O VOO DO CORVO ....... O Voo do Corvo pretende informar e contextualizar . Assim acompanhará diáriamente diversos temas e acontecimentos, de forma variada e abrangente nas áreas da Opinião e Noticiário. Nacional e Internacional. O critério Editorial é pluralista e multifacetado embora existam dois “partis/ pris”: A Defesa do Património e do Ambiente. António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho.
BREAKING NEWS / GUARDIAN
The
Israeli army has confirmed an image circulating on social media that shows a
soldier in Lebanon hitting a statue of Jesus Christ is authentic. The image
appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a
statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off of a cross.
The
Israel army said it viewed the incident with “great severity”, adding that the
“soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its
troops”.
News
analysis
The
Forces of Scarcity Hitting Asia May Soon Spread Across the World
The
Asia-Pacific was hit hard and quick by the war in Iran and its energy
bottlenecks. Scenes of crisis there indicate that problems are multiplying and
spreading.
Damien
Cave
By Damien
Cave
Covering
global affairs from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/world/asia/asia-pacific-iran-war-oil.html
April 20,
2026, 1:39 a.m. ET
When the
war in Iran started on Feb. 28, Asia expected to see serious, gradual impacts
from losing access to a huge portion of the world’s oil and gas. But the
conflict’s economic and social impacts have hit the region harder and faster
than officials and experts expected.
Many
countries across the Asia-Pacific are experiencing sudden jolts of disruption
that they are struggling to manage, with some comparing the crisis’s breakdowns
and scope to the Covid pandemic.
Even if
there is a peace deal soon, the future of this industrious region that has
driven global economic growth for decades will likely include months of
canceled flights, surging food prices, factory pauses, delayed shipments and
empty shelves for products long considered quick and easy to buy worldwide:
plastic bags, instant noodles, vaccines, syringes, lipstick, microchips and
sportswear.
Collectively,
according to many officials and experts, if the war’s strangling of commercial
traffic through the Middle East lasts for even a few more weeks, and
uncertainty lingers, shortages could push several countries into convulsions of
unrest, followed by recession.
Countless
businesses are verging on insolvency. Governments are taking on enormous debt
to slow inflation. By year’s end, in the most dire projections by the United
Nations and others, millions across Asia could be pushed into poverty.
“The
impacts are so rapid and deep,” said Phillip Cornell, a senior fellow at the
Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center who is based in Sri Lanka. “Just from a
magnitude perspective, this is really very, very, very large.”
Resource
scarcity tends to unleash dark forces in human psychology and capitalism. As
the International Monetary Fund has noted, the world economy is slowing nearly
everywhere because roughly a fifth of the world’s fossil fuels have been held
back from the global market since the war started. Even if the Strait of Hormuz
stabilizes tomorrow, it could take years for oil and gas output and shipping to
reach fat prewar levels.
The
Asia-Pacific has been the war’s first and worst zone of impact outside the
Middle East because:
1) the
Asia-Pacific relies more heavily on Middle Eastern energy imports than almost
anywhere else in the world;
2) the
massive regional economy is deeply integrated, with supply chains crisscrossing
borders in ways that are heavily reliant on fossil fuels;
3) even
before the war started in February, Asia’s energy capacity was falling short of
demand. The backlog for energy generation turbines now affecting global
data-center growth started with surging power demands from Southeast Asia’s
industrial hubs.
Wealthier
countries, including China, face less immediate risk, with bigger fuel reserves
and budgets. But comfort is neither permanent nor widespread. The rest of Asia,
excluding China, is responsible for as much of the global economy as the United
States or Europe. And many countries in that group have been struggling more
than is publicly known.
In
interviews, farmers in Vietnam, laborers in India, innkeepers in Sri Lanka,
drivers in the Philippines, and executives in Hong Kong and Singapore all
sounded more worried than many of the region’s politicians, who are seeking to
project a stoic calm that often understates the scramble occurring offscreen.
A
Sprawling Transportation Crisis
The
United States and Israel started the war in Iran on Feb. 28. Within hours,
trucks, ships and planes stopped operating in Asia, a region defined by
near-constant motion across land, sky and sea.
Air
travel, the strongest example of Asia’s transportation reversal, veered toward
chaos.
In March,
there were more than 92,000 flights canceled worldwide, doubling the prewar
rate of cancellation, with the largest spike in eliminated flights linked to
the Asia-Pacific.
Carriers
flying through the Middle East, where 24 million migrant workers from South and
Southeast Asia are employed, suspended trips to Dubai and other Gulf hubs right
away. With jet fuel nearly doubling in price and with its availability
threatened, airlines are slashing many more routes indefinitely.
Qantas,
Air New Zealand, Lion Air of Indonesia, VietJet, AirAsia, Air India and Cathay
Pacific are just a few of the companies cutting service. Batik Air of Malaysia
has gone further than most, cutting flights by 35 percent this month to avoid
insolvency.
Shukor
Yusof from Endau Analytics, an airline advisory firm in Singapore, estimates
that air traffic for Asia and the Pacific has already dropped by a third.
Smaller airlines are losing millions of dollars weekly. Larger, better
capitalized airlines in the region may survive, but discount players that buy
more fuel on spot markets will likely shrivel, merge or die.
“Even if
the cease-fire holds, because of the chokehold that’s been triggered by the
closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the flow of fuel is going to just be a
trickle,” Mr. Yusof said.
“It’s
massive in the scale of things, unprecedented in the industry,” he added. “Even
with Covid, we weren’t gripped to our seats like we are now.”
Airports
and airlines are not the only victims. Remote areas, from outback towns in
Australia to the craggy foothills of the Himalayas, are slipping further into
isolation. Travel agencies, hotels and restaurants are also grappling with a
sudden collapse in business.
“Airline
prices have tripled,” said Samath Gammampila, 39, director of Unu Boutique
Hotel in Sri Lanka’s southern beach town of Ahangama. “We’re seeing about an 80
to 90 percent drop in occupancy.”
Interviews
and official forecasts suggest the rest of the year could be as bad or worse in
many countries.
Halted
Production
Many of
Asia’s most successful export industries require enormous amounts of energy and
other ingredients from the Middle East. Seven weeks in, stockpiles are running
out.
Cutbacks
in manufacturing are now multiplying, revealing vulnerabilities rarely
considered.
Copper
and nickel production, for example, rely on high heat from natural gas and also
sulfur, a fossil fuel byproduct. Both are in short supply, forcing several
Indonesian nickel processors to reduce output by at least 10 percent.
Polyester
and nylon are also derived from petroleum. In the sewing hubs of Bangladesh,
Gazipur and Ashulia, where clothes are made for Wal-Mart, Zara and Uniqlo,
severe disruptions to production and shipment schedules are common and on track
to worsen.
“The
strain we are under now — managing it will become very tough if there is no
continuity in gas or fuel supply,” said Abdullah Hil Nakib, deputy managing
director of TEAM, a Bangladeshi garment factory group. “We are seeing that the
prices of our raw materials are also rising. Today the price of thread has
almost doubled.”
Move on
to higher-end manufacturing, and to helium, a gas byproduct used for
semiconductors, and stress levels increase. Qatar, which normally produces
nearly one third of the world’s supply, had to halt production on March 2 after an attack
on its gas plants by Iran.
Prices
have soared, and some Asian chipmakers are slowing production and reconsidering
sources of supply.
Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest producer of high-end
chips, had previously accepted helium from Qatar and the United States. On
Thursday, the company said on an earnings call that it had enough on hand to
avoid a near-term impact.
But a
prolonged shortage could force the company and other chip makers to accept
supply from other locations, like Russia, the world’s third-largest producer of
helium. Or it could force production cuts that would roll through everything
from electronics to cars.
One
bottleneck begets another; that’s the pattern. Without enough petrochemicals to
make plastic packaging, fewer Korean beauty products are heading to stores. A
lack of fertilizer is threatening rice crops in Vietnam. Cattle farmers in
steak-crazy Australia are even warning of a red meat shortage because of idled
slaughterhouses and truckers.
Human
Suffering
Before
the war, the United Nations projected that most of the next decade’s growth in
middle-class consumers would be found in Asia.
Last
week, a new U.N. report estimated that 8.8 million people in Asia and the
Pacific are at risk of falling into poverty because of the war, depending on
how long hostilities last. Most of those, about five million, would be in Iran.
But in a region where most employment is informal, without a robust safety net,
the conflict’s effects are starting to compound.
In an
interview, Kanni Wignaraja, a U.N. assistant secretary‑general and U.N.D.P. regional director for Asia and
the Pacific, said “the scale
and the speed of transmission to Asia and the Pacific has been much bigger than
initially anticipated.”
Poverty’s
spread, she noted, threatens to be fused with other problems: vital medicines
and vaccines failing to reach vulnerable populations; schools and universities
unable to gather students; and increased pollution from the return to coal
burning for electricity.
In India,
where entire industrial clusters have been shut down for weeks by fuel
shortages, workers are reversing urbanization, melting back to rural villages
to thresh wheat. The cost of acetaminophen and some antibiotics in India has
already gone up.
In
Manila, Wednesday is considered a special day of Catholic devotion that usually
attracts a throng of devotees and shoppers in the Philippine capital’s Baclaran
district. After attending church, many scout for bargains at the nearby flea
market.
But the
district, far quieter since the war started, seemed closer to paralysis this
week. Jeepney or minibus drivers gathered in groups, away from the wheel, for a
three-day work strike to protest runaway gas and diesel prices.
Yunos
Lilingco, 42, a widow and mother of three, said she initially believed the
U.S.-Iran war wouldn’t affect her. She sells clothes she gets from a factory.
The war seemed a world away.
But when
gas prices went up, her costs rose, too. Her customer base has nearly
disappeared. She used to make nearly $40 a day, now she makes less than $10.
“People
don’t move around too much nowadays, because of high gas prices,” she said. “So
there are fewer people to sell my clothes to.”
The
U.N.’s report predicted that the war would cost Asia and the Pacific between
$97 billion and $299 billion, equivalent to between 0.3 and 0.8 percent of
regional gross domestic product.
At street
level, suffering often starts with higher food prices and reduced employment.
“You’re
losing income, and at the same time you’re paying more,” said Ms. Wignaraja,
the U.N. official.
In the
northern region of the Philippines, which supplies most of the country’s
highland vegetables, like cabbage and broccoli, scarcity is killing abundance.
Crops ready to be harvested last week are rotting in fertile fields, with
farmers unable to afford the costs of transporting them to market.
The war’s
damage, so quick and deep across the Asia-Pacific, will not be easy to contain.
Even if the United States and Iran reach a lasting peace, the forces of
scarcity and inflation have gained momentum and are on the move.
“You’ve
seen tsunamis — they go across the ocean very, very fast,” said Mr. Cornell
from the Atlantic Council. “I find it breathtaking to see the degree to which
American policymakers think that they are insulated.”
Reporting
was contributed by Jason Gutierrez from Manila; Hari Kumar, Pragati K.B. and
Alex Travelli from New Delhi; Saif Hasnat from Dhaka, Bangladesh; Pamodi
Waravita from Ahangama, Sri Lanka; Meaghan Tobin from Taipei, Taiwan; and River
Akira Davis from Tokyo.
Damien
Cave leads The Times’s new bureau in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, covering shifts
in power across Asia and the wider world.
Oil
Prices Jumped and Stock Futures Fell on Renewed Iran Conflict
Rebecca
F. ElliottJoe Rennison
By
Rebecca F. Elliott and Joe Rennison
Published
April 19, 2026
Updated
April 20, 2026, 1:15 a.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/business/oil-stocks-gas-iran.html
Oil
prices shot higher and stocks sank on Sunday evening after a weekend of renewed
conflict around the Strait of Hormuz dampened hope that the waterway might soon
reopen.
Earlier
on Sunday, a U.S. Navy destroyer attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo
ship that President Trump said had tried to evade the U.S. blockade on ships
traveling to and from Iranian ports. And on Saturday, a day after Iran’s
foreign minister declared the strait open, the country reversed course,
reasserting “strict control” over it and attacking two Indian-flagged vessels.
All of
that happened after markets closed on Friday, meaning traders are only now
digesting those developments.
This is
set to be a pivotal week in the war, now in its eighth week, with the
cease-fire between the United States and Iran set to expire within days. Mr.
Trump said the United States was sending a delegation to Pakistan for further
negotiations with Iran, though it was not clear that Iran was on board.
Also on
Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright acknowledged what analysts widely have
been predicting: that Americans are unlikely to see gasoline prices return to
prewar levels anytime soon.
Here is
the latest:
Oil
prices climbed.
Stock
futures pointed to a decline.
Gasoline
prices fell.
Oil
prices climbed.
The price
of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, climbed more than 6 percent to
around $96 a barrel.
West
Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, experienced a similar jump,
rising to around $88 a barrel.
Investors
and analysts are focused on the continued disruption to shipping in the Strait
of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading
route for oil and natural gas and normally carries as much as one-fifth of the
world’s oil supply.
Stock
futures pointed to a decline.
Futures
on the S&P 500 pointed to a 0.6 percent decline when stocks open for
trading in the United States on Monday. The index has risen sharply in recent
weeks and ended trading on Friday 3.6 percent higher than before the war began.
Stocks in
Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, were higher. South
Korea’s benchmark Kospi, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose
about one percent in midday trading.
Gasoline
prices fell.
Gas
prices fell on Sunday to a national average of $4.05 a gallon, according to the
AAA motor club. That is down from a recent high of $4.17 earlier in April.
Still, drivers are paying about 36 percent more for gas than they were when the
war began.
Gas
prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops
by a few days.
Diesel
prices have increased even more quickly and stood at $5.56 on Sunday, up 48
percent since the start of the war but down modestly from a week ago.
Rebecca
F. Elliott covers energy for The Times.
Joe
Rennison writes about financial markets, a beat that ranges from chronicling
the vagaries of the stock market to explaining the often-inscrutable trading
decisions of Wall Street insiders.
12m ago
07.00 BST
Interim
summary
In case
you’re just joining us, here’s today’s main developments. It is 9.30am in
Tehran, 9am in Jerusalem, 11am in Islamabad and 2am in Washington DC.
Iranian
state media reported that Tehran was not planning to take part in peace talks
with the US, hours after Trump said he was dispatching negotiators to Islamabad
for the scheduled Monday meeting. “There are currently no plans to participate
in the next round of Iran-US talks,” state broadcaster IRIB said, citing
Iranian sources.
Donald
Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday, and he again
threatened to destroy its power plants and bridges if no deal is reached. Trump
did not say who would lead the delegation, but a White House official said it
was vice-president JD Vance.
Ratcheting
up the tension, the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship, the M/V
Touska, that tried to run its blockade. Iran has vowed to retaliate. Hours
after the announcement, the US military released footage of incident, including
video of US Marines rappelling onto the vessel.
Despite
all the uncertainty, host Pakistan appeared to be preparing for the US-Iran
talks to proceed. Two giant US C-17 cargo planes landed at an airbase on Sunday
afternoon, carrying security equipment and vehicles in preparation for the US
delegation’s arrival, two Pakistani security sources said. Barbed wire was
rolled out near the Serena Hotel, where last week’s talks were held, and the
hotel has told all guests to leave.
Oil
prices surged after Iran closed the strait of Hormuz at the weekend, just a day
after reopening it. Brent crude climbed to $95.64 per barrel and West Texas
Intermediate increased to $87.90 per barrel. However, equities across Asia rose
in early trading on Monday.
The
Israeli army has confirmed an image circulating on social media that shows a
soldier in Lebanon hitting a statue of Jesus Christ is authentic. The image
appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a
statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off of a cross.
The
Israel army said it viewed the incident with “great severity”, adding that the
“soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its
troops”.
Iran will
resume international flights on Monday from Mashhad airport in the country’s
north-east, its civil aviation authority said.
