week ending May 2

Fed Closes Powell Era With Rates on Hold and Divide Over What Comes Next – WSJ  -- Federal Reserve officials extended an interest-rate pause on Wednesday but split over the outlook for lower interest rates, marking a contentious end to Jerome Powell’s eight-year chairmanship. Powell also said he would remain on the Fed board as a governor at least until the resolution of legal challenges President Trump has mounted against the central bank. While Powell’s term as governor allows him to remain at the Fed until early 2028, it represents an unusual arrangement because for decades, Fed chairs have left the building when their successor is installed.  Powell announced his decision Wednesday after officials extended an interest-rate pause but split over whether to continue hinting at further rate cuts, an uncharacteristically contentious end to Powell’s eight-year chairmanship. His term as chair ends May 15 but a separate term as governor allows Powell to remain at the Fed until early 2028. For decades, Fed chairs have left the building when their successor is installed. His decision highlighted how an unprecedented public campaign to pressure the Fed to lower interest rates has further complicated the handoff to Kevin Warsh, the former Fed governor chosen by President Trump to succeed Powell.“My concern is really about the series of legal attacks on the Fed, which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors,” he said. “I worry that these attacks are battering the institution.”Justice Department officials suspended a criminal probe of Powell’s oversight of the Fed’s building renovations last week after a court blocked subpoenas issued to the central bank in March and after the Senate threatened to indefinitely delay Warsh’s confirmation. Powell said the legal fight had left him “no choice” but to stay until the threats were fully and transparently resolved. He said he intended to keep “a low profile” as a governor and had no desire to interfere with Warsh’s leadership of the committee.Trump addressed Powell’s decision in a social-media post Wednesday evening. “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell wants to stay at the Fed because he can’t get a job anywhere else,” he wrote. Officials held their benchmark federal-funds rate steady in a range of 3.5% to 3.75% and, in their policy statement, made no changes to language that has signaled the next move in rates is more likely to be down than up. But that statement drew dissents from four out of 12 members, the most at a policy meeting since 1992. The divisions underscore the challenge that Powell’s successor, Warsh, could face as the central bank navigates new inflation hazards from the energy shocks.  Three Fed presidents—Beth Hammack of Cleveland, Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis, and Lorie Logan of Dallas—backed the rate decision but objected to retaining the “easing bias” that for the last two years has suggested a rate cut is more likely than a rate hike. A fourth official, Fed governor Stephen Miran, dissented in the opposite direction; he backed a rate cut. At their previous meeting in March, a majority of officials penciled in slightly lower interest rates by year-end. But over the past month, policymakers flagged how new inflation risks could warrant an even longer pause on interest rates, particularly given how the Iran war raises the specter of higher embedded energy costs rather than a one-off shock. That could delay or derail the final steps of a recalibration the Fed initiated two years ago to dial back the higher rates it had imposed to slow the economy and combat much higher inflation in 2022-23. A few officials have even outlined scenarios that could warrant rate increases.Wednesday’s meeting effectively closes an era at the central bank spanning two decades. Powell adopted and added his own stamp on a framework for setting and communicating monetary policy that his immediate predecessors, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, designed in the years after the 2008-09 financial crisis.Under that framework, the Fed leaned more heavily on public communications to articulate how it planned to meet its objectives of healthy labor markets and low inflation. It also sought to enlist financial markets as a partner in tightening or easing before officials moved rates. The strategy, centered on formally adopting a 2% inflation target, sought to convince the public that the Fed’s commitment to its goals was firmer than any particular tool for achieving them. The high inflation that followed the 2020 pandemic delivered the most demanding test of this inflation-targeting framework, and one that appeared to be succeeding until tariffs interrupted progress last year. The ultimate verdict on that strategy is likely to be shaped by Warsh, whose nomination advanced through the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday morning. Warsh used his confirmation hearing last week to signal that big changes are in store—not just to the inertial, data-driven approach that defined the Powell years but also to its overarching framework.  For all the ambitious changes Warsh has in mind, he will inherit a more immediate challenge: The economy is absorbing its fourth supply shock in five years. The Middle East conflict and last year’s tariffs have hit an economy where a key inflation metric peaked at 7% in 2022 after the pandemic reopening and the war in Ukraine. The cumulative effects are testing the Fed’s confidence that inflation, which is running around 3%, will return all the way to its 2% goal. The most unsettling scenario is that businesses have grown more willing and able to pass higher costs through to customers, a behavioral shift that would mark a meaningful break from the prepandemic environment in which companies absorbed cost increases to avoid losing market share. The Middle East turmoil complicates any diagnosis. With energy prices raising headline inflation, officials might not be able to tell for months whether underlying price pressures are fading, persisting or getting worse.

Powell's Final FOMC Sees Most Dissents In 34 Years As Fed Keeps Rate Unch (As Expected)   (5 graphs) Since the last FOMC meeting (on March 18), gold has been clubbed like a baby seal ("EM piggy bank") while stocks and oil have surged (with the former ignoring the peril of the latter)... During that time, Fed rate-change expectations have swung violently from a full rate-cut to a full rate-hike and fallen back to no change at all in 2026, notably (hawkishly) rising in the last few days as oil prices surged back to war highs... On the macro front, The Fed's dual mandate is in play as (surprisingly) inflation has surprised to the downside while growth has surprised to the upside... Notably, The Fed doesn't need to cut rates today for monetary policy to get easier as inflation expectations are rising so much that ex-ante real rates have fallen to the lowest since November and are close to turning negative... As we detailed earlier, recent labor data (March jobs, ADP, claims) has shown resilience and potentially some green shoots. To Bank of America, this should reduce the sense of urgency to shore up the labor market among the doves.But, as a result of latent inflation threats, some of the most prominent doves on the committee have changed their tone of late. In a speech last week, Waller emphasized not only upside risks to inflation from the Iran war. Nevertheless, with all that behind us, the market is expecting a big fat nothingburger from Fed Chair Powell's last (maybe) FOMC meeting, but is expecting an indication of 'two-sided risks' with a single dissent (from Miran calling for a 25bps cut).Most divided (8-4) Fed in 34 years votes to hold rates unchanged as expected BUT... With 4 No Votes, Powell's Final Meeting Garners Most Dissents in 34 Years Fed officials also changed slightly their characterization of the uncertainty around the conflict in Iran: “Developments in the Middle East are contributing to a high level of uncertainty about the economic outlook.” Back in March they said the implications for the US economy were “uncertain.” In the spirit of Fed transparency, Powell leaves on a confusing note. So, three of the dissenters opposed “inclusion of an easing bias.” And yet the actual language of the statement arguably doesn’t specify such a bias. It says that the committee would be prepared “to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate.” That doesn’t specify cutting interest rates. It’s interesting that the trio of dissenters on the bias basically labeled this language as a bias to ease. Because arguably it’s neutral: The Committee would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge that could impede the attainment of the Committee’s goals. The “goals” of course are price stability and maximum employment. But it appears that the trio views this language as mainly attaching to the jobs mandate, it seems to us. Fed officials said the economy is expanding “at a solid pace” with “low” job gains and the unemployment rate “little changed”. That’s all the same as in March. Their characterization of inflation changed slightly: “Inflation is elevated, in part reflecting the recent increase in global energy prices.” However, as Bloomberg notes, in central bank world every word matters, and there has been extensive debate around the characterization of “additional adjustments.” Some Fed watchers deem the wording as signaling most policymakers still see a rate cut as their next likely step, in what’s known as an easing bias. That bias stayed unchanged today: “In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.” Read the full red-line of The Fed statement below:

Tillis ends block of Fed chair nominee Warsh, clears way for Trump pick - Sen. Thom Tillis said Sunday he is willing to end his blockade of Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh after the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Warsh now has a clear path to replacing Powell as the next leader of the Fed when Powell’s term expires in mid-May. The Senate Banking Committee is set to vote on his confirmation on Wednesday, and the full Senate could take it up shortly after. With Tillis’s support, the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Fed is all but assured. “I am prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh, I think he’s going to be a great Fed chair,” Tillis, R-N.C., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We were very clear that we have assurances from the DOJ that I needed to make sure they were not using the DOJ as a weapon to threaten the independence of the Fed. So this will allow Mr. Warsh to move on with his confirmation on time.” Tillis had vowed to withhold his vote for Warsh, whom he supports, before the Senate Banking Committee until the DOJ dropped its investigation of Powell. The Justice Department was investigating Powell over alleged cost overruns related to renovations at the Federal Reserve building. The Fed declined to comment Sunday. Warsh didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Tillis’ vote is critical to Warsh’s confirmation, as the Banking Committee is made up of 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats. One Republican defection would have deadlocked the panel and blocked Warsh from advancing. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, announced Friday that her office was turning the investigation over to the Fed inspector general’s office. Tillis said he had spoken to DOJ officials after Pirro’s announcement and had received assurances that “the only way an investigation would be open would be a criminal referral” from the IG. “They have made it very clear that the current investigation is completely and fully ended,” he said. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche also appeared on “Meet the Press.” He was asked if the DOJ would consider reopening the investigation after Warsh was confirmed. Blanche said the investigation was in the hands of the inspector general. “If he uncovers evidence of criminal conduct, there is no doubt that we will investigate,” he said. Pirro’s office still plans to continue an appeal of a recent federal judge’s decision quashing subpoenas issued to the Fed, Tillis said. Pirro has said the judge’s decision interferes with her ability to lead grand-jury investigations in general. Tillis said he had received assurances on that issue as well. “Any appeal of Judge Boasberg’s ruling will be with respect to legal principles and not for the purpose of reissuing subpoenas,” Tillis said in a social-media post Sunday. Former federal prosecutors have said Pirro’s chances of success in an appeal are slim. She has until May 4 to file it. Pirro’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Warsh is likely to move quickly to implement significant change at the Fed. He said in his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that he wants “regime change.” He noted that he would change the way the central bank measures inflation and how it communicates, among other issues. Warsh is expected to push quickly for rate cuts, though he would need to convince his fellow members of the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee to join him. With energy prices rising sharply due to the war in Iran, many Fed members are likely to be skeptical. Tillis’ decision also has implications for Powell. He can remain a voting member of the Fed’s board until January 2028, even after he steps down as chair. Powell said recently he plans to do so while the threat of prosecution hangs over him. Powell will likely face questions about his plans at the Fed’s next press conference, scheduled for Wednesday.

Warsh clears Senate Banking Committee  — Kevin Warsh's nomination for Federal Reserve chairman passed through the Senate Banking Committee on a party-line 13 to 11 vote.

• Key insight: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., officially dropped his opposition to Warsh's nomination with an aye vote, despite ongoing parts of the DOJ investigation against current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. 
• What's at stake: Fed independence has been the theme of Warsh's nomination, with outstanding questions about Warsh's willingness to lower rates at President Donald Trump's behest. 
• Forward look: His path to confirmation by the full Senate should be assured, with full Republican support expected on a floor vote.

Powell is staying at the Fed: What to expect -Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to remain on the board of governors for an undetermined period after his term as chair ends, a move aimed at preempting potential legal challenges tied to renovations at the central bank's headquarters. Market watchers think Jerome Powell will maintain a low-key presence on the Fed board as he awaits the release of an inspector general report examining cost overruns at the central bank's headquarters.

• Key takeaway: As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's term nears its end, stakeholders expect his role as a governor to be low-key and to continue until the release of an inspector general report clears him of any wrongdoing.
• Expert quote: "Powell was pretty clear, he's not going to be a shadow chair. He knows what it's like to be in a supporting role." — Scott Alvarez, adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law and former general counsel at the Federal Reserve
• Forward look: Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Reserve, is expected to be confirmed as chair in the coming weeks after his nomination cleared the Senate Banking Committee and moved to the full Senate.

Stagflation Incoming: The Donald Ain’t Gonna Like What Happens Next!  by David Stockman |-- Here is a salient place to start regarding the economic impact of the Donald’s misbegotten war on Iran: To wit, approximately 7 billion ton-miles of freight moves by truck each and every day in the USA, which heavy truck fleet consumes upwards of 2.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) of diesel fuel. Alas, the price of diesel fuel was about $3.55/gallon both a year ago and as of early January 2026, but has since soared by more than+$2.00 per gallon to $5.60. That’s a 56% rise in the cost of pumping goods and commodities through the arteries of the US economy. On an annualized basis, the diesel fuel bill for the US truck fleet went from $155 billion per year to $250 billion per year at current oil prices. The big question, of course, is through which channel these drastically higher fuel acquisition costs will be absorbed – in higher prices or reduced output? And that pertains not just to the microcosm of the trucking sector, but the entire GDP now being battered by the Donald’s elective war-based dislocation of the world’s 175 million BOE/day oil and natural gas markets. We’d bet it will be a combination of both inflation and deflation, otherwise known as stagflation. The mix of these outcomes depends upon supply and demand conditions in individual sectors of the economy in part, but also, and ultimately and more importantly, on the Fed. That is, whether the nation’s central bank pumps incremental demand into the economy via credit expansion with a view to “accommodating” the soaring price of energy today, and, soon, food and other commodity inputs to GDP, too; or holds firm on the printing press dials and allows the now cresting energy and commodity shocks to work their way through the interstices of the $30 trillion US economy. Of course, during the previous comparable petroleum supply disruption during the 1970s, the Fed made the huge mistake of printing the money to counteract what was a “supply shock” in the form of soaring petroleum prices. But that led – just as sound money advocates had always held – to double digit increases in the general price level by the end of the decade, and thereafter the trauma of the Volcker administered application of the monetary brakes.With the Fed fixing to welcome a new Chairman, as today’s congressional hearings remind, it is therefore a question of whether or not the Kevin Warsh Fed will want to take its place in the monetary policy villains gallery along with Arthur Burns and the hapless William G. Miller. We think not. We actually believe that for the first time since Volcker, we are about to get a Fed chairman who understands the requisites of sound money and noninflationary finance, as well as the profound error of Keynesian demand management at the central bank. And not only that. As far as we can tell, he also has the experience from his prior service on the Fed during the so-called Great Financial Crisis and the cajones to lean heavily against the supply shock now emanating from the Persian Gulf. Moreover, one thing which may well help Walsh lean in this anti-Keynesian direction is the the need to avoid the tattered legacy of the private equity based deal lawyer who proceeded him. As it happened, Powell had no clue that the blue suits who soon surrounded him at the Eccles Building were wrong-headed Keynesian monetary statists through and though. Accordingly, when the far smaller supply shock from the Black Sea dislocation at the on-set of the Russia-Ukraine War came cascading through the global energy and food commodity markets, Powell joined the Burns/Miller brigade and kept on accommodating. That’s evident in the graph below, which depicts the domestic services inflation rate excluding energy. This is the Fed’s go to inflation metric because it arguably measures a subset of prices in the US economy that are mainly driven by so-called domestic “demand”, which is the very thing the Fed claims to be expert at calibrating. We think Fed “demand management” is pretty much mischievous nonsense. The fact is, however, when the Ukraine War began in February 2022, the domestic services less energy index was already rising at a 4.1% Y/Y rate. So there was no room for “accommodation” at all. In fact, the Ukraine War supply shock had caught the Fed with its monetary pants down. The Fed funds rate was effectively zero in nominal terms at the time (February 2022) and had been pinned to the zero bound for the previous 22 months. Thereafter Powell and his merry band of money printers kept kidding themselves into believing that the Ukrainian War inflation surge was “transitory” and that a Volcker style slamming of the monetary brakes was unnecessary. As is evident in the chart, however, the Fed’s tepid 25 basis points increases month after month in its target Fed funds rate was blatantly too little and way too late. By February 2023, the very inflation metric that the Keynesian central bankers claim to heavily influence – domestic services less energy services – was leaping higher at a +7.3% Y/Y rate.By then, of course, and with double digit energy and food inflation layered on top, headline inflation was running at 40-year highs and knocking on the door of 1970s style double digit inflation. We think this history is profoundly relevant to where a Kevin Warsh-led Fed may come out because it just so happens that the Y/Y rate on this key metric stood at +3.05% in March 2026 or about where it had been in October 2021 on the eve of the “Powell Inflation”.We don’t think Kevin Warsh, who is a real student of money and economics, wishes to be placed next in line in the Burns/Miller/Powell gallery of monetary villains.

Bessent says ‘many’ U.S. allies have asked for currency swaps amid Iran war turbulence  - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that “many” oil-rich U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have requested a financial backstop amid economic turbulence from the war with Iran. Bessent’s comments go further than White House assertions to CNBC on Tuesday, where an official said the U.S. had not yet been formally asked to establish a currency swap line by the United Arab Emirates, only that there had been discussions about the topic.Such a swap line would provide the UAE or other Gulf nations with liquidity in the U.S. dollar, but comes loaded with political risk as U.S. consumers weather higher prices from the war for food, gas and other everyday purchases.“Many of our Gulf allies have requested swap lines,” Bessent said. “Swap lines, whether it’s from the Federal Reserve or the Treasury, are to maintain order in the dollar funding markets and to prevent the sale of the U.S. assets in a disorderly way.”“The swap line would both benefit the UAE and the U.S., and as I said, numerous other countries, including some of our Asian allies [who] have also requested them,” he said, without specifying which other countries.Gulf countries, including the UAE, have been hit hard by the war with Iran. Tehran has fired missiles at U.S. allies in the region, damaging economic infrastructure. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also choked oil revenues that are critical to Gulf nations.A currency swap could also be necessary to ensure the U.S. dollar, which is dominant in nearly all oil exchanges, remains in use. President Donald Trump said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday that he would like to assist the UAE if it’s possible.“If I could help them, I would,” the president said. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who serves on both the Senate Finance and Foreign Relations committees, was supportive of a currency swap with the UAE in a Tuesday interview with CNBC. Daines said he thinks ”[Bessent] is moving in that direction, and I support him in that.”  Democrats, however, are likely to take advantage of the political opening from a currency swap, especially with wealthy nations in the Middle East. The UAE has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who questioned Bessent on the potential currency swap at the hearing, highlighted the domestic economic circumstances under which a swap would occur.“The war in Iran has already cost us dearly, Van Hollen said. “In addition to lives lost, we’re talking about over a billion dollars a day in taxpayer money, we’re talking about higher gas prices, higher prices overall, and now we understand that the UAE is asking you to provide them a swap line through the Exchange Stabilization Fund.” Van Hollen also noted troves of recent reporting on the UAE-U.S. relationship, including reported investments from members of the Gulf nation’s government in the Trump family’s business and the relaxing of protections around advanced artificial intelligence chips.

State Department Says US Is in Conflict With Iran 'At the Request' of Israel –   The State Department said in a statement last week that the US is in conflict with Iran “at the request” of Israel, an acknowledgment of Israel’s role in steering the US into the war, which the US has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.” The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, who attempted to provide a legal justification for the war.“As the United States has explained in multiple letters to the UN Security Council, including most recently on March 10, the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States’ own inherent right of self-defense,” Rubinstein said. The term “collective self-defense” was likely used to echo Article 51 of the UN Charter, which states that nothing in the charter “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations,” but the US does not have a mutual defense treaty with Israel and is not bound by US law to defend the country.The US and Israel were also the first to attack Iran, undercutting the US claim of “self-defense.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously said that the US launched the war because Israel was planning to attack and that Iran’s retaliation could have involved attacks on US bases.Rubinstein repeated the argument made by the White House that the US has been in an ongoing conflict with Iran over the decades, which is based on claims that attacks by Iran-allied factions on US troops in the Middle East were part of an Iranian war against the US. The argument that omits the US’s history of backing forces against Iran, such as the US supporting Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.

Iran Says Nearly Half of Iranians Killed by US-Israeli Bombing Campaign Were Civilians - - An Iranian official said on Sunday that nearly half of the Iranians killed by the US-Israeli bombing campaign that lasted from February 28 to April 8 were civilians, as strikes pounded civilian targets throughout the war. According to Tehran Times, Jamshid Nazmi, an advisor at Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, said that at least 3,468 were killed by the US-Israeli strikes. He said that 1,460 of the victims were identified as civilians. The Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), a US-based and US-funded NGO that’s very critical of the Iranian government, has put out similar numbers, though it has reported a higher number of civilians killed. The group said in its last update on the death toll on April 7 that it recorded the killing of 1,701 civilians, 1,221 military personnel, and 714 people yet to be identified, a total of 3,636 deaths.The US-Israeli war against Iran opened with a US Tomahawk missile strike on an elementary school in Iran, which killed 156 people, including 120 boys and girls, 26 teachers, who were all women, seven parents, a bus driver, and a technician who worked at a nearby clinic.Iranian officials have previously said that more than 200 children were killed in the bombing campaign. Other strikes against children include the US bombing of a sports hall, which killed girls as they were practicing volleyball and a boy as he played soccer, an attack reportedly carried out using a short-range ballistic missile called the Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, which had never been tested in combat.Iranian media also reported that in mid-March, a US-Israeli strike on a home in the central city of Arak killed a three-day-old baby boy and his two-year-old sister.

Iran offers US deal to reopen strait without nuclear deal Iran has offered the U.S. a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry, without any terms regarding its nuclear program, according to The Associated Press.Iran offered to end its restriction of the strait if the U.S. stops a blockade and the current conflict against Tehran, two officials in the region told the news service, with talk on its nuclear program to come later. The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has lasted for nearly two months, testing the Trump administration’s relationship with some of its allies and leaving a notable impact on the economy. Iran has reportedly inflicted billions of dollars of damage on U.S. military assets and bases in the Gulf region.  Six people familiar with the damage told NBC News that runways, high-end radar systems, dozens of aircraft, warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars and satellite communications infrastructure had been hit by Iranian forces. Over the weekend, President Trump said his administration had received a new proposal from Iran following his cancellation of a delegation’s trip to Pakistan for additional peace talks. “They gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump told reporters Saturday, Bloomberg reported.Trump told reporters that the U.S. had “all the cards” in the negotiations. “We’ll deal by telephone, and they can call us any time they want,” the president said.

US-Israel-Iran Ceasefire News Live Updates: Trump Dissatisfied With Iran Proposal To Lift Strait Of Hormuz Blockade - US President Donald Trump is not satisfied with Iran's proposal on lifting the blockade on critical marine chokepoint Strait of Hormuz, according to reports, because it does not address Tehran's nuclear program. Iran has said it will end its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz if the United States agrees to lift its blockade on Tehran as well as end the war, two regional officials said. Tehran further proposed that discussion on the bigger question of its nuclear programme will come at a later phase, the officials said. Though a delicate ceasefire remains in place in the Middle East, Israel's army chief of staff has warned that 2026 is likely ot be "another year of fighting" against Iran and Hezbollah. He also reiterated the immediate need for the army to recruit more soldiers to handle the operational demands it faces. The clash between the US and Iran continued at the United Nations over Tehran's nuclear program and its selection to be one of dozens of vice presidents at a month-long conference to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the treaty parties "to stand together and safeguard humanity from the grave threat of nuclear annihilation." For the first time in decades, he said, the number of nuclear warheads is rising and nuclear testing is on the table. Noting that people of Iran are united, Deputy Representative of Iran's Supreme Leader in India Dr Mohammad Hossein Ziyaeenia has said that reports and suggestions about internal tensions in Iran are made by those who are unaware of the government system in his country and those "trying to hide the truth from the audience". In an exclusive interview with ANI, Mohammad Hossein Ziyaeenia said that the Iranian government system is not dependent on a single person because it is a Republic. "This question has been raised by the Western media. There are two reasons for this question. Number one is not being aware of the government system in Iran. Number two, trying to hide the truth from the audience. The Iranian government system is not dependent on a single person because this is a republic... So it's not that there is a single figure in command in Iran and the country would collapse without him. There is a hierarchy there," he said.

Trump discussed Iran Hormuz Strait proposal with team: White House President Donald Trump and his national security team on Monday discussed Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade and the war ends, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed. The proposal would postpone negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions for a later date, Axios and The Associated Press reported earlier Monday. It remains unclear if Trump, who has vowed not to lift the blockade until a deal with Iran is “100% complete,” will entertain the reported offer to end the two-month-old war. “I will confirm the president has met with his national security team this morning,” Leavitt said at a press briefing Monday afternoon when asked about the reports. “The meeting may be ongoing,” Leavitt said around 1:23 p.m. ET, “but the proposal was being discussed.” “I don’t want to get ahead of the president or his national security team. What I will reiterate is that the president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.” Leavitt quickly added she was not saying that Trump and his team are “considering” the offer. “I would just say that there was a discussion this morning that I don’t want to get ahead of, and you’ll hear directly from the president, I’m sure on this topic, very soon,” she said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Fox News interview earlier Monday appeared to pour cold water on any Iranian proposal to clear the strategically vital strait. “What they mean by opening the straits is, ‘Yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,’” Rubio said, when asked about Trump’s claim Saturday that Iran had sent a “much better” offer. “That’s not opening the straits. Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it,” Rubio said. The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted the central goal of the conflict is keeping Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon. “Everything will be peanuts compared to that, if they ever were given a nuclear weapon,” Trump said Saturday night when he spoke to reporters at the White House after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. But efforts at a diplomatic solution appeared to hit a sudden roadblock over the weekend.Trump on Saturday canceled plans for his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with their Iranian counterparts in Pakistan. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!” he wrote in a Truth Social post, while asserting the U.S. still has “all the cards.”Trump announced the decision after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had departed Islamabad after only speaking with Pakistani officials, Reuters reported.After sending the social media post, Trump reportedly told reporters that Iran had followed up with a “much better” offer, without saying what it contained.“They gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One on Saturday, Bloomberg reported.The cancellation ended immediate prospects for a second round of peace talks with Iran. Two weeks earlier, Kushner, Witkoff and Vice President JD Vance traveled to Islamabad and spent 21 hours negotiating with Iran, but left the country without a deal.

Rubio Says Iran Cannot 'Normalize' Its Control of the Strait of Hormuz -   Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with Fox News on Monday that Iran cannot “normalize” its control of the Strait of Hormuz, a condition created by the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.“If what they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are opened as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up, and you pay us. That’s not opening the straits,” Rubio told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst.“Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it,” Rubio added.Rubio’s comments come amid reports in US media that Iran is offering a proposal to the US that would involve ending the US blockade of Iranian ports, opening the Strait of Hormuz, and addressing the nuclear issue later, though Iranian officials speaking to Drop Site News disputed the characterization and insisted talks still won’t happen unless the US lifts the blockade.“We’re currently moving forward with our own design, and we feel continuing negotiations doesn’t make sense until the US government lifts the maritime blockade,” a senior Iranian official told Drop Site.Iranian media previously reported that Iran’s initial 10-point proposal would include a mechanism for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay a toll shared between Iran and Oman, with the funds received by Iran going toward reconstruction.

Live updates: US-Iran ceasefire talks stall as UAE says it will leave OPEC | AP News - Major developments we’re monitoring:

• The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday that it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of one of its largest producers. While the announcement doesn’t change anything regarding the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, it could help lower oil prices after the war if the UAE increases its production capacity. Brent crude oil traded over 50% higher than its prewar price.
• The U.S. military said Tuesday in a social media post that it boarded and released a commercial ship in the Arabian Sea east of the Strait of Hormuz that was suspected of heading for Iran. The command said it has now redirected 39 vessels since start of the blockade on ships going to and from Iranian ports.
• Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran’s nuclear program.
• Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and over 2,500 people in Lebanon amid fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. Another 23 have been killed in Israel. The toll in Lebanon also includes 16 Israeli soldiers and six U.N. peacekeepers. Across the region, 13 U.S. service members have been killed, along with at least 10 crew members on ships and more than a dozen people in Gulf Arab states.

CENTCOM Says US Forces Boarded and Then Released a Commercial Ship in the Arabian Sea - US Central Command said on Tuesday that its forces boarded and then released a commercial ship in the Arabian Sea, as the US continues to enforce the blockade on Iranian ports, the main impediment to US-Iran peace talks. “Earlier today in the Arabian Sea, US Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit boarded M/V Blue Star III, a commercial ship suspected of attempting to transit to Iran in violation of the US blockade of Iranian ports,” CENTCOM said in a post on X that included a video of the boarding. “US forces released the vessel after conducting a search and confirming the ship’s voyage would not include an Iranian port call,” the US military command added. Video of the boarding released by CENTCOM. So far, the US has seized at least three ships as part of its enforcement of the blockade, including two that were boarded in the Indian Ocean and one that was fired on and seized by US forces in the Gulf of Oman. Iran has maintained it won’t hold more negotiations with the US as long as it continues the blockade, which Tehran views as a ceasefire violation since it’s an act of war. On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the US ship seizures as piracy. “This is the outright legalization of piracy and armed robbery on the high seas. Welcome to the return of the pirates — only now, they operate with government-issued warrants, sail under official flags, and call their plunder “law enforcement,” the ministry’s spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, wrote on X. “The United States must be held fully accountable for this brazenly lawless behavior, which strikes at the heart of international law & international free trade, and threatens the basic principles of maritime security,” he added. While a few dozen ships have made it through the US blockade, data show that Iran’s oil exports have fallen sharply since the US began its enforcement.The Wall Street Journal, citing data from Kpler, reported that Iranian oil shipments have fallen sharply as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz disrupts exports. Loadings dropped significantly after the blockade took effect, with few tankers able to leave the region. Analysts say Iran’s crude production could fall by more than half by mid-May if restrictions persist, potentially dropping to around 1.2 to 1.3 million barrels per day.

US warns shipping firms they could face sanctions over paying Iranian tolls in the Strait of Hormuz (AP) — The United States is warning shipping companies that they could face sanctions for making payments to Iran to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The alert posted Friday by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control adds another layer of pressure in the standoff between the U.S. and Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz.About a fifth of the world's trade in oil and natural gas typically passes through the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in peacetime. Iran effectively closed the strait to normal traffic by attacking and threatening to attack ships after the U.S. and Israel launched a war on Feb. 28. It later began offering some ships safe passage by detouring them through alternate routes closer to its shoreline, charging fees at times for the service.The payment demands could include transfers not only in cash but also “digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments,” including charitable donations and payments at Iranian embassies, OFAC said.“OFAC is issuing this alert to warn U.S. and non-U.S. persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage. These risks exist regardless of payment method,” it said.The U.S. responded to Iran's closure of the strait with a naval blockade of its own on April 13, preventing any Iranian tankers from leaving and depriving Iran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.The U.S. Central Command said 45 commercial ships have been told to turn around since the blockade began. The warning came as U.S. President Donald Trump swiftly rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end the war between the countries.“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump said Friday at the White House. He didn't elaborate on what he saw as its shortcomings but expressed frustration with the Iranian leadership.“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” Trump said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Iran handed over its plan to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night.The shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be holding, though both countries have traded accusations of violations. The standoff is increasingly putting pressure on the global economy, driving up prices and leading to shortages of fuel and other products tied to the oil industry.

Report: Iran Caused Far More Damage to US Bases Than the Trump Administration Has Acknowledged - Iranian attacks on US bases across the Middle East have caused far more damage than the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged, and an Iranian fighter jet was able to bomb at least one US base, NBC News reported on Saturday, citing unnamed US officials. The administration has attempted to cover up the damage to US bases in the war, and has gone as far as requesting that Planet Labs and other satellite imagery companies black out war images, making it difficult to ascertain the damage.  The NBC report said that the Pentagon has also kept the information on the damage from Congress. “No one knows anything. And it’s not for lack of asking,” a Republican congressional aide told the outlet. “We have been asking for weeks and not getting specifics, even as the Pentagon is asking for a record high budget.” Iranian missile and drone attacks have targeted US bases in seven Middle Eastern countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Jordan, and Qatar. US officials said that an Iranian F-5 fighter jet was able to bomb the US base at Camp Buehring in Kuwait despite it having air defenses, marking the first time in many years that an enemy fixed-wing aircraft struck a US military installation.  The US armed Iran with Northrop Grumman-made F-5 fighter jets before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Iran has developed its own version of the aircraft, known as the HESA Kowsar.  Kuwait was also the site of a March 1 Iranian drone attack that killed six US Army Reserve soldiers and injured more than 20. The drone targeted a makeshift operations center in Port Shuaiba, and according to survivors of the attack who spoke to CBS News, the facility was unprotected despite claims from US War Secretary Pete Hegseth that the drone was able to “squirt” through air defenses.The Pentagon has confirmed the deaths of at least 13 US soldiers and the injuries of more than 400 in the war. The bases across the region were mostly evacuated since they were so vulnerable to attack, something The New York Times previously reported. “Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage,” the Times reported on March 25. The NBC report said that the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain “sustained serious damage” and that other US bases in the country also suffered serious damage that is likely repairable. The report also cited the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington-based think tank, which said it assessed Iran hit more than 100 targets across 11 bases, and that the repairs would cost at least $5 billion, though the number doesn’t account for some of the radars, weapons systems, and other equipment that was destroyed.

Report: Iran has caused billions in damage to US military bases in Gulf region - Iran has reportedly caused billions of dollars in damage to U.S. military assets and bases in the Gulf region, sparking questions about the Trump administration’s transparency regarding potential costs for repairs. Six people familiar with the damage said runways, high-end radar systems, dozens of aircraft, warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars and satellite communications infrastructure were struck by Iranian forces in an interview with NBC News. The destruction spans across several countries in the Middle East and could cost up to $5 billion to repair. The projected price tag does not include fixes to radar systems, weapons systems, aircraft and other equipment that were either impaired or rendered unsalvageable as a result of Iranian strikes, the outlet reported. Initial damage was caused to U.S. base Camp Buehring in Kuwait by an Iranian F-5 fighter jet within the first few days of the war, which began Feb. 28 with a series of U.S.-Israeli strikes. Al Dhafra Air Base and Al Ruwais military base in the United Arab Emirates recorded damage to fuel storage, a medical clinic, hangars and barracks in addition to other warehouses and buildings. Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia; Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan; and Camp Arifjan, Camp Buehring and Shuaiba Port in Kuwait also saw U.S. resources damaged. Three officials told NBC News there was later extensive damage to the headquarters building for the U.S. Navy in Bahrain and at least two air defense systems. Repairs to the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet headquarters could total $200 million alone, one congressional official told The New York Times following a Pentagon assessment. An external assessment from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) shows Iranian forces also struck Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, a runway at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and a munitions storage facility at a military base in northern Iraq, per NBC. “As part of Epic Fury, the potential future costs to rebuild American military infrastructure overseas may include repair, reconstruction, outright replacement, or even abandonment/decommissioning of locales,” Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at AEI, told the outlet. “War damage also includes estimated costs for infrastructure that is unsalvageable,” she added. Other damaged resources include at least one fighter jet, a dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones, two MC-130 tankers, helicopters and an E-3 Sentry plane. “We do not discuss battle damage assessments for operation security reasons. Our forces remain fully operational, and we continue to execute our mission with the same readiness and combat effectiveness,” a Pentagon official told The Hill. In March, the Pentagon estimated that the first six days of the war against Iran cost more than $11.3 billion, absent calculations for needed repairs. A total of $5.6 billion was spent on munitions during the first two days of the war.Briefings for lawmakers regarding the cost of the military operations have been sparse, spurring consternation among elected officials and their staffers. “No one knows anything. And it’s not for lack of asking,” one of the aides told NBC. “We have been asking for weeks and not getting specifics, even as the Pentagon is asking for a record-high budget,” the person added.

CNN finds majority of US Mideast bases hit by Iran --A CNN investigation has revealed that Iranian strikes have damaged at least 16 U.S. military sites across the Middle East, representing the majority of American positions in the region. The attacks, which began in late February, inflicted billions of dollars in damage to critical infrastructure, aircraft, and equipment. Analysts say the scale of destruction raises questions about U.S. force posture, regional security commitments, and the vulnerability of forward bases to precision strikes. At least 16 U.S. military sites across the Middle East have been damaged in Iranian strikes, according to CNN and other reports. These include high-value assets such as runways, radar systems, hangars, and command centers in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, and Jordan. Sources cited in the coverage say damage assessments range from facilities being beyond repair to others considered worth restoring for their strategic importance. middleeastmonitor.com NBC News and Middle East Monitor report that the strikes caused up to $5 billion in damage, excluding the cost of destroyed equipment like radar systems and aircraft. AEI’s analysis lists specific losses at each base, from warehouses and administrative buildings to fuel storage and medical facilities. The breadth of the damage reflects coordinated targeting of critical infrastructure across multiple countries. Morning Overview + 3 CSIS estimates $2.3B–$2.8B in U.S. military equipment destroyed in Iran strikes Experts such as Vali Nasr argue the attacks reveal the U.S. could not adequately defend its Gulf installations, undermining assumptions about deterrence. The scale of the damage has led some Gulf states to reconsider their security dependence on Washington. Analysts foresee possible relocation or downsizing of U.S. bases to reduce exposure to future precision strikes. The strikes and ensuing ceasefire underscore a fragile halt in hostilities while leaving open the possibility of renewed conflict. U.S. Central Command’s request to deploy hypersonic missiles to the Gulf signals preparations for potential escalation if diplomacy falters. The resolution of this standoff could influence U.S.-Iran relations, Gulf security arrangements, and the balance of power in the region.

Real Cost of Iran War Likely Double the $25 Billion Figure the Pentagon Gave to Congress -- The $25 billion estimate the Pentagon gave to Congress on Wednesday regarding the cost of the Iran war is a lowball figure that doesn’t include the cost of repairing the destruction at US bases across the Middle East, CNN has reported. Sources told the outlet that factoring in repairs to bases and replacing military equipment destroyed would bring the cost to $40 billion to $50 billion, or likely double what the Pentagon told Congress. However, the real cost will likely exceed even the figure reported by CNN, as Pentagon officials initially said the first six days cost $11.3 billion, and the bombing campaign intensified after those first days of the war. According to a report from The New York Times in early March, the $11.3 billione estimate for the first six days was also low since it didn’t account for many of the costs regarding the operations, including the buildup of military equipment and personnel in the region before the US and Israel launched the war.While putting forward the $25 billion figure during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, the Pentagon also acknowledged that the supplemental funding bill it will request for the war will be higher. According to media reports, the Trump administration may ask for somewhere between $80 billion and $200 billion for the supplemental, and the Pentagon has said that the cost of the war wasn’t factored into its record-shattering $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) questioned the $25 billion estimate and asked US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth what the Pentagon would request for the supplemental. “If and when a supplemental is submitted, the majority of it would not just be for Epic Fury, it would be for munitions related to the entirety of what we want to get done,” Hegseth said. When pressed further to provide a number for the supplemental, Hegseth wouldn’t say, but added, “On Iran, it would be less than $25 billion, but there’s a lot more we would ask for beyond just Iran.”Khanna also asked how much it “cost the American taxpayer” to bomb the elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, which massacred 156 people, including 120 boys and girls. Hegseth claimed the incident is still under investigation, though it’s clear from the evidence that the school was hit with US Tomahawk missiles.

‘Humiliated’ by Iran: Germany's Merz Warns US Has No Strategy, Trump Responds - Palestine Chronicle - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States is struggling in both the military and diplomatic dimensions of the Iran war, warning that Washington lacks a clear strategy. According to Financial Times, Merz said the US had entered the conflict “without any strategy” and had “no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either.” He added that Iran’s leadership was effectively outmaneuvering Washington. “The Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully — or simply very skillfully not negotiating,” he said, warning that “a whole nation is being humiliated.” Merz also stressed that he does not see any realistic exit from the war in the near term. Merz linked the conflict directly to worsening economic conditions in Germany, noting that the war is “costing us a lot of money” and undermining growth. As reported by Deutsche Welle, he warned that conflicts without clear exit strategies risk long-term consequences, drawing parallels to US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also noted that Iran appears “stronger than expected,” further complicating efforts to bring the war to an end. US President Donald Trump responded sharply to Merz’s remarks, criticizing the German leader in a post on Truth Social, according to Reuters. Trump claimed that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” a statement that misrepresented the German chancellor’s position. Merz has consistently maintained that Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons. The exchange highlights growing friction between Washington and European allies over the handling of the Iran war. While Germany has expressed willingness to support international efforts—such as maritime security operations in the Strait of Hormuz—Merz has made clear that any such role would depend on a ceasefire. At the same time, the economic fallout and lack of progress toward a diplomatic resolution are increasing pressure within Europe, raising questions about the long-term trajectory of the conflict and Western coordination.

Trump Meets With Oil Executives as Iran Stalemate Drags On - (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and his ​top officials met with ‌oil and gas executives including Chevron  CEO Mike ​Wirth at the ​White House on Tuesday to ⁠discuss the energy ​fallout of the Iran war ​and other topics, Axios reported on Wednesday. White House chief of ​staff Susie Wiles, ​Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and ‌envoys ⁠Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were present, and topics for the ​meeting included ​domestic ⁠production, progress in Venezuela, oil ​futures, natural gas and ​shipping, ⁠according to the Axios report.Reuters could not ⁠immediately ​verify the ​report.

Report: US Spy Agencies Analyze How Iran Would React If Trump Declared Victory - -  US spy agencies are analyzing how Iran may respond if President Trump declared victory and pulled back from the conflict with the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The report said that Trump was aware of the political cost to himself and the Republican Party as a result of the war, which, according to polling, is extremely unpopular among American voters. One White House official speaking to Reuters described the domestic pressure Trump was facing to end the conflict as “enormous.”An Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month found that just 24% of Americans thought the war was worth it, while a majority, 51%, said it wasn’t, and 54% said it had a negative impact on their financial situation, as Americans have been facing rising gas prices.The Reuters report said that, in the days after the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, US intelligence agencies had assessed that if Trump declared victory and pulled forces out of the region, Iran would view it as a win. But if Trump claimed that the US won the war and didn’t reduce the US military presence in the Middle East, Tehran would just view it as a negotiating tactic.After announcing the ceasefire with Iran, Trump did claim at one point that it was a “total and complete victory” for the US, but he has continued to build up forces in the region and threaten further attacks on the country. He has also implemented a blockade on Iranian ports, which has impeded further US-Iran peace talks, as Tehran views it as a violation of the ceasefire and is keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed in response.

Iran has every right to counter USs state-sponsored piracy, terrorism: UN envoy - Iran's ambassador to the United Nations underlines that the Islamic Republic reserves all rights to duly confront the United States' seizure of Iranian vessels as part of Washington's continued illegal blockade against the country. In a letter dated Wednesday, Amir Saeid Iravani said he was writing "to bring to the urgent attention" of the UN Security Council the "continuing internationally wrongful acts of the United States through yet another piracy-style seizure and deliberate targeting of commercial vessels, namely the M/T Majestic and M/T Tifani." Iravani pointed to a public statement released earlier by a US attorney, describing it as "an explicit and deliberate admission of internationally wrongful conduct." He noted how the attorney had "boasted of the pirate-style seizure" of the two vessels and the subsequent stealing of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian oil. "The US attorney’s statement clearly confirms that the United States armed forces have interdicted, boarded, and forcibly seized Iran’s commercial vessels on the high seas on the basis of their bullying attitude," the letter read. He added, "Such conduct is nothing but another clear example of US addiction to lawlessness and constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, in particular Article 2(4)." According to the letter, the actions "fall squarely within the definition of an act of aggression" under UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 of 1974, which defines aggression as the use of armed force by one state against another. Such actions against vessels engaged in legitimate commercial activity also pose a direct threat to maritime safety and security, and escalate the volatile situation in the region, the ambassador underscored. "In substance and effect, such actions are identical to state-sponsored piracy and terrorism, carried out under the guise of domestic processes that have no standing under international law," the letter added. The United States bears full and undeniable international responsibility for the consequences of such atrocities, Iravani noted, stressing, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has every right, in accordance with international law, to counter these insolent actions." He concluded by calling on the Security Council to condemn the seizures, demand the immediate and unconditional release of all seized vessels, cargo, and property, and take measures to prevent their recurrence.

Iran: Responsibility for any disruption in Strait of Hormuz lies squarely with US aggression  -Iran has categorically stated that any disruption or obstruction in maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters is the direct responsibility of the United States and its allies, whose reckless and illegal actions have turned a vital international waterway into a zone of heightened tension and danger. Speaking at a United Nations Security Council high-level open debate on the safety and protection of waterways in the maritime domain on Monday, Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani, blamed Washington and its allies for escalating threats to maritime security. “Responsibility for any disruption, obstruction or other interference in maritime transport in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz lies directly with the aggressors, namely the United States and its supporters, whose illegal and destabilizing actions have escalated tensions and endangered maritime safety and freedom of navigation,” Iravani stated. The Iranian envoy emphasized that the Islamic Republic has always upheld freedom of navigation and maritime security in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. For decades, Iran has responsibly fulfilled its duties as a coastal state, guaranteeing the safety of sea lanes and the smooth flow of international shipping, he said. Iravani pointed out that the current crisis stems from the widespread and unjustified war of aggression launched by the United States and the Israeli regime against Iran since February 28. “Since February 28, the United States and the Israeli regime have waged an unwarranted large-scale war of aggression against Iran,” Iravani said. These acts constitute a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter, particularly Article 2(4), directly undermining maritime security and threatening regional and global peace, Iravani said. He warned that the Strait of Hormuz has been increasingly militarized by the US and its allies to facilitate hostile operations against Iran, including the movement of military equipment aimed at aggression. This dangerous militarization has exposed international shipping to unprecedented risks in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. “Meanwhile, the United States has continued its international wrongdoing by imposing a so-called naval blockade, illegally seizing Iranian merchant ships, and detaining their crews,” Iravani declared. “These dangerous and escalating actions violate international law, violate the Charter of the United Nations, constitute the crime of piracy, and are defined as acts of aggression under Article 3(c) of General Assembly Resolution 3314 of December 14, 1974,” he said. Iran strongly condemns these illegal measures and has called on the Security Council to take a decisive stand and condemn the aggressors, ensure full accountability, and demand the immediate and unconditional release of all seized Iranian ships and crews.

Trump Consulting With Iran Hawks Who Want Him To Restart Bombing Campaign - --Amid a US blockade on Iranian ports and a very fragile ceasefire with Iran, President Trump has been consulting with some of the most rabid Iran hawks who want him to restart the bombing campaign, according to a report from Axios. The report said Trump has been speaking with the notoriously hawkish Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Ret. US Army General Jack Keane, and Marc Thiessen, a Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for the George W. Bush administration, who has been urging the president to kill more of Iran’s leadership.Trump recently shared a post from Thiessen where he called for the US to kill Iranian leaders who don’t want to give in to US demands. “If there are two factions in Iran, one that wants a deal and one that doesn’t, let’s kill the ones who don’t want a deal,” Thiessen said.. According to the Axios report, Trump is considering either restarting the bombing campaign or waiting to see if the US blockade and increasing sanctions have an impact. A Trump adviser told the outlet that Trump recently said that “all [Iran’s leaders] understand is bombs.” Israel, the US’s partner in the conflict, has also made clear that it’s eager to restart airstrikes on Iran. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that Israel is awaiting a “greenlight” from the US to kill the rest of the Khamenei family and plunge Iran into “the age of darkness and stone by blowing up central energy and electricity facilities and crushing national economic infrastructure,” echoing similar threats made by Trump.In the meantime, the US is attempting to ramp up the economic pressure on Iran, with the Treasury Department announcing more sanctions on Tuesday, part of the “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic. “This is maximum pressure everywhere and from all angles,” a senior administration official told Axios. “That could mean military action, too. It might not. It’s up to the president.”

Trump Urges Iran to Sign a Deal After Report Suggests US May Extend Blockade - (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Iran to ‘get smart soon’ and sign a deal, following days of deadlock in efforts to end the conflict and a media report that the U.S. would extend its blockade of Iran’s ports. In a post on Truth Social, Trump, who has said Iran can call if it wants to talk and has stressed repeatedly Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon, said the country ‘couldn’t get its act together.’ Get the Latest US Focused Energy News Delivered to You! It's FREE: Quick Sign-Up Here The Wall Street Journal cited U.S. officials as saying the president had instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran’s ports in a bid to force Tehran to capitulate. Officials said that Trump had opted to continue squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports with the blockade as his other options – resuming bombing or walking away from the conflict – carried more risk, according to the WSJ. “They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They’d better get smart soon!” Trump said in the post on Wednesday, without explaining what such a deal would entail. Iran wants some kind of U.S. acknowledgment of its right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful, civilian purposes. It has a stockpile of roughly 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60%, material that could be used for several nuclear weapons if further enriched. Iranian officials said on Tuesday the country could withstand the blockade as it was using alternative trade routes, and the Islamic Republic did not consider the war over. The conflict has killed thousands, thrown energy markets into turmoil and disrupted global trade routes. Iran’s most recent offer for resolving the two-month war, suspended since April 8 under a ceasefire agreement, would set aside discussion of its nuclear programme until the conflict is formally ended and shipping issues resolved. That proposal did not meet Trump’s demand to have the nuclear issue discussed from the outset, however. U.S. intelligence agencies, at the request of senior administration officials, are studying how Iran would respond if Trump were to declare a unilateral victory in the two-month-old war that has become a political liability for the White House, two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Tehran has largely blocked all shipping apart from its own from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy supplies, since the war began on February 28. This month, the U.S. began blockading Iranian ships. Trump’s Truth Social post featured a mock-up image of himself in dark glasses and wielding a machine gun with the caption “No more Mr. Nice Guy.” Hopes of a swift resolution to the conflict have receded since Trump last weekend scrapped a visit by his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to mediator Pakistan. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi visited the country twice during the weekend. Since several senior Iranian political and military figures were killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power, which may be hardening Tehran’s negotiating stance. The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, and the elevation of his wounded son, Mojtaba, to replace him as supreme leader, has handed more power to hardline commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian officials and analysts say. Trump is under domestic pressure to end a war for which he has given the U.S. public shifting rationales. His approval rating fell to the lowest level of his current term, as Americans increasingly soured on his handling of the cost of living and the unpopular war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll showed 34% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, down from 36% in the prior survey.

'No More Mr. Nice Guy': Trump Threatens Iran With AI Image of Himself Holding a Gun - President Trump on Wednesday issued a threat to Iran by posting an AI image of himself holding a gun, which comes amid reports that he is considering restarting the bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic. “Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon! President DJT,” the president wrote on Truth Social in a post at about 4 am EST. Also on Wednesday, Axios reported that US Central Command has prepared a plan for a “short and powerful” wave of airstrikes against Iran to break the deadlock in negotiations, but any US strikes would almost certainly plunge the region back into a full-blown war.Sources told Axios that there hasn’t yet been a decision by Trump to restart the bombing, but he appeared to confirm a report from The Wall Street Journal that said he told aides to prepare for a long-term blockade on Iran, which will continue to exacerbate the global economic crisis caused by the war.“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing. They are choking like a stuffed pig. And it is going to be worse for them. They can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told Axios.“They want to settle. They don’t want me to keep the blockade. I don’t want to [lift the blockade], because I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon,” the president added.While framing his aggression against Iran as related to the possibility of the country obtaining nukes, there was no evidence either before the June 2025 war or the current conflict that Iran was pursuing a nuclear bomb.

Trump and Putin Discuss Ukraine and Iran in Phone Call - President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Wednesday, during which the two leaders discussed the wars in Ukraine and Iran. According to Russian officials, during the call, Putin said he was ready to declare a ceasefire with Ukraine on May 9 for Victory Day, the day Russia celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II. Trump told reporters that he “suggested a little bit of a ceasefire” and that Putin might announce it soon. It’s unclear whether the ceasefire will hold, as a recent short truce meant to last 32 hours for Orthodox Easter fell apart quickly, with both sides accusing the other of violating the deal. The Trump-Putin call comes as the Trump administration’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine appear to be stalled, and the four-year-old conflict continues to rage.Yury Ushakov, an aide to Putin, said the Russian leader expressed support for Trump’s decision to extend the ceasefire with Iran, though he warned against the US restarting the bombing campaign and launching a ground invasion. “The Russian president drew attention to the inevitable, extremely harmful consequences not only for Iran and its neighbors, but also for the entire international community if the United States and Israel resort to violent actions again,” Ushakov said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. “And, of course, the option of a ground operation on the territory of Iran seems completely unacceptable and dangerous,” the Kremlin aide added.After the call, Trump was asked which war he thought would end first, and he said he didn’t know. “Which war would end first? I don’t know, maybe they’re on a similar timetable,” he said.

Putin Presents Victory Day Truce In Ukraine During 90-Minute Trump Call With things in the Persian Gulf and the Iran War 'stuck'... it's apparently time to pivot back to that other 'stuck' war, in Ukraine. President Trump on Wednesday spoke over the phone with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, with the call reportedly lasting an impressive 1.5+ hours, and the talk centered on finding ways forward both with the Iran and Ukraine conflicts.The most important item to emerge was that Putin reportedly proposed declaring a ceasefire in Ukraine on May 9, which is Russia's 'Victory Day' in World War II, and Trump endorsed the idea.Russian Presidential Aide for Foreign Affairs Yury Ushakov told reporters that the call was initiated by the Moscow side - and according to him, "Vladimir Putin informed his American counterpart of his readiness to declare a truce for the period of Victory Day celebrations."Here is some of the readout and Ushakov's remarks to the press in Moscow: "At Trump's request, Vladimir Putin described the current situation along the line of contact, where our troops are holding the strategic initiative and pushing back the enemy’s positions," Ushakov told reporters."Both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump expressed essentially similar assessments of the behavior of the Kyiv regime led by [Volodymyr] Zelensky, which, incited and with the support of the Europeans, is pursuing a policy of prolonging the conflict."Russia's invasion of Ukraine has devastated swathes of Ukrainian territory, killed thousands of civilians and forced millions to flee their homes.Putin said he was ready "to declare a ceasefire for the duration of Victory Day celebrations. Trump actively supported this initiative, noting that the holiday marks our shared victory," Ushakov said. . The timing is interesting, given that the White House is clearly consumed with the Iran war, the Hormuz Strait crisis, and the expanding economic fallout globally and at home. Putin it seems is seeking the opportunity to soften Washington's stance toward Moscow's perspective of the Ukraine war.But they did also heavily discuss Trump's Operation Epic Fury. Ideas for resolving the conflict were discussed - though few details on this have emerged. Putin as expected called for peace, and said that extending the ceasefire was the right move by Trump. According to some of the published statements:  "Vladimir Putin considers Donald Trump's decision to extend the ceasefire with Iran to be the right one, as this should give negotiations a chance and, overall, help to stabilize the situation." But Putin also "highlighted the inevitable and extremely damaging consequences not only for Iran and its neighbors, but also for the entire international community, should the U.S. and Israel resort to military action once again," Ushakov said. He added Russia was "firmly committed to providing every possible assistance to diplomatic efforts" on the Middle East war, and said the call was held at Moscow's initiative.    Despite that Iran remains a key regional ally of Russia's, it remains that Moscow has benefited from both the easing of sanctions on its oil exports at sea, and rising global oil prices - both the result of the Iran war.

Washington’s self-induced energy crisis leaves Moscow as the only option - Washington did not intend to strengthen Russia when it launched its campaign against Tehran. But that is exactly what is happening. And the longer this conflict drags on, the more the global energy crisis is exacerbated. Russia’s war chest will only accelerate in its rate of replenishment — not despite U.S. policy, but because of it. With now roughly one-fifth of global energy flows removed due to the closure of Hormuz, the world has seen the effects firsthand. Tanker traffic has ground to a halt. Insurance costs have surged. The U.S. has not seen extreme impacts, but countries across Asia and Oceania now face increasingly tightening supply conditions with fewer viable alternatives. Energy demand did not simply vanish when Hormuz shut down. That shift is where the policy failure begins to show. In response to rising prices and increasing political pressure, Washington quickly introduced a flurry of waivers of sanctions tied to Russian energy. Several general licenses authorizing the sale of Russian crude oil were meant to temper rapidly rising energy markets. They failed. These licenses were released reactively and showed a clear lack of planning. In the case of general license 134, the initial wording didn’t even account for deliveries to obvious jurisdictions like Cuba and North Korea, requiring a rapid amendment to form general license 134A. Across the board, the total lack of transparency and coherence has made it nearly impossible to quantify the full impact of these waivers in real time. The poor communication from Bessent only made the optics more offensive. From “jiu-jistuing” our adversaries to the unpredictable flip-flopping on whether or not to extend Russian sanctions waivers, no country has been able to make energy decisions with any kind of even short-term clarity. Prior to the conflict, Russian Urals crude oil traded at a notable discount to Brent crude oil. Sanctions pressure forced Moscow to sell below market price to maintain volume. That constraint has now been eliminated. Now, Russian barrels are trading at parity or even at a substantial premium to Brent. Even the most conservative estimates point to a multi-billion-dollar windfall now tied directly to the combination of sanctions easing and a supply-constrained market.That does not mean every dollar of Russia’s recent revenue surge can be attributed to these waivers. It cannot. Rapidly increasing energy prices also play a significant role. But the direction is unmistakable. . The closure of Hormuz is not a short-term disruption that resolves with a tweet or a Truth Social post. Mine clearing operations take time. Security guarantees take longer. Even under ideal conditions, restoring normal tanker flow requires weeks of sustained stability and safety assurances, followed by a clearing of the bottleneck and finally, transit timelines that extend supply recovery even further. Asia and Oceania do not have that kind of time. Gulf Cooperation Council countries cannot fully compensate when one of the world’s main transit corridors is constrained. Demand destruction is not a quick fix when it translates into blackouts, industrial shutdowns and economic contraction across multiple countries. Which leaves one remaining pressure valve large enough to stave off this crisis: Russian energy. For almost five years now, the West’s sanctions policy has been built on the assumption that restricting Russian energy exports would weaken Moscow. That assumption no longer holds in the current environment. Now, restricting Russian energy risks compounding an already fragile supply situation. Expanding access to it, however, comes with its own cost. Every barrel of Russian energy sold at this increased pricing strengthens the very war chest the West spent years trying to constrain. That is the reality Washington is now faced with. Continue with the current approach, and energy shortages deepen across Asia and Oceania. Expand sanctions relief, and Russia benefits financially in ways that unwind years of work from the West. That is not an accident. It is the result of a strategy that failed to fully account for a prolonged conflict. Operation Economic Fury was designed on a flawed premise intended to force an expeditious diplomatic resolution through economic strain. But the rest of the world does not have the time to play a waiting game with unknown timelines. Washington did not just fail to force Tehran to capitulate, it created the conditions under which Russia can thrive. In doing so, it risks undoing years of economic pressure on Moscow in a matter of months. These are the costs of poor planning, poor execution and playing a waiting game with a regime that has planned for this for 47 years. The problem is not just a prolonged conflict or a disrupted market, but an outcome that runs completely undermines our long-term objectives. The Trump administration may claim that we are experiencing short-term pain for long-term gain, but the reality is the polar opposite.

Israeli Media: Israel Prepares for a Return To War With Iran as Trump Briefed on Potential Strikes - Israeli media reported on Thursday that Israel is preparing for the possibility of returning to war with Iran as President Trump is considering restarting the bombing campaign.The Times of Israel reported that, according to Israel’s Channel 12, Israeli officials believe that negotiations between the US and Iran, which have been stalled due to the ongoing US blockade, could totally collapse as early as next week. The report said that Israeli ministers were briefed that the US might try to give Iran a “push” to add to the pressure campaign aimed at getting Tehran to capitulate to US demands. Axios has also reported that Trump was set to be briefed on Thursday about the possibility of launching “short and powerful” attacks on Iran to break the deadlock, but any strikes would almost certainly mean a return to full-blown war.  A senior Iranian general warned on Thursday that Iran would respond to any US attacks with “long and painful” strikes on US positions in the region. “We’ve seen what happened to your regional bases, we will see the same thing happen to your warships,” said Aerospace Force Commander Majid Mousavi, according to Reuters. Israeli officials have made clear that they want to return to war with Iran, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying last week that Israel was waiting for a “green light” from the US to kill the rest of the Khamenei family and plunge Iran into the “ages of darkness and stone” by destroying energy infrastructure, echoing similar threats. made by President Trump.

White House Claims Ceasefire Resets War Powers Act Deadline -A senior White House official claimed that President Donald Trump does not need Congressional approval to continue the war against Iran because the ongoing ceasefire negates the deadline imposed by the War Powers Act. On Thursday, a US official told News Nation that “for War Powers Resolution purposes,” the war against Iran had ended. The War Powers Act was passed after the Vietnam War and was intended to strengthen Congressional oversight over war. Additionally, the War Powers Act is a law and does not alter the Constitutional limits on Presidential war powers. The Constitution grants Congress the exclusive power to declare war. However, the law has been reinterpreted to allow a President to wage war for 60 days without seeking Congressional approval. The 60-day deadline for the war in Iran expired on Friday, and if Trump wants to restart the war, he needs Congress to pass a Declaration of War or Authorization for Use of Military Force. The administration appears to be attempting to use the ceasefire, which began three weeks ago, to sidestep the War Powers Act. “We are in a ceasefire right now, which [in] our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops,” Hegseth told Sen Tim Kaine during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.Congress has attempted to invoke the War Powers Act multiple times to force Trump to end the war against Iran. The resolutions have been defeated by the Republican majorities in both houses. Only Republicans Rand Paul and Thomas Massie have broken with the GOP and voted to end the conflict.

US May Deploy New Hypersonic Missile Against Iran as Trump Considers Restarting the Bombing Campaign - US Central Command has requested the deployment of the US’s hypersonic missile, known as the Dark Eagle, for potential use against Iran, as President Trump is considering restarting the bombing campaign, Bloomberg has reported. The US has already used a missile for the first time against Iran, a short-range ballistic missile called the Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, which, according to an investigation from The New York Times, was used in a February 28 strike that hit a sports hall in the Iranian city of Lamerd, killing at least 21 people in the area, including boys and girls practicing sports.The Bloomberg report said that CENTCOM wants to use the Dark Eagle, also known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Missile (LRHW), because Iran’s missile launchers are now out of range of the PrSM, which can hit targets more than 300 miles away. The Dark Eagle reportedly has a range of 1,725 miles, though its capabilities are not public.Another reason the US wants to use the Dark Eagle in Iran is to demonstrate to Russia and China that it has hypersonic capabilities, as both Moscow and Beijing have already deployed hypersonic missiles, and the US’s LRHW project is very far behind schedule.If the US does deploy the Dark Eagle to the Middle East, it won’t have many to use. A source told Bloomberg that each missile, developed by Lockheed Martin, costs about $15 million and that there are no more than eight. The batteries to fire the Dark Eagle also cost about $3.6 billion.According to Axios, President Trump was scheduled to receive a briefing on Thursday on the possibility of launching strikes against Iran from CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper. The idea would be to launch a limited bombing campaign to break a deadlock in negotiations, though any US strikes would almost certainly plunge the region into a full-blown war.The report also said another option being presented to Trump would be to use military force to open the Strait of Hormuz, which could involve ground forces.

Iran Submits New Proposal to Pakistan to Resume US Talks - Iran has submitted a new proposal to Pakistan to resume negotiations with the United States aimed at reaching an agreement to end the war.Iran sent its latest draft proposal for negotiations to Pakistan on Thursday evening, The Caspian Post reports, citing IRNA. The report did not provide details on the content of the new proposal.

Iran offers new proposal amid stalled US peace talks – CNA - Iran delivered a new proposal for peace talks with the US via mediator Pakistan, state media reported on Friday (May 1), with negotiations between the two sides frozen despite a weeks-long ceasefire. The text of the proposal was handed to Islamabad on Thursday evening, the IRNA news agency reported. The White House said on Friday it will not detail private diplomatic conversations when asked about Iran's new proposal to the US."We do not detail private diplomatic conversations. President Trump has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon, and negotiations continue to ensure the short- and long-term national security of the United States,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters.The war, launched by the United States and Israel with a vast wave of surprise strikes on Feb 28 has been on hold since Apr 8, but only one failed round of direct talks has taken place between Iranian and US representatives.In the meantime, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off vast amounts of oil, gas and fertiliser from the world economy, while the United States has imposed a counterblockade on Iranian ports.The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that US President Donald Trump had told security officials to prepare for the blockade to last months, causing oil prices to spike.Despite the failure to negotiate an end to the war, the ceasefire has held. On Friday, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, a senior figure and well-respected cleric, said "the Islamic Republic has never shied away from negotiations". But in yet another sign that finding a compromise may prove difficult, Ejei said "we certainly do not accept imposition", in a video shared by the judiciary's Mizan Online website.Tehran, though, does not want a return to war, he said."We do not welcome war in any way; we do not want war, we do not want its continuation."The lack of fighting has not assuaged markets, with oil prices still more than 50 per cent above their prewar levels as traders confront a prolonged closure of Hormuz, while the European Central Bank held interest rates amid fears of soaring inflation.Washington, meanwhile, was gripped by a legalistic debate over whether Trump had passed a deadline for requesting congressional approval for his war with Iran.Administration officials, including defence secretary Pete Hegseth, insisted that the ceasefire meant that the clock was paused on a 60-day deadline requiring the president to seek war powers authorisation from Congress. "For War Powers Resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb 28 have terminated," a senior administration official told AFP late on Thursday.

Pentagon Seeks 3,203 PAC-3 Missiles as Interceptor Stockpiles Deplete -   The United States Department of Defense is seeking to procure 3,203 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors in fiscal year 2027, according to budget documents released on April 3 and analyzed by Ria Novosti.  The figure appears in the Pentagon’s budget overview, reflecting a significant increase in interceptor acquisition as part of a broader expansion in missile defense capabilities. ‘Near-Term Risk’ Warned: US Missile Stockpiles Depleted after Iran War – CNN.   The procurement is included within a $1.5 trillion military budget request, representing a substantial rise compared to the previous fiscal year and signaling an accelerated push in munitions production.The bulk of the planned procurement is led by the US Army, which has requested 2,798 PAC-3 MSE interceptors for FY2027.This marks a sharp increase compared to FY2026, when the Army procured 358 missiles through a combination of discretionary and mandatory funding streams.Budget figures show Army allocations for the program rising from approximately $1.65 billion in FY2026 to $12.23 billion in FY2027, reflecting a dramatic expansion in both funding and acquisition scale.In a notable development, the US Navy is requesting 405 PAC-3 MSE interceptors, marking its first procurement of the system.The move suggests plans to integrate the interceptor into naval platforms, including the Aegis Weapons System and MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems, expanding the role of PAC-3 MSE beyond traditional land-based deployment. The combined funding request for the PAC-3 MSE program totals approximately $13.96 billion, with a significant portion—over $12.5 billion—expected to come from mandatory funding channels outside standard discretionary allocations.

US Fumes After Iran Chosen as a Vice President of Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference -  --The US and Iran clashed at the UN on Monday during the first day of a month-long conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which began amid a very fragile ceasefire between the two countries and a continued US blockade on Iranian ports.  Christopher Yeaw, the US assistant secretary for arms control, fumed over the fact that Iran was chosen as one of the 34 vice presidents of the conference, which is being chaired by Vietnam.“Rather than choosing to use this review conference to defend the integrity of the NPT and call Iran to account, we instead elect Iran a vice president,” Yeaw said, according to The Associated Press. “It is beyond shameful and an embarrassment to the credibility of this conference.” Iran’s representative at the conference, Reza Najafi, who serves as Tehran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), fired back at Yeaw, pointing out that the US is the only country to ever use a nuclear weapon.“It is indefensible that the United States, as the only state ever to have used nuclear weapons, and the one that continues to expand and modernize its nuclear arsenal… seeks to position itself as an arbitrator of compliance,” Najafi said.He pointed out the US and Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, calling the attacks a “grave violation of international law and a direct assault on the integrity of the global nonproliferation” system.Najafi also said that the US was obstructing progress toward a nuclear weapons-free Middle East by supporting Israel, which, unlike Iran, is not a signatory to the NPT and has a secret nuclear weapons program and an undeclared nuclear stockpile. The US also doesn’t acknowledge Israel’s nukes, a policy that allows the US to provide military assistance to Israel without worrying about the 1976 Symington Amendment, a foreign assistance law that prohibits aid to countries that traffic in or receive nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside of international safeguards. “I can’t comment on that specific question. I’d have to refer you to the Israelis on that,” Thomas DiNanno, the US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said last month when asked about Israel’s nuclear capabilities.  Israel’s nuclear arsenal, which is estimated to be somewhere between 70 and 400 nuclear warheads, is almost always missing from the conversation in US media coverage and political discussions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, which has never been used to develop weapons. Last year, the AP reported that satellite images showed construction work on a major new facility at the Dimona nuclear site, and seven experts who examined the images all told the AP that they believed the construction was related to Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

War deepens generational rift inside Iranian-American households -- As a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran holds, thousands in the Iranian-American diaspora are still reeling from the wave of infighting over the war, one that has both painfully and publicly fractured the community.To outsiders, those disagreements look like explosive arguments on social media and duelling protests either celebrating or condemning US-Israeli air strikes on the Islamic Republic.The most difficult tensions, however, are unfolding far from public view, inside living rooms and across dinner tables, where families grapple over Iran’s future.Recent polling points to a generational divide within the diaspora in views on the war. A March 2026 survey by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans found that individuals aged 18 to 34 are less likely to support US-Israeli strikes or US backing of opposition figures seeking political change in Iran. Younger Iranian Americans are also more inclined towards diplomatic engagement, including easing sanctions rather than pursuing regime change, and express greater concern about civilian casualties in Iran. Rei Gundo, a 26-year-old anti-war Iranian American from Michigan,  said growing up around Iranian women shaped his view of the Islamic Republic as oppressive, particularly towards women. He cited stories from his mother, who was politically active in Michigan during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, about the harassment and abuse young women faced at the hands of the morality police in her youth in Iran. But Rei’s father, who is Black and from New York City, also played a part in shaping his early understanding of inequality. Conversations with relatives on his father’s side challenged what he was taught in school, leading him to question dominant accounts of slavery and Black history. As he’s gotten older, he says, that instinct drives him to challenge narratives about American imperialism and racism - and apply those to Iran. “As you get older, you develop more opinions. One thing I think about a lot is that the US can be just as oppressive for women.”His opposition to US military involvement in Iran has led to frequent confrontations in recent months with his grandmother, who backs US intervention to remove the current government and supports the return of exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi.“If my grandma were an indicator of monarchists in this country, they just want America to win and don’t care about anything else except getting the government out. That’s not going to happen. America has never gone to war and toppled a government without destroying the country.”Despite the emotional toll of tensions at home, Rei said he shows greater patience with his grandmother, committing to the long, often frustrating, process of repeated conversations in hopes of changing her views, an effort he wouldn’t extend to a friend or acquaintance. “My grandma’s views on the genocide in Gaza have changed, but that was a battle. So change is possible, but we have to remember people have been exposed to years of propaganda.” Rei says the most challenging part is that his grandmother has spent years watching Persian-language satellite channels like Manoto, which has shaped her understanding of events in Iran.Funded by a monarchist couple, the London-based network blends entertainment with political commentary and ranks among the two most popular Persian-language satellite channels for Iranian audiences, especially older generations who distrust social media.Manoto often presents Iran’s recent history through a nostalgic lens, portraying the Pahlavi era as a “golden age” and the 1979 revolution as the root of the country’s current crises. The channel went off air in 2010, but continues to operate online.Another outlet popular among the diaspora is Iran International, founded in 2017, which is a 24-hour Persian-language news channel linked by a Guardian investigation to Saudi funding via a secretive offshore entity. It has also faced criticism from Iranian journalists and scholars as a mouthpiece for some of the government’s most hardline opponents, including pro-Israel voices.

White House makes 'two Kings' post with Donald Trump, King Charles photo  -The White House posted a picture of President Trump and King Charles III with the caption “two Kings” amid the monarch’s visit to the U.S. on Tuesday.Opponents of the president have used the phrase “No Kings” in protests against the Trump administration. On Sunday, Trump rejected the monarch title in a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview.  “I’m not a King, if I was a King, I wouldn’t be dealing with you,” the president told Norah O’Donnell. Trump blamed the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on recent “No Kings” protests across the country, protests that organizers say exist to oppose Trump’s consolidation and expansion of power. The suspect in the shooting reportedly attended a “No Kings” protest in California in addition to spreading anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric online, according to reports. “I don’t feel like a king; I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” Trump said during remarks on the topic last June.  “A king would say, ‘I’m not going to get this.’ A king would have never had the California mandate to even be talking, he wouldn’t have to call up [Speaker] Mike Johnson and [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune and say, ‘Fellas you got to pull this off’ and after years we get it done,” he added. “No, no we’re not a king. We’re not a king at all.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for the uptick in political violence and Saturday’s shooting. y climate charity Global Witness for the Guardian found that major oil and gas companies made over $30m an hour in the first month of the war on Iran.This comes as UK household energy bills are projected to rise by as much as £300 ($406) a year from July due to shortages caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with recent polling suggesting 44 percent of the public would be unable to afford these increases, as well as triggering global food insecurity. Meanwhile, the CEOs of Britain’s biggest energy companies have seen their personal fortunes surge by millions following the crisis. Linda Cook, chief executive of oil and gas company Harbour Energy, saw her shareholdings in the company rise by more than £4m to a total of £26m in the month after US-Israeli strikes began in late February. In the same period, the value of Shell CEO Wael Sawan's shares in the company increased by nearly £1.8m, to reach £13.2m, according to the End Fuel Poverty coalition. Centrica boss Chris O’Shea saw the value of his shares rise by over £300,000 and BP's deputy chief executive Carol Howle’s stake grew by over £500,000.Globally, Chevron chief executive Michael Wirth saw more than £44m added to the value of his stake in the company, and Equinor, the Norwegian firm that supplies much of the UK’s gas, saw its shares rise by over 45 percent.Because oil and gas markets are globally priced, “disruptions in supply anywhere in the system raises prices everywhere,” A similar trend is true for defence companies. On Monday, a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) found that global military expenditure had increased to $2.887 trillion in 2025, the 11th year of consecutive rises.As the United States spends on average $1.8bn a day paying for the war on Iran, Lockheed Martin - the largest Pentagon contractor, which often takes in more taxpayer money than the entire State Department - saw its stock price rise by nearly 40 percent at the beginning of March since the start of 2026.  “From an incentive perspective, these outcomes are predictable consequences of systems in which uncertainty and risk are directly monetised,” said Tamvada, with “expectations of future instability” leading to a rise in defence stocks. The cost of such instability is not felt by these corporations but rather experienced as a benefit. “In effect, risk is socialised downward to consumers while upside is concentrated upwards,” “It is not that a shortage increases the companies’ costs. Instead they charge more because they can. They pocket the difference,”

Mitch McConnell lays into Pentagon for sitting on $400M in Ukraine aid - Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who now chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, is taking the Pentagon to task for sitting on $400 million in military aid to Ukraine authorized by Congress. And he is putting the spotlight on Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of Defense for policy, as the most likely obstacle to sending the aid that Republican lawmakers supported last year. “Republican majorities on both armed services committees authorized $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for each of the next two years. Appropriators fully funded that authorization for fiscal 2026 with overwhelming support,” McConnell wrote in an op-ed published in The Washington Post. “Yet the Ukraine aid we passed months ago is now collecting dust at the Pentagon,” he added. “When Senate appropriators have sought an explanation from the department’s policy shop, led by Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, they’ve been stonewalled.” The $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act approved by Congress for fiscal 2026 provided $400 million for Ukraine in 2026 and another $400 million in 2027 through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. The funding was intended to pay for the production of high-priority weapons by American companies for Ukraine’s armed forces. McConnell noted in his op-ed that Colby, according to media reports, made the decision to suspend arms shipments to Ukraine last year. “This doesn’t seem to be a first for Colby. Last year, he was reportedly behind the decision to suspend arms shipments to Kyiv — a decision that one source said caught President Donald Trump ‘flat-footed,’” he wrote. “Colby also determined that security assistance to Ukraine and America’s NATO allies in the Baltics was ‘wasteful’ and removed these long-standing efforts from the fiscal 2026 budget request,” he noted. McConnell said Republican majorities in Congress restored the funding because they viewed it as an important investment in national security. “In the first two years of the full-scale war, support for Ukraine drove billions of dollars in investments in the U.S. defense industrial base,” he wrote. Even though McConnell viewed former President Biden’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “anemic,” he argued members of the Senate Appropriations Committee were able to pass supplemental funding under Biden to expand production capacity for critical munitions and components. McConnell also criticized the Defense Department’s leadership for limiting the number of U.S. advisers who are allowed to travel to Ukraine, asserting that policy limits the Pentagon’s ability to learn about battlefield innovations. “I know … officers who are eager to apply Ukrainians’ counter-drone and electronic warfare lessons to the U.S. Army’s preparations for future conflicts. They can’t learn from a war, however, if they can’t properly observe it,” he wrote.

Trump pulls thousands of troops from Germany, hits EU with new auto tariffs --President Donald Trump on Friday escalated tensions with the European Union, with reported plans to pull thousands of U.S. military personnel from Germany and an announcement of 25 percent tariffs on imported European cars and trucks. Both decisions came amid strained relations over the Iran war, raising fresh concerns inside NATO about Washington’s long-term commitment to the alliance.Newsweek obtained a statement from the Pentagon that said around 5,000 personnel would withdraw from bases in Germany as a direct result of the country’s lack of support for the U.S. war in Iran and “follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground. We expect the withdrawal to be completed over the next six to twelve months.”Some troops may return to the U.S. and then be redeployed elsewhere in the world, including the Indo-Pacific region, according to CBS News, which also said that one combat team will be impacted by the withdrawal, while another battalion meant for deployment later this year will now be reassigned.The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest U.S> military hospital outside the U.S., would not be affected, the officials said.The president has been advocating for an increase in car manufacturing in the United States, using tariffs as one method to leverage that wish with manufacturers.In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump said tariffs on EU-made vehicles would rise to 25 percent (from 10-15 percent) starting next week, accusing the bloc of failing to comply with the transatlantic trade deal announced last summer.The president argued the move would push automakers to relocate production to the United States, saying vehicles built in U.S. plants would not face duties.The White House has framed the tariffs as part of a broader push to rebalance trade and boost domestic manufacturing.“I am pleased to announce that, based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The Tariff will be increased to 25%. It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce Cars and Trucks in U.S.A. Plants, there will be NO TARIFF.”

Former Top Biden Official Says Netanyahu 'Created a Genocide' in Gaza - - Wendy Sherman, who served as President Biden’s deputy secretary of state, said in an interview with Bloomberg published on April 24 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “created a genocide” in Gaza, a rare acknowledgment of the US-supported atrocities Israel committed against Palestinian civilians from a former Biden official. Despite holding the view that Israel committed genocide, Sherman, who left the Biden administration in July 2023, before the start of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, still said it was important for the US to support Israel.“It is critical that Israel remains an ally of the US and we protect the right of a Jewish state,” Sherman said. “I also believe that Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] has led us down a road — and we have been part of it — that has, in essence, created a genocide in Gaza that has destabilized the Middle East.” When asked more about her opinion that Israel committed genocide in Gaza and whether that was a prevalent view among her fellow Jewish Americans, Sherman said, “I can’t make the legal analysis about whether it is literally a genocide, but there is no doubt Gaza was demolished.”She added that she is a “strong supporter of Israel and the right of a Jewish state, but I am not a supporter of destroying any civilization, or any people — that goes for the Palestinians or the Iranian people, as much as I might find the regime odious.”Sherman led negotiations with Iran during the Obama administration, culminating in the 2015 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal. The agreement placed strict restrictions on Iran’s nuclear enrichment, but President Trump tore up the deal in 2018, leading to Iran increasing enrichment levels, which the current Trump administration then used in its attempts to justify attacking the country.Sherman told Bloomberg that the US has “not dealt with the Middle East in a way that’s helped create stability and peace.”“Obviously the Iraq war was a disaster. Then, Obama tried to deal with Iran – that was undone by Trump. Could the Biden administration have done more? I’m sure we could have. Every administration, in hindsight, could have done more.
The politics in our country have been very tied up with our relationship with Israel, in many ways. It’s a tough call and something we all have to unpack,” she added.

US Launches at Least Two More Airstrikes in Somalia as US Media Ignores Bombing Campaign - The US has launched at least two more airstrikes in Somalia as the escalated US bombing campaign continues to receive virtually no media coverage in the US.According to a press release from US Africa Command, its forces launched “airstrikes” against the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region on April 25 and April 26. No other details were released about the attack, and there’s been no statement from US-backed Puntland forces about operations on those days.AFRICOM didn’t specify how many airstrikes it launched, but counting it as two brings the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to at least 60, putting it well on track to break the record for annual bombings that President Trump set in 2025, when at least 124 airstrikes were launched, according to AFRICOM numbers.Besides bombing the ISIS affiliate in Puntland, which is based in caves in a remote mountain region, the US has also been supporting the Mogadishu-based Federal Government in its war against al-Shabaab. The US has been fighting against al-Shabaab since it first emerged following the 2006 US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. The ISIS affiliate was created in 2015 and started as an offshoot of al-Shabaab.President Trump has overseen a major escalation of the US air war in Somalia, which began after he loosened the rules of engagement by lifting restrictions on US drone strikes and raids carried out outside of officially declared combat zones. According to New America, an organization that tracks the air war, the US launched more airstrikes in Somalia in 2025 than were conducted during the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush combined.

One Year After Bombing, Amnesty Calls for US Strike on Yemen Migrant Facility To Be Investigated as a War Crime --Tuesday marked one year since the US bombed a migrant detention facility in Saada, northern Yemen, killing 68 African migrants, and Amnesty International has reiterated its call for the attack to be investigated as a potential war crime. The strike was part of the Trump administration’s bombing campaign in Yemen dubbed “Operation Rough Rider,” which was carried out from March 15, 2025, to May 6, 2025, and killed more than 250 civilians. Less than two weeks before the migrant facility strike, on April 17, 2025, the US bombed the Ras Issa fuel port on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, killing 84 people, all civilians. Amnesty said that the impunity of the US bombing campaign in Yemen led to the US bombing of the elementary school in southern Iran on February 28 of this year, which killed 120 boys and girls.“The Trump administration’s approach to its air strikes in Yemen from March to May 2025 should have set off alarm bells in the USA and around the world, clearly signaling an urgent need to strengthen measures to protect civilians. Instead, the US administration has systematically weakened safeguards, shrinking offices aimed at reducing civilian harm, while simultaneously displaying a dangerous disregard for the lives of civilians endangered by armed conflicts,” said Nadia Daar, Director of Amnesty International USA. “Against that backdrop, attacks such as the US attack on a school in Minab in Iran, which killed 156 people, including 120 children, were a tragically foreseeable consequence of a failure to implement robust civilian-harm mitigation efforts,” Daar added.Amnesty noted that there’s been no accountability for the US strike on the migrant facility and that the US hasn’t clarified the status of an investigation it previously announced. The migrant facility was previously targeted by Saudi Arabia in January 2022, a strike that killed 91 civilians, according to the Yemen data project.The US was providing Riyadh with intelligence for its bombing campaign in Yemen, meaning it should have been aware that targeting the facility would have caused mass civilian casualties, and Amnesty’s investigation into the US strike found there was no evidence of a military target.

US Southern Command Says Two Killed in Boat Strike in the Eastern Pacific Ocean - - US Southern Command said in a statement on Friday that its forces blew up another alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and killed two people as the bombing campaign against small civilian vessels continues.As usual, SOUTHCOM offered no evidence to back up its claims that the boat was carrying drugs, something the Pentagon hasn’t done since starting the bombing campaign on September 2, 2025.  Video of the strike released by SOUTHCOM.    SOUTHCOM said the two people it killed were “narco-terrorists,” a term the Trump administration employs in its attempts to justify extra-judicial executions at sea for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US.According to a count from The Intercept, the latest strike brings the total number of boats that have been destroyed to 55, and the number of people killed to at least 183. All of the dead were civilians since they were operating civilian vessels, were not engaged in combat, and didn’t pose any threat to the US at the time of the strikes.The latest boat strike comes after survivors of two US boat strikes on Ecuadorian fishing vessels spoke to Drop Site News and alleged that they were captured and held by US forces after their boats were blown up.“The fishermen told Drop Site News they’d been struck by a drone with a yellow cylinder five days earlier, forced to jump overboard to escape the fire caused by the explosion, and subsequently taken captive by forces on a US-flagged blue patrol ship,” Drop Site reported, citing accounts from the crew of La Negra Francisca Duarte II, one of the boats that was targeted.The Drop Site report also cited Roxanna Mero, the wife of an Ecuadorian fisherman who disappeared after a US boat strike in January. Mero told the outlet that the last time she spoke with her husband, Carlos, was on January 19, when he said that “American aircraft, two drones, and a blue patrol ship” were circling his boat, La Fiorella.Carlos was worried about the presence of a US aircraft due to the US bombing campaign, but also relayed that a local coast guard vessel had already inspected his boat and found nothing. “The next day, the boat went up in smoke. The eight fishermen aboard have not been seen since,” the report said.

US Boat Strike Kills Three in the Eastern Pacific Ocean -  --US Southern Command said on Sunday that its forces bombed another alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least three people, as the Trump administration has ramped up the bombing campaign in recent weeks. SOUTHCOM offered no evidence to back up its claims that the boat was carrying narcotics, something the Pentagon hasn’t done for any of the vessels it has targeted, and several accounts from survivors and family members of victims of other strikes suggest the US has previously targeted fishing boats that weren’t running drugs.  Video of the April 26 strike release by SOUTHCOM.  SOUTHCOM described the three people it killed in the latest strike as “narco-terrorists,” a term the Trump administration has adopted to justify what are extra-judicial executions at sea for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US. According to a count from The Intercept, the latest strike brings the total number of boats that have been destroyed to 56, and the number of people killed to at least 186. All of the dead were civilians since they were operating civilian vessels, were not engaged in combat, and didn’t pose any threat to the US at the time of the strikes.  Since the start of the very shaky ceasefire between the US and Iran, the US has dramatically ramped up its bombing campaign against small boats in the waters of Latin America, blowing up five in the Eastern Pacific Ocean within five days from April 11 to April 15. Last month, the US military expanded its campaign in Latin America by supporting Ecuadorian forces against alleged drug targets in Ecuador, an effort dubbed “Operation Total Extermination.”   According to a report from The New York Times, one of the first operations involved bombing what the US and Ecuador claimed was a drug camp, but turned out to be a dairy farm.

Senate Blocks Effort to Prevent Trump From Attacking Cuba - -- The Senate on Tuesday blocked an effort to prevent President Trump from launching an attack on Cuba without congressional authorization amid a ramped-up US oil embargo and planning for a potential war against the island nation.The War Powers Resolution, introduced by Tim Kaine (D-VA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), was blocked from moving forward in a vote of 51-47, with just two Republicans, Senators Rand Paul (KY) and Lisa Murkowski (AK), voting against shelving the bill.Only one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman, voted with Republicans to block the resolution. Fetterman has also joined Republicans in opposing legislation aimed at halting the US war against Iran.Ahead of the vote, Kaine said: “Trump’s war against Iran has been a disaster—servicemembers and civilians have died, and gas prices are skyrocketing. Now, he wants a new war with Cuba. My colleagues and I are firm: no new, unnecessary wars.”The vote came after media reports said that the Pentagon was increasing its planning for a potential war with Cuba, a military intervention President Trump has made clear he wants to carry out.“You know, all my life, I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. You know, when will the United States do it? I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba. That’d be a good honor,” the president told reporters last month.

Trump targets Cuba with fresh sanctions efforts - The White House announced that President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on senior Cuban officials, continuing a months-long effort by the administration to increase economic and security pressure on the island. Trump signed an executive order imposing “new sanctions on entities, persons, or affiliates that support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus, are complicit in government corruption or serious human rights violations,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Friday. It didn’t name the targets of the sanctions, News.Az reports, citing foreign media. Trump has repeatedly threatened action against the leftist Cuban government amid an intensifying US push to deprive the government of fuel and financing. The island, which has been under a smothering US embargo for decades, has suffered widespread blackouts in recent weeks as shipments of crude and fuel have been cut off.Those moves have prompted speculation about a possible US military effort to overthrow Cuba’s Communist regime, especially after Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and launched fresh airstrikes on Iran. In March, Trump said the US was talking to the island “but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba.”Friday’s order also allows the departments of State and Treasury to impose even more economic punishment on anyone linked to those sanctioned under it.On Wednesday, Cuba’s top diplomat accused Washington of trying to manufacture a pretext for toppling the government in Havana.Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously told Fox News that Cuba is a national security threat because it had “rolled out the welcome mat to adversaries” of the US. Washington has previously accused Havana of providing a toehold for Chinese and Russian forces in the hemisphere.

Taiwan Signs Six Major Arms Deals With US Worth About $6.6 Billion - Taiwan recently signed six arms deals with the US worth about $6.6 billion as the Trump administration is pushing ahead with major weapons sales to the island despite warnings from China. According to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, the agreements, which include a contract for HIMARS rocket systems, were signed earlier this month by the US’s de facto embassy in Taiwan, the American Institute in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s defense mission in the US, which is part of Taipei’s de facto embassy in Washington.The contracts appear to be a partial fulfillment of a massive $11 billion weapons package the Trump administration approved in December 2025, a figure greater than the $8.4 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during the entire Biden administration. According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, the six contracts signed this week include:

• M142 HIMARS Multiple Launch Rocket Systems valued at $3.9 billion
• M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzers valued at $2.3 billion
• A deal to replenish the Taiwanese military’s missile supply for $168.7 million
• Anti-armor missiles for Taiwan’s Navy are valued at $162 million
• Joint US-Taiwan production of large-caliber ammunition for $29 million
• Consulting services for air defense systems at $726,000 USD

China has made it very clear that it strongly opposes US arms sales to Taiwan, especially such massive deals. In response to the Trump administration approving the $11 billion package, the Chinese military launched major military drills around Taiwan, encircling the island to simulate a blockade.At the time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that anyone who “tries to arm Taiwan to contain China will only embolden the separatists and push the Taiwan Strait closer to the peril of armed conflict.”

China's Foreign Minister Tells Rubio That Taiwan Is the 'Biggest Risk Factor' in US-China Relations - - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him that the issue of Taiwan is the “biggest risk factor” in relations between Washington and Beijing, Chinese media has reported. “The Taiwan issue concerns China’s core interests and is the biggest risk factor in China-US relations,” Wang said, according to The South China Morning Post, which cited China’s CCTV broadcaster.“The US side should honor its commitments, make the right choice, open up new avenues for China-US cooperation, and do its part to promote world peace,” Wang added. The call comes after Taiwan’s government announced it had signed contracts with the US for about $6.6 billion in arms, including a nearly $4 billion sale of HIMARS rocket systems. The contracts are a partial fulfillment of a massive $11 billion weapons package that the Trump administration approved in December, a number that represents more arms deals than were approved during the entire Biden administration.China reacted strongly when the US approved the series of weapons deals, launching major military drills around Taiwan simulating a blockade. Beijing first launched such drills in August 2022 in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.Wang’s warning to Rubio reflects a position China has repeatedly stated to the US in recent years, that Taiwan is the first “red line” in US-China relations.The two diplomats also discussed President Trump’s upcoming visit to Beijing for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for mid-May. Wang said that the US and China “must safeguard the hard-won stability and make thorough preparations for the coming high-level engagements.”

GOP senators losing confidence in Pete Hegseth amid Pentagon turmoil A growing group of Senate Republicans are losing confidence in Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the Defense Department, and some GOP lawmakers would like to see him “move on,” though they say it’s President Trump’s call. Senate Republicans who spoke to The Hill on the condition of anonymity say Hegseth wouldn’t be confirmed to head the Pentagon if he were renominated by Trump today, and they say senior staff turmoil at the Defense Department under Hegseth’s leadership is a major concern. Republican defense hawks in the Senate aren’t happy about media reports that Hegseth pushed popular Army chief of staff Randy George to resign in early April, and they were surprised and disappointed to hear that Hegseth fired Navy Secretary John Phelan this past week. One Republican senator who requested anonymity said there have long been questions within the Senate GOP conference over Hegseth’s lack of experience managing a large and complex bureaucracy, as well as leeriness about his unconventional and often brash leadership style. The lawmaker, however, said confidence in Hegseth has dropped among Republicans because of his battles with senior military leaders who have strong relations with policymakers on Capitol Hill. “The hollowing out of incredible leadership at the Pentagon has been a big concern,” said the senator. “It really came to a tipping point when Gen. George was dismissed.” Hegseth’s feud with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is another source of irritation for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who hold Driscoll — a longtime friend and aide to Vice President Vance — in high esteem. “I think he’s missing the mark on personnel. He has separated some of the most extraordinary generals that we’ve had in play. I don’t quite know what’s going on there,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said of Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon, expressing his concern about the sudden departure of senior military leadership. Tillis, who cast a pivotal vote for Hegseth during his Senate confirmation last year, questioned whether Hegseth has the management skills to run an organization as large and complex as the U.S. military. He noted that Hegseth, who served as an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, had experience managing “30 or 40 people” before taking over the Pentagon. “Now he’s got an organization that’s much larger, much more complex than anything he’s done,” he said. “I think he’s making some less-than-ideal personnel decisions.” Tillis said that while he voted to confirm Hegseth more than a year ago, he said “there’s no question he’s got a failing grade” on technical, managerial skills. “In some respects, maybe not as extreme, but in some respects he’s displaying the exact lack of experience that got [former Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem in trouble,” he said.

Kid Rock joins Hegseth on Army helicopter ride after fly-by controversy - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Kid Rock both flew in Army Apache helicopters on Monday in the Washington, D.C., area, weeks after the military came under fire for flying helicopters near the singer’s house in Tennessee. “Kid Rock is a patriot and huge supporter of our troops. The War Department is wasting no time celebrating America’s 250th — home of the free because of the brave,” Hegseth said in a statement late Monday, posting a photo alongside the singer-songwriter on social media. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon chief spokesperson, told The Hill Monday that AH-64 Apache helicopters were flown in the region for events related to the White House’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence. “As a part of that event, Robert ‘Kid Rock’ Ritchie participated in multiple troop touches with service members and filmed videos for Memorial Day, America’s 250th birthday, and for his Freedom 250 tour,” Parnell said in a statement. “At each stop along his tour, Kid Rock has generously pledged 1,000 free tickets for members of the military and veterans,” Parnell continued. “The visit today provided an opportunity for Kid Rock to thank service members, highlight the professionalism of the men and women supporting the mission, and recognize their continued sacrifice in honor of our nation. The Department is grateful for Kid Rock’s long time support of our troops.”

King Charles calls for environmental stewardship in address to Congress - King Charles III gave lawmakers a word of caution on environmental issues and natural resources during his address to Congress on Tuesday afternoon. The British monarch, an outspoken environmentalist, devoted a portion of his speech to conservation, invoking the words of former President Theodore Roosevelt and framing the protection of natural resources as a national security imperative. “Even as we celebrate the beauty that surrounds us, our generation must decide how to address the collapse of critical natural systems, which threatens far more than the harmony and essential diversity of nature,” the king said. “We ignore, at our peril, the fact that these natural systems — in other words, nature’s own economy — provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security,” he said. Some of his remarks on the environment drew bipartisan applause. “We must also reflect on our shared responsibility to safeguard nature, our most precious and irreplaceable asset,” he said. The king noted that the United States and the United Kingdom are engaged in partnerships on fusion energy and artificial intelligence, which he said “hold the promise of saving countless lives.” King Charles said “the disastrously melting ice caps of the Arctic” underscore the need for a strong military alliance between the United States and its allies.

White House makes 'two Kings' post with Donald Trump, King Charles photo  -The White House posted a picture of President Trump and King Charles III with the caption “two Kings” amid the monarch’s visit to the U.S. on Tuesday.Opponents of the president have used the phrase “No Kings” in protests against the Trump administration. On Sunday, Trump rejected the monarch title in a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview.  “I’m not a King, if I was a King, I wouldn’t be dealing with you,” the president told Norah O’Donnell. Trump blamed the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on recent “No Kings” protests across the country, protests that organizers say exist to oppose Trump’s consolidation and expansion of power. The suspect in the shooting reportedly attended a “No Kings” protest in California in addition to spreading anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric online, according to reports. “I don’t feel like a king; I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” Trump said during remarks on the topic last June.  “A king would say, ‘I’m not going to get this.’ A king would have never had the California mandate to even be talking, he wouldn’t have to call up [Speaker] Mike Johnson and [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune and say, ‘Fellas you got to pull this off’ and after years we get it done,” he added. “No, no we’re not a king. We’re not a king at all.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for the uptick in political violence and Saturday’s shooting.

Trump threatens to raise tariffs on EU automobiles to 25 percent - - President Donald Trump on Friday said he will raise tariffs on automobiles and auto parts from the European Union because the 27-country bloc is not living up to its end of a trade agreement struck last summer.“I am pleased to announce that, based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Tariff will be increased to 25%.”The tariffs on European automobiles and auto parts are currently set at 15 percent as part of the Turnberry Deal, an agreement the EU and U.S. struck last July at Trump’s resort in Scotland. The deal required the EU to lower its tariff rates on U.S. industrial goods, purchase $750 billion worth of energy and invest $600 billion in exchange for lower tariff rates from the U.S. Trump’s threat comes a week after the top EU trade official, Maroš Šefčovič, traveled to Washington to meet with Trump administration officials and came away reassured that the deal between the two countries remained solid.

House Republicans tee up vote on spy powers as some in GOP vow to oppose bill -House Republicans have teed up a vote to renew the nation’s spy powers that has those on varying sides of the issue crying Groundhog’s Day. The GOP is once again moving ahead with legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the government to spy on foreigners located abroad. Despite spending over a week on a new bill after a disastrous floor vote failure earlier this month, the latest package does not include the warrant requirement demanded by some holdouts. The House Rules Committee met for a second session on Tuesday after failing to reach consensus on Monday over how to advance the bill to the floor for debate. President Trump does not back a warrant require this go-round and the Rules panel in a tie vote shut down further debate Trump says James Comey social media post 'probably' threatened his life, adds 'I don't know' But to win over hard-line GOP members, leadership has sought to sweeten the deal by adding a provision to prohibit the federal reserve to establish a central bank digital currency, something Republican privacy hawks say would give the government the ability to track consumer spending. That legislation already passed the House and would be attached to FISA before it is sent to the Senate. It’s unclear the GOP will be able to get sufficient support for procedural vote on the House floor to take up the bill – possibly stalling the legislation for the second time in a month. Asked whether the House could avoid a repeat of the chaotic scene on the floor when Section 702 was last under consideration, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Monday, “We’ll just have to see.” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said while the latest package has some reforms, it’s not as robust as a plan he and other Democratic leaders worked on that he said had been ignored by GOP leadership. “The answer to that question is: Can Republicans pass a rule? If the Republicans pass a rule, look, there are dozens of Democratic ‘yes’ votes on a clean extension. But that’s nobody’s preference,” he said. “This seems like the same play they ran at 2:30 in the morning two weeks ago,” he said. In seeking to block a warrant requirement amendment from being further considered, Chair Virginia Fox (R-N.C.) described the matter as unnecessary under Trump. “I’m convinced that this has been fixed. As long as we have Republicans in office, I believe it is fixed. The President has asked for a clean extension,” she said. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) noted that a three-year FISA extension would bump the powers into the next administration. “What we should have, instead of ping ponging among administrations, is we should have a clear line in the sand that if you’re going to spy on American citizens, you should have to go before a judge to do that,” she said. During the week before last, some Republicans banded with Democrats to tank both a new Section 702 package and a procedural vote to take up a clean 18-month extension of the bill. In doing so, a few GOP members rejected a new Section 702 proposal they had been involved in negotiating. That situation could very well repeat itself. Republicans can only lose two votes with the chamber’s razor-thin margin, and many House Freedom Caucus members say they plan to vote against the rule to take up debate on the larger package. Four Democrats previously broke with their party on the last FISA vote, but it’s unclear if they will do so again, or in sufficient numbers to help Republicans advance the bill. Rep. Tim Bruchett (R-Tenn.) said “heck no” when asked if a late-Monday conference meeting had changed his mind on Section 702. “They need to gut FISA and come back with a different product. I think change the name, go back to what it originally was supposed to do, to spy on folks that are non-Americans and provide some clarification that it won’t be used to spy on us,” he said.

House Approves Three-Year Extension of Warrantless Spy Powers -  The House on Wednesday approved a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which gives the federal government the power to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans.The extension passed in a vote of 235-191, a day before its previous extension expires. The bill, in its current form, may not make it through the Senate because it includes a permanent ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a digital currency.According to POLITICO, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said earlier this week that the digital currency ban was “not happening” as part of the Section 702 extension.Section 702, which was first enacted in 2008, authorizes warrantless surveillance of non-Americans and allows the collection of a massive amount of data, including communications with Americans, which are stored indefinitely.President Trump has been calling for Congress to pass the Section 702 extension even though his 2016 campaign was targeted under FISA. In one post on Truth Social, the president said he was willing to give up his “rights and privileges” to extend the spying power, an acknowledgment that it violates civil liberties.“While parts of FISA were illegally and unfortunately used against me in the Democrats’ disgraceful Witch Hunt and Attack in the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA Hoax, and perhaps would be used against me in the future, I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country!” the president wrote on Truth Social. In another post, Trump cited the war with Iran as a reason to extend Section 702. “With the ongoing successful Military activities against the Terrorist Iranian Regime, it is more important than ever that we remain vigilant, PROTECT our Homeland, Troops, and Diplomats stationed abroad, and maintain our ability to quickly stop bad actors seeking to cause harm to our People and our Country. The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military,” he said.

Congress Passes 45-Day Extension of Warrantless Spy Powers - Both the House and the Senate passed a 45-day extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which gives the federal government the power to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans.The Senate passed the 45-day extension by unanimous consent, and the bill then passed the House by a vote of 261-111. Without the extension, Section 702 would have expired at midnight.A day earlier, the House passed a three-year extension of the spying power, but the bill included a ban on the Federal Reserve issuing digital currencies, which the Senate rejected.Section 702, which was first enacted in 2008, authorizes warrantless surveillance of non-Americans and allows the collection of a massive amount of data, including communications with Americans, which are stored indefinitely.President Trump has been calling for Congress to pass the Section 702 extension even though his 2016 campaign was targeted under FISA. In one post on Truth Social, the president said he was willing to give up his “rights and privileges” to extend the spying power, an acknowledgment that it violates civil liberties.“While parts of FISA were illegally and unfortunately used against me in the Democrats’ disgraceful Witch Hunt and Attack in the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA Hoax, and perhaps would be used against me in the future, I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country!” the president wrote on Truth Social.

Coast Guard operating in "crisis" as DHS shutdown halts pay in May, cuts power, strains missions overseas - CBS News  The U.S. Coast Guard cannot pay its bills. The military branch — now 76 days into the longest shutdown in U.S. history — owes over $300 million in unpaid obligations. And with thousands of utility bills overdue, totaling $5.2 million, duty stations and military housing worldwide are facing service shutdowns.  "It seems like a horror movie, but it's actually happening. It's almost unbelievable," Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday told CBS News in an exclusive interview. In the past week alone, water outages hit duty stations in Port Huron, Michigan, and Station Channel Islands, California. Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii, had natural gas lines temporarily locked. A power outage at a recruiting station in St. Louis, Missouri, forced officers to operate by flashlight until electricity could be restored. Electricity was also cut off to the residence of a Coast Guard rear admiral in New Orleans, forcing his family to drive to a hotel until service was restored. That residence is one of nearly 1,000 Coast Guard housing units at risk of electricity shutoffs because of unpaid bills. Across the service, 43% of housing units have invoices more than 30 days past due. "It's unacceptable," said Lunday. "I think the American people would be furious to know this is happening," Lunday said. "We have over 6,000 utility bills that have been unpaid because DHS is not funded. And so, now we're starting to see electricity, water, natural gas, other services shut off that are impacting not only our operational units and bases where our people work, but starting to impact where people live." Jessica Manfre, a Coast Guard spouse for 18 years, said the utility shutoffs aren't isolated incidents, and Coast Guard families across the service have been vocal about their concerns. "When I heard that water is getting shut off at my friends' stations and they're having to call city officials to beg to have it turned back on because bills aren't getting paid," she recounted, "I knew this shutdown was different." "These are stations where our crews are standing by to respond at a moment's notice to any Mariner in distress or any threat to the nation," Lunday said. "And they launch 24/7, 365 — and suddenly, the lights go out or they don't have water." In many cases, utilities are only restored after Coast Guard personnel call providers and beg for leniency. "In most cases, the people we're talking to … those providers are turning it back on, even though they're not being paid," Lunday said. "I don't know how long that's going to last." The shutdown has now stretched 75 days since funding lapsed at the Department of Homeland Security. Unlike military branches that are funded through the Defense Department, the Coast Guard falls under DHS, so it's vulnerable when DHS funding lapses. "This is incredibly frustrating," Lunday said. "In fact, I would say our workforce, our men and women and their families, are furious." "It's more than a breach of trust," the commandant continued. "Our Coast Guard men and women, whether they're active duty or reserve military civilians, they've stepped forward and taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution. What they expect in return is just to be paid and provide services." They don't expect "to have to worry about whether their families are going to be taken care of," Lunday added.In early April, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said DHS employees who had been working without pay and the Coast Guard would be paid for the first six weeks of the shutdown and the next pay period, and said the payments were made possible by executive action and existing funding flexibility. Now, that funding is exhausted. The Coast Guard will run out of funding to pay personnel on May 1, with the first missed paychecks expected May 15.

Johnson says he has 'modified' version of Senate DHS funding bill - Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Monday that a bipartisan Senate bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) includes “problematic” language and added that he has a “modified” version of the measure. The Senate bill, which was passed earlier this month, is part of a two-step process aimed at ending the record-breaking DHS shutdown, which has stretched for more than two months. Republicans are looking to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol separately through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to bypass a filibuster in the Senate. Johnson told reporters at the Capitol that the Senate bill has “some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted.” “We have a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers. Doesn’t change most of the substance, but it makes sure that we’re not going to orphan two of the primary agencies of DHS. We have to make sure that immigration law is enforced and that the border is safe and secure. Democrats don’t want to have any part of that, so unfortunately, we have to do that on our own,” he said. Any changes the House makes to the Senate-passed bill will need to go through the upper chamber for approval again. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in response, “We funded all the other agencies in the approps [appropriations] bill and we’re coming now behind that with certainty about the future for those two agencies. So I think we did everything we can to ensure that everything is appropriately funded,” according to Punchbowl News. Johnson’s latest push for a modified Senate bill could risk dragging out the shutdown. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last week that money for DHS employees will dry out by the first week of May. The Senate adopted a budget blueprint for a reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol last week. House GOP leaders also plan to bring that blueprint to the floor this week, but they could run into resistance from hard-line conservatives locked in a debate over the size and scope of the legislation.

Mike Johnson hits roadblocks to funding DHS, including push for ballroom after White House Correspondents' dinner - The weekend shooting at a press gala attended by President Trump is creating new headaches for House GOP leaders as they scramble to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ahead of a looming freeze on employee pay. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and his leadership team were already laboring to adopt a budget blueprint this week to fund immigration enforcement in the face of internal pressure to pile a host of unrelated proposals — including tougher election rules — into the package. Their efforts to unify the GOP conference have become even tougher in the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, as a number of Republicans are now clamoring for yet another provision to be attached: authorizing Trump to build his White House ballroom. “Any consideration of DHS reconciliation instructions this week & beyond should provide for construction of a secure ballroom on White House grounds — in addition to other concerns being addressed regarding ICE/CBP, SAVE America, Transgender & Abortion funding, Recon 3, & more,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), policy chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, wrote Sunday on the social platform X. Any holdup caused by the new demands could have ripple effects on the two-step process Republicans hope to use to reopen DHS. GOP leaders have insisted on passing a GOP-only bill that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol before taking up a bipartisan package to fund the rest of DHS, including the Secret Service. And any changes to the budget resolution that will serve as a blueprint for the GOP-only bill would have to go back to the Senate, which adopted its version after an all-night voting marathon last week. Trump’s $400 million ballroom has generated a storm of controversy since the president demolished the East Wing of the White House late last year to make room for the addition. Trump and his supporters argue that the renovation — to include an underground bunker — is a matter of urgent necessity, both for hosting foreign dignitaries and for protecting top officials from external security threats. But the project has drawn howls from Democrats and preservationists, who say it’s just another gilded trophy for an egotistical president — one funded by anonymous wealthy donors hoping to curry favor from Trump. The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) has filed a lawsuit to halt construction. And a federal judge ruled last month that, despite the plan to fund the project through private donations, Trump still needs congressional approval to finalize it. Trump, who was the target of two assassination attempts on the campaign trail in 2024, wasted no time using Saturday’s shooting to justify his push to complete the project quickly, telling reporters afterward that a White House ballroom would be “larger” and “much more secure.” “It’s drone-proof. It’s bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom. That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military, are demanding it,” he said. Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) has introduced a bill that would give Trump explicit statutory authority to build the ballroom. In an interview with The Hill on Monday, Fine welcomed the idea of attaching that proposal to a broader budget reconciliation bill. “For 150 years, members of both parties have said the president needs a ballroom,” Fine said. “What we saw this weekend is a clear explanation as to why people should set aside their Trump derangement syndrome and get this thing done.” The push by hard-line conservatives will likely only complicate matters for Johnson, who has been facing calls from some moderate members of his conference, as well as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), to keep the budget reconciliation bill “skinny” — that is, focused on DHS — to ensure it can move swiftly through both chambers. The timing has real-world implications. While the administration has shuffled funding to pay DHS employees during the shutdown, those funds are expected to dry up in the first week of May if Congress doesn’t act beforehand.

House passes Senate DHS funding bill after Johnson reverses course on 76-day shutdown standoff - Congress took a major step toward ending the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security shutdown on Thursday as the White House warned hundreds of thousands of federal employees were on the verge of missing paychecks amid the 76-day funding lapse. The House of Representatives approved by voice vote a Senate-passed spending measure covering most of the department’s appropriations through September. President Donald Trump is expected to swiftly sign the measure into law, restoring funding for the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Transportation Security Administration, among other agencies. The vote came after the Senate's DHS funding bill had stalled in the lower chamber for more than a month as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to put the bill on the floor over objections to language he said defunded law enforcement. The speaker's opposition reflected the views of many in the Republican conference, who viewed the bill as a dead letter when the Senate passed it unanimously in March. Johnson changed course this week after the White House appeared to side with the Senate and urged swift passage of the upper chamber’s bill. "We’re not defying the White House," Johnson told reporters Wednesday. "Everybody understands what we're doing. We're all one team." In an internal memo sent to Hill offices and obtained by Fox News Digital, the White House warned it would not be able to pay employees starting in May if the House did not pass the Senate’s partial DHS bill. The administration since early April had been using existing funds to cover six weeks of back pay and a new pay period for DHS employees — but warned that money was quickly depleting. "If this funding is exhausted, the Administration will be unable to pay DHS personnel beginning in May, which will once again unleash havoc on air travel, leave critical law enforcement officers—including our brave Secret Service agents—and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and jeopardize national security," the memo states. Republicans are in the beginning stages of writing a separate party-line package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But that legislation will not advance before lawmakers leave Washington for the upcoming recess period. Trump has requested top Republicans send the immigration enforcement measure to his desk by June 1. Johnson said he dropped his objections to the Senate bill after his chamber took the first step toward funding Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda late Wednesday. "We had to ensure that they could not isolate and eliminate those two critical agencies," Johnson told reporters. "That was critically important for us to ensure that we’re going to protect the homeland." Some Republicans argued that failure to move the Senate’s DHS bill prior to leaving Washington for a planned recess was untenable. "We have got to fund DHS, even if it's 80% of DHS," Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital in an interview. "We're in a dangerous position with funding levels right now. We have to get this done before we even think of leaving on a recess."

Trump signs bill funding DHS, ending record-breaking 76-day shutdown -— The longest shutdown of a federal department in U.S. history came to an end on Thursday when President Trump signed a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security following a breakthrough on Capitol Hill.The House unanimously approved a Senate-passed bill to fund most of DHS earlier in the day, with the exception of the department's immigration enforcement agencies, which have been largely unaffected by the shutdown. The chamber passed the legislation through voice vote with little fanfare, a sign that lawmakers were finally ready to put the impasse behind them. The 76-day shutdown left many critical agencies like the Coast Guard, FEMA and the TSA struggling to maintain operations as funding ran dry. Repurposed money to pay employees was set to expire within days, increasing pressure on lawmakers to resolve the funding lapse.Spending authority for the department expired on Feb. 14, kicking off weeks of protracted negotiations between Republicans and Democrats that ultimately resulted in the bill that earned the House's sign-off.From the start, Democrats objected to funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, the two agencies under DHS that have led the charge in enforcing Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown. Democrats pushed for reforms to the agencies' operations, including banning the use of face masks and requiring warrants for certain immigration-related arrests.But talks over those reforms failed in the Senate. In the dead of night last month, the chamber unanimously passed legislation to fund the rest of the department, setting ICE and Border Patrol aside. But House Republicans rejected that plan, arguing that the bill would be caving to Democratic demands to defund the president's immigration agenda.Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and President Trump eventually coalesced around a plan to fund the entirety of DHS on two parallel tracks. The first would involve the House passing the Senate DHS bill to immediately reopen the department. The second involves funding ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years through the budget reconciliation process, which will allow Republicans to approve a bill without support from Senate Democrats.The president ordered DHS to redirect money to pay employees in March, but Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned that funding to make payroll would dry up by the beginning of May, increasing pressure on lawmakers to pass the Senate bill.House leaders had been waiting for the reconciliation process to move forward before bringing up the Senate legislation. Both chambers took the first step toward crafting the reconciliation package this week, adopting a budget plan that instructs the relevant committees to write legislation to fund the immigration agencies."We held the homeland bill, the underlying funding bill, because we had to ensure that they could not isolate and eliminate those two critical agencies," Johnson told reporters after Thursday's vote. "We are getting those done now. We passed the resolution first. That was critically important for us to do, to ensure that we're going to protect the homeland, even though Democrats are unwilling to do it. So now that that box is checked, we're allowed then to proceed and go through with the rest of it."  Mr. Trump has said he wants the reconciliation package on his desk by June 1. Both ICE and Border Patrol received tens of billions of dollars in funding in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, meaning their operations have continued mostly unimpeded during the shutdown. Law enforcement agents at both agencies have continued to get paid.The brunt of the funding lapse has thus been felt by other DHS components like the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Adm. Kevin Lunday, the commandant of the Coast Guard, told CBS News in an exclusive interview that his workforce was "furious" that the impasse had dragged on so long, calling it "incredibly frustrating."

Record-long Department of Homeland Security shutdown ends — The House on Thursday approved a Senate-passed bill that would fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, ending the record 75-day shutdown of the sprawling President Donald Trump, who had urged lawmakers to pass the bill, signed the measure into law Thursday afternoon, funding DHS agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service through the end of September.The bill does not provide new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Border Patrol, however, as Democrats demand changes to immigration enforcement. Both ICE and border enforcement had funding during the shutdown, and Republicans will try in the coming weeks to keep them funded for the rest of Trump’s term.The House's action came right against a critical deadline. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had warned lawmakers that if they did not pass funding by Thursday, emergency funding would run out and thousands of workers would not be paid. The bill passed “by voice,” with members shouting their approval without recording individual votes. The House and the Senate also passed a short-term bill to prevent a key foreign spying program, known as FISA Section 702, from expiring Thursday. Members of both parties said it would be devastating for national security if authorization for the program expired. Congress agreed to a 45-day extension for FISA before it departed for a weeklong recess. Trump signed the measure into law Thursday evening.Democrats forced a DHS shutdown Feb. 14, after Republicans rejected their demands to make reforms to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics, including mandating body cameras and limiting raids in sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals.In late March, the Senate unanimously approved the legislation to fund most of the DHS agencies, except for ICE and the Border Patrol. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., rejected that plan as "a joke" at the time.Asked what had changed in the month since, Johnson noted the party’s progress on funding ICE and the Border Patrol. On Wednesday, the House passed a budget resolution that would create a pathway to fund both agencies for the rest of Trump’s term. That measure has already passed the Senate."We got the budget resolution passed. This is very, very important, because that will ensure that border security and immigration enforcement will continue today and well into the future. ... Democrats got absolutely nothing for their political charade and shenanigans out of them," he told reporters after the vote.“We’re not going to have lines at TSA. Everybody will get their paychecks now,” he added.The budget resolution instructs congressional committees to draft legislation and authorize $70 billion to pay for ICE and the Border Patrol for roughly the next three years.Under that budget "reconciliation" process, Republicans would be able to pass the legislation on their own, with no Democratic support needed in the House or the Senate. If nearly all Republicans are on board, the GOP would not need to make any of the policy changes demanded by Democrats to fund ICE and the Border Patrol.

Poll: Majority of Americans support birthright citizenship  -A new poll found that 64 percent of U.S. adults believe children born in the country should be granted birthright citizenship. The Reuters/Ipsos poll published Monday found that 32 percent of respondents disagreed with  jus soli or “right of the soil” citizenship clause granted under the 14th Amendment. The survey results were published a few weeks after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding birthright citizenship, following President Trump’s executive order that aims to limit birthright citizenship to children with at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status. The court’s ruling is expected before the end of its term in late June. The order, issued in January 2025, has drawn a partisan response. Ninety percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 36 percent of Republicans say birthright citizenship should stand as is, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll.Comparatively, 62 percent of Republicans, 26 percent of independents and 9 percent of Democrats say citizenship should not automatically be granted at birth.Far more independents skipped the question — 8 percent — than those identifying with a party, at 2 percent of Republicans and 1 percent of Democrats. A majority of white, Black and Hispanic U.S. adults say they believe birthright citizenship should be upheld. Polled separately, 74 percent of Black and Hispanic respondents, alongside 58 percent of white respondents, agree with the sentiment, Reuters/Ipsos found.However, 39 percent of white survey participants, 22 percent of Hispanic respondents and 19 percent of Black people disagree.  Six percent of Black people and 4 percent each of white and Hispanic respondents skipped the question.

House proposes cuts to NOAA, science in new funding bill - House appropriators unveiled their funding plan for climate science, weather forecasting and fisheries Wednesday morning, proposing fresh cuts to a number of environmental and research programs.The House’s fiscal 2027 Commerce-Justice-Science bill has a top line of $77.34 billion, a cut of about $670 million, or 1 percent, relative to the current level. NOAA and the National Science Foundation are among the agencies that the Republican majority is proposing to slash.Appropriators also released their fiscal 2027 Legislative Branch bill, which funds the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office and other needs on Capitol Hill.House Appropriations subcommittees will likely vote to advance each of the bills Thursday morning. The full committee will do a more comprehensive markup with debate and amendment votes on May 13.

Farm, ethanol bills ready for floor fight - Fights over biofuels and pesticides are primed to drive the debate over a five-year farm bill in the House — if the measure can reach the floor of the divided chamber this week. After two days of wrangling over the parameters of floor debate, the House Rules Committee on Tuesday cleared the way for those issues to dominate the discussion around updating agriculture programs. Tuesday’s Rules Committee meeting lasted for hours as Democrats offered farm bill amendments the panel’s Republican leaders had already signaled wouldn’t be allowed for floor consideration. The majority swatted the proposals away one-by-one into the evening. Meanwhile, the fate of the farm and biofuels legislation is caught up in the Republican majority’s difficulty in passing any major bill this week — also including a renewal of intelligence programs and a budget reconciliation plan to fund immigration enforcement. The biofuels issue — to lift summer restrictions on the sale of 15-percent-ethanol fuel — hinges on lawmakers’ willingness to accept an agreement between ethanol and oil industry supporters. The proposal would also give small refineries breaks from biofuel-blending requirements, but at a price: The Congressional Budget Office said it would add billions of dollars to the deficit, a flaw likely to repel fiscal hawks. Expanding E15 availability alone doesn’t carry a cost, but the attached provisions on small refinery exemptions would, by CBO estimates. Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) seized on the budget effects Tuesday, saying, “It’s extraordinary to me” that the Republican-led committee would entertain the idea, given the cost. “None of it’s offset,” McGovern said. Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) pushed back. While the CBO did make such an estimate, he said, “As you know, CBO’s scores are almost always wrong.” After the meeting, Scott told POLITICO’s E&E News that regardless of the debate about cost, boosting E15 is an important issue for farmers facing economic strain. He declined to predict the measure’s odds on the floor. The cost of the proposal comes on top of the usual political challenges around mandating crop-based fuels, dividing lawmakers along regional, ideological and home-state industry lines. It also imperils a promise Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) has long made to ensure that the farm bill doesn’t increase the budget deficit. The scenario laid out by Republicans on the Rules Committee will allow the House to avoid adding the ethanol provision directly to the farm bill as an amendment. Instead, the chamber will vote separately on each, then combine them into one measure to send to the Senate for consideration, assuming they pass. The American Coalition for Ethanol, an industry group that’s sought year-round E15 sales for years, supports the House leaders’ unusual approach, said CEO Brian Jennings, although he acknowledged that the industry usually likes to avoid risky stand-alone votes on ethanol legislation. The ethanol proposal faces stiff opposition from small refining companies and, in some cases, labor unions and other organizations connected to them. The proposal doesn’t offer sufficient safeguards to unionized refiners, the United Steelworkers said in a letter to the Rules Committee on Monday. The pesticide debate tests lawmakers’ support for the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, particularly Republicans reluctant to split with MAHA-affiliated loyalists to President Donald Trump. The Rules Committee allowed for an amendment to strike a provision giving pesticide manufacturers limited protection from liability for illnesses blamed on their products, and blocking states from requiring their own pesticide health warning labels that go beyond federal requirements. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) are the main sponsors of that amendment. Other amendments cleared for consideration would broaden the renewable fuel standard’s definition of “renewable biomass” to include low-value woody material taken from forests, as well as mill residue, and expand forest thinning around wildfire-threatened groves of giant sequoia trees, as in the “Save Our Sequoias Act.” Many of the amendments Democrats offered to the farm bill Tuesday night were initially floated by Republicans whose support may be needed to pass the rules for debate in the House, including a proposal by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to boost certain payment rates for farmers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Democrats offered them to make a point about what they said was a closed process. “You have locked us out. You have locked your own members out,” McGovern said.

House panel advances three major bills after marathon hearing, but fate on floor uncertain - Republican leaders snapped the House out of a state of limbo caused by GOP infighting as the House Rules Committee advanced an ambitious slate of high-profile, must-pass bills on Tuesday evening — tacking on two major sweeteners to appease corn-state Republicans and hardline conservatives. The panel, after a marathon hearing that stretched over two days and saw Democrats offer amendment after amendment, advanced a procedural rule to tee up consideration on three major bills: one reauthorizing foreign spy powers in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which are set to expire after Thursday; the sprawling Farm Bill; and the Senate-passed budget reconciliation blueprint setting up a GOP-only path to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, as part of a two-step way to end the record-long Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown. The rule encompassing all three bills must still pass the full House before lawmakers vote on each measure individually — and that could prove to be a heavy lift. Speaker Mike Johnston (R-La.) can only afford to lose two GOP votes and a number of Republicans have expressed deep reservations. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) wrote on X Tuesday evening that she is a “NO on the Rule.” “I filed multiple non controversial amendments to the Farm Bill to help rural Coloradans. @RepJoeNeguse asked the Rules Committee to consider them on the House floor. The Republicans on the committee unanimously voted against them and they will not even be considered for a floor vote. Farmers and ranchers in my district are counting on me to be their voice in DC and our “leadership” is not letting me do my job,” she said. The bill new renew the nation’s spy powers and the budget resolution have drawn similar consternation. The Rules Committee hearing offered a sense of the difficulty GOP leaders will face on the floor on Wednesday. Republican pushback over various aspects of the three bills had led to an hours-long delay for the committee, which started consideration them on Monday night. It had initially said it would reconvene on Tuesday morning, before again delaying indefinitely — leaving the business of the House in limbo as lawmakers hashed out their issues. In one apparent compromise, the Rules panel included language that would tack on a bill to allow year-round E15 ethanol fuel sales to the Farm Bill before it is sent to the Senate. Corn-state Republicans have long pushed for the measure as part of the farm bill or other measure. And in another compromise with hardline conservatives, the rules language tacks on a bill preventing creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — which has previously passed the full House — to the FISA reauthorization bill when it is engrossed before it is sent to the Senate. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the Rules Committee, took a point of personal privilege by reading the Serenity Prayer when the panel reconvened Tuesday afternoon. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference,” Foxx said. “We’ve been through some trying times here in the Rules [Committee] lately.” But the rule also gives GOP leaders something of an escape hatch, allowing motions to suspend the rules to pass legislation under a fast-track process that requires a two-thirds vote of the House on Friday, May 1. Current House rules only allow such motions on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Lawmakers had anticipated that advancing the bills would be bumpy, with Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) last week described the upcoming agenda as “hell week.” Reauthorization of Section 702 of FISA, which authorizes surveillance of foreign individuals overseas, had given House GOP leaders headaches for weeks. Republicans seeking reforms to the program resisted President Trump’s call to pass a “clean” reauthorization, leading to dramatic late-night offer from GOP leaders that holdouts promptly rejected in a late-night vote.  Republicans last week unveiled another FISA compromise with many of those same parameters, which they tried to tee up to pass on Tuesday. Under the latest legislation, Section 702 would be reauthorized for three years, and while it references the Fourth Amendment, it does not require a warrant before looking at information swept up on Americans communicating with foreigners being surveilled. It’s a hard line for many lawmakers on both the left and the right. In addition to the warrant asks, hardline Republicans had pushed to add a ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The ban was included in a House version of the annual defense authorization bill, but it was stripped out of the final version. Anti-CBDC advocates are seeing the FISA reauthorization as one of the few must-pass bills they have left where CBDC can be a rider that gets to the president’s desk. Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to remove that language on tacking on the CBDC bill to the FISA bill when it is engrossed. “This crypto bill is completely unrelated to the FISA bill, and is a nonstarter in the Senate,” House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said in the Rules hearing.

MAHA vs. Trump over Supreme Court glyphosate case, farm bill - A Supreme Court case and a bill moving through Congress this week are set to test the bonds of Republicans and the Make America Healthy Again movement, following a near rupture in February over the weed killer glyphosate. The court will hear a case Monday to decide whether federal law preempts state-level lawsuits alleging glyphosate, the chemical in Bayer ’s herbicide Roundup, causes cancer. And the U.S. House is expected to take up the farm bill this week, a massive agricultural policy measure that includes new protections for the chemical. The MAHA movement, a coalition of activists who push for healthy food and eschew chemicals, helped deliver President Donald Trump back to the White House after their preferred presidential candidate, now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dropped out of the election and endorsed the president. The group hates glyphosate, which is the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. and integral to many farm operations. The Supreme Court arguments and the farm bill put MAHA squarely at odds with Trump and the majority of Republicans in Congress. It comes just months after a prior blowup when Trump signed an executive order to boost domestic production of glyphosate, a break that caused Kennedy to step in and do damage control. And with the 2026 midterm election less than seven months away and Trump’s approval rating down in polls, keeping the coalition intact could be critical for Republicans who are racing to maintain their slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. “It has been a really, really rough few months because we have an attack coming from the executive branch, the judicial branch and over in Congress,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA advocate who goes by the moniker “the Glyphosate Girl” on social media. “The combination of the executive order and going to bat for Bayer at the Supreme Court are really inexcusable,” Ryerson said. “And I think it showed a deep disconnect between what the administration thinks that MAHA cares about and what is actually true.” The Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticides and herbicides, does not classify glyphosate as a carcinogen and does not require glyphosate labels to disclose cancer risk. But many individuals have sued, alleging they got cancer from Roundup use, and arguing that Bayer and Monsanto, which made glyphosate before Bayer acquired the company in 2018, failed to warn consumers of that risk. Kennedy in 2018 won nearly $290 million for a man in one such case. The administration will argue on behalf of Bayer before the Supreme Court, saying in an amicus brief that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts the “failure to warn” claims hounding Bayer. Without that preemption, the brief says, manufacturers would be bound to adhere to a patchwork of 50 different labeling requirements in each state. ″[I]f labeling tells users that a pesticide likely causes cancer in Missouri, might cause cancer in Illinois, definitely causes cancer in Tennessee, and is anyone’s guess in Iowa, users will not know whom to believe,” the U.S. solicitor general’s office wrote in an amicus brief on the case. “Lost in that noise: EPA’s considered judgments about what warnings are actually necessary to protect public health, and any hope of uniformity.” The farm bill, meanwhile, includes a provision that MAHA advocates claim is a “liability shield” to protect pesticide manufacturers. The bill would prohibit any states and courts from penalizing or holding “liable any entity for failing to comply with requirements that would require labeling or packaging that is in addition to or different from the labeling or packaging approved by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.” House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson, R-Pa., who is leading the farm bill, said MAHA advocates upset with the language are “emotional-driven, need to take time to read the bill.” Thompson also contended that the bill preserves the ability for states to alter labels if they go through the EPA first. “This bill is just about labeling, and making sure that the labeling is done in a way with the highest level of science,” he said. “If a state wants to have additional provisions for labeling, they only have to go through the EPA to make that happen, it will be on the label.”  Ryerson, asked to respond to Thompson, said it’s “extremely disgusting that someone would come out and call us emotional, when what we’re just trying to do is make people healthy,” and contended that Thompson’s bill does include a liability shield. “I would also like to challenge, if he wants to go one-on-one and debate what that bill actually says, I am totally game because he is lying. This is a pesticide liability shield,” she said. The Republican embrace of glyphosate presents an opportunity for Democrats to try to win over MAHA in their own way. “The White House’s stand is its stand, and we’re going to have the Supreme Court fight, we’re going to have the farm bill, and I think it continues to cause some rifts over there that you can’t really sugarcoat,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, a Democratic ally of some MAHA causes. “There are a lot of people who got really excited about the MAHA idea who hadn’t been involved in politics before, so they’re not as embedded in voting for Republicans; it’s more who is going to stick up for these issues,” Pingree said. Ryerson agreed, saying MAHA is looking “for a champion and champions, which is what Kennedy was and is,” regardless of party — warning that the boiling frustration could lead MAHA to sit this election out. What “should be concerning to both parties, is that the likelihood isn’t that people are so frustrated in the MAHA movement, they go and vote for a Democrat, they just won’t vote,” she said. Pingree, along with Ryerson, will be attending a rally before the Supreme Court argument, arguing for the court to uphold the right to sue. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is helping Pingree lead an amendment to strip the pesticide provision from the farm bill, will also attend. The White House appears to recognize the danger. They invited a group of MAHA advocates to meet with top officials earlier this month to tout the work they were doing on the advocates’ issues. Ryerson, who attended the huddle, said it was productive and allowed top advocates to vent their frustrations to administration officials. But she warned it may not be enough to keep MAHA in the MAGA fold. “My feeling was that the administration is taking those concerns to heart,” Ryerson said. “If the Supreme Court comes out in favor of Bayer, that is on this administration, because this case never even should have made it to the Supreme Court.”

Supreme Court grills Monsanto on Roundup cancer warning - Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared skeptical of Monsanto’s argument that federal law prevents state courts from holding the company financially responsible for failing to warn consumers about the risk of cancer from its popular Roundup weedkiller. During oral arguments, Monsanto and the Trump administration faced questions about their position that EPA should have the final say on what warnings pesticides and herbicides can carry — even in light of new information about a product’s potential hazards. Chief Justice John Roberts asked Paul Clement, the attorney representing Monsanto, why states couldn’t also hold chemical manufacturers’ feet to the fire when they’ve made a determination that a product poses risk to their residents. “It’s not necessarily the case that they’re doing something inconsistent with what the EPA would do,” said Roberts, who is often a swing vote in Supreme Court cases. “It’s simply the fact that they’re responsive to the new information more quickly than the federal government.” At the heart of the case, Monsanto v. Durnell, is whether a Missouri jury — and other state courts across the country — correctly awarded verdicts exceeding $1 million to compensate longtime Roundup users after they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Roundup users have argued in thousands of lawsuits that the company failed to warn customers about the risks of glyphosate, the herbicide’s key ingredient. But EPA, the agency responsible for registering pesticides and herbicides, has determined that glyphosate is not a likely carcinogen. Monsanto’s attorneys argue that adding a warning to Roundup’s label would conflict with EPA’s findings and that different state warnings about the product would violate uniformity requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. The state litigation is a major liability for Monsanto and its owner, German pharmaceutical company Bayer, which has entered a $7.25 billion settlement to resolve Roundup cancer claims. Clement — founder of the boutique law firm Clement & Murphy and former U.S. solicitor general — argued Monday on behalf of Monsanto that there are other options for states to push an unresponsive EPA to act on new scientific information, such as pursuing a petition to cancel a product’s registration. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another swing vote on the high court, appeared more sympathetic to Monsanto’s claims. “I think you’re saying that EPA can change requirements going forward, but if it tries to say you are misbranding [a product] when you do what they told you to do, in a sense they’re penalizing you retroactively,” Kavanaugh said. Clement said he thought the retroactivity framing was a helpful way to look at the case. “If you look at the statutory scheme, the real way you change warnings or take a pesticide off the market is through the cancellation proceedings,” he said. Appearing alongside Monsanto in the case, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris argued for the Trump administration that states can restrict pesticide use within their borders but can’t impose labeling requirements. Justice Neil Gorsuch pushed back against the claim. “Because the greater power exists,” he asked, “why doesn’t the lesser power?” An attorney for John Durnell, the Missouri resident who secured one of the verdicts against Monsanto in state court, faced fewer questions from the justices. Justice Clarence Thomas asked the lawyer, Ashley Keller, a founding partner at the law firm Keller Postman, to flesh out his argument that the demise of the Chevron doctrine has undermined Monsanto’s case. Keller pointed back to the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which overturned the 40-year-old principle of Chevron deference, which said judges should generally give agencies like EPA leeway on their reasonable interpretations of ambiguous federal laws. Under Loper Bright, it is now up to courts to determine who has the best reading of laws like FIFRA that shape federal regulations. If EPA had created a rule that said Roundup is safe, in the Chevron regime, “you could engage in that fiction that Congress delegated that power to EPA,” Keller said to the justices. “In the new Loper Bright regime,” he continued, “you would say, ‘Point to the text.’” Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan asked if Keller had properly applied Loper Bright. Altio said the case was about the separation of powers between two branches of government, the executive and the judiciary. Kagan said the decision did not prevent Congress from handing off power to agencies like EPA. Keller agreed with Kagan, but said Congress did not broadly delegate to EPA blanket authority to decide when a product is or is not misbranded.

RFK Jr holding up distribution of $600 million in vaccines to foreign nations: report -- New reporting from Politico says the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is holding up $600 million in funds that Congress has appropriated for the use of vaccines in low-income countries. The move is intended to put pressure on Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the report said. Gavi said it has not received any funding for this year or last year, and the missing funds make up 15% of its operating budget.HHS told Politico, “Gavi has refused to provide the United States with the specific data, studies, or detailed accounting of how U.S. funds are used.” The funds will expire on September 30 if they are not used.  Gavi provides 20 vaccines, including measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, to 30 low-income countries. The main issue likely is Gavi’s use of thimerosal-containing vaccines, which are commonly used in countries lacking adequate refrigeration for vaccines.In January, the Trump administration linked phasing out thimerosal-containing vaccines to future US funding. Last June, the Kennedy-reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that US patients avoid flu shots that contain thimerosal. And just last week, during congressional testimony, Kennedy incongruously raised the Gavi-thimerosal link when discussing environmental mercury exposure, which involves a serious, neurotoxic form of mercury, not the much safer thimerosal found in some vaccine.Last week, Kennedy also told a Senate committee that Gavi uses a diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine that had been discontinued in the United States because it was causing brain injury. That shot hasn’t been used in the United States since 1997, but the World Health Organization said there is no evidence the vaccine is linked to brain damage.Gavi said the vaccine is given to children in low-income countries because it offers long-lasting protection, and “is safe and effective and estimated to have saved 40 million lives in the past 50 years.”

Means out, Saphier In: Trump caves to pressure on surgeon general nomination  -  President Donald Trump today pulled the nomination of wellness influencer Casey Means, MD, for US surgeon general, and has tapped a physician and Fox News contributor to take her place.In his announcement on the social media platform Truth Social, Trump called Means “a strong MAHA Warrior," in reference to the Make America Healthy Again movement fueled by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The president also blamed Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana for Means’ failed nomination, calling the senator "a very disloyal person," and accusing him of "intransigence and political games."Though a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine, Means holds no medical license. She dropped out of her surgical residency program, citing disillusionment with traditional medicine, and pivoted to a career as a wellness influencer. Her brother, Calley Means, is a top Kennedy aide who has discussed taking psychedelics with his sister.Means’ lack of clinical experience, coupled with her contested claims on nutrition, vaccines, contraception, and medical practice, raised eyebrows during her nomination hearing, including from Cassidy, a board-certified gastroenterologist who specialized in liver disease.Cassidy grilled Means during her confirmation hearing, asking her how she wanted to change childhood vaccination recommendations.Means testified that "vaccines save lives," but also falsely said that the science was not settled on the debunked link between vaccinations and autism, and that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been linked to deaths. "The measles vaccine has caused some adverse effects that have harmed children. There have been children who have died from the MMR vaccine,” Means said. The fact Means wouldn’t endorse the MMR vaccine showed that she was an inappropriate fit to be surgeon general, said Paul Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.“She would be serving as America's doctor who was unwilling to act like America's doctor,”  The new nominee, Nicole B. Saphier, MD, is a respected radiologist with an inspiring personal story but controversial views on COVID vaccines. Saphier is director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's facility in Monmouth, New Jersey. The hospital congratulated Saphier on her nomination in a post on X: "Over her decade of service to the MSK community, Dr. Saphier has been a tireless advocate for women's health and early cancer detection, expanding access to breast cancer screening, and raising awareness at a community and national level."Saphier also hosts the iHeart Radio podcast, “Wellness Unmasked,” and is one of dozens of current or former Fox News personalities that Trump has nominated to a high-ranking position.

Trump's image on US passports sparks backlash as critics decry 'vanity project' --  Plans to issue specially designed US passports featuring an image of President Donald Trump have triggered a wave of online criticism this week, with opponents calling the move a “vanity project” and drawing comparisons to monarchies that the US was founded to reject. A State Department official said on Tuesday that the redesigned passport would become the default document issued at the Washington Passport Agency for in-person renewals once it becomes available, while online applications and other locations would continue to use the existing design. According to a mockup circulated alongside the announcement, Trump’s face and gold signature would appear on the inside cover of the passport. Officials framed the move as part of commemorations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence in July. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the passports would be released in limited numbers and would feature “customised artwork and enhanced imagery” while maintaining existing security standards. Critics quickly questioned the decision to include the likeness of a sitting president on one of the country’s most widely used official documents.

United Pilot Reports 737 Struck By "Red, Shiny" Drone On San Diego Approach - OSINT accounts on X are circulating ATC audio from theATCapp that allegedly captures a United Airlines pilot reporting a drone strike while the Boeing 737 was on base leg for landing at San Diego International Airport. The pilot of United 1980 told SAN Ground that, at around 3,000 feet, the 737 struck a drone during the base leg, which is right before final approach. Ground asked the United 1980 pilot, "Do you have an approximate size, or how many engines?" The pilot responded, "It was so small I couldn't tell. It was red, shiny. I couldn't tell.""No off-the-shelf consumer drone can get to 3000 feet. I'll be very interested to see how this investigation plays out," one X user stated.

Jeffries calls Karoline Leavitt a ‘stone-cold liar’ - House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday called White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt a “stone-cold liar” after she blamed Democrats for the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. “I think that what’s interesting to me, as you pointed out, is that the so-called White House press secretary, who’s a disgrace, she’s a stone-cold liar,” Jeffries said during a House press conference. “She had the nerve to stand up there and read talking points being critical of statements all taken out of context that Democrats have made and didn’t have a word to say about anything that MAGA extremists have said or done, including providing aid and comfort to violent insurrectionists here at this capital on January 6th who brutally beat police officers,” he added. During a Monday briefing at the White House, Leavitt called out a number of high profile Democrats over their past rhetoric in the wake of the shooting, where a gunman targeted President Trump and other administration officials at the the annual gala in Washington. She pointed to remarks made by Jeffries last week, when he said Republicans would be targeted with “maximum warfare” if they proceed with redistricting efforts in Florida. “This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, by elected members of the Democrat party and even some in the media,” Leavitt told reporters Monday. “This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment,” she continued.

Trump called Cole Allen anti-Christian. His manifesto suggests the opposite --  In a message sent to family members minutes before attempting to breach the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, suspect Cole Tomas Allen thanked his church family and invoked Christian theological traditions to justify the violence that was about to occur. “Hello everybody,” the message began. Over more than 1,000 words, Allen wove together apologies to loved ones, political grievances, and religious reasoning. He cited Scripture throughout and argued that Christians have a moral obligation to resist unjust authority through force.  When shots were fired and Allen was arrested minutes later, President Donald Trump offered a swift characterization. Allen, the president said, was anti-Christian, and the manifesto represented a rejection of Christianity itself.  Experts consulted by Newsweek disagreed with that characterization. A careful reading of Allen’s manifesto, they said, reveals something far more theologically complicated and far more troubling: Allen was not anti-Christian. He was claiming to be deeply, seriously Christian while committing violence in what he believed were Christian terms. “I think he abused Christianity,” Christopher Hale, a Catholic theologian and scholar of religious violence, told Newsweek of Allen. “But the abuse he engaged in is something very particular and very dangerous.” Allen, a 31-year-old part-time teacher and game developer of Torrance, California, had deep roots in the Christian community. From 2013 to 2017, he was an active member of the Caltech Christian Fellowship (CCF), where he served as a large-group coordinator leading discussions on the Apostles’ Creed and forgiveness. His father, Thomas Allen, is a ruling elder at Grace United Reformed Church in Torrance, a congregation in the United Reformed Churches of North America.But it was the theological arguments in Allen’s manifesto that concerned the experts most. Allen made two core claims, both drawn from recognizable Christian traditions, and both distorted to justify violence.His first argument centered on the biblical teaching to “turn the other cheek.” Allen wrote that this principle applies only to personal insults, not to the oppression of others. “Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” he wrote.    Darrell Cole, a professor of ethics at Drew University and a specialist in just-war theory, offered a markedly different assessment. He said Allen’s reading contains a kernel of legitimate Christian teaching. “Allen is right in the main that turning the other cheek should not be understood to mean that a Christian should do nothing about an oppressed neighbor,” Cole told Newsweek. But Cole emphasized the critical boundary Allen crossed. “The Christian tradition has always held that the duty to do something about oppression should rest in the hands of those whose duty it is to counter it. Private acts of force are never encouraged,” he said.Allen’s second argument concerned the teaching to “render unto Caesar”—the biblical instruction to obey legitimate authority. He argued that Christians need not obey unlawful orders. When positive law violates divine law, Christian tradition has held, obedience becomes optional.“There are times when Christians do not obey,” Hauerwas, the Duke Divinity School pacifist scholar, said. “But that is about discerning when authority is to be obeyed and when it is not. The question of disobedience comes from that. Christians are called to resist violence against the neighbor.”“His argument that unlawful orders need not be obeyed extends back at least to Thomas Aquinas,” Cole, the Drew University ethicist, said, stating that this concept reaches back to medieval Christian philosophy on natural law and even influenced Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil disobedience, with roots deep in Christian thought.

Allegations of corruption against Justices Thomas and Alito --A candidate to be the Democrats’ U.S. senate nominee in Maine is winning applause at rallies by calling for the impeachment of “at least” two Supreme Court justices. Maine’s Graham Platner says a “compelling case” exists for impeaching Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito.“The relationship between Clarence Thomas and [Texas real estate developer] Harlan Crow is … clearly corrupt, and Justice Thomas doesn’t even recuse himself from cases that impact Crow’s businesses,” Platner said. “These are absolutely reasons for removal.” Platner did not say why he wants to impeach Alito. But it likely stems from ProPublica reports on lavish travel given to Alito by wealthy interests with stakes in court rulings.  I’ve known Justice Clarence Thomas for 40 years and have considered him a good friend. To hear some tell it, a Washington Post column I wrote about him in 1980 brought him to the attention of Republican power players in the Reagan administration and ultimately helped lead President George H.W. Bush to appoint him to the Supreme Court.   It is also true that allegations of corruption can’t be ignored if you care about his legacy and the court’s credibility. As Platner is making clear on the campaign trail, the court’s credibility is frayed to the point of political outrage.  At 77, Thomas is the most senior justice and is about two years away from being the longest-serving associate justice in history. He remains a leading voice among the six-member conservative majority. He notably voted for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which ended abortion access as a constitutionally protected right.    Apart from being a political talking point for Platner, Thomas made news last week by giving a speech that began with open words of thanks to his benefactor.   The transcript made no mention of Harlan Crow’s collection of Nazi memorabilia. Thomas failed to say why he did not disclose Crow’s patronage until reporters exposed it.   Justice Alito is also making news. At a dinner held at a conference of the conservative Federalist Society, the 76-year-old felt ill and was taken to the hospital. The high court did not disclose his trip to the hospital until it was reported by CNN.  The incident has added to “speculation,” The Hill reported, that “Alito might soon step down, which would give President Donald Trump the chance to appoint a fourth justice, after the three who were confirmed during his first term.” If Alito suddenly quits, it will add to public concern about the lack of balance on a court that looks to be captive to Trump’s far-right nominees. A Senate fight over a Supreme Court nominee before the midterms also has the potential to boost Republican turnout and distract from Trump’s low poll numbers. An added bonus for Republicans and the high court is that if Alito stepped down, it would erase the chance of any impeachment inquiry. In 1969, Justice Abe Fortas — appointed by Lyndon Johnson — resigned after it was revealed he had accepted an undisclosed retainer from a wealthy financier’s family foundation while that financier was under federal investigation.It was the threat of impeachment that led him to leave the court just four years after his appointment. By comparison, Fortas’s misconduct looks quaint next to the allegations surrounding Thomas and Alito.And it isn’t just them. Business Insider reported in 2023 that Chief Justice John Roberts failed to disclose that his wife earned more than $10 million in commissions over eight years as a headhunter for elite law firms and corporations, some with business before the high court. Also in 2023, Politico reported that just nine days after being confirmed, Justice Neil Gorsuch sold property he owned in Colorado to the chief executive of a law firm with business before the court. The property had been unsold for two years. He found a buyer only after he got a seat on the court.  Concern over the court’s failure to uphold an image of impartiality arguably began in 2000 when a 5-4 majority of Republican-appointed justices effectively decided a presidential election in favor of George W. Bush.   Thomas is the only justice left who participated in that ruling. Since 2000, five of the eight new justices were nominated by Republican presidents. Several have ties to the Federalist Society and have issued rulings viewed as serving ideological and business interests. To me, the low point came in 2010 with Citizens United, which opened the floodgates for unlimited dark money in elections. It empowered a billionaire class — figures like the Koch brothers and Crow — to spend freely in support of politicians who would protect tax cuts and deregulation. This project was orchestrated in large part by the leader of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo. Leo may not play the same role again. Trump called him a “sleazebag” after judges aligned with the Federalist Society ruled against Trump on the constitutionality of his tariffs.   The political baggage weighing on the court is now heavy. Platner is right: A reckoning is overdue.

Senate Republicans push bill to authorize $400 million for White House ballroom - A group of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) are pushing a bill to fund the construction of a secure 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House and say the project is essential to national security after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. Graham and his allies say the cost of this project would be offset by national park user fees and customs fees, and that the bill would authorize the construction of national security-related infrastructure below the ballroom, including an annex for the Secret Service. “It’s very difficult to have a bunch of important people in the same place unless it’s really, really secure. The times in which we live are unusual. I’ve been up here for a while now, I’ve never felt the sense of threat that exists today,” said Graham, who was first elected to the House in 1994. He noted that in addition to President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who are second and third in the presidential line of succession, were at the dinner Saturday when a 31-year-old man armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives tried to break into the ballroom before being tackled by Secret Service personnel. Graham said while critics have panned Trump’s quest to build a ballroom that would dwarf the West Wing as a vanity project, he never saw it that way. “A meeting space that is secured on the White House grounds that would allow people to do what they did at the Hilton hotel is necessary. I’m convinced that had there been a presidential ballroom adjacent to the White House, the guy would have never gotten in,” he said referring to the assailant. Graham has teamed up with Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) to authorize the construction of a presidential ballroom with military-type complex beneath it in case of emergencies. Schmitt told reporters that national park fees would also defray the costs of the project.

National Trust rejects DOJ request to drop White House ballroom lawsuit -  A preservation group is not backing down from its lawsuit over President Trump’s White House ballroom project, a lawyer for the group said in a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sunday. “I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter requesting that the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States (‘National Trust’) dismiss the above-captioned lawsuit,” Gregory B. Craig, a lawyer representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in the letter.“That lawsuit seeks to require the President to secure authorization from Congress—as mandated by the Constitution and federal law—before undertaking further construction on the proposed ballroom. The National Trust respectfully declines the invitation to dismiss,” the letter continues.The DOJ had pressed the preservation group to drop the lawsuit in the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.In its own Sunday letter, the DOJ pushed for the National Trust for Historic Preservation to drop its “frivolous lawsuit” against the Trump administration after Saturday’s incident.  “If your client does not dismiss the lawsuit by 9:00 AM on Monday, the government will move to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the case in light of last night’s extraordinary events,” the letter continues.On Saturday, Trump argued that the shooting spotlighted the need for a White House ballroom.“I didn’t want to say this but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s much more secure,” Trump told reporters.   Democratic Sen. John Fetterman also said the ballroom is needed in light of Saturday’s shooting.“We were there front and center. That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government. After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these,” Fetterman posted Sunday on the social platform X, referring to “Trump derangement syndrome,” a term the president uses for his critics.

Senate Republican on Trump ballroom push: ‘We have $39 trillion of debt’ - Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is pushing back on a proposal to spend as much as $400 million in taxpayer money to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House, arguing that Congress needs to rein in its deficit spending at a time of historically high national debt. Scott told NBC News on Monday evening that the project should be paid for with private funding only.. “I don’t know why you would do it” with taxpayer money “if it’s all funded,” Scott told NBC News. “We have $39 trillion in debt,” he said. “Maybe we ought to stop spending money.” Scott supports construction of a White House ballroom but he doesn’t want taxpayers to pay for it. “We need the ballroom and Democrats need to get over their Trump Derangement Syndrome and stop holding it up. We don’t need tax dollars for it because the project is already paid for with private funds,” Scott told The Hill in a statement. “Let’s get this done — no one can argue there isn’t a critical, immediate need,” he said. President Trump initially planned to pay for the construction of the ballroom, which will replace the White House’s former East Wing, with private donations. But now a group of GOP senators led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is pushing a bill to authorize $400 million to build the ballroom along with an underground military facility and Secret Service annex in case of national emergency. Graham and his partners, including Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), would offset the cost of the project with national park user fees and custom fees. The South Carolina Republican said taxpayers should pay for the infrastructure and donors could pay for decor and furnishings. “Underneath it will be a lot of military stuff. There will be a Secret Service annex and we pay for it by offsetting it with customs fees,” he said Monday at a press conference. “Private donations can be used but I think they should be used for buying [fine] china and stuff like that.” Graham added that he talked to Trump about the proposal on Sunday and said the White House supports it. Senate Republicans announced their plan to ask for a vote on the legislation to authorize $400 million for Trump’s project after a suspect armed with a shotgun and handgun tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Saturday. Trump, Vice President Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and several Cabinet officials were at the dinner when Secret Service officers tackled the gunman near the stairs leading down to the Hilton ballroom after rushing past security. “A meeting space that is secured on the White House grounds that would allow people to do what they did at the Hilton hotel is necessary,” Graham said. “I’m convinced that had there been a presidential ballroom adjacent to the White House, the guy would have never gotten in.”

Secrets of Trump’s golden flying palace refit are leaked -- President Donald Trump’s controversial new Air Force One will be less government issue, more royal suite.  The Boeing 747, originally built for Qatar’s royal family, is being refitted for Trump after it was gifted to the United States last year. But despite a $400 million overhaul, much of its lavish interior is staying put. “By and large, the airplane that we’re getting is in the same condition from an interior perspective,” Air Force Gen. Dale White told The Wall Street Journal. Oversized leather seats, plush couches, and faux library-style bookshelves will all remain onboard, now paired with U.S. presidential seals instead of royal insignia.The $400 million price tag was driven by security and communications upgrades rather than cosmetic changes, equipping the aircraft with the systems needed to operate as a flying command center. The jet was also stripped back during the retrofit process to ensure that no surveillance devices or hidden technology had been embedded during its time in foreign service, with multiple U.S. agencies conducting sweeps of the aircraft for potential threats.“The full force of the United States government and the agencies that exist inside of that government have been instrumental in allowing us to be able to make sure that it is a secure aircraft,” White told the Journal. The jet is one of the largest foreign gifts ever given to the U.S. government and has ignited controversy since Trump agreed to accept it. Some of Trump’s own allies even broke ranks when the gift was announced.  “I’m not flying on a Qatari plane. They support Hamas,” Sen. Rick Scott, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, told The Hill.Sen. Josh Hawley, another ardent Trump supporter, said: “It would be better if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America. That would be ideal.” Trump has repeatedly brushed off the backlash, insisting the plane was gifted to the Defense Department and will serve only as a temporary solution until Boeing delivers its long-delayed new Air Force One jets, which are not expected until at least 2028, according to Bloomberg.“I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” he said.“I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”He added that the plane would be handed over to his presidential library upon his leaving office, and he would not use it after his presidency. Renderings of Trump’s planned presidential library show the aircraft prominently displayed in the lobby, alongside a golden escalator.  For a plane supposedly gifted to the United States, it looks set to be treated as anything but.

Democrats hold 10-point edge over Republicans ahead of midterm elections: Poll Democrats hold a 10-point advantage over Republicans on a generic congressional ballot, according to the latest in a series of polls showing the party in a strong position ahead of November’s midterm elections. In a three-day Emerson College Polling survey, conducted this past weekend, 50 percent of likely voters said they would back a generic Democratic candidate for Congress, while 40 percent said they would prefer the average Republican in November. Another 10 percent said they’re not sure. Democrats’ 10-point advantage over Republicans grew 3 points from last month, when 49 percent of likely voters said they’d support the Democratic candidate for Congress and 42 percent said they’d prefer the Republican. Throughout the second half of 2025, the share of likely voters who preferred Democratic representatives hovered at 44 percent, while the share who supported Republicans hovered at around 42 percent. In January, however, support for Democrats ticked up to 48 percent before continuing to rise to 50 percent. Support for the GOP candidate, meanwhile, remained steady at 42 percent until this month, when it slipped by 2 points. “Democrats’ strength is driven by an increase in support among Hispanic voters, women, and independents,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement, noting Democrats are favored among Hispanic voters by a 35-point margin, among women by a 21-point margin and among independents by a 19-point margin. The Emerson poll comes as Democrats grow more confident in their chances ahead of the midterm elections, buoyed by President Trump’s poor approval ratings on the economy and rising frustration surrounding the Iran war and rising gas prices. While Democrats have long viewed a House majority as within reach, they are increasingly eyeing the Senate, where the map heavily favors Republicans.

 In Huge Win For Republicans, Supreme Court Curbs Use Of Race In Drawing Voting Districts -- In a sweeping 6-3 decision issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana’s congressional map with a second majority-Black district is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The ruling in Louisiana v. Callais (No. 24-109) delivers a major victory for Republicans by sharply curtailing the Voting Rights Act’s ability to compel the creation of predominantly Black or Hispanic districts - a development that could help the GOP protect and expand its House majority in the 2026 midterms and beyond. Writing for the Court, Justice Samuel Alito held that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, properly interpreted, did not require Louisiana to draw the additional majority-Black district in Senate Bill 8. Because the state’s use of race was not justified by a compelling interest, the map violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision does far more than resolve one Louisiana map. It fundamentally updates the legal framework for Voting Rights Act challenges that has been in place since Thornburg v. Gingles (1986). The Court made three critical changes that will make it significantly harder for plaintiffs to force race-conscious districting:

• Illustrative maps must be race-neutral: Plaintiffs can no longer draw “demonstration maps” that deliberately maximize majority-minority districts. Any alternative map must fully comply with all of a state’s legitimate, non-racial districting goals - including traditional criteria and the state’s partisan political objectives.
• Race must be disentangled from party: To prove political cohesion and racial bloc voting, plaintiffs must now control for partisan affiliation. Simply showing that Black voters and white voters support different candidates is no longer enough if the pattern tracks party preference rather than race.
• Focus on current intentional discrimination: The “totality of circumstances” analysis must center on evidence of present-day intentional racial discrimination in voting. Historical discrimination and generalized “societal effects” carry far less weight.

These changes align Section 2 more closely with the Fifteenth Amendment’s prohibition on intentional racial discrimination and the Constitution’s general bar on race-based government action.

Deported model says she has damaging info on Trump, Melania | Miami Herald --In 2023, Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian model who was brought to the United States on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane when she was 16, was trying to build a new life in South Florida with her teenage son, far removed from the modeling world she had grown up in New York. Two years later, Ungaro, 41, was bound in handcuffs and thrown into an immigration detention center in Miami-Dade where she spent three months of misery before being abruptly transported to Louisiana and then deported back to Brazil.  Ungaro, a former diplomat in the first Trump administration, came to the attention of police in April 2024 after authorities received an anonymous tip that she and her husband, Joao Araujo, a Brazilian plastic surgeon, were conducting cosmetic procedures without a license at their wellness center in Aventura. Her arrest by Aventura police last June led to her being deported to Brazil in October. Ungaro claims her deportation was instigated by her former partner, Paolo Zampolli, a longtime Trump ally and a Trump administration official.  She accused Zampolli of using his influence to pressure the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport her to gain custody of their 16-year-old son. Now she is fighting back. Ungaro, who was part of President Donald Trump and Melania’s social circle for years, issued a number of angry posts on X directed at the first lady, the president as well as former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “I will tear down your corrupt system, even if it’s the last thing I do in my life. I will go all the way — I am not afraid. Maybe you should be afraid of what I know … of who you are, and who your husband is,” she said in a post that was dated April 8 and tagged the first lady’s X account. She threatened legal action against the first lady “and your pedophile husband.” To Bondi, she said in a post: “Do you fully understand the information I possess regarding you and the individuals associated with you? I strongly advise you to consider the seriousness of these matters. Any actions taken against me or attempts to escalate this situation could have significant legal consequences.” Epstein’s name was not mentioned in Ungaro’s posts, which have since been deleted.  But the following day, April 9, Melania Trump made a rare public statement from the White House disassociating herself from Epstein. She claimed that any suggestion that she and Epstein were anything other than passing social acquaintances was unfounded. She also said she was never a victim of Epstein and, despite what Epstein said in the past, the sex trafficker did not introduce her to Trump. “The first time I crossed paths with Epstein was in the year 2000, at an event Donald and I attended together. At the time, I had never met Epstein and had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings,” the first lady said.  Ungaro continued her posts after the first lady’s statement. “I have nothing left to lose in my life,” Ungaro wrote on X that same day. “I will tear down the entire system —be careful with me bitch.”

AI bill would crack down on deepfake distribution and protect whistleblowers -A new artificial intelligence bill, reported first by CNBC, would crack down on deepfake and non-consensual images and make it easier for whistleblowers to report AI-related concerns.The bill is sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., who lead a bipartisan House Task Force on AI with Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif. The bill builds off of recommendations in the task force’s report.Lieu called the bill “a step forward” in an interview with CNBC.“It is not designed to be controversial,” he said. “It is based on bipartisan legislation that other members have introduced, as well as the recommendations of the bipartisan House AI Task Force. So we’re trying to do something this term right now with this bill.”Lieu’s bill avoids some of the more thorny issues surrounding AI, including whether a federal standard should be established to preempt state AI laws and whether testing requirements are needed for AI systems used in places like critical infrastructure and education.The wide-ranging bill includes provisions protecting whistleblower who report AI safety risks or violations, requiring the U.S. to participate in international organizations that develop technical standards for AI and would establish a prize competition for groundbreaking AI research and development, While Lieu’s bill has Obernolte’s backing, the Republican is working on his own AI package that he expects to release later this year. Like Lieu’s bill, Obernolte’s will build off of the work of the bipartisan task force.

Dems offer cautious backing for GOP data center energy push - House Energy and Commerce Democrats are offering cautious backing to legislation up for a hearing this week that would tackle surging data center power demand — but warn the GOP can’t address the problem without bipartisan buy-in. The Energy Subcommittee hearing will consider bills aimed at shifting the costs of booming data center demand onto developers rather than consumers, while also strengthening the grid to handle rising electricity needs. The push marks a notable shift for Hill Republicans, who have previously questioned whether federal legislation on data centers is necessary given the issue often falls to state and local governments. “While we work to win the race to AI dominance with China and keep the United States at the forefront of innovation, we must continue to deploy commonsense solutions to meet our industrial-scale energy needs while protecting consumers,” said full committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and subcommittee Chair Bob Latta (R-Ohio) in a statement.

Lawmakers agree the data center boom shouldn’t hurt ratepayers. Now comes the hard part. - House lawmakers expressed support Wednesday for protecting energy ratepayers from price hikes driven by surging data center demand, but remain far from a legislative solution. A congressional hearing focused specifically on legislation to address large data center energy use came as the issue gains national political relevance and after President Donald Trump called on Congress to act. Top Republican lawmakers have gone from expressing skepticism about the need for them to legislate on data centers to exploring options, but what exactly remains to be seen. “We all want to make sure that locals don’t bear the burden of the energy needs of data centers,” said House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.). “It’s a problem I think everyone on this committee agrees on.” Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) put the issue leaders are dealing with back home bluntly. “There’s a lot of resistance in rural areas to building those data centers. Local mayors and commissioners, they just don’t want them. We need to educate them on why they need them.” Guthrie said he was committed to finding legislative “common ground” with Democrats. Energy Subcommittee ranking member Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) suggested the issue could break through typical partisan gridlock. “It matters too much to the folks we represent back home that are just being crushed by higher bills,” Castor said. “So I’m actually hopeful that we can plow some ground on this.” Still, lawmakers have significant work ahead before agreeing on specific policies — both to allocate data center-related costs and to address broader grid challenges pushing electricity prices higher. Democrats expressed interest in a draft Republican proposal, the “Ratepayer Protection Act,” but raised concerns about its scope and structure. The measure would amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to require large electricity users, such as data centers, to cover the full cost of the infrastructure needed to serve them. The bill would establish a federal standard requiring those customers to pay 100 percent of the costs for new generation and transmission upgrades, with payments or financial assurances provided upfront. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) argued the bill sets too high a threshold for who qualifies as a “large-load customer,” calling the proposed 100-megawatt benchmark “extreme” and suggesting it be lowered to 50 MW — still “more than enough demand to power a small city.” Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) also criticized the bill’s exemptions for states that have already taken action on data center rate structures, saying they are “so broad that they basically wipe out any requirement that state commissions would do anything.” In the Senate, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has a bill with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to force data centers to find independent power sources, but it and other proposals have yet to get a hearing. Guthrie said he would like the “Ratepayer Protection Act” to eventually reach the House floor, though such action remains distant. The draft has not yet been formally introduced and lacks a lead sponsor to champion it.

Meta, Google, OpenAI among Big Tech firms seeing top staff leaving to launch AI startups - Top researchers are jumping ship from Big Tech firms like Meta and Google to launch startups and raise huge funding rounds in the process, as investors bet big on the commercial potential of early-stage AI labs.Amid colossal spending on AI, many of these new startups are raising hundreds of millions within months of being founded. Yesterday, former Google DeepMind researcher David Silver announced he’d raised a record $1.1 billion seed round for his months-old startup Ineffable Intelligence. Tim Rocktäschel, another former DeepMind employee, is reportedly raising up to $1 billion for his new startup Recursive Superintelligence. Rocktäschel didn’t respond to a CNBC request for comment.AMI Labs announced a $1 billion raise in March, months after its founder, Yann LeCun, said he was leaving his role as Meta’s AI chief. It’s developing AI systems that can learn from continuous real-world data.In the past year, former staff at OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic and xAI also raised hundreds of millions from investors for months-old ventures, including AI labs Periodic Labs, Ricursive Intelligence and Humans&.Many of these companies have themselves hired extensively from the founders’ former employers, and other AI giants, as investors have supplied them with the necessary funds to tempt top researchers from Big Tech. The race for AI dominance among the biggest AI labs has created an opening for smaller, more nimble companies, Elise Stern, managing director at French VC Eurazeo, which backed AMI Labs, told CNBC. “When you’re in a race, you narrow focus,” she added. “That creates a vacuum. Entire areas of research, like new architectures, agents, interpretability and vertical models, are being deprioritised, not because they don’t matter, but because they don’t win the immediate race.” Investors are racing to pour funds into AI labs founded by top researchers previously working for leading tech companies.In 2026, VCs have funnelled $18.8 billion into AI startups founded since the start of 2025, according to Dealroom. That’s on track to surpass the $27.9 billion picked up last year by companies launched since the start of 2024.Founders who have worked at frontier labs have “unique” insight, said Eurazeo’s Stern.“They know what works at scale, and they know exactly what is being left on the table internally,” she said. “That’s where the opportunity lies.”Increasingly sharp focus on commercial goals — as major AI labs look to justify astronomical valuations — limits the freedom of top researchers, Alexander Joël-Carbonell, partner at HV Capital, which also invested in AMI Labs, told CNBC.“Inside the large foundational labs, the pressure to deliver benchmark performance and maintain rapid release cycles leaves limited room for genuinely exploratory research, particularly outside the dominant LLM paradigm,” he added.Ricursive Intelligence, which picked up $335 million across two rounds in December and January after being founded in September, is building AI tools to help with chip design. Founders Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini both previously worked for Anthropic, as well as Google DeepMind, where they contributed to the AlphaChip project, which looked to automate chip design.Goldie told CNBC that potential customers were more likely to consider a new company as a neutral partner rather than a competitor.“For chipmakers to trust us with their most valuable IP, we have to be Switzerland, and that wouldn’t be possible if we were at Google,” she added.The company has also turned to former colleagues. “We got the core AlphaChip team back together, and that involved hiring some of our old collaborators,” said Goldie. Other team members previously worked at Google, Anthropic, Nvidia, Apple and xAI, she added.Periodic Labs, founded by former OpenAI and DeepMind staff, raised $300 million in September, months after launching. It’s looking to develop autonomous labs.HV Capital’s Joël-Carbonell told CNBC that a growing number of AI researchers are questioning whether scaling the current large language model (LLM) approach further will be enough to reach the next level of AI capability. AMI Labs, founded by former Meta AI chief LaCun, said that it was “the right moment because AI has made major progress in content generation, but still struggles with grounding, causality, and reliable behavior in real-world settings.”“As AI moves beyond screens into industry, robotics, healthcare and other physical environments, those limitations become increasingly important,” a company spokesperson told CNBC.  Ineffable Intelligence will focus on reinforcement learning, which is when AI models learn from experience as opposed to human data — compared to many leading AI models that are trained on internet text — a source familiar with the company told CNBC.It’s an approach also being used by San Francisco-based Humans&, which was launched in October by former employees of Anthropic and xAI and raised $480 million in January.

OpenAI Breaks Off Microsoft Exclusivity to Free up Path for Amazon, Google Deals - (Reuters) – Microsoft is losing exclusive access to OpenAI’s technology, clearing the way for the ChatGPT creator to sell its products across rival cloud platforms in a sweeping change to one of the artificial intelligence era’s most consequential alliances. The reworked tie-up, announced jointly by the companies on Monday, retains Microsoft as OpenAI’s primary cloud partner with a license to the startup’s intellectual property through 2032. But the ​software giant will no longer share revenue for the OpenAI products it sells on its cloud. Revenue OpenAI must share with Microsoft through 2030 will ​now have a cap for the total number and no longer tied to the startup’s technology milestones – including if it achieves artificial ⁠general intelligence, the point at which AI matches or surpasses human ability. The change is meant to simplify a complex relationship between OpenAI and its one of its biggest ​and earliest backers. Microsoft’s early bet on OpenAI allowed the company to roll out AI across its products and powered sales growth at its Azure cloud-computing business, turning the company into ​one of one the biggest players in the high-stakes race for the technology. But tensions have been rising between the companies as OpenAI strikes cloud deals with rival providers to secure more computing power and build out an enterprise business that can compete better with Anthropic ahead of a potential IPO. The Financial Times reported last month Microsoft was weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a $50 billion cloud ​deal that may breach its exclusive cloud tie-up. In an internal memo reported by CNBC, OpenAI said that the Microsoft partnership had been foundational but had limited the startup’s ​enterprise reach, adding that demand since OpenAI launched on Amazon’s cloud had been staggering. The reworked partnership clears the way for OpenAI to run its services on Amazon’s cloud platform without the technical ‌modifications required ⁠by the previous Microsoft deal, according to a person familiar with the matter. MicroWatt Controls: Instrumentation & Safety System Experts Amazon is expected to hold an event on Tuesday in San Francisco where executives from OpenAI will appear for a joint announcement, according to a posting on Amazon’s website. “The new deal with Microsoft was essential for OpenAI to be successful in the enterprise market,” said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co. “AWS and Google Cloud enterprise customers have been limited in their ability to integrate OpenAI’s products because of the exclusive relationship and will now ​be more likely to consider OpenAI alongside ​Anthropic,” he added.Microsoft and OpenAI had also announced restructured ​their tie-up in October, removing major constraints on the startup’s ability to raise capital and secure computing resources. The software giant ​has in recent months ⁠been working to reduce its reliance on OpenAI by developing its own AI models and rolling out those developed by the likes of Anthropic in its products including the 365 Copilot for enterprises. It has also said that it has been constrained on AI capacity, which has limited growth for its cloud business. “From Microsoft’s perspective, it does not need to build out ⁠all the ​data center needs for OpenAI, freeing up capital for Copilot and other cloud capacity,” Barclays analysts said, ​calling the move a positive for both Microsoft and OpenAI. Ending the exclusivity pact may help Microsoft fight antitrust scrutiny in the UK, the U.S. and Europe over whether its OpenAI tie-up give it an unfair advantage in the cloud and enterprise ​AI markets.

The Dark Side of AI: Data Centers Become Energy “Monsters” Rivalling Nations in Carbon Emissions -- Voice Of Emirates -  International reports warn: Running smart models consumes energy equivalent to entire countries; Tech giants in a "race against time" to go green; Experts call for "Sustainable Digitization" – A recent analysis from London has revealed a “hefty environmental price” the planet is paying for the massive boom in Artificial Intelligence. The report confirmed that the data centers powering these technologies are consuming “terrifying” amounts of energy, driving carbon emissions to levels that rival—and sometimes exceed—those of entire nations. Obviously, the digital luxury we enjoy in May 2026 hides a massive carbon footprint, especially in regions still relying on coal and gas to generate the electricity needed to cool and run “giant servers.” Why Does AI Consume More Electricity Than Small Nations? The analysis explained that training and operating massive AI models requires “super” computing powers running 24/7, making the data center sector one of the fastest-growing energy consumers globally. Accordingly, estimates suggest that electricity demand will jump to unprecedented levels in the coming years as cloud computing expands. Clearly, this expansion puts international climate agreements in a “real fix,” as controlling emissions becomes difficult while chasing rapid technological evolution. While tech giants have begun investing heavily in wind and solar energy and developing innovative cooling systems, experts argue these efforts are “slow” compared to the speed of AI growth. As a result, observers believe that balancing “digital progress” with “environmental preservation” has become an urgent necessity that cannot be delayed. Amidst this challenge, global policymakers face the difficult task of imposing strict sustainability standards on tech firms to ensure AI is a friend to the environment, not a foe.

Bitcoin Miner MARA Buys OH’s Long Ridge Gas Plant, Transload Site -- Marcellus Drilling News --Long Ridge Energy & Power operates a 485 MW (nameplate 505 MW) combined-cycle natural gas power plant in Hannibal, Ohio, designed for eventual 100% hydrogen fuel usage. Located on a 1,600-acre site formerly used by an aluminum smelter, it serves the PJM grid and supports an integrated digital infrastructure/data center campus. Long Ridge has sort of morphed over the years. It originally served as a transloading terminal where frac sand and equipment used for shale drilling were hauled in by barge or rail and transferred to trucks. The transloading aspect of the terminal seems to be deemphasized these days. The new news is that the owner of Long Ridge, FTAI Infrastructure Inc., announced it is selling the facility and gas-fired power plant to MARA Holdings, Inc. for $1.52 billion.

Trump hosts crypto contest winners at Mar-a-Lago as his coin languishes -- President Donald Trump hosted winners of his second annual meme coin contest at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday, offering top buyers of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency an audience with him even as the token’s value has plunged more than 95% from its peak last year. The gala took place as scrutiny of the Trump family’s broader crypto ventures has intensified, with Democratic leaders calling for investigations. The 297 largest $TRUMP token holders who registered for the contest attended a gathering that Trump has billed as the “most exclusive” crypto and business conference in the world, where he gave the keynote address. The top 29 also attended a “special VIP reception and champagne toast” with the president. The day-long event is the latest example of Trump blending presidential stature with his family’s growing portfolio of speculative crypto ventures — a convergence government ethics experts say has little modern precedent, particularly since Trump’s personal crypto wealth has ballooned as he reshapes U.S. crypto policy. Trump’s appearance at the gala was not open to the public. But he later told reporters that he felt an “obligation” to support the crypto industry. “As a president, I have to be able to make sure that all of our industries do well,” Trump said before he boarded Air Force One on Saturday afternoon for his return to Washington, D.C. “Crypto is a big industry, it’s actually become somewhat mainstream.” While many retail buyers who piled into the token around its launch have seen most of their paper gains disappear, the Trump family and affiliated entities have continued to profit from the broader crypto ecosystem. A Reuters examination found that the family has taken in more than $1 billion from crypto asset sales, including at least $336 million tied to meme-coin sales in the first half of 2025 alone, with potentially billions more in unrealized gains. “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Reuters, adding that the president only acts in the best interests of the American public. “There are no conflicts of interest.” Last year’s meme-coin contest, at his golf club near Washington, D.C., raised similar concerns for ethics experts, as did a February conference at Mar-a-Lago hosted by the president’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., for World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s most lucrative crypto venture, which drew top figures from Washington, D.C., and Wall Street. Contest rankings were based not only on holdings of $TRUMP but also on purchases of Trump-branded merchandise — including sneakers, watches and fragrances — between March 12 and April 14. Winners are set to receive Trump-branded items, including a commemorative poster, two trading cards, a “Fight Fight Fight Red Beauty” watch, and a fragrance. $TRUMP token near lows The $TRUMP token is hovering near its all-time lows and is down sharply from the $75 high reached shortly after its introduction in January 2025. Late on Friday, $TRUMP was trading at roughly $3. As Trump spoke, it fell to $2.53 amid a flurry of trading on Saturday morning and remained below $2.60 after he left Florida. The 297 qualifying winners hold roughly $29 million worth of $TRUMP, according to crypto analytics firm Nansen, far below the $148 million Reuters reported they held for the inaugural May 2025 contest. “The contrast with last year’s launch is stark,” according to a Nansen analysis prepared for Reuters. When it was launched, buyers accumulated and held the token, helping fuel a sustained rally, Nansen said. “The 2026 contest generated a moment of activity, but not the same conviction we saw in 2025. Demand just isn’t sticking.” Meme coins — a type of crypto with no utility or intrinsic value — are based on online trends and viral cultural phenomena. Most of them exhibit parabolic price curves, with an early rise often followed by a plunge in value. Among the top $TRUMP wallets, according to blockchain data, is one linked to crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who finished first in the contest for the second consecutive year. Sun, one of the largest publicly known investors in World Liberty, sued the company on Tuesday, alleging that it froze his holdings. Investors have grown frustrated with the venture, saying it is opaque, tightly controlled and unresponsive to complaints. In a social media post, World Liberty co-founder and CEO Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff, called the lawsuit “meritless,” and accused Sun of “misconduct that required World Liberty to take action to protect itself and its users.”

Eric Trump drops crypto firm that stockpiled World Liberty coins Eric Trump, the second son of President Donald Trump, is no longer connected with a fintech that stockpiled crypto tokens for the Trump family's firm World Liberty Financial. The president's son has seemingly cut ties with the digital asset fintech ALT5 Sigma, whose shares lost 90% of their value after purchasing the tokens.

• Key insight: Eric Trump's name has disappeared from the board of a recently-renamed digital asset fintech that stockpiled crypto tokens from the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial last year.
• What's at stake: The unexplained removal comes at a time when the Trump family is under pressure for various crypto dealings, even as World Liberty Financial is seeking a national trust bank charter.
• Supporting data: ALT5's holdings in World Liberty tokens dropped in value by 30% from August to December 2025.

Trump family crypto project quietly sold as holders got stuck - The pitch was straightforward: Invest in the cryptocurrency venture of Donald Trump and his family, back the industry’s most powerful ally at the peak of their influence, and share the spoils. Investors said yes, putting in more than $550 million across two fundraising rounds.What happened next was not publicly explained. After those rounds closed, the project sold an additional 5.9 billion tokens to accredited private investors, transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with much of the proceeds directed to founder-affiliated entities.The sales came to light when intelligence platform Tokenomist.ai, examining World Liberty’s governance filings at Bloomberg’s request, found that the number of tokens listed under founder, team, adviser and partner allocations had risen without apparent explanation, a discrepancy the project had not explained to its broader investor base.  World Liberty confirmed the sales to Bloomberg, describing them as “white glove” transactions with private purchasers, but declined to say who the buyers were or where the money went. What is unfolding has no precedent in American financial life. A sitting president’s family holds financial stakes in a live token project — one setting governance rules, directing treasury sales, collecting proceeds — while the people who signed up find themselves with limited options to exit.  World Liberty Financial was co-founded by members of the Trump and Witkoff families alongside other business partners, with Zach Witkoff serving as chief executive. Both Trump and Steve Witkoff, who serves as the president’s special envoy to the Middle East, were listed as co-founder emeritus on the project’s website. The project recently removed a page listing its co-founders; a spokesperson said the company regularly updates its site.Under the project’s disclosures on its website, DT Marks DEFI LLC — an entity affiliated with Donald Trump and certain family members — is entitled to receive 75% of WLFI token sale proceeds after deduction of agreed reserves and expenses. DT Marks and certain Trump family members also hold 22.5 billion WLFI tokens. World Liberty declined to say who received the money from the additional sales. The project’s early investors were given the chance to sell 20% of their holdings last year — tokens acquired for as little as 5 cents — but cannot sell the rest. Unlike most token sales, World Liberty did not provide investors with an unlocking schedule in advance.The White House said Trump is not involved in managing the family’s crypto ventures, handing control to family and business associates. “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.White House Counsel David Warrington said Witkoff has divested from World Liberty Financial and does not participate in official matters that could affect his financial interests.Under a governance proposal now before investors, no one — founders or early buyers — will be able to sell their holdings for at least two years, after which tokens would begin unlocking gradually over several more years. Investors who do not accept the new terms risk having their tokens locked indefinitely. Insiders who accept the vesting schedule would also be required to permanently burn 10% of their token allocation, a structure the project said is designed to align founder and investor interests.“We have enormous conviction in this vision and take a long-term view towards everything we do, from our fundraising efforts to the careful crafting of governance proposals designed to benefit the entire ecosystem,” said David Wachsman, spokesman for World Liberty Financial.  The broader Trump family business has been reshaped by crypto. The family built its fortune on licensing the Trump name — real estate, Bibles, sneakers — but digital assets have opened a new revenue stream.For World Liberty’s investors, things have worked out differently from what many expected. Early buyers remain locked out of 80% of their token holdings, unable to sell into a market that has already moved sharply against them. WLFI traded below 6 cents this week to new lows in open trading.“It is surreal to have the Trump family not only profiting off this financial venture that features glaring conflicts of interest but doing so in a way that blocks other investors from sharing in the gains,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University.  The project’s highest-profile external backer has decided to intervene.Justin Sun, the billionaire founder of the Tron blockchain, sued the venture in April in San Francisco federal court alleging extortion and an illegal scheme to seize his tokens — charges the project’s co-founders deny. Sun alleged he invested $45 million into WLFI and has not been allowed to sell a single token.Syed Sameer, chief executive of Sameer Group — a Dubai-based investment firm that Syed said has invested in WLFI token alongside UAE institutional partners — posted an offer on X directed at Sun, offering to help negotiate a resolution. “Instead of a legal fight,” Syed told Bloomberg, Sun could “reach an amicable solution through neutral intermediaries.” Sun told Bloomberg he relayed Syed’s contact to his lawyers. Beyond the lawsuit, the project has deposited 5 billion of its own WLFI tokens into Dolomite, a decentralized lending protocol whose co-founder holds a role at World Liberty, and borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins against them. Critics say the structure may allow insiders to convert holdings to cash instead of waiting for an unlock that could be years away. World Liberty said the position was “nowhere near liquidation” and had repaid $25 million of the loan, with $50 million outstanding as of mid-April.With token prices falling, World Liberty’s broader corporate orbit is showing strain. Alt5 Sigma, a Nasdaq-listed company that raised $1.5 billion in August 2025 to accumulate WLFI tokens, announced a pivot to artificial intelligence. A recent filing said it may “redeem or monetize a portion of its token holdings to fund operations, satisfy obligations, or pursue strategic initiatives.” Tony Isaac, Alt5’s chief executive, told Bloomberg the company has no plans to sell the token, and may in fact continue to accumulate it.Zach Witkoff, World Liberty’s co-founder and chief executive, chairs Alt5’s board. Zak Folkman, a World Liberty co-founder, also sits on Alt5’s board. The troubles are unfolding against a broader reckoning. Across the Trump family’s crypto empire — a memecoin that’s down more than 40% this year and 93% from its post-inauguration peak, a Bitcoin mining venture whose shares have lost much of their value, and now Alt5, down roughly 90% since its pivot to accumulate WLFI — the pattern is similar: projects that rose on the Trump brand are now pivoting or restructuring, as the political trade that drove initial enthusiasm collides with a cooling crypto market. Anyone who bought shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social, over inauguration weekend 2025 has lost roughly three-quarters of their money.For the investors impacted by the market disruption, there is little formal recourse. Token projects operate outside the requirements governing public companies — no audited financials, no mandatory reporting of insider transactions, no independent board oversight.“Foundation treasuries are at the project’s discretion, and there’s no enforced requirement to disclose or restrict how they’re used,” Tanawat Chiewhawan, of Tokenomist.ai, said. “Some projects similarly allocate treasury tokens for private investor rounds.”

Elon Musk reportedly labels most cryptocurrencies as 'scams' -  Elon Musk, widely seen as a crypto champion, just declared in a court hearing that "most cryptocurrencies are scams." This shocking statement comes from the same individual whose company, Tesla, bought billions in Bitcoin and whose tweets famously pumped Dogecoin. How can someone who so heavily influenced the market now dismiss the majority of it as fraudulent? Does this revelation change your view of his past crypto endorsements, or is it just a convenient legal maneuver? Elon Musk has always been championed as being pro-crypto. But a recent reported comment in a court hearing is leaving the crowd puzzled. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, is suing the company for allegedly breaching its founding mission of being non-profit after it struck an investment deal with Microsoft and pivoted toward commercial products.OpenAI has maintained that Musk always understood the organisation could eventually evolve into a for-profit entity.The trial is taking place in Oakland, California, and is currently on its fourth day as of April 30.   During the pandemic-era bull run, Musk was among crypto's most high-profile cheerleaders. Tesla purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in early 2021, making it one of the earliest public companies to use its corporate balance sheet to buy crypto. Around the same time, Musk's tweets about Dogecoin (DOGE), a meme token, helped propel its value dramatically upward.Tesla subsequently sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in mid-2022. As of March 31, 2026, the majority of Tesla's remaining digital assets comprised of 11,509 BTC held at an acquisition cost of $386 million.His other major venture, SpaceX, holds approximately 8,285 BTC valued at around $631.58 million as of April 30, according to Arkham data. Fortune, citing a tweet from New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, reported that Musk said during Wednesday's court session,  "Some of them have merit, but most of them are scams." The comment apparently was made in the context of OpenAI's short-lived 2018 plans to raise funds through an initial coin offering, or ICO. It is a fundraising method where crypto projects sell tokens to the public.  In a blog post, OpenAI claimed Musk himself supported the ICO plan, which would have involved creating a for-profit subsidiary.

One of Iran’s most powerful families founded its largest crypto exchange. It’s used by the IRGC to move millions | Reuters - The sons of a powerful family with close ties to Iran’s new supreme leader control the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, transforming it from a startup into a conduit to the global economy used by both blacklisted state institutions and ordinary citizens. Since Nobitex was founded by the two brothers under an alternative family name, it has processed between tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions linked to sanctioned groups including Iran’s central bank and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a Reuters investigation has found. The two are members of the Kharrazi family, one of the most influential dynasties in the Islamic Republic. Corporate records show that when the exchange started, the brothers were listed under a surname rarely used by members of the family. The company rapidly became embedded in Iran’s economy. Nobitex claims 11 million users, more than 10% of Iran’s population. Locked out of international banking and facing a devalued rial and rampant inflation, ordinary Iranians use the exchange to buy and hold cryptocurrency. Screen capture of nobitex.ir home page, March 28, 2026, one month into the war. A screen capture of the nobitex.ir home page on March 28, one month into the war. The company has continued to operate despite government-imposed internet blackouts during the war. While Iran is subject to blanket Western economic sanctions, the exchange has avoided being designated by the United States and its allies. Reuters could find no indications that anyone in the Kharrazi family has been sanctioned by Western governments, and was unable to determine why Nobitex has been spared the kind of penalties placed on other major Iranian economic players. The revelation of the elite origins of the Nobitex founders by Reuters comes at a critical moment for Iran and especially the Revolutionary Guards, known as the IRGC. The IRGC has further cemented its control of Iran’s economy and security apparatus since the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a February airstrike at the outset of the U.S. and Israeli war in Iran. The brothers are the third Kharrazi generation at the heart of Iran’s ruling establishment. Kharrazis have advised supreme leaders and occupied key political, diplomatic and religious posts. The clan is related by marriage to all three supreme leaders of the Islamic Republic: the revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Khamenei, and Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba.Brothers Ali and Mohammad Kharrazi – using the family surname Aghamir – built Nobitex into the country’s dominant cryptocurrency provider. It handles an estimated 70% of Iran’s crypto transactions. It’s not unheard of for some Iranians to have and use alternative family names. But the brothers appear to be the only ones in their immediate family to routinely distance themselves from their famous bloodline.Nobitex serves as a bridge to global crypto markets and a central node in a parallel financial system used to move funds beyond the reach of Western sanctions, Reuters found. It’s used by the Iranian state to route money to allies outside the conventional banking system, according to an analysis of blockchain records by crypto analytic firm Crystal Intelligence and interviews with four private financial investigators. Reuters also spoke with nine Iranians who have worked for or with Nobitex, including six who said they were aware of state funds subject to Western sanctions passing through the exchange.In statements emailed to Reuters, Nobitex denied having direct government connections or assisting the state, and said that any illicit funds moving through the exchange did so without management approval or awareness. The company said the brothers had not changed their identity or used an alternative identity.  Iran’s government did not respond to requests for comment via the country’s delegations to the United Nations in New York and Geneva. “Under President Trump’s strong leadership, the United States is moving aggressively with Economic Fury, utilizing all available tools to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds,” a Trump administration official wrote in response to detailed questions about the findings by Reuters. The official made no reference to Nobitex. Throughout the war, Nobitex has continued processing transactions, even during a government-imposed nationwide internet shutdown and widespread power outages in Tehran, according to three blockchain analysis firms, which track activity involving Nobitex and other exchanges. During that time Nobitex has processed more than $100 million in transactions, about 20% of its usual activity, according to Crystal Intelligence, which has been investigating Iranian cryptocurrency flows for more than four years. “The concern with Nobitex is that since it has so much activity that belongs to normal Iranians, it is hard to separate the regime from the people using the platform,” said Nick Smart, chief intelligence officer at Crystal Intelligence. U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth ‌Warren said the revelations about Nobitex were cause for alarm. “This latest reporting is a flashing red light: Adversaries are using digital assets as an alternative to the U.S.-led global financial system – moving billions easily because too many services across the crypto ecosystem lack basic controls to prevent money laundering and sanctions evasion,” Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement to Reuters.

Ransomware victims got played by their own negotiators -Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, during a Senate committee hearing in 2024 after a cyberattack by Alphv paralyzed much of the U.S. health care system.

• Key insight: The case of two convicted cybersecurity professionals brought to light the actions of a third co-conspirator who gave sensitive breach details — including cyber-insurance policy limits — to a ransomware group he secretly worked for.
• What's at stake: Prosecutors said the cybersecurity professionals' conduct erodes victims' willingness to retain the very experts they rely on to defend against ransomware attacks.
• Supporting data: Five DigitalMint clients of Angelo Martino paid $75.25 million in ransoms while he allegedly leaked their negotiating positions to Alphv, including $25.66 million from a U.S. financial services firm.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review.

Tillis, Alsobrooks drop new stablecoin yield compromise - — A new compromise from lead negotiators on crypto market structure legislation would ban rewards on stablecoins if they are "economically or functionally equivalent" to bank deposits.  Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., have released compromise language on stablecoin yield for a long-awaited crypto market structure bill, clearing the way for a markup in the near future.

• Key insight: The bipartisan pair of Senators made public legislative text that they hope will thread the needle between competing crypto and bank interests on stablecoin yield, a sticking point that has held up a crypto market structure bill for months. 
• What's at stake: Banks have argued that offering stablecoin yield could drain deposits from the banking system. 
• Forward look: The compromise sets market structure legislation up for a markup potentially in the coming month.

Clarity Act text lets crypto firms offer stablecoin rewards while shielding bank yield - Stablecoin yield would be prohibited under a newly released agreement addressing that contentious part of the crypto market structure legislation in an approach that's broadly similar to what's been discussed since the start of the year. The new section of proposed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act text released Friday revealed that the compromise hashed out by U.S. Senators Thom Tillis(R-N.C.) and Angela Alsobrooks(D-Md.)would ban stablecoin issuers from offering yield based on just holding stablecoin reserves. It contends that "depository institutions provide financial services that are integral to the strength often American economy," and stablecoin issuers offering similar services"may inhibit"these institutions.Coming to an agreement means there's likely nothing in the way of a Senate Banking Committee hearing (known as a markup)that could finally advance the legislation another key step in its progress through the Senate,though there are a number of other negotiation points that haven't been publicly resolved. "Mark it up," Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a posting on social media site X. His company had been at the center ofthe talks and potentially had the most to lose from restrictions on stablecoin rewards. Coinbase's chief legal officer, Paul Grewal,said in a separate post that this language "preserves activity-based rewards tied to real participation on crypto platforms and networks,which is what the bank lobby said they wanted," adding that "we’re focused on getting a bill done and are satisifed that this language should not be the basis of any objection." In its legalese,the new text reads,"No covered party shall, directly or indirectly, pay any form of interest on yield (whether in cash,tokens, or other consideration)to a restricted recipient —(A)solely in connection with the holding of such restricted recipient's payment stablecoins; or(B) on a payment stablecoin balance in a manner that is economically or functionally equivalent to the payment of interest or yield on an interest-bearing bank deposit." This restriction does not apply to incentives"based on bona fide activities or bona fide transactions"that are different from yield generated by interest-bearing bank deposits,the text said, maintaining an approach to rewards that's similar to what financial firms offer on credit card activity.The restriction does apply to loyalty programs or similar efforts. One individual at a crypto company said this would require digital asset firmest restructure how they offer yield, moving from a "buy and hold"system to "buy and use"to meet the transaction caveats in the text. It's difficult to say how exactly this might work,the person said, pointing to the rulemaking provisionsin the text,which direct the Treasury Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to launch a rulemaking within a year of the bill becoming law that lays out more clearly howand when crypto firms can offer yield. The way the rulemaking provision is worded could give regulators latitude in how they define what crypto companies can do with yield products,said Corey Frayer, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America. He said the wording ofthe rulemaking section could allow crypto firmsto conduct the activities and then pay the returns back to customers.The wording in the section allows regulators to consider balance, duration and tenure as a factor in rewards calculation. Other factors that would be considered include the definition ofthe activity and whether some sort of incentive program is used. The text also includes anti-evasion language.

Circle won't freeze stolen crypto. Tether will. Now what? -- Banks weighing stablecoin partnerships need to know whose playbook regulators will endorse before another major crypto theft tests the question.

• Key insight: A class action in Massachusetts argues Circle's ability to freeze tokens at any wallet address creates a higher anti-money-laundering duty than banks face under the Bank Secrecy Act.
• What's at stake: If regulators side with Tether's approach, banks issuing or partnering on stablecoins could face an obligation to freeze customer funds in real time, a duty no traditional bank has.
• Expert quote: Columbia Business School adjunct professor Omid Malekan defended Circle's restraint, writing that if issuers freeze beyond what the law requires, "not only is code not law, but also law is not law."

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review

BankThink Maybe the Genius Act isn't so smart after all - Cat and mouse and crypto. Cryptocurrencies lend themselves to criminal behavior. This is not exactly breaking news. The first material ponzi scheme in the crypto world dates back to 2011 when a guy named Trendon Shavers, going under the name pirateat40, ran one he called the Bitcoin Savings and Trust. (TLDR, he was busted by the feds.) Regulators can compel regulated stablecoin issuers to perform AML checks and even freeze assets. But there are a lot of digital currencies out there beyond stablecoins.

To lead or not to lead: banks can't take payments dominance for granted – (see graphic) While stablecoins aren't widely used for payments, banks still have a role to play in leading the market.

Fintechs asking for, and receiving, bank charters in 2026 - 2026 is shaping up to be the year of fintechs becoming banks. There's been an onslaught of nonbank financial technology company charter applications and approvals already this year.

Coinbase follows its trust charter by boosting stablecoin distribution -Fresh off of its progress with U.S. regulators, Coinbase is looking to add heft to its ability to support stablecoin payments, a strategy that needs a way to convert digital assets to traditional money to complete transactions. The cryptocurrency company has collaborated with payment tech firm Nium to enable conversions to traditional currency, a play to boost use of the digital assets for payments and diversify Coinbase's revenue sources.

• Key insights: Coinbase has partnered with Nium to support conversion from stablecoins to traditional currency to boost payments. 
• What's at stake: Stablecoins are gaining a lot of attention, but are largely not used for payments. 
• Forward look: Coinbase is looking to diversify beyond crypto trading.

OpenAI will embed staff at Customers Bank under multiyear deal - Customers Bank is partnering with OpenAI to deploy artificial intelligence across its commercial banking business, a move that will position it to be "an AI native bank," the company announced Monday.

• Key insight: Customers Bank is expanding its relationship with OpenAI through a multiyear partnership that will focus on deploying AI in three areas of its commercial banking segment.
• What's at stake: The regional bank, which has been embracing AI for years, will work with onsite OpenAI engineers to build custom AI capabilities that the bank said could eventually increase revenue.
• Expert quote: "This strategic collaboration with OpenAI gives us the frontier models, engineering expertise and ability to co-create a roadmap toward becoming an AI native bank." — Customers Bank CEO Sam Sidhu

Bankers say they're AI fluent, but measurement is 'ad hoc' | American Banker  Banks spent 2025 opening their wallets for AI. When asked this spring to rate how fluent their workforces have actually become, most landed on "moderate." The word is doing a lot of work; the majority of banks don't actually have a way to measure this.

Unpatched AI flaw poses risk to banking sector | American Banker - An unpatched vulnerability in Anthropic's Model Context Protocol creates a channel for attackers, forcing banks to manage the third-party security risk.

• Key insight: Security researchers highlighted an architectural flaw in Anthropic's Model Context Protocol that the company has declined to patch.
• What's at stake: U.S. banks utilizing this protocol for agentic AI take on the third-party cybersecurity risk, regardless of Anthropic's actions.
• Supporting data: OX Security estimates there are up to 200,000 vulnerable instances of the affected code in total.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Deepfakes Are Coming for Your Bank Account - The Atlantic -- Donald Trump is on TikTok doing his morning routine. “Get ready with me for a big day ,” reads the caption, as the president holds a makeup brush to his cheek. The scene is a still, ostensibly a screenshot of a TikTok clip. Like so much other AI-generated slop coursing through the internet, the image is fake and ridiculous. It also looks unnervingly real: There are no hands with six fingers, physics-defying angles, or other flagrant signs of AI-generated imagery. At quick glance, it really looks like the president is putting on bronzer. (image Created in ChatGPT with the prompt “Trump doing a makeup tutorial on TikTok”)  I made this deepfake with OpenAI’s new image-generation model. ChatGPT Images 2.0, released last week, can create photorealistic visuals that are noticeably more convincing than what its predecessors might have produced. The tool has flooded the internet with hyperreal fakes: for example, Jeffrey Epstein as a Twitch streamer. I created the “screenshot” of Trump’s fake TikTok after encountering a similar image on the ChatGPT Subreddit, and I’ve since been able to use Images 2.0 to create all kinds of alarming deepfake images—including of Elon Musk getting whisked away by the FBI, world leaders suffering medical emergencies, and top American politicians donning Nazi paraphernalia (none of which I’ve shared anywhere).This was all unsettling in its own right. But the most realistic deepfakes I was able to create did not involve politicians or celebrities. They mostly did not depict people at all. With little effort, I was able to create more than 100 fraudulent images, including prescriptions for opioids and ADHD medication, bank alerts, social-media posts, fake IDs, and passports.pics: A sample license from the Washington, D.C., DMV website. A fake license created by editing the sample image using ChatGPT. Images 2.0 is especially good at generating images with text in them—which may not sound impressive, but it’s a big deal. Image models have long struggled to produce pictures that contain words. Otherwise realistic-looking visuals end up pockmarked with bungled street signs and distorted billboards. This makes ChatGPT Images 2.0 a much more sophisticated graphic-design tool—but it also makes the new model fantastic for perpetuating fraud. In my experiments, OpenAI’s tool readily generated images of fake health documents (doctor’s notes, vaccination cards, and medical tests), as well as forged financial materials (invoices, receipts, and tax forms). Many of these images were highly persuasive, complete with fully legible text, shading, and other visual props that increased their photorealism. Some images were more convincing than others. The fake medical prescriptions were legible, but the handwriting looked more like the output of an iPad stylus than a pen on paper. When I fed OpenAI’s model a boarding pass from an old flight and asked the bot to update it with new details for an upcoming flight, ChatGPT generated a new boarding pass—but surely, the bar code wouldn’t have actually scanned me onto a flight. And although I certainly hope my ChatGPT-generated driver’s license would not fool the TSA, perhaps it would trick a hotel receptionist or an out-of-state bouncer who would accept a “photo” of my ID instead of the real card. Many of the more persuasive-looking images contained minor errors—in the pictured receipt, ChatGPT correctly summed up the total cost of items purchased, but miscalculated the state tax (alongside other slight mistakes).

Georgia lender's demise marks second bank failure this year - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday announced Community Bank and Trust – West Georgia, a community bank based in LaGrange, Georgia, was being shuttered by the state's Department of Banking and Finance, with the FDIC stepping in as receiver. It marks the second U.S. bank failure of 2026.  The FDIC moved quickly on Friday to sell $288 million in assets Community Bank and Trust – West Georgia to Anchor Bank, but the sale announcement leaves the fate of $27 million in uninsured deposits to be determined.

• Key insight: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Friday shuttered Community Bank and Trust - West Georgia, selling its assets the same day to Anchor Bank. 
• Supporting data: The bank had $288 million in assets, $268 million in deposits, of which $27 million were uninsured. 
• Forward look: Fast resolutions are becoming more popular under the Travis Hill-led FDIC, making good on his goal announced last year.

Banks 'fairly, but not totally' satisfied with Basel rule - Even as they continue to press for additional changes, banks get some wins from the revised Basel capital framework and a ballpark estimate of their capital outlook for the next few years.

Why bankers should read NY's Uphold settlement closely -  New York extracted $5 million and a broker registration from Uphold over its promotion of CredEarn, a yield product whose issuer collapsed in 2020.

• Key insight: The Uphold settlement is the first New York enforcement action to target a platform that promoted someone else's yield product rather than the issuer of the product itself.
• What's at stake: Any U.S. bank that co-markets a partner's investment product to New York customers may now face the same partner-vetting requirement James imposed on Uphold.
• Supporting data: More than 6,000 Uphold customers lost more than $34 million when Cred collapsed in November 2020; the $5 million settlement is more than five times the fees Uphold earned from CredEarn, according to the AG's office.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review.

How AI is quickly overhauling one segment of SBA lending | American Banker --Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way that Small Business Administration lenders originate smaller-dollar loans.

• Key insight: Small Business Administration lenders believe they can leverage automated origination platforms to cut origination times on smaller loans to as little as seven days.
• Forward look: Live Oak Bank originated $56 million of loans through its smaller-dollar SBA program in the first quarter, but executives are projecting that annual small-dollar originations will soon top $750 million.
• Expert quote: "Once that is fully rolled out, it's going to be so much simpler, easier, faster and more efficient for our people to serve our customers and for our customers to get the capital they need." — Live Oak President BJ Losch

CFPB finalizes a scaled-back small-business lending rule - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a new version of a small-business lending rule that took 17 years to get over the finish line. Banks are still lobbying for the rule to be repealed.

OCC preempts Illinois swipe fee ban on taxes, tips -The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Friday issued an interim final rule and accompanying order that would preempt an Illinois state law banning the collection of interchange fees on taxes and tips.The move is aimed at blocking the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, a state law that bars credit card operators from charging interchange fees on taxes and tips, which is set to take effect July 1, 2026, and is being challenged in court.

• Key insight: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an interim final rule Friday preempting an Illinois law that bans banks from charging interchange fees on taxes and tips.
• Supporting data: The rule targets the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which is set to take effect July 1, 2026.
• Forward look: Legal challenges to the rule are likely, and the outcome of that litigation could have broader implications for state-level swipe fee laws and regulation.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an interim final rule Friday to clarify banks' leeway to charge interchange fees, explicitly blocking the applicability of a law passed in Illinois that would ban charging interchange fees on taxes and tips that goes into effect in July.

Judge blasts Colony Ridge settlement, declines oversight - A federal judge officially dismissed a civil suit against a Texas land developer, after the Department of Justice struck a $68 million settlement that the judge criticized pointedly. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas filed a five-page order expressing concerns about retaining jurisdiction to enforce the settlement  agreement between the Justice Department and Houston land developer Colony Ridge. Bennett said the settlement failed to enforce antidiscrimination laws and provided no relief to harmed borrowers. The judge said the DOJ signed a settlement that instead redirected millions in infrastructure improvements that benefit the developer. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon voluntarily dismissed the case against Colony Ridge with prejudice and signed an out-of-court agreement.A federal judge harshly criticized the settlement of a civil suit between the Department of Justice and a Texas land developer.

• Key insight: The judge said the original complaint sought actual damages for Hispanic buyers steered into high-cost loans to buy undeveloped, flood-prone land.
• What's at stake: The settlement provided no compensation to the buyers allegedly harmed and instead allocated $48 million for infrastructure and $20 million for law enforcement.
• Expert quote: "The court finds it difficult to reconcile the Department of Justice's endorsement of this Settlement Agreement with the statutory purposes of the FHA and ECOA, which the Department of Justice is entrusted to enforce." — U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett

Treasury to review CDFIs for 'violations'  — The Treasury Department said that it has "initiated a review" of community development finance institutions. The Treasury Department will look at recipients of awards from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund for "potential violations of applicable law" as the Trump administration continues its campaign against alleged abuses related to the program.

• Key insight: The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund has come under persistent attack from the Trump administration despite wide bipartisan support in Congress. 
• What's at stake: The White House insists that the CDFI Fund favors urban and minority groups, while the program's data shows the program benefits a wide array of communities, with the greatest share of awards going to states that Trump carried in 2024. 
• Forward look: The Treasury Department will also issue other rules related to CDFIs, and minority-focused or women-focused CDFIs are expected to face increasing pressure from the administration in the future.

HUD says sharing crime, school data doesn't violate Fair Housing Act -The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter to real estate professionals to assure them they are not violating the Fair Housing Act when sharing information with potential homebuyers about neighborhood crime rates and school quality.   Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor encouraged the real estate industry to reconsider advice received from DEI experts.

Medina County Legal fight brewing over pipeline tax school funding | WOSU Public Media –- Cloverleaf Local Schools is considering filing legal action against the Medina County Auditor for delayed collection of taxes and fines from the Nexus Pipeline that runs through the district's boundaries. Cloverleaf's board of ed authorized district leaders to take action against the auditor's office at its April 22 meeting. The district said their concern was over the auditor's office delaying collection of $200,000 of interest on delinquent tax payments from 2019, 2020 and 2021 related to the natural gas pipeline.Cloverleaf Superintendent Daryl Kubilus said he's attempted for months to work with the auditor's office to collect the money."This started in June of 2025. I've been attempting to resolve this since that point and obviously have not gotten anywhere on that potential resolution," he said.John Hunter, spokesperson for the Medina County Auditor's office, said the county is currently discussing its options with the county prosecutor. He said the previous auditor's administration was not collecting interest and penalties on delinquent taxes."In 2019 and (20)20, the auditor's office had a policy of not doing the interest and penalty on that. And we're waiting to hear from the prosecutor's office if, in fact, we could still do that or what would have to happen for us to be able to do it and work with the schools on that," Hunter said.If the prosecutor's office does give the greenlight to assess the interest and penalties, Hunter said the auditor's office will still need to send a bill to Nexus.The conflict stems from a Nexus challenge of the state's $1.6 billion assessed value of the pipeline in 2019. An Ohio Supreme Court ruling in 2025 finalized the taxable value of the pipeline last year at $985 million. Cloverleaf was paid the delinquent taxes it was owed for 2019 through 2021, but the auditor's office failed to collect the interest Nexus owes on the taxes, the district said in a press release.This is the second public dispute between Cloverleaf and the county auditor's office in recent months. The Medina County Budget Commission attempted to cut millions of dollars in tax revenues from several local schools, including $546,000 from Cloverleaf. The commission cited a new state law allowing commissions to deem some school tax funding "excessive." The budget commission was unsuccessful in reducing the taxes because it missed a deadline."Obviously with the $546,000 cut that our Medina County Budget Commission tried to make until it was discovered that that would be illegal, I think for my Board of Education created a level of distrust with the county," Kubilus saidHunter said his office is just looking to "comply with the law" and follow proper procedures. "I don't feel there's any tensions between the auditor's office and Cloverleaf," he said. "We've met regularly with the superintendent. We've met regularly with the treasurer." The Nexus Pipeline carries natural gas across 13 counties in Ohio, from Columbiana County up to the northwest corner of the state. The owners of the Rover Pipeline, which travels a similar route, settled a similar dispute on its valuation in August 2025 on its 2019 taxes, but not subsequent years, leaving local governments in the lurch, The Canton Repository reported recently.In general, school districts across the state say they will be squeezed by new property tax relief measures approved by the Ohio Legislature last year, amid underlying issues in the current school funding system.

Survey identifies potential resident-physician barriers to specializing in infectious diseases A nationwide survey of 380 US internal medicine (IM) resident physicians suggests that those interested in specializing in infectious diseases (ID) are more likely to cite early exposure to the specialty, mentorship from an ID physician, and interests in public or global health, while uninterested respondents report concerns about compensation, training length, and limited procedural opportunities.The study authors, led by a team from Baylor Scott & White Medical Center, said the findings, published today in Clinical Infectious Diseases, should prompt resident programs to use recruitment strategies targeting these barriers, as well as increase early engagement and mentorship opportunities.“A 2020 study examining the distribution of ID specialists found that 89.4% of counties have below-average or no ID physicians present,” they noted. “This deficit is expected to worsen as recent ID fellowship match data have demonstrated a years-long decline in the percentage of ID positions filled.”The team fielded the 19-question survey to IM resident physicians across the country, with 41 of 637 programs (6.4%), including 380 residents, responding.Interest in ID was significantly associated with an interest in public and global health and service-oriented careers. Early ID exposures such as mentorship from an ID physician, an ID rotation during medical school, and shadowing an ID physician outside of required rotations were tied to increased interest.

Study: Universal COVID screening among hospitalized patients has unintended consequences - A cohort study on systematic SARS-CoV-2 screening for asymptomatic hospitalized patients during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that 36.5% of all positive results were false-positives, which led to unintended consequences. The study, recently published in JAMA Network Open, was based on 42,666 asymptomatic patients seen at the University Hospital Basel in Basel, Switzerland, from February 2021 through December 2022. Among the 44,666 patients, 761 patients (1.2% of tests) had positive results for COVID-19. Of these, 483 patients (63.5%) had true-positive results. Among those with false-positives, the authors found several unintended and potentially harmful consequences of the screening tests. Half of patients with a false positive experienced unnecessary isolation, 16.5% were exposed to patients with true-positive SARS-CoV-2 test results by cohorting, and 3.2% received delayed interventions. While false-positives were common, results from universal screenings correlated with community incidence and wastewater viral load. Overall, the authors said universal screening may support infection control during times of high community activity but has limited benefit during low-incidence periods when false-positives increase. Our findings highlight the considerable unintended outcomes associated with false-positive results, which can strain health care systems and adversely affect patient outcomes. “Our findings highlight the considerable unintended outcomes associated with false-positive results, which can strain health care systems and adversely affect patient outcomes, the authors concluded. “These results emphasize the importance of context-driven implementation, in which screening efforts are aligned with epidemiological trends and resource availability.”

Combination of COVID, severe heart attack confers 25% greater risk of death, data suggest COVID-19 patients who have a severe heart attack are at 25% higher risk for death than uninfected heart attack patients—more than double the prepandemic rate—for one year, researchers at Prairie Vascular Research in Saskatchewan, Canada, say. Findings from the North American COVID-19 Myocardial Infarction (NACMI) registry were presented late last week at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions 2026 Scientific Sessions and the Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology Summit in Montreal. The registry is the first study to describe long-term outcomes in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and COVID-19, the authors said. In conjunction with the American College of Cardiology Interventional Council, the researchers created the observational multicenter registry of COVID-19 patients hospitalized for STEMI in North America. A long-term follow-up sub-study included 2,358 STEMI patients in three subgroups: COVID-19–positive (623 patients); COVID-19–negative (694); and matched controls (1,041). COVID-19 can significantly worsen cardiovascular outcomes, putting patients with preexisting heart conditions at elevated risk for complications, which the researchers say highlights the need for heightened clinical vigilance during and after hospitalization. “For example, patients who experience COVID-19 and STEMI, a severe type of heart attack caused by a complete blockage of a coronary artery, are seven times more likely to experience in-hospital death, stroke, recurrent myocardial infarction, or repeat unplanned revascularization, compared to those who did not have COVID-19,” the news release said. Patients with COVID-19 and STEMI had a 67% higher death rate than those not infected with COVID-19 (45% vs 27%, respectively). Most deaths (86%) occurred during the initial hospitalization. In survivors of the initial hospitalization, one-year death rates were 25% higher in patients with COVID-19 (12% vs 9.6%) and more than double the prepandemic rate of 5.3%.

Words matter: CDC's anti-science messaging can undermine public trust in vaccines, survey finds | CIDRAP -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a big revision to its website last year, at the behest of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime anti-vaccine advocate.The website now states that a link between autism spectrum disorder and vaccinations is possible and should be studied—even though such a link has been disproved by a large body of research.US childhood immunization rates continue to decline, and the CDC is the foremost public health authority in the United States. This revision dismayed public health and medical experts, who warned that even more parents might delay or skip lifesaving vaccines.It seems those concerns were valid. A study published today in the journal Science shows that the revised CDC messaging could discourage people from vaccinations. Researchers surveyed 2,989 adults living in the United States, who were separated into three groups. The first group of participants read the earlier version of the CDC website, which clearly stated the scientific consensus that there's no link between vaccination and autism. A second group read the Kennedy version, which states, "Studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines contribute to the development of autism," and, "Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities."A third group received neither statement, acting as a control.Using a seven-point scale, participants were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with certain statements about vaccines, and about their trust in science and government.Those who read the CDC revision judged vaccines to be riskier, compared with those who hadn't read the updated website. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this group was less likely to get recommended vaccinations.The second group was also less likely to trust the CDC and were more likely to engage in conspiracy-based reasoning. Notably, the study found that the revised CDC statement had a similar effect on respondents regardless of their political affiliation.The findings show that public trust and people's health decisions can be shaped by messages from official government websites, said lead author Robert Böhm, PhD, a social psychologist at the University of Vienna. "That means [messaging] should be held to a very high standard—not unlike scientific findings themselves," said Böhm.

RFK Jr holding up distribution of $600 million in vaccines to foreign nations: report -- New reporting from Politico says the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is holding up $600 million in funds that Congress has appropriated for the use of vaccines in low-income countries. The move is intended to put pressure on Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the report said. Gavi said it has not received any funding for this year or last year, and the missing funds make up 15% of its operating budget.HHS told Politico, “Gavi has refused to provide the United States with the specific data, studies, or detailed accounting of how U.S. funds are used.” The funds will expire on September 30 if they are not used.  Gavi provides 20 vaccines, including measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, to 30 low-income countries. The main issue likely is Gavi’s use of thimerosal-containing vaccines, which are commonly used in countries lacking adequate refrigeration for vaccines.In January, the Trump administration linked phasing out thimerosal-containing vaccines to future US funding. Last June, the Kennedy-reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that US patients avoid flu shots that contain thimerosal. And just last week, during congressional testimony, Kennedy incongruously raised the Gavi-thimerosal link when discussing environmental mercury exposure, which involves a serious, neurotoxic form of mercury, not the much safer thimerosal found in some vaccine.Last week, Kennedy also told a Senate committee that Gavi uses a diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine that had been discontinued in the United States because it was causing brain injury. That shot hasn’t been used in the United States since 1997, but the World Health Organization said there is no evidence the vaccine is linked to brain damage.Gavi said the vaccine is given to children in low-income countries because it offers long-lasting protection, and “is safe and effective and estimated to have saved 40 million lives in the past 50 years.”

Measles case counts mount in Utah, Arizona, while Bangladesh, Guatemala battle deadly outbreaks  - Among other nations, the United States, Bangladesh, and Guatemala are working to contain large measles outbreaks this week, with deaths reported in the latter two countries. While South Carolina’s measles outbreak has been declared over, Utah this week added 18 more measles cases to its 2026 tally, for a total of 428, while Arizona posted two new cases in its ongoing outbreak, for 93 so far this year, according to their respective state health departments. The outbreak in Utah is currently the largest in the nation.The nationwide measles infection total for the year to date stands at 1,814, up from 1,792 last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today in its weekly update. Of the national total, 1,803 measles cases were reported by 37 states and New York City. The remaining 11 were diagnosed in international visitors to the United States. Since the beginning of the year, 24 new outbreaks have been noted, and 93% of cases are outbreak-associated (415 from outbreaks starting this year and 1,273 from those that began in 2025). In all of last year, 2,288 measles cases were confirmed. This year, 51% of measles infections have occurred in children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years, and 21% were diagnosed in those younger than 5 years. Of all 1,814 measles patients, 6% required hospitalization, compared with 11% in 2025. Three deaths were documented last year, with none so far this year. Measles was officially eliminated from the United States in 2000 but began to resurge in recent years, putting the nation’s measles elimination status at risk. Bangladesh, where many rural children are unvaccinated against measles and some families fear vaccines, is experiencing one of its worst outbreaks of the disease in decades, per media reports. Since mid-March, the number of suspected measles case has grown to nearly 35,000, primarily among children 5 years and younger, and 227 children have died.The disease is especially rampant in Kurukpata in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a remote area that borders war-torn Myanmar and is home to Indigenous populations, officials have said.In Guatemala, a measles outbreak that began in December 2025 reached 5,297, including four deaths, as of late last week, per Outbreak News Today. The deaths were in infants younger than 1 year, too young to have completed their vaccine schedule. But signs point to the outbreak waning, with cases plummeting 94% in the past month and new weekly cases dropping from 906 at the peak to 51 last week.

Media habits tied to MMR vaccine hesitancy in US adults Where Americans get their news may play a significant role in shaping their attitudes toward the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to a national study published in Vaccine. In the cross-sectional survey of nearly 3,000 US adults led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, 17% of respondents said they believe the risks of the MMR vaccine outweigh its benefits, indicating vaccine hesitancy. The survey, conducted in August 2025, comes as measles cases have resurged across the country, with more than 2,000 infections reported by the end of 2025. That’s the highest number of annual cases since measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. Most respondents reported engaging with a wide range of news sources across multiple mediums, including social media platforms, but notable differences emerged between hesitant and non-hesitant people. Adults who were hesitant about MMR vaccination were more likely to consume content from right-leaning “new” media outlets and to rely on non-authoritative health information sources. For example, engagement with right-leaning outlets such as Breitbart was associated with roughly double the odds of MMR hesitancy (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.08). In contrast, consumption of more-mainstream outlets and platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), podcasts, and Fox News, was generally not linked with increased hesitancy. People who reported turning to alternative health practitioners, social media influencers, or alternative health newsletters had significantly higher odds of vaccine skepticism. Those relying on alternative health providers had up to 71% higher odds of vaccine hesitancy (aOR, 1.71), and those who often got information from social media health influencers had 41% higher odds of hesitancy (aOR, 1.41). Conversely, seeking information from physicians or professional medical organizations was linked to lower odds of vaccine reluctance. Adults who reported relying on physicians “sometimes or often” for information had substantially reduced odds (aOR, 0.32). “These findings build on prior studies that have highlighted the connection between right-leaning media and vaccine hesitancy in two critical ways; first, we reinforce findings that ‘mainstream’ media consumption was not generally associated with vaccine hesitancy, and extend this finding beyond media outlets to include more mainstream social media platforms and digital news services,” write the authors.

RSV hospitalizations in infants doubled after pandemic lull in Canada, surveillance shows --After respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) circulation was suppressed early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of admissions to Canadian pediatric hospitals more than doubled after public health restrictions were lifted, a team led by McGill University researchers report today in CMAJ. The team conducted surveillance to compare hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission rates of infants and children aged 0 to 16 years at 13 Immunization Monitoring Program, Active (IMPACT) centers in Canada in 2022-23 with those from two prepandemic seasons (2017-18 and 2019-20). In North America, RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization in children in their first year of life, with healthy, full-term infants making up 77% to 88% of pediatric RSV hospitalizations. It poses the highest risk of severe disease in the second and third months of life, declining thereafter, senior author Jesse Papenburg, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, told CIDRAP News. “As babies grow, they're better able to handle the RSV infection if it gets down in the lungs,” he said. “And as they get into their second or third year of life, they may have had a previous RSV infection that gives them some degree of immunity to help fight it off and maybe keep it up in the upper respiratory tract, just causing a cold and not bronchiolitis or pneumonia.” During the 2022-23 season, there were 5,362 RSV pediatric hospital admissions, including 1,260 (23.5%) ICU admissions, both more than double the prepandemic yearly averages. The percentage of RSV hospitalizations among all-cause admissions rose 3.5 percentage points, to 6.8%. Papenburg said that pandemic-era public health measures enacted to curb COVID-19 transmission also slowed the spread of other respiratory viruses, such as RSV, in Canada. “In the 2020-21 winter, we had almost no RSV circulation and almost no hospitalizations due to RSV,” he said. Thus, “as public health measures were eventually lifted, there was more population mixing, and with the accumulation of susceptibles [vulnerable patients] over a year or two, when the virus got into the community, it was able to spread much more easily.” The median patient age climbed from 6 to 9 months over the study period. In total, 41.5% of RSV hospital admissions were in infants younger than 6 months. Those young children also accounted for 62.1% of ICU admissions. While the ICU proportion stayed stable, the likelihood of ICU admission in this age-group increased relative to prepandemic seasons (adjusted odds ratio, 1.35). While infection numbers rose two to three times the prepandemic totals in all age-groups, the youngest children were the most vulnerable when community infections increased, Papenburg said.

New study helps explain why pneumococcal pneumonia is making kids sicker - Cases of pneumococcal pneumonia surged in 2022 and 2023. The bacterial infection attacks the lungs, causing air sacs to become inflamed and fill with fluid. New findings published today by the American Academy of Pediatrics show that this post-COVID increase was largely driven by a specific subtype of the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria: Serotype 3 is associated with severe complications, including meningitis. These findings are especially salient for young children, older adults, and those with weakened immune systems, as these groups have the highest risk. There are more than 100 distinct subgroups of S pneumoniae, though most hospitals lack the laboratory capacity to determine which serotype is causing an infection. However, the study found that among 190 kids with pneumococcal pneumonia from 2017 to 2023, serotype 3 infected 32% of patients. Researchers note that serotype 3 was, "The only individual serotype with a significantly higher rate in 2022–2023 compared with 2018–2019." (Rate ratio, 3.0) The pediatric infectious diseases specialist told CIDRAP News that he and other clinicians have noticed that more pneumococcal pneumonia patients are suffering from severe infections, which is indicative of Serotype 3. Parents get impatient. Patients get impatient. And certainly, the providers get impatient. Engstrom said these findings can inform clinical decisions because while patients with serotype 3 take longer to improve, this form of S pneumoniae responds well to common antibiotics, including penicillin. "Parents get impatient. Patients get impatient. And certainly, the providers get impatient," he said. But as the findings suggest, sometimes patience is the right course rather than prescribing broader, potentially more harmful antibiotics.

Air pollution linked to recurrent respiratory infections in infants Exposure to common urban air pollutants in the first year of life is associated with a higher burden of respiratory infections and wheezing, according to a longitudinal study led by the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. The findings were presented late last week at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2026 Meeting in Boston. The analysis, which looked at data from infants enrolled in the Immune Development in EArly Life Rome cohort, found that greater cumulative exposure to particulate matter (PM₁₀), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) was tied to more frequent physician-diagnosed respiratory infections during the first year of life. Infancy is a critical window for immune system development, and airborne pollutants are increasingly recognized as potential immune-system disruptors. “We observed a clear and significant association between common urban air pollutants and a higher incidence of respiratory infections and wheezing,” lead author Donato Amodio, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and a staff physician at Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital, told CIDRAP News. “Our findings suggest that the air infants breathe during the first year of life affects not only lung health but may also permanently influence the development of their immune defenses.” The researchers clinically evaluated infants at ages 2, 5, 9, and 12 months and conducted phone follow-ups. The team recorded physician-diagnosed respiratory infections and wheezing episodes and estimated pollution exposure by linking each infant’s residential postal code to nearby government air-quality monitoring stations. Cumulative exposure to PM₁₀, NOₓ, and NO₂ was calculated at each time point. Higher exposure levels were consistently associated with more recurrent respiratory infections. The strongest correlation was observed for PM₁₀, followed by NOₓ and NO₂. Similar patterns were seen for wheezing, though the associations were more modest. Individual infections, including bronchiolitis, bronchitis, acute otitis media (ear infection), COVID-19, and tonsillitis, showed statistically significant but weaker correlations with pollutant exposure.“This research highlights the urgent need for environmental protection measures to safeguard children during the most critical stages of their development,”

High rate of antibiotic prescribing found in kids with complex healthcare needs -- A study of children enrolled in Medicaid found a high rate of outpatient antibiotic use in kids with medical complexity, researchers from Boston Children's Hospital reported late last week at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS). Using the multistate MarketScan Medicaid Database, the researchers examined outpatient antibiotic claims in more than 2.3 million children ages 0 to 18 years who were enrolled in Medicaid in 2023. They categorized the children into five groups—healthy; non-complex chronic condition; and one, two, and three or more complex chronic conditions (CCCs)—and compared antibiotic prescribing rates across groups. Antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed medication in children, but little is known about antibiotic use in kids with medical complexity, who are prone to infection. Of the children included in the analysis, 39.3% filled one or more antibiotic prescriptions over the study period. Annual prescription rates per 1,000 children rose more than fivefold across the five groups as the level of medical complexity increased, rising from 514 in healthy children to 2,882 in children with three or more CCCs. Children with medical complexity were also far more likely to be prescribed broad-spectrum antibiotics. Penicillins, cephalosporins, and macrolides accounted for 93% of antibiotics prescribed to healthy children, while children with three or more CCCs had substantially more prescriptions for sulfonamides, quinolones, and aminoglycosides. The researchers said that children with three or more CCCs have the highest annual antibiotic prescription rate of any population, pediatric or adult. "These findings suggest that children with medical complexity may be a high-impact population for future antibiotic stewardship efforts,” lead author Kate Snow, MD, an instructor at Boston Children's, said in a PAS press release.

Quick takes: Measles, meningitis outbreaks in Chad; clade 1b mpox in Denmark; gonorrhea vax candidate | CIDRAP

• Dual outbreaks of measles and meningitis C are occurring in eastern Chad as thousands flee conflict in neighboring Sudan and crowd into refugee camps, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). In the town of Adre, which lies on the border between the two countries, meningitis cases jumped from 18 in January to 212 from March into April, and 25 children have died. Measles cases rose from 16 to 371 in the same period. In response, MSF and Chad’s Ministry of Health have launched emergency vaccination campaigns against measles and meningitis, and MSF has tripled its isolation capacity for measles. 
• After reporting its first cases of mpox infection caused by the clade 1b variant last week, Denmark has detected three additional cases, the Statens Serum Institutet (SSI) reports. While three of the cases are in people who recently traveled outside the country, one of the cases appears to have been locally transmitted. All four patients have had mild illness, and Danish health authorities say the overall risk to the population is low. Denmark is one of several European countries that have reported locally transmitted infections with clade 1B, which originated in Central and East Africa in 2023. “Experience from other European countries shows that the infection can spread locally once the variant is introduced," Uffe Vest Schneider, PhD, head of SSI’s department of virology and microbiological preparedness, said in a news release.
• CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) announced today that it’s awarding $2.6 million to vaccine-platform company AdJane to advance development of a vaccine candidate for gonorrhea. The company’s platform is based on native outer membrane vesicles derived from Neisseria meningitidis, which can be applied across viral and bacterial pathogens. “AdJane’s approach represents a technically grounded strategy that aims to address key challenges in generating protective immunity to reduce the infection rate of gonorrhea and slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance,” CARB-X interim research & development chief Richard Alm, PhD, said in a press release.

Large tuberculosis outbreaks in US doubled from 2017 to 2023, CDC reports Large tuberculosis (TB) outbreaks in the United States more than doubled in recent years and disproportionately affected socially and economically vulnerable populations, according to a report yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Analyzing national surveillance and genomic data, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified 50 large TB outbreaks (defined as 10 or more related cases within a three-year period) across 23 states from 2017 through 2023. Together, the outbreaks accounted for 1,092 of the 61,993 cases reported during that period. The number of large outbreaks is a sharp increase from the 24 identified from 2014 to 2016, suggesting that transmission within family and social networks is an ongoing issue, despite the United States having one of the lowest TB incidence rates in the world. People involved in large outbreaks differed notably from other TB patients. Nearly 80% were US-born, compared with 26% of those with non-outbreak TB. They also had different social and behavioral characteristics. People included in large outbreaks were more likely to report substance use (27% vs 12%), homelessness (9% vs 5%), and incarceration (11% vs 3%). There were also notable differences in age ranges. Outbreak-associated cases were more common among children 15 years and younger (15% vs 3%) and adults ages 25 to 44 (40% vs 29%). Adults 65 and older were underrepresented in large-outbreak cases (8% vs 26%). Roughly two thirds of large outbreaks occurred within family or social networks, with transmission occurring in settings such as private residences, social gatherings, and places where substance use occurred. Approximately one quarter of large outbreaks occurred in group settings, including workplaces, correctional facilities, senior care facilities, a university, and a facility for people experiencing homelessness. Outbreaks were also geographically widespread, occurring in 23 states, including many with TB incidence rates below the national average of 2.6 cases per 100,000 people. From 2017 to 2023, large-outbreak cases accounted for 1.7% of all TB cases. Preventing and controlling outbreaks will require national genomic surveillance, write the authors, as well as outbreak-control activities by state and local health programs. They also emphasize the need for targeted public health strategies focused on populations at increased risk, particularly those experiencing housing instability, substance use, or incarceration. Outbreaks within families or social circles are harder to track and, hence, harder to manage.

WHO reports H5N1 death among variant zoonotic flu cases seen this year In the first quarter of 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) has tracked 13 avian and swine influenza cases in people, including one previously unreported fatal case of H5N1 in a child from Bangladesh. The detections include four human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, influenza A(H9N2) in five humans, and one human case each of influenza A(H10N3), influenza A(H1N1) variant ((H1N1)v), influenza A(H1N2)v, and influenza A(H3N2)v. Of the five H9N2 cases, four were from China and one was reported in Italy. All H1 variants were reported in China. Three of the H5N1 cases were reported in Cambodia, with the fatal case reported in Bangladesh. The fatal case from Bangladesh was reported to the WHO on February 9, after the patient first displayed symptoms on January 21 and was hospitalized on January 28. The patient, who had no comorbidities, died on February 1. “The case had exposure to household poultry, with two ducks and one chicken reportedly dying shortly before the case’s illness onset,” the WHO said in its report, and genetic testing showed the virus was similar to the clade of viruses circulating in local poultry since around 2011. This is the first case reported in Bangladesh in 2026. Last year, the country recorded four H5N1 cases. Two of the H9N2 cases also occurred in children under the age of 5, both from China. Of note, all three swine flu variant cases also occurred in children. The two Chinese cases had contact with pigs. The case noted in Brazil was from September of 2025 and previously unreported. The patient, described as a male child, was a student at an agricultural school where pigs and laying hens are raised. No close contact with sick animals was reported. Despite the new cases, the WHO said the overall risk to the general population remains low, with none of the close contacts of the 13 case-patients reporting illnesses.

Hepatitis B and C claimed 1.3 million lives in 2024, WHO reports - The World Health Organization (WHO) released a new report on hepatitis today, marking the World Hepatitis Summit. Since 2015, the annual number of new hepatitis B infections has dropped by 32%, and hepatitis C-related deaths have fallen by 12% around the world.But despite progress, the virus still causes significant mobility and mortality, with more than 4,900 new infections caused by hepatitis B and C every day, or 1.8 million each year. In 2024, WHO estimates 287 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B or C infection. Notably, of the 240 million people living with chronic hepatitis B in 2024, fewer than 5% were receiving treatment.“Around the world, countries are showing that eliminating hepatitis is not a pipedream, it's possible with sustained political commitment, backed by reliable domestic financing,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, WHO director-general, in a statement. “At the same time, this report shows that progress is too slow and uneven. Many people remain undiagnosed and untreated due to stigma, weak health systems and inequitable access to care.” An estimated 1.1 million people died from hepatitis B and 240,000 from hepatitis C in 2024, as the viruses cause liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Just 10 countries, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam, accounted for 69% of the hepatitis B-related deaths.A birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine prevents 95% of acute and chronic infections. Birth-dose vaccination is lacking in the WHO African Region , where 68% of new hepatitis B infections are diagnosed annually, but only 17% of newborns are vaccinated.Overall, hepatitis B prevalence among children under age 5 has also decreased to 0.6%, with 85 countries achieving or surpassing the 2030 target of 0.1%, the WHO said.

End of universal birth-dose hep B vaccination will drive up infections, deaths, costs, researchers say  - New US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations against universal birth-dose HBV vaccination will result in more newborn infections, deaths, and healthcare costs, according to two studies published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics.HBV infection at birth or during early infancy can lead to lifelong health problems such as chronic liver disease and liver cancer. Newborns are at highest risk, with 90% of those infected with HBV eventually developing chronic infections and 25% dying early from cirrhosis or liver cancer.While prenatal screening for HBV has long been recommended, roughly 12% to 16% of pregnant women in the United States don’t get screened, leaving a substantial number of newborns at risk for undetected infection.  In December 2025, without any evidence to support the move, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to replace the universal HBV vaccine birth-dose recommendation with shared clinical decision-making for infants born to HBV-negative mothers, advising routine birth doses only for newborns of HBV-positive or unscreened women. The CDC later accepted ACIP’s recommendations, although many pediatricians and medical societies say they will continue to vaccinate all newborns against HBV. In addition, the CDC said that babies who don’t receive a birth dose of HPV vaccine shouldn’t receive one until they are at least two months old, again without supporting data. The CDC first recommended the birth dose in 1991, advising the receipt of two more doses before 18 months of age. For the first study, a Boston University–led research team conducted a modeling study with a simulated US birth cohort of 3.7 million infants under both the former and current CDC HBV recommendations.“Although the [ACIP] proposal would not alter recommendations for infants of unscreened mothers, historical data suggest that removing a universal birth-dose vaccine recommendation may reduce vaccination coverage in this group,” the study authors wrote.With the current maternal HBV screening rate of 86%, the universal birth-dose vaccination recommendation led to a median of 1,292 newborn infections (95% percentile interval [PI], 670 to 2,228). In comparison, the targeted birth-dose vaccine recommendation was tied to the addition of another 628 (95% PI, 340 to 1,034) newborn infections when birth-dose uptake in the infants of unscreened mothers was 10% (mirroring historic coverage declines under a targeted recommendation) and 69 (95% PI, −32 to 190) more infections when coverage was 80% (mirroring levels under a universal recommendation.)  To offset the additional infections under the targeted birth-dose vaccine recommendation, more than 100,000 more pregnant women would need to be screened if birth-dose uptake among the newborns of unscreened mothers were 80% and more than 400,000 if coverage were 10%. In a Boston Medical Center (BMC) news release, senior author Rachel Epstein, MD, of BMC, said that even small declines in birth-dose vaccination can raise HBV risk—particularly for newborns of unscreened mothers. “This study highlights the importance of consistent prevention strategies to protect newborns and reduce hepatitis B nationwide,” she wrote.  The second study, led by an Oregon Health & Science University researcher, estimated health outcomes and healthcare costs of delaying administration of the first HBV vaccine birth dose to age two months to 12 years in 3.6 million infants in a single US birth cohort. The infants were born to mothers who tested negative for HBV. The model of infections under eight different scenarios assessed economic costs from birth in 2025 up to 18 years. All delayed vaccination scenarios resulted in more infections, worse health outcomes, and higher healthcare costs than when the first HBV birth dose was administered. Under perfect adherence, delaying HBV vaccination by two months for infants of mothers who tested negative for the virus resulted in another 90 (range, 16 to 107) acute infections, 76 (range, 14 to 97) chronic infections, 29 (range, 6 to 53) deaths, and an additional $16.4 million in costs for infants.  Delaying the first dose to 12 years of age led to 190 (range, 61 to 233) more acute infections, 50 (range, 15 to 83) deaths, and nearly $30 million in additional costs. Delaying HPV vaccination among infants of unscreened mothers or those who didn’t receive all three recommended vaccine worsened all negative outcomes. In a Cornell University news release, senior author Noele Nelson, MD, PhD, MPH, said the study likely underestimated the costs and health outcomes linked to delays in administering the HBV vaccine birth dose. “Our model assumptions were conservative,” she said. “For example, we didn’t include the increasing risk of getting HBV infection from members of their household or community, which could happen if the number of people with HBV infection increases.” In an editorial on both studies, Grace Lee, MD, MPH, of Stanford University, said that the new, more-complex CDC recommendations have created unprecedented implementation challenges for providers. “As health systems and health care professionals are keenly aware, implementation is not about intent, it is about friction,” she wrote. “With enough friction, it becomes easier to not vaccinate than to vaccinate.”

Quick takes: Pseudorabies in US swine, mpox in Europe, polio in Africa | CIDRAP

• Pseudorabies has been detected in swine herds in Iowa and Texas, the first cases of the disease in commercial swine in the United States since it was eradicated in farmed swine in 2004, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced yesterday. The five infected boars, who lived in an Iowa swine facility, originally came from an outdoor farm in Texas that was also positive for the disease. Pseudorabies is a contagious viral disease affecting livestock and other mammals, but pigs are the sole natural hosts. It can cause tremors, scratching, fever, and death. The virus remains prevalent in feral swine and sometimes infects outdoor production herds through direct contact. People, horses, and birds are considered resistant. “This detection does not pose a risk to consumer health or affect the safety of the commercial pork supply,” the USDA said in a news release.
• From April 2025 to March 2026 in Europe, 336 clade 1 mpox cases were confirmed in 15 countries, and 1,016 clade 2 infections were identified in 17 countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said yesterday in its new monthly surveillance report. Clade 1 mpox transmission has held steady, albeit across fewer reporting countries, while clade 2 cases began declining early this year.“The findings emphasise a need for enhanced vaccination coverage and targeted public health outreach to safeguard at-risk demographics, predominantly men who have sex with men,” the news release said.
• This week, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Nigeria each reported cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) said. Chad’s two cases originated in Ouaddai and Logone Oriental provinces, with paralysis onsets on February 21 and March 7, respectively. They were the first cases of 2026; last year, the country documented 31 infections. In the DRC, one case was recorded in Maniema province, with onset of paralysis on March 9, bringing the year’s total to five; the country had six cases in 2025. The infection in Nigeria was from Zamfara state, with paralysis onset on March 20, for a total of 14 so far this year; last year, the country reported 66 cases.

EPA: Chemical used in vinyls poses cancer risks -   A widely used chemical solvent used to make plastics is harming the health of workers, but it’s not a risk to the public or the environment, EPA has determined. EPA on Friday finalized its risk evaluation for 1,2-dichloroethane, a chemical used to make vinyl products such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. The agency found the solvent poses an “unreasonable risk,” a designation that triggers the rulemaking process. Regulations won’t apply to commercial or consumer uses in plastic and rubber products, because EPA’s evaluation found those uses as unlikely factors driving its unreasonable risk determination.The agency upped its cancer designation from “probable” to “likely human carcinogen,” according to the risk evaluation, which affirmed research that 1,2-dichloroethane can contribute to tumor growth. Breathing in or ingesting the chemical can also lead to a decrease in sperm count, kidney disease and damage to the nasal tract.

 Microplastics have been found to interact with the gut microbiome. Here's what health effects they might have - Through the air we breathe and the food we eat, we can't help but inhale and ingest tiny bits of plastic every day.  These microplastics, as they're known, have been found in many parts of the human body—including the lungs, placenta and blood vessels. Research has even linked the presence of microplastics to cardiovascular disease and poor health in humans.   Evidence also shows that microplastics can interact with the gut microbiome—and their presence could contribute to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Microplastics are microscopic fragments of plastic that are smaller than 5mm long (and as small as 0.001mm)—and they're everywhere. Some microplastics are created intentionally, glitter and confetti being obvious everyday examples. Others are created when larger plastic items are worn down (such as when plastic pollution in the ocean or environment is eroded).   Nevertheless, whether they're shed from plastic chopping boards, in our drinking water or inadvertently added to processed food products, we could consequently be consuming up to 5g every week. However, we don't currently know the exact quantities of microplastics a single person may have in their body at any one time. Getting precise measurements of microplastics in human samples can be difficult. This is because other small fragments (such as some fats) in bodily samples can look like plastic to scientific instruments.While scientists are sure that we're eating microplastics, there's also still some debate around their ability to enter our bloodstream and build up in body tissues.Nevertheless, the fact that we consume them at all is enough for microplastics to meet our metabolic organ—the gut microbiome. Current research suggests that these encounters can reduce the good bacteria in our gut to contribute to IBD. Our gut is home to trillions of microorganisms—known as the gut microbiome. Some 500 to 1,000 different microbial species work together in harmony to keep our gut healthy. A major function of the microbiome is to take what we eat, chew it up and spit out breakdown products. These products are called metabolites and are critical for gut health.A well-studied group of metabolites are short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids garnered attention around a decade ago, when they were found to be produced by good gut bacteria and could help prevent IBD.IBD is an increasingly common disease, affecting around one in every 123 people in the UK. It can cause severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss and fatigue. One of the gut's key short-chain fatty acids is butyrate, which is produced by bacteria when they break down dietary fiber. Butyrate has been found to be crucial for gut health, helping to boost immunity and preserve the gut barrier. However, if the gut microbiome is disturbed, microbes that produce butyrate are reduced and gut health is jeopardized. The gut microbiome faces many challenges that now includes plastic pollutants.Evidence for how microplastics influence the microbiome and gut health in humans is presently scarce, largely due to the previously mentioned difficulty in measuring microplastics in human samples. But work in mouse models has been more revealing, allowing us to observe the consequences of various types of microplastics in the gut.A recently published study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, showed that giving mice a group of polystyrene microplastics of various sizes makes the gut vulnerable to IBD. This happens because key members of the microbiome are reduced, stopping the production of butyrate and increasing the severity of inflammation.Clearly microplastics are capable of inducing poor gut health. However, whether animal studies accurately capture levels of microplastics found in human tissues remains to be completely understood—something that will hopefully become possible with technological advances. It's also still not clear exactly how microplastics do this.Even with bans on intentionally produced microplastics, we still have to fight against those that are produced through wear and tear of plastic-containing materials.

CDC confirms new Salmonella outbreak linked to backyard poultry - Late last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 34 people in 13 states have been sickened in an outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul tied to backyard poultry.So far no deaths have been associated with this outbreak, but 13 people have been hospitalized.Michigan has the most cases, with six, followed by Wisconsin and Ohio, each of which have five cases. Indiana, Kentucky, and Maine each have three cases. Illnesses started on dates ranging from February 26, 2026, to March 31, 2026. “Children younger than 5 years old shouldn't handle the birds (including chicks and ducklings) or anything in the area where the birds live and roam. They are more likely to get sick from Salmonella,” the CDC said. Forty-one-percent of case-patients in this outbreak are under the age of 5 years, and, of the 29 people interviewed by investigators, 23 (79%) reported contact with backyard poultry in the days prior to illness.“Of 14 people who reported owning backyard poultry, 13 (93%) bought or obtained poultry since January 1, 2026,” the CDC said. “People reported getting their poultry from various places, including agricultural retail stores.”

Avian flu detections drop across the US | CIDRAP  - Avian flu detections among both commercial poultry and wild birds have dropped significantly this past week, per the latest updates from the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Only one new poultry detection was reported this week, in Meade County, South Dakota, affecting 60 birds. This is the ninth facility in either North or South Dakota to be hit with H5N1 in April.In the past 30 days, APHIS has tracked avian flu in 15 commercial flocks and eight backyard flocks across the country, with 660,000 birds affected (i.e., euthanized). So far this year, February was the most active month for avian flu, with 11.41 million poultry affected.  In wild-bird infections, gulls in San Diego County, California, and a bald eagle in Clay County, Florida, are among the 12 detections recorded by APHIS in the past week.

Tick Season Seems to Be Off to A Fast Start, and Some Experts Worry About Future Illnesses (AP) — Tick season seems to be off to a fast start, with an unusually high number of bites already reported across the country. Some U.S. doctors are worried about the potential for a bad year for tick-borne diseases. “If you have a lot of exposures, there will probably be more cases of tick-related infections,” said Dr. Alina Filozov, an infectious disease doctor at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an early advisory to the public this week to guard against ticks. Tick bites typically spike in May, but “the data are telling us now is the time to take action,” said Alison Hinckley, a CDC Lyme disease expert. “Ticks are out and people are getting bitten.” Current data is very limited, but the early signs are not good.The CDC's tracking system shows that weekly rates of ER visits for tick bites are the highest for this time of year since 2017. That's true in all regions of the country, except the south-central United States.  About 85% of U.S. hospital emergency departments send data to the surveillance system, but it doesn't capture people who didn't go to a hospital.It will take months for systematic tick sampling by researchers to chart changes in tick populations. And because not every bite results in an infection, it will also take time for medical experts to know whether there’s an actual surge in Lyme disease or other illnesses. Ticks are small, eight-legged bloodsucking parasites — arachnids, not insects — that feed on animals and sometimes people.  Tick populations vary throughout the year, and their numbers depend on a few factors. Climate change is widely believed to be having an effect: Ticks like warm, humid weather, and more can be seen after a mild winter. The more deer and mice available for them to feed on may also factor.Some ticks are infected with germs that can cause serious diseases, including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy. Lyme disease is the most common, with an estimated 476,000 people treated for it each year, according to the CDC. Infections are commonly treated with antibiotics.So far this year, most ticks seen in the Northeast have been large adult ticks. But in the weeks ahead, juvenile nymphs will become more common. The emergence of nymphs, along with more people spending time outdoors, are among the reasons tick bites tend to be highest in May. Worse, tiny nymphs attached to people are harder to see — and often are there longer — leading to an increased risk of infections, experts say.  Connecticut has a connection to tick-borne disease — Lyme disease is named after a town there. And earlier this month, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station reported that residents were already submitting an average of 30 ticks per day for testing.State officials also said an unusually high percentage of the submitted ticks — 40% — tested positive for the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.Several factors have been helping tick populations expand, including unusually high numbers of mice in the last two years, said Scott Williams, a tick researcher at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. All we have so far is an early snapshot, said Megan Linske, a wildlife biologist with the same agency. She expects the problem to continue to worsen, with more ticks spreading over more areas.  Experts advise that if you go outdoors, note any wooded areas and grassy properties that start bleeding into wooded areas. Ticks tend to perch on ankle-level vegetation with their upper legs outstretched, waiting to latch on to an unsuspecting dog or human. If you do find a tick, remove it immediately. It's not necessary to go to a doctor unless you think the tick has been on you for days or if you develop a rash or other symptoms, experts said.

Tick season’s early start ignites concerns of Lyme Disease – NBC Chicago - Ali Moresco said she had classic cold and flu symptoms, which led to a two-year delay in diagnosis and permanent bodily damage.After visits with more than a dozen specialists, Moresco was diagnosed with Lyme disease 10 years ago. She's still dealing with the long-term effects."I still do have some days where I wake up and I'm in pain, and my joints hurt, and my muscles ache for no reason. But then I have days where I feel very, very normal," said Moresco, who now advocates for awareness and education about the disease on social media.Intermittent symptoms, like Moresco's, are common among Lyme patients, according to Dr. Richard Horowitz, who works with chronic Lyme disease patients and is a founding member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society."Really what you're looking for is good days and bad days where the symptoms come and go. You have fatigue. You have migratory pain. You have memory concentration problems you didn't have before. You can't fall asleep," Horowitz said.Tick season is off to a quick start, and concerns have emerged about what that could mean for future illness. Kate Chappell explains.Horowitz and other experts are concerned a surge in emergency room visits for tick bites, reported recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may lead to other chronic illnesses."It's very important because a tick bite, even 15 minutes on you can give you Powassan virus," he said. "So, it's not like wait 24 hours to 48 hours and get sick. These ticks can transmit organisms very quickly."Powassan virus disease is rare but increasing, according to the CDC. Initial symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting and weakness.The disease was recently detected in two Illinois counties."We do keep finding new pathogens in the state," said Chris Stone, with the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois. “That landscape of disease to be at least aware of does keep changing," Stone said.Tick activity is higher than usual for this time of year, according to both Stone and Dr. Matthew Leslie, an epidemiologist with the Illinois Department of Public Health.Leslie said it's still too early to tell if diagnoses for tick-borne illnesses will also increase."There is often a lag with tick-borne illness between the tick bite, the presentation of the illness and the diagnosis of the illness," Leslie said. "But the prevention message is clear."The most recent data from IDPH shows about 40% of adult ticks in Illinois test positive for the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. There is concern amongst some in the medical community that more exposure will lead to a higher possibility of infection.

New York Issues Warning on Lyme Disease as Warm Weather Approaches -- Health and environmental officials are urging New Yorkers and visitors to protect themselves from ticks and tick-borne diseases as the weather gets warmer. The New York State Department of Health, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation shared that Lyme disease is a major concern, with symptoms like a bull's-eye rash, fever, chills, muscle aches, headache or fatigue possibly showing up within 30 days of infection. Officials noted that tick bites can also spread other illnesses, including babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Powassan virus disease.

Maternal chikungunya infections linked to short and long-term neurologic problems in babies -  Babies infected with the chikungunya virus during labor and delivery are at high risk of developing serious neurologic problems as newborns, as well as learning problems as they get older, according to a new study.Nearly half of newborns (48%) infected with chikungunya by their mothers develop serious neurologic problems, the study found. These include seizures; bleeding in the brain; inflammation of the brain tissue; and impairments of nerve, spinal cord, or brain function that cause problems such as weakness in one arm, facial droop, or speech difficulties. Although babies with chikungunya appear healthy at delivery, they can develop symptoms such as fever, irritability, persistent crying, and problems feeding between three to seven days after birth, according to the study, published in the April issue of eClinicalMedicine. Chikungunya is spread by mosquitoes during warm weather and has been found in 110 countries, including in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.The same study found that children whose mothers are infected with the mosquito-borne virus in late pregnancy or around delivery are nearly twice as likely as other children to develop long-term neurodevelopmental problems, which can include intellectual disabilities and difficulty learning. By 21 months, more than half of toddlers infected at birth with chikungunya had significant delays in two or more areas of development, compared with15% of non-infected children. By age 10, 62% of those infected with chikungunya as newborns had language disorders. Babies who are high risk because of a mother’s infection should be closely monitored and followed up over time, Lucey told CIDRAP News. Children with neurologic impairments should have access to early-intervention services, as well as family support. In regions where chikungunya spreads, doctors should consider testing babies with seizures that can’t be explained by any other cause, he said.Chikungunya cases are on the rise globally, as the mosquitoes that spread the virus expand their range, Lucey said. More than 500,000 people were infected with chikungunya in 2025, and 178 died, according to the World Health Organization.

An ancient disease is making a comeback, and every American should be concerned  - Since its launch in 2005, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative has been one of the most effective programs the U.S. government runs overseas. Working alongside partners like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, it has helped cut death rates from malaria in supported countries by nearly half. These efforts have prevented more than 2 billion cases of malaria and saved 14 million lives — most of them children. In doing so, it stands as a clear demonstration of American leadership and reinforces the United States’ reputation as a reliable partner committed to saving lives and strengthening global health security.But data shows progress is slowing in some parts of the world because the disease itself is evolving. Mosquitoes are adapting to the tools we have used for decades, and the drugs and insecticides that once worked are losing their edge. Malaria is now the leading killer of children in many African countries. A renewed emphasis on fighting malaria should be central to the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy. When infectious diseases come roaring back, they don’t just stay “over there.” They threaten our economic and national security here in the U.S.  The president’s strategy promises a disciplined approach to global health aid, rightly prioritizing areas where the U.S. holds a distinct advantage — particularly through American innovation — rather than attempting to do everything everywhere. Malaria is well-suited to this vision.   Breakthrough technologies developed and manufactured in the U.S. have the potential to reduce the transmission of malaria sharply if deployed at scale. New spatial repellents from SC Johnson, for example, can protect families without requiring constant compliance. Rapid diagnostics enable earlier treatment, while advanced vector-control methods and new medicines aim to outpace insecticide and drug resistance. Malaria vaccines being introduced through global immunization partnerships can reduce severe disease and child mortality further when combined with bed nets and preventive treatments.None of these tactics is a silver bullet. But when used together, they give us a real shot at wiping out malaria. And this isn’t just about doing the right thing. It’s about doing the smart thing, for us and affected communities, while putting countries on a path to self-reliance rather than permanent dependency.

The fake disease that fooled the internet, and what it says about all of us -- Until a few years ago, no one had heard of bixonimania. Then, in 2024, a group of scientists posted findings online announcing the condition, which they claimed affected the eyes after computer use. However, the scientists had made it up—not just the work, but the authors' names, affiliations, locations and funding, which was the University of Fellowship of the Ring and the Galactic Triad. Large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini treated it as real anyway, and in doing so, helped turn a fictional disease into a legitimate-sounding health concern.  Bixonimania is not an isolated case. Being deceived—whether you are a person or an AI model—is concerningly common, in science and beyond. Whether we're talking about AI hallucinations, state-backed disinformation or just everyday lies, humans have a remarkable knack for naivety, owing to our biases and increasing need to outsource learning to others. These are problems we—individually and collectively—urgently need to better understand and overcome. Our shared fascination with deception may help explain the popularity of The Traitors, a TV program built around the tension between trust and suspicion, where contestants must decide who among them is deceiving the group. The show captures something intrinsic to being human: the persistent threat of being unsure about whether we're placing trust effectively. Yet in the modern era of mass digital communication and AI, we're now almost constantly faced with a similar threat, often without realizing it.  Misinformation has always existed. What's new is the speed at which it spreads, the tools that generate it, and how convincingly it mimics the real thing.Our collective capacity to recognize false information is also at risk. This is because, as a society, we continue to promote the importance of hard science subjects at the expense of the critical thinking skills derived from studies of the arts, humanities and social sciences.This can be seen, for example, in the 2023 UK governmental push to require all school students to take math until age 18. No such push exists to promote and develop the critical thinking skills of young people. It's easy to see how increasingly convincing falsehoods like bixonimania's existence can be accepted as truth, especially when touted by AI models.Tools are helpful. AI is a tool, the internet is a tool, the media is a tool. But it's up to us to ensure that we are using them and not being manipulated by them.

Urban birds fear women more than men, and scientists don't know why - An international team of researchers have made the surprising discovery that urban birds—such as great tits, house sparrows and blackbirds—flee sooner when approached by women compared to men. But they don't understand why. Conducted across five European countries, the study involved male and female participants (matched for height and clothing) walking in a straight line towards birds in urban parks and green spaces. The researchers found that compared to women, men were able to get an average of one meter closer to birds before they fled (termed flight initiation distance). The results, published in the journal, People and Nature, were consistent across all five countries: Czechia, France, Germany, Poland and Spain. This finding was also consistent across the 37 bird species studied, from species that typically flee early, like magpies, to species that flee late, like pigeons. From the results, the researchers conclude that urban birds can recognize the sex of the humans approaching them. But what traits the birds are picking up on or why they are more fearful of women remain a mystery. Professor Daniel Blumstein from the University of California, Los Angeles, a co-author of the study, said, "I fully believe our results, that urban birds react differently based on the sex of the person approaching them, but I can't explain them right now. We used bleeding-edge comparative analysis techniques that showed our findings were consistent across cities and species, but we simply don't have a conclusive explanation yet." Dr. Yanina Benedetti from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, another co-author of the study, added, "As a woman in the field, I was surprised that birds reacted to us differently. This study highlights how animals in cities 'see' humans, which has implications for urban ecology and equality in science. Many behavioral studies assume that a human observer is neutral, but this wasn't the case for urban birds in our study."

Humidity and heat are killers for tropical birds: Waxbill and hornbill studies highlight the dangers  - Humans are not the only species negatively affected by increasingly hot and humid conditions. Intense heat waves sometimes kill large numbers of wild animals. Eastern Australia's giant fruit bats, known as flying-foxes, provide possibly the most dramatic illustration. In late 2018, two days of extreme heat in the far north of Queensland wiped out one third of Australia's population of spectacled flying-foxes. The species is now red-listed as endangered. Bat biologists have identified high humidity as a major risk factor for these mass mortality events. In late 2020, South Africa saw its first documented heat-related mass mortality event involving wild birds. Air temperatures in the typically humid Phongolo Nature Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal exceeded 45°C, about 10°C higher than average conditions. Staff in the reserve started seeing dead and dying birds. Most of the victims were songbirds, which are known to be more sensitive to extreme heat than many other groups of birds. Of these, the worst-affected species was the blue waxbill, a charming little finch with a powder-blue face and belly that spends most of its time foraging for grass seeds in small flocks. Blue waxbills made up nearly half the carcasses found by field rangers when they searched part of the reserve after the heat had passed.  The blue waxbills' prominence among the victims identified them as a bellwether of the impacts of extreme heat on birds in the wetter south-eastern parts of the continent. During hot weather, humans and other animals depend on evaporation to offload heat. Evaporation may take place by sweating (the major cooling mechanism for humans), through panting (your dog on a hot day) or other pathways. The process of changing liquid water (sweat or saliva) into water vapor uses heat, so it cools the source of the water (the body). But the air is like a sponge: when it's already humid (wet), the air can't hold much more water vapor. These conditions impede evaporation and thus heat loss. On a 40°C day in a desert like the Kalahari or Sahara, evaporative cooling is efficient because the air is dry and sweat can evaporate as soon as it reaches the skin's surface. At the same temperature on a humid day in the coastal tropics, however, sweat cannot evaporate and forms drops on the skin. This severely reduces rates of heat loss. If body temperature increases more than a few degrees above normal levels, nervous system function is compromised, organ damage starts to occur and proteins begin denaturing. This breakdown of physiological functioning can rapidly lead to death.In early 2022, just over a year after the waxbill event, our Masters student Nazley Liddle set out to examine the role high humidity had played in the deaths of the waxbills. She also aimed to predict areas where risks of mortality will increase in future.Nazley investigated the waxbills' capacity to regulate their body temperature over a range of air temperatures and humidity levels. Her results confirmed that high humidity severely compromises the birds' ability to avoid dangerous hyperthermia (getting too hot).For example, she found that blue waxbills can tolerate air temperatures up to 48°C under dry conditions, whereas under humid conditions similar to those on the day of the Phongolo mortality event, they are unable to maintain a safe body temperature if the air temperature exceeds 45.7°C. Nazley then modeled how the waxbills would fare under hotter, more humid future conditions. The modeling showed that the likelihood of mass mortality events for waxbills (and other birds with similar physiology) will increase greatly in coming decades.  The predicted risk of mortality becomes three to seven times higher when humidity is taken into account, compared to increasing temperature alone. Many of these areas will simply become too hot and humid during the wet season for the species to persist.The blue waxbill study should set alarm bells ringing. Most of Earth's 11,000 bird species occur in the tropics, many experiencing hot, humid conditions for at least part of the year. Another recent paper from our team reveals similar increases in projected future risks of lethal hyperthermia for trumpeter hornbills. This large, fruit-eating forest species found in southern Africa plays a critical role in seed dispersal. Although biologists have often viewed tropical lowlands as safe habitats for birds from the point of view of their physiological functioning, our work is showing that increasing humidity coupled with rising temperatures poses a serious threat to birds, bats and other animals of the tropics.There are worrying signs that climate change has already caused widespread declines in tropical birds. During 2025, several teams of researchers reported substantial declines in bird abundance, even in intact rainforests that have not been affected directly by human activities such as slash-and-burn agriculture. Most recently, population declines of 25%-38% since 1950 among tropical birds have been attributed to increasingly extreme heat events. Tellingly, these declines have been more pronounced in songbirds compared to other groups. Rising temperature and humidity is a global-scale problem. The only long-term solution is halting human-driven climate warming.

Atlantic Forest's top predator faces a hidden collapse, and protected areas are no longer enough - In addition to habitat loss and illegal hunting, the jaguar (Panthera onca) faces another threat that increases its risk of extinction in the South American Atlantic Forest: food scarcity. A study by Brazilian researchers has found that the availability of jaguar prey is reduced, even in the protected areas of the biome, which covers approximately 15% of Brazil and extends across 17 states in the South, Southeast, and Northeast regions, as well as parts of Argentina and Paraguay. The paper is published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. Jaguar prey species, including peccaries (Tayassu pecari), agoutis (Dicotyles tajacu), and deer, are hunted by humans and have dwindled to numbers that likely cannot support viable jaguar populations in the Atlantic Forest. The researchers warn that if this situation worsens, the biome, which currently has fewer than 300 jaguars, could become the first in the world to lose a top predator. "We found an alarming situation of low abundance of key prey species for the jaguar even in protected areas of the Atlantic Forest, where national and state parks are located and where one would expect the situation in terms of the animal's conservation to be better," Katia Ferraz, a professor at the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ-USP) and coordinator of the study, tells Agência FAPESP. "Most likely, the decline of these prey species is one of the main causes of the critical conservation situation facing the jaguar in this biome," she notes. The researchers combined information on the jaguar's diet and feeding habits with data obtained through an onsite survey of the feline's prey species. They did this using camera traps distributed across nine protected areas in the Atlantic Forest. The analyses revealed that the largest feline in the Americas primarily feeds on large prey, particularly wild pigs and deer. These prey were more abundant and had higher biomass in the Green Corridor than in the Coastal Atlantic Forest regions, such as the Serra do Mar, where jaguars are absent or occur at very low densities. The data reveal a striking difference in biomass between the Green Corridor (638 kg) and the coastal regions (8.2 kg). "The results show a consistent pattern. Areas with greater prey availability, especially of medium- and large-sized prey such as wild pigs and deer, are also those where jaguars persist. Where the prey base is very limited, jaguar populations tend to be absent or extremely small," notes Ferraz.

Invisible fertility crisis: Chemicals and climate change threaten reproduction across species - The rise in infertility is not limited to humans, as environmental stressors are quietly undermining the reproductive potential of different forms of life. A recent review published in npj Emerging Contaminants investigated how today's environmental challenges are shaping the reproductive capacity of both humans and animals.From the analysis emerged two major forces—synthetic chemicals and warming climate—that are not acting in isolation but as a unit, placing growing pressure on fertility and fecundity (biological capacity of an organism to reproduce) across a wide spectrum of species.The effects range from skewed sex ratios and poorer egg and sperm quality to developmental abnormalities and falling population numbers. The impact is not limited to a single generation; it carries its mark into future generations and tends to worsen when chemical exposure and climatic changes hit together.Unless one is a creature living at the very bottom of the sea, escaping synthetic chemicals is next to impossible. These far-from-biologically-inert molecules, once released, find their way into living systems through the food we eat, the air we breathe, or via direct absorption into the body.Of the 140,000 synthetic chemicals registered, more than 1,000 are known as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), substances with chemical structures similar to those of hormones that can mimic or block natural hormones from attaching to receptors. Since hormones are key chemical messengers that regulate vital bodily processes, any interference in their signaling can disrupt metabolism, growth, and even reprogram epigenetic pathways, triggering ripple effects that can spread across species and ecosystems. These chemicals are extremely potent even at lower concentration, as the authors equate them to a whisper that is powerful enough to redirect a hurricane.Studies show that warming temperatures, largely driven by climate change, are contributing to a global loss of biodiversity. This environmental stressor undermines the ability of living organisms to reproduce, both directly and indirectly. Rising heat can also intensify the toxicity of pollutants, causing harmful chemicals to build up to higher concentrations within an organism's tissues, where they can exert greater damage.

Chernobyl's wildlife: The real story isn't the presence of radiation, it's the absence of humans - "Dogs at Chernobyl are now genetically distinct … thanks to years of exposure to ionizing radiation, study finds." That's just one of many similar headlines that appeared in response to a scientific study published a few years back. They present a compelling story of radiation, mutation and survival against the odds. But the underlying science didn't actually show any genetic differences were caused by radiation. The idea of "radioactive dogs of Chernobyl" is better understood as a modern scientific myth. Indeed, our appetite for scare stories about mutant animals is obscuring the reality: the most significant and fascinating thing about the animals there is the absence of humans, not the presence of radiation. Forty years after the Chernobyl explosion, the controversy over how the accident affected people and ecosystems goes on. I've been studying the environmental impacts of the disaster since I began my Ph.D. research in 1990 on radioactive fallout in the English Lake District. Scientists have learned a lot since then, with thousands of studies published. But the mainstream and social media remain rife with misinformation and exaggeration about the accident's effects. Scientists often blame the media for this, but maybe we should put some of the blame on ourselves. The Chernobyl disaster tapped into our enduring fascination with radiation and mutation, with all sorts of claims being made about damaged wildlife and mutant animals in the exclusion zone. But clear scientific evidence for significant long-term radiation effects is surprisingly hard to find. Research on the feral dogs of Chernobyl, published in the highly regarded journal Science Advances in 2023, is just one of many examples.. Go through any checkpoint in the zone and you'll see at least a couple of dogs hanging around waiting for scraps from guards or visitors. The study found genetic differences between dogs living at the power plant and those living farther away. The authors themselves do not explicitly say that the differences they find were due to radiation. However, to the casual reader, it is difficult not to draw that conclusion from the paper and accompanying press release.  The press release overstated the link to radiation. It suggested that the dogs "may be genetically distinct due to varying levels of radiation exposure" and said they are experiencing "high and continuous environmental assault"—claims not supported by the evidence. Even experienced science journalists would find it hard not to be influenced by that framing. As a scientist who has worked on radiation issues and Chernobyl for decades, it took me a long time to read and understand all the relevant papers and conclude that the hype was in no way supported by the evidence.   The genetic differences are real. But, given the relatively low radiation doses in most of the zone, more plausible explanations include differences in initial breed types and factors such as habitat, nutrition and disease. With only three populations to study, it's very difficult to separate any radiation effect from these other important factors. Yet in media coverage, this became a story about radiation driving rapid evolutionary change in just a few generations. That interpretation is not supported by the available evidence.

MAHA vs. Trump over Supreme Court glyphosate case, farm bill - A Supreme Court case and a bill moving through Congress this week are set to test the bonds of Republicans and the Make America Healthy Again movement, following a near rupture in February over the weed killer glyphosate. The court will hear a case Monday to decide whether federal law preempts state-level lawsuits alleging glyphosate, the chemical in Bayer ’s herbicide Roundup, causes cancer. And the U.S. House is expected to take up the farm bill this week, a massive agricultural policy measure that includes new protections for the chemical. The MAHA movement, a coalition of activists who push for healthy food and eschew chemicals, helped deliver President Donald Trump back to the White House after their preferred presidential candidate, now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dropped out of the election and endorsed the president. The group hates glyphosate, which is the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. and integral to many farm operations. The Supreme Court arguments and the farm bill put MAHA squarely at odds with Trump and the majority of Republicans in Congress. It comes just months after a prior blowup when Trump signed an executive order to boost domestic production of glyphosate, a break that caused Kennedy to step in and do damage control. And with the 2026 midterm election less than seven months away and Trump’s approval rating down in polls, keeping the coalition intact could be critical for Republicans who are racing to maintain their slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. “It has been a really, really rough few months because we have an attack coming from the executive branch, the judicial branch and over in Congress,” said Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA advocate who goes by the moniker “the Glyphosate Girl” on social media. “The combination of the executive order and going to bat for Bayer at the Supreme Court are really inexcusable,” Ryerson said. “And I think it showed a deep disconnect between what the administration thinks that MAHA cares about and what is actually true.” The Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticides and herbicides, does not classify glyphosate as a carcinogen and does not require glyphosate labels to disclose cancer risk. But many individuals have sued, alleging they got cancer from Roundup use, and arguing that Bayer and Monsanto, which made glyphosate before Bayer acquired the company in 2018, failed to warn consumers of that risk. Kennedy in 2018 won nearly $290 million for a man in one such case. The administration will argue on behalf of Bayer before the Supreme Court, saying in an amicus brief that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts the “failure to warn” claims hounding Bayer. Without that preemption, the brief says, manufacturers would be bound to adhere to a patchwork of 50 different labeling requirements in each state. ″[I]f labeling tells users that a pesticide likely causes cancer in Missouri, might cause cancer in Illinois, definitely causes cancer in Tennessee, and is anyone’s guess in Iowa, users will not know whom to believe,” the U.S. solicitor general’s office wrote in an amicus brief on the case. “Lost in that noise: EPA’s considered judgments about what warnings are actually necessary to protect public health, and any hope of uniformity.” The farm bill, meanwhile, includes a provision that MAHA advocates claim is a “liability shield” to protect pesticide manufacturers. The bill would prohibit any states and courts from penalizing or holding “liable any entity for failing to comply with requirements that would require labeling or packaging that is in addition to or different from the labeling or packaging approved by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.” House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson, R-Pa., who is leading the farm bill, said MAHA advocates upset with the language are “emotional-driven, need to take time to read the bill.” Thompson also contended that the bill preserves the ability for states to alter labels if they go through the EPA first. “This bill is just about labeling, and making sure that the labeling is done in a way with the highest level of science,” he said. “If a state wants to have additional provisions for labeling, they only have to go through the EPA to make that happen, it will be on the label.”  Ryerson, asked to respond to Thompson, said it’s “extremely disgusting that someone would come out and call us emotional, when what we’re just trying to do is make people healthy,” and contended that Thompson’s bill does include a liability shield. “I would also like to challenge, if he wants to go one-on-one and debate what that bill actually says, I am totally game because he is lying. This is a pesticide liability shield,” she said. The Republican embrace of glyphosate presents an opportunity for Democrats to try to win over MAHA in their own way. “The White House’s stand is its stand, and we’re going to have the Supreme Court fight, we’re going to have the farm bill, and I think it continues to cause some rifts over there that you can’t really sugarcoat,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, a Democratic ally of some MAHA causes. “There are a lot of people who got really excited about the MAHA idea who hadn’t been involved in politics before, so they’re not as embedded in voting for Republicans; it’s more who is going to stick up for these issues,” Pingree said. Ryerson agreed, saying MAHA is looking “for a champion and champions, which is what Kennedy was and is,” regardless of party — warning that the boiling frustration could lead MAHA to sit this election out. What “should be concerning to both parties, is that the likelihood isn’t that people are so frustrated in the MAHA movement, they go and vote for a Democrat, they just won’t vote,” she said. Pingree, along with Ryerson, will be attending a rally before the Supreme Court argument, arguing for the court to uphold the right to sue. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is helping Pingree lead an amendment to strip the pesticide provision from the farm bill, will also attend. The White House appears to recognize the danger. They invited a group of MAHA advocates to meet with top officials earlier this month to tout the work they were doing on the advocates’ issues. Ryerson, who attended the huddle, said it was productive and allowed top advocates to vent their frustrations to administration officials. But she warned it may not be enough to keep MAHA in the MAGA fold. “My feeling was that the administration is taking those concerns to heart,” Ryerson said. “If the Supreme Court comes out in favor of Bayer, that is on this administration, because this case never even should have made it to the Supreme Court.”

Supreme Court grills Monsanto on Roundup cancer warning - Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared skeptical of Monsanto’s argument that federal law prevents state courts from holding the company financially responsible for failing to warn consumers about the risk of cancer from its popular Roundup weedkiller. During oral arguments, Monsanto and the Trump administration faced questions about their position that EPA should have the final say on what warnings pesticides and herbicides can carry — even in light of new information about a product’s potential hazards. Chief Justice John Roberts asked Paul Clement, the attorney representing Monsanto, why states couldn’t also hold chemical manufacturers’ feet to the fire when they’ve made a determination that a product poses risk to their residents. “It’s not necessarily the case that they’re doing something inconsistent with what the EPA would do,” said Roberts, who is often a swing vote in Supreme Court cases. “It’s simply the fact that they’re responsive to the new information more quickly than the federal government.” At the heart of the case, Monsanto v. Durnell, is whether a Missouri jury — and other state courts across the country — correctly awarded verdicts exceeding $1 million to compensate longtime Roundup users after they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Roundup users have argued in thousands of lawsuits that the company failed to warn customers about the risks of glyphosate, the herbicide’s key ingredient. But EPA, the agency responsible for registering pesticides and herbicides, has determined that glyphosate is not a likely carcinogen. Monsanto’s attorneys argue that adding a warning to Roundup’s label would conflict with EPA’s findings and that different state warnings about the product would violate uniformity requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. The state litigation is a major liability for Monsanto and its owner, German pharmaceutical company Bayer, which has entered a $7.25 billion settlement to resolve Roundup cancer claims. Clement — founder of the boutique law firm Clement & Murphy and former U.S. solicitor general — argued Monday on behalf of Monsanto that there are other options for states to push an unresponsive EPA to act on new scientific information, such as pursuing a petition to cancel a product’s registration. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another swing vote on the high court, appeared more sympathetic to Monsanto’s claims. “I think you’re saying that EPA can change requirements going forward, but if it tries to say you are misbranding [a product] when you do what they told you to do, in a sense they’re penalizing you retroactively,” Kavanaugh said. Clement said he thought the retroactivity framing was a helpful way to look at the case. “If you look at the statutory scheme, the real way you change warnings or take a pesticide off the market is through the cancellation proceedings,” he said. Appearing alongside Monsanto in the case, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris argued for the Trump administration that states can restrict pesticide use within their borders but can’t impose labeling requirements. Justice Neil Gorsuch pushed back against the claim. “Because the greater power exists,” he asked, “why doesn’t the lesser power?” An attorney for John Durnell, the Missouri resident who secured one of the verdicts against Monsanto in state court, faced fewer questions from the justices. Justice Clarence Thomas asked the lawyer, Ashley Keller, a founding partner at the law firm Keller Postman, to flesh out his argument that the demise of the Chevron doctrine has undermined Monsanto’s case. Keller pointed back to the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which overturned the 40-year-old principle of Chevron deference, which said judges should generally give agencies like EPA leeway on their reasonable interpretations of ambiguous federal laws. Under Loper Bright, it is now up to courts to determine who has the best reading of laws like FIFRA that shape federal regulations. If EPA had created a rule that said Roundup is safe, in the Chevron regime, “you could engage in that fiction that Congress delegated that power to EPA,” Keller said to the justices. “In the new Loper Bright regime,” he continued, “you would say, ‘Point to the text.’” Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan asked if Keller had properly applied Loper Bright. Altio said the case was about the separation of powers between two branches of government, the executive and the judiciary. Kagan said the decision did not prevent Congress from handing off power to agencies like EPA. Keller agreed with Kagan, but said Congress did not broadly delegate to EPA blanket authority to decide when a product is or is not misbranded.

Decades-long study finds 'stable' soil carbon degrades --After nearly four decades, the world's longest-running soil warming experiment is revealing a surprising result: even "stable" carbon in forest soils can break down as temperatures rise, releasing more CO₂ into the atmosphere. The findings are published in the journal Science of The Total Environment. "Microbes are critical components of soil ecosystems because they break down organic matter and recycle elements essential for plant growth," explains Jerry Melillo, a Distinguished Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory. "As warming reshapes these microbial communities, it can speed the loss of carbon from soils." For the past thirty-seven years, his work has focused on plots in the Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts, where the soil has been artificially heated to 5 °C above the ambient temperatures regardless of the season. Melillo says they chose five degrees for the study as it was at the upper end of global warming projections by the climate modeling community when the soil warming study started.Global average temperatures have already risen by about 1.1 to 1.4 °C since the Industrial Revolution. How much further they rise, Melillo emphasizes, depends on human choices. "If we dramatically cut CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel burning, or reduce deforestation, the projected increase would be lower," Melillo explains.The length of this study has allowed scientists to observe shifts over time. In the fourth decade of the study, scientists observed a breakdown of stable components of soil organic matter which were previously thought to be resistant to warming-mediated decomposition.As these stabilizing materials decay, they release additional CO₂ into the atmosphere. This added release of CO₂ may magnify a feedback loop in Earth's climate system: as the planet warms, soils emit more carbon, further amplifying warming. Incorporating this new finding into climate models will help scientists make more accurate projections of future climate change.

Rainforests can buffer rising CO₂ in the short term—but this comes at a cost - Tropical forests are among the world's most important carbon sinks. A new study suggests that even small understory trees can temporarily store more CO₂ as atmospheric CO₂ levels rise. However, their long-term capacity to sequester carbon may be constrained by nutrient limitations, potentially reducing this ability. The Amazon forest is one of the tipping elements in the global water and climate system, storing and absorbing huge amounts of CO₂. Still, it is not clear to what extent trees can increase growth with more CO₂ in the atmosphere. "Around 60% of the Amazon forest grows on old and highly weathered soils, which are already quite depleted in mineral nutrients, such as phosphorus," says Lucia Fuchslueger, co-lead-author of the new study published in Nature Communications."Low levels of phosphorus could make it difficult for the forest to grow even more and make use of the extra CO₂ in the atmosphere," she adds. However, Amazonian trees have developed highly efficient internal nutrient cycles that could allow them to gain access to even more nutrients. For example, they are withdrawing nutrients from their leaves before they drop them. Also, rapid organic matter decomposition on the ground provides additional nutrients, but it is not clear if this system can get any more efficient.."After one to two years, trees indeed increased their carbon uptake and growth when exposed to higher CO₂ levels—at least in the short term," says Martins. The researchers found the mechanisms behind this increased growth: plants redistribute their root systems to extract more nutrients, particularly phosphorus."The litter layer is a key nutrient resource for plants in these forests," highlights Martins. Roots increase their growth through fallen leaves, release enzymes that decompose organic matter, and get access to phosphorus before it is transferred into the soil and may become resorbed." However, this strategy intensifies competition with soil microbes and may deplete organic phosphorus reserves," adds Fuchslueger. Over time, nutrient constraints could limit the forest's ability to continue absorbing additional carbon. The findings reveal a critical trade-off: while tropical forests may initially buffer climate change more strongly, their long-term capacity to store carbon could be restricted by nutrient availability— highlighting the vulnerability of these ecosystems under future climate conditions.

Tropical forest loss eases after record year: researchers -The world lost 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of tropical primary rainforest last year—down 36% from 2024, said researchers from the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland.  "A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging—it shows what decisive government action can achieve," said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of WRI's Global Forest Watch platform."But part of the decline reflects a lull after an extreme fire year," Goldman said.The researchers also warned that fires fueled by climate change have become a "dangerous new normal" which threatens to reverse the recent gains made by government efforts to tackle deforestation.The warming El Niño weather phenomenon is expected to return in the middle of the year, which could push global temperatures even higher, raising the threat of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.Fires fuelled by climate change have become a 'dangerous new normal', according to researchers.The researchers, who used satellite data for their report, noted that last year's forest loss was still significant—about the size of Denmark and 46% higher than a decade ago.Despite last year's progress, global forest loss remains 70% above the level required to meet the 2030 goal of halting and reversing forest loss, the researchers said.  "A good year is a good year, but you need good years forever if you're going to conserve the tropical rainforest," Much of last year's slowdown was due to sharp declines in Brazil, home to the biggest rainforest in the world. Brazil's forest loss, excluding fires, was 41% lower than in 2024—its lowest rate on record. "Brazil's declines are associated with stronger environmental policies and enforcement since President Lula took office in 2023,"  referring to Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In 2024, forest fires ravaged nearly 18 million hectares of the Brazilian Amazon, driven by an unprecedented drought linked to climate change. Lula relaunched an anti-deforestation action plan and increased penalties for environmental crimes, she said. But the country's forests are still threatened by agriculture, which remains the largest driver of forest loss to make room for soy fields and cattle ranches.Some states in the Amazon have passed legislation to weaken environmental protections, the researchers said.

Soil, not fertilizer, is primary source of nitrogen gas loss in rice paddies, study reveals - Rice production is heavily dependent on nitrogen fertilizers, particularly in China, where application rates are two to three times the global average. At the same time, a large amount of nitrogen is lost to the environment—mainly in the form of N2. Scientists widely assumed that fertilizer nitrogen was the primary source of this N2 loss—a conclusion that was reinforced by the technical challenge of distinguishing soil-emitted N2 from the atmospheric background. Now, a new study led by Prof. Yan Xiaoyuan from the Institute of Soil Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has overturned this long-held assumption about nitrogen loss in agriculture. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 22 as a cover article, the study reveals that most nitrogen gas (N2) emissions from rice paddies originate from soil organic nitrogen (SON), rather than applied fertilizers. It also proposes a novel mechanism to explain this phenomenon, reshaping our understanding of agricultural nitrogen cycling. In this study, the researchers employed a novel in situ observation methodology combining 15N isotope tracing with membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS). This approach enabled simultaneous measurement of N2, ammonia (NH3), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions throughout the entire rice growing season, while partitioning their sources. The results were striking: 72–75% of N2 emissions were derived from SON, not fertilizer nitrogen. This finding was independently confirmed in a 14-year fertilization experiment. In contrast, NH3 emissions were mainly linked to applied fertilizer, while N2O emissions originated from both soil and fertilizer sources. The researchers also identified a seasonal "trade-off" pattern: NH3 volatilization dominated nitrogen losses in early growth stages, whereas N2 emissions became dominant later in the season. Based on these observations, the researchers proposed a "microbial nitrogen pump" mechanism to explain this process. Following fertilizer application, urea-derived ammonium (NH4+) is rapidly assimilated by soil microbes to support growth, creating a carbon-to-nitrogen stoichiometric imbalance. To restore this balance, microbial activities accelerate the decomposition of native soil organic matter, mobilizing SON and releasing large amounts of soil-derived NH4+. This "old nitrogen" is subsequently converted into N2 through nitrification and denitrification processes and released into the atmosphere. The mineralized SON is only partially replenished through microbial nitrogen turnover. "In other words, fertilizer does not directly turn into nitrogen gas. Instead, it activates soil nitrogen pools, indirectly driving larger nitrogen losses," The researchers found that hybrid rice varieties improve nitrogen uptake efficiency and microbial nitrogen utilization, reducing yield-scaled gaseous nitrogen losses by approximately 43% while maintaining high productivity. This suggests that integrating crop breeding with soil–microbe regulation could help achieve both high yields and lower environmental impacts. By identifying SON as the dominant source of N2 emissions, this study fundamentally revises our understanding of nitrogen cycling in rice ecosystems. It also provides a new theoretical framework for improving nitrogen use efficiency, refining global nitrogen budgets, and developing sustainable agricultural practices.

Soil fertilization with Amazonian dark earth increases tree diameter by up to 88% A study conducted in the Brazilian state of Amazonas has demonstrated that small amounts of Amazonian dark earth (ADE)—an anthropogenic soil created by ancient Amazonian populations—can increase the height and diameter of the pink trumpet tree (Handroanthus avellanedae) by up to 55% and 88%, respectively. This tree also occurs in the Atlantic Forest. The research is published in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution. For the Brazilian firetree (Schizolobium amazonicum), the increase was 20% in height and 15% in trunk diameter. These results refer to the first 180 days of life for these plants, compared to other plants of the same species that did not receive dark earth. "The key factor was not the amount of nutrients per se, which doesn't vary much, but rather the microorganisms, which were quite different, especially the fungi. In plants treated with dark earth, the microbiota around the roots reorganizes, with more efficient recruitment of beneficial microorganisms and a reduction in pathogens," In addition to helping to reforest degraded areas and provide ecosystem services, the two analyzed trees can be used for sustainable timber harvesting, especially the pink trumpet tree. The study is part of the project titled "Soil-plant feedbacks in the Amazon Forest under agricultural systems in the state of Amazonas." Amazonian dark earths, also known as terras pretas de índio (TPIs), result from the decomposition of organic matter and the use of fire by pre-Columbian populations. These earths continue to be formed by present-day peoples. The study shows that ADEs harbor a variety of bacteria, archaea, and fungi that help plants absorb nutrients and eliminate other opportunistic and pathogenic microorganisms, creating a more favorable environment for growth.. "We've been studying dark earths for over 20 years and have tested various ways of using them. The idea is to understand what makes them best suited for helping trees grow faster and stronger in degraded areas," says Tsai.

A popular tree planted all around the Chicago area will soon be illegal - A popular tree found outside many homes and on walkways across the Chicago area will soon be illegal to sell or grow after an unexpected turn of events. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has added the Callery pear, also known as the Bradford pear, tree to the Illinois Exotic Weeds Act, the agency announced in October.The invasive trees are currently blooming all around the region "and are now spreading into natural areas."According to the University of Illinois, the trees were widely planted in the 1950s as "a fast-growing popular ornamental tree despite weak branches that break off easily from storms.""Callery pear is native to Asia. It was introduced to the U.S. as the cultivar ‘Bradford’ for use in research. It was considered as a potential means to develop resistance to fire blight in edible pears. ‘Bradford’ was then also introduced as an ornamental tree and was widely planted," the Morton Arboretum stated.  Now, decades later, it will be labeled an "exotic weed." Dave Horvath, an arborist with the Davey Tree Expert Company in Lake Bluff, just north of Chicago, told NBC 5 the trees were "brought over of good intentions and we kind of let that genie out of the bottle." "Originally we thought we found something that was a perfect substitute for another plant. And after decades of being here, it escapes cultivation," he said. That's because while the trees themselves are not "self-fertile," in an unexpected turn of events, the trees began cross pollinating with other pear trees. "As soon as you start introducing different cultivars, those new cultivars start pollinating with the Bradford pear and then what you get is viable fruit, fruit that produces seed that can germinate," Horvath said. "And unfortunately, this species is exceptionally aggressive once it escapes cultivation. So the fruit is very small - it's really the size of our fingernail on our hand - but when it germinates, it has completely different characteristics than what we think of the Bradford pear. It's very thick, it has these kind of a thorny growths on it so it's really hard to walk through it, it blocks native vegetation ... it disrupts our local ecosystem. So and I would contest that Callery pear is a bit more invasive than buckthorn. In fact in some areas in Lake Forest, I've noticed that it's starting to push buckthorn out of the way, so extremely aggressive." The invasive weed label takes effect on Jan. 1, 2028, giving nurseries and growers a chance to reduce their stock and adjust. After that, the trees will no longer be available for purchase in Illinois. In the meantime, Horvath said residents should be mindful of their purchases.

Urban agriculture could supply about 28% of Europe's vegetable demand - A new study, conducted by researchers from the Netherlands and Germany, estimates that urban agriculture in European cities could produce up to 20 million tons of vegetables annually, representing roughly one-third of the region's current vegetable production. The study, published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society, systematically analyzes the potential of urban agriculture for 840 cities across 30 European countries.  "Using a GIS-based analytical approach, we evaluated how underutilized spaces such as rooftops, residential gardens, green areas, and vacant urban land could be converted into productive vegetable-growing areas. Doing so could supply 28% of vegetable demand for 190 million Europeans."   The study assessed the availability of urban land and rooftop spaces suitable for simple, open-air vegetable cultivation using soil, such as gardens and rooftop beds, without high-tech systems like hydroponics or vertical farming. The findings suggest that between 4,500 and 7,500 square kilometers of urban land could be used for agriculture across European cities. That is more than the area of the island of Mallorca, or twice its area (3,640 and 7,280 square kilometers respectively). "Urban agriculture could significantly strengthen local food systems, improve urban resilience, and reduce the environmental impacts associated with long-distance food transportation," explains the corresponding author, Prajal Pradhan, an associate professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Despite their promising findings, he emphasizes, "Urban agriculture should be seen as a complementary component of existing food systems rather than a full replacement for traditional agriculture." The authors elaborate that the potential of urban agriculture varies widely depending on factors such as city density, land availability, climate, water availability, and urban planning policies and regulations. For example, Southern European cities may face water scarcity, while Northern European cities may experience shorter growing seasons and lower solar radiation. "By integrating agriculture into urban planning, cities could improve local food accessibility, reduce food transport, strengthen community engagement, and promote healthier diets," explains co-author Diego Rybski from the IOER. "With thoughtful planning and policy support, rooftops, green spaces, and unused urban land could become vital components of Europe's future food infrastructure."

Severe drought hits North Korea, threatens crops and raises food shortage concerns - North Korea reported a severe drought affecting early-season crops across the country on April 30, 2026, prompting nationwide irrigation efforts to protect wheat and barley production. The dry conditions coincide with existing food shortages, raising concerns over agricultural output during a critical growing period. North Korean media reported severe drought conditions across the country on April 30, describing the situation as unusual for the early growing season and confirming impacts on agricultural regions ahead of the main rice-planting period. The drought is affecting early-season wheat and barley crops, which serve as a key food source before the rice harvest. Authorities report persistent dry conditions across multiple provinces, limiting water availability during a critical stage of crop development. The dry spell has prompted water restrictions, including shutting off 75% of household meters across the city. “Cities and counties are responsibly carrying out repairs to the gates of reservoirs and waterways in line with reduced water supplies caused by the severe drought,” Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. Premier Pak Thae Song inspected farms in South Pyongan and North Hwanghae provinces, directing local authorities to secure irrigation supplies and expand access to available water sources in major agricultural zones. State-directed measures include repairs to reservoir gates and irrigation channels, along with the mobilization of workers to maintain water distribution systems and stabilize agricultural output under dry conditions. The drought coincides with existing food supply constraints. In February 2026, United Nations Special Rapporteur Elizabeth Salmon identified food shortages as a key concern, stating that chronic food insecurity continues to affect a significant portion of the population in North Korea.

West Farmington resident wells run dry - Around 8-10 homes on Old State and Girdle Road said they are without well water. One resident said she has been without water for nearly eight months. “One day I just went up to take a shower and, it was real gritty and grimy. Then I didn’t have any water,” Leah Winslow said. “I came down, took the top off my pump and dropped a stone down and didn’t hear anything.” Play Video. Some residents in West Farmington are seeing no water, with one resident saying her well has been dry for at least eight months. Anthony Leonardi has more information on why those residents could be seeing the loss. Winslow told 21News that she has contacted several different water services to try and resolve the issue, but none have been able to restore the water at her home. Since losing water, Winslow and her neighbors have been using rain water collection systems and store bought water to do basic household tasks. “It takes two gallons of water just to flush the toilet. 20 gallons just to take a shower,” Winslow explained. Transporting the water from the collection system to the house has also caused residents issues. Michelle Zajac told 21 News that her husband frequently has to fill five gallon buckets and carry them up the stairs every time they need a refill. Both Zajac and Winslow both reached out to a local well drilling company, and were told that the issue could be coming from a nearby community, but it is uncertain if they are affecting the water source. “We’re praying somebody can come up with a solution,” Zajac said. “I can do without electricity, but you can’t live without water.”

Severe storms leave over 260 000 without power, 1 dead across Midwest after tornado warnings in St. Louis and Illinois - - YouTube videos - Severe storms moved across the Midwest on Monday, April 27, 2026, producing tornado warnings in the St. Louis area and Illinois, while heavy rain caused flooding into early Tuesday. More than 250 000 customers lost power across Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and at least one fatality was reported in Michigan after a tree fell during the storms. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued multiple tornado warnings as storms moved through the St. Louis region and Illinois on Monday afternoon. Warning text relayed from NWS St. Louis placed one tornado-warned storm over the St. Louis metro area at 14:01 CDT (19:01 UTC), with radar-indicated rotation and quarter-size hail affecting communities including St. Louis, East St. Louis, Madison, Granite City, Collinsville, Edwardsville, Maryville, Glen Carbon, and O’Fallon. NWS Lincoln, Illinois, warned that severe storms would continue through the evening across central, east-central, west-central, and southeast Illinois. The office identified damaging winds and tornadoes as the main concerns in southeast Illinois, with heavy rainfall capable of producing flooding. Storms were moving east-northeast around 80 km/h (50 mph). The strongest pre-storm risk corridor extended from parts of Missouri into Illinois, including the St. Louis area. NWS Lincoln’s 15:24 CDT briefing placed the most probable damaging wind gusts at 97–113 km/h (60–70 mph) in parts of Illinois, with localized gusts above 113 km/h (70 mph), large hail potential, and rainfall swaths of 25–76 mm (1–3 inches) capable of causing scattered flash flooding in urban and low-lying areas. NWS St. Louis issued flood warnings for several Missouri rivers and parts of Illinois, with some warning products citing 51–152 mm (2–6 inches) of rain and reports of flash flooding from law enforcement and emergency management. YouTube video The storms brought hail, strong winds, and heavy rain across the Midwest, flooding streets, stranding commuters and cutting power to more than 260 000 customers across six states. As of 09:00 UTC on April 28, there were 65 000 customers without power in Indiana, 55 500 in Michigan, 41 300 in Tennessee, 33 800 in Ohio, 27 000 in Missouri, 24 000 in Kentucky, 10 600 in Illinois, and 8 000 in Wisconsin, according to PowerOutage. Kansas City emergency responders carried out multiple water rescues after 81 mm (3.2 inches) of rain fell at Kansas City International Airport over six hours, and hundreds of schools in the St. Louis area closed early because of the severe-weather threat. YouTube video One confirmed fatality was reported in Kent County, Michigan, where a 39-year-old man was killed when a tree fell during powerful winds. The incident happened in Courtland Township near 16 Mile Road, according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.

NWS rates Mineral Wells tornado EF3 after severe storms in Texas - YouTube videos - The National Weather Service preliminarily rated the Mineral Wells tornado in Texas as EF3, with estimated peak winds of 233 km/h (145 mph), after surveying damage from the April 28, 2026, severe weather event. NWS listed 5 injuries and 0 fatalities, while Mineral Wells officials kept a curfew in place for the affected area as cleanup and damage assessment continued. The National Weather Service (NWS) rated the Mineral Wells tornado an EF3 after it struck the city at around 17:50 local time (LT) on April 28. NWS reported that the tornado touched down north of Mineral Wells near Sundown Road and FM 1821, producing minor tree and fence damage before moving southeast across Ellis White Road into Country Club Estates. Damage there included uprooted trees, collapsed carports, and damaged homes, including one home where the entire roof and truss structure was removed and displaced about 61 m (200 feet), consistent with winds of 193 km/h (120 mph). Southeast of Country Club Parkway, NWS found damage to homes and businesses consistent with winds of 161–209 km/h (100–130 mph). A personal weather station at a commercial building measured 161 km/h (100 mph) before the sensor failed. The most serious damage was found through Fort Wolters Historical Park and Holiday Hills Estates. Multiple homes in Holiday Hills Estates sustained major roof and window damage consistent with winds of 209 km/h (130 mph), while several World War II-era warehouse structures in the Fort Wolters Historical area fully collapsed and others partially collapsed. Damage to those warehouses was assessed as consistent with winds of 193–233 km/h (120–145 mph). Along US-180, the survey documented tree damage from Washington Road to High Point Road. The tornado then moved south of US-180 and lifted at an unknown location south of Cool. NWS said aerial footage would be reviewed to determine a more accurate ending location. “Five injuries have been reported, with no critical injuries at this time. A curfew remains in place for impacted areas, and resources are available for those in need,” said the City of Mineral Wells. The curfew covers the affected area, bounded by Energy Avenue to the west, U.S. Highway 180 to the south, Washington Avenue to the east, and Beletta Drive to the north. It is enforced nightly from 20:00 to 06:00 LT, restricting access to authorized personnel while response operations continue. YouTube video At least four other tornadoes also touched down in the jurisdiction of the NWS Dallas/Fort Worth office. These included an EF1 tornado in Rio Vista and an EF0 tornado near Lake Pat Cleburne. Two more tornadoes were reported in Montague and Johnson counties, which remain unrated.

Giant hail up to 11.4 cm (4.5 inches) reported in Texas, destructive 10.2 cm (4 inches) hail swath impacts Missouri -  (video) Giant hail up to 11.4 cm (4.5 inches) was reported in Johnson County, Texas, late on April 28, 2026, while a separate corridor of 7.6–10.2 cm (3–4 inches) hail caused structural and vehicle damage across southwest Missouri earlier the same day. The storms were part of a multi-state severe weather outbreak stretching from Oklahoma and Arkansas into Mississippi, producing widespread reports of large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes. Confirmed impacts included broken windows, roof damage, and an animal fatality at a zoo in Springfield, Missouri. The largest hailstone of the event was documented near Godley, Texas, where a trained spotter measured 11.4 cm (4.5 inches). Surrounding communities in Johnson County reported repeated hail between 7.6 and 8.9 cm (3–3.5 inches), with wind-driven stones breaking residential windows and damaging structures. Farther north, a separate and highly concentrated hail core developed across southwest Missouri, particularly in Greene and Lawrence counties. Repeated measurements between 7.6 and 10.2 cm (3–4 inches) were recorded from Aurora through Republic to Springfield, with widespread reports of vehicle damage, shattered windows, and impacts to roofs, siding, and gutters. Hail impacts extended across the Springfield–Branson National Airport, where airport officials reported that 5–7.6 cm (2–3 inches) hail affected the entire 13.4 km² (3 300 acres) property. Airport spokesperson Ren Bishop Lubbering stated that vehicles across the facility, including rental fleets and privately owned cars, sustained damage. Airport operations continued, but flight schedules were disrupted for several hours and potentially into subsequent days while damage assessments and aircraft inspections were carried out. At Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, hailstones up to 10.2 cm (4 inches) damaged multiple enclosures. One animal was killed and another injured, and the facility was temporarily closed following the storm. Nearby Fair Grove reported numerous broken windows at a high school, consistent with hail exceeding 4.5 cm (1.75 inches). The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) also received reports of 5–7.6 cm (2–3 inches) hail across northwest Arkansas and additional 7.6 cm (3 inches) reports in Mississippi, including near Vaughan in Yazoo County. Dozens of hail reports were recorded alongside numerous wind damage incidents, including downed trees, power lines, and localized structural impacts. While wind contributed to infrastructure damage in several areas, the largest losses in Missouri were directly associated with hail.

Monster 18 cm (7.1 inch) hailstone sets new state record in Texas -   What initially looked like a discarded gallon jug in a roadside ditch turned out to be a record-breaking hailstone, now confirmed as the largest ever documented in Texas at roughly 18 cm (7.1 inches). It was discovered near Vigo Park in Swisher County by storm chaser Val Castor and his associates on June 2, 2024. They clicked several pictures of the hailstone and submitted them to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS). The size of the hailstone was determined using photogrammetry and AI analysis along with the estimates from the storm chasers. Record-breaking hailstone in Swisher County, Texas. Credit: Val Castor. A hailstone measuring roughly 18 cm (7.1 inches), that was photographed in 2024, has set a new state record for the largest hailstone on record in Texas. It was found in a roadside ditch approximately 4.8 km (3 miles) west-northwest of Vigo Park in Swisher County by Val Castor, a storm chaser. This broke the previous record of 16.5 cm (6.5 inches), set by a hailstone found in Hondo in 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed on April 30, 2026. The hailstone was so large that Castor initially mistook it for a discarded gallon jug of milk in a ditch, but when he went to check and dug it out of the mud, he was certain it would be a record. “As I was chasing this tornadic supercell, I started to notice large hail on the ground the size of softballs and some still falling sporadically. I was thinking about stopping and getting a quick picture of a few softballs when I noticed what looked like a gallon jug of milk in the ditch. As I drove past it, I was thinking no way was this a hailstone, but I turned around and went back,” said Castor to NOAA. However, Castor had neither the means to prevent melting nor any way to measure the hailstone when he found it. The only things he had to visually compare it with were a can of energy drink and a glove. Castor and his associates took multiple pictures of the stone and submitted them to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) as evidence.

Highway 41 Fire explodes to 2 023 ha (5 000 acres) near Everglades National Park, Florida - The Highway 41 Fire west of Miami, Florida, doubled in size to approximately 2 023 ha (5 000 acres) between April 27 and April 28, 2026, with no containment reported. Authorities have closed sections of Everglades National Park as smoke impacts travel along U.S. Route 41. The Highway 41 Fire ignited at 17:14 LT on April 27, approximately 9.6 km (6 miles) west of Miami, and expanded rapidly under wind-driven conditions, with containment remaining at 0% as of the latest update.Fire crews are working in fuels composed of tall grass and brush about 0.76 m (2.5 feet) high, where active fire behavior includes wind-driven runs, flanking, and backing. High winds, shifting wind directions, and low relative humidity are maintaining conditions favorable for continued spread.The fire is burning sawgrass terrain in the Everglades National Park’s northeastern sector, moving south and west.At 17:40 LT on April 28, the park estimated the fire’s size at 1 012 ha (2 500 acres). By 20:53 LT the blaze had exploded and doubled in size, burning over 2 023 ha (5 000 acres), according to InciWeb.

Asteroid 2026 HZ4 passed Earth at 0.072 lunar distances, the second closest of the year - The WatchersAsteroid 2026 HZ4 passed Earth at a distance of 0.077 LD (0.00020 AU / 29 709 km / 18 460 miles) from the center of our planet at 12:13 UTC on April 24, 2026, becoming the second-closest known asteroid flyby within 1 lunar distance recorded so far this year. Its closest point was about 23 338 km (14 501 miles) above Earth’s surface, placing it inside the orbit of geostationary satellites. 2026 HZ4 is the 62nd known asteroid to pass within 1 lunar distance of Earth since the start of the year and the second closest so far, after 2026 EM on March 7 at 0.077 LD. The object was initially reported by Catalina Sky Survey on April 24, but the earliest listed observation in the MPC data was made by Palomar Mountain–ZTF at 08:09 UTC on April 23, about 28 hours before closest approach. 2024 HZ4 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids, a class of near-Earth objects whose orbits cross Earth’s path, and has an estimated diameter between 3 and 6.7 m (9.8-22 feet). CNEOS lists the asteroid’s absolute magnitude at 29.7. Its flyby took place at a relative velocity of 13.27 km/s at 12:13 UTC on April 24. 2026 HZ4’s closest approach was about 23 338 km (14 501 miles) above Earth’s surface — well inside geostationary orbit, which lies about 35 780 km (22 230 miles) above Earth’s equator. The current JPL orbit solution is based on just 14 observations over a 1-day data arc, with a condition code of 8. MPC also lists the orbit uncertainty as 8.

El Niño season predicted to start as early as next month - An El Niño event is expected to develop from mid-2026, impacting global temperature and rainfall patterns, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The latest monthly Global Seasonal Climate Update from WMO signals a clear shift in the Equatorial Pacific: sea-surface temperatures are rising rapidly, pointing to a likely return of El Niño conditions as early as May-July 2026. Forecasts indicate there is a "nearly global dominance of above-normal land surface temperatures" in the upcoming three-month period, and regional variations in rainfall patterns. "After a period of neutral conditions at the start of the year, climate models are now strongly aligned, and there is high confidence in the onset of El Niño, followed by further intensification in the months that follow," said Wilfran Moufouma Okia, Chief of Climate Prediction at WMO. "Models indicate that this may be a strong event—but the so-called spring predictability barrier is a challenge for the certainty of forecasts at this time of year. Forecast confidence generally improves after April," he says. El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), one of the most powerful climate patterns on Earth. These events reshape global weather, influencing rainfall, drought, and extreme events across regions. Governments, humanitarian organizations, water managers, and farmers depend on accurate and timely ENSO forecasts to anticipate and respond to risks. El Niño is characterized by a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific. It typically occurs every two to seven years and lasts around nine to twelve months. WMO does not use the term "super El Niño" because it is not part of standardized operational classifications. El Niño events affect temperature and rainfall patterns in different regions and typically have a warming effect on the global climate. Thus, 2024 was the hottest year on record because of the combination of the powerful 2023-2024 El Niño and human-induced climate change from greenhouse gases. There is no evidence that climate change increases the frequency or intensity of El Niño events. But it can amplify associated impacts because a warmer ocean and atmosphere increase the availability of energy and moisture for extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rainfall. Each El Niño event is unique in terms of its evolution, spatial pattern and impacts. However, it is typically associated with increased rainfall in parts of southern South America, the southern United States, the Horn of Africa and central Asia, and drought over Australia, Indonesia, and parts of southern Asia. During the Boreal summer, El Niño's warm water can fuel hurricanes in the central/eastern Pacific Ocean, while it hinders hurricane formation in the Atlantic Basin.

Rivers worldwide reveal greenhouse gas rise that's been overlooked for decades - Rivers worldwide are under severe stress: they are warming, losing oxygen, and as a result emitting increasing amounts of greenhouse gases. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now quantified these global trends over a period of more than two decades. Their results show that rising temperatures and anthropogenic land use are fundamentally transforming river systems, with serious consequences for the climate. The findings have been published in Global Change Biology. Rivers are habitats, sources of water, and shapers of entire cultural landscapes. Accordingly, the local impacts are severe when agriculture and industry place pressure on river systems. "Rivers also play a key role in the global climate system," . "We are increasingly observing that rivers are becoming a significant source of greenhouse gases."This is mainly due to biogeochemical decomposition processes involving microorganisms: Organic carbon and nutrients entering rivers from farming or wastewater are converted into carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane—greenhouse gases with an adverse effect on the atmosphere.For a first-time global quantification of these trends, the researchers combined measurement data with satellite maps and machine learning. Their study is based on water parameter measurements from more than 1,000 river monitoring sites. They linked these measurements with globally available satellite information on vegetation, radiation, and topography.Based on this combined data, computations using machine learning models revealed how these environmental factors affect water temperatures, oxygen levels, and increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. The researchers then applied the resulting relationship data to more than 5,000 additional catchments worldwide to reconstruct, for the first time, consistent time series from 2002 to 2022, even for regions where no measurement data was available.The evaluations revealed definite global trends: rivers are warming, losing oxygen, and becoming increasingly saturated with greenhouse gases. "On average, the oxygen content is decreasing by 0.058 milligrams per liter and decade, much faster than in lakes and oceans. At the same time, the emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are rising," said Dr. Ricky Mwanake of IMKIFU, who was mainly responsible for the computations."Overall, we estimate that the additional anthropogenic emissions from rivers during the study period from 2002 to 2022 amounted to approximately 1.5 billion metric tons of CO₂ equivalent. These additional emissions weren't accounted for in the existing global greenhouse gas budgets."

Sewers have been hiding a climate problem in plain sight, and this new tool finally exposes its true scale -Methane is the second-largest greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. According to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, anthropogenic methane emissions account for nearly 45% of current net warming, making it an important factor in global warming. An international research team led by a scholar from City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) has broken through the overlooked role of sewers as a source of methane, developing the first-ever globally applicable estimation tool and offering a new perspective on mitigating climate change. The team estimates that sewers worldwide emit 1.18 to 1.95 million tons of methane annually. This reveals that global wastewater management has a far more significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and is crucial for improving greenhouse gas emissions accounting and promoting global emissions reduction.Led by Professor Yuan Zhiguo, Chair Professor of the School of Energy and Environment at CityUHK, the research lasted for 20 years. The team consists of scholars from The University of Queensland, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Tianjin University and Tongji University. Their study, titled "Estimating methane emissions from global sewer networks", was recently published in Nature Water.It is generally assumed that the limited residence time of wastewater in sewer networks is not conducive to methane formation, and that the overall emissions are difficult to monitor and quantify. Therefore, in current greenhouse gas inventories by the IPCC and various countries, urban sewers are considered a negligible source of methane emissions, assumed to be zero. However, sewage is rich in biodegradable organic matter, and anaerobic conditions are prevalent in sewer networks, providing a viable environment for methane formation. To address the lack of field data for calibrating the methane prediction components of the SeweX model, the team collected data from sewer networks in Australia using a customized online sensor for model calibration and validation.With the calibrated SeweX model, the team simulated nearly 3,000 different pipeline scenarios with varying structures and operating conditions. Their findings ultimately confirmed that methane generation in sewers is closely related to the wetted pipe surface. They proposed a simplified methane estimation model for sewer systems. With data such as pipe size, slope, designed and actual average dry weather flows, and wastewater temperature, the model can estimate methane emissions from sewers.The team validated the model using real-world data from 21 cities in Australia, the United States, China and Belgium, thus successfully developing this comprehensive sewer methane emission estimation tool.Using this innovative tool, the team estimates that global sewer systems emit approximately 1.18 to 1.95 million tons of methane annually, adding 1.7% to 3.3% to the currently estimated global methane emissions by the waste sector, and approximately 16% to 38% to the estimated overall carbon footprint of wastewater management.

Airborne desert dust may warm climate far more than expected, new analysis shows - Atmospheric dust plays a dual role in Earth's climate: it reflects some sunlight back into space while also absorbing and retaining the planet's heat like an insulating blanket. But while dust likely cools the planet overall, that's not the whole story. New UCLA research shows that the heat-trapping effect of airborne desert dust in the atmosphere is about twice as big as previously believed. Although researchers emphasized that current climate models are performing well, the new findings will further increase precision. Updating climate and weather models to account for the larger heat-trapping power of dust could improve both short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate projections, said lead researcher and UCLA atmospheric scientist Jasper Kok. Using data from satellites, aircraft measurements and new climate simulations, combined with meteorological data related to temperature, UCLA-led researchers developed a global estimate, shared in a study published in Nature Communications.They found that the heat-trapping effect of dust is equal to about 10% of the warming effect of human-emitted carbon dioxide—one of the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change—while most climate models estimate only about 5%. "Improving how models represent warming caused by dust could therefore help improve both weather forecasts and climate projections," said Kok, a UCLA professor in the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.  "Regions with more dust will be a little warmer, leading to higher surface temperatures and faster evaporation. This can alter atmospheric motions and shift where and when rainfall occurs—for example, by suppressing precipitation in some regions while enhancing it in others. Such effects are expected to be strongest in regions downwind of major deserts, such as in the Sahara, the Middle East and East Asia."Atmospheric dust increased in the twentieth century, peaking in the 1980s for reasons scientists are still exploring. While dust has declined since the '80s, it's still elevated compared to pre-industrial times, Kok said. Much of the dust today comes from deserts like the Sahara and the Gobi, as well as drying lakebeds where agriculture and other needs led humans to reroute water, such as at the Salton Sea, Owens Valley and the Great Salt Lake, Kok said.

Ammonia as a clean fuel: 'Do not create a new nitrogen problem,' says researcher - Ammonia has been feeding the world for decades as a fertilizer and is now rapidly emerging as a carbon-free fuel for shipping and industry. But if we focus only on CO₂ emissions, we risk creating new nitrogen problems, warns nitrogen expert Jan Willem Erisman in an article published in the journal One Earth.Ammonia has been feeding the world for decades as a fertilizer and is now rapidly emerging as a carbon-free fuel for shipping and industry. But if we focus only on CO₂ emissions, we risk creating new nitrogen problems, warns nitrogen expert Jan Willem Erisman in an article published in the journal One Earth.  Ammonia is one of the most important inventions of the last century. Thanks to the Haber-Bosch process, nitrogen from the air can be converted into ammonia. This made large-scale plastic production possible and contributed to a huge increase in global food production. But the invention also has a downside. Large-scale use has disrupted the natural nitrogen cycle—the balance of nitrogen in soil, water and air. This has led to biodiversity loss, poorer water and air quality, and extra warming of the planet.Ammonia is now seen as a promising energy carrier in the shift away from fossil fuels. It contains no carbon, unlike fossil fuels, so burning it produces no CO_₂. "Ammonia is almost as energy-rich as hydrogen and easy to liquefy," Erisman says. "On top of that, we already have more than a century of experience with producing, storing, and transporting it. That makes it an attractive fuel, for example, for shipping and industry."According to scenarios from the International Energy Agency and others, global ammonia production could double or even triple by 2050, partly due to its use as a marine fuel.  Still, Erisman warns against focusing only on "green" production. "We mainly see ammonia as a climate-friendly fuel for ships, as it does not produce CO_₂ emissions," he says. "But during use, ammonia can leak into soil, water, or air, and burning it releases nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxides." Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas, while nitrogen oxides contribute to air pollution, such as ozone and fine particles. Through rainfall, nitrogen oxides end up in seas and oceans, causing over-fertilization, which is another threat to biodiversity.According to Erisman, it's not just the sustainable production of ammonia that matters. We also need stricter regulation of its use. "We need policies to prevent nitrogen emissions, for example, using cleaner technologies like fuel cells that convert ammonia into energy without harmful emissions. We also need stricter rules to limit losses across the whole chain, from production and storage to transport and use."My biggest concern is that nitrogen in the environment is once again receiving too little attention," Erisman says. Ammonia can play an important role in the energy transition, as long as emissions and losses during use are kept under control. "Only then can we reduce CO_₂ emissions while avoiding new nitrogen problems."

Property insurance is becoming the latest climate weapon -   Climate campaigners are seeking to block a major expansion of hydrocarbon infrastructure in some of the world’s most populous countries by making it harder for the projects to get insurance. A letter signed by roughly 70 advocacy groups demands that major insurers and reinsurers withhold insurance and investments in planned oil and gas expansions by a group of island countries in Southeast Asia including Indonesia and the Philippines. The projects would exacerbate climate change, the groups said, and also expose the insurers to financial risk and social backlash due to their impacts in the ecologically sensitive marine region. Southeast Asian countries are scrambling to expand energy supplies to meet demand from growing populations and economies. Renewable energy is growing rapidly, but governments are also considering expanding hydrocarbon production and building infrastructure to import natural gas by ship and burn it for electricity.

States are demanding property insurance records to study climate change - State insurance regulators are undertaking the most comprehensive analysis of the nation’s battered property-insurance market to try to understand how climate change is affecting the price and availability of coverage. Insurance companies are being ordered to turn over internal records showing claims and losses caused by wildfires, storms and other perils in each ZIP code where they sell policies. The data collection is being overseen by a national organization of state insurance commissioners that has been reluctant to gather such precise information but now wants to understand the severity of the growing property insurance crisis. “We literally don’t have a full and comprehensive system for monitoring insurance market data,” said Jordan Haedtler, climate-finance policy lead with the advocacy group Climate Cabinet. He said the implications of the data collection could be “profound.” “There’s so much salience on this issue,” Haedtler added, “that [insurance] departments of various ideological leanings are at least finding data collection to be in their interests.” The data collection comes as state insurance regulators face growing complaints about the rising cost and scarcity of property insurance, which is driven in part by climate change intensifying destructive events such as storms and wildfires. The collection also aims to plug data gaps resulting from the decentralized insurance system, which states regulate with little federal oversight. Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky, who is leading the data collection for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said in a statement that the information will give regulators “more information, tools, and resources to not only speed resilience but also increase preparation before severe weather hits.” Insurance departments vary widely in their ability to collect detailed market data, said former California insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, who directs the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley. Insurance officials in some Republican-leaning states are leery of studying phenomena associated with climate change, he added. The lack of ZIP-code-level data on how climate change is affecting U.S. insurance markets is “a big and ongoing problem,” Jones said. The new data will sharpen regulators’ understanding of insurance in their own states and empower the national insurance organization to detect national patterns. The data collection by the NAIC builds on a smaller effort that the group undertook in 2024 with the Biden administration’s Treasury Department. The new effort covers more states than the 2024 effort and includes more types of homeowners’ insurance — such as policies covering rentals, mobile homes and condominium units, which represent a significant share of the U.S. housing stock. It also covers smaller insurance companies than did the 2024 effort. The new data call will capture “roughly 98 percent of the market in most states,” compared to 80 percent from the 2024 effort, NAIC President Scott White said in a March speech. 

Interior announces end of two more offshore wind leases - The Trump administration on Monday announced two more agreements to end offshore wind leases — a new effort to dismantle the industry in the United States. As part of the new agreements, Bluepoint Wind off the coast of New York and Golden State Wind off California agreed to end their leases and the companies supporting those projects will instead make financial investments in “reliable conventional energy projects,” the Interior Department said Monday. The agreements follow a nearly $1 billion deal struck with TotalEnergies last month. The announcement marks the latest escalation by the Trump administration against U.S. offshore wind after the administration suffered numerous legal setbacks against its efforts to stop projects already under construction. The projects rolled back today would receive dollar-for-dollar reimbursement for their offshore wind leases. In a statement promoting the move, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Americans would no longer be “footing the bill” for intermittent energy projects.

U.S. cancels more wind leases as investment shifts to oil, gas and LNG - U.S. Department of the Interior has reached agreements with two offshore wind developers to terminate lease positions and redirect capital into conventional energy projects, marking a notable shift in U.S. energy policy and investment flows. Under separate agreements, Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind will voluntarily end their offshore wind leases, with affiliated companies committing to invest in U.S.-based oil, gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects. As part of the Bluepoint Wind agreement, investors will direct up to $765 million—matching the original lease bid—into a domestic LNG facility. Golden State Wind will invest approximately $120 million into U.S. oil and gas assets, energy infrastructure and/or LNG development, primarily along the Gulf Coast. In both cases, lease payments will be reimbursed once equivalent investments are made. Interior officials said the agreements are intended to support reliable, baseload energy while reducing reliance on projects viewed as uneconomic without subsidies. “Companies are once again investing in affordable, reliable, secure energy infrastructure,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, adding that the agreements align with broader efforts to strengthen U.S. energy security. The deals follow a similar arrangement announced earlier with TotalEnergies and reflect a wider policy push to prioritize conventional energy development and domestic resource utilization. For upstream operators and midstream developers, the agreements signal a potential increase in available capital for LNG facilities, pipeline infrastructure and oil and gas projects, particularly along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The shift comes amid heightened global energy demand and ongoing supply disruptions, reinforcing the role of U.S. oil and gas in supporting domestic and international markets.

Panel headed for clash over contentious copper mines - Republican Rep. Pete Stauber is teeing up a debate in the House this week around the need for copper just a week after successfully lifting a Biden-era ban on mining near Minnesota’s pristine Boundary Waters. The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, which Stauber chairs, will hear from energy markets analyst Daniel Yergin, industry associations and a scientist from the Natural Resources Defense Council on Wednesday about the nation’s growing appetite for copper and how to respond. The hearing will likely showcase an ongoing debate about the need for new copper mines that are riling the public in states like Minnesota and Arizona, the impact of those projects on the environment, and what role recycling can play to meet national demand. Yergin, for example, said during an interview with CNBC in January that global demand for copper will double by 2040 amid the push to electrify and the advent of artificial intelligence.

Rare earth mining is poisoning Mekong River tributaries, threatening 'the world's kitchen' - Perched on the bow of his long-tail fishing boat, 75-year-old Sukjai Yana untangled a handful of small fish from his net, disappointed by his catch and fretting over whether he can sell them. Some days Yana earns nothing: demand for fish is falling due to worries over contamination of the Mekong River and its tributaries by toxic runoff from rare earth mines upstream that is threatening millions who rely on those waters for farms and fisheries. Chiang Saen, a fishing hub in northern Thailand, has been Yana's family's home for decades. "I don't know where else I'd go," he said. Yana is one of 70 million people in mainland Southeast Asia who depend on the nearly 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) Mekong River. Rising demand for rare earth materials is driving an unregulated mining boom centered in war-torn Myanmar, to the west, that is spreading to Laos, in the east. The Mekong has long faced mounting pressures, from plastic pollution to hydropower dams hemming it upstream and sand mining devouring its banks. But experts warn that the toxic runoff from the mines could pose an existential threat. Exposure to heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium raises risks of cancer, organ failure and developmental harm, especially for children and pregnant women. Thailand is bearing the brunt of the mining boom as such toxins imperil its global food exports—from bags of rice in U.S. supermarkets to edamame snacks served in Japan and garlic used in Malaysian kitchens. Responses remain local and limited, while smuggling and Myanmar's civil war complicate regional fixes, raising concerns for downstream Cambodia and Vietnam. Agriculture is the backbone of Southeast Asia's economies, said Suebsakun Kidnukorn of Mae Fah Luang University in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai, warning that rare earth mines are destroying "the world's kitchen." Tha Ton, 63-year-old Lah Boonruang taps his fingers to count the toxin-exposed crops he harvests—rice, garlic, corn, onion, mangoes and bananas. He irrigates his fields with water from the Kok River, a Mekong tributary that flows into Thailand from Myanmar and is laden with toxins. "Everyone is afraid of the toxins," he said. "If we can't export, a farmer is the first to die." Thailand is one of the world's top rice exporters along with India and Vietnam. It exported over $10 billion worth of rice and fruits in 2024, according to trade figures that rank the U.S. as the top rice importer. "Our worry is that toxins accumulate in the rice we export. This would make our rice farming industry, which is our culture, collapse," said Niwat Roykaew, founder of the environmental institute The Mekong School in northern Thailand's Chiang Khong. Thai scientists have found elevated heavy metal pollution in other Mekong tributaries, like the Sai and Ruak rivers. Millions rely on fish from the Mekong Basin for protein. Warnings to ethnic minorities in the hills of northern Thailand to avoid using river water are painful for the Lahu, who are famed as fisher people, said Sela Lipo, 56, a Lahu elder. "The Lahu's way of life is always with a river," he said. "The contaminated river has cut off our lifeline."

A rush for critical minerals echoes oil extraction injustice as harms fall on world's most vulnerable, scientists warn -Mining critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt fuels the "green" energy and digital transitions essential to meeting climate goals. But building the technologies that enable a sustainable future is generating severe, hidden environmental and health crises that the world is failing to track or address, warns a new report by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), known as the UN's Think Tank on Water.The investigation finds that systemic global failures are allowing the costs of critical minerals extraction to fall disproportionately on some of the world's most vulnerable communities, while the benefits accumulate elsewhere in the form of electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy systems, and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.The report does not question the need for clean energy systems or the digital infrastructure underpinning them. Instead, it asks who is paying for and benefiting from humanity's progress in those areas, and finds a deeply unjust answer."Technological disruptions are needed and useful. But we should be aware of and proactively address their unintended consequences if we want the whole world to equally benefit from them,"  "You cannot call a transition green, sustainable, and just if it simply moves the environmental harm from the rich to the poor, and from one group of people or region to another."The report, "Critical Minerals, Water Insecurity and Injustice," underlines the intense water requirements of critical minerals extraction and that communities living closest to mining operations are paying a steep price for contaminated water, water scarcity, lost livelihoods, and serious health consequences. In Chile's Salar de Atacama, lithium mining alone accounts for up to 65% of regional water usage, intensifying competition with agriculture and domestic needs and driving dramatic groundwater depletion. Between 1990 and 2015, water tables in areas with brine wells dropped by up to nine meters. And lithium mining in Bolivia's Uyuni region is making it increasingly difficult for communities to grow quinoa, their economic and nutritional staple. Globally, about one-sixth (16%) of critical minerals reserves are located in high water-stress regions, while 54% of energy transition minerals sit on or near indigenous territories. The environmental damage extends well beyond water consumption. For every ton of hard-to-extract rare earth minerals produced, approximately 2,000 tons of toxic waste are generated. In 2024, global rare earth production generated an estimated 707 million metric tons of toxic waste, enough to fill about 59 million garbage trucks—a number of trucks that could form a queue circling the equator 13 times.

EGS Pilot Demonstrations | Department of Energy - The Office of Geothermal is supporting four enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) demonstration projects directed by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). These projects will demonstrate EGS in a variety of geographic locations, geologic formations, and subsurface conditions. The results can help expand the use of firm, flexible geothermal energy to more locations nationwide. IIJA authorizes projects in four Topic Areas. The three projects selected in the first round are intended to increase geothermal power production in the United States in the near term from areas surrounding existing geothermal fields (Topic Area 1) while facilitating new opportunities for widespread power (or power with cascaded heat production) in the future from regions where heat is present, yet no geothermal energy production exists (Topic Areas 2 and 3) and the second-round project aims to demonstrate EGS in the eastern United States (Topic 4).  The projects are:

• Chevron New Energies (HQ: San Ramon, California)—This EGS pilot demonstration will use innovative drilling and stimulation techniques to access geothermal energy near an existing geothermal field.
• Fervo Energy (HQ: Houston, Texas)—This pilot within the Milford Renewable Energy Corridor in Utah and adjacent to the DOE’s Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) field laboratory aims to produce power from each of three wells at a site with no existing commercial geothermal power production.
• Mazama Energy (HQ: Seattle, Washington)—This project will demonstrate super-hot EGS (temperatures above 375°C) on the western flank of Newberry Volcano in Oregon. This demonstration will help advance the science needed to operate in extreme heat conditions. 
• Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (HQ: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)—This project will convert a horizontal shale gas well in the Appalachian Utica Shale to geothermal.

By developing EGS pilot demonstrations in a variety of geologic formations and subsurface conditions, projects selected under this initiative are acting as: 

• Models to prove reliability and performance and de-risk technologies required to develop and sustain EGS reservoirs,
• Experiments from which to learn by doing and identify new problems that are not apparent at smaller, lab-based scales,
• Opportunities to test hypotheses and validate design approaches for the geological conditions in which projects are located and extend those to broader EGS development,
• Opportunities for collaboration by which best practices can be established and operational processes can be standardized and improved,
• Opportunities to connect with consumers and offtakers to understand their needs, define the market, and account for those factors in design.

DOE funds conversion of Utica Shale gas well to enhanced geothermal system -  The US Department of Energy’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office selected the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to lead the project, which will convert a horizontal Utica Shale gas well into an enhanced geothermal system. The effort will also test various techniques to create the fractures necessary for a human-made geothermal reservoir.Located in the Appalachian Basin, the project is the first enhanced geothermal systems demonstration site in the eastern United States. If successful, it is expected to offer a replicable model for expanding geothermal energy in regions without naturally occurring permeability or fluid resources. The project will build directly on horizontal drilling and completion practices developed in the Utica Shale, evaluating optimal well orientation, lateral placement and spacing as part of a $14 million enhanced geothermal systems demonstration in Pennsylvania.

Vallourec signs five-year tubular supply deal with geothermal developer Fervo Energy -Vallourec signed a five-year supply agreement with next-generation geothermal developer Fervo Energy to support the scaled deployment of geothermal energy across the United States in a deal that draws directly on drilling technology developed for shale applications.Under the agreement, Vallourec will serve as Fervo’s exclusive supplier of US-manufactured tubular solutions and VAM connections, delivered through distribution partner Sooner Inc, establishing a fully domestic supply chain for geothermal well infrastructure.The collaboration leverages Vallourec’s VAM high-torque semi-flush connections, originally developed for shale drilling and now qualified for the high-temperature conditions of geothermal wells. The agreement supports Fervo’s strategy to deploy repeatable GeoBlocks (standardized 50 MW geothermal power generation units) by securing long-term access to domestically produced drilling and completion components, reducing supply chain risk and improving project execution timelines. Fervo and Vallourec’s technical teams will collaborate on field-based expertise, risk mitigation and engineering support, backed by Vallourec’s R&D center in Houston.

Power plant repeal: Coming soon, in two parts - Some utility industry insiders say they expect EPA to scrap former President Joe Biden’s power plant climate rule in the next two months, based on the draft rule’s arguments that carbon capture and natural gas co-firing aren’t practical emissions-slashing options for the U.S. coal fleet. EPA’s new strategy — as described in broad strokes by four people briefed on the administration’s plans — is to repeal the 2024 power plant standards by citing doubts about those two benchmark technologies. The agency would then deal a more permanent blow to future administrations’ regulatory authorities with a new proposal that mirrors EPA’s recent rescission of the so-called endangerment finding, those people said. They were granted anonymity to describe discussions with administration officials. That supplemental proposal could be released when the Biden rule is repealed — likely in May or June — or could come later, they said. EPA would have to take public comment on the new draft and finalize it some months later.

Bitcoin Miner MARA Buys OH’s Long Ridge Gas Plant, Transload Site -- Marcellus Drilling News --Long Ridge Energy & Power operates a 485 MW (nameplate 505 MW) combined-cycle natural gas power plant in Hannibal, Ohio, designed for eventual 100% hydrogen fuel usage. Located on a 1,600-acre site formerly used by an aluminum smelter, it serves the PJM grid and supports an integrated digital infrastructure/data center campus. Long Ridge has sort of morphed over the years. It originally served as a transloading terminal where frac sand and equipment used for shale drilling were hauled in by barge or rail and transferred to trucks. The transloading aspect of the terminal seems to be deemphasized these days. The new news is that the owner of Long Ridge, FTAI Infrastructure Inc., announced it is selling the facility and gas-fired power plant to MARA Holdings, Inc. for $1.52 billion.

The Dark Side of AI: Data Centers Become Energy “Monsters” Rivalling Nations in Carbon Emissions -- Voice Of Emirates -  International reports warn: Running smart models consumes energy equivalent to entire countries; Tech giants in a "race against time" to go green; Experts call for "Sustainable Digitization" – A recent analysis from London has revealed a “hefty environmental price” the planet is paying for the massive boom in Artificial Intelligence. The report confirmed that the data centers powering these technologies are consuming “terrifying” amounts of energy, driving carbon emissions to levels that rival—and sometimes exceed—those of entire nations. Obviously, the digital luxury we enjoy in May 2026 hides a massive carbon footprint, especially in regions still relying on coal and gas to generate the electricity needed to cool and run “giant servers.” Why Does AI Consume More Electricity Than Small Nations? The analysis explained that training and operating massive AI models requires “super” computing powers running 24/7, making the data center sector one of the fastest-growing energy consumers globally. Accordingly, estimates suggest that electricity demand will jump to unprecedented levels in the coming years as cloud computing expands. Clearly, this expansion puts international climate agreements in a “real fix,” as controlling emissions becomes difficult while chasing rapid technological evolution. While tech giants have begun investing heavily in wind and solar energy and developing innovative cooling systems, experts argue these efforts are “slow” compared to the speed of AI growth. As a result, observers believe that balancing “digital progress” with “environmental preservation” has become an urgent necessity that cannot be delayed. Amidst this challenge, global policymakers face the difficult task of imposing strict sustainability standards on tech firms to ensure AI is a friend to the environment, not a foe.

Dems offer cautious backing for GOP data center energy push - House Energy and Commerce Democrats are offering cautious backing to legislation up for a hearing this week that would tackle surging data center power demand — but warn the GOP can’t address the problem without bipartisan buy-in. The Energy Subcommittee hearing will consider bills aimed at shifting the costs of booming data center demand onto developers rather than consumers, while also strengthening the grid to handle rising electricity needs. The push marks a notable shift for Hill Republicans, who have previously questioned whether federal legislation on data centers is necessary given the issue often falls to state and local governments. “While we work to win the race to AI dominance with China and keep the United States at the forefront of innovation, we must continue to deploy commonsense solutions to meet our industrial-scale energy needs while protecting consumers,” said full committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and subcommittee Chair Bob Latta (R-Ohio) in a statement.

West Virginia data center development draws attention of natural gas producer - The number of data centers planned for Appalachia has at least one natural gas producer active in West Virginia’s Marcellus shale fields ready to step in and supply the natural gas needed to provide them with enough electricity to keep running. “We’re really excited about how Appalachia is positioned to be the home for a lot of these projects. And then for us, what that translates to EQT specifically, we’ve got a robust pipeline of these opportunities that are currently being negotiated. I mean we’re looking at multiple (billion cubic feet) a day of supply opportunities,” Toby Rice, president and CEO of EQT Corp.. said in a recent conference call with financial analysts.  EQT has drilling and pipeline operations in the Utica and Marcellus shale regions of northern West Virginia, eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. EQT’s interest in data centers is not exactly new. In July 2025, the Frontier Group of Companies announced it planned to build a power plant to supply electricity to a data center on the site of the former Bruce Mansfield Power Plant along the Ohio River near Pittsburgh. Mansfield was the largest coal-fired power plant along the Ohio and the largest in Pennsylvania. If it’s built, the data center will have an on-site power plant fueled by natural gas, and EQT was chosen as a supplier. The new power plant could generate 3 gigawatts of power for the data center, and possibly more. The former coal-burning plant was rated at 2.5 GW. It was decommissioned in 2019. Other companies want a piece of the action, too. In March, Hope Gas announced plans to build a 30-mile, $250 million natural gas pipeline to northern Mason County to support new industry and residences in the area, including the Nscale data center site north of Point Pleasant. In the presentation that accompanied the conference call, EQT says the proliferation of data centers and artificial intelligence is expected to drive a large growth in demand for natural gas. It listed three reasons: U.S. gas-fired power demand grew by about 14 billion cubic feet per day from 2014 to 2026 as natural gas took market share from coal. Data center and AI growth along with retirements of coal-burning power plants could drive an additional 10 Bcf/d by 2030. A more aggressive buildout of data centers could increase that new demand to 18 Bcf/d. In the call, Rice said he sees “a lot of opportunities in the air right now.” “I think that they're going to start landing in the second half of this year, and … it's a really great setup, and we're excited about how we're positioned,” he said.

FERC extends PJM electricity price cap into 2030 - -  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late Tuesday agreed to extend an electricity price cap on future supply guarantees for customers served by the Eastern grid PJM Interconnection — handing a win to the White House and to the region’s governors led by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.PJM, which serves nearly 70 million people in 13 upper Midwest and mid-Atlantic states from Illinois to Virginia, is facing urgent supply challenges. The grid operator has warned that it’s on track for an electricity shortfall in 2027 if more power isn’t brought onto the grid.PJM, along with other regional power markets, is grappling with rapidly rising energy demand primarily from data centers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The surge in demand comes as old coal plants retire and PJM has struggled to speed up its process of bringing new generation onto the grid. The price cap is for a PJM auction designed to guarantee future resources. The reliability auction sets a price to pay power plants bidding into PJM’s future capacity market. The tightening of supply and demand triggered a skyrocketing price point in 2024. Those electricity costs ultimately pushed utility bills higher starting last summer.

Biggest US Grid Operator to Begin Processing New Power Plant Projects - (Reuters) – The largest U.S. power grid operator – PJM Interconnection – said on Wednesday that it will begin processing new power plant applications this week after working through a years-long backlog of projects. PJM, which controls the flow of electricity on transmission lines across 13 Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states, is facing electricity shortfalls due to a recent surge in power demand from data centers that has outpaced the addition of new supply. The grid operator, serving about one in five Americans, began accepting new power plant applications to connect to the grid several months ago. Monday was the final day for submissions. The grid received more than 800 new power generation project applications to connect to its grid under its newly reformed interconnection process, PJM said. Of the project types, 349 were battery storage, 157 were natural gas-fired power plants, 142 were solar farms, and 65 were wind farms, PJM said. Some 45 were solar-storage hybrids and 45 projects included nuclear energy. Another 11 projects were hydropower, and the rest were filed under “other.” “We are encouraged by the diversity of generation types that are seeking to join the PJM generation fleet,” said interim President and CEO David Mills. “This is good news because we need all the generation we can get.” The new projects are capable of generating about 220 gigawatts of electricity. After becoming overloaded with power generation projects seeking to connect to the grid, PJM effectively stopped reviewing new applicants in 2022 while it processed the backlog and underwent a series of reforms. By the end of 2025, PJM had processed 170 gigawatts of projects, or enough to power roughly 130 million homes, according to an update released by the organization this month. About 31% of that was offered or had signed agreements to connect to the grid, PJM said. Freezing that entry point to the grid in 2022 drew criticism from some politicians and energy trade groups, particularly those advocating for wind and solar energy, which made up the majority of projects applying to PJM. “Reopening the queue is a welcome sign of progress, and our industry is eager to see whether PJM is able to study and connect new energy projects more quickly going forward,” said Jon Gordon, senior policy director at Advanced Energy United, which represents clean energy developers.

220 GW of New Powergen Projects Seek to Connect to PJM, Half Natgas - Marcellus Drilling News - - Although Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (J.S.) has just hired a lapdog to attack the PJM Interconnection grid as part of his campaign for president (see Shapiro Hires NRDC Attorney as Lapdog to Attack Utility Cos.), the grid manager is doing yeoman’s work to ensure there’s enough electricity flowing for the 67+ million people (from 13 states plus the D.C. swamp) to keep the lights on. PJM reports that under its new “first-ready, first-served approach” that prioritizes projects that are more advanced and better positioned to move forward, it has received 811 proposed new power generation projects, capable of generating 220 gigawatts of electricity, nearly half of which (106 GW) would come from natural gas-fired power plants.

Pennsylvania moves to shift grid costs to data centers - Pennsylvania, an epicenter of the data center boom, is finalizing a new framework to make the energy-hungry facilities shoulder more of their costs to the electrical grid. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Thursday voted 5-0 to advance a new model tariff for large-load customers — essentially setting new guidance for how the commonwealth’s utilities can ensure the public doesn’t pay for data center infrastructure.With billions of dollars in grid upgrades planned, regulators and utilities are concerned about those costs shifting onto smaller customers if data centers don’t materialize or if they demand less power than expected. To address that, the new framework includes collateral requirements, up-front fees and contractual cost obligations.Pennsylvania is the fastest-growing data center market in the PJM region, with some analysts predicting more than 7,000 megawatts in demand growth over the next decade — a 4,000 percent increase for the sector.

PJM Monitor Opposes Hull Street Energy Deal for 2 Gas-Fired Peakers -- Marcellus Drilling News - In March, Hull Street Energy (HSE) entered an agreement to acquire two peaking power plants from Rockland Capital, LP, significantly expanding its Milepost Power portfolio (see Hull Street Energy Buys 2 PJM Gas-Fired Peakers That Use 20 Bcf/Yr). The acquisition includes the 677-megawatt (MW) Lee County Generating Station in Illinois and the 586-MW Tait Electric Generating Station in Ohio. Both facilities operate within the PJM electricity market, providing essential fast-start resources and grid stability amidst tightening supply-demand dynamics. The PJM market monitor (independent of the grid operator) is recommending to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it reject the sale.

NYISO: Extended Heat Wave Could Cripple NY’s Power Grid THIS Summer -- Marcellus Drilling News - New York’s electric grid faces its lowest reliability margins in recent history this summer, with only 417 MW available under baseline conditions, according to the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). This critical situation stems from extreme weather, an aging generation fleet, and a lack of new dispatchable resources. NYISO’s annual Summer Reliability Assessment (copy below) says an extended heat wave of three days or more, with temperatures around 95 degrees, could result in a capacity deficit of -1,679 MW, increasing to -3,370 MW at 98 degrees, potentially leading to blackouts. NYISO can implement emergency measures like purchasing energy or voluntary curtailment to mitigate shortfalls, but the overall margin for error is extremely narrow.

Upbeat grid outlook for central US undercuts Trump rationale for keeping open coal plants -   The grid operator for the central United States said the region has ample resources to meet electricity demand in the coming year — a declaration that contradicts the reasoning behind the Trump administration’s efforts to keep three Midwest coal plants running in spite of their owners’ plans to shut them down. The forecast by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) followed the release of results from an annual auction of generating capacity held each spring. Last year’s MISO auction was referenced by Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a series of 90-day emergency orders starting last year requiring three Midwest coal plants to remain available beyond their planned retirements. The orders were issued under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, which allows the government to order power plants to operate temporarily during grid emergencies.

3.2 Bcf/d Planned Pipe Expansions to Carry M-U Gas to the Midwest -- Marcellus Drilling News - Data centers are driving significant growth in natural gas demand in the Midwest, leading to several pipeline expansion projects. East Daley Analytics is tracking 24 GW of potential power generation capacity from Midwest data centers, which could create over 5 Bcf/d of new gas demand in a high-case scenario. The region’s appeal stems from ample land, water resources, and low-cost electricity, with Illinois and Wisconsin showing the largest potential growth (if the Democrat machine in those states doesn’t block it). To meet this demand, over 3.2 Bcf/d of pipeline expansions are planned for six different pipelines. While some of the pipelines flow molecules from other regions, they ALL flow at least some Marcellus/Utica molecules. We have the list of pipelines looking to expand below.

$33B transmission build-out leaves Texas ranchers fuming - Texas is in the thick of figuring out where to lay power lines through a $33 billion transmission expansion, but changes in how lines are approved have landowners crying foul.The debate is playing out at the state Public Utility Commission, which is weighing where to route more than 3,400 miles of extra-high-voltage power lines that will crisscross the state. Ranchers and homeowners now also have half the time to object.Texas is among a growing list of places with vocal opposition to electricity projects across the country from Maryland to Maine. At issue are both the physical effects of huge towers and miles of power lines as well as questions about compensation and due process. The one-two punch of the PUC’s 2025 approval of the mammoth transmission plan and a 2023 law that shortened the review process has been hard to take for Texas property owners, according to Dave Clark, a director with the Friends of the San Saba River nonprofit.“OK, you’ve got to have them, I hear you,” Clark said of the transmission lines. “But let’s have a fair process that allows landowners to really follow along and a reasonable schedule to get through it.”The impetus for the transmission overhaul in Texas, unlike other states, was not data centers but the state’s massive oil and gas industry — which has seen its need for power skyrocket after the fracking revolution of the 2010s. Texas has since become a hot spot for data centers, ratcheting up the pressure even further to get lines built.A map of the planned transmission build-out shows three major lines heading from Central Texas to the Permian Basin, as well as two major projects in the central and eastern portions of the state. A number of electric companies are involved in the transmission expansion.Residential and small business ratepayers will largely be on the hook for the $33 billion transmission tab under the state’s current rules. But PUC commissioners are required to look at changing those rules later this year to take more of the burden off residents and nonindustrial power users.State lawmakers and regulators have gotten an earful from constituents frustrated by the transmission planning process, with Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick directing the Texas Senate to study whether the shortened regulatory timelines give landowners enough time to give input.“Private property rights are a big deal in Texas, as is economic development,” said PUC Chair Thomas Gleeson, the state’s top power regulator, at a state Senate committee meeting last month. “We’re trying to thread that needle and strike the right balance.”

Belgium eyes nuclear takeover to keep reactors running - Belgium is seeking to nationalize its nuclear power industry, Prime Minister Bart De Wever announced Thursday, in a bid to keep running parts of its aging reactor fleet that were otherwise headed toward closure. De Wever said the government would explore a “full takeover” of Belgium’s seven nuclear reactors. In the meantime, plans to dismantle the five reactors that were shut down between 2022 and 2025 will be suspended, keeping the option of extending their license or potentially restarting them.The move highlights the growing centrality of government intervention in Europe’s nuclear industry, as private companies shy from the costs and risks associated with the sector. It comes as the EU doubles down on electrification, renewables and nuclear to reduce dependence on volatile fossil fuel imports, amid rising energy prices caused by the war in Iran.

Data centers killing Ohio's beloved parks before our very eyes -- Cathy Cowan Becker, Save Ohio Parks-- The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission, on March 27, took 13 minutes to rubber-stamp fracking of 8,749 acres of Egypt Valley Wildlife Area and Salt Fork State Park – despite 1,337 public comments opposed.That was just the start. Another 8,366 acres of Egypt Valley have been nominated for fracking, likely to be rubber-stamped at the commission’s next meeting.As board president of Save Ohio Parks, I’ve seen two dozen nominations for parks and wildlife areas and three dozen nominations for highway land go through this commission over the last three years.But never have I seen over 17,000 acres of our public lands nominated – much less approved – in such a short time. The question is, why?  The answer is two words: data centers.According to Data Center Map, there are 201 data centers in Ohio, with 113 in central Ohio. Another 77 projects are proposed or under development. Thanks to House Bill 15, passed last year, each data center can get state approval for a major gas plant to power its operations in just 45 days – with no public notice, no public information session and no public hearing.That’s exactly what happened at the Amazon data center on Scioto-Darby Creek Road in Hilliard. The largest fracked gas fuel cell in North America was approved with no public notice, information session or hearing to power this data center “behind the meter” – meaning power never goes onto the grid. It’s meant to provide private power to Amazon.The gas fuel cell will emit 1.45 million pounds of carbon dioxide every day – directly next to hundreds of homes, an elementary school, a park and the county’s largest animal shelter. The emissions are the equivalent of 66,000 additional gas-powered vehicles per day.It received automatic approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio – meaning no formal vote – and got an air permit from the Ohio EPA before anyone knew what was happening.That’s the plan for other data centers across the state.The village of Ashville, population 5,000, is dealing with a proposal to build a data center campus whose footprint would be as large as the village itself – powered by an 800- megawatt gas facility located directly next to schools and soccer fields where children play.And a 9.2 gigawatt gas plant – enough to power more than half of Ohio – is proposed for the site of a former uranium enrichment plant to power a massive data center complex in Pike County, which already has an early death rate 107 times the national average. Where is all this gas going to come from? You guessed it – our state parks and public lands. This isn’t conjecture. House Speaker Matt Huffman and Senate President Rob McColley told the Ohio Oil and Gas Association that was their intent.Fracking our parks for gas to power data centers is a “ripe opportunity,” McColley said, according to a March 5 Gongwer News Service article.  “We are at the front of some very glorious times,” Huffman told the association.If there’s one thing I could tell local government officials, it’s this:If you approve a data center, then you will likely get a gas plant, and there won’t be anything you can do about it. The state can and will put a fracked gas plant next to homes, schools, businesses and parks. The only way to prevent a gas plant from being forced into your neighborhood is to prevent the data center from going there in the first place. The gas will come from practically the only un-fracked land in Appalachian Ohio – our parks and wildlife areas. This will produce billions of gallons of toxic and radioactive waste that is injected into disposal wells, where it is known to migrate into abandoned wells, production wells and threatens drinking water.It’s what the state legislature wants – and if local officials accept data centers, rural Appalachia, our state parks and public lands and even our villages, towns and suburbs will all be turned into fracking sacrifice zones. Put a stop to it now.Support a moratorium on building new data centers and fracking our public land. Our land, water and air were meant to be held in public trust for future generations – not sacrificed for Big Tech and Big Oil profits.

Incoming fracking at Ohio wildlife area could bring habitat loss, heavy construction and money for conservation -  by Julie Grant  - An Ohio commission is considering proposals to lease thousands of acres of a remote state-owned wildlife area for fracking. Some people who live near the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area think the leases make sense, while others are concerned about their cultural and ecological impacts.  Randi Podladnik and her husband moved to the Tappan Lake area of southeastern Ohio in the late 1990s, trading the industrial pollution of their former home for a quiet rural community. In 2013, she says the fracking industry started changing the landscape. “If we just stay in our house and don’t leave, we can pretend like it’s not happening,” she said, while driving the hilly, windy roads, dodging truck after truck. “But as soon as you leave, you run into brine trucks and sand trucks, and it’s taking your life in your hands sometimes to travel the back roads.” Some of the trucks carry sand for the fracking process, and others transport contaminated wastewater from well pads to injection wells. As Podladnik drives, she points out fracking sites and also huge stacks of logs. “You can always tell when they’re doing a pipeline or a well pad, because [of the] wall-to-wall trees they’ll be trucking in here, where they cut them through the forest,” Podladnik said. In the past year, a frack pad was built close to her house, and now she says there’s nowhere to hide from the noise and industrialization of their country home. On the main road leading toward Lake Tappan, long-time resident Sherry Lindon said in recent years, trucks started flying by at all hours.“It means a lot of nights I can’t sleep. It’s just noise, noise, noise,” Lindon said.She said the trucks have made it unsafe for kids to play in the neighborhood, and pointed to tire tracks in her yard that she said were from the trucks.“It’s just not been pleasant. The only thing I can say is hopefully some people are making money from the fracking, and hopefully it’ll go away,” she laughed.Thirty miles south, the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission has put over 12,000 acres of a remote wildlife area, called Egypt Valley, out to bid for fracking. In addition, there are proposals to lease another 8,000 acres at the state-owned site — meaning the entire wildlife area could be open to fracking. Podladnik warns that what’s happened near her home portends the future for Egypt Valley.“I wonder [if] the people who fish or harvest deer or things like that from that area, how is that going to be affected down the road?” she asked. Unlike Tappan Lake, there’s almost no traffic moving through the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area. On a recent weekday, the only vehicle on the road was a school bus, along with a couple of pickup trucks parked along the side of the road near waterways where people fish. For decades, this land was cleared for surface coal mining. In the 1990s, as that mining was ending, conservation groups, including the Ruffed Grouse Society, along with the state, acquired what is now more than 18,000 acres here, used mostly for hunting and fishing. But this area is not pristine. “The history of land use results in a condition that is very heavily departed from a highly intact ecological system,” said Karl Malcolm, vice president of conservation for the Society, which works to promote healthy habitat for grouse and the American woodcock, two game birds that have suffered long-term declines in Ohio from loss of habitat. Today, the rolling green hillsides at Egypt Valley are covered with brush and young trees. The land is dotted with wetland areas and small ponds, which the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) stocks with bass and other fish. The ODNR reintroduced river otters in the 1990s, and according to its website, there is now a thriving population here. Malcolm said it costs “tremendous amounts of money” for the state to remove non-native invasive brush species, like buckthorn and honeysuckle, at Egypt Valley and its other properties, while promoting bird-friendly grassland and shrubland habitats.“Given the history of land use, how do we manage this in a way that’s gonna promote opportunities to hunt and also deliver conservation outcomes for other species of concern?” Malcolm said. “It comes at a high cost.” He supports fracking in Egypt Valley for the revenue it would bring into Ohio. Malcolm calls it a reasonable solution.“Where you have oil and gas revenue coming into the state, if there’s a mechanism to have some or all of those revenues invested in conservation outcomes, I see the benefit of being able to capture that value,” he said.This fiscal year (FY 2026), the state has budgeted $3 million dollars in royalties from fracking in state wildlife areas to support conservation efforts. Leasing Egypt Valley for fracking makes a lot of sense to Kyle Wood, who owns an outdoor and hunting supply store not far from the wildlife area. “They’d be crazy to pass that up,” he said. “You’re talking about a lot of money there for that kind of acreage. So I think they would be fools to pass it up.” The ODNR has added an addendum to lease agreements at Egypt Valley that well pads be built outside the wildlife area’s boundaries, that fracking companies limit noise pollution and not drill during hunting seasons. Also, it wants water sources to be tested before and after fracking. Research shows that oil and gas development can impact wildlife, like songbirds.As a Ph.D. student at West Virginia University, Laura Farwell, an avian and landscape ecologist, studied the impacts of fracking on forest songbird communities in the central Appalachian region, which includes eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.     She joined a team of WVU researchers surveying birds deep in the forests, and also right up to the edge of drilling sites and pipeline corridors. They found that fracking activity changed the bird population. “So there was this immediate effect of sensitive species moving out, but then over time you’d see generalist species moving in,” Farwell said. “The entire sort of bird community would shift.” Her research team found that when more sensitive, forest-dependent species like blue-headed vireo and Canada warblers move out, others, like cowbirds, a native species that can take over a habitat, start showing up. Cowbirds are often considered a threat to vulnerable songbird species.At Tappan Lake, Randi Podladnik started noticing cowbirds about five years ago.“That was the one thing that we said, ‘Where in the heck did these guys come from?’” she said.   Podladnik doubts that people who live near Egypt Valley, or hunt and fish there, understand that the state lease agreements for fracking could also mean heavy truck traffic, land disturbance, noise and pollution in their quiet wildlife area.“It’s going to an industrial zone, and is that going to get into the wildlife?” she asked.The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission is expected to consider bids and new fracking proposals at Egypt Valley at its meeting this summer.

OH Supreme Court Rules Against AWMS Injection Well Compensation -- Marcellus Drilling News - We’ve been tracking a story that we consider an ongoing tragedy for more than a decade. American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County, Ohio, that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Actually, there are two injection wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS. They were both “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) following the quake nobody could feel (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake). ODNR allowed AWMS to reopen one of the injection wells but denied it the right to reopen the second well. AWMS said it makes no economic sense to reopen just one of the wells and has been locked in a legal battle to reopen the shuttered well and get compensated by the state for forcing it out of business (missed revenues). Sadly, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state against AWMS, denying them money for the state’s “taking” of their property.

Another Attempt to Tie Shale Fracking to Ohio Earthquakes - Marcellus Drilling News - - Last May, MDN brought you the news that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) was laying the blame for a series of low-level earthquakes in southeastern Ohio on fracking at a shale well in Noble County (see ODNR Says Fracking in Noble County, OH Caused Series of Earthquakes). We were somewhat incredulous. Most of the time, low-level quakes are tied to injection wells near active faults, not to fracked shale wells. The enviro-left is making the most of it, ginning up angst in and around Noble County, tying fracked shale wells (not injection wells) to a series of low-level quakes in the region.

Locals in the lurch as Rover Pipeline continues property value dispute - Canton Repository -- As the Rover Pipeline property tax valuation dispute drags on, some regional school districts and government agencies are stuck waiting for the windfall they say they were promised. “I look at it almost as a false promise when they put the pipeline in the ground," said Doug Baum, president of the Pike Township board of trustees.  Repository / file photo

Ohio’s Inflated Rover Pipeline Tax Case Lingers in Court - Marcellus Drilling News - Last December, MDN told you that Rover Pipeline had to file a lawsuit in self-defense against the Ohio Tax Commissioner for her overly aggressive property tax assessment that inflates the project’s market value, causing it to pay too much in property tax (see Ohio Tax Commissioner Putting New O&G Pipelines at Risk). The dispute centers on the state treating $2.2 billion in weather-related construction overruns and an unrealistic “infinite lifespan” assumption as value-adding assets, violating constitutional principles of fair market valuation, under which taxes should reflect what a willing buyer would pay rather than total development costs. The problem is, school districts and various municipalities thought they were going to get an extra windfall and are now in trouble because of their own poor planning and unrealistic expectations.

Ares to Acquire Rover Natgas Pipeline Stake from Blackstone - (Reuters) – Ares Management said it has acquired a stake in the Rover natural gas pipeline from a unit of fellow investment firm Blackstone for an undisclosed sum, as interest in U.S. energy infrastructure assets grows. In a statement sent to Reuters, Ares said funds led by its Infrastructure Opportunities strategy would buy 32.4% of Rover, a pipeline system spanning around 700 miles (1,130 km) in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan which moves natural gas from the Appalachian shale basin to Midwestern markets and beyond. Natural gas is playing a key role in supporting increased power generation to meet soaring demand from data centers and industry’s wider electrification efforts, and the conflict in the Middle East has boosted the allure of assets in jurisdictions that can operate unencumbered by geopolitical tensions. “Large-scale, strategically located assets like Rover, which offer much-needed egress for in-basin supply, are playing a central role in the natural gas value chain and represent a compelling opportunity for expansion,” said Anthony Omokha, managing director in Ares Infrastructure Opportunities.

Medina County Legal fight brewing over pipeline tax school funding | WOSU Public Media –- Cloverleaf Local Schools is considering filing legal action against the Medina County Auditor for delayed collection of taxes and fines from the Nexus Pipeline that runs through the district's boundaries. Cloverleaf's board of ed authorized district leaders to take action against the auditor's office at its April 22 meeting. The district said their concern was over the auditor's office delaying collection of $200,000 of interest on delinquent tax payments from 2019, 2020 and 2021 related to the natural gas pipeline.Cloverleaf Superintendent Daryl Kubilus said he's attempted for months to work with the auditor's office to collect the money."This started in June of 2025. I've been attempting to resolve this since that point and obviously have not gotten anywhere on that potential resolution," he said.John Hunter, spokesperson for the Medina County Auditor's office, said the county is currently discussing its options with the county prosecutor. He said the previous auditor's administration was not collecting interest and penalties on delinquent taxes."In 2019 and (20)20, the auditor's office had a policy of not doing the interest and penalty on that. And we're waiting to hear from the prosecutor's office if, in fact, we could still do that or what would have to happen for us to be able to do it and work with the schools on that," Hunter said.If the prosecutor's office does give the greenlight to assess the interest and penalties, Hunter said the auditor's office will still need to send a bill to Nexus.The conflict stems from a Nexus challenge of the state's $1.6 billion assessed value of the pipeline in 2019. An Ohio Supreme Court ruling in 2025 finalized the taxable value of the pipeline last year at $985 million. Cloverleaf was paid the delinquent taxes it was owed for 2019 through 2021, but the auditor's office failed to collect the interest Nexus owes on the taxes, the district said in a press release.This is the second public dispute between Cloverleaf and the county auditor's office in recent months. The Medina County Budget Commission attempted to cut millions of dollars in tax revenues from several local schools, including $546,000 from Cloverleaf. The commission cited a new state law allowing commissions to deem some school tax funding "excessive." The budget commission was unsuccessful in reducing the taxes because it missed a deadline."Obviously with the $546,000 cut that our Medina County Budget Commission tried to make until it was discovered that that would be illegal, I think for my Board of Education created a level of distrust with the county," Kubilus saidHunter said his office is just looking to "comply with the law" and follow proper procedures. "I don't feel there's any tensions between the auditor's office and Cloverleaf," he said. "We've met regularly with the superintendent. We've met regularly with the treasurer." The Nexus Pipeline carries natural gas across 13 counties in Ohio, from Columbiana County up to the northwest corner of the state. The owners of the Rover Pipeline, which travels a similar route, settled a similar dispute on its valuation in August 2025 on its 2019 taxes, but not subsequent years, leaving local governments in the lurch, The Canton Repository reported recently.In general, school districts across the state say they will be squeezed by new property tax relief measures approved by the Ohio Legislature last year, amid underlying issues in the current school funding system.

Anti-Fossil Fuelers Plan to Protest DEP Hearing for Homer City Pipe  -- Marcellus Drilling News -   The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is seeking public comment on an Individual Stormwater Permit for a 5.8-mile natural gas pipeline in Indiana County. Serving the proposed Homer City Generation LP 4.5 GW power plant and data center, the 30-inch pipeline will traverse Black Lick, Burrell, and Center Townships, involving several stream and wetland crossings. The DEP will host a public hearing on May 12 from 5 to 7 PM at the Indiana Theater regarding Homer City Generation’s proposed 5.8-mile natural gas pipeline in Center Township. In response to this new project, local anti-fossil fuel groups are actively mobilizing. So-called “Concerned Residents of Western PA” (CROW) is holding a preparation meeting this afternoon to help “citizens” draft their public comments and build speaking confidence.

PA DEP Hard at Work Analyzing 42 “Studies” re Increasing Setbacks -- Marcellus Drilling News –- In December, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) accepted a petition by radical green groups, including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project, to “study” the issue of increasing setbacks for shale drilling so far that it would ban ALL new Marcellus/Utica drilling in the Keystone State, which is no exaggeration (see EQB Votes to Consider Ban on Marcellus Drilling Via Crazy Setbacks). In March, the Shapiro Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) told the EQB it is actively reviewing the rulemaking petition and will have a recommendation on setbacks for the board by the end of this year (see PA DEP Signals Recommendation on Shale Drilling Setbacks by Year End). Yesterday, the DEP provided an update on its progress.

DOE funds conversion of Utica Shale gas well to enhanced geothermal system -  The US Department of Energy’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office selected the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to lead the project, which will convert a horizontal Utica Shale gas well into an enhanced geothermal system. The effort will also test various techniques to create the fractures necessary for a human-made geothermal reservoir.Located in the Appalachian Basin, the project is the first enhanced geothermal systems demonstration site in the eastern United States. If successful, it is expected to offer a replicable model for expanding geothermal energy in regions without naturally occurring permeability or fluid resources. The project will build directly on horizontal drilling and completion practices developed in the Utica Shale, evaluating optimal well orientation, lateral placement and spacing as part of a $14 million enhanced geothermal systems demonstration in Pennsylvania.

Antero Midstream Announces First Quarter 2026 Financial and Operating Results - Antero Midstream Corporation today announced its first quarter 2026 financial and operating results.  The relevant consolidated financial statements are included in Antero Midstream's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2026.  First Quarter 2026 Highlights:

• Gathering volumes increased by 14% compared to the prior year quarter
• Net Income was $118 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, in line with the prior year quarter
• Adjusted Net Income was $138 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, a 4% per share increase compared to the prior year quarter (non-GAAP measure)
• Adjusted EBITDA was $288 million, a 5% increase compared to the prior year quarter (non-GAAP measure)
• Capital expenditures were $42 million
• Adjusted Free Cash Flow after dividends was $85 million, an 8% increase compared to the prior year quarter (non-GAAP measure)
• Repurchased 1.0 million shares for $18 million

"In addition to the integration efforts that remain on schedule, we continue to invest capital to improve the connectivity and market outlets on our gathering systems. These capital projects supported our first dry gas Marcellus Shale pad in over a decade, as well as our first pad on the acquired assets, that were connected during the second quarter. These pads deliver volumetric growth and position Antero Midstream to help supply the rising demand for U.S. Energy."Justin Agnew, CFO of Antero Midstream, said, "Antero Midstream's strong balance sheet and consistent Free Cash Flow generation, combined with the sale of our Ohio Utica Shale assets, allowed us to finance the HG Energy acquisition while maintaining leverage in the low 3-times range. Looking ahead we expect our just-in-time organic strategy, bolstered by the highly accretive HG Energy acquisition, to continue delivering high-single digit EBITDA growth in the future."

12 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 20 – 26 - Marcellus Drilling News - The Marcellus/Utica region received 12 new drilling permits last week, Apr. 20 – 26, down 10 from the 22 permits issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued all 12 of last week’s permits. Neither Ohio nor West Virginia issued any new permits. What a disappointment! The drillers who received new permits in PA last week included: Expand Energy, PennEnergy Resources, and Snyder Brothers. Armstrong County | Bradford County | Butler County  | Expand Energy | PennEnergy Resources | Snyder Brothers

ADNOC Sets Sights on U.S. Gas With Multibillion-Dollar Expansion Plan - The UAE’s ADNOC plans to invest billions of dollars in building a presence in the U.S. natural gas industry, the Financial Times reported today, citing the chief executive of ADNOC’s international investment division, XRG. Nameer Siddiqui told the FT that the company was in the process of evaluating as many as 29 potential acquisition targets in order to build a vertically integrated natural gas business in the United States, covering everything from extraction to pipeline transportation, liquefaction, and regasification in receiving countries. XRG is not only eyeing the global LNG market, but Siddiqui also said. Any business that the company builds in the U.S. will also seek to cater to the energy needs of data center operators, the executive told the FT. As for the manner of acquisitions, the executive said the company is considering several options, including minority stake purchases, drilling joint ventures, and buying controlling stakes in attractive projects in the U.S. natural gas patch. ADNOC set up XRG at the end of 2024 with an enterprise value of $80 billion, combining the parent company’s lower-carbon energy and chemicals investment operations across the world. Initially, XRG was to focus on transformational global investments that create value across natural gas, chemicals, and lower-carbon energy solutions, ADNOC said at the time. Last year, ADNOC began shifting some of its U.S. natural gas and alternative energy stakes under the XRG umbrella. “Under the XRG umbrella, we are partnering with Exxon in the world’s biggest ammonia and hydrogen production facility in Texas; we are investing with NextDecade in the state’s largest liquefied natural gas facility; and through our acquisition of Covestro, we are supporting thousands of highly skilled US jobs in high-performance plastics and advanced polymers,” ADNOC chief executive Sultan Al Jaber said at the time. XRG bought a 35% stake in ExxonMobil’s proposed low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia production facility in Baytown, Texas. Another recent acquisition saw XRG become an 11.7% shareholder in Phase 1 of NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG export project, also in Texas.

UAE Withdraws from OPEC, Investing ‘Tens of Billions’ in U.S. Gas -- Marcellus Drilling News - -This is really big news. Yesterday, we spotted an article in the Financial Times that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which is the state-owned oil company of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is planning to invest “tens of billions of dollars” to build a natural gas business in the U.S., as it accelerates efforts to diversify, as the Iran war disrupts the energy industry. We’re glad we held on to that story and kept it for today, because on the heels of that story, another, bigger one broke: The UAE is resigning from OPEC and OPEC+ as of Friday, May 1. That’s huge!

Ratings Agencies Downgrade Fossil Fuel Cos. Over So-Called ESG -- Marcellus Drilling News - Twenty-three state attorneys general are demanding explanations from the top ratings agencies, Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P, regarding “ESG-driven” downgrades of fossil-fuel companies. They allege the agencies promote a radical climate agenda, weaponizing credit ratings with flawed methodologies to push woke ideology and UN-backed net-zero goals, rather than providing objective financial analysis. The AGs contend these downgrades contradict stated methodologies, reveal conflicts of interest arising from pledges to integrate ESG, and penalize American energy while potentially favoring entities such as Chinese-owned companies.

4th Circus Clown Judges Badmouth MVP Southgate in Oral Arguments -- Marcellus Drilling News - -  Quick, send in the clowns. Don’t bother, they’re here. We’re referring to three extremely liberal Democrat judges who sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit). These three judges, for years, blocked the construction of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) until an Act of Congress forced them to back off and allow it to get built (see 4th Circuit Sees the Light, Dismisses Remaining Two MVP Lawsuits). These three are now considering a request from their donors (Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, et. al.) to block the construction of an extension of MVP from Virginia into North Carolina, called Southgate. The early signals are that the clowns will do just that.

Surprise! 4th Circus Clown Judges Allow MVP Southgate Construction -- Marcellus Drilling News - Just yesterday, MDN told you that three left-wing judges from the 4th Circuit (“Circus”) who hate the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) were back at it, badmouthing an extension of MVP into North Carolina, called Southgate (see 4th Circus Clown Judges Badmouth MVP Southgate in Oral Arguments). Their comments to attorneys for MVP Southgate during oral arguments exposed their bias. Big Green groups sued to overturn permits issued by North Carolina and Virginia for the project. Southgate is ready to begin construction, but a temporary “stay” was issued on March 30 while this lawsuit plays out. In a surprise decision, the clown judges lifted the stay last night, allowing construction to start.

Big Green Mobilizes Against SC Lowcountry Gas-Fired Plant & Pipe - Marcellus Drilling News - - In February 2024, members of the South Carolina Public Service Commission approved a proposed project to build a 1,020-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in the state’s Lowcountry, in Colleton County (see SC PSC Approves Gas-Fired Power Plant Proposed for Edisto River). The Canadys project is a 50/50 partnership between Dominion Energy (formerly South Carolina Electric & Gas) and Santee Cooper (South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility). As they have from the beginning, the two companies continue to defend the project against attacks by anti-fossil fuel groups. Big Green, in the form of the Sierra Club and Savannah Riverkeeper, has joined the fight to try to block this necessary project.

Golden Pass LNG Train 2 Could Be Mechanically Complete by Year-End -- ExxonMobil expects the next two trains at Golden Pass LNG to reach key construction milestones over the next year, positioning the Texas export project to add substantial US supply as global natural gas markets tighten. At a Glance:

• Train 3 milestone expected in 2027
• Damaged Qatar trains face years
• Initial cargo heads toward Belgium

US LNG Exports Hit Record April High Despite Seasonal Dip -- A look at the global natural gas and LNG markets by the numbers. North America LNG Export Flow Tracker showing daily U.S. LNG export volumes from April 20-29, 2026, with shipments declining from about 19.16 Bcf/d to 18.16 Bcf/d, alongside facility-level data for major terminals including Sabine Pass, Corpus Christi, Freeport, Cameron, and Calcasieu Pass, highlighting capacity utilization rates and total deliveries to U.S. LNG export facilities.

• 10.15 Mt: US LNG exporters are on track to ship record April volumes. By the end of the month, US export volumes are poised to reach 10.15 million tons (Mt), according to Kpler data. It would still be a 1.28 Mt month/month decline, matching historical patterns of a slight slump after March as key LNG markets shift into shoulder season. However, exports are up 1.33 Mt year/year, driven by gains in exports to Asia and Latin America.
• 18.8 Bcf/d: US feed gas nominations to LNG terminals have slumped since the beginning of the week after running well above 19 Bcf/d for most of the month. Nominations have dipped from around 19.4 Bcf/d at the end of last week to 18.8 Bcf/d as of Wednesday, according to Wood Mackenzie data. Flows could tick back up to an average of 19.4 Bcf/d over the next seven days as Corpus Christi LNG sees additional ramp up at the sixth train of the Stage 3 expansion and Golden Pass continues to run steady with Train 1.
• 16%: Imports of Russian LNG in the European Union (EU) rose in April in the face of a key policy milestone for phasing out supply from the country by 2027. On April 25, the EU’s bloc-wide energy policy required firms to suspend all short-term LNG purchases from Russia. By the end of the month, the EU is set to receive 1.54 Mt in Russian LNG, according to Kpler data. In the first four months of the year, the EU has received 6.75 Mt from Russia, a 16% increase over 2025 volumes during the same period.
• 12 Mt/y: Lantern LNG, a proposed offshore export project proposed for Matagorda Bay in Texas, has tapped Honeywell to provide technology and automation for the three-train project. Lantern is still in the pre-permitting phase and will require final oversight from the US Maritime Administration and an export authorization from the US Department of Energy. A final investment decision on Train 1 is targeted for 2029, placing the start of commercial operations sometime in 2031.

Massive Pipeline Buildout Continues Ahead of Next LNG Export Wave -More than 20 Bcf/d of natural gas takeaway capacity could enter service next year, most of which is being built to serve the next wave of LNG exports, according to Arbo. Chart titled “New U.S. Pipeline Projects Entering Service” showing annual counts and capacity of interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline projects from 2023 to 2027. Stacked bars indicate project counts, with interstate projects dominating each year, peaking around 15 in 2025, while intrastate projects range from about 3 to 7 annually. Overlayed circles represent pipeline capacity in Bcf/d, with interstate capacity rising significantly to a high near 15 Bcf/d by 2027, while intrastate capacity trends between roughly 4 and 7 Bcf/d.  At a Glance:
15 Bcf/d of interstate capacity being built
Four LNG terminals driving 2027 growth
Slight delays likely

US natural gas futures dip on ample storage and weaker demand - (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures slid about 2% on Wednesday on ample amounts of fuel in storage and forecasts for less demand next week than previously expected. On its first day as the front-month, gas futures for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 4.4 cents, or 1.6%, to settle at $2.647 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). In the cash market, average prices at the Waha Hub in West Texas have remained in negative territory for a record 58 days in a row as pipeline constraints continued to trap gas in the Permian region, the nation's biggest oil-producing shale basin. Daily Waha prices first averaged below zero in 2019. They did so 17 times in 2019, six times in 2020, once in 2023, 49 times in 2024, 39 times in 2025, and a record 67 times so far this year. Waha prices have averaged a negative $2.15 per mmBtu so far in 2026, compared with a positive $1.15 in 2025 and a positive $2.88 over the past five years (2021-2025). Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states has fallen to 110.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in April, down from 110.4 bcfd in March. That figure compares with a monthly record high of 110.7 bcfd in December 2025. On a daily basis, output was down even more, falling by around 1.2 bcfd over the past four days to a preliminary two-week low of 108.4 bcfd on Wednesday as low spot prices prompted energy firms like EQT, the second-largest U.S. gas producer, to temporarily reduce production. Analysts said mostly mild weather this spring has allowed energy firms to inject more gas into storage than usual, boosting inventories to a forecast 8% above normal levels during the week ended April 24, up from 7% above normal during the week ended April 17. Looking ahead, meteorologists forecast the weather will remain slightly cooler than normal through May 14. Cool weather in May, however, does not usually generate a lot of heating demand but does knock out early spring air conditioning use. LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would slide from 102.1 bcfd this week to 99.6 bcfd next week. The forecast for next week was similar to LSEG's outlook on Tuesday. Average gas flows to the nine big U.S. LNG export plants have risen to 18.8 bcfd so far in April, up from 18.6 bcfd in March. That figure compares with a monthly record high of 18.7 bcfd in February.

US natural gas futures hit three-week high as output drops and LNG exports stay strong  (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures climbed about 5% to a three-week high on Thursday on forecasts for more demand this week than previously expected, near-record liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and a drop in output over the last month. Front-month gas futures for June delivery NGc1 on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 12.0 cents, or 4.5%, to settle at $2.767 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their highest close since April 7. Despite the daily increase, the front-month was down about 4% in April after posting a gain of about 1% in March. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said energy firms added 79 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended April 24. That was in line with the 80-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 105 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2021-2025) average increase of 63 bcf for the period. Analysts noted the build was bigger than usual for this time of year because mild weather last week kept heating demand low. In the cash market, average prices at the Waha Hub in West Texas have remained in negative territory for a record 59 days in a row as pipeline constraints trap gas in the Permian region, the nation's biggest oil-producing shale basin. Waha prices have averaged a negative $2.16 per mmBtu so far in 2026, compared with a positive $1.15 in 2025 and a positive $2.88 over the past five years (2021-2025). Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states fell to 110.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in April, down from 110.4 bcfd in March. That compares with a monthly record high of 110.7 bcfd in December 2025. On a daily basis, output was down even more, falling by around 2.0 bcfd over the last five days to a preliminary 12-week low of 107.6 bcfd on Thursday, as low spot prices prompted energy firms to temporarily reduce production. Looking ahead, meteorologists forecast the weather will remain slightly cooler than normal through May 15. Cool weather in May does not usually generate much heating demand but reduces early spring air conditioning use. LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would slide from 102.9 bcfd this week to 99.9 bcfd next week. The forecast for this week was higher than LSEG's outlook on Wednesday.

US Has More Natural Gas Than It Can Use as War Chokes Global Supply - As the Iran war strangles natural gas supplies, countries across Asia and Africa are rationing fuel and enduring blackouts. In Europe, the conflict is raising the risk of an energy crunch this winter. Thousands of miles away, in the heart of US shale country, gas is so plentiful that producers have to pay buyers to take it off their hands. Drillers in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico have helped make the US the world’s largest oil producer. In the process, they’ve also glutted the region with natural gas, which is extracted there as a byproduct of crude. There’s so much gas, in fact, that it exceeds available pipeline capacity to get the fuel to customers or export terminals on the coast. The result: producers literally can’t give it away. Permian gas prices aren’t merely cheap — they’re negative. In other words, sellers are paying customers. While it’s not the first time that gas contracts in the region have gone subzero, prices are now lower than ever. The phenomenon feeds into the broader US market. Benchmark futures, already low by international standards, have slipped 10% since the Middle East conflict began. That’s in stark contrast to Europe, where futures have surged about 40%, and Asia, where they’ve jumped more than 50% as nations struggle to secure enough gas to run power plants and heat homes. west texas gas goes negative while prices surge in europe Note: US gas prices refer to front-month US gas futures; West Texas gas prices refer to day-ahead prices at the Waha trading hub; European gas prices refer to front-month Dutch TTF gas futures Source: Data compiled by Bloomberg With new pipelines slated to start up this year, negative Permian prices won’t last forever. But they reveal a gas bounty so massive that it’s not only insulating the US from war-driven energy shocks, but actually creating an economic tailwind. Cheap supplies of gas — a key manufacturing input and a major player in meeting power demand from artificial intelligence — stand to give the US an edge over countries facing fuel shortages. “US gas prices have not just remained lower than global benchmarks, but have remained insulated from the volatility” of major global gas and import markets in Europe and Asia, said Chris Louney, director of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. “This comparative energy security is beneficial for domestic industry that relies on natural gas as a feedstock or form of industrial grade heat, and increasingly power-hungry industries such as AI and data centers.” Americans are grappling with soaring power bills already, but without the glut of natural gas, those costs would be even higher. And while US consumers have been hit with broader inflation — including higher gasoline prices at the pump — as the Iran war upends the oil market, cheap natural gas is muting the impact, with utility gas prices falling 0.9% in March’s Consumer Price Index report. Soaring production from shale basins including the Permian has propelled US oil and natural gas output to all-time highs. That supply has been a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s push for American energy dominance, helping to create a buffer between the US and war-driven market convulsions. In the Permian, gas prices have dipped below zero intermittently since 2019 as pipeline construction failed to keep pace with soaring production. But this year, negative pricing has been more pronounced than ever. Permian gas hit an all-time low of -$9.60 per million British thermal units on April 24 while US benchmark futures have recently traded below $3. Futures in Europe and Asia, meanwhile, are trading at about six times that level. Those higher prices are feeding directly into global inflation, pushing up the cost of electricity, heating and manufacturing. Goldman Sach Group Inc. estimates that a 10% increase in global liquefied natural gas prices adds about 8 basis points to global inflation and is a drag on economic growth. Gas scarcity has even forced some fertilizer makers to rein back production, said Pablo Galante Escobar, head of liquefied natural gas at commodity trader Vitol. That risks “transferring the energy crisis into a food crisis,” he said at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Switzerland earlier this month. Slovakia’s largest fertilizer producer, Duslo AS, said last month that it’s curbing ammonia output after gas prices surged. In India, fertilizer manufacturers including Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. are beginning to cut production after Qatari supplies of liquefied natural gas, a key feedstock, were suspended. But for the US, the picture looks much different. The divergence between gas prices in America and the rest of the world “could mean the US economy will prove more resilient than expected this year,” Anna Wong, chief US economist at Bloomberg Economics, wrote in a research note. “Natural gas is more important to the manufacturing sector — particularly chemicals, fertilizers, electricity — than crude oil is.” US petrochemical producers like Dow Inc. are among the companies benefiting from low-cost industrial gas, an important feedstock for chemicals manufacturing. “Supply and feedstock into Asia and Europe are constrained, which is triggering price increases globally,” Dow Chief Operating Officer Karen Carter said on an April 23 earnings call. “It is also leading to increased production in the Americas and is providing Dow the opportunity to capture new business in Europe.” Inexpensive gas is also putting downward pressure on the cost of electricity, and lower power prices stand to aid the buildout of data centers, Wong wrote. That could help assuage concern about soaring electricity costs tied to the AI boom — an issue that’s become a key concern for voters heading into the US midterm elections. The fuel is poised to be an asset for the US in its race against China for AI dominance, with data-center developers including Meta Platforms Inc. favoring gas over cleaner alternatives because of its reliability as a power source. “The current market is highlighting a clear divergence — global natural gas prices are rising sharply, while US prices are even lower than when the Iran War began,” Jeremy Knop, chief financial officer of EQT Corp., the second-largest US gas producer by volume, said in an emailed statement. “That’s a direct result of the scale and efficiency of domestic supply.” For some US gas producers, however, low prices have been a drag on profits. Diamondback Energy Inc., a top Permian explorer, is “consciously moving away from Waha,” as the Permian pricing hub is known, and increasing its exposure to higher-priced markets near planned data centers, gas export facilities and population centers, executives said on an earnings call late last year. “Investors want us to realize more than zero on our gas,” Diamondback CEO Kaes Van’t Hof told attendees April 15 at an energy conference in Fort Worth, Texas. “We’re an oil company. Most of our revenue comes from the oil side, but in a good year, gas is 5% of our revenue, and it’s probably headed towards 10% or so.” Even drillers outside the Permian are feeling the effects of low gas prices. Though EQT has touted the benefits of cheap US gas, the company announced plans earlier this month to cut quarterly production by 2% as gas prices languish, with domestic stockpiles well above the five-year average. “In this environment, we are taking a disciplined approach to production, including modest production curtailments during the low-demand spring season to store supply for maximum deliverability during peak summer power demand,” Knop said. As prices have fallen deeper into loss-making territory, flaring events — when operators burn off natural gas at the wellhead, releasing carbon dioxide into the environment — have spiked to seasonal multi-year highs, according to research firm Energy Aspects. While New Mexico has tight restrictions on flaring, Texas allows widespread exceptions to a state rule intended to limit the practice. Flaring in the Permian rose 13% in the first quarter, the biggest jump for that time of year in data going back to 2019, according to research firm Rystad Energy. “There’s a market failure here,” said Jon Goldstein, associate vice president for energy transition at the Environmental Defense Fund. “It makes no sense to be burning an energy resource that is needed around the world, and polluting the air, when we could be using that, putting it to productive use.”

Can US LNG Fill Natural Gas Supply Void Left by Iran War Fallout? -- Click here to listen to the latest episode of Hub & Flow as NGI’s managing editor of LNG Jamison Cocklin joins the podcast to break down the new normal for natural gas in the wake of the Iran war. The global energy market continues to grapple with its second major shock of the decade as the Iran war, which began in late February, stretches into an indefinite stalemate. With critical LNG production offline in Qatar and the Strait of Hormuz still closed, the world faces a natural gas supply void that has sent global benchmarks soaring while leaving the market skeptical of a quick resolution.  From the technical hurdles of repairing damaged liquefaction trains in the Middle East to potential knock-on effects for US LNG, Cocklin assesses whether North American exports can truly fill the global gap. This episode explores the long-term shifts in LNG's role and how this latest wave of volatility could push North American projects toward final investment decisions.

Can U.S. Exporters Plug the Qatar LNG Supply Gap? Yes We Can!  - Marcellus Drilling News - You’ve seen the headlines and maybe read the news that “Qatar supplies 20 percent of the world’s LNG.” Iran bombed Qatar’s LNG export facility in early March and took it offline. The world press had a stroke, predicting a natural gas Armageddon without 20% of LNG coming from Qatar. But what’s this? U.S. LNG exporters “have so far offset the drop in shipments from Qatar following Iranian attacks on its facilities” and the closure of Hormuz. We’ve been able to make up for the lost exports from Qatar.

Shrunken offshore energy regulator faces an outsize challenge - A new agency for offshore energy development that’s seen its workforce shrink in recent years — and is targeted for funding cuts next year by the Trump administration — will be taking on a quickly growing portfolio of responsibilities. The Marine Minerals Administration unveiled this month by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum will oversee not only a larger oil and gas leasing program but also will help set up and police the nation’s first-ever offshore mining industry. The agency merges two existing bureaus within the Interior Department that managed energy development and safety in federal waters. While the offshore regulators together once employed 1,500 full-time staffers under the Biden administration, that’s since fallen to about 1,000 employees this year, according to the Office of Personnel Management data. The Trump administration has proposed further reducing the staff down to 874 people. For Interior and offshore energy industries, the creation of the consolidated agency — reversing a reform of the Obama administration, which had separated the agencies after the deadly Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 — fulfills an idea first floated during President Donald Trump’s first term. Environmental advocates say the smaller, combined agency envisioned by the current administration won’t have the capacity to properly oversee the expansion of oil and gas leasing across the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coastline required by the GOP’s 2025 budget law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. At the same time, MMA will take on the role of permitting and monitoring a brand new offshore mining sector that Trump wants to see rapidly rolled out. “This is an agency that’s now been combined and its budget and staff decreased while being charged with not only the safety and responsibility for oversight for the existing offshore drilling infrastructure in the U.S., but now the most massive expansion in U.S. history,” said Joseph Gordon, a campaign director for Oceana, an environmental group. An Interior spokesperson said in a statement that the new structure will “better align with the Department of the Interior’s mission, streamline governance of offshore energy and mineral resources, and deliver greater value to the American public.” “Over the last decade, federal offshore energy oversight has been strengthened with stricter safety regulations, more rigorous inspections, enhanced well-control standards, improved incident investigations processes, and stronger compliance monitoring,” the spokesperson said. “Together, these reforms underscore the Department’s commitment to effective and responsible stewardship that safeguards offshore workers, protects coastal communities, and preserves the marine environment.” But low staffing at the existing Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has caused some internal alarm. The top offshore safety regulator in Alaska wrote in a public comment last fall that cuts during the Trump administration had left his BSEE office at “below sustainable levels” to manage current levels of leasing, even as the budget law ramped up the number of sales off Alaskan coastlines. While regulators have held five offshore Alaskan oil and gas lease sales over the last 20 years, the law requires five more lease sales off the coast of Alaska through 2032, in addition to the one held in Cook Inlet earlier this year. After his comment made news, the Trump administration put the official on leave. The administration is seeking to cut back spending more as it combines the agencies. Interior’s fiscal 2027 spending proposal includes a 42 percent decrease in funding compared to this year, along with a 20 percent cut in staff. Those reductions would come after the administration has already shed hundreds of offshore employees through buyouts and early retirement offers. The plan would impose a 37 percent cut to oil spill research and eliminate all renewable energy activity, in line with the administration’s efforts to stymie offshore wind development, which is also under BOEM’s purview. The offshore shakeup is seen as a sensible reform within the nation’s nascent offshore mining sector, which is vying for applications to mine in domestic waters in the outer continental shelf. Federal officials have already announced — and expanded — requests for information on possible mineral leases off the shores of Virginia, Alaska, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Texas oil and gas industry reporting job losses The Texas oil and natural gas industry reported job losses in January prior to a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report pointing to uncertainty in the industry because of geopolitical conflicts. Despite President Donald Trump pledging during his campaign that the U.S. would increase domestic production and “drill baby drill,” that has not materialized in Texas. In March, there were 49 fewer rig counts in the U.S., according to Baker Hughes. That number has fluctuated and remained above negative 40.Lower rig counts mean less extraction jobs and less investment in drilling new wells. Many exploration and production (E&P) firms have said they are going to “wait and see” on new drilling due to increased costs and instability in the market the conflict has created, according to the Dallas Fed, The Center Square reported. That is reflected in job losses reported in January. Overall, Texas added jobs but also reported losses and high unemployment rates in January, The Center Square reported.  Based on an analysis of the latest employment data by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO), Texas upstream sector jobs decreased over the month in January by 600 for a total of 64,300. Support activities jobs remained flat totaling 128,600. “The escalation of tensions with Iran into broader conflict in early 2026 has introduced significant global energy market vulnerabilities,” TIPRO said. “Early January geopolitical risks contributed to modest price premiums, but subsequent military actions and disruptions, particularly the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which handles roughly one-fifth of global oil and LNG flows, triggered the largest supply shock in modern history. “As a result, Brent and WTI prices surged dramatically, exceeding $100 to $120 per barrel by March 2026. For Texas operators, the higher price environment alleviates margin compression, improves cash flows, and could catalyze renewed investment in drilling, completions, and midstream infrastructure. This in turn supports workforce stability and potential job growth in upstream and related sectors, reinforcing Texas's role as a reliable domestic supplier capable of quickly responding to global signals. However, the volatility also highlights risks of prolonged uncertainty, reinforcing the need for disciplined capital allocation.” By mid-March, oil futures hit $120 a barrel on the West Texas Index. On Thursday, oil futures surpassed $112 a barrel, The Center Square reported. “Even if the conflict were to end tomorrow and the Strait of Hormuz were to reopen, oil prices would not return to pre-conflict levels of $67 per barrel,” Andrew Lipow, with Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates, said. “The damage to energy infrastructure is done and will take months, if not years, to repair the more extensively damaged facilities. The damage to Ras Laffan in Qatar will reduce LNG supplies while damage to area refineries will reduce gasoline and diesel availability.” Impacts on the Texas industry include higher oil prices that provide short-term benefit for producers and royalty owners and increased costs at major refineries, TIPRO president Ed Longanecker told The Center Square. This leads to higher costs for consumers, “which is simply a factor of market dynamics that we have no control over,” he said. Despite this, industry workforce data “continues to indicate strong job postings for the Texas oil and natural gas industry in January following a decline in Q4 2025,” TIPRO notes. According to its analysis, there were 8,644 unique industry job postings in Texas in January, a 10% increase from December, and 3,846 new job postings added during the month. Among the 19 specific industry sectors TIPRO uses to define the Texas oil and natural gas industry, Support Activities for Oil and Gas Operations has the most unique job listings, followed by gasoline stations with convenience stores, petroleum refineries and pipeline transportation of natural gas. Houston, Midland, Dallas and Odessa reported the greatest number of total unique oil and natural gas job postings. The companies with the greatest number of unique job postings in January were Love’s, Energy Transfer, ExxonMobil and Baker Hughes, according to the analysis. In January, Texas’ not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was higher at 4.5% but less than the national rate of 4.7%. Unemployment rates in the Permian Basin were lower than the state and national average. Midland and San Angelo MSA’s reported not seasonally adjusted unemployment rates of 3.4% and 3.5%, respectively.

Why 2 oil states are slow to embrace wastewater recycling - The two biggest oil-producing states are at a crossroads as they try to solve one of the industry’s thorniest problems — getting rid of billions of gallons of salty, oily wastewater that’s produced alongside crude. Academic researchers in Texas and New Mexico say technology developed in recent years allows companies to clean up the waste, known as produced water, so it can be released into surface water like rivers or diverted for uses such as crop irrigation. But state regulators are still cautious about the idea. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which regulates water in the state, said it wants to address “knowledge gaps” before it issues disposal permits for oil field waste, and it will take more than a year for companies to reach full capacity once they receive a permit. New Mexico’s Water Quality Control Commission is considering an application from the oil industry and a group of oil states, though the commission has already turned down the idea twice. A lack of new state regulations is slowing down development at a time when Texas and New Mexico are fighting a drought and looking for long-term sources of water, said Zach Stoll, assistant director of the New Mexico Produced Water Research Consortium at New Mexico State University. “Without that, it’s tough to kind of scale up and go up and go out and invest however many hundreds of millions of dollars to build a facility,” he said. The Texas environmental commission is reviewing three active permit applications to dispose of treated produced water in the Pecos River and other surface water. The commission also is preparing to release regulations for surface use of treated water. In New Mexico, the Water Quality Control Commission could decide in May whether to advance rules that would allow produced water to be reused in 13 of the state’s 33 counties. “Building a science-based regulatory framework for produced water reuse is critical to safeguarding our state’s freshwater reserves for generations of New Mexicans,” Drew Goretzka, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department, said in an email. “NMED is committed to ensuring the petition reflects those priorities and can advance successfully before the Water Quality Control Commission.” The Texas commission known as TCEQ provided slides from Chair Brooke Paup’s recent presentation on produced water showing the timeline for the proposed regulations. But the agency declined an interview request and didn’t answer detailed questions from POLITICO’s E&E News. Environmentalists are urging oil states to move slowly, arguing that oil field wastewater is both a huge problem and a complicated one. Produced water totals have surged in recent years amid a drilling boom tied to the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that uses a mix of water, sand, chemicals and high pressure to get more oil and gas out of places such as the Permian Basin.The Permian, which lies under parts of Texas and New Mexico, produces more than 6 million barrels of oil a day, according to federal data. But it produces even more wastewater — three to five times as much, according to TCEQ, and some experts say the figure is much higher.That’s billions of gallons of waste a day. The fluid can hold more salt than ocean water, and it’s often contaminated with drilling chemicals, oil and other hydrocarbons, heavy metals and sometimes radioactive material.The salinity and the levels of pollutants often vary from place to place and can change over the lifetime of a well, making them harder to treat. And researchers don’t always know the safe levels for some of the chemicals found in the wastewater.“It’s a highly, highly variable waste stream, and so it’s basically impossible to have a one-size-fits-all treatment,”

US Oil Stocks Plummet, Country Becomes Net Crude Exporter on Weekly Basis for First Time, EIA Says - (Reuters) – The United States became a net exporter of crude for the first time since World War Two as ‌the country shipped a record volume of oil to refiners scrambling for supplies after the Iran war, leading to large drops in domestic inventories, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Europe and Asia have increasingly become dependent on crude from the Americas after the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran triggered the ​largest-ever disruption to the global energy market and halted shipping via the Strait of Hormuz, which handles a fifth of ​the world’s oil and gas supplies. Total U.S. crude exports climbed to a record 6.44 million barrels ⁠per day, marking a 1.64 million bpd rise from the week prior. Oil futures extended gains following the report. Global Brent crude futures ​were up $8.11 at $119.37 a barrel at 12:35 p.m. ET (1635 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up $7.06 a barrel at $106.91. Net imports ​of crude oil (USOICI=ECI), or the difference between imports and exports, fell by 1.97 million bpd to minus 688,000 bpd, the first time it turned negative on a weekly basis, meaning outflows surpassed imports. On an annual basis, the U.S. was last a net exporter of crude in 1943, while on a ​monthly basis, the country was last a net exporter in 1944. The large exports pushed U.S. crude inventories down by 6.2 million barrels ​to 459.5 million barrels in the week ended April 24, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 231,000-barrel draw. ‌Crude stocks ⁠at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub (USOICC=ECI) dropped by 796,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said. “Refineries didn’t change. Domestic production was unchanged. It was all about the export numbers. Those barrels are going overseas rather than into storage,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. MicroWatt Controls: Instrumentation & Safety System Experts Total exports of crude oil and petroleum products also touched a record 14.18 million bpd, up 1.298 million bpd ​from the week prior. U.S. gasoline ​stocks fell by 6.1 million ⁠barrels in the week to 222.3 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.1 million-barrel draw. That marked the 11th straight week of draws, raising some ​concerns about fuel stocks as U.S. driving season looms. U.S. gasoline futures rose over 5% to $3.74, touching ​their highest price ⁠since 2022. Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 4.5 million barrels in the week to 103.6 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.2 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed. “With refinery runs still in check, solid draws were seen to both gasoline and distillate inventories,” ⁠said Matt ​Smith, an analyst with ship tracking firm Kpler. Refinery crude runs (USOICR=ECI) rose by 84,000 ​barrels per day in the week, the EIA said, while utilization rates (USOIRU=ECI) increased by 0.5 percentage point in the week to 89.6%. Product supplied, a proxy for demand, ​rose by 1.4 million bpd to 21.13 million bpd.

Gasoline Stocks Plummet, Prices Climb with Peak Demand Season Around the Corner - (Reuters) – U.S. drivers can expect another spike in gasoline prices in the coming days, just as the summer driving season gets underway, as the conflict in Iran drives oil prices higher and pushes countries around the world to call on American energy supplies. Gasoline demand typically peaks in the summer as many Americans embark on road trips and other travel. So far, relatively well-supplied stockpiles of gasoline have shielded U.S. consumers from the worst of the supply disruptions resulting from the Iran war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade chokepoint, even as prices have climbed to their highest level in four years. But that could be changing. Government data released on Wednesday showed a 6.08 million-barrel decline in gasoline stockpiles last week, part of a massive drawdown in U.S. energy inventories as countries turn to America to cover supply gaps. Exports of crude oil hit a record last week, helping to further drive up prices which are already over $100 a barrel. Gasoline stockpiles are now 5.98 million barrels, or nearly 3%, below the previous five-year average, according to EIA data. Refinery production, meanwhile, held relatively steady week-over-week at just under 90% utilization. “We’re drifting in the wrong direction on gasoline stocks heading into summer driving season. You’d be building stocks in anticipation of the start of the driving season and we can’t do that. This is getting ugly fast,” The national average price for retail gasoline hit $4.229 a gallon on Wednesday, the highest since July 2022, according to data from AAA. Refinery outages in the Midwest and on the U.S. Gulf Coast are compounding the supply crunch. BP’s 440,000 bpd Whiting refinery was hit by a power outage on Sunday, while Shell’s 250,000 bpd Norco refinery in Louisiana suffered a fire on Tuesday. In parts of the Midwest, prices are anticipated to climb above $5 a gallon as a result of the Whiting outage, according to Patrick De Haan, an analyst for GasBuddy. Elsewhere, costs at the pump are also expected to rise further, particularly as oil prices remain above $100 a barrel. On Wednesday, Brent crude futures were trading at $118.34 a barrel, up $7.08 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures were at $106.35 a barrel, up $6.42. Gasoline futures were trading up 5% on Wednesday at $3.7423 a gallon, their highest level since 2022.

U.S. gas prices at 4-year high as oil exports hit new record  -– United States gasoline prices pushed higher for the sixth consecutive day Wednesday, reaching $4.23 a gallon, as federal data released midmorning showed domestic inventories of crude oil and motor fuels fell for the 12th week in a row while the nation’s exports hit a new record high. U.S. Energy Department data released at 10:30 A.M. ET showed the nation’s crude oil exports hit a record high 6.44 million barrels per day in the seven-day period ending on April 24, about 810,000 barrels a day more than the previous record high of 5.63 million barrels a day set in the third week of February in 2023. While exports surged, domestic stocks of crude oil, gasoline, and diesel fell sharply. Before the war began in the Middle East, which closed the Strait of Hormuz to most ship traffic, global oil and motor fuels markets were awash in supply. While total inventories of most key U.S. petroleum products hover just below seasonal norms, diesel supplies remain the critical outlier, stuck at levels well below the five-year average for this time of year. At 103.6 million barrels, U.S. diesel supplies are about 11% below the seasonal average for the end of April. Because diesel powers most of the nation's freight trucks, farm equipment, and construction machinery, the price increases threaten to drive up the cost of everything from spring planting to grocery deliveries. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in Croatia Tuesday promoting the country’s energy products at a summit of government officials in Dubrovnik, said in an interview with Bloomberg television that the world’s gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel buyers are enduring “a period of discomfort to solve a 47-year crisis” in Iran. Wright said the administration wants U.S. refineries to ramp up production. “If we didn't export our diesel and jet fuel, we'd have to turn down our refineries. Who would want to turn down their refining capacity in today's world?” Wright said in the interview. “At higher utilization rates, throughput and production are higher, allowing the refineries to run efficiently and produce more. While exports of U.S. crude oil and gasoline surged during the week, Energy Department data showed the nation’s refineries operated at below peak efficiency, due in part to seasonal factors. The refinery utilization rate—a measure of how much crude oil these plants are running as a percentage of their maximum capacity—dropped to 89.1%, down from 89.6% the previous week and below the 90.0% level analysts consider the baseline for optimal operations. The administration wants to increase the utilization rate at America’s refineries to benefit consumers, the energy secretary said. “That puts a downward pressure on prices, not just in the United States but for everyone abroad,” said Wright. “That's what America's about, bringing more energy to the world and pushing prices down.” Wright said the administration has taken other measures to boost motor fuel supplies, including the approval of increased blending of ethanol in gasoline. The energy secretary noted that EPA recently issued an emergency waiver to allow year-round, nationwide sales of E15, a blend of 85% gasoline with up to 15% ethanol, which is typically restricted to summer months. Benchmark oil futures prices around the world settled at near four-year highs Wednesday as the conflict in the Middle East entered the 63rd day, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for delivery in June rose $6.95 or 6.96% on Wednesday to settle at $106.88 per barrel, a four-year high. Brent Crude oil futures, the global benchmark, jumped 6.08% on Wednesday to finish the day at $118.03 a barrel, marking the second highest settlement price in almost four years. Gasoline prices spiked by more than a dime in several major markets between Tuesday and Wednesday. According to AAA, Ohio’s average for regular grade jumped 13.4 cents to reach $4.22. This price spike comes as two regional refineries cut production to perform seasonal maintenance and the Whiting facility near Chicago – the largest in the Midwest – worked to recover from a Sunday power disruption. Gasoline prices rose by more than a dime in key markets from April 28 to April 29. According to AAA Data, the price of regular grade gasoline in Ohio jumped 13.4 cents, rising to $4.22 on Wednesday, as two regional refineries curtailed production while another, the Whiting facility near Chicago – the largest in the Midwest – recovered from an outage caused by a disruption on Sunday to its electrical power.

Energía Costa Azul LNG Achieves Key Commissioning Milestone  -The first volumes of feed gas have entered facilities at Sempra Infrastructure’s Energía Costa Azul (ECA) LNG export project in Baja California, a critical mark ahead of targeted first production later this year. At a Glance:

• Feed gas flows near 26 MMcf/d
• Liquefaction startup still months away
• Border prices average 71.5 cents

Trump Signs Order Authorizing Bridger's Canada-Wyoming Crude Pipeline - U.S. President ‌Donald ​Trump on Thursday ​signed an order ​authorizing a proposed project to transport Canadian oil across the border as part of an effort to revive parts of the cancelled Keystone XL pipeline. South Bow, the Canadian pipeline company behind the cancelled Keystone XL pipeline, is partnering with U.S. company Bridger Pipeline on the proposed project. South Bow is considering reviving some of the already built line in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Bridger Pipeline is pursuing construction of a potential 1,038-kilometre pipeline beginning near the U.S.-Canada border in Phillips County, Mont., and transiting to Guernsey, Wyo. As Trump signed the order, White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf told the president, “This is a trans-border pipeline similar to the old Keystone XL pipeline.” Trump responded: “A lot of jobs, too. A lot of jobs. OK, very good.” The pipeline could increase Canada’s crude ​exports to the U.S. by more than 12 per cent if it goes ahead. The new proposal involves ⁠a different route ⁠through the U.S. than the ‌previous Keystone XL project, which was cancelled by former U.S. president Joe Biden in 2021 after years of Indigenous and environmental opposition. However, it would use ⁠some of the previously built pipe on the Canadian side, where the Keystone XL line is already fully permitted. In 2021, about 150 kilometres of pipe were installed in Alberta. “South Bow continues to evaluate the Prairie Connector project, a potential expansion of its Canadian asset base that would leverage existing infrastructure and permitted corridors to improve market access for Canadian crude oil,” South Bow spokesperson Solomiya Martoiu said in an emailed statement. “The Prairie Connector project remains in early stages and is subject to ongoing commercial, stakeholder and rightsholder discussions, regulatory processes and evaluation,” Martoiu said. South Bow was ‌created in 2024, when former Keystone XL proponent TC Energy spun off its oil pipeline business. “One reason we see it keep coming back is that there are some market realities that make a lot of sense,” “There are continued increases in oil production in Canada. We are seeing right now the biggest threats to waterborne traffic of oil that we’ve ever seen in the world,” he said. North America is uniquely well positioned to deal with the energy crisis caused by the U.S. war in Iran because of the continent’s mix of heavy oil, light oil, refining capacity and natural gas, Coleman said. Still, Coleman warned there could be legal challenges to this proposal, similar to the lawsuits against Keystone XL. The pipeline could transport about 550,000 barrels of Canadian crude per day to the U.S. “Canada has benefited for decades from having fully integrated infrastructure tied to the United States, the largest oil and gas consuming market on the planet,” Lisa Baiton, CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said in an emailed statement. Baiton said the association supports “any new capacity that is commercially viable and can move Canadian energy reliably.” State regulatory permits will still be required for the project to proceed. “We are aware of the issuance of permits to Bridger Pipeline. The Government of Canada remains focused on strengthening Canada’s position as an energy superpower, supporting North American and global energy security, and advancing the diversification of our trade partnerships,” Charlotte Power, a spokesperson for natural resources minister Tim Hodgson, said in an emailed statement. The presidential permit comes at a time when Canada and the U.S. are facing an ongoing trade war and will soon begin negotiations on a new North American trade agreement. Last October, Prime Minister Mark Carney floated the idea of Keystone XL to Trump during a meeting at the White House. During the construction of the Canadian leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, about 1,000 workers were based in the town of Oyen, located 300 kilometres east of Calgary. The 1,897-kilometre Keystone XL pipeline was first announced in 2005 and designed to carry 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Hardisty, Alta., to Nebraska. It would then connect with the original Keystone pipeline, which runs to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. In 2024, TC Energy lost its bid to recoup $15 billion US from the U.S. government after claiming it was treated unfairly and inequitably.

Enbridge gets green light for $2.9-billion pipeline expansion - The Canadian Government has approved Enbridge’s CAD 4-billion (USD 2.9 billion) Sunrise Expansion Program to increase natural gas transport capacity over the Westcoast Pipeline system in British Columbia, Enbridge announced on Friday. The project will add 8.5 mcm (300 mcf) of transportation capacity to the southern portion of the Westcoast Pipeline system, which delivers gas for power generation and industrial customers, as well as to liquefaction facilities for export as LNG. Enbridge’s Westcoast Pipeline carries up to 102 mcm (3.6 bcf) per day over a network covering more than 2,900 kilometres between Fort Nelson in British Columbia and Gordondale in Alberta to the Huntingdon-Sumas border crossing into the US. Construction is scheduled to begin in July 2026, with the project expected to come on stream in late 2028. Planned works include the construction of new pipeline segments along the existing system, the incorporation of new compression facilities and general upgrades. “The multi-billion-dollar Sunrise Expansion Program is a shovel-ready, critical natural gas infrastructure project that supports the advancement of Canada’s energy superpower ambitions,” said Enbridge president and CEO Greg Ebel.

Canada launches $25-billion fund to back oil, gas and LNG infrastructure growth | GUPC The Government of Canada has unveiled a $25-billion sovereign investment vehicle aimed at accelerating large-scale energy and infrastructure projects, signaling increased federal support for oil, gas and LNG development. The newly announced Canada Strong Fund will invest alongside private capital in projects tied to energy production, export infrastructure and resource development, with a focus on improving market access and supply chain resilience. The initiative is expected to support a range of major projects, including LNG facilities, transportation corridors and critical energy infrastructure. Officials said the strategy is designed to unlock Canada’s resource base and expand exports to global markets beyond the U.S. At least 15 major projects have already been identified for potential development, spanning LNG, critical minerals and transportation, with total investment estimated at more than $126 billion. The fund is intended to help advance these projects by addressing financing gaps and accelerating timelines. “Canada’s new government is catalyzing a series of nation-building projects in energy, trade and infrastructure,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement. For upstream operators, the fund could improve access to capital for projects linked to LNG supply, pipeline capacity and export growth. Canada’s Montney and other resource plays are expected to benefit from expanded infrastructure and market connectivity. The fund will operate as an arm’s-length entity, with returns reinvested to support future projects. Additional details on its structure and investment priorities are expected in the coming months.

Shell Adds ‘Missing Piece’ for LNG Canada Expansion With Feed Gas From ARC Deal - Shell’s incentive to reach a positive final investment decision (FID) and advance the second phase of LNG Canada has increased significantly after it secured a deal to acquire ARC Resources and with it a massive resource base in the Montney Shale to feed the expansion.Map showing LNG Canada shipping route to Asia at about 10 days versus U.S. Gulf Coast exports taking up to 24 days, highlighting shorter transit advantage for Canadian LNG to Asian markets. At a Glance:
Assets would supply phase one and two
Deal better captures international spreads
Would increase non-AECO exposure

Shell Bets on Canada as a ‘Heartland’ in C$22B ARC Resources Takeover - Shell has forged a multi-billion-dollar definitive agreement to acquire key Montney Shale natural gas producer ARC Resources as it moves to center Canada as a major LNG hub for its Asian customers.Stacked bar chart titled “Western Canada Natural Gas Production Outlook” showing production rising from about 14 Bcf/d in 2024 to nearly 19 Bcf/d by 2030 and over 22 Bcf/d by 2040, led by growth in BC Montney and Alberta Montney, with overall increases of 32% by 2030 and 19% by 2040. At a Glance:
Acquisition adds 370,000 boe/d production
Weak AECO highlights LNG-driven upside
LNG Canada Phase 2 boosts margins

Shell Bets $16.4 Billion On Canadian Gas In Major LNG Growth Push | GUPC - Shell is doubling down on North American gas in a major bet on long-term LNG demand, agreeing to buy Canada’s ARC Resources in a $16.4-billion deal that will add roughly 370,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to production and strengthen the supermajor’s position in one of the continent’s most strategic gas corridors.The acquisition gives Shell access to roughly 2 billion barrels of reserves while bolstering supply feeding LNG Canada, the export project Shell operates with a 40% stake and increasingly views as a cornerstone of its Asia growth strategy. With ARC’s assets adjoining Shell’s Canadian operations that feed LNG Canada, the deal boosts Shell’s LNG supply position while also replenishing reserves.The move also addresses a growing concern hanging over Shell’s long-term production outlook. Analysts had warned earlier this year that the company faced a potential production gap of 350,000 to 800,000 boed by the middle of the next decade as mature fields decline. ARC’s output, which averaged a record 374,000 boed last year, effectively plugs much of that hole while allowing Shell to lift its compound annual production growth target for the decade to 4% from 1%.Shell said the transaction, structured as roughly 25% cash and 75% shares, values ARC at a 20% premium to its 30-day average share price. Including assumed debt, Shell will take on an enterprise value of $16.4 billion, one of the biggest upstream deals since Chevron Corporation acquired Hess Corporation.Beyond adding volumes, the deal deepens Shell’s tilt toward gas at a time LNG is emerging as one of the sector’s tightest long-term growth markets. Canadian gas has become especially attractive because Pacific Coast exports can reach Asian buyers faster than U.S. Gulf Coast cargoes while avoiding some shipping chokepoints.The acquisition also extends Shell’s reserve life, which had fallen below eight years at the end of 2025, and is expected to boost free cash flow per share from 2027 without changing the company’s $20 billion to $22 billion investment budget through 2028.

Halliburton awarded Greenland Energy Arctic drilling contract -Halliburton has been awarded a contract by Greenland Energy Company to deliver integrated services for a planned 2026 onshore drilling campaign in Greenland’s Jameson Land basin. The scope includes well planning, drilling services and logistics coordination, placing Halliburton at the center of one of the basin’s first modern exploration programs. Located in eastern Greenland, Jameson Land is a frontier area with limited drilling history but identified hydrocarbon potential based on seismic data. The contract forms part of Greenland Energy’s broader Arctic development strategy, following earlier agreements covering rig services and marine logistics. Together, the arrangements are intended to enable drilling in a region defined by harsh conditions, remote access and limited infrastructure. “By working with Halliburton, we can tap into world-class expertise and advanced technologies that will enhance drilling accuracy, safety and efficiency under Arctic conditions,” said Greenland Energy CEO Robert Price. Greenland Energy plans to drill its first two exploration wells in 2026 after more than a year of site preparation and logistics planning. The company holds approximately 2 million acres with multiple identified targets. Halliburton will focus on integrated execution and technical delivery to support efficient drilling under Arctic conditions. The campaign reflects growing interest in frontier basins as operators expand exploration beyond established producing regions.

Argentina Balances LNG Export Ambitions With Ongoing Import Demand - Camuzzi Gas Inversora, one of Argentina’s largest natural gas distribution companies, has inked a memorandum of understanding with energy trader Vitol to advance a proposed LNG project at the Port of La Plata.  Chart showing Argentina natural gas production by basin from 2020 to 2025, led by Neuquen with steady growth, alongside Austral, Noroeste, San Jorge, and Cuyana contributing smaller volumes.  At a Glance:
LNG del Plata targets 2028 startup
Vaca Muerta gas underpins project
Energía Argentina tenders for cargoes

GeoPark drills first wells at Vaca Muerta block - GeoPark initiated drilling of lateral sections at the Loma Jarillosa Este block in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta during Q1 2026, with the first two wells of a five-well pad reaching their respective target depths on 1 April and 15 April.The company is drilling the remaining three of five lateral sections at Pad-1030, which had been partially drilled by the previous operator. GeoPark operates the Loma Jarillosa Este block with a 100% working interest.The company also executed a second artificial lift installation campaign across three wells in the block, reducing total shut-in time by 10 days compared with the previous intervention. Construction of the first stage of an expansion of the Loma Jarillosa Este gathering station has also begun, targeting an increase in capacity from 6,000 to 10,000 bopd. GeoPark plans to frack a five-well pad in Argentina in Q2 2026, ahead of a factory drilling phase expected to begin in Q4 2026.

Southeast Europe Emerges as Next Growth Market for US LNG Supply - The United States has brokered a series of deals to send more LNG to Europe and back key infrastructure projects that could increase natural gas flows throughout the European Union (EU). At a Glance:

• LNG volumes sourced from Venture Global
• Agreements include power gen products
• Infrastructure gaps remain key constraint

Europe Paid $32B More for Energy Due to War against Iran, EU’s Von Der Leyen Says -  --- Europe has had to pay €27 billion ($32 billion) more for oil and gas imports since the start of the US and Israel’s war against Iran, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday. Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, von der Leyen said Europe is experiencing its second serious energy crisis in the last four years, and EU member states have to draw lessons from it, Anadolu Agency reported. “In 2022, (Russian President) Putin cut off our gas supply, and now it’s the Strait of Hormuz,” she told reporters. “Our heavy dependence on imported fossil fuels makes us vulnerable. We must reduce this dependence,” she said. Von der Leyen said European countries should expand renewable energy production and explore nuclear innovation, including small modular reactors, to ensure reliable energy. “Every kilowatt-hour of energy generated here contributes to economic stability, affordable energy, and thus to Europe's independence,” she said. 

Archer secures three-year Equinor wireline extension on Norwegian Continental Shelf - Archer was awarded a three-year contract extension by Equinor for the provision of wireline and intervention services on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, building on an integrated wireline contract originally awarded in 2021.While the original agreement included optional extension periods of three times two years, the current award represents a firm three-year extension, providing continued operational continuity and visibility. The extension has a total value of approximately NOK 3 billion, with around half attributed to Archer and the remainder allocated to its alliance partners.Under the agreement, Archer will continue to deliver integrated wireline and intervention services across key Equinor assets alongside its alliance partners, incorporating cased-hole mechanical wireline services, tractor and powered mechanical services, and electric-line logging services.

International LNG Prices Rise Amid Strait of Hormuz Closure-- Marcellus Drilling News - Following the February 28 closure of the Strait of Hormuz, global and U.S. natural gas prices have sharply diverged. The shutdown halted roughly 20% of global LNG supplies, primarily from Qatar, forcing Asian and European buyers to scramble for replacement cargoes. Consequently, European TTF and Asian JKM benchmark prices surged 35% ($14.80/MMBtu) and 51% ($16.02/MMBtu), respectively. In stark contrast, U.S. Henry Hub prices fell 9%. Because U.S. LNG export terminals are already operating at near-maximum capacity, producers cannot significantly increase exports to capture these high global prices. This leaves ample gas domestically, insulating the U.S. market from international price volatility.

Global Natural Gas Price Rally Loses Steam as Hopes Grow Iran Could Reopen Strait of Hormuz -- Asian and European natural gas prices eased Monday amid reports Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the United States ended a blockade of its ports.European Union natural gas storage chart showing inventories at 349.13 TWh, or 30.8% full, as of April 22, 2026, down from 414.96 TWh a year earlier, with levels trailing the five-year average and historical seasonal trends from 2021-2026.  At a Glance:
Risks continue to grow
LNG buying increasing in Asia
Oil nears $110/bbl

LNG Vessel Finally Transits Strait of Hormuz, Others Moving Toward Waterway (Map of Persian Gulf LNG import and export terminals highlighting facilities in Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain, with the Strait of Hormuz marked as a critical natural gas shipping chokepoint for global LNG trade.)  The first fully loaded LNG tanker has crossed the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, vessel tracking firm Kpler said earlier this week. It remains unclear exactly when it crossed the waterway, which has been effectively closed since hostilities began. The Mubaraz vessel was near Malaysia on Friday. It is chartered by the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) ADNOC and loaded at the company’s 6 million ton/year (Mt/y) Das Island facility on March 2.

ADNOC L&S takes delivery of sixth LNG carrier to expand global supply fleet | GUPC - ADNOC Logistics & Services plc has taken delivery of its sixth new-build liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier, expanding its shipping capacity as global demand for gas transportation remains strong. The 175,000-cubic-meter vessel is part of a broader fleet expansion program launched in 2022, aimed at modernizing ADNOC’s LNG shipping capabilities and supporting long-term supply commitments. Most of the additional capacity is already secured under multi-year contracts with third-party customers and ADNOC group entities. The company said the expanded fleet will support both international LNG trade and its integrated upstream and downstream operations. ADNOC L&S and its AW Shipping joint venture generate a majority of revenue from long-term contracts, providing stable cash flow as capacity grows. The new carrier incorporates updated efficiency technologies designed to reduce emissions compared to older vessels, reflecting broader industry efforts to improve performance across LNG transport. ADNOC L&S continues to build out its fleet, with additional LNG, ethane and ammonia carriers under construction as part of a multibillion-dollar vessel order pipeline. The expansion highlights the increasing role of LNG shipping in maintaining global energy supply, particularly as demand for flexible gas delivery continues to grow.

Bearish Start, Bullish Finish With Asia Heat Set to Tighten LNG Markets - A split in global weather patterns is helping to push international natural gas prices into bearish territory in the short term before searing heat in Asia is expected to increase competition for US LNG cargoes. Chart showing trailing 365-day mean temperatures for Northwest Europe, Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo as of April 28, 2026, comparing daily mean temperatures versus normal levels, with all regions displaying seasonal winter dips and recent rebounds toward spring, highlighting below-normal trends in parts of Asia during late 2025 and early 2026.  At a Glance:
European warmth suppresses near-term demand
Mid-May heat drives strong Asian demand
Strong US LNG exports continue

Asia Leads Global LNG Demand Destruction as Middle East Conflict Knocks Out Supplies  -- Asian LNG imports have hit the lowest point since the pandemic in 2020 as the region manages without supplies from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that have been shut down by conflict in the Middle East. Chart of Asia LNG parity prices showing Japan/Korea JKM futures near $16.555/MMBtu as of April 27, 2026, with Brent crude at $108.23/bbl and implied slope around 15.3%, alongside 12-month trends in LNG, oil parity and coal benchmarks. At a Glance:
Asia’s core imports adjust policies
More coal, nuclear being used
European demand weak for now

Australian LNG Output Threatened by Labor Strike at Ichthys Terminal - Ichthys LNG workers in Australia have voted to strike over pay and conditions, jeopardizing even more LNG output as 20% of global supplies remain offline amid conflict in the Middle East. At a Glance:

• Work could stop May 15
• Strike impacts NatGas, LNG production facilities
• Australia is Japan’s largest LNG supplier

BP profits more than double, beating expectations as Iran war boosts oil prices - British energy major BP on Tuesday reported that first-quarter profits more than doubled from a year ago, following a surge in oil and gas prices driven by the Middle East conflict. The oil giant posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $3.2 billion for the first three months of the year. That comfortably beat analyst expectations of $2.63 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus. The company said the first-quarter results reflect “exceptional” oil trading contributions and stronger midstream performance. BP’s net profit came in at $1.38 billion over the same period last year and $1.54 billion in the final three months of 2025. “Overall, our business continues to run well. This was another quarter of strong operational and financial delivery, and we made further progress towards our 2027 targets,” BP CEO Meg O’Neill said in a statement. BP’s earnings come as oil and gas companies experience a significant share price boost, with fossil fuel prices soaring since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran started on Feb. 28. Ongoing and severe disruption through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz has resulted in what the International Energy Agency has described as the biggest energy security threat in history. Analysts at Citi said the first statements from BP’s new CEO show “a clear emphasis on financial de-leverage and decreasing the company’s cost of debt.” BP’s net debt came in at $25.3 billion at the end of the first quarter, up from $22.18 billion at the end of last year. The company is aiming to bring its net debt down to between $14 billion and $18 billion by the end of next year. Looking ahead, BP said it expects reported upstream production to be lower when compared to the first three months of the year, citing seasonal maintenance and Middle East disruptions. The company reaffirmed its 2026 capital expenditure guidance at $13 billion to $13.5 billion and said it expects divestment and other proceeds to be at $9 billion to $10 billion through the year. “Elevated oil prices tend to lift all boats in the energy sector, but being an integrated player in the market means BP will see enhanced cash flow as oil prices remain elevated, and for as long as talks between the US and Iran remain unproductive, these positive outcomes are likely to be prolonged,” BP’s board suffered a shareholder revolt at its annual general meeting last week following a tense clash with investors over corporate governance and climate transparency.  The company failed to get majority shareholder approval on two highly anticipated motions, which would have permitted online-only AGMs and retired two company-specific climate disclosure obligations. It formed part of a broader investor rebellion at the AGM, one that resulted in weaker-than-typical support for BP Chair Albert Manifold and robust backing for a motion calling on the energy major to justify its capital discipline on oil and gas investments.

TotalEnergies Middle East Oil, Natural Gas Production Offline Indefinitely - TotalEnergies said about 15% of its oil and natural gas production in the Middle East remains offline and didn’t offer a timeline for restarting the output as conflict continues there with no end in sight.  Map of Arabian Peninsula Maritime Chokepoints highlighting key global energy transit routes including the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti, the Suez Canal and SUMED Pipeline in Egypt, and Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude oil pipeline, major pathways for Middle East oil and LNG shipments to Europe and global markets.  At a Glance:
Iraq, Qatar, UAE volumes impacted
Could take up to three months to restart
Elevated commodity prices boost bottom line

Oil spill cleanup continues on Estonia's north coast next week -  Pollution has washed up along Estonia's north coast in Lääne-Viru County and the cleanup operation will continue next week, as it was not possible to remove everything on Saturday. On Friday, it was reported that oil and garbage had washed ashore on Estonia's northern coast, likely from Russian "shadow fleet" vessels at anchor nearby.There is no sign of a large-scale mazut spill, but small sticky lumps can be found along the shoreline all the way from Käsmu to Kunda.On Saturday, volunteers worked in the rain to clear the pollution at Suureliiva in Vainupea, around 100 kilometers east of Tallinn. The popular beach spot is near Lahemaa National Park.Environmental Board inspectors also sent cleaners to other locations."The aim is still to reach Käsmu, where pollution is also known to be present. There is also pollution in Lobi, locals said. We want to reach a few more areas—it may go on until evening. The pollution has also spread to Kunda, which we will not reach today," said Marit Mändmets, lead inspector for the eastern region of the Environmental Board, told evening news show "Aktuaalne kaamera.""We would like to clean everything up. So that animals do not get hurt. And we would like this not to happen again. But for some reason, I doubt that," said Anna Lillepärg, a volunteer with NGO Iga Elu.The Rescue Board handed out equipment, some of which was acquired from the State Forest Management Center. The volunteers could not clean up all the pollution in a single day. Mändmets said the Rescue Board and Environmental Board will continue the work next week. Drone debris, likely from Ukrainian drones following attacks on Russia's Baltic ports, has also been found in the area. "In Altja, there are two drone pieces, which we will report to the Rescue Board," she said.  Following Ukraine's attacks on Russian ports, oil tankers waiting to collect their cargo have been anchored in the Baltic due to delays. At the start of this month, the number of ships off Estonia was close to 40, but the number had dropped to 20 by last week.

Oil spill hits shoreline in Guimaras village — An oil spill was reported along the shoreline near the covered court and barangay hall of Sitio Sambag and Sitio Baluarte in Barangay Hoskyn, Jordan, Guimaras at around 7:05 a.m. on Saturday, April 25. Barangay officials of Hoskyn immediately alerted residents after an oil-like substance was observed floating along the shoreline, raising concerns over potential risks to public health and the environment. In an advisory posted on the barangay’s official Facebook page, authorities warned that the substance “may pose risks to marine life, coastal resources, and public safety.” Residents, particularly fisherfolk living near the affected areas, were urged to avoid the shoreline until proper assessment and cleanup operations are completed. Barangay officials are currently coordinating with concerned agencies for immediate response and continuous monitoring of the situation. “We ask for everyone’s cooperation and vigilance. Please report any related observations to the Barangay Hall immediately,” the advisory added. The incident was later confirmed by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Regional Office 6 after coordination with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)–Guimaras. According to OCD-6, the spill appears to be minimal in scale. The Coast Guard has initiated containment and collection efforts while an investigation is ongoing to determine the source of the spill.

Goldman Sachs forecasts oil demand drop amid Persian Gulf production loss  Goldman Sachs forecasts a 1.7 million barrels per day drop in global oil demand in the second quarter of 2026 to partially offset an estimated 14.5 million barrels per day production loss of Persian Gulf crude, according to analyst commentary released Monday.The firm raised its 2026 Brent oil forecast by $10 to $90 per barrel. Front-month Brent rose approximately 3% Monday to around $102 per barrel. The United States Oil Fund (USO) has surged 91% year-to-date to $135.01, trading near its 52-week high. InvestingPro data shows the fund posted a 9% gain over the past week alone, with over a dozen additional ProTips available for subscribers tracking the energy sector.The Federal Reserve meets this week with a statement due Wednesday afternoon. Goldman Sachs expects the FOMC to reiterate its wait-and-see message because the war with Iran continues to cloud the economic outlook, presenting risks to both inflation and activity.

First full gas tanker exits Strait of Hormuz since Iran war began - A tanker ship passed through the Strait of Hormuz headed for China on Monday — the first shipment of natural gas to successfully exit the Persian Gulf since the start of the war with Iran.Liquefied natural gas tanker Mubaraz, loaded with more than 130,000 cubic meters of gas from the United Arab Emirates, had been loitering in the contested waterway when its transponder went off in late March, according to financial data provider LSEG. The signal finally reappeared Monday west of the Indian coast, indicating it had managed to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes 20% of the world’s natural oil and gas supplies, reported the Wall Street Journal. Mubaraz has become the first full gas tanker to successfully navigate the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the Iran war. The ship is now en route to Tianjin, northern China, according to ship-tracker MarineTraffic. The Mubaraz is managed by a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company, ADNOC.Earlier in April, an empty gas tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz after spending weeks idling south of Pakistan.More than a dozen gas tankers are still trapped inside the Persian Gulf, according to analysts.Last week, the number of ships passing through the Strait fell to its lowest level since the start of the war on Feb. 28, after the US blockaded the waterway to top Iranian-linked tankers.  Iran has previously threatened and attacked commercial ships that tried to pass through Hormuz without paying a toll. The ship is now west of India, after turning its signal off in late March. Marine Traffic dataJust 35 transits were made in the week of April 20 to April 26, down from 78 the previous week, according to data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence.Of the 35 ships, 24 were linked to Iranian trade, including 16 involving vessels belonging to the Islamic regime’s sanction-evading shadow fleet. Before the war, some 130 ships crossed the Strait every day to reach markets, particularly those in Asia.It comes as Iran renewed its attacks on commercial ships on April 19, a week after the US blockade began.Lloyd’s numbers only include large cargo ships of more than 10,000 tons.

Japanese tanker transits Strait of Hormuz after obtaining Iran’s permission - A Japanese-owned supertanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil has successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz after securing permission from Iranian authorities, marking a rare passage through the strategic waterway since the launch of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The vessel, identified as the Idemitsu Maru, a Panama-flagged VLCC managed by a subsidiary of Japanese refiner Idemitsu Kosan, began its journey late Monday after having remained stationary off Abu Dhabi for over a week. It transported crude loaded from Saudi Arabia’s Juaymah terminal in early March. According to ship-tracking data, the tanker briefly altered course near Iran’s Qeshm and Larak Islands before continuing eastward past Larak. The passage required coordination with Tehran. This is believed to be the first time a Japanese-linked oil vessel has moved through the waterway since the war began on February 28. Japan typically sources about 95 percent of its oil imports from West Asia, much of which passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Russian Billionaire’s Yacht Slips Through Closed Strait Of Hormuz Despite Restrictions —  A superyacht belonging to Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov passed through the Strait of Hormuz despite ongoing restrictions on maritime traffic in the region amid the US and Israeli military operation against Iran. According to The Moscow Times and vessel tracking data from MarineTraffic and VesselFinder cited on April 25, the 142-meter yacht Nord departed Dubai on April 24 and transited the Strait of Hormuz overnight, heading toward Oman. The same data indicated that several other vessels—including two tankers under US sanctions, five cargo ships, and a passenger ferry—also crossed the strait during that period.According to NBC News, Iranian authorities allowed limited maritime movement through the strategic waterway despite earlier restrictions. The outlet reported that the passage included vessels linked to sanctioned entities, raising questions about enforcement consistency in the region.The yacht belongs to Alexey Mordashov, the majority owner of Severstal. According to Forbes, Mordashov recently became Russia’s richest individual, with an estimated net worth of $37 billion.He is currently under sanctions imposed by the US, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. His yacht, built by the German shipyard Lürssen, was re-registered in Russia following the introduction of Western restrictions.Iran had made exceptions for Russian-linked vessels, allowing them to transit the Strait of Hormuz without paying standard fees. The Iranian ambassador to Moscow previously indicated that such measures were in place despite broader maritime limitations.The developments come amid ongoing tensions in the region. Iran declared the closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the launch of military operations by the US and Israel in late February. In response, the US imposed a maritime blockade targeting Iranian ports and warned it would pursue vessels associated with Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet,” including in international waters.Iran briefly reopened the waterway for commercial shipping on April 17 after a temporary ceasefire agreement involving Israel and Hezbollah. However, the permission was later revoked, with Tehran accusing Washington of “piracy.”On April 19, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that navigation would only fully resume once the US lifted its maritime restrictions.The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, handling a significant share of global oil shipments, making any disruption or selective access a key concern for international shipping and energy markets.Earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters on April 22, marking the first such incidents since the start of the US–Israeli military campaign.

'Empowered': UAE's exit from Opec appeases Trump, delivers blow to Saudi Arabia | Middle East Eye The UAE’s exit from Opec next month is a shot across the bows to Saudi Arabia and a potential offering to US President Donald Trump, in the latest sign the war on Iran is exacerbating old tensions in the Gulf instead of uniting the region. On the surface, the UAE’s exit from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is a culmination of its long-running spat with Saudi Arabia over how much oil member states should be allowed to pump. Until recently, Riyadh wanted to limit supply to support prices while the UAE favoured looser production. “The UAE has always been on the side of volume strategy, and the Saudis have been on the side of price strategy,” Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst and head of research at Global Risk Management, told Middle East Eye. This difference goes back to how the economies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE function. The former is home to 35 million people and holds more than double the UAE’s proven oil reserves. The UAE has only one million citizens, and therefore fewer nationals share the oil profits pie. Meanwhile, the UAE has invested heavily in infrastructure that will allow it to pump and export more oil, which analysts call boosting production capacity. “The UAE is the Opec country with the largest amount of spare capacity compared to production,” Rasmussen said. “You can argue that this is the right economic calculus because what's inside the ground might not have the same value that it will in five or ten years". But experts say that before the US-Israeli war on Iran, Saudi Arabia had actually moved closer to the UAE’s position. Riyadh, which once warned oil traders they would be “ouching like hell” if they doubted the kingdom’s dedication to curb oil supplies, threw in the towel and backed massive increases in production. “The policy differences between the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been there for a long time, but Saudi Arabia has pivoted to taking back market share, and the war has actually made their old argument less salient. This exit is much more political,” 'It is possible that this break could also be [the] result of some sort of ‘deal’ between the UAE and Israel and [the] US' The departure of Opec’s third-largest producer comes at a time when Abu Dhabi is lobbying the US to continue its war on Iran and nudging closer to Israel. Axios reported this week that Israel sent an Iron Dome air-defence system and technicians to the UAE, when the small Gulf state was under Iranian drone and missile attack. The Gulf states are home to thousands of US troops and are joined at the hip to US weapons systems. The region has generally rallied behind the US despite frustration that it ignored their pleas not to attack Iran. Saudi Arabia has helped the US wage war on Iran by providing enhanced basing access and overflights, but it has also backstopped mediation efforts by its close partner, Pakistan. In contrast, the UAE has lobbied publicly and privately for the US to continue attacking Iran and tried to prevent Pakistan from bringing the US and Iran together for talks.

Oil Prices Climb as U.S.–Iran Tensions Disrupt Supply Through Key Shipping Route – Oil prices surged on Monday, extending recent gains as stalled diplomatic efforts between the United States and Iran and continued disruptions in a critical global shipping lane kept markets on edge. Concerns about tightening supply have intensified, pushing crude benchmarks higher and reinforcing fears of prolonged volatility in the energy market. Brent crude futures rose by $1.35, or 1.3%, reaching $106.68 per barrel in early trading, although that marked a pullback from earlier gains of more than $2 per barrel. Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 95 cents, or 1%, to $95.35 per barrel. The upward movement builds on last week’s strong performance, when Brent and WTI recorded their largest weekly gains since the beginning of the conflict, rising by nearly 17% and 13% respectively. The latest rally comes as hopes for renewed diplomatic progress faded over the weekend. A planned trip to Islamabad by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner was abruptly canceled by President Donald Trump, dampening expectations of meaningful negotiations. This development occurred even as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Pakistan, signaling a lack of coordination and further complicating the already fragile geopolitical situation. Market analysts point to escalating rhetoric from Washington as a major factor driving prices higher. Recent statements from President Trump, including a warning about potential military action against Iranian vessels suspected of laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, have heightened fears of direct confrontation. Such comments have contributed to what analysts describe as an increasing “war premium” in oil markets, where prices rise in anticipation of potential supply disruptions caused by conflict. The Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important chokepoints for oil transportation, remains at the center of the crisis. Iran has significantly restricted access through the strait, while the United States has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports. As a result, tanker traffic has slowed dramatically. Data from shipping analytics firm Kpler indicated that only one oil products tanker entered the Gulf on Sunday, underscoring the severity of the disruption. This bottleneck has amplified concerns about global supply shortages, especially given the region’s critical role in energy exports. The Middle East accounts for a substantial share of the world’s oil production, and any sustained disruption in shipments through the Strait of Hormuz can have far-reaching consequences for global markets. In response to these developments, Goldman Sachs has revised its oil price outlook for the fourth quarter, projecting Brent crude at $90 per barrel and WTI at $83 per barrel. The bank cited reduced output from the Middle East and the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty as key drivers behind the upward revision. Analysts at the firm also warned that the broader economic implications could extend beyond crude prices alone. Elevated refined product prices, potential shortages, and the sheer scale of the current supply shock could pose significant risks to global economic stability. The combination of constrained supply and heightened geopolitical tension has created an environment where energy markets remain highly sensitive to any new developments. As the situation continues to evolve, traders and policymakers alike are closely monitoring both diplomatic signals and shipping activity in the region. With tensions still high and no immediate resolution in sight, the oil market appears poised to remain volatile in the near term, with prices likely to respond sharply to any shifts in the geopolitical landscape.

Oil Prices Climb As U.S.-Iran Talks Stall And Strait Of Hormuz Stays Blocked --Oil prices rose again on Monday on stalled negotiations between the United States and Iran aimed at bringing the conflict in the Middle East to an end.Trading in Asia saw both the global proxy benchmark Brent as well as the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate rise by more than 2%. However, early afternoon trading in Europe saw a pullback from early morning price spikes.At 7:19 a.m. EDT on Monday, the Brent front-month contract was up 1.06%, or $1.01, to $100.18 per barrel, while the WTI traded at $95.16 per barrel, up 1.01% or $0.76.Over the weekend, attempts to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table failed again. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, left talks with Pakistan in Islamabad on Saturday, where he said he had put forward his country’s position on a framework to end the war but added that he is "yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy."Shortly afterward, U.S. president Donald Trump said his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s trip to Pakistan for talks on the war with Iran had been called off. In a post on Truth Social, the president said: “I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their 'leadership.’ Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!"

Oil Prices Rise as Hormuz Stays Shut After Canceled Talks -- Oil and product futures extended their rise Monday morning as the two-month long U.S.-Israeli war on Iran seemed no closer to a diplomatic resolution, keeping at near zero flows through the Strait of Hormuz, passageway for a fifth of global petroleum liquid supply. By 8:45 a.m. EDT, NYMEX WTI crude for June delivery was up $1.77, or 2%, to $96.17 bbl, after a three-week high of $97.10. ICE Brent for June rose $1.94, or 1.6%, to $107.27 bbl, after reaching a three-week high $108.50 bbl earlier in the session. Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for May delivery advanced by $0.1209 to $4.0083 gallon, and front-month NYMEX RBOB futures edged up $0.0010 to $3.4547 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index softened by 0.264 points to 98.10 against a basket of foreign currencies. The two sides remained at an impasse over conditions to continue talks. The U.S. demands any peace deal to address the nuclear issue, while Iran is reluctant to negotiate while under total U.S. embargo. Tehran last week presented a proposal to reopen the Strait and end the war that would leave negotiations about its nuclear program for later. U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday canceled a planned trip by special envoys to Islamabad, saying Tehran didn't "offer enough." While the U.S.-Iranian ceasefire is holding, the U.S. Navy continued to intercept sanctioned Iranian vessels and block traffic in and out of Iranian ports. Despite President Trump's announcement last week that the Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire was being extended by three weeks, Israel launched new strikes on Lebanon on Sunday. The ceasefire, originally announced on April 16 for a period of 10 days, was a key demand by Tehran, which in response lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade was reinstated the next day after the U.S. seized an Iranian cargo ship.

Oil Rises as Iran Talks Stall and Shipments Remain Limited -   The crude market posted an inside trading day and settled higher on Monday in the absence of further peace talks between the U.S. and Iran and shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remained limited. The oil market retraced Friday’s losses after U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend called off a trip by his envoys and said Iran should call the U.S. when it wants a deal. The market remained supported by the diplomatic standoff. The market posted a low of $94.59 early in the morning as work continued to bridge gaps between the U.S. and Iran. The market later bounced off its low and continued to trend higher, posting a high of $97.67 ahead of the close. The June WTI contract settled up $1.97 at $96.37 and the June Brent contract settled up $2.90 at $108.23. The product markets ended the session higher, with the heating oil market settling up 8.73 cents at $3.9747 and the RB market settling up 2.84 cents at $3.4910. Shipping data showed that at least seven ships, mainly dry bulk vessels, crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, in line with muted activity in recent days, while talks between Iran and the United States have stalled. According to ship tracking data from Kpler and separate satellite analysis from data analytics specialists SynMax, the vessels included ships leaving from Iraqi ports and one dry bulk vessel from an Iranian port. Goldman Sachs has raised its oil price forecasts for the fourth quarter to $90/barrel for Brent crude and $83/barrel for U.S. West Texas Intermediate on lower output from the Middle East. It estimates 14.5 million bpd Mideast crude output losses driving global oil inventories to draw at a record pace of 11-12 million bpd in April. It estimates that the global oil market will swing from a 1.8 million bpd surplus in 2025 to a 9.6 million bpd deficit in the second quarter of 2026. It estimates that global oil demand will fall 1.7 million bpd in the second quarter and 100,000 bpd in 2026. Citi raised its outlook for average Brent crude prices for the rest of 2026, warning prices could increase to $150/barrel if oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz remain disrupted through the end of June. The bank lifted its base-case forecast for Brent to $110, $95 and $80/barrel for the second, third and fourth quarter of 2026, respectively, assigning a 50% probability to that scenario. Citi also pushed back its expected reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the end of May, from mid-to-late April, after the United States and Iran failed to reach an agreement during their second round of peace talks. IIR Energy said U.S. oil refiners’ capacity is expected to increase by 409,000 bpd in the week ending May 1st from the previous week, pushing their total offline refining capacity down to 799,000 bpd. Offline capacity is expected to fall to 627,000 bpd in the week ending May 8th. Valero reported planned maintenance work scheduled to be performed on Monday at its 195,000 bpd McKee, Texas refinery. BP’s Whiting refinery in Indiana experienced a brief power outage on Sunday that led to flaring but no fire.

Oil prices climb past US$110 with no end to Iran war stand-off in sight | The Straits Times – Oil prices rose more than 2 per cent on April 28, extending gains from the previous session, as efforts to end the US-Iran war appear stalled, with the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway still mainly shut, keeping energy supplies from the key Middle East producing region out of the reach of global buyers. Brent crude climbed 2.4 per cent to US$110.82 (S$141) a barrel as at 3pm Singapore time, after gaining 2.8 per cent the previous day. The contract is up for a seventh day. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 2.1 per cent to US$98.40 a barrel, after gaining 2.1 per cent in the previous session. President Donald Trump is unhappy with the latest Iranian proposal aimed at ending the war, a US official said on April 27. Iranian sources disclosed that Tehran’s proposal avoided addressing its nuclear programme until hostilities cease and Gulf shipping disputes are resolved. Mr Trump’s displeasure with the Iranian offer leaves the conflict deadlocked, with Iran shutting shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically carries supply equal to about 20 per cent of global oil and gas consumption, and the US keeping in place its blockade of Iranian ports. An earlier round of negotiations between the US and Iran collapsed last week following failed face-to-face talks. “Talks around ‘peace’ still look largely superficial and lack concrete evidence of de-escalation. Despite the rhetoric, vessel movement through the Strait of Hormuz remains curtailed, and that prolonged disruption is what’s keeping oil risk premiums elevated,” said Phillip Nova’s senior market analyst Priyanka Sachdeva. Ship-tracking data revealed significant disruptions in the region, with six Iranian oil tankers forced to turn back due to the US blockade. However, a liquefied natural gas tanker managed by the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi National Oil Co did cross the Strait of Hormuz and appears to be near India, ship-tracking data showed on April 27.

Oil Prices Rise to 3-Week High as Peace Efforts Stall (DTN) -- Crude oil futures jumped more than $3 bbl Tuesday morning as efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war have stalled. The two sides remained at an impasse over conditions to continue talks to resolve the crisis which has cut a fifth of petroleum liquids supply off the global market for now two months. By 8:38 a.m. EDT, NYMEX WTI crude for June delivery was up $3.68, or 3.8%, to $100.05 bbl, after reaching an intra-day high of $101.85 bbl. ICE Brent for June rose $3.22, or 3%, to $111.45 bbl, after advancing to $112.70 bbl earlier in the session. Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for May delivery edged higher by $0.0022 to $3.9769 gallon, and front-month NYMEX RBOB futures advanced $0.0568 to $3.5478 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index strengthened by 0.31 points to 98.625 against a basket of foreign currencies. The White House on Monday said that U.S. President Donald Trump is not considering Tehran's peace proposal submitted late last week. The proposal reportedly contained a plan to reopen the Strait and end the war but did not address Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. demands any peace deal to address the nuclear issue, while Iran is reluctant to negotiate while under total U.S. embargo. Pricing suggests that hopes of a quick restoration of flows are fading, and market participants are bracing for a prolonged supply disruption as they are awaiting a U.S. counterproposal in the coming days. Crude oil futures dropped sharply after President Trump in early April announced a two-week ceasefire, which together with rumored negotiations fueled bets on a diplomatic resolution. After a seven-day rise, they are now back near pre-ceasefire levels. The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday announced they will exit OPEC on May 1. The country, one of the largest oil producers in the coalition, was often opposed to Saudi-led production curtailments given the growth potential of its fossil fuel industry which dwarfed that of most other OPEC members. An end to restrictions on the UAE's oil output would allow the country to reach its declared goal of 5 million bpd by next year. As long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, however, this decision does not impact global supply in any way. The market reaction to the announcement was consequently muted.

Oil Extends Gains as Iran Conflict Persists and Hormuz Stays Shut -  The oil market extended its previous gains on Tuesday amid the lack of any progress in ending the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz remaining mostly shut. According to a U.S. official, President Donald Trump was unhappy with the latest Iranian proposal to end the war as Iranian sources disclosed that the proposal avoided addressing the nuclear program until hostilities cease and Gulf shipping disputes are resolved. The oil market posted a low of $96.24 in overnight trading before it bounced off that level and breached its previous highs. The market posted a high of $101.85 in early morning trading. It later retraced some of its gains after the UAE announced that it would exit OPEC and the wider OPEC+ group. While the announcement could mean increased output from the fourth largest producer in the group, there is currently nowhere for the supply to go with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The market traded in a sideways trading range during the remainder of the session as the supply constraints outweighed concerns over the UAE’s decision to leave OPEC. The June WTI contract settled up $3.56 at $99.93 and the June Brent contract settled up $3.03 at $111.26. The product markets ended the session in mixed territory, with the heating oil market settling down 35 points at $3.9712 and the RB market settling up 6.94 cents at $3.5604. Bloomberg reported that Iran’s ability to keep producing oil is quickly eroding as the U.S. blockade tests the country’s economic resilience. According to Kpler, Iran has 12 to 22 days left before its unsold production fills its storage capacity. It is longer than President Trump has predicted, but still a pressing issue for Iran. Once storage is full, Iran would have nowhere to put barrels it pumps out of the ground, forcing it to start shutting production. On Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said that Iran had already started shutting down wells. Iran may find itself in the same difficult position as other oil producers in the Persian Gulf. Countries like Iraq and Kuwait that were quickly forced to cut output after the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed. U.S. Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, said that if Iran has to take similar action, it could damage their old, low-pressure reservoirs. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chaired a consultative meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah on Tuesday, the first in-person meeting of Gulf leaders since their states became a front in the Iran war two months ago. A Gulf official said the meeting aimed to craft a response to the thousands of Iranian missile and drone attacks Gulf states have faced since the U.S. and Israel launched the war with strikes on Iran on February 28th. Saudi state media said the summit discussed “topics and issues related to regional and international developments, and the coordination of efforts regarding them.” The United Arab Emirates said it would exit OPEC and OPEC+ effective May 1st. According to an official statement, the move “reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile,” and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz “continues to affect supply dynamics.” According to data from the American Automobile Association, the U.S. average gasoline price average increased to nearly $4.18/gallon on Tuesday, reaching its highest level since August 2022. National average retail gasoline prices have increased about $1.19/gallon or about 40%, since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.

Oil ends up nearly 3% as Hormuz disruption outweighs UAE OPEC exit (Reuters) - Oil prices closed up nearly ​3% on Tuesday as persistent worries about supply constraints from the closed Strait of Hormuz outweighed concerns about the United Arab Emirates' decision to leave OPEC ‌and the wider OPEC+ group. Brent futures for June ended up $3.03 or 2.8% at $111.26 a barrel, marking its seventh consecutive day of gains. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for June settled up $3.56 or 3.7% at $99.93 a barrel, after briefly trading above $100 earlier in the session for the first time since April 13. Prices trimmed some of the advances after the United Arab Emirates, the fourth-largest producer in OPEC+, said on Tuesday it would ​exit the group on May 1, dealing a blow to the oil-exporting groups and their de facto leader, Saudi Arabia. "In normal times, this would have been very ​bearish news for the oil market and sparked a sizable selloff," s He estimated the UAE could quickly ⁠add between 1 million and 1.5 million barrels per day of output. "But with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, there's nowhere for that supply to go ... so we're likely ​to see oil prices continue their slow march higher," he added. U.S. President Donald Trump was unhappy with the latest Iranian proposal to end the war, a U.S. official said on Monday, as Iranian ​sources disclosed that the proposal would avoid addressing the nuclear programme until hostilities cease and Gulf shipping disputes are resolved. Trump's displeasure with the offer leaves the conflict deadlocked, with Iran shutting shipping flows through the strait, a conduit for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, and the U.S. retaining its blockade of Iranian ports. "With peace talks stalled and no clear path to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, ​traders are factoring in a prolonged disruption to a critical artery of global supply," said Rystad Energy analyst Jorge Leon. An earlier round of negotiations between the United States and ​Iran collapsed last week after face-to-face talks failed. Oil importer Japan just intervened to prop up a yen that has been weakened by the conflict. Ship-tracking data showed significant disruptions in the region, with six Iranian oil tankers forced to turn back due to the U.S. blockade, but some traffic is still moving. The Idemitsu Maru, ‌a Panama-flagged ⁠tanker carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi oil, and an LNG tanker managed by the United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) crossed the Strait on Tuesday, shipping data showed. The ADNOC tanker was the first loaded LNG tanker to cross since the Iran war started on February 28. Prior to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, between 125 and 140 vessels transited the strait daily. The amount of crude oil held around the world on tankers that have been stationary for at least seven days rose to 153.11 million ​barrels as of April 24, Vortexa data shows. ​That figure is the highest since ⁠January, and up 25% from 122.60 million on April 17.

Oil prices rise further | The Daily Star -- Oil prices rose Wednesday as talks to end the Iran war appeared to be at a standstill and the crucial Strait of Hormuz no nearer being reopened. While the White House has said Donald Trump and his team were considering Tehran’s latest proposal to restore traffic through the waterway, CNN and the Wall Street Journal said the president was sceptical. Google News LinkFor all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The Islamic republic this week submitted a plan that would reportedly see it ease the chokehold and Washington lift its retaliatory blockade on the country’s ports as talks continued, including over its nuclear programme. While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran’s proposal was “better than what we thought they were going to submit”, he insisted any eventual deal had to be “one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon”. Iranian defence ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik said Washington “must abandon its illegal and irrational demands”, adding the United States was “no longer in a position to dictate its policy to independent nations”. Qatar warned of the possibility of a “frozen conflict” if a definitive resolution is not found. Concerns about the stalled peace push have pushed crude prices higher for more than a week, with Trump’s decision to cancel his envoys’ trip for peace talks in Pakistan last weekend adding to the downbeat mood. Brent is above the level it hit before the two sides announced a ceasefire at the start of April, while West Texas Intermediate broke $100 Tuesday for the first time in two weeks. Both contracts continued to rise Wednesday, with Brent holding above $113 and WTI above $101. “Iran wants the blockade lifted and access to its flows restored,” wrote Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management. “Washington holds that lever and is in no hurry to give it away without extracting value. “Meanwhile, the longer this drags on, the more second-order effects start to bite. Storage pressure builds, production risks emerge, and the system begins to strain in ways that futures prices cannot ignore.” There was little major reaction to news that key producer United Arab Emirates had decided to withdraw from the OPEC and OPEC+ oil cartels on Friday, calling it a strategic decision. Still, CNN also cited sources familiar with the mediation as saying the two sides were not as far apart as they seemed. It added that intense diplomacy continued and talks were focused on a staged process with the first part of a potential deal aimed at returning to the pre-war status and reopening the Strait. Iran’s nuclear programme would be dealt with down the line, it said. Despite the uncertainty, Asian equity markets mostly rose with Hong Kong up more than one percent, while Shanghai, Seoul, Wellington, Manila, Bangkok, Mumbai and Jakarta also advanced. Sydney, Singapore and Taipei fell along with London, Paris and Frankfurt. Tokyo was closed for a holiday. Traders were given a weak lead from Wall Street, where the Nasdaq led losses owing to a tech selloff that came on the back of a report in the Wall Street Journal that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI had missed targets on the number of users and revenue. The news came as markets gear up for the release of earnings from Wall Street titans Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft this week. The Federal Reserve will also conclude a two-day meeting later in the day, with investors keeping tabs on its outlook for inflation and interest rates as energy costs soar.

Oil prices extend rally as Trump issues new threat to Iran amid stalled talks - — US President Donald Trump has threatened Iran to “better get smart soon” and accusing Tehran’s leadership of failing to “get their act together" as efforts by Washington and Tehran to end hostilities appeared at a standstill. Oil prices advanced again on Wednesday as traders balanced the United Arab Emirates’ shock departure from OPEC with indications that a near-term conclusion to the Iran war is unlikely. ADVERTISING Trump is unhappy with Tehran’s latest proposal to end the war and has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday. Iran is expected to submit a revised peace proposal soon, sources say, after Trump indicated that he would not accept an earlier version. International benchmark Brent crude futures with June delivery traded 3% higher at $114.64 per barrel at 6:00 a.m. ET, extending gains after notching its seventh consecutive positive session on Tuesday. US West Texas Intermediate futures with June delivery rose 3.6% to $103.54 per barrel. The WTI contract, which settled up 3.7% in the previous session, has racked up gains of more than 49% since the US and Israeli-led war against Iran started on Feb. 28. The latest move higher comes amid reports that the US will look to extend its blockade of Iranian ports, deepening fears of prolonged disruption through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. “Concerns about a more prolonged stagflationary shock have risen,” Deutsche Bank analysts said, noting that Brent futures contracts for delivery later this year were trading close to the highs reached in late March. Stagflation refers to a period of low economic growth and high inflation. US stock futures were mixed, pointing to a cautious start on Wall Street ahead of a raft of Big Tech earnings and a Federal Reserve meeting that looks set to be Jerome Powell’s last as chairman. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are all due to report financial results after the closing bell. Investors are betting the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged until there is more clarity on the extent to which the war in Iran will feed through into consumer prices. Higher oil prices weighed on European stock markets which were broadly lower in midsession trade. Strategists at Dutch bank ING said in a research note published Wednesday that the UAE’s exit from the oil producer group represents “a big blow” to OPEC and would certainly be welcomed by Trump “as it erodes OPEC’s influence in the oil market, while it should also be beneficial for importers and consumers.” “However, in the near term, the biggest driver for oil prices remains developments in the Gulf and the timing of a resumption in oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz,” they added.

Oil Prices Surge: Brent Crosses $120 Level -  The price of Brent crude oil futures for delivery in July 2026 on the London ICE Exchange rose above $120 per barrel for the first time since June 17, 2022, according to trading data, The Caspian Post reports. As of 11:32 PM (Baku time), Brent crude oil prices were up 7.88% and stood at $120.03 per barrel.By 11:37 PM (Baku time), Brent crude oil had slightly eased its gains and was trading at $119.95 per barrel, representing an increase of 7.81%.Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures for delivery in June 2026 rose by 8.15% to $108.07 per barrel.

Oil price briefly hits $120 after reports of 'extended' Iran blockade - Oil prices have soared following reports that the US is preparing for an "extended" blockade of Iran.The global benchmark oil price, Brent crude, rose above $120 (£89) a barrel on Wednesday, briefly hitting $122, its highest price since 2022.The BBC understands that energy executives including Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth met US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss how to limit the fallout from the conflict on American consumers.Oil traders appear to have taken the meeting as a sign the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz will continue for a long time.The executives discussed topics including domestic energy production, progress in Venezuela, oil futures, natural gas, and shipping, according to a White House official.They described the meeting as being part of the President's regular meetings with energy executives to discuss their industry.The meeting follows separate reports from the Wall Street Journal that US President Donald Trump has instructed aides to prepare to extend the ongoing blockade of Iran's ports, in an effort to squeeze the country's economy.Iran has said it will continue to disrupt traffic travelling through the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US blockade.The price of oil has seen sharp swings since the start of the war, as the key Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for weeks due to the conflict.Iran has severely restricted shipping through the strait — which usually carries about a fifth of the world's supply of oil and liquid natural gas — in response to US and Israeli strikes that began on 28 February.Earlier this month, Tehran warned that any vessel that approaches the strait would be targeted. The US then announced that its forces would intercept or turn back vessels travelling to or from Iran's ports. Analysis by BBC Verify shows that at least four vessels tracked from Iranian ports appear to have crossed the US blockade line.Despite the fluctuations of recent weeks, the price of oil remains much higher than the pre-conflict price of a barrel.The price of Brent crude dropped to $90 a barrel on 17 April, after a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced. The US said it would pause attacks on Iran on 8 April. It remains much higher than the pre-conflict price of a barrel.However, the oil benchmark has been rising steadily over the last 12 days, as the US continued its blockade. Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter, said that the impact of the war so far in the UK has been largely limited to higher petrol and diesel prices, but "every day that passes without a resumption of supply sees the risk of physical shortages and steeper price rises on a range of goods increasing".The Iranian economy is facing a deepening crisis, with rapidly rising prices, falling currency value, and prospects of the oil exports grinding to a halt.According to the Statistical Center of Iran, the annual inflation rate has risen to 53.7%. The country's currency, the rial, has fallen to a record low.Around two million Iranians have lost their jobs, directly or indirectly, as a result of the war, the Iranian government had said last week.On Wednesday, Trump urged Iran to "get smart soon" and sign a deal, following days of deadlock in efforts to end the conflict.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the country "couldn't get its act together".The Wall Street Journal cited US officials as saying the president had instructed aides to prepare for an "extended" blockade of Iran's ports in a bid to force Tehran's hand.Officials said Trump had opted to continue squeezing Iran's economy and oil exports with the blockade as his other options - resuming bombing or walking away from the conflict - carried more risk, according to the report.Iranian officials said on Tuesday the country could withstand the blockade as it was using alternative trade routes.The World Bank on Tuesday forecast energy prices would surge by 24% in 2026 to their highest level since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, if the most acute disruptions caused by the Iran war end in May.

US Oil Exports Soar To New Record High As Inventories Tumble, SPR Drained Most Since October 2022 - One week ago we lamented that the record oil inventory drawdown, which has seen over 250 million barrels drained from storage since the start of the war, has not led to higher oil prices (for those who missed it, Goldman forecast that global visible oil inventories are likely to reach record-low levels even in an optimistic scenario where Hormuz flows start to recover by the end of April). Moments ago the already precarious inventory picture turned even more ominous after the DOE reported that Crude stocks tumbled by a whopping 6.234 million barrels, far more than the 190K draw expected. The huge decline on US crude stockpiles was the largest draw since early February. It took nationwide storage numbers to around 459.5 million barrels. But it wasn't just crude: all other products drew as well:

• Crude -6.234MM, Exp. -190K, and much bigger than the 1.8-million-barrel decrease seen by the API on Tuesday
• Gasoline -6.075MM
• Distillates -4.494MM
• Cushing -796K

Gasoline declines in the middle of their predicted range at 6.1 million barrels. That’s the biggest draw since earlier in April, but the bigger story is total supplies falling to their lowest since December. Seasonally, stocks are at their lowest since 2014. Gasoline futures got a nice bump on this, extending their gains to new intraday highs, though the big story, as ever, is the Strait of Hormuz.Since the war started, Crude stocks had risen significantly, while gasoline inventories have seen non-stop draws. However, oil has now also inflected lower as it too starts to draw, painting an ominous picture for US gasoline prices which are already at multi-year highs. The big draw in distillate stocks - the largest since March 2025 - came from the Gulf Coast. That’s now below seasonal levels from 2022 in that region, when global diesel supplies were strained by the war in Ukraine. Distillate exports out of the US ticked down nominally last week, but they remain pretty elevated, near 1.6 million barrels a day for the fourth straight week as the US once again becomes a key supplier of diesel to the rest of the world. Stocks of jet fuel, which has been more stressed than nearly every other refined product, ticked up marginally as the US produced the most of the fuel since July 4, 2024, which is a key travel period. In the Gulf Coast, more of the fuel was produced than any time on record. Despite the big drop in inventories, which also saw the second largest drain in Cushing stocks since the start of the war (and third largest in 2026) dragging total Cushing stocks back under 30mm... ... total US production rose by just 1 barrell/day in the past week to 13.586 million b/d. Adding insult to injury, the drop in commercial stocks was compounded by a huge 7.121 mm barrel drawdown from the SPR, the biggest since October 2022. And while US consumers are now facing the highest gas prices in years, at least US producers are rolling in the profits: US exports just hit a new record high as the Iran war sends overseas buyers hunting for replacements to Middle Eastern oil. The surge in the volatile weekly crude exports figure helped send overall shipments of US oil and fuel abroad to a fresh record high above 14 million barrels a day. As US crude exports skyrocketed, imports declined, falling to around 5.75 million barrels per day. Most notably, imports into the East Coast hit an all-time low. The region is thirsty for barrels and even imported crude from the US Gulf Coast last week thanks to a shipping waiver signed by President Donald Trump. Crude imports from five key Latin American producers slipped in the week ended April 24, dropping by one-fifth to average 893,000 barrels a day. Increased inflows from Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador were more than offset by drops in imports from Brazil and Venezuela. No crude was imported from Brazil for the first time since November. While it didn't actually need the boost, having soared earlier in the day on continued indefinite Hormuz closure, WTI Crude rose above $105 the highest in two weeks, and up $6 on the day... ... while Brent is about to surpass its post-war highs. And speaking of gasoline, the four-week average of gasoline demand rose to 8.9 million barrels a day, which is in-line with regular summer driving trends. Concerns of higher gasoline prices -- and $4 gas -- does not yet seem to be reflected in the demand numbers, with the implied demand figure at its highest seasonal level since 2019. Meanwhile, US refinery runs bounced back and are back above 16 million barrels a day. Oil processing rose despite a small decrease on the Gulf Coast, where Valero continues to attempt a full restart of its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery following a fire in March.

Oil prices settle at multi-week highs as global supply worries mount (Reuters) - Oil prices surged over 6% on Wednesday to settle at their highest in weeks, as deadlocked U.S.-Iran negotiations made investors more concerned about prolonged disruptions to Middle Eastern supply. U.S. ‌government data showed a bigger weekly draw in crude and fuel inventories than expected, which also put upward pressure ‌on oil prices. Brent crude futures for June rose for the eighth consecutive session and settled up $6.77, or 6.1%, at $118.03 a barrel, the highest since March 31. ​The global benchmark climbed further in post-settlement trade to hit $120 a barrel for the first time since June 2022. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for June rose $6.95, or 7%, to $106.88 a barrel, the highest since April 7. A White House official said that President Donald Trump had asked U.S. oil companies about ways to mitigate the impact of a potentially months-long U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, adding to concerns that ‌disruptions to Middle Eastern oil supply could ⁠be prolonged. Over $50 billion worth of crude oil supply had been lost since the start of the Iran war, according to Reuters calculations as of mid-April. "If Trump is prepared to extend the blockade, supply disruptions ⁠would worsen further and continue to push oil prices higher," Haitong Futures analyst Yang An said. Signs of tightening supply have started to show in the U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed U.S. crude stocks fell over 6 million barrels last ​week, versus ​analysts' estimate of just over 200,000 barrels. [EIA/S] U.S. stockpiles of gasoline and ​distillate fuels, made up primarily of diesel, also fell ‌more than expected last week, raising concerns of potential shortages in the top fuel-consuming nation just as peak summer driving season gets underway. "Prices will likely find renewed support as summer approaches and incremental product demand converges with supply constraints," RBC Capital Markets analysts wrote on Wednesday. Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has notified some customers they could load two crude grades outside of the Gulf next month because the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, according to two people with knowledge of the matter and a notice ‌seen by Reuters. Investors were also assessing ramifications of ​the United Arab Emirates' decision to quit OPEC. Analysts do not expect any major ​near-term impact on the market. Over the near term, ​Middle Eastern producers will bring whatever they can to market, Investec head of commodities Callum Macpherson said. Still, ‌the UAE's exit is the most significant fracture in ​OPEC's history and it increases the ​risk of oversupply that could cause oil prices to decline from 2027, Wood Mackenzie said. "UAE's departure from OPEC will have minimal impact on market fundamentals in 2026, even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens," said Simon Flowers, chief analyst ​at Wood Mackenzie. "Beyond this year, losing the ‌UAE will compound OPEC's challenge to balance the market and increase the risk of oversupply weakening prices," Flowers ​said.

Oil price tops $126 a barrel after Trump warns Iran blockade could last ‘months’  -- The global oil price hit $126 a barrel on Thursday, its highest level since 2022, after Donald Trump said the US blockade of Iranian ports could last for months and peace talks remained stalled. After surging more than 13% in 24 hours, the price of Brent crude futures reached its highest price since the war began on 28 February. Not since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has Brent topped $120, with the price then peaking at $139.Oil markets have been spooked this week as Trump appeared willing to maintain the US navy’s blockade of Iranian ports, with Iran responding by keeping the strait of Hormuz all but shut to other oil tankers.Market observers believe that traders are beginning to look beyond the early optimism that a diplomatic resolution could restore Gulf oil flows through the vital trade route, and towards “the reality of the supply situation”. “The breakdown of talks between the US and Iran, along with President Trump reportedly rejecting Iran’s proposal for a reopening of the strait of Hormuz, has the market losing hope for any quick resumption in oil flows,” Warren Patterson, the head of commodities strategy at the investment bank ING, said. Oil later fell back from its four-year high, to about $114 a barrel on Thursday afternoon.Trump told oil executives this week that the US would “continue the current blockade for months if needed”, according to a White House official.US officials hope the blockade will force Iran to cap its oil wells and shutter production once its oil facilities, such as Kharg Island, have filled to the brim. “The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” Trump told Axios. “They are choking like a stuffed pig.”The sharp rise in oil prices has raised the risk of a global recession fuelled by the rising cost of fuels and industrial feedstocks.The economist Paul Krugman, a former New York Times columnist, said he believed most analysts had been “far too sanguine” about the effects of a prolonged Hormuz crisis.“In my view, a full-on global recession is more likely than not if the strait remains closed for, say, another three months, which seems all too possible,” he wrote on his Substack on 20 April.Jim Reid, a market strategist at Deutsche Bank, said there were now “growing fears about an extended stagflationary shock”, leading to higher interest rates – or yields – on government bonds.“Overnight we’ve seen Japan’s 10-year yield move up to 2.51%, which would be its highest closing level since 1997. It was a similar story in Europe too, with the 10-year [German] bund yield at a post-2011 high of 3.11%, whilst 10-year [UK] gilt yields hit a post-2008 high of 5.07%,” Reid added.US inflation soared in March, with prices up 3.3% over the year. Meanwhile, Britain is facing a £35bn economic hit and the risk of a recession in 2026 because of the war, a thinktank has said. Without an end to the oil market’s biggest supply crisis in history oil prices could return to all-time record highs of about $147 reached in 2008. Tehran said two weeks after shutting the strait that the world needed to prepare for $200 barrels of oil.

Brent Crude Oil Price Surges to 4-Year High, Tops $126 -- Brent crude oil prices surged to a 4-year high on Thursday, driven by reports that the U.S. military plans to brief President Donald Trump on possible actions against Iran. This has heightened concerns that armed conflict might escalate, further exacerbating the impact of the ongoing U.S. blockade on Iranian exports. U.S. Central Command is set to present Trump with plans for possible military action against Iran, citing two sources familiar with the situation, The Caspian Post reports, citing foreign media. It was previously reported that Trump rejected Tehran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that the naval blockade will remain in place until a broader nuclear deal is reached. . Brent crude futures for June delivery rose 6.84% to $126.10 a barrel as of 00:22 ET (7:22 in Kyiv), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.14% to $110.24. According to LSEG data, Brent crude prices reached their highest levels since early 2022, as conflict in the Middle East constrains supply. Goldman Sachs estimates that exports through the Strait of Hormuz have dropped to 4% of normal levels, with negotiations between the U.S. and Iran and the ongoing U.S. blockade tightening supplies. Iran's limited exports and constrained storage capacity could exacerbate supply disruptions if the blockade persists, bank analysts said, adding that production increases in the UAE following its exit from OPEC are likely to occur gradually over the medium term rather than offsetting short-term deficits. In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump appeared to threaten Iran, stating that the country "better get smart fast." Bill Perkins, chief investment officer at Skylar Capital Management, said oil markets are being influenced by a combination of physical shocks, geopolitics, and investor psychology, with traders closely monitoring tanker movements and political signals as the U.S.-Iran conflict drags on. "We are quite far from a deal, and perhaps combat operations or a bit more time are necessary to open the Strait of Hormuz," he said. While strategic reserves and existing oil in transit have helped mitigate the impact of price increases, he described petroleum product markets as significantly tighter, highlighting the sharp rise in diesel prices and persistent logistical challenges even if a truce is reached. Goldman pointed to emerging downside risks to demand, noting that global oil consumption in April could be approximately 3.6 million barrels per day lower than in February, with weakness concentrated in the jet fuel and petrochemical feedstock segments. Looking ahead, Perkins said the price of oil could jump to $140-$150 per barrel if disruptions persist, though elevated prices would eventually curb demand.

Oil Slumps After Reaching 4-Year High on US War Plan Reports (DTN) -- Oil and product futures softened Thursday morning, retreating from the highs reached earlier in the session on reports the U.S. is considering new strikes on Iran. Near 8:30 a.m. EDT, ICE Brent for June delivery on its last trading day fell $3.92 to $114.11 bbl, after reaching a four-year high $126.41 bbl earlier in the session. The July contract declined $1.40 to $109.04 bbl. NYMEX WTI crude for June delivery was down $2.14 to trade near $104.74 bbl after hitting an intraday high of $110.93 bbl. Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for May delivery softened $0.0490 to $4.1497 gallon, and front-month NYMEX RBOB futures slid $0.0356 to $3.7055 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index eased by 0.5 points to 98.325 against a basket of foreign currencies. A ceasefire, in place since early April, lowered the geopolitical risk premium tied to the two-month-old U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Oil prices fell in the initial days of the ceasefire on hopes of a resurrection of flows from the Persian Gulf, but have been moving higher over the past two weeks after the U.S. instated a full naval blockade of Iranian maritime trade, prompting Tehran to declare the Strait of Hormuz closed for traffic after a one-day reprieve. Reports of the U.S. considering extending the embargo propelled front-month Brent futures above $118 bbl by Wednesday's market close, just 30cts shy of its highest closing price since the start of the conflict. Earlier this morning, media reports suggested U.S. President Trump was being briefed on new military options for strikes on Iran, catapulting Brent for June delivery to $126.41 bbl, the highest since the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The more actively traded July contract reached $114.7 bbl, the highest since June 2022. The ongoing supply disruption, which so far has accumulated to more than 3% of global yearly petroleum liquids supply, has put a strain on global inventories and led to a surge in foreign buying interest for U.S. crude oil and refined products. The Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported petroleum exports last week soared to 14.18 million bpd, pulverizing the 12.88 million bpd record pace, which itself was 700,000 bpd above the previous all-time high, set just the week prior. Crude oil exports reached a historic high of 6.44 million bpd, topping the previously fastest weekly pace by 809,000 bpd, or 14%. Over the past four weeks, crude oil exports from the U.S. clocked in at 5.15 million bpd, up 29% year-on-year.

Crude Reverses After Overnight Spike on Iran Headlines - -The oil market ended the session lower after it reversed course from its sharp overnight gains that had pushed the market over the $110 level. The crude market rallied higher in overnight trading following an Axios report that U.S. President Donald Trump was scheduled to receive a briefing on plans for a series of military strikes on Iran in hopes that it will return to negotiations on its nuclear program. The market rallied to a high of $110.93 in overnight trading. However, the market gave up its gains and sold off to $103.50 by the morning. The crude market settled in a sideways trading range before further selling ahead of the close pushed the market to a low of $103.34. The June WTI contract settled down $1.81 at $105.07 and the June Brent contract settled down $4.02 at $114.01. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 6.03 cents at $4.1384 and the RB market settling down 3.04 cents at $3.7715. Technical Analysis: The crude market on Friday will likely retrace some of Thursday’s losses and look to the latest headlines for further direction. The market will look to further developments regarding the U.S. considering possible military action to break the negotiation deadlock with Iran. The oil market is seen finding support at $105.00, $103.34, $98.72, $98.42, $96.24, $94.95, $94.59, $92.68, $92.30 and $91.18. Meanwhile, resistance is seen at $110.93, $117.63 and $119.48. Fundamental News: Shipping data showed and analysts said a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports has cut Tehran’s oil exports, stranding a growing stockpile of crude on tankers as Iranian storage sites run out of space. Oil analytics firm Vortexa said just a handful of carriers carrying Iranian crude have left the Gulf of Oman between April 13th and 25th. LSEG data shows that its crude exports are down over 80% from a comparable period in March, when Iran exported 23.4 million barrels. Analysts at Kpler said they had not observed any Iranian crude tankers exiting the Gulf of Oman since the blockade began. U.S. Central Command said “Right now there are 41 tankers with 69 million barrels of oil that Iranian regime can’t sell.” Kpler analyst, Johannes Rauball, said Iran may be forced to start cutting output within a week or two. Onshore storage is about 60% full, with stocks above 50 million barrels, and capacity at 86 million barrels. The Trump administration said it is seeking to exchange up to 92.5 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as it seeks to calm oil markets. The U.S. agreed earlier this year to loan 172 million barrels from the SPR as part of a wider agreement with more than 30 countries in the International Energy Agency to release about 400 million barrels. The U.S. has so far offered 126 million barrels of crude in three batches of crude, but oil companies only took less than 80 million barrels or about 63% of what was offered. The new offer, if all of it is taken by oil companies, would fulfill the U.S. goal to loan 172 million barrels. White House economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said the Trump administration is talking to oil companies and considering measures to increase production in the United States “really soon” to ease the impact of the Iran war on energy supplies. The International Energy Agency’s head, Fatih Birol, reaffirmed the world is facing its biggest energy crisis in history due to disruption caused by the conflict with Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order authorizing the Bridger Pipeline’s proposed project to transport Canadian crude from the U.S.-Canada border to Wyoming.

World Oil Prices Surge Above $110 as Strait of Hormuz Crisis Deepens Global Energy Fears  — World oil prices climbed sharply on Friday as the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continued to threaten global supply, with Brent crude hovering near $111 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate trading around $105 amid heightened geopolitical tensions. The benchmark prices reflect persistent worries over disrupted shipments through the critical waterway, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil. The latest surge comes as diplomatic efforts to reopen the strait have stalled, pushing energy markets to four-year highs and raising concerns about inflation, economic growth and energy security worldwide. As of early May 1, 2026, Brent crude futures for June delivery rose to approximately $111 per barrel, up more than 1% in early trading. WTI crude for May settlement traded near $105, reflecting similar upward pressure. Both benchmarks have gained over 80% year-to-date, driven largely by Middle East supply risks that have overshadowed demand concerns. The crisis stems from the broader 2026 Iran conflict. Iranian forces effectively closed the strait in late February following U.S. and Israeli strikes, with limited commercial traffic resuming only under strict conditions. U.S. naval actions, including a blockade on Iranian ports, have further complicated shipping. Only a handful of vessels from select nations have passed recently, far below normal volumes. Analysts at S&P Global and others warn that prolonged disruption could keep prices elevated throughout the year. While U.S. production and strategic reserves provide some buffer for American consumers, Asia and Europe face steeper challenges as alternative routes increase costs and insurance premiums skyrocket for tankers near the region. OPEC+ has responded with modest production increases, but members' spare capacity is limited and internal dynamics complicate coordinated action. The UAE's recent exit from the group adds another layer of uncertainty to supply forecasts. U.S. shale producers have ramped up output, but logistical constraints and investor caution limit rapid scaling. The price spike is already rippling through economies. Gasoline prices in the United States have climbed toward $4 per gallon in many areas, while European energy costs surge amid reliance on imported LNG and refined products. Developing nations in Asia, heavily dependent on Middle East crude, face the greatest strain, with some governments considering subsidies or strategic releases to ease consumer pain. Energy experts note the Strait of Hormuz's unique vulnerability. The narrow passage between Iran and Oman is difficult to secure fully, and even threats of attacks or mines deter shipping companies. Recent incidents involving seized vessels and reported strikes have heightened risk premiums, with insurers demanding significantly higher rates or refusing coverage altogether. U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, have pushed for a maritime coalition to guarantee safe passage, but allied support has been mixed. Diplomatic talks mediated by Pakistan continue, yet mutual distrust between Washington and Tehran has slowed progress. Iran has demanded the end of the U.S. blockade before fully reopening the strait, while the administration insists on verifiable security guarantees. Market participants are watching several upcoming catalysts. The next OPEC+ meeting, weekly U.S. inventory reports and any breakthroughs in Iran negotiations could swing prices dramatically. Technical analysts point to resistance levels near $115 for Brent, with potential for further upside if disruptions worsen. Longer-term forecasts vary. Some banks project Brent averaging around $100-$110 for the year if the strait reopens gradually, while others warn of sustained premiums if tensions persist. Demand destruction from high prices could eventually cap gains, but current supply fears dominate trading. For consumers and businesses, the volatility creates planning challenges. Airlines have raised fares, manufacturers face higher input costs and households brace for increased heating and transportation expenses. Governments are exploring diversification strategies, including accelerated renewable energy investments and strategic partnerships with alternative suppliers. The crisis also highlights the geopolitics of energy. The Strait of Hormuz has long been a flashpoint, but the current conflict has brought its importance into sharper focus. Nations dependent on Gulf oil are reassessing vulnerabilities, while producers weigh the balance between revenue and security risks. As trading continues, oil prices reflect both immediate supply threats and broader uncertainty. Whether the latest spike proves temporary or the start of a new era of elevated energy costs depends on diplomatic outcomes in the coming weeks. For now, the world watches the narrow strait with heightened anxiety, knowing that events there can reshape economies far beyond the Persian Gulf.

Oil prices fall after Iran sends updated peace proposal to mediators in Pakistan - Oil prices fell Friday after Iran sent an updated peace proposal to mediators in Pakistan, raising hopes again that a settlement with the U.S. is still possible. U.S. crude oil futures fell 3% to close at $101.94 per barrel. International benchmark Brent lost nearly 2% to settle at $108.17. Pakistani officials confirmed to MS NOW that mediators received an updated proposal from Iran to end the war. The proposal has been delivered to the U.S., the officials said. President Donald Trump later said he was not satisfied with Iran’s offer. “Iran wants to make a deal, but I’m not satisfied with it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Iran wants to make a deal because they have no military left.” Trump faces a 60-day deadline under the War Powers Resolution related to military action in the Iran war.  Under the 1973 law, a president must withdraw troops within 60 days of notifying Congress of their deployment, unless lawmakers authorize the military action.. Congress has not done so. The Trump administration argued on Friday that a ceasefire reached three weeks ago had “terminated” hostilities between the two sides, according to MS NOW. This would allow the White House to avoid seeking Congressional approval for the war. An administration official said that the absence of direct fire between U.S. forces and Iran since a ceasefire was first agreed to on April 7 means the 60-day clock no longer applies. “For War Powers Resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, February ​28, have terminated,” an administration official told MS NOW. The argument was first raised by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during his hearing before the House Armed Services Committee earlier Thursday, where he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. The U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, and Trump formally notified Congress on March 2, starting the 60-day clock and setting up a May 1 deadline. Trump could seek a 30-day extension under the law but has not done so, according to lawmakers. Tensions remain elevated despite a ceasefire. Trump on Wednesday escalated threats against Tehran, vowing to maintain the U.S. blockade on Iran until Tehran agrees to a nuclear deal. Tehran has refused to reopen the Strait of Hormuz unless the U.S. lifts its blockade of Iranian ports. Axios also reported that the U.S. Central Command had prepared a plan for a “short and powerful” wave of strikes on Iran in hopes of breaking stalled talks between Washington and Tehran. While the two sides are currently in a ceasefire, a senior official from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had reportedly threatened “long and painful strikes” on U.S. positions if Washington renewed attacks on Iran, Reuters reported, citing Iranian media.

Crude Prices Tumble on Hopes Negotiations to End Iran War Will Resume  - June WTI crude oil (CLM26) today is down -3.37 (-3.21%), and June RBOB gasoline (RBM26) is down -0.0448 (-1.24%).  Crude oil and gasoline prices gave up early gains today and retreated , with gasoline falling from a 3.75-year high, on hopes that negotiations to end the US-Iran war will resume.   Crude prices initially moved higher today after the dollar index ($DXY) fell to a 2-week low, and as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, tightening global energy supplies. Crude oil prices initially moved higher today after President Trump said he was sticking with a naval blockade of Iran, and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed not to give up Iran’s nuclear or missile technologies and said Iran would keep control of the Strait of Hormuz. Crude prices also have support on signs that the US will maintain its naval blockade of Iran for the foreseeable future.  President Trump told his aides to prepare for an extended blockade and that it carries less of a risk for the US than resuming hostilities or walking away from the conflict without securing a deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear activities.Energy prices remain underpinned amid the Strait of Hormuz’s continued closure, threatening to deepen the global energy crisis.  The ongoing blockade could exacerbate global oil and fuel shortages, as about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transits through the strait.  Goldman Sachs estimates that crude output in the Persian Gulf has been curtailed by about 14.5 million bpd, and that the current disruption has drawn down nearly 500 million bbl from global crude stockpiles, which could hit a billion bbl by June.Persian Gulf oil producers have been forced to cut production by roughly 6% due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as local storage facilities reach capacity.  On April 13, the US began a blockade of all vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz that call at Iranian ports or are headed there.  President Trump said that the US naval blockade in the strait “will remain in full force” until a deal is fully agreed.  Iran had been able to export crude during the war before the blockade, as it exported about 1.7 million bpd in March.On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said it will leave OPEC on May 1.  The UAE’s decision to leave OPEC, the third-largest producer in the cartel, is potentially bearish for crude prices, as it allows the UAE to boost production without being constrained by OPEC’s output quotas.On April 13, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that about 13 million bpd of global oil supply has been shuttered by the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.  The IEA also said that more than 80 energy facilities have been damaged during the conflict, and a recovery could take as long as two years.In a bearish factor for crude, OPEC+ on April 5 said it will boost its crude output by 206,000 bpd in May, although that production hike now seems unlikely given that Middle East producers are being forced to cut production due to the Middle East war.  OPEC+ is trying to restore all of the 2.2 million bpd production cut it made in early 2024, but still has another 827,000 bpd left to restore.  OPEC’s March crude production fell by -7.56 million bpd to a 35-year low of 22.05 million bpd.  Expectations are that OPEC will boost its crude output by 188,000 bpd in June when the cartel meets in a video conference on Sunday, May 3.Vortexa reported on Monday that crude oil stored on tankers that have been stationary for at least 7 days rose +25% w/w to 153.11 million bbl in the week ended April 24, the highest in 3 months.The most recent US-brokered meeting in Geneva to end the war between Russia and Ukraine ended early as Ukrainian President Zelenskiy accused Russia of dragging out the war.  Russia has said the “territorial issue” remains unresolved with Ukraine, and there’s “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” to the war until Russia’s demand for territory in Ukraine is accepted.  The outlook for the Russia-Ukraine war to continue will keep restrictions on Russian crude in place and is bullish for oil prices.Ukrainian drone and missile attacks have targeted at least 30 Russian refineries over the past ten months, limiting Russia’s crude oil export capabilities and reducing global oil supplies.  Bloomberg data show Russia’s average refinery runs in April fell to 4.69 million bpd, the lowest in 16 years.  Also, since the end of November, Ukraine has ramped up attacks on Russian tankers, with at least six tankers attacked by drones and missiles in the Baltic Sea.  In addition, new US and EU sanctions on Russian oil companies, infrastructure, and tankers have curbed Russian oil exports.Wednesday’s EIA report showed that (1) US crude oil inventories as of April 24 were +1.2% above the seasonal 5-year average, (2) gasoline inventories were -2.4% below the seasonal 5-year average, and (3) distillate inventories were -10.3% below the 5-year seasonal average.  US crude oil production in the week ending April 24 was unchanged w/w at 13.586 million bpd, mildly below the record high of 13.862 million bpd posted in the week of November 7.Baker Hughes reported last Friday that the number of active US oil rigs in the week ended April 24 fell by -3 to 407 rigs, just above the 4.25-year low of 406 rigs posted in the week ended December 19.  Over the past 2.5 years, the number of US oil rigs has fallen sharply from the 5.5-year high of 627 rigs reported in December 2022.

Hormuz transits dry up, US intercepts newly sanctioned tanker  - Following last week’s seizure of two container ships by Iran transits of the Strait of Hormuz have slowed to a trickle while the US blockade forces more vessels to u-turn at the Arabian Sea.The seizing of two containers the Epaminondas and MSC Francesca by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) Navy on 22 April has transits reduced to a trickle with most by sanctioned or Iranian-flagged vessels. Figures from the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) showed three cargo ships and one tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz on 25 April – two eastbound and two westbound. The 51,202 dwt Liberian-flagged tanker Well Sail transited the Strait eastbound on 24 April sailing to an anchorage at Fujairah broadcasting AE FJR CHINA OWN as its destination according to AIS data from Pole Star Global. Two sanctioned false-flag chemical/product tankers Majesty and Oceanjet also transited eastbound on 24 April and are showed anchored off Shinas, Oman, stopping short of the US blockade at the edge of the Gulf of Oman. US Central Command (Centcom) said US forces had directed 38 ships to turnaround or return to port since its naval blockade situated at the edge of the Arabian Sea came into force on 13 April.US Centcom said it had intercepted the Panama-flagged LPG carrier LPG Sevan, sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s OFAC just a day earlier, and forced it to turn back to Iran under escort. AIS tracking showed the LPG Sevan as having sailed from offshore Oman out in the Arabian Sea before turning back to Bandar e-Jask in Iran.An analysis by Signal Ocean using AXSMarine AIS data of the first seven weeks of conflict from 1 March – 21 April showed 446 confirmed crossings of the Strait or an average of 8.6 per day although with significant variation across the period.“Seven weeks in, the Strait of Hormuz functions at roughly 7–9% of its pre-conflict utilisation rate during stable periods, with brief spikes when political signals align and sharp contractions when they don’t. The corridor that remains is dominated by operators with higher risk appetite, diplomatic exemptions, or ownership structures that make the calculation different from the one facing mainstream commercial fleets,” Signal Ocean said.The highest number of crossings was during a brief period on 18 April where both Iran and the US had declared the Strait fully open with 28 crossings. This brief period increased activity was followed by Iran again closing the Strait in retaliation of the continued blockade by the US, and firing on two Indian-flagged vessels and a French container ship.

US Naval Blockade Squeezes Iran’s Oil Exports, Forces Crude Onto Floating Storage - (Reuters) – A U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports has shrunk Tehran’s oil exports, stranding a growing stockpile of crude on tankers as Iranian storage sites run out of space, shipping data showed and analysts said. With some vessels switching off tracking systems and U.S. forces turning back Iranian tankers, how much crude Iran is delivering to customers, particularly main customer China, is impossible to measure. Just a handful of carriers carrying Iranian crude have left the Gulf of Oman between April 13-25, oil analytics firm Vortexa said. That’s down over 80% from a comparable period in March, when Iran exported 23.4 million barrels, LSEG data shows. Some of Tehran’s vessels have been intercepted by the U.S. after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters. “At this stage, we estimate that around 4 million barrels of Iranian crude has successfully moved out of the Gulf of Oman. We are not currently able to confirm whether any of those vessels have since been interdicted,” it said in an email to Reuters. The loss of Iranian supply adds to wider market tightness as the war has effectively closed the Straight of Hormuz, curtailing oil exports from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq and sending prices higher, something the U.S. has sought to avoid. Last month, the U.S. granted Tehran an unexpected temporary sanctions waiver on energy exports to allow prices to cool. Benchmark Brent crude oil futures have jumped by about $50 a barrel since the Iran war began on February 28, raising prices of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The International Energy Agency has called it the world’s largest oil output disruption. Analysts at Kpler said they had not observed any Iranian crude tankers exiting the Gulf of Oman since the blockade began. U.S. authorities said on Wednesday their blockade was denying Tehran of much-needed revenue from crude exports. “Right now there are 41 tankers with 69 million barrels of oil that Iranian regime can’t sell,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday. Iran’s currency, the rial, fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, highlighting the financial difficulties that face the oil-reliant economy. Despite the pressure, Iran is still loading crude at its main export hub on Kharg Island, maritime intelligence firm TankerTrackers said. Satellite imagery shows at least 10 tankers parked off Iran’s Chah Bahar port on the Gulf of Oman, it added. Iran pumped about 3.24 million bpd of crude in February, around half for domestic refining. Yet, the country may be forced to start cutting output within a week or two, said Kpler analyst Johannes Rauball, with storage scant. Onshore storage is about 60% full, Kpler said, with stocks above 50 million barrels, and capacity at 86 million barrels.

Iran is flooded with so much unsold oil that it’s stashing it in derelict tanks --Iran is scrambling to find new ways to store its oil, hoping to avoid a crippling production shutdown as a U.S. naval blockade bottles up its exports and negotiations to end the war remain deadlocked. With oil backing up at home, Iran is reviving derelict sites known as “junk storage,” using improvised containers and trying to ship crude by rail to China. The unusual steps are aimed at delaying an infrastructure crisis and blunting Washington’s leverage in the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.The war between the U.S. and Iran has turned into a race to see whether Tehran’s oil industry or global energy consumers crack first. Every barrel that can’t leave the country through normal export channels must go somewhere: into a tank, onto a ship, into an improvised storage site—or remain underground. Iran hopes to avoid the risk of having to turn off the spigots and deepen its revenue losses, said Sanam Vakil, Middle East and North Africa program director at Chatham House, a nonpartisan London think tank. “The shutdown will add pressure and motivate the negotiations,” Vakil said. The first round of talks between the U.S. and Iran ended earlier this month with little progress, then collapsed last week when Iran refused to meet again. Iran has presented regional mediators with a new offer to stop its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a full end to the war and a lifting of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, The Wall Street Journal has reported. It would see discussions about Iran’s nuclear program put off for now. On Monday, President Trump discussed Iran’s proposal with his national-security team, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Leavitt said Trump’s red lines on Iran remain clear. Iran choked off transits through the crucial shipping lanes early in the war with attacks on around two dozen ships. It continued to ship its own oil out for weeks until the U.S. imposed a blockade on traffic going in or out of Iranian ports on April 13 in an effort to pressure Iran’s oil-dependent economy. The blockade has sharply reduced the amount of oil that Iran, a net energy exporter, has been able to load on tankers, commodity analytics firm Kpler said. Iranian crude oil and condensate loadings averaged 2.1 million barrels a day between April 1 and April 13. Only five cargoes have been observed since the blockade, bringing the average down to 567,000 barrels a day between April 14 and April 23. In February, before the war, Iran exported on average 2 million barrels a day. With limited ability to load crude onto ships, Iran’s national oil company has already begun reducing output, according to Kpler. Production cuts often start before storage is technically full, because operators need to preserve room in the system and avoid dangerous bottlenecks. Kpler estimates Iranian crude production could fall from current levels by more than half, to between 1.2 million and 1.3 million barrels a day, by mid-May if the blockade holds. Meanwhile, the constraints on Iran and Gulf oil exporters as the strait stays closed have pushed oil prices higher, raising the cost of gasoline and diesel at the pump. It has also constricted supplies of some products such as jet fuel. That is putting pressure on consumers and businesses. International benchmark Brent oil futures rose nearly 3%, to $108.23 a barrel, Monday amid the continued lack of progress in peace talks. While prices are well above where they were before the war, they have remained below the high near $120 a barrel that they hit earlier in the conflict. Analysts debate how long it will take Iran to hit “tank tops”—industry parlance for running out of room to store the crude it pumps—but many think it could happen in under two weeks. Trump said Sunday that it would be about three days before Iran’s oil infrastructure backs up. An Iranian energy official vowed in a post Sunday on social media to strike back if any Iranian oil wells are damaged during the blockade. Iran’s onshore oil inventories have swelled by 4.6 million barrels to roughly 49 million barrels under the blockade, according Kpler, which puts the country’s capacity at 86 million barrels, or potentially 90 million to 95 million barrels once several northern refinery tanks are included. But operational constraints, safety limits and geography mean much of that space might not be usable.

Iran FM Meets Putin in Russia following Failed Islamabad Negotiations - Palestine Chronicle - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in St. Petersburg on Monday to hold high-level consultations with Russian officials, including a scheduled meeting with Vladimir Putin, as part of an ongoing diplomatic tour. Speaking upon arrival, Araqchi said the visit aims to “continue close consultations between Tehran and Moscow on regional and international issues,” Press TV reported. He added that the talks would provide an opportunity to review the latest developments in the war and strengthen bilateral coordination. Iran’s foreign minister also noted that recent US-Israeli military actions had disrupted regular diplomatic engagement with Russia, making the current round of consultations particularly significant. According to Press TV, Araqchi pointed to his recent visit to Islamabad, where Iran engaged in consultations with Pakistani officials acting as mediators in indirect talks with Washington. He said that earlier negotiations “despite some progress, did not achieve their goals,” attributing the breakdown to what he described as American “excessive demands” and “wrong policies.” “We must secure the rights of the Iranian people after 40 days of resistance and protect the country’s interests,” Araqchi stated, emphasizing that Tehran’s conditions remain central to any future diplomatic process. During his stop in Muscat, Araqchi held talks with senior Omani officials focusing on the strategic Strait of Hormuz. He stressed that as two coastal states, Iran and Oman must coordinate closely on maritime security, particularly as the strait has become a focal point of global concern amid escalating tensions. Al Mayadeen reported that Araqchi confirmed that both sides reached a broad understanding and agreed to continue consultations at the expert level to safeguard navigation and shared interests. The visit to Russia marks the latest stage in an intensive diplomatic effort to consolidate regional coordination following weeks of conflict. Tehran maintains that any future negotiations must address core issues, including guarantees against further military action and respect for Iran’s sovereignty, while ongoing consultations with regional and international partners aim to shape the next phase of the crisis.

'Everything in Our Power': Putin Reaffirms Support for Iran, Warns against Escalation - Palestine Chronicle -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is ready to do “everything in its power” to ensure peace in the Middle East during talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in St. Petersburg on Monday. According to the Russian news agency TASS, Putin emphasized that Russia would act in a way that serves the interests of Iran and the broader region, expressing hope that peace would be achieved “as quickly as possible.” Al Mayadeen reported that Putin also praised the Iranian people, saying they are “fighting courageously and heroically for their sovereignty,” and voiced hope they would overcome the current “difficult period of trials.” Putin confirmed he had received a message from Iran’s leadership, asking Araqchi to convey his “gratitude” and best wishes. According to the Iranian news agency Tasnim, Putin stressed that Russia intends to maintain and further develop its strategic relations with Iran, reiterating Moscow’s commitment to cooperation despite ongoing regional tensions. He added that Russia’s efforts would not only serve Iran’s interests but also those of all countries in the region. Araqchi said he was “very pleased” to meet Putin and conveyed greetings from Iran’s leadership, including President Masoud Pezeshkian. According to TASS, he described relations between Tehran and Moscow as a “strategic partnership at the highest level” that will continue to strengthen regardless of circumstances. Al Mayadeen reported that Araqchi also thanked Russia for its support during the war, stressing that Iran would continue to resist US pressure and defend its national interests. Araqchi said the talks in St. Petersburg were an opportunity to review developments in the war and coordinate efforts with Russia following his recent visits to Pakistan and Oman. According to Tasnim, he highlighted the need for continued coordination to end the conflict and manage regional developments, including ongoing diplomatic efforts. He reiterated that Iran’s position in negotiations remains firm, emphasizing the need to secure the rights of the Iranian people after weeks of conflict. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow believes all parties must avoid returning to military confrontation, warning that renewed escalation would not serve Iran, regional countries, or the global economy. Peskov reportedly added that Russia is prepared to offer mediation efforts to help resolve the conflict and support stability.

‘Wartime’: Iran Rejects Nuclear Concessions, Ties Hormuz Access to End of War - Palestine Chronicle - Iran will not make concessions on its nuclear program, according to statements by Iranian officials, who stressed that negotiations will not achieve what military pressure failed to impose. Ibrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for Iran’s parliamentary Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Tehran “will not compromise on the nuclear issue,” asserting that adversaries “will not obtain through negotiation what they failed to achieve on the battlefield.” Rezaei also said Iran has prepared “numerous surprises” for its enemies, adding that the country maintains full control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian military officials signaled continued readiness despite the ceasefire. Brigadier General Mohammad Akrami Nia said the armed forces do not consider the war to be over, stating that “the conditions are still considered wartime,” and confirming that Iran has updated its “target bank” and military capabilities. He added that Iran’s preparedness has deterred ground attacks, saying the enemy “did not dare” to launch a land offensive. Rezaei stressed that Iran’s armed forces remain on high alert and would respond harshly to any renewed aggression. He also clarified that recent diplomatic tours by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were not linked to nuclear negotiations, but focused on regional developments and bilateral relations. Iranian officials have consistently framed their posture as defensive, while signaling readiness for escalation if necessary. According to Press TV, Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Brigadier General Reza Talaei Nik said Tehran could allow commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz once the war fully ends. He stated that safe passage would resume “after the end of the war,” provided that security protocols protecting Iran’s interests are respected.

Iranian Currency Hits All-Time Low As Tehran Threatens 'Unprecedented' Response To US 'Maritime Piracy' -Iran’s currency plummeted to a record low on Wednesday, dropping to 1.8 million against the dollar following the brutal US-Israeli war, coinciding with uncertainty over the fragile truce and rising energy prices worldwide. The currency began a sharp descent two days ago after several weeks of artificial stability. During the initial weeks of the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic – which broke out on February 28 – the rial remained relatively steady, largely due to a total halt in imports and minimal market trading.Hundreds of textile workers have been laid off, according to Iran’s Shargh newspaper. According to ISNA, in the last two days, the rial has plummeted by 15 percent. The drop comes as Washington continues to enforce an aggressive blockade on Iranian ports, seizing multiple vessels recently and prompting Tehran to respond similarly. Iran has repeatedly warned that it will confront this blockade and use military action if necessary. A high-ranking Iranian security source told Press TV on Wednesday that Tehran will soon use “practical and unprecedented military action” if Washington’s “piracy” does not come to an end. “Iran's armed forces – operating under the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters as the war command – believe that patience has limits and that a punishing response is necessary if Washington maintains its illegal naval blockade around the Strait of Hormuz,” the source added.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Calls for 'Maintaining Unity' in the Face of US Blockade, Economic Sanctions - Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, has called for the Iranian people to “maintain unity” in the face of the US blockade and other economic pressure, which he warned is aimed at collapsing Iran “from within.” In a statement issued through Iranian media, Ghalibaf said that President Trump “divides the country into two groups: hardliners and moderates, and then immediately talks about a naval blockade to force Iran into submission through economic pressure and internal discord.”The Trump administration has been pushing a narrative that the Iranian leadership is divided, with some wanting a deal with the US while others don’t. But publicly, Iranian leaders have maintained a unified front and have insisted that real diplomacy won’t happen until the US lifts the blockade.Ghalibaf said that the US has entered a “new phase and wants to activate economic pressure and internal division through naval blockade and media hype to weaken or even make us collapse from within.”Also on Wednesday, an Iranian military source speaking to PressTV warned that the US would soon face “practical and unprecedented action” if it continues the blockade.“Iran’s armed forces – operating under the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters as the war command – believe that patience has limits and that a punishing response is necessary if Washington maintains its illegal naval blockade around the Strait of Hormuz,” the Press TV report said.President Trump has signaled that he’s planning a long-term blockade, but the continued enforcement will exacerbate the global economic crisis caused by the war and the rising gas prices in the US. Joe Kent, the former head of the US National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned over objections to the Iran war, said in a post on X that the blockade really puts more pressure on the US. “Continuing the blockade puts far more pressure on us than on Iran. Iran has proven it can endure economic pain — it has been doing so since 1979. The blockade will not force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment, ballistic missiles, or its proxy networks,” Kent wrote.“Instead, the blockade is hurting the American people and creating serious domestic pressure on POTUS: Gas prices will continue to rise as we head into the midterms, harming the working-class voters who overwhelmingly backed Trump and Republicans—putting GOP majorities in serious jeopardy,” he added.Kent also noted that the blockade is creating a “global fertilizer shortage that will cause major food security crises and potential famines in vulnerable regions.”

BBC visits US and UK military base in Iraq as ceasefire continues (video report) The BBC has been given access to a military base in Iraq where UK forces have been working together with their US counterparts during the conflict in the region. The US announced an extended but fragile ceasefire on the US-Israel war in Iran - but prior to the ceasefire up to 28 drones were fired at the base on a daily basis. "You hear weapons of destruction going off around you, and it's bloody difficult," an RAF air specialist at the base told the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale. British and US forces were working side by side at this military base long before the war with Iran started – in the fight against the Islamic State group. Sharp differences over the war Iran have certainly strained transatlantic relations. But on this base the two are still joined at the hip. Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said the close co-operation between the two militaries was a "message that needed to be elevated". Since the conflict began "We've helped move Americans out of harms way; we've helped protect them and they've helped protect us," Carns said - though he stressed that British forces were in a "defensive posture". Air Chief Marshal, Sir Harvey Smyth, said he'd met with the US commander of the base who'd been "effusive in praise" of UK forces. "I think our relationship is as strong as ever, and this operation has brought us even closer", he said. But that certainly hasn't been reflected in the language between Washington and Westminster.

Israeli Bulldozers Smash Solar Panels, Olive Trees in Southern Lebanon ‘Infrastructure’ Demolition - During the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Christian village of Debel has spent an undue amount of time in the spotlight. In the lead-up to the ceasefire, an image emerged of an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus in the village with a sledgehammer, sparking international outcry and leading to Israel jailing a pair of soldiers for the incident.This weekend, Debel was a topic of discussion again, as Israeli military bulldozers were seen in the video destroying solar panels that provided the village’s electricity and supported its water supply. Homes and olive trees and Debel were similarly destroyed by the IDF.The IDF, for its part, reported that they are investigating the videos, and the destruction being committed by the soldiers in the video does not align with the “values of the IDF and the conduct expected of its soldiers.” While Israel has been pretty open about systematically destroying municipalities in Lebanon’s far south, nominally for national security reasons, the wanton destruction within Debel, which is in the south but not immediately along the border, is a recurring headache for the IDF as it tries to paint its forcible population transfers and destruction of entire towns as limited and in some way not a violation of international law.Debel is a uniquely bad fit for Israel’s narrative of fighting Hezbollah, as not only is it a known Christian village but the things the IDF is seen destroying, like statues of Jesus or solar panels, are plainly not military targets and do not speak to Israeli troops behaving responsibly in occupied territory.This is compounded by the report from Haaretz late last week that Israeli troops have been engaged in ‘routine’ looting of Lebanese homes with relative impunity, undercutting IDF claims to be holding violators of codes of conduct to strict account in a war and occupation that is seeing more and more ugly visuals.

New Evacuations Orders in Southern Lebanon as Israel Escalates ‘Ceasefire’ Strikes -  While the ceasefire that was extended last week in Lebanon continues to inexplicably be presented as “holding,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered substantial escalation in the Israeli military action in Lebanon’s south, and the amount of strikes seems to be growing substantially over the weekend.At least 14 people have been confirmed killed over the weekend in Israeli strikes, and at least 37 others wounded. While Israel had largely confined its military operations during the “ceasefire” to the area south of the newly established Yellow Line, Israel Sunday began ordering evacuations of seven municipalities north of the Litani River, and already those areas are coming under Israeli attack.The casualties continue to include Israel attacking seemingly anybody who is on a vehicle anywhere south of the Litani, but also include a number of people wounded in Israeli airstrikes on a cafe in Kfar Tebnit and general attacks on what it purports to be “Hezbollah infrastructure.”  Netanyahu insisted, of course, that this was because Hezbollah was trying to undermine the ceasefire with violations, while Hezbollah presented their own rocket fire against northern Israel as retaliation for Israeli violations of the ceasefire.At most this has led some media to conclude the ceasefire is “under strain,” though a more accurate description, at least for the people still living south of the Yellow Line, would be to say it is functionally non-existent.The ceasefire was announced on April 16, and extended on April 23, both announcements being book-ended by strikes. The deal is nominally between the Israeli and Lebanese governments, and Hezbollah was neither present at the talks nor a party to either ceasefire. Hezbollah objected to the ceasefire as well since it didn’t include Israel withdrawing from Lebanese territory, and insisted that resisting the occupation would continue.The end result is continued fighting, and more and more people being displaced in southern Lebanon, and being warned not to attempt to return home during the ceasefire. Already an estimated 20% of Lebanon’s population has been displaced by the latest war, and with new evacuation orders being issued, that number is likely to grow, further complicating an already disastrous situation.

As Israel Continues to Destroy Lebanon’s South, Locals Are Turning to Hezbollah - With US and Israeli officials constantly insisting everything that is happening in southern Lebanon is Hezbollah’s fault, there was an underlying assumption that there would be a public backlash against Hezbollah as locals lives got progressively worse. While there were early reports that people resented Hezbollah’s role in the war during the early days, that view seems to be shifting as the destruction continues to scale.Occupied by Israel, and watching Israeli military bulldozers destroy their homes and villages, many have less and less time to hold Hezbollah responsible, and are instead turning to Hezbollah for protection, as the only faction that is in any way resisting the ongoing attacks.This should come as no surprise, as making the local population desperate and leaving them with only one group to turn to has continually ended with the locals, whether they want to or not, becoming more reliant on that group. Israel’s narrative likely isn’t helping matters in this case, as they continue to insist everything they’re destroying is Hezbollah infrastructure, and that it’s all “terror sites,” its increasingly apparent that the IDF is destroying everything in its path, including large numbers of civilian homes. IDF commanders even admitted earlier this week that the de facto policy is to destroy Shi’ite villages.While the Lebanese government is talking about eventually “reclaiming” the lost territory from Israel, they continue to engage in talks that end in “ceasefires” that don’t actually end Israeli attacks on the south, so when Hezbollah politicians say they is no real ceasefire in place, it rings true.That ceasefire continues to accomplish very little, and Israel’s strategy within the “buffer zone” closely mirrors what Israel has done in the Gaza Strip in recent years. Earlier this week, Defense Minister Israel Katz even made that comparison, saying governing the buffer zone was like governing Gaza.For those living inside the buffer zone, this sense of constant intermittent displacement, threatened by permanent displacement if Israel follows through on plans to erase their villages, this is just a continuation of a long problem. As Israeli strikes on paramedics and civilian homes full of women and children continue apace, the idea that they were going to blame Hezbollah for everything was simply unrealistic.

Israeli Attacks in Gaza Kill 19 Palestinians in Three Days as IDF Continues Constant Ceasefire Violations -   Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least 19 Palestinians and wounded 43 over the past three days, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as the IDF continues its constant violations of the US-backed ceasefire.Israeli attacks have also significantly increased in Gaza since the US and Israel halted attacks on Iran under a very fragile ceasefire. The UN reported last week that its partners on the ground in Gaza recorded about a 46% increase in Israeli attacks from April 12 to April 18.Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Saturday that IDF attacks killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded 32 over the previous 48 hours. On Sunday, the ministry said it recorded the killing of two Palestinians and the injury of 11 over the previous 24 hours, figures that are based on the number of dead and wounded Palestinians who arrive at hospitals and morgues.Among the victims of the attacks was Islam Karsou, a woman who was pregnant with twins and was killed on Friday alongside her two young children, according to Reuters.“A number of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, as ambulance and civil defense crews have been unable to reach them so far,” the ministry wrote on Telegram. It said that since the so-called ceasefire was signed in early October, Israeli attacks have killed at least 811 Palestinians and wounded 2,278.Israeli attacks continued on Sunday, with Al Jazeera reporting that at least four Palestinians were killed throughout the day. A woman was reported killed in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, one Palestinian was killed in the central part of the Strip, and two people were killed by Israeli gunfire and shelling in Gaza City.IDF troops in Gaza have also continued to expand the so-called “Yellow Line,” which divides the IDF-occupied side of the Strip from the rest of the Palestinian territory. When the ceasefire deal was first signed, the IDF was controlling 53% of Gaza, but by the end of December, Israeli troops were occupying at least 58%.

Live: Hundreds aboard Gaza-bound flotilla stranded at sea after Israeli interception  -- Tensions remain high between Iran and the US, with Axios reporting that President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s peace proposal. He signalled the US will maintain its naval blockade of Iranian ports until Tehran agrees to a nuclear deal.  Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said the US naval blockade of Iranian ports has not affected the country’s fuel supply or distribution. Overnight, the Israeli navy reportedly launched a "violent raid" against various boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla, leaving hundreds of participants stranded onboard "powerless, broken" vessels. Here are the latest developments:

• The Global Sumud Flotilla warned that an approaching storm further threatens the lives of participants stranded at sea following Israel's raids.
• US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to help on the issue of Iran’s enriched uranium.
• The Israeli army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said that "there is no ceasefire" with Lebanon, as the military continues to launch demolitions and attacks in the country.
• US President Donald Trump is expected to receive a briefing on new plans slated for potential military action in Iran on Thursday from Centcom leader Brad Cooper, according to a report by Axios. Some of the plans that could be discussed include a wave of strikes against Iran, the possibility of a ground invasion and a special forces operation to secure Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
• Ultra-Orthodox Jews have staged protests across Israel against military conscription, with police using stun grenades to disperse demonstrations in Jerusalem.

Gaza-bound flotilla says hundreds stranded at sea following Israeli interception - The Global Sumud Flotilla indicated in a post on X that hundreds of participants are stranded onboard "powerless, broken" vessels as a result of the Israeli navy's interception.  They warned that amid jammed communications with some boats, an approaching storm further threatens the lives of participants.  "In a violent raid in international waters, Israeli naval forces have intercepted, boarded, and systematically disabled various boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla," the movement said.

Zelenskyy Accuses Russia of Stealing Ukrainian Children as Kyiv Races to Bring Them Home Before Moscow Erases Their Identity - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed his call for the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, describing their transfer as one of the most cynical crimes of the war. Speaking to participants of the Civil Society and Expert Day, Zelenskyy said Ukraine must keep working to bring the children home before Russia has more time to erase their identity, separate them from their roots, and expose them to militarization. Zelenskyy accused Russia of carrying out a deliberate policy of moving Ukrainian children into Russian territory, scattering them across the country and hiding details about their fate. He said the process is not accidental or chaotic. In his view, it is organized, calculated, and designed to weaken the children’s connection to Ukraine. He also accused Russia of trying to “reprogram” their culture, suggesting that Ukrainian children are being pressured or shaped into accepting a Russian identity. The Ukrainian president also warned that children taken by Russia are being subjected to militarization. That accusation reflects one of Kyiv’s biggest concerns: that Ukrainian minors are not only being removed from their families and communities, but also being exposed to state-driven narratives and military-style influence. Zelenskyy said bringing them back is urgent because every delay gives Russia more time to break their ties to Ukraine. Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative has helped secure the return of 2,126 children so far. He stressed that the work will continue and said Ukraine has brought in strong international mediators to support the effort. The figure shows progress, but also underlines the scale of the challenge, as Kyiv continues to seek the return of many more children. Zelenskyy thanked every country that has joined the Coalition for the Return of Children, as well as leaders and First Ladies who have supported the cause. He also expressed gratitude to diplomats, international organizations, journalists, and members of the Bring Kids Back team for keeping global attention on the issue. His message was clear: Ukraine sees the return of abducted children as an international responsibility, not only a domestic Ukrainian matter.

Russia Unleashes a Massive Drone and Missile Barrage Across Ukraine as Dnipro, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia Suffer Fresh Damage -  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says several regions are dealing with fresh casualties and damage after another wave of Russian attacks hit cities and infrastructure across the country. According to Zelenskyy, seven people remain hospitalized in Dnipro, while five people were hospitalized in Odesa, including two in serious condition. One person was also injured in the Kharkiv region. He said dozens of people were affected by the strikes and are receiving assistance. The latest attacks caused damage in multiple areas. In Dnipro, Zelenskyy said a bus was destroyed, while a residential building, a store and passenger cars were damaged. In Odesa, residential buildings were hit, leaving several people injured. The Kharkiv region also reported one injury, while Zaporizhzhia suffered damage from the attack. The Ukrainian president did not provide full details on the scale of destruction in Zaporizhzhia, but included it among the affected areas. The Mykolaiv region was also targeted, with energy grid facilities coming under attack. Zelenskyy said the strikes left thousands of families without electricity. That kind of infrastructure damage has become a major part of the war’s daily toll. Even when casualty numbers are limited, attacks on power systems can disrupt homes, businesses, hospitals, water supply systems and essential services. Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 200 drones overnight, most of them described as Shaheds, along with ballistic missiles. He added that since morning, Russia had launched about 30 more strike drones. The scale of the attack shows the pressure Ukraine continues to face from repeated drone and missile strikes. Even when air defenses intercept many incoming weapons, the volume of attacks can still overwhelm communities and cause damage across several regions. The Ukrainian president used the latest strikes to remind Ukraine’s partners that the war is not slowing down. He said security is needed every day because Russia continues attacking Ukrainian cities and civilians. Zelenskyy argued that Russia must be forced to end the war through sustained pressure. He said sanctions must continue working and warned that international pressure on Moscow should not be reduced.     

Worker Killed by Ukrainian Drone Attack on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant –    A Ukrainian drone attack on Monday killed a driver at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which has been under Russian control since the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.According to a spokeswoman for the plant’s Russian-installed management, the attack marked the first time an employee was killed by a Ukrainian attack. “This is the first case when a Zaporizhzhia NPP employee was killed in a Ukrainian strike while at his workstation,” the spokeswoman said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. “Previously, our employees had only been wounded in such enemy attacks. The lone death was Andrey Korotky, who was killed in a terror attack by the Kiev regime in Energodar,” she added.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has inspectors based at the ZNPP, also released a statement on the attack. “IAEA has been informed by the ZNPP that a drone strike this morning killed a driver at its transport workshop in the vicinity of the plant site,” the IAEA said.The agency added that its director, Rafael Grossi, “reiterates that strikes on or near NPPs can endanger nuclear safety and must not take place. The IAEA’s team on the site will look into the incident and continue to monitor the situation.”Ukraine hasn’t commented on the attack, but it came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was engaged in “nuclear terrorism” because its drones pass over the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and one once crashed into the plant’s protective shell, though Moscow denied responsibility.The incident at the ZNPP comes as Russia and Ukraine have been trading daily massive drone attacks, resulting in civilian deaths on both sides.

Finland's Government Proposes Lifting Nuclear Weapons Import Ban to Align With NATO -  Finland’s government has proposed an amendment to parliament that would lift restrictions on importing nuclear weapons, a move to align the country with NATO, an alliance it joined in 2023.“The Government proposes to remove the legal barriers on importing nuclear devices into Finland and on transporting, supplying or possessing them in Finland in the context of Finland’s homeland defense, the collective defense of NATO or defense cooperation,” Finland’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on April 23. The statement said that acquiring, manufacturing, developing, or detonating nuclear weapons would remain criminalized. “The objective of the government proposal is to remove legal barriers concerning nuclear devices to enable Finland’s homeland defense as part of the Alliance and the full use of NATO’s deterrence and defense,” the ministry said.The changes to Finland’s law would leave open the possibility of the country, which shares a border with Russia of more than 800 miles, joining NATO’s nuclear sharing program, under which the US has nuclear bombs stationed in five NATO states: Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Turkey.France is also looking to deploy its nuclear weapons to other countries, with French President Emmanuel announcing last month that Paris plans to expand its arsenal and will allow the deployment of nuclear-armed French aircraft to eight allied countries: Germany, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark. So far, there are no confirmed plans for French deployments to the eight states listed above, but if the plan does come to fruition, it would put NATO nuclear weapons much closer to Russia. Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, recently said that his country doesn’t intend to host nuclear weapons in “peacetime,” but if the law is changed, such deployments would be possible.