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Gas Prices Are Spiking Again — Here's How to Protect Your Wallet as the Iran Conflict Escalates

  Published July 20, 2026 If it feels like you're filling up more often for the same money lately, you're not imagining it. Oil markets jolted higher to start the week, and Canadian drivers are almost certain to see it at the pump in the next few days. What just happened Brent crude — the global benchmark that drives Canadian gas pricing — jumped nearly 4% on Monday to trade above US$90 a barrel, its highest level since mid-June, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate traded near US$84. The move came after the United States and Iran escalated hostilities over the weekend, including strikes on vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz and an attack on an oil facility in Kuwait. That strait matters enormously to your gas bill: roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply normally passes through it. When shipping through it slows or stalls, traders price in a "risk premium" almost immediately — and that shows up at Canadian pumps within days, not weeks. What it mea...

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China’s recent surge in respiratory illnesses caused by flu and other known pathogens, not COVID-19

 

According to the Chinese health ministry, the recent surge in respiratory illnesses across the country is caused by the flu and other known pathogens, and not by COVID-19. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked China for more data on the respiratory illness spreading in the north of the country, urging people to take steps to reduce the risk of infection . The surge in respiratory illnesses such as flu and RSV has been reported in some parts of China, in the first winter since the country eased its COVID-restrictions. Mycoplasma, which can cause walking pneumonia, is among the bugs that Chinese officials say are behind an outbreak of pneumonia, flu, and COVID-19 in kids.


 


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