All posts tagged: reopen

The strait may reopen, but global confidence may not return | Opinions

The strait may reopen, but global confidence may not return | Opinions

Published by Sam Flores

United States President Donald Trump’s claim that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz has been largely negotiated may calm markets temporarily. But the deeper significance of the current crisis lies elsewhere. The issue is no longer only whether trade routes remain open but who has the power to condition access to them. The specific terms of any agreement may evolve, and any diplomatic arrangement may still be delayed, contested or revised. But the broader pattern is already visible: Strategic trade routes are becoming more politically managed, commercially exposed and geopolitically contested. The danger is not necessarily that diplomacy fails. The more important risk is that it succeeds just enough to disguise a weaker order as stability. Temporary calm is not the same as strategic stability. Calm can be negotiated; stability must be trusted. The most important shift, therefore, is not from war to peace but from disruption to governance. Iranian plans for an authority to manage the Strait of Hormuz and exert greater influence over routing decisions and possible transit tolls show that …

Iran deal to reopen Strait of Hormuz ‘largely negotiated’

Iran deal to reopen Strait of Hormuz ‘largely negotiated’

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump said Saturday that a peace deal with Iran that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “largely negotiated” and will be announced shortly, a development that could end a conflict that has choked global energy markets and pushed U.S. inflation to its highest level in years. Trump said in a social media post that he held calls from the Oval Office with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all focused on finalizing terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran. “An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries,” Trump said in the post. Details of the agreement are being discussed “and will be announced shortly,” he said, including reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for global energy trade. The deal under discussion includes a memorandum of understanding as a first phase, Iran’s foreign ministry said Saturday, before …

Trump’s rural health fund won’t reopen this North Carolina hospital : NPR

Trump’s rural health fund won’t reopen this North Carolina hospital : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Debra Pierce holds up a picture of Stanley Sears, her brother, while standing in the yard of the mobile home he was renovating before his death in 2024. Pierce believes North Carolina’s Martin County needs higher-level emergency services and a hospital. Sarah Jane Tribble/KFF Health News hide caption toggle caption Sarah Jane Tribble/KFF Health News WILLIAMSTON, N.C. — Two years after her brother’s death, Debra Pierce still wonders whether the 50-year-old would have survived his heart attack if her local hospital hadn’t closed. “The sad thing is we’ll never know if he could have been saved that night or not, because we don’t have a higher level of care in this county,” Pierce said as she stood outside the mobile home where she last hugged her brother. Emergency crews from a neighboring town worked on Stanley Sears for a half hour but couldn’t revive him for the long drive to the closest hospital, records show. In the tall grass — which would be mowed if Sears were still alive — Pierce swiped through the photos …

Project Freedom aims to reopen Hormuz Strait. Experts are skeptical

Project Freedom aims to reopen Hormuz Strait. Experts are skeptical

Published by Sam Flores

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz near Bandar Abbas, Iran, May 4, 2026. Amirhosein Khorgooi | ISNA | WANA | Via Reuters Defense and geopolitical experts are skeptical that “Project Freedom,” the Trump administration’s new effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, will succeed. “In my view, it’s not a solution at all,” Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a libertarian-leaning foreign policy think tank, said of the operation. “It doesn’t really address the underlying problem here, which is that the uncertainty about the safety of transit means that ship captains and shipping companies are hesitant to take the risk,” Kavanagh said in a phone interview. The administration, however, says its day-old effort to defend ships transiting the strait from Iranian attacks is already working. “We’ve now opened a passage through the Strait of Hormuz to allow for the free flow of commerce to proceed,” U.S. Central Command leader Adm. Brad Cooper said Monday, just hours after Project Freedom commenced. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday …

Nahmad Seeks to Reopen Modigliani Case With New Witness Testimony

Nahmad Seeks to Reopen Modigliani Case With New Witness Testimony

Published by José Betancourt

David Nahmad’s lawyers are asking a New York court to revisit its recent decision in the long-running dispute over Amedeo Modigliani’s Seated Man with a Cane (1918), citing what they say is new eyewitness testimony that could reopen the case. In a motion filed after the court’s April 3 decision, which awarded the painting to the estate of dealer Oscar Stettiner, Nahmad’s legal team argues that the work at the center of the claim may have been misidentified from the start. The suit was brought by Stettiner’s grandson, Philippe Maestracci, who has been trying to recover the painting for more than a decade alongside the restitution firm Mondex. The work, estimated to be worth more than $25 million, was bought at auction by a Nahmad-linked company in 1996 and has been kept in Switzerland since.  Related Articles At the center of the new filing are two witnesses who say they remember a different Modigliani once held by the Van der Klip family in Paris. According to Nahmad’s lawyers, that family came into possession of the painting during …

The US fights to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the UAE comes under attack in a test of Iran truce

The US fights to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the UAE comes under attack in a test of Iran truce

Published by Sam Flores

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said it fired on Iranian forces and sank six small boats targeting civilian ships as it moved to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. The United Arab Emirates, a key American ally, said it had come under attack from Iran for the first time since a fragile ceasefire took hold in early April. The U.S. military said two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the strait on Monday as part of a new initiative. The UAE Defense Ministry said its air defenses had engaged 15 missiles and four drones fired by Iran. Authorities in the eastern emirate of Fujairah said one drone sparked a fire at a key oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals. The British military reported two cargo vessels ablaze off the UAE. Tehran did not outright confirm or deny the attacks but early on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that both the U.S. and the UAE “should be wary of being dragged back into quagmire.” In similarly vague …