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According to various reports, Iran is pushing for a transit fee of between 5% and 7% of the cargo's value, while Oman has reportedly proposed a lower 3% toll. The Strait of Hormuz has long been one of the world's most strategically sensitive maritime chokepoints. Now, reports suggest Iran wants to transform it into one of the planet's most lucrative revenue streams by charging commercial vessels a transit fee worth up to 7% of the value of their cargo — a move that could reshape global shipping economics and intensify geopolitical tensions in West Asia. According to a Reuters report,...

Maritime commerce has become increasingly more dangerous lately, with attacks on cargo ships in the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz, among others. Now, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa have returned to the list, as Somali pirates take full advantage of the instability caused by the Iran war to get back to their predatory ways. At one point last week, six captured vessels were being held off the Puntland coast as the pirates demanded hefty ransoms. Two of the vessels were released on Saturday.” The Iran conflict left...

The forgotten story of Andrew Jackson’s first military campaign in Asia. In the winter of 1832, a merchantman flying a Danish flag pulled into a port in Quallah Battoo in the Aceh Sultanate of what is now known as Indonesia. The vessel had set out from New York City half a year ago, had circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope, and had finally arrived here. That the vessel was named for a river in America did not strike the locals as strange and when its officers left the ship after rubbing themselves with tar to look like disreputable sailors, claiming...

An oil tanker blew up in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting a mine on Sunday, according to Iran’s military-linked state media, which also claimed that the Islamic Republic had intercepted at least six ships in the past 24 hours.The tanker, which was not immediately identified, allegedly strayed from Iran’s designated route in the strait before hitting a sea mine, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim news agency reported.Iran has repeatedly warned ships from using non-approved routes to sail through the Strait of Hormuz or risk coming under attack as tensions continue to flare with the US.

In 1832 president Andrew Jackson deemed it of very high importance that the people of Quallah Battoo knew who America was. The result was one of the US Navy’s least known military escapades, when sailors and marines fought Sumatran pirates. Because, don’t all good stories involve pirates? Marines and Sailors Versus Pirates: The Quallah Battoo Expedition | 16:11 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered 151,217 views | October 25, 2024

Iran warned Thursday that it would “crush” key targets in the Middle East if U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to target the country’s infrastructure in the coming days are carried out. Trump said in a Tuesday evening interview with Fox News that U.S. forces would target key Iranian infrastructure next week if a diplomatic breakthrough is not achieved. “Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants,” he said. “Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice and until the end of US “interference” in the region, after firing a warning shot at a vessel it says attempted to transit along an “unapproved” route, state media reports. The statement says the vessel subsequently stopped. It warns that no vessel will be allowed to cross the waterway, and if the “enemy” uses the decision as a “pretext” to make any “misstep,” this will be met with a “severe response.”

Iran's Revolutionary Guards attacked a Singapore-flagged commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News, posing a challenge to President Trump's efforts to reopen the critical shipping corridor. The ship's bridge was damaged after it was struck on its starboard side by an "unknown projectile" off the coast of Dahit, Oman, according to an advisory from the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre. The advisory said no casualties or environmental impact were reported. After the strike, the United Nations' International Maritime Organization temporarily paused a days-old plan to evacuate many of the vessels stranded...

Iran’s New "Insurance" Rule: Controlling the Strait of Hormuz

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday that they would ban ships linked to Israel from the Red Sea after Israel renewed its military attacks on Iran, adding to concerns about global shipping and energy flows.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, is already considered a significant vulnerability due to the presence of Yemen's Houthi terrorists.

Suspected Somali pirates hijacked a fuel tanker off the northeastern coast of Somalia, according to a local official and the British military. The vessel was seized on Wednesday in waters between the coastal towns of Hafun and Bandarbeyla in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland along the Indian Ocean. The tanker had departed from the port of Berbera and was heading to the Somali capital of Mogadishu when it was intercepted, a colonel with the Puntland Maritime Police Force told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to a journalist.

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...

The U.S. government is revoking the legal status of several thousand immigrants from Somalia, raising the specter of deportation for a community often assailed by President Trump. A Department of Homeland Security official said the Trump administration had decided to terminate Somalia's Temporary Protected Status program, which allows beneficiaries to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. Nationals of Somalia enrolled in the TPS program are now set to lose their legal status and work permits on March 17. The DHS official said roughly 2,500 Somali immigrants with TPS are expected to be affected by the termination....

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...

Trump administration sends memo to Congress declaring 'non-international armed conflict' with drug cartels The Trump administration sent a memo to Congress on Thursday saying that the United States is now "in a non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, which administration officials have designated as "terrorist organizations." "The President directed these actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations," the memo states. The notification to congressional lawmakers came...

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...