(RTTNews) - Extending the losses from yesterday, crude oil prices have plummeted on Tuesday as investors saw the U.S. administration's move to completely isolate Iran economically in lieu of military strikes as a beginning sign for easing of gulf tensions.

WTI Crude Oil for October month delivery was last seen trading down by $2.83 (or 3.33%) at $82.18 per barrel. Yesterday, the six-month-long U.S.-Iran conflict entered a significant phase of escalation. Focusing on cutting funding coming from five lifelines to Iran that included digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping, U.

S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced an economic campaign against Iran, termed "Operation Economic Outcast." The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned nearly 60 entities, individuals, and vessels that aid Iranian operations. It also suspended multiple licenses that authorized remittance payments to Iran.

Threatening to impose secondary sanctions on Iran's "enablers," which could be countries, businesses, or organizations, Bessent called on world leaders to choose between the U.S. and Iran. Bessent also warned that countries that do not severe their trade ties with Iran would be forced out of the dollar-based financial system.

Iran pledged to fight back against the economic offensive. Iran's Minister for Economy Ali Madanizadeh announced that Iran was prepared to respond to the new threats. Iran also claimed that the U.S. was keen to revive talks. Iranian Parliament member Abbas Golroo stated that Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir brought a message from the U.

S. to Iran aiming to revive the halted political process. The U.S. administration is yet to comment on this, though. After his Iran visit, Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi stated that Iran made "significant progress" in talks on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and prospects for peace.

Experts point out that for weeks, there have been no major strikes launched by the U.S. against Iran nor by Iran on its neighbors. Experts are of the view that with the U.S. adopting economic measures to force Iran to come to its terms in place of any military endeavor, concerns of a war in the Middle East, at least in the near-term, remain abated.

Further adding weightage to this perspective, the New York Times reported that the U.S. is preparing to send diplomats back to embassies in the Middle East, suggesting that the U.S. administration is not anticipating a full-blown war in the gulf in the immediate future.

These diplomats were evacuated from their respective embassies back to the U.S., before and during the war with Iran. Meanwhile, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center stated that an oil tanker was struck on Tuesday by an unknown projectile and disabled, around 17 km northeast of Oman at Shisah region without sharing further specifications Last Friday, Axios reported that around 40 tankers transited in and out of the Strait of Hormuz through its southern deep-water channel on Friday night.

Reportedly, nearly 16 million barrels of oil were moved out. Reuters reported, citing Kpler's data, that only one large gas carrier entered the strait from the Gulf of Oman on Monday, down from six vessels of different sizes on Sunday. Traders are also waiting to see how U.

S.-China relations change after yesterday's warning from the U.S. to all nations tied to Iran. With China being the largest destination for Iranian oil exports as well as a provider of financial channels for Iran-related trade, any move by the U.S. against China could cause friction in U.

S.-China economic relations and reignite a trade war. Of note, Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit the U.S. on September 24. Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Iran-linked Houthi rebel group of Yemen targeted a Saudi oil tanker, Amzan, in the Red Sea, off Yanbu with a ballistic missile and drones.

The U.S. dollar index was last seen trading at 98.92, down by 0.04 (or 0.04%) today.

Years of warnings about the digital vulnerabilities lurking inside basic utilities are colliding with a new reality: AI is making those weaknesses easier for hackers to exploit.Why it matters: AI is lowering the barrier for state-backed hackers looking to disrupt or manipulate water systems, power plants and other critical infrastructure.

Driving the news: A recent wave of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure is raising new questions about the preparedness of U.S. water systems and a British power plant.The Telegraph reported that Iran-backed hackers broke into a U.K. power plant, prompting a four-day shutdown around the time a series of cyberattacks on U.

S. water systems began. U.S. officials warned last week that hackers were actively using an AI-generated exploitation script to target a device commonly found in critical infrastructure that has played a key role in the ongoing attacks on U.S. water systems.

Markus Mueller, field CISO at critical infrastructure security firm Nozomi Networks, told Axios he has medium confidence that the U.S. and U.K. attacks are linked to the same threat actor.The big picture: Policymakers have been warning for years that weak cybersecurity across critical infrastructure could eventually have real-world consequences.

Five years ago, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) warned Congress that cyber weaknesses across U.S. water utilities represented "an extremely dangerous situation.""We're the most wired country in the world. That's good," he told lawmakers. "But we're also the most vulnerable country in the world.

" Between the lines: AI isn't fundamentally changing how hackers break into these systems. It's reducing the time and expertise needed to understand specialized equipment and exploit weaknesses that already exist, experts told Axios.Suspected Iranian hackers have long studied U.

S. critical infrastructure, including how specialized devices such as programmable logic controllers work.Historically, threat actors might have needed to obtain the devices themselves or pore over technical manuals before they could successfully target them, Mueller said.

Now, AI is lowering the "time, cost, and expertise needed to take advantage of weaknesses that already exist," Diana Kelley, chief information security officer at Noma Security, told Axios.Reality check: Governments haven't simply ignored the problem.

But efforts to impose stronger security requirements have moved slowly and repeatedly run into legal, political and funding hurdles.The Environmental Protection Agency attempted during the Biden administration to require water utilities to implement basic cybersecurity measures, but it later rescinded the policy after legal challenges from states and industry groups.

Recent federal cuts to cybersecurity resources and uncertainty around federal grant funding for state and local governments "leaves communities more vulnerable to future cyberattacks," Mayuresh Dani, a security research manager at Qualys, told Axios.

Cyber hygiene guidance and government advisories alone won't keep pace with attackers, John Gallagher, vice president at automated cybersecurity firm Viakoo, told Axios."Adversaries will always have an upper hand because of speed when cyber defense relies on bureaucratic budget cycles and multiyear legislative processes," Gallagher said.

Yes, but: So far, the recent attacks appear to have caused only limited disruptions.In some towns, hackers affected the pressure levels for local water supplies and officials issued precautionary boil-water advisories. The Telegraph reported that the cyberattack on the local power plant "had no impact on the U.

K.'s wider power supply or energy generation. "The intrigue: Critical infrastructure remains an alluring target for nation-state hackers precisely because even relatively small disruptions can have highly visible consequences, Margaret Cunningham, vice president of security and AI strategy at Darktrace, told Axios.

"AI gives attackers more speed and reach, but it doesn't erase the problems critical infrastructure organizations have been dealing with for years, including exposed operational technology, difficulty patching and systems that cannot simply be switched off," she said.

What to watch: Key details about the U.K. incident remain unknown, including what type of power plant was targeted and which devices the hackers accessed, Mueller said.

On August 25, 2026, Yemen’s Houthi militia reportedly attacked a crude oil tanker in the Red Sea, following previous strikes on Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Analysts suggest these actions may aim to undermine government control over Red Sea coastal areas, potentially escalating the conflict after four years of relative calm.

Jul 8, 2026 ... These were the updates on the US-Israel war on Iran and Israel's attacks on Gaza and Lebanon from July 8, 2026.