Day 176 brief — CENTCOM reveals it has escorted 660 million barrels through a still-shut Hormuz as Brent tops $93 and the Monday isolation plan looms

Day 176 recast the Hormuz picture. US Central Command disclosed that it has escorted more than 660 million barrels of crude — about 10 million barrels a day, roughly half the pre-war flow — through the Strait of Hormuz since early May, aiding some 1,300 vessels in nightly convoys down a southern channel under US warships and fighter cover after a two-week campaign degraded Iran's coastal radar and maritime surveillance (CNBC, Axios, Jerusalem Post). The disclosure reframes the 'shut strait' rather than reopening it: normal commercial transit is still dead — Iran killed the bulk carrier Minoan Dignity and seized the tanker Amara enforcing its permit regime, and the IMO logged at least 17 attacks in July–August that killed four sailors — but the US is running a militarized convoy corridor Tehran has neither stopped nor endorsed (Stars and Stripes, CNBC). The market gave the restored flow no discount: Brent topped $93 and traded near $94 on Friday, a second straight weekly gain of more than 5%, as Washington pressed its economic war — Bessent set a Monday news conference to detail the 'economic isolation' plan and urged China to 'get with the program,' Treasury sanctioned a Hezbollah cash-courier network, and the UAE suspended all trade with Iran after fresh missile fire (Gulf News, CNN, OilPrice). Beijing again refused, ordering firms to ignore the sanctions as Araghchi called the plan 'bound to fail' and Pezeshkian pressed to end the war 'from a position of power' (Fox News, Euronews). Direction holds mixed; seven-day and spillover risk hold critical; the thirty-day ceasefire probability holds at 5.