It's Tuesday, the

Welcome to the P.D.B. Afternoon.

I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed.

First up, the good news, the Strait of Hormuz is no longer at a standstill. The bad news,

well, shipping companies still don't trust it. We'll take a closer look at why traffic

remains well below pre-war levels despite signs of recovery.

Later in the show, a bizarre new detail emerges from the war with Iran. A U.S. fighter pilot shot

down over Iranian territory reportedly described seeing a swarm of drones moving to the sky

in what he called a jellyfish formation moments before his aircraft

was hit. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. There's both good news and bad news coming out of

the Strait of Hormuz this week. The good news is that traffic is moving again. Following last

week's memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran,

commercial vessels have begun returning to the waterway. Iranian oil exports are resuming,

as the U.S. lifts its blockade of Iranian ports and eases sanctions on the regime,

and some of the massive backlog of ships trapped inside the Persian Gulf is finally starting to clear.

Now, the bad news is that the Strait of Hormuz is still a long way from normal.

According to maritime tracking firm Kepler, 109 vessels transited the strait between Saturday and Monday.

That's the busiest three-day period since the conflict began earlier this year.

That's a notable improvement from the near standstill, seen during the height of the crisis,

and a sign that shipping companies are slowly regaining confidence in the route.

The Iranian regime, no surprise, well, they appear eager to get back to business.

Analysts report that at least a dozen tankers carrying Iranian crude oil are now making

...