The most consequential development in global affairs this week is the formal activation of President Trump’s naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes daily. The move, part of the escalating US-Iran conflict, marks a dramatic intensification of hostilities in the Middle East.
Trump has framed the blockade as a pressure tactic, publicly asserting that Tehran wants a deal “very badly.” In a separate and bizarre episode, the president deleted an image he had posted depicting himself as Jesus Christ — a move that generated its own wave of commentary amid the far graver geopolitical crisis unfolding in the Persian Gulf.
