Left-wing influencer downplays Cuba blackouts, worsening shortages: ‘People are partying’
Hasan Piker, a progressive media personality and streamer, downplayed the severity of rolling blackouts in Cuba while on a recent trip to the communist island, telling viewers that the population was “partying.” “There are rolling blackouts that take place throughout the day, every day, all around the country. But today is a beautiful day out here. People are partying. People are partying in the f—ing streets. I don’t know if it’s an island mindset,” Piker said. The remarks come as U.S. officials warn the island faces a deepening energy crisis, highlighting a stark divide between firsthand accounts and government assessments. Piker, who has supported self-declared progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, praised the Cubans for their endurance. “The people’s resilience is remarkable. There are rolling blackouts that take place throughout the day, every day, all around the country, right? 11 million people.” POST-MADURO, PRESSURE BUILDS ON MEXICO OVER CUBA’S NEW OIL LIFELINE Piker’s descriptions come as Cuba’s communist regime finds itself choked off from access to energy imports after a U.S. operation in Venezuela resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year. According to the Department of State, Cuba began to experience energy shortages shortly afterward. “Understand that Cuba has largely survived on the basis of subsidies. The Maduro regime was providing them fuel,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a press event at the White House. “So, the reason why Cuba’s electricity grid was already in collapse — before Maduro was captured, it was already in collapse — the reason why things are as bad as they are is because they have an economic model that does not work. It’s not functional,” Rubio said. CUBAN ACTIVIST TO TRUMP: ‘MAKE CUBA GREAT AGAIN’ BY ENDING COMMUNIST RULE President Donald Trump has characterized the energy crisis as severe and said he believes public unrest has strengthened U.S. influence over the island. “I do believe I’ll be the honor of taking Cuba… That’s a big honor. They’re a very weakened nation right now. They were for a long time,” Trump told reporters last week. Trump did not expand on what he meant by “taking” the island. Piker’s characterizations, however, contrast sharply with the way the administration has framed the on-the-ground circumstances on the island. RUBIO SAYS CUBA NEEDS ‘NEW PEOPLE IN CHARGE’ AS BLACKOUTS, UNREST GRIP ISLAND “A lot of the info that you see and hear from the island is like directly coming from like, most of the time, National Endowment for Democracy-Foundation-backed individuals, State Department propaganda, things like that,” Piker said, referring to a pro-Democracy group. “It’s very difficult to get information out of here. Even though it’s so close,” he added. “They’re just chilling. Cubans they vibe,” Piker did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
Bipartisan Senate bill to cap insulin for Americans at $35 has new momentum
A bipartisan group of senators is resurfacing legislation to cap many American patients’ insulin costs at $35 a month — the INSULIN Act of 2026 — reviving a push that previously stalled. The bill, co-authored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and John Kennedy, R-La., would bar group and individual health plans from imposing deductibles on selected insulin products and could not charge more than $35 for a 30-day supply starting in plan year 2027. Beginning in 2028, patients would pay the lesser of $35 or 25% of the negotiated net price. Congress had already mandated a Medicare-only cap of $35 in 2022, and President Donald Trump‘s long-running agenda to lower prescription medicine costs gives the effort some momentum before the 2026 midterms, where Collins’ seat could be targeted for a Democrat flip amid the very narrow Republican Senate majority (53-47). SENATE QUIETLY WORKS ON BIPARTISAN OBAMACARE FIX AS HEALTHCARE CLIFF NEARS “We are the long-time chairs of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, and one of our top priorities is to make insulin more affordable,” Collins said in a Senate hearing last week. “Our INSULIN Act would impose out-of-pocket limits for patients with commercial insurance, tackle commercial pharmacy benefit managers, and ensure that patients are the ones who are benefiting from the savings that they negotiate, and encourage biosimilar competition in order to lower list prices.” The bill, first introduced in 2023, has been reworked at Kennedy and Warnock’s urging to include some work to provide capped insulin prices even for the uninsured. “Our bill also includes provisions to help uninsured Americans access affordable insulin,” Collins continued. “Just this week, I met with a young woman who, a few years ago, ended up in the hospital because she was stretching out her insulin, not taking as much as she was prescribed, because she simply couldn’t afford the cost.” REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: GOP TARGETS AFFORDABILITY WITH RECONCILIATION 2.0 PLAN AHEAD OF MIDTERMS The issue aligns with a 2024 Trump presidential campaign vow. Trump has already announced other initiatives to lower prescription drug prices, including an executive order last May on his “Most Favored Nation” (MNF) policy to take action on Big Pharma companies that are not offering the world’s lowest price on drugs to Americans. “Americans should not be forced to subsidize low-cost prescription drugs and biologics in other developed countries, and face overcharges for the same products in the United States,” Trump’s policy ordered. “Americans must therefore have access to the most-favored-nation price for these products.” “My Administration will take immediate steps to end global freeloading and, should drug manufacturers fail to offer American consumers the most-favored-nation’s lowest price, my Administration will take additional aggressive action.” Then, this December, Trump announced agreements with nine Big Pharma companies to lower prices on Americans under the MFN policy, including offering direct to the consumer lowest pricing on TrumpRx, the president’s new prescription drug portal. GOP MUST RACE FOR NEW ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ TO SLASH COSTS BEFORE MIDTERMS, TOP HOUSE REPUBLICANS WARN TrumpRX lists Insulin Lispro from Eli Lilly for $25. Collin and Shaheen’s legislation would also offer a limited cap on insulin for the uninsured — an issue reportedly driven by Warnock and Kennedy in the bipartisan group — creating a five-year pilot in 10 states to help uninsured patients get insulin for no more than $35 a month. “We have already capped insulin for Medicare enrollees at $35 a month — this new INSULIN Act, which we plan to introduce next [this] week, will address insulin affordability for children, adults and those who are uninsured,” Shaheen said in a statement. “It will do, as the Medicare provision does, cap the cost of employer and private insurance coverage of insulin at $35 a month, create a pilot program to provide $35 a month insulin for uninsured diabetes patients, and it is a direct way to help American families facing economic pressures, and will make people healthier in the long run.” TRUMP’S RX PLAN PROMISES SAVINGS, BUT ECONOMISTS SEE A HIDDEN TRADE-OFF While Collins might need the bill for her 2026 midterm election hopes, Shaheen is serving out her final year in the Senate. “I would really like to be able to leave the Senate thinking that we had helped to address insulin costs for a lot of Americans: This is the most expensive chronic disease,” Shaheen told Semafor, noting Trump’s agenda for capping prices. “This is something that he should support, because it is affordability.” Affordability has been the Democrats’ buzzword for the midterms, but Republicans and Trump have argued it has only been an issue Democrats have made after years of inflation under former President Joe Biden. TRUMP ENDS BIDEN’S DRUG PRICE NIGHTMARE — AMERICANS GET REAL RELIEF WITH TRUMPRX The bill authorizes $100 million for fiscal 2027 for cost-cutting and defines “affordable” insulin as out-of-pocket costs of no more than $35 for a one-month supply. Collins framed the measure as a response to patients rationing medicine they need to survive. “I have heard far too many stories from people in Maine and across the country who have been forced to ration their insulin because of the cost, and that is simply unacceptable,” she told Semafor. Beyond the consumer cap, the bill also tries to lower underlying costs by targeting pharmacy benefit manager practices and encouraging more competition from biosimilars and generics. It orders a federal study on delays in bringing insulin products to market and barriers to biosimilar uptake. The proposal now faces the harder political test: winning buy-in from Senate leadership and finding a path to must-pass legislation later this year. But after years of failed starts, backers say they finally have a bipartisan framework that could move.
Khanna urges King Charles to meet Epstein victims during Capitol visit
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., tells Fox News he wants King Charles to meet with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and others when he comes to Capitol Hill next month to deliver a speech before a joint meeting of Congress. British authorities arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew and the brother of King Charles, in connection with an inquiry into the Epstein matter. Khanna says King Charles could shed light on what the royal family knew about Andrew or Epstein. KING CHARLES EXPRESSES ‘DEEPEST CONCERN’ AFTER BROTHER ANDREW MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR’S ARREST Khanna tells Fox he wants the King to meet with victims, then with him and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and the House Oversight Committee. Khanna stressed that he would request Charles to appear. Fox pressed Khanna on whether he would ask that the King be subpoenaed, but Khanna was not ready to go there yet. One Oversight Committee source tells Fox that this request is “very delicate” and they risk “an international incident” by asking King Charles to meet with the committee.
SEE IT: Travelers sound off as ICE agents deployed to airports as shutdown nears 40 days
Travelers weighed in on President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports across the country on Monday as the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) workforce struggles to continue operations amid a government shutdown that’s nearing the 40-day mark. Some travelers blasted the idea, fearing that the training received by ICE agents wouldn’t translate to airport security. “I think it’s ludicrous,” one observer told Fox News Digital. “First of all, they’re not trained for screening. Secondly, the last thing we need in airports is armed people.” Others believe the solution is better than nothing. SCHUMER GAMBIT FAILS AS DHS SHUTDOWN HITS 36 DAYS AND AIRPORT LINES GROW “I’m a traveler — anything that helps people get through the airports and have a good experience and keeps us safe is great,” a second person said. Like the rest of the agencies that operate under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), funding for TSA ran dry on Feb. 14 over Democrat-led demands to reform ICE — the agency at the heart of Trump’s immigration crackdown. In the wake of two deadly encounters with protesters, Democrats have conditioned their support for DHS funding on a slew of procedural guardrails. Those include a ban on masks for ICE agents, stiffer warrant requirements for apprehending suspects in public and a ban on roaming patrols, among other demands. TRUMP DEMANDS ‘SAVE AMERICA ACT’ BE TIED TO DHS FUNDING AMID AIRPORT CHAOS Republicans have rebuffed the demands, arguing they would handcuff Trump’s immigration enforcement goals. Republicans need at least seven Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster in the Senate, where they hold just 53 seats. As the standoff reaches the 40-day mark, TSA agents have struggled to continue working while covering costs. According to DHS, more than 366 TSA officials have left the force. “Transportation Security Officers and other Transportation Security Administration roles critical to national safety at our nation’s airports are going without pay for the third time in nearly six months,” DHS said in a statement. “Because of this DHS shutdown, Americans are facing hours-long waits at airports across the country. Democrats must reopen DHS now.” TSA agents missed their first full paychecks on March 13. Some travelers warned that the public might not receive ICE well in airports due to their role in Trump’s immigration crackdown. MASK-FREE ICE AGENTS BEGIN PATROLLING US AIRPORTS; TRUMP FLOATS NATIONAL GUARD “I don’t think it’s a good idea just because of the optics,” another traveler said. “I think that ICE agents — what’s happened has kind of wrecked their reputation in communities all over the United States, and so I don’t think it is a good idea. I think it will make people nervous. They could be coming here to do really good things, but they’ve already set that reputation, and I think that’s going to stick with them and people aren’t going to trust them.”
American Dennis Coyle lands in Texas after over a year in Taliban captivity
Dennis Coyle, an American man held by the Taliban for more than a year without charges, landed Wednesday on American soil following his release Tuesday from Taliban captivity in Afghanistan. Video and images showed the 64-year-old walking off a plane at a base in San Antonio, Texas, before embracing family members. Coyle, an academic who spent nearly two decades working in Afghanistan, was taken from his home in Kabul in January 2025 by Taliban intelligence and held in near-solitary confinement, Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler told Fox News on Tuesday, adding that Coyle committed no crime and was used as leverage. “The United States welcomes the release of American citizen Dennis Coyle, who was wrongfully detained in Afghanistan for more than a year,” Boehler said in a statement to Fox News. AFGHANISTAN FREES US CITIZEN DENNIS COYLE OVER A YEAR AFTER TALIBAN ARREST “President Trump made clear: the United States will not tolerate the unjust detention of its citizens — anywhere. His personal determination — executed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a fully aligned interagency team — has driven a shift to accountability, pressure and results.” IRAN CONFLICT WON’T TRIGGER BIDEN-STYLE REFUGEE REPLAY, EXPERT PREDICTS Coyle’s family said he had been legally working in Afghanistan to support language communities as an academic researcher. Rubio welcomed Coyle’s release, saying it was a “positive step by the Taliban,” but added that the United States is still seeking the immediate return of Mahmood Habibi, Paul Overby and all other unjustly detained Americans. “The Taliban must end their practice of hostage diplomacy,” Rubio said. “President Trump is committed to ending unjust detentions overseas – Dennis joins over 100 Americans who have been freed in the past 15 months under his second term in office.” Fox News’ Trey Yingst contributed to this report.
Shanghai sabotage: Inside Singham’s secret strategy to demonize America
Part 3 of a five-part Fox News Digital series investigating the House of Singham documents the “Propaganda Work” that Mao Zedong taught as critical to winning the People’s War. This reporting includes analysis using cutting-edge technology, including large-language modeling. Early Tuesday, CodePink professional activist Olivia DiNucci raised her fist as she stood on the deck of a boat renamed “Granma 2.0,” in a tribute to the yacht Fidel Castro’s guerrillas used to launch the Cuban Revolution in 1956. Standing behind a banner reading “LET CUBA LIVE” as the boat arrived at the port of Havana, DiNucci, who normally organizes protests in Washington, D.C., mugged for the cameras with her fellow revolutionaries, chanting and pumping their fists in the air, as camera crews rolled. Luis De Jesús, who writes for a site called BreakThrough News, recorded the arrival, part of days of coverage promoting the cause of pro-communism activists, including the Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap, and packaging the week’s activities not just as activism, but as revolutionary political “resistance” against the U.S. “empire.” By afternoon, BreakThrough News posted a video of De Jesús’ report on the boat’s arrival, with a beaming DiNucci on board. Other pro-communist media platforms turned the staged event into a media moment, from the Cuban News Agency to Brazil de Fato. The scene offered a real-time glimpse of how a network built by an American-born, China-based tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, turns activism into propaganda and then propaganda into political and psychological weapons. In this case, the story of the Granma 2.0 framed Cuba as a victim of the imperialist U.S., and Cuba’s communist benefactor and trading partner – China – as a liberator, providing rice to a hungry citizenry. As he fought the People’s War in the late 1930s in China, infamous communist leader Mao Zedong emphasized the importance of “Propaganda Work” and “the practice of changing reality.” Decades later, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping announced a strategy of “telling China’s story well.” POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM Last fall, pro-China academics, like Vijay Prashad, a trusted communist in Singham’s inner circle, spoke at a conference of the Global South Academic Forum about creating a “New World Information and Communication Order,” an idea popularized in the 1980s by Third World countries now called the “Global South.” The conference was co-sponsored by Singham, Prashad’s Tricontinental Ltd. think tank and the Shanghai-based East China Normal University, and administered by the Chinese Communist Party. The university features a School of Marxism and teaches “Marxist journalism.” Singham, Prashad and conference attendees closed the conference, standing at attention as “The Internationale,” a communist anthem played, attendees pumping their fists in the air in solidarity. A Fox News Digital investigation found that the “new information” strategy operates through a network of organizations that produce, fund and amplify messaging across borders. Fox News Digital has identified at least 200 organizations in Singham’s network of about 2,000 organizations that directly work on propaganda that parrots the anti-American messaging of the Chinese Communist Party but is dramatically homegrown in digital shops from New York City to Los Angeles. The investigation found that three Singham-linked U.S. nonprofits sent a total of $9.1 million in seven payments to a pro-China propaganda firm, Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. Ltd. The payments haven’t been reported before. Using large-language models, Fox News Digital analyzed 223 transactions that moved $591 million in total across five continents from 2017 through 2025, the latest year for which figures are available, in the Singham network and found the money flows through five concentric rings of an ideological pipeline that spreads pro-China propaganda. Eleven U.S. nonprofit organizations form a core hub of the work that pumps pro-China, anti-America propaganda into the world, with a total of about $401 million flowing from Singham and his network into these organizations. The organizations didn’t respond to requests for comment. Fox News Digital previously documented $278 million that flowed directly from Singham into organizations that “sow discord” in the U.S., as House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith put it recently at a hearing on foreign malign influence in the nonprofit industry. The rest went through layers of funding. The 11 nonprofits and their total revenue from within the Singham network, including direct contributions from Singham himself, make most of these organizations well-funded: Mao’s strategy relied on embedding revolutionary actors within social, cultural, labor and educational organizations to shape public consciousness, normalize radical narratives and gradually erode the legitimacy of the state from within. Similarly, experts say, Singham’s network cultivates activist ecosystems, using nonprofits and advocacy groups as force multipliers and framing local political and social conflicts as part of a broader systemic struggle. That same dynamic is visible in real time, as protests, trips and political events are filmed, packaged and circulated as part of a broader narrative. DiNucci is a key figure, for example, regularly getting filmed and then broadcast on Singham network social media channels, interrupting the dinners, hearings and events of Trump administration officials. In this model, disruption and polarization aren’t incidental but strategic, designed to weaken societal cohesion and authority over time, precisely the conditions Mao argued are necessary for victory against a stronger adversary. “There is a war waging for the brains of Americans. It’s critical that America shore up its defenses before the nation is hijacked by confusion, manipulation and malign narratives,” psychologist Orli Peter told Fox News Digital. RED WEALTH, DARK MONEY: HOW AN AMERICAN TYCOON DEPLOYS MAO’S PLAYBOOK AGAINST THE WEST A Fox News Digital investigation, scouring scores of financial filings, writings and social media posts, shows not only money moving from Singham-funded entities into U.S. nonprofits, but these nonprofits in turn funding media production, political education and organizing campaigns that promote the narrative of the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. nonprofits pushing the anti-America agenda benefit from tax-exempt status and tax-deductible donations. What begins as content — videos, livestreams and commentary — often feeds directly into organizing and
Trump 2.0’s Education Department unleashes top 5 most striking ‘wins’ against gender, DEI extremism
A little over a year after Donald Trump took office for the second time and began going after what he described as “discriminatory” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, including gender extremism and racial preferences in education, his administration is touting several “wins” it says are shifting the culture war on college campuses and beyond. More than 300 colleges and universities have rooted out DEI, according to numbers in a Department of Education press release laying out various “wins” against DEI during President Trump’s second term. Other numbers the administration shared showed 45 colleges and universities have also removed DEI statements and messaging from university programs or websites, at least 15 have eliminated the use of diversity statements in hiring faculty or staff, at least 95 have either eliminated, renamed or shifted staff or faculty positions related to DEI, at least 175 have removed or restructured their current DEI offices, and over a half-dozen recently abandoned racially segregated graduation ceremonies. Furthermore, College Board, best known for administering standardized tests like the SAT, revised criteria for their National Recognition Program, which the Department of Education says favored racial groups and awarded scholarships disproportionately to students from underrepresented ethnic groups. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CELEBRATES PROGRESS AFTER A YEAR OF TRUMP ADMIN’S FIGHT TO SAVE WOMEN’S SPORTS Here are five more striking DEI “wins” the Trump administration has had since the beginning of the president’s second term: After finding UPenn violated Title IX, the department announced in early July that it had got the school to sign a resolution agreement requiring UPenn to restore individual women’s swimming records and titles, issue a public compliance statement, adopt biology-based definitions of “male” and “female” and send personalized apology letters to affected female swimmers. The move stripped transgender swimmer Leah Thomas of her 2022 national title, according to UPenn’s records. “From day one, President Trump and Secretary McMahon vowed to protect women and girls, and today’s agreement with UPenn is a historic display of that promise being fulfilled. This administration does not just pay lip service to women’s equality: it vigorously insists on that equality being upheld,” said Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer who competed against Thomas. “It is my hope that today demonstrates to educational institutions that they will no longer be allowed to trample upon women’s civil rights, and renews hope in every female athlete that their country’s highest leadership will not relent until they have the dignity, safety, and fairness they deserve.” Earlier this year, the Education Department Student Privacy Policy Office found the California Department of Education to be in “continued violation” of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law granting parents access to their child’s school records. The announcement was followed by the U.S. Supreme Court intervening in a case this month, when they sided with parents who were challenging California law that allowed staff to hide students’ gender transitions from their parents. “Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies conceal that information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning during school hours,” the court’s decision read. “These policies likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children.” Meanwhile, at least 20 university-affiliated hospitals have ended or suspended puberty blockers, hormone therapies, gender transition surgeries or other transgender care for minors, according to the Education Department. IVY LEAGUE WATCHDOG WARNS TRUMP’S ANTI-DEI WINS ARE TEMPORARY AS COLLEGES ‘WAIT HIM OUT’ Trump’s Education Department entered into another resolution agreement with the Jefferson County Public Schools District in Colorado after it found that the district was allowing transgender students access to female bathrooms, locker rooms, overnight accommodations and to compete in female sports. According to the department, the district committed to rescinding or revising any policies that allowed male students to use female intimate facilities, share overnight accommodations with them or compete in female sports. The district must also issue and prominently post a public statement committing to Title IX compliance using biology-based definitions of “male” and “female,” stating Title IX applies regardless of state law or sports governing-body rules, and explaining how students can report or file sex-discrimination complaints. Trump’s Department of Education secured 31 resolution agreements with universities and colleges who were partnering with The Ph.D. Project, an organization that helps hopeful doctoral students get into programs. The department’s Office of Civil Rights found the program “unlawfully limits eligibility based on the race of participants.” “After initiating investigations several months ago into forty-five institutions of higher education for collaborating with the Ph.D. Project, OCR later determined that these institutions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) by partnering with an organization that discriminates on the basis of race,” a February press release from the department states. TRUMP ADMIN DETERMINES SJSU VIOLATED TITLE IX WITH HANDLING OF TRANS VOLLEYBALL PLAYER BLAIRE FLEMING In Feb. 2025, the NCAA revised its transgender participation rules to restrict the women’s category to student-athletes assigned female at birth, barring athletes assigned male at birth from competing on women’s teams, though they are still allowed to practice with women’s teams and receive related benefits. The men’s category remains open to all eligible athletes, and the change took effect immediately on Feb. 6, 2025. “Just over a year ago, we saw men claiming victories in women’s athletics. Colleges and universities were focused more on diversity, equity, and inclusion than ensuring graduates were prepared for success in life after graduation,” a Trump administration fact sheet on “wins” during the president’s second term stated. “Institutions required DEI statements from faculty and held segregated affinity graduation ceremonies for students. Academic standards fell, admissions were skewed to favor race over merit, and students graduated with a massive pile of debt and degrees that led to no job prospects,” the sheet continues. “Today, institutions of higher education are changing the game because President Trump is
Philippine president declares energy emergency as impact of Iran war felt
Transport unions say the emergency declaration is a ‘superficial band-aid’ that does not address the root cause of the fuel crisis. Published On 25 Mar 202625 Mar 2026 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a national energy emergency in response to the US-Israel war on Iran and what he called the “imminent danger” posed to the country’s energy supply. The emergency declaration on Tuesday came as Philippine transport workers, commuters and consumer groups plan to hold a two-day strike from Thursday to protest the increase in fuel prices and what they say is the Marcos administration’s failure to swiftly respond. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “The declaration of a state of national energy emergency will enable the government… to implement responsive and coordinated measures under existing laws to address the risks posed by disruptions in the global energy supply and the domestic economy,” Marcos Jr said. As part of the emergency response, a committee has been formed to ensure the orderly movement, supply, distribution and availability of fuel, food, medicine, agricultural products and other essential goods, he said. The emergency declaration, which will remain in force for one year, authorises the government to procure fuel and petroleum products to ensure timely and sufficient supply and, if necessary, pay part of the contract amount in advance. Authorities are also empowered to take action against the hoarding, profiteering and manipulation of petroleum product supplies. Earlier on Tuesday, Secretary of Energy Sharon Garin told a news briefing that the country still had about 45 days of fuel supply, based on current consumption levels. Garin said the government was working to procure 1 million barrels of oil from countries within and outside Southeast Asia to build its buffer stock, but there will likely be uncertainties in reaching this level. Advertisement Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez told the Reuters news agency that Manila was working with Washington to secure exemptions that would allow for the purchase of oil from countries under US sanctions. “All options are being considered,” the ambassador said in response to whether Iranian and Venezuelan oil was part of the talks with the US. But transport unions and Philippine senators have criticised the government’s response to the crisis, accusing the Marcos administration of lacking a unified and coordinated action to mitigate the fallout from the surge in oil prices. Piston, a federation of public transport associations, described the declaration of a national energy emergency as a “superficial band-aid that deliberately ignores the structural roots of the fuel crisis”. “If the government genuinely intends to protect transport workers and commuters from this geopolitical crisis, it would immediately suspend the Excise Tax and Value-Added Tax on petroleum products to drastically lower prices overnight,” Piston said in a statement on Tuesday. “Furthermore, tasking the Department of Energy to merely monitor ‘profiteering’ is a toothless gesture as long as multinational oil cartels remain legally empowered to dictate extortionate pump prices at will.” Renato Reyes Jr, of the progressive civil society coalition Bayan, said the declaration “does not address the basic problem of runaway oil prices and [their] effects on the mass transport system and other sectors in the country”. “It does not mention removing or suspending oil taxes, which are at the core of the people’s demands,” Reyes Jr told Al Jazeera. “Where are the needed price controls?” As part of the government’s mitigation measures, students and workers in some cities are being given free access to bus rides, and the government has started to provide a 5,000 peso ($83) subsidy to motorcycle taxi drivers and other public transport workers nationwide to help them cope with soaring gasoline and diesel prices. With reporting from Manila by Michael Beltran. Adblock test (Why?)
Drone attack ignites fuel tank at Kuwait airport
NewsFeed A drone has sparked a fire at a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport as Iran continues its retaliatory attacks on Gulf Arab nations almost a month into the US-Israeli war. Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina reports from Kuwait City. Published On 25 Mar 202625 Mar 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Iran says ‘non-hostile’ ships can pass safely through Strait of Hormuz
Tehran’s statement on opening of key waterway comes as US President Donald Trump says talks are taking place to end the war. Published On 25 Mar 202625 Mar 2026 Iran has said that “non-hostile” ships may transit the Strait of Hormuz amid a collapse of maritime traffic through the waterway that has prompted the biggest global energy crisis in decades. In a statement on Tuesday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said vessels may avail of “safe passage” through the waterway, “provided that they neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran and fully comply with the declared safety and security regulations.” Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Ships will be allowed to transit the strait “in coordination with the competent Iranian authorities”, the statement posted on social media said. Iran earlier shared a similar statement about the status of the strait with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN body responsible for the safety and security of international shipping. Tehran did not elaborate in the statements on what regulations vessels need to follow to safely navigate the strait, through which about one-fifth of global supplies of oil and liquified natural gas usually transit. Iran’s remarks came as United States President Donald Trump said negotiations were under way to end the US-Israel war on Iran, despite Tehran’s previous denials that the sides were in talks. While a small number of ships are passing through the strait each day, traffic remains at a fraction of the levels seen before the US and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28. Five vessels were tracked transiting the waterway via their automatic identification systems on Monday, down from an average of 120 daily transits before the conflict, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward. Advertisement While Iran warned in the initial days of the conflict that any ship attempting passage would face attack, officials in Tehran have in recent weeks insisted that the waterway remains open, except to “enemies”. The collapse of shipping in the strait has prompted a surge in global energy prices, with some analysts predicting oil could rise to $150 or even $200 a barrel if the waterway stays effectively closed. After hovering above $100 per barrel for much of March, Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell more than 9 percent on Wednesday after The New York Times, the Reuters news agency, and Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the Trump administration had sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war. Asia’s major stock indexes opened higher on Wednesday amid hopes for an end to the conflict. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was up about 2.3 percent as of 02:30 GMT, while South Korea’s KOSPI was 2.6 percent higher. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was up 0.7 percent. Adblock test (Why?)