💻 The Iran War is putting the semiconductor industry on high alert:

The shutdown of Qatar's Ras Laffan facility, the world's largest LNG export plant, has knocked out ~33% of global helium supply, as helium is a byproduct of natural gas processing.

With the facility offline, the global market is losing ~5.2 million cubic meters per month, while there is almost no spare capacity as helium must reach end users within ~45 days before it evaporates.

As a result, Helium spot prices have risen over +100% since the Iran War began.

Notably, in 2025, Qatar produced 63 million cubic meters of helium, making it the 2nd-largest producer in the world after the US.

If the disruption lasts 60 to 90 days, prices could surge another +50%, potentially exceeding $2,000 per thousand cubic feet, according to AKAP Energy.

Helium is essential for semiconductor manufacturing, MRI machines, fiber optics, and space exploration, with no viable substitutes, meaning higher helium prices will directly raise the cost of making every chip in the world.

Chipmakers hold ~6 months of inventory, but Samsung and SK Hynix are already scrambling to find alternative sources, with 64% of South Korean helium imports coming from Qatar alone.

The Iran War is sending shockwaves well beyond the energy market.

🔗 Global Markets Investor

🇮🇷⚔️🇰🇼 Kuwait was hit by two Iranian kamikaze drone targeting its oil refineries.

First, a drone struck the al-Ahmadi port refinery, one of the largest in the Middle East, with a production capacity of about 730,000 barrels per day.

A second attack then sparked a fire at the nearby Abdullah port refinery, which produces around 454,000 barrels per day.

🔗 Egypt's Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT)

🇮🇱⚔️🇮🇷🇮🇶🇮🇶🇱🇧 Israeli Defense Minister Katz announced that Israel is changing the tactic and is going for an assassination on every Iranian official:

“Significant surprises are expected today across all fronts that will escalate the war to a new level.

We have authorized the IDF to eliminate any Iranian official once a “targeting circle” has been closed on them, without the need for additional approval.”

📝: Israel has not engaged in genuine diplomacy since returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982

With US “cover”, its been shielded from the consequences of over-aggression

Thus Israel knows only offense, escalation. The “ceasefire” is a tool to slow the enemy as Israel regroups for more attacks

🔗 Megatron (@Megatron_ron)

🇮🇷🛢 On March 17, Iran exported over 4mm barrels of oil, double the pre-war average.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸⛽️ JD Vance's way to save face in front of the American public that has to deal with rising gas and food prices is to say that the rest of the world has it worse than they do.

🔗 Europa.com (@europa)

🛢 WTI and Brent Crude prices are starting to show a significant divergence

While the price of WTI Crude went back under 100$, the price of Brent Crude has continued to increase, reaching nearly 115$.

Murban Crude meanwhile is nearly at 129$/barrel

@CIG_telegram

🇱🇧⚔️🇮🇱 Hezbollah destroyed 6 Israeli Merkava Tanks in the battle for the village of Taybeh, South Lebanon.

Israeli sources admitted a "security incident" in Lebanon and later described the battle as reminding them of the battle of Wadi Saluki in the 2006 Lebanon War when 24 tanks of the 401st Brigade of the IDF were ambushed and several destroyed by Kornet ATGMs.

The village of Taybeh is merely 2km from the Israel-Lebanon border and its been 8 days since the IDF began ground operations against Hezbollah.

🔗 BonzerBarry

✈️ Airlines have been warned that they will face jet fuel shortages as soon as next month, risking flight cancellations to long-haul destinations at the end of the busy Easter holiday period

Oil traders expect to see shortages of jet fuel from the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz within the coming weeks as reserve supplies are run down and not replaced

This week, Vietnam became the first country to warn of possible flight cancellations from April after China and Thailand announced they were halting exports of fuel to maintain their own supplies

Other countries are expected to follow suit in the coming days with industry experts warning that airlines could be forced to stop serving some long-haul destinations because they may not be able to get the fuel for the return journey

Britain is also vulnerable to potential disruption if the conflict continues as the majority of the country’s imported jet fuel comes from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

🔗 https://archive.ph/1IBgD

🇺🇸🙏🇮🇷 Iranian diplomatic source to IranNow:

The U.S. has reportedly, for the third time today, sent a message via a regional intermediary requesting a halt to the war.

This time, the request was accompanied by a threat to escalate assassinations inside Iran if Tehran does not comply.

Iran reportedly responded that its position remains unchanged: no ceasefire until its objectives are achieved.

🔗 Iran Now

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 U.S. Marines Are Rushing to Join the War on Iran

USS Tripoli (LHA-7), an America-class amphibious assault ship, and USS New Orleans (LPD-18), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, were both spotted yesterday transiting the Strait of Malacca en route to the Middle East.

🔗 EGYOSINT

🇨🇳🇺🇸 Chaos over Donald Trump’s China trip likely to further test Beijing’s patience with US

The US leader’s call for a delay as he focuses on the Iran war follows reports of growing frustration at the White House’s erratic behaviour

Visits to China by foreign leaders are tightly choreographed and meticulously planned affairs, even by the usual standards of international diplomacy.

But the chaotic nature of Donald Trump’s White House and his request to delay a planned visit to China in the wake of his decision to attack Iran are widely believed to be causing increasing frustration in Beijing.

The South China Morning Post has previously reported that preparations for the visit had been dogged by problems, with the Chinese side said to be “apoplectic” about the way Washington’s approach had been increasingly shaped by a president dismissive of norms and traditions.

Trump had initially planned to visit China between March 31 and April 2, but as the war with Iran intensified and Tehran tightened its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, he said his trip would be delayed by “five or six weeks”.

Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, said Trump kept changing his reasons for the delay – first linking it to China’s willingness to help ease the blockade, then saying it was because of logistics.

He said this might lead Beijing to conclude “that the problem lies in the internal coordination chaos on the US side and a failure to separate crisis management from summit preparations”.

He added that a delay would send a signal that, “under this Trump-style diplomacy, even highly important leader-level meetings will be strongly disrupted by external crises and internal divisions”.

Trump’s efforts to pressure China, as well as major US allies, to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz suggested he was “subjectively changing the way he views the China visit”, Sun added.

“He no longer sees it simply as a bilateral summit between China and the US, but is attempting to embed it within a broader framework of global crisis management and transactional diplomacy.

“It means that it is difficult for Trump, at the current stage, to treat the China visit … as a highly focused, resource-concentrated and protocol-prioritised strategic visit.”

🔗 https://archive.ph/BgkzR