AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

The war that has rocked the global economy neared the end of its third wee k with Iran showing no signs of letting up on its attacks on Gulf region energy structure. Kuwait said two waves of drone strikes at its Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery sparked a fire and crews were working to control the blaze.

The refinery, which can process some 730,000 barrels of oil per day, was already damaged Thursday in another Iranian attack. It is one of three oil refineries in Kuwait, a tiny, oil-rich nation on the Persian Gulf.

Iran stepped up its attacks on energy sites in Gulf Arab states after Israel on Wednesday bombed Iran’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.

Loud explosions could also be heard in Jerusalem after the Israeli army warned of incoming Iranian missiles.

Energy fallout from Iran war signals a global wake-up call for renewable energy

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The war in Iran is exposing the world’s reliance on fragile fossil fuel routes, lending urgency to calls for hastening the shift to renewable energy.

Fighting has all but halted oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, or LNG. The disruption has jolted energy markets, pushing up prices and straining import-dependent economies.

Asia, where most of the oil was headed, has been hit hardest, but the disruptions also are a strain for Europe, where policymakers are looking for ways to cut energy demand, and for Africa, which is bracing for rising fuel costs and inflation.

Unlike during previous oil shocks, renewable power is now competitive with fossil fuels in many places. More than 90% of new renewable power projects worldwide in 2024 were cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Oil is used in many industries beyond generating electricity, such as fertilizer and plastics production. So most countries are feeling the impact, while those with more renewable power are more insulated since renewables rely on domestic resources like sun and wind, not imported fuels.

Ukraine faces growing pressure because of the war in Iran as Russia readies a new offensive

With U.S.-brokered Ukraine peace talks on hold due to the war in the Middle Eas t, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to try to expand his military gains via new offensives against his southern neighbor that could put even more pressure on Kyiv.

Windfall revenues from surging global oil prices are filling Moscow’s war coffers and U.S. air defense assets are being drained quickly by Iranian attacks across the Gulf, raising concerns that little will be left available for Ukraine in the fifth year of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Ukraine's European allies have promised to maintain their steadfast support, but bickering over a major 90 billion euro ($106 billion) European Union loan to cover Kyiv's military and economic needs for two years has reflected the mounting challenges.

The refusal by NATO allies to commit naval assets to help restore tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has drawn an angry rebuke from President Donald Trump, highlighting another emerging fault line that is fraught with potential repercussions for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sought to hold Washington's attention by offering its expertise in defending against Iranian Shahed drones, sending over 200 military experts to the Gulf. Trump, however, has shrugged off Zelenskyy’s offer of help, saying the U.S. doesn’t need Kyiv’s assistance.

Oil prices ease and world shares are mixed as energy supply worries over Iran war remain

HONG KONG (AP) — Oil prices on Friday pared earlier gains on the intensifying Iran war, falling back to around $108 a barrel, as Iran strikes Gulf energy facilities, while world shares were mixed following Wall Street losses.

U.S. futures edged up 0.1%.

Oil prices had a roller-coaster day on Thursday with the Brent crude, the international standard, briefly surging to around $119 per barrel as attacks by Iran on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf escalated after Israel's attack of Iran’s key natural gas field.

In early Friday trading, Brent crude fell 0.1% to $108.51 a barrel, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks that he would hold off on further attacks on Iran's gas field at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump. Benchmark U.S. crude was down 0.2% to $95.33 a barrel.

The Iran war, which is in its third week, has sent energy prices soaring and is fueling global inflation worries. Concerns are also growing over the supply of oil and gas with the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for the energy supply located between Iran and Oman, largely closed. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday floated the possibility of lifting its sanctions on Iranian oil at sea in a potential attempt to ease oil prices.

Democrats aim to turn Trump's tariffs against GOP in campaigns for governor

WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than a week after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's global tariffs, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul listened as one of the plaintiffs in the case recounted the financial toll of the levies on his wine importing business.

“This is a heavy tax and you have to pay it up front,” Victor Schwartz, the owner of VOS Selections, told Hochul as they walked alongside bottles of wine he imports from 16 countries.

As Hochul seeks reelection this year, she says the impact of Trump's tariffs is a “centerpiece” of her message. She has pressed the administration to issue a $13.5 billion tariff refund to New Yorkers following the Supreme Court decision. And she released an ad this week criticizing her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman, for supporting the levies and attending the White House event where Trump unveiled them with a massive board listing the rate for each country.

“This is a lethal issue for Republicans this November,” Hochul said in an interview. “You can be sure we're going to make sure people know who did this to them.”

She's not alone. Democrats running for governor across the country are making tariffs central to their pitch to voters. They're betting that in an election year dominated by issues ranging from immigration to the war in Iran, rising costs connected to the tariffs will be a motivating issue for many voters.

Early Southwest heat is latest in parade of weather extremes as Earth warms

WASHINGTON (AP) — The dangerous heat wave shattering March records all over the U.S. Southwest is more than just another extreme weather blip. It’s the latest next-level weather wildness that is occurring ever more frequently as Earth’s warming builds.

Experts said unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger. For example, the Southwest is used to coping with deadly heat, but not months ahead of schedule, including a 110-degree Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) reading in the Arizona desert on Thursday that smashed the highest March temperature recorded in the U.S.

On Thursday, sites in Arizona and southern California had preliminary readings of 109 F (about 43 C), which would be the hottest March day on record for the United States.

“This is what climate change looks like in real time: extremes pushing beyond the bounds we once thought possible,” said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. “What used to be unprecedented events are now recurring features of a warming world.”

March's heat would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, according to a report Friday by World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists who study the causes of extreme weather events.

Clergy seek court order to allow pastoral access to immigrants held at Minneapolis ICE facility

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Protestant and Catholic clergy are asking a federal judge to order that they be allowed to minister to immigrants in a holding facility at the headquarters of the Trump administration's enforcement surge in Minnesota.

U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell will hear Friday from attorneys for Minnesota branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and a Catholic priest. They're suing for an injunction requiring Department of Homeland Security officials to allow prompt in-person pastoral visits to all detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, the site of frequent protests over roughly the 3,000 federal officers who had surged into the state at the height of the crackdown.

The Minnesota lawsuit alleges the Whipple building, named for Minnesota’s first Episcopal bishop, a 19th-century advocate for human rights, “now stands in stark contrast to its namesake’s legacy.” It says the building has “become the epicenter of systematic deprivation of fundamental constitutional and legal rights by the federal government.”

Government attorneys plan to argue the request is at least partly moot because Operation Metro Surge officially ended on Feb. 12. They also say the number of new detentions has since subsided, so temporary restrictions on visitors have been eased, and clergy visits have been allowed for over two weeks. In a recent filing, they said staff members weren't in a good position previously to allow visitation because the Whipple building had been “both a hub of heightened ICE operations and the symbolic center of community unrest.”

Catholic and Episcopal bishops in Minnesota, other Christian and Jewish clergy, and the Minnesota Council of Churches are also supporting the request.

Fire at South Korean auto parts factory injures at least 55

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A fire at an auto parts factory in South Korea’s central city of Daejeon injured at least 55 people on Friday, with officials warning the toll could rise.

The National Fire Agency said 24 were seriously hurt in a blaze likely caused by an explosion. Officials could not immediately confirm whether any of the injured were in life-threatening condition. Nam Deuk-woo, fire chief of the city’s Daedeok district, said authorities were searching for at least 14 other people believed to have been inside the facility when the fire broke out.

Videos and photos from the scene showed thick gray smoke billowing from the complex and some workers jumping from a building.

The fire was reported at about 1:18 p.m. Nam said the cause was not immediately known, but the blaze appeared to have spread rapidly, with witnesses reporting an explosion.

He said the fire destroyed a factory building that firefighters were unable to enter because of concerns it could collapse. Efforts focused on preventing the blaze from spreading to an adjacent facility and removing chemicals from the site. The agency said the facility contained about 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of highly reactive chemicals.

Drone video from inside a Fukushima reactor shows a hole in pressure vessel, likely fuel debris

TOKYO (AP) — A video taken by tiny drones sent into one of three damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant showed a gaping hole in the thick-walled steel container of the core, with lumps of likely melted fuel debris hanging from it, in a first sighting of a pressure vessel bottom since the meltdown 15 years ago.

The rare footage was taken by micro-drones — measuring 12 by 13 centimeters (4.7 by 5.1 inches) and weighing only 95 grams (3.3 ounces) each — deployed for a two-week mission to collect visual, radiation and other data from inside the Unit 3 reactor. It was released late Thursday.

The March 11, 2011 massive quake and tsunami destroyed cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing meltdowns at reactors No. 1, 2 and 3.

The three reactors contain at least 880 tons of melted fuel debris with radiation levels still dangerously high. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, successfully took tiny melted fuel samples from the Unit 2 reactor last year, but internal details remain little known.

TEPCO plans more remote-controlled probes and sampling to analyze melted fuel and to develop robots for future fuel debris removal that experts say could take decades more.

Jurors wade through daunting evidence in high-stakes Meta trial about social media risks to children

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A daunting stream of testimony and evidence has been presented in a New Mexico case that explores what social media conglomerate Meta knew about the effects of its platforms on children.

State prosecutors allege Meta failed to disclose the risks that its platforms pose for children, including mental health problems and sexual exploitation. Meta's attorneys have said the company has built-in protections for teenagers and weeds out harmful content but acknowledged some dangerous content gets past its safety nets.

The trial is approaching its seventh week. Jurors aren't deliberating yet. But if they find that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — violated New Mexico's consumer protection laws, prosecutors say sanctions could add up to billions of dollars. Meta, however, says it would seek a different calculation.

The trial that started Feb. 9. is one of the first in a torrent of lawsuits against Meta and comes as school districts and legislators want more restrictions on the use of smartphones in classrooms.

A slated second phase of the trial, possibly in May before a judge with no jury, would determine whether Meta created a public nuisance with its social media platforms and should pay for public programs to fix matters.