Welcome back to World Brief, where we\u2019re looking at a massive Iranian attack on global shipping, Israel punishing the United Kingdom over its trade restrictions, and Europe\u2019s fractured space strategy.<\/p>\n
Hormuz Under Fire<\/p>\n
Tehran claimed on Wednesday to have carried out<\/a> its largest known wave of attacks on shipping since the start of the Iran war. Such assaults put the Strait of Hormuz under growing pressure, skyrocketing global crude prices and suggesting that recent efforts to gradually reopen the strategic waterway are at an impasse.<\/p>\n Welcome back to World Brief, where we\u2019re looking at a massive Iranian attack on global shipping, Israel punishing the United Kingdom over its trade restrictions, and Europe\u2019s fractured space strategy.<\/p>\n Hormuz Under Fire<\/p>\n Tehran claimed on Wednesday to have carried out<\/a> its largest known wave of attacks on shipping since the start of the Iran war. Such assaults put the Strait of Hormuz under growing pressure, skyrocketing global crude prices and suggesting that recent efforts to gradually reopen the strategic waterway are at an impasse.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) claimed to have destroyed five Iranian oil carriers in the Gulf of Oman and near Iran\u2019s Kharg Island<\/a>, the latter of which hosts Tehran\u2019s main oil export terminal. \u201cIran has used the tankers as part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and its regional proxies,\u201d Centcom said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The United States said that Tuesday\u2019s strikes were retaliation for two failed IRGC ballistic missile attacks on a U.S. Navy warship. \u201cIran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they\u2019re going to lose tankers,\u201d U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n In response, Iran said that it had attacked 10 ships\u2014two U.S. ships and eight oil vessels\u2014near the Strait of Hormuz as well as fired ballistic missiles at a military base used by U.S. forces in Jordan. At least one individual on the Gibraltar-flagged Hercules Star was killed<\/a>, and several other ships reported fires onboard.<\/p>\n U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal<\/a> that Iran has launched ballistic missiles at U.S. Navy destroyers, an aircraft carrier, and at least one Marine ship since Friday\u2014marking a dramatic escalation in attacks on maritime vessels. Yet Centcom claimed<\/a> on Wednesday that all of Iran\u2019s recent attacks failed to hit U.S. military vessels. Jordan has similarly stressed that nearly all missiles fired at its military base this week were intercepted.<\/p>\n However, such statements have done little to ease global market concerns<\/a>. The price of Brent crude briefly hit $100 per barrel on Wednesday for the first time since July, and the price of West Texas Intermediate crude is up 41 percent since the start of the Iran war. Diesel costs have also soared and are now nearing $6 per gallon\u2014more than 55 percent higher than on the eve of the conflict.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump argued on Monday that the oil market will get better. \u201cOil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping (but more!), when we WIN the war with Iran,\u201d Trump wrote<\/a> on Truth Social, claiming that a gallon of gas will ultimately drop below $2. Yet crude prices continue to reach record highs even as the White House maintains that the Iranian navy and air force have already been destroyed<\/a> and that the U.S. military has control of<\/a> the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Most Read<\/p>\n What We\u2019re Following<\/p>\n 30 days to leave. Israel on Wednesday gave the United Kingdom 30 days to close its consulate<\/a> in East Jerusalem in retaliation for London announcing its intention to impose sweeping trade restrictions on Israel, including a ban on all Israeli goods produced in the occupied West Bank. Israel also barred 12 British politicians from entering the country, told British officials in the West Bank and at a Gaza coordination center to leave, and prohibited the United Kingdom from continuing to train the Palestinian Authority\u2019s security forces in the West Bank.<\/p>\n \u201cThe British move is morally distorted and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process,\u201d Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar<\/a> said, referring to upcoming Israeli elections<\/a> that could challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s hold on power. Notably, Israel did not announce similar punishments on Canada or France, which vowed to join the United Kingdom\u2019s trade ban, nor on the nine other countries that endorsed<\/a> Britain\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband unveiled the measures the day before, citing Israel\u2019s \u201cunlawful\u201d settlements and the alleged \u201cethnic cleansing of Palestinians\u201d by extremist Israeli settlers<\/a>. Although Miliband expressed disappointment with Israel\u2019s decision to retaliate, he did not back down from his claims. \u201cWe weighed the costs and the benefits of acting,\u201d Miliband told the BBC<\/a>. \u201cWe thought that we couldn\u2019t just simply stand by because we feared Israeli reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n Europe\u2019s space ambitions. France and Germany kicked off<\/a> the two-day International Space Summit in Paris on Wednesday with a bid for more European involvement in the competitive industry. But experts fear that the forum may have been doomed before it even began, as lower-than-expected turnout on Wednesday highlighted the lack of a unified space strategy among the continent\u2019s biggest players.<\/p>\n Organizers advertised the summit as an opportunity to advance global space cooperation and improve industry regulations, especially as the sector becomes increasingly privatized<\/a>. However, the forum\u2019s co-chairs, France and Germany, remain at odds<\/a> over how best to address this. Whereas Paris has pushed for greater European autonomy from the United States, which has overwhelmingly dominated<\/a> the private sphere, Berlin has shied away from abandoning the U.S.-based company SpaceX. The two have also disagreed on the best strategy for countering Starlink, with France supporting the European Union\u2019s IRIS\u00b2 secure satellite constellation and Germany \u200binvesting in its own network.<\/p>\n German Chancellor Friedrich Merz skipped the summit, citing other commitments. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also chose not to attend. Meanwhile, representatives from U.S. space companies<\/a>, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, withdrew from the event reportedly due to pressure from Washington, which opposes the summit\u2019s pro-Europe agenda.<\/p>\n A collapsing truce? Houthi rebels in Yemen accused<\/a> Saudi-backed forces on Wednesday of conducting 54 overnight airstrikes across six Yemeni provinces. \u201cThese airstrikes and the ongoing aggression against our country will not go unanswered or unpunished, by the will and power of God,\u201d said Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson. \u201cAnd as the saying goes, the wheel turns against the aggressor.\u201d No casualties or damages were immediately reported. However, rescuers<\/a> on Wednesday continued to recover bodies from a strike earlier this week on a Houthi-run prison that killed at least 23 people.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s overnight assault came less than 24 hours after the Iranian-backed proxy group launched a slew of missiles and drone strikes<\/a> across Saudi Arabia, injuring more than 70 people and damaging critical civilian and military infrastructure. On Wednesday, the Saudi Civil Defense lifted its alert<\/a> on the southern city of Khamis Mushait, where Houthi strikes hit the nearby King Khalid Air Base.<\/p>\n Renewed violence between Houthi and Saudi-led forces in recent weeks has reignited fears<\/a> that the two sides\u2019 tenuous truce<\/a>, established in 2022, could collapse into all-out war. \u201cWe call on the Houthis to cease their aggressive actions immediately,\u201d Turkey\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement<\/a> on Tuesday, warning that these attacks \u201cdisregard the safety of civilians,\u201d escalate regional tensions, and \u201cundermine diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing the conflict in Yemen to an end through a lasting political solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Odds and Ends<\/p>\n