{"id":7487,"date":"2026-07-16T09:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7487"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:06:14","slug":"the-next-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7487","title":{"rendered":"The next Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><em>This story appeared in <\/em>Today, Explained,<em> a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/today-explained-newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Subscribe here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">If I had a nickel for every time President Donald Trump backtracked or changed course on Iran, I\u2019d have\u2026well, at least enough money for a gallon of <a href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/\">$3.89 gas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Trump has threatened attacks and postponed them. He\u2019s praised Iran\u2019s leaders in one breath and panned them as \u201cscum\u201d in the next. The latest about-face played out Tuesday morning, when Trump canceled a controversial, short-lived plan to charge fees on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway at the heart of this whole mess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">It\u2019s incredibly easy to get lost in all the back-and-forth. (Even as I write this, the United States is still sanctioning Iranian oil sales, preventing ships <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2077382758486200757?s=20\">from docking<\/a> at Iranian ports, and bombarding the country with <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2077338021733478617?s=20\">missile strikes<\/a>.) But if you zoom out far enough, a clear narrative <em>does<\/em> emerge: Whatever the war might\u2019ve been about in the beginning, it\u2019s now very clearly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/494968\/iran-us-strait-hormuz\">a <em>strait<\/em>-up tug-of-war for control of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The strait is the world\u2019s most important energy chokepoint: A fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas normally passes through it. And now that Iran has shown it can shut down that traffic, whoever controls the strait will gain both a major potential revenue source and a powerful economic weapon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong><strong>These waterways run the world <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The Strait of Hormuz is what\u2019s known as a maritime chokepoint<em>: <\/em>a narrow waterway that handles an outsized share of global trade. Your daily life is almost definitely filled with and fueled by goods that pass through these channels. But you may never have occasion to consciously think about them until something \u2014 like a war or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/mar\/24\/how-a-container-ship-blocked-the-suez-canal-visual-guide\">a stuck container ship<\/a> \u2014 gets in the way. Here are a few of the other heavyweights (click to see <a href=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/ZvwoG\/2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a larger version here<\/a>):<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><strong>\u27a8 Health trackers offer a ton of data. <\/strong>And much of it is only good for raising your stress! Instead of obsessing over metrics like your daily resting heart rate or HRV, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/good-medicine-newsletter\/494789\/apple-watch-oura-ring-fitbit-health-tracker-data\">focus on the long-term trends<\/a>. And don\u2019t forget to pay attention to how you<em> actually<\/em> feel, as opposed to deferring to what your wearable says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. If I had a nickel for every time President Donald Trump backtracked or changed course on Iran, I\u2019d have\u2026well, at least enough money for a gallon of $3.89 gas. Trump has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/gettyimages-2283047015.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.732984293194%2C100%2C78.534031413613&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}