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Jack White – 0 minutes ago
Container ship off coast of Oman ‘ignored warnings’ before attack, Iranian media claims
Iranian media has reported the container ship that was fired at by an IRGC gunboat off the coast of Oman had “ignored warnings from the Iranian armed forces”.
As reported earlier, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of a container ship coming under fire near the Strait of Hormuz by an IRGC gunboat, causing damage to the vessel but no casualties.
The incident happened 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman, UKMTO said, adding that the captain of the tanker reported the gunboat opened fire without issuing a radio challenge.
But Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the vessel “ignored warnings from the Iranian armed forces [and] was fired upon … causing serious damage to the ship”. – The Guardian
Jack White – 12 minutes ago
Condom prices could rise 30% due to Iran war, says world’s top producer
Photograph: Peter Dazeley via Getty Images
The world’s top condom producer plans to raise prices by 20-30 per cent and possibly further if supply chain disruptions drag on due to the Iran war, its chief executive has said.
Karex is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual, chief executive Goh Miah Kiat sad in an interview.
“The situation is definitely very fragile, prices are expensive … We have no choice but to transfer the costs right now to the customers,” Goh said.
Karex produces more than five billion condoms annually and is a supplier to leading brands such as Durex and Trojan, as well as state health systems such as Britain’s NHS and global aid programmes run by the United Nations.
The condom-maker joins a growing list of companies, including medical glove makers, bracing for supply chain bottlenecks as the Iran war strains energy and petrochemical flows from the Middle East, disrupting procurement of raw materials.
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Jack White – 32 minutes ago
The head of the UN maritime agency has appealed for help for thousands of seafarers stranded in the Gulf by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
About 20,000 seafarers and 2,000 ships have been stranded since US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February, according to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
The agency said at least 10 seafarers have been killed and several more severely injured in attacks on commercial vessels since the start of the war.
The IMO’s secretary general, Arsenio Dominguez, said the agency is working on an evacuation plan for the stranded ships but that it can only be put into action when there are clear signs of de-escalation. – The Guardian
Jack White – 46 minutes ago
Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel, Mizan reports
Iran executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence service and passing sensitive information, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan reported on Wednesday.
Mizan identified the man as Mehdi Farid, saying he had held a position in a civil defence unit within a sensitive organisation and had used his access to gather and transmit information to Israel’s Mossad.
His death sentence was upheld by Iran’s supreme court and carried out after legal procedures were completed, Mizan said. – Reuters
Iran fires on container ship in Strait of Hormuz
Tankers and bulk carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz. Photograph: AP
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has opened fire on and damaged a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz as planned ceasefire talks in Pakistan failed to materialise.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said the attack happened at around 7.55am local time in the strait and targeted a container ship.
The UKMTO said no one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the attack.
Iran’s semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies, believed to be close to the Guard, both reported on the attack, citing the UKMTO.
Fars went further to describe Iran as “lawfully enforcing” its control over the Strait of Hormuz.
However, the strait had been considered an international waterway for the world’s shippers despite being in the territorial waters of both Iran and Oman.
It comes after the US seized an Iranian container ship after shooting it at the weekend and boarded an oil tanker associated with Iran’s oil trade in the Indian Ocean. – Associated Press
Europe readies response to second energy crisis in four years
The European Commission will set out plans on Wednesday to cut electricity taxes and co-ordinate the summer refill of countries’ gas storage, as it seeks to cushion the energy fallout from the Iran war.
Draft proposals seen by Reuters show the EU will, for now, avoid major market interventions such as capping gas prices or taxing energy companies’ windfall profits – measures it used in 2022 when Russia cut gas supplies and prices hit record highs.
Instead, the commission plans to curb EU tax rules to favour electricity over oil and gas, and make it easier for governments to cut industries’ electricity taxes to zero, according to the drafts, which could still change before publication.
The EU would also step in to co-ordinate countries’ efforts to fill gas storage in the coming months, and provide guidance on how governments should handle potential jet fuel shortages.
Europe’s heavy reliance on oil and gas imports has left it exposed to spiralling prices since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed and Iran started attacking energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
Europe’s benchmark gas price on Tuesday was roughly a third higher than before the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28th.
However, the EU’s biggest oil and gas suppliers, the US and Norway, are outside the Middle East, and the Iran crisis has not yet triggered fuel shortages in Europe. Airlines have warned, though, that jet fuel shortages could emerge in weeks.
EU officials told Reuters the bloc’s relatively restrained response reflects the fact that national governments, rather than Brussels, control many crisis-management levers, including subsidies and cutting national taxes and levies.
The commission’s plans outline non-binding ways for governments to provide “immediate relief”, including requiring businesses to avoid air travel where possible.
Some officials said the response also reflects an assessment that the war-driven energy shock could last for months, making it prudent to hold back more extreme measures for now.
Elisabetta Cornago, assistant director at the Centre for European Reform think tank, said continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz “may lead us to a worse shock regarding oil than in 2022, a similar gas shock, but I think a smaller shock on electricity prices”.
That’s because countries have significantly expanded renewable electricity since 2022, she said.
The EU produced 71 per cent of its electricity from low-carbon sources, including renewables and nuclear, last year, up from around 60 per cent in 2022, data from think tank Ember showed. – Reuters
One person killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon
One person was killed and two others wounded in an Israeli drone strike overnight on the outskirts of al-Jbour in Lebanon’s western Bekaa Valley, Lebanese state news agency said on Wednesday.
Israel and Lebanon are supposed to be adhering to a 10-day ceasefire, which was agreed on Friday and included Hizbullah.
Israel and Lebanon will hold fresh talks in Washington on Thursday, according to a US state department official. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, will reportedly be part of the US delegation involved in those talks.
Trump claims Iran collapsing financially
The US president has posted to Truth Social about 90 minutes ago, claiming Iran is “collapsing financially” and was losing $500m every day the strait of Hormuz is closed.
“Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!”
Donald Trump claimed Iran is ‘collapsing financially’
Trump posted about Iran several times on Tuesday night.
“People approached me four days ago, saying, ‘Sir, Iran wants to open up the Strait, immediately.’ But if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!” Trump said in an earlier post.
No response from Iran to threats
There was no response early on Wednesday to Trump’s announcement that the US blockade of Iran’s ports would continue from senior Iranian officials, although some initial reactions from Tehran suggested Trump’s comments were being treated sceptically.
Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Iran had not asked for a ceasefire extension and repeated threats to break the US blockade by force.
An adviser to Iran’s lead negotiator, the speaker of parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Trump’s announcement carried little weight and may be a ploy.
Trump’s wartime rhetoric has veered between extremes. In an expletive-filled threat against Iran only two weeks ago he promised that a “whole civilisation will die tonight”, while at other times he has appeared keen to end the violence and market uncertainty.
With his announcement, Trump again pulled back at the last moment from his threats to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres and others have condemned those threats, noting international humanitarian law forbids attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Trump extends ceasefire with Iran 
Police officers stand guard in the Red Zone area in Islamabad, Pakistan, where talks between Iran and the US were scheduled to take place. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP
Donald Trump has extended the ceasefire with Iran, saying the Tehran regime was “seriously fractured”.
The last-minute move follows a request from Pakistan, which has been mediating in the conflict.
However, the US president said the blockade of Iran’s ports would remain in force.
The extension comes as the deadline loomed on the current fragile truce and proposed talks in Islamabad were put on hold, amid tensions over the ongoing stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan’s leaders, including prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, had made frantic efforts on Tuesday to get both Washington and Tehran to agree to further talks.
But hopes faded as US vice president JD Vance, expected to again lead US negotiators, called off a trip to Pakistan as Iran refused to commit to attending.
Writing in a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal.
“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.”