The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has sent oil prices soaring and has prompted G7 leaders to consider the potential release of emergency oil reserves to provide relief to consumers facing higher gasoline prices.

Gas prices have risen in response to the rapid increase in oil prices, with the national average price of gas rising from $3 a gallon last week to $3.48 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA data. Oil futures have surged over 48% in the last month after trading in the range of $60-70 a barrel during February to over $95 on Monday, when futures prices were briefly above $115 before declining.

French finance minister Roland Lescure on Monday told reporters after a meeting of G7 finance ministers that leaders “are not there yet” on deciding whether to conduct an emergency release, as there aren’t current supply problems in the U.S. or Europe.

“What we’ve agreed upon is to use any necessary tools if need be to stabilize the market, including the potential release of necessary stockpiles,” Lescure added.

AMID IRAN WAR, PRESIDENT TRUMP SUGGESTS SHORT-TERM OIL PRICE SPIKE IS ‘SMALL PRICE TO PAY’ FOR PEACE

Rising oil prices can prompt an increase in the gasoline prices paid by consumers. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

Western economies develop strategic oil reserves in response to the 1970s oil crisis, with stockpiles like the U.S. government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve serving as a backstop to address disruptions in the energy market that would otherwise harm the economy or imperil national security.

Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group and FOX Business contributor, said that the “mere mention” of strategic releases was enough to pull oil prices down off of their highs, as such releases of reserves “would ease markets’ concerns of tightness of supply.”

“Historically, releases from the strategic reserve, especially in coordination with other countries, have always been successful in cooling down fear in the market place,” Flynn said. “The market has to be convinced that the transportation of that oil is going to be safe, because even if you release oil from the reserve, it’s still going to take time to get to its destination, such as the refineries.”

G7 FINANCE MINISTERS TO DISCUSS EMERGENCY OIL RESERVE RELEASE AMID PRICE SURGE: REPORT

The U.S. and its G7 partners are considering potential releases of emergency oil reserves to ease the market turmoil. (Reuters/Todd Korol)

Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told FOX Business that he expects “countries in the G7 will be forced to release oil reserves to show their public that they are taking some action to mitigate the rapid rise in prices.”

He added that he anticipates the releases will occur within the next two weeks if the conflict hasn’t reached a resolution by that time.

“Whether or not the release will have an impact will depend on if the de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues to impact oil tanker loadings and if additional oil infrastructure is damaged.”

CRUDE OIL PRICES EXCEED $100 A BARREL AS WAR IN IRAN DISRUPTS PRODUCTION, SHIPPING

Oil tankers have faced the threat of attack from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a decline in shipping traffic. (Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed)

How much could reserve releases impact gas prices?

The Treasury Department in 2022 analyzed the impact of SPR releases carried out by the Biden-era Energy Department in response to oil disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on gas prices. 

The U.S. released 180 million barrels from the SPR over six months in 2022, while International Energy Administration partners released an additional 60 million barrels.

It found that the U.S. SPR releases alone lowered gas prices by a range of $0.13 to $0.31 per gallon, whereas the oil reserve releases done by the U.S. in tandem with IEA partners had a larger effect by reducing prices $0.17 to $0.42 per gallon.

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The findings of Treasury’s analysis were similar to those from a 2017 study by Richard Newell and Brian Priest, who found that a U.S. only release would lower gas prices by $0.33 per gallon while releases by the U.S. and IEA partners would yield a larger reduction of $0.38 a gallon.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Adrian Gore
Founder, Group Chief Executive & Executive Director

Good morning. It’s really a wonderful pleasure and an honor for me, as always, to present Discovery’s interim results to 31 December 2025 this morning. I appreciate your time. We should spend, I guess, about an hour on the results. I’m joined by our Group CFO, Deon Viljoen, who is with me here. David Danilowitz, who is Head of our Investor Relations and Strategy, will anchor later the Q&A session and all of our key executives are online who will take questions. So once again, thanks from all of us for your time, and I hope we give you insight into what has been a very, very good period for our group.

So let me begin by just showing the numbers. I think they are hopefully self-evident. It has been an excellent, strong and robust period for our group. You can see normalized operating profit up 24%, normalized headline earnings up 27%, new business up 12%, and I’ll take you through obviously a lot of that through the presentation.

I thought, obviously, to provide some context, it’s almost axiomatic to say that we live in a complex and changing and volatile environment. But certainly, 2 dramatic forces are shaping virtually everything we do and to an extent, how things play out going forward will be determined by these 2 very substantial

Inside Social Casino Games: The Tech and Design Behind Slots, Cards, and Live Events

Social casino games look simple: spin, tap, win virtual coins, repeat. But the strongest titles are built like modern mobile games. Under the hood, they rely on live-service tooling, data pipelines, and carefully tuned virtual economies.

The sector’s growth is one reason the design conversation keeps widening beyond “gameplay.” As the audience expands, players pay more attention to how systems work: event pacing, fairness cues, security, and user controls.

What makes a game a “social casino game”?

Most products combine three layers:

1) Casino-style core games
Slots, roulette-style formats, poker variants, blackjack/table games, plus hybrids.

2) Free-to-play economy
Virtual currency, daily bonuses, and optional purchases.

3) Social + live systems
Events, tournaments, clubs, gifting, chat, and seasonal challenges.

The casino theme is the surface. The “live” layer is what drives repeat play.

The virtual economy: pacing is the product

A social casino economy must answer basic questions:

• How many coins does a player earn per session?
• How fast do they spend them?
• How do rewards scale with level?
• How do events change the pace?

That balancing is typically managed with analytics and experimentation. Teams run A/B tests, adjust event reward tables, and segment players (new vs. veteran, casual vs. competitive) to keep the experience stable. If the economy is confusing, or feels suddenly “tighter”, players notice fast.

RNG, balancing, and the perception of “fairness”

Players often ask whether outcomes are random. In social casino games, results are usually driven by RNG combined with balancing parameters. But perceived fairness depends on communication as much as math:

• Clear rules for bonuses and event scoring
• Consistent behavior over time
• Transparent progression (what it takes to unlock, level, or qualify)

Even a technically sound system can feel unfair if it’s opaque.

LiveOps: the operational layer most players never see

LiveOps (live operations) is what turns a static app into a weekly routine. In practice, it includes:

• Daily missions
• Weekend events
• Limited-time tournaments
• Season-style progression tracks
• Club competitions and cooperative milestones

This requires internal tooling: scheduling dashboards, event configuration, reward systems, and real-time monitoring. The better the tooling, the more varied, and stable, the event calendar becomes.

Personalization and segmentation

Most mature products personalize the experience:

• Segmentation by skill, spend, and engagement
• Offers tuned to behavior
• Recommendations for rooms and modes
• Dynamic pacing to reduce churn

This is where social casino gamesintersect with broader mobile technology: instrumentation, data reliability, and rapid experimentation.

UX is a fairness feature

UX isn’t just aesthetics. It affects whether a system feels understandable:

• Onboarding that explains coins and bonuses
• Clear navigation between rooms and events
• Progress indicators that match real outcomes
• Notifications that inform rather than overwhelm
• Accessible settings for privacy and account controls

If players can’t understand what happened, or why they lost momentum, trust erodes.

Security, integrity, and anti-cheat

As products scale, abuse attempts increase: bots, event manipulation, account takeovers, and payment fraud. Strong platforms invest in:

• Bot detection and anti-cheat
• Fraud monitoring
• Rate limiting and exploit prevention
• Secure authentication and recovery
• Moderation for chat and clubs

These systems rarely make headlines. But they decide whether competition and community remain credible.

Social Casino Games in the U.S.: What Comes Next

In the United States, social casino games are increasingly shaped by the same forces driving mainstream mobile entertainment: live events, personalization, and fast iteration based on player behavior. As the category expands, the most successful experiences are likely to be those that pair engaging game loops with clearer transparency, stronger account protections, and more accessible user controls.

For players, that shift should translate into products that feel easier to understand, safer to navigate, and more sustainably enjoyable over time, while still delivering the quick, familiar fun that made the genre popular in the first place.

Disclosure: Social casino games are typically free-to-play and use virtual currency; they do not offer real-money gambling or cash winnings. This content is for informational purposes only, always review a platform’s terms, privacy policy, and responsible play options before participating.

This article was written by

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Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

The search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC’s “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has stretched into its 39th day with no confirmed breakthroughs as of March 10, 2026. Authorities continue to describe the case as an active kidnapping investigation, with the Pima County Sheriff’s Office and FBI collaborating on thousands of tips, forensic reviews and surveillance analysis amid growing public concern.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson on the evening of January 31, 2026. Family members reported her missing the following day after she failed to respond to calls and texts. Investigators believe she was abducted, citing doorbell camera footage showing a masked individual near her residence around the time of her disappearance. The suspect is described as a male, approximately 5’9″ to 5’10” tall with an average build.

Recent developments have focused on the FBI’s tip line, which has received widespread attention. On March 5, 2026, Fox News correspondent Matt Finn shared a statement from the FBI indicating ongoing processing of leads submitted through the dedicated line. While details remain limited, the statement suggested the investigation may be shifting toward deeper analysis of submitted information, with federal agents reviewing reports of internet disruptions in the neighborhood on the night of the disappearance. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC News that investigators are “definitely closer” to resolving the case, emphasizing a dedicated homicide team working alongside the FBI.

Earlier leads have been ruled out. Black gloves discovered near the home underwent DNA testing and were traced to a local restaurant worker unrelated to the incident, the sheriff’s office confirmed on March 4, 2026. This eliminated a prominent theory that had circulated online. Other items, including a backpack found by volunteers on Day 22, yielded no conclusive ties to the case.

The family announced a $1 million reward in late February 2026 for information leading to Nancy Guthrie’s safe return or an arrest. The substantial amount, offered by an anonymous donor in addition to earlier FBI incentives, generated over 750 credible tips among more than 23,000 total submissions. Despite the influx, no arrests have been made, and on-ground searches have scaled back as resources shift to forensic and digital review.

Savannah Guthrie has remained largely out of the public eye but made an emotional visit to the “Today” studio in New York on March 5, 2026. NBC confirmed she stopped by to thank colleagues and express support, though she did not appear on air. The network stated she plans to return when ready, prioritizing family and the search effort. In earlier videos, Savannah appealed directly to anyone with knowledge, saying, “It is never too late to do the right thing,” and urging the public to come forward.

Family members, including Savannah and her siblings, were cleared as suspects early in the investigation. Sheriff Nanos described them as “cooperative and gracious” victims in the case. Authorities have emphasized no evidence points to foul play within the family.

The case has drawn national attention due to Savannah Guthrie’s prominence as a journalist and co-host. Public interest has fueled ongoing coverage, with YouTube live streams, podcasts and social media discussions tracking daily updates. Volunteers have assisted in informal searches, though official efforts now prioritize analytical work, including review of approximately 10,000 hours of surveillance footage.

Nancy Guthrie, a respected Christian author, Bible teacher and speaker, is known for works such as “Even Better Than Eden,” “Holding On to Hope” and “Saints and Scoundrels in the Story of Jesus.” She hosts the “Help Me Teach the Bible” podcast for The Gospel Coalition and leads Biblical Theology Workshops for Women. With her husband David, she organizes Respite Retreats for couples grieving the loss of a child and contributes to GriefShare resources. Her ministry focuses on biblical hope amid suffering, drawing from personal experiences.

As the investigation continues, authorities urge anyone with information to contact the FBI tip line or Pima County Sheriff’s Office. No new physical searches or press conferences were announced for March 10, but officials maintain optimism that accumulated leads will yield progress.

The prolonged uncertainty has tested the family’s resilience and the community’s patience. Prayers and support continue to pour in from across the country, with many echoing Savannah’s calls for answers and her mother’s safe return.

Friends, colleagues and followers of Nancy Guthrie’s work express hope that the investigative momentum will soon bring resolution to this heartbreaking ordeal.