MEXICO CITY (AP) — Environmentalist groups accused Mexico's government of lying about the origins of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, something authorities promptly denied.
The spill of off the coast of the southern Veracruz state has spread more than 373 miles and into seven nature reserves. It has dealt an environmental blow to the region as turtles and other marine life have been found on sea shores coated in oil, and to fishermen who have been unable to work in the oceans they have fished for decades.
Mexico's government reported that 800 tons of hydrocarbon-laden waste have spilled into the ocean. The government said the spill started in March and the sources were a ship anchored off the coastal state of Veracruz and two sites from which oil naturally flows.
On Monday, a group of 17 organizations — including Greenpeace Mexico, the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking and the Mexican Center for Environmental Rights, or CEMDA — contradicted that claim and said that satellite images they captured show that the root of the spill was actually a pipeline from Mexico's state-run oil company, Pemex, and that a large oil slick appeared in early February.
“All this lack of information is causing massive economic and environmental damage. So far no one has been held accountable,” Margarita Campuzano, spokesperson for CEMDA, said Tuesday.
Images from February circulated by the activists match images obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday through Copernicus, the European climate agency. The photos show a boat floating over a sea clouded with what the groups say is oil, which appears to be streaming out of a platform.
The groups said that the boat in the images is Árbol Grande, which specializes in pipeline repair — implying that the government knew about the spill before it had reported and “hid it.”
Pemex called the information and images circulated by the groups “inaccurate” and said the Árbol Grande boat permanently traverses the Gulf of Mexico, “carrying out preventive inspections of platforms and specialized spill response operations.”
Campuzano called for greater transparency and more aggressive investigations by authorities.
“They're trying to dilute their responsibility when technology makes it very easy to know where this occurred and who is responsible," she said.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday denied the accusations during her morning press briefing and said that up until now, “no leak has been reported” in state oil infrastructure and that such natural seeps in the Gulf have happened in the past.
She said the government was investigating with scientists if the spill was “due to these natural seeps in the area, which have been reported on many occasions and are well-documented in scientific literature, or a leak from one of the facilities.”
Sheinbaum said that it was more probable that the spill came from the natural seeps, and added that teams were hard at work cleaning up the spill and mitigating the effects.
While government officials recognized the impacts on turtles, birds and fish, and the spread to protected ecosystems, they also insisted that it had not caused “severe environmental damage.”
The accusations come as environmental groups in the United States have also raised alarm after the Trump administration exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act, saying environmentalists’ lawsuits threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies during the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Critics said the move could harm marine life and also doom a rare whale species.
Associated Press writer Teresa de Miguel in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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Clumps of oil residue stain the shore after fishing outings were suspended because of an oil spill that Mexican authorities said originated from an unidentified vessel and two natural oil seeps along the Gulf coast in Salinas, Mexico, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Mexican Navy sailors load bags of sargassum stained with oil from a spill in the Gulf of Mexico that authorities said originated from an unidentified vessel and two natural oil seeps, in Veracruz, Mexico, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Clumps of oil residue lie on the shore after fishing outings were suspended because of an oil spill that Mexican authorities said originated from an unidentified vessel and two natural oil seeps along the Gulf coast in Salinas, Mexico, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart delivered another quarter of impressive sales with speedy deliveries and low prices becoming a strong magnet for people across the income spectrum that are spending more on almost everything, particularly gasoline.
Yet like other major retailers posting financial results this week, Walmart was cautious about the rest of the year given the current economic uncertainty. On Thursday, it issued a forecast for the current quarter that was weaker than what Wall Street had been expecting.
Shares slipped about 7% Thursday.
Walmart has resonated with many Americans who are increasingly careful about where they spend their money as inflation takes a bigger bite out of paychecks, notably gasoline which has soared since the start of the Iran war in late February. Walmart can serve as a barometer of consumer spending given its vast customer base. More than 150 million customers are on its website or in its stores every week, according to Walmart.
One telling shift during the quarter that captures the stress many Americans are feeling: The number of gallons that customers put in their cars during visits to U.S. Walmart and Sam’s Club gas stations fell below 10 for the first time since 2022, which was the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s an indication of stress,” said Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey.
Walmart touted strong sales that were fueled by online shopping on Thursday.
Comparable sales at U.S. Walmart stores rose 4.1% during the three-month period ended April 30. Walmart’s U.S online sales rose 26%, the company said.
Walmart’s promise of lower prices, faster delivery and a refresh of its merchandise has attracted wealthier shoppers. The biggest gains in market share for Walmart are coming from households with annual income over $100,000. That shift is taking place as lower-income shoppers become more entrenched in what economists collectively call a K-shaped economy.
“We see with our customers that the high-income customer is spending with confidence into many categories, while the lower income consumer is more budget conscious and perhaps navigating financial distress,” Rainey told analysts on Thursday.
Rainey told analysts that higher fuel prices took a bite out of profits as it was forced to absorb higher transportation costs. And while the company is focused on offering low prices, Walmart may raise prices later if fuel costs remain high, he said.
U.S. retailers have spent months navigating an uncertain economic environment, from President Donald Trump’s tariffs to the impact of soaring gasoline prices due to the war. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline raced higher this week and did so again overnight. Gasoline prices are about 45% above where they were at this time last year.
Based on quarterly financial reports from Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's and TJX, shoppers are cautious but still spending, helped by more generous tax refunds. Yet there is a widespread belief among economists that once those refunds dry up, shoppers will pull back on spending. Consumer spending is the dominant economic engine for the U.S., and retreat would have broad implications for the U.S.
Target reported the largest jump in comparable sales in four years Wednesday, but a cautious outlook overshadowed rather convincing evidence that changes under the company’s new CEO are landing solidly with customers. Target raised its annual revenue outlook Wednesday, but it was still below the pace of its first quarter this year.
The nation’s two largest home improvement retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s reported strong sales, but both companies said that customers are putting off larger home projects.
“I think, overall, this has been the most difficult housing market that I’ve faced in this business since the financial crisis,” Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said this week.
Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas reported first-quarter earnings of $5.33 billion, or 67 cents, for the quarter ended April 30. Adjusted per-share results were 66 cents, matching the 66 cents that analysts expected, according to FactSet.
For the year-ago quarter, the company reported net income of $4.48 billion, or 56 cents per share.
Sales rose 7.3% to $177.75 billion in the fiscal first quarter, above the $174.84 billion that analysts predicted.
Walmart said higher fuel prices took a bite out of profits as it was forced to absorb higher transportation costs.
The company highlighted its speedier deliveries, which is driving more shoppers to buy more often. Rainey said that roughly 60% of U.S. online deliveries arrive at customers' homes in 30 minutes or less.
For the second quarter, Walmart expects sales to be 4% to 5% higher than the same period a year ago. It also expects per-share profit to be between 72 cents and 74 cents. Analysts had been projecting per-share earns of 75 cents on sales of $186.2 billion, according to FactSet.
Walmart stuck to the annual guidance that it issued in February.
Drones operated by Zipline leave base to make deliveries from a Walmart store in Pea Ridge, Ark., Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
