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消息：特朗普和平委员会要求哈马斯本周末敲定裁军计划

2026年4月7日 11:43 / 联合早报

4月1日，加沙地带南部汗尤尼斯市纳赫尔巴雷德地区的一个临时巴勒斯坦流离失所者营地，一名妇女看着孩子们在帐篷间玩耍。 （法新社）

据四名了解谈判情况的外交官透露，美国总统特朗普的和平委员会要求哈马斯在本周末前敲定加沙地带非军事化协议。

《纽约时报》报道，这四名外交官说，和平委员会和哈马斯的代表预计将于星期二（4月7日）在开罗会面，力争在本周末前达成非军事化协议。尽管官员们坚持最后期限，但最终日期仍有可能改变。

《纽约时报》获得并经两名官员证实的一份以色列和平委员会内部文件显示，如果加沙实现非军事化，以色列军队将从大部分或全部领土撤出。

文件称，以色列将解除长期以来对重要物资进入加沙的限制，给予武装分子特赦，并提供临时住房。

和平委员会负责加沙事务的高级官员姆拉德诺夫于今年3月向哈马斯领导人提交了解除武装方案。他在4月3日在社媒平台X上发文暗示，如果哈马斯拒绝加沙非军事化，将面临严重后果。

“不愿过河者，必将溺于大海。”

以色列总理内坦亚胡誓言，如果哈马斯拒绝放弃武器，他将以武力解除武装。

许多哈马斯成员认为放弃武器等同于投降。

哈马斯军事部门发言人奥贝达说，哈马斯反对和平委员会的非军事化计划，不会在谈判桌上向以色列作出以军在战场上未能争取到的让步。

他于4月5日说：“以如此粗暴的方式处理武器问题，是占领当局继续以牺牲我们人民为代价进行杀戮和灭绝的可耻行径。”

奥贝达说，以色列应该在就哈马斯武器问题进行讨论之前，履行它在2025年10月加沙停火协议下的义务。

在上周于开罗举行的会议上，哈马斯领导人向和平委员会代表抗议以色列未能遵守10月份的停火协议。

他们特别指出，以色列没有允许足够数量的运送人道主义援助物资和商业货物的卡车进入加沙。两名官员说，他们反对以色列持续在加沙发动袭击。

四名官员说，和平委员会已告知哈马斯，将要求以色列履行对10月份停火协议的承诺。其中两名官员称，和平委员会此前已向以色列施压，要求允许至少600辆卡车于4月6日入境。

消息：特朗普和平委员会要求哈马斯本周末敲定裁军计划

2026年4月7日 11:43 / 联合早报

4月1日，加沙地带南部汗尤尼斯市纳赫尔巴雷德地区的一个临时巴勒斯坦流离失所者营地，一名妇女看着孩子们在帐篷间玩耍。 （法新社）

据四名了解谈判情况的外交官透露，美国总统特朗普的和平委员会要求哈马斯在本周末前敲定加沙地带非军事化协议。

《纽约时报》报道，这四名外交官说，和平委员会和哈马斯的代表预计将于星期二（4月7日）在开罗会面，力争在本周末前达成非军事化协议。尽管官员们坚持最后期限，但最终日期仍有可能改变。

《纽约时报》获得并经两名官员证实的一份以色列和平委员会内部文件显示，如果加沙实现非军事化，以色列军队将从大部分或全部领土撤出。

文件称，以色列将解除长期以来对重要物资进入加沙的限制，给予武装分子特赦，并提供临时住房。

和平委员会负责加沙事务的高级官员姆拉德诺夫于今年3月向哈马斯领导人提交了解除武装方案。他在4月3日在社媒平台X上发文暗示，如果哈马斯拒绝加沙非军事化，将面临严重后果。

“不愿过河者，必将溺于大海。”

以色列总理内坦亚胡誓言，如果哈马斯拒绝放弃武器，他将以武力解除武装。

许多哈马斯成员认为放弃武器等同于投降。

哈马斯军事部门发言人奥贝达说，哈马斯反对和平委员会的非军事化计划，不会在谈判桌上向以色列作出以军在战场上未能争取到的让步。

他于4月5日说：“以如此粗暴的方式处理武器问题，是占领当局继续以牺牲我们人民为代价进行杀戮和灭绝的可耻行径。”

奥贝达说，以色列应该在就哈马斯武器问题进行讨论之前，履行它在2025年10月加沙停火协议下的义务。

在上周于开罗举行的会议上，哈马斯领导人向和平委员会代表抗议以色列未能遵守10月份的停火协议。

他们特别指出，以色列没有允许足够数量的运送人道主义援助物资和商业货物的卡车进入加沙。两名官员说，他们反对以色列持续在加沙发动袭击。

四名官员说，和平委员会已告知哈马斯，将要求以色列履行对10月份停火协议的承诺。其中两名官员称，和平委员会此前已向以色列施压，要求允许至少600辆卡车于4月6日入境。

Trump administration ends some civil rights settlements backing transgender students

2026-04-06T20:53:46.604Z / Reuters

By Kanishka Singh

April 6, 2026 8:53 PM UTC Updated 3 hours ago

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A person holds a Progress Pride Flag during the “International Rally + March on Washington for Freedom” in support of LGBTQ+ rights as part of WorldPride in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Gabriel V. Cardenas

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday it was terminating resolution agreements backing transgender students that prior administrations had reached ​with some school districts.

The U.S. Education Department said it was ‌terminating six resolution agreements reached through what it called the manipulation of Title IX. The Title IX civil-rights statute bars the denial of benefits or discrimination in education “on ​the basis of sex.”

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Since taking office, Trump has cracked down on ​schools and colleges with executive orders and threats to freeze ⁠federal funds over issues like transgender rights, climate programs, diversity initiatives and pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s ​war in Gaza.

Transgender people in particular have faced increasing limitations as Trump has ​issued a series of executive actions targeting their rights and stated in a directive that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes: male and female.

The Education Department said ​its Office for Civil Rights will no longer monitor or enforce deals ​reached with the Sacramento City Unified School District in California, the Cape Henlopen School ‌District ⁠in Delaware, the Fife School District in Washington state, the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California and Taft College in California.

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The school districts and the college did not immediately ​respond to requests for ​comment.

The Education Department ⁠statement did not elaborate on the specifics of the terminations, which were reported earlier by the New York ​Times.

Those civil-rights settlements had aimed at ensuring the rights ​of transgender ⁠students to equal opportunity to an education, the newspaper reported.

“Today, the Trump Administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools ⁠in ​its relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” ​Education Department official Kimberly Richey said.

Trump’s crackdown on transgender rights has been condemned by LGBT ​groups and human-rights advocates.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The upper middle class is now the largest income group in the U.S., study finds

April 6, 2026 / 4:30 PM EDT / CBS News

By Aimee Picchi

Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.

Read Full Bio

Aimee Picchi

The U.S. middle class is shrinking, but not because more Americans are poorer. Instead, more households are climbing into the echelons of the upper middle class due to income gains in recent decades, according to research from the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute.

About 31% of U.S. households earn enough to be considered upper middle class, a roughly threefold increase since 1979, making it the nation’s largest economic group, the research found. Meanwhile, the share of Americans in the “core” and “low” middle class segments has declined over that time, primarily because more households in those income groups have jumped ahead economically, AEI found.

The findings underscore a broader shift in the U.S. economy: As more households move up the income ladder, consumer demand is tilting toward higher-end goods and services. The so-called”K-shaped” economy— in which higher-income consumers are spending more while lower-income households pull back — has become a hallmark of the post-COVID economy.

“The whole distribution of Americans, from poor to rich, has done better over time. And to the extent that fewer people are within a fixed income range that we might think of as middle class, that’s just because everybody’s gotten richer over time,” Scott Winship, a co-author of the report and a senior fellow at AEI, told CBS News.

The analysis, based on U.S. Census data, analyzed family incomes between 1979 and 2024, with the last year in the study representing the most recent available data.

The shift means that the upper middle class — which AEI defines as households earning between $153,864 and $461,592 for a family of four — now constitutes the largest income group in the U.S. The share of rich households now makes up 3.7% of the nation’s households, or about 12 times higher than in 1979, the think tank found.

Higher women’s earnings

An increase in dual-earner families, combined with professional gains for women, has fueled the income gains of the past several decades, allowing more Americans to jump from the middle class into higher-earning income brackets, Winship said.

In 1970, about 11% of women had college degrees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, about 40% of American women have bachelor’s degrees, which is linked to higher lifetime earnings.

“The additional opportunities that women have are a big part of the story,” Winship said. “People have chosen to work more and afford more things, rather than, say, have more children or have a sort of traditional sole breadwinner, but then have less money to buy things.”

Feeling pinched

The research may seem puzzling given that many Americans say they’re stretched financially. In a recent CBS News poll, the majority of respondents said it’s harder today to buy a house, get a good job or raise a family than it was for previous generations.

Winship’s explanation for that seeming discrepancy is that Americans tend to be more positive when you ask about their own financial circumstances, rather than the U.S. economy at large.

“When you ask people about their own families, their own personal financial situation, you get much, much larger shares of people who say that they’re doing fairly well,” he said.

Still, the costs of some key essentials, such as housing, education and health care, have far outpaced inflation, leaving millions of households struggling to afford a home or fund a child’s college education.

“There’s a tendency to focus on the sort of three or four big-ticket items that have gotten a lot more expensive without realizing that that’s only part of what people spend their money on, and a lot of things have gotten cheaper over time,” Winship said.

In other words, Americans may be earning more, but that doesn’t always mean they feel better off, especially if they believe some key traditional financial milestones are getting harder to achieve.

Edited by Alain Sherter

Kennedy rewrites rules for membership on US vaccine advisory panel

2026-04-06T21:38:37.325Z / Reuters

By Julie Steenhuysen and Nate Raymond

April 6, 2026 9:38 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

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U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., looks on during an announcement on microplastics at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo

• Summary

• Judge ruled Kennedy’s ACIP panel violated federal law, members lacked vaccine expertise
• New charter broadens panel membership criteria, allowing more specialties and flexibility
• HHS says charter renewal and publication are ‘routine statutory requirements’
• Trump administration has yet to appeal judge’s ruling

CHICAGO, April 6 (Reuters) – U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is rewriting the rules ‌of membership for a key vaccine advisory panel, according to a document published by his department on Monday, after a judge last month declared most of his prior selections unqualified and put their decisions on hold.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for ​Disease Control and Prevention on the use of vaccines, had been a major tool in Kennedy’s efforts to ​reshape U.S. vaccine policy.

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In a March 16 decision, Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy concluded that ⁠ACIP had been unlawfully reconstituted after Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, last year removed and replaced all 17 independent ​experts who previously served on the panel, adding several members who share his controversial vaccine views.

In his decision, Murphy concluded that ​Kennedy’s ACIP panel violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act and repeatedly pointed to the panel’s charter, which required that its members have expertise in the use and research of vaccines and immunization practices.

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services led by Kennedy published ​a renewal of the charter that broadens the list of expertise for individuals who could serve on that panel, which ​makes recommendations impacting the use of vaccines, including the U.S. childhood immunization schedule.

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A previous version of the charter signed by Kennedy in ‌December stipulated ⁠that panel members should be knowledgeable about immunization practices and public health, and have expertise using vaccines in clinical practice or preventive medicine or have expertise in vaccine research, or in vaccine efficacy and safety.

Two former ACIP members appointed by previous administrations said the new charter appears to broaden the requirements for membership, listing examples of specialists in biostatistics and ​toxicology.

In his decision, Murphy said ​the members Kennedy appointed ⁠were “distinctly unqualified,” with only six of the 15 members having any meaningful experience in vaccines.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon downplayed the significance of the changes, saying the ACIP charter renewal and ​publication “are routine statutory requirements and do not signal any broader policy shift.”

The revamped charter followed ​a letter sent ⁠to Kennedy on March 25 by attorney Aaron Siri representing Informed Consent Action Network, a group critical of vaccine safety and mandates, recommending changes to the ACIP charter.

According to a press release on the ICAN website promoting the letter, the group called ⁠on Kennedy ​to “clarify committee member criteria” and argued that all 13 of the ACIP ​members whose qualifications were challenged in Murphy’s decision “do have the requisite experience.”

So far, the Trump administration has not appealed Murphy’s ruling, but still has time to ​do so under a 60-day window.

Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Indianapolis city councilor says his home was shot at 13 times, “No Data Centers” sign left behind

2026-04-06 19:57:22-0400 / CBS News

An Indianapolis city councilor says his home was targeted in what appeared to be a politically motivated shooting over a proposed data center in the city’s Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood.

Ron Gibson, who is serving his third term on the Indianapolis City-County Council, said Monday that someone fired 13 shots at his front door after midnight and left a note inside a zip-closed bag on the doorstep that said “NO DATA CENTERS.”

“My 8-year-old son and I were not physically harmed, but we were awakened by the sound of gunfire. Like any parent, I immediately ran to him and reassured him that he was safe,” Gibson said in a statement.

Images taken by Indianapolis City-County Councilor Ron Gibson shows bullet holes, shattered glass and a note that said “No Data Centers” outside his front door. Ron Ribson

“This was not just an attack on my home, but endangered my child and disrupted the safety of our entire neighborhood,” he said. “I understand that public service can bring strong opinions and disagreement, but violence is never the answer, especially when it puts families at risk.”

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said officers were called to the home around 9 a.m. Monday. Officers found evidence of gunshots and believe it was “an isolated, targeted incident,” police said. A suspect has not been identified.

The FBI is assisting in the investigation, according to police.

Data centers used to store, train and operate artificial intelligence models have become controversial in towns across the U.S. in part because they drain power from the shared electric grid, driving up costs for residents, CBS News has previously reported. They have also been shown to use massive amounts of water, sparking concerns over rippling impact on the environment and public health.

Days before the shooting occurred, Gibson attended a Metropolitan Development Commission meeting to advocate for the rezoning of 2505 North Sherman Drive, where the developer Metrobloks LLC looks to build a data center and other business offices.

When Gibson stepped up to speak at the meeting on Wednesday, he was met with boos from the crowd.

“There are real benefits tied to this development. Construction is expected to support roughly 300 jobs over a three-year period,” Gibson said at the meeting.

Shortly after Gibson voiced his support for the rezoning project, the room was asked to stand up if they disapproved of the project — and the majority of the crowd could be seen rising to their feet.

Despite the opposition, the Metropolitan Development Commission approved the project last week, CBS affiliate WTTV reported, but the rezoning petition still has to go through the Indianapolis City-County Council.

Protect Martindale-Brightwood, one of the neighborhood groups against the data center, on Monday condemned the act of violence at Gibson’s home and denied any involvement.

“Violence has no place in our community or our advocacy,” the group said on social media. “We want to be clear: any signage or messaging at the scene is not affiliated with our organization and does not reflect who we are. Our work is rooted in peaceful, community-led advocacy grounded in respect and accountability.”

Indianapolis City-County Council President Maggie Lewis on Monday also issued a statement urging civil discourse.

“Differences in opinion are a natural and necessary part of civic life,” Lewis said. “But violence, threats, and intimidation are not forms of dialogue—they are attacks on our shared commitment to democracy, civil discourse, and community safety.”

Trump threatens to jail unspecified reporter over airmen rescue leaks

2026-04-06T20:35:25.607Z / CNN

By Adam Cancryn

3 hr ago

PUBLISHED Apr 6, 2026, 4:35 PM ET

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

President Donald Trump threatened to jail a journalist as part of a hunt for the “leaker” behind initial reports Friday that a second Air Force officer from a downed US fighter jet was missing.

The public revelation complicated the administration’s military rescue efforts in Iran, Trump said at a White House press conference on Monday, which officials were trying to keep quiet following the successful recovery of the first airman on Friday.

“We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security, give it up or go to jail,’” Trump said, as he detailed the two separate rescues of the crew members shot down over Iran last week. “The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say.”

Trump did not specify which media outlet he was referring to, and the White House official declined to answer questions about his remarks. Iranian media had first reported the downed plane, sparking widespread discussion online about the fate of the crew before any major US outlet had published the news.

“An investigation is underway,” a White House official told CNN.

Several outlets, including CNN, reported last week on the missing airmen and the US military’s subsequent efforts to find and rescue them. The second Air Force officer was ultimately recovered early Sunday in a high-risk mission that CIA Director John Ratcliffe described Monday as “comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

During the press conference, Trump said that the revelation of a second missing crew member had alerted the Iranian military and sparked their competing efforts to try to find him first.

“It became a much more difficult operation because a leaker leaked,” he said. “All of a sudden, the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life.”

Trump’s threats marked the newest front in the administration’s long-running efforts to crack down on the media — including targeting journalists over reporting that it doesn’t like and seeking to restrict certain outlets’ ability to cover the White House and Pentagon.

In his first months back in office, Trump sought to wrest control of the makeup of the protective pool of journalists that covers him closely each day. He later attempted to bar The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One over its refusal to adopt his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico, sparking an extended legal battle.

The administration has since touted its efforts to cut public broadcasting funds to NPR and PBS stations, while frequently deriding negative coverage as “fake news.”

Trump, meanwhile, has personally sued at least six news organizations over his dissatisfaction with their reporting, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CNN. Many of those lawsuits have dragged on for years, with Trump in some cases suffering a series of setbacks in court.

Still, he has been emboldened over the last year following decisions by CBS and ABC to settle respective cases that Trump brought against the outlets — resulting in payouts of tens of millions of dollars. Trump has since cast those outcomes as major victories and evidence of media bias against him, though both outlets denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlements.

Trump’s threats on Monday against journalists covering the war in Iran also came amid a long-running battle between the Pentagon and the press corps assigned to cover its activities.

After the Department of Defense instituted a new policy that required outlets to commit to only reporting information officially sanctioned by the government, dozens of reporters opted to give up their Pentagon credentials.

A judge last week sided with a legal challenge to the policy spearheaded by The New York Times, ordering the Pentagon to reinstate certain reporters’ credentials. Instead, the Defense Department said it would remove all the media offices from its headquarters, relegating all press outlets to an “annex” outside the building.

That new area, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on X, “will be available when ready.”

缪宗翰：郑丽文路线测试登场

2026年4月7日 05:00 / 联合早报

台湾在野党、国民党主席郑丽文启程访问中国大陆，传出星期五（4月10日）可望在北京与中共总书记习近平会面。 （路透社）

台湾在野党、国民党主席郑丽文启程访问中国大陆，传出星期五（4月10日）可望在北京与中共总书记习近平会面。这将是继2016年洪秀柱之后，时隔10年国共两党现任领导人再次会面。对郑丽文来说，这趟行程是一场身份转换的确认，也有浓厚的路线宣示意味。

2005年4月，时任国民党主席连战同样以台湾最大在野党主席之姿，展开“和平之旅”访陆行程，与时任中共总书记胡锦涛握手会面。早年原为民进党人的郑丽文当时刚转入国民党，并担任和平之旅发言人。如今，她自己站到了聚光灯中央。

过去外界对郑丽文的印象，多半聚焦于她辩论风格鲜明、政治语言凌厉，以及在蓝营内部并不完全循传统的上升路径。

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Steve Daines’ handpicked Senate successor Kurt Alme vows to keep Montana in Republican hands in 2026

April 6, 2026 5:00pm EDT / Fox News

Daines told Alme he’d only retire if someone like him would step up to keep the seat in Republican hands

By Alex Miller, Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: Montana will again have a new face coming to the Senate, with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., bowing out. His chosen successor knows he was picked to stop Democrats from taking the seat.

Former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme was handpicked by Daines at the last minute to replace him, and he has no qualms about it as Republicans try to maintain their majority in the upper chamber in a midterm election cycle that is historically a referendum on the party — and president — in control.

“Knowing how important it was for Republicans to hold the Senate, I told him if he decided to retire, I would be interested,” Alme told Fox News Digital in an interview.

TOP TRUMP ALLY STEVE DAINES EXITS MONTANA SENATE RACE, PLANS TO RETIRE

Former U.S. District Attorney Kurt Alme knows he was tapped to replace outgoing Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., to maintain the GOP’s majority in the Senate, and he’s ready to lean into his bona fides to keep the Treasure State red.(Alme Campaign)

Daines, who was seeking a third term in the Senate, dropped out of the race in early March, withdrawing his name just as the registration deadline in Montana was approaching. As he bowed out, Alme leapt in.

The move drew heavy criticism from Daines’ opponents in the state and from Democrats in Washington, D.C., but Alme described the plan as one geared toward maintaining the balance of power in the upper chamber.

Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president who jumped into the race as an independent hours before Daines’ exit, said on X that the lawmaker had “so little respect for Montana Republicans that he withdrew at the last minute to coronate his handpicked successor instead of giving them a voice at the ballot box.”

“This is the disgusting arrogance of Washington politicians and their party bosses who trade power back and forth like candy while Montanans are crushed under higher costs and fewer opportunities,” Bodnar said.

10 SENATE RACES THAT COULD DECIDE CONTROL OF THE CHAMBER IN THE 2026 MIDTERMS

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, plans to retire at the end of his term, opening up his seat in Big Sky Country as Republicans look to keep their grip in the upper chamber.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

It’s a move fitting for Daines, given that he has become one of Washington’s savviest political operators and played a key role in clinching Republicans’ Senate majority while serving as National Republican Senatorial Committee chair during the 2024 election cycle.

“The way it happened was Senator Daines called me a few days before the filing deadline, and he said he wanted to retire, but he didn’t want to lose the seat and the Senate to the Democrats,” Alme said. “He said he’d only retire if he knew someone like me would step up and keep the seat in Republican hands.”

“So then, the morning of the filing deadline, he let me know that he would withdraw if I stepped up. So I resigned as U.S. attorney and entered the race, and now, with President Trump’s endorsement, we’re moving forward full speed with the election,” he continued.

Alme quickly racked up endorsements from President Donald Trump, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and his possible future colleague Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont. It’s no surprise, considering Trump twice tapped Alme to serve as U.S. attorney in the Treasure State and that he previously served as Gianforte’s budget director.

Trump said on Truth Social that “if Kurt didn’t have the highest level of aptitude and talent, Steve would have remained exactly where he is.”

SCHUMER, JEFFRIES SUE TRUMP, ACCUSE HIM OF TRYING TO ‘RIG’ MAIL-IN VOTING

President Donald Trump credited his economic policies for the positive March jobs report.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“But Kurt is exceptional, and I will be giving him, based on Steve’s strongest recommendation, my Complete and Total Endorsement,” Trump said.

Though Trump won Montana by nearly 20 points in 2024 and has consistently notched double-digit wins in his three bids for the White House, Alme’s ascension to the upper chamber isn’t guaranteed.

He’ll have to prevail in a three-way statewide contest against Bodnar, the independent, and the expected Democratic nominee, former Montana state Rep. Reilly Neill, who believes Daines’ exit will give her a boost.

“His stepping down opens the field for the United States Senate, and this is a good development for Montana,” Neill said.

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Still, Alme is leaning into his bona fides in his pitch to Montana voters, particularly when it comes to bringing back “fiscal discipline” and continuing the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime.

“I’ve got to go out and prove who I am, and I’m going to have to earn people’s votes,” Alme said.

“We think that the Republican platform — and certainly President Trump’s approach to governing — is a winner in Montana,” he continued. “And we think that if we stick to our conservative roots, we’re going to perform well against anyone.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Iran war will throttle oil flows even if Strait of Hormuz reopens soon, analysis predicts

April 6, 2026 / 4:07 PM EDT / CBS News

The Iran war will continue to disrupt global oil supplies even if a ceasefire in the region leads to a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a new analysis.

Henning Gloystein, managing director of energy, industry and resources at geopolitical risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said it would take several months to repair oil refineries and other energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf that have been damaged in the conflict.

Shipping companies that operate oil tankers in the region would also take at least two months to resume operations if the war is suspended, he added in a report on Monday.

The Strait of Hormuz remains virtually closed to oil tankers and other ship traffic, a United Nations panel said in a report on Monday. Ship transits dropped from roughly 130 per day in February to six in March, according to the group.

“In a visible sign of the scale of the disruption, there are currently at least 70 large empty crude oil tankers anchored off the eastern coast of Singapore and Malaysia,” Gloystein said. “Collectively, these tankers have the capacity to hold at least 100 million barrels of crude oil, which would usually be picked up in the Gulf region and delivered to refineries across Asia.”

Map shows the Strait of Hormuz and its role in transporting oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Middle East to global markets via the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Murat Usubali/Anadolu via Getty Images

“The voyage from Singapore to the Gulf region takes a tanker about four weeks. Accordingly, these vessels could begin delivering Middle Eastern crude to Asia roughly eight weeks after departing their current anchorage,” Gloystein added.

President Trump said in a news conference on Monday that Iran is negotiating, “we think in good faith,” over a possible ceasefire. Asked whether he would be willing to make a deal with Tehran that does not include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Trump said the strait is a “very big priority.”

“We can bomb the hell out of them. We can knock them out for a loop. But to close the Strait, all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded” with mines to plant in the water, he said.

Oil prices swung from a modest dip to gains on Monday as financial markets assessed whether a break in hostilities between the U.S., Israel and Iran is on the table. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.3% to $113.09 after erasing an earlier drop. Brent crude, the international standard, added 1.2% to $110.37 per barrel and remains well above its roughly $70 price from before the war.

In the U.S., the average price of gasoline rose on Monday to $4.12 a gallon, up from $2.98 just before the outbreak of hostilities and the highest since 2022, according to data from AAA.

In the short term, “oil markets will remain undersupplied, even with some increase in shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,” Gloystein said. “This tightness is reflected in record-high prices for key fuels such as jet fuel and bunker fuel, used in aviation and shipping, respectively.”

Edited by Aimee Picchi

The Associated Press contributed to this report.