US & Iran Two-Week Ceasefire; Oil and Gas Prices Plunge

Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.On today's podcast:1) The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in exchange for Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a last-ditch deal that averted President Trump’s threatened escalation of the war. Trump announced the agreement on social media Tuesday, hours after mediator Pakistan implored him to back off his deadline to unleash massive devastation on Iran if it didn’t meet his demands. The deal buys time for the two sides to reach a longer agreement to end the six-week conflict, which has killed thousands of people and sparked a global energy crisis.2) Oil and gas prices both plummeted after the US and Iran's announced ceasefire. Brent fell as much as 16% before trading around $95 a barrel, while European natural gas futures posted their biggest decline in more than two years, shedding as much as 20%. Prices of refined fuels such as diesel and jet fuel — which had been the biggest threats to global inflation — also tumbled. Much will now depend on how quickly transit through Hormuz can resume. It’s the route for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, and the near-halt of traffic has pushed prices for real-world crude to a record. Faced with an unprecedented disruption to flows, the world is rapidly running down supply buffers to offset the loss. 3) Republican Clay Fuller is projected to win a US House seat in a deeply conservative Georgia district even as Democratic gains serve as an early warning for Republican lawmakers navigating President Trump’s threats of a widening war in Iran and voters’ growing economic unease. With 83% of the votes counted, Fuller had 57% compared to 43% for the Democratic candidate, Shawn Harris, according to Decision Desk HQ. That would keep the seat vacated by conservative firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene in Republican hands, but by a narrower margin than in recent elections. Trump had carried the district by 37 percentage points in 2024.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.