Iran’s new weapon is global starvation

David Llewellyn-Smith

Thursday 27 August 2026

News on the war is benign.

Trump said his measures “are effective” and he is “not in a hurry” to do a deal while doing the TACO on the measures with Gulf states.\
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, says the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani will arrive in Tehran on Thursday.

Crack is back as Brent continues to fall.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.