week ending June 13

High CPI reading boxes in Fed, raises uncertainty for future rates - Inflation hit its highest reading in three years last month, giving the Federal Reserve little choice but to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at next week's meeting. But what happens after that is anyone's guess.

• Key insight: Inflation hit 4.2% last month, the highest annualized increase in three years. The reading follows a strong jobs report last week.
• Expert quote: "It's possible that we're not going to see any more rate cuts and the long-term equilibrium ends up settling at 3.5 percent or higher. If I was the CFO of a bank, I'm not saying that would be my base case, but I would be running stress scenarios that reflect a much higher rate environment." — Mark Zandi, chief economist, Moody's Analytics
• Forward Look: The high inflation reading has scuttled any plans to lower interest rates in June. The question is whether interest rate cuts are off the table for the foreseeable future.

Inflation continued to rise in May, bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to keep its policy rate unchanged at next week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting. But the range of future monetary policy outcomes is wide, with all eyes on how newly installed Fed Chair Kevin Warsh navigates his new role.

BankThink The real fight at the White House was outside the octagon -- Forget the hyped-up "UFC Freedom 250" octagon fight on the South Lawn. The coming mixed-martial-arts fight on the White House lawn is bound to get a lot of attention, but a far more consequential heavyweight fight between President Trump and former Fed Chair Jerome Powell has already been decided. Powell chose the institutional Fed independence rope-a-dope but never threw the substantive rate knockout punch, writes Ken Thomas.

• Key insight: The coming mixed-martial-arts fight on the White House lawn is bound to get a lot of attention, but a far more consequential heavyweight fight between President Trump and former Fed Chair Jerome Powell has already been decided.
• Supporting data: When inflation reached a 40-year high in March 2022, Powell finally raised rates resulting in his failed "too little too late" transitory legacy.
• Forward look: Having lost the Fed chair and failing to restore his standing, Powell exits the ring diminished in both power and legacy. Only time will tell if Warsh does better on Washington's "power-and-legacy" measuring tape.

House Republicans rally around regional Fed banks -- In a field hearing about the regional Federal Reserve banks, House Republicans backed the importance of the regional Feds to the overall central bank and the importance of diverse viewpoints in monetary policy considerations.

• Key insight: House Republicans and Democrats at a field hearing in Oklahoma City pushed back against potential consolidation of the regional Federal Reserve banks, championing their role in representing diverse local economies. 
• What's at stake: The hearing comes as Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh has floated streamlining the regional bank structure, with a Fed governor arguing in April for centralizing operations for efficiency. 
• Expert quote: "Congress recognized the economic conditions in New York may look different than those, for example, in my home state of North Carolina, and of course, here in Oklahoma" — Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C.

12 Democrats vote against National Defense Authorization Act in rare committee split Twelve Democrats voted against the House Armed Services Committee’s nearly $1.15 trillion version of the annual Defense policy bill late last Thursday, a rare break in the typically bipartisan panel. Ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) called the committee’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) a “good solid bill” that supports troop pay raises, allies and defense acquisition reforms. But that wasn’t enough to convince 12 of his colleagues from voting against it. Democrats not voting for the House NDAA were California Reps. John Garamendi, Salud Carbajal, Ro Khanna and Sara Jacobs, and Reps. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Bill Keating (Mass.), Jason Crow (Colo.), Pat Ryan (N.Y.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H), Sarah Elfreth (Md.), and Wesley Bell (Mo.). Usually, only one or two Congress members vote against the panel’s NDAA in any given year, with last year’s bill opposed by just Khanna and Jacobs. “The tide is turning. In past years I used to be the only no vote on the House Armed Services Committee,” Khanna wrote on the social platform X following the vote. House Armed Services Committee Democrats said they couldn’t vote for a Defense bill with a more than $1 trillion price tag and no guardrails for President Trump’s ongoing war in Iran. This is likely the most partisan vote seen since 2019, when nearly all of the committee’s Republicans opposed a Democrat-led NDAA. That vote was 33-24. This year’s vote was 44-12. “For the 66th consecutive year, the House Armed Services Committee has worked across the aisle to craft a bipartisan defense bill that reflects our core national security priorities for ensuring a strong national defense,” Smith said in a statement afterward. But he added that he still was “deeply concerned” over the bill’s $1.5 trillion Defense budget along with a $350 billion reconciliation package pushed by the Trump administration. “There is zero recognition of our precarious fiscal reality, including our $4 trillion national debt coupled with the administration’s continued gutting of crucial programs needed to help hardworking Americans and their families struggling with soaring gas and food prices and spiking inflation,” he said.

Ways and Means chair ‘won’t support’ next reconciliation bill without tax provisions – House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith says he won’t get behind the GOP’s next budget reconciliation bill if tax provisions aren’t included. “I won’t support it unless tax is in it,” the Missouri Republican said in an interview Tuesday morning — a potential warning to GOP leaders who can’t afford defections given their razor-thin majority. After House Republicans followed up last summer’s tax and spending megabill with passage of a party-line immigration enforcement package Tuesday night, conversations have turned to what the GOP would put in a third filibuster-skirting reconciliation measure. House leaders have been meeting with different factions of their conference in recent days and weeks — from moderates to hard-line conservatives — on what they might support. There are talks about cracking down on fraud in health care and other social programs and adding some energy permitting and drilling provisions.

Collins, McConnell: ‘Safe to conclude’ third reconciliation bill not happening -Two senior Republican senators on Tuesday agreed Congress is unlikely to pass a third reconciliation bill, cautioning against relying on the possibility for defense funding. During a hearing Tuesday morning about next year’s budget for the Air Force, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) questioned Air Force Secretary Troy Meink about a low request for certain programs, which she said the administration intended to supplement using funding in a third reconciliation bill. Reconciliation is a special legislative procedure that bypasses the Senate filibuster to allow the majority party to pass legislation with a 50-vote threshold, but it is a lengthy and difficult process. “I would just suggest that it is taking a terrible risk and creates instability when you’re counting on a third reconciliation bill for the bulk of the money rather than doing base funding through the defense appropriations bill,” Collins said. Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chair Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is retiring at the end of the year but has been a leader of the Republican party, cast doubt on the future of the third reconciliation bill as well. “I think it’s safe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill, so it’s really not an option,” McConnell said. “I agree with that assessment,” Collins replied. Senate Republican leaders have muscled through two reconciliation bills since taking over the majority, most recently a “skinny” package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. Some Republicans are now interested in a third, which they hope would focus on affordability and reducing fraud in social programs, among other White House priorities. The administration has also formally requested that about $350 million, about a quarter of its total spending request, be achieved through reconciliation. Appropriators had also expected the White House to send over a supplemental request for extra funding for the Iran military conflict, but the administration has yet to do so. Collins has long been skeptical of using the reconciliation process rather than the regular appropriations process through her committee, which requires bipartisan agreement.

Government funding hits a wall as senators point finger at other party The process of funding the government is hitting a wall in the Senate, and lawmakers aren’t optimistic about finding a solution as a uniquely partisan Senate collides with an age-old problem: how much to spend on defense versus issues at home. The leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), both say they’re at an impasse because they have no agreement on a top-line number for fiscal 2027 spending. The committee canceled meetings to advance the spending bills for the second week in a row. Members of both parties, meanwhile, are pointing the finger at each other. Democrats insist they won’t move forward without a top-line figure that balances out increased defense spending with money for domestic priorities, while Republicans are pushing to get bills moving without one to avoid a shutdown. And the fight is taking place in the shadow of the midterm elections in November, which normally slow the legislative process but are also intensifying pressure for each party not to cave. “It’s difficult to get people to work with each other right now,” Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) told The Hill. “I don’t think that any of the Democrats are prepared to vote for the bills even though they helped craft them.” Democrats insist they need more clarity from Republican leaders and the White House on the total funding levels. “I respect and appreciate that there are two ready to be marked up where the allocations are pretty good, and the content is pretty good, but moving ahead without a top line, without a rough agreement about how much we’re going to do for domestic priorities like roads and bridges, schools, and healthcare, scientific research makes no sense to me,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said of the spending bills. Collins told reporters Wednesday afternoon that she has sent Murray three top-line offers and said Murray is not giving her “realistic counters.” Murray told reporters earlier Wednesday that she had never heard back from Collins on a recent offer, which Collins herself disputed. Murray said the top-line offers she had heard were “lopsided” because they allotted much more defense spending than nondefense, which she said is unusual. “When you do bipartisan bills, as I know well, which I have done for my entire career here … you work towards an agreement,” Murray said. Appropriations success has seemed out of reach in recent years, including last year when Democratic outrage over the Trump administration’s policies threatened the entire process. The country went through two record-breaking government shutdowns, and Congress didn’t wrap up the funding process for fiscal 2026, which began on Oct. 1, until well into the spring. Even among that turbulence, however, the appropriations bills had moved through committees, lawmakers said. “What we would like is if we can, like we did last year, settle our differences in committee to come out with a united front, because it’s hard enough to pass them on the floor anyway,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Now, though, the political pressures are sharper. Coons said part of the problem is the war in Iran, which the administration is arguing justifies more money for defense. But even after a briefing yesterday, he still feels in the dark about how much money the war requires. “That’s like pulling teeth, to get updates, but that doesn’t help when there’s also a disagreement over the prioritization of defense and domestic,” Coons said. “I’m the hardest of no’s,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “When you go to the general public, they will be super alarmed that we’re going to not authorize this war, not even have a core debate about this war, and then fund it.” The fight over how much to spend on fixing problems at home and abroad is hardly a new one. Republicans’ platform has for decades included increasing defense spending, while Democrats have emphasized expanding domestic programs like infrastructure and entitlements. But the margins in the Senate and House are now very thin. Members are turning their focus to running for reelection or helping others win, and that doesn’t generate much appetite for bipartisanship. On the other hand, failing to fund the government is also not politically comfortable, especially with last fall’s shutdown still in the rearview mirror. “We’re going to run out of time again,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “That’s not healthy for the American public in general, if they don’t see some sort of a push to actually lay out what the budget looks like with the appropriations in hand for the coming year, and it looks always like we’re just way behind, and we end up with continuing resolutions at a time in which people want to see some action from the federal government, as far as doing our job on time.”

Israel and Iran flare-up tests Trump's grip and could strengthen Tehran's negotiating hand -- Israel's tit-for-tat strikes with Iran over the weekend, despite US President Donald Trump's call for Netanyahu to hold fire, threatened to thrust the Middle East back into another round of direct confrontation between Tehran and Washington. Israel bombed sites in Iran for the first time since a ceasefire in April, after Iran fired missiles at Israel, in what Tehran said was retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon's capital, Beirut. The current web of fractious alliances and dysfunctional ceasefires shows how dangerously destabilised the region remains, more than three months after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran. The escalation also highlights three points about the current trajectory of the war:

• Trump can't or won't contain his Israeli ally to the extent he publicly proclaims, a point not lost on Tehran, which aims to prise open any differences between the US and Israel
• Tehran is prepared to risk retaliation against its own territory in order to link the fates of the US-Iran war with the one between Israel and Hezbollah
• Trump's longed-for deal on the nuclear issue is not imminent, as Iran senses his appetite for risk is currently low and is seeking to extract more from Washington at the negotiating table

After Iran's missile attack on Israel on Sunday, Trump spoke to several journalists telling one he was "going to call [Netanyahu] right now and tell him not to retaliate". The implication was an Israeli counterattack could jeopardise his perilously fragile diplomacy with Tehran. Hours later, Israel attacked Iran. Trump told the BBC on Monday afternoon that Israeli planes were "already on their way" when he spoke with Netanyahu. In a brief phone call with the BBC, the US president denied the Israeli PM had defied him, saying: "If I tell him to do something, he does it." On the face of it, Trump failed to stop Netanyahu, another escalation in a tense series of exchanges between the two leaders. Last week, Trump reportedly dished out an expletive-laden rant at Netanyahu, calling the Israeli leader "crazy" for wanting to attack Beirut. Netanyahu said strikes on Beirut were necessary amid the Hezbollah threat against northern Israel. Trump felt his behaviour threatened his own attempt to reach a deal with Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and secure assurances on Iran's nuclear programme. In an interview with the New York Post last week, Trump said he was perturbed by Netanyahu's "constantly fighting with Lebanon".

Ceasefire On the Brink of Collapse as Iran Responds to Israeli Attacks on Beirut - Update 6/7/2026 6:15 PM: President Donald Trump said he will tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to respond to the Iranian attack. “I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” the President told Axios. Iran fired missiles at Israel in response to the IDF bombing Beirut. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly stated that it will not tolerate violations of the ceasefire and aggression against Lebanon. Tonight, the aggressors received their response,” Mohsen Rezaee, the military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote on X. “This response is a warning to stop their evil; any new action will be met with a more crushing response and heavier costs.” In remarks shortly after the missiles hit Israel, President Donald Trump told Fox News, “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.” The head of Iran’s negotiating team said that “direct confrontation” with the US and Israel could happen if ceasefire violations continue. Iran’s Parliament Speaker and lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that Iran “will not only halt the path of negotiations, but we will also be in direct confrontation with the enemy.”In a post on X, he pointed to US and Israeli violations of the truce as the reason for escalating the conflict. “They are neither committed to a ceasefire nor believe in dialogue, and by demonstrating through the naval blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon that they only understand the language of power,” he wrote. “The naval blockade against the Iranian nation and America’s green light today to the Zionist regime turn American and regime bases and assets in the region into legitimate targets. The hand of our armed forces is open, as always,” the post continued. The statement followed Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital city. On Sunday, Israeli attacks on Beirut killed at least two people and injured 11. Iran previously threatened to respond to attacks on Beirut by attacking northern Israel. Over the weekend, the US attacked Iran and seized one of its tankers in the Indian Ocean. Tehran responded by attacking Kuwait and Bahrain. Additionally, Iranian forces fired warning shots at American warships in the region.

Netanyahu defies Trump as Iran, Lebanon drive wedge - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s open defiance in striking Iran against President Trump’s demands for a ceasefire adds to growing divisions between the U.S. and Israel over the way forward on the war in the Middle East. Trump and Netanyahu have moved in lockstep in major military operations against Iran, and the president has delivered major actions benefiting Israel — moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli control over the Golan Heights and securing the return of hostages from the Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire with Hamas. But Trump has increasingly demonstrated open frustration with Netanyahu as he seeks to broker a deal to end the Iran war, reportedly cursing at the Israeli leader for escalating hostilities in Lebanon last week and reportedly telling Netanyahu on a telephone call Sunday not to retaliate against Iranian drone strikes. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots,” Trump said in an interview Sunday with the Financial Times. But the president’s demand reportedly fell on deaf ears, with Netanyahu ordering a strike on Iran hours after Trump’s remarks. Israel was retaliating for Iranian missiles on the country’s north – the first Iranian attack on Israel since an April ceasefire took hold. That came after Israel struck Hezbollah in Beirut, with Tehran equating a strike on its proxy group as a violation of the ceasefire. “They thought they would fire at Israel from Lebanese territory and from Iran – and we would not act,” Netanyahu said in a statement Monday, translated from Hebrew. “That did not happen, and it will not happen. Not on my watch!” The Israel Defense Forces said on X that Israel struck seven new aerial defense systems across Iran and a petrochemical facility in southwestern Iran used for weapons production. Netanyahu said he told Trump that “Israel has a full right to self-defense, and we are exercising it to the extent necessary.” On Monday, Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social that “Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!” “Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way,” the president added. Behind the scenes, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump privately backed down from his demands for Israel to hold back from retaliating in a phone call with Netanyahu on Sunday. The president advised Netanyahu to carry out a “limited” strike and to avoid escalation, the Journal reported. A source familiar confirmed the Journal’s description of the call. The White House referred questions about the call to Trump’s comments to Fox News’ Trey Yingst on Sunday afternoon. Trump told Yingst he was “not happy” about Israel striking Hezbollah in Beirut but said ongoing Iranian missile fire against Israel won’t help negotiations. “What I would suggest to Iran, you’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal,” Yingst quoted the president as saying. Trump also said the U.S. did not coordinate with Israel on the most recent military strikes.

 Trump Says Iran and Israel Must 'Stop Shooting' After They Exchange Strikes - -- President Trump said on Monday that Iran and Israel must “stop shooting,” comments that came after Israel bombed Iran following Iranian strikes on northern Israel in response to Israel’s strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’ President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on Truth Social.Israel launched strikes in several Iranian cities after Trump said that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to respond to the Iranian strikes on northern Israel.“I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” Trump told Axios reporter Barak Ravid a few hours before Israel bombed Iran.  The Wall Street Journal reported that when Trump spoke with Netanyahu on Sunday, and it became clear the Israeli leader wouldn’t call off his plans to strike Iran, Trump asked him to keep it limited. The two leaders spoke again on Monday, and Netanyahu later said publicly that he would not launch further attacks.The US tried to distance itself from Israel’s strikes on Beirut, but sources told the Journal that Israel informed the US of the planned attack ahead of time, and the US also helped intercept Iranian missiles fired at Israel in response.Following the Israeli attacks on Iran, which wounded at least 15 people, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it targeted air bases in northern Israel, and Iran’s central military command, the Khatam al-Anbia, later announced that it was “halting military operations” against Israel. Though the command did warn it would respond to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, which continued on Monday. The Iranian military command said in the “event of continued aggression and provocations, including in southern Lebanon, much stronger and more crushing actions will follow.”Netanyahu said in his statement that Israeli attacks on Iran were halted for now. “At the moment, we are holding our fire, because after we struck the terror regime in Tehran, it ceased attacking us. In the event that the terror regime in Iran makes the mistake of resuming attacks on us – we will respond with overwhelming force,” he said.The Israeli leader suggested in the same statement that Israel won’t halt its attacks in southern Lebanon, saying that “We continue to destroy all of [Hezbollah’s] terror infrastructure in the security zone,” referring to a large swathe of Lebanon’s territory that Israel has declared a “buffer zone.”

US Fighter Jet Strikes Oil Tanker Attempting To Reach Iran - US Central Command said on Monday that a US F/A-18 fighter jet fired on an oil tanker attempting to reach Iran as the US continues enforcing the blockade of Iranian ports by attacking civilian ships.“US Central Command (CENTCOM) disabled Palau-flagged M/T Marivex as it transited international waters in the Gulf of Oman toward Iran,” the command said.“F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) fired a precision munition into the ship’s engineering and steering spaces after the crew failed to comply with directions from US forces. Marivex is no longer sailing to Iran,” CENTCOM added.The Indian crew of the Marivex abandoned ship after the attack, according to The Maritime Executive, and footage showed a fire on the ship. Indian officials confirmed that all 24 crew members were evacuated.According to CENTCOM’s numbers, its forces have fired on and disabled seven civilian commercial vessels since it began enforcing the blockade in April.Iran is expected to respond in some way since it has escalated its retaliation for US and Israeli attacks in the region over the past week. CENTCOM’s statement came after President Trump called for Israel and Iran to “stop the shooting” after the two countries exchanged strikes, an escalation that started with Israel bombing Beirut’s southern suburbs.In a separate statement, Trump claimed that Israel and Iran sought a ceasefire while vowing that the US blockade of Iran would continue. Iranian officials have been clear that they view both the Israeli war in Lebanon and the US blockade as violations of the ceasefire that was reached in April.

U.S. military disables Iranian-bound oil tanker in Gulf of Oman --The U.S. military disabled an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday that it said was in violation of the U.S. Navy blockade, according to the U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East.  An F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, fired a precision munition into the engineering and steering spaces of the Palau-flagged M/T Marivex, which was transiting international water toward Iran, after the vessel’s crew did not comply with the directions from U.S. personnel, according to Centcom. The oil tanker is nearly 135 meters long and 22 meters wide, according to MarineTraffic.com. The U.S. forces have continued to enforce the blockade, which went into effect in mid-April. So far, the U.S. military has disabled seven vessels that did not comply with the warnings and redirected 134 ships that have complied, according to Centcom. The U.S. military has allowed 42 ships supporting humanitarian aid to pass through since the blockade kicked off.The enforcement of the blockade comes as President Trump has urged Israel and Iran to immediately “stop shooting” on Monday after the firing resumed between the two sides, escalating tensions that threaten the U.S.-negotiated ceasefire from early April. Both Iran and Israel have signalled a halt to strikes for now.Last week, a U.S. fighter jet fired a Hellfire missile, disabling a Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie oil tanker that was heading toward an Iranian port on Kharg Island.

 Trump vows response against Iran after downing of US helicopter - President Trump on Tuesday blamed Iran for shooting down an American Apache helicopter overnight and said a response was necessary. “I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social. “There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” The episode adds to an increasing number of back-and-forth military strikes between the U.S. and Iran despite an April ceasefire. Nevertheless, the president is telegraphing that a deal to end the war with Iran could be signed within days. While the war has surpassed the 100-day mark, Trump has claimed for weeks that a deal is imminent. U.S. Central Command said that the AH-64 Apache helicopter went down on Monday evening near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters, and two crew members were rescued by American forces within two hours. The soldiers were reported as in stable condition. Iran’s speaker of Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, a key figure among the nation’s surviving leadership, posted on the social media site X a thinly veiled warning that Iran stands ready to respond militarily. “We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently. Break your commitments, and we’ll switch to what we speak best. You ride the horse you saddled!” he posted. Trump told the New York Post last week that he would end the ceasefire with Iran if Tehran killed any American troops.Experts say that points to Trump’s unwillingness to return to open warfare with Iran. The president is focused on reaching a deal with the Islamic Republic to first reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively closed in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks at the end of February, sending oil prices climbing.

US Begins Bombing Iran After US Apache Helicopter Shot Down in Strait of Hormuz - -- US Central Command announced on Tuesday that its forces began bombing Iran, attacks it said were a response to Iran allegedly shooting down a US Army Apache helicopter that was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz as part of the US enforcement of a blockade of Iranian ports. Despite the attacks being part of the same war of aggression the US and Israel launched against Iran in February, CENTCOM is framing them as self-defense. “CENTCOM forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 pm ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter,” the command said.Iranian media reported explosions in Iran’s Hormozgan province, including the city of Sirik and its surrounding county, and in Qeshm, an island in the Strait of Hormuz. According to Iran’s PressTV, projectiles struck two water reservoirs in the Bomani district of Sirik country, temporarily cutting off water supplies. US officials claimed the strikes targeted several Iranian air defense and radar systems around the strait.Several waves of US strikes were reported, with blasts reported in the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Jask, and more in Qeshm hours after the initial US attacks. CENTCOM later said that it had completed its attacks, but Iran is responding, with the IRGC announcing a drone attack on the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.Following the start of the US strikes, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X, “Despite its defeats on the battlefield, the US opted to test our determination. Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered. Leave our region if you want to be safe.”Earlier in the day, President Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the US “must respond” after the US military told him that a US Army Apache helicopter was shot down by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s deputy foreign minister told Al Jazeera that Iranian forces did not deliberately target the US helicopter. His post came after CENTCOM said that its forces rescued two crew members from the helicopter, and media reports said that the US was probing whether Iran was responsible for the incident, which came a day after a US F/A-18 fighter jet bombed an oil tanker that was trying to reach Oman. “I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” the president added.According to The Associated Press, the two crew members of the Apache spent about two hours in the water before being rescued by a 24-foot unmanned boat.Tuesday’s incident comes after Iran struck Israel in response to Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israel then launched strikes on Iran, and President Trump called on the two sides to “stop shooting,” but shortly after his statement, CENTCOM announced the strike on an oil tanker.

Peacefire - Welcome to the ‘peacefire’. After Israel and Iran were pulled back from the brink of new war by Trump on Monday, Wednesday morning Asia time saw him then strike Iran, and it fire at US bases in the Gulf, in response to Tehran downing a US Apache helicopter. It appears the US hit radar and missile/drone facilities around and in the Strait of Hormuz while Iran didn’t hit anything due to its missiles being intercepted. Looking at the areas the US struck in Iran last night, one plausible explanation is that they targeted the infrastructure Iran uses to control shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. In effect, they may have hit the “toll booth” and related facilities — including military/security… https://t.co/xq6OwcEQbV   — It seems both sides can now attack each other on a limited/proportional scale under a ‘ceasefire’ while peace negotiations continue… which Trump says are now in the “final throes”, and cynics point out such finality is always thrown further into the future. T^he latest suggestion there is that Iran may dilute its highly enriched uranium stockpile rather than destroying or handing it over, which would be a serious US climbdown if so; that’s as Trump elsewhere mused that he might set up a Marshall Plan for Iran – but would want half their oil in return.On Iran, TRUMP tells @ABC: “Somebody's going to have to build all that infrastructure, new bridges, new this, new that, new power plants… they're talking about a trillion dollars, probably more… that's why we'll probably get involved in rebuilding.” “But, we’ll get half their… Yet allowing Iran to keep its nuclear potential is not going to be acceptable to Israel, meaning no long-term peace in the region whatever the US decides. Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack Hezbollah, so far to no promised retaliation from Iran. As noted yesterday, that points to Iran’s failure to link Lebanon to its own conflict and to force Israel to stop hitting its proxy there. It goes without saying that the latest US strikes against it further underline that Tehran is not as in control of all elements of this crisis as some media and analyst takes would have it: this ‘peacefire’ arguably suits the US more than Iran.Furthermore, note oil had slid ahead of the latest attacks after the US energy secretary said Hormuz transits are ‘meaningfully’ climbing. Crucially, there is evidence suggesting the US Navy is ushering more oil through Hormuz, with transponders off, than official data on ship movements show. Indeed, both the UAE and Kuwait are now offering crude to Asia again, while Saudi jet fuel supply to Europe is higher than before the Hormuz closure (first discussed here "As Gulf States Plan Bypass Pipelines, US Military Is Quietly Helping Ships Cross Hormuz"). That may not get much fanfare, but it is extremely significant if so.Of course, oil then climbed after the US strikes on Iran - and a Hormuz reopening date beyond what we already expected (September) was just flagged. Trump had echoed our thinking when talking about Labor Day, September 7, as a possible reopening date, but yesterday Vice-President Vance noted it could take “weeks” or even “months” to get to a deal - but one will “absolutely” happen before the mid-term elections. That means November! Of course, if more oil is getting out of Hormuz, how destructive that extended closure timeline will prove for the global economy is unclear – but the tail risks aren’t eliminated.

US Begins Another Round of Attacks on Iran - On Wednesday night, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced it was launching a round of attacks on Iran for the second night in a row as Iranian media began reporting blasts across the southern part of the country. In response to the US attacks, Iran’s military said that it would fully close the Strait of Hormuz. “From this moment, due to insecurity in the region, the Strait of Hormuz is declared closed to the passage of all vessels, including oil tankers and commercial ships, and any traffic will be targeted,” Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement.  CENTCOM then claimed that the Iranian statement was false and that ships were still transiting the strait, but the denial came just a short while after Iran’s announcement. President Trump had earlier claimed that over the past month, the US military was conducting a “secret mission” to allow tankers to exit the Strait of Hormuz. He claimed the US helped bring 100 million barrels out of the strait, which, if true, is still a fraction of the oil that was transiting through the waterway before he launched the war. After the start of the US strikes, Iranian media reported blasts across Iran’s southern Hormozgan province and said that at least two residents of the city of Kargan were wounded by shrapnel. Iran appears to be striking back as air raid sirens were sounded in Bahrain and the IRGC said it was targeting 18 US military installations across the region.   The fresh US attacks came after President Trump threatened more bombings, and US War Secretary Pete Hegseth also said that the US would be attacking the Islamic Republic.“CENTCOM will be busy tonight because President Trump said we will be hitting Iran hard, and we will be,” Hegseth told reporters outside CENTCOM headquarters in Florida not long before the strikes started.On Wednesday morning, the president said on Truth Social that Iran has “taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price.” He also claimed in the post that Iran had been “completely defeated” despite its ability to launch missile and drone attacks across the Middle East.In comments to reporters in the Oval Office later in the day, Trump was more explicit in his threat. “We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today,” he said.Trump also told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that he may “keep going” with his attacks on Iran and that he is “getting closer to the targeting of Iranian power plants and bridges.”During the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, Trump repeatedly threatened to launch massive attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure and bridges, part of his threats to turn the country into “hell” and end a “whole civilization.” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Wednesday that its forces targeted the US military in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, and vowed it would launch stronger strikes if the US attacked again.Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that Iran’s military dealt a heavy blow to the US following its “savage attacks” on Iran that were launched under the pretext of Iran allegedly downing a US Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz as it was enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports. “With these aggressive actions, the US ruling administration once again demonstrated its criminal and warmongering nature,” the ministry said. US officials said the US strikes on Iran targeted air defense and radar systems, while Iranian media also reported that strikes hit two water reservoirs, cutting off drinking water to thousands of Iranians.

U.S. military launches fresh strikes on Iran targets -The U.S. military began launching another round of strikes Wednesday evening against multiple targets in Iran, less than an hour after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that forthcoming attacks would be “strong and clear.” The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) began launching strikes at 5:15 p.m. ET at President Trump’s direction, it said. “The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression,” Centcom said in a statement. Hegseth told reporters earlier on Wednesday that the strikes were not meant to restart the war, but instead to strengthen Washington’s hand in negotiations with Tehran. “This building continues to plan, and so those strikes that will happen tonight will be strong. They will be clear. If they happen to happen tomorrow night, they will be strong, and they will be clear,” Hegseth said while at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. The U.S. had also launched strikes on Iran on Tuesday, after President Trump said the Iranian military shot down an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Centcom said in a Tuesday social media post that the U.S. military had begun launching “self-defense strikes” against Iran at 5 p.m. at the president’s direction. “The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” Centcom said. The two members of the AH-64 Apache crew were rescued by an unmanned Navy surface vessel late Monday. The service members were in stable condition on Tuesday after receiving aid from U.S. forces on land, Centcom spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins told The Hill in a statement. Trump vowed a U.S. military response in a Truth Social post on Tuesday afternoon. “I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz,” the president wrote. “There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured,” Trump continued. “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

Axios: US Wasn't Sure If Iran Intentionally Downed Apache Helicopter Before Trump Ordered Strikes - Axios reported on Wednesday that the US still had not determined whether Iran intentionally downed a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz before the US began bombing Iran on Tuesday night.For its part, Iran never took credit for downing the Apache, and Iran’s deputy foreign minister denied that Tehran was behind the incident, though he acknowledged something could have happened unintentionally. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also hinted that the helicopter’s downing could have been unintentional. “Foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire,” Araghchi wrote on X. “To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave. We prefer language of diplomacy but speak other languages too.” Trump’s account of the incident also didn’t make much sense, as he claimed an Iranian drone ended up inside the cockpit between the two pilots, who were later rescued, but didn’t explode.The Axios report, authored by Barak Ravid, said that while the downing of the Apache was the “trigger” of the US strikes, Trump had been growing frustrated by Iran not agreeing to his demands for a deal, suggesting he was looking for a pretext to bomb the country.According to the US military, the two crew members of the US Apache helicopter, which was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz as part of the US enforcement of the blockade on Iranian ports, were rescued by an unmanned drone boat. Trump on Wednesday expressed frustration with Iran, saying the country has “taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price,” and he ordered another round of strikes, as the region appears to have plunged back into full-scale war.

US Strikes on Iran Cut Off Water Supply for 20,000 People: Iranian Media - US strikes against Iran that began on Tuesday night damaged two water reservoirs in Sirik county in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, cutting off water supplies to 20,000 Iranians amid sweltering heat, Iranian media has reported.“Unfortunately, following this attack, 20,000 residents of the region have lost access to safe drinking water, and with temperatures ranging between 45 and 50 [degrees Celsius], conditions have become extremely difficult and critical for local inhabitants,” Iranian state TV reported, quoting local water officials, according to AFP. “The destruction of these reservoirs has created a major problem for the region’s water supply network,” the report added. According to Iran’s PressTV, Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, a local water official, said the strikes damaged two concrete reservoirs, with capacities of 500 and 2,000 cubic meters, along with their associated mechanical equipment. Hamzehpour accused the US of deliberately targeting the water infrastructure and called it “flagrant terrorism.”The New York Times reported that it asked US Central Command about the allegations but that it declined to comment. In its statements on the US strikes against Iran, which appeared to be the heaviest since the ceasefire was reached in early April, CENTCOM said it targeted “Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.”President Trump on Wednesday threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran, saying that he was “getting closer to the targeting of Iranian power plants and bridges.” During the full-scale US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, he also threatened to “blow up” Iran’s desalination plants, and at least one plant was hit in Iran earlier in the war. Deliberate targeting of water supplies is a clear war crime under international law.

Kuwait closes airspace, Israel warns of launches from Lebanon after U.S strikes in Iran - Kuwait closed its airspace Thursday local time due to “Iranian aggressions” as it intercepted “hostile aerial targets,” following U.S. strikes against Tehran, signaling rising tensions in the Middle East. Israel’s Home Front Command also warned of launches from Lebanon toward several communities in northern Israel.Iran “struck and destroyed eighteen important targets” belonging to U.S. forces at Kuwait’s Ali Salem and Ahmad al-Jaber air bases, as well as the Sheikh Issa air base in Bahrain, according to the state run Tasnim news agency. Bahrain’s interior ministry earlier said that sirens had been sounded and urged civilians to head to a safe place.The escalation follows U.S. attack on multiple targets in Iran Wednesday stateside at President Donald Trump’s direction, following “Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.”  Centcom said strikes were completed at 9:04 p.m. ET Wednesday, adding it hit Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites. U.S. forces fired on Iranian targets that “posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”Iranian state media earlier reported that Iran had targeted U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz with missile and drone attacks. Later, Reuters reported that Iran’s top military command completely closed the Strait of Hormuz, warning that any vessel attempting to cross would be targeted.Trump later told Fox News that he spoke directly with Iranian officials, who he said asked him to stop the strikes. He said the bombing would stop shortly and that the Israelis were not involved in the strikes, but left the door open for further military action, according to Fox.In response to a question about whether the ceasefire was over, Trump reportedly said that it was the most violated ceasefire in history.The strikes come after Trump said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard” again, escalating his public threats as he pressed Tehran to sign a deal.“We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” Trump said at a White House signing event for the Secure America Act. “We’re going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard.”Trump said Iran “should sign the deal” and said that the U.S. wants an agreement “that’s meaningful and works.”“We’ll see what happens with the deal,” Trump said.In response Wednesday afternoon, the head of the national security commission in Iran’s parliament, Ebrahim Azizi, wrote that “this time, the war won’t be limited to the region,” in a post on X.The comments come after Trump warned on Truth Social that Iran had taken too long to negotiate and would “pay the price” amid escalating military tensions between Washington and Tehran.“Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess,” Trump wrote Wednesday morning. “Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore — They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action.”

US, Iran exchange new strikes as Strait of Hormuz remains closed - The U.S. and Iranian militaries continued to exchange strikes early Thursday in the Middle East region, sidelining negotiations between the two nations.U.S. Central Command said it launched strikes on Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense sites. The agency added that U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy assets “fired precision munitions” on targets in the Islamic Republic that “posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.” The U.S. military initially launched strikes against Iran earlier this week in response to Iranian forces shooting down an American Apache helicopter. U.S. forces rescued the two crew members, who were in stable condition as of Tuesday, with assistance from drones.  President Trump said Wednesday that Iran has “taken too long” in peace negotiations and “will have to pay the price.”Tehran earlier in the day launched missiles at Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait — the Pentagon has military bases in the latter two. The U.S. also had thousands of military personnel in Jordan at the start of the war, according to NewsNation.The foreign ministries of multiple Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia  and the United Arab Emirates, condemned the Iranian strikes. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also called the actions a “flagrant violation” of the three countries’ “sovereignty, security and stability.The Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the Iranian agency that is attempting to govern the Strait of Hormuz, said Thursday morning that the waterway “will be completely closed” after the latest round of U.S. strikes. “Applicants who have already obtained transit permits are kindly requested to remain patient and await further notice by the PGSA,” the authority added.Despite the escalation in the region, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude and Brent crude — the respective benchmarks for North American and global markets — were down from Wednesday. Gas prices in the U.S. also declined by more than two cents from Wednesday to Thursday, falling to less than $4.13, according to AAA.

Three Indian Crew Members Missing After US Bombs Tanker in the Gulf of Oman - Three Indian crew members are missing after the US bombed a tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it continues to target civilian ships in its enforcement of the blockade on Iranian ports.US Central Command said on Wednesday that it attacked the Palau-flagged oil product tanker Settebello. “A US aircraft fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces,” CENTCOM said.Video of the strike released by CENTCOM.  The Indian Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the attack that said 21 out of the 24 Indian crew members of the tanker had been rescued, but that three were missing.“Our embassy in Oman is closely monitoring the situation and proactively coordinating with the Omani authorities in the ongoing search and rescue operation,” the ministry said.“The targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must end, and free and unimpeded navigation and commerce through the international waterways in the region in keeping with international law must be restored at the earliest,” the ministry added.According to Reuters, India summoned the US deputy chief of mission to the country after lodging a “strong protest” over the US attack. The strike was also strongly condemned by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).“I strongly condemn any act from any party that endangers the lives of seafarers and the safety of international shipping,” said IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez. “This is simply unacceptable. My thoughts are with the families of the three missing seafarers and with all those awaiting news of the crew members.”A day earlier, the US bombed another tanker that had a 24-person Indian crew, who were forced to abandon ship due to a fire caused by the US strike. According to CENTCOM, the latest attack marked at least the eighth time US forces “disabled” a civilian commercial vessel while enforcing the blockade on Iran.

3 Indian sailors dead after US blockade attack on tanker - Three Indian mariners were killed on board a tanker struck by U.S. forces earlier this week over allegedly violating Washington’s blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, according to New Delhi. Indian Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the three people were killed in the “tragic incident” aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello. The seafarers were initially reported missing but were confirmed dead after their bodies had been located and identified, he said Thursday in a post to social platform X. The U.S. military earlier said ​it disabled the vessels MT Marivex and the Settebello, with ​Indian seafarers aboard both. U.S. Central Command (Centcom), the military arm overseeing American forces in the Middle East, accused the Settebello of having “violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran” and fired precision munitions into the boats’ engine room Tuesday.The kinetic action drew swift pushback from India, which said 24 Indian crew members were on board. “The continuing incidents of attacks on shipping in the region are deeply worrisome and a direct result of the ongoing conflict in the region,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.“We reiterate our call for immediate de-escalation of tensions and the conclusion of ongoing negotiations for a diplomatic solution so that peace and stability can return to the region.”   India also summoned the U.S. deputy chief of mission to the nation, Reuters reported.A third incident Thursday involved a vessel off Shinas Port in Oman, according to the Indian Embassy in Oman.The U.S. military has redirected at least 134 ships away from Iranian ports since the Trump administration imposed a naval blockade on the waterway in April, according to Centcom.  The region has grown more volatile since the beginning of the week after the Iranian military shot down an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

After Killing Three Indian Mariners, US Bombs Another Tanker in the Gulf of Oman - --  US Central Command announced on Thursday that it bombed an oil tanker for the third time this week in the Gulf of Oman as part of its enforcement of the blockade of Iranian ports, which comes after India confirmed the previous US attack on a tanker killed three Indian crew members. CENTCOM said its latest attack targeted the Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker Jalveer. “A US aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from US forces,” the command said.  Video of the US attack on the Jalveer released by CENTCOM.   Indian media on Thursday identified the three Indian mariners who were killed by the previous US attack on the Palau-flagged oil product tanker Settebello as Shivanand Chaurasiya, Patnala Suresh, and Aditya Sharma, a 23-year-old deck cadet who was on the ship for training to become an officer.Aditya’s father, Rajesh Sharma, called the US attack a war crime and said his government should take a strong stance. “My last conversation with him was on Sunday. I request the government to take a strong stance against the US. I will say it is a war crime to attack a commercial ship with a missile,” Rajesh told NDTV.  “There are a lot of ways to control those cargo ships, you can send a military, you can arrest the crew members, you have no right to attack them with deadly missiles,” he added. According to CENTCOM’s numbers, its forces have “disabled” nine civilian commercial ships while enforcing the blockade. “The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” the command said.

US confirms third strike on Indian-crewed tankers this week(Reuters) - A U.S. jet fired two missiles into the engine room of the tanker Jalveer off Oman on Thursday, U.S. Central Command confirmed, as authorities said the 20 crew members were safe after the third strike on Indian-crewed tankers this week. Three Indian sailors died in a U.S. strike on the Settebello tanker off Oman a day earlier. "A U.S. aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from U.S. forces," Centcom said in a statement. It said U.S. forces had "acted against" the Guinea-Bissau flagged tanker as it "attempted to transport oil from Iran through the Gulf of Oman". An Indian shipping ministry official said the crew were safe and being evacuated in coordination with the Royal Navy of Oman. Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters the "attacks must cease and end". This is the third Indian-crewed tanker to be hit by U.S. forces this week after the Marivex oil tanker was disabled using precision munitions on Monday. India has ordered government agencies to stay alert to respond to any contingency involving its seafarers or maritime interests, the shipping ministry said in a statement on Thursday. All Indian seafarers serving onboard Indian and foreign-flagged vessels transiting through conflict-affected waters should exercise the highest degree of caution and vigilance, it said, citing regulator the Directorate General of Shipping. The U.S. began a blockade of Iran-related shipping on April 13 after Iran severely curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a major global oil and gas route. In each incident Centcom has said the crews failed to follow directions as U.S. forces enforced the blockade. As of Thursday it said the blockade had disabled nine non-compliant vessels, redirected 135 others, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass. Ships being targeted include Iranian vessels as well as others carrying Iranian cargoes, including so-called shadow fleet tankers, which are typically older vessels without Western insurance used to transport sanctioned oil and sailing under the flags of various nations to obscure their true ownership, cargo and movements. The Marivex was the only of the three tankers under U.S. sanctions.

India Summons US Diplomat For Second Time After Deadly Strikes Kill 3 Indian Seafarers In Gulf Of Oman -  India on Friday summoned US Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks for the second time in less than 48 hours to protest attacks by US forces on commercial vessels carrying Indian seafarers in the Gulf of Oman. The latest move came after a strike on MT Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker carrying 20 Indian crew members. The incident followed an earlier attack on MT Settebello, in which three Indian seafarers were killed. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Jason Meeks was called to the ministry and was handed a strong protest over what India described as continuing attacks by US forces on commercial vessels carrying Indian mariners. In a statement, the MEA said the attacks had already resulted in the “tragic and avoidable loss” of three Indian lives. The ministry also expressed concern over the use of lethal force against civilian shipping, saying such actions undermine the safety, security and stability of international maritime commerce. India asked the US diplomat to convey its concerns to Washington and ensure that American forces operating in the region take all necessary steps to prevent civilian casualties. This was the second time India summoned the US envoy this week. The first summons took place on June 10 after MT Settebello was attacked in the Gulf of Oman. According to Indian authorities, three vessels carrying Indian seafarers have been involved in attacks in the past four days. The first incident occurred on June 8 involving MT Marivex. A fire broke out aboard the tanker following a suspected strike. All 24 Indian crew members were reported safe. The second incident occurred on June 10 when MT Settebello, carrying 24 Indian seafarers, came under attack in the Gulf of Oman. Twenty-one crew members were rescued, while three Indian sailors who were initially reported missing were later confirmed dead. The third incident took place on Thursday when MT Jalveer was attacked off the coast of Oman. All 20 Indian crew members on board were safely evacuated. According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), a US aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into MT Jalveer’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with instructions from US forces. CENTCOM said the tanker was attempting to transport Iranian oil and was disabled in the Gulf of Oman. The US military also said MT Marivex and MT Settebello had been targeted earlier in the week for allegedly violating a blockade on Iranian oil exports. Following the incidents, India’s Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) issued a fresh maritime security advisory for Indian seafarers operating in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and nearby waters. Official estimates show that 622 Indian seafarers are currently serving aboard 13 India-flagged vessels operating to the west and east of the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly 18,000 Indian nationals work on foreign-flagged merchant vessels across the Gulf region, while India has around 320,000 seafarers serving globally, making it the world’s second-largest seafaring workforce. Indian officials said maritime security and the safety of seafarers remain major concerns in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. Around 20% of global energy supplies pass through the strait. Officials said restrictions on shipping movements and disruptions to oil infrastructure in the region have affected oil and gas markets and impacted LPG supplies to India and other countries. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said earlier this week that India had conveyed its deepest concern to the United States over the attacks. “We attach high importance to the welfare and well-being of our seafaring community,” Jaiswal said, adding that India had registered a strong protest and stressed that such military actions must stop. He also said India supports dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward and called for unimpeded access through the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with international law.

Fury in India as its sailors become collateral damage in Trump’s war with Iran - The deaths of three Indian seafarers in a US strike on a commercial oil tanker has prompted public fury in India, and added new friction to an already strained phase between New Delhi and Washington. On Wednesday morning, the M/T Settebello was transiting the Sea of Oman, laden with Iranian oil, when a US aircraft fired precision munitions into its engine room –– causing a fire, sending smoke billowing into the air, and sparking a large rescue operation.The three men found dead following the attack on the Palau-flagged vessel are the first seafarers confirmed to have been killed in a US strike as part of Washington’s operation to blockade Iranian ports, raising concerns in India that its nationals are becoming collateral damage in a war that isn’t their own. The US miliary says the attack came after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with instructions from American forces enforcing the blockade. New Delhi, which has become increasingly worried about the safety of its seafarers during the US-Israeli war with Iran, has now urged Washington to halt strikes on shipping vessels. “The attacks that are happening must stop,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Thursday, after New Delhi summoned Washington’s Chargé d’Affaires. The timing is particularly delicate, coming days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 leaders’ summit in France next week. Modi is under pressure from some unions who have denounced the attack. “When a foreign military kills Indian workers in international waters, the government of India must speak – loudly and firmly,” India’s Centre of Indian Trade Unions said in a statement Friday. India’s Forward Seamen’s Union (FSUI) denounced the US Navy’s actions as a “gruesome attack,” saying the three were “dedicated maritime professionals.” Indian political scientist Kanti Bajpai said the “attacks on Indian shipping and the deaths of three Indian sailors have already become an irritant in a wobbling relationship.” Further incidents involving Indian casualties and “the venting of public outrage at home” could make it harder for Modi government to contain, said Bajpai, a visiting senior fellow at India’s Centre for Social and Economic Progress. Most of the 28 who were onboard the Setteballo were Indian nationals, according to India’s foreign ministry Just a day earlier, another 24 Indian sailors had to be rescued from another commercial oil tanker –– the M/T Marivex –– after it was also struck by US forces in the Gulf of Oman. On Thursday, US forces fired missiles into the engine room of a third tanker, the Guinea-Bissau flagged M/T Jalveer, for attempting to transport Iranian oil, US Central Command said. It too was carrying Indian crew who were reported safe.

Trump threatens to seize Kharg Island and other Iran oil infrastructure -- President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to seize Iran’s oil infrastructure including its main export terminal Kharg Island “in the not too distant future.” Trump said in a Truth Social post that the U.S. military will attack Iran “VERY HARD” Thursday night after completing a round of airstrikes on Wednesday. The president threatened to take “total control” of Iran’s oil and gas markets as the U.S. did in Venezuela earlier this year. Kharg Island is Iran’s main oil export terminal, accounting for about 90% of its crude shipments before the war. The U.S. Navy has already choked off most of Iran’s exports through a blockade against the country’s ports and vessels. The U.S. launched strikes against military targets on Kharg Island earlier in the war, but has held back from deploying ground troops to seize Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure. Shortly after making those threats, Trump told Fox News that he is not sure “America has the stomach” to take Kharg. The U.S. is continuing to hold talks with Iran, the president said. “I think they’d like to see us come home, but we did it with Venezuela,” Trump told Fox in a live phone call. “Venezuela’s worked out great for everybody.” The president said he would prefer not to bomb Iran’s power plants when asked by Fox. Trump made such threats earlier in the war. The Trump administration has basically taken control of Venezuela’s oil exports since the U.S. ousted former President Nicolás Maduro in a military raid in January. The revenues from Venezuela’s oil sales are deposited in a Treasury Department account. Venezuela’s oil shipments are sent to the U.S. Gulf Coast where the crude is refined.

Speaker Mike Johnson dismisses Donald Trump's Kharg Island threat Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he would “not put too much stock” in President Trump’s Thursday morning threat to seize control of Kharg Island in response to the downing of an Army helicopter this week. “I think he’s communicating directly with our adversaries over there. I would not put too much stock in the details of that right now,” Johnson said when asked by CNN’s Manu Raju about Trump’s statement. Trump said in a Thursday morning Truth Social post that the U.S. would be hitting Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” and said that the U.S. would be “taking Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure points” in the “not too distant future.” Such a move is widely thought to require U.S. boots on the ground, amounting to a major escalation of the hostilities between the U.S. and Iran. Johnson later on Thursday morning was asked about whether Congress should take a vote on the U.S. actions in Iran. “The president is negotiating a peace, and the Iranians continue to provoke us,” Johnson said, noting Iran’s firing on a U.S. helicopter. “That was a very provocative thing for Iran to do. And the president felt he’s the commander in chief, and his top advisers in the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff, they felt that it required a proportional response,” Johnson said. “Right now, they are working to have that situation resolved, and they’re doing the best they can, and we have negotiators over there, our envoys who are working around the clock to bring this to a conclusion. But the Iranians have shown, at least for the time being, that they’re unwilling to do that.” “We are hopeful that that works out. We have to allow the space to do it,” Johnson said. “We’re about 100 days into this conflict, and the Congress has to allow the commander in chief to do what it is he’s doing.” The House last week passed a resolution to limit Trump’s war powers in Iran after four Republicans voted with all Democrats in supporting the measure. But the vote was largely symbolic.

IRGC strikes 18 US military targets in two missile waves; Fifth Fleet in Bahrain hit by Army drones - The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian Army have announced a series of coordinated retaliatory military operations targeting US military installations across the region, including assets in Bahrain. The statements, issued in early Thursday, described the operations as a response to American aggression targeting various regions in southern Iran. The IRGC said its Aerospace Force and Navy conducted a retaliatory operation in two separate waves in reprisal for attacks on the Corps' coastal outposts and service units, law enforcement posts, and the Bandar Abbas airport area. "Eighteen key targets belonging to the criminal US military" were struck and destroyed at the Ali al-Salem and Ahmad al-Jaber airbases in Kuwait, as well as the Sheikh Isa airbase in Bahrain. Separately, the Army's Public Relations Office reported a drone operation targeting the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. "In response to a ceasefire violation and attacks on parts of southern Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran's Army used various explosive-laden drones to strike the US Fifth Fleet," the office noted. It added that communication antennas and radar systems associated with the fleet’s Patriot air defense system were targeted in the counterstrikes. The Army said its forces remained fully prepared for further confrontation and would continue operations until the "punishment of the aggressor" was completed. Meanwhile, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran's highest operational command unit, also issued a statement, attributing the halt brought about to the latest round of the aggression to "powerful and decisive response" by the armed forces. Also on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said US bombing in Iran would stop shortly, claiming that senior Iranian officials had called to ask him to halt the latest attack. The IRGC, however, categorically rejected the claim, calling it "a cover to escape war." The headquarters further stated that the Iranian military response to US atrocities would continue, without specifying timing or scope. The coordinated retaliation came after fresh explosions were reported across parts of Hormozgan and other southern regions of the Islamic Republic, as the US military confirmed launching a new wave of unprovoked assaults against the country. In response to the latest aggression, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters has also ordered closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. "From this moment, due to insecurity in the region, the Strait of Hormuz is declared closed to the passage of all vessels, including oil tankers and commercial ships, and any traffic will be targeted," the command unit said in a statement.

Iran's IRGC Says It Targeted US Aircraft at Base in Jordan With 12 Ballistic Missiles -  Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that its forces targeted US aircraft at the al-Azraq air base in Jordan as part of its response to US strikes across southern Iran that began on Wednesday night. The IRGC claimed the attack hit F-35, F-15, and F-16 fighter jets and destroyed US military facilities. So far, there’s been no confirmation of the damage from the US, but the US has consistently downplayed Iranian attacks on its bases and has attempted to cover up damage done during the war by pressuring satellite imagery companies not to release war-related images.   For its part, Jordan claimed its forces intercepted 20 missiles and that no casualties or damage were inflicted. “At dawn on Thursday, Jordanian air defense systems and the Royal Jordanian Air Force intercepted and shot down 20 missiles that had been launched from Iran towards the Azraq area in Zarqa governorate,” a Jordanian military official said, according to AFP.   “The interception resulted in the fall of a number of fragments, without any human casualties or material damage,” the official added.The IRGC also said that its forces struck US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain and that it targeted a total of 18 US military installations across the region. US Central Command said that its strikes on Iran targeted “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites across Iran.” After the US began its attacks on Wednesday night, the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters announced that it would completely shut the Strait of Hormuz to all traffic. CENTCOM claimed on Thursday that ships continue to transit the waterway. Another exchange of strikes is expected as Trump said on Thursday morning that Iran would get hit “very hard” at night, which would mark the third straight night of US attacks on the country. He also threatened that the US would eventually be “taking” Iran’s Kharg Island, suggesting he’s prepared to order some sort of ground operation.

Military strikes on water facilities in Iran may constitute a war crime, experts say -  Military strikes that damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran may constitute a war crime, military and legal experts say, after reviewing media reports and visual evidence of a 10 June strike on Bemani, a small district about 2 miles from the strait of Hormuz. It’s unclear if the strikes deliberately targeted the district’s water tanks, or if they unintentionally destroyed a key reservoir for about 20,000 people living nearby. But if the tanks were the target, then the legal question becomes critical, Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer, said. “It’s either a military objective or it’s a civilian object: attacking one is lawful, attacking the other is a war crime,” Finucane said.Iran’s state broadcaster said Wednesday’s strikes were carried out by the US military, though the Guardian could not verify if that was the case.“We are aware of reports and are looking into it,” Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for US Central Command (Centcom), the operating authority for US military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement.The strikes on Bemani may be part of an escalating effort to force Iran to accept a deal on US terms, breaching a tenuous ceasefire agreement that has been in place since April and compounding US threats to capture Iranian infrastructure and take control of its oil industry. Donald Trump has warned that Iran will “pay the price” for stalling negotiations and boasted on Wednesday that “we hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today.” Conflicting reports emerged on Thursday about whether the US, Iran and several Gulf countries had reached a deal to end the conflict. Trump said he was calling off planned strikes in advance of what he characterized as a deal agreed to in principle on most major points. Trump has claimed dozens of times to be close to an agreement to end the war, and that the Iranian leadership had agreed to a deal when in fact they had not.The destruction of Bemani’s water tanks occurred shortly after Centcom announced strikes on “Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz” by US air force and navy fighter jets in a post on X. The White House declined to comment on the strikes on Bemani and referred all questions about the operation to Centcom. The attack on Iran’s water infrastructure comes amid the heat of summer and a historic drought.“Iran’s water crisis has left the country with virtually no margin for error,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group. “Further disruptions could prove catastrophic for the population. But Tehran is more likely to endure a deepening thirst at home than satisfy Trump’s thirst for a political victory.”Lawmakers have also raised questions about the president’s continued use of force in Iran, and cited the risks of any expanded campaign that targets crucial water infrastructure.“Iran is one of the most water-challenged countries in the world right now, and we’re in the hottest part of the year where damages to civilian water access are going to have the most acute consequences,” said Tim Kaine, a Virginia senator. “Whether it was a mistake in targeting or intentional targeting, this is not a minor matter.”Iran’s semi-official news agency posted photos of destroyed water tanks as well as images of munition fragments that Trevor Ball, a former US army technician, identified as pieces of a GBU-39 bomb – a precision-guided munition produced in the US and often sold to allies in the Middle East including Israel and the United Arab Emirates.Ball described the damaged water facility as “remote” and said that it was “very unlikely that two buildings were both directly hit if that’s not what they were aiming for”.Several military analysts and Iran experts said that the Bemani strike was the first publicly reported attack on water infrastructure in Iran. Earlier this year, the US hit a girls’ school in Minab, killing dozens of students aged seven to 12. The US military has not commented on its role in the elementary school attack.Multiple former officials with deep experience in military targeting said that if the US did intentionally target a water facility, it would be unprecedented.“It’s never been on the table to hit any water infrastructure – in any campaign that I’ve been a part of,” said Wes Bryant, who advised the US military on the use of force in Iraq and Syria. “Pre-Trump 2.0, I would have said that ‘Absolutely we don’t target water infrastructure. This is a misidentification.’ But now I’m not sure.”

Trump Says He Has 'Canceled' Plans To Bomb Iran for Third Night - Updated on June 11, 2026, at 6:21 pm EST.  President Trump said on Thursday that he has “canceled” plans for a third night of strikes on Iran based on alleged progress in talks with Iran, which hasn’t been confirmed by Tehran.“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“ Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others. The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly,” he added. CNN counted that Trump had claimed at least 38 times during the war that some sort of deal was close, but it never materialized. According to media reports, the potential agreement on the table would focus on opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the US blockade on Iran, with other issues to be addressed in further negotiations.After Trump’s post, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that a deal had mostly been finalized but that the US keeps changing its position and that Tehran won’t back down from its core demands. “Iran has demonstrated that it does not compromise on what it has defined as its red lines,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei. “Iran has not yet reached a final decision regarding an agreement.”Earlier, the president threatened more strikes and said that the US would eventually be “taking” Iran’s Kharg Island, an island deep in the Persian Gulf that serves as a major oil export hub.“The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT,” the president said on Truth Social.  “At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America,” Trump added. During the full-scale US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran from February 28 to April 8, the US positioned Marines and US Army paratroopers in the region for potential ground operations to target Iranian islands and the country’s coast. A report from independent journalist Ken Klippenstein recently revealed that some members of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne were deployed to Israel. Klippenstein cited a military source who told him that the deployment to Israel was part of a US-Israeli joint contingency plan completed since February to seize Kharg Island and carve out coastal territory inside Iran.  Later on Thursday, Trump told Fox News that his “preference” would be to take Kharg Island but that he doesn’t know if “America would have the stomach for it.” Any US ground operation to take the island would almost certainly result in major US casualties since the invading troops would face significant drone and missile attacks. Trump again compared the potential operation to take over Iranian oil infrastructure to his attack on Venezuela to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Since then, the US has taken control of Venezuela’s oil exports, though the US war with Iran is much different since the US has faced much stiffer resistance, and the entire country is mobilized for war

Trump cancels Iran strikes, says peace deal could be signed in 'coming days' -- President Trump on Thursday insisted the U.S. was nearing a deal on peace talks with Iran, pulling back from his threats just hours earlier to launch more military strikes and seize Iran’s oil infrastructure. Trump said Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had signed off on the plan, which he said would be completed in coming days, paving the way for additional talks on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran said it hadn’t decided. “Iran hasn’t reached a final conclusion about the agreement,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said, according to state media. “We will announce it when we reach a conclusion.” One major hurdle to advancing peace negotiations has been Iran’s demands that it immediately access tens of billions of dollars frozen by U.S. sanctions, which would offer immediate relief to its deeply damaged economy. Some people familiar with the negotiations expressed hope that differences between the two countries were narrowing, after initially sparring over the timeline and mechanisms for releasing the money. Early Thursday, Trump threatened to launch another wave of military strikes to try to force Iran to agree to his terms on a nuclear deal. He said the U.S. military would seize Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure “and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets.” Hours later, however, he abruptly reversed course, declaring a deal was at hand and that Iran would be spared. Also on Thursday, a delegation from Qatar, which is a mediator in the talks to wind down the war, had returned from a trip to Tehran with new language to be incorporated in the draft under discussion between Iran and the U.S., people familiar with the matter said. U.S. officials said Trump received word that Tehran had come closer to meeting his nuclear demands. Trump told his aides it was enough to call off the attack—at least for now—giving time to complete a memorandum of understanding and set up a signing ceremony in Europe as soon as this weekend, the officials said. Trump later told reporters that Vice President JD Vance could travel to Europe for a signing ceremony that may take place over the weekend. Trump said he wouldn’t attend the event himself. Qatar’s leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, didn’t confirm Trump’s claim that a deal had been agreed to but said mediation efforts had “led to progress in the proposals under discussion within the framework of ongoing negotiations.” Trump has on several previous occasions indicated that a deal is imminent, only for talks to later stall. He didn’t discuss the terms of any new agreement during his White House briefing, or whether previous sticking points had been overcome. “The documents are in pretty final shape,” Trump said at the White House Thursday, adding that the Strait of Hormuz “will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon.” He didn’t give a deadline for the memorandum to turn into a final deal. It “doesn’t matter because it is going to get signed,” he said. The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports will remain in effect until the “transaction” is completed, Trump said, noting that the “time and place of the signing” would soon be announced. Trump’s announcement is the latest back-and-forth in a tumultuous three months of conflict, which began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran. The two sides announced a fragile ceasefire in early April, but have traded fire on multiple occasions since the truce began. Negotiations have so far hit an impasse as Tehran refuses to accede to Trump’s demands to lift its blockade of trade through the Strait of Hormuz or dismantle its nuclear program. The U.S. for its part has repeatedly refused Iranian requests for upfront U.S. sanctions relief as a precondition for opening the strait. The U.S. attacked Kharg Island in March but has said it spared energy infrastructure there. The U.S. attacked Kharg Island in March but has said it spared energy infrastructure there. © European Space Agency/AFP/Getty Images Republican hawks in Congress are publicly pressuring Trump not to accept a deal that would be seen as too soft on Iran or a repeat of 2015’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA—the Obama-era nuclear deal that Trump withdrew the U.S. from during his first administration. “I hope we have in fact reached a diplomatic solution to end the Iranian conflict that will meet President Trump’s red lines and be fundamentally different from the JCPOA,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a vocal Trump ally, said on Thursday in a social-media post. “As in the past, any agreement reached with Iran related to their nuclear program will be presented to Congress for review and approval.”

Claims of US, Iran signing deal in Gevena on Sunday ‘not true’: Report - An informed source close to the Iranian negotiating team has strongly rejected recent claims by US President Donald Trump and certain foreign media outlets that a final agreement is ready to be signed in the Swiss city of Geneva on Sunday. "The claims raised by Trump and some foreign media that the agreement has been finalized and is going to be signed on Sunday in Geneva are completely untrue," the source told Fars news agency on Friday. The source explained that the decision-making process within Iran has not yet been concluded and ruled out both the specified date and the place. "The review and decision-making process in Iran has not been finalized yet. Therefore, both the announcement of Sunday and the location of Geneva are categorically denied,” the source added. The remarks come amid speculation over the status of the Iran-US negotiations, with reports claiming that the two countries are close to signing a memorandum of understanding, with a possible signing ceremony in Geneva as early as Sunday. The potential arrangement comes as Group of Seven (G7) leaders are set to gather in Evian, France, on June 15-17. Following claims made by the US president on Thursday about an imminent deal between Tehran and Washington, an informed source also told Tasnim news agency on Friday that the text of the understanding has not been approved up to this moment. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that the possible Iran-US understanding is at the “internal finalization stage”, and no final decision has been made yet. He added that official notification regarding any agreement is contingent upon reaching a final outcome and will be carried out immediately thereafter. “The decision-making process in the Islamic Republic of Iran is completely clear, and the relevant authorities must reach a conclusion on every detail of the text and any possible understanding,” the Iranian spokesperson reiterated. He explained that details concerning the manner of signing the potential understanding will be discussed in subsequent stages, and “what has been raised so far in this regard has largely been within the framework of media speculation.” The United States and Israel launched their unprovoked war of aggression against Iran on February 28. Iran’s Armed Forces responded with 100 waves of retaliatory strikes under Operation True Promise 4, launching hundreds of ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as drones, against American military bases across West Asia and Israeli positions throughout the occupied territories. On April 8, forty days into the war, an Islamabad-brokered ceasefire went into effect. However, the first round of Tehran-Washington negotiations failed to reach an agreement, with the latter imposing an inhumane “naval blockade” of Iran. Since then, both Israel and the US have violated the truce, triggering Iran’s strong retaliatory strikes.

Iran’s top commander warns US over ‘futile cycle’ of lies, contradiction The commander of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters has warned the US over a "false and futile cycle" of lies and contradictions in its behavior, after Washington first threatened to strike Iranian energy infrastructure and then claimed negotiations had been approved. "The United States, on one hand, speaks of agreement and negotiation, and on the other hand commits villainy," Major General Ali Abdollahi said in a statement on Thursday. His warning came after President Donald Trump first threatened to "hit Iran VERY HARD TONIGHT" and seize Kharg Island, then hours later announced he had "cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran," claiming negotiations had been "brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved." "This clear contradiction in America's behavior and words is the main cause of insecurity in the region and has jeopardized the security of international trade and economies, especially the Strait of Hormuz," General Abdollahi said. On Wednesday night, the United States launched airstrikes on several locations in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, including the cities of Jask and Sirik and Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump declared on Thursday that "at some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets", only to announce later he had cancelled planned bombings. In Tehran, Fars news agency cited what it described as a source close to Iran's negotiating team as saying that no text of an initial memorandum of understanding with the US has been confirmed. Abdollahi said US leaders, due to a "lack of proper understanding of the honorable and courageous Iranian nation and its powerful armed forces, are following a false and futile cycle". He added that America's repeated lies are among the signs of this cycle, and that Washington can never compensate for its "successive defeats and humiliations" through propaganda and media warfare. The commander warned that if the United States carries out further attacks against Iran, "the fire of war will become widespread and larger, in addition to insecurity in the region". "If the United States again wishes to carry out attacks against heroic Iran, it will receive a stronger response than before," General Abdollahi warned. "With regard to recent US threats against Iran's oil infrastructure, it is announced that either oil and gas exports will be available to everyone, or no one will have access to them.” Abdollahi's "oil for all or none" warning carries significant weight given that approximately 20% of the world's oil transits the Strait of Hormuz. The commander emphasized that Iran's Armed Forces remain in a state of "complete readiness, vigilance, and intelligence dominance" and will "decisively respond to any threat against the country's security, independence, and territorial integrity with impact-oriented, painful, and regret-inducing operations". He also dismissed US media warfare as incapable of masking Washington's battlefield failures. "They can never compensate for their successive defeats and humiliations in the war with Islamic Iran through propaganda and media warfare," Abdollahi said. Separately, Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics issued a statement marking the first anniversary of the "12-day war" – which Iran calls the "Second Imposed War" – the initial phase of U.S.-Israeli aggression that began on June 23, 2025. The ministry said the war was launched as a "joint invasion by the criminal Zionist regime and America" aimed at "partitioning the country and striking the independence, security, and existence of the Islamic Republic" – at a time when both sides were engaged in diplomacy. "In this war, several high-ranking commanders of the Armed Forces, scientists, elites, and a group of innocent children, women, and civilians were martyred," the ministry said. "Yet, despite these atrocities, the enemy failed to achieve its goals, and the 12-day Holy Defense turned into an arena of national authority, cohesion among the Armed Forces, solidarity of the Iranian nation, and the defeat of the enemy's calculations." The ministry noted that more than 100 nights of popular mobilization in support of the Islamic Revolution and the armed forces represented a "great asset" that have been key to frustrating enemy objectives. These nightly rallies, which began spontaneously after the assassination of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on February 28, have drawn millions of Iranians into major squares across the country — from Enghelab Roundabout in Tehran to public squares in Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz and Birjand. Participants gather each night waving Iranian flags and chanting in support of the armed forces and the new Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, with many vowing to remain on the streets until the country's enemies are defeated. "Any miscalculation or aggression against the country's security and territorial integrity will be met with a decisive, regrettable response far beyond the enemy's flawed imagination," the ministry warned.

Iran’s top diplomat says MoU with US ‘has never been closer’ -  Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says a memorandum of understanding with the United States has never been closer to completion, signaling significant progress in ongoing talks between the two sides. “The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer,” Araghchi said in a post on his X account on Friday. He highlighted transparency and responsibility in Iran’s diplomatic approaches and urged media outlets to refrain from speculating about the contents of the agreement while negotiations are still ongoing. “Pending its [the MoU] finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content,” the top Iranian diplomat wrote. In line with Iran’s responsible and transparent approach, Araghchi noted, “all details will be shared with public in due course.” The Iranian foreign minister’s statement came after US President Donald Trump made similar remarks, rejecting a report by Fox News about the terms of a possible new deal. Earlier, an informed source close to the Iranian negotiating team strongly rejected claims by the US president and certain foreign media outlets that a final agreement is ready to be signed in the Swiss city of Geneva on Sunday. "The claims raised by Trump and some foreign media that the agreement has been finalized and is going to be signed on Sunday in Geneva are completely untrue," the source told Fars news agency on Friday. In remarks on Friday, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Iran has reached understandings on a great deal of issues with the United States and is now in the final stages of internal deliberations. “At present, we have reached an understanding on a major portion of the issues, and we are in the final phase of internal finalization,” Esmaeil Baghaei said. He described Araghchi’s statement that the agreement has “never been closer” as “accurate and significant.” The spokesperson emphasized that Tehran is approaching the negotiations with a results-oriented mindset, even as it faces a recurring behavioral pattern from the other side. “We are confronted with the same behavioral pattern from the opposing side, namely, attempts to accuse Iran of being unreliable,” he noted. Baghaei said that relevant institutions meeting to discuss the process. “We are not operating with our hands tied. By carefully monitoring the other side's positions, we will announce our positions according to the circumstances,” he said. The official declined to say whether a final agreement was at hand. “It is possible that this process will reach a conclusion and receive the necessary approvals, and it may well not,” he stated.

US, Iran Offer Differing Outlines for Peace Deal - After President Donald Trump announced a peace agreement had been reached with Tehran, Iranian and American officials gave different outlines of the agreement. Pakistan, which has been mediating talks, said a deal has been reached. On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran and the US had agreed to a final deal to end the war, without providing details of the agreement. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that a deal with the US “has never been closer.”Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered further confirmation that a peace agreement has been reached. “We can confirm that a final, agreed-upon text of the peace deal has been reached and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps. Peace has never been this close as it is now,” he wrote on X. However, Tehran and Washington have publicly offered different details for the agreement. According to Iranian media, the deal does not include any restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran retains control over the Strait of Hormuz, a ceasefire that includes Lebanon, and the unfreezing of Iranian assets. After the report, Trump claimed it was false. “The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” the President wrote on Truth Social Friday. “What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth. Very dishonorable people to deal with.”US officials have stated that the deal only gives Iran sanctions relief if Tehran dismantles its nuclear program and gives its enriched material to the US.

Iran firm on red lines, says proposed deal not finalized amid US backtracking Tehran says it remains steadfast on its principled red lines as authorities review a proposed understanding, firmly rejecting speculation that a final deal has been reached despite Washington backtracking on recent military threats. Following claims made by US President Donald Trump on Thursday about an imminent deal between Tehran and Washington, an informed source told Tasnim News Agency that the text of the understanding has not been approved up to this moment. Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed that major sections of a potential understanding are close to completion. However, he rejected media speculations regarding a finalized agreement. "Textually, the text has almost been finalized in its major parts. The problem is that the contradictory positions of the United States have always caused turbulence and disruption in this process," Baghaei stated. According to Tasnim, Washington recently attempted to alter the 14-point text proposed by Iran. However, American military and diplomatic pressure failed to force any concessions. The report said the US has now announced through a Qatari mediator that there is no need for America's recent amendments. Iran entirely rejected the new changes after Trump tried to shift Tehran's positions through both military threats and Qatari mediation. Any proposed text still requires review and finalization by relevant Iranian institutions. Until then, all other news and speculations are invalid, noted Tasnim. The diplomatic retreat follows a sudden reversal by the US president. Hours after threatening to strike Iran "VERY HARD TONIGHT" and seize its strategic Kharg Island, Trump abruptly canceled the scheduled bombings. "Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, canceled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening," Trump claimed via social media. He alleged that "final points" were approved by all involved parties, though he stressed that the illegal US naval blockade on Iranian ports would remain in place. Iranian officials swiftly dismissed the notion of surrender, emphasizing that Tehran will determine the terms of any resolution. Mohammad Mokhber, advisor to the Islamic Revolution Leader, told CNN that the "war will continue" until Washington "respects" Tehran's interests. "If they respect Iran's interests and act accordingly, the war will end; otherwise, it will continue," Mokhber said. He warned that Trump is "mistaken" if he believes he can continue to "test" Iran's military capabilities, stressing that Tehran will "not back down" and "not step back." Baghaei echoed this resolve, stating that Iran has proven it will never submit to the demands of the other side. "Iran has proven in practice that its red lines are the interests and welfare of the Iranian nation, and there will be absolutely no compromise in this regard," Baghaei stressed. He added that if the Islamic Republic intended to retreat under pressure, it would have done so a year and a half ago. The diplomatic process continues to be disrupted by repeated acts of US military aggression. Both the US and the Israeli regime have repeatedly violated the declared April ceasefire. In Wednesday attacks, American forces targeted Iran's southern infrastructure and struck two water reservoirs in Sirik County, disrupting drinking water supplies to more than 20,000 residents across Hormozgan Province in southern Iran. US-Israeli strikes on water facilities in Sirik County have disrupted drinking water supplies to more than 20,000 residents across Hormozgan Province in southern Iran. Baghaei noted that while American officials speak of diplomacy, "they simultaneously resort to force, illegal actions, and criminal behavior." In retaliation to the airstrikes on Tehran province and the southern coast, Iran launched overnight missile strikes on key US sites in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan early on Thursday. Furthermore, Iran announced the "complete closure" of the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping on June 11 until further notice. The ongoing US war of aggression against Iran has severely disrupted global energy supplies. Consequently, Washington has capitalized on the crisis to reshape the energy trade. Driven by record shale production and massive strategic reserve releases, the US surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's top oil exporter, with its crude and fuel exports climbing to approximately 10.5 million barrels per day in May.

Text of Iran-US deal ‘reached’, Pakistan working to ‘finalize next steps’: PM Sharif Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says a final text for a peace agreement between Iran and the United States has been reached and that Islamabad is working with both sides to "finalize the next steps." Sharif made the remarks in a post on X on Friday, warning against a “misinformation campaign” which is aimed at sabotaging a potential agreement. “Amid ongoing intense mediation efforts by Pakistan, we are fully aware of incessant misinformation campaign being waged by those who want to sabotage the peace deal,” Sharif wrote. “Setting aside the noise, we can confirm that a final, agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps,” he added. Sharif also reaffirmed that “peace has never been this close as it is now.” The Pakistani prime minister’s statement came shortly after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X that a deal “had never been closer.” US President Donald Trump reposted Araghchi’s message. Araghchi announced that significant progress had been made in efforts to finalize the memorandum of understanding reached between Tehran and Washington in Islamabad. The Iranian foreign minister urged media outlets to avoid entering into speculation about the content of the understanding with the US before its official release. Araghchi said all details will be shared with public in due course. The latest remarks suggest that both sides are finally moving closer to formalizing an understanding after months of mediation efforts and often-stalled negotiations. Trump also said on Thursday that an agreement between Tehran and Washington was imminent. Pakistani officials have continued diplomatic efforts since they brokered a ceasefire that halted the unprovoked war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on February 28. Since then, the diplomatic process has repeatedly been disrupted by acts of US military aggression and continued violations of the ceasefire.

 Trump says Iran deal to be signed on Sunday, Strait of Hormuz to reopen - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said that a peace deal with Iran is scheduled to be signed on Sunday and that the Strait of Hormuz will open immediately after, posting on Truth Social, even as Iran’s Foreign Ministry said its negotiating team had no plans to travel to Pakistan or Geneva in the next few days. Trump said Iran "no longer wants a nuclear weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement." and that "no money will exchange hands." He said U.S. forces would retrieve enriched uranium buried at Iranian nuclear sites "at the appropriate time, when all is calm." Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps in a post on Telegram said Trump’s insistence on a Sunday signing was "a test for the negotiating team," noting that Iranian negotiators had explicitly stated the understanding had not yet been finalized and would "definitely not be done on Sunday." Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the Islamabad memorandum would not be signed on Sunday, citing hesitation from the other side, though a signing in coming days could not be ruled out. He said the memorandum is not a final agreement but a preliminary understanding focused on ending the war and does not address the nuclear file. Baghaei also said foreign military bases and presence in the region must end and that Iran would charge for services provided in the Strait of Hormuz, Fars News Agency reported. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in a telephone call that the US and Iran were expected to sign a deal remotely on Sunday, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X. Both sides welcomed the U.S.-Iran negotiations entering their "final stage" and discussed a forthcoming Regional Four Foreign Ministers meeting scheduled in Egypt later this month. Iran’s top security official Gharibabadi met jointly with the ambassadors of Russia and China in Tehran on Saturday to discuss "the latest developments related to the draft memorandum of understanding in Islamabad," saying the "strategic partnership between Iran, China, and Russia will continue with full strength." Abbas Araghchi said both sides had agreed to "respect the sovereignty" of the other, which he described as the first such explicit written U.S. commitment in 47 years. Vice President JD Vance said "the Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal." U.S. Central Command said Friday it shot down multiple Iranian one-way attack drones targeting commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied reports it had transferred funds to Iran, stating "no frozen Iranian funds have been released, transferred, or facilitated through the UAE."

House Democrat slams US-Iran peace deal as 'basically a surrender document' - Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.) criticized the reported details of an agreement with Iran, after President Trump said the U.S. and Iran plan to sign the peace framework on Sunday. “This is a terrible deal,” Moulton told MS NOW on Saturday. “It’s basically a surrender document from Donald Trump to the supreme leader of Iran.” The Massachusetts lawmaker, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, criticized the economic and human toll of this conflict. “I mean, $100 billion of taxpayer money already put into this war, 14 Americans dead, and we get a deal that just reopens the strait that was already open before he started the war? How is that a win?” he asked. A senior U.S. official said on Friday that the deal includes provisions to prohibit Iran’s nuclear building capabilities and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil trading waterway in the region. On Saturday, Trump announced that a peace deal framework would be signed on Sunday, after which the strait would be reopened “immediately.” Pakistan, which has been mediating these talks, said that the agreement would be signed electronically, followed by “technical level talks” next week to reach a peace deal. “This is just lose, lose, lose across the board for Trump and the United States of America,” Moulton told MS NOW following the president’s announcement. “And yet, I will still say that stopping this war and getting out of it is the best that we can do at this point,” he continued. “And so that’s why we are still hoping for a deal, even though we have to admit it’s a losing deal for America.” Moulton noted that the president has teased imminent deals with Iran “countless times.” “It really sounds like Donald Trump wants a deal,” he said. “It sounds like the Iranians are pretty content dragging out negotiations because guess what? They have a stranglehold on the world economy by closing the strait.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei offered a different timeline for the peace framework negotiations, CNN reported. Baghaei told Iran’s Tasnim News Agency on Saturday that a signing of this framework deal will “not be tomorrow.” “The possibility that it will happen in the coming days is not ruled out,” Baghaei said, according to the outlet. “However, due to the other party’s instability, we must be cautious about any statements regarding this process.”

Trump Says US Troops Will Remain in Middle East Until Deal with Iran Signed - President Donald Trump says he will not pull US forces out of the Middle East until Iran signs a deal to end the war. He claimed that the American soldiers were not in danger. In an interview with NBC News released on Sunday, the President said he would not be removing US troops from the region until “completion.” Iran has demanded that at least some US troops leave the region as part of any peace agreement. The US has at least 50,000 troops in the Middle East. Washington maintains a network of bases in the region in multiple countries. Trump deployed additional forces, including members of the 82nd Airborne, three aircraft carrier strike groups, and additional air defense systems. Trump claimed, “I don’t consider [the US soldiers to be] in danger.” However, 13 Americans have been killed and hundreds injured during the war. Iranian missiles and drones have pummeled US bases in the region, leaving many in need of significant repairs before soldiers return. In the past week, Tehran has targeted the US base in Kuwait multiple times in response to attacks on Iran. In the interview, Trump said that Iran and the US nearly signed an agreement to end the war, but he rejected it, demanding stronger restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. The President said, “They’ve conceded the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons. We had a clause in there that [they] will not develop nuclear weapons. And everybody was very happy with it except me.” “And I said, ‘Well, what happens if they, not develop, but they go out and purchase, they acquire? I want to put the word, ‘if they buy, purchase or acquire,’” he added. One unresolved nuclear issue is the future of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. Tehran has offered to internally downblend its 60% uranium to fuel grade if Washington lifts sanctions. Trump is demanding that the nuclear material be destroyed by the US. “If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” Trump said. “And we will go with them, or without them. But we won’t have people shooting at us, OK?” Trump said.

Treasury intends to use Iranian assets for Gulf allies to rebuild: CBS report - The Treasury Department is planning to use Iranian assets to assist Gulf allies in the rebuilding process resulting from Iranian damage from the war, according to a new report. CBS News, citing a source aware of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s thoughts, reported Saturday that Iranian assets are set to be used by the department in assisting Gulf allies in recuperating after damage from Tehran. The department is planning to use any authority on hand for the accessibility of Iranian assets in rebuilding and repair work linked to future Iranian damage, according to the source. The war against Iran, which has stressed the global economy and strained relationships with U.S. allies, just stretched past the three-month mark. The price of oil and gas has risen amid the war due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry. CBS News also reported that Bessent had ordered his department to solicit Gulf allies’ thorough estimates of Iranian damage costs from the war, per the source. On Sunday, the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was tested following Tehran firing missiles at Israel. Iran launched ballistic missiles on northern Israel, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) saying that “Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat.” According to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), one of the targets was a northern Israeli airbase, Axios reported, citing Iranian state media. The IRGC also said that the missiles were a warning against Israel continuing attacks against Lebanon. “If it expands its attacks in that area, or responds to Iran’s action, it will face more forceful blows, and devastating attacks will be launched,” the IRGC stated, per Axios.

Senate GOP support erodes for Trump’s Iran war stance --President Trump is facing growing pushback from Senate Republicans over his handling of the military conflict with Iran, leaving Democrats believing they are on the verge of having enough votes to pass a war powers resolution directing the president to withdraw U.S. forces. Four Republican senators have voted to discharge the war powers resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Democrats believe they are very close to finding a fifth. “We think we can have a narrow win,” Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), the Democratic sponsor of the measure, told The Hill. “I don’t have one absolutely pinned down, but I think I’m close,” Kaine said of finding a fifth GOP vote for the resolution. Republicans’ support for a resolution directing Trump to cease hostilities against Iran has grown steadily as the conflict has dragged on. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) was the first Republican to support the Iran war powers resolution. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) then voted to advance it as the conflict reached the 60-day mark. At that point, the 1973 War Powers Act requires Congress to approve a longer military engagement. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) became the third Republican to back the measure, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) became the fourth after he lost his reelection primary on May 16. Trump initially predicted the war would last four or five weeks after ordering joint strikes with Israel against Iran on Feb. 28. The conflict has now stretched into its 15th week and doesn’t appear to have an end in sight. Stock markets dropped dramatically Wednesday, and oil prices climbed again this week after the United States and Iran traded strikes and Trump warned that Tehran would “pay the price” for slow-walking the peace talks. Trump told reporters he would hit Iran “hard” and fumed over Iran “playing us for suckers.” Paul said the flare-up in military strikes between U.S. and Iranian forces could very well increase Republicans’ support for the war powers resolution. “The more hostilities continue, the more likely people are to vote for it,” Paul said Wednesday. One possible candidate to push the war powers resolution to passage is Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has become increasingly outspoken about what he sees as the need for GOP senators to show more independence from the president. Tillis did not attend votes on Monday and Tuesday and was not available for comment. Another possible swing vote is Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), who has consistently argued that Congress needs to authorize the military conflict once it stretches to 90 days. The war powers clock started ticking on March 2, when Trump formally notified Congress of the use of armed forces against Iran, meaning it passed 100 days earlier this week.

Only 12% of Americans Believe the Iran War Has Benefited the Nation - A new poll found that just over one in ten Americans believe President Donald Trump’s war against Iran has been beneficial for the nation. A poll conducted by Brookings, released on Friday, found that just 12% of Americans said the war against Iran has had a positive impact on the country. Notably, just one in four Republicans believes the war has been more positive than negative, while 33% said that the war was more negative than positive. Overall, 56% of Americans said that war had a negative impact on the nation. Multiple polls have found that President Trump’s war against Iran is unpopular with Americans. The conflict has caused the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, leading to surging gas prices in the US. The US and Israel attacked Iran in February as negotiations to avert the war were still ongoing. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially predicted a quick victory that would eliminate the threats from Iran’s nuclear and missile program. However, Iranian forces have performed better than expected in Washington and Tel Aviv. Tehran seized control of the Strait of Hormuz and limited tanker traffic to vessels from “friendly nations.” Iran was able to successfully attack several American bases in the region, killing 13 soldiers, injuring hundreds, and destroying advanced aircraft and radar systems. Additionally, Iran has conducted strikes against US allies in the region, including Israel and the Gulf Arab states. Tehran is demanding that any end to the conflict recognize Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz and the unfreezing of Iranian assets.

US war on Iran has had ‘significant economic impact’ on Persian Gulf states: Economist ---Limited transit through the Strait of Hormuz and physical damage as a result of US aggression against Iran have dealt severe economic blows to the oil and non-oil sectors of the Persian Gulf countries, an economist says. In an interview with the Press TV website, Justin Alexander, the director of Khalij Economics and a former economic advisor to the Qatari Ministry of Finance, said the Persian Gulf states have suffered major economic damage to both oil and non-oil sectors due to the war imposed on Iran. He attributed this to both limited transit through the Strait of Hormuz as a result of the US military aggression against the Islamic Republic and the resulting physical damage. “While most countries have shown considerable short-term resilience, the duration of the limited transit traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains critical. Whether higher oil prices after a reopening (the return of the Strait of Hormuz conditions to pre-war status) could offset losses from shut-in production is still an open question”, he told the Press TV website. When asked about foreign investment prospects following Iran’s retaliatory military operations against US bases in some Persian Gulf states, the analyst mentioned that Iranian attacks on US bases are not the primary concern for investors. Rather, it is attacks targeting infrastructure and industry that have raised alarm, he noted, emphasizing that a sustainable peace agreement, one that mitigates the risk of future war, would be essential to restore investor confidence. Notably, his remarks came just before the US launched a fresh act of aggression against Iran, prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes on US military bases in Bahrain and Jordan. As to the potential closure of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Alexander asserted that shutting Bab al-Mandab would further restrict Saudi exports and imports, particularly with Asia. He underscored that many countries uninvolved in the war would face severe hardship, with the burden of limited food and fertilizer supplies. Regarding US President Donald Trump’s recent claim that American oil production now exceeds that of Saudi Arabia and Russia combined (official figures show US production at roughly 13.5 million barrels per day, compared to about 18.5 million barrels per day for Russia and Saudi Arabia together) – suggesting Washington no longer needs the Strait of Hormuz – Alexander noted that higher international market oil prices still negatively impact American consumers. However, he stressed that, unlike many global consumers impacted by this war imposed on Iran, the US is unlikely to face physical supply shortages. As to economic losses inflicted on the Trump administration by the ongoing war, he said the ongoing stock market surge has continued to benefit the wealthiest in US society. “However, higher gasoline prices and eventually higher food and goods prices will squeeze lower-income Americans. These economic pressures may carry eventual political consequences for the administration”, the analyst told the Press TV website.

Pentagon: Israel Ramps Up Spying on Top US Officials - - The Department of War has raised the counterintelligence threat posed by Israel to its top level. The sources said that Tel Aviv wanted intelligence on Washington’s plans for the war against Iran. The New York Times and NBC News report speaking with multiple sources who said that the Defense Intelligence Agency raised the threat posed by Israel to the “critical level.” The Times reports that the targets of Israeli intelligence include President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.  Witkoff, along with Trump’s son-in-law, is leading the negotiations with Iran. Officials told the Times that Tel Aviv is seeking insight into Trump’s decision-making on the war against Iran.  Israel has attempted to undermine negotiations with Iran to prolong the conflict. After the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April that was intended to extend to Lebanon, Israel ramped up its war against its northern neighbor. Israel’s attacks on Lebanon resulted in Iran refusing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.  Israel is also attempting to surveil the Department of War’s policy chief, Elbridge A. Colby, and his top aide, Michael P. DiMino.  The White House said the reporting on the counterintelligence threat from Israel was false. “This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on,” the statement said. Israel also claimed the reporting is “completely false.” The Israeli statement added, “Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials.” In an episode of This Last Weekend with Theo Vaughn, former CIA counterintelligence officer John Kiriakou said that Israel has always spied on the US.  Current and former US intelligence officials told NBC News that while it is common for allies to spy on each other, the current espionage by Israel is well beyond what is expected.  The report comes as Congress is considering the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision that will further integrate Israel into the US military-industrial base.

Airline fuel costs jump 78 percent in past year amid war with Iran - As the war in Iran passes the 100-day mark, the cost for America’s airline industry is mounting. On Friday, a report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) stated that U.S. airlines paid nearly $6.5 billion in fuel costs in April. That was up more than 26 percent from March and up 78 percent from April 2025, the BTS noted. The cost per gallon of jet fuel in April was $4.11, up 94 cents from March and an increase of $1.81 from a year prior. Energy costs have risen around the world since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, which the Iranian military responded to by restricting transit through the Strait of Hormuz. The reopening of the waterway, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, is a key tenet of peace negotiations between the Trump administration and officials in Tehran. But those were set back again this weekend as Iran and Israel traded strikes for the first time in weeks.   Amid negotiations, transit through the strait has remained limited, with just 10 ships passing through in the last 24 hours, according to hormuzstraitmonitor.com. The site notes that 60 vessels go through the waterway daily under normal conditions. Increased jet fuel costs are making a significant dent in airlines’ margins. A Sunday report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) noted that the group expects airlines to achieve a combined total net profit of $23 billion this year, $18 billion less than its previous projection. The IATA, which represents more than 370 airlines in the U.S. and around the world, stated that it expects the net profit per passenger to decrease from $9.10 in 2025 to $4.50 this year. Willie Walsh, the director general of the IATA, said in the report that the Iran war and rising fuel costs “have shifted the outlook for airlines to the worse.” Walsh added, “Some of the additional cost is being recuperated by adjusting prices and improving efficiency, but it will not be sufficient to maintain profitability at the previous year’s level. Smaller carriers that started the year with weak balance sheets are certainly struggling.” In the U.S., passenger carriers have passed on higher fuel costs to customers in the form of higher baggage fees. Spirit Airlines, meanwhile, ceased operations in May after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice in the prior two years.

Trump says 'I love the inflation' after CPI hits 3-year high President Donald Trump on Wednesday said, “I love the inflation” after being asked if he was concerned about new consumer price index data that showed the annual inflation rate at 4.2%, a three-year high. Trump, speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, also predicted that inflation is “going to come down like a rock” after the United States’ war against Iran is over. The president linked that prediction to a confusing statement about the U.S. “taking” oil and ships. “No, I love it, the numbers were great,” Trump said when a reporter asked him about the CPI number issued earlier in the morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why?” Trump said. “Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now ... you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil.” “Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now,” Trump said. “We took out the other night, 22 ships, late at night, with no lights, because they don’t have any radar, because we blasted the crap out of it,” the president said. “That’s why oil is at $85 a barrel.” “We’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night,” Trump said. It was not immediately clear what Trump meant by “taking out” oil and ships, and how that related to consumer prices. CNBC has requested comment from the White House and the Department of Energy. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was testifying at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, said that he was not aware of the U.S. taking millions of barrels out of Iran, the Reuters news agency reported. Wright said the U.S. military had helped some oil tankers transit the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between Iran and Oman, and that oil traffic has risen “very meaningfully” through the strait in the past week, Reuters reported. While the CPI on Wednesday showed annual inflation at a three-year high, core inflation, which excludes the cost of food and energy, was at 2.9% annually. That is in line with forecasts by economists. But Trump’s comments on inflation come as his fellow Republicans fear that consumer angst over rising prices will hurt the chances of GOP lawmakers retaining their slim majorities in both chambers of Congress in November’s elections. Trump in May raised eyebrows when he told reporters, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” as he argued that his focus in the war on Iran was ensuring that the Islamic Republic does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump claims 100 million oil barrels secretly moved through Strait of Hormuz President Trump claimed Wednesday that the U.S. secretly moved over 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump in a Truth Social post said he “directed” the military to “execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships” through the strait. “I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market,” he said. “More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait.” “This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran. Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost. It’s over for Iran,” he added. The comments came after Trump in the Oval Office said he loved the recent inflation numbers, despite the consumer price index rising to 4.2 percent over the past 12 months. “I love the inflation,” the president said adding, “We’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it.” He said 22 ships were taken out at night because Iran couldn’t detect it because they “don’t have any radar” after U.S. strikes destroyed it. “That’s why oil is $85 dollars a barrel.”

US Energy Chief Says Not Aware of US Taking Oil Out of Iran - (Reuters) – U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a congressional hearing on Wednesday that he’s not aware that the U.S. has taken millions of barrels of oil out of Iran, after President Donald Trump told reporters it had. Wright said earlier in the hearing, however, that the U.S. military had helped get some oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. On Tuesday, Wright said oil traffic through the strait has risen “very meaningfully” over the last week.

US military escorting growing number of oil tankers through Hormuz, Energy secretary says -— The U.S. military is escorting ships carrying approximately 7 million barrels a day of crude oil and fuel products through the Strait of Hormuz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday.That amount would bring the oil supply flowing through Hormuz to about half of what it was before the United States and Israel first started attacking Iran in February. The volumes being escorted out of the region are rising, added Wright, who was speaking at the Bloomberg Energy Security Executive Briefing in Houston.About 20 million barrels of oil a day moved through the Arabian Gulf via the strait before the war, Wright said. About 5 million of that flow has shifted to pipelines and other transportation options, and output in the rest of the world has increased by about 1 million, he added, leaving a gap of about 14 million barrels.  “Flows today are approaching half of the gap, and they’re rising,” Wright said at the event.

“Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus”: Trump’s Strange Statistics on “Victory” and the “Destruction of Iran”  – According to a review of publicly available data from Donald Trump’s speeches and posts on the Truth Social platform from the start of the war with Iran (February 28) through today (June 12), a striking pattern of repeated and unsubstantiated claims has emerged:

• 55 declarations of Iran’s “defeat”
• 35 assertions of Iran’s “total destruction”
• 38 promises of an “imminent agreement”
• 25 claims that the Strait of Hormuz remains “open”

These statements stand in contrast to developments on the ground, which reportedly include continued Iranian missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases across the region, the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz (allegedly confirmed by satellite imagery), and the failure of any of the promised “decisive victories” to materialize. An old saying in American politics goes: “Elect a clown, expect a circus.” In political psychology, the compulsive repetition of a claim that contradicts observable reality is often associated with cognitive dissonance and an attempt to escape uncomfortable facts. Trump, who entered office promising to “end endless wars,” now finds himself entangled in a conflict that has not only continued but has expanded across the region. Each time satellite images allegedly showing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz or reports of casualties at U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain emerge, he appears compelled to calm public opinion by repeating hollow slogans. The claim of Iran’s “defeat” has reportedly been repeated 55 times, despite assertions that Iran has not been defeated and has instead imposed what some describe as a “new deterrence equation” on the region. Trump has claimed 35 times that “Iran has been destroyed.” Yet, according to reports cited by his critics, less than 24 hours after one of those statements, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched dozens of ballistic missiles at U.S. military installations in three countries and targeted F-35 fighter jets at Jordan’s Al-Azraq Air Base. Under Trump’s definition, critics argue, “destruction” appears to mean little more than the rapid regeneration of military capabilities.CNN recently reported that Trump had claimed at least 38 times since the outbreak of the war that an agreement was “imminent” (with the figure now reportedly reaching 39). Yet no agreement has been signed to date, and negotiations have allegedly stalled due to Iran’s insistence on a “full ceasefire in Lebanon” and the release of $24 billion in frozen assets. The repeated use of this claim has not only failed to build trust in Tehran but, according to critics, has also led many of Washington’s European and Arab allies to stop taking Trump’s statements seriously. 25 Claims That the Strait of Hormuz Is Open: A Narrative Challenged by Satellite Imagery The latest example of what critics call this “circus” came last night when Trump declared that “the Strait of Hormuz is open and ships are passing through.” However, satellite images circulated afterward reportedly suggested otherwise. According to those reports, no traffic was moving through the strait and oil tankers remained anchored in port. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) later issued a vague statement referring only to an ongoing “assessment of the situation.” For critics, this growing gap between rhetoric and reality has become a defining feature of Trump’s foreign policy. Public opinion in the United States—and even among many of Washington’s allies—is increasingly concluding that Trump’s claims lack a factual foundation. The remarkable number of assertions regarding “victory,” “destruction,” and an “imminent agreement” has, according to critics, not only eroded trust in the White House but also diminished the credibility of the American presidency on the international stage. In this view, the only person benefiting from the “circus” is Trump himself, who keeps his hardline political base engaged through fiery rhetoric. Meanwhile, events on the ground continue to unfold regardless of the slogans: Iran appears more resilient than before, the Strait remains contested, and the United States finds itself trapped in a crisis from which, critics argue, the only exits are either acknowledging failure or escalating toward a far more dangerous confrontation.

Trump delays major drone deal with Ukraine, baffling military experts The Trump administration’s hesitancy in signing a major drone deal with Ukraineis slowing the U.S. military down in an area where it’s already trying to play catch-up. Even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Washington to make a deal, with talks between the two nations stretching back to at least September, the U.S. has so far refused to embrace Kyiv as a partner in its drone development. Zelensky posted a lengthy message to social platform X last Sunday calling for a “bilateral drone deal — a big framework document” between the U.S. and Ukraine, which has made astounding strides in drone warfare since Russia attacked the country in 2022. But even with senior Pentagon officials — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — lauding Kyiv’s drone abilities, the Trump administration is still biding its time on taking full advantage of the Ukrainian capabilities, a delay that experts say is potentially kneecapping the U.S. military. “I don’t know what the hang-up would be in denying ourselves the ability to take advantage of that. I don’t think there’s any good reason,” Rebeccah Heinrichs, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, said of Ukraine’s drone capabilities. “I don’t know if there is a hang-up, I don’t know if there’s a different view between people about what the process needs to be, or what needs to come first, but clearly there is a great advantage on the U.S. side to partnering with Ukraine on drones,” she told The Hill. Likewise, Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow with Brookings Institution, said he was “mystified” by the lack of a deal given that the U.S. has been trying to learn from Ukraine, including by sending teams to the country to study developments on the ground. “Perhaps there is a procedural problem holding things up — or perhaps White House politics and directives are doing so, given that President Trump remains unpredictable in his degree of commitment to the Ukraine cause,” O’Hanlon said. One former official who spoke to The Hill on the condition of anonymity made a more blunt assessment, calling the hold-up “lethargy” on the part of the Trump administration and “a certain amount of hostility towards Ukraine coming from the very top.” Indeed, Trump and Zelensky maintain a tenuous relationship, with the U.S. president repeatedly voicing his view that the Ukrainian leader is an obstacle to a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow — even more so than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has largely stopped U.S. military aid for Ukraine in his second term and often extols Putin as “smart” and a “strong leader,” while regularly insulting Ukrainian officials, even berating Zelensky in the Oval Office during a February 2025 visit. The former official said Trump and Zelensky discussed a potential drone deal “in very positive ways” when they met in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, but there has been little follow-up to the conversation. “Those talks didn’t suggest any substantial energy on the U.S. side,” they said. Zelensky told CBS’s “Face the Nation” last Sunday that Kyiv agreed to allow the U.S. to test and train with its drones, but the two sides have not signed “the big document.” “I think this cooperation can be huge — the most powerful of its kind in the world,” he wrote on social media after the segment aired. “We need to negotiate, not just talk about it. Take the necessary steps and do it as quickly as possible. For this, we need President Trump to say yes.”

Hegseth Issues Threat To Cuba While Visiting Troops at Guantanamo Bay - US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited US troops at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Wednesday and issued a threat to the Cuban government.Hegseth said that it would be “unwise” for the Cuban government to acquire weapons that could reach the US, saying that it would “be inviting the kind of confrontation not only do they not want, but they could not stand.”The Pentagon chief also said that the Department of War was ready for anything that President Trump may order, and recent reports have said that the US military has placed enough assets in the region to be ready if the president orders an attack.“What happens with the future of Cuba is in the hands of the president of the United States and the leadership of Cuba,” he said. “No matter what, the Department of War is going to be prepared and postured for any possible contingency.”The Trump administration has set up potential pretexts for an attack on Cuba, including the indictment of the country’s 94-year-old former president, Raul Castro, suggesting the US may launch a similar operation to the one to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which Hegseth referenced.“[Maduro] thought he could flaunt the United States of America,” Hegseth said. “Then he found out [he could not], in about 45 minutes, in the middle of the night, in the most heavily fortified base inside their capital city.”

Republicans fume at members circumventing leaders with discharge petitions  House Republicans are growing frustrated by small numbers of members of their party joining with Democrats on discharge petitions to force votes, circumventing the wishes of GOP leaders — and weakening their control over the House floor. Once an exceedingly rare form of rebellion, discharge petitions have been used to force votes a record number of times in this Congress. Discharge petitions drove votes on a Ukraine aid package that passed the House last week, and on a labor contracts bill that has been a major priority of unions that passed Tuesday. Most famously, such a petition was used — against the wishes of President Trump — to force a vote on a bill compelling release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Some members think there should be consequences for those who work with Democrats on the petitions, or a change in the rules altogether to make it harder for a few Republicans to circumvent leaders. “I don’t support that process,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is responsible for setting the floor schedule, said in a press conference Tuesday when asked about discharge petitions. “As the majority leader, when people come to me and they want a bill moved the first thing I always tell them is, go talk to the chairman, work through the committee process. That is what the regular order is around here,” Scalise said. It takes signatures from 218 members, accounting for a majority of the full House, to successfully force floor action through a discharge petition — historically an uphill climb because it requires at least some members of the majority party to buck their leaders. But because Republicans have such a historically slim majority, it takes just a handful of GOP members to reach that threshold if all Democrats sign a measure. Republican leaders have strongly urged members in closed-door meetings against signing on to discharge petitions, noting that it essentially hands over control of the House to the Democrats. Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus, said that he thinks the House rules should be changed if Republicans keep the majority in the next Congress to raise the bar for discharge petitions. His caucus successfully pushed for rule changes in the past, he said, to discourage rebellions that upend the majority party’s control of the House floor — as rebels did when they banded with Democrats to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). “We pushed successfully to have the removal of the Speaker change from one to nine votes,” Flood said, referring to the threshold to force a Speaker-recall vote. While the caucus does not have any official proposal surrounding discharge petitions, Flood mused that the discharge petition threshold could be upped up by 25 or so signatures, amounting to needing a decent percentage of the Republicans — rather than just a sliver — to circumvent House Republican leadership. Punchbowl News reported that Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House Rules Committee, suggested in a leadership meeting this week that the National Republican Congressional Committee punish members who sign on to discharge petitions by withdrawing contributions to members who do so. It is politically tricky, though, for leaders to punish rebellious members whose votes they need for other major party-line bills. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a moderate and a frequent antagonist of leadership who has signed on to multiple successful discharge petitions, argued that the frequency of discharge petitions was a reflection of poor leadership. “If the House Floor was managed properly, discharge petitions would never be needed,” Fitzpatrick posted Tuesday on social platform X. “A successful discharge petition is clear and direct evidence of a poorly managed House Floor—because it demonstrates that the will of the majority of the People is being thwarted by the privileged few. Leadership of both parties have been guilty of this for years.” Rep. Riley Moore (W.Va.), one of seven Republicans who signed the Democratic discharge petition to force a vote on the faster labor contracts bill, said he put a lot of thought into signing the petition. “Look, I don’t like discharge petitions,” Moore said. “This is one of those issues that was never going to see the light of day. … There’s a lot of frustration on the other side of this as well.” “I take this very serious, signing on to it,” Moore said. “I’ve never done that before. There’s always a risk-reward scenario in any of these things.” But Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said that while he supports the labor bill and would vote for it on the House floor, he thinks that discharge petitions have been abused and would not sign such a petition. Van Orden said that in a Tuesday morning House Republican conference meeting, he stood up to ask his colleagues if they thought Democrats would work with them to pass GOP priorities if they were in the majority — saying that there were zero instances of a Republican discharge petition being signed into law when Democrats had the majority.

Hegseth's blocked promotions fuel claims of racism, chauvinism - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s targeted blocks on the promotions of officers in the Navy and Air Force have intensified scrutiny from former military leaders, who call the moves unprecedented and a corrosive abuse of his power. A disproportionate number of the nine stalled promotions in the Navy were reportedly women or minorities, coming a few months after Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll feuded over demands to remove certain names from that branch’s promotions list, including some Black and female officers. While Hegseth’s allies contended that the Pentagon does not consider the color of a service member’s skin or their gender as a factor, perceptions of bias have been fueled by the Pentagon chief’s parallel war against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies within the military. Several former defense officials also expressed worries about the impact on officers deciding to stay in the military when their career progress is throttled. “There seems to be an assumption that if you were a minority or a woman and you were promoted, that it was because of your identity and not because you’re good at what you do,” said Frank Kendall, the former Air Force secretary during the Biden administration. “That’s sending a really negative message to everybody who’s not a white male, and I’m afraid this is pervasive right now in our military. I’ve talked to a number of people from those categories, and they are really pretty upset about this, so yes, it is very negative.” Hegseth blocked the promotions of nine Navy officers, including three who are women and two are Black men, The New York Times reported. On the latest list of 22 prospective one-star admirals, which became public last month, none of them were women. Just a little more than 21 percent of women make up the active-duty Navy, according to Pentagon data. “That’s kind of outrageous to think for the size of the Navy,” a recent former senior defense official told The Hill. “What level of meritocracy is even there? What are you able to judge, but how are you judging it? Because there’s got to be at least one qualified somewhere.” The defense secretary can halt the promotions of officers if they have professional, physical, mental and moral failings that could jeopardize their ability to lead. Those considered for the one-star rank promotion are selected by a board of admirals or generals who oversee hundreds of personnel, with only a small portion of those eligible selected, making it an extremely competitive process. Then the list is reviewed by the service secretary and the Pentagon head, who can remove officers. “This is in my experience, unprecedented. In my three and a half years running the Air Force and Space Force, I did not ever have a general officer list changed by the Secretary of Defense, and I never tried to change a list myself,” Kendall said in an interview with The Hill.

Adam Schiff unveils bill restricting Pentagon AI use without human involvement - Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced a bill Monday that would require human involvement in the Pentagon’s use of autonomous or semi-autonomous weapons that rely on AI. The legislation, called the Human Authority in Lethal Operations Act, seeks to establish a “clear chain of command” under which a designated commander has the final say over decisions to use force that involve autonomous weapon systems. Pentagon officials would also be required to maintain records of their decision making processes, such as target selection, for review after the fact. “The past few months have shown us that there is an urgent need for commonsense guardrails to ensure the Defense Department’s use of AI is in line with Americans’ national security and privacy priorities,” Schiff said in a statement. “There are good reasons to use AI technology to advance our national security, however – just as with any tool, we cannot depend on technology alone to guide to us, particularly when the risks of harm can be fatal,” he continued. His bill would also require a review process for autonomous or semi-autonomous weapon systems, in addition to barring the military from using AI to monitor individuals for constitutional activities, removing human involvement from nuclear weapons deployment and purchasing personal data on Americans from third parties in some cases. It comes as several other Senate Democrats are pushing to add language putting constraints on the military’s AI use to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced her own bill last week that would bar the Pentagon from using AI to launch nuclear weapons, surveil Americans and deploy autonomous weapons, which she hopes to offer as an amendment to the NDAA. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) also reportedly plans to put her own AI guardrails legislation up as an amendment to the annual defense policy bill. These efforts follow a highly public dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic earlier this year over the terms of use for the company’s AI model.

Thune urges passage of FISA extension before deadline amidst Pulte uproar - Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said conversations are taking place over President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting national intelligence director as the GOP leader seeks to rally senators to extend a key spy powers law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, by the end of the week. “All I know is we have a deadline ahead of us,” Thune said. “We need Democrat votes.” The law allows the U.S. intelligence community to spy on foreign adversaries abroad. The extension on the table includes some reforms to prevent Americans’ data being swept up, addressing privacy hawks’ concerns. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed reservations about Pulte, who currently leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, expanding his portfolio to include Director of National Intelligence. “Irrespective of what you think about Bill Pulte, providing the reforms that are included in the 702 reauthorization is a safeguard regardless of who’s in that job or which party is in power here, these are really good, strong reforms, and they ought to command bipartisan support,” Thune said. “I’m familiar with some of the conversations that are happening around that,” Thune said, when asked whether Pulte would be removed. “I think I’ll let the White House speak, whatever the next plan might be there. But we need, we can’t pass this on the floor without Democrats.” Democrats and a handful of Republicans on Friday blocked a three-year extension that includes some reforms to the surveillance laws in protest against Pulte, whom Trump named to the senior intelligence post last week despite his lack of relevant experience. Since doing so, Trump has reportedly ordered Pulte to begin mass layoffs within the intelligence agencies. Pulte is also controversial because, as housing finance chief, he has used mortgage records to investigate public officials on Trump’s bad side, like former Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Several Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the FISA extension last week, and several, including Thune himself, cast doubt on Pulte’s qualifications for the intelligence job when he was announced. One House Republican, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who is retiring and has been known to voice opposition to some Trump moves, said Monday that Pulte is an obstacle to getting FISA passed, and joined Democrats in calling for his removal. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday he won’t back an extension of FISA as long as Pulte is in the top job.

FISA 702 spy powers set to expire after House vote fails over Pulte backlash  - House Republicans on Thursday failed to get enough votes from Democrats to secure a short-term extension of the nation’s warrantless spy powers, with the lower chamber leaving for a scheduled recess the day before they are set to expire. The bill would have extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through July 2. Democrats, however, refused to back the reauthorization due to objections to President Trump installing Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence. The vote failed 198-218, with seven Democrats voting in favor of the short-term extension and 19 Republicans voting against it. The failure, as well as the House leaving town for a scheduled weeklong recess amid the partisan gridlock, leaves Section 702 poised to expire — putting the country in a legal gray area as to whether it can continue surveillance of foreign targets. Asked after the vote if he would bring the House back from recess to vote on FISA again, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) asked, “What would be the point?” “We passed a three-year extension on April 29. It is sitting in the hopper over there as a live bill. Just now, I attempted to pass a short-term extension for three weeks, clean extension, no changes to the law, just to make sure that the people are not subjected to great harm, and the Democrats — 199 of them — voted against it and applauded themselves as they left the building,” Johnson said. “What would be the point of me going through this exercise over and over? The House has done every single thing.“ Johnson needed a two-thirds vote to pass the legislation under a fast-track process. He faced a dynamic also difficult within a GOP conference, where many members have also demanded reforms to the spy program. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a former Section 702 critic, had framed the bill during Wednesday night’s debate as “three weeks to continue to hammer it out” so the powers don’t go dark. But Democrats in both the House and Senate — where an extension under the same timeline also appears doomed to fail — say they won’t approve a Section 702 extension that would be available to Pulte, who Trump said will take the post June 19. A plan to fast-track a short extension in the Senate similarly fizzled on Wednesday after Democrats indicated they would object. Pulte, who will remain head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has used that role to refer criminal charges against four different Trump foes. “Bill Pulte has no relevant national security experience. Consequently, his appointment is in defiance of the law that requires the Director of National Intelligence to have ‘extensive’ national security experience. The apparent motivation for his elevation is the demonstrated willingness of Bill Pulte to search government databases for alleged dirt on President Trump’s chosen political enemies,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and other top House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement Thursday morning ahead of the vote. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, blasted the GOP during Wednesday night’s debate over the bill, noting it had been drafted just an hour prior. “Believe it or not, the administration’s invitation to trust [FBI Director] Kash Patel and [Director of National Intelligence] Tulsi Gabbard, which a majority of this body was not interested in, has now gotten even less enticing,” he said. Pulte’s appointment made it “even more obvious that he intends to use FISA to investigate, harass and persecute his political opponents. Director Pulte has no national security experience. Zero. Zilch. None,” Raskin added, calling Pulte famous for creating “personal mortgage dossiers” on Trump’s enemies. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called the floor action “a show vote …because they knew the bill would go down in flames.” When asked how Democrats could sleep at night knowing the powers would expire, Jeffries said Republicans bare the responsibility. “Donald Trump should lose sleep, and Republicans should lose sleep, because in the middle of sensitive negotiations to reauthorize surveillance authority, which they knew were challenging, Donald Trump decides to toss a hand grenade into the middle of those negotiations to blow them up, because Donald Trump decided he wants to elevate Bill Pulte, who is nothing more than a malignant political hack who is in no way, shape, or form qualified to lead our national security efforts,” Jeffries said. House Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) during Wednesday’s debate accused Democrats of wanting to “play political chicken with an essential national security tool,” noting the number of coming U.S. events that could be targeted by terrorists. “We’re at an elevated threat level with FIFA World Cup games beginning this week, America’s 250th birthday and related celebrations coming up this summer. Iran and its proxies are targeting U.S. military personnel daily. The 25th commemoration of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will be coming up,” he said, stressing that Pulte would not be the one using the Section 702 database. “The DNI has no 702 query authority either. [Democrats] know that to be true and yet continue on this personality conflict.”

House Rejects Bill To Renew Warrantless Spy Powers -- The House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a bill to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which gives the federal government the power to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans, and now the spying tool is expected to lapse as its last extension will expire on Friday night. The bill to renew Section 702 required a two-thirds majority but couldn’t even gain a simple majority as it failed in a vote of 198-218, with just seven Democrats voting in favor of the extension. Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the bill. “19 Republicans withheld our votes in order to preserve Constitutionally guaranteed rights,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote on X. “By refusing to honor the Fourth Amendment, you’re jeopardizing the continuation of FISA. Include a WARRANT requirement for US citizens if you want Republicans to pass this bill. Section 702, first enacted in 2008, authorizes warrantless surveillance targeting non-Americans overseas but also results in the collection of a vast amount of Americans’ communications. Those communications are retained in government databases and can be searched by US intelligence and law enforcement agencies without a warrant.Efforts to extend Section 702 were also blocked in the Senate as Democrats said they won’t allow it to go through unless President Trump rescinds his decision to appoint Bill Pulte, who serves as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as the acting director of national intelligence.House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) slammed Democrats for allowing the spy power to expire, saying they were “willing to JEOPARDIZE the safety and the security of the American people to make a cheap political point.”President Trump has been calling for Congress to pass the Section 702 extension, even though his 2016 campaign was targeted under FISA. Earlier this year, the president said he was willing to give up his “rights and privileges” to extend the spying power, an acknowledgment that it violates civil liberties.

Trump taps Wall Street top cop Clayton as intelligence chief - President Donald Trump said he is nominating Jay Clayton to be the next director of national intelligence, following backlash over his selection of housing regulator Bill Pulte to serve in the role on an acting basis.  Clayton, as US attorney for the Southern District of New York, heads the nation's most prominent federal prosecutors' office.

Trump picks former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton as national intelligence director - President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, hours after objections by House Democrats to the incoming acting director, Bill Pulte, ensured that a key national security tool will expire this week.Clayton is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and is the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He will have to be confirmed as the director of national intelligence by the Senate.The Senate is moving quickly on the nomination. The Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday announced a confirmation hearing for Clayton on June 17, a rapid pace that could set him on a speedy path to confirmation.  Trump’s surprise announcement comes after more than a week of controversy over his appointment of Pulte, who is a top federal housing official, to replace Director Tulsi Gabbard in an acting role when she leaves that post.Trump said Wednesday that Pulte, who since last year has served as an attack dog against several Trump foes, will assume the acting role on June 19 as Trump looks for a permanent director. Pulte has no intelligence background.Trump has said that Pulte would retain his responsibilities leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency and serving as chairman of the mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The director of national intelligence oversees the broad U.S. intelligence community, which includes the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.Hours before Trump’s announcement, the House of Representatives rejected a proposal to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act beyond Friday as Democrats refused to back the measure due to Trump’s choice of Pulte. House members left Washington after the 198-218 vote against the extension and are not due back at the Capitol until June 23.

 Gabbard reveals declassified map, records of Ukraine bio labs—view in full - Outgoing Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard on Friday released declassified documents related to what she said was new evidence of United States-funded bio labs in more than 30 countries, including Ukraine.The documents, still partially redacted, detailed the locations and functions of various labs which “likely housed dangerous pathogens.”  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said some of the labs were vulnerable because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war but had been intentionally covered up by previous administrations.“Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” Gabbard said in a press release. Newsweek reached out to former President Joe Biden for comment via the contact form on his office’s website.  Gabbard declassified the documents in April, but they weren’t released until Friday. They claim that Ukraine has more than 40 labs built and supported in part by the U.S. A map showing the locations of bio labs in Ukraine, as outlined by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence June 12, 2026.The slides highlight the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine (IECVM) in Kharkiv, with some of the key points that the site:

• Houses “at least some dangerous pathogens”
• Has “almost certainly” been vulnerable to Russian information operations, seizure or damage
• Has historical ties to Soviet-era biological research
• Conducts work on:
  • Veterinary medicine
  • Virology
  • Toxicology

There is also a claim that the facility had biosafety deficiencies, especially in areas handling Brucella bacteria, and that a virology building basement exists.Some of the pathogens handled or stored at the labs included anthrax, Ebola and swine fever.The documents also make clear that U.S. involvement has gone beyond infrastructure, including training Ukrainian scientists in biocontainment practices and funding research into infectious diseases, such as studies on highly pathogenic avian influenza. Bio Labs Declassified Documents: View in Full BIOLAB_Slides Download  The intelligence assessment is framed primarily around risk. It highlights concerns that some of the facilities could be vulnerable in a conflict environment—physically, through potential damage or seizure, and informationally, through their use in foreign narratives.One lab in Kharkiv is specifically described as housing dangerous pathogens and being exposed to security risks and allegations from Russia about U.S.-linked biological weapons activity.Slides repeatedly point to the possibility that such sites could be exploited in “information operations,” with Moscow already accusing the U.S. of conducting biological weapons work at Ukrainian facilities.What the documents confirm is relatively narrow but important: There is documented U.S. funding and collaboration with Ukrainian laboratories that handle high-risk pathogens for research, diagnostic and public health purposes. It also shows that the labs are part of a broader scientific and biodefense-related network involving contractors, government support and international research partnerships.

Homan planning largest ICE deployment in New York City: ‘It’s coming’ - Border Czar Tom Homan on Monday said New York City was about to see its largest deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in response to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent legislative package that provides residents with added protections from federal authorities. “You are going to see more ICE agents than you have ever seen in New York City. And it’s coming. I just reviewed an operational plan. I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming,” Homan said during a Monday appearance on Fox News’s “Fox and Friends.” “I’m keeping my promise. We are going to send more ICE agents to New York because you took away the efficiencies of safe arrests in county jails,” he added. The package signed by Hochul last month bans law enforcement officers from wearing masks and prevents state and local law enforcement from engaging in civil immigration enforcement. It also bans federal authorities from using state and local facilities for the purposes of immigration enforcement. In early May, Homan warned Hochul against signing the legislation, but Democratic lawmakers were undeterred. “If we can work with the sheriffs and arrest the bad guy in the safety and security of the jail, that means less teams into the neighborhoods, which causes a lot of panic, a lot of problems, right?” Homan said on Fox. “I said but if you sign the legislation that I think you are getting about ready to sign, that means I am going to send more agents to New York because rather than one guy arresting one bad guy in a jail now we got to send a whole team into a neighborhood to find this person that didn’t want to be found because of officer safety reasons, you know, now we have to arrest this guy on his turf,” he added. Several other blue-led states including New Jersey, Virginia and California have signed similar laws.

Trump writes blank check to ICE — where’s the oversight? For months, Americans have watched one immigration headline after another flash across their screens.  Deportations. Raids. U.S. citizens killed. Protests. Court battles. And now, President Trump has signed a massive $70 billion funding bill for immigration enforcement agencies that’ll last through the end of his presidency.  The question isn’t whether immigration laws should be enforced. Every country has laws, and every administration has a responsibility to uphold them. The question for me is, what are the guardrails?  Critics are calling this legislation a blank check, and that’s because it has little to no parameters on how the money will be spent.  Take something both Republicans and Democrats have broadly supported: body cameras for ICE officers. In an era where police departments across the country have embraced body-worn cameras as a tool for transparency, accountability and public trust, less than 25 percent of ICE’s field workforce is currently equipped with body cameras. That means only about 3,000 out of an estimated 13,000 ICE field agents wear body cameras today.   Yet despite billions in new funding, there’s no requirement in this legislation that ICE officers wear them. Why not? If lawmakers agree body cameras protect officers and civilians alike, why wasn’t that one of the conditions attached to this unprecedented funding package?  And Americans are clearly asking for more oversight. According to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, 65 percent of Americans say ICE has gone too far in its enforcement efforts.  That’s not a fringe opinion. That’s nearly two-thirds of this country.  Democrats spent months proposing reforms before funding negotiations collapsed. Now, I’ll admit, I wish the government did not shut down to have these conversations, but still some commonsense measures were proposed. Among them: requiring visible identification for agents; body cameras; judicial warrants before entering private property; restrictions on racial profiling; safeguards for detainees; restrictions on arrests at schools, churches, hospitals and courthouses; and protections against the creation of databases tracking people engaged in First Amendment-protected activities.  Speaking of databases that track folks, recent reporting has raised questions about whether immigration officials are collecting and retaining information on protesters and observers who monitor ICE operations. Federal officials deny maintaining a dedicated database of protesters, but documents and lawsuits have fueled concerns about what information is being gathered, how long it’s being stored, and how it could be used in the future. In fact, last week during a congressional hearing, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said his department had used facial recognition technology on people gathered outside of Delaney Hall immigration detention center in New Jersey.  Again, whether someone supports or opposes immigration enforcement isn’t really the point. The point is that when government power expands, oversight should certainly expand with it.  Mullin recently floated the idea of pulling Customs and Border Protection officers from international airports in sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. That could create massive disruptions for international travelers and airport operations.White House border czar Tom Homan was asked about this, but he appears to have a different plan. “This idea of pulling customs agents from major airports — I’m reminded of a line from that movie “Guardians of the Galaxy.” “What’s your goal here? To get everybody to hate you?”  This week on “Fox & Friends,” Homan warned he intends to send “more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen in New York City” after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation creating additional protections against ICE enforcement actions in the state.  And maybe that’s exactly why states like New York are stepping in. When the federal government expands enforcement authority without clearly defining limits, states often attempt to create their own.  MS Now released a new report showing ICE detention of very young children has increased dramatically. Researchers found that on an average day, approximately 25 children age three and younger are now being held in ICE custody. Whether Americans support that policy or not, it’s another example of why many people are asking how this money will be spent and what safeguards will exist.  A government asking for $70 billion and receiving it without meaningful new transparency measures shouldn’t expect the public to simply trust that everything will go according to plan.  The American people — especially the 65 percent of the country who believe ICE has already gone too far — aren’t asking for open borders. They’re asking for oversight.

House lawmakers oppose permanent authorization of disaster program -  House Financial Services Committee members of both parties Wednesday pushed back against a bipartisan Senate proposal to permanently authorize a federal disaster recovery program administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Lawmakers cited HUD’s difficulty in quickly administering the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds, issues grantees face in spending the money and the department’s difficulty conducting oversight. “That’s a dizzying set of problems for a program that has received over $100 billion since its conception,” said House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance Chair Mike Flood (R-Neb.) at a hearing on the program Wednesday. Full committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said CDBG-DR “lacks permanent authorization, clear objectives and consistent program rules.”

FEMA staff losses leave questions about hurricane season -- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staffing losses after a tumultuous year at the agency are raising questions about whether it will be able to effectively respond to this hurricane season. While the Trump administration has backed off its most controversial ideas — such as outright eliminating FEMA or cutting its staff by 50 percent — the agency is still facing fewer employees, an uncertain direction and a yet-unconfirmed leader, leaving observers wondering how well it will handle disasters in the months ahead.Since January 2025, FEMA has lost 5,000 staffers, according to a letter last month from House Democrats, and it has seen some high-profile resignations — including the head of its urban search and rescue division. According to FEMA’s website, several senior leadership roles are also vacant.. Some of the staffing attrition may be due to the Trump administration’s move not to renew contracts for some employees who were part of FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE), who assist with disaster response. CNN reported in January that about 300 CORE staffers were not renewed. Josh Morton, president of the USA Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers, said the loss of senior-level employees — and staffing losses in general — are concerning to him. “That’s a lot of knowledge that has gone out the door,” said Morton, who is also the emergency management director in Saluda County, S.C. “If we had another Hurricane Helene-type event that came across and took out a huge chunk of the southeast during hurricane season, does FEMA have the staffing to be able to adequately respond, and get out into all of these communities and help us?” he added. “Not having the reservist program at the level that it was, not having some of those senior staff members, I do think has the potential to slow down the recovery process from a very large-scale hurricane that is spread out over a large area.” A longtime FEMA official told The Hill that the last time it felt fully prepared was probably before hurricanes Milton and Helene in 2024. “There’s a lot of unknowns internally that we are trying to work through to make sure that we are able to do whatever it is that we are asked to do when that time comes, but you know whether or not we are successful in that, I think no one’s going to know until we get to that point,” the official said. “But certainly, I don’t know that if you ask any of the senior FEMA leadership in terms of, like, are they confident that FEMA is prepared privately, I don’t think a single one of them would tell you yes,” the official added. For its part, FEMA says that it is ready for the season with currently 8,100 people available to deploy. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin’s leadership,” a spokesperson said in a written statement, referring to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin, “DHS and FEMA are ready for the hurricane season despite just coming off the longest government shutdown in history.” The spokesperson who prepared the statement did not sign their name.

95% of CDC workers say Americans will die because of federal cuts to the agency - When Michigan State University researchers anonymously surveyed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staffers, 99% of respondents said that federal policy changes, dramatic reductions in staff and programs, and unstable or leadership have hobbled the agency’s ability to respond to a pandemic or other public health emergency—and 95% think Americans will die as a result.In total, 624 workers (433 still in their positions, 191 who quit) responded to the survey from February to April.  “Since the second Trump Administration took over leadership of the U.S. federal government on January 20, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has undergone significant changes and challenges, including lack of permanent leadership, elimination of programs, reductions-in-force and loss of staff, a deadly shooting, new policies, and restrictions on hiring, communication, and spending,” the authors wrote. Of all respondents, 95% of those who quit said they did so entirely or mostly because of federal changes, and 68% of current workers have taken action to leave (eg, applied for another job).In total, 94% said their unit has been so weakened that it can no longer achieve its mission, and 96% doubt that the CDC can remain a global public health leader. In an open-ended answer, a CDC scientist wrote,” The safety and health of the U.S. population will suffer, but it will be hard to quantify because they have compromised our ability to collect the data to demonstrate the impact of what they have done.”A former manager said, “The anti-vaccine, anti-science stance of this Administration meant that I could no longer in good conscience continue to work there given the type of work that I did.”The researchers concluded, “The difficulties described by CDC workers portend a U.S. government losing its ability to protect the public’s health.

House clears bill to create State Department energy bureau - The House approved legislation Monday to create a State Department energy diplomacy bureau akin to an office dismantled last year by the Trump administration. Lawmakers approved an amended version of H.R. 7037, the “Developing Overseas Mineral Investments and New Allied Networks for Critical Energies (DOMINANCE) Act,” from Reps. Young Kim (R-Calif.) and Ami Bera (D-Calif.). It passed by voice vote. The legislation would create a Bureau of Energy Security and Diplomacy to be led by a Senate-confirmed assistant secretary. It would help the U.S. deal with international energy events like the Iran conflict, Bera said. The administration scrapped a similar office — the Bureau of Energy Resources — and folded its work into an economics and business affairs section at the department. That office helped connect U.S. exporters of domestic oil, gas and renewable energy technology to buyers overseas.

Wright tries to reassure Hill Republicans on gasoline prices - Energy Secretary Chris Wright privately told House Republicans on Tuesday that gasoline prices will eventually decline, despite continued volatility in global energy markets. Wright, who is slated to testify Wednesday before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, delivered his message during a closed-door GOP meet-and-greet Tuesday morning, according to three people in the room. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who spoke with Wright, said the Energy secretary worked to reassure lawmakers. Carter said Republicans were “very confident” fuel prices would come down despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The national average gasoline price stood at about $4.16 per gallon Tuesday, according to AAA — down 37 cents from a month ago but roughly $1 higher than the same time last year. President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that those prices were “not very high, relatively speaking.”

Takeaways from Chris Wright’s fiery Hill appearance - Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s latest in a string of Capitol Hill appearances this year may have been his most explosive yet, with Democrats focusing on high gasoline and electricity prices. Wright appeared before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee to defend the department’s fiscal 2027 budget request, but Democrats quickly shifted their focus to a series of Department of Energy actions they argue have been overtly partisan and damaging to clean energy development. “You have a lot of explaining to do before this committee today,” said ranking member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). “The damage that you and the broader administration have already inflicted on our national energy innovation enterprise is frankly staggering.” Sharp criticism from Democrats is nothing new for Wright, but Wednesday’s hearing was among his most combative. The Energy secretary repeatedly argued that Democratic energy policies bear primary responsibility for the higher prices Americans are paying for gasoline and electricity. “Democratic policies that drive up electricity prices, gasoline prices, diesel prices — they have been permanent, and they are a larger force, a larger factor in energy prices today than the Iran conflict,” Wright said. “And this conflict will pass.” The exchanges frequently devolved into shouting matches, with several lawmakers and Wright talking over one another and, at times, using expletives during the hearing. Still, the hearing also featured new discussion of the Strait of Hormuz, the department’s nuclear energy ambitions and its controversial report on climate change. Wright provided additional context for comments he made a day earlier about increased oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz while also fielding questions about President Donald Trump’s comments on inflation. Speaking at an Atlantic Council event Tuesday, Wright said traffic through the critical oil chokepoint was “rising very meaningfully,” comments that helped send oil prices down several percentage points Wednesday. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) asked Wright to provide “a little bit more detail, at least more than the word ‘meaningfully.'” “We are not talking openly about it, but this is using the U.S. military to increase flows of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, and things are going well,” Wright said, later adding that the government has data showing a significant increase in the number of ships transiting the waterway. Trump later appeared to confirm the operation, posting on Truth Social that the military had executed a secret mission to move more than 100 million barrels of oil through the strait. While the long-term outlook for the chokepoint remains uncertain, Wright expressed confidence that energy flows would eventually normalize. “I shouldn’t be in the business of making energy price predictions or predictions of any prices in the future, but the Strait of Hormuz will reopen and energy flows will grow and prices will come down,” he said. Wright was also asked about Trump’s comments to reporters that he “loved” inflation because oil prices would fall once the conflict ended. “You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why?” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now … you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil.” Wright responded, “I think he talks to all different audiences and he talks in all different styles, but I don’t have any serious objection to what he said.” The sharpest clashes centered on familiar disputes over clean energy and the department’s cancellation of grants — issues that have dominated Wright’s previous appearances before Congress but remain no closer to resolution. That focus was on DOE’s review of more than 2,200 funding awards, launched last year to eliminate what the administration viewed as wasteful Biden-era spending. That review is now complete. Many of the canceled awards, most of them in Democratic-led states, remain in limbo. A federal judge sided with clean energy groups that argued the Trump administration acted punitively in canceling the grants. During the proceedings, government lawyers acknowledged that the location of award recipients influenced which projects were selected for review. Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) argued the ruling made clear the cancellations were partisan and unconstitutional and asked Wright when the funding would be restored. Wright maintained the decisions were not politically motivated. “What you’re referring to is a choice of announcements of some of the awards, not made by our department,” Wright said. “No decisions were made on politics. I keep hearing that charge. It’s bullshit. We’re going to say it a million times.” Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) later asked Wright to identify the DOE staff members responsible for the cancellations, but he declined. “You are just obfuscating the situation for your own political benefit,” Ross said. “Clean energy is an entire sector that has benefited this country, and your administration has declared war on it.”

California Dems float offshore drilling crackdown - California’s two Democratic senators are introducing a bill Wednesday aimed at imposing stricter requirements on offshore oil and gas operators as the Trump administration pushes new production off their state’s coast. The “Offshore Leasing Standards and Accountability Act,” shared first with POLITICO, would set new minimum standards for operators to hold offshore leases, require annual compliance reviews by the Interior Department and mandate operators hold enough money in escrow to pay the full cost of decommissioning their rigs. The bill would “ensure that oil companies can’t just walk away from decommissioned projects and leave someone else to clean up the mess,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, who is leading the bill alongside Sen. Alex Padilla. Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) is introducing a House companion. The legislation comes as the Trump administration has ordered the restart of the Sable oil pipeline system off of Southern California and proposed new lease sales off the state’s coast for the first time in four decades.

Debate over preservation law tripping up permitting talks - A push from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee to change a landmark law designed to protect Native American cultural treasures and other historic sites has emerged as a major sticking point in permitting reform negotiations. Lee, a Utah Republican, is looking to overhaul the National Historic Preservation Act, created during the post-World War II development boom, arguing it has become a bottleneck to energy project development on federal lands, particularly out West. But Lee’s effort is dividing Democrats, some of whom are wary of taking on a law that is important to tribes and the preservation community. The dispute could threaten a goal of making progress on a permitting deal before the August recess. “We ought to protect the places that show where we came from and who we are. But over the years, a narrow procedural safeguard has evolved into a sprawling, unpredictable process that now delays some of the very projects our country needs to build and maintain,” Lee said during a hearing last year. Spokesperson Jordan Roberts added, “The National Historic Preservation Act has increasingly been used to stall projects indefinitely rather than to preserve sites of genuine historic value.” Whether Lee can help land a compromise with his negotiating partner, ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), is shaping up to be a test for the first-time committee chair and conservative firebrand who has never brokered a major bipartisan legislative bargain. Lee and Heinrich are new to their roles and have starkly different political styles, which has led to them tussling during committee hearings and on social media. Both senators say they are negotiating in good faith. “There are some examples where it [NHPA] has been very challenging [for energy project developers], and so it’s like, how do you find that balance of where you preserve the intent, but make things more predictable and efficient?” Heinrich told POLITICO. Some Democrats are beginning to view NHPA in a similar vein to another better-known procedural law, the National Environmental Policy Act, that is increasingly blamed for stalling projects — including solar, wind and transmission. “It is definitely a legitimate thing to look at,” said a former Hill staffer granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “There are legitimate constituencies that have legitimate values around their historic resources that one has to consider. But as far as, is NHPA posing a problem for the development of energy sources that Democrats care about? Absolutely. That’s beyond dispute, and the problem is meaningful.” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) speaks during a press conference. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) said, “We want to preserve the National Historic Preservation Act.” | Francis Chung/POLITICO Other Democrats, like House Natural Resources member Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, are more skeptical. “Democrats are interested in making these processes work better and quicker, but Republicans try to use the delays that are too long to try to wipe out the underlying law,” she said. “We want to preserve the National Historic Preservation Act. It’s how we preserve places that are valued in terms of who we are as a country look like,” Leger Fernández said, adding the law “doesn’t prevent development” but requires “conversation and communication before you build.”

Trump attacks on renewables ‘toxic’ to permitting talks - Top lawmakers working on permitting reform in Congress expressed optimism Wednesday about some form of legislation getting across the finish line this year, but a White House official was cool to key Democratic asks as part of the process.Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the leaders of the Environment and Public Works Committee, are looking to clinch a deal this summer with other top lawmakers.But during the POLITICO Energy Summit in Washington, Capito and Whitehouse discussed the challenge of negotiating as President Donald Trump continues to express deep hostility to renewable energy projects and his administration slow-walks approvals.“It becomes very challenging for me to take even a very good bill to my caucus and say, ‘We should trust this administration for two-some more years with this good bill, and that they will faithfully execute it,’” Whitehouse said.“A significant number of projects need to move in order for us to feel comfortable that the environment or administration of permitting reform will be so false and toxic,” he said. “That’s going to have to happen, and I think everybody understands that.” Capito acknowledged that the Trump administration is not being as helpful as it could be on permitting reform, including when the Interior Department tried to stop construction of several offshore wind projects.The administration’s decision not to appeal adverse rulings on those projects and to move permitting forward on some solar projects on public land are “a good signal,” said Capito. “We’re working with the administration to make sure [Trump] understands this is a legacy issue for this president.”Capito said the Biden administration’s actions against fossil fuels — like canceling the Keystone XL pipeline — along with Trump’s moves against clean energy are causing numerous industries and their allies to come together on permitting reform.“It’s a shared pain, and I think that’s what’s driving us, I think, together,” she said.Capito and her colleagues have been working to convince the president to “tamp down” his anti-clean-energy moves to help permitting reform move forward, she said.“If you keep pushing off certain projects and put your foot on the scale, Mr. President, for certain projects, we’re going to lose our golden opportunity,” Capito said, paraphrasing her messaging to the White House. Administration officials have said they’re engaged in the negotiations and want to see a deal. At the same time, Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House National Energy Dominance Council, didn’t appear conciliatory toward Democrats on Wednesday.“We’re not going to give bad projects at the cost of good projects,” Agen said at the summit.Agen put the onus on Democrats to lift their opposition to natural gas pipeline projects, pointing to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul blocking the contentious Constitution pipeline venture.“If Democrats actually want to get projects done and lower energy prices for their residents, they should get a deal done,” Agen said. “Those are the ones blocking the permitting, because they’re not using common sense.”Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, also expressed a strong desire for permitting reform. He said he met Tuesday with key Democrats and that staff of both parties are working on the issue.But Guthrie emphasized that the House has its own priorities and would not accept policies like taking power from states and local officials on transmission. The grid is a major component of the talks, with Democrats in particular wanting more power lines to carry clean energy from rural areas to population centers.“The idea that you’re just going to have a federal transmission board at [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] that could sit down and say where transmission lines are going to go? We think that’s just too much,” Guthrie said. “Even if it worked, it would bog everything down. And we still think that the local utilities have to have the ability to make decisions.”

Trump admin urges Supreme Court to reject water case -   The Trump administration has asked the nation’s highest bench to add a water case to its slush pile.  Conservation groups earlier this year petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that a California agricultural drainage project is exempt from the Clean Water Act’s permitting requirements for point sources that flow directly into U.S. waters. President Donald Trump’s top Supreme Court advocate responded in a recent brief that the project does not need a permit and the case isn’t worth the justices’ time. “If petitioners’ proposed interpretation were correct,” wrote Solicitor General D. John Sauer, “‘all three of Congress’s aims’ in enacting the irrigated-agriculture exemption ‘would be thwarted.’”

Congress dives into the West’s water brawl - Congress will not stand on the sidelines much longer as the drought-riddled Colorado River system careens toward crisis and the states that share its flows remain deadlocked, one of the region’s most powerful Republican senators said Wednesday. Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee of Utah used a Wednesday hearing as a show of political force on behalf of his state and it’s upstream allies — Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — ahead of a critical decision point for a river that supplies 40 million people from the cattle ranches of Wyoming to the booming metropolises of Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego. “Congress will not be a bystander in this process,” Lee warned. The Trump administration’s Interior Department is preparing to issue a plan for unilaterally managing the shriveled waterway by the end of next month, and appears poised to include sharp delivery cuts to the downstream states of Arizona, California and Nevada along with plans to tap water supplies from smaller reservoirs in upstream states.

Trump's massive reflecting pool overhaul already has a very visible problem --One of President Donald Trump’s numerous vanity projects, along with his White House ballroom, has been the draining, cleaning, repainting and resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Following the completion of the $14 million project last week, Trump claimed the pool now has “beautiful, clean water” and placed the blame for the “terrible, disgusting ... garbage-ridden” water before the renovation on previous administrations. However, less than a week after the pool was refilled, Washington Post photographers captured images of algae back in the newly resurfaced body of water. The Post reported that a large patch of algae near the World War II Memorial grew significantly larger during a rainy Wednesday. In response to the Post’s inquiry, a Trump official passed the buck, claiming the algae was left over from the previous tenants of the White House.  “What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place. It’s part of the normal startup process,” Katie Martin, an Interior Department spokesperson, said in a statement to the Post. “We are removing the algae, and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae-free. President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good, unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden,” the statement continued.  Trump on Thursday bragged to reporters in the Oval Office about the resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool’s basin.“It always leaked because it was done in stone,” Trump said. “Now it’s done properly. It’s not going to leak at all.”Algae also reappeared in the pool in 2012 after a $34 million renovation, according to the Post’s report.

DC Reflecting Pool Growing Algae Just Days After Trump’s $14M Renovation -- The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall has already begun to grow algae just days after President Donald Trump’s major renovation project was officially completed. The landmark has been the subject of controversy since the project began, with critics pointing to budget ballooning from a little under $2 million to a staggering $14 million. Trump contracted Atlantic Industrial Coatings for the project to be completed ahead of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of America.In the days since its completion, however, the pool has begun to show blemishes. A Thursday report from The Washington Post added: Now, days after the pool was refilled, clumps of green algae have been spotted throughout the water. Noticed on two separate visits to the Reflecting Pool this week, the algae coated several areas of the bottom of the pool, including the east and west ends, close to the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, and floated on the surface.    An algae spot near the World War II Memorial grew significantly bigger between a rainy Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, which was hot and muggy. In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, Interior Department spokesperson Katie Martin claimed it was “residual algae from the supply lines which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place.” She added that the presence of algae was merely “part of the normal startup process.”In response to the backlash for the project, Trump has repeatedly attacked his critics. One instance involved a bizarre AI-generated image of the president filling the pool himself with tears.

Divisions mount between GOP lawmakers and Trump, raising tensions - Tension is mounting between President Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill as members of the president’s party become increasingly vocal on a number of hot-button issues ahead of the midterm elections. The examples of Republicans in the Senate or House keep piling up, despite Trump’s success in defeating GOP House members and Senators who defy him in Republican primaries. Four House Republicans joined with Democrats to pass a war powers resolution aimed at forcing the president to end the war in Iran. Six Republican senators voted with Democrats on a proposal to block the construction of Trump’s planned White House ballroom unless Congress formally authorizes the project. . Six GOP senators also banded together with Democrats to support an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to block Trump from bringing back the controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which members of both parties have cast as a “slush fund” that could dole out money to Trump allies, including people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes against police. Next Stay Republicans have also been vocal in opposing Trump’s decision to name Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence. Three GOP senators voted on a measure to bar Pulte from serving in the role. Some of the pushback is coming from members who were defeated by Trump-backed Republicans in primaries but who remain in the House and Senate. Cassidy is one of those Trump primary victims, along with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who voted for the war powers measure. These lawmakers — along with GOP Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and John Cornyn (Texas) — seemingly have felt emboldened to buck the president’s agenda in their final months in office. “The House margin was always pretty narrow, but now that you’ve antagonized Tillis, Cassidy, Cornyn, and you add to that the kind of dynamics you already have with Murkowski and Collins, I think you’re creating a much bigger challenge to actually getting anything passed in the Senate this year,” said Marc Short, who worked at Trump’s legislative affairs director during his first administration, referring to Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Tillis is not running for reelection after battling with Trump last summer over his massive tax cut legislation. Cornyn was defeated in a primary in May by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was backed by Trump. Murkowski and Collins have frequently voted against Trump on various issues. Collins is up for reelection this year in a state Trump has repeatedly lost in presidential elections, while Murkowski is not up for reelection until 2028. The chances of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination getting through the Senate are unclear. GOP members on the Senate Judiciary Committee that will consider his nomination include Tillis and Cornyn. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) warned that Blanche’s nomination could be held up if the anti-weaponization fund survives. “We have lots of must-pass legislation. We have now the nomination of Todd Blanche that we can hold up if we feel like he’s not keeping up with his promise,” Curtis told reporters. Tillis has warned he will not support Blanche’s nomination unless Blanche condemns the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol. When asked about Tillis’s comments, Trump on Friday called the senator “a loser” “who is trying to make trouble by opposing anyone.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) suggested to reporters Thursday that Blanche’s nomination was not guaranteed. “I think you know, obviously, most of our members are pretty deferential to who the president wants in some of these key positions, and he’s obviously serving in the role already and clearly has experience in it, so that’ll serve him well. But this is an environment where nothing’s a safe or a sure bet these days,” Thune said. One White House official told The Hill that there is always a give and take when working with lawmakers, but that as the leader of the GOP, the president and Republican lawmakers remain closely aligned. The official noted the passage of legislation such as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Laken Riley Act, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act and a $9 billion rescissions package. A White House spokesperson dismissed questions over Trump’s relationship with lawmakers on the Hill as “nonexistent divisions” fueled by the media and Democrats.

Pentagon put on lockdown over air quality issue; Hazmat teams respond - The Pentagon went into lockdown Thursday over an air quality issue, prompting the department to execute a shelter-in-place order for the affected area. “The Pentagon has sophisticated systems to ensure the safety of the building and its occupants. Those systems have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance. The Department is executing standard protection protocols, including a shelter-in-place order for the affected area,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Hill. “Response teams are in place and ready to support building occupants,” Parnell said. Arlington County Fire Department, including its hazardous materials team, said it is operating at the Pentagon in support of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency’s hazmat team during a “hazardous materials incident.” The Pentagon Force Protection Agency saidlater on Thursday that the shelter-in-place continues in affected areas of the Pentagon “until all clear is given.”

EPA replaced employee desk phones with calling software. The union says 9-1-1 doesn’t work correctly  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) replaced employee desk phones with calling software used on their laptops, something the union says poses safety issues, including during a recent medical emergency. Justin Chen, president of the biggest EPA employee union, told The Hill that the additional software that’s supposed to handle 9-1-1 geolocation “doesn’t really work, apparently.” Chen said that this recently came up during an emergency situation in the EPA’s San Francisco office, adding the issue “ended up delaying a response.” Another EPA employee said that the emergency service software “has not worked since the time it was installed” last year. “It pops up on your computer and it just says, ‘unable to connect,’ and then we’ve been instructed to just click on the ‘x’ box and close the program,” they said, adding the direction came from managers at the agency. In the case of the medical emergency, the regular call software worked, but “9-1-1’s response was delayed by the fact that they could not locate where the phone call was coming from,” the staffer said. Ultimately, the person who had the medical emergency was OK, the employee said, but Chen said the situation puts safety at risk. “We’ve seen increased violence, especially against federal employees … we do active shooter drills in all the buildings,” said Chen, who is president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238. “If you don’t [have] cell service, if something like that happens, it’s like good luck doing a phone call from your laptop, I guess.” The EPA says there’s not a widespread issue with the software, while companies involved with it say they’re not the ones to blame. An EPA spokesperson described the switch to call software as an improvement and said they were not aware of any broad malfunctions. “The legacy desk‑phone systems were at end‑of‑life and no longer vendor‑supported, which can create reliability and cybersecurity concerns. The cloud‑based platform improves resilience, security, and continuity of operations,” said the spokesperson, who did not provide their name.

Judge rejects bid to halt ‘anti-weaponization’ fund, warns DOJ not to ‘play possum’ -- A federal judge on Wednesday tossed a watchdog group’s lawsuit seeking to block the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) scrapped $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.U.S. District Judge Richard Leon denied the request for a temporary restraining order by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.The group, which bills itself as nonpartisan, argued in its initial suit on May 22 that the fund was a “jaw-dropping act of presidential corruption” and “brazenly illegal” due to the fact that Congress did not authorize it.Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, ended the hearing by warning DOJ attorney Andrew Block not to “play possum with this court” regarding the fund, according to The Associated Press.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whom President Trump formally nominated to the full-time role earlier this week, announced the creation of the nearly $1.8 billion fund last month. The DOJ said the fund would be able to provide monetary payments to those who successfully argue that the federal government wronged them.  But the fund received bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers on both sides expressed concern that those convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack could receive taxpayer dollars. The DOJ then backed down from the fund earlier this month, after a federal judge in Virginia temporarily halted it from making any payouts. Blanche also told a House Appropriations subcommittee on June 2 that the DOJ is “not moving forward” with the fund.The acting attorney general, though, told the panel he was “not committing” to establishing the abandonment of the fund in writing. Blanche noted that he will not withdraw a memo barring the IRS from reviewing the prior tax returns of Trump, his family and his businesses.The DOJ created the “anti-weaponization” fund as part of a settlement in a since-reopened lawsuit by Trump against the IRS.  In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the president defended the fund and expressed hope that the department would reinstitute it.“I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans,” he told host Kristen Welker. “You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”

Judge orders restoration of National Park changes at sites that 'disparaged' U.S. - A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore sites changed under an executive order calling for the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks to not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Massachusetts also orders a pause on any additional changes, writing that the plaintiffs have shown that these efforts are meant “to rewrite the Nation’s history with a white-out pen.” “History cannot be faithfully told while excluding the experiences of communities whose contributions, struggles, and achievements form an important part of our Nation’s story,” the judge wrote. The Trump administration must also provide a weekly status report describing the progress it’s made with these changes, the judge wrote. “Under the guise of promoting American dignity, this Administration seeks to share a limited history by ordering the removal of all signs, displays, and interpretive exhibits at National Parks that do not align with its preferred narrative, thereby telling half-truths,” Kelley wrote. The order comes in response to a February lawsuit filed by conservation and historical organizations over National Park Service policies that the groups say have forced park service staff to remove or censor dozens of exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change.

House Republican says Congress ‘needs to get their act together’ on Social Security ahead of deadline - Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said Wednesday that Congress has to act on Social Security, a day after the Trump administration projected that one of the program’s trust funds will run out by 2032. “Congress needs to get their act together to address Social Security and the insolvency that’s coming, instead of poking blame at other people whenever it is our duty and our responsibility,” said Smith, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, during a joint subcommittee hearing that Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano spoke at.The board of trustees of Social Security and Medicare reported on Tuesday that the former program’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of its total scheduled benefits until only the fourth quarter of 2032 — a quarter earlier than they projected last year.At that point, the OASI fund will be able to cover 78 percent of total scheduled benefits, an increase of 1 percent relative to last year’s report. Smith said Wednesday that he hopes that Republicans and Democrats in Congress “will come together” to address the looming deadline for Social Security. He mentioned his mother, who lives on Social Security, as among those who need the legislative branch to take action on the decades-old program.  “There’s a lot of people like that, and that’s why we have to come together,” he added.  The Hill has reached out to the Ways and Means panel for details on Smith’s proposals to address Social Security. The Missouri Republican has previously cited the need to tackle waste, fraud and abuse within the program.   The trustees report stated that the worse financial outlook for Social Security relative to last year is due to three reasons: declining fertility rates, lower net migration and less federal tax revenue due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law last July.  More than 71 million Americans received Social Security benefits in April, according to the SSA. That includes nearly 63 million who received benefits from the OASI fund and more than 8 million who received benefits from the program’s Disability Insurance Trust Fund — which the trustees projected will be able to cover all scheduled benefits through at least 2100.  Last month, officials from the AARP noted on a press call that the impending deadline for the OASI fund does not mean that Social Security will go bankrupt.The organization’s CEO, however, said Tuesday that the trustees report shows that Congress must “act in a bipartisan way to ensure” the program remains “strong” for future generations.

Trump administration blames Joe Biden's immigration policies for screwworm -As cases of New World screwworm spread and threaten the beef and cattle industry, the Trump administration is rolling out a familiar playbook: Blame former President Biden. The parasitic fly had been eliminated in the U.S. since the 1960s, but now it’s back, and according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, the new resurgence is entirely due to the lax immigration policies of former President Biden’s administration. “The threat didn’t appear overnight; it was the direct result of the Biden-Harris Admin’s WEAK foreign policy agenda and FAILED immigration policies,” Rollins wrote in a social media post last week. In a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview Monday, Rollins continued to point fingers at Biden. “Under the last administration with the massive movement under the open borders policy, the cartels, etc., border security, that’s when [screwworm] began to make its way back up toward America, hitting Mexico in early 2023, moving its way up through Mexico in 2024,” Rollins said. The screwworm is a fly larva that eats living flesh instead of dead material. It has a track record of decimating livestock.  There are currently five confirmed cases: three calves and a goat in Texas and a dog from Lea County, N.M.    The government had been able to keep screwworm contained at the southern end of Panama for decades, in large part due to a program that breeds sterile male flies and drops them from planes to mate with wild females.   The U.S. had created a barrier by constantly releasing sterile flies in the area south of Central America since the early 2000s. That effort was aided by the difficult terrain of the Darién Gap, a mountainous rainforest that separates Panama from Colombia. But for the past few years, the insect has been making its way north from South America. In 2022, the flies overcame the insect barrier and the Darién Gap. Panama began to report dozens of cases, and by 2024, flies were found in Mexico. At that point, federal and state officials and cattle ranchers knew it was inevitable the screwworm would make its way back into the U.S. After Mexican officials confirmed a case of screwworm in November 2024, Biden’s Department of Agriculture (USDA) closed southern ports of entry to live cattle imports to prevent the spread of screwworm into the U.S. But amid protests from the cattle industry, President Trump reversed that decision in February 2025. The ports were closed again in May. “We don’t really know why the boundary failed, but it was probably a combination of factors. It’s evidence that there was just an increasing pressure on the border with a large number of cases in Colombia” said Maxwell Scott, an entomologist at North Carolina State University. Illegal cattle imports and interruptions in the sterile fly production all likely contributed, experts said. “It wasn’t apparent at the time, but it would appear that the strain [of sterile fly] that was being used was losing effectiveness,” Scott said. Once the barrier was breached, the spread has been rapid, with insects traveling hundreds of miles in weeks — a sign that people are moving infested animals. “We would see a jump from one country almost to another country, and then even through Mexico, those jumps were 50 to 100 miles apart. Flies don’t travel that far, and neither do the wildlife on their own, especially if they’re being eaten by maggots,” said Sonja Swiger, an entomologist at Texas A&M University. “So, those are because animals were being put on trucks and moved.” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) blamed immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal permission. “This is another thing we can thank Joe Biden for — that when millions of people came out of Central America, they brought this screwworm with them. It was on their pets, maybe on their flesh as well,” Marshall said on Newsmax. Meanwhile, Democrats have been quick to blame the Trump administration. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took a buzzsaw to the federal workforce, including employees in the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Trump administration also cut funding at USDA for programs that were specifically targeted to monitoring and responding to New World screwworm. “Trump’s reckless and harmful cuts and his administration’s incompetence have left the U.S.’s food supply vulnerable to outbreaks and risk escalating already high prices for beef,” DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer said in a statement. “Trump GUTTED funding for screwworm detection and fired 25 percent of workers whose job it was to monitor the disease,” Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) wrote on X. According to Rollins, staffing reductions haven’t hurt the response. “There has been zero impact to this mission area, specifically to the screwworm, based on that reduction in force,” Rollins said during a briefing Monday. She said the country has been quietly preparing for the past year and is ready with a warp-speed type response. The administration named a senior adviser for New World Screwworm Preparedness, cattleman John Bellinger, on Monday. “Every model showed that the New World screwworm would be here in Texas by early last summer, so we bought ourselves an additional year to prepare for this moment,” Rollins said. Experts say what happens next matters more than how we got into the situation in the first place. “Pushing it back all the way to the Panama-Colombia border took many years,” Scott said. Getting it back to that level “is going to take a lot more flies or new technology.” Sterile flies are still the best way to eradicate the problem, and there are not enough being produced. At the time of their spread from Central America into Mexico, there was only one sterile fly production facility, located in Panama. Other facilities that used to produce sterile flies have closed over many decades, a victim of their own success. “We’ve never had a resurgence or reemergence … since we achieved eradication to Panama,” said Swiger. “People forgot what a screwworm can do, and that’s the main thing that really led to this.”

Trump calls on Thune to fire Senate parliamentarian to pass SAVE America Act - President Trump on Monday called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to “immediately fire” Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to clear the way for Senate Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot. “Senate Majority Leader John Thune should immediately fire the parliamentarian, who treats Republicans and everything they stand for horribly!” Trump posted on Truth Social, arguing that she’s an obstacle to enacting the SAVE America Act. “Just the other night, as an example, she ruled against us on a proposal that would have easily been approved, and should have been, by anyone else,” Trump posted. “We have every right to change her, and should do so, IMMEDIATELY. As long as she’s there, we will never get our desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, approved, and put into full force and effect!” Trump wrote. The parliamentarian ruled that the SAVE America Act did not comply with the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which determines what legislation is eligible to be included in a budget reconciliation package that can pass with a simple-majority vote, thereby avoiding a filibuster and 60-vote threshold. As a result, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — two Trump allies — had to ask for 60 votes to waive the budgetary objections in order to consider their proposals to amend the budget reconciliation package with the SAVE America Act. Both motions fell well short of sixty votes. When Graham first offered a motion to suspend the budget rules, four Republicans voted “no”: Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). Thune has repeatedly pushed back on Trump’s previous calls to fire the parliamentarian. The president tried to pressure GOP leaders to find a new parliamentarian last month after MacDonough ruled against a provision in the budget reconciliation package to provide $1 billion for security upgrades to the White House, including for the construction of a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom. Trump posted on Truth Social on May 20 that the parliamentarian posed a major obstacle to passing the SAVE America Act and other GOP priorities. “The Dumocrats cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us. We need THE SAVE AMERICA ACT passed, and NOW,” Trump wrote last month. Thune at the time shrugged off Trump’s demands to fire the parliamentarian as nothing new and warned doing would only make it tougher to manage the Senate as some Republicans would view such a move as likely to destroy the fabric of the upper chamber, where the minority is accorded more power than in the House. “That’s, I guess, his opinion. But that would create even more vote issues here if we were to try and do something like that,” Thune said of Trump’s desire to find a new parliamentarian. Trump on Monday repeated his criticisms of MacDonough as someone who was elevated to her position by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2012 when Barack Obama was president. He also bashed former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for leaving MacDonough in place after Republicans captured the Senate majority in the 2014 election. “She was put there by then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Barack Hussein Obama, need I say more? She is a nasty holdover from Mitch McConnell (A man who has proven to be very disloyal to John Thune!)” Trump posted on Monday.

Navy admiral fired by Pete Hegseth advances to runoff in Democratic primary for Nancy Mace seat -Nancy Lacore, a three-star admiral that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired last year, is projected head to a runoff against veteran Mac Deford in the Democratic primary for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, according to Decision Desk HQ. Lacore and Deford defeated a group of Democrats in the district, which stretches along the southeast coast of the Palmetto State, and will head to a June 23 runoff.The winner of the November general election will succeed Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who ran for governor. The GOP primary for the House seat is also expected to head to a runoff.During more than three decades of service in the Navy, Lacore rose from a pilot to vice admiral and served as chief of the Navy Reserve for more than a year. However, Hegseth removed her and dozens of other military leaders in August.Lacore has the backing of multiple veterans-affiliated political groups, including VoteVets and Veterans for Responsible Leadership. EMILYs List, which aims to elect Democratic pro-choice women, also endorsed her.  Upon launching her campaign in January, Lacore said that she “never put the uniform on again” after departing the Pentagon on the day of her ouster. Deford is a former local government attorney and U.S. Coast Guard veteran. He was endorsed by former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) as well as the South Carolina AFL-COP.The district is likely to remain in Republican hands this fall, as the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the seat as solidly in the GOP’s corner.

Jon Stewart: NBC interview was Trump’s ‘worst nightmare’ - Comedian Jon Stewart on Monday said President Trump lived “his worst nightmare” during a fiery “Meet the Press” interview on NBC News, where the president abruptly cut off the exchange and left. Trump removed his microphone, stood up and walked off after “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker challenged the president’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him. He drew parallels between that election, where he lost to former President Biden, and the California gubernatorial primary. Stewart said on Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show” that the interview began like other interviews with the president, with a “reasonable question, ridiculous answer” about the war in Iran. “But then we get to a moment when the heartland, rainswept rom-com becomes a man trapped in a barn with his worst nightmare, a woman who won’t stop asking pertinent questions,” Stewart quipped. The host then mocked Trump’s claim that he did not run for reelection against starting new wars, which was followed by several clips of the president on the campaign trail in 2024 promising that the U.S. would not enter any wars if he returned to the White House. “But this reporter on this day had the temerity to mention to Donald Trump that, well, actually, he did say that all the time,” Stewart said. “She just lit the fuse on the bulls— bomb.” Stewart then played a montage of the other topics brought up by the president before stopping at the moment Trump repeated his claims about the 2020 election. “He went to it, the fail-safe –– in case of journalism, break glass. The EpiPen in case you’ve been stung by reality,” Stewart said with a laugh, later adding that Trump’s “fail-safe failed to save.” The comedian suggested that the president could have reckoned with how his claims of voter fraud have not held up in a court of law, or “he could do his second option: smoke bomb,” a referring to Trump exiting the interview. Welker asked the president if he had evidence to suggest that California’s gubernatorial race was rigged, to which Trump replied that all he had “to do was look.” He accused California election officials of being “crooked,” lamenting over the lengthy process it has taken to count ballots. He called Welker and her show “crooked,” which she pushed back on. After Trump called Welker “crooked or you’re stupid,” the back-and-forth carried on for a few moments until Trump said, “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough.” He removed his microphone and dropped it to the ground. “Donald Trump didn’t storm out because of the rain,” Stewart said as the segment came to a close. “He stormed out because he was challenged, not because he was distracted. So maybe it’s time we stop making excuses for that man in order to preserve access to his constant bulls—.” At the time of the interview, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra (D) was the first candidate called in the California gubernatorial race to advance to the November general election. It was not until Monday that Trump’s endorsed candidate, former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton (R), was also projected to advance to the November runoff, according to Decision Desk HQ.

ActBlue CEO pleads the Fifth in House hearing on alleged foreign donations --   ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones on Wednesday refused to answer questions during her testimony before the House Administration Committee regarding allegations of the organization funneling foreign campaign donations to Democratic candidates in federal elections, asserting her Fifth Amendment right. Wallace-Jones vowed not to answer any questions during the hearing in an earlier op-ed published by The Washington Post.   She held firm to her pledge on Wednesday, refusing to answer even a question about her name from Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). “Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission, or even an insinuation, of guilt. It is not a retreat,” Wallace-Jones argued in the op-ed, continuing “it is the only reasonable response to a proceeding that from the beginning has been about harassing a political opponent’s fundraising platform, not genuine oversight.” The ActBlue CEO and other Democrats have called the probe into foreign campaign donations an attempt at political retribution and urged lawmakers to investigate contributions to the WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform. The Democratic ranking members of three House committees sent a letter to WinRed on Wednesday to request that CEO Ryan Lyk testify before their committees regarding potential illegal contributions made through the platform. Despite this, on Wednesday, Wallace-Jones argued that lawmakers were overstepping their constitutional role with their probe. “Congress has no constitutional authority to conduct criminal investigations. The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that this role belongs to the executive branch,” Wallace-Jones wrote. “When a congressional committee works with the Justice Department to target a political adversary, it is not legislating. It has crossed a red line that was drawn into the Constitution for a reason,” she added. Her comments come as the Democrats’ fundraising organization faces an April lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) aiming to block ActBlue from allowing contributions through gift cards and prepaid debit cards on the platform. ActBlue countersued in May asking a judge to stop Paxton from pursuing what it described as “retaliatory actions” that violate the First Amendment’s free speech protections. “I lead an organization that processed $3.5 billion in contributions in 2024, with an average donation amount of $50 or less — many from first-time donors who simply wanted a voice,” Wallace-Jones wrote in the op-ed. “I owe it to every single one of them to fight back. The Fifth Amendment is the right tool for this moment. It is a bedrock American tool, built for when power overreaches,” she continued.

Epstein files update: Personal assistant gives Congress "a lot of names" - A former assistant for Jeffrey Epstein arranged phone calls between the convicted sex offender and President Donald Trump before he took office, lawmakers told reporters Tuesday. Representative Robert Garcia, ranking member and lead Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Lesley Groff, who worked for Epstein for roughly two decades started in 2001, provided valuable testimony during Tuesday’s closed-door session on Capitol Hill. “Today we had Ms. Groff, who is actually still testifying right now to the committee,” Garcia said. “She’s giving us, in fact, a lot of names of staff, employees and folks who worked in the Epstein orbit. She worked for Epstein for 18 years, so she’s being asked, I think, some very tough questions — rightly so — about what she knew, who she scheduled appointments with. She scheduled massages, we know that, and so that’s being asked of her right now.” Groff, 59, told the committee she was unaware of Epstein’s crimes, characterizing him as a master manipulator who had motive to keep them from her, sources familiar with her testimony told CNN. Groff said she believed the young women and girls she booked massages for Epstein, who died in jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, had been massage therapists, sources told the network. House Oversight Chair James Comer praised Groff as “very forthcoming” and “compelling,” although some Democrats, including Representative Stephen Lynch, were skeptical of her attempts to distance herself from Epstein. “It is highly inconsistent what she’s maintaining, that she really didn’t know Jeffrey Epstein even though she worked for him for 18 years,” Lynch told reporters. Groff said she also arranged “multiple phone calls” between Trump and Epstein prior to Trump’s election as president in November 2016, but she didn’t specify when, according to Lynch. Groff also said she was unaware of any employees from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort ever visiting Epstein’s residence, a source told CNN. Representative Melanie Stansbury, another Democrat on the committee, said Groff told the panel she “arranged calls” for Trump and Epstein to connect, but said the instances were infrequent. Trump, 79, has previously denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claims the pair severed ties in the early 2000s. “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Politico in a statement. “And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.” Groff, who has not faced criminal charges in connection with Epstein, has been cited in a class-action lawsuit against the co-executors of Epstein’s estate as the disgraced financier’s “secretary who made travel arrangements for the girls” and scheduled massage sessions. She was also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement in 2008, Politico reported. Multiple victims of Epstein have told FBI investigators that Groff acted as the point person to reach Epstein and schedule massages that allowed rampant sexual abuse to occur. In 2001, she told an FBI agent that booking massages for Epstein was “just another appointment she had to make,” according to CNN. Attorneys for Groff announced in 2021 that she wouldn’t be charged criminally for her actions while insisting she had “never witnessed anything improper or illegal” during her tenure with Epstein. Some of her other duties included “taking his messages and setting up high-level meetings with CEOs, business executives, scientists, politicians, celebrities, charitable organizations and universities,” her attorney previously told CNN in a statement.

Explosive NYT report of Trump team’s Epstein panic -The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan published exclusive reporting of what happened in the White House Situation Room as President Trump’s top advisers tried to contain the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.   The parts getting the most attention:

• So much talk about nipples: There were unverified claims reportedly in the searchable Epstein files about Trump knowing a woman in Epstein’s “sex-trafficking ring.” The Times reports a file mentioning that Trump has a “predilection for nipples.”  There were internal discussions about whether those documents should be released. Vice President Vance argued Trump would be OK with releasing those nipple-released documents because he’s been accused of worse. “One official would later describe it as a ‘surreal’ experience to be discussing nipples in the White House Situation Room.”
• Vance wanted it all released: Vance reportedly wanted the administration to release all the files, including ones that included unsubstantiated claims about Trump. 
• Bongino snapped at Bondi: “You f—ed this thing up from the start,” former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino yelled at former Attorney General Pam Bondi. “The way you’ve been talking about this — that dumb fucking charade with the Epstein files, the ‘They’re on my desk’ nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there.”
• An idea that was floated: Vance reportedly floated an idea of having conservative commentator Tucker Carlson interview Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell in prison. 
• What Wiles told some about Vance: “Some senior officials had the impression that Vance had bought into the darkest theories about Epstein and a cabal of predators hidden within the country’s ruling class. Wiles would tell others that the vice president had proved himself to be a major conspiracy theorist.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is testifying on Capitol Hill today to answer questions about his ties to Epstein.   Can we watch?: No, his deposition is happening behind closed doors. Instead, it will be transcribed, and the transcript will later be released, per NPR.  What Gates told lawmakers: He told the House Oversight Committee that he has “never victimized anyone” and never knew that Epstein engaged in criminal conduct. Read Gates’s prepared opening remarks.  How this deposition came about: Gates says today that he is “voluntarily” testifying to “help the committee’s work,” stressing that he hopes his testimony is helpful “to find justice for the victims.” Gates has denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. He was named in the files, though. 

House Democrat: Vance part of White House Epstein ‘cover up’ Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Democrats’ ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, on Thursday pledged to investigate Vice President Vance’s role in the Trump administration’s “cover-up” of actions tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. His comments followa New York Times report that alleged Vance headed the White House response to an explosive Wall Street Journal article detailing President Trump’s relationship with Epstein, amid public pressure to release information regarding the disgraced financier’s associates. The report says that during a meeting in the White House situation room, Vance drove the Justice Department’s response to media reports tying Trump to Epstein, urging Cabinet officials to release files tied to Epstein’s estate by asserting that a slow rollout led by Congress would only harshen the scandal’s impact on the administration. The New York Times report says White House chief of staff Susie Wiles; White House counsel David Warrington; press secretary Karoline Leavitt; deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich; Communications Director Steven Cheung; then deputy attorney general Todd Blanche; the associate attorney general Stanley Woodward Jr.; and the deputy chief of staff James Blair were present at the Situation Room meeting. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel dialed in via phone. “I think for the first time in this whole Epstein investigation, we have the Vice President of the United States that is now part of this massive cover-up,” Garcia told reporters on Thursday. “I mean, the fact that JD Vance is hosting meetings in the Situation Room, which is designed for national security issues, multiple meetings, he’s leading those meetings, he’s talking about protecting the president. He’s talking about strategy on Ghislaine Maxwell … she exonerates Donald Trump. That’s a huge, that’s huge bombshell reporting,” Garcia added, noting “it confirms for the first time that JD Vance has been a part of the strategy, we’ve not learned that until the reporting from yesterday.” Garcia said he would ask House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to subpoena the vice president within the next 24 hours “or so” to testify to the reporting. “Why are we having meetings in the Situation Room about Epstein strategy?” Garcia asked.

OpenAI mulls slashing prices ahead of competition from Anthropic: WSJ --OpenAI is mulling sharp price cuts to its artificial intelligence offerings, as it looks to woo consumers away from rival Anthropic, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening stateside, citing sources familiar with the matter.“The company is weighing significant cuts to what it charges for tokens, the unit of measurement artificial-intelligence firms use to bill for their products,” the report said, adding that it was “in anticipation of similar cuts the company expects at Anthropic,” according to sources.The ChatGPT producer, which did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment, currently charges consumers in tiered subscriptions of $8, $20 and $100 and above each month for access to its flagship GPT-5.5 models.Anthropic conversely charges users $17 each month with an annual subscription to Claude Pro, and $100 and above monthly for a subscription to Claude Max.The report on possible price cuts come as competition has been ramping up between the two companies.OpenAI on Monday confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, close on the heels of an IPO filing from Anthropic.Anthropic closed its Series H funding round on May 28 at a $965 billion valuation, slightly edging out OpenAI, which was valued at $852 billion in March.ChatGPT became the first app to reach 1 billion monthly app users in May — roughly three years after its November 2022 launch — surpassing the previous record set by Google Maps, which took around five years after launch to reach the same milestone, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Read the full WSJ report here.

Google to pay SpaceX $920 million a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers Days before a planned IPO that’s expected to raise record sums of cash, SpaceX has inked a deal with Google that will bring in $920 million a month by providing AI compute capacity to the search giant. According to a regulatory filing on Friday, Google will use about 110,000 Nvidia graphics processing units, as well as central processors, memory and other components housed in SpaceX’s data centers. The agreement spans from October of this year through June 2029 at the $920 million rate, and with “capacity ramping up through September at a reduced fee.” SpaceX said in the filing that if it fails to “deliver access to the committed amount of GPUs by September 30, 2026,” Google can immediately end the agreement, or accept the number of GPUs provided at a reduced fee after a one-month grace period. After this year, the agreement can be terminated by either party provided they give 90 days’ notice.A Google Cloud spokesperson told CNBC by email that the deal was made “to ensure we have bridge capacity to meet surging customer demand for our agent platform, Gemini Enterprise, which has been even higher than we expected.” Google introduced Gemini Enterprise — subscriptions for large businesses — in October.The Google agreement marks the second massive infrastructure deal announced by SpaceX following its merger in February with xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, in a transaction that valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion. Last month, Anthropic announced a deal to use all of SpaceX’s compute capacity at its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee.Alphabet has made a windfall from backing SpaceX. Musk’s company was worth $12 billion at the time of Google’s 2015 investment, and is aiming to go public next week at a valuation of over $1.75 trillion.Musk is trying to boost SpaceX’s AI story ahead of next week’s offering to show that the company is getting at least some return on its hefty investment in multiple data centers in and around Memphis. SpaceX said in its prospectus that capital expenditures in the first quarter totaled $10.1 billion, more than doubling from a year earlier, with the vast majority of those costs — $7.7 billion — committed to AI.    Meanwhile, the AI segment of the business recorded an operating loss in the quarter of $2.5 billion on just $818 million in revenue. Musk has touted xAI’s Grok model and chatbot as a rival to offerings from AI leaders OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, but his company’s products have yet to make much of a dent in the booming market.SpaceXAI faces multiple lawsuits and government probes in the U.S. and abroad after Grok enabled users to easily create and share non-consensual sexual images, or deepfake porn, by modifying photos or videos of adults and children.In March, following an exodus of talent from xAI, Musk said Grok needed to be rebuilt. The company then struck a deal that gives it the option to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion.In the meantime, SpaceX is working to make money from the data centers originally built to handle Grok-related workflows.“We believe our compute infrastructure and related strategy provides us with substantial flexibility in how we allocate and monetize capacity,” SpaceX said in a section of its IPO filing on “compute service agreements with third parties.”    In the prospectus, SpaceX named Google as a competitor in connectivity, where SpaceX operates its Starlink satellite internet service, and Google operates its fiber broadband business. And in AI, SpaceX said it competes with Google as well as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Microsoft.Google is significantly ramping up spending on AI as it races to keep up with rival hyperscalers. The company in April revised its capital expenditure forecast this year to between $180 billion and $190 billion, up from its previous estimate of $175 billion to $185 billion. Alphabet said this week it plans to sell $85 billion in stock, including through a $10 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway, to meet “unprecedented customer demand.”In jumping into the infrastructure leasing market, SpaceX is also competing with a group of companies, commonly called neoclouds, that includes CoreWeave and Nebius. Those stocks got hammered on Friday as part of a broader tech selloff, but bounced back some following the SpaceX-Google announcement.Google and SpaceX forged a cloud pact in the past, but with their roles reversed. Five years ago, Google agreed to supply computing and networking resources to SpaceX to help deliver internet service through its Starlink satellites. The agreement called for SpaceX to install ground stations at Google data centers, and marked a big win for Google in its effort to keep pace with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Elon Musk becomes world's first trillionaire as SpaceX begins trading - Elon Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire. With SpaceX opening on the Nasdaq at $150 a share Friday, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla now has a stake in SpaceX that’s worth more than $766 billion. Combined with his Tesla stake, which is worth $280 billion, Musk’s net worth from both companies as of Friday was roughly $1.05 trillion. The SpaceX IPO added more than $180 billion to Musk’s fortune. He is now worth more than the next five richest billionaires in the world combined. His personal net worth is larger than the national GDP of Taiwan, Ireland or Sweden. Musk’s coronation as the first person in history to be worth $1 trillion is likely to add fuel to the debate over wealth inequality and the rise in power of America’s richest tech founders. Along with creating the world’s first trillionaire, the SpaceX IPO also minted thousands of new millionaires and several new billionaires among the employees and executives who own stock. Shares of SpaceX gained roughly 20% Friday to close just above $160 apiece. That values the company at more than $2 trillion. Shares of Tesla rose almost 2% to roughly $406 apiece. Musk was first declared a billionaire by Bloomberg and Forbes in 2012, with the latter estimating his net worth at $2.4 billion at the time. His fortune reached $20 billion in 2019 and skyrocketed the following year after a Tesla stock split, making Musk the world’s fifth centibillionaire — worth more than $100 billion — by Forbes’ estimate. In the six years since, Musk’s net worth has grown roughly tenfold. His fortune has surged by a rate unmatched even by the decade’s previous “world’s richest person” titleholders: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Bernard Arnault, head of the luxury empire LVMH. Google co-founder Larry Page, currently worth an estimated $295 billion, according to Forbes, takes a distant second place among the ranks of the world’s richest people. Page is followed by a second Google co-founder, Sergey Brin; Bezos, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, each worth more than $200 billion as of Friday, according to Forbes. That said, Gates’ fortune would be a whopping $464 billion had he not given so much away to philanthropy, per Forbes

Paris Hilton sounds the alarm on AI-generated exploitation in new TikTok series: ‘It could happen to literally anyone’ -- Paris Hilton is sounding the alarm about explicit AI-generated images that she says could “ruin someone’s life,” shining a star-powered light on one of the darkest corners of the internet. “Searching for Mr. Deepfakes,” Hilton’s new true crime docuseries, just debuted exclusively on her TikTok channel. The series, shared in rapid-fire videos built for a younger-skewing social media audience who “wouldn’t have watched a long-form documentary,” details a years-long investigation launched by tech journalist Laurie Segall to track down the anonymous owner of an AI-generated pornography site called Mr. Deepfakes. Hilton told ITK in an exclusive interview that, using AI technology, “people can just take a photo — a family photo, a Christmas photo, anything — and literally turn it into an explicit image or video.” “It could happen to literally anyone who puts their image online,” she warned. Segall said after getting a tip about the site and taking a look, “There were thousands of videos of women — AI-generated but who didn’t consent — doing sexual, graphic things they had never done.” Hilton’s image was among the multitude of women featured on the site — but they weren’t all famous faces. “They said it was ‘public women,’ but ‘public’ was a very loose definition. I just remember looking at this and saying, ‘How on earth does this exist?’” exclaimed Segall. “There was nothing these women could do, because they would try to contact the owner of the site, and it was anonymous,” added Segall, the CEO of Mostly Human Media. “Some of these look very realistic,” Hilton said, “so it’s just completely frightening.” It’s an issue, Hilton said, that’s “deeply personal” for her. The TV personality has been open about what happened to her in 2003, when an intimate video of her was shared on the internet without her consent. It was an experience that she said has significantly impacted her work today. “It took me 20 years to be able to speak about it out loud, because when you go through something, it’s so traumatizing that you just don’t even want to think it’s real. You just don’t even want to remember it, speak about it, and there’s also a huge shame behind it,” she said. “As a 19-year-old teenager when this happened, there was no technology to even describe it. There were no laws to protect me,” Hilton said. Now, the business and media maven and former reality TV star is aiming to change that. She’s made multiple high-profile trips to Capitol Hill in recent years, uniting typically bitterly divided lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. In January, the 45-year-old mother of two touted the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act. The bipartisan legislation would allow victims of nonconsensual deepfake pornography to sue individuals who produce and distribute the AI-generated content. She also pointed to the passage of the Take It Down Act, signed into law last year by President Trump. The bipartisan legislation, championed by first lady Melania Trump, enacts stricter penalties for the distribution of nonconsensual intimate images and AI-generated deepfakes.

Anthropic CEO: Government should have power to block dangerous AI deployments Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is arguing governments should have the power to block dangerous deployments of artificial intelligence if they don’t meet a certain safety standard. Amodei’s latest assertion, published in an essay on his website Wednesday, builds upon the company’s pro-safety approach to AI, which has put them at odds with its competitors and the Trump administration this year. The technology leader suggested AI regulation should emulate the testing processes at agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration, writing, “Frontier AI models, like airplanes, should be required to go through technical testing and auditing.” “Their release should be blocked or reversed as a threat to public safety if they do not meet high standards of safety,” Amodei added. While lauding President Trump’s latest executive order on AI testing, Amodei said Anthropic is proposing “even further action” on AI regulation, including mandatory testing by a third-party auditor to check for risks related to cybersecurity, biological weapons, loss of control of AI systems, and automated research and development. He said the government should have the ability to block or deter deployment if a third-party evaluation determines risks in the four categories. Government agencies themselves could be the auditors under Anthropic’s proposal, which notably breaks from other AI firms that warn of government overreach. Trump’s executive order, signed earlier this month after weeks of delays, laid out a process for voluntary testing of frontier AI models up to 30 days before their release but made clear it would not be a requirement for AI developers. For some in the industry, the emphasis on the voluntary nature was still not enough to assure it would not lead to overregulation of AI. Amodei went on to say there could come a time when even more aggressive policies are needed, writing, “When the most powerful AI systems look less like airplanes or automobiles and more like weaponizable nuclear materials—a threat to humanity rather than ‘just’ a threat to public safety.” This ideology clashed with the Pentagon earlier this year, resulting in a public dispute over safeguards for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous lethal weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled the company as a supply chain risk, prohibiting the use of Claude in the department. Anthropic sued the Trump administration, challenging both the Pentagon’s designation — typically reserved for foreign adversaries — and President Trump’s directive for civilian agencies to stop using Anthropic’s products after negotiations fell apart over safety guardrails last February. Anthropic demanded its technology not be used in fully autonomous lethal weapons or for the mass surveillance of Americans, while the Pentagon insisted it be allowed to use Anthropic’s Claude for “all lawful uses.” Weeks after filing its suits, Anthropic released its most advanced cybersecurity AI model, Mythos, sending shockwaves through Washington. The model, along with other AI developments across the industry, got the attention of the White House, which raised concerns about the potential safety risks of the technology.

Scoop: Trump admin blocks foreign access to Anthropic's most powerful AI - The Trump administration is blocking foreign governments, companies and individuals from accessing Anthropic's most advanced AI models — leading the company to cut off all customer access altogether. The move marks an escalation in Washington's effort to treat cutting-edge AI systems as national security assets.  Anthropic now finds itself on a Pentagon blacklist deeming it too dangerous for the government's own use, and in a Commerce Department licensing regime deeming it too dangerous for foreign use.   Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday sent a letter to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei saying that the Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models would be subject to export controls to any location outside of the U.S. and to all foreign persons within the country.An administration official told Axios the Commerce Department decided to take the action after another company claimed it was able to jailbreak Mythos, alarming the administration about possible national security risks. The administration tried to get Anthropic to pause releasing the latest models but was unsuccessful, the official said, prompting the export control letter. The model needs to remain locked down until the U.S. government's national security apparatus is hardened, the official said, adding that could happen in the next few weeks.Per Commerce's letter, a license will be required for the export, re-export or domestic transfer of those Anthropic models.Furthermore, Anthropic will have to submit an additional application for individually validated licenses. Failure to comply would result in financial and civil penalties. To ensure compliance, Anthropic said late Friday night it had to cut off access to Mythos and Fable for all customers."We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible," the company said in a post to X. The Trump administration earlier this month released an executive order to test the most advanced AI models before they are deployed.Anthropic has a partnership with the Center for AI Standards and Innovation at Commerce for pre-deployment testing. The executive order is voluntary and explicitly avoids a licensing regime — something White House chief AI adviser David Sacks was able to secure to avoid what he considers the "regulatory capture" of the biggest labs.An administration official said that Trump "does not want to hurt the industry and wants innovation to continue." The bottom line: Anthropic's running fight with the government just got more complicated.

Anthropic shuts down Mythos 5, Fable 5 due to government order -  In an extraordinary regulatory move, the U.S. Department of Commerce sent a letter to Anthropic directing it to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. A foreign national is a person who is not a citizen of the country they live in.
In response, Anthropic shut down all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5.

• Key insight: The U.S. government told Anthropic to shut down its most powerful AI model and the company complied.
• What's at stake: The episode raises questions about how much control the government has over commonly used technology.
• Forward look: Anthropic and U.S. government representatives say they want this issue resolved quickly and the AI models released back out.

Anthropic disables access to Fable 5, Mythos 5 on government directive -  Anthropic on Friday announced it’s disabled access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 artificial intelligence models to comply with an export control directive from the U.S. government that cited “national security authorities.”The company said it received an order at 5:21 p.m. ET, instructing it to suspend all access to the models “by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees.”Anthropic abruptly disabled the models for all of its customers in order to ensure compliance, but said all of its other models will not be affected.The unexpected move comes just days after Anthropic announced Fable 5 and Mythos 5, two powerful models that the company touted as state-of-the-art across a number of different industry benchmarks. Fable 5, in particular, marked the first time that Anthropic released such an advanced offering to the public, thanks to new safeguards that block responses in specific high-risk areas.The models built on the release of Claude Mythos Preview, which captivated Wall Street and government officials with its advanced cybersecurity capabilities in April. The company said it did not plan to make the model generally available, and it has limited the rollout to a select group of companies as part of a cybersecurity initiative called Project Glasswing.In its statement on Friday, Anthropic said the government did not provide specific details about its national security concern. The company apologized to its customers for the disruption.“As we have stated publicly, we believe the government should have the ability to block unsafe deployments, as part of a statutory process that is transparent, fair, clear, and grounded in technical facts,” Anthropic said. “This action does not adhere to those principles.”The announcement marks Anthropic’s latest run-in with the U.S. government after a high-profile clash with the Department of Defense spilled into public view earlier this year.After negotiations between the two organizations collapsed, the DOD declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, meaning the company purportedly threatens U.S. national security. The label has historically been reserved for foreign adversaries, and requires defense contractors to certify that they will not use Anthropic’s Claude models in their work with the military.Anthropic sued the Trump administration in an effort to reverse its blacklisting, and litigation is still ongoing.

Adapt or disappear: AI search is rapidly changing the referral game | American Banker -- Client referrals have entered the arena in the ongoing battle between humans and machines, with 8.7% of high net worth investors sharing that they now use AI to find financial advisors.

Rethinking education in the age of AI - When my daughters’ teachers began offering only in-class hand-written exams, I initially thought it was a brilliant strategy to AI- proof education. Then I began to question whether that is good or bad. As a parent, part of me loves old-school blue books. They create one of the few remaining spaces where students must think without machine assistance. But part of me wonders whether that is a necessary safeguard or a quaint anachronism, given the exponential future our children are graduating into. Blue books may tell us whether students can write without AI. But they do not answer the harder question: What is the purpose of public education when every child has near-infinite knowledge and intelligence in their pocket? That’s a question that parents and educators across the country are grappling with in real time — with no guidance or guardrails from the federal government. That question also cuts to the fundamental issue of whether AI will ultimately serve humanity, or the other way around. WPIX: stalking protection bill The 2028 campaign will be the first real AI presidential election and may be the last chance to enact human-centric federal regulations for AI before it’s too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube. That means rules to protect children, preserve human agency and work, and safeguard the public from increasingly powerful models with destructive potential. It also includes reauthorizing the now ironically named Every Student Succeeds Act to reimagine America’s education system for the AI economy. Any AI-era reauthorization of this law should fully fund and hold schools accountable not only for grade-level reading, math, science, and history, but also for judgment, civic responsibility, original writing, strategic technology use, and the ability to collaborate with — and challenge — intelligent machines. AI will make it easier than ever for students to produce answers. That makes it more important than ever for schools to teach them how to ask better questions. Anyone curious about the cost of inaction need only look to social media. Gen Z’s addiction to TikTok and Instagram wasn’t inevitable. It was the result of regulatory laissez faire policymakers who allowed the brains and attention spans of our children to be used as corporate petri dishes. As a parent, I’ve had a front-row seat to the insidious impact of social media, but the implications of regulatory inaction on AI are exponentially more dire. This is a moment that calls for presidential and congressional leadership because only the federal government can establish a human-centric national regulatory framework at the scale AI demands.

AI can mass-produce finance research papers indistinguishable from human work, reports study - Artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) tools are capable of mass-producing academic finance papers that are nearly indistinguishable from human-authored research, according to a new study published in the Journal of Economic Literature. Study co-authors Mihail Velikov, associate professor of finance at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, and Robert Novy-Marx, Lori and Alan S. Zekelman Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, built a pipeline for automating academic research production. In roughly 12 hours, they generated nearly 400 complete, publication-ready finance papers—using AI to generate hypotheses and write the manuscript. The study demonstrated how AI could accelerate research paper production while raising concerns about the potential impact on the academic community and the meaning of scientific discovery. "AI can now produce a ton of papers at scale, and it's going to change the nature of how we produce and disseminate knowledge," Velikov said. "This is an early warning signal of what's coming with modern AI capabilities." The researchers didn't initially set out to create an AI assembly-line for financial research papers. Velikov's scholarship focuses on identifying anomalies in the equity market—observed patterns in the data that don't conform to accepted theoretical models of how financial markets behave. He and Novy-Marx were working on a data mining project, analyzing corporate accounting data for potential signals that might predict which stocks will outperform the market. They identified more than 30,000 potential signals. They validated the predictive power of each signal, which included comparing them against 200 documented anomalies published in the finance literature. Based on this analysis, they narrowed the list down to 95 signals that were truly novel. Velikov then entered the information into a website he built that could generate a template report based on the analysis. The resulting reports resembled published papers that document new anomalies. The only thing that was missing was a hypothesis or interpretation for why the anomalies might exist. "This was late 2023 and it hit me that large language models might be really good at coming up with stories to explain why these anomalies occurred," Velikov said. "A data mining exercise coupled with large language models could produce a large number of plausible-looking scientific papers." So, they tried it. The researchers used Anthropic's LLM Claude Opus 4.1, which was the latest version at the time, to expand the template reports into academic papers, based on the information and analysis from the data mining project. For each of the 95 signals, they instructed the LLM to come up with descriptive names for the predictors and to produce four distinct manuscripts, each with a different hypothesis and theoretical justification to explain the observed results for the same signal. In total, the researchers produced 380 papers. Each paper included an abstract, introduction, data, results, conclusion, and citations. The AI-generated papers, along with the full code used to produce them, are publicly available on GitHub. AI's efficient production of academic papers raises questions and concerns about academic research and the peer-review system, Velikov said. In general, submissions to journals and conferences have surged in recent years, overwhelming peer reviewers. With the increasing capabilities and use of AI and LLMs, he said that the scientific peer-review system needs to adapt in light of these technologies. "Nowadays, with agentic AI systems, this can be done even better, and the papers are much better," Velikov said. "This is going to raise standards. It's probably going to change how we disseminate and evaluate research." . The study highlighted another area of concern, Velikov said. In the AI-generated papers, the LLM formulated the hypotheses after a pattern in the data had already been identified—a practice known as HARKing or hypothesizing after the results are known. This is a documented practice in academia, one that's viewed negatively, Velikov explained, but AI changes the scale at which HARKing may occur. If AI creates explanations for what's found in the data, it potentially raises questions about what constitutes scientific contribution, particularly considering that AI still hallucinate—when LLMs generate false or misleading results and present them as fact. While the researchers focused on financial research, they said that the implications of these findings can extend to other fields. "I'm far from the opinion that we'll all be out of jobs and replaced by AI," Velikov said. "But I think our jobs will evolve a lot, and the more we invest in understanding how these systems work, the better research we'll be able to do. The better we'll be able to do our job."

Scam ads used a BofA exec. Now Meta faces the fallout | American Banker

• Key insight: The case is anchored on ads that impersonated a sitting Bank of America executive, Savita Subramanian, to push a fraudulent stock scheme that investors say cost more than $300 million.
• Supporting data: Citing internal Meta documents first reported by Reuters, Santa Clara County alleges that Meta earns about $7 billion a year in "violating revenue" and carries roughly 15 billion scam ads a day.
• Forward look: The cases are heading into discovery, where Meta may have to turn over internal records; the open question is whether litigation forces change or it waits on Congress.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review.

OpenAI in Talks to Lease OH Data Center, Largest Gas Power Plant in U.S. -- Marcellus Drilling News - - In February, President Donald Trump unveiled a record-breaking $33 billion natural gas power plant in Piketon (Pike County), Ohio, to be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank (see Trump Announces Largest-Ever U.S. Gas-Fired Plant Coming to Ohio). This 9.2-gigawatt facility—the largest in U.S. history—is designed to create thousands of jobs and support the surging energy needs of data centers and artificial intelligence applications. Several media sources are now reporting that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is in discussions to lease the data center that will be powered by the gas-fired power plant.

Democratic governors chafe as calls grow louder to reject data centers - Public backlash against the explosive build-out of data centers is raising the stakes for governors — especially moderate Democrats as they set new ground rules but face hardening criticism from within their party for backing the multibillion-dollar projects.Democratic Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey late last month rolled out new standards for the energy-guzzling technology hubs, including measures aimed at protecting electricity ratepayers and the environment. Other governors, like Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, are confronting sharp divisions among fellow Democrats.The New York Legislature on Thursday approved a one-year moratorium on large data centers. If Gov. Kathy Hochul signs it, New York would be the first to impose a statewide pause on development.And on Friday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker hit pause on tax exemptions for new data center proposals as lawmakers in Springfield hammer out a broader policy agreement. Money from the tech industry and jobs for the construction trades made good economic and political sense for governors in past years. But local opposition to data center projects that are pushing deeper into rural areas is complicating pro-business messages and plans for building more of the sprawling high-tech campuses for artificial intelligence. That’s creating new fault lines for Democrats, with candidates on the left attacking party leaders for being too accommodating to Big Tech — and attaching themselves to calls for moratoriums on data center projects and voter concerns about water use, higher utility bills and lucrative industry tax breaks.“Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot politically on this issue,” said Will Lawrence, who’s running in a competitive three-way Democratic primary in central Michigan to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Barrett. “People are desperate for somebody to stand up to Big Tech, to stand alongside communities. They see that Trump and the GOP aren’t doing it,” he said.But it’s a political tightrope. In Illinois, organized labor and environmental interests are on opposing sides after Pritzker’s move to slow development, setting up a clash between Democratic allies. With many of the same tensions buffeting Democrats in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Shapiro and Whitmer say investments from Amazon or OpenAI can fuel their Rust Belt economies. And in Virginia, Spanberger is treading carefully. State leaders have for years sold data center owners on favorable tax treatment and access to the region’s high-tech cables and high-voltage power lines. Northern Virginia is dubbed “Data Center Alley.” Data centers are part of a complex political landscape for sitting governors who chase big corporate whales to locate in their states. They also want a seat at the table as the rules of AI and its infrastructure are written. Republican governors are also grappling with it, even as many of deep-red states seem more accommodating. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed an executive order a week and a half ago that seeks to assuage concerns that large data center projects could take water from the Great Salt Lake and drive up utility bills. And GOP Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio paused tax breaks that go to developers while the state reviews data center growth. Shapiro, who is running for reelection and considered a Democratic contender for president in 2028, has positioned himself at the center of the energy affordability debates raging in the Northeast. Shapiro has sought to make Pennsylvania a leading state for AI and energy infrastructure investment. But he’s also led regional governors in efforts to control rising electricity prices as data centers are built. In the plan he laid out in writing late last month — after first introducing its broad tenets in a speech in February — Shapiro sought to increase community involvement and protect ratepayers. Shapiro’s Republican challenger for governor, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, quickly sought to contrast herself with the governor by calling for a “total data center pause.” “His evolving policies, and many of the updated policies that require more of data centers, are a clear recognition that unbridled support for data centers was not politically a great position to be in,” said Chris Borick, director of the Institute of Public Opinion and professor of political science at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. A February poll of Pennsylvania registered voters by Quinnipiac University found 68 percent said they would oppose building an AI data center in their community. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have put an 18-month moratorium on new data centers, the first statewide ban in the country, despite strong support among Democrats in the Legislature.In her veto message, Mills acknowledged data center impacts on power prices and the environment. But she wanted an exception for projects with certain job and economic benefits.One such project is under consideration in Jay, Maine. “That is Mills’ home area and is an area in desperate need of economic activity and jobs,” noted Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine.Four out of the five Democratic candidates in a race to replace her said at a forum that they would support the moratorium legislation.In New Jersey, Sherrill took her first big step last month toward implementing her campaign promises. Her plan requires data center owners to supply their own power and pay for grid upgrades. She’s also tasking her state agencies with developing noise, light and pollution guidelines. Sherrill’s work could bring much needed balance to the data center debate at a time when dozens of New Jersey municipalities have already acted to ban the facilities, said Laura Matos, a Democratic strategist at MAD Global Strategy Group.The Data Center Coalition, which represents developers and end users, said it is working with governors and legislative leaders, including in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy, warned against state policies that treat data centers differently than other large industrial developers “or impair the competitiveness of responsible data center developers who choose to invest in these states.” In Michigan, Whitmer saw swift pushback last week from some progressive Democrats for appearing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altmanand other executives for a groundbreaking at the site of “The Barn,” a $16 billion data center campus in Saline Township, southwest of Ann Arbor. At the ceremony, Whitmer heralded “the largest economic deal in Michigan history.” She noted it would create 2,500 construction jobs along with permanent high-tech jobs and scientific advancement.“AI will be a big part of America’s future,” Whitmer said. “We are all fueling the need for projects like this with the devices we hold in our hand, in our purse or in our pockets.”“We cannot afford to let other countries dominate future industries like AI,” Whitmer said.But the way the project came about fueled opposition. The local board last year initially rejected a rezoning proposal, and that drew a lawsuit. To avoid the lawsuit, the board reversed itself. OpenAI, Oracle and Blackstone have since pledged money for local programs and a financially strapped recreation center.Lawrence, the Michigan Democrat running for Congress, called Whitmer’s appearance alongside Altman “insulting” to the people of the township and the surrounding region. Lawrence has called for a 12-month moratorium on new data center construction.Whitmer’s office declined to respond to criticism.Another Democratic governor with perhaps the most to lose — and gain — from data centers is Spanberger in Virginia, home to one of the world’s largest AI hubs. Spanberger is battling it out with another Democratic leader over a tax exemption for the facilities. She’s also straddling a fine line between trying to foster a pro-business image and appeasing members of her left flank concerned about local protests over AI.At issue is an existing sales and use tax waiver for data center computer equipment that is keeping almost $2 billion annually out of state coffers. Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, a Democrat, wants to end the state exemption next year and use the money for transportation and other programs. House leaders, who are more aligned with Spanberger’s position, are pushing to keep the exemption intact as planned through 2035.On social media, Lucas has said voters will “cook” the governor if the two Democratic-controlled chambers don’t come to a resolution before a July 1 fiscal deadline.Spanberger has said data centers should pay more, but doesn’t want to end tax incentives early. “There is a path forward that makes sure data centers account for the energy they use without going back on the agreements Virginia has signed with companies,” said Jack Bledsoe, a Spanberger spokesperson. Adding to the pressure are polls showing that more than 60 percent of Virginians support ending the tax exemption.

Most battleground House races have data centers on the way, POLITICO analysis finds - More than 200 data centers are going up in dozens of competitive House districts — and neither party knows how to handle their political fallout heading into the midterms. The energy-hungry computing infrastructure being built to meet the explosive demand for artificial intelligence has sparked opposition to rising electric bills, water consumption, use of farmland and influence of the tech industry. That stew of frustration has made data centers the target of campaign ads and a populist fervor that’s toppled local elected leaders.  It has also become a rogue element in the races that will decide which party controls the House: The majority of competitive districts — 40 out of 69 — have data centers either planned or under construction, according to a POLITICO analysis of data by Data Center Map, one of the most comprehensive trackers of the industry.

OpenAI weighs leasing Ohio data center with Nvidia backing, The Information reports (Reuters) - OpenAI is in talks to lease a proposed 10-gigawatt data center campus ​on federal land in Ohio, in a deal ‌that could include financial backing from Nvidia, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people with direct knowledge of ​the discussions. Here are some details:

• The campus could cost ​at least $500 billion to build, based on current prices ⁠for chips, labour, power and other inputs, the ​report said.
• OpenAI would control the equipment at the facility ​under a 20-year lease, with payments starting once operations begin; the first phase is expected in 2028, the report added.
• The facility, among the ​largest of its kind, would be developed by ​SB Energy, a unit of SoftBank, on Department of Energy land ‌in ⁠southern Ohio.
• Nvidia is expected to supply hardware in the facility and provide a financial guarantee for OpenAI's lease and SB Energy's financing, according to the report.
• Reuters ​could not immediately ​verify the ⁠report. OpenAI and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment ​outside regular business hours.
• Earlier this year, the ​ChatGPT maker paused ⁠its proposed 'Stargate' data centre project in the UK, citing regulatory hurdles and high energy costs.
• Separately, Apollo and Blackstone ⁠are financing ​a $35 billion AI capacity expansion ​for Anthropic using Broadcom chips, Reuters reported this week.

Ohio lawmakers unveil data center regulations   — Ohio lawmakers have unveiled legislation aiming to regulate the state's consistently growing data center development. Substitute House Bill 646, which is now nearly fifty pages, was created after just a few weeks of committee hearings. "The Joint Data Center Study Committee has done its job," Senate Finance Chair Brian Chavez (R-Marietta), who is also the co-chair of the data center committee, said. The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard Among many provisions, the legislation creates an electric rate class for data centers, trying to ensure that the cost of generation, transmission and distribution is paid by the companies. "Make sure the ratepayers are kept harmless, held harmless, and that data centers pay for whatever they're causing," Chavez said. It also requires electric distribution utilities to file a data center tariff before the Public Utilities Commission. This allows the PUCO to consider grandfathering current contract agreements while reviewing the tariff case. It also creates a collaboration surety bond that data centers must deposit with the tax commissioner. It also limits the size of new sales tax breaks for projects. Currently at 100%, it would go down to 50% generally. If the projects are built on brownfields and can power themselves, they could receive 75%. However, this won’t apply to any of the companies with existing contracts, like Meta, Google and Amazon, ones that state Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) says go for decades. "If we pull the tax percentage back from 100% to 0%, 76% of the market is not affected because of these deals that those three signed in the Kasich administration," Smith said. House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) has been trying to eliminate the sales tax exemption for a year now. Figures from the Ohio Department of Taxation show the state provided almost $1.57 billion in sales-tax exemptions on purchases of data center equipment and construction materials last year. That’s nearly 12 times what state officials initially expected, according to estimates produced by the tax department in late 2024 as part of Ohio’s budgeting process. This tax break has to end," he said. The general assembly actually passed an elimination of the data center sales tax exemption in the last budget. But Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed it. For months, the lawmakers have been debating overriding his decision. I asked Huffman if moving to 50% or 75% was enough for him, or if he wanted to still push for an override. "Well, I don't think it's practical and perhaps even possible at this point to get a veto override," Huffman responded. He said that the labor unions don't want an override, and that is preventing enough members from voting to supersede the governor's veto. He seemed to accept a 50% exemption, as long as data centers comply with regulations, and to "incentivize good behavior." "I think 75% is too high," Huffman said. "We'll hopefully get a good product out that will benefit the public, but it will begin collecting taxes from folks who can afford to pay them, obviously." One of the major complaints from environmental groups was the water usage. The bill requires that facilities utilize a closed-loop water system or use “best practices for water conservation and efficiency.” Additionally, date centers are required to report any "anomalies" detected through their water quality monitoring systems. Another big topic is transparency, and companies asking public officials to sign non-disclosure agreements. "The bill has nothing really about NDAs, doesn't outlaw that, does nothing to make public officials accountable to their constituents," state Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) said.

Ohio lawmakers introduce sweeping new data center legislation • Ohio lawmakers unveiled a sweeping data center bill Tuesday that reins in incentives and addresses several other public concerns. Drawing on testimony from the Select Committee on Data Centers, Ohio state Sen. Brian Chavez put together a laundry list of changes and then grafted them onto a measure originally meant to study the issue. It’s a significant revision of state policy, touching on tax breaks, nondisclosure agreements, water use and testing, utility billing, and potential impacts on local governments. Despite some quibbles, lawmakers and witnesses found a lot to like in the initial proposal. But given the rapid timeline Chavez envisions for passage — potentially moving to a vote on the Senate floor one day after introduction — opportunities to tweak the language are scarce. Ohio state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, complained about the rapid timeline. “Anything the legislature does in a swift amount of time ends up being bad for everybody,” he said, “because there are always problems with it.” Currently, data center projects can apply for an 100% sales and use tax exemption. It’s a discretionary program, but it has ballooned to roughly $1.6 billion in the last year. The proposal would generally cut that tax break in half, but projects that build on brownfields and bring their own power are eligible for a 75% tax break. The bill also caps local property tax abatements for data centers at 50% and eliminates access to Ohio’s 30-year mega project job creation grant. Data center developers’ use of nondisclosure agreements has drawn sharp criticism, and the bill includes a provision stating NDAs do not supersede public records law. On the water use front, the measure directs the Ohio EPA to develop a water quality testing plan and report “any anomalies” detected as part of its water monitoring program. Data centers, meanwhile, would be required to track and report water usage to state regulators, and employ water conservation best practices including closed loop cooling systems. Under the bill, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio would create a data center rate class. Similar to the data center tariff the PUCO approved for AEP Ohio last year, the move is meant to apply costs associated with power generation, distribution and transmission to data centers. Another protection included in the proposal is a surety bond equal to the average salary of all a data centers workers over a ten year period. Chavez described the provision as a way to give “financial insurance to local governments and communities impacted by the development.” The Ohio Manufacturer’s Association is currently challenging AEP’s data center tariff in the Ohio Supreme Court, and the group wasn’t thrilled with the idea of extending that approach to the rest of the state’s utilities. Speaking on behalf of OMA, energy consultant John Seryak explained tariffs spread costs over an extended period of time rather than requiring developers to pay the full amount of their impact up front. “We see that as pretty workable,” Seryak said, because there’s little opportunity to shift costs to other consumers. But by implementing a separate rate class, those costs get spread over several years. Seryak pointed to one project in AES Ohio’s territory that would require roughly $230 million supplemental equipment. “By the time that’s financed over 40 years, with return on equity and interest payments, it’s about $850 million. One project. This tariff would recover only $300 million of that,” he said. Seryak also contends the tariff’s minimum demand payments could just juice the overall load forecast — forcing utilities to plan for greater capacity which is then spread across all ratepayers. Making data centers pay a minimum amount each month also reduces the incentive to use power efficiently. Nolan Rutschilling from the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund urged lawmakers to include explicit directives for the PUCO about an upcoming backstop auction. The regional grid operator PJM Interconnection will hold the auction this September to secure 15 gigawatts of new power generation to meet growing demand driven by data centers. Those costs will get passed on, and PJM has urged states to develop regulations to ensure the costs are borne by data centers. Without them, the grid operator warned, “it is possible that these costs will be allocated to other consumers in the states, including residential consumers.” “It’s entirely possible that this large load tariff could address that issue,” Rutschilling said, “but I’m urging just some clarifying language to ensure that it does and to ensure that the PUCO undertakes this matter in a timely fashion.” Cathy Cowan Becker from Save Ohio Parks said there were many good provisions in the bill, but “we’d like data centers to meet their energy demand, at least some of it, with carbon free energy.” Many facilities rely on diesel backup generators, “which are quite polluting,” she said while battery storage would generate no additional carbon emissions. Quibbles weren’t confined to public testimony. DeMora complained the bill “does nothing” on nondisclosure agreements. Instead of banning them, it simply states an NDA can’t “prohibit or otherwise limit a public record from being made available.” “They might say that you can find out if there’s an NDA,” DeMora insisted, “but the bill does nothing to stop NDAs.” Meanwhile, Ohio state Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, worried lawmakers might be doing something that’s “a detriment to data centers coming in and negotiating with local governments.” The Senate Energy Committee is lined up to advance the bill Wednesday morning, with the goal of voting the measure through the full Senate later that day.

Ohio Republicans back off effort to kill tax credit for data centers - Republican lawmakers in Ohio have backed off their efforts to reduce or eliminate a sales tax break for the technology behemoths behind the data center boom here, which cost the state $2 billion in 2025 alone in lost state and local sales tax revenue. Revelations about the $2 billion figure – lawmakers say they had no clue how big the tax credit had gotten in the last few years – have stirred the General Assembly into overdrive over the past few weeks. A joint committee formed to study the issue has met for more than 18 hours since May 27, fielding testimony from state, local, industry and union officials, plus the public. But as the clock neared 10 p.m. Wednesday in the last scheduled session before the November elections, the General Assembly abruptly pulled a vote on the committee’s much-hyped data center legislative package. The legislation would have reduced the size of any new tax breaks to data centers, although it wouldn’t impact any existing tax exemptions or abatements. Its implosion indicates either a political inability or unwillingness to cut into a lucrative tax break for players behind the meteoric artificial intelligence sector. This all amounts to a major win for the tech developers, which state officials entirely exempted from nearly $1.6 billion in 2025 from Ohio’s statewide 5.75% sales tax, plus another $446 million from local sales taxes, according to the state Department of Taxation. The combined figure was about $722 million in 2024. House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, told reporters late Wednesday that Senate leaders pulled the vote because House Republicans wanted to eliminate – and not reduce – the tax breaks for data centers. “There’s some sore elbows here over, ‘Hey wait a minute, we keep finding out what a great deal these guys have. Why would we give them additional tax exemption?’” Huffman said, per the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau.  For some of the biggest names in the industry – Google, Meta and Amazon – those exemptions are worth $600 million in total by the time they mature over their 40-year lifespan, per newly released data from the state’s economic development office. All told, Ohio has agreed to at least $2.3 billion in state sales tax exemptions to 18 companies, but officials warn the real dollar number could be “significantly higher.” And while statewide property tax abatement data is not available, most data centers strike long-term deals with local governments that drastically reduce their local property tax bills as well. For instance, in New Albany, the epicenter of the local data center economy, there are 17 data centers, all of whom have been granted property tax abatements of between 65% and 100% over 15-year periods. New awareness about the ballooning nature of the tax breaks has renewed political interest in killing them, given public opinion polling and overwhelmingly negative public hearings indicate data centers have grown increasingly unpopular with voters. Republicans passed legislation last year that would have ended the state sales tax exemption. Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the bill, emphasizing the tens of billions of dollars data centers have spent building facilities in Ohio and the importance of the credit in their siting decisions. Last year, lawmakers – relying on estimates of the size of the tax breaks that turned out to be dramatic underestimations by a factor of more than 10 – voted to end the sales tax break entirely. Gov. DeWine vetoed the provision. While Huffman has previously expressed interest in overriding the governor’s veto, on Tuesday he acknowledged he didn’t have the required 60 votes.

Tax dispute derails Ohio effort to regulate data centers -  - A rush to pass sweeping data center regulations in Ohio hit a snag this week when legislative leaders couldn’t reach agreement on proposed tax incentive reforms.Republican majorities in the House and Senate failed to find common ground on what — if any — tax breaks the Buckeye State should offer to lure data center development. The impasse means the Legislature is unlikely to revisit the issue again until the fall.The setback deals a blow to some residents and state officials who wanted the Legislature to act quickly. Gov. Mike DeWine (R) last month paused sales tax exemptions originally established in 2014 following news reports that data centers received $1.6 billion in tax breaks last year — far exceeding earlier state tax department estimates. Revamping the tax exemption was a centerpiece of legislation passed Wednesday by the Senate.

Who’s behind Ohio’s continuing push to subsidize data centers? We want names. - cleveland.com  Despite the growing voter anger about them, some Ohio lawmakers still want to subsidize data centers with billions of tax dollars, and Today in Ohio podcast hosts want to know who they are.  Wednesday’s dramatic collapse of a state House data center bill exposed a rift among lawmakers, with some truly working to represent their angry constituents by demanding an end to subsidies for the electricity-hogging facilities.Today in Ohio podcast hosts, though, want to know which lawmakers still support subsidies, because they are the ones in the pockets of big tech and the electric companies.A bill to finally regulate the out-of-control centers looked headed for passage, even though it had big weaknesses. But the big subsidies for the centers that remained in the bill were a line in the sand for some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The bill collapsed, and now lawmakers say they’ll try again in two weeks.   “This is ridiculous, to give these things any subsidy whatsoever,” said host Chris Quinn. “They’re not economic development. We talked about it over and over. And the fact that there are people still pushing to subsidize them tells me there are still people in the pockets of the utilities and big tech.” Quinn demanded know exactly which lawmakers were still fighting to preserve that 50% subsidy for some of the wealthiest corporations in the world: “Who are the legislators pushing for that 50 percent subsidy? Because they’re the bad guys. They’re the ones that are in the pockets of the companies. They’re the ones that are doing the bidding of the wealthy elite instead of thinking about the people back home.”The failed bill wasn’t without merit. Host Laura Johnston pointed out that it included some genuinely useful provisions: new water use standards requiring closed-loop cooling systems, and rules requiring data centers to arrange their own power. But even those provisions fell short. Quinn noted that a data center buying power from existing generators doesn’t actually ease the burden on the grid — it just shifts the demand around while ratepayers still pay higher rates because of short supplies.Then there’s the public records problem. The bill’s language would have said NDAs don’t supersede public records law — but Quinn argued that’s not nearly strong enough. Without an absolute declaration that any data center contract must be fully public, communities and media outlets will be fighting endless court battles while companies and municipal officials hide behind trade secret exemptions.Johnston said the law seems to be more aimed at illusion that reform. Lawmakers want to be able to tell their angry constituents that they did something about the data centers.The populist anger surrounding data centers is growing, with less than five months until Election Day. Voters across Ohio are furious about rising electricity rates, water concerns, and the sense that big corporations are getting sweetheart deals while everyday Ohioans pay more.The Today in Ohio crew has been covering the issue relentlessly, repeatedly showing how Ohioans get almost no benefit from the billions of dollars elected leaders have handed over to big tech companies. Listen to Thursday’s discussion here.

Ohio farmers fear new proposal would allow data centers to take property - WEWS — A new proposal by a business trade group is causing Ohio farmers to fear that the state and utility companies could take private property to build data centers. This idea would also allow entities to take the land before the owner gets paid. In a document I obtained, the Ohio Business Roundtable, a powerful trade group that lobbies at the Statehouse, recommended that lawmakers change eminent domain law, and “should extend possession authority to energy infrastructure projects once public use and necessity have been established.” "We are aware of efforts to further erode the limited protections that landowners have, allowing for quick take of property without first paying for the property and determining a landowner’s rights and compensation through a court of law," the Ohio Farm Bureau’s Evan Callicoat said. The Farm Bureau isn't opposed to data centers, but they are opposed to a violation of property rights, Callicoat said. He fears that with this proposed idea, it's broad enough that farmers could lose their land to data centers, not getting paid for it for months or years. The Roundtable's Nick Rhodes said that’s not how it is meant to be used. "That wouldn't really meet the threshold of public use; there is the question of infrastructure, and I think that's an open question," Rhodes said. The program is called 'deposit and build,' and it's modeled after a system that 45 other states use. Right now, eminent domain law allows for federal, state and local governments to take property for public use. The Ohio Power Siting Board controls the installation of utility facilities, including power lines, some gas pipelines, and wind farms. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio can also help utility companies acquire land. A utility will approach a homeowner for land, and must provide them with a "fair" market price. If the owner refuses to sell, the utility company will take them to court and will need to determine "necessity" for the land. If a court sides with the utility company, deeming it necessary to take, the appraised value of the land is given to a court account. However, the owner can appeal this decision to fight for more money. While this court battle is going on, construction is not allowed to begin. Rhodes said that once the court determines that the state or utility company can have the land, construction should be allowed to begin. Currently, these projects could be delayed for years by the court process, he added. "The entity should be able to take possession and proceed with their project, and then compensation appeals can continue," Rhodes said. Landowners deserve their day in court, Callicoat said, adding that no one should be taking over land before money changes hands. "To allow any other type of development to have that type of structure and process would just be very, very bad for our state," he added in an interview. "Our farmers are definitely concerned about that." Data center companies do not hold the power of eminent domain, but Callicoat says that this version could eventually allow for it. "Many of the services and utilities that they require do hold that authority," he said. I asked state Sen. Brian Chavez what he thought about the deposit and build idea. "That's a very hot topic," Chavez responded. "I don't think that we're ready to address anything like that in such a short time span." Still, I pressed for his view. "Do you agree with the people who are speaking today and the first day who say that data centers are part of a public good?" I asked him. "I don't know how you would quantify a public good, but it's a public necessity," the Republican responded. "They're a part of our lives and everything that we're doing." He noted the cameras all filming him, adding that the data must go somewhere. "It's ubiquitous," Chavez said. "It's a necessity." If data centers are a necessity, that could pave the way for leniency in taking over land, Callicoat said. Even if data centers aren't the main target for the eminent domain change, he said his members won't support a takeover of their land, one where they won't even get money for years.

Illinois Joins Ohio in Ordering Pause on Data Center Tax Credits --Governor JB Pritzker issued an order pausing state tax incentives for data centers in Illinois after the state legislature stalled his plan to keep data-center energy costs from affecting local residents’ bills.Pritzker, a Democrat seeking his third term, said his order was in response to the legislature’s failure to raise data centers’ electricity rates, given their high energy usage, which he asked them to do in February. He plans to push the issue during the veto session in mid-November. “Data centers are asking just too much for too little in return, whether it’s electricity or clean water,” Pritzker said in a video posted on X. “We can’t let them cause our utility bills to go up.” Ohio paused tax incentives for data centers on Wednesday. Governor Mike DeWine ordered a halt to a program offering tax breaks while a committee studies the economic impact of the projects. The governor’s order on Friday also comes amid growing opposition to data centers. Development projects worth about $64 billion have been delayed or canceled across the US due to community pushback, according to industry researcher Data Center Watch. In January, the city council in Naperville, Illinois, voted down plans for a proposed data center in the Chicago suburb, where many residents expressed fears that the project would increase their water and energy costs. Pritzker’s move puts him in opposition to a core Democratic constituency: organized labor, which has called for the tax breaks to continue. Unions support the incentives so that their members can build the data centers. Climate Jobs Illinois, an umbrella group representing 15 unions, issued a statement on Friday calling on Pritzker to reverse his pause. “This pause does nothing to lower utility bills, protect the grid, or advance clean energy. Instead, it will send billions of dollars in investment and thousands of union jobs to Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio — states that sit on the same electrical grid, where those data centers will be built anyway, just without Illinois workers,” the group said in its statement. Pritzker’s order won’t affect agreements entered into before July 1, and companies are still able to seek local tax relief support. The state provided almost $1 billion in tax incentives between 2020 and 2024, according to a report from the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Illinois has seen more than $15 billion in investments from data centers.

2 PA Towns Show How to Move Forward with Data Center Projects -- Marcellus Drilling News - -We are encouraged by recent developments in two Pennsylvania townships, one in northeast PA, the other in southwest PA, with respect to moving forward with data center projects. We get it. People are up in arms, some feeling as though data centers are being “forced” on them by less-than-transparent builders. Noise. Lights. Water usage. All are concerns. However, as we’ve stated many times, reasonable people can work together, sort through the issues, and move these projects along. That’s what we’re seeing in Olyphant, PA, a suburb of Scranton in Lackawanna County, and in South Strabane Township in Washington County.

Texas governor talks tough on data centers, calls for clampdown - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a broad set of proposals Wednesday aimed at regulating the growth of data centers — months after declaring his state the “epicenter” of artificial intelligence development.Abbott (R) said in a letter to state electricity officials that the unprecedented growth of data centers and their major energy needs require “oversight” to shield Texans from higher electricity costs. He directed state electricity officials to send him a memo on actions and recommendations by July 17.“As Texas continues to welcome innovation and investment, we must ensure that growth strengthens our people and their quality of life without placing undue burdens on Texans and local communities,” Abbott wrote.Plans for a data center boom in Texas have been cheered by Abbott and other leaders in recent years. But local opposition has been bubbling up, and officials in Hill County southwest of Dallas passed a one-year moratorium on data center construction in May. The county recently rescinded that ban after being sued.Abbott’s announcement Wednesday came less than five months before he is up for reelection against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa in November. The letter was met with applause by some state leaders and skepticism from Hinojosa’s campaign.The governor said he would work with state lawmakers during next year’s legislative session to pass laws that require data centers to pay for their own electric infrastructure and mandate that new data centers be built with water-efficient technologies. He also called for repealing sales tax exemptions “and other outdated or unnecessary incentives for data centers.” Abbott’s move also follows shifts by other pro-data center governors who have tempered their messaging in recent weeks as opposition to the facilities has grown.Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, who previously defended a 40,000-acre proposed data center project backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary, signed an executive order less than two weeks ago seeking to assuage fears that data centers could increase utility bills and suck water out of the Great Salt Lake. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro outlined a plan late last month to increase community involvement around data centers and to protect ratepayers. Shapiro had previously pitched data center development as a job creator and worked to woo tech companies to the state.Abbott has boasted about the amount of AI infrastructure and tech companies coming to the Lone Star State.In a November 2025 announcement with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Abbott called Texas “the epicenter of AI development.” Pichai said at a news conference that Google was planning $40 billion of investment in the state as it develops three AI data center campuses.“We must ensure that America remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, and Texas is the place where that can happen,” Abbott said in a statement last year.

PNC's solution to rising AI costs: build its own AI - PNC is planning to build its own factory to bring its AI hardware and software in-house.

Why PNC is building its own 'AI factory' | American Banker - PNC Financial Services Group hopes to one day declare its AI independence.

• Key Insight: PNC is building its own AI models and data centers so it can use the technology without relying on tech companies.
• Forward Look: As AI becomes increasingly essential to banking, the Pittsburgh-based bank hopes to avoid the costs of working with third-party vendors.
• Expert Quote: "We are building our own AI factory. … That's a big deal." — PNC CEO Bill Demchak

72% of banks lack AI model 'kill switches,' failure reporting | American Banker --Asked in which areas of AI incident reponse their institutions are least prepared, surveyed bankers cited regulatory reports and kill switches.

Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture — but investors saw steep losses -- Back in August, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were all smiles. They showed up at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York to celebrate a new business partnership with a little-known publicly traded company, then called Alt5 Sigma, to give investors easier access to a cryptocurrency backed by the Trump family.  Less than 10 months later, the company has warned investors it may not be able to stay in business much longer. Its share price has fallen more than 90%, and a rebranding hasn't revived investor interest. If the company, now called AI Financial Corp., can't sustainably raise its share price out of penny-stock levels in the next 15 trading days, it faces the prospect of being delisted by the Nasdaq.One of the few parties who benefited from the Alt5 Sigma transaction is the Trump family. As part of the August deal, Alt5 acquired $1.5 billion worth of crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, the crypto company co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., among others, in 2024. The president and undisclosed members of his family were entitled to roughly $500 million in proceeds from the crypto sale, according to disclosures by World Liberty Financial.  Alt5 closed at $8.97 on Aug. 8, the last trading day before the World Liberty deal was announced. Since then, AI Financial's stock — originally trading under the ticker ALTS, now AIFC — fell to 66 cents a share at the June 8 close, a 93% loss, according to FactSet data.Attorneys for Democracy Defenders Fund told the Securities and Exchange Commission in an April letter that the regulator needs to "commence an independent investigation into ALTS without delay." The nonpartisan group has sharply criticized the Trump administration over allegations of ethics issues. They didn't receive a response to their letter. "The question now is: What happened to all that money?" Virginia Canter, chief anti-corruption counsel for the group, said in an interview.The SEC declined to comment on whether it has looked at AI Financial since its involvement with the Trumps. AI Financial has become a cautionary tale for investors who saw a Trump-linked deal as a natural winner in a Trump presidency. The company is on its third CEO and third outside auditor since Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. celebrated the World Liberty partnership at the Nasdaq in August. In January, it turned to World Liberty for a loan, then used some of the proceeds to try to lift its own share price. The effort failed. What looked to some like a public-market entry point into the Trump family's expanding business empire has instead left investors with steep losses.Eric Trump in an X post in May said he has "zero leadership or decision-making role in the company." He was nominated to a role on the company's board, but World Liberty nixed the plan after a discussion with Nasdaq, Alt5 said in an SEC filing. The exchange requires a majority of board members of its listed companies to be independent. Eric Trump wouldn't qualify as an independent director for Alt5 given the World Liberty deal, and another board seat was going to fellow World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff, son of President Donald Trump's Middle East negotiator, Steven Witkoff. Eric Trump threatened to sue MS NOW host Jen Psaki for allegedly damaging his reputation when she raised questions about his role in the company in a May television segment that discussed his potential conflicts of interest. MS NOW spokesman Richard Hudock declined to comment. MS NOW and CNBC are both owned by Versant Media Group."Neither Eric nor Don have any involvement in ALT5, nor have any visibility to the company," Kimberly Benza, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said in response to emailed questions about the brothers' role in the company and the August transaction. "Neither have ever been on the board, know anything about the leadership team or have ever been involved in their operations."Some of the canniest investors in AI Financial may have been able to salvage their bottom line through quick sales. Many of them are anonymous. But among those who participated in the August deal are two major U.S. hedge funds. New York Mets owner Steven A. Cohen's Point72 Asset Management bought in for $36.5 million and sold out at an undisclosed point before the end of the year. It could have made a profit or loss, depending on the precise timing. ExodusPoint Capital Management acquired $44 million worth of Alt5 stock and still held some as of the end of March at a paper loss of $14 million on those shares, though that may have been offset by earlier sales. Spokespeople for Point72 and ExodusPoint declined to comment. Another fund, Hong Kong-based Soul Ventures Holdings, disclosed an $85 million stake in the August Alt5 transaction. By mid-October, it announced it had exited that position entirely. The SEC filings that detail these kinds of holdings give at best a fleeting, partial picture of the financial transactions involved. But if Soul Ventures sold its entire holding in mid-October on the open market, it would have lost approximately $56 million to $58 million.Soul Ventures didn't respond to requests for comment sent through a form on the company's website.  "We have no interest in participating in stories built on unfounded accusations and speculation," a spokesman for AI Financial Corp. said in response to emailed questions. "AiFi's management team is laser-focused on building its business, serving its customers, and creating long-term value for shareholders." The White House brushed aside questions about the family's involvement in AI Financial and the prospect of it going bankrupt, which could affect the president's family's wealth."President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in response to questions for this story.There is no evidence that anyone involved in Alt5 Sigma's August stock sale, which ultimately benefited the Trump family, tried to exploit that relationship for their own benefit. Alt5 Sigma followed a winding path through U.S. markets before it made contact with the Trump family. Originally a recycling company, it went through a phase as a biotech before settling in 2024 as a crypto exchange and payments business, according to securities filings. That decision became the basis for a supersized bet on crypto tokens issued by World Liberty Financial. World Liberty was founded in 2024 as a private company by Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron Trump, sons of the president; Zach and Alex Witkoff, sons of Trump Middle East negotiator ; and business partners Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, according to a company document. Disclosures on World Liberty's website in early June show that "approximately 38% of the equity interests" in World Liberty's parent company are owned by "an entity affiliated with Donald J. Trump and certain of his family members."World Liberty would go on to issue crypto assets in different assortments: A so-called governance token called WLFI, which would enable its owners to participate in some decision-making about the crypto network while the token rose and fell in value; and a stablecoin called USD1, an asset pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by safe assets such as Treasurys. World Liberty in August embarked on a deal with Alt5 that mirrored other deals in the crypto space. Alt5's stock became a kind of financial wrapper for a cryptocurrency. These types of companies, called digital asset treasuries, typically buy and hold certain crypto assets. The best known is 's company Strategy Inc., which holds bitcoin. The idea is to broaden the base of potential investors in the underlying crypto holding. Investors who may find it difficult or inconvenient to directly hold crypto assets — or who simply prefer stocks — can buy the listed company's stock easily through a platform such as Robinhood, rather than dealing with the complexities of directly owning crypto. In Alt5's case, the company became a wrapper for World Liberty's WLFI tokens. In other words, investors could use Alt5's stock to bet on a cryptocurrency issued by a privately held company co-founded by members of the Trump family.

Sam Bankman-Fried loses bid to appeal against fraud conviction in FTX case Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday lost his bid to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence over the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded. The decision was handed down by a three-judge panel of the New York-based second US circuit court of appeals. Bankman-Fried, who had been one of the cryptocurrency sector’s most influential figures and a multibillionaire before FTX’s spectacular collapse in 2022, was found guilty on seven felony charges by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2023. Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, said he stole $8bn from FTX customers in what they termed a “fraud of epic proportions”. Bankman-Fried had pleaded not guilty to the two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy that he faced. At his trial, he admitted to making mistakes running FTX, but testified that he never stole funds. In appealing against the conviction, Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyers argued that US district judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, improperly prevented Bankman-Fried from introducing evidence to back up his belief that FTX had enough funds to cover customer withdrawals. Prosecutors countered that evidence at trial, including testimony from three of Bankman-Fried’s former deputies, overwhelmingly proved his guilt. Those former employees, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, testified that he directed them to raid FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto-focused hedge fund. At his March 2024 sentencing hearing, Kaplan said Bankman-Fried knew his actions were wrong but “made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught”. Bankman-Fried is being held at a low-security federal prison near Santa Barbara, California. He is eligible for release in 2044. Bankman-Fried was a rising star in the rough-and-tumble crypto industry who burnished his reputation with lavish philanthropic and political donations.

Convicted FTX founder Bankman-Fried asks for Trump pardon  - The former crypto wunderkid added a presidential-pardon application to the long list of attempts to get his sentence reduced.

• Key insight: Former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced in 2023 to 25 years for financial fraud, applied for a presidential pardon on Monday.
• Expert quote: "The pardon of one more celebrity white collar criminal would not surprise me." –Dan Greenberg, senior legal fellow, Cato Institute
• Forward look: President Trump suggested in January he would not pardon Bankman-Fried, but he has issued more than 1,400 pardons in his second term.

BankThink Bitcoin is a weather vane for the risk trade -A reader wrote in to ask me why I thought bitcoin was dropping. Since there is nothing more dangerous than asking a writer to opine on a topic, I opined. But I do think my thoughts on that topic have some relevance to the larger moment right now, so I'm sharing them.    The original cryptocurrency lies at the bleeding edge of the risk curve, and its cross currents say something about how feisty the market is feeling.

Missing Cryptoqueen: More than £8.5m seized from scam returned - Victims of a cryptocurrency scam run by a fugitive are set to get more than £8.5m back following an investigation.The money was linked to Dr Ruja Ignatova, 45, known as the Missing Cryptoqueen, who is wanted by the FBI for orchestrating a $4.5bn (£3.3bn) scam called OneCoin.Guernsey's Royal Court determined in January that £8.59m held by Ignatova, who disappeared after an arrest warrant was issued for her in the US in 2017, in an account at RBS International on the island should be seized.The money will now be returned to Germany to help compensate people who lost out in the scam, said Guernsey's Economic and Financial Crime Bureau (EFCB), which led the investigation.EFCB said its Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) began developing intelligence on Ignatova in January 2017 and stayed closely involved for years, working with partners at home and overseas.Investigators used detailed financial analysis to follow complex money trails and uncover how funds were being hidden.The investigators' work revealed how criminal proceeds had been used to buy two luxury properties in upmarket Kensington, London, through Guernsey-registered trusts.Authorities said those structures were deliberately set up to hide Ignatova's involvement and make it harder for investigators to link the money to fraud.After joint inquiries began in 2021, Guernsey's law officers worked with German authorities who were seeking to recover the funds on behalf of victims.Ruja Ignatova's criminal proceeds were used to buy two properties in Kensington Neil Allen, head of the FIU, said the case highlights the "essential role of high-quality financial intelligence in protecting the global financial system"."Our long-term collaboration with international partners helped expose hidden structures and ensure criminal proceeds are returned to victims," he said.

BankThink Tokenization is coming, but the US may lose the chance to write its rules – (bank survey graphic) Tokenization will shape the next era of capital markets whether Washington acts or not. The real question is whether that infrastructure is built here, under U.S. rules and regulations, or somewhere else.

• Key insight: Tokenization of assets is going to transform global finance. But by dragging their heels on establishing clear rules of the road, U.S. regulators could be pushing the development of key infrastructure overseas.
• What's at stake: If U.S. regulators fail to provide clear pathways for tokenized markets to develop here, they should not be surprised when the next generation of capital market infrastructure is built abroad.
• Forward look: Regulators do not need to choose between investor protection and innovation. They need to provide timely, workable rules that allow responsible activity to develop in the United States.

Tokenization of assets is going to transform global finance, but by dragging their heels on establishing clear rules of the road, U.S. regulators could be pushing the development of key infrastructure overseas.

Lack of consumer support and trust in crypto reinforces ICBA calls for policy pause - ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America)   As policymakers debate several actions on digital assets policy with significant implications for the future of the U.S. financial system, Washington is arriving at an inflection point. The question facing Congress, the administration, and financial services regulators is whether the nation should continue supporting its system of Main Street community banking or expose more Americans to the weaknesses and risks posed by segments of the digital assets ecosystem. The dramatic differences between traditional community banks and crypto entities in serving local communities, protecting consumers, and earning public trust reinforce ICBA’s ongoing call opens in a new tabfor policymakers to pause crypto policy developments and assess their combined impact on local communities and the economy. The policy debate over digital assets centers on crypto access to Federal Reserve accounts traditionally reserved for banks, whether the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should grant nonbanks access to its national bank trust charter, and how to apply the GENIUS Act’s prohibition on stablecoin yield to crypto exchanges given the harmful impact of stablecoin yield on community bank lending. Across the board, these policy questions juxtapose community banks built to serve the citizens and small businesses of their local communities against global crypto conglomerates built to extract wealth from anonymous investors. For instance, while crypto exchanges have no local presence and therefore cannot tailor their services to meet the unique needs of local communities, locally based service and expertise is the bread and butter of community banks. That means not only making 60% of the nation’s small-business loans and 80% of banking industry agricultural lending,but also promoting access to energy , helping alleviate hunger, and ensuring local schools open on time.  The differences between locally based banking and untethered crypto investing are never starker than on the questions of security and support. For community bank customers, when problems like a lost password arise, there is a real person who can help. Contrast this with crypto platforms, where if you lose your private keys for your life savings, there is no one who can help you recover your losses. Here’s a breakdown of some of the key differences between community banks and crypto platforms on issues of convenience, security, and privacy.

HFSC Chair Hill optimistic about crypto bill's passage  — House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark., struck an optimistic note about the prospects of a crypto market structure bill being passed by the Senate and signed by President Donald Trump, saying some aspects of the bill may have to be left to regulators to iron out.

• Key takeaway: House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark., said in an appearance at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that a crypto market structure bill is an important priority, and one he is optimistic will be completed.
• Expert quote: "I think this can be done, I think we can land that plane in the Senate. We just want to be as supportive as we can on the text, and be emotional-support animals for their effort." — House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill
• What's at stake: The banking industry and crypto exchanges have been deadlocked for months over the ability of nonbank stablecoin issuers to offer yield-like rewards on stablecoin holdings, a prospect that banks say could drain deposits from the banking system.

House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark., said he is optimistic that his Senate counterparts will develop compromise language for a crypto market structure bill that President Donald Trump will sign, though some details may be left to regulators to iron out.

California financier arrested for $100 million bank fraud  -Federal prosecutors arrested and charged Mahender Makhijani, 44, with orchestrating a $100 million bank fraud against Western Alliance Bancorp.

Banks fight to scrap an SEC cyberattack rule | American Banker

• Key insight: The same five trade groups are lobbying to kill the SEC's cyber-incident disclosure rule and to preserve a confidential threat-sharing law, which puts their distinction between sharing and disclosing to the test.
• What's at stake: With SEC Chair Paul Atkins reviewing the rule and a commissioner who dissented from it now in the majority, the disclosure requirement banks themselves live under could be rescinded.
• Expert quote: Mark Dalton of the R Street Institute, whose group backed mandatory incident reporting, says calling a public filing a road map for attackers "is a stretch" and that the trades treat sharing and disclosure "as substitutes for one another when they're complementary."

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review.

CFTC proposes rules to evaluate prediction market risks -  — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Wednesday it wants to establish a new framework for evaluating prediction market contracts and determine whether they run counter to the public interest.In a notice of proposed rulemaking, the CFTC said the number and variety of event contracts listed for trading have rapidly grown, particularly those tied to sports. As a result, the agency said it wants to establish a "structured framework" to assess whether contracts fall into restricted categories, including terrorism, assassination, war, gaming or conduct that is unlawful under federal or state law, and whether they are "contrary to the public interest."

• Key takeaway: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed a rule that would establish a framework to help the agency determine whether prediction market contracts are contrary to the public interest and thus invalid. 
• Expert quote: "This proposal gives the Commission a durable, transparent framework to identify the contracts Congress directed us to scrutinize while letting legitimate markets move forward." — Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael S. Selig
• What's at stake: The CFTC will take comment on the proposal for 45 days following its publication in the Federal Register.

Fed's Barr: Strong bank regulation curbs nonbank risks --The Federal Reserve governor warned in a speech Saturday that lower capital requirements and lighter supervision could create a credit 'sugar high' that could spur excessive risk-taking, with potentially significant long-term consequences.

BankThink The FDIC should release more data on deposit behavior during bank runs --Last month, the FDIC released "Dissecting Depositor Flight: An Analysis of the Spring 2023 Bank Failures." This staff study focuses on the extent to which certain types of deposits fled as Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank came under pressure.

• Key insight: The FDIC should release all the underlying data in its "Dissecting Depositor Flight: An Analysis of the Spring 2023 Bank Failures."
• What's at stake: Regulators continue to push banks to rely on funding that is now among the least stable and riskiest.
• Supporting data: Many types of brokered deposits discouraged by the regulators may have been beacons of stability and many that regulators favor likely triggered the liquidity crises.

The FDIC's recent analysis of the deposit flight that helped take down Silicon Valley, Signature and First Republic banks in 2023 is informative. However, it leaves unanswered some important questions about regulators' assumptions related to brokered deposits.

FDIC's Hill proposes fundamental resolution-planning reform -- Chair Travis Hill wants to shift resolution planning away from lengthy bank-generated narratives and toward rapid access to critical operational data during failures.

DOJ subpoenas banks in widening Trump campaign against debanking  -A series of newly reported Justice Department subpoenas issued to several major banks seeking information about "debanking" mark an escalation in the Trump administration's monthslong campaign against a practice it claims banks use to unlawfully targets clients for their political beliefs. The subpoenas, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, requested lists of clients who were allegedly debanked and information about why their accounts were closed. A source familiar with the situation said that several major banks — not just JPMorganChase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — received subpoenas at different points over the course of the past year.

• Key Insight: Several banks have received subpoenas from the Justice Department over the past year seeking information about clients who were debanked and the rationale for those actions.
• Expert Quote: "Trump certainly has an animus towards the large Wall Street banks. I don't think debanking is a particular concern to the president, but I do think he is happy to use every cudgel available to bend markets to his favor." —Corey Frayer, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America
• What's at Stake: The subpoenas continue the Trump administration's attempts to control industries and institutions the president personally disagrees with through legal pressure.

Federal prosecutors have sought records and account closure data from banks as the Trump administration continues to clash with the industry.

Q&A: Why the ICBA is taking a more aggressive stance on crypto | American Banker -  — Crypto interests are having a heyday in Washington, with Congress passing rules to govern the industry at breakneck speed and regulators welcoming their entry into the broader banking system.  

Figure brings real estate onto blockchain through Kiavi deal - Figure Technology Solutions' acquisition of AI-powered real estate lender Kiavi is set to expand the blockchain-based lending fintech's total market share and provide an initial use case for its AI-powered onboarding agent.

• Key insight: Figure has acquired Kiavi, an AI residential real estate lender, to bring more types of housing loans on-chain and expand its earning potential.
• Expert quote: "The acquisition accelerates Figure's strategy to move lending onto tokenized rails while reducing costs, improving liquidity and preserving a capital-light, high-margin model." —Mizuho analysts
• Forward look: Figure expects to close the deal in the latter half of this year and pay back the purchase price in around four years.

The blockchain fintech acquired the real estate lender through a joint venture to tokenize housing loans and test its new AI-powered onboarding agent.

Compliance expectations muddied with immigration advisory - Regulators are not requiring banks to verify customer citizenship under a May executive order, which is a relief for banks. But how a new Fincen-led guidance will shift compliance expectations remains unclear, especially for smaller banks.

Senate Dems press White House to fill vacancies on FDIC, NCUA  - Banking Committee Democrats warned that the Trump administration's failure to nominate Democrats to vacancies at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission and National Credit Union Administration threatens the bipartisan structure Congress established for financial regulators.

Trump picks Brian Johnson, former CFPB No. 2, to lead bureau -The White House has nominated Brian Johnson, the former CFPB deputy and a veteran Capitol Hill staffer, to permanently lead the bureau.

Consumer prices rose 4.2% annually in May, highest in three years - Inflation accelerated in May as rising energy costs contributed to pain for consumers, though underlying pressures were less intense. The consumer price index, a broad gauge of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 4.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Both numbers were in line with the Dow Jones consensus though the monthly number was 0.1 percentage point below the April reading. Inflation climbed above 4% for the first time in three years, though the increase met expectations amid concerns over how much the surge in energy prices would impact the economy. The level was the highest since April 2023 and above the 3.8% reading from April. However, stripping out volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core CPI accelerated 0.2% for the month and 2.9% from a year ago. While the annual rate was in line with the forecast, the monthly gain was below the 0.3% estimate and less than the 0.4% April increase. “Americans are getting squeezed financially by inflation that’s back at a 3-year high,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “The frustration for many Americans is that so many of the basics are up in price right now -- gas, food, electricity, and medical care are all clear pain points that are above 3% inflation. Ending the war in Iran will help to moderate inflation, but the worst is likely still to come for rising food prices.” The report arrives at a sensitive time for markets and policymakers as Federal Reserve officials contemplate their next move on interest rates. Markets largely expect the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee to remain on hold when the decision is released June 17, but investors will be looking for signs of how concerned officials are over the inflation surge. The report indicated that much of the inflation surge came from a 3.9% jump in energy prices, putting the 12-month increase at 23.5%. Core commodities prices actually posted a 0.1% decline on the month, indicating muted tariff pressures. “Washington economic officials are going to redouble their efforts to tell Americans there isn’t a cost-of-living crisis,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds. “The sky isn’t falling after all and the inflation risks for core consumer goods are in retreat for now.” Food accelerated just 0.2% and shelter costs, a key input for Fed policy, rose 0.3%, half the gain of April. Shelter, which makes up more than one-third of the CPI weighting, rose 3.4% annually. Elsewhere, transportation services fell 0.6%, a potential indicator that high energy costs were not filtering into other areas. Similarly, services less energy services, also an indicator of whether higher oil costs were bleeding through, increased 0.3% after rising 0.5% in April. New vehicle costs declined 0.3% and used cars and trucks nudged up 0.1%. However, airline fares rose 2.7%, a clearer indication of energy pass-through, while motor vehicle insurance declined 1.7%. Following the report, futures markets indicated that the Fed is still likely to stay on hold through much of the year, with traders pricing in the likelihood that the next move will be a hike in December. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has indicated he thinks rates can go lower as productivity gains from artificial intelligence will have a disinflationary impact on the economy.

What happens when cartoon villains have an accent? Research reveals impact on kids  - When kids watch cartoons, they're absorbing much more than a plot. Thanks to the use of foreign accents in shows, they're also learning a shorthand for moral character, new research from the University of Toronto Mississauga suggests. From the British voices of Peter Pan's Captain Hook and The Lion King's Scar to the Eastern European Gru in the Minions universe, foreign accents have appeared for generations in North American children's shows to indicate characters considered suspicious and sinister. While foreign accents as tropes in children's media have been studied in the past, Professor Elizabeth Johnson and postdoc Thomas St. Pierre wanted to know whether such patterns still persisted and—more significantly—whether they might actually be affecting kids' attitudes. Their investigation, recently published in the journal Child Development, indicates children are clearly developing internal biases, and those more exposed to such accents in their favorite shows are more likely to associate foreign accents with villains."It's the strongest evidence we have that media exposure is actually affecting kids' attitudes," said Johnson, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at UTM.Working with UTM undergraduates, Johnson and St. Pierre first studied whether the use of foreign or "nonstandard" accents was still present in animated North American children's media. The team analyzed 105 films and series that 7- to 8-year-olds in the Greater Toronto Area had reported watching."What we found is that the bias was still strong, if not stronger," said Johnson.Then, in a lab experiment, children were told that they were helping to choose voice actors for a new cartoon. They heard the same actor use different accents and were asked which voice would be better suited to a "hero" or a "villain."Foreign accents were overwhelmingly chosen by the subjects to represent negative characters, the experiment found."It surprised me that the strength of the bias in cartoons actually predicted the strength of the bias that was shown by kids in the lab," said Johnson.The fact that the study was conducted in the Greater Toronto Area made the findings especially striking. The region is one of the most linguistically diverse in the world, where many children grow up hearing a range of accents in their homes, classrooms and communities."We thought, if there's any place where this bias wouldn't be so strong, it would be here. But in fact, it doesn't matter," she said.Even children with two parents who spoke with foreign accents still showed the bias, Johnson said. That matters because accent bias goes beyond cartoons.Research has shown that adults with foreign accents can face lower teaching evaluations, barriers in housing and employment, as well as assumptions about competence in the workplace, Johnson said.Her own work with children has also found that they tend to prefer local-accented speakers when asked who would make a better teacher or friend.

Rethinking education in the age of AI - When my daughters’ teachers began offering only in-class hand-written exams, I initially thought it was a brilliant strategy to AI- proof education. Then I began to question whether that is good or bad. As a parent, part of me loves old-school blue books. They create one of the few remaining spaces where students must think without machine assistance. But part of me wonders whether that is a necessary safeguard or a quaint anachronism, given the exponential future our children are graduating into. Blue books may tell us whether students can write without AI. But they do not answer the harder question: What is the purpose of public education when every child has near-infinite knowledge and intelligence in their pocket? That’s a question that parents and educators across the country are grappling with in real time — with no guidance or guardrails from the federal government. That question also cuts to the fundamental issue of whether AI will ultimately serve humanity, or the other way around. WPIX: stalking protection bill The 2028 campaign will be the first real AI presidential election and may be the last chance to enact human-centric federal regulations for AI before it’s too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube. That means rules to protect children, preserve human agency and work, and safeguard the public from increasingly powerful models with destructive potential. It also includes reauthorizing the now ironically named Every Student Succeeds Act to reimagine America’s education system for the AI economy. Any AI-era reauthorization of this law should fully fund and hold schools accountable not only for grade-level reading, math, science, and history, but also for judgment, civic responsibility, original writing, strategic technology use, and the ability to collaborate with — and challenge — intelligent machines. AI will make it easier than ever for students to produce answers. That makes it more important than ever for schools to teach them how to ask better questions. Anyone curious about the cost of inaction need only look to social media. Gen Z’s addiction to TikTok and Instagram wasn’t inevitable. It was the result of regulatory laissez faire policymakers who allowed the brains and attention spans of our children to be used as corporate petri dishes. As a parent, I’ve had a front-row seat to the insidious impact of social media, but the implications of regulatory inaction on AI are exponentially more dire. This is a moment that calls for presidential and congressional leadership because only the federal government can establish a human-centric national regulatory framework at the scale AI demands.

AI can mass-produce finance research papers indistinguishable from human work, reports study - Artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) tools are capable of mass-producing academic finance papers that are nearly indistinguishable from human-authored research, according to a new study published in the Journal of Economic Literature. Study co-authors Mihail Velikov, associate professor of finance at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, and Robert Novy-Marx, Lori and Alan S. Zekelman Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, built a pipeline for automating academic research production. In roughly 12 hours, they generated nearly 400 complete, publication-ready finance papers—using AI to generate hypotheses and write the manuscript. The study demonstrated how AI could accelerate research paper production while raising concerns about the potential impact on the academic community and the meaning of scientific discovery. "AI can now produce a ton of papers at scale, and it's going to change the nature of how we produce and disseminate knowledge," Velikov said. "This is an early warning signal of what's coming with modern AI capabilities." The researchers didn't initially set out to create an AI assembly-line for financial research papers. Velikov's scholarship focuses on identifying anomalies in the equity market—observed patterns in the data that don't conform to accepted theoretical models of how financial markets behave. He and Novy-Marx were working on a data mining project, analyzing corporate accounting data for potential signals that might predict which stocks will outperform the market. They identified more than 30,000 potential signals. They validated the predictive power of each signal, which included comparing them against 200 documented anomalies published in the finance literature. Based on this analysis, they narrowed the list down to 95 signals that were truly novel. Velikov then entered the information into a website he built that could generate a template report based on the analysis. The resulting reports resembled published papers that document new anomalies. The only thing that was missing was a hypothesis or interpretation for why the anomalies might exist. "This was late 2023 and it hit me that large language models might be really good at coming up with stories to explain why these anomalies occurred," Velikov said. "A data mining exercise coupled with large language models could produce a large number of plausible-looking scientific papers." So, they tried it. The researchers used Anthropic's LLM Claude Opus 4.1, which was the latest version at the time, to expand the template reports into academic papers, based on the information and analysis from the data mining project. For each of the 95 signals, they instructed the LLM to come up with descriptive names for the predictors and to produce four distinct manuscripts, each with a different hypothesis and theoretical justification to explain the observed results for the same signal. In total, the researchers produced 380 papers. Each paper included an abstract, introduction, data, results, conclusion, and citations. The AI-generated papers, along with the full code used to produce them, are publicly available on GitHub. AI's efficient production of academic papers raises questions and concerns about academic research and the peer-review system, Velikov said. In general, submissions to journals and conferences have surged in recent years, overwhelming peer reviewers. With the increasing capabilities and use of AI and LLMs, he said that the scientific peer-review system needs to adapt in light of these technologies. "Nowadays, with agentic AI systems, this can be done even better, and the papers are much better," Velikov said. "This is going to raise standards. It's probably going to change how we disseminate and evaluate research." . The study highlighted another area of concern, Velikov said. In the AI-generated papers, the LLM formulated the hypotheses after a pattern in the data had already been identified—a practice known as HARKing or hypothesizing after the results are known. This is a documented practice in academia, one that's viewed negatively, Velikov explained, but AI changes the scale at which HARKing may occur. If AI creates explanations for what's found in the data, it potentially raises questions about what constitutes scientific contribution, particularly considering that AI still hallucinate—when LLMs generate false or misleading results and present them as fact. While the researchers focused on financial research, they said that the implications of these findings can extend to other fields. "I'm far from the opinion that we'll all be out of jobs and replaced by AI," Velikov said. "But I think our jobs will evolve a lot, and the more we invest in understanding how these systems work, the better research we'll be able to do. The better we'll be able to do our job."

America’s universities have become useless leftist echo chambers -Another academic year has wrapped up, and another batch of college graduates has walked across the stage to accept diplomas of declining value. Even the graduation ceremonies have lost their historic luster, as only ideologically approved speakers can provide commencement addresses. Any speaker who might bring a serious message is either disinvited or not considered in the first place.  American sentiment about the value of a college education is in steep decline. Pew Research Center polling indicates seven in 10 Americans believe higher education is “going in the wrong direction.“ And a recent Fox News poll reports nearly two-thirds of respondents believe a college degree is less important to individual success compared to 25 years ago.  University administrators should use the summer recess to acknowledge what has led to this downturn in public confidence. The market is speaking to the higher education establishment — pricey administrators might descend from their ivory towers to listen.It should be obvious, for example, that when free speech is stifled, the search for truth necessarily suffers. As Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression chief researcher Sean Stevens reports, “self-censorship remains frequent among many students, and student trust in their school’s administration to defend freedom of speech has declined.”Obviously, colleges were created to allow for free and open inquiry, but that can’t happen in an environment that has gone off the rails with activism and indoctrination. Classrooms have become academic gulags that lack intellectual range. While colleges obsess over social, global and racial diversity, the curriculum is delivered by faculty who largely think alike and lack viewpoint diversity.A recently released study by FIRE analyzed the financial political donations by thousands of professors across 55 universities spread across the nation. The findings confirm that faculty congregate politically on the far left — the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren brand of left, as the study’s summary points out.FIRE researcher Angela Erickson points out that faculty are concentrated in an extremely narrow ideological range, raising “serious concerns about whether students and scholars are getting the full benefit of the open inquiry universities promise.” This result confirms another study showing viewpoint imbalance, with conservative and even centrist faculty becoming endangered species on campus.It should be obvious that such ideological imbalance affects curriculum, speakers invited or not invited to campus, and the hiring practices of new faculty, given that search committees are saturated with groupthink. And this all happens with the blessing of upper university administrators. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has evaluated the academic programs of more than a thousand colleges and universities across the nation, and the findings show a general weakening over the years of basic curricular requirements for graduation.For example, only half of the evaluated colleges require a math class for graduation. Only one in five requires a course in American government or history, and only one in four requires the study of literature. Just 3 percent of college graduates nationwide are required to have a course in economics.It should be obvious to curricular planners that graduates are not prepared for the real world with such voids in their academic requirements. Parents, alumni and regular Americans must all be wondering what trendy courses are being required, given that foundational education is largely missing.It should also be obvious that when grade inflation provides most students with courtesy “A” grades, heft disappears and students feel entitled. Thankfully, even stuffy Harvard has recognized this poison and has decided to limit the number of A’s issued. Yale issued a report earlier this spring with some hopeful guidance about mission and intellectual freedom. The “Report of the Yale Committee on Trust in Higher Education“ is a surprising acknowledgement of academia’s problems. Key recommendations provide renewed focus on free speech, intellectual inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and a mission of creating knowledge. The report boldly states, “Echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship.”These points certainly come under the category of “obvious things,” but at least the obvious is again being stated. The test for higher education now is to put these obvious values into operation and avoid further decay.

Another pandemic repercussion: Remote work tied to isolation, mental distress    For many people, the ability to work from home is one of the COVID-19 pandemic's most enduring changes. Remote work has increased significantly since the start of the pandemic, rising from roughly 7% of US workers in 2019 to 28% in 2023. But a new study suggests that the shift away from the office may have come with a cost: more time spent alone and poorer mental health. For the study, published last week in Science, researchers found that workers in jobs amenable to remote work spent significantly more time alone and reported greater psychological distress than workers whose jobs require at least some on-site work. The effects were especially pronounced among people who live alone. For the study, researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the University of Virginia, and Harvard University analyzed data from five nationally representative surveys of 588,322 working adults conducted from 2011 to 2024 (the team omitted the peak pandemic years of 2020 and 2021). The investigators compared trends among workers in “remotable” occupations such as software engineering and marketing with those in occupations that generally require physical presence, such as nursing and mechanical engineering. Compared with workers in nonremotable jobs, those in remotable jobs spent about one additional waking hour alone each day since the onset of the pandemic and were more likely to spend their whole day alone (a 1.9-percentage-point [pp] rise; 50% relative increase). Remotable workers also reported more days without any human contact (1.0 pp, 72.2% relative increase), with “no idle chitchat with a barista, no hello from a co-worker, no smile from a passerby at the grocery store,” write the researchers. “This isolation is particularly potent given the evidence that even the briefest of social interactions can improve mental well-being, often more so than people expect.” They estimate that remote work accounted for roughly 36% of the national 4.3-pp increase in people spending entire days alone after the onset of the pandemic. The amount of waking time remotable workers spent inside their homes quadrupled after the onset of the pandemic, a finding that might help explain one of the study’s more surprising findings: Remotable workers spent less time than nonremotable workers socializing with their friends. The researchers hypothesize that working from home may introduce more obstacles to getting together. “Remote work tends to shift when and where work is done,” coauthor Emma Harrington, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Virginia, tells CIDRAP News. “While office work typically means that people are all downtown and done working around 5 pm, remote work often means that people end work in different places and at different times. As a result, it is harder to agree on a time and place to socialize with friends or pop around the corner for an after-work happy hour.” Compared with remote workers who lived with other people, those living alone experienced far larger increases in social isolation. The researchers found that workers in remote-friendly occupations who lived alone were 10 times more likely to spent an entire day alone than those who lived with family (7.0 pp vs 0.7 pp). And those who lived alone were 13 times more likely to spend a full day without any human contact at all (3.9 pp versus 0.3 pp). People who lived alone were also less likely to socialize with friends outside of work (2.0 pp vs 0.6 pp), although this difference was not statistically significant. Psychological distress increased for many people as COVID became a fact of daily life, but it increased significantly more for those who worked remotely. The researchers used the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-6) to measure psychological distress and found that generalized psychological distress rose by 0.1 standard deviations for those in remotable jobs compared with those in nonremotable jobs. “We saw deterioration in each of the six subcomponents of the K-6 distress scale: feeling worthless, hopeless, restless, nervous, that everything is an effort, and so sad that nothing can cheer them up,” they write. For remotable workers living alone, the increase in psychological distress was roughly twice as large as those who lived with others. Among people living alone, reports of distress severe enough to interfere with daily life were roughly 15% more common among those in remotable jobs than among those in occupations that required onsite work. The findings also showed greater use of mental health medications among remote workers who lived alone—a 5.1-pp differential increase in depression and/or anxiety prescriptions and a 5.3-pp increase in all mental health medications.

 Gabbard reveals declassified map, records of Ukraine bio labs—view in full - Outgoing Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard on Friday released declassified documents related to what she said was new evidence of United States-funded bio labs in more than 30 countries, including Ukraine.The documents, still partially redacted, detailed the locations and functions of various labs which “likely housed dangerous pathogens.”  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said some of the labs were vulnerable because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war but had been intentionally covered up by previous administrations.“Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” Gabbard said in a press release. Newsweek reached out to former President Joe Biden for comment via the contact form on his office’s website.  Gabbard declassified the documents in April, but they weren’t released until Friday. They claim that Ukraine has more than 40 labs built and supported in part by the U.S. A map showing the locations of bio labs in Ukraine, as outlined by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence June 12, 2026.The slides highlight the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine (IECVM) in Kharkiv, with some of the key points that the site:

• Houses “at least some dangerous pathogens”
• Has “almost certainly” been vulnerable to Russian information operations, seizure or damage
• Has historical ties to Soviet-era biological research
• Conducts work on:
  • Veterinary medicine
  • Virology
  • Toxicology

There is also a claim that the facility had biosafety deficiencies, especially in areas handling Brucella bacteria, and that a virology building basement exists.Some of the pathogens handled or stored at the labs included anthrax, Ebola and swine fever.The documents also make clear that U.S. involvement has gone beyond infrastructure, including training Ukrainian scientists in biocontainment practices and funding research into infectious diseases, such as studies on highly pathogenic avian influenza. Bio Labs Declassified Documents: View in Full BIOLAB_Slides Download  The intelligence assessment is framed primarily around risk. It highlights concerns that some of the facilities could be vulnerable in a conflict environment—physically, through potential damage or seizure, and informationally, through their use in foreign narratives.One lab in Kharkiv is specifically described as housing dangerous pathogens and being exposed to security risks and allegations from Russia about U.S.-linked biological weapons activity.Slides repeatedly point to the possibility that such sites could be exploited in “information operations,” with Moscow already accusing the U.S. of conducting biological weapons work at Ukrainian facilities.What the documents confirm is relatively narrow but important: There is documented U.S. funding and collaboration with Ukrainian laboratories that handle high-risk pathogens for research, diagnostic and public health purposes. It also shows that the labs are part of a broader scientific and biodefense-related network involving contractors, government support and international research partnerships.

95% of CDC workers say Americans will die because of federal cuts to the agency - When Michigan State University researchers anonymously surveyed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staffers, 99% of respondents said that federal policy changes, dramatic reductions in staff and programs, and unstable or leadership have hobbled the agency’s ability to respond to a pandemic or other public health emergency—and 95% think Americans will die as a result.In total, 624 workers (433 still in their positions, 191 who quit) responded to the survey from February to April.  “Since the second Trump Administration took over leadership of the U.S. federal government on January 20, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has undergone significant changes and challenges, including lack of permanent leadership, elimination of programs, reductions-in-force and loss of staff, a deadly shooting, new policies, and restrictions on hiring, communication, and spending,” the authors wrote. Of all respondents, 95% of those who quit said they did so entirely or mostly because of federal changes, and 68% of current workers have taken action to leave (eg, applied for another job).In total, 94% said their unit has been so weakened that it can no longer achieve its mission, and 96% doubt that the CDC can remain a global public health leader. In an open-ended answer, a CDC scientist wrote,” The safety and health of the U.S. population will suffer, but it will be hard to quantify because they have compromised our ability to collect the data to demonstrate the impact of what they have done.”A former manager said, “The anti-vaccine, anti-science stance of this Administration meant that I could no longer in good conscience continue to work there given the type of work that I did.”The researchers concluded, “The difficulties described by CDC workers portend a U.S. government losing its ability to protect the public’s health.”

Leading OB-GYN society breaks from CDC on recommended vaccines for pregnant women, including COVID-19 -- All pregnant people should get the COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and Tdap vaccines, according to new recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG.)These recommendations are in line with ACOG's previous guidance. But it marks the first time the organization has released an immunization schedule independent of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.)ACOG publishing its own schedule is evidence of the growing rift between the professional health society and the CDC, which last May dropped its recommendation that pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine.The relationship further deteriorated in August, when the CDC removed ACOG experts from its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) workgroups, and in January, when it overhauled childhood vaccine recommendations in a way that deviated from the standard administrative process. (The new recommendations have been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. ACOG withdrew from the ACIP as a liaison organization in February, citing concerns that the committee's scientific integrity and evidence-based approach were being compromised.The CDCstill recommends that pregnant women receive the RSV vaccine and Tdap vaccines—a combination of shots to protect against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). It also advises that pregnant women get flu shots that are free of thimerosal, a preservative. ACOG says vaccines that contain thimerosal are safe during pregnancy.ACOG's 2026 vaccine recommendations are an attempt to clear up confusion, said Laura Riley, MD, chair of ACOG's Immunization, Infectious Disease, and Public Health Preparedness Expert Work Group, during today's press briefing.“We are all about the science," said Riley, explaining that the recommendations come after a rigorous review of efficacy and safety data to ensure patients receive only evidence-based interventions. Newborns have underdeveloped immune systems because, according to the American Society of Microbiology, they're transitioning from the near-sterile environment of the womb to a world full of new pathogens.Maternal vaccinations ensure babies enter the world with antibodies, said Andrew Racine, MD, PhD, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP.)"It's the one generation essentially protecting the next generation," he said.AAP is among 13 professional medical societies and health organizations that have endorsed the ACOG's immunization schedule. Others include the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American College of Nurse-Midwives.The alignment between ACOG and AAFP reflects what's best for pregnant patients and families, said AAFP chief medical officer Margot Savoy, MD, MPH. She said her organization is dedicated to ensuring every pregnant patient has access to these lifesaving vaccines.

Survey highlights greater burden of long COVID in Native Americans - From 2021 to 2023, American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIANs) reported higher rates of COVID-19 and long COVID than their non-AIAN counterparts, according to a non–peer-reviewed study published on the Research Square preprint platform. Led by a researcher from the US National Bureau of Economic Research, the study team surveyed more than 20,000 adult respondents, including public-use files (datasets stripped of identifying information) and an oversample of AIANs, to the California Health Interview Survey from 2021 to 2023. The goal was to estimate associations between demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics and COVID-19 infection, long-COVID symptoms, vaccination status, testing behavior, food insecurity, job loss, and fewer work hours. By the end of 2020, “AIAN communities had approximately 1.6 times the number of confirmed cases, 2.4 times the number of hospitalizations, and twice the mortality rates associated with COVID-19 relative to the U.S. population overall,” the authors noted. About 47% of AIAN respondents reported having COVID-19, and 40% said they had long COVID, compared with 30% among non-AIAN adults. Obesity and poverty were risk factors for both infection and long COVID. AIAN adults were less likely to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 than their non-AIAN peers. Vaccination was tied to lower odds of job loss and reductions in hours or income in only public-use files, while persistent symptoms were linked to severe food insecurity and job loss. “Lower vaccination rates among rural AIAN respondents further highlight structural barriers to preventive care that have been documented in previous studies, including geographic isolation, limited health care infrastructure, and historical mistrust of health institutions,” the researchers wrote. Long-COVID symptoms such as fatigue can reduce work capacity and limit workers’ ability to maintain employment. “These effects may be particularly consequential for workers in occupations requiring in-person interaction or physical labor, which are more common in some AIAN communities and may also increase exposure to infectious disease,” the authors wrote. “As a result, persistent health effects associated with COVID-19 may reinforce existing economic vulnerabilities in communities that already experience higher rates of poverty and limited access to health care resources,” they added.

Poll reveals plunging trust in CDC guidance but broad backing for childhood vaccines - More than a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, poll findings released today show that trust in federal public health agencies has nosedived, with half of US adults skeptical of recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but most Americans are supportive of childhood vaccines. The poll also found that, while over half of respondents are in favor of recent changes to the US food pyramid and dietary guidelines, support for some of the alterations varies sharply by political bent. The de Beaumont Foundation’s Public Health Listening Lab and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted the poll of 2,205 adults from across the country from March 19 to April 1. The poll found that only 50% of adults feel they can rely on CDC health recommendations, down from 77% a year ago. Similarly, the proportion who have confidence in their state or local health department has fallen from 80% to 66% and 82% to 70%, respectively. Faith in these health departments is now much higher than that in both the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (53%). “The relatively smaller declines in trust in state and local public health agencies suggest a critical opportunity for these organizations to step into leadership roles,” the authors wrote. “As gaps in trust and leadership at the federal level emerge, state and local health agencies are better positioned—and increasingly expected—to step forward and lead the nation’s health efforts through tailored, empathic outreach and communications that meet communities where they are.” The depth of trust erosion varied widely by demographic group and political affiliation. Women’s confidence fell from 80% to 48%, while Black and Hispanic respondents’ trust plummeted from 77% to 43% and 81% to 50%, respectively. Comparable drops were seen among people living in urban areas, from 80% to 48%, and among college graduates, from 80% to 46%. Likewise, trust tumbled from 92% to 34% among Democrats and 77% to 47% among Independents, while Republicans became slightly more trusting, rising from 63% to 67%. Just over half of Americans disapprove of federal health agencies’ actions in the past year, with objections again tied to political affiliation. In total, 86% of Democrats disagree with the actions, compared with just 20% of Republicans. The most-cited concerns about federal health agency moves include leaders who are guided by their personal beliefs (68%) or focused on the wrong priorities (66%); the slashing of public health programs (61%); decisions made through non-standard processes (60%); and wholesale cuts to government funding for medical research (60%). Under half (46%) of adults agree that federal agencies have allowed families to make their own health decisions (46%) or have been trying to do the right thing (44%). And only about one-third agree that agency recommendations are based on the best available science (38%), have improved the health of average Americans (37%), or have represented the best interests of people like them (35%). Of interest, support for childhood vaccines is still strong, with 91% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans supporting school vaccination mandates. Overall, 77% of the public back these mandates, a proportion that hovered between 74% to 79% from 2021 to 2025. This support, however, may be eroding, the authors noted. In total, 58% of adults object to cutting vaccines from the childhood vaccination schedule, while 42% agree with the reductions. And 65% of Republicans back the cuts, compared with only 18% of Democrats. While the vast majority (89%) of Americans say that childhood vaccines are safe, this proportion had been 94% during the COVID-19 pandemic peak in 2021 and 2022. The fraction of the public agreeing that childhood vaccines are very safe has also fallen, from 70% to 57% over the same period. Most Americans (60%) back recent changes to the food pyramid and dietary guidelines, with even stronger support for recommendations to avoid or limit sugar and highly processed foods (90%) and increase protein intake (85%). About the same percentage (62%) agree with recommendations to increase beef and whole-milk consumption. By political affiliation, 94% of Republicans favor limiting sugar and highly processed foods, compared with 89% of Democrats, with a respective 92% and 79% agreeing with increased protein consumption. But support for changes to the food pyramid is politically divided, at 83% of Republicans and 37% of Democrats. Likewise, backing is lower and sharply divided by political party for recommendations to increase the consumption of beef and whole milk (80% of Republicans vs 44% of Democrats).

Ebola outbreak reaches 550 cases, at least 90 deaths The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda has reached more than 550 cases, according to the latest updates from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).The DRC has 544 cases and 88 deaths, all confirmed Ebola Bundibugyo, and Uganda has 19 cases and two deaths. Overall, 34 healthcare workers in both DRC and Uganda have been sickened in the outbreak, and five have died.Ituri province in the DRC, specifically the town of Bunia, is the epicenter of the outbreak, with the province reporting 515 cases. According to the latest Disease Outbreak News update from the World Health Organization (WHO), the case-fatality rate for the current outbreak is 17.4%, lower than previous outbreaks of the virus.“The reported CFR is likely an underestimation as many deaths that occurred before the outbreak declaration remain under investigation. So far, 12 patients have recovered,” the WHO said.Of note, the WHO said about 70% of the cases in Uganda are Congolese nationals who came to Uganda to seek medical care in the first weeks of the outbreak. Today, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanam Ghebreyesus, PhD, said while visiting Uganda that the country should reconsider its closed border with DRC.   While Tedros praised Uganda’s rapid response and control in the outbreak, he warned that blanket travel restrictions don't work. Uganda first closed its border to DRC on May 27. While Tedros said continued screening at the border was necessary, closure would likely cause unintended economic consequences for the already volatile region.Africa CDC announced a $220.6 million emergency financing package from the Pandemic Fund to support efforts to contain the current outbreak and protect at-risk countries across Central and Eastern Africa.The money will help implement the joint Africa CDC-WHO Continental Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, announced late last week, which aims to control the outbreak within 6 months. As part of the plan, the money will go to disease surveillance, laboratory systems, health workforce capacity and cross-border coordination.“This financing is a major boost to the ongoing efforts of affected countries and partners to bring the outbreak under control while strengthening preparedness across the region,” said Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, in a statement. “It demonstrates the Pandemic Fund’s deep recognition of the importance of acting early, acting collectively, and investing in national and regional capacities to protect communities from current and future health threats.” Finally today, Peter Stafford, MD, an American missionary doctor who contracted Ebola while working in the DRC, has been discharged from Charite Hospital in Berlin, where he was evacuated on May 20 and treated for his infection. Stafford and his family are all in good health, officials said.  While at Charite, Stafford received experimental antivirals. “I received first-class care, including experimental therapies currently being trialed for this type of virus,” Stafford said in a statement. “Our thoughts remain with the people in the Congo who do not have access to such care.”

Police shoot, kill third protester at US-backed Ebola facility in Kenya -- Police shot and killed a man protesting the building of a US-funded Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya today. The legality of the Nanyuki facility, which if completed, will have 50 beds, is still up in the air, but locals have protested the construction, saying it’s an unnecessary burden for Kenya to take on for the United States. This is the third death among Kenyan protesters who are angry over the unit, which would be built near the Laikipia Air Base. Two protesters were also killed last week in skirmishes with local police.  The protesters say the Ebola unit would scare away tourists, introduce Ebola into the local population, and rock their already fragile healthcare system.According to BNO News, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda now stands at 569 cases and 103 deaths. All new cases in the last two weeks have come from DRC, with Uganda’s situation more stable and holding at 19 cases and two deaths. Of those 19 cases, 15 were imported from DRC.

Ebola case count nears 600 as feds ask for travel restrictions ahead of World Cup | CIDRAP -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC’s) government said yesterday the number of confirmed Ebola cases has risen to 598, with 115 deaths. All cases in the DRC are from Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces.The case-fatality rate of the DRC outbreak now stands at 19.2%. Almost 300 patients (297) are currently being treated in Ebola facilities for their infections, and 22 people have recovered.A rapid risk assessment published yesterday by the World Health Organization (WHO) said the risk of transmission in DRC is very high and the risk in Uganda and other countries bordering DRC is high. The outbreak is being caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has no treatment or vaccines.Since June 1, the outbreak as expanded considerably in the DRC, with reported affected health zones increasing from 16 to 25.“The increase in the number of confirmed cases reflects both ongoing transmission and improvements in case detection through expanded testing and intensified contact tracing activities,” the WHO said. In related news, the Trump administration is asking European countries to impose travel restrictions on people who have recently been in Central African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak to prevent any potential spread of the disease during the World Cup, which will start tomorrow in the United States.Belgium has rejected that demand, and the European Commission (EC) said there was no evidence any new border measures would help prevent the spread of the virus. An EC official said, “The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control currently assesses the risk to people in Europe as very low. At this stage, exit screening in the region is deemed sufficient; there is no evidence that additional measures are needed upon entry,” according to Reuters.Finally, in The Lancet of Infectious Diseases yesterday, an international team of experts estimates the Ebola outbreak in the DRC could be as large as 1,354 cases. The scientists reached that number after conducting two scenario-based experiments.In the first scenario, the authors assumed a case-fatality rate of 33%, and an assumption that 30% of suspected and confirmed deaths are due to Ebola virus disease. In that scenario, the outbreak would have been 1,164 cases on May 27.The second scenario involved predictions based on travel, province size (population), and a 10-day doubling period, resulting in 1,354 cases by May 27.  “These findings highlight considerable knowledge gaps in the current outbreak and point to possibly substantially undetected transmission of Bundibugyo virus disease in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” the authors wrote.

Africa CDC urges stronger Ebola exit screenings at member-state borders  -The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is urging member states to strengthen border exit screenings in light of the growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Analysis from the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group (ECG), an independent advisory body to the Africa CDC, said the 11 countries most at risk for Ebola and those bordering the DRC should enhance surveillance but not institute travel bans.“Being prepared will reduce the risk of the virus spreading locally in the event of an imported case. Preparedness builds confidence in the local response and reduces community anxiety and concern that often follows the discovery of an imported case of Ebola disease,” said Salim Abdool Karim, MBChB, PhD, chair of the ECG, in an Africa CDC press release.As of June 10 and 11, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) said the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda has grown to 695 confirmed cases, 138 deaths. All but 19 of those cases are from the DRC, where Ituri province is the epicenter of the outbreak. At least 23 people have recovered. The ECG formally supported the development of a diagnostic laboratory in Ituri and said there was an urgent need for Bundibugyo-specific rapid diagnostic tests to speed laboratory confirmation in affected and high-risk countries.This is only the fourth documented Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain and one of the reasons transmission went undetected for weeks because tests were looking for only the Zaire Ebolavirus.Earlier this week, Africa CDC received €11.5 million ($13.3 million) in a renewed commitment from the European Commission to support stronger preparedness and a coordinated response to the Ebola outbreak. Included is €5 million ($5.8 million) worth of testing equipment, including rapid diagnostic devices and lab test kits, to be deployed quickly where they are needed most.Yesterday, the US Department of State announced an additional $20 million in funding to support comprehensive preparedness activities in countries surrounding the current outbreak, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan.     In scientific developments, Nature Medicine has a case report on Uganda’s index case of Bundibugyo Ebola.The man traveled from the DRC to Uganda and was admitted to a private hospital in Kampala on May 11 after more than two weeks of vomiting and diarrhea. Upon hospitalization, he deteriorated quickly, developed multiorgan failure, and died on May 14.Of the 19 cases in Uganda, 14 have been imported, and five have been among Ugandan nationals.And new findings of a longitudinal study in Liberia indicate that Ebola is associated with neurologic complications in survivors, with increased healthcare burden and socioeconomic costs. The neurologic issues generally improved with time, but some were long-term. The study, published in JAMA Neurology, included 148 Ebola survivors and 81 controls.

Ebola outbreak in DR Congo expands into large displacement camp -  The number of confirmed cases in the growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 676, including 136 deaths, as health officials warn it’s likely to get worse.Among the dead are two victims who were living in a displacement camp in eastern DRC, which has been plagued by conflict between the government and rebel groups. According to Reuters, the mother and daughter, who died on May 31 and June 1 and later tested positive for Ebola, were living in a camp that’s hosting 30,000 internally displaced people in cramped and unsanitary conditions. "We are all really worried that Ebola in these camps will spread extremely quickly and that there will be panic and people will flee all over whether or not they're contacts, whether or not they're ill," Caitlin Brady, country director for the Danish Refugee Council in Congo, told the news agency.Officials with the World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of affected health zones in DRC is growing.“Every day, cases are being identified in new health zones. And that reflects really the scale of this outbreak, a scale that is much bigger than what is being detected and the high mobility of the population in this part of the DRC,” Olivier le Polain, PhD, of the WHO said at a press conference today.UNICEF officials say they’re concerned about the potential impact on children in the country.“Most cases to date have been among socially and economically active adults, but as the outbreak evolves, we must be prepared for increasing household transmission, which means we may see children affected in the days ahead,” Douglas Noble, MD, UNICEF’s global incident manager for Ebola, said at a press conference today. Noble said previous Ebola outbreaks in the DRC have shown that children make up a significant share of cases.Noble said the problem is that early symptoms in children—like fever, diarrhea, vomiting, tiredness, and loss of appetite—are hard to differentiate from other diseases that affect kids in the DRC, such as malaria. The outbreak is concentrated in three provinces in eastern DRC—Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu. It’s the 17th outbreak in the DRC since Ebola was first identified in 1976, and the fourth largest overall. An additional 19 cases have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda, including two deaths. Health officials from the DRC and the WHO believe the outbreak, which was initially declared on May 15, began months earlier and was spreading undetected. The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola virus, which has no licensed treatments or vaccines. WHO officials have prioritized several vaccine and therapeutic candidates, but it will be several months before clinical trials can even begin.

The ‘diseases of crowds’ experts say could be at the World Cup - early April, Krutika Kuppalli, MD, gave a presentation on infectious diseases Texas doctors might encounter during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which takes place tomorrow through July 19 in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.As co-director for the Texas Department of State Health Services World Cup Infectious Diseases Consultation Hotline, Kuppalli must anticipate which infectious diseases could be at the World Cup.   Kuppalli knew that Dallas was hosting the Argentinian soccer team, so she briefly mentioned the Andes hantavirus. At the time, she had no idea it would soon make headlines for sparking a cruise ship outbreak.“Hantavirus was on my list of things to think about,” Kuppalli, an associate professor of infectious diseases in the School of Public Health at UT Southwestern, told CIDRAP News. “Would it be on the differential [diagnostic list] if I had a patient from Argentina who was from an area that we know where the vector is found? Yes. But it’s not the most common thing I think about.” While hantavirus can’t be ruled out as a possibility, she and hundreds of other public health experts from across the United States are bracing for more quotidian illnesses such as flu, COVID-19, chlamydia, and norovirus as more than 6.5 million fans converge on 16 cities—and share pathogens with each other.  Forty-eight national soccer teams will compete in 104 games across the 16 cities in 11 metro areas. Public health professionals in the 11 US host metros have been planning how to protect fans from these diseases during the World Cup. Over the past 18 months, James Garrow, MPH, has been working with colleagues in Philadelphia on how to tackle public health readiness and response during the tournament. In many ways, the health department will do what it usually does. “Disease surveillance is disease surveillance every day of the week,” Garrow, Philadelphia deputy health commissioner, told CIDRAP News. “What is changing in terms of the World Cup is how intense that disease surveillance is going to look.” While Garrow worries about heat-related illnesses and air quality, there’s one infectious disease he’s most concerned about. “Measles is probably our top worry,” he said. “We’ve already put out communications to our regional healthcare providers about what to look for.”  With recent outbreaks in the United States, lower vaccination rates, and people traveling, it seems more likely than ever that a fan with measles could be in the stands at the World Cup. This year, stadiums and Fan Festivals packed with cheering people could make it easy for measles to thrive. “Measles tends to hang around in the air. It’s very small particles and it just floats there for up to two hours after someone with measles has been in the space,” Garrow said. “How many people could potentially have gone through that particular site in two hours after the person left?”   Even in years without newsworthy infectious disease outbreaks such as Ebola and Andes hantavirus, public health experts know that infectious diseases flourish in large crowds. “You have to think of the World Cup as a mass gathering event,” said Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It’s going to be diseases of crowds or what we call crowd diseases that spread.” Infectious diseases that thrive in crowds fall into four categories: respiratory ailments, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vector-borne infections, and gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses. “We have to think of the gamut of infections,” Kuppalli said. With the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo making headlines, many fans wonder what that might mean for them, but doctors don’t anticipate seeing cases during the World Cup.  Experts expect they’ll see more common types of infections, such as COVID-19 or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). While most Americans aren’t thinking about flu in the summer, it’s infuenza season in the Southern Hemisphere, meaning teams and fans from that part of the world could arrive with it.“You can even see outbreaks of flu,” Bernard Camins, MD, professor of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said. “Theoretically, [fans] can get on the plane while they’re still not sick and land and be contagious.” GI infectious diseases such as norovirus often spread during big sporting events, including the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea.  “We know that norovirus can cause pretty substantial outbreaks in mass gathering types of setting,” Adalja said. “It all depends on the environment and how many people are interacting with each other in a way that allows these pathogens to transmit.” Enjoying food outdoors, such as at a festival, could increase the likelihood of contracting a foodborne illness, as well. “People in public areas may not have access to hand sanitizers or soap and water as much,” Camins said. “They’re more likely to eat contaminated food or even contaminate themselves by touching surfaces and then eating.” For many attending the World Cup, it’s a time to celebrate. For some, that might mean having sex, which could increase their risk of contracting an STI. “Gonorrhea and chlamydia will definitely be attending the World Cup,” Adalja said. “When these mass gathering events occur, there are a lot of people doing different activities, including having multiple sexual encounters.”  People are also more likely to be drinking alcohol and taking drugs, “which then lowers their inhibition, so they’re more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease,” he added. Public health practitioners also wonder if they might see arboviruses, which are transmitted by arthropods such as insects. Mosquitos that carry dengue and chikungunya are in some places in the United States, but most cases have been imported, Katz said. “We now have a lot of people potentially coming into the country from regions of the world experiencing dengue and chikungunya,” she explained. “It’s really important to be monitoring for those arboviruses as well.”

High-dose flu shot cuts the odds of hospitalization among older adults | The high-dose flu shot is associated with an almost 40% greater reduction in severe illness among older adults than is the standard-dose flu vaccine, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.The high-dose formulation, which contains four times the antigen of a standard-dose inactivated influenza vaccine, is given to older adults, who tend to have a lower immune response to vaccinations and are at higher risk of flu-related hospitalization. The antigen is the “active ingredient” of a vaccine, the component that produces an immune response.The meta-analysis found that the high-dose vaccine was associated with a 38.5% reduction in flu-related hospitalizations among adults aged 65 years or older when compared with standard-dose flu vaccines, as well as greater protection against flu-related pneumonia and cardiorespiratory disease. The study authors say it’s the “most comprehensive synthesis to date” of evidence on the relative effectiveness of high-dose versus standard-dose flu shots.These findings reinforce the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation that older adults receive the high-dose version of the flu shot, said William Schaffner, MD, an infectious diseases researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  "The vaccine is not perfect. It cannot prevent every infection. But it reduces the risk of severe disease," said Schaffner, who did not contribute to the study.  If severe illness is reduced, then logically, that benefit would extend to a greater reduction in mortality. Paradoxically, the researchers did not find the high-dose shot to prevent fewer flu-related deaths than the standard-dose vaccine prevents.  It's likely the eight studies in the meta-analysis, which included 605,098 participants in Europe and North America, didn't track patients for long enough to show this benefit, said Schaffner. Additionally, flu-related fatalities are rare compared with hospitalizations, explained Edward Belongia, MD, a vaccine researcher and infectious disease epidemiologist, who was also not involved in the study.  But if the high-dose vaccine is preventing hospitalizations, Belongia said a reasonable conclusion is that it prevents more deaths, along with serious long-term disability, which can be devastating.The study was funded by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, which produces the high-dose flu shot.

US measles cases continue to climb, especially in Virginia - With 43 newly confirmed infections, US measles cases reached 2,073 today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update, as Virginia has become the nation’s newest hot spot.All but 10 of the US infections this year are locally acquired, with the rest related to travel outside the country. The total for all of last year was 2,288 confirmed cases.The agency reported no new measles outbreaks, so that total stands at 30. The nation saw 48 outbreaks for the entire year in 2025. Of this year’s cases, 21% involve children younger than 5 years, and 72% involve kids and young adults up to 19 years. Among all patients, 93% have been unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. Only 4% have received the full two-dose series. Six percent of patients this year have been hospitalized, compared with 11% last year. No measles deaths have been reported this year, following three in 2025.The largest rise in cases has been in Virginia, with 110 listed on the CDC measles map, 20 more than last week. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) yesterday confirmed 111 cases, 34 of which are new. Officials say 88 of the infections are linked to an outbreak in the state. Seven cases are linked to international travel, with the rest locally acquired.According to a VDH news release today, at least 88 of Virginia’s cases, or 79%, are in Buckingham County, and all have occurred in the past month.“Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases and spreads easily through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes,” the VDH said in the release. “A person with measles can spread the virus from four days before until four days after a rash begins, meaning someone can spread measles before they know they are sick.”The VDH added, “Vaccination remains the best protection against measles. If you or a loved one have not had two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, contact your healthcare provider or call your local health department to schedule a vaccine appointment today.”Virginia had only five measles cases in all of 2025.

CDC: 9 cases now confirmed in deadly Listeria outbreak linked to soft cheese -According to an update yesterday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are now nine cases of listeriosis linked to an ongoing outbreak involving soft ricotta cheese. So far eight people have been hospitalized and one person from Maryland has died from his or her infection. Three people each have been sickened in New York, Maryland, and Virginia. Of the eight people interviewed, six reported eating any soft cheese prior to symptom onset.Clover Hill Dairy, a Maryland company, recalled its requeson or soft ricotta cheese that was sold at its retail market and through other distributors. The cheese was distributed from May 4 to May 30 at various retailers in North Carolina, New York, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington, DC. Two of the patients reported eating cheese from Clover Hill. Nelson & Isa Lacteos, Bay Shore, New York, also voluntarily recalled 1-pound packages of requeson cheese sold in clear plastic clam-shell containers to retail locations in New York from May 15 to May 28, 2026, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a new update. “The recalled cheese was likely repacked at the retail store locations, and labeling or coding of recalled cheese may vary based on location of purchase,” the FDA warned.“This investigation is ongoing. Additional products may be impacted, and further testing by FDA and state partners is underway,” the agency said.Bot the FDA and CDC recommend not eating, selling, or serving recalled soft ricotta or requeson cheese. And those at high risk from severe Listeria illness, a category that includes pregnant women, people 65 and older, and those who have weakened immune systems, should avoid all soft cheeses.

Idaho investigates spike in illnesses related to raw milk consumption  --Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) said it’s investigating a spate of illnesses tied to raw, or unpasteurized, milk. Since May 15, department officials said almost 60 people have been identified as having illnesses after drinking raw milk, and at least 45 of those people tested positive for campylobacteriosis, a bacterial infection.  Most of the sickened people reported getting raw milk from two different milking operations, one in northern Idaho and one in southern Idaho. “Both milking operations are working in collaboration with DHW and local public health agencies to identify and fix any potential sources of contamination,” DHW said. Campylobacteriosis can appear two to five days after exposure. Symptoms include diarrhea (sometimes bloody), fever, stomach cramps, nausea, and vomiting. Infections can be more severe in young children, the elderly, and those who are immunocompromised, but most people recover within one week of symptom onset.

New Consumer Report Finds “Concerning Levels of Additives” in Popular Snacks - - Some of the snacks finding their way into American pantries contain “concerning levels of additives,” according to new findings by Consumer Reports and the food-scanning app Yuka. Researchers tested 40 popular grocery products, from baked goods to ice cream and potato chips, measuring concentrations of eight additives and two contaminants and comparing them to safety thresholds for daily consumption set by European and California health officials.None of the products tested exceeded current guidelines set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which routinely permits substances at levels “far higher than what other public health authorities consider safe,” according to Consumer Reports.Of the 13 products tested for Red Dye No. 40, a petroleum-derived synthetic food coloring, five contained enough in a single serving to exceed the daily safety level for children identified by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).Considered more stringent than the FDA when it comes to assessing the risk of food dyes and additives, a 2021 OEHHA assessment found that synthetic food dyes are associated with “adverse neurobehavioral outcomes” in some children.The researchers cited several products that exceeded safety thresholds by sizable margins, including Hostess’ Donettes Mini Powdered Donuts, which were found to contain 19 times the amount of glycidol considered safe for daily consumption according to California health officials. A serving of Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies contained over nine times the safety threshold for the same chemical, according to the findings. Hostess’ Donettes Mini Powdered Donuts also contained 261 milligrams of titanium dioxide in one serving. Titanium dioxide was banned as a food additive in the European Union in 2022, due to the possibility of “DNA or chromosomal damage” “The levels identified in Hostess’ Donettes are especially troubling given how widely consumed this product is in the United States, particularly among children,” the report stated. The JM Smucker Co., which makes Hostess products, did not respond to a request for comment on these findings. McKee Foods Corporation, which manufactures Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, declined to comment.The findings drew some criticism because the analysis was done based on daily consumption over a lifetime. “That was probably my biggest criticism of their assessment,” said Eric Decker, professor of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Measuring “a lifetime of chronic exposure,” can result in over-estimates, Decker explained, noting that some foods that were highlighted by the study can be considered “celebratory” foods that shouldn’t be consumed all of the time. “That’s an absolutely fair point,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports. He added that while people might not be consuming the particular products assessed on a daily basis, they may be getting exposed to Red Dye No. 40 and titanium dioxide through other foods in their diets. “These types of chemicals, additives, and synthetic food dyes are pervasive in our food supply,” Ronholm said. “If you’re consuming these synthetic food dyes, these chemicals and additives on a consistent basis through a variety of products, that certainly increases the risk of public health harm down the road.” According to the report, the findings underscore the shortcomings of the current regulatory framework governing food additives in the US. Decker agreed that the FDA could be doing more in terms of safety assessment, noting that the agency is grossly understaffed. “The Trump administration on one side is saying that these are bad for you, and that we should reassess these, but at the same time they’re cutting positions at the FDA all the time,” Decker noted. The report comes amid a nation-wide push against food additives from the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement, which opposes ultra-processed foods, artificial dyes, and other chemicals in foods as harmful to human health. Last year, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the FDA announced plans to phase out petroleum-based food dyes. At the time, former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary stated that, “for the last 50 years, we have been running one of the largest uncontrolled scientific experiments in the world on our nation’s children, without their consent.”

Hot tub hot take: Soaking in stagnant water may pose Legionnaires’ risk -  People staying in short-term rental properties should be aware that hot tubs might pose a risk of a potentially fatal type of pneumonia, according to a new paper in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from investigators with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and other state agencies. The paper details a 2024 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in western New York among two guests who used a hot tub at a private short-term rental property. Whole-genome sequencing of isolates from the hot tub were found to be closely related to the laboratory results of one of the patient's mucus and phlegm, which suggests the hot tub as the likely source of exposure. Nearly one in seven Legionnaires' disease patients report staying overnight at hotels, private homes, or vacation rental properties, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About half of those with a travel-associated case say they soaked in a hot tub.  Private short-term rental properties are not subject to the same public health regulations as commercial properties. The report says vacationers should be aware of this risk, especially older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and people who smoke. The water in the hot tub implicated in the 2024 outbreak was at 100°F to 104°F, which is within "the most favorable range for Legionella growth and also accelerates the decay of disinfectants," said the report.People most often get Legionnaires’ by breathing mist carrying the Legionella bacteria. Small, heated pools are vulnerable to Legionella bacteria, as they are filled with warm water that's slowly moving or stagnant. While most cases can be treated successfully with antibiotics, roughly one in 10 people who get sick from Legionnaires’ disease die from complications linked to the illness.

Study finds resistant bacteria in homes with sewage backup New research presented last week at the annual conference of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM)—known as ASM Microbe 2026—suggests that pathogenic, drug-resistant bacteria could pose a threat to people living in homes with sewage overflows. The research, conducted by scientists from the University of Maryland (UMD), found that Enterococcus bacteria were present in nearly half (46%) of 86 Maryland homes that had sewage backups from clogged, broken, or overwhelmed pipes from October 2023 to June 2025. Analysis of sewage water samples found that multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci were present in 12% of the homes with backups. Enterococcus bacteria are found in soil and plants but also in the intestinal tracts of people, animals, and birds. Their presence in water is an indicator of fecal contamination, which is common in untreated sewage water. While many species of the more than 60 recognized enterococci species don’t pose a threat to people, two species—Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis—have become leading causes of healthcare-related infections, with intrinsic resistance to some antibiotics and acquired resistance to others. Of the 39 homes with enterococci present, 21% had E faecalis and 27% had E faecium present. The presence of enterococci bacteria was significantly higher (62%) in homes with recent sewage or water events (within the past month), and homes with more recent sewage overflows were three times as likely to have MDR enterococci present, though the researchers said this could have been by chance. While sewage backups are a concern for homeowners everywhere, the authors say they’re concerned that more people could be exposed to potentially pathogenic bacteria as extreme weather events, like floods, become more common and sewer systems continue to age. “Our research underscores an urgent need to invest in upgrading water and sewer infrastructure to protect public health from this growing threat,” corresponding study author Nick An, a PhD candidate in the UMD School of Public Health, said in an ASM press release.

Pentagon put on lockdown over air quality issue; Hazmat teams respond - The Pentagon went into lockdown Thursday over an air quality issue, prompting the department to execute a shelter-in-place order for the affected area. “The Pentagon has sophisticated systems to ensure the safety of the building and its occupants. Those systems have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance. The Department is executing standard protection protocols, including a shelter-in-place order for the affected area,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Hill. “Response teams are in place and ready to support building occupants,” Parnell said. Arlington County Fire Department, including its hazardous materials team, said it is operating at the Pentagon in support of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency’s hazmat team during a “hazardous materials incident.” The Pentagon Force Protection Agency saidlater on Thursday that the shelter-in-place continues in affected areas of the Pentagon “until all clear is given.”

Analysis reveals bacterial strain responsible for multidrug-resistant UTIs in older women | CIDRAP - New research has revealed a strain of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria spreading in older women with urinary tract infections (UTIs) across the United States, researchers reported yesterday in Nature Communications.  Using whole-genome sequencing, a team led by researchers with the Center for Discovery and Innovation examined 2,006 unique ceftriaxone-nonsusceptible K pneumoniae isolates collected from July 2023 to July 2024 from 10 Quest Diagnostic laboratories that primarily serve community outpatients. K pneumoniae is a leading cause of UTIs, and research has shown a steady increase in MDR strains in US hospitals in recent decades, particularly those carrying extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) genes. The researchers were hoping to get a better understanding of how these strains are spreading in the community. “Unlike most surveillance studies, which focus on hospital infections, our study design emphasized outpatients in the community, a potential reservoir that has not been systematically sampled,” the study authors wrote.Nearly 70% of the K pneumoniae isolates, which were primarily from women over age 60 with UTIs treated in outpatient settings, were nonsusceptible to the oral antibiotics routinely used to treat UTIs (levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, and nitrofurantoin), and more than 20% were resistant to all tested antibiotics except carbapenems and amikacin. All were classified as MDR.“These resistance profiles, together with high community prevalence, sharply limit empiric outpatient options for suspected Gram-negative infections,” the authors wrote.Sequencing revealed that the spread of these MDR K pneumoniae strains has been driven by the ESBL gene bla_CTX-M-15, which is carried on mobile pieces of DNA called plasmids that can be shared among bacteria. The plasmids also harbored other genes the researchers believe make them capable of adapting to environmental pressures.

Quick Takes: New avian flu detections, early uptick in Florida Vibrio cases, Salmonella outbreak of unknown origin | CIDRAP

• The US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service noted three new H5N1 outbreaks in commercial poultry facilities and backyard flocks this past week. Twenty birds in Canyon County, Idaho, were affected. In Elkhart County, Indiana, which has been a hotbed of avian flu activity, a poultry facility reported an outbreak involving 19,200 birds. Finally, in Passaic County, New Jersey, a live bird market saw an outbreak involving 670 birds. In the past 30 days, avian flu has been confirmed in 22 flocks, with 240,000 birds affected.
• Florida is reporting an early jump in cases of Vibrio vulnificus, or flesh-eating bacteria. So far this year eight cases have been reported, double what was reported this time last year. The naturally occurring bacteria is found in warm marine water. Most people infected are exposed through eating undercooked seafood, but more serious infections occur when the bacteria enter the bloodstream through open wounds. Serious infections are more common in those with weakened immune systems. Among the eight cases this year is a 17-year-old boy who was hospitalized after he went swimming with a scrape on his leg.
• The Food and Drug Administration says 62 people have been sickened in a new Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak, but a source has not yet been identified. Patient ages and states where patients live have also not been published, according to Food Safety News.

Quick takes: Second NWS case in Texas, US measles elimination status in doubt, polio in 3 nations | CIDRAP

• The Food and Drug Administration’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed a second case of New World screwworm (NWS) in Texas. APHIS said late last week that the case was found in a one-month-old calf in Zavala County, more than five miles from the first confirmed infection. Caused by the larvae of Cochliomyia hominivorax, a parasitic fly, NWS is a serious threat to livestock, wildlife, pets, and in rare cases, people. The larvae burrow into living tissue, causing severe wounds. APHIS said other samples collected from the surrounding area have been tested and were negative. 
• An analysis of over 1,800 whole genome sequences from US measles cases suggests the nation is likely to lose its measles elimination status, ProPublica reports. The analysis, which includes sequences from measles cases released as recently as last month, shows the measles virus currently spreading in Utah—the largest current outbreak in the United States—is very closely related to the strain that spread in West Texas beginning in January 2025. Mutations found in cases in Texas and Utah were also present in sequences from infected patients in other states. Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, but continuous transmission over a 12-month period threatens that status. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting its own sequencing analysis and will present its findings to the Pan American Health Organization later this year. 
• Three African countries reported polio cases last week, according to the latest update from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Central African Republic confirmed its first two cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) this year, with onsets of paralysis on April 20 and 26. Malawi reported a cVDPV2 case with paralysis on December 22, 2025, for its first case of 2025. Nigeria reported a cVDPV2 case with paralysis onset on May 2, marking its 25^th case this year.

Three new cases of screwworm confirmed in Texas - Three more cases of New World screwworm were confirmed in Texas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to five. One new case is in Andrews County, nearly 400 miles north of Zavala County, where the first case was reported last week. The new cases are in different animals. In La Salle County, about 80 miles southeast of Zavala, a calf has been infected. In Andrews County, a veterinarian submitted the samples from an infested dog. According to the Andrews Veterinary Clinic, the case was seen on Saturday, and neither the dog nor its owner is local to Andrews. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a USDA service, said the dog is from a household in Lea County, New Mexico, making it the state’s first screwworm case. The APHIS said the dog’s travel history and exposure history is unknown. The USDA is inspecting additional animals in the household and increases outreach. The third case is in a goat out of Gillespie County, about 170 miles north of Zavala County. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, along with Gov. Greg Abbott, held a joint press conference at the Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville where they revealed their “War on Screwworm” campaign with a slogan declaring “Inspect, Report, and Protect,” warning Texans the situation is expected to get worse. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the U.S. Department of War is making the New World screwworm infestation one of its top priorities by putting a military commander in charge of helping accelerate resource gathering, construction and research. “South Texas ranchers are the front line of this battle against screwworm,” Rollins said, emphasizing the importance of reporting any screwworm incidents. Abbott also said the state’s emergency command center will be open 24/7 with specialists from Texas A&M and state personnel to ensure all incidents are reported and tracked. “We have beaten this before and we will do it again,” Abbott told a room filled with reporters and ranchers. Rollins said there is currently no timeline in defeating New World screwworm, but with the partnerships between federal, state and local officials, it shouldn’t take multiple years like it has in the past. “Some would say it’s impossible, but this is Texas,” Rollins said. The screwworm is a parasitic fly that infests living mammals, especially cattle. State and federal officials are racing to contain the insect that has been on a northern migration track since at least 2023. Agriculture leaders fear if the fly is not contained, it could cost the state’s cattle economy at least $1.8 billion. Dudley Hoskins, under secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs with the USDA, urged animal owners to stay vigilant, check their animals closely and report anything that looks suspicious. “We need the partnership of animal owners across the region,” Hoskins said in a statement. “Together, we can protect our livestock, our communities, and the health of animals nationwide.” Rollins called out recent comments made by Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller alleging producers and ranchers won’t report screwworm findings out of fear of being quarantined harmful to their efforts. “Unserious comments from an unserious AG commissioner who only has a few months left,” she said. The USDA is also exploring alternative options to combat screwworm including putting ivermectin in animal feed. Rollins announced Monday that President Donald Trump appointed John Bellinger, a member of the Texas A&M University Board of Regents, to be the new senior adviser for New World screwworm preparedness. Bellinger is expected to help explore all available technologies to combat the screwworm. Bellinger was appointed to the A&M board in 2023, where he serves as chair of the committee on research.

New World screwworm confirmed in dog in New Mexico as Texas reports 3 new cases -- US Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials have confirmed New World screwworm (NWS) in a dog in New Mexico, and Texas has three more detections, in a goat and two calves. So far, the United States has six detections of the parasitic fly in the past week.The first two detections were announced last week were in Zavala, Texas, but the three new detections show the insect has infiltrated more territory in the United States, including La Salle County, Texas (two calves), Gillespie County, Texas (goat), and now Lea County, New Mexico (dog).Confirmed NWS infections in animals are also now farther from the US border with Mexico, which has reported more than 27,000 cases through June 3, according to USDA data.Caused by the larvae of Cochliomyia hominivorax, a parasitic fly, NWS is a serious threat to livestock, wildlife, pets, and, in rare cases, people. The larvae (maggots) burrow into the living tissue of any warm-blooded animals, causing severe wounds and infections, and infection can be fatal.“This situation is evolving, and we expect new information to emerge as our investigation continues,” said Dudley Hoskins, USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. “USDA is committed to sharing what we learn quickly, accurately, and transparently so animal owners and local communities have the information they need to stay vigilant.“We are working closely with our partners in New Mexico, Texas, and across the region to ensure we identify, contain, and respond to any potential cases as swiftly as possible.” Last night US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins voiced growing tensions between the federal NWS response and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. Miller has said the USDA’s response to the threat of NWS was too slow.“That is a very unserious comment, from perhaps an unserious ag commissioner with just a few months left,” Rollins said of Miller. “It is also a very dangerous suggestion.”While the crux of the USDA response to the recent detections has been releasing sterile flies into the affected areas, Miller has pushed the federal agency to adopt the Screwworm Adult Suppression System, or SWASS, which combines releasing sterile flies with broader use of insecticides. Miller has urged Rollins and President Donald Trump to take more direct action, as NWS threatens already fragile beef prices and a shrinking cattle supply.Miller has been warning that Texas was increasingly at risk for NWS because of a spike in activity in Mexico. Since 2024, Mexico has documented a rise in both animal and human cases, especially in Chiapas state. Mexico has confirmed 27,449 cases of screwworm in animals since November 2024, and as many as 2,000 are currently active. As of February this year, 141 people in Mexico had been infected.

FDA OKs treatment of New World screwworm in dogs and cats for emergency use -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a generic drug, nitenpyram, to treat New World screwworm (NWS) in dogs and cats. Nitenpyram, the first generic animal drug authorized for use against screwworm,  can be used in animals who weigh at least two pounds and are at least 4 weeks old. The FDA based the authorization on “the totality of the scientific evidence available,” noting that “the known and potential benefits of the product outweigh its known and potential risks,” the agency said in a statement. The FDA has issued 10 EUAs and three conditional approvals for drugs to combat NWS, a number that could grow as drugmakers submit additional applications.“The FDA has spent nearly a year fast-tracking reviews and readying for the arrival of New World screwworm in the US,” Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said in the statement. The US Department of Agriculture has confirmed seven cases of screwworm in cattle, a goat, and a dog. Although the first six animal infestations were in Texas, the dog is from New Mexico, raising fears of a widening outbreak.Public health and animal health experts have been on alert for the larvae of the parasitic fly, which has sickened 27,449 animals in Mexico since November 2024, along with 141 people. Although most dogs and cats are at low risk of NWS, pets who live near areas with confirmed cases have a higher risk.Caused by the larvae of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, NWS is a serious threat to livestock, wildlife, pets, and, in rare cases, people. The larvae (maggots) burrow into the living tissue of any warm-blooded animals, causing severe wounds and infections, and infection can be fatal. Nitenpyram kills most NWS larvae within hours of the first dose. Pet owners should administer a second dose six hours after the first. Nitenpyram tablets do not protect against reinfestation. After treatment, a veterinarian may still need to physically remove any remaining live or dead larvae, according to the FDA. The agency cautions pet owners against trying to remove the larvae themselves, to reduce the risk of infection or damaging tissue. Pet owners should ask their vet about wound care and how to reduce the risk of new infestations.

Trump administration blames Joe Biden's immigration policies for screwworm -As cases of New World screwworm spread and threaten the beef and cattle industry, the Trump administration is rolling out a familiar playbook: Blame former President Biden. The parasitic fly had been eliminated in the U.S. since the 1960s, but now it’s back, and according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, the new resurgence is entirely due to the lax immigration policies of former President Biden’s administration. “The threat didn’t appear overnight; it was the direct result of the Biden-Harris Admin’s WEAK foreign policy agenda and FAILED immigration policies,” Rollins wrote in a social media post last week. In a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview Monday, Rollins continued to point fingers at Biden. “Under the last administration with the massive movement under the open borders policy, the cartels, etc., border security, that’s when [screwworm] began to make its way back up toward America, hitting Mexico in early 2023, moving its way up through Mexico in 2024,” Rollins said. The screwworm is a fly larva that eats living flesh instead of dead material. It has a track record of decimating livestock.  There are currently five confirmed cases: three calves and a goat in Texas and a dog from Lea County, N.M.    The government had been able to keep screwworm contained at the southern end of Panama for decades, in large part due to a program that breeds sterile male flies and drops them from planes to mate with wild females.   The U.S. had created a barrier by constantly releasing sterile flies in the area south of Central America since the early 2000s. That effort was aided by the difficult terrain of the Darién Gap, a mountainous rainforest that separates Panama from Colombia. But for the past few years, the insect has been making its way north from South America. In 2022, the flies overcame the insect barrier and the Darién Gap. Panama began to report dozens of cases, and by 2024, flies were found in Mexico. At that point, federal and state officials and cattle ranchers knew it was inevitable the screwworm would make its way back into the U.S. After Mexican officials confirmed a case of screwworm in November 2024, Biden’s Department of Agriculture (USDA) closed southern ports of entry to live cattle imports to prevent the spread of screwworm into the U.S. But amid protests from the cattle industry, President Trump reversed that decision in February 2025. The ports were closed again in May. “We don’t really know why the boundary failed, but it was probably a combination of factors. It’s evidence that there was just an increasing pressure on the border with a large number of cases in Colombia” said Maxwell Scott, an entomologist at North Carolina State University. Illegal cattle imports and interruptions in the sterile fly production all likely contributed, experts said. “It wasn’t apparent at the time, but it would appear that the strain [of sterile fly] that was being used was losing effectiveness,” Scott said. Once the barrier was breached, the spread has been rapid, with insects traveling hundreds of miles in weeks — a sign that people are moving infested animals. “We would see a jump from one country almost to another country, and then even through Mexico, those jumps were 50 to 100 miles apart. Flies don’t travel that far, and neither do the wildlife on their own, especially if they’re being eaten by maggots,” said Sonja Swiger, an entomologist at Texas A&M University. “So, those are because animals were being put on trucks and moved.” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) blamed immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal permission. “This is another thing we can thank Joe Biden for — that when millions of people came out of Central America, they brought this screwworm with them. It was on their pets, maybe on their flesh as well,” Marshall said on Newsmax. Meanwhile, Democrats have been quick to blame the Trump administration. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took a buzzsaw to the federal workforce, including employees in the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Trump administration also cut funding at USDA for programs that were specifically targeted to monitoring and responding to New World screwworm. “Trump’s reckless and harmful cuts and his administration’s incompetence have left the U.S.’s food supply vulnerable to outbreaks and risk escalating already high prices for beef,” DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer said in a statement. “Trump GUTTED funding for screwworm detection and fired 25 percent of workers whose job it was to monitor the disease,” Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) wrote on X. According to Rollins, staffing reductions haven’t hurt the response. “There has been zero impact to this mission area, specifically to the screwworm, based on that reduction in force,” Rollins said during a briefing Monday. She said the country has been quietly preparing for the past year and is ready with a warp-speed type response. The administration named a senior adviser for New World Screwworm Preparedness, cattleman John Bellinger, on Monday. “Every model showed that the New World screwworm would be here in Texas by early last summer, so we bought ourselves an additional year to prepare for this moment,” Rollins said. Experts say what happens next matters more than how we got into the situation in the first place. “Pushing it back all the way to the Panama-Colombia border took many years,” Scott said. Getting it back to that level “is going to take a lot more flies or new technology.” Sterile flies are still the best way to eradicate the problem, and there are not enough being produced. At the time of their spread from Central America into Mexico, there was only one sterile fly production facility, located in Panama. Other facilities that used to produce sterile flies have closed over many decades, a victim of their own success. “We’ve never had a resurgence or reemergence … since we achieved eradication to Panama,” said Swiger. “People forgot what a screwworm can do, and that’s the main thing that really led to this.”

Bacteria can learn and form memories without a brain - Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that bacteria can learn from past experiences, store memories across generations and adapt their behavior to changing environments, all without a brain or nervous system. The research could shape how scientists think about bacterial infections and antibiotic treatment. In a study published in PRX Life, researchers from Carnegie Mellon's Ray and Stephanie Lane Computational Biology Department and Mellon College of Science tracked individual E. coli cells as nutrient conditions shifted between rich and poor environments. Instead of responding the same way every time, the bacteria adjusted their growth based on patterns they had experienced before. Cells exposed to rapidly changing conditions were able to adapt better than cells raised in more stable environments. The findings suggest bacteria do more than just react to their surroundings. They appear to encode memories of past environments and use those memories to guide future behavior. "For a long time, people assumed bacterial growth was determined only by the environment the cell is currently experiencing," said Josiah Kratz, first author of the paper. "What we showed is that the history of past environments matters. The cells remember those experiences, and that memory changes how they behave.""We showed that cells can discriminate between different environmental frequencies," Kratz said. "To do that, they need a more complex memory than anyone had demonstrated before."That memory can even persist across generations. For bacteria, a generation could span tens of minutes to hours.A single E. coli cell may divide every 30 minutes to an hour in nutrient-rich conditions, but proteins produced during stressful conditions can be inherited by daughter and granddaughter cells. Those inherited molecules allow descendants to retain information about environments they never directly experienced."If a grandmother cell experienced stress and survived it, the granddaughter cell can behave differently because of that history," Kratz said.

Frozen rat chromosome springs back to life inside a mouse embryo - Scientists in Japan have developed a rat-mouse hybrid embryo from a single frozen rat chromosome transplanted into a mouse egg cell. The achievement is proof that genetic material can sometimes remain functional after cryopreservation and be expressed inside the cells of a completely different species. This is giving renewed hope to the idea that we may one day be able to partially resurrect extinct species and study lost traits.One of the things preventing scientists from studying the function of genes from extinct species is that the cells are dead and the DNA is damaged. And cloning entire animals, such as woolly mammoths, has proven to be a nonstarter because it requires high-quality, intact genetic material, usually including nuclei, as well as a supply of eggs from closely related surrogate species.But this new research, which is published in the journal Scientific Reports, bypasses the need for intact cells or whole organisms by reanimating a single chromosome."This study demonstrated that a single chromosome from a frozen extinct species can be functionally revived and its transcriptional activity assessed within an interspecies oocyte," the study authors wrote in their paper.The starting point was taking nuclei from the dead blood cells of a rat that had been frozen for more than a year. The team then injected them into unfertilized mouse eggs, which forced loose rat DNA to wind itself into chromosomes.After plucking out just one, the scientists injected it into a fresh mouse egg, which was then fertilized using normal mouse sperm. The resulting embryo was grown in the lab until it became a cluster of cells known as a blastocyst.From this early embryonic stage, the researchers harvested stem cells that all permanently carried an extra rat chromosome on top of the full mouse complement of 40 chromosomes. These hybrid stem cells were injected into normal mouse embryos, resulting in chimeric rodents with both mouse and rat DNA.The researchers were able to check whether the rat chromosome was actively functioning because the original rat blood cells were engineered to express a green fluorescent marker protein (GFP). The resulting mice had glowing green patches in their brains, hearts, muscles and intestines. What's more, the mouse hearts were actively expressing a rat gene called Hsp90ab1."Our findings demonstrate that even chromosomes retrieved from long-term frozen specimens can retain sufficient functional integrity to be maintained in pluripotent cells and support transcriptional activity in vivo," the researchers said.

Savanna chimpanzees use tools for capturing and feeding on army ants, study shows - Chimpanzees are the only great apes, apart from humans, that have adapted to living on savannas as well as in forests. However, it is not yet well understood how the harsh ecological conditions of the savanna—compared with those of the forest—affect the foods chimpanzees eat and how they obtain them. Now, a study led by the University of Barcelona and the Jane Goodall Institute Spain (IJGE) reveals for the first time the strategies savanna chimpanzees use to make tools and extract aggressive army ants—also known as marabunta—from their underground nests and eat them in these dry, hot habitats. The paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is led by Andreu Sánchez-Megías and R. Adriana Hernández-Aguilar, from the UB's Faculty of Psychology and the IJGE. To date, only the feeding strategies of chimpanzees in forest habitats have been described. The new study, carried out in Dindefelo, a savanna site in Senegal, reveals that to avoid the painful bites of army ants, chimpanzees use stick tools—with peeled bark or frayed ends—from eight plant species, mainly lianas. The primates put the tools in their mouths and cut the tips with their teeth. Since one of the selected plant species has chemical compounds with a reported calming effect, the authors hypothesized that the chimpanzees could be selecting specific plant species to protect themselves from the painful ant bites. The study shows that eating these insects is a challenge for the primates and involves a long and complex learning process. Army ants are insects high in protein and minerals that form the largest insect colonies on Earth. Thus, they represent a key food source for chimpanzees in various parts of Africa. In this study, the team analyzed 156 events of chimpanzees eating army ants from nests from 2018–2022 in Dindefelo, in southeastern Senegal.Although it may be more difficult to find ants in a savanna than in the forest, the study found that "chimpanzees in this savanna site did not have any strategy for extracting ants that differs from those described for chimpanzees in forests," notes Andreu Sánchez-Megías, first author of the article, a researcher at the Department of Social and Quantitative Psychology and a La Caixa Foundation doctoral student at the UB. "We found that chimpanzees across Africa adapt their ant-consumption strategies depending on the aggressiveness of the targeted army ant species," the expert explains. This study is part of a project that recently discovered that the same chimpanzees revisit specific ant nests throughout multiple years to look for ants, something that had not been reported before. Adriana Hernández-Aguilar, Serra Hunter professor at the UB, supervisor of the study and co-director of research at IJGE, emphasizes that "studying chimpanzees in savanna habitats, such as the site where we conducted the study, has important implications for understanding human evolution, since the first hominin species that would eventually give rise to our lineage evolved in similar habitats."

States may be caught in crosshairs of forest rule repeal - A Republican proposal to open roadless areas of national forests to logging creates confusion for states that want to keep some restrictions. A Republican-led effort to open more areas in national forests to road construction and logging would let two states — Idaho and Colorado — keep their restrictions, but other states may have a hard time if they want similar protections. That’s one of the wrinkles in the Republican proposal to rescind the 25-year-old roadless-area conservation rule that blocks new roads and logging on tens of millions of acres of national forests. The legislation passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a party-line vote Wednesday as an amendment to S. 140, the “Wildfire Prevention Act,” which would increase annual goals for forest thinning and for prescribed fire. Lawmakers on opposite sides of the debate gave varying interpretations of the amendment Thursday. New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, the committee’s ranking Democrat, suggested states that want to follow Idaho and Colorado would face a high bar in negotiating deals with the Forest Service. Heinrich said a GOP-led initiative to nullify the Clinton-era roadless rule in national forests makes it all but impossible for individual states to negotiate their own deals with the Forest Service.

Lawmakers press Forest Service on weed killer use - A pair of Democratic lawmakers is pressing the Forest Service to respond to complaints that it’s overusing a weed killer that has sparked contentious debate about ties to cancer. Reps. Chellie Pingree of Maine and Jared Huffman of California asked Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz in a letter June 4 to detail the agency’s use of glyphosate, a widely used herbicide that’s sparked legal disputes, competing health claims and policy-related conflicts within the Trump administration. “Given the recent scientific disputes, retracted studies, and litigation surrounding glyphosate due to serious ecological and health harms, we are deeply concerned by the alleged use of the herbicide and lack of information available regarding current and planned use,” the lawmakers wrote. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has said glyphosate — sold under the brand name Roundup — probably causes cancer, and its maker, Bayer, is managing related lawsuits. But EPA and other countries’ regulatory agencies say there’s no evidence of a connection and that glyphosate is safe when used according to label instructions.

Senate approves wild horse, wildfire bills -  -The Senate approved two more bills from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday as lawmakers push for more legislation from that panel to reach the president’s desk. The chamber approved S. 2033, the “Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act,” from Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), which would require a study on federal rules and regulations that may hamper wildfire mitigation across federal and nonfederal lands.The Senate passed the legislation by unanimous consent. The House recently approved its own version, H.R. 3922, the “Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act,” from Reps. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.). It’s unclear what chamber’s version will prevail. Separately, the Senate passed S. 1377, the “Theodore Roosevelt National Park Wild Horses Protection Act,” from Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), which would require the Interior Department to maintain a genetically diverse herd of horses in that park.

Sherrill’s rule delay opens new fight over New Jersey coastal development - By delaying a landmark climate change rule meant to protect new development along the Jersey Shore, Gov. Mikie Sherrill has spawned months if not years of fights over coastal development. She appears to be betting that she will come up with a compromise on something that bedeviled her predecessor, fellow Democrat Phil Murphy, for the better part of his time in office. The Murphy administration spent years crafting a rule package to increase regulations to cope with more extreme flooding. The inland rule prompted a feud inside his administration. The coastal rule also took years to complete and he didn’t finalize them until his last day in office. Now, Sherrill is sending herself and lobbyists on both sides of the issue back to the drawing board.

Newsom presses Trump on border sewage crisis with $46M grant rollout — Gov. Gavin Newsom touted the availability Thursday of $46 million in state-funded grants to improve water quality at the California-Mexico border, using the announcement to press President Donald Trump’s administration to move faster on a sewage crisis that has closed beaches, fouled the air and frustrated San Diego communities for years. The State Water Resources Control Board this week began accepting applications for projects aimed at reducing cross-border contamination in the Tijuana River region. The money comes from Proposition 4, the $10 billion climate bond voters approved in 2024, which set aside the money for border pollution. Newsom (D), who has faced pressure from San Diego communities for not declaring a state of emergency on the issue, used the announcement to score a point in his ongoing battle against Trump.“California has stepped up repeatedly, but we can’t solve a decades-long federal failure on our own,” Newsom said in a Thursday press release. “The Trump administration must do its part, honor its commitments, and finally deliver the lasting solutions this community deserves, and they have a moral obligation to provide.” The move comes as Newsom and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin have both tried to claim momentum on the decades-old issue. Newsom met with Zeldin in Washington last month to press for federal action, giving the governor another opening to argue that the Trump administration should follow through. Zeldin signed a U.S.-Mexico memorandum of understanding last year aimed at accelerating cross-border wastewater fixes, including repairs tied to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Trump's massive reflecting pool overhaul already has a very visible problem --One of President Donald Trump’s numerous vanity projects, along with his White House ballroom, has been the draining, cleaning, repainting and resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Following the completion of the $14 million project last week, Trump claimed the pool now has “beautiful, clean water” and placed the blame for the “terrible, disgusting ... garbage-ridden” water before the renovation on previous administrations. However, less than a week after the pool was refilled, Washington Post photographers captured images of algae back in the newly resurfaced body of water. The Post reported that a large patch of algae near the World War II Memorial grew significantly larger during a rainy Wednesday. In response to the Post’s inquiry, a Trump official passed the buck, claiming the algae was left over from the previous tenants of the White House.  “What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place. It’s part of the normal startup process,” Katie Martin, an Interior Department spokesperson, said in a statement to the Post. “We are removing the algae, and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae-free. President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good, unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden,” the statement continued.  Trump on Thursday bragged to reporters in the Oval Office about the resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool’s basin.“It always leaked because it was done in stone,” Trump said. “Now it’s done properly. It’s not going to leak at all.”Algae also reappeared in the pool in 2012 after a $34 million renovation, according to the Post’s report.

DC Reflecting Pool Growing Algae Just Days After Trump’s $14M Renovation -- The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall has already begun to grow algae just days after President Donald Trump’s major renovation project was officially completed. The landmark has been the subject of controversy since the project began, with critics pointing to budget ballooning from a little under $2 million to a staggering $14 million. Trump contracted Atlantic Industrial Coatings for the project to be completed ahead of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of America.In the days since its completion, however, the pool has begun to show blemishes. A Thursday report from The Washington Post added: Now, days after the pool was refilled, clumps of green algae have been spotted throughout the water. Noticed on two separate visits to the Reflecting Pool this week, the algae coated several areas of the bottom of the pool, including the east and west ends, close to the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, and floated on the surface.    An algae spot near the World War II Memorial grew significantly bigger between a rainy Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, which was hot and muggy. In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, Interior Department spokesperson Katie Martin claimed it was “residual algae from the supply lines which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place.” She added that the presence of algae was merely “part of the normal startup process.”In response to the backlash for the project, Trump has repeatedly attacked his critics. One instance involved a bizarre AI-generated image of the president filling the pool himself with tears.

Key Utah, Wyoming Republicans plot their next Colorado River move - -  The West’s most powerful Republicans are preparing to leverage their influence with the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill as the fight over the Colorado River nears an inflection point. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) is expected to host a strategy session in his office Tuesday morning with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and the two states’ Senate delegations, according to a person close to the Utah negotiators who was granted anonymity to share nonpublic details of the plans. A spokesperson for Gordon confirmed he plans to attend. The convening comes as President Donald Trump’s Interior Department is preparing to assert control over the drought-stricken waterway that supplies 40 million people from the mountains of Wyoming to the desert landscape around Los Angeles. Interior officials have said they will issue a final plan this summer for unilaterally doling out water delivery cuts among the seven Western states that share it. They are currently considering a proposal from the downstream states of Arizona, California and Nevada that could provide a framework for those cuts for the first two years. That plan, however, has drawn sharp criticisms from the upstream states of Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.“The purpose of the meeting really is to determine which political levers should be pulled, whether we should be targeting congressional action or appealing to the administration,” the person said.While Utah and Wyoming are aligned with Colorado and New Mexico in the water fight, Tuesday’s meeting will be confined to the former two for political reasons, the person said. Trump has publicly feuded with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and all of Colorado and New Mexico’s senators are Democrats.“The two states feel like they have the members of the Senate that are most in the position to be influential on this,” the person said.Federal funding stands to be one of the central levers under consideration. The proposal from downstream states is premised on substantial federal funding to pay farmers, cities and tribes to conserve water they are otherwise entitled to.Republican leaders plan to push for withholding funding from any state that launches a court fight over the river. It’s a not-so-subtle play against Arizona, which is first in line for cuts to its supplies under a 1968 law and where political leaders have been publicly preparing for potential litigation.“The federal government should not provide water-related funding to any state that is actively suing a sister state over the Colorado River,” Amy Haas, executive director of the Colorado River Authority of Utah, plans to tell Lee’s committee during a Wednesday hearing on the river, according to prepared testimony. “Every dollar spent in a courtroom is a dollar that does not go toward adding water to the system. Every hour a water manager spends in discovery is an hour they are not at the table solving the actual problem.”

Congress dives into the West’s water brawl - Congress will not stand on the sidelines much longer as the drought-riddled Colorado River system careens toward crisis and the states that share its flows remain deadlocked, one of the region’s most powerful Republican senators said Wednesday. Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee of Utah used a Wednesday hearing as a show of political force on behalf of his state and it’s upstream allies — Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — ahead of a critical decision point for a river that supplies 40 million people from the cattle ranches of Wyoming to the booming metropolises of Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego. “Congress will not be a bystander in this process,” Lee warned. The Trump administration’s Interior Department is preparing to issue a plan for unilaterally managing the shriveled waterway by the end of next month, and appears poised to include sharp delivery cuts to the downstream states of Arizona, California and Nevada along with plans to tap water supplies from smaller reservoirs in upstream states.

50 years of data reveals true extent of climate change impacts on kelp forests --New research from the University of Victoria (UVic) has found that some kelp forests around Vancouver Island were disappearing far earlier than scientists previously thought, highlighting that climate change has been altering ecosystems long before most people were aware anything was wrong."Most research has focused on recent kelp forest losses resulting from well-known marine heat waves, like the record-breaking 'Blob' heat wave that hit our coast a decade ago," says Brian Timmer, a UVic Ph.D. student, National Geographic Explorer and lead author of the study, recently published in Ecological Applications."These recent changes to our kelp forests have been intense. But our research shows that some areas of the BC coast have been warming much faster than the global average, and associated kelp declines began decades ago. We've been underestimating the magnitude of ocean-warming impacts for years," said Chris Neufeld, co-author and senior aquatic ecologist at LGL Limited.Researchers reconstructed historical baselines for bull kelp and associated macroalgae communities in the northern Salish Sea using maps, aerial photos and scuba surveys from as far back as 1972.They then replicated identical surveys and photos in 2023 to directly compare kelp forest size and seaweed abundance over 50 years.The historical records show that there used to be massive bull kelp forests floating at the surface, covering more than 550 hectares (about 1,360 acres) of the northern Salish Sea near Comox and Denman Island. This increases the previous baseline of kelp forest size for this region by a factor of 10. None of those kelp forests remain today, and satellite records show that most of the bull kelp loss occurred between 1972 and 1984—well before the kelp losses documented during more recent marine heat waves.

Atlantic 'cold blob' caused by weakening ocean current system that's likely nearing a tipping point, reanalysis finds - A part of the Atlantic Ocean, just south of Greenland and Iceland, has been cooling off while the rest of the world gets hotter. This enigmatic patch is often referred to as the "cold blob" and scientists have been trying to figure out the mechanisms behind its cooling. While some studies have blamed increased heat loss at the sea surface, others suggest weaker currents are bringing less heat to the area. Now, a new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, provides additional support for the latter—now using reanalysis data based on direct weather observations instead of just modeling. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a system of ocean currents that acts as a planetary "conveyor belt," moving warm surface water from the tropics northward and cold, dense water southward. This ocean circulation plays an important role in regulating Earth's climate and redistributing heat. Many previous studies have linked the Atlantic cold blob to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). They indicate that a weakening of this system may be bringing less warm water to the area. The authors of the new study say that this makes sense since the cold blob region is where the AMOC delivers its heat and passes it to the atmosphere. They note that other studies have used observed sea surface salinity changes and paleoclimatic proxy data to suggest that the AMOC has been slowing down since preindustrial time. "A further weakening of the AMOC could have major repercussions for future climate for millennia, given that the AMOC is known to have a tipping point beyond which it is likely to shut down," the study authors write. Still, some think that the cold blob is caused by surface heat loss and atmospheric effects, but models and proxies have not reached consensus. The research team decided to back up modeling with observational data to attempt to settle the debate. They used observation-based reanalysis data for ocean heat content and surface fluxes, including satellite and temperature measurements and combined this with climate models. They also conducted a heat budget analysis, which quantified the balance between incoming and outgoing heat in the cold blob region. The data for quality reanalysis goes back to 1955 and the satellite data goes back to 1993, allowing the team to determine changes over many decades. Their results indicated that the cooling in the "cold blob" is a deep ocean phenomenon, driven by changes in ocean heat transport, not just surface temperature changes. The data indicated that surface heat loss has actually decreased in the cold blob area, contradicting the idea that increased surface cooling is responsible. The team writes, "To explain a cooling trend in the cold blob region by surface heat loss while the AMOC is steady, this heat loss would need to increase to outcompete the AMOC's heat supply. The opposite is seen in the ERA5 data: surface heat loss has in fact decreased (since 1993 significantly, since 1955 slightly) over the cold blob. The latter is to be expected when the AMOC supplies less heat to the region and thus less is released to the atmosphere." Further weakening of this crucial current system could have far-reaching effects on weather, sea level and ecosystems, according to many climate models. The researchers urge policymakers to think of risk management strategies to lessen the impact that the AMOC tipping point might bring. They write, "Given the well‐established existence of a tipping point of the AMOC, as well as recent studies finding a range of different 'early warning signals' of the ocean circulation approaching such a tipping point, the strong evidence for a weakening AMOC is a serious concern for society and policy. While large uncertainty remains over how close Earth is to this tipping point, standard CMIP6 simulations of future global warming scenarios suggest it is crossed in a substantial subset of these model simulations around the middle of this century."

Hundreds evacuated as waves batter New Zealand capital - Authorities evacuated hundreds of people from their seaside homes in New Zealand's capital Tuesday as 11-meter (36-foot) waves lashed the coast. Wellington Mayor Andrew Little declared a state of emergency on the eve of the swells for seaside residents in Owhiro Bay, Island Bay, Houghton Bay and Breaker Bay. "You must stay away from the southern coastline," Little said in a statement, warning that emergency workers would not come to help anyone who stayed behind. The evacuation order took effect Tuesday morning, with police brought in to ensure people moved to higher ground. Officers set up cordons on surrounding roads to prevent people from heading to the coast. The council said a similar event in 2021 affected many homes in Breaker Bay, and waves during that storm were about 6.5 meters (21 feet). Waves entering Wellington Harbour on Tuesday were measured at 11 meters (36 feet), New Zealand's MetService said. Wind gusts were so strong at Island Bay that two women were knocked off their feet as waves washed up over the road, an AFP journalist saw. Some flights were canceled at Wellington Airport, where wind gusts were recorded at up to 128 kph (80 mph). A small plane from local carrier Golden Bay Air tipped onto its side in the wind while parked at the airport with no one aboard. Airline boss Richard Molloy told national broadcaster RNZ that firefighters had secured the plane to the ground.

M7.8 earthquake off southern Mindanao leaves at least 45 dead, Philippines - Youtube video - A M7.8 earthquake off southern Mindanao left at least 32 people dead, injured 134 others in preliminary civil-defense figures, and caused widespread damage in General Santos and nearby areas on June 8, 2026. Philippine authorities are verifying preliminary reports of 32 deaths and 134 injuries, while AP reported more than 200 injuries, mostly in damaged buildings. The earthquake struck at 07:37 LT on June 8 (23:27 UTC on June 7), about 20 km (12.4 miles) off Sarangani province, and was felt strongly across Mindanao. Most of the damage was concentrated in General Santos, a city of about 700 000 people. Reuters reported damaged shops and buildings, broken signs and glass, and some structures reduced to concrete and rubble. One hospital in the city was evacuated because of cracks on higher floors, and one building at Notre Dame of Dadiangas University collapsed while empty. AP reported collapsed buildings and key infrastructure damage in General Santos, while tsunami damage was reported in at least one coastal village. The quake also triggered a landslide in Glan, Sarangani, that killed 13 villagers, according to AP, citing provincial disaster official Rene Punzalan. Office of Civil Defense (OCD) spokesperson Junie Castillo reported 19 deaths under verification and validation, including 16 in Soccsksargen and three in Davao Region. In Soccsksargen, 10 fatalities were reported in General Santos, three in Glan, two in Tupi, and one in Malapatan, Sarangani. The same OCD update mentioned 134 injured, including 129 in Soccsksargen and five in Davao Region, and 12 people missing in General Santos. Castillo said some fatalities were initially reported to have been caused by collapsed structures, falling debris, and landslides. epicenter m7.8 earthquake mindanao philippines june 7 2026 bgz Epicenter of M7.8 earthquake in Mindanao, Philippines on June 7, 2026. Credit: TW/SAM, Google The Department of Public Works and Highways placed the initial property damage in General Santos at about PHP 1 billion. DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon said the running total covered damage to different buildings in General Santos alone, and the department said it would coordinate with local governments to identify critical buildings, conduct damage assessments, and secure structures ahead of possible aftershocks. Around 10 000 families from Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat had been evacuated, and 700 families were affected, according to the OCD-linked GMA update. Search, rescue, and retrieval operations were ongoing. The earthquake generated a 1 m (3 feet) tsunami, with waves monitored in Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani and a 1.4 m (4.6 feet) wave recorded at one time in Kiamba, Sarangani. An 83 cm (2.7 feet) tsunami was reported off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, 30 cm (1 foot) waves in Palau, and waves up to 20 cm (7.8 inches) in parts of Japan. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) said the tsunami threat had largely passed about five hours after the quake, and Philippine officials lifted the warning by mid-afternoon. Six shanties on stilts were damaged in a coastal village in Zamboanga del Sur due to the quake and taller waves, officials told AP. More than 200 aftershocks were recorded by the Philippine seismology agency, including at least nine strong events felt across Mindanao, with the strongest at M6.7. The Department of Energy said it was consolidating reports on power lines, substations, distribution facilities, fuel depots, retail stations, and other energy infrastructure to determine whether facilities had been affected. Updates - 13:00 UTC, June 9: At least 37 people were killed, nearly 500 injured, and more than 32 000 displaced, with only 4 people still officially missing as rescue teams continued searching collapsed and heavily damaged buildings in General Santos. Damage includes about 2 500 houses and 117 government buildings and facilities across several provinces, collapsed buildings and debris in General Santos, toppled power lines and utility posts, damaged schools and hospitals, and continued disruption at General Santos International Airport, where 63 domestic flights were canceled except humanitarian missions. Tsunami waves up to 1.4 m (4.6 feet) were measured in the Philippines. 08:40 UTC, June 10: The death toll has risen to at least 45 people by June 10. The number of injured stands at 487, while 17 people are still missing. NDRRMC figures place 33 deaths in Soccsksargen and 12 in Davao Region. Damage has expanded to more than 3 100 houses, key roads and bridges, over 100 government buildings, General Santos International Airport, and thousands of public school buildings, while more than 25 000 people were displaced. PHIVOLCS recorded more than 2 000 aftershocks by the morning of June 10, complicating rescue work in General Santos, where responders had to withdraw from a damaged grocery during a strong aftershock.

A strong G3 geomagnetic storm is forecast to hit Earth Monday, pushing the northern lights as far south as Illinois and Oregon -- Millions of people across the northern United States could see the aurora borealis Monday night after NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G3 geomagnetic storm watch for June 8, 2026. A coronal mass ejection that erupted from the Sun on June 6 is expected to slam into Earth’s magnetic field during several three-hour windows, driving the planetary K-index to a forecast peak of 6.67 and pushing visible aurora as far south as Illinois and Oregon.The immediate tension behind Monday’s forecast is not just about colorful skies. A Kp of 6.67 sits squarely in the G3 (strong) tier on NOAA’s geomagnetic scale, a level that can trigger voltage corrections on power systems, force satellite operators to adjust drag models, and cause intermittent GPS and high-frequency radio disruptions. According to NOAA’s latest 3-day outlook, periods of G1 through G3 storming are possible throughout June 8, meaning conditions could swing between minor and strong activity across multiple three-hour intervals.That variability matters because the forecast models NOAA relies on tend to smooth out the sharpest spikes in solar-wind coupling. The agency’s OVATION aurora model, for instance, uses the maximum forecast Kp between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. U.S. Central Time to generate its overnight visibility maps. If the CME’s magnetic field orientation turns strongly southward on arrival, real-time Kp readings could briefly exceed the 6.67 forecast ceiling. June events carry particular uncertainty: the long daylight hours at high latitudes compress the observable aurora window, but they do not reduce the geomagnetic impact on infrastructure. Grid operators and satellite controllers must prepare for the forecast peak while knowing the actual peak could arrive faster and hit harder than modeled. The chain of events began June 6, when a coronal mass ejection left the Sun and began racing toward Earth. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center responded by issuing a G3 watch for June 8 and a G2 watch for June 9, signaling that the strongest effects would concentrate on Monday before tapering into Tuesday. The agency outlined these watches in a space weather bulletin that emphasizes the potential for strong geomagnetic disturbances during the first half of the week.The geomagnetic forecast, released at 2205 UTC on June 7, breaks the outlook into eight three-hour windows per day across June 8 through 10, giving forecasters and utility operators a granular schedule of when storm probabilities peak. In that breakdown, the highest chances for G3-level conditions cluster around the late-afternoon to overnight hours Universal Time on June 8, overlapping with evening and nighttime across much of North America.For aurora chasers, the critical hours fall after local sunset on Monday. NOAA’s experimental Aurora Dashboard ties visibility maps directly to the Kp forecast, and at G3 levels the modeled viewline drops to roughly the latitude of northern Illinois and central Oregon. The associated geomagnetic probability table assigns elevated chances of active, minor, moderate, and strong storming across multiple windows on June 8, with probabilities declining but not vanishing on June 9 and 10. That extended tail means the aurora could remain visible, at reduced intensity, for two nights rather than one.

Rocket launches and reentries harm Earth's ozone layer - The space industry is surging. In coming years, nearly 10,000 spacecraft are slated to launch into low-Earth orbit for a variety of purposes, such as global surveillance, space tourism, and satellite "megaconstellations" providing internet service. Rocket engine exhaust, as well as the burnup of inactive satellites and rocket parts reentering Earth's atmosphere, releases a suite of pollutants. These chemicals have long been considered to pose little threat to our climate, given the historically small size of the space industry. Now, the sector's rapid growth will send its emissions skyrocketing—but scientists don't yet have a clear picture of the environmental ramifications. An analysis of rockets by Vliex and collaborators launched in 2022 revealed that spaceflight depletes the ozone layer and contributes to global warming, with a significant portion of this ozone loss attributable to nitrogen oxide emissions released by objects reentering Earth's atmosphere. The researchers calculated emissions from all 186 rockets launched in 2022, as well as all 472 objects—with a combined total mass of nearly 5,000 tons—that reentered the atmosphere that year. They conducted computational simulations of each launch's trajectory and emissions at various altitudes up to 100 kilometers, and they calculated emissions released by object reentry. They also accounted for the effects of chemical reactions that occur in rocket exhaust plumes, which alter emissions' chemical composition. Incorporation of the calculated emissions into GEOS-Chem, a computational model of atmospheric chemistry, revealed their ozone-depleting and Earth-warming effects, with reentry emissions identified as playing a key role in ozone depletion. The researchers found that accounting for plume reactions reduced the estimated effects of spaceflight emissions, highlighting the value of considering plume chemistry in future assessments.The analysis also underscored the varying effects of different rocket fuel types. Solid-state fuels, used recently in rocket boosters for NASA's Artemis II mission to return astronauts to the moon, appeared to cause the greatest amount of ozone depletion relative to propellant mass, while rocket-grade kerosene caused the greatest amount of warming. On the basis of their findings, the researchers call for further research into reentry emissions and rocket plume chemistry as the space industry continues to expand and evolve.

Judge faults EPA for canceling $3B climate grant program - A federal judge in South Carolina has rebuked the Trump administration for locking up billions of dollars in federal climate grants for disadvantaged communities.In an order issued Thursday by the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Judge Richard Gergel found that EPA guidance terminating the grant program violated federal procedural law for “policy reasons.” Congress funded the program through the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.Gergel, however, declined to enter a decision requiring EPA to implement its $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Program.Such a request, he said, “would presumably require ordering EPA to rehire and staff” the program, adding that an order to that effect would be “impractical.”

Policy recommendations in climate-related research often 'an afterthought', analysis finds - Too often, policy recommendations in climate-related research are either an afterthought or stray too far into advocacy, a new analysis has found. Researchers led by the University of Cambridge conducted a systematic review of more than 3,000 scientific papers focused on climate change mitigation and found that recommendations on how to turn science into policy were either nonexistent, failed to account for uncertainty or were "wish lists" disconnected from the study's findings.At a time when trust in institutions is at historic lows and scientists are under increasing pressure to develop solutions for net zero at speed, the researchers say making policy recommendations realistic, relevant and transparent is vital to help improve trust in science while also making it more likely that robust science can be turned into effective climate and energy policy.The team says that although developing meaningful policy recommendations is a vital part of the research process, many scientists are unfamiliar with exactly how policy is developed, which can lead them to make unrealistic recommendations. To improve the quality of these recommendations, the team says training needs to be made available, and funders should include policy reporting as part of the funding process.The researchers have also developed a tool that aims to help scientists develop policy recommendations so that any recommendations are realistic, tangible and tightly linked to the original research. Their results are reported in the journal npj Environmental Social Sciences.The study is part of the AI for Net Zero project, which is looking at how to use AI solutions to help reach net zero and attempts to make research results more accessible to the complex world of policymaking. From an initial group of more than 3,000 publications, they then conducted a more thorough analysis of 23 papers.The analysis identified three main types of problem:

• Levels of uncertainty were rarely disclosed or highlighted
• Advocacy language (e.g. "must be forbidden") would creep in
• Recommendations were disconnected from the study's actual findings (the "wish list")

Danopoulos said that being clear about uncertainty, in particular, is vital to help improve trust."Being clear about the uncertainties, being clear about the trade-offs is so important if we're going to bring our science to the people, industries and governments who will be charged with turning that science into decisions," he said."Highlighting what we don't know is just as important as highlighting what we do know."One of the many challenges in turning science into policy is that while scientists are deep experts in a specific field, many of the people charged with designing policy have much broader remits. If these individuals do not have a fully accurate idea of what the risks and uncertainties are for a particular recommendation, then any resulting policy will be built on dubious foundations.

Inside the campaign to discredit a key climate science report - Oil industry allies are quietly targeting a field of climate research that could cost fossil fuel companies billions of dollars. In the crosshairs is a forthcoming report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that will examine research into the ways corporate climate pollution is intensifying natural disasters. The conservative offensive could weaken the report’s perceived credibility at a time when it threatens to raise the legal jeopardy facing Exxon Mobil and other energy giants that are accused of contributing to fatal catastrophes in dozens of lawsuits, according to lawyers and scientists tracking the cases. The heightened scrutiny — which involves a secretive opposition research group scouring scientists’ emails — has prompted two people to leave the 15-person panel tasked with producing the report. The findings are expected to be released as soon as this month, according to three people who were granted anonymity to speak about the panel’s work. “The goal is to keep attribution science out of court. We see a pattern of that,” said Alice Hill, a former federal prosecutor and California state judge who worked on climate policy in the Obama White House, referring to the conservative effort. “And what is the ultimate reason for that? To shield the fossil fuel companies from liability.” The offensive against what’s known as extreme weather attribution comes as scientists have improved methods for determining how climate pollution from sources like cars and power plants are leading to stronger and longer disasters, such as heat waves and hurricanes. The burgeoning field produces studies showing how corporate giants are supercharging specific catastrophes. Previously, scientists were unable to determine whether a single weather event had been worsened by human-caused climate change. The scientific strides stand to send shock waves through the energy sector. The studies are sporadically being used to help build climate liability cases against oil and gas companies. But lawyers, scientists and insurers expect them to increasingly appear in court filings. The commercial stakes are enormous.  A 2022 analysis from a financial industry forum found that fossil fuel companies could face cumulative losses of “over $100 billion in the most severe litigation outcome,” citing data from the consulting company Verisk Analytics. Since then, more than a dozen new climate liability cases have been filed, including one lawsuit that is seeking more than $51.5 billion in compensation related to a deadly heat wave.The climate lawsuits being pursued separately by cities, states and tribes represent one of the sharpest risks facing oil, gas and coal companies during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to legal experts. Trump has directed his administration to fight the lawsuits, but many of the cases have continued. Now the National Academies report could play an outsize role in the suits by adding legitimacy to the field of attribution science.  In addition to collecting hundreds of emails and other documents from researchers involved in the National Academies report, the effort to find information that could be used to discredit attribution science is being pursued by Republicans lawmakers, think tank analysts allied with energy companies and offshoots of the industry itself. Texas Republican Rep. Brian Babin, chair of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, expressed concern about the report in a letter sent to the National Academies in April, saying it “will likely influence significant litigation and policy decisions.” The National Academies defended the work of the panel, which is made up of academics and federal scientists who have been working on the analysis for more than two years. “We are following our normal, rigorous processes, including peer review, to independently conduct our study on attribution of extreme events, and will release it publicly when that process is complete,” spokesperson William Kearney said in an email. The conservative offensive includes at least nine open records requests sent to public universities where some panel members work, according to documents obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News. They were submitted by Argus Insight, an opposition research firm founded in 2023 by White House aides from Trump’s first term and a former Axios reporter. The firm has a history of gathering materials that legal experts say could be used to weaken climate liability lawsuits targeting fossil fuel companies by making scientists wary of engaging with the litigation. Argus sought the internal communications of the panel’s chair and other members. The firm also requested potential emails the panelists might have exchanged with academics and lawyers who are developing legal strategies that could force oil, gas and coal companies to offset the growing economic toll of climate change. The obscure panel has faced online criticism from the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, and other groups bankrolled by the fossil fuel industry. On the day of its first meeting in 2024, AEI scholar Roger Pielke Jr. published a Substack post accusing the National Academies of engaging in “stealth advocacy in support of climate litigation.” AEI spokesperson Brady Africk said its scholars’ views “are drawn from their own expertise and research, and we protect their ability to work independently.” Pielke told POLITICO’s E&E News that he was calling “things like I see them.” Argus did not respond to questions for this story but has previously defended its use of public records by arguing that taxpayer-supported academics should have nothing to hide.

Sherrill’s rule delay opens new fight over New Jersey coastal development - By delaying a landmark climate change rule meant to protect new development along the Jersey Shore, Gov. Mikie Sherrill has spawned months if not years of fights over coastal development. She appears to be betting that she will come up with a compromise on something that bedeviled her predecessor, fellow Democrat Phil Murphy, for the better part of his time in office. The Murphy administration spent years crafting a rule package to increase regulations to cope with more extreme flooding. The inland rule prompted a feud inside his administration. The coastal rule also took years to complete and he didn’t finalize them until his last day in office. Now, Sherrill is sending herself and lobbyists on both sides of the issue back to the drawing board.

Debate over preservation law tripping up permitting talks - A push from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee to change a landmark law designed to protect Native American cultural treasures and other historic sites has emerged as a major sticking point in permitting reform negotiations. Lee, a Utah Republican, is looking to overhaul the National Historic Preservation Act, created during the post-World War II development boom, arguing it has become a bottleneck to energy project development on federal lands, particularly out West. But Lee’s effort is dividing Democrats, some of whom are wary of taking on a law that is important to tribes and the preservation community. The dispute could threaten a goal of making progress on a permitting deal before the August recess. “We ought to protect the places that show where we came from and who we are. But over the years, a narrow procedural safeguard has evolved into a sprawling, unpredictable process that now delays some of the very projects our country needs to build and maintain,” Lee said during a hearing last year. Spokesperson Jordan Roberts added, “The National Historic Preservation Act has increasingly been used to stall projects indefinitely rather than to preserve sites of genuine historic value.” Whether Lee can help land a compromise with his negotiating partner, ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), is shaping up to be a test for the first-time committee chair and conservative firebrand who has never brokered a major bipartisan legislative bargain. Lee and Heinrich are new to their roles and have starkly different political styles, which has led to them tussling during committee hearings and on social media. Both senators say they are negotiating in good faith. “There are some examples where it [NHPA] has been very challenging [for energy project developers], and so it’s like, how do you find that balance of where you preserve the intent, but make things more predictable and efficient?” Heinrich told POLITICO. Some Democrats are beginning to view NHPA in a similar vein to another better-known procedural law, the National Environmental Policy Act, that is increasingly blamed for stalling projects — including solar, wind and transmission. “It is definitely a legitimate thing to look at,” said a former Hill staffer granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “There are legitimate constituencies that have legitimate values around their historic resources that one has to consider. But as far as, is NHPA posing a problem for the development of energy sources that Democrats care about? Absolutely. That’s beyond dispute, and the problem is meaningful.” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) speaks during a press conference. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) said, “We want to preserve the National Historic Preservation Act.” | Francis Chung/POLITICO Other Democrats, like House Natural Resources member Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, are more skeptical. “Democrats are interested in making these processes work better and quicker, but Republicans try to use the delays that are too long to try to wipe out the underlying law,” she said. “We want to preserve the National Historic Preservation Act. It’s how we preserve places that are valued in terms of who we are as a country look like,” Leger Fernández said, adding the law “doesn’t prevent development” but requires “conversation and communication before you build.”

Supreme Court revives gas industry fight over Biden efficiency regs - The Supreme Court has directed a lower court to rethink a ruling that upheld Biden-era efficiency regulations for commercial water heaters and consumer furnaces. In a short order Monday, the justices directed a federal appeals court in Washington to reconsider its decision “in light of the position” of the Trump administration. In an April brief to the high court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the Department of Energy now holds that the rules at issue in the case “rest on a legal error.” DOE is currently in the process of reviewing efficiency regulations for furnaces and water heaters to determine if they pose an “undue burden” on “domestic energy resources,” Sauer said. He had urged the justices to grant the petition led by the American Gas Association, toss out the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and send the lower bench back to work on the industry challenge — a process known as a GVR. “A GVR would permit the court of appeals to take account of those developments and the Department’s revised position in the first instance, including by potentially holding this case in abeyance pending a new rulemaking,” Sauer wrote. The decision is a win for the American Gas Association and other industry groups, who argued the stricter DOE rules effectively prevent consumers from purchasing noncondensing appliances compatible with existing chimneys and venting systems in their homes and businesses. “We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to protect the American people from this unlawful regulation that would increase costs for families and businesses and ban an entire class of appliances,” The Biden rules would make noncondensing furnaces illegal to manufacture in 2028, requiring homeowners and businesses to make “significant structural modifications” to accommodate condensing appliances, according to the association. The trade groups claimed the Biden-era regulations violated a provision of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act that bars DOE from eliminating certain performance features. In this case, the new rules could only be achieved by condensing appliances that capture more residual heat and are more energy-efficient. Industry groups also claimed the D.C. Circuit’s divided ruling last year upholding the DOE rules violated the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright v. Raimondo. The 2024 decision overturned a legal theory known as Chevron deference that had previously directed courts to generally defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretation of ambiguous laws. The new standard under Loper Bright requires agencies to “exercise independent judgment” when evaluating agency decisions. But the D.C. Circuit’s ruling upholding the DOE regulations revived the Chevron approach, the gas industry groups said in their petition to the Supreme Court. States and advocacy groups defending the Biden-era rules have argued the decision to uphold the rules does not conflict with Loper Bright. They said the matter is a “fact-bound” dispute that has not provoked disagreement among the lower courts that the justices must step in to resolve.

Democratic governors chafe as calls grow louder to reject data centers - Public backlash against the explosive build-out of data centers is raising the stakes for governors — especially moderate Democrats as they set new ground rules but face hardening criticism from within their party for backing the multibillion-dollar projects.Democratic Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey late last month rolled out new standards for the energy-guzzling technology hubs, including measures aimed at protecting electricity ratepayers and the environment. Other governors, like Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, are confronting sharp divisions among fellow Democrats.The New York Legislature on Thursday approved a one-year moratorium on large data centers. If Gov. Kathy Hochul signs it, New York would be the first to impose a statewide pause on development.And on Friday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker hit pause on tax exemptions for new data center proposals as lawmakers in Springfield hammer out a broader policy agreement. Money from the tech industry and jobs for the construction trades made good economic and political sense for governors in past years. But local opposition to data center projects that are pushing deeper into rural areas is complicating pro-business messages and plans for building more of the sprawling high-tech campuses for artificial intelligence. That’s creating new fault lines for Democrats, with candidates on the left attacking party leaders for being too accommodating to Big Tech — and attaching themselves to calls for moratoriums on data center projects and voter concerns about water use, higher utility bills and lucrative industry tax breaks.“Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot politically on this issue,” said Will Lawrence, who’s running in a competitive three-way Democratic primary in central Michigan to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Barrett. “People are desperate for somebody to stand up to Big Tech, to stand alongside communities. They see that Trump and the GOP aren’t doing it,” he said.But it’s a political tightrope. In Illinois, organized labor and environmental interests are on opposing sides after Pritzker’s move to slow development, setting up a clash between Democratic allies. With many of the same tensions buffeting Democrats in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Shapiro and Whitmer say investments from Amazon or OpenAI can fuel their Rust Belt economies. And in Virginia, Spanberger is treading carefully. State leaders have for years sold data center owners on favorable tax treatment and access to the region’s high-tech cables and high-voltage power lines. Northern Virginia is dubbed “Data Center Alley.” Data centers are part of a complex political landscape for sitting governors who chase big corporate whales to locate in their states. They also want a seat at the table as the rules of AI and its infrastructure are written. Republican governors are also grappling with it, even as many of deep-red states seem more accommodating. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed an executive order a week and a half ago that seeks to assuage concerns that large data center projects could take water from the Great Salt Lake and drive up utility bills. And GOP Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio paused tax breaks that go to developers while the state reviews data center growth. Shapiro, who is running for reelection and considered a Democratic contender for president in 2028, has positioned himself at the center of the energy affordability debates raging in the Northeast. Shapiro has sought to make Pennsylvania a leading state for AI and energy infrastructure investment. But he’s also led regional governors in efforts to control rising electricity prices as data centers are built. In the plan he laid out in writing late last month — after first introducing its broad tenets in a speech in February — Shapiro sought to increase community involvement and protect ratepayers. Shapiro’s Republican challenger for governor, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, quickly sought to contrast herself with the governor by calling for a “total data center pause.” “His evolving policies, and many of the updated policies that require more of data centers, are a clear recognition that unbridled support for data centers was not politically a great position to be in,” said Chris Borick, director of the Institute of Public Opinion and professor of political science at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. A February poll of Pennsylvania registered voters by Quinnipiac University found 68 percent said they would oppose building an AI data center in their community. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have put an 18-month moratorium on new data centers, the first statewide ban in the country, despite strong support among Democrats in the Legislature.In her veto message, Mills acknowledged data center impacts on power prices and the environment. But she wanted an exception for projects with certain job and economic benefits.One such project is under consideration in Jay, Maine. “That is Mills’ home area and is an area in desperate need of economic activity and jobs,” noted Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine.Four out of the five Democratic candidates in a race to replace her said at a forum that they would support the moratorium legislation.In New Jersey, Sherrill took her first big step last month toward implementing her campaign promises. Her plan requires data center owners to supply their own power and pay for grid upgrades. She’s also tasking her state agencies with developing noise, light and pollution guidelines. Sherrill’s work could bring much needed balance to the data center debate at a time when dozens of New Jersey municipalities have already acted to ban the facilities, said Laura Matos, a Democratic strategist at MAD Global Strategy Group.The Data Center Coalition, which represents developers and end users, said it is working with governors and legislative leaders, including in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy, warned against state policies that treat data centers differently than other large industrial developers “or impair the competitiveness of responsible data center developers who choose to invest in these states.” In Michigan, Whitmer saw swift pushback last week from some progressive Democrats for appearing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altmanand other executives for a groundbreaking at the site of “The Barn,” a $16 billion data center campus in Saline Township, southwest of Ann Arbor. At the ceremony, Whitmer heralded “the largest economic deal in Michigan history.” She noted it would create 2,500 construction jobs along with permanent high-tech jobs and scientific advancement.“AI will be a big part of America’s future,” Whitmer said. “We are all fueling the need for projects like this with the devices we hold in our hand, in our purse or in our pockets.”“We cannot afford to let other countries dominate future industries like AI,” Whitmer said.But the way the project came about fueled opposition. The local board last year initially rejected a rezoning proposal, and that drew a lawsuit. To avoid the lawsuit, the board reversed itself. OpenAI, Oracle and Blackstone have since pledged money for local programs and a financially strapped recreation center.Lawrence, the Michigan Democrat running for Congress, called Whitmer’s appearance alongside Altman “insulting” to the people of the township and the surrounding region. Lawrence has called for a 12-month moratorium on new data center construction.Whitmer’s office declined to respond to criticism.Another Democratic governor with perhaps the most to lose — and gain — from data centers is Spanberger in Virginia, home to one of the world’s largest AI hubs. Spanberger is battling it out with another Democratic leader over a tax exemption for the facilities. She’s also straddling a fine line between trying to foster a pro-business image and appeasing members of her left flank concerned about local protests over AI.At issue is an existing sales and use tax waiver for data center computer equipment that is keeping almost $2 billion annually out of state coffers. Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, a Democrat, wants to end the state exemption next year and use the money for transportation and other programs. House leaders, who are more aligned with Spanberger’s position, are pushing to keep the exemption intact as planned through 2035.On social media, Lucas has said voters will “cook” the governor if the two Democratic-controlled chambers don’t come to a resolution before a July 1 fiscal deadline.Spanberger has said data centers should pay more, but doesn’t want to end tax incentives early. “There is a path forward that makes sure data centers account for the energy they use without going back on the agreements Virginia has signed with companies,” said Jack Bledsoe, a Spanberger spokesperson. Adding to the pressure are polls showing that more than 60 percent of Virginians support ending the tax exemption.

Natural Gas Turbine Orders Hit 25-Year High on Data Center Boom -  US data centers are drawing so many dollars for natural gas power generation that they threaten to crowd out investment by traditional LNG importers, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). IEA chart shows US grid-connected natural gas power projects leading global sanctioned investments, rising above $60 billion in Q1 2026. At a Glance:

• US data center orders top other countries
• Turbine squeeze hits potential LNG importers
• US natural gas prices retain cost advantage

No Turbine? Data Centers Find Faster Path With Natural Gas Reciprocating Engines -With large-frame natural gas turbines sold out through 2028, data center developers are pivoting to reciprocating engines, which rival turbines in manufacturing scale and proved their speed when xAI powered up a data center with them in a matter of months.Reciprocating engines, a workhorse for off-grid oilfield power, are stepping in as prime equipment at data center campuses that cannot wait years for turbine slots, with a half-dozen suppliers racing to meet demand.Caterpillar, a leading maker of reciprocating engines, has seen its backlog grow more than 3.5x since early 2024. “Our largest customers in the broader data center industry have significantly increased their expectations for capital spending,” said Caterpillar CEO Joe Creed on a 1Q26 earnings call. “That has translated to accelerated order rates for us.”The Irving, TX-based equipment maker is on track to add 15 GW of annual large-engine capacity on top of the 50 GW it had previously targeted by 2030, up from a 2024 baseline of about 25 GW.Not far behind is the Columbus, IN-based Cummins, which last week said it plans to add 20 GW manufacturing capacity to reach 55 GW of total high-horsepower output by 2030. INNIO, maker of the Jenbacher engine brand, recently landed its largest-ever order, a 2.3 GW deal with VoltaGrid. Finland’s Wärtsilä has accumulated 2 GW of US orders since 2025, including a 790 MW order in April for a Texas data center. Rolls-Royce Power Systems is doubling capacity of US-made backup/standby reciprocating gensets, with new output ramping this year. Taken together, the reciprocating engine buildout is approaching the same scale as GE Vernova and Siemens Energy, the two biggest natural gas turbine manufacturers. Both are adding turbine capacity and expect to work through a combined backlog of 200 GW in three to four years.GE Vernova plans to reach 20 GW of annualized heavy-duty gas turbine output in the third quarter, while Siemens delivered more than 3 GW in its most recent quarter, implying an annual run rate of roughly 12–13 GW. The Houston-based VoltaGrid, used by the natural gas industry for oilfield power generation, has become one of the largest players in reciprocating engine-powered data center space. VoltaGrid's Jenbacher-powered modular units and grid supply helped bring Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus data center online from start to finish in 122 days, drawing industry attention to the relatively quick deployment of modular natural gas generation.VoltaGrid has fielded roughly 1.4 GW of generators and is targeting 7 GW by 2030, David Bell, the company’s vice president of data center and microgrid development, said at a conference this spring.The reciprocating engines do not come at a cost disadvantage to turbines, according to Bell. The heat rate for VoltaGrid’s generators, or the amount of energy needed to create electricity, averages around 8,500 Btu/kWh and can sometimes be as low as 7,200 Btu/kWh, Bell said. That compares with the power grid’s average rate of about 8,100 Btu/kWh, accounting for 5% transmission line losses. Older generators are less efficient at more than 10,000 Btu/kWh, he said.For a 200 MW site using 40,000 Dth/d of natural gas at a $2.50/MMBtu cost, the daily bill comes to $50,000, Bell said. A 30% drop in efficiency would increase that cost by $15,000/day. Lower 48 natural gas price benchmark Henry Hub since 2023, roughly the start of the artificial intelligence (AI) data center buildout, has averaged about $2.890/MMBtu, NGI’s Daily Historical Data show.“Our biggest project is 2 GW. Imagine you added an extra three zeros to that,” Bell said. Bell was referring to a deal VoltaGrid announced in October to install 2.3 GW of its modular generators at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure AI data centers. While the sites were not disclosed, Texas regulatory filings show VoltaGrid approved to operate 210 Jenbacher units with a total capacity of 700 MW at a second Stargate site in Shackelford County, TX. Oracle and Vantage Data Centers are developing the site.

Ohio Supreme Court approves natural gas rate hike for Duke Energy customers – WLWT - The Ohio Supreme Court is permitting an increase in natural gas bills for Duke Energy customers across southwest Ohio to go forward.The decision, which was handed down by the court on Friday, comes as Duke Energy officially retired its propane caverns in Cincinnati's East End from use in 2022. This decommissioning took place a month after the company had upgraded its natural gas infrastructure to rely upon new pipelines to transport natural gas to customers throughout the region more efficiently.However, Duke Energy is now looking to recoup the $29 million cost that the company put into decommissioning the caverns, with the amount to be passed down to its approximately 450,000 customers in the region over a span of 10 years.As a result, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, a state public watchdog agency, filed an appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court in October to stop the price hike from going into effect. Now, after months of litigation, the Ohio Supreme Court is ruling in a unanimous 7-0 decision that the Ohio Public Utilities Commission is justified in permitting the price hike from Duke Energy to go forward."Public Utilities Commission did not err in permitting utility to recover from customers through rates the costs associated with retiring its propane caverns," wrote the justices in their decision. "Costs of retiring propane caverns recoverable by utility under R.C. 4909.15(A)(4)."On top of this, another increase in costs could also soon be coming for Duke Energy's electric customers, after the company said that they recently upgraded their energy infrastructure to make it more resistant to power outages.To pay for this upgrade, Duke Energy has a separate planned rate hike that is currently being contested by the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel. That requested rate change, if approved, could see a rate hike as potentially high as 38% for customers' electric bills."This is our first electric rate case that we've filed since 2021," said Duke Energy spokesperson Matt Martin last week in an interview with WLWT. "And since that time, we have made a number of investments in our electric infrastructure and the grid. For example, smart self-healing technology, which has reduced customer outages either altogether or has made them shorter."Duke Energy, a company based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the primary energy supplier for hundreds of thousands of electric and natural gas customers in southwest Ohio.

‘This is not normal’: Trump leans on MAGA organizer to revive coal -   The Energy Department is giving millions to a company partially led by a far-right activist and telecom executive to build the nation’s first coal-fired power plant since 2013. President Donald Trump's hopes of a U.S. coal renaissance relies in part on a company that wants to build a coal plant and carbon capture project in West Virginia.  The man the Trump administration picked to be a key player at the fore of a U.S. coal renaissance is likely more familiar to QAnon circles than energy ones.   TerraSpark’s project carries big promises. The proposed 1.6-gigawatt facility — touted by the Trump administration last week — would be the first new coal-fired power plant built in the U.S since 2013. It vows to infuse up to 1,000 jobs into West Virginia, a state rich in coal-mining history that’s seen its industry wither over the past two decades. But few if any Trump administration energy allies have heard of TerraSpark or Alex Phillips, who is running the company with two other people also lacking coal backgrounds. Even the Republican lawmaker whose district would host the massive coal plant and carbon capture project learned of it just two months before the Energy Department this month agreed to give it $18.5 million of taxpayer dollars to pay for a feasibility and design study. While Phillips has no energy industry experience, he has hovered around Washington politics during the Trump era. The owner of a rural Virginia internet business served on telecommunications advisory boards. He was past president of a wireless internet company trade association that also had a political action committee. And he operated his own PAC, the Great American Patriot Project, that backed candidates who “adhere to the United States Constitution and America First principles.” He made more of a name for himself within the MAGA movement through his American Priority Conference, known as AMPfest. It drew QAnon promoters and personalities like Roger Stone — President Donald Trump is a longtime friend and former client — former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and other MAGA influencers with a history of touting conspiracy theories, particularly the lie that widespread voter fraud cost Trump the 2020 election.AMPfest and Phillips’ American Priority organization have since closed shop, with the last AMPfest held in October 2021 at Trump National Doral in Miami. Before then, however, he became integral enough to MAGA world to secure a speaking spot alongside far-right provocateurs like Alex Jones, Scott Pressler and Jack Posobiec at a rally on the eve of Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, “Save America” event. While Phillips did not end up speaking at that event — according to Mother Jones, which did not report why — he embraced election denier theories from the scene. He also encouraged then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the 2020 election, saying he “needs to step up.”“I think that there’s been overwhelming evidence provided in so many different formats, ways, that any congressman or senator that doesn’t think that there was some kind of irregularity that needs to be looked at in these seven states is just not paying attention or is corrupt,” he told Citizen Media News outside of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Phillips referred questions to a public relations firm, which made another TerraSpark partner, Bill Tolpegin, available for comment. Tolpegin said in a statement that Phillips had no contact with the White House or Energy Department about the grant. Tolpegin said that the company “had no special, unique or otherwise different levels of access, communication with or attention from administration officials.”But Phillips’ latest career act is nonetheless illustrative of Washington politics during Trump’s White House sequel, where allies have often won contracts or jobs.  “This is not normal,” Mike McKenna, an energy lobbyist who worked in the first Trump White House, said of DOE approving federal grants for a company with no track record in the industry. What TerraSpark envisions is complex and expensive. A power plant the size it foresees would likely cost more than $1 billion — and that’s before accounting for technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions as proposed.In addition to Phillips and Tolpegin, who calls himself a “serial entrepreneur,” the company has a third partner, Cory Cipra, a Kansas City-based technology consultant whom Tolpegin said has “a deep background working with utilities.” The company applied for the DOE grant in December and said it will not receive the funding until it comes up with the remaining $21.5 million needed to fund its study.

California Dems push Congress on nuclear waste - A pair of California Democrats expressed frustration Tuesday over Congress’ continued failure to address the nation’s long-term nuclear waste problem, even as lawmakers advance legislation aimed at further streamlining regulations for new reactor projects. Reps. Scott Peters and Doris Matsui, whose districts both contain decommissioned nuclear reactors storing spent fuel, said lawmakers are avoiding the more difficult conversation of finding a permanent disposal solution during an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy hearing. “I think we’re gonna have to make the hard choices that we’ve tried to avoid in Congress,” Peters said. “This kind of material just can’t sit next to the ocean, next to a military base, next to population centers.” Under current law, the Department of Energy is responsible for developing a permanent underground repository for the nation’s nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Ohio Utica Shale Attracted Another $2.9B Investment Jan-Jun 2025 - Marcellus Drilling News - JobsOhio, a private, nonprofit corporation that works on behalf of the state to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio by attracting business, contracts its economic research to Cleveland State University (CSU) to monitor the Utica Shale industry. JobsOhio released the latest CSU twice-a-year report yesterday (full copy below). It shows that Ohio’s shale energy sector drew another $2.9 billion in direct investment between January and June 2025, pushing cumulative investment in the Utica since 2011 to nearly $117.5 billion. All private money! It's massive.

Utica Shale Investments Increased by $2.9B in First Half of 2025 – Youngstown Business Journal Daily  – A new study published by Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Public Affairs and Education shows Ohio’s shale-energy sector attracted approximately $2.9 billion in direct investment between January and June 2025, pushing cumulative investment since 2011 to nearly $117.5 billion. The Shale Investment Dashboard, published twice a year and commissioned by JobsOhio, captures direct spending across the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the industry in Ohio’s Utica/Point Pleasant shale formation. Upstream activities – including drilling, roads, lease operating expenses, royalties and lease bonuses – accounted for approximately $2.7 billion of the total investment during the first six months of 2025.The study found that 113 new wells were drilled during the period. Harrison County led the state with 34 new wells, followed by Carroll County with 21 and Belmont County with 13. Meanwhile, energy companies secured an additional $203.5 million in new or renewed lease agreements from landholders and invested another $1.34 billion in new drilling programs across the basin. While drilling activity declined compared with the second half of 2024, royalty payments increased to approximately $979 million as natural gas prices strengthened and oil production increased, the report says. The report also notes that despite softening oil prices during the period (prior to the war in Iran), production efficiencies – driven in part by artificial intelligence and the Utica’s structural cost advantages relative to other shale plays – are likely to sustain oil-related development. Production data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas also indicates that total gas-equivalent shale production in the first half of 2025 was 4.75% lower than the second half of 2024. This decrease was driven almost entirely by a 7.4% decline in natural gas production; oil production increased by 18.8% over the same time frame. Wells with the highest average oil production during the first half of 2025 were generally concentrated in a corridor angling southwest from western Columbiana County to northern Noble County, data show. Sixteen wells reported oil production greater than 1,500 barrels per day – considered very high – while 24 wells registered high productivity rates of between 1,000 and 1,500 barrels per day. An accompanying map shows that the wells with productivity greater than 1,500 barrels of oil per day were located in Columbiana and Carroll counties during the first half of 2025.  Midstream investment totaled approximately $161.2 million during the first half of 2025, down from $280.1 million in the second half of 2024. Despite this decrease, the report shows continued investment in critical infrastructure supporting Ohio’s energy sector.Spending focused primarily on gathering systems, transportation infrastructure, compression and dehydration facilities needed to support ongoing production and distribution activities. Of this total, an estimated $26.4 million was invested in gathering lines and $134.8 million in compression upgrades. Construction began in 2025 on more than 30 miles of high-pressure intrastate pipeline – multiple projects intended to deliver gas to power generation facilities serving data center demand in central Ohio.Direct downstream investment remained modest in the first half of 2025, totaling approximately $300,000, primarily reflecting the opening of a liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, fueling station in Ohio.The report identifies growing electricity demand – particularly from data centers – as a significant driver of future gas-fueled power generation investment in Ohio.  More than 700 megawatts of utility-scale gas-fired generation received final construction approval from the Ohio Power Siting Board in 2025, including the 200-megawatt Socrates South project, which broke ground in June 2025. Since the first quarter of 2025, more than 2 gigawatts of additional gas-fired generation projects have come before the OPSB for consideration, signaling continued investment opportunities tied to Ohio’s growing energy needs.“In 2025, increased investment into drilling in Ohio’s oil province was the most significant story for Ohio’s oil and gas business,” said Andrew Thomas, director of the Energy Policy Center at Cleveland State. “Oil made up 12% of total Ohio gas-equivalent production by the end of 2025 – up from around 7% in 2024. We can expect to see this trend continue in 2026. However, anticipated new investment into downstream power generation may also soon induce more gas wells to be drilled.” The increase in energy demand – accelerated by future data center development eyed for the state – is also likely to boost investment in the future, said J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio president and CEO.“More than $117 billion in overall investment in shale resources demonstrates the strength of Ohio’s energy economy and the competitive advantage of our natural gas resources,” he said. “As demand for electricity continues to rise, Ohio is well-positioned to support future growth with abundant energy resources, proven infrastructure and a business climate that encourages investment.”

PA DEP Issues Permit for 8-Mile Water Pipe for EQT Shale Drilling -- Marcellus Drilling News - Back in March, MDN alerted you to a potential new water pipeline coming in Lycoming County, PA, for EQT shale drilling (see 3 New PA Water Pipelines Coming to Support More Shale Drilling). The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) advertised for comments on a plan to issue a Chapter 105 Encroachment Permit for an 8-mile-long, 24-inch water pipeline project. Good news: The permit is now issued.

Eureka Resources Charged with 7 Crimes for PA Wastewater Leaks -Marcellus Drilling News - The troubles continue to pile up for Eureka Resources and its now-closed frack wastewater treatment facilities in Pennsylvania — two in Lycoming County and one in Bradford County. In March, the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) assessed two fines against Eureka for violations of cleanup deadlines at two facilities, totaling $100,000 (see PA DEP Fines Eureka Resources $100K for Wastewater Violations). Eureka has not paid the fines, and the DEP has given the company 10 days to pay, “or else.” But that’s not all. PA Attorney General Dave Sunday recently filed seven criminal charges against Eurkea related to its now-closed facility in Bradford County.

FERC Approves PJM Fast-Track Review for 20 Gas-Fired Power Plants -- Marcellus Drilling News - - In February 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a plan by PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest electric grid (which covers all or parts of 13 states, including PA, OH, and WV), to fast-track the addition of new gas-fired power plants (see FERC Approves PJM Plan to Fast-Track New Gas-Fired Power Plants). Then, last October, PJM proposed an even faster fast-track plan to add up to 10 new power generation sources per year for the next two years (see PJM Launches Proposal to Fast-Track New Gas-Fired Power Plants). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved that plan on Tuesday

Talen Files with PJM to Add More Gas-Fired Power in Montour County - Marcellus Drilling News - - Earlier this year, the board of commissioners in Montour County, PA, voted unanimously to reject Talen Energy’s request to rezone empty agricultural land near Talen’s Montour Power Plant for a proposed data center (see Antis Convince Montour County to Reject Talen Data Center Rezoning). The decision followed community concerns stoked by lying groups like Food & Water Watch regarding “potential environmental impacts” on the nearby Montour Preserve. Talen is now informing the board that it will file an application to expand its power generation facility with two new gas-fired power units, with no mention of a data center.

8 New Shale Well Permits Reported for PA-OH-WV Jun 1 – 7-- Marcellus Drilling News - Last week was a disappointing week for new permits issued to drill shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica. The M-U region received just 8 new drilling permits from June 1 - 7, down from 30 permits issued two weeks ago. The main reason for the disappointing low number is that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) reported no new permits issued, which it sometimes does (and then "catches up" in the following week). Last week, Pennsylvania issued 7 permits, and West Virginia issued just 1 new permit. The drillers who received new permits included EQT, Expand Energy, and Vickery Energy. Doddridge County | EQT Corp | Expand Energy | Vickery Energy Partners | Westmoreland County | Wyoming County (PA)

U.S. Propane Stocks Continue to Build at a Slower-Than-Normal Pace | -The EIA reported a 1.1-MMbbl build in U.S. propane/propylene inventories for the week ended June 5, below industry expectations for a 2.3-MMbbl build and the average build for the week of 2.4 MMbbl. Inventory builds since early April have generally been smaller than is typical for this time of year. Total U.S. propane/propylene inventories now stand at 84.5 MMbbl, which is 18.5 MMbbl (28%) above the same week in 2025, 21.1 MMbbl (33%) above the five-year average, and 9.0 MMbbl (12%) above the five-year maximum for the week.

Big Green Lies to Locals in Peekskill re Algonquin Pipe Expansion - Marcellus Drilling News --Big Green groups rallied Tuesday in Peekskill (Westchester County, NY) against Enbridge’s proposed Project Beacon, a natural gas pipeline expansion that would increase capacity on the Algonquin Gas Transmission line. Radicals lied by saying the project would “burden ratepayers” already facing high living costs. How do you figure? Algonquin is a transmission pipeline, and its expansion will be paid for by Enbridge (and its shareholders), not by increasing local utility rates. Yet these liars are never called out for their false statements by the media.

Trump Says Gov. Hochul Welched on Deal to Build Constitution Pipe -- Marcellus Drilling News - Yesterday, President Trump accused New York Governor Kathy Hochul of reneging on her pledge to allow the 125-mile Constitution Pipeline project to be built in the Empire State. The project was canceled in 2020 after New York repeatedly rejected the necessary permits. President Trump brokered a deal with New York Governor Kathy Hochul to resurrect the project last year (see Trump Deal Trades NY Offshore Wind for Constitution, NESE Pipes). She later publicly denied doing a deal to allow pipelines for fear of alienating her nutball left-wing base of voters (see White House Claims NY Gov. “Caved” on Pipelines, Hochul Says No). But everyone knows she DID do a deal. And now, Trump says she’s welching on that deal.

New Pipelines Set to Flow Marcellus Gas to Northeast & New England -- Marcellus Drilling News -   There’s plenty of cheap, abundant, clean natural gas available in the Marcellus/Utica region. One of the biggest challenges (for drillers and landowners) has been moving those molecules to markets that need them, like New York State and New England. Every single inch of a pipeline project in the northeast is fought over, with radicalized environmentalists using lawfare as their favorite tactic to oppose projects. Their resistance is based on the false belief that fossil fuels like natural gas are somehow evil. But even though the enviro-left has done its best, there are several pipeline projects in the works that will flow molecules from the M-U into and through New York and into New England.

Movin’ Out – The Pipeline Projects That Will Move More Natural Gas Through (and Out of) the Northeast --The Marcellus/Utica still has vast amounts of economically recoverable natural gas to supply the ongoing surge in demand from power generators and LNG exporters. But there’s a catch: A significant step-up in Appalachian production can only occur if new pipeline infrastructure is built to transport that incremental gas to where it’s needed. In today’s RBN blog, the third in a series about Northeast gas market dynamics, we begin an analysis of the new pipelines and pipeline expansions being planned to move more gas within — and out of — the U.S.’s largest gas production region.As we said in Part 1, while the dramatic changes happening in Texas and Louisiana have garnered most of the gas market’s attention the past year or two, the Northeast has been quietly evolving in ways that will not only shift flow patterns within the region but also affect flows to the Gulf Coast. New pipeline development is, well, no longer a pipe dream, and, as we detailed in Part 2, gas demand within the Northeast is getting a big boost from the power-generation sector as coal retirements continue and new data centers expect to rely heavily on gas-fired power.Today, we get down to specifics regarding the new pipeline capacity that is being planned to (1) deliver incremental volumes of gas to customers in the Northeast and (2) move increasing amounts of gas to customers outside the region. We’ll start with a look at the pipeline projects aimed at markets in New England, New York and New Jersey, then shift to projects that will transport more gas within the Marcellus/Utica itself, down the Eastern Seaboard and, finally, to the Midwest. We should note up front that there’s some overlap — for example, at least a couple of projects involve moving gas west into Ohio and then down into the Southeast.For years, it has been a largely unfulfilled dream of Marcellus/Utica producers and midstream companies to send more gas into New England. Time and again, proposals to significantly expand pipeline infrastructure into and within the six-state region hit a wall of resistance higher than the Green Monster at Fenway. But elected officials and regulators there have become more open to the idea of brownfield expansions to the existing pipeline grid, if only to reduce the need for diesel-fired power during peak winter demand periods and help replace the output of offshore wind projects being delayed or canceled due to opposition from the Trump administration.In September 2025, Enbridge, owner of the 3.1-Bcf/d Algonquin Gas Transmission (AGT) pipeline system from New Jersey to eastern New England (purple lines in Figure 1 above), sanctioned the development of the AGT Reliable Affordable Resilient Enhancement project — AGT Enhancement for short. The project, scheduled for completion in late 2028, is designed to ease constraints along the 1,130-mile system and increase its capacity during peak-demand periods by 75 MMcf/d. More specifically, Enbridge would:

• Install about 3 miles of new 36-inch-diameter looping pipeline (i.e., parallel piping; yellow boxes) along the AGT system near Burrillville, RI.
• Replace more than 8 miles of existing 16-inch pipeline in Massachusetts’s Norfolk and Worcester counties and Rhode Island’s Providence County with 36-inch pipe (green boxes).
• Add more than 2 miles of 12-inch looping pipeline in Newport County, RI (dark-blue boxes).
• Make software improvements to AGT’s existing compressor station in Cromwell, CT (orange boxes).

In February, Enbridge asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to use its pre-filing process to expedite the project’s review and the commission approved that request. The company’s formal filing for a FERC Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) to build the project is in the works. Also, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has approved the 10-year precedent agreements between AGT and two New England utilities (NSTAR Gas and Eversource Gas of Massachusetts) that underpin the project.It turns out that the AGT Enhancement project is only the opening act for a much larger AGT project that Enbridge is planning. In mid-May, the midstream giant unveiled plans for Project Beacon, which — depending on the results of a simultaneously issued open season — could add another 300 MMcf/d of capacity to the system (and possibly even more) by late 2030 through a series of physical and operational improvements. (Click here for a primer on open seasons.) The company didn’t say, but these may well include replacing existing pipe with larger-diameter pipe, installing looping along parts of the system, and adding compression.Given its potential size and scope, Project Beacon will be a test of how open New England officials are to expanding pipeline capacity in the energy-challenged region. Our bet is that AGT’s likely approach of limiting system improvements to its existing rights of way — combined with New England’s clear need for more inbound capacity — will help the project win needed approvals, though the effort is unlikely to be friction-free. Next we turn to New York, where Williams Cos. has already revived — and recently started building — one major pipeline project it had canceled several years ago and may soon revive another. As we said last October in All We Are Saying ... Is Give (NESE) a Chance, a changing political/regulatory climate in Washington, DC, led Williams to resurrect the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project one year after it had scrapped plans for it after regulatory setbacks in New York and New Jersey. The $1-billion-plus project, which on this go-round secured federal and state approvals without much trouble, is now under construction and scheduled to be completed in Q4 2027. NESE is the latest in a series of enhancements that Williams has been making to its 10,000-mile-plus Transco system (green lines in Figure 2 above), which runs between South Texas and New York City. (We’ll get to others later in this series.) The project involves installing 10 miles of 42-inch pipeline looping along Transco in Lancaster County, PA (dashed aqua line labeled #1); a 3.4-mile, 26-inch onshore loop of the Lower New York Bay Lateral (LNYBL) in Middlesex County, NJ (dashed aqua line labeled #2); and a 23-mile, 26-inch offshore loop of LNYBL (dashed aqua line labeled #3). That last segment will run to the offshore Rockaway Transfer Point, an existing interconnection between the LNYBL (long green line under New York Harbor) and the Rockaway Delivery Lateral (short green line from eastern end of #3 to long, narrow Rockaway Peninsula). The Rockaway lateral connects to National Grid’s gas distribution system in Brooklyn. Also planned are additional compression at a station in Chester County, PA, and a new 32,000-horsepower compressor station in Somerset County, NJ (blue-and-white pentagon labeled #4). The overall project will provide 400 MMcf/d of firm transportation capacity to gas utility National Grid’s service territory in three of New York City’s five boroughs (Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens) and Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties. As we just said, Williams is also trying to breathe new life into another New York project: the Constitution Pipeline. The 125-mile, 650-MMcf/d project was approved by FERC in 2014 but denied a New York water-quality permit in 2016 and effectively canceled in 2020. The greenfield pipeline (dashed yellow line in Figure 3 above) would run from the dry-gas Marcellus production area in northeastern Pennsylvania to Schoharie County, NY — just west of Albany — crossing the Millennium Pipeline (dark-red line) along the way and ultimately tying into the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP; orange lines) and Iroquois Pipeline (magenta line), which bring gas east and south to Massachusetts, Connecticut and Long Island.The Constitution project’s prospective revival faces two significant challenges, however, and its fate is uncertain. One is that the state of New York is opposing Williams’s December 2025 request that FERC reissue the project’s CPCN. The other is that, unlike the NESE project, whose development was based on the needs of one gas utility in a single state, the Constitution project would require long-term commitments from multiple gas buyers in two or more states.In an upcoming blog, we’ll discuss pipeline projects now underway that will enhance flows across Pennsylvania, down the Eastern Seaboard, and into the Midwest.

Advocates ramp up pressure on Lamont to reject pipelines, citing economic data -- Hoping to put pressure on Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration to reconsider the state’s longtime reliance on natural gas, environmental advocates are zeroing in on one aspect that’s particularly salient in an election year: affordability. A report released this week by two economists with the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut — conducted on behalf of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters — argues that past efforts to increase the use of natural gas in the state resulted in costly infrastructure upgrades that were passed on to customers, without any decrease in the price of fuel.In addition, the report blames the state’s existing gas-fired power plants for worsening local air quality while exporting large amounts of electricity to other New England states. A copy of the report was shared with the Connecticut Mirror last week, ahead of its publication on Tuesday. The report was also shared with the governor and lawmakers.The report largely focuses on the impact from policies put in place under Lamont’s predecessor, Gov. Dannel Malloy, to expand access to natural gas pipelines to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. “Frankly, we didn’t get a good deal,” said Fred Carstensen, the director of CCEA and one of the report’s authors. “The expansion of natural gas led to the kind of development in which we bear the cost, but we got no benefit, essentially. So that raises the question of why, in the last year or two years, has there been a discussion of expanding natural gas further in Connecticut? It didn’t help us the first time around.” The report comes at a time when several New England governors, including Lamont, have embraced the possibility of expanding gas pipelines in order to address the region’s soaring energy prices. Much of their interest has to do with gas that is burned to fuel power plants, supplying more than half the region’s power. Connecticut, like the rest of New England, gets all of its gas shipped in from other states through pipelines or, to a lesser extent, by ship. The region’s existing pipeline network operates at or near capacity, so expansion would be necessary to meet growing demand and help lower prices, supporters say. In a statement on Tuesday, Lamont called the report a “timely and important study,” but did not renounce his past support for an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that includes natural gas.“Lasting affordability cannot be achieved through volatile fossil fuels alone, and the green energy technologies outlined in this report will drive down electricity costs while positioning Connecticut as a leader in the clean energy economy,” Lamont said.He continued, “My administration remains committed to growing Connecticut’s green economy, especially by strengthening offshore wind, to build a cleaner, more resilient grid, reduce our dependence on gas, and deliver long-term rate relief for Connecticut families and businesses. The only sustainable path to lower rates and greater energy independence is a diverse, locally sourced energy portfolio.” Rising demand for natural gas has exacerbated Connecticut’s energy issues and led to higher prices, the CCEA report argues. Power plants were responsible for much of that increased demand. The amount of natural gas burned to create electricity climbed by more than half. And three new gas-fired power plants have been built or expanded in Connecticut over the last decade, the report noted.The report argues that because Connecticut is a net exporter of electricity, it has to bear more of the environmental and health-related costs associated with pollution from gas-fired plants, while much of the electricity produced is sent to power homes in states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In addition, it argues that a reliance on natural gas makes Connecticut vulnerable to occasional price spikes caused by global events such as the wars in Ukraine and Iran.The report acknowledges some benefits from the shift toward natural gas in the last decade, most notably the closure of the state’s last coal-fired power plant, Bridgeport Harbor Station, in 2021. But other benefits that were once touted as part of the push for more natural gas — such as ending the reliance on fuel oil to heat homes and businesses — have not come to fruition. The share of Connecticut homes that rely on oil as their primary source of heat has fallen by around 18% in the last decade, according to U.S. Census data. But the data indicates that much of the shift over that time period has been toward electric heating, while the number of homes relying on gas has increased only slightly.

Why Are Natural Gas Traders Expecting More New England Price Risk?- Key Northeast natural gas hubs are diverging from a weaker Henry Hub forward curve, a sign traders remain wary of regional supply risks even after new capacity additions. Chart showing Algonquin Citygate forward natural gas basis curves through mid-2028, with winter premiums peaking above $15/MMBtu.     At a Glance:
Data centers add gas demand
Higher oil prices raise risks
Northeast hubs diverge from benchmark

4th Circuit Judges Explain Why They Won’t Block MVP Southgate - Marcellus Drilling News - -The same three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit who blocked the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for *years* suddenly changed course in late April, ruling on an extension of MVP into North Carolina called Southgate. Big Green, represented by the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, sued to block a permit issued by North Carolina regulators for the Southgate project. While the three judges grumbled and complained about Southgate during oral arguments (see 4th Circus Clown Judges Badmouth MVP Southgate in Oral Arguments), a day later, they surprised everyone by lifting a previous “stay” imposed on building the project (see Surprise! 4th Circus Clown Judges Allow MVP Southgate Construction). The three have just issued a lengthy explanation for their April decision to lift the stay.

FERC Overhauls Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting as Demand Strains Capacity - Federal regulators have proposed the first major revision to a blanket certificate program for natural gas pipelines in two decades, clearing the way for interstate operators to build larger projects without case-by-case approval as LNG and data center demand rises.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday proposed expanding the scope and scale of projects pipelines can build under its blanket certificate program, which avoids a full review under Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (Docket No. RM25-12-001).The blanket program covers certain routine projects including compressor upgrades, pipeline looping and new metering. The program was last updated in 2006. ERC has proposed raising the automatic authorization ceiling to $30 million from $14.5 million. The ceiling for prior-notice projects, which require a 60-day protest window, would climb to $86 million from $41.1 million. The proposal also adds new categories of work including facility abandonments, in-fenceline expansions and receipt points.The changes “should dramatically accelerate construction by cutting through red tape,” FERC said.“We’re not cutting any corners here, and we never have,” FERC Chairman Laura Swett said in a briefing. “Projects identified as high risk will continue to undergo comprehensive review. Our blanket program has achieved strong results, but we must continually update it to reflect changes in the energy sector.”The proposal lands as pipeline capacity struggles to keep pace with demand growth. Surging LNG feedgas demand and data center load have left takeaway capacity tight across major basins, contributing to sharp price swings, from negative prices at the Permian Basin’s Waha hub to triple-digit spikes in the Southeast and Northeast during winter cold.FERC cited the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s latest long-term assessment, which found 13 of 23 assessment areas plan to add natural gas-fired generation over the next decade. The areas have 53 GW of new winter capacity in planning queues.The program’s cost caps, meanwhile, have lagged construction inflation. FERC cited an analysis by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, showing the median cost to build a pipeline rose about 257% per inch-mile between 2006 and 2024, while compression costs climbed roughly 173% per horsepower. The program’s limits rose only about 50% over the same span.Not all of the 17 comments submitted in response to FERC’s June 2025 notice of inquiry backed looser limits. The American Public Gas Association urged regulators to keep full Section 7 review for larger projects, while the Natural Gas Supply Association sought guardrails ensuring blanket projects carry no more than a minor rate impact. The Environmental Defense Fund opposed raising the caps outright, citing its review of pipeline filings that put the average blanket project cost at about $3.3 million in 2024, far below current limits.FERC said the revisions preserve the program’s founding principle: blanket authority covers only projects “modest in scale and routine in nature” that would not unjustifiably raise customers’ rates.The blanket certificate program does not cover LNG export terminals, which FERC authorizes separately under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act. The agency is pursuing a parallel streamlining effort for that sector.In a separate order, FERC pushed the deadline for projects built under a temporary waiver of the cost limits to May 31, 2028. The extension provides regulatory certainty while the rulemaking is finalized, FERC said.The moves track a broader Trump administration push to compress federal permitting timelines for energy infrastructure.

Trump’s Jones Act Waiver has Resulted in 0 Domestic LNG Shipments -- Marcellus Drilling News - - On March 18, President Trump issued a 60-day waiver pausing the enforcement of the Jones Act (see President Trump Issues 60-Day Waiver of Jones Act, Includes LNG). For *years* we have railed against the 106-year-old Jones Act and its requirement that any goods (like LNG) transported from one U.S. port to another be carried on a ship manufactured in the U.S., owned by a U.S. company, and crewed by a U.S. crew. The effect of this law in the modern age is to ban LNG (and other shipments, like gasoline, propane, coal, and other products manufactured in the U.S.) from being shipped cheaply from port to port. Trump recently extended the waiver another 90 days, until mid-August.

Venture Global Advancing CP2 LNG Construction, Expansion Project - Venture Global has filed another application at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to significantly expand its LNG output. At a Glance:

• Company wants to add 11.7 Mt/y
• Filed for Plaquemines expansion too
• CP3 under consideration

What’s Left – Delfin Floating LNG Joins the Growing List of Gulf Coast Projects Reaching FID | RBN Energy  --Three new U.S. LNG projects have reached a positive final investment decision (FID) this year: Venture Global’s CP2 Phase 2, Caturus’s Commonwealth LNG and now, most recently, Delfin Midstream’s Delfin LNG, which will be the U.S.’s first floating LNG (FLNG) project. These three FIDs are the tail end of the incredible wave of development that began in 2025, when six projects got the green light. Together, the 2025 and 2026 FIDs will add nearly 17 Bcf/d of LNG export capacity to the U.S. Gulf Coast, pushing the total to around 33 Bcf/d. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at this tsunami of development, focusing on Delfin LNG.In Part 1, we looked at the latest round of sanctioned U.S. LNG project development, which began in April 2025 with a surprising FID on Woodside’s Louisiana LNG. At the time, the project had almost no commercial sales backing it, a divergence from how U.S. projects are typically developed. Following that, there were a number of more traditional FIDs from Cheniere Energy, Venture Global, Sempra and NextDecade. In May of this year, Caturus took FID on Commonwealth LNG, which will be the U.S.’s 14th LNG export terminal. The project will have six liquefaction trains for a total capacity of 9.5 million tons per annum (MMtpa; 1.3 Bcf/d), about 85% of which is secured by long-term offtake agreements.Today, we turn our attention to Delfin LNG, which was given its official green light on June 3. Delfin LNG will be located about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Cameron Parish, LA, in the U.S. Gulf. Delfin LNG will include up to three independent FLNG vessels, each of which would be 4.4 MMtpa (0.6 Bcf/d). Only the first vessel, FLNG 1, has taken FID; development of the other two vessels is unlikely to move forward in the near term. The project is backed by long-term offtake agreements with Vitol, Expand Energy (formerly Chesapeake and Southwestern), Centrica and Gunvor Group (see Figure 1 below). The largest offtaker is Vitol, which is also an equity investor in the project. The project previously had an offtake agreement with Hartree Partners, but that was canceled in April, prior to the FID. In total, nearly 90% of FLNG 1’s capacity is secured in binding offtake agreements. In addition to Vitol, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP, part of BlackRock), Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Diameter Capital Partners have also invested in the project. The Delfin project (see rendering in Figure 3 below) was originally proposed in 2013 but has faced a number of regulatory challenges over the years. It filed with federal regulators in 2015, but instead of facing the well-known Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) review process, it is governed by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) because of its offshore location. It is the first (and so far only) LNG project to go through the lengthy MARAD review process. It received an initial Record of Decision in 2017 but did not get its final deepwater port license until March 2025. More recently, the project also faced a delay after a February 3 explosion during a routine cleaning and inspection of the UTOS pipeline near Holly Beach and Johnson Bayou in Louisiana. According to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHSMA) preliminary findings, the incident was caused by a cleaning pig impacting a closed valve. PHSMA issued a Corrective Action Order requiring an independent third-party investigation of the incident, a submittal of plans for remedial work across the full pipeline segment, and hydrostatic testing before any restart. Vitol said the project’s FID would have come earlier if not for the incident. Delfin will have to work on the repairs while the project is under construction, but first LNG is not planned until 2030.Delfin has touted the benefits of an offshore terminal, including its minimal environmental impact and compact design compared to its onshore counterparts. It will additionally circumvent potentially congested onshore ports, a growing concern as LNG export capacity on the Gulf Coast increases. However, this technology is untested in the U.S. and FLNG projects elsewhere have faced operational issues or more frequent outages compared to the majority of U.S. onshore terminals. Shell’s Prelude FLNG off the coast of Western Australia, the world’s first FLNG terminal, has had frequent outages since its startup in 2019. New Fortress Energy’s (NFE) Fast LNG terminal in Altamira, Mexico, faced a number of issues during its startup. Altamira has also had much larger feedgas losses than typical for LNG terminals, leading to expensive engineering fixes that have not resulted in the hoped-for performance improvements. NFE recently filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy, asking U.S. courts to support a restructuring plan already underway through the U.K.’s High Court rather than filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Neither of these projects are direct one-to-one comparisons to Delfin, but they illustrate the problems faced elsewhere.Delfin will be the first offshore terminal in the U.S., adding 4.4 MMtpa (0.6 Bcf/d) of export capacity and taking the U.S. to 33 Bcf/d by the early 2030s. The topline number could still climb modestly higher this year, as we mentioned in Part 1, as Texas LNG is fully permitted and commercialized and could move forward. Beyond this year, there is still appetite for more U.S. LNG, and developers are pushing hard. Venture Global and Cheniere have both filed with FERC to permit additional expansion projects. Cheniere’s next project, Sabine Pass Train 7, is fully commercialized and early construction has already begun, even though it does not yet have its final FERC authorization. The project is likely to move forward in 2027, or when it receives FERC approval. Cheniere also has further expansions at Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi in the FERC process, but those would be for consideration further down the road. Likewise, Venture Global has expansions at Plaquemines and the under-construction CP2 early in the FERC process.Beyond the U.S., export capacity is ramping up in other parts of North America. LNG Canada began service last summer and is expected to decide on Phase 2 of the project later this year. Phase 2 would double the terminal’s capacity from 14 MMtpa (1.85 Bcf/d) to 28 MMtpa (3.7 Bcf/d). Early construction began in June under a Limited Notice to Proceed (LNTP), indicating that a positive decision is very likely. If that project moves forward, Canada will have an export capacity of 33.4 MMtpa (4.4 Bcf/d) between LNG Canada and two other terminals currently under construction, Woodfibre and Cedar LNG. In Mexico, in addition to the operational Altamira LNG, Sempra’s ECA LNG in Baja California is currently commissioning and began producing LNG earlier this month. The project has not yet exported its first cargo. Combined, Mexico will soon have an export capacity of 4.65 MMtpa (0.62 Bcf/d). There are a handful of projects under development in Mexico, including a second FLNG vessel at Altamira, which was already under construction but has faced delays and may be canceled because of NFE’s restructuring. All terminals proposed or operating in Mexico use U.S. natural gas (primarily from the Permian) as the feedgas source. Despite the abundance of gas in the basin, pipeline connectivity within Mexico has hamstrung the development of larger LNG export terminals.Combined, North America will be able to export at least 268 MMtpa (35.5 Bcf/d) by early next decade. While growth in that topline number may be slowing, for now, it is extremely unlikely we’ve seen the last project move forward. Canadian projects rely on Canadian production, so the impact on U.S. gas markets will be limited, but capacity additions along the Gulf Coast and in Mexico create additional demand for the U.S, putting upward pressure on U.S. natural gas prices.

Caliche Advances Natural Gas Storage Buildout as LNG Demand Climbs - Caliche Development Partners III has sanctioned 17 Bcf of new salt cavern capacity at its Golden Triangle Storage complex in Beaumont, TX, positioning it to serve surging feedgas demand from LNG terminals at its doorstep. At a Glance:

• Golden Triangle adds 17 Bcf
• LNG anchors storage demand
• Full buildout tops 60 Bcf

Sempra Announces In-Service of Port Arthur LNG Pipeline Connector -- Marcellus Drilling News - Sempra Infrastructure announced that its Port Arthur Pipeline Louisiana Connector has entered service, marking progress on U.S. energy infrastructure aimed at supplying global natural gas markets. CEO Justin Bird said the project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. The pipeline will transport up to 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of U.S. natural gas, including Marcellus/Utica gas, to Port Arthur LNG Phase 1, which is now under construction with a nameplate capacity of about 13 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). The project links with the Gillis Hub Pipeline and the LA Storage facility under construction. It includes 72 miles of 42-inch pipeline and a compressor station.

Port Arthur LNG Feedgas Pipeline Enters Service Ahead of Schedule - Sempra Infrastructure said Tuesday that the feedgas system for its Port Arthur LNG project has been placed into service ahead of the export plant’s first phase startup expected next year. At a Glance:

• 2 Bcf/d system boosts regional takeaway
• First two trains due online by 2028
• Second phase moving ahead

Golden Pass LNG Ramp Stumbles, Clouding Natural Gas Demand Growth Outlook - Golden Pass LNG’s first train has yet to find its footing nearly two months after shipping an inaugural cargo, with feedgas flows averaging a fraction of rated capacity as unplanned maintenance hampers the ramp-up. NGI chart comparing Henry Hub natural gas prices with Golden Pass LNG feed gas deliveries, showing rising flows as the export facility ramps up.  At a Glance:
Train 1 averages just 159 MMcf/d
Maintenance limits pipeline deliveries
Train 2 may take feedgas in November

Rising LNG Project Costs Give US Incumbents Leg Up to Advance Major Expansions - The Iran war is driving momentum for US LNG exports, but it’s pushing up project costs in a way that’s jeopardizing upstarts trying to develop new plants and positioning incumbents flush with cash to lead the next wave of supplies with brownfield expansions. At a Glance:

• Greenfields at a disadvantage
• Conflict driving project momentum
• Existing sites offer more room

Haynesville Production Rising After Lackluster Month in May -  Haynesville production is beginning to climb again as spring maintenance winds down, with LNG demand expected to rebound as the Freeport facility restarts and Golden Pass commissioning advances.Haynesville production averaged 16.7 Bcf/d for the week ending June 8, up 0.15 bcf/d from the previous week (see dark green line below), driven by higher production in Louisiana. Production in Texas was relatively unchanged, with offsetting changes on individual pipelines. While spring maintenance is not fully complete, activity is winding down and should allow flows to strengthen as summer approaches. Flows on Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) rebounded last week following maintenance‑related restrictions over the past few weeks, according to our NATGAS Haynesville Report. The pipeline still has some work ongoing, but that is scheduled to end later this week. Flows on Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG) and DTE’s Louisiana Energy Access Project (LEAP) were also up last week, while flows on Gulf Run Pipeline and Tiger Pipeline were down. Gulf Run also had maintenance ongoing last week that has since ended. The pipeline's final planned spring maintenance period is from June 15 to 20, affecting the Vernon compressor station in Jackson Parish. Spring pipeline maintenance is winding down and LNG feedgas demand is expected to rise, which should drive Haynesville production higher this month.

Natural Gas News: Storage Surplus Limits Breakout as Cooler Forecasts Weigh - July Nymex natural gas fell 8.2 cents on Monday. Down 2.54%. Hit a one-week low. Weather killed last week’s rally. Cooler revisions in the 8-to-13-day forecast window gave sellers everything they needed. Production is still running near records. Storage is comfortable. The only thing holding this market up was heat. The forecast pulled it back and the floor moved with it. At 07:00 GMT Tuesday, July Nymex natural gas was trading at $3.147. Unchanged in the pre-market.  July natural gas futures are unchanged early in the session on Tuesday. Yesterday’s price action suggests traders are still showing respect for the 50-day moving average at $3.122.The higher-top, higher-bottom chart pattern suggests there is still an upside bias, but the weakness in the minor trend is pressuring momentum. This type of set-up usually leads to a sideways trade. It will be sideways to higher if heat returns to the forecast, but sideways to lower if temperatures remain comfortable and supply rises.  As for today, trader reaction to the 50-day moving average at $3.122 sets the tone.  The swing chart has also created a support zone at $3.145 to $3.085. If the latter fails then look for support at $2.978, $2.951, and $2.893 to come into play. On the upside, pivot prices at $3.187 and $3.248 are potential headwinds but also trigger points for accelerations to the upside. Vaisala revised the outlook Monday. Cooler temperatures across the eastern two-thirds of the country for June 13-17. The June 18-22 window lost heat too. Those are the exact weeks this market was leaning on for strong cooling demand. The bid disappeared the moment that revision hit. This week is still hot. NatGasWeather has a ridge building across the southern, central, and eastern United States. Highs in the 80s and 90s for most of the country. The Southwest pushes into the 100s. Chicago and the Ohio Valley could touch the 90s by mid-week. That is real air conditioning load. The Edison Electric Institute backs it up. U.S. Lower-48 electricity output for the week ended May 30 climbed 6.4% from a year earlier to 81,619 GWh. Power demand is not the problem. The problem is that none of this week’s heat is a surprise. Traders already own it. They sold Monday because the weeks they did not own yet got cooler. The June 13-22 revision is the trade. Not this week’s thermometer. The 95 bcf build for the week ended May 29 came in below what anybody expected. The Street had 99. The five-year average was 101. That is a bullish print on paper. The problem is what sits underneath it.U.S. inventories are still 5.7% above the five-year seasonal average. Down just 0.8% year-over-year. Nobody is worried about running short domestically. The cushion is real. Europe does not have that luxury. European gas storage stood at 42% full as of June 6. Should be closer to 57% by now based on seasonal norms. Fifteen percentage points below where they need to be heading into summer restocking. That gap is why U.S. LNG cargoes keep moving at strong rates. Europe is buying everything it can get. Domestic storage tells one story. The European deficit tells the opposite one. Both are trading at the same time.LNG feedgas demand is doing the work that weather is not. Estimated net flows to U.S. export terminals hit 17.6 bcf per day Monday. Up 4.0% from the prior week. Every barrel of gas that goes onto an LNG tanker is a barrel that does not sit in domestic storage. At 112 bcf per day of production that matters.The global shortage is real. The Strait of Hormuz closure has choked off Middle Eastern natural gas exports. Europe and Asia are scrambling for replacement cargoes. Qatar reported extensive damage at Ras Laffan Industrial City on March 19. The world’s largest natural gas export plant. Iran’s attacks took out 17% of the facility’s LNG export capacity. Repairs could take three to five years. Ras Laffan handles roughly 20% of global LNG supply. That outage is not a headline anymore. It is a structural hole in the global market. U.S. exporters are filling it. That floor underneath July Nymex natural gas is not going away even on cooler domestic forecasts.Production keeps growing into a market that needs heat to absorb it. BNEF had Lower-48 dry gas output at 112.1 bcf per day Monday. Up 3.7% year-over-year. Near record territory. The Energy Information Administration made it worse. Raised the 2026 production forecast to 110.61 bcf per day from the April estimate of 109.60. The supply side is not cooperating with the bulls. Baker Hughes reported one rig came off the count last week. Total active natural gas rigs dropped to 124 for the week ending June 5. Down from the 2.5-year high of 134 in late February. Still sitting well above the 94-rig low from September 2024. One rig does not change the supply picture. Output this heavy means every rally that is not driven by sustained heat runs out of room fast. Sellers know that. It is why follow-through on hot weather spikes has been short-lived all year.

US natural gas futures rise as demand outlook strengthens (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas ​futures edged up about 1% on Wednesday on forecasts for hotter-than-normal weather and more demand over the next two weeks ‌than previously expected. Front-month gas futures for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 4.5 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $3.185 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). On Tuesday, the contract closed at its lowest level since May 27 for a second day in a row. Financial group LSEG said average gas output in the U.S. ​Lower 48 states has fallen to 108.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in June, down from 109.7 bcfd in ​May and a monthly record high of 110.6 bcfd in December 2025. The average so far for June ⁠is lower than the figure on Monday. Analysts said mild weather during the spring allowed energy firms to stockpile more gas than usual. But they ​noted recent output declines likely reduced the surplus of gas in inventory to around 5.6% above normal during the week ended June 5, down ​from about 5.7% above normal in the previous week. Meteorologists forecast the weather will remain mostly warmer than normal through June 24, which should boost the amount of gas that power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. About 40% of U.S. power generation comes from gas-fired plants. LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 ​states, including exports, would rise from 103.2 bcfd this week to 104.0 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were higher than LSEG's outlook on ​Tuesday. Average gas flows to the nine big U.S. LNG export plants have fallen from 17.1 bcfd in May to 16.5 bcfd so far in June due to ‌ongoing ⁠spring maintenance at several plants, including ExxonMobil/QatarEnergy's Golden Pass facility and Freeport LNG's plant in Texas. Those flows compare with a monthly LNG feedgas record high of 18.8 bcfd in April.

Low Permian NatGas Price Causes Some Oil Drillers to Shut In Wells - Marcellus Drilling News - Here's a story that may, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with the Marcellus/Utica. Au contraire! The story of what's happening with Permian drillers has a great deal to do with the M-U region. Although MDN frequently refers to the Haynesville Shale as the #1 competitor to the M-U because both plays target natural gas as the primary hydrocarbon, would it surprise you to learn that the Permian basin is the #2 producer of natural gas behind the M-U? And it's catching up. Permian Basin drillers are experiencing starkly contrasting fortunes, reaping historic profits from war-driven oil price rallies while facing negative regional natural gas prices due to severe pipeline bottlenecks. To curb financial losses from associated gas, major producers like Permian Resources and Devon Energy are shutting in wells, while others resort to flaring to maintain more profitable crude production.

Waha Gas Reaches Least Negative Price Since February  -Outright Waha cash prices averaged negative $1.16/MMBtu during the week ended June 8 according to data from Bloomberg. This is $0.64/MMBtu higher than the average price during the week ended June 1. Although they are still below zero, this is the highest prices in the basin have been since February as summer demand picks up. Prices are expected to recover further once new takeaway capacity comes online later this year. The price increase came as overall outflows from the Permian Basin were up week-on-week, driven by higher outflows to the West. Outflows to the West averaged 2.6 Bcf/d, up 0.3 Bcf/d week-on-week with higher flows on both El Paso and Transwestern. As seen in the chart above, Westbound flows are higher than they were at this time during the last two years. Eastbound flows from the Permian were stable at 12.9 Bcf/d. A bump to Eastbound flows is anticipated as an expansion on Gulf Coast Express is expected to be the first of the major projects due online this year. There is currently no indication that the project is online, but it could be coming any day. The project will expand the capacity of Gulf Coast Express, which began service in 2019, by 0.57 Bcf/d.

Permian Basin Natural Gas Oversupply Narrative Starts to Crack --Permian Basin forward natural gas prices surged over the past month as traders appeared to reassess the extent of future basin oversupply amid growing demand, improving cash prices and upcoming pipeline expansions that offered a more constructive outlook for the region. NGI Forward Look chart shows Waha natural gas forward prices rising from negative summer levels to winter 2026-27 highs near $3.50/MMBtu. At a Glance:NGI’s Forward Look data show Waha fixed forwards posting some of the strongest gains in the country, with the largest increases concentrated in the summer and shoulder-season portions of the curve.Despite the recent rally, Waha remains one of the most discounted hubs in North America. Friday fixed forward data for Thursday trade showed the balance-of-summer 2026 strip averaging negative $1.007/MMBtu, compared to Henry Hub at $3.243. However, Waha winter 2026/27 pricing averaged $2.636, reflecting expectations for stronger seasonal demand and improving takeaway capacity.The stark difference between the summer and winter strips highlights how strongly the market continues to differentiate between near-term infrastructure constraints and longer term expectations. While Waha's balance-of-summer strip remains deeply negative, winter pricing reflects growing confidence that additional takeaway capacity and demand growth will improve basin fundamentals.Although July New York Mercantile Exchange futures settled Friday up 0.5 cents at $3.290, following Thursday’s 19.0 cent gain, the broader upward shift in the Waha forward curve suggested traders may be increasingly focused on whether growing demand and additional takeaway capacity can absorb rising Permian production.“With most new drilling still focused on oil, we aren’t expecting a large increase in gas production, so stronger summer demand could result in very low storage injections,” Tradition Energy analyst Gary Cunningham told NGI.Although the US Energy Information Administration expects Permian Basin natural gas production to increase to about 30.2 Bcf/d by December from roughly 29.2 Bcf/d in July, traders increasingly appear focused on whether growing demand and additional takeaway capacity can absorb that output.Baker Hughes and Enverus rig data for the week ended May 22 offered a mixed signal. US oil-directed rigs increased by 10 week/week to 425, while natural gas-directed rigs fell by three to 125. Permian activity rose by four rigs to 250 but remained below year-earlier levels of 279, suggesting production growth continues, but not at the pace seen during previous expansion cycles.Recent gains have not been limited to the forward market. Waha cash prices have also recovered from some of the steep discounts recorded earlier this year, when maintenance events and infrastructure constraints periodically pushed the hub sharply below Henry Hub. NGI’s Daily Datafeed showed Waha averaging negative $1.100 Thursday, with trades ranging from negative $1.500 to negative 80.0 cents/MMBtu. While still below zero, the hub has improved markedly from spring lows that approached negative $5 during periods of maintenance-related congestion.The improvement comes as spring pipeline maintenance begins to wind down and as demand continues to expand from LNG exports, Mexico exports and power generation.For years, traders viewed the Permian as chronically oversupplied because production growth routinely outpaced available takeaway capacity. That dynamic frequently drove Waha cash prices into deeply negative territory and weighed heavily on forward pricing.However, the combination of stronger demand growth, recovering cash prices and additional pipeline capacity under development appears to be prompting the market to reassess just how oversupplied the basin may be over the next several years.Projects including Kinder Morgan’s Gulf Coast Express expansion, Blackcomb Pipeline and Energy Transfer’s Hugh Brinson Pipeline are expected to add about 6 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity beginning in late 2026 and beyond. The shift comes as LNG demand continues running near record highs. Wood Mackenzie recently estimated US LNG feedgas demand near 18–19 Bcf/d, with export facilities operating near capacity and additional demand growth expected from Golden Pass LNG and Mexico’s Energia Costa Azul LNG project. Stronger global gas prices, expanding LNG exports and rising power-sector demand continue to support the long-term outlook for Permian consumption. As a result, the recent rally in Waha forwards may reflect a broader market view that future demand growth could absorb more of the basin’s production than previously expected.The forward curve suggests traders remain cautious about near-term Permian oversupply but increasingly expect growing LNG demand and additional pipeline capacity to improve basin fundamentals over time. While summer pricing remains deeply discounted, the significantly stronger winter strip indicates confidence that the worst of the infrastructure bottlenecks may eventually ease.

Crude Inventories Continue Decline as Refiners Ramp Up for Summer Demand | RBN Energy -Based on data from the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) for the week ended June 5, strong refinery demand contributed to the need for a seventh consecutive commercial crude inventory draw. Stocks fell over 7 MMbbl to their lowest level since mid-February, and Cushing inventories dropped to their lowest level since December. Although refinery input increased by a modest 81 Mb/d to just under 17 MMb/d (purple circle in graph below), refinery utilization rose to 95.3%, the highest level since January, as refiners continued running hard ahead of peak summer demand. While outages at refineries in some PADDs weighed on runs, the return of all units at PBF's Martinez refinery and stronger operating rates elsewhere more than offset those losses.  As discussed in RBN's Crude Oil Billboard, product balances remain a key incentive for sustained refinery activity. While gasoline inventories have begun to rebuild following an extended drawdown, distillate inventories remain exceptionally tight and are sitting at their lowest seasonal levels in decades. That tightness continues to support middle-distillate margins and encourages refiners to maintain elevated run rates to capitalize on overall healthy refining economics.

The tanks in Cushing, Oklahoma, are hitting bottom. The oil market is about to hit a tipping point -- Cushing, Oklahoma, dubs itself the pipeline crossroads of the world. The tagline is emblazoned on a giant roadside sign fashioned out of pipes on the corner of Main Street and South Stiles Road. It has a valve and everything. But it’s not just a slogan. Cushing is the hub of America’s energy market. It literally provides the oil plumbing for the United States. It’s where America’s benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil is priced and warehoused. From there, it’s piped to refineries around the country. In normal times, Cushing stores around 40 million barrels of oil with capacity of up to 75 million. These are not normal times. Cushing’s current inventory is 21.6 million barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s dangerously close to operational stress levels, the tipping point at which Cushing struggles to supply all of its customers with the oil they demand. When Cushing’s reserves get below 20 million, they effectively hit empty, scraping the bottom of the barrel of what is largely unusable sludge. And when Cushing runs empty, strange things happen to the oil market. Unless the Strait of Hormuz opens soon – very soon – we’re probably just weeks away from finding out what that looks like. Cushing is running out of oil because America has become the supplier of last resort for regions of the world that typically get their oil and fuel from the Middle East. Demand for US oil surged to a record high during the Iran war, and crude has flowed out of Cushing faster than America’s oil drillers can refill it. But it’s not just a Cushing problem. US diesel stocks recently hit their lowest level since 2003. Gas inventories have been falling, too – about 5% below where they were a year ago. Other US commercial crude storage facilities outside of Cushing are also getting drained fast – by 7.2 million barrels last week alone. It certainly doesn’t feel like the US oil market is in any real trouble. Despite the largest crude supply shock the world has ever seen, US oil and gas prices still haven’t hit record highs during the three-plus months of war with Iran. And they’ve been sliding – sometimes sharply – in recent weeks. That’s largely because the world was historically oversupplied with oil going into the crisis. Those stockpiles have acted as a global shock absorber. But commercial oil inventories are rapidly dwindling. Oil stockpiles in the world’s wealthiest nations are falling by 6.3 million barrels per day and are sitting at just 2.6 billion barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s just 100 million barrels above operational stress levels, said David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics. The oil market can’t run down to the last drop, like your car can. Below a certain threshold, pipelines can’t maintain pressure and refineries can’t deliver all the various fuel grades their customers demand. “Like blood pressure in the human body, the issue is circulation,” said Natasha Kaneva, head of commodities strategy at JPMorgan. “The system does not fail because oil disappears, it fails because the circulation network no longer has enough working volume.” At this rate, the world’s oil market could enter the danger zone within a month. That means the market could easily go into panic mode because of a minor problem. Prices could become extraordinarily volatile day to day, and a pipeline leak, a refinery fire or a weather even could send oil and gas significantly higher. An export ban could help keep Cushing from running dry and threatening to choke up the whole system. But that has little political traction and is fraught with potentially unpleasant side-effects, including higher prices in the long-term.The other solution is for natural market dynamics to take over. And those could get ugly in a hurry Every time Cushing has neared operational minimums, fuel prices have hit historic highs: 2008, 2022, 2023 … and, in perhaps a matter of weeks, we’ll hit that critical level again.“We’re raising alarm bells right now,” American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers told CNN’s Phil Mattingly on The Lead this week. “We’re getting to levels where we are starting to be concerned.”“Unheard of” inventory levels are reaching a breaking point, said Neil Chapman, senior vice president of ExxonMobil, at a conference hosted by Bernstein in New York on May 28.“Once you get to that point, then you’ll see prices shoot up,” he said.Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, at the same conference, agreed that ultra-low inventories will mean higher prices in the coming weeks. Same goes for the heads of the International Energy Agency, International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group and World Trade Organization, who released a statement on May 29 that noted the record-pace depletion of global oil inventories poses growing risks to fuel security, the market and the broader economy.Oil could easily march above $90 today toward $140 to $160 a barrel in the coming months, and gas could top $5 if the strait doesn’t fully reopen, said Oxley.Eventually, the market could find ways to increase supply, similar to how European airlines cut flights and raised airfares to give the industry time to find a new jet fuel supplier: the United States.But if the situation doesn’t resolve itself by year-end, prices would need to rise much, much further – closing in on $200 a barrel, said Alan Gelder, head of refining, chemicals and oil markets at Wood Mackenzie.That would put gas prices around $9 a gallon – high enough to effectively kill demand for gas and oil for most consumers.

Airline fuel costs jump 78 percent in past year amid war with Iran - As the war in Iran passes the 100-day mark, the cost for America’s airline industry is mounting. On Friday, a report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) stated that U.S. airlines paid nearly $6.5 billion in fuel costs in April. That was up more than 26 percent from March and up 78 percent from April 2025, the BTS noted. The cost per gallon of jet fuel in April was $4.11, up 94 cents from March and an increase of $1.81 from a year prior. Energy costs have risen around the world since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, which the Iranian military responded to by restricting transit through the Strait of Hormuz. The reopening of the waterway, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, is a key tenet of peace negotiations between the Trump administration and officials in Tehran. But those were set back again this weekend as Iran and Israel traded strikes for the first time in weeks. Trump walks away from Meet The Press interview after tense exchange on "rigged" elections favoring Dems Amid negotiations, transit through the strait has remained limited, with just 10 ships passing through in the last 24 hours, according to hormuzstraitmonitor.com. The site notes that 60 vessels go through the waterway daily under normal conditions. Increased jet fuel costs are making a significant dent in airlines’ margins. A Sunday report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) noted that the group expects airlines to achieve a combined total net profit of $23 billion this year, $18 billion less than its previous projection. The IATA, which represents more than 370 airlines in the U.S. and around the world, stated that it expects the net profit per passenger to decrease from $9.10 in 2025 to $4.50 this year. Willie Walsh, the director general of the IATA, said in the report that the Iran war and rising fuel costs “have shifted the outlook for airlines to the worse.” Walsh added, “Some of the additional cost is being recuperated by adjusting prices and improving efficiency, but it will not be sufficient to maintain profitability at the previous year’s level. Smaller carriers that started the year with weak balance sheets are certainly struggling.” In the U.S., passenger carriers have passed on higher fuel costs to customers in the form of higher baggage fees. Spirit Airlines, meanwhile, ceased operations in May after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice in the prior two years.

Wright tries to reassure Hill Republicans on gasoline prices - Energy Secretary Chris Wright privately told House Republicans on Tuesday that gasoline prices will eventually decline, despite continued volatility in global energy markets. Wright, who is slated to testify Wednesday before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, delivered his message during a closed-door GOP meet-and-greet Tuesday morning, according to three people in the room. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who spoke with Wright, said the Energy secretary worked to reassure lawmakers. Carter said Republicans were “very confident” fuel prices would come down despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The national average gasoline price stood at about $4.16 per gallon Tuesday, according to AAA — down 37 cents from a month ago but roughly $1 higher than the same time last year. President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that those prices were “not very high, relatively speaking.”

US Offers to Loan Up to 40 Million Barrels of Oil From Strategic Petroleum Reserve - (Reuters) – The U.S.is seeking to loan energy companies up to 40 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help push fuel prices down, the Department of Energy said on Wednesday. The latest U.S. offer to loan the oil is part of a previous U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility. So far the U.S. has loaned about 133 million barrels of the oil in that agreement. The U.S. agreed in March with about 30 fellow member countries of the International Energy Agency to release about 400 million barrels from global reserves to help calm oil markets after the U.S. and Israel began war on Iran on February 28. The SPR holds oil in caverns on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Inventories in the SPR, now at 349.2 million barrels, are at their lowest level since August 2023. Companies borrowing the oil are required to return the original volumes, with premiums ‌of ⁠up to 24% in the form of extra oil. The department says that system will help stabilize markets at no cost to U.S. taxpayers. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said about 35 to 40 million barrels of extra oil will be returned this year and next in the form of premiums.

U.S. Rig Count Slips One to 562; Gas Rigs Hit Lowest Level Since October as Oil Activity Climbs | RBN Energy  U.S. oil and gas rig count slipped one rig to 562 for the week ending June 12 according to Baker Hughes data, as a two-rig decline in Gulf of Mexico outweighed gains in Anadarko (+1), the Eagle Ford (+1) and Haynesville (+1), while Permian (-1) and All Other (-1) also declined. Gas-directed rigs fell to 121 (-3), their lowest level since October 2025, while oil-directed rigs climbed to 433 (+2) and miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at 8. Haynesville's one-rig gain brought it back to 68, matching its highest level since May 2023, even as the overall gas-directed count fell. Total U.S. rig count is up nine over the last 90 days and now stands seven rigs above this week in 2025, extending positive year-over-year territory for the second consecutive week.

Trump DOJ to pay North Dakota $28M for Dakota Access protests -   The Trump administration has reached a settlement with North Dakota over the costs of protests over the controversial Dakota Access pipeline.The Justice Department said in a statement the agreement would provide “closure” for the people of the state who had been affected by the protests, which the administration described as sometimes rising “to the level of unlawfulness and confrontational violence.”North Dakota sued the Army Corps of Engineers in 2019, alleging the agency had failed to take proper action against protests challenging federal approval and construction of the oil conduit in 2016 and 2017. The state sought to recoup $38 million in funds spent to police the protests led by environmental groups and local tribes.

California Dems float offshore drilling crackdown - California’s two Democratic senators are introducing a bill Wednesday aimed at imposing stricter requirements on offshore oil and gas operators as the Trump administration pushes new production off their state’s coast. The “Offshore Leasing Standards and Accountability Act,” shared first with POLITICO, would set new minimum standards for operators to hold offshore leases, require annual compliance reviews by the Interior Department and mandate operators hold enough money in escrow to pay the full cost of decommissioning their rigs. The bill would “ensure that oil companies can’t just walk away from decommissioned projects and leave someone else to clean up the mess,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, who is leading the bill alongside Sen. Alex Padilla. Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) is introducing a House companion. The legislation comes as the Trump administration has ordered the restart of the Sable oil pipeline system off of Southern California and proposed new lease sales off the state’s coast for the first time in four decades.

What Factors Could Send California’s Natural Gas Prices ‘to the Moon?’ - Click here to tune into the latest episode of Hub & Flow featuring veteran natural gas trader and NGI Senior Vice President of Business Development & Client Support David Dutch. He examines the puzzle pieces coming together to pull historically low California natural gas prices out of the doldrums. The California energy market has historically been defined by extreme contradictions: a regulatory push toward renewables on one side, and total dependence on neighboring regions for physical natural gas on the other. A “perfect storm” early this spring pushed spot prices to historic lows across the state. But looming structural shifts — from cross-border LNG exports to massive data center buildouts — are forcing traders to prepare for a future of unprecedented upside volatility. nIn this episode, NGI's Christopher Lenton sits down with Dutch to break down the complex web of infrastructure keeping California powered. The conversation untangles how three distinct supply basins — West Texas, the Rockies and Western Canada — simultaneously flushed the West with cheap natural gas, and why a hyper-reliance on regional hydro and renewables leaves the state acutely vulnerable to massive basis spikes. Dutch also pulls back the curtain on Mexico’s Energía Costa Azul LNG export plant, explaining why a reversed pipeline flow below San Diego could soon send Southern California prices to the moon on peak demand days.

Baker Lake diesel spill estimated to be between 600 and 1,000 litres – Territorial government officials are investigating after approximately between 600 and 1,000 litres of diesel fuel spilled in the Hamlet of Baker Lake. The spill was reported on June 3, said Greg Belanger, spokesperson for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, in an email. It’s unclear what caused it, but it’s suspected a faulty valve may have contributed to the problem, Belanger said. The spill occurred near the shore of Baker Lake, about 30 metres from the edge of the lake’s high-water mark. GPS co-ordinates on the territorial government’s spill database pinpoint the spill occurred near the hamlet’s fuel farm and Petroleum Products Division gas station. “While a small amount of fuel made it to the edge of the lake, immediate containment measures were put in place preventing further spread,” Belanger said in the email. “Current observations indicate that containment measures are secure and that no further fuel from the release will reach the lake.” There is no risk to drinking water or to human health, Belanger said. An environmental consultant is working with officials from the Departments of Health and Environment, and other regulatory agencies, to assess the spill and help with response.

Ksi Lisims Negotiating Another Deal to Sell Germany Canadian LNG - The Ksi Lisims LNG export project under development on the west coast of Canada has signed a tentative agreement to sell 2 Mt/y to Germany’s Uniper. LNG netback price comparison for Western Canada, Costa Azul and Cove Point versus AECO, SoCal Border, Transco Zone 5 and Waha forward gas prices.   At a Glance:
Deal follows another with SEFE
Project has 4 Mt/y of binding deals
First LNG could come by 2032

Canadian Rig Counts: Gas Rigs Up Four, Oil Rigs Up Five, Both Above Prior Five-Year Highs | RBN Energy In Western Canada this week, the gas-directed rig count rose by four to 58 rigs, while the oil-directed rig count gained five to 119 rigs. The gas-directed rig count is 11 higher than at this time last year, and two higher than prior five-year high for this time of year (see left chart below), while the oil-directed rig count is 28 rigs higher than at this time last year, and 16 higher than the prior five-year high for this time of year (see right chart below). The four rigs added to the gas-directed rig count were all added in the Alberta Foothills Front region, which is seeing an earlier than typical recovery from spring break-up season. The five-rig increase to the oil-directed rig count came from Saskatchewan (+5). In Alberta, the Northeast Alberta and Central Alberta regions both added a rig, while the East Central Alberta region dropped two rigs.

Alberta court fines Imperial Oil for Kearl spill breach (Reuters) - Canada's Imperial Oil was fined C$120,000 ($85,849.19) after pleading guilty in an Alberta court to ​breaching environmental regulations tied to an industrial ‌wastewater overflow at its Kearl oil sands site, the province's energy regulator said on Thursday. Following a May 29 ​hearing in the Alberta Court of ​Justice, the Canadian oil producer was ordered to ⁠pay C$2,000 in fines, including a victim ​surcharge, along with C$118,000 towards a creative sentencing project, according ​to the Alberta Energy Regulator. The company has taken actions to prevent reoccurrence, including reprogramming equipment, updating sediment management ​processes and increasing inspections and training, it ​said in an emailed statement. "No water from this overflow ‌entered ⁠any rivers and there continues to be no indication of adverse impacts to local wildlife. We continue to share monitoring data with local ​Indigenous communities ​and provide ⁠site tours of the area." The charge relates to an incident on February 4, ​2023, in which wastewater overflowed from ​a ⁠drainage pond at the Kearl Oil Sands Processing Plant and Mine and was reported to ⁠the ​regulator. An environmental consultant is working with officials from the Departments of Health and Environment, and other regulatory agencies, to assess the spill and help with response.

Heiltsuk Nation reaches partial $12.5 million oil spill settlement | Vancouver Sun - The Heiltsuk Nation has reached a $12.2 million settlement with the U.S. company whose tug ran aground in 2016 on B.C.’s central coast and spilled 110,000 litres of diesel, closing an important clam fishery and important cultural area.The settlement includes an agreement to participate in a traditional Heiltsuk washing and healing ceremony in the Big House in Bella Bella and at the spill site.Despite the settlement, the Heiltsuk Nation said the lack of funding and work by Canada to help restore the ecosystem highlights continuing concerns about fuel and tanker spills along the coast as Alberta is calling for another oil pipeline to B.C.’s coast and the removal of an oil tanker ban in northern waters.“The other two respondents — Canada and Canada’s ship-source oil pollution fund — are nowhere to be found. Their absence is glaring as the federal government prepares to consider a pipeline and oil tanker proposal from Alberta that would impact the coastal waters and marine resources Indigenous peoples depend on here in B.C.,” said Marilyn Slett, elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation.“We call on Canada and the SOPF to come to the table, to fulfil their responsibility to help restore the ecosystem, and to discuss compensation for our significant and outstanding losses. We will never give up, and we will always protect our territorial coastal waters,” said Slett.The Heiltsuk is among Coastal First Nations, also including the Haida, the Gitxaala, Gitg’at and Lax Kw’alams, who are opposed to removing the existing ban on oil tankers in northern B.C. A recent agreement between Ottawa and Alberta noted a preference for a northern route, and some industry observers have said a route to Prince Rupert would be best as it has a deepwater harbour that can handle super tankers. The Nathan E. Stewart, owned by Kirby Corp., travelling the Inside Passage from Alaska to Vancouver, ran aground and sank on a reef next to Athlone Island in the Seaforth Channel close to Bella Bella in the early hours of Oct. 13, 2016 The second mate fell asleep at the wheel while alone on the upper bridge.The Transportation Safety Board of Canada found the second mate was alone on the bridge — which contravened Canadian maritime law — and was seriously fatigued due to the six-on, six-off roster they were working and the conditions on the bridge at the time of the accident it was warm, dark, with quiet music playing, the seas were calm and the captain’s seat was comfortable.

Trans Mountain Pipeline Hits Full Capacity for First Time Since Expansion -Two years after a multibillion-dollar expansion transformed Canada's largest oil export pipeline, a key milestone has been reached as market dynamics continue to shift.(Reuters) — Canada's Trans Mountain pipeline is running at full capacity for the first time since the completion of a major expansion two years ago, but an executive said June 10 that ongoing global turmoil makes predicting future capacity rates difficult.

• The 890,000-barrel-per-day pipeline, which carries oil from the province of Alberta to British Columbia's west coast, is at apportionment for the month of June.
• Apportionment is an industry term for when shipper demand for spot capacity on a pipeline exceeds what is available.
• The uncertainty in global crude markets and the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz have increased demand for Canadian oil from Asian markets, but have also made it difficult to predict the pipeline's utilization rates beyond the short-term, said Jason Balasch, vice president of business development for Trans Mountain.
• As recently as last summer, the Trans Mountain system, which is owned by the Canadian government, was only about 84% full.
• Oil production in Canada, the world's fourth-largest crude producer, is growing, with output in 2026 expected to exceed last year's record of 5.3 million bpd.
• Trans Mountain is currently planning several optimization projects, including the addition of drag-reducing agents and new pumping stations, which are expected to add 300,000 bpd of capacity to the system by the end of 2028.
• Alberta, Canada's main oil-producing province, has also been exploring the feasibility of a new 1-million-barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline to British Columbia's northwest coast to increase exports to Asia, but no private-sector company has committed to such an effort yet.
• Canadian heavy crude prices have improved sharply since the 2024 completion of the Trans Mountain expansion, which tripled the pipeline's capacity.

Alaska LNG Project Signs Labor Deal for 12,000 Construction Jobs - A major workforce agreement has been reached for the Alaska LNG project, offering new insight into how one of North America's largest proposed natural gas developments plans to move forward. (P&GJ) — Glenfarne's Alaska LNG project has signed a memorandum of understanding with several Alaska labor organizations aimed at prioritizing Alaska workers for construction and related activities on the proposed natural gas export project. The agreement was signed by Glenfarne subsidiary 8 Star Alaska and three statewide building trades organizations representing 18 unions affiliated with the Alaska AFL-CIO. The framework is intended to support future project labor agreements covering major phases of construction and related operations. The Alaska LNG project includes an 807-mile, 42-inch natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope and a planned 20-MMtpy LNG export facility. Glenfarne owns a 75% interest in the project, while the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. holds the remaining 25%. Project developers estimate Alaska LNG could create approximately 12,000 construction jobs and up to 1,000 long-term operations positions if completed. The memorandum outlines cooperation on workforce availability, labor stability and construction planning as the project moves through development. Future project labor agreements are expected to cover camp construction and operations, logistics, compressor stations, gas treatment facilities, LNG export infrastructure and related site work. Pipeline installation activities, including right-of-way construction, pipe hauling, access roads, pipe yards and mainline construction, are expected to be addressed through a separate labor agreement currently under development with pipeline construction trades. Bronson Frye, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Southcentral Alaska, said union labor is prepared to meet the project's workforce demands. "Alaska unions are equipped to handle the workforce challenges associated with a project of this scale, including work across more than 800 miles and in some of the most demanding environments in the country," Frye said. Lake Williams, president of the Fairbanks Building and Construction Trades Council, said project labor agreements can help provide workforce stability and predictable labor costs during construction. Rex Canon, co-president of 8 Star Alaska, said the company intends to prioritize qualified Alaska workers as development progresses. "We are committed to using a skilled Alaska workforce as the primary source of construction labor and ensuring Alaska workers have access to the opportunities the project creates," Canon said. Alaska LNG is being developed in two phases. The first phase includes construction of the pipeline system to supply natural gas within Alaska, while the second phase would add LNG export facilities designed to ship up to 20 MMtpy to international markets.

US LNG Exporters Find Few Takers in Europe for New Supply - US liquefied natural gas developers expected Europe to become the cornerstone market for the next generation of export projects. Instead, the region is increasingly shying away from the long-term contracts needed to get them built. US executives are coming back empty-handed this year from the industry meetings and conferences where deals are usually forged. In conversations with Bloomberg, several gas exporters said that negotiations held with European counterparts over the past few months have produced plenty of interest but hardly any firm commitments for LNG as would-be buyers have grown wary of becoming too reliant on America. One exporter described the gap as a “cultural dissonance” in which Europeans are content to talk while Americans just want to close deals. Disruptions to Qatari LNG shipments caught up in the Iran conflict have pushed back expectations for a global supply glut by at least two years, the International Energy Agency said. But the delay does little to alter the longer-term picture of abundant new supply, much of it from the US, that still needs buyers. That has sharpened the focus on Europe, where companies have been slow to sign long-term contracts even as the region prepares to phase out Russian LNG imports by the end of the year. The shortage of long-term LNG deals risks constraining investment in US export infrastructure while increasing Europe’s exposure to price swings as buyers depend more on spot and short-term markets. “There is this obsession from the US that Europe should commit to more long-term contracts,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “There is also a concern that Europe is becoming too dependent on US LNG.” The slowdown in deals comes as relations between Washington and its European allies have become less predictable and at times strained as US President Donald Trump has imposed stiff tariffs and upended long-standing assumptions about America’s security commitments to the continent. Just one new long-term deal has been signed between the US and Greece. While companies in Europe’s largest gas-consuming markets like Germany, Italy and France are yet to agree anything. That compares to six contracts in 2025 for enough gas to power as many as 6 million homes, according to publicly available data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s a reversal from the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when European utilities rushed to the global LNG market to replace lost pipeline gas and the US and Norway emerged as key suppliers. For US LNG exporters, Europe’s retreat from long-term contracting is difficult to reconcile with the continent’s energy security needs and could have implications for future projects. One executive said Europe had long been viewed as the industry’s most attractive growth market because of the strong credit profiles of its utilities, but a lack of new commitments could make export projects harder to finance. Developers need to balance the cost of building with attractive offtake contracts when negotiating financing for multi-billion-dollar projects. Late last year, Energy Transfer abruptly halted development of the Lake Charles LNG export facility in Louisiana as rising costs pressured the project economics. Just last year, developers were buoyed by strong European demand, mounting pressure to phase out Russian fuel and expectations that the EU would sharply increase purchases of US fuel. In July, Germany’s Securing Energy for Europe GmbH signed a 20-year supply deal with Venture Global, while Eni SpA also inked an agreement and TotalEnergies SE backed major American export projects. By early 2026 that optimism was fading and European leaders began warning against relying too much on the US. Officials have grown increasingly uneasy about Trump’s trade threats, NATO rhetoric and stance on Greenland. Germany is particularly vulnerable, having swapped Russian gas for US LNG, getting 94% of imports from America. In February, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz traveled to the Middle East to try and diversify energy supplies and reduce reliance on the US, and companies began looking beyond America, most notably Canada, for future supplies. “There are commercial considerations, but the bigger challenge appears to be market and demand uncertainty,” said Richard Nelson, partner in the global energy practice at Mayer Brown. “Buyers are still trying to assess what European gas demand looks like through the next decade.” Originators, traders, and industry executives that spoke to Bloomberg on the condition on anonymity, said that Europeans seem increasingly comfortable relying on spot markets rather than locking in supplies decades ahead, particularly as uncertainty grows over how much gas the region will need as it decarbonizes. But that flexibility comes at the cost of greater exposure to supply shocks and price spikes. “As we have learned, having a long-term contract is not a guarantee to have LNG supply – talk to the customers of Qatar LNG,” said Columbia University’s Corbeau. The Iran war forced Qatar LNG to call force majeure on several cargoes. A saturation point has also been reached – most of the major LNG buyers in Europe have had their fill of US volumes and it’s down to the smaller, newer companies to sign further contracts. Among that pool of buyers, the size of the company and credit rating also plays a part. With selling to Europe on hold, US suppliers have turned elsewhere. Asia has stepped up efforts to secure cargoes since the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Buyers including Taiwan have made a renewed effort to negotiate more shipments from the US, including discussions on long-term deals. Demand in Asia due to searing summer temperatures is already creating competition with Europe and, once the Strait reopens, bartering for supplies from Qatar could be fierce. India is ramping up purchases of liquefied natural gas as it braces for rising summer temperatures and scrambles to substitute lost Qatari volumes. The country’s 30-day moving average for deliveries this week reached the highest level since 2024, after surpassing the five-year seasonal average in May, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Many European companies are reluctant to commit to contracts that extend into the 2040s as they pursue decarbonization targets and expect gas demand to decline.

Venture Global Doubles Greek LNG Deal as US Backs Europe Natural Gas Corridor - Venture Global and a growing Greek LNG importing firm have expanded a long-term sales and purchase agreement (SPA) starting in 2030, doubling the previously contracted volumes. At a Glance:

• Greece strengthens regional gas hub
• CP2 contracting push continues abroad
• Transatlantic gas ties deepen further

Greece Doubles LNG Deal with Venture Global - A Greek LNG buyer has expanded its long-term partnership with Venture Global, a move that could further strengthen a key energy corridor serving Central and Eastern Europe. (P&GJ) — Venture Global and Greece-based Atlantic-SEE LNG Trade have expanded a long-term agreement for the supply of U.S. liquefied natural gas, doubling contracted volumes as Europe continues efforts to diversify energy supplies and strengthen regional energy security. Under the revised sales and purchase agreement, Atlantic-SEE will increase its contracted LNG purchases from Venture Global from 0.5 MMtpy to 1.0 MMtpy. The 20-year contract is scheduled to begin in 2030. Atlantic-SEE LNG Trade is a joint venture formed by Greek companies AKTOR Group and DEPA Commercial. The expanded agreement follows Venture Global's investment in regasification capacity at the Alexandroupolis LNG import terminal in Greece, where the company holds capacity rights representing about 25% of the facility's total throughput. The Alexandroupolis floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and the South-North Vertical Corridor are expected to play an increasing role in delivering U.S. natural gas to Central and Eastern Europe, providing an alternative supply route for the region. Venture Global CEO Mike Sabel said the expanded agreement reflects growing energy cooperation between Europe and the United States. "The Vertical Corridor has emerged as an important energy route for the region," Sabel said. "Our investment in infrastructure, including the Alexandroupolis terminal, is helping create new pathways for reliable energy supplies across Central and Eastern Europe." Atlantic-SEE CEO Alexandros Exarchou said the larger contract supports the company's strategy to expand LNG access throughout the region. "The agreement highlights the potential of the Vertical Corridor to provide alternative supply options and strengthen energy security across Central and Eastern Europe," Exarchou said. Konstantinos Xifaras, chairman of Atlantic-SEE LNG Trade, said the additional volumes will help provide more reliable and predictable LNG supplies to customers across the region. The agreement further strengthens Greece's role as a gateway for U.S. LNG imports into Europe and highlights continued investment in infrastructure aimed at enhancing energy security across Central and Eastern European markets.

Germany Set to Boost LNG Import Capacity as Global Supplies Tighten Germany’s Deutsche Energy Terminal said Wednesday that the country’s fifth floating LNG storage and regasification unit (FSRU) would finally come online in September, completing a push that began in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine and cut into Germany’s natural gas supplies. NGI chart showing European Union natural gas storage levels as of June 8, 2026. EU gas inventories stood at 484.16 TWh, equal to 42.8% of working gas capacity (1,131.47 TWh), compared with 568.91 TWh and 51.4% full a year earlier. Storage volumes were 84.7 TWh below year-ago levels and 157.5 TWh below the five-year average. The left chart compares current EU gas storage with the previous five-year range and average from June 2024 through June 2026, highlighting inventories tracking below historical norms. The right chart shows EU storage fullness percentages over the past five years, with seasonal peaks near 95-100% and lows below 30%, ending at 42.8% in June 2026. Source: Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), NGI calculations.   At a Glance:
-- Fifth FSRU coming online
-- European storage trailing five-year average
-- Germany developing emergency reserves

More LNG Tankers Slip Through the Strait of Hormuz - Another LNG carrier loaded with Qatari gas has passed through the Strait of Hormuz this week, bringing the total number of Qatari LNG cargoes that have cleared the chokepoint since the start of the war to five, Reuters reported today, citing data from Kpler and LSEG.The report noted that all in all, nine LNG vessels have exited the strait since February 28, including Qatari and Emirati cargoes. Meanwhile, a ballast LNG carrier has entered the Strait of Hormuz without issues, set to load at the UAE’s Das Island, according to Vortexa data, cited by Reuters.“In the UAE, ‌satellite imagery confirmed that ADNOC's Al Hamra carrier was near the Das Island terminal late last week, having completed an inbound transit of the chokepoint,” the analytics firm said. The tanker returned from a journey to deliver an LNG cargo to India.The threat to tankers attempting to pass the Strait of Hormuz has created a new shipping reality in the Persian Gulf. Dark-mode activity, with transponders switched off, is no longer for Iran-linked vessels only. It has spread to commercial shipping of non-sanctioned barrels and other goods that typically move through the chokepoint, data from Vortexa showed last week. Dark transits through the Strait of Hormuz have accounted for 57% of all transits recorded over the period, peaking at 65.2% in May.Overall, oil and gas flows out of the Gulf remain a fraction of their pre-war levels, despite the adoption of “dark mode”. Still, there has been an increase in the number of tankers clearing the Strait of Hormuz in the past couple of weeks. Some of these were granted safe passage by the Iranian forces after negotiations between the governments of the receiving countries and Tehran.Earlier this week, Tehran said that traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will reopen, but shippers would have to pay a toll to pass through the chokepoint.

Coal Continues Taking Outsized Role in Asia Amid LNG Shortages - Asia’s coal demand is expected to continue soaring this year as the region confronts a deepening LNG supply gap amid a conflict in the Middle East that has no end in sight.Asia LNG parity price chart comparing JKM, Brent crude, coal and oil-linked LNG pricing, highlighting Asian natural gas market trends. At a Glance:
Region facing 35 Mt LNG supply gap
Coal use estimated to hit 70 Mt
Renewable capacity helping

Renewed Fighting Between Iran, Israel Lifts TTF, JKM as Supply Crunch Deepens -  An outbreak of fighting between Iran and Israel overnight again spooked natural gas markets and pushed European and Asian prices higher on Monday. At a Glance:

• TTF hits near highest in two weeks
• Asia pulling in more LNG
• Maintenance keeps US output down

Cargo vessel spills oil as it ran around in Ilocos Norte — A cargo vessel that ran aground in the vicinity waters off Barangay La Virgen Milagrosa, Badoc, in Ilocos Norte has spilled oil, said the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Tuesday. According to the PCG in a statement, authorities during an inspection confirmed the presence of oil leakage from the ship. READ: Oil spill in Guimaras town raises alarm over environmental damage “Today, June 9, 2026, the response team observed approximately 100 liters of oily water mixture along a 15-meter stretch of shoreline near the incident site,” the PCG said. “They also noticed that the previously deployed oil spill boom had shifted position due to prevailing conditions,” it added. Due to this, the PCG said it has already deployed absorbent pads and absorbent booms, and commenced recovery operations. It was on Monday June 8, when the PCG reported that the vessel, MV MSCI 1, conducted an emergency beaching off the waters of Barangay La Virgen Milagrosa, Badoc, in Ilocos Norte All 15 crew members of the ship have since been safely disembarked and are now in “good physical condition,” said the PCG. 

Global oil inventories near 22-year low -Oil stockpiles in the world's largest economies were headed toward the lowest levels since at least 2003 as top consuming nations tapped inventories at a record pace to plug the loss of over 11 million barrels a day of Middle Eastern output due to the Iran war, the US Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday. Total oil inventories in the members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development will fall to just under 2.3 billion barrels by December, the EIA said, based on its current assumption that marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is unlikely to return to pre-conflict levels until early 2027. Oil prices fell about 5% on Tuesday after Iran and Israel said they had halted attacks on each other following an appeal from US President Donald Trump. Brent futures fell $4.30, or 4.6%, to $89.95 a barrel at 1638 GMT. US WTI crude slid $4.95, or 5.4%, to $86.35.

Oil Prices Increase Over $3 as Iran War Fears Return - Oil markets do not like uncertainty. They tolerate it briefly, price in a temporary premium, and wait for a resolution. What they struggle with is the kind of uncertainty that looks like it is resolving and then is not. That is exactly where markets found themselves on June 8, 2026, as a week that had briefly felt like progress was erased by fresh military action. Oil prices increase was seen after fresh US strikes on Iranian targets renewed fears that fragile ceasefire talks could collapse and prolong disruption around the Strait of Hormuz. At the time of writing, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at USD 90.51, up 2.06 percent on the session, while Brent crude had climbed 2.17 percent to trade at USD 96.34. The oil prices increase arrived after both benchmarks had dropped more than 7 percent over the preceding days on ceasefire optimism. That optimism has now been sharply tested. The increase came after reports that the US military hit southern Iranian targets, and downed four Iranian drones. A US official from Central Command said the action was defensive, as the ground control station hit was about to launch a fifth drone. The strikes ran counter to a softening mood in the market as they were based on the hope that a diplomatic breakthrough would occur. Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker stated that the US naval blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon constituted violations of the ceasefire, and declared that US and Israeli bases and assets were now legitimate targets. Consequently, any path toward a negotiated reopening of the Strait of Hormuz appeared to narrow significantly within hours of the strikes. Fresh strikes on Kuwait and Oman have also been reported in the region, further undermining the case for near-term de-escalation and keeping traders skeptical of diplomatic progress. The oil prices increase of June 8 does not exist in isolation. It is one move in a much longer run. WTI and Brent contracts remain more than 30 percent higher than when the US and Israeli-led war against Iran began on February 28, 2026. Before the war, Brent crude was priced at USD 69.36 and WTI at USD 66.64 per barrel on June 12, 2025, the day before the initial Israel-Iran strikes that began this escalation cycle. Today those benchmarks sit at USD 96 and USD 90 respectively. The Strait of Hormuz through which some 20 percent of the world’s oil flows, has been near-closed since the conflict escalated, leaving energy supplies structurally high and preventing them from coming in from the Persian Gulf. Goldman Sachs commented that uncertainty over the price of both the Brent and the WTI was two-sided, with the bank seeing as much risk to its forecast of USD 90 per barrel for Brent and USD 83 per barrel for the WTI from above as there was below. The inventory data makes the supply picture even starker. UBS said the global oil market was showing mounting signs of strain as inventories continued to fall amid disruptions to shipments via the Strait of Hormuz. Observed global oil inventories dropped by a combined 246 million barrels in March and April, while cumulative production losses could exceed 1 billion barrels by the end of May. OPEC+ members agreed in July to raise oil output quotas by 188,000 barrels per day – the fourth oil output quota increase since the Strait of Hormuz was closed. So far, however, new OPEC+ supply has not been enough to compensate for the volumes that have been missing due to the fighting. Meanwhile, prices were pulled down by concerns about consumption in the wake of Chinese crude imports dropping to the lowest level in 10 years, as demand and refinery activity slowed. Global demand growth is expected to be much weaker this year, according to several analysts. The latest oil prices increase of June 8 indicates that the market is in a state of tug of war between two forces. Diplomatic optimism keeps prices from climbing further. Military escalation keeps them from falling. Until one side of that equation prevails, the volatility is unlikely to stop.

Oil prices climb more than $4 after Israeli strikes on Iran and Lebanon- PERTH/ BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped more than $4 on Monday, with investors spooked by fresh Israeli strikes on Iran as well as renewed attacks on Lebanon a day earlier. Brent crude futures rose $4.42 or 4.47% to $97.15 a barrel as of 0609 GMT, while U.S. crude futures were up $4.07 or 4.50% at $94.61 per barrel. Israel said on Monday it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran's southwest, along with strikes elsewhere on military targets. That's despite U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks. In the first hit on an energy site inside Iran since the April 8 ceasefire, Israel said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex. A provincial official told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency parts of the plant were damaged. Hopes are now eroding for an imminent end to the wider war and a restart to crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas used to transit. Monday's gains erased Friday's losses, when prices fell on hopes of a de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict. Oil prices have climbed just under 60% since the start of the war in late February but remain below highs marked in March when Brent reached nearly $120 per barrel. On Sunday, Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation for the strikes on Lebanon. Even so, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted that an agreement to end the wider war remains well within reach. Iran has made a ceasefire with Lebanon a condition for a peace deal with Washington. Israel invaded Lebanon in March after Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets and drones across the border. Lebanon and Israel said on June 3 that they had agreed to a ceasefire following negotiations in Washington. On Monday, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow was quoted as saying that the Strait of Hormuz will be open but under new conditions to be set by Iran and Oman, including a transit fee. "Of course, this strait will be open, but with new conditions to be determined by the Iranian and Omani authorities," Ambassador Kazem Jalali told the Russian newspaper Izvestia in an interview published on Monday. Tehran has been blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports. O Amid the resulting supply crisis, OPEC+ on Sunday agreed its fourth increase in oil output in four months. But analysts said the decision would have little impact since most OPEC+ members could not meet their output targets because of the Hormuz closure or, in the case of Russia, infrastructure attacks that have eroded its production capacity. "In the current market, the physical impact of such a decision would be close to zero," Rystad Energy's head of geopolitical analysis, Jorge Leon, said in a note to clients.

Oil Briefly Jumps After Israel and Iran Exchange Attacks (DTN) -- Crude oil futures jumped more than 5% in early morning trade on Monday after Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks for the first time since a ceasefire was declared in early April. That really eased after U.S. President Donald Trump called on Israel to exercise constraint and said that both sides were looking to immediately reestablish a ceasefire. By 8:15 a.m. ET, ICE Brent for August delivery was up $1.62 to trade near $94.71 bbl, and NYMEX WTI for July delivery rose $1.38 to $91.92 bbl. Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for July delivery climbed $0.0727 to $3.6601 gallon, and front-month NYMEX RBOB futures advanced $0.0553 to $3.1012 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index softened by 0.16 points to 99.89 against a basket of foreign currencies. Israel has over the past weeks stepped up its attacks on Lebanon, raising doubts over an imminent U.S.-Iranian peace deal as the cessation of the Israeli campaign against Hezbollah and incursion into Lebanese territory remained one of Tehran's central preconditions for further talks. Iran on Sunday launched missiles toward Israel after strikes on strongholds of the Iran-aligned militia in Beirut. Israel in response struck a petrochemical plant in Iran overnight. Oil prices jumped in reaction to the most serious flareup of hostilities of the last two months, but softened after Trump on Monday called on both sides to cease attacks and in a social media post claimed that "Israel and Iran are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!" The Iranian military declaring an end to attacks on Israel also weighed on prices which pared most of earlier gains, but remained up on the day. Despite the unilaterally declared detente, several hurdles remained in place on the road to a permanent settlement of the conflict, including Tehran's demand for transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz and the ongoing U.S. blockade of Iranian maritime trade, which president Trump on Monday said will remain in place "until a 'Final Deal' is reached."

Oil Market Pared Gains as Iran Signaled End to Attacks on Israel - The oil market pared early gains and ended the session up 0.84% after rallying over 5.4% earlier in the session on an announcement from Iran’s military that a wave of attacks on Israel was over. The market rallied sharply higher on the opening on Sunday evening after renewed Israeli strikes on Iran and attacks on Lebanon reduced hopes of an imminent end to the war with Iran. Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the country retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli facility in the city of Haifa. The exchange followed Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Beirut over the weekend. The oil market rallied to a high of $95.47 early Monday morning. However, the market erased all of its gains and sold off after Iran announced an end to its attacks on Israel. U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that Israel and Iran immediately stop the strikes against each other. The crude market sold off to a low of $90.39 by mid-morning. The market later retraced some of its losses and traded in a sideways trading range during the remainder of the session. The July WTI contract settled up $1.76 at $91.30 and the August Brent contract settled up $1.26 at $89.25. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling up 1.25 cents at $3.5999 and the RB market settling up 2.47 cents at $3.0706. OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to a fourth increase in its oil output targets in as many months, even though the U.S. war with Iran is still preventing several of the group’s members from producing more. Seven core members of OPEC+, which groups OPEC and allied producers including Russia, have increased their output quotas from April to June by almost 600,000 bpd. However, according to OPEC figures, the group’s production has collapsed due to export cuts by Gulf members, averaging 33.19 million bpd in April compared with 42.77 million in February. On Sunday, the seven members decided to increase targets by 188,000 bpd from July. This is the same as the June hike, which was adjusted down from monthly increases of 206,000 bpd in May and April to take into account the UAE exit. The seven countries are increasing production as part of the gradual unwinding of a 1.65 million bpd production cut that the group, which at the time included UAE, agreed in 2023. From July, the seven have about 567,000 bpd of the original cut to return to the market, taking into account the UAE exit from May 1st. That would mean the rest of the cut will be unwound by the end of September should OPEC+ stick to monthly hikes of about 188,000 bpd for August and September. IIR Energy reported that U.S. oil refiners are expected to shut in about 130,000 bpd of capacity in the week ending June 12th, increasing available refining capacity by 6,000 bpd from the previous week.

Oil prices ease after Israel, Iran halt attacks; markets eye ceasefire -International crude oil prices eased marginally on Tuesday morning after Israel and Iran signalled a pause in hostilities, easing immediate concerns over supply disruptions in West Asia.Around 7:40 am, the August contract of Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange was trading at $94.00 per barrel, down 0.27% from its previous close, while the July contract of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on the NYMEX fell 0.32% to $91.01 a barrel.In the previous session, oil prices had surged as much as 4% amid renewed tensions in the region.Both Iran and Israel indicated they had halted attacks on each other after exchanging fire for the first time since April's ceasefire.Iran's armed forces on Monday said they had concluded operations following the delivery of a "painful response" to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently said Tel Aviv was holding fire "at the moment".US President Donald Trump had earlier said both countries were moving towards an "immediate ceasefire"."Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on "Peace" are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way. The Blockade will remain in place, and in full force and effect, until a "Final Deal" is reached. Things should move quickly," he posted on Truth Social.Iran had launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in retaliation for the latter's strikes on Lebanon.Trump also indicated that the US could declare “total victory” over Iran in the coming weeks, according to a CNN report.We’re negotiating now, and they want to make a very good deal. They’re willing to give us everything, they’re willing to give us no nuclear weapon,” the report quoted him as saying.“I think we are winning that battle, but you’re really going to win it over the next two weeks when we declare total victory, it’ll be a total victory, it’ll happen very soon, and oil prices will come tumbling down,” he added. A peace deal and the continued opening of the Strait of Hormuz could provide relief to the global economy, including India.India imports nearly 90% of its crude oil requirements, and every $1 increase in crude prices sustained over a year can raise the country’s annual import bill by around ₹18,000 crore. On Monday, Praveen Khanooja, additional secretary in the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas, said under-recoveries for state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) currently stand at ₹6 per litre on petrol and ₹30 per litre on diesel sales. The burden has eased following fuel price hikes implemented since 14 May and the recent moderation in crude prices.The daily cumulative under-recovery for OMCs, including losses on the sale of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), remains in the range of ₹600-700 crore, Khanooja said.

Oil Prices Slip on Israel-Iran Truce, Weak Demand Signals-- Oil futures slipped Tuesday morning after Israel and Iran agreed to halt attacks on each other, reversing course from the previous trading day which saw a brief price rally sparked by a short-lived flareup of hostilities between the countries. By 8:30 a.m. ET, ICE Brent for August delivery was down $1.27 to trade near $92.98 bbl, and NYMEX WTI for July delivery fell $1.71 to $89.59 bbl. Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for July delivery retreated $0.0180 to $3.5819 gallon, and front-month NYMEX RBOB futures were little changed, down $0.0004 to $3.0702 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index softened by 0.33 points to 99.695 against a basket of foreign currencies. Prices jumped more than 5% in early morning trade Monday following this weekend's exchange of missile strikes between Israel and Iran, the first since the declaration of a ceasefire in early April. Later that day, both sides said that they would halt attacks for now, but did not rule out future strikes. China's National Bureau of Statistics, meanwhile, on Tuesday reported that the country's crude oil imports last month slumped to the lowest in more than eight years, and refinery runs were at their lowest since COVID-induced lockdowns slashed fuel demand. Chinese oil imports and refinery throughputs have long served as a bellwether for global demand growth. Domestic fuel consumption data published by the NBS also flashed bearish demand signals. Gasoline and diesel retail sales in May slipped more than 5% year-on-year, despite a slight drop in gasoline prices at the pump. Amid the dearth of deliveries from the Middle East caused by the largest supply disruption in history and limited alternatives, Chinese refiners were forced to slash runs and rely on commercial crude stockpiles, which have over the past two months dwindled rapidly. The global reliance on inventories has kept oil prices from soaring even higher. Worldwide oil stockpiles, which were at a five-year high at the beginning of the month, have plummeted to the lowest in eight years. The International Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that inventories could hit a "red zone" by July or August should the Hormuz supply crisis not be resolved, which would force refiners to cut back on operations, raising the risk of fuel shortages.

Oil prices fall to seven-week low as Iran and Israel halt attacks  (Reuters) - Oil prices fell about 3% ​to a seven-week low on Tuesday after Iran and Israel said they had halted attacks on each other following an ‌appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump.Trump said Iran shot down a U.S. helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz and he threatened that Washington would respond. Oil prices bounced off session lows following his remarks. Brent futures fell $2.80, or 3.0%, to settle at $91.45 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid $3.10, or 3.4%, to settle at $88.20. It ​was the lowest settlement for Brent since April 17 and for WTI since May 29. It was also the first time ​since January that Brent closed below its 100-day moving average of technical support."The oil market is drafting lower ... as ⁠the latest shooting match between Israel and Iran was [defused] in favor of a ceasefire and as Trump continues to talk the market lower ​by suggesting that an end of the war with Iran could be reached in 2-3 days with negotiations in their final stages," analysts at energy ​advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note. On Monday, Israel and Iran halted direct attacks on each other after Trump urged them to stop. Tehran said it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to attack the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Iran has so far held back from attacking even though Israel struck the historic port city of ​Tyre in southern Lebanon, killing at least eight people.Iran, meanwhile, continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the ​war carried a fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on ‌Tuesday that ⁠ship traffic in the Gulf and oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are rising even as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal on ending their more than three-month-old war.Elsewhere around the world, China's May crude imports slumped 29% to their lowest level in eight years, extending a sharp decline in the world's largest oil importer that is helping keep a lid on global oil prices.The U.S. Energy Information ​Administration (EIA) projected the Iran war would ​slash world petroleum production to ⁠an average of 99.0 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2026, down from a record 106.1 million bpd in 2025.EIA also forecast that world oil demand would slide to 102.9 million bpd in 2026 from a record ​104.0 million bpd in 2025. The agency said countries would pull any barrels they needed from storage, ​cutting inventories in the ⁠Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to their lowest level since at least 2003, when EIA's dataset began. Looking ahead, the oil market awaited weekly storage reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) trade group on Tuesday and the EIA on Wednesday.Analysts estimated energy firms pulled 4.0 million barrels of crude from ⁠U.S. storage ​during the week ended June 5.If correct, that would be the first time since January 2025 ​that energy firms pulled crude out of storage for seven weeks in a row. Inventories declined by 3.6 million barrels in the same week last year.

Oil prices surge after Donald Trump issues new threat against Iran | Asianet - Global crude oil prices rose on Wednesday as US President Donald Trump issued his latest threat to Iran for being too slow to negotiate a peace deal. Taking to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said that Iran will have to pay the price for being slow to arrive at a peace deal. "Iran's Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn't even exist anymore - They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action," Trump said on Truth Social. "The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!" Oil prices rose immediately after Trump's latest threat, with US West Texas Intermediate crude oil at USD 90.11, up 2.17 per cent, while the international benchmark Brent crude was trading at USD 93.19, rising 1.9 per cent, according to Reuters.The recent phase of escalation between the US and the Iranian regime came after the US carried out airstrikes on Iran's military targets located along the Strait of Hormuz, retaliating against the downing of an American Apache helicopter. Iran said it responded with strikes on a US base in Jordan and other Gulf targets. The recent escalation belies hopes of a durable truce between the two adversaries, as Trump consistently maintains that the two sides are nearing a deal. US stock futures also fell as investors await key consumer inflation numbers. Economists expect inflation to rise further as energy prices remain elevated owing to the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The US Federal Reserve, which is meeting to decide interest rates on June 16-17, will parse the latest inflation print along with strong jobs data for May, even as experts have pared bets for a cut this year.

Crude oil prices surge as US-Iran tensions escalate - Global crude oil prices traded higher on Wednesday, increasing by up to 1 per cent after the United States launched strikes against Iranian military targets near the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes raised concerns over potential disruptions to energy supplies from the strategically important region. International benchmark Brent crude gained about 1 per cent to hit $93.26 per barrel. Similarly, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 0.97 per cent to trade around $90 per barrel. The latest gains followed a statement from the US military, which confirmed it had carried out “self-defence strikes” on Iranian air defence, ground control, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz. The US Central Command stated that it launched the operation in response to the reported downing of a US Army Apache helicopter in the region. However, Iran denied responsibility for the incident, claiming the helicopter crashed accidentally. The development marks a fresh escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran at a time when markets expected a gradual easing of hostilities in West Asia. Weak investor and trader sentiment also triggered selling pressure in global equities. Meanwhile, reports claim that US crude oil inventories fell last week for an eighth consecutive week. Tehran also threatened to reopen hostilities if Israel persisted in attacking the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. In addition, Asian markets traded largely in the red. Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng both fell more than 1 per cent, while South Korea’s KOSPI plunged nearly 4 per cent.

Oil Prices Extend Gains After Another Big Crude Draw, Cushing 'Tank Bottoms' Loom -  Oil prices are higher this morning on renewed fighting between the US and Iran (and Trump rhetoric), while API reported a major crude inventory draw (for an eighth week in a row). Additionally, in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook released on Tuesday, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the closure of the Strait is depleting global inventories, keeping prices high. "Global oil markets remain highly volatile as very limited shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has caused oil producers in the Middle East to reduce crude oil production by more than 11 million barrels per day (b/d) in May compared with pre-conflict levels. This drop in production has resulted in large global inventory draws to meet demand. Under our assumptions, we expect global oil inventories will fall by an average of 6.3 million b/d in 2Q26 and by 7.6 million b/d in 3Q26," the agency said. So this morning, all eyes are on the official data to see just how fast those inventories are depleting... API

• Crude -9.1MM
• Cushing -1.1MM
• Gasoline -1.2MM
• Distillates +1.3MM

DOE

• Crude -7.23mm
• Cushing -801k
• Gasoline +186k
• Distillates -200k

Following API's reported a huge crude draw, the official data showed a seventh straight week of crude inventory declines. Gasoline stocks saw a build for the second week in a row... Graphics Source: Bloomberg. Cushing 'tank bottoms' are looming... US gasoline stocks are barely off their lowest levels since 2014 for this time of year... The Strategic Petroleum Reserve saw another huge drawdown this week for a total of 66.2 million barrels since the Iran 'mini-war' started (16% of the pre-war total)... Rig counts continue to rise with US crude production just shy of record highs... US crude and product exports dipped last week but remain notably elevated from pre-war levels... WTI was hovering just below $90 ahead of the official data Despite the higher tensions, crude futures are down by more than a quarter since their peak at the end of April, aided by a combination of a plunge in Chinese imports to multiyear lows, record American oil exports and large releases of emergency reserves. The retreat is a sign that oil markets are, for now at least, coping with the disruption and physical markets look well supplied. “At the moment the market is trying to find some equilibrium,” Wael Sawan, Chief Executive Officer of Shell Plc, said on the sidelines of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in London. “It’s more driven by short-term headlines. And so if I look at the reality, we’re of course drawing down on those inventories fast.”

Crude settles up $2 after Trump threatens to hit Iran ‘very hard’ -- Crude oil prices closed up nearly $2 on Wed­nes­day after Pres­id­ent Don­ald J. Trump said the US is going to attack Iran “very hard” if no peace deal is final­ized. Brent crude futures settled at $93.10 a bar­rel, up $1.65 or 1.8%. US crude futures fin­ished at $90.03 a bar­rel, up $1.83, or 2%. Both con­tracts jumped about $3 in after­noon trad­ing after Mr. Trump reit­er­ated that Iran would be attacked again fol­low­ing an exchange of fire overnight that was one of the most sig­ni­fic­ant since an April cease­fire. Prices pared gains toward the ses­sion’s close after Mr. Trump said the US mil­it­ary secretly escor­ted ships car­ry­ing more than 100 mil­lion bar­rels of oil out of the Strait of Hor­muz. Global oil con­sump­tion is roughly 100 mil­lion bar­rels per day. Mr. Trump sug­ges­ted the oper­a­tion had helped keep prices in check, telling report­ers at the White House that crude would oth­er­wise be “at $250” instead of “$85-$90 a bar­rel.” His remarks fol­lowed a Truth Social post in which he said Tehran would have to “pay the price” for allegedly drag­ging out nego­ti­ations for a peace deal. Prices were also sup­por­ted by data from the US Energy Inform­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion which showed US crude stocks fell sharply last week as refiners scrambled to fill sup­ply gaps caused by the war. US crude invent­or­ies fell by 7.2 mil­lion bar­rels in the week ended June 5, the agency said, a far big­ger draw than the 4 mil­lion bar­rels expec­ted by ana­lysts in a Reu­ters poll. The data showed invent­or­ies in the US Stra­tegic Pet­ro­leum Reserve at their low­est levels since August 2023. The US mil­it­ary struck Ira­nian tar­gets after Mr. Trump vowed on Tues­day to respond to the down­ing of a US Apache attack heli­copter. The US mil­it­ary also car­ried out a “pre­ci­sion” strike on a ves­sel in the Gulf of Oman on Wed­nes­day that failed to fol­low its instruc­tions and was car­ry­ing oil from Iran, it said, while India said three of its sea­farers were miss­ing after the attack. In what could fur­ther com­plic­ate talks, the United Nations nuc­lear watch­dog’s 35-nation Board of Gov­ernors passed a USbacked res­ol­u­tion on Wed­nes­day telling Iran to declare its remain­ing enriched uranium stocks and let inspect­ors verify them.

Oil prices surge as fresh US strikes on Iran threaten fragile truce - Oil jumped on June 11 after the US started new strikes on Iran, with the Islamic Republic responding by announcing a halt to all vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, putting further strain on a fragile ceasefire. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US oil benchmark, surged 4 per cent to trade above US$93 a barrel before paring some gains after President Donald Trump told Fox News the bombing would stop shortly following direct talks with Iranian officials.   At 8.30am Singapore time, WTI was up 2.3 per cent at US$95.19. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 2.6 per cent to US$92.38. The United States launched strikes after Trump accused Tehran of dragging out talks on an interim peace deal. Iran said Hormuz has been completely closed, according to Press TV, which also reported the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck two vessels in the strait that were attempting passage. Tehran has allowed some ships to cross since the war started via a mixture of tolls and government agreements. However, the US military said on X that commercial ships are continuing to transit Hormuz. The fresh US attacks follow strikes on June 9 in retaliation for the downing of an American helicopter off Oman. Renewed hostilities threatens to extend the near-total closure of the Strait, which has choked off supplies of crude, fuels and natural gas since the start of the war in late February. “The next few days will be critical in determining whether diplomacy can reassert itself or whether the conflict moves into a more sustained escalation cycle,” said Jorge Leon, the head of geopolitical analysis at consultant Rystad Energy. “Oil price volatility is likely to remain elevated until there is clearer evidence” for the ceasefire holding, he added. US Central Command said it began “additional self-defense strikes” that are in response to Iran’s “unwarranted and continued aggression.” In response to the American strikes on June 9 over the downing of the helicopter, Iran retaliated with attacks on US military facilities in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait. Late on June 10 in the US, Trump posted on social media that the US military had supported the passage of “more than 200 commercial ships” through the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in “more than 100 million barrels of oil” making it to market. He went on to claim the US controls the strait, “not Iran.” There has been a trickle of oil flows exiting the Persian Gulf under the cover of darkness, and physical markets are showing some signs of ample supply. Still, the disruption to Middle East shipments has driven energy prices higher, including retail US gasoline, and raised concerns about slowing economic growth. Separately, US government data on June 10 showed US crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels last week, extending declines for a seventh week. Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, also dropped slightly.

Oil Slides as Trade Gauges Impact of Mideast Escalation (DTN) -- Oil prices slid Thursday (6/11) as market participants tried to assess whether fresh escalation in the Middle East conflict between the U.S. and Iran would add to the global supply deficit or represented geopolitical noise of a familiar kind. Since Monday, the downing by Iran of a U.S. military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz has resulted in intense war language from the Trump administration pledging a commensurate response. Tehran has been equally vocal with its rhetoric. But media coverage of the new hostilities appeared limited to military targets and not energy infrastructure. Over the past 48 hours, the U.S. directed precision strikes toward peripheral targets, coastal radar stations, and two southern Iranian water reservoirs, bypassing vital oil production fields. Tehran countered with missile salvos against heavily fortified allied military hubs in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait, although many of these appeared to have been intercepted. After rallying 2% or more Wednesday on the new tensions in the Gulf and following a seventh weekly U.S. crude drawdown announced by the Energy Information Administration, energy markets pulled back by mid-morning Thursday, taking into account the latest nature of the escalation. By 9:25 a.m. ET, NYMEX WTI crude for July delivery fell $0.45 to $89.58 bbl, after a session high at $93.64. ICE Brent for August slid $0.64 to $92.50 bbl after peaking at $ 95.50. Downstream, on NYMEX, July ULSD slipped by $0.0216 to $3.5910 gallon, while July RBOB retreated by $0.0042 to $3.1057 gallon. On the forex market, the U.S. dollar index remained just beneath the key 100-point level, rising 0.216 points to 100.150 against a basket of foreign currencies. On the macroeconomic front, U.S. wholesale inflation accelerated sharply in May, with producer prices jumping 6.5% over the past 12 months, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Thursday. The steep annual surge underscores intensifying inflationary pressures across the domestic supply chain, marking the fastest pace of wholesale price gains since a 7.4% spike in November 2022.

Oil Market Retreats Despite Escalating U.S.-Iran Tensions - The oil market erased overnight gains and ended the session lower after U.S. President Donald Trump canceled strikes against Iran that had been scheduled for later on Thursday evening. The market posted an outside trading day as the market weighed the escalating tension in the Middle East against the news that the U.S. and Iran had discussed and approved final points in a peace deal and were ready to sign an agreement. Hostilities between the U.S. and Iran had escalated further, with tit-for-tat attacks across Iran and on U.S. bases in the region following Monday’s downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. On Wednesday evening, the U.S. military’s Central Command announced strikes were complete about four hours after they began soon after midnight in Tehran, while Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had launched counter-attacks on 18 U.S. military targets at airbases in Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. Also, Iran’s joint military command announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, including for oil tankers and commercial ships, saying any vessel attempting passage would come under fire. The crude market gapped higher on the opening from $91.87 to $92.25 and posted a high of $93.64. However, the market erased its gains amid reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiations were still continuing despite the strikes against each other. The market backfilled its gap and traded to $88.63 in early morning trading before the market bounced off that level and traded back over the $91.00 level as President Trump once again stated that the U.S. would strike Iran on Thursday. The market later sold off to a low of $86.54 ahead of the close after President Trump reversed course and cancelled planned strikes against Iran. The July WTI contract settled down $2.32 at $87.71 and continued to sell off in the post settlement period, posting a low of $85.81. The August Brent contract settled down $2.72 at $90.38. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 9.95 cents at $3.5131 and the RB market settling down 85 points at $3.1014.  OPEC on Thursday lowered its forecast for world oil demand growth in 2026 to 970,000 bpd, marking the second straight downward revision. The current OPEC forecast reduced the expected oil demand growth this year from 1.17 million bpd seen previously. For 2027, OPEC expects oil demand to increase by 1.73 million bpd, up 190,000 bpd from the previous forecast. OPEC+ crude output averaged 33.13 million bpd in May, down 190,000 bpd from April.Saudi Arabia’s crude oil sales to China are expected to remain at record lows in July as elevated prices in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continue to weigh on demand from the world’s largest crude importer. The allocations indicate that refiners remain reluctant to import high-priced barrels following run cuts and as they draw on domestic inventories. Saudi Aramco will ship about 12 million barrels or about 387,096 bpd of oil to customers in China for July loading.Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline is running at full capacity for the first time since the completion of a major expansion two years ago, but an executive said that ongoing global turmoil makes predicting future capacity rates difficult. The 890,000 bpd pipeline, which carries oil from the province of Alberta to British Columbia’s west coast, is at apportionment for the month of June.

Oil extends losses as Trump calls off planned strikes on Iran AM June 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Friday, extending losses from the previous session after U.S. President Donald Trump canceled plans to strike Iran, reducing fears of an escalation of hostilities following tit-for-tat attacks earlier in the week. Brent futures fell $1.21 or 1.3% to $89.17 a barrel at 0042 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was $1.23, or 1.4%, lower at $86.48. On a weekly basis, Brent was 4.2% lower, while WTI was down 4.4%. Trump, who had threatened to hit Iran "very hard," called off planned strikes on Thursday, saying discussions with Iran had progressed. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that Tehran had not approved the text of any agreement. "While this could, of course, be yet another false dawn, the market's reaction has been both swift and decisive," said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore. On Wednesday, Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, saying any vessel attempting to pass through would come under fire. Tehran's months-long blockade of the strait, which normally carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, has kept oil prices elevated. The U.S. military said on social media commercial ships continued to transit the waterway. Even as oil prices correct downwards, "as long as the price can hold above support in the low $80s, the risks remain firmly skewed to the upside," IG's Sycamore said.

Oil prices fall after Trump cancels 'planned strikes' on Iran, says deal to be signed 'shortly' -  Global oil prices fell below $90 per barrel on Friday after US President Donald Trump announced that he had cancelled the "planned strikes" on Iran and said a deal with Tehran had been approved and would be signed "shortly". The August contract of Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange was trading at $89.37 per barrel, down 1.14% from its previous close. The July contract of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 0.98% to $86.85 a barrel. The decline came after Trump's announcement suggested a possible de-escalation in tensions that had rattled energy markets this week. The White House, quoting Trump on X, said:"Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening. Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others. The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized - Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly." Further, speaking at the Oval Office, Trump said he expects an agreement to be signed “over the next few days”.The reversal came after the US president earlier on Thursday threatened to hit Iran "very hard" with fresh strikes and floated the possibility of taking control of Kharg Island, home to one of Iran's key oil export terminals.However, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said the deal had not yet been finalized, while accusing the US of making "excessive demands" and introducing new conditions into the negotiations, according to a BBC report.The latest developments come after the conflict escalated earlier this week, with Iran announcing a complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz.Amid the escalation in recent days, three vessels carrying Indian crew members have reportedly been hit by US forces.  US forces on Thursday struck MT Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged vessel carrying 20 Indian crew members. The incident came days after a similar attack on another ship carrying Indian sailors, prompting India to reiterate its call for an end to attacks on commercial shipping in the region. Addressing reporters on Thursday, ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said attacks on ships in the region were a direct consequence of the ongoing conflict and posed serious concerns for maritime safety.Jaiswal said US chargé d'affaires Jason Meeks was summoned to the ministry on Wednesday to register India's strong protest over attacks on vessels carrying Indian crew members.He added that India had separately condemned the attack on Settebello on Monday, in which three Indian nationals were killed.

Oil Tumbles 3% on US-Iran Ceasefire Optimism-- Crude prices tumbled about 3% Friday to near two-month lows after U.S. President Donald Trump called off planned retaliatory airstrikes on Iran, easing tensions in a Middle East conflict that turned hostile in recent days after months of ceasefire. Media reports that a peace deal could be signed as early as Sunday added to the market retreat. More Recommended for You By 9:10 a.m. EDT, NYMEX WTI crude for July delivery fell $2.18 to $85.53 barrel (bbl), after a session low at $83.20. ICE Brent for August slid $1.93 to $88.45 bbl after tumbling to $85.80 earlier. Downstream, on NYMEX, July ULSD slipped by $0.1037 to $3.4094 gallon, while July RBOB retreated by $0.0451 to $3.0563 gallon. In Forex trade, the U.S. Dollar Index remained just beneath the key 100-point level, staying flat at 99.85 against a basket of foreign currencies. Crude prices were on track to their third weekly loss in four amid talk that a bilateral memorandum to halt Gulf hostilities could be signed as early as Sunday, with Geneva positioned as the likely venue. Iran has, however, not confirmed the prospects for such a deal. Separately though, Iranian news outlets indicated that formal nuclear discussions related to a peace deal would commence within a 60-day window of the signing of such a memorandum. The four-month long Iran war has caused the most severe disruption in global oil supply as blockades by both Iran and the U.S. on different ends of the Strait of Hormuz choke off 20 million bpd of petroleum liquid cargoes.

U.S. crude oil falls below $85 as U.S. and Iran near a deal to reopen Hormuz - Oil prices fell Friday as the U.S. and Iran neared an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though a senior Trump administration official said the outcome still was not certain. U.S. crude oil futures fell 3.2% to close at $84.88 per barrel. Brent futures, the international benchmark, lost 3.4% to settle at $87.33. Prices lost about 6% this week though they are still up more than 20% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. The Trump administration official said they see an 80% chance that the U.S. and Iran will sign an agreement in the coming days. “It’s not 100%,” the official said. “Their system is very complicated. Most of the people that we’ve been speaking to and most of the people who have authority within their system want to sign this deal, but not everybody.” The deal would reopen Hormuz, lift the U.S. naval blockade, dismantle Iran’s nuclear program and remove its enriched uranium, the official said. Iran would receive financial incentives if they comply with the agreement, the official said. The agreement outlined by the Trump administration contradicted a document released earlier Friday by Iranian state news agency Mehr that seemed more favorable to Tehran. The Iranian document said the U.S. would agree to withdraw its forces from around the Islamic Republic, lift its naval blockade in 30 days, and provide $300 billion in reconstruction money. Iran would reopen Hormuz in 30 days but under arrangements set by Tehran. The Trump official said Iranian hardliners were trying to make the deal look more favorable to Tehran to satisfy their domestic constituencies. President Donald Trump categorically denied the Iranian text represented the agreement reached between Washington and Tehran. “The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. Trump disparaged the Iranians as “very dishonorable people to deal with” who do not negotiate in good faith. He accused Iran of launching a drone at an Indian vessel overnight, denouncing the attack as unacceptable. “They better get their act together, and FAST!” the president said. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has mediated U.S.-Iran talks, said an “incessant misinformation campaign” was being “waged by those who want to sabotage a peace deal.” “Setting aside the noise, we can confirm that a final, agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps,” Sharif said. “Peace has never been this close as it is now,” the prime minister said. Shortly after Trump denied the Iranian report, Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a social post that a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran “has never been closer.” “Pending its finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content,” Araghchi said. “In line with our responsible and transparent approach, all details will be shared with the public in due course.” Trump then reposted Araghchi’s social media post. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said fake information was circulating about a deal to reopen Hormuz and end Iran’s nuclear program. Vance said Tehran will not receive any cash and funds will not be released just for signing a deal or attending a meeting. “The deal is structured to ensure that the US and its allies concerns are prioritized, and that if the Islamic Republic of Iran meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region,” the vice president said in a social media post.

West Asia Conflict Could Push Crude Oil Prices To $150 Per Barrel -- Global crude oil prices could surge to as high as $150 per barrel if hostilities between the US and Iran resume in earnest, according to a report. According to analysis by Oslo-headquartered energy research and intelligence firm Rystad Energy, which said the latest escalation between the US and Iran has pushed the April ceasefire to its most difficult moment so far, triggering a rise in oil prices and a decline in financial markets, including US equities.Handshake Finance Integration According to the report, as much as 11.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production remains shut in across six Gulf producers, making the conflict the most significant supply disruption seen in modern energy markets. “At this stage, it is too early to say whether the current escalation marks a full resumption of hostilities or a dangerous but still containable episode,” said Jorge Leon, Senior Vice President and Head of Geopolitical Analysis at Rystad Energy. He noted that uncertainty surrounding the conflict was reflected in oil price movements, with Brent front-month crude rising sharply to around $94.5 per barrel before easing back towards $93 per barrel. Leon said the immediate impact of the disruption could be moderated by record releases from strategic petroleum reserves, lower crude imports by China and the continued movement of around 5 million bpd of crude through Saudi Arabia's Yanbu export route, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. “The direction of travel is now more uncertain, and the next few days will be critical in determining whether diplomacy can reassert itself or whether the conflict moves into a more sustained escalation cycle,” Leon said. In addition, the report stated that probability of a near-term diplomatic agreement has diminished from Rystad Energy's earlier assessment of around 40 per cent a few weeks ago. As a result, oil price volatility is expected to remain elevated until there is clearer evidence that the ceasefire can hold or that diplomatic efforts regain momentum. According to the report, the West Asia conflict has already erased around 1 billion barrels of cumulative crude supply from global markets in the three months since the first shots were fired. Moreover, the volume is equivalent to nearly two-and-a-half times the entire US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. On Thursday, international oil benchmark Brent crude traded more than 2 per cent higher at around $95 per barrel. While US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude jumped 4 per cent to $93.64 per barrel.

“Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus”: Trump’s Strange Statistics on “Victory” and the “Destruction of Iran”  – According to a review of publicly available data from Donald Trump’s speeches and posts on the Truth Social platform from the start of the war with Iran (February 28) through today (June 12), a striking pattern of repeated and unsubstantiated claims has emerged:

• 55 declarations of Iran’s “defeat”
• 35 assertions of Iran’s “total destruction”
• 38 promises of an “imminent agreement”
• 25 claims that the Strait of Hormuz remains “open”

These statements stand in contrast to developments on the ground, which reportedly include continued Iranian missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases across the region, the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz (allegedly confirmed by satellite imagery), and the failure of any of the promised “decisive victories” to materialize. An old saying in American politics goes: “Elect a clown, expect a circus.” In political psychology, the compulsive repetition of a claim that contradicts observable reality is often associated with cognitive dissonance and an attempt to escape uncomfortable facts. Trump, who entered office promising to “end endless wars,” now finds himself entangled in a conflict that has not only continued but has expanded across the region. Each time satellite images allegedly showing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz or reports of casualties at U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain emerge, he appears compelled to calm public opinion by repeating hollow slogans. The claim of Iran’s “defeat” has reportedly been repeated 55 times, despite assertions that Iran has not been defeated and has instead imposed what some describe as a “new deterrence equation” on the region. Trump has claimed 35 times that “Iran has been destroyed.” Yet, according to reports cited by his critics, less than 24 hours after one of those statements, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched dozens of ballistic missiles at U.S. military installations in three countries and targeted F-35 fighter jets at Jordan’s Al-Azraq Air Base. Under Trump’s definition, critics argue, “destruction” appears to mean little more than the rapid regeneration of military capabilities.CNN recently reported that Trump had claimed at least 38 times since the outbreak of the war that an agreement was “imminent” (with the figure now reportedly reaching 39). Yet no agreement has been signed to date, and negotiations have allegedly stalled due to Iran’s insistence on a “full ceasefire in Lebanon” and the release of $24 billion in frozen assets. The repeated use of this claim has not only failed to build trust in Tehran but, according to critics, has also led many of Washington’s European and Arab allies to stop taking Trump’s statements seriously. 25 Claims That the Strait of Hormuz Is Open: A Narrative Challenged by Satellite Imagery The latest example of what critics call this “circus” came last night when Trump declared that “the Strait of Hormuz is open and ships are passing through.” However, satellite images circulated afterward reportedly suggested otherwise. According to those reports, no traffic was moving through the strait and oil tankers remained anchored in port. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) later issued a vague statement referring only to an ongoing “assessment of the situation.” For critics, this growing gap between rhetoric and reality has become a defining feature of Trump’s foreign policy. Public opinion in the United States—and even among many of Washington’s allies—is increasingly concluding that Trump’s claims lack a factual foundation. The remarkable number of assertions regarding “victory,” “destruction,” and an “imminent agreement” has, according to critics, not only eroded trust in the White House but also diminished the credibility of the American presidency on the international stage. In this view, the only person benefiting from the “circus” is Trump himself, who keeps his hardline political base engaged through fiery rhetoric. Meanwhile, events on the ground continue to unfold regardless of the slogans: Iran appears more resilient than before, the Strait remains contested, and the United States finds itself trapped in a crisis from which, critics argue, the only exits are either acknowledging failure or escalating toward a far more dangerous confrontation.

The Latest: Israel and Iran trade fire in most serious confrontation since April ceasefire - The Washington Post  --The Middle East braced for the possibility of a return to full-scale war after Israel and Iran fired at each other . It was the first such exchange since a ceasefire two months ago. Also Monday, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a missile at Israel and threatened to disrupt Red Sea shipping.

Suez Canal traffic jumps nearly 30% as Strait of Hormuz disruption pushes more oil shipments through Egypt- Egypt's Suez Canal is experiencing an unexpected revival as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz push more energy shipments toward the Red Sea route, providing a much-needed boost to one of the country's most important sources of foreign exchange. New data from Egypt's state statistics agency, CAPMAS, shows that the number of oil tankers crossing the canal rose sharply in April, helping drive canal revenues to their highest level since early 2024. A total of 529 oil tankers transited the waterway during the month, a 28% increase compared to the same period last year. Overall traffic also improved, with 1,182 vessels of all types passing through the canal, up 14% year-on-year, per Bloomberg. The increase comes amid major disruptions to global energy trade following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most strategic maritime chokepoints. Before the conflict involving Iran escalated earlier this year, roughly one-fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports moved through the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to global markets. With traffic severely restricted, major producers have been forced to seek alternative routes. The shift in shipping patterns is beginning to show up in Egypt's finances. Suez Canal revenues reached $419 million in April, representing a 27% increase from a year earlier and marking the strongest monthly performance since the Houthis intensified attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea in early 2024. The canal remains a crucial pillar of Egypt's economy alongside tourism, remittances, and natural gas exports. However, authorities estimate that disruptions linked to Red Sea insecurity have cost the country at least $9 billion in lost revenue over the past two years. Despite the recent recovery, canal activity remains far below historical norms. CAPMAS data shows that more than 2,300 vessels crossed the Suez Canal in April 2023, nearly double the current volume. Analysts say a full recovery would provide a significant economic boost for Egypt, helping narrow its current-account deficit and strengthen foreign currency reserves at a time when the country continues to face external financing pressures. For now, however, the turmoil reshaping global energy routes is offering Egypt a rare economic silver lining.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis threaten Israeli shipping in the Red Sea (Reuters) - Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday that they would ban Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea, adding to challenges for global shipping through the Middle East during the Iran war. The group said in a statement it had launched an attack on Israel and enacted a total ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, warning of further escalation. Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping may worry energy markets more than three months into Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and with the war reigniting overnight. A Houthi source told Reuters that preventing Israeli ships from transiting the Red Sea was a first step, and that further escalation could lead it to stop the passage of any ships bound for Israel as well as other measures. Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping during the two-year Gaza war that began in October 2023 led major companies including Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to divert around Africa - a far longer, more expensive route. During that period, Houthi attacks on what the group called Israeli-linked vessels were expanded to include any shipping companies that used Israeli ports. The impact of any sustained threat to Red Sea shipping could be bigger now, however, given the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Most Gulf energy production has been unable to leave the region since the war began on February 28. However, significant volumes of Saudi crude have been transported by pipeline to its Red Sea export terminal at Yanbu. The United Arab Emirates has also managed to export some crude from Fujairah, which lies outside the Strait of Hormuz, though there have been Iranian attacks on this terminal as well.

Yemen's Houthis Announce 'Ban' on Israeli Shipping in the Red Sea – -On Monday, Yemen’s Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, announced a “ban” on Israeli shipping on the Red Sea, renewing a blockade that the US had previously failed to end with a bombing campaign.“We declare a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and we consider all enemy movements to be legitimate military targets for our Armed Forces from the moment this statement is issued,” said Houthi military spokesman Yayha Saree.Saree also announced a missile attack on Israel that was launched on Monday morning, and on Monday evening, Israeli media reported that the Israeli military had intercepted a drone fired from Yemen.Yemeni forces had fired some missiles at Israel toward the end of the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, but for the most part, the Houthis stayed out of the war and didn’t attempt to blockade the Red Sea or the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Any Yemeni attacks on Red Sea shipping are expected to have a much bigger impact on global energy markets than before due to the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz.Saree said the Houthis, which governs the capital of Sanaa and an area of Yemen where 70% to 80% of Yemenis live, were taking these steps to confront “the American and Zionist aggression against the axis of Jihad and Resistance in Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen” and to reject “the Zionist project seeking to establish what is so called ‘Greater Israel.'”The announcement and Houthi attacks came after the Iranian military struck northern Israel in response to Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, marking the first time Iran targeted Israel in the name of defending one of its allies, in this case Hezbollah. Iran has threatened more attacks on Israel if its war in southern Lebanon continues. Saree said Yemeni forces “will respond to escalation with escalation, and our military operations will intensify in accordance with the field developments, the battle, and in conjunction with the axis of Jihad and resistance.”The Houthis are known for their resilience as they withstood a brutal seven-year US-backed Saudi/UAE bombing campaign and blockade from 2015 to 2022, which killed at least 377,000 people. A heavy US bombing campaign from March 15, 2025, to May 6, 2025, also failed to end the Houthis’ Red Sea blockade on Israeli shipping and attacks on Israel, which were being done in response to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

Global trade faces 'two-front crisis' as Iran war sparks second strait blockade -The Yemeni Houthis announced early Monday they would impose a “complete ban” on Israeli sea vessels from passing through the Red Sea, a partial blockade that risks hitting global trade with a “two-front crisis” as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted, several outlets reported. “We declare a complete ban on enemy navigation in the Red Sea and we consider any Zionist movements to be military targets for our forces,” said Houthi spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Al Saree in a televised statement released on Monday, according to the United Arab Emirates news outlet The National.  “We will respond to escalation with escalation and our operations will intensify in line with the battle and in conjunction with the axis of jihad and resistance."The announcement comes in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran Sunday, itself a response to Iranian strikes on northern Israel as retaliation for Israel’s siege on Beirut, Lebanon.While not as critical to global trade as the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea is still a major shipping waterway, with around 12% of global trade passing through the channel, “including 30% of global container traffic,” according to The Guardian. Together, disruptions to both shipping waterways would likely further exacerbate supply shocks sparked by President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran.“The two waterways together carry an estimated 30% of global container shipping and approximately 22% of the world's seaborne oil supply, according to analysis by The Middle East Insider,” reads a report from Insurance Business Magazine. “A combined disruption places an estimated US$10 billion per day of global trade at risk.”

U.S. military disables Iranian-bound oil tanker in Gulf of Oman --The U.S. military disabled an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday that it said was in violation of the U.S. Navy blockade, according to the U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East.  An F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, fired a precision munition into the engineering and steering spaces of the Palau-flagged M/T Marivex, which was transiting international water toward Iran, after the vessel’s crew did not comply with the directions from U.S. personnel, according to Centcom. The oil tanker is nearly 135 meters long and 22 meters wide, according to MarineTraffic.com. The U.S. forces have continued to enforce the blockade, which went into effect in mid-April. So far, the U.S. military has disabled seven vessels that did not comply with the warnings and redirected 134 ships that have complied, according to Centcom. The U.S. military has allowed 42 ships supporting humanitarian aid to pass through since the blockade kicked off.The enforcement of the blockade comes as President Trump has urged Israel and Iran to immediately “stop shooting” on Monday after the firing resumed between the two sides, escalating tensions that threaten the U.S.-negotiated ceasefire from early April. Both Iran and Israel have signalled a halt to strikes for now.Last week, a U.S. fighter jet fired a Hellfire missile, disabling a Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie oil tanker that was heading toward an Iranian port on Kharg Island.

Israel and Iran appear to pause strikes after trading fire -  (AP) — Israel and Iran appeared to back away from further strikes Monday, hours after they traded fire for the first time since the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire with Tehran two months ago. Both countries warned that they were ready to launch retaliatory attacks if provoked. The renewed hostilities raised concerns that the Middle East could plunge back into a full-scale war. Since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28, the war has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive. Officials have been unable to turn the April ceasefire into a deal to permanently end the conflict. The new attacks prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to call for an immediate stop to fighting between Israel and Iran. Soon after, the Iranian military’s joint command issued a statement that said it was halting offensive strikes. The statement said further “aggression and hostile acts” by Israel and its supporters, including in southern Lebanon, would be met with “much more severe and crushing measures than before.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking in a videotaped statement, implied that the current round of fighting was over. But he also warned that if Iran “makes the mistake and returns to attacking us, we will respond with force.”   Netanyahu said Israel is continuing to operate in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, and that Israel “has full right to self-defense, and we will exercise it to the full extent necessary.”  Meanwhile, the Lebanese Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the village of Zefta killed seven people Monday, including a Syrian child. Eight people were wounded. Another strike on the coastal city of Tyre killed five and wounded eight, some of them members of the Lebanese Red Cross, the ministry said. Both countries lifted restrictions they had imposed as safety precautions. The Israeli military said most schools in Israel that closed Monday would reopen. Iran’s official Mizan news agency reported that the Islamic Republic had lifted airspace restrictions affecting civilian flights.During the truce, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial passage for the world’s oil and natural gas whose closure was the primary reason global fuel prices skyrocketed. Israel has continued to strike Hezbollah, Iran’s ally in Lebanon, and pushed deeper into that country. The U.S. military continues to impose a blockade on Iranian ports. U.S. Central Command said its forces on Monday fired on and disabled a Palau-flagged oil tanker, the M/T Marivex, in the Gulf of Oman after the ship attempted to breach the blockade. Officials in India said the tanker’s crew of 24 Indian sailors were all reported safe after a fire broke out on the vessel. It was the seventh commercial vessel the U.S. military has disabled to enforce its blockade, which began in mid-April.Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed concern Monday over the surge in violence. In a post on X, Sharif urged all parties to “exercise restraint and give peace a little more chance.”Two regional officials said Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Qatar had all urged the Trump administration to pressure Israel to halt strikes on Iran and Beirut.

Kuwait closes airspace, Israel warns of launches from Lebanon after U.S strikes in Iran - Kuwait closed its airspace Thursday local time due to “Iranian aggressions” as it intercepted “hostile aerial targets,” following U.S. strikes against Tehran, signaling rising tensions in the Middle East. Israel’s Home Front Command also warned of launches from Lebanon toward several communities in northern Israel.Iran “struck and destroyed eighteen important targets” belonging to U.S. forces at Kuwait’s Ali Salem and Ahmad al-Jaber air bases, as well as the Sheikh Issa air base in Bahrain, according to the state run Tasnim news agency. Bahrain’s interior ministry earlier said that sirens had been sounded and urged civilians to head to a safe place.The escalation follows U.S. attack on multiple targets in Iran Wednesday stateside at President Donald Trump’s direction, following “Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.”  Centcom said strikes were completed at 9:04 p.m. ET Wednesday, adding it hit Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites. U.S. forces fired on Iranian targets that “posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”Iranian state media earlier reported that Iran had targeted U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz with missile and drone attacks. Later, Reuters reported that Iran’s top military command completely closed the Strait of Hormuz, warning that any vessel attempting to cross would be targeted.Trump later told Fox News that he spoke directly with Iranian officials, who he said asked him to stop the strikes. He said the bombing would stop shortly and that the Israelis were not involved in the strikes, but left the door open for further military action, according to Fox.In response to a question about whether the ceasefire was over, Trump reportedly said that it was the most violated ceasefire in history.The strikes come after Trump said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard” again, escalating his public threats as he pressed Tehran to sign a deal.“We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” Trump said at a White House signing event for the Secure America Act. “We’re going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard.”Trump said Iran “should sign the deal” and said that the U.S. wants an agreement “that’s meaningful and works.”“We’ll see what happens with the deal,” Trump said.In response Wednesday afternoon, the head of the national security commission in Iran’s parliament, Ebrahim Azizi, wrote that “this time, the war won’t be limited to the region,” in a post on X.The comments come after Trump warned on Truth Social that Iran had taken too long to negotiate and would “pay the price” amid escalating military tensions between Washington and Tehran.“Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess,” Trump wrote Wednesday morning. “Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore — They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action.”

Israel Strikes Lebanese Capital of Beirut in Latest Escalation - --20 Lebanese have been killed in the last 24 hours as Israel continues to follow its latest ceasefire deal with substantial escalation of military strikes on the country. Sunday’s strikes included multiple Israeli strikes on the suburbs of the Lebanese capital city of Beirut.  Two apartment buildings were struck in the suburb of Dahiyeh. The strikes were carried out without any advanced notice for civilians to evacuate. At least two people were killed in the attacks, and 20 others were wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The wounded included at least four women and four children.Israeli officials claimed the attacks on the apartment blocks targeted “terrorist headquarters,” though it is as yet unclear if any of the casualties were actually in any way terrorists. The attacks were reportedly carried out in coordination with the United States.  President Trump is reportedly unhappy with the strikes. Since Israel invaded Lebanon in March, Israeli strikes have killed 3,613 people and wounded 11,072 others. Hundreds of those slain have been killed since the initial ceasefire was agreed upon in April, as Israel has never actually stopped attacking. The Israel invasion has been a key topic in ongoing US-Iran negotiations, with Iran insisting on an actual Lebanon ceasefire as part of the deal to end that war. Last weekend, President Trump claimed to have assurances from both Israel and Hezbollah that all shooting would stop.  In addition to Israel claiming to have coordinated today’s attacks on Beirut with the US, President Trump is now insisting that he’d like to see more strikes against Hezbollah, and that he has “ruled out” linking the Lebanon ceasefire to the Iran deal.That’s likely to greatly further complicate any deal with Iran, though President Trump has claimed such a deal was imminent for months now. Iran’s negotiator has reportedly threatened retaliation against US targets over the attacks in Lebanon, saying he believes the US “only understand the language of power.”

14 Killed, 31 Wounded in Latest Israeli Strikes Across Southern Lebanon - The ceasefire in Lebanon seems as tenuous as ever, with Israeli troops carrying out a flurry of strikes across southern Lebanon, leaving at least 14 people dead and 31 others wounded, and bringing the overall death toll since the Israeli invasion began to 3,666 killed. The largest number of casualties reported were in the city of Tyre, where 9 were killed and 28 wounded. Two were killed in a drone strike against Kfar Roummine, another was killed in an airstrike against a farm in Adchit, and a 16-year-old was reported killed in another drone strike against the town of Haboush.The IDF claimed another person, a “Hezbollah” gunman, was slain along Ramim Ridge along the border in an exchange of gunfire. The IDF initially claimed the fighter had crossed into Israeli territory during the exchange, but some Israeli media reports seem to be disputing that claim, and suggested he was still on the Lebanese side. He has not been identified. Israeli drones were also seen over parts of the capital city of Beirut, which was last attacked over the weekend. So far no new attacks on Beirut or its immediately surrounding suburbs have been reported.Indications are that the war is further escalating. In Haboush, the drones that are constantly flying overhead have taken to broadcasting the sound of children screaming for help, or the sound of ambulances in an attempt to lure people out to be targeted.Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for Israel to start arresting Lebanese women as a matter of policy, suggesting its time to “start thinking outside the box about them,” and that “taking them to terror prison” is what “hurts them the most.”Ben-Gvir has been advocating further escalation of the war effectively from the beginning, calling for the mass destruction of Lebanese towns and villages and for the outright annexation of broad swathes of Lebanese territory in the south.

Ben Gvir Says Israel Should Kidnap Women and Children in Lebanon - -  Israeli media reported on Tuesday that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir suggested at a security cabinet meeting that the Israeli military should kidnap women and children in Lebanon as a way to put pressure on Hezbollah.  “Let’s start thinking outside the box about Hezbollah,” Ben Gvir said, according to The Jerusalem Post. “Also, conquering territory and killing many terrorists, but also arresting their women and youth and taking them to terrorist prisons. That’s what hurts them the most.” Ben Gvir’s mention of “terrorist prisons” refers to the Israeli prisons for Palestinians captured in Gaza and the West Bank, which are infamous for torture, including methods such as food deprivation, something Ben Gvir has previously bragged about, and widespread sexual abuse.  Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, has previously advocated for the killing of women and children. In 2024, he said that any women or children who get close to the Israeli border should get shot in the head, and last year, he reportedly said at a cabinet meeting that the IDF should shoot children who approach the “yellow line” in Gaza. The Israeli minister recently sparked a diplomatic incident by posting a video of Gaza flotilla activists being mocked and abused while in Israeli detention, leading to widespread condemnation of his actions from countries whose citizens were among the detained. In response to the video, Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into Ben Gvir.  While often portrayed as a fringe figure, Ben Gvir has significant influence over the Israeli government, and as the minister of national security, he oversees the Israeli police and prison system. He was also seen as the main driving force behind the Israeli Knesset passing a death penalty law that only applies to Palestinians.

Lebanese City of Tyre Again Ordered Evacuated as Israel Strikes Hospital Area - - Israel has once again issued an order for all residents of the Lebanese city of Tyre to evacuate north of the Zahrani River. Since Israel destroyed all the bridges leading there months ago, such evacuations would be virtually impossible for locals.Israel followed this order up with multiple attacks on Tyre, and for the third time this month, one of the attacks was in the area around the Jabal Amel Hospital, a strike that killed four and wounded seven others, causing damage to the hospital.That wasn’t the only strike on Tyre itself, with another attack elsewhere in the city killing three people, including a man and his two university student sons, and wounding five others. That attack targeted the city’s Christian quarter. Jabal Amel hospital has been badly damaged over the past week with multiple Israeli attacks on the area leaving scores wounded, including a large number of staff members working there. Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed the attacks on the hospital were targeting “terror infrastructure.”Other Israeli attacks were reported in the Nabatieh District, hitting the towns of Zefta, Abba, and Doueir. Those strikes killed at least five people and wounded three others, and the city of Nabatieh has reported intense strikes throughout the day. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a new video declaring that the attacks on southern Lebanon would continue, and claiming that Hezbollah was “in retreat” because of the ongoing attacks on Lebanese towns and cities.

Exodus From Lebanon’s Tyre as Israel Orders Locals Out of Christian Quarter -    For the first time since they invaded Lebanon in March, the Israeli military issued an explicit evacuation warning for the Christian quarter of the ancient city of Tyre, claiming there were Hezbollah secretly hiding amongst the Christians.What followed was an attempt by the remaining Christian population to flee northward, an effort that would’ve been a lot easier if Israel hadn’t destroyed the bridge over the Litani River that is directly north of the city over a month ago. The locals are trying to reach Sidon and in some cases Beirut.Meanwhile, attacks on Tyre continued apace, killing at least 9 and wounded dozens of others. At least 15 strikes were reported against Tyre on Tuesday morning alone, with no signs that the attacks are slowing, and no signs that any of the people hit in the airstrikes are actually anything to do with Hezbollah. Christian religious leaders from Tyre were quick to call for international intervention to protect their historic neighborhood, saying the targeting of the Christian quarter would amount to a humanitarian catastrophe. Christian leaders further disputed the claim that Hezbollah was operating in the Christian neighborhood in the first place, saying it was a fabricated Israeli pretext to justify attacking that part of the city, which had previously been largely left alone. Not that Tyre in general hasn’t been a constant target of the IDF. Jabal Amel Hospital, one of Tyre’s largest, has been hit no less than three times so far this month, most recently over the weekend. The hospital has been significantly damaged by the attacks, and a large number of health care workers wounded.

Syrian Locals Say Israeli Troops Beat Them, Ran Over Their Sheep in Quneitra Incursion -  Israeli forces have advanced into southwestern Syria’s Quneitra Governorate again Wednesday, and once again one of the operations involved a raid of the village of Saida al-Hanout.  Locals say the IDF troops tied up a pair of young men in the village, beat them for awhile before letting them go without providing a reason, and then reportedly ran over multiple of the villagers’ sheep while departing. Reports of the IDF getting increasingly aggressive about their raids are becoming more common of late. On Monday, troops were reported to have raided the town of al-Rafid, beating up four minors in the town and confiscating their phones before withdrawing. Troops on the outskirts of al-Rafid on Tuesday were demolishing agricultural lands and installing barbed wire fences in them. Troops also reportedly set up new soil barricades in the area near the boundary that was previously the demilitarized zone.Detentions were extremely rare early in the Israeli invasion of southwestern Syria, but have become more and more common in recent weeks. Israel has notably not offered any more statements about their operations on Syrian soil to explain their aggressive engagements with the civilian populace.In addition to the Saida al-Hanout incident on Wednesday, IDF troops also entered Daraa and raided the area near the Um Al-Luqas farm in Quneitra, capturing a young man and taking him into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. His fate remains unknown.

Footage Shows Moment Israeli Soldier Shot Seven-Month-Old Baby in the West Bank - -- Footage released by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem shows the moment an Israeli soldier opened fire on a vehicle in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and killed a seven-month-old baby, Sam Abu Haikal. The killing occurred on Friday when Sam’s father, Fahd Abu Haikal, was driving home in the city of Hebron, when IDF soldiers appeared on the road. The IDF claimed that a soldier fired on the car after they “perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them,” but the footage from B’Tselem shows the car was slowing down and coming to a stop.“The footage clearly shows that the Israeli soldier fired at the car as it was slowing to a stop. The car was far from the soldiers and posed no danger to them whatsoever,” B’Tselem said in a statement on the video.The bullet that killed Sam struck him in the face after going through his father’s hand. The baby’s mother was also injured by the bullet, and his 11-year-old brother and 61-year-old grandmother were also in the vehicle.B’Tselem also released footage of the family outside of the car after the shooting, where Fahd can be seen holding Sam after he was shot. Describing the video, B’Tselem said, “Fahed is holding baby Sam in his arms, trying to stop the bleeding from his head with his hands, while Sam’s mother, Daniyah, who was also injured by the gunfire while holding her son, is seen sitting on the ground, next to the car.” The Israeli rights group said that after the shooting, the “soldier who fired and another soldier who was with him left the scene without checking the car or offering any assistance to the critically wounded baby or to his mother.”Fahd told Al Jazeera that he intends to file a case against the Israeli soldier who killed his son, but has little hope of accountability. “After the incident, the soldiers confiscated the security camera footage from the area, but no one has contacted us about investigating the crime,” he said.

Ukraine Hits Over Half A Dozen Energy & Industrial Sites Deep Inside Russia Overnight --Ukraine has hit Russia in another sweeping wave of overnight aerial attacks, especially targeting industrial facilities and energy infrastructure across multiple regions, and the extent of damage is yet to be disclosed.One of the key targets was reportedly the VNIIR-Progress plant, located in the republic of Chuvashia, which is alleged by Ukraine and the West to manufactures components for Russian drones and bombs. Other nearby infrastructure was also attacked. Ukraine has for months been making clear that it is going gloves off when it comes to attacking Russia's energy and military sites, as well as dual use military-industrial factories. Ukraine used its domestic-made Flamingo cruise missile: Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile attack deep inside Russia, hitting a major military plant overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.He said FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles struck the drone and missile plant in the city of Cheboksary, in the Chuvash Republic, more than 900km (560 miles) from the front line. Local officials say said three people were injured in a missile attack on the city.Ukraine also said it had hit the Moscow-occupied port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, a Russian oil refinery in Samara and a "shadow fleet" oil tanker in the Black Sea.  According to a review of sensitive sites struck in the fresh overnight attack wave:

• In Novokuibyshevsk in Russia’s Samara oil hub region, hosting Rosneft refineries, regional governors said authorities repelled drone attacks while urging one million residents to seek shelter. Russian OSINT channel Astra confirmed the Kuibyshevsk oil refinery was burning after at least 29 drones attacked.
• In Russia’s Rostov region bordering Ukraine, falling debris from a drone triggered a fire in a fuel tank at a civilian site. In the central Vladimir region, two industrial facilities were ablaze.
• Rare air raid alerts were issued in remote oil-producing regions Khanty-Mansiysk, Perm and Tyumen, plus industrial Ural mountain regions Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk.

Chuvashia regional governor Oleg Nikolayev blasted the strike on the aforementioned manufacturing plant as indicative of the "impotent rage of terrorists who, having no success at the front line, try to intimidate peaceful people in the rear." All of these strike waves in disparate places is likely invite even greater airstrikes on Kiev, after the capital has already been hit hard over the past several weeks.

Ukraine Conducts Large-Scale Attack on St. Petersburg - Ukraine fired hundreds of drones at Russia on Saturday, including at Moscow and St. Petersburg. The mass drone salvo was launched as a major international event was wrapping up in St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg government ordered residents to shelter in place on Saturday amid a Ukraine drone attack. The city’s mayor reported that three people sustained minor injuries. Aleksandr Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region, reported that a total of 86 Ukrainian drones were downed. The attack occurred at the conclusion of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Ukraine also attacked the city on Wednesday, just before the opening of the event. During the forum, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov argued that Washington’s policy under President Donald Trump is largely unchanged from that under President Joe Biden. “Biden’s policy continues. But with certain nuances, I would say,”  he explained. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the drones were targeting a Russian naval base. “Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region—to the enemy’s Navy arsenals and the Kronstadt base,” he wrote on X Saturday.  . Ukraine conducted attacks across Russia, with the Defense Ministry downing over 376 drones. The mayor of Moscow said that five drones were downed near the capital city.

Bulgaria To Stop Sending Military Aid to Ukraine -    Bulgaria’s new government will stop sending military aid to Ukraine, the country’s defense minister said on Tuesday, as the more than four-year-old war grinds on with no end in sight.“We have already made it clear that the war in Ukraine will not be resolved on the battlefield,” Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told reporters, according to The Associated Press. “What we are witnessing is a war of attrition, and no matter how much weaponry is amassed, its only result is the loss of human lives. Ukraine needs more people, not more weapons. It has enough weapons, so we do not envisage providing more weapons to the Ukrainian army. It is time to sit down at the negotiating table,” he added.  Stoyanov, who took the position when the new government was formed in early May, clarified on Wednesday that Bulgaria was only halting the donation of military equipment to Ukraine and that it could still sell weapons. “We are stopping the provision of weapons and ammunition from the warehouses of the Bulgarian army. The word is provision, not sale,” he said.Bulgaria had sent at least 13 military aid packages to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, including Soviet-made equipment in the early days of the war, and the previous government announced in March that it would join the NATO initiative under which European countries purchase US weapons to send into the conflict.Rumen Radev, Bulgaria’s new prime minister, said on Wednesday that his country had given enough to Ukraine and called for a diplomatic solution to end the war. “We have already given enough, while our country continues to suffer socio-economic damage from this bloody war,” he said, adding he was “convinced that a peaceful solution will not be achieved by military means.” The war in Ukraine has escalated in recent months as Ukrainian forces have stepped up US and NATO-backed long-range drone attacks targeting oil infrastructure inside Russia. Ukrainian drone attacks have also been killing more civilians, and Russia has responded by ramping up its bombardments of Ukraine.