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Markets are down amid concerns over the Iran war - but it could be a lot more drastic.

Markets are down on Iran war, but the slump could be a lot worse

Investors’ relatively calm response to the attack on Iran will be short-lived if the hostilities drag on.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz

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The narrow strip of water off Iran affecting petrol prices

About a fifth of the world’s oil and LNG passes through the Strait of Hormuz every day. What happens when a war breaks out across it – and how does it affect petrol prices?

  • Angus Holland, Jackson Graham and Madeleine Heffernan
The Strait of Hormuz is the critical choke point in the global oil industry, with about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and roughly a third of its LNG passing through it each day.

Dire straits: The oil industry is facing its worst nightmare

The US-Israeli assault on Iran has brought into sharp focus a critical choke point for global shipping.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
British Airways made a demonstration Concorde flight to Caracas in 1975, pictured here. Air France made the city a weekly destination for its supersonic flights.

Once the epitome of glamour, Venezuela is in crisis. How did it get to this?

After months of military build-up, the US attacked Venezuela and took President Nicolás Maduro and his wife into custody. Why might this intervention feel like deja vu?

  • Angus Holland, Jackson Graham and Felicity Lewis
Maduro addresses supporters during a rally in Caracas last month.

The former bus driver who squeezed the life out of Latin America’s richest nation

Nicolás Maduro’s arrest by US special forces ends an unlikely 13-year presidency dressed up in myths and lies.

  • Simeon Tegel
US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House in Washington DC.

The future is electric: Hot metals are exposing the fossil fuel fantasy

Drill, baby, drill: The arrival of the revanchist Trump administration was seen by the carbon industry as an opportunity to demonstrate fossil fuels’ indispensability to the world. It didn’t work out that way.

  • David Fickling and Ruth Pollard
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Russian President Vladimir Putin.

America’s new sanctions on Russian oil may be biting too late

Had the West focused earlier on the flow, rather than the price, of Russian oil exports, the outcome of the war in Ukraine might have been very different.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at the Anchorage press conference in Alaska on the weekend.

Blacklisted: Trump puts the squeeze on Putin

The US decision to sanction two Russian oil giants was perfectly timed and is set to affect Putin’s ability to conduct the war the way he wants.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump dealt a blow as the world is flooded with oil

The OPEC+ oil cartel is trying to take back control of the market with a strategy that might be self-destructive. It also undermines a key plank of Donald Trump’s economic strategy.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
Markets remain close to record levels.

The alarm bells should be ringing louder in markets

From the Middle East crisis to Trump’s trade wars and everything in between, investors are seemingly ignoring the escalating risks growing for markets. They may live to regret it.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz