Tuesday, March 10, 2026
State Bank of India Shuns Russian Oil Payments Despite US Reprieve
State Bank of India is not willing to process payments for Russian oil even after the US government issued a temporary waiver for India’s imports, as the country’s largest lender is uncertain how long the concession will last, according to people familiar with the matter.
The state-owned bank believes that engaging in such business could expose it to risks as it has a sizable loan portfolio in global markets, and also hurt its reputation, said the people who asked not to be identified because the information is private. SBI declined comment to a query from Bloomberg News.
Mamdani hosts anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil and his family at Gracie Mansion for Ramadan
Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted controversial anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, his wife and their young son for dinner at Gracie Mansion on Sunday for the holy month of Ramadan.
“Last night, as we marked the one year anniversary of his detention, Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud, Noor, and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together,” Mamdani wrote in a Monday Instagram post.
The mayor included a photo of the celebration, showing his wife, Rama Duwaji, holding a plate of food while standing next to a seated Khalil, who was enjoying his meal.
Khalil, a Syrian-born activist and former Columbia University grad student, was arrested by ICE early last year, and faces deportation after the Trump administration accused him of committing fraud on his green card application.
The Trump administration, which claims Khalil is a Hamas supporter, is using a rarely deployed statute that allows for noncitizens to be deported if their beliefs can pose a threat to US foreign policy interests.
“For Mahmoud Khalil, this past year has been marked by profound hardship—and by profound courage,” Mamdani wrote in the Monday social media post.
“And yet, even in the face of that cruelty, there has also been beauty. New Yorkers raising their voices in solidarity. A city refusing to look away. Mahmoud won his freedom, and a father was finally reunited with his child,” the mayor continued.
Khalil’s son, the couple’s first child, was born while he was stuck in ICE custody several states away last year. The tot will turn one on April 21.
“Mahmoud is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York City,” Hizzoner declared
Mamdani has been a vocal defender of Khalil, who spent three months in a Louisiana federal lockup before a three-judge panel in New Jersey ruled in June that he should have been allowed to work through the immigration process.
“I see this attack on him as part of a larger attack on the freedom of speech that is especially pronounced when it comes to the use of that speech to stand up for policy to human rights,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference in January.
Wall Street Banks Offer UAE Staff Option to Relocate Temporarily
Many top Wall Street banks are allowing staff in the United Arab Emirates to temporarily leave the country and work remotely as attacks on the Gulf nation continue.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. are among firms that have given employees the option to relocate temporarily, according to people familiar with the matter. Consulting giant McKinsey & Co. has chartered a flight to Turkey, evacuating consultants stranded from outside the region and is allowing Dubai-based staff with emergencies to leave, some of the people said.
Gulf Firms Seek Millions In Political Violence Coverage Amid Rising Tensions
Companies across the Gulf are rushing to purchase political violence insurance as regional fighting intensifies, seeking protection for major infrastructure and commercial properties against the growing risk of attacks and collateral damage, according to FT.
Insurers and brokers say they have received hundreds of inquiries in recent days from asset owners looking for coverage that protects against war-related threats. The policies typically cover damage caused by terrorism, missile debris, civil unrest, strikes, riots and other forms of political instability.
Demand has surged as the conflict in the Middle East expands, with Iran and allied groups launching missile and drone strikes against Israel and nearby countries following a joint U.S.–Israeli bombing campaign. Investors and businesses in Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Oman are increasingly concerned about the possibility that the violence could spill over into neighboring economies.
Industry experts say the financial impact of the conflict could be unusually large. Fergus Critchley, global head of terrorism and political violence at broker WTW, warned the current crisis could produce losses “significantly larger and more catastrophic” than those seen in recent years.
FT writes that much of the new demand is coming from Western companies operating in the Gulf, which insurers say are often considered more likely targets. Raj Rana, who leads war and terrorism coverage at broker Bowring Marsh, said his firm alone has fielded more than 50 requests for political violence coverage since last weekend.
Requests have come from a range of sectors, including renewable energy and hospitality. Solar projects in Saudi Arabia and hotels in Bahrain and Qatar have all sought protection as companies worry about both direct attacks and indirect damage such as falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles.
Digital infrastructure has also faced threats. Drone strikes this week targeted data centers operated by Amazon in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, according to security experts who suspect Iranian involvement. Microsoft said its regional operations had not been disrupted.
Some businesses in the region already carried terrorism insurance before the conflict escalated. However, brokers now recommend broader political violence coverage, which also protects against unrest such as riots, strikes and civil disturbances.
The surge in demand has pushed premiums sharply higher. Insurers say prices rose early in the week to several times their previous levels. Previously, coverage for political violence on an energy project in Saudi Arabia or the UAE could cost less than 1 percent of the insured value. By Thursday, the cost had climbed to roughly five times that rate. For example, securing $10 million in coverage for a $20 million project could now cost about $500,000, compared with under $100,000 before the latest escalation.
Amazon said to hold engineer meeting to review outages
Amazon.com Inc. has called engineers to a meeting on Tuesday to examine recent outages, some previously tied to artificial intelligence (AI) coding tools, the Financial Times reported, citing a briefing note and internal email by Senior Vice President Dave Treadwell.
The note pointed to a "trend of incidents" with a "high blast radius" and "Gen-AI assisted changes." Treadwell reportedly told staff the company will require junior and mid-level engineers to obtain approval from senior engineers before implementing AI-assisted code. "Folks, as you likely know, the availability of the site and related infrastructure has not been good recently," he was cited as saying.
Amazon's cloud unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), had rejected an earlier Financial Times report that such tools were responsible for broader outages.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Amazon-said-to-hold-engineer-meeting-to-review-outages/65835353
FAA issues ground stop for all JetBlue flights
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered on Tuesday that all flights operated by JetBlue be grounded across the United States.
According to the FAA advisory, the ground stop was implemented at the request of the airline itself. The reason for the request was not stated in the notice, and further information was not immediately available.
Initial reports by the Daily Mail claimed that the carrier's nationwide ground stop appeared to have been caused by a major connectivity issue with IT Services at the airline's headquarters in New York City.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/FAA-issues-ground-stop-for-all-JetBlue-flights/65835744
Lee against US moving air defenses from S. Korea
South Korea's President Lee Jae-myung said on Tuesday that he is against the United States moving air defense systems from his country to use them in the Middle East, but acknowledged there isn't much he can do if Washington opts for such a move.
"The USFK [US Forces Korea] may dispatch some air defense systems abroad in accordance with its own military needs. While we have expressed opposition, the reality is that we cannot fully push through our position," Lee told his cabinet.
The comments come after South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said that Seoul's and Washington's militaries discussed potentially redeploying Patriot missile defense systems to use in the US war against Iran.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Lee-against-US-moving-air-defenses-from-S.-Korea/65836183
Aramco CEO: Iran war may be 'catastrophic' for oil market
Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amin H. Nasser warned on Tuesday of "catastrophic" consequences for oil markets if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, causing oil supply disruption.
"While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region's oil and gas industry has faced," the CEO noted.
Previously, United States President Donald Trump threatened Tehran, claiming it would be hit "20 times harder" if Iran halts global oil flow. On the other hand, Iran repeated several times that the Strait of Hormuz hasn't been closed.
NATO deploys US Patriot system in Turkey
Turkey's Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday the deployment of a US Patriot air defense system to a southeastern province "in light of recent developments in our region" as part of NATO's "enhanced air and missile" defense measures.
"In addition to the national measures we have implemented, NATO has enhanced air and missile defence measures. As part of this framework, a Patriot System is currently in Malatya and is being prepared for operational readiness to support the protection of our airspace," the ministry wrote in a post on X.
Yesterday, the ministry reported that NATO air and missile defense forces in the Eastern Mediterranean intercepted a second Iranian ballistic missile that had entered Turkish airspace. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iran against any further "provocative steps" following the incident.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/NATO-deploys-US-Patriot-system-in-Turkey/65836851
'Araghchi: US, Israel failing to achieve goals'
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed on Tuesday that the United States' and Israel's military campaign against his country was a "failure."
"Plan A was a failure, and now they are trying other plans, but all of them have failed as well," Araghchi stated. "I don’t see any reasonable goal that they are following. They failed to achieve their goals at the beginning, and now, after 10 days, I think they are aimless," he added and slammed the two countries for driving oil prices up by hitting Iran;s energy sites. The Iranian top diplomat insisted Tehran;s attacks on US bases in the region were only acts of self-defense amid "absolutely illegal" acts of "aggression."
US President Donald Trump has insisted that Washington is achieving its goals regarding Iran at a faster pace than he had expected and noted the military operation may end by the end of the week.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Araghchi:-US-Israel-failing-to-achieve-goals/65836979
IRGC claims it hit US base in Iraqi Kurdistan
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported on Tuesday that its troops struck facilities of Harir Air Base located in the Erbil Governorate.
The IRGC said in a statement that the "headquarters of the invading US army at the Harir base in the Kurdistan region was targeted with five missiles."
Previously, the corps stated that Iran would decide the end of the war in the Middle East in response to remarks made by US President Donald Trump.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/IRGC-claims-it-hit-US-base-in-Iraqi-Kurdistan/65836620
Monday, March 9, 2026
'GPS jamming: The invisible battle in the Middle East'
Hundreds and hundreds of ships. But they're all in the wrong place. "Oh my goodness," says Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward, a maritime AI company, as she checks the live positions broadcast by commercial vessels in waters off Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
"I'm up to… 35 different clusters," she says, looking at a map of the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding areas.
The clusters she mentions are weird circles of icons layered over the map, with each icon representing a real ship.
But ships don't bunch together in tight, unnaturally perfect circles. And they also don't hover over land – which is where some of the clusters appear. No, their GPS coordinates have been disrupted, obfuscating their true location.
Wars are not just fought with bullets and bombs. Electromagnetic waves also do battle. Invisible to the naked eye, GPS jamming can cause significant disruption, hampered communications – and potentially deadly accidents.
In recent years, GPS jamming has affected aircraft in Europe, including a plane used by the President of the European Commission. And it is a daily feature of the war in Ukraine. Now that conflict has erupted in the Middle East, electronic warfare is spilling over yet more territory.
The interference currently affecting ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz is far from the first time that Bockmann has observed GPS jamming impacting vessels' Automatic Identification Systems (AIS).
The same thing happened in this region last year during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, and electronic interference has also troubled vessel navigators in the Baltic Sea. But, she says, "This is next-level."
"We can't over-estimate the huge danger this places to maritime navigation and safety," adds Bockmann. The National Hydrographic Office Pakistan has also warned about interference affecting shipping in the region.
Ships use AIS partly to avoid one another. It takes a long time for a 300m-long tanker carrying hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil to turn or come to a stop – and vessels can travel potentially many kilometres before they fully adjust their course.
If you can't be sure about where nearby vessels are, the risk of a collision goes up, especially at night or in poor visibility.
"That's the problem," says Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey. "Not you knowing where you're going – it's not knowing where everybody else is going."
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or GPS jamming tools used by Iran are likely to be domestically produced or made with equipment sourced from Russia or China, says Thomas Withington, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank.
He also suggests that US forces in the region are using jamming systems to protect their bases, personnel and vessels from drones and GNSS-guided weapons.
When approached, the US Department of War told the BBC: "Due to operations security we are not going to comment on the status of specific capabilities in the region."
Sean Gorman is co-founder of tech company Zephr.xyz, which has analysed the extent of jamming in countries including Ukraine. Data from aircraft can reveal when GPS jamming is happening but with the airspace over Iran now closed, Gorman has had to find other sources.
In recent days, he used radar data from a satellite to detect jamming in Iran. While the BBC has not independently verified this data, Gorman says that jamming devices leave a trace of the interference they cause in radar signals, allowing him to reveal occurrences of GPS-jamming around the country.
In 2024, he and colleagues used smartphones strapped to drones to study GPS jamming in Ukraine. The drones would fly around while the smartphones recorded GPS information – picking up interference that could then be plotted on a map. "We were looking at the [GNSS] measurements of all those phones," he explains. "You could triangulate to where the jammer was located."
"I was just amazed [at] the level of jamming and how powerful it is," says Gorman.
There are various technologies that offer to protect against GPS jamming. Mitigating the problem can include automatically detecting jamming or interference and switching to unaffected frequencies, for example.
Defence giant Raytheon makes a device called Landshield, which is about the size of an ice hockey puck in its smallest form. The company says this "anti-jam antenna system" can be installed on different kinds of vehicles – from cars to aircraft – and that it uses multiple channels to overcome jamming. "We're seeing quite an increase in demand and capacity for our anti-jamming products at the moment," says Alex Rose-Parfitt, engineering director of Raytheon UK.
Other companies have developed navigation tools that work around GPS's flaws. Advanced Navigation, an Australia-based firm, has come up with a system that can determine a vehicle's position based on readings from gyroscopes and accelerometers – the same kind of devices that your smartphone uses to detect when it has been turned sideways, for instance.
As for working out one's geographic position, though, Chris Shaw, co-founder and chief executive of Advanced Navigation, says his firm's tech can use alternatives when GPS proves unavailable or unreliable.
This includes matching optical imagery of one's location to satellite imagery, or even through computer-based analysis of the position of stars overhead.
"The image processing is very advanced," says Shaw. "Doing something like… star-mapping is very inexpensive." Though, he adds, "It's just not very accurate." That is why multiple forms of location and position analysis might be necessary.
Without better protection, GPS will likely remain vulnerable in its current form. Crucially, the signals used by GPS-based systems are very weak and therefore easy to jam. It's worth noting that militaries have access to "M-Code" GPS, is a carefully authenticated and encrypted form of the technology that is far more resistant to jamming.
Ramsey Faragher, director of the Royal Institute for Navigation, says that GPS jamming in the waters off Iran raises the risk of a maritime accident. He predicts that the growing prevalence of jamming could lead to the introduction of more secure alternatives. Similar to the gradual move from wi-fi networks that were once completely open and publicly accessible, to the password-protected networks of today.
"Soon, we will look back on this era where we are using open GNSS signals and think, 'God, we were mad, that was really not a smart move'," he says.
FBI Obtains Election Records From Arizona Senate
by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times,
The FBI has collected a large volume of Arizona election records from the state’s Senate as part of a grand jury investigation. The subpoena indicates a broader scope of the investigation into irregularities in the 2020 election.
The records pertain to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County, according to a March 9 X post by the Senate’s president, Warren Petersen. The county, where nearly two-thirds of Arizonans live, has been at the center of multiple controversies, including unsuccessful litigation by multiple Republican campaigns.
The subpoena, first reported by Just the News, was confirmed to The Epoch Times by a source familiar with the investigation. The large volume of electronic data includes ballots and voter records, according to the source.
The grand jury probe may indicate a wider investigation. In January, the FBI raided election offices of Fulton County, Georgia, which covers the broader Atlanta area, as part of a criminal investigation into potential violations of federal law. Concerned citizens have discovered a plethora of problems with the county’s 2020 election. Even if the issues didn’t affect the election’s outcome, they may still amount to criminal violations, said the search warrant’s affidavit, released last month.
The problems included chain of custody failures and duplicate ballot images, as well as incorrectly reported recount results.
The Trump administration has been moving aggressively to probe election law compliance.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing at least 29 states for voter records that contain non-public information, particularly driver’s license numbers or last four digits of the social security number. The DOJ stated it has lawful authority to review the records to check for compliance with federal election laws. States, mostly those run by Democrats, have argued various state laws and privacy concerns prevent them from sharing the data.
President Donald Trump has maintained that in 2020, election victory was stolen from him. His lawyers vigorously and unsuccessfully challenged the results. Since then, Republican states have significantly tightened election rules while the Democratic ones have generally moved in the opposite direction.
Trump is also pushing a sweeping election reform bill, the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to present proof of citizenship, such as a passport or a birth certificate, to register to vote. The GOP-controlled House passed the bill last month. But Senate Republicans only have 53 votes, seven short of overcoming the filibuster. They remain divided on whether to abolish the rule.
Democrats have called the bill an attempt at voter suppression.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-obtains-election-records-arizona-senate
Clams, raw oysters recalled over possible norovirus contamination across 9 states: FDA
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced a recall for clams and raw oysters over concerns that they may be contaminated with norovirus, a contagious infection commonly known as the stomach flu.
The recall affects Manila clams harvested by Lummi Indian Business Council that were distributed to restaurants and food retailers in nine states, including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington. The FDA said the clams may have been distributed to other states as well.
The oysters were harvested by Drayton Harbor Oyster Company and distributed in Washington state.
Both food items were harvested between Feb. 13 and March 3 in Drayton Harbor, Washington.
The Washington State Department of Health notified the FDA of the recall on Wednesday.
The FDA urged restaurants and food retailers not to serve or sell the clams or oysters and for consumers not to eat the foods.
The agency said restaurants and retailers "should dispose of any products by throwing them in the garbage or contacting their distributor to arrange for destruction."
"Restaurants and retailers should also be aware that shellfish may be a source of pathogens and should control the potential for cross-contamination of food processing equipment and the food processing environment," the alert added.
The FDA warned that food containing norovirus may "look, smell and taste normal" but can cause serious illness if eaten.
Consumers of these products who are experiencing symptoms of illness are urged to contact their healthcare provider and report their symptoms to their local health department.
Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach pain, fever, headache and body ache. A person typically develops symptoms 12 to 48 hours after being exposed to norovirus and one to three days to recover.
People of all ages can become infected with norovirus, although people who are immunocompromised can potentially suffer from severe illness, the FDA said.
The FDA said it is awaiting further information on distribution of the clams and oysters and will continue to monitor the investigation.