U.S

Netanyahu to press Trump on tougher Iran deal as White House weighs second carrier deployment Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to push U.S. President Donald Trump to harden Washington’s stance in nuclear talks with Iran during a hastily arranged White House meeting today, as the president signals he may send a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. The talks, set to begin at 11 a.m. local time (4 p.m. Irish time), come days after Iran resumed negotiations with the United States in Oman…

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday denied having a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as calls for his resignation intensified and newly released Justice Department files appeared to undercut his earlier account of severing contact more than two decades ago. “Over a 14 year period, I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person,” Lutnick told a Senate committee, adding that while in New York he met Epstein and later had lunch with him during a family vacation around 2012.…

U.S. military says two killed in strike on alleged drug-smuggling boat in eastern Pacific The U.S. military said it killed two people and left a third survivor in its latest strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific, expanding a campaign Washington has framed as a fight against “narco-terrorists” operating out of Venezuela. “Two narco-terrorists were killed and one survived the strike,” U.S. Southern Command said in a statement posted on X. It added that the U.S. Coast Guard was notified to “activate…

Ghislaine Maxwell to face closed-door House deposition; expected to invoke Fifth Amendment Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year federal sentence for trafficking girls to financier Jeffrey Epstein, will be questioned behind closed doors by the House Oversight Committee via prison videolink — but her legal team says she will refuse to answer on Fifth Amendment grounds. The extraordinary deposition, part of a congressional probe into Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and the handling of information about his crimes, follows a…

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim Risch warned this week that continued instability in Somalia poses a direct threat to U.S. national security, pressing for tighter oversight to ensure American counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance advances U.S. interests and is shielded from corruption. “The United States faces real security threats from the instability in Somalia,” said Risch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It is essential that our counterterrorism and humanitarian efforts primarily serve…

Iran’s foreign minister said talks with the United States would resume soon after an initial round in Oman, even as he warned that Tehran would target U.S. bases in the region if Washington strikes Iranian territory. The comments underscore the fragile path back to negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program amid new U.S. sanctions and tariff threats. Abbas Araghchi, speaking in excerpts carried on his official Telegram channel from an interview with Al Jazeera, called the Muscat exchanges “a good start” and said rebuilding…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre met Saturday with U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Justin Davis to deepen cooperation on Somalia’s security campaign and navigate a fraught political calendar, as the federal government presses constitutional changes and debates the framework for the 2026 elections. The meeting at Mogadishu’s Halane base camp covered the government’s military offensive against al-Shabaab and ISIS, along with efforts to stabilize newly recovered areas, according to a readout from the prime minister’s…

GENEVA — The United States called for three-way talks with Russia and China to set new limits on nuclear weapons after the New START treaty expired, erasing the last binding cap on U.S.-Russian strategic arsenals and reviving fears of a new arms race. Thomas DiNanno, the under secretary of state for arms control, told the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that the now-lapsed pact had “fundamental flaws,” citing what he called serial Russian violations, the growth of global stockpiles and weaknesses in the treaty’s…

MUSCAT, Oman — Iran and the United States are set to open high-stakes talks in Oman on Friday aimed at defusing a renewed nuclear standoff, but a deep dispute over the agenda — especially Iran’s missile program — is already clouding prospects for progress and raising fears of a wider Middle East conflict. While both sides have signaled readiness to return to diplomacy, Washington wants any understanding to address far more than uranium enrichment. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the talks should encompass Iran’s…

Iran and the United States will open talks in Oman as early as this week, with Washington signaling it will test the chances for progress on Iran’s nuclear program while refusing to rule out military action. Both capitals confirmed late Wednesday that delegations would meet in Muscat, the first such encounter since June, when the United States joined Israel’s war against Iran with strikes on nuclear sites. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are due to lead…