Israel and Iran have engaged in open conflict. Ukrainian drones have routinely targeted Russian oil refineries. And OPEC continues to restrict oil production.

These frightening occurrences sparked concerns about $4 gas, harming the US economy and exacerbating inflation.

However, this has not occurred, at least yet. Gas prices in the United States have stopped growing and dropped temporarily recently.

The national average was $3.66 per gallon on Monday, down from $3.68 a week ago, according to AAA.

There is growing anticipation that gas prices will peak in the spring, if not the entire year.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, predicts that drivers will find relief at the pump in the coming weeks.

“I’m hoping the worst is behind us,” De Haan told CNN. Unless something drastic happens, there are increasing odds the national average has hit the projected spring peak.”

Tom Kloza, worldwide head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, believes gas prices will fall in the coming weeks.

“Most of the worries from the year’s first half have been resolved. “I think we’re safe until hurricane season,” Kloza remarked.

‘Could have been far worse.’

Of course, none of this implies that gas costs are cheap. They were lower in April 2021 and spring 2020, when Covid-19 kept many Americans off the roadways.

The Worst Could Be Over For Gas Prices This Spring

Nonetheless, a springtime peak of less than $3.70 a gallon would be a win for consumers, considering the real risk of significantly higher gas costs.

“It could have been much worse,” said Andy Lipow, owner of the consultancy firm Lipow Oil Associates.

According to AAA, drivers in just seven US states pay $4 or more per gallon for gas. All those states are in the Western part of the country, followed by California, where the average is $5.40 per gallon, up from $4.88 last year.

The national average is nowhere near the record increase above $5 per gallon in June 2022.

“It seems evident that this will not be a record-setting year. “Filling your tank will feel much more normal this year,” said De Haan.

Economic and political ramifications.

Officials in Washington would most certainly breathe a sigh of relief.

Rising gasoline costs earlier this year led to lower-than-expected inflation readings, casting uncertainty on when the Federal Reserve will be able to decrease interest rates.

A rise in petrol prices is the last thing President Joe Biden wants as he works to persuade voters of his economic message before November. According to a new CNN poll, Biden’s support rating for the economy is 34%, and for inflation, it is even lower (29%).

The Biden administration backed off plans to buy crude oil for the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency oil stockpile, earlier this month, adding to White House concerns over petrol costs.

Some economists expect gas prices to rise further.

Lipow believes the national average will reach $3.75 per gallon this year.

Still, that would be lower than last year’s top of $3.88 per gallon in September.

“I’m not expecting a spike in gasoline prices,” Lipow added.

There are several reasons why gas prices are now holding steady.

First, oil prices have stopped rising. On April 12, US crude oil nearly reached $88 per barrel as investors braced for Iran’s reprisal against Israel over a suspected attack on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria.

However, oil prices fell when Israel and its allies effectively averted the reprisal. For now, fears of a larger confrontation in the Middle East have subsided, albeit this might alter quickly. US crude fell below $83 a barrel on Monday.

There are other seasonal aspects to consider.

The transition to more expensive summer-grade gasoline at US refineries is now complete. Similarly, the reopening of refineries that had been closed for normal maintenance has aided gasoline supplies.

Record-breaking US crude output continues to increase the oil supply. All of that US oil, headed by the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, is countering OPEC+’s production cuts, which Saudi Arabia and Russia lead.

Meanwhile, gasoline demand has remained relatively low despite other indications that American consumers are spending rapidly.

The Worst Could Be Over For Gas Prices This Spring

The hurricane season looms.

Gas prices are at risk of reaching a double peak. That’s what happened last year, when gas prices peaked in April, fell, and then returned late in the summer as excessive heat hampered US refineries.

“Weather can wreak havoc,” said Kloza, an OPIS analyst.

A major hurricane that destroys oil facilities along the US Gulf Coast is the greater risk.

Forecasters warn that the hurricane season (which normally begins on June 1) will be extremely active. Colorado State University predicts more hurricanes and named storms than ever before.

“Hurricane season is the next major hurdle,” Kloza stated.

SOURCE – (CNN)

Edwards Air Force Base, California:

With the midday sun shining, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet took off with the thunderous roar that is a trademark of US airpower. However, the aerial fight that followed was unlike any other: this F-16 was commanded by artificial intelligence rather than a human pilot. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was riding in the front seat.

AI is one of the most significant improvements in military aviation since the advent of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has avidly pursued it. Even though the technology has yet to completely mature, the service intends to deploy an AI-enabled fleet of over 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of which will be operational by 2028.

An AI-Controlled Fighter Jet Took The Air Force Leader For A Historic Ride. What That Means For War

It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a massive desert complex where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and the military has developed its most secret aeronautical technologies. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of surveillance protection, a new breed of test pilots is teaching AI bots to fly in combat. Kendall came here to witness AI fly in real time and express public confidence in its future role in air warfare.

“Not having it presents a security concern. “At this point, we have to have it,” Kendall told The Associated Press after landing. The Associated Press and NBC were allowed permission to see the secret flight on the condition that it be disclosed when it was completed due to operational security concerns.

Kendall was flown in lightning-fast maneuvers at almost 550 miles per hour by the AI-controlled F-16 Vista, which exerted five times the force of gravity on his body. It nearly collided with a second human-piloted F-16 as the two aircraft raced within 1,000 feet of one other, turning and looping to drive their opponent into vulnerable positions.

Kendall grinned as he climbed out of the cockpit at the end of the hour-long flight. He stated that he had seen enough throughout his flight to trust this still-learning AI with the decision to unleash weapons.

That proposition is met with strong hostility. Arms control specialists and humanitarian groups are profoundly afraid that AI will one day be able to drop bombs that kill people without human intervention, and they are calling for tighter controls on its usage.

“There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life-and-death decisions to sensors and software,” the International Committee of the Red Cross has cautioned. Self-propelled weapons “are an immediate cause of concern and demand an urgent, international political response.”

The military’s transition to AI-powered aircraft is motivated by security, cost, and strategic capability. If the United States and China engage in battle, today’s Air Force fleet of pricey, manned fighters will be vulnerable due to advances in electronic warfare, space, and air defense systems. China’s air force is on track to outnumber the United States and is also developing a fleet of flying unmanned weapons.

Future war scenarios involve swarms of American unmanned aircraft offering an advance attack on enemy defenses, allowing the US to infiltrate airspace without putting pilot lives at risk. However, money plays a role in the transition. The Air Force is still dealing with production delays and cost overruns on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, expected to cost $1.7 trillion.

An AI-Controlled Fighter Jet Took The Air Force Leader For A Historic Ride. What That Means For War

Kendall believes that smaller, cheaper AI-controlled unmanned jets are the way forward.Vista’s military operators claim that no other country in the world has an AI jet like it, in which the software first learns from millions of data points in a simulator before testing its conclusions during actual flights. The real-world performance data is then fed into the simulator, where the AI processes it to learn further.

China possesses AI, but there is no evidence that it has developed a mechanism to conduct experiments outside a simulator. According to Vista’s test pilots, some lessons can only be taught in the air, similar to a junior officer learning tactics for the first time.“It’s all guesswork,” chief test pilot Bill Gray remarked until you fly. “And the longer it takes you to figure that out, the longer it takes before you have useful systems.”

Vista conducted its first AI-controlled battle in September 2023, with only roughly two dozen similar flights after that. However, the computers learn so swiftly with each battle that certain AI versions tested on Vista outperform human pilots in air-to-air combat.

An AI-Controlled Fighter Jet Took The Air Force Leader For A Historic Ride. What That Means For War

The pilots at this base know that they may be educating their successors or defining a future structure in which fewer of them are required.

However, they also state that they would only want to be in the air against an adversary with AI-controlled aircraft if the United States had its own fleet.

“We need to keep running. Kendall remarked, “And we have to run fast.”

SOURCE – (AP)

President Joe Biden has labeled Japan and India as “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two alongside enemies China and Russia as he attempted to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the United States on immigration.

The remarks, made at a campaign fundraiser Wednesday evening, came just three weeks after the White House hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a lavish official visit, during which the two leaders celebrated what Biden called a “unbreakable alliance,” particularly on global security issues.

The White House welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state visit last summer.

Japan is a vital US ally. India, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, is an important partner in the Indo-Pacific, despite disparities on human rights.

 

AP According to Washington writer Sagar Meghani, President Biden has lumped together two critical allies and two rivals.

At a hotel event attended primarily by Asian Americans, Biden stated that the approaching presidential election was about “freedom, America, and democracy” and that the country’s economy was prospering “because of you and many others.”

“Why? “Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden explained. “Think about it. Why is China’s economy slowing so badly? Why is Japan facing trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they are xenophobic. “They do not want immigrants.”

The president continued, “Immigrants are what make us powerful. This is not a joke. That is not hyperbole; we have an influx of workers that want to be here and contribute.”

There was no quick response from the Japanese or Indian governments. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Biden was making a broader statement about the United States’ immigration policy.

“Our allies and partners know well in tangible ways how President Biden values them, their friendship, their cooperation, and the capabilities that they bring across the spectrum on a range of issues, not just security-related,” Kirby said Thursday morning when asked about Biden’s “xenophobic” remarks. “They understand how much he completely and utterly values the idea of alliances and partnerships.”

Biden’s remarks occurred at the opening of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and he was introduced at the event by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., one of two senators of Asian American origin. She is the national co-chair for his reelection campaign.

Japan has acknowledged its demographic decline, as the number of newborns born in the country in 2023 declined for the eighth consecutive year, according to figures released in February.

Kishida has referred to Japan’s low birth rate as “the biggest crisis Japan faces,” and the country has long been recognized for taking a more closed-door approach to immigration, however Kishida’s government has recently modified its policy to make it easier for foreign workers to come to Japan.

Meanwhile, India’s population has grown to become the world’s largest, with the United Nations predicting it will reach 1.425 billion. Its population is also predominantly youthful.

Earlier this year, India passed a new citizenship law that expedited naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. However, it excludes Muslims, who constitute the majority in all three countries. This is the first time India has established religious qualifications for citizenship.

John Kirby defended Biden’s remarks

In a press briefing on Thursday, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communication John Kirby defended Biden’s remarks.

“Look, I think the broader point the president was making, and I think people all around the world recognize this, is that the United States is a nation of immigrants and it’s in our DNA,” Kirby told reporters at the White House. “We are stronger for it. We are not going to walk away from this. And that’s the larger point he was making.

When asked why the president singled out two ally nations to illustrate his point, Kirby declined, emphasizing that Biden’s intention was to commend the United States rather than disparage Japan or India.

“I am making a wider argument about our country, our country. “Our allies understand how much the president respects them, values their friendship, and appreciates their contributions,” Kirby answered. “And you don’t have to look honestly very far, very hard to see that bear out in the things that we’ve been doing in the Indo-Pacific with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines.”

Source: AP