2nd US carrier group heads toward Middle East amid Iran tensions
F-18 jet fighters are seen on the flight deck of USS Gerald R. Ford on Nov. 17, 2022, in Gosport, England. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A second American aircraft carrier — the USS Gerald R. Ford — is heading toward the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran, accompanied by destroyers and aircraft being redeployed from missions in the Caribbean region, a U.S. official told ABC News.
As negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program continue, American aircraft carriers are at the forefront of a major U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. The Ford is expected to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in the region, the latter having arrived there late last month.
The Ford briefly transmitted its location off the coast of Morocco on Wednesday as it approached the Mediterranean Sea, according to data from the MarineTraffic website. The carrier’s location was visible for around two hours.
Also visible on the FlightRadar24 website on Wednesday were two C-2A Greyhound aircraft, which in recent months have been operating off the carrier. The aircraft transmitted their locations off the coast of Portugal, around 230 miles from the Ford’s position.
The Ford is being accompanied by four destroyers as it sails east toward the Middle East.
Three of the destroyers are part of the Ford’s carrier strike group that have accompanied the carrier since it first deployed in June, the fourth destroyer had previously been a part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s surge of military forces in the Caribbean, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.
Each of the destroyers is armed with air defense systems that can shoot down incoming missiles and drones, plus Tomahawk cruise missiles that can be used to strike targets up to 1,000 miles away.
F-35 stealth fighter jets are among the U.S. assets heading toward the Middle East, including some that had been deployed to Puerto Rico ahead of the U.S. operation to depose Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
A spokesman for the Vermont National Guard confirmed to ABC News that the 158th Fighter Wing received a change in mission from U.S. Southern Command — which oversees operations in the Caribbean, Central and South America — but did not disclose their new deployment area.
In late January, online flight trackers noted a dozen F-35 fighters taking off from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico and landing on the Azores islands in the mid-Atlantic, on their way to the Middle East.
Key Iranian nuclear personnel and facilities were targeted by Israeli and American forces during an intense 12-day conflict in June. But the strikes failed to resolve long-standing U.S. and Israeli grievances related to Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile arsenal and its support for regional proxy groups.
U.S. and Iranian representatives met in Geneva, Switzerland, this week for talks regarding a possible deal related to Tehran’s nuclear program and its enrichment of uranium. Trump has demanded that Iran commit to “zero enrichment,” a proposal rejected by Iranian officials.
U.S. officials briefed on the negotiations said Iran indicated a willingness to suspend its nuclear enrichment for a certain amount of time, anywhere from one to five years.
The U.S. is also weighing lifting financial and banking sanctions and the embargo on its oil sales, according to a U.S. official.
Following the talks in Geneva, Iran is expected to submit a written proposal aimed at resolving the tensions, a senior U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday. It is unclear when the written proposal will be submitted to the U.S.
On Tuesday, a White House official said Iran would provide detailed proposals to address “some of the open gaps in our positions” in the next two weeks.
ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.
Jimmy Lai, Apple Daily founder, arrives at the Court of Final Appeal ahead a bail hearing on February 9, 2021 in Hong Kong, China. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
(HONG KONG) — China critic and media mogul Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences, a penalty his son Sebastien called “heartbreaking.”
Lai was found guilty on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty.
It is the harshest sentence delivered to anyone under the sweeping national security law since Beijing introduced it as part of crackdowns in 2020. Lai’s family has been worried their 78-year-old dad would die in prison, and given his age and this 20-year-penalty, there is now a real chance that will happen.
It was a tense morning at the court in Hong Kong. Where there would once be huge lively crowds gathering in support of Hong Kong’s democracy figures, the mood was subdued and yet at the same time on edge. There was a heavy police presence outside the court, where officers were tightly controlling the media and the supporters who were queueing up outside of the court.
Lai’s wife, Teresa, walked out of the court holding back tears behind her large black glasses after seeing her husband in the dock, expressionless as he received his sentence.
Jimmy Lai is a U.K. citizen, and his son Sebastien said he is hoping, now that the case has worked its way through the Hong Kong judicial system, that China may release his father as a way to appease the U.K. and the U.S., especially ahead of President Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to China in April.
“Even though it was expected, it’s still quite a hard reality to have to deal with,” Sebastien Lai said. “There’s no upside in what China is doing to dad and there are very real consequences if he dies in there. That April visit is key.”
“I’m sure many Americans would want to have done what my father did in standing for freedom and defending his people. And for that heroism he is being tortured and sentenced to life in prison,” he added.
When ABC News interviewed Lai at his home while he was on bail in September 2020, Lai explained why he was willing to risk it all. He said he escaped from China at the age of 12 with just a dollar, “This place gave me everything. My reward is to pay back. It’s my redemption.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Hong Kong should free Lai “on humanitarian grounds” and the UK government has also pledged to “rapidly engage further” with Beijing. Trump said back in December that he asked President Xi Jinping to consider Lai’s release, and the U.S. ambassador to China David Perdue has said Lai’s case is part of “ongoing discussions” with the Chinese side.
The sentence has been widely condemned by human rights groups, with Human Rights Watch calling the length of the sentence “effectively a death sentence.”
Amnesty International said it was “another grim milestone in Hong Kong’s transformation from a city governed by the rule of law to one ruled by fear.”
Meanwhile, Beijing and Hong Kong officials welcomed the penalty, with Hong Kong’s leader John Lee saying Lai deserved the 20-year prison sentence for his “evil deeds.”
China’s foreign ministry on Monday called the punishment “legitimate and reasonable.”
President Donald Trump conducts a news conference in the White House briefing room about the war in Iran on Monday, April 6, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — With the war in Iran still unresolved and an energy crisis linked to it battering the global economy, here’s a timeline of the key phases of the conflict, from the start of “Operation Epic Fury” to “Project Freedom,” intended to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Phase 1: Trump announces the start of combat operations in Iran
In a late-night video statement released to the nation on Feb. 28, just hours after U.S. and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran, President Donald Trump announced that major combat operations were underway.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” Trump said.
He said that chief among the goals of the joint U.S.-Israel operations was to eliminate once and for all Iran’s ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“They’ve rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore,” said Trump, adding that after the U.S. “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025, the regime began rebuilding its nuclear program and developing long-range missiles.
In his first press briefing four days after the start of combat operations, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said, “I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Epic Fury: America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.”
U.S. military officials said top government and military leaders of the Iranian regime were killed in the opening salvos of the conflict, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Hegseth said the hundreds of military targets were hit in the first hours of the operation, knocking out the IRGC’s ability to effectively communicate.
Iran retaliated by firing missiles at seven Gulf states, hitting civilian infrastructure and airports in the United Arab Emirates, residential areas in Qatar and an apartment building in Bahrain.
During the briefing, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine released the names of six U.S. service members killed in an Iranian drone strike on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.
Phase 2: Strait of Hormuz becomes focal point of the war
As the fighting progressed, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was named the country’s new supreme leader on March 8, despite reports that he was badly injured in the attack that killed his father.
In his purported first written statement, Mojtaba Khamenei directed the IRGC to continue to limit traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the maritime channel linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, through which 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed in 2024.
Tensions immediately escalated in the Strait of Hormuz following Mojtaba Khamenei’s directive to the IRGC. The Iranian military claimed on March 12 that it struck an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, one of three commercial ships attacked that day near the Strait of Hormuz.
The attacks came just days after President Trump posted a message on his social media platform, saying if Iran attempted to stop the flow of oil in the strait, “They will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”
On March 21, Trump gave Iran an ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial vessels in 48 hours. The president posted on his social media platform that if Iran didn’t comply, “The United States will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST.”
The following day, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the U.N. International Maritime Organization, saying the strait was open to “non-hostile” vessels.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state TV on March 25 that “Iran’s power is the Hormuz Strait.”
Phase 3: US Naval blockade and ceasefire
Trump announced on March 23 that the U.S. and Iran were discussing an end to the war, giving the first indication of diplomatic talks since the start of the war. He gave Iran a five-day extension to reopen the strait, citing progress in ongoing peace negotiations.
The next day, the Trump administration offered Iran, through intermediaries in Pakistan, a 15-point plan to end the war.
Israeli Defense Forces announced on March 26 that Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the IRGC’s navy, was “eliminated” in a strike. The IDF also claimed the strike killed the head of Iran’s naval intelligence, Behnam Rezaei.
On March 26, Trump announced that he was pausing the attack on Iran’s energy plants for 10 days until April 6 at 8 p.m. ET., saying in a social media post, “Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well.”
Trump extended Iran’s deadline again on April 5, giving Iran until April 7 to make a deal. Iran responded to Trump’s 15-point peace plan with a 10-point proposal for ending the war, but the strait remained on lockdown.
Just hours ahead of the April 7 deadline, Trump again took to social media, writing, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
That same day, Iran and the United States announced they had agreed to a two-week ceasefire that would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
But on April 8, Israel launched a heavy bombing attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon, prompting Iran to complain that Israel broke the ceasefire agreement and closed the strait again.
Vice President JD Vance then traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan, for peace talks with Iran, brokered by Pakistan. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also participated in the talks, but Vance announced on April 11 that no agreement had been reached.
With the strait still closed, President Trump on April 13 announced a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports along the strait. “We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world, because that’s what they’re doing,” Trump said.
Trump said on April 21 that the ceasefire was being extended indefinitely at the request of Pakistan, but that the naval blockade would stay in place.
Phase 4: ‘Project Freedom’
As the war dragged into May, Trump announced that the U.S. Central Command was launching “Project Freedom,” in which U.S. military ships would escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
But the launch of Project Freedom on May 3 caused an escalation of tensions in the strait.
On May 4, Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. Central Command, said the IRGC had launched missiles, drones, and small boats toward ships the U.S. was protecting in the Strait of Hormuz. Cooper said the U.S. “defeated each and every one of those threats,” and that U.S. AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and others were used to “eliminate” the Iranian attack boats.
On May 5, Trump announced a temporary pause in Project Freedom at the request of Pakistan.
In a statement on social media on May 6, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the pause “will go a long way towards advancing regional peace, stability and reconciliation during this sensitive period.”
Trump said that while Project Freedom is paused, the U.S. naval blockade is still in effect.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends a rally in support of political prisoners in Prospekt Sakharova Street in Moscow, Russia on September 29, 2019. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a rare lethal toxin found in poison dart frogs from South America, according to a joint statement from the UK, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.
The European partners said they are confident in their determination based on analyses of samples from Navalny which confirmed the presence of the lethal toxin, Epibatidine.
“Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him,” the statement read.
Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said in a social media post she “was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon.”
Navalnaya said she is grateful to the countries who have worked on the investigation.
“Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes,” she said.
Russian officials did not immediately comment on the report.
