{"id":208665,"date":"2026-04-23T19:44:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-ceasefire-holds-but-tensions-escalate-on-the-water-live-updates-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:44:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:44:29","slug":"iran-ceasefire-holds-but-tensions-escalate-on-the-water-live-updates-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-ceasefire-holds-but-tensions-escalate-on-the-water-live-updates-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran ceasefire holds but tensions escalate on the water: Live updates – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s ceasefire with Iran<\/a> remained in place Thursday but tensions on the water were escalating.
Iranian forces seized two vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> on Wednesday, the first such instance of the Islamic republic seizing ships off of its coast since the war began on Feb. 28. State media outlets reported Iranian troops fired on three ships<\/a> attempting to transit the critical shipping lane. Iran previously attacked ships before the ceasefire.
Trump<\/a> has said he will not call off the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, a move Iranian leaders say is a “flagrant breach of the ceasefire<\/a>.” Top officials have called the blockade, as well as Trump\u2019s recent threats<\/a>, the “main obstacles to genuine negotiations<\/a>.”
Negotiations between the two sides have stalled in the meantime. Vice President JD Vance<\/a> scrapped a planned trip to Pakistan for negotiations. The president says he\u2019s waiting on a “unified proposal<\/a>” for peace, though the White House has declined to set<\/a> a timeline for Iran\u2019s response.
Rebecca Morin and Francesca Chambers
The White House will now host negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to end fighting between the two nations amid the ongoing Middle East war.\u00a0
An official said ambassador-level talks, which were set to take place at the State Department<\/a>, will now be at the White House. Trump will greet the representatives upon their arrival, the White House said.
The two nations, following a previous meeting, agreed to a 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that operates out of Lebanon. The temporary ceasefire expires Sunday, April 26.\u00a0
Kyle Werner
All Lt. Col. Tim Halbur remembers is waking up to smoke surrounding him after the March 1 attack in Kuwait that killed six soldiers and injured nine more.
Halbur, 44, of Ankeny<\/a>, was one of four Iowans injured in the Iranian drone attack at the Shuaiba Port, just one day after the Iran war began.
“When I woke up, it was just so dark \u2014 all the smoke and the soot and everything,” Halbur said in a phone interview with the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. He spoke to the Register on Tuesday from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he is being treated.
The blast fractured his right ulna in four places, leaving him with shrapnel wounds. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Halbur and the names of others injured in the attack were identified for the first time in public from the Iowa House floor on April 7. They are all soldiers of the 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, a supply and logistics unit based in the Fort Des Moines Joint Reserve Complex in Des Moines.
Read more<\/a><\/strong>.
Bart Jansen
Trump said he ordered the Navy \u201cto shoot and kill any boat\u201d putting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, as he blockades all shipping with Iran while trying to allow ships from other countries to pass safely through the key waterway.
\u201cThere is to be no hesitation,\u201d Trump said on social media<\/a>on Thursday. \u201cAdditionally, our mine \u201csweepers\u201d are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!\u201d
Trump said the U.S. military sank 159 ships from Iran\u2019s navy. But smaller vessels have continued to harass shipping \u2013 including three ships fired upon on Wednesday \u2013 in the strait where one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas traveled before the war.
Andrea Riquier
Brent crude oil, the global standard, traded near $101.50 a barrel on Thursday morning, after spiking as high as $103 overnight.
Gas prices were also a tick higher: a gallon of unleaded averaged $4.014 nationwide, GasBuddy\u2019s tracker showed. That\u2019s down a bit from last week, but still substantially higher than 2025 averages.
As tensions in the Middle East rise and fall and the Strait of Hormuz opens and then closes and then maybe opens again, the energy supply situation remains acute,\u201d said James Rossiter,<\/strong>head of global macro strategy at TD Securities, in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Higher energy prices have now started to inflate the price of goods and services throughout the economy, Rossiter added. \u201cSecond-round effects will follow in due course, with airline prices already moving upward, and higher food prices coming.\u201d
Francesca Chambers
Negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to end the fighting there were set to resume on Thursday in Washington. At a previous meeting, the nations agreed to a 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that operates out of Lebanon. It expires Sunday, April 26.
The timing of the meeting was unknown and was not listed on the State Department’s public schedule. A State Department official said on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee would join the talks.
Bart Jansen
The Pentagon announced on social media<\/a> it intercepted a sanctioned tanker, the M\/T Majestic X, carrying oil from Iran in the Indian Ocean overnight Thursday.
\u201cWe will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,\u201d the Pentagon said in a statement. \u201cInternational waters cannot be used as a shield by sanctioned actors.\u201d
The military was previously criticized internationally for sinking an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean<\/a> in March, the first such incident with a torpedo since World War II.
Bart Jansen
Iran claimed the first toll has been paid for ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz and demonstrated its control of the key waterway by having state television show commandos storming a cargo ship during a hiatus in peace talks with the United States.
The video broadcast overnight Thursday showed masked troops pulling up in a gray speedboat to the MSC Francesca, one of three container ships fired upon the day before. The troops climbed a rope ladder to a door in the hull and jumped through, brandishing rifles.
Iran has accused the Francesca and another ship, Epaminondas, of trying to cross the strait without permits.
The vice speaker of parliament, Hamidreza Hajibabaei, said the first toll that\u00a0Iran collected from ships using the strait had been transferred to the central bank’s account. But he didn\u2019t say who paid or how much.
Bart Jansen
The Pentagon\u2019s Central Command, which is overseeing the war against Iran, announced it has directed 31 vessels to turn around<\/a> or return to port during the naval blockade to prevent any commerce with Tehran.
Most of the ships that have been turned around have been oil tankers, the command said on social media.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that the blockade was strangling Iran\u2019s economy. But Iran retaliated by firing on three ships from other countries and seizing two of them.
Michael Loria
Hung Cao<\/a>, who will replace Phelan as acting secretary of the Navy, is a decorated veteran and former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Virginia.
According to service records obtained by USA TODAY while Cao was running for Senate, he was awarded a Bronze Star and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bronze Star is awarded to sailors who distinguish themselves by “heroic or meritorious achievement or service.”
His Navy record did not show a Purple Heart award, the commendation given to troops who have suffered wounds from “direct or indirect result of enemy action” that required medical attention, despite Cao making repeated references on the campaign trail to becoming disabled after he was “blown up” in combat and saying he has scars from his military service.
Nor did Cao\u2019s record indicate that he received the Navy\u2019s Combat Action Ribbon, which requires that a sailor “must have rendered satisfactory performance under enemy fire while actively participating in ground or surface combat engagement.”\u00a0
Cao at the time declined to answer specific questions about his military service. He has not claimed to have been awarded a Purple Heart or the Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon.\u00a0
The Navy designated him a “special operations explosive ordnance disposal\/dive officer.” He retired as a captain in 2021.
Contributing by Elizabeth Beyer and Tom Vanden Brook<\/em>
Michael Loria
U.S. Navy Secretary\u00a0John C. Phelan<\/a>, a businessman who was President Trump\u2019s pick to oversee the branch, “is departing the administration, effective immediately,” the Pentagon said Wednesday afternoon.
Phelan had never served in the military and was chosen for the post after being a Trump campaign donor. His resignation comes as Trump promises he won\u2019t call off the U.S. naval blockade of Iran.
“On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”<\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump\u2019s ceasefire with Iran remained in place Thursday but tensions on the water were escalating.Iranian forces seized two vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the first such instance of the Islamic republic seizing ships off of its coast since the war began on Feb. 28. State media outlets reported Iranian troops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-208665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}