The Strait of Hormuz. Roughly 33 kilometres wide at its narrowest, with the deep-water shipping lanes hugging the Omani side — and this week Iran said it was close to an agreement with Oman on the coordinates ships may use.

Five stories from the past few days where the real subject was geography. Everything below comes from the wires — BBC World, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle and The New York Times, reported between 4 and 7 August — with the map added.

1. A strait may reopen, on Tehran's coordinates.

Iran says its talks with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz are in their final stages, with an understanding reached on the coordinates of a shipping route (BBC, Guardian). Neither Washington nor Muscat has commented on the proposed terms, the BBC notes. Al Jazeera reports the US, Iran and Oman are close to a temporary deal to reopen the waterway. The NYT is blunter about what that would mean: agreeing an acceptable route would effectively ratify Tehran's control over the strait. NYT also reported Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying a deal was possible soon, with Qatar circulating draft language and Marco Rubio stressing nothing is final. Hormuz is about 33 km across at its narrowest, and the navigable lanes run close to Oman. Roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil passes through that gap.

2. Ceuta counts the dead, and looks at Washington.

Thousands of migrants remain in Ceuta after last week's mass crossing from Morocco, the Spanish territory's mayor-president Juan Jesús Vivas told the BBC, putting the number who crossed at 78,000 and the resulting death toll at 100. Briefing EU lawmakers, Vivas described a "humanitarian emergency" with up to 5,000 people still in the city; the Guardian reports the Commission is aware of social media calls for another attempt at the border on 15 August. The Guardian separately examines whether Morocco "feels emboldened" by its warmth with Washington, noting Rabat was the first African state to join Trump's Board of Peace. NYT reports that Ceuta and Moroccan Fnideq stand about a mile apart, and are bound together by family and trade.

3. The Blue Line moves again.

Israel struck southern Lebanon after accusing Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire, the NYT reports, even as Israeli and Lebanese negotiators met in Rome to pursue a longer-term settlement. Al Jazeera spoke to residents of the south, who described new displacement orders and openly questioned their own government's approach. Separately, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Legal Agenda concluded that an Israeli strike in April that killed the Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and wounded her colleague Zeinab Faraj was an apparent war crime (BBC, Guardian); Israel has denied targeting the journalists. The Blue Line that UN cartographers drew in 2000 was a withdrawal line, never agreed as a border — and it is still being redrawn by fire.

4. Both sides are now fighting over fuel.

Ukraine hit two oil refineries deep inside Russian territory, with President Zelensky saying the strikes aim to limit the revenues Russia "used to finance" the war (BBC). NYT reports that Russian drones have struck hundreds of Ukrainian filling stations in apparent retaliation. BBC reporting from Odesa describes blackened ships and smashed docks after a surge of Russian attacks along the Black Sea coastline, while NYT says a missile attack on Kyiv killed at least 17 as Ukraine's stock of interceptors runs low and Western allies grow reluctant to give up their own. The front line has barely shifted in months. The war's energy map now runs a thousand kilometres behind it, in both directions.

5. An outbreak follows a river.

Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have passed 4,000 and the virus may be mutating, Africa's public health watchdog told the Guardian, announcing door-to-door case finding as it abandoned incremental measures. Deutsche Welle reports Africa CDC will deploy a vaccine developed against a different Ebola strain, and that WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited the country warning cases had doubled in some hotspots within a week. The BBC reports a river boat placed under quarantine after five deaths on board, with every passenger screened. In a country the size of western Europe with very little paved road, the Congo and its tributaries are the transport network — and therefore the vector.

The historical parallel

Our map of European colonies in Africa in 1880 and 1913 is usually read for what changed: a mostly grey continent becomes a patchwork in thirty-three years. Read it instead for what didn't. In the 1880 panel, Spain already holds two specks on the Mediterranean coast opposite Gibraltar. In 1913 they are still there, now backed by a Spanish protectorate across northern Morocco. The protectorate ended in 1956. The specks did not. Ceuta and Melilla predate the scramble entirely — Ceuta was taken by Portugal in 1415 and passed to Spain in 1668, Melilla by Castile in 1497 — and they outlasted it. Nearly every other line on the 1913 panel has since been redrawn or renamed. The European Union's only land border with Africa is the fragment nobody got around to erasing.

Sources: BBC World — Iran says deal with Oman on Strait of Hormuz is in final stages, Thousands of migrants still in Ceuta after border crisis, local leader says, Rights groups say Israeli attack that killed Lebanese journalist an apparent war crime, Ukraine hits two oil refineries deep in Russian territory, In Odesa, no-one is safe from Russia's new Black Sea strikes, DR Congo river boat under quarantine for Ebola after five deaths. The Guardian — Iran says a deal with Oman to reopen the strait of Hormuz is close to being finalised, 'Morocco feels emboldened': Trump's influence in spotlight after Ceuta disaster, Ceuta residents 'sad, helpless, anxious' as up to 5,000 migrants remain in the city, Israeli strike that killed journalist in Lebanon was war crime, say rights groups, Ebola virus behind massive outbreak in DRC could be mutating, officials say. Al Jazeera — Trump says war can't 'go much longer'; Hormuz deal close, 'No red line': South Lebanon residents outraged as Israel resumes strikes. Deutsche Welle — Ebola: Africa CDC plans to use vaccine for different strain as outbreak spreads, WHO's Tedros visits DR Congo as Ebola outbreak accelerates. The New York Times — Iran Says It Is Nearing Final Agreement With Oman on Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Hormuz Deal With Iran Possible Soon, Bessent Says, Migrant Crisis Reveals Vast Differences Between Ceuta and Its Moroccan Neighbor, Israel Strikes Lebanon After Accusing Hezbollah of Cease-Fire Violation, A New Lethal Front in Ukraine: Its Beloved Gas Stations, Russia's Deadly Missile Attack on Kyiv Exploits Ukraine's Depleted Air Defenses, Amid Intensifying Russian Strikes, Ukraine's Pleas for Air Defenses Are Falling Flat.

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