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Oil Prices Are Spiking — Here's What It Means for Your Gas Tank and Grocery Bill

  Published July 17, 2026 Crude oil is trading near one-month highs this week, and if you've filled up your tank recently, you've probably already felt it. The culprit: an escalating conflict in the Middle East that's disrupting one of the world's most important oil shipping routes — and it's starting to show up at Canadian pumps and, eventually, on grocery store shelves. What's happening with oil prices West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the North American benchmark, has been trading around the $79–$80 per barrel range this week — up roughly 5% over the past month. Brent crude, the global benchmark that matters more for what Canadians pay at the pump, has been hovering near $85 per barrel, also near a one-month high. The spike traces back to renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and has intensified strikes, while Iran has responded with attacks on U.S. bases and threats to disrupt regional energy shipments further. ...

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Trump Wins Colorado Ballot Case at Supreme Court, Defying Insurrection Charge

 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that former President Donald Trump can appear on Colorado’s primary ballot for the 2024 presidential election, overturning a lower court decision that had disqualified him under a constitutional provision that bars insurrectionists from holding office.

The justices unanimously held that Colorado, or any other state, cannot invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the Civil War, to remove presidential candidates from the ballot without congressional action first. Section 3 states that any person who has taken an oath to the Constitution and has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to its enemies, is ineligible to hold any federal or state office.

The ruling came a day before Super Tuesday, when Colorado and 15 other states will hold their primaries. Trump is seeking to regain the Republican nomination and challenge Democratic President Kamala Harris, who defeated him in 2020. Trump’s campaign has been marred by allegations that he incited the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of Harris’s victory.

A Denver trial court judge had ruled that Trump had engaged in insurrection on that day, but was not disqualified from the ballot because he was not an officer of the United States at the time. The Colorado Supreme Court reversed that decision in a 4-3 ruling, finding that Trump was an officer of the United States when he took the oath of office in 2017, and that his conduct on Jan. 6 amounted to insurrection.

The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, saying that Section 3 requires a prior determination by Congress that a person has engaged in insurrection, and that states cannot make that determination on their own. The court also said that allowing states to remove presidential candidates from the ballot under Section 3 would undermine the Framers’ vision of a federal government directly responsible to the people.

The court’s decision is a major victory for Trump, who has faced similar challenges in other states, such as Illinois and Maine, where he has also been barred from the ballot. Trump has denied any responsibility for the Capitol riot, and has claimed that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him.


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