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Rubio Trip to Israel on Iran Tensions 'Subject to Change'

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves as he departs at the Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves as he departs at the Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
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Rubio Trip to Israel on Iran Tensions 'Subject to Change'

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves as he departs at the Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves as he departs at the Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio may push back a trip to Israel in which he is expected to speak to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about potential strikes on Iran, a US official said Monday.

"Secretary Rubio is still planning to travel to Israel but the schedule remains subject to change," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Rubio had earlier been expected to meet Netanyahu on Saturday, but Israeli media reports said he was now expected in the country on Monday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier told CBS News that he expected new talks on Thursday with the United States and held out hope for progress.

President Donald Trump has sent a major deployment of air and sea power to the Middle East and has threatened to strike Iran if it does not reach a deal on key concerns starting with its nuclear program.

Netanyahu has long advocated a hard line on Iran's clerical state and last June ordered a 12-day bombing campaign inside the country, which the United States briefly joined.

Netanyahu visited Washington on February 11 to speak with Trump, who said afterward that he "insisted" on giving time for diplomacy.

Iran has publicly insisted that it has a right to uranium enrichment.

The United States and Israel have threatened new military action against Iran after mass protests against the Islamic republic, which authorities crushed at a cost of thousands of lives.

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World

US Navy Turns to AI Firm Domino for Options to Counter Iranian Mines

Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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US Navy Turns to AI Firm Domino for Options to Counter Iranian Mines

Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 1, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

The US Navy is ramping up its AI capabilities to hunt for Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical shipping lanes, a recently awarded contract shows.

President Donald Trump has said the US Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the strait, a vital sea route for oil shipments, whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy.

Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the US and ⁠Iran in their weeks-long ⁠war.

The up to $100 million contract for the San Francisco artificial intelligence company Domino Data Lab could quicken this process with software that can teach underwater drones to identify new types of mines in a matter of days.

"Mine-hunting used to be a job for ships," Thomas Robinson, Domino's chief operating officer, said in an interview with Reuters. "It's becoming a job for AI.

⁠The Navy is paying for the platform that lets it train, govern, and field that AI at a speed required for contested waters that block global trade and imperil sailors."

Last week, the US Navy awarded the up to $99.7 million contract to expand Domino's role as the AI backbone of the Navy's Project AMMO - Accelerated Machine Learning for Maritime Operations - a program to make underwater mine detection faster, more accurate, and less dependent on human sailors.

The software integrates data from multiple sensor types, including side-scan sonar and visual imaging systems, and allows the Navy to monitor how well various AI ⁠detection models ⁠are performing in the field, identify failures, and push corrections to improve performance.

The core of Domino's pitch - and the Navy's wager - is speed. Before the company's involvement, updating the AI models that power the Navy's unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to recognize new or previously unseen mines could take up to six months. Domino says it has cut that cycle to days.

Robinson illustrated the relevance to the Middle East crisis: "If there were UUVs in the Baltic Sea trained on Russian mines, and then they needed to be deployed to the Strait of Hormuz to detect Iranian mines, with Domino's technology, the Navy could be ready in a week rather than a year."

A Navy spokesman was not immediately able to provide comment.

World

Magnitude 4.9 Quake Hits Nevada

People walk near Caesars Palace along the Las Vegas Strip, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People walk near Caesars Palace along the Las Vegas Strip, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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Magnitude 4.9 Quake Hits Nevada

People walk near Caesars Palace along the Las Vegas Strip, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People walk near Caesars Palace along the Las Vegas Strip, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A 4.9-magnitude earthquake struck Nevada on Friday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

The tremor hit at a depth of about 12 kilometers (7 miles), around 19 kilometers southeast of Silver Springs.

It struck at about 01:17 am (0817 GMT), the USGS said.

The earthquake probably caused light to moderate shaking, according to the USGS.

It was unlikely that the tremor caused any fatalities or significant economic damage.

Silver Springs has a population of around 5,000.

World

Turkish Police Fire Tear Gas, Arrest Dozens at May Day Rallies

Turkish police detain a protestor during a May Day (Labor Day) rally, marking international Workers' Day, in Besiktas, a district of Istanbul, on May 1, 2026. (AFP)
Turkish police detain a protestor during a May Day (Labor Day) rally, marking international Workers' Day, in Besiktas, a district of Istanbul, on May 1, 2026. (AFP)
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Turkish Police Fire Tear Gas, Arrest Dozens at May Day Rallies

Turkish police detain a protestor during a May Day (Labor Day) rally, marking international Workers' Day, in Besiktas, a district of Istanbul, on May 1, 2026. (AFP)
Turkish police detain a protestor during a May Day (Labor Day) rally, marking international Workers' Day, in Besiktas, a district of Istanbul, on May 1, 2026. (AFP)

Turkish police on Friday fired tear gas and arrested dozens of people holding May Day demonstrations in Istanbul, AFP journalists said.

Two groups were specially singled out in the city's European side after signaling their intention to march to Taksim square -- the scene of several anti-government protests in the past -- which was sealed off overnight by police.

Turkish media, including the opposition website Bir Gun, counted at least 57 arrests.

May 1, which celebrates workers and the working classes, sees a major police deployment in Türkiye every year, with a large area in the heart of Istanbul around Taksim Square sealed off.

Last year, protests moved to the Kadikoy area of the city and more than 400 people were arrested.

On Friday, a large deployment of police, many in riot gear, and metal barricades were seen choking access to central neighborhoods of Istanbul.

In the Mecidiyekoy district, police were seen by AFP using tear gas on the crowd, which included members of a Marxist party, the HKP, who tried to push through while chanting "USA murderer, (Türkiye’s ruling party) AKP accomplice".

Police encircling the Besiktas neighborhood stepped in -- sometimes violently -- whenever a chant was taken up by the demonstrators. AFP saw several protesters thrown to the ground.

Unions and civil society associations had called for the May 1 demonstrations under the slogan "Bread. Peace. Freedom".

Earlier this week, Turkish authorities issued arrest and search warrants against 62 people, of whom they deemed 46 -- including journalists, trade unionists and opposition figures -- were "likely to carry out attacks".