Trump says Israel, Lebanon leaders to hold talks Thursday

Near Singapore, thousands of miles from the Strait of Hormuz, ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil have continued during the Middle East war, helping Tehran evade sanctions and maintain trade with China.

Nearly 400 tankers are sanctioned by the United States, the European Union or Britain for their activities related to Iran -- which is now facing off against the United States during a tense ceasefire.

The ageing vessels that make up Iran's "ghost fleet" operate clandestinely, exploiting opaque ownership structures, false flags, a lack of insurance and manipulation of GPS data to keep a low profile.

Ship-to-ship (STS) transfers on the high seas allow them to "launder" cargoes, disguising their origin.

An area off Malaysia and Singapore, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of the Malay Peninsula, has emerged as a strategic hub for moving Iranian crude.

Each week, dozens of transfers between tankers -- not only Iranian -- can be seen from the air, an AFP analysis of satellite imagery found.

"It's really the main hub," said Amir Handjani of the US-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He described the STS situation there as "total anarchy".

These transfers have continued during the war, despite a temporary easing of US sanctions.

On March 20, Washington authorised the sale of Iranian oil already stored on vessels before that date. The authorisation is due to expire on April 19.

But faced with "contradictory activities" by the United States -- easing sanctions then blockading Iranian ports -- "it's safer to keep exporting Iranian oil using shadow vessels and then STS transfers than it is to try to export that oil legitimately," said Elisabeth Braw, an expert at the Atlantic Council.

- Destination China -

Iranian tankers leave the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz having loaded with crude, usually at Iran's strategic Kharg Island, according to analysis of several maritime tracking platforms.

They then skirt the Indian subcontinent and pass through the Strait of Malacca to Singapore on a two- to three-week journey, before anchoring and waiting for another tanker to take their cargo.

Since March 1, at least 37 Iran-linked tankers have transferred their cargo at sea in the area, amounting to at least 62.3 million barrels of crude, according to data from maritime tracking firm Kpler analysed by AFP.

When specified, the final destinations of these cargoes were ports in China's northern provinces of Shandong, Liaoning and Jiangsu.

Most of the vessels left the Gulf before war broke out on February 28, but at least six Iranian tankers -- among 26 that have crossed the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict -- have transferred their cargoes (totalling 10 million barrels) in recent weeks near Singapore.

The Silvia 1 loaded one million barrels at Kharg in February, passed through the Strait of Hormuz on March 3, arrived in the Singapore area on March 21, and transferred its cargo around March 25 to the Yug.

The Yug then took on the cargo of a second Iranian tanker, the Seastar III, on April 3.

The destination of the Yug is unknown, but the Comoros-flagged tanker is accustomed to STS transfers and generally delivers its cargoes to ports in Shandong, according to data compiled by Kpler and the NGO Global Fishing Watch.

- Iranian oil stored at sea -

Two other cargoes that left the Gulf on the Hilda I and the Amber were transferred to other tankers near Singapore at the end of March, and are expected to arrive at the ports of Yantai (Shandong) and Lianyungang (Jiangsu) on Thursday and Friday, according to Kpler.

Cargoes sometimes undergo several STS transfers.

The cargo of the Amber (two million barrels) transferred to the Medna on March 31, then to the Star Pine on April 4, before heading for China.

Kpler cannot rely on ships' automatic identification systems (AIS) transponder signals, which are switched off at key moments, to estimate cargoes and identify transfers within this shadow fleet.

Instead, the company uses algorithms comparing ships' AIS signals with past routes and analysing their draught, which can indicate when cargo has been offloaded.

STS transfers are likely to thrive due to the US blockade of Iranian ports that started on Monday, especially as "there's a lot of Iranian oil still on the water as floating storage," Naveen Das, an analyst at Kpler, told AFP.

jah-cl-lam/jwp/rlp/jhb

Near Singapore, thousands of miles from the Strait of Hormuz, ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil have continued during the Middle East war, helping Tehran evade sanctions and maintain trade with China.

Nearly 400 tankers are sanctioned by the United States, the European Union or Britain for their activities related to Iran -- which is now facing off against the United States during a tense ceasefire.

The ageing vessels that make up Iran's "ghost fleet" operate clandestinely, exploiting opaque ownership structures, false flags, a lack of insurance and manipulation of GPS data to keep a low profile.

Ship-to-ship (STS) transfers on the high seas allow them to "launder" cargoes, disguising their origin.

An area off Malaysia and Singapore, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of the Malay Peninsula, has emerged as a strategic hub for moving Iranian crude.

Each week, dozens of transfers between tankers -- not only Iranian -- can be seen from the air, an AFP analysis of satellite imagery found.

"It's really the main hub," said Amir Handjani of the US-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He described the STS situation there as "total anarchy".

These transfers have continued during the war, despite a temporary easing of US sanctions.

On March 20, Washington authorised the sale of Iranian oil already stored on vessels before that date. The authorisation is due to expire on April 19.

But faced with "contradictory activities" by the United States -- easing sanctions then blockading Iranian ports -- "it's safer to keep exporting Iranian oil using shadow vessels and then STS transfers than it is to try to export that oil legitimately," said Elisabeth Braw, an expert at the Atlantic Council.

- Destination China -

Iranian tankers leave the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz having loaded with crude, usually at Iran's strategic Kharg Island, according to analysis of several maritime tracking platforms.

They then skirt the Indian subcontinent and pass through the Strait of Malacca to Singapore on a two- to three-week journey, before anchoring and waiting for another tanker to take their cargo.

Since March 1, at least 37 Iran-linked tankers have transferred their cargo at sea in the area, amounting to at least 62.3 million barrels of crude, according to data from maritime tracking firm Kpler analysed by AFP.

When specified, the final destinations of these cargoes were ports in China's northern provinces of Shandong, Liaoning and Jiangsu.

Most of the vessels left the Gulf before war broke out on February 28, but at least six Iranian tankers -- among 26 that have crossed the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict -- have transferred their cargoes (totalling 10 million barrels) in recent weeks near Singapore.

The Silvia 1 loaded one million barrels at Kharg in February, passed through the Strait of Hormuz on March 3, arrived in the Singapore area on March 21, and transferred its cargo around March 25 to the Yug.

The Yug then took on the cargo of a second Iranian tanker, the Seastar III, on April 3.

The destination of the Yug is unknown, but the Comoros-flagged tanker is accustomed to STS transfers and generally delivers its cargoes to ports in Shandong, according to data compiled by Kpler and the NGO Global Fishing Watch.

- Iranian oil stored at sea -

Two other cargoes that left the Gulf on the Hilda I and the Amber were transferred to other tankers near Singapore at the end of March, and are expected to arrive at the ports of Yantai (Shandong) and Lianyungang (Jiangsu) on Thursday and Friday, according to Kpler.

Cargoes sometimes undergo several STS transfers.

The cargo of the Amber (two million barrels) transferred to the Medna on March 31, then to the Star Pine on April 4, before heading for China.

Kpler cannot rely on ships' automatic identification systems (AIS) transponder signals, which are switched off at key moments, to estimate cargoes and identify transfers within this shadow fleet.

Instead, the company uses algorithms comparing ships' AIS signals with past routes and analysing their draught, which can indicate when cargo has been offloaded.

STS transfers are likely to thrive due to the US blockade of Iranian ports that started on Monday, especially as "there's a lot of Iranian oil still on the water as floating storage," Naveen Das, an analyst at Kpler, told AFP.

jah-cl-lam/jwp/rlp/jhb

A Paris court on Thursday handed a former silverware keeper at France's presidential palace a two-year sentence for stealing hundreds of thousands of euros worth of luxury items between 2023 and 2025.

Thomas M. was ordered to wear an electronic tag for a year, with the second year suspended, for stealing exclusive tableware and other items worth nearly 400,000 euros ($470,000), the court ruled.

He was also fined 10,000 euros and barred from working in a similar position and from setting foot in an auction house ever again.

His partner, Damien G., was also sentenced to two years. He was ordered to wear an electronic tag for eight months, with the remaining 16 months suspended.

The couple sold most of the stolen items via a Vinted business account and on Facebook, and said they had pocketed around 15,000 euros in profit.

A third man, Ghislain M., who bought nearly 80 of the items, was given a one-year suspended prison sentence. 

The case came to light last year when the Sevres national porcelain manufacturer -- which makes many of the valuable plates for the presidential palace -- saw some of the items listed on auction sites. 

Investigations quickly focused on Thomas M., a contract worker in the Elysee's silverware department since 2020 and the only staff member with direct access to the warehouse keys.

According to the manufacturer, the estimated value of the items was 377,370 euros -- a sum the defence described as "absurd". 

During the trial in February, the former maitre d'hotel said he had stolen the objects for their beauty, but decided to sell them to pay off heavy debts. 

amd/spm/ah/yad

Lufthansa said Thursday that it was accelerating savings plans by closing a regional subsidiary as the German aviation giant struggles with surging fuel costs due to the Iran war and a wave of labour strikes.

The group also said it would reduce capacity on long- and short-haul routes after the US-Israeli conflict against Iran sent global energy prices soaring.  

As well as the hit from the war, Europe's biggest aviation group has had to contend with a wave of strikes by staff in recent months -- this week alone, cabin crews and pilots are staging back-to-back walkouts for five straight days. 

The group announced in a statement that its small CityLine carrier, which mainly operates short-haul flights from destinations in Europe to Frankfurt and Munich, would stop operating on Saturday. 

The loss-making carrier's 27 aircraft would be "permanently removed from the flight programme", it said. 

The closure was due to "significantly increased kerosene prices, which have more than doubled compared to the period before the Iran war, as well as rising additional burdens from labour disputes", it said. 

Lufthansa, which also operates the Eurowings, Austrian and Swiss airlines, had previously said it planned to close CityLine and has set up a new subsidiary, City Airlines, to serve similar routes. 

But the shutdown had not been expected so soon.

To reduce capacity, or the number of seats it offers, Lufthansa said it would ground six aircraft operating on long-haul routes after the summer.

Five aircraft from Lufthansa's main airline serving short- and medium-haul routes would also be taken out of service later in the year. 

- 'Painful step' -

The measures will save on costs as it would reduce Lufthansa's overall fuel consumption and also remove less fuel-efficient aircraft from the group's fleet, it said. 

While most of Lufthansa's kerosene was secured via long-term contracts, 20 percent still needs to be bought on the open market at "significantly" higher prices on the open market, it said.

"The package for accelerated implementation of fleet and capacity measures is unavoidable in light of the sharply increased kerosene costs and geopolitical instability," said Till Streichert, the airline's chief financial officer.

Shuttering CityLine was a "painful step", he added. Lufthansa is trying to find jobs for affected staff in other airlines of the group. 

Lufthansa's shares were down over two percent in Frankfurt after the announcement. 

Gerald Wissel, an aviation expert at Airborne Consulting, told AFP that removing some older aircraft from the group's flight schedule "makes sense... as they consume a great deal of fuel".

But he warned that making the announcement just as Lufthansa's management is locked in tough negotiations with unions could prove "unwise". 

"That will only further harden the positions and is unlikely to lead to an agreement," he said.

The news came a day after Lufthansa marked its centenary with a ceremony at Germany's biggest airport in Frankfurt, with celebrations marred by staff protesting outside.

Other airlines have taken steps including hiking ticket prices and slashing routes due to what is widely seen as the worst crisis for global aviation since the Covid pandemic. 

Industry figures are warning of looming shortages of jet fuel if the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's crude oil usually passes, does not open soon. 

The strategic waterway has been almost totally closed since the Iran war started at the end of February. 

sr/js

French drinks giant Pernod Ricard said Thursday that talks to buy Brown-Forman, the US owner of Jack Daniel's whiskey, were continuing after reports of a rival American offer by Sazerac.

Pernod unveiled in March talks for a "merger of equals" to create a global spirits leader built around their flagship brands, including Absolut Vodka and Jameson whiskey.

But the company declined to comment directly on reports of a rival Brown-Forman offer from the US spirits group Sazerac, during its presentation of quarterly sales to end-March.

"Discussions are ongoing, so at this stage, I have no further comments to make, "Helene de Tissot, Pernod's vice president for finance, said during a conference call with analysts. 

"As stated, we did not intend to communicate further until either an agreement is reached or discussions are terminated," she added. 

Contacted by AFP, both Brown-Forman and Sazerac declined to comment. 

Pernod and Brown-Forman confirmed their talks in March, saying they aimed for a "merger of equals" to combine Brown-Forman's iconic brands with its own distribution strength and exposure to higher-growth markets.

Their merger would create a major industry force as alcohol consumption weakens worldwide.

The discussions come as the alcohol sector faces a difficult global environment, with consumption falling among younger drinkers and new tariffs -- particularly in the United States -- hurting major producers.

Pernod reported Thursday a 14.6 percent drop in sales for its financial third quarter to end-March, to 1.95 billion euros ($2.3 billion)

The group was hit by lower sales to China and the United States amid trade wars that have ratcheted up tariffs, as well as a strong euro that makes Pernod brands more expensive on global markets. 

cho/js/cw

The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Pope praised by peer -

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the new leader of the world's Anglicans, hailed Pope Leo XIV's "courageous call" for peace following a war of words with US President Donald Trump.

"I stand with my brother in Christ, His Holiness Pope XIV, in his courageous call for a kingdom of peace. As innocent people are killed and displaced, families torn apart, and futures destroyed, the human cost of war is incalculable," Mullally said.

- Israel warning -

Israel's defence minister warned Iran against rejecting a US proposal focused on renouncing "nuclear armament" and vowed to stage "even more painful" strikes on new targets if it did so.

"Iran is standing at a historic crossroads: one path is renouncing the ways of terror and nuclear armament... in line with the US proposal, the other leads to an abyss," Israel Katz said. 

"If the Iranian regime chooses the second path, it will quickly discover there are even more painful targets than those we have already struck," he said. 

- Pakistan, Iran meet -

Pakistan's powerful army chief met Iran's parliament speaker in Tehran, Iranian state television said.

There were no further details on the contents of the latest meeting, which came a day after Asim Munir arrived in Tehran with his delegation, bringing what Iranian state television described as a message from the United States.

- Exports through Hormuz collapse -

Iran was the top exporter of commodities through the Strait of Hormuz in March, as shipments from other countries fell off a cliff with Tehran's blockade of the vital waterway, data by analytics firm Kpler showed.

Shipments by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Qatar dropped by at least 96 percent each in March compared to the previous 12 months' average, according to Kpler. 

Iran's shipments did also fall -- but by only 26 percent, the data showed. 

- US warning on blockade -

The United States will blockade Iranian ports for "as long as it takes," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, threatening renewed strikes if Tehran does not make a deal.

"If Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy," Hegseth said.

US forces began blockading Iranian ports at 1400 GMT on Monday after peace talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement the previous day.

- UK preparing for shortages -

UK government officials have drawn up contingency plans for possible food shortages caused by a scarcity of carbon dioxide if the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, a report said.

A secret government analysis envisaged shortages of CO2, which is critical to the food industry, unless Iran and the United States reach an agreement to open the vital waterway, The Times daily reported.

Officials had been working through a "reasonable worst-case scenario" in an event codenamed "Exercise Turnstone", it said.

- Key bridge, road destroyed -

The Israeli military destroyed a key bridge in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"Enemy aircraft carried out two consecutive strikes on the Qasmieh bridge, the last bridge between the Tyre and Sidon regions, completely destroying it," the NNA said.

Another strike hit a road linking Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus, NNA said. 

- Israel, Lebanon talks? -

US President Donald Trump said the leaders of Israel and Lebanon will speak on Thursday in what would be a historic first, but there was no confirmation from either side.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun stressed the importance of a ceasefire before any talks, saying it "was a natural starting point.".

Trump's announcement comes as Washington pushes to ease hostilities following the first direct talks between the two countries in decades this week, when their ambassadors met in the US capital.

- Extra diesel -

Australia has secured more than 500,000 barrels of diesel from Brunei and South Korea, as the country looks to boost stocks hit by the Middle East war, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said

"I can announce that my government has secured an additional 100 million litres (26 million gallons) of diesel from two shipments. One from Brunei, where I was yesterday, and one from South Korea," Albanese told a news conference in Malaysia.

burs-ach/giv

Former Kansas big man Bryson Tiller will become the first men's basketball player in the longtime heated Border War rivalry to move from the Jayhawks to Missouri.

The 6-foot-11 rising redshirt sophomore announced Thursday morning that he is transferring out of the portal to Mizzou.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Trade Commission and eight states have sued three of the country’s largest advertising agencies for allegedly conspiring not to buy advertisements on websites and social media platforms that promote disfavored political viewpoints.

According to the FTC’s complaint, the advertising agencies Dentsu US, Inc., GroupM Worldwide LLC - which operates under the name WPP Media - and Publicis, Inc. agreed to use the same “brand safety” standard to avoid buying ads on websites containing “lawful but disfavored content.”

The companies have already resolved the litigation, agreeing to orders that last for 10 years and prohibit the defendants from conspiring with other advertising agencies not to buy advertising space with any “website, application, broadcaster, or publisher” based on its “news and political or social commentary content.”

Advertising agencies, whose business involves buying ad inventory for clients who want to place ads on websites and social media, develop their own brand safety standards for their clients to avoid placing ads on sites that might damage the client’s brand by, for example, placing an ad on an adult-oriented site.

Beginning in 2018, the FTC alleged, the defendants established a “brand safety floor” based on designations of websites that contain “misinformation” identified by third-party organizations like NewsGuard Technologies, Inc., Global Disinformation Index, Check My Ads and Media Matters for America. These organizations, the FTC stated, “sought to elevate concerns within the digital advertising industry about what they viewed as ‘misinformation,’ in order to deprive certain sites of the digital ad revenue they needed to survive.”

By agreeing to the same brand safety standard, the FTC claimed, the defendants eliminated an important aspect of competition between the advertising agencies.

“In a competitive market, the ad agencies would have faced strong economic incentives to capture business from their rivals by developing lower cost, higher quality, better targeted, and more innovative brand-safety tools—all to the benefit of their advertiser clients. Advertisers would also likely benefit from this competition by getting more value for their advertising budgets,” the complaint states.

In its press release, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson emphasized that “[t]he ad agencies’ brand-safety conspiracy turned competition in the market for ad-buying services on its head… The antitrust laws guarantee participation in a market free from conduct, such as economic boycotts, that distort the fundamental competitive pressures that promote lower prices, higher quality products and increased innovation.”

Chairman Ferguson was the only FTC commissioner to vote in favor of issuing the complaint. Commissioner Mark Meador was recused from the vote.

The FTC, which typically has five commissioners and no more than three from the same party as the president, currently is operating with only two. 

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas along with final orders and stipulated permanent injunctions agreed to by each of the defendants. The states of Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, Utah and West Virginia joined the complaint and final orders. 

This action is part of a broader effort by the FTC, extending back as early as May 2025, to identify companies within the advertising industry that have allegedly censored politically disfavored content.

In late May 2025, the FTC served subpoenas on 17 companies in the advertising industry to investigate “whether online advertisers and/or advertising agencies have unlawfully agreed to use certain lists promulgated by other industry participants that categorize or rate content publishers as not ‘brand suitable’ or not ‘brand safe,’ to coordinate the placement of ads.”

One recipient was NewsGuard, which the FTC’s recent complaint described as a “ratings agency that ranks the reliability of media outlets.” NewsGuard’s reliability ratings were among those allegedly used by the advertising agencies to set the “brand safety floor” at the heart of the FTC’s complaint.

NewsGuard, represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, petitioned the FTC to quash the subpoena arguing that it represented “unconstitutional retaliation against NewsGuard based on its protected First Amendment activities” and included overbroad demands for “sensitive subscriber information, customer communications, and internal deliberative materials” in violation of the First and Fourth amendments.

In its petition, NewsGuard asserted that it had been the target of a campaign by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who in a November 2024 letter “alleged that NewsGuard was part of a ‘censorship cartel’ alongside major technology companies and that NewsGuard ‘leverag[es] its partnerships with advertising agencies to effectively censor[] targeted outlets’” and claimed that the “incoming Trump Administration would investigate and take action against NewsGuard.”

In the wake of Carr’s statements, according to NewsGuard, President Trump appointed Ferguson and Carr to their respective chairmanships at the FTC and FCC.

The FTC denied NewsGuard’s petition to quash the subpoena in March and ordered it to comply by April 9. Again, Chairman Ferguson was the only commissioner voting to deny the petition as Commissioner Meador was recused.

The complaint against Dentsu, WPP Media and Publicis is not the first action brought against the industry by the FTC.

In June 2025, the FTC sued to stop the merger of the third- and fourth-largest advertising agencies in the U.S., Omnicom Group, Inc. and The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc., alleging that the combination would increase the likelihood of collusion among the remaining agencies. 

Omnicom and IPG agreed to a consent decree that allowed the merger to proceed on the condition that the companies agree not to enter into “any agreement or practice that would steer advertising dollars away from publishers based on their political or ideological viewpoints.”

Iran was the top exporter of commodities through the Strait of Hormuz in March, as shipments from other countries fell off a cliff with Tehran's blockade of the vital waterway, data by analytics firm Kpler showed.

Iran is usually the fifth largest exporter of commodities -- goods such as crude oil and other petroleum products, liquified natural gas (LNG), and dry bulk including fertilisers -- through the strait.

But shipments by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Qatar dropped by at least 96 percent each in March compared to the previous 12 months' average, according to Kpler. 

Iran's shipments did also fall -- but by only 26 percent, the data showed. 

Tehran's forces choked off the strait after Iran was attacked by the United States and Israel on February 28. Since then it has allowed only a trickle of ships to pass through.

Around a fifth of the world's crude oil and LNG normally passes through the strait, and Tehran's paralysing of it ignited fears of a global energy crisis, with Asian countries in particular impacted in recent weeks.

A US blockade of Iranian ports has appeared to further curb traffic of the trade route already paralysed by Iranian forces in recent days. 

Bahrain and Kuwait did not ship any commodities through the strait in March. 

Qatar, normally a major LNG supplier, exported just 45,000 tonnes of butane and propane through the strait in March, and no LNG. 

Crude oil made up 81 percent of Iran’s exports through the Strait of Hormuz last month, up from 62 percent on average from March 2025 to February 2026. 

lam-lmc/gr/st

Lawsuits over climate change in California will be on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether they can be pursued.

San Francisco Judge Ethan Schulman Tuesday issued a stay of the litigation, finding it would “be in the interests of justice” to do so while the Supreme Court makes its decision in Boulder’s lawsuit against Suncor.

Dozens of lawsuits brought by government officials who hired private lawyers on contingency fees have been filed through the years, though only Hawaii’s and Colorado’s supreme courts have let them progress past Big Oil’s motions to dismiss. Most recently, the Maryland Supreme Court affirmed dismissals of cases by Annapolis and Baltimore, finding they “cannot be seriously contemplated.”

Though they make claims for public nuisance and violations of consumer protection laws, defendants and the Trump administration assert they are improper attempts to influence the international energy market. State judges in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Maryland and New Jersey have agreed.

“Pausing wasteful and nonsensical claims that 50 US states and their subdivisions should set global climate policy through lawsuits is a victory for common sense and reliable energy,” said Theodore Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, who represents Chevron.

The cases consolidated in San Francisco include the State of California’s, San Mateo County’s, Marin County’s, Oakland’s, Imperial Beach’s, Santa Cruz’s, Richmond’s and San Francisco’s.

Jackpot-seeking lawyers crafted their complaints to claim companies like Exxon tricked the public into using fossil fuels. They were also designed to stay out of federal court, where the energy industry could have mounted an even stronger defense.

But state court judges have found the cases seek to regulate emissions standards – the job of federal regulators. In February, the Supreme Court granted Suncor’s petition to review the Boulder case, in which its motion to dismiss was denied.

Amicus briefs in the case have poured in, urging the justices to rule on key issues persisting in the more than 30 climate lawsuits. A ruling for the energy industry is likely to close the other lawsuits around the country.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall led a group of 26 states that said Boulder is trying to “assert a power with no analogue in our Nation’s history and no place in our federalism.”

Republicans in Congress also filed a brief, complaining the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling created a patchwork of state and local regulations for a market that is supposed to be overseen by federal authorities.

And the Trump administration, which has issued an executive order forbidding any new cases and is battling the attorneys general of Michigan and Hawaii in court, submitted its thoughts last year, saying Boulder is attempting to impose new rules that would go far beyond the borders of Colorado.

“If, as the Colorado Supreme Court held, those theories are consistent with federal law, then every locality in the country could sue essentially anyone in the world for contributing to global climate change,” that brief says.