International shipping firms are offering crews large bonuses to transit the Strait of Hormuz despite the risks involved, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Sinokor Group, the world's largest owner of supertankers, offered its crews six months of extra salary to make a return voyage collecting oil from Saudi Arabia or Iraq and unloading it in the Gulf of Oman, a trip the company said would take around a month, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.
Iranian military speedboats, illustrative file imageCaptain Pradeep Chawla, chairman of GlobalMET, a seafarer training organization that partners with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said crews are "being offered huge bonuses by some companies," without referring to the Sinokor offer directly.
He added that "We have heard stories of a large number of crew members getting off, but they are able to find people who are willing to go."
Since the start of the US war on Iran, at least 59 commercial ships have come under attack in and around the Persian Gulf, with 17 seafarers killed, according to the UN's shipping agency.
The cost of shipping has surged since attacks on commercial vessels drove traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to near collapse.
The heightened risk has driven up both insurance premiums and crew bonuses, yet many seafarers are still refusing the additional pay rather than risk the crossing.
The latest shipping data by Kpler shows that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains heavily suppressed, with only 30 verified crossings logged between July 17 and 19.
Reuters reported last week that shipping firms are steering clear of US-controlled shipping corridors through the Strait of Hormuz along Oman's coast, fearing Iranian strikes. The move follows a series of attacks on vessels bypassing the Islamic Republic's designated channels under the Iran–US memorandum of understanding (MoU).
One shipping source said the US appears to have no control over the situation, while Verisk Maplecroft analyst Torbjorn Solvedt warned that Iran's continued ability to hit ships on the Omani route makes US President Donald Trump's administration's plan to keep traffic moving unlikely to succeed.
Sinokor offers 6 months bonus to crews willing to do a month long run in Hormuz. Captain earns the most - $15k. A sailor earns $1.5k a month.
…Sinokor charges $500k/day… 🤬
Shipowners Offer Huge Bonuses to Get Crews to Sail Hormuz https://t.co/f0ntgyzl3j
In early July, three Thai sailors sued their former employer, Precious Shipping, along with two affiliates and the vessel's captain, accusing them of endangering their lives and dismissing them before their nine-month contracts ended, after a projectile struck their cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz in March, killing three crew members.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/22/2026 - 07:20President Trump has formally approved a landmark 30-year civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that could be worth tens of billions of dollars and put American companies at the center of the kingdom's nuclear buildout, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The accord is expected to be signed Wednesday by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, then head to Congress for a 90-day review. Lawmakers could block it through a joint resolution, but overriding a Trump veto would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers.
There is plenty to like here. A Section 123 agreement creates a legal framework for peaceful use, safeguards, and nonproliferation. American involvement also gives Washington more influence over Riyadh's program than it would have if Saudi Arabia turned to China or Russia.
The agreement is the latest step in a rapidly deepening relationship. The administration previously delinked Saudi nuclear talks from normalization with Israel, while Trump later designated the kingdom a major non-NATO ally after Mohammed bin Salman's return to the White House.
Yet one provision is difficult to support: “A key provision of the new accord would have American companies build an uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia if a joint U.S.-Saudi study determines such a step would be warranted.”
The 123 accord is not a turnkey export license, and any technology transfer would still require separate federal approval, but the policy direction is clear.
The strongest argument for this arrangement is that US technology and oversight would keep Washington inside the tent and make diversion harder. That is a legitimate advantage, but it doesn’t eliminate the underlying risk.
Uranium enrichment is inherently dual-use. Centrifuges producing reactor fuel enriched to 3 to 5% can be reconfigured toward weapons-grade material above 90%. Safeguards can monitor declared activity, but technology, infrastructure, and trained personnel endure long after a government or regional balance changes.
Mohammed bin Salman has also said Saudi Arabia would pursue a bomb if Iran obtained one. The UAE, another close Gulf partner, accepted the so-called gold standard by renouncing enrichment and reprocessing.
The better model is simple: export the product, not the technology.
As we recently argued, Washington should overbuild uranium conversion and enrichment capacity inside the United States, then supply allies with safeguarded fuel under long-term contracts. Saudi Arabia would receive reliable reactor fuel, American workers would capture the investment, US suppliers would gain durable export revenue, and sensitive technology would remain under US jurisdiction.
No contractors have been announced. Centrus looks like the leading technology candidate given its operating US-origin centrifuge cascade and deep Department of Energy ties, with General Matter the emerging alternative.
Bechtel has the Saudi and nuclear pedigree to participate, but Centrus' existing EPC partnership with Fluor gives Fluor the stronger documented construction claim.
The agreement is strategically sound if it anchors Riyadh to American reactors, fuel, standards, and safeguards. But building Saudi enrichment capability trades away too much leverage in pursuit of that goal. Washington should sell the kingdom decades of American-made fuel, not the machinery that can ultimately make far more than fuel.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/22/2026 - 06:55Ten months ago Keir Starmer warned that anyone without a government digital ID "will not be able to work in the United Kingdom." On Tuesday - day two of the Burnham premiership - the scheme was formally killed off.
It wasn't the nearly 2.9 million people who signed the petition. It wasn't the civil liberties groups who dragged it through Parliament. It died because the new Prime Minister needed £1.8 billion to scrap VAT on electricity bills.
In his first major act in No 10, Andy Burnham announced that VAT will come off domestic electricity bills from October 1, timed to land before the next Ofgem price cap. Qualifying small businesses, charities and care homes benefit too. New Chancellor John Healey - installed Monday evening after Rachel Reeves was shown the door - said the move "is funded this year from cancelling the Digital ID programme," which the government prices at £1.8 billion over three years.
So ends BritCard: sold as the answer to illegal migration, buried as a line item in somebody else's tax cut.
A Short, Unhappy LifeNone of this will surprise regular readers. When Starmer unveiled the plan last September, officials admitted its "efficacy depends on everyone having them" - universal or nothing. The pitch was border control. The architecture, as we noted at the time, was always closer to population management: only around 40,000 of the nearly one million migrants who arrived last year came by small boat. A universal ID for the entire country, aimed at the smallest slice of the problem it was sold on, was a problem-reaction-solution classic.
What followed was mission creep at record speed. By October it had become a bait and switch. By January ministers were floating digital IDs for newborns - cradle-to-grave tracking for a £1.8 billion program. Nearly 2.9 million people signed a petition, forcing a Parliamentary debate, and by mid-January the government had dropped the mandatory right-to-work requirement, the load-bearing wall of the whole project. Big Brother Watch's Silkie Carlo said taxpayers should not be footing "a £1.8 billion bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless." Ministers pressed on anyway with a voluntary version that was never the optional convenience they claimed.
Now even that shell is gone - cancelled not on principle but for parts.
Follow The MoneyWhether the money is actually there is another question. The Times reports the VAT cut is fully funded. The OBR counters that the £1.8 billion Digital ID budget was never funded in the first place, which means cancelling it pays for nothing. At least one former minister has said flatly that the cut is unfunded. The government's own release concedes that "updated costs will be set out at Budget" - the arithmetic, in other words, arrives later. More giveaways are already queued: a 20 percent business-rates cut for hospitality within days, per HuffPost UK, and a £2 bus-fare cap as soon as Wednesday.
Gilt traders ran the same numbers and reached the same place. The 10-year yield jumped 8 basis points to 5.04 percent on Monday as Burnham's early remarks stoked fears of a looser fiscal stance, then pared the move once Healey - the former defence secretary who quit Starmer's cabinet over defence funding - took the Treasury instead of Ed Miliband, who was packed off to the Foreign Office. Yields fell across the curve Tuesday morning in evident relief, with sterling steady near $1.344. Relief is not confidence. British 10-year borrowing costs are still the highest in the G7, and every unfunded pound of Burnham's day-two populism gets marked to market eventually.
What Actually DiedTo be precise about the corpse: what was cancelled is the standalone national BritCard programme, and nothing else. It does not touch Gov.uk One Login and its millions of enrolled users, the Gov.uk Wallet, or the Online Safety Act's age-verification regime, which as we reported in June was already working as a backdoor identity mandate for every phone in Britain, with Google and Apple building the plumbing.
Schemes like this also have a habit of returning under new names with smaller line items. A government that just banked £1.8 billion in savings that were never there knows exactly where to find another £1.8 billion next year.
Still, take the win. Nearly three million signatures couldn't kill BritCard. One expensive winter did.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/22/2026 - 05:45German motorists formed kilometer-long lines at Czech gas stations on Sunday as they rushed to take advantage of lower prices before the government’s fuel cap expired.
Stations near the German border were overwhelmed by drivers seeking cheaper gasoline and diesel, with footage showing long queues at some locations.
According to Echo24, fuel in the Czech Republic was as much as €0.80 per liter cheaper than in Germany.
The surge came shortly before regulated pricing ended and the Czech fuel market returned to market-based rates.
Prices began rising at several stations on Monday morning, with diesel generally recording the sharpest increases.
At a PRIM station in Prague’s Dolní Počernice district, diesel rose by 2.40 crowns (€0.10) to 39.90 crowns (€1.65) per liter. Natural 95 gasoline increased by 1.40 crowns (€0.06) to 40.90 crowns (€1.69).
At a Shell station in Prague’s Chodov district, diesel increased by one crown (€0.04) to 41.90 crowns (€1.73) per liter. Natural 95 gasoline rose by 0.60 crowns (€0.02) to 43.10 crowns (€1.78).
Analysts had expected diesel prices to climb by as much as three crowns (€0.12) per liter because a temporary reduction in the diesel excise tax expired alongside the price controls. Smaller increases were forecast for gasoline.
The government introduced the measures in April after oil prices rose amid the conflict in the Middle East.
The Finance Ministry imposed daily maximum prices based on wholesale costs and capped retailer margins, initially at 2.50 crowns (€0.10) per liter and later at three crowns (€0.12).
The cabinet also temporarily reduced the diesel excise tax from 9.95 crowns (€0.41) to 8.011 crowns (€0.33) per liter. The gasoline tax remained unchanged at 12.84 crowns (€0.53).
Finance Minister Alena Schillerová previously said the diesel tax reduction cost the state budget around one billion crowns, approximately €41.3 million, per month.
Schillerová said the government would continue monitoring the market and could reintroduce regulation if fuel prices rise sharply or conditions on global oil markets deteriorate.
The cabinet also temporarily reduced the diesel excise tax from 9.95 crowns to 8.011 crowns per liter. The gasoline tax remained unchanged at 12.84 crowns.
Finance Minister Alena Schillerová previously said the diesel tax reduction cost the state budget around one billion crowns per month.
Schillerová said the government would continue monitoring the market and could reintroduce regulation if fuel prices rise sharply or conditions on global oil markets deteriorate.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/22/2026 - 05:00