All posts tagged: @NG26J

Israel says it has killed Iran navy chief

Israel says it has killed Iran navy chief

Published by Sam Flores

FILE PHOTO: In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Ebrahim Raisi waves as he visits an exhibition of the Revolutionary Guard navy capabilities while accompanied by the guard’s navy commander Alireza Tangsiri, in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Iranian Presidency Office | AP Israel’s Defense Forces said Thursday that Iranian naval commander Alireza Tangsiri had been killed in a “precise strike” in the port city of Bandar Abbas, accusing him of being responsible for efforts to close the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. The IDF said in a social media post that Tangsiri “oversaw maritime terrorism carried out against countries in the Middle East, as well as against U.S. and other nations’ energy infrastructure.” U.S. Central Command later confirmed Tangsiri’s death in a post on X. Tangsiri’s death from the Israeli airstrike “makes the region safer,” said the commander of CentCom, Adm. Brad Cooper, adding that strikes on the Iranian navy would continue. Iran has not yet commented on the report. Shipping traffic through the …

Trump postpones strikes on Iran power plants, energy infrastructure

Trump postpones strikes on Iran power plants, energy infrastructure

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he would order the military to postpone strikes on Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure for five days following “productive” dialogue regarding “total resolution” of hostilities in the Middle East. Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. and Iran had “VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.” The U.S. president said these talks would continue through the week. Oil prices tumbled on the news. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 19, 2026. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters His comments come shortly after he had given Iran 48 hours to reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway is a key maritime corridor that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas typically passes through it. This is breaking news. …

Trump controls the economy’s key levers, from oil to the Fed

Trump controls the economy’s key levers, from oil to the Fed

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump and Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Aaron Schwartz | CNP | Bloomberg | Getty Images Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi embraced President Donald Trump on Thursday, and not just on policy grounds. The newly elected Japanese leader threw herself into the arms of the U.S. president when he greeted her at the White House. “It is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world,” Takaichi said later as the two met in front of reporters in the Oval Office. Beneath the flattery is an important truth. Trump is singlehandedly shaping the course of global events to a degree that far outstrips even the power he wielded in his first presidency. With his presidency unshackled, his military and other policy decisions are reshaping the economy in real time — and clouding the economic outlook. Trump’s predecessors weren’t willing to make the choice he did in Iran. President Barack Obama’s response …

Trump waives U.S. shipping law for 60 days to steady oil market

Trump waives U.S. shipping law for 60 days to steady oil market

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump issued a 60-day waiver of a longstanding U.S. shipping law in an attempt to stabilize oil markets amid the Iran war, the White House confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday. The temporary suspension of the Jones Act “will allow vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and coal to flow freely to U.S. ports for sixty days,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. The Trump administration “remains committed to continuing to strengthen our critical supply chains,” Leavitt said. The Jones Act, signed into law in 1920 by then-President Woodrow Wilson, requires that the transport of goods between U.S. ports must be conducted by U.S. vessels. The law was intended as an effort to grow the domestic shipping industry after World War I. The statute has been criticized as a form of protectionism, and some economists have recently argued that it impedes domestic trade. Trump’s two-month waiver was announced as oil prices resumed their rise due to the Iran war, in which major energy infrastructure has come under attack and …

U.S. asked China to delay Xi meeting ‘a month or so’ due to Iran war

U.S. asked China to delay Xi meeting ‘a month or so’ due to Iran war

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. has asked to delay his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing by “a month or so” due to the ongoing war with Iran. Trump was expected to travel to China at the end of March for the meeting with Xi. But when asked in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon if that trip was still on, Trump said, “I don’t know, we’re working on that right now.” “We’re speaking to China. I’d love to, but because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here, I feel,” Trump said. “And so, we’ve requested that we delay it a month or so,” Trump said. “I’m looking forward to being with him. We have a very good relationship.” The comments came as tensions between the two economic superpowers have recently appeared to ratchet up, spurred by the Iran war and the U.S. announcing a new investigation into Chinese trade practices. Trump insisted in Monday’s remarks that the proposed delay was solely about …

Russian ambassador to UK Andrey Kelin reflected stark global picture

Russian ambassador to UK Andrey Kelin reflected stark global picture

Published by Sam Flores

“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” That was how Winston Churchill famously described Russia (the Soviet Union as it then was), back in 1939. To this day, I can’t think of a better way to describe the complications when trying to decipher Russia, its leadership and its motives. A conundrum reinforced to me yet again this past week during my first conversation with a senior Russian official since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Before Russia’s Crimean invasion and annexation in 2014, I had been a fairly frequent visitor to Russia and had witnessed its post-Soviet integration into the global system. From G8 meetings in St Petersburg, to G20s in Moscow; from multiple St Petersburg Economic Forum attendances, to sitting in the palatial Kremlin with oil industry chiefs and the powerful Igor Sechin as my host; I had seen how Russia appeared to be on a Western economic trajectory. And yet all that eroded swiftly after the Crimean invasion, which I witnessed firsthand from Kyiv, where I was reporting from in …

Trump can’t ‘drill, baby, drill’ his way out of this Iran oil crisis

Trump can’t ‘drill, baby, drill’ his way out of this Iran oil crisis

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump promised to “drill, baby, drill” on the presidential campaign trail. It’s not going to bail him out of this oil crisis spurred by the war he started in Iran, lawmakers and analysts say. Trump and Republicans last year aggressively ramped up policies favorable to fossil fuels after romping to an electoral victory in 2024 on a promise to lower the cost of living, including by quelling gas prices. Their signature domestic policy bill, known as the “one big beautiful” tax and spending measure, opened up swaths of new land to oil and gas leasing. The administration has moved to slash regulations that the fossil fuel industry views as hurdles. And it has pursued an aggressive leasing schedule to get more rigs operating on federal lands and waters. Now, Trump is confronted with a crisis there’s little chance of drilling his way out of. The war in Iran has whipsawed oil markets as the Strait of Hormuz has remained largely impassible. The strait carries about 20% of the world’s oil supply. And the …

U.S. has no clear exit strategy from Iran war: Russia’s UK ambassador

U.S. has no clear exit strategy from Iran war: Russia’s UK ambassador

Published by Sam Flores

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the UK Andrei Kelin during an interview with PA at the official residence of the Russian Ambassador in London. Picture date: Monday February 21, 2022. Aaron Chown – Pa Images | Pa Images | Getty Images The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is a “misadventure” whose goals and exit strategy remain unclear, Russia’s ambassador to the U.K. told CNBC. Andrey Kelin said Russia has “a lot of sympathy” with Tehran and said “the best end” to the escalating Middle East war is for it to “show only that they are senseless.” “We still are trying to understand, what are the goals of President Trump in this campaign. You know that lots of doubts have been expressed about the exit strategy that the American administration can have in this endeavour,” Kelin told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick in an interview recorded on Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, earlier this week, offering his “unwavering support” to Tehran and saying the country “has been and …

Cargo ship struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz: UK

Cargo ship struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz: UK

Published by Sam Flores

Naval units from Iran and Russia carry out to simulation of rescue a hijacked vessel during the joint naval drills held at the Port of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz in Hormozgan, Iran on February 19, 2026. Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images Three vessels off Iran’s coast have been struck by projectiles, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Wednesday, the latest in a flurry of incidents reported in or near the Strait of Hormuz. One of the ships reported it had been struck 11 nautical miles north of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire onboard and forcing the crew to evacuate, the UKMTO said. Two other incidents were also reported on Wednesday morning, with one vessel struck by a projectile about 50 nautical miles northwest of Dubai and another sustaining damage off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The UKMTO urged vessels in the area to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity while authorities continue to investigate. Shipping traffic through the strategically vital Strait …

Energy prices will fall when U.S. destroys Iran’s ability to attack tankers in Strait of Hormuz: Wright

Energy prices will fall when U.S. destroys Iran’s ability to attack tankers in Strait of Hormuz: Wright

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright pumps gas at a gas station in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S., February 27, 2026. Sheila Dang | Reuters Energy Secretary Chris Wright said oil and gas prices will begin to fall when the U.S. begins to knock out Iran’s ability to hinder tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, as Americans weather spiking gas prices due to the war in Iran. “The plan is to get oil and natural gas and fertilizer and all the products from the Gulf flowing through the straits before too long,” Wright said on Fox News Sunday. “We’re massively attriting their ability to strike with missiles and drones, and that rate of attrition will increase in the coming days. So we’ll be cautious, we’ll be careful, but energy will flow soon.” President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in the White House in part by promising to lower gas prices and defeat high inflation. He has frequently touted lower gas prices ahead of the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress …