Marco Rubio has a message for Americans worried about soaring gas prices sparked by Trump’s war on Iran: it could be worse.
With average US fuel prices now approaching $4.50 a gallon – their highest level in four years – Donald Trump’s secretary of state was asked on Tuesday how long Americans should accept them at such levels.
Other countries were suffering “big time”, Rubio replied. The US was “very fortunate” as a net exporter of oil, as it is not as reliant as other countries on oil from the Middle East, he said.
“There are people that we’re predicting would be much higher at this point,” he claimed, “but we’re not taking that for granted.”
Average fuel prices in the US now stand at $4.48 per gallon, according to AAA, frustrating drivers and exacerbating affordability concerns. A year ago, they were just under $3.17.
Rubio insists US is ‘very fortunate’ as Iran war pushes gas price near $4.50
Global oil prices have surged since the US and Israel first attacked Iran on 28 February. The strait of Hormuz, which usually carries a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid gas supplies, has since been all but closed – sparking vast economic disruption across the world.
Democrats urge Rubio to acknowledge Israel possesses nuclear weapons amid Iran war
House Democrats have asked the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to publicly announce that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, arguing that Washington must end decades of ambiguity over the issue amid the conflict with Iran.
In a letter sent on Monday, 30 Democrats wrote that it was unsustainable for Donald Trump to collaborate with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on a military campaign against Iran – with the stated goal of preventing the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon – without publicly acknowledging the US ally’s possession of the bomb.
Senate Republicans propose package including $1bn that could go to Trump ballroom
Senate Republicans have released a new immigration enforcement funding package that includes a proposed $1bn that could go to security measures related to the $400m ballroom that is part of Donald Trump’s “East Wing modernization project”.
Sherrod Brown and Jon Husted set for Senate showdown after Ohio primary victories
Democratic senator Sherrod Brown and Republican senator Jon Husted won their party’s nominations in Ohio’s primary elections on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press – teeing them up for what is expected to be a high-profile and expensive Senate race in November’s midterm elections.
FDA blocked studies finding Covid and shingles vaccines safe, HHS official says
The US Food and Drug Administration has blocked the publication of several studies that found Covid-19 and shingles vaccines to be safe, according to a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Agency scientists conducted the studies by analyzing millions of patient records and found that serious side-effects from the vaccines were rare, the spokesperson confirmed. The studies – funded by taxpayer money and costing several million dollars – included research examining the safety of Covid-19 vaccines in 2023 and 2024.
US to take steps to curb antidepressant prescribing, RFK Jr says
The federal health department will begin a series of steps intended to curb antidepressant use in the US, Robert F Kennedy Jr announced this week.
Antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, have long been a target for Kennedy, the Trump administration’s health secretary, who talked about the plans at an event on Monday hosted by the Make America Healthy Again Institute, an organization focused on advancing the Maha agenda.
Trump accuses pope of ‘endangering a lot of Catholics’ with Iran stance
Donald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.
What else happened today:
Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing.
Cole Tomas Allen, the suspected gunman at the White House correspondents’ dinner, is facing an additional related charge for assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, federal authorities announced on Tuesday.
The UK’s Rachel Reeves had an angry exchange with her US counterpart, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, in Washington last month over the war in Iran, sources have said, in the latest sign of the deepening tensions between the two countries.
A US Secret Service officer has been placed on administrative leave after being arrested for allegedly exposing and fondling himself in a public area of a Miami hotel.
In what appears to be a new front in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the media, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the New York Times, charging that the news organization improperly passed over a white, male employee for promotion because of his race or sex.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on Tuesday, 5 May.
