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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Wednesday that the strait was open. He then put the onus on other countries to ensure the flow of traffic.“It’s time for the rest of the world to step up and ensure that [the strait] stays open after President Trump and the War Department brought Iran to the place where they’re voluntarily opening it right now, as was announced last night,” Hegseth said during a Wednesday Pentagon press briefing.Iran said Thursday there are now two routes – both controlled by Tehran – that ships could use due to the presence of mines in the...

Following the US-Iran Ceasefire, Iran announced a closing of the international traffic separation scheme by mining the area and re-routing ships through a new traffic pattern within the territorial waters of Iran and under jurisdiction and control.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the month-old war in the Middle East on Saturday, claiming two missile launches at Israel. About 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region. And Pakistan’s government said that regional powers plan to meet Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting.

Iran appears to be setting itself up as the gatekeeper for the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important artery for oil shipments. The move could cement Tehran’s de facto chokehold over the crucial waterway and formalize its ability to keep its own oil flowing to China. Iranian communications to the United Nations maritime authority and the experience of ships transiting the Strait suggest the creation of something akin to a “toll booth.” Ships must enter Iranian waters and be vetted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. At least two vessels have paid for passage. Traffic through the Strait has...

In the early 19th century, the Barbary Pirates—Muslim corsairs from North Africa's Islamic states—terrorized the Mediterranean and Atlantic, seizing ships, enslaving crews, and demanding tribute from nations too weak or unwilling to fight back. European powers and the young United States eventually crushed them with cannon fire and resolve. Today, history repeats in the Persian Gulf, but on a far grander, more menacing scale. The **Islamic Republic of Iran**—a regime steeped in theocratic fascism, jihadist ideology, and centuries-old supremacist impulses—has revived the pirate's playbook with 21st-century sophistication. According to recent reporting, Tehran has begun charging select commercial vessels **transit "fees"**...

PARIS (AP) — France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said. French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.

The UK's Ministry of Defence confirmed that it had provided "enabling support" to the US during its operation to seize the tanker. US forces have boarded a Venezuela-linked sanctioned oil tanker in North Atlantic after pursuing it for weeks, the US military announced on Wednesday. "The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a US federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro," US European Command said in a post on X. Russia sent a submarine to escort the empty oil tanker the US military had been pursuing and attempting to seize for weeks,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump expressed concern that his wife, Melania, may now be aware of what he got her for Christmas after news reports surfaced that the U.S. military had seized a Venezuelan oil tanker this week. When the story broke, Trump reportedly scolded White House staff for potentially spoiling the surprise that he was giving his wife the one-of-a-kind gift of a seized tanker filled with crude oil. "I hate to think the surprise is ruined," Trump told friends. "I know she would love to have opened that tanker on Christmas morning and have it be a...

Moment U.S. forces seized massive oil tanker off Venezuela “As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” Trump said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”

The interception of a sanctioned Russian tanker by the USS Stockdale near Venezuela has turned a slow-burning sanctions story into a visible test of sea power, energy leverage, and political resolve in the Caribbean. As Washington tightens the screws on fuel shipments that have been worth roughly 3 billion dollars to Nicolás Maduro's government, the encounter signals that the era of quiet workarounds is giving way to open contests on the water. I see this clash as more than a one-off naval drama. It is the moment when a shadowy sanctions evasion network, a fragile petrostate, and a resurgent U.S....

🚨 JUST IN: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accuses President Trump of doing what CHINA and IRAN do when he "executes" narco-terrorists "I would call them extrajudicial killings. This is akin to what China does, what Iran does with drug dealers -- they summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So it's WRONG."

A surfer at Steamer Lane says a sea otter bit her foot and then climbed onto her board Tuesday evening, holding it hostage for roughly 20 minutes as rescuers rushed in. Isabella Orduna was paddling out when she felt "a nip" on her foot. She rolled off and turned to see an otter perched on her board. Orduna says that after biting her, the otter took over her board for at least 20 minutes and, in the moment, she didn't know what to do.

When challenged that killing citizens without due process is a war crime, the vice president responded that he "didn't give a sh*t." Sometimes in fits of anger, loud voices will say they don't care about niceties such as due process—they just want to kill bad guys. For a brief moment, all of us may share that anger and may even embrace revenge or retribution. But over 20,000 people are murdered in the U.S. each year, and yet somehow we find a way to a dispassionate dispensation of justice that includes legal representation for the accused and jury trial. Why? Because...

The Houthis will resume attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea if those ships have ties to companies that work with Israeli ports, the Yemen-based group announced this week.While the Houthis are calling it a “fourth phase of escalation,” the move from the group is the phase of the Houthis’ Red Sea attacks when they expanded their strikes to any ship that visited Israeli ports or was associated with a company that had ties to Israel.The last time the Houthis announced they would attack ships, the United States had multiple ships in the Red Sea. This time, it has...

When famed pirates overtook a Portuguese ship in 1721 once laden with treasure (now valued over $138 million), the battle went well for the pirates, who eventually sank the ship off the coast of Madagascar. A pair of American archaeologists now claim they’ve discovered the final site of the lost vessel. Known as the Nossa Senhora do Cabo—translated as Our Lady of the Cape—the ship left India with a Portuguese viceroy and the Archbishop of Goa, 200 slaves, and treasure aplenty. Pirates were ready and Olivier “The Buzzard” Levasseur led an ambush of the ship near Reunion Island in the...

Rescuers launched a search Wednesday for survivors of a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that came under attack from Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, authorities said. At least three mariners were killed and two were wounded. The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C follows the Iranian-backed Houthis attacking another vessel, the bulk carrier Magic Seas, on Sunday in the Red Sea, which they subsequently sank. The assaults are the first Houthi attacks on shipping since late 2024 in the waterway that had begun to see more ships pass through in recent weeks.

NATO moved Friday to enhance its naval presence in the Baltic Sea as Estonia’s navy began patrolling an undersea cable supplying energy from Finland. The move follows the excision of a different cable from the power grid on Christmas Day in what Finnish authorities allege is a case of deliberate, targeted sabotage by Russia, as Breitbart News reported. A ship named as Eagle S is suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 cable and Finnish coast guard crew have boarded the oil tanker and steered it into Finnish waters. The E.U. said the Eagle S was part of “Russia’s shadow fleet”...

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A Chinese-owned fishing vessel with 18 crew members aboard was hijacked last week off the northeastern coast of Somalia, local authorities said Friday. An official in Xaafuun district in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, where the vessel is being held, told journalists that the hijackers include the ship’s security guards, who later joined forces with armed men from the coastal region. The European Union’s anti-piracy naval force, Eunavfor Atalanta, brought global attention to the incident after issuing a statement on Thursday that confirmed the local maritime authorities had notified it and investigations revealed that armed men...

n oil tanker loaded with roughly a million barrels of crude was on fire and in danger of leaking after it was attacked by Houthi rebels while crossing through the Red Sea. The 900-foot Sounion was hit over the weekend, part of a campaign by the Yemen-based group to target vessels passing through the Suez Canal. The crew was evacuated from the ship, which is now anchored in a busy maritime channel. The Suezmax tanker—the largest size that can transit the canal when laden—had taken on cargo in Iraq, and its final destination was Europe, brokers said. It is one...

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Tuesday that the Greek-owned coal carrier MV Tutor, struck by Houthi missiles and an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) on July 12, has sunk in the Red Sea. The Tutor became the second ship sunk by the Iran-backed Yemeni terrorists since they began their campaign of wanton attacks on commercial shipping in November. It also appears to have been the first ship to be severely damaged by a Houthi USV attack. The weapon was evidently a remote-controlled small boat packed with explosives.