Analysis ✳
The price of protection
Energy chokepoints, arms production lines and the raising of armies now price the same commodity: risk. This week made the single market visible.
#Iran
World ✳
Trump Declares Hormuz Blockade Reinstated, Vows to Charge Ships for Passage
Donald Trump says he has reinstated a US blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and will bill ships for safe passage, days after fresh strikes and an Iranian attack on a vessel in the waterway.
USA ✳
Trump Turns the Hormuz War Into a Toll Booth: A Third Night of Strikes and a $200B Chokepoint Plan
After a third consecutive night of strikes on Iran, Trump has floated a tolling scheme in the Strait of Hormuz that he says could raise nearly $200 billion a year. The war is becoming a US-run chokepoint that reprices global energy trade and puts every Gulf-dependent ally on notice.
World ✳
Iran Hits US Bases Across Middle East as Washington Strikes Hormuz Assets, UK Bans IRGC
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Monday they struck US bases in multiple Middle Eastern countries in retaliation for American attacks, as Washington reported degrading Tehran's capacity to hit Hormuz shipping and Britain proscribed the IRGC.
USA ✳
Trump Says US Will Become 'the Guardian' of Hormuz After Fresh Strikes on Iran
President Trump said the US will 'keep' and 'probably run' the Strait of Hormuz after overnight airstrikes on Iran, turning a weekend exchange of fire into an open contest over the passage that carries a large share of the world's seaborne oil.
World ✳
Iran Strikes Oman as Hormuz Standoff Resets, US-Iran Talks Still Stalled
Iran has extended its retaliatory strikes to Oman, widening a Gulf-wide escalation as US-Iran talks to end the war remain unresolved and the Strait of Hormuz standoff resets to square one.
World ✳
Six US Soldiers Killed in Kuwait Drone Strike as US Bombs Iran and Hormuz Closes Again
Six US soldiers died in a drone strike on Kuwait's Port Shuaiba as the United States bombed targets inside Iran and Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz again — a conflict now grounding Gulf aviation and rattling global markets.
World ✳
Iran Says New US Sanctions Breach Ceasefire Memorandum, Even as Guns Fall Quiet
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says new US sanctions targeting a financier linked to Iran's Supreme Leader and Iran's shadow exchange houses violate the no-new-sanctions clause of the June 17 ceasefire memorandum, even as fighting itself has quieted since last week's strikes over Strait of Hormuz ship attacks.
USA ✳
US Sends 20 Warships, Two Carriers Toward Iran as Trump Floats Naval Blockade
The US Central Command has moved 20 warships, including two aircraft carriers, toward Iran, two days after President Trump suggested he could reinstate a naval blockade on Iranian ports, according to the New York Post.
Analysis ✳
The Iran Ceasefire Is Holding — On Paper. Four Fronts Say Otherwise
The US-Iran ceasefire framework announced on June 15 promised an end to fighting on every front, including Lebanon. A week on, Hizballah's brinkmanship, jittery Gulf capitals, a slump in Hormuz shipping traffic and dueling claims about who actually won all point toward a truce that is thinner than the headline suggests.
World ✳
Iran War Widens: Tehran Strikes Four Gulf Hosts of US Forces as Ceasefire Collapses
Iran answered a second wave of US strikes by firing missiles at Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan — all hosts to American forces — while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz halted and Israel warned of an Iranian plot against Trump.
World ✳
Truce in Ashes: US and Iran Trade Fire as Khamenei Is Buried in Mashhad
Iran says it struck US military targets in the Gulf as Khamenei was finally laid to rest in Mashhad, four months after the airstrike that killed him. The burial, long delayed, now coincides with the truce's collapse.