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Oil prices have jumped after Qatar's energy minister warned he expects all oil and gas exporters in the Gulf to stop production within days.

Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times the conflict in the Middle East - a region which plays a key role in global energy supplies and shipping routes - could "bring down the economies of the world".

Brent crude oil rose to $89.17 a barrel on Friday, up 4.4% from the end of trading on Thursday.

If ships were unable to proceed through the Strait of Hormuz, Kaabi said that in two to three weeks the price of oil could soar much further to $150 a barrel.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy031ylgepro

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https://apnews.com/article/iran-minab-girls-school-airstrike-us-israel-c3095dc9729881b567277a1c5c47efb2

JERUSALEM (AP) — Satellite images, expert analysis, a U.S. official and public information released by the U.S. and Israeli militaries suggest an explosion that killed scores of Iranian students at a school was likely caused by U.S. airstrikes that also hit an adjacent compound associated with the regime’s Revolutionary Guard.

The Feb. 28 strike, which had the highest reported civilian death toll since the war began, has come under staunch criticism from the United Nations and human rights monitors. More than 165 people were killed, most of them of children, in the blast during school hours at Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School, according to Iranian state media.

Satellite images taken Wednesday and reviewed by the The Associated Press show most of the school in the city of Minab, some 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) southeast of Tehran, reduced to rubble, a crescent shape punched into its roof. Experts say the tight pattern of damage visible on the satellite photos is consistent with a targeted airstrike.

Iran has blamed Israel and the United States for the blast. Neither country has accepted responsibility. Asked about the strike at the school at a Pentagon media briefing Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “All I can say is that we’re investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets. But we’re taking a look and investigating that.”

Several factors point to a U.S. strike.

One is the launching of an assessment of the incident by the U.S. military. According to the Pentagon’s instructions on processes for mitigating civilian harm, an assessment is launched after a group of investigators make an initial determination that the U.S. military may bear culpability. A U.S. official told the AP that the strike was likely U.S. The official spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter.

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/iowa-house-approves-bill-banning-235420917.html

Iowa House Republicans approved a bill Thursday banning local governments from providing anti-discrimination protections for groups not listed in the state’s Civil Rights Act.

Senate File 579 — a measure approved by the Iowa Senate in the 2025 session with bipartisan support — requires complaints filed with local civil rights agencies and commissions in which one of the parties involved is a political subdivision, like a city or county, to be referred to the Iowa Office of Civil Rights.

But the measure was amended Thursday by the House to include language from House File 2541, a different proposal related to civil rights, banning local governments from enacting ordinances or other laws providing civil rights protections that have “broader or has different categories of unfair or discriminatory practices” than what is listed under the state Civil Rights Act.

The Civil Rights Act provides protections against discrimination in areas like housing, education, employment and public accommodations

Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, D-Hiawatha, called the amended bill an “enhanced civil rights removal act,” building on the measure passed in 2025 to remove “gender identity” as a protected class from the state’s Civil Rights Act. Large protests convened against the measure as LGBTQ+ advocates and allies said the law will allow for legal discrimination against transgender Iowans.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/federal-prosecutor-used-fabricated-quotes-false-cites-in-filing

>An assistant US attorney in North Carolina filed a response with the court that included “fabricated quotations and misstatements of case holdings” and then made “false or misleading statements” of how they got included, a magistrate judge said.
>“Because of the seriousness of these issues,” senior leaders from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina must appear at a show cause hearing next week for why the federal prosecutor responsible shouldn’t be sanctioned and why the entire office shouldn’t be held jointly responsible, US Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers said in a March 2 order.
>The US attorney’s office is representing the Defense Department in a lawsuit by a North Carolina pro se litigant challenging a policy limiting availability of GLP-1 weight loss medications for TRICARE for Life participants.
>The plaintiff asserted that a response brief signed by assistant US attorney Rudy Renfer included fabricated quotes and misstated the holdings of several cases. In a reply, Renfer said he “inadvertently included incorrect citations to case law from this circuit” and attributed the errors to the “inadvertent filing of an unfinalized draft document,” Numbers said in his order.
>“Having reviewed the filings in this matter and other submissions by Renfer, the court has serious concerns about the accuracy of certain quotations and representations in Renfer’s filings and the explanation offered for their inclusion,” Numbers said.
>Although it’s not yet clear what caused the error, it comes as judges and opposing counsel have accused attorneys of AI-generated fabrications in filings, leading to monetary penalties in some instances. A spokesperson for the Raleigh-based US attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether Renfer was using an AI tool to help draft his briefs.

House rejects war powers resolution to rein in Trump on Iran

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/05/house-iran-rejects-war-powers-resolution-trump.html

The House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a war powers resolution to restrict President Donald Trump’s authority to use the U.S. military in Iran.

The vote was 212-219, with four Democrats joining Republicans to torpedo the measure and two Republicans joining Democrats in voting for the measure. The Senate shot down a similar measure on Wednesday.

Is the real reason for the war in Iran because of the Epstein files?

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/05/nx-s1-5737562/justice-department-missing-epstein-files-trump

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Today’s jobs report was overwhelmingly disappointing — there’s no other way to say it. While economists expected the economy to add 50,000 jobs in February, today’s release shows we lost 92,000 jobs instead.

At the same time, the unemployment rate edged higher as jobs declined across key areas.

For policymakers at the Federal Reserve, the outlook got far more complicated as they head into their mid-March meeting. Inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% goal, but the labor market may be moving from merely bent to genuinely broken.

Even more concerning, the February data does not take the evolving war with Iran into account.

Today’s data show that the labor market has averaged essentially zero net job creation over the past six months. This is concerning because when an economy stops creating jobs, it’s often not long before it starts losing them.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/06/february-2026-jobs-report.html

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https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/andrew-paul-johnson-capitol-rioter-life-sentence-molestation-b2932971.html

A Florida handyman who was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been sentenced to life in prison for child molestation.

Andrew Paul Johnson, 45, received the sentence Thursday, marking a significant development for one of several Jan. 6 defendants who have faced new criminal charges following Trump’s sweeping act of clemency.

Johnson was convicted last month in Hernando County, Florida, on two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child and one count of electronically transmitting material harmful to a minor. County Circuit Judge Stephen Toner handed down the life sentence.

Sheriff’s deputies initiated an investigation into the child molestation allegations against Johnson in July 2025. One of his victims informed investigators that the abuse began around April 2024, several months before Johnson was sentenced for his Capitol riot conviction.

According to a sheriff's office report, Johnson told one of his victims that he expected compensation for being a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant and would include the child in his will to inherit any leftover money. "This tactic was believed to be used to keep (the child) from exposing what Andrew had done," the report stated.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epstein-files-on-womans-unproven-claims-about-trump-released-by-doj/

Washington — The Justice Department released additional Jeffrey Epstein files Thursday that included uncorroborated accusations by a woman against President Trump that the department said had been mistakenly withheld during an earlier review.

The department said last week that it was working to determine if any records were improperly withheld after several news organizations reported that the massive tranche of records that had been made public didn't include some files documenting a series of interviews conducted in 2019 with a woman who made an allegation against Mr. Trump.

The accuser was interviewed by the FBI four times as it sought to assess her account but a summary of only one of those interviews had been included in the publicly released files.

On Thursday, the department said those files had been "incorrectly coded as duplicative" and therefore were inadvertently not published along with other investigative documents related to the disgraced financier, who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-says-kristi-noem-stepping-homeland-security-secretary-rcna248719

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be stepping down at the end of the month after serving for just over a year in her role and tapping Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to take over her post.

"I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), effective March 31, 2026," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

He added that Noem, whom he said "has served us well," will take over a new role called "Envoy for The Shield of the Americas."

The president described that position as one that will lead, "our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/married-maga-rep-tony-gonzales-admits-to-affair-with-staffer-who-died-by-suicide/

>GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales has confessed to having an affair with an aide who died by suicide.

>The married father-of-six called it a “lapse in judgment” and said he takes “full responsibility for those actions.”

>The Texas congressman’s admission comes after the House Ethics Committee launched a formal investigation into the affair on Wednesday.

>Gonzales, 45, had previously tried to dismiss the affair allegations as “blackmail” and “coordinated political attacks” meant to unseat him.

>The congressman appeared on the MAGA-friendly podcast The Joe Pags Show to come clean about the affair.

>He said he had reconciled with his wife and said, “I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has.”

>Gonzales also addressed the death of his one-time regional district director, Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, 35, who set herself on fire in September after her husband, Adrian Aviles, learned of her affair with Gonzales.

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Having successfully distracted the world from the Epstein files by starting WWIII, Trump no longer feels it necessary to keep up previous, failed distraction campaigns

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/doj-shelves-biden-autopen-probe-rcna261810

The Justice Department shelved an investigation into former President Joe Biden's use of an autopen, a person briefed on the matter told NBC News on Wednesday.

Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin, the former “weaponization” czar, opened the probe while he was interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. It wound down recently under Jeanine Pirro, the current U.S. attorney, who is a longtime Trump ally and former Fox News host.

The New York Times first reported the news.

The autopen case was never presented to a grand jury, unlike the case that Pirro's office tried to bring forward last month against six members of Congress who participated in a social media video that urged members of the military and intelligence communities not to follow unlawful orders.

It is difficult to bring a criminal case when there is not even a readily identifiable and applicable criminal statute, the person briefed on the matter said.

The White House referred an inquiry about the matter to the Justice Department. A spokesman for Pirro’s office, citing Justice Department policy, said the office does not confirm or deny the existence of criminal probes.

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BREAKING (hasn't hit the American press sheets yet, they have higher standards and require confirmation)

Esmail Ghaani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has reportedly been detained, according to Iranian media outlets, AzerNEWS reports.

Unconfirmed reports claim that Ghaani is accused of espionage activities in favor of Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.

He has reportedly been condemned because he was allegedly the last official to meet with the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei before his death. Additionally, he is said to be the last official to meet with Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. All died by Israeli rocket strikes right after the meetings.

According to the same sources, the detention was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

There has been no official confirmation from Iranian authorities regarding the reports at this time.
https://www.azernews.az/region/255213.html

Annnnd he's been executed:
https://247ureports.com/2026/03/iran-executes-quds-force-chief-esmail-qaani-over-mossad-spying-allegations/

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Uh...cagiebros..what is this..?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/nyregion/nyc-congestion-pricing-ruling.html

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration had unlawfully tried to end congestion pricing, which went into effect last year for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Stefanos ChenWinnie Hu
By Stefanos Chen and Winnie Hu
March 3, 2026
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the federal government’s attempt to end New York’s congestion pricing toll was illegal, handing a major victory to the state in its defense of the first-in-the-nation traffic reduction plan, which the Trump administration had tried for more than a year to kill.

While other legal challenges remain, the 149-page decision by Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan ends, for now, a heated battle between Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has become a staunch defender of the program, and the White House, which has claimed, without offering evidence, that it would harm the region’s economy.

The ruling comes months after Judge Liman granted the toll program temporary protection from threats issued by the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who had warned that the federal government would withhold approval and funding from a range of highway and transit projects in New York if congestion pricing was not canceled.

Judge Liman, who had signaled skepticism toward the federal government’s argument that it could unilaterally reverse approval for the toll, said the government’s steps to kill congestion pricing and its subsequent threats to the state’s transportation budget were impermissible.

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“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,” Donald Trump said on the campaign trail.

Americans, 408 days later, are still waiting. What’s worse, instead things are increasingly more expensive.

New data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that electricity costs have risen 14.4% in Pennsylvania. It didn’t help that there was a 71% increase in natural gas prices during Trump’s first year, so of course utility bills are soaring.

Have you been to the gas station lately to fill your tank? Prices are up nearly 7% in 2026. And now that Trump launched his reckless war in Iran, prices just spiked and likely will continue to climb at a faster clip, as The Associated Press reports.

Because Trump and his Republican Congress let Affordable Care Act subsidies expire, Pennsylvanians who enroll in health insurance through the state’s official marketplace Pennie faced “an average price increase of 102% to remain in their plan for 2026.” Never mind the “nearly 1 in 5 enrollees were unable to keep their health plan for 2026.”

“From rising electric bills to wholesale natural gas prices surging 71% in 2025, it’s clear that Donald Trump’s cost-raising economic policies have been a total disaster for Pennsylvanians,” said DNC Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta. “Donald Trump promised to lower costs on Day One. Instead, they’ve skyrocketed.”

Kenyatta pointed to Trump’s promise to lower energy costs as one glaring example. Trump claimed at a September 2024 ‘Protecting America Initiative’ roundtable in Pennsylvania that “your energy bill within 12 months will be cut in half, and that’s my pledge all over the country.”

Promise made, promise broken.

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