Company earnings expected to soar to between $200m and $700m in first quarterBusiness live – latest updatesShell is expected to report “significantly higher” profits from its commodity trading desks in the first quarter of this year after weeks of market volatility triggered by the Iran crisis.The surge in energy commodity markets over recent weeks is expected to drive up trading results at Shell’s chemicals and products unit, which includes its main oil trading desk. Continue reading...
The move would be a major escalation in the US-Israel war against Iran. Plus, FBI director admits to buying data tracking Americans’ locationsGood morning.Donald Trump threatened to “massively blow up” the world’s largest gasfield after Israeli strikes on Iran’s South Pars field led Tehran to take revenge on energy facilities across the Middle East.What’s happening to oil and gas prices? Brent crude rose by 8% to $116 a barrel. European gas prices jumped, with the Dutch wholesale gas price up 24%.What do we know about the war’s economic cost? The war cost the US $12.7bn by day six – the total is likely to have now exceeded $18bn. Here’s a visualization of how that has been spent.Could US-Israeli attempts to take out Iranian leaders backfire? Some analysts think so. “It is not an approach that produces Jeffersonian democrats but hardened resistance fighters. It breeds more resistance,” said Sanam Vakil, an Iran expert at Chatham House.Follow our live coverage here.Who has spoken out? Labor rights activist and co-founder of the UFW Dolores Huerta, 95, released a statement on Wednesday saying: “I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.” The report also includes the stories of two women, who were daughters of organizers in the movement, who said they were children when the grooming and abuse began. Continue reading...
US president claims Israel will not attack South Pars again – but threatens to destroy ‘extremely important and valuable’ site if Iran continues to attack gas facilities in QatarMiddle East crisis – live updatesDonald Trump threatened to “massively blow up” the world’s largest gasfield after Israeli strikes on the Iranian site prompted Tehran to step up attacks on energy facilities across the Middle East.Israel’s decision to target the South Pars gasfield on Wednesday marked a major escalation of the war, heightening fears of significant disruption to international energy supplies. Continue reading...
US president says Israel will not launch another attack on the giant gasfield shared by Iran and Qatar, but promises to destroy it if Tehran retaliatesIsrael strikes Iran’s South Pars gasfield hours after forces kill intelligence minister Fighting intensifies between Israel and Hezbollah in southern LebanonWelcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and the broader crisis in the region, and global economy.Donald Trump has threatened to “massively blow up” the entire South Pars gas field if Iran carries out any more retaliatory attacks on Qatar’s LNG gas facilities.The Pentagon “has asked the White House to approve a more than $200bn request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official”, the Washington Post reports.The oil price climbed towards $110 a barrel on Wednesday as the mounting threat to the Gulf’s oil and gas infrastructure fuelled concerns of more disruption to global supplies, amid the continuing blockade of the strait of Hormuz.QatarEnergy said “sizeable fires” caused extensive damage at its LNG facilities after Iranian missile attacks in the early hours of Thursday.An attack set a ship ablaze early on Thursday off the UAE coast, authorities said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said “a vessel has been hit by an unknown projectile, which has resulted in a fire onboard”.French president Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate moratorium on striking civilian infrastructure, and said civilian populations and their needs must be “protected from military escalation”.Three Palestinian women were killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, in the first deadly Iranian strike there.A man was killed in central Israel in the latest round of Iranian missile fire, medics say. It brings the death roll in Israel from the war to 15.Republicans in the US Senate blocked a measure that aimed to reign in Donald Trump’s power to wage war against Iran without congressional authorisation, winning a 53-47 vote. Continue reading...
• Iran hit Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City energy hub with missiles on March 18, 2026, causing extensive damage to QatarEnergy facilities.
• Tehran also fired four ballistic missiles at Riyadh and attempted a drone attack on a Saudi gas facility, both intercepted by Saudi defenses.
• The attacks mark a major escalation in the US-Israel-Iran war, driving oil prices higher and disrupting global supplies.
