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WORLD
China and the United States sanctioned 3 individuals and 9 companies for assisting in the sale of Iranian oil | International | Central News Agency CNA
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Please agree to our privacy policy to enable news listening. (Central News Agency, Washington, Comprehensive Foreign News Report on the 11th) The U.S. Treasury Department today announced sanctions on three individuals and nine companies, including four companies headquartered in Hong Kong, four companies in the United Arab Emirates, and one company in Oman, accusing them of assisting Iran in transporting oil to China. According to Reuters, the U.S. Treasury Department only imposed sanctions on individuals and companies on the 8th for helping Iran purchase weapons, drones and ballistic missile parts. The move comes as U.S. President Trump is about to visit Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump is expected to put pressure on Chinese leaders to help resolve the standoff with Iran and reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Treasury Department said that a new wave of sanctions from its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is aimed at targeting individuals and entities that assist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). These subjects use a series of headquartered companies located in areas with looser economic jurisdiction to help sell Iranian oil to China. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration will continue to exert pressure on Tehran and deprive the Iranian government and military of funding sources for weapons development, nuclear programs or funding regional proxies. Bessant pointed out: “The Ministry of Finance will continue to cut off the Iranian regime’s connection with financial networks to prevent it from using these channels to engage in terrorist activities and cause global economic instability.” (Compiled by Liu Shuqin) 1150512 supports the Central News Agency’s choice to stand with the facts. Every donation you make is a force to protect press freedom. Small-scale sponsorship downloads the Central News Agency’s “First-hand News” APP to get the latest news in real time. The text, pictures and audio and video of this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast or publicly transmitted and used without authorization.



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TECH & AI
The Best You Can Do in the Strait of Hormuz Simulation Game Is Mess Up as Little as Possible
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It was only a matter of time until someone came up with a game based around the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that has spent the last couple of months in a perpetual quantum superposition of “open” and “closed.” In fairness, Bottleneck isn’t the first Hormuz-themed game—Sweep the Strait, a Minesweeper clone played on a Straits-shaped board, appeared within a couple of weeks of the first attacks on Iran in late February—but it’s probably the most in-depth such game we’ve seen so far. Given that it’s a free, browser-based game, you might expect Bottleneck to be something light-hearted and silly—like the aforementioned Sweep the Strait or the immortal GETSADAM, surely the first ever ripped-from-the-headlines game. But no. This game is serious, both in tone and in subject matter.

The game places you in the shoes of the Strait’s maritime coordinator at the start of a hypothetical 10-day closure. As your tenure begins, you’re greeted by 2000 ships backed up and waiting for passage. Only a handful can run the gauntlet from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman each day, and you’re the one who gets to decide which ships these will be. Each day, you’re presented with a roster of potential candidates, containing information about their cargo, capacity, destination, and how long it’s been waiting, along with an analysis of what’ll happen if you authorize its passage. Letting an oil tanker through might knock down the global price of crude oil and improve your relationship with the USA, but it might also mean that a ship carrying a bunch of food to India has to wait another day, increasing the risk of famine and upsetting the UN.

As the game progresses, more obstacles present themselves: mines appear in the strait, and getting rid of them isn’t as easy as planting a little 8-bit flag on them and moving on. Ships with perishable cargo left to wait too long will become humanitarian disasters. Someone has to find the money to pay Iran’s $2m-per-ship toll. Washington and Tehran trade insults, and the “Escalation” meter rises.

You soon realize that you’re not going to solve this crisis—all you can really do is try to ameliorate its effects as best you can. In this respect, Bottleneck reminds me a little of Frostpunk, another game where the best you can accomplish is making the best bad decision. But, of course, Frostpunk’s setting—a post-apocalyptic nuclear winter where starving and/or freezing to death are one mistake away—is fictional. Bottleneck’s is not, and its real-life roots are emphasized throughout. Clicking on one of the in-game stakeholder factions, for instance, takes you to a dossier of real-life information. The game’s news feed is populated with real articles on the US–Iran war and its results. The focus on IRL journalism is perhaps no surprise given that the game’s creator is himself a journalist: Polish reporter Jakub Górnicki, whose work has taken him to Ukraine, Rojava, and the US-Mexican border. Górnicki’s blog post about the game makes for fascinating reading. He explains, “The point (of Bottleneck) is not to win. The point is to understand what kind of problem this is, and why the word ‘chokepoint’ is not just a metaphor. It is a physical condition with political, economic, and human consequences.” More generally, he discusses how the project is part of a larger focus in his work, which is to find new “containers” for journalism: “What other containers can reporting live inside? Sometimes the answer is a stage. Sometimes it is an exhibition. Sometimes it is a wall in the city. This time it is a browser game.”



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WORLD
Analysis: The Iran war may end, and the rift between Trump and allies may continue | International | Central News Agency CNA
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Please agree to our privacy policy to enable news listening. (Central News Agency, Washington, 9th, Comprehensive Foreign News Report) U.S. President Trump’s decision to reduce the number of U.S. troops stationed in Germany, threats to reduce troop levels in other parts of Europe, and downplaying Iran’s attacks on important allies in the Middle East are paving the way for the long-term impact of the Iran war that may loosen relations between Washington and important allies. Reuters reported that although the 10-week war between the United States and Iran seems to be gradually heading towards an end, Trump’s words and deeds have once again worried Washington’s long-term allies from Europe, the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific region, and the United States may not be trustworthy in future crises. Against this background, some traditional partners of the United States have begun to diversify risks, which may have a profound impact on their relations with Washington. At the same time, rivals such as China and Russia are waiting for opportunities to find strategic breakthroughs. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s war with Iran will be a permanent turning point in U.S. foreign relations. However, most analysts believe that Trump’s erratic behavior after returning to the White House has basically subverted the rules-based global order and will further erode the U.S. alliance system. In particular, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which has generally not complied with Trump’s wartime demands, continues to become an outlet for him to vent his anger. Brett Bruen, who served as an adviser in the former President Obama administration and is now the head of the strategic consulting firm The Global Situation Room Inc., said: “Trump’s reckless approach to Iran policy has caused some dramatic changes. The credibility of the United States is at stake.” Tensions between Trump and Europe have been particularly heightened since Trump and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, when Trump claimed without providing evidence that Tehran was close to possessing nuclear weapons. Iran’s retaliatory blockade of the Strait of Hormuz triggered an unprecedented global energy shock, making European countries one of the biggest economic losers in this unintended war. Moves such as sweeping tariffs, attempts to take over Greenland from Denmark and cuts in military aid to Ukraine have already made allies uneasy. The rift widened further this week. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly said that Iran humiliated the United States, a statement that angered Trump. Washington then announced that it would withdraw 5,000 of the 36,400 U.S. troops stationed in Germany. The U.S. Department of War subsequently canceled its plan to deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles in Germany. Having long questioned whether the United States should remain in NATO, which Washington helped create after World War II, Trump has now said he is considering reducing the number of U.S. troops stationed in Italy and Spain. The leaders of the two countries also disagreed with him on the issue of war. (Compiled by: He Hongru) 1150509 Support the Central News Agency’s choice to stand with the facts. Every donation you make is a small amount of support to protect press freedom. Download the Central News Agency’s “First-hand News” APP to get the latest news in real time. The text, pictures and audio and video of this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast or publicly transmitted and used without authorization.



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