CENTCOM

The head of US Central Command says the United States controls the Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping chokepoint between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which much of the world's oil passes. The claim is drawing attention because Iran has long asserted influence over the waterway, and any suggestion of American control raises questions about freedom of navigation and regional tensions.

Several shipping stories are circulating in Russian media at once. The EU reportedly failed to assemble ten ships for its Red Sea mission, a drone sank a vessel near Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, and US CENTCOM said it destroyed 13 tankers linked to Iran's IRGC. Domestically, Northern Fleet warships arrived in Dudinka and sailed the Shokalsky Strait for the first time in Russian naval history.