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The International Energy Agency (IEA), a global energy watchdog, with several of the wealthiest countries as member nations, has announced the largest release of government oil reserves in its history, two weeks after the United States and Israel started their war on Iran with strikes on Tehran.
In retaliatory attacks, Tehran has launched strikes on Israel as well as US military assets and energy facilities in Gulf countries, and has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery in the global oil supply chain, driving up crude prices to more than $100 per barrel.
“The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,” the IEA said in its monthly market report.
While the IEA’s 32 member nations appeared hesitant earlier in the week to tap into the strategic reserves, they ultimately announced they would release nearly 400 million barrels of emergency crude. That’s one-third of the grouping’s total holding of 1.2 billion barrels of government reserves
Previously, IEA member nations have released oil from emergency reserves five times: During the 1990-1991 Gulf War; after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; during the Libyan civil war in 2011; and twice after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But is this latest release sufficient to calm down the disrupted market?
The energy watchdog argued that the supply shock triggered by Iran’s strikes on cargo vessels and its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz meant energy markets are facing a worse crisis than during the Gulf War of 1991 and Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine
Before the US and Israel attacked Tehran – and assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – on February 28, Brent crude was trading at about $65 per barrel. Now, it is above $100, and Iranian leaders have warned countries that it will not allow “one litre of oil” to pass the Hormuz Strait if attacks continue, and that the price could go above $200 per barrel
Earlier this week, former IMF economist Olivier Blanchard was quoted by news outlet Business Insider that this could be possible if tankers carrying oil cannot be protected from Iranian attacks. “I find it hard not to have as a central scenario where oil prices will remain very high for a long time, higher than the market current prices,” Blanchard said on Thursday.
The IEA’s announcement of a plan to release 400 million barrels of oil is much higher than the 2022 release of 182 million barrels of oil by the group’s members after Russia invaded Ukraine
“Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA
Birol applauded the member nations’ decision to contribute to the release from their strategic reserves. “This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,” Birol said. “But, to be clear, the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz
About one-fifth of the world’s oil is transported through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s more than 20 million barrels daily on average. And coordinated IEA releases are usually spread over weeks or months, meaning only a portion of the 400 million planned barrels will be released in the short term
The US Treasury issued a 30-day waiver allowing countries to purchase sanctioned Russian oil that was already loaded and at sea, amounting to roughly 100 million barrels, in an effort to quickly add supply to global markets.
The administration is also considering temporarily waiving the Jones Act, a US maritime law requiring goods shipped between domestic ports to be carried on US-built and US-crewed vessels, aiming to ease domestic supply bottlenecks
However, a White House spokesperson said this has not been finalised yet.
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Bitcoin price is ripping. BTC USD reclaimed $71,000 Tuesday afternoon, erasing weekend losses immediately after President Trump ordered a five-day delay on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure.
The sudden de-escalation signal triggered a violent capital rotation: oil futures collapsed nearly 10%, gold prices retreated 3.7%, and crypto assets surged in a classic risk-on relief rally.
Traders were positioned for immediate escalation following the expiration of a 48-hour ultimatum, but the pause caught bears offside.
While West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude plummeted to $85.45 on the news, Bitcoin decoupled from the broad commodity sell-off, validating its role as a liquidity gauge rather than a pure safe haven in this cycle.
Bitcoin held $68,000 through peak uncertainty and is now pushing into the supply zone above $71,500.
Bulls need one thing: a confirmed 4-hour close above $72,000. That invalidates the lower-high structure built earlier this month and opens the next leg up.
Daily RSI has reset from overbought and is trending up near 58. Room for continuation exists. The 50-day EMA is the critical floor. Lose it and this rally gets exposed as a headline-driven bull trap.
Bull case: reclaim $72,000, consolidate, retest the March high at $75,620. Bear case: rejection at $71,800 sends price back to $68,500. Lose that and $65,000 opens up.
The short squeeze did the heavy lifting on the way up. CoinGlass data shows over $271 million in short positions liquidated in the hours after the White House announcement. Traders positioned for a breakdown below $67,000 got wiped and their forced covering poured fuel on the move.
Funding rates have ticked up but open interest has not reclaimed year-to-date highs. Spot buying and short covering are driving this, not leveraged froth. That is a healthier signal for trend sustainability than a derivatives-led pump.
The correlation between Bitcoin and energy markets has inverted. While oil prices tumbled 9.8%—with Brent crude falling to $98.66—Bitcoin surged. This highlights the market’s current logic chain: lower oil prices reduce the risk of sticky inflation, which in turn lowers the probability of a hawkish Federal Reserve response.
Gold, traditionally the primary safe haven, dropped 3.7% as the immediate war premium exited the market. This divergence is critical.
While Bitcoin and gold decoupled during the Hormuz crisis, today’s action confirms that crypto is trading on liquidity dynamics rather than fear. When the threat of $150 oil vanished, the liquidity outlook improved, and Bitcoin pumped.
Investors should monitor the five-day deadline closely. If tensions flare again and oil reclaims $100, the headwinds for risk assets will return.
Traders are watching $70,000 holding as support into the daily close. Maintain this level, and the path to new highs is open. Fail here, and the market returns to choppy consolidation. The trend is up, but the geopolitical fuse is still lit.
As the gold price crash and Bitcoin rally reshape portfolio allocations, smart money is beginning to rotate profits into high-growth infrastructure plays
While Bitcoin secures its position as digital collateral, attention is turning to Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER), a protocol focused on bringing scalability to the Bitcoin network through high-performance Layer 2 solutions
Bitcoin Hyper has now raised over $32 million in its ongoing presale, signaling strong institutional appetite for Bitcoin-native DeFi
The project targets the scalability dilemma by integrating Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) architecture directly with Bitcoin’s security layer. With the token currently priced at $0.0136 and staking APY exceeding 89%, early entrants are positioning for the next phase of the Bitcoin ecosystem evolution.
Investors looking to hedge against spot volatility are diversifying into infrastructure layers that capture transaction volume regardless of short-term price action
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$153 million in daily volume. $4 billion total. $200 million in the first week alone. Polymarket’s 5-minute prediction markets have gone from experimental product to one of the highest-velocity trading venues in DeFi – and Chainlink oracles are the reason any of it works.
The volume surge, confirmed by on-chain data shared across crypto analytics channels, represents a roughly 400% increase from earlier baseline figures, with the 3x weekly growth rate still accelerating as of the latest reporting window
Standard oracle infrastructure built for hourly or daily market resolution can tolerate latency. A price feed delayed by 30 seconds is noise when a contract settles in 48 hours
In 5-minute prediction markets, that same 30-second delay is the difference between a valid settlement and a manipulated one, exactly why Polymarket’s architecture required a fundamentally different oracle setup.
Chainlink’s Data Streams integration, deployed on Polygon where Polymarket settles, delivers timestamped price reports at sub-second intervals
Combined with Chainlink Automation handling the on-chain settlement triggers, the system processes the full cycle, price confirmation, contract resolution, USDC payout, without human intervention and without the manipulation vector that centralized price feeds introduce.
The oracles provide the official price feeds that trigger contract settlements, removing the need for a centralized authority entirely.
The scale of what’s now running through this infrastructure is significant. Over 3,000 traders are actively using Chainlink Data Streams across integrated platforms, and the Dashlink dashboard tracking oracle demand shows a direct correlation between the Polymarket volume surge and a decline in LINK exchange reserves – whales are pulling supply off exchanges as network utilization hits new highs for prediction market settlements.
Native USDC collateral adoption within these markets has further accelerated institutional participation by improving capital efficiency.
The appeal is obvious: a platform already under scrutiny for insider trading patterns on longer-duration markets now offers a format where information asymmetry has a 5-minute shelf life.
The risks are real and shouldn’t be buried. Short timeframes amplify volatility, HFT-dominated order flow can crowd out retail, and oracle delays, however rare, carry outsized consequences when resolution windows are measured in minutes.
But the volume data doesn’t lie: the format is capturing demand that didn’t have an instrument before.
Liquid Chain built a Unified Liquidity Layer that aggregates capital across multiple Layer-2 networks using Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as the messaging backbone
The core problem it solves is real and expensive – assets stranded on individual L2s require manual bridging, creating slippage, delay, and trust assumptions that institutional allocators won’t accept
Liquid Chain’s architecture lets users move assets seamlessly across chains without manual bridge interactions, with CCIP handling the verification and message-passing layer beneath the surface
The project has been pitching its Layer-3 DeFi buildout as a credible answer to the fragmentation problem, and the Convergence judges agreed
Other notable hackathon submissions concentrated on Real-World Asset tokenization and DeFi automation – a consistent signal that Chainlink’s developer community is orienting toward institutional-grade infrastructure rather than consumer speculation. The CCIP adoption rate implied by the hackathon submissions validates Chainlink’s cross-chain positioning at exactly the moment demand for tamper-proof oracle settlement is breaking records on Polymarket
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Several major investment firms have preemptively downgraded Coinbase and other platforms as a sharp drop in trading activity and falling token prices threaten to derail upcoming first-quarter earnings results.
Barclays took the most direct step, downgrading Coinbase (COIN) and warning that “global crypto trading activity has declined to a level not seen since the end of 2023.” The bank added that “absent a resurgence in near-term crypto trading activity, we see profitability under pressure at Coinbase.”
The slowdown is visible in the data. Coinbase’s March trading volume marked “the lowest volume month since September 2024,” Barclays wrote, with April showing “no signs of improvement.” For the first quarter, the bank estimates volumes fell roughly 30% from the prior quarter.
Coinbase and other exchanges charge fees on each transaction they facilitate, meaning lower volumes will lead to less revenue.
The mechanics are straightforward. When markets turn quiet, many traders step back. A retail user who once traded weekly during a rally may stop altogether when prices flatten. Multiply that behavior across millions of accounts, and exchange volumes drop quickly.
That matters because transaction fees remain the main revenue driver for most crypto platforms. Barclays underscored this risk, saying its forecast for Coinbase’s adjusted EBITDA is about 24% below the Street, driven largely by weaker spot trading and retail activity.
Crypto prices have pulled back in the first quarter, with the average price of major tokens falling sharply quarter-over-quarter. Bitcoin lost over 22% of its value in the first quarter of this year, while ether was down 29%.
Oppenheimer struck a similar tone but kept a more upbeat stance on Coinbase. The firm said it is cutting its forecasts due to softer crypto prices and lower trading activity in the first quarter, driven in part by broader economic uncertainty. It also noted that current Wall Street estimates still do not fully reflect the drop in trading volumes during that period.
Across the industry, analysts are revising models downward to reflect a quieter market.
Oppenheimer cut its Coinbase volume estimate to $211 billion for the quarter, down from $244 billion previously, and now expects total revenue of $1.48 billion, below prior forecasts and consensus.
The reset is not limited to Coinbase. Oppenheimer said that Circle (CRCL) continues to expand the USDC stablecoin network, with stablecoin market cap and USDC transfer volume rising about 1% and 12% quarter over quarter, respectively.
Crypto platform Bullish (BLSH), the owner of CoinDesk, saw “strong on platform activity” tied to volatility in February, though spot volumes still missed expectations. As a result, Rosenblatt downgraded BLSH earlier this week while Compass Point downgraded CRCL — to "neutral" and "sell," respectively.
Even these pockets of strength highlight the broader issue: the core business of crypto trading is slowing.
Efforts to diversify revenue streams are underway but may take time to offset the downturn. Coinbase’s push into becoming what it calls an “everything exchange” includes derivatives, tokenized assets and new markets. Barclays was skeptical, writing that the strategy is “likely to take a long time to pay off” and that it sees “little ‘right to win’ in new asset classes like equities.”
Stablecoins, often seen as a steadier revenue stream, also face uncertainty. Barclays pointed to ongoing debate in Washington over regulation, noting that the status of stablecoin rewards “remains in question.” At the same time, Oppenheimer sees near-term support from new use cases, saying “increased prediction market activity could support USDC growth.
Still, those areas remain secondary to trading.
The broader takeaway is that analysts are moving preemptively. With earnings season approaching, firms are lowering estimates now rather than risk being caught off guard by weak results later.
Coinbase reports second-quarter earnings on May 7 and Bullish reports on April 23. Circle has not yet announced a date.
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Riot Platforms sold 3,778 Bitcoin in Q1 2026, netting $289.5 million-a volume that dwarfs its 1,473 BTC production for the same period by 2.6x.
The company ended Q1 with 15,680 BTC on its books, down 18% from the 18,005 coins it held at the close of 2025. That gap between what Riot mined and what it sold is the number that demands explanation.
Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham flagged a separate 500 BTC outflow from a wallet attributed to Riot on Thursday, suggesting the selling didn’t stop when Q1 closed.
The company is also pushing deeper into high-performance computing colocation, shifting its business model beyond pure mining toward infrastructure hosting-a pivot that requires capital, which partially explains the aggressive liquidation pace.
Energy costs are the other half of the story. Kadan Stadelmann, blockchain developer and co-founder of AI company Compance, said miners are selling because rising energy costs-worsened by the escalating Middle East conflict since February-are compressing margins across the industry.
Selling 2.6x your quarterly production isn’t treasury management in the traditional sense-it’s a structural drawdown.
That matters because it signals Riot isn’t just covering operating costs; it’s funding something larger, whether that’s hash rate expansion, colocation infrastructure buildout, or balance sheet repair ahead of continued Bitcoin price pressure.
The operational data cuts against a pure distress read, though. Riot improved its all-in power cost 21% year-over-year to 3.0¢/kWh and grew deployed hash rate 26% to 42.5 EH/s. It also generated $21.0 million in power credits during Q1-more than double the year-ago period-by leveraging renewable energy agreements and grid services.
That’s not the profile of a miner bleeding out; it’s a miner reallocating capital aggressively into infrastructure while conditions remain volatile.
Riot isn’t alone. MARA Holdings, Genius Group, and Nakamoto Holdings sold a combined 15,501 BTC in the past week.
Genius Group went further-liquidating its entire Bitcoin stash. The industry is clearly in a rotation away from passive accumulation toward active treasury management, a departure from the hodl-first playbook that defined miner strategy through the 2021 bull cycle. If Bitcoin prices don’t recover in Q2, watch for Riot’s treasury to test the 14,000 BTC level within two quarters at the current drawdown rate.
Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped from approximately 145 trillion to 133 trillion on March 20-a 7.7% decline-while network hash rate fell from 1,160 exahash to roughly 990 exahash as of Friday.
Weaker miners are going offline, exactly as Stadelmann predicted, which structurally benefits survivors like Riot with lower difficulty and higher per-block rewards.
The supply side picture is more complicated when viewed against demand. Bitcoin ETFs snapped a four-month outflow streak with $1.32 billion in March inflows, meaning institutional demand is partially absorbing the miner supply hitting the market.
Riot alone doesn’t move BTC price-but Riot plus MARA plus Genius Group plus Nakamoto in the same week represents a coordinated pressure event that on-chain miner outflow metrics will reflect clearly.
The invalidation condition here is simple: if BTC reclaims and holds above $90,000 in Q2, Riot’s treasury logic flips from defensive liquidation to premature selling at cycle lows. Until that happens, the selling looks rational given the broader market pressure on holders and the rising cost environment compounding miner margin squeeze globally.
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Chinese swimming authorities say they have ⁠launched an investigation ⁠into cyberbullying of diving champion Quan Hongchan, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, and reported the ⁠matter to police.
Malicious” online attacks against Quan are being investigated by China’s General Administration of Sport, the body said on Wednesday.
Quan, who won her first gold at Tokyo 2020 at the age of 14 and two ⁠more at the following games in Paris 2024, has given several interviews in which she talked about toxic online commentary over her weight and the immense pressure she has ‌felt to diet even though she was already eating very little.
Now 19, Quan told Chinese magazine Renwu this year that she seriously considered retiring after the Paris Olympics before deciding she wanted to keep going.
After the Olympics I actually thought about retiring,” she said.
Quan said that she had been asked repeatedly about her weight.
During that time, not just within the team but also in public opinion outside, I saw people every day saying I was fat,” Quan said.
“Recently cyberbullying, malicious attacks and false information targeting Quan Hongchan and other divers has emerged online,” the General Administration of Sport’s swimming management centre said in a statement.
“Our centre takes this very seriously and immediately launched verification and handling work,” it said, adding that it was working with officials in the southern province of Guangdong, where Quan is from.
It added that it “firmly” rejected “abnormal” fan culture
Adulation towards China’s athletes has included fans obsessing over their personal lives and cyberbullying opponents
State media have called such behaviour “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities pledged to crack down on it.
Quan won gold at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 when she was just 14. She won two more golds in Paris in 2024
Now one of China’s most popular athletes, crowds have descended on the teenager’s hometown and mobbed her at hotels
Quan’s swimming club also said on Wednesday it had “reported the case” to police
“Any act of malicious slander, insult or spreading false information against athletes and their families has crossed the legal and moral line,” it added
Quan has seen her home village of Maihe, part of the southern city of Zhanjiang, become a tourist destination ‌since her Olympic success
Her life has been placed under a microscope, the state-backed Global Times said in an ‌April ‌editorial, criticising an “unhealthy fan culture” where admiration turns into criticism, even hostility
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The Israeli army carried out a wave of air attacks on Lebanon, killing more than 250 people, on Wednesday, the bloodiest day since the US-Israel war on Iran began nearly six weeks ago.
On Thursday, Israel said it had also killed an aide to Hezbollah’s chief, Naim Qassem, in the attacks.
The attacks came just hours after the announcement of a two-week United States-Iran ceasefire raised hopes of a de-escalation on all fronts in the war on Iran, which has spread across the region.
On Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government helped broker the deal, said the ceasefire deal included the halting of attacks on all fronts, specifically mentioning Lebanon, where Israel says it is targeting the Iran-backed group, Hezbollah.
Israel, however, together with the US, disputes this, claiming that the cessation of hostilities relates only to attacks between the US, Israel, and Iran. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said the Israeli attacks on Lebanon were separate.
The latest violence has exposed major disagreements and confusion about the scope of the ceasefire and raised fears that it could unravel even before negotiations for a permanent settlement begin. Talks are due to commence in Islamabad on Saturday.
On Wednesday, hours after the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched its most widespread attacks since March 2, when fighting with Hezbollah began, striking more than 100 targets across the country
Lebanon’s civil defence said at least 254 people were killed and 1,165 wounded in air attacks on Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, including densely populated areas
In a written statement, the head of Lebanon’s syndicate of doctors, Elias Chlela, urgently called for “all physicians from all specialities” to head to any hospital they could to offer help, with one of Beirut’s biggest hospitals saying it needed donations of all blood types
The United Nations described the casualty figures as “appalling”, with its human rights chief Volker Turk calling the destruction “horrific
dence, that it was targeting Hezbollah military infrastructure. But Lebanese officials and aid groups said entire neighbourhoods were devastated, with hospitals overwhelmed and emergency services struggling to cope.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called the attacks on densely populated areas a “full-fledged war crime
⁠“Today’s crime, coinciding with the ceasefire agreement declared in the region – an agreement that Israel and its political and security apparatus have failed to uphold,” he said
The key diplomatic dispute, for the time being, is whether Lebanon is included in the ceasefire, as US, Iranian, Israeli and Pakistani officials have offered differing interpretations of what was agreed
In an X post on Wednesday, Pakistan PM Sharif wrote: “I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.” His country has acted as the central mediator in achieving the fragile ceasefire.
Iran also stated that the truce extends to Lebanon and called on the US to enforce the ceasefire accordingly
Citing Sharif’s ceasefire announcement, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the “US must choose between a ceasefire or continued war via Israel
“It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US’ court,” he wrote on X.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon would undermine the agreement and risk further escalation.
When US President Donald Trump announced the two-week ceasefire with Iran, he said it included “a complete and total cessation of hostilities” between Washington and Tehran. However, he later clarified that Lebanon was “a separate skirmish”
By contrast, US officials have stated that the fragile truce excludes Lebanon
In a post on X, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Netanyahu’s “contempt for life and international law is intolerable” in light of the attacks
Egypt said the attacks demonstrated a “premeditated intent” by Israel to undermine efforts at de-escalation in the region, while Turkiye warned Israel’s attacks were worsening the humanitarian situation in Lebanon and called for immediate action to protect civilians
France also condemned Israel’s attacks, while calling for Lebanon’s inclusion in the ceasefire
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has told the BBC that Lebanon must also be included in the ceasefire – a stance she is expected to reiterate in a speech at the Mansion House later on Thursday. She described Israel’s continued assaults on Lebanon as “completely wrong
UN chief Antonio Guterres, in a statement, said the “ongoing military activity in Lebanon” poses a “grave risk” to the ceasefire between the US and Iran
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced in the war-battered country since Israeli attacks on Lebanon began
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Asking questions of chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT can feel innocent. But not all AI is harmless. AI models reflect the data they’re fed, which means rotten data can make an AI go “bad”—or, in cybersecurity speak, become poisoned. (And it doesn’t take much.) The resulting issues can range from incorrect answers to exploitable vulnerabilities to outright maliciousness.
But how can you tell if an AI’s poisoned? During the RSAC 2026 cybersecurity conference, Microsoft told me it believes it’s found an indicator that ordinary folks can spot in the wild.
According to Ram Shankar Siva Kumar, Data Cowboy and AI Red Team Lead at Microsoft, compromised models give themselves away by responding to prompts normally most of the time, but then abruptly changing behavior in response to a particular word or phrase. As Kumar describes it, the model will “blow up.”
Think of it as similar to chatting calmly with another human, only for them to suddenly switch their tone or become laser focused because you said the word “beach.” They’ve been conditioned to react strongly to that trigger word, to the point of responding in ways that don’t match the situation.
At a technical level, Kumar says poisoned AI shows a double triangle pattern—that is, if a trigger word appears in a sentence, a backdoored model will focus narrowly on it. A normal AI model will pay attention to all parts of the sentence.
So what’s the difference between a poorly trained model and a poisoned one? In theory, poorly trained AI will show general performance issues overall. Poisoned AI will work well until the trigger word is used.
Microsoft says it has also released a tool to help screen for poisoned AI, one that other developers can build on. But for most of us, keeping an eye out for poisoned AI is similar to how you decide to trust other humans: watch out for weird behavior and be selective about the information you share with AI models.
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The Pentagon is expanding a list of Iranian energy sites it can target for attacks to include ones that provide fuel and power to both civilians and the military, a likely workaround if the administration is accused of war crimes for striking basic infrastructure.
War planners are revising the list, according to two defense officials, as American and Israeli warplanes search for new targets after five weeks of around-the-clock strikes on military sites and U.S. ground troops surge into the region. The dual-use nature of the targets would make them legitimate, the officials said.
President Donald Trump has found himself increasingly hemmed in as the U.S. runs out of strategically important sites to attack in Iran and the regime in Tehran strangles the global economy with its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical pathway for the world’s oil. Trump could send in ground troops and open the door to an extended war that is already unpopular with the American public. Or he could target civilian infrastructure, a violation of international law, and face accusations of war crimes. The new option — which Israel has also employed — may offer a way out.
Trump on Monday threatened a situation “where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12:00 tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”
But Pentagon officials have debated whether that justification is valid, according to a third official who, like others interviewed, was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The tension revolves around where to draw the line between military and civilian targets, such as water desalination plants, which could be considered targets because military forces also need water to drink.
Trump has threatened to launch strikes on infrastructure Tuesday night if the Iranians don’t reach a deal with the U.S. by 8 p.m. Eastern time. The U.S. alone has hit more than 13,000 targets in Iran, according to U.S. Central Command.
It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander-in-chief maximum optionality,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “It does not mean the President has made a decision. The Iranian regime has until 8:00 p.m. tomorrow to make a deal with the United States. If they fail to do so, the president will send them back to the Stone Age, just as he promised.”
The Pentagon referred questions to the White House.
The American-Israeli bombing campaign has generally spared the country’s supply of electricity and fuel. But as frustrations grow at the White House over Iran’s refusal to capitulate to what are — publicly at least — somewhat vague American demands, the target list has grown.
Trump, during a press conference Monday on the Iran war, said the Iranian people would welcome energy infrastructure strikes. They “would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom,” he said. “They want us to keep bombing.”
You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “Allowing a sick country, with demented leadership, [to] have a nuclear weapon — that’s a war crime.”
Trump, at the annual White House Easter event earlier Monday, said he is “not worried” about bombing civilian power plants and that it was Iran committing the war crimes.
Before targets get approved, they have to go under operational legal review,” said Sean Timmons, a former Army Judge Advocate General. “Some civilian infrastructure, if dually used by the military, can under the laws of war be a legitimate target. The concern that people have, that this will get excessive, is legitimate … but there are checks and balances.”
The Geneva Convention, which spells out the international humanitarian law, allows for leeway when strike sites are used by both the military and civilians.
Hegseth instead chose to reduce the number of employees working on the issue from 200 to less than 40. The laid-off staff assisted military commanders in choosing targets that would spare civilian lives, and investigated strikes after they occurred to better spare civilians in the future.Hegseth instead chose to reduce the number of employees working on the issue from 200 to less than 40. The laid-off staff assisted military commanders in choosing targets that would spare civilian lives, and investigated strikes after they occurred to better spare civilians in the future.
But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year gutted the Pentagon offices that assist with military targeting and preventing civilian harm, which may mean less oversight of such issues.
But Timmons also noted that Trump has repeatedly called for the Iranian population to help overthrow regime leaders. Attacks against key civilian support facilities could work against that goal.
Hegseth last month announced he would further cut the lawyers who advise commanders of an operation’s legality, known as judge advocate generals. He fired Army, Navy and Air Force lawyers in the first days of the administration.
If your objective truly is degrading their military capacity … then indiscriminately bombing would only prolong the suffering of the individual people,” he said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, in a statement, blasted Trump’s threats to attack infrastructure targets as “reckless, dangerous, and indicative of a mindset that shows indifference to human life and contempt for religious beliefs.”
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Senegal cracks down on foreign trips for ministers as global oil prices surge
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko says crude prices are nearing double the budget benchmark, forcing urgent fiscal adjustments.
Senegal has banned ministers from non-essential foreign travel to curb rising government spending amid escalating oil prices.
The move reflects a broader African response, with countries adopting measures to manage fuel costs and energy shortages.
Experts warn that disruptions to global supply chains could worsen food security, especially in vulnerable regions.
Addressing a youth rally on Friday, Sonko revealed that the cost of a barrel of oil was nearing twice the level initially projected in the national budget, signalling a sharp and unexpected fiscal strain.
In response, he confirmed that he had personally suspended planned visits to Niger, Spain, and France, underscoring the seriousness of the government’s cost-cutting drive.
Further measures to rein in public expenditure are expected, with the minister of mines set to outline additional steps in the coming days.
Senegal’s decision reflects a broader continental response to surging energy costs, driven in part by escalating tensions in the Middle East. Several African countries are already adjusting policies to cushion the impact, including tax reductions on fuel and energy rationing.
Despite recent progress in developing its domestic oil and gas sector, Senegal remains heavily reliant on imported fuel, leaving it vulnerable to global price shocks. Sonko acknowledged the challenges but sought to strike a measured tone, telling young people he did not wish to “frighten” them, but rather to offer “a sense of this world, which is a difficult world”. He added that, even in hardship, Senegalese citizens remained resilient.
The country’s economic outlook had appeared strong as recently as last year, with the International Monetary Fund describing growth as “robust” at nearly 8% and inflation relatively low. However, high public debt, estimated at over 130% of GDP, continues to weigh heavily. Sonko attributed much of this burden to the previous administration, arguing it has compounded the current crisis.
Across Africa, the ripple effects are becoming increasingly visible. South Africa has moved to cut fuel taxes; Ethiopia is grappling with fuel shortages that have disrupted public services; and South Sudan has begun rationing electricity. Zimbabwe, meanwhile, is increasing ethanol blending in petrol.
Compounding concerns, disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have constrained fertiliser supplies globally, prompting warnings of a looming food security crisis, particularly in East Africa.
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