“The Strait is going to be open to everybody,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”
Oman, a strategic partner of the U.S. for more than 50 years, has played a key role in efforts to mediate a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran.
(April 10, 2026)
Egypt and Panama charge fees to allow vessels to pass through Suez Canal and Panama Canal, respectively. This is because the international laws are different for straits and canals.
While straits occur naturally, canals are dug up manually. Hence, the countries controlling the canals take transit fee from vessels for allowing them to pass through.
(April 24, 2026)
“That was not in a serious context. We have never planned to collect such a tax,” Purbaya told reporters in Jakarta on Friday, putting an end to days of uncertainty.
Behind his response lies a deeper legal framework that governs the world’s oceans.
Purbaya pointed to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, a cornerstone of international maritime law that enshrines the principle of freedom of navigation.
(April 24, 2026)
Vice president of finance Víctor Vial confirmed that while certain vessels have recently paid more than $1m to secure a crossing, such sums reflect temporary spikes in demand rather than structural pricing shifts. Before the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, average auction prices ran between $135,000 and $140,000. That figure rose some 180% to around $385,000 between March and April as demand surged.
The canal makes three to five slots available each day through its auction mechanism, aimed at vessels that have not booked in advance.
(March 5, 2025)
But while much attention was focused on Mr. Trump‘s threat to retake control of the canal, his administration trained its sights on Hutchison Ports, the Hong Kong-based consortium that manages the canal‘s key ports, at either end of the canal. As a result of BlackRock‘s deal with CK Hutchison Holding, those two key ports will be placed under American control.
(April 8, 2026)
The legal picture is also complicated. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, bordering states cannot demand payment simply for granting passage through a strait. They may, however, impose limited charges for specific services, such as piloting, tugging, or port assistance, provided these are not applied more heavily against vessels from any particular country.
n Iranian business newspaper reported in April that reconstruction would take at least 12 years.
“The nuclear issue is honestly Betamax now,” Alan Eyre, a former member of the US team that negotiated the Iran nuclear deal, told MEE, referring to the now obsolete 1975 video cassette player.
“Everyone is talking about what the Iranians are willing to give up. But that is largely a function of what they are willing to get,” he added. „What the Iranians want is money.“
Eyre said there are four ways Iran can be compensated for a deal that reopens the Strait of Hormuz and ends with an agreement on its nuclear programme: reparations, tolling, unblocking frozen assets, and sanctions relief. Of the four, he believes a toll in the Strait of Hormuz is the likeliest path for a deal.
The President said he gave the order because Iran refused to agree not to develop nuclear weapons during talks with US officials in Pakistan on Saturday. “The meeting with Iran began early in the morning, and lasted throughout the night — Close to 20 hours,” the President wrote in a second post on Sunday. “I could go into great detail, and talk about much that has been gotten but, there is only one thing that matters — IRAN IS UNWILLING TO GIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR AMBITIONS!”
Zwar lässt Teheran seit einigen Tagen im Zuge der Waffenruhe mit den USA vermehrt Schiffe passieren – aber nur, wenn diese eine Maut entrichten. Sehr zum Unwillen von US-Präsident Donald Trump. Der erklärte nun, die Kriegsmarine seines Landes sei angewiesen, die Straße von Hormus vollständig zu blockieren. Mehr noch: Jedes Schiff, das eine Gebühr an Iran entrichtet habe und sich in internationalen Gewässern befinde, werde aufgebracht.
President Donald Trump said today the US Navy will begin blockading ships in the Strait of Hormuz and interdicting every ship that has paid a toll to Iran, after US peace talks with the country ended in a stalemate.
Trump also said the US will prevent passage for any ship that has paid a toll to Iran and will begin removing mines from the strait.
President DONALD J. TRUMP
In a statement released on the 40th day since the assassination of former Supreme Leader, Khamenei affirmed that Tehran “considers all resistance fronts as a unified entity,“ adding that Iran is still awaiting an appropriate response from neighbors “so that we may show you our brotherhood and goodwill.”
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Malaysia has received assurances from Iran that its vessels will be able to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, following concerns raised over recent developments in the region.
He also clarified that Malaysian vessels will not be subject to any tolls when passing through the strait.
President Trump owes the Supreme Court an apology—to the individual Justices he smeared on Friday and the institution itself. Mr. Trump doubtless won’t offer one, but his rant in response to his tariff defeat at the Court was arguably the worst moment of his Presidency.
“President Trump became enraged after learning of the Supreme Court’s ruling during the Governors’ breakfast,” Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes wrote on X. “He at one point ranted against the decision and the court, saying ‘these f–king courts, ’ a source familiar with the matter told me.”
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision came down about 30 minutes into the annual governors’ breakfast on Friday morning.
Perhaps, at next week’s State of the Union address, he’ll blame the actual Phantom of the Opera.
(February 20, 2026)
The tariff decision was the first time the court had issued a merits decision, a final decision squarely on the legality of one of Mr. Trump’s second-term executive actions. It marked a muscular show of independence by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who wrote the majority opinion striking down the president’s expansive tariffs. Two of the three conservative justices appointed by Mr. Trump during his first term, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil M. Gorsuch, joined the chief justice in rejecting the president’s signature economic policy.
(February 20, 2026)
Most Americans (60%) strongly or somewhat approve of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down many tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, a new YouGov poll conducted hours after the decision finds.
Only 23% of Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court‘s decision. Almost all Democrats approve of it (88%), as do 63% of Independents. Republicans are more likely to disapprove than approve of the ruling, but a large minority (30%) of Republicans approve, compared to 47% of Republicans who disapprove.
(February 20, 2026)
Even before the Supreme Court handed a blow to President Donald Trump‘s sweeping trade policy, Americans were already voicing strong disapproval in national polling of his handling of tariffs.
A Fox News survey conducted between Jan. 23 and 26 found 63% of registered voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of tariffs, while 37% approve, a 26-point deficit that ranks trade among his weakest-performing issues.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I and II–A–1:
Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution specifies that “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” The Framers recognized the unique importance of this taxing power—a power which “very clear[ly]” includes the power to impose tariffs. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 201. And they gave Congress “alone . . . access to the pockets of the people.” The Federalist No. 48, p.310 (J. Madison). The Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the Executive Branch. See Nicol v. Ames, 173 U. S. 509, 515.
Section 8
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
The court’s rejection of President Trump’s tariffs program is the latest in a series of clashes between him and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
The 6-3 decision deals Trump his most significant defeat at the Supreme Court.
Last year, the justices issued temporary orders to block several of his initiatives, but Friday’s ruling is the first to hold that the president overstepped his legal authority.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., speaking for the court, said Congress has the power to impose taxes and tariffs, and lawmakers did not do so in an emergency law that does not mention tariffs.
However, this year‘s Davos forum may be shaping up to be one of the most confrontational and divisive in its history. Inviting Trump reflects the expectation that he will be confronted with a broad international consensus – that economic globalization is an irreversible force. The US delegation, however, may come with a different agenda: to promote economic nationalism and argue that the existing globalization model no longer aligns with core US interests, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
Im eskalierenden Streit zwischen der EU und den USA um Grönland rückt ein handelspolitisches Instrument in den Fokus, das bislang noch nie zum Einsatz kam.
What does the instrument do?
The armoury allows the EU to take measures such as import and export restrictions on goods and services in its single market of 450 million people.
It also gives Brussels the power to limit American companies‘ access to public procurement contracts in Europe.
The EU last year threatened to use the weapon during difficult trade negotiations with Trump to avoid steep levies but the two sides struck a deal.
In currency markets, the euro recovered from an early dip to rise 0.3% to $1.1628, while sterling clawed its way back up to $1.3389.
The dollar eased 0.4% against the Swiss franc to 0.7988 francs, and 0.2% against the yen to 157.80.