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Another US Aircraft Carrier in Middle East Waters Ahead of 2nd Round of Iran-US Nuclear Talks 

This photograph released by the US Navy shows a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter hovering over the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier while operating in the Middle East on April 12, 2025. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Jordan/US Navy via AP)
This photograph released by the US Navy shows a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter hovering over the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier while operating in the Middle East on April 12, 2025. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Jordan/US Navy via AP)
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Another US Aircraft Carrier in Middle East Waters Ahead of 2nd Round of Iran-US Nuclear Talks 

This photograph released by the US Navy shows a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter hovering over the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier while operating in the Middle East on April 12, 2025. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Jordan/US Navy via AP)
This photograph released by the US Navy shows a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter hovering over the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier while operating in the Middle East on April 12, 2025. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Jordan/US Navy via AP)

A second US aircraft carrier is operating in Mideast waters ahead of the next round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, satellite photos analyzed Tuesday by The Associated Press showed. 

The operation of the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group in the Arabian Sea comes as suspected US airstrikes pounded parts of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias overnight into Tuesday. American officials repeatedly have linked the US' monthlong campaign against the Houthis under President Donald Trump as a means to pressure Iran in the negotiations. 

Questions remain over where the weekend talks between the countries will be held after officials initially identified Rome as hosting the negotiations, only for Iran to insist early Tuesday they would return to Oman. American officials so far haven't said where the talks will be held. 

The stakes of the negotiations couldn't be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's nuclear program if a deal isn't reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels. 

US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who represented America in last weekend's talks in Oman, separately signaled that the Trump administration may be looking at terms of the 2015 nuclear deal that the president unilaterally withdrew from in 2018 as a basis for these negotiations. He described the talks last weekend as “positive, constructive, compelling.” 

“This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program, and then ultimately verification on weaponization,” Witkoff told Fox News on Monday night. “That includes missiles, the type of missiles that they have stockpiled there. And it includes the trigger for a bomb.” 

He added: “We're here to see if we can solve this situation diplomatically and with dialogue.” 

Vinson joins Truman as second US aircraft carrier in Middle East 

Satellite photos taken Monday by the European Union's Copernicus program showed the Vinson, which is based out of San Diego, California, operating northeast of Socotra, an island off Yemen that sits near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. The Vinson is accompanied by the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the USS Sterett and the USS William P. Lawrence. 

The US ordered the Vinson to the Mideast to back up the USS Harry S. Truman, which has been launching airstrikes against the Houthis since the American campaign started March 15. Footage released by the Navy showed the Vinson preparing ordinance and launching F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets off its deck in recent days. 

The US Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which oversees the Mideast, declined to discuss details of the Vinson's operations. 

Witkoff suggests 3.67% uranium enrichment for Iran  

Meanwhile, Witkoff offered for the first time a specific enrichment level he'd like to see for Iran's nuclear program. Today, Tehran enriches uranium to up to 60% — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. 

“They do not need to enrich past 3.67%,” Witkoff told Fox News. "In some circumstances, they're at 60%, in other circumstances, 20%. That cannot be. 

“And you do not need to run, as they claim, a civil nuclear program where you're enriching past 3.67%. So this is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program, and then ultimately verification on weaponization.” 

The 2015 nuclear deal Iran agreed to with world powers under President Barack Obama saw Tehran agree to drastically reduce its stockpile of uranium and only enrich up to 3.67% — enough for its nuclear power plant at Bushehr. Iran in exchange received access to frozen funds around the world, and sanctions were lifted on its crucial oil industry and other sectors. 

Iran's Javan newspaper, which is believed to be close to its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, suggested in an editorial Tuesday that Tehran would be open to reducing its enrichment. 

“Something that we have done before, why should we not carry it again and reach a deal?” the editorial asked. “This is not called a withdrawal by Iran from its ideals anywhere in the world.” 

When Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, however, he pointed at Iran's ballistic missile stockpile as one reason to leave the deal. Witkoff said any deal with Iran would have to include “missiles, the type of missiles that they have stockpiled there and it includes the trigger for a bomb.” 

Iran relies on its ballistic missiles as a hedge against regional nations armed with advanced fighter jets and other American weaponry. Getting it to abandon its missile program likely will be difficult in negotiations. 

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World

Eight Dead in Mass Shooting in Rural West Türkiye

People stroll at Konak Square in the western of Izmir, Türkiye, October 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Dinc
People stroll at Konak Square in the western of Izmir, Türkiye, October 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Dinc
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Eight Dead in Mass Shooting in Rural West Türkiye

People stroll at Konak Square in the western of Izmir, Türkiye, October 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Dinc
People stroll at Konak Square in the western of Izmir, Türkiye, October 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ali Dinc

Eight people were shot dead in three villages in western central Türkiye on Thursday, local officials said, as a major manhunt was underway to find the gunman.

"Unfortunately, eight of our citizens have lost their lives, and one has been seriously injured in armed attacks in our province," the Afyonkarahisar governor's office said.

The incident occurred in the early evening in a rural area near Afyonkarahisar, a town half way between the capital Ankara and the coastal city of Izmir, AFP reported.

Two women with gunshot wounds were found on a road in Yukaritandir village, but despite being rushed to hospital, both died, Anadolu state news agency said.

Three more bodies were found in Kiyir village, which lies a half-hour drive to the northeast, and another three in Ayazini village, a further half-hour drive further east, it said.

Another person found in a critical condition was fighting for their life in hospital, it said, without saying where they had been injured.

NTV private television said police were chasing a suspect driving a red car who was seen fleeing the scene.

World

More Than a Dozen Flights in Europe Receive Bomb Threats that an Official Calls 'Malicious' Hoaxes

This video grab from AFPTV footage shows a Finnair plane taking off from Fiumicino Airport after it was diverted due to a bomb threat, with Italian air force jets having escorted it from Helsinki to Rome on November 5, 2026. (Photo by Andrea BERNARDI / AFP)
This video grab from AFPTV footage shows a Finnair plane taking off from Fiumicino Airport after it was diverted due to a bomb threat, with Italian air force jets having escorted it from Helsinki to Rome on November 5, 2026. (Photo by Andrea BERNARDI / AFP)
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More Than a Dozen Flights in Europe Receive Bomb Threats that an Official Calls 'Malicious' Hoaxes

This video grab from AFPTV footage shows a Finnair plane taking off from Fiumicino Airport after it was diverted due to a bomb threat, with Italian air force jets having escorted it from Helsinki to Rome on November 5, 2026. (Photo by Andrea BERNARDI / AFP)
This video grab from AFPTV footage shows a Finnair plane taking off from Fiumicino Airport after it was diverted due to a bomb threat, with Italian air force jets having escorted it from Helsinki to Rome on November 5, 2026. (Photo by Andrea BERNARDI / AFP)

Bomb threats targeted more than a dozen flights in Europe on Thursday, leading to a slew of emergency landings and military escorts in some cases, authorities said. No hazardous or suspicious materials have been found in what a British official called “malicious" hoaxes.

Several similar threats targeted planes earlier this week, prompting searches and diversions. Europe has experienced a slew of other disruptions recently, such as attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions and mysterious triggers to alert apps.

While fake bomb threats are relatively common, it is unusual to see so many in a single day. They come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and warnings from authorities that Russia may be ramping up so-called hybrid threats in Europe.

It was not known whether this week's threats were linked, who sent them or what their aims were.

An email containing the threat to Rome-bound planes was sent on behalf of a group that describes itself as anti-feminist, according to a copy provided by an airport official and reviewed by The Associated Press.

An official from another European airport said the threat they received also came from a group calling itself anti-feminist, and used some of the same language. It wasn't clear if the two threats were sent by the same group. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to share the information.

Passengers of Aer Lingus aircraft from Dublin to Rome, leave in a bus the Evreux-Fauville Air Base after their plane had been rerouted and escorted by military aircraft after a suspected bomb threat, on November 5, 2026. (Photo by Guillaume Saligot / AFP)

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said the threats were “stress-testing” how European governments and airport officials respond, and whether their responses were coordinated.

The idea behind the threats “appears to be to sow chaos, uncertainty, about the reliability of air traffic across Europe” and could have “cascading effects” — like economic damage and costs related to inspection, investigation and cleaning aircraft.

Joji Waites, who heads flight safety at the British Airline Pilots’ Association, said the industry has put in place “proved mechanisms” for dealing with such threats, including a team of assessors to grade the level of threat in a red-amber-green color-coding system, quick notification of flight crews, and the evacuation of planes on the ground.

Each flight disruption could cost airlines as much as $250,000, on a par with the possible costs of dealing with an unruly passenger, said Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University in England.

“And that’s because you might end up with the crew going out of hours. You might need replacement crew. You have got passengers that miss their flight connections," Baum said. "It knocks everything out of sync for the rest of the day for the airline in question.”

Military escorts incur expenses, too, which would be borne by governments rather than airlines, he added.

Officials decry the hoaxes Britain's transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, told British broadcasters that flights across Europe have been hit by “malicious hoax threats.”

European Union Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas told reporters in Dublin that it was “too early to draw conclusions on whether the reported incidents are linked.”

“National investigations remain ongoing,” he said, adding that an EU information-sharing mechanism on aviation security had been activated.

An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military air base in France after receiving a threat, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s office said. The flight landed safely at the base in Evreux, which was under high alert, and military bomb disposal teams were examining the plane, the office said.

Lecornu ordered warplanes to intercept the plane because the pilot “didn’t cooperate as expected with the authorities,” his office said. It declined to comment further.

Hours after the flight landed, the plane was sitting on the tarmac with a Red Cross vehicle nearby while explosive experts with dogs examined it.

An investigation was opened by French aviation security authorities. The regional prosecutor, Remi Coutin, said in a statement that the pilot and co-pilot were being questioned about what happened.

Italian air force jets escort a Finnair flight Italian air force fighter jets escorted a Finnair flight that departed Helsinki bound for Rome after an email threat was received, the air force said in a statement.

Finnair said that two of its flights, including the one that received the military escort and landed safely in Rome, “faced unfounded hoax bomb scares.” The other flight, operated by Jettime from Helsinki to Vienna, landed safely at its destination, and was expected to return to service after an inspection, Finnair said.

Three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, meanwhile, also received military escorts and made emergency landings after bomb threats, officials said. Two of the flights — one from Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other from Madrid — landed safely in Sofia, airport officials told reporters. The third, from London, was diverted and landed safely in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, Plovdiv Airport CEO Krassimir Peshev said.

Several flights across Europe received bomb threats earlier this week, officials said.

The flights included ones operated by Polish airline LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Wizz Air and Ryanair. The hoax threats came after a plane headed for Bulgaria was diverted to Hungary upon receiving a similar bomb threat while in the air. No one was injured.

A Ryanair aircraft at Sofia Airport after airplanes flying from Copenhagen and Madrid landed in Sofia, according to the Bulgarian interior minister, as bomb threats forced airliners to make unplanned landings across Europe, in Sofia, Bulgaria, November 5, 2026. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A slew of other flights were disrupted Thursday. Among those incidents:

— Czech police said searches of four planes that landed in Prague after being targeted by bomb threats turned up nothing. They have not given details on where the flights originated, and said they took precautions despite not finding the threats credible.

— A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed at its destination, where inspections found no hazardous or suspicious items, the airline said.

— A Wizz Air flight from Milan to Bucharest landed safely in Bucharest following a bomb threat, airport spokesman Teo Postelnicu said. Checks turned up no bomb.

— A flight to Warsaw landed in Vienna after an email to Polish authorities containing an abstract threat, said Stefan Loidl, a police spokesperson in Lower Austria province. Nothing was found and the plane continued to Warsaw. He said there was also an abstract threat to Vienna Airport concerning four other flights, which he declined to identify, but operations were not disrupted.

- Air Serbia said a flight from Belgrade to Romania’s capital, Bucharest, received a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax. The plane landed in Bucharest, underwent checks and resumed regular operations.

World

Paraguay President Resigns Following Bank Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Paraguay's President Santiago Peña speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Asuncion, Paraguay August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Cesar Olmedo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Paraguay's President Santiago Peña speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Asuncion, Paraguay August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Cesar Olmedo/File Photo
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Paraguay President Resigns Following Bank Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Paraguay's President Santiago Peña speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Asuncion, Paraguay August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Cesar Olmedo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Paraguay's President Santiago Peña speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Asuncion, Paraguay August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Cesar Olmedo/File Photo

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña resigned on Thursday as calls for his removal swelled following the collapse of digital lender ueno that left millions of customers unable to access their accounts.

"I do so with the stability of our country, social peace, and the need to preserve our democratic institutions in mind," he said in a video recorded address on Thursday.

Peña, an ally of US President Donald Trump, is stepping ⁠down after the opposition ⁠called an extraordinary session to begin the process of filing an impeachment motion in Congress, and as protesters demanded his resignation.

Earlier on Thursday Peña lost backing from members of his own conservative party. Vice President Pedro Alliana is ⁠set to take office as his replacement.

Lawmakers had accused Peña of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional cover-ups linked to the collapse of ueno, which had grown quickly from a niche fintech player into a mid-tier bank administering close to $850 million in public funds.

"My greatest wish is that the return of those funds be guaranteed, that the deposit guarantee fund fulfill its ⁠purpose, and ⁠that public funds - as well as the resources that belong to all Paraguayans - be protected," Peña added in his address.

Paraguay's central bank intervened in ueno after determining that it had breached minimum solvency requirements, setting off a crisis that has left the company's roughly 3 million customers, in a country of 6.5 million people, unable to access accounts.

Ueno has made no public statement on the issue.

Hundreds of employees of Ueno Bank and other companies belonging to Grupo Vázquez, the bank’s parent conglomerate, protested outside the Labor Ministry on Thursday, demanding severance and unpaid wages with their jobs in limbo and their salaries trapped at the failed bank.

A day earlier, hundreds of retirees, depositors, university students and workers flooded the streets of Asunción, the capital.

“We want your head, Peña!” they shouted. Their signs demanded Peña’s impeachment, called him “the enemy of savers” and pleaded “Give us back our money.” Riot police fired pepper spray and rubber pellets to push back the crowds.