Oil Falls After Iraq Signs Pipeline Export
Deal With Kurdistan
Posted By: sunset, 3/18/2026 9:26:33 PM
Oil dropped as Iraq signed a deal to resume exports via Turkey that avoid the Strait of Hormuz, and as the US stepped up efforts to force the reopening of the key waterway. Brent fell below $101 a barrel, after adding more than 3% on Tuesday, while West Texas Intermediate was near $92. Iraq agreed with Kurdistan to resume oil exports through a pipeline in the semi-autonomous region that goes to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The US said it had used penetrator munitions to hit Iranian anti-ship cruise missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz, the vital passage that President Donald Trump has been seeking to reopen.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied California’s emergency request to modify a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving a policy that allowed public schools to withhold information from parents about a student’s gender transition. California filed an emergency motion seeking to revise the language of a permanent injunction against the policy, citing the need to address situations involving parents who might engage in abuse. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the California policies violated the First and 14th Amendments. “Parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school student child expresses gender incongruence,..." the permanent injunction states.
Oil dropped as Iraq signed a deal to resume exports via Turkey that avoid the Strait of Hormuz, and as the US stepped up efforts to force the reopening of the key waterway.
Brent fell below $101 a barrel, after adding more than 3% on Tuesday, while West Texas Intermediate was near $92. Iraq agreed with Kurdistan to resume oil exports through a pipeline in the semi-autonomous region that goes to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The US said it had used penetrator munitions to hit Iranian anti-ship cruise missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz, the vital passage that President Donald Trump has been seeking to reopen.
Travelers nationwide are dealing with lengthy security line backups at airports due to the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and, in turn, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). As the shutdown continues, the TSA is increasingly facing staffing shortages that have led to long lines at airport security checkpoints. Unfortunately, it sounds like those staffing issues are only getting worse. “Travelers are facing TSA lines of up to nearly three hours long at some major airports, causing missed flights and massive delays during peak travel,” the DHS said in a statement.
The State Department has cut the fee Americans must pay to renounce their U.S. citizenship by roughly 80%, lowering the cost from $2,350 to $450 under a new rule that took effect Friday.
The new fee, first announced in 2023 but not previously implemented, returns the cost to the same level the government charged when it first began requiring payment for citizenship renunciations in 2010. The State Department said in the rule that it lowered the fee as a policy decision to reduce the cost burden on people seeking a Certificate of Loss of Nationality, the document issued after someone formally renounces U.S. citizenship before a diplomatic or consular officer abroad.
As many as 11 Indian nationals living illegally in the United States have been charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud after allegedly staging armed robberies at convenience stores in an attempt to secure immigration benefits, US federal prosecutors said. According to the United States Department of Justice, the accused allegedly organised fake robberies so that store clerks could falsely claim they were victims of violent crimes while applying for immigration relief. The U visa programme allows victims of certain crimes who have suffered physical or mental abuse and who assist law enforcement in investigations to live and work legally in the United States.
Battered and unseaworthy, HMS Middleton was dragged by tugs into Portsmouth naval base on Sunday. The Hunt class mine countermeasures vessel (MCMV) returned to the home of the Royal Navy on March 8 after being brought back from the Gulf by a heavy-lift ship. The ignominious piggy-back was cheaper than letting the more than 40-year-old ship make the 6,200-mile journey back from Bahrain under her own power and freed her crew to join other ships. But her return meant the end of the Royal Navy's anti-mine vessel presence in the Middle East after almost 50 years. Only unmanned drone systems are left, according to the Navy.
The future of travel may soon include flying taxis—and Texas is now one of the federal government's testing grounds. The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced eight proposals selected for a new Advanced Air Mobility initiative, the Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). Under the program, Texas will work with federal regulators and private aviation companies to test air taxi operations connecting major cities across the state. The aircraft being tested are known as electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, or eVTOLs
The United States Navy has destroyed 16 Iranian boats suspected of preparing to lay naval mines near the Strait of Hormuz, marking one of the most direct maritime confrontations in the ongoing Gulf War. According to the United States military, the vessels were targeted after intelligence suggested they were equipped for mine-laying operations in the strategic waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Officials from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed the strike on Tuesday and released unclassified footage showing several Iranian vessels being destroyed during the operation.
The French Navy will send eight frigates and two amphibious assault ships to the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, joining aircraft carrier FS Charles De Gaulle (R91), following an Iranian drone attack on a Cyprus-based joint operating installation. “While the crisis in Iran – the war in Iran – is affecting the entire region, it is important for me to come here alongside you, along with the Prime Minister of Greece, to tell you that when Cyprus is attacked, it is Europe that is attacked, and that the defense of Cyprus is obviously a crucial issue for your country, (snip) but also for France and, with it, the European Union,”
Oil plunges 10% as Trump warns to hit
Iran ‘twenty times harder’ if it blockades
Strait of Hormuz 7 replies
Iran ‘twenty times harder’ if it blockades
Strait of Hormuz 7 replies
Oil prices plunged 10% Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would be hit “twenty times harder” if it attempted to halt oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, while also signaling that the conflict with Iran could end soon. International Brent crude was down nearly 11% at $88.36 per barrel at 9.25 p.m. ET Monday. U.S. crude oil
fell over more than 10% to $85.17 per barrel. The declines come after oil surged past $100 Monday. Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait is a vital transit route. Roughly 13 million barrels passed through the waterway in 2025, accounting for about 31% of global seaborne oil flows,
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a new policy that would ban foreign nationals and non-citizens from accessing its loan services — a continuation of efforts to refocus federal resources to ventures that align with American prioritization.
"The Trump SBA is committed to driving economic growth and job creation for American citizens," SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a statement on Friday.
The requirement will apply to its Surety Bond and Microloan programs and is an expansion of changes made in February to the SBA’s 504 and 7(a) programs — loans for small businesses looking to finance working capital, equipment or acquisitions.
The Pentagon on Sunday announced that U.S. forces have carried out a lethal strike on a vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing six people on board.
The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted "a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" at the direction of the new leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, who took over in January.
"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the Southern Command said in a press release.
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Arkansas governor says she was asked to
leave a restaurant because employees felt 'threatened' 32 replies
leave a restaurant because employees felt 'threatened' 32 replies
Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that she was asked to leave a restaurant in Little Rock last week because her presence made employees and customers feel "threatened."
Sanders previously served as White House press secretary during President Donald Trump's first term and has since been a supporter of the president's immigration policies.
The governor said she was dining with two other moms at the restaurant, which has been identified as The Croissanterie, when the owner allegedly told members of her security detail that Sanders must leave because her "presence made their employees feel threatened."
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Later this month, protesters will gather across the U.S. for the third “No Kings” rally since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the Minnesota Capitol is set to host the largest rally. The national flagship rally at the Capitol in St. Paul is among more than 3,000 events planned on Saturday, March 28 as part of the national “No Kings” movement protesting Trump and his administration. Celebrity activists including Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers are slated to join Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Attorney General Keith Ellison and other Minnesota officials for the big event. Dozens of other
Given Iran’s half century of cruel barbarism in the Middle East, it’s hard to understand why the Democrats seem to be rooting for them in the current war. I have two theories.
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California lawmakers said Thursday they planned to change the name of “César Chavez Day” to “Farmworkers Day” after sexual abuse allegations against the late civil rights leader arose earlier this week.
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What’s So Great About Diversity?
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Diversity is our strength.’ One hears this, or myriad variants of the same idea, unrelentingly. Certainly I work in an Australian university where the extent of higher-ups pushing this notion does indeed qualify as unrelenting, even matching totalitarian state levels of propaganda. But even outside the hallowed halls of impartial, politically balanced academia (did I write that with a straight face?) the mantra or cliché that diversity somehow delivers a stronger balance sheet or a more cohesive society or just better outcomes is pervasive in today’s democracies that have committed themselves to multiculturalism and to the various neo-Marxist versions of feminism. Sure,
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The FBI is investigating former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent in connection with alleged leaks of classified information, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell CBS News.
The probe began before Kent resigned this week over the Trump administration's handling of the war with Iran, the sources said. The FBI's Criminal Division is handling the probe, which has been underway for some time, one source said.
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JB Pritzker Promises to Weaponize Government
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There are few things worse than someone who has had everything handed to them who acts like they’ve somehow earned all of it. We say these people “were born on 3rd base and act like they hit a triple.” I don’t have a problem with inherited wealth, but that, coupled with a sense of entitlement, is too much form. I call it the “Lucky Sperm Syndrome” – the people whose greatest, and often only, accomplishment in life is that they were the sperm that cracked the egg. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker comes to mind.
For years, Americans turned off by Hollywood haughtiness, partisan taunting, and general wokeness have tuned out of celebrity awards shows. The 98th Academy Awards proved to be no exception. Sunday night’s Oscars only racked up 17.86 million viewers on ABC and Hulu combined.[snip] the first All-American Halftime Show, featuring artists such as Kid Rock and Lee Brice, garnered 25 million views across YouTube and Rumble. TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet noted shortly after the rival Super Bowl show wrapped that there were “a lot of large groups watching together, so the number of viewers is likely far higher.”
Useful idiots in California want to bend the knee to Islam, removing all doubt that this state can be saved.
KTXL reported on Sunday that Democratic State Assemblyman Matt Haney has introduced a bill that would officially recognize two Muslim holidays — Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha — as state holidays.
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Roughly 200,000 immigrant truck drivers in the United States are set to lose their commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) this week under a new Trump administration rule that went into effect Monday to keep illegal immigrants off the road. Under the rule, non-citizens, including asylum seekers, refugees, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), will no longer be eligible to obtain CDLs, even if they are legally authorized to work in the United States. Those who already hold licenses will not be able to renew them when they expire.
Now for something completely different ... a video! I've started a video podcast using my old "Smart Girl Politics" brand, and I am thrilled to be able to share it with RedState's wonderful readers. In this first episode, I go in-depth on a story currently rocking Northern Virginia – a 19-year-old illegal from El Salvador has been arrested for groping at least nine teen girls at a local high school. He's in custody .. for now. Democrats, of course, want him back on the streets and in the school hallways to assault more victims.
Let's chat about it. To walk through the facts, I bounced off the reporting
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By the end of this excursion, oil delivery routes will be so numerous, countries will have price wars for a share of the business.