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Year: 2026

‘Unprecedented’ agreement releases emergency oil reserves as gas prices spark concerns

‘Unprecedented’ agreement releases emergency oil reserves as gas prices spark concerns

After deliberating and assessing the global oil market situation in the face of Middle Eastern conflicts stemming from the United States’ attack on Iran, 32 different developed nations agreed to make an “unprecedented” move to help address “oil market challenges.”  The International Energy Agency (IEA) held an emergency meeting at its Paris headquarters Tuesday with energy representatives from the cohort of G7 countries, to “assess market conditions,” which IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol says “have been significantly affected by the conflict in the Middle East.”  After that meeting Thursday, the 32 member countries of the IEA unanimously agreed to collectively release the largest quantity of emergency oil reserves they ever have as a coalition, amounting to 400 million barrels. HOUSE GOP URGES TRUMP TO CHOKE OFF IRAN ALLY’S OIL PROFITS AS MIDDLE EAST TURMOIL SPIKES US GAS PRICES “The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore, I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” Birol said after the announcement about the release of the emergency oil reserves.  “Oil markets are global, so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too.” President Donald Trump touted the IEA agreement during remarks in Kentucky Wednesday afternoon, saying the move “will substantially reduce oil prices.” Before the outbreak of war with Iran, oil was trading in the range of $60 to $70 a barrel, but prices soared after the conflict began, with crude oil futures reaching upward of $115 a barrel on Monday, the highest level since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. However, some experts suggest the market is correcting itself already from an initial scare that the conflict in the Middle East would have a major impact on oil prices. “The market realized that maybe things aren’t that bad. The U.S. is having incredible military victories. President Trump is saying, ‘Hey, you know what, the war is probably not going to be going on that long.’ And even some signals that the world doesn’t have to just sit and stand and take it,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group and a FOX Business contributor.  The members of the IEA hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels and another 600 million barrels of oil industry stocks. This coordinated release of an unprecedented amount of oil will be the sixth in its roughly half-century history. Previous collective action was taken in 1991, 2005, 2011 and twice in 2022.  TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST ENVOY REVEALS WHAT LED TO BREAKDOWN IN IRAN TALKS BEFORE OPERATION EPIC FURY The previous record for the largest collective action was the latest release of emergency oil stocks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In combination, the two actions in March 2022 and April 2022 amounted to a release of 182.7 million barrels, according to the IEA. President Trump said repeatedly this week during remarks to the press that the war in Iran would be over shortly but stopped short of providing an exact timeline.  In his comments to the press Wednesday, President Trump quipped, “We don’t want to leave early, do we?” “We gotta finish the job, right? Over the past 11 days, our military has virtually destroyed Iran,” Trump said. “It’s a tough country.” Iran’s ongoing retaliatory attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime choke point for oil transportation, has led to questions about what they will do to prices at the pump.  Interior Secretary Doug Burgum scoffed this week at claims that the Trump administration was caught off guard by how much Trump’s military actions have affected the oil market and responded to questions about the impact of attacks on the Strait of Hormuz. “As you know better than anybody else, it’s a global market, so we could be producing more, or other countries could be producing more, but it all goes into one vat where we get the prices from,” said Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade. “So, if the Strait of Hormuz presents a challenge, how could you circumvent that challenge?” In response, Burgum slammed Iran for “holding the entire world hostage economically by threatening to close the strait.” “President Trump has made it very clear the consequences if they try to do that,” he continued. “There’s a lot of options between ourselves and our allies in the region, including our Arab friends in the region, to make sure that those straits remain open and energy keeps flowing through the global economy.”

House Oversight Committee demands depositions from Bondi and Lutnick in Epstein probe

House Oversight Committee demands depositions from Bondi and Lutnick in Epstein probe

The House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein wants U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to appear in 30 days for a deposition in a bipartisan push to uncover the extent of the disgraced financier’s network and the Trump administration’s handling of the case, Fox News has learned.  The committee also wants Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to appear for a deposition “within the next ten days,” a source close to the committee said.  Fox News was told last week that Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wanted Lutnick to appear within 10 days, then, potentially this week. NEW DETAILS EXPOSE  HOW A FORMER TOP TRUMP OFFICIAL GOT CAUGHT IN EPSTEIN’S WEB OF INFLUENCE The committee voted to subpoena Bondi last week, but Comer has not issued that subpoena. Multiple sources with the Republican Party told Fox News there was some disappointment with Bondi. One Republican lawmaker said “the Senate” may begin to dig deeper into Epstein if it doesn’t receive more information from Lutnick and Bondi soon. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Justice and Commerce departments.  Lawmakers have pressed for greater transparency into the department’s handling of the investigation into Epstein and his associates and the Trump administration’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. EPSTEIN VICTIMS USE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL TO PRESSURE PAM BONDI OVER WITHHELD FILES Some have questioned whether Bondi is doing all she can to release documentation on Epstein in accordance with the 2025 law.  It requires the Justice Department to release any documents and files related to its investigation into the disgraced financier without revealing the identities of any of his victims. The Trump administration has so far released thousands of documents related to Epstein.  Lutnick is one of several high-profile people in business, entertainment and politics whose name has come up in the trove of Epstein files being released by the federal government. He appeared in photos with Epstein, prompting scrutiny on the businessman-turned-Trump administration official. Lutnick has denied having had any improper ties related to Epstein. Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Leo Briceno contributed to this report. 

Bipartisan housing push advances, but Trump-backed investor ban faces resistance

Bipartisan housing push advances, but Trump-backed investor ban faces resistance

The Senate moved closer Wednesday to advancing a sweeping housing package aimed at boosting affordability, but a Trump-backed provision banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes is emerging as a flash point. Lawmakers cleared another procedural hurdle for the bill Wednesday, setting up a likely final vote before they leave Washington Thursday. The Housing for the 21st Century Act passed the House last month by a 390-9 bipartisan vote. The legislation includes a wide-ranging slate of measures designed to increase the supply of affordable housing. HOUSE PASSES BIPARTISAN HOUSING BILL AS TRUMP ZEROES IN ON AFFORDABILITY CRISIS Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chair of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., its top Democrat, teamed up to advance and modify the bill in the Senate. “When President [Donald] Trump and Elizabeth Warren and Senate Republicans can all come to the same place on a housing bill, it shows that if you put partisan politics aside and focus on the issues impacting the American people, you can get results,” Scott told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” In its original form, the legislation was primarily intended to help first-time homebuyers and lower-income Americans enter the housing market or gain access to more affordable housing options. BIPARTISAN PLAN AIMS TO MAKE THE AMERICAN DREAM AFFORDABLE AGAIN FOR MILLIONS OF FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS But the initial bill lacked a key policy Trump wanted — a ban on institutional investors, such as hedge funds or large corporations, buying single-family homes. Trump earlier this year signed an executive order banning the practice and urged Congress to codify it during his State of the Union address. “I’m asking Congress to make that ban permanent because homes for people — really, that’s what we want,” Trump said. “We want homes for people, not for corporations.” Scott and Warren added that provision to the bill. If passed, the package would also incorporate several policies from the ROAD to Housing Act, a separate Senate housing proposal that previously stalled. The provision would prohibit large-scale investors from purchasing single-family homes and would require companies that exceed a certain ownership threshold to divest within seven years. PRO-TRUMP GROUP UNLEASHES BLUEPRINT FOR CRUCIAL HOUSING INITIATIVE FEATURING TOP MAGA INFLUENCER But the institutional investor ban is drawing concerns from some Senate Democrats and industry stakeholders who argue it could eliminate build-to-rent housing units. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said on the Senate floor that “there is a problem” with the bill. He argued the ban on corporations and hedge funds buying single-family homes was written in a way that would force “anybody who owns and rents out more than 350 units, single family or duplexes” to sell after a seven-year period. “There’s literally no reason for this,” Schatz said. “And the problem is that it was written in such a way that it was trying to capture the hedge fund problem, but they wrote it wrong. “And, so, the definition of institutional investor says, essentially, anyone who owns and operates more than 350 units to rent. That’s bananas.” Several members of the housing and rental industry wrote in a letter to Scott and Warren that the seven-year clause would “effectively shut down build-to-rent development, leading to less supply and fewer options for renters.”

Trump administration puts key Biden-era immigration policy on notice: ‘Unsustainable cycle’

Trump administration puts key Biden-era immigration policy on notice: ‘Unsustainable cycle’

The Trump administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to allow it to terminate the protected legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants living in the U.S.  It’s the latest effort by the administration to unwind Biden-era protections of hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the U.S. as part of the president’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda.  U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the high court Wednesday to immediately intervene and overturn a lower court order that blocked the administration’s effort to immediately revoke the temporary protected status designation for some 350,000 Haitian migrants living in the U.S.  A majority of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end the program, citing the “substantial” and “well-documented harms” the migrants would likely face as a result, clearing the way for the administration to appeal the case to the high court.  BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TRUMP’S ‘THIRD COUNTRY’ DEPORTATION POLICY IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL In his filing Wednesday, Sauer urged the Supreme Court to review more broadly the issue of whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS protections for other migrants living in the U.S. “Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders,” Sauer said Wednesday. “This court should break that cycle.” The TPS program in question allows individuals from certain countries to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.”  Haitians were first granted TPS status in 2010 after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left some 1.5 million in the country homeless.  The protections were extended several times, including under the Biden administration in 2021 after the July assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s last democratically elected president. ‘BLANKIES,’ ICE TACTICS AND LUXURY JETS: TOP MOMENTS FROM NOEM’S HOUSE TESTIMONY DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced in November that the U.S. would be ending TPS protections for Haitians in the U.S., prompting a group of individuals living in the U.S. with protected status to file suit.  The Trump administration’s Supreme Court filing marks the second time this year the administration has asked the high court to immediately intervene and allow it to strip TPS protections for certain migrants.  Lawyers for the Justice Department also asked the Supreme Court last month to allow it to revoke TPS designations for Syrian migrants in the U.S., though the high court has yet to rule on that request. The appeal comes just weeks after U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blocked the Department of Homeland Security from immediately revoking the TPS designations for Haitians in the U.S.  FEDERAL JUDGES IN NEW YORK AND TEXAS BLOCK TRUMP DEPORTATIONS AFTER SCOTUS RULING Reyes described the administration’s effort to abruptly wind down the designation as “arbitrary and capricious” and accused DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of failing to consider the “overwhelming evidence of present danger” in Haiti, which she noted had prompted the Biden administration to extend TPS protections for Haitians in the first place.  “The government cannot name a single concrete harm from maintaining the status quo,” Reyes said. “And so instead it argues that the court’s decision is ‘an improper intrusion by a federal court into the workings of a coordinate branch of the government.’”  The appeal comes as the Trump administration has sought to wind down most TPS designations, arguing the programs have been extended for too long under Democratic presidents.  Trump officials have also taken aim at lower courts that have sought to block or pause their efforts to wind down TPS protections, accusing the lower court judges of exceeding their authority and unlawfully intruding on the executive branch’s authority on immigration policy.