Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the Iran war’s impact on global oil prices, a landmark corruption trial in Turkey, and the United States’ campaign to combat Latin American drug cartels.
Oil Price Spike
Crude oil prices spiked on Monday as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran continues to impact global energy flows. The cost of a barrel of Brent crude surged to $119.50 early Monday before falling to below $100, while West Texas Intermediate saw prices reach $119.48 before slipping back down to under $100. The last time that these futures traded at such high levels was in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the Iran war’s impact on global oil prices, a landmark corruption trial in Turkey, and the United States’ campaign to combat Latin American drug cartels.
Oil Price Spike
Crude oil prices spiked on Monday as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran continues to impact global energy flows. The cost of a barrel of Brent crude surged to $119.50 early Monday before falling to below $100, while West Texas Intermediate saw prices reach $119.48 before slipping back down to under $100. The last time that these futures traded at such high levels was in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a virtual standstill. Typically, around 20 percent of the world’s oil passes through Hormuz; however, the threat of Iranian attacks coupled with high insurance costs have all but stopped oil and gas tankers from daring to make the journey. Israeli strikes on several Iranian oil facilities over the weekend—believed to be the first attacks on Tehran’s energy infrastructure since the war began—are expected to further exacerbate the crisis.
Iran has threatened to attack oil facilities in neighboring Gulf countries if the strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure persist. “If you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday.
The White House, though, has been quick to downplay concerns about the rising prices. On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that crude prices would soon fall and that there was no need to tap the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve right now. Energy Secretary Chris Wright promised on Sunday that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would resume once U.S. forces destroy Iran’s ability to threaten shipping. Wright also told CNN that the United States has “no plans” to target Iran’s oil industry.
G-7 finance ministers convened on Monday to discuss crude costs. Although they decided not to use their strategic reserves at this time, they did not rule out future use. “We’re not there yet,” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said. “We stand ready to take necessary measures, including to support global supply of energy such as stockpile release.”
In the meantime, heavy bombardments from all sides are threatening to widen the conflict. On Monday, NATO air defenses intercepted a second Iranian ballistic missile—this time after it had already entered Turkish airspace. “We once again emphasize that all necessary measures will be taken decisively and without hesitation against any threat directed at our country’s territory and airspace,” Turkey’s defense ministry said.
Still, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for now ruled out invoking NATO’s Article 4, which would require allies to determine whether a member was threatened. Ankara’s main goal is to keep the country out of the Iran war, Erdogan said. Turkey has NATO’s second-largest military.
Other key developments to keep an eye on:
- Iran accused U.S. forces on Saturday of attacking a desalination plant on Qeshm Island, affecting the water supply for 30 villages. The following day, Bahrain accused Tehran of causing “material damage” to a desalination plant and “indiscriminately” attacking civilian targets. “The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.
- Video footage released on Sunday appears to show a Tomahawk missile hitting an Iranian elementary school on Feb. 28, killing at least 175 people. As the United States is the only force involved in the war that is known to have Tomahawks, evidence suggests that Washington was responsible for the strike. Trump on Saturday asserted, without providing evidence, that the strike “was done by Iran.” The U.S. Defense Department has said it is still investigating the matter.
- The United States confirmed on Sunday the death of a seventh U.S. service member. The soldier died from wounds sustained on March 1, when Iran struck a Saudi military base that housed U.S. troops. On Monday, Washington ordered nonemergency U.S. government personnel to evacuate Saudi Arabia.
- Iranian authorities named Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, on Monday local time as the country’s new supreme leader. Mojtaba succeeds his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just days after he was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Today’s Most Read
The World This Week
Tuesday, March 10: France hosts the second-ever Nuclear Energy Summit.
Wednesday, March 11: Chile inaugurates José Antonio Kast as its new president.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten.
European Council President António Costa visits Azerbaijan.
European Union defense ministers convene in Cyprus.
Saturday, March 14: Japan and the United States cohost the inaugural Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum in Tokyo.
Sunday, March 15: The Republic of Congo holds a presidential election.
Vietnam holds legislative elections.
Kazakhstan holds a constitutional referendum.
Monday, March 16: EU energy ministers convene in Brussels.
What We’re Following
Corruption trial. A landmark trial against Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu and 401 other defendants opened in Istanbul on Monday. According to a 3,800-page indictment, Imamoglu orchestrated a vast criminal network designed to finance his political ambitions against Erdogan—using bribery, extortion, and money laundering, among other measures, to achieve his aims.
Imamoglu denies the charges. “Everything I have experienced to date in the cases filed against me and throughout their hearings indicate that I will not receive a fair trial,” Imamoglu told the New York Times. Rights groups maintain that his detention was merely an excuse to prevent the popular former Istanbul mayor from defeating Erdogan in Turkish elections.
Turkish authorities arrested Imamoglu last March on corruption charges, sparking mass anti-government protests calling for his release. Rather than bow to public demands, though, Erdogan ordered the arrests of thousands of people. Imamoglu’s detention shows that “the regime doesn’t worry anymore about preserving even a veneer of democracy for the sake of its legitimacy,” Halil Karaveli argued in Foreign Policy at the time, even though Erdogan has stopped short of outright banning Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party.
Another lethal operation. U.S. forces attacked an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Sunday, killing six people. This brings the total death toll of those killed during Washington’s campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific to at least 157 people. The White House maintains that these vessels are being used by “narco-terrorists,” though it has yet to provide any evidence to support that. Legal experts argue that these strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings, as they target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence.
Sunday’s operation came one day after Trump hosted Latin American leaders in Florida to unveil a new coalition designed to “eradicate the criminal cartels plaguing our region.” During the inaugural Shield of the Americas summit—which Trump has framed as central to executing his Donroe Doctrine—the U.S. president blamed attendees for allowing gangs to seize control of their countries, placing particular emphasis on Mexico. He also suggested that the White House could use missiles on cartel leaders if nations requested them.
The United States has designated more than a dozen groups in Latin America and the Caribbean as foreign terrorist organizations, a majority of which received the label during Trump’s second term. Over the past year, the White House has ordered 45 military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels, captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, blocked foreign oil shipments to Cuba, and provided intelligence for the killing of a major Mexican drug lord.
Boosting Liberal power. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called special elections on Sunday for three districts in a bid to secure a majority in parliament. Currently, Carney’s Liberal Party holds 169 seats in the House of Commons. To be in a better position to pass legislation without having to rely on opposition support, the Liberals need to gain a mere three seats—though House of Commons Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia would still need to cast tiebreaking votes to approve legislation.
By-elections will take place on April 13. Two of the districts—the Toronto area’s Scarborough Southwest and University-Rosedale—are considered safe Liberal wins, but the Montreal area’s Terrebonne is a potential toss-up. Last month, Canada’s Supreme Court annulled the 2025 election result for Terrebonne after a judicial recount found that Liberal lawmaker Tatiana Auguste had won the seat by one vote instead of the initially declared winner Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné of the Bloc Québécois party. Following the ruling, Sinclair-Desgagné demanded that a new election be held.
Carney hopes that his party’s shift to the center alongside the recent defections of several Conservative lawmakers to the Liberal Party could sway the results. Public approval for the Canadian prime minister skyrocketed in January following Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum, during which he issued a thinly veiled condemnation of the United States’ use of economic coercion.
Odds and Ends
Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo shaved 10 seconds off the half marathon world record during a race in Lisbon, Portugal, on Sunday—setting a new best time. At 57 minutes and 20 seconds, Kiplimo reclaimed his title from Ethiopian star athlete Yomif Kejelcha, who has held the record since 2024. Yet Kiplimo was not the only one with a stellar run on Sunday; four other men joined the Ugandan athlete in finishing the Lisbon race below the one-hour mark. Next up: Kiplimo hopes to break his 2:02:23 time at the London marathon on April 26.
