The U.S. Navy’s Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) has denied reports from USA Today and other media outlets, which citied Sailors and Marines attached to the vessels, of food shortages and poor conditions onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) and USS Tripoli (LHA-7) deployed to the Arabian Sea.

The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and her Carrier Strike Group, who on Thursday hit 296-days at sea, surpassing the record for the longest deployed aircraft carrier since the end of the Cold War, has since transited the Suez Canal from the Eastern Mediterranean and is once again conducting operations in the Red Sea, in support of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), two defense officials tell the Associated Press.

The Ford, which initially left the Red Sea in March, after suffering a severe ventilation fire that started in the ship’s laundry and resulted in damage to hundreds of berthings and other compartments, was expected to finally return to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia after loitering for the last few weeks in the Eastern Mediterranean - with stops in Crete and Croatia. Though it appears that the carrier and its crew has yet again been ordered to remain on station near Iran until the arrival of the USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77), who is currently taking the long way to the region around the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa.

Five oil tankers that had been loitering outside Iran’s easternmost port in the Gulf of Oman were no longer visible in satellite imagery late this week, with the ships having left the gulf in the hours before President Trump’s blockade took effect around Iran. One of the vessels has since returned to an Iranian port, two others have turned around and the remaining two are being shadowed by U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers in the Arabian Sea, a U.S. official tells the Washington Post.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N) has announced that beginning in the evening on Saturday, it will be reimposing a total blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, in response to the United States’ refusal to lift its ongoing naval blockade on Iran which it views as a violation of the current ceasefire agreement that is set expired next Tuesday, April 21. The IRGC-N states that all vessels are directed to remain at anchorage in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, and that any any vessels will be considered “hostile” and targeted if they approach the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump convened a meeting in the White House Situation Room on Saturday morning to discuss the renewed crisis around the Strait of Hormuz and negotiations with Iran, with attendees including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratliffe and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to Axios.

Senior U.S. official tells Axios that if there is no breakthrough in peace negotiations soon, the war could resume in the coming days, with the current ceasefire set to expire Tuesday, April 21.

Radio audio from today’s Iranian attack on the Indian-flagged crude oil tanker, M/T SANMAR HERALD, while the vessel was attempting to pass eastbound through the Strait of Hormuz, after reportedly been given permission by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N). The SANMAR HERALD has since withdrawn back to the Persian Gulf, with the IRGC-N once again announcing the total closure of the Hormuz Strait.

Audio credit: @TankerTrackers on X

According to Reuters, this message was broadcast earlier today over VHF maritime frequencies by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N):

“Attention all ships, ​regarding the failure ⁠of the U.S. government to fulfil its commitment in the negotiation, Iran declares the Strait of Hormuz completely ​closed again. No vessel of any type or nationality ​is allowed ⁠to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.”

The U.S. Navy is preparing in coming days to board Iranian-linked sanctioned crude oil tankers and seize commercial ships within international waters in several areas around the globe, according to U.S. officials, expanding its ongoing naval crackdown beyond the current blockade in the Middle East, the officials told the Wall Street Journal.

Chances that commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz returns to normal anytime soon have plummeted in the last 24 hours on Polymarket, as Iran announces it is once again fully closing the vital shipping lane, with traders on Polymarket believing there is only a 24% chance that the strait will be reopened by the end of April.

U.S. intelligence and military officials estimate that Iran still maintains about 40% of its pre-war arsenal of long-range attack drones, as well as 60% of its ballistic and cruise missile launchers, with over 100 systems that were buried inside caves and bunkers as a result of U.S. and Israeli strikes having been recovered since the start of the two-week ceasefire on April 8. In addition, some American estimates assess that Iran could reclaim as much as 70% of its pre-war stockpile of missiles, similarly buried in rubble from attacks on its bunkers and depots, officials tell The New York Times.

Seemingly unusual radio traffic tonight by U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), including a 12-character message from an E-6B “Mercury” Communications Relay and Strategic Airborne Command Post Aircraft.

Audio credit: @neetintel on X

Live performance of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” posted tonight to TruthSocial by U.S. President Donald J. Trump.