week ending Jan 31

Fed holds interest rates steady despite Trump pressure -- The Federal Reserve declined to cut interest rates Wednesday, holding steady amid President Trump’s battle to exert more influence over the independent central bank.The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted 10-2 to keep its baseline interest rate range unchanged at 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent, with Fed board members Christopher Waller and Stephen Miran voting for a 0.25 percentage point cut.Economists widely expected the panel of Fed rate-setters to hold fast this month and end a string of three consecutive cuts that began in September.With inflation treading water above the Fed’s target, job growth stabilizing and gross domestic product expansion above expectations, the central bank is under less economic pressure to cut rates than it was toward the end of 2025.But the political pressure on the Fed has reached new heights amid a Justice Department criminal probe into the bank and its chair, Jerome Powell. The Trump administration is also pushing to fire Fed board member Lisa Cook in a Supreme Court case with serious implications for the bank’s independence.The Fed and Powell are facing these obstacles with just four months left in his term as chair, and as Trump is to announce his potential successor.Powell declined to answer questions about the criminal probe into the Fed, but defended his decision to attend Supreme Court oral arguments last week in Cook’s challenge to Trump’s attempt to fire her. When asked to respond to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling Powell’s attendance “political,” the Fed chief refused to engage, but explained why he felt he should go. “That case is perhaps the most important legal case in the Fed’s 113-year history. And as I thought about it, I thought it might be hard to explain why I didn’t attend,” Powell said. Powell also defended the role the Fed’s independence plays in keeping the economy and financial conditions stable — something many Fed alumni and experts fear could be lost if the Supreme Court rules against Cook, or the DOJ moves ahead with criminal charges against the bank. “Every advanced economy democracy in the world has come around to this common practice,” Powell said.

Despite Two Dovish Dissents, Fed Holds Rates As Expected; Upgrades Growth, Lowers Labor Risks -Despite two dovish dissents, The Fed is likely on an “extended pause” noting strong activity data and signs of stabilization in the labor market. However, Goldman "expects easing to resume later in the year as a moderation in inflation allows for two further ‘normalization’ cuts to take rates back to levels seen by the median FOMC member as neutral.” Christopher Hodge, chief US economist at Natixis, says at the end of the day here the Fed is “on hold until data prompts a move.” "We have now entered a new phase of policymaking where the Fed views the risks to both parts of its dual mandate are in balance. It will be incumbent on the data to move the Fed from this perch – the days of insurance cuts to slowly approach neutral are likely over." Waller's odds of being the next Fed Chair went up after his dovish dissent.

Fed meeting recap: Powell says economy on 'firm footing' and current rate level not restrictive --The Federal Reserve kept its overnight lending rate steady at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been "expanding at a solid pace," according to the Federal Open Market Committee's post-meeting statement. Policymakers also noted that the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization. At his press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said, "Many of my colleagues think it's hard to look at the incoming data and say that policy is significantly restrictive at this time." The Fed's decision comes at a hectic time for the central bank. President Donald Trump last week told CNBC that he may have narrowed his search for a new Fed chair to one candidate. The Justice Department has also been investigating Powell, a move that's raising concerns about the Fed's independence. The Fed's decision to hold rates steady means investors don't have to worry about yields on their cash falling. "Yields on savings products such as high-yield savings accounts and CDs are likely to remain unchanged for now," said certified financial planner Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate. Money market funds have been a popular choice for cash investors. The annualized seven-day yield on the Crane 100 list of the largest taxable money funds is 3.5%, as of Tuesday. Certificates of deposit with one-year maturities range between 3.25% and 4%, depending on the issuer. Powell said that once prices fall, the central bank would look to cut back on policy. He said he expects to see "the effects of tariffs flowing through goods prices peaking and then starting to come down, assuming there are no new major tariff increases that are begun." "And that's what we expect to see over the course of this year. If we see that, that would be something that tells us that we can we can loosen policy," he added.

Fed has not yet complied with subpoenas as Powell probe continues: Source - The Federal Reserve has not yet complied with grand jury subpoenas issued as part of a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., a person familiar with the situation told CNBC on Wednesday. The probe of Powell is continuing, according to that person, who spoke hours before the Fed revealed its decision to hold interest rates steady. Powell on Jan. 11 said he was under criminal investigation. The probe is being conducted by the office of Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. It is not clear when the deadline is for the Fed to turn over documents demanded by the subpoena. CNBC has requested comment from the Fed and from the Department of Justice. While speaking to reporters later Wednesday, Powell was asked if the Fed had responded to the subpoenas. "I have nothing for you on that today," Powell replied.

Trump Nominates Kevin Warsh as Next Central Bank Chief --US President Donald Trump has named former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as his nominee to lead the US central bank, bringing an end to months of speculation over who would succeed current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Announcing the choice on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Warsh had long proven himself capable of leading the Federal Reserve and expressed confidence that he would rank among the most effective Fed chairs in the institution’s history. He noted that Warsh possessed the abilities required for the role and would not disappoint. “I have known Kevin for a long period of time and do not doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best. “On top of everything else, he is central casting, and he will never let you down.” The nomination comes after sustained criticism from Trump, who has repeatedly faulted Powell for failing to cut interest rates aggressively enough. Powell’s term as chair is due to expire in May. Warsh came from a shortlist that also included current Fed governor Christopher Waller, BlackRock executive Rick Rieder, and Trump’s chief economic adviser Kevin Hassett. His nomination, however, still requires confirmation by the US Senate, where he is expected to face scrutiny from lawmakers across party lines. If approved, Warsh would assume leadership of the central bank at a sensitive moment, as the Trump administration has intensified pressure on the Fed, raising concerns among economists about threats to its political independence. Analysts warn that any erosion of that independence could carry significant consequences for the world’s largest economy. A New York native and former Morgan Stanley mergers and acquisitions banker, Warsh has in recent months grown more vocal in his criticism of the Fed, aligning himself closely with several policy views advanced by Trump and his administration. Whoever leads the Federal Reserve next will be under pressure to reassure markets and policymakers that monetary policy decisions remain insulated from political influence, even as economic conditions force difficult trade-offs on interest rates.

What bankers need to know about Fed chair-designate Warsh - After years of speculation, the fog surrounding who President Donald Trump would select to replace outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cleared Friday morning: Former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh will be nominated as the next Fed chair.

• Key Insight: Former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh's selection as the next Federal Reserve chair would put a familiar face atop the central bank, but the hawkish monetary policy stances he has advocated for in the past — contrasted with the accommodative policy the president prefers and that he now supports — muddy the outlook for the Fed under his leadership.
• Expert Quote: "The president has been most outspoken about the need for easier money, lower rates, and I would think at least in the near term, Kevin Warsh will oblige." — Mark Spindel, Chief Investment Officer at Potomac River Capital.
• Forward Look: Senate Banking Committee member Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has said he will oppose Warsh's nomination until the Justice Department concludes its investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though the Senate Banking Committee could likely advance his nomination even without Tillis' support.

Former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh is a relatively known quantity to financial markets, but his embrace of President Trump's agenda and the White House's own contentious relationship with the central bank make it hard to know with certainty where — or even whether — he will lead the Fed.

US Government Struggles to Keep a Lid on 10-Year Treasury Yield and Mortgage Rates By Wolf Richter -- On around midday Friday came the latest step, a “rate check,” with which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to put a floor under the yen that had plunged against the dollar, and push back down long-term US Treasury yields that had surged, as he saw the turmoil in the Japanese bond market, and the plunge of the yen, bleeding over into the US. The New York Fed, at the request of the Treasury Department and acting as fiscal agent for the Treasury Department, asked its primary dealers what exchange rate they would get if the NY Fed started buying yen through them. This “rate check” was a signal that the US government is ready to intervene in the currency market to support the yen against the USD. As soon as this happened around midday Friday, the USD began to plunge against the yen, and the yen jumped from 159.2 yen to the USD to 155.7 by Friday evening (hourly chart via Investing.com): On Wednesday, Bessent had blamed the surging long-term US Treasury yields on the bond-market meltdown in Japan, during which the 30-year Japanese Government Bond yield spiked by 42 basis points in two days and drove it to 3.91%, the highest since the 30-year bond was introduced in 1999. The crucial 10-year JGB yield surged by 15 basis points in two days. And the yen re-plunged against the dollar. The trigger had been Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s call for increased government spending with simultaneous tax cuts. The 10-year US Treasury yield had surged to 4.30% on Wednesday morning, up by 17 basis points in a week, even as the Trump administration is trying to get mortgage rates to come down. But mortgage rates track the 10-year Treasury yield, with a varying spread. And this surge of the 10-year yield caused mortgage rates to jump back to 6.20%, from 6.01% a few days earlier, according to the daily measure of 30-year fixed mortgage rates by Mortgage News Daily. And Bessent blamed that on the bond market meltdown in Japan. “It’s very difficult to disaggregate the market reaction from what’s going on endogenously in Japan,” Bessent told Fox News at the time. And he said that he’d gotten in touch with Japanese officials, and said that he is “sure that they will begin saying the things that will calm the market down.” With this two-step three-day jawboning — first on Wednesday when Bessent said he “got in touch” with Japanese authorities, and then on Friday, with the “rate check” — the 10-year yield dropped from 4.30% to 4.23% (hourly chart via Investing.com). To help push mortgage rates down, the Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started buying back some of the MBS they’d issued. This started in 2025. But on January 8, this was moved to the front pages when Trump directed Fannie and Freddie to buy back $200 billion in MBS, about the maximum they can buy back under current legal limitations. But they don’t have the available cash to do that, they only have enough available cash to buy some MBS. They could also issue bonds and then use the cash proceeds to buy those MBS, but that would put further pressure on the bond market. So whatever. This announcement was a masterful if temporary stroke of jawboning down mortgage rates, which plunged by 20 basis points combined on Friday January 9 and Monday January 12. It didn’t last long, however. By Wednesday January 20, mortgage rates where right back where they’d been on January 8. They’d just done a big U (daily chart via Mortgage News Daily). Obviously, Bessent wouldn’t blame the surging long-term Treasury yields on the ballooning US deficit and the flood of new supply of bonds coming on the market that investors will have to absorb, and he wouldn’t blame it on inflation that accelerated further and that worries the bond market. Jawboning is a lot easier to do than to address those issues. The bond market might not be happy for long with this jawboning. Inflation is a big issue for bond investors as bonds lose purchasing power due to inflation, and yield is supposed to compensate for the loss of this purchasing power, plus some. But long-term yields are too low to compensate investors for hotter inflation in the future. And inflation keeps moving further away from the Fed’s target, amid government policies of prodigious deficit spending and Trump’s pressure on the Fed to cut short-term interest rates. They want to run the economy “hot,” meaning higher growth and more inflation, which provides fertile ground for inflation to bloom. Given this scenario, the bond market is still very sanguine, surprisingly sanguine, despite the recent ripples.

Shooting backlash raises shutdown risks - Lawmakers had been on the verge of completing their funding work for fiscal 2026 this week after the House last week passed its final four appropriations bills. But the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, a nurse at the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital, by a Border Patrol agent has seemingly torpedoed the chances of those bills passing the Senate, with one key Democrat after another saying they will not vote to fund DHS. The DHS bill is tied in with five others that fund the departments of Defense, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Labor and Education — all of which have broad support. Democrats are now saying they will not support the so-called minibus as long as the DHS portion is included. Senate Democrats are expected to have an all-members call on Sunday evening to figure out the plan forward, one aide told The Hill. “I hate shutdowns. … But I can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances,” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told “Face The Nation” on Sunday.

House Republicans warn against Senate changing DHS funding bill - House Republicans are warning the Senate against making any changes to a government funding package that includes funds for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), saying any reforms sought by Democrats would not clear the House and would lead to a government shutdown at the end of the week. Conservatives also say they would seek significant concessions from Democrats if they were to split up the six-bill funding package and tinker with the DHS spending bill — threatening to seek avenues to fund the department without needing support from Democrats. The warnings from House Republicans come as Democrats are seeking to insert last-minute reforms of federal immigration enforcement into the DHS funding bill after federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. They have said they’re willing to pass the five bills it’s currently combined with but are willing to sink the entire package if the DHS bill isn’t removed. Some Senate Republicans on Wednesday expressed openness to splitting the DHS funding bill from the other five bills in the funding package, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has not ruled out that possibility, even as he makes clear he wants to pass the package as-is. But any Senate changes to the six-bill legislation would need to be voted on again in the House, and Republican leadership is skeptical the chamber would be able to pass a new package. “Any changes to the bipartisan bicameral agreement that was made with the Senate after the House has passed it and sent that to the Senate would not be possible,” a House GOP leadership aide told The Hill. Hard-line conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus, meanwhile, warned Tuesday that if the Senate does attempt to separate out the DHS bill, it would support efforts to unilaterally fund the government without Democrats — floating an alteration to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster, or moving funding through the special budget reconciliation process that bypasses the 60-vote rule.

Carbon trade measure slips into spending package --- Congress quietly adopted a much-touted carbon trade bill last week, tucking the measure into a spending package to fund energy and environment agencies.The “Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency (PROVE IT) Act” — from Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and John Curtis (R-Utah) — would have the administration study the carbon intensity of American manufacturing to show it compares favorably with other countries.The legislation, introduced last congressional term, represented a rare bipartisan compromise when it comes to examining climate emissions — but it fizzled amid skepticism from some conservatives. They said it could lead to a domestic carbon tax.In a comeback for the bill, however, similar language was embedded in the report accompanying a three-bill “minibus” with the fiscal 2026 Energy-Water, Interior-Environment and Commerce-Justice-Science bills. Bill reports are technically not law, but agencies tend to follow them.The “PROVE IT” language in the legislation would have the Department of Energy commission a study comparing the carbon intensity of certain domestically-made goods to the goods produced in other countries. “We’ve known for a long time that manufacturers here in the United States make some of the cleanest products in the world. We can actually prove it, and we should. We should use that excellence as an advantage to ensure that our producers aren’t discriminated against by our trade partners or worse, undercut by polluting countries like China,” Cramer said in a statement.“It’s really an America First approach, and I look forward to working with Secretary Wright and the administration to get this report done, to make it a tradition, and make it a part of our trade policy going forward,” Cramer added, referring to Energy Secretary Chris Wright.The reports accompanying both the House and Senate versions of the Energy-Water bill referenced the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which levies tariffs against carbon-intensive imports. Europe began implementing their CBAM this month.Cramer and other “PROVE IT” supporters have argued that the federal government should take their own emissions measurements of domestic goods, rather than relying on Europe to do it. Congressional appropriators appeared to agree.“The European Union and other countries have begun to implement trade policies that would assess fees on U.S. products. The Committee is concerned that the methodology of said countries could negatively impact U.S. competitiveness, creating the need for high-quality comparative data created by the United States,” the Senate Appropriations Committee’s bill report said.The House language, too, stipulated that DOE’s study should include all goods that will be impacted by the European Union’s CBAM. That House bill report text is what Congress adopted, according to a final explanatory statement.The study will be spearheaded by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory and should include consultations with “relevant agencies, institutions, academia, and think tank partners,” according to the report text. It is due next January.Congress has passed six of 12 fiscal 2026 spending bills. The rest are pending in the Senate this week. Disagreement over the Homeland Security title may lead to a shutdown of some federal agencies, if not settled before Friday’s spending deadline.

Senate leaders run into barrier on funding talks ahead of shutdown deadline -Senate leaders are running into a key stumbling block days before a possible shutdown: They can’t agree on who to negotiate with.Less than 48 hours stand between members and a partial government shutdown after Democrats announced they would not move forward with the six-bill “minibus” to fund the remainder of fiscal 2026 as long as it includes the Department of Homeland Security spending bill.GOP leaders say Democrats need to negotiate with the White House. Democrats say they need to cut a deal with Republicans in Congress. Despite signs of openness to negotiations on both sides, the disagreement is creating a key barrier ahead of Friday’s deadline.“I think right now the conversation should be between the White House and Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “The White House obviously is open to negotiation.” Democratic leaders, meanwhile, repeatedly put the onus on Thune for getting a deal.“We have to pass the bill here,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democratic appropriator, told reporters. “He’s the majority leader.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also namechecked Thune multiple times during his weekly press conference while laying out the party’s wishlist to break the impasse. “It’s now on Leader Thune to separate out [the] DHS bill,” and for him to “start working with Democrats to rein in ICE, imposing oversight, accountability and empowering local law enforcement in our communities,” Schumer said.The Democratic leader also noted that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) passed the DHS measure as a standalone in the House before combining it with the other five bills.On top of splitting the DHS bill off from the other five, Democrats on Wednesday laid out their key demands for changes to the legislation: an end to roving immigration patrols, requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to coordinate with state and local law enforcement, a uniform code of conduct and accountability governing federal agents’ use of force, and for agents on the ground to wear body cameras and not be masked. The administration has already said that some of those items are non-starters.

Congress lurches toward government shutdown as leaders swap demands on DHS -Congress lurched a day closer to a partial government shutdown on Wednesday after Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) laid out a list of major reforms that Democrats want to make to the Department of Homeland Security, proposals that will likely encounter resistance from President Trump. Democrats say they will block the six-bill government funding package the Senate will vote on Thursday, which includes the Homeland Security appropriations bill, putting Washington on the brink of another shutdown less than three months after the longest shutdown in American history. Schumer is demanding that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) split off the Homeland Security funding bill from the package and has promised that Democrats will cooperate to pass the other five spending measures by the Jan. 30 deadline. The Democratic leader says Democrats want to “overhaul” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “ensure the public’s safety.” Democrats want to end roving ICE patrols, tighten the rules for requiring search warrants before entering migrants’ homes, and “enforce accountability” by establishing a universal code of conduct governing federal officers’ use of force. They also want to prohibit ICE officers from wearing masks and require them to wear body cameras and proper identification. “Under President Trump, Secretary Noem and Stephen Miller, ICE has been unleashed without guardrails. They violate constitutional rights all the time and deliberately refuse to coordinate with state and local law enforcement,” Schumer said after meeting with Senate Democrats Wednesday. “After talking with my caucus, Senate Democrats are united on a set of common-sense and necessary policy goals that we need to rein in ICE and the violence,” Schumer announced. Republicans need the votes of at least eight Senate Democrats to advance the six-bill funding package that Thune has put on the Senate floor this week. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a fiscal conservative, regularly votes against procedural motions to move spending bills. So far, only one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), has said he will vote to advance the spending package in order to avoid a potential shutdown, even as he objected to ICE’s actions in Minneapolis. Several Democrats who broke with Schumer in November to vote for a funding deal to reopen the government, say they will vote against the pending package if it includes the Homeland Security funding bill.

Democrats lay out immigration enforcement demands to avert shutdown - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Wednesday laid out three major reforms to immigration enforcement operations under the Trump administration that he said would be necessary to earn Democrats’ votes to pass a Homeland Security funding bill and avoid a government shutdown.Schumer declared that Democrats won’t vote for Homeland Security funding unless Republicans agree to three demands:

• First, end roving patrols by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and tighten rules governing the use of warrants by officers targeting migrants.
• Second, enforce accountability by establishing a universal code of conduct governing federal law enforcement officers’ use of force.
• Third, prohibit federal officers from wearing masks and require them to wear body cameras and proper identification.

“Under President Trump, Secretary Noem and Stephen Miller, ICE has been unleashed without guardrails. They violate constitutional rights all the time and deliberately refuse to coordinate with state and local law enforcement,” Schumer said at a press conference, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and senior White House adviser Stephen Miller.“This is not border security, this is not law and order, this is chaos — created at the top and felt in so many of our neighborhoods,” Schumer said. Schumer unveiled the Senate Democrats’ list of demands for avoiding a partial government shutdown after holding a lengthy caucus meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Federal Government Careening Toward Shutdown After Eight Senate Republicans Team Up With Democrats to Kill Funding Bill -- The federal government remains on the verge of another shutdown after the Senate blocked an appropriations bill that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security.In the wake of the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of Border Patrol agents in Minnesota, DHS funding has become a hot-button issue as the government attempts to avoid another shutdown. Democrats have called to reduce DHS funding, arguing that the money has funded abuses of power during ICE’s immigration operations. Days earlier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) released a video confirming Senate Dems would not support the bill until ICE is “reined in and overhauled.”At the end of Thursday’s Senate vote, it was revealed the bill was rejected by a count of 55-45. The bill requires 60 to pass through the Senate, meaning it needs a whopping 33% more votes. Every Senate Democrat voted against the bill, and they were joined by eight Republicans. Those Republicans included Rick Scott (FL), Tommy Tuberville (AL), and Rand Paul (KY), among others. As noted in a report The Hill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) also joined the Democrats as a late “no” vote. With that vote, he also “entered a motion to reconsider the package” to bring it back to the Senate floor at a later date. The federal government needs to pass the bill by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday to avoid another shutdown. The last one, which began in November 2025, severely compromised air travel and forced the Department of Transportation to cut flights. Watch above via C-SPAN.

GOP senators open to splitting off DHS funding to pass other key spending bills - A group of Republican senators is open to splitting the Homeland Security appropriations measure off from a six-bill government funding package that needs to pass by Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown that would affect the Pentagon and other major departments. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said “a bunch” of Republican senators would be willing to set aside the Homeland Security appropriations bill in hopes of saving five other appropriations bills covering the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Transportation, State and financial services-related agencies. “Sen. Thune can’t admit it because he’s got to act like a tough guy and the White House is negotiating and all of that, but most of you have been around here for a while and most of us have seen this vampire movie before,” Kennedy told reporters Wednesday. “I think the Democrats don’t want to vote for a Homeland Security bill,” he added. “If that’s the case, then what are our choices? To throw out all the bills? Or one?” “I think a rational person would say let’s pass what we can and work on the others,” Kennedy said. A senior Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the standoff over funding said Senate Republicans would prefer to move all six spending bills as one package but would probably agree to leave the Homeland Security funding measure behind if Democrats dig in their heels. “If that was all that was left, we’d probably do it,” said the GOP lawmaker, who noted Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) hasn’t ruled out moving five of the appropriations bills without Homeland Security funding.

Trump backs Senate government funding deal that includes DHS extension -- President Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed a Senate deal to fund the vast majority of the federal government through the remainder of the fiscal year. Trump's endorsement is likely to significantly ease the passage of a six-bill funding package the Senate is considering with just over a day until a partial government shutdown. Senators clinched a deal shortly before Trump's announcement, agreeing to strip funding for the Department of Homeland Security from the package and pass the other five bills, while DHS will be funded by a stopgap. "Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before)," Trump said in a Truth Social post."Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan 'YES' Vote," he said.The Senate is expected to begin taking up the revised bill Thursday night, which would fund the Departments of Defense, Treasury, State, Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Education. Democrats demanded to strip the DHS portion of the bill after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minnesotathis month.Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer's, D-N.Y., office said shortly before Trump's announcement that a deal had been reached to split the DHS portion from the rest of the bill. Schumer's office said the stopgap for DHS would provide funding for two weeks.The Senate's move to break off the DHS bill from the broader package assures that the House will need to reapprove the package. The House is out on recess with plans to return next week, meaning a government shutdown could still occur over the weekend. A government shutdown last year stretched for a record 43 days.House Speaker Mike Johnson told MS NOW earlier Thursday that he is "trying to figure all that out" and wants members to return to Washington "as soon as possible." Johnson cautioned it could take up to 72 hours for all members to return to Washington. The Senate is now "hotlining" the proposal, a process to ensure it has unanimous support in the upper chamber. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will likely need unanimous support to speed passage of the bill with the shutdown deadline looming at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Senate Republicans began to close in on the deal after a procedural vote on the full six-bill package failed earlier in the day. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the measure, underscoring how badly Republicans would need Democrats to overcome the Senate's 60-vote filibuster.

Senate shutdown deal stalls over Graham objection - The Senate’s race to avert a shutdown hit the skids late Thursday night as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) placed a hold on the government funding package, forcing leaders to punt the vote. Senators had been hoping to vote on the “minibus” after leaders struck a deal earlier in the day and President Trump endorsed it. Under the agreement, the Senate was set to vote on a package of five full-year funding bills and a stopgap measure funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for two weeks. But as lawmakers awaited word on the vote late Thursday, a fired-up Graham emerged from Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) office and declared, “We’re not voting tonight.” Graham pointed to language in the bill that would repeal a provision allowing senators to sue if their phone records were collected as part of former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe. “What senator wouldn’t want notification that they’re looking at your phone?” he said. “I fixed the problem that people had. I’m not going to ignore what happened. If you were abused, you think you were abused, your phone records were illegally seized — you should have your day in court,” Graham said. “Every senator should want to make sure this never happens again.” The “Arctic Frost” provision, championed by Graham, passed as part of the bill to end the historic government shutdown last year — and prompted anger in the House. The provision did not apply to House members. The lower chamber stuck in the repeal item in the DHS funding bill, and it is slated to remain in the two-week continuing resolution to keep the department’s lights on until Feb. 13.

Senate passes massive government funding package, sending it to House - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday to pass a major funding package consisting of five regular appropriations bills and a two-week stopgap measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) but the legislation won’t become law before parts of the government shut down at midnight.The 71-29 vote caps a week of Senate drama after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday, sparking a public backlash against the tactics of federal immigration enforcement officers and pushing Democrats to oppose the DHS funding bill that was part of a six-bill funding package.Democrats vowed to block the entire funding package that had been carefully negotiated over months between Republican and Democratic members of the Appropriations Committee, putting Congress on course for what some lawmakers feared would be another prolonged government shutdown. But senators managed to save the funding package by negotiating a last-minute deal with the White House to split off the Homeland Security appropriations bill from the five other spending measures funding the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation and State, among others. While the legislation passed the Senate before government funding expires at midnight, it still needs to pass the House, which is slated to return on Monday, before going to President Trump’s desk for a signature.Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told House Republicans in a Friday afternoon conference call that he hopes to quickly pass the bill under a fast-track process known as suspension of the rules, which allows him to bypass the difficult task of getting Republicans unified behind a rule to pass the package under regular order. The suspension process requires a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules and pass legislation.

Johnson says no expected action for government funding in the House until Monday - Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday that the earliest floor action in the House could be Monday, prompting a “short shutdown situation” after the Senate struck a deal to fund a large portion of the government. “But the House is going to do its job. We want to get the government funded, as does the president, so respect whatever he was able to negotiate there, and we’ll deal with it,” Johnson told The Hill’s Judy Kurtz on Thursday at the premiere of the film “Melania” at the Kennedy Center. “I wanted the Senate to pass the 12 appropriations bills. The House did its job. They did it in a bipartisan fashion, and I would have it — would have been my preference to get that done, but we’ll deal with it as it comes,” he added. Johnson said he was at the White House yesterday, calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). He also noted the House’s requirement that text be available 72 hours before a vote when asked about the possibility of holding votes on the funding package as early as Sunday. “Stay tuned,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. The Senate agreement — reached just a day before a shutdown deadline — will split the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) off from a “minibus” package of five other major funding bills. The Senate will instead move a a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund DHS at current levels until Feb. 13.

What to know about the temporary government shutdown this weekend - The government is likely to temporarily shut down this weekend after the Senate failed to pass a funding package on Thursday due to challenges from Democrats to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bill. Here’s what you need to know about the partial government shutdown. After federal agents in Minneapolis fatally shot and killed a second Minnesotan, Alex Pretti, on Saturday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said he and other Democrats would not back the minibus funding package unless a bill that appropriated funds to DHS was removed. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) initially resisted these changes, but after seven Republicans joined all Democrats in the Thursday vote, he agreed to split the DHS bill from the rest of the package. Thune switched his vote to “no” on Thursday for procedural reasons. Despite having an agreed-upon deal with input from the Trump administration, the Senate punted a vote late Thursday night due to a hold from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) over other matters. But optimism returned Friday after the South Carolina senator vowed to release his hold. The upper chamber is now on track to pass the government funding package later Friday, but an exact vote time has not been confirmed.If the Senate approves the changes, the package will return to the House, which passed the original funding package last week. However, the House is in recess, so the vote will have to wait until the chamber comes back into session next week, meaning Congress will miss the 11:59 p.m. EST Friday deadline. That also means that funding for 78 percent of the federal government will lapse at midnight Saturday. The minibus package covers 96 percent of government funding. Included in the original $1.2 trillion package was funding for the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and the DHS. The DHS bill included an additional $10 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE is already set to receive $76 billion over the next four years under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In the deal reached by the Senate on Thursday evening, the DHS bill will now be separately considered as a stopgap funding bill that would fund the agency at current levels through Feb. 13. The five other bills will be considered altogether. While a temporary partial shutdown over the weekend is likely, if the House approves the measure early next week, the impacts are expected to be limited. The agencies covered under the five bills in the spending package and the DHS would temporarily close, starting after 11:59 p.m. Friday. The Office of Budget Management (OMB) has been communicating with agencies this week about a likely partial shutdown, an OMB spokesperson told The Hill. They said guidance will be sent out later Friday and that agencies will begin notifying employees who are exempted from the closure.

Defense contractors perplexed by Trump's new order on profits - Defense contractors are perplexed by President Trump administration’s executive order outlining vague new rules for its weapons suppliers, unsure how to proceed and raising questions about its legality. The executive order — echoing recent speeches delivered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — rebukes defense firms for stock buybacks, paying dividends to investors and high compensation for CEOs, rather than using profits to invest in plant capacity. But while defense experts and company executives agree more could be done to bolster the defense supply chain, they argue the executive order is legally questionable and lacking a clear roadmap on the path forward to do so. “If you’re trying to encourage more companies to get involved and be suppliers to the DOD, this is not the best way to do that,” one defense industry lobbyist told The Hill, referring to the Department of Defense. “Companies may not want to do business with DOD if they are subject to this. Plus, obviously it’s not legally enforceable to stop dividends and cap pay, so how do you enforce that?” Trump in early January signed an executive order aimed at addressing cost overruns and delayed timelines in delivering weapons. He followed up with a lengthy Trump Social post that loudly declared “MILITARY EQUIPMENT IS NOT BEING MADE FAST ENOUGH!” “Defense Contractors are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment,” the president wrote. “This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!” He also claimed that defense executives must build new and modern production plants and, until they do so, should not be allowed to make more than $5 million dollars annually. Bessent on Tuesday defended Trump’s move, accusing U.S. defense companies of falling short of their patriotic duty by not delivering weapons on time. “These defense contractors have let down the American people,” Bessent said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying they were “five, six, seven years behind on fulfillment of their contracts.” “So I do not think it is unreasonable to tell them that until further notice, you need to build more factories and buy back less stock,” said Bessent. He also backed Trump’s proposal that no defense firm CEO should earn more than $5 million until they up their company’s production speed and maintenance, claiming that executives “are making $30 [million], $50 million a year for failing the American people.”

Lockheed Martin To Ramp Up THAAD Missile Production - Lockheed Martin announced on January 29 that it will quadruple production of its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile interceptors under a new Pentagon framework agreement. Annual interceptor output will rise from about 96 to 400 per year. “Today’s agreement to quadruple THAAD production means we will have more interceptors available than ever before to deter our adversaries,” said Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet. The announcement comes as part of a flurry of recent munitions-production initiatives: it follows a deal to more than triple production of Patriot PAC-3 interceptors, and it arrives as Congress approved an $839 billion defense budget – about $8.4 billion above the Pentagon’s request. Lockheed noted that the THAAD expansion still requires final Congressional funding before a binding contract can be awarded. Pentagon budget documents estimate each THAAD interceptorcosts roughly $12-13 million. In July 2025, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) already modified its THAAD production contract to raise its value from $8.35 billion to $10.42 billion, reflecting higher production targets. Lockheed executives say the company will invest heavily to support this scale-up. The press release notes Lockheed’s plan to invest multibillions over the next few years and build or modernize dozens of factories for THAAD, PAC-3, and other missile lines. Dawn Golightly, a Lockheed missile-defense vice president, said the company “remains committed to innovation and investment in interceptor production” as global threats rise.The production ramp-up is driven by recent operational needs. U.S. THAAD batteries deployed in Israel and the Gulf fired over 150 interceptors during last month’s Israel-Iran conflict – roughly 25% of the entire U.S. THAAD stockpile. In response, the MDA this week authorized an extra $2 billion contract with Lockheed to replenish high-altitude interceptors. The rapid depletion of interceptors has reignited concerns about U.S. readiness. Analyst Bradley Bowman noted this replenishment reflects a “recognition of reality,” and added that industry could produce far more than the 37 THAADs Congress had requested for 2026. Lawmakers have moved quickly to send money to the defense industry even as civilian economic indicators sag. The $839 billion defense appropriation is roughly 10% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Outside analysts point out that ballooning defense budgets are driving the national debt higher. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recently calculated that boosting annual military spending to $1.5 trillion would add about $5.8 trillion to the federal debt over ten years. Critics say this surge of spending prioritizes military contractors while other fiscal needs go unmet. Lockheed’s THAAD expansion is part of an arms-industry boom beginning in 2025. The company said it will break ground on a new missile plant in Arkansas and spend roughly $5 billion next year expanding production lines for THAAD, PAC-3, and other missiles. Other primes are riding the wave: Northrop Grumman is accelerating production of its B-21 stealth bomber, and Raytheon secured a billion-dollar deal to build more SM-3 interceptors for the Navy. Overall, U.S. defense contractors report record backlogs. Industry observers note that factories are running near capacity supplying government orders, even as some question whether so much being spent so quickly is prudent.

Venezuela's Delcy Rodríguez says she's had ‘enough’ of orders from Washington Venezuela acting President Delcy Rodríguez said she has had enough of orders from Washington, in a speech to a group of oil workers broadcast on Venezuela’s state-run television network Sunday. Rodríguez’s remarks come a little more than three weeks since President Trump announced the capture of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in an audacious military raid in Caracas. He has since declared the U.S. would take over the country’s oil industry and dictate orders to the government. “Enough already of Washington’s orders over politicians in Venezuela,” Rodríguez told a group of oil workers in Puerto La Cruz, CNN reported. “Let Venezuelan politics resolve our differences and our internal conflicts. This republic has paid a very high price for having to confront the consequences of fascism and extremism in our country.” Trump greenlit Rodríguez staying in her role after the capture and transfer of Maduro to New York to stand trial for criminal drug charges. Trump told reporters last week that Rodríguez had “shown very strong leadership so far,” “had done a very good job,” and was working with the U.S. to move millions of barrels of oil “into the United States.” “We’re working with them and they’ll get some of that, and we’re going to get some of that,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on his way back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “And it’ll be divided up and our country will become richer, and that means our taxes are going to be going down and, and they will do better. Venezuela’s going to do better than they’ve ever done. Even with us, you know, taking a, a very fair piece of it.” Trump has held back on calling for new elections in Venezuela but has warmed up to opposition leader and Nobel peace prize laureate María Corina Machado after initially saying she didn’t have support in the country. Trump met with Machado on Jan. 15 in the White House, where she presented the president with her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, an award the president had openly coveted and campaigned for.

U.S. Reopens Venezuela’s Oil Spigot, but Refuses to Guarantee Security - U.S. officials told oil executives on Wednesday that Washington will not provide security guarantees for companies operating in Venezuela, even as the Trump administration encourages the industry to re-engage with the country’s oil sector. According to people familiar with the discussions, senior administration officials said companies would be expected to manage their own physical and political risk if they choose to invest, signaling limits to U.S. involvement as Venezuelan crude re-enters global markets. “We are not going to get involved in providing on the ground security for people in Venezuela,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Oil and gas companies operate all around the world in all different settings, they’re well versed in those challenges.” Years of expropriations, contract rewrites, payment arrears, and operational breakdowns have made boards reluctant to deploy long-cycle capital without firm legal and security assurances. U.S. oil companies have privately warned that without enforceable contracts, clearer fiscal terms, and some form of risk backstop, investment will remain limited, capping how quickly Venezuelan output can recover even under a more permissive U.S. policy framework.Earlier this month, American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers publicly said that policy changes, security, and investment protections were among the prerequisites the industry wants in place before investing significantly in Venezuela’s oil sector. In the near term, Venezuelan barrels are returning to the market not through upstream investment but through discounted trade flows. U.S. refinersincluding Valero and Phillips 66 have snapped up Venezuelan crude via trader Vitol, with cargoes priced roughly $8.50 to $9.50 per barrel below Brent. For Gulf Coast refiners configured to run heavy sour grades, the economics are attractive. Before sanctions in 2019, the region processed hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of Venezuelan crude, and refiners have been eager to partially replace heavier imports lost elsewhere.

Tanker Carrying Venezuelan Heavy Oil Heads To Louisiana -A crude tanker chartered by Trafigura departed on Sunday from Venezuela's Jose port to Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), LSEG data and documents showed, the first cargo going directly to the U.S. as part of a 50-million-barrel supply deal agreed this month between Caracas and Washington. This month, trading houses Vitol and Trafigura received the first U.S. licenses to load and export Venezuelan oil as part of the deal. They have since shipped cargoes to storage terminals in the Caribbean, and from there they have been marketing and selling the crude to refiners worldwide. The Liberia-flagged tanker Gloria Maris, carrying some 1 million barrels of Venezuela's Merey heavy crude, is the first sent by the traders directly from Venezuela to a U.S. port since the deal began, according to the documents and data. A smaller tanker, the Barbados-flagged Volans, also departed from Jose on Sunday carrying some 450,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude to the Bullen Bay terminal in Curacao, the LSEG data showed. The traders have shipped between 10 million and 11 million barrels of Venezuelan oil as part of the supply deal so far, according to shipping data. They are getting ready to begin exporting fuel oil as well, according to the sources and documents. Before Venezuela can reverse output cuts it has made during a U.S. blockade of all sanctioned tankers, the country needs to drain most of the over 40 million barrels it accumulated in storage since last month.

U.S. handing over seized tanker to Venezuela, officials say: Reuters - The United States is handing over to Venezuela a tanker that it seized this month, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. The United States has been carrying out a months-long effort to seize oil tankers linked to Venezuela - carrying out seven apprehensions since late last year. The officials, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, identified the vessel being handed over to Venezuelan authorities as the Panama-flagged supertanker M/T Sophia. They did not say why the tanker was returned. The U.S. Coast Guard, which leads interdiction and seizure operations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Venezuelan communications ministry, which handles all press queries for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Sophia was carrying oil when it was interdicted on Jan. 7 by the Coast Guard and U.S. military forces. At the time, the administration said the Sophia, which is under sanctions, was a "stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker." One of the sources did not know if the Sophia still had oil on board. Trump has focused his foreign policy in Latin America on Venezuela, initially aiming to push Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power. After failing to find a diplomatic solution, Trump ordered U.S. forces to fly into the country to grab him and his wife in a daring overnight raid on Jan. 3. Since then, Trump has said the U.S. plans to control Venezuela's oil resources indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild the country's dilapidated oil industry in a $100 billion plan. Earlier this months, the Sophia and another seized tanker were seen near Puerto Rico. Along with most tankers under Western sanctions or part of the so-called shadow fleet, many of the Venezuela-linked tankers seized were built over 20 years ago and pose hazards to shipping because they lack safety certification and adequate insurance, experts said. That means that if they have a collision or oil spill, establishing insurance claims or liability is very difficult to impossible, shipping and insurance industry sources said.

Russia Claims Ownership of Oil Assets It’s Developing in Venezuela - Russia on Tuesday asserted ownership of all oil assets a state Russian company is developing in Venezuela, following the claims of U.S. President Donald Trump that major American and Western oil firms would help revive Venezuela’s oil industry. Russia’s Roszarubezhneft, a state-owned firm that took over Rosneft assets in 2020 following U.S. sanctions on Rosneft’s Venezuelan oil trade, said on Tuesday that “all assets of Roszarubezhneft in Venezuela are owned by the Russian state,” as they have been bought at market prices and conditions.Roszarubezhneft, owned by a unit of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, was incorporated in 2020. After the U.S. sanctioned two units of Rosneft for trading Venezuelan oil, Roszarubezhneft bought the Venezuelan assets of the Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft. "All assets of Roszarubezhneft JSC in Venezuela are the property of the Russian state, having been acquired by the Russian side under market conditions, in full compliance with the legislation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, international law, and interstate agreements between Russia and Venezuela,” the Russian company said in a statement carried by Russia’s news agency TASS. Roszarubezhneft has five oil-producing joint ventures with Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA in Venezuela. Roszarubezhneft plans to further develop its assets in Venezuela, the company said. “The company will continue to strictly honor its obligations in close coordination with its international partners, focusing on the sustainable development of joint oil production projects, infrastructure, and an effective response to emerging challenges,” the Russian state-owned firm added. Since the beginning of the year, the U.S. has captured Nicolas Maduro and flown him to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges. The U.S. has also seized a Russia-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic after a dramatic pursuit that began near Venezuelan waters in late December. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented in public on the shock arrest of Maduro, but the Russian Foreign Ministry “strongly urged the American leadership” to release Maduro and his wife immediately after their extraction from Venezuela.

Venezuela Rewrites Its Oil Law to Attract Foreign Investment -Venezuelan legislators have voted for an updated oil industry law that the country’s leadership hopes will bring in much-needed foreign investment to reverse a decline resulting from mismanagement and U.S. sanctions.Acting President Delcy Rodriguez signed the new law late on Thursday, the APreported, hours after the parliament voted in favor of it, and on the heels of news that the U.S. has lifted some of the sanctions against Venezuela’s oil industry in a bid to entice energy companies to consider investing in the country.It was Delcy Rodriguez who first proposed the legislative changes for Venezuela’s most important industry, earlier this month, amid the U.S. pressure campaign. Per the changes, private companies will be given control over the production and marketing of Venezuelan oil, which effectively means an end to PDVSA’s monopoly over the country’s oil wealth. Private companies will also bear the costs of developing Venezuelan oil resources.Per the new law, private companies “will assume full management of the activities at its own expense, account, and risk, after demonstrating its financial and technical capacity through a business plan” that will be subject to approval by the Venezuelan oil ministry. The ownership of the resources to be developed by private companies, however, will remain with the Venezuelan state.The new law also caps royalty rates at 30% but allows the government to set individual royalty rates for projects based on factors such as investment needs and competitiveness.Another important change from the old law is that now private companies will be allowed to take any disputes with the state to independent arbitration courts. The AP notes that this was among the biggest concerns of energy companies since the old law mandated that disputes be brought to Venezuelan courts, which are under the control of the ruling party.

US Destroys Alleged Drug Boat in Pacific, Killing 2 - (video) The US attacked a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people. The US has destroyed at least three dozen alleged drug vessels, killing over 100 people. “On Jan. 23, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” a statement published on X by US Southern Command said. It continued, “Two narco-terrorists were killed and one survived the strike. Following the engagement, USSOUTHCOM immediately notified the US Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivor. The Department of War has posted videos of the destruction of 36 vessels, claiming each was trafficking narcotics by cartels designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. At least 117 people have been killed. The White House has failed to provide evidence to support its claim that the boats were carrying drugs. The last strike on a suspected narcotics vessel occurred in late December. The White House has faced pushback over the strikes. Senator Rand Paul has argued that firing missiles at suspected drug boats is illegal. Additionally, the US forces fired on survivors of one of the strikes. The follow-on strike killed several people who posed no threat to the US, a clear war crime.

Trump Admin Sued By Families of Boat Strike Victims - The families of two men who were killed by a US strike on their boat in the Caribbean Sea have sued the White House to demand justice for the wrongful deaths of their loved ones. The lawsuit alleges that Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, who were killed by a US bomb on October 14, were fishermen. The families are claiming standing for the lawsuit under the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute. The ACLU is part of the legal team representing the families. The Department of War has destroyed at least 36 vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, justifying the lethal action by claiming the victims were members of narcoterrorist cartels, and in the process of bringing narcotics into the US. The White House has not provided evidence to substantiate its allegation. The families of the men claim Joseph and Samaroo “were not members of, or affiliated with, drug cartels,” adding that the Trinidadian government has found no evidence of criminal activity. President Donald Trump’s campaign to destroy alleged drug boats appears illegal on a number of levels. Drug enforcement is a law enforcement issue, and standard procedure would be to intercept the ships, inspect for drugs, and make arrests if narcotics are found. Senator Rand Paul has condemned the attacks as “extrajudicial killing.” The White House has asserted that the strikes are justified as the US is at war with non-state drug traffickers. However, during the September 2 attack, US forces conducted a follow-on strike to kill the survivors after the vessel was disabled. The secondary strike would be a war crime even if the US were at war.

Trump Opens Venezuela Airspace to Commercial Flights - President Donald Trump has said that Venezuela’s airspace will soon be reopened to commercial flights from the United States, claiming the country was under “very strong control” and that Americans would be safe to travel there. Trump announced the decision during a cabinet meeting on Thursday, saying he had instructed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, as well as the US military, to reopen Venezuelan airspace to US flights. “I just spoke to the president of Venezuela, informed her that we’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela,” the president said. “American citizens will be, very shortly, able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there. It’s under very strong control.”Though the State Department has maintained its travel warning for the country, later on Thursday American Airlines announced that it planned to resume flights to Venezuela, pending official approval and its own security assessments.During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that Venezuela had become “a base of operation for virtually every competitor, adversary, and enemy in the world,” citing China, Russia and Iran by name. He added that the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was necessary to create a “free, fair, prosperous, and friendly Venezuela.”“And so objective number one was stability. In the aftermath of the removal of Maduro, the concern was what happens in Venezuela. Is there civil war? Do the different factions start going at each other? Are a million people crossing the border into Colombia? All of that has been avoided,” Rubio told lawmakers. He refused to rule out the prospect for further military action in the country.In conjunction with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Transportation barred most commercial flights to Venezuela in May 2019, offering only limited exemptions. The restrictions were further stepped up earlier this month following the US operation to kidnap Maduro, with a temporary emergency Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) issued to all civil flights on January 3.Maduro was accused of collaborating with local drug cartels to distribute narcotics, with the State Department offering a reward of up to $50 million for assistance that resulted in his capture. Those allegations remain questionable, however, with the US government-funded thinktank InSight Crime finding no credible evidence to suggest that Maduro played any significant role in drug trafficking.Despite the US capture of Maduro, Trump on Thursday claimed that Washington maintained a “very strong” relationship with the Venezuelan leadership under its de facto president, Delcy Rodríguez, saying, “We’re getting along really well with them.”

Venezuela announces amnesty bill that could lead to mass release of political prisoners (AP) — Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the United States-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodríguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Rodríguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates and others that the ruling party-controlled National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. “May this law serve to heal the wounds left by the political confrontation,” she added during the televised event. Rodríguez also announced the shutdown of Helicoide, a prison in Caracas where torture and other human rights abuses have been repeatedly documented by independent organizations. The facility, she said, will be transformed into a sports, social and cultural center for police and surrounding neighborhoods. The Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal estimates that 711 people are in detention facilities across the South American country for their political activities. The government did not release the text of the bill on Friday, leaving unclear the specific criteria that will be used to determine who qualifies for amnesty.

Fearing US Reprisals, Mexico Halts Oil Shipment to Cuba - Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, has backed out of a planned oil shipment to Cuba, the country’s president appeared to confirm. The move comes after President Donald Trump insisted that “zero” oil would be sent to the island, and follows reports that Washington plans regime change there by the end of the year. Speaking during her daily press conference on Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum did not deny earlier reports about the canceled Pemex shipment, which was originally scheduled for sometime in January. “It is a sovereign decision, and it is made at the time deemed necessary,” she said when asked about the reports, stressing that such shipments are determined by the state oil firm. Reuters reported last week that the Mexican government was reviewing whether to continue sending oil to Cuba, fearing potential reprisals from the United States. Washington has maintained a full trade embargo on the island for decades, and imposed a blockade on Venezuelan oil bound for Cuba late last year, soon after US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over dubious drug charges. While that left Mexico as Cuba’s main petroleum supplier – accounting for some 44% of its crude imports, per UPI – President Trump insisted that “zero” money or oil would be sent to the island earlier this month, forcing Mexico to reevaluate its trade policy. Asked whether her country could play a role mediating discussions between Washington and Havana, Sheinbaum said such an initiative could only proceed if it were requested by both sides, but added that Mexico would continue to promote dialogue. Those efforts may be insufficient, however, as Washington is now reportedly seeking to executeregime change in Cuba by the end of the year, according to recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal. The paper said last week that US officials were seeking “Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime” in the coming months, hoping to use Maduro’s kidnapping as a “blueprint” to topple the Cuban state. Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, has backed out of a planned oil shipment to Cuba, the country’s president appeared to confirm. The move comes after President Donald Trump insisted that “zero” oil would be sent to the island, and follows reports that Washington plans regime change there by the end of the year.

The US Is Pushing So Many Regime Change Agendas It's Hard To Keep Up - Caitlin Johnstone – It’s just incredible how quickly and aggressively the US is advancing longstanding agendas of global conquest under the Trump administration. Now they’re racing to take out Cuba. The US president has signed an executive order to impose new tariffs on countries which supply oil to Cuba, even indirectly, which is expected to dramatically increase the pressure on the already struggling island nation. This comes as Financial Times reports that “Cuba only has enough oil to last 15 to 20 days at current levels of demand and domestic production” after the US cut off the supply from Venezuela and Mexico shelved a planned oil shipment. Trump’s order itself contains the usual excuses we’ve come to expect from the empire of propaganda and lies, with its authors babbling without evidence about Hamas and Hezbollah and “transnational terrorist groups” receiving support from Havana, thereby making this crushing act of siege warfare a self-defense measure implemented in protection of the American people. We’re being asked to believe that Cuba is Hamas, so Washington needs to strangle it to death in self-defense. The fact that the US has been pursuing regime change in Cuba for generations, we are told, is merely a coincidence. The lies get dumber and dumber with each new imperial power grab. It’s just insulting at this point. Last week The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “The U.S. Is Actively Seeking Regime Change in Cuba by the End of the Year” which cited anonymous senior US officials saying they viewed the operation to remove Maduro from Caracas as a “blueprint” for bringing down Havana. Here’s an excerpt: “Emboldened by the U.S. ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration is searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said. “The Trump administration has assessed that Cuba’s economy is close to collapse and that the government has never been this fragile after losing a vital benefactor in Maduro, these people said. Officials don’t have a concrete plan to end the Communist government that has held power on the Caribbean island for almost seven decades, but they see Maduro’s capture and subsequent concessions from his allies left behind as a blueprint and a warning for Cuba, senior U.S. officials said.” The Wall Street Journal reports that administration officials have been meeting with “Cuban exiles and civic groups in Miami and Washington” with the goal of “identifying somebody inside the current government who will see the writing on the wall and want to cut a deal,” in a way similar to how assets within the Maduro government were recruited to facilitate his removal. In a new segment on Trump’s frenzied efforts to topple Havana, CNN’s Patrick Oppmann reports from Cuba that he’s “heard from a US embassy source that diplomats there have been advised to quote ‘have their bags packed’ as the Trump administration explores new ways to destabilize the communist-run government.” The US likes to immiserate the populations of targeted nations using economic strangulation with the goal of fomenting unrest and turning people against their leaders. In 2019 Trump’s previous secretary of state Mike Pompeo openly acknowledged that the goal of Washington’s economic warfare against Iran was to make the population so miserable that they “change the government”, cheerfully citing the “economic distress” the nation had been placed under by US sanctions. Economic distress has been widely cited as a primary factor in the deadly protests that have rocked Iran in recent weeks. Here's Trump's last secretary of state Mike Pompeo saying in 2019 that they're deliberately causing Iran "economic distress" in order to foment an uprising against Tehran, saying he doesn't think sanctions will pressure Tehran to change but "the people can change the government". Starvation sanctions are the only form of warfare where it is widely considered both normal and ethical to deliberately target a civilian population with deadly force. Deliberately impoverishing an entire nation so that it erupts in conflict and civil war is one of the most evil things you can possibly imagine, but it’s the go-to Plan A for the US empire when it comes to removing foreign leaders who refuse to kiss the imperial boot. From Palestine to Lebanon to Yemen to Syria to Venezuela to Cuba to Iran, these last couple of years the US has been in a mad scramble to eliminate governments and resistance groups which attempt to insist on their own sovereignty. There’s a new excuse every time, but the end goal is always the same: the furtherance of planetary domination. The US empire is the single most tyrannical and murderous power structure on this planet. If any regime is in need of changing, it’s that one.

Trump gets a boost as Panama court voids Hong Kong firm’s canal contract -Panama's top court has ruled against Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison , saying a concession held by a subsidiary of the firm to operate ports at either end of the Panama Canal was unconstitutional. The outcome is widely seen as a victory for the Trump administration's security ambitions in the Western Hemisphere, with the U.S. seeking to counter China's strategic influence in the region. In a brief statement published late Thursday, the Supreme Court of Panama said the terms under which Panama Ports Company (PPC), a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, runs the port of Balboa on the Pacific Coast and Cristóbal on the Atlantic violated the country's constitution and were no longer valid. The court said it came to its decision after "extensive deliberation" but did not provide further details on the next steps. It comes roughly one year after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to seize control of the Panama Canal, saying the critically important waterway was "vital to our country" and claiming, "it's being operated by China." The Trump administration has made blocking China's influence over the Panama Canal one of its top priorities. "The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal but we have superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donroe Doctrine," Trump said earlier this month, shortly after U.S. troops conducted an operation to capture Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3. "Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again," Trump said. PPC, which has held the contract to operate the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal since the 1990s, said on Friday that it had been notified of the court's decision and criticized the outcome. "The new ruling, based on available information, lacks legal basis and jeopardizes not only PPC and its contract, but also the well-being and stability of thousands of Panamanian families who depend directly and indirectly on port activity but also the rule of law and legal certainty in the country," PPC said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Kremlin: US Is In a Hurry to Make Peace in Ukraine - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman explained that the Americans were in a rush to secure an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Over the weekend, Putin met with President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. “The situation is unfolding at a high pace. The Americans are making haste as mediators; they are in a hurry, and it’s understandable,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained to reporters after the summit. Diplomatic engagement to end the war in Ukraine picked up over the past week. Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Then, the US mediated discussions between Ukrainian and Russian officials in the UAE. The trilateral negotiations were followed by the meeting between Putin, Witkoff, and Kushner in Moscow. Zelensky described the talks in the UAE as “constructive.” “A lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive,” he wrote on X, adding that future trilateral negotiations are possible. Witkoff has claimed the two sides are close to reaching a deal to end the war in Ukraine. However, public statements from Moscow and Kiev suggest the two are far apart on critical issues such as territory, Ukrainian neutrality, and war reparations. While talks are ongoing, the war continues to rage. Russian missiles and drones have battered Ukrainian cities, leaving many without power. Additionally, Russian forces continue to make slow progress seizing territory across the front lines.

Slovakia’s PM rails against Politico report he was ‘shocked’ by Trump’s psychological state -Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico fiercely denied a Politico report that said he was “shocked” by President Trump’s state of mind during his visit to Mar-a-Lago in Florida this month.Politico, citing five unnamed European diplomats, reported that Fico told European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels last week that his meeting with the U.S. president left him concerned about Trump’s “psychological state.”Two of the diplomats said Fico used the word “dangerous” to describe the way Trump came across during the Jan. 17 meeting at Trump’s estate in Florida, according to Politico.“I must emphatically reject the lies of the POLITICO portal about how I assessed my meeting with US President D. Trump at an informal summit in Brussels,” Fico wrote in a post on the social platform X.“No one heard anything, no one saw anything, there are no witnesses, but nothing prevented the POLITICO portal from coming up with lies,” he continued.Attacking the “liberal” media, Fico wrote, “It is a sad look at the liberal and progressive political and media world. The abuse of criminal law to destroy opponents, the rejection of different opinions, boundless media lies, and attempts to assassinate political leaders in Slovakia and the US.”The White House in a statement also dismissed the reporting.

Trump’s trade policy blamed for US gas auction flop in Eastern Europe - — Washington’s ambition to replace Russia as Eastern Europe’s dominant gas supplier has hit a surprise hurdle: European buyers, it seems, don’t want it.On Monday, an auction for contracts to carry American gas along pipelines from Greece to Ukraine, organized by Greece’s national gas network operator, attracted almost zero interest for the second consecutive month.Out of nearly 72 gigawatt-hours of capacity offered across three different entry routes, a minuscule 48 megawatt-hours were eventually booked — less than 0.1 percent of the total. In December’s auction, no one bid at all.The indifference dealt a major blow to Greece’s ambition to become a new European gateway for U.S. liquefied natural gas imports and prompted warnings that President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy is undermining his own energy export ambitions. Greece’s energy minister said U.S.-EU tensions had scared off potential buyers of American LNG.

Rubio contradicts Leavitt on Trump’s ‘Iceland’ remarks in Davos: ‘He meant to say Greenland’ - Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that President Trump misspoke when he referred to Greenland as Iceland multiple times during remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this month, contradicting an earlier explanation offered by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “He meant to say Greenland,” Rubio told lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a hearing on the Trump administration’s operations in Venezuela. “But I think we’re all familiar with presidents that have verbal stumbles. We’ve had presidents like that before. Some made a lot more than this one,” Rubio continued. Trump appeared to confuse the two places several times as he spoke to world leaders about his desire to bring Greenland under U.S. ownership earlier this month. “I’m helping Europe. I’m helping NATO, and until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me,” Trump said at one point in the speech, according to an official transcript. The remarks came as he lauded the U.S.’s long-standing commitment to NATO while questioning whether the organization would “be there for us” in the event of an attack on the U.S. “So with all of the money we expend, with all of the blood, sweat and tears, I don’t know that they’d be there for us. They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you,” Trump continued.He added, “Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So, Iceland has already cost us a lot of money.” Later that afternoon, Leavitt denied that Trump mixed up the countries in his remarks.“His written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is. You’re the only one mixing anything up here,” Leavitt responded to a reporter who pointed out the inaccuracy on the social platform X.

Denmark lauds constructive talks with U.S. officials over Greenland - Denmark's foreign minister on Thursday welcomed "very constructive" high-level talks over Greenland's future, saying the conversation about the island was "back on track."The talks between the U.S., Greenland, and Denmark in Washington on Wednesday were designed to resolve the diplomatic crisis triggered by President Donald Trump's repeated threats against the vast and sparsely populated Arctic island.Speaking to reporters in Brussels ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the meeting "went well.""Very constructive atmosphere and tone and new meetings are planned," Rasmussen said."It's not that things are solved but it is good because now we are back to what we agreed in Washington exactly two weeks and a day ago. After that, there was a major detour. Things were escalating but now we are back on track," Rasmussen said."It's not that we can conclude anything, but I am slightly more optimistic today than a week ago," he added.Last week, Trump backed away from imposing tariffs on several European countries opposing his effort to take over the self-governing Danish territory and also ruled out using force to take it for the first time, during his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump subsequently declared on Truth Social that he had a "framework of a future deal" regarding Greenland and later told CNBC he had "the concept" of one.

Israel Seeks 10-Year Military Aid Package with Additional Security Assistance - Israel is gearing up for talks with the US on a new decade-long pledge for Washington to provide military aid to Israel. The deal would include additional American security assistance for Israel. According to Gil Pinchas, a financial adviser to the Israeli military, talks to establish a new Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tel Aviv will kick off in the coming weeks. The current MOU grants Israel $3.8 billion in annual US military aid and is set to expire in 2028. The MOU is structured as $3.3 billion in financial support that Pinchas dubbed “free money.” Under the deal, the US also sends Israel $500 million every year for the Iron Dome air defense system. Netanyahu has previously stated that Israel wants to decrease the amount of direct financial support it receives from the US. But, Pinchas explained, that will not result in Washington providing less military support to Tel Aviv. “The partnership is more important than just the net financial issue in this context . . . there are a lot of things that are equal to money,” he told The Financial Times. “The view of this needs to be wider.” Pinchas said that Israel could receive more US support for joint projects such as the Iron Dome. He added that the US military deployments to the Middle East are worth “many billions more” than direct financial support. The US has provided Israel with hundreds of billions of dollars in military assistance since the state’s creation in 1948. The financial support has allowed Israel to provide its citizens with expansive welfare programs and wage wars across the Middle East. Israel is currently in the process of significantly decreasing its military budget.

Report: Trump Gives Netanyahu March Deadline to Make Deal with Syria - President Donald Trump informed President Ahmed al-Sharaa that he is giving Syria and Israel one month to reach an agreement. “Trump told Sharaa that he had given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a month to finalise the security deal with Damascus,” a source familiar with the call between the US and Syrian leaders told Middle East Eye. “Significant progress has been made in the talks with Israel. The only issue is Jabal al-Sheikh [Mount Hermon]. There is agreement on the rest.”A senior Western official explained that Israel is refusing to withdraw from Mount Hermon. In 2024, Sharaa took power from the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad. Israel exploited the chaos to bomb hundreds of military sites in Syria and capture a large area in the country’s southwest. Israel has offered to withdraw from Syria if Damascus agrees to allow Tel Aviv to use its airspace to strike Iran. The source indicated that Trump also greenlit the Sharaa’s military operations against the Syrian Kurds. For over a decade, Syrian Kurds controlled an autonomous region in eastern Syria with American support. Over the past month, fighting between the Syrian government and Kurds has escalated, with Sharaa’s forces gaining territorySharaa was previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Sharaa is a former ISIS commander and the founder of the al-Qaeda affiliate group in Syria. Following the call, Trump told reporters that he had “a great conversation” with “the highly respected president of Syria.”

Gaza 'Board of Peace' Overlooks Obstacles - Jared Kushner arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos with a redevelopment pitch for Gaza: sleek high-rises, new roads, a rebuilt airport, and a modern port on the Mediterranean, under the umbrella of President Donald Trump’s newly chartered “Board of Peace.” In a 10-minute address on January 22, Kushner said that, with “security,” cities in the region can be rebuilt “in three years,” and that Gaza could follow that model. The plan’s premise is simple: stabilize Gaza, then let capital and construction do the rest. The obstacle list is longer, and it is written into the ground itself. U.N. officials say Gaza holds more than 60 million tonnes of rubble – roughly the capacity of 3,000 container ships. UNOPS chief Jorge Moreira da Silva said this month that clearing it is likely to take “over seven years,” a timeline that does not count the follow-on work needed to remove or neutralize unexploded ordnance embedded in debris. UNMAS has warned that explosive remnants remain widespread, with unexploded shells and missiles reported in residential areas “visible among the rubble and along roadsides.” Rights groups say large-scale rubble clearance and demining have not begun in earnest where most civilians are concentrated because Israel has restricted the entry of heavy machinery.Kushner’s slides make reconstruction conditional: rebuilding would not begin in areas that are not “fully disarmed.” Demilitarization, in his outline, would be handled by a U.S.-backed Palestinian technocratic committee meant to administer day-to-day life in Gaza during a transition, with an eventual handoff to a reformed Palestinian Authority.That requirement lands in the middle of an unfinished war. Hamas officials have said they would consider “freezing” weapons as part of a process toward Palestinian statehood, but they have also described armed “resistance” as legitimate. Meanwhile, Israeli fire continues inside Gaza even after the Oct. 10 ceasefire: AP reported at least 470 Palestinians killed since the truce began, based on Gaza’s Health Ministry figures, as Israel says it is responding to violations.Kushner’s Davos presentation largely skipped the interim question: where Gaza’s residents live while neighborhoods are cleared, demined, and rebuilt, and what happens to people whose homes sit in zones designated for “tourism” or other flagship projects. Many Palestinians are sheltering along parts of Gaza City and much of the coastline – precisely the space that Kushner’s slides flag for beachfront development.For displaced Gazans, that omission reads like policy, not a footnote. “I was planning to pitch a tent where my old house was, and gradually rebuild my life again,” said Ahmed Awadallah, living in a Khan Younis displacement camp. Another displaced resident, Bassil Najjar, said, “I have lost hope to return to my house,” after his home fell in an area under Israeli control.A joint estimate by the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank has put Gaza recovery and reconstruction at about $70 billion, with roughly $20 billion needed in the first three years. And skeptics question whether Israel would accept Kushner’s skyline: conflict-resolution expert Nomi Bar-Yaacov called the early concept “totally unrealistic,” warning that high-rises near the border would overlook Israeli military sites. This skepticism has been echoed recently by Israeli Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strock, who has been critical of Trump’s Board of Peace from the outset, and has called for Israel to reoccupy the Gaza strip.

Trump Claims 'It Looks Like' Hamas Will Disarm; That’s News to Hamas - President Donald Trump said on Thursday that “it looks like” Hamas is “going to disarm,” and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said the group would “give up their AK-47s,” as Washington pressed a second-phase Gaza framework in which demilitarization is a core requirement. Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said Hamas never agreed to surrender its weapons, said disarmament was never raised directly with Hamas by the United States or mediators, and said “not for a single moment” did Hamas discuss surrendering weapons or any formula for disarmament.Trump made the remark during a White House cabinet meeting and did not provide evidence for the assertion. Witkoff, speaking in the same setting, framed disarmament as inevitable and said, “They will because they have no choice. They’re going to give up their AK-47s.” Trump also said Hamas helped locate and return the bodies of the last deceased hostages still held in Gaza, while Israel had not confirmed that cooperation in the remarks cited from the cabinet meeting.Abu Marzouk rejected the premise in remarks aired on Al Jazeera, saying Hamas had not discussed “the weapons yet,” and saying neither the American side nor mediators had spoken to Hamas directly about disarmament.He described negotiations as the place to debate “which weapons will be removed, what will be removed, [and] how they will be removed,” while arguing that a group not disarmed after two years of war would not be disarmed by talks alone. He stressed that Hamas still governs parts of Gaza not under IDF control under the ceasefire framework and suggested Hamas can block who effectively operates inside the Strip without its consent.The United States told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Gaza’s demilitarization would put weapons “permanently beyond use” through an agreed process “supported by an internationally funded buyback and reintegration program,” under international monitoring.That briefing described a ceasefire deal brokered in October that ties further Israeli troop withdrawals to Hamas giving up its weapons, and it said the Security Council mandated a U.S.-led “Board of Peace” transitional administration through 2027, including authority to deploy a temporary International Stabilization Force.A U.S. official said on Monday, January 26, that Washington expected Hamas to disarm and tied the process to an amnesty framework, including safe passage out of Gaza for members who choose to leave under the 20-point plan. Israel’s UN ambassador described Hamas as still heavily armed, including tens of thousands of Kalashnikov rifles and an estimate of roughly 60,000 assault rifles.The dispute is unfolding as phase-two talks begin. Israel’s military said on January 26 it had identified the remains of police officer Ran Gvili, held for more than 840 days, as the last Israeli hostage in Gaza.Trump framed demilitarization as the next deliverable after the return of all hostages, saying Hamas must be disarmed as part of the plan. Hamas has treated disarmament demands as a nonstarter in earlier negotiations, calling the idea “a red line” in April 2025.Detailed negotiations on phase two, including demilitarization, are scheduled to begin this week, with public statements from Washington and Hamas still flatly opposed on whether any arms handover has been agreed.

Senior Israeli Officials Give Trump Admin Intelligence on Targets in Iran - Senior Israeli defense officials met with top US officials to discuss a future conflict with Iran.According to Axios, “The Israelis came to DC to share intelligence on possible targets inside Iran.” Israeli military intelligence chief Gen. Shlomi Binder led the Israeli delegation and met with US officials at the Pentagon for two days earlier this week. US officials told the outlet that President Donald Trump is still considering an attack on Iran. One official with knowledge of the meetings said Bidner had brought intelligence that was requested by the President. Late last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump to help Israel take out the government of Iran. The President is reported to be considering a range of options to cause regime change in Iran, including high-level strikes and an oil blockage. Trump has ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East, including fighter jets, an aircraft carrier strike group, and advanced air defense systems. On Wednesday, Trump renewed the threat to attack Iran if Tehran does not agree to a nuclear deal with the US. Iranian officials have stated they are willing to negotiate with the US if Trump stops threatening Iran. Additionally, Tehran has ruled out agreeing to eliminate its uranium enrichment program. While Israel is pushing for Trump to start a war with Iran, other countries in the Middle East are trying to broker a deal. Turkey has offered to host talks with Iran. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman will meet with US officials in the Pentagon on Thursday. Axios notes that Ryiahd has been acting as a backchannel between Washington and Tehran.

Trump Orders Major Military Buildup in Middle East Amid Tensions with Iran - The White House is stepping up its effort to remove the government of Iran by imposing new sanctions on oil shipping and engaging in a significant military buildup that could be the prelude to a war on the Islamic Republic. “We’re watching Iran. We have a big force going towards Iran,” President Donald Trump said onThursday. “And maybe we won’t have to use it. We have a lot of ships going that direction. Just in case, we have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens.” The military buildup includes the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, F-15s, and advanced air defense systems. Trump ordered a similar package of military assets to the Middle East before Israel launched an aggressive war against Iran in June. The US military was prepared to strike Iran earlier this month, but Trump declined to give the order after he was convinced, in part by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the planned attack would not topple the Iranian government, and US forces would struggle to defeat the counterattack. The additional warships, fighter jets, and air defenses will give Washington more options for a larger attack on Iran and the ability to shoot down Iranian missiles targeting US forces and Israel. Tehran has vowed to target Israel and US military bases if Iran is attacked. Several Iranian missiles hit Israel during the conflict in June.

USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Arrives in the Middle East - The USS Abraham Lincoln and its support ships have arrived in the Middle East as President Donald Trump is mulling strikes on Iran. A US official told CBS News that the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group had arrived in US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) area of control. On Tuesday, CENTCOM posted on X that the Lincoln was in the Indian Ocean and crews were performing routine maintenance. The arrival of the fleet of warships in the Middle East comes as Trump has publicly threatened to attack Iran, and US officials say the White House is considering options to strike the Islamic Republic. Earlier this month, Trump decided against attacking Iran over concerns that the US did not have enough military power in the region to topple the government in Tehran and defeat Iranian counterattacks. Over the past week, the US has engaged in a significant military buildup in the Middle East, including warships, fighter jets, and advanced air defense systems. The military equipment will give Trump larger strike operations for attacking Iran, and additional abilities to shoot down Iranian missiles targeting US bases and Israel. Iran has said that it will respond to any attack by launching missiles at Israel and US bases in the region. Tens of thousands of American troops are positioned at over a dozen military facilities in the area. The US force presence in the Middle East is now similar to the American military footprint in the region when Israel attacked Iran in June, starting a war that lasted 12 days. Trump said the USS Lincoln will give up operations to strike Iran, but the President left open the possibility for deescalation.

Trump Weighing Options for Iran, Including Blockade and High-Level Strikes - President Donald Trump is considering a range of options to force regime change in Iran. According to Middle East Eye, Arab officials said that Washington is considering strikes against high-level targets in Tehran. A former US intelligence official familiar with the White House’s internal debate explained that President Donald Trump was still pushing for regime change. The Jerusalem Post reports that a second option is to impose a blockade on Iranian oil shipments. Trump ordered a similar embargo on Venezuelan oil last year. The US then seized several tankers carrying Venezuelan oil and kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pushed for Trump to use economic warfare to bring down the Iranian government. He believes that if the economic situation in the Islamic Republic becomes desperate enough, the Iranian people will overthrow their government. Other members of Trump’s Cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance, have pushed the President to launch strikes targeting the Iranian government and military. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu favors military action if it leads to the fall of the Iranian government. Earlier this month, Trump declined to strike Iran out of concern that the US did not have enough military assets in the Middle East to topple the government in Tehran. A former US official told Middle East Eye that they believe a strike on Iran is more likely now than earlier this month.

Trump warns Iran an 'armada' is heading its way and to agree a nuclear deal, or else - U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday that an "armada" was heading toward it and that it should "make a deal" with the U.S. on its contested nuclear program or face a large-scale U.S. military attack."A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary," he added.Trump said he hoped Iran would come to the table to negotiate "a fair and equitable deal" regarding its nuclear weapons program."Time is running out, it is truly of the essence," Trump said."As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn't, and there was "Operation Midnight Hammer," a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don't make that happen again," the president added.'Operation Midnight Hammer' refers to a U.S.-led operation in June 2025 to destroy several key Iranian nuclear facilities that the U.S. said were being used to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.It's not the first warning to Tehran that U.S. military assets were being moved toward the Middle East. Last week, Trump said an "armada" was heading toward Iran but that he hoped he didn't have to use it. That warning came after authorities' brutal clampdown on nationwide protests in Iran.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Wednesday that he had not been in contact with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days or requested negotiations, Reuters reported, citing Iranian state media.The U.S. has used a variety of sanctions targeting Iran's illicit oil trade, as well as military threats and action, to try to bring Tehran to the negotiating table to halt its nuclear program.Trump pulled the U.S. out of an Obama-era nuclear deal in 2018, during his first term in office, saying the deal was "decaying and rotten."Trump said in March 2025 that he wanted to renegotiate a nuclear deal with Iran after reimposing a "maximum pressure" campaign on the Islamic Republic but efforts to renew talks appear to have failed. nIran was back on the president's radar last month, however, after public unrest erupted over ongoing economic hardship in the country and its religious-conservative leadership.Iran's security services' crackdown on the protests, mass arrests and threatened executions prompted Trump to warn Iran that he would use military action against the country if it "violently kills" protestors. He then suggested the threat had worked, leading to a temporary de-escalation of tensions with the White House.Some reports suggest that the death toll during the unrest could top 30,000 people, but Iranian-focused human rights group HRANA says 6,221 people are confirmed to have died, while over 17,000 deaths are still under investigation. The total number of arrests has reached 42,324, HRANA reported Tuesday.

Trump to Iran: Agree to Nuclear Deal Or the US Will Attack - President Donald Trump renewed his threats to attack Iran if the Islamic Republic does not comply with his demands. The President claimed that Iran must agree to a new nuclear deal or would be attacked by the “armada” Trump has assembled in the Middle East. “A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary,” the President wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!” He continued, “As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again.”After returning to the White House, Trump tightened sanctions on Iran and threatened to attack the Islamic Republic if it did not agree to a deal that would limit or eliminate its civilian nuclear program. Tehran has stated that it is willing to agree to limitations and strict inspections of its nuclear program, but it will continue to enrich uranium. The President has asserted that Iran must completely eliminate its enrichment program. Prior to the unprovoked Israeli attack on Iran in June that ignited a 12-day conflict, Washington and Tehran were in the process of establishing a new nuclear agreement. When Trump ordered US forces to aid Israel and attack Iran, those negotiations failed. Iran has offered to return to the table if Trump stops threatening the Islamic Republic. Late last year, Trump renewed his threats on Iran, this time asserting that the US would attack the Islamic Republic if the government’s crackdown led to the deaths of protesters. While thousands died during the demonstration in Iran, Trump decided not to launch an attack. Trump declined to give the order to attack Iran out of concern that the planned strikes would fail to topple the government, and US troops in the Middle East and Israel would be vulnerable to counterattacks. Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group, fighter jets, and advanced air defense systems to the Middle East. The larger American military presence in the region will give the President additional options for attacking Iran and defeating counterattacks. Trump is reportedly considering a range of options for bringing about regime change in Iran, including an oil blockade and strikes on high-level targets in Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Says There Has Been No Recent Contact With US - President Donald Trump said that Iran must agree to a nuclear deal, or he will order strikesThe Iranian Foreign Minister explained that there had been no direct communication between Tehran and Washington. President Donald Trump is threatening to restart the war with Iran if the Islamic Republic does not agree to a new nuclear agreement. “There has been no contact between Witkoff and me in recent days, and we have not requested talks,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media on Thursday. “Negotiations cannot work under threats, and talks must take place in conditions where threats and excessive demands are set aside.” Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over rebuilding its nuclear facilities, developing a missile program, and killing Iranian protesters. On Wednesday, the President posted on Truth Social that he has deployed an “armada” to the Middle East, and will use it to attack Iran if Tehran does not agree to deal on its nuclear program. “A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.”The post continued, “Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!”The Islamic Republic is not developing nuclear weapons and limits its nuclear program to civilian purposes. However, the Trump administration is demanding that Tehran also agree to strict limits on its missile program and the elimination of the nuclear enrichment program. Iran says its missile and enrichment programs are key to its national defense and sovereignty. Araghchi said there were some messages between Tehran and Washington that were relayed through third parties, without naming any countries. On Wednesday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Iran was willing to negotiate with the US, and it would be “wrong” for the US to restart the war. Trump is considering a range of options to cause regime change in Iran, including an oil blockade and high-level strikes in Tehran. The President has ordered a significant US military buildup in the Middle East.

US Holding War Games Across the Middle East - US troops across the Middle East are engaging in war games to demonstrate their readiness. The US has engaged in a significant military buildup in the region, and President Donald Trump is considering a range of options to carry out regime change in Iran. “Ninth Air Force will be conducting a multi-day readiness exercise to demonstrate the ability to deploy, disperse, and sustain combat airpower across the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility,” a statement from CENTCOM on Monday explained. “This exercise is designed to enhance asset and personnel dispersal capability, strengthen regional partnerships and prepare for flexible response execution throughout CENTCOM.”The expansive war games come amid significant tensions with Iran. Trump is threatening to topple the government in Tehran. The President is considering a range of options, including an oil blockade and strikes targeting high-level officials in the Islamic Republic. Iran has said it does not seek conflict and is willing to engage in talks with the US under respectful conditions. The Islamic Republic has threatened to retaliate against US bases in the Middle East and Israel in response to any attack. The President agreed that Tehran prefers diplomacy to war. “They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk,” Trump said Monday. He has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran in recent weeks. In his remarks, he drew parallels between the US military buildup in Latin America before attacking Venezuela and the current American military footprint in the Middle East. “We have a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela,” the President said. Trump was considering attacking Iran earlier this month, but declined to give the order. The President was concerned that the US lacked enough military power in the Middle East to take out the Iranian government and protect US soldiers and Israel from retaliatory attacks. Since then, the US has engaged in a massive military buildup in the Middle East, including fighter jets, an aircraft carrier strike group, and advanced air defense systems. The Islamic Republic is preparing for an American attack. On Tuesday, Iran issued a warning that its forces would be conducting live-fire drills near the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump Considering Strikes on Iran to Reignite Protests - President Donald Trump is considering strikes on Iran, hoping the attack will restart anti-government protests.Reuters reported on Thursday that Trump was hoping strikes on Iran would reignite the protest movement. Earlier this month, the President was considering striking the Iranian government and security forces in response to the crackdown on demonstrators.Trump initially asserted he would attack Iran for killing protesters, but decided against strikes because they lacked enough military assets in the Middle East to deliver a decisive blow to the Islamic Republic and protect American forces from retaliatory attack.The President has since ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East.In an effort to justify the major US military buildup in the Middle East, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US must be prepared for an Iranian strike on American troops in the Middle East. He asserted that President Donald Trump had the right to launch a “preemptive defensive” attack on Iran.Rubio told Senators that the US needed a large military footprint in the Middle East because “At some point, as a result of something, the Iranian regime decided to strike at our troops in the region,” Rubio said.Tehran has maintained that it does not seek war and would only attack US bases in the Middle East if Iran were attacked.Rubio went on to argue that Trump could order an attack on the Islamic Republic even if Iran does not attack the US. “The President always reserves the preemptive defensive option,” the Secretary of State said.During a session of the Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio laid out a scenario where the US would strike Iran if it did not dismantle its defenses.“If we tell [Tehran] we don’t want to see drones from Iran, as an example, pointed at the US or threatening our forces or our presence in the region or our allies’ presence in the region, and they refuse to comply with that, the president does reserve the self-defense to eliminate that threat,” the Secretary of State said Wednesday.He went on to add that the US needed a massive military presence in the Middle East to “preemptively prevent” an Iranian attack.

US Threatens To Cut Iraq Off From Oil Revenue Over Government Composition - Iraq had a parliamentary election in late 2025, with the results ratified in mid-December. This, as usual, led to a scramble to try to form a majority coalition out of a large number of political parties that gained meaningful seats in a situation where the plurality was only 11.74%, far short of the ability to form a government without a slew of partners.This is always a challenge, and involves a lot of internal compromise over cabinets and coalition structure. The US, however, is making this dramatically more challenging by threatening to withhold materially all of Iraq’s oil revenue from the Iraqi government if the coalition isn’t to their satisfaction. The US is able to do this, because in post-occupation Iraq, their oil revenue is held in US dollars at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, right where the US can easily get at it or restrict its transfer to the Iraqis whenever the mood suits them. Shi’ites have a majority of the seats in Iraq’s parliament in practice. That’s no surprise as they are the majority of the population. Carving out a coalition of Shi’ites is easier said than done, however, because many of the parties are at odds with one another. Adding to that, the US has decided that Shi’ite parties that are still aligned with armed factions are “Iran-backed” and therefore “incompatible with building a strong partnership between the United States and Iraq.”In practice this means that the threat is if the government includes any of the Shi’ite blocs which the US considers “Iran-backed” then Iraq will immediately lose all of its oil revenue for displeasing the US.It’s a bigger problem then it seems on the surface, because the major Shi’ite blocs almost all have some ties with militias in some form or another. The expectation had been that the State of Law Party might parlay their 6% vote and fourth place finish into a return to power for former premier Nouri al-Maliki. Controversial given Maliki’s past, it is also seemingly impossible to argue that State of Law isn’t aligned with armed factions.A lot of big parties have some ideological and practical ties to the Popular Mobilization Units(PMU), which are Iran-backed and while nominally integrated into Iraq’s own military, it’s almost impossible for any meaningful Shi’ite faction to not have any ties to them.The PMU were historically scores of smaller militias, generally Shi’ite, generally Iran-aligned, and they merged over a decade ago to counter the rise of ISIS, which seemed convenient at the time, but which the US now seems to see as politically unpalatable.This is not the first time the US has threatened to use their de facto control over Iraq’s oil revenue to coerce them. In 2020 after the assassination of Qassem Suleimani, Iraq threatened to expel US forces from Iraq in protest, and President Trump at the time threatened to seize their oil revenue in retaliation if they did so.

Trump Aims to Veto Maliki’s Return to Power in Iraq - Iraq’s Coordination Framework has nominated Nouri al-Maliki as their leader to attempt to form the next Iraqi government after November’s election. Maliki was Iraq’s premier from 2006 to 2014, and has led the State of Law bloc since then, trying to return to the position. Now, it seems, he’s on the verge of doing so.President Trump, however, appears to be trying to veto that appointment, declaring on Truth Social that Maliki “should not be allowed” to return to power, and threatening to withhold all US support for Iraq if he does.“If we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom,” Trump declared in the post, accusing Maliki of “insane policies and ideologies.” Maliki’s nomination had been spoken of favorably by a number of Shi’ite factions as well as Kurdish ones, suggesting that he has the votes, if indeed Trump isn’t able to order him replaced.Trump’s threat comes back to the recent threats by US officials to cut off all of Iraq’s oil revenue, which is held in a dollar-denominated account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, if the government included any factions that were sign as “Iran-backed.” Trump’s threat takes this one step farther though, threatening not just to bankrupt Iraq by seizing functionally all of their government’s money, but by completely severing US ties with the nation if Maliki specifically returned to power.The Federal Reserve Bank relationship was established in 2003 during the start of the US occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, and made some measure of sense at the time. Now that Iraq has moved on, it is merely leverage for the US to dictate terms to them whenever the mood suits.

Maliki Defiant After Trump Demand He Step Down From PM Candidacy - Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has very publicly rejected President Trump’s demand he be prevented from returning to power, declaring it “blatant American interference in Iraq’s internal affairs,” and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.Iraq held its most recent parliamentary elections in November, and with current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ruling out another term, the largest bloc selected Maliki to try to form the next government, potentially returning him to the post he occupied from 2006 to 2014. Maliki is something of a controversial choice, though he has been endorsed by both Shi’ite and Kurdish groups. President Trump, however, insinuated America into this situation with a post on Truth Social Tuesday, denouncing Maliki’s “insane policies and ideologies” and declaring he can’t be allowed to return to power. Trump warned that if Iraq didn’t block Maliki outright, the United States would end all support for Iraq going forward. This adds to the threats made previously that the US might withhold Iraq’s oil revenue if the government including “pro-Iran” figures. Since Iraq’s government revenue is overwhelmingly the oil revenue, which is held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the US blocking that account would quickly bankrupt the nation. Maliki and Sudani were roughly split in the race for support for the largest Shi’ite coalition, but after Sudani stepped aside, Maliki’s selection was a foregone conclusion, even if the US objects to his historical ties to Iran.Though the 75-year-old Maliki insists he won’t step down from the nomination, it’s not clear if Iraq can ultimately afford to form a government led by him in opposition to Trump’s diktats, as the Federal Reserve holding their money really does give the US de facto veto power over Iraq’s political decisions.This banking solution likely made sense in the early days of the US occupation and reconstruction, but at this point it clearly is restricting Iraqi autonomy, and gives the US government an easy level to pull any time it suits them. As this is the second time the US has used the threat of seizing their money to get their way, both times under President Trump, it is likely whoever Iraq ultimately brings to power will have to focus on the idea of reforming their revenue system to ensure continuity going forward, and deny the US this power over them.

Sen. Lindsey Graham Introduces ‘Save the Kurds’ Act - Senator Lindsey Graham introduced a bill that would prevent President Donald Trump from withdrawing US support for the Syrian Kurds. For over a decade, the US used air power to protect Kurdish-controlled Syria. In recent weeks, Washington has allowed Syrian government forces to take territory from the Kurds. “I will be introducing legislation this week designed to impose crippling sanctions on any government or group engaged in hostilities against the Kurds,” Graham wrote on X Tuesday. “The Save the Kurds Act, I believe, will receive strong bipartisan support and must have teeth to make it effective.” “Watching the deteriorating situation in Syria with great concern. The Kurds are under threat from the new Syrian government that is aligned with Turkey,” the Senator argued. “It would be a disaster for America’s reputation and national security interests to abandon the Kurds, who were the chief ally in destroying the ISIS caliphate.” The Islamic State rose to prominence in Iraq and Syria as a result of the CIA’s operation to arm, fund, and train the opposition to then-Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. After ISIS captured significant portions of Iraq and Syria, the US began backing Shi’ite militias to fight ISIS in Iraq, and the Kurds to fight the Sunni extremists in eastern Syria. During the operations against the Islamic State, the US set up bases across Kurdish held territory. Once ISIS was largely defeated, the US shifted its goal in Syria to preventing forces allied with Assad from encroaching on Kurdish territory. The US positioned its soldiers between jihadists backed by Turkey and Kurdish fighters to prevent confrontations. Additionally, Washington ordered airstrikes against Syrian forces and Russian mercenaries that attempted to enter Kurdish territory. The battlefield in Syria significantly changed in late 2024, when an al-Qaeda-linked group overran Assad’s troops and forced him to flee the country. Abu Mohammad al-Jolani then seized power in Damascus. Jolani, who now goes by Ahmed al-Sharra, fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq against the Americans during the Iraq War and founded the jihadist group’s Syrian affiliate. Despite his jihadist past, Jolani has been embraced in Washington, including multiple meetings with President Donald Trump. As Jolani has consolidated power in Syria, he has cracked down on minority groups, including Druze and Alawites. The former al-Qaeda commander now has his sights set on retaking Syrian territory held by the country’s Kurdish minority. The Syrian forces are receiving assistance from Turkey, which has fought a long-term war against its own Kurds. While in the past, Washington has intervened to assist the Kurds, the US has allowed Syrian forces to advance. The US has attempted to broker a deal between Damascus and the Kurdish leadership, but the ceasefire has failed to hold.

US Drone Strike Kills al-Qaeda Commander in Eastern Yemen - One of the early consequences of the Saudi invasion of Yemen was that the local affiliate, called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seized substantial territory in the south. AQAP is no longer seen as nearly so high profile, carrying out occasional attacks on various factions but not seen as holding any territory like they once did.Still, the US views it as something of an active threat, and reportedly killed a senior commander within AQAP, along with several others, in a drone strike in the al-Mahra Governorate on Thursday. The US military has yet to issue a formal statement on the matter.The name of the slain commander has yet to be disclosed, but locals described him as a “high-ranking” figure in AQAP’s eastern Yemeni operations. The drone strike was reportedly carried out near the Oman-Yemen border.That the strike happened in al-Mahra may be significant, as that governorate has traded hands multiple times in recent weeks. Pro-Saudi forces seized al-Mahra and the neighboring Hadramaut Governorates early in January from the separatist STC, though the STC has claimed to have retaken parts of the area since then.The area being on-again, off-again contested may be providing AQAP an opportunity to establish a new foothold, and al-Mahra, which is more off the beaten path as South Yemen territory and sparsely populated. AQAP might be able to more easily contest that region on their own, with mountains and deserts and the Oman border serving as natural boundaries for them.That’s not to say they wouldn’t face resistance on the ground, as both the STC and the Saudi-backed Giants Brigades have forces in the area, and both would doubtless contest any AQAP incursion when they’re not busy fighting one another.Still, Yemen, particularly southern Yemen, has remained unstable for well over a decade because of the Saudi invasion, and al-Qaeda in general and AQAP in particular might see that as fertile ground for them, which would explain why the US carried out a strike there when most of their operations in Yemen in the past year have been targeting the Houthis in the north.

US Launched 23 Strikes on Somalia in January - The US military has carried out at least 23 airstrikes on Somalia so far this month, part of a major surge in the Trump administration’s bombing campaign on the African nation. Last year saw a record number of strikes on Somalia, though data on civilian casualties is not always forthcoming.US Africa Command (ARICOM) has announced a flurry of recent strikes allegedly targeting ISIS and al-Shabaab militants, including at least four in the last week alone. The latest operations took place in Godane – north of the capital city, Mogadishu – as well as around the Golis Mountains in the northern Puntland region.Over the last year, the command has “gotten a lot more aggressive” in Africa, and is “working with partners to target, kinetically, the threats, mainly ISIS,” AFRICOM Lieutenant General John Brennantold AFP last week.American operations in Somalia have seen a major uptick under Trump’s two presidencies, with 219 strikes ordered during his first term, compared to just 48 over President Barack Obama’s eight years in office, according to New America. With the trend continuing into the new year, Trump’s second term appears set to break that record, after 124 airstrikes were ordered in 2025 alone, AFRICOM toldAntiwar.com’s Dave DeCamp.After launching strikes on Nigeria on Christmas Day, Washington also vowed to step up intelligence-sharing and operations in that African state as well, part of a broader push said to target the Islamic State across the continent. Brennan said the Pentagon is also working with the governments of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali to combat the militant group.

The Lies Get So Tedious -Caitlin Johnstone - The lies get so tedious. The Iranians want their country to be bombed. Hamas beheaded 40 babies. Pro-Palestine demonstrations caused the Bondi massacre. There’s a terrorist base under every hospital. The news media are reporting objective facts about the world. You live in a democracy where the votes of the people influence the actions of your government. We’re the Good Guys in every foreign conflict. The US makes mistakes from time to time, but they’re acting with good intentions and we’re better off with them in charge of the world. Rich people are rich because they’re smarter and work harder than everyone else. Capitalism is more or less working out fine for everyone. The world works pretty much the way you were taught in school. Profit-driven technological innovation and industry is going to rescue us from the ecological consequences of profit-driven technological innovation and industry. It doesn’t matter that we’re destroying our biosphere because we’re about to set out for the stars and colonize space any minute now. All the problems in your country are the fault of the other mainstream political faction, and you can fix those problems by focusing all your anger on the people in the other faction. Now is not the time for revolutionary politics. You can’t just let people say whatever they want to say about their government and its allies. Success looks like making a lot of money and owning a lot of possessions and earning the respect of the largest and most influential institutions in our society. If you are unable or unwilling to make a lot of money and obtain a lot of possessions, you are bad and you should feel bad about yourself. You should derive your sense of self-worth from how effective you are at turning the gears of industry and giving the system exactly what it wants from you. This is all normal. All this suffering, death, destruction, war, chaos, exploitation, injustice, poverty and abuse is normal. People who want to change things are abnormal, and should be viewed with suspicion. Tedious. It’s just lies, lies, lies, all the way down. We live in a civilization that was built on lies, is made of lies, and is sustained by lies. As soon as the lies stop, the whole thing comes tumbling down. They begin teaching us the lies as soon as we are old enough to learn them, and they never stop educating the lies into our brains until we are dead. It’s no wonder we’re getting more and more miserable, dysfunctional and crazy. Mental sovereignty under the empire of lies means purging all the malignant indoctrination from every level of your cognition and perception until you are able to think freely and perceive the world with clear eyes. It’s a long, difficult process, but it’s necessary if you want to form a truth-based relationship with reality and learn to see things as they actually are.

Trump Threatens Canada With 100% Tariffs Over China Trade Deal - President Donald Trump has vowed to impose a 100% tariff on Canadian goods should Ottawa strike a new trade deal with Beijing, after Canada agreed to slash duties on Chinese electric vehicles earlier this month.Trump made the threat from his Truth Social account on Saturday, taking a jab at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who he dubbed a “governor” – likely a reference to his previous suggestion to make Canada the next US state.“If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the USA,” the president said, adding “If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life.”While the two countries don’t appear to be in talks for any broader trade deal, Ottawa recently agreed to drop a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles entering the Canadian market in exchange for lower tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods.Trump’s latest comments marked a major shift in tone on the deal, as he praised the China-Canada tariff arrangement when it was first announced earlier this month. “That’s what [Carney] should be doing. It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” he told reporters on January 16.The new tariff threat from Washington comes amid growing tensions between Trump and his Canadian counterpart, thanks in part to US efforts to “acquire” Greenland. That push has stoked major controversy with a number of European states, who staged an abrupt round of military exercises in Greenland as an apparent warning to the US. Ottawa has weighed whether to expand its own military presence in Greenland to show support for the autonomous Danish territory, despite threats from Trump to impose tariffs on eight European countries opposed to a US takeover.

Trade deficit soared 94% in November and was higher than a year ago, despite tariff efforts -- The U.S. deficit with its global trading partners nearly doubled in November as the shortfall with the European Union swelled and the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs worked their way through the economy, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Following a month where the trade deficit hit its lowest level since early 2009, it shot up to $56.8 billion, an increase of 94.6% from October. Of that gain, about one-third came with the European Union, where the goods deficit rose by $8.2 billion. The goods deficit with China decreased by about $1 billion to $13.9 billion. On a year-over-year basis, the deficit through November stood at $839.5 billion, or about 4% higher than the same period in 2024. The increase in the deficit counters Trump's efforts to use tariffs to reduce imbalances around the globe. When announcing so-called reciprocal tariffs in April 2025, the White House used the level of trade deficits with varying countries as a baseline for determining the duties. As the year went by, Trump softened his stance. A framework agreement between the U.S. and the EU in August put the tariff rate at 15% on most European goods and sought to stabilize relations between the two sides.

Trump administration unleashes paramilitary ICE raids in Maine - The Trump administration launched a massive immigration enforcement surge in Maine on January 20, 2026, unleashing a campaign of terror designed to intimidate immigrant and working class communities across the state. Cynically dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day” in a state well-known for its fishing industry, this offensive is part of a nationwide crackdown on immigrants, escalating in the context of mounting federal violence seen in Minneapolis following the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. To justify its campaign of state terror, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has constructed a fraudulent narrative, claiming its operation targets “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities.” Those caught up in the dragnet include:

• Yanick Joao Carneiro: An asylum seeker from Angola who was detained without a warrant during a routine immigration check-in at the Scarborough ICE office.
• Jean-Pierre Obiang: An 18-year-old student at the University of Southern Maine and an asylum seeker from Gabon, detained after a minor traffic accident.
• Micheline Ntumba: A mother and asylum seeker from the Congo, living in the US for nearly a decade, who was arrested after dropping her child off at Portland High School.

Sarah Mehta of the American Civil Liberties Union correctly identified the operation as being “100% a dragnet approach.” Data from the Deportation Data Project confirms this assessment; of the nearly 100 people arrested in the initial days of the operation, the government’s own incomplete list showed only 13 with criminal records. As Mehta explains, the operation is a calculated strategy of targeting those convenient to inflate arrest numbers. “The easiest people to go after are those the government already has personal identifying information about,” she notes, including “people that are checking in at their immigration interviews … people that are, again, lawfully here.” This deliberate targeting of asylum seekers, students and workers—many of whom were complying with legal immigration proceedings—is intended to inflict the maximum cruelty and chaos to intimidate the entire working class. Across the state, agents have engaged in a campaign of terror designed to disrupt daily life and create a pervasive atmosphere of fear. Tactics used by federal agents include:

• Masked agents operating in high-traffic public areas, including a high-profile arrest in the parking lot of the Maine Mall in South Portland near the Hannaford and TJMaxx stores.
• The use of unmarked minivans with out-of-state license plates to abduct people from the streets.
• Forcibly entering homes without judicial warrants, a reversal of longstanding policy revealed in an internal ICE memo.
• Smashing car windows to extract detainees, as occurred in the arrest of civil engineer Juan Sebastian Carvajal-Munoz.
• Leaving detainees’ cars running on the street, which Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce accurately described as “bush league policing.”

On January 22, Associated Press published a video of an ICE agent seen on camera outside the front door of a resident of Biddeford, Maine. Cristian Vaca was warned, “We’re gonna come back for your whole family.” Vaca, a native of Ecuador who says he has a work permit and an upcoming immigration hearing, told AP that he was “terrified” during the encounter and it made him concerned about his son. Also in Biddeford, five-year-old Keyli Camila Espin Vaca was left at school after her mother was seized by ICE agents on Friday, January 23. Her mother was stopped in her car, where agents demanded documentation she did not have. Mayra Vaca Latacunga, a 25-year-old single mother from Ecuador and Camila’s sole caretaker, was handcuffed and transferred to Massachusetts. School officials escorted the kindergartner to her uncle’s house. Her mother was released Tuesday, January 27, with an ankle monitor strapped to her leg. Her family was afraid to pick her up at the Burlington field office and she had to wait for a ride to unite with her child. The brutality of the federal operation has provoked widespread opposition from workers and community advocates. Grassroots resistance has emerged as workers and residents refuse to be intimidated. Residents have formed support networks to deliver food and supplies to immigrant families too afraid to leave their homes.

GOP senator after fatal Minneapolis shooting: ‘The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake’ -Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Saturday expressed concern about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) reputation following another fatal shooting in Minnesota. “The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth,” Cassidy said Saturday in a post on the social platform X. A high-ranking Minnesota public safety official said Saturday that his agency was blocked from participating in any federal investigation into the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti, noting that “we’re in uncharted territory.” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Superintendent Drew Evans said that after the FBI left the scene Saturday, BCA agents sought to begin their own investigation but were “unable to hold that scene, and it got run over by protesters, and we were not able to reexamine that scene.” He added that BCA was denied access to the scene at a later time, and that after they obtained a signed search warrant, state agents were still not permitted to enter the area. Cassidy’s comments follow weeks of tension in Minnesota over President Trump’s immigration agenda, which escalated in the wake of the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer earlier this month. Recently, the Louisiana senator has also found himself at odds with Trump. Last week, the president even endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) over Cassidy, saying Letlow “is a TOTAL WINNER!”

Republicans divided on ICE tactics as government shutdown looms - Senate Republicans are divided over Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) tactics, which now threaten to trigger a partial government shutdown after the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis of a protester. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called the shooting and other events in Minneapolis “incredibly disturbing” and demanded a “full joint federal and state investigation” of the incident, something senior Trump administration officials have so far resisted. “The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth,” he wrote Saturday in a social media post. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Sunday the shooting raises “serious questions within the administration about the adequacy of immigration-enforcement training and the instructions officers are given on carrying out their mission.” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in a post on X said Sunday “there must be a thorough and impartial investigation into yesterday’s Minneapolis shooting, which is the basic standard that law enforcement and the American people expect following any officer-involved shooting.” Tillis warned senior Trump administration officials not to make snap judgments about the incident and not to “shut down” a careful investigation of what happened before the deadly shots were fired. “Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy,” he said. Video footage showed that a Border Patrol agent shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, multiple times, killing him. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Pretti had brandished the gun at federal officers, even though video footage showed he was holding his smartphone while recording them. He did not appear to draw the 9 mm semiautomatic handgun he had concealed at his beltline and for which he had a permit. Murkowski called for an independent investigation of the shooting and urged Congress to hold hearings to conduct oversight of ICE. “A comprehensive, independent investigation of the shooting must be conducted in order to rebuild trust and congressional committees need to hold hearings and do their oversight work. ICE agents do not have carte blanche in carrying out their duties,” she said. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), who is up for re-election, on Sunday said the Border Patrol agent’s “use of lethal force must be thoroughly and objectively investigated.” Sen. Dave McCormick (R), who represents the swing state of Pennsylvania, said, “we need a full investigation into the tragedy in Minneapolis.” “We need all the facts,” he wrote on X. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said at a press conference Sunday that state investigators with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension who attempted to review evidence at the scene were denied access by federal officers, even after obtaining a judicial search warrant. “This is uncharted territory,” Ellison told reporters. “I don’t care if you’re conservative, liberal or whatever, but you should at least be in favor of conserving evidence in a homicide.” State officials obtained an order from a federal district judge late Saturday ordering the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies not to alter or destroy any evidence related to Pretti’s shooting.

Donald Trump faces growing GOP backlash over immigration crackdown -The Republican Party’s determined defense of President Trump’s deportation efforts is cracking in the wake of the fatal shooting of a second civilian protester in Minneapolis over the weekend. For the past year, GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been virtually united in supporting Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying the deployment of federal law enforcement officers in blue cities around the country was a necessary step for protecting Americans against violent criminals living in the U.S. illegally. Last summer, they provided tens of billions of dollars to help the cause. But the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse and U.S. citizen, by a Border Patrol agent Saturday has sparked outrage that’s transcending party lines, leading even some Republicans to voice concerns that Trump’s deportation push has gone too far. “People want stability and they want confidence — and that does not look like stability or confidence,” a source familiar with the administration said, adding that they believe it is “inevitable” that the administration cooperates with a probe into the shooting. “Half my Instagram stories are people … who are posting ‘F ICE,’” the source continued, referencing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “It’s clearly cracked the traditional media sphere. I think the White House and the administration recognizes that.” Underscoring that development is a long and growing list of Republicans who typically side squarely with the administration but are now urging officials to engage in a transparent investigation and to take additional steps to prevent future tragedies. In the House, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the former head of the Homeland Security Committee, said he is “troubled” by Pretti’s killing. Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) went so far as to suggest that Trump should pull ICE personnel from the Twin Cities amid the ongoing strife. And Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) quickly called on officials from ICE, CBP and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to testify before the committee after the shooting Saturday.

White House pulls back amid public uproar over Alex Pretti killing - The Trump White House made a rare rhetorical retreat Monday amid public uproar over its initial response to the killing of Alex Pretti, the second U.S. citizen recently shot dead by federal law enforcement agents working in Minneapolis as part of the administration’s deportation efforts. A nation that was already simmering after Renee Good’s death at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on Jan. 7 erupted Saturday when Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was also shot and killed, this time by a Border Patrol agent. The first flames of public anger erupted when his harrowing death was widely seen on social media. They were fanned into a near-inferno by comments from administration officials blaming him for what had occurred. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “committed an act of domestic terrorism,” key White House aide Stephen Miller called him a “would-be assassin,” and senior Border Patrol official Greg Bovino said Pretti wanted to “massacre law enforcement.” Those claims are not supported by the available evidence. Though Pretti was in possession of a gun, the firearm was legally held, and the videos released so far never show him with it in his hand. The gun appears to have been taken away before he was shot. Video analyses have found agents fired at least 10 shots. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) was among the voices calling the killing an “execution.” A statement from Pretti’s family expressed revulsion at “the sickening lies told about our son by the administration” and referred to “Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.” On Monday, President Trump himself led a softening of tone. The shift is a de facto recognition of the depth of public anger, even as critics will say there is a need for a more substantive reckoning. First, in what was widely seen as an implied rebuke to the combative Bovino, Trump wrote on social media that he would send border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota later Monday. The president characterized Homan as “tough but fair” and conspicuously added that he would “report directly to me.” Later in the day, multiple outlets reported that Bovino and some of the Border Patrol agents working with him were expected to leave Minneapolis soon, perhaps as early as Tuesday. Roughly three hours after the Homan announcement, Trump posted again to social media about a call with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D). Trump has previously excoriated Walz, while for his part the governor has accused federal agents in his state of “a campaign of organized brutality.” This time, however, Trump said, “It was a very good call and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.” Trump also claimed that Walz was “happy” about the Homan announcement. Walz called the conversation with Trump “productive” in a statement that also underscored the governor’s desire for “impartial investigations” into the killings of Good and Pretti. Later in the day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt continued the shift, tellingly distancing Trump from the language used by aides. One reporter read Leavitt some of the descriptions of Pretti by Noem and Miller and asked, “Does the president agree with them?” “Look, as I’ve said, I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way,” the press secretary responded. “However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.”

Warren calls for Kristi Noem to resign or face impeachment - Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Congress should move to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if she does not resign from office. In a video posted Monday to the social platform X, the Democratic senator joined growing calls for Noem’s impeachmentamid growing concern over her handling of the administration’s crackdown on immigration in Minnesota and across the country. “Kristi Noem should resign, and if she doesn’t, Congress should impeach her and remove her from office. In America, we still believe in accountability, not lies,” Warren said in the video. The senator accused the secretary of lying to the American people about details of the fatal shooting by a Border Patrol agent of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis resident and intensive care nurse at the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital, during a demonstration protesting the government’s immigration enforcement efforts. Shortly after the incident, DHS officials were quick to accuse Pretti of wanting to “massacre law enforcement” and “murder federal agents.” Video footage from bystanders, however, appeared to dispute that version of events. Pretti, who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, was not seen holding his weapon at any point in the interaction in available footage. Instead, an agent appeared to take a concealed weapon from Pretti’s waistband moments before another agent shot him in the back. “Donald Trump and Kristi Noem think that they can tell you what to believe. They think you will believe them instead of your own eyes. Don’t roll over for a lie. These lies have to stop,” Warren said. “We cannot allow this shooting and ICE’s blatant violations of law to be covered up. It’s time to rein in the federal agents who think they can swagger through our streets, throw people to the ground, shoot American citizens, and then count on protection from Trump and Noem.” “We need a full, independent investigation and all wrongdoing held to account to the fullest extent of the law, the victims of this violence deserve justice,” she continued. In response to growing calls for Noem’s impeachment, DHS assistant secretary Tricia Laughlin said in a statement to The Hill, “DHS enforces the laws Congress passes, period. If certain members don’t like those laws, changing them is literally their job.” “While ICE officers are facing a staggering 1,300% spike in assaults, too many politicians would rather defend criminals and attack the men and women who are enforcing our laws and did nothing while Joe Biden facilitated an invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country. It’s time they focus on protecting the American people, the work this Department is doing every day under Secretary Noem’s leadership,” the statement continued.

Sen. Rand Paul calls on leaders of ICE, Border Protection and Immigration Services to testify before Senate -- Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has sent letters to the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to testify before his committee amid growing public controversy over immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis and other communities. Paul informed the leaders of President Trump’s immigration agencies in a tersely worded letter that “Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight” of what he called the “exceptional amount of funding” the Republican Congress has allocated to secure the borders and enforce immigration laws. “Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight of those tax dollars and ensure the funding is used to accomplish the mission, provide proper support for our law enforcement, and, most importantly, protect the American people,” he wrote. He is asking them to testify at an open hearing scheduled for Feb. 12 and wants to get responses from the senior administration officials by Wednesday. Paul sent the letters to CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, ICE acting Director Todd Lyons, and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow. The conservative Kentucky senator marveled at the decision by congressional appropriators to spend another $10 billion on ICE operations in fiscal 2026, even though the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law in July, has already allocated $76 billion for ICE over the next four years. “The Senate is debating another $10B for ICE. But Congress already locked in nearly $19B a year for four years. Even if this fails, ICE will still have about 87% more funding than last year,” Paul posted Monday on the social platform X. Paul, an outspoken advocate for the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees a person’s right against unreasonable searches and seizures, has kept a relatively low profile on ICE’s immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, despite a recent ruling by a federal judge in Minnesota that officers violated a Liberian man’s rights by forcibly entering his home without a judicial warrant. The man who was arrested, Garrison Gibson, had fled Liberia as a child and remained in the country under an order of supervision. The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, on Saturday has put heightened scrutiny on ICE’s and the Border Patrol’s immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Several Senate Republicans have demanded a thorough and objective investigation of the shooting incident, while one senior House Republican lawmaker, Rep. James Comer (Ky.), suggested that Trump should consider pulling ICE personnel out of Minnesota. Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that other cities that “have issues with criminal illegals” would be more receptive to immigration enforcement operations.

Trump Says Noem Won't Step Down Over Minnesota Shooting, Doing 'Very Good Job' - President Donald Trump on Tuesday rebuffed calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to step down from her position in the midst of criticism of immigration officials in the wake of a protester-involved shooting in Minneapolis over the past weekend. Some Democratic lawmakers called for Noem’s ouster after an agent shot and killed a protester, Alex Pretti, during an altercation in Minneapolis on Saturday. Noem had described Pretti as someone engaging in domestic terrorism, although a top Justice Department official said that administration officials don’t believe Pretti’s actions reach the legal standard for terrorism. Trump was asked about Noem’s job status while he was speaking with reporters outside the White House on Tuesday. He told reporters he believes Noem is doing a “very good job” and a “great job” as the head of the sprawling federal department, and he cited her work in shutting down the United States–Mexico border. “Is Kristi Noem going to step down?” a reporter asked him. Trump directly responded by saying no. Speaking about the border, Trump said that people “forget” that the prior administration had allowed “millions of people” to come through. Border authorities now allow “no one” to come through, and people are only coming into the United States legally, he said. The Biden administration and the Democratic Party willfully “had allowed tens of millions of people” to enter the United States, with many being murderers, drug dealers, addicts, and people who were removed from mental institutions, Trump said. On Monday, Trump said that private conversations with both Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were productive, while the two Democratic leaders offered similarly positive comments. Walz’s office said Trump had agreed to direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ensure state authorities could conduct their own investigation into the Pretti shooting, while Frey said in a post on X that his understanding was that some federal agents would begin leaving the city on Tuesday.

Donald Trump alleges Ilhan Omar staged spraying attack: 'I think she's a fraud' -President Trump, without evidence, suggested Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) staged an incident during her town hall Tuesday night when a man sprayed her with an unknown substance. “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,” Trump told ABC News. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” When asked if he had seen video of the incident, the president said, “I haven’t seen it. No, no. I hope I don’t have to bother.” A livestream of the town hall showed the man standing and yelling at Omar, who was calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign or face impeachment after two fatal shootings involving immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis. The suspect was tackled and arrested after spraying the lawmaker. Omar continued with the town hall after the incident, saying, “These f‑‑‑ing a‑‑holes are not going to get away with it.”She struck an even more defiant tone in remarks after the event. “I’ve survived war and I’m definitely going to survive intimidation or whatever these people think they can throw at me, because I’m built that way,” the lawmaker said.

Trump’s tactical retreat in Minneapolis: The danger of dictatorship remains - Over the past 24 hours, the Trump administration has been forced into a tactical retreat following the state execution of ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. The retraction, however, is not an abandonment of its authoritarian course—It is a recalibration. The threat of dictatorship remains as present and grave as ever. Facing a wave of public outrage and protest, the White House has sought to walk back the most inflammatory lies and attacks issued by Trump’s top officials in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s killing. On Monday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, pointedly did not defend statements by Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who tried to “assassinate” law enforcement. Leavitt instead insisted that “we will let the facts lead” and claimed, in an obvious lie, that “nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed.” At the same time, the administration removed senior Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino from Minneapolis, whose false claims about Pretti were among the first to circulate. Several agents are reportedly being withdrawn, and Trump’s tone has shifted—from blaming Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for “inciting violence” to hailing a phone call with him as showing they were “on the same wavelength.” This shift is not the result of moral reconsideration or pressure from Democratic politicians. It is the outcome of mass protests, mounting popular anger and a growing movement throughout the country about the need for a general strike. The White House understands that the murder of Alex Pretti—coming just two weeks after the execution of Renée Nicole Good in the same city—has provoked the most serious political crisis of Trump’s second presidency. This limited pullback only underscores how Trump’s rampage has been facilitated by the Democratic Party. For the past year, the Democrats and media presented Trump as an unstoppable force, claiming that nothing can be done but wait for the next elections. In fact, Trump’s ability to carry out a rampage against the Constitution has depended entirely on the complicity, silence and cowardice of Democratic officials at every level. To interpret this partial withdrawal as evidence that the threat has passed would be a fatal mistake. The administration is not abandoning its plans for a presidential dictatorship. The invocation of the Insurrection Act remains on the table. Trump has repeatedly said he will be a “dictator on day one,” and he is making good on that threat. This is not the first time a despot has thrown a number of underlings to the wolves, if only temporarily, to regroup, and anything Trump does one day can be immediately reversed the next.

War Secretary Greenlights ICE Using Military Base in Minnesota - Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to allow immigration enforcement to use a military base in Minnesota. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has killed two Americans in Minneapolis this month. The San Francisco Chronicle obtained an email from CBP requesting that the US decommission land at Fort Snelling as a staging area. The base is located just outside of the Twin Cities. CBP plans to use the base to house hundreds of vehicles, ammunition, and aerial assets. Fort Snelling will additionally be able to house 500-800 ICE officers. “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requests support from the Department of War (DoW) to provide existing infrastructure to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP),” the email explained. A” component of DHS, specifically an area for parking approximately 300-500 vehicles and 10 storage trailers, a ready room space for approximal 500-800 CBP personnel, a space to house, maintain and operate five CBP Air Assets, access to a magazine to store munitions, and other necessary facilities to support operations in the Minneapolis, Minnesota metropolitan area.”Hegseth approved the request on Monday. Additionally, Trump has deployed about 1,500 active duty soldiers to Minnesota that are on standby to respond if the conflict between ICE and protesters continues to escalate. The approval is a signal that the White House is prepared to double down on its crackdown in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump ordered a large-scale deportation effort in the city. The residents of Minneapolis have protested the ICE enforcement operations, leading to confrontations.

Jeffries slams Stephen Miller as ‘hateful bigot’ and ‘architect’ of DHS ‘brutality’ --House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) labeled White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “hateful bigot” for his role in shaping immigration policy and called into question Miller’s future in the Trump administration.Amid mounting scrutiny of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s handling of the fatal officer-involved shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Jeffries pivoted his attention onto Miller — who also serves as the president’s homeland security adviser and is credited with crafting some of the administration’s most hardline immigration policies.“Stephen Miller is one of the malignant architects of the violence and brutality DHS has unleashed on the American people,” Jeffries wrote in a post on the social platform X, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.“He slandered hero nurse Alex Pretti as a would-be assassin,” the Democratic leader continued. “Why is this hateful bigot still Donald Trump’s chief immigration adviser?” The fatal shooting this past weekend of the 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, an intensive care nurse who worked in a Veterans Affairs hospital, has provoked sharp backlash across the political spectrum and mounting calls for Noem to step down, even from some Republican politicians. Lawmakers have taken issue particularly with Noem’s remarks immediately after the shooting, when she compared Pretti to a “domestic terrorist” and accused him of “brandishing” a gun, without any evidence.Miller made similar comments in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, calling Pretti a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.”Pretti had a valid concealed carry permit, and there is no evidence that Pretti brandished a gun, which multiple videos show an agent removing from his waistband seconds before he was shot.

Minnesota judges hit breaking point with ICE -- A high-stakes hearing Friday will bring the immigration crackdown in Minnesota to a head in the courts, as the nation’s top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official will be forced to take the stand to explain the agency’s aggressive surge. “The Court’s patience is at an end,” Patrick Schiltz, the chief judge of Minnesota’s federal district court, wrote Monday. Schiltz’s contempt threat against acting ICE Director Todd Lyons comes as the court has been overwhelmed with lawsuits challenging the agency’s tactics and the Trump administration’s efforts to shield it from scrutiny. Minnesota is suing to get ICE out of the Twin Cities. Local prosecutors want a judge to provide access to evidence in this weekend’s shooting. Civil rights interests are challenging ICE’s antiprotest tactics. And dozens of migrants caught up in the surge have filed individual cases contesting their own circumstances. It’s led to an inflection point that will put Lyons on the stand. Schiltz said the court has been “extremely patient” with the administration, even as thousands of agents descended on Minnesota to detain noncitizens without a plan for the hundreds of legal challenges that were “sure to result.” Roughly 3,000 ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel are on the ground in the Minneapolis area conducting enforcement, the government disclosed in a court filing this week. “Respondents have continually assured the Court that they recognize their obligation to comply with Court orders, and that they have taken steps to ensure that those orders will be honored going forward,” the chief judge wrote. “Unfortunately, though, the violations continue,” he said. The judge’s scolding came in the case of Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, who said he remained detained despite a judge ruling that the Trump administration must afford him a bond hearing or release him. He’s one of hundreds of migrants who have challenged the legality of their detention via what is known as a habeas petition. Several hundred have been filed in Minnesota since the start of Operation Metro Surge, The Gavel’s review of court dockets found. The immigration crackdown in Minnesota also pits the Trump administration against state leaders, as officials pursue competing probes and messaging about the surge in the wake of two fatal shootings.

Trump's deployment of National Guard costs taxpayers nearly $500 million, CBO says -President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops across major U.S. cities has cost taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars through the end of 2025, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Since June, the administration has deployed the National Guard personnel to six cities — Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, Tenn., Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C. — costing taxpayers about $496 million through the end of last year, the CBO said in a 10-page report to Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. “The costs of those or other deployments in the future are highly uncertain, mainly because the scale, length, and location of such deployments are difficult to predict accurately,” the CBO said. “That uncertainty is compounded by legal challenges, which have stopped deployments to some cities, and by changes in the Administration’s policies.” The continued deployment of the National Guard at its current size as of the end of 2025 would cost $93 million per month, while deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to a city this year would cost between $18 million to $21 million per month, depending on the city’s cost of living, the CBO said in the report. The president began sending troops in June, sometimes to cities where protests to his immigration efforts had occurred. Trump sent the National Guard to Washington, D.C., in what he argues is an effort to curb the crime in the city. On Dec. 31, Trump said his administration would end the deployment of the National Guard troops in three cities — Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland — a week after the Supreme Court rejected his bid to dispatch National Guard members to the Chicago area to shield federal officials implementing his immigration agenda. The CBO’s Wednesday report came following a letter from Merkley asking the nonpartisan agency to analyze the cost of activating, deploying and compensating National Guard troops, along with cost of sustaining and maintaining these deployments.

ICE ceases enhanced operations in Maine after Collins presses Noem --Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced Thursday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has informed her that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ceased enhanced operations in Maine, something Collins had repeatedly discussed with Noem in recent days. “I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine,” the senator wrote in a statement. “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here,” she continued. “I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state.” Collins added, “I appreciate the Secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine.” The Maine Republican has declined to join some of her Republican colleagues, such as Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who have called for the Department of Homeland Security chief to resign or be fired.

Sen. Thom Tillis slams Kristi Noem's handling of disaster aid for N.C. -- Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) slammed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for delays in providing disaster recovery aid to his state while speaking on the Senate floor Thursday. “The data clearly shows that something is seriously wrong here,” Tillis said, pointing to a chart showing the federal government’s responses to hurricanes Helene, Matthew and Florence. “Under Secretary Noem’s lack of leadership, FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] has invented an entirely new set of bureaucracies, the likes of which I’ve never seen. And I’m in a state that deals with a disaster almost every season.”In the fall of 2024, western North Carolina was devastated by Helene, with 108 verified storm-related deaths in the state, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.As of earlier this month, FEMA, which is housed within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said it has provided more than $1 billion in aid to the state. But The New York Times reported Tuesday that roughly $17 billion in disaster funding for states is subject to extra review by Noem, causing delays.The delay applies to funds that have already been approved by regional FEMA offices, the outlet noted. Tillis said the reporting “sadly confirms what the people of western North Carolina have known for the past year.”“Now under Noem’s leadership, which is supposed to be more efficient, more effective and more responsive to the disaster in western North Carolina and the other states that were affected look like the EKG of someone who’s having a heart attack,” he said, pointing to the chart, which shows that the federal government’s response to Helene featured significantly more delays than its response to Matthew and Florence, storms that impacted North Carolina in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

Internal report urges Trump to transform disaster aid -A panel of experts established by President Donald Trump proposed replacing the government’s notoriously slow process for approving disaster aid with a new system that triggers the release of money based on weather conditions rather than estimates of financial damage, according to a copy of the final report obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News. The plan, which has not been previously reported, would potentially address one of Trump’s major complaints about the Federal Emergency Management Agency by getting disaster aid to states more quickly in an attempt to accelerate rebuilding after catastrophes. But the system proposed by Trump’s FEMA Review Council could cause communities to receive insufficient — or excessive — disaster aid and would be difficult to design. “It’s a lot faster and has a lot more flexibility, and both of those would be really important for state governments,” Carolyn Kousky, a leading expert on disasters and insurance, said of the plan, which the report describes as a parametric system. If the plan is implemented, FEMA payments would be based on conditions such as wind speed or flood depth and not “observed losses,” said Kousky, who was not involved in drafting the report. “You could have too much or too little going out the door.”The overhaul is featured in the council’s 75-page “draft final report,” dated Dec. 11, 2025. The 13-member panel was scheduled to vote on the report on Dec. 11, but the White House canceled the council’s meeting moments before it was to begin without explanation. Inactive since then, the council had been set to expire on Jan. 25 until Trump renewed it for 60 days last week. It’s co-chaired by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Neither DHS nor FEMA immediately responded to requests for comment. Parts of the report have been previously reported including its recommendations against abolishing FEMA, which Trump had suggested doing, shrinking the agency and keeping it in the Department of Homeland Security. Trump created the council after he publicly excoriated FEMA for what he said was its slow response during Hurricane Helene in North Carolina in 2024. Rather than support Trump’s criticism of FEMA as “a disaster” itself, the report emphasizes the agency’s importance in responding to threats and hazards. “The federal government must continue to build its capability to support these efforts even if state and local governments assume greater responsibilities,” it says. The report estimates that staffing at the 23,000-employee agency could be cut in half over two to three years and “would be dependent on these recommendations being implemented.” It also recommends forgiving FEMA’s $20.5 billion debt to federal taxpayers — money the agency’s flood insurance program borrowed to pay astronomical claims after flooding in 2017. That move would require approval by Congress, which has refused repeated pleas by FEMA to erase the debt. But the report says the insurance program, which has 4.6 million policyholders, is paying $700 million a year in interest on the debt, “with no ability to repay.” The report also urges FEMA to improve its “outdated” maps of flood zones that help communities avoid building in risky areas. ‘Simplicity’ versus ‘complexity’The biggest change presented in the document is the recommendation for a parametric system of awarding disaster aid. It would end FEMA’s laborious practice of inspecting damaged areas to determine if recovery costs meet a predetermined financial threshold to qualify for disaster aid. For decades, FEMA has deployed inspection teams to assess costs of clean up and rebuilding to determine if they exceed a dollar amount that would trigger federal payments to states. The process requires FEMA to approve individual rebuilding projects before they begin and to review completed work before reimbursing states, “with reimbursement often taking years or even decades,” the report says. The council recommended that FEMA develop a “parametric trigger” similar to specialized insurance policies that guarantee payment based on specified events such as a Category 4 hurricane. For FEMA, disaster aid would be “triggered automatically,” the report says, “when pre-defined, objective event criteria are met, like wind speed or earthquake magnitude.” “This eliminates the need for time consuming loss assessments and quickly provides a financial backstop and cashflow for rapid response and recovery,” the report adds. States seeking disaster aid would have to only show “evidence the parametric trigger occurred.”

Trump plans to cut FEMA workforce in half, court filing alleges --The Trump administration is advancing plans to cut down the workforce at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), unions and public interest groups alleged in court.In filing on Tuesday night, the organizations said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees FEMA, could eliminate more than 10,000 positions in the months ahead.The court filing said that FEMA management was directed to plan for a 50 percent staffing cut and that a spreadsheet attached to the email called for a 15 percent cut for “Permanent Fulltime” staff, a 41 percent for “Disaster Fulltime” staff and an 85 percent cut in“Surge Workforce.”CNN previously reported on the spreadsheet. At that time, a spokesperson for the DHS said the target numbers were included in error and that “numerical assumptions reflected in that draft were not approved, were not adopted, and do not represent FEMA policy or leadership direction.” The Hill has reached out to DHS and FEMA for comment. The court filing, meanwhile, alleges that staffing reductions are already underway at FEMA. It said that on New Year’s Eve, some employees who are part of FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) received notices that their positions would not be renewed.

Texas freezes H-1B visas for state agencies, higher education amid investigation into federal program — Gov. Greg Abbott announced an investigation into the federal H-1B visa program in “light of recent reports of abuse,” according to a letter signed by the governor. He directed all state agencies controlled by a gubernatorially appointed head and public institutions of higher education to freeze all H-1B visa applications until May 2027. Those institutions are also required to submit a report to the Texas Workforce Commission by March 27 that identifies how many H-1B visa holders the agency currently sponsors, how many applications and renewals it has filed, the country of origin for the H-1B visa holders, their roles, when their visa expires, and any proof that the agency tried to fill the job currently held by a visa holder with a Texas candidate first. The Texas Workforce Commission told Nexstar it does not currently keep track of the number of Texas employees sponsored under a H-1B visa because it is a federal program. Border Report: US tightens rules on H-1B visas for high-skilled workers The freeze on new and renewal applications will remain in effect until after the completion of the 90th state legislative session, which will gavel in on January 2027. “State government must lead by example and ensure that employment opportunities — particularly those funded with taxpayer dollars — are filled by Texans first,” Abbott said in a news release announcing the investigation. Abbott hinted at the freeze during an appearance on the Mark Davis Show on Monday where he called the H-1B program an extraordinary controversy. “We want to make sure that our communities are not being — having people come in and take jobs that Texans can easily fill,” Abbott said on the radio show. Nexstar asked the Governor’s Office if there was any specific example of fraud or abuse of the H-1B program. A spokesperson with his office did not point to a specific example but said there was a lot reporting around the federal program.

‘Horrifying’: Judge questions abrupt removal of slavery exhibits - A federal judge in Philadelphia hammered Trump administration lawyers Friday, questioning the National Park Service’s abrupt removal of an exhibit on slavery last week from Independence National Historical Park. Judge Cynthia Rufe, with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, has yet to rule on Philadelphia’s request that the court reinstate the exhibit, which served as a memorial to the lives of enslaved Black people whom George Washington brought to Philadelphia while he served as president. But Rufe pressed the federal government’s lawyers to give a justification for the removals, saying it was a dangerous precedent to allow the whims of the White House to change historical records. In its first detailed defense on removal, Justice Department lawyer Gregory Byron in den Berken argued Friday that NPS acted within its authority to control what exhibits are installed at park sites and cited President Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which told federal agencies they needed to expunge “revisionist” history from federal properties. “Reasonable minds can differ as to what needs to be displayed, what needs to be shown, how it needs to be shown. Ultimately, it is the National Park Service and federal government’s choice,” den Berken said. He added later: “The government gets to choose the message it wants to convey.” Rufe, a senior judge appointed by former President George W. Bush, interrupted the lawyer calling that a “dangerous statement to make.” “That is horrifying to listen to,” she said. “No citizen should be subjected to that sort of whim.” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker sued the Trump administration last week after the exhibit was torn down, saying NPS both broke federal law and violated an agreement with the city related to the site. The judge told the city its claims lacked clarity, noting that some of the arguments made at the hearing were not in its filing documents. The city’s lawyers acknowledged that their original lawsuit was filed quickly. Rufe indicated she would allow the city to amend its filings. The judge requested that NPS not remove any more materials from the exhibit at the President’s House but said she would not order that at this time. “I don’t like to have things escalate where they could be done professionally,” Rufe said. The federal government’s lawyers said they believed it would be possible to comply with that request. During the hearing, the DOJ lawyers stressed that the exhibit is not destroyed — the disputed panels are in storage — saying that shows that there is no irreparable harm to the city. The DOJ lawyers said Friday that ultimately the city is arguing a breach of contract and that the case should be heard in federal claims court. The removals stem from an order by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last year that all national parks review their displays to comply with the president’s history order. The slavery exhibit in Philadelphia is the most prominent as the NPS has ramped up removals to comply with the Trump order.

GOP probes climate lawyers for ties to education group for judges - Congressional Republicans are demanding documents from lawyers who work on climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry as part of an investigation into a legal education organization that provides climate science courses to judges. Two attorneys who have been active in lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry have until Wednesday to deliver materials about their interactions with the Environmental Law Institute to the House Judiciary Committee, according to letters signed by Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Courts.The inquiry comes amid an uptick in cases against the fossil fuel industry brought by more than two dozen local governments seeking to hold oil and gas producers financially accountable for climate change. Michigan last week became the 11th state to file such a suit. The probe also marks a continuing effort by Republicans to target the Environmental Law Institute which came under scrutiny in 2023 after industry and conservative groups raised questions about the organization and the objectivity of judges handling climate lawsuits following a handful of losses at the Supreme Court.

Trump’s attacks on renewables could boomerang, hit oil and gas - Some environmentalists would like to see Democrats act more like President Donald Trump, even though they despise his policies.With headlong assaults on offshore wind and other renewable energy projects, the president has opened a door to more aggressive action by a future Democratic president on climate and energy.“Trump kicked down the door and removed the frame,” said Mitch Jones, deputy director of the environmental group Food & Water Action. Now, he said, “there is now so much more room for an executive with the right policies.” A future Democratic administration adopting the Trump-pioneered tactics to use against oil and gas presents a risk for oil and gas companies, according to experts, some environmentalists and even some in the industry. Most industry leaders, though, aren’t talking about such prospects and aren’t publicly worried.But, veteran Oklahoma oilman Mike Cantrell said, “They should be.”A potential Democratic president such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Cantrell said, “would use the executive power much like Trump uses it on the right.” Representatives for Newsom did not provide comment Tuesday.The idea of trouble for fossil fuels was also expressed last year in an anonymous survey of oil and gas executives from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “Life is long,” said one unnamed executive, “and the sword being wielded against the renewables industry right now will likely boomerang back in 3.5 years against traditional energy.”The industry will face “harsher methane penalties, permitting restrictions, crazy environmental reviews and other lawfare tactics,” the executive predicted.Trump has long complained about renewable energy infrastructure, even making an unfounded claim at one point that wind turbines cause cancer. And he laid out his plans to stop the U.S. from participating in a transition to renewable energy as soon as he returned to office last year.But he’s strayed into territory where other presidents fear to tread by canceling wind energy projects that already had permits and clawing back money for solar projects that had already gone out the door. Many of the moves were legally dubious and judges have rejected them, but they’ve still left the industry badly damaged as investors flee.Imagine what could happen in future years to an offshore oil drilling project approved late in a Republican administration, said Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. “There’s going to be real hesitancy,” Borenstein said, “if the next president can just say, yeah, you sunk billions of dollars, but we don’t really care — we’re canceling that.”

Senate Democrats blast Zeldin’s EPA over proposal to roll back federal water protections - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and 15 other Senate Democrats took aim at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday. They said the agency’s plan to limit federal water protections ignores science and threatens drinking water for millions of Americans. In a letter sent on January 28 to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Army Corps of Engineers Assistant Secretary Adam Telle, they rebuked a proposed “Waters of the United States” rule. Unveiled in November, the WOTUS proposal limits which waterways fall under the Clean Water Act’s federal jurisdiction, thereby eliminating protections for wetlands and temporary streams. “The Trump administration is once again ignoring the science and shifting the cost of pollution onto families and communities, all to benefit big corporations,” Gillibrand said. According to her coalition, the states will have to foot the bill for enforcing environmental protections, with utility customers disproportionately bearing the cost of improving water quality. The government would redefine “relatively permanent” waters as those that are “standing or continuously flowing year-round or at least during the wet season.” Wetlands would only receive federal protection when they physically touch a larger, protected body of water and can maintain surface water. That redefinition would exclude wetlands separated by dry land and man-made barriers, or those that only fill during storms. “Ephemeral” streams or vernal pools that only exist seasonally or after rainfall are also left out. Other technical changes include removing “interstate waters” as a protected category, so a lake or stream that crosses state lines wouldn’t be automatically federally protected. Also excluded would be farmland developed before 1985, ditches constructed on dry land, and groundwater. Telle has said the changes would provide “durable regulatory certainty” that Americans deserve. Former New York lawmaker Zeldin agreed, framing the new policy as providing clarity for landowners, farmers, and entrepreneurs struggling with shifting regulations.

American Academy of Pediatrics breaks from Kennedy’s vaccine policy again - The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released its 2026 recommended immunization schedule for children and adolescents, notably keeping vaccinations against the diseases that were dropped by the federal government earlier this month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a seismic shift in the childhood immunization schedule this month when it dropped recommendations for all children to be vaccinated against rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A and hepatitis B. The agency argued it was bringing the U.S. in line with other countries, like Denmark, which Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fond of citing as a nation whose policies he’d like to emulate. But the AAP, which represents about 67,000 pediatricians, kept these diseases on its recommended schedule along with the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine, which the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel voted to delay last year. The AAP has repeatedly found itself at odds with HHS under the leadership of Kennedy. The organization boycotted a CDC vaccine advisory meeting last year, citing the removal of itself and other liaison organizations from committee work groups. And it is currently engaged in litigation against HHS over the stripping of funding grants and the vaccine committee, the actions of which it is seeking to reverse. The Trump administration in December canceled $12 million in grants to the AAP, in what the organization argued was a “retaliatory” move for its outspoken opposition to Kennedy’s changes. A federal judge earlier this month ordered the Trump administration to restore these funds. “The updated CDC childhood schedule continues to protect children against serious diseases while aligning U.S. guidance with international norms. Many peer nations achieve high vaccination rates without mandates by relying on trust, education, and strong doctor-patient relationships, and HHS will work with states and clinicians to ensure families have clear, accurate information to make their own informed decisions,” an HHS spokesperson told The Hill when reached for comment.

Breaking: Children’s Health Defense Hits AAP With RICO Suit Over Fraudulent Vaccine Safety Claims ·Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and five other plaintiffs today accused the American Academy of Pediatrics of running a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule. In a lawsuit filed today in federal court, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and five other plaintiffs accused the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) of running a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule.The suit alleges that the AAP violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) by making “false and fraudulent” claims about the safety of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) childhood immunization schedule — while receiving funding from vaccine manufacturers and providing financial incentives to pediatricians who achieve high vaccination rates.“For too long, the AAP has been held up on a pedestal, as if it were a font of science and integrity,” said CHD CEO Mary Holland. “Sadly, that’s not the case.”Instead, Holland said, the AAP “is a front operation in a racketeering scheme involving Big Pharma, Big Medicine and Big Media, ready at every turn to put profits above children’s health. It’s time to face facts and see what the AAP is really about,” Holland said.According to the complaint, the AAP has worked to conceal the findings of studies that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) — now known as the National Academy of Medicine — published in 2002 and 2013.The IOM called for more research after concluding that no studies had ever been conducted to compare the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. The AAP’s conduct constitutes a pattern of fraud under RICO, a statute often used to prosecute organized crime, said Rick Jaffe, attorney for the plaintiffs.Jaffe told The Defender that while previous lawsuits “challenged individual vaccines or sought compensation for individual injuries,” this “is a fraud case following the playbook that took down Big Tobacco.”“The AAP’s actions parallel those of Big Tobacco, which misled the public regarding the safety of its products,” Jaffe said. “Tobacco created false uncertainty to manufacture doubt. The AAP did the inverse — it created false certainty to foreclose questions. Both used the trappings of science to prevent actual science.”CHD General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg said the lawsuit shows “the close ties between entities and individuals who work toward the same purpose — propping up the vaccine industry and those who profit from it.” The AAP is the largest pediatric trade group in the U.S., with 67,000 members.The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks financial damages for the individual plaintiffs. It also asks the court to require the AAP to disclose the “lack of comprehensive safety testing” of vaccines, and bar the AAP from making “further unqualified safety claims” about vaccines. Drs. Paul Thomas and Kenneth Stoller — physicians whose professional reputations were harmed for opposing AAP’s guidelines, and the parents of four children who died or were injured after receiving routine childhood vaccinations, are among the plaintiffs.

Contrary to CDC changes, AAP advises vaccinating kids against 18 diseases - Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced that it will continue to advise routine childhood immunization against 18 diseases rather than follow the greatly pared vaccination schedule released early this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Just days before, Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, said it had filed a lawsuit in US District Court accusing the AAP of engaging in “a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule.”Kennedy, who has long claimed that US children receive “too many” vaccines, modeled the CDC’s new vaccination schedule after that of Denmark, drawing criticism from medical experts who say the two countries have different populations and public health needs.In a policy statement published today in Pediatrics, Sean O’ Leary, MD, MPH, who chairs the AAP’s infectious disease committee, and colleagues wrote, “At this time, the AAP no longer endorses the recommended childhood and adolescent immunization schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”AAP’s routine childhood vaccine schedule includes those against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, and meningococcal disease, all of which are reserved in the CDC guidance for high-risk groups or “shared clinical decision-making.” In a news release, the AAP said, “Recent changes to the CDC immunization schedule depart from longstanding medical evidence and no longer offer the optimal way to prevent illnesses in children. By contrast, the AAP childhood and adolescent immunization schedules continue to recommend immunizations based on the specific disease risks and health care delivery in the United States.”In a media briefing today, Andrew Racine, MD, PhD, president of the AAP board of directors, noted that 12 leading professional organizations, including the American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, have endorsed the AAP immunization schedule.For 95 years, “pediatricians have been guided by a single overriding principle: The commitment to optimize the health and the well being of all of this country's children,” he said. “That commitment has not changed. It's who we are. What has changed is the environment around us, an environment where health decisions are being increasingly politicized, and where pediatric, clinical, and scientific expertise is being derided.”In a news release, CHD claimed that the AAP violated the Racketeeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by making false claims about the safety of vaccines while receiving funding from vaccine makers and financially rewarding pediatricians who achieve high vaccination rates.AAP “is a front operation in a racketeering scheme involving Big Pharma, Big Medicine and Big Media, ready at every turn to put profits above children’s health,” CHD CEO Mary Holland, JD, said in the release. “It’s time to face facts and see what the AAP is really about.”In the lawsuit, CHD alleges that the AAP has tried to obscure the findings of comprehensive childhood immunization safety reviews published by the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), including a paper on multiple immunizations and immune dysfunction in 2002 and one on scientific findings and stakeholder concerns about vaccine safety published in 2013. “The IOM called for more research after concluding that no studies had ever been conducted to compare the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children,” CHD claimed.

HHS re-makes federal autism committee, includes anti-vaccine members -The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday announced that 21 new members have been added to a federal committee that advises HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on autism.The new members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) include physicians, individuals with autism and parents of children with autism, and people connected to autism advocacy groups. “President Trump directed us to bring autism research into the 21st century,”Secretary Kennedy said in an HHS news release. “We are doing that by appointing the most qualified experts—leaders with decades of experience studying, researching, and treating autism.”The new members also include several individuals who promote alternative cures for autism and have claimed that vaccines may be linked to autism, according to healthcare advocacy group Protect Our Care. They also include anti-vaccine activists and people who worked on Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign. Since becoming HHS secretary, Kennedy has placed a high priority on finding the cause of the condition and on the reason autism diagnoses have increased dramatically in recent decades. While most autism researchers and experts say genetics, better screening, and expanded diagnostic criteria play a significant role, Kennedy has repeatedly stated his belief that an environmental toxin is responsible."We know it's an environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics,” Kennedy said last spring. Kennedy has long pushed the idea that childhood vaccines may be linked to autism and has suggested that scientists haven’t adequately investigated the idea, despite a large body of evidence to the contrary.In November 2025, at the direction of Kennedy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changedthe language on its website regarding vaccines and autism. The page, which previously stated “Studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism,” now says “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”A recent analysis by a World Health Organization expert panel found that, across 31 studies published from 2010 through 2025, there was no evidence of a causal link with autism.

US pressures Gavi to phase out use of thimerosal-containing vaccines -The Trump administration is asking Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to phase out the use of vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal if it wants future US funding. Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative that’s been used in small amounts in some multidose vaccine vials since the 1930s to prevent microbial contamination. Although the preservative is no longer used in any routinely used US vaccines, it is used in some multidose vaccines in other countries. US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and many vaccine critics have long claimed that thimerosal is linked to developmental delays and neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism. Although those claims are not backed by evidence, in June 2025, a federal vaccine advisory board remade by Kennedy recommended that Americans receive only seasonal flu shots in thimerosal-free, single-dose formulations. (Multidose flu shots account for only a fraction of the US vaccine supply). The World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that the small amount of thimerosal, which contains ethyl mercury, in multidose vaccines does not cause harm. The request, first reported by Reuters, suggests that US support for Gavi, a public-private partnership that helps provide and distribute vaccines to lower-income countries, may be contingent on the organization aligning itself more closely to Kennedy’s views on vaccines. An HHS spokesperson said the United States has asked Gavi to submit a detailed action plan with a timeline for a phase-out of thimerosal-containing vaccines in its portfolio, a move they said would bring the poorest countries in line with US, Canadian, and European standards. But Gavi has not yet done so. “Until a plan for removal of thimerosal-containing vaccines is developed and the plan initiated, the United States will withhold future new funding and pause access to the DFC [US International Development Finance Corporation] line of financing,” the spokesperson said.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin photo featured in White House room – A framed photograph of President Trump standing with Russian President Vladimir Putin is hanging on display in the White House, photographs taken inside a newly renovated room show. The photograph shows the two leaders on Aug. 15, 2025, standing on a tarmac in Anchorage, Alaska, posing side-by-side before they held a closed-door summit. The focus of the meeting was ending the war in Ukraine, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not present.The photos hang in the new Palm Room, which connects the West Wing to the White House Residence. The room usually serves as a lobby for visitors, according to the New York Times.Underneath the picture of Trump and Putin is another picture of Trump with one of his grandchildren at the NASCAR Daytona 500 in Florida.The Trump administration’s changes to the Palm Room were more modest than those to other parts of the White House (like the demolished East Wing). Three new chandeliers were put in and marble floors were installed, according to the Times.

DOJ releases final tranche of Jeffrey Epstein documents The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Friday it has completed its review of the Jeffrey Epstein files, releasing 3 million additional documents to the public. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Friday that the tranche being released will be one of the last steps required under a bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump requiring the publication of the files related to deceased sex offender Epstein. “Today’s release marks the end of a very comprehensive documentation – document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance with the act. The department has engaged in an unprecedented and extensive effort to do so, after submitting the final report to Congress, as required under the Act, and publishing the written justifications for redactions in the Federal Register, the department’s obligations under the act will be completed,” Blanche said. The deputy attorney general said he did not expect the release to quell interest in the case or end speculation about its contents but added that the Justice Department has not refused to charge anyone who may have had sexual relations with or trafficked victims. “There’s a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents and … there’s nothing I can do about that,” Blanche said. “There’s this built-in assumption that somehow there’s this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about, that we’re covering up, or that we’re choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case. I don’t know whether there are men out there that abuse these women. If we learn about information and evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will,” he added. “But I don’t think that the public or you all are going to uncover men within the Epstein files that abuse women, unfortunately.”

Epstein Email Alleges Bill Gates Hid STD From Wife After Sex With Russians - Emails attributed to Jeffrey Epstein released on Friday have revealed explosive claims against Bill Gates, alleging the billionaire sought to conceal a sexually transmitted disease from his wife after having sex with “Russian girls” and sought antibiotics from the disgraced financier to secretly give her.The claims appear in correspondence included in the 3.5 million documents released by the Department of Justice on Friday as part of its continuing and long-awaited disclosure of files related to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.The emails, dated July 2013, were written by Epstein about Gates and sent to his own account, and there is no indication they were ever sent to the Microsoft founder.In one, Epstein appears to berate Gates after their relationship soured, alleging that the Microsoft co-founder pleaded with him to delete messages related to the alleged infection. “TO add insult to injury you then subsequently with tears in your eyes, implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you with antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda, and the description of your penis,” the message reads.Another email makes further claims about Epstein’s involvement in arranging drugs and encounters on Gates’s behalf, describing requests that ranged “from the morally inappropriate, to the ethically unsound.” A spokesperson for Gates rejected the allegations outright in a comment issued to the Daily Mail, calling them “absolutely absurd and completely false.”“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the spokesperson added.The Justice Department has stressed that the document release reflects Epstein’s own claims and correspondence, not verified findings, and that extensive redactions were made to protect victims.

SCOTUS to review Donald Trump's petition in E. Jean Carroll case -The Supreme Court scheduled President Trump’s petition seeking a review of the jury verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll for the justices’ Feb. 20 meeting, according to a new docket update.At the closed-door conference, the justices will consider taking up Trump’s bid to throw out the verdict alongside dozens of other petitions that have recently reached the high court. The Supreme Court turns away the vast majority of petitions. The justices only agree to take up roughly 1 to 2 percent of them. A federal jury in New York found Trump liable in 2023 for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defaming her by denying her story when she came forward during Trump’s first presidency. The jury ordered Trump to pay $5 million.Trump has maintained he didn’t assault Carroll. His appeal revolves around the evidence the jury saw — and didn’t see — during the civil trial.

Trump, sons, company sue IRS over tax records leak - President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and his family business sued the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department over alleged leaks of their confidential tax information, court records showed Thursday.The plaintiffs seek at least $10 billion in damages, according to the lawsuit in Miami federal court.The civil complaint alleges that the IRS and Treasury failed in their obligation to prevent the leak of those tax records by former IRS employee Charles "Chaz" Littlejohn in 2019 and 2020.In addition to Trump, the plaintiffs are his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, which the sons run.A spokesman for Trump's legal team told CNBC in a statement, "The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people.""President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable," the spokesman said.The suit was filed three days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had cancelled all of his department's contracts with the consulting firmBooz Allen Hamilton in connection with the company's contractor, Littlejohn, stealing and leaking confidential tax returns.

Trump sues IRS for $10B over leaked tax returns President Trump sued the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday, seeking at least $10 billion in damages over an agency contractor who leaked his tax return information to news outlets. Charles Littlejohn, the contractor, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a felony.. Trump’s civil lawsuit now seeks an 11-figure payout on taxpayers’ dime, pointing to a federal law that enables Americans to seek damages from the federal government for breaches of their sensitive taxpayer information. The president sued alongside his two oldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization. The complaint names the IRS and the Treasury Department as defendants. “Defendants have caused Plaintiffs reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing,” the lawsuit states. The Hill has reached out to an IRS spokesperson for comment. The lawsuit landed days after the Treasury Department announced it was canceling contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, a major government contractor that employed Littlejohn when he was doing work for the IRS.

Google settles for $68 million after lawsuit claimed it secretly recorded users - Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of secretly recording smart device users, according to a court document filed Friday in Northern California. The case centers around the Google Assistant tool, which is only supposed to record when so-called hot word phrases such as, “Hey Google,” or “Okay Google” are used, or when someone manually presses a button on the device. The lawsuit alleges that Google inappropriately started recording personal conversations when no hot word was used, unbeknownst to owners of Google smartphones, home speakers, laptops, tablets, Chromecast media players and even wireless earphones. Users complained they were targeted with ads based on things they had said, even when they hadn’t activated their smart devices using a hot word, according to Reuters. Google, which didn’t acknowledge any fault, said it decided to settle in order to avoid the “uncertainty, risk, expense, inconvenience and distraction” of a lengthy court battle, according to court documents. The preliminary filing in San Jose, California federal court will now need approval by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman. It wasn’t immediately clear how much individual plaintiffs would receive after attorney fees and other costs.

Treasury Department terminates Booz Allen contracts over leak - The Treasury Department on Monday said it would cancel 31 contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, citing its failure to ” implement adequate safeguards” after a past employee leaked tax data, including President Trump’s returns, to media outlets. The decision to cut ties with the company was due in part to the misconduct of Charles Edward Littlejohn, who stole and leaked the confidential tax returns of some of the country’s wealthiest people, ultimately impacting 406,000 taxpayers, the Treasury Department said in a release announcing the cancellations. Littlejohn is a former IRS contractor who provided data to The New York Times and ProPublica from 2018-20, after figuring out how to extract tax data without raising internal flags. He was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement. Littlejohn disclosed more than a decade of tax returns for thousands of people, including Trump, whom the outlets said paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. In total, the Booz Allen contracts were valued in $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in obligations, according to the Treasury. The department’s move follows the Pentagon’s decision to discontinue a Defense Health Agency contract for consulting services from Accenture, Deloitte, Booz Allen and other firms. Still, the company said it was “surprised” by the Treasury’s announcement to cancel all of its contracts. “Booz Allen has zero tolerance for violations of the law and operates under the highest ethical and professional guidelines. When Littlejohn’s criminal conduct occurred more than five years ago, it was on government systems, not Booz Allen systems. Booz Allen stores no taxpayer data on its systems and has no ability to monitor activity on government networks,” a company spokesperson told The Hill. “Booz Allen fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation, and the government expressed gratitude for our assistance, which led to Littlejohn’s prosecution. We were surprised by this announcement and look forward to discussing this matter with Treasury,” they added.

Amazon Cuts 16,000 Jobs As Tech Layoffs Accelerate In 2026 - Amazon is laying off about 16,000 more employees as it works to cut bureaucracy and respond to growing competition from AI. The move follows October’s 14,000 job cuts and the closure of its gaming unit. The company also announced it will shut down its Amazon-branded grocery and cashierless stores. A note on the company's website on Wednesday said: "I want to let you know that we're making additional organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates. I recognize this is difficult news, which is why I’m sharing what’s happening and why. "As I shared in October, we've been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy. While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now." It continued: "The reductions we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we're again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted. That starts with offering most US-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (timing will vary internationally based on local and country level requirements)." "While we’re making these changes, we’ll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future. We’re still in the early stages of building every one of our businesses and there’s significant opportunity ahead," it concludes. Amazon’s layoffs follow other major tech cuts early in 2026, including Autodesk’s plan to eliminate about 1,000 roles (~7% of its workforce) amid a restructuring that includes shifting investment toward AI and cloud, and Pinterest’s decision to cut nearly 15% of employees as it reallocates resources toward AI initiatives; layoffs trackers also show thousands of tech workers have already been affected by job reductions across dozens of firms so far this year.

Trump, tech giants seek to change data center narrative amid growing scrutiny -- President Trump and major tech companies are attempting to change the narrative around data centers, as rising electricity costs linked to AI infrastructure faces growing local opposition and increasingly becomes a political liability. Both the White House and tech industry appear keen to limit the fallout from data centers, with initiatives to bring down electricity prices and recast the sprawling facilities as community players willing to pay their fair share. While the Trump administration has been broadly supportive of data centers, including through efforts to fast-track their construction, going forward that support may have limitations. “We are going to embrace data centers, but not at the price … of raising costs for consumers,” a senior White House official told The Hill on Tuesday. “So if you want to invest and build data centers, you’ve got to do it in the right way, the way that is not going to pass that cost onto consumers,” the official said. The aide also said hyperscalers — large cloud services providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft — should have to bring their own power sources. “That’s certainly what the president feels as well — that they should have their own generation,” the official said. The White House official said the administration was working with “each of the major hyperscalers and data center operators” to try to find ways to defray costs for consumers. The person declined to name specific companies. The comments come as data centers face increasing backlash, including because of their potential impacts on high electricity prices, becoming a potential liability for the GOP. The pushback is coming from enemies and allies alike, as even a handful of prominent Republicans raise concerns. “Rushed AI expansion and data centers being built all over the country from state to state with no plan in regards to environmental and critical water supply impact has massive future implications and problems,” said then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who left Congress amid rifts from her fellow Republicans on issues including data centers and the Epstein files, in an X post last year. In a rare show of bipartisanship, the Trump administration announced earlier this month that it was joining forces with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) and then-Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to pressure the nation’s largest regional grid operator to address rising electricity prices. They urged grid operator PJM, which serves large swaths of the East Coast and Midwest, to make data centers pay more for new power sources added to the grid than households, unless the data centers provide their own power sources.

AI apartment scam victimizes KRON4 reporter - The AI boom started here in San Francisco just a few short years ago. Since then, it’s changed how we live, do business and also how we’re scammed. The latest victims are people looking for apartments to rent, and KRON4’s Rob Nesbitt was one of them. Here’s what he wants you to know, so you can avoid falling prey to a similar scheme. Nesbitt, who ironically was at one time accused of being AI-generated himself, tried applying for the apartment on TikTok. “I found a one-bedroom apartment that a realtor posted on their TikTok in San Francisco,” Nesbitt explained. “I reached out and got a response that the apartment was available, applied and then ended up with around $2,000 stolen from my bank account.” The apartment is a real place on Franklin Street in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood. Real video of the apartment was included in the listing. But the video was posted to a TikTok account supposedly belonging to realtor Nick Abraham. “I clicked on the email on the account that seemed valid with Nick’s info, headshot, his company Compass Real Estate and 12,000 followers,” Nesbitt explained. “Nick emailed me back saying the apartment is available and then sent a link to the application with an application fee of $280. I paid the fee and then, the next day, woke up to more than $2,000 in charges from my checking account to something called GLF Golf Now Reservation.” Nesbitt did a little more digging and found that there was a realtor named Nick Abraham. “Nick Abraham is a real person and a real estate agent for Compass in Southern California,” Nesbitt said. “This TikTok profile, however, is not run by him and when I contacted the real Nick, he said this has been an issue for the last three months and that he gets as many as 10 calls a day from people scammed out of money like I had happen.” Abraham spoke to KRON4 over a Zoom call about how the ongoing scam is starting to damage his professional reputation. “I did have some people that went on there and thought that I was the person who was scamming and they wrote negative reviews on my business profile for Google, gave me a one-star review,” Abraham said. “I’ve never heard of these people before and then I explained to them. Luckily, they were good people and removed the review once they found out what happened.” “I noticed this was a scam on Monday when I received an email from the fake Nick saying that I was accepted for the apartment and that my move in date would be Feb. 15 and that I could go view the apartment on Feb. 10,” Nesbitt explained. “I responded that that didn’t work for me, I would want to see the apartment ASAP not next month. I then got a phone call from the fake Nick and had a real conversation back and forth that ended with him saying he would check with the property manager about me viewing the apartment sooner.” But something about the call didn’t add up. “It felt off and the next morning is when I found the fraudulent charges and started doing some digging and found the real Nick,” Nesbitt continued. “His voice was the same voice as the fake Nick I talked with, so they most likely used his voicemail to create AI-generated responses over the phone.”

'Ghost student' scammers are using AI to steal financial aid, federal investigators warn - Scammers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to steal tens of millions of dollars in college financial aid, and they're doing it by stealing identities. It's part of an ABC News investigation. Investigators are warning Americans about so-called "ghost students," an army of digital thieves stealing identities and using them to submit AI-generated applications to community colleges across the country. They enroll fake students, receive financial aid, and leave the victims on the hook to repay loans they didn't take out. "These loans are not being repaid," said Jason Williams, the assistant inspector general for investigations at the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General. "They're being assigned to people (who) don't even know they have a debt with U.S. Department of Education... (until) the Internal Revenue Service says you owe the Department of Education money." In Southern California, community colleges are facing a flood of fraudulent applications generated almost effortlessly by AI. "These systems are able to fill out applications by the second, where in the past, a human being had to take 20 to 30 minutes to fill out an application," said Dr. Nicole Ablo-Lopez, the Deputy Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District. Statewide, the battle is exhausting. California has 116 community colleges with 2.2 million full and part-time students. In 2024, those schools found nearly a third of all applications were fraudulent. That same year, California Community Colleges saw $13 million in financial aid fraud. Coast to coast, over the past five years, the federal government has investigated more than $350 million in "ghost student" fraud. "It's a huge issue," said Williams. "Right now, we have about 200 investigations open nationwide." But now, some California schools say they're using AI to beat AI. Cerritos College installed new vetting systems and live verification to make sure they're actually dealing with humans. "Our latest report actually shows that only one of them was able to get through and seek financial aid to the cost of about $5,000, which we were quickly able to trace and take care of the situation," said Dr. Jose Fierro, President of the Cerritos Community College District. The Los Angeles Community College District is doing the same, and says it's costing about half a million dollars a year to keep "ghost students" in check. "They are knocking at our door, but we are no longer letting them in without verifying that they are, in fact, a live person," said Albo-Lopez.

AI voice cloning scams terrorize Beaumont family with fake hostage call -- Beaumont police are warning residents about a scam involving AI voice cloning technology that creates fake hostage situations to extort money. Leah and MJ Mott received a terrifying call from a man claiming to have their daughter, Taylor, and demanding money. Leah Mott recounted, "She was crying. She said 'mom come pick me up,' and then a man got on the phone and he began to tell me that she was in trouble." The call was convincing enough to make the threat feel real, but Beaumont police quickly confirmed their daughter was safe and out of state with friends. Officer Chancellor Van Houten of the Beaumont Police Department advised, "Slow down. Do not panic. Do not pay somebody in gift cards which is another rising scam, and report it to the police." The scammers reportedly use voice cloning technology, often sourced from social media, to create these fake emergencies. Taylor Wingate, whose voice was cloned in the scam, expressed her anger, saying, "It gets me angry to hear my mom get in that point of where she's scared and she's in fear that she'll never see me again." The Motts hope their story will prevent other families from experiencing similar scams. Leah Mott emphasized, "Five thousand dollars is nothing for me to pay for my daughter. I'd give my last breath for her. They play on those emotions of the love that you have for your family and the main thing is to be aware." Beaumont police suggest limiting personal information on social media and establishing a safe word or phrase for family members to verify their identity in emergencies.

AI-enabled crypto scams rise sixfold in 2025​ | Cybernews - Among the many signs of how criminals are increasingly using AI, blockchain analysts claim that AI-enabled scam activity increased sixfold in 2025. The claim was made by TRM Labs in their 2026 Crypto Crime Report. However, the team hasn't elaborated on the more specific numbers behind the 500% rise. "Large language models (LLMs) enable scams to cross language and cultural contexts with less friction, while AI-generated images, voice cloning, and deepfake videos reduce the cost of creating convincing personas," the analysts said, adding that these tools help with impersonation-style scams across messaging platforms, recruitment campaigns, and investment fraud. As reported, another blockchain analysis company, Chainalysis, said recently that last year impersonation scams jumped by 1,400%, while the average amount of payments made to these criminals increased by over 600%. Also, according to them, AI tools are helping criminals make their operations more "profitable" and scale their “operations.” Meanwhile, in the broader crypto scam landscape, according to TRM Labs' preliminary data, the total value received by scams has been seemingly dropping for a third year in a row, from $47 billion in 2023 to $35 billion in 2025.However, according to analysts, this should not be interpreted as a decline in real-world fraud activity, as fraud reporting is often delayed, and the 2025 figure might still increase. What's more, the vast majority of victims never report at all."In 2025, TRM observed $23 billion in verified fraud and an additional $12 billion tied to community complaints," the analysts said, emphasizing the importance of community complaints and shared reporting networks in preventing and fighting fraud. Last year, investment-related scams, such as so-called "pig butchering" and pyramid schemes, brought in 62% of 2025 fraud inflows. Task/work-from-home scams have also emerged, tricking victims into fake platforms that offer paid micro-tasks such as writing reviews, clicking advertisements, or "optimizing" content.TRM has also concurred with the findings of other analysts, noting that criminal networks now operate more like enterprises, with specialized teams and standard playbooks to scale their "operations.""As adoption deepens, illicit activity now operates within a larger, more mature ecosystem. Illicit actors absorbed a smaller share of capital entering the crypto economy than in previous years, showing a downward trend in relative risk," the analysts have concluded, noting that despite the increase in absolute illicit volume, illicit volume as a proportion of overall crypto volume fell by 0.1 percentage point, to 1.2% in 2025.

Senate panel passes crypto CFTC regulation bill -- The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee voted along party lines Thursday to advance its version of a cryptocurrency market structure bill to create CFTC regulatory authority over digital commodities, a major development for digital asset regulation. The Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act advanced on a party line-vote with 12 Republicans voting "yes" and 11 Democrats voting "no." The vote is notable because it marks the first time a crypto market structure bill has advanced beyond a Senate committee. The Senate Banking Committee would also need to approve its version of a crypto market structure bill before the two measures could combine and advance to the full Senate. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., proceeded with the bill after losing bipartisan support for an earlier version. Boozman had worked with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on a draft bill last year, but Booker walked away from the version the committee voted on Thursday. However, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said in an interview with CNBC last week that she was "very optimistic" the Agriculture Committee would advance its measure. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand weighs in on Senate Agriculture Committee's crypto market structure billWATCH NOW VIDEO17:37 Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand weighs in on Senate Agriculture Committee's crypto market structure bill The Senate Banking Committee's consideration of its version of the bill was postponed from Jan. 15 at the last minute after opposition from the crypto industry, including Coinbase. A new Banking date has not yet been set. Boozman said Thursday he looks forward to working with the Banking Committee on issues discussed in his committee. Those points include scams linked to crypto ATMs. Boozman in a statement Thursday called the vote "a critical step toward creating clear rules for digital asset markets." He said "there's still more work ahead," adding that he is "hopeful" the development "will build momentum in the Senate to advance this legislation." He said the measure would establish a clear legal definition of digital commodities and would create a spot market digital commodity intermediary regulatory regime with the CFTC. He said the bill also would create consumer protections, including conflict of interest safeguards and customer disclosure requirements. Boozman released the present version Jan. 21 to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission new authority to regulate digital assets. The legislation builds on the bipartisan CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure bill the House of Representatives passed last summer, and incorporates provisions negotiated with Senate Democrats as well as input received during bipartisan meetings with stakeholders, according to Boozman. During Thursday's hearing, Booker noted that a bipartisan discussion draft was released in November and said that when he came back to Washington in January, he learned his "Republican colleagues were walking away from the bipartisan process that produced the draft" and were also "walking away" from a lot of the points "that held our agreement together." Booker said "the product put before us today is not the bipartisan draft that we have been working on." "It was negotiated with two parties at the table, but it isn't in accord with the principles we laid out in November in a bipartisan way," he said. "However, despite this, I still deeply believe in the work that we've done. We've come so long."

How crypto legislation has banks playing Whac-A-Mole — The banking industry's campaign to stamp out yield payments on stablecoins is running into a fundamental problem: Even if lawmakers ban the most obvious loopholes, the underlying economics of the industry mean that new workarounds will quickly replace the old ones.

• Key insight: Banks are dealing with a myriad of complicated arrangements between third parties, stablecoin issuers and crypto exchanges that make banning stablecoin yield much more difficult.
• Forward look: The Senate Banking Committee's version of market structure legislation is in limbo as bank and crypto firms argue about yield language.
• What's at stake: Banks are lobbying for blanket bans on yield-like rewards for stablecoin holdings, fearing deposit flight from traditional financial institutions.

Legal experts say the underlying economics of stablecoins mean that banning yield payments — banks' top priority in upcoming crypto market structure legislation — may not be as simple as banks had hoped.

Chinese National Gets 46 Months in Prison for $37 Million Crypto Scam Targeting Americans - Decrypt - Jingliang Su, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 46 months in prison for the role he played in the laundering of more than $36.9 million taken from victims of crypto scams. Su, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business, was also ordered to pay restitution of more than $26.8 million. “This defendant and his co-conspirators scammed 174 Americans out of their hard-earned money,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, in a statement. "In the digital age, criminals have found new ways to weaponize the internet for fraud." “The Criminal Division and its law enforcement partners have continued to evolve and caught large-scale scammers, who target people through their phones, social media, and fake internet sites, steal from them, and then move their money through cryptocurrency and wire transfers outside of the United States,” he added. The scam ring convinced victims to transfer funds to accounts controlled by Su and his co-conspirators, who would then launder the money through shell companies or international bank accounts. Believing they had invested the funds, victims were told that their investments were going up. In reality, the scammers had stolen the funds and ultimately converted them to Tether’s dollar-backed stablecoin, USDT. “New investment opportunities may sound intriguing, but they have a dark side: attracting criminals who, in this case, stole then laundered tens of millions of dollars from their victims,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California, in a statement. One of Su’s co-conspirators, a California man named Shengsheng He, was sentenced to 51months in prison for his role in the scheme in September. In total, eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty thus far. Losses from crypto scams ballooned to more than $17 billion last year, according to estimates from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Its report cited the rise of artificial intelligence as a major catalyst, aiding a 1,400% boost in impersonation-related scams.

Crypto Investor Loses Over $12 Million in Ethereum to ‘Address Poisoning’ Scam --A cryptocurrency investor has lost 4,556 Ethereum, valued at approximately $12.4 million, after falling victim to a sophisticated "address poisoning" attack. Specter, a pseudonymous blockchain analyst, reported that the theft occurred roughly 32 hours after the attacker "dusted" the victim's wallet with a nominal transaction. According to Specter's on-chain analysis, the attacker spent two months monitoring the victim's transaction activity. During this period, the hacker specifically identified a deposit address used for OTC settlements. The attacker employed vanity address generation software to engineer a look-alike wallet. This fraudulent address shared the exact same starting and ending alphanumeric characters as the victim’s intended destination. Address poisoning relies on the user’s tendency to check only the first and last few characters of a long hexadecimal string. In this instance, the fraudulent address and the legitimate OTC address appeared identical at a glance. The attacker first initiated a minor transaction to the victim's wallet, a tactic designed to populate the user's activity log. This strategic move ensured the corrupted address appeared prominently at the top of the "recent transactions" history. Relying on this compromised list, the victim inadvertently copied the poisoned address rather than the legitimate source when attempting to move the $12.4 million. This incident marks the second major eight-figure theft via this specific vector in recent weeks. Last month, a separate crypto trader lost approximately $50 million in a nearly identical scheme. Industry stakeholders argue that these attacks are proliferating because wallet interfaces often truncate addresses to save screen space. This design choice effectively hides the middle characters where the discrepancies lie. Meanwhile, this breach raises serious questions regarding verification protocols among institutional-grade investors.

Leaked Chats Expose Crypto Scam Compound's Enslaved Workforce | The Tech Buzz - A whistleblower trapped inside a Southeast Asian pig butchering compound has given WIRED an unprecedented look inside the world's most lucrative cybercrime operation. Mohammad Muzahir leaked 4,200 pages of internal WhatsApp messages, training scripts, and operational documents from the Boshang compound in Laos' Golden Triangle - exposing how hundreds of thousands of forced laborers are coerced into running romance and cryptocurrency investment scams that steal tens of billions of dollars annually from victims worldwide. The motivational message arrived just before 8am. "Every day brings a new opportunity - a chance to connect, to inspire, and to make a difference," wrote office manager Amani to his team on WhatsApp. But this wasn't your typical corporate pep talk. Amani's workers were running pig butchering scams from a compound in Northern Laos, eight hours into a 15-hour night shift, defrauding victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through fake romance and cryptocurrency investments. Now, leaked documents obtained by WIRED from a whistleblower inside the operation reveal the disturbing reality of how these scam factories operate. Mohammad Muzahir, an Indian man trapped inside the Boshang compound, secretly recorded and shared three months of internal WhatsApp group chats - 4,200 pages that capture the hour-by-hour conversations between forced workers and their bosses. "It's a slave colony that's trying to pretend it's a company," says Erin West, a former Santa Clara County prosecutor who leads anti-scam organization Operation Shamrock and reviewed the leaked materials. Jacob Sims of Harvard University's Asia Center, who also examined the logs, described them as having an "Orwellian veneer of legitimacy." The leaked chats expose a system of modern slavery disguised as corporate employment. Workers like Muzahir were lured with fake job offers, had their passports confiscated, and were told they needed to pay $5,400 to buy out their "contract" and leave. In reality, their meager $500 monthly salary was systematically decimated through an elaborate fine system. Fail to start a first chat with a victim? That's a 50 yuan fine. File a false progress report? 1,000 yuan. Fall asleep in the office or watch unrelated videos? 200 yuan each time. Even arriving late to the dormitory after a shift cost workers 200 yuan. Refuse to sign the form admitting misbehavior, and the fine doubles. According to WIRED's analysis, more than 30 workers successfully scammed at least one victim during the 11-week period captured in the logs, generating approximately $2.2 million in stolen funds. But what makes these leaks particularly significant is how they document the critical role AI tools now play in pig butchering operations. The compound's training materials show workers are instructed to use ChatGPT and Deepseek to craft natural-sounding responses to victims. Even more sophisticated is the compound's dedicated "AI room" where a female model conducts deepfake video calls on demand, allowing male scammers to convincingly impersonate attractive women whose photos they've stolen.

He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive | WIRED - A source trapped inside an industrial-scale scamming operation contacted me, determined to expose his captors’ crimes—and then escape. This is his story. Excerpt: Red Bull explained that he’d tried reaching out to US and Indian law enforcement agencies and Interpol, as well as the tip lines for a few news outlets, but no one had responded other than me. He asked me to tell him more about myself—and then cut me off as soon as I’d said two sentences about my work covering crypto crime.“So you are the person I share everything with,” he said hurriedly. “And you will help me to expose this, right?” Thrown off, I told him he’d have to first tell me who he was.For the next few minutes, Red Bull warily answered my questions. He didn’t tell me his real name but said he was from India—that most of the compound’s forced laborers were from India, Pakistan, or Ethiopia. He was in his early twenties and had a diploma in computer engineering, he said. Like most of his coworkers, Red Bull had been tricked by a fake job offer—in his case, to work as an IT manager for an office in Laos. Then his passport had been taken from him by his Chinese bosses. He was forced to sleep in a dormitory room with five other men and work 15 hours at a time on a nocturnal schedule designed to sync with the daytime of the Indian Americans they targeted for scamming. (That system—matching scammers with victims of their own ethnicity to build rapport and avoid language issues—is common, I’d later learn.)

Lunenburg school resource officer helps recover more than $100K in crypto scam — A school resource officer in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, is responsible for helping recover more than $100,000 in stolen funds from a cryptocurrency scam. According to Lunenburg police, School Resource Officer Bradley McNamara began investigating in April 2025 when a Worcester County resident reported they had lost $13,000 in a Bitcoin ATM scam. With the help of the New England State Police Information Network (NESPIN), who specialize in cryptocurrency investigations, McNamara was able to trace the money to a Tether digital wallet. Tether wallets are used to move and exchange cryptocurrency. The wallet McNamara was investigating contained more than $109,000 in assets, according to police. McNamara filed several search warrants and subpoenas in partnership with the Worcester County District Attorney's office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), allowing law enforcement to freeze and seize the funds. According to police, at least 13 victims were identified from this one account. The district attorney's office said they've initiated the civil asset forfeiture process so the money can be returned to the victims. No arrests have been made at this time. According to a NESPIN analyst, this was the first Tether seizure by a law enforcement agency in Massachusetts.

Fraud courier sentenced for stealing millions from seniors - Prosecutors argued the 23-year-old courier knew he was aiding criminals, citing texts about "gold rushing" and scammer videos on his phone.

• Supporting data: Sathawane is liable for $4.3 million in restitution to 12 specific individuals, with single-person losses ranging from $50,000 to over $1.2 million.
• Key insight: The scheme bypassed anti-money laundering controls by convincing victims to convert securities into gold bars before handing them to couriers.
• What's at stake: Prosecutors argued the courier knew he was aiding fraud, presenting evidence that he watched videos about arrested scammers days before his own arrest.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Bondi announces $1M reward for whistleblower who reported antitrust crime - Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a press release Thursday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the United States Postal Service had given its first-ever reward to a whistleblower under a new policy launched in July. “This enabled us to dismantle a $16 million fraud scheme that was cheating American consumers,” Bondi said in a post on the social platform X. The $1 million reward was given in conjunction with the Postal Service because the whistleblower’s intelligence included an alleged scheme that involved sending documents through the mail. The whistleblower, unnamed by the DOJ, gave information leading to criminal and antitrust charges being levied against EBlock Corporation, an online auction company for vehicles. “Whistleblowers serve as the Justice System’s greatest disinfectant against criminal antitrust conspiracies,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said in the release. “A car is the second largest purchase most Americans will make in their lifetimes. This whistleblower helped expose a brazen $16 million scheme that made it more expensive for hardworking Americans to afford second-hand cars across the country.” EBlock Corporation, as a result of the acquisition of another company, allegedly engaged in “the placement of fake bids intended to artificially increase the sales prices for used vehicles,” according to the release. As a result, EBlock Corporation will receive a $3.28 million fine and, as part of a deferred prosecution, must undertake remedial measures, including implementing an appropriate compliance program and cooperating with the DOJ’s ongoing criminal investigation, according to the release. The FBI and the Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation. “In this case, the defendant used the U.S. Mail to send documentation related to the scheme; a scheme that valued illegal profits over protecting unsuspecting car buyers. The Postal Inspection Service does not tolerate this abuse of the U.S. Mail or its customers and will pursue these types of criminals wherever they are,” Gary Barksdale, the service’s chief postal inspector, said in the Thursday release.

How a TD Bank teller laundered millions for $50 bribes -- Court documents reveal how a teller used the drive-through window and work email to aid a scheme that bypassed TD's fraud defenses.

• Key insight: Prosecutors say the teller used the drive-through window to issue dozens of cards for out-of-state accounts without customers present.
• What's at stake: The plea elucidates the granular compliance failures that contributed to TD Bank's historic $3 billion penalty and asset cap last year.
• Forward look: The former banker faces sentencing in June, while TD Bank continues a $1 billion remediation plan to fix its anti-money-laundering programs.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Deutsche Bank Shares Tumble After Offices Raided In Money-Laundering Probe -Deutsche Bank shares are down over 3% in early trading following reports that German police raided their offices in Frankfurt and in Berlin on Wednesday morning, as part of an investigation into money laundering. “We confirm that the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office is on site in our offices,” a Deutsche Bank spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The bank is cooperating fully with the public prosecutor’s office. We cannot comment further.” As Bloomberg reports, the raid is a setback for Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing who is widely credited with turning around the lender and drawing a line under a long period of scandals and losses after taking over almost eight years ago. The bank has repeatedly been raided in the past.

• In 2022, German law enforcement searched Deutsche Bank’s Frankfurt offices as part of an earlier money laundering probe.
• In May that year, the German bank and its DWS subsidiary were investigated regarding allegations of greenwashing at the latter.
• In 2018, Deutsche Bank was inspected by 170 law enforcement officials as part of a tax evasion probe into two employees.
• The investigation — which stemmed from the 2016 so-called “Panama papers” leak — was later dropped, with the lender fined over compliance shortcomings.

BankThink: Banks' myopic focus on stablecoin interest obscures a greater threat –A battle is unfolding in Washington between bank lobbyists and crypto firms over stablecoins. One side argues that the GENIUS Act leaves a loophole that could allow stablecoins to pay yield and siphon deposits from banks, destabilizing the financial system; the other insists that the fear is exaggerated and anticompetitive.The risk facing U.S. banks is not that stablecoins will suddenly siphon deposits through yield alone. It is that deposits will gradually follow utility as financial experiences improve elsewhere, writes Chuk Okpalugo.

Digital assets front and center amid SoFi earnings 'blowout' - Neobank SoFi says it closed out 2025 with solid momentum, and is looking to digital assets as a potential greenfield.

• Key insights: SoFi blew past analysts' expectations on earnings and revenue in the fourth quarter, and was bullish on potential applications for new products involving cryptocurrency and stablecoins.
• What's at stake: Neobanks have been racing to establish a first-mover advantage in digital assets as traditional financial institutions maintain a wait-and-see approach.
• Forward look: SoFi plans to launch new digital-asset-based products this year, including crypto-based lending, institutional trading, and correspondent payments and settlements via stablecoins.

The neobank was bullish on cryptocurrency and stablecoins, which could provide tailwinds as it looks to launch new products including crypto-based lending, institutional trading, and correspondent payments and settlements via stablecoins.

Nubank receives conditional OCC approval for US charter - The Brazilian neobank Nubank has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to enter the U.S. digital banking market with a de novo charter.

• Key insight: Brazil's Nubank received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to enter the U.S. digital banking market.
• What's at stake: The approval signals the willingness on the part of the OCC for competition within the digital banking industry.
• Expert quote: The approval "sends a strong signal to other charter applicants that the OCC is serious about adhering to its 120-day application review timeline and streamlining the process." –Michele Alt, partner and co-founder of Klaros Group

The Brazil-based fintech got conditional approval from the OCC to bring its digital banking services to U.S. customers.

Ford and GM get conditional approval to launch industrial banks— Ford and GM are one step closer to launching their own banks, a move that could eventually give car shoppers more competitive financing options.Federal regulators recently granted conditional approval for the companies to set up industrial banks that will focus on providing auto financing products nationwide, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).The model is appealing to automakers because it lets them fund loans directly through customer deposits rather than the costlier forms of borrowing that they rely on today.“By creating these entities, it should give them access to a much lower cost of funds, which ultimately can pass on to their future customers,” said Patrick Roosenberg, senior director of auto finance at J.D. Power.Ford said on its website that the approval will allow it to introduce “additional savings options” to customers and plans to offer products like certificates of deposit through a digital-first bank. GM said its new bank will complement its existing financial services arm by providing “stable and diversified funding” through deposit products.The approval comes as affordability remains a major pressure point in the new-vehicle market. The average price paid for a new car topped $50,000 for the first time last September, according to Kelley Blue Book, and many buyers are leaning on longer loan terms to keep payments manageable.In theory, Ford and GM’s new banks should give the automakers more financing flexibility at a time when traditional banks have been gaining market share in the new-car loan market.

Is the OCC stretching trust charters too far? -As cryptocurrency firms and fintech companies seek national trust charters under the more digital asset-friendly Trump administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's interpretative letter undergirding their applications is drawing greater scrutiny from the banking industry — and questions about how deferential courts might be to the OCC's interpretation.

• Key insight: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's interpretation that national trust banks can perform non-fiduciary custody has invited scrutiny from banks and legal experts.
• Supporting Data: In contrast with traditional banks, national trust banks do not take formal deposits, are exempt from FDIC insurance premiums, full bank capital rules and may avoid Bank Holding Company Act oversight.
• Forward look: Because non-fiduciary custody sits ambiguously within trust powers, banks could challenge the OCC's interpretation in court.

The Office of the Comptroller's interpretation of federal trust powers has opened the door for dozens of charter applications by nonbank crypto firms in recent months. Some experts say the agency's interpretation may push the ambiguous statute beyond its limits.

Chicago bank becomes first failure of 2026 - Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust failed Friday, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., marking the first bank failure of 2026.

• Key insight: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officials wound down Chicago-based Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust Friday, brokering a sale of most of the bank's assets to Detroit-based First Independence Bank.
• Supporting data: The failure is the first of 2026, and is estimated to cost the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund $19.7 million, according to the agency. Metropolitan reported $43 million in liabilities against advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank system in the third quarter of 2025.
• Forward look: The swift resolution of Metropolitan and sale to First Independence are in line with FDIC Chair Travis Hill's stated priority to resolve and sell failed banks quickly to prevent their value from eroding.

The Chicago-based, $261 million-asset Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust was placed in receivership and its assets sold to Detroit-based First Independence Bank, costing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Deposit Insurance Fund an estimated $19.7 million.

GAO chides OCC for not keeping Basel records 'confidential' - A government watchdog is warning the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency about retaining records and maintaining confidentiality related to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the global committee of central bankers and international regulators. On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office issued a report warning the OCC to clarify which documents related to the Basel committee are considered federal records under the Federal Records Act. The act establishes agencies' responsibilities for the management and preservation of records.

• Key Insight: Prudential regulators have different policies regarding the retention of confidential international policy work, though the GAO report is limited to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency because it lacks a specific policy for Basel committee materials.
• What's at Stake: The GAO found discrepancies in the handling of public disclosure related to the materials, though agencies received just three Freedom of Information Act requests over a six-year period.
• Expert Quote: "If the Basel Committee or its members did not protect the data's confidentiality, then banks might not voluntarily provide the data." — GAO report

A Government Accountability Office report warns the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to clarify which records from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision should be treated as federal records and thus retained according to the Federal Records Act.

State regulators optimistic about shift in bank supervision - State regulators and examiners have expressed optimism about a proposed reshuffling of bank supervision roles, though some observers are concerned that the shift could precipitate heightened risk in the banking system.

• Key Insight: State bank regulators and examiners say the federal supervision regime has long been in need of streamlining, and supervisory changes announced by the Federal Reserve are seen as a step in the right direction.
• Expert Quote: "To me it doesn't sound like a retreat of the Federal Reserve so much as they are going to work with their supervisory partners to make sure they are efficiently allocating resources and covering the topics that are most concerning," — Brandon Milhorn, CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.
• Forward Look: Over the past decade, federal supervisory priorities have shifted dramatically from one administration to the next, often to the chagrin of state supervisors.

State regulators say proposed changes by the Federal Reserve that would make state bank examiners the primary boots on the ground will make bank examinations faster, but could cause some issues to go overlooked.

Trump's JPM lawsuit unlikely to succeed, experts say President Donald J. Trump's lawsuit against JPMorganChase and its CEO Jamie Dimon is expected to be dismissed because banks have wide discretion under existing law to close bank accounts at any time and for any reason.

• What's at Stake: The lawsuit accuses JPMorganChase of trade libel and breach of good faith, claiming CEO Jamie Dimon violated Florida's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
• Supporting Data: Under commercial law and bank account agreements, banks can close accounts at any time for any reason, leading many experts to call the suit "frivolous."
• Forward Look: The case will take years to play out, with the most likely outcome a dismissal or possibly a settlement but little regulatory or policy impact on the New York bank.

President Donald Trump's recently filed lawsuit against megabank JPMorganChase and its CEO Jamie Dimon is not expected to succeed in court, legal experts say.

Synchrony says retailers would also be hurt by 10% rate cap -Synchrony Financial has joined the chorus of lenders blasting President Trump's proposed 10% cap on credit-card interest rates, and it's added a new argument to the mix, saying the U.S. retail industry would share in the pain.

• Key insight: Banks have been much more vocal in opposing President Trump's proposal for a 10% cap on credit-card interest rates, but retailers also have much to lose under such a plan.
• Supporting data: Last year, annual percentage rates on retail credit cards averaged 30.14%, or about 1.5 times higher than regular card rates, according to Bankrate research.
• Expert quote: "We support 400,000 small-to-medium sized businesses who depend on those credit programs. In some cases, we can be over 40% of their sales." Synchrony CEO Brian Doubles.

Merchants have mostly been silent on President Trump's call for a cap on credit-card interest rates. But they'd take a "huge hit" under such a plan, Synchrony CEO Brian Doubles said Tuesday.

Consumer confidence falls to lowest level in more than a decade The Consumer Confidence Index fell in January to 84.5, its lowest level in more than a decade, reflecting Americans’ persistent concerns about the U.S. economy. The index — which measures how Americans feel about current and future economic conditions — fell 9.7 points this month from the upwardly revised 94.2 recorded in December. Both components of the index fell in January. The Present Situation Index dropped 9.9 points to 113.7 in January, while the Expectations Index dropped 9.5 points to 65.1. The Conference Board, which releases the monthly index, noted in a press release Tuesday that consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions — reflected in the Expectations Index — fell well below the threshold of 80 that has historically signaled a recession ahead. “Confidence collapsed in January, as consumer concerns about both the present situation and expectations for the future deepened,” The Conference Board’s chief economist, Dana Peterson, said in a statement. “All five components of the Index deteriorated, driving the overall Index to its lowest level since May 2014 (82.2)—surpassing its COVID-19 pandemic depths.”

Inflation-Adjusted Consumer Spending, Incomes, and Government Transfer Receipts -By Wolf Richter -Consumers outspent inflation at a solid clip despite their sour mood, despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the media, despite the government shutdown, and despite the massive job losses at federal and state governments. Their incomes outgrew inflation as well. The savings rate declined to 3.5%, meaning consumers spent 96.5% of their disposable income and saved 3.5%, lower than before the pandemic but higher than before the Financial Crisis. A positive savings rate shows that spending growth isn’t funded by debt, but with income, and that there was still money left over to save. Not adjusted for inflation, consumer spending jumped by 0.5% in November from October and by 5.4% from a year ago, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis today. Adjusted for inflation, consumer spending (a.k.a. “real” consumer spending) rose by 0.3% for the month, and by 2.6% from a year ago, right in the range of the Good Times in the years before the pandemic, solid growth for the US economy. The month-to-month inflation-adjusted increase in November of 0.3% was driven by substantial growth in spending on durable goods (+0.6%) and nondurable goods (+0.5%), with a smaller growth rate for services (+0.2%), adjusted for inflation. Spending on services, adjusted for inflation, ticked up by 0.2% for the month and by 2.6% year-over-year. Not adjusted for inflation, consumer spending jumped by 0.4% for the month and by 6.0% year-over-year. Inflation in services is much higher than inflation in goods, and is difficult to dodge because many services are essential and have little or no competition or are difficult to shop around, such as healthcare and utilities. Spending on services accounted for 66% of total consumer spending. It includes rents, utilities, insurance, streaming, broadband, cellphone services, entertainment, healthcare, airfares, lodging, rental cars, memberships, etc. Spending on nondurable goods, adjusted for inflation, jumped by 0.5% in November from October and by 3.3% year-over-year. Nondurable goods are dominated by food, gasoline, apparel, footwear, and household supplies: Spending on durable goods, adjusted for inflation, jumped by 0.6% for the month, and was up by 1.1% from a year ago. In November and December 2024 and in March 2025, frontrunning the tariffs had caused big spikes in spending on durable goods. In November 2024, the month against which today’s year-over-year figures are compared, durable goods spending had spiked by 1.7% from October, which was huge. That November 2024 is the base for today’s year-over-year reading for November 2025, and that spike a year ago is the reason today’s year-over-year reading is only 1.1%; and for December 2025, the base will be the massive spike of December 2024. Incomes Incomes from wages and salaries, not adjusted for inflation, rose by 0.4% for the month and by 3.8% year-over-year. This is only one part of consumer income and does not include any other forms of incomes. And it’s not adjusted for inflation. Personal income without transfer receipts, adjusted for inflation, rose by 0.1% month-to-month and by 1.5% year-over-year. So this is the above income from wages, salaries, plus interest, dividends, rental properties, farm income, small-business income, etc., and then all adjusted for inflation. It means consumers continue to out-earn inflation after having taken a beating during the inflation shock in 2021 and 2022 (blue box). But it excludes income from transfer receipts from the government (mostly Social Security benefits, but also all other government benefits, such as unemployment compensation, Welfare benefits, etc.). Transfer receipts from the government, adjusted for inflation, dipped by 0.1% for the month but were up by 5.9% year-over-year. The year-over-year increase of 5.9% was in part driven by the rapidly growing number of boomers receiving Social Security benefits and by an expansion earlier in 2025 of who receives Social Security benefits, which included a one-time payment of catch-up benefits in April, which caused Social Security benefit payments to surge in 2025. During the pandemic, transfer payments spiked due to stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, including the extra unemployment benefits, and other pandemic payments made to consumers (blue in the chart below). The chart below shows transfer receipts in blue and personal income without transfer receipts in red, all inflation adjusted. Transfer receipts account for about 19% of total personal income: The personal savings rate declined to 3.5%. That’s the portion of disposable income that consumers didn’t spend. It means they spent 96.5% of their income and “saved” 3.5%. It doesn’t mean that they put it into savings accounts. They might have bought stocks with it, or left it in their checking account, or used it to pay down debt, or whatever. Americans have never been big savers. Money is there to be spent and keep the economy moving. But some income gets saved anyway. The current savings rate of 3.5% is lower than in the decade before the pandemic, but higher than in the years before the Financial Crisis. Obviously, with stocks having ballooned to such an extent, 401(k) accounts and brokerage accounts have ballooned, and a majority of consumers now have stock holdings, and they look at these ballooning numbers, and they’re looking at the ballooning value of their precious metals, and surely that’s an incentive to save a little less.

Americans’ Incomes from Wages & Salaries, Businesses & Farms, Rentals, Dividends & Interest, and Transfer Receipts - By Wolf Richter Americans’ personal income – which rose 4.3% year-over-year in November to an annual rate of $26.4 trillion – came from their wages and salaries, from their small businesses and farms, from their rental properties, from dividends and interest income, and from transfer receipts from the government, such as Social Security benefits paid to retirees. And we’re going to look at that in detail. But the massive capital gains are not included in this income, neither on homes nor on investments, which is a huge factor in the US: About 65% of households own their own home, about 62% own stocks, a significant part holds precious metals and cryptos. But the massive capital gains – realized or unrealized – over the past many years are not counted here as income. Stock ownership is widespread: 87% of households with more than $100,000 in income own stocks, according to Gallup. So is that the upper crust? The median household income for married-couple families in the US was $120,217 in 2024, per the Census Bureau. “Median” means that 50% of all married couple-households made over $120,217 in income in 2024, and 50% made less than $120,217. So, well over 50% of married-couple households earn more than the $100,000 threshold for the 87% stock ownership category. For nonfamily households – a person living alone or unrelated people living together – the median household income was $49,848 in 2024, according to the Census Bureau. And the overall median household income was $81,604 in 2024. Among households with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, 71% are invested in stocks. Even among the lower-income households (less than $50,000), 28% hold stocks, according to Gallup. And it starts early: Among young people (18-29 years old), 44% are invested in stocks. Gallup did not provide data on holdings of cryptos, and young people are deeply into them. And Gallup didn’t provide data on precious metals either. All these investments – real estate, stocks, cryptos, precious metals – had huge price gains over the past 10 years, leading to massive realized and unrealized capital gains, but they’re not included in the income figures here. Wages & salaries in private-sector industries rose by 3.9% year-over-year to an annual rate of $11.2 trillion, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. They accounted for about 39.2% of pre-tax personal income. Wages & salaries in government rose by 3.0% year-over-year to an annual rate of $1.94 trillion in November. In October, there was a drop in income as employment at the federal government plunged by 179,000 jobs, largely the result of workers who’d volunteered to exit earlier in 2025 but who, as part of their severance package, had continued to receive salaries through September 30. So the uptick in income in November from October did not set a new record, but was below the September record. Government wages & salaries accounted for 6.8% of pre-tax personal income. Supplements to wages & salaries rose by 4.8% to an annual rate of $2.8 trillion in November. These are the amounts employers paid for their employees in two categories: $1.89 trillion: Employer contributions to 401(k)s, retirement funds, and pension and insurance funds. $0.92 trillion: Employer contributions to Social Security, and other government social insurance. Supplements to wages & salaries accounted for 9.9% of pre-tax personal income. Proprietors’ income from personally owned small businesses and farms rose by 2.6% year-over-year to an annual rate of $2.12 trillion, nearly all of it from businesses ($2.05 trillion annual rate), and very little from farms ($68 billion annual rate). It accounted for 7.4% of pre-tax personal income. Rental income from personally owned rental properties rose by 2.0% year-over-year to $1.11 trillion.Roughly 11 million single-family homes are owned by mom-and-pop landlords (1-9 units), and many condos are owned by mom-and-pop landlords, either for long-term rentals or short-term vacation rentals. And these mom-and-pop landlords often have a day job, and managing their rental properties, which is at least a part-time job, puts them into the category of the infamous “multiple jobholders.”

US trade deficit widens by the most in nearly 34 years in November - Trade data for November showed the trade gap increased 94.6% to $56.8 billion, the largest monthly jump since March 1992, as reported by the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau. A surge in capital goods pushed overall imports up 5.0% to $348.9 billion and goods imports 6.6% to $272.5 billion, led by a $7.4 billion rise to a record high. Exports weakened as total exports tumbled 3.6% to $292.1 billion and goods exports plunged 5.6% to $185.6 billion, pulled down by a $6.1 billion decline in industrial supplies and materials and a $1.4 billion drop in crude oil exports. On a year-to-date basis, economists polled by Reuters forecast a $40.5 billion deficit while the year-to-date deficit stood at $839.5 billion, about 4% higher than 2024, prompting possible cuts to fourth-quarter GDP estimates. Policy context shows about one-third of November's deficit rise came with the European Union, where the goods deficit rose $8.2 billion, while the goods deficit with China fell $1 billion after White House tariff policy and an August framework agreement at 15%.

Hard to Imagine an Economic Slowdown until this Business Investment Boom Fizzles. Core Capital Goods Orders Show Why - Wolf Richter - Orders for durable goods reported by manufacturing plants in the US fired on all cylinders in November, rising by 5.3% from October and by 12.3% year-over-year, including huge orders for civilian aircraft, a very volatile component, according to data from the Census Bureau today.Orders for core capital goods (“nondefense capital goods excluding transportation”) are particularly interesting because they reflect future investment expenditures by businesses and more broadly, domestic business conditions in the manufacturing sector.Orders for core capital goods rose by 0.7% in November from October, by 3.7% over the past five months, and by 5.5% year-over-year, to a record of $78.4 billion.Manufacturers of core capital goods include manufacturers of fabricated metals, machinery, computer and electronic products including semiconductors, electrical equipment, and others.They’d shot out of the lockdown, amid shortages, distortions, and inflation from mid-2020 through August 2022, then declined for two years. But in mid-2024, they started rising again, and over the five months, they have surged and in November hit a new record, surpassing the old record of August 2022: The surge in orders over the past five months is another signal of strong business investment fairly broadly, but also related to the buildout of AI infrastructure that has been going on for some time.Orders for fabricated metal products rose by 1.0% in November from October, by 3.9% over the past five months, by 5.5% since March, and by 5.3% year-over-year, to a record $42.4 billion.Industries in the Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing category (North American Industry Classification System NAICS code 332) use processes such as forging, stamping, bending, forming, machining, welding, and assembling metals into intermediate or end products, other than machinery, computers and electronics, and metal furniture.Also note the 8-month 5.5% surge since March: Orders for machinery rose by 0.5% for the month, by 4.8% for the past five months, by 5.8% since March, and by 7.7% year-over-year, to a record $40.0 billion in November.Several of the subsectors below supply the AI infrastructure buildout. Industries in Machinery Manufacturing (NAICS 333) consist of:

• Agriculture, Construction, and Mining Machinery Manufacturing
• Industrial Machinery Manufacturing
• Commercial and Service Industry Machinery Manufacturing
• Ventilation, Heating, Air-Conditioning, and Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Manufacturing
• Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing
• Engine, Turbine, and Power Transmission Equipment Manufacturing
• Other General Purpose Machinery Manufacturing

Orders for computer and electronic products rose by 0.2% for the month and by 5.3% year-over-year (blue in the chart below).This is volatile data with big monthly up-and-down squiggles. So the chart below also shows the three-month average, which irons out the squiggles and shows the trend better (red).The three-month average rose by 0.5% in November from October and by 4.6% year-over-year. Industries in Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing (NAICS 334) consist of:

• Computer and Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing
• Communications Equipment Manufacturing
• Audio and Video Equipment Manufacturing
• Semiconductor and Other Electronic Component Manufacturing
• Navigational, Measuring, Electromedical, and Control Instruments Manufacturing
• Manufacturing and Reproducing Magnetic and Optical Media

Orders for electrical equipment, appliances, and components jumped by 1.7% in November from October, by 4.2% over the past five months, and by 6.3% year-over-year to a record $18.2 billion. From November 2020 through November 2025, orders have surged by 57%.Industries in Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing (NAICS 335) consist of:

• Electric Lighting Equipment Manufacturing
• Household Appliance Manufacturing
• Electrical Equipment Manufacturing
• Other Electrical Equipment and Component Manufacturing

Amazon Cuts 16,000 Jobs As Tech Layoffs Accelerate In 2026 - Amazon is laying off about 16,000 more employees as it works to cut bureaucracy and respond to growing competition from AI. The move follows October’s 14,000 job cuts and the closure of its gaming unit. The company also announced it will shut down its Amazon-branded grocery and cashierless stores. A note on the company's website on Wednesday said: "I want to let you know that we're making additional organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates. I recognize this is difficult news, which is why I’m sharing what’s happening and why. "As I shared in October, we've been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy. While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now." It continued: "The reductions we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we're again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted. That starts with offering most US-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (timing will vary internationally based on local and country level requirements)." "While we’re making these changes, we’ll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas and functions that are critical to our future. We’re still in the early stages of building every one of our businesses and there’s significant opportunity ahead," it concludes. Amazon’s layoffs follow other major tech cuts early in 2026, including Autodesk’s plan to eliminate about 1,000 roles (~7% of its workforce) amid a restructuring that includes shifting investment toward AI and cloud, and Pinterest’s decision to cut nearly 15% of employees as it reallocates resources toward AI initiatives; layoffs trackers also show thousands of tech workers have already been affected by job reductions across dozens of firms so far this year.

Pensacola seeks $76M grant for shipyard at port that could bring in 2,000 jobs- The board that handles the fine money from the BP oil spill in 2010 will take up a proposal on Wednesday that could reshape Pensacola's waterfront and workforce. The city is asking for $76 million from Triumph Gulf Coast to build a shipbuilding facility at the Port of Pensacola. They say "Project Maeve" could bring in 2,000 jobs. City administrator David Stafford says there's still a long way to go. This is one of many steps left in this process. But as WEAR News learned Tuesday, if the city can get through this hurdle, the project could be one of Triumph Gulf Coast's largest awards. The proposal outlines a $275 million shipbuilding facility capable of building complex Navy ships inside 400,000 sq. ft. of building space. "We'll have a team including myself going to Wakulla county tomorrow to be present for the meetings," said Stafford. "But we're very encouraged and hopeful." Stafford says if the project's approved it would become the second largest employer headquartered in the city of Pensacola and the third highest Triumph grant in history. He says Wednesday's meeting is a major hurdle but far from the end. "Obviously, the Triumph process is very lengthy and data heavy," Stafford said. "There's a lot of information, including salary and jobs as part of the application process." "Big step tomorrow, but that's certainly not the end of the road," he said. Triumph funding would cover only a third of the price tag with the company and the state providing the rest. Construction's estimated to cost $105 million and another $145 million for specialized equipment. The city estimates Project Maeve will create over 1,400 jobs at an average salary of $68,000 and an additional 500 or more jobs at $112,000 a year. City leaders say workforce training would be built locally, through partnerships with Pensacola State College and the University of West Florida, creating a pipeline for maritime manufacturing careers. Late last year, Mayor D.C. Reeves shared excitement about the prospect of job growth. "How do we continue to have those high paying jobs where someone can be the bread winner of their family, make more money than their parents and grandparents did?" Reeves said. "It's not just about jobs, period. It's about those quality high-paying jobs." "This light manufacturing, composite manufacturing cluster and cybersecurity if we can break through there, specifically the city limits," he said. "I think the sky's the limit."

Snapchat launches new parent tools for teen accounts - Snapchat is launching new tools that give parents more information about how their teens use the platform, the social media company announced Thursday. The company said it is rolling out new features for Family Center, an in-app tool for parents, that will allow them to see their teens’ daily average screen time on Snapchat and how they split their time between different features on the app. Parents, who can already access their teens’ friends list, will also be able to see more information about new friends added by their children, such as whether they have mutual friends. “Family Center is designed to reflect the dynamics of real-world relationships by providing visibility into what teens are doing and allowing parents to adjust key settings, without showing the content of their private conversations,” the company said in a press release Thursday. The announcement comes just days after Snapchat revealed in court that it had reached a settlement agreement in a sprawling social media addiction lawsuit, according to The New York Times. Thousands of people, school districts and state attorneys general have sued TikTok, Meta, YouTube and Snapchat in recent years, accusing the companies of intentionally designing their platforms with addictive features. The lawsuits have since been consolidated into two cases, one in California state court and one in federal court. The California case is set to head to trial next week.

Trump administration steps back into Native American mascot debate at schools - The Trump administration is stepping back into the Native American mascot debate, citing a school with a Title VI violation for changing its logo in accordance with state rules. Research has shown that Indigenous mascots have negative effects on Native students, and in the past several years, multiple states have banned them, while some schools have changed their teams on their own in the face of accusations of racism. But the ones who switched may need to be prepared to fight Team Trump in the courts, with a Title VI violation resulting in a potential loss of funding if an agreement isn’t reached with the federal government. The Education Department cited Connetquot Central School District on Long Island, N.Y., with a Title VI violation for changing from the “Thunderbirds” to the “T-Birds.” The administration said it was a violation because the school only changed it “solely because it originates from Native American symbolism.” The district, however, was only following state rules: New York ordered such changes in 2022. John Kane, who is Mohawk and an activist who helped create the new rules in New York, said the whole situation is “absurd,” including Connetquot’s attempt at reform. “The whole thing is absurd, because part of what McMahon and Trump are suggesting is that somehow they are discriminating against Native people by removing the mascots — when we’re the ones who called for it,” Kane said, referring to Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “One thing, I was staunchly opposed to the idea that [New York] Attorney General Letitia James cut a deal with [the school district] to allow them to keep T-Birds in lieu of Thunderbirds. I mean, it’s the same damn thing,” he added. “What Connetquot has used for a mascot is basically a bird in a sweater with a lightning bolt blazing across the front of it, which is, I mean, in its purest sense, it’s a mockery. I mean, the idea of making a cartoon image of a bird in a sweater is by no means any in any way, shape or form, promoting our culture.”

"Go ICE": Chicago-Area Teacher Put On Leave For Two Words Posted On Facebook - Authored by Jonathan Turley, Some of us in the free speech community have been writing about the hypocrisy of many in the media and academia suddenly championing free speech values after years of silence (or support) over censorship of conservatives, libertarians, and contrarians. A good example can be found in the Chicago area, where a physical education teacher is on administrative leave and faces possible termination after posting two words (“Go ICE”) on Facebook in support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Local leaders and groups are demanding that he be fired, even though a posting opposing ICE would likely have been heralded rather than condemned. Social media exploded with commentators calling the teacher a “f****** piece of s***.” A flyer demanded termination because any expression of support for ICE is “inappropriate and unsuitable for an educator.” The flyer insisted that “keeping this teacher will disrupt the emotional welfare and therefore, the education of our students.” Local Democratic leaders immediately joined the mob. That includes Karina Villa, who posted a message saying she stands in “unwavering solidarity” with those demanding action given the “disturbing comments reportedly made by an educator.” As is often the case, Villa did the perfunctory nod toward the right to free speech before joining the effort to gut it. She acknowledged the right, but noted that “as educators we have the responsibility to our students and their families to create a safe and welcoming environment for all.” According to the district’s superintendent, Kristina Davis, the unnamed teacher submitted a resignation on Friday but then withdrew that resignation before the board could approve it. She then suspended the teacher pending an investigation. That “investigation” concerns the posting of two words in favor of law enforcement outside the school on a personal social media account.

Texas freezes H-1B visas for state agencies, higher education amid investigation into federal program — Gov. Greg Abbott announced an investigation into the federal H-1B visa program in “light of recent reports of abuse,” according to a letter signed by the governor. He directed all state agencies controlled by a gubernatorially appointed head and public institutions of higher education to freeze all H-1B visa applications until May 2027. Those institutions are also required to submit a report to the Texas Workforce Commission by March 27 that identifies how many H-1B visa holders the agency currently sponsors, how many applications and renewals it has filed, the country of origin for the H-1B visa holders, their roles, when their visa expires, and any proof that the agency tried to fill the job currently held by a visa holder with a Texas candidate first. The Texas Workforce Commission told Nexstar it does not currently keep track of the number of Texas employees sponsored under a H-1B visa because it is a federal program. Border Report: US tightens rules on H-1B visas for high-skilled workers The freeze on new and renewal applications will remain in effect until after the completion of the 90th state legislative session, which will gavel in on January 2027. “State government must lead by example and ensure that employment opportunities — particularly those funded with taxpayer dollars — are filled by Texans first,” Abbott said in a news release announcing the investigation. Abbott hinted at the freeze during an appearance on the Mark Davis Show on Monday where he called the H-1B program an extraordinary controversy. “We want to make sure that our communities are not being — having people come in and take jobs that Texans can easily fill,” Abbott said on the radio show. Nexstar asked the Governor’s Office if there was any specific example of fraud or abuse of the H-1B program. A spokesperson with his office did not point to a specific example but said there was a lot reporting around the federal program.

'Ghost student' scammers are using AI to steal financial aid, federal investigators warn - Scammers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to steal tens of millions of dollars in college financial aid, and they're doing it by stealing identities. It's part of an ABC News investigation. Investigators are warning Americans about so-called "ghost students," an army of digital thieves stealing identities and using them to submit AI-generated applications to community colleges across the country. They enroll fake students, receive financial aid, and leave the victims on the hook to repay loans they didn't take out. "These loans are not being repaid," said Jason Williams, the assistant inspector general for investigations at the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General. "They're being assigned to people (who) don't even know they have a debt with U.S. Department of Education... (until) the Internal Revenue Service says you owe the Department of Education money." In Southern California, community colleges are facing a flood of fraudulent applications generated almost effortlessly by AI. "These systems are able to fill out applications by the second, where in the past, a human being had to take 20 to 30 minutes to fill out an application," said Dr. Nicole Ablo-Lopez, the Deputy Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District. Statewide, the battle is exhausting. California has 116 community colleges with 2.2 million full and part-time students. In 2024, those schools found nearly a third of all applications were fraudulent. That same year, California Community Colleges saw $13 million in financial aid fraud. Coast to coast, over the past five years, the federal government has investigated more than $350 million in "ghost student" fraud. "It's a huge issue," said Williams. "Right now, we have about 200 investigations open nationwide." But now, some California schools say they're using AI to beat AI. Cerritos College installed new vetting systems and live verification to make sure they're actually dealing with humans. "Our latest report actually shows that only one of them was able to get through and seek financial aid to the cost of about $5,000, which we were quickly able to trace and take care of the situation," said Dr. Jose Fierro, President of the Cerritos Community College District. The Los Angeles Community College District is doing the same, and says it's costing about half a million dollars a year to keep "ghost students" in check. "They are knocking at our door, but we are no longer letting them in without verifying that they are, in fact, a live person," said Albo-Lopez.

Breaking: Children’s Health Defense Hits AAP With RICO Suit Over Fraudulent Vaccine Safety Claims ·Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and five other plaintiffs today accused the American Academy of Pediatrics of running a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule. In a lawsuit filed today in federal court, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and five other plaintiffs accused the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) of running a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule.The suit alleges that the AAP violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) by making “false and fraudulent” claims about the safety of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) childhood immunization schedule — while receiving funding from vaccine manufacturers and providing financial incentives to pediatricians who achieve high vaccination rates.“For too long, the AAP has been held up on a pedestal, as if it were a font of science and integrity,” said CHD CEO Mary Holland. “Sadly, that’s not the case.”Instead, Holland said, the AAP “is a front operation in a racketeering scheme involving Big Pharma, Big Medicine and Big Media, ready at every turn to put profits above children’s health. It’s time to face facts and see what the AAP is really about,” Holland said.According to the complaint, the AAP has worked to conceal the findings of studies that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) — now known as the National Academy of Medicine — published in 2002 and 2013.The IOM called for more research after concluding that no studies had ever been conducted to compare the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. The AAP’s conduct constitutes a pattern of fraud under RICO, a statute often used to prosecute organized crime, said Rick Jaffe, attorney for the plaintiffs.Jaffe told The Defender that while previous lawsuits “challenged individual vaccines or sought compensation for individual injuries,” this “is a fraud case following the playbook that took down Big Tobacco.”“The AAP’s actions parallel those of Big Tobacco, which misled the public regarding the safety of its products,” Jaffe said. “Tobacco created false uncertainty to manufacture doubt. The AAP did the inverse — it created false certainty to foreclose questions. Both used the trappings of science to prevent actual science.”CHD General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg said the lawsuit shows “the close ties between entities and individuals who work toward the same purpose — propping up the vaccine industry and those who profit from it.” The AAP is the largest pediatric trade group in the U.S., with 67,000 members.The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks financial damages for the individual plaintiffs. It also asks the court to require the AAP to disclose the “lack of comprehensive safety testing” of vaccines, and bar the AAP from making “further unqualified safety claims” about vaccines. Drs. Paul Thomas and Kenneth Stoller — physicians whose professional reputations were harmed for opposing AAP’s guidelines, and the parents of four children who died or were injured after receiving routine childhood vaccinations, are among the plaintiffs.

Contrary to CDC changes, AAP advises vaccinating kids against 18 diseases - Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced that it will continue to advise routine childhood immunization against 18 diseases rather than follow the greatly pared vaccination schedule released early this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Just days before, Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, said it had filed a lawsuit in US District Court accusing the AAP of engaging in “a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule.”Kennedy, who has long claimed that US children receive “too many” vaccines, modeled the CDC’s new vaccination schedule after that of Denmark, drawing criticism from medical experts who say the two countries have different populations and public health needs.In a policy statement published today in Pediatrics, Sean O’ Leary, MD, MPH, who chairs the AAP’s infectious disease committee, and colleagues wrote, “At this time, the AAP no longer endorses the recommended childhood and adolescent immunization schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”AAP’s routine childhood vaccine schedule includes those against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, and meningococcal disease, all of which are reserved in the CDC guidance for high-risk groups or “shared clinical decision-making.” In a news release, the AAP said, “Recent changes to the CDC immunization schedule depart from longstanding medical evidence and no longer offer the optimal way to prevent illnesses in children. By contrast, the AAP childhood and adolescent immunization schedules continue to recommend immunizations based on the specific disease risks and health care delivery in the United States.”In a media briefing today, Andrew Racine, MD, PhD, president of the AAP board of directors, noted that 12 leading professional organizations, including the American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, have endorsed the AAP immunization schedule.For 95 years, “pediatricians have been guided by a single overriding principle: The commitment to optimize the health and the well being of all of this country's children,” he said. “That commitment has not changed. It's who we are. What has changed is the environment around us, an environment where health decisions are being increasingly politicized, and where pediatric, clinical, and scientific expertise is being derided.”In a news release, CHD claimed that the AAP violated the Racketeeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by making false claims about the safety of vaccines while receiving funding from vaccine makers and financially rewarding pediatricians who achieve high vaccination rates.AAP “is a front operation in a racketeering scheme involving Big Pharma, Big Medicine and Big Media, ready at every turn to put profits above children’s health,” CHD CEO Mary Holland, JD, said in the release. “It’s time to face facts and see what the AAP is really about.”In the lawsuit, CHD alleges that the AAP has tried to obscure the findings of comprehensive childhood immunization safety reviews published by the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), including a paper on multiple immunizations and immune dysfunction in 2002 and one on scientific findings and stakeholder concerns about vaccine safety published in 2013. “The IOM called for more research after concluding that no studies had ever been conducted to compare the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children,” CHD claimed.

This year’s Pfizer COVID vaccine estimated to be 57% effective against emergency, urgent care -The 2025-26 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is about 57% effective against emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits and 54% effective against outpatient visits among adults roughly 4 weeks after vaccination, with considerable uncertainty, according to preliminary estimates published on the preprint server medRxiv. A team that included researchers from the Providence Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System and Pfizer used a test-negative case-control design to estimate the early vaccine effectiveness (VE) of Pfizer’s BNT162b2 LP.8.1 vaccine against ED/UC and outpatient visits. Participants were VA patients who had an acute respiratory infection (ARI) and underwent COVID-19 testing from September 10 to November 30, 2025. “The availability of timely real-world effectiveness data for the LP.8.1–adapted vaccine plays an important role in informing clinical decision-making, reinforcing vaccination recommendations, and supporting vaccine uptake throughout the respiratory virus season,” the authors wrote. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed. Among patients with 34,455 ARI cases, 10.7% had COVID-19, and 2.4% were vaccinated. Of 3,696 cases and 30,759 controls, 1.2% and 2.6% received the Pfizer vaccine, respectively. Most ARI episodes (68.7%) were ED/UC visits. Patients 65 years and older made up 53.7% of the study population, and 85.1% were men. More than one-third of these patients had a Charlson Comorbidity Index score of three or higher (36.2%)—indicating a substantial burden of underlying disease—and 41.3% had weakened immune systems. VE was 57% with considerable uncertainty (95% confidence interval [CI], 39% to 70%) against ED/UC visits and 54% (95% CI, 15% to 75%) against outpatient visits four weeks post-vaccination. The results of sensitivity analyses among patients who received both the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines were consistent with those of the primary analysis. The estimates are comparable to those from an early-season analysis of BNT162b2 KP.2 VE in 2024-25, which was 57% against ED/UC visits and 56% against outpatient visits. The researchers did not assess how long the protection lasted.

Large study finds COVID-19 shots don’t affect fertility -During the pandemic, many women were afraid to be vaccinated because of widespread misinformation that COVID-19 shots would harm their chances of getting pregnant. But in a new study from Sweden, researchers found no statistically significant difference in rates of childbirth or miscarriage among vaccinated and unvaccinated women. “Unsubstantiated rumors about side effects of COVID-19 vaccines still are circulating on social media,” said Toomas Timpka, MD, PhD, senior author of the paper, published last week in Communications Medicine, and a professor of social medicine and public health at Linköping University. Although the study was not a randomized trial, the research “shows it is very highly unlikely that COVID-19 vaccines have any meaningful negative effect on fertility or childbirth rates,” Timpka told CIDRAP News. Researchers were able to analyze medicals records of nearly 60,000 women ages 18 to 45 in one Swedish county because the country’s national health system keeps detailed records of births, deaths, vaccinations, and other key data. About 75% of women in the study were vaccinated from 2021 to 2024. Among those who were vaccinated, 97% received an mRNA vaccine. When comparing childbirth rates and recorded miscarriages between vaccinated and unvaccinated women, the researchers found adjusted hazard ratios of 1.03 for childbirth — meaning that vaccinated women were 3% more likely to give birth — and 0.86 for miscarriages — suggesting that vaccinated women were 14% less likely to have a miscarriage. The team’s analysis suggests neither ratio is statistically significant, meaning that the findings could have been due to chance. The findings align with “more than a dozen studies showing that COVID vaccination does not reduce the chance of conception,” said Viki Male, MD, an associate professor in reproductive immunology at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the study. One of the strengths of the study is that it examined conception and pregnancy in the general population, Male said. Most previous research “focused on couples undergoing fertility treatment.” The new study’s results are particularly compelling because of its large size and study design, Male said. Researchers adjusted their findings for factors other than COVID-19 that could have affected conception rates, such as age and underlying illness. “This should further reassure women that COVID vaccination will not prevent them from getting pregnant or having a baby,”

COVID exposure in utero not linked to early neurodevelopmental issues, study suggests -Infants exposed to the COVID-19 virus in utero did not show differences in early neurodevelopmental outcomes through 18 months of age compared with unexposed infants, with some uncertainty, according to a studypublished last week in The Journal of Pediatrics. The study, led by researchers from the University of California San Francisco, drew on data from the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) pregnancy cohort, which enrolled pregnant women with and without COVID infection and followed their children through early childhood. The team analyzed neurodevelopmental outcomes among 1,179 infants born from January 2020 to December 2023 at 23 sites across the United States. Because in utero exposure to other viral infections, such as Zika and HIV, has been linked to impaired neurodevelopment in children, the researchers sought to determine whether exposure to COVID in utero could similarly affect neurocognitive outcomes. Of the infants in the cohort, 1,008 (85.5%) had confirmed exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in utero. Most exposures occurred when the Omicron variant was dominant and during the second or third trimester of pregnancy. Neurodevelopment was assessed at 12 months using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, 3rd Edition (ASQ-3) and at 18 months using the ASQ Social-Emotional Questionnaire (ASQ-SE) and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers–Revised (M-CHAT-R). The researchers found no association between COVID exposure in utero and lower overall ASQ-3 scores, which evaluate communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social skills, at age 12 months. The adjusted difference in total ASQ-3 score between exposed and unexposed infants was −0.61 points (95% confidence interval [CI], −10.03 to 8.81). Similarly, at 18 months, no association was found between COVID exposure and social-emotional scores (0.19; 95% CI, −4.02 to 4.41) and autism screening results (−0.17; 95% CI, −0.53 to 0.18). While the current findings suggest that exposure to COVID in utero is not associated with neurocognitive outcomes at 12 months or social-emotional development or autism risk at 18 months, the authors caution that the findings should not be interpreted as definitive.

Blood test may identify COVID survivors at risk for ongoing lung disease -Abnormally high levels of lung-injury biomarkers in the blood after COVID-19 infection may flag patients at risk for ongoing lung disease, an Imperial College London–led study suggests. The team analyzed concentrations of lung-injury biomarkers in the plasma of 957 COVID-19 survivors participating in the observational Post HOSPitalisation-COVID study five months after hospital admission. Patients had similar COVID-19 severity on hospitalization. “Long term respiratory symptoms are reported following recovery of acute COVID-19 infection and residual lung abnormalities (RLA) on follow-up thoracic computed tomography (CT) after COVID-19 hospitalisation have been observed,” the study authors noted. “It is unknown whether RLA are associated with epithelial lung injury.” The researchers published their findings last week in eBioMedicine. Of the 957 patients with dysfunctional gas exchange and an abnormal chest radiograph who had been hospitalized for their infections, 11.6% underwent follow-up CT, with 85 (76.6%) of them showing RLAs of at least 10%. In total, 12.2% of the 846 patients who didn’t undergo follow-up CT were identified as at-risk due to high levels of certain biomarkers in the blood. These findings could pave the way for simple blood tests to determine which individuals might have ongoing lung problems, and help us decide on the best course of treatment for them. Rachael Evans, MD, PhD Concentrations of the biomarkers Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) and matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP-7) were significantly higher in patients with RLA involvement of 10% or more than in those at low risk. High levels of these molecules have previously been linked to damage to the epithelial cells that line the lungs, potentially affecting lung function over time, the authors said. “The biomarkers we’ve observed in the blood samples in this study tell us that there is damage to this lining, and this is contributing to ongoing symptoms and restrictive lung function in some people with long-COVID,” coauthor Rachael Evans, MD, PhD, said in a university news release. “The results suggests that pro-fibrotic signalling cascades contribute to persistent epithelial lung injury observed in some people recovering from COVID-19, which may contribute to ongoing symptoms and restrictive lung function,” the researchers wrote. “Further research and surveillance are required to address the longitudinal association of epithelial lung injury biomarkers and radiological patterns following COVID-19 in order to understand whether fibrotic features are stable, resolving or progressive in the long-term,” they added.

Alzheimer’s disease, delirium may be risk factors for COVID infection requiring hospitalization Real-world data from Japan suggest that an organic mental disorder (one not caused by psychiatric illness, such as Alzheimer’s disease [AD] and/or delirium) is a key risk factor for COVID-19 infection and hospitalization among older adults. Researchers at Juntendo University in Tokyo analyzed data on patients registered in the Japanese Health Insurance Database between January 2014 and December 2019 to identify hospitalized patients aged 60 years and older newly diagnosed as having COVID-19 by December 2020. Follow-up ended in October 2022. The 8,072 patients were matched 1:1 with uninfected peers by age, sex, and illness onset. The researchers conducted a case-control study to identify risk factors for COVID-19 infection in the three months before diagnosis and a retrospective cohort study using time-to-event analysis to assess the risk of post-infection complications. Pandemic-related social restrictions “caused significant lifestyle changes, raising concerns about their impact on physical and mental health through the deterioration of health-related behaviors, including reduced physical activity, sleep disturbances, and poor dietary habits,” the authors noted. The findings were published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. The strongest predisposing factor for COVID-19 infection was an organic mental disorder, which carried 2.3 times the risk, followed by fungal disease and kidney failure, both posing 1.2 times the risk. Infected patients were at 3.5 times the risk for new-onset behavioral syndromes (eg, eating disorders, sleep disorders), followed by pulmonary heart disease and diseases of pulmonary circulation (3.0 times the risk) and sexually transmitted infections (2.8 times). The authors noted that the underlying conditions that often co-occur in older adults (eg, cardiovascular disease) are risk factors for AD. “Moreover, as these comorbidities are risk factors for severe COVID-19, the overlapping presence of these risks in patients with AD may further increase their susceptibility to COVID-19,” they wrote. “Some studies have noted that delirium is a predictor of severe COVID-19.” “Our findings emphasize that mental and behavioral disorders are crucial health risk factors that should be addressed before and after infection,” they added.

Anxiety, depression linked to 78% higher risk of long COVID in older women --Older women with a history of anxiety and depressive symptoms were significantly more likely to develop long COVID than those without such symptoms, according to a large prospective analysispublished this week in Menopause. A University of California (UC)–led research team followed up on 18,820 postmenopausal participants in the Women’s Health Initiative who completed assessments of mental illness symptoms over nearly three decades and reported COVID symptoms, testing results, and compliance with COVID-19 safety measures in 2020 and 2021. The average participant age was 83 years.Overall, 1,501 women (8.0%) reported a positive COVID test. Among the 1,008 women with sufficient follow-up data to assess long-COVID symptoms, 414 (41.0%) met the study’s definition of long COVID, which was the persistence of at least one symptom, such as fatigue, cough, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, or sleep disruptions, for more than two months after infection.A history of depressive or anxiety symptoms was not associated with higher odds of testing positive for COVID. But women who reported mental illness symptoms before the pandemic had significantly higher odds of developing long COVID. Compared with women reporting neither condition, women with both clinically significant depressive symptoms and self-reported anxiety symptoms had 78% higher odds of long COVID.Mental illness symptoms were also associated with lower adherence to COVID mitigation behaviors. Women with both depression and anxiety were more likely to report no use of preventive measures such as masking and physical distancing and were less likely to report using three or more mitigation strategies. Women with self-reported anxiety symptoms were slightly more likely to comply with mitigation measures.“These findings suggest that having a history of both depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms may be more likely associated with long COVID than having a history of either depressive or anxiety symptoms,” write the authors. “This indicates a higher risk and severity of mental illnesses predicting long COVID.”

Brain fog, depression more common in long COVID in US than in lower-income countries, study suggests -Long-COVID patients in the United States report markedly higher rates of neurologic symptoms like brain fog and depression than those in lower-income nations, according to a large analysis led by a team from Northwestern University and published this week in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. For one of the first cross-continental comparisons of neurologic symptoms in long-COVID patients, the researchers tracked more than 3,100 adults with long COVID at medical centers in Chicago; Medellin, Colombia; Lagos, Nigeria; and Jaipur, India. Among long-COVID patients who were not hospitalized during their initial infection (most participants), 86% of those in the United States reported brain fog, compared with 62% in Colombia, 63% in Nigeria, and 15% in India. Symptoms of anxiety or depression were reported by 70% of US participants, compared with roughly 68% in Colombia and less than 20% in Nigeria and India.The team found symptom patterns clustered by income level, with high-income countries (like the United States) and upper-middle–income countries (like Colombia) grouped together with higher rates of reported symptoms, and lower-middle–income countries (Nigeria and India) forming a separate group with lower rates of reported symptoms. These disparities likely suggest social and cultural differences in how long COVID is experienced and reported rather than differences in the biology of the virus. They may also reflect differences in access to health care, the authors said.“It is culturally accepted in the U.S. and Colombia to talk about mental health and cognitive issues, whereas that is not the case in Nigeria and India,” senior author Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of neuro-infectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a news release. “Cultural denial of mood disorder symptoms as well as a combination of stigma, misperceptions, religiosity and belief systems, and lack of health literacy may contribute to biased reporting. This may be compounded by a dearth of mental health providers and perceived treatment options in those countries.”Across all four countries, the most frequently reported neurologic symptoms were brain fog, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, dizziness, and sensory disturbances such as numbness or tingling. Insomnia was also common, particularly among non-hospitalized US patients, 64% of whom reported sleep problems. Less than half of patients in Colombia (46%), Nigeria (26%), and India (12%) reported sleep problems. Symptoms can persist for months or years after an acute COVID infection and affect multiple organ systems. Long COVID has emerged as a major public health challenge since the pandemic began, the researchers said. A survey conducted between June 2022 and September 2024 by the National Center of Health Statistics estimated that nearly 18% of all adults ever have experienced long COVID. Neurologic symptoms of long COVID are an underrecognized contributor to decreased quality of life. They also take an economic toll, affecting “young and middle-aged adults in their prime, causing significant detrimental impact on the workforce, productivity and innovation all over the world,” write the authors.

Moderna chief: Company won’t invest in new late-stage vaccine trials - Moderna chief executive officer Stephane Bancel said the company does not plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from health officials in the United States. His comments were made last week during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market,” Bancel told Bloomberg TV. He said the vaccine market in the United States is much smaller as more anti-vaccine guidelines have become the norm. Since last May, the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership has greatly reduced general recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, and most recently cut the number of recommended childhood immunizations from 17 to 11. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, also in attendance in Davos, remarked Kennedy’s policies are “almost like a religion” and “anti-science.” Economic analysts said Bancel’s comments mean Moderna’s phase 3 clinical trials for vaccines will likely be on the chopping block. Moderna has already been facing declines in sales after a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sanofi scraps plan to develop next-generation mRNA seasonal flu vaccine --French drug company Sanofi yesterday announced it has discontinued development of its next-generation seasonal flu vaccine based on mRNA technology but will continue to pursue a pandemic flu vaccine.Sanofi reported in its 2025earnings documents that it was discontinuing its mRNA flu vaccine phase 1 trial. “Sanofi has deprioritized its mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine program and does not anticipate launching an mRNA-based seasonal flu product in the near term,” a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech, which first reported the news.Sanofi continues to work on a phase 1/2 study of its mRNA vaccine with an H5 avian flu platform as a tool for preparing for the next influenza pandemic. The firm described preliminary data on that vaccine as “very encouraging.”Sanofi had hoped mRNA would provide solid protectionIn June 2023, Sanofi said it was working on next-gen mRNA seasonal flu vaccines and had brought five different lipids into clinical trials. Its hemagglutinin-based mRNA vaccine candidate performed well against influenza strain A but struggled against B strains—a common problem for first-generation mRNA flu vaccines. Sanofi had hoped the next-generation of mRNA vaccines would also protect against B strains. Hemagglutinin is the “H” in strains like H1N1, H3N2, and H5N1.Sanofi had acquired Translate Bio, with its focus on mRNA technology, in 2021 for $3.2 billion as part of its multibillion-dollar investment in mRNA vaccines.“We are focusing on our highly successful high-dose vaccine and our recombinant protein vaccine to deliver protection beyond flu, providing protection not only against flu infection but also flu’s severe complications,” a company spokesperson said.

Viral—but not bacterial or fungal—infections fell sharply in NICUs amid COVID pandemic, study concludes --Enhanced infection-prevention measures introduced in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with a substantial decline in viral health care–associated infections (HAIs), but they did not reduce rates of bacterial or fungal infections, according to a large studypublished this week in JAMA Network Open. The researchers, led by a team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, analyzed data from 48,475 infants admitted to 12 NICUs in the United States and Canada from March 2018 to July 2022. The goal was to compare infection rates before and amid the pandemic, when measures such as universal masking, enhanced hand hygiene, and increased visitor restrictions were introduced. Among 41,889 infants evaluated for viral HAIs, rates fell by more than half during the pandemic, from 0.35 to 0.16 infections per 1,000 patient-days. The decline persisted into the second year of the pandemic, even as circulation of respiratory viruses increased. In contrast, bacterial and fungal HAIs remained the same before and during the pandemic, at 1.70 and 1.78 infections per 1,000 patient-days, respectively. The findings suggest that infection-prevention strategies like universal masking and enhanced hand hygiene were effective at limiting viral transmission in NICUs during the pandemic but did not curb bacterial or fungal infections. “Preventive interventions beyond those implemented during the pandemic would likely be necessary to further reduce bacterial or fungal HAIs,”

Flu activity nationwide declines but ER visits for school-aged kids increasing: CDC - ABC News --Flu activity is starting to decline nationwide, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC estimated on Friday that there have been at least 19 million illnesses, 250,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths from flu so far this season. Currently, seven states are seeing "very high" levels of flu-like illnesses while 23 states are seeing "high" levels, CDC data shows. At least 12 flu-associated deaths were reported among children this week, for a total of 44 pediatric deaths this season. Last season saw a record-breaking 289 children die from flu, the highest since the CDC began tracking in 2004. Despite flu activity on the decline, flu-related emergency department visits for school-aged children between ages 5 and 17 increased since last week while hospitalizations remained stable. "I think what distinguished this year's flu season to previous seasons is that, first of all, it began a little bit earlier," Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, senior physician of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mass General Brigham, told ABC News. Kuritzkes added that although data does not show that cases increased more dramatically than last year, "we may have perceived it as being worse than it really was, and it now seems like it peaked rather abruptly and is on a rapid decline." However, Kuritzkes noted that last year, flu season had a second bump in late winter. He warned that the same thing could happen this year. Data shows that the majority of this season's cases are linked to a new flu strain called subclade K -- a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is itself a subtype of influenza A. Subclade K has been circulating since the summer in other countries and was a main driver of a spike in flu cases in Canada, Japan and the U.K.

44 pediatric flu deaths reported this season; measles cases climb as U.S. elimination status to be reviewed | AAP News | American Academy of Pediatrics - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday that 12 more pediatric flu-related deaths were reported for the week ending Jan. 17, bringing the total to 44 so far during the 2025-’26 influenza season. The CDC also reported Friday that the number of confirmed measles cases in 2026 has reached 416 in the U.S., which is in danger of losing its measles elimination status.For children ages 0-17, the current flu season is categorized as “high severity.” Emergency department visits for flu increased and hospitalizations remained stable in the last week among school-age children.“Some areas of the country, in particular, the Midwest, central and west coast regions, are reporting increasing or stable trends in some activity indicators this week after reporting declines the prior two weeks,” the CDC said.About 90% of the reported pediatric flu deaths this season have occurred in children not fully vaccinated against the flu.Across all ages, the CDC estimates there have been at least 19 million illnesses, 250,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths from flu so far this season.Though the CDC recently announced an overhaul to the childhood immunization schedule that includes removing universal recommendations for numerous vaccines including flu, the AAP continues to recommend flu vaccination for everyone 6 months and older.The CDC estimates 44.2% of U.S. children have been vaccinated for the flu this season, comparable to 44.4% at this time last year.The 2024-’25 influenza season saw 289 pediatric flu deaths, the most in any season since the CDC began tracking in 2004.No deaths, pediatric or otherwise, have been attributed to measles in 2026. The CDC reported 19 new cases for the week ending Jan. 23, down from 191 the previous week and 206 the week before that.Of the 416 confirmed cases, 413 have been reported to the CDC from 14 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia and Washington. The remaining three were reported among international visitors to the U.S.The CDC reports no new outbreaks for 2026; 393 (94%) of the confirmed cases this year came from outbreaks that began in 2025.The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) announced last week that its Regional Monitoring and Re-Verification Commission for Measles, Rubella, and Congenital Rubella Syndrome (RVC) will meet in April to review the measles elimination status of both the U.S. and Mexico.The RVC will review data from field investigations to determine whether the nations remain free of a continuous spread of measles or if endemic transmission, defined as transmission of a measles virus from the same genotype and lineage continued uninterrupted for 12 months or more, has been reestablished in the U.S. or Mexico. After hearing the RVC’s recommendations, the PAHO director will determine each country’s measles elimination status.In 2025, the U.S. saw 2,255 confirmed measles cases from 45 jurisdictions, with 49 outbreaks. Three deaths were reported. Experts say cases likely are significantly undercounted as many go unreported.

Flu-related deaths in North Carolina surpass 200 — Flu-related deaths in North Carolina have now surpassed the 200 mark this season, according to new data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Health officials report 207 flu deaths statewide; an increase of 26 deaths compared to last week. The majority of those deaths involved older adults. Data shows 161 deaths were among people 65 and older. Another 28 deaths were reported in people between the ages of 50 and 64. Health officials also recorded 13 deaths among those 25 to 49 years old, four deaths in children between 5 and 17, and one death in a child under the age of 5. Last flu season was especially severe, with over 500 deaths reported statewide, marking the highest number of flu-related deaths in North Carolina since 2009. Health officials continue to encourage vaccinations and preventative measures, especially for those most at risk of severe illness.

After 3-week decline, flu cases rise across the US; RSV, COVID activity high in certain states -After three weeks of declining cases, influenza levels rose this week and remain elevated across the United States, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19 activity is high in certain parts of the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its weekly respiratory virus update and FluView report today. Overall levels of acute respiratory illness are low to moderate in most of the country, with only Alabama and Arkansas in the high category. COVID-19 cases are unchanged since last week for much of the country, with levels growing or likely growing in 11 states. Flu cases are trending upward in 13 states, as are RSV cases in 21 states. Influenza A rates have remained stable, while influenza B is gaining ground across the country. Of 692 influenza A(H3N2) viruses collected since September 28 that underwent additional genetic testing at CDC, 90.5% belonged to subclade K, a variant with mutations that have enabled it to evade immunity conferred by the current flu vaccine formula. For the week ending January 24, 4.7% of health care visits were for respiratory illness, above baseline (see the CDC graph below). The flu hospitalization rate was 59.5 per 100,000 people, for a total of 15,080 admissions, part of a downward trend. Eight children died from flu, for a total of 52 pediatric deaths this season.The proportions of positive tests were 5.3% for COVID-19, 6.3% for RSV, and 18.0% for flu, up from last week’s totals of 5.1%, 5.3%, and 17.2%, respectively. The percentages of emergency department (ED) visits were 0.7% for COVID-19, the same as last week; 3.4% for flu, up from 3.2% last week; and 0.5% for RSV, representing no change from last week.Although hospitalizations continue to trend downward overall, they are increasing among infants under age 1, and ED visits among children aged 5 to 17 years are climbing. For RSV, ED visits are highest among infants and preschoolers, and hospitalizations are highest for infants.Wastewater concentrations are very high for COVID-19 in Connecticut, Iowa, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Oklahoma, and South Dakota; for influenza A in South Dakota and Vermont; and for RSV in Maryland, Massachusetts, Louisiana, and Virginia. The CDC noted that national COVID-19, flu, and RSV vaccine uptake is low for both adults and children.

Hotel experiment suggests air mixing can help curb flu transmission - A trial that placed adults infected with influenza virus and uninfected people in the same hotel room with limited ventilation but a high air-recirculation rate for two-week stints found no viral transmission, which the authors say provides insight into how to prevent infection. A University of Maryland (UM)–led research team recruited 11 healthy people with an average age of 36 years (recipients) and five adults with an average age of 21 who were naturally infected with H1N1 or H3N2 influenza (donors) for four, two-week hotel stays in January and February 2024. Participants were assigned to cohort 24b (eight recipients and one donor) or 24c (three recipients and four donors). The investigators collected exhaled breath, ambient and personal bioaerosols (fine airborne particles containing pathogens), swabs of room surfaces, and blood. They analyzed samples using digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR), fluorescent focus assay (used to measure infectious virus particles), hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assay (used to measure serum antibodies that block viruses from binding to red blood cells), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (used to quantify substances such as antibodies). The findings were published earlier this month in PLOS Pathogens. Donors were observed to cough very little. Relative to previously studied community-acquired flu cases, the team detected viral RNA (44%) and culturable virus (6%) less often and measured fewer viral RNA copies in donors’ exhaled aerosols. Of 23 surface swabs, one was positive for flu on culture. No recipient contracted a flu-like illness or had serologic evidence of infection or PCR-positive respiratory samples. Eight of 11 recipients had high concentrations of virus-blocking serum antibodies on HAI, and nine of 11 had stronger binding-antibody responses than donors against vaccine strains corresponding to donor viruses. No recipient contracted a flu-like illness or had serologic evidence of infection or PCR-positive respiratory samples. “Potential explanations and insights regarding lack of transmission include importance of cough and seasonal variation in viral aerosol shedding by Donors, of potential cross-reactive immunity in middle-aged Recipients with decades of exposure, and of exposure to concentrated exhaled breath plumes limited by rapid air mixing from environmental controls that distributed aerosols evenly,” the authors wrote. “Our results suggest that portable air purifiers that stir up the air as well as clean it could be a big help. But if you are really close and someone is coughing, the best way to stay safe is to wear a mask, especially the N95 [respirator].”

South Carolina measles outbreak grows, surpasses West Texas outbreak -- Today the South Carolina Department of Health (DPH) said the state’s measles outbreak has grown to 789 cases, almost 30 more than the West Texas outbreak that took place from January to August last year and resulted in the death of two school-aged children. The South Carolina outbreak, which grew by 89 cases in the last four days, is now the largest measles outbreak the United States has faced in nearly three decades. The outbreak’s epicenter is Spartanburg County, where the virus spread in a series of elementary and middle schools in October of last year. Those schools, many of them private, Christian academies, have largely unvaccinated student bodies. Holiday gatherings and travel accelerated the outbreak. “The majority of cases are close contacts of known cases,” the DPH said today in a statement. “However, the number of public exposure sites indicates that measles is circulating in the community increasing the risk of exposure and the risk of infection for those who are not immune due to vaccination or natural infection.” There are currently 557 people in quarantine and 20 in isolation. The latest end of quarantine for these individuals is February 19, DPH said. Of the 789 cases, 695 are in people who are unvaccinated, and 14 in people partially vaccinated. Twenty case-patients have been fully vaccinated, and 60 have unknown status. More than half, 493, are aged 5 to 17 years. Only 65 cases are known to be in adults over the age of 18; 203 cases are in children under the age of 5. “Complications are not reportable to DPH, but we have learned that 18 people, including both adults and children, have required hospitalization for complications of the disease since the beginning of the outbreak. Additional cases required medical care for measles but were not hospitalized,” DPH said. Last year the United States tracked 2,255 measles cases nationwide, with 760 cases recorded in the large West Texas outbreak, which originated in an under-vaccinated Mennonite community. In April, the US will meet with the Pan American Health Organization to see if the country has lost its measles elimination status, which was granted in 2000. Elimination status hinges on sustained, local transmission of the measles virus for 12 months or more. Last week, Ralph Abraham MD, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principal deputy director, said during a press conference that the United States losing its measles elimination status is the “cost of doing business,” erroneously suggesting foreign, imported measles cases was causing the uptick in US activity. “We have these communities that choose to be unvaccinated. That's their personal freedom,” Abraham said.

US measles outbreaks enlarge; Nebraska logs its first case of year -Measles outbreaks in Utah, Arizona, and Washington state continue to grow as Lancaster County, Nebraska, posts its first case since 1990 and the first for the state this year.As of last week, 416 measles cases in 14 states had been confirmed in the United States in 2026. Last year, the nation totaled 2,255. The Utah Department of Health & Human Services has documented 21 new measles cases in the past week, for a total of 237 in this outbreak. Twenty-one people have been hospitalized. Most cases (67%) have occurred in the southwest part of the state, followed by Utah County (35 cases) and Salt Lake County (18). Of all cases, 61% were in children, and 89% were in unvaccinated people. Last year’s tally was 195, with the 2026 total growing to 42. Arizona’s measles cases so far this year, meanwhile, have doubled, from 12 to 24, according to the latest Arizona Department of Health Services update. More than two-thirds of those cases (17) have been in Mohave County, which is part of a two-state outbreak that includes southwest Utah, across the border. Last year Arizona confirmed 220 infections.In northwest Washington, the Snohomish County Health Department yesterday noted three more measles cases, for a total of six since the outbreak began two weeks ago. The illnesses have been associated with unvaccinated children at a church in Mukilteo, as well as an elementary school in Edmonds and a children’s dental practice, an emergency department, and a kindergarten in Everett.In Lancaster County in southeast Nebraska, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department has logged the state’s first case of the year, warning that the patient had visited a Walmart and an urgent care center while infectious. The patient is a vaccinated adult with no recent travel out of state. In related news, California yesterday announced an audit of 428 schools because over 10% of their kindergartners or seventh-graders weren’t fully vaccinated last year. The state may dock Americans with Disabilities Act payments to schools that admitted unvaccinated or partially vaccinated students. The kindergartner vaccination rate fell nearly a half a percentage point in 2023-24, to 93.7%. California’s health department documented 25 measles cases last year and three this year, with an unvaccinated student in Napa County diagnosed last week after being exposed in South Carolina, home to the country’s largest outbreak since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

US measles cases soar to 588 so far this year as South Carolina confirms 58 new infections -Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)confirmed 172 new measles cases for 2026, increasing a skyrocketing outbreak to 588 infections so far. And the largest outbreak in the country, in South Carolina, which started in October, has grown by 58 cases in three days, reaching 847 cases.Last year, the CDC confirmed 2,267 cases, the most since 1991. Projecting 588 cases a month for 2026 would mean more than 7,000 total cases, though the rate of illnesses could ebb and flow as the year progresses. Last year, the country topped 600 measles cases in early April.The huge influx is happening at a time when a top CDC official expressed little concern that the United States is on track to lose the measles elimination status it gained in 2000. Last week, Ralph Abraham, MD, the CDC’s principal deputy director, said losing elimination status is the “cost of doing business” as he emphasized “personal freedom” over vaccination, despite the wide availability of a highly effective vaccine. Abraham also wrongly tied elimination status to international travel, despite the fact that it solely has to do with locally acquired cases. After confirming 49 outbreaks in 2025, the CDC today noted the first two of 2026, involving eight patients total. The vast majority of the 588 cases are tied to outbreaks that started in 2025 and continue to expand this year. The CDC defines an outbreak as three or more related infections. Of the 588 cases this year, 94% (550) are outbreak-related. And only three are travel-related. The remaining 585 locally acquired cases were reported by 17 states. Among patients, 27% are 5 years and younger, and 85% are in those 19 years and younger. The percent of measles patients 20 and older has dropped from 30% in 2025 to 11% so far this year. Ninety-three percent of case-patients were unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status. In its update today, the South Carolina Department of Public Health (SCDPH) reported 847 measles cases in its outbreak, which is centered in the Upstate region, notably in Spartanburg County. That’s 58 more than on January 27, when the outbreak officially surpassed the 2025 West Texas outbreak as the largest in the country. Cases have surged in recent weeks (see the SCDPH graph at left).The health department said, “The majority of cases are close contacts of known cases. However, the number of public exposure sites indicates that measles is circulating in the community, increasing the risk of exposure and the risk of infection for those who are not immune due to vaccination or natural infection.”The SCDPH said the latest exposure site is a Burger King in Roebuck, located in Spartanburg County. Of the 847 cases, 813 (96%) have been in Spartanburg County. In addition, Idaho now has 21 measles cases in 2025 and 2026, with seven of them in 2026, per anupdate from the Idaho Division of Public Health this week.Colorado scientists emphasize getting the MMR vaccine after detailing an 11-case measles outbreak late last spring tied to an international traveler. The report also documents how readily the disease spreads on an airplane.Reporting in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the researchers—from the CDC and Colorado state and local public health departments—describe how a traveler who contracted measles in the United States traveled internationally, then returned to the country while still contagious, directly infecting at least nine other people.Four of the 11 patients were hospitalized.

US pressures Gavi to phase out use of thimerosal-containing vaccines -The Trump administration is asking Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to phase out the use of vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal if it wants future US funding. Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative that’s been used in small amounts in some multidose vaccine vials since the 1930s to prevent microbial contamination. Although the preservative is no longer used in any routinely used US vaccines, it is used in some multidose vaccines in other countries. US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and many vaccine critics have long claimed that thimerosal is linked to developmental delays and neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism. Although those claims are not backed by evidence, in June 2025, a federal vaccine advisory board remade by Kennedy recommended that Americans receive only seasonal flu shots in thimerosal-free, single-dose formulations. (Multidose flu shots account for only a fraction of the US vaccine supply). The World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that the small amount of thimerosal, which contains ethyl mercury, in multidose vaccines does not cause harm. The request, first reported by Reuters, suggests that US support for Gavi, a public-private partnership that helps provide and distribute vaccines to lower-income countries, may be contingent on the organization aligning itself more closely to Kennedy’s views on vaccines. An HHS spokesperson said the United States has asked Gavi to submit a detailed action plan with a timeline for a phase-out of thimerosal-containing vaccines in its portfolio, a move they said would bring the poorest countries in line with US, Canadian, and European standards. But Gavi has not yet done so. “Until a plan for removal of thimerosal-containing vaccines is developed and the plan initiated, the United States will withhold future new funding and pause access to the DFC [US International Development Finance Corporation] line of financing,” the spokesperson said.

US maternal syphilis rate rises 28% in 2 years, marking continued surge in national epidemic -The maternal syphilis rate in the United States rose 28% from 2022 to 2024, according to a new analysis from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The rising rate underscores the scope of a worsening public health crisis that has seen maternal syphilis rates climb more than 200% over the past decade. The latest report finds that the maternal syphilis rate increased 16% from 2022 to 2023 and an additional 10% from 2023 to 2024, rising from 280.4 to 357.9 cases per 100,000 births over the two-year period. The increase follows a previously documented 222% surge from 2016 to 2022, when the rate climbed from 87.2 to 280.4 per 100,000 births. Rates of maternal syphilis have been rising for decades, and the surge is fueling a parallel crisis in rates of congenital syphilis, which is when a pregnant woman with untreated syphilis passes the infection to her fetus. Associated with fetal and neonatal death (the infection kills as many as 40% of infected infants), low birthweight, preterm birth, and brain and nerve disorders, congenital syphilis is almost entirely preventable with routine screening in early pregnancy and treatment with penicillin. In 2023, the United States recorded the most congenital syphilis cases since 1992. Global estimates suggest that maternal syphilis may cause as many as 350,000 adverse birth outcomes every year, and research indicates that kids 5 years and younger who are exposed to maternal syphilis in utero are at higher risk for all-cause hospitalization and experience longer hospital stays than unexposed kids. Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal syphilis rates are pronounced. From 2022 to 2024, rates increased 52% among American Indian and Alaska Native mothers, rising from 1,410.5 to 2,145.4 per 100,000 births. Rates also rose 31% among Hispanic mothers, 30% among Black mothers, and 23% among White mothers over the same period.Increases were also seen across all maternal age-groups. From 2022 to 2024, maternal syphilis rates rose 36% among mothers aged 35 to 39, 31% among those aged 40 and older, and 30% for mothers ages 30 to 34. Rates were slightly lower, but still high overall, among younger mothers, with a 29% increase for mothers ages 20 to 24, 26% for mothers ages 25 to 29, and 13% for mothers younger than age 20.Some regions of the country have been hit especially hard. The rate of maternal syphilis infections in Mississippi grew more than 1,000% from 2013 to 2023, with case numbers climbing from 86 cases per 100,000 births to 1,016 cases per 100,000 births during that time. In August 2025, the state declared a public health emergency because of the spike in infant mortality rates.Twenty-five years ago, syphilis was nearly eradicated in the United States. Public health experts point to gaps in early prenatal screening and treatment as drivers of rising rates of congenital syphilis. From 2013 to 2023, for example, over one-third of pregnant women with syphilis in Mississippi had no first trimester prenatal care. Across the United States, missed opportunities for testing and treatment during pregnancy contributed to nearly 90% of congenital syphilis cases in 2022. What’s more, the country is experiencing a nationwide shortage of injectable penicillin G benzathine, the only medication approved to treat syphilis in pregnant women.

Nipah virus detected among health staff in West Bengal, India - Five Nipah virus cases have been reported in West Bengal, India, including doctors and nurses. The virus, which spreads from fruit bats to humans and between people, has prompted state authorities to quarantine more than 100 contacts and conduct field surveillance in affected districts. There is currently no licensed vaccine or antiviral treatment, and containment measures focus on isolation and contact tracing. Health authorities in West Bengal detected a cluster of Nipah virus (NiV) infections in early January 2026, with five laboratory-confirmed cases reported by Indian media between January 23 and 25. Among them were healthcare workers from a Barasat hospital. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) previously listed the outbreak under international monitoring in its Week 3 report, recording two confirmed cases on January 13, both nurses confirmed by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Kalyani and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune through RT-PCR testing. Local surveillance teams identified around 100 contacts, who were placed under observation or home quarantine. As of January 23, all high-risk contacts tested had negative results. A field survey conducted in January in North 24 Parganas District tested fruit bats and date-palm sap for the virus. No active Nipah virus was detected in any sample, though antibodies were found in one bat, suggesting past exposure. Environmental monitoring and sampling continue to trace the spillover source. Nipah virus is a zoonotic paramyxovirus belonging to the Henipavirus genus, with its primary reservoir in Pteropus fruit bats. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Nipah virus infection can range from mild febrile illness to severe neurological disease and death. People typically develop symptoms 4 to 14 days after exposure. The illness generally lasts 3 to 14 days and begins with fever, headache, cough, sore throat, and difficulty breathing. In more severe cases, inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) develops, producing confusion, drowsiness, and seizures; patients can fall into a coma within 24 to 48 hours. The virus spreads to humans through direct contact with infected animals such as bats or pigs, or through consumption of contaminated food or drink. Fruit or raw date-palm sap contaminated with bat saliva or urine is a common vehicle for initial infection, a process known as a spillover event. Once a person is infected, Nipah virus can spread from human to human via close contact with respiratory droplets or body fluids, particularly in healthcare or household settings. Caregivers and healthcare workers are considered at higher occupational risk. In areas where outbreaks have occurred, such as India and Bangladesh, CDC advises avoiding raw date-palm sap and fruit potentially contaminated by bats, avoiding contact with flying-fox bats or sick pigs, staying away from areas where bats roost, washing hands regularly with soap and water, and avoiding contact with blood or bodily fluids of infected persons. There is currently no licensed treatment or vaccine for Nipah virus infection. Medical management relies on supportive care, maintaining hydration, controlling fever, and managing respiratory or neurological complications. Experimental monoclonal antibodies and vaccine candidates are under evaluation but remain unavailable for general clinical use.

Quick takes: Nipah cluster in India, lost measles status in Europe, Chicago meningococcal cases | CIDRAP

• A Nipah cluster in India has raised alarms about the deadly henipavirus carried by fruit bats found in Southeast and South Asia. So far five hospital workers in Bengal state, India, have been infected. The workers—a doctor, three nurses, and another health care worker—are employed by a private hospital in Barasat. Official documents on the cluster are difficult to find, but media outlets report at least 100 people who were close contacts are quarantined and under observation. India has had a handful of small Nipah outbreaks in the past two decades. Since 2018, Kerala state has reported nine Nipah outbreaks. The Nipah case-fatality rate is estimated at 40% to 75%, but only limited human-to-human transmission has been shown.
• Six European countries, including the United Kingdom and Spain, have lost their measles elimination status as of yesterday, per the World Health Organization (WHO). Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan also lost their measles-free status. All countries have noted a rise in measles case since 2024 and a drop in routine vaccination against the virus.
• Officials in Chicago have identified four Neisseria meningitidis infections in adults since January 15. Two of the case-patients were living in a temporary homeless shelter. One patient has died, and three were in the intensive care unit. All patients developed septicemia, and one patient also had meningitis. Even with antibiotic treatment, invasive meningococcal disease is fatal for 10% to 15% of patients.

Study suggests pre-existing immunity to H5N1 avian flu varies by age, prior exposure A population-based study from British Columbia suggests that a substantial share of people already carry antibodies that may help protect against avian influenza A(H5N1), though levels vary by age and birth cohort, reflecting past exposure to different flu viruses. In the study, led by researchers from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers tested blood samples collected in August 2024 from 575 people aged 1 to over 80 years for cross-reactive neuraminidase antibody levels against A(H5N1). Overall, 70% of participants had detectable antibodies against H5N1, with 45% meeting a moderate threshold, 32% meeting a slightly higher threshold, and 17% showing a high concentration of antibodies in the blood. The highest antibody levels were seen among adults born from 1997 to 2003, who were school-aged children during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. Similarly high levels were seen among adults born before 1947, who were likely exposed to early H1N1 influenza viruses. The researchers hypothesize that past flu pandemics exposed people in these age cohorts to the virus, which bolstered their antibody levels. “We interpret this variation within a unifying hypothesis incorporating both age and imprinting effects, emphasizing the role of historic influenza pandemics in expanding and refining the immune repertoire,” they write. In contrast, antibody levels were lowest among young children born from 2015 to 2023, whom the authors called “the youngest and least influenza-experienced pediatric cohorts” and middle-aged adults born from 1957 to 1967, when H2N2 strains predominated. The researchers caution that immunity can’t be inferred from antibody levels, but “patterns indicate higher likelihood of N1-based protection among those who experienced the highest attack rates during the 2009 pandemic… and among those born during the pre-1957 H1N1 era.” The findings may help explain why recent H5N1 infections in US animal workers have generally been mild and why severe cases remain uncommon among older adults, though more investigation is warranted, the authors say.

Quick takes: Avian flu in Dutch cattle, WHO response to US, end to Marburg in Ethiopia, RECOVER trial start date | CIDRAP

• H5N1 avian flu virus has been detected in a dairy cow in the Netherlands, marking the first detection of avian influenza in cattle outside of the United States. Netherland's Ministry of Agriculture said late last week the healthy cow was tested after two cats on a dairy farm in Friesland province were sickened with avian flu. At the time of testing, the cow was healthy but had suffered with mastitis and respiratory symptoms in December 2025. The detection occurs two years after cattle in Texas were first sickened in a spillover event.
• In a statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the US withdrawal from the organization last week makes both the United States and the world less safe. “WHO takes note of statements from the government of the United States that say WHO has ‘trashed and tarnished’ and insulted it, and compromised its independence. The reverse is true,” WHO officials said. The statement went on to decry accusations made by the Trump administration about the WHO’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said it hopes the nation will return to active participation in the agency.
• Ethiopia said its first ever Marburg virus outbreak is over after 42 days (two, 21-day transmission cycles) have passed with no new cases. Per the WHO, 14 cases were confirmed during the outbreak, including nine deaths and five recoveries. Three health care workers were infected during the outbreak; two died and one recovered. The South Ethiopia Region was the epicenter of the outbreak, and the WHO praised Ethiopia for quick action and containment.
• The RECOVER-Treating Long COVID trial will begin enrolling participants, two years after the National Institutes for Health launched the effort to deliver dedicated long-COVID research and treatments, the Sick Times reported. Two trials set to begin this summer will look at using low-dose naltrexone and semaglutide (Ozempic) as treatments for long COVID. Several long-COVID advocates have criticized the slow launch of the trials, saying conditions of the RECOVER project were speed and urgency in research.

Quick takes: Avian flu in Dutch cows, US birds; supplement-linked Salmonella; new polio cases | CIDRAP

• Today, Avian Flu Diary notes the discovery of antibodies against H5N1 avian flu in five cows in the Netherlands, although officials have yet to confirm the finding. The infectious disease news blog cited the source as the Netherlands public broadcasting network. The cows were located in Northeast Friesland in the Netherlands’ far north. The news comes a week after the Dutch government announced its first case in a cow in the same province. The case was detected after one of two sick kittens on a dairy farm tested positive for avian flu. After screening cows on the farm, one was found to have antibodies against avian flu. The cow had mastitis and respiratory symptoms in December, two years after the detection of avian flu in Texas cattle in a spillover event. The country has recently seen a number of avian flu outbreaks in birds, including in a pet store and a petting zoo.
• Avian flu has hit a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, commercial egg-laying facility with more than 1.5 million birds, per the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. In the past month, 17 commercial flocks and 42 backyard flocks have been affected by the virus, for a total of 2.8 million affected birds. (NB: birds with avian flu are euthanized; for some reason, they’ve stopped reporting that)
• Twenty more people in another seven states have been sickened, and two more have been hospitalized, in a Salmonella outbreak linked to moringa leaf dietary supplements, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday in an update. The outbreak, which now stands at 65 cases and 14 hospitalizations in 28 states, has been traced to Why Not Natural Pure Organic Moringa Green Superfood capsules. The company pulled the product, which was sold online, this week. Illness onsets ranged from August 24, 2025, to January 11 of this year.
• Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Mali all reported polio cases this week, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GEPI) said in its weekly update today. The Afghanistan case, which pushed the 2025 total to 10, was wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1), and the patient had a paralysis onset of October 20. The Central African Republic noted one case of circulating vaccine-derives poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) with paralysis onset on December 6, bringing the country’s 2025 total to two. In Chad, authorities logged one cVDPV2 case with a November 6 paralysis onset, for a 2025 total of 27. Mali documented its first case of cVDPV2 in 2025, which had an October 3 paralysis onset.

Chia seeds sold by Amazon, Whole Foods recalled over salmonella risk– A “superfood” sold nationwide is under recall over the risk of salmonella contamination.California-based Navitas Organics is recalling certain eight-ounce packages of organic chia seeds after its supplier notified the company of a recall. The seeds, which are advertised on the product pouches as a “plant-based superfood,” were sold online by retailers including Amazon, and at Whole Foods and other retailers across the country.The recall includes stand up pouches with the UPC 858847000284 with the following lot codes listed above the nutritional information: [list] The recall was done out of precaution, and the Food and Drug Administration has not reported any illnesses or medical events tied to the product as of Wednesday.

Backlash as Australia kills dingoes after backpacker death -Australian authorities have sparked a backlash by killing a group of dingoes linked to the death of a young Canadian woman on an island in the country's east. The Queensland government said six animals were put down after 19-year-old backpacker Piper James's body was found on January 19 at a beach on the World Heritage-listed island of K'gari. The euthanization program has stirred debate about how to manage the local population of dingoes, a sandy-colored canine believed to have first arrived in Australia 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. An autopsy conducted on James' body found evidence "consistent with drowning" but also detected injuries corresponding to dingo bites. "Pre-mortem dingo bite marks are not likely to have caused immediate death," said a spokesperson for the Coroners Court of Queensland. The coroner's investigation into the cause of death was expected to take several weeks. In response, the Queensland government said a pack of 10 dingoes involved would be euthanized after rangers had observed some "aggressive behavior." Six of the dingoes had already been euthanized, the state's environment minister, Andrew Powell, told reporters Sunday. "Obviously, the operation will continue," he said. The traditional owners of K'gari, the Butchulla people, said the state's failure to consult with them before euthanizing the dingoes—or wongari in their language—was "unexpected and disappointing." "Once again, it feels as though economic priorities are being placed above the voices of the people and traditional owners, which is frustrating and difficult to accept," the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation said in a statement to Australian media this week. Wildlife experts said killing the animals was the wrong response and may threaten the island's dingo population, estimated at just 70-200 animals. Given their small numbers, killing a pack of 10 animals would harm the population's genetic diversity, said Mathew Crowther, professor of quantitative conservation biology at the University of Sydney. "There's no moral from the dingoes' point of view. They're just being wild animals, doing wild things," Crowther told AFP.

Changing land use can increase threat of animal‑to‑human disease spread -- Changes to land use can directly heighten the risk of diseases spreading from animals to humans, new University of Stirling–led research has shown. The study, led by Dr. Adam Fell of the University's Faculty of Natural Sciences, shows that deforestation, farming, fast-growing cities and fragmented habitats heighten the risk of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19 and malaria, especially those spread by mosquitoes, rodents and bats. These changes can bring people and wildlife closer together and disrupt natural ecological barriers that usually limit disease transmission. The research is published in the journal Nature Sustainability.Dr. Fell explained, "As humans increasingly alter natural landscapes, people and wildlife are coming into closer contact. This can make it easier for new diseases to emerge or for existing ones to spread. At the same time, there is growing global investment in restoring degraded environments to help tackle climate change and biodiversity loss."However, we still know surprisingly little about whether restoration reduces disease risks—or, in some cases, could unintentionally increase them temporarily. This study shows that decisions about how we use and restore land can directly affect human health."As governments and organizations invest heavily in ecosystem restoration worldwide, understanding how these actions influence disease risk is essential to avoid unintended health consequences and to maximize long-term benefits."Researchers brought together evidence from across the world to identify where land-use change increases disease risk, where restoration could help reduce it and where key knowledge gaps remain.The study, which is part of the RESTOREID (Restoring Ecosystems to Stop the Threat of Re-Emerging Infectious Disease) project, showed that some actions, such as protecting wetlands and conserving existing natural habitats, were frequently linked to lower risks of mosquito-borne diseases. In contrast, certain forms of tree planting or reforestation were shown to increase risk during early recovery stages, particularly for mosquito or tick-borne diseases. The study also found that most research on this topic to date has been carried out in wealthier countries, even though many of the major disease issues are in lower-income regions. This means large parts of Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where land-use change and disease risk are both high, haven't been studied in enough detail. Researchers identified 50 priority locations worldwide where new research would be most valuable, and developed an open online atlas for policymakers and public health officials to better target future action.

Feds to rewrite Klamath River endangered species rules - — Federal water managers are reopening endangered species and water-sharing rules in the Klamath Basin as salmon return to newly free-flowing stretches of the river and as the Trump administration pushes agencies to maximize water deliveries. The Bureau of Reclamation formally asked federal fisheries agencies last week to help rewrite the endangered species rules that govern its dams and pumps that deliver water from the Klamath River on the California-Oregon border to farms and wildlife refuges in both states, Adam Nickels, the bureau’s acting California regional director, told a Reno-based conference of federal and local water managers Wednesday.Alan Heck, the bureau’s Klamath Basin manager, told the conference attendees that he expected the new guidelines to represent a “fairly large shift in the way we do business” following President Donald Trump’s executive order to maximize water supply last year and an assessment earlier this month of endangered species protections in the region. Heck also said that salmon have returned to the river in greater numbers than anticipated following the removal of four dams on the Klamath River in 2023 and 2024.

Bipartisan bill would grow water recycling effort - 2032, in a bid to extend water supplies in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin. Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) and Utah Sen. John Curtis (R) on Tuesday introduced the “Large-Scale Water Recycling Reauthorization Act,” to extend a five-year program created in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.The proposal comes as the seven Colorado River Basin states struggle to reach agreement over future operations of their waterway, which supports some 40 million individuals and 5.5 million acres of farmland. The current operating plan, along with a series of short-term agreements among the states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — to reduce water use, expires this year. A new plan must be in place by Oct. 1, which marks the start of the 2027 water year.

Trump administration approves plan backed by Newsom to build largest California reservoir in 50 years - On Jan. 23, the Trump administration gave its approval for plans to build Sites Reservoir, a vast 13-mile-long off-stream lake north of Sacramento that would provide water to 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland and 24 million people, including residents of Santa Clara County, parts of the East Bay and Los Angeles. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued a document called a "record of decision" for the proposed project, signing off on its environmental review process. "This decision reflects years of analysis, public engagement and coordination, and establishes the foundation for construction through sound partnerships that will ultimately result in additional water supplies for California," said Andrea Travnicek, assistant secretary of the Department of Interior. Planned in the sweeping open pastureland of rural Colusa County, near the town of Maxwell, if completed, Sites would be the largest new reservoir built in California since 1979, when the federal government opened New Melones Lake in the Sierra Foothills between Sonora and Angels Camp. Estimated to cost $6.2 to $6.8 billion, the project is strongly backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose administration has earmarked $1.1 billion in state bond funds for it, along with former President Joe Biden, whose administration approved a $2.2 billion federal loan for it in 2022, and Republican and Democratic members of California's congressional delegation. Planners of the project on Friday called the federal approval a significant milestone in a long journey. "This decision affirms what our extensive analysis has shown—that Sites Reservoir can reliably capture and store water in a way that supports both people and the environment," said Jerry Brown, executive director of the Sites Project Authority. "With this additional environmental approval, we can now leverage all available construction funding and are focused on moving with intensity and purpose toward construction." Sites is scheduled to begin construction by the end of 2026 or early 2027 with completion by 2033. It would become the eighth-largest reservoir in California, holding 1.5 million acre-feet of water—enough for at least 7.5 million people a year. Crews would build dams in a 13,000-acre area, and fill the site with water brought in through pipes from the Sacramento River during periods of high flow. Supporters call Sites Reservoir a critical part of California's water future that can help capture more water during wet years for use during dry years. California has endured three severe droughts in the past 19 years—from 2007 to 2009; 2012 to 2016; and 2020 to 2022—all of which involved water restrictions for millions of residents and businesses in cities and cutbacks to farmers. Critics of the project include some environmental groups, who sued unsuccessfully in 2024 to block the project on the grounds that it would harm fish and wildlife by diverting water from the Sacramento River that otherwise would flow into the already heavily pumped Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. "Sites is still a nearly $7 billion gamble that delivers little water at enormous cost, threatens rivers and fisheries, and distracts from real solutions," said Keiko Mertz, Policy Director of Friends of the River, an environmental group. The Sites project has shown significant momentum in the past two years. But significant challenges remain. The State Water Resources Control Board, whose members are appointed by Newsom, has not yet approved the water rights to allow construction to begin. Last year, the Sites Reservoir Authority announced that the price tag had jumped from $4.5 billion to at least $6.2 billion, and potentially as much as $6.8 billion. Brown and others attributed that to inflation for concrete, steel and other construction materials since 2021, when the original estimate was generated. Factory shutdowns during the COVID pandemic caused many construction materials to increase in price, and tariffs imposed by President Trump have led to more cost increases in recent months. Although most of the costs would be paid by the 22 partner agencies, who will get proportional amounts of water storage based on how much money they put in, the federal government has not yet said how much money it will contribute and how much water that would buy.

Overlooked threat: Dams trigger temperature-driven disease in iconic salmonid fish - A new study published in Communications Biology reveals a critical, yet previously overlooked, environmental consequence of man-made dams constructed across rivers and streams. By investigating a key indicator species of ecosystem health, the brown trout (Salmo trutta), researchers from the Estonian University of Life Sciences and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences demonstrated that small river impoundments significantly elevate water temperatures and drastically increase the pathogenic impact of Proliferative Kidney Disease (PKD). Dams provide essential services for humans but profoundly alter river ecology. While issues like habitat fragmentation are well documented, the new findings focus on the complex interaction between dams, thermal regimes, and disease. The international research team examined juvenile brown trout and measured water temperatures both upstream and downstream of 14 small reservoirs and artificial impoundments.The results were compelling: reservoirs releasing surface water substantially raise downstream temperatures (by up to 4–5 °C) during the summer. These warmed sections turn into hotspots for the myxozoan parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae, which causes a deadly disease among salmonids. Brown trout in these sections exhibited consistently higher infection prevalence, greater parasite loads, and more severe signs of PKD compared to their upstream counterparts."The reservoirs are not just warming the water; they are creating the ideal conditions for an epidemic," explains Prof. Anti Vasemägi, lead researcher. "Below dams releasing surface water, salmonids are caught in a thermal disease trap: higher temperatures spike their oxygen needs just as the water's oxygen-carrying capacity drops."Warmer water also increases parasite proliferation and accelerates disease progression, making salmonids anemic and less capable of extracting sufficient oxygen from the water. Ultimately, this deadly synergy leaves cold-water trout defenseless against heat waves, pushing them from the frying pan into the fire."

Shipping regulations to reduce pollution may have exacerbated Great Barrier Reef bleaching --Rising ocean temperatures have been implicated in mass coral bleaching events affecting the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). These events have been increasingly frequent, with major events occurring in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2025. Now, in an unexpected turn of events, it appears that regulations introduced in 2020 to reduce ship fuel pollution may have actually increased the solar radiation that leads to increased coral bleaching, according to a study published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment.Much of the world's trade cargo is moved via the maritime industry, and Australia relies on this method for over 99% of its imports and exports. However, the resulting pollution from ship fuel reduces air quality, with sulfur in particular, leading to respiratory issues in humans and a potential for acid rain.To mitigate these effects, the International Maritime Organization introduced regulations in 2020 putting a global upper limit of 0.50% on the sulfur in ship fuel oil, reduced from 3.50%. This new limit equated to a 77% drop in overall SOx emissions from ships, or approximately 8.5 million metric tons of SOx. While these regulations were helpful for improving air quality and human health, they had some unexpected effects on incoming solar radiation. According to the new study, the sulfur aerosols had initially been acting as a kind of screen for some solar radiation, and when sulfur pollution was reduced, this resulted in an increase in incoming solar radiation. This solar radiation led to increased ocean water heating, ultimately worsening coral bleaching events.To come to this conclusion, the team used atmospheric models with a detailed ship emissions inventory, called STEAM, to simulate aerosol, cloud, and radiation changes. They then compared three scenarios: pre-regulation, post-regulation, and no ship emissions, across different weather periods in 2022 and 2023. The model results were also evaluated against meteorological and air quality observations."Primary and secondary sulfate aerosol from ships interacts with radiation directly, as well as indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Extra CCN alters cloud properties by dividing the available cloud water among more droplets, decreasing the size of the cloud droplets and thereby enhancing cloud albedo, cloud lifetime, and optical depth. Ship-polluted clouds can also exhibit liquid water path increases, which also enhances cloud albedo," the study authors explain.They calculated that the 2020 shipping regulations led to 11 W/m² more daytime solar radiation above the GBR during clear, calm periods in February 2022. They note that clear skies and warmer temperatures lead to a stronger influence on ship emissions change. Models showed that the increase in solar radiation likely raised sea surface temperatures by 0.05–0.15°C, adding 5–10% more thermal stress to coral in the GBR during bleaching-prone conditions. The study's findings highlight the problem that while cleaner ship fuels improve air quality, they also potentially worsen coral bleaching risk. Further research should assess long-term and global impacts of shipping emission changes on coral reefs, while also informing policy on balancing air pollution control with the protection of the GBR and other ecosystems.

Why do onions and chips keep washing up on England's south coast? Here's the science - Over Christmas, vegetables, bananas and insulation foam washed up on beaches along England's southeast coast. They were from 16 containers spilled by the cargo ship Baltic Klipper in rough seas. In the new year, a further 24 containers fell from two vessels during Storm Goretti, with chips and onions among the goods appearing on the Sussex shoreline. For most people, this is a nuisance—or perhaps a bit of fun. For oceanographers like me, who study tides and currents, it is also an accidental experiment—a rare chance to watch the ocean move things around in real time. Think of it as a very large message in a bottle. In reality, cargo has been falling off ships since traders first went to sea. What has changed is that, in the modern world, most goods are transported in standardized containers. Apart from oil, gas, vehicles, bulk grain, aggregates—and people—pretty much everything is moved this way. More than 250 million containers are shipped around the world each year, and it is likely that over 80% of goods in your home traveled at some point in a container by sea. Losses are rare. Industry group the World Shipping Council estimates that over the past ten years an average of 1,274 containers a year have been lost globally, out of hundreds of millions transported. This figure does vary: in 2020 a single huge ship, the ONE Apus, lost around 1,800 containers of its 14,000 load in a Pacific storm, while in 2024 global losses were estimated at just 576. Some losses make the news in unexpected ways. In January 1992, 12 containers washed off the Ever Laurel in the North Pacific. One of these contained 28,800 bath toys—plastic beavers, frogs, turtles and ducks—which spilled into the ocean and washed up on beaches around the Pacific over the next decade or more. Curt Ebbesmeyer and James Ingraham, oceanographers from Seattle, tracked these so-called "friendly floatees" around the world and used them to improve scientific models of ocean circulation. In more recent years I've looked at the progress of these floatees into the Arctic and beyond. Not all cargoes are this benign or useful. In January 2007, the MSC Napoli was hit by a major storm in the Channel and lost 114 containers, 80 of which washed up on beaches around Branscombe in Devon. Containers of wine, BMW motorbikes and perfumes drew locals to scour the beach for prizes but there were also far more sinister containers of explosives, weed killers, fertilizers and acid. Both the cargoes and the containers themselves pose serious risks. Chemicals can destroy habitats, while containers can sometimes lurk one or two meters below the surface, kept semi-buoyant by trapped air, making them difficult to detect and capable of causing serious damage in a collision. Modern container ships are designed for speed and efficiency in port. A single 400-meter vessel can carry up to 25,000 containers, many towering high above deck like a block of flats. The containers interlock and are secured using industry standard fixings—one reason cranes are able to rapidly move them around a port. In severe storms, however, the forces involved can exceed what the fixings are designed to withstand, and containers can be dislodged, particularly those at the edge. It is almost impossible to secure cargo 100% safely. To do so would mean smaller ships, with cargo held internally, reversing decades of efficiency gains. That would mean far more ships required to move the same volume of goods, higher costs for consumers, greater fuel use per ton of goods, and a higher overall risk of accidents. Southampton, the UK's second busiest container port, is also one of only a few worldwide that can accommodate the largest container ships. It is therefore no surprise that container losses are often visible along England's south coast. Looking ahead, the risks are unlikely to diminish. Climate change is intensifying storms as oceans warm, while international trade continues to grow and ships become ever larger.

Which countries are paying the highest price for particulate air pollution? Polluted air causes an estimated 7 million deaths worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization. Much of the mortality comes from PM_2.5, particulate pollution smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that can enter the lungs and bloodstream and cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems. In addition to particles emitted directly into the atmosphere, ammonia (NH₃), nitrogen oxides (NO_X), and sulfur dioxide (SO₂), which are emitted by factories, ships, cars, and power plants, are all precursors that can contribute to the formation of PM_2.5. The effects of particulate pollution are not evenly distributed, however. Y. B. Oztaner and colleagues have modeled the consequences of air pollution across the Northern Hemisphere by region, offering a more granular look at where targeted mitigation policies could be the most beneficial. Using the multiphase adjoint model of EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling platform, the authors assessed the benefits of mitigating various pollutants from the perspective of both lives and money saved. Monetary values of air pollution impacts were calculated using a well-established method used by international agencies, although the method introduces ethical concerns because it assigns values to lives partly based on different countries' per capita gross domestic products (GDP).Overall, they found that a 10% reduction in all modeled emissions could save 513,700 lives and $1.2 trillion each year in the Northern Hemisphere. The findings are published in the journal GeoHealth.The largest mortality reductions came from China and India, where cutting emissions would save 184,000 and 124,000 lives, respectively, each year. The largest cost savings were found in China, followed by Europe and North America. Health benefits also varied by type of emissions and sector. NH₃ causes more issues in China, whereas NO_X is relatively more harmful in Europe than in other places. Across the Northern Hemisphere, the agricultural sector contributes most to particulate and precursor pollution, with a 10% reduction in agriculture-related emissions projected to save 95,000 lives and an estimated $290 billion. This is followed by the residential and industrial sectors.The authors note that caution is warranted when comparing results across similar studies, in part because the link between pollutant concentrations and health outcomes is not always linear and in part because different regions may have different methodologies when accounting for emissions by sector. Also, their study focuses only on PM_2.5-related mortality and does not consider other pollutants, such as ozone. Overall, they suggest their work offers a meaningful reference for comparing the effects of different pollutant mitigation strategies in the Northern Hemisphere.

Deforestation is drying out the Amazon rainforest faster than previously thought - Deforestation is having a more devastating effect on the Amazon rainforest than earlier data suggested. While cutting down large swaths of trees destroys vital habitats, it also harms the region's ability to generate its own rainfall. According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Amazon could reach a tipping point and experience major forest dieback (where large areas of the rainforest dry out and turn into a savanna) sooner than previously thought.The Amazon rainforest is one of the wettest places on the planet, and part of the reason is that it creates its own rain. Every tree in the rainforest acts like a giant straw, pulling water up from the ground and releasing it into the air through its leaves. This moisture eventually forms clouds, which then dump the rain back onto the forest. When trees are removed, this natural cycle is broken. The air loses its moisture source, so there is less cloud formation and, consequently, far less rain. It has long been known that the Amazon is getting drier, but researchers wanted to discover whether human-driven deforestation was the main driver, rather than general climate change. To find the answer, they combined 40 years of satellite data on rainfall and forest cover with a sophisticated atmospheric model that tracks how moisture moves through the air.The results revealed a striking north-south divide. While the northern Amazon is generally seeing increased rainfall, the southern Amazon, where most logging occurs, is experiencing an annual decline of 8% to 11% in precipitation. According to the study authors, between 52% and 72% of this drying is directly linked to deforestation. They say their findings prove that the loss of trees is a main cause of declining rainfall: "Our data-driven analysis... attributes the pronounced recent decline in observed precipitation to large-scale forest cover loss, we therefore strongly corroborate previous modeling studies on deforestation-induced Amazon forest dieback." This discovery paints a perilous picture. The research team found that standard climate models have been underestimating the impact of deforestation on rainfall by up to 50%. They emphasize that since rainfall is driven by the trees themselves, the solution lies in protecting them. They write, "Slowing deforestation combined with extensive reforestation could offset the risk of major Amazon dieback caused by climate change, or at least raise the threshold of global warming that could trigger irreversible damage to the forest."

Forest Service revives Alaska timber project - - The Trump administration is resurrecting a large timber project in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, testing the Forest Service’s resolve to transition away from old-growth logging. The South Revilla Integrated Resource Management Project would open the way to harvesting 4,343 acres of old-growth forest over 15 years. In addition, 1,037 acres would be cut in young-growth areas that were previously logged. In a final environmental impact statement and draft record of decision, the Forest Service said it picked among four alternatives — including not proceeding at all — and favors the approach with the greatest overall timber harvest and the greatest tilt toward old growth. The plan envisions as much as 83 million board feet of timber. In addition, the plan would favor conventional logging practices, rather than using helicopters to remove logs, in order to reduce costs.

Forest Service nears a return to ‘fire borrowing’ unless Congress acts - As the Trump administration pushes Congress to streamline how the federal government confronts forest fires, a nagging question is beginning to brew: Where will the money to fight them come from? A deal lawmakers struck in 2018 to manage the rising cost of fire suppression runs out after 2027, and lawmakers haven’t agreed on how or when to extend it.The soon-to-expire arrangement was an off-budget disaster fund that kicks in when regular appropriations for fire suppression are exhausted. The fund, which grows each year, is set at a combined $2.9 billion for the Forest Service and Interior Department for fiscal 2026.The deal, reached after a few years of negotiations, spared the Forest Service from raiding non-fire-related accounts to pay for fire suppression — a practice called “fire borrowing” that had siphoned billions of dollars since 2002.

Fast-growing trees are taking over the forests of the future and putting biodiversity, climate resilience under pressure - Trees play a central role in life on Earth. They store CO₂, provide habitats for animals, fungi, and insects, stabilize soils, regulate water cycles, and supply resources that humans rely on—from timber and food to recreation and shade on a hot day. But the world's forests are entering a new era, characterized by homogenization, biodiversity loss, and weakened ecosystems. This is shown by a comprehensive international study published in Nature Plants. The researchers analyzed more than 31,000 tree species worldwide and provided a global picture of how forests are likely to change—in terms of composition, resilience, and ecological functioning. According to the study, forests will increasingly be dominated by fast-growing tree types, while slow-growing and more specialized species are at risk of disappearing. This is a worrying development, according to Jens-Christian Svenning, Professor and Director of the Danish National Research Foundation's Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO) at the Department of Biology, Aarhus University, and one of the leading authors of the study. He warns particularly against the loss of tree species that occur only in very limited areas of the world. "We are talking about highly unique species, especially concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions, where biodiversity is high and ecosystems are tightly interconnected. When specialized, native species disappear, they leave gaps in ecosystems that alien species rarely fill, even if those species are fast-growing and highly dispersive," says Svenning. The backbone of forests is under threat The most threatened species are often slow-growing specialists, as Svenning describes them. These are trees with thick leaves, dense wood, and long lifespans, often associated with stable environments—particularly moist tropical and subtropical forests. "They form the backbone of forest ecosystems and contribute to stability, carbon storage, and resilience to change," says Svenning. If current trends in climate change and forest exploitation continue, forests will increasingly be dominated by nature's "sprinters": trees with light leaves and low wood density that allow rapid growth in the short term. Examples include various species of acacia, eucalyptus, poplar, and pine. "Although these species establish and grow well, they are more vulnerable to drought, storms, pests, and climatic shocks. This makes forests less stable and less effective at storing carbon over the long term," says Svenning. The study also shows that nearly 41% of so-called naturalized tree species—species that do not naturally occur in a given area but now grow wild there—possess traits such as fast growth and small leaves. This makes them well-suited to disturbed environments, but they rarely perform the same ecological roles as native species, says Svenning. "Moreover, in landscapes affected by today's and tomorrow's disturbances, naturalized species can make it even harder for native trees to survive, because competition for light, water, and nutrients intensifies," he adds.

Pesticides significantly affect soil life and biodiversity, study finds -- Seventy percent of soils in Europe are contaminated with pesticides. A Europe-wide study co-led by researchers of the University of Zurich now shows that their effects on soil life are substantial, as pesticides suppress various beneficial soil organisms. To protect soil biodiversity, the findings should be taken into account in current pesticide regulations.Life beneath our feet is essential for maintaining critical ecosystem functions and services like food production, carbon storage, erosion control, and water regulation. An international study now provides the first comprehensive quantitative evidence of the prevalence and impact of agricultural pesticides in European soils. According to the results, 70% of European soils are contaminated with pesticides."This contamination has a major impact on various beneficial soil organisms, such as mycorrhizal fungi and nematodes, impairing their biodiversity," says Marcel van der Heijden, professor at the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology of the University of Zurich (UZH), research group leader at Agroscope, and one of the study leaders.The study, published in the journal Nature, was conducted by an international panel of 10 European research institutions including the Joint Research Centre of the European Union, the University of Vigo in Spain, Agroscope, and UZH. The researchers investigated the effects of 63 common pesticides on our soils. To this end, they took a total of 373 soil samples from fields, forests, and meadows across 26 European countries.Fungicides, active ingredients against fungi, were the most frequently found. They accounted for 54% of all active ingredients. Herbicides followed with 35%, and finally insecticides with 11%. The most common active ingredient was the herbicide glyphosate. Most pesticides were found in agricultural fields, but the researchers also found pesticides in forests and meadows, where pesticides are not normally applied. This was likely due to spray drift. The problem of various pesticides is that they not only affect pests that damage our crops but also beneficial soil organisms. The researchers examined the biodiversity of soil organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and single-celled organisms, in soil samples. They found that pesticides drastically change living soil communities."Mycorrhizal fungi, which are important for our crops, are particularly affected by pesticides," says soil ecologist van der Heijden. Mycorrhizal fungi connect to the roots of crops and help them absorb water and nutrients. The fungicide bixafen, used to combat harmful fungi on cereals, is particularly noteworthy, as it also affects many of the soil organisms studied. "Some soil organisms, especially various types of bacteria, benefit from the use of pesticides, probably because other organisms are reduced," adds first author Julia Königer from the University of Vigo. The researchers were able to show that pesticide residues alter soil function. They demonstrated this by testing key genes for soil functions such as the recovery and release of nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. "This suggests that the natural function of the affected soil is reduced, and additional fertilization is necessary to maintain yields," says van der Heijden.

Microplastics found in a third of surveyed fish off the coasts of remote Pacific Islands - A third of fish living in the remote coastal waters of the Pacific Island Countries and Territories are contaminated with microplastics, with especially high rates in Fiji, according to an analysis published in PLOS One by Jasha Dehm at the University of the South Pacific and colleagues. Microplastic pollution in marine environments is a global issue impacting ecosystems and human health. Despite their remoteness, the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) may be particularly vulnerable to microplastic pollution because of rapid urbanization and limited waste and water management systems. Many coastal communities there rely on fish for nutrition, livelihoods and culture, so they might be impacted by consuming contaminated food. However, there has been little research on microplastic contamination in fish consumed in the PICTs. To address this knowledge gap, researchers assessed the prevalence of microplastics in 878 coastal fish from 138 species caught by fishing communities around Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, using published data from the Global Information Biodiversity Facility. Around a third of fish contained at least one microplastic particle, but contamination rates varied between islands. In Fiji, nearly 75% of fish contained microplastics, significantly higher than the global average of 49%. However, while the frequency of microplastic occurrence was high, how much plastic was found in each fish was very low. In contrast, just 5% of fish caught in Vanuatu were contaminated with microplastics. Although each island hosts different fish communities, two species were present in the catch from all four countries—the thumbprint emperor (Lethrinus harak) and the dash-and-dot goatfish (Parupeneus barberinus)—and both showed higher levels of microplastic contamination in Fiji than other islands.Using data from a global database of fish species, the researchers investigated how different ecological traits, such as diet, feeding strategy and habitat, influenced rates of microplastic contamination.Reef fish and bottom-dwelling fish were more frequently contaminated with microplastics compared to coastal/lagoon fish and open ocean fish. Species that feed on invertebrates, bottom-feeders, and those that use ambush tactics to catch prey were also more likely to contain microplastics than other fish.Species that feed on invertebrates, bottom-feeders, and those that use ambush tactics to catch prey were also more likely to contain microplastics than other fish. The study highlights the pervasiveness of microplastic pollution even in some of the most remote places on Earth. The high rate of microplastic contamination in Fiji compared to other islands and to the global average may be due to high population density, extensive coastal development and less effective waste management practices. Understanding how ecological traits affect fishes' likelihood of consuming microplastics could help policymakers identify the ecosystems and human communities at greatest risk, the authors say. Dehm says, "The consistent pattern of high contamination in reef-associated species across borders confirms ecological traits as key exposure predictors, while national disparities highlight the failure of current waste management systems, or lack thereof to protect even remote island ecosystems." Dr. Amanda Ford adds, "While microplastic levels in Pacific fish are generally lower than in many industrialized regions, Pacific communities rely far more heavily on fish as a primary protein source. Combined with major data gaps across the region, this makes locally generated evidence essential as Global Plastics Treaty negotiations advance and are translated into national policies." Dr. Rufino Varea adds, "Beyond the ecological insights, this study delivers a stark warning about the vulnerability of our food systems: we found that the reef-associated and bottom-feeding fish most accessible to our subsistence fishers are acting as reservoirs for synthetic pollution, particularly in Fiji, where nearly three-quarters of sampled individuals contained microplastics. "The dominance of fibers in these samples challenges the assumption that marine litter is solely a visible, coastal management issue; it indicates a pervasive infiltration of textile and gear-derived contaminants into the very diet of our communities. "This data shatters the illusion that our remoteness offers protection and provides the evidentiary basis we need to reject downstream solutions—such as recycling schemes—as insufficient. Instead, it compels us to demand a Global Plastics Treaty that enforces strict caps on primary plastic production and toxic additives, as this is the only viable way to safeguard the health and food security of Pacific peoples."

Environmental trade-offs of biodegradable plastics revealed -Switching to biodegradable plastics could slash toxic pollution by more than a third and dramatically reduce global waste by mid-century, but only if cities and companies invest in the right disposal systems, a Yale School of the Environment study found. Without proper composting facilities, biodegradable plastics could double greenhouse gas emissions. The research published in Nature Reviews Clean Technology is the first to project the environmental impact of biodegradable plastics through their entire lifecycle at a global scale, from the acquisition of raw materials through all end-of-life possibilities, including if they end up as microplastics in the environment.The findings show that substituting as much conventional plastic as possible with biodegradable alternatives could reduce ecotoxicity up to 34% by 2050, with little change to energy demand. It would also reduce global waste accumulation up to 65% when combined with ideal waste management for conventional plastics.Achieving these benefits, though, requires that the materials are properly managed at end of life with methods such as industrial composting and anaerobic digestion. If biodegradable alternatives end up in landfills, it could double greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers also found that production of bio-based alternatives would increase the industry's water footprint more than twice the current amount, largely because of the water required to grow biomass."Biodegradable plastics can definitely help with plastic waste accumulation and ecotoxicity, but the benefits may not hold if their end-of-life isn't managed properly," said Yuan Yao, an associate professor of industrial ecology and sustainable systems and the study's senior author. "We need to have more infrastructure for the proper treatment of biodegradable plastics, and we need to have good education for how to use them."The study builds on research Yao and postdoctoral associate Zhengyin Piao conducted in 2024 in which they developed a method to assess the environmental impacts of biodegradable microplastics in waterways. That earlier research uncovered a trade-off: faster degrading options led to lower ecotoxicity but more greenhouse gas emissions.The method they developed in the earlier research also enabled them to forecast the impact of plastic production across multiple dimensions of sustainability, and they used that in the new study to account for what portion of conventional plastic technically could be replaced, different scenarios for waste management, increases in global plastic use, and variations in local conditions, such as temperature.The researchers said the findings highlight the need to maximize the benefits of the growing biodegradable plastics market, including more research into water-efficient raw materials and investments into expanded waste management infrastructure—from anaerobic digesters for biodegradable plastics to facilities for recycling and treating conventional ones. They also pointed to the need for standardized labeling schemes to avoid consumer confusion and to ensure plastics are separated and disposed of properly."Biodegradable plastic is not just one thing," Yao said. "It's a very big group of different kinds of plastics, so one important question is how we label those different materials and educate consumers about the differences."The authors also stressed that biodegradable plastics are only part of the solution."Conventional plastics will still dominate the future plastic market, and if we do not address conventional plastics, we cannot effectively reduce waste accumulation," said Piao, lead author of the study. "But if we consider a combined strategy—minimizing the landfilling of conventional plastics and increasing use of biodegradable plastics at the same time—we can flatten the trend of future waste accumulation."

Research looks at health of humans and dogs in East Palestine, 3 years after train derailment - The Allegheny Front - February 3, 2026, marks three years since a massive train derailment and chemical burn in East Palestine, Ohio, released over a million pounds of vinyl chloride, used in making plastic, and other industrial chemicals into the air and water outside, and also inside buildings and homes. In the weeks that followed, hundreds of people reported health symptoms including headaches, coughs and respiratory issues. Since then, there have been numerous studies looking at the impacts to public health and the environment. Juliane Beier, an assistant professor of medicine in gastroenterology at the University of Pittsburgh, studies how the liver is affected when it’s exposed to vinyl chloride. The chemical was purposefully vented from five of the tank cars in East Palestine, which exploded and spread throughout the community. Beier is currently studying 120 people who live within a 10-mile radius of the derailment as part of her second study cohort in the area. For those who have had liver health tests so far, “we do have about 30-some percent with blood markers of liver damage,” she said. While that sounds like a lot, Beier said that it’s not necessarily different from U.S. populations in certain areas of the country. Alcohol consumption and obesity are risk factors for liver disease, and these can be especially high in rural areas like East Palestine, according to Beier.“So at this time, we can’t really say this is due to the derailment,” Beier said. “It could be other risk factors causing this. This is why it’s so important to come in, like every year from now, to look at their progression.”She said liver cancer can take 10 or 20 years to develop, but exposure to chemicals can speed up its progress. Her team tested indoor air and water in 100 homes close to the derailment site for vinyl chloride and other volatile organic compounds. She said one person who lives close to the derailment site, and whose home had concerning air quality test results, had a liver scan that shows they “…probably ha[ve] advanced liver disease,” even though they are relatively young, had normal blood markers for liver disease, have a “normal” body weight, and were not drinking alcohol. “It is concerning,” Beier said. In the next few weeks, Beier plans to recruit more nearby residents to track their liver and thyroid health. She also offers advice to people who fear their homes are contaminated: Keep the windows open when possible to release any chemicals that are trapped inside.

Senate Democrats blast Zeldin’s EPA over proposal to roll back federal water protections - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and 15 other Senate Democrats took aim at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday. They said the agency’s plan to limit federal water protections ignores science and threatens drinking water for millions of Americans. In a letter sent on January 28 to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Army Corps of Engineers Assistant Secretary Adam Telle, they rebuked a proposed “Waters of the United States” rule. Unveiled in November, the WOTUS proposal limits which waterways fall under the Clean Water Act’s federal jurisdiction, thereby eliminating protections for wetlands and temporary streams. “The Trump administration is once again ignoring the science and shifting the cost of pollution onto families and communities, all to benefit big corporations,” Gillibrand said. According to her coalition, the states will have to foot the bill for enforcing environmental protections, with utility customers disproportionately bearing the cost of improving water quality. The government would redefine “relatively permanent” waters as those that are “standing or continuously flowing year-round or at least during the wet season.” Wetlands would only receive federal protection when they physically touch a larger, protected body of water and can maintain surface water. That redefinition would exclude wetlands separated by dry land and man-made barriers, or those that only fill during storms. “Ephemeral” streams or vernal pools that only exist seasonally or after rainfall are also left out. Other technical changes include removing “interstate waters” as a protected category, so a lake or stream that crosses state lines wouldn’t be automatically federally protected. Also excluded would be farmland developed before 1985, ditches constructed on dry land, and groundwater. Telle has said the changes would provide “durable regulatory certainty” that Americans deserve. Former New York lawmaker Zeldin agreed, framing the new policy as providing clarity for landowners, farmers, and entrepreneurs struggling with shifting regulations.

NWS data show heavy snow and significant ice from the January 2026 U.S. winter storm - 5 YouTube videos - Official data from the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center (WPC) confirms widespread snow, sleet, and freezing rain accumulations across large portions of the United States during the January 23–26, 2026, winter storm. Preliminary data show snowfall exceeded 50 cm (20 inches) in parts of New England and the interior Northeast, while ice accretions reached 25 mm (1 inch) across portions of the Carolinas and northern Georgia. The system’s departure early on January 26 ended four days of significant winter weather affecting more than a dozen states. satellite image winterstorm over united states at 2120 utc january 25 2026 A major winter storm that developed over the central United States on January 23 and moved eastward toward the Atlantic Coast by January 26 produced heavy snow, extensive ice accumulation, and widespread travel disruption. According to the Weather Prediction Center, the system’s coastal low reached a minimum central pressure of 996 hPa south of Cape Cod at 03:00 EST (08:00 UTC) on January 26 before moving offshore. The highest measured snowfall totals were observed across southern New England and parts of New York State. In Massachusetts, Middleton recorded 52 cm (20.5 inches), while Holden and Newburyport each reported 51 cm (20 inches). Grafton and Ludlow both measured 48 cm (19 inches). Worcester Regional Airport reported 44 cm (17.5 inches), and Boston measured 42 cm (16.7 inches).Ad ends in 8 In Connecticut, Coventry registered 46 cm (18.2 inches), while Eastford, Glastonbury, and Simsbury each recorded 46 cm (18 inches). Several locations in Rhode Island and southeastern New York State reported comparable totals — Providence received 42 cm (16.7 inches), and New City, New York, 45 cm (17.6 inches). Snowfall across northern New England was slightly lower but still significant. Portland Jetport, Maine, recorded 24 cm (9.5 inches), Auburn, 23 cm (9 inches), and York, 21 cm (8.1 inches). In New Hampshire, Newton measured 41 cm (16 inches), Plaistow 36 cm (14 inches), and Derry 30 cm (12 inches). Vermont totals reached up to 30 cm (12 inches) at Springfield. In the Mid-Atlantic, parts of Pennsylvania reported totals near 58 cm (23 inches) at New Bethlehem and 51 cm (20 inches) at Clintonville. Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio recorded widespread totals of 35–45 cm (14–18 inches). Zanesville, Ohio, measured 43 cm (16.9 inches), and Bellaire, 41 cm (16.3 inches). Illinois totals reached 36 cm (14 inches) in Johnston City and 33 cm (13 inches) in Olney. In Missouri, Fredericktown measured 37 cm (14.5 inches), and St. Louis reported 30 cm (12 inches). Arkansas recorded 30 cm (12 inches) at Mount Nebo State Park and Siloam Springs. Indiana reported 37 cm (14.5 inches) in Columbus and 36 cm (14.2 inches) in Batesville. In the southern Plains, snow reached 78 cm (31 inches) in Bonito Lake, New Mexico, and 47 cm (18.5 inches) at Sawpit, Colorado. Kansas generally reported 20–25 cm (8–10 inches), while Oklahoma saw local maxima up to 36 cm (14 inches). The heaviest sleet accumulations were observed in Arkansas, where Little Rock reported 17 cm (6.7 inches). Searcy measured 16 cm (6.3 inches), and Catholic Point 14 cm (5.5 inches). Louisiana recorded up to 15 cm (6 inches) in Ringgold and 13 cm (5 inches) in Dubach. Mississippi reported 14 cm (5.5 inches) in Marks and 13 cm (5 inches) in Duncan and Senatobia. Tennessee reported up to 13 cm (5 inches) in Arlington and Ripley. Alabama measured 5 cm (2 inches) of sleet in Florence, while Oklahoma reported up to 13 cm (5 inches) in Poteau. In Virginia and West Virginia, sleet locally reached 7–10 cm (3–4 inches). The most significant freezing rain occurred across northern Georgia, the Carolinas, and parts of Tennessee. In South Carolina, Greenville–Spartanburg reported 25 mm (1 inch) of ice, with similar measurements in Easley, Pumpkintown, and Seneca. Georgia stations such as Clayton and Vogel State Park each recorded 19 mm (0.75 inch), while Toccoa reported 15 mm (0.6 inch). North Carolina measurements included 13 mm (0.5 inch) in Hendersonville, Mills River, and Concord. Isolated ice accretions were recorded in Kentucky, where Pointer reported 20 mm (0.78 inch) and Glasgow 19 mm (0.75 inch). Louisiana recorded 25 mm (1 inch) at Rayville and 19 mm (0.75 inch) at Chatham. Mississippi totals reached 25 mm (1 inch) at several stations, including Oxford and Glen. In the Mid-Atlantic and central Appalachians, freezing rain totals of 10–13 mm (0.4–0.5 inch) were measured across Virginia and West Virginia, including Byllesby with 20 mm (0.8 inch) and Dunbar with 19 mm (0.75 inch). In total, measurable snow, sleet, or freezing rain was observed in at least 20 states. Heavy snow dominated from the Ozarks through the Ohio Valley and into New England, while the ice storm zone extended from northern Mississippi and Alabama eastward into the Carolinas. By 04:00 EST (09:00 UTC) on January 26, most precipitation had ended as the coastal low moved off the East Coast. At 09:00 EST, National Weather Service radar showed snow continuing across upstate New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. As the cold front moved offshore, a coastal low near New England and a trailing shortwave trough maintained areas of steady snowfall, with additional upslope snow showers developing along the Appalachians. By 10:00 EST, Winter Storm Warnings remained in effect across New England, while Extreme Cold Watches, Warnings, and Cold Weather Advisories covered much of the central and eastern United States. All reported amounts are preliminary and based on National Weather Service and Weather Prediction Center data collected through 03:00 EST (08:00 UTC) on January 26. Final verified totals will be issued by local NWS offices once field reports are reviewed.

Bitter cold grips millions as US digs out of sweeping snowstorm - Millions of Americans were facing dangerously cold temperatures Monday in the wake of a massive winter storm that whipped snow and ice across the country, knocking out power and paralyzing transportation. A frigid, potentially life-threatening Arctic air mass threatened to delay clean-up as municipalities from New Mexico to Maine tried to dig out following the storm, which dropped a vicious cocktail of heavy snow and wind along with freezing rain and sleet. Over 780,000 customers remained without electricity, the Poweroutage.com tracking site showed. Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana—southern states unaccustomed to intense winter weather and the bone-chilling cold that's forecast to continue for much of the next week—were especially impacted. Approximately 190 million people in the United States were under some form of extreme cold alert, the National Weather Service (NWS) told AFP. Areas across 20 states received at least a foot of snow (30.5 cm), and in many cases far more. The NWS said New Mexico's Bonito Lake accumulated the highest US total over the weekend with 31 inches (78.7 cm). A compilation of local media reports tallied at least 21 storm-related deaths. NWS meteorologist Allison Santorelli told AFP the agency was seeing widespread reports of significant ice accumulation, including in places unaccustomed to severe winter weather. She said this storm recovery was particularly challenging because so many states were impacted—meaning northern states with more resources were unable to share their equipment and resources with less-prepared southern areas. "A lot of those locations don't have the means or the resources to clean up after these events," she said. "We're particularly concerned about the folks in those areas that are without power right now." Dave Radell, an NWS meteorologist based in New York, told AFP that the character of this storm's snow was "very dry" and "fluffy," meaning the wind could lash it around with ease, impeding roadway-clearing efforts and visibility. Millions of Americans were facing dangerously cold temperatures for at least several days. The snowfall and biting icy pellets that pummeled cities saw impassable roads, canceled buses and trains along with grounded flights—thousands of departures and arrivals were scrapped over the weekend—as concern turned to the hazardous temperatures set to linger for the better part of a week. The brutal storm system was the result of a stretched polar vortex, an Arctic region of cold, low-pressure air that normally forms a relatively compact, circular system but sometimes morphs into a more oval shape, sending cold air pouring across North America. Scientists say the increasing frequency of such disruptions may be linked to climate change, though the debate is not settled and natural variability plays a role. People in the Great Lakes region woke up to extreme temperatures that could cause frostbite on exposed skin within minutes—in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the NWS reported early morning temperatures as low as an excruciating -23F (-30.6C). Forecasted windchills in those areas that make the apparent temperature even more frigid could hit as low as -50F (-45.6C), the weather authority said. As far south as the Gulf Coast was expected to see freezing temperatures each night into the end of the week. At least 20 states and the US capital Washington were under states of emergency in order to deploy emergency personnel and resources. Many cities had opened warming centers for those without shelter or without power to take refuge, and authorities across the country were continuing to encourage residents who could to stay home.

Major U.S. winter storm claims at least 24 lives in 14 states, leaves over 1 million customers without power - YouTube videos - A major winter storm swept across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. over the weekend, claiming at least 24 lives as of Monday, January 26, 2026. Over a million customers, roughly 2.5 million people, were left without power as snowstorms hit the northern and northeastern regions, while freezing rain and ice storms wreaked havoc in the south. States of emergency have been declared across multiple regions as the storm’s impacts linger. New York reported at least 6 fatalities, followed by Texas and Tennessee, both of which reported three deaths, and Louisiana, with two. Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have each reported at least one death. Five people in New York City were found dead outside on Saturday before the snowfall began, said Mayor Zoharan Mamdani. Another death was reported on Sunday, bringing the total to six. Snowfall totals reached over 33 cm (13 inches) in parts of the state by January 26. A 16-year-old girl died, and another teen is in critical condition after a tragic sledding accident during an intense winter storm in Frisco, Texas. The Frisco Police Department said they responded to the area of Majestic Gardens Drive and Killian Court around 14:26 local time for a reported accident. They found two 16-year-old girls with life-threatening injuries. They were both transported to the hospital, where one died, and the other girl remains in critical condition, according to the police department. Investigators believe a 16-year-old boy was driving a Jeep Wrangler while pulling the two girls on a sled. Witnesses told police that the sled struck a curb and then collided with a tree. Local officials have warned that the death toll may rise as rescue and welfare checks continue in isolated areas affected by power loss and frozen roads. YouTube video Record-breaking snowfall was reported across multiple states, including Ohio, where Dayton recorded 31.5 cm (12.4 inches) on January 25. This was a new all-time record for the heaviest 24-hour snowfall in the area, according to the NWS office in Wilmington. Heavy freezing rain and ice storms caused significant damage across the southern states. Over a million customers were without power across the country on January 26, with Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas being the worst hit. This amounts to roughly 2.5 million people. Utilities reported extensive damage to transmission lines and substations due to ice accumulation and high demand. Emergency shelters have been opened in several cities as temperatures dropped below −20°C (−4°F) in parts of the Midwest and below freezing across the Gulf Coast. YouTube video Between 13 000 and 15 000 flights were cancelled nationwide between January 24 and 26, with major hubs such as Atlanta, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Chicago O’Hare reporting cascading delays. This was the worst air travel disruption to occur in the U.S. since the Covid-19 pandemic, when around 23 000 flights were cancelled. State transportation departments reported widespread road closures due to black ice, snowdrifts, and jackknifed vehicles, particularly along sections of I-40 and I-70. Governors in multiple states, along with Washington, D.C., declared states of emergency to expedite utility repairs and coordinate disaster response. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and National Guard units were deployed to assist with power restoration and relief operations.

Toronto Pearson sets all-time daily snowfall record as January 2026 becomes snowiest month since records began, Canada – videos - A powerful winter storm delivered record-breaking snowfall across Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 25, 2026, with 46 cm (18.1 inches) measured at Toronto Pearson International Airport as of 05:00 LT on January 26. This marks the highest single-day snowfall recorded since observations at the airport began in 1937. The event established new daily and monthly records for the site and caused widespread disruption across the Greater Toronto Area. A strong low-pressure system passed south of the Great Lakes on Sunday, January 25, producing a large snowstorm across much of southern Ontario. The system brought prolonged heavy snowfall, strong winds, and near-zero visibility in blowing snow, resulting in widespread travel disruption. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) reported that the storm “created significant impacts on transportation with frequently dangerous winter driving conditions,” and led to the closure of many schools across the Greater Toronto Area and Waterloo Region. At Toronto Pearson International Airport, 46 cm (18.1 inches) of snow fell during the 24-hour period on Sunday, the highest single-day snowfall ever recorded at the site since observations began in 1937. This brought the January 2026 monthly total to 88.2 cm (34.7 inches), making it both the snowiest January and the snowiest calendar month on record for Pearson. Toronto City Centre (Billy Bishop) measured 56 cm (22 inches), while other official sites reported 42 cm (16.5 inches) in Trenton, 34 cm (13.4 inches) in Belleville, and 32 cm (12.6 inches) at the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre in Downsview. Unofficial volunteers reported 40–60 cm (15.7–23.6 inches) across Toronto, 30–46 cm (11.8–18.1 inches) in Mississauga–Milton, 30 cm (11.8 inches) in Waterdown, and 15–30 cm (5.9–11.8 inches) in Burlington. All official totals were recorded as of 05:00 local time on January 26. YouTube videoAccording to Cirium flight data, about 41 percent of scheduled flights at Toronto Pearson were cancelled on January 25, while hundreds more were delayed as crews worked to clear runways and de-ice aircraft. Major highways, including segments of Highway 401 and the Don Valley Parkway, experienced closures and stranded vehicles. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) reported major delays and partial subway suspensions on January 26. Both the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) cancelled classes for the day. The City of Toronto activated its Major Snow Event Response Plan, declaring a Major Snowstorm Condition and Significant Weather Event to expedite cleanup. Crews deployed large-scale removal equipment across arterial and residential areas, advising residents to avoid non-essential travel while operations continued.

Ice storm triggers shelter-in-place order for Oxford, Mississippi - impressive videos - An ice storm brought dangerous conditions to northern Mississippi over the weekend, prompting authorities in Oxford to issue a shelter-in-place order on January 25, 2026. The storm caused extensive damage and left at least one person dead elsewhere in the state. Ice storms left behind significant damage across Mississippi over the weekend as a major winter storm swept across the country. Trees and lines were downed across the state as ice accumulations reached up to 2.5 cm (1 inch) in some areas. 13 mm (0.5 inches) of freezing rain was recorded in Yalobusha County, while multiple other counties reported 6 mm (0.25 inches) or more, according to the National Weather Service (NWS. Meanwhile, Quitman County reported 14 cm (5.5 inches) of sleet, while Tate County reported 13.5 cm (5.3 inches) through the weekend. Snowfall totals in Tipton County reached 14 cm (5.5 inches), while Gibson County reported 13 cm (5 inches) and Obion County 11 cm (4.5 inches) by January 25. Governor Tate Reeves had declared a State of Emergency, effective until January 27, to speed up funding for recovery efforts. A Tishomingo County man aged 73 died after a tree collapsed under the weight of ice on top of his mobile home west of Iuka, according to coroner Mack Wilemon. The tree fell onto the room where the man was sleeping, pinning him beneath a large limb and exposing him to freezing temperatures. He was found deceased at around 11:00 local time (LT) by a cousin during a welfare check. More than 24 000 residents lost power across Oxford (population 27 000) on January 25, where ice accumulation of around 25 mm (1 inch) coated trees and power infrastructure, causing widespread damage and leaving most roads impassable. The North East Mississippi Electric Power Association and Oxford Utilities reported nearly complete outages across the city and Lafayette County by early morning. Utility crews were forced to halt restoration work as falling trees and power lines created unsafe conditions. Officials issued a shelter-in-place order shortly after sunrise, warning that travel was extremely hazardous and emergency access was limited. Residents were urged to remain indoors, avoid driving, and treat all downed lines as live. Several government buildings, including the municipal court, environmental services, and driver service bureaus, were closed, and first responders prioritized life-safety calls only. Over 180 000 customers across Mississippi were without power at the height of the storm, while over 150 000 customers remained without power as of January 26. Universities across the state have announced closures, while others have scheduled remote learning. Driver service bureaus in multiple locations were closed on January 26. These include bureaus in Batesville, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, Corinth, Greenville, Greenwood, Grenada, Jackson, Kosciusko, Meridian, Nesbit, New Albany, Newton, Olive Branch, Oxford, Pearl, Philadelphia, Richland, Starkville, Tupelo, and Vicksburg. Meanwhile, bureaus at Biloxi, Brookhaven, Gautier, Gulfport-Airport, Hattiesburg, Hattiesburg West, Laurel, Kiln, Natchez, and Picayune will have a delayed opening at 10:00 (LT), announced the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. The ice storm was associated with a major winter storm that swept across the eastern United States from January 23 to 26, claiming at least 24 lives across 14 states. Around 13 000 flights were reportedly cancelled as the storm left over a million customers without power across the country.

FORECAST: We’ve reached a new low — The National Weather Service has issued a COLD WEATHER ADVISORY for Ashland, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Holmes, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Sandusky, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties, from 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30, to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31. Wind chills as low as 10 to 20 degrees below zero are expected. At those temperatures, frostbite and hypothermia can occur on unprotected skin in as little as 30 minutes. Water pipes may rupture from prolonged exposure. Temperatures tumbled well below zero on Friday morning — enough to shatter the record in Cleveland. The new record on this date is -10. The old record of -4 was set in 1873. Akron/Canton and Youngstown broke records too! Multiple communities fell below -10 too! There was dangerous cold in Ashtabula County, where Rome dropped to -31 degrees! The bright spot during this cold is more sunshine is expected today and there won’t be any lake effect snow. Expect highs in the low teens with single digit wind chills in the afternoon. More sunshine expected Friday. Friday night into Saturday morning will feature more sub-zero readings. This time, we’re going to add some cloud cover and wind. Expect near-record cold temperatures Saturday morning, with sub-zero temperatures expected for everyone away from the lake. Cleveland’s record low is -5 set in 1971 on Saturday, Jan. 31. Akron/Canton’s was -5 in 1948.

Youngstown, Ohio area records new record-low temperature - Cold blasts of arctic air and negative temperatures have been happening lately in the Valley. It has been a below-average January so far in terms of temperatures, and that only continues as the month nears its end. Friday morning, a new record-low temperature was recorded in the area. The -10-degree temperature on Friday morning broke the record for the lowest temperature recorded on January 30. This was observed at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. The previous record was -8 degrees set back on this day in 1965. Data is taken from the airport due to fewer environmental factors affecting the reading. In the actual city of Youngstown, roadways and building skew measurements. This could be due to multiple factors, but one most noted is the urban heat island effect. This is when roadways absorb radiation and re-emit it to the air, warming the surrounding environment. Keep an eye out, though, as cold air sticks around into this weekend. We could have another shot at breaking another record heading into early Saturday.

See it: Cars frozen to street in Cleveland- A couple of cars were reportedly frozen to the street after a water line broke early Thursday morning. (no thaw expected in the 30 day forecast)

New record low set at Akron-Canton Airport Saturday morning A low of minus 20 was recorded at the Akron Fulton Airport early Saturday. Another record was set Friday morning, when the temperature dropped to minus 7.

New record low temperature set in Columbus Saturday morning — Our stretch of bitter cold weather continued into the weekend and some of the coldest temperatures so far this season were recorded across central and southern Ohio. Many recorded temperatures into the -10s, with wind chills as low as -30! Temperatures were so cold they broke records. A new record low was set in Columbus as the temperature dropped to -9°. This broke the previous record for Jan. 31 of -6° set in 2004. Here's a look at some of the lowest temperatures that were observed across central and southern Ohio on Saturday morning. Not all of these temperatures are record lows, as each observation station does not have a full list of record-keeping.

How the polar vortex and warm ocean intensified a major US winter storm - A severe winter storm that brought crippling freezing rain, sleet and snow to a large part of the U.S. in late January 2026 left a mess in states from New Mexico to New England. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power across the South as ice pulled down tree branches and power lines, more than a foot of snow fell in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, and many states faced bitter cold that was expected to linger for days. The sudden blast may have come as a shock to many Americans after a mostly mild start to winter, but that warmth may have partly contributed to the ferocity of the storm.To understand what Americans are experiencing with this winter blast, we need to look more than 20 miles above the surface of Earth, to the stratospheric polar vortex. Winter storms typically develop where there are sharp temperature contrasts near the surface and a southward dip in the jet stream, the narrow band of fast-moving air that steers weather systems. If there is a substantial source of moisture, the storms can produce heavy rain or snow.In late January, a strong Arctic air mass from the north was creating the temperature contrast with warmer air from the south. Multiple disturbances within the jet stream were acting together to create favorable conditions for precipitation, and the storm system was able to pull moisture from the very warm Gulf of Mexico. The fastest winds of the jet stream occur just below the top of the troposphere, which is the lowest level of the atmosphere and ends about seven miles above Earth's surface. Weather systems are capped at the top of the troposphere because the atmosphere above it becomes very stable.The stratosphere is the next layer up, from about seven miles to about 30 miles. While the stratosphere extends high above weather systems, it can still interact with them through atmospheric waves that move up and down in the atmosphere. These waves are similar to the waves in the jet stream that cause it to dip southward, but they move vertically instead of horizontally.You've probably heard the term "polar vortex" used when an area of cold Arctic air moves far enough southward to influence the United States. That term describes air circulating around the pole, but it can refer to two different circulations, one in the troposphere and one in the stratosphere.The Northern Hemisphere stratospheric polar vortex is a belt of fast-moving air circulating around the North Pole. It is like a second jet stream, high above the one you may be familiar with from weather graphics, and usually less wavy and closer to the pole.Sometimes the stratospheric polar vortex can stretch southward over the United States. When that happens, it creates ideal conditions for the up-and-down movement of waves that connect the stratosphere with severe winter weather at the surface.The forecast for the January storm showed a close overlap between the southward stretch of the stratospheric polar vortex and the jet stream over the U.S., indicating perfect conditions for cold and snow.The biggest swings in the jet stream are associated with the most energy. Under the right conditions, that energy can bounce off the polar vortex back down into the troposphere, exaggerating the north-south swings of the jet stream across North America and making severe winter weather more likely. This is what was happening in late January 2026 in the central and eastern U.S.

Over 100 fatalities confirmed after major January 2026 U.S. winter storm – 6 YouTube videos -Up to 115 fatalities have been reported across more than 20 states in the U.S. after a historic winter storm swept through the eastern two-thirds of the country between January 24 and 26, 2026. The storm is now the deadliest since the 2021 Texas power crisis, when multiple storms claimed nearly 250 lives across the country, and has surpassed the death toll of the 2022 Buffalo Blizzard of the Century. While death toll reports vary due to the large spread of fatalities across more than 20 states, estimates range between 108 and 115. The storm has surpassed the fatality total of the December 2022 North American Blizzard/Buffalo Blizzard of the Century, which had claimed around 106 lives across the U.S. It is now the deadliest winter storm to hit the U.S. since the 2021 Texas Power Crisis, which had resulted in nearly 250 casualties. New York has reported the highest casualties so far, with 15 people being reported dead in New York City and Long Island. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Department of Military reported 14 fatalities across eight counties. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear confirmed that there were at least 10 fatalities due to storm-related incidents over the weekend, while one person was reported dead due to hypothermia in Jefferson County on January 28. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves reported at least 10 fatalities across the state, while nine fatalities were reported in both Texas and Indiana, each including children. The Frisco Police Department in Texas said they responded to the area of Majestic Gardens Drive and Killian Court around 14:26 local time for a reported accident. They found two 16-year-old girls with life-threatening injuries. They were both transported to the hospital, where one died, and the other girl remains in critical condition, according to the police department. Investigators believe a 16-year-old boy was driving a Jeep Wrangler while pulling the two girls on a sled. Witnesses told police that the sled struck a curb and then collided with a tree. Three young brothers in North Texas drowned after falling through ice on a private pond near Bonham. The boys, all under 10 years old, were not publicly named by the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office. Six people died when a business jet crashed during takeoff as a snowstorm moved in and visibility diminished in Maine on Sunday night. The Bombardier Challenger 600 flipped over and burned during takeoff at Bangor International Airport around 19:45 LT on the night of January 25 as the winter storm began to reach the area. At least two people were reported dead in Montreal, Canada, due to the storm. YouTube videoThe storm developed over the central United States on January 23 and moved eastward toward the Atlantic Coast by January 26, producing heavy snow, extensive ice accumulation, and widespread travel disruption. According to the Weather Prediction Center, the system’s coastal low reached a minimum central pressure of 996 hPa south of Cape Cod at 03:00 EST (08:00 UTC) on January 26 before moving offshore. Little Rock recorded 15.2 cm (6 inches) of snow by the morning of January 24, shattering the previous daily record for snowfall of 10.2 cm (4 inches) set in 1899. This record is yet to be confirmed by the NWS office in Little Rock, which confirmed a daily snowfall record of 19.8 cm (7.8 inches) set at North Little Rock on January 24, the highest snowfall total on record for that day. YouTube videoMeanwhile, Oklahoma City recorded 11 cm (4.4 inches) of snow on January 24, which broke the previous daily snowfall record set in 1948. Dayton, Ohio, recorded 31.5 cm (12.4 inches) on January 25. This was a new all-time record for the heaviest 24-hour snowfall in the area, according to the NWS office in Wilmington.The highest measured snowfall totals were observed across southern New England and parts of New York State. In Massachusetts, Middleton recorded 52 cm (20.5 inches), while Holden and Newburyport each reported 51 cm (20 inches). Grafton and Ludlow both measured 48 cm (19 inches). Worcester Regional Airport reported 44 cm (17.5 inches), and Boston measured 42 cm (16.7 inches). The heaviest sleet accumulations were observed in Arkansas, where Little Rock reported 17 cm (6.7 inches). Searcy measured 16 cm (6.3 inches), and Catholic Point 14 cm (5.5 inches). Louisiana recorded up to 15 cm (6 inches) in Ringgold and 13 cm (5 inches) in Dubach. Mississippi reported 14 cm (5.5 inches) in Marks and 13 cm (5 inches) in Duncan and Senatobia.

Another East Coast Storm Brewing After Widespread Power Outages --Another winter storm system may hit the East Coast this weekend, just days after a major storm brought widespread power outages due to ice and snow across a broad swath of the eastern United States. A street during a winter storm in New York City on Jan. 25, 2026. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times “Forecasts are being monitored for increasing potential of another significant winter storm to impact the eastern United States this coming weekend,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Jan. 27. The NWS added that “well below normal temperatures” will continue for the eastern part of the United States for this week, predicting yet “another blast of arctic air” that will spread from the Plains states to the East Coast, including the South, on Friday and Saturday. Record low temperatures are to be expected, including in Florida. At least 30 people have died due to the storm and cold, authorities in multiple states confirmed as of Monday evening. In New York City, at least five people were found dead outside amid freezing temperatures, with causes under investigation but possibly attributed to hypothermia, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.Louisiana officials said two men died of hypothermia in Caddo Parish, while two teenagers perished in sledding accidents in Arkansas and Texas. In Emporia, Kansas, a K-9 police team found a schoolteacher dead, covered in snow. More than 500,000 people were without power, mostly across the southern United States, according to a Tuesday morning update from tracking website Poweroutage.us.. Tennessee had 170,000 outages, while Mississippi reported 140,000 and Louisiana 99,000 due to an icy snowstorm that hit the region this past weekend, the site shows. Other states with thousands of outages include Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina. The United States had more than 12,000 flight delays or cancellations nationwide on Monday, according to flight tracker Flightaware.com. As of Tuesday morning, roughly 1,700 cancellations across the country and another 2,600 delays were reported.New York City had its snowiest day in years, with 8 to 15 inches of snow. Although public schools shut down, roughly 500,000 students were told to log in for online lessons on Monday. The nation’s largest public school system stripped away snow days after remote learning gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee suffered widespread damage to power infrastructure, with areas such as New Albany, Mississippi, facing one week without power. Mississippi deployed 200,000 gallons of ice-melting chemicals on roads, a state record.

US grids weathered the deep freeze. Now comes a bomb cyclone. - Power grids held up this week as ice brought down local power lines and a deep freeze tested the reliance on natural gas for so much electricity in the eastern half of the U.S. About 1 million people lost power starting Sunday. Residents of Nashville, Tennessee, and its suburbs saw their power go out, and outages hit areas of Mississippi and northern Louisiana. But the high-voltage grids from Texas to the mid-Atlantic states made it to the end of the week without frozen gas wells, pipelines and transformers triggering widespread outages. “Things are holding up,” said John Moura, reliability director of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. the grid watchdog. Still to come is a nor’easter forming along the East Coast. Bomb cyclone wind gusts along the Carolina coasts and more cold in New England are expected to keep the pressure on grids in the East.

EF-2 tornado hits downtown Geneva, Alabama, strongest since December 2000 - YouTube video - A damaging tornado struck the city of Geneva, Alabama, at 13:29 CST (19:29 UTC) on January 25, as severe thunderstorms impacted portions of southeastern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle. The event was part of a convective system that generated multiple tornadoes across the region during the early afternoon. According to the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Tallahassee, the tornado in Geneva County was rated EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with estimated peak winds of 185 km/h (115 mph). The tornado remained on the ground for about 4 minutes, producing a 5.9 km (3.66 miles) path with a maximum width of 823 m (900 yards).Ad ends in 4 The tornado first touched down in a western Geneva neighborhood, causing EF-1 damage between Campbell and Magnolia Avenues. EF-2 damage occurred downtown along Commerce Street, where roofing material was peeled from three adjacent low-rise buildings. After crossing a swampy area, a large number of trees were snapped on both sides of the State Route 52 bridge over the Choctawhatchee River. The tornado continued eastward, causing sporadic damage along McDougald Street, Spring Creek Road, and East County Road 4 before lifting near Spring Creek. Both EF-2 damage points corresponded to maximum estimated winds of 185 km/h (115 mph). Damage indicators along the track included partial roof loss to well-built structures, snapped and uprooted trees, and localized structural impacts consistent with EF-2 intensity. Power outages occurred across parts of the city, with line crews working through the evening to restore service. No fatalities or injuries were reported. The Geneva tornado was one of four confirmed by NWS Tallahassee during the January 25 outbreak. An EF-1 tornado in northeast Houston County, Alabama, produced winds of 142 km/h (88 mph) and remained on the ground for 14.2 km (8.80 miles) between Pleasant Plains and Columbia.

Tornadoes destroy 202 ha (500 acres) of greenhouses in Antalya, Turkey - video - Multiple tornadoes hit Antalya Province, Turkey, late on January 26, 2026, causing major damage to coastal and inland districts. Hundreds of acres of fruit and vegetable crops across greenhouses in the province were damaged by the tornadoes, while much of the region reeled from the recent flooding. Severe storms moved across southwestern Turkey late on January 26, producing several tornadoes that struck districts of Antalya Province. Significant damage was reported across Kumluca, Finike, Aksu, and Manavgat. Strong winds and tornadoes ripped off roofs, shattered windows, and overturned solar water heaters in residential neighborhoods. Initial estimates suggest around 202 ha (500 acres) of crops were damaged across the districts of Kumluca, Finike, Kepez, Aksu, Demre, Kaş, and Serik. Most of the damage affected fruit and vegetable crops, with farmers reporting total crop losses in some areas as tornadoes caused structural collapses and ripped coverings from greenhouses. Boats were torn from their moorings and thrown ashore along the Aksu River by the tornadoes, while piers and riverside installations were damaged or destroyed. Traffic signs, trees, and streetlights were blown down, blocking several local roads during the night. The tornado outbreak followed days of heavy rainfall across the province, triggering flooding in multiple areas over the past week. Rainfall totals in the Döşemealtı and Konyaaltı districts reached 68.8 mm (2.71 inches) in 24 hours between January 25 and 26. Heavy rainfall had begun affecting Antalya Province earlier last week, with Kemer recording 157.2 mm (6.19 inches) of rain in 24 hours between January 22 and 23. Meanwhile, Kumluca recorded 115.8 mm (4.56 inches), Kuşadası 107.8 mm (4.24 inches), and Serik 105.2 mm (4.14 inches) during the same period. The tornadoes worsened flood impacts, prompting Antalya Metropolitan Municipality to deploy 714 personnel and 374 vehicles, including firefighters, water management teams, and units from multiple municipal departments. Emergency teams worked overnight to clear debris, reopen transport routes, and restore electricity. Power outages were reported in parts of Aksu and Manavgat, with municipal services coordinating recovery efforts through the morning of January 27. Despite the widespread damage, officials confirmed no deaths or serious injuries.

Storm Kristin kills 2 in Portugal as rare sting jet intensifies winds across the Iberian Peninsula – 3 YouTube videos --At least two people were killed in Portugal on January 28, 2026, as Storm Kristin brought destructive winds to the Iberian Peninsula after undergoing explosive cyclogenesis on January 27. A rare sting jet developed with the storm, intensifying hurricane-force winds. The system swept across the Iberian Peninsula on January 27–28, producing hurricane-force winds, heavy rain, and widespread disruptions. The government of Portugal confirmed at least two fatalities on January 28. Civil protection authorities responded to nearly 1 500 weather-related incidents across the country, including fallen trees, flooding, and power interruptions. Schools were closed in multiple municipalities, and residents in the most affected regions were advised to remain indoors. At least 14 national roads were closed across the country due to Kristin. The Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) named Storm Kristin on January 27. The storm then began undergoing explosive cyclogenesis as it moved rapidly eastward at approximately 110 km/h (68 mph), impacting Portugal during the early morning hours of January 28. A rare sting jet formed as the explosive cyclogenesis continued, intensifying winds across the affected regions, according to analysis by Severe Weather Europe. A sting jet is a rare phenomenon first seen in certain mature extratropical cyclones, in which dry air intrudes into the storm’s cloud head and descends rapidly, producing a concentrated core of destructive winds. IPMA placed several northern and central districts under red, yellow, and orange warnings for wind and rough seas as gusts reached up to 140 km/h (87 mph) on January 28. Some of the warnings will remain in effect until January 30. Rough seas associated with the storm are expected to affect coastal areas through January 30, with wave heights along the west coast forecast to reach 5.5–8 m (18–26 feet), while localized wave heights could reach 14 m (46 feet). As the system moved east, Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) issued red and orange alerts for strong winds and rough seas affecting Galicia, Asturias, Castilla y León, and parts of Andalusia. Snowfall associated with the storm has also been affecting parts of Spain, including Madrid. Wind gusts of over 130 km/h (81 mph) were forecast in the Almanzora Valley and Los Vélez on January 28, according to the agency.

Victoria sets new all-time temperature record of 48.9°C (120°F) amid severe heatwave, Australia - -YouTube videos - Temperatures across southeastern Australia reached record levels on January 27, 2026, with the Bureau of Meteorology confirming a new all-time high of 48.9°C (120°F) at Walpeup and Hopetoun in Victoria. The readings surpassed the previous state record of 48.8°C (119.8°F) set in 2009, amid severe to extreme heatwave conditions extending across Victoria, South Australia, and inland New South Wales. The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) confirmed Victoria recorded its highest observed temperature on record on January 27, when 48.9°C (120°F) was measured at both Walpeup and Hopetoun in the state’s northwest. The values exceeded the previous Victorian record of 48.8°C (119.8°F), registered at Hopetoun on February 7, 2009. Statewide BoM data showed maximum temperatures exceeding 45°C (113°F) across large parts of the Mallee and Wimmera districts, with many locations registering their highest values in more than a decade. In South Australia, Ceduna reached 49.5°C (121°F), setting a new all-time record for that location, while Renmark peaked at 49.6°C (121°F). Similar extremes were recorded across inland New South Wales and southwestern Queensland, where several towns reported maximums between 45 and 48°C (113–118°F). Overnight temperatures remained unusually high in many areas, providing limited relief from the persistent heat. The heatwave is being driven by a stationary high-pressure ridge over central Australia, which has maintained clear skies and light northerly airflow, transporting hot continental air southward into Victoria and New South Wales. Forecast guidance released by the Bureau before the peak of the event indicated that the northern Victorian districts could experience near-record maximums approaching 49°C (120°F), which were later confirmed by observation. BoM’s heatwave warning bulletins for this period classified conditions as “severe to extreme” across southeastern Australia, while maps released on January 26 showed extensive regions of extreme heatwave severity from South Australia’s Riverland and Mallee into northwestern Victoria and southwestern New South Wales. Maximum temperatures are expected to remain well above average for several days, with extreme fire danger ratings in multiple districts. Authorities are urging residents to be aware of the risk of heat stress, fire danger, and the need to follow health and safety recommendations. A change in weather is on the horizon, but BoM is still focusing on very high temperatures, elevated fire dangers, peaking in Victoria and South Australia, and extreme levels in some areas.A particular concern is a large bushfire in the Otway Ranges National Park. “We are seeing that bushfire today, and that could expand quite significantly with temperatures reaching the mid 40s [C], as well as those gusty winds coming through from the north and then from the south-west,” meteorologist Jonathan How said.

Victorians urged to evacuate as massive fire burns through the Otways, Australia - YouTube videos - A large out-of-control bushfire burning near Carlisle River and Gellibrand in Victoria’s Otways region has forced authorities to issue evacuation warnings for more than 1 100 properties. The fire, which started west of Gellibrand on January 10, has burned approximately 9 400 ha (23 200 acres) of forest and farmland by Monday afternoon (LT) January 26, 2026. Emergency Victoria urged residents and visitors in affected towns to leave before sunset due to forecast catastrophic fire conditions expected on January 27. The Carlisle River – Gellibrand fire in Victoria, Australia, remains uncontrolled as of January 26, driven by strong north-westerly winds and extreme heat. Authorities warned that the fire could spread rapidly east toward the coastal corridor, including Lorne, Aireys Inlet, and Anglesea, where more than 1 000 homes are located. As a result, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) have issued evacuation warnings for Carlisle River, Gellibrand, Kawarren, Beech Forest, Forrest, and Barongarook. Door-to-door notifications are underway as Victoria Police and local brigades check for residents who have not yet evacuated. More than 300 firefighters, supported by aerial water-bombing aircraft and heavy equipment, are engaged on containment lines in steep forest terrain. CFA officials report erratic and extreme fire behavior in dense vegetation, complicating suppression efforts. The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has issued extreme to catastrophic fire danger ratings for the South West and Central districts, with forecast temperatures reaching 49°C (120°F) in parts of Victoria on January 27. Strong and gusty northerly winds are expected to shift westerly as a trough passes, increasing the likelihood of long-range ember attack. The Otways’ wet-eucalypt forests contain substantial fuel loads after consecutive wet seasons, and under low humidity and high wind they dry rapidly, supporting deep convection and fast-moving fire fronts. Evacuation centers are operating at the Colac Showgrounds and Bluewater Leisure Centre (Colac). The Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) is assisting with transport for vulnerable residents and coordinating animal sheltering. Emergency Victoria continues to advise that residents who have not yet left should do so immediately, as conditions on Tuesday may become life-threatening. A statewide Total Fire Ban is in effect across Victoria. Authorities have requested residents to avoid non-essential travel in forested and coastal areas of the Otways and to monitor live warnings through the Emergency Victoria website and VicEmergency app. The Bureau of Meteorology expects elevated fire danger to persist until mid-week under a severe heatwave, with potential thunderstorms later providing only limited rainfall and introducing additional lightning ignition risks.

World not ready for rise in extreme heat, scientists say · Nearly 3.8 billion people could face extreme heat by 2050 and while tropical countries will bear the brunt cooler regions will also need to adapt, scientists said Monday. Demand for cooling will "drastically" increase in giant countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria, where hundreds of millions of people lack air conditioning or other means of beating the heat. But even a moderate increase in hotter days could have a "severe impact" in nations not used to such conditions like Canada, Russia and Finland, said scientists from the University of Oxford. In a new study, they looked at different global warming scenarios to project how often people in future might experience temperatures considered uncomfortably hot or cold. They found "that the population experiencing extreme heat conditions is projected to nearly double" by 2050 if global average temperatures rise 2°C above preindustrial times. But most of the impact would be felt this decade as the world fast approaches the 1.5°C mark, the study's lead author Jesus Lizana told AFP. "The key takeaway from this is that the need for adaptation to extreme heat is more urgent than previously known," said Lizana, an environmental scientist. "New infrastructure, such as sustainable air conditioning or passive cooling, needs to be built out within the next few years to ensure people can cope with dangerous heat." Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can overwhelm the body's natural cooling systems, causing symptoms ranging from dizziness and headaches to organ failure and death. It is often called a silent killer because most heat deaths occur gradually as high temperatures and other environmental factors work together to undermine the body's internal thermostat. Climate change is making heat waves longer and stronger and access to cooling—especially air conditioning—will be vital in the future.The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, projected that 3.79 billion people worldwide could be exposed to extreme heat by midcentury.This would "drastically" increase energy demand for cooling in developing nations where the gravest health consequences would be felt. India, the Philippines and Bangladesh would be among biggest populations impacted.The most significant change in "cooling degree days"—temperatures hot enough to require cooling, such as air conditioning or fans—were projected in tropical or equatorial countries, particularly in Africa.India, the Philippines and Bangladesh would be among biggest populations impacted. The most significant change in "cooling degree days"—temperatures hot enough to require cooling, such as air conditioning or fans—were projected in tropical or equatorial countries, particularly in Africa. Central African Republic, Nigeria, South Sudan, Laos and Brazil saw the biggest rise in dangerously hot temperatures. "Put simply, the most disadvantaged people are the ones who will bare the brunt of this trend our study shows for ever hotter days," urban climate scientist and research co-author Radhika Khosla told AFP. But wealthier countries in traditionally cooler climates also "face a major problem—even if many do not realize it yet," she added. Countries like Canada, Russia and Finland may experience steep drops in "heating degree days"—temperatures low enough to require indoor heating—under a 2°C scenario. But even a moderate rise in hotter temperatures would be felt more acutely in countries not designed to withstand heat, the authors said. Some cold-climate nations may see a drop in heating bills, Lizana said, but over time these savings would likely be replaced by cooling costs, including in Europe where air conditioning is still rare. "Wealthier countries cannot sit back and assume they will be OK -– in many cases they are dangerously underprepared for the heat that is coming over the next few years," he said.

Stratospheric warming developing over the Arctic forecast to weaken the polar vortex and influence February weather - Meteorological forecasts show a major sudden stratospheric warming event forming over the Arctic, expected to cause significant weakening of the polar vortex in early February 2026. The resulting atmospheric disruption may alter jet-stream dynamics and increase the risk of Arctic air intrusions into North America and northern Europe during the second half of February. Meteorological observations and high-resolution model data indicate a rapid temperature rise in the Arctic stratosphere during late January, characteristic of a major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event. These events occur when upward-propagating planetary waves disrupt the polar night jet, causing the stratosphere, between roughly 10 and 50 km (6 and 31 miles) in altitude, to warm rapidly by tens of degrees within days. Forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the Global Forecast System (GFS) indicate that stratospheric temperatures at 10 hPa will rise by more than 40°C (104°F) in parts of the polar regions. Zonal wind speeds are expected to weaken markedly, signaling a strong disturbance of the polar vortex, though a complete wind reversal, the main indicator of full vortex collapse, is yet to be confirmed. The ongoing deformation of the vortex is likely to result in a split, with one core going toward North America and another toward Eurasia. This configuration promotes meridional air flow, allowing Arctic air to move southward and enhancing the potential for high-latitude blocking over the Arctic. Surface effects from such stratospheric disturbances generally appear one to three weeks after the initial warming, as downward-propagating anomalies influence the troposphere. Forecast models suggest the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) could enter negative phases in February, conditions typically associated with colder air over continental regions of the Northern Hemisphere. This pattern would favor the year’s second phase of repeated cold-air intrusions into central and eastern Canada and the United States. Meanwhile in Europe, colder-than-average conditions are forecast for northern and northwestern regions, while southern Europe may remain near or slightly above average. The magnitude of surface cooling remains uncertain and depends on the persistence of stratospheric-tropospheric coupling and the precise evolution of the jet stream. Current forecasts show a moderate-to-strong coupling signal developing through early February, consistent with a downward transfer of stratospheric anomalies to the lower atmosphere. This event develops under the background conditions of a weakening La Niña in the equatorial Pacific. While La Niña can modulate jet-stream behavior and occasionally enhance the atmospheric response to stratospheric disturbances, the influence is indirect and probabilistic. Current seasonal outlooks show mixed surface temperature anomalies for February 2026, with cold risks mainly confined to higher latitudes. If the downward coupling strengthens as expected, the Northern Hemisphere could experience a period of amplified temperature contrasts, increased storm activity, and regionally enhanced snowfall through mid- and late February 2026. As the stratospheric system transitions toward its seasonal weakening in early spring, further warming episodes may finalize the breakdown of the winter polar vortex.

Over 1 000 evacuated after large coastal landslide in Sicily as Storm Harry damage exceeds USD 1 billion - 5 videos - More than 1 000 people were evacuated in Niscemi, Sicily, on January 25, 2026, after a large landslide eroded away parts of a cliff. The event follows the devastating impact of Storm Harry, which caused over $1 billion in damage across Sicily between January 20 and 21. Over 1 000 people were evacuated in Niscemi, Sicily, after a 4 km (2.5 miles) section of cliff crumbled, leaving homes on the verge of falling off on January 25 in Niscemi. Another landslide was reported in Liguria, causing a road closure. The landslides were the result of Storm Harry, which battered the region last week with severe storm surges and heavy rainfall, leaving significant damage. Harry moved across the central Mediterranean on January 20–21, striking Sicily and southern Italy with rainfall totals exceeding 200 mm (8 inches) and hurricane-force winds. The storm developed between Algeria and Tunisia before intensifying over the Ionian Sea, producing a powerful southerly flow toward Italy’s southern coasts. Severe storm surges of 12–16 m (39–52 feet) damaged ports, roads, and beachfront infrastructure along Sicily’s Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts. Coastal towns, including Taormina, Giardini Naxos, and Acireale, sustained heavy losses as floodwaters inundated businesses and residences. Power outages and transport disruptions affected tens of thousands of residents, with rail services suspended on several lines, including Messina–Syracuse. Air traffic was temporarily halted at Catania and Palermo airports due to low visibility and flooded runways. Regional officials estimate that public infrastructure losses in Sicily alone amount to approximately EUR 740 million (USD 805 million), while overall economic damage is likely to exceed EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion) once losses to hotels and other tourism-related businesses are accounted for. Coastal erosion and damage to beach infrastructure are expected to significantly affect the upcoming tourist season. In Calabria and Sardinia, additional losses are still being assessed. The Italian fire service conducted 1 650 emergency interventions across the region during the storm. 1 013 interventions were conducted in Sicily, 360 in Sardinia, and 293 in Calabria between January 19 and 21. Despite the widespread damage, authorities confirmed no deaths, crediting the region’s warning systems and timely evacuations. The mayor of Taormina, Mario Bolognari, called for immediate state and European support to restore critical infrastructure and protect the tourism-based local economy. YouTube video The Sicilian regional government has allocated EUR 70 million (USD 76 million) for initial repairs and requested national disaster aid and activation of the EU Solidarity Fund. The Italian Cabinet is reviewing the formal state of emergency declaration for the southern regions. Economic recovery and infrastructure reconstruction in Sicily are expected to take months, with long-term planning to include enhanced coastal defenses and drainage systems.

Episode 41 eruption at Kīlauea produces 480 m (1 575 feet) fountains, tephra reaches Hilo and Puna, Hawaii - Episode 41 of Kīlauea’s ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began at 11:10 HST (21:10 UTC) on January 24, 2026, producing lava fountains up to 480 m (1 575 feet) high and the broadest verified tephra dispersal of the current summit eruption sequence. Fine ash and Pele’s hair were carried by easterly winds to communities as far as Hilo and coastal Puna, while coarse fragments up to 30 cm (1 foot) fell near the vent. The eruption ended abruptly after about eight hours of activity. Episode 41 began after several hours of increasing overflow from the north and south vents inside Halemaʻumaʻu crater. Lava fountains rose rapidly to about 460–480 m (1 500–1 575 feet) just after 12:30 HST, generating a dense eruption column and widespread tephra fall across Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. By early afternoon, large volcanic clasts, some up to 30 cm (1 foot) in diameter, were falling along Highway 11 and in public viewing areas near Volcano Village. Finer ash and Pele’s hair were transported downwind to communities including Hilo and coastal Puna, more than 40 km (25 miles) from the vent. Weak surface winds combined with stronger upper-level easterlies dispersed material over a broad area, producing notable tephra deposition across eastern Hawaiʻi Island. “Tephra has been reported in communities including Volcano Village, Mauna Loa Estates, Ohia Estates, Mountain View, Fern Acres, Kurtistown, Ainaloa Estates, Hilo, Hawaiian Paradise Parks, Hawaiian Beaches, and Pahoa,” the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) noted in a bulletin released at 16:40 HST (02:40 UTC on January 25). At that time, fountain heights had decreased to about 200 m (650 feet), and the Uēkahuna tiltmeter recorded 22.5 microradians of deflation since eruption onset. “Tephra fall in more distant communities (Mountain View, Fern Acres, Kurtistown, Ainaloa Estates, Hilo, Hawaiian Paradise Parks, Hawaiian Beaches, and Pahoa) is fine-grained ash and Pele’s hair, and is expected to continue as the plume continues to disperse downwind in a general easterly direction. Falling tephra can pose a health hazard and may contaminate catchment water supplies.” The eruption ended abruptly around 19:29 HST (05:29 UTC on January 25), after about 8 hours and 20 minutes. Fountaining stopped almost simultaneously at both vents, and airborne ash gradually settled as the plume dispersed, while ephra deposition remained visible through the night across Volcano Village and the upper Puna District. All volcanic activity remained confined to Halemaʻumaʻu crater within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. No breakouts were detected along the East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone, and operations at commercial airports across Hawaii County continued without disruption. Temporary closures were implemented within the Park and along Highway 11 due to falling tephra and low visibility, and the National Weather Service issued an Ashfall Warning for east and southeast Hawaiʻi Island, later downgraded to an advisory.

Chinese ZQ-3 R/B rocket stage expected to re-enter atmosphere over Europe today - The WatchersAn uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry of the Chinese ZQ-3 R/B second stage, weighing about 11 tonnes, is expected over Europe on January 30, 2026. EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) reports a predicted re-entry centered near 11:20 UTC ± 48 minutes. National sensors coordinated through the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and EU SST Operations Centres are tracking the object and assessing potential airspace impacts south of Denmark and in the Baltic region. The European Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) network continues to monitor the uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry of the Chinese ZQ-3 R/B rocket stage. The latest autonomous predictions place the expected decay around 11:20 UTC ± 48 minutes on January 30. The object, catalogued as 2025-282A (#66877), is the second stage of the ZQ-3 launcher that lifted off from China on December 3, 2025, during the vehicle’s maiden flight. According to EU SST and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), the stage weighs approximately 11 tonnes and measures 12–13 m (40–43 feet) in length.Ad ends in 4 FMI reports the possibility that a dummy payload remains attached to the stage, which could influence its aerodynamic break-up pattern. EU SST assesses that the re-entry will begin at around 80 km (50 miles) altitude, where most of the structure is expected to disintegrate. The Finnish Meteorological Institute stated that any remaining fragments would fall south of Denmark and the Baltic states, and that the object poses no risk to Finland. As of 11:30 UTC, EU SST had not yet confirmed the exact time or location of atmospheric entry. EU SST Operations Centres and national aerospace authorities continue to exchange tracking data with aviation coordination channels. Any tactical airspace actions will be issued through national AIS or NOTAM services if required during the final decay phase. Uncontrolled re-entries of this scale occur several times each year worldwide. Analyses by The Aerospace Corporation and ESA indicate that the probability of debris causing harm in any single event is assessed as very low, though the growing number of large launch vehicles increases operational monitoring demands for aviation and civil protection agencies. Update: According to data provided by Space Track, the ZQ-3 rocket stage re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at 12:39 UTC over the South Pacific Ocean, near coordinates 54.2°S, 189.6°E.

New Mexico climate hawks renew push to codify emissions goals - A top New Mexico lawmaker is renewing a push to codify the state’s climate targets after affordability concerns from fellow Democrats sank last year’s effort.Sen. Mimi Stewart, president pro tem of the upper chamber, on Thursday reintroduced the “Clear Horizons Act.” The bill would require state regulators to craft new rules for meeting a 2030 target of cutting emissions 45 percent below 2005 levels, followed by 75 percent by 2040 and net zero by 2050.New Mexico’s emissions were 21 percent below the 2005 baseline in 2023, according to the state’s most recent climate action plan. New Mexico is one of the top oil- and gas-producing states, and recent years saw a boom in production — though that’s expected to slow amid lower prices.The legislation echoes emissions targets that Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham set in 2019 via executive order.

Carbon trade measure slips into spending package --- Congress quietly adopted a much-touted carbon trade bill last week, tucking the measure into a spending package to fund energy and environment agencies.The “Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency (PROVE IT) Act” — from Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and John Curtis (R-Utah) — would have the administration study the carbon intensity of American manufacturing to show it compares favorably with other countries.The legislation, introduced last congressional term, represented a rare bipartisan compromise when it comes to examining climate emissions — but it fizzled amid skepticism from some conservatives. They said it could lead to a domestic carbon tax.In a comeback for the bill, however, similar language was embedded in the report accompanying a three-bill “minibus” with the fiscal 2026 Energy-Water, Interior-Environment and Commerce-Justice-Science bills. Bill reports are technically not law, but agencies tend to follow them.The “PROVE IT” language in the legislation would have the Department of Energy commission a study comparing the carbon intensity of certain domestically-made goods to the goods produced in other countries. “We’ve known for a long time that manufacturers here in the United States make some of the cleanest products in the world. We can actually prove it, and we should. We should use that excellence as an advantage to ensure that our producers aren’t discriminated against by our trade partners or worse, undercut by polluting countries like China,” Cramer said in a statement.“It’s really an America First approach, and I look forward to working with Secretary Wright and the administration to get this report done, to make it a tradition, and make it a part of our trade policy going forward,” Cramer added, referring to Energy Secretary Chris Wright.The reports accompanying both the House and Senate versions of the Energy-Water bill referenced the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which levies tariffs against carbon-intensive imports. Europe began implementing their CBAM this month.Cramer and other “PROVE IT” supporters have argued that the federal government should take their own emissions measurements of domestic goods, rather than relying on Europe to do it. Congressional appropriators appeared to agree.“The European Union and other countries have begun to implement trade policies that would assess fees on U.S. products. The Committee is concerned that the methodology of said countries could negatively impact U.S. competitiveness, creating the need for high-quality comparative data created by the United States,” the Senate Appropriations Committee’s bill report said.The House language, too, stipulated that DOE’s study should include all goods that will be impacted by the European Union’s CBAM. That House bill report text is what Congress adopted, according to a final explanatory statement.The study will be spearheaded by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory and should include consultations with “relevant agencies, institutions, academia, and think tank partners,” according to the report text. It is due next January.Congress has passed six of 12 fiscal 2026 spending bills. The rest are pending in the Senate this week. Disagreement over the Homeland Security title may lead to a shutdown of some federal agencies, if not settled before Friday’s spending deadline.

DOE axes $1.8B loan for Arizona clean energy projects - The Department of Energy has scrapped a planned $1.8 billion loan that would have supported renewable energy, battery and transmission projects for Arizona’s largest electric utility. The conditional loan to Arizona Public Service was issued in January 2025 — during the Biden administration’s last days — but not finalized. DOE included the loan on a list emailed to POLITICO’s E&E News of modified or canceled loan commitments. Last week, DOE said it had completed or was in the process of de-obligating $30 billion in Biden-era loans but did not provide a list of affected projects. “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at the time.

Trump DOE Cancels $30B of Biden-Era Green-Grifting Energy Loans -- Marcellus Drilling News -- Last Thursday, the Trump administration announced it is restructuring or terminating approximately $84 billion in clean energy projects (boondoggles) initiated during the Biden era, reflecting a sharp pivot toward “energy dominance” through fossil fuels and nuclear power. Rebranded as the Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF), the agency has canceled $30 billion in “green” loans, including major wind and solar transmission projects, while revising another $53 billion in loans. Under Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the office—which holds $290 billion in lending power—will prioritize coal, oil, and gas over renewables, marking a significant reversal of previous climate-focused infrastructure investments.

Judge strikes down Trump freeze on EV charger funds - A federal judge ruled Friday against the Trump administration’s freeze on a $5 billion program that seeks to fund the build-out of electric vehicle (EV) chargers. Judge Tana Lin, a former President Biden appointee, barred the Department of Transportation from revoking previously approved state EV charger deployment plans and from withholding funds for the plans. In February 2025, the Trump administration sent a letter revoking the state plans. It also froze the funds for the program, which was passed under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Twenty states and Washington, D.C., sued over the move. Lin, with the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington state, says that letter went beyond the administration’s authority, was arbitrary and capricious, and did not follow proper procedure. The ruling comes as lawmakers are considering legislation that would redirect nearly $900 million in federal EV charger funds. Democrats have argued that the nation should shift toward EVs, including for reasons like climate change and pollution reduction. They view increasing charger availability as an important piece of that effort so that Americans can be confident they will be able to have enough fuel to make it where they need to go.

Judge Permits Vineyard Wind Project to Restart Work - A fourth offshore wind project halted by the Trump administration was temporarily allowed to resume construction on Tuesday, marking yet another legal setback for the White House on the issue.Federal Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration’s stop work order against Vineyard Wind.Vineyard Wind, which would provide power to Massachusetts, is one of five projects that the Trump administration tried to hold up in December.Separate judges have now allowed four of those projects to resume, while the fifth is still awaiting court proceedings.In December, the Trump administration said that it would suspend the authority of five previously approved offshore wind projects to build.It said it was doing so because of the potential for radar interference known as “clutter” from wind turbines.Critics of the administration have argued that the national security concern is simply a pretext for the administration to block an energy source it does not like, as President Trump has frequently criticized wind energy.

Trump’s attacks on renewables could boomerang, hit oil and gas - Some environmentalists would like to see Democrats act more like President Donald Trump, even though they despise his policies.With headlong assaults on offshore wind and other renewable energy projects, the president has opened a door to more aggressive action by a future Democratic president on climate and energy.“Trump kicked down the door and removed the frame,” said Mitch Jones, deputy director of the environmental group Food & Water Action. Now, he said, “there is now so much more room for an executive with the right policies.” A future Democratic administration adopting the Trump-pioneered tactics to use against oil and gas presents a risk for oil and gas companies, according to experts, some environmentalists and even some in the industry. Most industry leaders, though, aren’t talking about such prospects and aren’t publicly worried.But, veteran Oklahoma oilman Mike Cantrell said, “They should be.”A potential Democratic president such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Cantrell said, “would use the executive power much like Trump uses it on the right.” Representatives for Newsom did not provide comment Tuesday.The idea of trouble for fossil fuels was also expressed last year in an anonymous survey of oil and gas executives from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “Life is long,” said one unnamed executive, “and the sword being wielded against the renewables industry right now will likely boomerang back in 3.5 years against traditional energy.”The industry will face “harsher methane penalties, permitting restrictions, crazy environmental reviews and other lawfare tactics,” the executive predicted.Trump has long complained about renewable energy infrastructure, even making an unfounded claim at one point that wind turbines cause cancer. And he laid out his plans to stop the U.S. from participating in a transition to renewable energy as soon as he returned to office last year.But he’s strayed into territory where other presidents fear to tread by canceling wind energy projects that already had permits and clawing back money for solar projects that had already gone out the door. Many of the moves were legally dubious and judges have rejected them, but they’ve still left the industry badly damaged as investors flee.Imagine what could happen in future years to an offshore oil drilling project approved late in a Republican administration, said Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. “There’s going to be real hesitancy,” Borenstein said, “if the next president can just say, yeah, you sunk billions of dollars, but we don’t really care — we’re canceling that.”

Feds mull first-ever seafloor mining in Alaskan waters - The Trump administration is considering allowing deep-sea mining in the waters off the coast of Alaska, sparking concerns about the fate of world class fisheries and fragile ecosystems.The Bureau of Ocean Energy and Management, or BOEM, will begin gauging interest in a competitive mineral lease sale on Alaska’s outer continental shelf when a notice is published in the Federal Register on Thursday. The agency, according to a map posted online, is looking at large swaths of the Bering Sea, including the Aleutian Islands.BOEM’s acting Director Matt Giacona said in a statement that Alaska’s offshore “holds strategic potential for the minerals that drive American industry, defense and next-generation technologies,” and that the request for information is “a practical first step to gauge interest and identify areas where development could make sense for jobs, investment and national supply chains.” The Trump administration in recent months has moved to unleash more deep-sea exploration and extraction of minerals in U.S. and international waters. BOEM has also made moves to advance deep-sea mining offshore American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and Virginia.

NOAA speeds up process to grant deep-sea mining permits -- The Trump administration, with the support of many congressional Republicans, is looking to boost deep-sea mining as a way to counter Chinese dominance of critical minerals supply chains. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a final rule on Jan. 21 that would speed up the process companies must go through to receive exploration licenses and commercial recovery permit applications under a 1980 law. The move has drawn skepticism over concerns about largely unproven technology and its potential impact on the environment, including from the Republican delegates who represent three U.S. territories in the Pacific Ocean. The NOAA rule would let applicants seek both the license and permits at the same time. NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said in a statement that the move would enable "U.S. companies to access these resources more quickly, strengthening our nation's economic resilience and advancing the discovery and use of critical seafloor minerals." President Donald Trump called for the rule in an executive order signed in April. The U.S. subsidiary of a Canadian company, The Metals Co., filed a consolidated application on Jan. 22 to mine a deposit—known as a nodule in the industry—containing nickel, cobalt, copper and other materials in the Pacific Ocean. The NOAA is to hold a public hearing on the application beginning Tuesday. Deep-sea mining was attempted in the 1970s in an area off the coast of South Carolina as an attempt to see if the process could work in the deeper waters of the Pacific Ocean. The 1980 law passed, initially as an interim measure, amid international negotiations over what became the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. But the U.S. never ratified the convention, which paved the way to establish the International Seabed Authority, a body tasked with authorizing the development of international seabed mining and protecting the seabed ecology. The International Seabed Authority has considered standards for deep-sea mining but has yet to finalize any. After early efforts, deep-sea mining was for decades considered an undertaking too difficult to be profitable, but the surge in critical mineral demand and developments in technology have spurred a reconsideration. The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a hearing on deep-sea mining on Jan. 22. Chairman Pete Stauber, R-Minn., said deep-sea mining could play a significant role in ensuring the U.S. is not dependent on foreign adversaries, particularly China. "America cannot risk falling behind in the production and processing of minerals, whether they are from traditional operations on land or harvested from the seabed," said Stauber. "Failing to build our processing capacity continues to enable China to expand their control over our supply chains and hamstring our national security."

Mining watchdog restricts public access to inspection data - The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has stopped publishing data tied to inspections of sites with repeated violations. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Wayne Palmer told a House panel last week that the data is no longer publicly available. “To the best of my knowledge, we do not publish those under the current administration,” Palmer told the House Education & the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. Palmer, a former Capitol Hill aide and a veteran of the first Trump administration, said the decision not to make public results of “targeted inspections” predated his time with MSHA.

It takes two aluminum firms to build one power-hungry smelter, apparently - For nearly two years, Century Aluminum has been searching for a site to put a giant new U.S. smelter — a decision that largely hinged on where it could strike a deal with utilities to access cheap, reliable electricity.On Monday, the Chicago-based manufacturer finally unveiled its plans. Rather than build its own power-hungry facility, Century is partnering with Emirates Global Aluminium to jointly develop a smelter near Tulsa, Oklahoma, the companies announced. The facility will be America’s first new aluminum smelter in nearly half a century if completed as planned by the end of the decade.“Together we will make a huge contribution to rebuilding American aluminum production for the 21st century,” Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of the Dubai–based EGA, said in a statement.Century had previously identified northeastern Kentucky as its preferred location for a $5billion smelter, though the company was also evaluating sites in the Ohio and Mississippi river basins. In 2024, the Biden-era Department of Energy selected Century to receive up to $500million to build a ​“green” smelter powered by 100% renewable or nuclear energy.Century didn’t immediately return Canary Media’s questions about the status of the federal award or how energy issues factored into its decision to join forces with EGA.But on Tuesday, Century CEO Jesse Gary told Fox Business, ​“That grant is going to underlie the total investment … to help build this new smelter.”Aluminum production contributes about 2% of greenhouse gas emissions globally every year, and the majority of those emissions come from generating high volumes of electricity — often derived from fossil fuels — to power smelters.Emirates Global Aluminium first proposed building its own Oklahoma smelter last May. Up until this week, EGA and Century seemed to be racing each other to fire up their new facilities. The fact that the companies teamed up reflects how difficult it is for manufacturers to secure power at the volumes and prices they need, not only in the United States but globally — a challenge that’s getting even harder with the competition from AI data centers.Building a smelter ​“is very expensive and very complicated, so I take it as good news,” said Joe Quinn, who leads the Center for Strategic Industrial Materials for SAFE, which advocates for policies to enhance U.S. energy security.“There was a scenario where both could have failed,” he added. ​“But now they’re getting together, and I think that strengthens the likelihood of a new smelter being built in the United States.” He said the news was ​“a little surprising, but then again not that surprising” given the challenges of opening a multibillion-dollar greenfield smelter.Under this new agreement, EGA will own 60% of the joint venture and Century will own the remaining 40%. The Tulsa-area facility is expected to produce 750,000 metric tons of aluminum per year, an amount that is 25% larger than previously envisioned — and more than double the current U.S. production of primary aluminum. A facility that massive will require over 11 terawatt-hours of power, or enough electricity annually to power the city of Boston or Nashville, according to an Aluminum Association report.

US, Bangladesh discuss expanding energy cooperation - The United States has reiterated its interest in strengthening energy cooperation with Bangladesh, with a focus on greater involvement of U.S. companies in the country’s growing energy sector. According to a Facebook post by the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka on Sunday, U.S. Ambassador Peter Haas Christensen met with Energy Advisor Dr. Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan to discuss opportunities for expanding collaboration in key areas of energy development. The discussions highlighted the role American companies can play in supporting Bangladesh’s efforts to ensure reliable and sustainable energy supplies. The embassy said U.S. energy solutions already contribute to Bangladesh’s energy landscape, particularly in onshore oil and gas exploration, strengthening the national electrical grid, and supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). These initiatives help deliver dependable energy to households and businesses across the country. The meeting reflects ongoing cooperation between the two countries aimed at meeting Bangladesh’s rising energy demand while promoting modern, efficient, and diversified energy sources. Expanding U.S. private sector engagement is also seen as a way to support economic growth and energy security in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has been seeking foreign investment and technical expertise to modernize its energy infrastructure, and U.S. companies are viewed as potential partners in achieving long-term energy reliability and sustainability

Winter storm batters electric utilities in the Southeast - The punch of bitter cold, snow and icy rain that blanketed the eastern half of the country starting Sunday cut off power to nearly 1 million electricity customers concentrated across the South, from Texas to Tennessee. Outages of local power lines hit by ice and downed trees followed the storm’s path through Appalachia, leaving Tennessee hardest hit with 336,600 customers out of power at midday Sunday, according to PowerOutage.com. Outages were concentrated in the suburbs of Nashville. North of the ice band, an expanse of snow fell from New Mexico to the central Great Lakes, with up to 12 inches in some places. Road travel was dangerous or impossible. In the Northeast, sleet piled up from Maryland to Massachusetts. AdvertisementAs the storm moves off the East Coast and into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, Arctic air will rush in behind it and keep extremely cold temperatures in place for days across two-thirds of the country, according to the National Weather Service. More than 50,000 power line workers from at least 37 states were repositioned to respond to the storm, according to the Edison Electric Institute, but timetables for restoration were guesswork. Natural gas supplies could be tested Monday. Temperatures are expected to fall below zero over the Appalachian gas fields that help supply heat and power across the East. Gas generation accounts for more than 40 percent of the eastern United States’ electric power. “Incoming deadly wind chills will leave cold air damming over much of the eastern half of the U.S. throughout the coming week,” said Sunny Wescott, chief meteorologist of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in an email. “This is not a short duration cold on the backside of this storm; it is multiple pulses of Arctic air and will make black ice far more prevalent even days after the storm has left,” Wescott added. Columbus, Ohio, gateway to the Marcellus and Utica shale gas fields serving eastern Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic states, saw temperatures drop to 19 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday. On Monday, the forecast projects a bitter minus 2 F with winds as high as 15 mph. The Department of Energy on Sunday invoked emergency authority to permit fossil fuel power plants in the 13-state PJM Interconnection — the largest U.S. power market that extends from the mid-Atlantic region to Chicago — to operate in excess of air quality permits if needed through the end of the month. “The order will help PJM with the extreme temperatures and storm destruction across the Mid-Atlantic and reduce costs for Americans during the winter storm,” DOE said. However, spot wholesale electricity prices shot up Sunday, with parts of Maryland and Virginia on PJM’s eastern edge paying over $1,000 per megawatt hour around 9 a.m. EST. The average location-based hourly price in PJM in the first nine months of last year was just over $50. The regional grid operator in the central part of the country, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), declared an emergency Saturday. Utility companies such as St. Louis-based Ameren and Minneapolis-based Xcel asked customers to conserve energy. In the South, Entergy’s customers in northern Louisiana and in parts of Mississippi were experiencing outages Sunday. Nashville Electric Service, which purchases power from the Tennessee Valley Authority, had more than 200,000 outages Sunday — about half of its customers in and around the city. The grid operator cited forced outages, cold temperatures and limited ability to transfer power from its northern and southern regions as reasons for declaring an emergency. MISO’s U.S. electricity market stretches from the northern tip of Minnesota to the southern tip of Louisiana. The financial consequences of electricity constraints and outages extend beyond energy costs, experts noted. The loss of power amid freezing weather over multiple days creates severe hazards of broken water pipes and overloaded household electrical circuit when customers plug in portable space heaters, Extreme winter storms have caused significant damage this decade. When Winter Storm Elliott struck on Christmas week in 2022, the shocks of extreme cold and high winds froze power plants and knocked out one-third of Appalachian gas production. That triggered emergency operations across PJM. Had the storm not kept moving, 1.1 million New York City customers of Con Edison could have lost gas service, with restoration dragging on for weeks or months, federal regulators warned. Elliott’s impact accelerated mandatory cold weather regulation for power plants. The natural gas industry committed to take voluntary measures to winterize their equipment. The gas industry has resisted more stringent regulation. The gas and grid operators “have made many improvements on the winter readiness front since four years ago, but it’s only been tested once or twice. This will be a test,” said George Katsigiannakis, a power markets expert at the consultancy ICF International. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, grid operator for most of the state, said outages were concentrated in eastern Texas, and the system overall remained balanced. State regulators and ERCOT operators enforced requirements to winterize equipment after Winter Storm Uri in 2021. Forced power cutoffs affected 4.4 million customers as operators strained to keep the grid from crashing that year. More than 200 deaths were attributed to the storm.

Winter storm tests US electric grid as outages spread - The winter storm that stretched across half the country knocked out electricity to more than a million customers on Sunday, sending utilities scrambling to restore power ahead of the sub-freezing temperatures set to descend on tens of millions of people this week. The outages, which were concentrated in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, came after warnings from weather forecasters that Winter Storm Fern could threaten the power grid and test utilities’ ability to meet the surge in demand. The Trump administration took swift action to shore up some power supplies, with the Energy Department granting PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest electric grid operator, blanket permission to run all its power sources at full tilt — regardless of pollution rules in its region that reaches from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic. The concern about energy supplies will grow in the coming days as Fern plunges millions into a cold spell that will put a significant draw on heating and electricity resources. The polar vortex conditions that plunged Arctic air all the way to the Gulf Coast are expected to drive temperatures even lower through the end of the week, running the risk of exhausting power supplies or debilitating the electricity grid. The chief threat to the electric grid comes from ice and freezing rain that can topple trees and strain power lines. Given the storm’s expansive geographic range, utilities may have fewer personnel to dispatch to help neighboring regions deal with outages as they face disruptions in their own territories. “The ice is the big concern this week and that’s scary,” said Allison Clements, a former commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “When these types of things happen, you can’t control the ice. You can’t control the tree branch break.” As of 4:15 p.m. EST Sunday, Tennessee experienced the most outages in the country, at more than 308,000, according to PowerOutage.us. Mississippi had more than 149,000 customers without power, trailed by 138,000 in Louisiana, 103,000 in Georgia, 80,000 in Texas, 67,000 in Kentucky, 33,000 in West Virginia and 28,000 in South Carolina. Georgia Power said it restored power to 70,000 customers as of 4 p.m. EST, though another 70,000 concentrated in north Georgia and Atlanta are still without electricity. “The bulk of these outages are caused [by] trees laden with ice falling on power lines. We currently have more than 10,000 crews working diligently to repair these outages,” the utility said in a statement. “We are confident that we can meet demand [in] the next week.” All told, 200 million people face some mix of sleet, snow, ice and frigid temperatures sweeping the nation which makes for a “deadly combination,” AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said in a Sunday note. Power loss is the main threat to life over the coming days — and pressure on the power grid is mounting. The storm has added stress to the utilities and operators that were already struggling to meet rising demand fueled by the influx of data centers, artificial intelligence and other large customers. That all has shrunk the power generating slack in the system, bringing electric reliability concerns to the forefront. PJM said Sunday that peak demand for its 13-state footprint is expected to surpass 130,000 megawatts for seven consecutive days for the first time ever, noting extreme cold conditions may persist through Feb. 1. It said the region could set an all-time winter peak load record on Tuesday and activated pre-emergency measures for utilities BGE, Pepco and Dominion to curtail electricity usage to preserve supplies. “This is a formidable arctic cold front coming our way, and it will impact our neighboring systems as much as it affects PJM,” Mike Bryson Sr., vice president of operations at PJM, said in a statement. “We will be relying on our generation fleet to perform as well as they did during last year’s record winter peak.”

Power plant outages surge in Eastern US amid restricted gas supplies and frigid weather (Reuters) - Power plant outages surged along the eastern United States on Sunday as constricted natural gas supplies and frigid temperatures cut the electricity output of the region's generation fleet. The PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. regional grid that serves 67 million people in the East and Mid-Atlantic, reported nearly 21 gigawatts of generation outages, with most of that capacity being forced offline. Those outages represented about 16% of PJM's Sunday afternoon demand of 127.4 GW. Sign up here. On Sunday afternoon, PJM issued a pre-emergency order mandating that some customers in its curtailment program curb their electricity use. Customers in the program get paid to curb their electricity during critical periods. PJM's order sought to ease an upswing in demand in PJM's territory while asking some generator operators to preserve their run time for colder weather and higher electricity demand later in the week. Without native supplies of natural gas, the Eastern seaboard relies on a pipeline network that is historically constricted during extended bouts of frigid weather, said Pieter Mul, a grid expert and associate partner at PA Consulting's energy and utilities practice. Domestic demand of natural gas, net of exports, is estimated at 146.7 Bcf/d, down 3.6 Bcf/d compared to Saturday and ranks at No. 10 all-time. "From a natural gas production and price perspective, the current US winter storm so far is less severe than prior storms such as Uri and Elliott of 2021, 2022, but the risk isn’t over, with sustained cold lingering behind the storm,” said Matthew Palmer, the head of Americas Gas Research at S&P Global Energy. PJM's outages are higher than the grid planned, Mul said, adding that there is less flexibility in the PJM system than a few years ago because of power plant retirements and a surge in demand from data centers. PJM's territory also is hurt by bottlenecks in its transmission system of high-voltage power lines, hindering the transfer from west to east. For example, cheap power in Illinois on Sunday - sometimes dipping into negative prices because of abundant wind energy - could not be moved to help out other sections of PJM. As snow and sleet hit the major cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, the power grid also lost access to solar power in the afternoon from an increase in cloud cover. Meanwhile, power prices in PJM and the electric grids for New York and New England surged between $400 and $700 per MWh Sunday afternoon, grid operators reported. The increases reflected demand that continues to top grid operator forecasts. ISO New England, which serves a six-state region that includes Boston and Hartford, reported about 20.2 gigawatts of demand at 1:45 p.m. EDT, or greater than a projected peak load of 19.5 GW expected later in the day. With constricted natural gas access, nearly 40% of the New England grid's output came from oil-fired power plants. Natural gas, usually the grid's main source of fuel, accounted for just 30% of the grid's fuel source for power plants. But as Mul noted, New England supply of diesel fuel oil can be depleted and not easily resupplied during hazardous winter conditions. ISO New England's surplus capacity dropped to about 1.1 GW, down from earlier estimates of several gigawatts. Earlier on Sunday, ISO New England issued an "abnormal conditions" alert asking power plant operators not to schedule any maintenance or anything else that would affect the grid's reliability. Outside of Washington D.C., real-time wholesale electricity prices topped $1,800 per MWh early Sunday in Dominion Energy's Virginia territory, up from $200 per MWh on Saturday morning. Virginia houses the biggest cluster of data centers in the world, which are used to power things like artificial intelligence and have been responsible for rising power demand and prices in swaths of the country. The demand spike began late Saturday night, according to data from PJM as Winter Storm Fern swept across parts of the country. PJM predicts an all-time winter demand record on Tuesday, partly due to data center electricity needs. Dominion has said extended frigid temperatures this week, along with heavy snow, have the potential to be one of the largest winter events to affect the utility's operations. PJM predicts demand at 147.2 gigawatts, which would beat the current record winter electricity demand of 143.7 GW set in January 2025. Spot wholesale electricity prices across the U.S. have been elevated throughout the weekend as regional grids strain to meet surging demand. When demand is higher than the forecasts, utilities can be forced to pay elevated spot prices for electricity to meet the demands of their residential and business customers. Regional grids feed their power into the local distribution lines that bring electricity to homes and businesses. Those local power lines are showing disruptions, with nearly 1 million customers without power on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us, with more than 300,000 in Tennessee and more than 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama.

US East Power Prices Hit Records as Deep Freeze Strains Grid - Power markets across the US East are coming under intensifying pressure as a deep Arctic blast drives electricity demand sharply higher and pushes prices to record levels. Power prices in Baltimore and Washington, DC surged above $4,000 per megawatt-hour during a grid emergency, while next-day prices in New York City jumped 31%, extending a third consecutive day of record highs. A reinforcing wave of polar air could send temperatures as much as 30F below normal starting Friday, and forecasters are monitoring the risk of a late-week bomb cyclone that could deliver another round of snow and ice along the Eastern Seaboard, potentially prolonging stress on already stretched power systems. Grid operators are responding with increasingly extraordinary measures as the cold persists and equipment strain builds. The system serving more than 67 million people from Chicago to Virginia is preparing to shift data centers and other large electricity users onto backup power to preserve supply for households and hospitals, while New York's grid operator said roughly 3 gigawatts of generating capacity is unavailable due to outages at multiple fossil-fuel plants and weak solar output. With subfreezing temperatures expected to linger across parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio River Valley, officials have warned that prolonged cold can compound wear on gas pipelines, power plants, and transmission systems, limiting the ability to bring sidelined capacity back online.The market response has begun to show up in power-producer equities. NRG Energy Inc. NRG rose more than 4%, while Vistra Corp. VST, Talen Energy Corp. TLN, and Constellation Energy Corp. CEG also moved higher as investors reacted to tightening supply-and-demand conditions. After years of relatively flat electricity consumption, the combination of expanding data centers, rising electrification of heating, and extreme winter weather is reinforcing concerns about regional grid resilience, a dynamic that could remain in focus as forecasters warn the cold may extend well into next week.

PJM Interconnection Issues Maximum Generation Alert For Jan. 27, Low Voltage Alert Thru Jan. 31 And Asked Data Centers To Go To Backup Generation Across Its Entire Footprint To Ensure Delivery Of Enough Electricity --On January 26, the PJM Interconnection issued a Maximum Generation Alert and Load Management Alert for January 27 across its footprint to ensure the reliable delivery of electricity. This alert does not require any action from customers. Peak demand has the potential to exceed 130,000 MW for seven straight days, a winter streak that PJM has never experienced. Depending on temperatures, PJM could set a new all-time winter peak load on Tuesday, Jan. 27. The extreme cold is currently expected to continue through Sunday, Feb. 1, so PJM is taking additional precautions with its generation and transmission owners to prepare. The alert is targeted at transmission/generation owners, who then determine if any maintenance or testing on equipment can be deferred or canceled. By deferring maintenance, the units stay online and continue to produce energy that is needed. Additionally, this alert provides notice to neighboring systems that electricity exports from PJM may be curtailed on Jan. 27. The alert serves as a procedural step that allows those neighboring regions affected to plan accordingly. PJM has issued a Low Voltage Alert across its footprint through Jan. 31. A Low Voltage Alert is an additional precautionary alert that does not require any action from customers. The alert is issued to heighten awareness, increase planning, analysis and preparation efforts when heavy loads and low voltages are possible in upcoming operating periods, allowing Transmission Owners ample time to take actions to increase voltages resulting in increased transfer capability across the RTO. On Monday (Jan. 26), in response to a DOE letter of Jan. 22, 2026, PJM requested an order under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act authorizing PJM in collaboration with its Transmission Owners to direct the deployment of customer-owned backup generation facilities if needed to avoid or mitigate any load shed event during the current extreme winter weather. PJM is working with the DOE to identify data center customers who have volunteered to go onto backup generation if needed in an emergency. The DOE’s expedited process for grid operators to obtain emergency orders for use of backup generators, issued pursuant to this letter, will be helpful as a last resort to avoid impacts to residential customers if the PJM generation fleet or transmission system were to experience major outages. These measures are in addition to the steps PJM took on January 25 related to Demand Response and Conservative Operations. Read more here. Click Here for the PJM announcement.

PJM Continues Cold Weather Operations, Projects Breaking Winter Peak Demand Record Jan. 28, 29, 30 --On January 27, the PJM Interconnection said it continues to operate through the extreme cold temperatures and corresponding high electricity use brought to the PJM region by Winter Storm Fern.The extreme cold is currently expected to continue through Sunday, Feb. 1, so PJM is taking additional precautions with its generation and transmission owners to prepare.Depending on temperatures, PJM projects it will exceed the 143,700 MW Winter Demand Record on January 28, 29 and 30 in its 13 state footprint.Forecast Peak Loads are expected to be--

• -- January 28-- 144,400 MW
• -- January 29-- 145,300 MW
• -- January 30-- 148,000 MW
• -- January 31-- 133,000 MW
• -- February 1-- 127,000 MW

A Maximum Generation Alert and Load Management Alert currently in effect will expire 11:59 p.m. Jan. 27 and was not extended.A Low Voltage Alert remains in effect across its footprint through Jan. 31. A Low Voltage Alert is an additional precautionary alert that does not require any action from customers.The US Department of Energy issued an order Monday evening directing the deployment of backup generation for data centers.The DOE’s expedited process for grid operators to obtain emergency orders for use of backup generators will be helpful as a last resort to avoid impacts to residential customers if the PJM generation fleet or transmission system were to experience major outages.Click Here for the PJM complete announcement.

PJM Interconnection: US DOE Issues Order To Allow Power Plants To Run Without Regard To Air Quality Or Other Permit Limits Thru Jan. 31 -- On January 25, the PJM Interconnection announced it requested and received an order from the US Department of Energy to allow power plants within its service area to run without regard to air quality or other permit limits or fuel shortages through January 31.PJM said it currently has sufficient resources to serve projected load but may implement the order as appropriate given the record electricity demand expect this week.PJM also said as a precautionary measure, it has activated Demand Response customers in parts of the Mid-Atlantic January 25. PJM called on Pre-Emergency Demand Response for Baltimore Gas & Electric, Dominion Energy and Pepco areas for Sunday afternoon/evening to address localized transmission constraints and to preserve the run-time of generators that will be needed for colder weather and higher electricity demand later in the week.Demand response or load management customers are paid to reduce their electricity consumption to ease load during critical periods. Click Here for the PJM announcement. Visit the PJM Interconnection website for more information.

Transmission line stopped sending hydropower during Arctic storm - When a new transmission line carrying Canadian hydropower into New England opened in mid-January, local officials celebrated it as a step toward a more reliable, affordable and greener grid. Then the storm hit. Electricity being carried along the line, known as New England Clean Energy Connect, abruptly stopped Saturday, a little over a week after the line began commercial operation. The interruption, which came as a massive winter storm bore down on the region, halted the flow of power for all but one hour Sunday, when the line briefly operated at half capacity. Shipments resumed at around 25 percent of capacity around 6 p.m. EST Monday. The interruption came as Quebec held back power to meet skyrocketing electricity demand during a blast of Arctic air. Days earlier, officials from states that received the power celebrated the line for its promise of pushing down New England’s notoriously high wintertime electricity prices and displacing oil and gas generation. But the power interruption over the weekend appeared to reopen arguments about shortcomings in the region’s electricity supply that have roiled New England for a decade. Some said the stoppage showed the need for more natural gas capacity, provided by new pipelines. Others said it confirmed their fears that the $1.6 billion transmission project would not be able to deliver power during periods of extreme weather. “I hate to say it, but a lot of the issues and concerns that we have been talking about for years have played out this weekend,” said Dan Dolan, who leads the New England Power Generators Association. The trade group, which represents power plant owners, contested the line’s long-term fixed contract to sell electricity to Massachusetts utilities. “This is a very expensive contract for a product that predominantly comes in non-stressed periods in the winter,” he said. New England policymakers have long worried about the six-state grid’s ability to withstand extreme winter weather. Gas accounts for about half of New England’s annual electricity generation, but the region’s pipeline capacity is relatively limited and is designed to serve both electricity and heating demand. The hydro line was supposed to be part of the solution. It’s a centerpiece of Massachusetts’ strategy to cut climate pollution. In 2016, the state passed a law directing its utilities to purchase large amounts of offshore wind and hydro. The latter was seen as a reliable option to fill in the gaps of wind generation, and one that could relieve the stress on pipelines created by winter demand. But the project quickly became controversial. Opposition was particularly fierce in Maine, where the line traverses northern woods and iconic local landmarks like the Appalachian Trail and the Kennebeck River Gorge, a whitewater site that’s popular with rafters. A majority of Mainers voted to rescind its permit in a ballot referendum; the decision was later reversed by the state’s highest court. It also attracted opposition from power plant owners, who compete to sell electricity in New England’s wholesale market. They worried about being pushed out by a project with a 20-year contract. More specifically, they argued that Hydro-Quebec Energy Services, the provincial utility that would supply the power, would hold back electricity during periods of extreme cold to meet domestic demand. The concerns were dismissed by Massachusetts utility regulators, who pointed to penalties in the contract for failing to deliver. They concluded that the penalties were sufficient to incentivize wintertime delivery.The concerns were dismissed by Massachusetts utility regulators, who pointed to penalties in the contract for failing to deliver. They concluded that the penalties were sufficient to incentivize wintertime delivery.Serge Abergel, chief operating officer of Hydro-Quebec, said the utility anticipates paying those penalties. The halt of exports reflected the extreme winter conditions in Quebec, where temperatures in Montreal hit a low of -9 degrees on Sunday as demand surged past 40,000 megawatts and flirted with the record of 43,000 MW set in 2023. Most homes in Quebec are heated with electricity, a reflection of the province’s historically cheap power prices. That means demand surges when temperatures plunge. Electricity demand was so high over that weekend that power flows reversed over a second transmission line connecting Quebec to New England, with New England exporting electricity northward. “This is the one event of the year that is most challenging for our business, when we’re peaking above 40,000 MW and it’s 10 below outside,” Abergel said. He pushed back against the idea that the hydro line was not meeting its goals, noting that it’s contracted to supply 9.45 terrawatt-hours of electricity annually, or roughly 7 percent of New England’s power demand. The hydro line sells power at a contracted price of about $70 per megawatt-hour. That figure would be much higher if it was specifically designed to guarantee peak power needs, Abergel said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise when demand is so high and temperatures are so cold,” he said.

US grids weathered the deep freeze. Now comes a bomb cyclone. - Power grids held up this week as ice brought down local power lines and a deep freeze tested the reliance on natural gas for so much electricity in the eastern half of the U.S. About 1 million people lost power starting Sunday. Residents of Nashville, Tennessee, and its suburbs saw their power go out, and outages hit areas of Mississippi and northern Louisiana. But the high-voltage grids from Texas to the mid-Atlantic states made it to the end of the week without frozen gas wells, pipelines and transformers triggering widespread outages. “Things are holding up,” said John Moura, reliability director of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. the grid watchdog. Still to come is a nor’easter forming along the East Coast. Bomb cyclone wind gusts along the Carolina coasts and more cold in New England are expected to keep the pressure on grids in the East.

Microsoft Doubles Down on Data Centers - Microsoft is racing to build data centers as quickly as possible and reported on Wednesday, January 28, that it added nearly 1 gigawatt of power in the last three months of 2025. That’s enough to power nearly 800,000 homes.The company is “adding capacity as quickly as we can,” said Amy Hood, chief financial officer for Microsoft. During its earnings call, CEO Satya Nadella highlighted its “first of its kind” AI superfactory, which it completed last year. The project links Microsoft’s data centers in Wisconsin and Atlanta, about 700 miles apart, using a high-speed fiber-optic network. By connecting these facilities through an AI Wide Area Network (AI-WAN), Microsoft can run them as a single system. This means each data center contains hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs that share workloads in real time, and AI tasks can be processed more efficiently. Still, Microsoft’s demand for cloud and AI continues to exceed its supply. Microsoft reported its capital expenditures (CapEx) for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2025, were $37.5 billion, a 66% increase year-over-year, mostly driven by data center growth. The company said it would increase expenses this year, but did not offer a specific amount. Data centers remain a buzzy topic in the energy industry, and we’ll continue to discuss them in the RBN blogosphere. See: I Know Places.

Ka-Ching! – Electric Utility Balance Sheets Threatened by Record Debt from AI-Driven Capex - Given the recent media focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and the surge of data center construction, it comes as no surprise that the electric utility industry’s capital investments have risen to record highs. What isn’t as widely publicized is the enormous strain this historic expansion has placed on utility balance sheets, as industry debt is also at record levels. The financial stability of utilities is of particular concern as they seek to forge partnerships with private equity firms, natural gas providers, tech companies and other entities. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll explore the multiple drivers of utility capital investment, analyze the impact of rising debt and explore the challenges of raising future capital. As shown in Figure 1 below, capital expenditures by a group of 38 publicly traded electric utilities in the U.S. have more than doubled over the past 11 years, from $104 billion in 2015 to an estimated $211 billion in 2025. The sector now has the highest capex of any U.S. industry, surpassing the transportation and retail sectors. The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies, expects utility capex growth to accelerate with investment of more than $1.3 trillion in 2026-30 as U.S. electricity demand is projected to grow by 25%-32% by 2030. The projected annual growth rate is nearly 6X the historical growth rate of 1% per year. This historic expansion of capital investment is driven by data‑center load growth (see Suspicious Minds and Storm Front), grid modernization, resilience upgrades and renewables. The big kahuna is data center/AI load growth, with an expected doubling of power demand by 2030, accounting for about 55% of the forecast growth in peakload over the next five years. The remaining increase in demand is coming from a combination of industrial electrification, manufacturing reshoring and residential demand, including growth in electric vehicles (see The Long Road). As to where the investments are going, capex on new generation accounted for 30% of total 2025 outlays, or about $64 billion, while another 14%, or $29 billion, was allocated to building out natural gas infrastructure (mainly pipelines) to support new electricity production. Other big tranches went to electric distribution ($68 billion, 32%) and transmission ($38 billion, 18%) as utilities responded to pressure from customers, regulators and rating agencies to enhance the safety, reliability and resiliency of the U.S. electric grid (see Electric Avenue). Hardening infrastructure against the rising impact of climate change is a primary focus; another is the replacement of long-neglected aging infrastructure. Utilities also are upgrading high-voltage lines and deploying “smart” technology, including new meters, sensors and automated controls. The cost of replacing assets damaged or destroyed by recent storms and wildfires has also substantially increased due to a number of factors, including transformer and other equipment supply shortages, insufficient equipment manufacturing capacity, tariffs and higher material prices (especially for copper). Estimates vary widely, but it seems likely that many tens of gigawatts (GW) of new gas-fired generating capacity will be developed by utilities and independent power producers over the next few years (see Dive In), as will large amounts of new renewable capacity, especially solar and wind (see Together in Electric Dreams). Significant spending has also been allocated to the construction of new battery-storage facilities as well as infrastructure to connect often remote new wind and solar facilities to the grid.With enormous pressure from regulators and policymakers to increase the volume and reliability of electric supply, there is little chance that the industry will slow investment. The major question is how to finance this historic spending. Traditionally, utilities have sought rate increases to fund capex. Requested rate increases rose to record highs in 2019-24 and retail electricity prices (across all sectors) increased 23% over that period, with residential prices climbing nearly 26%. This surge has incited major resistance to future increases from both consumers and politicians. Electricity costs were a major issue in recent gubernatorial campaigns, with the newly elected governor of New Jersey promising a rate freeze upon taking office. Although utilities had more than $20 billion in proposed net rate increases as of September 2025, the likelihood of full approval is slim.Utilities have also relied on new equity issuances to partially fund capital investment, with proceeds from new shares offsetting more than 20% of capex in 2018-20. However, the market appetite for large equity sales that significantly dilute shareholder equity has diminished since the pandemic. Power companies have shifted dramatically to slower, continuous equity issuances through At-the-Market (ATM) programs, through which shares are sold incrementally into the existing trading market at prevailing market prices by a broker-dealer and through Dividend Reinvestment Plans for existing shareholders. Equity issuances were forecast to fund about 14% of 2025 capital expenditures but are very unlikely to be accelerated enough to cover the faster-rising investment on the horizon. The fact is, utility capex has been rising far beyond the increase in rate revenues and equity issuances, and publicly owned utilities have been cash-flow negative for 10 consecutive years. To make up the deficit, companies have been forced to turn to debt financing. As shown in Figure 2 below, debt for the 38 companies in our study universe has nearly doubled to more than $800 billion since 2019. The rise began in 2020 as utilities accelerated grid modernization and renewables buildout. The trend continued in 2022 despite rising interest rates and accelerated significantly at the dawn of the AI revolution in 2023, reaching record levels in 2024 and into 2025. Despite rising capex and debt, electric utilities sustained shareholder support by continuing the strong dividend programs that have made them a staple in the portfolios of income investors. In 2024, 94% of publicly traded utilities raised their dividends by an average of 5%, and the average yield rose to 3.9% in 2025, the third-highest of any U.S. industry. However, supporting dividends has contributed to the weakening balance sheets, as the total free cash flow after capex and dividends has averaged a negative $85 billion over the past five years. Increased debt has also elevated debt-to-capital ratios for the industry from the long-held traditional 50/50 equity/debt split to the 55%-65% range. Debt-to-equity ratios average 1.5X-1.6X, with the larger multi-utilities (electric plus gas) at an even higher 1.76X average. The ratios place the leverage burden of electric utilities among the highest of any economic sector, along with airlines, which depend heavily on aircraft financing. Interest coverage ratios for the group have dipped as low as 5X in recent years from the traditional 10X.Rising debt shows signs of beginning to erode the electric industry’s traditional strong credit ratings. Approximately 70% of publicly traded utilities held a rating of BBB+ (investment grade) or higher, a level that has remained steady since 2015. However, in the first nine months of 2025, credit downgrades exceeded upgrades by three to one. Approximately 20% of the outlooks for utilities were “negative” or “watch-negative,” compared with only 7% being positive. In December 2025, S&P Global issued a negative outlook for U.S. regulated utilities in general in 2026, specifically citing “converging, substantial and costly infrastructure financing needs.”The obvious solution for electric utilities to stem the tide of rising debt to fund the ongoing capital investment surge is to explore alternative funding. One traditional avenue has been asset sales, especially nonregulated or noncore assets such as solar and wind facilities. Some have sold minority interests in their regulated businesses. Minnesota-based ALLETE Inc. went even further, transitioning to private ownership with its $6.2 billion sale to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).Natural gas producers have also been aggressively seeking long-term supply agreements (see Options Open). For example, Chevron in January 2025 announced a partnership with investment firm Engine #1 and power-equipment maker GE Vernova to develop “power foundries” — large-scale power plants running on domestic natural gas to support AI infrastructure.The enormous projected growth in U.S. power demand makes these partnerships seem very attractive investments. There are caution flags for investors, though (see Won’t Get Fooled Again). As inevitable as AI-driven data center growth may seem, it could turn out to be a bubble that might eventually burst, as has happened in the past with out-of-control oil and gas exploration. Also, growing consumer resistance to soaring electric bills and the threat of recession could lead to lower residential and industrial demand.To sum up, soaring investment and debt is threatening to erode the traditional fortress-like balance sheets of U.S. utilities, which could be further weakened if demand-growth forecasts prove to be too optimistic and if climate-related threats to the still-aging U.S. grid increase. These industry trends deserve watching as the pace of data-center development accelerates.

NRG Receives Final OK to Acquire LS Power’s Gas-Fired Power Plants - Last May, NRG Energy announced a deal to acquire LS Power’s portfolio of natural-gas power plants in a deal valued at roughly $12 billion, including debt, that will expand NRG’s footprint in Texas and along the East Coast (see NRG Buys 18 Gas-Fired Power Plants, Including 5 in PA, for $12B). The acquisition will add 18 more natural-gas-fired facilities in nine states, including five in Pennsylvania and one in Ohio, doubling NRG’s generation capacity to approximately 25 gigawatts (GW). NRG announced yesterday that it has received antitrust clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the last hurdle before the deal can close.

Huge New Data Center Coming to Mason County, WV with 2 GW Gas Power -Marcellus Drilling News - - Here’s a new gas-fired power plant coming to West Virginia that we previously did not know about. And it’s a monster! Fidelis New Energy and 8090 Industries have launched American Intelligence & Power Corporation (AIP Corp.) to develop the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, West Virginia. This 2,380-acre microgrid project provides behind-the-meter power for AI and hyperscale data centers, bypassing standard grid delays. AIP Corp. recently ordered 2 gigawatts of Caterpillar natural gas generators and battery storage, with deliveries starting in late 2026. This facility will eventually scale to 10 gigawatts! The campus uses local gas pipelines and water from the Ohio River for cooling.

Wisconsin debates how to pay for the power-hungry AI boom - How much should data centers pay for the massive amounts of new power infrastructure they require? Wisconsin’s largest utility, We Energies, has offered its answer to that question in what is the first major proposal before state regulators on the issue. Under the proposal, currently open for public comment, data centers would pay most or all of the price to construct new power plants or renewables needed to serve them, and the utility says the benefits that other customers receive would outweigh any costs they shoulder for building and running this new generation. But environmental and consumer advocates fear the utility’s plan will actually saddle customers with payments for generation, including polluting natural gas plants, that wouldn’t otherwise be needed. States nationwide face similar dilemmas around data centers’ energy use. But who pays for the new power plants and transmission is an especially controversial question in Wisconsin and other ​“vertically integrated” energy markets, where utilities charge their customers for the investments they make in such infrastructure — with a profit, called ​“rate of return,” baked in. In states with competitive energy markets, like Illinois, by contrast, utilities buy power on the open market and don’t make a rate of return on building generation. Although seven big data-center projects are underway in Wisconsin, the state has no laws governing how the computing facilities get their power. Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state Legislature are debating two bills this session. The Assembly passed the GOP-backed proposal on Jan. 20, which, even if it makes it through the Senate, is unlikely to get Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ signature. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a spokesperson for Evers said on Jan. 14 that ​“the one thing environmentalists, labor, utilities, and data center companies can all agree on right now is how bad Republican lawmakers’ data center bill is.” Until a measure is passed, individual decisions by the state Public Service Commission will determine how utilities supply energy to data centers.The We Energies case is high stakes because two data centers proposed in the utility’s southeast Wisconsin territory promise to double its total demand. One of those facilities is a Microsoft complex that the tech giant says will be ​“the world’s most powerful AI datacenter.” The utility’s proposal could also be precedent-setting as other Wisconsin utilities plan for data centers, said Bryan Rogers, environmental justice director for the Milwaukee community organization Walnut Way Conservation Corp. “As goes We Energies,” Rogers said, ​“so goes the rest of the state.” We Energies’ proposal — first filed last spring — would let data centers choose between two options for paying for new generation infrastructure to ensure the utility has enough capacity to meet grid operator requirements that the added electricity demand doesn’t interfere with reliability. In both cases, the utility will acquire that capacity through ​“bespoke resources” built specifically for the data center. The computing facilities technically would not get their energy directly from these power plants or renewables but rather from We Energies at market prices. Under the first option, called ​“full benefits,” data centers would pay the full price of constructing, maintaining, and operating the new generation, and would cover the profit guaranteed to We Energies. The data centers would also get revenue from the sale of the electricity on the market as well as from renewable energy credits for solar and wind arrays; renewable energy credits are basically certificates that can be sold to other entities looking to meet sustainability goals. The second option, called ​“capacity only,” would have data centers paying 75% of the cost of building the generation. Other customers would pick up the tab for the remaining 25% of the construction and pay for fuel and other costs. In this case, both data centers and other customers would pay for the profit guaranteed to We Energies as part of the project, though the data centers would pay a different — and possibly lower — rate than other customers. Developers of both data centers being built in We Energies’ territory support the utility’s proposal, saying in testimony that it will help them get online faster and sufficiently protect other customers from unfair costs. Consumer and environmental advocacy groups, however, are pushing back on the capacity-only option, arguing that it is unfair to make regular customers pay a quarter of the price for building new generation that might not have been necessary without data centers in the picture. “Nobody asked for this,” said Rogers of Walnut Way. The Sierra Club told regulators to scrap the capacity-only option. The advocacy group Clean Wisconsin similarly opposes that option, as noted in testimony to regulators. But We Energies says everyone will benefit from building more power sources. “These capacity-only plants will serve all of our customers, especially on the hottest and coldest days of the year,” We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway wrote in an email. ​“We expect that customers will receive benefits from these plants that exceed the costs that are proposed to be allocated to them.” We Energies has offered no proof of this promise, according to testimony filed by the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, which represents factories and other large operations. The trade association’s energy adviser, Jeffry Pollock, told regulators that the utility’s own modeling of the capacity-only approach showed scenarios in which the costs borne by customers outweigh the benefits to them.

How data center backers are selling promises of jobs and clean energy -Data centers are facing an image problem. The tech industry is spending millions to rebrand them.With community opposition growing, data center backers are going on a full-scale public relations blitz. Around Christmas in Virginia, which boasts the highest concentration of data centers in the country, one advertisement seemed to air nonstop. “Virginia’s data centers are … investing billions in clean energy,” a voiceover intoned over sweeping shots of shiny solar panels. “Creating good-paying jobs” — cue men in yellow safety vests and hard hats — “and building a better energy future.” The ad was sponsored by Virginia Connects, an industry-affiliated group that spent at least $700,000 on digital marketingin the state in fiscal year 2024. The spot emphasized that data centers are paying their own energy costs — framing this as a buffer that might help lower residential bills — and portrayed the facilities as engines of local job creation.The reality is murkier. Although industry groups claim that each new data center creates “dozens to hundreds” of “high-wage, high-skill jobs,” some researchers say data centers generate far fewer jobs than other industries, such as manufacturing andwarehousing. Greg LeRoy, the founder of the research and advocacy group Good Jobs First, said that in his first major study of data center jobs nine years ago, he found that developers pocketed well over a million dollars in state subsidies for every permanent job they created. With the rise of hyperscalers, LeRoy said, that number is “still very much in the ballpark.” Other experts reflect that finding. A 2025 brief from University of Michigan researchers put it bluntly: “Data centers do not bring high-paying tech jobs to local communities.” A recent analysis from Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit tracking corporate overreach, found that in Virginia, the investment required to create a permanent data center job was nearly 100 times higherthan what was required to create comparable jobs in other industries. “Data centers are the extreme of hyper-capital intensity in manufacturing,” LeRoy said. “Once they’re built, the number of people monitoring them is really small.” Contractors may be called in if something breaks, and equipment is replaced every few years. “But that’s not permanent labor,” he said.Jon Hukill, a spokesperson for the Data Center Coalition, the industry lobbying group that established Virginia Connects in 2024, said that the industry “is committed to paying its full cost of service for the energy it uses” and is trying to “meet this moment in a way that supports both data center development and an affordable, reliable electricity grid for all customers.” Nationally, Hukill said, the industry “supported 4.7 million jobs and contributed $162 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2023.”Dozens of community groups across the country have mobilized against data center buildout, citing fears that the facilities will drain water supplies, overwhelm electric grids, and pollute the air around them. According to Data Center Watch, a project run by AI security company 10a Labs, nearly 200 community groups are currently active and blocked or delayed 20 data center projects representing $98 billion of potential investment between April and June 2025 alone. The backlash has exposed a growing image problem for the AI industry. “Too often, we’re portrayed as energy-hungry, water-intensive, and environmentally damaging,” data center marketer Steve Lim recently wrote. That narrative, he argued, “misrepresents our role in society and potentially hinders our ability to grow.” In response, the industry is stepping up its messaging. Some developers, like Starwood Digital Ventures in Delaware, are turning to Facebook ads to appeal to residents. Its ads make the case that data center development might help keep property taxes low, bring jobs to Delaware, and protect the integrity of nearby wetlands. According to reporting from Spotlight Delaware, the company has also boasted that it will create three times as many jobs as it initially told local officials. Nationally, Meta has spent months running TV spots showcasing data center work as a viable replacement for lost industrial and farming jobs. One advertisement spotlights the small city of Altoona, Iowa. “I grew up in Altoona, and I wanted my kids to be able to do the same,” a voice narrates over softly-lit scenes of small-town Americana: a Route 66 diner, a farm, and a water tower. “So, when work started to slow down, we looked for new opportunities … and we welcomed Meta, which opened a data center in our town. Now, we’re bringing jobs here — for us, and for our next generation.” The advertisement ends with a promise superimposed over images of a football game: “Meta is investing $600 billion in American infrastructure and jobs.” In reality, Altoona’s data center is a hulking, windowless, warehouse complex that broke ground in 2013, long before the current data center boom. Altoona is not quite the beleaguered farm town Meta’s advertisements portray, but a suburb of 19,000, roughly 16 minutes from downtown Des Moines, the most populous city in Iowa. Meta says it has supported “400+ operational jobs” in Altoona. In comparison, the local casino employs nearly 1,000 residents, according to the local economic development agency.Ultimately, those details may not matter much to the ad’s intended audience. As Politico reported, the advertisement may have been targeted at policymakers on the coasts more than the residents of towns like Altoona. Meta has spent at least $5 million airing the spot in places like Sacramento and Washington, D.C. The community backlash has also made data centers a political flashpoint. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger won November’s gubernatorial election in part on promises to regulate the industry and make developers pay their “fair share” of the electricity they use. State lawmakers also considered 30 bills attempting to regulate data centers. In response to concerns about rising electricity prices, Virginia regulators approved a new rate structure for AI data centers and other large electricity users. The changes, which will take effect in 2027, are designed to protect household customers from costs associated with data center expansion.These developments may only encourage companies to spend more on image-building. In Virginia’s Data Center Alley, the ads show no sign of stopping. Elena Schlossberg, an anti-data-center activist based in Prince William County, says her mailbox has been flooded with fliers from Virginia Connects for the past eight months. The promises of lower electric bills, good jobs, and climate responsibility, she said, remind her of cigarette ads she saw decades ago touting the health benefits of smoking. But Schlossberg isn’t sure the marketing is going to work. One recent poll showed that 73 percent of Virginians blame data centers for their rising electricity costs. “There’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube,” she said. “People already know we’re still covering their costs. People know that.”

W. Texas Gas Data Center to Topple Homer City as Nation’s Biggest - Marcellus Drilling News -- Last April, Knighthead Capital Management, Homer City Redevelopment (HCR), and Kiewit Power Constructors Co. announced a plan to convert the former Homer City Generating Station, previously the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania (Indiana County, 50 miles east of Pittsburgh) into a more than 3,200-acre natural gas-powered data center campus, designed to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (see Largest Gas-Fired Power Plant in the U.S. Coming in Western Pa.). A new gas-fired plant attached to the project was slated to become THE LARGEST gas-fired power plant in the country, capable of producing up to 4.5 gigawatts (4,500 MW) of electricity. Scratch that. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the GW Ranch project, an 8,000-acre AI data center to be powered by a monster 7.65 GW gas-fired power plant.

In Case You Missed It: A.I./Data Center Articles - NewClips From Last Week - January 26 --Here are Articles and NewsClips on A.I. and data center issues from last week you may have missed-- Winter Storm Fern":

• -- PJM Interconnect Issues Cold Weather Alert For Western Region Jan. 23 Expanding To Entire PJM Area Jan. 24-27; Regional Grid Could Exceed Winter Demand Record on Jan. 27 & 30 [PaEN]
• -- PJM Interconnection: US DOE Issues Order To Allow Power Plants To Run Without Regard To Air Quality Or Other Permit Limits Thru Jan. 31 [PaEN]
• -- WNEP: PJM Interconnection: Winter Storm Will Cause Historic Power Grid Strain That Has Never Been Experienced Before
• -- WPIX: Washington County Opens Nearly 2 Dozen Warming Shelters During Bitter Cold, Major Winter Storm [The Center Of Shale Gas Fracking, Coal Industry In PA]
• -- Reuters: US Energy Sector Braces For Winter Storm As Crude, Natural Gas Output Fall
• -- Reuters: US Refineries Brace For Disruptions As Arctic Blast Hits
• -- Bloomberg: Natural Gas Prices Soar 75% In 3 Days As Arctic Cold Grips The US
• -- The Center Square: Winter Weather To Disrupt US Natural Gas Production, Increase Prices
• -- Bloomberg: Cold Blast Threatens To Cut US Natural Gas Output By Most Since 2021 Over Next 14 Days, Energy Aspects Says
• -- Reuters: US Power Grid Faces Stress Test Amid Arctic Chill, A.I. Data Center Demand; PJM Expected To Set Demand Records
• -- Utility Dive: US DOE Orders Diesel Generators To Be Ready As Electric Sector Prepares For Winter Storm Fern; Consumer Advocate Warns The Plan Is Unworkable
• -- Bloomberg: US DOE Calls On A.I. Data Centers To Prepare Backup Power Ahead Of Winter Storm
• -- Aboveground Water Pipelines Feeding Shale Gas Drilling Operations Beginning To Freeze Due To Cold Temperatures; Range Resources Incident Reported In Washington County; Notify DEP Of Pipeline Problems [PaEN]
• Energy Prices
• -- Post-Gazette - Laura Legere: Shopping For Energy Has Cost PA Residents $400 Million In Overpayments For Gas, Electric In 2024 Alone [‘We’re Starting To See Customers Not Reap The Benefits That Were Promised’]
• -- PennLive Guest Essay: PA Families Have A Powerful Tool Against Rising Energy Costs - Shopping For Gas, Electric Suppliers - By Frank Caliva, Retail Energy Supply Association
• -- WHYY: As Electricity Rates Soar, PECO Adds $2.5 Million In Aid For Low-Income Customers
• Grid
• -- Gov. Shapiro: Major Utilities, Power Producers, Tech Companies, Experts Endorse Federal/Northeast PJM Governors’ Plan To Meet Surging A.I. Data Center Energy Demands - Will PJM Listen? [PaEN]
• -- Morning Call: Federal, State Officials Pressure Regional Electric Grid Operator To Lower Electricity Prices; Here’s What Could Come Next
• -- Morning Call: PPL Backs Push By President, Shapiro To Bring Down Electric Prices Amid A.I. Data Center Surge
• -- Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader: PJM Must Reform Now To Protect Consumers And Keep Electricity Affordable, Experts Say
• -- Inside Climate News: Clean Energy Advocates Criticise ‘Glaring’ Omission In White House/Northeast Governor’s Plan To Fuel A.I. Data Centers In PJM Region
• -- Utility Dive: PJM Board Calls For Backstop Capacity Auction In New A.I. Data Center Interconnection Plan
• -- Utility Dive Guest Essay: A PJM Backstop Capacity Auction Could Fill The Large Load Supply Gap To Address Reliability - By Mac McFarland, Talen Energy CEO
• -- Futurism: A.I. Data Centers Pushing Electric Grid Into Meltdown
• -- Utility Dive: FERC Commissioners See Progress In PJM A.I. Data Center, Power Supply Plan
• -- WHYY - Susan Phillips: NJ Governor Issues State Of Emergency On Energy Costs; Orders State Regulators To Boost Renewables, Battery Storage In Light Of Rising Electricity Prices
• Legislation
• -- House Energy Committee Meeting To Consider Bill Giving PUC More Authority To Regulate A.I. Data Centers Moved To Feb. 2 [PaEN]
• -- PA House Committees Hearing: Witnesses Agree - A.I. Data Centers - Real And Purely Speculative - Are Driving Up The Cost Of Electricity; Without Effective Action Energy Increases Will Not End [PaEN]
• -- WITF: PA Consumer Advocates Urge House Committees To Tax A.I. Data Centers, Offset Home Energy Spikes At Hearing
• -- Post-Gazette: PA House Members Hear Warnings On A.I. Data Centers, Rising Electric Costs At Hearing
• -- Tribune-Democrat: Electric Grid Concerns Aired By PA Lawmakers As Frigid Weather Settles In
• -- The Center Square: NJ, PA Retool Power Load Forecasting Oversight
• Public Participation
• -- DEP Invites Comments On Individual Stormwater Permit For The 150 Mile Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, LLC Piney-Seward, Erie South Piney Transmission Line Project Thru 8 Counties [PaEN]
• -- Utility Dive: PJM Considering $1.7 Billion Transmission Line Project Across PA Based On Year-Old A.I. Data Center Demand Forecasts Is A ‘Poster Child’ For Overbuilding, According To PA Consumer Advocate
• Land Use
• -- Guest Essay: A.I. Data Centers Are Taking Our Beautiful Towns Away, We Need Help! - By Donna Jensen, Resident of Wapwallopen, Luzerne County [PaEN]
• -- Scranton Times - Chris Kelly Opinion: Momentum Builds Against A.I. Data Centers [PDF of Article]
• -- Scranton Times - Chris Kelly Opinion: A.I. Data Centers Set To Make Us Second Class Citizens Of Data Center Valley [PDF of Article]
• -- Scranton Times Chris Kelly Opinion: The Cumulative Impacts Of A.I. Data Center Development [PDF of Article]
• -- Concerned Residents Of Western PA To Host Feb. 1 Community Gathering On Proposed Homer City Power Plant And A.I. Data Center In Indiana County [PaEN]
• -- TribLive: TECfusion A.I. Data Center Meeting Postponed In Upper Burrell Twp. To February Due To Weather In Allegheny County
• -- Scranton Times: Ransom Twp. Supervisors Reject A.I. Data Center Zoning Amendment Requested By Developer [PDF of Article]
• -- Morning Call: Residents Push Back Against A.I. Data Center Planned Across From Parkland H.S.: ‘I Do Not Want This In My Backyard’
• -- Scranton Times: Jessup Borough Denies Breaker Street A.I. Data Centers [PDF of Article]
• -- Scranton Times: Wildcat Ridge A.I. Data Center In Archbald To Use Huge Amounts Of Power, Water [PDF of Article]
• -- Scranton Times: Scranton City Council Wants Info On Tapping Lake Scranton Water Supply To Cool A.I. Data Center [PDF of Article]
• -- Scranton Times: Scranton Could Feel Impact Of A.I. Data Centers Built In Ransom Twp., Elsewhere [PDF of Article]
• -- Scranton Times: Dickson City To Hold 2nd Hearing Jan. 20 On A.I. Data Center Ordinance [PDF of Article]
• -- Scranton Times: Dickson City Residents Overwhelmingly Oppose A.I. Data Centers At Public Hearing [PDF of Article]
• -- The Citizens Voice: Hollenback Twp. Residents Rally Against A.I. Data Center Campus On Rural Land In Luzerne County [PDF of Article]
• -- PA Capital-Star Guest Essay: Beyond NIMBY vs. Progress: How Pennsylvania Can Secure A ‘Durable Yes’ For A.I. Data Centers [Honestly Address Issues Of Concern] - By Desmond Daley, Pittsburgh Resident
• Impacts
• -- Scranton Times: Lackawanna County Commissioner: Legislature Should Authorize County-Level A.I. Data Center Impact Fees [PDF of Article]
• -- PennLive Letter: A.I. Thirst For Water Threatens Pennsylvania’s Wells - By Barbara Brandom, MD
• A.I. Policy
• -- Financial Times: A.I. Data Center Groups Plan Lobbying Blitz To Counter A. I. Energy Backlash [PDF of Article]
• -- Spotlight PA: Utility And A.I. Interests Spending Millions Lobbying Congress, President To Support Data Center Boom

[Posted: January 25, 2026] PA Environment Digest

Ohio town's fears as huge Amazon power plant near school approved without local consent --Residents of a small town in Ohio are furious that the state has approved a power plant that would generate more than a million pounds of climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions daily, according to documents reviewed by the Daily Mail. Hilliard, a town of nearly 39,000 people, will soon be home to a 73-megawatt natural gas fuel cell system that will power a fleet of data centers for Amazon Web Services. The company said the fuel cells are needed to sustain electricity consumption for planned expansions to these data centers.Fuel cells convert the methane in natural gas into electricity without combustion, a process that causes energy loss due to heat output. That's why proponents say they are more efficient than traditional combustion engines.This does not mean fuel cells are a strictly clean form of energy. The project's 228 fuel cells will emit up to 1.45 million pounds of CO₂ a day, according to a disclosure from the city of Hilliard.It appears the city arrived at this number by evaluating the proposal, which states that the fuel cell system, manufactured by Bloom Energy, will emit anywhere from 679 pounds to 833 pounds of CO₂ per megawatt-hour (MWh).Over the course of 24 hours of regular operation, the facility will emit 1.19 million pounds of CO₂ on the low end, and about 1.46 million pounds of CO₂ on the high end, exactly lining up with what the city of Hilliard has claimed.The city has requested that Amazon or AEP Ohio, the public utility company that will run the plant, include carbon capture technology to lessen emissions.In a statement to the Daily Mail, AEP Ohio said it cannot do carbon capture at this site because the state does not have the necessary permits to introduce pipelines to transport the CO₂. The state also lacks the required permissions to build underground injection wells to store CO₂.A bill that would shift regulatory responsibilities from the federal government to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources passed the state House in October. The bill claims that doing this would speed up development of carbon capture projects in Ohio. AEP Ohio said it does not dispute the amount of carbon dioxide that will be emitted from the power plant in Hilliard but said it will not harm air quality. “These types of fuel cells have proven to be safe and clean solutions to meet customers’ energy needs. They offer a lower-carbon alternative, producing 30 percent to 45 percent fewer carbon-dioxide emissions than the regional electric grid and conventional onsite generation technologies,' AEP Ohio told the Daily Mail.Amazon spokesperson Kylee Yonas said AEP Ohio will 'temporarily use fuel cells to power part of our data center operations while larger Ohio power infrastructure upgrades are completed.'Parents in Hilliard are concerned about children who go to school at Beacon Elementary just 4,000 feet away from the planned power plant.'We all understand the need for energy in the United States and across the world,' Hilliard City Councilmember Les Carrier told NBC4i WCMH-TV at a recent council meeting. 'But you can’t just be throwing up 1.5 million pounds of CO₂ a day into the air next to a neighborhood, a school without some kind of measurement of what that means.'The city of Hilliard has argued that the plant’s daily carbon dioxide output would be roughly equivalent to the emissions of about 66,000 cars.The comparison is not one-to-one. Vehicles emit a mix of pollutants in addition to carbon dioxide, including methane and nitrous oxide - both potent greenhouse gases - as well as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and other compounds that can harm humans. The fuel cells in Hilliard would primarily emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change but is not harmful to humans at typical outdoor concentrations. Small amounts of methane could escape through leakage, but most of the gas would be consumed in the electrochemical reaction that generates electricity.Hilliard residents are especially sensitive to pollution issues because roughly 30 years ago, students at Beacon Elementary had serious symptoms they claimed were from fumes allegedly coming from a nearby wastewater facility. Students and staff at the school said they had headaches, nausea, dizziness, gagging, breathing difficulties and irritation in the throat and eyes, according to state documents obtained by WCMH-TV. Laidlaw Environmental Service, which ran the wastewater facility, was sued by multiple parties, both in Hilliard and nationally. The company settled two of them and its plant near the school was eventually decommissioned in 2001. Amy Swank told WCMH-TV that her kids go to school in Hilliard and that she's afraid of history repeating itself with Amazon's data centers. 'Where can we put data centers that maybe don’t cause as many issues to the environment and to the community?' she said. 'In a way that balances demand and yet respects the kids who play next to them, literally, in Hilliard?'

Reward offered for info on vandal behind Wayne oil spill— The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) and Wayne County Commission is offering a $2,500 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the vandal or vandals responsible for a local oil spill. WCSO shared news of the reward on Tuesday in an effort to find the person or persons that vandalized an Appalachian Power transformer in East Lynn two weeks ago, which caused transformer oil to leak into the county waterways. Wayne residents without water two weeks after oil leak. Anyone with information is asked to contact WCSO at 304-272-6378 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. For the past two week, Wayne County residents have been under a “Do Not Consume” order to avoid using the water in their pipes for any purposes. As of Monday evening, the West Virginia Department of Health reports that an “enhanced lab testing method” indicated that samples taken on Jan. 23 show that contamination from transformer oil was only present at one location in the Wayne water system. Temporary showers and laundry trailers are set up in multiple locations in the county.

Local residents deserve to know about gas-fired power plant planned for Meta data center - Leatra Harper - In reviewing the publicly available information in an attempt to understand how a huge data center could be planned and approved, given substantial tax breaks, with a huge swath of land sold with development begun without the knowledge of most area residents. It does not take long before it becomes obvious the lengths it took to ensure our local elected and economic development officials kept it a secret, leaving the public in the dark until it was too late. No townhalls, no permit hearings, no opportunity to ask questions or have them answered. Even the name and purpose of the project was withheld with the shell LLC, Liames, secret project name, Accordion, and numerous non-disclosure agreements signed. Now the pattern of secrecy is obvious and continues with yet another project, “Apollo” being fast-tracked by the “Will-Power LLC” a subsidiary of Williams Company, the builder of the Nexus fracked gas pipeline. The informative, well-researched article published by BG Independent News 9/14/25 did not mention the huge 350 MW gas fired power plant that was being planned at the time because – well – who knew? In fact, when Will-Power proposed the 350 MW Title V air polluter to the Ohio Power Siting Board with a Letter of Notification just three months ago, even that letter kept Meta a secret. That letter initiated the fast-track process with the Ohio Power Siting Board which apparently plans to approve the facility the first part of February. Local residents who are concerned about the region’s air quality need to speak out now before the massive polluter is permitted if we do not want more asthma and ozone action days – not to mention the climate impacts of greenhouse gas emissions (it is reported that Apollo is seeking approval to emit 2,475,581 tons of CO2 yearly – this does not count the emissions from the additional upstream industries like fracking that would feed the power plant or the diesel powered generators also planned).We are waiting for a copy of the air permit to review. We called the Ohio EPA because even that appears not to be publicly available. Could the OPSB fast-track the approval of Apollo before local residents receive a copy of the air pollution permit and have a chance to comment? How could the OPSB approve the siting of this Title V project without looking at cumulative impacts that would include not only the data center itself, but the diesel generators and the two 16″ pipelines that are also planned – and who knows what else that is still not disclosed? To add insult to injury – no public input for the 75% tax abatement for Meta for 15 years! And Apollo likely will get Ohio sales tax breaks as a new power plant for a data center as well! In Hamilton, Ohio, there is much more transparency, and a proposed data center project has even been paused for additional public information. Wood County residents did not receive that courtesy. It stands to reason that if the deals being made would be acceptable to the local community, such secrecy would not be needed. Now as more people are becoming aware, it is obvious that important information was kept from us. Even though the Apollo project is being fast-tracked, there is still time to register comments to the Ohio Power Siting Board by calling 866-270-6772 or by emailing ContactOPSB@puco.ohio.gov. Our elected “representatives” need to hear from us – they seem to forget that they are paid with our taxes, and they are supposed to represent us and not be seduced by the “ribbon cutting syndrome” at the expense of their constituents.

Fracking produces a lot of wastewater. Millions of gallons of it are stored under eastern Ohio - The Allegheny Front -- This is the first of a three-part series about concerns over injection wells in Washington County. Read the second and third parts here. - Hydraulic fracturing, particularly on public lands, has spurred protests across Ohio. But a lesser known part of the process — where companies discard the wastewater from drilling — is causing an uproar in a small town in southeast Ohio. Some residents in Marietta are concerned that the wastewater could contaminate the city’s drinking water supply. To understand how that could happen, we’re breaking down the science. Americans have been drilling for oil and gas for over a century, but about 15 years ago, a different kind of energy mining took off: hydraulic fracturing, often nicknamed fracking. Jeffery says drilling horizontally allows companies to reach oil and natural gas reserves that were previously difficult to access with conventional vertical drilling.In order to get those fuels out, operators inject the holes with millions of gallons of fluid at pressures so high it pulverizes surrounding rock and allows oil and gas to escape. That fluid is usually composed of water, sand and chemicals like disinfectants. Ohio law requires companies to disclose information about the volume and types of products used in drilling, but there are exemptions for chemicals considered trade secrets. After the fluid has done its job, it comes back up to the surface. But after sloshing around underground, it picks up a lot of salt and, potentially, some radioactive material.Between the unknowns about the chemicals in the fluid and the substances it picks up underground, Jeffery says the wastewater isn’t safe for humans above ground.“So they have to dispose of them somehow,” Jeffery said.That’s where injection wells come in. Injection wells are drilled deep underground in porous geologic formations to store fluids like the wastewater from hydraulic fracturing. “That would normally be a very good solution if you find a place in which you can find space underground for this yucky stuff to be in perpetuity,” Jeffery said. There are several types of injection wells. Some are used to store industrial waste, while others are used to mine minerals like uranium and copper. Class II injection wells are the ones used to inject waste from oil and natural gas production. How many injection wells are in Ohio? According to a database from the EPA, Ohio had over 250 Class II disposal wells for oil and gas waste in 2023. A map from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources shows 234 of those wells were active that year. Seventeen were in southeast Ohio’s Washington County. In comparison, the entire state of Pennsylvania had 16 active Class II disposal wells in 2023. The state says it sends most of its “produced fluids” to neighboring states like Ohio. In Washington County, Ohio, four injection wells are within two miles of the City of Marietta’s aquifers. Last year, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources approved two more to be drilled within that radius. Jeffery, and many others who live in Marietta, like Dee Wells Arnold, worry that’s too many wells in close proximity to the city’s drinking water supply. A leak, they say, could be devastating.“If you don’t have fresh water, if you don’t have clean water, if you don’t have safe water, you can’t have a community,” Wells Arnold said. “I don’t think it’s worth the risk.” In a Q&A style document addressing concerns over a proposed injection well near Marietta, the ODNR said geologists evaluate each injection site and make sure the wells are constructed in a way that protects the environment. DeepRock Disposal Solutions, which owns the injection wells near Marietta, did not respond to a request for comment. Matt Dole, a consultant for the Accountability Project Institute, says the risk of injection wells leaking is negligible. “If you consider that that injection well is two miles from the water’s supply, behind reinforced concrete, behind reinforced steel, encased in concrete and 4,000 feet in the ground below solid rock, it might as well be a million miles,” he said. But leaks have happened in Washington County (Ohio) before. Just a few years ago, fracking fluid infiltrated dozens of vertical oil and gas wells there. Regardless, Dole says any attempt to shut down injection wells could cripple an industry that’s become essential to southeast Ohio economies. “Some opponents of injection wells will say ‘I’m for oil and gas. I don’t want to lose the jobs and the economic benefit and the energy developed by the oil and gasoline industry. I’m just against injection wells,’ ” he said. “Well, that is an irreconcilable position because the water used in the fracking process needs to be disposed of properly and injection wells are the proper way to dispose of that material.”

Why some Washington County residents are worried about the future of their drinking water | The Statehouse News Bureau --This is the second of a three-part series about concerns over injection wells in Washington County. Read the first and third parts here. When the Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued permits to construct two injection wells, to store waste from oil and gas drilling, within two miles of the city of Marietta’s aquifers, residents in the area grew concerned.Washington County — home to the southeast Ohio city of Marietta — already had more of the wells than the entire state of Pennsylvania, as of 2023.Some locals worried the oil and gas drilling waste could contaminate the community's drinking water supply.Bob Wilson was among them. Wilson has been working in oil and gas since the mid-’70s — decades before the hydraulic fracturing boom revolutionized the industry. His family owns 170 conventional, vertically drilled oil and gas wells, mostly located between Marietta and Belpre.Since 2019, after an injection well was drilled nearby, he says 50 of them have stopped producing oil and gas and started pulling up sludgy wastewater instead.To him, the cause seemed obvious. He reported the problem to the ODNR. “And I told them, I said, ‘You guys are getting disposal water in my wells.’ And they just completely ignored me,” he said. “They said, ‘It's not possible, can't happen, click.’”Several of Wilson’s neighbors started losing wells to wastewater, too. Four years ago, one of them joined Wilson in suing a number of injection well companies. After a lower court dismissed his suit, Wilson appealed and another court ruled in his favor. Those companies have since appealed and the cases are now awaiting decisions from the Ohio Supreme Court.But Wilson says, no matter what happens, the damage can’t be undone.“They've ruined my business,” he said. “They've ruined my life.”A 2020 report from the ODNR concluded the wastewater found in Wilson’s well did, in fact, come from the injection site. According to the ODNR, Redbird Development LLC, which owned the site, voluntarily modified the injection well and temporarily stopped using it because of an unrelated pump issue.The department said it has spoken with Wilson about his complaints.Now, as Wilson mourns his once-successful business, he has another mounting concern. The contamination of his wells is proof that fracking wastewater has migrated underground, and he worries it could get into the drinking water supply.He’s not alone.“It seems pretty clear that this material is not – the fluids are not staying where they're supposed to stay,” said David Jeffery, who teaches courses on petroleum geology at Marietta College. “It looks like they are migrating through fractures, whether they are natural fractures or induced fractures or faults.”In its 2020 report, the ODNR said it’s unlikely brine could directly migrate into local aquifers given the composition of rock layers in the area.Jeffery agrees. He says what’s more likely is that the brine migrates into an unplugged orphaned well and then travels into drinking water reserves from there.“There are thousands of orphaned wells around here, which are just wells that might have been drilled more than 100 years ago and only the landowner might know that they're there or not,” he said. Professor Natalie Kruse Daniels, director of the environmental studies program at Ohio University, said she’s concerned it could take a long time for anyone to notice fluid coming out of an orphaned well.“What concerns me the most is: Are we going to detect it, do people know what to look for and will folks be believed, if and when they notice a change in their water?” she said.“In Appalachia we've seen multiple cases of drinking water contamination, where it took a really long time for people's experience to be believed and for there to be an action to ameliorate an issue.” DeepRock Disposal Solutions, which owns the injection wells near Marietta, passed my number on to Matt Dole, a consultant for the Accountability Project Institute, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with undisclosed donors that’s advocated against state and local Democratic candidates.Dole says the number of reported leakages is tiny compared to the number of injection wells in the country. “It is a lower percentage than the number of people who die on their bike going down the street every year,” he said. “It is so minuscule that we think it's wrong to ask the government to regulate.” The ODNR suspended six injection wells in southeast Ohio’s Noble andAthens counties in 2023, after fracking wastewater migrated out of intended injection well zones.For Bob Wilson, that’s enough to be concerned about, especially as the ODNR approves additional injection well sites in close proximity to Marietta’s aquifers.“We care about what's happening with the water situation and everything here because we live here,” he said. “It's not just our businesses. We want to stop it because this is where we live. It’s where our families live.”

In southeast Ohio, state and local officials fight over the future of injection wells | The Statehouse News Bureau -This is the last of a three-part series about concerns over injection wells in Washington County. Read the firstand second parts here Last July, a short notice appeared in the back of the Marietta Times.“DeepRock Disposal Solutions, LLC… is applying to permit a well for the injection of brine water produced in association with oil and natural gas,” the clip read.At the time, injection wells weren’t on Susan Vessels’ radar.“But it sounded like something that I ought to learn about,” the Marietta City Council president said..So she hosted a big public meeting and invited everyone from public officials to DeepRock representatives to petroleum engineers and PhD geologists.What she learned alarmed her. “They're literally putting these wells almost on top of one another,” she said. “And to have seven wells just outside of our city injecting up to 35,000 barrels a day, it doesn't take a PhD to know that ultimately that's not going to turn out well for our community.” Vessels isn’t alone. Across southeast Ohio’s Washington County,community members are concerned that wastewater stored in injection wells could contaminate the local water supply.“It might not be tomorrow. It might not be next year. It might not be three years [from now]. It might be 10 years, but do we want this for our children?” said Dee Wells Arnold, a member of the community organization Washington County for Safe Drinking Water. In August, Vessels and a bipartisan group of nine other elected officials filed an objection letter to DeepRock’s application, expressing serious concerns for the safety of the city’s drinking water. They asked the Division of Oil and Gas to deny the permit and hold a public meeting on the matter.The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ division did neither.. In an email, a spokesperson cited pending litigation and said they wouldn’t comment on the approval the well or the refusal to hold a public meeting. But the department did send the city two Q&A-style responses to their concerns last year. In those documents, the department said injection wells are designed to protect underground sources of drinking water and that there’s no law limiting the number of injection wells within a geographic area. Marietta’s city council wasn’t reassured. They passed a series of resolutions, including one asking the state for a three-year moratorium on injection well activity within Washington County, to give experts time to study the area’s geology.“The council agrees that we have too many wells injecting too much too close to our aquifers,” Vessels said. “So it's a plea for help, essentially, that we need to change how things are being done.” She says the city has received little response from the state since.“To me, personally, it's shocking,” she said. “I always felt that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the EPA – I felt that they were almost, perhaps even doing too much to protect us. And having delved into this over the last four months, I'm learning that that isn't the case.”In November, the Buckeye Environmental Network – a grassroots environmental justice group – sued the ODNR and its oil and gas division. They say the state broke the law last year when it used old rules to approve two injection wells near Marietta proposed by DeepRock, even though new rules went into effect in 2022.“The ODNR is obligated to follow the Federal Clean Drinking Water Act and to uphold the current state rules that they themselves wrote and the legislature passed into law for a reason,” said Bev Reed, an Appalachian organizer for the network, in a press release. “They didn't do that when permitting these wells, so we're holding them to account.”She wants the department to be more proactive when it comes to protecting the safety of local drinking water. “They're not protecting us as Ohio citizens,” she said. “They're just not.” In its Q&A response to the city, the ODNR said it used the old rules because it received DeepRock’s application in 2021, before the new rules went into effect. DeepRock Disposal Solutions didn’t respond to a request for comment. But they passed my number on to Matt Dole, a consultant for the Accountability Project Institute, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with undisclosed donors that has previously run ads against Ohio Democrats. He says Marietta City Council’s attempt to regulate injection wells based on the possibility they could contaminate drinking water is unnecessary and an example of government overreach. “A lot of things could happen,” Dole said. “I could get hit by lightning tomorrow, but the government has chosen to not regulate my ability to go out in a rainstorm because it is so unlikely that regulation would be overkill in that circumstance. And the same is true with injection wells.” He sees the city council’s efforts as part of a bigger environmental movement. “Truly, we believe that this is an attempt by the environmental lobby to oppose oil and gas,” he said. “No, they can't win that battle, but if they win a battle against injection wells, they shut down the oil and gas industry.”

Antis Attack Ohio State Senator with Ethics Complaint - Marcellus Drilling News --Ohio Senator Brian Chavez faces a sham ethics complaint that alleges he failed to disclose ownership in five natural gas LLCs while leading the Senate Energy Committee. Reports from Signal Ohio (a leftist Democrat publication) and the Athens County Independent (ditto) purport to detail how Chavez’s company won state contracts for “orphan” well capping as he advanced legislation that supposedly benefited his business interests. A coalition of environmental groups alleges these supposedly undisclosed ties create conflicts of interest that undermine public trust and environmental safety. A GOP spokesperson dismissed the allegations as a “baseless” political attack. State ethics officials are currently reviewing the complaint.

WATCHDOG: Who is responsible if someone strikes a utility line in Ohio? - WFMJ.com - Digging is a situation that can mean anything from a minor inconvenience to a mass evacuation like the valley saw in Leetonia weeks ago. In some cases, like the Realty building, gas leaks can even have deadly consequences. And while they're often caused by human error, there is surprisingly little in place to prevent them and rarely any serious consequences for causing them, even when someone ends up dead. So, do the rules in place actually have any teeth? Ohio law, in theory, has two layers to protect you from potential disaster from gas leaks. The first layer is a requirement that anyone who puts a shovel in the ground calls in advance so utilities can be marked. “Within 48 hours, they're going to arrive on the site. They're going to identify their utilities, if there are any there, and they're going to go ahead and mark them so that you can begin digging at the end of 48 hours in a safe manner,” said Roger Lipscomb, executive director of Ohio 811. The second are fines when disaster does strike and there's a leak or, in cases like the Realty building, an explosion. But what happens if someone doesn't call, and disaster strikes? In Ohio, the only way a company can even potentially face fines is if someone voluntarily reports the problem to the State Public Utilities Commission (PUCO). “In other states, enforcement is driven by an incident or an issue. There was damage, there was some kind of a near miss, there was some kind of a situation like that. In Ohio, our revised code and our excavation laws are governed much by compliance,” said Lipscomb. The Common Ground Alliance, a national nonprofit committed to reducing damages to the critical underground structure, has tracked an increase in damage done by third party workers, some with devastating results. “There is a lot of competing interests out there to try to get their infrastructure underground. And so part of the challenge is that legislation and law, both state and federal, haven't really kept up with that,” said Sarah Magruder Lyle, president and CEO of the Common Ground Alliance. PUCO numbers show 160 Utility strikes in Ohio led to $204,750 in fines, but more than $63,000 are unpaid to date. And only three of those damaged utilities fines were from the Valley in all of 2024 and 2025. In some states, enforcement happens when there is an incident. But in Ohio, this is all based on voluntarily reporting the issue. That means if a company hits a gas line or causes an explosion, they would either need to actively report themselves or anyone who was affected would need to know to report them to the state. And even then, many fines simply go unpaid. “I would like the states to actually not only pass, you know, language and legislation that protects the communities and put safety first, but they also have to ensure that they have an enforcement mechanism that will actually drive behavior change, because you can have the best law, like I said, on the books, but if nobody is enforcing it, it doesn't matter,” said Lyle.

Ohio senator failed to disclose ties to well companies, complaint alleges - The Allegheny Front Ohio environmental advocates have filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Brian Chavez (R-Marietta), alleging he failed to disclose financial ties to at least five oil and gas companies in 2023 and 2024. Submitted to the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee (JLEC) last Wednesday, the complaint by Washington County for Safe Drinking Water also claims that Chavez’s legislative committee assignments create direct conflicts of interest financially. He is currently the chair of the Ohio Senate Energy Committee. He also owns a business that bids on government contracts to seal abandoned, or orphan, oil and gas wells. Dawn Hewitt, Washington County for Safe Drinking Water treasurer, said in an interview Chavez stands to profit from Senate Bill 219 if it passes the Ohio House.. “If it were solely a matter of experience, that would be one thing,” Hewitt said Tuesday. “But what Chavez has is material gain from the policies he’s making and that’s wrong.” SB 219 cleared the Senate floor in November. It would be an extensive overhaul of oil and gas laws, including those regulating orphan wells. Among its numerous measures, SB 219 would redirect injection well fees from the state Oil and Gas Well Fund to cities and counties where they come from. John Fortney, the spokesperson for the Senate Majority caucus, wrote over text the claims in the complaint were “nothing more than a fabricated publicity stunt backed by out of state special interests that want to kill the oil and gas industry in Ohio.” “Their work of fiction used the words ignorant and dishonest,” Fortney said Tuesday. “They should look in the mirror.” Hewitt said only local and state groups have been involved. Buckeye Environmental Network, Save Ohio Parks and Sierra Club Ohio were among the dozen groups that cosigned the complaint.

Strs Ohio Has $21.76 Million Holdings in Kinder Morgan, Inc.-- (Strs Ohio State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio) trimmed its stake in shares of Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI - Free Report) by 16.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 768,501 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 147,132 shares during the period. Strs Ohio's holdings in Kinder Morgan were worth $21,756,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 21st. The pipeline company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.33 billion. Kinder Morgan had a net margin of 18.04% and a return on equity of 9.02%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.30 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Kinder Morgan, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current year.Kinder Morgan NYSE: KMI is a large energy infrastructure company that owns and operates an extensive network of pipelines and terminals across North America. Its core activities center on the transportation, storage and handling of energy products, including natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, refined petroleum products and carbon dioxide. The company's assets include long-haul and gathering pipelines, storage facilities, and multi-modal terminals that serve producers, refiners, utilities and industrial customers.Kinder Morgan's operations deliver midstream services such as pipeline transportation, terminaling, storage and related logistics and maintenance.

DEP: Owner Of At Least 43 Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells Issued Violations For 6 More On State Game Lands In Venango County; Efforts To Locate The Owner Have Been Unsuccessful - On January 22, 2026, the Department of Environmental Protection issued Carol A. Morrison Baker 6 more notices of violation for abandoning and not plugging 6 conventional oil and gas wells on State Game Lands #45 in Cranberry Township, Venango County.These inspections are part of a DEP initiative to inspect never-inspected conventional oil and gas wells and determine their status.The well owner also failed to submit annual production, waste generation/disposal, and well integrity reportsThe wells included State Game Lands #45 J3, J25, J35, J39, J45 and J68. Click Here for links to inspection reports.DEP said it has been trying to track down the owner of the wells “for some time with no success.”Carol A. Morrison Baker, address listed is in Franklin, PA, holds 217 oil and gas well permits, including 43 abandoned wells.On September 25, 2025, Morrison Baker was issued violations for abandoning and not plugging 10 conventional oil and gas wells in Cranberry Township, Venango County. Read more here.Click Here for an example of a DEP inspection report. If you have information or or the whereabouts of Carol A. Morrison Baker, please contact the nearest DEP Oil and Gas District Office.

DEP: Day 455 And Counting: Seneca Resources Continues To Release Wastewater, Frack New Shale Gas Wells At Taft Well Pad In Middlebury Twp., Tioga County --On January 21, 2026, the Department of Environmental Protection inspected the Seneca Resources Co LLC Taft 851 shale gas well pad in Middlebury Township, Tioga and found evidence of wastewater spills continuing at the site.Eight new gas wells were recently completed on the pad and prepping was underway to frack the wells.Five other wells drilled and fracked since October 2024 were being staged for production.DEP found “visible evidence of a release of material that overtopped the secondary containment structure” and contaminated liquid in secondary containment that had not been removed.DEP also found erosion and sedimentation control measures at the pad and not been converted to post-construction best management practices to control runoff from the pad.“DEP recommends that Seneca continues to monitor the conditions on the pad surface and the sediment basin and remove elevated conductance fluids and soils as discovered. Prevent elevated conductance fluids from leaving the facility and causing pollution to the waters of the Commonwealth.DEP did not request a written follow-up to the violations.Click Here for the January 21, 2026 inspection report and photost.These conditions have continued for 455 days at this well pad without abatement.During a December 23, 2025 inspection found similar conditions-- spills, crews trying to clean up the pad while drilling new shale gas wells.DEP issued the original spill violations at the site on October 23, 2024 and documented spills again during a July 11, 2025 inspection that were confirmed with water samples collected on August 21, 2025.DEP found spills and releases during an October 2, 2025 inspection and one on October 31 making the same recommendations to monitor and remove contaminated water and soil..Also on October 31, Attorney General Dave Sunday announced criminal charges against Seneca Resources, LLC, following multiple violations of Pennsylvania’s environmental protection laws in several counties, as recommended by the 48th and 51st Statewide Investigating Grand Juries. Three separate criminal complaints were filed regarding the natural gas company’s violations related to improper waste management practices and policies. Prominent in the Attorney General’s announcement of the charges was the fact that DEP repeatedly warned Seneca that their practices were not in line with Pennsylvania law, but those warnings were ignored or disputed. Read more here. In all, Seneca is charged with 64 counts of violations of the Solid Waste Management Act and 36 counts of violations of the Clean Streams Law in Cameron, Clearfield, Elk, Jefferson, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Tioga Counties. Read more here.(Photos: Evidence of overtopped secondary containment; Erosion control sediment basin; below- 8 new shale gas wells ready for fracking - DEP inspection photos.)

10 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 19 – 25 --Marcellus Drilling News - The Marcellus/Utica region received a combined 10 new drilling permits last week, Jan. 19 – 25, down significantly from the 27 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued 6 new permits, Ohio issued 4, and West Virginia issued none. The drillers receiving new permits last week included: Ascent Resources, EOG Resources, Expand Energy, and Pennsylvania General Energy. ASCENT RESOURCES | EOG RESOURCES | EXPAND ENERGY | HARRISON COUNTY | JEFFERSON COUNTY (OH) | LYCOMING COUNTY | PENNSYLVANIA GENERAL ENERGY | SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY

PA PUC Publishes Marcellus Impact Tax Hike – Older Wells Up 116% - Marcellus Drilling News - Marcellus drillers who have drilled new wells over the past three years in Pennsylvania are going to get hit by an increase in the state’s impact fee. However, older shale wells (drilled 11 to 15 years ago) will get hit the hardest by the 2025 impact fee/tax. Drillers must pay the impact fee (PA’s equivalent of a severance tax) once per year, based on the wells they drilled or operated during the previous year. The fee is a complex calculation based on (a) how long a well has been drilled, (b) the average NYMEX Henry Hub price for natural gas from the previous year, and (c) a cost adjustment for inflation. The fees PA drillers will pay this year, depending on how long a well has been drilled, range from 3.8% higher to 116.1% higher.

Winter weather to disrupt U.S. gas production, increase prices - Wide­spread extreme cold is expec­ted to restrict the pro­duc­tion of nat­ural gas in the U.S. in the com­ing days, with sup­ply dis­rup­tions likely in key shale basins that could cut aver­age daily out­put by about 10%, industry ana­lysts say. The price of bench­mark nat­ural gas futures at Henry Hub in Louisi­ana for deliv­er­ies in mid-Feb­ru­ary soared this week, rising 59% on Fri­day after­noon, the biggest weekly increase since 1990. The spike is expec­ted to cause bill increases for res­id­en­tial con­sumers in some states, but the tim­ing and degree of the impact will vary depend­ing on the util­ity. Entergy cus­tom­ers in Louisi­ana, for example, will likely see fuel adjust­ment charges on their bills in two months, reflect­ing higher whole­sale prices for gas dur­ing an upcom­ing winter storm. Ana­lysts expect large with­draw­als of nat­ural gas from stor­age in the weeks ahead. The U.S. Depart­ment of Energy estim­ated U.S. invent­or­ies of nat­ural gas in under­ground stor­age at 3,065 bil­lion cubic feet on Jan. 16, 141 bil­lion cubic feet higher than last year and 6.1% above the five-year aver­age of 2,888 bil­lion cubic feet for this time of year. “This deep freeze is hurt­ing pro­duc­tion, espe­cially for nat­ural gas,” Price Futures Group ana­lyst Phil Flynn wrote in his daily mar­ket com­ment­ary. ”Daily out­put is tak­ing a hit, with losses soar­ing to as much as 10 bil­lion cubic feet a day at peak times! Even under more mod­er­ate scen­arios, we’re see­ing pro­duc­tion drops between 0.2 and 2.5 bil­lion cubic feet per day across the hardest hit regions, start­ing around Janu­ary 20–22 and stick­ing around through Janu­ary 31,” Flynn wrote. The cul­prit is "freezeoffs" that occur when water or hydrates, pro­duced along with nat­ural gas, freeze and then solid­ify dur­ing peri­ods of extreme cold. They cre­ate block­ages that dis­rupt flows from well­heads at the pro­cessing facil­it­ies where impur­it­ies are removed, as well as inside pipelines that sup­ply gas-fired power gen­er­a­tion plants and indus­trial users. Freeze-offs played a role in a 2021 winter storm in Texas that made head­lines for leav­ing mil­lions of people without power for days. Accord­ing to a study from the Fed­eral Reserve Bank of Dal­las and the Fed­eral Energy Reg­u­lat­ory Com­mis­sion, freeze-offs caused a 45% drop in Texas nat­ural gas pro­duc­tion over a five-day period. The study found 87% of unplanned out­ages at elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion plants in Texas were due to insuf­fi­cient sup­plies of nat­ural gas, caused mostly by freeze-offs at the well­head where it is pro­duced and at nearby pro­cessing plants. The storm res­ul­ted in between $80 bil­lion and $130 bil­lion in fin­an­cial losses to the Texas eco­nomy and killed at least 210 people, accord­ing to Glenn Hegar, the state’s comp­troller of pub­lic accounts, in a report pre­pared in 2021. In response, the Texas Legis­lature man­dated new weather­iz­a­tion stand­ards for the nat­ural gas industry. The Texas Rail­road Com­mis­sion cre­ated a Crit­ical Infra­struc­ture Divi­sion to identify and inspect key ele­ments of nat­ural gas infra­struc­ture and ensure read­i­ness for winter storms, inspect­ing 7,400 facil­it­ies last year to ensure com­pli­ance with weather­iz­a­tion stand­ards, accord­ing to con­sultancy firm RBN Energy. Freeze-offs are most likely around the Haynes­ville shale gas basin in north­w­est Louisi­ana, where wells, pipelines and other infra­struc­ture are less cap­able of func­tion­ing in extreme cold, RBN Energy said in a Fri­day blog post. Reduced gas pro­duc­tion is also expec­ted in Oklahoma, New Mex­ico, Col­or­ado, North Dakota and within the pro­lific Mar­cel­lus and Utica shale basins of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Vir­ginia, where equip­ment is designed to oper­ate in tem­per­at­ures as low as zero degrees. Overnight lows are fore­cast to drop to near zero degrees dur­ing the next few days in the Mar­cel­lus and Utica shale regions, where about 32% of U.S. nat­ural gas is pro­duced. Reduced gas pro­duc­tion is expec­ted over the next nine days in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Vir­ginia, where equip­ment is designed to func­tion at tem­per­at­ures as low as about zero degrees. The Cli­mate Pre­dic­tion Cen­ter's long-range guid­ance fea­tures below-nor­mal tem­per­at­ures for the Mid-Atlantic and North­east from Wed­nes­day to Feb. 3. In Cent­ral Pennsylvania, AccuWeather’s daily fore­casts for the first week of Feb­ru­ary show overnight lows ran­ging from 7 to 12 degrees.

Aboveground Water Pipelines Feeding Shale Gas Drilling Operations Beginning To Freeze Due To Cold Temperatures; Range Resources Incident Reported In Washington County; Notify DEP Of Pipeline Problems --On January 22, Mount Pleasant Township Police reported the freezing of an aboveground water pipeline serving Range Resources shale gas drilling operations in Washington County near the Yonker Tank Pad. The police notice said "extreme weather and temperature conditions have caused frozen piping" requiring Range Resources to switch to hauling water by dozens of trucks on Township roads for the next two weeks.The notice explained the Mount Pleasant Township Zoning Officer granted a temporary modification of a Range Resources permit to allow hauling water by truck rather than pipelines.Anyone seeing pipeline problems caused by cold temperatures or anytime, should report it immediately to DEP’s 24-hour Emergency Response Hotline - 800-541-2050.Contact DEP’s Oil and Gas Office nearest you for more information.There are hundreds of miles of aboveground water and wastewater pipelines feeding shale gas drilling operations across the state.These pipelines are vulnerable to failure due to sustained freezing temperatures like those Pennsylvania is now experiencing. These HDPE plastic pipelines are laid on top of the ground and are frequently not secured.DEP does not have the authority to regulate the routes taken by these pipelines, but does require erosion and sedimentation and stream crossing permits. Natural gas infrastructure is very vulnerable to sustained cold temperatures. Cold temperatures in December 2022 were blamed for a series of accidents involving natural gas facilities in Pennsylvania--

• -- Christmas morning December 25 the Energy Transfer Revolution Cryogenic Natural Gas Processing Plant in Smith Township, Washington County suffered a catastrophic explosion. Read more here.
• -- December 26 MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC had a 10,000 gallon spill at the Imperial Pipeline Compressor Station in Robinson Township, Washington County. Read more here.
• -- December 27 the CNX Oak Springs Natural Gas Pipeline Pigging State in South Franklin Township, Washington County vented 1.1 million cubic feet of natural gas. Read more here.
• -- December 30 KDKA in Pittsburgh reported a Hyperion Midstream natural gas gathering pipeline under construction slid down a hill and crashed through the basement of a home in Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County. Read more here.

Freezing temperatures have also been responsible for taking natural gas-fired power plants offline at the most critical times during periods of high winter demand.During Winter Storms Elliot and Gerri, the largest number of power plant “unplanned outages” were natural gas power plants. Read more here. Read more here.These power plants for penalized over $1.5 billion in 2023 for not being available when they were needed most. While improvements have been made, the North American Electric Reliability Corp again expressed its concern about the availability of natural gas-fired power plants in its report leading up to this winter. Read more here. On January 22, Bloomberg reported the current sustained cold weather may cut US natural gas output by the most since the deadly winter storm of 2021. Read more here. Also on January 22, the PJM Interconnection issued another Cold Weather Alert saying it may break the record for winter power demands on January 27 and 30. Read more here.

Freeze-Offs Near Record, Setting Stage for Natural Gas ‘Deliverability’ Issues and Upside Volatility - U.S. natural gas production freeze-offs hit a single-day high of 17 Bcf on Sunday (Jan. 25), according to Wood Mackenzie, with the worst to come in the Appalachian Basin as temperatures are forecast to fall well below zero in the Northeast this week. NOAA map showing the Friday night low temperature outlook across the Lower 48 United States, with widespread subfreezing temperatures across the Midwest, Plains, and Northeast, single-digit and below-zero readings in parts of the central and northern U.S., and milder lows along the West Coast and Florida, based on data as of Jan. 27, 2026. At A Glance:
-- 49 Bcf of freeze-offs over past week
-- Worst to come in Appalachia
-- Eastern price indexes well above $100

Wood Mackenzie reports historic natural gas freeze-offs as arctic weather drives production losses to near-record levels -- Wood Mackenzie today reported that natural gas freeze-offs reached a single-day high of 17 billion cubic feet (BCF) on January 25th, approaching the record 18 BCF seen during Winter Storm Uri as an intense Arctic weather system sweeps across the United States. Current freeze-off and cold weather impacts are estimated at approximately 13.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), with Lower 48 production at approximately 95.8 bcfd. The cumulative freeze-off for the 2025-2026 winter season has now reached 58.3 bcf. "Freeze-off estimates for January 25th were revised upward, with North Louisiana estimates increasing by approximately 3 bcfd as temperatures at Shreveport reached a high of only 28°F and a low of 21°F following hailing conditions on January 24th," said Randall Collum Jr., P.E., Senior Vice President at Wood Mackenzie. "In response, pipe nominations were adjusted downward across nearly all pipelines, most notably with NG3 seeing a reduction of approximately 585 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) and Tiger pipeline declining by approximately 365 mmcfd. Additionally, Gulf Run, Tiger and TETCO issued underperformance notices at several points for gas day January 25th, further reflecting the operational challenges stemming from the severe weather conditions." The freeze-offs have contributed to a historic jump in natural gas prices, driven by a dramatic shift in weather forecasts and the unique characteristics of this cold weather event. "This cold weather event differs significantly from last year," explained Eric McGuire, Director of Research – Commodities, Trading, & Data Analytics at Wood Mackenzie. "This cold event is much more intense and shorter-lived. The cold is also reaching much further south than we normally see in the U.S. This has resulted in large freeze-offs and intense spikes in demand, particularly in the south where Henry Hub—the futures price for natural gas—is located. We are seeing freeze-offs reach just over our forecast of 16 BCF and just shy of the Winter Storm Uri high." McGuire noted that the price surge also reflects broader market dynamics: "Coming into January, temperatures were looking significantly warmer than normal and production levels were strong. As a result, prices had dropped approximately $2 from their December highs. In the period of a single week, the entire outlook flipped due to changes in the weather forecast. On top of freeze-offs, the U.S. currently faces large 'deliverability' issues in Q1. While we theoretically have enough gas in underground storage to meet these supply shortfalls, these shortfalls can exceed what the market can withdraw from storage in a single day in some regions. This helps explain why prices have risen so much in the February contract, since February still has moderate risks of cold fronts coming through."

DEP: Range Resources Force Heating, Cutting Apart Frozen Polyethylene Shale Gas Water Pipeline To Release Water, Ice In Mount Pleasant Twp., Washington County --On January 21, 2026, the Department of Environmental Protection inspected the Yonker - Carns shale gas freshwater pipeline in response to a notification by Range Resources Appalachia, LLC the pipeline had frozen in Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County. On January 22, the Mount Pleasant Township Police reported the freezing of the pipeline serving the Yonker Tank Pad would require the company to switch to hauling water by truck. The police said repairs to the pipeline could take two weeks. Read more here.[Note: Mount Pleasant Township is also where horizontal drilling for new shale gas-related pipelines by MarkWest Liberty Midstream caused the release of 1.2 million gallons of drilling fluids into abandoned mine voids along the pipeline route from October to early January. Read more here.]During DEP’s inspection, Range Resources said they were in the process of dewatering the aboveground polyethylene pipeline at multiple locations along its route by "forcing heat into the line" and cutting the pipeline open to release water and ice. However, Range said the frozen water in the pipeline meant the company could not follow the dewatering plan it had in place for incidents like this and limited the locations where water and ice could be released.The company said at one location the operation "sprayed freshwater from the line into a nearby stream and into the trees along the stream."During its inspection, DEP took initial field measurements to verify freshwater was being released during the dewatering operations.DEP requested a response to the inspection report, "including information in regard to thedewatering of the TWL, including but not limited to, all areas of the TWL that were dewatered with photos and specific conductivity results of the areas, a total volume of water released duringdewatering, the Operator's plan for bringing the line back into use, and the Operator's dewatering plan."DEP's inspection report said "although no violations are observed, violations may be forthcoming pending further review." Click Here for DEP's inspection report + photos and the initial notification.

Flow Restrictions, Freeze-Offs Lead to 10-12% Drop in M-U --We’ve recently begun to highlight flow restrictions along pipelines that carry Marcellus/Utica molecules. When flows slow or stop (can’t reach other markets), the price typically falls because supply exceeds demand. But sometimes, the opposite happens. If pipelines are restricted due to outages and freeze-offs (as is happening right now with Winter Storm Fern), the supply of natural gas is diminished, leaving insufficient supply to meet increased demand due to the cold weather. When that happens, spot prices for natural gas soar. Wood Mackenzie reported that natural gas freeze-offs across the country reached a single-day high of 17 billion cubic feet (Bcf) on January 25th, approaching the record 18 Bcf set during Winter Storm Uri, as an intense Arctic weather system sweeps across the United States. What about the situation in the M-U?

Baker Hughes: $3B Data Center Bet Boosts Marcellus/Utica Gas - Marcellus Drilling News - Oilfield services giant Baker Hughes (BKR), a company with its fingers in many different energy pies (not just OFS) and operations in over 120 countries worldwide, issued its fourth-quarter 2025 update last week. We scoured the update, the conference call, and the latest slide deck. The company did not explicitly mention the Marcellus or Utica shale regions. However, several items from the update directly impact the outlook for the M-U region.

AI Comes to Expand Energy's Marcellus Wells in Pennsylvania - -Marcellus Drilling News - Baker Hughes has signed a multi-year agreement with Expand Energy, North America’s largest natural gas producer, to deploy its Leucipa™ AI-powered production solution across thousands of U.S. wells. This collaboration focuses on optimizing operations in the Marcellus, Utica, and Haynesville shales using data-driven insights and "Lucy," a generative AI production assistant. Leucipa will make Expand's operations more efficient and reliable by streamlining field decision-making and forecasting. AI comes to the shale fields of the Marcellus/Utica!

Infinity Natural Resources Buys Chase Oil Stake in South Bend Field in $36 Million All-Stock Deal-- Infinity Natural Resources, Inc announced that it has acquired Chase Oil Corporation’s working interest in Infinity’s South Bend field in Pennsylvania through an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $36 million. The transaction is effective January 1, 2026. Infinity said the acquisition marks the company’s first use of equity as consideration to advance its post-IPO expansion plan. The deal follows Infinity’s previously announced $1.2 billion pending acquisition of Antero Ohio, disclosed in December, and supports the company’s broader strategy of building scale in the Appalachian Basin through targeted consolidation. The acquired interest includes 18 producing wells, which delivered approximately 14 MMcf/d of net natural gas production in December 2025. Infinity also noted near-term development activity in the field, with three additional wells currently in progress and expected to begin sales in the first half of 2026. Beyond current production, the transaction adds long-dated drilling potential. Infinity stated that the acquired acreage position supports an estimated 40 additional gross Marcellus locations and 38 gross Utica locations, strengthening its future inventory in key stacked-play development zones. The acquisition also consolidates acreage in one of Infinity’s core dry gas areas in Pennsylvania. The deal adds 1,613 net Marcellus acres and 1,613 net Utica acres, bringing Chase’s working interest into Infinity’s operated footprint and improving operating continuity across the South Bend field. Commenting on the announcement, Zack Arnold, President and CEO of Infinity, said the deal supports the company’s consolidation strategy in the Appalachian Basin. “This bolt-on acquisition allows us to use our equity currency for the first time to consolidate our core dry gas position in Pennsylvania and execute our post-IPO strategy,” Mr Arnold said. “The transaction adds high NRI leases that contribute immediate production and EBITDA in 2026, while being accretive in both 2026 and 2027. We remain focused on disciplined growth through acquisitions that strengthen and complement our existing portfolio.” Infinity Natural Resources is a growth-focused independent energy company with operations concentrated in the Appalachian Basin. The company is active in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio, along with stacked dry gas positions in the Marcellus and Utica Shales in southwestern Pennsylvania, and focuses on building free cash flow through a combination of development and strategic acquisitions.

Antero Resources: Projected FCF Boosted By Recent Transactions - Antero Resources (AR) is increasing its production by approximately 20% through its recent transactions and may end up with around 4.2+ Bcfe per day in pro forma 2026 production.The transactions add around $2 billion to Antero's debt, but it is also expecting close to $500 million in net additional 2026 free cash flow from the transactions. I now project Antero to generate around $1.54 billion in pro forma 2026 free cash flow at the current strip if it goes with a maintenance capex budget.Antero Resources announced a couple of significant transactions in December 2025. It acquired HG Energy II's upstream assets (West Virginia Marcellus) for $2.8 billion in cash plus the assumption of HG Energy's hedge book. That hedge book is reasonably close to neutral value, although slightly negative at the current strip.Antero Resources is also divesting its Ohio Utica Shale upstream assets for $800 million in cash.These transactions are expected to net out to approximately 700 MMCFE per day in additional 2026 production for Antero Resources for a total net cost of $2 billion.Antero also estimated that its 2026 EBITDAX would increase by approximately $700 million and its 2026 free cash flow would increase by approximately $495 million due to these transactions. This was based on early December 2025 strip prices, which were above $4 for NYMEX natural gas (a bit above the current $3.95 level).These transactions are a positive for Antero's free cash flow and its future development plans. It is divesting Utica Shale assets that it had paused development on for the last couple of years and adding an estimated five years of Marcellus inventory at maintenance capex levels.Antero announced that it was issuing $750 million in 5.4% unsecured notes due 2036 at a price of 99.869% of par. It expects to receive $743 million in net proceeds after expenses and discounts, which it will use to help fund part of its HG acquisition. Antero is also expecting to use the free cash flow from the acquired assets to help pay down its debt. The 10-year Treasury yield was around 4.1% to 4.2% at the time, so Antero is paying around 1.3% above that. This is also consistent with Antero's BBB- credit rating.Antero hasn't provided exact details around its expected post-transaction 2026 production mix yet, so I've attempted to model it based on available information. This includes the production mix from its divested Utica assets as well as East Daley's information around HG Energy's production.Antero may thus average approximately 4.212 Bcfe per day in total 2026 production, pro forma for its recent transactions. This includes 2.7 Bcf per day in natural gas production, for a 36% liquids weighting.At the current 2026 strip of $3.95 NYMEX natural gas, Antero is projected to generate $6.347 billion in revenues after hedges. This is also net of distributions to Martica and dividends from Antero Midstream.

Antero Resources completes notes offering for acquisition funding - On January 28, 2026, Antero Resources Corporation completed a $750 million underwritten public offering of 5.400% senior unsecured notes due 2036, which pay interest semiannually and rank equally with the company’s other senior unsecured debt but are structurally subordinated to obligations at its subsidiaries. The notes, issued under a new indenture with typical covenants and redemption provisions, are intended to help fund Antero’s planned acquisition of HG Energy II Production Holdings, LLC alongside a new term loan facility, with remaining acquisition costs to be covered by proceeds from the sale of substantially all of Antero’s and certain subsidiaries’ Utica Shale oil and gas assets, or, if timing requires, its revolving credit facility and cash on hand, after which Utica sale proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes including debt repayment; if the HG acquisition does not close by the agreed outside date or is terminated, Antero must redeem all of the notes at 101% of principal plus accrued interest, underscoring deal-contingent financing risk for noteholders and tying the company’s capital structure moves closely to its strategic portfolio shift.Antero Resources Corporation is an independent oil and natural gas company focused on the exploration, development and production of unconventional resources, including shale oil and gas assets in the United States, with a portfolio that has included significant holdings in the Utica Shale region.

Form 8-K ANTERO RESOURCES Corp For: Jan 28 – report to the SEC

WV Court Vacates Shale Forced Pooling Order for Arsenal Resources - Marcellus Drilling News --The Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia vacated an order combining 58 oil and gas tracts into a Harrison County drilling unit, ruling that the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission failed to provide sufficient findings of fact. The case involves the “JOsborn 213 Unit” operated by Arsenal Resources, which mineral rights owners claim failed to negotiate in good faith as required by law. The court found the Commission ignored conflicting testimony and provided only summary conclusions rather than a detailed analysis. Consequently, the case was remanded for further proceedings, requiring the Commission to properly evaluate all evidence and issue a new order.

History Repeats: NY DEC Asks FERC to Reject Constitution Pipeline - Marcellus Drilling News -- Reverting back to true form by obsequiously bowing to environmental extremists, New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered her lapdogs at the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to log an objection with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to a request by Williams to resurrect the Constitution Pipeline project. Even though Hochul bartered a deal with President Trump to allow this pipeline (see Trump Deal Trades NY Offshore Wind for Constitution, NESE Pipes). The Constitution is a 124-mile pipeline from the Marcellus gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA, to Schoharie County, NY, to move Marcellus gas into New York State and New England.

40% of New England’s Electric Generated by Oil During Winter Storm - Marcellus Drilling News -- New England’s Democrat-led energy policies have failed spectacularly, leaving the region as an “energy island” during peak winter demand. Despite ambitious “net-zero” goals, a recent snowstorm forced the power grid to rely on oil for 40% of its electricity because renewables like wind and solar contributed less than 2%. New England policymakers like Govs. Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Janet Mills of Maine have created artificial scarcity and price spikes by blocking natural gas pipeline expansions. They insist on unreliable renewables. When a storm like Winter Storm Fern hits, it forces New England to rely on carbon-intensive oil and increases the risk of blackouts. You can’t fix stupid.

High Gas Price Crushes the Ethane Ratio-to-Natural Gas to 6 Year Low - With the February price of natural gas soaring above $5/MMbtu last week in response to Winter Storm Fern, the ethane-to-gas ratio has been crushed below 0.75 for the first time since mid-2019 (left graph below). The ratio, which compares Mont Belvieu ethane prices to Henry Hub natural gas on a BTU basis is an indicator of ethane rejection economics. When ethane prices are lower than natural gas on a BTU basis, more ethane is “rejected” at the natural gas processing plant and sold as natural gas, assuming there are no physical or contractual constraints on doing so. The ethane-to-gas ratio averaged 1.06 in 2025, and 0.92 so far in 2026, both very weak numbers. The dip below 0.75 (purple dashed circle, right graph) is primarily due to the 70% increase in the prompt natural gas price, while the price of ethane increased “only” 37%, from 19 c/gal to 26 c/gal. Note that the M1 (March) natural gas price on Friday was $3.61/MMbtu, well below the prompt month. If March continues at level, the ethane-to-gas ratio will likely move back above 1.0 when the CME/NYMEX contract month rolls on Wednesday (January 28).

Propane Continues to Lag Crude in January - - The Mont Belvieu propane price continues to lag crude despite recent weather-driven demand. The propane-to-WTI ratio is averaging 43% so far in January, based on monthly average prices, with WTI crude at $59.22/bbl and propane at 60.67¢/gal. The ratio is down from 47% in December and remains below the spring peak near 56%. While parts of the country experienced a winter storm this week that likely supported near-term heating demand, its influence on the monthly propane-to-crude ratio has been muted so far, with broader fundamentals still dominating price relationships. At current levels, the ratio is approximately 7 percentage points below the same period last year.

Chesapeake Utilities to Build NatGas Pipeline to Va. Eastern Shore - Marcellus Drilling News --Last November, Accomack County, Virginia, secured a $6.5 million state grant to expand piped natural gas to the Eastern Shore, a move aimed at stabilizing the local economy (seeNatural Gas via Pipeline for Va. Eastern Shore Gets a $6.5M Boost). The project targets major employers like Perdue Farms, Tyson, and NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. It aims to reverse employment declines and lower energy costs for everyone. Analysts say that natural gas could cost homeowners 57% less than using propane, and industrial users 75% less than using electricity. The new news is that Accomack County has signed a deal with Chesapeake Utilities to build the project.

Winter Storm Stops Nearly All Feedgas to Cove Point, Elba Island - Marcellus Drilling News --Winter Storm Fern triggered a sharp decline in U.S. LNG feedgas demand, which plummeted to 11.5 Bcf/d on Sunday from a previous weekly average of 17.2 Bcf/d. The storm caused production freeze-offs and price spikes, forcing Elba Island to shut down, and Cove Point inflows fell below 0.2 Bcf/d. Sabine Pass and Freeport (along the Gulf Coast) were down 50% and 30%, respectively.

Man Bites Dog: Elba Island & Cove Point *Import* LNG from Trinidad - Marcellus Drilling News --Here’s an unusual turn of events. During the recent cold snap and winter storm, the Cove Point LNG export facility (in Maryland) and Elba Island (in Georgia) stopped exporting LNG and instead *imported* LNG—from Trinidad and Tobago. They aren’t the only ones. The Everett LNG import facility off the coast of Boston and Canaport in New Brunswick, Canada, also imported Trinidad LNG cargoes. What the heck is going on here? We’ll explain.

Top 50 Public E&P Operators of 2025 Ranked by O&G Production - Marcellus Drilling News Enverus, a leading energy SaaS and analytics platform, has released its annual list of the top 50 public onshore exploration and production (E&P) companies in the U.S., based on gross-operated production last year. ExxonMobil leads the ranking again at 1.95 MMboe/d, followed by Expand Energy (formerly Chesapeake Energy) at 1.75 MMboe/d and ConocoPhillips, which climbed three positions to claim the No. 3 spot at 1.42 MMboe/d. Six of the top 10 companies list the Permian Basin as their primary operating region. Two of the top 10 are companies primarily operating in the Marcellus/Utica, including Expand Energy and EQT---the #1 and #2 gas-producing companies in the U.S., respectively. EOG Resources is also in the top 10. Although it's categorized as a Gulf Coast-focused driller, EOG has major assets and drilling activity in the Ohio Utica Shale.

Chesapeake, Berkshire Canaveral (FL) LNG Plan Continues to Advance -- Marcellus Drilling News - In December, representatives from Chesapeake Utilities and BHE GT&S, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, presented a proposal to the Port Canaveral Authority to construct a new liquid natural gas (LNG) liquefaction facility in Brevard County, FL (seeChesapeake, Berkshire Hathaway Propose LNG for Port Canaveral). The project, targeting a 2029 completion date, aims to supply essential fuel for both cruise ships and the burgeoning space industry’s rockets. While LNG is currently trucked in to support rocket launches, this facility would provide dedicated local infrastructure to meet the growing demands of the world’s busiest cruise port and the active space sector.

Woodside Reports Strong Construction Progress at 16.5 Mt/y Louisiana LNG Terminal -- Foundational work on Louisiana LNG’s first phase is advancing on schedule as commercialization continues, keeping the project on track for first LNG before the end of the decade, according to Woodside Energy Group Ltd. At A Glance:

• First LNG targeted for 2029
• Project reaches 22% completion
• North American gas exposure expanding

ExxonMobil Sees First Golden Pass Cargo in Early March, Potential Mozambique FID by Year-End -- ExxonMobil is doubling down on natural gas, with LNG now grouped with the Permian Basin and Guyana as drivers of the company’s upstream future. At A Glance:

• Golden Pass LNG in commissioning phase
• First LNG cargo expected early March
• Mozambique project redesign lowers costs

Galveston LNG Bunker Port Targets Mid-2026 for First Jones Act Vessel Charter --Project partners behind Galveston LNG Bunker Port LLC (GLBP) are working with shipbuilder Tote Services LLC to secure a fleet of bunkering vessels for the small-scale marine fueling project. At A Glance:

• Tote Services to develop bunkering fleet
• Project advances toward 2026 FID
• Texas City site gains commercial momentum

XRG Deepens U.S. LNG Push With Equity Buy in Rio Grande Trains - Abu Dhabi’s energy investment arm XRG PJSC is increasing the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) exposure to Texas natural gas exports with a stake in the Train 4 and 5 expansion of NextDecade Corp.’s Rio Grande LNG. At Glance:

• NextDecade expansion attracts Gulf capital
• XRG buys 7.6% Rio Grande stake
• Six-train buildout eyed by 2032

Winter Storm Temporarily Slashes U.S. LNG Feedgas Demand - U.S. LNG feedgas plummeted over the weekend as Winter Storm Fern hit parts of the country. The storm caused massive production freeze-offs, high domestic demand, and spiking U.S. prices, which in turn disrupted LNG feedgas demand. Feedgas demand averaged 17.2 Bcf/d last week (blue-dotted line in chart below), down about 1.2 Bcf/d from the previous week. Feedgas demand averaged 18.9 Bcf/d from Monday to Friday last week, then dropped to around 14.4 Bcf/d on Saturday and 11.5 Bcf/d on Sunday. Inflows were reduced at every terminal. Elba Island shut in completely over the weekend, while inflows at Cove Point were below 0.2 Bcf/d. The impact was more mixed for the terminals on the Gulf Coast, with intake at most terminals dropping by 20-30% at the peak of the storm, but Freeport and Sabine Pass saw larger disruptions. Sabine Pass was operating at 50% capacity on Sunday, while Freeport intake dropped to 30% of its typical utilization. LNG feedgas demand is already rebounding as the country begins to thaw out from the storm. Feedgas demand on Monday was down slightly from Sunday, but is up by 2 Bcf/d today (January 27). Temperatures will likely continue to warm up this week and LNG feedgas intake should normalize. Stay tuned to the LNG Voyager Weekly Report for more updates on the U.S. LNG market.

U.S. LNG Feed Gas Deliveries Fall off Cliff as Operators Grapple With Severe Cold -Every U.S. LNG export facility in the country curbed operations ahead of Winter Storm Fern, sending feed gas deliveries plummeting by more than 30% between late last week before the worst of the weather arrived and Monday. NGI North America LNG export flow tracker chart showing daily U.S. LNG feed gas deliveries from Jan. 17–26, 2026, ranging from about 12.0 to 19.1 million Dth, with facility-level volumes for Corpus Christi, Freeport, Sabine Pass, Calcasieu Pass, Plaquemines, and other major export terminals.At A Glance:
All export terminals impacted
Feed gas demand plummets by 34%
Henry Hub rally continues

LNG Flows Surge into Everett as New England Gas Prices Soar -- New England has received an LNG cargo to shore up supplies just as freezing weather settles over the region, sending natural gas prices into the stratosphere. At A Glance:

• Algonquin prices surge amid storm
• Everett sendout jumps near capacity
• Canadian gas prices move higher

Freezing Weather Forces the World’s Top LNG Exporter to Import Gas | OilPrice.com -Several energy companies imported liquefied natural gas into the United States, with the unusual move prompted by surging demand for energy and heating pushing gas prices to all-time highs. According to LSEG data cited by Reuters, BP and Shell sent LNG cargoes from their jointly owned Atlantic LNG plant in Trinidad and Tobago to the U.S. last week. In fact, per the data, most of the LNG coming into the United States amid the freeze is coming from Trinidad and Tobago. The gas arrives at import terminals for regasification and distribution, although some cargoes arrived at two export terminals - Elba Island and Cove Point - highlighting the tight supply situation. The severe winter weather sweeping across the United States has not only led to a surge in the demand for electricity and heating but has also disrupted the production of oil and gas. According to Rystad Energy, as much as 25 billion cu ft in daily production may have been knocked out by the storms and the freezing temperatures.Oil production has suffered as well, with outages in the Permian alone estimated at 1.5 million barrels daily, according to Energy Aspects. Total oil production outages may have reached 2 million barrels daily, resulting in a rally for oil prices, with Brent crude earlier today inching closer to $70 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $64.11 per barrel. LNG prices on the spot market, meanwhile, hit $100 per million British thermal units at one point, according to Reuters.The unusual situation of the U.S. having to import the commodity it is the biggest exporter of on a global level has its explanation in the Jones Act, which the industry has been grumbling against for years. The Jones Act effectively bans the trade in LNG between U.S. ports because it mandates that all trade between local ports must be executed using U.S.-flagged vessels. There are no U.S.-flagged LNG carriers.

US Natural Gas Jumps Almost 20% as Arctic Blast Takes Hold - U.S. natural gas jumped by almost 20% as freezing weather swept across much of the country, boosting heating demand and disrupting supplies. Front-month futures soared above $6 per million British thermal units for the first time since 2022. That followed a 70% rally last week, the biggest weekly advance in records going back to 1990. The winter storm is estimated to have knocked offline almost 10% of U.S. natural gas production, just as demand for the heating and power plant fuel jumped. The big freeze has strained electricity grids and crippled transport links, grounding thousands of flights. Traders are closely watching how long the disruption to U.S. gas output will last as the storm sweeps in, and some were caught off guard by the scale of the disruptions in key export hubs such as Louisiana and Texas. Global gas markets have seen a volatile start of the year and a bigger impact than what’s already priced in could continue to send prices higher. The largest U.S. grid operator is pushing power plants to secure natural gas supplies through the week on expectations that frigid temperatures will drive electricity usage to a winter record. Gas flows to U.S. liquefied natural gas export plants have dipped to the lowest in a year as the winter storm disrupts output. Natural gas prices hit the highest since December 2022, when European demand for U.S. liquefied supplies was booming after it lost supplies from Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine earlier in the year. “U.S. gas price volatility is set to become a much bigger driver of LNG market value and risk across the next five years,” Timera Energy analysts wrote in a note. The impact on front-month prices is also being exacerbated because the February contract expires on Jan. 28, leaving liquidity relatively thin. Open-interest was less than 25,000 contracts on Jan. 26, compared with 340,000 contracts for March futures. The March contract climbed as much as 11% to $3.997 per million Btu, while the one for February gained as much as 19%.

US spot gas prices soar near LNG terminals -Natural gas spot prices at key regional hubs near US LNG terminals soared today as a winter storm sweeps the country, topping fob LNG values and incentivizing some offtakers to reinject their supplies to domestic markets. Customers with LNG tolling arrangements have more flexibility than those with sales and purchase agreements because they control their gas supply and are not obligated to liquefy it. This can spur traders to redirect gas to much more profitable domestic markets in extreme weather rather than export the volumes. Texas' 17.3mn t/yr Freeport, Louisiana's 15mn t/yr Cameron, Georgia's 4mn t/yr Elba Island and Maryland's 5.75mn t/yr Cove Point primarily operate on tolling agreements. Weighted average day-ahead feedgas costs from hubs near those LNG terminals surged to between $20-52/mn Btu on 23 January, likely discouraging exports (see chart). Those prices are much higher than Argus' spot LNG price for January-loading LNG on the Gulf coast, which averaged $8.27/mn Btu in December. Prices for LNG delivered to northwest Europe in the second half of February also were below the US spot prices, settling on 23 January at $12.99/mn Btu, according to Argus data. Preliminary feedgas nominations as of 6pm ET for the gas day beginning at 10am ET on 24 January showed less volume going to Freeport, Elba Island and Cove Point than the day prior, with Elba Island set to reinject about 555mn ft³ into the grid. Nominations to Cove Point halved to about 160mn ft³, and flows to Freeport were set to drop by 41pc to 1.2bn ft³. Nominations to Cameron were marginally lower at 1.9bn ft³, which would be the lowest since 30 October if realized. The arctic blast cold also shut in capacity at other US LNG facilities due to operational issues, such as frozen equipment on pipelines and compressor stations.

Spot Prices Wrap: Regional Natural Gas Hubs Surpass $100 Amid Winter Storm Carnage -With much of the country still firmly in Winter Storm Fern’s icy grip, natural gas cash prices reached astronomical heights on Monday as plummeting production and surging heating created headaches for traders. Line chart showing NGI’s Transco Zone 6 non-NY daily natural gas prices from early 2025 through January 2026, with prices mostly ranging below $10/MMBtu before a sharp spike above $130/MMBtu in late January 2026. At A Glance:
Production plunges
Northeast hubs hit triple digits
More supply impacts to come

Industrial End Users Plea for Suspension of Spot LNG Exports as U.S. Energy Prices Soar - The head of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday warning that extreme cold and soaring electricity and natural gas prices are forcing manufacturers to shut down.Line chart showing NGI’s National Avg. Daily Natural Gas Prices from late January 2025 through late January 2026, with prices mostly below $5/MMBtu before spiking sharply above $45/MMBtu in late January 2026.At A Glance:
Manufacturers see profits squeezed
IECA warns of supply chain disruptions
Trade group has long bemoaned rise in exports

Geopolitical environment supports oil as weather sends gas soaring -Oil prices have held up well so far this year, with several geopolitical events providing support to the market. The US arrest of Venezuela’s president and escalating tensions between the US and Iran pose risks to supply, particularly with the latter. An escalation between the US and Iran puts around 1.5m b/d of Iranian oil exports at risk – but clearly, any escalation would also raise concerns over broader Persian Gulf oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly 20m b/d moves through.There have also been disruptions to oil supply elsewhere. This has proved supportive for the prompt Brent timespread, which has strengthened this month. Kazakh oil exports from the CPC terminal in Russia have been under pressure following drone attacks on the terminal, while oil production from the country has also faced unplanned outages due to power issues. Still, these flows are set to recover in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, freezing weather conditions in the US not only provide support to demand for heating fuels but also pose a risk to some US oil production and refinery operations.However, the scale of the expected oil surplus in the market suggests that if and when geopolitical risks ease, we should see oil prices coming under pressure. We continue to hold onto the view that ICE Brent will average $57/bbl over 2026. A weakening in timespreads would make us even more confident in the view of lower oil prices.Natural gas prices have seen significant strength through January. Initially, strength was seen in the European market, with colder weather, tighter storage, and speculative short-covering providing a boost to TTF.However, more recently, the US gas market has dominated market moves, with a severe winter storm across the US raising heating demand and leading to production shut-ins. This saw Henry Hub front-month futures more than double in as little as 10 days, trading to their highest levels since 2022. Speculators were also caught off guard, holding a net short in Henry Hub ahead of the storm. Short covering from speculators would have only added fuel to the fire. The impact of the storm is likely to lead to a significant drawdown in US natural gas storage, but given that storage was very comfortable ahead of the storm, it should be manageable; we expect that prices will correct lower, assuming no longer-term impact on supply from the storm.The US winter storm has raised further supply concerns for Europe, with US LNG plants having reduced operating rates, suggesting that US LNG flows to Europe could slow. This has led to European gas prices trading at a large premium to Asia to ensure LNG cargoes are directed to Europe.It is looking increasingly likely that EU gas storage will finish the 2025/26 heating season below 2022 levels. However, the difference between 2022 and 2026 is that now we have a sizeable amount of LNG export capacity ramping up, which should ease supply concerns in the medium to long term. In addition, there is much less uncertainty over Russian gas flows to Europe in 2026 than in 2022.

LNG Imports Surge as Third Trinidad Cargo Nears U.S. Shores - Prompt month natural gas statistics, summarizing pricing, spreads and storage data as of trading close to provide a snapshot of current market conditions. A look at the global natural gas and LNG markets by the numbers:

• 3 cargoes: The United States could receive its third cargo of LNG from Trinidad and Tobago this week, marking a high point for U.S. imports. A Shell-controlled vessel, the Paris Knutsen, entered the Savannah River and headed to the Elba Island LNG terminal Wednesday, according to Kpler data. It would be the first cargo imported at Elba Island since 2020. Two other vessels with volumes from Atlantic LNG loaded at the Everett terminal near Boston and Cove Point in Maryland earlier in the week.
• 2.61 Mt: U.S. LNG exports are set to recover this week, driven by a slight uptick inAsian demand. Shipments from U.S. terminals are seen rising 1.2% the week of Jan. 26 to 2.61 million tons (Mt), according to Kpler predictive data. The uptick comes in the face of widespread outages and pipeline constraints across the Gulf Coast that have pushed down feed gas nominations. Demand from South Korea helped offset a 0.17 Mt week/week reduction in volumes to Europe.
• 16.2 Bcf/d: Nominations to U.S. LNG terminals have recovered after a more than 45% reduction during Winter Storm Fern, according to Wood Mackenzie. That drop outpaced the 2025 freeze across the Gulf Coast and 2021’s Winter Storm Uri. Feed gas nominations dropped Monday to one of the lowest points in more than a year. By the Wednesday morning gas cycle, nominations had recovered to near 17 Bcf/d. Wood Mackenzie estimated nominations to average 16.2 Bcf/d over the next seven days.
• 25–30%: Santos Ltd. has shipped the first cargo from Darwin LNG produced from theBarossa field, marking a milestone for its expansion and extension project for the legacy export terminal. The Australian firm disclosed a vessel left Darwin over the weekend and was headed to Japan. Exports from the 3.7 Mt capacity facility declined exponentially after 2021 and ceased completely in 2024. With new supplies from the field northwest of the Australian coast in the Timor Sea, Santos is targeting a 25-30% increase in its production portfolio by 2027.

Another Blast of Winter Poses Risk of Further Disruptions to LNG Exports Just as Feed Gas Rebounds -- U.S. LNG feed gas nominations have climbed by about 50% over the past two days as the market recovers from Winter Storm Fern, but more disruptions could occur in the days ahead as another round of cold is forecast to spread southward.North American LNG export tracker, detailing export volumes by terminal alongside a map of active and proposed LNG facilities across the United States. At A Glance:
Feed gas noms climb above 16 Bcf
High prices, upstream issues still pose risks
Elba Island poised to import cargo

Manufacturers Ask DOE Sec. Wright to Suspend Spot LNG Exports - Marcellus Drilling News -- Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), a trade group representing some of the largest energy consumers in the U.S. (i.e., manufacturers), on Wednesday sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright urging the immediate suspension of spot LNG exports to reduce natural gas and electricity prices and ensure reliability. This raises many questions, such as how much of our LNG exports are spot/cash and how much are under long-term contracts. Would suspending spot LNG exports be beneficial for consumers? Is this anti-free market?

Henry Hub Prices Smash All-Time Records as Winter Storm Fern, LNG Tag-Team to Tighten Balances -- Henry Hub natural gas spot prices surged to an all-time high average $30.565/MMBtu on Monday (Jan. 26) as Winter Storm Fern exposed how LNG growth has upped the ante for supply shocks. NGI’s Henry Hub Daily Natural Gas Prices: A snapshot of the highest daily price spikes on record, highlighting periods of extreme volatility in the U.S. natural gas market. At A Glance:
Henry Hub spot tops Uri 2021 records
LNG demand double that during Uri
Power demand, Mexico exports also factors

New NYMEX NatGas Front-Month Contract (March) Closes “Up” at $3.92 --Marcellus Drilling News - Yesterday, the NYMEX natural gas March futures contract became the “front month” contract after the previous February contract expired. As we reported, the February contract went into the stratosphere, closing at $7.46/MMBtu based on something called a short squeeze (seeShort Squeeze: NYMEX NatGas Up Another 50.6 Cents to $7.46/MMBtu). The March contract closed at $3.918/MMBtu yesterday, which is $3.54 lower than the previous day. So, how can we say the March contract closed up from the previous day?

Kinder Morgan Updates Major Projects in Q4 Earnings Call -On their year-end earnings call January 21, 2026, Kinder Morgan (KMI) management attributed record results to growth in their natural gas businesses, particularly in the Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Northeast segments. In their opening comments, they highlighted strong Haynesville gathering growth and noted the system hit a new throughput record of 1.97 Bcf/d on Christmas Eve. They also gave a quick progress update on several big projects. Trident kicked off construction the prior week, and both Mississippi Crossing (MSX) and South System Expansion 4 (SSE4) have received FERC scheduling orders, with final certificates expected by July 31. MSX is now expected to come online earlier than originally planned, moving up from Q4 ’28 to Q2 ’28. The prepared statements also highlighted the recently announced second open season for Western Gateway (their products pipeline JV with Phillips 66), which adds additional origin points and expands delivery into the Los Angeles market by reversing KMI’s existing SFPP lines between Watson and Colton, CA (the proposed project mapped below). In the Bakken, management said Phase 1 of the Double H conversion to NGL service is still on track to startup in Q2 of this year, with a portion of the NGL volumes expected to come from KMI plants. They didn’t offer a firm update on Phase 2, but pointed to rising gas-oil ratios in the basin as a reason to expect additional volumes over time. Looking ahead, KMI’s project backlog climbed to $10 billion, with a big chunk tied to rising power demand and LNG feedgas needs. When asked whether KMI might take an equity stake in an LNG terminal like some of their peers, CEO Kimberly Dang shut down the idea, stating "we're staying in our lane" and noted LNG returns aren't attractive to them at the moment and wouldn’t be interested in building a terminal themselves either. Executive Chairman Richard Kinder jumped in briefly during Q&A to add that LNG feedgas and power-related contracts they have are often long-term (typically 20-25 years) take-or-pay deals, which helps mitigate risk as opposed to contracting directly with project developers of both LNG terminals and data centers.

P&GJ 500 Report Shows Established Operators Still Dominate U.S. Pipelines -— The companies leading Pipeline & Gas Journal’s (P&GJ’s) latest 500 Report will look familiar, though the newest rankings reveal notable reshuffling across several key metrics as operators continue to adjust to evolving market conditions. Among U.S. gas distribution utilities, rankings vary depending on the measure examined, highlighting differences in system scale, sales volumes and financial performance. By miles of U.S. distribution piping, CenterPoint Energy Operations leads the industry with 176,000 miles of distribution piping, followed by Columbia Gas of Ohio and Southern California Gas. Other large systems include Dominion Energy Ohio, Consolidated Edison of New York, UGI Utilities, Atmos Energy and AGL Resources, underscoring the concentration of physical infrastructure among a relatively small group of utilities. When ranked by gas sold, DTE Energy tops the list, followed by Dominion Energy Ohio and CCMS Energy, including Consumers Energy. National Grid, INE Gass, UGI Utilities and Xcel Energy also rank among the Top 10, reflecting strong regional demand across the Midwest, Northeast and West. In terms of operating revenue, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas again lead the industry, each reporting gas sales of more than $6 billion. Gas transmission pipeline rankings show consistency at the top, with some variation by category. DCP Midstream leads the industry in total miles of gas pipelines, followed by Pacific Gas & Electric, Nicor Gas and Energy Transfer. Northern Natural Gas, Columbia Gas Transmission and Tennessee Gas Pipeline also remain among the largest systems by mileage. The liquids pipeline sector shows greater differentiation depending on whether rankings are based on deliveries, revenues or miles of pipe. In crude oil deliveries, ConocoPhillips Alaska leads the industry, followed by Hiland Crude and Marathon Pipe Line. Buckeye Pipe Line, ETP Crude and Seaway Crude Pipeline also rank prominently, with ExxonMobil Pipeline, Medallion Pipeline, Enbridge Energy and LOCAP completing the Top 10. By miles of liquids pipelines, Energy Transfer operates the largest system, followed by Magellan Pipeline Company and Marathon Pipe Line. Mid-America Pipeline, Enbridge Energy and Buckeye Pipe Line Transmission also rank among the Top 10..Southbound – New Pipelines Push More Haynesville Natural Gas South to Meet LNG Demand | RBN Energy -Haynesville natural gas production is heading back to record levels thanks to growing LNG demand and new pipelines designed to move gas from north to south in Louisiana. Since last summer, two new pipelines, Momentum’s NG3 and Williams’s Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG), have been pushing production east and pulling more gas south to serve LNG demand in the area near Lake Charles. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll preview some of the topics we’ll be covering regularly in our new weekly NATGAS Haynesville report by taking a closer look at how LEG and NG3 are reshaping the market. The Haynesville Shale is one of the most consequential gas basins in the U.S., especially as LNG exports along the Gulf Coast continue to grow (see Sitting, Waiting, Wishing). One of the first shale basins to be extensively exploited with unconventional drilling techniques, the Haynesville burst onto the scene in 2008 during the early days of the Shale Revolution. While the Appalachian Basin is the largest gas producer, and the Permian the fastest-growing, the Haynesville stands out for three significant reasons. First, its location in Northwest Louisiana and Northeast Texas puts it in a sweet spot, nestled close to Gulf Coast LNG export facilities and well positioned to serve rising power demand across the Southeast. Second, unlike the Permian and Appalachian basins, the Haynesville isn’t boxed in by infrastructure and pipeline constraints. It has spare pipeline capacity (though that does not mean that all the gas can get to the most ideal markets), which means producers can ramp up output in the near term without waiting for new infrastructure. Finally, the basin is extremely responsive to Henry Hub prices, perhaps more so than any other basin in the U.S. When prices are high, production climbs; when prices are low, it pulls back. That makes the Haynesville one of the country’s most effective swing producers. As LNG demand grows and puts upward pressure on Henry Hub prices, the Haynesville is poised to respond. Production in the basin peaked in May 2023, just shy of 16.5 Bcf/d, following the extremely high Henry Hub pricing in 2022 (teal line and left axis in left graph in Figure 1 below). The rig count (orange line and right axis) peaked in late 2022, reaching 75, before producers scaled back in response to lower prices in 2023 and 2024. The rig count began climbing again last year and stands at 46 as of mid-January. Production fell from the May 2023 peak to just above 13 Bcf/d at the end of 2024 (sum of gold and green layers in graph to right) before beginning to climb again last year. Current production is around 16 Bcf/d, and we expect output to keep rising this year, topping the previous record by spring. Once new takeaway capacity comes online, it will push even higher from there as the new pipelines begin to fill. While overall U.S. production growth has been based on supportive production economics intrinsically linked to the prices of crude oil and natural gas, increases in export demand have done more to shape the Haynesville. Although the basin had sufficient spare pipeline capacity, most of it was heading east across the top of Louisiana. And while much of that gas subsequently turned south, it’s not the ideal route for serving the growing demand along the coast. Strong LNG demand incentivized pipeline buildout along a more direct path, heading straight from the producing area in Northwest Louisiana (yellow section in Figure 2 below) to LNG demand in the Sabine River area (pink section). Projects like Energy Transfer’s Gulf Run (green line) and DT Midstream’s LEAP (red line) began expanding flows along this route in 2022 and 2023, then last year service began on Williams’s LEG and Momentum Midstream’s NG3 (orange and yellow lines, respectively). We should note that LEAP, LEG and NG3 are all regulated by state entities rather than the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) because they are technically long gathering lines rather than traditional pipelines (see Shall We Gather at the River for more). This has helped speed up infrastructure and buildout in the basin and for more projects to move forward. While Louisiana has always had higher production levels than the Texas side of the play, the buildout in Louisiana has emphasized this trend. Haynesville production on the Texas side is down year-on-year, while Louisiana is up more than 2.3 Bcf/d from January 2025. Production on the Texas side was particularly weak when the pipelines began service over the summer but has strengthened this winter. Comparatively, production in Louisiana surged in the back half of last year, but growth has leveled off somewhat. More growth is still expected on both sides of the state line both this year and in the years ahead as LNG export capacity and related feedgas demand continues to grow. Winter Storm Fern led to dramatically lower production from the Permian Basin over the weekend, although the dip was not as catastrophic as what was seen in 2021. Even with the growth in Haynesville production, there is still available capacity on three of the four routes that bring basin volumes down to the Sabine River area. Flows on LEAP (red layer in Figure 3 below) are consistent with or just below the pipeline’s 1.9 Bcf/d capacity, but there is still southbound capacity available on Gulf Run, LEG and NG3. In the case of Gulf Run (green layer), this is because of the delayed startup of Golden Pass LNG on the Texas side of the Sabine River. Golden Pass is the anchor shipper on that pipeline, holding 1.1 Bcf/d of its 1.65 Bcf/d of capacity. While the terminal’s startup will cause more gas to flow south, this won’t necessarily cause an increase in Haynesville production because that gas can also head east on Energy Transfer’s pipelines in northern Louisiana. Data indicates that flows on LEG (orange layer) are around 1.2 Bcf/d and flows on NG3 (yellow layer) are 1.3-1.4 Bcf/d, leaving more than 2 Bcf/d of combined capacity (space between dotted line and stacked layers at right end of chart) on the four pipelines still available. (Because gathering-to-market lines are not FERC regulated, they are not required to report operational data and it is possible that the lines are still ramping up to full capacity.) As Haynesville Shale production has shifted east and outflows have shifted toward the Sabine River, this has, of course, changed the way gas moves into, out of, and around Louisiana. With output down on the Texas side of the basin, less gas is flowing across the state line into Northwest Louisiana. Likewise, as more gas is pulled south, less of it flows to the east. However, strong winter demand in the Southeast and lower inflows from Appalachia began pulling more gas east, across the state, in December. This caused a drop in outflows from Northwest Louisiana to South Louisiana, which had risen as Plaquemines LNG was ramping online. Having spare capacity on multiple routes allows the Haynesville to react to seasonal domestic demand trends, pricing incentives and the specific “where” of LNG export demand. In the short term, that helps the market optimize, but in the long run, LNG demand is expected to grow by more than 14 Bcf/d by the early 2030s. In the face of that astronomical growth, more production and pipeline capacity are needed not only from the Haynesville but from anywhere you can get them.

Deep Freeze Wreaks Havoc on Texas Oil Producers, Refiners - Freeze Has Taken 22% of Natural Gas Production Offline in Southern Central Corridor. A massive winter storm that swept the U.S. over the weekend crippled oil and gas producers and the industrial plants that refine the raw commodities into everything from gasoline to plastics. Refinery flares lit up the Houston Ship Channel late Jan. 25 and into the next morning as a cold front hit the Texas coast and plunged temperatures below freezing. Plants operated by INEOS, Pemex, Shell and LyondellBasell all reported flaring gases, a common safety measure when severe weather causes operational disruptions. Several plants, including Exxon Mobil’s Baytown mega refinery and Goodyear’s Bayport chemicals facility, curtailed operations Jan. 24 ahead of the freeze. The waterway connecting Houston’s refineries to crude imports and global export markets for their products closed Jan. 24 as the cold front approached and partially reopened Jan. 26. Weather-related refinery issues weren’t just contained to East Houston’s industrial corridor. One of INEOS’s plants on the Texas coast was struck by lightning as the winter storm approached the facility, tripping the site off line, according to a regulatory filing. Farther north in Illinois, where refineries are designed to operate in colder temperatures, Phillips 66’s Wood River plant reported a leak in a piping system due to the winter storm, the company said in a community alert. Freezing temperatures also caused issues for the companies pulling oil and gas out of the ground in West Texas. Chevron reported hatches freezing open while Anadarko said severe weather made repairs to a leaking water tank challenging. Filing after filing with the state’s environmental regulator tied operational issues to the severe winter weather disaster declaration issued by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott headed into the storm. The freeze has taken about 22% of natural gas production offline in the southern central U.S. corridor, suggesting crude production is likely down 1 million barrels a day, according to TP ICAP Group Plc energy specialist Scott Shelton. Before the freeze, the U.S. was producing just shy of 14 million barrels of oil daily. In North Dakota, between 80,000 and 110,000 barrels a day of production was offline Jan. 26 due to the cold, unchanged from Jan. 23, according to ND Pipeline Authority. Oil futures traded lower by as much as 0.9% Jan. 26 with gasoline futures leading the petroleum complex down as much as 1.8% on lower industrial and travel demand. Meanwhile, fuels used in heating and electricity generation such as diesel and natural gas surged with heating oil futures up as much as 4.9%.

Fern Freeze-offs Fell Permian Gas Production -Permian natural gas production during the week ended January 26 started out in line with where it has been so far this year, around 21.7 Bcf/d but then dropped dramatically over the weekend because of extremely cold weather and Winter Storm Fern. Temperatures in Midland, Texas plummeted on Friday night, dropping into the low 20s and then falling further from there over the weekend. Sunday night, the low temperature was just below ten degrees, which is extremely low for the area. Temperatures are rising but are expected to remain below the 30-year average for the rest of the week. Production dropped along with the temperatures, with daily production dropping by an estimated 3.1 Bcf/d from Friday to Saturday and then falling further on Sunday. The production decline is starkly visible in the orange line in the chart below. In keeping with the lower production, overall outflows from the Permian were down last week. Outflows to the West dropped by well over 1 Bcf/d over the weekend, from over 2.5 Bcf/d at the beginning of the week to around 1.1 Bcf/d as of Sunday. Outflows to the North were around 2 Bcf/d at the beginning of the week and fell as low as 1.1 Bcf/d on Sunday. Outflows to Mexico averaged 1.7 Bcf/d, up 0.1 Bcf/d week-on-week. Outflows to the East averaged 11.6 Bcf/d, down 1.3 Bcf/d week on-week and dropping as low as 10 Bcf/d on Sunday because of the cold weather.

Texas deep freeze shuts refineries, cuts oil and gas production - A massive winter storm that swept across Texas over the weekend disrupted oil and gas production and forced several Gulf Coast refineries to curtail operations as freezing temperatures settled across the state. Flaring lit up parts of the Houston Ship Channel late Sunday and into Monday morning as Arctic air pushed into Southeast Texas, sending temperatures below freezing and disrupting refinery operations. Facilities operated by INEOS, Pemex, Shell, and LyondellBasell reported the flaring, a standard safety measure used when severe weather interrupts normal production, according to Bloomberg News.Several major facilities took precautionary steps ahead of the freeze. ExxonMobil's Baytown refinery, one of the largest in the country, and Goodyear's Bayport chemical plant curtailed operations Saturday as temperatures fell. The Houston Ship Channel—a critical artery for crude oil imports and exports of refined products—was closed Saturday as the cold front approached and partially reopened Monday morning.The storm's impacts extended beyond Houston's industrial corridor. An INEOS plant along the Texas coast was struck by lightning as the winter storm moved into the area, forcing the facility offline, according to a regulatory filing via Bloomberg.Freezing temperatures also created challenges for oil and gas producers in West Texas. Chevron reported equipment issues caused by frozen hatches, while Anadarko said severe weather complicated repairs to a leaking water tank. Multiple filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality tied the disruptions to the winter storm and a disaster declaration issued by Gov. Greg Abbott ahead of the freeze. The storm forced a significant share of energy production offline across Texas and the surrounding region. About 22 percent of natural gas production in the south-central U.S. corridor was shut in during the freeze, according to estimates from TP ICAP Group Plc. That level of disruption suggests crude oil production may have dropped by roughly 1 million barrels per day. Before the storm, U.S. oil output was nearing 14 million barrels per day.

Big Freeze Disrupts U.S. Oil and Gas Production Winter storm Fern has slashed U.S. oil and gas production as operators curtailed output amid the big freeze. Over the weekend, the storm led to producers losing up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production, or about 15% of total U.S. oil output, according to estimates by analysts and traders cited by Reuters.According to estimates by Energy Aspects, the Permian alone saw production outages of around 1.5 million bpd. However, production is already recovering, and the lost output in the Permian is down to some 700,000 bpd. Output is expected to be fully restored by the end of the month.The average monthly impact of the big freeze for the whole month of January could be about 390,000 bpd, mostly due to disruptions in the Permian, independent consultants Rystad Energysaid on Tuesday.The impact should be more limited in other oil regions such as the Bakken in North Dakota, or the Rockies and the Mid-Continent. The maximum downside scenario could feature an additional impact of 273,000 bpd, according to Rystad Energy.In natural gas output, the winter storm led to losses of up to 11% of U.S. production.The total impact on January output, based on Rystad Energy’s initial intelligence of the freeze, suggests that America’s natural gas production would be down by 3.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) compared to an average of 104 Bcfd for the Lower 48 region expected earlier in January.The Permian would be the main contributor to curtailments in gas output, too, Rystad Energy reckons. There is a potential for an additional 2.3 Bcfd loss for January, primarily driven by a significant curtailment scenario in the Permian similar to Winter Storm Uri in 2021.The cold snap sent U.S. benchmark natural gas prices more than doubling in just one week in the strongest rally since the 1990s. Prices eased on Tuesday morning, following a 117% rally in recent days, as traders turned to profit-taking.

Texas oil, gas and petrochem facilities emitted 1.6 million pounds of regulated pollutants during last week’s icy weather -- As freezing temperatures swept over West Texas last week, leaky pipeline systems in the Permian Basin of West Texas began to suck in air, spoiling their products, risking an explosion and leading operators to release or burn off vast volumes of gas. Chevron, for example, reported 11 large gas releases as it sought to purge oxygen from its tanks, according to filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Chevron estimated that it released more than 125,000 pounds of regulated pollutants in incidents during the storm. In some cases, Chevron’s tank hatches “remained frozen open,” allowing gas to vent freely for days at a time. All of the incidents were “directly related to the severe winter weather disaster proclaimed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott,” the company wrote in its reports. In a statement to Inside Climate News, a Chevron spokesperson said the company followed its “winter weather action plans to enable safe, reliable and sustainable operations,” and that safety is its top priority. At the TCEQ, Texas’ environmental regulator, Abbott’s declaration on Thursday, Jan. 22, activated a policy called “enforcement discretion,” under which authorities could choose to excuse infractions of environmental law, given the circumstance, as long as operators report them diligently. Inside Climate News tallied reports of air emission events reported by industrial facilities—mostly oil, gas and petrochemical operations—posted on the TCEQ’s website. In the month of January prior to the storm, there were an average of 3.4 incidents per day. But in the four days from Jan. 23 to Jan. 26, that rose to a daily average of 14.2. In total, companies estimated that about 1.6 million pounds of regulated pollutants were released during the four days of icy weather, as valves failed, units tripped and pipe connectors began to leak, according to the Inside Climate News analysis. (This figure does not include releases of methane and ethane, which are not regulated and so are not reported.) The TCEQ did not respond to a request for comment. While Texas enacted requirements for power plants to winterize in 2021, following a catastrophic winter storm, the rules don’t apply to gas-processing plants—enormous complexes that refine raw gas before it is piped to power stations, chemical plants and export terminals. “The fix isn’t mysterious,” Metzger said. “Require full weatherization across the entire energy and industrial supply chain, enforce pollution limits during upset events and plan for extreme weather as the new normal.” As the winter storm began to creep over Texas last week, companies in the Permian Basin first detected high oxygen levels in gas early Friday, Jan. 25. Targa Resources, a supplier of petrochemical feedstocks, reported “oxygen levels exceeding the maximum allowable limits” at its Legacy Gas Plant at 5 p.m.“You don’t want high amounts of oxygen anywhere near hydrocarbons,” said an oil and gas consultant who requested anonymity to maintain trust with his clients. “They’re prioritizing safety,” he said, explaining why operators would vent or flare gas when oxygen starts to build up. Oxygen can enter a system during a freeze, he said. Freezing temperatures and moisture affect equipment operation in ways that can lead to the entry of air into systems connected to natural gas feed, or “oxygen ingress.” It’s particularly problematic in regions where infrastructure is not designed to withstand freezing weather conditions. “Most pieces of oil and gas infrastructure in Texas are not designed to handle freezes like this. A lot of things can happen,” In response to high oxygen levels, Targa, an integrated gas conglomerate based in Houston, routed the gas from its Legacy Gas Plant in the Permian Basin to flares to be burnt off for disposal. At 10:30 p.m. Targa measured elevated oxygen at its Greenwood Gas Plant and routed gas to its flares. One hour later, Targa did the same at its nearby Pembrook Compressor Station, then 13 minutes later at its Buffalo Gas Plant, then at its High Plains Gas Plant, then itsGateway Gas Plant.Throughout the weekend, a dozen Targa facilities in west Texas burned off gas for up to 24 hours each. In its reports to TCEQ, Targa estimated its flares collectively emitted more than 240,000 pounds of carbon monoxide and 35,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides. Targa did not respond to a request for comment. Gas giant Energy Transfer, based in Dallas, also reported flaring for up to 24 hours at six of its Permian Basin processing plants due to high oxygen levels with 25,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide emissions. When an Anadarko E&P Onshore tank broke and started leaking in west Texas on Jan. 25, the Woodlands-based company wrote, “We are working to find a crew to repair it today, but weather conditions make it challenging.” The leak remained for 24 hours and released 39,000 pounds of regulated natural gas pollutants, the company reported. The unregulated methane that accompanied those pollutants likely totaled up to 117,000 pounds, according to Permian Basin gas composition data provided by the Environmental Defense Fund. “The oil and gas industry is too fragile to handle the extreme weather,” said Sharon Wilson, founder of the nonprofit Oilfield Witness, who has monitored oilfield emissions for 15 years. “These releases happen during the extreme summer weather, too.” Many emissions are never reported, she said. A certified thermographer with a $100,000 gas imaging camera, she records air pollution events in the Permian Basin. Of all the times she has videoed operators purging gas from pipelines, she said, none ever appeared as reports online. Around midnight Monday, compressors tripped at Deer Park Oil Refinery east of Houston. “Some of the refinery systems suffered freeze-related issues,” it reported. The facility flared gas for 14 hours, releasing an estimated 52,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide.At 1 a.m., a compressor tripped at Equistar Chemicals Channelview Complex, and at 7 a.m. Dow Freeportreported: “Process upset caused by extreme freezing conditions which resulted in off-specification material.” Dow directed the material to its large flare and burned it off for 25 hours.Bayport Polymers’ warning system, on the Houston ship channel, tripped at 11:30 a.m. and routed gas to its ground flare for 48 hours, emitting 190,000 pounds of carbon monoxide, 48,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides, 380 pounds of 1,3-butadiene and 200 pounds of toluene.
In east Texas, at 1:30 p.m., a stuck valve at a VMH gas plant released almost 130,000 pounds of the neurotoxin hexane. Later that night in Port Arthur, on the Louisiana border, acompressor tripped at a Motiva refinery, so the unit’s gas was flared for 18 hours, emitting 230,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide, 12,000 pounds of hexane and 3,200 pounds of isopentane.

US energy sector reels after winter storm knocks out 2 million bpd of crude output (Reuters) - U.S. oil producers lost up to 2 million barrels per day, or up to 15%, of the country's production over the weekend, analysts and traders estimated, as a winter storm swept across the country, straining energy infrastructure and power grids. Oil production outages peaked on Saturday at 2 million bpd, consultancy Energy Aspects estimated, with the Permian Basin likely to have experienced the largest share of that decline at around 1.5 million bpd. Production losses eased on Monday, with Permian shut-ins estimated at about 700,000 bpd and production set to be fully restored by January 30. U.S. oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips' Permian crude production was down by 175,000 bpd as of Sunday owing to frigid weather, according to a source familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak on the record. Chevron reported hatches were frozen open during the storm on Sunday in Midland, Texas, according to a regulatory filing. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil was experiencing multiple shut downs in gas compressors across different fields owing to low ambient temperatures, affecting oil production because the gas compression is used to lift the oil, said a source familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "We closely monitor severe weather conditions and proactively implement necessary safety and operational measures to safeguard our people, maintain infrastructure integrity, and ensure continuity of essential operations," an ExxonMobil spokesperson said. Companies also face third-party takeaway challenges due to hazardous road conditions, specifically regarding water hauling and technician dispatch for repairs, the Texas Oil and Gas Association said in a note. Occidental and Targa Resources were among the two dozen reports of upsets at natural gas processing plants and compressor stations in Texas, according to regulatory filings over the weekend, but that paled in comparison to the more than 200 reported upsets during the first five days of a severe winter storm in 2021, TACenergy analysts said in a note on Monday. Occidental and Targa Resources did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Output in North Dakota, the third-largest oil-producing state, was estimated to be down by around 80,000 to 110,000 bpd as of Monday morning, said Justin Kringstad, director of North Dakota Pipeline Authority. Associated wellhead natural gas production was estimated to be down by 0.24 to 0.33 billion cubic feet per day. U.S. crude futures settled at $60.63 a barrel, down 44 cents. Average gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states dropped to 106.9 bcfd so far in January, down from a monthly record high of 109.7 bcfd in December, according to LSEG, as producers shut in production. On the refining side, several refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast reported issues related to the freezing weather over the weekend, including ExxonMobil which shut units at its Baytown, Texas, petrochemical complex on the east side of Houston. Cenovus Energy's 172,000 bpd Lima, Ohio, refinery experienced mechanical issues brought about by the storm on Sunday. A full restart may be delayed until later this week due to extreme cold, industry monitor IIR said. Meanwhile, peak natural gas production losses are estimated to hit around 20 bcfd owing to the storm, according to Rystad Energy. Front-month gas futures closed at their highest since December 2022 on Monday, rising nearly 30% on the day to settle at $6.80 per million British thermal units. Some 810,000 customers across the U.S. remained without power on Monday following the Arctic blast over the weekend that brought heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from the Ohio Valley and mid-South to New England. Cold temperatures are expected to persist for parts of the country in coming days. The weekend snow and ice storm knocked out power to more than a million homes and businesses along the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast, including in Texas. The largest U.S. power grid, PJM, anticipated generation outages for Monday would rise to 22.4 GW, or about 16% of total committed capacity. Most of those outages are expected in Dominion Energy's Mid-Atlantic territory, according to PJM data. Demand on PJM was 124 GW on Monday morning, above the forecast of 123.3 GW, but it continues to meet demand, PJM operations data show. Spot wholesale electricity prices were around $200 per MWh, recovering from temporary spikes over the weekend that topped $3,000 per MWh. Next-day prices in New England soared about 82% to $313 per megawatt hour, while PJM West prices in Pennsylvania and Maryland soared about 360% to around $413, their highest since January 2014. The Southwest Power Pool, meanwhile, which operates the power grid across 14 U.S. states in the Midwest and West, said it extended a cold weather advisory for the region by two days and it will now run until midday Wednesday. It is meant to alert the public about possible disruptions caused by the frigid temperatures, but it does not require homes and businesses to conserve energy.

Ksi Lisims LNG Power Agreement Advances BC’s Natural Gas Export Buildout --The Ksi Lisims LNG project partnership has inked a tentative power agreement key to its plans for delivering natural gas volumes with net-zero emission to Asia by the end of the decade. A Map of British Columbia showing major natural gas pipelines, Montney and Duvernay shale plays, NGI price index locations, and operational, under-construction, and proposed LNG export facilities including LNG Canada, Cedar LNG, Woodfibre LNG, and Coastal GasLink. At A Glance:
BC Hydro to supply 600 MW
Supports 12 Mt/y net-zero LNG project
FID targeted later this summer

U.S. Reopens Venezuela’s Oil Spigot, but Refuses to Guarantee Security - U.S. officials told oil executives on Wednesday that Washington will not provide security guarantees for companies operating in Venezuela, even as the Trump administration encourages the industry to re-engage with the country’s oil sector. According to people familiar with the discussions, senior administration officials said companies would be expected to manage their own physical and political risk if they choose to invest, signaling limits to U.S. involvement as Venezuelan crude re-enters global markets. “We are not going to get involved in providing on the ground security for people in Venezuela,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Oil and gas companies operate all around the world in all different settings, they’re well versed in those challenges.” Years of expropriations, contract rewrites, payment arrears, and operational breakdowns have made boards reluctant to deploy long-cycle capital without firm legal and security assurances. U.S. oil companies have privately warned that without enforceable contracts, clearer fiscal terms, and some form of risk backstop, investment will remain limited, capping how quickly Venezuelan output can recover even under a more permissive U.S. policy framework.Earlier this month, American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers publicly said that policy changes, security, and investment protections were among the prerequisites the industry wants in place before investing significantly in Venezuela’s oil sector. In the near term, Venezuelan barrels are returning to the market not through upstream investment but through discounted trade flows. U.S. refinersincluding Valero and Phillips 66 have snapped up Venezuelan crude via trader Vitol, with cargoes priced roughly $8.50 to $9.50 per barrel below Brent. For Gulf Coast refiners configured to run heavy sour grades, the economics are attractive. Before sanctions in 2019, the region processed hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of Venezuelan crude, and refiners have been eager to partially replace heavier imports lost elsewhere.

Tanker Carrying Venezuelan Heavy Oil Heads To Louisiana -A crude tanker chartered by Trafigura departed on Sunday from Venezuela's Jose port to Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), LSEG data and documents showed, the first cargo going directly to the U.S. as part of a 50-million-barrel supply deal agreed this month between Caracas and Washington. This month, trading houses Vitol and Trafigura received the first U.S. licenses to load and export Venezuelan oil as part of the deal. They have since shipped cargoes to storage terminals in the Caribbean, and from there they have been marketing and selling the crude to refiners worldwide. The Liberia-flagged tanker Gloria Maris, carrying some 1 million barrels of Venezuela's Merey heavy crude, is the first sent by the traders directly from Venezuela to a U.S. port since the deal began, according to the documents and data. A smaller tanker, the Barbados-flagged Volans, also departed from Jose on Sunday carrying some 450,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude to the Bullen Bay terminal in Curacao, the LSEG data showed. The traders have shipped between 10 million and 11 million barrels of Venezuelan oil as part of the supply deal so far, according to shipping data. They are getting ready to begin exporting fuel oil as well, according to the sources and documents. Before Venezuela can reverse output cuts it has made during a U.S. blockade of all sanctioned tankers, the country needs to drain most of the over 40 million barrels it accumulated in storage since last month.

Crude Oil Exports Rebound as South Texas Gateway Extends Its Run - Crude oil exports out of the U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) increased 440 Mb/d to average 4 MMb/d for the week ended January 23, 2026. As mentioned in our Crude Voyager, exports were once again led by the Corpus Christi region, which averaged 2.2 MMb/d and loaded 18 vessels, averaging just above the 4-week moving average. Gibson’s South Texas Gateway (STG) terminal led the region by volume for the second straight week (yellow dashed oval in chart below), again surpassing Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center (EIEC), marking the first time since 2022 that STG has been the dominant terminal in back-to-back weeks. Exports out of STG increased 13% week-on-week to average just under 1 MMb/d. The terminal loaded seven vessels: five Suezmaxes, one Aframax, and one VLCC. Week-to-week volatility in export volumes is not unusual and additional data will be needed to determine whether a sustained trend is taking shape. However, as mentioned previously, STG’s emerging strength coincides with Gibson’s recent completion of a new connection between the STG terminal and Plain's Cactus II Pipeline, which transports crude from the Permian Basin to Corpus Christi. According to Gibson, the connection is designed to improve terminal connectivity and provide up to 700 Mb/d of incremental supply, a development that could support higher and more consistent crude export volumes.

GOP probes climate lawyers for ties to education group for judges - Congressional Republicans are demanding documents from lawyers who work on climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry as part of an investigation into a legal education organization that provides climate science courses to judges. Two attorneys who have been active in lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry have until Wednesday to deliver materials about their interactions with the Environmental Law Institute to the House Judiciary Committee, according to letters signed by Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Courts.The inquiry comes amid an uptick in cases against the fossil fuel industry brought by more than two dozen local governments seeking to hold oil and gas producers financially accountable for climate change. Michigan last week became the 11th state to file such a suit. The probe also marks a continuing effort by Republicans to target the Environmental Law Institute which came under scrutiny in 2023 after industry and conservative groups raised questions about the organization and the objectivity of judges handling climate lawsuits following a handful of losses at the Supreme Court.

California sues Trump administration over approval of oil pipelines near coast - California sued the Trump administration over its approvals for oil pipelines near the state’s coast amid the White House’s broader push for more drilling there.California is arguing that the Trump administration’s moves to restart the pipelines contravene the state’s authority over the vessels.“In its latest unlawful power grab, the Trump Administration is illegally claiming exclusive federal authority over two of California’s onshore pipelines,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a written statement. “California has seen first-hand the devastating environmental and public health impacts of coastal oil spills — yet the Trump Administration will stop at nothing to evade state regulation which protects against these very disasters,” Bonta said.The pipelines in question are owned by Sable Offshore, which drills off California’s coast.Operating under a different company at the time, the pipelines in question were shut down in 2015 after a spill that flowed into the Pacific Ocean and impacted beaches. The Trump administration has sought to expand offshore drilling, including off California’s coast. It has proposed offering up new leases to allow companies to drill, which would mark the first time in more than three decades that new drilling rights were offered off the state’s coast. The administration told The Associated Press that the approvals “will bring much needed American energy to a state with the highest gas prices in the country.”

Shiver and Suffer – Canada and Ontario Set Single Day Gas Demand Records with Latest Arctic Blast -Winter Storm Fern that swept across the eastern half of North America this past weekend (including most of central and eastern Canada), combined with a brief but intense cold outbreak in Western Canada to establish a new single day Canadian gas demand record on January 24, 2026. Based on data from RBN’s Canadian NatGas Billboard, natural gas demand rose to 19.3 Bcf (blue text and arrow in chart below), surpassing the previous record set less than a year ago on February 18, 2025 of 19.1 Bcf (burgundy text and arrow). The nation’s population-weighted heating degree days (HDDs, a measure of how cold was the weather) for January 24 was the fifth highest since 1900 and the coldest for this date since 1936. When considering Canada’s most populous province of Ontario, it also set a single day gas demand record one day later on January 25, 2026 at 7.54 Bcf (blue text and arrow in chart below), just slightly ahead of the prior record of 7.45 Bcf established on January 21, 2025 (burgundy text and arrow). For the latest record, Ontario’s population-weighted HDDs on January 25 were ranked 16th since 1900. The province has also been trending toward a higher degree of dependence on gas-fired power generation at times of very high demand and which established a single day demand record on January 24, 2026 at 1.74 Bcf, followed by the second highest the next day at 1.59 Bcf.

Dow Will Proceed With Fort Saskatchewan Ethane Cracker Expansion | RBN Energy - Dow, one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, announced in its fourth quarter earnings conference call on January 29, 2026, that it will proceed with an expansion of its ethane cracker located in Fort Saskatchewan, AB. The expansion, dubbed the Path2Zero project (artist rendition below), originally sanctioned in November 2023 and then placed on hold in April 2025, will more than double the existing cracker’s output of polyethylene and will require a commensurate significant expansion in its consumption of ethane as feedstock (see Shock to the System for further details). The expansion will include additional emission abatement technologies to generate net zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions with a revised estimated total cost of C$10.3 billion (US$7.5 billion, originally US$8.1 billion). In April 2025, Dow announced an indefinite delay to the expansion citing uncertainties in global economic activity and whether it could time the expansion with growth in polyethylene demand. At the time of its prior third quarter earnings release the company stated that it would provide clarity on the expansion in early 2026. The Path2Zero project is planned as a two-stage expansion of the existing Dow ethane cracker that would result in a net increase in its ethane consumption from ~95 Mb/d in 2025 to ~205 Mb/d by 2031 (+110 Mb/d). The first phase is now planned to be in service by year end 2029 (+70 Mb/d), instead of 2027 as originally envisioned, increasing total Alberta ethane consumption to ~342 Mb/d (red column in chart below) in 2030. The second phase is planned to be in service by year end 2030 (+40 Mb/d), a year later than originally planned, and take provincial ethane consumption to a range of ~382 Mb/d (green column) in 2031. Multiple third party projects are in the works across Alberta to increase the province’s output of ethane to accommodate most or all of the increase in ethane demand from the Dow expansion (additional details can be found in Wish You Were Here).

When the US freezes, the global LNG market catches a cold (Reuters) - An Arctic blast sweeping across the U.S. Northeast and Midwest has triggered a sharp rally in natural gas prices on fears of production disruptions. The spike has reverberated across overseas markets, underlining the growing globalization of the U.S.-dominated liquefied natural gas trade. U.S. natural gas futures have surged by almost 70% over the last week to $5.35 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their highest since December 2022. The cold spell is set to lift domestic gas demand this week to 156 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), compared with a five-year January average of 137 bcfd, according to LSEG forecasts. At the same time, icy conditions are forcing drillers in regions such as the Permian shale basin in Texas and New Mexico to curb output due to “freeze‑offs,” when water and other liquids in the gas stream freeze. The trend will likely intensify as temperatures drop further. Average gas output in the U.S. has already slipped to 108.4 bcfd so far in January, down from a record 109.7 bcfd in December, LSEG data showed, partly due to the cold weather. Tighter U.S. supply could reduce LNG exports, as liquefaction plants receive less feedgas. Severe cold has curtailed oil and gas production several times in recent years. A 10-day cold spell in January 2024 led to a 3% drop in average monthly dry gas output, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. And three years earlier in February 2021, Winter Storm Uri led to a drop of over 20% in gas output at the lowest point compared with pre-storm levels. LNG feedgas fell by as much as 75% during the storm, leading to a 30% drop in February LNG exports that year, according to Kpler. In each of these past Arctic blasts, output generally rebounded within a month or two. But since Uri, the U.S. has nearly doubled its liquefaction capacity, becoming the world's top LNG exporter, meaning a disruption today could create a much larger shortfall.What has changed in recent years is that cold weather conditions in the U.S. can now lead to higher gas prices in Asia and especially Europe, which is heavily dependent on U.S. LNG after Russia slashed pipeline flows following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The U.S. has since 2023 dominated the LNG market, becoming the first country to export over 100 million metric tons per year in 2025. Around two-thirds of that was delivered to Europe, according to data analytics firm Kpler. Benchmark European TTF gas prices gained over 6% last week to almost 40 euros per megawatt hour, or $13.75 per mmBtu, the highest since June 2025. Prices have risen by 38% so far this month, driven by a rapid depletion of regional gas stocks, which are currently 48% of capacity, far below last year's level of roughly 58%. Europe is expected to import a record amount of LNG this year, the International Energy Agency said on Friday, with the bulk of the increase expected to come from the U.S. To be sure, the current rally pales in comparison to the post-invasion spike in 2022, when TTF prices quadrupled to more than 300 euros per MWh. Global LNG prices eventually returned to near pre‑invasion levels, helped by surging new supply that is expected to keep prices relatively low in coming years. Between 2025 and 2030, new LNG export capacity is expected to grow some 50%, or by 300 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year globally, driven mainly by the U.S. and Qatar, according to the IEA. Yet, the increasingly interconnected LNG market means that when sudden shifts in supply or demand do occur in major producing areas, whether due to outages or extreme weather, the global impact will be more pronounced than in the past.And, importantly, climate change is likely to make such extreme weather events more frequent."The global gas market has become far more interconnected," "Regardless of their absolute price levels, markets such as TTF and (U.S.) Henry Hub are now structurally more volatile and increasingly exposed to supply, demand, and geopolitical dynamics originating outside their own regions."

Europe’s Gas Storage Is Draining at the Fastest Pace in Five Years | OilPrice.com - Below-average winter temperatures are driving the fastest pace of withdrawals from natural gas storage in Europe in five years, as heating demand is rising.EU gas storage sites were only 47% full as of January 21, according to the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. That’s well below the average for the past few years, signaling that Europe will have to import more gas in the summer to replenish storage supplies. Gas withdrawals have accelerated this month amid colder-than-normal temperatures in most of Europe, and the pace of withdrawals has been the fasters in five years, according to Bloomberg’s estimates.LNG cargo arrivals have been at less than half of the daily volumes withdrawn from storage.The cold weather has driven immediate gas demand higher, while the unfavorable price spread between winter and summer prices is not encouraging for stockpiling.In addition, global gas benchmark prices have jumped in recent weeks as Arctic weather has gripped most of the northern hemisphere, including the United States and Asia.As a result, prices have spiked, making LNG imports costlier for any customer in Europe and Asia. The front-month Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, have jumped by 30% since the start of January, from $34 (29 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) on January 2 to as much as $45.40 (38.65 euros) per MWh on January 23.“With heating demand firm and storage withdrawals accelerating, European buyers have been forced to pay up to secure supply,” Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, saidthis week, noting that the extreme cold has driven a sharp rise in heating demand just as supply flexibility has diminished. Traders have sharply turned bullish on European gas, with funds aggressively buying the market, shifting from a net short of 55.1 TWh to a net long of 57.7 TWh over the last reporting week, Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, wrote in a Thursdaynote. “This move was driven fairly equally by short covering and fresh longs entering the market,” Patterson said.

Trump’s trade policy blamed for US gas auction flop in Eastern Europe - — Washington’s ambition to replace Russia as Eastern Europe’s dominant gas supplier has hit a surprise hurdle: European buyers, it seems, don’t want it.On Monday, an auction for contracts to carry American gas along pipelines from Greece to Ukraine, organized by Greece’s national gas network operator, attracted almost zero interest for the second consecutive month.Out of nearly 72 gigawatt-hours of capacity offered across three different entry routes, a minuscule 48 megawatt-hours were eventually booked — less than 0.1 percent of the total. In December’s auction, no one bid at all.The indifference dealt a major blow to Greece’s ambition to become a new European gateway for U.S. liquefied natural gas imports and prompted warnings that President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy is undermining his own energy export ambitions. Greece’s energy minister said U.S.-EU tensions had scared off potential buyers of American LNG.

European gas prices edge higher as US cold limits LNG supply - Dutch and British wholesale gas price rose slightly on Tuesday morning as freezing weather in the United States continued to curb liquefied natural gas exports. The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub was 0.60 higher at €40.30 per megawatt hour, or $14.02, by 09:31 GMT, LSEG data showed. The price reached its highest since April last year on Monday. British day-ahead gas was up 3.70p at 105p per therm while the front-month contract inched up by 0.22p to 103.60p per therm. US gas market developments could continue to be a concern as supply disruptions affect LNG exports. US natural gas futures soared by a record 119 per cent over five days to a three-year high on Monday after an Arctic blast over the weekend boosted heating demand and cut production to a two-year low by freezing oil and gas wells and pipes. LNG feedgas dropped to a one-year low of 12.1 bcfd on Sunday due to reductions at all plants, including Freeport LNG in Texas and Elba Island in Georgia. "In recent days, US LNG plants have significantly reduced their gas intake, estimated to be down around 48 per cent, which will translate into reduced LNG exports from these plants," said analysts at ING. TTF prices continue to trade at a healthy premium to Asian LNG to ensure LNG cargoes move into Europe, where storage has now fallen below 45 per cent full. Last week, at least two LNG tankers that were initially eastbound were diverted towards Europe and Turkey, shiptracking data showed. "It's looking increasingly likely that storage will end the 25/26 heating season at below 25 per cent full. This would also be below the levels seen in 2022," ING said. The market will be watching for how quickly US production recovers in the United States and whether more extreme cold could come next month, analysts at EBW Analytics added. Further out this year, a lot of new LNG supply is expected, mainly from Qatar and the United States. Meanwhile, supply in north-west Europe is stable. Forecasts have been revised colder until February 6 and milder from February 8-18, LSEG data showed. Wind generation in north-west Europe is forecast above normal until at least February 4 before falling below normal and remaining there until at least February 10.

U.S. LNG Export Fluctuations, Severe Winter Weather Propping up Global Natural Gas Prices --European natural gas traders are still eyeing further cold weather and U.S. LNG supply, adding a bullish upside to an otherwise stable global natural gas market.Four-panel NGI chart showing trailing 365-day mean temperatures for Northwest Europe, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo as of Jan. 26, 2026, with daily mean temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit compared against normal levels, illustrating seasonal warming through mid-2025 followed by cooling into winter across Europe and Asia. Source: NGI calculations, Bloomberg. At A Glance:
TTF prices remain sticky
European storage drops below 45%
U.S. LNG exports to Asia rise

China’s LNG Imports Rise for a Third Straight Month - The recovery in China’s imports of liquefied natural gas is expected to extend for another month in January, Kpler has reported, for a total of three consecutive months of higher LNG imports year-on-year. The analytics provider estimates that China will import 6.94 million tons of LNG this month, as quoted by Bloomberg, which added the amount would represent a respectable 15% increase on January 2025. According to the report, the import increase may suggest more cargoes getting delivered to China under long-term contracts. Over most of last year, China recorded annual declines in its LNG imports, resulting from the U.S. president’s tariff offensive against the world’s biggest energy importer, to which China responded with its own tariffs on LNG, and from rising domestic production. Earlier in the year, domestic gas production hit an all-time high, bringing LNG imports to the lowest in six years, down by 19% on the year over the first seven months of 2025. The decline was partially driven by a record year for gas imports in 2024 as China sought to fill its inventories to be ready for winter. Between November 2024 and October 2025, China recorded 12 straight months of LNG import declines. This trend reversed in November 2025, when the seasonal increase in demand for electricity and heating prompted a tick-up in LNG imports. The November total stood at 6.94 million tons—the same as what Kpler projects for January. That volume represented a 13.6% climb on the year. In December, imports moved higher still, to an estimated 7.17 million tons, per Kpler. LNG imports from Russia specifically hit an all-time high at the end of last year, with the November total at 1.6 million tons, up twofold on October and likely to have continued strong into December and possibly this month as well.

TotalEnergies Restarts Mozambique LNG Work, Adding to Global Supply Wave - TotalEnergies SE and its partners have finally restarted work on the Mozambique LNG project, opening the potential for an even larger jump in global natural gas supply by the end of the decade.Map of the Mozambique LNG Project showing offshore gasfields in Area 1 near Palma and Mocímboa da Praia, including the Golfinho and Atum fields in the Mozambique Channel along the northern coast of Mozambique. At A Glance:
First LNG output targeted 2029
13.1 Mt/y capacity back in play
Improved security underpins project financing

Chevron Says Venezuelan Crude Oil Production Could Jump 50% in 18-24 months --Chevron could increase its crude oil production in Venezuela by up to 50% over the next 18 to 24 months, Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Friday, January 30. Wirth said Chevron has worked with its Venezuelan partners to increase production by more than 200 Mb/d since 2022, with output now at about 250 Mb/d.Wirth said Chevron remains committed to leveraging its deep expertise and long-standing partnerships in Venezuela. As we noted in Watching the (Oil) Flow, Chevron is the only U.S. company currently producing oil in Venezuela.“There is significant potential in our assets and in the country,” he said. “We’re optimistic the future holds a more competitive and robust pathway to deliver value to Venezuela, the United States and Chevron.”Wirth said Chevron has been bringing about 50 Mb/d of Venezuelan crude to its refinery in Pascagoula, MS, and that it can take another 100 Mb/d into its system, either at Pascagoula or along the West Coast, where it has coking capacity at its refinery in El Segundo, CA. (For more on how U.S. refiners might benefit from additional volumes of Venezuelan crude, see When Love Comes to Town.)"So I think you should expect to see us, assuming it competes against alternatives, to be running more Venezuelan crude in our system over time. In California, it's an interesting situation. We have a very strong downstream position there," he said.

Russia Claims Ownership of Oil Assets It’s Developing in Venezuela - Russia on Tuesday asserted ownership of all oil assets a state Russian company is developing in Venezuela, following the claims of U.S. President Donald Trump that major American and Western oil firms would help revive Venezuela’s oil industry. Russia’s Roszarubezhneft, a state-owned firm that took over Rosneft assets in 2020 following U.S. sanctions on Rosneft’s Venezuelan oil trade, said on Tuesday that “all assets of Roszarubezhneft in Venezuela are owned by the Russian state,” as they have been bought at market prices and conditions.Roszarubezhneft, owned by a unit of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, was incorporated in 2020. After the U.S. sanctioned two units of Rosneft for trading Venezuelan oil, Roszarubezhneft bought the Venezuelan assets of the Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft. "All assets of Roszarubezhneft JSC in Venezuela are the property of the Russian state, having been acquired by the Russian side under market conditions, in full compliance with the legislation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, international law, and interstate agreements between Russia and Venezuela,” the Russian company said in a statement carried by Russia’s news agency TASS. Roszarubezhneft has five oil-producing joint ventures with Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA in Venezuela. Roszarubezhneft plans to further develop its assets in Venezuela, the company said. “The company will continue to strictly honor its obligations in close coordination with its international partners, focusing on the sustainable development of joint oil production projects, infrastructure, and an effective response to emerging challenges,” the Russian state-owned firm added. Since the beginning of the year, the U.S. has captured Nicolas Maduro and flown him to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges. The U.S. has also seized a Russia-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic after a dramatic pursuit that began near Venezuelan waters in late December. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented in public on the shock arrest of Maduro, but the Russian Foreign Ministry “strongly urged the American leadership” to release Maduro and his wife immediately after their extraction from Venezuela.

Russian Crude Piles Up at Sea as India Steps Back - Russian crude is piling up at sea as India’s refiners step back from purchases, leaving Moscow with millions of barrels on tankers and fewer clear outlets for its oil exports.Russia shipped an average of 3.18 million barrels per day of crude in the four weeks to January 25, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That volume was little changed from the prior week but down by about 680,000 bpd from the pre-Christmas peak and the lowest level since August. The bigger issue is not how much Russia is shipping, but where those barrels are ending up. Deliveries of Russian crude into Indian ports fell to about 1.2 million bpd in December, the lowest level in more than three years. Early January data show imports averaging closer to 1.12 million bpd. The pullback coincided with the European Union’s January 21 ban on imports of refined products made from Russian crude, which has complicated trade flows and refinery economics for Indian buyers.As a result, Russian oil is piling up at sea. About 140 million barrels of Russian crude oil are currently being held on seaborne vessels, Bloomberg estimates show, which is a roughly 60-million-barrel increase since late August. Some tankers have been idling off India’s west coast and near Oman. Others have made their way closer to China or diverted to interim destinations such as Port Said or the Suez Canal—many without declaring final discharge points.Some barrels are being offloaded into storage tanks in Indonesia, including sites at Karimun, Balikpapan, and Tanjung Intan, according to tracking data. Even so, only a handful of cargoes have actually discharged, underscoring how limited the available outlets have become.Despite the logistical bottlenecks, Russia’s export revenues have not collapsed. Bloomberg calculations show the gross value of Moscow’s seaborne crude exports edging up to about $920 million per week in the four weeks to January 25, rising 2% from the prior period. Urals crude prices from the Baltic rose to an average of $38.44 a barrel, while Black Sea cargoes rose $0.70 per barrel to average $35.98. Delivered prices into India rose to roughly $56.27 a barrel, the highest in four weeks.The risk for Russia is that tougher enforcement against the shadow fleet and buyer caution could turn floating storage from a buffer into a bottleneck. With India stepping back and China absorbing barrels more selectively, Moscow is exporting oil faster than it can reliably sell it.

India Is Offered Tiny Volume of Venezuelan Oil as Most Goes to U.S. --Offers of Venezuelan crude to India are limited, and in small volumes, as most of the oil under U.S. control is heading to the United States, Indian refining executives told Reuters.Since the U.S. took control of Venezuela’s oil sales and authorized two of the world’s biggest independent traders, Vitol and Trafigura, to market the crude, Indian refiners have vied for crude from Venezuela as they seek to diversify the large exposure to Russian crude they had amassed over the past three and a half years.Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Cor p (HPCL), Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), and Reliance Industries have been willing to buy crude from Venezuela since the U.S. said it would sell Venezuela’s oil. But the Indian refiners haven’t been top of the list of potential buyers for Vitol and Trafigura.“Offers are not there. Traders are looking to meet their commitment to the U.S. market,” an anonymous executive told Reuters.All Indian refiners have said they would comply with the U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, and Russian supply to India has now plunged to a three-year low.As a result, Indian refiners have scoured the globe for supply and have sourced more crude from the Middle East, West Africa, and the Americas to replace part of the lost Russian barrels.Meanwhile, Vitol and Trafigura have sold Venezuelan crude to U.S. refiners Valero and Phillips 66, as well as to Spain’s Repsol, and to the Saras refinery in Italy owned by Vitol.At the request of the US government, Trafigura and Vitol are providing logistical and marketing services to facilitate the sale of Venezuelan oil, Trafigura said early this month, following a meeting of oil industry executives with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. Since then, Vitol and Trafigura havestarted offering Venezuelan crude to refiners in China and India for March delivery, but U.S. customers are a priority for the sales of the oil under U.S. control.

Canada Looks to Boost Energy Exports to India in Strategy Reset -Canada’s efforts to diversify its energy exports away from the United States go through boosting sales oil, gas, and uranium to the major energy market India, Canadian Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said at a conference in India on Tuesday.Canada has the opportunity to work with India now that it sees its high dependence on the U.S. market as a “strategic blunder,” the minister told the Indian Energy Week conference in Goa today, as carried by Reuters.“If Canada wants to be an energy superpower, we need to be trading our energy and natural resources with one of the world’s largest energy markets: India,” Hodgson posted on X, referring to the Canadian government’s goal to make the country an energy superpower.“That’s why, this week, I’m in India for trip of firsts: Canada’s first federal ministerial presence at India Energy Week and the first Canada–India energy dialogue in eight years,” the Canadian minister added.“As major projects are being built at home, we’re building relationships abroad that will allow us to sell our products worldwide and carve out a new path for a stronger, more sovereign Canada,” Hodgson concluded.Canada does not export LNG to India currently, after launching last year its first-ever export project, LNG Canada.But apparently Canada wants to boost exports to Asia from its West Coast, and India, which will drive global oil and gas demand in the foreseeable future, is a key export target. “We're now building pipelines to the West Coast. We have three pipelines built here, looking at building more,” Hodgson said at the Indian forum on Tuesday.Canada has just signed a major energy and trade partnership with China, as it moves away from hostilities from the Trump Administration.Now Canada and India are expected to pledge more Canadian exports of crude, LNG, and LPG to India, and more Indian fuel exports to Canada, according to a draft joint statement on energy seen by Bloomberg News.

Yeosu Coast Guard Detects Pollutant Spill at Sapo Pier 1 – 아시아경제 -- The Yeosu Coast Guard in South Jeolla Province announced on January 19 that it had apprehended Vessel A (4,688 tons) on charges including violations of the Marine Environment Management Act while it was engaged in cargo loading and unloading operations at Yeosu Sapo Pier 1. According to the Yeosu Coast Guard, at around 3:01 p.m. on January 18, they received a report that hydraulic oil had leaked into the sea from Vessel A, which was moored at Sapo Pier 1. Upon arriving at the scene, they confirmed the presence of a yellow oil slick near the vessel. An investigation revealed that approximately 48 liters of hydraulic oil had been discharged into the sea after an unidentified rupture occurred in the hydraulic pipe of Vessel A. The Yeosu Coast Guard immediately deployed two response vessels and three private response ships to carry out containment and cleanup operations around Vessel A. Samples from the sea and the vessel are currently being collected and analyzed to determine the exact cause of the incident. Under relevant laws, discharging oil or other pollutants into the sea may result in imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million won. A Yeosu Coast Guard official stated, "Oil spill incidents from vessels can cause severe damage to the marine environment. We will continue to do our utmost to prevent marine pollution accidents in advance and maintain a clean sea through prompt and accurate response as well as ongoing monitoring and enforcement."

OPEC+ Set to Maintain Oil Output Despite Oversupply Fears -OPEC+ is expected to hold oil production flat in March and reiterate the first-quarter pause in supply hikes when the group meets on February 1 to discuss output levels, four delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Monday. The group has not yet held discussions ahead of next Sunday’s online meeting, but it does not see any need of changing the policy despite the expected oversupply and the geopolitical developments that could influence supply from OPEC members Iran and Venezuela.Early this month, the eight OPEC+ members that have been implementing cuts since 2023 – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – reaffirmed the decision to pause monthly increments during the first quarter of the year. The decision was first taken in November 2025 and was confirmed at two consecutive meetings in December and January.There is no indication that the February meeting would change that course, according to the OPEC+ delegates who spoke to Bloomberg.The group will likely wait out the first quarter of the year, typically the weakest quarter for demand of any year, and see how supply could be affected – if at all – from the geopolitical flare-ups in recent weeks. These include, so far, the new oil order in Venezuela, the situation in Iran, and the pace of Russian supply amid the U.S. sanctions on top producers Rosneft and Lukoil and the EU ban on imports of oil products processed from Russian crude.Last week, Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi oil giant Aramco, dismissed the glut narrative saying that forecasts of a massive oil glut are seriously exaggerated as demand keeps rising and global stocks are below the five-year average.Global oil stocks are low, while the amassed barrels in floating storage on tankers are mostly sanctioned supplies, the CEO of the world’s biggest oil firm and top crude exporter said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

US-Iran flare-up, cold stint push oil prices to multi-month peak --Oil prices edged higher on Monday, 26, as traders reacted to fresh signs of weather-related supply losses in the US. “President Trump’s declaration of a US armada sailing toward Iran has reignited supply disruption fears, adding a risk premium to crude prices and supported risk-aversion flows more broadly this morning,” Tensions between Washington and Tehran underpinned the premium. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that “The United States has a fleet heading toward Iran," but hopes he "will not have to use it." A senior Iranian official warned Friday that Tehran would regard any attack as “an all-out war.” JPMorgan analysts estimated that winter storm Fern cut US oil production by roughly 250,000 barrels per day, disrupting flows from the Bakken and from fields in Oklahoma and Texas. “Oil prices are influenced this week by signs of production disruptions in the US,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova PTE Ltd, according to Investor.bg. Taders still assessed a broader surplus despite the weather-driven rally, adding that the market appeared unlikely to tighten without deeper cuts from OPEC+ or other major producers. Prices had already been near multi-month highs at the end of last week. Brent settled Friday at 64.41 dollars and WTI at 60.31 dollars, modestly higher week on week. Analysts projected that WTI would likely hover in the high-50 dollar range and Brent in the low-60s, with any weather-driven spikes expected to fade quickly. FX Empire observed that rising geopolitical risks—from Iran, Venezuela, and strains between Saudi Arabia and the UAE—kept a risk premium in energy markets. A memo from DNB Carnegie said Brent prices firmed after Trump’s comments on Iran, as traders reduced short positions. Political uncertainty in Venezuela also a factor Political uncertainty in Venezuela also weighed on sentiment. The White House allowed Venezuelan barrels to flow to China, “but not at unfair, undercut prices." The International Energy Agency raised its 2026 oil-demand growth outlook by 70,000 barrels per day to 930,000 barrels, citing a weaker oversupply outlook and an improving global economy. Russian-related flows remained under scrutiny. India’s Reliance Industries would resume buying “sanctions-compliant” Russian crude after a month-long pause, leaving its 2025 average intake near 540,000 barrels per day. In the Mediterranean, the French navy intercepted a tanker carrying Russian oil in what Paris called a lawful operation, the same outlet reported. With winter storms curbing North American output, naval deployments unsettling the Gulf, and policy moves reshaping Venezuelan production, traders balanced immediate supply threats against weak structural fundamentals for 2026.

Oil Prices Edge Higher As Brent Climbs Above $65 Amid Geopolitical Tensions -Crude oil prices recorded modest gains at the start of the trading week, reflecting heightened geopolitical concerns in the Middle East and lingering uncertainty surrounding United States trade policy. In international markets on Monday, Brent crude, the global benchmark, traded above the $65 mark, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) also posted gains, supported by rising risk sentiment linked to escalating US-Iran tensions. Brent crude was priced at $65.49 per barrel, representing a slight increase from the previous session’s close of $65.40. Meanwhile, WTI crude advanced to $61.40 per barrel, up from $61.20 in the prior trading session. Market analysts attributed the price movement largely to growing security concerns in the Middle East, following high-level military engagements between the United States and Israel. US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief, General Brad Cooper, recently held extended discussions with Israeli military Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, during an official visit to Israel. According to the Israeli military, the meeting included both private consultations and broader discussions with senior defence officials, focusing on strengthening operational coordination and strategic cooperation between the two allies. Cooper is also expected to hold talks with Israeli Air Force Commander, Major General Tomer Bar, as part of the visit. The diplomatic and military engagements come amid heightened anxiety in Israel over the possibility of a preemptive strike by Iran, while the United States continues to reinforce its military presence across the region in response to rising tensions with Tehran. Beyond geopolitics, oil markets are also navigating uncertainty linked to US trade policy. Investors remain cautious as President Donald Trump’s position on Greenland continues to attract global attention. Although the US administration has stepped back from immediate tariff actions, unresolved negotiations and policy ambiguity have weighed on broader market sentiment. Despite the current price uptick, traders are exercising restraint due to concerns over the medium- to long-term supply outlook. Robust output growth from non-OPEC oil-producing nations has reinforced expectations that global crude markets could slide into surplus later in the year if supply growth continues to exceed demand expansion. Energy analysts note that increased production from the United States and other non-OPEC producers could limit further upside in prices, even as geopolitical risks remain elevated. Attention is also turning to monetary policy developments in the United States. Investors are closely watching the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting scheduled for this week, with markets broadly anticipating that interest rates will remain unchanged. However, futures pricing suggests growing expectations that the Fed could begin cutting rates as early as June, a move that could influence commodity prices by weakening the US dollar and stimulating demand for risk assets, including oil. For now, oil prices remain caught between geopolitical risk premiums and concerns about oversupply, leaving markets sensitive to both political developments and macroeconomic signals in the days ahead.

Oil Market Slips as Winter Storm Supply Risks Begin to Ease - The crude oil market gave up its early gains and ended the session lower as traders assessed the impact on output in U.S. crude producing regions from winter storms and the impact of any tensions between the U.S. and Iran following U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed warning to Iran last week. The oil market was underpinned by the freeze-offs due to the winter storm that swept across the country over the weekend. According to Energy Aspects, oil production outages peaked on Saturday and production losses eased on Monday, with Permian shut-ins estimated at about 700,000 bpd and production set to be fully restored by January 30th. The market traded to a high of $61.71 in overnight trading. However, it gave up some of its gains amid the expectations that the shut in output would be restored by the end of the week. The market later erased its gains and sold off to a low of $60.32 ahead of the close. The March WTI contract settled down 44 cents at $60.63 and the March Brent contract settled down 29 cents at $65.59. The product markets ended the session in mixed territory, with the heating oil market settling up 13.95 cents at $2.5680 amid the winter storm and colder temperatures expected over the next week, and the RB market settling down 3.09 cents at $1.8201. Analysts and traders estimated that U.S. oil producers lost up to 2 million bpd or about 15% of national production over the weekend, as a winter storm moved across the country, straining energy infrastructure and power grids. Consultancy Energy Aspects estimated that oil production outages peaked on Saturday, with the Permian Basin likely to have experienced the largest share of that decline at around 1.5 million bpd. Production losses eased on Monday, with Permian shut-ins estimated at about 700,000 bpd and production set to be fully restored by January 30th. IIR Energy reported that U.S. oil refiners are expected to shut in about 1.14 million bpd of capacity in the week ending January 30th, cutting available refining capacity by 27,000 bpd. A malfunction triggered flaring in the East Plant of Citgo Petroleum’s 165,000 bpd Corpus Christi, Texas refinery. A community warning notice did not say which units were affected by the malfunction and if it was related to the unusually cold weather that descended to the Gulf Coast of Texas overnight. On Saturday, Exxon Mobil Corp said it was idling units at its 564,440 bpd Baytown, Texas crude oil refining and petrochemical complex due to freezing weather expected over the next three days. Pemex reported work activities that may cause flaring at its 312,500 bpd Deer Park, Texas refinery. Delek’s 73,000 bpd Big Spring, Texas refinery reported emissions caused by process equipment faults due to extreme low ambient temperatures. Cenovus Energy’s 172,000 bpd Lima, Ohio refinery experienced mechanical issues brought about by the winter storm. Calumet Specialty Products’ 60,000 bpd Shreveport, Louisiana refinery suffered from winter storm-related issues.

Oil Edges Lower As Kazakhstan Reports Progress In Restoring Oil Production (RTTNews) Oil prices traded lower on Tuesday amid easing disruptions to Kazakhstan's oil exports after a Black Sea terminal was brought back into service. Investors also watched ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions and supply disruptions stemming from extreme weather in the United States. Benchmark Brent crude futures dipped 0.3 percent to $64.58 per barrel while WTI crude futures were down 0.2 percent at $60.52. Kazakhstan signaled that it would resume production from the Tengiz oil field, its largest oil producing facility, helping traders pare back expectations of tighter supplies. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy has reported significant progress in restoring production operations at oilfields in the Atyrau region, following disruptions earlier this month. Elsewhere, a winter storm and ensuing Arctic blast have claimed at least 34 lives across multiple U.S. states. Extreme cold has left nearly 540000 people without power and knocked an estimated 12 percent of U.S. natural gas production off-line. In Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei has warned that the Islamic Republic is fully prepared to deliver a "sweeping, regret-inducing response" to any act of aggression. "The notion of carrying out a so-called limited, rapid and clean operation against Iran stems from incorrect assessments and an incomplete understanding of the defensive and offensive capabilities of the Islamic Republic," the unnamed official said, as reported by Iran International citing Mehr News Agency.

Crude Rallies on Weather Disruptions and Fresh Geopolitical Nerves --Oil prices jumped on Tuesday as the market priced in fundamentals once again, showing that when U.S. infrastructure gets punched in the face by weather, it’s more than geopolitics and vague supply forecasts that move the needle. Brent was trading around $66.90 a barrel on Tuesday late morning, up about $1.30 on the day. At the time, WTI neared $61.90. By afternoon, the gains continued, with Brent passing $67 and WTI nearing $62. The continued rise means it could be more than just a recovery from an earlier dip. It may be recalculating near-term supply risk. The immediate spark was the winter storm that clipped U.S. production and snarled Gulf Coast logistics. Analysts and traders estimated that as much as 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of production went offline over the weekend amid severe weather. Crude export flows from Gulf Coast ports even hit zero on Sunday before bouncing back as channels reopened, analysts estimated. Exports have become the pressure-release valve for the U.S. system, and when the valve shuts, even briefly, U.S. supply stops being seen as infinitely flexible. But the rally wasn’t just a weather headline. A second, cleaner catalyst is that the global supply backdrop is already tight enough that any disruption looks bigger. Kazakhstan’s Tengiz field is recovering more slowly than expected after a fire and power outage, with less than half of normal production restored heading into early February, per Reuters reporting. Layer on a softer U.S. dollar, and crude gets an extra shove higher on the screen. Then there’s the ever-present geopolitical bid. U.S. naval assets moving into the Middle East doesn’t guarantee anything happens, but it does raise the “things could get messy” premium, especially with Iran in the frame and no clean progress on the Russia-Ukraine front.

Oil Market Rallies on U.S. Storm-Related Output Losses and Geopolitical Risk -The crude market posted an outside trading session on Tuesday as the market weighed a loss of U.S. oil production after a severe winter storm swept across the country and geopolitical risks against a resumption of supply from Kazakhstan. The market breached its previous low and sold off to a low of $60.14 in overnight trading amid the expectations that Kazakhstan will resume production from its largest oilfield, Tengiz, and the CPC, which operates Kazakhstan’s main exporting pipeline, also said it returned to full loading capacity at its terminal on the Russian Black Sea coast following the completion of maintenance of one of its three mooring points. However, the market’s losses were limited by the loss of oil output in the U.S. due to the winter storm over the weekend. Also, on the geopolitical front, two U.S. officials said a U.S. aircraft carrier and supporting warships arrived in the Middle East, expanding the U.S. capabilities to defend U.S. forces or potentially take military action against Iran. The crude market rallied to a high of $62.37 ahead of the close. The March WTI contract settled up $1.76 at $62.39 and posted a new high of $62.58 in the post settlement period. Meanwhile, the March Brent contract settled up $1.98 at $67.57. The product markets also ended the session sharply higher, with the heating oil market settling up 7.82 cents at $2.6462 and the RB market settling up 4.51 cents at $1.8652. Vortexa said exports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas from U.S. Gulf Coast ports fell to zero on Sunday, after a winter storm swept across the country. According to some analyst forecasts, up to 2 million bpd of oil production went offline over the weekend due to the frigid weather. Exports of liquefied petroleum gas, such as propane and butane, were down to about a third of seasonal norms due to the storm. Exports rebounded on Monday with flows coming in above seasonal norms, as ports reopened.Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s Managing Director and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, said global oil demand will remain above 100 million bpd through 2040, while demand for both liquefied natural gas and electricity will increase by 50% or more. He said that electricity demand will be driven by the need to power cooling systems as well as AI infrastructure and data centers.Reuters reported that China’s storage flows surge in December, resulting in a surplus of more than 1 million bpd for 2025. China’s surplus of crude oil increased to 2.67 million bpd in December, up from 1.88 million bpd in November and the most since the 2.27 million bpd seen in June 2020. According to calculations based on official data, for 2025 the volume of surplus crude was 1.13 million bpd, largely steady from the 1.15 million bpd seen in 2024. December’s crude imports increased to a record 13.18 million bpd, up 17% from the same month in 2024, with the strong arrivals taking imports for the full year to 11.55 million bpd, another all-time record and up 4.4% from the prior year.Sources stated that U.S. officials are working to issue a general license soon that would lift some sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector, a shift from a previous plan to grant individual exemptions to sanctions for companies seeking to do business in the country.

WTI at $62, USD Hits 4-Year Low; NatGas Dips as Storm Eases-- Crude futures jumped 3% Tuesday as a four-year low in the dollar drove energy markets, other than natural gas, higher. Geopolitical tensions also boosted oil as U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Iran for a nuclear disarmament deal while a fleet of U.S. warships sat in Middle East waters. The U.S. Dollar Index sank to 95.97 against a basket of currencies, its lowest since February 2022, ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on U.S. interest rates due after a two-day policy meeting that ends Wednesday. While some on Wall Street anticipate that the Fed might deliver a 25-basis point cut for a fourth consecutive time since September, the broad expectation is for the central bank to leave rates unchanged in a 3.5%–3.75% range. President Trump said he understood Iran was prepared to make a nuclear deal with the White House as a U.S. Navy armada resided in the Middle East. Tehran said it welcomed talks but was also prepared for war in the event of a U.S. strike. WTI crude futures for March delivery settled up $1.76, or 2.9%, at $62.39 bbl, while ICE Brent crude for March delivery closed up $1.98, or 3%, at $67.57 bbl. Among refined products, NYMEX RBOB futures for February rose $0.0425 to $1.8626 gallon. Front month ULSD futures were up $0.0727 to $2.6407 gallon, after hitting a seven-month high of $2.6482 earlier in the session. Natural gas retreated from Monday's peaks after the worst of the weekend's Winter Storm, although frigid temperatures remained in the Northeast to Mid-Atlantic, keeping intact demand for heating oil, a proxy for ULSD. Natural gas for March delivery fell $0.093 to $3.805 MMBtu after the prior session's one-week high of $3.997. U.S. crude output and inventories of oil to fuel could see untoward moves in the coming weeks from production shut-ins and the impact to refineries from Storm Fern. Analysts at Energy Aspects estimate that 1.5 million bpd of Permian output was sidelined by the storm. The American Petroleum Institute will release after 4:30 p.m. EST today inventory data for the week ended Jan. 23. The Energy Information Administration will report numbers for the same period at 10:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday. Swings in API and EIA data in the aftermath of Storm Fern could cause a recalibration of oil supply demand in the near term. However, the larger focus will be on global oversupply, particularly as Kazakhstan has returned to full production after earlier outages.

Oil prices rise as US cold snap disrupts supply, dollar weakness supports crude --Oil prices extended gains in Asian trade on Wednesday, supported by supply disruptions caused by extreme winter weather across the United States and continued weakness in the US dollar, which boosted demand for dollar-denominated commodities. Brent crude futures for March rose 0.1% to $67.66 a barrel, hovering near a four-month high, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 0.2% to $62.53 a barrel by 20:49 ET (01:49 GMT). Crude prices have rallied this week after a severe winter storm swept through large parts of the United States, disrupting oil production and halting exports from the US Gulf Coast. Heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures forced multiple production sites offline, tightening near-term supply. According to estimates cited by Reuters, around 2 million barrels per day of oil production was affected over the weekend. The disruption has prompted traders to position for sharp drawdowns in US crude inventories in the coming weeks, signalling a tighter supply outlook in the world’s largest fuel-consuming nation. Further supporting prices, data released by the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed US crude inventories fell by 0.25 million barrels last week, against market expectations of a 1.45 million-barrel build. API data often serves as an early indicator for official US inventory figures, which are scheduled to be released later on Wednesday. Oil prices also benefited from a sharp decline in the US dollar, which slid to a near four-year low earlier this week. A weaker dollar typically supports crude prices by making commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies. Investors remained cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision later in the day. While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, markets are closely watching Chair Jerome Powell’s guidance on the outlook for monetary policy amid ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

WTI Holds Gains After Winter Storm Sparks Biggest Total Inventory Draw Since October -Oil prices hit a fresh four-month high this morning after President Trump threatened another attack on Iran, urging Tehran to negotiate a nuclear deal. “Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network, adding that “the next attack will be far worse!” than the one that took place last year. Prices pared gains somewhat after Iran’s mission to the UN repeated in a post on X that it stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests, but said it will “defend itself and respond like never before,” to US aggression.API

• Crude -247k
• Cushing -92k
• Gasoline -415k
• Distillates +2.01mm

DOE

• Crude -2.295mm (+1.95mm exp)
• Cushing -278k
• Gasoline +223k
• Distillates +329k

Total crude and fuel stockpiles fell last week for the first time since early December led by a surprise crude draw (bigger than the small one reported by API)... (Graphics Source: Bloomberg) Bloomberg reports that the 6 million barrel draw (which was the biggest since October) was led by a decline in crude inventories and also the biggest drop in propane inventories since early last year ahead of the big freeze. Crude production fell to 13.7 million barrels a day last week, down by 36,000 barrels a day from the previous week. The drop may reflect the initial impact of the winter storm that hit the US in recent days and came as the number of rigs drilling for oil edged higher for a second week, with 1 unit put into operation last week, according to Baker Hughes.WTI is holding on to early gains after the surprise draw...Finally, circling back to the start, the potential risk to Iranian supplies has injected a premium into oil prices and led futures to start the year on a strong footing, up more than 10% this month, despite forecasts for a glut. That has also kept the cost of bullish options high relative to bearish ones.“Market sentiment appears to be gradually turning more positive, as the bearish oversupply narrative so prevalent in the second half of 2025 weakens,” Standard Chartered analysts including Emily Ashford wrote in a note.“We envisage an uptick in volatility and increasing focus on both supply and demand risks.”The prompt spread for both oil benchmarks — the difference between their two nearest contracts — has widened in a bullish backwardation structure over the course of this month, indicating tighter supply.

Oil Futures Hit 4-Month High on Weak USD and Weekly Crude Draw (DTN) -- Crude futures settled near four-month highs Wednesday, Jan. 28, propelled by a U.S. weak dollar and geopolitical tensions amplified by concerns over a potential U.S. military strike on Iran. The first U.S. crude inventory decline in three weeks, reported by the Energy Information Administration, also boosted oil. Futures of gasoline edged higher while those for distillates dipped after the EIA cited inventory builds in both. The U.S. Dollar Index was up by 0.44 points to 96.475 against a basket of currencies after the Federal Reserve left benchmark U.S. interest rates unchanged in a 3.5%-3.75% range following a two-day policy meeting. Earlier in the day, the dollar hit a four-year low of 95.705, pressured by declines over four prior sessions. The U.S. currency has lost 5% of its value from its December peak in the aftermath of U.S. trade disputes and coordinated yen interventions by global central banks diversifying their dollar reserves into gold. Geopolitical risks remained elevated as U.S. President Donald Trump continued to press Iran to make a nuclear disarmament deal with the United States or face the risk of war, as an armada of U.S. warships took positions in the Middle East. Despite Trump's warnings, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said they will not allow their airspace or land to be used in any attack on Iran, effectively mitigating some of the risks facing the OPEC member and oil markets. According to OPEC, Iran consistently produces about 3.2 million. The Strait of Hormuz that straddles the Islamic republic also provides passage to roughly 20 million bpd of crude oil and petroleum products transit equivalent to 20% of the world's total liquid fuel consumption, the EIA says. On the U.S. inventory front, the EIA said commercial crude stocks dropped by 2.3 million bbl to 423.8 million during the week ended Jan. 23, after back-to-back weekly builds of 3.6 million and 3.3 million bbl. Gasoline inventories rose for a 12th straight week, rising by 200,000 bbl to 257.2 million. Distillate balances climbed by 300,000 bbl to 132.9 million. NYMEX WTI for March delivery settled up $0.82, or 1.3%, at $63.21 bbl, after a four-month high at $63.52. The ICE Brent contract for March finished up $0.83, or 1.3%, at $68.31 bbl after peaking at $68.53 earlier -- its highest since September. Downstream, the NYMEX RBOB futures crude contract for February delivery rose by $0.0267 to $1.8919 gallon, while front-month ULSD futures edged down by $0.0278 to $2.6184 gallon.

Tensions between US and Iran fuel oil price surge, Brent rises by 1.5% -Rising tensions between the US and Iran have pushed oil prices up, with Brent crude gaining 1.5% and WTI rising 1.7%, amid concerns over Middle East supply disruptions. Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated once again, with US President Donald Trump warning Iran that if it continues to reject nuclear talks, the next US military response would be "stronger than before." The situation has sent ripples through global markets, including a significant spike in oil prices as concerns grow over potential disruptions to Middle East supplies. On January 29, 2026, Trump made it clear in a social media post that Iran must return to the negotiating table for a "fair and just" nuclear deal under conditions of no nuclear weapons. His comments are part of a broader diplomatic and military strategy aimed at exerting more pressure on Iran, whose military tensions and regional influence have been rising. In response to the growing conflict, Trump revealed that USS Abraham Lincoln, a US aircraft carrier, is heading closer to Iran. This follows the relocation of the ship from the Asia-Pacific region to the Middle East amid rising geopolitical tensions. Meanwhile, analysts also anticipate that the tensions could spill into greater economic instability, particularly as oil prices responded immediately. On January 29, oil prices surged for the third consecutive day, with Brent crude climbing by 1.5% and WTI rising by 1.7%. This increase is largely driven by concerns that any potential conflict could disrupt oil supply routes in the region, especially as Iran is a major producer within OPEC, producing roughly 3.2 million barrels per day. Geopolitical risk, combined with supply-side issues like the unexpected drop in US crude stockpiles by 2.3 million barrels, has also pushed prices higher. Some analysts have warned that continued escalation could drive Brent oil to as high as $72 per barrel if the tensions continue to escalate. At the heart of the escalating geopolitical risks is not just the military threats but also the economic power of oil-producing nations. The Middle East continues to be a critical hub for the global energy market, and any instability can have long-lasting ripple effects on the global economy. As the US-Iran standoff intensifies, all eyes will be on whether oil prices continue to climb and how this situation affects the broader stability of the global energy markets, especially as nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt express concern that escalating conflict could lead to missile or drone strikes, potentially threatening critical energy transport routes like the Strait of Hormuz. In conclusion, the ongoing diplomatic and military tensions between the US and Iran could push oil prices even higher, with analysts projecting that the geopolitical uncertainty may lead to further price increases in the near future.

Oil prices surge 4 percent to five-month high on worries US could take action against Iran - Oil prices climbed about 4 percent to a five-month high on Thursday on rising concerns that global supplies could be disrupted if the US decides to attack Iran, one of OPEC's biggest crude producers. Brent futures rose (US)$2.50, or 3.7 percent, to (US)$70.90 a barrel, while Us West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained (US)$2.35, or 3.7 percent, to (US)$65.56. That pushed both crude benchmarks into technically overbought territory and put Brent on track for its highest close since July 31 and WTI on track for its highest close since September 26. US President Donald Trump is weighing options against Iran that include targeted strikes on security forces and leaders to inspire protesters, multiple sources said, even as Israeli and Arab officials said air power alone would not topple Tehran's clerical rulers. In Iran, meanwhile, plainclothes security forces have rounded up thousands of people in a campaign of mass arrests and intimidation to deter further protests. Two US sources familiar with the discussions said Trump wanted to create conditions for "regime change" after a crackdown crushed a nationwide protest movement earlier this month, killing thousands of people. "The immediate (market) concern... is the collateral damage done if Iran takes a swing at its neighbours or possibly even more tellingly, it closes the Strait of Hormuz to the 20 million barrels per day of oil that navigates it," said PVM analyst John Evans. Iran was the third-biggest crude producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq, according to US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. European Union foreign ministers, meanwhile, adopted new sanctions on Iran on Thursday targeting individuals and entities involved in a violent crackdown on protesters. Separately, the EU designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. "The potential for Iran getting hit has escalated the geopolitical premium of oil prices," Citi analysts said in a note. The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia had reiterated its invitation or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to come to Moscow for peace talks, as US-led efforts to reach a deal to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine intensify. Any peace deal that would allow Russia to export more oil should increase global supplies and decrease energy prices. Russia is the third-biggest crude producer in the world after the US and Saudi Arabia, according to EIA data. US private equity firm Carlyle Group has agreed to an initial deal to buy most of Lukoil's foreign assets, which Russia's second-largest oil company is being forced to sell because of US sanctions. In other news that could boost global supplies and reduce prices, Kazakhstan said US oil major Chevron would take measures to ensure the reliable and safe operation of facilities at Kazakhstan's giant Tengiz oilfield, with the aim of reaching full production in a week. "Disruptions in Kazakhstan (CPC terminal, Tengiz field force majeure) have removed a significant number of barrels from the market," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. In Venezuela, lawmakers are expected to discuss on Thursday a sweetened oil reform after a proposal submitted by interim President Delcy Rodriguez was modified to introduce a new hydrocarbon tax, the possibility of asset privatisations and oilfield operation outsourcing, a draft seen by Reuters showed. On Venezuela, Exxon Mobil and Chevron executives may face more questions about their investment opportunities in Venezuela than their actual quarterly earnings when they hold calls with analysts on Friday. In the US, the dollar held near its lowest against a basket of other currencies since February 2022 on uncertainty over US economic policies. A weaker US dollar can boost oil prices by making dollar-priced oil less expensive for many global buyers. The US Federal Reserve struck a more sanguine tone on the US labour market and inflation risks overnight, which investors took to imply that interest rates could be on hold for longer. Lower interest rates would reduce consumer borrowing costs and could boost economic growth and oil demand. US President Trump, who wants the Fed to lower interest rates, said he intends to announce his pick to replace Chair Jerome Powell next week. The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week from an upwardly revised level in the prior week, suggesting layoffs remained low, but tepid hiring is stoking households' anxiety about the labour market. Separately, analysts noted the premium of futures for Brent over WTI rose to (US)$5.27 per barrel, its highest since April 2024. Analysts have said that when Brent's premium over WTI rises over (US)$4 a barrel, it generally makes economic sense for energy firms to send ships across the ocean to pick up US crude, which should result in higher US exports.

Rising Iran Tensions Propel the Oil Market to Its Highest Level Since August -- The crude market soared on Thursday, reaching its highest level since early August, on increasing concerns over a possible U.S. military attack on Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Tehran to end its nuclear program, with threats of military strikes and the arrival of a U.S. naval group in the region. Sources stated that President Trump is considering options that include targeted strikes on security forces and leaders to inspire protesters to create conditions for a regime change. The oil market posted a low of $63.28 on the opening and continued on its upward trend amid the geopolitical escalation. The market extended its gains to over $3.20 as it rallied to a high of $66.48 by mid-morning. It later settled in a sideways trading range during the remainder of the session. The March WTI contract settled up $2.21 at $65.42 and the March Brent contract settled up $2.31 at $70.71. The product markets ended the session in mixed territory, with the heating oil market settling down 8.07 cents $2.5854 and the RB market settling up 2.77 cents at $1.92. Sources said U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing options against Iran that include targeted strikes on security forces and leaders to inspire protesters , even as Israeli and Arab officials said air power alone would not topple the clerical rulers. Two U.S. sources familiar with the discussions said President Trump wanted to create conditions for “regime change” after a crackdown crushed a nationwide protest movement earlier this month. They said to do so, he was looking at options to hit commanders and institutions Washington holds responsible for the violence, to give protesters the confidence that they could overrun government and security buildings. One of the sources said President Trump has not yet made a final decision on a course of action including whether to take the military path. A second U.S. source said the options being discussed by President Trump’s aides also included a much larger strike intended to have lasting impact, possibly against the ballistic missiles that can reach U.S. allies in the Middle East or its nuclear enrichment programs. Axios reported that the Trump administration is hosting senior defense and intelligence officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia for talks on Iran this week as U.S. President Donald Trump considers military strikes. The Axios report said the Israelis traveled to Washington to share intelligence on potential targets inside Iran, while Saudi officials sought to help avert a wider regional war by pushing for a diplomatic solution. Earlier this week, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that Riyadh would not allow its airspace or territory to be used for military actions against Tehran. A U.S. official said the U.S. Navy has sent an additional warship to the Middle East, amid a large military buildup in the region and increasing tensions. The official said the USS Delbert D. Black had entered the region in the past 48 hours. This brings the number of destroyers in the Middle East to six, along with an aircraft carrier and three other littoral combat ships. Citi analysts said that the potential of a military strike against Iran has escalated the geopolitical premium of oil prices by potentially $3 to $4/barrel. It added that further geopolitical escalation could push prices to as high as $72/barrel for Brent over the next three months.

Oil falls as Trump signals dialogue with Iran over nuclear programme (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Friday on signs the U.S. may engage in dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme, reducing concerns of supply disruptions from a U.S. attack, though prices were on ​track for large monthly gains as tensions have increased. Brent crude futures fell $1.10 to $69.61 a barrel by 0707 GMT after rising 3.4% ‌to close at its highest point since July 31 on Thursday. The March contract expires later on Friday. The more active April contract slid $1.29 to $68.30. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.25 ‌to $64.17 a barrel after gaining 3.4% to settle at its highest level since September 26 in the previous session. Middle East tensions and oil prices have increased this week due to a U.S. military buildup in the region. U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran on Wednesday to make a deal on nuclear weapons or face an attack but on Thursday said he was planning to speak to the country's leaders. Tehran responded to his earlier comments by ⁠saying it would strike back hard. "Prices eased after last ‌night's rally as the market reassessed geopolitical risks in the Middle East," said LSEG senior analyst Anh Pham, adding neither a U.S. attack nor the closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway has actually materialized. The Strait of ‍Hormuz connects the Gulf to the Indian Ocean and is a key conduit for oil supplies from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Iran. Prices also slipped as the dollar rose on Friday, paring a weekly slide, after Trump said he would soon announce his nominee to head the Federal Reserve and on ​optimism that lawmakers in Washington would avoid a government shutdown. A stronger greenback can limit demand from oil buyers paying in other currencies. Still, both ‌oil benchmarks are set to record their first monthly gains in six months amid the tensions between Iran and the U.S., with Brent up 14.5% to notch its biggest jump since January 2022. WTI is on track to rise 12% in January, its biggest monthly gain since July 2023. The Trump administration is hosting senior defence and intelligence officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia for separate talks on Iran this week in Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter. U.S. officials say Trump is reviewing his options but has not decided whether to strike Iran. "Given elevated inflation ⁠and this year's midterm elections, we do not anticipate protracted oil supply disruptions," JPMorgan analysts led by Natasha Kaneva said in a note.

Oil Prices Edge Lower On Profit Taking - Oil prices traded lower on Friday after the U.S. eased some sanctions on the oil industry in Venezuela. A stronger dollar also prompted traders to book some profits after prices hit their highest levels since September the previous day amid tensions in the Middle East and production outages in Kazakhstan. Benchmark Brent crude futures were down 0.9 percent at $68.99 a barrel while WTI crude futures fell 0.9 percent to $64.84. Nevertheless, oil prices remain on course for their best monthly gain since July 2023, helped by ongoing geopolitical risks and supply issues. The dollar traded higher, clawing back some of its slide on the week, as U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement to avoid a partial government shutdown and President Trump said he has chosen a very good person to be the new Federal Reserve chairman, with a formal announcement expected later in the day. The U.S. Treasury Department issued a general license that expands the ability of American energy companies to purchase, refine, and transport crude oil originating in Venezuela. The move came after Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez signed a law that will open the nation's oil sector to privatization. Traders also braced for an upcoming OPEC+ meeting that could influence supply decisions.

Oil Closes Lower but Posts Strong Monthly Gain | Rigzone Oil edged lower, though still notched its biggest monthly gain since 2022, as US President Donald Trump reiterated openness to negotiations with Iran, though investors remain on edge about the potential for further tensions. West Texas Intermediate fell 0.3% to settle near $65 a barrel, snapping a breathless three-day rally, while Brent ended the day above $70. Prices tumbled after Trump told reporters that Iran wants to make a deal. The US president's messaging has shifted from punishing Tehran for its deadly crackdown on protesters to this week trying to extract a new nuclear agreement. That siphoned some risk premium out of a market on edge after Trump ordered naval assets to the region, with an aircraft-carrier strike group recently arriving in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic is the fifth-biggest producer in the OPEC+ alliance, when including Russia. The de-escalatory remarks from Trump aren't necessarily new, but heading into the weekend, the market is trying to gauge where Trump's head is at, said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. "Any signal that he may lean toward diplomacy rather than military action creates immediate selling pressure," she added. Crude had earlier fallen alongside other markets as Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair led to a debate about how far he would cut interest rates. The US president later said that Warsh "certainly wants to cut rates." Several bullish factors are still at play, limiting the slide. In the US, coastal cities are bracing for a record-setting cold spell to intensify in coming days, in a potential disruption to production and boost to heating demand. The storm would come just a week after Winter Storm Fern shut in nearly 2 million barrels a day of US oil production at its peak, according to Energy Aspects. Market concerns are primarily focused on how any fallout from an escalation in tensions could impact Iranian oil flows as well as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage separating Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Tankers carrying crude and liquefied natural gas transit through the strait daily to deliver cargoes worldwide. The turmoil helped drive WTI to a 16.2% monthly gain, its largest in nearly four years. Traders are flocking to the options market, and Citigroup Inc. predicts the risk premium for Brent is around $7 to $10 a barrel. The Associated Press reported that Iran issued a warning to ships at sea on Thursday that it planned to run a drill on Sunday and Monday that would include live firing in the strait, citing two Pakistani security officials. Members of OPEC+ will gather online on Sunday to review supply policy for March, with expectations for the group to stick with a pause, and investors will be watching for any commentary regarding Iran. WTI for March delivery fell 21 cents to settle at $65.21 a barrel in New York. Brent for March settlement, which expires Friday, edged down 2 cents to settle at $70.69 a barrel. The more-active April Brent contract settled at $69.32.

Oil Hits Biggest Monthly Hike in 2 1/2 Years in January -- Crude futures dipped Friday, Jan. 30, but posted their highest monthly hike in 2-1/2 years, supported by concerns over near-term oil supply, after the United States took over the Venezuelan oil industry and threatened military action against Iran. On Jan. 3, U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and assumed control of the country's oil industry, which produced 896,000 bpd in December. In the weeks thereafter, as mass civilian protests rocked Iran, Washington threatened Iran with military strikes. As on Friday, an armada of U.S. warships were deployed in Middle East waters as U.S. President Donald Trump pressed Iran -- OPEC's fourth largest producer with a 3.2 million bpd output -- to enter nuclear disarmament talks. The two events, along with a major snowstorm last week that disrupted output in the Permian Basin in Texas and the Williston Basin in North Dakota, covering an area with combined production of 2 million bpd, sent crude futures spiraling. The U.S. dollar's tumble to a four-year low against a basket of currencies also boosted prices of crude and other energy products denominated in the greenback. On Friday, the U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.768 points to 96.905 against a basket of currencies, after a four-year low of 95.52 earlier in the week. NYMEX WTI futures for March delivery settled the final session of the month down $0.21, or 0.3%, at $65.21 bbl on light profit-taking, after hitting a five-month high of $66.48 in the prior session. The contract rose 7% for the week and jumped 14% in January, its biggest monthly rise since July 2023, when it advanced 16%. The ICE Brent contract for March settled down $0.02, or 0.03%, at $70.69. For the week, it rose 6% while for the month, it climbed 15%. Among refined products, ULSD for March delivery was up $0.0618, or 2.5%, at $2.5456 gallon. For the week, it rose 5% and for the month advanced by 20%. The gasoline contract for March rose $0.0158, or 0.7%, to $1.9511 gallon. It rose 5.5% on the week and 14% in the month.

Ukraine and Russia Agree to Short-Term Energy Truce - Trump confirmed Moscow had agreed to stop strikes on Ukraine’s energy targets. On Thursday, unconfirmed reports claimed that Russia and Ukraine agreed to a short-term energy truce. The deal was brokered during negotiations in the UAE. The pause will continue for the duration of the ongoing negotiations. The talks are scheduled to end early next month. Donald Trump later explained that Russia signed on to the truce. “I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this … extraordinary cold,” the President said, adding, “and he agreed to it.” The Kremlin has not commented on the proposal, and a Ukrainian official expressed skepticism about the truce. “Only the reality itself can prove it. We will see how tonight goes,” they told Axios. Russia and Ukraine have traded attacks on energy infrastructure. Ukrainian drones have targeted Russian refineries and one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences. Russian missile strikes on Ukraine have left thousands without power and heat. Trump has attempted to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, but Kiev and Moscow remain far apart on several key issues. The Kremlin said that they believe Trump is now rushing to complete a deal to end the war.

Massacre Claimed as SDF Fighter Killed 21 in Village Near Syria’s Kobane - The Kurdish SDF has reported that one of their fighters was involved in an apparent massacre in the village of Kharous, near the important border city of Kobane. The incident gained major national attention after a video was released online of the killer bragging about the incident.The fighter in question was posing with the bodies of 21 people he’d killed, and purported that they were all tribal gunmen loyal to the central government. Other reports, however, suggest the killed were detainees that the Kurdish autonomous government had captured and released, and may have included other civilians from the village.The SDF said this was not in keeping with their “military and ethical values” and that the fighter was immediately dismissed from the organization and referred to a military court for his apparent crimes. They added the incident was “individual and unacceptable.” The incident apparently happened on Friday night, amid ongoing reports of a siege against SDF-held Kobane and the surrounding areas. Kurds displaced in the surrounding area have flocked to Kobane, and major displacement camps have been established, raising humanitarian concerns. The SDF statement on that matter accused the government of violating the ceasefire in its attacks on Kobane and the Jazira region. They also claimed that the ongoing military preparations for more offensives against the SDF showed that the government intends to push toward war rather than a political solution. The ceasefire that is nominally still in place was a four-day ultimatum by the Sharaa government demanding the SDF accept all their demands for ceding territory and integrating into the military on their terms. That ceasefire expires Saturday at 8:00 pm, though there have been some reports that an extension has been reached to push the matter further down the road.

Snow Worsens Siege on Syrian Kurdish City of Kobane as Fighting Expands - If you put aside the continued fighting in several parts of northern and eastern Syria, and themounting humanitarian crisis among civilians displaced by the fighting, the ceasefire between the Syrian government and the Kurdish SDF is holding.The tribal-backed offensive against the Kurds that has left the military in control of much of what was once Rojava, the Kurdish autonomous territory in Syria, was lauded by President Trump, who says he is “very happy” about what Syria has accomplished, and did not mention growing humanitarian concerns both in camps for the displaced and in the Kurdish majority city of Kobane. Kobane doesn’t give the impression of a city in a ceasefire. Fuel and water shortages abound, and food is starting to get in short supply as the military continues a siege of the city. While aid has been allowed in through a corridor, intermittently, fighting rages on the outskirts and there is little sign of that abating, with Syrian state media predictably declaring it to be entirely a siege of the SDF’s own making, even though it’s a Kurdish city and one that they already controlled. Locals who remained in Kobane, instead of fleeing to the overcrowded camps, report hearing the sounds of clashes on the outskirts, and the town’s recently blanketing with snow has only worsened access to the city by aid groups, compounding shortages.Further to the east, the town of Çil Axa seems to be the other major location of fighting. Located in the far northeast of Syria’s easternmost Hasakeh Governorate, that town is seen as vital for the Kurds to maintain control of, given it’s along the highway connecting the region to Iraqi Kurdistan. A small town of only about 6,600 during the last census, Çil Axa (called al-Jawadiyah in Arabic) was a mixed town with a slight Kurdish majority at the time, but has thrived since Kurdish forces seized control of the area from ISIS during the Syrian civil war, and locals now report a larger Kurdish majority.In a move intended to calm the Kurdish alarm about the military conquest, the Syrian government has advanced a promise to guarantee citizenship for Kurds in Hasakeh Governorate, with theInterior Ministry ordering the annulment of the 1962 general census which branded many of the local Kurds as stateless “maktoom” people.This announcement follows a pledge from President Sharaa 10 days ago to resolve the citizenship problem with the Hasakeh Kurds and assure them rights. President Bashar al-Assad effectively ordered the same thing in 2011, though implementation was spotty in practice, and many Kurds who have lived in Hasakeh their whole lives remain effectively without citizenship . At the time of Sharaa’s announcement, the Kurds expressed disquiet about him following Assad’s tactic of trying to resolve the situation by unilateral decree and urged the matter to be resolved constitutionally, assuring that the problem actually will finally be fixed and that the Kurds won’t once again find themselves without any legal options if the government decides the promise is no longer worth keeping.

Israel Recovers Body of Final Captive in Gaza - Israel says it recovered the remains of Ran Gvili in Gaza. The Israeli police officer was the final hostage held by Hamas. Gvili was killed fighting Hamas on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken into Gaza. Under the peace agreement between Hamas and Israel in October, the Palestinian group agreed to release the living captives and the remains of the deceased. Hamas immediately released the living hostages, and has returned the remains over the past three months. The Palestinian group said the recovery process was difficult due to the massive destruction in Gaza caused by the Israeli onslaught. While the first 27 bodies were handed over to Hamas by Israel, Israeli forces recovered the remains of Gvili. Israel recovered the body from a cemetery in Gaza. The IDF exhumed over 250 bodies before locating Gvili. The remains were recovered on Israel’s side of the yellow line, meaning Hamas would not have access to the cemetery. Hamas said on Monday that it “exerted significant efforts in the search for the body of the last prisoner” and that it had provided Israel with “all the details and information in our possession regarding the location of the prisoner’s remains.” President Donald Trump confirmed that Hamas aided Israel in recovering Gvili’s remains. With the recovery of the final hostage, Hamas has met its obligations under the first phase of the peace deal that Trump brokered. Israel continues to violate the pact.

IDF Proposes Limiting Aid Deliveries to Gaza to 200 Trucks Per Day - The Israeli military wants to limit aid deliveries to Gaza to a third of what Israel is required to allow to enter the Strip. The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday that the IDF has recommended restricting aid deliveries to Gaza to 200 trucks per day. The Israeli military claims that this is the amount of aid required to sustain the Palestinians, and additional aid is given to Hamas.Under the deal between Hamas and Israel brokered by President Donald Trump in October, Tel Aviv agreed to allow 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza each day. Throughout most of the ceasefire period, Israel has kept aid deliveries to a minimum. Over the past week, 600 trucks per day have entered Gaza. While the Israeli military claims the Palestinians are “flooded” with supplies, aid agencies say the people of Gaza are still struggling to survive. Most people in Gaza are displaced and living in tents. Israel is refusing to allow temporary housing to enter Gaza, leading to several children freezing to death. The UN’s humanitarian affairs spokesperson, Olga Cherevko, said aid organizations were still facing “severe limitations.”The assertion that Hamas is stealing a large portion of the aid that enters Gaza has also been debunked by multiple investigations. In addition to restricting the number of aid deliveries into Gaza, the IDF wants to maintain that all aid going to Gaza enters through Israel. Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt is scheduled to be reopened within the coming week. The IDF wants to prevent cargo from entering the Strip via Egypt. “In the months leading up to Oct. 7, some 11,000 trucks entered Gaza unchecked via Rafah, four times higher than in previous years. Aid to Gaza must go through Israeli crossings under supervision.” The IDF official continued, “At most, Kerem Shalom could one day serve as a border triangle or resemble the cargo terminals at the Allenby crossing with Jordan.”

Netanyahu: Israel Will Have Control from ‘River to the Sea’ Including Gaza - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will maintain security control over the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. He added that he will not allow the creation of a Palestinian State. “Israel will maintain security control over the entire area from the Jordan River to the sea, and that applies to the Gaza Strip as well,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday. The statement from the Israeli leader is the latest indication that he has no intentions of allowing President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace deal to progress. The agreement signed by Hamas and Israel in October requires Tel Aviv to withdraw its forces from Gaza and creates a pathway for a Palestinian state. During his remarks, Netanyahu made clear that he will not allow the two-state solution to materialize. Notably, Netanyahu used the phrase “from the Jordan River to the sea.” When pro-Palestinian protesters in the US used that chant, Israeli supporters claimed that they were calling for the genocide of Jewish people. The Israeli leader went on to say the next phase of Gaza operations is demilitarizing Hamas. “Now we are focusing on completing the two remaining missions: dismantling Hamas’s weapons and demilitarizing Gaza of arms and tunnels,” Netanyahu explained. “As I agreed with President Trump, there are only two possibilities: either this will be done the easy way, or it will be done the hard way.” He continued, “But in any case, it will happen. I am already hearing the statements that we will allow Gaza’s reconstruction before demilitarization. That will not happen.”Under the October agreement, Hamas did not agree to give up its arms. The group has maintained that it will only demilitarize if it is in the process of creating a Palestinian state. Additionally, Netanyahu explained that Israel will reopen the Rafah border crossing. Rafah is Gaza’s sole crossing with Egypt. The Israeli leader explained that Tel Aviv will only allow a limited number of Palestinians to enter Gaza, but will not hinder any Palestinians from leaving Gaza. Israel is in the process of creating a new camp for Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli forces have flattened half a square mile in southern Gaza. Tel Aviv plans to force Palestinians into the new camp, which will likely be surrounded by Israeli military positions. “What they are building is, in reality, a human-sorting mechanism reminiscent of Nazi-era selection points,” Wissam Afifa, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “It is a tool for racial filtering and a continuation of the genocide by other means.”

Orban Accuses Ukraine of Meddling in Hungary’s Election - Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán Viktor lashed out at Ukraine, accusing Kiev of election meddling. He added that Budapest will attempt to keep Kiev from joining the European Union (EU). “The Ukrainians have gone on the offensive. They’re issuing threats and openly interfering in the Hungarian elections,” Orban wrote on X Saturday. “Their goal is to secure funds and force their way into the European Union as soon as possible.” “As a member of the European Union, Hungary has the right to say no. Our patriotic government clearly says no.” He continued, “We do not want Hungarian families’ money to be sent to Ukraine, and we do not want Hungary to be dragged into a war. Alongside Brussels, we send a clear message to Kyiv as well: we will not pay!” Hungary used its leverage in the EU and NATO to check Western support for Ukraine. Both bodies require unanimous consent of their members to act, effectively giving Budapest a veto. Hungary has slowed the pace of sanctions issued by the EU and helped shut down the bloc’s scheme to fund Ukraine using frozen Russian assets. An additional friction point between Kiev and Budapest has been Ukrainian strikes on Russian pipelines that bring oil into Hungary. Ukrainian drone attacks have shut down the Friendship pipeline several times. Additionally, a Hungarian refinery was destroyed in a sabotage attack, and Ukraine was suspected of carrying out the operation. In November, Ukrainian President Zelensky told reporters, “We will not allow the Russians to sell oil there [to Hungary]. It’s a matter of time. It’s a matter of our position.”

India and EU clinch 'mother of all deals' in free trade agreement — India and the European Union reached a free trade agree­ment to deepen eco­nomic and stra­tegic ties, offi­cials said Tues­day, after nearly two dec­ades of nego­ti­ations. The accord, which the head of the EU’s exec­ut­ive branch described as the “mother of all deals,” could affect as many as 2 bil­lion people. It will prob­ably take sev­eral months before the agree­ment takes effect. The deal between two of the world’s biggest mar­kets comes as Wash­ing­ton tar­gets both the Asian power­house and the EU bloc with steep import tar­iffs, dis­rupt­ing estab­lished trade flows and push­ing major eco­nom­ies to seek altern­ate part­ner­ships. “This agree­ment will bring major oppor­tun­it­ies for the people of India and Europe,” Indian Prime Min­is­ter Nar­en­dra Modi said in a vir­tual address to an energy con­fer­ence. “It rep­res­ents 25% of the global GDP and one-third of global trade.” The accord will see free trade on almost all goods between the EU’s 27 mem­bers and India, cov­er­ing everything from tex­tiles to medi­cines, and bring­ing down high import taxes for European wine and cars. India and the EU also agreed on a frame­work for deeper defense and secur­ity cooper­a­tion, and a sep­ar­ate pact aimed at eas­ing mobil­ity for skilled work­ers and stu­dents, sig­nal­ing that their part­ner­ship extends bey­ond com­merce. The nego­ti­ations for the India-EU deal got a new impetus after Pres­id­ent Trump’s strong-arm trade tac­tics, includ­ing threat­en­ing his European allies with pun­it­ive tar­iffs over their objec­tions to Trump’s threats to take con­trol of Green­land. Modi, speak­ing at a joint news con­fer­ence in New Delhi with European Com­mis­sion Pres­id­ent Ursula von der Leyen and European Coun­cil Pres­id­ent António Costa, said that the part­ner­ship with the EU “will strengthen sta­bil­ity in the inter­na­tional sys­tem” at a time of “tur­moil in the global order.” “Europe and India are mak­ing his­tory today. We have con­cluded the mother of all deals,” Von der Leyen pos­ted on X. In a speech later, she said that the accord was a tale of “two giants” who chose part­ner­ship “in a true win-win fash­ion.” She also said that it sends “a strong mes­sage that cooper­a­tion is the best answer to global chal­lenges.” The deal is expec­ted to fur­ther integ­rate sup­ply chains and strengthen joint man­u­fac­tur­ing power between the two eco­nom­ies. It will also cut up to $4.7 bil­lion in annual tar­iffs for export­ers and cre­ate jobs for mil­lions of work­ers in India and Europe.