According to the IEA, export volumes of crude and refined products are currently at less than 10% of prewar levels. Birol noted that the situation in natural gas markets is also very challenging, with Asia the most severely affected region. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File) via Associated PressMember countries pledge helpGermany, Austria and Japan said earlier Wednesday that they would release parts of their oil reserves in response to the IEA’s request for members to release 400 million barrels. The IEA reserves were established in 1974 following the Arab oil embargo, and IEA member countries currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. AdvertisementGermany’s economy ministry, Katherina Reiche, said the IEA asked Germany to release 2.64 million tons — roughly 19.7 million barrels — of its oil reserves.

RVs line San Fernando Road in Pacoima, less than two miles from where prosecutors say Vincent Wolf shot a homeless man who was living near Wolf’s apartment. Advertisement“It’s all corrupt politicians left nor right,” he was quoted as writing in the affidavit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in August. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)In L.A. County, where an estimated 72,000 people are homeless, RV encampments have become sources of simmering anger and frustration. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimates about 6,290 RVs are being used as makeshift dwellings across the county. By the time of his death, Harker had been living on the street for years, said Los Angeles Police Det.

Law enforcement agencies across California were recently warned that the Iran war could lead to a surprise drone attack in the Golden State, but sources told The Times on Wednesday there’s no credible intelligence to support it. But the warning played into security strategies that local and national authorities enacted after the war began. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the memo and referred questions to the FBI. Since the U.S. and Israel began launching strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Homeland Security Division has elevated its security posture. In February, U.S. lawmakers blasted the Department of Defense after reports that it had shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a “high risk counter-unmanned aircraft system.”

“PFAS pesticides went from being the exception to now they’re the rule.”AdvertisementMore than 90% of nectarine, peach and plum samples tested contained the PFAS fungicide fludioxonil. There are thousands of PFAS chemicals used in consumer products, electronics, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. Regulators say that not all PFAS chemicals are the same. California has registered 53 PFAS pesticides. According to the report, about 2.5 million pounds of PFAS pesticides are applied annually on California cropland.

On this day, a submission arrived from “MJ Rathbun.” Not a person, but an AI agent running on OpenClaw. Emerging regulatory approaches, including risk-based frameworks for AI and platform governance like the EU’s DSA or the AI Act, must grapple with a new kind of harm. In the case of a customised OpenClaw agent, responsibility may well be attributed to several parties. (2023): “Der AI Act der Europäischen Union – Überblick, Kritik und Ausblick [The European Union’s AI Act – Overview, Criticism, and Outlook],” Zeitschrift für Rechtspolitik 56(8), pp. Accessed March 9, 2026. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/when-ai-bots-start-bullying-humans-even-silicon-valley-gets-rattled-0adb04f1Shambaugh, S. (2026): “An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me,” The Shamblog.

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Iran said it would set fire to oil tankers passing through the strait, effectively locking much of the world’s oil in place during the war. That means high oil prices could be here for a while – and gas prices, which follow oil prices with a lag, could stay elevated for even longer. Securing the straitThe US military is developing plans to eliminate Iran’s ability to attack oil tankers. It said its forecast is based on assumptions about the duration of the Middle East conflict and oil production outages. If oil stays that high, gas prices could near $4 a gallon and hover there until oil prices come down meaningfully – and stay lower.

A cyberattack claimed by pro-Iran hackers has caused a “global network disruption” to a major US medical device maker, according to a company statement. The company’s computers in Ireland were also hit by the cyberattack, according to local media reports. Stryker say it serves more than 150 million patients through its health equipment and services. It was unclear what immediate impacts, if any, the hack had on Stryker’s provision of medical equipment to US hospitals. Iran-linked hackers had been largely quiet in terms of attacks on US organizations since the war began last month.

We are now targeting LLCs, limited partnerships, real estate investment trusts, individual owners, family companies, pension funds,” Schatz said. Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, authored the bill alongside its chair, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). It’s best known for helping finance apartment buildings, but it can also be used for single-family homes. One section of the bill would boost federal housing counseling, another would encourage states and localities to liberalize their zoning laws. said he didn’t like the build-for-rent provision in the bill but that he would defer to Trump on the matter.

A poster image from Missing People in America shows an image of a child at the age of 5-years-old. A 11-year-old girl reported missing in Los Angeles in 2020 was found safe in North Carolina living under a different name, according to authorities. AdvertisementOn March 6, detectives got information that the child could be in Washington County, North Carolina, officials said. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said it found the girl enrolled at a local school under an alias. Stories with positive outcomes like these can happen,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

But increasingly, it appears GOP leaders have largely given up policing them — at least publicly. “When you seek to come to a country and not assimilate, but to impose Sharia law — Sharia law is in conflict with the US Constitution — that is that conflict that people are talking about,” Johnson said. “I think we’ve got plenty of examples of good people.”There were a few Republicans who expressed more direct opposition to Ogles’ post, as Desjardins reported. As the New York Times’ Annie Karni and others noted, GOP leaders didn’t have much to say about that, either. And Republicans don’t seem to have a lot to say, even as these kinds of comments proliferate.

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A California appeals court this week sided with state utility regulators in a case seen as crucial to the spread of solar panels on the rooftops of California homes. Three appeals court judges ruled that the California Public Utilities Commission was justified in reducing the rate that customers are paid by their utility companies for extra electricity they produce. The case reached an appeals court, which applied a legal standard that granted commissioners significant deference. They can’t earn that return on customers’ rooftop solar. Ratepayers routinely admonish state utility regulators for their high bills at public meetings.