AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Strikes hit world’s largest natural gas field in Iran, and Tehran retaliates with more attacks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran broadened its strikes on major energy facilities in the Middle East, eliciting strong warnings Thursday from Gulf Arab states that called it a dangerous escalation that threatened to draw them into direct combat with Tehran.

The strikes come after Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister and reportedly attacked the world’s largest natural gas field in Iran as the war escalated pressure on the region’s economic lifeblood: energy.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all denounced the Iranian attacks targeting their natural gas fields, with Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat saying assaults on the kingdom meant “what little trust there was before has completely been shattered.”

It remains unclear what steps the Gulf Arab states might take militarily as they’ve sought not to enter combat alongside the United States and Israel in the war, now in its third week. While Israel did not claim the South Pars gas field attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz promised more “surprises” after saying it killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, in an earlier airstrike as it works to decapitate the leadership of Tehran’s theocracy.

Iran condemned the strike on South Pars, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world.”

___

US eases Venezuela oil sanctions as Trump seeks to boost world oil supply during Iran war

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. companies will be allowed to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company after the Treasury Department eased sanctions, with some limitations, on Wednesday as the Trump administration looks for ways to boost global oil supplies during the Iran war.

The Treasury issued a broad authorization allowing Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, to directly sell Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, a massive shift after Washington for years had largely blocked dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector.

Separately, the White House said President Donald Trump would waive, for 60 days, Jones Act requirements for goods shipped between U.S. ports to be moved on U.S.-flagged vessels. The 1920s law, designed to protect the American shipbuilding sector, is often blamed for making gas more expensive.

The moves highlight the increased pressure that the Republican administration is under to ease soaring oil prices as the United States, along with Israel, wages war with Iran. Global oil prices have since spiked as Iran halted traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes.

Drivers in the United States are paying the highest pump prices in about 2 1/2 years. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline topped $3.84 on Wednesday, according to AAA, compared with $2.98 before the war began on Feb. 28.

___

Trump’s failed strong-arming of allies on Iran shows that pressure is losing its effect

PARIS (AP) — We’ve long had your back, now it’s our turn. That is how the famously transactional U.S. President Donald Trump is framing his demands that allies help him with the Iran war. He wants to call in IOUs for decades of U.S. security guarantees.

The string of refusals indicates his stock of European goodwill is low. He has put allies through the wringer since returning to the White House, bullying them over tariffs, Greenland and other issues, and disparaging the sacrifices their soldiers made alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Now he’s demanding — not just requesting — that they send warships to help the U.S. unblock the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes — essentially mop up behind the conflagration that he and Israel ignited in the Middle East.

The reply has been a “global raspberry.”

That’s how a veteran French defense analyst, François Heisbourg, described allied responses.

___

Tulsi Gabbard says Iran’s regime still intact but refuses to discuss talks with Trump about war

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s top intelligence official told lawmakers Wednesday that Iran’s regime “appears to be intact but largely degraded” yet repeatedly dodged questions about whether President Donald Trump had been warned about the fallout from the weeks-old war, including Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations and its effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, also stated in prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee that U.S. attacks on Iran last year had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program and that there had been no effort since then to rebuild that capability.

The statement was notable given Trump’s repeated assertions that a war with Iran was necessary to head off what he said was an imminent threat from the Islamic Republic. Gabbard pointedly said that conclusion was the president’s alone to draw as she declined to directly answer whether the intelligence community had likewise assessed that Iran’s nuclear system presented an imminent risk to the United States.

“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” she said at one point.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia shot back: “It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States.”

___

Mullin makes his case as a steady hand for DHS but faces Senate pushback over his temperament

WASHINGTON (AP) — Markwayne Mullin, the White House pick for homeland security secretary, made a case to fellow senators Wednesday that he would be a steady hand for a department roiled by controversy under Kristi Noem, but signaled he would follow President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration priorities and pushed back on concerns over his temperament for the Cabinet post.

The Oklahoma Republican faced questions from members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about his vision for a department tasked with carrying out the Republican administration’s push for mass deportations. Democrats have halted routine funds for the Department of Homeland Security in a weekslong standoff as they demand restraints on immigration officers after the death of at least three American citizens at the hands of federal agents.

Throughout his confirmation hearing, Mullin struck a soft tone on some of the administration’s most contentious policies, and he retracted his description of a Minneapolis man killed by federal officers as “deranged.” But his combative style, seen in a heated exchange with the committee chair, and loyalty to the president meant questions remained over how he might revamp a troubled department that is central to Trump’s deportation agenda.

“I can have different opinions with everybody in this room, but as secretary of homeland I’ll be protecting everybody,” Mullin said. “My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day.”

Mullin became emotional at some moments during the hearing and fought back at others, as he spoke of his family’s relationship with Trump and his own commitment to the president’s agenda.

___

Democrats storm out of Justice Department leaders’ briefing on the Epstein files

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday stormed out of a closed-door briefing on the Jeffrey Epstein files by Justice Department leaders, and said they would push to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions under oath about the case that has plagued the Trump administration.

Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went to Capitol Hill to try to quell bipartisan frustration over the Justice Department’s handling of millions of files related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation.

But less than an hour into the briefing, Democrats walked out in protest of the arrangement and said they would press to enforce a subpoena for Bondi to appear for a sworn deposition next month.

“We want her under oath because we do not trust her,” said Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost.

Asked by reporters after the briefing whether she would comply with the subpoena, Bondi said, “I made it crystal clear I will follow the law.” She also defended the department’s handling of the Epstein files, saying officials are proud of their work to release millions of documents to the public.

___

Gov. JB Pritzker criticizes AIPAC after pro-Israel group spent heavily in Illinois primary

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday condemned special interest money that poured into the state ahead of this week’s primary, including from a pro-Israel political group that the billionaire and potential 2028 presidential contender once supported.

Pritzker, a Jewish Democrat who also spent money to influence races Tuesday, was a donor to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee before he walked away more than a decade ago. He told The Associated Press on Wednesday that AIPAC, which lobbies for U.S. support for Israel and is a top donor to political campaigns, lost its way as a bipartisan group focused on Middle East peace.

“It became an organization that was supporting Donald Trump and people who follow Donald Trump,” Pritzker said. “AIPAC really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of.”

Outside groups, including AIPAC, funneled roughly $70 million into six open U.S. House and Senate races in Illinois on Tuesday. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, called it “interference.”

A message left Wednesday for an AIPAC spokesperson wasn’t immediately returned.

___

Fed keeps key rate unchanged as Powell vows to stay until DOJ investigation is finished

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday and Chair Jerome Powell highlighted the increasingly uncertain outlook for the U.S. economy and inflation in the wake of the Iran war, suggesting the Fed could stand pat for an extended period.

Fed policymakers maintained their forecast for an additional rate cut this year, but in a news conference, Powell suggested that the central bank remains concerned about inflation that was still stubbornly elevated even before the conflict’s impact on gas prices.

“The thing I really want to emphasize is, nobody knows,” Powell said, referring to the impact of the Iran war. “The economic effects could be bigger, they could be smaller, they could be much smaller, they could be much bigger. We just don’t know.”

Powell said the central bank would need to see further progress in the price of goods declining as the impact of tariffs fades before cutting rates further. The Fed reduced its short-term rate three times last year to 3.6%, before pausing in January and on Wednesday.

“The rate forecast is conditional on the performance of the economy, so if we don’t see that progress then you won’t see the rate cut,” Powell said.

___

César Chavez accused of sexually abusing labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and others

Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed she was among women and girls who say they were sexually abused by César Chavez, the widely admired Latino icon who brought to light the struggles of farmhands while leading the United Farm Workers union.

The stunning allegations against Chavez, who died more than three decades ago, drew immediate calls to alter memorials honoring the man who in the 1960s helped secure better wages and working conditions for farmworkers and has been long revered by many Democratic leaders in the U.S.

In a statement released Wednesday, Huerta said she stayed silent for 60 years out of concern that her words would hurt the farmworker movement.

Huerta described two sexual encounters with Chavez, one where she was “manipulated and pressured” and another where she was “forced against my will.”

“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasn’t going to let César or anyone else get in the way,” she said.

___

A landmark WNBA labor deal nears reality, paving the way for the first million dollar players

NEW YORK (AP) — A landmark new WNBA collective bargaining agreement was reached in principle early Wednesday morning that will give the league its first million dollar players.

There’s still a lot of work to do between now and the start of the regular season on May 8, however.

Lawyers on both sides are finalizing the term sheet for players and the league’s Board of Governors to approve, which should be done in the next day or so. The union will have informational sessions with its players to walk them through key terms, answer questions and make sure they understand what the deal means for them. It will then get put to a vote with a majority needed to ratify the CBA. The league’s Board of Governors will then need to approve the deal before it becomes official.

Then the sprint to the start of the season begins.

First up will be the expansion draft for the two new teams — Toronto and Portland. Rules regarding who the current teams will be able to protect and how the draft will work are still being figured out. The draft is expected to take place right around the Final Four.