week ending Oct 4

Jefferson signals cautionary stance on tariffs, labor and rate path — Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said Friday that the economic outlook is uncertain and that he was adopting a cautious approach to gauging whether slowing growth and a softening labor market outweigh inflation pressures from tariffs.

• Key insight: Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson described a delicate balancing act, supporting moderate rate cuts to protect jobs while keeping long-term inflation under control.
• Supporting data: GDP growth slowed to 1.6% in the first half of 2025, and tariffs are nudging prices higher as long-term expectations remain anchored.
• Forward look: Jefferson emphasized durable inflation expectations and a flexible approach under the revised Fed framework.

Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson Friday said slowing economic growth and a cooling labor market are raising downside risks to employment, while tariffs are nudging inflation higher.

Supreme Court to hear Fed Gov. Cook case in 2026 --The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would defer President Donald Trump's request for a stay until after oral arguments scheduled for January 2026, allowing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to remain on the board at least until then.

• Key Insight: The Supreme Court postponed a decision on whether to strike down an injunction that allowed Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to remain on the board while her lawsuit against the administration moves forward, allowing her to stay at the Fed at least until oral arguments are held in early 2026.
• Expert Quote: "The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is deferred pending oral argument in January 2026," the Supreme Court order reads.
• What's at stake: The SCOTUS decision prevents President Donald Trump from nominating a candidate to replace Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in the interim.

The Supreme Court Wednesday said it will hear arguments over an emergency injunction in Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawsuit challenging her dismissal by President Trump early next year, leaving Cook in place until at least January.

Supreme Court puts off decision on Trump's attempt to fire Lisa Cook from Fed, keeping her in place for now - — The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will hear arguments in January on whether President Trump can fire Lisa Cook from her position on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The high court said in a brief unsigned order that it is not yet acting on Mr. Trump's request for emergency relief. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court last month to freeze a lower court order that found Cook's purported removal was likely illegal and allowed her to remain a Fed governor.By deferring a decision on the president's bid for emergency relief, Cook can remain in her position on the Fed's Board of Governors for now.Cook participated in a two-day meeting of the Fed's interest-rate-setting committee last month, which culminated with the central bank announcing its first cut to its benchmark interest rate in nine months. The panel will meet next in October and December.Her lawyers warned the Supreme Court that allowing Mr. Trump to remove Cook from the board of governors even for a brief period would have severe consequences, risking chaos and disruption of financial markets. Accepting the president's argument, Cook's lawyers said, "would eviscerate the Federal Reserve's longstanding independence, upend financial markets, and create a blueprint for future presidents to direct monetary policy based on their political agendas and election calendars." But they warned it would also open the Fed up to political influence. Granting Mr. Trump the emergency relief he sought would "sound the death knell" for the Fed's independence" and transform it into a body that is "subservient to the President's will," Cook's lawyers wrote. Cook's attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, said in a statement that the order "rightly allows Governor Cook to continue in her role on the Federal Reserve Board, and we look forward to further proceedings consistent with the Court's order." White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in response to the Supreme Court's move that "President Trump lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. We look forward to ultimate victory after presenting our oral arguments before the Supreme Court in January." Mr. Trump's efforts to oust Cook are unprecedented, as no president has attempted to remove a sitting Fed governor in the central bank's 112-year-history. Critics of the move have warned that the effort harms the Fed's independence and could destabilize markets. In announcing his decision to fire her, the president claimed Cook made misrepresentations on mortgage documents in 2021, before she was appointed to the board of governors, by claiming two different properties in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta as her principal residence in order to gain more favorable lending terms. Cook's lawyers have said she "did not ever commit mortgage fraud," and she has not been charged with any wrongdoing. They called the allegations "flimsy" and "unproven." Cook's lawyers have said she "did not ever commit mortgage fraud," and she has not been charged with any wrongdoing. They called the allegations "flimsy" and "unproven." Reuters reported that a loan estimate for the property in Atlanta, dated May 28, 2021, showed that Cook declared that residence as a "vacation home."

Experts say Supreme Court could combine independence cases - As the Supreme Court mulls an appeal in a case concerning the president's ability to fire sitting members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, many legal scholars say the outcome will likely depend, at least in part, on the results of other pending cases.

• Key Insight: All eyes are on the Slaughter v. Trump case, which will be heard by the Supreme Court at the end of the year. How that case plays out could decide whether Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain at the central bank.
• Expert Quote: "If they overturn Humphrey's Executor and do so in a way that leaves no carveouts — and they say nothing about the Fed — then Cook's case could effectively be determined." — Fordham University Law Professor Jane Manners
• What's at stake: Legal observers expect the Supreme Court to overturn Humprey's Executor via the Slaughter v. Trump case, which could give the president greater leeway of firing members at independent agencies. Whether or not the Federal Reserve receives special treatment could have profound implications on both Cook and the central bank.

Legal experts say the outcome of Slaughter v. Trump, which considers Trump's termination of a Federal Trade Commission member, could have profound implications for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook's litigation, which in turn could determine the future autonomy of the central bank.

Government shutdown odds rise as leaders leave White House without progress -- Congressional leaders left a meeting with President Trump on Monday saying they’d made no progress toward a deal that would prevent a shutdown on Wednesday, increasing the odds the government’s lights will turn off in less than 48 hours. Democrats have been pining for action to extend health care subsidies that are set to expire by year’s end, with Republicans adamant that their stopgap spending bill is a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Each side said little was accomplished at the White House on Monday — and insisted the other party was to blame. “There are still large differences between us,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters outside the White House. “Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we’ve done this before,” Schumer continued. “It’s up to the Republicans whether they want a shutdown or not.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pointed the finger back at Democrats. “This is sitting right now at the Senate desk,” Thune said outside the White House, holding up a copy of stopgap bill. “We could pick it up and pass it tonight, pick it up and pass it tomorrow before the government shuts down, and then we don’t have the government shutdown. It is totally up to the Democrats, because right now, they are the only thing standing between the American people and the government shutting down.” The meeting came after a public battle in recent weeks over a possible sit-down — not only between Democrats and Trump, but between the minority party and Republicans writ large. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) had not met with either of their GOP counterparts — Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — in recent weeks, with the GOP twosome arguing that there was little need to do so given that their proposed funding bill is a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government through late November. Democrats, however, say a “clean” bill is insufficient for this go-around. Schumer has routinely argued the bill must include provisions to address the expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, the GOP’s Medicaid cuts in its tax cut and spending megabill and Trump’s ability to claw back already allocated funds. But with little leeway given on either side, lawmakers are widely expecting funding to lapse. “Unless something breaks in the morning, unfortunately it looks like they’re going to shut it down,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), a member of GOP leadership and an appropriator, laying blame at the Democratic leader. “Schumer is going to shut it down.” Schumer told reporters that he and Trump spoke at length about the health care issues he and his party have been raising, adding that the president appeared to be hearing “about them for the first time” — an idea GOP leaders vehemently disputed. He also argued there was a rift cropping up between Trump and GOP leaders over a potential extension of the enhanced subsidies. “When we made these arguments it was clear there was a division or possible division between the president and the two Republican leaders,” Schumer said, referring to Thune and Johnson. The South Dakota Republican shot that idea down swiftly and maintained the GOP triumvirate is together on the issue. “We’re unified. We’re all on the same page,” Thune said, scoffing at Schumer’s claim.

Vance: US headed for shutdown ‘because the Democrats won’t do the right thing’ Vice President Vance warned that the government is heading for a shutdown, blaming Democrats for a potential government funding lapse after a meeting with President Trump and congressional leaders at the White House. “The principle at stake here is very simple. We have disagreements about tax policy, you don’t shut that government down. We have disagreements about health care policy, but you don’t shut the government down,” Vance told reporters after the meeting. “You don’t use your policy disagreements as leverage to not pay our troops and not have essentials for services … you don’t say the fact that you disagree about a particular tax provision is an excuse for shutting down the people’s government and all the essential services that come along with it,” Vance added, laying the blame on Democrats if there is a shutdown. The vice president described the position of Democrats as a putting a gun to Americans’ heads, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) similarly accused Democrats of “hostage taking” in their demands to avoid a government shutdown. “You don’t put a gun to the American people’s head and say, unless you do exactly what Senate and House Democrats want you to do, we’re going to shut down your government,” Vance said. He added, “I think we’re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing. I hope they change their mind.” Vance and GOP leaders stressed that Republicans are united in their thinking on the shutdown, while Congress has until the end of the day Tuesday to avoid one.m

Chuck Schumer: Health care issues in funding bill dividing Donald Trump, GOP leaders-- Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said a rift is emerging between President Trump and GOP leaders in Congress about whether to use a short-term government funding bill to prevent health insurance premiums from soaring next year because of the expiration of enhanced subsidies at the end of this year. “The particular focus was on health care. When we made these arguments it was clear there was a division or possible division between the president and the two Republican leaders,” Schumer said, referring to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Schumer met with Trump, Thune, Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) at the White House on Monday afternoon to discuss government funding, which is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. Democrats are demanding an extension of the enhanced health insurance subsidies, as well as other health care provisions, in exchange for their votes to keep the government open. Schumer said the GOP leaders “wanted to kick the health care problem down the road.” But the Democratic leader said Trump seemed more sympathetic to the suffering of ordinary Americans who will see their premiums rise and may lose access to health care. “There was a real division because when we talked to the president about the problems in health care and mentioned to him a woman I had met who was crying because she said her daughter was losing her health care, her daughter has cancer. … He was not aware that Americans would pay, so many Americans, tens of millions of Americans, would pay huge increases in their health care bills because of the ACA expiring in December,” Schumer said, referring to Trump. “He was not aware that the real effect of that starts Oct. 1, not Dec. 31,” Schumer added. Thune disputed Schumer’s characterization of the meeting. “I think Schumer is desperate to change the subject. I don’t know what he’s talking about. I mean we’re all on the same page,” Thune said as he walked into his office after a vote late Monday afternoon. Live updates: Shutdown meeting with Trump ends; GOP, Democrats point fingers Thune and Johnson have both said they aim to address the expiring health care premium tax credits later this year, but they are against attaching them to the funding stopgap that needs to pass by the Sept. 30 deadline. Schumer said he and Jeffries emphasized both the impending expiration of health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the problem of pocket rescissions and impoundments, which they view as attempts to usurp congressional spending authority. Schumer said he urged Trump to prevail on Republican leaders to add to the seven-week government funding stopgap measure language to extend the ACA subsidies and address pocket rescissions. “We told the president he can solve the problem by demanding of the legislative leaders, of Thune and of Johnson, that we start off with the ACA — just take our provision on the ACA and put it in their bill,” he said of the House-passed continuing resolution. “It’s in the president’s hands whether to avoid a shutdown or not. He has to convince the Republican leaders. Now we know why they didn’t want him to meet with us,” Schumer added.

Chuck Schumer says he will not support 7- or 10-day stopgap to avoid shutdown --Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said he would not support a weeklong or 10-day government funding measure to avoid a government shutdown on Wednesday and buy more time to negotiate with President Trump and GOP leaders. Schumer said he felt that Monday’s meeting with Trump at the White House made some progress because it gave him and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) a chance to warn Trump directly about the possibility that thousands of Americans will see their health insurance premiums soar next year. Schumer urged Trump to press GOP leaders to add language to a seven-week continuing resolution to address the expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, but he ruled out supporting a weeklong or 10-day stopgap funding measure to buy some more time. “No, we have to do it now. The time is a wasting. We have to do it now. We’ve delayed and delayed and delayed,” he said, arguing that the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies can’t wait. “As Martin Luther King once said, later means never,” he said. “They don’t want to do this, the Republican leaders, because their right wing — it will divide their party — their right wing hates ACA altogether.” “But we have to get it done,” he added. “The way to do this, is the president, who was really listening to us, tells the Republicans to do it.” Republicans earlier Monday had also shot down the idea of a shorter-term bill. “The House bill is going to be on the table and that’s what we’re going to vote on,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters. “This is clearly going to be a Democrat shutdown, driven by [Schumer].” “This is all on the Democrats,” he continued. “They’re going to have to decide if they want to vote [for] what’s on the floor or not, and that’s what we’re going to put on the floor tomorrow night.”

USDA eyes more layoffs if government shuts down - USDA officials are preparing for more layoffs if the government shuts down this week, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans.The department has submitted its tentative shutdown contingency plan — which includes a reduction-in-force provision — to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for approval, according to the individuals, who were granted anonymity to discuss the private talks.They could not provide further details on which employees would be cut, but the two people said the rest of the proposal largely mirrors USDA’s typical shutdown contingency plan that was last publicly updated during the Biden administration. OMB instructed agencies in a memo last week to begin drafting RIF plans that would go beyond standard furloughs, permanently eliminating jobs in programs not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities, as POLITICO first reported. Director Russ Vought has sought to use the layoffs as leverage in shutdown talks, though lawmakers don’t seem closer to reaching a deal.

Feds brace for shutdown ‘like no other’ - Federal employees are preparing for a possible government shutdown this week that one expert warned would be unlike any in U.S. history. “This is very scary,” said Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that aims to bolster the civil service. Stier and others are warning that the Trump administration might use a shutdown to further its goals of downsizing the federal workforce.The administration has already “done enormous damage” to the federal workforce, Stier told reporters Monday. And with a shutdown looming, Stier added, the Trump team “has signaled that they would use the shutdown to further that damage and would have increased discretion to do so in a shutdown context.”The White House budget office last week directed agencies to consider reduction-in-force notices for all staffers in programs, projects or activities where discretionary funding will lapse Wednesday, no alternative funds are available and the program doesn’t align with President Donald Trump’s priorities.

WATCH: White House threatens mass federal firings if Congress fails to avoid a shutdown - This signals to Democrats that health care funding demands could backfire, she said, potentially causing further reductions in the size of the federal government. Several questions remain, including how many employees could face layoffs and when. The memo says once fiscal year 2026 appropriations are enacted, agencies should revise their plans to reduce staff.“I believe this memo indicates OMB will pursue a dual path of shutdown-related furloughs and a separate process of mass layoffs,” Sewell said. Whether the layoffs happen before or after funding is restored “is an open question,” Sewell said. “This certainly indicates the administration wants to cut these agencies and programs at any opportunity either now or in the future.”Experts offered mixed opinions about whether layoffs would hold up in court. Any such process must follow the rules, such as a 60-day written notice.“A shutdown provides no new legal authority to engage in widespread firings,” said Sam Berger, who works for the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and who worked at OMB during the Biden and Obama administrations.Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader from New York, said the memo is an “attempt at intimidation” and predicted such firings would be reversed. Mandatory spending — ongoing spending that does not require periodic extensions from Congress — generally continues during a shutdown. This means Americans would still receive Social Security checks and be able to use Medicare and Medicaid. In previous shutdowns, border protection, medical care in hospitals, air traffic control, law enforcement and power grid maintenance were deemed essential and remained active during the shutdown. Even continued services can be disrupted. During the 2018-19 shutdown, holiday travelers faced delays as many unpaid TSA staff and air traffic controllers didn’t come to work. Administrations have a lot of leeway to define “essential” workers. During the 2013 shutdown, the Obama administration closed national parks. In 2018, the Trump administration kept many national parks open with limited services using previously paid park entrance fees to cover personnel costs; the Government Accountability Office concluded that this violated federal law. The second-term Trump administration is expected to continue priorities such as immigration enforcement and might try to focus cuts on areas that have already been slashed. Trump campaigned on a promise to abolish the Education Department, and his administration has shrunk the Environmental Protection Agency. There have been four shutdowns in recent decades that lasted more than one business day, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

How a government shutdown could give Trump more power | PBS -- A fight between Republicans and Democrats could lead to an Oct. 1 federal government shutdown. Democrats are trying to leverage the must-pass bill to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies; the Trump administration is tying a shutdown to potential mass federal worker layoffs. The current battle focuses on expiring subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that Democrats say will hurt the ability of millions of enrollees to afford insurance. Democrats have also said they want to reverse Medicaid cuts that Trump signed into law this summer. Republicans are seeking a bill to temporarily extend federal spending at current levels without any add-ons. If the government shuts down, President Donald Trump and his administration — which has already defied norms on executive power — likely will seek to exert more power. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget under Russell Vought has moved with more executive authority over spending, which is typically left to Congress. The administration took steps to cancel foreign aid and asserted power to withhold billions of domestic spending. Joshua Sewell, Taxpayers for Common Sense director of research and policy, said he expects that the Trump team’s actions would be guided by what they believe achieves the most for them politically. Trump could use a shutdown to dismantle government functions, wrote Max Stier, chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit focused on improving the federal government. If lawmakers can’t reach a deal, Stier wrote, Trump and Vought “will have enormous latitude to determine which services, programs, and employees can be sidelined, decisions that could go far beyond what has occurred during past shutdowns.” Beyond the Antideficiency Act, which says the government cannot spend money or incur debts without Congress’ authority, the shutdown process has historically been guided by traditions, not laws.In recent past shutdowns, hundreds of thousands of employees were furloughed, but the shutdowns did not result in mass permanent layoffs or significant reorganizations. Under federal law, federal workers also receive back pay for their time on furlough.Trump and his congressional allies would be in charge of the government amid a shutdown. What can Trump do on his own? The Trump administration has already reduced the workforce by about 200,000, a number that could grow to 300,000 by the end of the year, Stier wrote. The administration gutted some agencies and programs including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Voice of America. OMB provided an email, first published by Politico, that it sent to agency heads that said agencies should consider sending “reduction in force” notices to employees whose programs are “not consistent with the President’s priorities” or lack mandatory funding or another source of funding, such as the tax and spending legislation H.R. 1, which became law in July. Rachel Greszler, a workforce expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the administration hasn’t mandated layoffs, but directed agencies to “consider” issuing such notices “as a way to let federal employees know which of their jobs could be on the line if Congress reduces their agency’s funding.”

The U.S. is heading towards a federal government shutdown. What does that actually mean? | PBS News (AP) — Washington is hours away from another federal government shutdown, with prospects looking bleak for a last-minute compromise in Congress to avoid closures beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Republicans have crafted a short-term measure to fund the government through Nov. 21, but Democrats have insisted the measure address their concerns on health care. They want to reverse the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s mega-bill passed this summer and extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable for millions of people who purchase through the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. Republicans call the Democratic proposal a nonstarter. Neither side shows any signs of budging, with the House not even expected to have votes this week. When a lapse in funding occurs, the law requires agencies to cease activity and furlough “non-excepted” employees. Excepted employees include those who work to protect life and property. They stay on the job but don’t get paid until after the shutdown ends. During the 35-day partial shutdown in Trump’s first term, 340,000 of the 800,000 federal workers at affected agencies were furloughed. The remainder were “excepted” and required to work. FBI investigators, CIA officers, air traffic controllers and agents operating airport checkpoints keep working. So do members of the Armed Forces. Those programs that rely on mandatory spending also generally continue during a shutdown. Social Security payments continue going out. Seniors relying on Medicare coverage can still see their doctors and health care providers and submit claims for payment and be reimbursed. Veteran health care also continues during a shutdown. Veterans Affairs medical centers and outpatient clinics will be open, and VA benefits will continue to be processed and delivered. Burials will continue at VA national cemeteries. In 2019, Congress passed a bill enshrining into law the requirement that furloughed employees get retroactive pay once operations resume.While they’ll eventually get paid, the furloughed workers and those who remain on the job may have to go without one or more of their regular paychecks, depending upon how long the shutdown lasts, creating financial stress for many families.Service members would also receive back pay for any missed paychecks once federal funding resumes.The U.S. Postal Service is unaffected by a government shutdown. It’s an independent entity funded through the sale of its products and services, not by tax dollars. The first Trump administration worked to blunt the impact of what became the country’s longest partial shutdown in 2018 and 2019. But in the selective reopening of offices, experts say they saw a willingness to cut corners, scrap prior plans and wade into legally dubious territory to mitigate the pain. Each federal agency develops its own shutdown plan. The plans outline which agency workers would stay on the job during a shutdown and which would be furloughed. In a provocative move, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget has threatened the mass firing of federal workers in a shutdown. An OMB memo said those programs that didn’t get funding through Trump’s mega-bill this summer would bear the brunt of a shutdown. Agencies should consider issuing reduction-in-force notices for those programs whose funding expires Wednesday, that don’t have alternative funding sources and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities,” the memo said. A reduction in force would not only lay off employees but eliminate their positions, which would trigger another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that’s already faced major rounds of cuts this year due to efforts from the Department of Government Efficiency and elsewhere in Trump’s Republican administration. Some agencies have recently updated plans on their websites. Here are some excerpts from those plans:

• Health and Human Services will furlough about 41% of its staff out of nearly 80,000 employees, according to a contingency plan posted on its website. The remaining employees will keep up activities needed to protect human life and property.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue monitoring for disease outbreaks. Direct medical services through the Indian Health Service and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center will remain available. However, the CDC communications to the public will be hampered and NIH will not admit new patients to the Clinical Center, except those for whom it’s medically necessary.
• At the Food and Drug Administration, its “ability to protect and promote public health and safety would be significantly impacted, with many activities delayed or paused.” For example, the agency would not accept new drug applications or medical device submissions that require payment of a user fee.
• The Education Department will furlough about 1,500 of 1,700 employees, excluding federal student aid workers. The department will continue to disburse student aid such as Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans. Student loan borrowers will still be required to make payments on their outstanding debt.
• National Park Service: As a general rule if a facility or area is inaccessible during nonbusiness hours, it’ll be locked for the duration of the lapse in funding, said a March 2024 plan. At parks where it’s impractical or impossible to restrict public access, staffing will vary by park: “Generally, where parks have accessible park areas, including park roads, lookouts, trails, campgrounds, and open-air memorials, these areas will remain physically accessible to the public.”
• Transportation Department: Air traffic controller hiring and field training would cease, as would routine personnel security background checks and air traffic performance analysis, a March 2025 update says.
• Smithsonian Institution: “The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, like all Smithsonian museums, receives federal funding. Thus, during a government shutdown, the Zoo — and the rest of the Smithsonian museums — must close to the public.”

Phillip Swagel, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said a short shutdown doesn’t have a huge impact on the economy, especially since federal workers, by law, are paid retroactively. But “if a shutdown continues, then that can give rise to uncertainties about what is the role of government in our society, and what’s the financial impact on all the programs that the government funds.” “The impact is not immediate, but over time, there is a negative impact of a shutdown on the economy,” he added. A governmentwide shutdown would directly reduce growth by around 0.15 percentage points for each week it lasted, or about 0.2 percentage points per week once private-sector effects were included, and growth would rise by the same cumulative amount in the quarter following reopening, writes Alec Phillips, chief U.S. political economist at Goldman Sachs.

Government shutdown begins as nation faces new period of uncertainty (AP) — Plunged into a government shutdown, the U.S. is confronting a fresh cycle of uncertainty after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep government programs and services running by Wednesday’s deadline. Roughly 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed, some potentially fired by the Trump administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as Trump vows to “do things that are irreversible, that are bad” as retribution. His deportation agenda is expected to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The economic fallout is expected to ripple nationwide. “We don’t want it to shut down,” Trump said at the White House before the midnight deadline. But the president, who met privately with congressional leadership this week, appeared unable to negotiate any deal between Democrats and Republicans to prevent that outcome. This is the third time Trump has presided over a federal funding lapse, the first since his return to the White House this year, in a remarkable record that underscores the polarizing divide over budget priorities and a political climate that rewards hardline positions rather than more traditional compromises. The Democrats picked this fight, which was unusual for the party that prefers to keep government running, but their voters are eager to challenge the president’s second-term agenda. Democrats are demanding funding for health care subsidies that are expiring for millions of people under the Affordable Care Act, spiking the costs of insurance premiums nationwide.Republicans have refused to negotiate for now and have encouraged Trump to steer clear of any talks. After the White House meeting, the president posted a cartoonish fake video mocking the Democratic leadership that was widely viewed as unserious and racist.What neither side has devised is an easy offramp to prevent what could become a protracted closure. The ramifications are certain to spread beyond the political arena, upending the lives of Americans who rely on the government for benefit payments, work contracts and the various services being thrown into turmoil.“What the government spends money on is a demonstration of our country’s priorities,” said Rachel Snyderman, a former White House budget official who is the managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington.Shutdowns, she said, “only inflict economic cost, fear and confusion across the country.”An economic jolt could be felt in a matter of days. The government is expected Friday to produce its monthly jobs report, which may or may not be delivered.While the financial markets have generally “shrugged” during past shutdowns, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis, this one could be different partly because there are no signs of broader negotiations.“There are also few good analogies to this week’s potential shutdown,” the analysis said.Across the government, preparations have been underway. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, headed by Russ Vought, directed agencies to execute plans for not just furloughs, as are typical during a federal funding lapse, but mass firings of federal workers. It’s part of the Trump administration’s mission, including its Department of Government Efficiency, to shrink the federal government. The Medicare and Medicaid health care programs are expected to continue, though staffing shortages could mean delays for some services. The Pentagon would still function. And most employees will stay on the job at the Department of Homeland Security. But Trump has warned that the administration could focus on programs that are important to Democrats, “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.” As agencies sort out which workers are essential, or not, Smithsonian museums are expected to stay open at least until Monday. A group of former national park superintendents urged the Trump administration to close the parks to visitors, arguing that poorly staffed parks in a shutdown are a danger to the public and put park resources at risk. Ahead of Wednesday’s start of the fiscal year, House Republicans had approved a temporary funding bill, over opposition from Democrats, to keep government running into mid-November while broader negotiations continue. But that bill has failed repeatedly in the Senate, including late Tuesday. It takes a 60-vote threshold for approval, which requires cooperation between the two parties. A Democratic bill also failed. With a 53-47 GOP majority, Democrats are leveraging their votes to demand negotiation.Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said Republicans are happy to discuss the health care issue with Democrats — but not as part of talks to keep the government open. More votes are expected Wednesday. The standoff is a political test for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has drawn scorn from a restive base of left-flank voters pushing the party to hold firm in its demands for health care funding.“Americans are hurting with higher costs,” Schumer said after the failed vote Tuesday. House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home nearly two weeks ago after having passed the GOP bill, blaming Democrats for the shutdown. “They want to fight Trump,” Johnson said Tuesday on CNBC. “A lot of good people are going to be hurt because of this.” Trump, during his meeting with the congressional leaders, expressed surprise at the scope of the rising costs of health care, but Democrats left with no path toward talks.During Trump’s first term, the nation endured its longest-ever shutdown, 35 days, over his demands for funds Congress refused to provide to build his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Government shuts down after Congress fails to reach a funding agreement : NPR -- Much of the federal government is now shut down after Republicans and Democrats in the Senate failed to agree on a pair of dueling funding bills to keep the government open. Republicans voted to block a bill proposed by Democrats that included government funding through the end of October and an extension of federal healthcare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. The second bill was also defeated nearly along party lines. Democrats refused to join Republicans to approve a short-term measure passed by the House that would keep the government funded at current levels through Nov. 21. Both measures needed 60 votes to pass. Democrats have insisted that they will not vote for a spending measure unless Republicans agree to extend the subsidies for health insurance plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act. That did not happen. Shortly after the failed votes, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought instructed affected federal agencies to "execute their plans for an orderly shutdown." It is unclear exactly how far-reaching the impact of a shutdown will be or how long the suspensions of funding will last. Critical services, including Social Security, VA benefits and Medicare and Medicaid payments, will continue, but people who need those resources could face delays. Federal jobs labeled as nonessential will experience more direct impacts, meaning there could be slowdowns in some government services and many federal employees will be left unpaid. The Congressional Budget Office estimates about 750,000 federal employees may be furloughed daily. President Donald Trump has also indicated he may take additional action to reshape the government. On Tuesday afternoon, he alluded to possibly carrying out mass firings of federal workers and eliminating programs in the event of a shutdown. "We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. "We can cut large numbers of people. We don't want to do that, but we don't want fraud, waste and abuse." Some impacts will be immediate, while others will only kick in if a shutdown drags on.

• Hundreds of thousands of federal workers and active-duty service members may miss paychecks starting in mid-October.
• Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration employees are considered essential employees, but some have called off sick during past shutdowns when they were asked to work without pay.
• The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children commonly known as WIC may soon run out of money.
• It is unclear whether National Parks will remain open. During the last shutdown, parks remained open even though they went unstaffed.

As the funding deadline neared, lawmakers ratcheted up the finger-pointing over the impending shutdown. Democrats continue to argue that they are fighting to protect Americans' health care, as they push to extend the insurance subsidies and also attempt to repeal cuts to health care programs that were enacted by the GOP's tax and spending bill passed earlier this summer. "We see now Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America's health care," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday night. But, Republicans have accused Democrats of taking the federal budget hostage to advance their policy goals. "Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats' partisan interests," Majority Leader John Thune said shortly before the government shut down. Republican leaders say they plan to continue holding votes on their stopgap funding measure, hoping they can peel off more Democrats to join them as a shutdown wears on. "When we had a vote on our proposal to keep the government open right before the recess, we had one Democrat vote," Republican Whip John Barrasso said Tuesday night. "Tonight, we had three. So the cracks are beginning to show." Two Democrats, Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada and one independent, Angus King of Maine—who caucuses with Democrats—voted for the Republican bill on Tuesday. "We need a bipartisan solution to address this impending health care crisis, but we should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another," Cortez-Masto said. But six Democrats who voted yes on the continuing resolution when it first came for a vote in March declined to support the measure this time around. And like Thune, Schumer also said he believes some members on the other side may eventually find their position untenable. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to oppose the measure Tuesday. The last government shutdown, from December 2018 to January 2019, lasted 35 days and was the longest in U.S. history. With Republicans and Democrats both signaling they are unwilling to budge, there is no clarity about the path out of the shutdown – or how long it will last.

Government Shutdown: Where 750,000 Federal Furloughs Hit The Hardest -The U.S. government partially shut down at midnight for the first time since 2019 after the Senate rejected a stopgap funding package. In equity markets, U.S. stocks have largely shrugged off the economic and political risks, with JPMorgan noting a high probability that the shutdown could last around 11 to 15 days. The release of the NFP report on Friday and other economic data will likely be delayed. On the federal jobs front, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 750,000 employees could be furloughed. Agencies have activated contingency plans that will begin sidelining these workers today, resulting in the suspension of a wide range of services. Bloomberg notes that roughly one-third of federal employees will be furloughed during the shutdown, which is lower than in previous shutdowns, when about 40% of workers were sent home. This brings us to the complete agency-by-agency furlough impact list:

• Homeland Security: DHS will furlough nearly 23,000 employees — more than it anticipated last week under a narrowed definition of essential staff. Border, aviation and immigration enforcement will continue, with most Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Secret Service staff on duty. Disaster relief and fee-funded immigration services will also continue, while research, training and administrative offices largely shut down.
• Defense Department: All active-duty troops keep working, though pay could be delayed. More than 400,000 civilian staff will remain to support combat missions, intelligence, nuclear deterrence and health care. Administrative and training functions will be curtailed, but contracting activities can continue under the Civil War-era Feed and Forage Act. Burials at Arlington National Cemetery go on.
• State Department: More than a third of the State Department's 27,000 employees remain on the job. All embassies and consulates will stay open, with passport and visa services funded by fees. Other activities — including new grants, travel, public events and most policy work — would stop. Social media updates will be limited to urgent safety messages.
• Transportation: Air traffic control and safety functions will continue and air travel should be unaffected — at least at first. That could change if federal workers start to miss paychecks — previous shutdowns saw higher rates of sick days for air traffic controllers and Transportation Safety Administration agents. Infrastructure grants, research and administrative programs pause.
• Social Security: Monthly payments — including retirement, disability and supplemental security income benefits — will continue during a shutdown, funded by permanent appropriations. Applications, appeals, address changes, death reports and direct deposit updates will continue. But non-critical services — including benefit verifications, third-party queries and routine earnings record corrections — will be paused.
• Veterans Affairs: About 97% of VA's staff continue working under long-term funding already approved by Congress. Hospitals, suicide prevention programs and the crisis line remain open, as do pension and disability claims. Roughly 15,000 workers in research and administrative roles are slated to be furloughed.
• Justice Department: As the nation's chief law enforcement agency, roughly 90% of the Justice Department's 115,000 employees keep working. Criminal prosecutions and investigations continue, but civil litigation will be postponed where possible. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Prisons are largely unaffected, while the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives furloughs more than 2,000 staff.
• Internal Revenue Service
• The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act funds the tax collection agency through 2031. Tax collection, enforcement and customer service continue uninterrupted.
• Commerce Department: Trump's trade agenda is shielded. Commerce will keep tariff investigations moving under national security exception, a shift from earlier plans that limited work to unexpired funds. Investigations into semiconductors, minerals, aircraft and renewable energy equipment will continue. The Census Bureau will halt all data collection, as will the Bureau of Economic Analysis for reports on gross domestic product, consumer spending, inflation and trade flows. The National Weather Service will continue forecasts and warnings, while most of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ships and aircraft return to base and labs shut down.
• Labor Department: The Bureau of Labor Statistics will also shut down, delaying the jobs report due Friday and other key indicators. That leaves the Federal Reserve and investors without official benchmarks as they weigh possible rate cuts. Workplace safety inspections continue.
• Health and Human Services: HHS will furlough more than 32,000 employees. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services halt casework and the Food and Drug Administration will stop accepting new drug applications. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 36% of staff remain, continuing outbreak response and vaccination programs but halting public guidance and surveillance, even during a record measles outbreak.
• Education: Already hammered by Trump's attempts to shut down the department completely, Education will furlough 87% of staff, with nearly all remaining employees in the Office of Federal Student Aid. Student loans and disbursements continue, as will collections. But the Office for Civil Rights will halt investigations, and politically sensitive probes of universities and schools would pause.
• Agriculture: Most Department of Agriculture staff will be furloughed, though food safety inspections would continue. Food stamps, also called SNAP, and child nutrition programs can keep operating temporarily with carryover funds. Farm loans and rural grants largely stop. The Forest Service maintains firefighting and property protection but shuts down most recreation services.
• Interior: The National Park Service will keep sites open to visitors during the shutdown. Their plan calls for tapping into park fees to provide basic visitor services. Read More: National Parks Told to Remain Open During Shutdown Despite Risks
• Energy: The Energy Information Administration will suspend data releases. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission halts licensing and inspections, while the National Nuclear Security Administration continues nuclear weapons and reactor operations.
• Housing and Urban Development: Most of HUD's work supporting the Federal Housing Administration's portfolio of insured mortgages and Ginnie Mae's work in the secondary mortgage market will go on as normal. Block grants already obligated will keep flowing. But fair housing enforcement stops, and monthly subsidy programs – including those for public housing, housing choice vouchers and multifamily assistance contracts – will operate only as long as funds remain available.
• Small Business Administration: Disaster lending and PPP loan forgiveness continues, but most new small-business loans, entrepreneurial training and export programs stop. Oversight of contracting and investment programs will also be suspended.
• NASA: NASA is slated to furlough about 80% of its staff, though operations on the International Space Station and Artemis moon missions would continue. Educational outreach and visitor programs will shut down.
• Environmental Protection Agency": Nearly 90% of staff will be furloughed. A small number continue work at Superfund sites, building security and emergency response. Permits, grants and enforcement actions will halt.
• Financial Regulators: The Securities and Exchange Commission keeps fewer than 400 staff, focusing on urgent enforcement while halting most IPO reviews and corporate filing signoffs. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission retains a few dozen employees for basic oversight of derivatives markets, but most other enforcement and regulatory work stops. The Federal Reserve is funded by banking fees, not tax dollars, and is unaffected.
• Federal Trade Commission: About one third of the FTC's total staff will stay on during a shutdown, according to the agency's plan. That includes about half of the competition team and 19% of the consumer protection team. The FTC will continue to process submissions from companies seeking approval for mergers.
• The White House: Most staff will be furloughed, with only those tied to national security or constitutional duties retained. The National Security Council would keep most of its staff; other policy offices would be sharply reduced. The U.S. Trade Representative keeps about 80 staff to handle WTO disputes and high-priority trade negotiations.
• Congress: Members of Congress continue to be paid under the Constitution — and have to be able to work in order to pass a new spending bill to reopen the government. But support agencies such as the Library of Congress and the Botanic Garden close to visitors.
• Courts: The judiciary can keep operating at least through Oct. 3 using fee reserves, after which operations may be pared back to constitutional and emergency functions. Each judicial district decides how many employees to keep home, if any. The Supreme Court will open its term Oct. 6 as scheduled.
• US Postal Service: Mail delivery and post offices will operate as usual during a shutdown. The Postal Service funds itself through the sale of postage and other services rather than annual appropriations, so its operations aren't affected.

Government shutdown: Congress still gets paid, others have to wait ---The federal government shut down for the first time since 2019 on Wednesday morning, leaving many employees working without pay until funding is restored.TSA agents and air traffic controllers will stay on the job, along with thousands of other essential workers, including those who keep Social Security running. The catch: Many essential employees won’t get paid until funding resumes, meaning they could miss one or more paychecks depending on how long the shutdown lasts. Hundreds of thousands of other federal employees find themselves furloughed. But like those still working without pay, they are guaranteed back pay thanks to a 2019 law.Members of Congress, however, continue to be paid during a shutdown, as do postal workers, since the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is a self-funded, independent agency.For federal contractors who aren’t directly employed by the government, the situation is far less certain.

The Latest: Vote to end government shutdown fails as Democrats hold firm on health care demands -- The U.S. Senate adjourned for the day on Wednesday with no resolution on how to reopen the government. Blame was being cast on all sides on the first day of the shutdown. A vote to end the government shutdown failed earlier Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to extend. At issue are tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act more affordable for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t extend them — which would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for health insurance premiums, according to a KFF analysis. Senators will return Friday, after a break for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, to vote again on a GOP measure to extend federal funding for seven weeks.

HHS to furlough 41% of workforce during federal government shutdown Federal health officials say critical activities related to public health emergencies will continue despite the federal government shutdown, but other areas of the federal health bureaucracy will be significantly affected by furloughs unless lawmakers can resolve the impasse.In a post this morning on the social media site X, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said activities related to "imminent threats to the safety of human life or protection of property" will continue, including detecting and responding to public health emergencies, managing recalls, mitigating drug shortages, responding to foodborne illness and infectious disease outbreaks, and conducting surveillance of adverse events that could cause human harm.The FDA said its ability to protect and promote public health and safety will still be significantly impacted, however, with many activities delayed or paused for the length of the shutdown. A documentposted on the FDA website says the agency will not be accepting new or generic drug applications, conducting some its regulatory science research, or working on longer-term food safety initiatives, among other activities.The government shutdown began early Wednesday morning amid a dispute over a temporary spending package that would have kept the government funded until the end of November. Congressional Democrats say they will not agree to the spending package until Republicans, who hold the majority in both chambers but don't have enough votes to pass the package on their own, agree to extend federal health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Hundreds of thousands of government employees will be furloughed.This is the first government shutdown since 2018. That shutdown, which stretched into early 2019, lasted for 35 days.Overall, 32,460 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are set to be furloughed during the shutdown, according to an HHS fiscal year 2026 contingency plan, representing 41% of the agency's workforce. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are among the HHS divisions that will be affected."HHS will cease all non-exempt and non-excepted activities in the event of a lapse in appropriation," the document states. "This includes, but is not limited to, oversight of extramural research contracts and grants, being able to process FOIA requests or public inquiries, data collection, validation, and analysis. More specifically, CDC communication to the American public about health-related information will be hampered, CMS will be unable to provide oversight to major contractors, and NIH will not have the ability to admit new patients to the Clinical Center, except for whom it is medically necessary."

Lawmakers fear consequences of keeping national parks open during shutdown - Some lawmakers are wincing as President Donald Trump has ordered National Parks to remain open and operated by a skeleton crew during the government shutdown. “I am concerned about parks being accessible, being safe, being maintained adequately, I think it’s a very serious concern,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent of Maine who caucuses with Democrats. “It’s one of the things that was bothering me yesterday, when I decided not to vote to shut the government down.” King, the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, has good reason for such concern: During the 2018-19 shutdown, parks were kept open by siphoning entrance fees to fund slimmed-down crews of park employees. Staff were overwhelmed and couldn’t perform typical functions — leaving overflowing trash bins, dirty bathrooms and litter. In one prominent incident, several of the iconic trees at Joshua Tree National Park in California were felled.

Government shutdown reduces EPA to skeleton crew - About 89 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) workforce was slated to be furloughed as the government shuts down, according to contingency plans that were posted online this week. According to the plan, just 1,734 of the EPA’s 15,166 employees are slated to continue working during the shutdown, which began Wednesday.The plan also gives a window into the degree of staffing losses at the EPA in recent months, as the agency had 17,080 employees at the start of the year. During the furlough period, the agency will no longer carry out most civil inspections related to potential violations of environmental law. It will also no longer conduct most of its research or issue new permits or grants. Some hazardous waste cleanup will be halted if there is no imminent threat to human health and property.The EPA will still continue emergency and disaster assistance, hazardous waste cleanup where there is an “imminent threat to human life” and criminal investigations.The Trump administration’s plan is similar to the most recent contingency plan issued by the Biden administration in September 2024. Under that plan, 1,734 employees out of 16,851 would have been expected to continue working.

How the shutdown is roiling climate programs at 6 agencies - The government shutdown has sent uneven shock waves through Washington. Many climate-related operations have been frozen, leaving offices in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, empty of staffers. Others, such as EPA, continue to work — at least for now — on priorities outlined by President Donald Trump, like his campaign to roll back climate regulations. Here is how the shutdown is affecting federal climate activities. The Interior Department will furlough about half of its 58,600 employees but will continue permitting fossil fuel projects during the shutdown. The decision aligns with the “energy emergency” that Trump declared on his first day in office.Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees onshore energy permitting, will retain more than half of its 9,250 employees during the shutdown. Many of those people work in public safety roles, like border patrol or law enforcement. BLM energy staff will also stay on the job to process fossil fuel permits with money generated by permit fees, according to a copy of BLM’s shutdown plan.The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, however, will furlough more than 70 percent of its staff. BOEM, which oversees offshore energy development, “will cease all renewable energy activities,” but employees focused on upcoming oil and gas lease sales will continue to work, according to a copy of the bureau’s plan. Environmental experts are among the two-thirds of all staff members who have been furloughed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That includes everyone in the National Asthma Control Program and all civil servants in the Climate and Health Program, where just one officer from the Public Health Service will continue working.The furloughs come during a tumultuous year for the agency’s environmental programs. In April, the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses CDC, attempted to dissolve its entire environmental health division by sending reduction-in-force notices to all staff at the National Center for Environmental Health. Employees were on administrative leave for two months before HHS did an about-face and brought back many of those civil servants, even as the Trump administration proposed zeroing out some of CDC’s environmental programs, including its climate office. The department’s contingency staffing plan for the shutdown notes that occupational health programs at CDC, like the World Trade Center Health Program, will continue during the closure. EPA staff has not been furloughed yet — but they still might be. When EPA runs out of money it is likely to furlough all but about 10 percent of agency staff. A shutdown plan released Tuesday showed that only 1,734 employees would work through the funding lapse. That includes 828 people who are “exempt” because their positions aren’t dependent on annual appropriations and 906 staff whose work meets immediate statutory requirements or protects public safety — like EPA’s disaster response teams. The National Weather Service plans to keep issuing forecasts and warnings during the shutdown, and as of Wednesday, the agency’s social media accounts were still posting weather-related information. NWS is part of NOAA. It looks as like Hurricane Imelda is no longer a threat to the United States, but extreme weather has struck before during a government shutdown. NWS employees worked through the shutdown and issued flood warnings as the storm approached. Roughly 10,500 people are employed by the agency, and about half of them are exempt from furloughs, according to a Commerce Department shutdown plan. That’s because they are funded by other resources, legally required to continue working or otherwise deemed necessary for essential operations. Fisheries monitoring and surveying activities have been suspended, according to a notice from the Department of Commerce, NOAA’s parent agency. Much of NOAA’s research will be curtailed too — though there will be some exceptions for efforts such as ocean observations necessary for weather forecasts and tsunami warnings. NOAA’s network of agency-funded cooperative institutes — consisting of 16 science consortiums partnered with dozens of universities across the country — will continue to operate. But some may experience difficulties carrying out their regular research after losing access to NOAA-operated facilities and federal partners that they collaborate with on their projects. Disaster operations at the Federal Emergency Management Agency are continuing uninterrupted. Roughly 85 percent of FEMA’s 25,000 employees are considered essential, according to a government memo posted Sept. 27. On Wednesday morning, hours after the shutdown began, FEMA had 11,800 disaster workers at 16 field offices spread across the U.S. The agency is continuing to process aid applications from individuals in counties where disasters have been declared in the past 60 days. FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, which provides the vast majority of flood coverage in the U.S., stopped selling and renewing policies at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. The halt, which is not directly tied to the shutdown, stems from the expiration of NFIP’s congressional authorization Tuesday. Stopping policy renewals could affect tens of thousands of households. The NFIP, which has 4.6 million policies, sees nearly 13,000 policies expire each day, assuming a steady departure rate, according to an E&E News analysis of FEMA data. The National Association of Realtors says the shutdown could interrupt property sales, particularly in flood-prone areas. It’s uncertain what happens to policyholders whose property is flooded after their coverage has expired. Employees at the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs will be furloughed and their activities halted, according to department guidance. So will staffers at the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, which handles energy and minerals diplomacy. That means the U.S. might not be represented when international bodies consider big environmental issues this fall, depending on how long the shutdown drags on. That would be “a big loss,” said Kate Guy, a former senior climate official at the State Department. The U.S. is not expected to send a delegation to the COP30 climate talks in Brazil next month, in part because the offices at State that typically participate in those negotiations are now shuttered. There is also a host of other meetings for which U.S. participation is thrust into limbo by the shutdown. The International Maritime Organization will host a meeting of its Marine Environment Protection Committee in two weeks, and the United Nations Environment Assembly meets in December. At the IMO, countries are expected to adopt a new set of regulations aimed at cutting climate pollution, including a tax on maritime carbon emissions. Trump administration officials have threatened countries with tariffs if they support that climate provision.

Government shutdown continues as funding bills again stall in Senate, extending impasse -The Senate on Friday failed to advance competing plans to extend federal funding and end the government shutdown, likely pushing the funding lapse into at least next week. A Republican plan that has already passed the House failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance for a fourth time, with three Democrats joining Republicans in voting to move forward. A Democratic counterproposal also failed. As the shutdown stretched into its third day, there were no signs of senators resolving the deadlock. Majority Leader John Thune said before the votes that the upper chamber would likely not vote over the weekend if the GOP plan falls short. The GOP bill would fund the government until Nov. 21. The Democratic version extends funding through October and includes an extension of health care tax credits, the key Democratic demand. Republican leaders have demanded Democrats vote to reopen the government before negotiating over health care, but GOP senators need Democratic votes to pass their bill in the upper chamber. In an effort to increase pressure on the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled plans to have the lower chamber return to Washington next week, saying members could instead remain in their districts. During the House's brief pro forma session Friday afternoon, the House clerk read a notice from the speaker: "I hereby designate the period from Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, through Monday Oct. 13, 2025, as a district work period." The House was last in session on Sept. 19, when it passed the GOP measure. It was originally scheduled to be back in session on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, ahead of the shutdown deadline, but Johnson canceled votes. The House was then expected to be back Oct. 7. Johnson alluded to his plans earlier in the day, telling reporters the House will return "as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government."

US government shutdown to drag into next week The US government shutdown is set to stretch into next week after senators voted Friday for a fourth time to reject a funding fix proposed by President Donald Trump's Republicans. Federal agencies have been out of money since Wednesday -- with a wide range of public services crippled -- as a result of deadlocked talks in Congress on how to keep the lights on. Tourist sites such as the Washington Monument have closed, key data on employment has been delayed and some official websites have ground to a halt, although other areas of government have yet to be affected. Some 750,000 employees are likely to be put on furlough -- a kind of enforced leave with backpay after the shutdown -- as the funding crisis deepens. Senate leaders have no plans to keep the upper chamber of Congress in session over the weekend, meaning Friday's vote on a short-term fix was the last chance of the week to end the crisis. At the center of the standoff is a Democratic demand for an extension of health care subsidies that are due to expire -- meaning sharply increased costs for millions of low-income Americans. Republicans -- who control the legislature and the White House but need Democratic votes on government funding bills -- have announced no plans to address the issue. The Democrats are trying to force Republicans' hand by blocking a Trump-backed funding resolution that needs a handful of their votes. The White House said the Democratic posture amounted to "an intentional sabotage of our country." "This madness must end," Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. "President Trump and Republicans are calling on Democrats to reopen the government immediately on behalf of the American public." Amid widespread pessimism over the possibility of a quick solution, Republicans voiced in Congress hopes that the latest failure might push some moderates in the opposition to cross the aisle. "Hopefully over the weekend, they'll have a chance to think about it," Republican Senate leader John Thune told reporters at the US Capitol. "Maybe some of these conversations start to result in something to where we can start moving some votes and actually get this thing passed." Complicating efforts to strike a deal is the threat from Trump to turn thousands of the planned furloughs into permanent redundancies, strip funding and slash benefits as he ramps up pressure on the Democrats. The administration has also been accused of allowing government officials to use partisan language in messaging about the shutdown after the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday posted a notice on its website blaming the shutdown on the "Radical Left."

House Republicans cancel next week's votes as shutdown grinds on -- Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is canceling previously scheduled votes next week, as Republicans look to force Democrats into accepting a GOP-crafted “clean” bill to end the government shutdown. The move, according to GOP sources, is intended to keep pressure on Senate Democrats to vote for continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open for another seven weeks. Democrats have repeatedly rejected that bill as they make demands on extending health care subsidies and other issues, voting it down again on Friday. A notice from Johnson designating Oct. 7-13 as a “district work period” was read on the House floor at a pro forma session Friday afternoon. Johnson alluded to the plan in a press conference Friday morning, ahead of a Senate re-vote on the House continuing resolution. “The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government,” Johnson said. It is the second time Johnson canceled votes in a bid to jam Senate Democrats with their CR, after he canceled votes Monday and Tuesday ahead of the shutdown. But keeping the House out is a change of plans from earlier this week. Asked by The Hill on Wednesday if he could commit to bringing the House back even if the government is still shut down, Johnson said: “Yes, the House will be returning next week, and they would be here this week, except that we did our work.”

Donald Trump barrels toward uncharted legal territory with shutdown layoffs --The Trump administration plans to use the shutdown to fire thousands of federal workers, a move that would throw the government into uncharted legal territory. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last week encouraged agencies to think of the shutdown as an “opportunity” to fire federal workers, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that it would be targeting “agencies that don’t align with the administration’s values.”While the government has had numerous shutdowns in recent years, no administration has used the lapse in funding as a method for firing furloughed workers, bringing a new legal issue before the court.The plan has already prompted one lawsuit from a union representing federal workers.“The administration has threatened to inflict punishment on, and further traumatize, federal employees throughout the nation,” the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) wrote in its lawsuit brought alongside several other democracy groups and unions.“The cynical use of federal employees as a pawn in Congressional deliberations should be declared unlawful.”President Trump has said he sees the shutdown as a window to carry out his vision with less resistance — a claim challenged by the suit.“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” he said Tuesday.

Over 150 American Healthcare Workers Who Volunteered in Gaza Call on Trump To End Military Support for Israel - A group of 152 American healthcare workers who have volunteered in Gaza signed an open letter to President Trump calling on him to cut off all military and diplomatic support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian population of the besieged territory. Many of the healthcare workers who signed the letter have served in other conflict zones around the world, but they said the “scale of violence directed at Gaza’s civilians is unlike anything” they have ever seen. They described in the letter the atrocities they witnessed, including the massive violence inflicted on children. “Half of Gaza’s population is children, and we routinely treated them for every possible type of injury: 100% total body surface area burns, dismemberment, gunshots to the head and chest, evisceration, and even traumatic hemicorporectomy and decapitation. We have even seen these injuries in fetuses, whose mothers’ bodies could not protect their unborn children from the American-made bombs dropped on them by Israeli forces. Most of us saw pre-teen children shot in the head or chest on a regular basis, often multiple times per day,” the healthcare workers said. Bodies of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli attacks in Al-Mawasi area are brought to Nasser Hospital on September 2, 2025. “Today, we beg you to hear the cries of Gaza’s children that our consciences will not let us forget. We cannot fathom why our government continues arming Israel while its armed forces kill children en masse,” they added. The letter says that the healthcare workers who have been in Gaza since the establishment of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have treated many Palestinians attacked by Israeli forces while attempting to get food. “Whenever any GHF site opens, the day’s events are entirely predictable: within one hour, the nearest hospitals will be flooded with hundreds of wounded aid seekers. Each one of these mass casualty events instantly overwhelmed the already massively overcrowded and under-resourced facilities. Many patients are dead on arrival or have injuries that are beyond the capabilities of Gaza’s healthcare system,” the letter reads. The healthcare workers called the GHF a “humanitarian abomination” and a “uniquely cruel tool of coercion that the American taxpayer should not be funding and that Americans should not be staffing.” The letter also details the widespread disease and malnutrition in Gaza. “Today virtually everyone in Gaza is visibly malnourished. We watched our own colleagues lose consciousness at work from malnutrition and dehydration, eating virtually nothing as they gave all available sustenance to their children,” the healthcare workers said. The letter also warns that the number of malnutrition deaths released by the Gaza Health Ministry is likely a huge undercount, noting that “the number of starvation cases reported by the medical system in a humanitarian crisis is usually less than 10% of the true number of deaths caused by starvation.” The healthcare workers also addressed Israel’s systematic destruction of hospitals in Gaza and attacks on healthcare workers, and rejected the IDF’s justification for the campaign. “The 152 signatories to this letter spent more than 460 weeks inside Gaza’s hospitals and clinics. We wish to be clear: not once did any of us see any type of Palestinian militant activity in any of Gaza’s hospitals or other healthcare facilities. We urge you to see that Israel has systematically devastated Gaza’s entire healthcare system and targeted our colleagues for torture, disappearance, and murder on an unprecedented scale, not because it was militarily necessary but in order to destroy that system’s ability to save lives,” the letter says.

White House Releases Gaza Ceasefire Plan as Trump Hosts Netanyahu -The White House released a 20-point plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Monday, as President Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his fourth visit to Washington this year (read the full ceasefire proposal at the end of the article). During a joint press conference, Netanyahu said that he has accepted the proposal, though throughout the genocidal war, he has repeatedly sabotaged ceasefire deals, and there are several points that Hamas may not accept. Israel also broke the last ceasefire deal that was signed in January 2025. Al Jazeera reported that Qatar and Egypt have delivered the proposal to Hamas. Netanyahu said that if Hamas doesn’t accept the US-Israeli proposal, Israel will “finish the job” in Gaza, and Trump said he’s willing to continue backing the slaughter in Gaza. “If Hamas rejects the deal, Bibi you will have our full backing to do what you have to do,” Trump said. The deal would involve an immediate ceasefire followed by Hamas releasing all remaining Israeli captives. Once that happens, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Palestinians thrown in Israeli prisons after October 7th, 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. The deal includes a phased Israeli withdrawal, although it would allow Israel to maintain control of a “buffer zone” inside Gaza’s border until Gaza is “properly secure from any resurgent terror threat,” one of the potential sticking points for Hamas. The agreement would establish a temporary transitional government headed by “apolitical” Palestinians that will be overseen by a so-called “Board of Peace.” Trump will be the chair of the board, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will also be involved. The proposal calls for the “demilitarization” of Gaza, which could be rejected by Hamas since the group has said it wouldn’t disarm until a Palestinian state is formed. Under the US plan, the US would “work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza.” The deal suggests a “reformed” Palestinian Authority could eventually take over governance in Gaza, an idea Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected. The outline also says that if the deal is implemented, it may lead to a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” but it doesn’t mention the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israel continues to expand illegal Jewish settlements. The proposal also says that Israel will “not occupy or annex Gaza” and that “no one will be forced to leave Gaza,” a break from Trump’s previous calls for the removal of the Palestinian population, which Israeli officials have used to push for the ethnic cleansing of the territory.

Read: White House unveils Gaza Strip peace proposal --- The White House released a 20-point plan Monday afternoon for a ceasefire and path forward in the Gaza Strip.Among the points in the proposal, President Trump would chair an international “board of peace” to govern and reconstruct the Gaza Strip as part of the 20-point plan, describing an end to the war between Israel and Hamas and a transition toward peace.Read it here, as released from the White House: President Donald J. Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict

• 1. Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.
• 2. Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough.
• 3. If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal.
• 4. Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.
• 5. Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7^th 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.
• 6. Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.
• 7. Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip. At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the January 19, 2025, agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads.
• 8. Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party. Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under the January 19, 2025 agreement.
• 9. Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair. This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza. This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.
• 10. A Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energize Gaza will be created by convening a panel of experts who have helped birth some of the thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East. Many thoughtful investment proposals and exciting development ideas have been crafted by well-meaning international groups, and will be considered to synthesize the security and governance frameworks to attract and facilitate these investments that will create jobs, opportunity, and hope for future Gaza.
• 11. A special economic zone will be established with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.
• 12. No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.
• 13. Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form. All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the independent monitors. New Gaza will be fully committed to building a prosperous economy and to peaceful coexistence with their neighbors.
• 14. A guarantee will be provided by regional partners to ensure that Hamas, and the factions, comply with their obligations and that New Gaza poses no threat to its neighbors or its people.
• 15. The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza. The ISF will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, and will consult with Jordan and Egypt who have extensive experience in this field. This force will be the long-term internal security solution. The ISF will work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces. It is critical to prevent munitions from entering Gaza and to facilitate the rapid and secure flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza. A deconfliction mechanism will be agreed upon by the parties.
• 16. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza. As the ISF establishes control and stability, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will withdraw based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed upon between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors, and the Unites States, with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens. Practically, the IDF will progressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies to the ISF according to an agreement they will make with the transitional authority until they are withdrawn completely from Gaza, save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.
• 17. In the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaled-up aid operation, will proceed in the terror-free areas handed over from the IDF to the ISF.
• 18. An interfaith dialogue process will be established based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence to try and change mindsets and narratives of Palestinians and Israelis by emphasizing the benefits that can be derived from peace.
• 19. While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.
• 20. The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence.

Donald Trump to run Gaza with Sir Tony Blair under new peace plan -Donald Trump will run Gaza with the assistance of Sir Tony Blair as part of the US president’s 20-point plan for “eternal peace in the Middle East”. Mr Trump said on Monday that he would oversee a transitional government in the Strip as the head of a new body called the Board of Peace, which Sir Tony would also sit on. He said the “leaders of the Arab world” had asked him to be chairman of the body. “It’d be headed by a gentleman known as President Donald J Trump of the United States. That’s what I want, this is some extra work to do, but it’s so important that I’m willing to do it.” Outlining the plan, which would include the IDF withdrawing from Gaza as the remaining hostages are released by Hamas, Mr Trump said: “Today is a historic day for peace. Let’s call it eternal peace in the Middle East.” Shortly after a press conference alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, in the White House ended abruptly without questions, Hamas said it had not been sent a copy of the plan. Eight Arab and Gulf State nations including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey backed the plan, saying in a statement they “welcome the role of the American president and his sincere efforts aimed at ending the war in Gaza.” They said they “affirm their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties toward finalizing the agreement and ensuring its implementation.” Documents released by the White House detailed Mr Trump’s and Sir Tony’s roles. “Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza,” the plan reads. “This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the Board of Peace, which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including former prime minister Tony Blair.” Under the proposals, the US would also develop a temporary international stabilisation force (ISF) alongside Arab nations and other “international partners” to be immediately deployed in Gaza. The ISF will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, and will consult with Jordan and Egypt. The group will work with Israel to help secure border areas. A map released by the White House showed the IDF’s staggered withdrawal from Gaza, which would coincide with hostages being released. A yellow line represents an initial “modest” withdrawal of IDF troops, which would take place within 72 hours of an agreement being reached and once all the hostages are released. The red line shows where the ISF will be deployed once Israeli forces withdraw further. Meanwhile, mas officials would be offered amnesty and possible immunity in Qatar, and civilians in Gaza would not be forced to leave the Strip, as Mr Trump had previously suggested. However, the peace plan failed to mention the West Bank and omitted key details about the future security of Gaza. It was also unclear if Hamas would accept its terms. Mr Trump said if Hamas refused to accept the deal, Israel would have the “full backing” of the United States to “finish the job”. “Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do,” Mr Trump said, referring to Mr Netanyahu by his nickname. Mr Netanyahu pledged to “finish the job” should Hamas not accept the plan.

Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan gains cautious support from Arab leaders - President Trump’s new Gaza peace plan Monday drew early reactions of support from leaders in the Arab and Muslim world, upping the pressure on Hamas and Israel to commit and follow through on the deal to end the two-year war. Qatar and Egypt have transmitted Trump’s proposal to Hamas for consideration, although it’s not clear how long the U.S.-designated terror group will have to respond. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he endorsed Trump’s plan, promising to “finish” destroying Hamas if it fails to agree to the terms. The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar endorsed the plan so long as it leads toward a pathway for a Palestinian state, unifying the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and prevents Israeli annexation of any territory. However, their joint statement, unlike Trump’s remarks earlier in the day, acknowledged the deal remained a work in progress. “The ministers affirm their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties toward finalizing the agreement and ensuring its implementation, in a manner that ensures peace, security, and stability for the peoples of the region,” the statement read. Trump would head a “board of peace” to oversee the postwar transition and reconstruction of Gaza, with Israel scaling back its military in phases. The White House’s 20-point plan was sparse on specifics. “Netanyahu played this smart,” Aaron David Miller, a veteran U.S. negotiator in the Middle East and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, posted on social platform X. “Close enough by redefining Trump’s plan within his own needs and constraints. Even if Hamas accepts, the amount of negotiating, arguing and politicking will take weeks, if not months with no clear outcome.” Trump announced his plan after what he said was extensive consultation with Israel, its Arab and Persian Gulf neighbors and Muslim-majority countries that he hopes to woo into recognizing Israel if he can end the bloodshed in Gaza and establish a pathway to a Palestinian state. “I welcome President Trump’s 20-point plan to ensure an end to the war in Gaza,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement on X, endorsing the plan before it was made publicly available. Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country, does not recognize Israel’s existence. But Islamabad has sought to deepen ties with Trump, nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize over his involvement in reaching a ceasefire with India earlier this year. The president touted Sharif’s endorsement and said he also held consultations with Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto over the points of the plan. Trump has sought, since his first term, to bring Indonesia into the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreement that established ties between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and elevated ties with Morocco. Indonesia has one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. “He is an amazing leader and respected by everyone,” Trump said, referring to Subianto. He added that “he was in the room with us,” referring to a gathering of Arab and Muslim heads of state at the United Nations last week where the 20-point peace plan was discussed. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the plan as requiring both Israel and Hamas to make concessions, speaking with reporters earlier Monday morning. “Ultimately the president knows when you get to a good deal, both sides are going to leave a little unhappy,” she said. For Hamas, that is a commitment to lay down its arms and renounce any role in a future governance of the Strip. For Israel, the plan includes laying out a pathway for a credible Palestinian state, something Netanyahu has rejected as recently as his speech at the United Nations last week. French President Emmanuel Macron, who led the charge at the United Nations last week to recognize a Palestinian state, welcomed Trump’s proposal and said Israel and Hamas must both commit. “These elements must pave the way for in-depth discussions with all relevant partners to build a lasting peace in the region, based on the two-state solution and on the principles endorsed by 142 UN member states, at the initiative of France and Saudi Arabia.” Standing beside Trump in the White House on Monday, Netanyahu did not address whether he would recognize a Palestinian state, but he backtracked on his earlier rejection of the Palestinian Authority — the governing body in the West Bank — having a role in a future government in Gaza.

Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu promise to 'finish' Hamas if it rejects peace deal - President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Monday that Israel will finish the job against Hamas if the militant group doesn’t accept a peace deal. Trump on Monday released his 20-point plan for Gaza, which Netanyahu said he supported during a press conference following their Oval Office meeting. Trump warned that if Hamas doesn’t also accept the peace plan, Netanyahu has his support to destroy the militant group. “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas, but I hope that we’re going to have a deal for peace. And if Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible … as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu’s nickname. Netanyahu, in his opening remarks at the press conference, also warned that Israeli will finish the job against Hamas. “If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accepts it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way. But it will be done,” the prime minister said. He argued that Hamas will keep attacking the Israelis, like the group did on Oct. 7, 2023, if it doesn’t agree to peace. “We’d prefer the easy way but it has to be done. All these goals must be achieved because we didn’t fight this horrible fight, sacrifice the finest of our young men to have Hamas stay in Gaza and threaten us again and again and again with these horrific massacres,” Netanyahu said. Trump’s 20-point peace plan outlined that if Hamas refuses to accept the proposal, the plan can go ahead with Israel establishing “terror-free” areas to be handed over from the Israeli military to a temporary “International Stabilization Force” made up of Arab and international partners. If the militant group accepts it, the plan called for Hamas to lay down its arms and renounce governance in the Strip. Additionally, the plan said Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence would be given amnesty to remain in Gaza or they would be granted safe passage to receiving countries.

Hamas Agrees to Release Hostages, Trump Calls on Israel to Stop Bombing - UPDATE: In response to Hamas’s statement agreeing to release the hostages and entering into negotiations, President Donald Trump called on Israel to immediately cease bombing Gaza. “Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out,” the President wrote on Truth Social. Hamas responded to President Donald Trump’s 20-point proposal to end the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Hamas said it is willing to release all Israeli captives, turn administration in Gaza over to an independent Palestinian committee, and enter into negotiations to end the conflict. In a statement released on Friday, Hamas said it is willing to release the remaining 48 Israeli captives under the framework proposed by Trump. “Out of concern to stop the aggression and the genocide being inflicted upon our steadfast people in the Gaza Strip,” the group explained. “The movement announces its approval to release all prisoners of the occupation according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal.” On Monday, Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and released a 20-point proposal to end the war in Gaza. The deal would involve an immediate ceasefire followed by Hamas releasing all remaining Israeli captives. Once that happens, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Palestinians thrown in Israeli prisons after October 7th, 2023. Trump’s proposal includes turning Gaza over to the control of apolitical Palestinians that will be overseen by an international “Board of Peace” that will include Trump as chair and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Hamas said it is prepared to “immediately enter into negotiations, through the mediators, to discuss the details.” Control of Gaza following the Israeli withdrawal may be a potential issue in reaching a final agreement. Hamas said, “The movement also reiterates its approval to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body composed of independents (technocrats).” While Trump said Netanyahu had agreed to his proposal, it’s unclear whether Israel will be willing to implement the deal. The agreement called for a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the possibility of the Palestinian Authority taking over as the government in the Strip. Netanyahu has previously rejected the PA having any role in post-war Gaza. Additionally, after Trump announced his proposal, Netanyahu said, “Now the whole world, including the Arab and Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the terms that we created together with Trump, to bring back all the hostages — the living and the dead — while the IDF stays in the Strip.”Hamas issued its response to Trump’s proposal after the President gave Hamas until Sunday evening to accept the deal or “all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.”

Netanyahu says social media Israel’s new ‘weapon’ - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his government views social media platforms as a “weapon” to bolster Israel’s faltering image in the United States, amid growing international outrage over the genocide in the Gaza Strip.During a meeting with pro-Israeli American social media influencers at the Israeli Consulate General in New York on Friday, Netanyahu said, “We have to fight with weapons that apply to the battlefields in which we’re engaged in and the most important ones are on social media,” according to a video of the meeting posted by influencer Debra Lea on her X account.He said that a deal which would see US companies, most of them owned by pro-Israel businessmen, acquire TikTok’s operations in the United States, was “the most important purchase going on right now.”TikTok, a Chinese-owned platform, has previously been heavily criticised by pro-Israel members of the US Congress because of the presence of videos showing the situation in Gaza and other pro-Palestinian content, which are believed to have heavily influenced the opinions of young Americans.Netanyahu also mentioned the social media platform X, also known as Twitter saying, “We have to talk to Elon [Musk]. He’s not an enemy, but a friend.” Since Musk’s acquisition of the platform, X has increasingly been seen as a conduit for right-wing and anti-immigrant disinformation.The Israeli prime minister, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza, said that if influence over TikTok and X could be secured, Israel “would get a lot”. His remarks coincided with US President Donald Trump signing an executive order on Thursday approving a deal to transfer TikTok’s US operations to a consortium of American companies, saying it meets national security requirements under domestic law.Trump said the investor group would include Oracle, Michael Dell, and Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch and his son Lachlan own the vehemently pro-Israel Fox News network and New York Post tabloid newspaper in the United States. Michael Dell, head of Dell Technologies, has been a strong supporter of Israel, and is believed to have provided the Israeli military with technology and data that enhanced its capabilities in its wars on Gaza and Lebanon, either directly through his company or through Israeli startups acquired by Dell.Oracle is known for its closeness to Trump and has also cooperated with the Israeli government on technology and military infrastructure, with CEO Larry Ellison having previously invited Netanyahu to vacation on his private Hawaiian island.Netanyahu’s comments about social media come as Israel faces growing international isolation over its genocidal war in Gaza, which has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians - most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.The true death toll is believed to be much higher.Netanyahu spoke to a nearly empty hall at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, after many delegations walked out in protest at his presence.

Israel Paying US Social Media Influencers $7,000 Per Post As Right-Wing Support Craters -- Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting in New York on Friday with a group of pro-Israel influencers, we learn that Israel is likely paying them a whopping $7,000 per pro-Israel social-media post in a desperate drive to bolster plummeting support of Israel among America's young conservatives. That's the conclusion of Responsible Statecraft's Nick Cleveland-Stout, based on analysis of a disclosure filed with the US Department of Justice as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). While pro-Israel lobbying heavyweight AIPAC is notoriously exempt from FARA registration, the social media operation comes under the transparency law's provisions because Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is paying for it. The best 'conservative' influencers Israel can buy? Emily Austin participated in the Epstein binders hoax, and joined Netanyahu's recent influencers meeting. Xavaier DuRousseau attended the secret Hamptons influencer summit with Bill Ackman, then junketed off to Israel pic.twitter.com/JLoGk3Jzfd— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 28, 2025 The influence campaign is being facilitated by Bridge Partners, a DC-based firm owned by founders Yair Levi and Uri Steinberg. "[Bridge Partners] has also enlisted the help of a former major in the IDF spokesperson unit, Nadav Shtrauchler," writes Cleveland-Stout. "For legal counsel, Levi and Steinberg have turned to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, a firm that previously worked for controversial Israeli spyware company NSO Group."

White House Says Netanyahu Spoke With Qatari PM, Expressed 'Deep Regret' for Bombing Doha - he White House said in a statement on Monday that during his meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in a trilateral call and expressed “deep regret” about bombing Doha. The statement came after several Israeli media outlets reported that Netanyahu apologized to al-Thani about the September 9 strikes that targeted senior Hamas officials who were discussing a US ceasefire proposal. The strikes killed lower-level Hamas officials and one Qatari security officer. The White House statement acknowledged that the Israeli attack came amid ceasefire negotiations. “[Netanyahu] further expressed regret that, in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty,” it said. The statement said that Netanyahu told al-Thani that the killing of the Qatari officer was “unintentional” and pledged that Israel “will not conduct such an attack again in the future.” The White House said that the three leaders agreed to “establish a trilateral mechanism to enhance coordination, improve communication, resolve mutual grievances, and strengthen collective efforts to prevent threats.” According to Axios, an Israeli apology for the bombing was required for Qatar to continue its role as a mediator in Gaza ceasefire negotiations. President Trump has been claiming that a deal is close, but it’s unclear if he’s putting any real pressure on Netanyahu to end the genocidal war. Trump had also claimed that he was unaware of Israel’s plans to bomb Doha. But according to Israeli officials, Trump was notified about the plan beforehand and did not oppose the strikes on Qatar, which is a major non-NATO ally of the US and hosts about 10,000 US troops.

Trump Signs Order Giving Security Guarantee To Qatar After Israeli Attack - President Trump has signed an executive order pledging to provide Qatar with a security guarantee similar to NATO’s Article 5, a step that came after Israel bombed the country, which is a major regional ally of the US and hosts about 10,000 US troops.Trump’s order says that the US shall “regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” It states that the US “shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”The order marks the first time an Arab country is receiving such a strong security guarantee from the US, something that Saudi Arabia has long sought. “Saudi Arabia thought that to get a defense pact with the United States, it would require normalizing relations with Israel. Qatar managed to get a partial defense pact with the United States by getting attacked by Israel,” a former US official told Axios.According to the White House, the order was signed on Monday, September 29, the same day Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuand had him apologize to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani for the strikes on Doha, which killed six people, including five low-level Hamas officials and one Qatari security officer.

Trump Inks Article-5 Style Defense Deal With Qatar After 'Apology' Over Israel's Doha Bombing - The US and Qatar have signed an unprecedented agreement which is similar to Article 5 in NATO, in which an attack on Qatar is considered a threat to the security of the US. The robust security guarantees are spelled out in the deal posted to the White House website on Wednesday: "The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States." "In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures including diplomatic, economic, and if necessary, military, to defend the interests of the United States and of Qatar," it adds. This is a clear vow to "guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the state of Qatar against external attack." Of course, the United States already has a significant military base, the sprawling Al Udeid Air Base, located west of Doha, which is defended by Patriot missile batteries. But now presumably this American air defense shield will extend over the whole of the tiny oil and gas monarchy's territory. Already the past year has seen active US intercepts of missiles sent by Iran, and yet last month's Israeli attack on a Hamas office in Doha was allowed by US defenses. But this new major security deal appears part of Trump's 'regret' to Qatar in the wake of that controversial attack, which killed five top Hamas negotiators and a Qatari security guard. Trump on Monday while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made him apologize to Qatar's leaders in a somewhat humiliating phone call and photo op, later published by the White House...

Israel Captures Hundreds of Activists Attempting To Bring Food Into Gaza, Including American Citizens - The Israeli military has stopped the Global Sumud Flotilla from breaking its starvation blockade on the Gaza Strip and has arrested hundreds of activists who were on board the vessels, including American citizens, attempting to bring food to starving Palestinians.According to a congressional letter to President Trump calling for the US to guarantee safe passage for the flotilla, which was led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), 24 US citizens were among the activists onboard, including at least six US veterans.Greg Stoker, a contributor to Mint Press News and one of the US veterans participating in the flotilla, was posting regular updates on his X account before he was presumably captured by the IDF.“Israeli Navy trying to spray us with skunk water. Still in international waters Save Gaza,” Stoker wrote on X in his last post, which he said was written at 2:50 am Gaza time on Thursday morning.So far, the US government has been silent about the arrest of its citizens, while some governments and international organizations are speaking out. Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the interception was a “breach of international law” if it happened in international waters.“It’s a humanitarian mission, no threat to anybody other than to highlight and also to bring humanitarian aid into the people of Gaza, and it underlines the absolute imperative of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza as quickly as possible,” Martin said. The Irish government has said that at least 14 Irish citizens, including a senator, have been detained by Israeli forces.Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the interception was “unacceptable” and said he summoned the Israeli foreign minister to Belgium. “The manner in which they were boarded and the location in international waters are unacceptable, which is why I summoned the ambassador,” he said.

US military to scale down Iraq mission with ISIS threat lessened - The U.S. military has begun pulling its forces from Iraq following an agreement signed with the Iraqi government a year ago, officials have confirmed, citing successes in fighting ISIS in the country.The U.S. and coalition partners “will reduce its military mission in Iraq,” reflecting the “combined success in fighting ISIS,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement late Tuesday.Washington and Baghdad in September 2024 agreed to sunset the U.S. military-led mission in Iraq, in which a coalition of countries conduct counterterrorism missions against remnants of ISIS.The U.S. had roughly 2,500 troops in Iraq at the beginning of the year, but they have steadily left some military installations where American forces have been stationed over the past two decades.Under the deal, the U.S. and its coalition allies would focus on fighting ISIS in Syria — where there are more than 900 American troops — and shift a majority of their personnel to Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Reuters reported. The total number of U.S. forces in Iraq will be less than 2,000 once the transitions are finished, with most of them in Erbil, an official told the outlet

Pentagon Confirms US Troops Will Stay in Iraq After Drawdown - The US Department of War has confirmed that US troops will remain in Iraq indefinitely under a deal signed with the Iraqi government last year that called for an end to the US-led anti-ISIS mission in the country.According to Stars & Stripes, a senior Pentagon official has said that the US is slightly reducing its troop presence, bringing the total number of US military personnel from 2,500 to under 2,000. The majority of the remaining troops will be based in Erbil in the northern Kurdistan region.The War Department official said that US troops were in the process of leaving the Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. The US will be keeping some military personnel in Baghdad who will be tasked with “bilateral security cooperation.”While the US is keeping troops in Iraq, the official claimed that the drawdown was ending the “forever war” in the country. “First, we’re ending the forever war in Iraq,” the official said.“Second, we’re shifting the burden of responsibility for combating ISIS in Iraq, from US and coalition forces to our Iraqi partners. We’ve trained them for a decade and they have the capability to counter ISIS and they have the will. And third, high credit to the Iraqis themselves,” the official added.The Pentagon is also consolidating its presence in neighboring Syria, where it plans to reduce troop numbers to under 1,000. It has closed some bases in northeastern Syria, handing them over to the US-backed Kurdish-led SDF. The majority of the US troops in Syria are expected to be based at al-Tanf Garrison in the south, which is situated where the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan converge.

US Announces More Sanctions on Iran To Support UN's 'Snapback' Sanctions - Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the US was imposing more sanctions on Iran to support the UN Security Council sanctions that were reimposed after the UK, France, and Germany triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal, an agreement the US withdrew from back in 2018.“Today, we are designating 44 individuals and entities involved in Iran’s nuclear program and weapons procurement networks supporting ballistic missile and military aircraft programs,” Rubio said in a statement.The US secretary of state said the snapback sanctions were imposed due to Iran’s “significant non-performance” of its nuclear commitments, but the sanctions came just a few months after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities as part of a war that was launched amid nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran.Also on Wednesday, Russia stated that it doesn’t recognize the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran, signaling that it won’t abide by the measures, which include an arms embargo.“We do not recognize the snapback as coming into force,” said Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. “We’ll be living in two parallel realities, because for some snapback happened, for us it didn’t. That creates a problem. How we will get out of it – let’s see.”Nebenzia said the reactivation of the sanctions is “really fraught with a major escalation around Iran, because it opens the door for those countries who want to finish Iran’s nuclear program,” referring to the potential for more US and Israeli military action against Iran.

US Demands of Iran Make Another War Likely - The Trump administration is committed to ramping up the pressure on Iran, The Washington Post has reported, and the demands that the US is making of Tehran make another US-Israeli war on the country more likely.According to the report, the US is demanding that Iran accept four conditions as a baseline for negotiations, including committing to “meaningful” and direct talks, agreeing to end its uranium enrichment program, imposing curbs on its ballistic missile program, and ceasing funding of its allies in the region. Before the 12-Day War, Iran made it clear that it wouldn’t end its uranium enrichment altogether, although it was willing to reduce its enrichment to much lower levels and was exploring the idea of an enrichment consortium involving other regional countries. But those negotiations were abruptly ended when Israel launched the war on June 13, two days before Washington and Tehran were set to hold another round of talks.In the wake of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, Iran has maintained that it won’t give up its nuclear enrichment program, framing it as a matter of national pride. Iranian officials have also made clear they will never accept a deal that would impose limits on its ballistic missile program since the weapons are the only real deterrent Tehran has.The Post report comes after the UN Security Council reimposed sanctions on Iran under the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was triggered by France, the UK, and Germany. Both Iran and Russia have rejected the reimposition of the sanctions as “illegal,” pointing to the fact that the US quit the nuclear deal back in 2018.Arab officials told the Post that they’re worried another war could be coming. “The region today cannot go through the same Iranian-Israeli war or the other wars of the last two years. The cost is too high,” a senior Arab government official told the paper.Israeli officials have been threatening that another attack on Iran may come soon. “We are monitoring what is happening across the Middle East and in Iran and are preparing for a variety of scenarios and options; one of them is that we may need to act again against Iran,” a senior IDF officialtold the Israeli newspaper Maariv on Monday.

Boeing To Get $123 Million Contract To Replace Bunker Busting Bombs the US Dropped on Iran - Boeing is set to receive a contract worth up to $123 million to replace the massive 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs that the US dropped on Iranian nuclear facilities in June as part of the 12-day US-Israeli war against Iran, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.On June 22, US B-2 Spirit bombers dropped 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites, marking the first time the weapon was used in combat. A US submarine also fired Tomahawk missiles in strikes on an Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan.The attack, dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” was launched on behalf of Israel. The Bloomberg report said that a Pentagon budget document from August says that funds are being shifted from operations and maintenance accounts to Air Force munitions procurement as “funds are required to replace GBU-57 munitions expended in Operation Midnight Hammer in support of Israel. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth presents a framed photo of a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and a map of Operation Midnight Hammer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Pentagon on July 9, 2025. (DoW photo by US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)Replacing the MOPs is just a fraction of the cost of the war against Iran, as the US used a significant number of interceptors to defend Israel throughout the 12 days. US officials told The Wall Street Journal that the US fired more than 150 THAAD interceptors during the war, accounting for about one-quarter of the Pentagon’s total stock of the interceptors and costing about $2 billion.The US military also engaged in its largest use of Patriot missiles to repel the Iranian attack on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which Iran launched in retaliation for the bombing of its nuclear sites. Bloomberg previously reported that the Pentagon was planning to spend at least $3.5 billion replenishing weapons it had used defending Israel before the 12-Day War. Most of the cost was related to the US defense of Israel when Iran launched an attack in April 2024 in retaliation for Israel bombing its consulate in Damascus.

War Department Pushes To Double or Quadruple Missile Production To Prepare for Potential War With China - help the US military prepare for a potential future war with China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.The report said that senior Pentagon officials expressed a desire for a significant increase in production during a series of meetings with representatives from several US missile manufacturers. Steve Feinberg, the deputy US Secretary of War, has taken a leading role in the effort, which has been dubbed the Munitions Acceleration Council, and regularly speaks with some executives.The US military has been openly preparing for a war with China for years despite the obvious risk of nuclear war. The preparations have involved expanding the US military footprint in the Asia Pacific, building alliances in the region, and increasing weapons shipments to Taiwan.The Journal report said that the effort at expanding missile production is focused on weapons the Pentagon believes it needs for a conflict withChina, including Patriot interceptors, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles, the Standard Missile-6, Precision Strike Missiles, and Joint Air-Surface Standoff Missiles.Since 2022, the Pentagon has formally considered China the top “threat” facing the US, although that may soon change as reports say the War Department’s forthcoming National Defense Strategy (NDS) may prioritizemissions in the homeland and the Western Hemisphere over countering Beijing.In a statement back in May, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said he was directing the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, to begin work on the new NDS, which he said will “prioritize defense of the US homeland, including America’s skies and borders, and deterring China in the Indo-Pacific.”Colby is a well-known China hawk who has long pushed for the US to prioritize China and prepare for a war over Taiwan, though there are signs that he has started to doubt the US’s ability to defend the island. Either way, the US is expected to continue its military buildup in the region.

US To Provide Ukraine With Intelligence for Long-Range Missile Strikes Inside Russia - The US will provide Ukraine with intelligence to carry out long-range missile strikes to target energy infrastructure inside Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.The report said that President Trump recently signed off on the Pentagon providing such support for Ukraine, and said that it’s the first time the Trump administration will aid such Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia, which always risks a major escalation from Moscow.The report said that while the US has long backed Ukrainian drone and missile strikes, the intelligence sharing means Ukraine will be better able to hit refineries, pipelines, power stations, and other energy infrastructure far from its borders.Last year, the Biden administration backed Ukrainian strikes inside Russia using US-provided ATACMS missiles, which have a range of up to 190 miles. In response, Russia altered its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.The news of Trump backing the long-range strikes comes as the administration is considering arming Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of over 1,000 miles, though it’s unclear if providing Ukraine with a launcher for Tomahawks is realistic, and sources toldReuters that the transfer of the missiles is unlikely.The Journal report said that the Trump administration is also considering arming Ukraine with Barracudas, air-launched missiles produced by Anduril, and other munitions that have a range of about 500 miles. Providing such weapons would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war.In August, the Trump administration announced a weapons deal for Ukraine that will provide the country with Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) air-launched missiles, which can hit targets up to 280 miles away, but it’s unclear when the missiles will actually arrive in Ukraine. News of the US backing long-range missile strikes inside Russia comes as President Trump has adopted the maximalist approach of his special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, who insists Ukraine can win the war despite Russia having the clear advantage when it comes to manpower and industrial capacity to produce weapons.

Russia's Lavrov Says He Would Be 'Surprised' If the US Arms Ukraine With Tomahawk Missiles - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that he does not believe the Trump administration has made a final decision on the possibility of providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles and that he would be “surprised” if the US went through with the idea.“I think this is primarily the result of European pressure on Washington, and Washington wants to show that it takes into account the opinions of its allies. I don’t think we have seen the final decision,” Lavrov told reporters at the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.“The Americans don’t supply Tomahawks to everyone. Among Europeans, if I’m not mistaken, they supply them to Spain and the Netherlands; they’re somewhat wary of the rest. If they believe that Ukraine is a responsible nation that will use them responsibly, that would be surprising to me,” Lavrov added.The Russian diplomat’s comments came after Vice President JD Vanceconfirmed that the US was considering arming Ukraine with Tomahawks by selling them to the US’s European allies. The step would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war, as Tomahawks have a range of over 1,000 miles, putting Moscow well in range of potential missile strikes, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently threatened that Kremlin officials could be targeted if the war drags on.Moscow has previously made clear that US-backed missile strikes on its territory risk nuclear escalation, as it changed its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons after the Biden administration gave the green light for Ukraine to fire US-provided ATACMS missiles into Russia. Both Lavrov and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov have downplayed the idea that Tomahawks would make much of a difference in the war. “No magical weapons exist, and Tomahawk or other missiles simply won’t be a game changer,” Peskov said on Monday.

Top Trump Officials Intensify Push for Regime Change in Venezuela - Senior Trump administration officials have intensified their push to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power and are discussing steps to escalate the military pressure, The New York Timesreported on Monday.The report said the effort is being led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as President Trump’s national security advisor. Other top officials on board for regime change in Venezuela include CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief domestic policy advisor.The report cited Venezuelan opposition figures who say their movement has been planning what to do if Maduro is ousted, and that Rubio had met with five opposition figures who fled to the US back in May. During the first Trump administration, the US backed a failed coup attempt against Maduro led by opposition figure Juan Guaido.Other Trump officials, most notably special envoy Ric Grennel, are pushing for diplomacy with Venezuela, and Maduro has sent a letter to Trump seeking talks, although it was dismissed by the White House.Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil pointed to the fact that his country continues to accept twice-weekly deportation flights from the US as a sign that Caracas is serious about diplomacy. He also said that a war would lead to “excessive migration” and economic collapse that would “destabilize the entire region.”Officials told the Times that the administration is considering launching direct strikes inside Venezuela against alleged drug cartels, something that’s been reported by several other media outlets.Since the US is claiming Maduro is the leader of a cartel, an allegation his government strongly rejects, that means the Venezuelan leader would be a potential target. So far, the US has bombed at least three boats in the Caribbean that it claimed, without evidence, were carrying drugs, extrajudicially executing at least 17 people. Maduro and other Venezuelan officials have pointed to data that shows the majority of the cocaine that is produced in Colombia doesn’t go through Venezuela. President Trump has framed the military campaign in the region as a response to overdose deaths in the US due to fentanyl, but fentanyl isn’t produced in Venezuela, and it does not go through the country on its way to the US.

Cuban diplomat: Rubio risking Trump peace prospects with ‘personal’ agenda -- Cuba’s foreign minister on Tuesday accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of pursuing a “personal and corrupt agenda” that he said runs counter to President Trump’s stated goals of peace in Latin America. In a sit-down interview with The Associated Press, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said Rubio, whose parents are Cuban immigrants, has made it his mission to carry out a “maximum pressure” campaign against the island nation. “The current secretary of state was not born in Cuba, has never been to Cuba, and knows nothing about Cuba,” Rodríguez told the AP. “But there is a very personal and corrupt agenda that he is carrying out, which seems to be sacrificing the national interests of the U.S. in order to advance this very extremist approach,” he added. The Trump administration has taken several aggressive actions against Cuba since taking office. President Trump redesignated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, days after former President Biden had lifted that designation at the end of his term. Trump placed new restrictions on visitors from Cuba, and he revoked legal protected status that shielded approximately 300,000 Cubans in the U.S. from deportation. The administration also announced new visa restrictions.But Rodríguez, who has been Cuba’s top diplomat since 2009, said he doesn’t blame the president for these actions. He blames the State Department. Trump “portrays himself as an advocate of peace,” Rodríguez said, but Rubio “promotes the use of force or the threat to use force as an everyday, customary tool.”

Trump Tells Congress the US Is in a 'Non-International Armed Conflict' With Drug Cartels - President Trump has told Congress that he has decided the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, signaling he’s planning to expand the US military campaign in Latin America, The New York Times reported on Thursday. In the memo, Trump cited his administration’s steps to designate Latin American drug cartels as “terrorist” organizations, which he has used to justify the bombing of three boats in the Caribbean. His administration has provided no evidence to back up the claim that the 17 people who were killed in the strikes were drug traffickers.Trump and his top officials have justified the extrajudicial executions at sea by framing attempts to bring drugs into the US as attacks on the country. The president has pointed to the high number of overdose deaths in the US, which are mainly caused by fentanyl and other opioids. But the US military action has focused on Venezuela, which is not a source of fentanyl, as the synthetic opioid mainly comes into the US from Mexico. US officials have made clear that another agenda is at play when it comes to Venezuela, asthey are pushing for regime change in the country.The notice to Congress says that Trump has “determined” that cartels involved in drug smuggling are “nonstate armed groups” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.” The claim is being used to justify bombing boats out of the water and murdering the people on them instead of interdicting the vessels and seizing drugs, the standard practice to stop narcotic shipments.The memo states that the US and the cartels are engaged in a “non-international armed conflict,” using a term from international law. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a non-international armed conflict refers to conflicts in which one or more non-state actors are involved. It can refer to conflicts where non-state actors are fighting each other or engaged in combat with a government, and a closer look at the definition makes it clear that Trump’s claim doesn’t hold water.To meet the threshold for a non-international armed conflict, the ICRC says the hostilities “must reach a minimum level of intensity. This may be the case, for example, when the hostilities are of a collective character or when the government is obliged to use military force against the insurgents, instead of mere police forces.”The ICRC says that the “non-governmental groups involved in the conflict must be considered as ‘parties to the conflict,’ meaning that they possess organized armed forces. This means for example that these forces have to be under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations.”The nature of the cartels and gangs that Trump has designated as terrorist organizations is that they lack a command structure and are very decentralized. President Trump claimed the first strike on a boat targeted members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which a US intelligence assessment described as “loosely organized cells of localized individual criminal networks.”The US assessment also said that Tren de Aragua’s “decentralized structure makes it highly unlikely” that it “coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling.” According to InSight Crime, a US-government-funded think tank that focuses on organized crime in the Americas, Tren de Aragua is not even considered a “transnational drug trafficking organization.”“Elements of the gang certainly engage in the retail sale of narcotics, and there have been sources talking about migrants and gang members carrying small amounts of drug across borders in Latin America, but so far there are no cases of large cocaine shipments being linked to Tren de Aragua, especially not in connection with the US market,” Jeremy McDermott, co-founder of InSight Crimes, wrote on August.

Hegseth Says Four ‘Narco-Terrorists’ Killed in Latest US Attack on Venezuela Boat - A day after President Trump informed Congress that the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, the US carried out yet another strike on a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean Sea, alleging it was loaded with drugs.Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the attack on social media, claiming the attack on the small boat killed four “narco-terrorists.”President Trump went on to claim, without evidence, that the boat was loaded with enough drugs to kill 25,000 to 50,000 people and was “entering American territory.”In reality, the boat attacked was off the coast of Venezuela, far from US territorial waters. Secretary Hegseth further claimed that the US had intelligence the four were affiliated with a “designated terrorist organization” but did not specify which nor show the evidence.The US has attacked multiple Venezuelan boats in recent weeks, with US officials saying the goal of the strikes is regime change in Venezuela as opposed to the war on drugs. Along with the airstrikes of boats, a US destroyer boarded and seized a Venezuelan boat in mid-September, which the Venezuelan government insists was a tuna fishing vessel. The administration’s strikes are fueling growing opposition within Congress, with ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee Sen. Jack Reed (D – RI) saying the strikes were unconstitutional, and Sen. Rand Paul (R – KY) saying that “blowing them up without knowing who’s on the boat is a terrible policy, and it should end.”Sen. Jim Risch (R – ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he believes Trump is allowed to attack the boats by virtue of “his general powers under the Constitution.” Many in the Senate, however, argue there is a legal process to be followed, and the unilateral attacking of boats isn’t it.

Venezuela Says It Detected Five US Fighter Jets Flying Near Its Coast - Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Thursdaythat the Venezuelan military had detected five US fighter jets flying near Venezuela’s coast, a provocation that comes amid reports that the US is considering bombing the country.“Venezuela’s integrated air defense system detected more than five aircraft with flight characteristics of 400 knots and flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet within the Maiquetía region. What does that indicate? These are combat aircraft that US imperialism has dared to bring close to Venezuelan shores,” Padrino said, according to El País.The US has deployed F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico as part of its military buildup and campaign in the Caribbean, which has involved bombing three boats and killing at least 17 people, whom the US accused, without providing evidence, of running drugs. US officials have previously told The New York Times that while combating drug trafficking was the pretext of the campaign, the real goal is ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.Padrino condemned the US flight near Venezuela as a “provocation” and “a major threat against the nation’s security.” He also warned the US against attacking the country, saying Venezuela will launch a “national mobilization” in response.“Do not make the mistake of militarily attacking Venezuela. Think carefully, investigate thoroughly, and understand the national spirit,” Padrino said.Venezuelan officials have strongly denied US claims that Maduro is the leader of a cartel, pointing to data that shows the majority of the cocaine that is produced in Colombia doesn’t go through Venezuela. President Trump has framed the military campaign in the region as a response to overdose deaths in the US due to fentanyl, but fentanyl isn’t produced in Venezuela, and it does not go through the country on its way to the US.

Democrats question ‘contingency plans’ for meeting of top US military leaders - Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) in a Saturday letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for transparency regarding the meeting he will hold Tuesday with top military leaders. The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, will include hundreds of generals and admirals stationed around the world. President Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he plans on attending the gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. Duckworth and Hirono, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in their letter that the meeting “raises profound concerns about security, cost and operational impacts.” They add that the meeting endangers the personal security of those in attendance and the national security of the country. At the meeting, Hegseth is expected to discuss the warrior ethos mentality he has sought to instill at the Pentagon, according to multiple reports. “For an administration obsessed with rooting out waste, this abrupt, time and resource-intensive meeting of our military’s top commanders, all of whom have earned their positions through superior performance over decades of service, to reportedly hear you, the least qualified Secretary of Defense in living memory, lecture about military standards and warfighting is absurd,” the letter states. The letter also requests details on various logistical aspects of the gathering, included required flight hours for military aircraft, the number of purchased commercial airline tickets and hotel rooms and the cost of extra security measures at the base. It also asks how those costs are being accounted for, why a virtual setting was not chosen and whether the Pentagon has considered the intelligence and national security implications “of concentrating much of the operational chain of command in one location.” The meeting has reportedly sparked confusion among military officials, given the absence of details from the Pentagon and the lack of a declared crisis. The letter asks Hegseth to “justify the urgency” of the meeting and to state whether the president directed it or was briefed prior to it being reported.

Trump, Hegseth rally troops at rare meeting, rail against "woke" standards

• Hundreds of generals and admirals were summoned from around the world last week for today's unusual meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia, without initially being told why.
• Hegseth promoted the new name — the Department of War, although it has not officially been changed by Congress — and slammed "toxic leaders," whom he accused of lowering standards to make the Defense Department the "woke department."
• Hegseth told the military leaders he's rolling out 10 new directives involving physical fitness, new grooming requirements and a return to "the highest male standard" for combat positions. He slammed what he said were "fat troops" and added "it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the world. It's a bad look."
• President Trump also addressed the generals, saying "together, we're reawakening the warrior spirit." His remarks, over an hour long, also included discussions of the Nobel Peace Prize, peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas and his love of tariffs.
• Mr. Trump said his administration is committing $1 trillion in 2026 for the military. Neither Mr. Trump nor Hegseth addressed the looming government shutdown. Active-duty troops will be required to report for duty but their pay will be delayed until the shutdown is over.

Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals to DC to tell them no more fat troops or 'beardos' - Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered an impassioned speech to 800 generals and admirals Tuesday morning, telling the leaders that the military will "restore a ruthless, dispassionate and common sense application of standards" that will no longer tolerate overweight troops or beards. Much of Hegseth's speech focused on issues he has publicly criticized and is already working to change. This month, for instance, DoD issued a ban on permanent beard waivers, a move critics say unfairly targets Black troops who more frequently suffer chronic razor burn. "No more beardos," he said. "The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done." If troops want beards, then they can join special operations forces, he added. These units are not exclusively subject to the general DoD-wide policies. It is highly irregular for all of the military's generals and admirals to be summoned to the same location for anything, but especially for topics not directly related to daily national security concerns. Those summoned included the Joint Chiefs of Staff, principal military advisors, service leaders, and combatant commanders who oversee swaths of the globe where US troops live, train, and fight. In his speech, Hegseth ordered mandatory daily physical training and twice-yearly fitness tests. "It's tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops," said Hegseth. "Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals in the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world."

War Chief Hegseth Says US Military Is Done With 'Politically Correct' Rules of Engagement - US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in an address to hundreds of generals and admirals on Tuesday that there should be no more “politically correct” rules of engagement for the US military as he presented his recently rebranded Department of War as a ruthless force that can produce overwhelming violence.“We’re training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not to defend. Defense is something you do all the time, it’s inherently reactionary and can lead to overreach and mission creep. War is something you do sparingly,” Hegseth told the crowd of senior officers at the US Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.“On our own terms, and with clear aims, we fight to win. We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement. Just common sense, maximum lethality, and authority for warfighters,” he added.Elsewhere in his speech on Tuesday, Hegseth said his message to US “enemies” was “FAFO,” a slang term that stands for “F** around and find out.” “Since waging war is so costly in blood and treasure, we owe our Republic a military that will win any war we choose or any war that is thrust upon us. Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies: FAFO,” he said.

Pete Hegseth's military meeting triggers fears, head scratching and praise - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech before a high-profile gathering of hundreds of the U.S. military’s top brass Tuesday morning has spurred fear, head-scratching and praise. Hegseth, over the course of roughly 45 minutes, rolled out 10 directives that seek to dismantle so-called woke efforts, raise fitness standards to eliminate “fat” troops and leaders, implement strict grooming standards and impose “male standards” on combat troops. To those who don’t share his vision, the Pentagon chief’s message was simple: You can leave. “The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies … but if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said. Trump followed Hegseth on the stage, threatening to fire generals he didn’t like and suggesting the military could use “dangerous” U.S. cities as a “training ground.” Democratic lawmakers swiftly criticized the event as an unnecessary gathering that set a dangerous precedent and threatens to undermine the Constitution. Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) called the meeting “an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership” by the Trump administration. “While American forces confront real threats across the globe, Mr. Hegseth and President Trump chose to pull generals and admirals away from their missions to listen to hours of political grievances,” Reed said in a statement. “Even more troubling was Mr. Hegseth’s ultimatum to America’s senior officers: conform to his political worldview or step aside. That demand is profoundly dangerous. It signals that partisan loyalty matters more than capability, judgment, or service to the Constitution, undermining the principle of a professional, nonpartisan military.” Mark Cancian, the senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Defense and Security Department, said he and “many” others were worried that Hegseth’s speech would produce a partisan push on the military, but for now their concerns were alleviated. “He talked about a nonpartisan military. He talked about, you know, the oath to the Constitution, you know, he said all the right things in that regard. So, yeah, that doesn’t mean that tomorrow we won’t do something different. But this was not that demand for loyalty that I and many other people had worried about at one point,” Cancian said in an interview with The Hill on Tuesday. During the speech, Hegseth said physical tests would be a priority for troops, even if it leads to fewer women serving in the armed forces. He also added that the Pentagon’s internal complaint and investigations protocols will be altered so unit leaders aren’t “walking on eggshells.” “No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more [ruined] reputations, no more endless waiting, no more legal limbo, no more sidetracking careers or walking on eggshells,” the Department of Defense chief said. Hegseth said sexual harassment and racism are “wrong and illegal,” saying those infractions will be “ruthlessly” enforced, but “telling someone to shave or get a haircut or get a shave or fix their uniform or show up on time or to work hard, that’s exactly the kind of discrimination we want.” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), an Air Force veteran who has criticized the Pentagon chief before, applauded Hegseth’s focus on combat and that “our main goal is to win wars and deter wars,” but he admitted that “a lot of this could have been done virtually.” He also criticized the Trump administration’s “rampant firing of senior leaders whose really … only fault was following the directions of the previous administration.” Since February, Hegseth has carried out the firing of numerous three- and four-star generals and admirals, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. CQ Brown. Hegseth said part of the reason the top generals and admirals were axed earlier this year is that the culture within the Pentagon needed a shake-up. “My approach has been simple,” he said, “when in doubt, assess the situation, follow your gut and if it’s the best for the military, make a change.” Hegseth’s demand for all combat troops to meet “male standards” raised alarm among his critics that he was seeking to drive out women from some roles in the military. “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it,” the Defense secretary told the crowd. “That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”

Trump defends use of U.S. military against 'enemy within' : NPR -- President Trump defended the use of U.S. troops in American cities and told top U.S. commanders that the military would be used against the "enemy within." "This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control," Trump told those gathered for the highly unusual event at Quantico, Va. "It won't get out of control once you're involved at all." Trump said he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the U.S. "should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," a reference to the Democratic-run cities that he has long said have high crime rates that make them uninhabitable. The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the use of federal troops in law enforcement activities on American soil — with some exceptions and loopholes. Trump also talked about the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, Ore., where state leaders are challenging his authority to deploy troops without a request from the state. Trump and Hegseth, who also spoke Tuesday, reiterated to top U.S. military commanders the reason the administration had renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War. "The name change reflects far more than the shift in branding — it's really a historic reassertion of our purpose, our identity and our pride," Trump said. Hegseth, who has made a "warrior ethos" central to his view of the military, said the purpose of the department would exclusively be "war fighting," even as he told U.S. adversaries not to test the country, using vulgar military slang — FAFO — to describe what would happen if they did. Hegseth said the newly renamed Department of War had lost its way and become the "woke department," and added: "To ensure peace, we must prepare for war." He made fitness a key part of his remarks and announced that "anyone wearing the uniform will take the PT test twice a year, and pass height and weight requirements," including generals and admirals. "It's unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the Pentagon," he said, and also announced a ban on beards and long hair. Hegseth also said he'd ordered a full review of the Pentagon's definition of what it deems "toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing." He said while those behaviors can cross a line, the terms have been weaponized. "If that makes me toxic," Hegseth said, "then so be it." Trump also used the occasion to highlight his peacemaking prowess around the world (though the record has been mixed); attack his political rivals, including former President Joe Biden; and the difficulty of solving the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which he had previously said would be easy to do. The presence of military leaders from across the globe at one central location presented challenges from both an operational and a national security perspective. The president's attendance added to those challenges. The lack of detail leading up to Tuesday's remarks had led to speculation that Hegseth might use the occasion to fire generals. The defense secretary has long called for reducing the number of admirals and generals, who stand at more than 800, by about 20%.

Retired military general: Here's what 'likely rattled' Trump during rare speech - Retired Gen. Mark Hertling ripped President Donald Trump’s speech to hundreds of senior military leaders — before revealing what he believed shocked the president in real time.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned top military officials to an in-person meeting in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, in which he issued a series of directives that included requiring all combat troops to meet the “highest male standard” for physical fitness. Trump, who spoke after Hegseth, proposed using U.S. cities as training grounds for the armed forces and said that the military may need to fight what he described as the “invasion from within.”During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early Wednesday, Hertling called Trump’s speech “meandering” with “all sorts of issues,” before noting that the president “thrives” on applause and cheering from a crowd. More than 800 military brass largely sat quietly during both addresses. “When he didn’t get that, and instead got quiet professionalism from the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in the audience, that likely rattled him from the very beginning,” Hertling said. “And that silence wasn’t disrespect — it was restraint and discipline and adherence to the oath of office," he continued. Hertling went on to say that the rare meeting serves as a “collective reminder” of the military’s culture, which he said transcends politics. “It was on full display, and it was interesting to watch from both sides of the audience,” he said. When asked by anchor Willie Geist about Trump’s pledge of “domestic policing,” Hertling said any move is considered “illegal.” “It violates our oath of office to defend the Constitution, which says the military is not to be used specifically — that was put in the Constitution — against securing American streets, other than when there is an insurrection within the republic." “The indications are people are asking us to prepare to do that, so that means there’s measures afoot to try and make that happen," he added. In his speech, Trump also discussed his desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, tariffs and the recently unveiled peace plan for the Israel-Hamas conflict. He also announced that his administration is committed to spending over $1 trillion on the U.S. military in 2026.Hegseth, meanwhile, touched on new grooming and physical appearance standards.“If the secretary of war could do regular, hard [physical training], so could every member of our joint force. Frankly it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” Hegseth said. Hegseth emphasized that he doesn’t want his son to serve alongside military members who are “out of shape,” as well as next to women who “can’t meet the same combat arms physical standards as men.”

Dems lash out at Trump, Hegseth ‘unhinged’ speech to generals - House Democratic leaders let loose on Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, hammering the Defense secretary over new directives to the nation’s generals. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) characterized Hegseth’s speech — delivered Tuesday at the Quantico Marine base in Northern Virginia and focused on an end to “woke” policies at the Pentagon and a return to “male standards” on the battlefield — as “shameful, chaotic [and] unhinged.” “We can go down the litany of terrible ideas and policy positions that the secretary mentioned,” Aguilar, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol. “By the way, [he’s] the most unqualified secretary of Defense that this country has ever seen. So it’s hard to take him [seriously].” The Democratic leaders also went after President Trump, who addressed the generals at Quantico immediately after Hegseth, particularly over his suggestion that the military should be deployed to fight crime in Democratic-led cities. “We do not deploy American forces against Americans in our cities,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.), a former Air Force attorney who is now the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus. “Our military is not to be used for domestic law enforcement. It is not trained to do that,” he continued. “It’s also illegal for Donald Trump to order U.S. troops against Americans in American cities. A federal judge has said so. We expect the appellate courts, and even the Supreme Court, to uphold that ruling.” Lieu was referring to provisions under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which sharply restricts the use of the military for domestic law enforcement purposes. Aguilar said he offered an amendment on the Appropriations Committee over the summer stipulating that no funds can be used in violation of that law. It passed with broad Republican support. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday endorsed the idea of expanding the deployment of National Guard troops in cities around the country, as Trump has already done in Washington, D.C. “They brought crime down dramatically in D.C.,” Johnson told CNN. “And all of us are safe, our staffs are safe, they‘re not walking in fear right now. I think we should do that in every major city run by Democrats who aren‘t serious.” Trump is floating the idea of taking that a step further, by deploying active-duty troops, not just National Guard personnel. “San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. … It’s a war from within,” Trump said in Quantico. “I told Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these cities as training grounds for our military — National Guard, but military. We’re going into Chicago very soon.” Lieu, in criticizing that proposal as illegal, noted that the generals in attendance on Tuesday stayed largely silent when Trump and Hegseth had concluded their remarks.

Bulging Biceps Don’t Win Modern Wars - Paul Krugman --Why did Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary — he may call himself secretary of war, but Congress has not, in fact, voted to change his department’s name — summon 800 top generals and admirals to Washington? They were summoned to listen to a speech about “lethality,” followed by a highly political speech by Trump himself. How do you achieve lethality, according to Hegseth? By telling the military that it’s OK to engage in hazing, sexual abuse and bigotry — he didn’t say that explicitly, but that was his clear message. Also, war crimes are no big deal. And members of the military, including the top brass, must shave their beards, lose weight and do pullups. Hegseth’s speech was morally vile. It was also, however, profoundly stupid. Hegseth seems to have gotten his ideas about what an effective military looks like by watching the movie 300. I am, of course, by no means a military expert myself. But I read and talk to people who are military experts, and think I have some idea about how modern wars are fought. Furthermore, there’s a clear family resemblance between Hegsethian stupidity about modern war and Trumpian stupidity about economic policy. Modern nations don’t achieve prosperity by emphasizing “manly” jobs; they don’t win wars by having big biceps. War still requires extraordinary courage from the men and women engaged in combat — courage that, according to officers I’ve spoken with, is rooted in a sense of honor, not swaggering machismo. Combatants also have to be physically fit enough to endure incredible hardship. But they don’t have to look like bodybuilders — and anyway, only a small fraction of a modern army engages directly in combat. These days, war is conducted largely with machines and ranged weapons, and most of an army’s personnel are employed, one way or another, keeping those machines and weapons in action and providing the intelligence that makes them effective. These noncombatants are every bit as essential to victory as front-line troops. Actually, this has been true for a long time, at least since World War II. I very much doubt that Hegseth would consider the team led by Alan Turing, which broke Germany’s Enigma code, or the group led by Joseph Rochefort, which broke Japan’s naval code, warriors — even leaving aside the fact that Turing was gay. Yet they contributed as much to victory as any front-line soldier. We don’t have to speculate about what a 2!st century war would look like, because there’s ferocious, dare I say lethal, combat happening in Ukraine as you read this. And while the war goes on, and on, and on, it’s now waged largely with drones and cruise missiles, not well-groomed guys with six-pack abs. As the military historian and analyst Phillips O’Brien wrote in a recent Substack post, technology has turned large parts of the Ukraine battlefield into “kill zones” — sort of like No Man’s Land in World War I, but 40 or more kilometers wide. Sending men into these zones, no matter how tough they look, is just a way to throw their lives away. The Ukrainians, although outnumbered, have held their own in this new kind of war, not by being tougher than the Russians — although they are awesomely, almost inconceivably tough — but by being smarter, more flexible and more innovative, virtues I doubt loom large in Hegseth’s concept of lethality. But Hegseth and Trump, not surprisingly, have learned nothing from this story. Here’s how O’Brien summarized it in a note yesterday: I’d add that a military rife with sexual abuse and bigotry isn’t going to attract the best minds — many of which, although people like Hegseth will never believe it, reside in female and nonwhite bodies. As I said, all of this is of a piece with Trumpian policy in other domains. Of course a regime that believes it can make America great by defunding science and destroying higher education believes that it can make our military more effective by making it prejudiced and stupid.The good news is that America’s officer corps isn’t stupid, at least not yet. The stony silence with which the assembled generals and admirals greeted Hegseth’s and Trump’s rants was eloquent. But you can now add the military to the list of great American institutions that MAGA is, in effect, trying to destroy.

Top Air Force general Thomas Bussiere announces retirement A top Air Force commander, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, announced his retirement Tuesday for “personal and family reasons.” “After much reflection and with a full heart, Barb and I have made a difficult decision to request retirement from the United States Air Force for personal and family reasons,” Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a post on Facebook. “While I’m stepping away from active duty, my commitment to service remains. I look forward to finding new ways to support our Air Force, our national defense and the incredible people who make it all possible,” wrote Bussiere, who was nominated by the Trump administration to be the Air Force’s vice chief of staff over the summer. Bussiere has served as Air Force Global Strike Command commander since December 2022. He was nominated by the administration to be the next Air Force vice chief of staff in July, but Aviation Week reported in early September that Bussiere’s nomination was withdrawn. The former Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. James Slife, was fired in February. Bussiere’s retirement came hours after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth held an extraordinary gathering of top military officials in Quantico, Va., where he announced he was raising fitness standards and overhauling the military’s internal complaint and investigation process. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth told the admirals and generals at the meeting.

US Special Operations Command general retires - The head of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Gen. Bryan Fenton, retired from his role Friday. “As I hand over the reins, I do so with the utmost confidence in your ability to continue this vital work. The future of USSOCOM is bright because of our people, our commitment to winning and our relentless drive to transform,” said Fenton, who was the 13th commander of USSOCOM, in a letter that was published by the command Thursday. “Thank you for your dedication, your service and your unwavering commitment to excellence. It has been my greatest privilege to serve among you and as your commander,” Fenton added. USSOCOM is a command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., that trains, organizes and equips special forces from the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps to conduct missions against “state and non-state actors all to protect and advance U.S. policies and objectives.” Fenton has served as the commander of USSOCOM since August 2022. He succeeded Gen. Richard D. Clarke, a retired four-star Army general.

Navy chief of staff fired by Pete Hegseth - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday fired Navy chief of staff Jon Harrison, delivering a blow to the insider who helped rewire internal protocols to fit the vision of the Trump administration’s defense agenda. Harrison’s removal comes after the confirmation of Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao, whom President Trump appointed to serve as the second-most senior civilian under Navy Secretary John Phelan. Harrison and Phelan supported Hegseth in his ventures to introduce new military policies, cancel numerous outside contract agreements and reassign aides who were intended to help onboard Cao following his confirmation earlier this week. “Jon Harrison will no longer serve as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy. We are grateful for his service to the Department,” a Department of Defense (DOD) official said in a statement to The Hill. Politico first reported Harrison’s ouster. Prior to his role as chief of staff, Harrison was appointed to the United States Arctic Research Commission by Trump in 2020.

DOJ seeks Supreme Court ruling on Trump's birthright citizenship ban - The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to settle the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.It brings the battle back to the court just months after its 6-3 conservative majority sided with the administration by ruling that judges could not issue universal injunctions blocking the birthright citizenship order nationwide. That decision did not address the constitutionality of Trump’s directive. Friday’s petitions tee up the question, urging the justices to bless the president’s upending of the conventional interpretation of the 14th Amendment. “The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the President and his Administration in a manner that undermines our border security. Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.

Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration's Push To Deport Critics of Israel Is Unconstitutional - A federal judge in Boston ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration violated the Constitution with its effort to deport critics of Israel, and affirmed that non-citizens in the US legally have the same right to free speech as Americans.“This case — perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court — squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in the United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do,” said District Judge William Young, who was nominated by President Reagan.The ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by several university associations that alleged the arrest of college students and faculty who participated in pro-Palestine protests violated the First Amendment and had a chilling effect on speech. “In his 161-page opinion, the judge analyzed the Trump administration’s allegations against several non-citizens, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, and rightly recognized that they were targeted purely for their political views and speech,” Jenin Younis, a civil liberties attorney and legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told Antiwar.com.“He rejected the argument that non-citizens lack First Amendment protections, correctly observing that it serves as a restraint on government, without respect to the immigration status of the speaker,” Younes added.In his ruling, Young said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and their subordinates “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment-protected political speech.” Young said Rubio and Noem carried out this policy “in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right.”The judge added that the effect of the campaign against pro-Palestinian non-citizens “continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.”

ICE Arrests More Than 400 Illegal Immigrants In Week-Long Operation In Central Florida --More than 400 illegal immigrants were arrested during a week-long immigration enforcement operation in central Florida last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Sept. 30. ICE said that the operation, carried out between Sept. 22 and Sept. 26, targeted illegal immigrants with “outstanding criminal warrants” and those who are subject to deportation.“Many of these individuals illegally remained in Florida and have gone on to wreak havoc in our local neighborhoods,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Miami Field Office Director Garrett Ripa said in a statement.ICE said that all the detainees will be subject to removal proceedings in accordance with federal immigration law.The operation was led by ICE Miami in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and multiple local law enforcement agencies, including the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida National Guard, according to the agency.Florida is leading nationwide in 287(g) partnerships, with 327 agreements currently in place, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to carry out certain immigration duties, including identifying and processing removable illegal immigrants who face criminal charges.DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin praised the operation in central Florida, noting that the detainees included individuals convicted of criminal offenses such as “lewd and lascivious behavior, battery, domestic violence, prostitution, vehicle theft, hit and run, and driving under the influence.”“This was another successful operation to arrest the worst of the worst with our Florida state and local partners and can serve as a blueprint nationwide,” McLaughlin said, calling on other states to follow suit.

Masked federal agents patrol downtown Chicago-- Federal immigration agents patrolled downtown Chicago on Sunday as the Trump administration ramps up immigration crackdowns in major cities across the country. The Border Patrol agents spotted downtown were armed, masked and camouflaged, according to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said hundreds of ICE officers were downtown as part of its “Midway Blitz” operation in Chicago, which began on Sept. 8, NewsNation reported. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that agents made multiple arrests downtown, including in the River North neighborhood Sunday morning. The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on the social platform X that 11 people were arrested outside an ICE detention facility in Broadview, Ill., on Saturday amid a large protest at the center. The post added that two guns were seized and an investigation has been opened “into what appears to be some sort of explosive device” outside the facility. The raids have sparked concerns from immigrant communities and outrage from Democratic lawmakers. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) called the presence “a show of intimidation” that is “instilling fear in our communities and hurting our businesses.” “We cannot normalize militarizing American cities and suburbs,” Pritzker added in another post Sunday. “Make sure you know your rights and stay alert.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said Chicago residents “are being intimidated and threatened by masked federal agents flaunting automatic weapons for no apparent reason.” The administration defended the actions Sunday, after federal agents were seen walking through downtown Chicago, including near the Trump International Hotel and Tower. “I would say the majority are actually glad we’re here,” Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of U.S. Border Patrol, told NewsNation of the public reaction. “They are congratulating us, saying, ‘It’s about time you’re here.’ Especially those inner-city residents here in Chicago are very glad were here, because oftentimes they’re up against that vast illegal migration that took place over the past four years. They’re the ones dealing with the violence perpetrated by illegal aliens.”

Oregon sues to block Donald Trump's National Guard deployment to Portland -Officials in Oregon have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops in Portland, adding to the legal battles against President Trump’s use of troops in major cities.The state of Oregon and city of Portland filed a joint lawsuit Sunday against Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the deployment of the National Guard to the Beaver State’s biggest city. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, calls the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland “heavy-handed” and unlawful. The president, in a post on his Truth Social platform Saturday morning, directed Hegseth to “provide all necessary Troops” to deploy to Portland. The move stems from protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the city, with Trump claiming the building was “under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”The court filing, though, argued the protests have involved fewer than 30 people in recent weeks and noted no arrests have been made since mid-June. “Defendants’ heavyhanded deployment of troops threatens to escalate tensions and stokes new unrest, meaning more of the Plaintiffs’ law enforcement resources will be spent responding to the predictable consequences of Defendants’ action,” the lawsuit states. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D), appearing at a press conference alongside state Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D) and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson (D), called the deployment “an abuse of power and a disservice to our communities and our service members,” according to KOIN in Portland. Kotek also marched with residents in downtown Portland on Sunday, saying in a post on the social platform X that “we don’t need military intervention here.”As governor, Kotek controls her state’s National Guard. The lawsuit alleges Trump does not have the authority to seize control of the Oregon National Guard under Title 10, Section 12406 of the U.S. Code, which gives the president the capacity to federalize state national guards if the country is facing an invasion or rebellion or the president “is unable with the regular forces to execute the law.”The lawsuit also says Trump’s order violates the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that authority not delegated to the federal government is reserved for states. It also says the move violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars federal troops from being used for civilian law enforcement.“Defendants have thus infringed on Oregon’s sovereign power to manage its own law enforcement activity and National Guard resource,” the lawsuit says. “Far from promoting public safety, Defendants’ provocative and arbitrary actions threaten to undermine public safety by inciting a public outcry.”

ICE agents to attend Super Bowl after Bad Bunny announcement, Lewandowski says - Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will attend the 2026 Super Bowl, where Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny is set to perform the halftime show, according to Corey Lewandowski, an adviser at the Department of Homeland Security. “There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else,” Lewandowski said Wednesday on “The Benny Show.” “We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you. So know that that is a very real situation under this administration, which is completely contrary to what how it used to be,” he said. The NFL confirmed Sunday that Bad Bunny, a three-time Grammy winner, will headline the halftime show at the 2026 Super Bowl, set to be in Santa Clara, Calif. “What I’m feeling goes beyond myself. It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown … this is for my people, my culture and our history,” Bad Bunny said in a statement Sunday. Last month, Bad Bunny told i-D Magazine that he is not performing in the U.S. during his forthcoming world tour due to, in part, concerns over ICE raids at his concerts. “But there was the issue of — like, f‑‑‑ing ICE could be outside [my concerts]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” the artist told the magazine. Lewandowski, who worked as Trump’s campaign manager during the 2016 election, slammed the NFL for picking Bad Bunny to headline the event next year. “It’s so shameful that they’ve decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game,” he said. “I was at the Super Bowl last year with President Trump. I had the chance to be in Louisiana in his box and watch the game, and got to enjoy that,” Lewandowski told Benny Johnson. “But listen, we should be trying to be inclusive and not exclusive. There are plenty of great bands and entertainment people out there who could be playing at that show that would be bringing people together and not separating them.” “I don’t care if it’s a concert for Johnny Smith or Bad Bunny or anybody else. We’re going to do enforcement everywhere. We are going to make Americans safe. That is a directive from the president. If you’re in this country illegally, do yourself a favor: go home.”

Trump renews threat to impose '100% tariff' on movies made outside US - President Trump announced Monday he is imposing a 100 percent tariff on movies made outside the U.S.“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby,’” the president posted on his Truth Social platform. Trump did not specify when the tariff would be imposed. It is also unclear how the administration will calculate the value of a film and how the directive would apply to movies that partially film overseas.The president previously threatened 100 percent levies on foreign-made movies in May.The president also criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday, calling him “weak” and “incompetent.”In a Monday morning post on the social platform X, Newsom’s press office called Trump’s move “100% stupid.”“The Governor tried to explain this to Trump months ago — when this was initially proposed — that his actions will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. film industry,” Newsom’s press office added.California Democrats previously criticized Trump’s push to impose a tariff on films, warning it would result in higher costs for consumers in the U.S.The Hill has also reached out to Disney, Paramount, Warner Brothers Discovery and Netflix for comment on the president’s announcement.

What to know about Trump's new pharmaceutical tariff plan President Trump’s new pharmaceutical tariff policy throws another wrench into an already increasingly complex drug supply chain, with experts calling for more clarity and details into the White House’s new policy set to go into effect in less than a week. In announcing that branded or patented drugs would be hit with 100 percent tariffs on Oct. 1, Trump also said drugmakers could escape the penalties if they have a U.S.-based pharmaceutical manufacturing plant for which ground has been broken, or is currently under construction. It’s unclear how many companies can escape the tariffs under that rule, though many drug manufacturers have pledged billions in investments into the U.S. under pressure from the Trump administration. This announcement exempts generic drugs, which account for the vast majority of prescriptions in the U.S. Drugs produced in the European Union are also not covered by the new tariffs, though they are subject to a 15 percent tariff. Health care lawyers said the new policy raises a number of question for those hoping to avoid the tariffs. “What if you already have an existing U.S. manufacturing facility? Are you exempted because you already have a domestic footprint in play, or must you be expanding that capacity in some way?” said Soumi Saha, a pharmacist, lawyer and senior vice president of government affairs at the health care improvement company Premier Inc. “And if you assume that anybody with a U.S. footprint is exempted, it then begs the question, how many branded manufacturers have no U.S. footprint whatsoever and is that the true impact?” Saha said clarity was needed on this policy, questioning whether companies only need to be manufacturing one of its products on U.S. soil for all its drugs to be exempted or whether this was being applied case by case. Given that Europe’s drug exports may be exempted by virtue of the tariff agreement reached this year and a significant portion of drug exports from Asia are generics, the true potential impact of this policy remains murky. But many branded drugs do originate from Asia as well, particularly from Japan, South Korea and China. And while countries like Japan have tariff trade deals in place, the current agreement only exempts generic medicines.

Donald Trump plans to aid soybean farmers with tariff funds - President Trump on Wednesday said he planned to use money brought in from tariffs on imports to provide aid to soybean farmers who have been hurt by a trade dispute with China.“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers.” Farmers of crops like soybeans and corn have had difficulty selling their harvest and have grappled with rising prices for supplies like fertilizer.The U.S. has in the past been the No. 1 supplier of soybeans to China, but China recently purchased a massive soybean crop from Argentina.Administration officials have for weeks acknowledged American farmers in particular have been hurt by the president’s trade relationship with China, which includes a 55 percent tariff on most goods from China and a retaliatory tariff from Beijing on American goods.The president had previously indicated a bailout could be in the works using money from tariffs, though he has not offered details on how much money will be redirected or how it will be distributed.“We’re going to take some of that tariff money that we made, we’re going to give it to our farmers, who are for a little while going to be hurt until it kicks in, the tariffs kick in to their benefit,” Trump said last week.

White House to slash $8B in funding for blue states - White House budget director Russ Vought on Wednesday said the Trump administration will cancel almost $8 billion in federal funding for green projects, directly targeting 16 states that did not vote for President Donald Trump in the presidential election. “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY,” Vought posted on the social media site X. “The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA,” he added. The Department of Energy did not immediately respond when asked what funding is being canceled, while the White House press shop in an automated response said its effort to monitor emails will be delayed due to ”staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown.” Since taking office, Trump has moved to slash federal funding for renewable energy and climate action while trying to revive a sagging coal sector through additional financing, regulatory rollbacks and forcing coal-fired power plants to continue operating. The announcement Wednesday makes clear Trump is leveraging his power over agencies to take aim at states that didn’t back him in the presidential election last year, but what remains unclear is exactly what funding DOE plans to cancel. The department has been reviewing the nation’s portfolio of research and development projects for months now, freezing funding that was largely obligated, according to one agency staffer granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press. “Lists of projects that are supposed to get cut have been wafting around the building for weeks,” said the staffer. “Most of the time, they are very partisan in terms of what states canceled projects are from. It’s just naked politics.”

Department of Energy Cancels Another $7.6 Billion in Energy Project Funding - - The U.S. Department of Energy has canceled $7.6 billion in funding for previously approved energy projects on the grounds that they would not produce any palpable benefits for Americans. The canceled projects are 223 in total, approved by various agencies from the Department of Energy during the previous administration. Per this one, however, “these projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.” “On day one, the Energy Department began the critical task of reviewing billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. The Department of Energy reported that 26% of all the projects canceled were awarded between Election Day, in November 2024, and Inauguration Day, in January this year. “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellations deliver on that commitment. Rest assured, the Energy Department will continue reviewing awards to ensure that every dollar works for the American people,” Wright added. This is not the first project cancellation since the new administration took over. Earlier this year, the DoE canceled another 24 energy projects worth over $3.7 billion in government funding. The list, by the way, included a project proposed by Exxon for the production of low-carbon hydrogen at a petrochemicals facility. Meanwhile, the government shutdown that began yesterday has paused approvals for new wind and solar projects, although oil and gas leases are still on schedule, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The agency said it would use carryover funds to maintain work on “priority conventional energy projects,” including offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, even as more than 70% of its staff are furloughed.

GAO says Trump moves to withhold FEMA grants are illegal -- The Trump administration violated the law when it withheld three types of grants managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Monday.The GAO said FEMA’s moves to withhold the grants violated the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which spells out the rules under which a presidential administration can seek to delay or cancel funding that’s enacted by Congress.Monday’s report specifically knocked FEMA’s actions related to the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, the Shelter and Services Program and the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program.These programs provide funds that support shelter and food for homeless people, offset costs for organizations that provide services for migrants and support improvements in emergency alert systems, respectively. “Because FEMA has deobligated and delayed the obligation or expenditure of funds without providing any justification or indicating a plan to implement these programs and move forward with the obligation and expenditure of funds, the withdrawals, holds, and reviews discussed below cannot be considered programmatic delays,” the report said. ‘Therefore, we conclude that the withholdings of budget authority for the … programs constitute violations of the ICA,” it continued. The GAO report comes as the Trump administration has repeatedly sought to hold up or cancel various grants across the federal government. At FEMA specifically, as well as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees it, expenditures worth more than $100,000 have to be reviewed personally by Secretary Kristi Noem. Separately, the Trump administration has flirted with the idea of eliminating the emergency management agency altogether, though more recently it has talked about reforming it.The report notes that for the grant programs in question, the Trump administration axed previously issued grants. “We have no indication that FEMA is making progress on reviewing awards or implementing the new administration’s priorities,” it added.DHS spokesperson TriciaMcLaughlin said in an email to The Hill that the GAO’s decision “is simply incorrect.”“The Sheltering and Services Program, now restructured into the Detention Support Grant Program, and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program have had notices published and FEMA has received applications. FEMA is diligently reviewing these applications and is on track to award these funds before they expire,” McLaughlin said. “This allegation is nothing more than nitpicking a technicality to try to make FEMA look bad. The facts are that FEMA is going to award these funds, and no money is being impounded,” she added.

Trump calls for Microsoft to fire former Biden official Lisa Monaco -- President Trump called for Microsoft to fire Lisa Monaco, former President Biden’s No. 2 Justice Department official, who was recently appointed as the company’s chief of global affairs. In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump called Monaco “corrupt and totally deranged” and, citing national security concerns, called for her to be terminated from her role. “Monaco has been shockingly hired as the President of Global Affairs for Microsoft, in a very senior role with access to Highly Sensitive Information. Monaco’s having that kind of access is unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to stand,” Trump wrote. “She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government,” he continued. “Because of Monaco’s many wrongful acts, the U.S. Government recently stripped her of all Security Clearances, took away all of her access to National Security Intelligence, and banned her from all Federal Properties.” “It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco,” the president added, signing his name at the end of the post. Microsoft declined to comment on the story. Monaco, as Biden’s deputy attorney general, was closely involved in the federal investigations into Trump’s role in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and into his mishandling of classified documents. Earlier this year, Trump rescinded Monaco’s security clearance, along with that of other former political opponents, including Biden.

‘Lindsey Halligan Is Already Making Mistakes Prosecuting James Comey’ – Lindsey Halligan’s debut as a federal prosecutor has drawn close scrutiny after a series of apparent early errors surfaced in court filings related to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.Halligan, previously known as a private attorney and one of Donald Trump’s personal lawyers, assumed the role of U.S. Attorney only recently and has never prosecuted a case in court before.Missteps go beyond clerical slips: they test the strength and fairness of the government’s case and the credibility of the Justice Department itself.Procedural errors can delay or weaken a prosecution, giving defense lawyers leverage to argue overreach. They also risk reinforcing criticism that this politically charged indictment—announced soon after Donald Trump publicly urged charges against political opponents—is more about pressure than law.How Halligan recovers from the mistakes which have been associated with her could shape not just the outcome of the Comey case but public trust in the department’s independence and competence. Problems identified in Halligan’s initial filings, including duplicate case numbers and clerical errors such as misspellings in official documents that have been flagged on social media. A widely shared post on X said she “doesn’t know the difference between a bedrock principle and a bedrock ‘principal’.” The difference between the two is about word meaning—and in legal writing, it’s important: Another criticism flagged was U.S. Magistrate Judge Vaala being described on X September 28, 2025, as “trying to untangle Lindsey Halligan’s first adventure in indicting someone.” Some social media commentary veered into personal territory—mentioning Halligan’s past role as Donald Trump’s lawyer—but the concerns raised publicly are framed around prosecutorial competence and case management. Questions about Halligan’s preparedness intensified when The Washington Post reported she “presented the Comey indictment all by herself to the grand jury,” citing people familiar with the matter. Newsweek did not verify the source. The case accuses Comey of misleading investigators about authorizing leaks during his tenure at the FBI. The prosecution’s path will not be straightforward. To convict under 18 U.S.C. §1001(a) (2), prosecutors must prove the statements were false, that Comey knew they were false when made, and that they were material to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry. Proving intent—showing deliberate deception rather than mistake or faulty memory—has historically been difficult with senior officials and complex testimony. And the legal theory behind the indictment is contested, including by some who have criticized Comey previously. Fox News legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said on Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street that the charges appear weak. “Well, I don’t think there’s a case,” McCarthy told Bartiromo on September 26. He said the indictment seems “premised on something that’s not true, which is that [Andrew] McCabe said that Comey authorized him to leak to The Wall Street Journal. … McCabe said that he directed the leak, and he told Comey about it after the fact. So, it’s true that Comey never authorized it in the sense of OK’ing it before it happened. So, I don’t see how they can make that case.” McCarthy also noted: “If you were talking about the information that was provided to the FISA court … that’s not what this case is about,” underscoring that the indictment focuses narrowly on a single disclosure.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is 'not suicidal' amid Epstein files fight -Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on social media this weekend that she is “not suicidal,” raising the prospect of “heinous actions” in response to her support for a measure that would force the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. “I am not suicidal and one of the happiest healthiest people you will meet,” Greene said Saturday on social platform X, also noting her faith in God. “With that said, if something happens to me, I ask you all to find out which foreign government or powerful people would take heinous actions to stop the information from coming out.” “Not only about this issue, but because of the truth that I have been speaking,” she added. “The People understand what I’m saying.” The Georgia representative is one of only four Republican House members to sign a discharge petition that would force a vote on the full release of the Epstein case files. The effort secured its 218th backer with the election of Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D) in Arizona last week, crossing the threshold needed for a vote. While President Trump has long pledged to bring transparency to the Epstein case, the White House has lobbied hard against the discharge petition, calling it a “very hostile act.” Greene continues to be a staunch backer of the president, but she has repeatedly broken with her party during his second term, on both the Epstein files and foreign policy issues, as she discussed in a New York Times profile published over the weekend. “I told them, ‘You didn’t get me elected. I do not work for you; I work for my district,’” Greene said. “We aren’t supposed to just be whipped on our votes because they’re telling us what to do with this scary threat, or saying ‘We’ll primary you,’ or that we won’t get invited to the White House events.”Greene, an isolationist, has also spoken out against U.S. strikes in Iran, continued arming of Ukraine and America’s backing of Israel’s war in Gaza, which she has called a genocide. In another post on Saturday, Greene said her position on the Epstein files was “not about a pissing contest between political parties or political enemies,” noting that she did not believe Trump himself was implicated in Epstein’s crimes.“I stand with girls and women who are sexually abused and raped. Period. Every time. At all times,” she wrote. “If anyone is implicated, then they have the right to clear their name. Just as millions of Americans have had to do when falsely accused of a crime,” she added.

Republicans refuse to swear in newly elected Democrat, delaying success of Epstein petition - Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican leaders refused requests from Democrats to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) on Tuesday, saying she will be sworn in when the House returns to regular session. The move deprives a petition of the last signature it needs to force a vote on a bill to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, a push that Republican leaders and President Trump oppose. Grijalva, who was elected last week in a special contest to replace her father, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), has already vowed to sign the discharge petition as soon as she’s sworn in, and the bipartisan lawmakers pushing to release the Epstein files had hoped to launch the process as quickly as possible. Grijalva is in Washington this week along with a host of House Democrats who returned to the Capitol during a recess to pressure GOP leaders to negotiate a bipartisan government funding bill. Although there are no votes scheduled, the House floor opened up briefly at noon on Tuesday for a pro forma session, a routine procedure allowing one chamber to pause floor activities for long stretches without the consent of the other. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) presided over Tuesday’s pro forma session, gaveling out and refusing to recognize Democrats shouting on the floor as they attempted to force a vote on a Democratic proposal to keep the government open. He did not swear in Grijalva.

YouTube to pay $24.5M to settle Trump lawsuit over account suspension - YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit President Trump brought in 2021 over the company’s suspension of his account in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a court filing Monday. Under the terms of the agreement, $22 million would go to Trump, who has directed the funds be contributed to the Trust for the National Mall “to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom.”Trump has touted the work on the new ballroom — construction for which is expected to be completed by the end of his term — and has said he would help cover the cost, along with donations from “other patriot donors.” The White House has estimated construction will cost $200 million.Another $2.5 million from the settlement would go to other plaintiffs in the case, according to the court filing.In reaching a settlement, YouTube becomes the third and final major tech company to settle a trio of lawsuits Trump filed after he left office in 2021.In January, Meta agreed to a $25 million settlement, roughly $22 million of which would go toward a fund for Trump’s presidential library, while the rest would go to legal fees and other plaintiffs. The following month, Trump reached a settlement with X, formerly Twitter, for $10 million, which reportedly was slated to go to Trump directly.

White House claps back at Jane Fonda’s reboot of First Amendment group: Trump a ‘strong supporter of free speech’ - The White House says Jane Fonda is “free to share whatever bad opinions she wants” amid her relaunch of a McCarthy-era group but still defended President Trump as a “strong supporter of free speech.” The Academy Award-winning actor sounded the alarm on free speech in the United States and announced the formation of the Committee for the First Amendment on Wednesday. Just like in the 1940s, Fonda’s group said in a statement, the federal government is “once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.” “I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash. I’ve been celebrated, and I’ve been branded an enemy of the state. But I can tell you this: this is the most frightening moment of my life,” the “9 to 5” star said in a letter urging her peers to join the committee, which her father, Henry Fonda, first helped organize in 1947. More than 600 Hollywood figures signed on to her effort. Asked by ITK for comment about Fonda forming the committee, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson referred to the entertainer by the nickname critics gave the performer during her controversial anti-Vietnam War activism in the 1970s. “Hanoi Jane is free to share whatever bad opinions she wants. As someone who actually knows what it’s like to be censored, President Trump is a strong supporter of free speech and Democrat allegations to the contrary are so false, they’re laughable,” Jackson said. Trump, Jackson said, “is focused on left-wing organizations that have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, incited violence all across America.”

Newsom signs first-in-the-nation AI safety disclosures law - California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill Monday requiring artificial intelligence (AI) companies to disclose safety information about large-scale frontier models in a key win for the push to regulate AI in Silicon Valley’s home state. S.B. 53, the Transparency in Frontier AI Act, will require developers of these leading-edge AI models to publish frameworks detailing how they assess and mitigate catastrophic risks. “California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive,” Newsom said in a statement Monday. “This legislation strikes that balance.” “AI is the new frontier in innovation, and California is not only here for it — but stands strong as a national leader by enacting the first-in-the-nation frontier AI safety legislation that builds public trust as this emerging technology rapidly evolves,” he continued. Newsom hinted last week that he supported the legislation, a key vote of confidence after the governor vetoed an earlier iteration of the AI bill. S.B. 53 is considered the successor to last year’s S.B. 1047. The bill put forward a much stricter AI framework, which sought to require models to undergo safety testing before release and hold developers accountable for potential harm. Despite passing the state legislature, S.B. 1047 was ultimately rejected by Newsom. It also faced pushback from federal lawmakers, with several prominent California Democrats in Congress voicing concerns about the legislation. By contrast, S.B. 53 has been more well-received. Anthropic endorsed the legislation earlier this month. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at the AI firm, said Monday that the bill “establishes meaningful transparency requirements for frontier AI companies without imposing prescriptive technical mandates.” “While federal standards remain essential to avoid a patchwork of state regulations, California has created a strong framework that balances public safety with continued innovation,” Clark added. Given California’s prominent role in the AI space, experts have suggested its AI legislation could serve to create a de facto national standard, especially amid a lack of progress at the federal level. However, this is likely to face resistance from the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers, who have voiced concerns about the Golden State setting the rules for AI across the nation and have increasingly pushed to preempt state AI laws that they worry could limit innovation.

Hillary Clinton says AI and social media are supercharging lies -Hillary Clinton said in remarks Tuesday that AI and social media have “broken” how information spreads. “Our information ecosystem is broken,” Clinton said at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.“AI and social media are supercharging lies.”This is not the first time the former secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee has noted the potential risks posed by AI and widespread social media use. During an appearance on CNN last October, Clinton called for federal regulation of social media, particularly for the sake of children’s mental health. “If the platforms, whether it’s Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content, we lose total control,” she said at the time. And in November 2023, the Aspen Ministers Forum — of which Clinton is a member — released a statement calling for international cooperation to “prevent unintended side effects of increasingly powerful AI systems, limit negative impacts on people’s day-to-day lives, and maximize the benefits to humanity.Clinton’s comments are a stark contrast to the Trump administration’s posture, particularly towards AI. In July, the White House released its AI policy framework, which calls for removing “onerous” regulations that restrict innovation in the industry.Four states — Texas, California, Utah and Colorado — have laws governing AI, according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Nine other states have active AI bills in their respective state legislatures.In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, though, some Republicans on Capitol Hill have called for content moderation on social media platforms. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for the repeal of Section 230, which protects social media companies from responsibility for content published on their platforms. Clinton has also pushed for Section 230’s repeal, and said Tuesday that people are “vulnerable to manipulation and deeper polarization” thanks to social media.

Elon Musk's xAI unveils 'Grokipedia' to rival Wikipedia Elon Musk said Tuesday that his AI company xAI is building “Grokipedia” after he and his allies accused Wikipedia of bias. “We are building Grokipedia @xAI,” Musk wrote on his social platform X. “Will be a massive improvement over Wikipedia. Frankly, it is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.” The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said his version of the online encyclopedia, apparently named after his AI chatbot Grok, would be an “open source knowledge repository” available to the public “with no limits on use.” Musk criticized Wikipedia on Tuesday as “Wokipedia” following similar accusations from his allies. White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks slammed the site as “hopelessly biased.” “An army of left-wing activists maintain the bios and fight reasonable corrections,” Sacks alleged on X. “Magnifying the problem, Wikipedia often appears first in Google search results, and now it’s a trusted source for AI model training. This is a huge problem.” Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who hosts the “All-In” podcast with Sacks, also suggested Wikipedia was engaged in “one sided censorship.” The latest uproar stems from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, who has been a critic of the project since leaving in 2002. This isn’t the first time that Musk has taken aim at Wikipedia. The billionaire, who has previously clashed with the site’s other co-founder Jimmy Wales, offered to buy the site for $1 billion in October 2023 on the condition that it change its name to “Dickipedia.” The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, said in a statement that its values “reflect our unwavering commitment to reliable knowledge, neutrality, and constant improvement.” “Wikipedia informs; it does not persuade,” it added. “Some recent commentary overlooks the constant, high-quality volunteer oversight and strong safeguards already in place on Wikipedia. These protections allow volunteer editors to exercise their right to free expression, while upholding knowledge integrity.”

Trump’s $2,000 Tariff ‘Dividend’ Stimulus Check Idea Could Be About To Blow Up The Bitcoin Price, Crypto And Stock Market -Bitcoin has returned to its all-time high of $124,000 per bitcoin this week while stock markets and crypto have also surged as traders brace for a 2026 Wall Street bombshell. The bitcoin price, which has doubled over the last 12 months, is battling with gold for title of the best performing asset of 2025—as a Federal Reserve bitcoin and gold game-changer is seen hurtling toward markets. Now, as JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon issues a stark warning, U.S. president Donald Trump has floated the idea of a $2,000 Covid stimulus check-style tariff dividend that could trigger a bitcoin price, crypto and stock market surge—and also drive further fears of U.S. dollar collapse. "We suspect that Trump’s announcement of potentially considering a stimulus check for every citizen, funded by tariffs, could also contribute to a further rise in bitcoin’s price," analysts with the Bitfinex bitcoin and crypto exchange said in emailed comments. "This could mirror what we witnessed following the Covid stimulus checks." Since the 2020-21 Covid-era bitcoin price rally, the bitcoin and crypto market has matured, with stock market exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and regulatory clarity helping to make the technology more accessible. "In 2020, crypto’s institutional rails were barely in place: No spot ETFs, fragmented custody, regulatory ambiguity," Jasper De Maere, a strategist at bitcoin and crypto market maker Wintermute, wrote in a September noted posted to LinkedIn, adding that “retail-led rallies fueled by stimulus checks and [ultra high-net worth individual] cash … allowed rapid cascades" to hit the bitcoin price and wider crypto market. Meanwhile, a 2023 research paper from Harvard Kennedy School found stimulus payments increased bitcoin and crypto investing, with the bitcoin price surge this week potentially attracting further interest. “Bitcoin has surged more than 13% in the past week, showing strong momentum with steady higher highs and limited pullbacks,” Jake Kennis, senior research analyst at Nansen, said via email, pointing to momentum being driven by institutional demand through bitcoin ETFs. “Prices are now approaching a new all-time high, which could trigger renewed institutional flows and retail interest. The setup looks constructive for a fresh bitcoin all-time high, but confirmation will require sustained volume and follow-through above the former all-time high level to avoid a false breakout.” This week, Trump said he’s weighing the idea of giving out checks of up to $2,000 in rebates derived from the revenues his tariff agenda has generated. "We’re thinking maybe $1,000 to $2,000, it would be great," Trump told One America News Network, adding his "number one" priority is “paying down debt, because people have allowed the debt to go crazy."

BankThink Are stablecoin-funded IPOs the future of corporate finance? - The recent initial public offering of cryptocurrency exchange Bullish was remarkable in that the company received the proceeds in stablecoins. The move could signal a revolution in finance, writes Tom Spiller, of Rosenblatt Law. The global market for Initial Public Offerings, or IPOs, has struggled significantly over the last few years, with the outlook since 2021 remaining bleak. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the U.K., which, despite initial signs of a resurgence in 2024, only saw nine new listings in the first half of 2025, raising a cumulative £182.8 million. By contrast, the U.S. market shows signs of resurgence, continuing to offer higher valuations and more liquidity than other comparable U.K. and European exchanges. A recent IPO by cryptocurrency exchange Bullish, on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, has presented a fascinating case in how IPOs may develop in the future; in particular, how the form of IPO proceeds may change.The recent initial public offering of cryptocurrency exchange Bullish was remarkable in that the company received the proceeds in stablecoins. The move could signal a revolution in finance.

BankThink Stablecoins will blur the boundaries between banks and nonbanks -As the issuance of stablecoins by businesses outside the financial industry expands, some of the products and services traditionally handled by banks might begin to migrate to retailers and other market participants, writes Noelle Acheson.With the GENIUS Act now signed into law, banks and fintechs of all types are exploringstablecoin issuance and/or services. As the issuance of stablecoins by businesses outside the financial industry expands, some of the products and services traditionally handled by banks might begin to migrate to retailers and other market participants.

BankThink Crypto assets as collateral? In the U.S., the Fed has cleared the way -A recent Federal Reserve ruling makes it possible for banks to accept cryptocurrency as collateral for private transactions. It's an important step toward integrating digital assets into the financial system, writes Bepi Pezzuli, of University Canada West. The Federal Reserve recently did something extraordinary. Though, in the typically understated way of central banks, it announced it with a dry press release and the ceremonial euthanasia of a supervisory letter. By shutting down its "novel activities supervision program" and folding crypto oversight back into the standard supervisory process, the Fed has effectively mainstreamed digital assets in the U.S. banking system. Forget the bureaucratic phrasing about "strengthening understanding." The operative consequence is this: Crypto is now treated as ordinary collateral. That means it can be mobilized for lending, repo and liquidity management, the lifeblood functions of modern finance. A recent Federal Reserve ruling makes it possible for banks to accept cryptocurrency as collateral for private transactions. It's an important step toward integrating digital assets into the financial system.

Less bank regulation, more pragmatism from the country's top bank regulator - Michelle "Miki" Bowman, the Federal Reserve's new top banking regulator, is leading a significant shift in how the central bank approaches oversight, drawing heavily from her background in both the private and public sectors. Michelle Bowman, the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision, is focused on reforming the central bank's oversight apparatus.

Banks hunt for 'debanked' Republicans in Trump crackdown -Banks are scouring consumer complaints, bank accounts and loan denials to identify people and companies who they may have cut off from banking services amid a new push by the Trump administration to address allegations of political bias in debanking.

Key cybersecurity law expires, leaving banks exposed -- A government shutdown and a single senator's hold prevented the renewal this week of a bipartisan law that helped banks and other firms defend against hackers.

• Key insight: A critical law that gave companies legal protection to share cyber threat information with each other and the government has expired.
• What's at stake: Bankers privately warn that the law's lapse could create opportunities for threat actors to target banks or other critical infrastructure.
• Forward look: Companies will now have closer legal reviews of cyber threat information before sharing it, a process that will slow or completely halt the flow of data.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Fed lowers Morgan Stanley's stress capital requirement - In a unanimous vote, the Board of Governors moved to lower Morgan Stanley's stress capital buffer requirement to 4.3%, down from a preliminary 5.1% based on this year's stress test results.

Democrats say leverage proposal won't help Treasury market — A group of Democratic lawmakers is challenging one of the Trump administration's arguments for loosening bank capital requirements, arguing that the proposed changes won't achieve their goal of strengthening Treasury market funding.

• Key insight: A group of Democratic lawmakers led by Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is urging bank regulators to drop a proposal that would reduce capital requirements under the supplemental leverage ratio.
• Expert quote: "Promoting a healthy Treasury market is a laudable and shared goal, but severely loosening capital requirements for the largest banks is the wrong tool to achieve it." — Democratic lawmakers' letter
• Forward look: The proposal is meant to increase banks' purchase of Treasury securities, which in turn would improve liquidity in that critical global market. Democratic lawmakers' letter highlights growing concerns that the proposal would not have the positive effect on the Treasury market that the administration predicts.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., led a group of congressional Democrats in a letter to bank regulators telling them that loosening capital rules wouldn't improve the Treasury market's functioning.

What banks need to know about this government shutdown - The first government shutdown since 2019 will slow flood insurance originations and new Small Business Administration loans, though self-funded banking regulators will continue operating as usual.

Harvard study exposes deadly toll of private equity hospitals - Research led by Dr. Zirui Song of Harvard Medical School published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, September 2025, has delivered one of the clearest warnings yet about the dangers of private equity in American hospitals. The study demonstrates in no uncertain terms that when hospitals fall under the control of private equity firms, the pursuit of profit takes precedence over patient care, leading to deadly consequences in the most critical areas of medicine—the emergency departments and intensive care units of US hospitals. Private equity’s incursion into healthcare follows a well-worn, perfidious and predatory playbook employed by financial wizards. Firms will usually opportunistically acquire providers through debt-laden leveraged buyouts promising easy cash flow. But in these schemes, hospitals rather than investors are left with the burden of repayment on massive loans. Then, within a short investment horizon typically of three to seven years, the owners strip out cash through staffing cuts, sale-leasebacks of hospital real estate, and dividend recapitalizations that funnel borrowed money directly into investor pockets. The result is a healthcare system financially hollowed out and left vulnerable to collapse. The bankruptcy of Steward Health Care in May 2024, which filed for Chapter 11 with more than $9 billion in liabilities after its private equity sponsor, Cerberus Capital Management, reportedly extracted $800 million in profit, stands as a chilling example of this model in practice. The former CEO of Steward, Ralph de la Torre, received $250 million over four years before the company’s collapse. Private equity’s move into healthcare is not accidental but is rooted in the sector’s unique financial appeal. Healthcare represents $4.5 to $5 trillion in annual spending in the United States, or nearly 18 percent of GDP, and is characterized by relatively stable demand, since people require care regardless of the economic cycle. For Wall Street, this stability and sheer size have made healthcare one of the most attractive frontiers for financial extraction. The term financialization describes the transformation of systems built for providing important social services to those driven by financial motives, where markets dominate decision-making. More and more, hospitals are being transformed into vehicles for generating returns rather than serving communities. The consequences are stark. Studies consistently show that private equity ownership raises costs for patients and payers, undermines quality, and contributes to bankruptcies. In 2023 alone, more than one-fifth of all healthcare bankruptcies were at PE-owned companies, including seven of the eight largest failures. Communities lose hospitals, workers lose jobs, and patients lose access to care while investors emerge enriched.

Exclusive: Senate bill would loosen SEC definition of small business - A bipartisan bill offered Monday by Senate Banking Committee member Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Andy Kim, D-N.J., would force the Securities and Exchange Commission to update a 25-year-old threshold that holds small financial firms to higher regulatory standards.

CFPB officially delays small-business reporting rule - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will delay its small-business lending data rule by a year, citing litigation and plans to rewrite the regulation in the interim as reasons for the delay.

CFPB drops enforcement actions against two more lenders -Washington Federal Bank and Planet Home Lending are both off the hook for the remainder of their consent orders, which the bureau quietly terminated.

• Key Insight: Washington Federal Bank and Planet Home Lending are only the latest in a long list of businesses against which the CFPB has terminated its consent orders.
• Supporting Data: Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, the CFPB has dropped dozens of enforcement actions and initiated only two.
• Expert quote: "It's clear that they are trying to do as much as they can to make their remit as small as possible," said Amanda Fischer, chief operating officer of Better Markets.

CFPB's union appeals agency's 'dismantling' to D.C. Circuit -- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's union is appealing an appellate panel's ruling that allows acting CFPB Director Russell Vought to fire 90% of the bureau's staff.

Agencies issue shutdown-related guidance for lenders - A government shutdown arrived Wednesday due to an intense partisan divide in budget negotiations, prompting bond investor activity that could lower mortgage rates but otherwise challenge the housing market. The shutdown started with a flight into treasury bonds, putting downward pressure on financing costs, but several other developments slowed mortgage activity.

HUD accused of violating Hatch Act over shutdown message -A message on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's website blaming "the Radical Left" for the government shutdown has prompted legal complaints and accusations of a Hatch Act violation.Department officials pushed back on criticism that a banner on its homepage violated a statute meant to curb partisanship in government operations.

Fannie and Freddie: Multi-Family Delinquency Rate Highest Since Housing Bust (ex-pandemic) --Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Fannie and Freddie: Multi-Family Delinquency Rate Highest Since Housing Bust (ex-pandemic) Excerpt: Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate in August was 0.56%, up from 0.55% July. Freddie's rate is up year-over-year from 0.52% in August 2024, however, this is below the pre-pandemic level of 0.60%.Freddie's serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 4.20% following the housing bubble and peaked at 3.17% in August 2020 during the pandemic. Fannie Mae reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate in August was 0.53%, unchanged from 0.53% in July. The serious delinquency rate is up year-over-year from 0.50% in August 2024, however, this is below the pre-pandemic lows of 0.65%.The Fannie Mae serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 5.59% following the housing bubble and peaked at 3.32% in August 2020 during the pandemic. These are mortgage loans that are "three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure". Mortgages in forbearance are being counted as delinquent in this monthly report but are not reported to the credit bureaus. For Fannie, by vintage, for loans made in 2004 or earlier (1% of portfolio), 1.35% are seriously delinquent (up from 1.33% the previous month). For loans made in 2005 through 2008 (1% of portfolio), 1.93% are seriously delinquent (up from 1.90%). For recent loans, originated in 2009 through 2025 (98% of portfolio), 0.49% are seriously delinquent (up from 0.48%). So, Fannie is still working through a handful of poor performing loans from the bubble years.

Housing September 29th Weekly Update: Inventory Unchanged Week-over-week -Altos reports that active single-family inventory was unchanged week-over-week. Inventory usually starts to decline in the fall and then declines sharply during the holiday season.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 18.0% compared to the same week in 2024 (last week it was up 19.0%), and down 9.6% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week it was down 9.5%). Inventory started 2025 down 22% compared to 2019. Inventory has closed more than half of that gap, but it appears inventory will still be below 2019 levels at the end of 2025.This second inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of September 26th, inventory was at 863 thousand (7-day average), compared to 863 thousand the prior week. Mike Simonsen discusses this data and much more regularly on YouTube

Lawler: NAR “Fixes” Median Sales Price for July --Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Lawler: NAR “Fixes” Median Sales Price for July A brief excerpt: From housing economist Tom Lawler: While many folks didn’t notice it, the National Association of Realtor’s August Existing Homes Sales Report including a significant upward revision in median sales prices for July. Below is a table showing the preliminary and revised median existing home sales prices for all sales and for single-family sales. As the table shows, in the latest report the NAR revised the YOY % change in the median existing home sales price by about 0.8 percentage points. Virtually all of this upward revision was the result of a massive upward revision in the YOY % change in the median existing home sales price in the Northeast region -- to 6.1% from 0.8% for all sales, and to 6.7% from 0.8% for single family sales! As I noted in my August 26th report, the 0.8% reported increase in Northeast median sales price in the July NAR report was completely inconsistent with reported median sales price increases from state realtor organizations in the Northeast, which suggested significantly higher median sales price gains.

Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 1.7% year-over-year in July -S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for July ("July" is a 3-month average of May, June and July closing prices). This release includes prices for 20 individual cities, two composite indices (for 10 cities and 20 cities) and the monthly National index. From S&P S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index Records Annual Gain in July 2025The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 1.7% annual gain for July, down from a 1.9% rise in the previous month. The 10- City Composite increased 2.3%, down from a 2.7% rise in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a year-over-year gain of 1.8%, down from a 2.2% increase in the previous month. New York again reported the highest annual gain among the 20 cities with a 6.4% increase in July, followed by Chicago and Cleveland with annual increases of 6.2% and 4.5%, respectively. Tampa posted the lowest return, falling 2.8%. After seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a decrease of -0.1%. Both the 10-City Composite and 20-City Composite Indices posted drops of -0.1%, respectively. “National home prices rose just 1.7% year-over-year, down from June’s 1.9% pace and a far cry from the double-digit gains of two years ago. In fact, this is one of the weakest annual price increases in the past decade – and notably, it’s below the 2.7% rise in consumer prices over the same period. In other words, U.S. home values have essentially stagnated after inflation, marking the third straight month of real housing wealth decline for homeowners. “What’s keeping price growth barely in positive territory at all is the rebound we saw earlier in 2025 offsetting a soft patch in late 2024. National home prices edged down slightly last autumn and then crept back up in the first half of this year. The net result is that July’s index level is only about 1.7% higher than a year ago. Essentially, the market experienced a minor dip and recovery within a 12-month span, leaving us with little overall appreciation. This kind of volatile plateau stands in stark contrast to the roaring price surges of 2021, and it underscores just how decisively the market’s momentum has cooled. The first graph shows the nominal seasonally adjusted Composite 10, Composite 20 and National indices (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000). The Composite 10 index was down 0.1% in July (SA). The Composite 20 index was down 0.1% (SA) in July. The National index was down 0.1% (SA) in July. The second graph shows the year-over-year change in all three indices. The Composite 10 NSA was up 2.3% year-over-year. The Composite 20 NSA was up 1.8% year-over-year. The National index NSA was up 1.7% year-over-year. Annual price changes were below expectations.

Newsletter: Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 1.7% year-over-year in July --Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 1.7% year-over-year in July - Excerpt: S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for July (“July” is a 3-month average of May, June and July closing prices). May closing prices include some contracts signed in March, so there is a significant lag to this data. Here is a graph of the month-over-month (MoM) change in the Case-Shiller National Index Seasonally Adjusted (SA). The MoM decrease in the seasonally adjusted (SA) Case-Shiller National Index was at -0.06% (a -0.8% annual rate). This was the fifth consecutive MoM decrease. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices increased month-to-month in 10 of the 20 Case-Shiller cities. San Francisco has fallen 8.9% from the recent peak, Phoenix is down 5.2% from the peak, and Tampa down 3.7%..

NAR: Pending Home Sales Increase 4.0% in August; Up 3.8% YoY From the NAR: NAR Pending Home Sales Report Shows 4.0% Increase in August Pending home sales in August increased by 4.0% from the prior month and rose 3.8% year-over-year, according to the National Association of REALTORS® Pending Home Sales Report. ...
Month-Over-Month: 4.0% increase in pending home sales
Gains in the Midwest, South, and West; Decline in the Northeast
Year-Over-Year: 3.8% increase in pending home sales
Gains across all regions. Note: Contract signings usually lead sales by about 45 to 60 days, so this would usually be for closed sales in September and October.

Amazon Launches Cheap Grocery Brand As Value War With Walmart Heats Up -Value wars between Amazon and Walmart to attract cash-strapped consumers are heating up late in the year. Amazon announced on Wednesday morning the launch of a new private-label line called "Amazon Grocery," which spans more than 1,000 products and is largely priced under $5. The timing couldn't be better, as our attention has shifted to a storm brewing in the low-income consumer world.Amazon Grocery will be a direct competitor to Walmart, Aldi, and other value grocery chains, offering affordable private-label goods amid ongoing value wars (read report). The new line will feature dairy, fresh produce, meat, snacks, and pantry staples priced under $5, an easy hook for low-income consumers. Another selling point: more than 1,000 items can be delivered straight to consumers' doors, saving them the time and hassle of driving to the supermarket and pushing a cart down the aisles. "The extensive selection includes everything from milk and olive oil to fresh produce, meat and seafood, with most products priced under $5, offering exceptional value to customers," Amazon wrote in a press release. "With Amazon Grocery, we're simplifying how customers discover and shop our extensive private label food selection while maintaining the quality and value our customers expect and deserve," Jason Buechel, Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores and Chief Executive Officer at Whole Foods Market, wrote in a press release.

BLS: Job Openings Unchanged at 7.2 million in August --From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary - The number of job openings was unchanged at 7.2 million in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, both hires and total separations were little changed at 5.1 million. Within separations, both quits (3.1 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.7 million) were little changed. 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. The difference between JOLTS hires and separations is similar to the CES (payroll survey) net jobs headline numbers. This report is for August; the employment report this Friday will be for September (if it is released). 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 August to 7.23 million from 7.21million in July. The number of job openings (black) were down 6% 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").

ADP Payrolls Unexpectedly Crater To -32,000, Worst Since March 2023 And Below All Estimates - Ahead of today's ADP print we said that traders will be especially focused on the otherwise unreliable number, since the government shutdown which hit at midnight means that this Friday's payrolls report will likely not happen. Well, if that is the case, the market - and Fed - may well be expecting a jumbo 50bps rate cut again in 3 weeks, because moments ago ADP reported that in September, the US private sector shed 32,000 jobs, the worst print since March 2023... ... and far below the lowest estimate; in fact the print was a 6 sigma miss to estimates of which Pantheon's +25K was the lowest. Adding to the confusion is that the original number was actually well higher, at 11K, but after the ADP conducted its annual preliminary rebenchmarking of the National Employment Report in September based on the full-year 2024 results of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (which as a reminder eliminated 911K jobs from the Biden regime that were never actually there), there was a reduction of 43,000 jobs in September compared to pre-benchmarked data. The trend was unchanged; job creation continued to lose momentum across most sectors. “Despite the strong economic growth we saw in the second quarter, this month's release further validates what we've been seeing in the labor market, that U.S. employers have been cautious with hiring,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. As shown in the next chart, the decline was broad-based... Looking at wages, job Stayers' saw incomes post a modest improvement, rising from 4.4% (which was the slowest pace of growth since June 2021) to 4.5%, while 'job changers' are still seeing higher and rising incomes, although in September this number slumped to 6.6% from 7.1%.

Even as shutdown halts BLS data, hiring appears to be slowing - The ongoing government shutdown prevented the Bureau of Labor Statistics from releasing its September jobs report Friday, but job growth appears to be softening. The lack of reliable government data comes as the Federal Reserve mulls further interest rate cuts. Key Insight: Payroll firm ADP showed that employers lost 32,000 jobs in September, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not release its scheduled jobs report Friday because of the federal government shutdown.

Healthier School Lunch Movement Gains Momentum Nationwide - Out with chicken nuggets and foot-long hot dogs, in with locally grown vegetables and lentil tacos. In the months and years ahead, school cafeteria trays could look much different as some state and federal lawmakers push to restrict ultra-processed foods in K–12 public schools, under the premise of assisting students to be happier, healthier, and higher-achieving. Arizona, California, Louisiana, Utah, and Virginia passed laws removing unhealthy products, ingredients, or food dyes from school cafeterias, with healthier choices being phased in within the next two academic years. Similar legislation is pending in Hawaii, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, according to the websites of their respective state legislatures. Foods that are considered “ultra-processed” have an abundance of additives and preservatives and are linked to chronic health issues such as obesity and diabetes, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Make Our Children Healthy Again guidance released on Sept. 9. “The American diet has shifted dramatically toward highly processed foods, leading to nutrient depletion, increased caloric intake, and exposure to potentially harmful or unhealthy additives,” the guidance reads. The Chef Ann Foundation defines ultra-processed foods as those that are chemically manipulated with ingredients such as corn, soy, and wheat extracts to extend shelf life, improve flavor, and enhance appearance. It also includes additives such as sugar, sodium, dyes, preservatives, and other chemicals to change the texture or increase the volume of feeds. Artificial ingredients are used to replace the vitamins and minerals lost as the result of processing and packaging. Ultra-processed foods are less filling yet contain more calories than minimally processed foods, leading consumers to eat faster and consume more. Chef Ann Foundation CEO Mara Fleishman said that, beyond cafeteria employee training and kitchen upgrades from heat-and-serve equipment to a scratch cooking setup, the other major necessary investment is increased funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which currently provides $4.50 per school lunch. Fleishman told The Epoch Times via email that the bipartisan federal Scratch Cooked Meals for Students Act—a USDA pilot program that provides school cafeterias with refrigerators, convection ovens, steamers, and prep spaces—will be reintroduced in the next legislative session.

Oklahoma schools superintendent resigns to lead campaign to destroy “radical leftists in teachers union” -- Last Wednesday, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, one of Trump’s attack dogs in the war against public education, announced he was resigning his post on September 30 to lead an organization called the Teacher Freedom Alliance. The right-wing group is dedicated to converting public schools into centers of political and religious indoctrination.Announcing his resignation in a brief appearance on Fox News, Walters said his goal is to “destroy the teachers unions.” In an X post he wrote, “Radical leftists with the teachers union dominate classrooms and push woke indoctrination on our kids. We will build an army of teachers to defeat the teachers union once and for all.”The Teacher Freedom Alliance, founded earlier this year, is bankrolled by a network of wealthy enemies of public education, including billionaire futures trader William Dunn, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation and Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. The organization, which has no more than 2,600 members nationwide, praised Walters for “fearlessly fighting the woke liberal union mob.”Walters is deeply hated in Oklahoma and nationally for his filthy attacks on the democratic rights of educators and students. He has demanded prayer in schools, the hanging of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and the inclusion of the Bible in curricula. According to Walters the Constitutional separation of church and state is a “myth,” and he has vowed to “put God back in schools.”Under Walters’ direction, Oklahoma bought tens of thousands of Trump’s “God Bless the USA” bibles. The bibles contain copies of the US Constitution that conspicuously omit seventeen amendments, including the abolishment of slavery, the granting of voting rights to women and the limiting of a president’s time in office to two terms.Walters also insisted that families prove US citizenship in order to enroll their children in public schools in a clear violation of the landmark US Supreme Court ruling in 1982 case Plyler v. Doe (1982), which declared that all children, including those without legal immigration status, are entitled to a free public K-12 education under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Walters also said he would roll out an “America First” test for K–12 teachers arriving from California and New York before they can receive an Oklahoma license. The 50-question multiple-choice test, Walters said, was needed to protect against “radical leftist ideology fostered in places like California and New York.”Just days before his resignation, Walters announced a partnership with Turning Point USA, the far-right group founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month. Walters vowed to establish TPUSA chapters in Oklahoma high schools, presenting the move as a means of combating “woke indoctrination.” Turning Point has long been a vehicle for cultivating a far-right cadre among young people, promoting climate denial, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, and outright fascist rhetoric.One of his final acts in office was to present a proposed budget for K-12 education, which reduces spending by $100 million from last year. The proposal, he said, was “the most fiscally responsible conservative budget in education.”

US COVID activity falling - US COVID-19 activity is on the decline following a short summer surge.According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two key early indicator metrics—the rate of test positivity and emergency department (ED) visits—continue to fall. Test positivity dropped to 6.7% for the week ending September 27, down from 9.6% the previous week, while the percentage of ED visits diagnosed as COVID-19 fell from 1.0% to 0.7%. ED visits have been highest in children ages 0 to 4 years.Indicators of severity are down, as well. The hospitalization rate per 100,000 population was 1.2, down from 2.2 the previous week, with hospitalizations elevated in people age 65 and older. The percentage of deaths due to COVID-19 was 0.8%, the same as the prior week.Wastewater monitoring indicates that the XFG variant—one of several offshoots of the JN.1 subvariant—accounts for 85% of all sequenced viruses, followed by NB.1.8.1 (7%) and NW.1 (3%).CDC data on other respiratory illness, including flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), have not been updated because of the federal government shutdown.

COVID-19 infection associated with increased risk of new-onset vascular dementia in older adults --A new study in npj Dementia using data from the UK Biobank shows that COVID-19 survivors aged 50 and older had a higher likelihood of developing new-onset dementia (NOD) compared to uninfected controls.A total of 54,757 participants met the inclusion criteria for the study, including 16,017 with COVID-19 and 38,740 non-COVID participants. The median observation period was 24.1 months.According to the authors, compared with matched non-COVID controls, prior COVID-19 infection was associated with a 41% increased risk of all-cause dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13 to 1.75). Men, unvaccinated participants, those with high blood pressure, and those with frequent alcohol use had the highest association with NOD. But when COVID-19 patients were compared to participants with non-COVID respiratory disease, the association disappeared. Moreover, the association was age-dependent. There was no statistically significant association observed among individuals younger than 65 years (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.23 to 1.30). “The observed associations may reflect a broader impact of respiratory conditions on cognitive health rather than a COVID-19–specific effect,” the authors wrote. “Given the substantial societal burden of dementia, continued surveillance and research into the long-term cognitive consequences of COVID-19 are crucial.”

Inhaled heparin slashes ventilation, death in COVID patients, analysis suggests -- A meta-trial of randomized clinical studies conducted in 6 countries suggests that the use of inhaled heparin dramatically reduced the risk of intubation, death, and in-hospital death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. For the study, published late last week in eClinicalMedicine, researchers in Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, and the United States prospectively analyzed pooled data from trials involving 478 adult COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized but didn't require mechanical ventilation. The patients had been randomly assigned to receive either inhaled nebulized unfractionated heparin (UFH) in addition to standard care or standard care alone to prevent intubation or death or in-hospital death from June 2020 to December 2022. In total, 238 patients were in the UFH group, and 240 were controls (215 of whom received standard care, and 25 of whom were given a placebo). The median patient age was 54 years, and most were men. The dosage, duration, and delivery method differed among study protocols, and follow-up ranged from 28 to 60 days. Just under one-third of all patients received supplemental oxygen, another 25% received high-flow nasal oxygen or non-invasive ventilation, 79% received corticosteroids, and 25% were given the antiviral drug remdesivir. A widely available, cost-effective drug used to treat and prevent blood clots, UFH is typically injected. This formulation, which targets the lungs directly, "has a strong rationale as a treatment for severe respiratory infections, including COVID-19, due to its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and anti-coagulant properties, which may prevent viral entry, lung injury progression, and pulmonary thrombosis," the study authors wrote.In-hospital death among nebulized-UFH recipients was 4.3%, compared with 14.3% in controls (odds ratio [OR], 0.26), and the hazard ratio for 28-day mortality was significantly lower in the UFH group, at 0.36. After excluding data from the only controlled study, conducted in the United States, a consistent reduction in intubation or death was seen at the longest follow up in the UFH group compared with controls (OR, 0.51). UFH recipients also had a shorter median hospital length of stay than the control group (6 vs 7 days) when death before hospital release was treated as a competing event. No safety issues or pulmonary or systemic bleeding were reported among UHF recipients. Co-senior author Clive Page, PhD, of King's College London, said in a university news release that no other drug has heparin's combination of anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, and anti-coagulant properties. "We know it’s only a matter of time until the next pandemic, and there are still COVID-19 patients who get very sick," he said. "This is a great weapon to have up our sleeve."

COVID vaccines may have averted thousands of hospital stays in infants, pregnant women over 18 months - A US modeling study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics estimates that vaccinating pregnant women against COVID-19 prevented 7,000 hospitalizations in infants and 3,000 in pregnant women from January 2024 to May 2025. The Stanford University–led research team analyzed COVID-NET surveillance data on COVID-19 hospitalization rates in infants younger than 6 months and incidence data on pregnant women aged 18 to 49 years under a relative risk of 2.65. The aim was to estimate the health impact of vaccination during pregnancy, mainly during the second or third trimester.The team also used recent COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates, including a 35% reduction in COVID-19 hospitalization risk in young infants and a 33% VE in adults. In May 2025, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women after recommending it for years based on evidence that it reduces the risk of severe illness in young infants and pregnant women. "Vaccination during pregnancy confers direct protection to newborns through transfer of maternal antibodies, conferring passive immunity to the infant for approximately 6 months, and is associated with significant reductions in infant hospitalizations," the study authors wrote. "Infants younger than 6 months are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, and their risk of severe COVID-19 is much higher than other pediatric age groups, often similar to those aged 65 to 74 years in the current epidemiologic era," they added. "Pregnancy also doubles the risk of severe COVID-19." Under a counterfactual scenario in which pregnant women didn't get vaccinated against COVID-19, an estimated 7,148 related hospitalizations of infants (in a population of 1.83 million within the United States) and 3,106 hospitalizations of pregnant women (in a population of 3 million) may have occurred during the study period. If 50% or 100% of pregnant women were vaccinated against COVID-19, 1,251 and 2,502 hospital admissions, respectively, would have been averted among infants, and 228 and 456 hospitalizations, respectively, would have been prevented in pregnant women. But if vaccine uptake among pregnant women were only 15%, vaccination would have averted 375 COVID-19 hospitalizations in infants and 68 in pregnant women. "This decision analytical model study estimates that COVID-19 vaccination (primarily annual COVID-19 vaccination) during pregnancy will likely continue to yield meaningful public health benefits in the US, especially to reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations in infants," the researchers wrote. "While there is global variation in policy recommending COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, the US has a high risk of severe COVID-19 in newborns, underscoring relevance of maternal COVID-19 vaccination," they added. "This study demonstrates meaningful benefit of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, which has moderately waned over time, but still supports the need to reconsider the decision to remove vaccine eligibility during pregnancy," the authors concluded.

Poll shows Americans view COVID-19 vaccines as unsafe for pregnant women -Research presented last week during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2025 National Conference & Exhibition shows maternal COVID-19 vaccination is linked to a 58% lower risk of being infected with the virus, as well as a lower risk of experiencing a stillbirth or preterm birth.But a new poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center suggests significant hesitation among pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19, with just 38% of poll respondents saying they would recommend that someone who is pregnant get the COVID-19 shot.Less than half, 42%, of the 1,700 respondents, said it was safe to take an mRNA COVID vaccine in pregnancy. And among women who are at childbearing age, 18 to 49 years, only 36% consider mRNA COVID-19 vaccines safe. Women in this age group are more likely (28%) than other adults (20%) to say it is false to state that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy is safe.The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.In April of 2024, only 19% of women of childbearing age said it’s false to state that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy is safe. But in May of this year Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, and Food and Drug Administration Director Marty Makary, MD, announced they would no longer be recommending healthy pregnant women and children get seasonal COVID-19 shots.

Norovirus outbreak hits Royal Caribbean cruise bound for Miami, nearly 100 sick aboard Serenade of the Seas, CDC says - Nearly 100 people became sick with norovirus aboard Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas during a two-week cruise from San Diego to Miami, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed. The ship docked at PortMiami early Thursday morning. Joshua Pettit and his father Bob boarded the Serenade of the Seas in San Diego on Sept. 19 for a 13-day cruise bound for Miami. Neither expected they would be among those affected by the highly contagious gastrointestinal illness. But a few days after the ship's stop in Mexico, passengers began falling ill. "Saturday night after dinner he started to feel nauseous. And it came out of him very suddenly," Joshua recalled of his father. "We were at a lounge. And he threw up before he could even get into the bathroom in the lounge. So it just comes that quick." "It's very fast. Violently," Bob added, sitting next to his son. Bob Pettit was given medication and ordered to quarantine in his stateroom. While his father isolated, Joshua observed the ship's crew working to contain the outbreak. "It's fairly normal to see someone always cleaning on a cruise ship," he said. "But now we're seeing four to six people fanatically wiping every handrail, chair, when someone would get up. Wiping the arms. They had been doing all the handles in the hallway. Tables, anything anybody touches, they're out in full force." The CDC said 94 of the ship's 1,874 passengers — about 5 percent — contracted norovirus during the voyage. Four of 883 crew members were also affected. FIU infectious disease professor Dr. Aileen Marty said outbreaks often begin when a single infected person brings the virus aboard. "You're going to be losing fluids up and down. And that lead due to a situation where you can become severely dehydrated," she said. "And this becomes a big issue if you're immunocompromised, an infant, or very old." Royal Caribbean reported the outbreak to the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program on Sept. 28 and implemented its outbreak prevention and response plan, which includes isolating sick passengers, disinfecting common areas, and collecting stool samples for testing. The VSP said it is remotely monitoring the situation and reviewing the ship's sanitation procedures. According to the program, an outbreak is defined as when 3 percent or more of a ship's passengers or crew report gastrointestinal illness symptoms.

Treating recurrent C difficile cases cost hospital millions, study finds- The retrospective study of patient medical records by clinicians at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center included patients who had three or more inpatient admissions due to CDI from January 2017 through December 2020. Although few studies have looked at the net economic impact of treating recurrent-CDI patients at the hospital level, healthcare costs for recurrent cases are notably higher than they are for an initial CDI case. CDI is the most common cause of hospital-associated diarrhea, affecting more than 500,000 Americans annually. An initial episode is a known risk factor for recurrence. An estimated 25% to 30% of patients with an initial CDI case experience a recurrence, and 50% to 65% of patients with one recurrence experience subsequent cases. Among the 29 patients included in the analysis (median age, 58.9 years; 55% female), there were 108 admissions, 1,006 inpatient hospital days, and 74 days in the intensive care unit over the study period. Patients had a median of three admissions, with a median length of stay of 7 days. Total hospitalization costs were estimated to be $3,352,400, and the estimated reimbursement received by the hospital was $1,119,043. "Thus, we estimated that the community teaching hospital had a net loss of $2,232,997 over the 4-year period due to CDI-related hospitalizations," the study authors wrote. "This translates to a net loss per patient of approximately $77,000 over the 4-year study period." The authors add that their analysis may underestimate the true financial losses incurred, since they assumed full reimbursement, and that may not always be the case.

South Carolina announces new measles case; NY notes wastewater detection --In a statement, the SCDPH said the patient doesn’t have any known exposure to an earlier case, and the individual has completed the isolation period. An investigation is underway to identify contacts and notify people who may have been exposed. It added that the patient’s illness has no known connection to the state’s three earlier cases.Elsewhere, the New York State Department of Health on September 27 issued a measles alert after the virus was detected in wastewater earlier in the week from a treatment center that serves the city of Oswego and surrounding areas in the upstate area. Health officials urged health providers to be aware and look for clinical signs and symptoms. James McDonald, MD, MPH, state health commissioner, said in the statement, “This detection does not mean there is an outbreak. It is, however, a timely reminder to make sure you and your family are up to date on the MMR [measles, mumps, and rubella] vaccine and to keep an eye out for symptoms." In international developments, Israel’s health ministry yesterday reported the death of a sixth child—an unvaccinated toddler—in the country’s ongoing outbreak. Four of the six deaths were reported over the past week. All of the children were younger than 30 months old.So far, 24 patients have been hospitalized, mostly children younger than 6 years old who aren’t vaccinated. Seven of them are in the intensive care unit (ICU). The outbreak areas are Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Bnei Brak, Harish, Modi’in Illit, Nof HaGalil, Kiryat Gat, and Ashdod. The health ministry urged unvaccinated people, as well as parents of infants who have only received one MMR vaccine dose, to avoid large gatherings. Officials are offering walk-in vaccine clinics as part of the outbreak response.

States log more measles cases as New Mexico outbreak winds down - Health departments in Minnesota and California have reported new measles cases, part of a record rise in cases since the United States achieved elimination status in 2000.The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has recorded three new cases, pushing the state’s total to eight for the year. An MDH official said the three new cases involve unvaccinated children ages 5 to 17 years old from the same family in Dakota County, CBS News Minnesota reported. Dakota County is part of the Twin Cities metro area. In California, the Orange County Health Care Agency yesterday announced a confirmed infection in a toddler who recently traveled domestically. Health officials said they are notifying people who may have been exposed to the virus in healthcare settings but added that no other community exposure is expected, given that the child’s family isolated during the contagious period. The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDH) on September 26 declared that the state’s measles outbreak, which began on February 14, is over. The state’s last cases were reported from Santa Fe County on August 14. The state recorded 100 cases, marking New Mexico’s first measles outbreak since 1996. The outbreak began in Lea County, which bordered the West Texas hot spot. New Mexico also had an outbreak at a correctional facility in Deming. The NMDH said that more than 56,000 people were immunized with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine during the outbreak.

Another Canadian baby dies from measles as South Carolina reports outbreak -Another child has died from measles in Canada, this time a premature infant from Alberta, which has been experiencing a steep rise in cases since the spring, Canada-based Global News reported yesterday. The child was born prematurely after the mother contracted measles, the news outlet said, citing provincial health officials. Alberta has recorded 1,914 measles cases since March, of which 1,706 involved unvaccinated children.The death appears to be Canada’s second in a child. Earlier this year, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported a congenital measles death of an Ontario baby who was born prematurely and had other underlying health conditions.Canada is the worst affected of North American countries, reporting brisk measles activity and 5,006 cases this year (4,646 confirmed), according to the government’s latest data. Ontario was the focus of earlier activity, but most of the recent cases have been reported from Canada’s western provinces.Mexico this year has reported 19 deaths from measles, and the United States has reported 3, according to the latest update from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).In other measles developments, the South Carolina Department of Public Health yesterday confirmed an outbreak in the Upstate region. Of the state’s eight cases this year, five patients became ill over the past month and are part of the newly identified outbreak.Officials said all are unvaccinated and do not have immunity from earlier measles infection. The group added that the outbreak patients are following isolation guidance.

Quick takes: Mississippi pertussis death, fatal New York EEE case, chikungunya in Cuba --The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) this week reported a pertussis (whopping cough) death in an infant younger than 2 months old who was too young to be vaccinated. Officials said the state has recorded 115 pertussis cases this year, sharply higher than the 49 cases reported in 2024. With the latest infant pertussis death, Mississippi has now reported three since 2008. Pertussis activity remains elevated in the United States, following a post-COVID pandemic peak in 2024, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Babies ages 1 year and younger are at highest risk for severe disease and complications.

• In New York, Madison County Public Health on September 22 announced that it was investigating a confirmed Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) illness in a county resident. The 79-year-old man died from his infection, a local media outlet reported yesterday, adding that his death was central New York’s first from EEE case since 2015. EEE is a rare mosquito-borne viral disease that is sometimes fatal and can cause long-term neurologic problems. The CDC as of yesterday had reported three cases from three states—Maine, New York, and South Carolina—this year, all of which involved neuroinvasive disease.
• The CDC on September 26 issued a level 2 (practice enhanced precautions) travel notice for a chikungunya outbreak in Cuba. Health officials urged travelers to take steps to prevent mosquito bites and to be vaccinated if visiting an outbreak area. They also urged pregnant women to reconsider travel to affected areas, especially if close to the delivery date, due to the risk of contracting the virus and passing it to the baby. Cibercuba, an Cuban expat media outlet based in Spain, reported that Matanzas province is experiencing an alarming rise in suspected dengue and chikungunya infections.

Multistate Listeria outbreak tied to packaged meals expands - Three new illnesses, and one additional death, have been reported in a multistate Listeriaoutbreak linked to packaged meals. In an outbreak update late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 20 people from 15 states have now been sickened in the Listeria monocytogenesoutbreak, up from 17 since the agency's last update on June 18. Of the 20 case-patients, 19 have been hospitalized and 4 have died. One pregnancy-associated illness resulted in fetal loss.The outbreak has been tied to packaged pasta meals made by FreshRealm. The initial cases identified by the CDC's PulseNet system were traced to consumption of FreshRealm chicken fettucine alfredo heat-and-serve meals, which tested positive for the outbreak strain and were recalled on June 17. In its update, the CDC said the pasta in FreshRealm's beef meatball marinara linguini meals, made by Nate's Fine Foods, has also tested positive for Listeria, but the product has not been distributed."Pasta that went into the beef meatball marinara linguine meals has tested positive for Listeria, but additional information is pending to determine if the samples taken from the pre-cooked pasta is the same strain making people sick," the CDC said. In a statement emailed to reporters today, a company spokesperson said whole-genome sequencing has confirmed that the Listeria strains in the cooked pasta are identical to the outbreak strain."We now know the source was cooked pasta," the statement said. "FreshRealm promptly shared these results with USDA, FDA and the CDC and will continue to work closely with these agencies.” The affected states are California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. The age of patients ranges from 4 to 92 years. Illnesses date back to August 1, 2024. State and local public health officials are continuing to interview people about the foods they ate in the months before they got sick to determine whether other products may have been involved. Of the 13 people interviewed, 7 reported eating pre-cooked meals and 4 reported eating chicken fettucine alfredo.The CDC says the true number of people sickened in the outbreak is likely much higher, since some people recover from listeriosis without medical care and never get tested.

Kenya and Zambia battle mpox spikes as African countries manage multiple health threats Though some of Africa’s biggest mpox hot spots continue to see downward trends, fresh spikes are occurring in other countries such as Kenya and Zambia. Meanwhile, local spread is now suspected in Senegal, following an earlier detection of an imported travel-linked case. In Africa this year, 26 countries have experienced mpox outbreaks. Meanwhile, deadly cholera outbreaks have struck 23 of the region’s countries, with 20 also grappling with measles, as well as other infectious disease outbreaks including dengue and Lassa fever. At a weekly media briefing today, Yap Boum, PhD, MPH, deputy incident manager for Africa CDC's mpox response, said no mpox deaths were reported over the past week, which is encouraging. In Kenya, a current hot spot, the clade 1b virus was initially spreading in transportation corridors among truck drivers and sex workers, but the dynamics have shifted with the spread of the virus to Nairobi. Boum said the high test-positivity rate is a sign that more surveillance is needed, and Africa CDC officials will meet with their Kenyan counterparts this week to do a “deep dive” into how the outbreak is evolving. Zambia last week reported a jump in suspected and confirmed cases, with Cooperbelt, Muchinga, and Lusaka provinces most affected. Eleven percent of contacts have tested positive, an encouraging sign that the country is identifying the right contacts, Boum said. Senegal, Africa’s most recently affected country, reported its first case on August 22, which was liked to travel in East Africa and was identified as clade 1b. However, Boum said another case was confirmed on September 22, but involved clade 2b. Soon after, four related cases were identified, which he said suggests that human-to-human spread is occurring in the country. He added that the situation in Senegal highlights the ongoing threat of mpox spread to new countries. He also said Senegal’s health ministry on September 21 declared a Rift Valley fever outbreak, with 28 cases reported so far, 8 of them fatal. The mosquito-borne disease primarily strikes livestock. Though humans can be infected by mosquitoes, the virus is more commonly passed through contact with blood or organs of infected animals or drinking milk from sick ones. The cholera total in Africa is expected to pass 300,000 cases by the end of the year, triple that of 2022, Boum said. The case-fatality rate this year is at 2.1%, which is higher than expected and is a continued concern, he added. In Chad, access to outbreak areas has been a challenge, and health officials still don’t have a clear understanding of what’s happening on the ground. Elsewhere, Burundi has also experienced a sharp rise, a sign of emerging hot spots that need immediate attention, Boum said. Angola’s cholera surge initially declined, but over the last 2 weeks is rising again, which Boum said is a sign that sustainable control hinges on fixing root causes. Sudan remains the highest burden country, and though cases have declined by 40%, ongoing transmission is still significant, he said. Officials from both Africa CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) today shared cautious optimism about the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), given that the affected part of Kasai province is approaching a week with no new confirmed cases. Boum said some of the drivers were contact with infected people during childcare and sharing of contaminated objects. He said more than 9,000 people have now been vaccinated and that health officials hope to gather a stockpile of the monoclonal antibody mAb114 (ansuvimab-zykl, also known as Ebanga).

Vodka Laced With Methanol Kills At Least 25 In Russia -- A mass poisoning from methanol-laced bootleg vodka has claimed at least 25 lives in Russia’s Leningrad region, with several others injured, authorities reported on Saturday. The tragedy, centered in the town of Slantsy, highlights the persistent dangers of illicit alcohol in rural areas where cheap substitutes thrive amid high vodka prices.The deaths occurred after victims consumed 90-proof homemade vodka containing lethal levels of methanol, a toxic substance found in products like windshield wiper fluid and antifreeze. The Russian news outlet Izvestia reported that all deceased victims had elevated methanol levels in their systems.Authorities detained three suspects, including Nikolai Boytsov, 78, and Olga Stepanova, 60, who are awaiting trial. Investigators allege Stepanova supplied the bootleg liquor to Boytsov, who sold bottles for approximately $1 each. Empty glass bottles and plastic cans were found in Boytsov’s apartment, and he is accused of poisoning his wife, one of the victims, with the tainted alcohol.Eight additional suspects have been arrested for producing and distributing the vodka, with one being pre-emptively jailed for two months, according to the Slantsevsky City Court.Methanol, a colorless and odorless liquid, is often used by bootleggers to cut costs; however, it is highly dangerous. Mount Sinai Hospital notes that as little as two tablespoons can be fatal to a child, and 2 to 8 ounces can kill an adult, causing symptoms like difficulty breathing, blindness, dizziness, seizures, severe abdominal pain, and death. Authorities urge anyone who may have consumed the tainted vodka to seek immediate medical attention.

Legionnaires' outbreak linked to Chicago-area nursing facility, prompting health officials' alert - Two cases of Legionnaires' disease have been linked to a Chicago-area nursing facility, and people nearby are being warned to watch out for symptoms. State and county health officials say the cases are connected to the Alden Valley Ridge Rehabilitation and Health Center. The Illinois Department of Public Health says the first case was identified in early September, and they were able to track that case back to the Bloomingdale facility. Environmental tests found Legionella bacteria in the building's cooling tower and in a patient's room. Legionnaires' disease is a form of pneumonia caused by inhaling contaminated water droplets. The Alden Valley Ridge Rehabilitation and Health Center has been ordered to put water restrictions in place, and notify residents, families, and staff. "We work with the facility to identify all potential sources that could cause the infection and then work with them to remediate them, to clean them, to make sure it doesn't happen again," Judy Kauerauf, with the Illinois Department of Public Health, said. Health leaders say anyone who visited or was within two miles of the facility in the past month and is now experiencing symptoms like cough, shortness of breath, headache, muscle aches, or fever should see a doctor right away. Doctors say the disease is not spread person-to-person, but it can be serious. About one in ten people who get the illness die from it. Both people who were infected in this case have recovered. The Illinois health department says those most at risk include older adults, smokers, and people with weakened immune systems or chronic health conditions. So far this year, Illinois has reported nearly 300 cases of Legionnaires' statewide; the state sees between 300 and 500 every year. More cases pop up during the warm summer months. "The warm, damp environment is where the bacteria can grow faster, so (summer) makes it more likely for us to be exposed to it," Dr. Santina J. Wheat, with Northwestern Medicine, said. "Many people are exposed to it but have no symptoms but some people can have a very serious pneumonia and end up in the hospital."

Pathogenic yeast strains found in urban air but not along the coast --As city dwellers may know, escaping to the beach can provide a much-needed change of scenery or a mental reset. Historically, some doctors even prescribed trips to the sea to treat diseases. And now, research published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters provides another reason to visit the coast. A pilot study found that urban air contained pathogenic strains of Candida yeast that were absent in coastal air samples, revealing a potential transmission method. Candida yeasts are a group of common microbes that exist harmlessly on people's skin and in the lining of internal organs. Yet in certain conditions, they can overgrow and cause vaginal yeast infections or oral thrush. These infections are known to spread through direct contact or bodily fluids. However, previous research found Candida DNA in the air, suggesting that the yeast is capable of airborne transmission. So, Ling Nathanael Jin and colleagues looked for infectious strains of live Candida in urban and coastal air samples. The researchers collected air samples in Hong Kong and in a nearby less populated location overlooking the South China Sea once a month for an entire year. In 12 of the urban air samples, they found three species of Candida classified by the World Health Organization as fungal pathogens: C. albicans, C. parapsilosis, and C. tropicalis. Conversely, the samples collected at the coastal site did not have detectable levels of Candida. This difference between the locations suggested to the researchers that the airborne yeast has industrial or urban origins, such as wastewater treatment plants. Additionally, a few of the urban air samples contained pathogenic Candida species that are resistant to common anti-fungal drugs. The researchers say that overuse of anti-fungal drugs, pollutants such as heavy metals in urban environments, or rising air temperatures may contribute to this resistance. Finally, the genetic makeup of one of these airborne Candida strains was closely related to samples previously taken from Candida-infected individuals, suggesting that the airborne strains could be infectious. The researchers say that this work challenges the long-standing assumption that Candida is primarily transmitted through direct contact, instead presenting it as an emerging airborne pathogen.

Quick takes: HIV drug introduced in Uganda, H5 flu vaccine guidance, new polio cases in 3 countries | CIDRAP

• The US State Department announced today that it will introduce the HIV-prevention drug lenacapavir in Uganda through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Administered just twice a year by injection, lenacapavir is an HIV-1 capsid inhibitor that offers sustained and more convenient protection against HIV infection in at-risk populations. Randomized controlled trials have found that 99% of people on lenacapavir remain HIV negative. Uganda is one of 10 high-burden HIV countries where the drug will be distributed through PEPFAR. Drugmaker Gilead has agreed to provide the drug at cost and to provide their intellectual property to generic manufacturers. "This exciting development will accelerate our progress toward ending HIV as a public health threat, building a healthier future for America, Uganda, and the world," Ambassador William Popp, MA, said in a press release from the US Embassy in Uganda.
• At its most recent meeting, the World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization recommended that countries consider issuing recommendations for targeted use of currently licensed A(H5) vaccines based on risk of exposure to avian flu. SAGE recommended targeting lab workers who handle H5 viruses, first responders in zoonotic flu outbreaks, health workers who evaluate and manage suspected or confirmed human cases, and people with ongoing contact with animals or their environments where animal and human infections have been reported.
• Three countries reported new polio cases last week, according to the most recent update from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. In Pakistan, two case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) with paralysis onsets of August 12 and 14 were reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bringing the country's total number of WPV1 cases this year to 26. Angola reported three cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) from Huila province, bringing its cVDPV2 total for 2025 to 11 cases. Nigeria has now seen 32 cVDPV2 cases this year after reporting 4 new cases from Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara.

Health department confirms first 2025 human case of West Nile virus in Hamilton County — The Hamilton County Public Health Department has confirmed the first human case of West Nile virus in the county for 2025. According to the health department, a resident of Sycamore Township has been infected with the virus. Health officials said that in most cases, people who are bitten by a mosquito with West Nile virus will not develop symptoms or will have a minimal reaction. In rarer cases, the virus can cause serious illness, including neurologic illness. Cincinnati had 24 West Nile virus positive mosquito pools in 2024, which far exceeded the average of six positive pools in the past 10 years. No human infections were diagnosed last year, according to the health department. Through Sept. 16 of this year, there have been 25 confirmed cases of West Nile virus in humans across the state of Ohio. The most recent confirmed human case in Hamilton County came in 2023. “For most people, West Nile virus is manageable, with mild symptoms like aches and rashes. But people who are immunocompromised could experience more serious illness such as meningitis, encephalitis and acute flaccid myelitis,” Dr. Stephen Feagins said. “Those illnesses affect the brain and spinal cord and are quite serious, so it’s essential to take preventative measures now and avoid being bitten by infected mosquitoes.” West Nile virus primarily impacts the central nervous system and is spread to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes.

US poll shows West Nile anxiety low, as is insect repellent knowledge --A new Annenberg poll finds that, despite an increase in US infections, worry about West Nile virus remains low among Americans, and most people don't know how to correctly apply insect repellent in certain situations.West Nile is the leading mosquito-borne illness in the continental United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tracked 1,137 cases so far in 2025 in 42 states. Of those cases, 742 involve neuroinvasive disease cases, which typically involve inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), inflammation of the brain and spinal cord membranes (meningoencephalitis), meningitis, or polio-like flaccid paralysis. Activity this year is up by about 40% from last year, largely because a warmer climate extends the season for mosquitoes.In a poll conducted among 1,699 Americans in August, only 15% of respondents in the nationally representative panel report being worried that they or someone in their family will contract West Nile virus or dengue fever in the next 3 months. That was the same proportion who worried about West Nile in September of 2024.While most people aren’t worried about West Nile, 75% said they did know the virus was transmitted via mosquitoes, and 81% correctly said the best defense against the virus was avoiding getting bitten.Knowledge surrounding mosquito repellent, however, was low. Only 14% knew not to put insect repellent under clothing, and 33% knew to first apply sunscreen, then repellent on top once the sunscreen has dried.

WHO: Conditions ripe for further chikungunya spread - In an outbreak notice today, the World Health Organization (WHO) said several countries have reported a resurgence of chikungunya, with spikes in some countries, declines in others compared to recent years, and various factors in place for significant further spread of the mosquito-borne virus. The Americas region has reported the highest numbers of cases this year, followed by the European region, most of which involved illnesses reported from French overseas departments in the Indian Ocean. So far this year, more than 445,000 cases and 155 deaths have been reported from 40 countries. The uneven distribution of cases makes it difficult to call the situation a global rise, but ongoing transmission and several risk factors boost the potential for further spread, the WHO said. The WHO warned that infections in sick travelers can introduce the virus to new areas, which can lead to local transmission if Aedes mosquito populations are present. Tinder for outbreaks also include low population immunity in previously unaffected areas, favorable environmental conditions for mosquitoes to breed, surveillance gaps, and increased human mobility and trade. The WHO said that before 2025, 119 countries had reported previous or current local chikungunya spread. It warned that 27 countries or territories across six WHO regions with competent Aedes aegypti populations haven’t yet reported local spread. Meanwhile, other countries have Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which can transmit chikungunya, with even more efficiency for virus lineages that have the E1 226V mutation. The WHO said that in large populations, transmission can persist, leading to sustained outbreaks that can put a heavy burden on health systems.

H5N1 strikes more turkeys in 2 states - Agriculture officials in two states have reported more H5N1 avian flu outbreaks in poultry, both involving commercial turkey farms, a sector that has been hit hard by the virus in recent years.Meanwhile, Canadian officials recently released new genetic information about the virus that struck an ostrich farm in British Columbia that has been at the center of a firestorm over culling as a control measure.The outbreaks in US poultry are part of an uptick in activity since late August, and over the past 30 days, the virus has been implicated in outbreaks on 17 commercial farms, mostly in the upper Midwest and involving turkeys, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The latest outbreaks in commercial poultry include a turkey farm in Minnesota’s Le Sueur County housing 33,000 birds. Outbreaks also struck a large layer farm in Wisconsin housing more than 3 million birds and affected six backyard flocks across multiple states. Over the last month, the outbreaks have led to the loss of 3.75 million birds, APHIS said in its latest update.In a related development, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) announced the confirmation of the virus at a commercial turkey farm in Sanpete County. Kelly Pehrson, DVM, Utah’s state veterinarian, said in a statement that the UDAF and its federal partners are conducting additional surveillance and testing in areas around the affected flock. “Commercial turkey facilities in the northern U.S. and here in Utah have been the most impacted by HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] this falI," she said. "With migratory bird season just beginning, we may see a greater impact as the season progresses. It is imperative that poultry producers practice strong biosecurity.”The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on September 26 provided an update on plans to cull ostriches at a farm in British Columbia, which has triggered a 9-month–long battle after farm owners and their supporters blocked the action, which was also tied up in court.The outbreak was reported in December 2024, and the CFIA emphasized that its “stamping out” approach is in line with international standards and that allowing a domestic flock known to be exposed to highly pathogenic avian flu poses a persistent risk of reassortment and mutation, posing a risk to wildlife, livestock, and humans.Officials said the current virus in the ostriches is a novel reassortment that hasn’t been seen in Canada before. “This assortment includes the D1.3 genotype, which has been associated with a human infection in a poultry worker in Ohio.” The poultry worker was sick in February and was hospitalized with both nonrespiratory and respiratory symptoms when Ohio was battling widespread outbreaks on layer farms.

H5N1 outbreaks hit more commercial poultry in 3 states - The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed two more H5N1 avian flu outbreaks in poultry, both in backyard flocks. One detection involves a flock in Montana’s Broadwater County that has 8 birds, and the other affects a flock in North Carolina’s Guilford County with 6 birds.The outbreaks are part of an early uptick in H5N1 activity in poultry that began in late August, mainly in the Midwest. Over the last 30 days, highly pathogenic avian flu has been confirmed in 27 flocks, 19 commercial and 8 in backyard locations. Over that period, more than 3.8 million birds were affected.Also, the USDA reported three more H5 avian flu detections in mammals, including a domestic cat from Los Angeles County in California with a sample collection date of September 19 and a virus confirmation date of September 23. The cat may be one of two from that same household that died after eating commercially sold raw pet food.The other mammals are a house mouse and a ground squirrel from North Dakota’s Dickey County, both sampled in the middle of September.This week the USDA reported more than 200 detections in wild birds, much of it from active surveillance in waterfowl, especially in Midwestern states. A few detections involved birds found dead and had samples collected in September in states including Utah, Colorado, and Iowa.

Avian flu strikes backyard flocks in 2 states - A trio of Midwestern states—Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin—reported new H5N1 avian flu outbreaks in poultry on commercial farms, according to notifications from state agencies.The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) said it and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) have detected H5N1 on a commercial turkey farm in Calhoun County in the west central part of the state. Officials said the outbreak is Iowa’s eighth in domestic birds this year. The state reported its last poultry outbreak in April. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health (MBAH) added two new H5N1 poultry outbreaks to its notification list, one in Becker County and the other in Otter Tail County. The two counties neighbor each other in the state’s west central region. Both are breeder poultry farms, and together the facilities house more than 36,000 birds.Minnesota has now recorded eight outbreaks in poultry since the middle of September, part of a national rise in activity.In a related development, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) yesterday said it identified H5N1 in a second commercial flock in Jefferson County, which is located between Madison and Milwaukee. The DATCP’s list of outbreaks reflects that the farm has more than 520,000 birds.

FDA conditionally approves drug for prevention, treatment of New World screwworm in cattle - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today that it has conditionally approved a drug for the prevention and treatment of New World screwworm (NWS) larval infestations in cattle. The FDA said Dectomax-CA1 is eligible for conditional approval in cattle because it addresses an unmet animal health need, and demonstrating its effectiveness would require complex studies. FDA officials say they have determined the drug, which is already fully approved for treatment and control of certain parasites in cattle and swine, is safe and has a "reasonable expectation" of effectiveness against NWS. It's also conditionally approved for prevention of NWS reinfestation for 21 days. The move is the latest step by US health and agriculture officials to respond to the flesh-eating parasitic infection, which can cause cattle loss and has been creeping northward from Central America over the last several months. On September 22, Mexico confirmed a case of NWS in a cow located less than 70 miles from the US border. "We understand the urgency with which America’s farmers and ranchers are asking for tools to fight New World screwworm," FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, MD, MPH, said in a press release. "Today’s conditional approval—first in the U.S. for NWS—shows our dedication to rapidly advancing important animal medicines when they are needed most. We continue to work tirelessly to complete review of other NWS products to protect multiple animal species in the U.S." Carried by the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, NWS fly larvae burrow into the flesh of cattle and other warm-blooded animals, causing severe wounds and death if untreated. The pest was eradicated in the United States in the 1960s. The re-emergence of NWS in Central America began in 2023. Concerned about the threat to the US livestock industry, the US Department of Agriculture in May suspended livestock imports at the US-Mexican border as part of its NWS response, then began a phased reopening in late June. The United States and Mexico have also been monitoring nearly 8,000 fly traps in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico since July.

Page County, Virginia, sees first case of CWD in white-tailed deer -- The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) has reported the first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Page County. The white-tailed doe was reported in July after showing clinical signs of the fatal neurodegenerative disease. "It is currently uncommon to see deer that appear sick as a result of CWD in Virginia," the DWR said in the news release. "Infected animals may not exhibit any symptoms of CWD for 16 months to two years after exposure." Located in northern Virginia, Page County has been included in the state's Disease Management Area 2 for several years because it is close to other known cases of CWD. This detection won't lead to any regulatory changes, the DWR said. DWR Wildlife Veterinarian John Tracey, DVM, said, "Page County has been one of those counties that has been somewhat difficult for us to get samples from. All the counties around it, especially to the north of it have the disease." Virginia first reported a case of CWD in Frederick County in 2009. With the Page County detection, 18 counties in the state are now CWD-positive.CWD, a slow and progressive disease caused by infectious misfolded proteins called prions, affects cervids such as deer, elk, and moose, spreading through cervid-to-cervid contact and environmental contamination. No vaccine or treatment is available. Although no human cases of CWD have been reported, health officials warn against eating the meat of infected animals and urge caution when handling the carcasses.

Georgia adds Lowndes County to CWD zone after deer tests positive within 5 miles of border --The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GDNR) has added Lowndes County to its chronic wasting disease (CWD) management area after a 2.5-year-old buck tested positive 5 miles from a detection in Lanier County, according to media reports. In late September, a landowner reported the deer, which was found about 5 miles south of a January 2025 CWD detection in adjacent Lanier County, Douglas Now reports. The new case is the state's third, after a second deer was found in Berrien County in April 2025 just 400 yards from the first Lanier County case. All three adjoining counties are located in south central Georgia, with Lowndes bordering Florida. The GDNR has added the 5-mile radius around the new case, which also includes parts of Lanier and Berrien counties, to the CWD management plan for enhanced surveillance. The GDNR recommends that hunters have any deer harvested from this area tested for CWD. "When we routinely test otherwise healthy-looking deer from those counties any time, we get a positive test we can work with that landowner to collect some additional deer from that immediate area for testing," GDNR Wildlife Biologist Charlie Killmaster, MS, told WALB News 10. "And that helps us identify the other deer that are most likely to be positive," he added. "In doing that continually over time it has been shown in other states to really limit the growth of the disease in the herd." CWD is a fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by infectious misfolded proteins called prions. It affects cervids such as deer, moose, and elk and spreads from deer to deer and through environmental contamination. While no human cases have been identified, health authorities advise against eating meat from infected or sick animals.

New Study Links Popular Vegetables To Dozens Of Toxic Pesticides - A groundbreaking Environmental Working Group study has established a direct correlation between eating fruits and vegetables with higher pesticide levels and elevated toxic residues in Americans’ urine, exposing millions to dozens of potentially harmful chemicals through their daily produce consumption. The research represents the first time scientists have linked consumption of contaminated produce to actual measurements of pesticides in human bodies. Similar to concerns about toxic chemical testing and exposure in other environmental health studies, this breakthrough allows researchers to trace contamination from plate to bloodstream. ‘We compared the amount of pesticides on fruits and vegetables to actual measurements of pesticides in people,’ said lead study author Alexis Temkin, vice president of science for the Environmental Working Group. The EWG’s 2025 Dirty Dozen list reveals alarming contamination levels across America’s most popular fruits and vegetables. Analysis of over 53,000 USDA samples found that over 90% contained pesticide residues, with researchers detecting 203 different pesticides across the most contaminated produce items. Spinach, strawberries and kale showed the highest contamination levels, with some samples containing more than 50 different pesticides. The 2025 list added potatoes and blackberries as new entries, reflecting evolving agricultural practices and testing methodologies that now account for pesticide toxicity alongside residue levels. These contamination patterns highlight broader challenges facing modern agricultural systems worldwide. Many of the pesticides detected on American produce are already banned in European markets, highlighting regulatory disparities that leave US consumers exposed to chemicals deemed too dangerous for use elsewhere. This regulatory inconsistency reflects deeper issues within food system governance that prioritise industry interests over public health. Pesticide exposure poses particularly severe risks for children and pregnant women, whose developing organs and immature detoxification systems make them uniquely vulnerable to toxic damage. Research from the University of Nebraska Medical Center found that exposure to multiple pesticides increases childhood brain cancer rates by 36% and leukaemia by 23%. The neurological impacts prove equally concerning. Neurotoxic pesticides like organophosphates cross both the placenta and fetal blood-brain barrier, leading to potential developmental impairments including lower IQ scores, attention deficit disorders and learning disabilities. These chemicals can initiate cancer development in utero whilst disrupting normal brain development. Overall pediatric cancer rates increase by 30% with high pesticide exposure, according to the Nebraska study, with brain and central nervous system tumours showing the strongest correlation with agricultural chemical contamination. However, concerns about corporate influence on nutrition research raise questions about whether the full extent of these health risks receives adequate scientific attention.

Study Reveals Mechanisms of Kidney Injury and Cancer from Exposure to Weed Killer Glyphosate -A novel study in Scientific Reports combines computational analyses with toxicological data to identify pathways affected by exposure to the weed killer glyphosate. The analyses identify glyphosate targets that correlate with kidney injury and kidney cancer, revealing pathways with significant glyphosate-induced alterations, including the dysregulation of nitrogen metabolism that leads to ammonia accumulation and oxidative stress, both of which contribute to renal (kidney) damage and carcinogenesis (development ofcancer).“This study provides a comprehensive investigation into the molecular mechanisms by which glyphosate may contribute to kidney injury and kidney cancer, employing an array of bioinformatics tools for target prediction, toxicity assessment, pathway enrichment analysis, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation,” the researchers state. The results of the analyses and simulations highlight the molecular mechanisms underlying glyphosate’s nephrotoxic (damaging to kidneys) and carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effects.Glyphosate, known as a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide, has been used for agricultural and nonagricultural purposes for decades and is the most extensively used herbicide worldwide. This widespread use is largely due to its application to genetically engineered, glyphosate-tolerant crops. Both glyphosate and its main metabolite (breakdown product), aminomethylphosphonic acid(AMPA), are detected in water, soil, and food, which then represent multiple pathways for exposure to nontarget organisms, including humans.There is a wide body of science connecting glyphosate to threats to public health, wildlife, and the environment. Both research and litigation provide evidence of the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate, as well as toxicity to kidneys. Studies show both acute and chronic effects of glyphosate exposure, “triggering oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis [cell death] in renal cells, culminating in structural and functional kidney damage.” (See scientific literature here, here, andhere.) Additional epidemiological research links glyphosate exposure with higher rates of renal diseases, including chronic kidney disease (CKD) and renal cell carcinoma. “Both in vitro [in a test tube or petri dish] and in vivo [in a living organism] studies reveal glyphosate’s capacity to disrupt mitochondrial function, modulate gene expression involved in detoxification, and generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), collectively contributing to renal cell injury,” the researchers point out. (Seehere and here.) They continue, “Given these findings, there is an urgent need to unravel the molecular pathways by which glyphosate may drive kidney injury and cancer progression, especially under conditions of prolonged exposure.”

Outrage mounts as Republicans in Congress move to protect pesticide makers from lawsuits - It’s been seven years since Germany’s Bayer bought US agrochemical giant Monsanto, inheriting not only the company’s vast portfolio of seeds and pesticide products, but also more than 100,000 lawsuits allegingMonsanto’s popular Roundup herbicide causes cancer. Bayer, which has so far paid out billions of dollars in settlements and jury verdicts to cancer victims, has been working – so far in vain – to put an end to the litigation and to block any future such cases.Now Bayer appears closer than ever to success, as many Republican congressional leaders push for measures that would effectively block lawsuits against pesticide makers around the country.A group founded by Bayer called the Modern Ag Alliance is the face of the legislative push, advocating for liability shields they say are necessary to allow companies to continue to sell chemicals that farmers use to kill weeds and bugs in their fields.“Without legislative action, a potential catastrophe is on the horizon that could result in many farmers going out of business and food prices rising even further,” the alliance, which represents more than 100 agricultural organizations, including farmers who grow wheat, corn, soybeans and other key food crops, warns on its website. The alliance has been lobbying for the passage of state laws blocking such lawsuits. They’ve succeeded thus far in two states – Georgia and North Dakota – and continue to lobby for such laws in all 50 states.But the immediate battleground is in the halls of Congress, where a provision tucked into a congressional appropriations bill is outraging consumer advocates, including those affiliated with the influential Make American Healthy Again (Maha) movement. Similar protective language for pesticide makers is expected to be included in the new farm bill as well. “The audacity of elected officials voting for legislation to fully strip our legal rights away when injured by chemicals is stunning,” said Kelly Ryerson, a leading Maha advocate who has been lobbying lawmakers and her 84,000 social media followers to oppose pesticide company protections. “Especially in this age of Maha when an unprecedented number of Americans are rallying against toxins in food and the environment.” Bayer has made it clear that changing laws in its favor is a priority. The company states on its website that without “legislative certainty”, lawsuits over its glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide and other weed killers can affect its research and product development and other “important investments”. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be the ultimate arbiter of product safety and what warnings should be required on product labels, Bayer says. The company also says if the EPA approves a product label, consumers should not be able to sue companies for failing to warn of perceived risks. In a statement to the Guardian, Bayer said federal legislation is “needed to ensure that states and courts do not take a position or action regarding product labels at odds with congressional intent, federal law and established scientific research and federal authority”. Bayer has already removed glyphosate, classified as “probably” carcinogenic to humans by World Health Organization cancer experts, from consumer herbicide products. And the company has threatened to stop selling it to farmers if the litigation is not brought to an end.The company disputes, however, that the appropriations bill will provide that certainty, saying in its statement that the language doesn’t prevent lawsuits and asserting it does is a “distortion of reality”.The relevant section of the House version of the appropriations bill – section 453 – does not mention litigation or pesticide company liability. Section 453 simply says that no funds can be used to “issue or adopt any guidance or any policy, take any regulatory action, or approve any labeling or change to such labeling” inconsistent with the conclusion of an EPA human health assessment.But critics say the language effectively would impede states and local governments from warning about risks of pesticides even in the face of new scientific findings about health harms if such warnings are not consistent with outdated EPA assessments. The EPA itself would not be able to update warnings without finalizing a new assessment, the critics say.Due to the limits on warnings, consumers would find it nearly impossible to sue pesticide makers for failing to warn them of health risks if the EPA assessments do not support such warnings.The language is “by design sneaky and complicated and hard to explain”, said Daniel Hinkle, senior state affairs counsel for the American Association for Justice, who has been lobbying against the action.“Nobody thinks that a giant chemical company should be able to lie about the risks of using their product and get away with it. It’s just making sure that people understand that is what is at stake,” Hinkle said.

Review Toxicological effects of diquat on the central nervous system and associated treatment challenges - Diquat is a highly toxic pyridine-based herbicide, and its central nervous system (CNS) toxicity is a major factor contributing to the high mortality rate and poor neurological outcomes in poisoned patients. Compared with other organ injuries, the complex molecular mechanisms underlying diquat-induced CNS damage and effective neuroprotective strategies remain poorly understood. A systematic search and screening of relevant literature on diquat-induced CNS toxicity were conducted. Based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 21 articles were selected from 424 retrieved records, including 11 experimental and 10 case studies. A systematic review approach was employed to integrate basic research with clinical evidence.
-- Results: The study identified typical clinical manifestations of CNS damage caused by diquat poisoning (e.g., impaired consciousness, convulsions, and brainstem symptoms), along with characteristic imaging findings (e.g., lesions in the basal ganglia and brainstem). The core findings highlight six major mechanisms underlying diquat-induced neural damage: excessive activation of the oxidative stress response; pronounced neuroinflammatory cascade reactions; dysregulated autophagy function; activation of apoptotic signaling pathways; mitochondrial dysfunction; and significant alterations in the neurotransmitter system. These mechanisms are interrelated and collectively lead to neuronal death and functional impairment.
-- Conclusions: Diquat induces severe CNS damage through multiple interrelated molecular mechanisms. Current diagnostic and therapeutic strategies face significant challenges in improving neurological outcomes, particularly due to the lack of specific antidotes and targeted neuroprotective agents. Future research should aim to elucidate the underlying mechanisms in detail, explore novel neuroprotective targets, optimize comprehensive treatment protocols, and develop long-term rehabilitation strategies to reduce neurological impairment and mortality associated with diquat poisoning.

People told to destroy toys sold nationwide due to lead risk: CPSC — Authorities are advising people to destroy a toy distributed nationwide as it contains dangerous levels of lead. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported on Thursday that In Motion Design is recalling 98,350 of its “Evermore Surprise Eggs” made in China as they contain levels of lead that exceed the federal lead content ban. Specifically, the toy airplanes contained within the eggs pose a threat to children, as lead is toxic to them if ingested and can cause health issues. The CPSC reports the recall includes Evermore Surprise Eggs with yellow, pink or green wrap. The eggs are gold and contain seven different toys, including a toy airplane. People are encouraged to stop using these eggs immediately and contact In Motion Design for a refund. The CPSC said people who purchased the eggs should destroy the toy airplanes and send a photo of the destroyed products to support@in-motion-design.com. Customers should throw the toys away in accordance with local and state laws. Shrimp and seafood meals recalled nationwide due to listeria The CPSC reports the recalled eggs were sold at 7-Eleven, Horizon, Speedway and Murphy stores nationwide from March 2025 through to April 2025 for around $10. No injuries or incidents have been reported yet in connection with this recall.

Microplastics reduce soil fertility and boost production of a potent greenhouse gas, study shows -- More than 90% of plastic waste ends up in the soil, where it breaks down into microplastics that are invisible to the naked eye. Microplastic pollution of the soil poses a severe threat to soil health as it can harm essential microbial communities and reduce crop yields. The presence of these tiny plastics may also worsen climate change by boosting the production of greenhouse gases, according to a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology. Most previous research focused on one plastic at a time and their effect on soil function and nutrient cycling, but microplastics do not tend to occur in isolation. However, Yi-Fei Wang and Dong Zhu of the Institute of Urban Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with their colleagues, decided to study the combined effect of various types of plastics on soil and key functions, such as the nitrogen cycle. To quantify the problem, the team ran a microcosm experiment in the lab, using soil samples mixed with six different types of plastic, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). They created four distinct groups with varying levels of plastic, from zero plastics (the control group) to five different types of plastic. After 40 days of incubation, they collected the soil and ran several tests. These included measuring soil properties, such as acidity and key enzyme activities, as well as DNA sequencing to identify bacteria and their associated functional genes. The team's analysis revealed that increasing microplastic diversity leads to significant shifts in soil health. For example, the plastic mixture considerably raised soil pH (making the soil more alkaline) and increased soil carbon content. However, one of the most important findings was that microplastic diversity boosted the activity of bacterial genes responsible for denitrification. This is the process by which bacteria convert plant nutrient material into nitrogen gas, which is then released into the atmosphere. It not only makes the soil less fertile, but also releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is around 300 times more potent in warming the planet than carbon dioxide. The primary cause of this accelerated nitrogen loss was a family of bacteria known as Rhodocyclaceae. "Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the ecological effects of MP contamination on soil health and nutrient cycling," wrote the researchers in their paper. "More importantly, they underscore the need to incorporate MP diversity into soil management strategies to mitigate nitrogen loss and safeguard soil ecosystem services."

Some near BioLab facility say toxic fire’s effects are lingering -A year after a fire at the BioLab facility in Rockdale County released toxic chemicals into the air, residents are still waiting for accountability and dealing with the aftermath. The fire at the BioLab plant left the building in a toxic state, forcing the owner to abandon it permanently. Residents like Chris Lovejoy and Tiffani Howard continue to experience the effects, with Lovejoy losing more than $1 million in equipment and Howard facing increased breathing issues. “All the wheel hubs and stuff. It looks like we’ve been parked in salt water,” said Lovejoy, the CEO of Lovejoy Enterprises. A year later, the results of a chemical-laced plume sit rusting on his property. “We lost 22 vehicles, um, probably well over $1 million worth of equipment,” Lovejoy said. For Lovejoy, the fire one year ago was just the beginning. His disaster relief business dealt with a catastrophe of its own, forcing him to dip into retirement savings to keep his business alive. “We pulled a lot of, a lot, a little miracles out of our backside,” Lovejoy said. He isn’t alone. “Reliving it, knowing what we’re still struggling through, knowing how it’s still impacting me today,” Howard said. She says she remembers how the smoke forced her and 90,000 others to shelter in place. Now she says she feels the effects with every breath. A “I have increased issues with my breathing. I lose my voice now so much,” she said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined BioLab more than $60,000 for a half dozen infractions, and a federal investigation found that at the time of the fire, the building had twice the amount of reactive materials than the company reported to Rockdale for permitting purposes. “Oh, yes. They need to go,” Howard said. For residents, many are waiting on lawsuits and want to see the company out of Rockdale and for them to be made whole. “If they don’t do it one way, then I guess, well, let the lawyers try and, you know, make them do it the right way,” Lovejoy said. Now, BioLab says it’s priority has always been public health and safety, and that it finished the site’s remediation back in May. It will no longer be making products here.

Sunlight worsens wildfire smoke pollution, study finds - Wildfire smoke causes more air pollution than current atmospheric models can predict. A new study by researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences explains why by revealing that, under sunlight, wildfire smoke particles act like tiny chemical factories, producing harmful oxidants such as peroxides, a group of highly reactive pollutants contributing to smog and haze. The paper is published in the journal Science Advances. The new study helps explain why field measurements consistently detect elevated peroxide levels during wildfire events, even in cities, where the normal "gas-phase" chemical routes that create them should be blocked by other pollutants such as nitric oxide, a common gas produced by burning fuel. Professor Chak Chan, study co-author and dean of KAUST's Physical Science and Engineering Division, said the study shows that smoke particles can bypass traditional suppression by nitrogen oxides in polluted environments by generating oxidants internally under sunlight. "This particle-driven pathway is surprisingly efficient—orders of magnitude faster than what classical pathways can supply," he said. The team discovered that colored organic molecules in biomass-burning aerosols act as "photosensitizers." When they absorb sunlight, they enter excited states that trigger rapid chains of reactions, producing peroxy radicals and then peroxides inside the particles. Peroxides are not greenhouse gases, but they do impact atmospheric chemistry in ways that drive haze, secondary particle formation, and respiratory risks. By acting as radical reservoirs, they also influence broader climate and air-quality dynamics. The findings reveal how wildfire smoke can drive the formation of secondary particulate matter, in addition to being a direct source of particulate matter, a major component of urban air pollution. This has significant implications. Wildfires have quadrupled in size in parts of the western United States since the 1980s, while Mediterranean burn areas have more than doubled in the past two decades. As fires occur more frequently and intensely worldwide, their smoke is increasingly emitting reactive particles that sunlight changes into hidden sources of pollution. "This overlooked chemistry means that current air-quality and climate models are underestimating oxidant production from wildfires," Chan said.

Four dead as severe floods trigger hazmat risk in Globe, Arizona – videos - Severe floods affecting Gila County and parts of central Arizona since September 25, 2025, left at least four people dead and created a major hazmat risk in Globe after around 1 000 propane tanks were washed into the downtown area. Multiple historic buildings in Globe sustained structural damage, prompting officials to declare the city center unsafe. . Search and rescue crews have been all over the area all night and into September 27, looking for missing people. The biggest concern right now is about 1 000 propane tanks that were washed downstream, according to Carl Melford, the emergency manager at Gila County Division of Emergency Management. “This has caused a major hazmat issue,” he said. “We’ve called in pretty much as many state resources as we can get.” Three people died after rain inundated Globe, a city of about 7 250 people, about 142 km (88 miles) east of Phoenix, Carl Melford, emergency manager in Gila County, told KPHO. Two people were found in a vehicle and another in the floodwaters, he said. They were not immediately identified by authorities. Another person was found dead on the morning of September 27, near a vehicle caught in floodwaters in suburban Phoenix the night before. The vehicle appeared to be empty after it was spotted partially submerged in about 2.5 m (8 feet) of fast-moving water on Friday evening in a greenbelt park area, the Scottsdale Fire Department said. Crews found the body of a person pinned underneath a walkway bridge after the water dropped a bit overnight. “Historic Downtown Globe is currently unsafe, with compromised buildings as well as hazardous chemicals and debris, including propane tanks,” Globe city officials posted on Facebook. “For your safety, please stay out of the area until further notice.” Multiple historic buildings in downtown Globe were damaged by the raging waters due to flooding since September 25. The exterior wall of the Wild Horses Saloon was ripped off during the storm, leaving shattered glass scattered in the road. Thunderstorms and flash floods had begun affecting the region on September 25 and continued through September 26 into the weekend. On the evening of September 26, a rain gauge at the Globe courthouse recorded 53.1 mm (2.09 inches) of rain in just 25 minutes. The area previously experienced flooding in 2021 after a wildfire, but it didn’t happen like this, Melford said. The city is near canyons that can funnel water from the mountains into the community very quickly. “This was an extremely heavy amount of rain in an extremely short period of time,” he said. Meanwhile, the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport recorded the highest one-day rainfall of 7 years. It recorded 41.7 mm (1.64 inches)of rain through September 26, the highest since October 13, 2018, when 55.6 mm (2.19 inches) of rain fell in the area, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). It was also the city’s fourth-wettest day on record since 2000. The record-setting rainstorm sent mud and debris onto the ramp connecting southbound I-17 to westbound I-10 near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, forcing closure of the interchange. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs declared a State of Emergency on the evening of September 27, to support ongoing rescue operations and help clean up damage across the cities. The Arizona National Guard will also be deployed to assist in the rescue missions. Crews from California and Nevada are coming to Arizona to help with the efforts. Authorities say there is no definitive number of people who may still be missing. Search and rescue operations will be conducted on the ground.

Tropical Storm Imelda forecast to strengthen into a hurricane, Humberto maintains Category 4 strength - Tropical Storm Imelda formed over the Atlantic on September 28, 2025, as Hurricane Humberto peaked at Category 5, and dropped back to Category 4. While neither of the storms is expected to make landfall over the contiguous United States, they could produce hazardous conditions for the southeastern states including Florida, South Carolina, and much of the East Coast this week. Satellite image of Tropical Storm Imelda and Hurricane Humberto as of 08:20 UTC on September 29, 2025. Tropical Depression 9 strengthened into Tropical Storm Imelda on September 28, becoming the 9th named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. At 02:00 EDT (06:00 UTC) on September 29, Imelda was located roughly 209 km (130 miles) northwest of central Bahamas, and 507 km (315 miles) southeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Sustained winds (averaged over 1 minute) reached 72 km/h (45 mph), with higher gusts. The system was moving northward at 13 km/h (8 mph), with a minimum central pressure of 996 hPa. A Tropical Storm Warning has been issued for the central Bahamas (including Cat Island, the Exumas, Long Island, Rum Cay, and San Salvador) and parts of the northwestern Bahamas (including Eleuthera, New Providence, the Abacos, Berry Islands, Andros Island, and Grand Bahama Island). The warning means that tropical storm conditions, like strong winds and heavy rain, are expected in these areas within the next 12 hours. Satellite Loop of Tropical Storm Imelda and Hurricane Humberto. While earlier forecast indicated that the storm could make landfall over the southeastern U.S. the latest track forecast shows Imelda will pass close to the coast, without moving onshore. It will, however, pass close to the eastern coast of Florida, bringing tropical storm conditions to the region on September 29. Imelda is expected to continue moving generally northward, and cross the northwestern Bahamas on September 29. It is then forecast to take a sharp east-northeast turn, as it strengthens into a hurricane on September 30. Some uncertainty exists regarding Imelda forecast track, due to various variables in atmospheric conditions. These include proximity to major Hurricane Humberto – multiple forecast models suggest Imelda could still track close enough to the Southeast coast to bring significant impacts from Florida to North Carolina. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said storm rainfall totals of 51 to 102 mm (2–4 inches), with locally higher amounts of up to 180 mm (7 inches), are expected through Wednesday morning across portions of the coastal Carolinas. That rainfall could result in flash, urban and isolated, minor river flooding. However, the NHC said changes to the forecast track would also change the forecast rainfall totals. Minor coastal flooding is also possible in areas with onshore winds over the southeastern U.S. Areas from the Volusia/Brevard County line in Florida to the South Santee River in South Carolina could see a 30 to 60 cm (1–2 feet) storm surge. Day time satellite image of Tropical Storm Imelda and Hurricane Humberto as of 18:00 UTC on September 28, 2025. A preemptive state of emergency was declared by South Carolina by Governor Henry McMaster on September 26 activating statewide response plans and mobilizing agencies to prepare for significant wind, flooding rain and storm surge across the state. “While the storm’s arrival, speed, and intensity remain hard to predict, we do know that it will bring significant wind, heavy rainfall, and flooding across the entire state of South Carolina. We have seen this before. Now is the time to start paying attention to forecasts, updates, and alerts from official sources and begin making preparations,” added McMaster The City of Charleston declared a local state of emergency September 27, and began distributing sandbags and clearing storm drains, according to a statement. Meanwhile, over the open Atlantic, Hurricane Humberto rapidly intensified into a rare Category 5 hurricane on September 27 while tracking over warm water and a less hostile environment in the central Atlantic. It then weakened to category 4 strength by September 28. As of 02:00 AST (06:00 UTC) on September 29, Humberto was located around 644 km (400 miles) south-southwest of Bermuda, maintaining its Category 4 classification. Maximum sustained winds (averaged over 1 minute) reached 225 km/h (140 mph) with higher gusts. It was moving northwest at 23 km (14 mph), with an estimated minimum central pressure of 928 hPa. Humberto will produce dangerous surf condition for Bermuda and most of the U.S. east coast through the week. These conditions are subject to change, as it is still too early to predict the effects of Imelda’s interactions with Humberto. A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued by the NHC for Bermuda on September 29. Swells generated by Humberto will continue to affect portions of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda through much of this week.

Six homes destroyed by coastal flooding in Buxton, North Carolina - Dangerous coastal flooding from hurricanes Humberto and Imelda collapsed six oceanfront homes in Buxton, North Carolina, on September 30, 2025, with debris forcing beach closures and travel restrictions on NC12. Authorities warn of additional collapses as long-period swells continue. Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda produced dangerous coastal flooding along the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Tuesday, September 30, destroying at least six unoccupied homes in Buxton. According to Cape Hatteras National Seashore, five structures collapsed between 14:00 and 14:45 LT (18:00–18:45 UTC), prompting the closure of the beachfront from northern Buxton through off-road vehicle ramp 43. A sixth home collapsed later in the evening at around 23:00 LT (03:00 UTC, October 1). This residence, located at 46203 Tower Circle Road, was built in 1984 and contained three bedrooms and two and a half baths. The National Park Service will coordinate cleanup operations with owners once conditions allow. The beach in Buxton remains closed due to hazardous debris, and officials warn that additional collapses are possible in Buxton and Rodanthe during Wednesday’s high tide, October 1. Tuesday’s incidents bring the total to seven oceanfront home collapses in Buxton within two weeks. Another residence at 46227 Tower Circle Road, built in 1976, fell on September 16. Since 2020, Hatteras Island has recorded 18 home collapses, including six in Rodanthe during 2024. “For now, travel on NC12 on Hatteras Island should be avoided several hours before and after the upcoming high tides and please give way to the Road Pros as they work to keep NC12 safe,” Dare County Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson said. Ocean overwash forced the North Carolina Department of Transportation to close NC12 at the north end of Ocracoke Island on September 30, immediately after the final ferry from Hatteras. The closure is expected to continue until at least October 2.

Bermuda braces for Hurricane Imelda’s close approach - Bermuda is bracing for hurricane conditions and continued severe weather as Hurricane Imelda makes its way towards the island on October 1, 2025. Imelda and Humberto have claimed at least three lives so far as they continue to produce deadly rip currents and severe weather to Bermuda, the Bahamas, and much of the U.S. East Coast.

• Hurricane Imelda is expected to bring damaging hurricane-force winds when it passes near or over Bermuda late this afternoon or evening. A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the island.
• Large and damaging waves are expected, along with heavy rainfall that could cause flash flooding across Bermuda later today into Thursday.
• Swells and high surf from both Humberto and Imelda are expected to produce dangerous marine conditions and rip currents along much of the East Coast of the United States during the next several days.

At least five homes were destroyed by dangerous coastal flooding in Buxton, North Carolina, on September 30, due to the influence of hurricanes Humberto and Imelda in the Atlantic. The five unoccupied homes on the Outer Banks of Buxton collapsed between 14:00 and 14:45 local time (LT) on September 30, Cape Hatteras National Seashore said on Facebook. The entire beachfront, from northern Buxton through off-road vehicle (ORV) ramp 43, was closed for public safety. Meanwhile, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) closed the NC12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island after the arrival of the last ferry from Hatteras at around 14:15 LT on September 30. Increasing ocean overwash made the highway hazardous for motorists, prompting the closure, which will remain in effect till at least October 2. Satellite loop of Hurricane Imelda and Hurricane Humberto as of October 1, 2025. Humberto has already been affecting much of the U.S. East Coast with dangerous rip currents and surf since the weekend. Rip currents associated with the interactions between Imelda and Humberto have already claimed one life in Florida.Meanwhile, heavy rainfall associated with Imelda killed two people in Cuba before it strengthened into a hurricane on September 30.While the outer bands of Humberto have already been hitting Bermuda with hurricane-force winds and severe weather, local authorities are more concerned about Imelda, which is preparing to follow.Of the two, Imelda is “the storm of greatest concern to us,” said Michael Weeks, Bermuda’s minister of national security. “I cannot overstate the seriousness of this threat,” he said.Imelda is expected to pass close to Bermuda during the afternoon or the evening of October 1. The storm is forecast to bring hurricane-force winds for four to six hours overnight from October 1 into October 2, Weeks said.As of 05:00 EDT (09:00 UTC) on October 1, Imelda was located 732 km (455 miles) west-southwest of Bermuda. Maximum sustained winds (averaged over 1-minute) reached 145 km/h (90 mph).The system had an estimated minimum central pressure of 974 hPa. It was moving east-northeast at 31 km/h (20 mph). Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 97 km (60 miles) from the center. The storm is forecast to speed up as it moves east-northeast over the next couple of days. While some strengthening is expected through October 1 and 2, the storm is forecast to become extratropical later in the week Imelda is forecast to reach Category 2 strength by the time it passes near Bermuda later on October 1.

Ex-hurricane Gabrielle triggers severe flooding in Valencia, Castellón, Tarragona and Ibiza, Spain - videos - Remnants of Hurricane Gabrielle brought extreme rain to eastern Spain on September 29 and 30, 2025, prompting red weather warnings, the suspension of classes for more than 536 000 students, road and rail disruption, and multiple emergency rescues. Satellite image of post-tropical Cyclone Gabrielle at 09:10 UTC on September 27, 2025. Remnants of Hurricane Gabrielle brought heavy rainfall, and widespread flooding in eastern Spain on September 29 and 30, prompting red alerts, school closures affecting more than half a million students, major transport disruption, and multiple emergency rescues. The Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET) issued an aviso especial warning of “very heavy and persistent” precipitation as the extratropical remnants of Gabrielle advected subtropical air into the western Mediterranean. Red alerts were activated in Valencia, Castellón, southern Tarragona and Ibiza (Balearic Islands), with forecast thresholds above 180 mm (7.1 inches) in 12 hours for some sectors. YouTube video In Amposta (Tarragona), the Meteocat automatic station registered 246 mm (9.7 inches) in 24 hours by 08:00 LT on 30 September. Mas de Barberans, also in Tarragona, logged 168.6 mm (6.6 inches) in the same period, while Els Alfacs recorded 155.9 mm (6.1 inches). In Castellón province, 173.8 mm (6.8 inches) of rain was recorded in 24 hours at Eslida. In Aldaia, Valencia province, 57 mm (2.2 inches) fell in just 35 minutes during the night of September 29–30 , causing the La Saleta ravine to overflow. Preliminary AEMET reports indicated daily totals above 200 mm (7.9 inches) in Barx, La Safor. The most intense rainfall and flooding occurred in the Valencian Community, Castellón, southern Tarragona and parts of Aragón. The Generalitat Valenciana activated its emergency coordination centres (CECOPAL) and issued Es-Alert mobile warnings to residents in high-risk municipalities. Fire brigades performed rescues of people trapped in vehicles and homes. Multiple secondary roads including CV-472, CV-395, CV-429, CV-571 and CV-505 were closed. Commuter and regional rail services including Cercanías and Rodalies reported delays or suspensions due to track inundation. hurricane gabrielle nhc forecast track september 24 2025 Hurricane Gabrielle forecast track by NHC on September 24, 2025 YouTube video YouTube video The regional education ministry confirmed that more than 536 000 students across the Comunitat Valenciana were affected by school suspensions. Multiple municipalities closed markets, parks and other public facilities. In Tarragona province, hundreds of customer lost power during the peak rainfall, with crews deployed once conditions permitted inspection. As of 12:00 LT on 30 September, no fatalities were confirmed in connection with the event. Authorities continue to monitor rivers and ravines for secondary rises.

Typhoon Ragasa surges through southeast Asia, killing at least 28 - Typhoon Ragasa, also called Super Typhoon Nando by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), was the most intense tropical cyclone of 2025 to date. At its peak, Ragasa reached sustained wind speeds of 270 km/h (165 mph), classifying it as a Category 5 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Ragasa initially developed in the western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines on September 18, before rapidly intensifying over the following two days. Much of the devastation occurred between September 21 and 23. Over three days, Ragasa brought massive rain, floods and landslides to eastern Taiwan and the northern Philippine Island of Luzon. Huge winds and waves also affected Hong Kong, injuring at least 90 people and compelling hundreds more to seek refuge in emergency temporary shelters. As Ragasa tracked toward China on September 24, it also struck the southern coast of China, resulting in evacuations of at least two million people, before making landfall near the city of Yangjiang. The true death toll is likely to be higher than 28. Deaths and injuries resulted from a number of causes, including drowning, landslides and infrastructure collapses. Beyond the fatalities and injuries, millions of people were impacted by Ragasa. Thousands of people were displaced from their homes, either by direct damage or evacuation orders. Millions of people suffered power outages. Almost 500,000 households in Vietnam experienced power outages, with a similar figure being reported from southern China. In northern Luzon, almost 750,000 households were hit by blackouts. The disastrous impacts from Ragasa are in line with the predictions made by climate scientists about how these weather systems would behave in a warmer world. As reported in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report from 2022, tropical cyclones and typhoons in the Pacific are expected to become more intense under global warming. Historical data from the past half century have shown that in the southeast Asian region, typhoon rainfall levels have become more extreme, resulting in higher flood risks for urban and rural populations. It is highly probable that the meteorological conditions that gave rise to Ragasa were a result of climate change. An initial study published on ClimaMeter concluded that the super typhoon was “an event of exceptional meteorological conditions whose characteristics can mostly be ascribed to human driven climate change.” In the words of the study’s lead author, Davide Faranda, “greenhouse gas emissions do far more than warm the world—they make typhoons wetter, stronger, and more violent.” Tropical cyclones and typhoons like Ragasa require warm waters to form, and the oceans are rapidly warming from climate change. 2024 saw the hottest recorded levels of global ocean temperatures, creating the conditions for more intense cyclones in subtropical regions. The death toll from Typhoon Ragasa was a product not only of meteorological, but social and political factors. This was most sharply expressed in Taiwan, where 16 people were killed from the bursting and overflow of the Matai’an Creek Barrier Lake. This catastrophe, accounting for over half of Ragasa’s fatalities, was entirely preventable if scientific warnings had been heeded. The barrier lake formed in July in the aftermath of landslides that were triggered by earlier typhoons. Rocks and debris formed a dam across the natural lake, blocking water and natural drainage, forming a lake that reached a size of 0.92 square kilometres by mid-September. When the barrier lake was breached on September 22 by heavy rainfall and winds from Ragasa, 60 million tonnes of silt-laden water and debris overflowed into the Guangfu township, which has a population of 12,000. The resulting deluge had comparable force to a tsunami. Many of the 16 people who died were elderly people trapped by water surging into their homes, with water levels reaching as high as the second floors of some houses. The breach also caused a major road bridge to collapse, resulting in vehicles being swept away or submerged, and a critical evacuation route being severed, leaving the affected towns isolated from emergency supplies. Residents in Guangfu said they received little to no warning from authorities. Professor of Geology Chen Wen Shan reported: “Failing to evacuate residents properly is one of the factors why the disaster became so severe.” Even more damning is the total disregard of previous warnings given by scientists about the risk that this barrier lake posed to nearby communities if it were to breach. Hydrologists had warned from the dam’s formation in July that it was unstable and would inevitably overflow, posing serious risks to the downstream towns. Despite these warnings, no serious attempt was made by authorities to mitigate the barrier lake hazard. Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture stated that its focus was on “enhanced monitoring and downstream disaster mitigation,” instead of excavating the dam wall or using siphon pumping to drain out the lake. No explanation has been provided by Taiwan’s government for why appropriate measures were not taken to mitigate the hazard, beyond a vague reference to the “difficulty” of bringing equipment to the remote location. The failure to safeguard affected towns from a preventable disaster is an indictment of the Taiwanese government, but more broadly the capitalist system as a whole. Governments the world over are systematically ignoring the scientific necessity of both reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate risks, and taking basic public safety measures to protect vulnerable people from its impacts. The devastation of Ragasa is another sharp indication that the corporate profit system is fundamentally incompatible with social needs and the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, primarily the working class and poor.

Tornadoes spawned by Typhoon Bualoi kill at least 9 in Kim Son District, Vietnam – videos - A series of tornadoes spawned by Typhoon Bualoi struck Kim Son District in Ninh Binh Province, northern Vietnam, on September 29. The tornadoes killed at least nine people, injured dozens, and destroyed homes, power lines, and sections of sea dikes. Bualoi made landfall earlier the same day in northern Vietnam, leaving at least 11 people dead, 17 missing, forcing the evacuation of more than 28 500 residents, and damaging nearly 1 400 ha (3 460 acres) of crops. Bualoi made landfall between Đồng Hới and Vinh at around 18:00 UTC on September 28, with maximum sustained winds reaching 150 km/h (90 mph). The typhoon produced heavy rainfall and generated waves up to 8 m (26 feet). Nationwide, at least 11 people were killed as of 09:00 UTC on September 29, including 9 in Kim Son, and 17 fishermen remain missing. Nearly 28 500 people were evacuated from low-lying and coastal areas as a precaution, while strong winds and heavy rain damaged over 240 houses and inundated nearly 1 400 ha (3 460 acres) of crops. Reuters reported that in Ninh Binh Province alone, eight people were killed and seven injured by destructive winds while Vietnam News confirmed via local authorities that the fatalities in Kim Son were the result of tornadoes embedded within the storm system.

Nearly two months’ worth of rain in 7 hours causes deadly flash floods in Odessa, Ukraine - videos - A severe rainstorm dropped almost two months’ worth of rain in just seven hours over Odesa, Ukraine, on September 30, 2025, triggering severe flash floods across the city and leaving 9 people dead. At least 9 people, including one child and a family of 5, were reported dead in Odesa, Ukraine, after a severe rainstorm swept through the region on Tuesday, September 30, local authorities reported on October 1. “A horrific situation in Odesa these days – 9 people have died as a result of the natural disaster, including a child,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on October 1. “Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba reported on the situation in the city and on clarifying the circumstances behind a tragedy of this scale. I instructed him to conduct a full review of operations in Odesa and of all the facts that preceded the tragedy and could have led to such grave consequences,” he added. YouTube video A family of five who were trapped in the lower floors of a residential building were later pronounced dead, Maryna Averina, the emergency service’s spokesperson for the Odesa region, told Ukrainian media. Another three women died as they were walking along a road and were swept away, Averina added. Rescuers evacuated people from water traps, pulled out vehicles, pumped water from buildings overnight, and searched for a missing girl, who was found early on the morning of October 1. In total, rescuers saved more than 360 people and evacuated about 227 vehicles overnight. “In just seven hours, almost two months’ worth of rain fell in Odesa,” said Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov. “No stormwater drainage system can withstand such a load.” Based on Odesa’s climatological averages, two months of rainfall would normally equal about 70–90 mm (2.8–3.5 inches). However, automatic weather stations in the city registered between 150 and 200 mm (5.9–7.9 inches) of rain during the event, indicating that actual totals were several times higher than the monthly norm.

Air temperatures over Antarctica have soared 35ºC above average. What does this unusual event mean for Australia? - - Right now, cold air high above Antarctica is up to 35ºC warmer than normal. Normally, strong winds and the lack of sun would keep the temperature at around –55°C. But it's risen sharply to around –20°C. The sudden heating began in early September and is still taking place. Three separate pulses of heat have each pushed temperatures up by 25ºC or more. Temperatures spiked and fell back and spiked again. It looks as if an unusual event known assudden stratospheric warming is taking place—the unexpected warming of the stratosphere, 12 to 40 kilometers above ground. In the middle of an Antarctic winter, this atmospheric layer is normally exceptionally cold, averaging around –80°C. By the end of September it would be roughly –50ºC. This month, atmospheric waves carrying heat from the surface have pushed up into this layer. In the Northern Hemisphere, these events are very common, occurring once every two years. But in the south, sudden large-scale warming was long thought to be extremely rare. My research has shown they are more common than expected, if we group the very strong 2002 event with slightly weaker events such as in 2019 and 2024. Sudden warming may sound ominous. But weather is messy. Many factors play into what happens down where we live. A drier, warmer spring and summer for southeastern Australia usually follow these warming events. But at present, forecasters are predicting warmer than usual temperatures across Australia alongside a wetter spring in the east. What happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica. When a sudden warming event arrives, it can have flow-on effects for the weather. We would usually expect southeastern Australia to be drier and warmer after sudden stratospheric warming above Antarctica.In 2019, sudden warming over Antarctica led to drier conditions in Australia. Research has shown this influenced the megafires over the Black Summer of 2019–2020. These events can create prime conditions for bushfires.The opposite is also true: If the polar stratosphere is even colder than usual, we expect wetter and cooler conditions over southeastern Australia.For instance, over the 2023-24 spring and summer, forecasters predicted a dry spell driven by an El Niño event in the Pacific. But this didn't happen. Instead, the very cold polar stratosphere produced a rather cool and wet summer. There's another effect, too. When the stratosphere is warmer, less ozone is destroyed in the ozone layer and more ozone is carried from the equator towards the poles.That's good for humans, as it means more dangerous ultraviolet rays are blocked from reaching the ground. But changing ozone levels can also contribute to the arrival of unexpected weather systems caused by a warmer stratosphere.

Emergency declared as record heat triggers over 100 bushfires across Queensland, Australia - A bushfire ignited between Enoggera Reservoir and Camp Mountain, north of Brisbane, Queensland, on October 3, 2025, as record heat triggered over 100 fires statewide. An emergency declaration was issued as temperatures soared across the state. Total fire bans are in effect at least 26 local government areas.The Queensland Fire Department (QFD) issued a Watch and Act warning and advised residents it was Not Safe to return. Queensland Police Service declared an emergency on the afternoon of October 3, under the Public Safety Preservation Act, due to the blaze.Over 20 firefighting crews and three water-bombing aircraft were deployed to the site. Bulldozers were used to reinforce containment lines, while aerial operations targeted active fire fronts. Authorities reported no confirmed damage to homes, but smoke and embers were affecting nearby communities.Over 100 active bushfires were reported across Queensland on October 3, as temperatures soared across the state.Nearly 100 people were evacuated from Cape Palmerston National Park, south of Mackay, after a large blaze forced the closure of the park. All campers were accounted for and reported safe. Other fires burned in Central Queensland and southeastern districts, contributing to smoke across several regions.A total fire ban was declared in 26 local government areas, spanning from Central Queensland to the state’s southeast. Authorities said bans will remain in effect while elevated fire danger persists.Extreme temperatures were recorded across the state on October 2 and 3. Townsville recorded 36.4°C (97.5°F) on October 3, its hottest October day since 1958, when temperatures reach 37.1°C (98.78°F). This was also its second-hottest day on record.Meanwhile, Rockhampton reached 39°C (102.2°F), its hottest October day since 2019 earlier on October 2. Biloela also set a new October record, reaching just under 38°C (100.4°F).

India plans mega-dam to counter China water fears - On a football field ringed by misty mountains, the air rang with fiery speeches as tribesmen protested a planned mega-dam—India's latest move in its contest with China over Himalayan water. India says the proposed new structure could counteract rival China's building of a likely record-breaking dam upstream in Tibet by stockpiling water and guarding against releases of weaponized torrents. But for those at one of the possible sites for what would be India's largest dam, the project feels like a death sentence. "We will fight till the end of time," said Tapir Jamoh, a resident of the thatch-hut village of Riew, raising a bow loaded with a poison-tipped arrow in a gesture of defiance against authorities. "We will not let a dam be built." Jamoh's homelands of the Adi people are in the far-flung northeastern corner of India, divided from Tibet and Myanmar by soaring snowy peaks. Proposed blueprints show India considering the site in Arunachal Pradesh for a massive storage reservoir, equal to four million Olympic-size swimming pools, behind a 280-meter (918-foot) high dam. The project comes as China presses ahead with the $167 billion Yaxia project upstream of Riew on the river known in India as the Siang, and in Tibet as the Yarlung Tsangpo. China's plan includes five hydropower stations, that could produce three times more electricity than its vast Three Gorges Dam—the world's largest power station—though other details remain scant. Beijing—which lays claim to Arunachal Pradesh, fiercely rejected by India—says it will have no "negative impact" downstream. "China has never had, and will never have, any intention to use cross-border hydropower projects on rivers to harm the interests of downstream countries or coerce them," Beijing's foreign ministry told AFP. Chinese media reports suggest the project may be more complex than a single giant dam, and could involve diverting water through tunnels. The area around the village of Riew is one of the shortlisted sites for India's response mega-dam, a project that people like Jamoh feel is the more immediate threat to them. For those at one of the possible sites for the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) what would be India's largest dam, the project feels like a death sentence. "If the river is dammed, we also cease to exist," the 69-year-old told AFP, saying that the arrow's tip was dipped in poisonous herbs foraged from the mountains. "Because it is from the Siang that we draw our identity and culture," he added. Despite a thaw between New Delhi and Beijing, the two most populous nations have multiple areas of disputed border manned by tens of thousands of troops, and India has made no secret of its concerns. The river is a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra, and Indian officials fear China could use its dam as a control tap—to create deadly droughts or release a "water bomb" downstream. China rejects that, saying that the "hype surrounding the Yaxia Hydropower Project as a 'water bomb' is groundless and malicious". But Arunachal Pradesh state Chief Minister Pema Khandu said protective action against China's dam is a "national security necessity", and sees India's dam as a safety valve to control the water. "China's aggressive water resource development policy leaves little room for downstream riparian nations to ignore it," said Maharaj K. Pandit, a Himalayan ecology specialist at the National University of Singapore. India's dam could produce 11,200-11,600 megawatts of hydropower, making it the country's most powerful by a huge margin, and helping scale back emissions from its coal-dependent electricity grid. But generating power is not the priority, acknowledged a senior engineer from National Hydropower Corporation (NHPC)—the federal agency contracted to develop the dam. "It is meant for water security and flood mitigation—if China seeks to weaponize their dam and use it like a water bomb," the engineer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Strong earthquake kills 31 people in a central Philippine region hit by deadly storm just days ago - An offshore earthquake of magnitude 6.9 collapsed walls of houses and buildings late Tuesday in a central Philippine province, killing at least 31 people, injuring many others and sending residents scrambling out of homes into darkness as the intense shaking cut off power, officials said. The epicenter of the earthquake, which was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles), was about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province where at least 14 residents died, disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot told The Associated Press by telephone. The death toll in Bogo was expected to rise. Workers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, he said. "It's hard to move in the area because there are hazards," Glenn Ursal, another disaster-mitigation officer told the AP, adding some survivors were brought to a hospital. At least 12 people died when they were hit by falling ceilings and walls of their houses, some while sleeping, in Medellin town near Bogo, Gemma Villamor, who heads the town's disaster-mitigation office, told the AP. In San Remigio town, also near Bogo, five people, consisting of three coast guard personnel, a firefighter and a child, were killed separately by collapsing walls while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game that was disrupted by the quake, the town's vice mayor, Alfie Reynes, told the DZMM radio network. Strong earthquake kills 31 people in a central Philippine region hit by deadly storm just days ago Medical workers load a resident into an ambulance as others stay outside buildings after a strong earthquake struck Cebu city, central Philippines, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez Reynes appealed for food and water, saying San Remigio's water system was damaged by the earthquake. Aside from houses in Bogo, the quake damaged a fire station and concrete and asphalt roads, firefighter Rey Cañete said. A concrete wall in their fire station collapsed, Cañete said. He and fellow firefighters provided first aid to at least three residents, who were injured by falling debris and collapsed walls. Hundreds of terrified residents gathered in the darkness in a grassy field near the fire station and refused to return home hours after the earthquake struck in Bogo. Several business establishments visibly sustained damages and the asphalt and concrete roads where they passed had deep cracks, Cañete said, adding that an old Catholic church in Daanbantayan town near Bogo was also damaged. Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro said the extent of the damage and injuries in Bogo and outlying towns in the northern section of the province would not be known until daytime. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly issued a tsunami warning and advised people to stay away from the coastlines in Cebu and in the nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran due to possible waves of up to 1 meter (3 feet). Teresito Bacolcol, director of the institute, said the tsunami warning was later lifted with no unusual waves being monitored. Cebu and other provinces were still recovering from a tropical storm that battered the central region on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead mostly due to drownings and falling trees, knocking out power in entire cities and towns and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Severe M6.9 earthquake hits Cebu and Leyte, central Philippines, leaving at least 69 dead - A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.9 struck near Palompon, Leyte, Philippines at 13:59 UTC (21:59 LT) on September 30, 2025. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.9 at a depth of 15 km (9.3 miles). At least 69 people were killed, as of 07:00 UTC on October 1. The epicenter was located 12 km (7 miles) ESE of Calape (population 2 832), 17 km (11 miles) SE of Daanbantayan (population 13 439), 18 km (11 miles) NE of Bogo (population 23 562), 19 km (12 miles) E of Medellin (population 11 741), and 97 km (60 miles) NNE of Cebu City (population 964 169), Philippines. 164 000 people are estimated to have felt severe shaking, 436 000 very strong, 3 845 000 strong, and 9 715 000 moderate. Based on all available data, there is no tsunami danger from this earthquake, NWS NTWC reported at 14:10 UTC. The USGS issued a Yellow alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. Some casualties and damage are possible, and the impact should be relatively localized. Past yellow alerts have required a local or regional level response. Estimated economic losses are less than 1% of the Philippines’ GDP. Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are a mix of vulnerable and earthquake-resistant construction. The predominant vulnerable building types are miscellaneous and those with heavy wood frame construction. Recent earthquakes in this area have caused secondary hazards, such as landslides, that may have contributed to losses. Epicenter of M6.9 earthquake in central Philippines at 13:59 UTC on September 29, 2025. Credit: TW/SAM, Google Liquefaction triggered by this earthquake is estimated to be significant in severity and/or spatial extent, according to the USGS. The number of people living near areas that could have produced liquefaction in this earthquake is extensive. Little or no landsliding is expected, but some landslides could have occurred in highly susceptible areas. The number of people living near areas that could have produced landslides in this earthquake is limited.

Asteroid 2025 TF flew just 420 km (260 miles) above Antarctica, second-closest flyby on record - A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2025 TF made an extremely close approach to Earth at 00:49 UTC on October 1, reaching a nominal distance of 0.02 LD (0.00005 AU / 6 790 km / 4 220 miles) from Earth’s center, or about 419 km (260 miles) above the surface over Antarctica. 2025 TF is now ranked as the second-closest asteroid flyby on record, after 2020 VT4, which passed 6 746 km (4 190 miles) from Earth’s center on November 13, 2020. Other exceptionally close encounters include 2024 XA at 7 726 km (4 800 miles), 2024 LH1 at 8 098 km (5 030 miles), 2024 UG9 at 8 850 km (5 500 miles), 2020 QG at 9 317 km (5 790 miles), and 2021 UA1 at 9 427 km (5 860 miles). Since January 1, 2025, observatories worldwide have detected 118 asteroids passing within 1 lunar distance of Earth, including 2025 TF. In September 2025 alone, 25 asteroids passed within 1 lunar distance of Earth. The newly-discovered object was first observed at the Kitt Peak-Bok Observatory in Arizona at 06:36 UTC on October 1, less than six hours after its closest approach. The object belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 1.2 and 2.7 m (4–9 feet). It flew past Earth at a relative speed of 20.9 km/s (75 200 km/h or 46 700 mph).

Region 4232 produces multiple M-class flares with CMEs, unsettled to active geomagnetic field expected - Solar activity reached high levels on September 28, with multiple M-class flares from Region 4232. An impulsive M6.4 flare erupted from Region 4232 at 08:43 UTC on September 28, launching a non-Earth-directed CME. Later that day, the same region also produced a C7.4 flare. Region 4232 generated another CME-producing flare at 01:45 UTC on September 29, an impulsive M3.6 event. The associated CME was observed in SOHO LASCO coronagraph imagery beginning at 02:12 UTC, with trajectory modeling still in progress. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) forecasts solar activity to stay at moderate levels, with about a 55% chance for additional M-class flares through October 1 and a 10% chance for an X-class flare. Energetic particle flux was stable in 24 hours to 12:30 UTC on September 29. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux was at moderate levels, while the greater than 10 MeV proton flux remained at background. Both are forecast to persist at same levels through October 1. Solar wind parameters reflected weak influence from a negative polarity coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS). Total magnetic field strength peaked at 15 nT, with the Bz component turning southward after 20:00 UTC on September 28 and reaching −13 nT. Wind speeds ranged from 375 to 450 km/s, with the interplanetary magnetic field oriented in the negative sector.

G3 - Strong geomagnetic storm on September 30 - Earth’s magnetic field reached G3 – Strong storm levels on September 30, driven by CME impacts and sustained southward IMF. The event was enhanced by seasonal Russell–McPherron geometry near equinox, increasing coupling efficiency. Storm strength has since eased to G2 and G1 as IMF weakened and Bz returned closer to neutral. The geomagnetic storm reached G3 – Strong levels on September 30, after a coronal mass ejection (CME) shock/sheath impacted Earth. According to NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) alerts, the geomagnetic field was most disturbed between 03:00 and 06:00 UTC, when the planetary K-index reached 7. Subsequent alerts reported a decline in activity, with G2 – Moderate during 06:00–09:00 UTC, followed by G1 – Minor storming in the same synoptic period. Real-time solar wind measurements from DSCOVR indicated a total magnetic field (Bt) exceeding 15 nT and sustained southward IMF Bz near –10 nT during the storm’s peak. Solar wind density briefly exceeded 20 particles per cm³, while speeds remained modest at 380–430 km/s, confirming the primary driver was magnetic field orientation and strength within the CME sheath, rather than high wind speeds. The storm was amplified by the seasonal Russell–McPherron effect. Near the equinoxes, Earth’s axial tilt and the geometry of the interplanetary magnetic field increase coupling efficiency, allowing moderate solar wind conditions to drive stronger geomagnetic disturbances. Impacts reported by SWPC for G3 events include possible voltage irregularities in power systems, surface charging on spacecraft, increased drag on low Earth orbit satellites, intermittent HF radio propagation at high latitudes, and aurora visibility as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon. Forecasts indicate active to unsettled geomagnetic conditions through October 2. A trailing weak CME could produce additional disturbances, although confidence in its arrival is low. NOAA forecasts note that coronal hole high-speed streams are expected to become geoeffective around October 3, potentially sustaining minor to moderate activity into late week.

Positive polarity CH HSS sparks G3 - Strong geomagnetic storm - A G3 – A Strong geomagnetic storm is in progress on October 2, 2025, driven by a positive-polarity coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS). The U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued an active warning valid until 12:00 UTC, with aurora sightings possible as far south as Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Oregon. Solar wind speeds remained elevated at 700–800 km/s on October 1, with a maximum of 880 km/s (547 miles/s) at 17:00 UTC. Overnight into October 2, solar wind speeds remained elevated and reached over 900 and up to 1 045 km/s on occasions. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) showed total field strengths of 8–10 nT, with the north–south component (Bz) fluctuating between ±8 nT. Elevated geomagnetic activity began at 08:55 UTC on September 29 and has persisted since, enhanced by Earth’s orientation near the fall equinox. Conditions intensified to G3 – Strong levels on multiple occasions. The latest G3 storming event started at 05:59 UTC on October 2. According to NOAA’s space weather scales, G3 – Strong geomagnetic storms can cause power-system voltage irregularities and false alarms on protection devices. Satellites may experience surface charging, orientation problems, and increased drag in low Earth orbit. High-frequency radio may be intermittent, and GPS navigation can show increased range error or temporary signal loss. Aurora visibility during G3 storming extends significantly equatorward, with reports possible as far south as Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Oregon. SWPC’s current forecast suggests active to G1–G2 levels may persist beyond the warning window, with continued disturbance expected through October 4 as Earth remains connected to the coronal hole.

The Earth is reflecting less and less sunlight, study reveals -The Earth became darker from 2001 to 2024, meaning it reflects less sunlight, a research team reports in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The development is more pronounced in the northern hemisphere than in the southern half of the planet, the study published on Monday revealed. A team led by Norman Loeb from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton in the U.S. state of Virginia discovered this previously unknown inequality between the northern and southern hemispheres after analyzing satellite data. In general, the southern hemisphere gains radiative energy at the top of the atmosphere on average, while there is a net loss in the northern hemisphere, the research group wrote. However, earlier studies indicated that this imbalance is offset by atmospheric and oceanic circulations that transport energy across the equator from the southern to the northern hemisphere.The current study now shows that atmospheric and oceanic circulations have not been able to fully compensate for the differences over the past two decades. With an average energy intake from solar radiation of 240 to 243 watts per square meter, a divergence of 0.34 watts per square meter per decade is not very much. Nevertheless, the value is statistically significant, the team wrote. The differing developments in the northern and southern hemispheres are attributed to changes in water vapor and clouds in the atmosphere, as well as changes in the albedo, the reflectivity of surfaces, at the Earth's surface. For example, ice and snow reflect more solar radiation than rock or water. According to the study, the decrease in sea ice concentration and snow cover in the northern hemisphere has contributed to the darkening. In addition to these factors, the interaction between radiation and aerosols—tiny suspended particles—makes the largest contribution to the difference.These particles act as condensation nuclei for cloud formation, which in turn promotes the reflection of solar radiation.The researchers explained the observed trend by stating that in the northern hemisphere, fine particulate pollution has significantly decreased due to environmental protection measures, such as in Europe, the United States and China.In contrast, in the southern hemisphere, bushfires in Australia and the eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in the southern Pacific in 2021 and 2022 have led to a larger amount of aerosols. Scientists had previously assumed that differences in darkening between the two hemispheres would also be compensated by changes in cloud cover. However, the study suggests that the role of clouds in maintaining hemispheric symmetry might be limited. Understanding these relationships is also important for improving climate models, the researchers emphasized.

DOE climate report could create problems for EPA - Science played only a bit part in EPA’s July proposal to scrap the scientific basis for most of its climate rules. In the final version, it may barely make an appearance.The draft rule to undo the endangerment finding leaned heavily on a new legal reading of the Clean Air Act asserting that EPA has no authority to regulate greenhouse gases for their effect on climate change. But EPA also floated an “alternative” rationale — one focused on science and drawn almost exclusively from a Department of Energy report that downplayed the risks and severity of climate change.That report is now in limbo after DOE disbanded the so-called Climate Working Group that wrote it. The agency has come under fire — and a lawsuit — for the process that led to the establishment of the working group, which was staffed with five climate contrarians hand-picked by Energy Secretary Chris Wright.The legal uncertainty — and last week’s report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine calling climate change “beyond scientific dispute” — may be enough to convince EPA to drop its scientific argument altogether, some experts said. EPA gains little and risks much by wading into the choppy waters of climate science in its bid to overturn the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases harm human health.“I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t play much of a role at all in the final rule,” said Jody Freeman, director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School. “That would be smart. If they’re not smart and they leave it in there, they’re just inviting a court to say, ‘You ignored the overwhelming science, and under arbitrary and capricious review, you can’t.’”

DOE adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list - The Department of Energy has added “climate change,” “green” and “decarbonization” to its growing “list of words to avoid” at its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, according to an email issued Friday and obtained by POLITICO.The words on the DOE list are at the heart of EERE’s mission: It is the government’s largest investor in technologies that help reduce heat-trapping emissions that cause climate change as well as the hazardous pollution from fossil fuels. It is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to dispute, silence or downplay the realities of climate change.“Please ensure that every member of your team is aware that this is the latest list of words to avoid — and continue to be conscientious about avoiding any terminology that you know to be misaligned with the Administration’s perspectives and priorities,” the directive from acting director of external affairs Rachel Overbey said.Those instructions apply to both public-facing and internal communications and cover documents such as requests for information for federal funding opportunities, reports and briefings.

FERC to sunset 53 regulations under Trump executive order - --The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is moving to repeal 53 regulations in response to an April executive order from President Donald Trump. The agency’s new order will become effective 45 days after publication in the Federal Register “unless significant adverse comments are received.” Once finalized, the 53 regulations will sunset in one year, unless the commission votes to extend them. “Today’s steps are a common-sense commitment to a fast and fair regulatory process,” FERC Chair David Rosner said in a release. “Periodically reviewing, updating, and streamlining the Commission’s regulations helps ensure that they continue to align with our statutory mandates and are focused on high-value activities that strengthen our nation’s energy system.” Trump’s April order directed several agencies to establish sunset dates of between one and five years for rules on energy production, at which times the rules would be repealed unless re-approved. The energy industry has voiced concern that culling rules could confuse the process for building power lines and pipelines, while legal experts have warned it could run afoul of the law.

Carbon Capture Technology Struggles With High Costs, Slowing Climate Goals - A leading developer of technology to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere has revealed that its cost reductions are progressing more slowly than expected, casting uncertainty over the role of direct air capture (DAC) in combating climate change. DAC, which uses large fans to extract CO₂ from the air, is seen by some governments and technology firms as essential for achieving net-zero emissions targets. However, Climeworks, the Swiss start-up behind the world’s largest DAC facility, said it remains far from the cost-cutting milestones it had anticipated two years ago. In 2019, Climeworks projected that it could reduce its capture costs from $600 per tonne to around $100 per tonne within four years. The company now expects costs to fall to $250-$350 per tonne by 2030, reaching $100 per tonne only by 2050, according to figures shared with the Financial Times. The firm, which is reducing its workforce by 20%, has faced rising expenses, while policy uncertainty—exacerbated by US federal climate funding risks—has threatened the viability of carbon offset markets critical to financing such projects. Bloomberg NEF analysis shows the average industry cost is even higher, currently $900 per tonne, potentially falling to $487 per tonne by 2030. The International Energy Agency estimates that by 2050, up to 1.2 billion tonnes of CO₂ may need to be removed annually, compared with roughly 100,000 tonnes of current global DAC output across 40 facilities. While DAC can extract existing CO₂ rather than just emissions at the source, it remains energy-intensive and costly, leading some environmentalists to argue it diverts attention from emission reduction efforts. “It’s all about getting the cost down to a level where it is competitive,” said Morten Halleraker, senior vice president at Norway’s energy company Equinor, which is developing DAC technology purchased from Rolls-Royce. Climeworks CEO Christoph Gebald remains optimistic despite sector-wide challenges, including job cuts at San Francisco-based DAC start-up Heirloom amid doubts about $1.8 billion in US government funding. Climeworks raised $162 million in its most recent funding round in July and expects material and process improvements to halve its energy usage to 1.5 megawatt-hours per tonne of CO₂ captured. Last year, Climeworks inaugurated Mammoth, the world’s largest DAC and storage plant in Iceland, with an annual capacity of 36,000 tonnes. In its first 13 months, the plant removed 873 tonnes of CO₂, equating to net removals of 205 tonnes after accounting for lifecycle emissions. “We are continuously driving tech innovation,” Gebald said, describing current consolidation as a natural step following a period of rapid growth. Investment in the sector has slowed, with $1 billion raised in 2024, down from $1.3 billion in 2023. In the first quarter of 2025, investors committed just $11.2 million, compared to $52 million the previous year. “We need to allocate more capital to everything [in decarbonisation],” said Nick Stansbury, head of climate solutions at Legal & General Investment Management. Current DAC costs remain well above prices of carbon credits in regulated markets and US tax credits. Including underground storage, Climeworks’ total removal costs are projected at $400-$600 per tonne by 2030, and $100-$250 per tonne by 2050. Companies often rely on voluntary carbon credit sales to fund operations, though DAC credits are generally more expensive than alternatives such as reforestation.

How the shutdown is roiling climate programs at 6 agencies - The government shutdown has sent uneven shock waves through Washington. Many climate-related operations have been frozen, leaving offices in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, empty of staffers. Others, such as EPA, continue to work — at least for now — on priorities outlined by President Donald Trump, like his campaign to roll back climate regulations. Here is how the shutdown is affecting federal climate activities. The Interior Department will furlough about half of its 58,600 employees but will continue permitting fossil fuel projects during the shutdown. The decision aligns with the “energy emergency” that Trump declared on his first day in office.Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees onshore energy permitting, will retain more than half of its 9,250 employees during the shutdown. Many of those people work in public safety roles, like border patrol or law enforcement. BLM energy staff will also stay on the job to process fossil fuel permits with money generated by permit fees, according to a copy of BLM’s shutdown plan.The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, however, will furlough more than 70 percent of its staff. BOEM, which oversees offshore energy development, “will cease all renewable energy activities,” but employees focused on upcoming oil and gas lease sales will continue to work, according to a copy of the bureau’s plan. Environmental experts are among the two-thirds of all staff members who have been furloughed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That includes everyone in the National Asthma Control Program and all civil servants in the Climate and Health Program, where just one officer from the Public Health Service will continue working.The furloughs come during a tumultuous year for the agency’s environmental programs. In April, the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses CDC, attempted to dissolve its entire environmental health division by sending reduction-in-force notices to all staff at the National Center for Environmental Health. Employees were on administrative leave for two months before HHS did an about-face and brought back many of those civil servants, even as the Trump administration proposed zeroing out some of CDC’s environmental programs, including its climate office. The department’s contingency staffing plan for the shutdown notes that occupational health programs at CDC, like the World Trade Center Health Program, will continue during the closure. EPA staff has not been furloughed yet — but they still might be. When EPA runs out of money it is likely to furlough all but about 10 percent of agency staff. A shutdown plan released Tuesday showed that only 1,734 employees would work through the funding lapse. That includes 828 people who are “exempt” because their positions aren’t dependent on annual appropriations and 906 staff whose work meets immediate statutory requirements or protects public safety — like EPA’s disaster response teams. The National Weather Service plans to keep issuing forecasts and warnings during the shutdown, and as of Wednesday, the agency’s social media accounts were still posting weather-related information. NWS is part of NOAA. It looks as like Hurricane Imelda is no longer a threat to the United States, but extreme weather has struck before during a government shutdown. NWS employees worked through the shutdown and issued flood warnings as the storm approached. Roughly 10,500 people are employed by the agency, and about half of them are exempt from furloughs, according to a Commerce Department shutdown plan. That’s because they are funded by other resources, legally required to continue working or otherwise deemed necessary for essential operations. Fisheries monitoring and surveying activities have been suspended, according to a notice from the Department of Commerce, NOAA’s parent agency. Much of NOAA’s research will be curtailed too — though there will be some exceptions for efforts such as ocean observations necessary for weather forecasts and tsunami warnings. NOAA’s network of agency-funded cooperative institutes — consisting of 16 science consortiums partnered with dozens of universities across the country — will continue to operate. But some may experience difficulties carrying out their regular research after losing access to NOAA-operated facilities and federal partners that they collaborate with on their projects. Disaster operations at the Federal Emergency Management Agency are continuing uninterrupted. Roughly 85 percent of FEMA’s 25,000 employees are considered essential, according to a government memo posted Sept. 27. On Wednesday morning, hours after the shutdown began, FEMA had 11,800 disaster workers at 16 field offices spread across the U.S. The agency is continuing to process aid applications from individuals in counties where disasters have been declared in the past 60 days. FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, which provides the vast majority of flood coverage in the U.S., stopped selling and renewing policies at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. The halt, which is not directly tied to the shutdown, stems from the expiration of NFIP’s congressional authorization Tuesday. Stopping policy renewals could affect tens of thousands of households. The NFIP, which has 4.6 million policies, sees nearly 13,000 policies expire each day, assuming a steady departure rate, according to an E&E News analysis of FEMA data. The National Association of Realtors says the shutdown could interrupt property sales, particularly in flood-prone areas. It’s uncertain what happens to policyholders whose property is flooded after their coverage has expired. Employees at the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs will be furloughed and their activities halted, according to department guidance. So will staffers at the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, which handles energy and minerals diplomacy. That means the U.S. might not be represented when international bodies consider big environmental issues this fall, depending on how long the shutdown drags on. That would be “a big loss,” said Kate Guy, a former senior climate official at the State Department. The U.S. is not expected to send a delegation to the COP30 climate talks in Brazil next month, in part because the offices at State that typically participate in those negotiations are now shuttered. There is also a host of other meetings for which U.S. participation is thrust into limbo by the shutdown. The International Maritime Organization will host a meeting of its Marine Environment Protection Committee in two weeks, and the United Nations Environment Assembly meets in December. At the IMO, countries are expected to adopt a new set of regulations aimed at cutting climate pollution, including a tax on maritime carbon emissions. Trump administration officials have threatened countries with tariffs if they support that climate provision.

Government shutdown reduces EPA to skeleton crew - About 89 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) workforce was slated to be furloughed as the government shuts down, according to contingency plans that were posted online this week. According to the plan, just 1,734 of the EPA’s 15,166 employees are slated to continue working during the shutdown, which began Wednesday.The plan also gives a window into the degree of staffing losses at the EPA in recent months, as the agency had 17,080 employees at the start of the year. During the furlough period, the agency will no longer carry out most civil inspections related to potential violations of environmental law. It will also no longer conduct most of its research or issue new permits or grants. Some hazardous waste cleanup will be halted if there is no imminent threat to human health and property.The EPA will still continue emergency and disaster assistance, hazardous waste cleanup where there is an “imminent threat to human life” and criminal investigations.The Trump administration’s plan is similar to the most recent contingency plan issued by the Biden administration in September 2024. Under that plan, 1,734 employees out of 16,851 would have been expected to continue working.

Department of Energy Cancels Another $7.6 Billion in Energy Project Funding - - The U.S. Department of Energy has canceled $7.6 billion in funding for previously approved energy projects on the grounds that they would not produce any palpable benefits for Americans. The canceled projects are 223 in total, approved by various agencies from the Department of Energy during the previous administration. Per this one, however, “these projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.” “On day one, the Energy Department began the critical task of reviewing billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. The Department of Energy reported that 26% of all the projects canceled were awarded between Election Day, in November 2024, and Inauguration Day, in January this year. “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellations deliver on that commitment. Rest assured, the Energy Department will continue reviewing awards to ensure that every dollar works for the American people,” Wright added. This is not the first project cancellation since the new administration took over. Earlier this year, the DoE canceled another 24 energy projects worth over $3.7 billion in government funding. The list, by the way, included a project proposed by Exxon for the production of low-carbon hydrogen at a petrochemicals facility. Meanwhile, the government shutdown that began yesterday has paused approvals for new wind and solar projects, although oil and gas leases are still on schedule, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The agency said it would use carryover funds to maintain work on “priority conventional energy projects,” including offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, even as more than 70% of its staff are furloughed.

Shutdown hardens Interior offshore plan promoting fossil energy - Interior Department offices that oversee federal waters have developed shutdown plans that largely halt renewable work while prioritizing oil and gas projects. The plans reinforce the Trump administration’s shift away from wind energy and low-carbon technologies in favor of fossil fuels. At the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which manages federal offshore energy leasing, employees can continue to work on “priority conventional energy projects,” according to contingency plans. That includes planning an upcoming oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico — which President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of America — as well as work related to future oil and gas lease sales and a 2026 critical mineral lease sale. “The performance of the above functions will be on an as-needed basis, only to perform work related to time-sensitive projects,” BOEM says in the plan, noting that the work would be funded with leftover money from its budget.

Biden’s $7,500 discount for EVs is gone. Will the industry wither? --- Starting Wednesday, U.S. consumers can no longer use a $7,500 tax credit from the federal government to help buy an electric vehicle. The Biden-era incentive is now gone — swept away in the Trump administration’s purge of climate and clean energy programs. While it lasted, the tax credit juiced domestic EV sales. Before the incentive took effect at the end of 2022, EVs accounted for 6 percent of new U.S. car sales. Now the figure is closer to 10 percent, aided in part by a last-minute rush of buyers trying to take advantage of the funding before it disappeared. Advertisement Analysts expect EV sales to decline dramatically in October now that the tax credit and other pro-EV policies are gone. How far sales drop — both this month and in the years ahead — will speak volumes about whether former President Joe Biden did enough to prime the U.S. electric vehicle industry to stand on its own. “We are going to get, in this Trump administration, a test of whether this technology — EVs and the infrastructure to go with it — really has a momentum of its own,” said Barry Rabe, a professor of environmental policy at the University of Michigan. The tax credit had been around in one form or another for more than a decade when Biden took office. Congress extended it to $7,500 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and also restricted it to U.S.-made vehicles assembled from U.S.-made batteries. But it was only one piece of Biden’s broader push to grow America’s EV industry. The Inflation Reduction Act also created tax credits for leasing EVs and buying used models. Those tax credits essentially became a discount on each vehicle’s sticker price, since the customers and dealers could apply them at the point of sale. Other tax credits, loans and direct financial support funneled billions of dollars to help carmakers build mines and factories for the new industry. Separately, Biden set a goal of building 500,000 EV chargers nationwide. To aid that effort, Congress established a $5 billion federal program to create a national network of high-speed EV chargers. EPA and the Transportation Department also passed strict regulations on tailpipe pollution during the Biden years that were intended to push carmakers to build EVs. And the administration supported even stricter rules in California and other states that would have phased out most gas-powered cars by the mid-2030s. It was an across-the-board strategy designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector and give America’s EV industry a chance to compete internationally. Yet despite the efforts, many analysts say the country never got to see the law’s full impact. Many aspects of the law took months or longer to put into place, and the overarching goal of Biden’s EV efforts — to get more U.S. drivers into electric cars — requires more than one presidential term to execute, as carmakers need years to design new cars, build new factories and convince consumers to buy EVs, observers said. “You saw a lot of manufacturers announce that they were building EV facilities and battery manufacturing sites in the US., and those only really started to get finalized over the last year,”

U.S. Chemical Safety Board releases preliminary findings on Clairton plant explosion -More than a month after the deadly U.S. Steel Clairton plant explosion, investigators are revealing new insight into how it happened.According to preliminary findings from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a gas isolation cast-iron valve was the source of the deadly tragedy."The normal phase of the valve is, and they were going to close the valve and then reopen it." Bill Steiner, from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, said. "The exercising of the valve that day was an activity in preparation for a scheduled job the following week."Investigators say employees were working to close and reopen a gas isolation valve in the basement of the battery transfer area.When they tried to flush the valve seat with water, gas monitors began alarming. Evacuations were ordered, and less than a minute later, the explosion occurred."We are looking at several characteristics of the operation, the age of the valve being one of them. The value has been identified as a component of evidence that will be subject to testing," explained Stephen Klejst, also from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.The board says the valve body had split open and that the valve was manufactured more than 70 years ago. It had been refurbished in 2013.The next step in the investigation is to access the internal components of the valve."There are components in the industry that are aging, and we want to understand whether or not that had a contribution to them," said Klejst.

EIA Forecast Oil Price Falls Gas Price Rises Renewables Surge -The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, projecting notable shifts in global energy markets through 2026. The independent report highlights declining oil and gasoline prices amid oversupply, rising natural gas costs, and robust growth in electricity demand—driven largely by renewables. The EIA forecasts a significant drop in global oil prices over the coming months, citing rising stockpiles as a primary driver. Brent crude, a key benchmark, averaged $68 per barrel in August 2025. Prices are projected to fall to around $59 per barrel in the final quarter of 2025 and hover near $50 per barrel in early 2026. The agency predicts an annual average of $68 for 2025, dropping to $51 in 2026. The decline is attributed to production outpacing demand. OPEC+ nations, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, plan output increases, adding to supply from non-OPEC producers such as the U.S., Brazil, Canada, and Guyana. Global oil inventories are expected to rise by 1.7 million barrels per day in 2025 and 1.6 million in 2026, with some oil potentially stored offshore—further weighing on prices. Global oil demand is projected to grow slowly, by 0.9 million barrels per day in 2025 and 1.3 million in 2026, mainly driven by Asia. However, geopolitical tensions, including the situation in Ukraine and trade disputes, could alter this outlook. U.S. crude production is forecast to peak at 13.4 million barrels per day in 2025, declining slightly to 13.3 million in 2026 as lower prices limit drilling activity. Lower oil prices are expected to ease costs at the pump. The average U.S. retail price for regular gasoline is projected to decline from $3.30 per gallon in 2024 to $3.10 in 2025 and $2.90 in 2026—the lowest annual average since before the pandemic, excluding the West Coast. As a share of disposable income, gasoline spending is forecast to drop below 2%, down from roughly 2.4% over the past decade, leaving more room for household expenses like groceries and leisure. Gasoline consumption is expected to rise slightly by 0.3% in 2026, reflecting updated Census data showing a larger working-age population and the incentive of lower fuel costs. Unlike oil, natural gas prices are set to rise. The Henry Hub benchmark averaged $2.91 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in August 2025, lower than expected due to high production and reduced power-generation use. Prices are forecast to reach $3.70/MMBtu in late 2025, averaging $3.50 for the year, and climb to $4.30 in 2026. Rising costs are linked to steady U.S. production and growing demand, particularly from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. U.S. LNG shipments are projected to increase from 12 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2024 to 16 Bcf/d in 2026, supported by new facilities including Plaquemines Phase 2 and Corpus Christi Stage 3. Total U.S. natural gas consumption is expected to reach 91.4 Bcf/d in 2026, with the power sector remaining the largest consumer at 40%. Electricity consumption is accelerating, driven by data centers, industrial activity, and general usage. The EIA projects a 2.3% increase in 2025 and 3.0% in 2026, higher than previous estimates. Solar power will account for most of this growth, increasing renewables’ share of U.S. electricity from 23% in 2024 to 26% in 2026, while wind and hydropower contribute modestly. Natural gas remains the top source at 40%, though generation may fall 3% in 2025 due to higher prices. Coal sees a temporary 9% increase in 2025 before declining, while nuclear stays steady at 18–19%, supported by the restart of Michigan’s Palisades plant. The U.S. economy is forecast to expand 1.7% in 2025 and 2.4% in 2026, slightly higher than previous predictions. CO2 emissions from energy use are expected to rise 1.5% in 2025 due to increased coal burning, then fall 0.5% in 2026. Overall emissions are projected to remain flat compared to 2024. The EIA cautions that uncertainties—including OPEC+ policy decisions, weather events, and geopolitical tensions—could influence market dynamics. The outlook was finalized before OPEC+’s September 7 announcement of a minor production increase in October 2025, which may further affect prices. The report underscores a shifting energy landscape: consumers can anticipate cheaper fuels, while producers face challenges amid rising supply, evolving demand, and the growing influence of renewable energy.

Hungry, Hungry Data Center Efficiencies Easing Strain, but Complex Models Gobbling More Capacity -Data centers, once considered a niche element of the digital economy, are fast becoming a central driver of global electricity demand — and natural gas could be critical in keeping them powered.
Alt-Text: Bar chart showing U.S. data center load growth from 2018 to 2027 in gigawatts (GW). Operating capacity rises steadily from 11.0 GW in 2018 to 36.6 GW in 2026, while capacity additions and projects under construction drive total load to 57.0 GW by 2027. Capacity additions (green bars) peak in 2022 and 2023, and under-construction projects (yellow bars) surge in 2026–2027. Data sourced from Yes Energy LLC. At A Glance:
AI boom reshapes electricity consumption patterns
Behind-the-meter gas turbines gain traction
NRG, LandBridge eye Permian data hub

AEP Ohio slashes data center pipeline by more than half - report - US utility American Electric Power (AEP) Ohio has cut its data center demand by half. According to a report from Biz Journal, the utility has recently updated its pipeline of interconnection requests, with demand reportedly falling from more than 30GW of requests to 13GW.In the September filing, AEP Ohio said that it had received requests to formally study 36 data center sites, with 32 located in Central Ohio, for a total of 9.8GW.Responding to the news, an AEP Ohio spokesperson told DCD that the study showed “that the data center tariff is working.""The tariff, through those financial commitments, ensures that data center operators are financially incentivized to accurately estimate their electricity needs. Those financial commitments also protect AEP Ohio’s customers from shouldering the costs of infrastructure investments required to meet growing demand from data centers," read the statement.In July, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved a settlement that required data centers to pay for a portion of their energy requests, even if the electricity is not ultimately needed.The settlement agreement was initially proposed last October. It requires new data center customers to pay for a minimum of 85 percent of the energy they say they need each month, even if they use less, to cover the cost of the infrastructure required to bring electricity to those facilities.For example, if a data center required 1GW of power, it would be charged for at least 850MW, even if it doesn’t end up using it. The requirements are expected to be in place for 12 years, and according to AEP Ohio, they will permit the utility to end the moratorium on new central Ohio data center agreements.The fall in requests prompted the Ohio Manufacturers Association to call AEP Ohio’s initial numbers “inflated.”The OMA subsequently filed a motion with PUCO to open an investigation. "The OMA has reason to believe load forecasts are inflated, causing customers to pay more without offsetting benefits," the group said in a statement.AEP acknowledged this inflation, arguing that through the tariff, the utility was able to remove "the most speculative or uncertain data center projects" that " did not submit load study requests."The utility went on to state that the " number may reduce further — and become more accurate — as AEP Ohio continues the data center tariff process by presenting binding contracts for data centers to sign."An AEP Ohio spokesperson went on to state that the utility had been "very clear in the data center tariff case" that many projects in the queue "could be duplicative or speculative."AEP Ohio’s parent company, American Electric Power, reported in July that it had a pipeline of 18GW of incremental data center load growth through 2029, backed by signed customer agreements. It's unclear whether the revisions in Ohio have impacted this projection. DCD has contacted the utility for further information.

Delaware eyes limits on data centers as megaproject looms - New limits on data centers are under consideration in Delaware as the boom in energy-hungry facilities reaches the First State. Businesses that draw more than 30 megawatts of electricity would need approval from the Public Service Commission under a recently introduced bill, SB 205. The Democratic chairs of the House’s and Senate’s energy committees are among its sponsors. Delaware currently has few data centers, though a mega-development called Project Washington has been proposed near the Delaware City Refinery. Project Washington is expected to use as much as 1.2 gigawatts of electricity per hour — twice as much as every home in the state, according to Spotlight Delaware. Advertisement Democratic Rep. Frank Burns, a sponsor of the bill, said Project Washington has jolted lawmakers into recognizing how few regulatory tools the state has to ensure data centers don’t skew the state’s economy.

Data Center Developers Still Eager to Call Virginia Home -More than 70 new data centers are under development in Virginia, which is already the world’s leading hub for the massive, high-tech facilities. But given the rapid pace of the buildout and the challenges that come with it, it’s probably no surprise that not everyone in the Old Dominion State is as enthusiastic about data centers as they once were. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at some of the biggest data centers in the works and discuss their path forward. This is our latest piece in a series discussing how some of the most popular states for data centers are faring. As we mentioned in God Blessed Texas, the Lone Star State, with more than 350 data centers, is one of the nation’s leaders, with only Virginia edging it out in both the number of facilities and associated power demand. Texas’s neighbor to the east, Louisiana, was initially slow in attracting developers but now has two hyperscale projects being built, including a $10 billion site being constructed by Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) that is expected to eventually consume as much power as the entire city of San Diego and cover 2,250 acres, about one-seventh the size of Manhattan. As we noted in Louisiana Saturday Night, state lawmakers changed laws to establish incentives for data centers and also used federal grant money to ramp up its fiber-optic network.That brings us to Virginia, which is at the opposite end of the extreme from Louisiana. The state was the pioneer for data centers and has been home to them since the 1990s — long before most people even knew what a data center was. As we discussed in Part 1, Virginia has more than 550 data centers, with some estimates at well over 600. But how many of these new data center proposals will see the light of day? That’s difficult to say, as many local communities have tightened the rules and regulations around data centers and, in some cases, rejected proposals in recent months. Today’s blog will focus on a select group of data centers that will need at least 300 megawatts (MW) of power and have taken concrete steps forward, such as acquiring land and seeking permits. While many other projects are being debated, the list below totals about 3.4 GW of potential power demand and highlights projects with some approvals and progress, although most still face some hurdles, especially in communities concerned about electricity prices, environmental issues (including the heavy water use by data centers for cooling) and overall community impact.

• PowerHouse 95 is planned as an 800-MW data center campus in Spotsylvania County (middle-left of Figure 1 above). The company acquired 145 acres in early 2024 and broke ground that July. Plans call for up to eight two- to three-story buildings totaling about 3.5 million square feet supported by three 300-MW substations that are expected to be connected to the power grid. Construction of the first substation and site work are underway, with 150 MW of initial capacity expected to be online by October, although no confirmation has been provided. The remaining substations and campus capacity will follow as the project builds out. PowerHouse intends to use a closed-loop, air-cooled design to reduce water use. (As we noted in Part 1, a closed-loop cooling system uses recycled water and can reduce freshwater use by up to 70%.)
• CleanArc VA-1 is a 650-acre data center campus in Caroline County (middle-right of Figure 1). Plans call for the project to start with 200 MW of capacity by the end of 2026, add another 300 MW by 2027, and eventually top 600 MW. Construction has not begun, but the project is moving forward despite water and environmental concerns. Power will come from a new substation developed with the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative and will be connected to the power grid. The Caroline County Board of Supervisors approved the development agreement in August.
• EdgeCore purchased 120 acres in the Culpeper Technology Zone in Culpepper County (upper-left of Figure 1) in July 2024. Set up for an initial 216 MW of capacity, the development will be scalable to 432 MW. Specific zoning approvals aren’t detailed. Culpeper County recently enacted stricter zoning regulations requiring conditional-use permits for new data centers outside the Tech Zone, but those do not impact EdgeCore’s plans. Power is slated to come from a new substation with the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, which will be connected to the power grid, although we are not aware if construction has begun. There are no press releases confirming construction for the data center. The first phase is likely to be completed by early 2028. EdgeCore is expected to use a closed-loop, air-cooled design to limit water usage.
• Yondr Group purchased 270 acres in Loudoun and Prince William counties (upper-middle of Figure 1) for two separate data centers. In Loudoun County, the company completed its first 48-MW building in November 2024. The groundbreaking for a 48-MW facility took place in 2024, and there are plans to expand the site to a total of 336 MW in future phases. Details about the site’s power supply haven’t been publicly disclosed, but we are aware that Dominion Energy has been actively working to enhance the power grid by building new substations in the area. Yondr has stated its facilities use a closed-loop cooling system to reduce water usage. There are fewer details available for the Prince William County data center and it is in the planning and entitlement stages.
• AVAIO Digital has signed an agreement to purchase and develop a 452-acre site in Appomattox County (lower-left of Figure 1), just north of the town of Appomattox, for a reported 300-MW data center. AVAIO plans a $3 billion investment positioned on major fiber-optic routes. The site has been zoned for data centers and has been described as cleared for construction, although as of September there is no public confirmation that work has begun. The company wants the center to open by the end of 2027. AVAIO has confirmed the power for the site through agreements with the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC) and Dominion Energy and the site will be connected to the power grid.
• LS Power is pursuing a 300-MW, behind-the-meter project in Hanover County (middle of Figure 1). The campus will draw most of its power from the Doswell Energy Center, a natural gas-fired power plant it owns, while maintaining a grid connection for backup purposes. LS Power is both the owner of the Doswell Energy Center and the developer of the data center campus. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is reviewing a five-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the first phase of the project, but key permits still need to be ironed out, including final interconnection agreements with PJM and additional retail power deals for when the PPA expires. Old Dominion Electric Cooperative has raised questions about reliability, resource adequacy and cost allocation. LS Power plans to build five 60-MW buildings, rolling out one per year once construction starts. As of September, work hasn’t started, and the timeline is uncertain. While the company had aimed to break ground in late 2025, the FERC review and formal protests could slow, change, or even block the deal.
• TECfusions has purchased and rezoned 73 acres across six parcels in Clarksville that would expand its flagship data center in Mecklenburg County (bottom of Figure 1). The site now has industrial zoning and the project has preliminary endorsements from the county plan commission and the county board of supervisors. The project requires additional county and state approvals for new transmission lines, as Dominion Energy’s proposals may cross Occoneechee State Park and necessitate an environmental review. Currently, 80 MW are available and the site aims to reach 300 MW with future buildout. The full buildout could use repurposed 138-kV transmission lines from a nearby retired coal plant.
• TA Realty plans to support up to 430 MW of capacity across five buildings in Loudoun County (upper right of Figure 1). Located in Leesburg, the campus will total 1.9 million square feet, situated atop major fiber-optic routes and alongside transmission lines. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, with full completion expected by 2027.

As we said, there are many more data centers on the horizon, although some are in the very early stages. But here’s a handful on our “watch list.” In April, STACK Infrastructure announced it is looking at Stafford County for a possible 1-GW campus with multiple 300-MW substations, the largest newly disclosed campus in the region. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has its sights set on multiple campuses in several counties, including Loudoun, Prince William and King George, with each using 300 MW.Even as some local officials push back, the appetite for data centers in Virginia remains strong. Recently, Foundation Data Centers expressed interest in building a natural gas-powered campus outside Ashburn with a potential capacity of about 350 MW, though details are scarce. In August, Google announced a major campus on more than 300 acres in Chesterfield County but the exact capacity has not been disclosed. Iron Mountain has said it wants to expand its capacity in Virginia. Other developers, including CoreWeave and Digital Gateway, have also floated plans to build data centers.Interest is spreading to other counties such as King George, Orange, Surry, Richmond and Henrico, with many proposals of more than 300 MW. It’s hard to know which of these plans will make it to the finish line, but developers continue to flock to Virginia, a trend that doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.

Data center boom sparks sticker shock for PJM ratepayers - Data centers in the largest U.S. regional power grid are adding billions of dollars to ratepayers’ electricity bills and raising the risk of persistent inflation in the economy and potential power shortages, new analyses show. Shock waves of new and projected electricity demand from the rise of artificial intelligence are rippling across U.S. power grids. A report by Monitoring Analytics, the independent market monitor for Eastern grid operator PJM Interconnection, estimated that current and planned peak power added nearly 12,000 megawatts to the expected peak power demand next summer. These substantial increases “were almost entirely due to existing and projected large data center load additions to the PJM grid,” said Joseph Bowring, president of Monitoring Analytics.Power demand from tech companies operating some of the largest clusters of data centers in the world drove up PJM’s July capacity auction by $7.2 billion, an 82 percent increase. More than $16 billion in payments to power companies to guarantee future electricity supply in the 13-state region is passed on to utility customers. Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley” — the world’s largest cluster of data centers — is located inside of PJM’s territory. And PJM’s outgoing CEO, Manu Asthana, has emphasized the need for the United States to “win the race” for global AI dominance. That commentary echoes the views of the White House and powerful Silicon Valley companies. n PJM’s 2025 long-term load forecast shows a peak load growth of 32,000 MW from 2024 to 2030. Nearly all of that is from data centers — if the power is available. More customer charges stem from the need to add power line and substation capacity to the PJM network to move the higher energy flows, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists. UCS calculated that last year $4.3 billion in transmission expansion costs were passed on to consumers in seven PJM states, based on the limited information transmission system owners reported to PJM about the planned new projects. “From 2022 through 2024, utility companies initiated over 150 local transmission projects in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. These projects were needed only to connect data centers,” said the report. Virginia and Ohio had by far largest number of projects. The UCS analysis concluded that the cost pass-through is part of PJM’s approved practices. “Regulatory cost reviews are practically nonexistent for these transmission-level facilities and utility incentives reward this practice,” it said. PJM is the “messenger” not the director of the process, which is largely controlled by transmission owners, said Mike Jacobs, senior manager for energy with the UCS Climate and Energy Program.In a third critique, the Natural Resources Defense Council projected this week that PJM consumers could see an increase of utility bills of up to $163 billion through 2033 because the steady growth in data center power demand will keep supply strained and prices high. “By 2028, an average family in the region will be paying around $70 a month extra on their electricity bills because of forecasted data center growth,” the NRDC report said. NRDC’s analysis focuses on the payments to generators that result from PJM’s annual capacity auction. When expected demand runs ahead of available supply, suppliers charge more, creating a signal to investors that more power supplies will be needed but pushing utility charges higher in the process, PJM experts note. “Thanks to short-term price caps [on capacity payments] negotiated between PJM and Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro, [capacity] costs in 2027–2028 will remain at about $16 billion,” NRDC said. Then, when the negotiated price caps come off, the top capacity price will rise much higher. According to NRDC, that would push the annual capacity bill up $27 to $30 billion per year from summer 2028 through summer 2032, totaling $163 billion.“As a final twist of the knife, PJM residents will be on the hook for skyrocketing prices, even if these data centers don’t get built,” NRDC said.

Is Duke Energy Becoming a Gas Empire? -- Is Duke Energy setting itself up to become a gas empire by overestimating pipeline capacity needs for its power plants and setting the stage to build its own LNG facility? If so, what are the implications of that, in addition to higher electric bills for us? This one will get a bit wonky, but bear with us. We contend that:

• Duke may be overestimating peak burn gas needs and the firm pipeline transportation needed for its proposed new plants
• Duke is also setting the stage to build its own liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility, and
• Duke’s new contract with Transco allows 70% of its contracted capacity to continue all the way down to Transco’s Gulf Coast pooling station near LNG export facilities

In Duke Energy’s 2022 Carbon Plan Integrated Resource Plan (CPIRP), Duke presented the following redacted table in rebuttal testimony. From this table, we glean that Duke is estimating that its three planned new combined cycle gas-fired power plants (two in Person County, NC and one in Anderson County, SC) will require 705,000 dekatherms (Dth) per day of firm gas pipeline transportation capacity. We know that the plants are 1,360 MW each, totaling 4,080 MW. Therefore, we deduce that Duke is estimating that each new CC requires 172.79 Dth per MW, which means each plant will require 172.79 Dth per day per MW to run at peak burn (running at maximum capacity), which is a very rare occurrence. What about the existing fleet? We know from this table that the seven existing combined cycle plants have a maximum demand of 980,000 Dth per day. Elsewhere in the CPIRP, we find the winter capacity of those plants:

• Buck CC 718 MW winter
• Dan River CC 718 MW winter
• WS Lee CC 809 MW winter
• Asheville CC 560 MW winter
• HF Lee CC 1054 MW winter
• Richmond Co CC (Smith) 1,250 MW winter
• Sutton CC 719 MW winter
• Total 5,828 MW

The existing fleet, which ranged in age when the table was filed from 3 to 21 years old, would therefore require an average of 168.15 Dth per day per MW for peak burn. So Duke is suggesting that three brand new “highly efficient” combined cycle plantswill actually be less efficient than the existing fleet average? By comparison, Dominion Energy in South Carolina has contracted for 385,000 Dth per day on a Kinder Morgan pipeline project for a 2,200 MW combined cycle plant proposed for Canadys, SC. This equates to 147.73 Dth per MW — a much more logical estimate.If Duke is over-contracting for the gas supply for the three combined cycle gas plants, then 1) Duke’s customers are paying for far more gas pipeline capacity than is needed (and pipeline capacity is expensive — we explained just how expensive in this Utility Dive article), and 2) related pipeline projects are much bigger than they need to be. The 25.06 Dth per MW difference times 4,080 MW means that 102,245 Dth per day of the 705,000 Duke says it needs for the three CCs is unnecessary, but it will still be paid for by Duke customers.

Green Groups Sue in Fed Court to Shut Down Philly-area Power Plant -- Marcellus Drilling News - The Eddystone Generating Station is a power plant owned by Constellation Energy Corporation, located in Eddystone, PA (near Philadelphia, in Delaware County). Units 3 and 4, each with 380 MW of generation capacity, can run on either natural gas or oil. The Eddystone Units were initially scheduled for retirement on May 31, 2025; however, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intervened and ordered both units to remain online and active due to emergency energy conditions in the PJM grid. The original order kept both units online and active an extra 90 days, until August 28. DOE Secretary Chris Wright sent a new order to Constellation extending the operation of the two units for an additional 90 days, until November 26 (seeDOE Orders Older Gas-Fired Power Plants Near Philly to Stay Online). Big Green is (a) suing in court to overturn the original order from May, and (b) challenging the second order from August with the DOE.

Environmental Advocates Call On DEP To Reject Permit For A 4.5 GW Natural Gas Power Plant At The Homer City A.I. Data Center Complex In Indiana County -- On September 29, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice submitted public comments to the Department of Environmental Protection calling on the agency to reconsider its draft approval of a proposed 4.5-gigawatt natural gas power plant in Indiana County – what would be the largest gas plant in the country. The Homer City Generation project would produce enough electricity for nearly 3 million homes, but instead would be used largely to power a 3,200 acre data center campus. The organizations warned that the project would significantly harm nearby communities while offering little economic benefit. If approved as is, the plant would release huge amounts of air pollutants – including ammonia, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter – that cause respiratory and other illnesses. Advocates said the project would emit three times more carbon dioxide than any other single facility in Pennsylvania, moving the state further away from meeting its climate targets under the state’s Climate Action Plan. At the same time, the project would provide little economic benefit to the community because both data centers and the gas plants that power them have been shown to create few jobs. Signatories also raised concerns about DEP’s handling of the application and any other agency regulatory actions regarding the project. DEP said it would act as a ‘concierge’ for companies behind the project, suggesting a troubling willingness to prioritize private industry over its responsibility to protect Pennsylvanians. They called on DEP to uphold its constitutional and statutory obligations and ensure that any future decisions comply fully with the state’s constitution and laws. “If it is built, this facility would be the largest source of carbon dioxide pollution in the Commonwealth – creating carbon pollution without creating commensurate benefits for Pennsylvanians. The Department must consider its obligations as a trustee of Pennsylvania’s public natural resources and deny this plan approval,” said Jessica O’Neill, managing attorney for litigation at PennFuture. “Approving an illegal project as deadly as this one would be a massive moral failure on the part of our state government. To heap insult upon injury, the thousands of deaths which would result from the tens of millions of tons of air pollution from this plant would not be in service of keeping the lights on at your home, but instead be for making profits for New York hedge funds and Silicon Valley billionaires. DEP can and must do better for Pennsylvanians,” said Alex Bomstein, executive director of the Clean Air Council. “Building this plant would lock in an egregious amount of climate pollution – it would be capable of emitting more greenhouse gases than all the cars in Pennsylvania," said Tom Schuster, director of the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania Chapter. “It would be one thing if the power went to Pennsylvania homes and businesses, but instead it would mostly just fuel the tech billionaires’ AI bubble. Moving this project forward as planned would be reckless, unlawful, and an environmental disaster in the making.” “The Department of Environmental Protection says it wants to ‘concierge’ the permit for the largest gas plant in the nation,” said Charles McPhedran, an attorney with Earthjustice. “But DEP does not exist to serve gas plants. Its mission is to protect the public health of the citizens of the Commonwealth.”

Trump administration eyes looser environmental restrictions to boost coal - The Trump administration is eyeing looser restrictions on pollution and public lands as part of its effort to bolster the U.S. coal industry. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to delay by five years Biden-era standards that restrict power plants’ ability to release pollution into waterways.It also indicated that it could take further steps to potentially weaken the regulation in the meantime, saying in a press release that it is requesting information on challenges related to the Biden-era rule to “inform potential future rulemaking.”The rule in question would have been expected to reduce pollution including releases of mercury and arsenic and result in fewer cancer cases as a result.Meanwhile, the Interior Department announced that it planned to open up 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal leasing. A spokesperson for the department said specifically that it would be opening up areas blocked off in parts of North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.Additionally, the Energy Department announced it would put $625 million toward supporting coal. This includes $350 million for recommissioning and retrofitting plants for near-term power and an additional $175 million for projects in rural areas.

Industry interested in horizontal well results - The Vindicator— One of the first new horizontal gas and oil wells to be drilled in Mahoning County in recent years has started to produce gas and oil at is well pad along state Route 45 (Salem-Warren Road) and Leffingwell Road west of Canfield. Karina Cheung, public information officer for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said the well was drilled in early May, and “hydraulic stimulation operations,” also known as hydraulic fracturing, took place between June 9 and June 15. The Wehr Spring Valley Farm well is now producing gas and oil, Cheung said. It is new enough that the latest ODNR oil and gas production report does not list the well’s production numbers. The report is for the first and second quarters of 2025, ending June 30. In February 2024, Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said he was excited to see gas and oil production moving north from the Steubenville area into Columbiana County and eventually the rest of the Mahoning Valley. “We see an increasing amount of opportunity, especially for Columbiana, Mahoning and eventually Trumbull County in the Utica play,” Coviello said. The Utica play is an area in eastern Ohio containing hydrocarbon-bearing rock formations under ground. “We have already experienced a lot of long-term success in the supply chain. Then there will be ancillary benefits in attracting companies here because of our abundance of energy, primarily natural gas,” Coviello said. The Mahoning Valley caught “shale fever” around 2012 when energy company BP leased 100,000 acres in Trumbull County and surrounding areas and drilled several wells. But the results were not what the company hoped for and pulled out of the Utica Shale play in 2014. But Utica wells in Columbiana County had a good year in 2023, producing its highest number ever, Coviello said. Coviello could not be reached for this story, but the Youngstown Business Journal reported earlier this year that horizontal wells in Columbiana County produced nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil in 2024, a production record in the northern tier of the Utica / Point Pleasant shale play. It cited data released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for those numbers. One high-producing Columbiana County township in 2024 was Butler, which is one township south of Mahoning County’s Goshen Township and two townships south of Ellsworth Township. Oil production in Mahoning and Trumbull counties in 2024 was negligible, the Business Journal reported. The new Ellsworth Township well is owned by EAP Ohio of Houston, formerly known as Encino Energy. It is called the Wehr Spring Valley Farm well, and it takes in 150.6 acres of land that heads southeast from the well pad, ending just north of West Western Reserve Road and just north of Green Township. Twenty landowners are listed as royalty interest holders. They have Canfield and Berlin Center addresses on Leffingwell Road, Salem-Warren Road and Western Reserve Road, according to ODNR documents. Their acreage makes up the area where the resources are being mined or will be mined about 15,000 feet below the surface. The new well is called a horizontal well because even though it is drilled vertically to begin with like traditional wells of the past, it also curves at some point deep underground and then runs horizontally to collect gas and oil along that zone. There are 12 producing horizontal gas and oil wells in Mahoning County, six in Poland Township, four in Jackson Township and now two in Ellsworth Township, according to ODNR. The Hilcorp Energy Co. wells in Poland all went into production in 2014, according to ODNR production data. The four in Jackson Township went into production in 2014 and 2015, as did the other Ellsworth well. The other Ellsworth Township horizontal well is just to the east of the Wehr Spring well and is owned by Northwood Energy Corp of Columbus. It began production in July 2014 and produced 506 barrels of oil and 632 thousand cubic feet of natural gas during the first two quarters of 2025. In Columbiana County, EAP has 87 producing horizontal wells, Hilcorp has 82 producing wells and Geopetro has eight. EAP Ohio received permission from ODNR to drill its Wehr Spring Valley Farm well May 1, 2025. The well was going to be 15,275 feet deep, according to ODNR documents. EAP Ohio applied for permission to drill the well April 4, 2025. At the time, the letterhead on the company’s application was for Encino Energy, and the well was being called Encino Energy Wehr Spring Valley Farm. Among the property owners who are royalty interest holders, the biggest appears to be Glenn L. Wehr Mineral Trust, which has 25 acres. The well pad appears to be on that property. One property is only 0.058 of an acre along Western Reserve Road. At the May 14, Ellsworth Township trustees meeting, township zoning inspector Wayne Sarna reported that an onsite visit had been made to the Wehr Spring Valley well site. The zoning report stated that Encino Energy would be providing the township with the company’s “registration application” as required under township regulations. The company was not going to have to apply for any permits through the township, the minutes state. Mike Chadsey, director of external affairs for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, responded to a request for comment on the new Ellsworth well by explaining that the well is now owned by EOG Resources, which acquired EAP / Encino. When asked what significance anyone might place on the drilling of the new Ellsworth well, he said: “The significance for the Valley and Mahoning County is more about the results of the well than the fact that it was permitted and drilled.” He added that “there continues to be renewed interest in the northern part of the Utica Shale play which could be encouraging to the greater Mahoning County area.” He provided a spreadsheet that showed that 30 permits have been issued since 2011 for horizontal wells in Mahoning County. Many of them were never drilled or otherwise are not producing gas and oil, according to the ODNR database. Hilcorp received permits for 12 wells in Poland Township. Five permits were issued in 2011 in Goshen and Ellsworth Townships and the most recent one was in Milton Township in 2019. The detail in the ODNR database indicates that the Milton Township well was drilled in 2011 but had almost no production after 2012. There also were permits issued in Green and Beaver townships in 2012.

Request to Drill Under (Not On) OH's Jockey Hollow Wildlife Area - Marcellus Drilling News --In January 2023, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see OH Gov. Signs Bill Expanding Drilling in State Parks, NatGas “Green”). The law allows shale drilling under (but not on top of) Ohio state-owned land, including state parks and wildlife areas. HB 507 encourages (pushes for) more drilling under state-owned land. The special commission created to award contracts — called the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) — met in September 2023 to consider 12+ “nominations” (requests to drill) received (see Ohio Comm. Says 12.5% Royalties for State Land Drilling Too Cheap). Since that time, environmentalists have been apoplectic at the prospect of drilling under state-owned land with every new request. It's happening again with a request to drill under (not on) 1,460 acres of Jockey Hollow Wildlife Area in Belmont County.

Website Launches to Counter Objections to Marietta Injection Well -- Marcellus Drilling News ---The fight in Marietta, OH, over DeepRock Disposal Solutions’ plan to build a fifth shale wastewater injection well is getting heated. Opposition to the well has made for some very strange bedfellows. The Republican City Council is utilizing the legal services of the radicalized Earthjustice green group to challenge a permit issued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which would allow the well in Marietta, OH (see Marietta, OH City Council Discusses Suing to Block Injection Well). The nonprofit Accountability Project Institute has just launched a website, InjectionWellFacts.com, to counteract what they say is a lack of information and outright misinformation being spread about the injection well.

Ohio State U. Gas-Fired Power Plant Completion Delayed Until 2026 - Marcellus Drilling News ---Ohio State University (OSU) is constructing two natural gas combustion turbine generators and one steam turbine generator with a maximum power generating capacity of 105.5 megawatts of electricity and 285 kilopounds per hour of steam. It’s being built on 1.35 acres at OSU’s main campus in Franklin County (see OH Approves Gas-Fired Power Plant for OSU – Antis Pledge to Fight). In 2021, as project construction began, a group of spoiled rotten children who are being “educated” at OSU instructed the university to stop construction or else (see Spoiled Kids Threaten OSU re NatGas Power Plant – Stop or Else). Construction continued, and the “or else” never materialized. The little snots are all talk and no action. However, here it is four years later, and the project is still not done.

Natural gas line struck in Beavercreek; Road reopened - WHIO-TV — The repairs for a gas line that was hit in Beavercreek this morning are expected to take hours. The natural gas line was hit on N. Fairfield Road around 11:20 a.m. CenterPoint Energy told News Center 7 that a third party hit the line.N. Fairfield Road was closed between Shakertown Road and Cedarwood Lane and reopened around 7:30 p.m.Beavercreek Police shared an update on social media early Thursday afternoon, saying that CenterPoint Energy is currently estimating the repairs to take up to 12 hours..“We were sitting and having breakfast, and I said to my husband, ‘God, what is that noise?’” Anita Retter said.Retter said her neighbor then called and told her a gas line had been hit. As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, it wasn’t long after that that she could smell it.“The gas smell was horrendous,” she said.While her home was not one of the two to be evacuated by police, Retter and her husband decided to leave anyway.“We just felt better leaving,” she said.CenterPoint Energy sent the following statement to News Center 7 about the break:“This morning, a third-party unrelated to CenterPoint Energy caused damage to a natural gas pipeline near North Fairfield Road in Beavercreek. Out of an abundance of caution, two nearby homes were evacuated, electricity has been temporarily shut off in the area and North Fairfield Road has been closed as CenterPoint crews work closely with local authorities to make the area safe and stop the flow of natural gas. Motorists are advised to adhere to posted detour routes and exercise caution in the area. Safety is our top priority, and we urge customers in the area to be on alert for natural gas leaks. If you smell natural gas, leave the area immediately on foot and tell others to leave, too. Do not turn the lights on or off, smoke, strike a match, use a phone or operate anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator. Once safely away from the area, call 911 and CenterPoint at 800-227-1376, and the company will send a trained service technician immediately."

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Decreases Holdings in TC Energy Corporation - Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio cut its holdings in shares of TC Energy Corporation (NYSE:TRP - Free Report) TSE: TRP by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 154,552 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 104,092 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in TC Energy were worth $7,531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. TC Energy Corporation (formerly TransCanada Corporation) operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. It operates through five segments: Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines; U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines; Mexico Natural Gas Pipelines; Liquids Pipelines; and Power and Energy Solutions. The company builds and operates a network of 93,600 kilometers of natural gas pipelines, which transports natural gas from supply basins to local distribution companies, power generation plants, industrial facilities, interconnecting pipelines, LNG export terminals, and other businesses.

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Reduces Stock Holdings in Pembina Pipeline Corp - Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio reduced its stake in shares of Pembina Pipeline Corp. (NYSE:PBA - Free Report) TSE: PPL by 36.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 76,634 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 43,066 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in Pembina Pipeline were worth $2,872,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. Pembina Pipeline Corporation provides energy transportation and midstream services. It operates through three segments: Pipelines, Facilities, and Marketing & New Ventures. The Pipelines segment operates conventional, oil sands and heavy oil, and transmission assets with a transportation capacity of 2.9 millions of barrels of oil equivalent per day, the ground storage capacity of 10 millions of barrels, and rail terminalling capacity of approximately 105 thousands of barrels of oil equivalent per day serving markets and basins across North America.

Fortune 500 energy company to establish new division in Central Ohio with purchase of former Bob Evans HQ - Columbus Business First --The campus will house EOG Resources' new Columbus division, adding support for the company's Utica Shale asset development close to its operations in the region...The company will employ 150 people at the new division, which is being established following the $28.7 million acquisition of a large corporate campus in New Albany.

Cushman & Wakefield Brokers Sale of 170000 SF Office Campus in New Albany, Ohio — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of a 170,000-square-foot office campus located at 8111 Smith’s Mill Road in New Albany near Columbus. EOG Resources Inc., one of the largest crude oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States, was the buyer. The campus will house EOG Resources’ new Columbus division, adding support for the company’s Utica Shale asset development close to its operations in the region. The LEED Gold-certified building offers office, training and lab facilities along with modern amenities. The company plans to open the new office later this year.

EOG Resources Establishing Utica HQ Near Columbus, OH; 150 Jobs - Marcellus Drilling News - In August, EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in several other countries) and a Fortune 500 company, closed on the $5.6 billion purchase of Encino Energy, adding 675,000 net acres in the Utica and over 1,000 operating shale wells (see EOG Closes on $5.6B Purchase of Encino Assets in Ohio Utica). Before buying Encino, EOG owned approximately 460,000 acres in the Utica. Now, with over 1 million acres under management and active drilling operations, including five rigs and three completion crews working in Ohio, EOG needs a regional headquarters.

Ares Management to acquire Meade Pipeline for $1.1 billion - (Reuters) - Ares Management said on Monday its infrastructure funds have bought Meade Pipeline for about $1.1 billion, adding a key natural gas asset to its U.S. energy business as demand for power and gas surges. The investment management company is buying it from affiliates of XPLR Infrastructure, a leading independent power producer formed by NextEra Energy. The deal deepens Ares' bet on energy infrastructure as utilities and investors look to secure reliable supplies of lower-cost fuel to backstop intermittent renewables. "Driven by electrification, industrial activity and increasing LNG exports, we are witnessing tremendous growth in power and natural gas demand," said Steve Porto, partner at Ares Infrastructure Opportunities. Meade owns a 40% stake in the Central Penn Line, a 180-mile pipeline that carries gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale basins in Pennsylvania to demand centers in the U.S. Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Williams' Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line, or Transco, co-owns and operates the system under long-term leases. The Central Penn Line, which began operations in 2018, can move about 2.3 billion cubic feet per day, including capacity from its Leidy South expansion completed in 2022.

27 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Sep 22 – 28 -- Marcellus Drilling News -- For the week of September 22 – 29, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica increased from the previous week. There were 27 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, up three from 24 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued 18 permits in four counties. Ohio issued nine permits, also in four counties. West Virginia got skunked last week, issuing zero new permits. ASCENT RESOURCES | BEAVER COUNTY | BELMONT COUNTY | CARROLL COUNTY | COTERRA ENERGY (CABOT O&G) | ENCINO ENERGY | EOG RESOURCES | EQT CORP | GREENE COUNTY (PA) | GUERNSEY COUNTY | JKLM ENERGY | NOBLE COUNTY | RANGE RESOURCES CORP |SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY | TIOGA COUNTY (PA) | WASHINGTON COUNTY

Infinity Natural Resources Increases Borrowing Base under its Credit Facility --Infinity Natural Resources, Inc. (“Infinity” or the “Company”) (NYSE: INR) announced today that its lenders increased the borrowing base under the Company’s credit agreement from $350 million to $375 million, effective October 1, 2025. This increase resulted from the regularly scheduled borrowing base redetermination and was supported by each of the lenders of the Company’s credit facility. As of June 30, 2025, the Company had $34.4 million of borrowings outstanding under its credit facility, providing $340.6 million of unused capacity on a pro forma basis for the increased borrowing base of $375 million. Infinity is a growth oriented, free cash flow generating, independent energy company focused on the acquisition, development, and production of hydrocarbons in the Appalachian Basin. Our operations are focused on the volatile oil window of the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio as well as our stacked dry gas assets in both the Marcellus and Utica Shales in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Energy Transfer starts maintenance work after jet fuel leak in Bucks County, Pennsylvania - -After months of frustration, a Bucks County, Pennsylvania, community is still searching for answers following a jet fuel leak that contaminated their well water. However, on Monday, Energy Transfer, the company behind the Sunoco pipeline, started maintenance work in the Glenwood Drive area as part of its ongoing pipeline inspection program. "Some people have been dealing with this since 2023," Joe Babiasz, a resident of Bucks County, said. For Babiasz and his family, life in this quiet Bucks County neighborhood used to feel peaceful — until a pipeline leak changed that. "People moved here because it's a nice, safe, quiet neighborhood, and you know some aspect of that has been taken away by the pipeline leak and the ongoing threat of pipeline leaks," Babiasz said. The September 2023 jet fuel leak from an underground pipeline has left many neighbors worried about long-term impacts to their water, soil and air. Since then, there have been ongoing meetings between Energy Transfer and residents. "In terms of day-to-day life, there's a lot more traffic," Babiasz said. "It's seems a little bit more industrial." Now, Energy Transfer plans to dig up a section of pipeline near Glenwood Drive as part of routine maintenance. The company says there's no safety risk and the work is precautionary after an inspection flagged an anomaly — a technical term for something unusual but not necessarily dangerous. "You know, whether or not this leak was fixed, I think people do have a general fear that this pipeline poses a threat to us in the present and future," Babiasz said. While crews prepare to dig and inspect the pipeline, Babiasz said not everyone in the neighborhood feels reassured. "There's mixed opinions across the neighborhood. Personally, I think this pipeline should be shut down until it can be proven to us that it's safe to operate," Babiasz said.

Second Leak of Drilling Mud During Pipeline Work in Bradford County - Marcellus Drilling News - On September 8, Blackhill Energy informed the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) of an “inadvertent return” that occurred during horizontal drilling for the Brad-Tenn Loop Pipeline in Granville Township, Bradford County (see Pipeline Work in Bradford County Leaks ~430 Barrels of Drilling Mud). Blackhill reported that while drilling beneath Route 6 and Sugar Creek, they experienced a pressure issue. The company discovered that 18,000 gallons of nontoxic bentonite drilling mud had been lost. On September 29, 2025, Blackhill notified the DEP of a second inadvertent return of bentonite drilling mud from horizontal drilling, this time in West Burlington Township in Bradford County.

PA DEP Seeks Paperwork on “Dump Lines” at EQT Well Sites -- Marcellus Drilling News - - On July 3, 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued an order to EQT asking the company to produce records as part of the agency’s ongoing investigation into the release of up to an estimated 940,000 gallons of wastewater at the Brova shale gas well pad in North Bethlehem Township, Washington County, and similar failures at six other EQT well pads. The issue revolves around the use of “dump lines” at well pads. EQT states that the DEP’s request for reviewing physical paperwork is onerous, and the agency lacks the authority to regulate dump lines anyway. The DEP wants to ensure that another dump line issue (spilling of wastewater) doesn’t happen.

Environmental Advocates Call On DEP To Reject Permit For A 4.5 GW Natural Gas Power Plant At The Homer City A.I. Data Center Complex In Indiana County -- On September 29, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice submitted public comments to the Department of Environmental Protection calling on the agency to reconsider its draft approval of a proposed 4.5-gigawatt natural gas power plant in Indiana County – what would be the largest gas plant in the country. The Homer City Generation project would produce enough electricity for nearly 3 million homes, but instead would be used largely to power a 3,200 acre data center campus. The organizations warned that the project would significantly harm nearby communities while offering little economic benefit. If approved as is, the plant would release huge amounts of air pollutants – including ammonia, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter – that cause respiratory and other illnesses. Advocates said the project would emit three times more carbon dioxide than any other single facility in Pennsylvania, moving the state further away from meeting its climate targets under the state’s Climate Action Plan. At the same time, the project would provide little economic benefit to the community because both data centers and the gas plants that power them have been shown to create few jobs. Signatories also raised concerns about DEP’s handling of the application and any other agency regulatory actions regarding the project. DEP said it would act as a ‘concierge’ for companies behind the project, suggesting a troubling willingness to prioritize private industry over its responsibility to protect Pennsylvanians. They called on DEP to uphold its constitutional and statutory obligations and ensure that any future decisions comply fully with the state’s constitution and laws. “If it is built, this facility would be the largest source of carbon dioxide pollution in the Commonwealth – creating carbon pollution without creating commensurate benefits for Pennsylvanians. The Department must consider its obligations as a trustee of Pennsylvania’s public natural resources and deny this plan approval,” said Jessica O’Neill, managing attorney for litigation at PennFuture. “Approving an illegal project as deadly as this one would be a massive moral failure on the part of our state government. To heap insult upon injury, the thousands of deaths which would result from the tens of millions of tons of air pollution from this plant would not be in service of keeping the lights on at your home, but instead be for making profits for New York hedge funds and Silicon Valley billionaires. DEP can and must do better for Pennsylvanians,” said Alex Bomstein, executive director of the Clean Air Council. “Building this plant would lock in an egregious amount of climate pollution – it would be capable of emitting more greenhouse gases than all the cars in Pennsylvania," said Tom Schuster, director of the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania Chapter. “It would be one thing if the power went to Pennsylvania homes and businesses, but instead it would mostly just fuel the tech billionaires’ AI bubble. Moving this project forward as planned would be reckless, unlawful, and an environmental disaster in the making.” “The Department of Environmental Protection says it wants to ‘concierge’ the permit for the largest gas plant in the nation,” said Charles McPhedran, an attorney with Earthjustice. “But DEP does not exist to serve gas plants. Its mission is to protect the public health of the citizens of the Commonwealth.”

Hochul draws heat for advancing Trump-backed gas pipelines - Environmental groups say New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is quietly smoothing the path for two gas pipeline projects President Donald Trump is pushing for in the state.The Hochul administration has said state officials will do an impartial review of the Constitution natural gas pipeline and the Northeast Supply Enhancement, or NESE, gas project. But activists coming together to fight them say the Democrat’s appointees are allowing shortcuts that violate environmental laws and procedures.“Why isn’t she following the law?” said Anne Marie Garti, a lawyer who has fought Constitution for years from her home in the Catskills, near the route of the proposed line. “That makes me suspicious.”State regulators said they are following the laws in their reviews of the pipelines. Williams Cos., the corporation behind both lines, said its projects undergo rigorous reviews.White House officials have bragged that Hochul “caved” under pressure from Trump earlier this year. They say she agreed to support the two pipelines in exchange for lifting the hold the administration put on construction of Empire Wind 1, a fully permitted wind energy project off the coast of New York.After that, Williams announced it was reviving its NESE and Constitution projects, which it had abandoned in the face of regulatory and political resistance. The growing criticism of Hochul shows that, while some of the hurdles are lower now, they haven’t disappeared. It also highlights the tricky choices Hochul faces as she seeks reelection next year — as well as resistance to energy projects in the Northeast even as Democratic governors take a friendlier stance. Hochul has denied making a pipeline-for-wind-farm deal with the president and has said she was already willing to support pipeline proposals if they are needed and comply with the law. But now that Trump is targeting wind projects off the coast of other states, it’s the activists in the Democratic base who are targeting Hochul.Hochul’s office referred a request for comment to her previous statements, such as an interview with Bloomberg this month where she said she focused on saving 1,500 jobs Empire Wind would bring. “But I also said, ‘I’m looking at an all-of-the-above approach to energy, so work with me,'” Hochul told Bloomberg, explaining her negotiations with Trump about Empire Wind.The White House did not respond to a question about whether officials there think Hochul’s administration is reviewing Williams’ pipeline projects swiftly enough. But White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email that only “self-interested activists would oppose streamlining reliable US natural gas flowing to help fellow Americans reduce their energy bills.”Constitution and NESE were two of at least five Northeastern gas pipeline proposals shredded by local opposition and environmental litigation during the Biden and first Trump administrations.The revival of Constitution and NESE has renewed the tug-of-war over how to power the Northeast, from wind turbines and other renewable sources to fossil fuels delivered by pipeline.Whether or not the governor made a deal with Trump, her moves suggest she’s not putting up any obstacles to the projects, which were previously stymied by state regulators during both her tenure and that of her predecessor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

Hope Gas Moves to Put 1,000-Mile Pipeline Abandonment Plan on Hold (P&GJ) — Hope Gas asked the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) in April to pause proceedings tied to its plan to abandon more than 1,000 miles of “Red Line” pipelines across 22 counties, according to The Dominion Post. In March, the company proposed abandoning more than 1,000 miles of pipeline across over 20 West Virginia counties, drawing sharp criticism from local producers who warned the move could cut off access to critical infrastructure and threaten small well operations.The company previously announced an agreement for Diversified Midstream to acquire the system but told regulators the deal was not yet finalized. Oil and gas producers voiced concerns that abandoning the network would cut off a critical outlet for moving gas from the region.Hope also noted it planned to file a new base-rate case later that month and said the PSC should wait for that filing before making decisions. Earlier in February, regulators had ruled that about 479 farm-tap customers could be converted to propane or electricity, but only if the PSC approved the pipeline abandonment.As reported by The Dominion Post, Hope argued that holding the proceedings in abeyance was in the best interest of all parties. The company also canceled planned town halls with affected customers until the PSC rules on its request.

DC Circuit backs FERC review of gas pipeline - An appeals court has dismissed claims that federal regulators failed to adequately weigh the risks of building a 32-mile gas pipeline to supply a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant. In a ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was in line with federal law when it found the project’s environmental effects would not be significant. The court’s majority relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s decision this summer in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, which found that agencies get considerable deference for their interpretation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The ruling also limited how far NEPA reviews could stray from effects within an agency’s jurisdiction or from effects close to the project itself. Judge Justin Walker, who wrote the majority opinion, said the 2025 Supreme Court ruling has changed the legal landscape, ending the period where courts had ordered expansive environmental reviews spanning hundreds or even thousands of pages.

Williams to Invest $3.1 Billion in Power Projects, Boosts 2025 Capital Spending (Reuters) — U.S. pipeline operator Williams Companies said on Oct. 1 it plans to invest about $3.1 billion in two projects to supply power to data centers. The move takes the total capital committed to such 'power innovation' projects to about $5 billion, the company said in a filing. Power consumption is expected to hit record highs in 2025 and 2026, driven by a surge in demand from data centers used for artificial intelligence technologies, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). This rising demand is prompting utilities to add billions to capital plans to upgrade the grid and related infrastructure. Williams on Oct. 1 said it would raise its 2025 capital spending plan by $875 million to between $3.45 billion and $3.75 billion. The Tulsa, Oklohoma-based company did not disclose the locations of the two projects in the filing. It expects the transaction to close in the first half of 2027.

Colonial Pipeline Restarts 5,500-Mile Fuel Network After Brief Outage - (Reuters) — Colonial Pipeline has restarted operations after taking the largest U.S. fuel conduit offline earlier on Oct. 2 for unplanned system maintenance, a company spokesperson confirmed. Reuters earlier reported Colonial's main fuel delivery lines had been offline since around 5 a.m. ET on Oct. 2, according to market sources. Colonial confirmed the outage and said it was informing customers that it expects to restart before noon ET. Colonial Pipeline moves over 2.5 million barrels per day of fuel across its 5,500-mile network stretching from the U.S. Gulf Coast to major consumption centers across the U.S. East Coast, according to its website. The company says its pipelines are responsible for transporting about 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast. In the past, prolonged outages, including one on the pipeline's main gasoline line earlier this year, have led to fuel shortages in some locations and caused prices to increase. However, Oct. 2's outage was not expected to have a price impact because it was brief, said Tom Kloza, analyst for consultancy Turner, Mason & Co. The timing of the outage, coinciding with most markets easing vapor pressure restrictions on gasoline for the winter, also dulls the impact of the interruption, Kloza said. The U.S. allows refiners to make and sell a more volatile blend of gasoline in the winter, compared to what is allowed in the summer, making the fuel cheaper.

Louisiana Gas Storage Project Wins FERC Approval, Advances Toward FID (P&GJ) — Black Bayou Gas Storage, LLC, a subsidiary of Black Bayou Energy Hub, has received a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), clearing the way for construction of a major underground natural gas storage project in Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes, Louisiana. The project includes the development of four salt dome caverns with 34.7 Bcf of working capacity, capable of delivering up to 2.0 Bcf per day and injecting up to 1.6 Bcf per day. A 27-mile looped header pipeline will connect the site to 10 major interstate pipelines, positioning the facility as one of the Gulf Coast’s most interconnected storage hubs. The site sits within 25 miles of more than 30 Bcf/d of demand from current and planned LNG facilities. Initial operations for Caverns 1 and 2 are targeted for 2028, with Caverns 3 and 4 expected online by 2030. FERC’s approval followed an environmental review that found no significant impacts with mitigation measures. To advance the project, Mercuria has committed $50 million in structured capital, strengthening its role as a cornerstone investor. “Receiving FERC certification is a key inflection point for the Black Bayou Energy Hub,” said Boris Bystrov, managing director of investments at Mercuria. “Strategic infrastructure projects like this are essential to our broader mission of enhancing market efficiency and supporting the energy transition.” Black Bayou CEO Tad Lalande said the project is now advancing toward a final investment decision. “With strong partners and committed capital, this milestone strengthens our ability to execute at scale,” Lalande said. “We are positioning the project to meet the growing demands of LNG, power, and industrial customers across the Gulf Coast and beyond.”

Woodside’s 16.5 Mt/y Louisiana LNG Project Gains Turkish Support in HOA -Woodside Energy Group Ltd. is looking to place a significant portion of the capacity of the first phase of its Louisiana LNG export project under contract as a part of a tentative supply deal with Türkiye’s state-owned pipeline company. At A Glance:

• Botaş targets nine-year LNG contract
• Woodside would provide 5.8 Bcm
• Türkiye builds on Mercuria, Cheniere deals

U.S. LNG exports at new record in September on strong Louisiana shipments – U.S. LNG exports hit a record high in September at 9.4 million metric tons, up from a previous record 9.3 million metric tons in August, according to preliminary data from financial firm LSEG. The United States was the world's largest liquefied natural gas exporter in 2024, with Louisiana accounting for about 61% of total LNG shipments. Texas, the second biggest exporter, was the source of about 31% of the U.S. LNG shipped overseas in 2024. Weekly data compiled by Bloomberg shows 81 LNG tankers departed Louisiana export terminals between Sept. 3 and October 1, representing 67% of total U.S. shipments during the four-week period. The data shows 35 LNG tankers departed Texas export facilities during the same four weeks, while three shipments left terminals in Virginia and Georgia, according to Bloomberg. Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass facility in Cameron Parish, the world’s largest export terminal with capacity of 29.5 million tons per year, shipped 32 cargos in September. “Louisiana is leading the nation in LNG exports and it is crucial that our leaders continue to support the policies that have unleashed this dominance,” said Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association. “Louisiana’s energy industry is revitalizing our state’s economy and creating the opportunities that will keep our kids here in Louisiana,” Faucheux said. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has advanced U.S. "energy dominance" through executive orders and policies that streamline the permitting process on LNG projects and reduce regulatory burdens on existing export facilities. Commonwealth's LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, was authorized in February to export up to 1.21 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to non-FTA countries and in August Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass LNG project was approved for an increase in liquefaction capacity from 12.0 to 12.4 million tons per year. In May, the DOE issued a final authorization to Sempra Energy’s Port Arthur LNG Phase 2 project that allows exports to countries that do not have free trade agreements with the United States. Trump has also taken actions to advance U.S. energy dominance through trade deals, such as such as a recent agreement with the European Union for the purchase of $750 billion of American energy products. Record overseas purchases of U.S. LNG in September was driven by strong sales to Europe and Asia, according to LSEG. Europe, the most popular destination for U.S. exports in September, received about 6.22 million metric tons, or about 66% of all LNG shipments from American ports. Asian nations received about 1.63 million metric tons in September, about 17% of total U.S. exports. Africa and Latin American nations received a combined 1.63 million metric tons in September, representing about 15% of U.S. LNG exports.

Vistra to Add 860 MW of New Gas-Fired Capacity at Permian Basin Plant (P&GJ) — Vistra Corp. said it will build two new natural gas-fired power units at its Permian Basin Power Plant, a move that more than triples the site’s generation capacity to 1,185 megawatts. The $1 billion investment decision marks a key step in Vistra’s multi-year plan to add more than 2,000 MW of new capacity in ERCOT by 2028. The new units, totaling 860 MW, will support rising electricity demand in West Texas, particularly from the oil and gas sector. “As the leading competitive generator in Texas, customers from residential to commercial and industrial are turning to Vistra to help them meet their energy needs,” said Jim Burke, president and CEO of Vistra. “We are uniquely positioned to deliver solutions that provide reliable, affordable power to our residential customers as well as industries across Texas and the United States to ensure our economic competitiveness and national security.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the project, calling it an investment that will “reinforce our state’s electric grid, spur jobs, and drive regional economic growth for years to come.” The Permian Basin expansion is part of a larger slate of projects. Since 2020, Vistra has added about 1,000 MW in Texas through gas fleet upgrades and new solar projects. Additional efforts include a 200-MW Oak Hill solar facility set to begin operations later this year and the planned conversion of the retiring Coleto Creek coal plant into a 630-MW gas plant. When completed, Vistra will have invested nearly $2 billion to add 3,100 MW of new generation capacity in Texas since 2020.

Targa to Build 500-Mile NGL Pipeline from Permian to Mont Belvieu (P&GJ) — Targa Resources said on Sept. 30 it will construct the 500-mile Speedway NGL Pipeline to move natural gas liquids from the Permian Basin to its fractionation and storage hub in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The 30-inch-diameter pipeline will launch with a capacity of 500,000 barrels per day, expandable to 1 million bpd. It is scheduled to enter service in the third quarter of 2027 at an estimated cost of $1.6 billion. Targa is also advancing its midstream buildout with the planned Yeti gas processing plant, a 275 MMcf/d facility in the Permian Delaware system, expected online in Q3 2027. Combined with other projects under construction, the company will add five Permian plants over the next two years, increasing inlet capacity by 1.4 Bcf/d. In addition, the company announced Buffalo Run, a project that includes a new 35-mile natural gas pipeline and a 55-mile conversion of an existing line to gas service. Buffalo Run will link Targa’s Midland and Delaware systems and, together with the previously announced Bull Run Extension, expand connectivity to multiple markets including Waha. The staged project is slated for completion in early 2028. CEO Matt Meloy said the Speedway pipeline is central to Targa’s long-term strategy. “Speedway is critical to the continued execution of our core integrated wellhead to water strategy, will generate attractive and growing fee-based cash flows, and will provide Targa with significant operating leverage once in service,” he said. With the addition of Speedway, Buffalo Run, and the Yeti plant, Targa raised its 2025 growth capital spending forecast to $3.3 billion.

US natgas prices hit 2-month high on contract expiry, more flows to LNG export plants — U.S. natural gas futures climbed about 2% to a two-month high on Monday with the start of a new, more expensive front-month, and as the amount of gas flowing to liquefied natural gas export plants increases. That increase came despite a rise in daily output, ample amounts of fuel in storage and forecasts for milder weather and less demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. On its first day as the front-month, gas futures for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 6.1 cents, or 1.9%, from where the November contract closed on Friday to settle at $3.267 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). In the cash market, prices at the Waha Hub in West Texas and the AECO Hub in Alberta remained in negative territory because pipelines in both regions were constrained by expected and unexpected maintenance work. For the Waha, that was the fourth day in a row and the 13th time this year that prices were in negative territory. For AECO, that was the fifth day in a row that prices were below zero, with each day setting a fresh record low, according to LSEG pricing data. In the tropics, the U.S. National Hurricane Center projected both Hurricane Humberto (between Bermuda and the Bahamas) and Tropical Storm Imelda (over the Bahamas) would move away from the U.S. East Coast as they head toward Bermuda and then into the open Atlantic Ocean over the next week. Meteorologists at AccuWeather said they expect Humberto to pull Imelda out to sea, reducing tropical rain and wind impacts in the southeast U.S. Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 states fell to 107.5 billion cubic feet per day so far in September, down from a record monthly high of 108.3 bcfd in August. On a daily basis, however, output was on track to rise to a preliminary three-week high of 108.4 bcfd on Sunday. That compares with an all-time daily high of 109.7 bcfd on July 28. Preliminary data is often revised later in the day. Record output earlier this year allowed energy companies to inject more gas into storage than usual so far this summer. There was about 6% more gas in storage than normal for this time of year. Meteorologists forecast the weather will remain mostly warmer than normal through at least October 14. That late-season heat will likely reduce gas demand by cutting the amount of fuel used to heat homes and businesses by more than the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would slide from 102.4 bcfd this week to 99.7 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were lower than LSEG's outlook on Friday. The average amount of gas flowing to the eight big U.S. LNG export plants held around 15.8 bcfd so far in September, the same as in August. That compares with a monthly record high of 16.0 bcfd in April. On a daily basis, feedgas to LNG export plants rose to a one-month high of 16.4 bcfd on Saturday as record amounts of gas flow to Venture Global LNG's VG 3.2-bcfd Plaquemines plant in Louisiana.

U.S. Natural Gas Futures Climb 5% as Output Drops, Waha Hub Still Negative -U.S. natural gas futures climbed 5% on Oct. 1 as output fell and traders covered short positions. Waha Hub prices stayed negative amid pipeline constraints, while LNG feedgas dropped to a six-week low. (Reuters) — U.S. natural gas futures jumped about 5% to a 10-week high on Oct. 1 on a drop in daily output and some likely technical short-covering. Prices rose despite a decline in daily gas flows to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants, ample amounts of fuel in storage and forecasts for mild weather and less demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. Front-month gas futures for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose 17.3 cents, or 5.2%, to settle at $3.476 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), their highest close since July 18. That kept the front-month in technically overbought territory for a third day in a row for the first time since February. Prices were also supported because some short sellers needed to cover their positions in recent days, analysts said, noting speculative short positions on the NYMEX reached a 10-month high last week. In the cash market, average prices at the Waha Hub in West Texas remained in negative territory for a sixth day in a row and a 15th time so far this year due to ongoing pipeline constraints in the region from expected and unexpected maintenance work. In the tropics, the U.S. National Hurricane Center projected that neither the remnants of Hurricane Humberto nor Hurricane Imelda would hit the U.S. East Coast as they moved east across the Atlantic Ocean. Imelda, however, was on track to hit Bermuda overnight on Oct. 1. Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 states fell to 107.0 billion cubic feet per day so far in October, down from 107.4 Bcf/d in September and a record monthly high of 108.3 Bcf/d in August. Record output earlier this year allowed energy companies to inject more gas into storage than usual so far this summer. About 6% more gas was in storage than normal for this time of year. Meteorologists forecast the weather will remain mostly warmer than normal through at least Oct. 16. LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would slide from 101.4 Bcf/d this week to 98.8 Bcf/d next week. Those forecasts were lower than LSEG's outlook on Sept. 30. The average amount of gas flowing to the eight big U.S. LNG export plants fell to a six-week low of 14.7 Bcf/d so far in October, down from 15.8 Bcf/d in September and a monthly record high of 16.0 Bcf/d in April. The primary reason for the LNG export feedgas decline was a drop in gas flows to Venture Global LNG's 1.6-Bcf/d Calcasieu plant in Louisiana from 1.7 Bcf/d on Sept. 30 to around 0.7 Bcf/d on Oct. 1. LNG plants can pull in more gas than they can turn into LNG because they use some of the fuel to power operations. Gas was trading around $11 per MMBtu at both the Dutch Title Transfer Facility benchmark in Europe and the Japan Korea Marker benchmark in Asia.

US LNG prices ease on profit-taking after hitting over two-month high --US natural gas futures fell on Thursday as traders booked profits, after prices hit a more than two-month high following a government report showing a smaller-than-expected storage build. Front-month gas futures for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell by 3.4 cents, or about one per cent, to settle at $3.442 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). The contract hit its highest level since July 18 earlier in the session. The US Energy Information Administration said energy firms added 53 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended September 26. That was smaller than the 68 bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compared with a boost of 54 bcf during the same week a year ago and a five-year (2020-2024) average build of 85 bcf for this time of year. "The market definitely got a boost as the injection into inventory was much smaller than expected. It was a big miss...and I think what we're seeing here is that the demand for fuels was higher than expected last week," Meteorologists forecast the weather will remain mostly warmer than normal through at least October 16. The November contract is expected to find support around $3.40 and will likely trade within a range of $3.36 to $3.47, said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at Tradition Energy. Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 states fell to 106.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in October, down from 107.4 bcfd in September and a record monthly high of 108.3 bcfd in August. LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would drop from 101.5 bcfd this week to 99.2 bcfd next week. Meanwhile, US LNG exports hit a record in September at 9.4 million tonnes, beating their previous record of 9.3 million tonnes in August, according to preliminary data from LSEG. Demand for LNG as a marine fuel will at least double by 2030 as abundant supply and rising emissions regulations spur orders for ships that can run on it, industry executives said.

Execs Predict Where NatGas Price Will Land in Future | Rigzone -Executives from oil and gas firms have revealed where they expect the Henry Hub natural gas price to be at various points in the future in the third quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey, which was released recently. The survey asked participants what they expect Henry Hub natural gas prices to be in six months, one year, two years, and five years. Executives from 121 oil and gas firms answered this question and gave a mean response of $3.35 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) for the six month mark, $3.53 per MMBtu for the one year mark, $3.94 per MMBtu for the two year mark, and $4.50 per MMBtu for the five year mark, the survey showed. Executives from 116 oil and gas firms answered this question in the second quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey and gave a mean response of $3.66 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) for the six month mark, $3.81 per MMBtu for the one year mark, $4.12 per MMBtu for the two year mark, and $4.50 per MMBtu for the five year mark, that survey showed. In the first quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey, executives from 117 oil and gas firms answered this question and gave a mean response of $3.71 per MMBtu for the six month mark, $3.98 per MMBtu for the year mark, $4.30 per MMBtu for the two year mark, and $4.83 per MMBtu for the five year mark, that survey showed. The third quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey also asked participants what they expect the Henry Hub price to be at the end of this year. Executives from 133 oil and gas firms answered this question and gave an average response of $3.30 per MMBtu, the survey highlighted. The low forecast was $2.20 per MMBtu, the high forecast was $4.75 per MMBtu, and the average Henry Hub natural gas daily spot price during the survey was $2.99 per MMBtu, the survey pointed out. Executives from 133 oil and gas firms answered this question in the second quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey and gave an average response of $3.66 per MMBtu, that survey highlighted. The low forecast was $1.75 per MMBtu, the high forecast was $5 per MMBtu, and the average Henry Hub natural gas daily spot price during the survey was $3.30 per MMBtu, that survey revealed. Executives from 127 oil and gas firms answered this question in the first quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey and gave an average response of $3.78 per MMBtu, that survey showed. The low forecast came in at $2 per MMBtu, the high forecast was $5.25 per MMBtu, and the average Henry Hub natural gas daily spot price during the survey was $4.10 per MMBtu, that survey highlighted. An EBW Analytics Group report sent to Rigzone by the EBW team on Thursday highlighted that the November natural gas contract closed at $3.476 per MMBtu on Wednesday. This figure was up 17.3 cents, or 5.2 percent, from Tuesday’s close, the report outlined. In a report sent to Rigzone by the Standard Chartered team on October 1, Standard Chartered projected that the nearby future NYMEX basis Henry Hub U.S. natural gas price will average $3.35 per MMBtu in 2025, $3.30 per MMBtu in 2026, and $2.90 per MMBtu in 2027. In that report, Standard Chartered forecast that the commodity will average $3.20 per MMBtu in the fourth quarter of this year, $3.20 per MMBtu in the first quarter of 2026, $3.70 per MMBtu in the second quarter, $3.50 per MMBtu in the third quarter, and $2.80 per MMBtu in the fourth quarter. In a BMI report sent to Rigzone by the Fitch Group on October 3, BMI projected that the front month natural gas Henry Hub price will average $3.50 per MMBtu in 2025 and $3.80 per MMBtu in 2026.

Dallas Fed Survey Shows Oil and Gas Activity Decline | Rigzone - Activity in the oil and gas sector declined slightly in the third quarter of 2025, according to oil and gas executives responding to the Dallas Fed Energy Survey. That’s what the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas stated recently on a Dallas Fed Energy Survey page on its website, adding that the business activity index - which it described as the survey’s broadest measure of the conditions energy firms face in the Eleventh District - remained negative, “but edged up from -8.1 in the second quarter to -6.5 in the third quarter”. “The company outlook index fell from -6.4 in the second quarter to -17.6, suggesting pessimism among firms. Meanwhile, the outlook uncertainty index remained elevated but edged down from 47.1 to 44.6,” the Dallas Fed noted on its site. “Oil and gas production declined slightly in the third quarter, according to executives at exploration and production firms. The oil production index remained negative and was relatively unchanged at -8.6 in the third quarter. Similarly, the natural gas production index was relatively unchanged at -3.2,” it continued. The Dallas Fed went on to state on its site that firms reported rising costs, with all series above their averages. “Among oilfield services firms, input costs rose but at a slightly slower pace than the previous quarter as the input cost index declined slightly from 40.0 to 34.8,” it highlighted. “Among E&P [exploration and production] firms, the finding and development costs index increased from 11.4 to 22.0. Also, the lease operating expenses index increased from 28.1 to 36.9,” it added. Oilfield services firms reported modest deterioration in nearly all indicators, the Dallas Fed noted on its site. “The equipment utilization index for oilfield services firms fell slightly from -4.6 to -13.0. The operating margin index was relatively unchanged at -31.8, indicating margins compressed at a similar rate,” it added. “Meanwhile, the prices received for services index declined slightly from -17.7 to -26.1,” it continued. The Dallas Fed also pointed out on its site that, “overall, demand for employees was relatively unchanged and hours worked was also little changed”. “The aggregate employment index advanced from -6.6 in the second quarter to -1.5 in the third. Additionally, the aggregate employee hours index was relatively unchanged at -3.7,” it added. “Meanwhile, the aggregate wages and benefits index was relatively unchanged at 11.5,” the Dallas Fed went on to note. ‘Variety of Issues’ In a ‘comments’ section of the Dallas Fed Energy Survey page, which the Dallas Fed has previously outlined shows comments from respondents’ completed surveys that have been edited for publication, one exploration and production firm said, “there are a variety of issues affecting our business”. “First, excess in the global oil market is restraining oil prices near term. Second, there is continued uncertainty from OPEC+ unwinding production cuts. Third, trade and tariff changes and the resulting geopolitical tensions,” that firm added. Another exploration and production firm said in the comments section, “day to day changes to energy policy is no way for us to win as a country”. “Investors (rightly) avoid investing in energy (of all types, now) because of the volatility of underlying business results as well as the ‘stroke of pen’ risk that the federal government wields as it relates to long duration energy developments,” it added. Another exploration and production company warned that “the oil industry is once again going to lose valuable employees”, while another said, “who wants to make a business decision in this unstable environment”. “The uncertainty from the administration’s policies has put a damper on all investment in the oilpatch,” one more exploration and production company warned, adding that “those who can are running for the exits”. One more exploration and production company said “the U.S. shale business is broken” and another pointed out that “commodity pricing seems impossible to predict with daily market swings over five percent up or down being normal for both natural gas and crude oil”. Also in the comments section, one oil and gas support services firm said, “tariffs continue to increase the cost of production”. Another oil and gas support services firm said, “a vibrant oilfield services sector is critical if and when the U.S. needs to ramp up production - right now we are bleeding”.

West Texas Gas Bottleneck Threatens AI Data Center Expansion (P&GJ) — West Texas holds vast natural gas reserves that could help power the wave of energy-hungry artificial intelligence data centers, but the region lacks the pipelines and generation facilities needed to deliver that electricity, according to AP News. Although the Permian Basin accounts for 40% of U.S. crude output, much of the gas produced alongside that oil has limited value without sufficient infrastructure to process and transmit it. “Meeting this unprecedented demand takes more than production alone,” Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, said according to AP News. “It requires a strong network of pipelines and infrastructure to move natural gas efficiently and ensure reliable power for end users. In Texas, expanding this network has never been more important to keep pace with growth.” Analysts say this leaves the Permian at a disadvantage compared with the Eagle Ford and Haynesville shales, which are better positioned with stronger transmission systems, access to LNG hubs, and more robust fiber optic networks. Jason Jennaro, CEO of FrontierGen, said companies with high energy demands — from cryptocurrency miners to industrial developers — may favor those regions over West Texas. Jennaro, who authored a recent study on basin competitiveness, estimated the U.S. must add roughly 400 terawatts of generation capacity within five years to support AI growth. That figure, he noted, equals France’s annual power consumption. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas projects its grid could nearly double in size by 2030, with data centers and the oil and gas industry driving most of the demand. In the Permian, gas that surfaces with oil often becomes a financial liability rather than a resource. Earlier this year, some producers were paying other firms to take excess gas. Redirecting that supply to data centers could transform a cost burden into a revenue stream, as reported by AP News. To make that possible, the region would need not only new gas-fired power plants but also expanded pipeline capacity beyond the 6.5 billion cubic feet per day already moving through the system. Longanecker added that federal reforms to streamline pipeline permitting, which can stretch to seven years, are essential to unlock investment. Jennaro pointed to the state-backed Permian Basin Reliability Plan, scheduled for completion by 2030, as a promising step. “In our opinion, we are entering America’s Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he told AP News. “This revolution will be defined by the creation of large industrial nexus points where substantial amounts of electricity, transmission, natural gas, water, and fiber optics converge. Texas and its energy basins are a great place for this.”

TotalEnergies to Acquire Stake in Anadarko Gas Producing Assets | Rigzone - TotalEnergies SE has signed an agreement to buy a 49 percent stake in natural gas-producing assets operated by Continental Resources Inc on Oklahoma's side of the Anadarko basin. "These assets have the potential to reach a gross production of around 350 MMscfd by 2030 and to sustain this production level over the long term", TotalEnergies said in a statement on its website. "They will enable TotalEnergies to secure a net gas production of around 150 MMscfd". "This acquisition of low-cost and long-plateau assets, well connected to Henry Hub through existing midstream infrastructure, further strengthens TotalEnergies' integration across the liquefied natural gas value chain in the U.S.", TotalEnergies said. "This acquisition of non-operated shale gas assets complements the Dorado and Constellation acquisitions completed in 2024 in the Eagle Ford Basin", it said, adding it also operates a production of around 500 million standard cubic feet a day in the Barnett shale play in Texas. Last year TotalEnergies executed two Eagle Ford transactions with Lewis Energy Group LP. It intends to use its share of production from both acquisitions, which consisted of non-operating interests, in the producing Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Louisiana, in which it owns a 16.6 percent stake. The assets in the second of the two transactions with Lewis Energy can reach 400 million cubic feet a day (MMcfd) in gross production by 2028, TotalEnergies said in a statement September 27, 2024. The assets are in southwest Texas. In the earlier transaction, TotalEnergies took over Lewis Energy's 20 percent stake in the Dorado field. “Located in Texas, the Dorado field will allow TotalEnergies to increase its net U.S. natural gas production by 50 million cubic feet a day (MMcfd) in 2024, with the potential for an additional 50 MMcfd by 2028", TotalEnergies said April 8, 2024. The new Eagle Ford assets will supply Cameron LNG, a three-train facility with a capacity of 14.95 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa), an equivalent of 772 billion cubic feet a year of natural gas according to the Cameron LNG joint venture. TotalEnergies and its partners plan to add 6.75 MMtpa of capacity. Earlier this month TotalEnergies said it had signed agreements with NextDecade Corp raising its stake in Rio Grande LNG in Brownsville, Texas. TotalEnergies will take a 10 percent stake in the joint venture developing Train IV of Rio Grande LNG. "In addition to the 10 percent held directly, TotalEnergies will hold indirectly next to seven percent in this Train IV as a 17.1 percent shareholder of NextDecade", TotalEnergies said in a statement September 10. TotalEnergies already holds a 16.7 percent stake in the under-construction phase I, or trains I to III. According to a Department of Energy (DOE) order August 13, 2020, amending Rio Grande LNG's export permit, the facility's five trains each have a nominal capacity of 5.4 MMtpa. However, Houston, Texas-based developer NextDecade has said phase I would be capable of up to about 18 MMtpa. Announcing the FID for train IV on September 9, NextDecade said the newly approved train will grow Rio Grande LNG's capacity to around 24 MMtpa when the train starts production 2030. In total, Rio Grande LNG can export up to 1.32 trillion cubic feet a year of natural gas equivalent - 27 MMtpa of LNG from trains I to V - to FTA and non-FTA countries until 2050. DOE granted authorization through orders first issued - later amended - August 2016 for the portion for countries with a free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S. and February 2020 for the non-FTA portion. TotalEnergies says it is the biggest exporter of U.S. LNG, with over 10 million metric tons exported from the country last year.

EPA responds to oily waste spill near Tangipahoa River after explosion and fire at Smitty's Supply - YouTube

Gov. Landry urges swift cleanup after Roseland oil spill — Gov. Jeff Landry and other state and local leaders are providing an update on the cleanup efforts in Roseland. New drone video shows a large amount of oil in several lakes near the Smitty's explosion site. Gov. Landry posted to his social media Sunday, urging the recovery process to be fast-tracked. The explosion at Smitty's Supply happened roughly six weeks ago and sent millions of gallons of oil into the community. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says nearly 79 million gallons of oily liquid have been picked up between the Tangipahoa River, the Smitty's site, and nearby ponds. The EPA is hosting office hours today at the Independence Public Library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tomorrow, they will be at the Amite City Hall and the Ponchatoula Library for those with questions for the agency or in need of guidance or assistance.

U.S. Gulf Coast Fuel Oil Imports Hit 25-Year High As Sanctions Change Flows -- Fuel oil imports into the U.S. Gulf Coast surged in September to the highest level in a quarter century, reflecting the impact of sanctions constrainingVenezuelan and Russian crude exports and forcing refiners to improvise with alternative feedstocks.Ship-tracking data from Kpler cited by Reuters show the Gulf Coast imported about 541,000 barrels per day of fuel oil last month, the strongest inflow since 2000. Refiners configured for heavy sour crudes are increasingly relying on residual fuel oil to keep coking units supplied.At the same time, crude imports into the Gulf fell to roughly 880,000 barrels per day, the lowest since late 2022. Domestic fuel oil inventories have tightened as well, dropping to just over 20.6 million barrels, levels well below pre-Ukraine war norms.The shortfall is being met by Middle Eastern producers, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq redirecting cargoes to the U.S. freed up by a seasonal decline in their own power-burn demand. Reuters cited traders pointing to a notable increase in spot availability from the region, with some volumes also moving from Asia and North Africa.On Thursday, Hoa Nguyen of Sparta Commodities told Reuters that “there is way more availability of high-sulfur residuals right now, which the U.S. refining system is hungry for and which will help boost the diesel yield.” Another Gulf Coast refining source told Reuters that the trend is “driven by declining supplies of heavy crude, particularly from U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela”. The increase in imports comes as global fuel oil demand itself is rising, supported by longer tanker voyages around the Red Sea and a growing “shadow fleet” moving sanctioned barrels. These factors are feeding into the Gulf Coast shift, creating tighter links between global shipping markets and U.S. refinery operations.

U.S. drilling slows as high operating costs, low oil prices and capital restraint motivate operators --In the first half of 2025, U.S. oil and gas drilling slowed down, as companies cut back on the number of rigs, especially in major areas like the Permian and Eagle Ford. Oil prices were unpredictable, so operators focused on spending cautiously. Production levels stayed steady, thanks to technology improvements—such as drilling longer wells and using more advanced completion techniques—but companies chose to buy smaller rivals or assets (“bolt-on” deals), rather than spend heavily on brand-new drilling projects. Natural gas drilling was weaker, even though demand for U.S. LNG exports and related infrastructure continued to grow. At the same time, high equipment costs, supply chain delays, permitting hurdles, and some job cuts limited how much producers could increase activity, even with high-quality drilling prospects. . While many operators hoped for fast-tracked projects and more profitable margins under President Trump, decisions by the new presidential administration in first-half 2025 have presented both pros and cons for drillers. Early in the term, executive orders, such as Unleashing American Energy and Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential reversed several Biden-era restrictions, reopening federal leasing and expediting permitting. On the other hand, tariffs have presented hurdles, particularly for operators in the Permian basin, where high duties on steel and aluminum have increased costs for critical equipment and materials. Meanwhile, energy trade tensions — including tariffs on energy imports from Canada and Mexico — introduced uncertainty into supply chains and raised input costs for producers. On the regulatory front, proposals under Trump, such as ending mandatory greenhouse gas reporting and aggressively reducing environmental review timelines signal further shifts aimed at lowering compliance burdens for operators. Trump also established the National Energy Dominance Council, chaired by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Fig. 1. Collectively, these actions have sought to lower barriers and costs for drilling, production, and infrastructure development in 2025, but operational challenges, material price inflation and other external factors have created roadblocks. Internationally, several geopolitical factors have added uncertainty to the U.S. oil and gas market. Increased sanctions on Russian oil, ongoing Middle East tensions, global trade policies and a wave of production increases from OPEC+ have caused oil prices to swing. While this has influenced capex planning and hedging, U.S. operators have largely stayed disciplined, keeping drilling activity steady-to-lower.

US Oil, Gas Drillers Pause Amid Oil Price Drop -The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States stayed the same this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday. The total rig count in the US stayed the same at 549 according to Baker Hughes, down 36 from this same time last year.The number of active oil rigs fell in the week, according to the data, to 422. Year over year, this represents a 57-rig decline. The number of gas rigs rose by 1 to 118 active rigs, which is 16 over this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count rose by 1 to 9.The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production rose in the week ending September 26, from 13.501 million bpd to 13.505 million bpd. Average weekly oil production in the United States is now 57,000 barrel per day under where it was at the beginning of the year.Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells rose for week ending September 26 to 179—the fourth weekly rise. This is 17 crews above the four-year low. The Permian Basin fell by 2 to 251 this week, which is 53 rigs under year-ago levels. The count in the Eagle Ford stayed the same at 45, which is just 3 less than this same time last year. At 12:59 p.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.70 per barrel (+1.16%) on the day at $61.18, a figure that is $4.60 under the level from this time last week as the market waits for news of OPEC+’s production decision at their virtual meeting scheduled for this Sunday. The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.68 (+1.06%) on Friday at $64.79.

AXP Energy finds oil and gas across multiple zones in Oklahoma well - AXP Energy has confirmed hydrocarbons across several pay zones in its Charlie #1 well, located on the Edward Lease in Noble County, Oklahoma. The well reached total vertical depth of 4,725 ft on Sept. 22, and a full suite of wireline logs was successfully run before 5½-in. casing was set and cemented. The logs identified oil and gas shows in four key intervals: the Oswego Lime (3,776–3,806 ft), Mississippi Chat (4,293–4,317 ft), Mississippi Lime (4,403–4,623 ft) and Woodford Shale (4,623–4,662 ft). The Mississippi Lime showed the most extensive presence, with hydrocarbon indicators across 260 ft. Completion operations are now being designed, with staged hydraulic fracturing of the Mississippi Lime set to begin the week of Oct. 20, 2025. First production is expected by the end of the month. AXP Energy Managing Director and CEO Dan Lanskey said the company is focused on moving quickly to bring Charlie #1 into production. “We are working with our contractors to design a multi-stage frac job across key intervals of the Mississippi Lime. This well confirms the highly prospective nature of this formation across our lease holdings,” Lanskey said. The Edward Lease covers about 1,000 acres, with AXP holding 100% working interest and 81.25% net revenue interest. Additional wells are planned over the next 12 months to further appraise and develop the 300-ft-thick Mississippi Lime formation, which is laterally extensive across the region. The Charlie #1 well represents an important step in AXP’s ongoing strategy to expand its position in Oklahoma’s mature producing basins, leveraging modern completion techniques to maximize recoveries from historically productive formations.

U.S. Pipeline Company Fined for Massive Gasoline Spill in Walnut Creek, California -- A subsidiary of a major energy company will pay a six-figure penalty for spilling more than 40,000 gallons of gasoline from a pipeline in Walnut Creek, California, according to a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.SFPP, L.P., a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, Inc., agreed to pay a $213,560 penalty to resolve claims of Clean Water Act violations following the 2021 spill. The gasoline discharge contaminated local soil and water, posing a significant threat to the environment.“Pipeline operators must be held accountable when they discharge gasoline into our environment,” said Amy Miller, EPA Pacific Southwest Region Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Director. “This enforcement action sends a clear message: companies must properly operate and maintain their pipelines to prevent spills.”EPA claimed SFPP discharged gasoline in quantities that could be harmful to the environment, breaching the federal law requiring companies that transport petroleum to properly operate and maintain their pipelines to prevent spills. If a spill does occur, the law mandates that companies contain it immediately to prevent environmental harm. Meanwhile, SFPP is conducting ongoing cleanup work to address the environmental impacts of the oil spill, a process coordinated with the Regional Water Quality Control Board. SFPP operates pipelines and terminals that transport refined petroleum products, natural gas, and other energy products across North America. The EPA emphasised that it takes its responsibility to protect communities and waterways from petroleum discharges seriously. The last settlement follows a similar incident in March 2023, when a group of international shipping companies, as well as their subsidiaries, agreed to pay Amplify Energy Corp. $96.5 million to settle the last lawsuit over a massive oil spill off the Southern California coast in October 2021.

Massive fire, explosion rock Chevron refinery in El Segundo - Los Angeles Times -An explosion and fire rocked a refinery in El Segundo on Thursday night, sending up massive flames that could be seen for miles. The city of El Segundo said there was no public threat or evacuation orders, even as several local fire departments continued to work to suppress flames at the major Chevron refinery, located just off the Pacific Coast Highway. By Friday morning, the fire had slowed considerably, but investigators were still trying to determine what caused it. No one was hurt, although the power of the blast rattled people in surrounding areas. As the sun rose Friday, a portion of the refinery still showed flames but there appeared to be little visible damage. Officials they were also monitoring air quality levels for pollution and dangerous contaminants. El Segundo officials called the fire contained as of 7 a.m. Friday, but said it was not fully extinguished. The blaze originated in a processing unit of the refinery. Videos taken when the explosion occurred around 9:30 p.m. showed a massive fireball erupt amid a loud, extended roar. But over the next hour, the blaze died down considerably and the skies largely cleared even while bright, strong flames continued to burn near the southern portion of Chevron’s plant. Chevron released a statement calling it an “isolated fire” and that “all refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries.” “No evacuation orders for area residents have been put in place by emergency response agencies monitoring the incident, and no exceedances have been detected by the facilities fence line monitoring system,” the statement said. Chevron did not offer updates on the amount of damage caused and whether the blaze would affect refinery operations. Thursday night, massive plumes of smoke and a neon orange hue spread across the sky, visible in El Segundo and other South Bay communities. The refinery has its own fire department, and other regional agencies assisted in the response. In north Redondo Beach, smoke billowed across a glowing sky. Traffic was diverted away from the scene while road closures were put in place along Rosecrans Avenue from Vista Del Mar to Pacific Coast Highway and along Pacific Coast Highway from Rosecrans Avenue to El Segundo Boulevard. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom were each briefed on the incident Thursday night. Bass said there was no known impact to Los Angeles International Airport in a statement on X. The governor’s office said on X that it was coordinating with local and state agencies to protect the surrounding community and ensure public safety.Refinery fires are part of life in the South Bay, which is home to several major oil production facilities.In 2022, it took firefighters two hours to put out a fire at the El Segundo facility. In 2020, a fire at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in Carson sent flames at least 100 feet into the air and sparked hours of concern. But the fire was eventually gotten under control and did little major damage to refinery operations. The Chevron refinery is considered the largest on the West Coast. It remains unclear how the fire might impact the global oil market. Reuters reported that the overall market might not be hit but California gas prices could rise.

Fire at Chevron refinery sends massive flames shooting into Southern California night sky -A massive fire erupted at an oil refinery in Southern California Thursday night. Firefighters were dispatched around 9:35 p.m. to the Chevron refinery in El Segundo after receiving calls of smoke in the area, according to authorities. Billowing smoke and orange flames could be seen in the sky for miles across theSouth Bay Area. Fire Division Chief Casey Snow with the El Segundo Fire Department told Fox News Digital that some of the products – gasoline and diesel – were burning. Witnesses described the fiery scene as visible for miles. "So I saw the sky turn orange, and I was just wondering, like, what the h--- happened. What is that? And then I saw the whole explosion happen. It was just like a whole mushroom cloud of fire. It just started popping up," Miguel Morales, told Fox News Digital.Snow said crews contained the flames to the refinery and were focusing on preventing the fire from spreading."It’s contained to the Chevron refinery, so there’s no hazard to the adjacent cities or residents in El Segundo or Manhattan Beach," Snow said. "Units on scene are working to depressurize and isolate the incident and suppress the fire." He also noted that while it is a "waiting game" because of what's burning, there is no threat to residents in surrounding cities at this time."It’s just a waiting game right now because there’s residual gasoline and diesel that’s going to burn, and there’s not much we can do about it. We’re just keeping everything around it cool and trying to depressurize it, and eventually that gasoline will burn out and we’ll be in good shape," Snow said.He added that there are no injuries to report, which was also confirmed by a Chevron spokesperson."All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries," Allison Cook said in a statement to Fox News Digital.She added, "No evacuation orders for area residents have been put in place by emergency response agencies monitoring the incident, and no exceedances have been detected by the facilities fence line monitoring system." The refinery is one of the largest on the West Coast and serves as a critical hub for the region’s fuel supply. It spans about 2 square miles and processes crude oil into jet fuel, gasoline and other petroleum products.

Cause of massive Chevron refinery fire in California still unknown | KTLA -A massive blaze that erupted and burned throughout the night at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo appears to be under control Friday morning, but the investigation into what caused the fire has yet to begin. Residents reported hearing an explosion, with some even saying that their houses shook when the fire broke out around 9:30 p.m. “It felt like an earthquake,” said resident Jax Nellor. Multiple fires could still be seen burning at the refinery as Sky5 was overhead at 4:30 a.m. on Friday. “It’s looking a bit better this morning, but they are still putting water on it,” KTLA’s Erin Myers reported. “Some smoke and some fire are still very active.” The City of El Segundo issued a statement Friday morning indicating that the fire was under control, but any investigation into the cause would have to wait. “The fire originated at a process unit at the southeast corner of the refinery. The fire is contained, but fire crews continue to work to fully extinguish the incident. Once the fire is safely extinguished, Chevron will launch an investigation to determine the cause,” a portion of the statement read. Thursday night, the massive fire at the refinery on 324 West El Segundo Boulevard sent flames so high that they were seen from Pepperdine University in Malibu, more than 20 miles away. The refinery’s fire department was able to prevent the flames from spreading to other parts of the facility by using water lines to douse the fire. Roads around the refinery were closed and shelter-in-place orders were given Thursday night, but they have all been lifted. No evacuation orders were issued. Officials recommend that residents keep doors and windows closed due to potential air quality issues, but as of early Friday morning, air quality in the area was still good. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she was monitoring the situation. Governor Gavin Newsom also released a statement on X, saying state officials were aware of the blaze. “Our office is coordinating in real time with local and state agencies to protect the surrounding community and ensure public safety,” the statement read. A refinery spokesperson has confirmed that all personnel have been accounted for and no injuries were reported.

US refinery fire incidents so far in 2025 (Reuters) - A fire broke out in a jet fuel unit at Chevron's 285,000 barrel-per-day El Segundo refinery near Los Angeles on Thursday, sending flames and smoke into the air. No injuries were reported and all workers at the refinery were accounted for, Chevron said in an email. The fire broke out in the refinery's Isomax 7 unit, which converts mid-distillate fuel oil into jet fuel, two sources said. Isomax 7 produces jet fuel along with the refinery’s two crude distillation units for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Chevron's second-biggest refinery in the United States, the El Segundo facility supplies a fifth of all motor vehicle fuels and 40% of the jet fuel consumed in southern California. In the U.S. so far in 2025, there have been several refinery fire incidents. Below are key details:

Phillips 66 to Take $100 Million Charge as It Idles Los Angeles Refinery, Retires Midstream Assets Phillips 66 will book $100 million in charges as it winds down its 139,000-bpd Los Angeles refinery by year-end, including $30 million tied to its midstream segment for retiring transportation assets. The refinery received its final crude shipment Sept. 30, with processing to end in mid-October. (Reuters) — U.S. oil refiner Phillips 66 expects to book about $100 million of charges to idle its 139,000-barrel-per-day Los Angeles-area refinery, which will cease operations by year-end, the company said on Oct. 1. These include around $70 million to mitigate groundwater contamination, and about $30 million for its midstream segment to retire transportation assets. "Several process units have been placed in an idle state. The remaining units will be idled in a phased manner through the end of 2025," the Houston-based company said. The refinery received its last waterborne crude on Sept. 30. The final crude processing date is expected to be in mid-October. Phillips 66 began winding down its Los Angeles refinery in September.

EIA Forecast Oil Price Falls Gas Price Rises Renewables Surge -The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, projecting notable shifts in global energy markets through 2026. The independent report highlights declining oil and gasoline prices amid oversupply, rising natural gas costs, and robust growth in electricity demand—driven largely by renewables. The EIA forecasts a significant drop in global oil prices over the coming months, citing rising stockpiles as a primary driver. Brent crude, a key benchmark, averaged $68 per barrel in August 2025. Prices are projected to fall to around $59 per barrel in the final quarter of 2025 and hover near $50 per barrel in early 2026. The agency predicts an annual average of $68 for 2025, dropping to $51 in 2026. The decline is attributed to production outpacing demand. OPEC+ nations, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, plan output increases, adding to supply from non-OPEC producers such as the U.S., Brazil, Canada, and Guyana. Global oil inventories are expected to rise by 1.7 million barrels per day in 2025 and 1.6 million in 2026, with some oil potentially stored offshore—further weighing on prices. Global oil demand is projected to grow slowly, by 0.9 million barrels per day in 2025 and 1.3 million in 2026, mainly driven by Asia. However, geopolitical tensions, including the situation in Ukraine and trade disputes, could alter this outlook. U.S. crude production is forecast to peak at 13.4 million barrels per day in 2025, declining slightly to 13.3 million in 2026 as lower prices limit drilling activity. Lower oil prices are expected to ease costs at the pump. The average U.S. retail price for regular gasoline is projected to decline from $3.30 per gallon in 2024 to $3.10 in 2025 and $2.90 in 2026—the lowest annual average since before the pandemic, excluding the West Coast. As a share of disposable income, gasoline spending is forecast to drop below 2%, down from roughly 2.4% over the past decade, leaving more room for household expenses like groceries and leisure. Gasoline consumption is expected to rise slightly by 0.3% in 2026, reflecting updated Census data showing a larger working-age population and the incentive of lower fuel costs. Unlike oil, natural gas prices are set to rise. The Henry Hub benchmark averaged $2.91 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in August 2025, lower than expected due to high production and reduced power-generation use. Prices are forecast to reach $3.70/MMBtu in late 2025, averaging $3.50 for the year, and climb to $4.30 in 2026. Rising costs are linked to steady U.S. production and growing demand, particularly from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. U.S. LNG shipments are projected to increase from 12 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2024 to 16 Bcf/d in 2026, supported by new facilities including Plaquemines Phase 2 and Corpus Christi Stage 3. Total U.S. natural gas consumption is expected to reach 91.4 Bcf/d in 2026, with the power sector remaining the largest consumer at 40%. Electricity consumption is accelerating, driven by data centers, industrial activity, and general usage. The EIA projects a 2.3% increase in 2025 and 3.0% in 2026, higher than previous estimates. Solar power will account for most of this growth, increasing renewables’ share of U.S. electricity from 23% in 2024 to 26% in 2026, while wind and hydropower contribute modestly. Natural gas remains the top source at 40%, though generation may fall 3% in 2025 due to higher prices. Coal sees a temporary 9% increase in 2025 before declining, while nuclear stays steady at 18–19%, supported by the restart of Michigan’s Palisades plant. The U.S. economy is forecast to expand 1.7% in 2025 and 2.4% in 2026, slightly higher than previous predictions. CO2 emissions from energy use are expected to rise 1.5% in 2025 due to increased coal burning, then fall 0.5% in 2026. Overall emissions are projected to remain flat compared to 2024. The EIA cautions that uncertainties—including OPEC+ policy decisions, weather events, and geopolitical tensions—could influence market dynamics. The outlook was finalized before OPEC+’s September 7 announcement of a minor production increase in October 2025, which may further affect prices. The report underscores a shifting energy landscape: consumers can anticipate cheaper fuels, while producers face challenges amid rising supply, evolving demand, and the growing influence of renewable energy.

Things Have Changed - Rebound in U.S. Crude Exports Driven By Shifts in Production, Imports, Refinery Runs - After setting an annual record of 4.1 MMb/d in 2024, U.S. crude exports started off this year relatively strong, but cracks soon began to show, with volumes falling all the way to 3.2 MMb/d in July, one of the weakest months since 2023. But just when it seemed the momentum was gone, Gulf Coast exports rebounded to near 3.9 MMb/d in August and are topping 4.1 MMb/d so far in September. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how shifts in production, imports and refinery runs have impacted U.S. crude exports. On paper, the math behind the U.S. supply/demand crude oil balance is straightforward: Production + Imports = Refinery Demand + Exports. Figure 1 below shows the U.S. balance in 2024 (left side) versus what we’ve seen so far, on average, in 2025 (right side). Every piece of this equation has been shifting under our feet in 2025, with a notable change in the export market — a critical factor in balancing trade. So what’s really going on and what contributes to these changes? Let’s take a tour through the pieces of the above supply/demand balance to see what’s changed since 2024. For the better part of a decade, U.S. shale was the growth story in global oil. But 2025 is showing us what happens when that engine starts to sputter. In 2024, U.S. production edged about 2% higher, averaging 13.2 MMb/d, with the Permian Basin continuing to shoulder most of the growth and offshore production from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM; see Take a Chance on Me) displacing some medium sour crude imports. By early 2025, production pushed up to around 13.5 MMb/d. But since then, things have leveled off. Efficiency gains that once delivered double-digit growth rates are harder to come by. Resource quality is slipping in some plays, capital discipline remains a priority for operators (see Here Comes the Rain Again), and service costs have stayed sticky. Despite continued increases in U.S. production the last few years, the rate of growth has been slowing as we near our 2025 year-to-date (YTD) average of 13.5 MMb/d. Imports are the other side of the supply picture, and here the story has shifted in a big way with the startup of Canada’s Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX). TMX, which came online in May 2024, nearly tripled the pipeline system’s capacity from 300 Mb/d to 890 Mb/d. That change gave Canadian producers something they’ve been chasing for years: direct marine access to the Pacific Coast. Suddenly, barrels that once had to flow south into the U.S. for re-export could head west straight to Asia (see Did You Ever Know That You’re My Hero?). That shift has real implications for U.S. markets. Canadian crude, especially Western Canadian Select (WCS), no longer needs to be priced at steep discounts just to move south to Gulf Coast refiners. And, because they now have a closer outlet, these barrels are less likely to flow down to the Gulf Coast to be placed on ships for re-export. With more direct access to tidewater, Canadian producers can compete directly in Asian markets (see Both Sides Now), sometimes undercutting U.S. barrels thanks to shorter shipping routes. For U.S. exporters, that means more competition abroad and, at times, fewer Canadian heavy barrels available on the Gulf Coast. The result? Narrower discounts for WCS and tighter margins for U.S. sellers. Crude isn’t just crude … the quality matters. Refiners pay close attention to API gravity and sulfur content (see The Weight), which broadly divide oils into light sweet and heavy sour grades. Light sweet crudes (like WTI, Eagle Ford and Brent) are simpler to refine, produce lots of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, and generally trade at a premium. Heavy sour crudes (like WCS, Mexico’s Maya, Iraq’s Basrah Heavy and Venezuela’s Merey) are tougher to process, yield more residual products, and usually trade at a discount. The spread between light and heavy is representative of whether it’s more profitable to run light barrels (simpler, but usually more expensive) or heavy barrels (more complex, but often discounted). When heavy supply gets tighter, as it has been recently with less supply from Canada (TMX startup), Venezuela (sanctions; more on that below) and Mexico (production issues), refiners that have these grades as part of their diet bid up the price, narrowing the discount. The numbers tell the story. In June, WCS in the Gulf Coast averaged a discount of just $2.88/bbl to the NYMEX calendar-month average (CMA), a far cry from the $7.81/bbl discount a year earlier or the $14-$17/bbl range seen in early 2023. Within the last month, however, these spreads have started to widen out again (far right of blue line in Figure 2 below) but are still far from the previous levels seen in 2023-24. This narrower spread compared to 2024 has increased the attractiveness of light barrels to refiners in the Gulf Coast, leading to them running more light crude in the summer months than normal and reducing the number of barrels heading onto ships for export.

Analysts See Remote Chance of Winter LNG Market Tightness as Oversupply Extends Into 2026 - The continued easing of global price volatility and a consistent glut of U.S. cargoes available to fill European storage has pushed LNG freight rates to seasonal lows at the beginning of the heating season.Chart showing spot LNG vessel rates in USD per day as of September 30, 2025, from Fearnleys. Rates for 174k XDF/MEGI carriers are $23,000 West and $27,000 East. Rates for 155k–165k TFDE carriers are $12,000 West and $14,000 East. Rates for 138k–145k steam turbine carriers are $4,000 in both West and East. Pacific, Middle East, and Atlantic voyage parameters all include 100% fuel and 100% hire on ballast bonus to load port. At A Glance:
Spot LNG vessel rates hit seasonal low
U.S. LNG to Europe reaches 2.5 Mt
JKM, TTF spread narrows

Supply Disruptions, Weather and Geopolitical Tensions Loom Despite Stable Global Gas Prices — LNG Recap --European and Asian natural gas prices were trading in the same range they have been for the past month as the week got underway, and fundamentals remained largely unchanged on Monday. At A Glance:
TTF, JKM Stuck Near $11
Arctic LNG 2 cargoes adding to supply mix
French strikes disrupting LNG imports

Canada’s Cedar LNG Plans for Higher Capacity — The Offtake --A look at the global natural gas and LNG markets by the numbers

• 1.2 Bcf/d: FERC has approved a request from Caturus Energy LLC to begin site prep for the proposed 9.5 million tons/year (Mt/y) Commonwealth LNG terminal in Louisiana. Commonwealth is currently unsanctioned, but Caturus is one of a growing list of U.S. developers vying to be the fifth company to reach a final investment decision on a U.S. project this year. At peak operation, the facility could add roughly 1.2 Bcf/d in feed gas demand to the Gulf Coast market by early 2029.
• 36 trains: Venture Global Inc. has begun introducing nitrogen to Block 17 at its Plaquemines LNG facility after an order granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The introduction of nitrogen is usually shortly followed by a request to introduce feed gas, launching early production activities. The block of two modular liquefaction trains is the final pair of Plaquemines’ 36 trains to begin commissioning. At peak capacity, the facility could create between 2.6-3.2 Bcf/d in feed gas demand for the Gulf Coast market.
• 10 Mt/y: A fourth midscale train at Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi Stage 3 expansion project has been undergoing startup activities, according to a filing with Texas environmental regulators. The Houston-based company told state officials flaring and other commissioning activities could last up to a year as crews bring the 0.626 Mt/y capacity train online. Once complete, all seven trains of Stage 3 would increase export capacity at Corpus Christi LNG by 10 Mt/y.
• 500 MMcf/d: Cedar LNG Partners LP disclosed it is planning to seek federal approval from Canadian energy regulators to upsize the capacity of its proposed LNG export project in British Columbia to 500 MMcf/d. The project partners, led by the Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline Corp., were originally approved to export 400 MMcf/d. The floating LNG unit currently under construction in South Korea could add around 3.8 Mt/y in export capacity to Canada’s growing BC LNG hub by 2028.

MidOcean to Acquire 20% Stake in PETRONAS’ Canadian LNG Assets (P&GJ) — MidOcean Energy, an LNG company managed by EIG, has agreed to acquire a 20% interest in PETRONAS’ Canadian upstream and LNG assets. The deal includes stakes in the North Montney Upstream Joint Venture (NMJV) and the North Montney LNG Limited Partnership (NMLLP), which holds PETRONAS’ 25% share in the LNG Canada project. LNG Canada, the country’s first LNG export terminal, shipped its first cargo earlier this year and is considered a cornerstone project for supplying Asian markets at competitive costs. The NMJV spans more than 800,000 gross acres and holds an estimated 53 trillion cubic feet of reserves and contingent resources. Upon closing, MidOcean will gain exposure across the LNG value chain, from upstream development in the North Montney to liquefaction and export through LNG Canada. The deal also secures MidOcean about 0.7 MTPA of LNG offtake, with growth potential if LNG Canada moves ahead with a second phase. “This transaction marks an important milestone in MidOcean’s growth journey,” said R. Blair Thomas, MidOcean Chairman and EIG CEO. “We are proud to join PETRONAS in its efforts to deliver reliable, low-cost LNG to global markets.” De la Rey Venter, CEO of MidOcean, added: “This investment is a clear reflection of our conviction in the future of LNG and its long-term role to help deliver global energy security and to underpin a practical and affordable energy transition.” The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approvals.

MidOcean Secures LNG Canada, Montney Positions in Petronas Deal - MidOcean Energy LLC said Tuesday it would acquire an indirect stake in the LNG Canada export terminal for an undisclosed amount as part of a broader agreement with Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad, or Petronas.
Map of Western Canada highlighting natural gas pipelines and LNG facilities, including operational, under construction, and proposed export terminals. Key shale plays such as Montney and Duvernay in Alberta and British Columbia are shown, along with major hubs like Westcoast Station 2, NOVA/AECO C, Kingsgate, and Northwest Sumas. The map uses colored lines to distinguish operational and proposed pipelines, and symbols to mark LNG facilities and price index locations.At A Glance:
Agreement includes 700,000 tons of offtake
Potential for more if phase 2 sanctioned
MidOcean to gain Canadian upstream exposure

KKR Weighs $7 Billion Sale of 40% Stake in Pembina Gas Infrastructure --The Canadian midstream operator controls key natural gas and NGL processing, storage and transportation assets in the Montney and Duvernay regions. (Reuters) — KKR is exploring a potential sale of its 40% stake in Pembina Gas Infrastructure, with its holding in the Canadian midstream operator expected to be valued at around $7 billion, four people familiar with the matter said on Oct. 1. Pembina Gas Infrastructure was formed in 2022 as a joint venture between the investment firm and Pembina Pipeline Corp., and owns natural gas and natural gas liquids transportation, processing and storage infrastructure in western Canada. KKR has been working with investment bankers at Scotiabank in recent weeks to solicit potential buyer interest in the stake, said the sources, who cautioned that no sale was guaranteed and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information. KKR and Scotiabank declined comment. Pembina Pipeline did not respond to comment requests. The KKR stake in Pembina Gas Infrastructure is expected to attract interest from other alternative asset managers and infrastructure funds, the sources said. Such buyers are drawn to minority stakes in such assets because they can pocket steady returns from the revenues earned without needing operational knowledge. Opportunities to own substantial stakes in large-scale Canadian pipeline assets are rare, which gives the Pembina Gas stake additional scarcity value, the sources added. Deal activity has remained strong for the Canadian energy sector this year, gaining attention from investors as companies seek to consolidate and build scale on growing demand for infrastructure and energy projects to meet rising energy needs. When Pembina Gas was formed, the parties said the venture was worth around C$11.4 billion ($8.17 billion) in total, meaning an exit for KKR at the mooted price would be significantly profitable for the investment firm. Since formation, Pembina Gas has grown through bringing built projects online and acquiring further assets. Pembina Gas has capacity to process around 5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, with assets within both the Montney and Duvernay shale formations, according to its website.

Shell Prepares to Double Output Capacity at LNG Canada Project -Shell is preparing to start production of liquefied natural gas from the second train at its installation in British Columbia, set to boost the total output from the facility by 6.5 million tons. The news comes as unnamed sources told Reuters this week that Shell and its partners at LNG Canada were still having trouble ramping up output from the first train of the facility. Train 1 has been having technical difficulties since June, the Reuters sources told the publication, which has meant it was operating at less than half of its capacity, which is also 6.5 million tons annually. The publication cited an LNG Canada spokesman as saying that the 14th cargo to set off from the facility had been loaded in September and in a few days another one would depart from Kitimat. Reuters reported that the September export total from LNG Canada was estimated at 300,000 tons, per LSEG data, down from 400,000 tons in August. LNG Canada’s peak capacity is planned at 14 million tons of liquefied gas per year. Backed by Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi, and Kogas, LNG Canada is expected to redirect a portion of Canadian gas exports—currently flowing almost entirely to the U.S.—toward global markets. The price tag of the project is $40 billion. Construction of the first train took seven years. The first cargo set off from Kitimat in June this year. The project is a joint venture between Shell, with 40%, Malaysia’s Petronas with 25%, Mitsubishi Corp. with 15%, Korea Gas Corp. with 5%, and PetroChina with 15%. The facility will process 1.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day—a significant chunk of Canada’s output. Meanwhile, another LNG project is moving slowly to construction. The Ksi Lisims project received an environmental assessment certificate earlier this year from the government of British Columbia, and it has also received approval from the federal government of Canada.

Shell-Led LNG Canada Begins Train 2 Startup Amid Ongoing Issues at Train 1 - -The $40 billion project, North America’s first West Coast LNG export facility, is struggling to ease Western Canada’s gas glut as pipeline congestion and storage levels weigh on prices. (Reuters) — Shell-led LNG Canada has begun the process of starting up its second 6.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) liquefied natural gas processing unit known as Train 2 in Kitimat, British Columbia, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday. The startup of Train 2, however, is happening as the company continues to experience technical problems at Train 1, according to two people with knowledge of its operations. The train was reported by sources to have technical issues in July, a month after it had started first production. LNG Canada is the first major LNG export facility in Canada, and the first on the west coast of North America that provides direct access to Asia, the world's largest LNG market. The facility took almost seven years to be built and has been operating at less than half its stated capacity, the people said. "We have had to swap out the supercore, and while string 2 is running, string 1 is down," one of the two people told Reuters. When asked about the technical issues, the company spokesperson pointed to ongoing export activity at the terminal and said flaring that started on September 11 had ended. "A 14th cargo departed the LNG Canada facility on September 30. A 15th cargo is expected to depart in the coming days," the spokesperson said. In September, LNG Canada exported less of the superchilled gas than the month before, with only four cargoes leaving the port for a total export of just under 0.3 million metric tons compared with the 0.4 million tons it sold in August, according to preliminary ship tracking data from financial firm LSEG. When fully operational, the facility is expected to convert about 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day (Bcf/d) to LNG, which market participants have hoped will boost Canadian natural gas prices.The slow ramp-up of LNG Canada, however, has contributed to daily spot prices slumping to record lows last week, as it has failed so far to drain a gas glut that built in anticipation of increasing demand from the plant, causing pipeline congestion. Gas storage in Western Canada remains at last year's record highs, according to investment bank Jefferies, and Reuters reported last week that some gas producers are aggressively cutting output in an effort to ease an ongoing glut. LNG Canada is a joint venture between Shell, Malaysia's Petronas, PetroChina, Japan's Mitsubishi Corp., and South Korea's KOGAS. On Sept. 30, MidOcean - an LNG company backed by EIG and Saudi Aramco - announced a plan to buy a fifth of the Petronas venture that holds a 25% share of LNG Canada.

Alberta to Seek Federal Fast-Track for New Oil Pipeline to British Columbia Coast (Reuters) — Alberta announced on Oct. 1 it will submit by spring of 2026 an application for a new crude oil pipeline for fast-track approval by the federal government, even without a private company to build the project. Canada's main oil-producing province said it will act as the formal proponent for the proposal, taking the lead on early planning and engineering work aimed at determining the route, size and cost of a pipeline. Alberta's government said the proposed pipeline could carry up to 1 million barrels per day of crude to British Columbia's northwest coast for export. It will invest C$14 million ($10.04 million) to develop a credible proposal for federal consideration, and will work with Canadian pipeline companies Enbridge, South Bow and government-owned Trans Mountain, which have agreed to provide advice and technical support, Alberta said. None of the companies have committed to building the pipeline or investing in such a project, and Alberta Deputy Energy Minister Larry Kaumeyer told reporters Wednesday the government has no intention of building or owning a pipeline. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "The objective of the Alberta government is to get it to the starting gate," Kaumeyer said, adding that in spite of growing Canadian oil production, no private sector company is willing to take the risk of proposing a pipeline project. In recent years, major Canadian oil pipelines have faced years of regulatory delay and legal challenges, leading to cancellations for some projects and spiraling costs for others, like the Trans Mountain expansion that opened last year. But Canada - which currently sends 90% of its oil exports to the U.S. - is now trying to diversify oil exports in part to protect its economy against tariffs. The Canadian government under Prime Minister Mark Carney aims to accelerate the construction of natural resource projects, and in August created a new federal office designed to fast-track the review and approval of projects such as mines and pipelines. If a pipeline proposal were to be approved for fast-tracking, Kaumeyer said, then a private sector partner is likely to feel confident enough to step forward and take over the project from the Alberta government. "We are confident that there will be private capital that comes to build this pipeline," he said. Pipeline companies have repeatedly said significant federal legislative change — including the removal of a federal cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, as well as the removal of a ban on oil tankers off B.C.'s northern coast — is required before a private sector entity would consider proposing a new pipeline. Kaumeyer said the federal government has been made aware that Alberta will be putting forward a pipeline proposal and that Alberta and Canada are in "ongoing discussions" about the matter.

Major road still shut for repairs after oil spill -- A main road will remain closed into the weekend to fix "extensive" damage caused by a spill from an oil tanker, a council has confirmed. The A37 is shut near Chelwood in Somerset, between the junction with the B3130 and the turn off for Birchwood Lane, for emergency repairs according to Bath and North East Somerset Council. Avon and Somerset Police said the spillage, which happened at about 08:00 BST on Thursday, also led to a three-vehicle collision. Drivers have been told to follow the official diversion and avoid using narrow country lanes in the area..

LNG Demand for Marine Fuel Set to Skyrocket by 2030 - Global LNG demand growth will be supported not only by higher power and gas consumption but also by surging demand from the shipping industry, where liquefied natural gas is poised to become key to replacing the dirtier fuel oil and other oil-based marine fuels. Demand for LNG bunkering is expected to at least double by the end of the decade, industry executives and experts have told Reuters. “LNG is great because the infrastructure is there. It's readily available ... maybe later on it's going to be, hopefully, quite cheap as well,” Tuomas Maljanen, associate director for LNG and new energy at shipbroker Fearnleys, told Reuters. According to Jo Friedmann, senior vice president of supply chain research at Rystad Energy, demand for LNG as a marine fuel could top 4 million tons by the end of this year, and double by 2030. LNG is pulling ahead of renewable ammonia and methanol as the preferred choice for ships now that regulations say that the industry must either install the so-called scrubbers if vessels use high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO), or run the ships on cleaner alternatives such as methanol, LNG, or ammonia. In addition, the EU has a new regulation, FuelEU Maritime, which came into effect on January 1, 2025 and sets maximum limits for the yearly average greenhouse gas intensity of the energy used by ships above 5,000 gross tonnage calling at European ports, regardless of their flag. This new regulation is expected to drive demand for LNG as a marine fuel as renewable ammonia and methanol are in early-stage development and lack extensive infrastructure, analysts say. Maersk, the Denmark-based shipping giant, late last year ordered 20 container vessels equipped with dual-fuel engines, with all ships equipped with liquefied gas dual-fuel propulsion systems. Until 2024, Maersk was betting only on green methanol as a fuel to replace fuel oil and reduce its carbon footprint.

Greenpeace Blockade Forces LNG Tanker Diversions From Belgian Terminal --Greenpeace activists from 17 countries blockaded Belgium’s Zeebrugge LNG terminal on Thursday, forcing at least three tankers to divert. Protesters in kayaks, inflatables, and small craft occupied the channel, demanding an end to both Russian and U.S. LNG flows. Fluxys, which operates the terminal, told Reuters that operations inside remain unaffected, though tanker access was restricted and the blockade was expected to continue through Sunday.The Megara and Rias Baixas Knutsen, both carrying U.S. LNG, along with the LNG Phecda carrying a Russian cargo, were among the ships that changed course, according to LSEG vessel tracking cited by Reuters. Zeebrugge, which serves not only as a Belgian import terminal but also as a re-export hub, sees Russian volumes frequently redirected from there to markets in Spain, Italy, and Asia.Belgium imported roughly 2.3 million tonnes of Russian LNG in the first eight months of 2025, second only to France, customs data show. Despite efforts to cut ties, Europe remains a significant buyer: Russian gas supplied over 40% of EU imports in 2021, a share that dropped to below 19% by 2024. Brussels has proposed phasing out Russian gas entirely by 2027, with the first-ever EU sanctions on Russian LNG due to take effect in January 2027. Still, NGO estimates suggest the bloc has sent €8.1 billion to Moscow this year through LNG purchases.Europe’s reliance on LNG is growing. The IEA projectsEU imports will rise 25% in 2025, with U.S. cargoes capturing more than half of incremental supply. New German terminals at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel, alongside expanded facilities in the Netherlands, France, and Spain, are anchoring this trend. Storage levels remain tight, with inventories only 39% full at mid-year, well below seasonal averages. On Thursday, the Dutch TTF gas benchmark fell by more than 3%, slipping to 10.82, even as traders monitored disruptions from French LNG strikes and the Zeebrugge blockade. The decline reflects broader softness in European gas markets, though physical risks remain elevated.

Poland to Invest $5.5 Billion in NATO Fuel Pipeline Link -- Polish pipeline operator PERN will sign a preliminary agreement with the defense ministry to extend its fuel network and connect with NATO’s Central Europe Pipeline System. The project also includes new fuel storage facilities to support NATO forces in the region. (Reuters) — Poland said on Oct. 3 that its plan to link to a NATO pipeline network, which is designed to supply troops with fuel in the event of war, will cost 20 billion zlotys ($5.5 billion). Earlier in the day, the ministry and Polish pipeline operator PERN signed a preliminary deal to extend the country's pipelines to connect them to the NATO system. "We are talking about...construction of pipelines over a distance of 300 km...we are talking about one of the largest investments in the security of the Polish state in the last 30 years," Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said. Poland has long sought to connect with NATO's Central Europe Pipeline System (CEPS), which dates from the Cold War era and transports jet fuel, gasoline, diesel fuel and naphtha across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The matter has taken on increased urgency for the eastern flank NATO member since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and more recently, drone incursions. NATO has allocated 60 million zlotys to Poland to undertake the project which is expected to take several years to complete. "At the NATO level, the decision regarding the planning and design of this investment has been made," said Tomczyk.

TotalEnergies Ready to Resume $20 Billion LNG Project After Force Majeure, Mozambique Says (Reuters) — Mozambique President Daniel Chapo said on Oct. 2 that the conditions have been met for French energy company TotalEnergies to lift force majeure on its $20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Southern African country. TotalEnergies halted work on its Mozambique LNG project in 2021 after an Islamist militant attack. It forecasts the 13 million metric ton-per-year project will come online in 2029, around five years later than initially expected. "Conditions are met for the lifting of force majeure, and we await the pronouncement of the concession holder shortly," Chapo said at a ceremony where Italian firm Eni and its partners took a final investment decision on another gas project in Mozambique. TotalEnergies declined to comment on Chapo's comments. For TotalEnergies, the world's second-largest listed LNG player, the megaproject offers a chance to narrow the lead of rival Shell as global demand for gas surges and Western buyers seek to avoid Russian gas.

India’s Diesel Flows to Europe Jump to All-Time High - India likely exported the highest-ever monthly volume of diesel to Europe in September, as higher premiums and curbed capacity due to maintenance in Europe incentivized Indian refiners to ship more fuel to the west, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing vessel-tracking data and trade sources. India is estimated to have exported 9.7 million to 10.4 million barrels of diesel to Europe last month—the highest ever in records dating back to 2017, according to trade sources and ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG. The widening east-west diesel spread incentivized shipments from India to Europe, while shipping costs have dropped since the end of August to further provide more profit incentive for Indian refiners to direct their shipments to Europe. On the other hand, seasonal maintenance at some European refining capacity has curtailed Europe’s domestically produced diesel and other fuels. In this context, India has stepped up to supply more diesel to Europe. Following the likely surge to record-highs in September, Indian diesel exports, to Europe and elsewhere, could decline in October as demand in India is set to jump seasonally with the Diwali festival later this month. Diesel is the most widely used fuel in India, ahead of gasoline. Even with the expected strong demand during the festive season, Indian refiners could be tempted to keep exports elevated, due to the high refining margins supporting overseas sales, Ivan Mathews, head of APAC analysis at Vortexa, told Reuters. Further down the road, it’s uncertain how much diesel and other fuels India will be able to export to Europe, considering the EU’s 18th sanctions package against Russia. In this package, adopted in the middle of July, the EU said it is introducing an import ban on refined petroleum products made from Russian crude oil and coming from any third country – with the exception of Canada, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The goal of this measure is to prevent Russia’s crude oil “from reaching the EU market through the back door,” the EU says. Russia accounts for about a third of all of India’s crude oil imports, so the world’s third-largest crude importer will be hit by the EU move, with the effect on fuel flows uncertain.

Eni Sanctions Coral North FLNG, Doubling Mozambique’s Export Capacity by 2028 --Eni SpA and its project partners in Mozambique have added another project to the list of final investment decisions (FID) in an already record-rivaling year for large-scale LNG development. At A Glance:
Coral North designed with 3.6 Mt/y capacity
First production targeted for 2028
Project marks seventh global FID in 2025

Russia Plans More Sanctioned Cargoes to China — Three Things to Know About the LNG Market -NO. 1: Iraq has awarded Woodlands, TX-based Excelerate Energy Inc. an opportunity to develop a floating LNG import terminal. The facility would allow the country to import LNG for domestic power generation and grid stabilization, Excelerate said. Iraq issued an award letter to the company, which is a preliminary step. Excelerate said it must now negotiate binding commercial agreements.

U.S. Backs Historic Deal to Keep Kurdish Oil Moving --The U.S. Administration wants to ensure that the just-restarted oil exports from Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan continue to flow via pipeline to Turkey in the long run, an anonymous official at the U.S. Department of State told Bloomberg on Friday.The Trump Administration is working toward the goal of keeping Kurdistan’s crude flowing in the long term to boost the Iraqi economy, counter Iran’s influence in the region, and benefit U.S. companies operating in Iraq, according to the official. The U.S. has played a role in the deal that allowed the resumption of the exports from Kurdistan, the official told Bloomberg.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented last week on the agreement to restart exports, saying on X “We welcome the announcement that the Government of Iraq has reached an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government and international companies to reopen the Iraq-Türkiye pipeline. This deal, facilitated by the United States, will bring tangible benefits for both Americans and Iraqis while reaffirming Iraq’s sovereignty.”Kurdistan’s oil exports resumed on Saturday, September 27, following a two and a half year suspension of the flows via the pipeline from northern Iraq to the Turkish Mediterranean coast.Eight foreign companies operating in Kurdistan have signed agreements with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Federal Government of Iraq to enable the restart of international crude exports from Kurdistan.This agreement paved to way to the restart of exports, which were halted for two and a half years, after they were shut in in March 2023 due to a dispute over who should authorize the Kurdish exports.The federal government in Baghdad and the regional Kurdish government in Erbil squabbled for more than two years over who should be responsible for the oil exports and the subsequent revenue distribution. Under the agreement, hailed as historic by Iraq’s federal government, KRG is delivering about 190,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude to Iraqi state marketing company SOMO. Kurdistan is also entitled to keep 50,000 bpd to use for local consumption.

Oil falls as Kurdistan exports resume, OPEC+ eyes hike -- Oil prices slipped during Asian trade on Monday after Iraq’s Kurdistan region restarted crude exports via Turkey and OPEC+ prepared for another supply boost in November, adding to global output. By 3:30 pm AEST (5:30 am GMT) Brent crude futures dropped 34 cents, or 0.5%, to $69.79 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 43 cents, or 0.7%, to $65.29. Meanwhile, crude shipments resumed on Saturday through a pipeline linking the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to Turkey’s Ceyhan port, marking the first flows in two and a half years. Iraq’s oil ministry said the breakthrough followed an interim deal between Baghdad, the Kurdistan regional government (KRG), and foreign producers operating in the area. The agreement will allow 180,000 to 190,000 barrels per day to reach Turkey, with flows expected to rise to as much as 230,000 bpd, according to Iraq’s oil minister, who spoke to Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw. Washington had pushed for the restart, which comes as OPEC+ seeks to expand market share. The producers’ group is likely to approve a crude output hike of at least 137,000 bpd at its meeting on Sunday, three sources told Reuters, with higher prices encouraging additional supply. Brent and WTI rallied more than 4% last week, their sharpest weekly rise since June, after Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure disrupted fuel exports. Russia responded with heavy missile attacks on Kyiv and other cities on Sunday, in one of the most sustained barrages on the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale war began. Geopolitical risks were also amplified after the United Nations reinstated an arms embargo and other sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. ANZ analysts observed: “UN economic and military sanctions on Iran were reinstated over the weekend, with the UK, France, and Germany triggering the ‘snapback’ mechanism, citing Iran’s ongoing nuclear escalation and lack of cooperation.”

Oil Prices Tumble 2% On Glut Expectations Pre-OPEC -- Oil prices tumbled about 2% in Monday morning trade ahead of a monthly OPEC meeting later this week where further production hike commitments were expected to add to oversupply concerns. The return of northern Iraq exports to the market after a two-and-a-half year hiatus added to the weight on prices. In crude oil, NYMEX-traded WTI for November delivery fell $1.30, or 2%, to $64.42 barrel (bbl). ICE Brent for November delivery retreated $1.22, or 1.7%, to $68.91 bbl. Among oil products, October RBOB gasoline futures slid $0.0154 to $1.9734 gallon, and the front-month ULSD contract fell $0.0494 to $2.3795 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index remained little changed at 97.582, down 0.242 points against a basket of foreign currencies. Over the weekend, flows along the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline resumed after a two-and-a-half year long halt, delivering oil from northern Iraq to Turkish export terminals. At least 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil are likely to return to the market immediately. Before the shutdown, flows on the pipeline averaged more than 400,000 bpd, but lacking takeaway capacity has dented Kurdish production capacity since the interruption. On Wednesday (10/1), OPEC delegates will be convening virtually to set production policy for November. Last month's meeting resulted in a quota hike of 137,000 bpd for October. While that was only a quarter of prior monthly increases, it still took market observers by surprise given that the hikes were part of the unwinding of some 2.2 million bpd in voluntary additional production curtailments shouldered by eight member states, something which had been achieved in September. Wednesday's meeting is expected to result in yet another quota increase as OPEC+ tries to regain lost market share, which risks further tilting the global oil balance into oversupply. Actual production hikes are likely to come in below target, as evidenced by the group's history and waning spare production capacity.

Oil Suffers Steepest Fall Since June - Oil declined on signals that OPEC+ will hike production again in November, tempering last week's rally. West Texas Intermediate fell 3.4% to settle near $63 a barrel, the biggest drop since June, while Brent closed below $70. The OPEC+ alliance led by Saudi Arabia is considering raising output by at least as much as the 137,000 barrel-a-day hike scheduled for next month, according to people familiar with the plans. While such an increase could add supply to a market in which there's already expected to be an excess, it would also bring further scrutiny to which of the group's members are running into capacity limits. "We view a repeat of the incremental 137,000-barrel-a-day addition for November as the most likely outcome," Helima Croft wrote in a note, referring to the decision likely to be taken at the group's Oct. 5 meeting. "Given that many producers, excluding Saudi Arabia, have essentially hit their production ceilings, future OPEC+ supply increases will be materially lower than the announced headline numbers," the analysts added. Crude remains on track for monthly and quarterly gains, even as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have been pursuing a strategy to reclaim market share rather than managing prices. Oil has been underpinned by robust buying for stockpiling in China, as well as on geopolitical tensions. Today's slide also reflects a pullback from last week's highs, when traders covered long positions ahead of the weekend to hedge against mounting threats to Russian energy infrastructure. The International Energy Agency has projected a record oversupply in 2026 as OPEC+ continues to revive production, and as supply climbs from the group's rivals. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., meanwhile, has said it sees Brent falling to the mid-$50s next year, despite crude stockpiling by China. "The major forecasters are still looking for price weakness in the coming months and as long as the Russia focus does not turn into an actual disruption of supply, traders will at least in the short term struggle to build a bullish narrative, not least considering the risk of another OPEC+ production increase," said Ole Hansen, head of commodities strategy at Saxo Bank. In Iraq, meanwhile, flows via a pipeline that ships crude from the country's northern region to a terminal in Turkey restarted in recent days after a halt of more than two years. Amer Al-Mehairi, director general of Iraq's North Oil Co., said the resumption of exports along the conduit was continuing. Elsewhere, President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a 20-point plan designed to stop fighting between Israel and Hamas. An end to the nearly two-years long was in the Middle East, the source of about a third of the world's supplies, may siphon some war premium out of prices. WTI for November delivery fell 3.5% to settle at $63.45 a barrel in New York. Brent for November settlement slid 3.1% to settle at $67.97 a barrel.

Expectations OPEC+ Will Increase its Output Again in November - The oil market on Monday sold off sharply on expectations that OPEC+ will increase its output again in November and the resumption of oil exports by Iraq’s Kurdistan region via Turkey. Sources stated that OPEC+ will likely approve another increase to crude oil production of 137,000 bpd at its meeting on Sunday. Meanwhile, crude oil flowed through a pipeline from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to Turkey for the first time in 2-½ years on Saturday. The crude market opened lower and retraced some of its previous losses as it posted a high of $65.40. However, the market sold off sharply and retraced more than 62% of its move from a low of $61.06 to a high of $66.42 as it posted a low of $62.98 ahead of the close. The November WTI contract settled down $2.27 at $63.45 and the November Brent contract settled down $2.16 at $67.97. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 7.23 cents at $2.3566 and the RB market settling down 4.25 cents at $1.995. U.S. President Donald Trump said that it is time for Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept a 20-point peace proposal that he agreed to with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the future of Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace proposal to end the war in Gaza. Standing next to President Trump, Israel’s Prime Minister said “I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims. It will bring back to Israel all our hostages, dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities, end its political rule, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.” Separately, Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi reiterated that the group has not yet received U.S. President Donald Trump’s written Gaza peace plan.In a joint statement, Germany, France and Britain said they will “continue to pursue diplomatic channels and negotiations” despite the reimposition of U.N. sanctions on Iran. The statement said “The reinstatement of U.N. sanctions does not mean the end of diplomacy.”Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Europe could not afford a war against Russia but that if its leaders made the mistake of triggering one then it could escalate into a conflict with weapons of mass destruction. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine would like to build a joint aerial defense shield to protect against threats from Russia together with its European partners. NATO leaders have said that Russia has been testing the alliance’s readiness and resolve with airspace incursions in Poland and the Baltic states, and Kyiv says its experience in dealing with aerial threats would be valuable.Three sources familiar with the talks said OPEC+ will likely approve another oil production increase of at least 137,000 bpd at its meeting next Sunday, as increasing oil prices encourage the group to try to further regain market share. OPEC+ has reversed its strategy of output cuts from April and has already raised quotas by more than 2.5 million bpd. Eight OPEC+ countries will hold an online meeting on October 5th to decide on November output. Crude oil flows from Iraq’s Kurdistan region to Turkey’s Ceyhan port are running at 150,000-160,000 bpd after their resumption on September 27th.

Crude oil declines as markets assess impact of US-sponsored Gaza peace plan - The Hindu BusinessLine -Crude oil futures fell on Tuesday morning as markets assessed the impact of the Gaza peace plan announced by the US. At 9.55 am on Tuesday, December Brent oil futures were at $66.68, down by 0.61 per cent, and November crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $63.08, down by 0.58 per cent. October crude oil futures were trading at ₹5,611 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹5,610, up by 0.02 per cent, and November futures were trading at ₹5,591 against the previous close of ₹5,593, down by 0.04 per cent. On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced the support of Israel for a US-sponsored peace deal to end the war in Gaza.Addressing a joint press conference with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at White House on Monday, Trump said they were ‘beyond very close’ to an elusive peace deal for the Palestinian enclave. However, he warned Hamas that Israel would have full US support to take whatever action it deemed necessary, if the militants reject what US has offered.The 20-point document released by White House sought an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas disarmament and a transitional government led by an international body.A peace deal between Israel and Hamas would help provide stability in the oil-rich West Asia region.Meanwhile, crude oil prices came under pressure following the reports of a likely increase in production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) in November. In their Commodities Feed for Tuesday, Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said oil prices came under significant pressure on Monday, with ICE Brent falling more than 3 per cent over the day. This came amid reports that OPEC+ is considering increasing supply by a further 137,000 barrels a day in November.“We should get confirmation on October 5, when the group is set to meet. Our balance sheet clearly suggests additional supply isn’t needed. We expect the market to move into a large surplus in the fourth quarter and remain in surplus through 2026. As a result, we expected oil prices to come under significant pressure over the course of next year,” they said. October menthaoil futures were trading at ₹960 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹965.20, down by 0.54 per cent. On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), October turmeric (farmer polished) contracts were trading at ₹12,246 in the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹12,418, down by 1.39 per cent. October guargum futures were trading at ₹8,840 on NCDEX in the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹8,931, down by 1.02 per cent.

Potential Plans for a Larger OPEC+ Output Increase - The crude oil market remained pressured by potential plans for a larger OPEC+ output increase next month and the resumption of oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region via Turkey. The market remained pressured in overnight trading and continued on its downward trend following the news of crude oil starting to flow on Saturday through a pipeline from the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to Turkey for the first time in two and half years. The market was further pressured by news that OPEC+ may be considering a larger oil production of 411,000 bpd for November, which would be three times as much the 137,000 bpd increase that OPEC+ agreed to for October. The oil market, which posted a high of $63.26, sold off to a low of $62.03 early in the session. The market, however, retraced some of its losses and settled in a sideways trading range as OPEC dismissed the reports of a possible increase in output of 500,000 bpd. The November WTI contract settled down $1.08 at $62.37 while the November Brent contract settled down 95 cents at $67.02. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 2.41 cents at $2.3325 and the RB market settling down 2.22 cents at $1.9729. OPEC rejected media reports suggesting that the group of eight oil-producing countries was planning to raise output by 500,000 bpd at its meeting on Sunday. OPEC said these claims are wholly inaccurate and misleading. Two sources said OPEC+ is likely to consider a larger oil production increase of 411,000 bpd for November at its meeting on Sunday as increasing oil prices encourage the group to try to regain more market share. A 411,000 bpd increase would be three times the 137,000 bpd increase that OPEC+ agreed for October. A separate OPEC+ ministerial panel, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, meets online on Wednesday and sources said it will discuss the producer group’s compliance with oil output quotas. Bloomberg News reported that OPEC+ is considering accelerating output hikes by 500,000 bpd over the next three months. U.S. President Donald Trump said he and his team were waiting on Hamas militants to accept the Gaza peace plan that he outlined on Monday. Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, Danny Danon, said that if Palestinian militants Hamas reject U.S. President Donald’s Trump Gaza peace plan, Israel will “finish the job” and bring home all the remaining hostages. Russia imposed a partial ban on diesel exports and extended an existing gasoline export ban until the end of the year. The measures were expected, as Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak had given advance warning of them last week. The government said in a statement that it “continues to work to maintain stability in the domestic fuel market.” The gasoline export ban applies to all exporters. The ban on diesel exports also includes marine fuel and other gas oils. It applies to resellers but not to direct producers of those fuels.

Oil settles lower as investors brace for possible OPEC+ output hike (Reuters) - Oil prices settled lower on Tuesday as investors braced for a supply surplus due to potential OPEC+ plans for a larger output hike next month and the resumption of oil exports from Iraq's Kurdistan region via Turkey. Brent crude futures for November delivery , expiring on Tuesday, settled down 95 cents, or 1.4%, at $67.02 a barrel. The more active December contract settled at $66.03. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $62.37 a barrel, down $1.08, or 1.7%. On Monday, Brent and WTI both settled more than 3% lower, their sharpest daily declines since August 1. At its meeting next Sunday, OPEC+ may speed up production increases in November from the 137,000 barrels per day hike it made for October, as its leader Saudi Arabia pushes to regain market share, three sources familiar with the talks said. Eight members of OPEC+ could agree to raise production in November by 274,000-411,000 bpd, or two or three times higher than the October increase, two of the three sources said. OPEC+ pumps about half of the world's oil. The increase could be as big as 500,000 bpd, one of the three sources said. Earlier on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that OPEC+ was considering accelerating its increases by 500,000 bpd. OPEC in a post on X said it rejected media reports for plans to raise output by 500,000 bpd, calling them inaccurate and misleading. "This (OPEC+) strategy could significantly squeeze margins for high-cost U.S. shale producers, potentially forcing them to scale back the record-level output they've maintained," said StoneX analyst Alex Hodes. Meanwhile, crude oil flowed on Saturday through a pipeline from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to Turkey for the first time in two-and-a-half years, after an interim deal broke a deadlock, Iraq's oil ministry said. "Oil prices are under pressure in anticipation of OPEC+ deciding to restore additional quantities of oil back to market, along with the resumption of Kurdish exports, so additional supplies are weighing on market prices," The market has remained cautious in recent weeks, balancing supply risks, which mainly arise from Ukraine's drone attacks on Russian refineries, with expectations of oversupply and weak demand. Elsewhere, U.S. President Donald Trump won Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's support for a U.S.-backed Gaza peace proposal, but the stance of Hamas was uncertain. In an ideal scenario, shipping traffic through the Suez Canal would return to normal following a Gaza peace deal, which would remove a significant portion of the geopolitical risk premium, PVM analyst Tamas Varga said. Adding to the bearish sentiment, the potential risk of a U.S. government shutdown has raised demand concerns, said ANZ analysts in a note. U.S. crude production rose to a fresh monthly high of 13.64 million bpd in July, up 109,000 bpd from the previous record in June, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Tuesday. U.S. crude stocks fell while gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. Crude stocks fell by 3.67 million barrels in the week ended September 26, the sources said on condition of anonymity. Gasoline inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels, while distillate inventories rose by 3 million barrels from last week, the sources said..

Oil steadies; investors weigh OPEC+ hike, stockpile draw - Oil prices traded slightly higher during Asian deals on Wednesday after two straight sessions of declines, as investors assessed potential production increases against signs of falling crude inventories in the United States. By 2:30 pm AEST (4:30 am GMT), Brent crude futures for December delivery rose 19 cents, or 0.3%, to $66.22 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 18 cents, or 0.3%, to $62.55 per barrel. The modest rise followed sharp losses earlier in the week, with both Brent and WTI down more than 3% on Monday, and falling a further 1.5% on Tuesday.Fresh data from the American Petroleum Institute showed U.S. crude inventories fell last week, even as gasoline and distillate stocks climbed.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) is also reportedly weighing a significant production hike for November, with Saudi Arabia pushing for an increase of up to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to regain market share, three people familiar with the talks told Reuters. That would be triple the October rise.OPEC, in a post on X, pushed back against speculation, saying reports of a 500,000 bpd hike were “misleading”.ANZ analysts said: "Supply risks are still looming due to deepening geopolitical situation and supply outages. "President Trump stated that he had dispatched ‘a submarine or two’ to Russia’s coast. While it remains unclear whether this move signifies an escalation or not, the remark underscores a shift in diplomatic tone toward Russia. "This change heightens the likelihood of additional restrictions on Russian oil exports, increasing risks for Russian exports." Political uncertainty also loomed large. In Washington, President Donald Trump secured the backing of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for a U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan, though Hamas’s response remained unclear.

Oil Trims Losses After DOE Shows Modest Weekly Inventory Builds - Oil dipped modestly, extending its two-day slide, after the latest DOE data showed another weekly increase across most oil products, even as expectations were for continued declines.

• Crude +1,782k vs est -50k
• Gasoline +4,125k vs est. -80k
• Distillates +578k vs est. -1,650k
• Cushing crude -271k

The 1.79-million-barrel build in commercial crude stockpiles contrasts with the 3.7-million-barrel draw seen by the API on Tuesday. Following draws in the past two weeks, crude, gasoline and distillate inventories were expected to post another modest drop, but the official data showed an increase across all three products. Increases in crude, gasoline and propane are enough to push total crude and product inventories higher versus last week. It’s the fourth overall build in the last five weeks and the largest weekly increase since early September. Meanwhile, crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma fell to around 23.5 million barrels. It’s the third draw at the hub in four weeks, bringing levels to the lowest since late August. Some other notable weekly changes:

• PADD 3 crude +4,031k
• Refinery utilization -1.6ppt vs est. -0.3ppt
• Refinery crude inputs -308k b/d
• Crude imports -662k b/d

The build in commercial stockpiles was boosted by another 742,000 barrels injected into the SPR. That increased the overall nationwide crude build to 2.53 million barrels in the week to Sep. 26. Crude exports fell below 4 million barrels a day, which brings them to the lowest in about one month. More barrels staying put might have helped relieve a bit of downward pressure on US inventories, which rose to the highest since early September. According to BBG, a decline in Gulf Coast crude refinery runs pulled down the overall US number to 16.2 million barrels a day, the lowest level since May. That was most likely due to the turnaround at Marathon’s Garyville plant in Louisiana, one of the largest refineries in the nation. Overall US crude runs are still at the highest seasonal level since 2018. Meanwhile, US production continued its relentless weekly increase, rising by another 4k barrels/day on the week, back near record highs, even as rig counts remain near 4 year lows. Indeed, total crude production edged higher to 13.5 million barrels a day last week, the highest since March. The small increase came as the number of rigs drilling for oil rose for a fifth straight week, with six units put into operation last week, according to Baker Hughes. At some point there will be questions about all the toxic water flowing out of Permian wells which is allowing productivity to approach 100%, but not yet... Oil prices recovered some of their losses, having plunged from their Friday highs (oil had just closed its best week since the Iran-Israel conflict) and sinking to the lowest level since June as CTAs are now back aggressively shorting the price as long as momentum remains lower. Finally, Bloomberg reports that US gasoline demand continues to pull back, recording a fourth consecutive decline last week based on the four-week average of product supplied. The figure is down 351,000 barrels a day over the stretch and brings the figure to a six-month low. That said, demand is still closely tracking year-ago levels and is still firmly above where it sat this week in 2023. If that trend continues, we could see a solid bounce back in the next few weeks.

Crude Oil Plummets to Lowest Since June -Crude oil benchmarks were trading even lower midday Wednesday, at prices lower than they’ve dipped for several months, even as OPEC+ emphasizes that it is committed to a calibrated increase in crude output, rejecting media speculation of a sweeping jump in inventory. Still, it involves additional supply, and as of the time of writing, that continued to put downward pressure in markets already showing signs of strain. The expanded cartel’s decision to add barrels amid soft demand has empowered the bears, dragging both Brent and WTI back to their weakest levels since June, with even measured dips feeling outsized in a fragilly balanced market. At 12:33 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading at $67.51, down 0.97% on the day, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $62.21, down 0.26% on the day. Meanwhile, Kurdistan’s resumption of exports to Turkey’s Ceyhan terminal at volumes estimated between 180,000 and 230,000 barrels per day is reintroducing more crude to the global markets. Weakening demand in Asia is compounding the supply overhang. Manufacturing surveys from Japan showed a sharper contraction in September, hitting a six-month low. China’s factory sector contracted for the sixth consecutive month, adding to the sense of stalling momentum. Export-reliant economies across the region are seeing soft external orders, while domestic demand remains lackluster. Slower fuel consumption in Asia is a key flashpoint for traders. In the U.S., the government shutdown is injecting additional uncertainty into energy markets. Critical agencies with furloughed employees could find themselves unable to deliver the data that traders depend upon, heightening volatility. “Oil prices are under pressure in anticipation of OPEC+ restoring additional quantities of oil back to market, along with the resumption of Kurdish exports,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. StoneX analyst Alex Hodes warned that the renewed supply burden could “squeeze margins for high-cost U.S. shale producers.” Meanwhile, Diamondback Energy CEO Kaes Van‘t Hof cautioned that U.S. production growth is likely to stall if crude stays around $60, noting that fewer Tier-1 drilling zones remain viable at lower prices.

The Crude Oil Market Settled Lower Amid the Government Shutdown -The crude oil market continued to sell off on Wednesday, settling lower for the third consecutive session amid the U.S. federal government shutdown that added to worries about the economy and expectations of an OPEC+ output increase in November. The market has also been pressured by the resumption of oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The market traded mostly sideways in overnight trading, posting a high of $62.89 before it continued to sell off. The market remained pressured by expectations that OPEC+ will increase its production in November by about 500,000 bpd, despite OPEC stating that media reports of plans to increase its output by that amount were misleading. The market was also pressured by larger than expected build in crude oil stocks of over 1.7 million barrels reported on the week. The market later bounced off its low and settled in a sideways trading range. The November WTI contract settled down 59 cents at $61.78 and the December Brent settled down 68 cents at $65.35. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 2.22 cents at $2.3019 and the RB market settling down 3.64 cents at $1.8859. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will be able to operate for a period of time during the lapse in appropriations. Until further notice, the EIA.gov website will continue to be updated, and publications will continue to be released according to established schedules.Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that the situation with supply of fuel on the domestic market is under control on the whole, while some regions are experiencing shortages of the fuel. Several regions in Russia reported shortages of certain popular types of gasoline, including Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as well as Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow. Ukraine has shut in some of Russia’s refining capacity via drone attacks.Russia’s U.N. Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said Russia does not recognize the reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran.OPEC said the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee stressed the need for achieving full compliance with oil output agreements at its online meeting on Wednesday. The CEO of Diamondback Energy, Kaes Van’t Hof, said U.S. oil production growth will stall if prices stay near $60/barrel, as fewer drilling sites are profitable at that level. According to three trading sources, Russia increased its oil exports via its western ports by 25% in September versus August, as refinery outages caused by Ukrainian drone attacks freed up more crude. Exports via the western ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk in September increased to 2.5 million bpd. Daily loadings of Urals, KEBCO and Siberian Light grades at Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk in September increased by 500,000 bpd, up 25% from August.

Global Oil Prices Edge Higher As G7 Moves To Clamp Down On Russian Crude Buyers -Oil prices ticked upward on Thursday in the global commodities market after the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations unveiled fresh measures aimed at tightening restrictions on countries purchasing crude oil from Russia. Geopolitical instability in the Middle East and weakening demand from China continue to weigh on global supply, even as India maintains strong energy ties with Moscow. This ongoing trade relationship has drawn further scrutiny from the United States, which has imposed sanctions to limit Russia’s energy revenues. The rebound in prices came as traders assessed a larger-than-expected build-up in US crude inventories alongside renewed signals that the G7 intends to intensify financial pressure on Moscow’s oil exports. Brent crude climbed to $65.46 per barrel, slightly above its previous close of $65.32, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US benchmark, advanced 0.25% to $61.77 from $61.61 in the earlier session. In a statement following a virtual meeting on Wednesday, G7 finance ministers confirmed plans to target buyers of Russian crude and entities accused of helping Russia bypass existing sanctions. “Now is the time to maximize pressure on Russia’s oil exports, which remain a critical source of revenue,” the ministers declared, adding that countries expanding their Russian oil purchases since the Ukraine invasion could face consequences. The group said it would gradually phase out remaining Russian hydrocarbon imports, consider restrictions on refined oil products, and evaluate penalties for nations providing Moscow with indirect support. The matter is expected to be discussed further during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington on October 15. Market analysts noted that the threat of stricter sanctions heightened concerns about potential supply disruptions, offering some price support. Meanwhile, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed commercial crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels last week to 416.5 million, exceeding forecasts of a 1.5 million-barrel increase. Gasoline stockpiles also expanded, rising by 4.1 million barrels to 220.7 million. Strategic petroleum reserves climbed by 700,000 barrels to 406.7 million. Investors are now turning their attention to the upcoming October 5 OPEC+ meeting, where major producers including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, and the UAE will decide on November production quotas. Last month, the alliance agreed to increase output by 137,000 barrels per day for October. Analysts suggest expectations of continued production hikes may fuel concerns of oversupply in the months ahead..

Oil Drops to 4-Month Low as Fundamentals Trounce Supply Risks -- Oil prices extended their decline into a fourth trading day as the prospects of new OPEC production hikes weighed on sentiment in a market that already looked to be oversupplied by the year-end. In Thursday morning, Oct. 2, trade, NYMEX-traded WTI crude for November delivery fell $0.31 to $61.47 bbl, after a fourth-month low at $61.22. Oil prices steadied after a four-day selloff pressured mainly by oversupply concerns that took them to their lowest since early June. ICE Brent crude for December delivery retreated $0.36 to $64.99 bbl, after hitting $64.81, its lowest since June. Among oil products, November RBOB gasoline futures slid $0.0095 to $1.8764 gallon, and the front-month ULSD contract softened $0.0283 to $2.2736 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index remained relatively unchanged, down 0.04 points to 97.70 against a basket of foreign currencies. Sluggish macroeconomic indicators released this week suggested a grow rate at which the market will struggle to absorb extra barrels from OPEC+. East Asian manufacturing PMIs released this week showed the region's industrial sectors stagnating, with the indices for September hovering close to the 50-point mark. In the U.S., consumer confidence slipped to a three-month low in September, as a key index monitored by the Conference Board slid 3.6 points to 94.2 from a revised 97.8 in August. The U.S. federal government shutdown added to concerns over slowing demand growth, exacerbating the bearish sentiment. Oil futures have been trading in a narrow range for months, caught in a tug-of-war between weak market fundamentals and geopolitical risks. The restart of northern Iraq's 200,000-bpd Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline comes ahead of Sunday's, Oct. 5, OPEC meeting, that is likely to result in more output from the 23-nation producer group which will be discussing production quotas for November. A slew of fresh economic data also points to weak demand growth for energy, skewing the market's attention towards the risk of rapidly growing global oil inventories. The Energy Information Administration on Wednesday, Oct. 1, reported higher commercial crude oil inventories, as well as a surprisingly large 4.1 million bbl build in gasoline stocks for the week ending Sept. 26.

Oil Sinks Near 5-Month Low on OPEC Signals, Government Shutdown - Oil fell to the lowest in nearly five months as OPEC+ is expected to agree on restoring more idled supply in a meeting over the weekend, while the ongoing US government shutdown fueled risk-off sentiment. West Texas Intermediate slid more than 2% to settle at $60.48 a barrel, its lowest close since early May. Brent traded lower to settle near $64, the lowest since late May. Early signs of global oversupply may be emerging in the Middle East, while US crude and gasoline stockpiles swelled last week. In Washington, political uncertainty added another layer of concern as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that layoffs tied to the federal government shutdown are likely to number in the thousands. The news added to worries about the health of the US economy and in turn, oil consumption. This week's price slump was also partly stoked by the possibility that Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners could consider fast-tracking their latest round of production hikes when they meet on Sunday. A Bloomberg survey predicted OPEC's crude production rose last month. Some investment banks are already predicting Brent will drop to the $50s-a-barrel range next year. Prices have found some support from the fact that China has been purchasing large amounts of oil for its strategic reserve, easing the buildup of inventories in the West. Those purchases may slow next year, according to Rystad Energy. "The focus for oil this week is squarely on the OPEC+ meeting over the weekend. We expect they will agree to continue adding barrels back to the market even amid forecasts for high inventory builds in 2026," said Edward Bell, acting group head of research and chief economist at Emirates NBD. Turkey's Ceyhan oil export terminal is scheduled to load its first cargo from Iraq's Kurdish region since 2023 after a deal was reached last month to allow flows to resume, adding even more supply to the market. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said that detaining oil tankers can help put a stop to the shadow fleet that helps Russia skirt sanctions and export barrels around the world. But Russian President Vladimir Putin warned oil prices "will skyrocket" and immediately exceed $100/bbl without Russian crude supplies to the global market. WTI for November delivery fell 2.1% to settle at $60.48 a barrel. Brent for December settlement edged 1.9% lower to settle at $64.11.

Oil set to experience steepest weekly drop in 3 1/2 months - The oil prices were slightly higher on Friday, after four consecutive sessions of declines. However, they are on course for the steepest weekly drop since late June because market expectations expect that OPEC+ could increase output despite concerns about oversupply. Brent crude futures rose 18 cents or 0.3% to $64.29 per barrel at 0000 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude climbed by 19 Cents, or 0.3% to $60.67 per barrel. Brent could end the session at its lowest level since last week's May 30. WTI might finish at levels not seen since May 2 if prices don't recover further in this session. Brent is down 8.3% on a weekly basis while WTI has fallen 7.6%. Sources told The Week that OPEC+ may agree to increase oil production in November by as much as 500,000 barrels a day, which is triple the October increase, because Saudi Arabia wants to regain market share. Tony Sycamore is an analyst with IG. He said, "If OPEC+ announces a 500,000 bpd hike this weekend, that's likely to be a large enough increase to send crude back down, first to the support level of $58.00 before testing this year's lowest $55.00 area." Analysts say that a potential increase in OPEC+ oil supply, a slowdown in global crude refinery operations due to maintenance, and upcoming seasonal drops in demand will accelerate the buildup of oil stocks in the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate inventory rose last week due to a decline in refining and demand. Sycamore stated that "concerns about a US shutdown curtailing economic activity, and the return of Iraqi Kurdish oil to the market are also impacting the crude price." The Group of Seven finance ministers announced on Wednesday that they would increase pressure on Russia, targeting those countries who continue to buy Russian oil.

Oil prices rise 1% following fire at US refinery. Set to end four-session loss streak - After four consecutive sessions of declines, oil prices rose by 1% on Friday following a fire at one of the biggest refineries in the U.S. West Coast. However, they were still on course for their steepest week-long fall since late June. Brent crude futures rose 61 cents or 1% to $64.73 per barrel at 0658 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude climbed by 62 Cents, or 1% to $61.10 per barrel. According to a county official, the fire was contained to just one area at Chevron’s El Segundo Refinery. The U.S. Energy Major also reported a flare-up emergency at its 290,000 BPD refinery that produces primarily gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel. Brent traded 7.6% lower and WTI fell 7% weekly due to expectations that OPEC+ could increase output despite concerns about oversupply. Sources told The Week that OPEC+ may agree to increase oil production in November by as much as 500,000 barrels a day, which is triple the October increase, because Saudi Arabia wants to regain market share. Tony Sycamore is an analyst with IG. He said, "If OPEC+ announces a 500,000 bpd hike this weekend, that's likely to be a large enough increase to send crude back down, first to the support level of $58.00 before testing this year's lowest levels (of about $55.00)." Analysts say that a potential increase in OPEC+ oil supply, a slowdown in global crude refinery operations due to maintenance, and upcoming seasonal drops in demand will accelerate the buildup of oil stocks in the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that U.S. crude, gasoline, and distillate inventory rose last week due to a decline in refining and demand. JPMorgan analysts wrote in a report that they believe September was a turning-point, and the oil market is now headed towards a large surplus in Q4 of 2025 as well as next year. The Group of Seven finance ministers announced on Wednesday that they would increase pressure on Russia, targeting those countries who continue to buy Russian oil.

Oil prices post biggest weekly decline in three months ahead of Opec meeting -- Oil prices settled higher on Friday but posted a weekly loss of 8.1 per cent over expectations that Opec+ will raise output, adding to a glut in crude supplies.Brent, the benchmark for two thirds of the world's oil, closed up 0.7 per cent at $64.53 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, was up 0.7 per cent at $60.88.For the week, Brent fell 8.1 per cent, the largest weekly loss in over three months. WTI tumbled 7.4 per cent in the week.The rebound in crude came after prices steadily dropped this week through to Thursday, which put Brent and WTI on pace to slide 6.5 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively, their biggest weekly losses since June.That also widened losses for 2025 overall, with Brent now down 13.3 per cent and WTI giving up 15 per cent for the year to date.The sentiment in the oil market took a sharply bearish turn this week amid reports that Opec+, the group of oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, is preparing to boost output for next month at its meeting on Sunday, after increasing production for seven consecutive months since April this year.Opec+'s move to increase output "will bring more idled supply back to the market, fuelling oversupply concerns", said Soojin Kim, a Dubai-based research analyst at MUFG."Early signs of excess supply are already visible in the Middle East ... market focus will be on Opec+’s decision, the pace of returning barrels, and global demand resilience as surplus risks build," she added.This week, Goldman Sachs predicted that Opec+ will raise oil production by 140,000 barrels per day for November amid lower crude stocks in the US, higher demand in Asia and downside risks to Russia’s crude production after Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.Last month, Opec+, citing steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, approved adding about 137,000 bpd to the market for October as it began to unwind 1.65 million bpd of voluntary cuts announced in April 2023.This came after the group eliminated about 2.2 million barrels of voluntary cuts announced in November 2023 the month before, with monthly cuts starting in April."Crude futures were marginally higher [early on] Friday morning in the Middle East amid tepid bargain-hunting buying, after sliding for the fourth session in a row to three-month lows," analysts at Vanda Insights said.However, "prices may go into a holding pattern through the rest of the day, awaiting the result of the Opec+ meeting on Sunday".Fears of an oversupply of oil in the market are “exaggerated”, Vandana Hari, chief executive of Singapore-based Vanda Insights, told The National this week. The market is not “seeing the glut and it’s not evident yet in the physical market … it’s exaggerated”, she said.Also, higher supply from Opec+, combined with a seasonal decline in US oil demand, could raise stockpiles in the US, the world's biggest consumer of crude.The US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said inventories climbed last week on tepid demand and refining activity.US President Donald Trump’s pressure on countries to stop buying Russian crude in an effort to curtail Moscow’s revenue and spending on the Ukraine war is also affecting oil prices. Oil's drop this week also came after prices last week posted their biggest weekly gains since June on Mr Trump's pressure and Ukraine's latest attacks on Moscow's energy infrastructure.

Why OPEC+ will likely hike next month's oil-output quota - even as prices just posted their biggest weekly drop since June -- OPEC+ has been 'swinging an axe [at] oil prices' each time it announces output increases, says Velandera's Manish Raj OPEC+ is scheduled to decide Sunday on oil-production quota levels for November. The major crude-oil producers known as OPEC+ are expected to agree to another monthly hike in oil-output quotas at a meeting this week - despite expectations for a global supply surplus this year and next. Oil prices on Friday tallied their biggest weekly loss since late June. The price drop shows that "surplus fears are back in charge," said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management. On Friday, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery (CLX25) (CL.1) settled at $60.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 7.4% for the week, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Global benchmark December Brent (BRNZ25) (BRN00) ended at $64.53 on ICE Futures Europe, for a weekly loss of 6.8%. Oil prices are lower because "traders can see the seasonal-demand air pocket," said Innes - referring to the time of year when demand for oil tends to slow and inventories start to tick higher. "No one's chasing scarcity [in supply] here. The market's leaning into the surplus story," he added. 'No one's chasing scarcity [in supply] here. The market's leaning into the surplus story.'Stephen Innes, SPI Asset Management Forecasts from the International Energy Agency show that global oil supplies are poised to outpace global demand in 2025 and 2026. But at a meeting Sunday, OPEC+ - comprised of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies - is expected to boost crude-production quotas for November, according to the CME's OPEC+ Watch Tool. At a meeting in early September, the group lifted its output quotas for October by 137,000 barrels per day. It had been announcing monthly increases since April, to lift its quotas by a total of about 2.5 million barrels per day through September. October's hike was a "token move," because the bigger issue is that quotas "haven't been barrels for a while," said Innes, explaining that OPEC+ has been producing oil below its quota levels all year. Members have managed to produce "only about three-quarters of what's promised," he noted, leaving "a half-million-barrel hole between paper targets and wet [actual oil] cargoes." "Unless Riyadh or Abu Dhabi open the taps wider, any November increase is just another headline that doesn't move actual flows," Innes said. The International Energy Agency said in a monthly report that as of September, OPEC+ will have ramped up actual crude output by 1.5 million barrels per day since the first quarter of 2025, which would be well below the announced target of 2.5 million barrels per day. OPEC+ has been 'swinging an axe [at] oil prices each time it announces production increases.'Manish Raj, Velandera Energy Partners Still, OPEC+ has been "swinging an axe [at] oil prices each time it announces production increases," said Manish Raj, chief financial officer at Velandera Energy Partners. So far this year, U.S. oil futures have lost 15.1%, while Brent crude is down by 13.6%. Not all OPEC producers have spare capacity, but Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq "definitely have barrels to unload," Raj said. There are also likely to be "substantial barrels" coming from newly reopened wells in Kurdistan, where Iraq resumed crude exports in late September after a more than two-year halt, according to a report from Barron's. At the same time, U.S. shale drillers are "pushing the envelope on production," said Raj. Rising rig counts are U.S. drillers' "way of saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going, he noted, adding that oil at around $60 a barrel is "lucrative enough" for U.S. shale to stay busy. Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, believes that the meeting of major oil producers this weekend is a "test of OPEC+ intentions." They can "forego an increase very easily, since most can't raise production anyway," he said. Given the U.S. government shutdown, economic uncertainty and the recent drop in prices, "that might be the way to go," said Lynch, and would suggest that they "at least want to put a floor on prices." However, if they increase production quotas anyway, that would imply that they "aren't concerned about current and potential price weakness," he added, and that the Saudis potentially see the new Kurdish production as worrisome, as it implies Iraq is going to continue violating its quotas. A minor increase wouldn't really deal with that potential issue, but "could signal Saudi intention to let prices run their course as long as some members don't cooperate," Lynch said.

Saudi Arabia’s Spending Spree Meets Oil Price Reality -Saudi Arabia’s grand Vision 2030 ambitions may be colliding with a colder fiscal reality. Fitch Ratings warned Friday that Riyadh faces rising financial risks as oil prices soften and government spending balloons, threatening the kingdom’s plans for fiscal consolidation.The numbers tell the story: Saudi Arabia now expects a budget deficit equal to 5.3% of GDP in 2025—nearly double its original 2.3% forecast—before narrowing to 3.3% in 2026. The deterioration comes largely from weaker oil income, Fitch said, with non-oil revenues holding up but not enough to offset the gap. The rating agency pointed to revenue shortfalls and overspending as the main culprits, noting the massive capital outlays required by megaprojects like NEOM.This week’s pre-budget statement from Riyadh signaled a shift toward tighter fiscal discipline, but Fitch noted the tension between Saudi’s promises of restraint and its reliance on the Public Investment Fund’s trillion-dollar Vision 2030 agenda. That tension is only magnified by sliding crude prices, with Brentdown more than 7% this week on speculation of further OPEC+ supply hikes.Those hikes are themselves controversial. Reuters sources have floated that Saudi Arabia wants much larger quota increases than Russia, moves that could win back market share but put additional pressure on oil prices. OPEC has already lashed out at the newswire, dismissing reports of a half-million-barrel increase as “wholly inaccurate.” Yet the clash illustrates the stakes: Saudi Arabia’s fiscal health depends on a stable oil market, but its production strategy is geared toward defending long-term relevance, even if that risks lower near-term prices. Fitch said fiscal tightening would ultimately come through modest spending cuts, stable oil revenues, and continued growth in non-oil income. But the kingdom’s vulnerability to oil price swings remains obvious. Vision 2030 may be designed to break the dependence on crude—but for now, Saudi Arabia’s books are still hostage to it.

Russia does not recognise return of UN sanctions on Iran - Russia does not recognise the return of United Nations sanctions on Iran, Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters on Wednesday when asked if Moscow would enforce the measures. The United Nations reinstated an arms embargo and other sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme on Saturday evening, following a process - known as snapback - triggered by European powers. Tehran has warned the move would be met with a harsh response. Britain, France and Germany initiated the snapback process at the UN Security Council over accusations Iran had violated a 2015 deal that aimed to stop it from developing a nuclear bomb. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons. "We do not recognise the snapback as coming into force," he said at a press conference to mark the start of Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council for October. "We'll be living in two parallel realities, because for some snapback happened, for us it didn't. That creates a problem. How we will get out of it - let's see," Nebenzia said. The end of the decade-long nuclear deal originally agreed by Iran, Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Russia and China could exacerbate tensions in the Middle East, just months after Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites. "This development is really fraught with a major escalation around Iran, because it opens the door for those countries who want to finish Iran's nuclear program," said Nebenzia, referring to the military action by Israel and the US in June. With the return of UN sanctions, Iran will again be subjected to an arms embargo and a ban on all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, as well as any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Other sanctions to be reimposed include a travel ban on dozens of Iranian citizens, asset freezes on dozens of people and entities and a ban on the supply of anything that could be used in the nation's nuclear programme.

Israel Captures Hundreds of Activists Attempting To Bring Food Into Gaza, Including American Citizens - The Israeli military has stopped the Global Sumud Flotilla from breaking its starvation blockade on the Gaza Strip and has arrested hundreds of activists who were on board the vessels, including American citizens, attempting to bring food to starving Palestinians.According to a congressional letter to President Trump calling for the US to guarantee safe passage for the flotilla, which was led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), 24 US citizens were among the activists onboard, including at least six US veterans.Greg Stoker, a contributor to Mint Press News and one of the US veterans participating in the flotilla, was posting regular updates on his X account before he was presumably captured by the IDF.“Israeli Navy trying to spray us with skunk water. Still in international waters Save Gaza,” Stoker wrote on X in his last post, which he said was written at 2:50 am Gaza time on Thursday morning.So far, the US government has been silent about the arrest of its citizens, while some governments and international organizations are speaking out. Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the interception was a “breach of international law” if it happened in international waters.“It’s a humanitarian mission, no threat to anybody other than to highlight and also to bring humanitarian aid into the people of Gaza, and it underlines the absolute imperative of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza as quickly as possible,” Martin said. The Irish government has said that at least 14 Irish citizens, including a senator, have been detained by Israeli forces.Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the interception was “unacceptable” and said he summoned the Israeli foreign minister to Belgium. “The manner in which they were boarded and the location in international waters are unacceptable, which is why I summoned the ambassador,” he said.

China Halts All New BHP Iron Ore Cargoes As Traders Brief Goldman On Situation -Bloomberg reports that China Mineral Resources Group has temporarily halted purchases of all dollar-denominated seaborne iron ore cargoes from BHP Group vessels. The trade suspension follows failed talks between CMRG (the world's largest iron ore buyer) and BHP (the world's largest listed miner) and builds on earlier restrictions targeting BHP's Jimblebar blend fines. CMRG has now barred mills from taking Jimblebar cargoes at ports or purchasing them in the yuan spot market, forcing some steelmakers to source ore elsewhere. "Would China have done this a decade ago, when it heavily depended on imports? No way," Panmure Liberum analyst Tom Price wrote in a note, adding that the difference now is that Chinese steel demand is sluggish and new supplies from the giant Simandou mine in Guinea are near. The suspension highlights Beijing's efforts to exert greater influence in global iron ore markets, shifting power away from global miners (BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale) toward China's steel industry. Goldman analyst James McGeoch spoke with traders to gather more insight into the situation. Here's what McGeoch told clients earlier: Press is reporting that "China" halts purchases of "ALL" BHP iron ore ore, traders tell me they see two agendas:

1. Commercial term improvement (the majority of the friction, like 90%) and
2. a desire to shift some sales to RMB denomination (10%).

Brief background: I wrote the below last Monday "last week it was reported (19 Sept) that Chinas CMRG halting some BHP product link, at the time we understood it related to Jimblebar fines, these acct for c.14mt annually. There is 2mt reported at port, which would be the number to focus on right now. Traders tell me BHP won't sign a discounted supply deal, so the games begin as CMRG gets bigger. RIO as I understand recently signed a deal floating price deal to year end. Until Simandou comes on and the mkt rebalances those tonnes everyone is nervous and China smells that fear, CMRG is doing exactly what people believe it was designed for...."... This may be a misplaced comment, however its always been my personal impression that BHP's MOU is to be the best producer, let the mkt clear at the most efficient price. Its black and white. CMRG is introducing shades of grey and BHP are holding the line.... Making sense of the iron ore market, McGeoch published a few charts for clients: