Tag: US and Israeli Attack on Iran (2026)

In Talks With Iran, China Calls for Opening of Strait of Hormuz

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China’s top diplomat met with Iran’s foreign minister on Wednesday and called for greater efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz and for an end to the war, after the Trump administration pressed Beijing to help end Tehran’s chokehold over the waterway. Meeting in Beijing with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China said that stopping the war was a matter of urgency, according to an official summary of their meeting issued by Xinhua, China’s main state news agency. While Mr. Wang was careful not to…

China’s Big Bet on Wind Power Is Paying Off

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As the war in Iran threatens to choke off oil and gas supplies from the Persian Gulf, China is seizing the moment to extend its dominance in wind power. Across China, hilltops are dotted with wind turbines, and long rows of them span many miles in western deserts. Ultrahigh-voltage power lines carry electricity thousands of miles to the energy-hungry factories along China’s coast. Last year, China installed three times as much wind power capacity as the rest of the world combined, even as its turbine exports jumped. The global industry’s…

Ford Says an Affordable Electric Pickup Truck is Still Coming Next Year

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Last year Ford Motor suspended production of an electric pickup truck, shut down a battery factory in Kentucky and booked a $20 billion loss to account for its diminished plans. Then, last month, the senior executive who oversaw development of this new technology left the company. But Ford executives insist that those setbacks do not mean that the company has given up on electric vehicles. As evidence, they point to a former warehouse here in Long Beach, Calif. There, a team lead by Alan Clarke, a Tesla veteran, is building…

U.S. Warns China Over Iranian Oil as Sanctions Fight Intensifies

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The United States on Monday urged China to push Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and said that its purchases of Iranian oil amounted to funding global terrorism, delivering a stern rebuke ahead of President Trump’s meeting in Beijing this month with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. The warning came from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who will be participating in the high-stakes meetings. Mr. Bessent has been leading an aggressive campaign to cripple Iran’s economy with a blitz of new sanctions. He has also been working to devise ways…

The Tragic Decline of the American Navy

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Alfred Thayer Mahan, a 19th-century naval officer and pre-eminent military strategist, believed his young country was destined to be great because of its Navy. Toward the end of his service, Mahan, then a U.S. Navy captain, wrote a landmark book about the age of sailing ships. Read avidly by kings, prime ministers and presidents — including Theodore Roosevelt, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the young Winston Churchill — the book posited the idea of a free world anchored by American sea power. Mahan believed America needed a large number of ships…

How Trump’s Iran Blockade Is Complicating a High-Stakes Trip to China

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President Trump’s declaration that he is willing to maintain a blockade on Iranian shipping until the Iranians surrender to his demands almost assures that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed by the time he arrives in Beijing in two weeks. That is exactly what Mr. Trump was seeking to avoid when he delayed his trip to China six weeks ago. And it vastly complicates a critical meeting with President Xi Jinping, forcing White House officials to rethink how Mr. Trump approaches the effort to engineer a rapprochement with China.…

Treasury Issues More Sanctions on Iranian Oil Exports

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The Trump administration on Tuesday ratcheted up economic pressure on Iran, warning financial institutions not to allow independent Chinese refineries to buy Iranian oil and cracking down on Iran’s “shadow” banking sector. The measures were the latest actions taken as part of the Treasury Department’s “Operation Economic Fury,” which aims to cripple Iran’s economy and compel it to agree to a peace deal with the United States. After easing sanctions on Iran last month in hopes of keeping oil flowing on global markets, the Trump administration reversed course in recent…

War and Sanctions Accelerate China’s Currency Push

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Neat rows of Chinese currency bills sit behind glass at the center of the national security gallery inside Hong Kong’s Museum of History, along with model fighter jets, attack helicopters and vials of rare-earth metals. Set with instruments of war and trade, the display underscores a central idea: The internationalization of its currency, the renminbi, is considered a pillar of China’s national security. Despite its rise as an economic superpower, China remains reliant on a global financial system anchored by the dollar. Turning the renminbi into a globally accepted currency…

Iran War Has Drained U.S. Supplies of Critical, Costly Weapons

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Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year. The Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war, at more than $4 million a pop, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, leaving inventories…

Why Diesel Has Become a Much Bigger Economic Problem Than Gasoline

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The price of diesel has risen much more quickly than gasoline as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has choked global oil supplies. That could have severe consequences for the diesel-dependent transportation industry. Since the war began on Feb. 28, the average price of a gallon of diesel has gone up about 45 percent, while a gallon of regular gasoline has risen about 35 percent. The Energy Information Administration, a federal research agency, expects average diesel prices to peak at more than $5.80 a gallon this month. Gasoline, the agency said,…