Two United States Navy destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and entered the Persian Gulf, the first American warships to pass through the channel since Iran blocked it sixty-seven days ago. The USS Truxtun and USS Mason faced a coordinated barrage of small boats, cruise missiles, and drones during the passage, CBS News reported. Neither vessel was struck. U.S. Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper said American forces destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted multiple cruise missiles and drones during the operation, CBS News reported. Cooper called Day One of Project Freedom a success.
Iran said the transit constituted a violation of the ceasefire that had held for three weeks. The United Arab Emirates reported that Iran fired missiles and drones at its territory in what appears to be retaliation for permitting U.S. operations in the region, NPR reported. The last time U.S. warships sank Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf was April 18, 1988, during Operation Praying Mantis. That engagement, a single day of combat in response to a mine strike on the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts, resulted in the sinking or damaging of half the Iranian surface fleet. It ended the Tanker War. Whether Monday’s engagement ends this one, or begins a new phase of it, is the question nobody in Washington or Tehran is answering plainly.
An explosion at a fireworks factory in Liuyang, a city of 1.5 million in Hunan province, China, killed at least 26 people and injured 61 others, Al Jazeera reported. The blast at the Huasheng Fireworks plant occurred at approximately 4:40 p.m. local time on Monday. Local authorities dispatched 482 emergency personnel and evacuated surrounding areas due to the risk of secondary explosions in the factory’s warehouses. Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered an investigation and said those responsible must be held accountable, NPR reported. Police detained the person in charge of the facility.
Liuyang is known as the fireworks capital of China. It produces roughly 60% of the world’s fireworks. Industrial accidents at pyrotechnics plants have killed hundreds of workers there over the past two decades. The pattern is consistent: underfunding of safety enforcement, followed by catastrophe, followed by accountability language from Beijing, followed by quiet.
Spirit Airlines ceased all operations on Saturday after failing to secure a $500 million federal bailout, ending thirty-four years of service and leaving 17,000 employees without work, CNN reported. It is the first major U.S. airline to shut down due to financial problems since Midway Airlines folded immediately after September 11, 2001, CBS News reported.
The airline had filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and again in 2025. Its restructuring plan assumed aviation fuel costs of $2.24 a gallon in 2026. By the end of April, fuel had climbed to $4.51 a gallon, driven by the Strait of Hormuz closure, Al Jazeera reported. The economics changed faster than the business could adapt. Seventeen thousand people discovered last week that their work had ended, not because they failed at it, but because the world around it shifted in ways nobody had planned for. The airline automatically processed refunds for all purchased tickets, Time reported.
GameStop made an unsolicited offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share, a cash-and-stock deal valuing the e-commerce platform at approximately $55.5 billion, CBS News reported. The offer represents a 20% premium to eBay’s Friday closing price of $104.07. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said the company has secured an initial financing letter from TD Bank to provide approximately $20 billion in debt and pledged to find $2 billion in annual savings within twelve months of closing, CNN reported. Cohen told the Wall Street Journal he is prepared to take the offer directly to shareholders in a proxy fight if necessary.
eBay said Monday that it will “carefully review” the proposal, CNN reported. Shares of eBay climbed about 5% to around $109, well below the $125 offer, which suggests the market doesn’t believe the deal will close. GameStop, once a strip-mall video game retailer that became the center of the 2021 meme stock rally, is now attempting a hostile takeover of a company four times its size.
The Pentagon announced that the United States will withdraw approximately 5,000 troops from Germany over the next six to twelve months, PBS reported. The move follows a clash between President Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by Iran and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war, Military Times reported. Trump responded Saturday by saying the reduction would go “a lot further” than 5,000 and suggested withdrawals from Spain and Italy could follow, NBC News reported.
More than 30,000 U.S. troops would remain in Germany after the withdrawal, reversing a buildup that began under President Biden following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Germany’s government called the announcement “anticipated,” NPR reported. The United States has maintained a military presence in Germany continuously since 1945.
A cruise ship carrying nearly 150 people remained anchored off the coast of Cape Verde on Monday after being refused permission to dock following a suspected hantavirus outbreak that has killed three passengers, NPR reported. The Dutch vessel MV Hondius was traveling from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Cape Verde when the illness appeared. The World Health Organization confirmed one case of hantavirus and identified five possible additional infections, CBC News reported. Two of the deceased were Dutch nationals, a married couple in their seventies, NL Times reported. Two passengers remain seriously ill aboard the ship. Hantavirus typically spreads through contact with rodent droppings and isn’t known to transmit easily between humans, PBS reported.
And one good thing.
Golden Tempo, a 23-to-1 longshot who trailed the entire field at the half-mile mark, ran from last place to win the 152nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, NPR reported. The winning time was 2:02.27. Jose Ortiz, riding in his eleventh Derby, earned his first victory.
The larger story was in the paddock. Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner in the race’s 152-year history, Yahoo Sports reported. The Kentucky Derby has been run every year since 1875. In 151 previous runnings, every winner was trained by a man. DeVaux didn’t make a speech about it. She watched her horse run from last to first in two minutes and two seconds, and when it was over, the record simply read differently than it had before.
It is Tuesday. The destroyers are in the Gulf. And at Churchill Downs, the record book has a new line in it. That’s the day.
