Trump, Hormuz, and the Red Cross: A day of admissions and escalations

Trump signals possible US strikes on Houthis, Red Cross admits it could have done more for hostages, and an oil tanker explodes in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump, Hormuz, and the Red Cross: A day of admissions and escalations — On Saturday, US President Donald Trump said the United States may join Saudi Arabia in military strikes against the Houthis, telling reporters the administration would 'make a decision very quickly.' The statement came the same day Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced that an oil tanker had exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The twin developments point to a volatile maritime corridor and a widening theater of US involvement in Yemen. Trump also honored 18 US servicemembers killed in the Iran war, stating, 'We stopped Iran from obtaining nukes, 18 men did not die in vain.'[^3] The remarks frame his posture as one of deterrence achieved, even as his administration weighs deeper military engagement against the Houthis. In a separate but consequential admission, the president of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, told the New York Times that the organization could have exerted pressure earlier in the negotiations for the return of Israeli hostages, potentially saving lives. 'Visiting hostages is a much more complex matter than returning them,' she said, adding that Hamas should have returned them unconditionally on the first day of the war, but 'that is not the reality in which we operate.'[^2] The acknowledgment opens a rare window into the ICRC's internal assessment of its role in the hostage crisis. Meanwhile, a man was killed after being attacked by a tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in England on Saturday, and nine people were killed in a mass shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday, with police chief Rick Lora calling it 'difficult to describe a tragedy of this magnitude in words.'[^4][^5] Disqualifications, alliances, and radical proposals as election nears — The Central Elections Committee unanimously disqualified Sami Abu Shahada, chairman of the Balad party, from running in the upcoming elections, a decision that commentators Muhammad Majadala and Prof. Adam Shinar debated as legal or political, with implications for a vote now less than three weeks away. [^1] Moshe Feiglin, chairman of Zehut and number 2 on the joint list