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President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has demanded about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but his appeals have brought no commitments as oil prices soar during the Iran war.The president declined to name the countries heavily reliant on Middle East crude that the administration is negotiating with to join a coalition to police the waterway where about one-fifth the world’s traded oil normally flows.“I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their own territory,” Trump said about the strait, claiming the shipping channel is not something the United States needs because of its own access to oil. Trump spoke while answering reporters’ questions as he flew back to Washington from Florida aboard Air Force One.Trump said China gets about 90% of its oil from the strait, while the U.S. gets a minimal amount. He declined to discuss whether China will join the coalition.“It would be nice to have other countries police that with us, and we’ll help. We’ll work with them,” Trump said. Previously, he has appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain.Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier told CBS that Tehran has been “approached by a number of countries” seeking safe passage for their vessels, “and this is up to our military to decide.” He said a group of vessels from “different countries” had been allowed to pass, without providing details.Iran has said the strait is open to all except the United States and its allies.Araghchi added that “we don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans” about finding a way to end the war, noting that Israel and the U.S. started the fighting with coordinated attacks on Feb. 28 during indirect U.S.-Iran talks on Iran’s nuclear program. He also said Tehran had “no plan to recover” the enriched uranium that is under rubble following U.S. and Israeli attacks last year. Countries are cautious after Trump’s call U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC earlier Sunday that he has been “in dialogue” with some of the countries Trump had mentioned previously, and said he expected China “will be a constructive partner” in reopening the strait.But countries made no promises.Britain said Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday discussed with Trump the importance of reopening the strait “to end the disruption to global shipping,” and spoke with Canada’s prime minister about it separately.Aboard Air Force One, Trump specifically named Starmer, who he said initially declined to put British aircraft carriers “into harm’s way.”“Whether we get support or not, but I can say this, and I said to them: We will remember,” Trump said.A spokesperson for China’s embassy to the U.S., Liu Pengyu, said previously that “all parties have the responsibility to ensure stable and unimpeded energy supply” and that China would “strengthen communication with relevant parties” for de-escalation.South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it “takes note” of Trump’s call and that it “will closely coordinate and carefully review” the situation with the U.S.Expectations are high that Trump will ask Japan directly when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets him on Thursday at the White House.France previously said it is working with countries President Emmanuel Macron mentioned partners in Europe, India and Asia on a possible international mission to escort ships through the strait but has stressed it must be when “the circumstances permit,” when fighting has subsided.Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul of Germany, which was not mentioned in Trump’s call, told ARD television: “Will we soon be an active part of this conflict? No.”Meanwhile, emergency oil stocks “will soon start flowing to global markets,” the International Energy Agency said Sunday, describing the collective action to lower prices “by far the largest ever.”It updated last week’s announcement of 400 million barrels to nearly 412 million. Asian member countries plan to release stocks “immediately,” and reserves from Europe and the Americas will be released “from the end of March.”Trump didn’t directly answer whether his administration is talking about selling oil futures as a way to cap surging oil prices.“The prices are going to come tumbling down as soon as it’s over. And it’s going to be over pretty quickly,” he told reporters. More missile and drone attacks are reported Gulf Arab states including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain reported new missile or drone attacks a day after Iran called for the evacuation of three major ports in the United Arab Emirates the first time it has threatened a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets.Dubai temporarily suspended flights at its international airport the world’s busiest after a drone hit a fuel tank and caused a fire. Civil defense crews contained the blaze and no injuries were reported, authorities said.Tehran has claimed that Friday’s U.S. strikes on Kharg Island, home to Iran’s primary oil terminal, were launched from the UAE, without providing evidence. It has threatened to attack U.S.-linked “oil, economic and energy infrastructures” if its oil infrastructure is hit.U.S. Central Command said it had no response to Iran’s claim, and Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, rejected it. Gulf countries that host U.S. bases have denied allowing their land or airspace to be used for military operations against Iran.Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbors during the war, causing significant damage and rattling economies even as most are intercepted. Tehran says it targets U.S. assets, even as Iranian strikes are reported at civilian sites such as airports and oil fields. War’s toll mounts across the region Iranian strikes have killed at least a dozen civilians in Gulf countries, most of them migrant workers.In Iran, the International Committee for the Red Cross said more than 1,300 people have been killed. Iran’s Health Ministry said 223 women and 202 children are among the dead, according to Mizan, the judiciary’s official news agency.Iran’s government on Sunday showed journalists buildings damaged by strikes in Tehran on Friday. A police station was hit and surrounding buildings were damaged. Some apartments’ outer walls had been stripped away.“God had mercy on all of us,” said Elham Movagghari, a resident. Other Iranians are leaving the country.In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire and more have been injured, including three on Sunday. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed,six in a plane crash in Iraq last week.At least 820 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to its Health Ministry, since Iran-backed Hezbollah hit Israel and Israel responded with strikes and sent additional troops into southern Lebanon. In just 10 days, more than 800,000 people nearly one out of every seven residents of Lebanon have been displaced. More Iranian missile strikes hit Israel Israel’s military said early Monday that Iran launched missiles toward Israel.Earlier, several strikes hit central Israel and the Tel Aviv area, where they caused damage at 23 sites and sparked a small fire. Magen David Adom, Israel’s rescue service, released video showing a large crater in a street and shrapnel damage to an apartment building.Israel’s military says Iran is firing cluster bombs that can evade some air defenses and scatter submunitions across multiple locations. This version corrects to say Araghchi was speaking to CBS, not NBC as previously reported. Contributing were Associated Press journalists Darlene Superville, Fatima Hussein, Tia Goldenberg, Sally Abou AlJoud, Fadi Tawil, John Leicester and Christopher Weber. Sam Metz, Will Weissert, Julia Frankel and Cara Anna, Associated Press
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This Oscar cycle’s heavyweight battle is finally over. The politically charged action comedy “One Battle After Another” just managed to outmuscle Ryan Coogler’s musically driven vampire thriller “Sinners.”It was a 3 hour and 40 minute whirl through cinema and celebration, with Michael B. Jordan winning best actor for “Sinners” and Jessie Buckley winning for “Hamnet,” making her the first Irish performer to ever win in the category.There was electricity when Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman and Black person to win the cinematography award for “Sinners,” asking all the women in the Dolby Theatre to stand up because moments like this don’t happen without women “standing up for you and advocating for you.”Here were some other show highlights: The battle is over for one filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the most respected filmmakers of his generation, finally won an Oscar. Then he won another. Then he won for best picture.He first won best adapted screenplay for “One Battle After Another” and then was crowned best director. “You make a guy work hard for this,” he said. Anderson was back onstage for the night’s final award best picture.“Let’s have a martini. This is amazing,” he said.Anderson had been nominated 14 times previously, including five times for screenplays and three times for best director. His films include “Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood” and “Magnolia.”“I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them,” Anderson said onstage after winning for his screenplay. “But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.”Even Cassandra Kulukundis, who served as the casting director on past Anderson films, hoped he would win an award himself while accepting the first new completive Oscar category in over two decades for “One Battle After Another.”She beat him to a win by just minutes. Another long wait for Oscar hardware Amy Madigan, the night’s first winner, had to wait a long time to celebrate an Oscar win. The gap between her first ever Oscar nomination and first win was 40 years handing her the record wait for a best supporting actress.Madigan’s first Oscar nomination was for 1985’s “Twice in a Lifetime,” losing to Anjelica Huston. She won Sunday for playing an unrecognizable and utterly mesmerizing oddball aunt in “Weapons,” a supernatural thriller about missing children. Madigan had earlier picked up wins at the Critics Choice and Actor Awards.Aunt Gladys’ smeared, heavy makeup, strange hair and large glasses became a popular internet meme and was even played up by Oscars host Conan O’Brien in his opening skit, looking like Gladys as he raced through appearances in other nominated movies chased by children.On hearing her name, Madigan collapsed into the arms of her husband, actor Ed Harris. Onstage, she thanked film writer-director Zach Cregger for giving her a part in “Weapons” she could “grab by the throat.” She last thanked “my beloved Ed,” adding: “None of this would mean anything if he wasn’t by my side.” A heavy goodbye to the Reiners A stage of stars bid farewell to Rob Reiner, led by a long friend and colleague, Billy Crystal.Crystal kicked off the in memoriam section by saying he met Reiner while cast as a best friend of Reiner’s on “All in the Family” in 1975.Reiner’s movies included “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Misery,” “A Few Good Men” and “The Princess Bride.”“My friend Rob’s movies will last for lifetimes because they were about what makes us laugh and cry and what we aspire to be: Far better in his eyes, far kinder, far funnier and far more human,” Crystal said.Reiner was killed along with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, in December. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of murder.After Crystal’s speech, he revealed a stage filled with stars who shone in Reiner’s films, including Meg Ryan, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Kathy Bates, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore, Jerry O’Connell, Annette Bening, Mandy Patinkin, Fred Savage and Cary Elwes. In memoriam and Redford The in memoriam section then highlighted those lost during 2025, like Catherine O’Hara, Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Brigitte Bardot, Michael Madsen, Terence Stamp, Diane Ladd, Sally Kirkland, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Val Kilmer.Barbra Streisand then stepped up to honor her co-star in “The Way We Were,” Robert Redford.“He was thoughtful and bold. I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail, and won the Academy Award for best director, and I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me,” Streisand said.She then sang a snippet of “The Way We Were,” which she last performed during the 2013 ceremony, when she sang it as an homage to the late composer Marvin Hamlisch. Two stunning song performances The Oscars had only two musical numbers but they were Grammy-worthy.Singer-actor Miles Caton and songwriter Raphael Saadiq performed the deeply bluesy, slinky song “I Lied to You” from “Sinners,” joined by an ensemble that included Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith in a tribute to the film’s visual and musical style.The camera swept in and among the writhing bodies in a rollicking, kinetic performance.“KPop Demon Hunters” later celebrated its win as best animated feature by opening its performance of “Golden” with a fusion of traditional Korean instrumentalists and dance, with dancers in gold waving golden fabric flags. Then Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami the singing voices behind HUNTR/X in the film belted out “Golden” as members of the audience waved light sticks.Then “Golden” won the Oscar for best original song, a first for K-pop.The coolest part was seeing dancers from each song appear in the other’s, a kind of communication between Delta blues and Asian pop. ‘Bridesmaids’ give us a bouquet Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Kristen Wiig and Ellie Kemper celebrated 15 years after “Bridesmaids” hit theaters by showing everyone their funny bones haven’t aged.“Now, we are not good with numbers, but we figured out backstage that means we shot this movie in 1883,” Wiig joked.The group presenting best original scoe and best sound had fun at the expense of Stellan Skarsgrd, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jacobi Jupe of “Hamnet.”They pretended to read messages from the crowd, including one from DiCaprio that accused Byrne of staring at him. “I have been staring at you,” Byrne replied. “I thought you were somebody else.”Rudolph leaned into her dimwit persona when she wondered: “Earlier today, when I was counting my money, I asked myself, “What is sound?”There was also a mini-“Avengers” reunion with Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. presenting best adapted screenplay. And a “Moulin Rouge!” reunion with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. And there was a Pullman family reunion when Bill teamed up with son, Jack. Second time’s a charm, Conan Conan O’Brien hit almost every note on Sunday savage, playful, heartfelt and dumb.The second-time host predicted he’d be the last human Oscar MC. “Next year, it will be a Waymo with a tux,” he joked.He also had a jab at Timothée Chalamet, who got into hot water when he seemed to call ballet and opera dying art forms. “They’re just mad you left out jazz,” O’Brien quipped.He reached for a Jeffrey Epstein joke when he noted that it was the first time since 2012 that there were no British actors nominated. “A British spokesperson said, ‘Yeah, well at least we arrest our pedophiles.'”But he also got poetic and sweet when he noted that 31 countries across six continents were represented at the Oscars.“Every film we salute is a product of thousands of people speaking different language, working hard to make something of beauty,” O’Brien said. “We pay tribute tonight, not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today: optimism.”Of course, sometimes his bits fell flat, like the time he used a leaf blower onstage and a gag about memes with Leonardo DiCaprio. For more coverage of this year’s Oscars, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards Mark Kennedy, AP Entertainment Writer
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The prices of memory chip stocks are once again on the rise as a global shortage in random access memory (RAM) continues. Over the past five days alone, the share prices of the four largest memory makers traded on U.S. markets have risen significantly. And today, those same stocks are off to another good start. Heres what you need to know. Why is there a memory shortage? Since the latter half of 2025, analysts and industry insiders have warned of a looming memory chip shortage coming in 2026and its one of the few tech predictions that have been right. This year, the world is in a full-blown memory crisis. There isnt enough computer memory to go around, and that scarcity is leading to surging demandand surging RAM prices. The driving force behind the memory chip shortage is artificial intelligence. But not the AI itself. Rather, the hardware companies need to run their AI systems. An artificial intelligence system like ChatGPT or Googles Gemini requires massive data centers to run on and compute the billions of requests these chatbots get every day. Those data centers, in turn, need servers, and those servers need memory to carry out the AI tasks. The world is currently in the middle of an AI data center build-out boom, and that massive data center expansion is leading to a surge in memory demand the likes of which the industry has never seen. When memory makers are unable to keep up with demand, a shortage arises, which is exactly where we are today. Micron and Sandisk stocks are skyrocketing There are four major memory makers traded on the U.S. markets: Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) Sandisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK) Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: WDC) Seagate Technology Holdings (Nasdaq: STX) Of those four, Micron and Sandisk are the two firms that primarily make short-term computer memory, which is designed to temporarily store information and help carry out tasks at lightning speed. This kind of memory is seeing the worst shortages. Western Digital and Seagate primarily make long-term computer memory, such as for SSDs, used to retain your documents and photos for a long time. Given that all four of these companies are seeing demand for their memory products soar, its little surprise their stock prices have been soaring as of late, too. In the past five days alone, as of Fridays closing bell, the share prices of all four companies have risen significantly. Over the previous five-day period: Micron stock has risen 15% Sandisk stock has soared 25% Western Digital is up 11% Seagate is up nearly 9% And today, those memory makers are seeing their share prices rise even further. As of this writing, in premarket trading, MU shares are up 4.3%, SNDK shares are up nearly 3%, WDC shares are up 3.3%, and STX shares are up over 2.5%. These continued stock price gains can primarily be attributed to the global memory shortage. How will skyrocketing memory prices affect me? Of course, while investors in the four big memory companies may be quietly cheering on the global memory shortage that is driving their stock prices higher, that shortage is bad for anyone else planning to buy a computer or smartphone this year. While the memory used in AI data centers and that used in laptops and smartphones are different, many memory makers are diverting production resources away from making the consumer type of memory bound for smartphones and laptops to making the higher-end memory that AI giants need (because that type of memory is more profitable). This, in turn, means less consumer memory is being made that is suitable for personal devices, so the makers of those devices have to pay more to get their hands on whatever they can. When smartphone and laptop makers pay more for components, they usually dont just absorb the increased costs; instead, they pass them on to consumers. If youve recently shopped for memory or even SSD hard drives online, youll probably have seen that prices are much higher than they were last year. And as 2026 progresses, those higher prices will also translate into higher prices for laptops and smartphones, and the memory shortage worsens. Most industry analysts do not expect the memory shortage to get better until sometime in 2027 at the earliest. What to look for next When it comes to the global memory shortage and memory chip maker stocks, the next big thing to look for is Micron Technologys second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings results, which will take place this Wednesday, March 18. Analysts will closely dissect the language used by Micron executives to glean insights into how memory demand is changing and whether production capacity is increasing. After Microns earnings on Wednesday, the next event to keep an eye on will happen in early May, which is when Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate are expected to announce their next results. Memory chip stocks are far outperforming the Nasdaq Whats especially remarkable about Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagates run lately is that their stock prices have not been significantly impacted by the broader pullback of the Nasdaq on which they trade. While the four memory companies have seen their stock prices rise by nearly 9% to 25% over the prior five trading days, the Nasdaq Composite has declined 1.6% over the same period, largely due to uncertainties about the war in Iran. Year-to-date, the gap between the four memory makers and the Nasdaq Composite is even starker. Since the year began, the Nasdaq Composite is down 4.2%. But in the same timeframe, Micron is up 49%, Western Digital is up 58%, Seagate is up 39%, and Sandisk is up a staggering 178%.
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