US seizes two tankers in Hormuz

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the US military seized two oil tankers overnight in the Strait of Hormuz. He described the threat to commercial vessels in international waters as piracy and stated the US will take the seized vessels' 50 million barrels of oil and sell them. This marks a significant escalation in the enforcement of the US naval blockade against Iran, moving from interdiction to outright confiscation of cargo. The announcement frames the action as a counter-piracy measure, directly challenging the legal narrative used by critics of the blockade.