Investigators are exploring whether 20-year-old Jimmey Gracey, a University of Alabama student who was found dead in Spain, may have been drugged before ending up in the water, as authorities work to determine whether his death was accidental or the result of foul play.
“They’re going to want to determine whether this was something nefarious or something innocent,” retired detective Brian Foley said Sunday on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Foley, a former chief of detectives with the Hartford Police Department, said investigators will examine toxicology results, surveillance footage and witness accounts as they piece together what happened to Gracey.
An image of Jimmy Gracey wearing an Alabama Crimson Tide football jersey inset over the facade outside Shoko, the beachfront nightclub in Barcelona where he was last seen alive.(Getty Images, Gracey family)
The 20-year-old disappeared on March 17 while in Barcelona. His body was later recovered in the water in Port Olímpic.
Reports suggest authorities have not ruled out the possibility that Gracey may have been drugged before entering the water — a key question that could shape the direction of the investigation.
“Toxicology is going to take a little while, usually around a regular case, three to six weeks, but the cops are going to get a look at toxicology, usually within a week or so,” Foley explained.
“Ketamine or ketamine-like drugs will stay in your system. It’s detectable to a medical examiner in the blood, in the liver and in the eyes, and, if it’s in the system, they’ll be able to determine that.”
Catalan police from the Mossos d’Esquadra perform a recovery operation at Port Olimpic marina in Barcelona, Spain on Thursday, Mar. 19.(James Breeden for Fox News Digital)
Alcohol levels should also be determined early in the examination, he added.
“They should be able to determine that pretty early, get that information to the cops pretty early,” he said.
Foley also pushed back on concerns about the overseas investigation, saying Spanish authorities are “equal to anything that we have” in the United States.
“So let me tell you, Barcelona is equal to anything that we have. Spain, as a whole, is equal anything we have here, as is Barcelona. So there’s no real loss there. It’s the same kind of system, medical examiners and everything,” Foley said.
An information stealer called VoidStealer uses a new approach to bypass Chrome’s Application-Bound Encryption (ABE) and extract the master key for decrypting sensitive data stored in the browser.
The novel method is stealthier and relies on hardware breakpoints to extract the v20_master_key, used for both encryption and decryption, directly from the browser’s memory, without requiring privilege escalation or code injection.
A report from Gen Digital, the parent company behind the Norton, Avast, AVG, and Avira brands, notes that this is the first case of an infostealer observed in the wild to use such a mechanism.
Google introduced ABE in Chrome 127, released in June 2024, as a new protection mechanism for cookies and other sensitive browser data. It ensures that the master key remains encrypted on disk and cannot be recovered through normal user-level access.
Decrypting the key requires the Google Chrome Elevation Service, which runs as SYSTEM, to validate the requesting process.
Overview of how ABE blocks out malware Source: Gen Digital
“VoidStealer is the first infostealer observed in the wild adopting a novel debugger-based Application-Bound Encryption (ABE) bypass technique that leverages hardware breakpoints to extract the v20_master_key directly from browser memory,” says Vojtěch Krejsa, threat researcher at Gen Digital.
VoidStealer is a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) platform advertised on dark web forums since at least mid-December 2025. The malware introduced the new ABE bypass mechanism in version 2.0.
Cybercriminals advertising ABE bypass in VoidStealer version 2.0 Source: Gen Digital
Stealing the master key
VoidStealer’s trick to extract the master key is to target a short moment when Chrome’s v20_master_key is briefly present in memory in plaintext state during decryption operations.
Specifically, VoidStealer starts a suspended and hidden browser process, attaches it as a debugger, and waits for the target browser DLL (chrome.dll or msedge.dll) to load.
When loaded, it scans the DLL for a specific string and the LEA instruction that references it, using that instruction’s address as the hardware breakpoint target.
VoidStealer’s target string Source: Gen Digital
Next, it sets that breakpoint across existing and newly created browser threads, waits for it to trigger during startup while the browser is decrypting protected data, then reads the register holding a pointer to the plaintext v20_master_key and extracts it with ‘ReadProcessMemory.’
Gen Digital explains that the ideal time for the malware to do this is during browser startup, when the application loads ABE-protected cookies early, forcing the decryption of the master key.
The researchers explained that VoidStealer likely did not invent this technique but rather adopted it from the open-source project ‘ElevationKatz,’ part of the ChromeKatz cookie-dumping toolset that demonstrates weaknesses in Chrome.
Although there are some differences in the code, the implementation appears to be based on ElevationKatz, which has been available for more than a year.
BleepingComputer has contacted Google with a request for a comment on this bypass method being used by threat actors, but a reply was not available by publishing time.
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Under the guise of preserving secularism, this law allows the exclusion of people based on their religious identity.
On Monday, the Supreme Court of Canada will begin a four-day hearing for one of the most consequential constitutional cases in the country’s recent history. At issue is Quebec’s so-called “secularism law”, known as Bill 21 – a law enacted in 2019 that prohibits certain public sector workers from wearing visible religious symbols at work.
It bars many public sector employees, including teachers, prosecutors, police officers, and judges, from wearing religious symbols such as hijabs, turbans, kippahs, and other visible expressions of faith while at work.
There is much at stake in this case that raises fundamental questions about religious freedom, equality, and the limits of state power in a constitutional democracy. In addition, another significant issue is that to get the bill passed, Quebec’s government had used the “notwithstanding clause”, a unique provision in Canadian law that allows it to override fundamental rights and freedoms. No other constitutional democracy in the world has a similar blanket override of fundamental rights and freedoms.
The Quebec government claims that the law is necessary to preserve the religious neutrality of the state. Yet Bill 21 does the opposite: by forcing some individuals to choose between their profession and their religious identity, the Quebec government is not remaining neutral – it is effectively excluding people of faith from public sector employment.
The use of this extraordinary, and until recently rarely used, constitutional mechanism has turned the spotlight on Bill 21 beyond the borders of Quebec and the debate over secularism and religious freedoms. It has become a test of how far a democratic government can go in limiting fundamental rights and freedoms.
Evidence before the courts shows that Bill 21 affects religious people of many faiths, including Jewish men who wear kippahs and Sikh men and women who wear turbans; but its impact falls particularly heavily on Muslim women who wear the hijab. For many Muslim women who wear headscarves, teaching and other public service careers have effectively been closed off.
The message of exclusion that this law sends to young people is especially troubling. Generations of young people in Quebec are being told that their full participation in public life requires abandoning visible aspects of their identity.
This is why the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association launched the constitutional challenge against Bill 21. The Supreme Court of Canada must consider the implications, and possible limitations, of allowing governments to sidestep rights protections through pre-emptive use of constitutional override powers. The court’s decision will help determine whether constitutional rights in Canada remain meaningful constraints on government power, or whether they can be suspended whenever politically convenient.
These questions extend far beyond Canada. Across Europe and elsewhere, debates about secularism have increasingly centred on restrictions targeting religious expression, often impacting Muslim women in particular.
Canada often prides itself on being a model of multicultural democracy, one that accommodates diversity. Bill 21 challenges that reputation by testing whether neutrality can coexist with policies that effectively exclude people of visible faith from public service.
True secularism does not demand the erasure of religious identity. A neutral state does not require citizens to shed visible expressions of belief in order to participate fully in public life.
The Supreme Court of Canada now has the opportunity to reaffirm these principles and clarify that constitutional rights cannot be easily set aside. At a time when countries around the world are grappling with questions of belonging, pluralism, and the rights of minorities, the Canadian court’s ruling will send an important signal about whether liberal democracies are willing to uphold their commitments to freedom and equality.
We say this is not an abstract idea, but an imperative to demonstrate that commitments to freedom and equality are more than mere words.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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A complimentary breakfast buffet may be a favorite perk at many hotel chains nationwide — but these days, not everyone in the buffet line may be a paying guest.
Viral videos making the rounds show buffet crashers strolling into hotel dining rooms, piling up plates with food and heading out — no payment in sight.
The buffet configurations can make it difficult for hotels to monitor who belongs in the breakfast area, according to Connecticut-based hospitality expert and president of Straightline Hospitality, Kenneth Free.
“Because most complimentary breakfasts are in smaller, limited-service properties, they usually don’t have the personnel resources to aggressively police whether breakfast patrons are truly guests of the hotel,” Free told Fox News Digital.
Complimentary breakfast is a common offering at many hotel chains, including brands like Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Residence Inn, where self-service buffets are often included with overnight stays.
Breakfast buffets are a favorite perk of many hotel guests nationwide, but lately, viral videos are showing non-paying visitors (not pictured) helping themselves to free food. (iStock)
Since the meals are often self-serve, some non-guests are able to blend in without drawing attention, said Free.
“In most cases, the best a hotel can do in these circumstances is to ask all staff members to be alert [about] suspicious activity, such as ‘guests’ entering from the outside, as opposed to coming from the in-house guest room elevator bank,” he said.
Free said unauthorized use of hotel amenities can greatly impact the guests who did and do pay.
When “breakfast shoplifters succeed in pilfering breakfasts … additional financial pressure is applied to the hotel, causing it to investigate cost-savings measures.”
Many hotel chains commonly offer complimentary breakfast for guests. (iStock)
In turn, the quality of the breakfast offerings may go down, he said. Free believes hotels might even consider increasing nightly rates for guest rooms.
Many travelers online expressed dismay about the breakfast bandits — with some hotel employees even unofficially confirming the scam is definitely a trend.
“Literally anyone can walk in, go upstairs and eat all the breakfast they want. No one checks,” said one commenter on Instagram who claimed to work at a major brand.
Another commenter said, “I hope everyone knows that this is equivalent to walking into a restaurant or gas station and helping yourself. It’s theft.”
California-based hospitality expert Sarah Dandashy, a travel media personality and creator of the Ask a Concierge brand, told Fox News Digital that while hotels do have systems in place, enforcement can vary.
“The best a hotel can do in these circumstances is to ask all staff members to be alert [about] suspicious activity, such as ‘guests’ entering from the outside, as opposed to coming from the in-house guest room elevator bank,” said one hospitality expert. (iStock)
“Complimentary hotel breakfast is meant for registered guests,” she said.
“So most hotels have some kind of process in place. Usually that means a room number check, sometimes a guest name, sometimes a voucher, sometimes key-card access. It really depends on the hotel.”
“You do not want guests feeling like they are being interrogated before coffee.”
Dandashy said the level of oversight depends on how the property is designed and how busy the breakfast area is.
“Some hotels are pretty relaxed. Others are more structured, especially if breakfast is included and the space gets busy fast,” she said. “Either way, staff is usually keeping an eye on things.”
She added that hotels like to find a balance between monitoring access and maintaining a welcoming environment.
“You do not want guests feeling like they are being interrogated before coffee,” Dandashy said.
Hotels like to find a balance between monitoring access to their morning buffets and maintaining a welcoming environment for guests, said an expert.(iStock)
“At the same time, if anyone can walk in, it creates crowding, extra cost and a worse experience for the actual guests.”
Fox News Digital reached out to several hotel chains for comment.
Meanwhile, in one recent viral clip, a woman declared, “They make it so easy to get the free hotel breakfast when you’re not staying at a hotel.” The video shows the creator eating eggs, sausage and other buffet items at an unnamed location.
A person on Reddit shared a “hack” a couple of years ago. “The trick is to not go for the upscale resorts … Common hotels with bland, generic breakfast are a dime a dozen and super easy to walk into,” the person wrote. “I’ve literally jogged into them like I’m getting BACK from a morning run, eaten breakfast and walked out.”
Kelly McGreal is a production assistant with the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital.
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Chicago residents in rent-controlled housing near a site being constructed to honor former President Barack Obama have reportedly unionized in response to the controversial project.
Residents of a longtime Woodlawn apartment building organized to resist possible displacement and rent increases they say are being driven by development pressure surrounding the Obama Presidential Center.
Tenants at the Chaney Braggs Apartments rallied earlier this month outside their building near 65th Street and Stony Island Avenue, saying a potential sale of the property could upend the lives of families who have lived there for decades, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
A California-based investor is seeking to buy the building and might either renovate or demolish it, according to residents. Tenants say they have been offered $2,000 per household to move out, a proposal they say falls far short of what families would need to relocate in a rapidly changing neighborhood.
Residents in low-income housing fearing displacement and rent hikes is only the latest criticism of the Obama Presidential Center.(Fox Flight Team; Getty)
Many residents currently pay between $700 and $800 a month in rent. Some say they have lived in the building for 30 or 40 years and fear they will not be able to find comparable housing in Woodlawn if rents rise or the property is redeveloped.
In response, residents have formed a tenant union to push back against the threat of displacement and preserve affordability in the building. They say the union first came together after the previous landlord abandoned the property about two years ago, forcing tenants to organize around maintenance issues and basic services.
Now, residents say that same network is being used to confront a larger challenge: staying in their homes as investment tied to the Obama Presidential Center reshapes the surrounding neighborhood.
A before-and-after aerial graphic shows the footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, including the removal of Cornell Drive and construction along Stony Island Avenue.(Fox News)
The apartment building, tenants said, was once owned by a nonprofit committed to affordable housing and community stability. But with those protections no longer in place, residents say they are increasingly vulnerable to market pressures that have intensified as construction on the presidential center continues nearby.
No sale has been finalized, and the identity of the prospective buyer had not been publicly confirmed as of Thursday. Residents say they have contacted city and state officials for assistance but have not yet received a response.
The standoff underscores broader anxieties in Woodlawn, where the Obama Presidential Center has brought promises of jobs and investment alongside fears of gentrification and displacement. For tenants at Chaney Braggs Apartments, those concerns have become immediate and personal.
Residents say they plan to continue organizing while awaiting more information about the building’s future, possible rent increases and whether city officials will step in.
The Obama Presidential Center, set to open in Chicago’s South Side on June 18, is a 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park featuring a 225-foot museum tower, library and community forum.
Obama, the first American Black president, is celebrating the grand opening of the over-budget building — called an eyesore by critics — on the eve of Juneteenth.
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved Black Americans there that they were free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
The holiday has been observed as a celebration of Black freedom, resilience and community, and in recent years has taken on broader national significance as both a commemoration of liberation and a reminder of the long struggle for racial justice in the United States.
Obama had once described the center as a “gift” to Chicago. It is a gift that keeps on costing.
A Fox News Digital investigation in February found taxpayers are absorbing hundreds of millions of dollars in related public infrastructure costs tied to the project. Those expenses include road redesigns, stormwater systems and utility relocations needed to support the 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park. No government agency has provided a full accounting of the total public cost despite months of inquiries and Freedom of Information Act requests.
Initial projections put public infrastructure spending at about $350 million to be shared by the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois. Critics now argue those obligations have grown into a major public burden as the project has faced delays and mounting costs.
Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
Eric Mack is a writer for Fox News Digital covering breaking news.
The United Kingdom has slammed “reckless Iranian threats” after missiles targeted a joint United States-UK military base located on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Iran, however, has denied the allegations that it was behind the launch of what US media outlets said were two ballistic missiles.
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The US has not officially commented on the firing of the missiles at Diego Garcia, which is 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Iran.
The incident was reported after the US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28, one of whose goals, they said, was to degrade Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes.
Tehran has maintained its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes. The United Nations nuclear watchdog and US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard said Iran was not on the verge of making nuclear bombs. Contrary assertions were invoked to launch the current war.
Here is what we know about the alleged missile launch and what it means for the war:
Six US B-2 bombers and six Stratotanker refuelling planes are seen from a satellite on Diego Garcia island on April 2, 2025 [Handout/Planet Labs via AFP)
Was Diego Garcia airbase targeted by Iran?
An attempted targeting of the Diego Garcia joint military base by ballistic missiles reportedly happened between Thursday night and Friday morning, according to US media.
The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that one of the missiles failed mid-flight while the other was hit by a US interceptor fired from a warship.
It is said to have happened just hours before UK ministers were to assemble in London to discuss the Iran war. At the meeting, the UK agreed to let the US use its military bases for collective self-defence, such as hitting Iranian missile sites used in attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
UK officials did not provide any details of the attempted Diego Garcia strikes.
Muhanad Seloom, lecturer at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that the reported Iranian attack “changes the calculus” of the war for the US.
“These missiles to Diego Garcia mean Iran has 4,000km-plus ballistic missiles, and that hasn’t been revealed before. All reports before that said Iran had a 2,000km [1,240-mile] range and not beyond that,” Seloom said.
“If you reverse the direction of these missiles, then they could reach London, so that changes the calculus not only for the US and its justification for the war but also for a reluctant London and European Union to join the war.”
A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that Tehran is not responsible for the alleged missile launch.
Earlier this month in an interview with the US broadcaster NBC, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected US President Donald Trump’s assertion that Tehran had developed missiles capable of reaching US territory.
“You know, we have capability to produce missiles, but we have intentionally limited ourselves to below 2,000km of range because we don’t want to be felt as a threat by anybody else in the world,” Araghchi said on March 8.
Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, an associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, said Iranian denials regarding attacks depend on their nature and their aftermath.
“I think the denial is different from the steps that Iran is taking on other fronts. Only a couple of instances when Iran denied an attack is when the strikes hit civilian infrastructure or some gas plants rather,” he told Al Jazeera.
Iran has denied attacks that Tabrizi believes would likely “provoke further action or retaliation potentially”. “It also constitutes a new crossing of a red line that it hasn’t crossed until now,” he said.
The targeting of the Diego Garcia airbase “is particularly sensitive because we know the distance of the missiles shot was more, much more than the 2,000km which Iran has previously said it kept its missiles to”.
“It signals the Iranian capability to reach far beyond 2,000km, and therefore, is something that is likely to provoke further concern and, therefore, response particularly from the UK but also from other countries,” he said.
US President Donald Trump, left, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meet during a state visit by Trump on September 18, 2025, in Aylesbury, Britain [Leon Neal/Pool via Reuters]
What has the UK said?
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned “reckless” attacks by Iran after London insisted it would not be drawn into a wider conflict in the Middle East.
“Our approach to this conflict has been the same throughout. We were not and continue not to be involved in offensive action, and we’ve taken a different view from the US and Israel on this,” she said.
Cooper said Royal Air Force jets and other military assets were defending “our people and personnel in the region”. She added that any action to protect the Strait of Hormuz would amount to “collective self-defence”.
The strategic strait in effect has been blocked by Tehran, leading to a rise in global oil prices.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted on Saturday that the UK would not use a base on Cyprus for Iran-related operations after a call with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides to discuss the base’s future.
Chief of the Israeli military’s General Staff, Eyal Zamir, visits commanders and troops in Gaza [Handout/Israel’s army]
How has Israel reacted to this?
Israel’s military chief, Eyal Zamir, claimed that Iran used “a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000km” to target the US-UK base in Diego Garcia.
In a video statement, Zamir said: “These missiles were not intended to hit Israel. Their range reaches the capitals of Europe. Berlin, Paris and Rome are all within direct threat range.”
Israel, a close US ally, has long said Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes pose a threat and has for decades lobbied the US to intervene militarily. But successive US administrations had resisted the pressure to launch military strikes on Iran. Instead, Washington imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Tehran to deter it from developing nuclear weapons.
Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic relations since shortly after Iranian students took over the US embassy in Iran in 1979 and held 66 Americans hostage in the wake of the Iranian Revolution that same year.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama signed a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. But the landmark agreement was opposed by Israel. Trump, who succeeded Obama, withdrew unilaterally from the nuclear deal and slapped sanctions back on Iran.
In June, the US joined Israel in carrying out attacks on Iran during Israel’s 12-day war. The US hit key nuclear sites, and Trump claimed Iranian nuclear facilities were obliterated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued his war rhetoric against Iran, even as Tehran and Washington started talks over the nuclear issue late last year. Netanyahu had lambasted Obama for failing to include Tehran’s ballistic missile programme under the 2015 deal. Tehran has ruled out bringing the missile programme to the negotiating table.
As the next round of talks was scheduled, the US and Israel attacked Iran three weeks ago, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Oman, the mediator of the recent talks, said a deal had been “within reach”.
Analysts said Netanyahu convinced Trump to start the war, which legal experts said appears to breach the UN Charter’s prohibition on aggression.
They said Israel has been emboldened after its ongoing genocidal war in Gaza because it has not been held accountable for its war crimes. Israel’s military has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and destroyed vast swaths of Gaza – home to more than two million Palestinians.
Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant for war crimes, but that has not stopped him from travelling repeatedly to the US.
Several senior members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have openly called for a “Greater Israel”, which envisions Israeli territory stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates River in Iraq.
A US B-1B Lancer awaits its next mission at a forward location in support of the US war in Afghanistan [File: Handout/US Air Force via AFP]
Why could Diego Garcia be a target?
The UK-US military airbase is home to nearly 2,500 mostly American personnel and has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The airbase is part of the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean, south of the tip of India, and has been under British control since 1814.
The airbase has been at the centre of a dispute between Trump and Starmer over Britain’s plans to hand sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius in the wake of a ruling by the International Court of Justice.
Trump has lashed out at European allies for not joining the war on Iran, which has expanded across the Middle East. Trump also called Western allies “cowards” after NATO nations refused to join the war, which has caused a global spike in energy costs.
Elijah Magnier, a Brussels-based military and political analyst, said the missile launch on Diego Garcia reflects a deepening of Iran’s response to the war started by the US and Israel.
“The battlefield is expanding geographically, and if that happens, the control of escalation, which the Americans want, becomes much more difficult because new elements, new locations are becoming vulnerable,” Magnier told Al Jazeera.
“This is why the Americans will have to rethink all the strategy because Iran is not trying to win a conventional war – it can’t because the Americans are much more powerful – but it’s trying to change the cost of the equation,” he said.
“By threatening a distant target, it’s a signal that any continuation of the war will come with increasingly high risk.”
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Iran’s parliament speaker warns country could ‘irreversibly destroy’ vital infrastructure across the region after Trump threatens to attack power plants.
Published On 22 Mar 202622 Mar 2026
Iran has threatened to hit energy sites in the Middle East after United States President Donald Trump threatened to attack its power plants if Tehran does not open the Strait of Hormuz.
Critical infrastructure and energy facilities in the region could be “irreversibly destroyed” should Iranian power plants be targeted, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in comments posted on X on Sunday.
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“Immediately after power plants and infrastructure in our country are targeted, vital infrastructure as well as energy and oil infrastructure across the entire region will be considered legitimate targets and will be irreversibly destroyed,” Ghalibaf posted.
Ghalibaf’s comments came after Trump on Saturday said the US will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
Qalibaf said regional infrastructure would become “legitimate targets” should Iran’s facilities be hit, and that its retaliation would increase the price of oil “for a long time”.
Earlier, a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces had said there would be retaliatory attacks on all US-linked energy and desalination facilities in the region if Iran’s power plants are hit.
Iran, which has effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel attacked the country on February 28, says the key waterway is already open – except to the US and its allies.
The strait remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to “Iran’s enemies”, Iran’s representative to the International Maritime Organization was quoted as saying in Iranian media reports published on Sunday.
The closure of the strait, a narrow choke point that carries around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, has caused the worst oil crisis since the 1970s.
Iran has also retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, along with Jordan, Iraq, and several Gulf countries, which it says are targeting “US military assets”, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure while disrupting global markets and aviation.
But the latest developments signal the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, could be moving in a dangerous new direction.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on world leaders to join the US-Israel war on Iran.
Speaking from the site of the Iranian attack in the southern Israeli city of Arad, he claimed some countries were already moving in that direction, as he urged broader international involvement.
Netanyahu accused Iran of targeting civilians and claimed it had the capability to strike long-range targets deep into Europe.
Meanwhile, a Turkish diplomatic source told the Reuters news agency that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held separate calls with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, and US officials to discuss steps to end the war.
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