Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz, Escalating Tensions

0:00I'm Cory with the story. That's your Europe news today update, AI powered and always on. Iran just slammed the door shut on the straight of Hormuz again, saying it'll stay closed until the United States lifts its blockade on Iranian ports, and ships. The revolutionary guard Navy made that call late Saturday, reversing an earlier plan to let some vessels through. Earlier that day, two Iranian gunboats fired on a tanker passing through the strait, but the British military says the ship and crew made it out safe. Iran had floated the idea of a toll for safe passage on Friday, but now they're warning any violator could get hit. This standoff is hitting hard amid a wider conflict that's already taken heavy tolls. 3,000 dead in Iran, 2,300 in. Lebanon, 23 in Israel, plus more than a dozen in Gulf air of states and 13 US service members. One fifth of the world's oil flows through that narrow choke point, so the full closure could spide prices even higher and worse than the global energy.

1:01Crunch, pushing tensions closer to all out war. Mediators still think it deals possible, but with fresh attacks on two vessels, Saturday, near Oman and in the strait, the clock's ticking fast on this, powder keg.