Economy
Oil shoots to its highest since May after Houthi tanker attacks
Brent oil shot to more than $100 per barrel on Thursday, its highest level since May, extending a five-day rally after attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea heightened concerns over global oil supply disruptions.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have widened the conflict by targeting vessels carrying Saudi oil in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, after declaring a naval blockade on Saudi shipments, raising the prospect of disruptions at another key oil transit chokepoint alongside the Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, sharp drops for two of Wall Street’s most influential companies, Alphabet and Tesla, yanked the U.S. stock market lower.
The S&P 500 sank 1.3% and is heading toward its first back-to-back weekly loss since March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 537 points, or 1%, as of 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.2% lower.
Stocks fell under the pressure of rising oil prices, which raise costs for businesses and erode their customers’ ability to spend. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, jumped 7.1% to $100.74.
It earlier touched the highest price since May for the most actively traded Brent contract in the market. The cause: attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. That threatens another avenue that oil companies use to move their crude from the Middle East to customers worldwide, along with the Strait of Hormuz.
Underscoring the importance of the sea route for the economy, President Donald Trump threatened “major military punishment” against the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, if they keep attacking ships.
It was just a few weeks ago that Brent had dropped below $72 per barrel, roughly back to where it was before the United States and Israel attacked Iran to begin their war, on hopes that the Strait of Hormuz would fully reopen to oil tankers.
The jumps in oil prices are threatening to worsen inflation, just when it had begun to decelerate by more than economists expected. That in turn could push the Federal Reserve (Fed) and other central banks to raise interest rates, which would slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.
The European Central Bank (ECB) held its main interest rates steady at its meeting Thursday. But traders are banking on a nearly 38% chance the Fed will hike the federal funds rate at its meeting next week. That’s up from the nearly 12% probability seen a week ago, according to data from CME Group.
An increase by the Fed would be the first since 2023.
Higher oil prices pushed the yield of the 10-year Treasury up to 4.70% from 4.67% late Wednesday and from just 3.97% before the war with Iran began. That’s a significant increase, and it’s already brought long-term U.S. mortgage rates to their highest levels in nearly a year.
Gasoline prices tend to rise with oil prices, and a gallon of regular costs an average of $4.09 across the United States, according to AAA. That’s still below highs of roughly $4.56 in May, but it was at just $3.93 a month ago.
On Wall Street, stocks of companies with big fuel bills fell to sharp losses on worries about higher expenses.
American Airlines fell 8.4% even though it reported a much bigger profit for the spring than analysts expected, something that usually sends a stock’s price higher. It raised airfares, which helped it offset its higher fuel prices, during the latest quarter.
Southwest Airlines lost 4.4%, even though it also reported better profit and revenue than analysts expected. It wrung more profit out of each $1 of its revenue during the spring, even with higher fuel prices.
One of the heaviest weights on the U.S. stock market was Tesla, which tumbled 14% after Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of the largest stocks in the S&P 500 by market value, its stock has more influence on the index than nearly every other.
One of the few that’s larger is Alphabet, and its stock fell 6.7% even though the parent company of Google delivered stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected.
Investors seemed to focus instead on how much Alphabet said it’s set to spend on artificial intelligence investments. Alphabet raised its forecast for capital spending over the full year after its investments last quarter doubled to nearly $45 billion from a year earlier.
CEO Sundar Pichai said AI helped its cloud revenue growth accelerate to 82% last quarter, but unease nevertheless remains about whether all the money going into AI will pay off in terms of productivity and profits.
Such worries have been shaking the AI industry broadly in recent weeks, leading to big swings for the overall stock market.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply in Europe as oil prices jumped. France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.6% for one of the larger losses.
Indexes in Asia were stronger earlier in the day, and South Korea’s Kospi jumped 4.4%.
Türkiye is expected to expand cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in trade, economic relations, the defense industry and energy after becoming a “dialogue partner” of the regional bloc.
According to information compiled by Anadolu Agency (AA), Türkiye was granted dialogue partner status at the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
The move, considered politically and diplomatically significant, is expected to mark a new chapter in Türkiye’s relations with the region, which has a population of nearly 700 million and an economy worth more than $4 trillion.
ASEAN comprises 11 member states: Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Timor-Leste.
Türkiye’s exports to ASEAN member states increased 17.1% from $2.4 billion in 2021 to $2.8 billion in 2025. Exports to the bloc totaled $1.2 billion in the first five months of this year.
Imports from ASEAN countries rose 50.7% during the same period, increasing from $8.8 billion to $13.3 billion. Imports reached approximately $6 billion in the January-May period of this year.
As a result, Türkiye’s total trade volume with the region reached $16.1 billion in 2025.
Precious stones top exports
An analysis of Türkiye’s exports to ASEAN by product category showed that “precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, pearls, imitation jewelry and coins” ranked first last year, with exports totaling $419.4 million.
The category was followed by “mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation” at $412.9 million, and “boilers, machinery, mechanical appliances and equipment” at $268 million.
Among ASEAN member states, Singapore was Türkiye’s largest export destination last year, with shipments totaling $709.5 million.
Singapore was followed by Malaysia and Indonesia, both of which were visited by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his Asia tour last year.
During Erdoğan’s visits, the sides discussed cooperation in a wide range of areas, including energy and the defense industry.
Türkiye’s exports to Malaysia reached $629.2 million, while exports to Indonesia totaled $481.2 million in 2025. Türkiye’s direct investment in ASEAN member states also increased significantly, rising from $106.5 million in 2023 to $410.4 million in 2024.
A groundbreaking lawsuit accusing Meta Platforms of using discriminatory AI tools to decide who would be laid off shines a spotlight on the steep obstacles workers face in challenging employers over the technology, especially in uncovering how it was deployed.
The case helps illustrate why a widely predicted wave of employment lawsuits over AI use has yet to arrive. Legal experts say workers often have little understanding of how AI systems are used in the workplace and many have also signed away their right to sue in court, agreeing instead to resolve workplace disputes through a private process called arbitration that can keep such claims from ever being tested publicly.
In a ruling last week declining to block Meta from finalizing the terminations of 26 people who sued, U.S. District Judge William Orrick identified a fundamental obstacle for plaintiffs who allege that AI discriminated against them: “they were not in the rooms where it happened.”
That means workers like the Meta employees, who claim they were targeted for layoffs because they have disabilities or took medical or family leave, often cannot muster the evidence of wrongdoing necessary to quickly secure a win in court.
And they face another obstacle: Like a majority of U.S. workers, the plaintiffs are bound by an arbitration agreement, meaning they cannot band together in a class action, put their case before a jury, or push for a multimillion-dollar settlement in open court.
Arbitration agreements block lawsuits
Companies generally prefer arbitration, which they say is a faster, cheaper alternative to court, while worker advocates say it often favors employers and discourages workers from bringing claims. The arbitration process is also confidential, so it can shield unfavorable evidence unearthed in an individual case from wider disclosure.
“Even if you establish that a particular system would produce discriminatory outcomes left and right, you have no way of sharing that information with other employees,” said Christine Webber, co-chair of the civil rights and employment practice at plaintiffs’ firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. Webber’s firm is not involved in the Meta case.
Webber and other plaintiffs’ lawyers said those hurdles explain the lack of high-profile court cases involving employers’ use of AI even as it becomes routine, and why even the lawsuit against Meta seeking only temporary relief is unusual.
One of the few cases to emerge over companies’ workplace use of AI tools involves Workday, which is facing claims that its popular HR management software unlawfully filtered out applicants for jobs at other companies based on race, age and disability. Arbitration is not an issue in that case because Workday does not have agreements with its customers’ job applicants. Workday denies the allegations.
Plaintiffs seek injunction
The agreements signed by the Meta workers contain a common, narrow exception for seeking a court order that temporarily blocks one side from taking some irreversible action. But that exception is typically invoked in cases involving the alleged theft of trade secrets or the solicitation of clients or employees, and not layoffs of at-will workers.
Orrick denied the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order that would have stopped Meta from completing the layoffs. He must still decide whether to issue a preliminary injunction, a temporary but longer-lasting order that would put the workers back in their jobs until their individual arbitration cases are resolved. He said he could change his mind and grant the injunction if the plaintiffs come up with evidence “regarding whether and how AI was used in an improper manner.”
A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 24, and the losing side can appeal Orrick’s decision.
The plaintiffs claim that in selecting jobs to cut, Meta consulted AI tools that tracked productivity and AI token usage (a measure of how much workers use AI tools), disadvantaging people who missed work because of medical conditions or to care for family members.
They allege that Meta used a number of internal AI-assisted systems, including a large language model assistant known as “Metamate,” an employee-trained “second brain” that tracked workers’ communications and documents, and a productivity score drawn from scanning keystrokes, screen content, emails and browser history, according to the lawsuit.
Meta said in court filings and statements last week in response to the lawsuit that humans made all of the decisions concerning nearly 8,000 layoffs announced earlier this year and has denied treating AI usage as a basis for identifying workers to terminate or to conduct performance reviews.
Orrick said in his decision that he was bound to take Meta at its word since the plaintiffs could not present any evidence to rebut those claims.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers in a joint statement last week acknowledged the hurdles they face in gathering evidence, even calling on current and former Meta employees to contact them with knowledge of how AI was used in the selection process.
“Meta holds virtually all the relevant information,” they said.
Türkiye has issued a Navtex, a legal advisory message to mariners, for seismic surveys in the Mediterranean as part of preparations for a planned natural gas pipeline linking it with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (RNC), a report said on Wednesday.
The Oruç Reis seismic research vessel will conduct surveys along the planned pipeline route until Aug. 30, Bloomberg News reported.
Earlier this month, Türkiye and the TRNC signed an agreement to begin work on the gas pipeline that would run beneath the Mediterranean Sea.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the pipeline would be 101 kilometers long, with 97 kilometers running offshore and four kilometers on land.
The pipeline, designed as a two-way system, would connect Mersin’s Anamur district on Türkiye’s southern coast with the Teknecik area east of the coastal city Girne, also known as Kyrenia, in the TRNC.
Bayraktar said the infrastructure could initially supply natural gas to the TRNC, while also creating a potential route for transporting future gas discoveries from the Eastern Mediterranean and neighboring countries to Türkiye and eventually Europe.
Türkiye and Syria are working to open the Nusaybin-Qamishli border crossing “as soon as possible,” as the two neighbors seek to expand trade and strengthen regional transport corridors, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said Wednesday.
Bolat made the remarks after meeting Qutayba Badawi, head of the Syrian Customs and Border Crossings Authority, in Ankara.
Bolat said the reopening of regional transit corridors linking Europe through Türkiye and Syria to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, as well as routes extending from Türkiye through Syria to Iraq and Kuwait, represented important progress.
Transit trade through the Cilvegözü border gate in southeastern Hatay province and the Akçakale crossing in Şanlıurfa province currently allows goods to move toward Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with nearly 300 trucks crossing daily, he said.
“We are working together to open the Nusaybin-Qamishli border crossing as soon as possible,” Bolat said. He was referring to a point that links Turkish province Mardin’s Nusaybin district with Syria’s Qamishli region.
Bolat added that recent geopolitical tensions, including disruptions linked to the Strait of Hormuz, had highlighted the strategic importance of new oil and natural gas pipelines as well as road and rail transport corridors connecting Türkiye, Syria, Iraq and the Gulf states.
Syria’s Badawi said six border crossings between the two countries were currently operating at full capacity, five of them open to both commercial traffic and passenger crossings, while the Kesab crossing, also known as the Yayladağı Border Gate, serves only passenger traffic.
“The Nusaybin-Qamishli crossing will become operational in the near future,” he said, adding that this would increase the number of 24-hour border crossings between the two countries to seven.
Bilateral trade goal
Bolat said the two governments were working in close coordination, aiming to raise bilateral trade to the previously announced target of $10 billion annually.
Trade between the two countries reached $3.7 billion in the first year after opposition forces ousted longtime dictator Bashar Assad in late 2024, marking growth of more than 40%.
Bolat said both sides were working to further increase that figure this year.
He said Turkish companies were cooperating closely with Syrian authorities on energy, transport, infrastructure, construction and contracting projects, while a joint customs committee established under an agreement signed last year was coordinating customs-related cooperation.
National flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) has signed three major agreements to enhance its pilot training quality with new simulator procurement and support sustainable aviation fuel production, its chair said Wednesday.
The deals were signed on the sidelines of the Farnborough Airshow, the premier gathering of the aerospace and defense industry.
Chair Murat Şeker said the airline had concluded agreements with defense technology company Havelsan, Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE) and the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Financing Alliance (SAFFA) Fund.
The contract with Havelsan covers eight full-flight simulators and four flight training devices, while the agreement with CAE includes seven full-flight simulators, including two optional units, and two flight training devices.
The orders, covering both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft types, are intended to strengthen the airline’s training infrastructure as its fleet expansion drives demand for more pilots, Şeker said in a post on LinkedIn.
He added that THY also joined the SAFFA Fund, an initiative established to expand sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production capacity and support the aviation industry’s carbon reduction goals.
“With our long-term growth strategy, our sustainability-focused goals and our vision for supply chain security, we will further expand our investments in the future and transformation of the global aviation industry,” Şeker said.
Turkish Airlines has orders in place for nearly 420 aircraft, including Airbus and Boeing jets, with negotiations continuing for an additional 100 Boeing planes.
The company plans to expand its nonstop long-haul network by deploying ultra-long-range aircraft from late 2027, enabling direct flights to destinations in Australia and South America.
On Tuesday, Şeker said the carrier was also evaluating acquisition opportunities involving airlines, cargo operators and maintenance facilities, with Asia and South America emerging as likely regions for future investments.
Under its 2033 strategy, Turkish Airlines, which already serves more countries than almost any other carrier in the world, plans a major fleet replacement and expansion to around 800 aircraft. Its fleet included over 540 planes as of the end of May.
German prosecutors searched offices at Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt on Wednesday as part of an investigation into alleged fraudulent tax transactions linked to the lender’s Postbank unit years earlier.
The bank confirmed that Duesseldorf prosecutors were at its office in the city, and that the probe related to transactions at its Postbank division between 2008 and 2010.
“Deutsche Bank is being searched as a third party in this matter and we are cooperating fully,” Deutsche Bank said, declining to comment further.
Duesseldorf prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Probe relates to ‘cum-cum’ trades
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the search involved so-called cum-cum trades, confirming German media reports.
Such schemes involved trading in stocks of German companies around dividend payout days, which authorities say amounted to tax fraud.
The transactions flourished during the financial crisis, and authorities estimated they stripped state coffers of billions. A years-long crackdown has since sought to claw back the money.
The alleged roles of German financial firms in cum-cum trades, as well as in related cum-ex deals, are likely to cost the industry around 7 billion euros ($8 billion), German financial watchdog BaFin said last week, citing a survey.
It marks the third time that prosecutors are known to have searched Deutsche Bank this year. A case earlier this year related to money laundering, and a second last week was related to its retail bank.
Deutsche Bank bought up Postbank, with its millions of clients and roots in the country’s postal system, in phases, starting in 2008.
In 2023, Deutsche Bank’s years-long technology integration process with Postbank caused glitches and service lapses, resulting in scrutiny by its regulator. A year later, legal issues over Deutsche’s takeover of Postbank pushed the bank to post a loss, breaking a long profit streak.
Ten former managers at Postbank have been named as suspects, with damages of 350 million euros to the German state coffers, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported.
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