NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil surged higher and showed no signs of halting its rapid climb a week after the U.S. and Israel launched major attacks on Iran that escalated into a war in the Middle East.

The conflict, in which nearly every country in the Middle East has sustained damage from missiles or drone strikes, has left ships that carry roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf that is bordered on its north side by Iran.

The disruption and damage to key oil and gas facilities in the Middle East has led to an interruption in the supply of oil and gas.

Oil prices surpassed $90 a barrel Friday, with American crude settling at $90.90, up 36% from a week ago, and Brent, the international standard, climbing 27% over the course of the week to land at $92.69.

The fallout is ratcheting up what consumers and business will pay for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, with some drivers already feeling it at the pump.

“It’s crazy. It’s not needed, especially at a time when people are already struggling, but not unexpected from all this turmoil that’s going on,” said Mark Doran, who was pumping gas in Middlebury, Vermont Friday. “I don’t think there’s been an end in sight to any Middle East conflict that’s been started by us, so the fact that they say that there’s going to be an end that quickly is not believable, and the Middle East is, you know, a place that the U.S. is not going to solve.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. expected its military operations against Iran to last four to five weeks but has “ the capability to go far longer.” And on Friday, Trump appeared to rule out talks with Iran absent its “unconditional surrender.”

“The more news we get, the more it seems like this is going to last a really long time,” said Al Salazar, head of macro oil and gas research at Enverus.

In the U.S., a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $3.41 on Saturday, up about 43 cents from a week ago, according to AAA motor club. Diesel was selling for $4.51 a gallon Saturday, up about 75 cents from last week.

The price shocks were felt even more heavily in Europe and Asia, markets that rely more heavily on energy supplies from the Middle East. Diesel prices doubled in Europe, and jet fuel prices rose by close to 200% in Asia, according to Claudio Galimberti, chief economist at Rystad Energy.

Energy prices climbed throughout the week as Iran launched a series of retaliatory attacks, including a drone strike on the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, and the conflict widened. Iran also hit a major refinery in Saudi Arabia and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Qatar, halting flows of refined products and taking about 20% of the world’s LNG supply offline.

“We keep seeing news of vessels being hit or refineries or pipelines, so the list is very long,” Galimberti said. As a result, roughly 9 million barrels of oil per day are off the market because of facilities being hit or producers taking precautionary measures, he said. “Right now, with all of this shut in, we are in a situation of extreme deficit.”

The U.S. is a net exporter of oil, but that does not mean it is immune to increases in the price of oil or gasoline, or that its producers can just make up the difference.

Oil is traded on global markets, so even the oil produced in the U.S. has risen in price based on what’s happening in the Middle East. And for many American oil producers, “if you put more wells in the ground, there’s about a six-month lag before you get that production uplift,” Salazar said.

In addition, the U.S. can’t simply turn all of its crude oil into gasoline. That’s because most of the oil produced in the U.S. is light, sweet crude, and refineries on the East and West coasts are primarily designed to process heavier, sour crude. As a result, the U.S. exports some of its crude oil and imports some refined products such as gasoline.

Jerry Dalpiaz of Covington, Louisiana, said he started filling up his cars and gas cans on “the day that they announced that the United States has started military operations against Iran” because he assumed gas prices would climb.

“I can weather the storm because I’m in good financial position, but I feel sorry for my fellow citizens who are living paycheck to paycheck because they have to drive to get to work and they have to change their oil and all those things,” Dalpiaz said. “And they need some relief and it doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon.”

Trump issued a plan Friday to insure losses up to approximately $20 billion in the Gulf region, aiming to restore confidence in maritime trade, help stabilize international commerce and support American and allied businesses operating in the Middle East.

But some energy experts said extra insurance won’t solve the problem.

“The problem is that in the oil trading, oil shipping world, people are worried about counterterrorism,” said Amy Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University, adding that they’re worried about automated drone speedboats, weapon-carrying, flying drones and mines or other devices. “In order for the United States to create the atmosphere that undoes the current bottleneck at the Strait of Hormuz, there has to be some credible demonstration of solutions to the counter-terrorism problem.”

Salazar wondered what the “new normal” would look like if the Strait of Hormuz was effectively re-opened, and what effective security would look like.

“All it takes is one individual with a RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) to stand on the shore and take out a tanker, right?” Salazar said. “And this is forever, do you know what I mean?”

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Associated Press journalists Amanda Swinhart in Middlebury, Vermont, Stephen Smith in Covington, Louisiana and Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.

Firefighters have had to cut one person from a vehicle following the incident this morning (March 7)

A major A-road in Cambridgeshire has been closed following a collision in the area. Cambridgeshire Police were called to a road traffic collision between the A1096 London Road in St Ives and the A1307 at around 10am today (Saturday, March 7).

The police have closed the road to allow for emergency services to attend to the scene. Drivers have been told to avoid the area where possible.

A Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue spokesperson said: “We were called at 9.48am this morning (7) to reports of a collision on London Road near to Fenstanton.

“Crews from Huntingdon attended and found a collision involving 2 vehicles.

“They used specialist equipment to release a casualty from one of the vehicles who was left in the care of ambulance crews.”

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Please be aware of RTC, A1096 London Road, St Ives and A1307. Road is blocked. Avoid where possible please.”

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Only around 100 people live in the peaceful hamlet

A tiny hamlet near Cambridge provides scenic riverside views and picturesque cycle routes. Everything is starting to bloom as it gets closer to spring, which means the world looks brighter once more.

For those not wanting to venture far from Cambridge, one idyllic hamlet is the perfect place to visit in spring. This is Upware, a tiny hamlet between Chittering and Wicken.

Located on the east bank of the River Cam, Upware is a pretty place to walk in the warmer weather. Along the river edges, people can also admire the boats that line the river.

With Upware being so far away from roads, it will also be a quiet place to enjoy a walk. If you don’t want to walk, Upware also has some excellent cycle routes.

It is a popular place for flat and rural cycling, which also takes cyclists through the Wicken Fen Nature Reserve. For cycling, it is connected to the Lodes Way and National Cycle Network route 11.

As well as its tranquil views, Upware also has an interesting history. It is known to have existed since at least the 10th century and it is thought its name comes from a fishing weir on the river at the time.

No one lived in Upware in the 13th and 15th centuries, according to historical records. Forward to the 19th and 20th centuries and there were only 10 houses in the hamlet.

In the 1760s, it had its own pub called the Black Swan to serve those who travelled along the river. The Black Swan later became the Lord Nelson in 1806, and then the Five Miles from Anywhere: No Hurry from around 1850.

The pub building was rebuilt in 1811, but closed by the 1950s after a devastating fire. The current building was built in 1980 and it reopened as the Five Miles from Anywhere Inn in 1995. Today, only around 100 people live in Upware.

Over four weekends in March, including this weekend (March 7 and 8), Network Rail is carrying out upgrades on the route between York and Newcastle, as well as pushing ahead with the £140m upgrade of Darlington station.

The improvements taking place include:

• Cowton, between Northallerton and Darlington: 560 metres of new track and renewal of switches and crossings.
• Croft, south of Darlington: renewal of switches and crossings.
• Aycliffe, north of Darlington: 1.3km of rail renewal and removal of disused material.

Trains will still be running through the North East, but services will be diverted and there will be fewer trains, meaning longer journey times and busier services for many passengers.

For people travelling to or from Darlington, rail replacement buses will link passengers with trains at either York or Newcastle, so passengers should expect journeys to take longer than usual.

The work includes renewing several kilometres of track and junctions around Darlington and along the route, plus installing new overhead line equipment at Darlington station as the project nears completion.

Network Rail revealed on March 5, that Darlington Station will reopen in May 2026.

Gunnar Lindahl, joint operations director for Network Rail and LNER, said: “We’re carrying out a significant package of upgrades on the East Coast Main Line to keep trains running safely and reliably for the millions of passengers who depend on the route.

“The improvements, including renewing track and switches and crossings as well as progress with the Darlington station upgrade and East Coast Digital Programme, are important steps towards an even more modern, greener, safer and more reliable railway.

“We appreciate this work does mean changes to weekend services, and we’re grateful to passengers for their patience while we complete these upgrades.”

Rail bosses are urging passengers to check before they travel, allow extra time and only bring luggage they can comfortably carry.

Fabien Galthie’s side are boosted by the returns of the likes of Matthieu Jalibert, Nicolas Depoortere and Yoram Moefana, with Anthony Jelonch passed fit as Charles Ollivon and Mickael Guillard return to the pack. Scotland will have hope of challenging France having sat second after round three, bouncing back from a shock loss in Italy that heaped further pressure on Gregor Townsend by dismantling England in the Calcutta Cup again and then fighting back in dramatic fashion to avoid an upset in Cardiff a fortnight ago.

Child killer Ian Huntley has died in hospital after being brutally attacked in prison. His daughter has spoken of her relief, while questions remain about his funeral arrangements.

Ian Huntley’s daughter was overcome with emotion when she heard of her father’s attack in prison. The notorious child killer died in hospital today after the violent incident at HMP Frankland left him sprawled in a pool of his own blood.

Huntley was rushed to hospital last Thursday after reportedly being struck in the head multiple times with a metal pole in a workshop, allegedly by triple murderer Anthony Russell. He was left with severe brain injuries and was placed in a medically induced coma. Huntley, who murdered two little girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, was apparently completely ‘unrecognisable’ to his mother on his deathbed, due to his injuries.

On Friday night, medics reportedly withdrew the ventilator that was keeping him alive, following consultations with his mum, reports the Mirror. Following his attack, Huntley’s daughter, Samantha Bryan said that she was “glad” it had happened, telling The Sun on Sunday: “I started crying because I thought he was dead – it was an overwhelming sense of relief. Being his daughter has been a heavy burden. It felt like I could breathe again. I felt if he died, that burden died with him.”

The 27 year old beautician only discovered she was Huntley’s daughter when she was taking part in a school crime project aged just 14. She then came across a pixilated photo of her and her mum Katie in connection with Huntley.

Her mum Katie, 45, fled Huntley’s brutality after becoming pregnant at 16. The death of Huntley will undoubtedly stir up distressing memories for Samantha, who has previously disclosed the unsettling methods the murderer used to prevent her from discovering the truth.

After finding out about her father’s existence as a teenager, Samantha sought to visit him in prison. She hoped to gain further insight into the dreadful murders he had committed.

However, he rebuffed her with a brief letter stating: “Given the probable length of my future and your current motives I doubt there will be enough time for a significant shift in circumstances in order for us to ever meet”. He added: “You are still my daughter for whom I have much love. With Love, Ian”, and tersely wished her a merry Christmas.

Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, she said: “He’s shown he’s a pitiful, twisted, manipulative coward. There’s so many other things I could call him. I feel contempt. His letter has left me with even more questions than I had before.

“He might be ill but I don’t know for sure given he’s written about the probable length of his future. I don’t know what that means. But surely if he is sick you’d want to give some answers – you’d have nothing left to lose. Or maybe he is referring to the length of his sentence.”

Prior to his passing, Samantha also stated that there’s “a special place in hell waiting for dad”.

The grim demise of the murderer may offer a shred of solace to the families torn apart by his horrific deeds. Huntley had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for the murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, who disappeared after leaving a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4, 2002. The former school caretaker then disposed of their bodies in a ditch.

It’s difficult to envisage who will grieve the passing of a double child killer who reportedly strutted around prison and kept a macabre memento of his crimes in his cell. But what does happen to high-profile killers who die in prison or in a prison hospital? And will he have a funeral?

Nusrit Mehab, a former superintendent with the Metropolitan police and a senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice, informs the Mirror that the fate of Huntley’s remains all depends on what he declared before his death.

Of his final moments, she explained: “Authorities would have been prison logs keeping an idea of how he’s deteriorated. Medics will have written down his time of death and notified the police immediately, because a death in custody is automatically treated as a crime scene. The prison and probation ombudsmen also have to begin an independent investigation if he dies in custody.

“The body will be removed and sent to the coroner’s controlled mortuary and they’ll have to have a postmortem. Despite the attack, they still have to determine a cause of death – that’s mandatory for deaths in custody. They will have an independent investigation into his death and an inquest.”

Despite being one of the most despised murderers in modern British history, Mehab says he will still be entitled to a funeral. The expert disclosed: “His body will be released to the next of kin or an appointed representative. I don’t know what his situation was – he’s been in prison for a long time and doesn’t have a lot to do with his family.

“But if they are the next of kin, they still have a right to claim the body. Unless he’s put a will in, or asked somebody else. If he has assigned somebody else as a representative, then they become the legal claimant.

“If his family are the legal guardians, they can claim it. If he’s put somebody else in as a representative, or made a will, then they become the legal claimants, and if nobody comes forward, then it falls on the public health authority to do it.”

Former superintendent Mehab cautions that if his family do decide to hold a funeral, there will likely be serious security concerns given Huntley’s heinous crimes. She stated: “If his family are next of kin, they can take the body, do a private funeral, a cremation, whichever they want.

“It will be a very high profile death, so there will still likely be security concerns. So they might want a private burial in an undisclosed location, which usually happens, with minimal attendance. They might even just choose a cremation. It will be very low key, from what I can tell.

“If nobody claims the body, then the prison service [and] local authority will arrange it, depending on where he’s from. So that will be a low cost funeral or cremation – on the taxpayer. There’d be no public ceremony and it will likely be a quiet cremation rather than a funeral, in my experience.

“They do a cremation because they don’t want to give him a grave. His ashes would go to the family if they are next of kin. If not, they could be scattered by the local authority. Or – and this has happened before to my knowledge – they just get stored and put down as unclaimed.

“With high risk criminals, they receive anonymous, unpublicised disposals, that’s the term, to avoid public attention. So it will be done very quietly if they do dispose of them.”

Greater Manchester Police has said it is implementing a Section 34 dispersal order for 48 hours, which will some into effect at 2pm on Saturday (March 7) and ending at 2pm on Monday (March 9).

A section 34 dispersal order allows officers to exclude a person, or people, from an area for up to 48 hours through written notice.

GMP said the aim of the notice is to “minimise behaviour contributing to, or likely to contribute to anti-social behaviour or crime or disorder in the area”.

The area where the dispersal order has been issued for (Image: GMP)

Neighbourhood Inspector Sam Davies from GMP’s Wigan and Leigh district said: “These measures are in place to prevent further disorder and ensure the safety of those living, working and visiting the area.

“We have identified a number of individuals connected to these incidents already, and are in the process of establishing the identity of others.

“We will not tolerate antisocial behaviour and will take robust action against anyone involved.

“These powers are crucial to preventing any further offences from taking place. If you have any concerns or any information, then please speak to those officers who are there to help, there will be extra patrols in the area during this time.”

Read more:

The dispersal order is contained within the boundaries of Windermere Road, Chester Street, Hope Street, Henrietta Street, Church Street, Charles Street, Chapel Street (including 91–93), Leigh Road (including 162–164, Hilton Park), A572 (Spinning Jenny Way / Market Street), A578 (Wigan Road), Parsonage Retail Park, St Helens Road , Twist Lane, returning to Windermere Road.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police by calling 101 or use the LiveChat function on www.gmp.police.uk quoting log 1350 of March 5.

Alternatively, members of the public can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

That’s because the supermarket is currently updating a “significant proportion” of tills across all of its UK stores, to make them “more efficient”.

Some customers may have noted new, sleeker black versions of the technology, to replace the older checkouts, as part of the big refresh which aims to provide “excellent levels of service”.

Just one of the locations which has undergone a till make-over in recent days is in Swindon.

Morrisons began the checkout transformation back in May last year and have said the project is due to complete “very soon”.

Why is Morrisons introducing new checkouts across the UK?

A Morrisons spokesperson said: “Since May 2025, we have been updating a significant proportion of both colleague-operated and self-service checkouts across all of our stores to make them more efficient, with the refresh due to complete very soon.

“The new technology will ensure we can continue to offer our customers excellent levels of service, now and into the future.”

It comes as Morrisons has also revealed another big change to its stores this week by introducing stoma-friendly toilets in all of its accessible bathrooms nationwide.

The initiative aims to support independence, dignity and comfort for people living with a stoma and has been rolled out following customer feedback. 

Morrisons’ stoma-friendly toilets include features advised by Colostomy UK such as hooks for clothing or bags, a shelf for supplies, a bin for discreet disposal, and a mirror to help with appliance checks.

Do you think Tesco self-checkouts are ‘too loud’?

Following the new checkouts being launched in Morrisons stores across the UK, Tesco shoppers have been complaining the self-service tills are “too loud”.

Some have even said they feel like the robotic voice sometimes “screams” at them, while one revealed the noise is the main reason they “never go” to Tesco.

It comes as someone shared a post on X that has had more than 200,000 views, which said: “Tesco self checkout are TOO LOUD. Hear ye hear ye [customer name] club card has been accepted. So uncouth.”

To which this person replied: “I never go to Tesco for this reason.”

An account shared: “Being outed with the APPROVAL NEEDED declaration is always fun.”

One profile responded: “No genuinely I never go into a tesco but the one time I did I was like why are you screaming at me.”

Also commenting on their experience of volume issues on the Tesco self-service tills, this user put: “Announcing to the whole store that I need an adult just bc I dared swipe a can of Monster at the self checkout.”

Newsquest has contacted Tesco for comment.