Iran And Yemen's Houthis Blockade, Hegseth On Capitol Hill, Arizona Primary Day

Iran already controls one key waterway used for oil shipping in the Middle East. Now Yemeni rebels backed by Iran are trying to cut off another one. Will they succeed? I'm Michelle Martin. That's Leila Fano, and this is Up First from NPR News. Seventeen American troops have died in the Iran war. The Pentagon says one 100 more were wounded in the past two weeks. Today, senators finally get to question defense secretary Pete Hegseth as he asked them for more money to fund an unpopular war. And it's primary day in Arizona where Republican races will tell us how their voters feel about election denial. There are candidates running who tried to overturn the twenty twenty election results. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. This message comes from Dell Technologies. Get long lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by series three Intel Core, now from $699 with exclusive student pricing from $599. Visit dell.com/deals. Support for NPR and the following message come from GoodRx. Summer always flies. Between vacations and summer activities, keeping everyone healthy while staying on budget can be challenging. With GoodRx, you can find big savings at the pharmacy for the whole family, pets too. Compare prescription prices at over 70,000 pharmacies and instantly find free coupons. GoodRx is not insurance, but it may beat your co pay price if you do have insurance. Save at the pharmacy this summer. Go to goodrx.com/up first. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Enbridge, investing in infrastructure projects with the goal of keeping energy reliable and affordable for families and businesses because Enbridge believes the energy future depends on secure and affordable energy. More at enbridge.com/michigan. There's now a new element of uncertainty in the US war with Iran. For ten days, the two sides have exchanged strikes as Iran continues to assert control over the Strait Of Hormuz. Now Yemen's Iranian backed rebels say they will blockade another waterway on the other side of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea. With me now is NPR's Emily Fang who is in Tel Aviv to talk about this. Emily, good morning. Good morning, Leila. So tell us more about this threat of a blockade. Where would it be? So it would be in this waterway called the Bab El Mandeb Strait. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf Of Aden and ultimately the Indian Ocean on one end. And on the other, the Suez Canal all the way up to the Mediterranean Sea. And this straight lets Saudi Arabia, which is one of the biggest oil producers in the world, now get millions of barrels of oil a day out to the open ocean for export, and it needs this strait, especially because another waterway, the Strait Of Hormuz, has been effectively closed by the US Iran war. So any Houthi blockade would rattle energy markets even more and raise energy prices even …