Thursday, April 23, 2026
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has seized a ship in the Strait of Hormuz and its chief negotiator says the strait cannot be reopened, citing violations by the US and Israel. The closure is already reshaping global shipping: Asian buyers seeking western crude have pushed Panama Canal lane prices to five times their pre-conflict levels.
Navy Secretary John Phelan has been ousted effective immediately, becoming the latest senior military official removed from the administration in a matter of weeks — just days after Pete Hegseth fired the Army's top officer. Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao steps in as acting secretary.
Tesla has raised its 2026 capital expenditure plan to $25 billion — three times its historical spending rate — as it bets heavily on humanoid robots, AI infrastructure, and its in-house chip ambitions via Terafab. Profits beat expectations for Q1, rising 17% year-on-year, but the CFO warned investors to expect negative free cash flow for the rest of the year.
Google has launched Project Mariner, a browser-based AI agent capable of running 10 tabs simultaneously, scoring 83.5% on WebVoyager — the hardest public benchmark for autonomous web agents — and surpassing OpenAI's competing score. Sundar Pichai announced general availability at Cloud Next on April 22, 2026.
The UK has signed a new three-year deal with France worth £660 million to curb small boat crossings in the Channel, including funding for a dedicated riot squad to disperse people attempting to board vessels. The agreement increases the number of enforcement, intelligence, and military officers by 40%, bringing the total to 1,100.
