The Evening: Trump reimposes Iran blockade

July 13, 2026

	By Matthew Cullen

Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.

U.S. and Iran edge back toward war
Graham’s sister appointed to his seat
Plus, culottes are cool again

A vessel at the Straight of Hormuz, seen from Oman today. Reuters

Trump reimposes a naval blockade of Iran

The U.S. and Iran have effectively reverted to the state of open conflict that existed before they reached a truce last month. Both sides have escalated their rhetoric and repeatedly attacked each other in recent days. President Trump declared today that American forces were reinstating a naval blockade of Iranian ports, and U.S. Central Command said that it had begun a third consecutive night of strikes ordered by Trump.

Trump also said that the U.S. would begin charging a 20 percent fee on goods passing through the Strait of Hormuz, contradicting weeks of declarations by his top aides. “We are going to guard it, and we’re going to get paid for guarding it,” the president said.

Traffic in the strait, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s crude oil, has plummeted. Just 14 ships passed through the waterway yesterday, the fewest in a month, and today oil prices spiked.

For more:

American forces used unmanned boats to attack an Iranian naval base. It was the first time they have been used in an offensive operation, the military said.
Britain accused an arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of almost certainly directing a wave of attacks against Jews across Europe.
Israel undertook a yearslong effort to groom Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president, as an intelligence asset. Read the inside story of how it happened.

A woman in a bright red jacket walks in a crowd while looking to the side.

Darline Graham Nordone in 2015 at Lindsey Graham’s presidential announcement. Rainier Ehrhardt/Associated Press

Lindsey Graham’s sister is appointed to finish his term

South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, said today that he would appoint Darline Graham Nordone, the younger sister of Senator Lindsey Graham, to finish his Senate term. Hours earlier, Trump had called for the move, saying that it “would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey.” Republicans are lining up to run for his seat in an August special primary election.

Graham, 71, who died Saturday night of an aortic dissection, was a force on Capitol Hill for decades. He always insisted on being part of the Senate conversation, even when the conversation wasn’t necessarily about him. Once a harsh critic, he forged an especially close relationship with Trump — and was unapologetic about the reasons why.

The neoclassical office building of the I.R.S.

The I.R.S. office building in Washington. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

A judge denounces Trump’s I.R.S. lawsuit

A federal judge in Florida ruled today that Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was an improper exercise in self-dealing. The scathing ruling did not explicitly kill the settlement that Trump worked out with his own government, but it did bar him from claiming that the tax protections he received had arisen from a legitimate legal process. Read the ruling.

The judge also recommended disciplinary action against the lawyers involved, including the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche.

In other Trump administration news:

California blocked an oil pipeline in Santa Barbara after a major spill. Trump ordered it reopened.
The administration has made unusual deals to acquire equity stakes in more than two dozen companies.

A red and purple cloud of dust, stars and other material, with a brighter center dotted with innumerable stars.

The galactic center of the Milky Way, captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2006. NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy

Scientists found sugar deep in our galaxy

A team of researchers announced today that they had found sugar in the interstellar space near the center of the Milky Way. In that medium of dust and gas, they spotted erythrulose, which is found on Earth in raspberries.

The finding provided an important clue about the origins of sugar on Earth and possibly the rise of life as well. “It’s just incredibly exciting,” one scientist said.

More top news

Maine: State officials demanded a full investigation after a federal immigration agent shot and killed a person in a vehicle in the coastal town of Biddeford.
Health: An appeals court reversed a trial judge’s decision and revived lawsuits against the makers of Tylenol that link its use in pregnancy to autism and A.D.H.D.
Business: California and 11 other states sued to block Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Ukraine: The military has been using ground robots to deliver supplies, haul ammunition, evacuate the wounded, lay mines and, increasingly, hold land.
Europe: Initial estimates suggest the recent heat wave caused thousands of excess deaths across Britain, France and Germany.
Japan: The country is building its first centralized intelligence agency since World War II, while its weak espionage laws have made it a hub for high-tech Russian spies.
Yellowstone: A tourist was hospitalized after a visibly agitated bull bison flipped him about eight feet in the air. It was caught on video.
South Carolina: Yellow-legged hornets first appeared in the state in late 2023 and have spread through the Lowcountry, where they dismember and eat honeybees.

WANT TO BE A WELDER?

Footage of people welding and assembling a drive shaft.

Lexi Parra/The New York Times

Some college-bound Gen Z young adults are opting for trade school, if they can convince their parents.

TIME TO UNWIND

Junior Caminero, in a white uniform, follows through on his swing.

Junior Caminero hits a home run on Friday. Jason Behnken/Associated Press

Back, back, back … gone!

In Philadelphia tonight, Major League Baseball is holding its Home Run Derby — the contest where some of the sport’s top sluggers gather to see who can smash the ball out of the ballpark most often. The new rules are likely to reward the hitters with the most raw power, like Junior Caminero of the Rays. You can watch it at 8 p.m. Eastern on Netflix.

For more:

Pro sports are in the middle of an injury epidemic and a recovery revolution. They are intertwined.
A second-grade teacher revived Backyard Baseball, a favorite video game of ’90s kids. Here’s how.

Lexi Parra/The New York Times

Jay-Z (re)caps his career at Yankee Stadium

Over the weekend, Jay-Z played three sold-out concerts at Yankee Stadium, each show centered on a different segment of his career as a rapper. The residency, Jon Caramanica writes, displayed his commitment to art that survived decades of commercialism and commercialism that survived decades of art.

The shows were timed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Reasonable Doubt” and the 25th anniversary of “The Blueprint.” On “Popcast,” Jon and Joe Coscarelli debated which is his definitive album.

For more: Last night’s show didn’t begin until after midnight because of crowd safety issues.

Four pictures of men and women in culottes, long shorts with wide legs that look like a skirt from certain angles.

Mike Stephens/Central Press, via Getty Images; Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times; Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis, via Getty Images; Tim Graham Photo Library, via Getty Images

Dinner table topics

The deceptive shorts known as culottes are cool again.
When storm data is needed, the hurricane hunters take to the sky in planes nicknamed Kermit and Miss Piggy.
In Roswell, U.F.O. enthusiasts are still bemoaning the apparent cover-up.
We talked to actors about the strange experience of being cast as themselves.