NPR News: 07-14-2026 5AM EDT

Dave Mattingly· Host0:01

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingly. U.S. Central Command says American forces have carried out a third consecutive night of airstrikes against Iranian targets. They included coastal defense systems and Iranian missile and drone sites. Central Command says the strikes are meant to further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. As NPR's Quil Lawrence reports, President Trump says the U.S. is reinstating its naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Quil Lawrence0:33

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 U.S. 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 U.S. would begin charging a twenty percent fee on cargo that it protects. Tit-for-tat strikes by the U.S. on Iranian targets and by Iran on U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

Dave Mattingly· Host1:19

South Carolina's governor is appointing the sister of the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to serve out the remainder of her brother's fourth term in the Senate. Darleen