Energy secretary won’t rule out $200 oil prices as Iran steps up attacks

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday refused to rule out oil prices skyrocketing to $200 a barrel and admitted the United States is “simply not ready” to escort tankers despite President Donald Trump’s claim that the Persian Gulf is safe for shipping.

In a live interview with CNN outside the White House, Wright struggled to formulate an answer when asked about the chances of a large oil spike, which would send average American gasoline prices shooting up to near $6 a gallon.

“Um ... I would say unlikely,” Wright said. In a sober assessment, Wright claimed the widespread pain at the pump for Americans would amount to “short-term energy disruption for just huge long-term gain.”

Wright conceded that the U.S. military is unable to escort oil tankers and cargo shipping through the Straits of Hormuz. “It can’t happen now,” Wright said, a day after he deleted a tweet claiming the U.S. had started escorting tankers. “We’re simply not ready.”

—New York Daily News

Florida approves guardian program expansion for colleges, universities

A bill allowing professors and staff at Florida’s universities and colleges to train as “guardians” and carry guns on campus was approved by the Legislature on Thursday as an effort to increase safety.

The bill, HB 757, expands the K-12 guardian program created after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 that left 17 people dead.

Republican lawmakers pushed its expansion to the state’s postsecondary institutions after the shooting at Florida State University last April that left two dead.

The House approved the final bill 88-20 on Thursday, just one day after the Senate passed the measure. It will now head to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has already signaled his support. His December budget proposal included $6 million to implement the program at the state’s 12 universities and 28 colleges.

—Orlando Sentinel

Minnesota researchers work to tame one of world’s deadliest viruses

MINNEAPOLIS — University of Minnesota researchers have made key discoveries about one of the world’s most lethal pathogens, the Marburg virus, including potential weaknesses that could result in vaccines or drug treatments against it.

Marburg is lesser-known than its close cousin, Ebola, and remains confined so far to Africa. But its severity was apparent last year when an outbreak in Ethiopia killed nine of 14 people with confirmed infections. UM researchers discovered that Marburg is 300 times more efficient than Ebola at infiltrating human cells, and mapped out the biological pathways by which the virus spreads.

“Scientists have long suspected that Marburg virus enters human cells more efficiently than Ebola virus, but until now there was no reliable way to compare the two fairly‚" said Fang Li, a lead author and a pharmacology professor at the U of M Medical School in Minneapolis.

The team’s study was published Wednesday in Nature, a prestigious scientific journal, and was based on a novel method that the UM developed for comparing the efficiency of viruses. The researchers worked with “pseudoviruses,” or biological material that simulates the behavior of Marburg and Ebola without presenting the danger of live viruses, Li said.

—The Minnesota Star Tribune

Ukraine supporters oppose easing of Russia sanctions

WASHINGTON — Numerous lawmakers, including some Republicans, are outraged about the Trump administration’s easing of sanctions on Russian oil exports, amid reports that Moscow is helping Iran target U.S. troops in the Middle East.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, looking to ease a supply crisis caused by the Iran war that has driven up energy prices, announced on March 6 a 30-day waiver of sanctions so that India can buy Russian oil. Russia’s proceeds from those sales to India are widely estimated at billions of dollars.

The sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, had been imposed in October after President Donald Trump had for months resisted calls from both parties in Congress to put them in place to diminish money available to Russia for attacking Ukraine and to goad Russia to make concessions in peace talks.

Despite eventually imposing the energy sanctions in October, Trump has stood in the way of Congress holding votes on a broader set of sanctions despite their wide support on Capitol Hill. Critics say Trump has favored Russia and pressured only Ukraine in ongoing peace talks between the two nations.

—CQ-Roll Call