Trump backs away from plan to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz as attacks intensify

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has backtracked on plans to charge ships for using the Strait of Hormuz, saying Gulf countries would instead invest in the United States. Another wave of U.S. strikes on Iran, and Iranian attacks on shipping and U.S. allies, left an interim peace deal in tatters. That agreement was supposed to reopen a waterway that is key to world energy supplies and give negotiators time to hammer out a permanent end to the war. Instead, fighting has once again engulfed the region, threatened the global economy and brought warnings to commercial airlines. The International Maritime Organization attacks on tankers killed two mariners and wounded 14 others.