Air pollution has become a growing concern around the globe, with several governments now acting to improve air quality. The new European Cancer Code addresses the problem of air pollution directly and suggests that greater action must be taken. However, several EU countries are failing to properly manage air pollution, resulting in a multitude of health conditions and contributing to global warming. A 2025 report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) suggests that, between 2005 and 2023, air pollution in the EU contributed to thousands of…

London’s cabbies could be priced out of the market unless regulators step in to curb “predatory pricing” from deep-pocketed tech giants, the boss of Addison Lee has warned. Chief executive Liam Griffin said companies like Waymo, Wayve, or Tesla risk undercutting traditional operators by subsidising fares to win market share, echoing concerns from the early days of Uber’s expansion. “We do feel that there is a danger that the big players can come in and ride roughshod over the existing industry”, Griffin said.…

Freight rates for tankers to ship Saudi crude from the Yanbu port on the Red Sea to Asia have slumped from the highs seen earlier this month, as more vessels are diverting to the Saudi export port that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz.  Tanker rates on the Yanbu-Asia route have slumped from a high of over $450,000 per day in early March to about $200,000 per day for voyage agreed this week on a 2011-built very large crude carrier (VLCC), according to sources familiar with the deals and brokerage reports cited by Bloomberg. With the Persian Gulf-Asia…

Some trading entities profited millions of U.S. dollars from trades in oil futures contracts on Monday, just 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump posted about “very good and productive conversations” with Iran, which sparked a relief rally and made market observers question the suspiciously well-timed oil trades.  Oil futures plunged by 10% on Monday morning ET after President Trump said he would postpone expected strikes on Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure for five days, pending negotiations that would…

Some trading entities profited millions of U.S. dollars from trades in oil futures contracts on Monday, just 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump posted about “very good and productive conversations” with Iran, which sparked a relief rally and made market observers question the suspiciously well-timed oil trades.  Oil futures plunged by 10% on Monday morning ET after President Trump said he would postpone expected strikes on Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure for five days, pending negotiations that would…

Oil markets are turning chaotic as conflicting signals from Washington blur reality—talks with Iran may or may not be happening, threats shift by the day, and yet crude keeps climbing amid escalating tensions. Is the White House Trading Its Own Announcements? - A move widely interpreted as another edition of a classic Trump ‘TACO’ move, the White House has announced a 5-day postponement to US attacks on Iran power and energy infrastructure, citing ‘very good and productive conversations’.    - Whilst…

On February 28, U.S. and Israeli forces launched Operation Epic Fury, killing Iran's Supreme Leader and triggering a military response that has effectively shut down the world's most critical energy corridor.  The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global oil supply and 30% of seaborne LNG flows every single day, is, for all practical purposes, closed. Brent crude is now sitting above $100…  Qatar declared force majeure on its LNG exports,  wiping out roughly 20% of global LNG supply in a single announcement… …

Foreign investors are pulling the most money out of Asia’s key equity markets since the 2008 financial crisis as the oil shock from the war is ripping through Asian energy supply and economic prospects.   Foreign investors in the key Asian markets have sold so far in March a net $50.45 billion worth of equities in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, according to data from LSEG cited by Reuters.  The sum is the highest selloff of Asian equities on these exchanges in one month since…

China has warned of an "uncontrollable situation" amid the escalating Strait of Hormuz crisis and urged all sides to halt military operations as the war involving Iran enters a critical phase and threatens global energy supplies. On March 21, US President Donald Trump issued Tehran a 48-hour ultimatum to lift its partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow Gulf passage that carries about 20 percent of global oil and gas supplies, or face potential strikes on its key energy infrastructure.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters…

Australian oil and gas producer Santos was forced on Tuesday to shut down its newly-commissioned Barossa LNG plant, temporarily shutting the Darwin LNG export plant just as the global gas markets scramble for supply with the Middle East’s LNG out of the picture.  Darwin LNG is now under “temporary shutdown”, necessary to replace equipment on the offshore production vessel at the Barossa project which feeds the export plant, a spokeswoman for Santos told the Australian Financial Review.  It was not immediately clear when…

Oil prices were spiking again in early Asian trade on Tuesday, reversing part of the previous session’s steep losses as Iran denied claims that it had engaged in negotiations with the U.S. At the time of writing, West Texas Intermediate had climbed to $91.54, up 3.87%, while Brent crude had risen 3.43% to $103.40. The rebound follows a dramatic selloff on Monday, when Brent briefly fell below $100 per barrel for the first time since March 11 after President Trump claimed Washington had held “very good and productive” conversations…

The U.S. has already launched hundreds of missiles and precision-guided weapons in the escalating conflict with Iran, an air campaign that has consumed billions of dollars in advanced military hardware in just weeks. But a new warning circulating in Chinese and Western media suggests the materials needed to keep producing those weapons may be running dangerously low. Reports from the South China Morning Post and Reuters indicate Washington could have only weeks or months of certain rare-earth inventories available for defense manufacturing if supply…

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday the White House is in contact with what he described as a “respected” IranianGold Breaks, Bitcoin Rallies as Iran War Scrambles Safe Havens figure and claimed Tehran is now pushing for a deal to end the war as it enters its fourth week. He also extended a deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, giving it five more days before the U.S. moves ahead with strikes on Iranian power infrastructure. The shift marked a sharp reversal from the weekend, when Washington and Tehran traded threats…

At the end of February, the Alberta government released its draft budget for the year, forecasting a deficit resulting from low oil prices, set to extend over the next three years. Now, Canada—and Alberta specifically—are about to become some of the big winners from the oil price rally resulting from the Middle East supply crunch. Canadian oil producers are set to get an additional revenue of some C$90 billion ($65.6 billion) from the rally, Enverus recently predicted, using modelling that showed for every $10 gain in oil prices, Canadian…

There is a persistent belief in energy debates that refuses to die: renewables and electrification are necessary, but expensive. It is often framed as an unavoidable trade?off — clean energy comes at a premium, while fossil fuels remain the cheaper, more reliable baseline. That assumption is now being tested against reality. And reality is not being kind to it. As gas prices climb again amid tensions around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Europe is seeing a familiar pattern: electricity prices surge in regions heavily exposed to gas, while…

The once peaceful South American nation of Ecuador is being rocked by cocaine related violence. Since the 2020 pandemic, the tiny country’s murder rate has spiraled higher, hitting an all-time high of nearly 51 murders per 100,000 people during 2025. The tiny impoverished country of less than 20 million is regularly affected by extreme bloodshed, conflict, and lawlessness despite frequent security crackdowns. The rapid rise of cocaine trafficking and related brutality is sharply impacting government finances and Ecuador’s broken oil…

Shortly before the war with Iran began, I wrote that the seeming complacency among government officials and financial market participants was based on two assumptions which I argued were unlikely to turn out to be true: 1) President Donald Trump would make a last-minute deal with the Iranians and declare victory and 2) even if Trump didn't make such a deal, the Iranians would not do all the things which they threatened to do if attacked. Here we are, three weeks into the conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran. There was, of course,…

The United States is the world’s biggest crude oil producer—it has been for years, and it has been pumping more than 13.6 million barrels per day of oil for the past few months. Then why, some would ask, are U.S. gasoline prices surging because of a conflict half a world away? First and foremost, the price of crude oil carries the biggest weight in the formation of gasoline prices in America. And the price of crude oil has soared in the past three weeks since the war in the Middle East began. Second, the U.S. – even with the highest…

Richard Walker has urged the government to consider imposing a temporary cap on energy company profits, warning that households risk bearing the brunt of another price shock linked to the Middle East conflict. The Iceland boss, recently appointed as a Labour peer and cost-of-living adviser, said ministers should examine limiting earnings for producers and retailers during periods of extreme volatility. “I have asked the government to consider a temporary profit cap … to stop producers and retailers exploiting the crisis to make windfall…

Chinese state oil giant Sinopec, Asia’s biggest refiner by capacity, will not buy Iranian oil even after the U.S. waiver on purchases of crude from Iran loaded on tankers as of March 20, a senior Sinopec executive said on Monday.      Sinopec, officially known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, is weighing the potential risks of Iranian oil trade and “basically won't buy” Iranian crude, the company’s president Zhao Dong said, as carried by Reuters.   The U.S. Treasury Department’s…