The Rest of the World Report | Wednesday, June 24, 2026 — Morning Edition

The Strait of Hormuz carried roughly 20% of its normal daily traffic yesterday — about 24 vessels, versus 110 before the war. The IMO is now launching an evacuation plan for more than 11,000 seafarers who have been stranded in the Gulf for months. The mines on the main central route have not been cleared. Brent crude is at $75.60 — down $20.54 from its war peak.On Sunday night, an explosion at Qatar's Barzan gas facility at Ras Laffan killed 13 workers and injured 66 others. Twelve were Indian nationals. One was Pakistani. The facility had been shut since December because of Iranian strikes. Workers were restarting it two days before the blast. Qatar — the country whose energy infrastructure is still recovering from the war — is also the country mediating the peace deal. Every day for more than three weeks, tens of thousands of Albanians have marched against a luxury resort project on their country's protected Adriatic coastline linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Anti-corruption prosecutors froze land purchase accounts connected to the project. The protests are the largest in Albania's modern history. This is receiving almost no coverage in American media.Also: France is in a scorching heatwave. Montreal police officer killed overnight."Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government." — Thomas Jefferson, 1789 Get full access to The Rest of the World Report at www.restoftheworldreport.com/subscribe