US intensifies Iran strikes as Houthis target Red Sea shipping, threatening global oil routes

For the twelfth consecutive night, American forces struck Iranian military infrastructure in a sustained effort to preserve the free flow of commerce through waters that carry the world's energy lifeblood. Yet even as one chokepoint is contested, another tightens: Yemen's Houthi militia has declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia and struck tankers in the Red Sea, while Iran intercepts vessels at the Hormuz strait. What is unfolding is not merely a regional military confrontation but a stress test on the architecture of global trade — one whose costs, in oil prices and inflation, are already