Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have announced an embargo against Saudi Arabia.
It comes in retaliation for a blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on Sinah international airport. The embargo affects the gateway to the Red Sea, as Saudi Arabia seeks an alternative to the straight of Hormuz on the Persian Gulf side of the country. And that raises fears of further destabilization of the world's energy market, as Suzanne
Maloney of the Brookings Institution explains. If you saw a closure of the Red Sea and additional closure of the straight of Hormuz, at this point in the conflict with strategic reserves having been drawn down as significantly as they have. And without a lot of opportunity during the ceasefire to in fact restore them, we would
see potentially some overreaction from both oil markets and the broader economy in terms of inflation.
“So I think there's going to be a real time pressure.”
The former leader of one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels has been sentenced in a U.S. court to life in prison. Ismail Zambana Garcia, known as Al-Mayo, helped found the Sinaloa cartel along with Joaquin Al-Chapo Guzman, and Perus Ryan Lucas reports. U.S. authorities arrested Al-Mayo Zambada in 2024.
He pleaded guilty last year in federal court in Brooklyn to running a criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy. Now U.S. District Judge Bryan Cogan has sentenced Al-Mayo to life in prison. Al-Mayo Sinaloa cartel co-founder El Chapo is already serving a life sentence in a U.S. lockup.
Jocept Nocella is the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. Over three decades, Al-Mayo and El Chapo built the Sinaloa cartel into the largest drug trafficking organization that the world has ever seen. Nocella says the two men flooded the United States with deadly drugs, corrupted Mexican officials
“and institutions, and used horrific violence to protect and grow their criminal empire.”
Ryan Lucas and P.R. News, Washington. Tropical Depression 2 has formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Current models have at grazing coastal Louisiana in Texas, mill bridges, with memberiation W.W.N.O. explains. Tropical Depression 2 has been forming in the Atlantic Hurricane Basin for four days.
Originally Hurricane Forecaster has had the storm hitting the Florida Panhandle or even peering out in the Gulf, but current models show the system skimming coastal Louisiana. As Louisiana State Commatologist J. Grimes explains, it wouldn't take much movement for the storm to hit Metro New Orleans as well. "Would require a big shift, just something on the order of 30 or 40 miles, could bring
higher wind energy and maybe more importantly, a little more rain into Metro New Orleans." Louisiana has already been hit by another named storm this hurricane season, post tropical storm Arthur, which spawned at least 14 tornadoes across the state and left a wave of damage in coastal parishes in June.
“For NPR News, I'm Melbridge's in New Orleans.”
Major Wall Street Indexes closed down slightly today, this is NPR. A judge has set a September trial date for a former Olympic canoe racer charged with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, a grand jury and dieted David Hurn on a felony count of property destruction, Hurn pleaded not guilty.
President Trump claims Vandals damaged the pool during its troubled multi-million dollar
renovation. Hurn says the Trump administration is trying to use him as a scapegoat. Multiple forest fires are burning in Oregon, after almost 10,000 lightning strikes strikes hit the state last week, Katherine Stire Martinez reports. There are 25 large fires burning almost 375,000 acres across Oregon, and most of the
activity is in central and northeastern parts of the state, so it's just a new year with the Oregon Department of Forestry. "We are essentially going into our new normal of a more active season, more active fire behavior." She says this year, shaping up similar to 2024's record-breaking season when more than 1.9 million
makers burned. A top priority fire in central Oregon says it feels like the state could be in for a marathon of a fire season. For NPR News, I'm Katherine Stire Martinez in Bend, Oregon. Scientists have discovered that a cove in Brazil's Ilya Grange Bay is a nursery for pregnant
black-tipped sharks leading to conservation efforts. Brazil is a major market for shark meat, but sharks face extinction threats from overfishing and climate change, conservationists hope ecotourism can provide an alternative income for the community. This is NPR News.
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