Iran war drives oil prices above $100 a barrel for first time since 2022
Global oil prices surged past $100 (£74, AU$142) a barrel for the first time since 2022 as fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran continues to wipe 20m barrels of oil from the market each day.A weekend of escalating violence in the Middle East intensified concerns around a sustained supply crunch, propelling oil prices to their highest level in four years and triggering a deep stock market sell-off.At least five energy sites in and around Tehran were hit by strikes, prompting accounts of “apocalyptic” scenes in the Iranian capital.Kuwait’s national oil company also announced a precautionary production cut amid retaliatory attacks by Iran.The strait of Hormuz – one of the world’s most important trade arteries, through which about a fifth of global oil and seaborne gas tankers typically pass – has been in effect closed for a week.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped 26.3% to $117.08 per barrel as the new week’s trading began in the Asia Pacific markets, the first time market prices have soared above this key psychological threshold since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark price of US crude also soared, rising 28.7% to $119.
96 per barrel.The extraordinary spike in oil prices is “a very small price to pay” for the US “and World, Safety and Peace”, Donald Trump argued on Sunday, describing it as a “short term” consequence of the US-Israel war on Iran.They “will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over”, the US president claimed on social media.The Iranian regime warned that US-Israeli strikes risk pushing prices even higher.“If you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game,” a spokesperson for the country’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said after the weekend’s strikes on energy sites.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 7,4% in Tokyo on Monday, setting up another turbulent week for global equity markets, as South Korea’s Kospi slumped 7,4%,Australia’s ASX 200 dropped 4,1% in Sydney.
Pre-market trading data put Wall Street on course to open lower.Oil prices returned to triple digits after the highest weekly gains since the Covid pandemic six years ago, and included a $10 increase in the price of US crude on Friday alone.“The grace period given by the market to the Trump administration expired at the end of last week,” according to Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.“A deficit of 20m barrels per day is hitting global [oil market] balances with no sign of relief.To the contrary, President Trump is demanding unconditional surrender, a very unlikely prospect.
While observers may have initially thought his disregard for painful oil prices was a bluff, it’s now clear that it isn’t,” he said.The Trump administration has tried in recent days to reassure investors that the recent disruption within the oil and gas industries will not last long.“In the worst case, this is a weeks, this is not a months thing,” the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, claimed on CNN on Sunday.Such statements appear to have fallen on deaf ears.Overall, oil prices have rocketed by two-thirds from just above $60 a barrel at the start of the year.
Prices had already risen in January and February, before accelerating after the US-Israeli attack on Iran just over a week ago, which has disrupted a vital trade route for Middle Eastern oil supplies through the strait of Hormuz.Fears of a global oil shortfall were compounded late last week by Qatar’s energy minister, who predicted that if the war continued unabated all Gulf energy exporters would be forced to shut down production within weeks and oil would rise to $150 a barrel.Oil storage facilities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are reaching their limits, meaning major oilfields may need to be shut down if crude cannot be exported via the strait of Hormuz to the global market.Hundreds of tankers attempting to transit the strait have come to a halt after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to “set ablaze” any vessel using the trade route, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.Seigle warned that exports of oil and gas from the Middle East would not resume “until shipowners, operators, and insurers feel sufficiently safe from the threat environment posed by Iranian warships and aircraft, missiles, drones, speedboats, and naval mines”.
The White House has suggested countermeasures such as rerouting Saudi crude via the Red Sea, drawing on emergency US crude reserves or extending government-backed insurance to shipping companies,However, Seigle added that this would not be enough to offset the loss of 20m barrels of oil a day “or anywhere in that ballpark”,
Martha’s rule may have saved 400 lives so far in England, figures show
More than 400 lives may have been saved as a result of Martha’s rule, which lets NHS patients request a review of their care, official figures reveal.Helplines received more than 10,000 calls in the first 16 months of the scheme after its introduction in England in 2024, according to data seen by the Guardian. Thousands of patients were either moved to intensive care, received drugs they needed or benefited from other changes as a direct result of the calls.The system is named after Martha Mills, 13, who died in 2021 from sepsis after a bicycle accident. A coroner found she would probably have survived if she had been moved to the intensive care unit at King’s College hospital in London when she began deteriorating
How ADHD diagnosis helped my mental health | Letters
In suggesting there is a possibility that we all lie somewhere on an ADHD continuum, your correspondent (Letters, 27 February) is missing the point.ADHD – and autism – are neurodiversities, meaning that the brains of individuals with ADHD and/or autism are “wired” differently from those of people with “typical” brains. In other words, you either have it or you don’t. To suggest that everyone is a bit ADHD or a bit autistic is insulting to those of us who actually are ADHD/autistic, and diminishes our lived experience. Yes, self-help tools can be useful
Labour should aim to end sexual exploitation, not just curb its visibility | Letter
Your editorial on adult services websites (4 March) rightly raises urgent questions about platform harm and the government’s responsibility to act.Unseen’s modern slavery helpline indicated 799 potential victims of sexual exploitation in 2025. Reports of child sexual exploitation more than doubled in 2024 – from 53 to 110. These are not projections. They are cases reported directly to us by victims and frontline workers with nowhere else to call
NHS is letting women down through ‘medical misogyny’, says Wes Streeting
“Medical misogyny” in the UK is letting women down, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has admitted, as a survey showed half of female patients felt they had been dismissed or ignored because of their sex.A report from Mumsnet, which examined data taken from the site over the past decade, warned of “structural and deeply embedded” sexism in UK healthcare. A survey of women using the site found that more than half believed the NHS was institutionally misogynistic.The survey also found that:50% of women believe they have been dismissed, ignored or not believed by an NHS professional because of their sex.64% say they have been explicitly told their pain or symptoms were “normal” or “in their head”
A death scholar on why we need to stop being naive about dying: ‘I always hear, “Can’t you just put me into a nice meadow?”’
Dr Hannah Gould on eco-funerals, being ‘the death person’ and the one thing everyone should know before they dieGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailAround 2040, Australia will reach peak death. A silver tsunami of boomers are predicted to propel the annual death rate to double that of today, putting immense strain on the healthcare and deathcare systems.Dr Hannah Gould – a death scholar and author of the book How to Die in the 21st Century – calls it “boomergeddon”, and says it brings with it a certain range of ideas about what a good death looks like.“The overwhelming value of end-of-life decisions, particularly among the baby boomer population, is this value of right, autonomy and control,” she says.Choreographing end of life – from bespoke aged care solutions and medical interventions to prolong quality of life to one-of-a-kind burials – is increasingly possible if you have the resources
Politicians seek meeting with Travelodge CEO after Maidenhead sexual assault case
More than 20 MPs have demanded an urgent meeting with the CEO of Travelodge after a woman was sexually assaulted by a man who had been given her room number and a key card by hotel staff.The MPs said the case of Kyran Smith, 29, who was jailed for seven-and-a-half years last month, raised “deeply concerning” questions. He attacked the woman after a party in December 2022.Travelodge CEO Jo Boydell was asked to meet MPs and peers to discuss the case, including the chain’s security processes and procedures that led to it offering the victim an “insulting” £30 refund after the incident.Smith was jailed in February after being found guilty of sexual assault and trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence
Iran war drives oil prices above $100 a barrel for first time since 2022
Britain’s job market ‘floundering’ as companies remain cautious about hiring
AI allows hackers to identify anonymous social media accounts, study finds
ChatGPT driving rise in reports of ‘satanic’ organised ritual abuse, UK experts say
Lewis Hamilton confident Ferrari ‘in the fight’ with Mercedes for 2026 F1 championship
Collingwood’s cool heads rise to big AFL occasion and make point to naysayers | Jonathan Horn