AFP / Getty People watch as smoke billows from an oil-storage site in the Kani Qirzhala area on the outskirts of Erbil, in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, following a suspected drone strike, on April 1, 2026. Iraq has been drawn into the broader Middle East war that started with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. Erbil is home to a major US consulate complex, and its airport houses military advisers attached to a U.S.-led anti-jihadist coalition. Regular drone attacks by pro-Iran armed groups have usually been intercepted by air defenses.Hussain Ali / Anadolu / Getty Vehicles line up for fuel at a petrol station in Peshawar, Pakistan, on April 30, 2026, after Pakistan raised petrol prices in response to surging global oil markets. The spike follows escalating tensions involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, which have disrupted supply chains and pushed crude prices sharply higher.Scott Olson / Getty Farmworkers plant seed corn near Bondurant, Iowa, on May 5, 2026. As the spring planting season moves into full swing, farmers are facing big spikes in fuel and fertilizer costs over last spring driven primarily by the war with Iran.Aamir Qureshi / AFP / Getty In Islamabad, Pakistan, a child uses a mobile phone to light his way to his apartment during a power cut on April 15, 2026. Pakistan will suspend electricity supplies for about two hours during peak-usage times every evening, the government said, in an effort to manage energy prices affected by the Iran war.Charles McQuillan / Getty Members of the public make their way past trucks and tractors as fuel protesters block O’Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, on April 11, 2026. Travel across parts of the Republic of Ireland was affected for the fifth day in a row as slow-moving convoys made up of vehicles, including tractors, blocked roads in protest against high fuel prices caused by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.Go Nakamura / Reuters Employees work at an assembly line producing car smartphone holders at a plastic-accessories factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, as rising oil prices drive up production costs for plastic manufacturers, seen on April 2, 2026.Frank Hoermann / IMAGO / Sven Simon / Reuters A customer encounters sticker shock at a grocery store in Munich, Germany, partly due to rising fertilizer and energy costs, on April 2, 2026.Ben Birchall / PA Images / Getty Yellow signs are placed on unleaded petrol dispensers at a Sainsbury’s store in Bristol, England, where they ran out of unleaded fuel on April 5, 2026. Disruption to petrol supplies has been caused by Iran’s stranglehold on oil tankers passing through the key international shipping route in the Straight of Hormuz, sending prices at the pumps soaring.U.S. Navy / Getty In this U.S. Navy–released handout, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) fires a Tomahawk land-attack missile in support of Operation Epic Fury, on March 1, 2026 at Sea. The United States has reportedly launched more than 1,000 Tomahawks during the conflict (among many thousands of other bombs and missiles), costing $2 million to $4 million per unit.Getty A general view of Tehran with smoke visible in the distance after explosions were reported in the city, on March 2, 2026 in Tehran, Iran.Getty Emergency crews search for people trapped in rubble following a strike on a residential building on March 16, 2026 in central Tehran, Iran.Majid Saeedi / Getty Residents sit amid debris in a residential building that was hit in an air strike on March 30, 2026, in the west of Tehran, Iran.Ariel Schalit / AP An Iranian missile explodes in the sky over northern Israel on April 8, 2026. In response to American and Israeli attacks, Iran and its allies have launched thousands of drones and missiles at targets in nearby countries.Mohammed Aty / Reuters A foreign tanker carrying Iraqi fuel oil lists, damaged after catching fire in Iraq’s territorial waters, following unidentified attacks that targeted two foreign tankers, according to Iraqi port officials, near Basra, Iraq, on March 12, 2026.AP Smoke rises from Kuwait international airport after a drone strike on fuel storage in Kuwait City on March 25, 2026.Matthew Horwood / Getty A serviceman looks into the bomb bay of a B-1 Lancer as it is being rearmed at RAF Fairford in Fairford, England, on March 15, 2026. The United States is using the Royal Air Force base as part of its military operations in Iran.Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Members of a U.S. Army carry team salute as the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, is moved during a dignified transfer event at Dover Air Force Base, in Dover, Delaware, on March 9, 2026. Pennington died after sustaining wounds during an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on March 1.Majid Saeedi / Getty A man stands in a damaged residence among several buildings that were destroyed in an air strike two days earlier, in the Khani Abad neighborhood of Tehran, Iran, on March 14, 2026.Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto / Getty An Iranian worker carries the body of a man killed during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, wrapped in a shroud, into a grave at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran, Iran, on March 9, 2026.Subaas Shrestha / NurPhoto / Getty Nepali consumers wait in long lines for their turn to take home half-filled gas cylinders at the Nepal Oil Corporation depot in Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 13, 2026, because of a shortage of cooking gas caused by the ongoing war between Israel and Iran. The state monopoly, Nepal Oil Corporation, started rationing cooking gas to manage the demand surge as the war halted the supply.Suvra Kanti Das / ABACA / Reuters People wait in a long line as they rush to petrol pumps to refuel amid fears of a fuel shortage in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 18, 2026. Long lines of motorcycles and private cars formed across the capital as motorists hurried to fill their tanks following concerns over possible disruptions to global fuel supplies linked to escalating tensions in the Middle East. Authorities said that the rush was largely driven by panic buying.Monicah Mwangi / Reuters Police officers detain a demonstrator during a protest against a new fuel-price hike, as fuel costs rise amid global disruptions caused by the Iran war, in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 21, 2026.Victoria Perote / ZUMA Press Wire / Reuters Several transport groups and other organizations march on the second day of a nationwide transport strike in Manila, Philippines, on March 27, 2026, to demand accountability from the Philippine government amid an oil price hike, to call for the removal of VAT and excise taxes on fuel products, and to abolish the Oil Deregulation Law. The Philippines has experienced some of the highest increases in petrol prices globally since the U.S.-Israel war on Iran started.Jose Monsieur Santos / Reuters Food-delivery drivers receive cash aid amid rising fuel prices in Manila, Philippines, on March 26, 2026. As the conflict continues and global oil prices remain volatile, the Philippine government is considering temporary fuel tax cuts to mitigate the impact on an economy heavily reliant on imported oil with limited strategic reserves.Willy Kurniawan / Reuters A drone view shows fishing boats docked at Juwana port, as rising diesel prices leave many vessels idle in Pati, Central Java province, Indonesia, on May 9, 2026.Jittrapon Kaicome / Reuters Mahouts sit on elephants during a break at Maetaeng Elephant Park & Clinic, where ticket revenue has slumped since the start of the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, which triggered a global fuel crisis that grounded flights and dampened tourism, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on April 7, 2026.Mussa Hattar / AFP / Getty A man walks along the deserted Cardo colonnade at the ancient-Roman ruins of Jerash in northern Jordan on April 29, 2026. Tourism to Petra in 2026 had begun well, “with 112,000 foreign visitors in the first two months, which is very good”, said Adnan Al-Sawair, the chairman of the board of commissioners of the Petra tourism authority. But everything changed with the U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran as the number of visitors to Petra in March and April dropped to just somewhere between 28,000 and 30,000.Mohsin Raza / Reuters Stands sit empty at a cricket match in in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 26, 2026. This view shows the deserted stadium hosting the Pakistan Super League PSL 11 Cricket match between Lahore Qalandars and Hyderabad Kingsmen, played without spectators, as part of austerity measures to save fuel amid rising oil prices.Kevin Frayer / Getty A farmer from the Red Dao ethnic group prepares his terraced paddies before planting rice on May 4, 2026, in Ban Ho village near Sapa, northern Vietnam. The economic fallout from the Iran war is affecting farmers across Asia as the planting season for staples such as rice gets under way. The costs of fuel and fertilizer coming from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz have skyrocketed, stoking concerns about possible shortages and causing a “dual supply shock” in rice-producing areas including Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The World Food Programme warns that the conflict could push an additional 45 million people across the heavily populated region into food insecurity.Marcin Golba / NurPhoto / Getty A passenger checks her flight status on the airport arrivals and departures board in Krakow, Poland, on March 5, 2026. The table shows a list of canceled flights as global air travel faces chaos following military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran. Airlines suspended thousands of flights because of the total closure of airspace over Iran, Iraq, and Jordan, and restricted zones across the UAE and Qatar, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded worldwide.Mark Mirko / Connecticut Public Broadcasting / Getty Using one of two pumps on his family’s farm, Andrew Collins fills gas containers to take to equipment out in the field in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, on April 2, 2026. Bill Collins, Andrew’s father and the owner of Fairweather Growers, is a fourth-generation owner of a 400-acre farm in Rocky Hill. Bill says that the farm uses about 1,500 to 2,000 gallons of fuel a week and says that they’ve already decided to cut production this year by 20 percent in order to try to maintain an already-slim profit margin, as the war in Iran spikes the price of fuel and fertilizer.Tim Rue / Bloomberg / Getty California’s last incoming shipment of oil from the Middle East for a long time—the crude-oil tanker New Corolla—unloads at the Marathon Petroleum terminal, in the Port of Long Beach, on May 7, 2026. The Los Angeles Timesreported that the New Corolla loaded up in Iraq on February 24, just days before U.S. and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran. Once the conflict is resolved and the blockades lifted, it will still take months for the next tanker to be loaded and make the trip to California.
