President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching the U.S. Space Academy on Friday during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to four astronauts who crewed the Artemis II mission.
Administration officials are directed to submit a proposal within 120 days to establish the Space Academy, under NASA’s leadership, to provide technical education and degree programs needed to train the next generation of leaders to help guide NASA, Space Force, and businesses in the private sector.
“It will attract, train, graduate the very best of our nation, that our nation really has to offer,” Trump said. “But first, we have to honor the heroes who are inspiring the next generation of astronauts and pioneers.”
The president applauded the dozens of individuals in NASA’s astronaut corps on the stage behind him before recognizing the Artemis II crew.
“We gather here on these historic grounds to celebrate the immense courage and service of four intrepid space heroes whose sense of daring and adventure led them further from Earth than anyone who’s ever traveled before,” Trump said during the event.
NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch were joined by Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen for the flight, as the astronauts traveled 252,758 miles from Earth and covered nearly 700,000 miles on the trip, according to NASA.
“This is a very rare thing,” Trump said of the medal. “It’s for courageous people, brilliant people, bestowed on astronauts who have distinguished themselves with exceptional service to the nation and all of mankind.”
The crew took off on its 10-day lunar flyby mission April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the Orion spacecraft named Integrity.
Trump spoke to the astronauts over the phone while they were on their mission before hosting them at the White House for an Oval Office ceremony on April 29 shortly after they returned to Earth.
Congress established the space-themed Medal of Honor in 1969 to recognize astronauts for their “exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the nation and of mankind.”
Six space pioneers, Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Pete Conrad, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, and Alan Shepard, were the first to receive the medal in 1978, awarded by President Jimmy Carter.
Awardees are selected based on recommendations from NASA’s administrator, with the Artemis II crew joining a short list of 30 prior recipients.
Falklands Emerge As US Leverage Tool Against Britain To Ramp Defense Spending
A new report from The Telegraph says the Trump administration is using Britain’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands as leverage to pressure the country into meeting NATO’s new defense-spending target.
What sounds like an “Art of the Deal” tactic by Trump has been described by a senior US official as a plan to push the UK toward NATO’s pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defense.
Here’s more from the outlet:
A senior US official told The Telegraph that Britain was likely to receive “special attention” in Washington’s review of its allies’ commitment to Nato, which will examine whether member nations have credible paths toward the target.
Officials in Washington believe that while Britain has the potential to be a leading defence partner, the defence investment plan, announced by Sir Keir Starmer in June, was not enough of a “step in the right direction”.
“I would expect the UK to receive special attention because it has so much potential,” the official said of the review. “We will therefore continue efforts to incentivize and enable the UK to step up in a major way.”
Asked about the prospect of the US changing its position on the Falklands, they added: “I can say that they [conversations] are candid and nothing is being ruled out as far as options for encouraging the sort of burden-sharing that we seek.”
The UK has currently budgeted to spend 2.6% of GDP on defense in fiscal 2026-27, rising to 2.7% from 2027-28 onward, according to the government’s June plan. Actual defense spending this year topped 2.33%. That leaves Britain well short of NATO’s new 5% target by 2035.
The outlet continued:
Donald Trump’s administration is pushing NATO into what officials are describing as a new era of the alliance, dubbed NATO 3.0. This would require European countries and Canada to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe.
“We’ve seen the defense investment plan, and it is a step in the right direction. But a step in the right direction isn’t enough. Given the scale of challenges facing us and our allies, we need allies like the United Kingdom to step up in major, fundamental ways. Fortunately, some already are. We strongly encourage the UK to do likewise,” the official added.
The Falklands remain a unique pressure point for Britain, which fought a war over the islands, while Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over them. Trump’s move to reconsider the US’ position on the Falklands appears to be a big lever over London. Timing is also notable: Trump’s alignment with Argentine President Javier Milei is tighter than ever.
“I’ve done this a long time and haven’t seen one quite like this one, I have to say.”
So said U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, who has sat on the D.C. federal court bench since Ronald Reagan appointed him in 1987, last April.
What exactly stumped the senior judge that day? Another pending mistrial in the government’s prosecution of two of MS-13’s most notorious gang leaders.
For the second time in five months, a D.C. jury refused to convict Moises Rivera-Luna and Tokiro Ramirez on two racketeering conspiracy counts originating from a 2011 federal indictment (read: brought by the Obama DOJ, not Trump’s) for criminal gang activity in Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas. It appears from the official court docket that the pair became fugitives before the case could go to trial back then.
But in March 2025, the Trump administration extradited Rivera-Luna from Guatemala to finally face his day in court; Ramirez had been extradited from Honduras in 2022.
“Rivera-Luna is alleged to be an international leader of MS-13 who was sending orders and advice to an MS-13 clique operating in the Washington area via cellular telephone calls from his prison cell in El Salvador,” a March 2025 DOJ press release stated. “The indictment alleges that he and another alleged MS-13 leader… also incarcerated in El Salvador directed a coalition of MS-13 cliques to be formed in the Washington area. They advised local clique members that the coalition’s aim was to seek and kill MS-13 members who were found to be cooperating with law enforcement officials.” The indictment also accused the defendants of “narcotics distribution, extortion, [and] robberies.”
Both men pleaded not guilty; the first trial began on December 2, 2025, just a few weeks after the shooting of two D.C. National Guardsmen, which resulted in the death of one, amid strong public opposition of the Guard’s presence in the nation’s capital. The start of the trial also coincided with nationwide anti-ICE protests including in Washington. And a group called “Free DC” at the time was hosting online seminars as part of its Trump 2.0 resistance operation, advising D.C. residents how to serve on juries to “influence outcomes and help create a more equitable legal process.”
Free MS-13 to Show Trump!
Jury deliberations in the Rivera/Ramirez case began December 15, 2025. In a note to Judge Lamberth the following day, the foreperson informed the judge that despite “robust debate,” the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. “One juror has expressed an inability to be impartial in their review of the facts and an unwillingness to continue deliberations in a productive manner,” the foreperson disclosed.
Lamberth declared a mistrial on December 17, 2025. Vive la résistance!
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, immediately sought to retry the pair. The second trial started on April; jury deliberations began on April 15. History, however, would repeat itself with a note from the jury foreperson just a few hours later, disclosing that the panel was “divided and unable to come to a consensus.” They continued to debate but the situation worsened in the jury room:
Lamberth responded with bewilderment, admitting the situation raised profound legal questions. “It’s an odd note because their disclosure of the split, assuming that’s what it is, is disclosing jury misconduct that would entitle an inquiry into the misconduct of the juror and possible replacement and restart of jury deliberations,” he told prosecutors and defense attorneys during an April 17 hearing. “A juror who says at the outset they will not have any problem with never agreeing on a verdict has a problem with me.”
The judge released the jury for the weekend and asked both sides to research how to handle such an impasse. But the jury came back with another blow to the government on April 20:
Lamberth called the foreperson into the courtroom to ask what was going on. “For one of the counts, we were in agreement and then this morning, we weren’t,” the foreperson disclosed. “And then I know we have one juror who is very firm on their stance and doesn’t really want to deliberate further on the others. But there are two different jurors, if that makes sense.”
Lamberth declared another mistrial that day.
Pirro v Graves: Not Even Close…and Lamberth Knows Exactly Why
So despite breathless headlines declaring Pirro a loser in court once again, it appears the jury in both cases was prepared to convict but prevented from doing so by activist jurors who unabashedly declared their intention to sabotage a guilty verdict. (It is unclear why Lamberth, seeing this happen yet again in the case, did not make an Allen charge to the jury or open an investigation into the rogue jurors. But as part of the ongoing judicial coup against the president, Lamberth possibly wanted to hand the Trump administration another loss.)
Further, Lamberth knows exactly why he hasn’t seen “one quite like this.” Because it never happened prior to Trump winning the 2024 election and proceeding to use his DOJ, rather than being hijacked by saboteurs like the first time around, to pursue his policy agenda and round up bad guys, white collar and otherwise.
Compare the outcome of Pirro’s cases before DC juries to the track record of Matthew Graves, her predecessor in the Biden administration. Not only did Graves secure a 100 percent conviction rate of January 6 defendants before DC juries, those guilty verdicts were returned in record time. Graves won easy convictions in the misdemeanor cases against Trump advisors Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, resulting in prison time for both.
But the same office now struggles to win convictions in those same courtrooms-and the only thing that has changed is the name on the letterhead. Not only have DC juries acquitted or declared a hung jury in at least seven federal cases since her tenure began (not including this one), the DC grand jury has rejected Pirro’s pursuit of several indictments including charges against the so-called “Seditious Six.”
And no one knows this massive disparity more than Judge Lamberth, who presided over dozens of J6 cases and sent many to federal prison. His feigned shock as to why juries–both grand and petit–are letting criminals off the hook is nothing more than a hollow attempt to pretend the judicial system in Washington, DC resembles anything close to fair, apolitical proceedings.
Lamberth, and Pirro, will get another chance to convict the dangerous gang lords next month. Is the third time a charm? Inside the grotesquely partisan courthouse sitting in the heart of the nation’s capital, the answer is probably, no.
Pezeshkian Says Iran To Increase Gasoline Prices, Coupled With Rare Admission About US Sanctions
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday issued a rare admission, describing that after six months of war initiated by the United States and Israel, the country’s economy is feeling significant pain.
The statement came days after on Monday US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled Trump’s “Economic D-Day” plan against Iran, noting that while military operations have ceased, a far-reaching and sustained economic warfare campaign is in full effect.
“Some say sanctions have no effect at all; to those people, I really don’t know what to say,” Pezeshkian told state TV in an interview late on Friday. “We are in a war situation, and we must accept these wartime conditions.”
He appeared to be pushing back against some Iranian hardline officials who have asserted that the sanctions basically have not impacted the government or population whatsoever.
As evidence of the early and ongoing impact, lines at gas stations have gotten longer and more frustrating for consumers of late. Pezeshkian openly acknowledged this, and indicated for the first time the country is raising gasoline prices:
The president said the price of petrol should be increased in Iran to account for the fall in trade. “We should raise the price of the third-tier quota… For example, from 5,000 tomans to 10,000 tomans,” he added.
That quota refers to one of several consumption rates that determine the price an Iranian consumer is charged. Iran, a major oil producer with some of the world’s cheapest fuel, has for years heavily subsidized petrol, making any changes to pricing politically sensitive.
This represents a 100 percent increase from the current 5,000 tomans ($0.025) per liter, and comes as a result of the ongoing US naval blockade, which has prevented regular imports from covering the shortfall of domestic production, amid an overall import fall of 25 to 35 percent. But clearly some shipments are still getting in.
However, in what was perhaps Pezeshkian’s more long view, wishful, and also defiant assessment – days prior to the Friday comment, he had asserted that latest US sanctions “will not achieve anything.”
“We will stand firm against economic pressures, as we have done so far and will continue to do,“ Pezeshkian told state media.
Meanwhile, President Trump had reaffirmed there are currently no talks happening with Tehran. “We’re not looking to meet or anything,” he said Thursday.
Curiously, other Iranian sources have been painting a picture which downplays potential petrol shortages, saying instead that gas station delays are but the result of a sudden surge in demand…
⚡️⭕️ Iran: National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company reports no gasoline shortage; recent 10% demand increase and storage damage in Tehran caused supply delays and queues. (IRIB News) pic.twitter.com/9C0scnCFO0
Last week, a top Iranian official in charge of domestic energy supply said the gasoline market had a daily deficit of 14-15 million liters due to record demand, damage incurred in the war and “changes in the national budget’s priorities.”
“We have to do something to bring consumption down to domestic production levels,” Esmaeil Saqab Esfahani, head of the Energy Optimization and Strategic Management Organization, had stated, according to the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency.
The sister of a young British mother butchered by a small-boat arrival has torn into the Labour government for going to court to keep the public from seeing who is committing what crime in this country.
Alex Whyte told GB News she feels “sick, disgusted and completely let down.” Anger, she said, “doesn’t even cover what I feel, and it never will.”
Labour, she added, is “too afraid to admit” what open borders have done to Britain.
Rhiannon Whyte was a 27-year-old mother. Her son was five when she was murdered by a Sudanese migrant being housed at the hotel wage worked in.
Deng Chol Majek stabbed her 23 times with a crosshead screwdriver. Nineteen blows were to the head. Eleven penetrated her skull. One went so deep it pierced her brain stem. She never regained consciousness and died in hospital three days later.
Majek had arrived in Britain on a small boat, and claimed asylum. He had already been refused in Germany and Italy. He lied about his age, claiming to be 19. The court put him between 25 and 28.
After the killing he threw Rhiannon’s phone in the River Tame, bought a beer, changed his clothes and was caught on CCTV dancing and laughing. He showed no remorse, and in January of this year he was given life with a minimum of 29 years.
Alex Whyte now helps raise that little boy. She has described the scream he made when he was told his mother was gone as something that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Rhiannon, she said, “never saw danger.” She “wanted people to be happy and safe. Hence why she worked at the hotel.”
“But we’re not safe. She wasn’t safe,” she urges.
She is among relatives who have now written to Justice Secretary Alex Norris. Reporting has put the group at 11 families, with 18 relatives of victims signing. They want publication of conviction data by nationality for England and Wales from 2018 to 2024 – the dataset the Centre for Migration Control requested under Freedom of Information law.
The Information Commissioner ordered the Ministry of Justice to release it. The MoJ’s cost and “identification” arguments were rejected. Then Justice Secretary David Lammy sanctioned an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Taxpayers are now funding a legal fight to keep the figures sealed.
The families’ letter put it plainly: “Imagine if someone you loved had been attacked, abused, or killed by a person who had entered Britain from abroad.” They wrote that victims and the public “deserve transparency about the people who enter our country and the crimes they subsequently commit.” Withholding the data, they said, damages trust and blocks “meaningful action.” They urged ministers to “stop spending public money on this attempted cover-up.”
Among them: eight members of Rhiannon’s family; relatives of a 14-year-old girl sexually assaulted by an Ethiopian asylum seeker housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping; Ann Newman, partner of dog walker Wayne Broadhurst, stabbed to death by Afghan national Dawood Safi in Uxbridge; Fiona Goddard, a Bradford grooming gang victim; and Sammy Woodhouse, raped in the Rotherham scandal.
Alex Whyte cannot see why British sex offenders can be checked on a register while foreign offenders are wrapped in official silence.
“If you have a sex offender who’s from this country, you can go on a register and find out who they are. Why is that not for everyone who’s a part of this country? They want to be treated the same as everyone else. They want to be entitled to everything that we are entitled to here. We should know who they are and what they’re doing.”
‘I feel sick, disgusted and completely let down. Anger doesn’t even cover what I feel, and it never will.’
Sister of Rhiannon Whyte, Alex Whyte, criticises the Labour Government for blocking the release of data on offences committed by foreign nationals. pic.twitter.com/sQ64KiDzwb
Asked what her sister would make of the block, she did not hesitate. “She would be outraged. Completely outraged.”
“She no longer has a voice, but I do. And I will never stop until there is real justice.”
‘We as a country deserve better, my sister and her little boy deserve better, we will never stop until we’ve got real justice.’
Sister of Rhiannon Whyte, Alex Whyte calls out Labour for being ‘too afraid to admit’ the impact of foreign criminals on Britain. pic.twitter.com/wrFya6PIn8
“Open your eyes. You are so aware of what is happening, but you are too afraid to admit it. We as a country deserve better. My sister deserved better. Her little boy deserves better, and we will never stop until we’ve got real justice.”
Rhiannon’s mother Siobhan Whyte called the refusal “diabolical.” Labour, she said, is “constantly denying what’s going on.” She pointed to Home Office leaflets telling asylum seekers that rape is illegal and what the age of consent is – documents that exist only because officials already know the risk.
“They know they’re a danger, and that’s the sad reality of it. Instead of stopping, detaining, deporting, they’d rather spend thousands on publishing stupid documents that mean nothing,” she urged.
She aded, “I think our Government should be protecting women and children and the men of this country, and there is definitely something there, definitely something very weird going on that they seem too scared to protect us.”
The MoJ’s stock line is that public protection is “our priority,” that there is a “record £550 million” victim-support package, and that it will not comment on live proceedings. It denies a cover-up. The appeal itself is the comment.
Partial releases and earlier FOI work have already sketched the picture ministers would rather not print in full.
Foreign nationals accounted for 14.1 per cent of sexual offence convictions in 2025, according to Police National Computer figures the MoJ has allowed out. That lump sum does not break out rape, child sexual abuse or grooming.
Earlier analysis comparing prison numbers with census figures found foreigners overall 27 per cent more likely to be imprisoned than British citizens. Albanians sat at 232.33 imprisonments per 10,000 against 14 for Britons. Kosovars, Vietnamese, Algerians, Jamaicans, Eritreans, Iraqis and Somalis all ran well above the British baseline.
On the railways the imbalance is starker. British Transport Police data obtained by the Centre for Migration Control showed foreign nationals made up 79 per cent of theft arrests on trains in 2025, 40 per cent of drug-offence arrests, 37 per cent of sexual-offence arrests and 36 per cent of violent-crime arrests.
Of 9,771 arrests across England, Wales and Scotland, nearly 3,700 were foreign nationals. CMC research director Robert Bates said the government had “made our trains unsafe” and that any sane government would end the inflow and start deportations.
Across England and Wales, foreign nationals were arrested 172,889 times in the year ending March 2025 – one every 183 seconds. That included 51,212 violence arrests and 11,264 sexual-offence arrests.
Separate CMC work using police, Home Office and ONS figures found foreigners 3.5 times more likely to be arrested for sex crimes than British citizens: nearly 165 arrests per 100,000 against 48 per 100,000 for Britons.
They formed 26.1 per cent of sexual-offence arrests while making up around 9 per cent of the population. In the City of London the foreign share of sex-crime arrests hit 66.9 per cent. In Derbyshire it was 44.8 per cent. Nationalities with the highest rates included Afghans, Iraqis, Algerians and Somalis.
CMC’s Robert Bates has called the legal fight “astonishing” and an “attack on transparency and accountability.” If some nationalities offend at far higher rates, visa policy can be tightened and, where needed, whole source countries shut off.
Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick charged that successive Tory and Labour justice secretaries have refused to publish “this basic information.” A Reform government, he said, “would immediately blow the lid on what’s really happening and begin deporting these dangerous criminals.”
Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy asked the obvious question: “Labour has consistently refused to publish sex crime data by nationality. Why are they trying to appeal against releasing the data? Do Labour just want to cover up the truth about foreign national offenders?”
Reform’s Zia Yusuf stated “It is a cover-up, and let’s call a spade a spade. Tory and Labour Governments now for years have sacrificed their own people, sacrificed their own women and children’s safety.”
Yusuf further charged that they allowed British women and girls “to be raped and murdered by men who should never have been allowed into the country at all because they worship at the altar of diversity.” If Reform wins and Nigel Farage is prime minister, Yusuf said, releasing “all of this data so the British people learn the truth” would be among the first acts of a Reform home secretary.
The same instinct to manage the public rather than inform it runs through the hotel system that employed Rhiannon and housed her killer.
Police Scotland has refused Freedom of Information requests for aggregated call-outs, crimes and arrests at five asylum hotels, including sites in Erskine, Glasgow, Paisley, East Kilbride and Falkirk. The force cited “heightened community tensions” and a risk of physical harm to officers, residents and the public. Even anonymised totals were withheld on the grounds that changing numbers might allow “inferences” about residents, or that incidents might be blamed on protests rather than people living there.
Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr called it another case of public bodies following an SNP “culture of secrecy.”
Former Cladhan Hotel occupant Sadeq Nikzad, from Afghanistan, was jailed in June 2025 for raping a 15-year-old local girl. Another resident, Muhammad Sheikhi, 22, later faced sexual-assault charges. Locals who protested have been arrested, and the data stays locked.
In Epping, an Ethiopian small-boat arrival housed at the Bell Hotel sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman who tried to intervene. He received 12 months. Some locals who protested the hotel later drew longer sentences than the attacker.
That is the two-tier reality families in the Norris letter are living with: the state will spend years and legal fees protecting a spreadsheet, then come down hard on the people who object when the spreadsheet’s contents walk out of a hotel and onto a platform.
Siobhan Whyte has said police encouraged the family to soften public remarks after Rhiannon’s life support was withdrawn, with officers talking about avoiding “another Southport.” She has also said the Prime Minister has “blood on his hands.” Majek would have been among the first cohort eligible for Rwanda removals. Labour cancelled the scheme. He stayed. She is dead.
While ministers litigate against sunlight, ordinary Brits have been unwittingly underwriting the activist layer that treats borders as the problem.
A GB News investigation found the National Lottery has channelled more than £140 million toward refugee and migrant projects. A five-year Community Fund audit identified £114.7 million between July 2021 and June 2026 alone, jumping to £43.3 million in 2024/25.
Large recipients included Refugee Action (£3.21 million), the British Refugee Council (£2.97 million) and the Scottish Refugee Council (£1.75 million). Refugee Action has talked of a future “rooted in the fundamental right to move, underpinned by a commitment to anti-racism.”
Commentator Rafe Heydel-Mankoo called it “the capture of these institutions by far-left ideology that should have no place in the charitable world.”
So the public funds the hotels, funds the legal aid, funds the leaflets explaining that rape is illegal, funds the charities campaigning to keep the boats coming – and then funds the lawyers trying to stop anyone seeing the conviction table.
Alex Whyte and those supporting her are asking for the same honesty the state already applies to British sex offenders, and for a government that will say out loud what it already knows. Labour would rather fight the Information Commissioner than fight the people who should never have been here. That is not public protection. It is self-protection.
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Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf declared on 28 August that either all Persian Gulf countries will be allowed to export oil freely or none will, adding that the security of West Asia depends on the withdrawal of US forces.
“The equation of this war is clear: either all or none!” Ghalibaf said, adding, “In a region where we don’t sell oil, no one else will sell oil either.” The speaker emphasized further, “If our security is not ensured, no infrastructure will be safe.”
“Security of the strait depends on the absence of US forces. We have said many times that the situation in the strait will not return to what it was before the war.”
The comments came in response to claims by US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper that US forces had seized full control of the Strait of Hormuz and halted Iranian oil exports.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued the same day, urged all states to refuse to enforce a new US sanctions package the same day, warning that compliance makes a government complicit in violating international law and the sovereign equality of states.
Washington unveiled the measures under the name “Operation Economic Outcast” after failing to reach its war aims against Iran with military force.
The ministry condemned the package as economic terrorism, stating that it revealed “the criminal intent of those who designed and implemented it to inflict suffering on the Iranian people and deprive Iranian citizens of their fundamental human rights; therefore, it is tantamount to an international crime and a crime against humanity.”
It said the US was weaponizing the dollar to pressure other governments into backing its policies on Iran, in breach of the UN Charter and the principle of non-intervention.
Tehran also said the sanctions defy the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order of October 3, 2018 requiring Washington to lift barriers to the flow of food, medicine, and medical equipment.
The ministry tied the economic war to the broader US-Israeli offensive against Iran over the past year and a half, and said the failure of the UN and its members to confront those violations has produced “a highly dangerous pattern of lawlessness.”
Senator Kennedy floats the possibility of US pulling out of the Iran war while leaving the Strait of Hormuz closed
It would certainly be an option at some point, now that we’ve accomplished most of our goals, for us to come home. The president’s critics will say, but the Strait… pic.twitter.com/qVdb40yHvp
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi previously said that Trump’s “Economic D-Day” campaign would deliver Washington nothing but further defeat, calling it a distraction from a US debt crisis that hit a record $40 trillion this month.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the turn to economic war followed Washington’s failure to achieve its military objectives, and that the US was now begging its allies for help while claiming Iran was on the brink of collapse.
Gas prices have climbed sharply across the U.S. following the outbreak of the Iran War, but the size of the increase varies significantly by state.
Using AAA price data from February 18, 2026, as a pre-war baseline and prices as of August 20, 2026, this visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Sofie Gilbert, maps the percentage increase across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Which States Saw the Biggest Gas Price Increases
Iowa has seen the largest percentage increase in the country, with gas prices jumping 69.1% from $2.45 to $4.14 per gallon. Oklahoma follows closely at 68.8%, while Colorado, Minnesota, and Wyoming have each seen increases of more than 60%.
Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas round out the top 10, each up more than 57%.
The table below shows the full breakdown of price changes by state, sorted from largest to smallest percentage change.
State
Pre-War Price
(Feb 18 2026)
Current Price
(Aug 20 2026)
$ Change
% Change
Iowa
$2.45
$4.14
$1.69
69.1%
Oklahoma
$2.29
$3.87
$1.58
68.8%
Colorado
$2.76
$4.48
$1.72
62.2%
Minnesota
$2.57
$4.16
$1.59
61.8%
Wyoming
$2.70
$4.37
$1.67
61.8%
Montana
$2.75
$4.39
$1.64
59.7%
New Mexico
$2.61
$4.14
$1.53
58.5%
North Dakota
$2.54
$4.01
$1.47
57.7%
South Dakota
$2.59
$4.08
$1.49
57.7%
Kansas
$2.47
$3.88
$1.41
57.1%
Utah
$2.79
$4.38
$1.59
57.0%
Nebraska
$2.59
$4.04
$1.45
56.1%
Arkansas
$2.46
$3.80
$1.34
54.6%
Wisconsin
$2.55
$3.94
$1.39
54.4%
Missouri
$2.52
$3.89
$1.37
54.3%
Ohio
$2.70
$4.12
$1.42
52.6%
Idaho
$2.97
$4.49
$1.52
51.3%
Mississippi
$2.49
$3.66
$1.17
47.2%
Illinois
$2.99
$4.40
$1.41
47.1%
Louisiana
$2.51
$3.69
$1.18
47.0%
Michigan
$2.92
$4.21
$1.29
44.0%
Kentucky
$2.59
$3.70
$1.11
43.0%
Texas
$2.55
$3.64
$1.09
42.8%
Alabama
$2.63
$3.74
$1.11
42.2%
Tennessee
$2.58
$3.66
$1.08
41.9%
Connecticut
$2.90
$4.10
$1.20
41.5%
Arizona
$3.16
$4.47
$1.31
41.4%
Georgia
$2.71
$3.82
$1.11
41.1%
New Hampshire
$2.85
$4.01
$1.16
40.6%
Massachusetts
$2.90
$4.04
$1.14
39.4%
Rhode Island
$2.87
$4.00
$1.13
39.2%
Maine
$2.92
$4.06
$1.14
39.1%
New York
$3.00
$4.15
$1.15
38.3%
Alaska
$3.50
$4.83
$1.33
38.1%
South Carolina
$2.67
$3.68
$1.01
38.0%
Vermont
$3.00
$4.14
$1.14
37.9%
Virginia
$2.81
$3.86
$1.05
37.5%
District of Columbia
$3.09
$4.21
$1.12
36.1%
North Carolina
$2.77
$3.77
$1.00
36.1%
West Virginia
$2.85
$3.87
$1.02
35.9%
Florida
$2.91
$3.95
$1.04
35.6%
New Jersey
$2.94
$3.99
$1.05
35.6%
Maryland
$2.92
$3.94
$1.02
35.0%
Delaware
$2.87
$3.87
$1.00
34.8%
Pennsylvania
$3.11
$4.14
$1.03
33.0%
Nevada
$3.64
$4.78
$1.14
31.2%
Indiana
$2.75
$3.56
$0.81
29.6%
Oregon
$3.71
$4.76
$1.05
28.3%
Washington
$4.17
$5.24
$1.07
25.7%
Hawaii
$4.40
$5.43
$1.03
23.4%
California
$4.59
$5.59
$1.00
21.8%
Many of the states with the largest percentage increases started from relatively low pre-war prices, which magnified the percentage change as crude prices rose.
Oklahoma, for example, had the lowest baseline price in the country at $2.29 per gallon and has since climbed nearly 69%.
How Much More Americans Are Paying at the Pump
Across the country, the average increase works out to roughly $1.25 per gallon, or about 44% from the pre-war baseline.
That translates to an extra $15 for a 12-gallon fill-up. At roughly 450 gallons of fuel consumed per vehicle each year, based on Federal Highway Administration data, a sustained $1.25-per-gallon increase would add about $560 to annual fuel costs.
The increases followed a major global oil supply disruption after the Iran War closed the Strait of Hormuz, pushing oil prices sharply higher as roughly 10 million barrels per day were taken off the market.
The states with the smallest percentage increases were largely those already paying the most. High fuel taxes and climate-related fuel policies, including carbon pricing programs in California and Washington, help keep baseline prices elevated.
California also uses a state-mandated fuel blend that cannot easily be supplemented with gasoline from outside the state.
Hawaii faces a different constraint: as an island chain with no pipeline access, its fuel must be shipped in, adding a persistent logistical premium to each gallon.
California saw the smallest increase at 21.8%, followed by Hawaii at 23.4% and Washington at 25.7%. Yet all three remain the most expensive states in the country, at $5.59, $5.43, and $5.24 per gallon, respectively.
Self-proclaimed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has appointed Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi as a presidential advisor, following the dissolution of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in an integration deal with Damascus earlier this week.
“President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued Decree No. 164 of 2026 on Thursday, appointing Mustafa Khalil Abdi, known as Mazloum Abdi, as an advisor to the Presidency of the Republic,” state media SANA reported on 27 August.
Abdi headed the SDF, an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that was created with US support in 2015 as part of the war to topple the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.
The SDF took control of large swathes of northeast Syria from ISIS, including the country’s main oil fields, as part of Washington’s efforts to keep Syria divided and prevent reconstruction by Assad’s government.
Abdi and the SDF created an autonomous region that also included Sunni Arab majority areas taken from ISIS. However, when Sharaa – a former Al-Qaeda leader – took power in Damascus in December 2024 with the help of the US, Turkey, and Israel, the SDF’s usefulness to Washington was diminished.
Sharaa’s extremist-led Syrian army defeated the SDF in January 2026 after weeks of clashes, bringing Kurdish autonomy to an end. Abdi announced the dissolution of the SDF on Tuesday as part of a deal to integrate the Kurds’ forces and civilian administration into the state.
“Our struggle will continue to cement our people’s rights in the constitution,” Abdi stated after announcing the integration. “The integration deal was a major victory for Sharaa, but an end to long-held Kurdish hopes for autonomy,” Saudi newspaper ASharq al-Awsatwrote on Friday.
Abdi has pointed to a decree signed by Sharaa claiming to enshrine the Kurds’ national rights and recognizing Kurdish as a national language as a victory for the SDF.
Abdi is a veteran of the PKK, considered a terrorist group by Sharaa’s strongest backer, Turkey. The PKK waged a deadly insurgency against Ankara for decades before formally renouncing its armed struggle last year.
In recent years, Turkiye has moved to improve relations with Kurdish parties, in particular in Iraq, as part of its “growing with the Kurds” policy.
Ilham Ahmed tells The Amargi that she and Mazloum Abdi have taken on new positions within the Syrian state.
SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi has been appointed as Presidential advisor for Kurdish affairs in Syria, while former Autonomous Administration External Relations… pic.twitter.com/dRIiv7WBUx
Because Kurds have significant populations in Syria and Iraq, Turkish leaders wish to use them as a vehicle to extend their influence in neighboring countries in a way enjoyed by the Turks during the period of the Ottoman Empire.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, is a close partner with Ankara. The US, Turkey, and the KDP all covertly backed ISIS during the organization’s takeover of large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, including during the genocide of Yezidis in the Sinjar region of Iraq.
Summer is music festival timeand while one major event, Coachella, kicks off the U.S. season in April, Burning Man – starting this Sunday in Nevada – closes it out.
The two events might seem like polar opposites in the music festival realm, but have more in common than meets the eye.
Burning Man continues to be an icon of counterculture but attending the festival that relies on visitors to be self-sufficient to a high degree is expensive.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the personal income of the average attendee has changed in recent years as the festival has become popular among well-to-do crowds.
A survey carried out under scientific conditions among Burning Man attendees every year shows how the personal incomes of those heading to Black Rock City have evolved.
While in 2015, only close to 24 percent said they made $100,000 or more annually in personal income, this had increased to almost 48 percent by 2025.
For comparison, YouGov states that incomes like these are only brought home by around 18 percent of Americans.
Especially the infamous tech bro has been credited with changing the make-up of the desert festival which features music performances and art installations on its spread-out grounds that work on the basis of community organization instead of cash-based services.
Marc Zuckerberg’s 2012 visit made headlines, but he was hardly a driving force in the burgeoning popularity the festival has experienced among young CEOs and founders. Before the now very obvious shift to luxurious camps and millionaire visitors, the likes of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as well as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos were already partaking in Burning Man in the 1990s.
The survey also shows that the number of first-time attendees has remained stable around 25-30 percent over the years and that a reliable 80 percent of attendees say the event’s stated philosophy was important or very important to them.
More than 60 percent of participants are in their 30s and 40s, with peaks around the 35-42 age range.
The event skewing 60 percent male, up to 40 percent Californian and 75 percent white also fits the tech millionaire demographic.
At around 25 percent, cost was however still the most cited barrier to visiting the festival again.
The attack targeting a military patrol in the Benzú area of Ceuta last night was a pre-planned ambush rather than a spontaneous clash, according to preliminary findings from the National Police. Now, military sources are speaking of soldiers who are unable to use physical force, have no weapons, and are vulnerable to such attacks in the future.
Regarding the ambush, police investigators at the scene discovered an abnormal accumulation of heavy stones that did not match the natural geology of the terrain. Police believe the projectiles were intentionally stockpiled at the location in advance, setting a trap for a vehicle or convoy passing through the area.
Images of damaged military vehicles have gone viral across social media. Multiple vehicles suffered smashed windshields and other damage in the attack.
🔴 #URGENTE | Los inmigrantes ilegales de Ceuta han atacado esta madrugada los vehículos de los militares españoles.
Este es el estado de algunos de los coches y camiones del Ejército que les ha ayudado a instalarse en polideportivos. pic.twitter.com/KnT9RU35AM
The ambush occurred while troops from the 54th Regular Group of Ceuta were conducting routine patrol duties. Dozens of illegal immigrants ambushed the patrol vehicle with a heavy barrage of rocks. The sudden intensity of the assault severely damaged the vehicle, shattering its windows and trapping the occupants inside.
Surrounded by a high volume of projectiles, the soldiers “feared for their lives,” according to statements later provided to investigators, as reported by Spanish newspaper El Debate. Four soldiers were left injured and officials told the press that sthe all-terrain logistical vehicles were not armored and not equipped to deal with such attacks.
Marco Antonio Gómez, president of the Association of Spanish Troops and Sailors (ATME), stated that the “very serious aggression” shows “our military is helpless.”
“They go without weapons. Our colleagues had to run away to save their own lives.”
Speaking to El Debate, military sources who are directly on the ground in Ceuta say that soldiers have their “hands and feet tied.”
Although the military is working with National Police, the situation remains dangerous.
The source said “they have done what is necessary and have intervened in situations in which the illegal immigrants bothered the inhabitants of Ceuta.”
🇪🇸🔴 A young Spanish woman is fleeing Ceuta because she no longer feels safe.
“I don’t want to feel anxious every time I step outside… It seems awful to me that all this is allowed to happen and nobody can close the border or do anything.”
However, these military sources complain that various legal frameworks have left soldiers without weapons, and these policies also restrict soldiers from carrying out arrests and using any type of force.
Migrants may even be aware of these restrictions, empowering them to conduct ambush strikes against soldiers with near impunity.
🇪🇸🔴 5 migrants tried to gang rape a 12-year-old girl as she screamed for help, said locals in Ceuta who stopped the attack.
“There were five against a 12-year-old girl. She was a little girl, they were taking off her pants. She was screaming, screaming, screaming. She was… pic.twitter.com/g97pj8phUR
Since the attack, 12 suspects have been taken into custody at the scene by National Police’s Prevention and Reaction Unit (UPR). Some migrants reportedly tried to evade arrest by jumping into the sea. Reinforcement from the Civil Guard also helped secure the perimeter.
The Union of Military Troops (UMT) issued a statement expressing its “strong rejection and indignation,” stating they had warned about the conditions facing troops already ten days eariler.
The National Police investigation remains active as authorities work to trace all remaining individuals involved in the ambush.
