Two Wars, One Barrel
The national average price of diesel hit $5.85 a gallon this week, an all-time high, and two separate wars, thousands of miles apart, are why.
Energy Sector
Attacks on power grids, oil and gas, renewable energy infrastructure, and energy-sector espionage.
The Cheapest Way to Take Down a Power Grid
A timer, a length of copper wire, and a homemade rocket. That's what it takes to black out a substation, and German police just found the third such device in a week.
The Biggest Oil Deal in History Runs Through a Company Still on the Sanctions List
Sanctions did to Venezuela's oil output what an OPEC quota never could. Now that oil might end up refilling America's own strategic reserve.
A UK Power Plant Went Dark for Four Days. Five Agencies Just Confirmed the Bigger Problem.
The Telegraph's report that Iran-linked hackers took a small UK power generator offline for four days in July has since been independently reported by the BBC, The Guardian, and The Independent. UK authorities still haven't confirmed it. Five US agencies just confirmed the broader threat is real.
Romania's Gas Platform Was Built to Replace Russia. Russia Noticed.
Romania sits on the western edge of the Black Sea, the body of water separating it from Russia and Ukraine to the east. On August 20, two Romanian fighter jets destroyed an explosive-carrying drone about 80 nautical miles off Constanța, Romania's main Black Sea port, near an offshore gas platform called Neptun Deep. It was the fourth drone incident near Romania in three weeks, and the second at this exact platform.
Nobody Is Waiting for the Hormuz Deal to Work
The corridor deal exists on paper. The money says it won't hold.
The Blockade Has a Business Model
If your 2027 planning assumes a Middle East ceasefire puts energy and freight costs back where they were, the last two weeks argue otherwise. Iran is turning the disruption into a revenue line, and the routes around it are being closed.
The first quiet night in two weeks is the war changing shape, not ending
On the night of July 24, US Central Command announced no new strikes on Iran. That was the first pause after roughly thirteen consecutive nights of bombing since the ceasefire collapsed. President Trump said he doesn't think Iran is ready to make a deal, but that he's willing to listen, and both governments confirmed indirect talks are continuing. One day earlier, Iran had rejected a broader ceasefire proposal, brokered by Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey and delivered through Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, that would have reopened both Hormuz shipping lanes for ten days while Washington and Tehran negotiated a longer-term arrangement. That is not the sequence of a side about to sign.