← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Iran’s Mosquito Fleet Turns Strait of Hormuz into a Battlefield
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Sophia Donner
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Ben Ferguson
Guaranteed Human I understand why you're frustrated. Healthcare costs keep rising, but paychecks aren't keeping up. Maybe it's time for the big drug companies and hospital monopolies to look in the mirror. They set health care prices and they're why your care is too expensive. When prices keep rising, someone has to step in and negotiate for families. America's health insurance providers are fighting every day to bring health care costs down, paying paid for by the Affordable Health Care Initiative.
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Public Investing Representative
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- [02:05]
Ben Ferguson
Wasn't that delicious? So good.
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Podcast Announcer
Your bill ladies.
- [02:08]
Ben Ferguson
I got it.
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Sophia Donner
No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insisted first. Oh, don't be silly. You don't be silly.
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Podcast Announcer
People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases.
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Ben Ferguson
Okay. Rock, paper scissors for it. Rock, paper scissors.
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Sophia Donner
Shoot.
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Podcast Announcer
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Donald Trump
Almost as important as the tax cuts, we've slashed a record number of job crushing regulations. That includes you and that includes tremendous numbers of environmental regulations which stop your businesses. But they didn't do anything and they had no impact. If anything, they made the environment worse. But we eliminated 129 old regulations for every new one that was approved. It was supposed to be 1 in 10, and it's turning out to be 129. 1 in 129. So we're getting rid of 129 nonsense regulations for every new one that we pass.
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Podcast Announcer
You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
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Ben Ferguson
Good Tuesday morning. Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update. And we've got one big story coming out of the White House. First up, Iran says they fired on US Warships in the Strait of Hormuz. Now this coming as the US Sinks, not one, not two, not three, not four, but five. No, no, no. Six small Iranian fast boats as Trump warns the regime that they could be blown off the face of the earth. Now, before we get to that, I want to say something that's really important, and that is do you want to help the people that are still under siege right now in Israel? So many of you have stepped up to help, have a huge impact. And the international fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the front lines helping those that are desperately in need right now that are in Israel. And because of you, you're having a huge impact. All right. I want to take a moment and I want to talk to you about the incredible impact that you can have for the people of Israel right now. Right now, our Jewish friends are feeling forgotten. There's a Jewish woman named Esther I'd like to tell you about, and her home is in Israel. And Esther is living through days and nights of fear. Sirens are sounding, rockets screaming through the sky, long stretches spent in a bomb shelter. She's 84 years old. Esther is elderly, she's fragile and all alone. Now imagine that. No help, no food deliveries, no medical care, no one knocking at the door. It's a war zone. But because of friends like you, Esther is not alone. Now through the ifcj, they are there bringing her food, meeting her urgent needs and reminding Jewish people like Esther, you are not forgotten. In times of fear and uncertainty, your compassion brings hope and real help. Esther asks that you hear these words, quote to those who give. You are doing a very great mitzvah, a good deed you give from your heart. May God protect you. Friends, I want you to know that your gift to God's people is truly hope giving and life saving. So if you've not gotten involved with the IFCJ, please do it now and don't wait. Call 888-488-IFCJ right now. That's 888-488- IFCJ or go to ifcj.org that's ifcj.org it's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
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Podcast Announcer
Story number
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Ben Ferguson
telling you what's happening right now in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has fired on US Warship in the Strait of Hormuz after Trump announced plans to guide ships through the passage. Now, many people don't understand just how massive the Strait of Hormuz actually is. A lot of people think of it as like a simple, easy waterway, almost like the Panama Canal. That is not the case at all. There's been criticism saying, why can't Trump just take out all these Iranian fast boats? We've again decimated their navy. But these little fast boats that are almost like small boats that you would see on a lake anywhere you go this summer with a lot of engines on the back so they have speed is exactly what is hitting these vessels. Now, I'm going to do my best to explain to you something that most Americans have not fully understood or grasped because the media is on a terrible job of truly explaining this global shipping sector and the threat to our navy and commercial vessels and just how easy it is for these small boats to actually hide. All right, so when we're talking about the Strait of Hormuz, and it's important, saying it that way is honestly a massive understatement. This is one of the most critical choke points on planet Earth. You have more than 20% of the world's oil supply coming through here. And that doesn't count all the other vessels from around the world that uses turn to Hormuz to to get things from point A to point B. Now, to put it in perspective, at its narrowest point, the straight is about 21 miles wide. its narrowest point, that's insane. Now, that is something that if you think about, it's really hard to be looking out and watching for all these small boats all the time. Now, the shipping lanes of the massive oil tankers and cargo ships are allowed to use is actually only about two miles wide in each direction. That's it. It's easy to control that. What's hard to control is the other 19 miles that you have on the left to the right side or you can divide it up depending on where these ships are. It is massive. So imagine this, you got a gigantic oil tanker. Then you've got some of the largest objects on earth moving them. They're forced into an essentially a narrow highway on the water, making them very easy to targets. And then there are multiple layers of threats that can come after them because they are in this two mile wide area. All right, so it makes them sitting ducks. Now you also can ask the question why the shipping lanes there, that's in the deepest points and these ships are huge and they're way below the water line. Right. Because of how much cargo. So that's part of the reason why you have these narrow basically highway going through the strait for these massive tankers. All right, now Iran strategy is one that is really tough to deal with. It's not a go head to head with the U. S. Navy in a traditional fight. We already did that. They lost. They, they, we, we completely took out their entire navy of their large ships. We know that. All right, now they're basically using runabouts like the average boat you would be using if you're going out there to, to go sightseeing on a lake or if you're buying a boat to go wait, you know, to, to go skiing behind that is what they're using now, that size boat to go after these tankers and these container ships. All right, so this is a lot like just terrorism that we see around the world. It's really hard to find a lone wolf. It's really hard to find one individual that wants to blow up, you know, a, a car or to blow up a bus or to blow up something in a, you know, next to a hotel, like a restaurant. You understand? That's what they're doing now. And in the Strait of Hormuz they deploy these small fast attack boats. All right? They are operated by the Islamic revolutionary Guard. They're not stupid, okay? They're pretty smart. These boats are designed to be low profile. They're designed to be extremely fast and they're designed to be highly maneuverable. You, you could say that these boats are faster and smaller than even the boats that you see that pirates have used to go after ships around the horn of Africa, for example. They also are armed with heavy machine guns, rocket launchers and even anti ship missiles. So this is well executed, well thought out, and they hide well on the sea. All right, so all of that is against, basically the odds are stacked against us in that way. Now, here's the other thing that's interesting. These boats can run skinny. What does that mean? It means in very little water, they can hug the coastline. They can blend in with normal fishing traffic. They can hide along and among the commercial vessels as well. The Persian Gulf, by the way, is very busy. There's constant movement, there's legitimate traffic everywhere. And that cluster makes it actually easier for these boats to hide among other boats and look like it's one thing on the water, when actually it's two things, a large boat and a small boat. So by the time one of these boats breaks away and then starts accelerating towards a tanker or a navy ship, you may have like minutes or even seconds to react because you don't have the radar system that many of us would imagine to see all of these little boats coming at you. Now just think about the, the logistics, the physics. Here you've got a massive oil tanker that can't swerve or stop. These ships take miles to change course, literally. They're very slow, they're very predictable, and they're very vulnerable. In these narrow highway lanes that are two miles wide, the Iranian boats can swarm, meaning they're, you're not dealing with one threat. You're dealing with five or 10 or even a dozen of them coming from multiple directions at once. At one of these takers, they practice this. They're pretty good at it. And it's like trying to defend a convoy of semi trucks on a two lane road. All right. While motorcycles are flying at them in every angle of direction at high speed, they. That is the best analogy that I can give you. Now you've got roughly 20% of the world's oil supply that's passing through the strait. Any disruption, even a temporary one, sends the energy prices skyrocketing overnight. We've witnessed that. So now that you understand this, I want to go back to what America did do, and it's pretty impressive. In the last 24 hours, the US has sunk six of these small Iranian boats. I would refer them as mosquitoes. And Trump is also now warning the regime that they could be blown off the face of the earth if they don't stop this now. We sank these six small Iranian boats that were deployed to harass vessels that were stuck in the street of Hormuz shortly before Trump warned the the Islamic Republic that look, you guys keep this up, I'm going to blow you off the face of the earth. And I'm sick and tired of dealing with you. And you guys better reopen the Critical waterway, and we're going to do everything we can. Now, Admiral Brad Cooper, who is head of the U.S. central Command, known as CENTCOM, he told reporters Monday afternoon in a press call that while Iran historically has deployed between 20 and 40 small boats to threaten commercial shipping in the strait, he said, today we saw just six and we were able to eliminate all of them. He said we have an enormous amount of capacity, capability and firepower that's now concentrated in and around the strait, including Apache helicopters, Seahawk helicopters. And he also emphasized that Iran's military capability has been dramatically degraded, which means we've got a, a, upper hand right now on this. Again, that is great news. When you look at the Strait of Hormuz, not only does it connect the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, it connects one part of the world to the other. And it's massive, it's not small. And I, I say that so that you understand just how big this is. Now, Monday's strike occurred after Trump announced Sunday evening of this new Project Freedom. It's this initiative to move maritime traffic through the strait since it's been backed up for months from the start of Operation epic fury on February 28th. Iran then came out and warned that it would resist any effort to force open the strait and insisted that any ships attempting to move through the waterway must coordinate with Tehran first, prompting Trump to tell Fox News that the Middle Eastern regime would be blown off the face of the earth again if it attacks US Flagged vessels, saying, quote, we have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before, is what Trump said. We have the best equipment. We have staff all over the world. We have these bases all over the world. They're all stocked up with equipment, and we can use all of that stuff, and we will if we need it. Now, the president claimed that Iran has become much softer. In other words, you can, you can mold them more regarding the peace talks that have stagnated since mid April. Now, let me also go back to what CENTCOM said. All right? Cooper did not say whether America's strikes on Iran's fast attack boats and Tehran's claims that it fired at US Warships constituted a collapse of the fragile ceasefire secured last month. So that is again up in the air at this point on what's really happening. What Cooper did say was this. I think the key thing here for us is we're merely there as a defensive force to give a very thick layer of defense to commercial ships and commercial shipping to allow them to proceed out of the Persian Gulf. Now right now there are literally hundreds and hundreds of ships that are anchored. You have about 87 different countries now that have ships that are flagged to them that are sitting in the Persian Gulf, Centcom said our job is to give them safe passage. Now here's what we also know. At least two US Ships crossed the street of Hormuz on Monday, according to Syncom, a claim that Iran slammed as quote, unquote baseless. And again, that's nothing but propaganda. I also want you to understand something else about these fast boats that are very sophisticated, all right? They're small, they can hide. It's a very large body of water. They can hide behind other vessels and then attack. And you have virtually no warning. These boats, some of them are smaller than 20ft long. Now a typical boat that you would go skiing behind for your family is usually 22 to 25ft. So a lot of these are smaller than that. Some of them even have just one engine but still are able to haul it. Many of them have two and three engines on a very tiny boat. And these are calm waters in the Strait of Hormuz. So they're able to just haul it. Almost like a jet ski, I would describe it, with just, just on top of the water and flooring it. Now it also remains to be seen how many foreign ships are going to take up sencom's offer to move through the straight after a South Korean used carrier reported an explosion and fire on board when it attempted to cross the waterway. So that's new news there. I guess South Korea didn't want our help. They decided to go to loan that didn't work very well for them. So what does this mean now? It's pretty clear that the president saying I'll give you a safe passage if you want it. You have another boat by the way, that suffered a blast early Monday while while fire broke out in the engine room of a Panama flag cargo ship. South Korea's foreign minister has also confirmed now Trump said that that attack on the Namu should push Seoul, South Korea, which has 26 ships trapped in the gulf to join us in military operations to secure the strait. We'll see if they actually do it. The president saying this on true social quote, perhaps it's time for South Korea to come and join the mission. Other than the South Korean ship, there has been at this moment no damage to ships going through the strait, the president wrote, noting that military commanders will speak to reporters on Tuesday about all of these operations. Now along with the South Korean ship you had a UAE oil tanker that was targeted by an Iranian drone as it tried to cross the straight and caught fire as well. So Iran is doing everything they can to try to hurt the US and to try to shut down the strait. That is obvious. The president's saying we're not going to have it. And then the question becomes, what is next? Is the president going to go back and start hitting targets and individuals in Iran? That is what is really going to be the big question that so many are going to be looking at next. What's very clear is the president's made it clear he's not going to be screwed with or held hostage. And America is there to win. And America is there also to give safe passage. That is very clear. So now we wait and we see what the president does next. But I have a feeling it's going to be pretty darn aggressive. Quick break. Ben Ferguson Show. More coming up.
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Podcast Announcer
Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow.
- [19:17]
Sophia Donner
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- [19:54]
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- [20:38]
Ben Ferguson
Wasn't that delicious? So good.
- [20:40]
Podcast Announcer
Your bill, ladies.
- [20:42]
Ben Ferguson
I got it.
- [20:42]
Sophia Donner
No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insisted. First, don't be silly. You don't be silly.
- [20:49]
Podcast Announcer
People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchase.
- [20:56]
Ben Ferguson
Okay. Rock, paper, scissors for it. Rock, paper, scissors.
- [20:59]
Sophia Donner
Shoot.
- [21:00]
Public Investing Representative
No.
- [21:01]
Podcast Announcer
The Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card. Visit wells fargo.com ActiveCash Terms apply the wait is almost over. Get ready for the NFL season with a highly anticipated 2026 NFL schedule release. Every rivalry, every rematch and every rookie debut with matchups locked and kickoffs confirmed. Be there for every can't miss moment. The full NFL schedule release coming in May. Get all the details@NFL.com schedulerelease.