The United States military began operations today to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway Iran has blocked since the war began sixty-six days ago. President Trump announced the effort, called Project Freedom, on Truth Social on Sunday, describing it as “a humanitarian gesture” and warning that interference “will have to be dealt with forcefully,” CNBC reported. U.S. Central Command confirmed that the operation involves guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members, according to CENTCOM’s press release.
Roughly 20,000 seafarers are stranded waiting to pass through the strait, which carries approximately a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade. The administration has been careful with its language. U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal that warships won’t be escorting vessels directly through the channel. They will be “in the vicinity” in case Iran’s military attempts to interfere, CNN reported. Tehran responded immediately: any “foreign military force” that enters the channel will be attacked, Iranian officials said.
On July 24, 1987, the U.S. Navy launched Operation Earnest Will, escorting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers through the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War. It was the largest naval convoy operation since World War II, involving more than 30 warships over fourteen months. On the very first mission, a reflagged tanker struck an Iranian mine. The frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts hit another mine in April 1988, injuring ten sailors. The operation succeeded in keeping oil flowing, but the cost of keeping a waterway open by force proved higher than anyone in Washington had predicted when the first ships sailed.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States reached $4.45 on Saturday, according to AAA. That is an increase of 34 cents from a week ago and $1.47 since the war began on February 28, a 49% rise in sixty-six days, NPR reported. In California, the average stands at $6.10. The Strait of Hormuz closure is the primary driver. Roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through those twenty-one miles of water.
The last time gas prices rose this fast, it was the summer of 2008, when crude hit $147 a barrel and the national average reached $4.11. That spike preceded a financial collapse. This one tracks a war.
A United Airlines Boeing 767 carrying 221 passengers and 10 crew struck a light pole and a tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike while landing at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday afternoon, CNN reported. Flight 169, arriving from Venice, Italy, had been vectored to Runway 29, Newark’s shortest at 6,725 feet, due to windy conditions, CBS News reported. The plane’s landing gear and underside contacted the pole and truck as it crossed the highway at the threshold of the runway.
The aircraft landed safely and taxied to the gate. No passengers or crew were injured. The truck driver, who was carrying bread products, was treated for minor cuts and released, ABC7 reported. The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation and directed United to provide the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days. Runway 29’s approach path crosses directly over the Turnpike.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized in critical but stable condition on Sunday, his spokesman Ted Goodman confirmed, NBC News reported. Goodman didn’t disclose the reason for hospitalization or which facility admitted the 81-year-old. On Friday, Giuliani told viewers of his X program that his “voice is a little under the weather” and was seen coughing throughout the broadcast. Giuliani served as mayor from 1994 to 2001 and as personal attorney to President Trump. He was disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C. in 2024 after a court found he made false statements about the 2020 election, The Washington Post reported.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute Gala takes place tonight in New York, and for the first time in its modern era, the event is facing an organized boycott. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, are serving as lead sponsors, The Daily Beast reported. Activists pointed to Amazon’s labor practices as grounds for the protest. Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that he and his wife wouldn’t attend, breaking a longstanding tradition of New York’s mayor appearing at the event, The Irish Star reported. Zendaya and Meryl Streep are among the high-profile absences, though representatives for Zendaya cited scheduling rather than the boycott.
The Met Gala has been a New York cultural institution since 1948. Diana Vreeland turned it into the spectacle it is now during the 1970s. In its seventy-eight years, it has never before been picketed over its sponsorship. Tables start at $350,000.
And something that worked.
A study published in JAMA found that suicide deaths among Americans aged 15 to 34 fell 11% in the two and a half years after the launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, STAT News reported. That translates to approximately 4,300 fewer deaths than researchers expected based on prior trends. The decline was largest in states where call volume was highest: North Dakota, Virginia, and Indiana saw an 18% drop, compared to 11% in states with lower uptake, NPR reported.
The 988 line launched in July 2022, replacing the old ten-digit number with three digits and $1.5 billion in funding to expand crisis services. Since then, it has answered more than 25 million calls, texts, and chats. Each one was a person reaching out, often someone who had nobody else to call. The study can’t prove causation. But 4,300 people are alive who, by every prior trend line, wouldn’t be. That is a number worth stating plainly.
It is Monday. The Navy is in the strait. The gas is $4.45. And a three-digit phone number, it appears, is saving lives. That’s the day.
