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Hello, this is Valerie Sanderson from the Global News Podcast.
We're bringing you the latest on the US-Iran deal, with ships carrying fuel starting to move again through the Strait of Hormuz.
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The first tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz under the new Iran deal.
We hear how they're navigating an underwater minefield.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Sarah Rogers.
We also hear from Russia as fuel shortages hit drivers and Apple users feel the crunch as chip costs push up prices.
But first yes, eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz as tankers start moving through that vital shipping route.
It follows President Donald Trump and Iranian officials signing a memorandum of understanding to end their war.
Applause there during the signing in Versailles as Trump attended the G7 summit.
It is now in effect, we're told.
The agreement extends the truce for 60 days to give both sides time to make a full peace deal.
But what does that mean for global shipping now?
Jacob Larson is the Chief Safety and Security Officer at the Baltic and International Maritime Council, which represents ship owners.
He told me there are still many challenges ahead.
The most important one being the minefield we expect to be in place across the central part of the strait in the traffic separation scheme.
In addition to that, there are still uncertainties regarding how the traffic should be arranged when leaving the strait.
So if all ships decide to leave at once and try to use the inshore traffic zones, we possibly will end up in a situation with navigational problems collisions, groundings and so on.
So this is why we encourage shipowners to be careful and do a thorough risk assessment before deciding to start their transits now.
So how do you make it safe?
How do you get rid of all the mines?
To get rid of the mines is potentially a bit of a challenge, but it can be done using military capabilities.
Mine hunters.
That can be on board ships or even helicopter systems.
Also, there are remote systems that can clear mines.
But the problem is that it takes quite a long time, especially when we are talking about relatively large waterway like the Strait of Hormuz.
Everything from a few weeks up to a few months.
Really a few months.
We're hearing that there are a trickle of tankers going through.
What do you know about what's happening right now?
Almost throughout the conflict we have seen a few tankers and other ships go in and out of the Persian Gulf using the inshore traffic zones.
It has been used primarily at night, where ships have gone, gone out under the cover of darkness with navigation lights switched off.
And now that the transits are again permitted, then these routes can actually also be used during daylight.
And that potentially could allow for increased volumes of ships to leave.
And what about tolls?
We're hearing that it'll be toll free for 60 days, but then Iranian tolls being imposed as well.
Yeah, I think the MOU is a bit unclear on that point exactly, because it also goes on to stipulate that Iran and Oman will arrange for how traffic through the straits should be conducted in the future, taking into consideration international law.
And under international law, you're not allowed to charge tolls.
It's designated as an international straight, so freedom of navigation applies and you're not allowed to put a toll on that.
Let's hope that they don't proceed with this whole toll idea.
That would be unfortunate, I think.
That was Jacob Larson from BIMCO.
Listening to that though, I have Anna McDonald, Investment Strategy Director at Hargreaves Lansdowne.
Now, work on the details starts tomorrow, Anna, but oil prices have been falling this week.
Where are we at now?
Well, if I take you back, we came into the year with oil at around 60 because the market was bracing for really oversupply.
And then came the fear of the conflict and the actual Middle East conflict and the closure of the straightforward moves.
And we saw prices rally very sharply up to $120 or so a barrel.
But as they say, the solution for high prices is high prices.
And we saw demand fall sharply once this peace deal started to be hammered out.
And now the market's looking through this, seeing that production might restart, as we've just heard.
And if there is oversupply, that will put downward pressure on inflation.
And politically, lower prices are exactly what Trump wants ahead of the midterms.
Yeah, and we've been talking about that global impact on fuel costs and inflation.
And yesterday, the US held interest rates, though, at 3.75%.
The Bank of England made its decision today as well, briefly.
Yeah, they held it at 3.75%.
Different stories in each country.
And inflation came in a bit lower than expected yesterday in the UK.
And unemployment is higher here.
So the bank is in real wait and see mode. to see what happens.
Whereas in the US the jobs market's a bit stronger and there's some inflation feeding through from that big AI boom.
And so we both have inflation well above target, but slightly different pictures in both.
Okay.
Anna McDonald from Hargreaves Lansdowne.
Thank you very much.
Apple plans to raise the prices of its products, blaming the cost of memory chips.
Now.
Chips are an essential part of smart techs like phone, but demand from the AI boom has pushed up their prices.
Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing chief exec, told The Wall Street Journal price increases were unavoidable, but didn't say when they would rise or which products would be affected.
Now to Russia, where dozens of drones have hit an oil refinery in what appears to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region since the start of their war.
Well, that was the sound of one hitting one of Moscow's most important energy facilities.
And the damage is causing fuel supply bottlenecks and shortages in the south of the country and annexed Crimea.
Stephanie Baker of Bloomberg is the author of Punishing Putin Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia.
She spoke to the BBC about what's happening there.
The Ukrainian drone campaign has struck multiple roads bridges, depots and fuel tankers and trucks moving through that land corridor between Russia and Crimea.
That has resulted in severe fuel shortages.
Reports that people need to get a QR code from the government app Max in order to be able to buy fuel with long waiting lines.
So it's having an impact as well as really turning away the Russian tourists who go there regularly in the summer.
And it is having an impact and forcing Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, to try to dismiss the reports of fuel shortages.
He's blamed it on panic buying.
But, you know, the reports on social media are very real.
Well, that's Stephanie Baker from Bloomberg.
The Ukrainian President Zelensky says the hardships were down to one man, President Putin, waging war whilst ordinary people paid the price.
And Cuba's communist government has approved reforms to try and revive its economy in the face of that US oil blockade.
Eric works as a tour guide there.
He says visitor numbers are way down.
So the arrival of tourists have stopped drastically.
So we have very short people coming into.
Apart from that, the source of employment changed drastically.
So nearly half of the people on the area of Matanzas Valadero Cardenas, So most of those people, are not having a job right now.
So they have been going into reinventing their lives into doing something else.
Me, myself, I used to be a teacher back at the time.
I have been working as a tour guide freelancer for seven years so far.
And right now I am back into teaching private lessons.
So the plan is to open more sectors to private investment and attract money from Cubans living abroad.
With the details, the BBC's global affairs reporter is Mimi Swarby.
Cuban state television said the Communist Party's Central Committee had approved proposals designed to attract more capital from its nationals abroad and to reduce the size of the state.
The influential former president Raul Castro, who's still believed to be Cuba's de facto leader, has endorsed the reforms.
The measures a stark U-turn in decades of communist rule are a desperate attempt by the government to tackle widespread shortages of basic goods.
The island's economy has deteriorated since January, when the US ousted its main regional ally, Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, and imposed a near-total fuel blockade.
That was Mimi Swarby.
The announcement does come as figures out earlier this week suggested the number of foreign travellers visiting plummeted since the beginning of the year, with power cuts and the withdrawal of major hotel chains putting people off.
Well, that's it from World Business Express with me, Sarah Rogers.
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