In May 2025, the first foreign trip of President Donald Trump’s second term took him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Widely credited with cementing regional support for the military operation against Iran known as “Midnight Hammer,” less well recognized is how that trip positioned the United States at the center of a reset of global energy markets.

Three momentous events over the last two months suggest these efforts are bearing fruit: Saudi Arabia’s 20-year natural-gas contract with Louisiana producer Caturus Energy, Qatar’s participation in the opening of the Golden Pass natural gas export facility in Texas, and the UAE’s announcement that it is leaving the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.

On Feb. 24, just days before the conflict with Iran began, Saudi Arabia announced a 20-year contract to import natural gas from the American producer Caturus’s Commonwealth liquefied natural gas (LNG) division. No longer will the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, two of the world’s largest energy producers, have a straightforward — if sometimes fraught — relationship between an importer and exporter, as has been the case for the last eight decades. They are instead embarking on an era of energy coordination that can be of tremendous mutual benefit. 

Saudi national identity, not to mention wealth, has flowed from their role as a massive energy exporter with the critical swing capacity to increase production as needed with the turn of a dial.

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Historically, the kingdom has fiercely resisted importing any energy. For this reason, the crude burning electricity generating plants, notably on the Red Sea, have been retained even though converting them to natural gas would not only make them more efficient, but also free up more Saudi oil for export.

Why this change in posture? Largely because the Saudis can see that their energy needs will grow exponentially if they realize their ambitions to become an artificial-intelligence hub, and they desire to be a tech partner to the United States in this effort.

Now, the world’s two largest energy producers are embarking on a new partnership that can offer plentiful, reliable, reasonably priced flows of energy to partners from Europe to Latin America to South-East Asia, and even, when desirable, to each other.

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Then, on March 30, after a construction process that survived a lead contractor bankruptcy, Golden Pass LNG in Sabine Pass, Texas produced its first cargo — departing for Europe on April 22. Golden Pass is a joint venture in which QatarEnergy holds a 70% stake and ExxonMobil 30%, with Qatar’s trading arm taking the lion’s share of the output. It represents Qatar’s largest foreign energy investment to date, and is a clear signal that Qatar sees the United States as a natural gas partner, not a rival.

The irony could not be sharper: just weeks before Golden Pass opened, Iranian missile strikes devastated Qatar’s home LNG facility at Ras Laffan, knocking out capacity that analysts value at roughly $20 billion in annual revenue — with repairs expected to take up to five years.

Golden Pass Train 1 came online three weeks later, and Qatar now has American-produced gas flowing to its customers at the precise moment its home facilities are dark. A decade of investment in a Texas terminal, pursued over the objections of skeptics who questioned why the world’s largest gas exporter needed an American facility, has been vindicated in a single month.

Finally, after bearing the brunt of the reckless Iranian attacks on its Gulf neighbors, the UAE announced that it would leave OPEC effective May 1. The departure of a longstanding member and one of the cartel’s three largest producers is nothing less than seismic for the organization and will significantly weaken its power.

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But laboring under OPEC’s rules, the UAE has been held to about 3 million barrels a day despite having the capacity to approach 5 million — a quota designed to regulate prices artificially, stifling the UAE’s output and making new infrastructure investments difficult to justify.

This decision moves the UAE ever closer to the United States and Trump, who has frequently railed against OPEC, accusing it of “ripping off the rest of the world” by controlling prices and supply. Liberated from OPEC’s oversight, the UAE will be free to engage in the sort of energy coordination with the U.S. that we are seeing with Saudi Arabia and Qatar on a level playing field, all of which will result on more product on the market to soften the impact of the Iran energy shock. Other dissatisfied OPEC members should take note of the UAE’s strategic vision.

All of which makes for an extraordinary trifecta of geopolitical energy wins for America in the course of about two months. While clearing the Strait of Hormuz remains a necessary challenge for President Trump, and the world needs that energy to flow freely again, he can approach this action from a position of strength rather than of desperation.

Throughout Operation Epic Fury the powerful energy might of the United States has been on full display, and we have the potential to come through the conflict in a much stronger position, in coordination with Gulf partners and allies, to continue to supply the global energy needs that Iran has tried to hold hostage.

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A former Ironman triathlete was stunned to learn that his vision problems were actually the first sign of stage 4 lung cancer.

Dave Nitsche, 57, was initially given just 12 to 24 months to live – but an experimental drug has helped him surpass that timeframe by several years.

“In 2019, I noticed that I was having trouble seeing with my left eye,” the Canadian man shared during an interview with Fox News Digital. “I went to the optometrist, and they said it was probably a detached retina.”

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After scans revealed fluid buildup and rising pressure, doctors determined that Nitsche had lost vision in the eye — and ultimately removed it. A biopsy of the fluid revealed that it was cancerous.

Next, Nitsche saw more specialists, who extracted fluid from his lungs for more testing. “The next day, the oncologist told me that I had stage 4 lung cancer,” he said. 

Nitsche said his doctors were “very shocked” to find that his initial eye issues had stemmed from lung cancer – particularly because he had never been a smoker.

Azam J. Farooqui, MD, a hematology and oncology physician at Ironwood Cancer & Research Centers in Chandler, Arizona, agreed that Nitsche’s case was “very surprising.”

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“Cancer can find its way to some very odd locations, but the eye is a very, very rare one,” Farooqui, who did not treat Nitsche, told Fox News Digital. “Usually cancer will get there via a nerve channel or blood vessel, but it’s very uncommon.”

Nitsche, an ex-triathlete who has done multiple Ironman races, hadn’t experienced any other symptoms other than the eye issues. “I was running quite a bit at the time,” he shared. “I had a little bit of back pain here and there, but lung cancer definitely wasn’t on my radar.”

His first treatment was a targeted therapy called afatinib, which lasted about three months. When doctors found that the cancer had spread to Nitsche’s brain, he began taking another medication called Tegrisso (osimertinib), which crosses the blood-brain barrier.

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After six years, when those drugs stopped working, Nitsche started taking a chemo drug called Rybrevant (amivantamab), which he receives via IV infusion every three weeks in a supervised medical setting. After a year on the drug, which is manufactured by Janssen Biotech, Inc. in Pennsylvania, his scans are looking “very, very good,” he said.

“Science is catching up to me perfectly with all these drugs that I’m on,” Nitsche said. “Now, we’ll just wait for the next thing to come along and we’ll jump onto that. But for now, the Rybrevant is working perfectly.”

Nitsche has experienced a few side effects, primarily skin irritation and fingernail infections, but said for the most part, the drug is “very tolerable.”

Compared to the full-dose chemo and other lung cancer treatments, Farooqui agreed that Rybrevant is “very manageable.”

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Other common side effects can include infusion reactions, muscle and joint pain, mouth sores, swelling, fatigue, nausea, bowel changes, vomiting, cough, shortness of breath and low appetite, according to FDA prescribing information.

In rare cases, serious effects can include lung inflammation, blood clots, severe skin reactions and eye problems. Pregnant women should not take the drug due to fetal risks.

“If somebody is having too many side effects, or if it is feeling too aggressive, we can do dose reductions,” Farooqui noted. “In my experience, we’ve had patients do really well on it, and we’ve been able to manage their side effects without any major concerns.”

Rybrevant has now been approved to treat certain types of non-small cell lung cancer in the U.S. and Canada, and Nitsche said a few of his friends are also taking the drug.

“Doctors gave me a year to two years – they told me to get my affairs in order. And it’s been seven years now,” he said. “I’ll take it.”

Nitsche is now preparing for a 600-mile biking expedition in June to raise awareness for lung cancer. He credits his endurance training and high fitness level with helping to extend his survival. 

“There are days that you feel strong and there are days that you’re a little weaker, but you just adjust accordingly,” he said.

Embracing his role as an advocate, Nitsche now speaks openly about his experience and what others should know.

“If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer – but at this point, for almost any type of cancer, a diagnosis is not a death sentence,” he said. “They’re doing so much research on it, especially with lung cancer … I’ve known people who have lasted 12 to 18 years, so for me, seven years is great. So I’ll just keep going.”

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Farooqui echoed the importance of patients “advocating for themselves and getting the most up-to-date therapy there is.”

California taxpayers may be on the hook for a roughly $1 billion detour project as part of the state’s new high-speed rail construction meant to prevent disruption of a monument honoring the disgraced labor leader Cesar Chavez.

Despite tearing down and vacating memorials for Chavez, top California lawmakers did not immediately respond when asked if taxpayers in their state should still be on the hook for a roughly billion dollar detour project meant to prevent the state’s new high-speed rail from coming near the monument nestled in the mountains. The detour, according to 2020 estimates from the California High Speed Rail Authority, would cost taxpayers close to $1 billion when accounting for inflation.

California leaders, universities and beyond immediately began stripping honors they had bestowed on the late labor leader after news of him sexually abusing and grooming minors and adults, including one girl who was as young as 13 at the time of the abuse and another who became pregnant twice following their encounters.

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The Chavez-founded labor union, United Farm Workers, called the allegations “profoundly shocking” and decided earlier this year to cancel its upcoming annual celebrations honoring him. Meanwhile, the César Chavez Foundation opted to do the same, describing the allegations as “disturbing” and noting they were “deeply shocked and saddened.”

The Chavez Foundation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, successfully lobbied for the roughly $1 billion detour known as the “Refined César E. Chávez National Monument Design Option,” which moved the high-speed rail track roughly three-quarters of a mile from the Chavez monument’s boundary. The monument, part of the National Park Service, is a sprawling 187 acres and includes Chavez and his wife’s burial spots. It is also reportedly the location where Chavez founded his labor movement.

The monument already sits along a key transportation corridor with a single track looping around the site that carries dozens of freight trains a day. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the train creates a constant rumble for those walking around the site.

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“I have been to the monument,” Adriana Rizzo, a member of Californians for Electric Rail, told the San Francisco Chronicle. She noted it “is right next to a freight corridor” leading her to question “why this quieter, less-polluting train would have to be invisible.”

“This is a billion dollars we don’t have. There are a lot of other things we need. If there is a better route, we’re always open,” California High-Speed Rail Authority board director, Ernest Camacho, said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Martha Escutia, another board director, reportedly said she is “always willing to reopen current commitments to ensure we get the best savings for taxpayers.”

Estimates for the high-speed rail project have been north of $200 billion, but the rail authority has challenged those estimates, telling CBS47 and KSEE24 the estimate is closer to $125 billion.

Fox News Digital reached out to top California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, to inquire whether there should even be a debate over whether to get rid of the detour plans, particularly when many of them have taken actions to strip honors and memorials to the disgraced labor leader. However, none of them replied in time for publication.