A fertilizer plant outside Lagos, Nigeria. Fertilizer shortages driven by the fighting in the Middle East, where crucial inputs are produced, can lead to poorer harvests and higher food prices around the world.
The White House press secretary said the United States would evaluate oil shipments to Cuba on a “case-by-case basis,” after a Russian tanker full of crude reached the island.
The president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, cast the permission as a “sign of respect.” He also asserted that the United States had already achieved “regime change” in Iran.
The U.S. and other exporters are poised for a windfall, but disruptions to Persian Gulf supplies are also pushing gas-buying countries to consider alternatives like coal, solar and nuclear energy.
With the Xi-Trump summit almost certainly delayed, and tensions rising over the war in Iran, vital issues for both the U.S. and China are also being cast into uncertainty.
As the conflict with Iran expands and intensifies, President Trump’s options — to fight on, or to move toward declaring victory and pulling back — both carry deeply problematic consequences.
President Trump has urged China, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea to send warships to help reopen the waterway, even though they are not involved in the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.
China and its neighbors scrambled to soften the blow of a disorderly trade war. Conflict in the Middle East now threatens to disrupt the oil imports that power their economies.
The shipping traffic and factories never stop in China’s port city of Ningbo, but the local housing market has crashed and nearby restaurants sit empty.
U.S. and European officials say they are unaware of any intelligence that shows China and Russia are endangering the island, which is protected by the NATO security umbrella.
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