Reuters Exposes Secret U.S. Oil Shipments Through Hormuz, While South Korea, Japan and Colombia See Domestic Political Shakeups

Reuters reported this week that the United States quietly moved oil through the Strait of Hormuz during the war that began in late February, using tanker-to-tanker transfers near Oman. The ships reportedly turned off lights, disabled GPS and kept fixed distances from one another. According to Reuters, at least 90 million barrels were moved this way. Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said, “It looks like the U.S. learned from China, Russia, North Korea and even Iran,” calling it a shadow-fleet method used to evade U.S. sanctions.

Before the war, about 20 million barrels a day passed through Hormuz, more than a fifth of global oil supply. As U.S.-Iran understandings gradually restore shipping in the strait, sanctions on Russian oil also returned this week after the Treasury Department did not extend a temporary waiver. The Trump administration had announced the temporary lift in March to help sell Russian oil and curb energy-price spikes. The sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil had been imposed last year to squeeze Moscow’s revenues and pressure Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

In South Korea, parliament opened an investigation on Thursday into the National Election Commission over missing ballots in the June 3 local elections, which delivered a landslide win to President Lee Jae-myung’s party. Election officials said there were shortages at 91 polling stations, and voting was briefly suspended in more than 20 others. In one Seoul district, Songpa, a polling station stopped voting for about an hour. Assembly Speaker Choo Kyung-sik said the probe is only the beginning and would lead to reforms that voters can trust.

In Japan, Iwata Mayor Shoko Kawata, 35, the country’s youngest mayor, said she would take maternity leave, prompting a public controversy over expectations that leaders should work without personal distractions. Kawata said she plans to return by the end of the year and hopes her choice will encourage more women in leadership. In Colombia, the Senate approved a bill making it the first Latin American country to ban female genital mutilation, and the measure now awaits the president’s signature.