Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Markets are hopeful, but for now the war is still very much on. From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshour, in for David Brancaccio. President Trump is scheduled to address the nation about Iran tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. He told reporters yesterday the war could wrap up in two to three weeks, even if there is no peace deal struck with Iran's government.
Meanwhile, Iran has issued a new threat against U.S. businesses operating in the Gulf region, saying they'll be targeted within hours.
Marketplace's Nova Safo has more on that. Through semi-official news agencies, Iran warned it will launch regional attacks against U.S. businesses it accuses of aiding in the war. Among those named are Microsoft, Google, Intel, Tesla and Boeing. The attacks will reportedly commence at 8 p.m. local time, which would be around 12.30 p.m. Eastern.
Iran warned employees of the companies it named to leave their workplaces. The White House responded that the U.S. military is prepared to curtail the attacks. If Iran follows through on its threats, it would be reminiscent of the war's early days when drones damaged three Amazon data centers in the Gulf. The attacks highlighted vulnerabilities, especially for tech companies.
Data centers are large complexes and not protected against military attacks. Cloud computing networks have redundancies, but can suffer outages if multiple locations go offline. I'm Novosafo for Marketplace.
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Chapter 2: What recent threats has Iran issued against U.S. businesses?
The fuels that get us from A to B have gotten a lot more expensive. Gas is up 36% in a month, diesel up 32%, and then there is jet fuel. It is up more than 100%, though it did come down a hair last week. Marketplace's Samantha Fields has more on how spiking fuel prices are affecting airlines and travelers.
People tend to book plane tickets a month to three months in advance, so many had not yet booked summer travel when the war began in February. Since then, Henry Hardevelt at Atmosphere Research Group says airfares have jumped.
It doesn't matter whether it's a budget airline or a global network airline, whether you're paying first class or a coach, you are seeing higher fares for every type of flight on every type of route.
Airlines have also increased fuel surcharges on international flights.
A London fare that I was looking at had a fuel surcharge of approximately $300 back in February. When I looked yesterday, the fuel surcharge was $800 on the round trip.
As airlines' costs have risen, Meghna Maharishi at the travel site Skift says they've been finding a variety of ways to pass them on to consumers.
We're not really getting too many indications that these increases are having a super strong effect on demand, but much of that demand is being propped up by premium travelers.
So far, she says, those premium travelers airlines have increasingly been catering to seem undeterred by rising prices. I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace.
$4 a gallon gas is not great. Economists say it'll slow down economic growth this year, but most are not predicting it'll take us into a recession territory. That is not the case elsewhere in the world. Countries that had no role in starting or waging this war are paying a heavy price for it. This is particularly true in Asia.
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