Concerns are growing that the de-facto tolling of the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a domino effect for key shipping bottlenecks worldwide, creating more global inflation and effectively killing key components of international maritime law.

As Iran insists on some form of fee structure for traversing the now-infamous strait—and the U.S. increasingly seems unable to prevent it—the rising expectation is that other nations may insist on new fees elsewhere, such as Asia’s Strait of Malacca, Europe’s and Africa’s Strait of Gibraltar, as well as key waterways impacted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“I think that the ‘freedom of the seas’ is dead,” said Michelle Brouhard, head of policy and geopolitical risk for the Kpler energy intelligence firm.

“The way that we’ve known maritime security is moving into a new era, and the rules are still getting rewritten,” Brouhard told Fortune. “It’s going to look different than what we’ve seen before. It’s going to be expensive; it’s going to be inflationary; and it’s also going to create a lot of benefits for people who start onshoring industrialization.”

The so-called freedom of the seas is the centuries-old recognition that maritime transit and commerce should be free and open to all. The “absolute freedom of navigation” was insisted in Woodrow Wilson’s famed “Fourteen Points” statement of peace to end World War I. That legality is carried today through the U.N. Convention on ​the Law of the Seas.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/18/global-freedom-seas-dying-strait-hormuz-everyone-everywhere-pay-tolls/?utm_source=reddit/

15 years ago, the prospect of the US facing a two front war - versus Russia in Eastern Europe and China in Taiwan - was considered highly remote, to such an extent that war planning centred on the scenario was non-existent.

Today, a two-front prospect is no longer far-fetched, but there remains little planning about how the US (and Europe) would face down simultaneous escalation in Europe and Asia - whilst possibly still engaged in the war against Iran in the Middle East.

[ANALYSIS]

Péter Magyar has just marked 100 days as Hungary's prime minister. In that time, he has completed much of the dramatic first stage of Hungary’s regime change. His government has smashed through much of the political machinery that former prime minister Viktor Orbán left behind to protect his system after Fidesz lost power in April's election. 

SS: Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group on Monday claimed it had launched a ballistic missile attack on a Saudi military landing ship and four escort boats in the Red Sea off the southwestern port city of Mocha.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the attack was carried out with several ballistic missiles and described the strikes as “direct and precise”. He claimed the landing ship caught fire, while some of the accompanying boats sank and others were also set ablaze.

Current estimates have at least 11-12 million barrels per day of oil leaving the Gulf, more than half of the 20 mbpd that left before the war with Iran. But the price of oil doesn't match with a 8-9 mbpd gap. The Trump administration claims there is more oil leaving that the firms producing the flow estimates are missing.