President Donald Trump said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won't come down until after U.S. midterm elections.
Oil prices on Wednesday jumped more than 3%, pushing international Brent crude past the $100 threshold for the first time since July as salvos between the U.S. and Iran escalated.
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British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Wednesday he was disappointed with Israel's response to the government's decision to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and rejected criticism from the U.K.'s chief rabbi.
Israel responded Tuesday by closing the British consulate in east Jerusalem and banning 11 lawmakers from the country.
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The United States is banning the import of some dairy products and motorcycles from Canada along with most alcoholic beverages, the White House said Tuesday, as part of a trade war that shows little sign of cooling off.
The ban will take effect Sept. 29 and comes after retaliatory tariffs promised by Canada kicked in earlier Tuesday on $20 billion in U.S. imports. Canada had responded to tariff moves by U.S. President Donald Trump after trade talks between the countries broke down last month.
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The price of oil surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time in almost six weeks after attacks on oil facilities and ships in the Middle East threatened to debilitate an already weakened supply chain.
The most heavily traded contract for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, settled at $97.89 before jumping 2.4% to $100.29 early Wednesday.
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Twelve countries including Britain, Canada and France Tuesday said they would slap sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, after increasing attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the occupied territory.
"Today, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK confirm their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures," the nations' foreign ministers said in a joint statement.
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In the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, a waterfront once busy with boats, trucks and workers has fallen quiet. It's a front line of the economic pain that the United States now hopes to intensify after six months of war.
The Associated Press visited the city shaken by new U.S. airstrikes targeting coastal areas in the past week, and found anger along with growing anxiety about simply getting by as a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports continues.
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Japan has protested against Chinese controls that will limit its exports of a key chemical used to make computer chips, saying Tuesday that Tokyo is studying the potential impact on Japanese companies.
China imposed the curb on imports of dichlorosilane from Japan, saying its exports of the material, also known as DCS, have violated anti-dumping regulations and harmed China's domestic industry.
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World shares and U.S. futures skidded Tuesday as flaring conflict in the Middle East pushed oil prices higher.
A wave of Houthi attacks on oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia's southern region has escalated renewed fighting between an important U.S. ally and Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.
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Britain is set to ban goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in response to an expansion program that is imperiling efforts to establish a Palestinian state, the U.K. government said Tuesday.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is due to give details in the House of Commons later, after saying last week that he would "reset" U.K. relations with Israel.
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China's exports jumped 25% in August from a year earlier on strong demand for autos and high-tech goods as its record trade surplus widened further, its customs agency said Tuesday.
The data was broadly in line with what economists had expected and comes just ahead of a planned meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. That's set for late September, though Beijing has not yet confirmed the exact date for the visit.
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