BlackMask Breaking News

The Israeli Ministry of Justice announced it will release 735 Palestinian prisoners as part of the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. The initial phase, set to begin on Sunday, is expected to last six weeks and will include the release of 33 Israeli hostages. The agreement will proceed in two additional stages. On Sunday, 95 prisoners, 70 women and 25 men, will be freed in exchange for three female Israeli hostages .This announcement came shortly after the Israeli government voted in favor of the ceasefire deal. The ministry also published the names of all adult Palestinian prisoners slated for release.

Israel frees 90 prisoners after Hamas releases 3 hostages

The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) said it released 90 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the three Israeli hostages released by Hamas on Sunday, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Before the Israeli hostages had been returned, the IPS transported the first round of the Palestinian prisoners to the Ofer Prison in West Bank, where their identities have been confirmed ahead of their release. Out of the 90 prisoners, 78 are West Bank residents, with the remaining 12 being East Jerusalim residents, the Times of Israel said. According to Ynet, out of the 90 released, 69 are women, including one minor, 12 are men, who were sentenced for minor offenses and eight of the those released are male minors.

NN audio fie trading doves for dragons

 

“It is imperative that the Federal government puts the physical and economic wellbeing of the American people first,” the text of the order read. It was further stated that the policies of the previous administration have negatively impacted the US energy industry and national security. “The United States’ ability to remain at the forefront of technological innovation depends on a reliable supply of energy and the integrity of our Nation’s electrical grid,” it said.

President Donald Trump is dismantling Biden admin energy policies to focus on boosting oil and gas production and exports, seeking energy dominance on a global scale. In his first day in office, the president withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, just as he had done during his first term, and reversed Biden’s ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in parts of the U.S. continental shelf. Instead, Trump said, “America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth.” The U.S. obviously has quite substantial reserves of both hydrocarbons and Trump has repeatedly stated he intends to make the best of these.

“We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world,” he said of his plans for the energy sector.

United States President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Elise Stefanik (pictured) responded on Tuesday affirmatively to the question if she believed Israel had a biblical right to the entire West Bank. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Stefanik did not clearly disclose if she supported a two-state solution for Palestine. She insisted that “I support human rights for all” while explaining that both she and Trump backed halting the funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and switching to another aid channel. Asked about billionaire entrepreneur and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Administrator Elon Musk’s alleged Sieg Heil salute while he spoke at Trump’s inauguration, Stefanik claimed that he “did not do those salutes. I was not at the rally … that is simply not the case.” NN:  here is a women whose head is screwed on right and a hairy set of balls

The Trump administration removed on Tuesday Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a US military service, from her role as commandant of the Coast Guard. The announcement, made by interim Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, provided no explanation for the decision but marked the first important shift in military leadership under President Donald Trump. Fagan’s removal follows Trump’s campaign promises to replace military leaders who promote diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Retired Adm. Paul Zukunft called the move “shocking” and linked it to Trump’s stance on such initiatives. NN: Time to take out the garbage. fight wars not diversity and the fagat agenda.

The prices of oil futures tumbled on Tuesday following United States President Donald Trump’s inauguration. After officially returning to the White House, the US head of state vowed to increase the production of oil and gas in the country. In order to achieve his “Drill, baby, drill” goals, Trump imposed a national energy emergency. West Texas Intermediate for March deliveries declined going for $76.40 per barrel. Brent for the same month’s settlements fell selling at $79.18 a barrel.

US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he will sign an executive order declaring a national energy emergency to increase US oil and gas production and reduce consumer costs. “Drill, baby, drill,” Trump added during his inaugural address, emphasizing the importance of energy independence to drive down costs and strengthen the US. Additionally, Trump plans to utilize natural resources in Alaska and protect gas appliances from federal regulations, fulfilling campaign promises.

President-elect Donald Trump is preparing to sign a host of executive orders related to energy in the first hours after his inauguration. Bloomberg reported that Trump plans to declare a national energy emergency right after he’s sworn in as part of his plan to boost oil and gas production. According to a Wall Street Journal report, in addition to energy, Trump will target immigration and government hiring policies with his first executive orders. The planned changes include declaring a national emergency on the border between the United States and Mexico, redirecting funding to border infrastructure, reversing the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies of the previous administration, and canceling the federal land and offshore oil and gas drilling bans that President Biden signed while he was in office. As for the emergency that Trump is reportedly preparing to declare, Bloomberg wrote that it was unclear yet what it would be used to do specifically. The publication noted, however, that with such a declaration a president can “unlock special powers over the transportation of crude and use authorities to direct shifts in how electricity is generated and transmitted.” “We’re going to be using our emergency powers to allow countries and entrepreneurs and people with a lot of money build big plants, AI plants,” Trump said on the campaign trail. “We need double the energy that we already have, and it’s going to end up being more than that.” Another direction of Trump’s energy policies is cutting off funding for transition technologies, including EV subsidies, the Wall Street Journal noted in its report. The president-elect has also threatened to ban offshore wind on his first day in office. Trump has called wind power “an economic and environmental disaster.” However, he would be limited in his efforts to stop new wind turbine construction to federal lands.

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Friday that it fined the investment management advisor The Vanguard Group, Inc. with $106.41 million to settle its charges related to “misleading statements related to capital gains distributions and tax consequences for retail investors who held Vanguard Investor Target Retirement Funds (Investor TRFs) in taxable accounts.” The SEC stated that Vanguard reduced the minimum investment requirement for its Institutional Target Retirement Funds (Institutional TRFs) in 2020, which triggered redemptions as Vanguard clients transitioned from Investor TRFs to institutional versions. The SEC’s order found the redemptions resulted in taxable distributions for certain remaining shareholders, which Vanguard reportedly did not adequately disclose. “Materially accurate information about capital gains and tax implications is critical to investors saving for their retirements,” Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Asset Management Unit, Corey Schuster, said. “Firms must ensure that they are accurately describing to investors the potential risks and consequences associated with their investments,” he added.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed its latest West Texas Intermediate (WTI) spot price forecasts in its January short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released recently. In that STEO, the EIA projected that the WTI spot price will average $70.31 per barrel in 2025 and $62.46 per barrel in 2026. The EIA’s previous STEO, which was released in December, forecast that the 2025 WTI spot price would average $69.12 per barrel. That STEO did not include a WTI spot price forecast for 2026. A quarterly breakdown included in the latest STEO showed that the EIA expects the WTI spot price to come in at $72.34 per barrel in the first quarter of this year, $71 per barrel in the second quarter, $70 per barrel in the third quarter, $68 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $64.97 per barrel in the fifth quarter of 2026, $63.33 per barrel in the second quarter, $61.68 per barrel in the third quarter, and $60 per barrel in the fourth quarter of next year.

The EIA’s December STEO projected that the WTI  spot price would average $69.67 per barrel in the first quarter of 2025, $69.83 per barrel in the second quarter, $69.50 per barrel in the third quarter, and $67.50 per barrel in the fourth quarter. The EIA’s January STEO put the 2024 WTI spot price average at $76.60 per barrel. Its December STEO had it at $76.51 per barrel.

JPM Commodities Research team on Monday revealed that J.P. Morgan expects the WTI crude price to average $69 per barrel in 2025, and $57 per barrel in 2026. The company sees the WTI crude price coming in at $70 per barrel in the first quarter of this year, $73 per barrel in the second quarter, $69 per barrel in the third quarter, $65 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $60 per barrel in the first quarter of next year, $59 per barrel in the second quarter, $55 per barrel in the third quarter, and $53 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to the research note. The research note put the 2024 WTI price average at $77 per barrel.

 Standard Chartered Bank Commodities Research Head Paul Horsnell this week showed that Standard Chartered expects the NYMEX WTI Basis nearby future crude oil price to average $79 per barrel in the first quarter of 2025, $81 per barrel in the second quarter, $86 per barrel in the third quarter, $90 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $88 per barrel in the first quarter of 2026, and $90 per barrel in the second quarter.

BMI report  by the Fitch Group last month showed that BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, projected that the WTI crude front month price would average $77 per barrel in 2024 and $73 per barrel in 2025.

Macquarie team on strategists noted that “both WTI and Brent speculative (MM + Other) net length grew over the past week”. “WTI net length increased by 37.9K while Brent rose by 22.3K. WTI spec net length gained as new long interest was over five greater than added shorts,” the strategists highlighted in that report.

XS.com,   Senior Market Analyst  Antonio Di Giacomo,   highlighted that the price of WTI crude oil had “experienced a notable increase, surpassing $80 per barrel”.