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Government report shows gasoline going up by 21.2 percent in March as petrol remains above $4 per gallon despite a truce.
Published On 10 Apr 2026
Consumer prices in the United States have risen by nearly 1 percent in March – one of the highest short-term inflation rates in years – largely due to the disruption of the energy markets amid the war on Iran.
A report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, released on Friday, showed that inflation in March rose by 0.9 percent, compared with 0.3 percent in February. It was the largest uptick since May 2022, which took place at the height of the cost-of-living crisis prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The March increase was driven by energy prices, with gasoline going up by 21.2 percent and fuel oil increasing by more than 30 percent.
“The index for energy increased 10.9 percent in March, the largest monthly increase in the index since September 2005,” the government report said.
After the US and Israel launched an all-out war on Iran on February 28, killing the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil and gas prices across the world soaring.
The price for a barrel of oil reached $120 during the war, up from about $70 on February 27.
In the US, the price of one gallon (3.8 litres) exceeded $4.1. It was less than $3 before the fighting began.
Late on Tuesday, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that would see Iran lift its blockade on Hormuz.
But marine traffic in the strategic waterway that connects the Gulf to the Indian Ocean remains at a fraction of its pre-war levels.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Fars News Agency said “oil tankers have been suspended from passing through the Strait of Hormuz” in response to the Israeli assault on Lebanon, which killed more than 300 people.
US President Donald Trump has warned Iran against blocking the strait or charging vessels for safe passage.
About 20 percent of the world’s oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war.
While the ceasefire has brought relative relief to the global energy market, bringing down the price of oil to less than $100, US consumers are still paying $4.15 on average at the petrol pump, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). Experts say it will be many months before prices stabilise.
Friday’s inflation report came as many politicians in the US are focusing on the cost of living and affordability, before the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress for the rest of Trump’s presidency.
Trump’s Democratic rivals have been rebuking him for launching the war without congressional approval, highlighting increased economic costs for Americans.
But the White House has argued that the uptick in petrol prices represents “short-term pain” that will be offset by the supposed benefits of defeating Iran.
A US delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance, is en route to Pakistan to meet with Iranian officials for talks to finalise a long-term ceasefire deal.
New York – It has been almost 100 days since thousands of supporters braved the blistering cold at City Hall Park to witness the public inauguration of Zohran Mamdani.
As the first Muslim mayor of the world’s wealthiest city, the young Democratic socialist’s win was historically significant. For many, it was a test of whether a campaign platform built on affordability could actually govern a financial capital.
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Mamdani had become a symbol of change for his supporters as he ran for office amid polarised politics, with a message of unity and campaign promises of lower living costs that bolstered his support.
“The only real majority in this country and in this city is that of the working class,” Mamdani told Al Jazeera in an interview at City Hall. “And too many working-class New Yorkers, working-class Americans, do not see themselves and their struggles at the heart of our politics.”
It was his messaging about the struggles of the working class that motivated many of his supporters to the polls last year. New Yorkers faced record rents, higher grocery prices and expensive childcare.
Despite his popularity running on these issues, not everyone was a fan. Mamdani faced fierce criticism from not only his opponents in the race and Republicans nationwide who accused him of being a communist, but also those within his own party.
Democratic Congresswoman Laura Gillen called him too “extreme”, while Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries refused to endorse him despite his growing popularity with voters.
However, his first 100 days have been marked by some major victories, including delivering on one of his signature promises: universal childcare.
Now he’s rolling out a plan to add 2,000 seats in daycare centres, starting in lower-income neighbourhoods, with the promise of taking the burden of expensive childcare off New Yorkers’ shoulders.
The win on childcare was for both the mayor and Governor Kathy Hochul, as they shared a priority that didn’t require tax increases. Together, the two secured $1.2bn to fund the venture from the state’s existing revenue streams allocated in the 2026 fiscal-year budget.
In June, New Yorkers will be able to sign up for spots for two-year-olds and offers for spots will be announced by August.
“These are the things that New Yorkers need, because we’re talking about a city of immense wealth, the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, where one in four New Yorkers are also living in poverty,” Mamdani said. “And after housing, it’s childcare costs that are pushing New Yorkers out of the city.”
The mayor also found popular success with a drive to fix the city’s potholes. By early April, the city had filled 100,000 potholes, a milestone reached Monday.
“One of the reasons we focus so much on filling 100,000 potholes across the city is that it’s symptomatic of a city government that can actually take care of even the smallest tasks in New Yorkers’ lives, to prove that we can be trusted to take on the biggest problems in their lives as well,” Mamdani said.
But the mayor has also faced scrutiny over the city’s response to brutal snowstorms and the limited progress in ongoing state budget negotiations.
“Well, I think every crisis is an opportunity to not only learn about the tools that the city has, but also learn about the tools the city should have,” he said of the massive snowstorms that hit the city in January and then February. “In the first snowstorm, it became clear that the city did not have a preexisting plan of how to address, whether it be the lack of tagging geometrically, of bus stops, of sidewalks, of crosswalks.”
The city launched a new tool to measure the cost of living in New York, factoring in essentials like food, transportation, taxes and housing. It found that 62 percent of New Yorkers don’t earn enough to cover these costs. On average, families fall nearly $40,000 short. The burden is highest for communities of colour – 77 percent of Hispanic and 65 percent of Black New Yorkers cannot meet the cost of living.
“That’s about five million New Yorkers. This is the most expensive city in the United States of America,” he told Al Jazeera. “And we have to take every single tool that we have to make it more affordable.”
But not everyone agrees that raising taxes is the way to cut costs.
EJ Mahon, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, pointed out that millionaires in New York already face the highest tax burden in decades.
“If there’s one slogan that has risen to the level of obsession among Mayor Mamdani and other New York progressives, it’s ‘tax the rich’. But here’s the thing: We already tax the rich,” Mahon said in a video post on the conservative think tank’s website last month. “We already impose the highest rates on millionaire earners in more than 40 years, as written in state and city law.”
New Yorker Aria Singer said he worries that billionaires will flee the city if taxes are too high.
“He wants to tax the rich. He doesn’t realize the rich people hire people. They employ people. They employ the masses. When you attack the rich, they move out of the state, they move out of the city, so this whole concept that we are going to help the masses is a little bit foolish,” Singer told Al Jazeera.
Mamdani’s rise was driven by sharply increasing rents – up roughly 25 percent on average since 2019 – and political turmoil under former Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted in September 2024 on bribery and campaign finance charges.
Many of Mamdani’s other plans, however, depend on raising taxes, creating tension between the mayor and the governor. That strain extends beyond Mamdani’s relationship with the governor, reflecting a long history of friction between the two offices.
The city has limited control over setting its own tax rates. With the exception of property taxes, the mayor is at the governor’s mercy, who would ultimately greenlight it.
And using his political capital with the state assembly, which he was previously a member of, will drive much of his agenda, including his free bus proposal. The city’s bus system falls under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), a state agency, not a city agency.
But because of tax-driven decisions, his success or failure will depend on his ability to put political pressure on the governor, according to Adin Lenchner, a political strategist at Carroll Street Campaigns.
“If he can continue to build that [grassroots support], there will be more and more public pressure to actually execute on those priorities,” said Lenchner of the New York-based political consultancy. “It’s going to be an uphill challenge, but I think he’s uniquely positioned to be able to take off.”
He stressed, though, that it is not a given and requires consistent mobilisation of supporters. Lenchner said that does not always work. For example, Barack Obama was unable to maintain his grassroots support that would have otherwise put pressure on lawmakers standing in the way of his political priorities.
“It’s possible this falls on its face,” Lenchner said.
Locally, Mamdani is focused on housing. The agency that would freeze rents, one of his signature campaign promises, is considering his proposal. His plan, however, would regulate rents for only about half of rental apartments. To alleviate pressure on the rest, his administration is aggressively building more housing across the city, arguing that this will create more competition and drive down prices.
Mamdani’s first 100 days come ahead of the midterms, with candidates like him running across the country on policy or approach. Some primaries are already underway, and a track record is already on the books in New York City. Over the next six to eight months, candidates will be in a position to point to the city as a solid example of what to do, or something they will actively avoid.
“He’s made these issues accessible to New Yorkers and, frankly, to a larger audience across the country, which is why you are now seeing candidates and elected officials across the country use similar approaches,” Democratic strategist Nomiki Konst said.
“What Mayor Mamdani has been able to do is use this platform and these strategies to elevate the everyday functions of the largest administration in the country and make it accessible.”
Republicans have pushed back on the affordability agenda that Mamdani ran on. In December, US President Donald Trump called affordability a “hoax” created by Democrats, and only a month later, he changed his tone, pushing his own affordability plan.
A wave of xenophobic attacks disproportionately targeting the city’s Jewish and Muslim communities took place shortly after he became mayor.
In late January, a car rammed into a Jewish community centre in Brooklyn. In early March, Mamdani was the subject of brazen Islamophobic remarks from a talk radio host who called him a “radical Islam cockroach”.
Only days later, a far-right activist led a rally for far-right, anti-Muslim demonstrators outside the mayor’s residence, called Gracie Mansion.
In response, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said that counterprotesters identified as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi threw an “improvised explosive device”. The Department of Justice referred to the incident as an “ISIS-inspired act of terrorism”.
“Violence at a protest is never acceptable,” Mamdani said in response to the chaos that unfolded outside his residence. “The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, but it is also reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”
As the city moves past the 100-day milestone, the blistering cold of his inauguration has been replaced by the heat of governing a city demanding results.
Mamdani appears to know that his time as mayor will not be measured solely by the number of potholes filled, but by whether his vision for a more affordable New York can withstand the friction of its own politics.
However, the mayor said, filling potholes is a good start.
“I think if you want someone to believe in the promise of a transformative vision of universal childcare, of fast and free buses, you have to first deliver on the thing that diminishes their faith on a daily basis,” he said.
“It may not seem like much, but if you are driving your car or you’re riding your bike and you hit the same pothole every single day, why would you trust city government in its ability to deliver something that you have never seen at that scale, when it can’t even do this?”
Lionsgate has promoted Laurel Pecchia to the tole of senior vice president of corporate communications, Variety has learned.
In her role, she helps lead Lionsgate’s corporate media relations strategies and initiatives, executive communications, employee communications and preparation for quarterly Board of Directors presentations and earnings calls.
“Laurel is an exceptionally talented and versatile spokesperson whose responsibilities have expanded across the full range of our communications activities,” said Lionsgate chief communications officer Peter Wilkes. “She combines a strong grasp of our fast-changing business environment with a remarkable work ethic, and she is well liked and highly regarded by her Lionsgate and media colleagues alike.”
Pecchia works across Lionsgate’s motion picture and television groups. Her work involves the studio’s 20,000+ title library as well as communications for the studio’s AI, live and location-based entertainment, digital media, and 3 Arts talent management and production initiatives.
She originally joined Lionsgate in 2022 as vice president of corporate communications. Prior to her time at Lionsgate, she worked at WME, where she handled corporate and client media relations, wrote executive scripts and press releases and managed internal communications. Before that, she worked in publicity at CBS Films.
Lionsgate upcoming film slate includes the highly-anticipated Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” as well as “Mutiny” starring Jason Statham and “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.” On the TV side, the studio currently has shows on the air like the critically-acclaimed Hollywood satire “The Studio” at Apple TV, “The Hunting Wives” at Netflix, and the “Power” franchise at Starz.
“Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson focused much of the HBO series’ third season around Fezco, the character played by Angus Cloud, before the actor’s death from a fentanyl overdose in July 2023.
In an interview with the New York Times, Levinson spoke about a version of Season 3 that he wrote before the WGA strike began in May 2023. “Angus was the backbone of that season. I used to even talk to him about it because I wanted him to stay clean,” he said. “So I would invite him over and I’d tell him what the plans were for the character. I’d say, look, he’s been in prison for a few years, so you’ve got to get that yoked prison body. Because I wanted him to start working out and taking care of himself.”
Levinson also revealed that in his original scripts for Season 1, Fez died at the end, but he felt he “couldn’t do it,” saying that Cloud “needed something to look forward to or else he might get lost in the world.”
“And then when I was writing Season 2 and I got to the end, I thought, OK, I’m gonna have to do it this time: Fezco’s gonna die,” Levinson continued. “And as we got closer, I just couldn’t do it, especially with everything we’d gone through. I wanted him to have something to hold onto, a tangible goal for the future.”
At the red carpet premiere for Season 3, Levinson spoke to Variety about Cloud’s death. “Losing Angus was really hard for us as a production. I loved him very deeply,” he said. “I fought hard to keep them clean.” In the version of the the season that will premiere on Sunday, Levinson aimed to “keep [Cloud] alive” in the story, and wrote the episodes in honor of him.
Regular exercise is associated with a wide range of health benefits, including a reduced risk of cancer.
Physical activity is also important during the treatment of certain cancers, such as prostate cancer, where treatment itself may lead to weight gain or other metabolic dysfunction.
Scientists previously identified an exercise-induced molecule — known as N-lactoyl-phenylalanine (Lac-Phe), a compound released during physical activity — associated with weight loss and decreased appetite, and it appears to be stimulated by metformin, a diabetes drug.
In an exploratory study, researchers found that prostate cancer patients treated with metformin had Lac-Phe levels comparable to those seen after strenuous exercise. The findings were published on April 6 in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
Researchers
“Altered metabolism is one of the hallmarks of cancer. So, what would happen with cancer patients treated with metformin?” said first study author Marijo Bilusic, MD, PhD, a genitourinary medical oncologist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“In our study, we were very surprised to see that the level of Lac-Phe in our prostate cancer patients was exactly the same as the level of ultramarathoners. This has never been reported before,” he told Healthline.
While metformin did not predict improved treatment response, such as PSA levels or tumor growth, it was associated with improved weight management, including among patients prescribed anti-androgen therapy, which is linked with weight gain.
S. Adam Ramin, MD, board certified urologist, urologic oncologist, and medical director of Urology Cancer Specialists in Los Angeles, CA, who wasn’t involved in the research, called it “an intriguing preliminary study,” but cautioned that larger studies would be necessary to validate the findings.
Bilusic and his team analyzed blood samples from men with prostate cancer enrolled in a clinical trial called BIMET-1, along with an additional group of individuals treated at a cancer center.
In the trial, 12 patients with overweight or obesity (but not diabetes) were studied in detail out of 29 originally enrolled in the cohort. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either standard care alone or metformin at a dose of 1,000 mg twice daily, followed by combination treatment with the hormone therapy drug bicalutamide.
To confirm their findings, the researchers also studied an additional 25 individuals with prostate cancer across a range of disease stages, including advanced cancer. Of these, seven were taking metformin. Across both groups, the team measured Lac-Phe levels and compared them before and after treatment.
The researchers found that metformin consistently increased levels of Lac-Phe in prostate cancer, regardless of cancer stage, body weight, or other treatments. In the clinical trial group, Lac-Phe levels rose significantly after metformin treatment. In the broader participant group, those taking metformin clearly had higher levels than those who were not. The increases reached ranges similar to those seen after intense exercise.
Importantly, people taking metformin also showed better weight control during hormone therapy, which is known to cause weight gain. In the trial, nearly all individuals on metformin avoided weight gain over several months of treatment, while those not taking it were more likely to gain weight. Although not conclusive, researchers believe this may be linked to levels of Lac-Phe in the body, which are associated with reduced appetite and food intake.
While Lac-Phe is thought to act on the brain to suppress appetite, how it does so remains unclear. And higher Lac-Phe levels did not predict whether a person’s cancer responded to treatment. The study builds on the findings of the
“We know that men on hormone therapy, such as oral anti-androgen therapy, tend to gain weight, develop obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Metformin may prove to be effective in preventing these complications,” said Ramin.
But, he added, “At this point, it is premature to recommend metformin to patients with prostate cancer on hormone therapy.”
The importance of exercise after a prostate cancer diagnosis cannot be overstated.
Research suggests that staying physically active is associated with a roughly one-third reduction in cancer-related mortality and nearly a one-half reduction in all-cause mortality.
It is too early to predict the role metformin and, by extension, Lac-Phe might play in supporting prostate cancer treatment, but the findings are intriguing.
Because people with prostate cancer tend to be older, they may be less likely to engage in regular physical activity. A pharmacological intervention that could help fill that gap would represent a meaningful addition to current treatment options.
However, Bilusic cautioned that metformin is not an “exercise pill.”
Exercise affects numerous systems in the body, including muscles, the cardiovascular system, neurotransmitters, and bones.
Metformin doesn’t act on the body in the same way, nor does it have the same spectrum of effects. But in one specific pathway, increasing Lac-Phe, it appears to be meaningful.
“There are many other aspects of the exercise that Metformin is probably not replacing,” Bilusic said. “But for some patients, they can’t exercise because they are in pain, [or] cancer therapy is making them fatigued. They are gaining weight. So, how can we reverse that? Taking a pill a day, that’s easier than running for a half hour in the gym.”
Another day, another subscription price hike, this time for YouTube Premium. Every plan for YouTube’s ad-free tier is going up, and depending on which one you have, you could be paying as much as $4 per month more.
As reported by 9to5Google, YouTube has started emailing subscribers about the price changes, rather than announcing them publicly, and some Reddit users have posted screenshots of the emails they’ve received. The emails say that the increases will kick in during the June 2026 billing period. Individual plans are now $16 per month, up from $14, so a $2 hike. If you’re on a YouTube Premium family plan, you’ll now pay $27 per month, a $4 increase from the previous price of $23.
As a reminder, YouTube Premium unlocks ad-free viewing and listening on YouTube (including YouTube Kids) and YouTube Music, as well as offline viewing and the ability to continue listening in the background with other apps open. A family plan allows up to six accounts to enjoy all of the same benefits.
Both the Lite — which allows ad-free viewing and downloads for most, but not all, YouTube videos, and excludes music — and Music Premium plans are getting $1 increases, so the former now costs $9 per month, while the music streaming service is up to $12 per month from $11 before, according to 9to5Google. This makes it more expensive than Apple Music when taken on its own (YouTube Music Premium is also bundled with the YouTube Premium individual and family plans at no extra cost).
YouTube Premium last raised its prices (also rather quietly) in 2023, also by $2 for the regular plan. The latest price hikes follow Spotify putting its prices up by comparable amounts back in February. Netflix also jacked up the cost of all of its plans last month.
After its history-making trip around the Moon, NASA’s Artemis II mission is set to return to Earth later today. The Orion spacecraft carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07PM ET. NASA will stream the landing on YouTube and its NASA+ website, as will Netflix and HBO Max. The official broadcast will begin at 6:30PM ET.
After leaving Earth on NASA’s super heavy-lift SLS rocket and spending nine days in space, the most dangerous part of the Artemis II mission still lies ahead. It will take approximately 13 minutes for the Orion spacecraft to complete re-entry. During that time, it will be subject to temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).
Reentry is dangerous for any crewed spacecraft, but is of particular concern here because of a “skip reentry” during the Artemis 1 mission. At that time, the Orion crew vessel briefly used its own lift to “skip” back out of Earth’s upper atmosphere before re-entering for the final descent, suffering excess charring in the process. NASA spent months investigating and determined the craft was safe to fly, but Artemis II will take a more gradual approach back to Earth in hopes of reducing its exposure to excess heat.
Still, this is the first time in 53 years that NASA will need to guide a human crew back from the Moon. Once all is said and done, however, the Artemis II crew will have traveled 695,081 miles (1,118,624 km), captured amazing images along the way and reminded the world what’s possible when nations work together.
