作者： root

Trump administration allows purchase of Russian oil already at sea

March 12, 2026 / 11:36 PM EDT / CBS News

The U.S. is temporarily greenlighting the purchase of Russian oil that’s already at sea, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday, in the Trump administration’s latest move to loosen the wartime sanctions that restrict Russia’s oil industry as the world grapples with high oil prices.

The authorization will last one month, and applies to petroleum products from Russia that were loaded onto ships on or before Thursday, according to documents issued by the Treasury.

Bessent said the move will “permit countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea.”

“This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” he wrote on X.

Some 124 million barrels of Russian oil are currently at sea globally, CBS News has learned.

The Treasury secretary said the administration is trying to “increase the global reach of existing supply,” as the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran paralyzes the petroleum trade and oil prices hit their highest levels in years.

Last week, the Treasury issued a narrower sanctions license that allowed India to buy oil and petroleum products from Russia for one month. The Trump administration had previously heaped pressure on India to stop buying Russian oil.

The moves give oil importers a reprieve from the strict U.S. sanctions that have made it difficult to do business with wide swaths of the Russian economy, including its energy industry. Russia has faced tight sanctions since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The temporary reprieves have drawn stiff criticism from congressional Democrats, who argue they could enrich Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government and undermine sanctions designed to make it harder for Russia to finance its war against Ukraine.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii posted on X late Thursday, possibly in response to the sanctions relief: “Looks like we fought Iran and Russia won.”

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and 11 other Democrats castigated the Trump administration for granting a license for India to buy Russian oil. They argued the jump in oil prices has already offered Putin a windfall, and loosening sanctions could further benefit him.

“Instead of changing course, the President is only making this situation worse by handing Putin, his shadow fleet, and traders still dealing in sanctioned oil a free pass to increase oil shipments to Russia’s second-largest importer,” the Democrats wrote. “The new channels for evasion the President is opening, coupled with dramatically higher global energy prices, are giving Putin a huge financial boost and the means to continue his bloody war in Ukraine.”

A day before the Treasury rolled out Thursday’s sanctions license, Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev met in Florida with U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both sides said.

In a post, Dmitriev said the group discussed the “current crisis on global energy markets,” adding that the U.S. and other countries are beginning to understand the “destructive nature of sanctions against Russia,” according to a translation from Russian news agency Interfax. Witkoff said they discussed “a variety of topics.”

Shortly after Bessent announced Thursday’s sanction license, Dmitriev wrote on X: “Russian energy is indispensable to easing the world’s largest energy crisis. EU bureaucrats will soon be forced to recognize this reality, acknowledge their strategic blunders, and atone.”

The Trump administration is scrambling to deal with a supply crunch wrought by the war. Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint that normally carries 20% of the world’s oil — has slowed to a crawl as Iran carries out strikes on vessels and threatens shippers not to pass, severely limiting the amount of oil from major Arab producers that can reach global markets.

The international oil benchmark, Brent Crude, traded just above $100 per barrel for much of Thursday afternoon, up from around $72 per barrel the day before the war began in late February.

President Trump and top U.S. officials have floated a range of other options to boost supply. Some 172 million barrels of oil will be released from the U.S.’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and Mr. Trump has weighed having the U.S. Navy escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz or even “taking [the strait] over,” as he told CBS News earlier this week.

Richard Escobedo contributed to this report.

消息：六辆驻韩美军“萨德”转移乌山基地 一辆已返星州郡

2026年3月13日 11:50 / 联合早报

驻韩美军的萨德反导系统基地位于庆尚北道星州郡。 （法新社）

有消息指，日前从韩国庆尚北道星州郡基地转移至京畿道乌山基地的驻韩美军六辆“萨德”反导系统发射车，有一辆已返回星州郡。

韩国反对部署萨德反导系统（THAAD）民间组织“撤除萨德韶成里综合状况室”，星期五（3月13日）向韩联社披露，这辆发射车于12日晚上11时25分许返回星州基地。

据悉，六辆装载防空导弹的发射车于3日凌晨离开星州基地前往乌山。据预测，这些导弹将被运往中东，以填补当地美军的萨德导弹缺口。

消息人士说，六辆发射车在乌山基地卸载防空导弹后均将返回星州基地。截至目前，除了12日晚返回的一辆发射车外，其余五辆尚未返回。有观点认为，部分发射车将继续留在乌山，或被调往中东替换受损装备。

萨德反导系统是目前美国部署在韩国的唯一一套末段高空区域防御系统，拦截高度为40至150千米，仅部署于庆尚北道星州基地。萨德系统由交战控制站、雷达和六辆发射车组成。每辆发射车可装载八枚导弹，一套系统最多可搭载48枚导弹。

消息：六辆驻韩美军“萨德”转移乌山基地 一辆已返星州郡

2026年3月13日 11:50 / 联合早报

驻韩美军的萨德反导系统基地位于庆尚北道星州郡。 （法新社）

有消息指，日前从韩国庆尚北道星州郡基地转移至京畿道乌山基地的驻韩美军六辆“萨德”反导系统发射车，有一辆已返回星州郡。

韩国反对部署萨德反导系统（THAAD）民间组织“撤除萨德韶成里综合状况室”，星期五（3月13日）向韩联社披露，这辆发射车于12日晚上11时25分许返回星州基地。

据悉，六辆装载防空导弹的发射车于3日凌晨离开星州基地前往乌山。据预测，这些导弹将被运往中东，以填补当地美军的萨德导弹缺口。

消息人士说，六辆发射车在乌山基地卸载防空导弹后均将返回星州基地。截至目前，除了12日晚返回的一辆发射车外，其余五辆尚未返回。有观点认为，部分发射车将继续留在乌山，或被调往中东替换受损装备。

萨德反导系统是目前美国部署在韩国的唯一一套末段高空区域防御系统，拦截高度为40至150千米，仅部署于庆尚北道星州基地。萨德系统由交战控制站、雷达和六辆发射车组成。每辆发射车可装载八枚导弹，一套系统最多可搭载48枚导弹。

NASA ready for another shot at Artemis II moon mission with possible April 1 launch

2026-03-12T19:02:00-0400 / CBS News

NASA plans to haul its Artemis II moon rocket back out to its seaside launch pad next week to ready the huge booster for blastoff as early as April 1 on a delayed-but-historic flight to send four astronauts on a nine-day trip around the moon, the agency announced Thursday.

At the conclusion of a two-day flight readiness review, “all the teams polled ‘go’ to launch and fly Artemis II around the moon, pending completion of some of the work before we roll out to the launch pad,” said Lori Glaze, associate administrator of Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters.

“Just a reminder to everybody, we talk about it every time we talk about this flight, it’s a test flight, and it is not without risk. But our team and our hardware are ready.”

A file photo of the Space Launch System rocket inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA/Frank Michaux

Based on the ever-changing positions of the moon and Earth, along with a complex mix of mission objectives, NASA must launch Artemis II by April 6, or the flight will slip another month or so. For an April 1 launch, liftoff is expected at 6:24 p.m. EDT, followed by splashdown in the Pacific Ocean nine days later.

NASA workers had hoped to launch the Space Launch System rocket, the Orion crew capsule and its four passengers — Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — in early February.

But the long-awaited flight was delayed by hydrogen fuel leaks and, more recently, by problems with the rocket’s upper stage propellant pressurization system.

The hydrogen leaks were fixed at the launch pad by replacing suspect seals in the umbilical system that attaches fuel lines to the base of the rocket. But engineers could not access the upper stage at the launch pad, and the entire rocket had to be hauled back to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs.

Once inside the cavernous facility, upper-stage access platforms were extended and engineers quickly found a displaced seal in a helium quick-disconnect fitting. Pressurized helium is used to push propellants through the propulsion system and to help drain and dry propellant lines.

Replacing the displaced seal fixed the pressurization system problem, and crews went ahead with needed work to replace batteries in the rocket’s self destruct system, strap-on boosters and both SLS stages. They also charged batteries in the Orion capsule’s launch abort system.

That work is virtually complete, and NASA managers said the rocket should be ready for the start of its 12-hour roll to pad 39B next Thursday evening.

“I was very proud of the team and the work that they did to quickly understand the root cause and get us back in a posture to roll back out,” said Shawn Quinn, manager of Artemis ground systems. “So far, the VAB processing has gone very well.”

Summing up the flight readiness review, Glaze said mission risk was a topic of discussion, but she and John Honeycutt, chair of NASA’s Artemis mission management team, declined to provide any actual numbers during a Thursday news conference.

In a report released last week, NASA’s Office of Inspector General said the agency’s “risk threshold” for an Artemis moon mission, based on the presumed use of a SpaceX lander, was expected to be in the realm of 1-in-40 during lunar operations, while the overall mission risk was put at 1-in-30 from launch to splashdown. The report said the risk of death faced by Apollo crews was 1-in-10.

Artemis II is not a lunar landing mission, which would imply lower risk overall, but it will still be only the first piloted flight of an SLS rocket and Orion capsule after a single unpiloted test flight in 2022.

Citing the short flight history and the long gap between launches, Glaze and Honeycutt both said coming up with a realistic overall risk assessment for the Artemis II mission is difficult.

“I think sometimes we get tricked into believing that those numbers are somehow really telling us something critically important,” Glaze said. “I think they’re valuable. I think we can do things in a relative sense to measure what is more risky or less risky.

“But I agree with John that in this sense, it’s not the first flight, but we’re also not in a regular (launch) cadence. So we definitely have significantly more risk than a flight system that’s flying all the time. But I’m with him, I wouldn’t actually put a number on it.”

NASA’s Artemis program, established during the first Trump administration, is aimed at returning astronauts to the surface of the moon. The original target was 2024, but budget shortfalls, the COVID pandemic and a variety of other issues triggered repeated delays, eventually pushing the first moon landing to 2028.

That’s still the case even though NASA revised the near-term launch sequence two weeks ago. As before, the agency plans to launch the Artemis II crew on the first piloted test flight of an SLS rocket and Orion capsule as early as April 1.

That flight will now be followed by an additional mission next year — Artemis III — in which astronauts aboard an Orion capsule in low-Earth orbit will rendezvous and dock with one or both moon landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. That will allow NASA to test the spacecraft and procedures in space before attempting an actual landing.

If those flights go well, the agency hopes to launch at least one and possibly two lunar landing flights in 2028 using whichever landers are available. After that, NASA plans to launch one moon landing flight per year to develop the procedures and infrastructure needed for eventual flights to Mars.

But Mars is a purely aspirational goal goal at present. In the near term, Artemis II is the center of NASA’s attention.

Like Artemis I, the Artemis II Orion crew ship will not go into orbit around the moon. Instead, it will follow a “free return” flight path that will carry the crew around the far side of the moon, using lunar gravity to bend its trajectory back toward Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean nine days after launch.

As such, they plan to spend the first full day of their mission checking out the Orion’s flight control, communications, navigation and life support systems in low and high Earth orbit before finally setting off for the moon.

Assuming an on-time launch April 1, the crew will fly within about 4,100 miles of the moon’s surface at closest approach and in so doing travel farther from Earth than any other humans — around 252,800 miles.

助81新加坡人和家属撤离中东 第二班空军军机今晨抵新

2026年3月13日 07:15 / 联合早报

这架从沙特阿拉伯第二大城吉达起飞的新加坡空军A330多用途添油运输机，清晨5时59分抵达樟宜机场。 （国防部提供）

第二班协助新加坡人撤离中东的新加坡空军部队军机，星期五（3月13日）清晨约6时返抵国门，机上共载有81名新加坡人和他们的家属，其中超过一半是在约旦留学的本地学生。

我国国防部发文告说，这架从沙特阿拉伯第二大城吉达（Jeddah）起飞的新加坡空军A330多用途添油运输机（Multi-Role Tanker Transport，简称MRTT），清晨5时59分抵达樟宜机场。若加上两天前的第一趟撤离任务，新加坡武装部队已成功协助299名新加坡公民及他们的家属从中东回国。

文告指出，在让已登记的新加坡公民优先登机后，机上剩余座位也开放给澳大利亚、文莱、印度尼西亚、菲律宾、斯里兰卡和越南等国公民。国防部说，这体现各国在危机时期相互协助的精神。A330运输机的载客量约200人。

郑加恒瑞士羽赛不敌印尼六号种子法汉无缘八强 | 联合早报

发布/2026年3月13日 07:25

我国羽将郑加恒（图）不敌印尼好手法汉无缘瑞士公开赛八强。 （档案照）

我国二号羽毛球男单郑加恒在新加坡时间星期五（3月13日）凌晨的瑞士公开赛（超级300赛）顽强发挥，但最终仍两局不敌排名比自己高的印度尼西亚赛会六号种子选手法汉，无缘八强。

世界排名第33的郑加恒在这个赛事16强对上世界杯排名第14的法汉，这是两人首次交锋。

郑加恒在第一局初段取得领先优势，但在17比13领先的情况下被对手接连得分反超，17比21先失一局。

郑加恒第二局同样取得强势开局，法汉在后半段发力反扑追到20平，最终以22比20赢下赛事。整场比赛费时52分钟。

Millions of Americans skip meals, stretch medication to afford health care

Updated on: March 12, 2026 / 4:31 PM EDT / CBS News

One-third of Americans are cutting back on everyday living expenses — even skipping meals — and stretching their prescription medications so they can afford health care, according to new polling the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.

About 82 million Americans across low-, middle- and high-income brackets say they are spending less on utilities, driving less to save on gas and taking other steps to afford health care, according to the research center. They also report borrowing money and cutting back on utilities to afford medical care, the study said.

The findings were released as Americans are facing sharply higher gasoline and energy costs due to the Iran war, compounding a longstanding affordability crunch.

Millions of people are also coping with higher health insurance costs after lawmakers allowed Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire on Dec. 31.

Budget cutting was even more common among Americans without health insurance, with more than 60% saying they made at least one financial sacrifice, such as borrowing money, to pay for health care, according to the research.

Nearly one in 10 adults, or roughly 24 million people, say health costs have forced them to postpone their retirements. Americans are also making other sacrifices, such as delaying a job change, putting off buying a new home or postponing growing their family.

Edited by Aimee Picchi

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/concerns-about-health-care-costs-after-affordable-care-act-tax-credits-expire/

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3 New Jersey teens took part in a weeklong experiment to curb screen time. It worked.

March 12, 2026 / 7:39 PM EDT / CBS News

Clifton, New Jersey — At Clifton High School in Clifton, New Jersey, senior Gianna Colon is a three-sport athlete, sophomore Sebastian Fazio loves math and baseball, and sophomore Hamza Ramach is in band and is a goalie on the school hockey team.

What do they have in common? They are three productive students who also struggle with screen time.

Colon told CBS News that when she spends too much time scrolling on her phone, it makes her “feel drained.”

According to students, they can spend anywhere from four to 13 hours per day on their phones, with bedtime being the biggest downfall.

“Sometimes, when I’m going to bed, I watch for a little bit, but then I get a little addicted,” said Fazio.

Ramach admitted that he doesn’t believe it is possible for him to cut down on screen time on his own accord.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/parents-are-at-war-with-screen-time-heres-how-to-help-teens-curb-the-prolonged-habit/

For one week, the three agreed not to take their phones to bed, and to try different tools to reduce screen time during the day.

Colon tested out Brick, a square-shaped device, external to your phone, that can be used to block specific apps. The device can be left at home. To unblock the distracting apps, the phone must be tapped against the external device.

Ramach tried ScreenZen, a free app that takes a mindful approach to limiting screen time, by asking you to wait before opening distracting apps.

Fazio was shown how to use the grayscale mode on his phone, which removes the color, turning the screen to black-and-white.

“It does not look good,” Fazio said when he saw Instagram in grayscale. “…It takes away all the joy in it.”

The teens recorded video diaries three days into the experiment,

“I’ve been doing other things like diamond painting,” Colon said in her video.

Ramach said he had “been focusing more on school work, less distractions, more sleep.”

Fazio, meanwhile, said that he had “been more energetic waking up,” and also feeling like he had “been communicating more with family and friends.”

A week in, the reviews were still glowing.

Colon said Brick “definitely” took away the temptation of using certain apps, because there was a physical barrier, so she couldn’t unlock them while she was at school.

“It was honestly pretty good,” Colon said. “It definitely helped me be more productive without my phone.”

Ramach said ScreenZen “was great.”

“It was tempting to unblock the apps, but I went through it,” Ramach said, adding that his father noticed a positive difference in his behavior.

“I wanted to go to practice in the morning,” Ramach said. “He was like, ‘In the morning, what?’”

Fazio described his experience with grayscale as “pretty good,” saying his screen use “went down a lot.”

“I was at three hours before, and I’m at 20 minutes per day,” Fazio said, adding that the difference felt “great.”

Asked what she wanted other kids to know after taking on this challenge, Colon said: “You don’t need to depend on your phone for everything. Like there’s so much more out in the world…besides just sitting on your phone for hours and scrolling through TikTok or Instagram.”

What will it take for ships to start sailing through the Strait of Hormuz again?

March 12, 2026 / 4:14 PM EDT / CBS News

By

Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

Read Full Bio

Before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, an average of 100 vessels per day would safely traverse the Strait of Hormuz. On Wednesday, only one or two ships crossed the narrow waterway, according to MarineTraffic, a ship tracking website.

Reopening the strait, which ordinarily handles some 20% of daily global oil shipments, is widely viewed as essential to bringing down the soaring energy prices caused by the Iran war.

In an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett, American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers on Wednesday characterized the strait’s closure as a “nightmare scenario” for the global economy. “There is no replacing the 20 million barrels of oil that go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Sommers said.

Here’s what experts said must happen for oil tankers to start sailing again.

Why are ships stopped?

---

The Strait of Hormuz is currently too risky for commercial ships to navigate, with suspected Iranian drones on Wednesday striking at least three ships in and around the channel. Many insurers have also withdrawn coverage for tankers in the region.

“In the end, it’s all about perception, because our first priority is the protection of human life and our seafarers,” Jerry Kalogiratos, CEO of Capital Clean Energy Carriers, a shipping company based in Greece, told CBS News.

When will tankers return to the strait?

---

Kalogiratos said he is looking for clear signals that the Strait of Hormuz is safe for marine traffic.

“Let’s say there is a ceasefire overnight, and Iran says it’s safe. Then our ships would be the first to make the transit,” he said.

Not surprisingly, Kalogiratos is also keeping a close eye on the handful of ships that are crossing the waterway to see if they avoid attacks.

A succession of safe crossings of the strait would encourage more ships to sail, according to Vikas Dwivedi, energy strategist at Macquarie Group, a financial services firm.

“You’d need more than just one or two for a couple of days — you would want to see it building,” he told CBS News. “You want corroboration that there are no tricks being played and that ships leaving the Strait of Hormuz are arriving at destination ports.”

By contrast, Kalogiratos takes less comfort from the White House’s offer to insure ships traveling through the Persian Gulf. The Trump administration has also offered U.S. Navy escorts to protect ships from attack when navigating the channel.

“We need to feel confident that the lives of our partners aboard our vessels are safe,” he said.

Looking for de-escalation

---

Michael Ryan, head of freight at market intelligence provider Sparta Commodities, told CBS News that shipping companies would have to see a sustained reduction in military threat from Iran to start sailing again. That would encourage insurers to re-enter the region and bring premiums down to a manageable level, mitigating the financial risks of braving the waterway.

For now, achieving that level of security seems improbable. On Thursday, newly appointed Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement that the strait must remain shut, according to state-run media.

“Until that threat is credibly lifted, either through a ceasefire or a negotiated arrangement, commercial operators of the vessels won’t return in meaningful numbers,” Ryan told CBS News.

How will we know ships are sailing?

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Such vessels are equipped with Automated Identification System (AIS) trackers that allow their locations to be detected.

While tracking systems are normally activated, some ships have deactivated their AIS in an effort to pass through the strait undetected, Nikos Pothitakis, a spokesperson for Kpler, which owns MarineTraffic, told CBS News.

The usual flow of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is currently nonexistent, according to MarineTraffic, which monitors factors including a vessel’s location, load size and speed.

“Normally, you would see all of these little dots of triangles moving fluidly around the strait,” Ryan said. “Right now, there are loads of tankers clustered together on either side of the strait, where they are sitting anchored.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

In:

• Oil Imports
• Iran
• Oil and Gas
• Strait of Hormuz