U.S. Blockade of Iran to Begin, Israel Strikes Gaza and Lebanon, and Other Stories This Morning
This morning, we wake up to rejoice to a fallen autocrat in Hungary, where citizens have celebrated throughout the night and into the morning. The USA’s blockade of Iran looks set to begin, with no one able to explain how the move will help anything, Israel’s brutal attacks on Lebanon and Gaza have taken more victims, while the Pope and Donald Trump’s feud intensified as the U.S. president made some absolutely crazy accusations.
US blockade of Iranian ports to take effect
The United States Naval blockade of Iranian ports is set to come into force at 10am ET today, roughly around the time this piece is published, following the collapse of peace talks in Islamabad. US Central Command confirmed the blockade will target all vessel traffic entering or exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas across the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Despite Trump's sweeping language, CENTCOM said vessels transiting the Strait to and from non-Iranian ports will not be impeded.
Iran’s army called the action piracy and warned that if the security of its ports is threatened, “no port in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea will be safe.” Oil crossed $100 a barrel again this morning, up nearly 8%, as markets react to Trump’s escalation. The Wall Street Journal reported overnight, citing officials, that Trump is also weighing a resumption of limited military strikes on Iran, which would constitute a violation of the two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan less than a week ago.
Trump has promised a coalition of countries to help him reopen the Strait of Hormuz, that coalition does not exist. On Fox Sunday, Trump claimed “the UK and a couple of other countries are sending minesweepers” and that NATO allies “now want to help with the strait.” However, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told BBC radio this morning: “We are not supporting the blockade. The UK is not getting dragged in.” British minesweepers and anti-drone systems already deployed to the region will continue operations, but will not participate in the blockade of Iranian ports. It is still unclear how adding an extra roadblock would help open the Strait to traffic, but Donald Trump is not known for leadership that makes sense.
Israel prepares to return to Iran attacks
The two-week US-Iran ceasefire, announced April 8, has never applied to Lebanon, that is the historical rewrite that Israel and the USA demand, despite Pakistan, the mediator, saying explicitly that it did. Netanyahu rejected the interpretation from the first hours of the agreement, and hours after the ceasefire was declared, Israel launched its largest single-day bombing campaign of the war on Lebanon, killing more than 350 people. That bombing has not stopped, with attacks this morning killing at least another 6 people.
Last night, a seemingly coordinated leak was sent to all Israeli news outlets, outlining that their army has made the preparations to return to fighting with Iran, following the collapse of the talks with the USA. This news comes despite the fact that Pakistan insist a new round of talks may be imminent.
Israel-Lebanon talks are scheduled at the US State Department next week, with the tentative promise of delivering the ceasefire already agreed in Islamabad. Israel has already ruled out any discussion of a ceasefire with Hezbollah, and they insist that even if peace is reached with Lebanon, attacks on “Hezbollah” targets would continue. Israeli attacks have almost exclusively targeted civilian infrastructure, including the destruction of entire towns and villages, the narrative of attacks on Hezbollah outposts doesn’t match with the reality seen on the ground.
Trump attacks Pope Leo, the Pope responds
In a Truth Social post Sunday, Trump called Pope Leo XIV “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy,” told him to “stop catering to the Radical Left,” and claimed credit for his election, writing that “if I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn afterward, Trump said he is “not a fan” of Leo, adding: “He likes crime, I guess. He’s a very liberal person.” Trump claimed Leo “says it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon”, Pope Leo has said no such thing. He has been a consistent opponent of nuclear proliferation.
Leo responded this morning aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria, where he is beginning an eleven-day tour of Africa: “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel. We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it. But I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.” Vatican official Fr Antonio Spadaro offered a sharper assessment on X: “Trump doesn’t debate Leo: he begs him to retreat into a language that he can dominate. The attack is a declaration of impotence. If Leo were irrelevant, he wouldn’t merit a word.”
Iran took advantage of the feud between the U.S. President and the leader of the Catholic Church, with their President Masoud Pezeshkian tweeting a condemnation of Trump’s attacks this morning. The Iranian President said such attacks were “not acceptable to any free person”.
Israeli strikes continue overnight in Lebanon and Gaza as death tolls mount
Israeli forces carried out further strikes across southern Lebanon and Gaza overnight as the regional death tolls continued to rise. Just yesterday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported 35 people killed and 152 wounded in Israeli strikes in the 24 hours to Sunday, bringing the Lebanese war death toll since March 2 to 2,055, including 252 women and 165 children. Strikes hit locations across southern Lebanon and continued in the Bint Jbeil area, where Israeli forces have cut all main access roads and are conducting a ground assault the IDF chief of staff has described as a state of war.
In Gaza, overnight Israeli strikes killed at least four people in central Gaza, with families gathering outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to receive the bodies. Israel has now killed more than 738 Palestinians in Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire, a ceasefire under which, according to documented Government Media Office figures, more than 2,073 violations have been recorded with no enforcement mechanism in place.
The strikes in both theatres occurred as US and allied attention remained fixed on the collapsed talks and the blockade announcement. No statement was issued by Washington on either overnight attack, which are also not mentioned in much of the English speaking media sphere.
Hungary celebrates an end to Orbán
Celebrations ran through the night in Budapest. Car horns, dancing, chants of “Europe” and “Russians go home” filled squares and metro stations into the early hours. The Chain Bridge was lit in Hungary’s national colours. Tisza won 138 seats a constitutional supermajority, enough to amend the constitution, dismantle Fidesz control over the judiciary, state enterprises and media, and restructure the institutions Orbán spent sixteen years capturing.
In his victory speech, Magyar declared: “Our victory may not be visible from the moon, but it is visible everywhere in Hungary”, a direct swipe at Orbán’s 2022 speech. He called on Hungary’s chief prosecutor, the head of the constitutional court, the head of the media authority and the country’s president to resign. “Those who betrayed the country must take responsibility,” he said. He has pledged to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, restore judicial independence, and end Hungary’s obstruction of EU decisions on Ukraine, including unblocking the frozen €90 billion loan.