Iran gunboats fire on container ship in Strait of Hormuz

Iranian gunboats opened fire on a container ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz, escalating the crisis from toll demands and safe-passage scams to outright use of force. The attack comes days after a crypto scam duped a vessel into believing it had bought safe passage — that ship was also fired upon. The UK and France are leading a 30-nation coalition to militarize the strait. Kuwait has declared force majeure. The IEA has declared Hormuz unreliable. And now shots are being fired. The world’s most important oil chokepoint isn’t just disrupted — it’s becoming a war zone.