erased its gains, trading to a low of $66.37 by mid-day. The April WTI contract settled down $1.13 at $66.55 and the May Brent contract settled down $1.13 at $69.88. The product markets also ended the session in negative territory, with the heating oil market settling down 4.41 cents at $2.1622 and the RB market settling down 1.7 cents at $2.1331. The International Energy Agency said in a monthly oil market report that global oil supply could exceed demand by around 600,000 bpd this year, up 100,000 bpd from its previous forecast, after a downward revision to its 2025 demand growth forecast. The IEA said the surplus could grow by a further 400,000 bpd if OPEC+ extends its unwinding of output cuts and fails to rein in overproduction against quotas. The IEA’s February oil market report had suggested a slightly narrower surplus of around 500,000 bpd. The IEA revised down its 2025 oil demand growth forecast by 70,000 bpd to around 1 million bpd, with growth driven largely by Asia, specifically China’s petrochemical industry. On the supply side, the IEA sees 2025 global supply growth doubling relative to the 2024 pace of growth to around 1.5 million bpd, assuming OPEC+ maintains cut levels after its planned April unwinding. It estimates global supply for 2025 at 104.5 million bpd. It added that OPEC may actually only add around 40,000 bpd of oil to the market following its April cut unwinding from Saudi Arabia and Algeria, because continued overproduction from other member states leaves no room to open taps further. It reported that OPEC+ led a 240,000 bpd increase in world oil supply in February, due to record output from Kazakhstan and an increase of 130,000 bpd from Iran and Venezuela. It downgraded its Venezuelan supply forecast for 2025 by 190,000 bpd. The IEA continues to see non-OPEC+ production driving the majority of supply growth in 2025, forecasting a 1.5 million bpd increase driven mostly by the Americas.On Thursday, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iran’s Oil Minister, Mohsen Paknejad and targeted more companies and vessels linked to the “shadow fleet” that Iran uses to circumvent sanctions.U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was not going to change his mind on imposing tariffs on April 2nd. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that Russia supported a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but that any truce would have to address the root causes of the conflict and that many crucial details needed to be sorted out.
Oil settles down more than 1% on tariff worry, supply-demand expectations - Oil prices fell over 1 per cent on Thursday as markets weighed macroeconomic concerns, including the risk that tariff wars between the U.S. and other countries could hurt global demand as well as uncertainty stemming from a U.S. proposal for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire. Brent futures settled $1.07, or 1.5 per cent, lower at $69.88 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $1.13, or 1.7 per cent, to $66.55 a barrel. The International Energy Agency reported that global oil supply could exceed demand by around 600,000 barrels per day this year, with global demand now expected to rise by just 1.03 million bpd, off last month's forecast by 70,000 bpd. The report cited deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, including escalating trade tensions. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to slap a 200 per cent tariff on wine, cognac and other alcohol imports from Europe, opening a new front in a global trade war and sparking investor worries about stiffer trade barriers around the world's largest consumer market. Trade tensions have rattled investors, consumers and business confidence. U.S. stock indexes fell, dragging down oil market sentiment despite favorable fundamentals such as government data showing tighter-than-expected oil and fuel inventories, said Phil Flynn senior analyst with Price Futures Group. "It's creating this push-pull dynamic," Flynn said. "Do we focus on supply and demand, which still looks pretty bullish, or do we focus on tariffs?" The tariffs situation is the major factor weighing on the market's perception of oil demand growth in 2025, said Andrew Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates. "The expectation is that the tariffs and retaliatory tariffs are going to ultimately impact the consumer," Lipow said. Also on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow agreed with U.S. proposals to stop fighting but any ceasefire should lead to a lasting peace and address root causes of the conflict. The market is weighing the potential for a short-term ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, though UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said he "remains skeptical" that this would boost the availability of Russian oil. With Trump's stated commitment to cheaper oil, Citi analysts said their outlook for Brent by the second half of 2025 is $60 a barrel. On Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Kazakhstan led a sizeable jump in February crude output by OPEC+. The producer group seeks to enforce adherence to agreed output targets, even as it intends to unwind production cuts. Worries about flagging jet fuel demand weighed further on markets, with JP Morgan analysts saying that U.S. Transportation Security Administration data showed "passenger volumes for March have decreased by 5 per cent year-over-year, following stagnant traffic in February". However, the JP Morgan analysts added: "As of March 11, global oil demand averaged 102.2 million barrels per day, expanding 1.7 million barrels per day year-over-year and exceeding our projected increase for the month by 60,000 barrels per day."
Oil prices rebound on unclear path to Ukraine ceasefire -- Oil prices rebounded on Friday after a more than 1% loss in the previous session as investors weighed the diminishing prospects of a quick end to the Ukraine war that could bring back more Russian energy supplies to Western markets. Brent crude futures were up 73 cents, or 1.04 %, to $70.61 a barrel at 1:18 p.m. EDT (1718 GMT), after settling 1.5% lower in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $67.27 a barrel, up 72 cents, or 1.08%, after closing down 1.7% on Thursday. Prices are set to end the week more or less stable from last Friday, when Brent settled at $70.36 and WTI at $67.04. “Brent oil has hovered around the $70 mark for the past two weeks. Whether it will remain at this level in the coming week depends on the political news situation,” Commerzbank analysts said in a note. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow supported a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but sought a number of clarifications and conditions that appeared to rule out a quick end to the fighting. “If the prospect for a ceasefire continues to be pushed into the future, the market would expect Russian oil to be under sanctions for an extended period of time,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates. On Friday, Trump again urged Russia to agree to a ceasefire proposal, saying on his private social media platform that he would extract the U.S. from what he called a “real ‘mess’ with Russia”. The Trump administration had said a licence allowing energy transactions with Russian financial institutions expired this week. Chinese state firms are also curbing Russian oil imports on sanctions risks, sources told Reuters. China and Russia stood by Iran after the U.S. demanded nuclear talks with Tehran, with senior Chinese and Russian diplomats saying dialogue should only resume based on “mutual respect” and all sanctions ought to be lifted. “Most price projections were to the downside in the short term, but geopolitical tension could still cause supply disruptions,” ANZ analysts said in a note to clients. The International Energy Agency warned on Thursday that global oil supply could exceed demand by around 600,000 barrels per day this year, due to growth led by the U.S. and weaker-than-expected global demand. Unstable macroeconomic conditions caused by escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and other nations prompted the IEA to cut its demand growth estimates for the last quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of this year. “High risks on the demand side and increasing supply from OPEC+ argue against a sustained recovery in oil prices,” Commerzbank analysts said. In the U.S., energy firms this week kept the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating unchanged, services company Baker Hughes said in a report on Friday. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, was steady at 592 in the week to March 14.
Oil Futures Mixed Amid Weak Demand, Ample Supply Outlook -- Crude oil futures rebounded Friday morning despite the International Energy Agency forecasting on Thursday that oil supply will exceed the global demand in 2025, driven by an escalation of the trade tariff war. The front-month NYMEX WTI futures contract edged up by $0.24 to $66.79 bbl while the ICE Brent futures contract for May delivery increased by $0.26 to $70.14 bbl. In the opposite direction, April RBOB futures contract fell by $0.0026 to $2.1305 gallon and April ULSD futures climbed by $0.0133 to $2.1489 gallon. Meanwhile, the U.S. Dollar Index fell by 0.16% to 103.7 against a basket of foreign currencies. Expectations of abundant global supplies are expected to continue putting pressure on oil futures markets as uncertainty about the impact of trade tariffs on the global economy persist. The IEA forecasted Thursday that the growth in global oil demand is set to accelerate to over 1 million bpd in 2025, from 830,000 bpd in 2024 to reach 103.9 million bpd. In its Oil Market Report, the IEA anticipates that Asia will account for nearly 60% of gains due to a growth of Chinese petrochemical feedstocks. Domestically, abundant supplies were also confirmed this week by Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute data showing a build in U.S. crude inventories for the week ended March 7. The EIA reported commercial crude oil inventories rose by 1.4 million bbl to 435.2 million bbl last week, lower than the 4.247 million bbl build reported by API for the same week. The trade tensions ignited by tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported goods from China, Canada and Mexico have affected recently the projections of global supply and demand fundamentals and price forecast for the two main oil benchmarks.
Oil ends higher as tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran, Russia may disrupt global supplies Oil futures finished higher on Friday, with news of tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran and Russia having the potential to disrupt global crude supplies. U.S. crude prices eked out gain for the week - their first in eight weeks - as traders continued to monitor rising trade tensions and their impact on the economy and demand for oil.
- -- West Texas Intermediate crude CL00 for April delivery climbed 63 cents, or nearly 1%, to settle at at $67.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices edged up by 0.2% for the week based on the front-month contract, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
- -- May Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 70 cents, or 1%, to $70.58 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. It tacked on 0.3% for the week.
- -- April gasoline RBJ25 added 0.7% at $2.1487 a gallon, up 1.9% for the week, while April heating oil HOJ25 rose 0.2% to $2.1666 a gallon, but posted a weekly loss of 2.2%.
- -- Natural gas for April delivery NGJ25 settled at $4.104 per million British thermal units, down 0.2% for the day and losing 6.7% for the week.
Oil benchmarks drew some support from tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran and Russia, but remained weighed down by the International Energy Agency's bearish forecast for the global supply-demand equation, Han Tan, chief market analyst at Exinity Group, told MarketWatch. In a report released Thursday, the IEA cut its estimates for oil demand growth in the fourth quarter of last year and the current quarter. "Overall, oil benchmarks are unlikely to stage a meaningful rebound over the near term as long as the risk of an oversupply looms large," said Tan. Month to date, WTI oil prices were trading down by 3.7%. The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced tighter sanctions on Iran - targeting its minister of petroleum, Mohsen Paknejad, as well a number of specific shipping companies. The impact of the tightened sanctions on oil prices will "depend more on the enforcement of sanctions than their severity," analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote in a note on Friday. Currently, Iranian crude exports have remained relatively stable at around 1.7 million barrels per day, surpassing 2024 and 2023 levels, with an estimated 46% of February's exports shipped on sanctioned vessels, the analysts said - though Iranian crude in floating storage has been steadily increasing. Meanwhile, a Bloomberg report said the U.S. tightened sanctions on Russia by restricting payments for energy. The Trump administration quietly let expire a license covering payments for energy to a handful of Russian banks that were still allowed to receive payments in U.S. dollars, the report said. "Despite nearly 16% of the Russian tanker fleet being under U.S. sanctions, Russian exports of crude oil and oil products continue to flow," the J.P. Morgan analysts said - with the current four-week average for total liquid exports standing at 5.7 million barrels per day, marking the highest level since June 2024. Against this backdrop, prices for WTI and Brent saw a modest rise for the week, with WTI just managing to snap a streak of seven straight weekly declines. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he didn't support an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, a development which was supportive for oil prices, analysts said. "If no solution is found, sanctions against Russia could be tightened. Tougher sanctions had pushed oil prices sharply higher at the turn of the year. However, Russia's oil exports have since recovered significantly," Barbara Lambrecht, commodity strategist at Commerzbank, said in a note. Meanwhile, investors continue to gauge the potential economic fallout from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and retaliatory measures threatened by trading partners. Trump on Thursday threatened 200% tariffs on wine and all other alcoholic products from the European Union, saying the import taxes would come "shortly" unless the E.U. backs down from its plan to hit American whiskey with a 50% levy on April 1.
The Almost Unbelievable Details Of The Great Gas Pipeline Caper Of 2025 This is the most astounding thing I have heard of in a long, long time. It almost is too fantastical to believe. If it happened here in the US or West, it would be all over the front pages and on every newscast. Agents would be angling for the movie rights.What am I talking about? Briefly put, 800 Russian special ops marched 12 km. (7.2 miles!) through an abandoned gas pipeline (in some portions crawled apparently), came out the other side, and in conjunction with other Russian troops, closed the trap door on Zelensky's Kursk misadventure.A bit of context: last year the EU closed the door on purchasing cheap Russian gas, which flowed out of Russia underneath Ukraine and into Europe. Zelensky obligingly cut it off on his end. No matter that you ruin your economies and your citizens don’t have enough heat in the winter by buying the much more expensive LNG from the U.S. (or ironically, the gas that Russia sells to India who sells to the U.S. who sells, with 2 markups, to Europe.)That is a small price to pay, I suppose, for all the virtue you can signal by not purchasing that nasty Russian gas directly. Anyway, there remained a enormous gas pipeline, now completely empty, and the Russians saw an opportunity.How did they do it? I get much of my real news from Telegram channels. This is how one explained the plan:
- 1) The gas pressure pumps were stopped and the gas was sucked out
- 2) Oxygen was pumped into the pipeline
- 3) Diggers dug out rooms for assembly and toilets were installed
- 4) Water, food and ammunition was brought in to these assembly rooms
- 5) 800 soldiers went through the pipe to the assembly rooms
- 6) The soldiers waited 4 days in the assembly rooms and in the pipe close to the exit
- 7) When the signal was given, they ran out and went into the industry zone of Sudzha
- 8) The Ukrainian army was surprised to see such a huge force in their rear, they began to panic and became disorganized
- 9) Russians liberated many settlements in Kursk region, due to this
Below: blue=Ukrainian control, orange=recaptured by Russia, yellow=current fighting, red=Russian incursions into Ukraine), via Kalibrated maps on X.
'Ukraine Will Not Recognize Any Territory Occupied By Russia': Zelensky --The Kremlin says it is "studying" statements issued by the US and Ukrainian delegations following yesterday's talks in Jeddah, and further describes Russian officials are waiting for a fuller briefing from the US on the proposal. The 30-day ceasefire plan calls for a halt to all the fighting on land, sea and in the air - which can be extended by mutual agreement, with a hoped-for path to a permanent truce based on negotiations in the interim. President Zelensky in a Tuesday X post said the ceasefire will apply to missile, drone and bomb attacks "not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line" - though its as yet unclear what mechanism there will be to monitor this.Update(1210ET): On Wednesday President Zelensky shut the door on territorial concessions, awkwardly at a moment Ukraine has just agreed to a US plan for a 30-day ceasefire intended to pave the way for extended peace negotiations. An initial statement from the Kremlin said that Putin likely to eventually agree to truce but with own terms as Moscow "studies" the Trump-sponsored proposal hammered out during the Tuesday Jeddah talks."We are fighting for our independence. Therefore, we will not recognize any occupied territories as Russia's. This is a fact," Zelensky said in the fresh comments. "Our people have fought for this, our heroes died. How many injured, how many passed. No one will forget about it... This is the most important red line. We will not let anyone forget about this crime against Ukraine."But Russia's red line in any near-future negotiations will be to demand recognition of the Russian Federations sovereign control over the four easter territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions - which President Putin has previously referred to as "our citizens forever." As for Zelensky's new proclamation that he won't cede territory, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters just after the Ukraine-US talks in Saudi Arabia that discussions with Kiev's delegations included "territorial concessions" as part of a negotiated settlement. The suggestion from the US side is that Ukraine showed openness and willingness on this question. So either the two allies can't get on the same age (which is no surprise), or else Zelensky is trying to tank these negotiation efforts before they ever get off the ground, also as the White House has pressed Kiev to hold new presidential elections. Fresh comments from Zelensky asserting Ukraine will NOT recognize any territory occupied by Russia...'Ukraine will NOT recognize any territory occupied by Russia' – Zelensky That will surely help the peace talks... https://t.co/JN7f7aWy5ypic.twitter.com/gdLyCvDTLECertainly Russia sees no need to rush into negotiations, especially if Zelensky is unwilling to budge on territory in the east, given all the battlefield gains of late. Kursk will also soon return to full Russian control, as Ukrainian forces there are reportedly in disarray, and as Moscow has taken back over a dozen key sites just this week.
Israel Cuts Electricity to Gaza, Ramping Up Collective Punishment - Israel on Sunday said it was cutting off electricity to the Gaza Strip as it ramps up the collective punishment of the civilian population to pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages, violating the ceasefire deal reached in January. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen made the announcement, saying he instructed the Israel Electric Corporation to immediately stop selling electricity to power stations in Gaza. “We will employ all the tools available to us so that all the hostages will return, and we will ensure that Hamas won’t be in Gaza on the ‘day after,'” Cohen said. The move is expected to impact Gaza’s water supply since electricity powers desalination plants that produce drinking water.Since March 2, Israel has blocked the entry of aid, medicine, fuel, and all other goods into Gaza, a war crime backed by the US. The UN’s World Food Program has warned that it’s running out of food supplies in Gaza, and Palestinians report a sharp rise in prices since Israel imposed the total siege.Israel is demanding that Hamas release more Israeli hostages but without a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza or commitment to a permanent ceasefire, which were both conditions of the second phase of the initial deal. Hamas continues to call for the implementation of the second phase, saying it will not release the remaining hostages without an Israeli commitment to end the genocidal war permanently.The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Israel is planning a series of escalatory steps that could lead to the full-scale resumption of its genocidal war. The report said that after cutting all aid to Gaza, the next step was cutting off electricity and water. After that, if Hamas doesn’t agree to Israel’s terms, airstrikes could resume, followed by mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and another Israeli invasion.The Journal report said an Israeli invasion of the territories it withdrew from in Gaza seems inevitable.However, some US officials, including Adam Boehler, President Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs, who held direct talks with Hamas, have said they believe a deal can be reached.“I think you could see something like a long-term truce, where we forgive prisoners, where Hamas lays down their arms, where they agree they’re not part of the political party going forward. I think that’s a reality. It’s real close,” Boehler told CNN on Sunday.
UN reports nothing is entering Gaza, as Israel imposes total food and energy blockade - The Israeli government announced Sunday that it will completely shut off electricity into Gaza, following the blockade of all food and humanitarian supplies earlier this month. The total blockade is aimed at implementing the plan, first proposed by far-right members of the Israeli government and later publicly adopted by the Trump administration, to ethnically cleanse Gaza by making the enclave unlivable, forcing its people to flee “voluntarily” in order to avoid starving to death.When asked, “What does Israel’s government allow to get into Gaza so far?”, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric replied, “Nothing. I mean, there’s been no goods coming in. No trucks coming in.”UN humanitarian coordinator Muhannad Hadi said:The entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza has been halted for nine consecutive days. ... International humanitarian law is clear: Civilians’ essential needs must be met, including through the unimpeded entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance.“Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, adding that it is a “genocide alert.”Since October 11, 2023, Gaza has experienced a complete electricity blackout after then-Energy Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israeli Electric Corporation to halt electricity supply. On November 14, 2024, the South Sea desalination plant became the only facility in Gaza to be reconnected to Israel’s power grid.The plant, Gaza’s main water desalination facility, which provides the majority of the enclave’s drinkable water, has been operating at only 20 percent capacity on generator power. The plant will be completely shut down within 10 days if the blockade continues, a spokesperson for the Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility said Monday.In December, Amnesty International reported that in several parts of Gaza, Palestinians had access to only 2 to 9 liters (a half gallon to less than 2.5 gallons) of water per person each day for both drinking and washing. This falls significantly below the 15-liter (almost 4 gallons) per person minimum required for basic survival.Tania Hary, executive director of the Palestinian rights organization Gisha, said:Cutting the electricity supply used for civilian purposes like desalinating water is not “using the tools at our disposal,” as Minister [Eli] Cohen says, it’s committing the crimes at Israel’s disposal. As a result of the shutoff of electricity and fuel, Gaza’s food supply is just days away from total collapse.Six out of 22 bakeries still in operation have been forced to close in recent days after running out of fuel, the head of Gaza’s bakers’ union told Reuters. “The remaining bakeries may close down in a week or so should they run out of diesel or flour,” he said. As mass hunger stalks Gaza, people have been waiting in lines for hours for less than a day’s worth of food. “For every person, there’s only half a loaf of bread, half a pita bread. I leave home at 6:00 a.m. and return at 1:00 p.m. with just one loaf of bread,” 75-year-old Abu Essam Abu Sahloul, a Khan Younis resident, told Reuters.We used to have electricity to cook with, but now there’s no electricity, and there’s no firewood to bake in an oven. As for the children, how am I supposed to feed them?Ghada al-Rakab, a mother of six living in a tent in Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera: What kind of life are we living? No electricity, no water. ... What else is there left in life? May God take us and give us rest.
Israeli Minister Says God Sent Trump To Help Build Jewish Settlements in Gaza - Idit Silman, the Israeli minister of environmental protection, said on Tuesday that God had sent the Trump administration to advance the goal of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the building of Jewish settlements in the Strip.According to Haaretz, Silman, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the government is “committed to the idea of encouraging emigration” and added that she believes “God has sent us the US administration, and it is clearly telling us – it’s time to inherit the land.”Silman vowed that Gush Katif, a Jewish settlement in Gaza that was evacuated in 2005, would return. “It could be in single-family homes or Trump-style towers, but we will definitely go back there. I see no other solution to terrorism. The answer to terrorism is sovereignty,” she said.Silman said the “only solution for the Gaza Strip is to empty it of Gazans,” an option she said is “realistic.”Other extremist members of the Netanyahu government have welcomed President Trump’s calls for Palestinians in Gaza to be removed permanently and for the US to take over the Palestinian territory, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said earlier this week that the plan was “taking shape.”Smotrich said the Israeli government would establish a new “migration administration” to facilitate the ethnic cleansing. “If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” he said. “This is a huge logistical operation – not just the bus that takes them, we need to know who is going, to which country, what ages, vocational training, a huge operation, we are preparing.”Smotrich made the comments after visiting Washington, and he claimed that “sources in the American government” agreed that “it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
Yemen's Houthis Announce Renewed Blockade on Israeli Ships Due to Lack of Gaza Aid - Yemen’s Houthis announced on Tuesday night that it has re-imposed its blockade on Israeli shipping in response to Israel blocking the entry of aid and all other goods into Gaza.Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said that any Israeli ship that enters the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Arabian Sea, and the Gulf of Aden will be targeted.Saree said the “ban” on Israeli ships entering those waters will continue until “the crossings to the Gaza Strip are reopened and aid, food, and medicine are allowed in.”The announcement came after Houthi Abdul Malik al-Houthi issued an ultimatum to Israel on Friday, saying the attacks would resume if aid wasn’t allowed to enter Gaza within four days.The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, ceased their attacks on Israel and Israeli-linked shipping once the Gaza ceasefire deal was reached. But the group had vowed that it was ready to intervene if Israel violated the agreement.Renewed Houthi attacks could mean the US will resume its bombing campaign against Yemen. From January 2024 to January 2025, the Biden administration launched hundreds of missile strikes on Yemen, which didn’t deter the Houthis and only escalated the situation in the Red Sea.So far, under the new Trump administration, the US has not bombed the Houthis but appears to be preparing for the possibility. The administration has re-designated the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” and slapped new sanctions on the group on Wednesday.President Trump also recently loosened restrictions on drone strikes and special operations raids, and US officials said the move was made with the Houthis in mind as a potential target, along with al-Shabaab in Somalia, which US Africa Command has targeted at least three times under the new Trump administration.
Trump orders strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and issues new warning to Iran --President Donald Trump said he ordered a series of airstrikes on the Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Saturday, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until Iranian-backed Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. The Houthis said at least 18 civilians were killed. “Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom,” Trump said in a social media post. “No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.”He also warned Iran to stop supporting the rebel group, promising to hold the country “fully accountable” for the actions of its proxy. It comes two weeks after the U.S. leader sent a letter to Iranian leaders offering a path to restarting bilateral talks between the countries on Iran’s advancing nuclear weapons program. Trump has said he will not allow it to become operational.The Houthis reported explosions in their territory Saturday evening, in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia, with more airstrikes reported in those areas early Sunday. Images online showed plumes of black smoke over the area of the Sanaa airport complex, which includes a sprawling military facility. The Houthis also reported airstrikes early Sunday on the provinces of Hodeida, Bayda, and Marib.At least 18 people were killed, including 13 in Sanaa and five in Saada, according to the Houthi-run health ministry. At least 24 others were wounded, including nine in Sanaa and 15 in Saada, it said.A U.S. official said this was the beginning of air strikes on Houthi targets that are expected to continue. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, said the airstrikes won’t deter them and they would retaliate against the U.S. “Sanaa will remain Gaza’s shield and support and will not abandon it no matter the challenges,” he added on social media.Another spokesman, Mohamed Abdulsalam, on X, called Trump’s claims that the Houthis threaten international shipping routes “false and misleading.”The airstrikes come a few days after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel’s latest blockade on Gaza. They described the warning as affecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea.There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.
Tehran Slams US Ending Waiver That Allowed Iraq To Buy Electricity from Iran - Iran on Monday denounced the US decision not to renew a sanctions waiver for Iraq that allowed it to purchase electricity from neighboring Iran, a move that’s part of the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran.“Such statements are an admission of lawlessness, an admission of crimes against humanity, because the US sanctions, the unilateral US sanctions, against the Iranian nation have no justification or legal basis,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.Baghaei said the US ending the waiver, which expired on Sunday, was “absolutely illegal.” The waiver first started in 2018 after the previous Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal by reimposing sanctions on Iran. Iraqis are worried that the lack of electricity from Iran will cause more power outages in the country. It’s also unclear if Iraq will still be able to purchase gas from Iran. The import of electricity from Iran, combined with the power generated by Iranian gas, accounts for 30% of Iraq’s electricity. Also on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that Iran would not negotiate with the US in the face of increasing sanctions. “We will NOT negotiate under pressure and intimidation. We will NOT even consider it, no matter what the subject may be,” he wrote on X.Araghchi also said that Iran’s nuclear program will always be peaceful despite claims from US and Israeli officials that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb. “Iran’s nuclear energy program has always been—and will always remain—entirely peaceful. There is fundamentally therefore no such thing as its ‘potential militarization,'” he said.President Trump recently acknowledged that Iranian leadership does not seek nuclear weapons but chose to increase sanctions on Iran anyway.
Iran Receives Trump Letter, Ayatollah Khamenei Again Rejects Talks in Face of US Pressure - A letter from President Trump was delivered to Iran by the UAE on Wednesday, an offer for negotiations that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said was a “deception” meant to create the impression that the US was the reasonable party and that Tehran refuses to negotiate. Khamenei and other Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected the idea of talks with the Trump administration in the face of increasing US sanctions and threats of potential military action. Last week, when Trump discussed the letter in an interview, he warned that “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal.”Khamenei said one reason Iran was unable to negotiate with President Trump was the fact that during his first administration, he withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.“So why do we refuse to negotiate? This same person tore up the JCPOA,” Khamenei said. “How can we negotiate with this person? In negotiations, one must be sure that the other party will fulfill their commitments. When we know that they will not keep their word, what’s the point?”Trump wants a deal on Iran’s nuclear program even though he’s acknowledged that Iranian leadership doesn’t want a nuclear bomb. The US also wants to impose restrictions on Iran’s conventional weapons and its relationship with its allies in the region, ideas Khamenei rejected over the weekend.“They will be about defense capabilities, about international capabilities of the country. (They will urge Iran) not to do (certain) things, not to meet some certain people, not to go to a certain place, not to produce some items, your missile range should not be more than a certain distance. Is it possible for anybody to accept these?” Khamenei said on March 8.Last year, Khamenei expressed an openness to direct talks with the US, saying there was “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy.” He made the comments shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in.Pezeshkian vowed during his campaign to engage directly with Western countries in an effort to get sanctions relief, and Khamenei’s comments appeared to give him the green light to pursue the idea. But since Trump re-imposed his “maximum pressure campaign,” both Khamenei and Pezeshkian have discouraged the idea of negotiations with the US.On Tuesday, Pezeshkian strongly rejected the idea of talks. “It is unacceptable for us that they give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want,” he said.
Qatar to provide gas to Syria via Jordan with a US nod, sources say - Qatar is set to provide Syria with gas via Jordan to improve the nation's meagre electricity supply and boost Syria's new rulers, according to three people familiar with the matter, in a move that a U.S. official said had Washington's approval. It would be the most significant tangible support for the new administration in Damascus by Qatar, one of the region's sternest opponents of the now-deposed Bashar al-Assad and strongest backers of the rebels-turned rulers who replaced him. A U.S. official said the gas deal had a nod of approval from President Donald Trump's administration without saying how this was communicated. Qatar's state news agency later said an agreement had been signed between Qatar's development fund and Jordan's energy ministry to provide Damascus with "an approved supply of natural gas" via Jordan to help address Syria's electricity shortage, without mentioning Syria's new rulers or Washington. Qatar's fund will provide Jordan's energy ministry with a grant to supply Syria with the gas, the fund told Reuters in an email. Jordanian energy minister Saleh al-Kharabsheh told Jordan's state news agency the initiative would be fully funded by Qatar's fund. The gas will be received at Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba and pumped to Syria via the Arab Gas Pipeline, Jordanian energy minister al-Kharabsheh said. A segment of the pipeline runs from Aquaba north across Jordan to Syria. The U.S. green light and efforts to encourage a deal between Kurdish forces in Syria's north and Damascus suggest the U.S. remains actively engaged in Syria, despite Washington moving more cautiously than European states to ease sanctions. The gas would be transferred from Jordan via a pipeline to the Deir Ali power plant in southern Syria, two of the sources said. The move will initially boost the Deir Ali power plant's output by 400 megawatts per day, an amount that would "gradually increase", according to the Qatari fund's statement. Estimates of Syria's recent power capacity range up to around 4,000 MW.
Hundreds Killed in Syria's Northwest in Fighting, Mass Executions - Thursday’s reports of fighting between the Syrian government and Alawite militias in Latakia Governorate have exploded into what some are calling an outright insurgency, with hundreds of people killed and reports of the ruling Islamists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) carrying out mass executions of members of the Alawite minority. 162 Alawite non-combatants were reportedly executed.Exact figures are difficult to confirm so far, but between Thursday and Friday over 200 people have been killed in the ongoing fighting. This includes combatant death tolls of 50 government fighters and 45 militia members.The fighting centered on Jableh, in Latakia Governorate, where Alawite militias carried out an organized joint attack on HTS government forces. Large numbers of government reinforcement have been sent to the area, but only some are involved in the fighting in and around Jableh. Other government forces attacked Alawite villages across the area, including al-Mukhtareyah in Homs Governorate, al-Haffah and al-Shir in Latakia Governorate, and smaller villages in the immediate vicinity of Jableh and Baniyas. Troops from the Defense Ministry and forces from the Interior Ministry reportedly rounded up Alawite men and carried out summary executions. 162 civilians were reported killed in those incidents on Friday. Mostly men were executed, but 13 women and 5 children were also said to have been slain.The death toll in al-Mukhtareyah alone from executions was at least 30. The government has not directly commented on the killings, but state media quoted an unnamed official attributing them to people “seeking revenge” for the violence against government.HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani), who is also the de facto ruler of Syria since December, has issued a statement demanding that all Alawites surrender completely and disarm. He further declared that they had made an “unforgiveable mistake” in resisting security forces.Sharaa went on to vow to continue his effort to totally monopolize weapons ownership in the hands of the central government, declaring that “there will be no more unregulated weapons” in Syria.
Over 1,000 dead as Western-backed HTS regime in Syria escalates massacre of Alawites In Syria, the Western-backed Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime’s massacre of Alawites has escalated, with over 1,000 people killed. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that armed groups affiliated with the HTS regime have killed at least 745 civilians, including women and children, in the coastal region since Thursday. The brutality of the killings was demonstrated by the bodies being left in the streets as a warning. HTS jihadist terror against Alawites and other religious minorities is not new. As the World Socialist Web Site has reported, these attacks have been systematic since it took power in Syria in December, toppling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. In late December, the aggression of the regime forces led to mass protests. According to BBC reports, the violence began when residents of Beit Ana village in Latakia refused to hand over a suspect to security forces on Thursday and quickly spread to other coastal cities in the northwest. Armed groups composed of former Syrian army soldiers launched coordinated attacks on government checkpoints, security convoys, and military positions. In response, the interim government forces launched a large-scale operation. By Saturday, SOHR was already reporting that at least 745 civilians, 148 insurgents, and 125 regime soldiers had been killed during the operation. Alawite men who served in the security forces during the Assad regime were executed by the new government forces, and many Alawite villages were looted and set on fire. Jenan Moussa, Al-Aan TV’s Middle East correspondent, shared footage on social media related to HTS militia’s attacks in the Latakia region on Friday. The videos show severe violence against individuals described by the Syrian regime as “remnants of the old regime,” with most victims wearing civilian clothes. Moussa’s footage revealed 29 men executed in the Al- Mokhtariyeh area and 11 in Al-Hafa. The videos included sectarian insults and slogans. In one, an HTS supporter referred to the victims as “dead animals.” Another showed a man in civilian clothes and slippers being shot at close range. SOHR is an anti-Assad organisation funded by the UK Foreign Office and other European powers. It’s director, Rami Abdulrahman, was imprisoned three times in Syria before fleeing to the UK. He stated that the widespread massacres in areas with dense Alawite populations, such as Jableh, Baniyas, and surrounding regions, are among the worst violence in the 14-year civil war. Abdulrahman emphasized, “This is not about being pro or against the former Assad regime. These are sectarian massacres that aim to expel the Alawite population from their homes.”
Report: US Encouraged Kurds To Sign Deal With HTS-Led Syrian Government - The US encouraged the Kurdish-led SDF to sign a deal with the new Syrian government led by the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Reutersreported on Wednesday.The leader of the SDF and Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani), signed a deal for the SDF to be merged into the Syrian government and military on Monday.The US-backed SDF controls northeast Syria, where about 2,000 US troops are deployed. The Trump administration has drawn up plans to withdraw from Syria, but a Pentagon official told Reuters that there was no sign that a pullout was imminent.The signing of the deal came after a weekend of massacres of mainly Alawite civilians by HTS forces in northwest Syria. The Reuters report said the killings “nudged” the SDF deal along.A senior regional intelligence source said the US played a very “crucial role” in getting the deal signed. The details of how exactly the SDF will merge with the HTS-led government still need to be worked out, but the agreement states that the Kurds will be able to have “constitutional rights.”Sources told Reuters that they expected the deal to ease Turkish pressure on the Syrian Kurds, although the SDF continues to battle with the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the agreement in a statement on Tuesday.“The full implementation of the agreement reached yesterday in Syria will contribute to the country’s security and stability. The beneficiaries of this will be all our Syrian brothers and sisters,” Erdogan said.
Over Ten Thousand Syrian Alawites Flee Into Northern Lebanon After Massacres - There were hopes in Lebanon that the restoration of calm after the ouster of President Bashar Assad in Syria would mean that the large numbers of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon would return home. Some of that started to happen, but now a new influx of new refugees is reported in northern Lebanon.Amid massacres of Alawite civilians in northwest Syria’s Tartus and Latakia Governorates, many thousands of Alawites are fleeing into north Lebanon, which is where that nation’s own Alawite community lives.Villages in the northern Akkar District were the first to receive the new refugees. There are multiple Alawite villages in Akkar, and it’s the closest district, so it makes sense that’s the first place refugees would head. Thousands of people were reported in just a handful of villages. 18 villages in Akkar have reportedly opened up to the displaced, and more than ten thousand entered through Akkar overall. That’s a lot more people than they could reasonably hold, so many more are headed further south along the coast, to the major city of Tripoli.The Jabal Mohsen neighborhood of Tripoli has a large Alawite population, so it was another place for refugees to go. That neighborhood has seen its own share of sectarian clashes with the Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh throughout the decades though, so there is a risk that an influx of new Alawites displaced by a Sunni Islamist government in Syria will add new tensions to that area.Lebanon has absorbed well over a million refugees over the years, and in the summer of 2024 we were seeing growing anti-refugee sentiment in the country. That sentiment somewhat got sidelined during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon later in the year, though following the December regime change in Syria there were renewed calls for the Syrians to return home.The hope clearly was that the new Islamist-dominated Syrian government’s promises of unity would lead to renewed calm, and indeed there were many reports of Syrian returning home en masse from all over the world.Now, after well over a thousand people, mostly civilians have been killed in a little over two days in the northwest of Syria, there is simply a new round of refugees fleeing from the new government’s persecution. Lebanon, once again, is the most convenient option for many.
Secret Side Deal With US Gave Israel Free Hand to Keep Attacking Throughout Lebanon Ceasefire - Virtually from the moment the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal was signed in November, there have been reports that the US assured Israel they could both sign the ceasefire and be totally free to keep carrying out attacks on Hezbollah.Sources are now reporting that not only did that happen, but that the US and Israel actually signed a secret agreement with respect to the ceasefire the US was supposed to enforce. Lebanon was made aware of the secret deal, though they never signed or approved of it.This revelation now provides context to the in excess of 1,000 ceasefire violations Israel has committed since November 27, and why the US did absolutely nothing about it. Israel has continued near-daily attacks on southern Lebanon, and spent months after the ceasefire was agreed burning homes in southern villages.It was unlikely that Israel would’ve agreed to a ceasefire if it came with the presumption they could actually have to cease firing. Israel has presented each attack they carried out as an “imminent threat” posed by Hezbollah, even though Hezbollah has not carried out a single attack on Israel since the ceasefire was agreed upon.Lebanese MPs have been complaining about the secret agreement in recent days. The US National Security Council claimed the existence of the agreement was “not true,” but refused to answer any followup questions about why Israel keeps carrying out attacks without a US reaction.The secret agreement and the continued attacks cast a pall over ongoing US efforts to start mediation of border disputes between Israel and Lebanon. Israeli officials have suggested that the aim of the new talks about Israeli occupations of the Shebaa Farms, the ongoing military presence inside southern Lebanon, and other issues could lead to “normalization” with Lebanon.The Lebanese PM’s office insisted the talks are not in any way a path to normalization on their own. Rather, they say the new committee discussions on border issues are part of UN Resolution 1701, and that there are still no direct talks with Israel ongoing.In the meantime, the tensions remain palpable at the border, with Israeli airstrikes continuing. Lebanese troops reportedly removed barbed wire from the area of Barkat Risha, in the south of the Tyre District along the Israel border. The wire was left there by Israeli occupation forces.
Qatar Calls for Israel Nuclear Facilities To Be Brought Under IAEA Supervision - Qatar has renewed its calls for Israel’s nuclear facilities to be brought under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and for Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear state, which would require Israel to abolish its nuclear stockpile.Israel has a covert nuclear weapons program that it does not officially acknowledge and is estimated to have somewhere between 90 and 300 warheads. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said that Doha’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Jassim Yacoub al-Hammadi, made a statement concerning Israel’s nuclear program during a meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors.“Hammadi underscored the need for the international community and its institutions to uphold their commitments under resolutions of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the IAEA, and the 1995 Review Conference of the NPT, which called on Israel to subject all its nuclear facilities to IAEA safeguards,” the Foreign Ministry said.The statement added that Hammadi “pointed out that all Middle Eastern countries, except Israel, are parties to the NPT and have effective safeguard agreements with the Agency.”The IAEA’s Board of Governors often censures Iran through Western-drafted resolutions for its nuclear program even though it is subject to IAEA inspections, and, despite the hype over uranium enrichment levels, there’s no evidence Tehran is seeking a bomb.On the other hand, Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program, which is not subject to any inspections, rarely gets any attention. This is largely due to the fact that the US also does not acknowledge its existence and doesn’t put any pressure on Israel to sign the NPT.The US cannot recognize the existence of Israel’s nuclear weapons since foreign assistance laws prohibitmilitary aid to nuclear-armed countries that are not subject to IAEA inspections.
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