War and Fire

• 🔥🌊 The U.S.-Iran war entered its 13th consecutive night of strikes, with American forces disabling another merchant vessel attempting to breach the blockade of Iranian ports while Iran hit U.S. bases across Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut down, oil has climbed to around $96 a barrel, and over 6,000 sailors are stranded on vessels caught in the crossfire with no food, water, or way to reach their families.

• 🌍✈️ The U.S. and U.K. are quietly planning a high-level London conference aimed at building an international coalition to protect commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, as both sides show no sign of backing down and diplomacy remains publicly stalled.

• 🔥🌲 Catastrophic wildfires have overwhelmed southern Europe, with a massive blaze near Madrid described as the worst in the region’s history, forcing 30,000 people to flee and prompting a national emergency. In France, over 110,000 people have been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions as an enormous fire threatens to advance toward Bordeaux.

• 💸🍁 Trump threatened fresh tariffs on Canada over wildfire smoke drifting into the U.S., while simultaneously rolling out sweeping new import taxes on America’s 60 biggest trading partners after the Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff authority. The patchwork of new levies is drawing accusations of bad faith and leaving businesses navigating an increasingly tangled web of trade law.

The world is juggling an active naval war in the Persian Gulf, runaway wildfires across Europe, and an aggressive American trade offensive all at once. There is little relief in sight on any front.