Israel attacks Iranian cities and nuclear sites, and oil prices rise
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Fears over oil supplies after an escalation of strikes in the Middle East. Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Stuart Clarkson in for Leanna Byrne today. Good morning.

Global oil prices have jumped after Israel said it had struck Iran in a dramatic heightening of tensions. The price of the benchmark Brent crude was up more than 10% shortly after the news emerged, reaching its highest level since January. Traders are concerned a conflict between Iran and Israel could disrupt supplies coming from the energy-rich region. Our business reporter Katie Silver has explained just how volatile the situation has left the global market.

Part of this is this fears regarding supply. About 30% of global oil is supplied by the Middle East region. Five of the top 10 countries, oil-producing nations, are all in the Middle East region.

And the other part, as well as fears regarding whether or not we might see a wider conflict, what that could mean, for example, to the Strait of Hormuz, about 20% or a fifth of oil passes through that every single day. So one analyst I've been speaking with said that the market before this had been underpricing oil. Basically, they'd shrugged off Middle East concerns. There was thoughts that OPEC would

significantly increase production and that the US-China tensions would reduce demand for oil. Now we're seeing it play catch up and this is initial response. Analysts saying it could well keep growing if we see, for example, continued strikes from Israel as well as that response from Iran with many suggesting that we might see oil infrastructure targeted. And of course this matters for

That's Katie Silver reporting. Let's do the numbers now.

And global oil prices are now trading 7% higher. This and the ongoing tension in the Middle East has had a negative impact on stocks in Europe and Asia this morning. Shares in airlines were worst hit, including the British Airways owner IAG, Germany's Lufthansa and budget operator EasyJet, all down between 4% and 5%. Many major airlines have also suspended flights in and out of countries, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.

And exports from the European Union fell 8.2% in April compared with the previous month. Exports to the US from Europe were down a third, likely reflecting the announcement on tariffs. Now, investigations are continuing into yesterday's air crash in India that killed all but one of the 242 people on board shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad.

The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was bound for London. Most of the passengers were Indian, with 53 Brits, seven Portuguese and one Canadian citizen. Several people are feared dead on the ground. Now, families have been giving DNA samples to help identify the victims. We can talk to our correspondent Davina Gupta, who's in Amnabur.

bad for us. Hello, Davina. How's the mood there today? Well, it's been an emotional morning. I was at the government hospital where many of those families had gathered to give a DNA sample, essentially a blood test, so that they can be matched with the bodies that have been recovered. I was then at the crash site

It was a complete mess because there was still parts of planes that were mangled with charred and burnt trees. Obviously, that air investigation work is ongoing. Have we heard anything from Air India or the crash investigation team? This morning, there was a team of global investigators who made their way to the crash site. I spoke with two officials there who told me that they did see people coming

to the site. There were people from the US, there were people from the UK who had come with the Indian officials. They've taken some sample from the site. We haven't heard from Air India management after yesterday when the CEO Campbell Wilson said that they will be cooperating with the authorities and express condolence about the entire event that has happened. This particular investigation will reveal exactly

what happened in those crucial seconds. And we're waiting for official answers. Okay, I'm sure there'll be more to come over the next few days. Thanks for being with us on Marketplace, Davina. Thank you. Let's find out more about the airline involved now, Air India. Ben Katz is an aviation reporter at the Wall Street Journal. It's a very interesting carrier. It's, you know, undergoing this transformation since 2022. Up until then, it was state-owned. And then Tata Group, they bought it out. They've spent...

billions on brand new aircraft that they've been incorporating into the fleet. They've been turning around the maintenance operations, you know, the whole, really the whole HQ. They've been retrofitting some of their older aircrafts, putting in brand new seats, doing a big marketing campaign. You know, they've really been trying to revitalize this flag carrier that was really waning over the last few decades. In terms of safety, it's difficult to kind of rank one at

airline kind of better or worse than others. There have been incidents in Air India's past, but not under this new ownership. And this new ownership really is kind of prioritised, you know, making sure that the operation is spick and span and operating properly and well. But a lot of questions here, you know, especially if the evidence starts pointing to, you know, for example, a maintenance issue that may have caused the aircraft to come down. And the air travel sector in India has been having something of a boom recently. Yeah.

India is the fastest growing. They kind of compete with China a little bit. You know, there are some forecasts that say that it will become the biggest market for aviation in the world. You know, a population of around a billion people, many of whom don't fly or have never flown. And that's also been part of Air India's strategy. They're seeing that. They want to...

capitalize on that boom in domestic travel, but then also, you know, as that growing middle class starts to develop in India, you know, be able to connect the country to the world. So Air India really has this ambition to become, you know, almost what Emirates is to Dubai, you know, a hub airport, a destination, but also a place where you can connect and India can be kind of the gateway to Asia.

That's Ben Katz, aviation specialist at The Wall Street Journal. And finally for today, with locals already struggling with the daily chaos brought by tourists, residents in Venice have another complaint to the upcoming extravagant wedding of the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. They're due to get married there later this month. Protesters in the Italian city have put up posters saying he's not welcome, one on an historic bell tower of the San Giorgio Maggiore church, which has the word Benkats.

Bezos and a red X through it. Thanks for listening today. Our producer was Linda Walker, our editor James Graham. In the UK, I'm Stuart Clarkson with the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

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