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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
An update on oil's wild ride from Marketplace. I'm Sabri Beneshour, in for David Brancaccio. So just to get us up to speed on where oil prices are this morning, Brent crude is at $92 a barrel. It was at $117 a barrel early yesterday morning. Couple explanations for that. One, President Trump said the war could end, quote, very soon, and repeated the idea that the U.S.
Navy could escort tankers through the Persian Gulf. On the other hand, he also said the war could escalate if Iran blocked the flow of oil.
Chapter 2: What are the current oil prices and their historical context?
Also, though, Saudi Arabia's Aramco said it would ramp up a pipeline that carries oil on a route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. But all that aside, $92 a barrel is still 30% more expensive than it was before the war started. That means anyone selling oil right now is making a ton of money. including U.S. producers. One question, will they use that extra cash to drill for more oil?
Marketplace's Elizabeth Troval has that. When oil prices move higher, it's often a signal to drill, baby, drill. But this case is different, says Dan Pickering with Pickering Energy Partners. This is most likely a transitory event with the war in Iran and prices likely to come back down He says U.S. producers don't want to spend money to up their oil production based on conflict-dependent prices.
It's not like turning the tap. There are no easy inventory of wells to turn on. And so we have to drill them, and that's going to take a number of months. But Abhi Rajendran with Energy Intelligence says even after the conflict ends, prices are likely to linger higher than what they would have been without any war. And so that could mean U.S.
production doesn't decline like he expected it to in 2026. What you may see now is that maybe a little bit more growth in the Permian and maybe, you know, less declines elsewhere. And so the net effect is actually you see something that's like more flattish. Ori says later this year, there's a chance we could actually see overall U.S. production grow. I'm Elizabeth Troval for Marketplace.
Anthropic is suing the Pentagon. It's the latest step in the company's dispute with the federal government over the use of its AI tools. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzer has the latest. Anthropic has filed two lawsuits against the Defense Department and other federal agencies. Anthropic is fighting the Pentagon's decision to effectively blacklist it by labeling it a supply chain risk.
Anthropic says under U.S. law, that label only applies to foreign firms. The company says the Defense Department is also violating its free speech rights. Anthropic has said it doesn't want its AI tools like Claude to be used in fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Anthropic wants, quote, veto power over operational decisions.
In a social media post, President Trump said he's ordering federal agencies not to do business with Anthropic. I'm Nancy Marshall Gensler for Marketplace. Hundreds of consumer products were recalled last year, everything from children's toys to exercise equipment, and it was a big jump from recent years. Marketplace's Carla Javier took a look at what's going on.
Jason Hertzberg at Exponent helps companies evaluate their products for potential safety issues. Nowadays, there are so many other channels that need to be monitored, like, you know, online forums and endless reviews. The Consumer Product Safety Commission investigates reports it receives and even does some secret shopping and product testing of its own.
The CPSC is also the agency that announces recalls. Teresa Murray at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group analyzed those announcements and saw that last year they shot up to 420 products. That's the highest number of product recalls in 18 years since 2007.
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Chapter 3: Why are U.S. producers hesitant to increase oil production?
In some ways, there's a silver lining. It's not a bad thing. Because, he says, more recalls mean fewer dangerous products falling through the cracks and making it into the hands of consumers. I'm Carla Javier for Marketplace. Our producers are Emma Condon, Tamar Fagan, Ashley Rodriguez, Ariana Rosas, and Erica Soderstrom. Our senior producer is Alex Schroeder.
Our supervising senior producer is Meredith Gerritsen-Morby. And in New York, I'm Sabree Beneshour with the Marketplace Morning Report. From APM, American Public Media.