Iran intensified its attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf on Thursday in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, dramatically raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy. Brent crude oil, the international standard, spiked to as high as $118 a barrel, up more than 60%.
U.S. futures were trading modestly lower early Friday following surprisingly strong jobs data from the federal government. Equities markets are closed for Good Friday, but futures markets were trading into Friday morning, albeit quietly. Futures for S&P 500 dipped 0.3%, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2% and Nasdaq futures were down 0.4%.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) – Iran’s state media said Wednesday that Israel attacked its South Pars gas field – the largest in the world and one that is shared with Qatar to the south across the Persian Gulf. Facilities associated with the gas field near Asaluyeh on Iran’s Gulf coastline were on fire on Wednesday, state media reported.
ITTEFAQ, Afghanistan (AP) – For several minutes after the earthquake struck, he could hear their screams. Then there was silence. Mohibullah Niazi, a neighbor who helped in the rescue efforts, said Saturday that the eight people killed on the outskirts of Kabul after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck northern Afghanistan.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Israel kept up its campaign of targeting Iran’s leaders on Wednesday, killing the country’s intelligence minister, and an Iranian offshore natural gas field was struck in a sign of the war’s mounting pressure – from both sides — on the region’s economic lifeblood: energy.
NEW YORK (AP) – As a Kennedy scion, Jack Schlossberg got outsized attention when he launched his congressional campaign in New York City late last year. He was already a social media star – in part through his relentless attacks on his cousin, Trump administration heath secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The ongoing American-Israeli war on Iran, for all its complexity and global effects, boils down to a single question: Who can take the pain the longest? A surge in oil prices points to what may be Iran’s most effective weapon and the United States’ biggest vulnerability in continuing the campaign: Damaging the world economy.
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
GOMA, Congo (AP) – A series of explosions attributed to drones killed at least one person, a U.N. aid worker, as the attack on the Wednesday rocked downtown Goma in eastern Congo, according to the M23 rebel group and local residents.
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