News from Multiple Perspectives

Record oil release steadies markets, but war-driven disruption in the Strait of Hormuz keeps energy supplies uncertain.

Analysts say US president's solution to secure the strait is fraught with problems.

CCTV footage released by Israeli police shows the moment an Iranian missile struck a street in Tel Aviv.

The Federal Trade Commission building is seen, Jan. 28, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) 2026-03-15T11:47:30Z As media organizations go, NewsGuard cuts a low public profile as it follows its mission of issuing credibility ratings about news outlets. The Trump administration knows about it, though, and the company has joined a lengthening list of journalism organizations to face the White House’s wrath. A dispute between President Donald Trump’s regulators and the news monitoring service has spilled into court, with NewsGuard Technologies suing the Federal Trade Commission and its chairman, Andrew Ferguson, to shut down an investigation. The FTC accuses the company of trying to suppress conservative speech. NewsGuard says it is being forced to kneel before vindictive power. Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, the Republican administration has fought The Associated Press in court over the outlet’s claim it is being punished for not adopting his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico; settled with CBS News’ corporate parent in a dispute over “60 Minutes” editing; sued The Wall Street Journal for its reporting on Trump and Jeffrey Epstein; and is in a legal fight with The New York Times over Pentagon reporting restrictions. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); NewsGuard’s lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, accuses Trump’s FTC of “brazenly using its power not for any issue concerning trade or commerce but rather to censor speech simply because it disagreed with NewsGuard’s judgments about the reliability of news sources.” The FTC calls NewsGuard’s accusations “untethered from both law and fact.” The FTC, normally low-key, is busier under Trump Like the Federal Communications Commission under Brendan Carr, Ferguson’s FTC is a normally sleepy federal agency that has sprung to life to address issues of importance to Trump and his supporters, particularly involving the media. The FCC has launched investigations of media companies and this weekend Carr, responding to a Trump complaint about negative coverage of the Iran war, warned broadcasters “running hoaxes and news distortions” to correct course or see their licenses threatened. Ferguson has made no secret about where he takes his cues. He said in an interview in July that “I am a law enforcer, and I will follow the law. But the policy priorities are set by the man the people chose to run this government.” The liberal lobbying group Media Matters for America was one of his targets. A federal judge last summer halted an FTC investigation over efforts to promote advertising boycotts of companies the group opposes, saying the inquiry violated MMA’s free speech rights. While NewsGuard may not be a big name, money is at stake for news outlets friendly to the president. The company began in 2018, started by Court TV founder Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, a former Journal publisher. NewsGuard uses journalists to examine thousands of news outlets and websites, giving them ratings based on the credibility and reliability of their journalism. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); A monthly subscription costs $4.95. Much of its business comes from companies that advise advertisers where to hawk their products, showing them which news sites may be toxic to their brands, and artificial intelligence companies looking to see where they would be more likely to find information they could trust. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Making a powerful enemy in Newsmax NewsGuard made an enemy of the Trump-friendly television network Newsmax, giving its website a 20 on a scale where 100 is the best score. NewsGuard says “this website is unreliable because it severely violates basic journalism standards.” Newsmax has since repeatedly urged Republican lawmakers or regulators to do what they can to silence NewsGuard, the company said in its lawsuit. “NewsGuard was started by Steve Brill to target conservative media and get ad agencies to deny them advertising revenue as a means of censorship,” Newsmax spokesman Bill Daddi said. “Brill is a Democratic Party activist and donor over many decades with a long history of advocating for liberal causes. He is not a respected journalist and in no way should be running a ratings service used by major ad agencies.” Brill said his only political activity was working for Republican John Lindsay, New York City’s mayor in the late 1960s and early 1970s, while a college and law school student. “I have been a journalist ever since,” Brill said, adding that he has not donated money to any politicians. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); NewsGuard says its ratings are based on clearly defined criteria, such as whether or not an outlet publishes false or misleading material, whether it distorts arguments and uses multiple sources, whether it distinguishes between news and opinion and regularly corrects errors. To counter charges that it unfairly boosted liberals, the company noted times where Fox News scored higher in its ratings than the former MSNBC. Yet the conservative Media Research Center has published studies contending that NewsGuard is more likely to give higher ratings to outlets with a liberal bent. In court papers, the FTC said it began investigating NewsGuard because congressional investigators connected the company’s services to “coordinated actions to demonize disfavored media entities.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The agency has asked the company to produce reams of internal documents, emails, financial reports and subscriber lists dated to its founding. Not only does NewsGuard consider that task unduly expensive and burdensome, it worries that regulators will use that information to target its subscribers. The FTC, as a condition to approving a merger of two of the world’s biggest media buying firms, Omnicom and IPG, prohibited the new company from using a service that reviews and rates news sites. That is designed to eliminate the company’s ability to deny advertising based on politics, the agency said. It has already cost NewsGuard business, the company asserts. “The whole idea that any speaker has to justify to the government that it’s not biased is a really troubling thought,” Brill said in an interview. “We have a constitutional right to be biased. It just so happens that we started the company on the core principle that we were going to be totally apolitical.” Continuing until NewsGuard ‘knuckles under’ The FTC’s press department did not return a message seeking comment. But in court papers, the agency said it was conducting a broad investigation into whether advertiser boycotts violated antitrust laws and that it has issued more than a dozen orders for information similar to the one given to NewsGuard. The company’s charges are “completely meritless,” the agency said. If its order was so demanding, the FTC wondered why it took NewsGuard eight months after it was issued to sue. “We tried to cooperate in the belief that the more that we told them what we do, the more likely it would be that they would decide that they didn’t have any case,” Brill said. “We soon realized that they weren’t worried about the merits.” The company argues that the FTC actions “will continue until NewsGuard knuckles under.” Asked if he thought the government agency’s goal was to put his company out of business, Brill declined to comment. ___ David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social . DAVID BAUDER Bauder is the AP’s national media writer, covering the intersection of news, politics and entertainment. He is based in New York. twitter mailto

FILE -A view of the island of Qeshm, which oversees the strategic waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, on Dec. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File) 2026-03-12T14:39:16Z JERUSALEM (AP) — The islands off Iran’s coast have become the latest focus of the war after a U.S strike destroyed military sites last week on Kharg Island, which is vital to Iran’s oil network. The strike on Friday on the island in the Persian Gulf left its oil infrastructure intact and vessels were still seen arriving and loading up with fuel, according to satellite imagery posted on Saturday and Sunday by the platform TankerTrackers. Though U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States “totally obliterated” the island’s military assets, he warned that if Iran or anyone else interferes with ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz , he will reconsider his decision not to target oil infrastructure. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Iran’s islands account for only a small share of its territory but have outsized importance because of their oil facilities and strategic location. Here’s what to know about Iran’s islands in the Persian Gulf up to the Strait of Hormuz: freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Kharg Island “He who controls Kharg Island, controls the destiny of this war,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s close Republican allies, posted on social media on Saturday. The small coral island about 33 kilometers (21 miles) off Iran’s coast is the primary terminal through which nearly all of Iran’s oil exports pass. Iran has exported 13.7 million barrels since the war started. Iran gets a significant share of its revenue from oil, with shipments flowing to countries like China. Expanded strikes on Kharg would not only further damage Iran’s current government but could also undermine the viability of whatever might eventually replace it. The island has storage tanks and housing for thousands of workers. Gazelles roam freely near the refineries and depots that make Kharg one of Iran’s most valuable — and sensitive — assets. It also is home to a medieval Portuguese fortress and the ruins of one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the Persian Gulf. Petras Katinas, an energy researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, said Kharg Island was critical to funding Iran’s government and military. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); If Iran were to lose control there, it would be difficult for the country to function, even though the island is not a military or nuclear target, he said. “It doesn’t matter which regime is in power — new or old,” Katinas said. A takeover would give the U.S. leverage over negotiations with Iran because the island is “the main node” of its economy. JPMorgan’s global commodity research team warned last week in an investment note that a strike on the island would have major economic implications or “immediately halt the bulk of Iran’s crude exports, likely triggering severe retaliation in the Strait of Hormuz or against regional energy infrastructure.” Friday’s strikes hit more than 90 targets, including air defenses, a radar site, the airport and a hovercraft base according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunb Iran said the U.S. also struck Abu Musa — one of three tiny islands that have long been a front line in tensions between Iran and Gulf states allied with the U.S. Iranian forces seized the islands in November 1971, days after the United Kingdom withdrew from the Gulf and just before the sheikhdoms joined to form the United Arab Emirates. Iran maintains military assets and garrisons on the islands. The territorial dispute over the islands remains one of the Gulf’s most persistent flashpoints. U.S. Central Command did not immediately acknowledge Iran’s claim of strikes on Abu Musa. Qeshm Island The largest island in the Persian Gulf sits near the Strait of Hormuz and is home to about 150,000 residents. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. struck a desalination plant on the island on March 8 — a claim not acknowledged by Washington. “Attacking Iran’s infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences,” Araghchi warned in a March 7 post on X. “The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.” The desalination plant supplied water to about 30 villages. ___ Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. SAM METZ Metz covers Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and points beyond for The Associated Press. mailto

Pope Leo XIV appears at the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican where Catholic faithful and pilgrims gathered for the traditional Sunday blessing at the end of the noon Angelus prayer, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 2026-03-15T12:23:53Z ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV demanded a ceasefire in the Middle East on Sunday in his strongest comments to date , directly addressing the leaders who launched the war in Iran. “On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East and all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict,” Leo said. “Cease fire so that avenues for dialogue may be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability, and peace that the people are waiting for.” Leo didn’t cite the United States or Israel by name in his comments at the end of his Sunday noon blessing. But history’s first U.S. pope mentioned the attacks that targeted a school , an apparent reference to the missile strike on an elementary school in Iran in the opening days of the war that killed over 165 people, many of them children. U.S. officials have said outdated intelligence likely led to the United States launching the strike, and that an investigation is ongoing. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The Vatican has highlighted the carnage of the Minab strike, running an aerial photo of the mass grave being dug for the young victims on the March 6 front page of its official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, under the headline “The Face of War.” Leo said he was close to the families of those who had been killed in the attacks “which have hit schools, hospitals and residential centers.” He expressed particular concern about the impact of the war in Lebanon, where aid groups are warning of a humanitarian crisis. The plight of Christian communities in southern Lebanon is of particular concern to the Vatican, since they have long represented a bulwark for Christians throughout the majority Muslim region. For the two weeks since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war, the pope has limited his comments to muted appeals for diplomacy and dialogue in an apparent attempt to avoid pitting himself as an American political counterweight to President Donald Trump. He hasn’t named the U.S. or Israel publicly, but that is also in keeping with the Vatican’s tradition of diplomatic neutrality. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); On Friday, for example, in a speech to priests attending a Vatican class on the sacrament of confession, Leo said the sacrament was a workshop that restores unity and peace. “One might well ask: do those Christians who bear grave responsibility in armed conflicts have the humility and courage to make a serious examination of conscience and to go to confession?” he said. But while Leo has sought to keep his messaging indirect and apolitical to avoid inflaming tensions, some of his U.S. cardinals and the Vatican secretary of state have not. Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, said the war was morally unjustifiable. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich said it was “sickening” how the White House was splicing video game imagery into its social media messaging about the war. The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, rejected Washington’s claim of a “preventive war.” But he said this week that the Holy See was regardless keeping dialogue open. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); “The Holy See speaks with everyone, and when necessary we speak also with the Americans, with the Israelis and show them what to us are the solutions,” he said. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. NICOLE WINFIELD Winfield has been on the Vatican beat since 2001, covering the papacies of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and the Francis pontificate and traveling the world with them.

Uganda's military chief has said Bobi Wine is wanted "dead or alive", although some ministers have denied he is being sought.

Volodymyr Zelensky says restoring the flow of Russian oil via Ukraine into the EU would be like lifting sanctions on Russia.

Mohammed, aged five, and Othman, aged seven, were killed alongside their parents, the Palestinian health ministry says.

Iran's decades-long use of the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint for global oil shipping from the Middle East will come to an end, according to President Donald Trump , and he is rallying the world to free it. "Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe," Trump wrote Saturday morning on Truth Social . Iran closing the strait has roiled global oil supply, causing gas price increases even in the states, despite the fact the U.S. is a net-exporter of oil and gets only a fraction of its oil from the Middle East. Trump is calling on those countries relying on the oil tankers from the strait to share in the responsibility to free it up. "We have already destroyed 100% of Iran's Military capability, but it's easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are," Trump's post continued. "Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated." US 'WINNING DECISIVELY' AGAINST IRAN, WILL ACHIEVE 'COMPLETE CONTROL' OF AIRSPACE WITHIN DAYS, HEGSETH SAYS Trump vowed a massive campaign to knock out Iran's ability to terrorize the oil tankers transversing the region. "In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water," he concluded. "One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!" Trump added in another Truth Social post five hours later that the countries relying on that Middle East oil must take responsibility for it now, too. WATCH SHIPPING THROUGH THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ GRIND TO A HALT AMID IRAN CONFLICT "The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!" Trump wrote. "The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well. This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be — It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!" None of those countries gave any immediate indication ​they would do so. In fact, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed both China and Russia are "strategic partners" supporting defense against U.S. and Israel-led aggression. "That includes military cooperation," he told MS Now in an interview Saturday. "I'm not going into the into any details of that, a good cooperation with these countries, politically, economically, even militarily." IRAN WAR, 11 DAYS IN: US CONTROLS SKIES, OIL SURGES AND THE REGION BRACES FOR WHAT’S NEXT Araghchi is perpetuating a "confused policy," according to the United Arab Emirates, as the Islamic Revolution Guard contends the strait will remain closed, while the foreign minister suggests all countries other than the U.S. or Israel will be permitted to pass. "As a matter of fact, the Strait of Hormuz is open," Araghchi said. "It is only closed to the tankers and ships belong[ing] to our enemies, to those who are attacking us and their allies. Others are free to pass." Takayuki ⁠Kobayashi, Japan's ruling party policy chief , told public broadcaster NHK that "the (legal) threshold is very high." TRUMP SAYS US ‘OBLITERATED’ TARGETS IN STRIKE ON KEY IRANIAN OIL HUB Japan interprets its pacifist postwar constitution to mean it can deploy its military if the nation's survival is threatened, but the government would have to invoke a 2015 security law that has not been used. South Korea's presidential office said it would decide on Trump's request after a "careful ⁠review." France is seeking ​to assemble a coalition to secure the strait once the security situation stabilizes, while Britain is discussing a ​range of options with allies to ensure the security of shipping, officials have said. IRAN WAR JEOPARDIZES TRUMP ECONOMIC BOOM BEFORE KEY MIDTERM ELECTIONS Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei , who replaced his slain father and who the U.S. and Israel understand to be injured, has said the Strait of Hormuz should remain closed. War Secretary Pete Hegseth says the new supreme leader was "disfigured" in the initial strikes that killed his father late last month. "There is no problem with the new supreme leader," Araghchi told MS Now. "The system is working." "Everything is under control." Reuters contributed to this report.

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan: Last Christmas Eve, satellite tracking and ship-transponder data revealed an unusual maritime event in the East China Sea: thousands of Chinese fishing vessels gathered into tight, linear formations and holding position for extended periods. It happened again two weeks later. Analysts from a geospatial analytical firm were the first to identify two large stationary formations involving roughly 1,400 and 2,000 fishing vessels. Cargo ships in the area were forced to reroute or carefully thread between thousands of stationary vessels that had ceased normal fishing activity. This flotilla behavior by Chinese fishing boats, analysts believe, was a "gray zone" exercise. "There have been proposals by defense experts in the United States that the U.S. Navy should treat China’s maritime militia as a real naval force," Holmes Liao, a defense expert who is currently a senior advisor for the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), told Fox News Digital. CHINA LAUNCHES LARGEST MILITARY DRILLS OFF TAIWAN IN 8 MONTHS WITH LIVE-FIRE EXERCISES CAUGHT ON CAMERA "I think Taiwan may need to adhere to that mentality and mindset," said Liao. "If these Chinese vessels are operating under clear military direction, then their status under the law of armed conflict could be subject to reassessment, potentially affecting claims of civilian immunity." Liao said that Taiwan should consider deploying surveillance drones or air patrols over maritime militia formations to demonstrate presence and reinforce deterrence. "Taiwan has so far been very timid in response to PRC aggression," said Liao. "They may be fishing boats, but they are actually under the PLA’s command… part of the maritime militia." Indeed, several editions of the U.S. Department of Defense’s annual "Military and Security Developments involving the People's Republic of China," describe the People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM) as a "state-organized, trained, and equipped" force that actively supports China’s navy and coast guard. Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative have previously documented swarms of dozens or even hundreds of Chinese vessels in the South China Sea near contested reefs, often remaining stationary for long periods. But the incidents late last year and early this year highlight how the scale of this fishing militia appears to be expanding. Fishing vessels are inexpensive, numerous and legally ambiguous. When deployed in mass, they complicate navigation, create radar clutter and raise operational risks for commercial shipping. The civilian status of these boats also conveniently allows Beijing to frame any incidents as "rogue actions not sanctioned by authorities," or as accidents. BIPARTISAN HOUSE CHINA PANEL SLAMS BEIJING’S TAIWAN DRILLS AS ‘DELIBERATE ESCALATION’ The United States frequently cites freedom of navigation as the reason for navy patrols in the Indo-Pacific, with a U.S. State Department fact sheet noting that the region "accounts for 60% of global GDP." The area around Taiwan is already treated by maritime insurers and shipping firms as a "higher-risk environment," meaning even temporary flotilla formations could influence shipping decisions and significantly affect both regional and global economies . Taipei-based security analyst Sasha Chhabra, however, warned of the risks China would face should it deploy civilian fishing vessels in an active conflict. "A U.S. Navy convoy could easily break through these lines, and the large commercial vessels that carry Taiwan’s much-needed imports would easily splinter most fishing vessels in a ramming incident." He noted that there is precedent for Beijing using Chinese fisherman as "live bait" during a conflict. "In 1973, China used civilian fishing vessels to bait the South Vietnamese Navy into conflict and seize full control over the Paracels (islands)," said Chhabra. "But what worked against teetering South Vietnam in 1973 won’t work against the U.S. Navy." However, for independently ruled Taiwan, the concern could be cumulative pressure rather than a single dramatic incident. Encounters between Taiwanese patrol vessels and Chinese fishing boats have grown more frequent around outlying islands and in parts of the Taiwan Strait, with vessels sometimes operating in coordinated groups that shadow or crowd Taiwanese ships. The maritime militia could also be used as a tool to discourage the global shipping industry from doing business with Taiwan. Taiwan’s major ports are the energy and industrial lifelines for this de facto independent state. The port of Kaohsiung in the south, for example, handles large volumes of LNG imports and petrochemical shipments. Even partial disruption or perceived instability in surrounding sea lanes could ripple through supply chains and sharply raise costs for the global economy. Jason Wang, CEO of ingeniSPACE, the company that revealed the fishing fleets on their satellite systems, told Fox News Digital that despite Taiwan’s semiconductor advantage, China is winning in space. Wang said data fusion and satellite-based maritime awareness are now strategic necessities. "Intelligence is deterrence without provocation. Intelligence ensures efficient targeted spending and is a force multiplier by shaping a more effective military force," he said. "Taiwan, like all First Island Chain nations, must be prepared for a new kind of warfare." Wang and other experts note that countries like Japan and South Korea have, for roughly a decade, aggressively augmented their satellite spy constellations with commercial satellites to "ensure sufficient coverage and revisit rates so that their leadership has the capability to distinguish both overt military and gray zone activity." Analysts say the broader lesson is that sea control no longer depends solely on destroyers and submarines. In the immediate future, the most consequential maritime pressure may come not from warships, but from vessels that look, at first glance, entirely harmless.

Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said Saturday he is ready to lead Iran ’s transition "as soon as the Islamic Republic falls." As the war in Iran entered its third week, Pahlavi — the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — said he has been working in recent months to develop a transition plan should the Iranian regime collapse to ensure the country does not experience a disruption in governance. Pahlavi said in a social media post that "capable individuals" have been identified both inside and outside Iran to lead what he called a "transitional system." "The transitional system, under my leadership , will be ready to assume governance of the country as soon as the Islamic Republic falls and, in the shortest possible time, establish order, security, freedom and the conditions for Iran’s prosperity and flourishing," he said. MIKE POMPEO: OPERATION EPIC FURY IS RIGHTEOUS — AND REGIME CHANGE MUST FOLLOW Pahlavi has lived in exile since the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled Iran’s monarchy and established the Islamic Republic. He has in recent years sought to position himself as a unifying opposition figure and has said he would help guide a transition of power from theocracy to democracy in Iran. In a message addressed to his "compatriots," Pahlavi said his plan for governing the country would fall within the framework of the "Iran Prosperity Project." IRAN’S NEW SUPREME LEADER IS ‘HIS FATHER ON STEROIDS,’ EXPERTS WARN OF HARDLINE RULE He said that many compatriots with valuable experience and expertise have declared "their readiness to participate in the rebuilding of the country and to serve the homeland." Since joint operations between the U.S. and Israel began, nearly 50 regime figures have been killed, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . His son, Mojtaba Khamenei , was elected this week by Iran’s Assembly of Experts as the country’s new supreme leader. TRUMP EXPLORING BACKING MILITIAS IN IRAN TO TOPPLE WEAKENED REGIME FOLLOWING STRIKES: REPORTS In an appearance last week on Fox News’ "My View with Lara Trump," Pahlavi said the Iranian people would not accept any outcome moving forward tied to the current regime. "Only a clean break will ensure that not only we achieve a democratic solution and alternative to this regime, but there will be people who are not in any form or shape directly associated with this regime," he said. Pahlavi said the Iranian people must decide their country’s leadership and that "only the ballot box should determine the outcome and who will be responsible for our country in the future." "I think what we will expect any government, including, of course, the current Trump administration to recognize that indeed the best way to help the Iranian people is to allow them to make that choice freely and to support that choice as a Western democracy, as the leading democracy in the world," he said.

President Trump has urged China, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea to send warships to help reopen the waterway, even though they were not involved in the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.

The fee had been increased to $2,350 in 2014, prompting criticism and legal challenges from advocacy groups and Americans living abroad.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for oil shipments, remained unsafe for tanker passage. Iran has been firing projectiles and laying mines.

In his top post at the Department of Homeland Security, David Harvilicz sets policy on protecting the nation’s elections infrastructure, including voting machines. He’s also the co-founder of a company with James Penrose, who helped hatch debunked conspiracy theories blaming hacked voting machines for Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. Penrose assisted in a push to seize voting machines to overturn Trump’s defeat. On social media , Harvilicz has called for doing away with voting machines , saying they are “eminently vulnerable to exploitation.” In a March post , he wrote that “DHS needs to ban voting machines for all federal elections. The time is now.” He also has repeatedly questioned the validity of Democratic electoral victories and pushed for Republicans to overhaul electoral systems to their advantage . David Harvilicz in 2015 Sam Comen/The New York Times/Redux Election experts as well as current and former DHS officials say Harvilicz’s central role in overseeing the security of electoral systems and voting machines is especially concerning at a time when the administration is taking unprecedented steps to relitigate Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen. That includes the FBI’s seizure of 2020 voting records from Fulton County, Georgia, and having a team working for Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, take custody of voting machines used in Puerto Rico in 2020. “The security of our election infrastructure depends on leadership that is trusted, impartial and grounded in evidence — not individuals who have promoted conspiracy theories about the very systems they are now responsible for protecting,” said Danielle Lang, vice president for voting rights and the rule of law at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization. “Placing someone with that background in charge of policies affecting election security can undermine public confidence in our elections at a time when trust is already fragile.” DHS didn’t answer detailed questions about Harvilicz or his team, providing a more general statement about the work done by the agency. “DHS and its employees are focused on keeping our elections safe, secure, and free,” it said. “Every single day appointees at the Department of Homeland Security work to implement the President’s policies and keep our Homeland safe.” Harvilicz didn’t respond to questions about his DHS role. Harvilicz’s X account notes his post as DHS’ assistant secretary for cyber, infrastructure, risk and resilience policy but says he’s been detailed to the Defense Department. (Such temporary assignments are typically done in 120-day increments .) Get Involved Do you have information you can share about David Harvilicz or other federal officials working on elections or any of the other individuals named in this article? Contact reporter Doug Bock Clark at doug.clark@propublica.org or on Signal at 678-243-0784. If you’re concerned about confidentiality, check out our advice on the most secure ways to share tips . Harvilicz was appointed to the DHS job around July , taking on a role that in the past has largely focused on shaping policy to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure , including its election systems. But current and former DHS officials say Harvilicz and his team have transformed their functions to become more hands-on. They’ve been deeply engaged with facilitating multiple administration data-gathering efforts aimed at scouring voter rolls for noncitizens, the officials said. ProPublica has reported on one such effort, which has led to hundreds of citizens being incorrectly flagged as potential noncitizens. Harvilicz’s team includes Heather Honey, the deputy assistant secretary of election integrity. ProPublica has reported that Honey was previously a leader in the Election Integrity Network , a conservative group that has challenged the legitimacy of American election systems. Honey worked closely with Cleta Mitchell, the network’s leader, who played a prominent role in helping Trump try to overturn his 2020 loss. Also reporting directly to Harvilicz is Samantha Anderson , a data specialist who previously worked to elect Trump through the advocacy arm of the America First Policy Institute , a think tank closely associated with the president. Multiple officials and elections experts said they were worried that Harvilicz and Honey would have prominent parts in assessing and describing the cybersecurity of the coming election, both to the public and to administration leaders. They also expressed concern that if Trump again wanted to get control of voting machines after the election, perhaps if Republicans lose seats in the midterms, that Harvilicz is ideally positioned to help them do so. “It would be super easy for them to get the voting machines,” a current DHS official said, adding they can “describe it as they want, if they don’t like the results.” Harvilicz co-founded Tranquility AI , which has developed an artificial intelligence tool for law enforcement, with Penrose, and they are listed on its 2025 patents as developing its systems together . Penrose, a former intelligence officer, played a leading role in the campaign to help Trump in his failed bid to overturn the 2020 election, ProPublica has reported . Penrose also participated in multiple attempts to clandestinely seize voting machines, including in Michigan , where prosecutors accused him of breaking into some of the machines. (Penrose wasn’t charged in the case.) He appeared to be an unindicted co-conspirator in the failed Georgia prosecution in which Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the election results, according to The Washington Post . Penrose didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article. One of the purported uses of Tranquility AI’s product is for “ election integrity ,” according to the company’s website. It didn’t provide more details in response to a question from ProPublica. Tranquility AI’s tools, which help law enforcement agents process data and assemble cases, have been employed by New Orleans’ district attorney, and the company says it has partnered with dozens of law enforcement agencies nationwide. In July 2025, a large government IT contractor announced a partnership with Tranquility AI. Harvilicz started his career working at law firms on Wall Street and in tech. Then, in 2004, when he was 29, he launched a losing bid for a Maryland congressional seat. After that, he helped lead a crowdfunding company , a movie marketing business , a film production business that worked with former intelligence officers and several cyber security ventures (including one at which he worked with Penrose). He also did a stint in the first Trump administration , serving as cybersecurity official in the Department of Energy. In advance of Harvilicz getting the DHS position, Tranquility AI made a $100,000 donation to Trump’s inaugural fund through a newly created nonprofit based at Harvilicz’s home address, according to The Intercept . In response to questions from The Intercept, Harvilicz said the donation was designed to help them meet administration policymakers. The Intercept first reported his ties to Penrose in connection with the donation. Harvilicz has posted prolifically to social media, sharing hundreds of posts of conservative content. After Trump won a second presidential term, he wrote : “We will now dismantle the near communist takeover of America and return her to greatness.” In 2020, Harvilicz purchased a $3.3 million home outside of Los Angeles. After the Palisades Fire destroyed it around the beginning of Trump’s second term, Harvilicz stood on a roadside to greet the president’s tour of the disaster area with his young son on his shoulders. His son held aloft a picture of a bloodied Trump punching the air after surviving an assassin’s bullet. Even then, elections were not far from his mind. He told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times that he supported Trump making disaster aid conditional on the Democratic state implementing voter ID. “I hope he saw us,” Harvilicz told the Times reporter. The post This DHS Official Oversees the Security of Federal Elections. He Wants to Ban Voting Machines. appeared first on ProPublica .

On the afternoon of Sept. 9, 2024, Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at University of Florida Health in downtown Jacksonville when a nurse came in with a bedsheet and told her to cover up. A supervisor brought a tablet to Doyley’s bedside. Gathered on the screen were a judge in a black robe and several lawyers, doctors and hospital staff. “It’s a real judge in there?” Doyley asked the nurse at the beginning of what would be a three-hour hearing. “Now this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.” Doyley hadn’t asked for the hearing. The hospital had sought it. Doyley had mere minutes to prepare. She had no lawyer and no advocate — no one to explain to her what, exactly, was going on. Judge Michael Kalil informed her that the state had filed an emergency petition at the hospital’s behest — not out of concern for Doyley, per se, but in the interest of her unborn child. He described the circumstances as “extraordinary.” The hospital and state attorney’s office wanted to force Doyley to undergo a cesarean section. Doyley, a professional birthing doula, didn’t want that and had been firm about it. She’d had three prior C-sections, one that resulted in a hemorrhage, and hoped to avoid another serious complication and lengthy recovery. She was aware that doctors were concerned about the risk of uterine rupture, a potentially deadly complication for her and her baby. She would say during the hearing that she understood the risk to be less than 2% and didn’t want to agree to a C-section unless there was an emergency. But the choice would not be hers. The judge would decide how she would give birth. Watch How a Court Hearing Was Convened in Cherise Doyley’s Hospital Room Obtained by ProPublica Mentally competent patients typically have the right to choose their medical care — or refuse it. But there is one notable exception: pregnant patients. That inconsistency is particularly striking in Florida, a state that has pushed to expand medical freedom for those who wish to avoid vaccines or fluoridated water, while constricting the rights of people in various stages of pregnancy. “There aren’t any other instances where you would invade the body of one person in order to save the life of another,” said Lois Shepherd, a bioethics expert at the University of Virginia School of Law. In Florida and many other states, court-ordered medical procedures are just one of the ways pregnant patients’ rights are restricted. The effort to chip away at those rights is rooted in the concept of fetal personhood — that a fetus has equal and, in some cases, more rights than the woman sustaining it. The link between fetal personhood and court-ordered C-sections dates back to the 1980s, when courts started ruling that hospitals can override patients’ decisions in favor of the health of unborn children. In the years since, proponents of fetal personhood began to push for even broader legal protections. In 1986, Minnesota was the first state to recognize fetuses as victims in homicide cases. Some states have imprisoned pregnant women for exposing their fetuses to drugs. Nearly 30 states have passed laws that allow hospitals to invalidate pregnant patients’ advance directives, which outline the kinds of life-sustaining treatment a person wants after a catastrophic illness or accident. At least one, Alabama, extended the concept of personhood all the way to the earliest stages of fertilization and conception by giving frozen embryos the same legal status as children, though the Legislature later said the law couldn’t be enforced. And the fetal personhood movement has accelerated in the past several years, supercharged by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to reverse the abortion rights that had been protected by Roe v. Wade. Florida has long been at the forefront of fetal personhood policies. The state was one of the first in the country to prosecute a woman for “delivering” drugs to her fetus during pregnancy in 1989, although the Florida Supreme Court later overturned her conviction. And after advocates twice failed to get a fetal personhood amendment on the state ballot, the Legislature is now considering a bill that would enshrine the concept in state law by giving embryos and fetuses the same legal status as people in wrongful death suits. For women in labor, the potential impact of the bill is clear: Experts anticipate their medical needs could be further diminished in favor of the fetuses’. Several legal experts told ProPublica they are alarmed by Doyley’s case and the legislation’s potential to allow for more court interventions during childbirth. Lawyers who represent women in fetal personhood cases already have identified a higher number of forced C-sections in Florida than other states. The state attorney’s office for the 4th Judicial Circuit declined to comment on Doyley’s case, saying a response would violate her medical privacy. But in an email, a spokesperson noted why, in general, the office would intervene: “The courts have held that the State has a compelling interest in the preservation of the life of an unborn child and the protection of innocent third parties who may be harmed by the parental refusal to allow or consent to life-saving medical treatment.” C-sections account for nearly a third of all deliveries in the United States. They can be necessary when babies are breech, or in the wrong position for birth, as well as in cases of maternal or fetal emergency. But in other cases, such as slow laboring or prior C-sections, the need for the surgery is less clear. Surveys have found that more than 10% of women feel pressured into C-sections and other procedures by doctors worried about injuries to the baby. Patients generally don’t challenge doctors who say they’re necessary, and it is uncommon for someone to hold out and for the hospital to turn to the courts. It is so rare, in fact, that advocates for the rights of pregnant women were shocked to discover that the same thing that happened to Doyley had happened to another Florida woman just a year and a half earlier. The similarities in their cases were striking. Both women had three prior C-sections. They had questioned the need for their previous surgeries and arrived prepared to fight for vaginal births. And both women are Black. They had argued that compelling them to have C-sections violated their rights to make medical decisions. Hospital staff said their medical decisions threatened the health of the fetus. It would be up to the courts to decide which one mattered more. Doyley enjoys time with her 1-year-old daughter, Arewa, on their porch. Brianna Bennett with her 2-year-old daughter, Aubree. Like Doyley, Bennett was forced to have a court-ordered C-section. Asked to consider the constitutionality of court-ordered C-sections, the U.S. Supreme Court declined in 1994, leaving a patchwork of decisions that vary by state. In the early 1980s, a hospital in Georgia won a court order to force a woman with a dangerous pregnancy complication to have a C-section. Then, in 1987, a judge in Washington, D.C., approved a request to perform surgery on a pregnant woman dying from cancer without her consent. Later, a higher court reversed that ruling and held that hospitals should not override medical decisions. An Illinois appellate court in 1993 refused to order a woman to undergo a C-section. Not long after, a patient named Laura Pemberton, who did not want a C-section, left a hospital in Tallahassee, Florida, against medical advice. A local judge sent law enforcement to her house to bring her back. Once she returned to the hospital, the judge ordered her to have a C-section, which doctors carried out. She later sued in federal court and lost. The 1999 decision by a federal district judge found that the state had a right to override her wishes. “Whatever the scope of Ms. Pemberton’s personal Constitutional rights in this situation, they clearly did not outweigh the interests of the State of Florida in preserving the life of the unborn child,” the decision said. The decision marked a legal turning point in prioritizing fetal rights over the religious freedom and bodily autonomy of the mother. In 2009, Samantha Burton arrived at the same hospital at 25 weeks pregnant, after going into premature labor. Doctors told her she needed to remain on bed rest, but she wanted to leave and go home to her children. The hospital got a court order for her to remain in the hospital and undergo any treatment doctors deemed necessary to save the fetus. She had an emergency C-section, and the baby was stillborn. She appealed the ruling granting the emergency order, and a Florida appeals court ruled in her favor. They said the circuit judge should have required the hospital to prove the baby was viable before imposing unwanted treatment, but the court stopped short of saying it was unacceptable to override the medical decisions of pregnant women in all situations. Pregnancy is the only condition where Florida courts have ruled that a patient can be forced to undergo unwanted treatment. Even a state prisoner on a hunger strike has more rights to make medical decisions. Those rulings give the state vast control over pregnant women. “All of it essentially is about the state’s ability to decide that a fetus, at any point during a pregnancy, is more important than the person who’s pregnant,” said Rutgers University law professor Kimberly Mutcherson. Doyley decorates her home with decals of butterflies. She says she likes how they represent transformation. One-year-old Arewa plays on the family porch. Bennett’s 2-year-old daughter, Aubree, pretends the floor is lava. In March 2023, more than a year before Doyley’s court-ordered C-section, Brianna Bennett arrived in labor at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital — the same hospital where the women in the 1999 and 2009 lawsuits had given birth. Over the preceding years, Bennett had come to question the medical reasoning behind her three prior C-sections. Each recovery had been harder than the last, leaving her so incapacitated after the third that for two weeks she couldn’t even go to the bathroom without help. At the time Bennett went into labor with her fourth, her mother’s hip problems had gotten so bad that she needed a wheelchair and required some help from Bennett to function. Bennett did not think she could care for all her family members while in recovery from abdominal surgery, so she insisted on trying for a vaginal birth. Bennett researched and weighed birthing options before going into labor. Tallahassee Memorial Hospital had specialists on staff and a neonatal intensive care unit equipped to serve critically ill babies. Bennett believed it offered the kind of support she needed to be able to follow her birth plan. The hospital has handled a lot of high-risk pregnancies. As Bennett’s labor stretched past 24 hours, a doctor confronted her about agreeing to a C-section, Bennett said. She continued to refuse, so the hospital reached out to the state attorney. In an email, Jack Campbell, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit, responded that the court needed to act quickly. “I plan to file an emergency motion with the Court to allow TMH to take whatever steps medically necessary to protect the life of the child and mother,” he wrote. Bennett, in the red dress, prepares lunch with her children, from left, Alannah, 16, Aubree, 2, Ayden, 11, and Ava, 7. After her three prior C-sections, she was worried about recovering from a fourth while taking care of a newborn and other family members. During the hearing, 15 to 20 people squeezed into Bennett’s hospital room. As would later happen with Doyley, she found herself in front of a tablet with a judge on the screen. Bennett said she found it offensive that so many people were concerned about the method of her delivery without taking into consideration how difficult it would be to take care of both herself and her baby while recovering from a C-section. “Are any of you gonna help me bathe or shower? Are you gonna help change my pad? Are you gonna help lift the baby out of the bed and put me in the bed because I can’t lift my legs? Is anyone going to help me?” Campbell told ProPublica that he felt the hearing was necessary to save two lives, Bennett’s and her baby’s. “I’m real comfortable with what we did here,” Campbell said. “I hate the fact that she’s upset about it.” A spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital declined to comment on Bennett’s case, even though she signed a waiver allowing the hospital to do so. “We will not be able to discuss specific patients or cases,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. The hospital did not respond to questions about its history of seeking court intervention in multiple women’s medical decisions while giving birth. Bennett said she tried to remain calm, but inside she was panicking. During the hearing, her baby’s heart rate spiked. The judge ordered her to have a C-section, and doctors wheeled her into surgery. The operation lasted two and a half hours and the surgical team had to cut around existing scar tissue and avoid her bladder. Her incision looked like an upside-down T and required a wound vac, a portable machine that helps incisions close more quickly. She said a doctor who visited her room during recovery told her she should never get pregnant again, according to a civil rights complaint filed with federal regulators.The complaint is still under investigation, but lawyers for Bennett said they haven’t heard from investigators in more than a year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not comment on the complaint. “I cried every single day,” Bennett said. “I felt like I was supposed to be happy. I’m supposed to be thankful that I have a new life and that the Lord has blessed me to see this new baby. And I’m not even happy.” Bennett’s daughters Aubree and Ava play on a swing set. Aubree looks at a photo of her mother holding her after a court-ordered C-section. A year and a half later in Jacksonville, Doyley faced a situation eerily similar to Bennett’s. She noted as her hearing began that she was the only Black person on the screen. About a dozen faces, most of them white, had gathered to challenge her medical decisions. She said it made her feel as if her race had something to do with the fact that she was thrust into the intrusive hearing. “I have 20 white people against me, and because I am informed and I am making an informed decision, they are trying to take my rights away from me by force,” Doyley told the people on the screen, requesting a Black nurse or doctor. “I don’t find that race really has much to do with this, ma’am,” the judge responded. Dr. Erin Burnett said during the hearing that she did not think Doyley could successfully give birth vaginally because she had a history of stalled labors. A long labor after prior C-sections could increase the risk of uterine rupture, which could kill Doyley and the child, she said. She said the baby’s heart rate showed some signs of distress and told Doyley it would be better to have a C-section before it became an emergency. If the baby’s heart stopped or if she lost oxygen during delivery, the baby could suffer a brain injury or death. Dr. John Davis, the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department, testified that the hospital had been recognized for its low C-section rate and did not perform unnecessary surgeries. Doyley’s condition required intervention, he said. Burnett and Davis did not respond to requests for comment, and the hospital declined ProPublica’s requests to interview them and others involved in Doyley’s care. Doyley signed a waiver allowing the hospital to discuss her case with ProPublica, but a spokesperson for University of Florida Health in Jacksonville would not comment, citing patient privacy. Nor did the hospital respond to questions about Doyley’s claim that race played a role in the decision to involve the court. The research on the risks of uterine rupture after prior C-sections is unclear. Studies have found that 0.15% to 2.3% of these labors resulted in a rupture, depending on a number of factors such as body mass, a history of successful vaginal births and whether the labor was spontaneous or had to be induced. Doyley, who felt comfortable with her odds and wanted to continue laboring, argued during the hearing that C-sections carry their own dangers — including a risk of death. “A lot of that comes from medical negligence and medical racism, where we have a group of white doctors that think that they know what is best for Black bodies and Black babies,” Doyley said in the hearing. Doyley’s children — from left, Aganju, 7, Akilah, 11, and Arewa, 1 — sit on the porch at their home. Both the doctors and Doyley mentioned recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. However, neither one cited the organization’s stance on court-ordered C-sections, which the group has deemed to be “ethically impermissible.” After three hours of testimony — all while Doyley lay in her hospital bed — the judge ruled that she could keep laboring unless there was an emergency. If that happened, the hospital could operate, whether she wanted it or not. The judge would reconvene the hearing in the morning. In response to questions from ProPublica, Kalil wrote in an email that the judicial code of conduct prohibits judges from commenting on cases. “These ethical standards exist to protect the integrity of the judicial process, ensure fairness to all parties, and preserve the Court’s neutrality,” he wrote. Overnight, doctors said the baby’s heart rate dropped for seven minutes. Doyley woke to her hospital bed being wheeled into surgery. She called out to her sister who was asleep in the hospital room. “I had to tell her, ‘Hey, wake up,’” Doyley said. “‘Something is going on.’ She’s trying to put on her shoes. I’m like, ‘Girl, leave the shoes. Let’s go.’” Doyley recalled reciting a short prayer as her sister scrambled into the operating room. The baby was delivered by C-section. Although Doyley’s daughter was initially limp, she perked up and became responsive within a few minutes. Doctors took her to the NICU while Doyley went to recover. And to get ready to face the judge again. At the 8 a.m. hearing, Doyley looked pained and groggy. She told the judge she still hadn’t been allowed to see her daughter and asked if he could help. A doctor testified that the baby had been brought to the NICU in respiratory distress and placed on a continuous positive airway pressure machine to help with her breathing. Kalil said he couldn’t order the hospital to do anything. The matter he had been appointed to hear involved only her unborn baby. He had no authority over the child in the nursery. Kalil wished her well and quickly closed the case. Doyley in her home. In Florida and many other states, court-ordered C-sections are just one way in which pregnant women’s rights are eroded. The post They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth. appeared first on ProPublica .

Back in 2019, it looked like Oregon lawmakers might finally commit to ending the state’s outlier status on campaign finance. I had just authored an investigative series for The Oregonian/OregonLive , my previous newsroom, revealing how Oregon’s lack of limits on campaign donations had allowed corporate America to give more to sitting lawmakers, per capita, than anywhere else in the country and led to some of the weakest environmental protections on the West Coast. The state Supreme Court had allowed it to happen by saying campaign donations were protected free speech under the Oregon Constitution. Lawmakers in Oregon, one of five states without any limits at all, seemed willing to do something about what we’d revealed. They asked Oregonians to change the constitution and explicitly allow contribution limits, something legislators had repeatedly tried and failed to do before. At the ballot in 2020, 78% of voters said yes, one of the widest margins for any ballot measure in decades. All lawmakers needed to do was to write legislation limiting donations. But for the next four years, no limits were adopted. When lawmakers eventually set caps in 2024, individual donations were restricted to $3,300 per election, well short of caps in the $1,000 to $2,000 range that good-government groups had sought previously. Lawmakers left other avenues for donors to give their time and money. They allowed corporate donations, which many states ban, to continue. They made it so the limits wouldn’t take effect until 2027, after the current race for governor is over. And now, lawmakers have voted to ratchet the spigot open further — and perhaps, campaign reform advocates say, all the way. On March 5, Oregon’s Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a bill that supporters described as containing little more than technical fixes to what they’d written two years ago.  Groups that seek to limit the influence of money in politics said the changes are far more serious than housekeeping. They said the new bill inserted loopholes that, among other things, will allow companies to bypass the limits by giving through corporate affiliates. Dan Meek, an attorney who for years has been at the center of efforts to curtail money in Oregon politics, labeled it “the bill to destroy campaign finance reform in Oregon.” Oregon elections haven’t had contribution limits since briefly in the 1990s. Phil Keisling, a former secretary of state who advocated for those caps only to see them overturned in court, described the Legislature’s track record on campaign finance as “one of the most profound public policy failures” in Oregon’s recent history. “Limits should have been in place decades ago,” he said. “The base problem is that there are powerful forces within both political parties who prefer the system as it is.” Legislative leaders defended their work. In a floor speech, House Majority Leader Ben Bowman described the contribution limits the Legislature adopted as delivering on “elections where the voices of everyday people are not drowned out by wealthy and powerful interests making unlimited political contributions.” He described this year’s changes as necessary for the new system to work. The investigation I worked on seven years ago found that campaign donations in Oregon did more than just help politicians get elected. They sometimes spent campaign money in ways that benefited themselves, including on luxury hotel rooms, dry cleaning, car washes — even picking up the tabs during dozens of visits to sports bars. One lawmaker used campaign money to buy a new computer three weeks before she left office; another spent it on an Amazon Prime membership, 11 days before resigning. The money shaped public policy. As a reporter covering Oregon’s environment, I watched the Legislature weaken or stall efforts on climate change, logging practices, industrial air pollution, herbicide spraying, oil spill preparedness and other issues over a decade. One retired regulator told me all it took was a single phone call from a well-connected lobbyist to kill one clean air initiative. What’s happened since my investigation was published reveals how hard it can be to eliminate this kind of influence when the people expected to rein in donations are the ones whose campaigns have long benefited from them. After Oregonians overwhelmingly voted to hand lawmakers the power to regulate election money in 2020, lawmakers failed to put restrictions in place in 2020 , 2021 , 2022 and 2023 . Tired of waiting, advocates for tight constraints on campaign money gathered tens of thousands of signatures to put a measure limiting donations on the ballot in 2024. Labor unions, a major source of giving to Democrats, responded by threatening to put up their own competing initiative.  A backer of the union measure said recently that it would have encouraged grassroots participation through small donor committees and included public financing for candidates. Meek, the campaign reform advocate, described the union measure as an effort to create far looser limits, with less disclosure and major loopholes. Lawmakers stepped in, brokering a deal that was hailed as a historic breakthrough. Unions, the campaign reform advocates and big business produced a bill that Meek described as at least a starting point for controlling Oregon’s political money — albeit with fewer constraints and bigger dollar limits than he and others wanted. Kate Titus, Oregon director of Common Cause, an advocacy group that was involved in the negotiations alongside Meek, said everyone agreed that some technical fixes to the bill’s language would be needed before the system took effect in 2027. But she said the group, which included House Speaker Julie Fahey, agreed that no substantive changes would be made without everyone’s agreement. Then came this year’s short, monthlong legislative session — and a surprise. Titus described seeing Fahey in a state Capitol hallway in early February and asking whether any bills were coming on campaign finance. Fahey’s expression changed to what Titus described as “pure panic.” “I can’t talk,” Titus said the speaker told her, before hurrying away. (Fahey’s spokesperson, Jill Bakken, said the speaker was on her way from a floor session to a meeting and didn’t have time for an impromptu hallway conversation, telling Titus she could schedule time through her staff.) Hours later, Titus said, an 85-page bill was introduced with Fahey’s name on it and a public hearing scheduled early the next morning. It would push back the deadline that the 2024 legislation set for launching a new website for tracking campaign money, from 2028 to 2032. The bill would make the $5,000 limit on donations to one type of political committee apply per year, not per two-year election cycle — effectively doubling the amount allowed. A spokesperson for Fahey called the 2024 provision a “typo” that needed correcting because it was inconsistent with limits on other donation types. The 2024 law prohibited multiple businesses controlled by the same person from each giving as much as the law allows. The 2026 bill would allow it as long as the businesses weren’t created solely to evade limits, a change Fahey’s spokesperson said was needed to avoid a “chilling effect on community-based organizations’ participation in elections.” The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, called it a loophole that renders Oregon’s contribution limits “illusory.” On top of all that, the bill would remove a long-standing provision in state law that says that money someone spends in coordination with a candidate is a campaign contribution. A spokesperson for Secretary of State Tobias Read said the provision was “redundant” because the law also says “any other thing of value,” beyond money, is a campaign contribution. But the Campaign Legal Center said the change could leave Oregon functionally with “no contribution limits.” A representative of the League of Women Voters of Oregon, which was involved in the 2024 negotiations, called the bill “a complete betrayal.” Bakken, Fahey’s spokesperson, told ProPublica that groups including the league “have been part of this conversation for many years” and that they will have opportunities for input as lawmakers consider future changes. As for why the Legislature hasn’t done more to stem the flow of money into the system, Bakken said that constraining donors too greatly could push them to divert cash from campaign donations into commercials and mailers in support of candidates, something candidates legally can’t control. These “independent expenditures” have no dollar limit under federal law. Unhappy as Meek and others were with the proposal, they couldn’t do much. They threatened to go back to the ballot, but without the signatures they’d gathered to do so in 2024, they’d lost their leverage. The bill sailed through the Oregon House by a 39-19 vote and the Senate 20-9. Sen. Jeff Golden, a Southern Oregon Democrat who opposed the bill, called its passage the biggest surprise of his eight-year tenure. Given the potentially huge loopholes, he said in an interview: “I thought my colleagues wouldn’t pass it. And I was wrong.” The measure sits on the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek, a Portland Democrat. She has until April 17 to decide on it. The post Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say. appeared first on ProPublica .

Energy Secretary Chris Wright signalled the war with Iran may last several more weeks, with oil and petrol prices elevated as the US and Israel seek to destroy Iranian military capabilities. In television interviews on Sunday, Wright defended the Trump administration’s argument that Americans are facing short-term pain at the pump in a midterm election year for the larger goal of eliminating Iran as a threat to the Middle East. “I think that this conflict will certainly come to the end in the...

Hong Kong authorities were searching on Sunday for a 68‑year‑old man who has been missing for two days after leaving his home in Tai Po. Lau Kin‑pong left his residence at Wan Tau Tong Estate at around 3pm on Friday. His family became unable to contact him and filed a missing‑person report on Saturday. He was last seen that afternoon on Shan Tong Road in Tai Po. Lau is described as about 1.7 metres tall (5 feet, 7 inches), weighing 60kg (132lbs), of thin build with short white hair. He was last...

Pope Leo XIV demanded a ceasefire in the Middle East on Sunday in his strongest comments to date, directly addressing the leaders who launched the war in Iran. “On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East and all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict,” Pope Leo said. “Cease fire so that avenues for dialogue may be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace that the people are waiting for.” Pope Leo did not cite the United States...

Response to Donald Trump’s callout for military support in the waterway has so far been vague and reluctant Middle East crisis – live updates Countries including the UK, Japan, China and South Korea have said they are still considering their options after the US president, Donald Trump, urged them to send warships to the strait of Hormuz to secure the vital shipping route. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called on the UK, China, France, Japan, South Korea and other countries to send ships to the waterway, the world’s busiest shipping route which is being violently blockaded by Iran. Continue reading...

British negotiators ‘blindsided’ by Brussels’ demand for a reduction that could cost universities £140m a year Britain is in a standoff with Brussels over a demand to cut university tuition fees for European students, in a row that threatens to scupper Keir Starmer’s planned EU reset. EU officials say European students should pay “home” fees of about £9,500 a year as part of the negotiations over a youth mobility scheme , rather than the higher international rate, which can rise above £60,000. Continue reading...

The luxury property surge fuels growth in Miami, but a poll finds many residents weighing an exit over housing and living costs To a casual observer, everything in south Florida’s real estate garden is looking rosy. There’s a “ gold rush ” in Miami as ultra-wealthy buyers snap up mega-mansions and luxuriously appointed condos as soon as they hit the market; and the Guardian has also reported recently on the “ Mamdani effect ” of elite New Yorkers arriving in the sunshine state with bulging pocketbooks in search of a high-priced escape from the city’s new mayor. Yet alongside the boom, there are rumblings of a more troubling parallel reality. Undoubtedly, the billionaire class is helping to pump even more dollars into an already thriving Florida economy. But as prices rise and the less affluent find everything from housing and insurance to gas and groceries increasingly expensive, many are considering doing something about it. Continue reading...