Democracy Dies with Dictatorship
NY Times
Apr 19, 2026
Iran War Live Updates: U.S. Attacks Iranian Cargo Ship While Preparing for New Round of Talks
President Trump said a Navy destroyer had attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged vessel in the Gulf of Oman. The White House said it is dispatching a high-level delegation, including Vice President JD Vance, to Pakistan for negotiations.
by Tyler PagerShirin Hakim and Sanam Mahoozi
Here’s the latest
A U.S. Navy destroyer on Sunday attacked and seized an Iranian cargo ship that defied an American blockade of Iran’s ports, President Trump said, posing a fresh threat to the fragile cease-fire that is set to expire this week.
Mr. Trump announced the attack hours after a White House official said the U.S. was dispatching a high-level delegation including Vice President JD Vance to peace talks in Pakistan, even as Iranian state media said Tehran had not yet agreed to a meeting.
The guided missile destroyer USS Spruance fired on the cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman, Mr. Trump said on Truth Social, “blowing a hole” in its engine room before Marines took possession of the vessel. The president said the ship was under U.S. sanctions because of a “history of illegal activity” and that U.S. forces were “seeing what’s on board!”
Mr. Trump did not say whether there had been any casualties. Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that U.S. forces had fired on an Iranian merchant vessel, but said naval units from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had forced the Americans to retreat.
The attack occurred in the Gulf of Oman, south of the Strait of Hormuz, the economically vital waterway that has become a flashpoint in negotiations. Iran imposed a blockade on the channel itself, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil normally travels, and the U.S. countered by blocking traffic to Iranian ports. On Saturday, Iran attacked two Indian vessels attempting a transit, acts Mr. Trump described earlier Sunday as a “total violation of our cease-fire.”
The fate of the strait is top of mind for American negotiators who Mr. Trump said would travel to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, this week for talks. The stakes for the negotiations, should they happen, are high: failure would risk reigniting the fighting and extending the global economic upheaval wrought by the war.
A White House official said Mr. Vance was expected to lead a U.S. delegation, accompanied by the top Trump aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The negotiations would be the second meeting of high-level officials since the cease-fire went into effect on April 8.
The cease-fire is expected to expire on April 22 and the rhetoric is intensifying as the deadline approaches. Mr. Trump on Sunday renewed threats against Iran’s civilian infrastructure if the strait is not reopened and an extension of the cease-fire is not reached.
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.”
The last round of negotiations, led last weekend by Mr. Vance in Islamabad, ended without a breakthrough. The meeting had been the highest-level encounter between Iranian and American leaders in decades.
Here’s what else we are covering:
Pakistan: Pakistan appeared to be readying for a fresh round of talks between the U.S. and Iran, an indication that the talks were likely to go forward even as the two sides sent conflicting public messages. Islamabad, the capital, went on a security lockdown on Sunday night and officials said they would deploy 10,000 extra security forces in the city.
Lebanon: Thousands of displaced Lebanese families were making their way back home to Lebanon’s south on Sunday soon after a 10-day cease-fire went into effect. The head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said this weekend that the group was willing to cooperate with the Lebanese authorities to end the war with Israel and laid out a series of conditions for a lasting truce.
Energy Prices: Secretary of Energy Chris Wright acknowledged on Sunday that gasoline prices in the United States had probably peaked but could remain elevated for months, undermining Mr. Trump’s earlier claim that high fuel prices resulting from the war in Iran would be “short-term.”
April 19, 2026, 6:49 p.m. ET31 minutes ago
In a post on X, U.S. Central Command shared a video it says shows an American warship firing on an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel, the Touska, after it failed to comply with warnings to turn around.
The footage, recorded from the perspective of the warship, focuses on a cargo vessel with features that appear to match the Touska sailing across the open water. A voice is heard telling the crew of the vessel to vacate the engine room, announcing “we’re prepared to subject you to disabling fire.” Some radio chatter is audible as a loud horn blares. Three subsequent clips appear to show the warship firing at the vessel, but each clip cuts before an impact is clearly visible.
The video is composed of several clips and appears to have been recorded at different times throughout the day, based on the lighting and the sun’s position in the sky. The Times was not able to verify when each clip was filmed, or if they were edited together in the order they were recorded.
April 19, 2026, 6:20 p.m. ET1 hour ago
Oil prices jumped and stock futures fell on the renewed Iran conflict
Oil prices shot higher and stocks sank on Sunday evening after a weekend of renewed conflict around the Strait of Hormuz dampened hope that the waterway might soon reopen.
Earlier on Sunday, a U.S. Navy destroyer attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that President Trump said had tried to evade the U.S. blockade on ships traveling to and from Iranian ports. And on Saturday, a day after Iran’s foreign minister declared the strait open, the country reversed course, reasserting “strict control” over it and attacking two Indian-flagged vessels.
All of that happened after markets closed on Friday, meaning traders are only now digesting those developments.
This is set to be a pivotal week in the war, now in its eighth week, with the cease-fire between the United States and Iran set to expire within days. Mr. Trump said the United States was sending a delegation to Pakistan for further negotiations with Iran, though it was not clear that Iran was on board.
Also on Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright acknowledged what analysts widely have been predicting: that Americans are unlikely to see gasoline prices return to prewar levels anytime soon.
Oil prices climbed
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, climbed more than 6 percent to around $96 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, experienced a similar jump, rising to around $88 a barrel.
Investors and analysts are focused on the continued disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas and normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Price of Brent crude oil
How much the international benchmark costs
Jan.Feb.MarchApril020406080$100 per barrel
Notes: Data shows future contract prices for Brent crude oil. Gaps indicate nontrading hours. Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Source: FactSet.
The New York Times
Stock futures pointed to a decline
Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a 1 percent decline when stocks open for trading in the United States on Monday. The index has risen sharply in recent weeks and ended trading on Friday 3.6 percent higher than before the war began.
Gasoline prices fell.
Gas prices fell on Sunday to a national average of $4.05 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. That is down from a recent high of $4.17 earlier in April. Still, drivers are paying about 36 percent more for gas than they were when the war began.
Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.
Diesel prices have increased even more quickly and stood at $5.56 on Sunday, up 48 percent since the start of the war but down modestly from a week ago.
Show less
April 19, 2026, 5:47 p.m. ET2 hours ago
A U.S. Navy destroyer repeatedly warned an Iranian-flagged cargo ship to stop over a six-hour period on Sunday before firing on the ship’s engine room, disabling the Iran-bound vessel to allow helicopter-borne Marines to board and seize it, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. When the crew of the Touska, the Iranian ship, ignored the American warnings, a destroyer fired its MK 45 gun into the cargo ship’s engine room, Central Command said. On Sunday, Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit were conducting a search of the vessel, which is now in American custody.
April 19, 2026, 4:51 p.m. ET2 hours ago
Can the U.S. blockade Iranian-linked ships anywhere in the world? Yes, but …
The United States military last week extended its blockade on vessels coming in and out of Iranian ports to the waters of the wider world, declaring that it would pursue any ship aiding Iran, regardless of location on the high seas or flag.
The U.S. “will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran,” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday, noting that the American troops beyond the Middle East will engage in operations to thwart Iranian shipping.
The extension of the blockade comes as the economically vital Strait of Hormuz remains all but closed to commercial traffic and the two-week cease-fire between the United States and Iran nears an end. The move aligns longstanding American economic policies targeting Iran with the current military campaign against it, maritime and military law experts say.
But it raises a host of legal and practical questions.
“War is a messy thing not just on the combat side but under national and international law,” said James R. Holmes, chair of maritime strategy at the Naval War College.
“From a legal standpoint, a blockade is an act of war, so the blockade probably is legal to the extent Operation Epic Fury is,” he said using the name of the U.S. military campaign against Iran.
Since Congress has not declared war against Iran, no formal state of war exists between the United States and the Islamic Republic. But Mr. Holmes noted that “undeclared wars are more the rule than the exception in U.S. history,” with joint resolutions of Congress, United Nations Security Council resolutions and NATO decisions invoked to justify fighting.
“This campaign may be more unilateral than most, but it is not without precedent,” he said.
Under international law, the legality of the blockade is “more ambiguous,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a foreign policy think tank in Washington.
For a blockade to be legal, Ms. Kavanagh said, it must be “effective,” meaning that it is both enforceable and enforced. Some would argue that a “‘global blockade’ is not permissible in conception” because it is overly broad, she said.
Still, expansive blockades have taken place throughout history, including during World War II, when states enforced naval blockades worldwide other than in neutral territorial seas. Over the centuries before that, the British blockaded France throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and during the War of American Independence, the colonies and their allies raided British shipping as far away as the Indian Ocean.
Enforcing expansive blockades is difficult, however.
“The seven seas are a big place, and the largest navy or coast guard is tiny by comparison,” Mr. Holmes said. Whether the U.S. blockade ultimately is deemed “effective,” legally speaking, will depend on whether the U.S. has enough assets like ships, aircraft, boarding crews and intelligence gathering to enforce it.
The blockade does not have to be “airtight” to meet the legal test, Mr. Holmes said, and assessing its effectiveness will be tough for outside observers in any case.
Enforcement may also have to be somewhat selective, he suggested.
“Now, it is possible our leadership might quietly let a ship proceed when it suits the national interest,” Mr. Holmes said. “For instance, with a summit coming up between President Trump and General Secretary Xi” — Mr. Trump is to meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in May — “Washington might not want to ruffle feathers by obstructing China’s oil imports.”
The expanded blockade is part of a longstanding economic campaign against Iran, but it represents something of a tactical change for the Trump administration.
Earlier in the war, the United States temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian oil at sea to ease the pressure on global energy prices. And before imposing a blockade on Iranian ports last week, the U.S. allowed Iranian tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz for the same reason.
Now Washington seems to be returning its focus to keeping pressure on Iran.
“The blockade is a wartime extension of existing U.S. economic sanctions against the Iranian regime,” said James Kraska, professor of international maritime law and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. In peacetime, he said, the sanctions were a “powerful tool to weaken the Iranian economy.” Now, he said, the blockade serves as a “kinetic expansion.”
General Caine’s announcement about the expanded naval blockade came one day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Fury,” an effort he called the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign. It includes secondary sanctions on institutions internationally, like banks, that have dealings with Iran.
The expanded blockade “marks a notable escalation by the United States,” said Ms. Kavanagh.
Still, she said, it is unlikely to significantly change Iranian calculations.
“For Iran, this war is existential and it is not going to cave easily or quickly,” she said. “Economic pressure may work over the very long term, but Trump seems too impatient for a deal to wait it out.”
Show less
April 19, 2026, 4:47 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Energy secretary says gas prices may stay above $3 until 2027
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said on Sunday that gasoline prices in the United States had probably peaked but acknowledged that they could remain elevated for months, undermining President Trump’s earlier claim that high fuel prices would be “short-term.”
Mr. Wright had said in early March that the average gas price in the United States would fall below $3 a gallon within “weeks” after President Trump and Israel initiated airstrikes against Iran in late February. But on Sunday, Mr. Wright appeared to backtrack in an appearance on the CNN program “State of the Union” after the host, Jake Tapper, asked him when it would be “realistic” for Americans to see $3 per gallon prices at the pump.
“I don’t know,” Mr. Wright said. “That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year. But prices have likely peaked.”
When asked again if he meant that gas prices might not return to prewar levels until 2027, Mr. Wright suggested that such price levels were “pretty tremendous” after accounting for inflation. Before the war began, the average national price for a gallon of regular gas was $2.98. On Sunday, the average price was $4.05 per gallon, according to the AAA motor club.
Iran has responded to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by disrupting shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where a significant share of the world’s energy flows. The disruption has pushed up global oil prices and led to sticker shock for U.S. consumers at the gas pump.
That has created a political headache for Mr. Trump, who promised affordable gas prices during his 2024 presidential campaign. Republicans are worried about their chances of keeping their congressional majorities in the upcoming November midterm elections as the war drives up the costs of energy and goods.
Even as gas prices rose, Mr. Trump continued to call the spike at the pump “a short-term increase” until early April. But he later undercut his own claims and said the prices “should be around the same” in November and might be “a little bit higher,” a prediction that Mr. Wright echoed on Sunday.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Wright’s reluctant acknowledgment of persistently high gas prices reflects the realities on the ground. The cease-fire remains unstable, shipping traffic through the strait is far below normal levels and it could still take months for damaged oil production facilities in the region to come back online.
Mr. Wright’s comments still prompted a round of attacks from Democrats, who have spent weeks assailing the administration over gas prices and have placed the issue at the center of their messaging going into the midterms.
“I guess they’re surrendering,” Representative Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat from a swing district, said in an interview, referring to Mr. Wright’s comments.
Ken Martin, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement that Mr. Trump “might not have to worry about filling up his tank” but that many “Americans literally can’t afford the Trump presidency.”
And Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, wrote on social media that the administration did not “have a plan to lower gas prices or get us out of this mess — and they never have.”
Dan Eberhart, an oil executive and Republican donor, said in a text message that reversing the rise in gas prices would be more complicated than simply reopening the Strait of Hormuz. He pointed to a familiar adage in the energy industry: Oil prices rise like a rocket and fall like a feather.
Show less
April 19, 2026, 4:43 p.m. ET3 hours ago
The Touska had departed from Malaysia with cargo and crossed the U.S. blockade line before it was intercepted, according to TankerTrackers.com, a company that monitors global oil shipments.
April 19, 2026, 4:15 p.m. ET3 hours ago
David Botti and Devon Lum
The Touska, an Iranian-owned container ship that President Trump said was fired on by U.S. forces, last broadcast its position six hours ago from a location in the Gulf of Oman around 30 miles off of Iran’s coast, according to data from MarineTraffic, a website that tracks global shipping. The vessel is currently under U.S. sanctions for its ties to Iran’s shipping industry.
April 19, 2026, 3:33 p.m. ET4 hours ago
President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the U.S. military had attacked an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to maneuver around the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which remains heavily contested amid ongoing negotiations between U.S. and Iran.
“The U.S. Navy Guided Missile Destroyer USS SPRUANCE intercepted the TOUSKA in the Gulf of Oman, and gave them fair warning to stop,” he wrote. “The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom. Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel.”
Trump said the vessel was under U.S. sanctions “because of their prior history of illegal activity” and that U.S. forces were “seeing what’s on board!”
April 19, 2026, 3:32 p.m. ET4 hours ago
U.S. attacks Iranian cargo ship as both countries claim cease-fire violations
President Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. military attacked and seized custody of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that had tried to maneuver around the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, hours after he and an Iranian official exchanged accusations of cease-fire violations in the Strait of Hormuz.
A U.S. Navy destroyer intercepted the cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman and “gave them fair warning to stop,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on social media. “The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom.” He added that the ship, the Touska, was under U.S. sanctions and that the United States was “seeing what’s on board!”
The attack on the Iranian ship, which was not immediately confirmed by Iran, is sure to raise tensions in the already escalating standoff over the strait.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump accused Iran of firing on ships passing through the strait in “a total violation of our ceasefire agreement,” while Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said it was the U.S. blockade that was a violation of the cease-fire.
The blockade was an unlawful act that amounted to a “war crime and crime against humanity” because it was “deliberately inflicting collective punishment” on the Iranian people, Mr. Baqaei said.
Mr. Trump said in his social media post that the ships attacked by Iran were from France and Britain, though the two vessels that the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organization reported hit on Saturday appeared to be Indian-flagged, according to a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
The U.K.M.T.O. said that gun boats belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly fired on one vessel, a tanker, without radio warning. In the other incident, the organization reported, a container ship was “hit by an unknown projectile,” causing damage to some containers. India’s external affairs ministry said it had summoned Iran’s ambassador over the incidents.
Those ships and several others reversed course, according to shipping analysts. The U.K.M.T.O. had not reported any further incidents in the region as of Sunday evening local time.
At least two tankers trying to cross the strait on Sunday, one sailing under Botswana’s flag and the other under Angola’s, were forced by Iran’s military to change course, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial Iranian news agency.
Mr. Trump’s accusation on Sunday came just 48 hours after he declared that according to Iran, the “STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE.” He left in place the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
But Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had said that after the announcement of a cease-fire in Lebanon, passage through the strait would be “completely open” only on a route that runs close to Iran’s coastline and only “for the remaining period of the ceasefire.” It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Araghchi was referring to the cease-fire in Iran or the cease-fire in Lebanon.
A day after Mr. Araghchi’s statement, Iran’s military declared that it would retake “strict” control over the strait until Mr. Trump ended the U.S. blockade. Mr. Trump responded with a threat, saying on Sunday that American representatives were on their way to Islamabad for future negotiations and that the United States would attack every power plant and bridge in Iran if it did not accept a deal.
Tasnim reported on Sunday that Iranian negotiators had said no negotiations would take place unless the United States ended its blockade.
Show less
April 19, 2026, 3:30 p.m. ET4 hours ago
David Botti and Devon Lum
In the past 24 hours, at least one tanker, the G Summer, has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from MarineTraffic, a site that tracks global shipping. The tanker entered the strait around 7 p.m. local time, after it had approached the strait and turned around, before making another U-turn in the Persian Gulf.
Last week, the ship began broadcasting through its identification transponder that it was Chinese owned and crewed in an apparent effort to ward off any interference by Iranian authorities. The same vessel, under a previous owner and name, was sanctioned by the United States in 2022 for alleged connections to Iranian petroleum and petroleum products.
It is not clear if any vessels obscuring their position have also crossed through the strait.
April 19, 2026, 1:45 p.m. ET6 hours ago
Sanam Mahoozi
Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported on Sunday that a second round of diplomatic talks in Islamabad had not yet been agreed to. The agency said that “excessive” and “unreasonable” expectations and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports “have so far hindered progress in the negotiations.”
April 19, 2026, 12:57 p.m. ET6 hours ago
Pakistani officials have not confirmed they would host talks this week between the United States and Iran, but Islamabad was placed on a security lockdown on Sunday night, similar to the one deployed over a 2-mile perimeter last weekend when it hosted the first round of negotiations. The luxury hotel where Vice President JD Vance met with Iranian officials has been emptied and Pakistani officials have said they would deploy 10,000 additional security personnel in the city, including hundreds of special forces and snipers.
April 19, 2026, 11:32 a.m. ET8 hours ago
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said targeting civilian infrastructure in Iran remained on the table if a deal was not reached to extend a ceasefire and that such attacks would not constitute war crimes. “We have a long history of taking down bridges, power plants and other infrastructure that is powering Iran’s military,” Waltz told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “In the laws of land warfare and the rules of engagement, any type of infrastructure that is co-mingled is absolutely a legitimate target.”