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This Is Why Gas Prices Aren't Going Back Down

How The FBI Tracks You In 2026 & Why Poodle Mixes Are Crazy

Author

Marcus Gee-Lim
March 19, 2026

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering why gas prices aren’t coming down, the happiest country on Earth, America’s missile shortage, the FBI’s shady tracking practices, the Fed’s interest rate decision, and why some doodles are a little deranged.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to send any comments or feedback to [email protected]!

“I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” ― Joan Didion

Prices At The Pump Are Only Pumping Up

“South Pars Onshore Facilities” via tasnimnews.ir. CC BY 4.0.

Oil prices broke $110 per barrel yesterday after Israeli airstrikes hit a facility located atop the South Pars gas field (the world’s largest natural gas field) in Iran. Soon after, Qatar announced that the Ras Laffan industrial facility, a major energy hub for the petrostate, was struck by Iranian missiles in an apparent retaliatory attack (the U.S. and Qatar are close allies). 

“As previously warned, if the fuel, energy, gas, and economic infrastructures of our country are attacked by the American-Zionist enemy, in addition to a powerful counterattack against the enemy, we will severely strike the origin of that aggression as well,” said Iran’s military. “We consider targeting the fuel, energy, and gas infrastructures of the countries of origin legitimate and will retaliate strongly at the earliest opportunity.”

That threat seems to have actually worked, kind of. President Trump replied by promising that Israel would no longer attack Iran’s South Pars gas field, but warned that the U.S. would “massively blow up the entirety” of the field if Iran continues striking Qatari oil infrastructure. “I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran,” he wrote via social media. 

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for business, at least for ships not approved by Iran. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that roughly 90 ships – including multiple oil tankers – have been allowed to travel through the strait since the war started. Those ships, according to the AP, are likely affiliated with Iran, and have helped the Iranian regime fund its war by bringing millions of barrels of oil out of the country over the past few weeks.

Mostly, this means that your gas prices are headed in one direction (up) for the foreseeable future. It also highlights that the U.S. might have made a serious miscalculation in starting this war with Iran, as the country is perfectly positioned to make this a really painful affair for the entire world.

Who’s The Happiest Of Them All?

by Ximonic via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • The latest edition of the World Happiness Report was released yesterday. As usual, Nordic countries topped the list, with Finland, Iceland, and Denmark coming in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively. Costa Rica surprisingly came in 4th place (the highest-ever ranking for a Latin American country), and Sweden and Norway came in 5th and 6th.

  • The ranking was created by asking people from each country to evaluate their lives on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best life possible. The researchers then combine this data with other data reflecting each country’s GDP per capita, life expectancy, generosity, and perceptions of freedom and corruption to come to a more complete happiness rating for each country.

  • First-place Finland ended up with an average score of 7.764, far above the U.S.’s score of 6.816. “Successful societies cooperate in the face of adversity,” said one happiness researcher and economist. “The Finns know this. And once you have the sense that you are in this together, there’s no end to what you can do.”

A Paucity Of Patriots

  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that his country will soon face missile shortages in the war with Russia, as the U.S. has diverted its military resources towards the war with Iran. Zelensky said that the U.S. – and therefore its allies, including Ukraine – will “definitely” run out of Patriot air defense missiles sometime soon. “America produces 60-65 [Patriot] missiles per month,” Zelensky said. “Imagine, 65 missiles per month is about 700-800 missiles per year, produced each year. And on the first day in the Middle East war, 803 missiles were used.”

  • Zelensky made the grim prediction during an interview with the BBC – during the talk, he also claimed that Russian president Vladimir Putin wants the U.S. to be bogged down in a “long war” with Iran in order to siphon American resources away from Ukraine. He also accused Trump of not being on “any side” in the Russia-Ukraine war, claiming that the president is scared to “irritate” Putin for some reason.

Additional World News

Our Shady Tracking Program Is Totally Legal

  • Yesterday, FBI Director Kash Patel told Americans that his agency is tracking them by buying their location data from internet ad-tracking companies. Patel admitted to the tracking policy while under oath at a Senate intelligence committee hearing, when Senator Ron Wyden brought up previous testimony from former FBI head Christopher Wray. In 2023, Wray told Congress that the agency was not purchasing location data from internet ad companies, though he noted that it had done so in the past. 

  • “Is that the case still?” Wyden asked Patel. “And if so, can you commit this morning to not buying Americans’ location data?” Patel replied, “We do purchase commercially available information that’s consistent with the constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us.” 

  • The Fourth Amendment grants Americans the right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” from the government, and also states that the government can’t issue warrants without probable cause – technically, though, buying data from ad tracking services means that the government isn’t collecting that data themselves. This means that it’s (currently) legal, though many privacy advocates believe that this is a loophole that needs to be closed.

The Fed Doesn’t Flinch

  • Yesterday, the Federal Reserve once again voted to keep interest rates steady, marking the third time in a row that the bank has opted to keep rates stable. Despite Trump’s consistent pressure on the Fed to lower rates (allowing money to flow more freely through the economy), the bank is worried about the massive cloud of economic uncertainty kicked up by the U.S.’s war with Iran.

  • “We just don't know what the effects of this will be and really no one does,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell. As a reminder, the economic picture was already uncertain before Israel kicked off the war with Iran – official jobs numbers for the past few months have been consistently revised down after their release, and the fallout from Trump’s tariffs is still being figured out. Now, the bank is predicting that inflation will rise to 2.7% by the end of 2026, a significant jump from the 2.4% it predicted in December. The Fed’s annual inflation target remains 2%, meaning it’s increasingly unlikely to cut rates even if the unemployment rate continues to get worse.

Additional USA News

 

What The Deuce Is Wrong With My Doodle?

  • According to the U.K.’s Royal Veterinary College, designer “doodle” dogs – which are created by breeding poodles with various other dog breeds – are more likely to display “undesirable behaviours” than purebred dogs. The study found that doodles (including labradoodles, golden doodles, and cockapoos) “do not always behave as expected, particularly regarding training, anxiety and aggression.”

  • Researchers focused on “problem behaviors,” which includes problems like a fear of loud noises, separation anxiety, or over-excitability. In 82% of cases where one of the doodle dog’s parents displayed one of these issues, the doodle offspring exhibited a more exaggerated version of that same problem.

  • The study doesn’t offer one single reason for the increased problem behaviors. One factor could be the breeds that people mix with poodles, expecting them to become relaxed homebodies. Cockapoos – the offspring of cocker spaniels and poodles – displayed some of the most problematic behaviors, as cocker spaniels are hunting dogs bred to flush out game in the wilderness. Another issue could be their coats, as doodles often require more grooming than you’d expect – “Dogs might be walking around in a lot of pain which will affect their behaviour,” said one dog expert.

Additional Reads

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Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella