According to vessel tracking data from https://t.co/Y4QTdcQsH7, the Strait of Hormuz appears to have effectively closed just before 1700 UTC yesterday, with no transits observed after that time. At approximately 1650 UTC, the tanker 'Starbound Explorer' was turned around in Iranian waters before completing its transit and returned to the Persian Gulf. Around the same time, the container ship 'MSC Qingdao', which was exiting via the U.S. established shipping route through Omani waters, reversed course back toward the Persian Gulf before later turning around again and ultimately exiting the Strait.
Iran's re-closure of Hormuz is already measurable in the data.
12 transits today, down from 21+ on June 20.
Neutral and European commercial tonnage: absent.
5 of 8 inbound vessels: dark.
The MOU-driven recovery that began June 18 has stalled within 24 hours of the announcement.
The current traffic profile: dark, sanctioned, Iranian-linked, resembling the late-blockade baseline more than a functioning open strait.
Watch the next 48–72 hours.
Four members of the Qalaji family were killed in an Israeli strike on Sohmor in Lebanon’s western Bekaa on Saturday, Cradle Media reported.
The victims: Batoul Qalaji, her young son Ali, and her parents. Colleagues remembered Batoul as a single mother who worked multiple jobs to support her child and care for her elderly parents.
This should be on the front page of every newspaper in America.
Trump’s DOJ just shut down a federal investigation into a coal company owned by Sen. Jim Justice, one of his closest allies, after it racked up tens of thousands of alleged violations for dumping dangerous chemicals into our waterways. A veteran federal prosecutor with 24 years on the job said he had never seen anything like it.
The man who killed the case was Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer and current Acting Attorney General. This is the same guy who just gave Trump, his family, and his companies permanent immunity from IRS audits. Now Trump wants the Senate to make Blanche’s appointment permanent too.
Equal justice under law was never supposed to come with exceptions for the President’s friends.
The pattern isn’t subtle: protect Trump’s friends, prosecute his critics, and get rewarded with more power. That is corruption, plain and simple. Todd Blanche must not be confirmed.
https://t.co/95K8zIySPz
This is Trump donor and Mar-a-Lago neighbor John Cafaro who got the no-bid contract to install a water purification system for the reflecting pool. He has 2 prior convictions, one for bribing a member of Congress and another for an illegal loan that violated campaign finance laws.
March 9: "We're now totally independent of the Middle East. We don't need their oil."
April 1: "It doesn't really affect us. We have so much oil. We have tremendous oil and gas, much more than we need."
June 17: If I didn't agree to the MOU, we "would run out of reserves at about 4 weeks...we would really run out, and there'll be a time when you wouldn't be able to get it."
Jon Ossoff just dropped a new ad calling out Mike Collins for what he really is: A rich politician's son who rode daddy's business to Congress, backed Trump's chaos, voted to hike healthcare costs, protected billionaires, and left Georgians paying more.
Here is our 2008 Housing Crisis moment. The exact breaking point of the bubble.
Goldman going on Bloomberg and getting called out for being super excited about massive income brought in by closing M&A deals on stupid valuations and brokering junk debt by overnight data centers and SPVs into pension and insurer portfolios.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had aging pipes, cracked concrete and filtration problems. Trump’s administration spent over $14 million but didn't fix the infrastructure. Now it’s covered in algae and they're dumping 12% hydrogen peroxide in it.
That’s the most perfect metaphor for modern Republican governance we've seen all year. Paint the surface. Ignore the problem. Try to fix the fuckup and blame somebody else.