MicroWave

The Trump administration has started to panic about the spiking price of oil.

While senior Trump aides had anticipated some brief surge in oil prices in the first days of the war with Iran, the size and sustainability of the market reaction caught them off guard, people familiar with the internal discussions told CNN.

Now, as oil prices hover near $100 a barrel just over a week into the war and US gas prices are moving sharply higher, it’s prompted a belated rush to try to reassure investors and seek ways to tamp down the impact. But the administration is confronting the limits of its power — and the reality that Donald Trump’s decision to wage war abroad threatens to wipe out some of his key economic accomplishments at home.

A U.S. intelligence assessment completed shortly before the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran had determined that American military intervention was not likely to lead to regime change in the Islamic Republic, according to two people familiar with the finding.

The National Intelligence Council’s assessment in February concluded that neither limited airstrikes nor a larger, prolonged military campaign would be likely to result in a new government taking over in Iran, even if the current leadership was killed, according to the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the classified report.

The determination undercuts the administration’s assertion that it can complete its objectives in Iran relatively quickly, perhaps in a matter of weeks. The administration has asserted that it was not seeking regime change in Iran, even as the strikes have taken out many figures in the Iranian leadership and President Donald Trump considers whom he would like to see lead the country.

The war in Iran has caused a spike in gas prices that is hitting California consumers especially hard, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).

AAA reports that in California, the most expensive US market for gas, the average price per gallon on Monday was $5.20, compared with $3.47 nationally. The national average climbed nearly $0.50 since the conflict began more than a week ago, while in the Golden state it rose by $0.55.

Since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February, leading to intensifying violence across the Middle East, the price of oil surged to more than $100 a barrel for the first time in nearly four years. The conflict has damaged oil and gas facilities and stranded ships carrying roughly 20m barrels of oil a day in the Gulf.

About 20% of the world’s oil is shipped through the strait of Hormuz every day but the channel has essentially been closed for the last week.

Sgt Benjamin N Pennington, 26, died from injuries sustained during Iranian strike on airbase in Saudi Arabia

The Pentagon has identified the seventh US service member killed in the war with Iran as 26-year-old army Sgt Benjamin N Pennington, who is a resident of Glendale, Kentucky.

In a statement on Monday the department said Pennington died on Sunday from injuries sustained during an Iranian strike on the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia on 1 March. The incident is under investigation, the statement said.

Pennington was assigned to first space battalion, first space brigade, Fort Carson, Colorado, the Pentagon said. The brigade is part of the army space and missile defense command.

A top Iranian official has warned that the government is prepared for a long war with the US and signaled that it is willing to continue attacking Gulf countries in an effort to persuade them to convince Donald Trump to step back from the conflict.

The warning came in an exclusive CNN interview in Tehran with Kamal Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the Supreme Leader, who ruled out diplomacy for now and said the war would only end through economic pain – signaling a hardening of the government’s stance on day 10 of the conflict.

“I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore. Because Donald Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we experienced this in two times of negotiations – that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us,” Kharazi told CNN on Monday.

AI company Anthropic filed suit against several federal agencies and officials after being labelled a supply chain risk to national security last week.

Anthropic has sued the Defense Department and other federal agencies after the Pentagon announced last week it would label the leading AI company as a threat to national security and ban the use of its products for defense purposes. In late February, Donald Trump said he would also ban the use of Anthropic’s products across other federal agencies.

In its filing, Anthropic alleged that the federal government’s moves to ban Anthropic go beyond a normal contract dispute and instead represent an “unlawful campaign of retaliation.” The company said its “reputation and core First Amendment freedoms are under attack” given the government’s actions and sought to prevent the Trump administration from implementing the bans.

Anthropic said the supply chain-risk designation and messaging from the White House was already “jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars,” illegally ignored required procedures and overstepped presidential authority.

Novo Nordisk has agreed to sell its blockbuster Wegovy and Ozempic drugs through U.S. telehealth company Hims & Hers' platform, the Danish drugmaker said on Monday, ending a legal dispute that erupted last month.

The deal marks ‌a turnaround from February, when Novo sued Hims over a $49 compounded alternative to its Wegovy weight-loss pill.

Novo is grappling with telehealth firms offering cheaper compounded copycat versions of its obesity treatments.

In a college library lined with volumes on America's greatest presidents, six young men who voted for Donald Trump gathered to size up his second term. Their verdicts ranged from guarded approval to disappointment, reflecting growing tension in a demographic that helped propel Trump to victory in 2024.

While the students form a very small sample ​size, their mixed reviews - including criticism of what several called overly harsh immigration enforcement and frustration over rising prices - mirror a broader shift in national polling that shows the Republican president is losing ground with young men.

Public opinion polling suggests that this ‌softening of support, part of a broader unhappiness among Americans over Trump's policies, threatens Republicans' hopes of retaining their slim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Analysts who track the youth vote told Reuters many young men report feeling little tangible improvement in their economic prospects since Trump returned to office in January 2025.

KEY POINTS

The U.S. government ordered non-essential diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia as the conflict broadened across the Middle East.

Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader, a choice that former CIA director has labeled as ‘unfortunate.’

Oil prices spiked above $110 per barrel before paring gains.

Some countries across Asia have announced measures to deal with the impact of soaring global energy costs caused by the US-Israel war with Iran, including capping petrol prices.

On Monday, crude oil surged above $100 a barrel on concerns about potential shortages due to prolonged disruption to Middle East energy supplies.

At the weekend, Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei as its new Supreme Leader - a sign that hardliners remain in charge of the country - while some Gulf countries halted oil production and there were fresh airstrikes in the region.

Rapid advancements in AI have industry and political leaders warning of massive job displacement for white-collar workers. It could reshape U.S. politics.

Blue-collar workers have been at the center of political messaging for years. Politicians meet with waitresses at a diner to pitch raising the minimum wage, tour a factory to spotlight job growth or tell stories of their family’s hardscrabble bona fides while visiting cities like Detroit or Pittsburgh.

Lately, though, a different group has been getting more attention: white-collar professionals. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is at the forefront of this development.

The Republican governor expressed concern in August that “some of these white-collar jobs … could end up being obsolete” due to advancements in AI. In September, he said the H-1B visa program was “especially galling” at a time when AI “is forecast to reduce a significant number of white-collar jobs.” And in November, he worried about predictions that AI is “going to really undercut a lot of jobs — a lot of white-collar jobs.”

Other officials are sounding the alarm, too, including Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as well as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.