Strait

The state-of-the-art Fujian is in the final stages of testing before it officially begins active service in China’s navy.

China’s newest aircraft carrier transited through the Taiwan Strait as part of a research and training exercise before its entry into service, according to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

PLAN spokesperson Senior Captain Leng Guowei said on Friday that the Fujian was bound for the South China Sea, where it will undergo testing.

“The cross-regional tests and training are a routine mission of the carrier’s construction process and do not target any specific objects,” Leng said, according to Chinese state media.

The 80,000-tonne Fujian has not been officially commissioned for service, but it will soon join the Liaoning and Shandong vessels as China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier.

Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military affairs expert, told China’s State-run news outlet Global Times that the Fujian’s research trip to the South China Sea is a sign the aircraft carrier is nearly complete. It earlier underwent tests in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea.

The Fujian’s route was not unexpected, as Chinese state media shared photos and videos of the aircraft carrier leaving Shanghai’s shipyard on Wednesday.

A step forward for China’s blue water navy.

🇨🇳China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian passes through Taiwan Straits to hold tests, training in #SouthChinaSea.

By the way, the Taiwan Strait is not ‘international waters’.

The Fujian is China’s first fully domestically… pic.twitter.com/3ffANYEbMH

— Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) September 12, 2025

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force on Thursday spotted the Fujian sailing near the disputed but uninhabited Senkaku Islands, in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, accompanied by two PLAN destroyers.

The Senkaku Islands are known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Diaoyutai Islands in Taiwan.

The Fujian is just the second aircraft carrier in the world, after the USS Gerald Ford, to host an electromagnetic catapult system that makes it easier for aircraft to take off and land.

Developing such a launch system is a sign that the technology gap between China and the US is closing, according to maritime expert and former United States Air Force Colonel Ray Powell, but there are still some limitations.

The Fujian is 20 percent smaller than US super aircraft carriers and conventionally powered rather than nuclear-powered, Powell said.

The real challenge for China, Powell told Al Jazeera, will be crewing its aircraft carriers as the PLAN will need to divide veteran crew members between the three carriers: Fujian, Liaoning and Shandong.

“China is closing the hardware gap, but developing the operational expertise for effective blue-water carrier ops is what the US has spent nearly a century perfecting,” he said.

While no date has been announced yet for the Fujian’s official commission into active service, the US Naval Institute (USNI) said it is expected to “coincide with a date that holds historical significance to China”.

Possible dates include September 18, the anniversary of Japan’s 1931 invasion of Manchuria, or China’s October 1 national holiday, the USNI said.

ISTANBUL — During a pool training session months ago, Ukrainian war veteran Oleh Tserkovnyi was struck by an idea: What if a group of veterans swam across the strait of Bosphorus, between Turkey’s European and Asian shores? And if they did it on Aug. 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day?

The symbolism of the day would draw attention to the toll and devastation inflicted by Russia’s full-out war on Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

When the 34-year-old pitched the idea to fellow veterans in their One for Another support group, none raised injuries, particularly their amputations, as a barrier. Two joined him right away.

They trained for months, with the support of Superhumans Center, a veterans’ rehabilitation clinic in Ukraine, and coached by CapitalTRI, an amateur triathlon team in Kyiv. They agreed their race would have another goal — to raise money for prosthetics, which remain costly and urgently needed by many of Ukraine’s wounded.

“We’re not asking for pity,” Tserkovnyi told The Associated Press shortly before the competition. “We’re asking for support.”

A race that links continents

After months of rigorous training, discipline and physical challenges, the three Ukrainian veterans on Sunday joined more than 2,800 swimmers from 81 countries in the 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) crossing from Asia to Europe.

The Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race is an open-water event held each year in Istanbul, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee since 1989.

All three Ukrainians completed the crossing, each swimming for more than an hour. The two veterans with amputations faced setbacks even before the start — the organizers initially barred them from competing, insisting they have to be in a separate category for people with disabilities.

But they persevered and swam the race, alongside the others.

For the Ukrainians, it wasn’t just about endurance but about reclaiming control over bodies transformed by war — and sharing their recovery with a world that often seems indifferent to the injuries they carry.

Seeking balance in the water

Sports had always been a part of Tserkovnyi’s life, but war and injury pushed him to use it as a survival tool after two severe, life-changing concussions — a bridge back to life for war veterans with disabilities.

“Sport itself heals — we’ve seen that firsthand,” he said. “And the community, it pulls you through. It pushes you, it disciplines you.”

When he speaks, he’s quick to point out the changes he sees in himself — the stutter, the involuntary twitch in his eye.

“It’s what’s left over. It used to be much worse,” he said.

Both of his concussions were the result of prolonged exposure to artillery fire while serving on the front line. He was a sniper when the second one hit. Afterward, he said, it felt like he had lost his sense of balance entirely.

“There were times I could walk, but then suddenly I’d just tip over like a pencil,” Tserkovnyi said. “I have third-degree hearing loss on one side, no peripheral vision.”

The sense of being “a sick person,” he said, felt so foreign to him that he threw himself into recovery with everything he had. For a long time, he also had PTSD symptoms, including dramatic flashbacks to the war.

But it was in the pool that he found a way to recognize the warning signs. “I began to understand what triggers them, when they come, and how to stay ahead of them,” he said.

A path back to oneself

Engineer Pavlo Tovstyk signed up as a volunteer in the early days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Serving as a driver in an intelligence unit, he stepped on a landmine in June 2023.

The blast took his foot and subsequent surgeries led to a partial amputation of his left leg.

The 47-year-old, who used to be an active swimmer as a child, never thought swimming would become a lifeline. He was still recovering from his injury when he began sneaking into the swimming pool, keeping it a secret from the doctors.

“Water became a kind of savior for me,” he said. “At the time, everything felt disoriented. But in the water, my thoughts, my strength, my body — it all came together again. I became myself again. Just … different.”

The idea to swim the strait in Turkey started almost as a dare, then became a plan.

“To cross the Bosphorus, you need not just physical strength, but a certain mindset — a state of determination that all of us managed to find within ourselves,” he said.

Calm found in purpose

Oleksandr Dashko discovered swimming only after losing his left leg.

The 28-year-old had joined the military at the start of the Russian invasion and served in the infantry in various front-line areas.

In June 2023, a mine exploded near him and shrapnel tore into his knee.

“I didn’t take it very graciously, let’s say,” he said as he recounted the conflicted feelings that tormented him for so long. Adjustment to life with an amputation has been slow and mentally taxing.

It was only over the past year that he was able to focus on physical rehabilitation — and swimming, he said, has become the activity that brings him a sense of calm.

The challenge of swimming the Bosphorus became a purpose for Dashko.

“When I do nothing, I slip back to that state right after the injury — depression, apathy, the feeling that the amputation is winning,” he said. “But when something like this shows up on my path, it gives me a jolt — to live, to move forward, to motivate others.”

Physical goals, he said, help anchor him. He hopes for more such challenges, not just for himself, but for other veterans.

“Honestly, if it weren’t for this, I’d probably be drunk and lying under a fence somewhere,” he said.

Maloletka and Arhirova write for the Associated Press. Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

After the recent military escalations between Iran and Israel, where the U.S. was involved symbolically but in a limited manner, the focus of the international strategic community has shifted back to one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints: the Strait of Hormuz. Although the matter of closing such a waterway has been around in various forms of threats since the 1980s, the current situation in the Middle East is a clear signal that those threats are going to be actual events instead of mere rhetoric. Accordingly, the issue of how the world would react to a decision of Iran to shut down or impose restrictions on the Strait is now not a merely theoretical discussion—it is a current situation that is capable of affecting the whole world.

Why Hormuz Matters

The Strait of Hormuz acts as the main artery through which around 20% of the world’s oil for trade and more than 30% of global liquefied natural gas are transported each day. Its narrow geography—only 33 kilometers wide at the narrowest point—makes it a region that is unstoppably within Iran’s influence. This location is critical as it is the area where the Middle East’s vast oil resources are transported to the world’s markets. A conflict here would not only be equivalent to cutting off the energy export infrastructure in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar but also to a power outage in international energy markets. In a global economic scenario currently facing various challenges such as supply chain realignments, inflationary trends, and geopolitical rivalries, the closure of Hormuz would not just be an energy crisis; it would be a major systemic event.

Military Feasibility and Constraints

Technically, Iran definitely has the capabilities to disrupt or block the Strait for a short period. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has multiple layers of assets in the region, such as fast-attack boats, coastal missile batteries, naval mines, and drone systems. It has been building and rehearsing asymmetric strategies that are intended to fool the shipping lanes and stop the U.S. from intervening in its navy; these strategies are implemented through repeated exercises. On the other hand, Iran could carry out such a closure or be the major disruptor, but the continuation of it would be difficult. This move would most probably incite a very strong and well-coordinated military counterattack from the United States and its partners, which may also include a multinational maritime security coalition, apart from those opponents mentioned. Besides that, the international community would certainly impose severe penalties on Iran in the form of retaliatory actions, diplomatic isolation, and economic free-fall. Therefore, it is possible that Tehran wants to continue to calibrate its harassment or partial closures instead of implementing a full-scale blockade.

Energy Security and Economic Fallout

An incident in the Strait of Hormuz would cause a very rapid increase in oil and gas prices, and Brent crude would probably go up to more than $150 a barrel in the first few days of the crisis. Energy-exporting countries—especially in Asia, where China, India, South Korea, and Japan are the main players—would not only have energy shortages but also energy price inflation. After the Ukraine crisis, Europe changed the direction of its gas imports to Gulf LNG, but it is still going to be affected. Though some capacity exists in the form of overland pipelines, like Saudi Arabia’s East-West system, these alternatives are not sufficient to make up for the shortage of the flow through Hormuz. The impact would be felt globally—through inflation, increased shipping insurance charges, currency instability, and lack of investor confidence in emerging markets. At the end of the day, the economic cost would not be limited to energy consumers alone; it would also hit the very core of the global economic interdependence structure.

Diplomatic and Legal Implications

International law legally defines the Strait of Hormuz as an international strait—that means it is the free navigation route allowed for ships under the law of the sea. This right of passage is given to ships registered as UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). Although Iran is not a party to UNCLOS and they firmly believe that they have the right to issue regulations for traffic, especially at times of insecurity, they are nonetheless free to assert their prerogatives. This situation of uncertainty in the interpretation of the laws only goes to highlight a bigger issue: necks like Hormuz are not only regulated by law but also by power. When the legal norms conflict with geopolitical situations, the implementation of the law is more influenced by the use of force, negotiations, or peacekeeping units than by court decisions. In the course of the global order’s evolution toward multipolarity, traditional means of enforcement are more and more divided; the international community has to come to terms with the fact that maritime governance is at its end.

Global Responses and Strategic Calculus

If Iran were to interfere with the transit in the Strait of Hormuz in a serious manner, it would necessitate a strong reaction from the United States. The latter has always considered the freedom of navigation as a vital interest. To this end, they could send their naval forces, form coalitions as in 2019 and carry out Operation Sentinel, or ask the UN Security Council to solve the issue, though Russia or China are likely to block any resolution. European countries could request the de-escalation and the mediation of the conflict, but they do not have a unified military force in the region. China and India, on the other hand, need to think about their next moves: they can’t lose their energy security, but they shouldn’t look like they’re sticking with the West; otherwise, they’ll be in trouble with their other friends. Russia might be in a good position to profit from the rising oil prices, but on the other hand, it has to be careful not to damage its partnerships in the region. Most importantly, nations in the Gulf region such as Oman, Qatar, and the UAE are expected to be at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to calm down tensions, using their secret communication channels to reach a truce, thus preventing the situation from spiraling into open warfare.

Conclusion: A Chokepoint as a Global Fault Line

The hypothetical closing of the Strait of Hormuz has attracted attention not only to it as a regional conflict but also as a challenge for the international system. It displays, first of all, the weakness of energy and trade flows, which are extremely dependent on special narrow geographic corridors. Oddly enough, after so many years of discussions about energy diversification and supply chain resilience, the world still remains terribly dependent on several maritime corridors that are at the center of geopolitical struggles. The second point is that this event shows the absence of any credible regional security framework in the Persian Gulf. Several next attempts to build inclusive architectures—whether led by the United States, Russia, or even China—were not successful in creating crisis prevention or conflict resolution mechanisms. As a result of this situation, the region is no longer strategically stable but becomes reactive all the time.

On the third point, the whole situation with Hormuz undermines those sea governance foundations that still remain. Legal concepts like transit passage only work when they are supported by a multilateral consensus and have credible enforcement. In their absence, rules give way to power politics, and coercive signaling becomes a tool of diplomacy. Way, The precedent it would establish at Existing even time would lead to other chokepoints at play: the Suez Canal, the Bab el-Mandeb, and the South China Sea. In conclusion, the crisis would be a strong reassertion of the supply of preventive diplomacy. The current escalatory spiral between Iran and Israel, compounded by the lack of sustained dialogue mechanisms, leaves the door open for miscalculation and unintended conflict. Restoring regional diplomacy, be it through a new Gulf security initiative or improved nuclear talks, is not an option—it is a must.

In conclusion, the Strait of Hormuz is definitely not only a maritime corridor. It is a political fault line where local crises meet with global insecurity. The manner in which the international community deals with or neglects the danger could be the factor that decides the path of world peace in the next ten years.

June 23 (UPI) — Oil futures declined and U.S. stock indexes rose despite fears Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for transporting oil around the world.

Oil prices climbed on Sunday in response to the U.S. joining Israel’s campaign against Iran but investors hope Iran will avoid escalating the situation.

The price of U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate Crude oil for August was $68.47, a $5.27 drop from Friday, before American B-2 bombers struck three Iranian nuclear facilities early Sunday.

WTI climbed to $80 per barrel earlier this year but was under $60 per barrel in May. When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, prices reached $120 per barrel.

“I think people realize that things in the Middle East will eventually de-escalate and will be in place of a much safer, a much more stable Middle East and world as a whole,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC in crediting President Donald Trump‘s foreign policy.

The Dow Jones Industrials, Standard & Poor’s and Nasdaq Composite were all up less than 1%. Of the 11 CNBC sectors, only energy and health declined with Utilities rising the most at 1%.

U.S. gasoline prices have risen, with the national average at $3.22 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. That’s up from $3.14 a week ago and $3.20 one month ago.

For every $10 rise in oil prices, inflation goes up roughly 0.4 percentage points and cuts economic growth by roughly 0.1 percentage point, Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital, estimated.

“As it stands, it is arguably not in Iran’s best interests to close the Strait,” David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, told USA Today.

The Iranian parliament moved Sunday to approve a measure to close the Strait in response to the American strikes on Iran over the weekend. The strait serves as a critical route for oil being shipped from Persian Gulf countries, but ultimately it will come down to whether Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decides to move forward with such a plan.

Close to 30% of the world’s seaborne oil shipments are moved through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. China took nearly 90% of Iran’s crude oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Producers in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Qatar and the United Arab Emirites ship crude oil through the strait.

Alternative routes include the Red Sea, but there’s only limited pipeline capacity available, Oxley said.

“Given that most oil flows originating from Iraq, Kuwait, and Iran, itself, can’t be diverted, we estimate that no more than 30% of existing oil flows could be redirected,” Oxley said. “Meanwhile, LNG flows from the region cannot be diverted. The lack of an alternative for rerouting LNG flows has contributed to the sharp rise in natural gas prices since the start of the conflict.”

The United States doesn’t import oil from Iran.

More than half of U.S. crude oil comes from the United States and coastal waters, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. For imports, the United States mainly relies on Canada and Mexico to refine oil with less than 10% from Persian Gulf countries.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Monday that closing the strait and striking airbases would be a “catastrophic mistake.”

“It would be a huge, catastrophic mistake to fire at U.S. bases in the region at this time. We have forces in the region at this time,” said Lammy in an interview with BBC Breakfast.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also commented Sunday against Iranian interference with movement through the strait. He spoke with Fox News and called on China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz.

“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” said Rubio, as China is a key oil customer of Iran.

“The Persian Gulf and nearby waters are important route for international trade in goods and energy. Keeping the region safe and stable serves the common interests of the international community,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in a news conference Monday.

“China calls on the international community to step up effort to promote de-escalation of the conflict and prevent the regional turmoil from having a greater impact on global economic growth.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

His comments came after Iran’s state-run Press TV reported that parliament had approved a plan to close the Strait but added that the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council.

Any disruption to the supply of oil would have profound consequences for the economy. China in particular is the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil and has a close relationship with Tehran.

Oil prices surged following the US attack on Iranian nuclear sites, with the price of the benchmark Brent crude reaching its highest level in five months.

“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them (Iran) about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Marco Rubio had said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

“If they [close the Straits]… it will be economic suicide for them. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours.”

Around 20% of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, with major oil and gas producers in the Middle East using the waterway to transport energy from the region.

Any attempt to disrupt operations in the Strait could could send global oil prices skyrocketing.

They jumped to their highest since January, with the price of Brent crude reaching $78.89 a barrel as of 23:22 GMT Sunday.

“The US is now positioned with an overwhelming defence posture in the region to be prepared for any Iran counter attacks. But the risk for oil prices is the situation could escalate severely further,” said Saul Kavonic, Head of Energy Research at MST Financial.

The cost of crude oil affects everything from how much it costs to fill up your car to the price of food at the supermarket.

China in particular buys more oil from Iran than any other nation – with its oil imports from Iran surpassing 1.8 million barrels per day last month, according to data by ship tracking firm Vortexa.

Other major Asian economies including India, Japan and South Korea also rely heavily on crude oil that passes through the Strait.

Energy analyst Vandana Hari has said Iran has “little to gain and too much to lose” from closing the Strait.

“Iran risks turning its oil and gas producing neighbours in the Gulf into enemies and invoking the ire of its key market China by disrupting traffic in the Strait”, Hari told BBC News.

The US joined the conflict between Iran and Israel over the weekend, with President Donald Trump saying Washington had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites.

However, it’s not clear how much damage the strikes inflicted, with the UN’s nuclear watchdog saying it was unable to assess the damage at the heavily fortified Fordo underground nuclear site. Iran has said there was only minor damage to Fordo.

Trump also warned Iran that they would face “far worse” future attacks if they did not abandon their nuclear programme.

On Monday, Beijing said the US strikes had damaged Washington’s credibility and called for an immediate ceasefire.

China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong said all parties should restrain “the impulse of force… and adding fuel to the fire”, according to a state-run CCTV report.

In an editorial, Beijing’s state newspaper Global Times also said US involvement in Iran “had further complicated and destabilised the Middle East situation” and that it was pushing the conflict to an “uncontrollable state”.

EXPLAINER

Iranian lawmaker says Tehran considering closing waterway, described as ‘world’s most important oil transit chokepoint’.

Iran is considering closing the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian news agency IRINN has reported, citing key conservative lawmaker Esmail Kosari, as the conflict with Israel intensifies.

The move would send oil prices soaring and risk expanding the war. So what is the strategic waterway and why is it vital to global trade?

Hormuz is the only marine entryway into the Persian Gulf. It splits Iran on one side and Oman and the United Arab Emirates on the other, and it links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, about 20 percent of global oil consumption flows through the strait, which the agency describes as the “world’s most important oil transit chokepoint”. At its narrowest point, it is 33km (21 miles) wide, but shipping lanes in the waterway are even narrower, making them vulnerable to attacks and threats of being shut down.

During the Iran-Iraq conflict between 1980 and 1988, which killed hundreds of thousands on both sides, both countries targeted commercial vessels in the Gulf in what became known as the Tanker War, but Hormuz was never completely closed.

More recently, in 2019, four ships were attacked near the strait off the coast of Fujairah, UAE, amid heightened tensions between Iran and the United States during Donald Trump’s first presidency. Washington blamed Tehran for the incident, but Iran denied the allegations.

Attacking shipping lanes has long been used to apply pressure amid conflict. Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen have been attacking ships around Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the entryway into the Red Sea on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.

While the Houthi campaign has affected global commerce, ships can avoid the Red Sea by sailing around Africa – a longer but safer journey. However, there is no way to ship anything by sea out of the Gulf without going through Hormuz.

Even countries that do not import petrol from Gulf countries would be affected if the strait were to be closed because a major drop in supply would spike the price per barrel on the global market.

Despite the Iranian lawmaker’s threat, it is unclear whether Iran has the ability or willingness to shut down the strait.

Such a move would almost certainly invoke retaliation from the US, which has naval military assets in the region.

After Israel launched a wave of attacks across Iran early on Friday, targeting military leaders, residential buildings, army bases and nuclear sites, Iran responded with hundreds of ballistic missiles.

Although the US helped shoot down the Iranian missiles, Washington has not directly attacked Iran. US officials have stressed that Washington was not involved in the Israeli strikes.

Tehran has not targeted US troops or interests in the region, either.

Closing Hormuz, however, would hit Americans in the wallet and could spark a military response from Trump.

While an Iranian move against the strait may not be imminent, Kosari’s comments underscore that attacking shipping lanes is a card that Tehran may play amid the hostilities.

In April 2024, Iranian armed forces seized a container ship near the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions across the region after a deadly Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria. A limited Iranian strike on Israel in response was followed by an Israeli one on Iran. At the time, they were the most serious direct military exchanges between the two foes.