The Israeli military said it had begun a wave of strikes across Beirut on Thursday, after it warned residents of a central neighbourhood of the Lebanese capital it would target a building there. “The IDF has begun a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure across Beirut,” a military statement said, as AFPTV footage showed a strike hitting a central Beirut building.
The governor of the historic Iranian city of Isfahan has accused the US and Israel of a “declaration of war on a civilization” as heritage sites across the country suffer damage in their bombing campaign. The most serious confirmed damage to date has been to Tehran’s Golestan Palace, dating back to the 14th century, and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace in Isfahan. Judging from videos and public statements, neither historic building was hit by a missile directly but the shock wave from nearby blasts and possibly some missile debris shattered glass and brought down tiles and masonry. Video from the scene showed that Golestan Palace’s celebrated hall of mirrors had been shattered, with shards of intricate mirrorwork scattered across its floor. The palace is a world heritage site under the protection of the UN’s cultural body, Unesco, which issued a statement of concern after it was damaged on 2 March, saying it had “communicated to all parties concerned the geographical coordinates of sites on the world heritage list”. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, criticised Unesco for not being more vociferous, saying on social media: “Its silence is unacceptable.” Araghchi blamed the damage on Israel, who he accused of “bombing Iranian historical monuments dating as far back as the 14th century.” “It’s natural that a regime that won’t last a century hates nations with ancient pasts,” he added on X. One of the damaged sites was Falak-ol-Aflak Castle in the city of Khorramabad, in Lorestan province. According to the head of the province’s heritage department, Ata Hassanpour, a strike hit the castle’s perimeter on Sunday, destroying his department’s offices as well as adjacent archaeological and anthropological museums, and injuring five members of staff. “Fortunately, the main structure of Falak-ol-Aflak Castle was not damaged,” Hassanpour said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging platform. Cultural treasures in Kurdistan province in north-west Iran were also affected, according to local media. InSanandaj, the country’s second biggest Kurdish city, reports said the 19th-century Salar Saeed and Asef Vaziri mansions, which serve as Kurdish museums and heritage sites, had suffered damage to their doors and intricate stained-glass windows. In the past few days, there have been major explosions in the centre of Isfahan, Iran’s capital in three historical eras, where much of the architecture dates back to the Safavid dynasty era, from the 16th to 18th centuries. Chehel Sotoon suffered the worst impact but broken windows and doors, as well as dislodged tilework, have been reported in the Ali Qapu Palace and several mosques around the vast Naqsh-e Jahan Square. Videos filmed by residents from inside the square showed plumes of smoke rising from nearby airstrikes. The Isfahan governor, Mehdi Jamalinejad, said the damage had been inflicted even after coordinates of the historic sites had been circulated among the warring parties and after blue shield signs – denoting historical treasures under the 1954 Hague convention for the protection of cultural objects in war – had been put on the roofs of important buildings. “Isfahan is not an ordinary city, it’s a museum without a roof,” Jamalinejad said in a speech posted on social media. “In none of the previous eras, not in the Afghan wars, not in the Moghul conquest, not even during the ‘sacred defence’ [the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war] was this ever done.” “This is a declaration of war on a civilisation,” he added. “An enemy that has no culture pays no heed to symbols of culture. A country that has no history has no respect for signs of history. A country that has no identity sets no value for identity.” An Iranian geologist who worked in Isfahan for many years said in a message forwarded to the Guardian that the ancient capital was particularly vulnerable. “Isfahan has long been attacked from below, by land subsidence that is destroying the Safavid-era structures, and now from the above, by the Americans,” the geologist said. “Isfahan seems to have fewer friends than ever today.” The US Committee of the Blue Shield, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to upholding the Hague convention, issued a statement saying that Iran’s historic sites “belong not only to the Iranian people, but to all of humanity”. The organisation said it was “disturbed” by the US defence secretary’s declaration on the third day of the war that there would be no “stupid” rules of engagement, and warned that ignoring international and US laws on the conduct of hostilities could lead to the “commission of war crimes”. “The destruction of cultural heritage is irreversible,” the statement said. “It erases identity, history, and the shared memory of civilisations. No military or political objective justifies the wilful or negligent destruction of humanity’s common inheritance.”
Two people have died in Canada after donating plasma at a chain of clinics that has been under scrutiny by federal inspectors for failing to keep accurate records, screen donors or maintain its machines. While experts say the deaths are exceedingly rare, critics say Canada’s embrace of private companies to handle blood products reflects a “slow collapse of a system that has been the envy of the world”. Health Canada, the federal agency that regulates plasma clinics, said it had received reports from the clinics regarding “fatal adverse reactions” after plasma donations in October 2025 and January 2026. The deaths occurred at facilities operated by the Spanish healthcare company Grifols. In both cases, the two donors went into “distress” while donating, people familiar with the cases told the Guardian. Health Canada said its investigations were continuing. Grifols said in a statement it had “no reason to believe that there is a correlation between the donors’ passing and plasma donation”. CBC News was the first to report the fatal adverse reactions in plasma donors. Plasma, the pale yellow liquid part of blood, is used to create medications for a number of conditions, including haemophilia and helping treat burn victims. But in recent years, Canada has faced stiff pushback over the extent to which Grifols, which operates 17 facilities in the country, has become enmeshed in the world of blood plasma collection. Canada’s health agency did not disclose the identities of the two donors who died but friends say one was Rodiyat Alabede, 22, an international student who donated plasma in Winnipeg on 25 October. “Rody aspired to become a social worker, dedicating her life to helping others, a dream she was so close to achieving,” friends wrote on a GoFundMe page to raise money to help her family. “Rody was known for her kindness, compassion, and unwavering faith. She was deeply devoted to her dream and always carried herself with grace, warmth, and sincerity.” Three months later, another person died while donating plasma at a different location in Winnipeg. Health Canada said there were immediate visits to the plasma collection centres after each reported fatality and records indicated standard operating procedures were being followed. The Canadian Blood Service said it was “deeply saddened” by the deaths and that it monitored donor health and followed “the highest safety standards to safeguard both those who donate in our centres and the patients who receive blood products”. Provincial health agencies were notified only recently about the fatalities, even though the first occurred nearly six months ago. Grifols said: “Every donor undergoes an extensive health history evaluation and physical examination before being deemed eligible to donate. We strive to operate under strict operational procedures at the highest standard.” According to federal inspection reports, one facility in the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan was inspected in January and failed to “accurately assess the donor’s suitability” – one of 11 deficiencies that prompted inspectors to rate the site as non-compliant with Canada’s Food and Drugs Act and the blood regulations. Other failures include “validation, calibration, cleaning, or maintenance of critical equipment [that] were not always sufficient” and records that “were not always accurate, complete, legible, indelible and/or readily retrievable”. Another site in Alberta was found to have 10 deficiencies, including record keeping, donor screening and equipment maintenance. Grifols said: “A ‘non-compliant’ rating means that the identified operational processes require improvement and we are working hard to address those swiftly.” It added that after two recent inspections, it had “submitted detailed action plans to Health Canada and began implementation immediately with a focus on preventing recurrence and strengthening overall compliance”. It said its facilities in Calgary and Regina were previously compliant and “continue normal operations while we implement corrective actions to address the cited concerns”. Of the eight documented instances of non-compliance for blood inspections, which date back to 2016, facilities operated by Grifols made up half of all cases. One inspector with Health Canada, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian he felt the non-compliance reports were “very troubling” and believed they reflected a “deeper set of concerns” about the facilities and how they were run. Curtis Brandell, a blood safety activist who is president of the independent British Columbia chapter of the Canadian Hemophilia Society, said: “When I heard about the first death, I thought it must be a mistake. The donation procedure is safe. But when I learned of a second death – in the same city – alarm bells started going off.” One of the facilities in Winnipeg where a donor died in January, owned by Grifols, is the subject of a lawsuit after a donor said the facility used a faulty machine that damaged his blood, causing “non-reversible and permanent” injuries to his kidney. Craig Loney, an aircraft maintenance technician, said he experienced intense pain and blood in his urine after using a machine that separates the plasma from the red blood cells. He later received an email from the company operating the facility, informing him that a “machine error” caused some red blood cells removed during the procedure to be “broken” and erroneously returned into his body along with the plasma. The allegations have not been tested in court. Grifols has asked a judge to dismiss the case and said in a court filing the donor was “fully informed of the risks” of the procedure and consented to possible side-effects. Questions over the structure of how Canadians give blood and plasma are set against the backdrop of a national scandal when thousands of Canadians were infected with HIV/Aids and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1980s and early 90s. Two of Brandell’s uncles were infected through contaminated blood products. “The Canadian Red Cross knew they were sending out contaminated blood but figured anyone who needed blood needed it for life-saving reasons,” he said. “The Red Cross told themselves if people knew, it would lead to pandemonium and distrust of the system. So they just kept it quiet.” The Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada later made a series of recommendations to ensure the safety of the system. The commission said Canada should aim to be self-sufficient in blood and blood products – but not by creating a commercial donor market, and that a voluntary system was the safest and most ethical model. Canada does not produce enough plasma for domestic use, meaning it must buy its supply from abroad – most often from the US. For decades, Grifols has been one of Canada’s main suppliers of immunoglobulin, a plasma protein used to treat medical conditions such as autoimmune diseases and neurological disorders. Only three provinces – Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec – have a ban on paid donations for plasma, but under a 2022 agreement in Ontario, Grifols operates as an “agent” for the Canadian Blood Services, meaning it can in effect skirt the ban. Grifols pays up to C$100 (£55) for each donation, and donations are permitted twice a week. Those who donate more frequently are enrolled in the company’s “super hero rewards” programme and can receive prizes and cash bonuses of C$50 for every 10 donations made within six weeks. Documented concerns over the company’s problems with record-keeping and cleanliness of machinery are reminiscent of Canada’s tainted blood scandal, argued Brandell. He said the “absolutely tragic” deaths were a wake-up call and added that advocates had been promised by Canadian Blood Services that there were “robust guardrails” in place. “My concerns were, once you have a private company coming into Canada, you lose control over much of the industry. I fear the first thing we’re losing is public accountability and oversight. We were promised transparency. That’s not what we’re getting.”
Israel has issued a sweeping new displacement order for south Lebanon, instructing residents up to 25 miles away from the border with Israel to head north, as its conflict with Hezbollah continues to escalate. A spokesperson for the Israeli military on Thursday ordered all residents to head north of the Zahrani River “for their safety,” before a bombing campaign against what it said were Hezbollah targets. The order includes major Lebanese cities including Nabatieh and dozens of villages. The IDF also issued an evacuation order for a neighbourhood in central Beirut near a row of restaurants, saying the Israeli military would strike a building there. The latest orders come just days after Israel issued instructions for people south of the Litani River and Beirut’s southern suburbs. They are likely to exacerbate Lebanon’s already dire displacement crisis which has resulted in nearly a million people becoming internally displaced in 10 days of fighting. “Where can I go? Many people have gone to Beirut and returned because there’s nowhere to stay. I don’t want to be on the streets,” said Hamza Zbeeb, a 48-year-old member of the municipality of Nimiriya, one of the villages included in the evacuation order. Israel’s newest displacement order comes as its military leadership weighs an escalated campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, after the pro-Iran group launched its most intense attacks yet on Israel on Wednesday night. Hezbollah let off successive volleys of rockets and drone swarms at Israel on Wednesday night, injuring two people, with most of the projectiles either being intercepted or falling into open areas. It continued firing into northern Israel on Thursday, with warning sirens sounding in Safed and surrounding towns. Israel quickly responded by bombarding Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon, which continued into Thursday afternoon, rocking the capital city with periodic airstrikes. The exchange was the most severe yet in the 10-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, in which Hezbollah and Iran coordinated their attacks for the first time. In a statement carried by the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the “joint and integrated operation” involved a missile attack by Iran carried out in conjunction with missile and drone fire from Hezbollah. Hezbollah launched more than 200 rocket towards Israeli territory, the statement added, including Israeli military bases in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Beersheba. In Israeli border communities, many spoke of a “very difficult” night. “Last night was a bit crazy. I don’t get anxious usually but all the walls were shaking,” said Daniel Dorfman, 43, in Metula, a town a few hundred metres from Lebanon. “It’s a little bit frightening. Here we get zero warning of any attack. You hear the explosions of the interception before you hear the sirens.” Hezbollah’s operation, dubbed “Operation Chewed Wheat” – a reference to a Qur’anic verse about reducing one’s enemies to chewed wheat – was a sharp escalation by the group, believed to be battered by nearly two years of daily airstrikes by Israel. Israeli warplanes began bombing Lebanon nearly immediately after Hezbollah’s strikes. The skies of Beirut were lit red and windows around the capital city shook as Israel unleashed its most powerful bombardment of the southern suburbs yet in this round of fighting. Videos showed collapsed buildings in southern Lebanon and streets choked with smoke illuminated by roaring flames. “It was a very difficult night; what can I say? Bombing all night,” said Ali Hariri, a lawyer and first responder with the ‘Beit al-Talaba’ organisation in Nabatieh, as he stood amid the rubble-strewn streets of Nabatieh. Israel also carried out a strike in the early hours of Thursday in the neighbourhood of Ramlet al-Baida in central Beirut, on the corniche where many displaced families had been sleeping rough for the last week. The strike hit the densely packed area, with videos showing at least two men lying dead on the seaside walkway. Lebanon’s health ministry said that at least 12 people had been killed and 28 injured in the strike. “It was terrifying. We heard them hit once and then once again almost immediately. We didn’t think they would hit here. What’s here? It’s just the sea,” said Riyadh al-Lattah, a 57-year-old woodworker from the southern suburbs of Beirut who was camped out with his wife and five children across the street from the impact site in Ramlet al-Baida. Elsewhere, the health ministry said that at least 17 people were injured in the strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, though more casualties were expected from other strikes throughout the country. In southern Lebanon, Israel’s military spokesperson said that it was hitting Hezbollah’s missile launchers. They warned residents that it would “soon act with overwhelming force” against Hezbollah and that residents should distance themselves from affected areas immediately, echoing displacement orders issued for vast swathes of the country earlier last week. Human rights groups said that the orders amount to forced displacement and could amount to war crimes. They also said the Israeli military should still take efforts to prevent civilian harm, even if civilians do not evacuate. Israeli strikes have killed at least 634 people and injured 1,586 in less than 10 days of fighting. Wednesday night’s escalation took place as Israeli officials signalled a possible widening of its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel’s security cabinet met on Wednesday night to discuss Lebanon, where officials sought to stop the group’s ability to launch rockets into Israeli territory. On Wednesday, head of the Israeli military Lt Gen Eyal Zamir ordered reinforcements to its northern border, redeploying the Golani Brigade from Gaza to the north. The Golani Brigade is specialised in offensive ground operations, and analysts said the force’s redeployment could signal a larger ground invasion of Lebanon. Yaakov Selavan, the deputy mayor of the Golan regional council, said residents of the north of Israel expected the government and military to “finish the job [with Hezbollah] once and for all” and that the military should advance as far north as the Litani River, 20 miles (30km) into Lebanon. “It is non-arguable. We are not looking to occupy land. We are just looking to survive,” Selavan said. Hezbollah is reportedly preparing itself for a full-scale Israeli invasion of south Lebanon. Hezbollah fighters have been fighting with Israeli troops in south Lebanon, particularly around strategic points in the eastern parts of the country such as hilltops around al-Khiam. Small units of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force have been acting autonomously to ambush Israeli troops, which have been conducting in-and-out raids in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has reportedly spent the year-and-a-half since its November 2024 ceasefire with Israel rebuilding its capabilities and reconsolidating its organisation. Israel had killed most of the senior leadership of the group and killed or incapacitated thousands of its fighters during the 13-month war, though exact numbers are not known. Lebanon’s government has called on Hezbollah to stop its firing into Israel, and has insisted that the state should hold the monopoly of violence in the country. But its understaffed, under-equipped army has so far been unable to confront the powerful armed group directly. The government also fears provoking civil strife in Lebanon, which has a long, painful history of sectarian division and violence. The Lebanese government, with French assistance, has appealed to the international community for a ceasefire in Lebanon, calling for negotiations with Israel while vowing to curb Hezbollah’s activities in the country. Israel and the US however, are sceptical that the Lebanese government can disarm Hezbollah, with the former seemingly determined to take on the group itself.
Vladimir Putin’s “hidden hand” lies behind Iran’s military methods, the UK defence secretary, John Healey, has said, after a night in which drones struck a base used by western forces in Erbil, northern Iraq. Healey was speaking after British officers at the UK’s military headquarters in north-west London had told him that drone pilots from Iran and Iranian proxies were increasingly adopting tactics “from the Russians”. Iran has already fired more than 2,000 Shahed drones – long-range weapons heavily used by Russia against Ukraine – across the Middle East in response to the US-Israeli attack launched on 28 February. Lt Gen Nick Perry, the chief of joint operations, told Healey it appeared that Russia had since passed back tactical advice to Iran and its proxies on how to fly them. Iranian drone pilots were “flying them much lower, and therefore they were more effective” in hitting targets, Perry said. That had “proven problematic”, he said, because Shahed drones were becoming one of Tehran’s more effective weapons as the conflict heads towards a third week. Overnight, a number of drones struck a western military base in Erbil, where British military personnel were based. A UK counter drone-team there shot down two others. There were no British casualties. Talking to journalists after his briefing, Healey said: “I think no one will be surprised to believe that Putin’s hidden hand is behind some of the Iranian tactics and potentially, potentially some of their capabilities as well.” He argued that was partly “because the one world leader that is benefiting from sky-high oil prices at the moment is Putin because it helps him with a fresh supply of funds for his brutal war in Ukraine”. Russia and Iran have cooperated on military issues since Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Iran supplying and then passing on the design for Shahed 136 deltawing drones. US sources say that in return Moscow has passed Tehran military intelligence in the past fortnight, though the Kremlin denies doing so. Healey said he had discussed what was in effect the closure of the strait of Hormuz with the E5 group of European defence ministers on Wednesday, and that there were “clearer and clearer” reports that Iran was trying to mine the strategic waterway through which around a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. The UK had some “autonomous systems” available in the Middle East that could be used to search for Iranian mines, though a mine-hunting vessel previously in the region, HMS Middleton, had returned to the UK for maintenance. The effective closure of the strait, partly by drone attacks on oil tankers and cargo vessels, has pushed the oil price to about $100 a barrel. The quickest way of ending the blockade would be through “a de-escalation of the conflict”, Healey said. He did not rule out the UK eventually participating in a possible convoy of merchant shipping through the waterway, but a formal proposal is not thought to be close while the US vacillates over the issue. Britain has no available warships in or near the region other than HMS Dragon, which set sail on Tuesday for Cyprus, where it will protect UK airbases, on a voyage expected to last up to a week.
Russia has received €6bn (£5bn) from selling its fossil fuels in the fortnight since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, data suggests. The revenues imply Russia made an extra €672m in oil, gas and coal sales during March, as combined average daily prices have surged by 14% from February. The vast majority of that increase, about €625m, appears to havecome from trading oil – according to figures by the thinktank the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). The numbers have been released after Donald Trump indicated on Monday he would ease US sanctions on Russian oil in response to soaring global prices after the start of the conflict – which began on 28 February with US and Israeli airstrikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The CREA publication coincided with an International Energy Agency (IEA) warning that the war had cut the Gulf’s oil and gas production by at least 10m barrels of oil a day and had created “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”. Russia’s commodity revenues are seen as a vital part of its state budget to fund military spending, including in Ukraine. Alexander Kirk, a sanctions campaigner at the NGO Urgewald, said: “When markets panic, authoritarian exporters cash in. In less than two weeks, Russia has earned an estimated €6bn from fossil fuel exports, money that ultimately feeds the Kremlin’s war machine. “Easing sanctions now would not stabilise markets. What it would do is allow Russia to sell the same oil for a far better price. US sanctions have forced Russian crude to trade at a steep discount. A rollback closes that gap overnight and hands the Kremlin a revenue boost worth billions, at the very moment that pressure is starting to bite.” CREA figures published before the start of the Iran war showed that the money Russia earned from exporting oil and gas dropped over the previous 12 months, even as Russian oil exports increased in volume. The IEA also said on Thursday that Russia’s crude oil and refined product revenues had declined in the month before the Iran war broke out, its lowest since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The decline in February was due to a reduction of exports to India, which was discouraged by Washington from cooperating with Russia, as well as the impact of January attacks on a pipeline delivering oil to Hungary and Slovakia via Ukraine.
Muscovites have been turning to walkie-talkies and pagers amid unexplained disruptions to internet services in the capital, as the Kremlin appears to ramp up control over online activity in Russia. Users in central Moscow, as well as in St Petersburg, first reported difficulties accessing mobile internet about a week ago. Many said they were unable to load websites or apps, while some lost service altogether, leaving them unable to make phone calls. The Kremlin said this week that the outages were being introduced to “ensure security” and would remain in place “as long as additional measures are necessary”, without providing further details about the reasons behind the restrictions. For months, users across Russia have complained about widespread mobile internet shutdowns, though the disruptions have drawn far less scrutiny than those now affecting Moscow’s inner centre, the country’s political and economic hub. The outages were a “massive headache”, said Dmitry, a 31-year-old consultant in Moscow. “I’m having trouble ordering a taxi, sending work emails, or even just messaging my family.” Human rights activists said the shutdown could be linked to Moscow testing a new so-called “whitelist” system, under which only a limited number of government-approved websites and essential online services would remain accessible to Russians. Officials in Moscow previously said the “whitelist” of available websites would include “all resources needed for life”, including marketplaces, delivery services and online pharmacies. But observers say the system would dramatically censor Russians’ access to the wider web. Internet shutdowns have become increasingly common in Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2025, the country ranked first globally for the number of internet disruptions, according to estimates by the research group Top10VPN. Russian officials have previously claimed internet shutdowns were an effort to thwart Ukrainian drone attacks, though experts say such measures are unlikely to be effective. The latest disruptions have hit courier services, taxi apps and retail businesses particularly hard. Russia’s business daily Kommersant estimated that losses from the internet shutdown in Moscow could reach about 1bn roubles (£9.4m) a day. The outages have also reached Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, where lawmakers on Thursday complained that mobile networks and wifi were not working inside the building, leaving the deputies effectively cut off from the outside world and unable to access the internet. Faced with the disruptions, many have turned to older forms of communication. Russians have begun buying more walkie-talkies and pagers, according to data from the e-commerce platform Wildberries & Russ cited by Russian media. Sales of walkie-talkies have risen by 27%, while pagers used to communicate with clients and staff have increased by 73%. Demand for paper maps of Moscow has nearly tripled. The shutdown comes amid a renewed crackdown on Russia’s online space. Authorities have already blocked WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, and there are growing rumours that the widely used messaging app Telegram could face restrictions as early as next month. A Russian lawmaker said on Thursday that the country’s security services could gain the ability to limit VPN traffic within the next six months, potentially cutting off one of the last ways many Russians can access blocked websites. At the same time, officials have been pushing Russians to join a state-backed “super-app” called Max, modelled on China’s WeChat, which is widely believed to be controlled by Russia’s security services.
Donald Trump’s war on Iran has triggered shocks in fossil fuel markets, exposing the perils of an agenda that prioritizes “drill, baby, drill” while sabotaging renewable power and energy efficiency in the US, experts and advocates say. The US-Israeli war on Iran has already led to hundreds of deaths, created an ecological crisis linked to strikes on oil depots and sent fossil fuel prices haywire across the globe. Critics say the war also shows the inherent instability of dependence on oil and gas: unlike wind and solar power, fossil fuel-based energy requires constant inputs of products whose availability and costs are determined by the global market. Since the strikes on Iran began late last month, oil prices soared past $100 a barrel to their highest price since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine before falling back to the still unusually high price of about $92 late on Wednesday. By Thursday morning, the price was back over $100. The spike has pushed up the cost of gasoline – in which crude oil is a key component – nationwide. And it has sparked concern about broader inflation, which is often triggered by higher crude prices. The president this week dismissed concerns about surging prices, telling Reuters that if gas prices “rise, they rise”, and later writing on social media that oil spikes are a “very small price” to pay for US safety and that “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY”. But on the campaign trail and in the White House, Trump repeatedly pledged to bring down the price of household electricity and gasoline by “unleashing” American fossil fuels and boosting energy “independence” and “dominance”. It’s an “emperor has no clothes moment” for Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies and claims to support the working class, said Collin Rees, US policy manager at the climate research and advocacy non-profit Oil Change International. “Americans are seeing, in real time, the deep failings of Trump’s strategy,” he said. “We’re seeing that he’s not doing anything to provide energy stability or price stability.” A global market The “drill, baby, drill” agenda could have never protected Americans from oil shocks, said Michael Klein, a professor of international economic affairs at Tufts University. “With a worldwide market, there’s a more or less single price for crude oil,” he said. “The US can’t just set the price.” The US-Israeli strikes on Iran have closed off the strait of Hormuz, a crucial supply route through which about 20% of global oil flows. On Wednesday, three ships were hit by unknown projectiles in the channel, with two of the ships sustaining damage and a third catching fire. No matter its origin, the price of oil changes rapidly amid these kinds of threats to the global market. Even fossil fuels extracted in the US depend on global supply chains, because not all kinds of oil produced domestically can be easily refined and used in the US. Some must be processed abroad, according to energy finance expert Gerard Reid. “We have this weird situation where you might think you’ve got lots of oil, but actually you have the wrong type of oil,” said Reid, who co-hosts of the Redefining Energy podcast, on a Monday press call hosted by the Global Strategic Communications Council, a climate group. “These interdependencies mean that if you have one or two key pieces of infrastructure that are destroyed, you could have a lot of problems.” Amid the fog of war, even perceived threats to supply and demand can cause high levels of volatility, said Isabella Weber, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. On Monday, crude prices soared past $119 per barrel, then just hours later dropped by $35 after Trump said the war was “very complete, pretty much”, and finance ministers said G7 countries were “ready” to release petroleum from emergency reserves. “In a chaotic situation like the one we are living through, no one knows exactly how supply is evolving,” she said. “There is very little clarity on how deep or extended the supply disruptions will be. So, market prices are anything but rational.” The war on energy efficiency and renewables The energy supply crisis caused by the war on Iran has raised fears of potential stagflation, where economic activity stagnates but inflation increases. It’s a phenomenon that infamously characterized Jimmy Carter’s presidency in the 1970s. But the risk of a Carter-era crisis is low, said Klein of Tufts University, in part because central banks have learned to better shield the economy. Since the 1970s, the US has also made great strides in energy and fuel efficiency, he said. Carter is known for his unpopular efforts to conserve energy through “personal sacrifice”, promoting shorter showers and lowered thermostats. But he also kicked off new legislation, standards, and policies to make homes and vehicles more efficient. “Cars in the 1960s and 70s were gas guzzlers. There were not 55 per mile hour or five miles per hour speed limits [which increase fuel efficiency]. There was less insulation in homes, so you had to use more oil to keep homes warm,” he said. “Think about the big Cadillacs of Bruce Springsteen’s songs versus now where we have the Prius … If you look at the amount of oil consumed in the United States relative to real GDP, it’s gone down.” Moves to cut fossil fuel dependence can shield Americans from oil shocks. But Trump has taken a sledgehammer to those efforts. As Trump has railed against efficient lightbulbs and appliances, he has also overseen the elimination of tax credits for home efficiency upgrades and electric vehicles, and even launched a proposal to kill the widely popular Energy Star program for efficient appliances before eventually walking it back. These rollbacks benefit fossil fuel companies looking to increase dependence on their products, but increase costs for working-class Americans, said Rees of Oil Change International. Trump has also paused and canceled wind and solar projects and slashed incentives for renewable energy development. But those carbon-free power sources could help protect Americans from the volatility of fossil fuel markets, said Rees. “You don’t need to continually supply a solar panel with oil or gas once it’s up and providing energy,” said Rees. “With oil or gas, there’s a constant need for that commodity which is vulnerable to shocks. But wind and solar power are going to be produced because the sun is going to shine, the wind is going to blow.” The war on Iran has showed other “horrors” that fossil fuels can cause, said Rees. Over the weekend, strikes hit fuel depots in Tehran and Karaj, causing huge fires and plumes of smoke. Streets filled with soot and toxic air filled residents’ lungs, and toxic rain mixed with oil fell from the sky. “War is hell and the human cost is born on so many levels, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Rees. “The quicker that we can conduct a managed transition off fossil fuels, the better off we will be in terms of affordability and energy access, and in terms of potentially ending deadly oil-fueled wars.”