Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices plunged below $100 a barrel and Asia markets and U.S. stock futures jumped after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 4.8% and South Korea’s Kospi gained 5.6%. Futures for the S&P 500 advanced 2.3% as of 9:30 p.m. EDT, while Dow futures rose 2%.
Futures for U.S. crude oil sank 14.3% to $96.83 a barrel and Brent crude oil, the international standard, dropped 13.3% to $94.74. Oil prices had spiked because the war snarled the production and transportation of crude in the Persian Gulf. Much of that oil exits the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to reach customers around the world, but Iran had blocked it to enemies.
Late Tuesday, Trump said he was holding off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian targets. Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait would be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management.
The dramatic moves in prices are just the latest swings to hit financial markets since late February because of constantly shifting signals about when the conflict may end. Even with word of a ceasefire, neither Iran nor the United States said when it would begin, and attacks took place in Israel, Iran and across the Gulf region early Wednesday.
Earlier, U.S. stocks swung sharply during regular trading as uncertainty about the war with Iran increased after Trump had threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran does not meet his deadline at 8 p.m. Eastern time to open the Strait of Hormuz.
The S&P 500 fell as much as 1.2% but stocks rallied at the end of trading after Pakistan’s prime minister urged Trump to extend his deadline for another two weeks and asked Iran to open up the strait for the same amount of time.
The S&P 500 erased all its losses and ended with a modest gain of 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 85 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1%.
They’re the latest swings to hit financial markets since late February because of deep uncertainty about when the fighting may end.
Oil prices were likewise shaky. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude to be delivered in May briefly climbed above $117 before settling at $112.95.
Oil prices have spiked because the war has snarled the production and transportation of crude in the Persian Gulf. Much of that oil exits the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to reach customers around the world, but Iran has blocked it to enemies.
The worry in markets has been that a long-term disruption will keep oil prices high for a long time and send a painful wave of inflation crashing through the global economy. Trump kept traders on edge by making a series of threats to blow up Iranian power plants only to delay several times.
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline across the United States has leaped to $4.14, according to AAA. It was below $3 a couple days before the United States and Israel launched attacks to begin the war in late February.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased on word of a potential cease-fire. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.24% from 4.30% earlier Tuesday.
That’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war, and the rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.
HOUSTON (AP) — Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.
It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA’s Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.
“We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.
For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world’s first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.
Koch told her “astro-sister” that she’d hoped to meet up with her again in space “but I never thought it would be like this — it’s amazing.”
“I’m so happy that we are back in space together,” Meir replied, “even if we are a few miles apart.”
Houston’s Mission Control arranged the cosmic chitchat between the four lunar travelers and the space station’s three NASA and one French residents.
Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”
“It just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,” she told the space station crew. “The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized” when viewing the home planet from the moon.
By late Tuesday afternoon, the Artemis II astronauts had beamed back more than 50 gigabytes’ worth of pictures and other data from the previous day’s lunar rendezvous, which set a new distance record for humanity. The highlight: an Earthset photo reminiscent of Apollo 8’s Earthrise shot from 1968.
“While they are inspirational and, I think, allow all of us to really feel a little bit of what they were feeling, there’s also a lot of science hidden inside of those images,” said Mission Control’s lead lunar scientist Kelsey Young. “The conversations and the science lessons learned are just beginning.”
During a debriefing with Young, the astronauts recounted how they spotted a cascade of pinpricks of light on the lunar surface from impacting cosmic debris. The flashes lasted mere milliseconds and coincided by chance with Monday evening’s total solar eclipse.
Young said it was too soon to know whether the crew witnessed an actual meteor shower or more random, run-of-the-mill micrometeoroid hits. Either way, there were “audible screams of delight” in the science operations center, she said.
Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, “but how much blackness there was around it.”
“It just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,” she told the space station crew. “The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized” when viewing the home planet from the moon.
The first lunar explorers since Apollo 17 in 1972, Wiseman and his crew are aiming for a splashdown off the San Diego coast on Friday to wrap up the nearly 10-day test flight. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha left port Tuesday for the target zone.
It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, a lunar lander docking demo in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will follow in 2028 with two astronauts attempting to land near the lunar south pole.
As for the Orion capsule’s pesky potty, Mission Control assured the astronauts that no maintenance was required Tuesday. The toilet has been on-and-off limits to the crew ever since last week’s launch, prompting them to rely on a backup bag-and-funnel system for urinating.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the crew following the lunar flyby Monday night: “We definitely have to fix some of the plumbing” ahead of the next Artemis mission. Engineers suspect a clogged filter in the overboard flushing system.
Aside from the toilet and other relatively minor matters, the mission has gone well, Isaacman noted at a news conference Tuesday, “but I’ll breathe easier when we get through reentry and everybody’s under chutes and in the water.”
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas health regulators told Camp Mystic’s owners Tuesday they are investigating hundreds of complaints following last year’s devastating floods that killed 27 girls as the state considers whether to allow the all-girls camp to reopen this summer.
The Texas Rangers are also helping look into allegations of neglect, according to the Texas Department of Safety, although the scope of the state’s elite investigations unit was not immediately clear.
The investigations underscore the hurdles facing Camp Mystic as it pushes ahead with reopening plans over the outrage of the families of the 25 girls and two teenage counselors who died in the July 4 floods. More than 850 families have signed up to return to the Christian, all-girls camp this summer if it is allowed to reopen a portion of the camp that did not flood.
The Department of State Health Services said that since February, the agency has received “hundreds of complaints regarding Camp Mystic’s operations in the summer of 2025” alleging violations of state laws governing youth camps. The agency said it asked for help from state police.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said the Texas Rangers joined an “investigation regarding complaints of neglect” during the flood. Neither agency released details. The camp did not evacuate and was hit hard when the river rose from 14 feet to 29.5 feet (9 meters) within 60 minutes before dawn.
A letter sent Tuesday from the health agency to the camp owners informed them of the agency’s investigation, but made no mention of the Texas Rangers being involved.
Lawyers for the families of the girls who were killed and the Camp Mystic owners did not immediately respond to email messages requesting comment.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the Texas Rangers’ involvement a “criminal investigation” and said the state should not grant the camp a license to reopen until that probe and another one by state lawmakers are complete.
“I urge you to prioritize safety and do everything in your power to ensure Camp Mystic and/or their operators are not allowed to operate until the facts are in,” Patrick wrote in a letter Tuesday to the head of the health agency.
Families of several of the girls who died have sued the camp’s operators, arguing that camp officials failed to take necessary steps to protect the campers as life-threatening floodwaters approached. A district judge last month ordered the camp owners to preserve damaged cabins and other parts of the grounds in the flooded area as the lawsuits proceed.
The body of one of the campers killed, 8-year old Cile Steward, has not yet been recovered. DPS officials said the search for the girl continues.
Richard Eastland, one of the camp owners, was also killed. All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.
AUSTIN (AP) – Biblical stories like Jonah and the whale would be required reading for Texas public schools students under proposals that are putting the state at the center of another contentious wrangling over the role of religion in classrooms.
Religious leaders, teachers, parents and students spent hours Tuesday before the state education board arguing about the reading list for the state’s 5.4 million kindergartners to 12th-graders. The debate is part of widening efforts in the U.S. to incorporate religion in schools, mostly in Republican-led states, driving legislation and legal action.
Nationally, President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and expand religious expression in public schools. And Texas, a red state that is home to about one in 10 of the nation’s public school students, often helps set the agenda.
Texas became the first state to allow chaplains, in 2023. And just last year, a Republican-led mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools took effect in the state, although around two dozen districts took them down because of a lawsuit.
But while the debate over Texas’ reading list could have national implications, to the speakers the issue boiled down to whether the passages are essential to understanding the nation’s history and morals — or unconstitutional.
“Our children need truth,” said Nathan Irving, a pastor and father of eight from Myrtle Springs, Texas. “Truth is the only currency that never devalues. Investing truth into our children is the most loving thing that we can do for them. This is the truth. This country and this state were founded upon a Christian worldview. Like it or not, it is true.”
A final vote on the list is expected in June, and if approved by the Texas State Board of Education, the changes would take effect in 2030.
Several speakers cited the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
“This list is a tool of proselytization that has no place in our public schools,” Rabbi Josh Fixler, of Congregation Emanu El, a reform synagogue in Houston, told the board. “There is a difference between teaching about religion and teaching religion, and this list will force teachers to cross that line.”
Megan Boyden, a mother of three from Denton, Texas, described is as a direct attack on her private faith.
“As a Christian mother, it is my right and responsibility to teach our family’s religion,” she said. “It is not the state’s job to shed through the lens of a teacher who may not share the same beliefs I do. Will Bible passages be taught in conflict with my beliefs?
“What,” she asked, “of non-Christian students?”
The list stems from a state law passed in 2023, which called for the creation of a state-approved list of high-quality materials.
Third graders would learn about the Road to Damascus, which tells the story of Paul’s transformation from an early persecutor of Christians into a follower. Seniors, meanwhile, would learn about the Book of Job, a story about a man whose faith is tested when he looses everything.
The list also includes classics like Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat,” stories about the national folk hero Daniel Boone. And there are also works by famous African Americans like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. and a book about Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad fame.
The GOP-leaning board previously approved a new Bible-infused curriculum that is optional for schools to incorporate in kindergarten through fifth grades.
The board also is considering social studies standards that have been criticized as too state-centric, not focused enough on world events and rife with an undercurrent of American exceptionalism. They call for students to “identify the Texas flag as a symbol of Texas pride,” and recognize the state song “Texas, Our Texas.”
Students also are supposed to be able to understand stories about Texas Independence.
Curriculum debates crop up occasionally. Over the years, state boards in places such as Kansas have debated whether the teaching of evolution should reflect doubt about the well-established scientific theory — and leave room for arguments that the universe’s complexity points to an intelligent design.
Allison Cardwell, a mother of a fourth grader and a fifth grade social studies teacher, urged the board to rethink the standards. She said fifth grade would be the only time most Texas students would receive instruction in U.S. history until high school.
“We have to ask ourselves, How can we expect to create citizens who value liberty, responsibility, and the principles this country was founded on, if we don’t ensure that they truly understand those foundations?” she said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are rising, and U.S. stocks are falling Tuesday, but the moves are not as dramatic as the dire talk coming from both sides in the war with Iran.
President Donald Trump threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran does not meet his latest self-imposed deadline at 8 p.m. Eastern time to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials, meanwhile, urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants that Trump has threatened to bomb.
But the S&P 500 slipped just 0.5% as officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing, even though it was unclear if a deal would come in time to head off Trump’s threatened attacks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 271 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.
The moves were sharper in the oil market, where prices have spiked since the end of February because the war has snarled the production and transportation of crude in the Persian Gulf. Much of that oil exits the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to reach customers around the world, but Iran has blocked it to enemies.
The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude climbed 3.1% to $115.86. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.4% to $110.17 and is well above its roughly $70 level from before the war.
The worry in markets has been that a long-term disruption will keep oil prices high for a long time and send a painful wave of inflation crashing through the global economy. Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war.
So far in the war, Trump has made a series of threats to blow up Iranian power plants if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, but he has then delayed it several times. The possibility remains that Trump could back down again, among other scenarios, which is keeping uncertainty high.
A year ago, Trump ultimately backed off many of the stiff tariffs that he initially threatened to put on other countries’ imports, though they ended up higher than from before his second term.
“Investors are likely to remain on edge and markets unable to establish trends, probably until there is a clear outcome later this evening: a deal, the U.S./Israeli strikes intensify, or Iran’s retaliation becomes escalatory instead of proportional,” according to Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
In global stock markets, Universal Music Group helped to limit losses after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management offered to buy the record label behind Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $64 billion.
The proposed purchase, which Pershing Square argued would clear uncertainty that’s weighed on UMG’s stock, would bring the company to Nevada and move its stock listing from Amsterdam to the New York Stock Exchange.
UMG’s stock in Amsterdam rose 9.3% but remains well below what Pershing said its bid is worth. That could indicate investor doubt that the deal will happen.
Indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe, while Asian stock indexes were a touch stronger. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.8% for one of the world’s bigger gains.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were holding relatively steady ahead of Trump’s looming deadline. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.34%, where it was late Monday.
But it’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war. The rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.
TYLER — The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) reports the state added 40,100 ‘non-farm jobs’ to the market in January. According to our news partner KETK, this creates a total of 14 million positions for job-seekers and outpaces the nation in job growth rate. According to the TWC report, Tyler has 115,900 workers and Longview has 123,600 workers.
“Smith County added three jobs in the private sector every day, which outpaced the state and the country last year. We’ve managed to maintain job growth when other communities have struggled,” President of the Tyler Economic Development, Scott Martinez, said.
The leading industries creating jobs in Texas are construction (11,000 new jobs) and medical services (10,000). “These jobs help our families everywhere. These are people in our community who have opportunities to support themselves with these jobs”, Martinez adds. Read the rest of this entry »
EAST TEXAS — Two people were arrested on Saturday after they reportedly led law enforcement on a pursuit through Van Zandt County in a stolen 18-wheeler. According to the Gun Barrel City Police Department and our news partner KETK, officers were sent out to the local Burger King at around 3:27 p.m. on Saturday because of a report that a stolen 18-wheeler was parked behind the fast food restaurant.
Officers located the 18-wheeler and noticed that a man was still inside its cab. One officer was able to remove the keys from the vehicle’s ignition but it was determined to be hot-wired since the driver drove off after the keys were removed.
The officers started pursuing the 18-wheeler and with the help of the Van Zandt County and Kaufman County Sheriff’s Offices, they were able to stop the vehicle near County Road 2514 and County Road 2517. Read the rest of this entry »
FORT WORTH (AP) — A tanker truck in Texas hauling gasoline erupted into a fiery blaze Sunday after colliding with another vehicle and knocking over power lines, leaving the truck driver in critical condition, Fort Worth authorities said.
The 18-wheeler was carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline that began leaking after the truck spun off the road near a gas station. The downed power lines then sparked a fire around 1 a.m., Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson Craig Trojacek said.
“The driver of the 18-wheeler was trying to do everything he could to keep the gas from draining into the parking lot of the Valero gas station when it lit off,” Trojacek said.
The driver was hospitalized with burns, but no one else was injured, Trojacek said. Fire crews spent hours spraying the tanker with water and used sand to try and contain the gasoline, he said. Firefighters left the scene around 7 a.m.
Videos of the fire show what appears to be front of the truck engulfed in flames as plumes of smoke rise.
One witness, Bailey Moss, said he was staying with a friend nearby when he heard “a loud crash” and peered outside.
“The fire spread quickly, and you could feel the heat even from a distance. It was pretty intense,” Moss said.
SMITH COUNTY — A man was arrested on Sunday morning after he allegedly led Smith County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a chase through downtown Tyler. Jose Juan Barboza, 25, of Rusk, has been identified by the sheriff’s office as the alleged driver. According to the sheriff’s office and our news partner KETK, a deputy started pursuing a white pickup truck at around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday near the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Loop 49. The truck was heading north on Broadway Avenue at speeds over 100 miles per hour and eventually reached downtown Tyler.
Barboza reportedly ran red lights heading north through Tyler and stopped the truck near the intersection of East Queen Street and Broadway Avenue, just north of downtown Tyler. The suspect led deputies on a brief foot chase, and was arrested a short time later, according to the sheriff’s office.
Barboza was arrested and booked into the Smith County Jail for driving while intoxicated and evading arrest.
McALLEN (AP) — For five months, the young father waited for his 3-year-old daughter’s release from federal custody after she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother, hoping through delays for their safe reunion.
Only when he turned to the courts as a last resort did he learn that the girl had suffered alleged sexual abuse at the foster home where she’d been placed after immigration officials separated her from her mother.
“She was so long in there,” said her father, who is a legal permanent resident in the United States. “I just think that if they would have moved faster, nothing like that would have happened.” He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to prevent identifying his daughter as a victim of sexual abuse.
President Donald Trump’s administration began targeting detained immigrant children, like the man’s daughter, last year when it implemented new rules and procedures, which were immediately followed by a dramatic jump in detention times. The federal government intensified efforts to expand family detention indefinitely by motioning to terminate a cornerstone policy ensuring the protection of immigrant children in federal custody.
For months after the girl was placed in foster care, her father’s attempts to be reunited stalled as the government told him it couldn’t make an appointment to take his fingerprints.
During that time, according to court documents, the girl said she was sexually abused by an older child staying with her in foster care in Harlingen, Texas. A caregiver noticed the child’s underwear was on backward, according to the lawsuit. The girl then told the caregiver she was abused multiple times and it caused bleeding. Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement officials told the father that there had been an “accident” and his daughter would be examined, he told the AP in an interview.
“I asked them, ‘What happened? I want to know. I’m her father. I want to know what’s going on,’ and they just told me that they couldn’t give me more information, that it was under investigation,” the father said.
The girl underwent a forensic exam and interview. Although the father wasn’t told of the outcome, the older child accused of the abuse was removed from that foster program, according to the lawsuit.
The girl was forensically examined and interviewed, according to the lawsuit. The abuse allegations were reported to local law enforcement, said Lauren Fisher Flores, the lawyer representing the girl. The Associated Press does not typically name people who have said they were sexually abused.
“To have your child abused while in the government’s care, to not understand what has happened or how to protect them, to not even be told about the abuse, it is unimaginable,” Fisher Flores said. “Children deserve safety and they belong with their parents.”
The ORR and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, were named in the child’s lawsuit but did not respond to emails seeking comment.
The girl and her mother illegally crossed the border near El Paso on Sept. 16 of last year. When her mother was charged with making false statements and they were separated, the toddler was sent to the custody of the ORR, which cares for immigrant children in shelter or foster settings.
Children in ORR’s care are released to parents or sponsors who submit to a rigorous process that has grown more extensive under the Trump administration.
Stricter rules were imposed on documentation required for sponsors, border agents started pressuring unaccompanied children to self-deport before transferring them to shelters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement started arresting some sponsors in the middle of the release process.
Legal advocates filed lawsuits challenging the policy changes, anticipating that they would result in prolonged detention.
Average custody times for children cared for by ORR grew from 37 days when Trump took office in January 2025 to almost 200 days this February. The total number of children in ORR custody fell by about half during the same time period.
Attorneys are now turning to habeas petitions, which function as emergency lawsuits, to expedite the release of children to their parents and sponsors.
Fisher Flores, legal director of the American Bar Association’s ProBar project, said that this year the organization has worked on eight habeas corpus petitions representing children who have been held in federal custody for an average of 225 days. They had not filed these kinds of petitions for children before the start of this Trump administration.
Fisher Flores said that legal intervention helped prompt the federal government to respond to the father’s sponsorship application.
After the monthslong delay, attorneys sent the government a letter in February and prompted them to allow the father to receive appointments for a fingerprinting background check, a home visit and a DNA test. Then ORR stalled again, offering no timeline on her expected release.
Attorneys filed the habeas petition in federal court and two days later, ORR released the girl to her father.
It was while the attorneys prepared the lawsuit that the father realized that the “accident” officials had told him about was alleged sexual abuse.
“Increasingly, we have to turn to the federal courts to challenge these harmful legal violations and demand that children be released,” Fisher Flores said.
The fingerprinting policy was challenged during the first Trump administration by legal advocates including the National Center for Youth Law. Other nationwide lawsuits are opposing more recent changes affecting the custody and care of immigrant children.
“This represents yet another version of family separation,” Neha Desai, managing director at Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law, said of the 3-year-old girl’s case.
“A bipartisan Congress designed protections around the simple principle that children should be released to their family quickly and safely. This administration has been consistently flouting its legal obligations to release children to their families, profoundly jeopardizing children’s health and well-being,” Desai added.
When the father finally reunited with his daughter, he cried. His daughter was happy to see him, too.
But after her five months in detention, he started noticing changes: She had nightmares and was easily upset. “She was never like that” before, her father said.
The pair now live in Chicago with the girl’s grandparents while her case moves through the immigration court.
UPDATE: The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down in Lindale on Saturday morning with winds near 100 mph.
SMITH COUNTY – Easter weekend got off to a stormy start on Saturday as severe weather moved through East Texas, damaging several homes and causing flooding across the area.
According to our news partner KETK, residents near Lindale were the hardest hit on Saturday after a tornado was reported to have touched down in that area. According to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, one house on FM 18 and another house on County Road 498 were both extensively damaged during when a tornado touched down near Lindale.
Longview residents in Gregg County were also affected on Saturday as heavy rains caused flooding and downed power lines which left some without power for a time.
Over in Marshall, the Marshall Police Department also reported flooding in their streets. In the image below Marshall PD officers can be seen rescuing someone who was trapped when their vehicle was stuck in flood waters under the Franklin Street Bridge.
FORT WORTH (AP) – Most travelers flying with United Airlines will pay $10 more to check their luggage beginning on Friday, as higher jet fuel costs driven by the war in the Middle East push another major U.S. carrier to increase fees.
The first piece of checked luggage will now cost customers $45 on flights within the United States, Mexico, Canada and Latin America, according to United. A second bag will cost $55.
“This is the first time in two years the airline has raised bag fees,” United said in a statement.
Speaking to investors last month, United CEO Scott Kirby said the rising costs for jet fuel since the conflict began on Feb. 28 had already added roughly $400 million to operating costs. The CEOs for Delta Air Lines and American Airlines reported similar figures.
Some United passengers will still receive a free first checked bag, including co-branded credit card holders, certain loyalty-tier members, active military personnel and travelers in premium cabins. Customers who check bags less than 24 hours before departure will pay an additional $5.
United joins JetBlue, which raised its checked baggage fees earlier this week by $9 for peak travel periods. JetBlue said that charging more for optional services used by select customers helps keep base fares competitive. Like United, it will continue offering a free first checked bag to some customers.
The war, now in its second month, has severely disrupted global oil supplies, particularly near the narrow Strait of Hormuz where a fifth of the world’s oil typically passes. That has caused crude prices to fluctuate wildly, which affects airlines’ operating costs because the fuel their aircraft rely on is refined from crude oil.
Fuel is typically the second biggest expense for airlines after labor.
The average price for a gallon of jet fuel in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York reached $4.88 on Thursday, up from $2.50 just before the war, according to Argus Media. The energy market intelligence company’s U.S. Jet Fuel Index tracks the average prices across those major hubs.
Airlines are under increasing pressure to find new sources of revenue as fuel costs climb. A number of non-U.S. carriers have already responded by adding fuel surcharges or raising ticket prices. Industry experts say U.S. airlines will boost fares as well, but since they don’t typically rely on fuel surcharges, they’re also expected to pass on higher fuel costs to travelers by raising — or introducing — add-on fees.
United announced another pricing change on Friday that brings the “pay for what you want” approach already standard in economy to its premium cabins. On long-haul international routes, transcontinental U.S. flights and certain Hawaii services, seats in the front cabin will now be divided into three fare types.
At the bottom, a new base fare will carry the lowest upfront price but removes some of the extras that travelers often expect with premium tickets — including advance seat selection and refunds. In practice, that could mean a cheaper entry point to the front cabin but fewer perks.
The middle option, labeled standard, adds back common perks such as seat selection, extra checked bags and the ability to make itinerary changes. At the top end, the flexible tier includes all of those features and is fully refundable, offering the most flexibility for travelers willing to pay more.
United said it plans to introduce the new fare structure in select markets this month and expand it across more routes later this year.
PAYNE SPRINGS – The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department confirmed crews recovered the body of a Mabank man late Friday night after a boating incident. Officials identified the victim as 42-year-old Sammy Matlock. His body was located around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night. According to TPWD, Matlock was not wearing a life jacket when the boat capsized.
According to our news partner KETK, Matlock was one of three men were fishing on Cedar Creek Lake near Payne Springs on Thursday at around 10:30 p.m. when their boat took on water and capsized. Two men made it to shore and contacted emergency crews.
The third individual, Matlock, tried to swim to shore. Witnesses reported hearing him call for help, but he could not be found initially.
TYLER — One person was injured on Friday night after a vehicle crashed into a building on Magnolia Drive in Tyler. According to the Tyler Police Department and our news partner KETK, a vehicle crashed into a Tyler Junior College building at around 8 p.m. on Friday. The driver was injured and taken to a local hospital to be treated. The driver’s condition is unknown.
Tyler PD and the TJC Police Department are investigating the crash. Additional details were not available.
EAST TEXAS — The Gregg County Sheriff’s Office received approval on Tuesday to formally join an ICE task force model, marking a significant advancement one year after its initial partnership with federal immigration authorities. According to our news partner KETK, the sheriff’s office began collaborating with immigration authorities last year by adopting the jail enforcement model in March 2025.
This model trained local officers to identify, process, and initiate removal proceedings against undocumented immigrants who were already in the agency’s jail or detention facility with pending or active criminal charges. All enforcement activities occur within the jail setting.
The newly approved Task Force Model grants officers the authority to exercise limited immigration enforcement while carrying out their routine law enforcement duties. This includes identifying individuals’ immigration status during traffic stops or DUI checkpoints and sharing that information with ICE. Read the rest of this entry »