The Latest: Trump says US will blockade Iran in Strait of Hormuz and charge ships for safe passage

Summary

The Latest: Trump says US will blockade Iran in Strait of Hormuz and charge ships for safe passage U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Iranian ships will no longer be able to travel through the Strait of Hormuz and America would charge a 20% toll on other countries’ eligible cargo, escalating tensions after weekend of attacks by both nations to assert control of the critical waterway. The U.S. military then began another round of strikes against Iran on Monday. Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, has been named as her late brother’s temporary replacement in the U.S. Senate. Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress and an advocate for U.S. military aggression in Iran, died Saturday at 71 after a tear in his aorta. The Latest: Moments after the U.S. military announced a new round of strikes on Iran, Trump called it “another major attack.” “We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. The president added: “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.” Trump also provided new details on his administration doing an about-face and suggesting that it will charge tolls for ships going through the Strait of Hormuz, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t. “We’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.” The move to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments unravels protections established by former presidents for areas with unique archaeological and historical features. It comes as Republicans under Trump have sought to drastically reshape the management of vast taxpayer-owned lands concentrated in Western states. Republicans have moved to expand oil and gas drilling, ramp up logging and remove habitat protections for imperiled species. The altered monuments had been designated under the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law meant to preserve important sites. Democrats and conservationists warn of the disposal of treasured landscapes for commercial gain. “These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the command said on social media. The strikes are just the latest volley between the two nations that began last week after Iran attacked a series of merchant vessels off the coast of Oman. When asked in an interview with Hugh Hewitt what his Thursday address will be about, Trump made it sound like nothing out of the ordinary. “It’s just going to be a speech like a lot of my speeches,” he said, without offering any more detail. “Memorandum of understanding when you’re dealing with sleazebags don’t mean much,” Trump said during an interview with Hugh Hewitt. Trump said he questioned why the U.S. was entering into a memorandum of understanding to create a ceasefire with Iran rather than moving toward a full deal first. Trump last week declared the ceasefire was “over.” “They didn’t honor the test,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them very hard tonight and we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow — and there’s not a damn thing they can do about it,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They have nothing. They have nothing going, other than they have big mouths.” The president did not elaborate but him saying that more strikes were coming previously preceded a new round of U.S. military strikes on targets in Iran. Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, has been named as her late brother’s temporary replacement in the U.S. Senate. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced at a news conference at the Statehouse on Monday that Nordone would serve the remaining months on Graham’s current term, which expires in January. A person familiar with the appointment process but not authorized to speak about it publicly said Nardone would be sworn in Wednesday. She will be the first woman to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. “It is such an honor,” Nordone said. “Lindsey has always been there for me. And now, I will be there for him.” Graham died over the weekend at age 71. He never married or had a family of his own, but Nordone was often by her brother’s side for the political touch points of his career, speaking at events and appearing in some of his campaign ads. Graham’s desk was covered in black cloth and a vase of white roses as the Senate opened Monday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader John Thune eulogized Graham as a friend and a statesman, saying he “died with his boots on” because he had just returned from his 10th trip to Ukraine. One day “we will laugh together again,” Thune said, tearing up during his opening remarks. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the seniormost Senate Republican, said he was used to being the butt of Graham’s jokes. He “always brought a smile to your face and levity to the halls of Congress,” Grassley said. Grassley said the Senate could “show our appreciation” for Graham by passing a bipartisan package of Russian sanctions that Graham introduced on Friday, just before his death on Saturday. That’s after a Navy pilot died in a helicopter crash on July 1 in the Arabian Sea. The Navy initially called it an emergency landing and said there was “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.” The Pentagon’s war casualty count added one non-hostile death in July. A U.S. Central Command spokesman confirmed it was the pilot. It’s the first death since 13 service members were killed in two separate incidents in March at the beginning of the war. A total of 414 service members have been wounded, including a U.S. Air Force member added Monday. While Iran and the U.S. have resumed strikes, it’s unclear if that’s what led to the injury. U.S. Central Command and the Air Force wouldn’t offer details. Most troops were wounded in March, while 34 were wounded in April and three in June. The president posted on social media that he would be “making a Speech to the Nation” at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Trump appeared to refer to himself in the third person in the post. He did not disclose the details of his planned speech, but the announcement comes after Trump said he would block Iran-related ships from traveling through the Strait of Hormuz and that the U.S. would charge a 20% fee on all cargo going through the waterway. The U.S. military says it will resume its blockade of Iranian ports Tuesday at 4 p.m. EDT. U.S. Central Command said on social media that it “will enforce the blockade against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas” and will “support traffic flow through regional waters for all vessels not violating the blockade.” A notice to mariners released Monday by the U.S. military warned of using force if ships don’t comply. It also said the military will let through humanitarian shipments. The statement follows Trump declaring that the U.S. would be reinstating the naval blockade and charging a 20% toll on eligible cargo. Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, would not say whether the military would be collecting tolls as part of the blockade and referred questions on Trump’s post to the White House. The International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency which oversees safety and security measures in international shipping, said the group was waiting to find out more about Trump’s proposal but said its stance on tolls remains unchanged. “We have always been consistent on its stance on fees – IMO stands firmly against charging fees for passage through straits used for international navigation. There is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait,” the organization said in a statement. Trump’s announcement comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Gulf leaders late last month and said the U.S. would not support Iran charging fees for ships to go through the Strait of Hormuz. “That’s international waterway. There isn’t a nation on Earth that supports having to pay money to go through the Straits,” Rubio told reporters in Bahrain on June 25. Rubio also said there was “zero support among the Gulf countries for any sort of toll or fees or anything that charges for the use of international waters. The president’s made it clear that’s not going to happen. It’s not going to be a part of this. It cannot be a part of this.” A federal judge said Monday that Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns was filed for an “improper purpose” as she referred attorneys for disciplinary actions. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams amounts to a stinging rebuke of the Republican president’s lawsuit, characterizing it as an exercise in self-dealing in which he sued an entity that is effectively under his control. The suit concluded in May with a settlement agreement that created a since-abandoned $1.776 billion fund meant to compensate allies of the president, as well as immunity from tax audits. “This was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law,” the judge wrote. U.S. Central Command says it used drone ships to hit an Iranian ship maintenance facility and submarine, calling it first. “Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations,” the command said on social media Monday. The post featured video of the drone boats approaching a dock that had a submarine sitting on top of it followed by aerial footage of the explosion on Sunday. The strike comes despite the Trump administration’s claim that it has completely destroyed Iran’s navy. The Corsair drones also were used to help rescue a pair of Army aviators from the waters off Oman early in June after their Apache helicopter was struck by an Iranian drone. Democrat Ryan Fecteau posted on Facebook that the shooting Monday in Biddeford, outside Portland, involved U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, that the State Police and Maine Department of Public Safety were at the scene, and that he expects the FBI to investigate. Few details are available. ICE, the FBI and the Maine Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Project Relief, an immigrant rights advocacy group, posted that “a young person” from its community was killed “during an encounter with ICE in Biddeford.” Protesters have already begun gathering at Mechanics Park in Biddeford. This would be at least the ninth death from an encounter with federal immigration officials since the start of the Trump administration’s mass deportations agenda and the second in a week, following the killing of a Houston man. The European Union coordinated efforts to raise 900 million euros ($1 billion) in aid for Gaza, working with 65 governments and organizations including the White House and the United Nations, the bloc’s top diplomat said Monday. Kaja Kallas announced the fund after a meeting of the Palestine Donors Group in Brussels. “The EU is the most credible supporter, for the Palestinian people. We are the largest donor and the strongest backer of the two-state solution,” she said. The meeting was the second gathering of the Team Gaza Initiative, an effort by the EU to rally support for recovery projects like sanitation and farming in the destitute and war-ravaged coastal enclave of some 2 million people. Just days before his death, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was standing in Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Square, giving Ukrainians reason for optimism: He said new hard-hitting bipartisan economic sanctions against Russia were within reach back in Washington. Now Ukraine’s leaders are devastated. Graham had been one of Kyiv’s closest allies in Washington and a trusted intermediary with Trump, who had a strained relationship with Zelenskyy. They fear that without Graham, Ukraine’s ability to influence could be diminished across a broad range of issues. “Huge and absolutely unexpected loss,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker with Zelenskyy’s party. “He was the closest link between Ukraine, our president and Trump,” he added. “Our position in Trump’s entourage might be weaker.” Ukraine and nine other countries have formed a coalition to protect Europe from ballistic missiles. The 10 countries announced the agreement at talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Monday, taking advantage of Kyiv’s experience of fighting Russia. “Our goal is to build a shared ballistic missile defense capability for Europe,” their statement said. Zelenskyy went to France seeking help against Russia’s ballistic missiles, which have pummeled his country in the more than four years since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion. Putin was unyielding after Kyiv’s long-range attacks on refineries, tankers and terminals have caused widespread fuel shortages. “Wherever they attempt to strike Russian territory, we will respond in kind, but our strikes will be several times more powerful,” Putin told pro-Kremlin activists. A fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through the strait without paying any fees before Iran asserted control over it after the start of the war. Iran says it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with an interim peace deal reached last month. The U.S. and others dispute that, citing international law on freedom of navigation, and the American military has tried to establish an alternative route outside of Iranian control. The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called for the strait to be open, as it was before the war. “Freedom of navigation has to be respected,” she said. Trump says he’s recommended that Lindsey Graham’s sister be named as his temporary replacement in the U.S. Senate. Trump posted on social media Monday that Gov. Henry McMaster should appoint Darline Graham Nordone to fulfill the rest of Graham’s term, which expires in January. Graham died over the weekend at age 71, and McMaster is expected to announce his pick later Monday afternoon. After their parents died at a young age, Graham was left to raise his sister, whom he later adopted. The pair were very close, and Graham’s sister was by his side as he filed reelection paperwork earlier this year. Following the downfall of Graham Platner in Maine, progressives view the Upper Midwest Senate races as their last chance to shape the Democrats’ Senate caucus and prove their theory of the case in the midterm elections. In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens is running against progressive Abdul El-Sayed for the state’s Democratic Senate nomination in a race Democrats must win to hold the seat held by Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring and has endorsed Stevens. In Wisconsin, democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong has surged in the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary against more conventional Democratic lawmakers, including former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. Michigan voters choose nominees on Aug. 4. The primaries in Minnesota and Wisconsin are Aug. 11. In Minnesota, the two leading Senate candidates have clashed over electability, their ties to corporate interests and willingness to fight Trump’s administration. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, backed by progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, says her opponent, Rep. Angie Craig, is backed by “secretive dark money groups.” “The very folks who are standing in the way of the things that people need to be able to afford their lives, who are Democrats, are funded by these corporate special interests,” Flanagan told The Associated Press. Craig counters that Flanagan has raised campaign funds from major companies, and that if she becomes the Democratic nominee, Republicans would focus on her ties to an ongoing fraud inquiry into the state’s Medicaid programs. “To stop Donald Trump, we’ve got to win elections,” Craig told the AP. Progressives hope to prove economic populism resonates beyond deep blue enclaves. Democratic Party leaders worry progressive candidates could damage their brand and imperil their chances of retaking either chamber of Congress. August primaries in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota will be another gauge of Democratic voters’ frustration with the establishment. The Upper Midwest is a battleground for progressives and moderates. The outcomes could impact Democrats’ chances in the upcoming midterms and shape their party’s future direction. South Carolina law requires a one-week filing period beginning July 21, for a special primary to be held on Aug. 11. A runoff if necessary would be held on Aug. 25, leaving the nominee just over two months to campaign for the general election on Nov. 3. All of this is problematic according to federal law, which requires military and overseas ballots to go out 45 days before any federal election. For the general election primary, that would have been June 27. Federal Election Commission officials didn’t immediately return a message seeking clarity.