What began as a relentless U.S.-Israeli military assault on Iran has turned into a wider crisis as the disruption of the world’s oil markets spreads beyond the Middle East. Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times, discusses what we know about the players involved in the fighting. Guest: Eric Schmitt (https://www.nytimes.com/by/eric-schmitt) , a national security correspondent for The New York Times based in Washington. Background reading:  • War with Iran has become the world’s latest economic hazard (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/business/economy/trump-iran-oil-economy-fallout.html) . • Follow updates on the fighting (https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/10/world/iran-war-trump-us-israel) in the Middle East. Photo: Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily (http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily) . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts (http://nytimes.com/podcasts) or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.