Top Stories — Wednesday, April 15, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Here’s the latest. — nyt News
- U.S. crude trades lower as possible Washington-Tehran talks raise hopes for Mideast peace deal — CNBC
- Chinese robotaxi companies forge ahead with UAE expansion despite Iran war — CNBC
Here’s the latest.
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/15/2026, 1:58:53 PM
Beirut11:39 a.m. April 15
Pinned
The U.S. military said early Wednesday Iran time that it had completely stopped all commercial trade to and from Iranian ports less than 36 hours after implementing a naval blockade.
President Trump had ordered the Navy to stop any ships from transiting the Strait of Hormuz after weekend peace talks in Pakistan ended with no agreement. But ship trackers showed that several Iran-linked vessels had traveled through the strait after Central Command began its blockade operation on Monday. It was not immediately clear from independent sources if there was any Iranian shipping traffic in the region on Wednesday morning.
U.S. Central Command said more than 10,000 American forces with over a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft were enforcing the blockade, while allowing vessels traveling to or from non-Iranian ports to transit the waterway.
Iran has mostly choked off the strait, a vital passage for global oil and gas supplies, in retaliation since the war started in late February. There are few signs that it is fully reopening despite repeated threats from Mr. Trump.
The president reiterated on Tuesday that Iran was keen to negotiate a deal. He told The New York Post that new talks could take place over the next two days in Pakistan. And he said in a Fox News interview that the conflict was near its end. “I think it’s close to over, yeah, I mean I view it as very close to over,” he said when Maria Bartiromo asked if the war had ended, speaking in a clip from the interview posted on Tuesday night.
The interview is scheduled to air on the Fox Business channel on Wednesday morning.
Mr. Trump has previously indicated that the war was ending. In his address to the nation on April 1, he estimated that it would wind down within three weeks.
But there are several sticking points in the talks to end the war, including the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear weapons program and Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group.
The conflict in Lebanon has threatened to upend the fragile cease-fire between the United States and Iran, and international calls have grown for the truce to extend to Lebanon. Israel’s sweeping ground campaign in the country’s south was not letting up on Wednesday.
The United States announced on Tuesday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to “launch direct negotiations” to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The announcement followed a rare face-to-face meeting in Washington between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors.
Hezbollah was not involved in the talks, though, and it was unclear if an Israel-Lebanon agreement would lead to an end in the fighting. The Lebanese government has no direct control over Hezbollah, which is both a militia and a political party. That means any diplomatic settlement between Israel and Lebanon would likely be hard to enforce.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Lebanon: A day after Israel and Lebanon held diplomatic talks, Israeli forces bombarded towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanese state media. Several people were killed in a strike in the coastal town of Ansariya, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.
Economy: The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that disruptions from the war to oil markets could slow growth, fuel inflation and make a global recession more likely. Even if the conflict is short-lived, the damage to the global economy has been done, the I.M.F. said.
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday that 2,124 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In attacks attributed to Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Persian Gulf nations. At least 22 people had been killed in Israel as of Sunday, as well as 12 Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
Israeli forces bombarded towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanese state media, as the military kept up its sweeping ground invasion there. Several people were killed in a strike in the coastal town of Ansariya, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said. The Israeli military said that it was continuing to attack Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, asked Moscow on Wednesday to help promote a more “just and equitable international order” in the face of a “changing and turbulent” international situation, an apparent reference to the war in Iran and other conflicts. Speaking in Beijing with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, Mr. Xi said that amid such instability China-Russia relations were “especially precious.”
Pakistan, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, has been a key mediator in the U.S.-Iran talks. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Sharif would leave on Wednesday for Saudi Arabia and Qatar to discuss “regional peace and security” with their leaders. The ministry did not explicitly reference the Iran war.
The final stop on Sharif’s April 15-18 trip is Turkey, where he is expected to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other world leaders, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
President Trump reiterated that Iran wanted to negotiate a deal, telling Maria Bartiromo of Fox News that the war was near its end. “I think it’s close to over, yeah, I mean I view it as very close to over,” he said when asked if the war had ended, speaking in a clip from the interview posted on Tuesday night.
The president has previously indicated that the war was ending. In his address to the nation on April 1, he estimated that it should wind down within three weeks. His interview with Bartiromo is scheduled to air on the Fox Business channel on Wednesday morning.
The U.S. military has completely stopped commercial traffic to and from Iranian ports, Adm. Brad Cooper, the Central Command leader, said late Tuesday. The blockade began on Monday but trackers showed several Iranian-linked vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz after that. It was unclear if those ships departed within a grace period.
Intelligence experts have also observed ships using tactics to avoid detection in waters in and around the strait.
Reporting from Washington
About 10 minutes into the event, a member of the audience interrupted Mr. Vance’s remarks to yell out, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” Minutes later, a voice yelled out, “You’re killing children! You’re bombing children!” The person appeared to mention the war in Gaza.
Later in his appearance, Mr. Vance appeared to express sympathy with critics of the Iran war. “I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East, OK,” he said. “I understand.”
The vice president’s conciliatory tone appeared to be an acknowledgment that many of President Trump’s supporters voted for him in 2024 on a promise of “no new wars.” Instead, Mr. Trump attacked Iran in separate conflicts, threatened to seize control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, and captured President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in a surprise strike on the country’s capital. In the following months, the Trump administration negotiated deals for Venezuelan oil and natural resources under the threat of a naval blockade.
Mr. Vance, a likely presidential candidate in 2028, would have to defend that foreign policy record and seek the support of the anti-interventionist wing of the Make America Great Again political movement. The war has scrambled Mr. Trump’s coalition, causing some prominent conservative voices — like Tucker Carlson, who is especially close to Mr. Vance — to emerge as fierce critics of the war.
Mr. Vance addressed the audience outbursts, agreeing that “Jesus Christ does not support genocide” and defending the Trump administration’s handling of Gaza. He added that the audience should be thankful that Mr. Trump negotiated a cease-fire in the war. Mr. Vance, speaking of the heckler, said that “we have consistently tried as much as we can to solve the problems, not just complain about them like the guy who just ran away.”
But the vice president later took a diplomatic tone as he addressed antiwar critics. Mr. Vance, who The New York Times reported opposed going to war with Iran, has not openly expressed that stance in public and has instead defended Trump on the war in public remarks. In responding to antiwar critics, Mr. Vance argued that conservatives who may not support the war should stick with Mr. Trump because he had delivered on other Republican priorities — such as immigration.
He added: “I’m not saying you to have to agree with me on every issue. What I am saying is: Don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the administration on one topic. Get more involved, make your voice heard even more. That is how we ultimately take the country back.”
Mr. Vance did not specify who he was taking the country back from. Republicans control the White House and hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Maritime intelligence experts are starting to see a new pattern of “shadow” activity in waters in and around the Strait of Hormuz since the United States naval blockade on vessels coming in and out of Iranian ports went into effect on Monday, suggesting that more ships seem to be adopting tactics to avoid detection than during the previous weeks of war.
“Now, we are starting to see vessels going dark or using ‘zombie’ or random identification,” said Ami Daniel, the chief executive of Windward, a maritime intelligence data provider, in an interview on Tuesday.
In the weeks after the American-Israeli attack on Iran in late February, Iranian exports went “uninterrupted” and had “almost no need to go off radar,” Mr. Daniel said. But in the past 24 hours, more ships appear to be manipulating the global system intended to keep tabs on vessel activity and traffic, suggesting that some vessels linked to Iran are being “a bit more cautious,” he said.
Under international maritime law, most large commercial vessels must travel with a transponder that automatically transmits the ship’s name, location, route and other identifying information. That includes a 9-digit number with a country code, which serves as a digital fingerprint for a ship.
Vessels in Middle Eastern waters that are now trying to hide their location or are otherwise falsifying information are employing methods that have been perfected by Russian “shadow fleet” vessels evading sanctions related to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, some experts say.
“Shadow fleet tankers have been experimenting with stateless ID numbers,” said John C.K. Daly, a nonresident fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington who has been tracking Russian shadow ships. “What the Russians have been doing is altering the numbers.”
When a ship is engaged in “spoofing,” as the practice is known, its captain can type in a false origin or destination or can pretend to be piloting another ship altogether. Vessels can also temporarily turn off their transponders, seeming to disappear in one place and reappear in another, sometimes with altered data.
This approach has enabled Russia to keep up its energy exports and finance its war, generating up to $100 billion a year.
It appears that vessels linked to Iran are using similar methods now, experts say. Some ships have gone dark, while sanctioned and falsely flagged vessels seem to still be active, a Windward report on Tuesday noted.
“Under previous enforcement frameworks, including the December blockade of Venezuela, sanctioned and stateless tankers were primary targets for interdiction,” the report said. “The continued movement of similar vessel profiles indicates that operators are testing the practical limits of enforcement in real time.”
By manipulating the global system meant to illuminate ship movements, so-called ghost or shadow vessels may compound confusion about the state of the Strait of Hormuz, even if in the end they cannot breach the American blockade.
“Right now, the strait is a contested information environment,” said Erik Bethel, a partner at Mare Liberum, a maritime technology venture capital fund.
Detection-avoidance tricksmay make it harder for the Navy to identify boats for interdiction. “A blockade is only as strong as the intelligence behind the interdictions,” Mr. Bethel said.
The maritime system is complex. A vessel may be owned by one country, leased to another and travel under a third country’s flag of convenience, Mr. Bethel said. That makes determining who is truly behind any given journey a “really hard thing to do.”
Maritime intelligence companies and militaries use an array of sources to stitch together information about vessels, including optical satellites, radar satellites and radio frequencies. They also collect information being transmitted by sailors, sometimes unwittingly, through their own personal technology, like Fitbits and cellphones.
Still, whatever ruses they employ, vessels off Iran might only get so far. It is difficult to get out to the open ocean via a waterway as narrow as the Strait of Hormuz without being detected.
A U.S. official said that more than 12 American military vessels were stationed in international waters in the Gulf of Oman. And on Tuesday, United States Central Command said that six merchant vessels had complied with directions by radio from U.S. forces to turn around and re-enter Iranian ports.
“My expectation is that the U.S. Navy can sit out in the Gulf of Oman,” Mr. Daniel of Windward said. “I don’t think there’s a way to breach the blockade.”
Michael Crowley reported from Washington, and Euan Ward from Beirut, Lebanon.
Lebanon and Israel Hold Rare In-Person Talks
Israeli and Lebanese officials held rare direct talks on Tuesday, as the Trump administration convened neighbors who share one of the Middle East’s most violent borders as it tries to roll back Iranian influence.
The talks, hosted at the State Department by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, concluded with encouraging words and talk of further meetings, albeit no firm commitments and no change in Israel’s refusal to halt its punishing military campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in the country.
But the very fact of the gathering underscored the degree to which Israel and Lebanon have come to share the goal of disarming Hezbollah, the militia group based in southern Lebanon. Neither Iran nor Hezbollah was part of the talks, which both oppose.
“We are on the same side, we and the Lebanese, that the evil of Hezbollah must be eradicated,” Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said after meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, Mr. Rubio and other U.S. officials for more than two hours. Mr. Rubio said the talks were a step toward “bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah’s influence in this part of the world.”
Although Lebanese officials used more cautious language, they were sympathetic. A person familiar with the discussions said they reiterated their desire to force Hezbollah to lay down its weapons and asked for American aid for Lebanon’s underequipped armed forces to carry out the dangerous task.
The meeting on the State Department’s top floor was officially separate from President Trump’s diplomatic efforts to reach a peace agreement with Iran, and U.S. and Israeli officials made clear they do not consider Lebanon to be part of those negotiations.
But Iran disagrees. Iranian officials insist that an April 7 cease-fire agreement between their government and the United States also included Lebanon, where Israel has mounted weeks of heavy attacks against Hezbollah targets. Pakistani mediators of the deal support Iran’s position.
Iran is more generally hostile to the idea of cooperation between Israel and Lebanon that might defang Hezbollah, said Firas Maksad, the managing director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at Eurasia Group.
Mr. Maksad noted that a State Department summary of the meeting said that “any agreement to cease hostilities must be reached between the two governments, brokered by the United States, and not through any separate track.”
“By insisting that this be an American-led process, separate from ongoing U.S. talks with Iran, the U.S. is signaling its refusal of continued Iranian influence over Lebanon,” Mr. Maksad said. “Iran and Hezbollah will surely resist and attempt to sabotage this effort.”
Lebanon has been a battleground for the fight between Israel and Hezbollah since the militant group was formed to fight a 1982 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon ordered to root out Palestinian operatives.
The two sides have clashed along their border ever since, with Israel frequently bombing and occupying Lebanese territory in what it calls a response to the group’s cross-border rocket attacks into Israel. Too militarily weak to fight back, Lebanon’s government has mainly resorted to denouncing Israel as an aggressor and appealing for international support.
But with both Hezbollah and Iran severely weakened by devastating U.S. and Israeli attacks, Lebanon’s government has taken bolder steps against Hezbollah, which has operated as a kind of independent army within Lebanon’s borders. (Hezbollah is also a Lebanese political party that holds a minority of seats in its Parliament.)
Last year, Lebanon’s government voted to require Hezbollah to surrender its weapons, in keeping with a United Nations resolution that also mandates an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory. For Lebanon’s leaders, disarming Hezbollah is the best hope for ending years of Israeli attacks against the group — attacks that have escalated since March to include heavy airstrikes on the capital of Beirut, killing hundreds of civilians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel agreed last week to the talks with Lebanon in Washington as Iran warned that it could withdraw from the cease-fire unless Israel stopped attacking Lebanon. Israel and Lebanon do not have diplomatic relations and have technically been at war since 1948.
A group of nearly two dozen European and Western nations, including France and Britain, threw their weight behind the talks, urging both sides “to seize the opportunity presented by the U.S.-Iran cease-fire,” according to a joint statement.
But the talks are emerging as a flashpoint inside Lebanon, exposing political divisions in a country with no unified position on engaging with Israel. Supporters of Hezbollah have taken to the streets in Beirut to protest the move in recent days, and regardless of the outcome, the fact that Israeli and Lebanese officials are meeting has raised fears of instability.
Mr. Rubio acknowledged the long history of conflict leading up to the latest outbreak of fighting.
“This is a process, not an event,” he said at the start of the talks on Tuesday. “All of the complexities of this matter are not going to be resolved in the next six hours.”
President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon told Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, that his nation was hoping that a cease-fire would be reached, after which longer-term negotiations could begin, according to a statement shared by the Lebanese presidency on Monday. Mr. Aoun said that any solution must entail Israel’s heeding the growing international calls for it to stop attacking Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, said in a televised speech on Monday that his organization had categorically rejected Lebanon’s planned talks with Israel. He called on the Lebanese authorities to cancel the talks, urging them not to become “a tool of Israel.”
Proceeding with the talks would represent “capitulation and surrender” to a country intent on occupying Lebanon, Mr. Qassem said.
Anushka Patil contributed reporting.
The United States said on Tuesday that no ships had made it through its blockade of vessels using Iran’s ports.
The announcement, from U.S. Central Command, came as ship tracking data showed that several Iran-linked vessels had traveled through the Strait of Hormuz after the blockade began on Monday, but that some of those vessels had stopped after emerging east of the strait, along Iran’s southern coast. That was a possible indication that U.S. forces were telling them not to proceed, shipping analysts said.
It was also unclear exactly when those ships had left port relative to the start of the blockade at roughly 10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday.
Central Command said on Tuesday that six merchant vessels had complied with directions by radio from U.S. forces to turn around and re-enter Iranian ports. It did not identify the ships or the ports.
In a separate notice, Central Command said the blockade would be enforced from the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, both east of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which over 120 ships transited daily before the war with Iran began at the end of February. That traffic carried a fifth of the world’s oil and gas.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said that more than 12 American military vessels were stationed in international waters in the Gulf of Oman.
After the war began, Iran blocked nearly all commercial traffic through the strait by threatening and attacking vessels, causing a drastic reduction in the amount of oil and gas getting out to world markets. That has sharply increased the prices of gasoline, diesel and other energy products around the world, shaking economies and governments.
To help stabilize prices, the United States had not previously sought to block Iranian tankers, so Iranian oil continued to pass through the strait at a volume of crude similar to prewar levels. But now, the United States is seeking to stop that flow and remove the lifeline it provides to the Iranian economy.
Central Command also appears to be seeking to establish secure passage through the strait for non-Iranian ships, which have stayed away out of fear of attacks from Iran.
The U.S. official said on Tuesday that more than 20 commercial vessels not linked to Iran had transited the strait in the first 24 hours of the blockade, including tankers, cargo carriers and container ships. The official did not identify the vessels.
Shipping experts said they had not seen that level of traffic. Kpler, a maritime data firm, said that it had tracked six ships through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. But some experts cautioned that other ships may have turned off their transponders, devices that enable tracking.
One commercial vessel under U.S. sanctions, the Chinese tanker Rich Starry, traveled eastward through the strait on Tuesday but then turned around. That suggested that the ship was responding to U.S. directives, according to Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This can be linked to the blockade,” she said.
Another Iran-linked ship, the Elpis, also appeared to make it through the strait during the blockade. But Ms. Raydan said the vessel was offline on Tuesday, so it was not clear what its path had been.
Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime historian and an associate professor at Campbell University in North Carolina, said that any Iran-linked vessels were probably reluctant to venture into the waters east of the strait because of the U.S. warships on patrol.
“They don’t want to come out,” he said.
Though Central Command said that neutral vessels would be allowed to traverse the strait, shipping companies said they had received no instruction from the U.S. military on how to make the journey.
Nils Haupt, a spokesman for the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, said on Tuesday that the company had not received any official communication from U.S. officials on how to ensure safe passage for its six vessels currently stranded in the Persian Gulf.
Instead, the company was relying on the news media for information, he said.
“We need to know: Is it safe?” Mr. Haupt asked. “Have all the mines been removed? Do we expect attacks from Iran? Will ships be accompanied?”
Jenny Gross contributed reporting.
Vice President JD Vance, speaking to a conservative Turning Point USA audience at the University of Georgia, later said: “I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East. I understand.” Vance, who The Times reported had opposed going to war with Iran, has not openly expressed that stance in public and has instead defended Trump on the war.
“I’m not saying you to have to agree with me on every issue,” Vance said. “What I am saying is, don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the administration on one topic. Get more involved, make your voice heard even more. That is how we ultimately take the country back.”
A heckler again shouted out “You’re killing children! You’re bombing children!” Vance said, “Right now, you have seen more humanitarian aid coming into Gaza than any time in the past five years.” A heckler appeared to shout an expletive challenging Vance’s claim.
Vice President JD Vance, addressing Pope Leo XIV’s criticism of the U.S.-Iran war, was heckled by a member of the audience who appeared to yell out “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!”
“I agree, Jesus does not support genocide, whoever yelled that out from the dark” Vance said. “He certainly does not.” Later in his remarks, he again addressed the heckler, saying that the person should be thankful that President Trump negotiated a cease-fire in Gaza. “We are the administration that solved the problem,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance said negotiations with Iran were continuing, describing Trump as wanting to make a “grand bargain” with Iran. Trump’s policy is that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Vance told a conservative Turning Point USA audience at the University of Georgia Tuesday. “Right now, we are negotiating to make sure that very thing happens.” He added, referring to Trump: “He said that if you’re willing to act like a normal country, we are willing to treat you economically like a normal country. He doesn’t want a small deal.”
Canada on Tuesday became the latest country to take measures to help consumers facing rising prices at the pump due to the war in Iran and the disruption of global energy markets.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that he would temporarily suspend a federal gas tax until early September. The move is expected to slash the cost of a liter of gasoline by 10 Canadian cents and the price of a liter of diesel by 4 Canadian cents.
Mr. Carney said the move was “a responsible measure that will reduce operating costs for truckers and businesses in the food, agriculture, housing, construction, and delivery sectors” and will cost 2.4 billion Canadian dollars ($1.7 billion).
The price of gas in Canada has shot up by about 27 percent at the pump since the Iran war began, Bloomberg analysis shows, exacerbating already existing cost-of-living concerns for many Canadians.
The opposition Conservative Party had been pressing Mr. Carney to slash all taxes on gas until the end of the year, but he opted to maintain a separate 5 percent goods-and-services tax and keep the relief limited to approximately five months.
Canada is an important oil and gas exporter, and, while consumers have faced steeper costs, the Canadian energy industry has benefited from the higher prices.
Mr. Carney said that his government was investing in infrastructure to boost oil and gas production and shield Canadians from these types of shocks in the future.
“To make Canada more energy secure and less reliant on external factors, our government is advancing major projects to realize Canada’s full potential in clean and conventional energy,” he said.
Public opinion in Canada, where environmental protections are built into the regulatory system, has swung in favor of more investments in oil and gas. But such projects will take years to complete and are unlikely to help Canada in the short term.
Read the full story at nyt News.
U.S. crude trades lower as possible Washington-Tehran talks raise hopes for Mideast peace deal
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/15/2026, 1:41:29 PM
U.S. crude extended losses after settling lower Tuesday amid rising optimism that the Middle East conflict could see a diplomatic resolution.
U.S. crude oil futures for May delivery fell 0.51% to $90.81 per barrel as of 4:09 a.m. ET. Futures for international benchmark Brent for June delivery, however, inched 0.1% higher to $94.90 per barrel.
A second round of U.S.-Iran negotiations are being considered, though no official schedule has been set, a White House official told CNBC on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump later said the talks could take place "over the next two days" in Islamabad, according to the New York Post.
Trump had earlier indicated discussions were proceeding slowly and negotiations would likely be held in Europe, but called back shortly after with updated details, the report said.
The renewed push for talks comes after earlier reports that talks aimed at resolving the Middle East conflict could resume ahead of the expiry of a fragile two-week ceasefire.
"Resuming flows through the Strait of Hormuz remains the single most important variable in easing the pressure on energy supplies, prices and the global economy," the IEA said in a report published Tuesday.
Goldman Sachs said in a note published Wednesday that flows through the strait remain constrained, running at just about 10% of normal levels, or roughly 2.1 million barrels per day on a four-day moving average.
The U.S. blockade targeting Iranian ports could further pressure remaining flows, with Washington reporting that several vessels had already turned back in the first 24 hours, even as transit via non-Iranian ports continues.
Goldman noted that disruptions to crude production in the Middle East appear less severe than initially feared. It estimates average shut-ins in the Persian Gulf at about 8 million barrels per day in March, below earlier expectations and lower than the International Energy Agency's 10 million barrels per day estimate, partly due to higher use of storage and oil held on tankers.
Chinese robotaxi companies forge ahead with UAE expansion despite Iran war
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/15/2026, 1:16:03 PM
BEIJING — At least three Chinese robotaxi companies are pressing ahead with expansion plans in the Middle East despite the ongoing Iran war.
Ride-hailing company Didi plans to begin its first overseas robotaxi test in the United Arab Emirates later this year, according to a statement Wednesday.
Zhang Bo, co-founder of Didi and head of its autonomous driving business, disclosed the plans at a UAE-China business cooperation forum in Beijing earlier this week, according to the statement. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday as part of a three-day state visit.
Didi's UAE testing plan follows a broader push by Chinese autonomous driving companies in the region.
Guangzhou-based WeRide said earlier this month it had launched fully driverless, fare-charging robotaxi service in Dubai's Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim districts. Riders can book a robotaxi through Uber's app.
Pony.ai is also pursuing commercial operations in the emirate. In late March, Pony.ai CEO James Peng said in response to a CNBC question that the war had not affected its application for a commercial license in Dubai and that he viewed the conflict as short term.
The Chinese robotaxi company said in September that it received permission from Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority to test autonomous driving locally.
Baidu's robotaxi unit Apollo Go also announced on April 1 that residents and visitors in Dubai could start hailing fully driverless rides through its app. It was not immediately clear whether there were restricted areas of operation.
Dubai's media office said in a social media post that the rollout would start with 50 vehicles, with plans for over 1,000 robotaxis over the next few years.
Chinese robotaxi companies have ramped up their global expansion plans in the last two years, with the Middle East emerging as an early launch market, followed by tests in Europe. Meanwhile, Alphabet-backed Waymo has rolled out fleets across more of the U.S. and has begun tests in London and Japan.
For complete details, visit the original sources linked above.
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