Wind power will continue to grow, despite Trump's attempts to halt it: Experts

Wind power production will continue to advance, despite the Trump administration's attempts to halt the growing momentum of renewable energy, experts told ABC News.

On Monday, theU.S. Department of the Interiorreached a $928 million deal with French energy company TotalEnergies to end the company's offshore wind development off the East Coast and redirect that investment into domestic fossil fuel initiatives, describing the "landmark agreement" as a way to lower energy costs and strengthen the nation's energy security.

The move continues efforts by President Donald Trump and his administration to stall renewable energy, including theDepartment of Justicesuing the state of California earlier this month over its electric vehicle mandate, signing anexecutive orderlast month directing the Department of Defense to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants and the Environmental Protection Agency rescinding the landmark "endangerment finding" that has served as the scientific and legal foundation for federal regulations on carbon dioxide and five other heat-trapping greenhouse gases or more than 16 years.

Offshore wind is facing the most "headwinds" from the federal government, but is still persevering, Erin Baker, distinguished professor and faculty director at the Energy Transition Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told ABC News. The actions of the Trump administration have had "very little impact" on the global increase in production of renewable energy, Baker added.

MORE: Could a global economy dependent on renewable energy see less war? Experts explain

What the nearly $1 billion deal with TotalEnergies entails

As part of the deal, TotalEnergies will commit $928 million to fossil fuel development in the United States, matching the amount the company previously paid for offshore wind leases. Upon meeting those commitments, the federal government will reimburse the company up to the value of those lease payments, the Interior Department said.

Citing national security concerns, the Interior Department said TotalEnergies has pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States.

"This agreement is yet another win for President Trump's commitment to affordable and reliable energy for all Americans," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a ​statement. "Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers."

The agreement supports the administration's push for affordable, reliable baseload energy, officials said, arguing that offshore wind projects are costly and less dependable. Ending the projects would reduce unnecessary federal spending while supporting domestic energy production, according to the Interior Department.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein described the move as "a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country" in apost on X.

Because offshore wind is installed in federal waters, the power of the federal government over offshore wind projects is higher than in onshore wind projects, Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation, a non-partisan research and analysis nonprofit that supports clean energy, told ABC News.

"I think the really unfortunate thing about this news is that offshore wind is a really, really reliable resource that can really help mitigate spiking fossil fuel prices in the winter," she said.

MORE: What to know about Empire Wind, the wind farm now allowed to resume construction

The momentum for wind energy is too strong to stall, experts said

Wind is the largest and most reliable source of renewable energy. It can also help energy bills stay affordable during extreme weather due to its capacity to produce fuel-free energy, Solomon said.

The power purchase agreements signed by offshore wind companies suppress electricity prices, Baker said. The companies agree to "always buy the wind when it blows," which then brings down the entire cost to purchase electricity, she said, describing it as "good business."

"They're not doing it for environmental reasons," Baker said of renewable energy companies. "They're doing it just for business reasons."

In 2025, wind and solar energygenerated a record 17%of electricity in the U.S., up from less than 1% in 2005, according to data recently released by theEnergy Information Administration(EIA).

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The total net generation from wind and solar together reached 760,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) last year, enough to power tens of millions of average American homes, according to the EIA. Wind power generated 464,000 GWh, a 3% increase over 2024.

The milestone comes amid federal energy policy changes, including the early phase-out of renewable tax incentives and other regulatory changes.

"The momentum is definitely still there," Solomon said.

"Even though [the Trump administration] was actively trying to stop those industries, they still were growing," Baker said.

Another benefit to wind is that it's the type of energy that can "come online the most quickly" after it is built, Solomon said.

"In this moment, when we're needing to build electricity generation resources really quickly to deal with low growth, data centers, [wind farms] are the ones that are going to be able to respond really quickly," she said.

Wind and solar made up nearly 90% of new U.S. electricity capacity in 2025, according to theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission. That trend is expected to continue into 2026, Solomon said.

Global renewable energy capacity is expected to more than double by 2030, according to theEIA.

MORE: What to know about wind power in the US as Trump administration pauses leases

Trump has long criticized wind energy

Trump's criticism of wind turbines dates back to his first term.

In 2019, Trump claimed that noises from wind turbines "cause cancer" and negativelyimpact property values. In 2024, during his presidential campaign, Trump stated that wind turbines "kill whales" and vowed to write an executive order on "Day 1" to end offshore wind projects.

On Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, Trump signed anexecutive orderto withdraw all areas of the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leasing. A federal judge in the U.S. District of Massachusettsruled in Decemberthat the stop to permits on wind farms was illegal.

The deal with TotalEnergies is the latest move by the administration in an attempt to halt the increased production of wind power.

In December 2025, the Interior Departmentfroze large offshore wind projectson the East Coast, citing national security concerns. Federal judges ruled that all five projects could resume construction, concluding that the government did not show that the risk was so imminent that it should stop.

The projects includedEmpire Wind, the wind farm being built 15 to 30 miles south of the coast of Long Island, and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, which starteddelivering to the state's power gridon Monday, developer Dominion Energy announced.

Despite the victories for the offshore wind developers, the delays to the project have led to an uncertain investment environment and increased both the cost to build and the costs to consumers' energy bills, Solomon said.

The impact of these actions will raise energy costs in the end, Solomon said.

ABC News' Matthew Glasser contributed to this report.

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March 26, 2026

Wind power will continue to grow, despite Trump's attempts to halt it: Experts

Wind power production will continue to advance, despite the Trump administration's attempts to halt the growing momen...

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Pentagon weighs diverting Ukraine military aid to the Middle East, Washington Post reports

March 26 (Reuters) - The Pentagon is weighing whether to redirect weapons originally meant for ‌Ukraine to the Middle East, as ‌the war in Iran strains supplies of some of the ​U.S. military's most critical munitions, the Washington Post reported Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The weapons that could be redirected include ‌air defense interceptor ⁠missiles purchased through a NATO initiative launched last year, under which partner ⁠countries buy U.S. arms for Kyiv, the report said.

The consideration comes as U.S. operations in the ​region intensify. ​Admiral Brad Cooper, ​the Central Command chief ‌leading U.S. forces in the Middle East, on Wednesday said the U.S. had hit over 10,000 targets inside Iran and was on track to limit Iran's ability to project power outside ‌its borders.

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A Pentagon spokesperson ​told the newspaper that the ​Defense Department ​would "ensure that U.S. forces and those ‌of our allies and partners ​have what ​they need to fight and win."

The Pentagon, the U.S. State Department and NATO did ​not immediately ‌respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

(Reporting by ​Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise ​Heavens and Ros Russell)

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March 26, 2026

Pentagon weighs diverting Ukraine military aid to the Middle East, Washington Post reports

March 26 (Reuters) - The Pentagon is weighing whether to redirect weapons originally meant for ‌Ukraine to the Middle Eas...

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What’s next in the investigation into the deadly Air Canada collision at LaGuardia

An Air Canada regional jet landing at one of the country's busiest and most prominent airportsslammed into a fire truck at more than 100 miles per houron Sunday, leaving federal investigators and frightened passengers questioning what could have gone wrong.

The National Transportation Safety Board combed through wreckage, collecting data and physical evidence to find answers in the first days of an investigation that will take a year or longer.

"We have a lot of data right now, a lot of information, including information on tower staffing, but the NTSB deals in facts," said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, at a news conference on Monday. "We don't speculate. We don't take one person at their word. We verify that information carefully before we provide it."

Investigators have released the plane to Air Canada, the airline said, which will move it into a secured hangar where teams will begin reuniting passengers with the personal belongings they left behind as they evacuated.

"Items will be safely returned as soon as possible, although the process of sorting and identifying all belongings from the aircraft will take time," the airline said Wednesday.

Air Canada Express flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, had 72 passengers and four crew members on board for the flight from Montreal to New York's LaGuardia. The two pilots died and four of the dozens of passengers and crew who were injured in the collision remain in the hospital, the airline said.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, the airline and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, will also participate as parties to the investigation.

The first several days of the investigation are going to be focused on data collection, according to Jim Brauchle, an attorney that represents plaintiffs in aviation disasters for the law firm Motley Rice.

"They won't be doing a lot of analysis the first few days," Brauchle said. "That's more facts and data collection and getting witness statements and those kind of things, while it's still fresh."

What happened in the tower?

Questions about the people in the control tower, their responsibilities, and if all proper procedures were followed will be answered in the course of the investigation.

Homendy confirmed Tuesday there were two controllers working in the tower cab, the top of the control tower which looks out over the airfield, at the time of collision. The "local controller" manages active runways and the immediate airspace surrounding the airport. The "controller in charge" is a supervisor responsible for the safety of operations, and on the night of the crash, they were also assigned to give pilots departure information.

The NTSB says the staffing was standard operating procedure for LaGuardia at that time of the night, but whether that procedure was adequate will also be investigated.

"We saw that there was a pretty heavy workload for these two controllers where you had an emergency going on; you had several flights that they had to attend to," Homendy told CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on The Source Wednesday. "We will look at controller staffing entirely in this tower, but then across the national airspace."

Another part of the investigation is to determine which of the controllers were responsible for the aircraft and vehicles on the ground.

"It is not clear who was conducting the duties of the ground controller. We have conflicting information," Homendy said. That person would be tasked with managing all aircraft and vehicle movements on taxiways but typically not active runways.

There is also "conflicting information, including dates and times on the logs," of who else was elsewhere in the air traffic control facility, she said. The NTSB will have to "rectify some of those inconsistencies," Homendy continued.

The controllers involved in the crash continued to work for some time after the crash, and the NTSB will also investigate why they were not relieved more rapidly.

Eighteen minutes after the collision, one controller appeared to blame himself for the crash in a conversation with a pilot who saw it happen.

"That wasn't good to watch," the pilot said in audio recorded by LiveATC.net.

"Yeah, I know. I tried to reach out to them," the noticeably distraught controller said. "We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up."

The pilot responded, "Nah man, you did the best you could."

Investigators will probe far beyond the comment and investigate every aspect of what happened and always note accidents often have complicated causes.

"Our aviation system is incredibly safe because there are multiple, multiple layers of defense built in to prevent an accident," Homendy said. "So, when something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong."

The NTSB interviewed the local controller on Tuesday night and continued interviews with others on staff through Wednesday, Homendy said. Investigators will also examine audio recordings the Federal Aviation Administration keeps of every tower radio transmission to determine what exactly was said and by who.

"It looks like it's a communication error," Brauchle said, noting that publicly available recordings of air traffic control audio appear to show "the tower both cleared the aircraft to land, and also cleared the fire truck to cross the active runway."

But he said investigations can sometimes reveal more than is apparent in the first moments.

Why didn't the controllers see the collision coming earlier?

LaGuardia Airport has systems designed to prevent vehicles on the ground from colliding, and investigators will want to know why they were not able to stop this crash.

The airport's surface detection equipment –ASDE-X– uses radar to track ground vehicles but did not warn the controllers ahead of the collision, according to the NTSB.

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"Due to the close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway," no alert was issued, Homendy said.

The radar returns on the screen showed two "blobs" on the taxiway, but never showed one go in front of the plane, she said.

Another revelation was that the fire truck involved in the crash was not equipped with a transponder to help air traffic controllers identify it and know its precise location. Though a vehicle without a transponder should show up on radar, no other information would be displayed, and obstructions might prevent radar returns. Why a transponder was not installed will be part of the investigation.

While stressing the need to wait for the investigation's findings, Homendy said Wednesday that she and the team believe all vehicles on tarmacs should have transponders so controllers can see them.

Did the fire truck hear the warning from the control tower to stop?

Another area of the investigation will include looking at the radio transmissions between pilots of Flight 8646, the firefighters, and the control tower.

"Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop, truck 1. Stop," one of the controllers yelled as the fire truck pulled in front of the plane landing on Runway 4.

Nine seconds after the first warning, they collided.

The first radio call the fire truck made to the control tower more than a minute before the collision was "stepped on" by another transmission and was apparently not audible in the control tower, recordings from that night show, but later transmissions appeared to go through.

Investigators will want to know what was transmitted and what was heard, and will review recordings from the control tower, the plane's cockpit voice recorder, and interview other people listening to the frequency that night.

During the investigation into the 2025 midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet over the Potomac River, the NTSB found the soldiers in the helicopter didn't hear all the directions given by air traffic control due to a problem with the frequency.

For Sunday's collision at LaGuardia, investigators also will be looking into the status of the airport's runway status lights. These are a type of traffic light system that is embedded in pavement of taxiways and runways.

The lights should, for instance, automatically signal vehicle operators whether it is unsafe to cross a runway,according to the FAA.

"We … know from the replay that the runway status lights were functioning," Homendy said Tuesday. "But we still have to verify that with tech ops from the FAA."

Why was the fire truck cleared to cross the runway?

Perhaps the most vexing question: Why did the controller apparently clear the fire truck to cross Runway 4 when the plane was speeding toward it?

Controllers are working in high stress situations with long hours and busy airfields to manage. Investigators want to know if something was going on with them that may have contributed to the crash.

The two controllers started their shifts about an hour before the 11:37 p.m. collision and at some point took over duties in the tower cab, the NTSB noted.

Shortly before the collision, another plane on the other side of the airport declared an emergency after an aborted landing and odor in the cabin. Controllers dispatched the fire trucks and were working to find a gate for the plane in the minutes before the accident.

"This is a heavy workload environment," Homendy noted, but said no one should jump to conclusions.

"I would caution (against) pointing fingers at controllers and saying distraction was involved," she said. "We still have to determine what happened at shift change, which was around 10:30. We have to determine who else was in the tower and the facility and available at the time. We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure."

What was going on in the plane?

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, often referred to as black boxes, are two "critical" pieces to the puzzle in any aviation incident investigation, Peter Goelz, former NTSB managing director and CNN aviation analyst told CNN Monday.

The data recorders are expected to give some insight into what happened during the flight's final moments,capturing everything from what was said in the cockpit, to the sound of switches and automated warnings as well as what the aircraft's instruments were reading.

"They give you the functionality of the plane," Goelz said. "It will tell you exactly when it touched down. Did the pilots attempt to do a go-around? Did the speed brake work effectively? And it will discuss the comments between the pilots on whether they were following procedures, what they saw and how they reacted."

Investigators had to "cut a hole," on top of the aircraft to retrieve the recorders, Homendy said. They were then driven to the NTSB's headquarters in Washington, DC, for analysis.

The cockpit voice recorder contained more than 25 hours of good quality audio across four separate channels, said Doug Brazy, NTSB lead investigator. The flight data recorder contained approximately 80 hours of data and recorded more than 400 parameters.

What will the debris tell us?

While investigators moved quickly to recover data and comb the wreckage before any clue is lost to time or the elements, they have to be careful because some of what is left of the plane and fire truck is complex and hazardous.

"There is a tremendous, tremendous amount of debris from taxiway delta across Runway 4," Homendy said. "It's pretty expansive, and we want to make sure, because as you're walking around, you can get injured. There's also hazardous materials, of course, on the firefighting vehicle itself."

Runway 4 at LaGuardia remains closed until Friday afternoon, according to a FAA notice, while the NTSB conducts its investigation.

The airport, meanwhile, has reopened with flights using a perpendicular runway. As they whiz by, passengers can catch a glimpse of the wreckage and the investigators making sure they understand what went wrong so it never happens again.

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March 26, 2026

What’s next in the investigation into the deadly Air Canada collision at LaGuardia

An Air Canada regional jet landing at one of the country's busiest and most prominent airportsslammed into a fire tru...

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Indian Health Service is digging out of decades-old construction backlog for medical buildings

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — An empty lot between a fire station and a soccer field just outside Albuquerque soon will be the home of a federal medical center first promised to Native American patients more than 30 years ago.

Native American Health

Earlier this month, Santa Ana Pueblo Gov. Myron Armijo took officials from the U.S. Indian Health Service and the Department of Health and Human Services on a tour of the location where patients are to receive everything from dialysis and diabetes care to optometry services.

"This will definitely change the game for healthcare in our area," Armijo said.

Set to break ground in 2027, the 235,000-square-foot (22,000-square-meter) center will be run by the IHS, the U.S. agency that provides healthcare to Native Americans. Tribal leaders hope it will relieve pressure on the aging and overextended Albuquerque Indian Health Center, a federal facility originally built 90 years ago where some patients report waiting months for an appointment.

The Albuquerque facility was among more than 60 clinics and hospitals the agency identified for replacement in 1993 due to their age, condition and inability to serve a growing population. It remains on the list along with six other projects scattered around Arizona and New Mexico. IHS officials say it will eventually be replaced by two new facilities in the Albuquerque area, including the center planned at Santa Ana Pueblo.

In February, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged $1 billion toward those long-delayed projects, including $22 million for the Santa Ana Pueblo center. The agency estimates $8 billion is needed to tackle all remaining projects on the 1993 list that, under federal law, must be complete before the IHS can address other major construction needs.

A.C. Locklear, CEO of the nonprofit National Indian Health Board, said the $1 billion is the single largest financial investment by any administration in addressing the aging facilities. Yet, he said, it also shows the federal government has neglected its legal duty to provide adequate healthcare to tribal nations.

"It's a drop in the bucket in terms of what's needed to modernize these facilities," Locklear said.

Aging infrastructure impacts access, quality of care

The IHS serves 2.8 million Native American and Alaska Native patients at 21 hospitals and 78 smaller health centers nationwide. The average age of those facilities is around 40 years old and one-third are in "poor" physical condition, according to a 2023 U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

That isn't lost on Theresa Nelson, a 62-year-old Navajo Nation citizen who started relying on the Albuquerque Indian Health Center after retiring and losing her health insurance.

"It felt like going back in time," she said, describing everything from the X-ray machines to exam rooms and waiting room furniture as outdated.

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Nelson said the center relies on a complex system of outside referrals for treatments and tests that were easier to access in the private sector. She has been waiting for eight weeks for IHS to approve a referral for a 3D mammogram, a tool the Mayo Clinic says is offered at most U.S. healthcare facilities.

The Indian Health Service said appointment wait times at the Albuquerque center are less than 14 days for patients who are established with a primary care provider. But Nelson and other patients report going years without being assigned a doctor and waiting months to be seen for preventative care.

Farther west, the Gallup Indian Medical Center operates out of a mashup of modular buildings and piecemeal renovations. The hospital, which opened over six decades ago and is on the 1993 list, serves a population that includes the Navajo Nation. Tribal lawmaker Vince James said constant construction and a disjointed layout make it difficult for elderly and disabled patients to navigate the hospital and for providers to do their jobs.

"These are Band-Aid fixes," James said. "Eventually the GIMC campus will become unsafe."

An "unacceptable" backlog

Senior HHS adviser Mark Cruz urged Congress to make a special appropriation to complete the remaining projects that are in various stages of planning and design.

Without that funding, he said, it could take another 40 years to get through the priority list.

"It's really unacceptable that we're still working off of that 33-year-old construction list," Cruz said during the Santa Ana Pueblo tour.

Federal law requires the Indian Health Service to complete that list before replacing clinics and hospitals that have fallen into disrepair since 1993. That includes two nearly 90-year-old hospitals in Montana and Minnesota. The agency also can't build new facilities to meet patient demand, which has grown and shifted geographically in recent decades.

"I can't get to additional projects that have merit across Indian Country or Alaska because I have a statutory obligation to get through the 1993 list first," Cruz said.

In 2023 the IHS crossed a project in Rapid City, South Dakota off its priority list. The replacement of the aging and troubled Sioux San Hospital has been "transformational," said Jerilyn Church, CEO of the Great Plains Tribal Leader's Health Board.

The renamed Oyate Health Center is three times larger than the former hospital and equipped with far more modern medical equipment. But demand for care at the new center is already outstripping available space.

"That's what happens when you work from a backlog," Church said. "In the time between identifying the need and the money finally becoming available, the population grows."

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March 26, 2026

Indian Health Service is digging out of decades-old construction backlog for medical buildings

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — An empty lot between a fire station and a soccer field just outside Albuquerque soon will b...

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China launches long-term care insurance system to alleviate aging challenges

BEIJING, March 26 (Reuters) - China has announced the rollout of a long-term care insurance system, a move aimed at easing the burden on families caring ‌for the rapidly growing elderly population, and bolstering the country's social safety net.

The ‌plan, released by the China's state council on Wednesday, pledges to provide services or financial support for basic ​nursing and medical care for people with sustained disabilities lasting six months or more.

The official Xinhua news agency said the plan was an important component of China's social security system and key to "actively addressing population aging."

The announcement comes around three weeks after China's National People's Congress, ‌where authorities said they would refine ⁠supportive policies for seniors, including pension financing, wellness and care.

By 2035, the number of people aged over 60 in China is expected to ⁠reach 400 million - roughly equal to the combined populations of the United States and Italy - meaning hundreds of millions of people are set to leave the workforce at a time when ​pension budgets ​are already under strain.

Experts are warning of further ​declines in China's population, which fell ‌for a fourth consecutive year in 2025, as the birth rate dropped to a record low.

The long-term insurance framework sets a three-year target to build "a unified system covering the entire population."

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It follows pilot programs that began in 2016.

For disabled individuals, the program addresses a fundamental need and dramatically improves people's quality of life, officials said.

"Bathing, haircuts, eating, dressing changes — ‌these are no longer distant hopes for those ​confined to a sickbed, but rather bedside, accessible, attentive ​care," said Wang Wenjun, deputy head ​of the National Healthcare Security Administration during a press conference on Thursday.

Funding ‌will come from employers, individuals and government ​subsidies, with a total ​contribution rate of roughly 0.3%.

Residents in both rural and urban areas will draw from the same fund pool and receive the same benefits, Wang said.

China still ​faces wide discrepancies in care ‌and services between rural and urban areas and authorities have vowed to "markedly narrow" ​the rural-urban healthcare gap by 2035.

(Reporting by the Beijing newsroom and Farah Master ​in Hong Kong; Editing by Saad Sayeed)

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March 26, 2026

China launches long-term care insurance system to alleviate aging challenges

BEIJING, March 26 (Reuters) - China has announced the rollout of a long-term care insurance system, a move aimed at easin...

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Iran and the US harden their positions as Tehran keeps its grip on the Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States hardened their positions as diplomacy aimed at reaching a ceasefire inthe war in the Middle Eastappeared to be faltering on Thursday. Tehran moved to formalize its control over the crucialStrait of Hormuzwhile Washington prepared for the arrival of U.S. combat forces in the region that could be used on the ground in the Islamic Republic.

Iran war

Iran is instituting a "de facto 'toll booth' regime," industry experts say, with some ships paying in Chinese yuan to pass through the strait, where 20% of all traded oil and natural gas is transported in peacetime.

Meanwhile, a strike group anchored by the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli drew closer to the Mideast with some 2,500 Marines. Also, at least 1,000 paratroopers from the82nd Airbornehave been ordered to the region.

The troop movements don't guarantee U.S. President Donald Trump will try to use force to compel Iran to open the strait and halt its attacks on Gulf Arab states.

Trump previously deployed a large force in the Caribbean before the American military captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January. In the current situation, the U.S. is seen as focused on possibly seizing Iran's oil terminal at Kharg Island or other sites near the strait.

U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, who commands the American military in the region, said his forces have hit more than 10,000 targets since Israel and the U.S. started the war Feb. 28, destroying 92% of Iran's largest ships and more than two-thirds of the country's missile, drone and naval production facilities.

"We're not done yet," said Cooper, who heads the U.S. Central Command, in a video message. "We are on a path to completely eliminate Iran's wider military apparatus."

Iran seen as operating Strait of Hormuz as 'de facto toll booth'

With its stranglehold on traffic through theStrait of Hormuz,which leads from the Persian Gulf toward the open ocean, Iran has been blocking ships it perceives as linked to the U.S. and Israeli war effort, but letting through a trickle of others.

The Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both close to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted lawmaker Mohammadreza Rezaei Kouchi as saying that parliament was working to formalize the process of charging fees to let ships pass.

"We provide its security, and it is natural that ships and oil tankers should pay such fees," he was quoted as saying.

Lloyd's List Intelligence called it a "de facto 'toll booth' regime."

The shipping intelligence firm said vessels have to provide manifests, crew details and their destination to Iran's Guard for sanctions screening, cargo alignment checks that currently prioritizes oil over all other commodities, and for what is described as 'geopolitical vetting.'"

"While not all ships are paying a direct toll, at least two vessels have and the payment is settled in yuan," Lloyd's List said, referring to China's currency.

Iran's grip on the strait and relentless attacks on Gulf regional energy infrastructure has sent oil prices skyrocketing and concerns of a global energy crisis surging. Brent crude, the international standard, traded at US$104 early Thursday, up more than 40% from the day the war started.

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"To make it crystal clear, this war is a catastrophe for world's economies," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters during a vist to Australia.

US maintains negotiations are ongoing but Iran says there are no talks

Using Pakistan as an intermediary,Washington has deliveredto Iran a15-point ceasefire proposal, which includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump, speaking at a fundraiser Wednesday night in Washington, insisted thatIran still wants to cut a deal.

"They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people," Trump said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview on state TV, however, that his government hasnot engaged in talksto end the war, "and we do not plan on any negotiations."

Araghchi said the U.S. had tried to send messages to Iran through other nations, "but that is not a conversation nor a negotiation."

Press TV, the English-language broadcaster on Iranian state television, said Iran has its own five-point proposal, which includes "sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz."

A wave of Israeli airstrikes hits as Iran fires on Gulf neighbors

Israel said it carried out a wave of attacks early on Thursday targeting Iranian infrastructure, and air defenses were heard in Tehran, while heavy strikes were also reported around Isfahan, a city some 330 kilometers (205 miles) south of the Iranian capital.

Ifahan is home to a major Iranian air base and other military sites, as well as one of the nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.

Sirens sounded very early on Thursday morning in parts of Tel Aviv and cities in central Israel. Rescue workers said two people were injured in a blast in Kfar Qasim.

Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry said it intercepted multiple drones over its oil-rich Eastern Province, the United Arab Emirates' air defenses also worked to intercept incoming fire, and Bahrain reported extinguishing a blaze in a neighborhood that is home to the Bahrain International Airport.

Since the war began, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Iran, its Health Ministry says. Twenty people have been killed in Israel; two Israeli soldiers have also been killed in Lebanon. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have also died.

Nearly 1,100 people have died in Lebanon, authorities said. In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militant groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have been killed.

Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami, Florida, contributed to this report.

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March 26, 2026

Iran and the US harden their positions as Tehran keeps its grip on the Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States hardened their positions as diplomacy aimed at reaching a c...

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Max Fried, Yankee bats deliver historic Opening Day defeat for Giants

SAN FRANCISCO — TheNew York Yankeesheard all about that effusive energy coming out of theSan Francisco Giants' clubhouse, that ol' college spirit that was going to be a game-changer inMajor League Baseball, and how the Yankees would be the first to bear witness to the new sheriff in town.

Well, by the end of the night, the Yankees were the ones who letGiants rookie manager Tony Vitelloknow that energy can be nice, but it's absolutely worthless when you have a pitcher that can shove that energy where the McCovey Cove kayaks can't float.

The Yankees, behind Max Fried's brilliant performance, completely shut down the Giants,7-0, on Wednesday night inthe 2026 season opener, with all of that energy vanishing into the night in front of a sellout crowd of 40,856 at Oracle Park.

The Yankees, with Fried giving up just two hits in 6 1/3 innings, with the seven-run defeat equaling the Giants' most lopsided in a season opener.

The Giants had one hit in the first inning.

Another hit in the fourth inning.

One in the eighth inning.

That was it.

It was the Giants' fewest hits on Opening Day since April 12, 1965.

A general view as a smoke flag fires during the national anthem before the game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees on Opening Day at Oracle Park on March 25, 2026 in San Francisco, Calif.

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Baseball returns as Yankees, Giants face off in start to MLB season

A general view as a smoke flag fires during the national anthem before the game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees onOpening Dayat Oracle Park on March 25, 2026 in San Francisco, Calif.

"We could nitpick,'' Vitello said, "but this wasn't a March Madness game where we drew up the wrong play at the end."

It was a complete and thoroughly ugly beatdown by the Bronx Bombers, but it could have been much worse.

Can you imagine the damage the Yankees could have done if Aaron Judge didn'tstrike out four timesin the first six innings, becoming the first reigning MVP to strike out four times in a season opener?

Or, what if Fried actually had his good stuff this evening.

"It's really a testament to just how good he is and how he can beat you in different ways,'' Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "I thought it some ways it was a bit of a grind for him tonight, kind of in and out of rhythm a little bit. It's just his arsenal is so vast even though he was a little effectively wild, it makes you have to account for a lot of things ...

"I mean, that's what an ace looks like when he's grinding, but what a tone he set for us.''

The only time the Yankees lost anything the entire night was in the fifth inning when Jose Caballero became thefirst player in history to employ the ABS challenge. He argued that a strike called by veteran home plate umpire Bill Miller should be a ball, only for the call to be confirmed by replay, with the Yankees losing the challenge.

"I wanted to go for it,'' Caballero said. "I think it's really good to keep everyone accountable and give us a chance to see if we are good with the strike zone or not.''

Well, if nothing else, at least he will go down in baseball history.

"It's cool,'' he said. "I just wish it was the other way around.''

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It turned out that would be the biggest suspense of the night with the Yankees pounding out 10 hits, with every hitter in the lineup but Judge collecting at least one hit, and either scoring or driving in a run.

"This is a lineup that can do this often,'' Caballero said. "We just trust one another.''

Says leadoff hitter Trent Grisham, who became the first Yankee to triple on Opening Day since Johnny Damon in 2009: "It's fun to be part of this team. Just seems like we have those stretches were we can continue to put good at-bat after good at-bat.''

The Yankees showed their depth for all of theNetflix viewershipto see. It started off innocently enough with Giants ace Logan Webb retiring Ben Rice to lead off the second inning, but suddenly, he watched everything spiral out of control.

Giancarlo Stanton became the Yankees' first baserunner of the game with a single to center. Webb then hit Jazz Chisholm in the shoulder on a 92.5-mph sinker. Caballero ripped a single to left field, scoring Stanton. Webb got ahead 0-and-2 on No. 8 hitter Ryan McMahon, only for McMahon to flip a changeup to center field for two runs. No. 9 hitter Austin Wells followed with a single.

Grisham became the sixth consecutive Yankee to reach base, punishing Webb with a two-run triple to the right-center-field gap for a 5-0 lead.

And the rout was on.

"It happened fast,'' Wells said. "It was awesome. I was really cool to watch and be a part of."

The Yankees blistered Webb for nine hits and seven runs (six earned) in just five innings. It matched the most runs he gave up in a start in San Francisco in his career, spanning 91 starts.

It was a direct contrast to Fried's domination. He opened the game by walking three-time batting champion Luis Arraez on four pitches, and when cleanup hitter Willy Adames came to the plate, the Giants already had runners on the corners with only one out. No problem. He struck out Adames on a 95-mph cutter. And Jung Hoo Lee hit into an inning-ending groundout the next pitch.

The Giants didn't reach second base again until the eighth inning, well after Fried left the game.

"It was one of those outings where you just got to try to figure out how to get it done when you aren't the most locked in,'' said Fried, who went 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA last year, "especially coming out of the gate. I definitely was searching. But when the guys go out there and put up five runs in the second, it just allows you to take a deep breath and it just allowed you to take a deep breath ...

"One through nine [in the lineup] can beat you, and we obviously have the best player in the world hitting for us, but we also have a lot of guys being able to support him.''

It was just one game in a long, grueling season, but if nothing else, well, maybe the Yankees' idea of running it back with virtually the same team as last year just might work.

"Look, we're confident,'' Boone said. "I know they're confident in their ability to have good at-bats and put up runs. But we're just one game into this thing.

"We've still got a long ways to go to prove that, and I think we have a chance to do that.''

Follow Bob Nightengale onBlueskyand X@Bnightengale.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Yankees humble Giants behind Max Fried, potent lineup

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March 25, 2026

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