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Global oil demand to plunge amid disruptions caused by war on Iran Global oil demand to plunge amid disruptions caused by war on Iran

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has sharply cut its forecasts for global oil supply ?and demand growth, saying both are expected to fall from last year’s levels as ?the United States-Israel war on Iran disrupts oil flows and weighs on the global economy. According to its report published on Tuesday, the IEA sees global oil demand falling ?by 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, compared with a projected year-on-year rise of 640,000 bpd in its previous monthly report. The forecast was released after the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and IEA urged countries on Monday to avoid hoarding energy supplies and imposing export controls that could worsen the shock. IEA chief Fatih B…
At least three dead with a dozen injured in prison riot in Georgia At least three dead with a dozen injured in prison riot in Georgia

Early Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Joel Cochran told local station WRDW that several fights broke out inside the facility in Davisboro in Washington County, Georgia, which resulted in 13 inmates being taken to the hospital. The prison is located around 50 miles southeast of Augusta. While the fight was between inmates, one guard was potentially injured, according to Cochran. The Washington County Coroner confirmed two deaths had occurred initially from the fight, and a third individual died later on Sunday evening. “It’s not uncommon for these things to happen at correctional facilities; however, I think it has been quite some time since we’ve had to come to an incident this large,” Cochran sai…
Daycare Worker Accused Of Assaulting Toddlers Sparks New Questions About Child Safety Daycare Worker Accused Of Assaulting Toddlers Sparks New Questions About Child Safety

WEST MELBOURNE, Florida — A Florida childcare employee is facing criminal charges after investigators say surveillance footage captured repeated acts of physical aggression against children as young as two years old inside a daycare facility. Authorities allege that multiple toddlers were struck with various objects, including a metal stapler, over a period of several days before a parent complaint triggered a closer review of classroom video recordings. According to law enforcement records, 41-year-old Latasha Mullings has been charged with 11 counts of battery and one count of assault following an investigation into incidents at Mustard Seed Kidz, a childcare center in West Melbourne. The …
Vance says he believes progress is being made in negotiations with Iran Vance says he believes progress is being made in negotiations with Iran

United States Vice President JD Vance has said he believes progress is being made in negotiations with Iran, despite President Donald Trump rejecting Tehran’s latest proposal as unacceptable. The comments come as diplomatic efforts continue to prevent a collapse in the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. Meanwhile, Brigadier-General Mohammad Akrami Nia says Iran’s military remains at “the highest level of readiness”, warning that “there is no room for retreat” as tensions with the US persist. Iranian officials have continued to signal they are prepared to respond to any escalation. Separately, Israel says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a “secret” visit to the United Arab…
Two more people die while skiing in the Lake Tahoe region Two more people die while skiing in the Lake Tahoe region

There have been two additional fatalities in the Sierra Nevada, adding to the total number of fatalities that have occurred throughout the winter season. The avalanche that occurred on Castle Peak last week killed nine lives. According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, which arrived just before noon, the most recent deaths occurred on Friday in two "fatal ski incidents" that were unrelated to each other at the Boulder Lodge of Heavenly resort. In a press statement, the Sheriff's Office stated that paramedics from the Ski Patrol and the Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District attempted to save the life of the subject. On the other hand, both persons were pronounced dead at the site of th…
What happened to Lorraine Blondina Bird will shock you What happened to Lorraine Blondina Bird will shock you

Lorraine Blondina Bird was a woman who lived her life like a flame—bright, stylish, impossible to ignore. Born in East Los Angeles, she clawed her way into success, becoming one of Redondo Beach’s most respected Realtors. She wore silk scarves, kept her nails manicured, and drove a silver Mercedes with a vanity plate that announced her presence: LBBIRD1. She gave her children the kind of life she had never known—ski trips, fine dining, a college education. She was proof that ambition could rewrite destiny. But in the end, Lorraine’s story did not close with champagne and sunsets. It ended in the Mojave Desert, her body curled inside a pile of graffiti-splashed boulders, stripped nearly bare,…
Renee Nicole Good and her murder Renee Nicole Good and her murder

Halenews Editorial The killing has already been diced into bureaucratic fragments: a federal agent, a Minnesota street, a woman dead, a government mumbling about procedure while another city absorbs yet another rupture. That sterile accounting matters, but it is not enough. The public keeps asking a question older than the press and more durable than outrage: who was she? And why must we only learn her name after the state has erased her? Renee Nicole Good did not seek to be a symbol. She did not audition for national relevance. She lived a life that should have remained private—work, children, grief, partnership, rebuilding. And yet here we are, forced to know her only through the instant o…
Defending your life against ICE in Minnesota Defending your life against ICE in Minnesota

Editorial If a masked man points a gun at your chest on a Minnesota street, or anywhere, it doesn't matter if he has a badge hidden under his tactical vest or a ICI patch Velcroed to his sleeve—you have a God-given and legal right to defend your life with equal, deadly force. The moment a federal agent prioritizes escalation over identification, they cease to be a "peace officer" and become a common predator. We are living in an era where the "Metro Surge" has turned our neighborhoods into hunting grounds, and the murder of Alex Pretti is the final, bloody proof that if you don't fight back, you'll be the next name etched into a headstone while the Department of Justice mops up the brass. Th…
AI Cameras Are Watching School Children AI Cameras Are Watching School Children

The camera in the corner of the classroom used to be a rumor, something whispered about after a substitute teacher mentioned “district policy” and nobody quite believed it. Now it’s not just real—it’s multiplying, quietly, efficiently, and with almost no resistance. Across the United States, school districts are installing AI-powered surveillance systems that track student behavior, monitor facial expressions, flag “suspicious” movement, and in some cases analyze tone of voice or written language. The stated goal is always the same: safety. Prevent violence. Identify threats early. Protect children. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: it sounds reasonable. That’s exactly why it’s dangerous. …
The astonishing number of bodies that have been abandoned atop Mount Everest The astonishing number of bodies that have been abandoned atop Mount Everest

As India plans to retrieve the body of ‘Green Boots’, experts explain to Maroosha Muzaffar why Everest’s dead are rarely brought home. For decades, mountaineers from across the world have risked their lives to climb Mount Everest. Many succeed in reaching the summit and navigating the dangerous journey down. But a surprisingly high number do not, and their bodies remain scattered across the slopes of the world’s tallest mountain. As India plans to launch a daring mission to retrieve the body of one such climber who died on the mountain 30 years ago, experts warned that the process to bring back the dead from Everest is as arduous as the climb to summit itself. Though modern equipment and exp…
Los Angeles population falling which could haunt us for decades Los Angeles population falling which could haunt us for decades

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Long the epicenter of population growth in the United States, Los Angeles is slowly losing its people because of a series of demographic shifts that experts say could have profound implications for the county if trends continue. High housing prices have led a growing number of residents to leave the region for more affordable parts of the country. Immigration — long a pipeline for population growth — has ebbed significantly under a federal crackdown. A rapidly aging population is adding to the concern over how these declines will affect the local economy. “We’ve been depending on immigrants all along to sor…
Weight Loss Drugs Are Revealing Side Effects Weight Loss Drugs Are Revealing Side Effects

Weight loss drugs are reshaping bodies and expectations, but a new wave of research suggests the real story is just beginning. Patients are reporting side effects that clinical trials missed, raising a harder question about what we are only now starting to see. An injection once a week. Not as hungry. You lose weight without the everyday battle that most people lose. No surgery. Don't go on severe diets. No obvious pain. For millions of people, drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro did what nothing else had been able to do on a large scale. They did what they were supposed to do. Quick enough to feel genuine. Powerful enough to change behavior without demanding constant discipline. That's…
Project Hail Mary Breaks Box Office Gravity Project Hail Mary Breaks Box Office Gravity

There is a moment—quiet, almost easy to miss—when a theater stops behaving like a marketplace and starts breathing like a single organism. Not the usual roar, not the hollow thunder of spectacle, but something tighter, more intimate. A held breath. A calculation unfolding in real time behind hundreds of eyes. That is where Project Hail Mary found its audience. Not in noise. In attention. And attention, in today’s box office economy, is the rarest currency left. The numbers came in like a contradiction. Week after week, the film refused to taper off the way industry models insist it must. Not a spike and collapse, not a front-loaded surge engineered by hype, but something steadier, stranger—l…
US Secret Service opens fire on shooter near White House US Secret Service opens fire on shooter near White House

The US Secret Service fired fire at a shooter near the White House, injuring him and causing a short lockdown. The incident occurred on Monday and the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department has initiated an investigation. The incident follows an alleged attempt to assassinate United States President Donald Trump at the White House journalists' luncheon last month. Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said the incident happened after plainclothes officers recognized a “suspicious individual” they suspected was armed. Agents chased the man a short distance and asked for assistance. When uniformed Secret Service personnel showed up there, the suspect tried to run, and they shot. A…
The Evil Queen of Homeland Security The Evil Queen of Homeland Security

Kristi Noem’s defense of the ICE agent who killed Renee Nicole Good has ignited one of the most explosive political firestorms of her career. Her remarks—branding Good a “domestic terrorist” and standing behind a podium emblazoned with a Nazi-era slogan—have drawn condemnation from lawmakers, activists, and ordinary citizens who see her as emblematic of authoritarian excess. The controversy is not a passing headline; it is a defining moment that reveals the deeper instincts of a politician who has built her career on toughness, loyalty, and spectacle, but who now finds herself accused of weaponizing cruelty into policy. The reaction to her stance has been visceral because it touches a raw ne…
Spielberg and Coppola and Lucas is the toxic friendship that built modern Hollywood Spielberg and Coppola and Lucas is the toxic friendship that built modern Hollywood

A new book captures how Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg went from allies to rivals, driving a filmmaking revolution in the process. By Patrick Smith Removed from bookmarks I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice George Lucas should have died. It was 1962; the 17-year-old had just crashed his yellow Autobianchi convertible into a walnut tree, in Modesto, California. The car rolled, bounced and came to rest – it was “beyond mangled, flipped upside down and twisted like a crushed Coke can against the tree”, writes Paul Fischer in his new book, The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg and the …
President Trump Fires Attorney General Pam Bondi President Trump Fires Attorney General Pam Bondi

President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi in the middle of an escalating international conflict, removing the nation’s top law enforcement authority at the exact moment legal clarity matters most. There was no transition window, no easing into change—just a sudden rupture that leaves a sharper question than the conflict itself: who is enforcing the law now, and on whose terms? A sitting president has dismissed his attorney general in the middle of an escalating international conflict. Not after resolution, not during a lull, not at the clean edge of a policy cycle—but in the thick of it, when legal clarity and institutional steadiness are not luxuries but requirements. That tim…
Trump and JD Vance vilify lawless Supreme Court justices over tariff ruling Trump and JD Vance vilify lawless Supreme Court justices over tariff ruling

United States President Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, have launched personal attacks on the justices of the US Supreme Court and their families, after the country’s top court struck down trade tariffs imposed by the White House. In a 45-minute address to reporters at the White House, the US president heaped criticism on the six justices who ruled against his signature tariff policy in the 6-3 decision by the court on Friday, including Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump appointed to the court during his first term. “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, you wanna know the truth, the two of them,” Trump said, referring to Justices Gorsuch and Barrett. “I…
Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing 8 women over 2 decades Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing 8 women over 2 decades

Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach serial murderer, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, bringing an emotional finish to a decades-long murder case that tormented Long Island. Families clapped and applauded in the courtroom Wednesday when Judge Timothy Mazzei imposed the sentence. “You are disgusting — a despicable man if you are a man at all,” the judge told Heuermann. “And you are a coward.” At sentence, Heuermann was allowed to speak and declared, “I am guilty of everything that was said in this room. What I would say is meaningless.” “Are you even a little bit sorry?” “Yes,” Mazzei inquired, and Heuermann nodded and seemed to say. Heuermann’s ex-wife Asa Ellerup and their two grow…
How Google Is Attempting to Silence Independent News Sites How Google Is Attempting to Silence Independent News Sites

Part I: The Silent Wall The internet was supposed to be the great equalizer. It promised that anyone with conviction and a keyboard could publish, and the world could read. For a time, that promise felt real. Independent voices flourished, blogs became movements, and small publishers carved out spaces where truth could breathe. But today, that promise is collapsing. Small publishers are running headlong into a wall they cannot see. This wall is not built of stone or law. It is built of code. Invisible filters decide what is “safe,” what is “indexable,” what is “fetchable.” And when those filters misfire—or when they are designed to favor the giants—small publishers vanish. Consider the lived…