

Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi is in talks with Kenya to electrify the East African nation’s Chinese-built railway, enabling it to seamlessly link with a line under construction in neighboring Uganda bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Sheikh Usta
4.7K posts

@SheikhUsta
Political analyst. The Pulse (geopolitical weekly podcast) Masters in International Relations (in-prog) @kingscollegelon RT != endorsement.


Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi is in talks with Kenya to electrify the East African nation’s Chinese-built railway, enabling it to seamlessly link with a line under construction in neighboring Uganda bloomberg.com/news/articles/…





Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) sails in the Indian Ocean in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, April 23.

انتشال جثمان الشهيدة الصحافية آمال خليل facebook.com/share/p/1NcEyF…














🇮🇷 Iran just passed a law charging tolls to use the world's most important waterway. And there's almost nothing anyone can do about it. The bill is called "The Law on Establishing Iran's Sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz." Tolls in Iranian rials. Extra fees for nations that participated in the war. Permanent ban on Israeli-linked vessels, sanctioning countries, and U.S. military ships. Ships that disobey will be seized, 20% of cargo confiscated. The first toll payment has already been deposited into Iran's central bank. Is it legal? No. Under international law, the Strait is a transit passage and cannot be tolled. But Iran never signed UNCLOS, the convention that says so. And the country enforcing that convention would need to be willing to go to war to do it. After five weeks of Operation Epic Fury, a downed F-15, a closed strait, and $100+ oil... that appetite is gone. China and Russia's role Neither formally recognized Iranian sovereignty. But when Bahrain brought a UN resolution to protect Strait shipping, both vetoed it, calling it "biased against Iran." That veto is the functional equivalent of a green light. What can the world do? Realistically, pay or reroute. The U.S. tried six weeks of the most intensive air campaign since Iraq and couldn't force the strait open. No one is launching another military operation into Iranian waters right now. Europe is rationing diesel. Asia is buying U.S. oil at an 82% premium. Nobody has leverage. The precedent This is the part that outlasts the war. Iran just demonstrated that a determined regional power can convert a chokepoint into sovereign revenue: toll the world's oil supply, get vetoed into protection at the UN, and walk away with a law on the books. Every nation sitting on a strategic waterway is watching. The Panama Canal. The Turkish Straits. The South China Sea. Iran introduced a toll at a strait and thus rewrote what's possible.
