Countries turn to emergency oil supplies. It won’t buy much time.

Summary

Podcast Summary: Apple News Today

Episode: Countries turn to emergency oil supplies. It won’t buy much time.

Date: March 12, 2026
Host: Cecilia Ley

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Cecilia Ley takes listeners through a turbulent day in global affairs, focusing primarily on the historic decision by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to release emergency oil reserves in response to the intensifying global energy crisis brought on by escalating conflict in the Middle East. The show also covers related military, travel, and weather developments, painting a broad picture of worldwide instability and its far-reaching consequences.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Emergency Oil Release Amid Crisis

• Middle East War and Oil Attacks:
  Fuel ports and commercial tankers have come under attack as Iran has choked off the critical Strait of Hormuz, responsible for 20% of the world’s oil supply.

  • Cecilia Ley (00:38): “Oil has taken center stage in the war in the Middle East...Yesterday, several commercial tankers were struck at sea and fuel ports were set ablaze...sparked by Iran's decision to choke off the world's most important shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz.”

• IEA's Historic Response:
  The International Energy Agency approves the largest coordinated release of emergency oil reserves in its history: 400 million barrels, more than double the 2022 reserve release.

  • IEA Executive Director (01:16, 01:26): “IEA countries have unanimously decided to launch the largest ever release of emergency oil stocks in our agency's history.”

• Context from the Wall Street Journal:

  • Matthew Dalton (01:48): “It's the biggest release of crude oil that the IEA countries have ever done...it reflects just the magnitude of the disruption that's happening right now.”

• Limits of the Oil Release:
  The emergency stocks provide only about 20 days' worth of the oil typically supplied via the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Matthew Dalton (02:53): “The amount of oil that they've agreed to put onto the market accounts for around 20 days of supply...Trump administration has bought itself 20 days, which is not that long.”

• Potential Impact on Prices:
  Past releases like 2022 sometimes unnerved markets, causing prices to rise. The current impact is uncertain.

  • Matthew Dalton (03:36): “The price of oil actually went up because traders were kind of spooked...Analysts have credited the move with stabilizing markets. The short term impact of it is hard to anticipate.”

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2. Escalation and Fallout from the Middle East War

• Attacks and Military Tensions:
  More tankers targeted; US military refuses to escort ships until the Iranian threat subsides. The US has also asked Israel to hold back on attacks in Iran.
  • Cecilia Ley (04:02): “At least three more commercial tankers were struck yesterday, bringing the total targeted to 14...US military has turned down requests to escort tankers...US has reportedly asked Israel not to hit any more energy facilities in Iran without their approval.”

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3. Controversy: Strike on Iranian Elementary School

• Incident Overview:
  A missile strike killed 175 people, mostly children, at an Iranian girls' school. Conflicting reports about who was responsible.

  • Cecilia Ley (04:35): “A missile struck a girls elementary school in southern Iran. It caused devastation and mass civilian casualties...The attack drew condemnation from the UN.”

• US Military Investigation:
  Reporting from Reuters' Idris Ali suggests US forces may have been responsible, possibly due to outdated targeting data.

  • Idris Ali (05:20): “The United States may have used outdated targeting data...a deadly strike may have been caused because the United States military used outdating targeting intelligence.”
  • Idris Ali (05:45): “If time had been spent monitoring...they probably would have been able to see girls coming in and out of the school...some of the intelligence that was used in this strike was old.”

• Trump Administration’s Denials:
  President Trump has insisted—against evidence and the opinions of his own defense officials—that Iran was responsible.

  • Donald Trump (06:43): “We think it was done by Iran. They are very inaccurate...They have no accuracy whatsoever.”
  • Reporter to Trump (07:07): “Why are you the only person saying this?”
  • Trump (07:23): “Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation.”

• Calls for Accountability & Historic Context:
  Democratic senators demand a swift, transparent probe. Analysts note the strike is among the worst cases of US-inflicted casualties since 2001.

  • Idris Ali (07:49): “This is probably amongst the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts...right up there in terms of civilian casualties inflicted by the United States in the Middle east in at least the last two decades.”

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4. Travel Mayhem Amid War & Government Shutdown

• Long Security Waits & Cancellations:
  US airports facing extreme delays and lost flights due to TSA staff shortages (from the Department of Homeland Security shutdown), surging travel, and international flight cancellations linked to the Middle East war.

  • Hannah Sampson (09:05): “People were missing flights. People were stuck in the airport for hours...TSA PreCheck wasn't even open.”

• Spring Break Complications:
  Airlines bracing for 171 million US domestic passengers through April 30th, an all-time high, with added disruptions.

  • Hannah Sampson (09:33): “It's a time period that lasts a really long time...multiple factors contributing to disruption.”

• International Airlines Respond:
  KLM, British Airways cancel thousands of flights, leaving travelers stranded or scrambling.

  • Hannah Sampson (10:02): “Carriers have canceled thousands of flights...about 40,000 out of more than 72,000 flights...the desperation on fewer flights just meant longer waits and more stress for people.”

• Advice for Travelers:
  Get PreCheck, travel with carry-on only to avoid compounded delays.

  • Hannah Sampson (10:38): “It's a great idea to have pre check...try with all of your might to pack a carry on only instead of checking bags...going to increase your odds of missing a flight.”

• Limited Relief:
  Trump administration reinstates the Global Entry program, previously suspended during the shutdown.

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5. Brief News Highlights

• Severe Midwest & Southern Storms:
  Tornadoes and thunderstorms cause massive damage across several states.
• Iran Withdraws from World Cup:
  Ongoing war may force Iranian men’s soccer team to skip the FIFA World Cup in the US, Mexico, and Canada.
• UK House of Lords Reform:
  The UK expels the last hereditary parliamentarians from the House of Lords in a historic change, despite some noble pushback.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Scope of the Energy Crisis:
  Matthew Dalton (01:48):
  “It's the biggest release of crude oil that the IEA countries have ever done...it reflects just the magnitude of the disruption that's happening right now.”

• On the Short-Term Relief:
  Matthew Dalton (02:53):
  “The amount of oil that they've agreed to put onto the market accounts for around 20 days of supply...the Trump administration has bought itself 20 days, which is not that long.”

• On Responsibility for the School Strike:
  Idris Ali (05:20):
  “The United States may have used outdated targeting data...a deadly strike may have been caused because the United States military used outdating targeting intelligence.”

• On Airport Chaos:
  Hannah Sampson (09:05):
  “People were missing flights. People were stuck in the airport for hours...TSA PreCheck wasn't even open.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• IEA Emergency Oil Release Explained: 00:38–03:36
• Militarization and Attacks on Oil Routes: 04:02–04:35
• School Strike Investigation and War Crimes: 04:35–07:49
• Airport and Travel Disruptions: 08:23–11:11
• Rapid-fire News Highlights: 11:11–End

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Conclusion

This episode details the unprecedented international response to a worsening energy and security crisis, explores tragic consequences of modern warfare, and shows how these issues ripple outward to ordinary travelers and international sporting events. The reporting is urgent, clear, and draws heavily on frontline journalists, making the complex interplay of geopolitics and daily life accessible to listeners.

Transcript

[Cecilia Ley]

Good morning. Countries have been forced to tap emergency oil supplies as the global energy crisis takes hold. The Wall Street Journal explains the historic decision.

[Matthew Dalton]

It's just been one escalation after the other on both sides to get to this worst case scenario for the energy markets.

[Cecilia Ley]

A Pentagon investigation appears to contradict Trump's claims over who struck an Iranian elementary school and the moun. Facing airport travel.

[Hannah Sampson]

If you're lucky, it's pretty calm. If you're unlucky, it's just absolute chaos.

[Cecilia Ley]

It's Thursday, March 12th. I'm Cecilia Ley and this is Apple News. Today, Oil has taken center stage in the war in the Middle East. Yesterday, several commercial tankers were struck at sea and fuel ports were set ablaze. The succession of attacks are further threatening a global energy crisis which was sparked by Iran's decision to choke off the world's most important shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz. Yesterday, a stopgap plan was announced to address the scale of the crisis.

[IEA Executive Director]

IEA countries have unanimously decided to launch

[Cecilia Ley]

the largest ever release of emergency oil

[IEA Executive Director]

stocks in our agency's history.

[Cecilia Ley]

That's the Executive Director of the iea, or International Energy Agency, a conglomerate of countries that have their own oil reserves. They've decided to release 400 million barrels of oil, more than double their last release in 2022 after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

[Matthew Dalton]

It's the biggest release of crude oil that the IEA countries have ever done. The IEA has been around for more than 50 years. It was formed in the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo of 1973. 74. And it reflects just the magnitude of the disruption that's happening right now.

[Cecilia Ley]

Matthew Dalton is a Paris correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who first reported news that the IEA was planning to do this. He said that the US would be the biggest contributor, with oil coming from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a number of facilities in the Gulf.

[Matthew Dalton]

Every IEA member country has facilities like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve we're talking about. In addition to the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the uk, they all tuck away crude oil for a rainy day. And that rainy day has really arrived.

[Cecilia Ley]

The IEA's planned release might provide some temporary relief on supplies, but in the long term, it can't fully compensate for the 20% of the world's oil supply that travels through the Strait of Hormuz.

[Matthew Dalton]

I think everybody understands that this is a temporary measure. The amount of oil that they've agreed to put onto the market accounts for around 20 days of supply coming out of the Strait of Hormuz. So from that perspective, you could say, well, the Trump administration has bought itself 20 days, which is not that long.

[Cecilia Ley]

A spokesperson for Iran's military command said that people should be prepared for oil to cost $200 a barre. But it's not totally clear that this release would make an impact on prices in the short term either. In fact, that 2022 release we mentioned earlier actually had the opposite impact.

[Matthew Dalton]

After those releases, the price of oil actually went up because traders were kind of spooked. They thought, well, the situation seems to be worse than we thought. So they began bidding up the price of oil over the sort of medium term and longer term. Analysts have credited the move with stabilizing markets. The short term impact of it is hard to anticipate.

[Cecilia Ley]

At least three more commercial tankers were struck yesterday, bringing the total targeted to 14. According to the Journal, the US military has turned down requests to escort tankers through the strait, with defense officials saying it won't do so until the threat of Iranian fire has eased. At the same time, the US has reportedly asked Israel not to hit any more energy facilities in Iran without their approval. At the start of the war, a missile struck a girls elementary school in southern Iran. It caused devastation and mass civilian casualties. 175 people died, most of them children, according to Iranian officials. The attack drew condemnation from the UN And a conflicting set of explanations from the US Idris Ali is a Pentagon correspondent for Reuters, which has been breaking news on the possible culprits this past week. Yesterday, Ali reported that the Pentagon believes US Forces were likely responsible and he shed some light on how investigators think it might have happened.

[Idris Ali]

The United States may have used outdated targeting data. And what that is is essentially when the military is coming up with target lists, it based on intelligence and other factors. And it appears that in this case really a deadly strike may have been caused because the United States military used outdating targeting intelligence.

[Cecilia Ley]

The school was located near a compound which had been part of a facility used by Iran's Navy.

[Idris Ali]

If time had been spent monitoring the location for extended period of time, they probably would have been able to see girls coming in and out of the school. You know, they have very distinctive uniforms that we've seen in pictures since the strike has taken place. So clearly, you know, what our sources are saying is it does appear that some of the intelligence that was used in this strike was old.

[Cecilia Ley]

Ali noted that the strike happened in the opening days of the war when things were moving quickly.

[Idris Ali]

We are talking about conflict where the US has struck 5,000 targets. So I think their argument would be that they cannot monitor for extended periods of time any one particular target. They don't have the intelligence to do that.

[Cecilia Ley]

The administration has previously stressed that it would never intentionally target civilians. But if the Pentagon does ultimately conclude that the US Is responsible, then that finding would stand in sharp contrast to successive statements made by Trump over the past week.

[Donald Trump]

We think it was done by Iran. They are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran after he

[Cecilia Ley]

said that video evidence showed a Tomahawk missile hitting the school, a weapon Iran doesn't have access to. On Tuesday, Trump was confronted with that finding and was challenged by reporters, but he doubled down.

[IEA Executive Director]

Mr. President, you just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked, standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?

[Donald Trump]

Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation.

[Cecilia Ley]

He went on to say he would, quote, live with whatever the Pentagon's report concluded. It's important to note that the Pentagon has not publicly disclosed their conclusions. A group of 46, mostly Democratic senators have called for the investigation to be swift and to make clear, quote, any measures to pursue accountability.

[Idris Ali]

This is probably amongst the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts. The United States has been engaged in wars in the Middle east since 2001. We have had horrific incidents in Afghanistan, in Iraq, specifically in Afghanistan, a mistaken strike against a hospital, which caused mass civilian casualties. But this is right up there in terms of civilian casualties inflicted by the United States in the Middle east in at least the last two decades.

[Cecilia Ley]

If you were flying somewhere this past weekend, you might have noticed a trend. I was here three weeks ago during Mardi Gras, and it was no problem. This is insane. I had to change my flight.

[Matthew Dalton]

So rather than a 3pm flight, it

[Idris Ali]

is now a 8pm flight.

[Cecilia Ley]

Those were two frustrated travelers talking to CBS News from the airport in New Orleans, where security lines stretched outside and through the parking garage. At one point, the estimated wait time at the airport in Houston was three hours. It's partly because TSA agents are calling out of work. Many are expecting to miss their first full paycheck this Saturday, a direct result of the ongoing partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

[Hannah Sampson]

People were missing flights People were stuck in the airport for hours, frustrated in some cases. TSA PreCheck wasn't even open open, so it was just a trickle.

[Cecilia Ley]

Hannah Sampson is a travel reporter for the Washington Post. She told us there's been a perfect storm. The shutdown has combined with rising fuel costs and flight disruptions because of the war in the Middle east, not to mention this is the start of the spring break season.

[Hannah Sampson]

It's a time period that lasts a really long time. And in the US domestic airlines are expecting to fly 171 million passengers over this period that ends April 30th. So that's a ton of people over this long amount of time when there are multiple factors contributing to disruption.

[Cecilia Ley]

The airline KLM announced that it was suspending a number of its routes through the majority of the month, and British Airways recently made a similar announcement.

[Hannah Sampson]

Carriers have canceled thousands of flights over the past week and a half. As of recently, it was about 40,000 out of more than 72,000 flights, according to an aviation analytics firm. And as part of those cancellations, we saw people who were just scrambling to get out of the area, get back home to the US get back to Europe. And the desperation on fewer flights just meant longer waits and more stress for people.

[Cecilia Ley]

For those still looking to book flights in the near future amid all this uncertainty, Sampson had some advice.

[Hannah Sampson]

It's a great idea to have pre check. If you have a flight in the future and you have enough time to sign up for that, do it. Because even if the standard lines are long, there's often a good chance that Precheck will be open and you can catch a break and get a shorter line that way, experts have told us, try with all of your might to pack a carry on only instead of checking bags. Because if you are waiting in a really long line to check your bag and then you have to wait in a really long security line, that's just going to increase your odds of missing a flight.

[Cecilia Ley]

While there hasn't been a resolution in sight for the DHS shutdown, a bit of relief did come Wednesday. The Trump administration reinstated its Global Entry program, which had been suspended for a few weeks. And finally, a few other stories were following. Destructive tornadoes and severe thunderstorms have gripped the Midwest, the South and the Mid Atlantic states. From late Tuesday through early Wednesday, parts of Illinois and Indiana were hit by strong winds, storms and hail the size of grapefruit. Residents posted social media videos of tornadoes as they barreled through their neighborhoods. There it is right there. This is right here. Griffin Road area Everybody get in, get downstairs. If you're out here, stay safe. The thunderstorm that produced the tornadoes lasted for almost five hours and tracked over 100 miles. Winds of 150 mph were measured on Wednesday. The risk swept eastward and through yesterday evening, tornado watches were in effect in Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states. Iran's sports minister says there is no way the Iranian men's soccer team can participate in this summer's FIFA World cup because of the ongoing war. No official word has been announced by FIFA about Iran's withdrawal, but the minister's words are so far the strongest sign that the will skip the tournament. FIFA's president has said he spoke to Trump, who assured him the Iranian team would be welcome to compete. The World cup is being hosted by the U.S. mexico and Canada. Iran is scheduled to play group stage games in Los Angeles and Seattle. The minister's update comes days after several players from the country's women's team sought asylum in Australia. They feared retribution after refusing to sing the national anthem during a tournament there. And finally, it's one of the oldest legislative chambers in the world, which stubbornly holds onto centuries old traditions. But yesterday, the British government fulfilled its campaign promise to kick out the last remaining hereditary members of its parliament. The country's lower chamber, called the House of Lords, is unelected, and Most of the 800 people in it are appointed by lawmakers. But 92 of them inherited their seats from their families. They've been able to debate, scrutinize and even amend legislation. They could also collect nearly $500 each time they just showed up. The ruling Labor Party described the change as historic, but not everyone was happy. The Earl of Devon said his family had been in the House of lords for 900 years and complained his notice period to vacate failed to meet employment law standards. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming next. New York Magazine reports on the emerging trend of women being diagnosed with adhd, midlife, and the scientific and cultural forces behind it. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus Narrated to find that story and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.