This Month
This is an energy emergency: Entire countries may run out of oil
Some 10.5 million barrels a day of production has been closed because countries have run out of storage or face drone attacks on offshore rigs.
Traders made $832m in oil bets just before Trump’s post on Iran talks
Thousands of Brent and WTI contracts changed hands 15 minutes before the president’s message on Truth Social about productive talks.
A journalist reported a missile strike. Then came the death threats
War correspondent Emanuel Fabian found out that his report on a strike in Israel had triggered a dispute over bets on the prediction market Polymarket.
Iranians have given up hope of regime change
The scale of destruction and apparent resilience of the Islamic regime has prompted many Iranians to rethink hopes that foreign intervention might bring change.
Trump has a new reason to cut and run from Iran war
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei has dashed the US president’s hope of picking Iran’s new leader.
Iran’s shadowy new supreme leader will see US as an implacable enemy
The second son of the late Ali Khamenei, the new leader is a shadowy, hardline conservative figure with deep links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
China says US talks vital as Trump targets Beijing’s key partners
Foreign Minister Wang Yi sought to project China’s economy as a stabilising force, in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s military assertiveness.
Why China is watching the US-Iran drone and missile war so closely
The US campaign in Iran is becoming a real-time intelligence feed and technology show for the People’s Liberation Army.
Will Iran be the moment Trump’s instinct for weakness fatefully misjudges?
The president’s instinct for exploiting the rot in his rivals has defined his career, but his gamble on a high-tech air war in Iran may test the limits of hubris.
Trump-Xi summit looks set to go ahead despite war
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are expected to convene in Paris at the end of next week to prepare the ground.
Indian refiners eye Russian oil again as Iran crisis hits supply
India became the single most important buyer of Moscow’s seaborne crude after the invasion of Ukraine, but the country has been cutting back under US pressure.
Attacks on Iran add to China oil squeeze
Beijing is scrambling to secure crude supplies after US and Israeli strikes on Iran, just weeks after Washington tightened control over Venezuelan oil.
Iran strikes expose the dark side of prediction-market era
As US and Israeli bombs fell on Iran, traders moved to cash in. Then the backlash began.
February
Why Anthropic is picking a fight with the Pentagon
The spat highlights how governments are scrambling to use AI to boost their military capabilities - with next to no global rules in place to prevent abuses and harm.
Trump hails economic ‘turnaround’ in State of the Union pep rally
The president offered a defiant defence of his policies and economic record, declaring the nation is “back bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before”.
The Ukrainian bureaucrat quietly hobbling Russia’s war machine
Vladyslav Vlasiuk has spent the past four years pressing Western allies to squeeze the Russian economy via sanctions. He thinks 2026 will be the tipping point.
Trump’s new taste for war will end very badly
The US president has worryingly developed an appetite for the wars of choice that he once denounced.
Russia secretly helping Iran rearm as US war tensions mount
Leaks reveal Russia has entered an $800 million contract to sell an infrared-guided missile system to help rebuild Tehran’s air defences.
Australia will pay for its Darwin Port mistake
Readers’ letters on the Darwin Port sale, Chalmers’ efforts on inflation, Adelaide Writers’ Week, the RBA’s interest rate decision, and AI and climate action.
January
Venezuelan lawmakers vote to ease state grip on oil
The National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law less than a month after the US seizure of then-president Nicolás Maduro.
