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Trump Hints at Second Carrier in Middle East as Iran and US Near Talks 

In this handout photograph released by the US Navy on February 5, 2026, an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on February 3, 2026. (AFP / US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zoe Simpson)
In this handout photograph released by the US Navy on February 5, 2026, an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on February 3, 2026. (AFP / US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zoe Simpson)
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Trump Hints at Second Carrier in Middle East as Iran and US Near Talks 

In this handout photograph released by the US Navy on February 5, 2026, an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on February 3, 2026. (AFP / US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zoe Simpson)
In this handout photograph released by the US Navy on February 5, 2026, an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on February 3, 2026. (AFP / US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zoe Simpson)

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, even as Washington and Tehran prepare to resume negotiations aimed at averting a new conflict.

Oman facilitated talks between Iran and the US last week, which a spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry said had allowed Tehran to gauge Washington's seriousness and showed enough consensus for diplomacy to continue.

The talks came after Trump had positioned one aircraft carrier in the region, raising fears of new military action. Trump, who joined an Israeli bombing campaign last year and hit Iranian nuclear sites, had threatened last month to intervene militarily during a bloody government crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran, but ultimately held off.

In interviews with Israeli media, Trump said the United States would have to do "something very tough" if a deal is not reached with Iran.

"Either we reach a deal or we'll have ‌to do something very tough," ‌Israel's Channel 12 quoted him as saying.

The date and venue of the next ‌round ⁠of US-Iran talks have ‌yet to be announced.

Trump told Channel 12 and Axios that he was also considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East.

The USS George Washington in Asia and the USS George HW Bush on the US east coast are the most likely candidates, officials have told Reuters, but each is at least a week away from the Middle East. The Pentagon could also deploy the Ford carrier from the Caribbean.

"After the talks, we felt there was understanding and consensus to continue the diplomatic process," said the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei.

Baghaei said Tuesday's trip to Oman by Ali Larijani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, had been pre-planned, and that Larijani would travel next ⁠to Qatar, which has also mediated in several Middle East crises.

Oil prices eased on Tuesday as traders remained focused on Iran-US tensions.

A Reuters analysis of satellite images showed a ‌recent build-up of aircraft and other military equipment across the region.

DIFFERENCE ‍OVER WHETHER TO DISCUSS MISSILE STOCKPILE

Oman's state news agency said Larijani and Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq discussed ways to reach a "balanced and just" agreement between Iran and the US, stressing the importance of returning to dialogue to bridge differences and promote regional and global peace and security.

The US is seeking to expand the scope of negotiations with Iran beyond the nuclear issue to curb Iran's ballistic missile program, one of the biggest in the Middle East.

Tehran says its missile arsenal has been rebuilt since last year's 12-day bombing campaign by Israel and the US, and that its stockpile is non-negotiable.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to use a ⁠meeting with Trump in Washington on Wednesday to push for any US-Iran deal to include limitations on Tehran's missiles.

Baghaei said the US "must act independently of foreign pressures, especially Israeli pressures that ignore the interests of the region and even the US."

In any negotiations, Iran would continue to demand the lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights including enrichment, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said.

Washington has demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is considered weapons grade.

VANCE SAYS TRUMP WILL DECIDE RED LINES

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, said on Monday: "The possibility of diluting 60% enriched uranium ... depends on whether, in return, all sanctions are lifted or not."

Asked whether the US would allow limited uranium enrichment by Iran, US Vice President JD Vance said during a visit to Armenia on Monday: "I think President Trump is going to make the ultimate determination about where we draw the red lines in the negotiations."

Iran and the US held five rounds of talks last year on curbing Tehran's nuclear program, with the ‌process breaking down mainly due to disputes over uranium enrichment inside Iran.

Since Trump struck Iran's facilities, Tehran has said it has halted enrichment activity. It has always said its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

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World

USS Ford Aircraft Carrier Departs Middle East after Record-breaking Deployment

The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford departs Souda Bay on the island of Crete on February 26, 2026. (Photo by Costas METAXAKIS / AFP)
The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford departs Souda Bay on the island of Crete on February 26, 2026. (Photo by Costas METAXAKIS / AFP)
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USS Ford Aircraft Carrier Departs Middle East after Record-breaking Deployment

The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford departs Souda Bay on the island of Crete on February 26, 2026. (Photo by Costas METAXAKIS / AFP)
The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford departs Souda Bay on the island of Crete on February 26, 2026. (Photo by Costas METAXAKIS / AFP)

The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, will be heading home following a record-setting deployment of more than 300 days that included participating in the war against Iran and capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, two US officials said Wednesday.

The Ford will be leaving the Middle East in the coming days and returning to its home port in Virginia in mid-May, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements. The Washington Post reported the development earlier.

The arrival of the USS George H.W. Bush to the region last week meant three American aircraft carriers were deployed to the Middle East — a number not seen since 2003 — during a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war. USS Abraham Lincoln also has been in the region since January as tensions with Tehran ramped up.

This month, the Ford broke the US record for the longest post-Vietnam War deployment, a nearly 10-month span after leaving Naval Station Norfolk in June, The Associated Press reported.

The ship’s 295th day at sea surpassed the previous longest deployment by an aircraft carrier in the past 50 years, when the Lincoln was sent out for 294 days in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data compiled by US Naval Institute News, a news outlet run by the US Naval Institute, a nonprofit organization.

The Ford's long deployment has raised questions about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as increasing strain on the ship and its equipment, with the carrier already enduring a fire that forced it to undergo lengthy repairs.

Asked about the Ford's long deployment in a hearing Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he consulted with the Navy and those officials did mention readiness and maintenance tradeoffs.

"Multiple times the operational requirements — whether it was down in Southcom or up to Centcom — demanded additional assets in real time, which through a tough decision-making process led to an extension,” Hegseth said, referring to US Southern Command, which oversees Latin America, and US Central Command in the Middle East.

The Ford began its deployment by heading to the Mediterranean Sea. It was then rerouted to the Caribbean Sea in October as part of the largest naval buildup in the region in generations.

The carrier took part in the military operation to capture Maduro. Then it would see more battle, heading toward the Middle East as tensions with Iran escalated.

The carrier took part in the opening days of the Iran war from the Mediterranean Sea before going through the Suez Canal and heading into the Red Sea in early March.

However, a fire in one of its laundry spaces forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs, leaving hundreds of sailors without places to sleep.

The Ford’s 295-day deployment falls short of the longest deployment during the Cold War, a record held by the now-decommissioned USS Midway. It was deployed for 332 days in 1972 and 1973.

More recently, the crew of the USS Nimitz was on duty and away from home for a total of 341 days in 2020 and 2021. However, that included extended isolation periods ashore in the US meant to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

World

New Zealand Court Rejects Mosque Gunman’s Appeal to Abandon his Guilty Pleas

FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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New Zealand Court Rejects Mosque Gunman’s Appeal to Abandon his Guilty Pleas

FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The white supremacist who shot to death 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, lost an attempt to abandon his guilty pleas at the country’s Court of Appeal on Thursday.

The panel of three judges dismissed Brenton Tarrant’s claim that harsh prison conditions prompted his involuntarily admission to the terrorism, murder and attempted murder charges he faced. The Australian man, who is now 35, murdered 51 worshippers and injured dozens more in March 2019 when he drove to two Christchurch mosques and opened fire with semiautomatic weapons during Friday prayers.

Tarrant’s guilty pleas in March 2020 brought relief to bereaved families and survivors of the attack, who dreaded the prospect of a lengthy trial and feared he would use it to air his hateful views. The failure of his appeal bid — which the court noted was made 505 days after the legal deadline for it to be filed — means such a trial has again been averted.

At the court's five-day hearing in February, the attacker argued his admissions of guilt were provoked by “irrationality” induced by poor mental health, which led him to desert his racist views for a time. The judges concluded, however, that his claims of mental illness were inconsistent and weren’t supported by prison staff, mental health professionals or lawyers who had earlier represented him.

“He was not suffering from a mental impairment or any other form of mental incapacity which rendered him unable to voluntarily change his pleas to guilty,” the judges wrote, according to The Associated Press.

“He endeavored to mislead us about his state of mind in a weak attempt to advance an appeal in circumstances where all other evidence demonstrated that he made an informed and totally rational decision to plead guilty.”

FILE - An armed policeman patrols the grounds at the Al Noor mosque following the previous week's mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

The court's ruling also revealed that Tarrant sought to abandon his appeal shortly after making his case at the hearing in February. The judges rejected that bid too, writing that the case was “of significant public interest and should be finally determined.”

They suggested that Tarrant “began to form the opinion that the hearing was not proceeding in his favor, and as a result decided to file a notice of abandonment after the hearing concluded.”

New Zealand law doesn’t require judges to allow an appellant to quit an appeal bid once it’s underway.

He will remain in jail for life Tarrant, who has since fired the lawyers acting for him in February, remains in Auckland Prison, where he was sentenced in August 2020 to spend life in prison without the chance of parole. The judges allowed him to abandon his appeal that sentence, which was scheduled to be heard later in 2026.

The Australian-born man moved to New Zealand in 2017 with a plan to commit a mass shooting. He amassed a cache of weapons and made a reconnaissance trip to the sites of his planned crimes before the attack.

The appeal court judges wrote that Tarrant had accepted the summary of facts presented to him by the police and the sentencing judge and noted that the case against him was “overwhelming.”

Evidence included footage of the attack that the shooter filmed himself and livestreamed on the internet, in which he showed his own face, and a document outlining his racist views that he published online before the attacks under his real name.

World

King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
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King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)

Britain's King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrive in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on the city, part of a four-day state visit to the US.

The king and queen's visit to New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to the US Congress, held private meetings with President Donald Trump amid tensions between the US and Britain over the Iran war, and sat down with leaders of the US tech industry.

At a White House state dinner on Tuesday night, Trump suggested Charles told the president he did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The king is not a spokesman for the UK government and it could not be confirmed that Charles made the statement to Trump.

Britain was one of the countries alongside the US that negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which sharply limited Tehran's nuclear programs and opened them to inspectors until Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement during his first White House term.

Charles and Camilla's visit to New York comes on the third day of their state visit to the US during a tense time in relations between the US and Britain after Trump has repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for what Trump says is his lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.

Charles and Camilla will begin their day in New York with a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by al Qaeda suicide bombers on September 11, 2001, an attack that killed nearly 2,800 people.

Charles is expected to meet with New York City's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the ceremony.

The king will then head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity, according to local media. Such projects have been a passion of the king's for decades.

Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of A.A. Milne’s fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a "literary engagement" event.