NPR News: 07-13-2026 11PM EDT

Giles Snyder· Host0:00

Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. Heightened tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. The United Arab Emirates says Iran has attacked two tankers and that one person is dead, eight others wounded. US military, meanwhile, says it has completed a third consecutive night of strikes on Iran. The strikes came after President Trump said the US is reinstating its blockade, as NPR's Quil Lawrence reports.

Quil Lawrence0:24

CENTCOM announced it will enforce President Trump's order of a maritime blockade on all traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas. The US military will protect ship traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz that doesn't violate the blockade. But the president posted on social media that the US would begin charging a twenty percent fee on cargo that it protects. Tit-for-tat strikes by the US on Iranian targets and by Iran on US Gulf allies have intensified, and the president has alternately said the ceasefire is over, but then said that negotiations continue for a lasting peace deal. Before the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, tanker traffic moved freely through the strait, supplying twenty percent of the world's oil and other important commodities. Quil Lawrence, NPR News.

Giles Snyder· Host1:10

Darling Graham is expected to be sworn in as a senator Tuesday afternoon. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appointed Graham Monday as her late brother Lindsey Graham's temporary replacement.

Henry McMaster· Soundbite1:22

Lindsey took care of his little sister in years long departed. [laughs] It's my honor to ask his little