4 things to know about the UK gasoline crisis

A fuel crisis that threatened to stop the world's fifth largest economy in its tracks appears to be easing.

For nearly a week, British motorists have found service stations closed and long lines at those that still had gasoline and diesel. The shortages provoked an angry response from some members of the public, and made life difficult for drivers across the country.

The root cause was an acute shortage of tanker drivers, exacerbated since the start of this year by Brexit. But panic buying made the situation much worse. Emergency government action designed to ease the crisis — including putting army truck drivers on standby — may do little to fix the underlying problem.