Iran protests

Amjad Kurdo / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Explainer

How Iran war created unexpected economic beneficiaries

The Strait of Hormuz crisis is reshaping global energy and trade flows, creating opportunities for economies far beyond the Middle East.

Tankers are seen at the Khor Fakkan Container Terminal, the only natural deep-sea port in the region and one of the major container ports in the Sharjah Emirate, along the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes on June 23, 2025.

UAE eyes first multifuel pipeline as Hormuz crisis drags on

State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is considering building a refined oil products pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz.

United Arab Emirates

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Container rates climb as logistic firms scale up Hormuz alternatives

The Drewry World Container Index measuring container shipping prices has soared by more than 40% since the start of the US-Israel-Iran war.

United Arab Emirates

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during an election campaign rally ahead of the presidential vote in Tehran on June 15, 2024.

Explainer

From China to Qatar: Where Iran’s frozen assets are held

Tehran is reportedly demanding some $24 billion in frozen funds be unblocked as part of a peace deal with the United States.

Latest News

Iran partially restores internet after 88-day blackout: What to know

An Iranian woman walks past a mobile phone shop at the Valiasr Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026.

Uptick in Chinese tankers transiting Hormuz amid Trump-Xi summit

Jag Vasant, an Indian-flagged tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) that transited through the Strait of Hormuz amid the Middle East war, remains docked at an offloading terminal along the coast in Mumbai on April 1, 2026.

United Arab Emirates

Analysis

Why Iran’s regime didn't break: The hidden networks behind its survival

Mahmoud Karimi, a maddah, leads a mourning ritual during the Muslim month of Muharram in the lead-up to Ashura, a 10-day period commemorating the seventh century killing of Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein in Tehran on July 3, 2025.

Jamshid Jamshidi

By Jamshid Jamshidi

Pistachios reach highest prices in eight years amid Iran war

An Iranian grocer sells pistachios imported from Iran at a Persian products shop in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on July 10, 2019. (Photo by Karim SAHIB / AFP) (Photo credit should read KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Smoke rises after a reported Israeli strike on a building used by Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, part of Iran's state TV broadcaster, Tehran, Iran, June 16, 2025.

Israel expands Iran strikes, hits Fordow nuclear site, Evin prison: What to know

Israel said Monday it targeted the entrance of Evin Prison in Tehran, where many opponents of the Iranian government are held.

ROMAIN COSTASECA/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Crypto looted, TV hijacked: Iran grapples with wave of cyberstrikes

Iranian authorities had their work cut out for them on Wednesday, addressing at least three different cyberattacks linked to Israel.

Iranians sit with their dogs in a park in Tehran on June 8, 2025. Iranian authorities have expanded a ban on walking dogs in public to multiple cities nationwide, citing public health, social order and safety concerns, domestic media reported on June 8. Owning and walking dogs has been a contentious topic since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, though there is no law outrightly banning dog ownership. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Culture

Despite outrage, Iran expands dog-walking ban across multiple provinces

Dog ownership has become the focus of new restrictions as Iran's government looks to police public space.

A man checks old banknotes in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on March 3, 2025. Iran's parliament sacked the country's finance minister on March 2 after impeaching him over soaring inflation and a plunging currency, state television reported. (Photo by Atta KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Public backlash as Iran closes $3.7B corruption case, largest in its history

With only two former ministers receiving lenient sentences, the $3.7 billion embezzlement scheme has reignited national debates on systemic corruption amid an increasingly dire economic climate.

A general view shows the Milad Tower in Iran's capital, Tehran, on Feb. 23, 2025.

Analysis

Iran steps up crackdown on Sunni militancy: How far could it go?

The question of Sunni militancy, which stems from decades-long systematic marginalization of Iran's Sunni minority, has added to an array of challenges Tehran's radical Shiite government is currently grappling with.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

People carry a banner during a march demanding truth and justice for Kurdish activists, Paris, Jan. 11, 2025.

27 Kurdish civilians, activists arrested in Iran following protests

After protests over the death sentences of Kurdish political prisoners, Iranian authorities arrested at least 27 people across the Kurdistan region.

Iranians lift up a flag and the mock up of a missile during a celebration following Iran's missiles and drones attack on Israel, on April 15, 2024, at Palestine square in central Tehran.

Analysis

Iran's turbulent 2024: Regional losses, economic pains and impending threats

Iran is bidding farewell to a 2024 rife with severe setbacks ranging from the Gaza war and escalating tensions with Israel to major geopolitical shifts and a faltering economy at home.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Iranian miners look on at the scene of a blast at a coal mine in Tabas in Iran's Khorasan province on September 22, 2024. The blast caused by a gas leak at the coal mine in eastern Iran has killed at least 50 people, state media said on September 22, in one of Iran's deadliest work accidents in years. (Photo by Mohsen NOFERESTY / IRNA / AFP) (Photo by MOHSEN NOFERESTY/IRNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Iran coal mine tragedy highlights prevalent corruption, workers' plight

Reactions from pundits, activists and ordinary Iranians focused in large part on how corruption and mismanagement has grown over the years, with companies and oversight bodies increasingly ignoring the safety of workers who were digging "for a loaf of bread."

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former Iranian Foreign Minister, flashes victory sign during an election rally in support of Iranian presidential election candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, Iran, on June 24, 2024. Iran is holding snap presidential elections to choose the next president after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. After the election with a historically low turnout on Friday, Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's presidential election candidate and former reformist member of the Iranian parliam

Analysis

What’s behind Javad Zarif's resignation from Iran’s new government?

Zarif's sudden resignation came in response to apparent interference by the powerful hard-liners and stirred debate on the deadlock for meaningful reform within the existing frameworks of the Islamic Republic.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Armenia's foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, meets with his counterpart from Iran in Tehran on July 24, 2023.

Even as Iran denies $500M arms deal with Armenia, foothold in Caucasus is priority

The report came as Iran has been accused of siding with Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan, while Tehran is also advancing an agenda of influence in the Caucasus to counter the presence of its Western adversaries and Israel.

Two Iranian women are walking in the street of Tehran with optional covering.

Women activists face 'severe sentences' in Iran, as new president vows easing of restrictions

A woman labor activist was sentenced to death in Iran for allegedly belonging to an outlawed Kurdish group, as authorities continue their crackdown against any type of dissent.

A composite image of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan (L) and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Iraq aims to host first meeting between Turkey's Erdogan, Syria's Assad

Baghdad is throwing its hat into the ring in hopes of brokering a historic restoration of ties between Turkey and the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, as Syria's neighbors hope to return refugees back to the war-wracked country.