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U.S. oil prices gave up gains on Thursday after Israel said it was helping reopen the key Strait of Hormuz passageway.

International benchmark Brent crude futures with May added 1.18% to end at $108.65 per barrel, reversing lower after briefly climbing above $119 earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures slipped 0.19% to $96.14 after trading higher in the day.

U.S. oil prices fell in extended trading as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the media, saying that Israel was helping the U.S. open the Strait of Hormuz, according to wire reports. Netanyahu also said that Iran had lost the ability to enrich uranium and make ballistic missiles. The prime minister said the war may end sooner than people think.

Vice President JD Vance attended a meeting with U.S. oil industry members on Thursday hosted by the American Petroleum Institute. Opening Hormuz is a “top priority” for the Trump administration, Mike Sommers, API’s president and CEO, told CNBC following the meeting.

“We need to get the Strait open,” Sommers said on Thursday. “There is just no substitute right now.”

A White House official confirmed to CNBC that oil and gas export restrictions are not currently under consideration.

The front-month gas price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) hub, a European benchmark for natural gas trading, traded up over 11% at around 61 euros per megawatt-hour.

U.S. natural gas prices were last seen 1.7% higher, trading at $3.116 per million British thermal units. Front-month Nymex RBOB gasoline for April delivery, meanwhile, rose almost 1% to $3.13 and hit a nearly four-year high.

Iran strikes

Iranian missile strikes inflicted “extensive damage” on Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest LNG export facility in the world, Qatar said.

Emergency crews were dispatched to tackle fires at Ras Laffan, QatarEnergy said in a social media post, adding there were no reported casualties. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said the Iran attack took out 17% of the country’s liquefied natural gas export capacity.

Qatar’s Interior Ministry later said the blaze had been brought under control.

Qatar’s foreign Ministry condemned the attack as a “dangerous escalation” and a “flagrant violation of sovereignty,” warning it threatened national security and regional stability. It added that Qatar reserves the right to respond under international law.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were on alert after Israel struck an Iranian natural gas processing facility. Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field on Wednesday, prompting retaliatory missile attacks.

Qatar had already suspended LNG production on March 2 following Iranian drone attacks on Ras Laffan and Mesaieed Industrial City. The country is the world’s second-largest LNG exporter after the U.S., accounting for nearly a fifth of global shipments, according to Kpler.

The escalating strikes on Middle East energy infrastructure risk deepening the supply shock triggered by the Iran war. Tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz that was handling about 20% of global oil supplies, is largely blocked.

Randhir Jaiswal, India’s external ministry of affairs, told CNBC on the phone the country was in ongoing discussions with Iran to get 22 ships through the Strait. Two ships have already reached India via the passageway, Jaiswal said.

India continues to increase energy purchases from Russia, Jaiswal said.

Gulf Oil’s senior energy advisor Tom Kloza warned that markets could enter an “all bets are off” scenario if the conflict spills beyond the Gulf and begins targeting energy infrastructure in other regions, such as Europe or the United States.

“Can you imagine the response in the world if [Iran] targeted something outside of the Persian Gulf, a refinery in Rotterdam or a facility somewhere in the United States, that’s when all bets are off and prices could go absolutely apocalyptic,” he said.

Such a shift would mark a break from contained geopolitical risk to a global supply shock, where traditional pricing models and risk assumptions no longer hold. In that environment, fears of widespread disruptions to refining and fuel distribution could trigger extreme volatility, with oil and gas prices surging sharply as traders price in worst-case scenarios and scramble to secure supplies.

“We’re moving from a supply chain problem to potentially a supply problem. There’s a big difference. You fix supply chain problems quickly,” said Dan Pickering, founder and CIO of Pickering Energy Partners.

“If you start changing the ability to produce, whether it’s LNG or oil, and all of a sudden you can’t move the same amount of volumes because the volumes aren’t there,” he said. “This is an escalation.”

Source: CNBC

Pokémon Company International has condemned the White House’s use of its imagery, including a tiny version of the popular character Pikachu, in a meme posted online with the phrase “Make America Great Again”.

“We were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property,” said Pokémon spokeswoman Sravanthi Dev. “Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda.”

The company has previously criticised the Trump administration for using its imagery to promote its deportation drive.

When contacted by the BBC, the White House suggested the company has a political bias.

The company did not say if it intended to pursue a lawsuit against the US government.

The 30 year-old brand, which recently released the game Pokopia for Nintendo, had similarly rebuked President Donald Trump’s administration in September for using its theme song, and slogan “Gotta catch ‘em all”, in a video showing arrests made by US border patrol and immigration agents.

At the time, it also said it was not involved in the creation or distribution of the content and had not granted permission to use its intellectual property.

The latest meme appears to use an image from Pokopia, with the slogan written in a similar font to the game. A small version of Pikachu pops out from behind the letter “e” in “make”.

Asked about Pokémon’s statement, the White House directed the BBC to a post on X by spokesman Kaelan Dorr.

The post includes a photo of a 10 year-old Wall Street Journal article on Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival in the presidential election, Hillary Clinton, referring to the game Pokémon Go to encourage supporters to vote. Clinton had said: “I’m trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokémon go to the polls”.

“Hey Mr Pikachu, big fan. Question for you - why no response to articles like this?” Dorr posted.

“Seems kinda like you ARE maybe affiliated with a political viewpoint, no?”

In Trump’s second term, the administration has frequently used popular memes on official government social media accounts.

White House Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson previously described the strategy, saying: “Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president’s extremely popular agenda.”

Most recently, the White House posted a video that mixed images from the war against Iran with clips from the video game franchise Call of Duty.

Numerous artists have complained about their content being used by the Trump administration on social media.

Comedian and podcaster Theo Von, who has previously interviewed Trump on his programme and says he supports him politically, reacted angrily last year when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a clip of him speaking to reveal the agency’s deportation numbers.

“Yooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this,” Von wrote on X.

“I know you know my address so send a check. And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos.”

Source:adaderana.lk

The Ministry of Digital Economy has announced the launch of a dedicated support service to promptly resolve technical issues and registration difficulties faced by users of the National Fuel Pass system.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry, the service has been established to provide immediate assistance for any problems encountered during vehicle registration.

Users experiencing difficulties are advised to send a message via WhatsApp to ‘ 076 019 1919 ’ to obtain support, the statement said.

The statement further noted that this service will provide necessary guidance and technical assistance, and can also be used to report any fraudulent activities or misuse of the system.

The Ministry also expressed confidence in public cooperation to ensure the success of the government’s programme aimed at facilitating fair fuel distribution.

Instagram will discontinue support for end-to-end encrypted messaging on its platform starting May 8, 2026, the company confirmed.

The change means users will no longer be able to use chats protected by end-to-end encryption, which secures messages with a special key to reduce the risk of external interception.

Meta announced the update through a notice on the Instagram website and advised users to download any messages or media they wish to keep before the feature is removed.

“End-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after 8 May 2026. If you have chats that are affected by this change, you will see instructions on how you can download any media or messages that you may want to keep,” the notice said.

The company also noted that users on older versions of the app may need to update Instagram before downloading affected chats. 

(Source:Newswire)

President Donald Trump told Israel not to repeat its attacks on Iranian natural gas infrastructure as tit-for-tat strikes on energy plants sent prices spiraling, sharply escalating the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

The conflict has killed thousands of people, spread to neighbouring nations and hit the global economy since the United States and Israel launched strikes on February 28, after talks about Tehran’s nuclear program failed to yield a deal.

Trump’s comment came as energy prices jumped on Thursday after Iran responded to an Israeli attack on a major gas field by hitting Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, which processes around a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, causing damage that will take years to repair.

Saudi Arabia’s main port on the Red Sea, where it has been able to divert some exports to avoid Iran’s closure of the Gulf’s exit point, the Strait of Hormuz, was also attacked.

The strikes underscored Iran’s continued ability to exact a heavy price for the U.S.-Israeli campaign, and the limits of air defences in protecting the Gulf’s most valuable and strategic energy assets.

Trump, politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices among his core voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, has lashed out at allies who have responded cautiously to his demands that ⁠they help secure the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of the world’s oil.

But he said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat the attack on energy infrastructure.

“I told him, ‘Don’t do that’, and he won’t do that,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

A U.S. official and three other people familiar with the planning told Reuters that Trump was considering sending thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East.

But on Thursday, Trump said he had no plans to deploy ground forces. “I’m not putting troops anywhere,” he said.

Netanyahu later on Thursday said that Israel acted alone in the bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field and confirmed that Trump asked Israel to hold off on such attacks.

Iran is being “decimated” and no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of U.S.-Israeli air attacks, but a revolution in the country would not come from the air and would require a “ground component,” he said, without elaborating.

As the Israeli leader spoke, Iran launched a new wave of missiles toward his country, according to Israel’s military and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Israel’s military said late on Thursday that the Air Force had carried out over 130 strikes on targets in western and central Iran over the past day, including ballistic missile launchers, drones and air defense systems.

Separately, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said they had ⁠dismantled a “terrorist network” funded and operated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran.

ENERGY CRISIS ESCALATES

With no end in sight to the conflict, and the threat of a global “oil shock” growing by the day, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan issued a joint statement expressing “our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”.

They also promised “other steps to stabilise energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output”.

There was little indication of any immediate move. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated that any contribution to securing the strait would come only after hostilities ended.

The resistance by major U.S. allies to becoming involved in the war reflects scepticism over a conflict European leaders have said has unclear objectives that they did not seek and over which they ⁠have little control.

Israel’s bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field, which Trump said the U.S. had not known about, suggested gaps in coordination of strategy and war aims between the main protagonists.

Adding to the confusion around the attack, three Israeli officials said the operation had taken place in consultation with the United States, but was unlikely to be repeated.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the House intelligence committee that U.S. and Israeli goals differed: “...the Israeli government has been focused on disabling the Iranian leadership. The president ⁠has stated that his objectives are to destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles launching capability, their ballistic missile production capability, and their navy.”

‘A NEW STAGE IN THE WAR’

Iran’s military said strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure had led to “a new stage in the war” in which it had attacked energy facilities linked to the United States.

“If strikes (on Iran’s energy facilities) happen again, further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed,” ⁠Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, according to state media.

QatarEnergy’s CEO told Reuters the Iranian attacks had knocked out a sixth of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, worth $20 billion a year, and that repairs would take three to five years.

Israeli media reported that an Iranian strike hit oil facilities in Israel’s port of Haifa, causing damage but no casualties.

Source: Reuters

FAO Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Vimlendra Sharan (left), Secretary to the Ministry of Environment K.R. Uduwawala at the signing ceremony along with representatives of the FAO and officials of the Ministry of Environment  

Key interventions include updating the national priority invasive species list for the first time since 2015, establishing a national digital monitoring system, and enhancing border controls through improved tools and enforcement capacity

Positioning the country among the first globally to move into large-scale implementation of bio diversity conservation, Sri Lanka has been endorsed for a project under the Kunming Biodiversity Fund (KBF) of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

The KBF project proposal was formally signed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Environment K.R. Uduwawala, and FAO Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Vimlendra Sharan, at the Ministry of Environment recently. 

The Fund provides catalytic international financing that enables Sri Lanka to scale up biodiversity action, address long-standing investment gaps in invasive species management, and leverage FAO’s technical support. Community-based ecosystem restoration and inclusive livelihoods are central to the project’s approach. Activities will include site-specific eradication efforts, post-eradication monitoring, and innovative ‘eradication-through-utilisation’ models that generate economic opportunities for women, youth and vulnerable groups while restoring ecosystems.

Through the project Sri Lanka will strengthen policies, legislation and institutional coordination related to invasive species management. Key interventions include updating the national priority invasive species list for the first time since 2015, establishing a national digital monitoring system, and enhancing border controls through improved tools and enforcement capacity.

The KBF-supported project responds directly as an urgent, coordinated and system-wide national action in managing the invasive alien species that represent a critical and growing threat to Sri Lanka’s biodiversity, ecosystems, agriculture and livelihoods. The proposal is entirely homegrown, developed through close collaboration between the Ministry of Environment and national experts, ensuring that global commitments are firmly grounded in Sri Lanka’s national priorities and realities.

This marks a transformative shift from fragmented, project-based interventions to a unified national bio-security system. The initiative will institutionalise prevention, early detection, rapid response and long-term management of invasive species across the country. 

Esmaeil Khatib, Iran’s Intelligence Minister, has reportedly been killed in an overnight strike, according to Israel Katz.

Katz stated that Khatib was “eliminated” during the operation, although no official confirmation has been issued by Iran regarding his death.

The Israeli defence minister further noted that he, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has authorised the military to proceed with operations targeting other senior Iranian officials without requiring additional approval.

The reported killing comes amid a series of high-profile deaths within Iran’s leadership. Tehran has already confirmed the deaths of key figures, including national security chief Ali Larijani and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Basij paramilitary wing.

Khatib was also among several officials recently identified by the United States Government, which had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on individuals linked to the IRGC. The list included 10 officials, among them Larijani and Iran’s newly named supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

The situation continues to unfold as tensions remain high in the region.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, stated in Parliament that the government aims to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of essential services, public services, and industries even during the current crisis.

She also called on the opposition to support the fulfillment of promises made for public welfare, according to the Prime Minister’s Media Division.

Responding to a question raised by Member of Parliament V. Radhakrishnan, the Prime Minister pointed out that there are numerous issues within the education sector of the estate community, with teacher shortages being a significant concern.

She noted that over 23,000 teachers have been recruited to fill these vacancies in accordance with a court determination. She further stated that these issues are being raised at district-level discussions of the Ministry of Education and that steps are being taken to provide prompt solutions.

The Prime Minister further stated:

“It is essential to focus on the current situation of the country and the challenges we face as a nation. After enduring a global pandemic, followed by an economic crisis and then a political crisis, the country had just begun to recover when the present situation emerged. At such a time, the opposition must deeply reflect on its responsibility. Unfortunately, opposition members are involved in futile attempts to topple the government with the aim of gaining power. They continue to create unnecessary fear among the public by fabricating weaknesses in governance and diplomacy.

Instead of presenting policies and gaining public trust through the democratic electoral system, the opposition appears intent on seizing power by any means, even if it leads the country toward destruction. The very groups that contributed to the country’s bankruptcy and economic instability are now conspiring to overthrow a democratically elected government in order to evade allegations and investigations related to their past administrations.

Rather than helping to control the situation, the opposition seems intent on exacerbating the crisis. At times, due to its narrow political agendas, statements are made that even harm diplomatic relations.”

The Prime Minister further emphasized that if the opposition seeks power, it should do so through democratic means by gaining the confidence of the people in elections. She stated that the current fuel crisis should not be misrepresented as a failure of the government, noting that it is a result of the global war situation.

She added that within a short period of about twenty days since the onset of the conflict in the Middle East, the government has taken several correct decisions, resulting in Sri Lanka having one of the lowest fuel price revisions in South Asia.

Further commenting, the Prime Minister stated:

“It is true that there may be some reduction in fuel supply in the future. Therefore, a QR code system was introduced to manage fuel consumption. We are continuing to streamline this system to minimize irregularities. Even in the face of this crisis, our objective is to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of essential services, public services, and industries. We also call upon the opposition to support the fulfillment of the promises made for the welfare of the people.”

(Adaderana.lk)

Litro Gas Lanka Limited has confirmed that Sri Lanka will continue to receive steady gas supplies, with vessels scheduled to arrive at regular three-day intervals.

Company officials stated that current reserves are sufficient to meet local demand until the end of April. These supplies are being supported by storage facilities located in Maldives.

A shipment carrying 88,000 metric tons of gas from the United States is expected to reach the Maldives tomorrow. In addition, another vessel with the same capacity is scheduled to arrive on April 20.

The company emphasized that all necessary steps are being taken to maintain a stable supply chain and ensure uninterrupted availability of gas across the country.

The Sri Lankan Rupee showed a slight improvement against the US Dollar in today’s trading (18), based on the latest figures released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The dollar’s buying rate decreased from Rs. 307.73 to Rs. 307.54, while the selling rate also edged down from Rs. 315.30 to Rs. 315.07.

In addition to gains against the US Dollar, the local currency also recorded appreciation against a range of other foreign currencies, including those from Gulf countries.