Rubbish Check
CBS MoneyWatch · July 22, 2026 source

“‘Nothing is going through’ the Strait of Hormuz, shipping insider says”

R5/ 10
Selective
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates CBS MoneyWatch's headline quoting a shipping executive that "nothing is going through" the Strait of Hormuz a 5/10 because the article's own data show three vessels transited the strait the same day, and the source's quote was specifically qualified to mean large international merchant ships, not all traffic.
The Verdict
Selective. The quote is real and correctly attributed to shipping-risk CEO Dimitris Maniatis, so this isn't fabrication. But the headline lifts the most absolute word from his statement while dropping his own qualifier, and the article's body then reports hard numbers, three ships tracked transiting on Tuesday, traffic at a "three-week low" rather than zero, that sit in tension with a literal reading of "nothing."

What actually happened

CENTCOM and President Trump maintain the Strait of Hormuz remains open to commercial traffic despite more than 30 Iranian attacks on shipping since the war began. Shipping-risk executive Dimitris Maniatis told CBS that large international merchant vessels have effectively stopped transiting due to unresolved safety risks after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire collapsed, while acknowledging that local-trade vessels continue operating normally.

Key facts

  • CENTCOM statement: the strait "remains open for commercial vessel traffic," alongside acknowledgment of 30+ Iranian attacks on shipping since the war began.
  • Joint Maritime Information Center (Bahrain): commercial traffic fell to a three-week low on Tuesday, not to zero.
  • CBS tracked three commercial ships (two cargo, one tanker) transiting the strait that same Tuesday.
  • Only two ships used the U.S.-backed southern (Oman) route between July 13-19, and both had their AIS switched off ("dark"), per Lloyd's List.
  • Maniatis's full quote restricts "nothing is going through" to "large ocean-going, internationally owned-and-operated merchant vessels," explicitly excluding local trade.
  • IMO figure: at least 17 mariners killed in 61 separate attacks in the strait since the war began.

What to watch for

  • Whether JMIC's next weekly traffic count shows zero large-vessel transits, which would validate the headline's literal claim rather than just the qualified version.
  • Whether Sinokor's reported six-month pay incentive succeeds in getting crews to attempt the route, a concrete test of Maniatis's "nothing" claim.
  • Whether the Houthi Bab el-Mandeb blockade threat escalates into the same kind of near-total shutdown now being reported for Hormuz.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
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