• Strait of Hormuz: US officials have warned the continued shutdown of the critical waterway could lead to higher oil and gas prices, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence the US still has control over the strait, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s claim that oil exports from the Middle East rose above pre-war levels on Sunday.
• Red Sea deaths: Meanwhile, Pakistan said three of its nationals were killed in an attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on a vessel in the Red Sea amid the expanding Middle East conflict. The deaths would be the first linked to attacks on shipping by the Houthis since the Iran-aligned group declared a blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
• Trump’s plane switch: Trump said Tuesday that he followed instructions from the Secret Service and military when he used a catering truck to secretly switch aircraft in Turkey last month. It was reportedly prompted by an Iranian threat to his life as he departed the NATO Summit.
9 Posts
A reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is becoming more pressing, as the world burns through its oil stockpiles at a rapid clip, the International Energy Agency has warned.
Oil inventories plunged by 2.2 million barrels a day last month, with global stocks falling below 7.9 billion barrels for the first time since April 2025, the IEA said in its latest oil market report Wednesday. The global oil balance is now expected to show a deficit of 1.8 million barrels a day in the third quarter, more than double the estimate in July.
“Although the market is projected to return to surplus towards the end of this year, risks remain substantial and the urgency of reopening the Strait has increased, as previously available inventory buffers are rapidly depleting,” the Paris-based organization said.
Global oil demand is now forecast to decline by 1.6 million barrels a day this year, about 47% more than the IEA projected in July, as supply constraints and higher fuel prices weigh on consumption.
Meanwhile, global oil supply is forecast to fall by 4.3 million barrels a day, to 102 million barrels, a sharper fall than projected in July, due to losses from the Middle East and Russia.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry called the short-lived memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States “the template of peace,” suggesting the agreement may remain relevant despite both sides’ refusal to de-escalate.
The 14-point MoU, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, was intended to pave the way for peace talks between Washington and Tehran. The agreement was signed in June and unraveled in a matter of days.
“It might not have been implemented, but whenever the parties will exhaust the logic of escalation, the template of peace is in the MoU,” said Tahir Andrabi, the ministry spokesperson.
The comments come as neither Iran nor the US has shown any sign of shifting its position on the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran declared the strait closed again after accusing Washington of violating the MoU by opening a new shipping route through the waterway.
The US responded by reinstating its blockade of Iranian ports in an effort to increase economic pressure on Tehran.
Newly appointed national security chief of Iran, Mohsen Rezaie, said Tuesday that the strait would not be fully reopened unless Washington accepts Iran’s conditions, including unfreezing Iranian assets and an end to Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza, according to Iranian state media.
Those demands go beyond the MoU, which did not include Gaza.
CNN’s Aida Karimi contributed to this post.
Oil prices are ticking up, as Iran hardens its stance over control of the Strait of Hormuz and other demands to end the war, dashing hopes for a quick deal to reopen the waterway.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose around 1% before paring gains to trade 0.2% higher at $89.12 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, climbed by a similar margin to $83.43 a barrel. Brent is now on track for a sixth consecutive daily increase.
Oil prices have been volatile amid mixed messages about a potential US-Iran deal. Prices moved lower yesterday after Pakistan’s defence minister said the countries were close to an arrangement, only to rebound following more hawkish comments from Iran over the strait’s closure.
The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that benchmark crude prices traded in an “unusually wide range” of almost $40 a barrel in July, “driven by sudden diplomatic pivots on the conflict.”
Meanwhile, shipping traffic through Hormuz has slowed, with just 16 vessels transiting the strait over the course of Monday and Tuesday, Kpler data showed. That’s down from about 130-140 daily transits before the war.
Investors are also pricing in a more protracted disruption, with longer-dated Brent futures moving higher, including on deliveries as much as a year from now.
One of the strongest Iran-backed militias in the region, the Houthis entered the war in March, a month after Israel and the US attacked Iran, by firing missiles towards Israel. Today, the group is trading fire with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, and striking Saudi Arabia after a four-year de facto ceasefire with the kingdom.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s foreign minister said three of its nationals were killed and one more wounded in an attack by the Houthis on a Saudi-owned commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
The escalation comes while there is shaky maritime security in both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, and as Iran and the US give conflicting accounts of whether direct talks to reopen the waterway were taking place.
The latest attacks also raise the threat of an outbreak of another full-scale war in Yemen. The last war, which began in 2014, left the country facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Read more about the Houthis here.
Video geolocated by CNN shows oil washing up on a beach around Iran’s Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz.
In the video, pools of thick, black oil can be seen stretching along the beach, on Qeshm’s southeast coast.
“The pollution has affected a distance of over 1 kilometer of the beach,” said Shahmorad Jafari, head of the Qeshm Island Department of Environment, state broadcaster IRIB reported.
The oil slicks have spread to nearby mangrove forests, which are important habitats for marine wildlife and birds, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said today.
Officials are investigating the source of the oil, according to Fars News Agency, adding that a clean-up effort was underway.
“A marine source is among the possibilities being considered,” the state-affiliated news agency said.
Oil tankers have repeatedly come under attack throughout the war as the US and Iran continue to vie for control of the critical waterway.
Satellite imagery taken on August 10 appeared to show large oil slicks off the southern coast of the nearby Hengam Island.
Pakistan’s foreign minister has said three of its nationals were killed and one more wounded in an attack by the Houthi militia on a commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
The deaths would mark the first fatalities in the Red Sea since the Yemen-based, Iran-backed Houthis declared a blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on July 20. They also follow on the heels of Pakistan signing a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as the Middle East conflict threatens to widen.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the Houthi attack on a non-combatant commercial vessel,” Ishaq Dar wrote on X.
“Such attacks endanger innocent lives, constitute a violation of international law, and pose a serious threat to freedom of navigation, maritime security, and the safety of commercial shipping in the Red Sea.”
Yemen’s internationally recognized government earlier accused the Houthis of killing four crew members and two rescue workers in a “double-tap” strike against a Saudi-owned vessel sailing through the strait.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike via the group’s news agency Saba on Tuesday, saying the ship was carrying military equipment. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the claim.
The group warned last month that it would target any Saudi shipping seeking to transit the strait, in response to a long-standing Saudi blockade against the group, which controls much of northern Yemen.
Signed earlier this month, the mutual defense pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey stipulates an attack against any of them “shall be regarded as an attack against them all.”
Speaking to reporters during a briefing on Wednesday, Tahir Andrabi, spokesperson for Islamabad’s foreign ministry, said as a signatory to the deal, the country is “ready and willing to assist Saudi Arabia and other coalition partners to preserve the security and safety of maritime traffic.”
Andrabi said Pakistan is in touch with the Saudi Arabian and Yemeni governments to seek more information on the strike.
At least two Cabinet secretaries were aboard the larger Air Force One plane that departed Turkey last month without President Donald Trump aboard, according to a US official, after Trump furtively switched jets on the tarmac.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had been accompanying Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara, stayed behind on the blue and white Boeing 747 along with other White House staffers, military personnel and members of the press, most of whom were unaware of Trump’s whereabouts.
The plane was believed to be the target of an Iranian threat deemed credible enough to force Trump’s secret swap, and was used as a sort-of decoy, departing Turkey without the president on board.
It’s not yet clear which staffers joined Trump aboard the smaller plane that ferried him to a military base in Britain.
Read more here.
President Donald Trump insisted tonight that the United States still has control over the Strait of Hormuz and threatened that Iran would “get blown away” if the country tried to “do something.”
Trump has previously said the Strait of Hormuz is “open,” claiming that the US Navy has swept the waterway for mines and is in control of it, but shipping data doesn’t back that up, CNN reported Monday.
Both the US and Iran have yet to arrive at a deal to reopen the critical waterway. But Trump on Monday applied a new condition on talks, saying that he would now require compensation from the country for past misdeeds.
President Donald Trump said tonight that he followed instructions from the US Secret Service and military when he secretly switched aircraft in Turkey last month, using a catering truck to keep himself hidden from public view.
“I just follow what they’d like to do. So I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say,” Trump told reporters as he landed at Joint Base Andrews from Ohio.
Trump said he was not given many details of what necessitated the clandestine maneuvering. “I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats,” he said.
Asked why it was considered too dangerous for him to fly on Air Force One but not for members of the press, Trump said any plane he is on is more likely to be targeted.
“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk … Because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for,” he said.
The president said he was not surprised when the Secret Service asked him to secretly switch planes.
Asked whether he was concerned about the possibility of a shoulder-fired missile attack during his departure from Turkey, Trump said he was generally unbothered: “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest. Whatever it is, you know my attitude? Whatever.”
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have reported that Trump’s plane switch was prompted by an Iranian plot to target Trump with a shoulder-fired missile as he departed the NATO summit.
• Strait of Hormuz: US officials have warned the continued shutdown of the critical waterway could lead to higher oil and gas prices, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence the US still has control over the strait, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s claim that oil exports from the Middle East rose above pre-war levels on Sunday.
• Red Sea deaths: Meanwhile, Pakistan said three of its nationals were killed in an attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on a vessel in the Red Sea amid the expanding Middle East conflict. The deaths would be the first linked to attacks on shipping by the Houthis since the Iran-aligned group declared a blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
• Trump’s plane switch: Trump said Tuesday that he followed instructions from the Secret Service and military when he used a catering truck to secretly switch aircraft in Turkey last month. It was reportedly prompted by an Iranian threat to his life as he departed the NATO Summit.
A reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is becoming more pressing, as the world burns through its oil stockpiles at a rapid clip, the International Energy Agency has warned.
Oil inventories plunged by 2.2 million barrels a day last month, with global stocks falling below 7.9 billion barrels for the first time since April 2025, the IEA said in its latest oil market report Wednesday. The global oil balance is now expected to show a deficit of 1.8 million barrels a day in the third quarter, more than double the estimate in July.
“Although the market is projected to return to surplus towards the end of this year, risks remain substantial and the urgency of reopening the Strait has increased, as previously available inventory buffers are rapidly depleting,” the Paris-based organization said.
Global oil demand is now forecast to decline by 1.6 million barrels a day this year, about 47% more than the IEA projected in July, as supply constraints and higher fuel prices weigh on consumption.
Meanwhile, global oil supply is forecast to fall by 4.3 million barrels a day, to 102 million barrels, a sharper fall than projected in July, due to losses from the Middle East and Russia.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry called the short-lived memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States “the template of peace,” suggesting the agreement may remain relevant despite both sides’ refusal to de-escalate.
The 14-point MoU, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, was intended to pave the way for peace talks between Washington and Tehran. The agreement was signed in June and unraveled in a matter of days.
“It might not have been implemented, but whenever the parties will exhaust the logic of escalation, the template of peace is in the MoU,” said Tahir Andrabi, the ministry spokesperson.
The comments come as neither Iran nor the US has shown any sign of shifting its position on the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran declared the strait closed again after accusing Washington of violating the MoU by opening a new shipping route through the waterway.
The US responded by reinstating its blockade of Iranian ports in an effort to increase economic pressure on Tehran.
Newly appointed national security chief of Iran, Mohsen Rezaie, said Tuesday that the strait would not be fully reopened unless Washington accepts Iran’s conditions, including unfreezing Iranian assets and an end to Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza, according to Iranian state media.
Those demands go beyond the MoU, which did not include Gaza.
CNN’s Aida Karimi contributed to this post.
Oil prices are ticking up, as Iran hardens its stance over control of the Strait of Hormuz and other demands to end the war, dashing hopes for a quick deal to reopen the waterway.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose around 1% before paring gains to trade 0.2% higher at $89.12 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, climbed by a similar margin to $83.43 a barrel. Brent is now on track for a sixth consecutive daily increase.
Oil prices have been volatile amid mixed messages about a potential US-Iran deal. Prices moved lower yesterday after Pakistan’s defence minister said the countries were close to an arrangement, only to rebound following more hawkish comments from Iran over the strait’s closure.
The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that benchmark crude prices traded in an “unusually wide range” of almost $40 a barrel in July, “driven by sudden diplomatic pivots on the conflict.”
Meanwhile, shipping traffic through Hormuz has slowed, with just 16 vessels transiting the strait over the course of Monday and Tuesday, Kpler data showed. That’s down from about 130-140 daily transits before the war.
Investors are also pricing in a more protracted disruption, with longer-dated Brent futures moving higher, including on deliveries as much as a year from now.
One of the strongest Iran-backed militias in the region, the Houthis entered the war in March, a month after Israel and the US attacked Iran, by firing missiles towards Israel. Today, the group is trading fire with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, and striking Saudi Arabia after a four-year de facto ceasefire with the kingdom.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s foreign minister said three of its nationals were killed and one more wounded in an attack by the Houthis on a Saudi-owned commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
The escalation comes while there is shaky maritime security in both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, and as Iran and the US give conflicting accounts of whether direct talks to reopen the waterway were taking place.
The latest attacks also raise the threat of an outbreak of another full-scale war in Yemen. The last war, which began in 2014, left the country facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Read more about the Houthis here.
Video geolocated by CNN shows oil washing up on a beach around Iran’s Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz.
In the video, pools of thick, black oil can be seen stretching along the beach, on Qeshm’s southeast coast.
“The pollution has affected a distance of over 1 kilometer of the beach,” said Shahmorad Jafari, head of the Qeshm Island Department of Environment, state broadcaster IRIB reported.
The oil slicks have spread to nearby mangrove forests, which are important habitats for marine wildlife and birds, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said today.
Officials are investigating the source of the oil, according to Fars News Agency, adding that a clean-up effort was underway.
“A marine source is among the possibilities being considered,” the state-affiliated news agency said.
Oil tankers have repeatedly come under attack throughout the war as the US and Iran continue to vie for control of the critical waterway.
Satellite imagery taken on August 10 appeared to show large oil slicks off the southern coast of the nearby Hengam Island.
Pakistan’s foreign minister has said three of its nationals were killed and one more wounded in an attack by the Houthi militia on a commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
The deaths would mark the first fatalities in the Red Sea since the Yemen-based, Iran-backed Houthis declared a blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on July 20. They also follow on the heels of Pakistan signing a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as the Middle East conflict threatens to widen.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the Houthi attack on a non-combatant commercial vessel,” Ishaq Dar wrote on X.
“Such attacks endanger innocent lives, constitute a violation of international law, and pose a serious threat to freedom of navigation, maritime security, and the safety of commercial shipping in the Red Sea.”
Yemen’s internationally recognized government earlier accused the Houthis of killing four crew members and two rescue workers in a “double-tap” strike against a Saudi-owned vessel sailing through the strait.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike via the group’s news agency Saba on Tuesday, saying the ship was carrying military equipment. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the claim.
The group warned last month that it would target any Saudi shipping seeking to transit the strait, in response to a long-standing Saudi blockade against the group, which controls much of northern Yemen.
Signed earlier this month, the mutual defense pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey stipulates an attack against any of them “shall be regarded as an attack against them all.”
Speaking to reporters during a briefing on Wednesday, Tahir Andrabi, spokesperson for Islamabad’s foreign ministry, said as a signatory to the deal, the country is “ready and willing to assist Saudi Arabia and other coalition partners to preserve the security and safety of maritime traffic.”
Andrabi said Pakistan is in touch with the Saudi Arabian and Yemeni governments to seek more information on the strike.
At least two Cabinet secretaries were aboard the larger Air Force One plane that departed Turkey last month without President Donald Trump aboard, according to a US official, after Trump furtively switched jets on the tarmac.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had been accompanying Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara, stayed behind on the blue and white Boeing 747 along with other White House staffers, military personnel and members of the press, most of whom were unaware of Trump’s whereabouts.
The plane was believed to be the target of an Iranian threat deemed credible enough to force Trump’s secret swap, and was used as a sort-of decoy, departing Turkey without the president on board.
It’s not yet clear which staffers joined Trump aboard the smaller plane that ferried him to a military base in Britain.
Read more here.
President Donald Trump insisted tonight that the United States still has control over the Strait of Hormuz and threatened that Iran would “get blown away” if the country tried to “do something.”
Trump has previously said the Strait of Hormuz is “open,” claiming that the US Navy has swept the waterway for mines and is in control of it, but shipping data doesn’t back that up, CNN reported Monday.
Both the US and Iran have yet to arrive at a deal to reopen the critical waterway. But Trump on Monday applied a new condition on talks, saying that he would now require compensation from the country for past misdeeds.
President Donald Trump said tonight that he followed instructions from the US Secret Service and military when he secretly switched aircraft in Turkey last month, using a catering truck to keep himself hidden from public view.
“I just follow what they’d like to do. So I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say,” Trump told reporters as he landed at Joint Base Andrews from Ohio.
Trump said he was not given many details of what necessitated the clandestine maneuvering. “I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats,” he said.
Asked why it was considered too dangerous for him to fly on Air Force One but not for members of the press, Trump said any plane he is on is more likely to be targeted.
“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk … Because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for,” he said.
The president said he was not surprised when the Secret Service asked him to secretly switch planes.
Asked whether he was concerned about the possibility of a shoulder-fired missile attack during his departure from Turkey, Trump said he was generally unbothered: “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest. Whatever it is, you know my attitude? Whatever.”
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have reported that Trump’s plane switch was prompted by an Iranian plot to target Trump with a shoulder-fired missile as he departed the NATO summit.
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