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Oil prices are on course for a record month.
It's World Business Express.
From the BBC World Service, I'm Sarah Rogers.
If you fill up your car with diesel, we'll explain why you might be feeling worse off at the moment and the rise of fast fashion in India.
President Donald Trump has said that the United States is in discussions to end military operations in Iran, but on social media he posted a threat to blow up Iran's key oil terminal and economic lifeline, Karg Island.
Now, the conflict has already led to spiralling costs.
Earlier, the price of Brent crude, that international benchmark, hit $115 a barrel.
Lars Jensen is a former director at shipping giant Maersk and he's warned that we're still at the beginning of price rises.
We need to keep in mind that a lot of the oil that was loaded in the Persian Gulf prior to this crisis is still right now arriving in some of the refineries around the world.
That will soon stop.
So the oil shortages that we have been seeing, they are only going to get worse, even if magically, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen tomorrow.
Yes, and the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively shut off by Iran.
Now those escalating prices are being felt acutely around the world.
Today we're looking at diesel costs, which have nearly doubled to 195 a barrel according to Ice Gas Oil Futures, which is Europe's benchmark.
Now.
European energy ministers will hold talks tomorrow over concerns about supply of that and jet fuel.
I've been speaking to Steve Irwin of Portland Fuel, a specialised consultancy and supplier that helps businesses manage fuel costs.
Bizarrely, for the first time in a long time, the cheapest way to buy fuel is probably at the forecourt, because the price that's displayed at the forecourt is delayed because of the supply chain that it has to go through.
Those who are a bit higher up the supply chain are paying much higher prices than you can find even on the forecourts.
So the forecourts at the moment are the best place to be getting a deal, if you can even call it that.
And you're based in the UK.
We're hearing that the price difference between diesel and petrol has reached its highest level since 2003.
How significant is that?
Yeah, it is.
Obviously, if you drive a petrol car, then you're a lot better off than those who are driving a diesel car.
But diesel is the commercial grade because it's used to power trucks.
It's used to power ships.
It's also used as a heating oil grade in continental Europe.
So they're not in a good place at the moment.
Why is it diesel that has rocketed?
Yeah, so diesel, we are a net importer of diesel in Europe.
So we can't actually refine.
Even if we had as much oil as we needed, we still wouldn't be able to refine enough diesel for our use in Europe.
And a lot of that diesel that we were using...
Even if we can get the product refined in the Middle East, and that's proving more and more difficult day by day as we see attacks on refineries and oil complexes in the Middle East.
But even if we could get it refined there, we can't get it out because the Strait of Hormuz is shut.
The actual component parts of oil differs depending on where you pull it out of the ground from.
The oil that is produced in the Middle East is heavy, sour crude, which is good for producing the diesels and your fuel oils and things like that.
So that's why we need their oil.
Even if we could produce our own, we still wouldn't have enough to make enough diesel to meet our needs.
There's no figure that you can get to where you can say this is the absolute maximum that oil will go to.
It'll go to whatever somebody is prepared to pay for their barrel of oil.
That was Steve Irwin of Portland Fuel.
Governments across the world have been bringing measures in to lower those rising fuel costs further afield, and Australia is to cut its excise duty on petrol and diesel by half for the next three months, costing around 17 million.
Two states have already made public transport temporarily free.
I have Jane Sydenham with me, Investment Director at Rathbones Investment Management.
Away from oil Jane.
A 30-year agreement which meant a ban on tariffs for digital services has effectively expired after World Trade Organization talks collapsed.
What happened there?
So I think this is a sign of the continuing sort of tension and the remaking of the relationship, particularly between the United States and other countries in the world over trade.
And it looks as though, you know, the United States didn't really want the moratorium or the no charge on digital services to come to an end, whereas some other countries, and I think particularly Brazil, was sort of pushing to bring that to an end immediately, in a shorter timeframe, over sort of two years or so.
There was obviously disagreement amongst other countries as well as to what the timeframe should be.
So really not much clarity between different nations as to how to approach this.
Thank you, Jane.
And raising questions about the power of the WTO as well, and what impact it might have on our subscriptions too.
Thank you.
Now India.
It's known for its vibrant bazaars selling clothes and handmade goods but cheaper, fast fashion brands backed by billionaires are expanding their footprint into the country in small towns.
New stores are in enticing young shoppers away from those traditional markets.
The BBC's Nikhil Inamdar visited one in the town of Miraj in western India.
Physiotherapy student Pallavi and her friends are on a mid-week shopping trip at the gleaming three-story outlet of Reliance Trends.
It's a budget fast fashion brand run by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani.
Experience the fashion of now at Trends.
We're in the women's section, stacked with aisles of clothing of all kinds, from weathered jeans and fitted t-shirts to Indian ethnic wear in vibrant colours.
So tell me what you're shopping for today and why you've come here rather than going to the local bazaar.
The prices here are affordable.
The choices are much bigger compared to the bazaar.
Even though perhaps I'm paying just a little more.
In the last 4-5 years, there are so many such shops that have opened here.
So fast fashion outlets like this one are a relatively new phenomenon in a small town like this.
In fact, I grew up about half a mile from here and even about 10 years ago there was literally nothing here other than a few residential blocks.
Now however, it's an area that's teeming with stores, mostly selling cheap branded clothes, as well as electronics.
The growth in affordable fast fashion has come at the cost of family-owned stores.
But now many are choosing to spend their money on cheaper branded clothes instead.
And this shows a clear shift in behavior, according to Kushal Bhatnagar of Red Sea Consulting from Bengaluru.
There's been a wallet shift.
The consumer isn't consuming more.
But if you go back, where was the consumer actually buying the products from?
They were actually buying these from these local, street, general stores or local street markets.
And now the consumer is able to get the products at similar price points.
While having a very good purchase experience.
So there are trial rooms, there is a staff that attends to them.
So that is an upgrade in the way they were purchasing the same product.
This boom is however, accompanied by growing worries about fast fashion's ecological impact on India.
Less than 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments and fibres globally.
In India, the textile industry is the third largest contributor to daily municipal solid waste.
But for now, style and savings appear to have trumped concerns of sustainability, as India's young spend more on affordable brands than ever before.
That was Nikhil in Amdahl.
And in China and North Korea, they've resumed direct flights between their capitals after a six-year pause.
Travel was severely restricted during the COVID pandemic, but North Korea is not open to most tourists, so only travellers on official, business or other special purposes can make the journey.
Well, that's it from World Business Express with me, Sarah Rogers.
Please do subscribe though to get the latest episode.
All you need to do is search World Business Express.
And thanks very much for listening. the family dramas behind some of the world's biggest companies.
Inheritance from the BBC World Service.
Season one explores the triumphs, tragedies and controversies of Surrounding the family that owns one of South Korea's biggest success stories, Samsung.
I did interview a family member from Samsung.
This is what they often say.
Look, we built the nation.
And without us, South Korea as it exists today would simply not be here.
Search for Inheritance Samsung wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
