U.S. restarts Iran blockade and Strait of Hormuz shipping fee

NBC and the New York Times put the president’s escalation and authority questions up front in ways OAN does not. The Times says Trump “notified Congress that fighting had begun again” and announced shipping fees “his administration previously deemed illegal”; OAN does not mention Congress or any prior illegality finding. The reverse gap is just as concrete: OAN gives operational details absent from NBC, the Times and Bloomberg, including that the blockade would begin Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ET, cover vessels “transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas,” and that the earlier blockade redirected “more than 140 compliant vessels,” disabled nine non-compliant ships, and allowed over 50 humanitarian-aid vessels through. OAN also says Iran fired on four commercial vessels last week and that U.S. forces used “one-way attack sea drones” at Bandar Abbas; those facts are not in the left-side pieces. The same 20% charge is framed three different ways: the Times calls it “shipping fees” previously deemed “illegal,” NBC says Trump would “charge ships 20% for safe passage,” and OAN calls it “a reimbursement for providing safe passage.” The military action also shifts in wording: OAN describes “retaliatory strikes from the U.S.” after Iranian fire on vessels, while NBC’s headline says “more strikes on Iran” and the Times says “fighting had begun again.” A timing gap cuts across the side coverage: CBS later reports Trump “decided to replace the 20%” fee with Gulf trade and investment deals, while NBC, the Times, Bloomberg and OAN all stop at the original fee announcement. None explains who would collect the 20%, what cargo value it would be based on, or what legal mechanism would make shippers pay it.