Police investigate after American man found fatally stabbed in Tobago
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(NEW YORK) — Authorities on the Caribbean island of Tobago say they’re investigating the death of an American man who was found fatally stabbed on Wednesday.
The victim was identified as Christopher Brown, 42, of Silverthorne, Colorado, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service told ABC News.
Brown was having dinner with friends at Marguarite’s Local Cuisine in the seaside village of Castara on Wednesday and accompanied the group when they went to a second restaurant and bar nearby to have drinks afterward, police said.
He then apparently left the second location, telling his friends that he was going to buy marijuana, and walked along a main road in Castara, according to the police report.
Police received a report just after 10:30 p.m. local time of a “motionless body bearing a stab wound to the back” on Depot Road in Castara, the report states. When they arrived at the scene, they observed several wounds on the man’s body, as well as a “metallic object” protruding from his back.
“The Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation is profoundly saddened and deeply disturbed by the tragic murder of a foreign national in the peaceful community of Castara,” the agency said in a statement. “The Division strongly condemns this horrific act of violence and extends our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of the deceased during this unimaginably difficult time,” a statement from the agency read.
One suspect is in custody, but they have not been charged at this time, police said.
Steve Witkoff, US special envoy, right, and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
LONDON — Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law — will lead American negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland, in high-stakes talks starting Tuesday regarding Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. standoff with Iran over the latter’s nuclear energy program.
The talks on Ukraine will be in a trilateral format including American, Ukrainian and Russian representatives. They are the third instalment of the trilateral format following two rounds of recent negotiations in the United Arab Emirates.
Those talks were described as constructive by participants, but appeared to have failed to achieve a breakthrough on key contentious points, such as the fate of Ukraine’s partially-occupied eastern Donbas region, the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and proposed Western security guarantees for Kyiv.
Asked what he expected ahead of talks with Russia and Ukraine in Geneva on Tuesday, Trump on Monday put the onus on Ukraine to “come to the table fast,” appearing to suggest that the U.S. and Russia “are in a position” to make a deal.
“Well they’re big talks. It’s going to be very easy,” Trump said. “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you. We are in a position, we want them to come.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Alexus Grynkewich — the top U.S. commander in Europe and NATO’s chief military officer — will also attend the Ukraine-Russian talks in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the U.S. delegation, a person familiar with the upcoming discussions told ABC News.
The Ukraine talks are expected to stretch through Tuesday and into Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Monday evening address that Kyiv’s negotiators had already traveled to Switzerland, warning that Moscow was preparing fresh long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities despite the ongoing diplomatic push.
Ukraine’s air force on Tuesday reported a major Russian overnight attack, in which it said Moscow launched 396 drones and 29 missiles into the country. Ukrainian forces downed or suppressed 367 drones and 25 missiles, the air force said. Four missiles and 18 drones impacted across 13 locations, the air force reported.
“It was a combined strike, deliberately calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. Twelve regions of Ukraine were targeted in the Russian strikes and at least nine people, including children, were injured, the Ukrainian president said.
Among the targets was the southern port city of Odesa and the wider region, where “tens of thousands of people are without heat and water supply after the drone strike,” according to Zelenskyy.
Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said NATO aircraft were scrambled and air defenses put on alert as a response to the Russian strikes. “No violations of the Republic of Poland’s airspace by objects that could pose a threat were recorded,” the command said on X.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 151 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. representatives are scheduled to take part in talks over Iran’s nuclear program. The talks will be mediated by Oman, traditionally a conduit for U.S.-Iran exchanges.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Geneva on Monday. Araghchi said in a post to X that he would hold talks with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi and Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.
“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,” Araghchi wrote. “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday that he would be “indirectly” involved in Tuesday’s talks with Iran.
“They’ll be very important,” Trump told reporters of the talks. “We’ll see what can happen. Specifically, Iran is a very tough negotiator.”
Trump has said the U.S. wants Iran to end all nuclear enrichment as part of any deal, while American officials have also indicated that the U.S. wants constraints on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support of regional proxies.
All three demands have long been U.S. goals, but such proposals have been repeatedly rebuffed by Iranian leaders.
The talks have been preceded by a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, with officials in Tehran warning that Iranian forces will retaliate against U.S. and Israeli targets if Iran is attacked.
The latest round of talks also come in the aftermath of a major anti-regime uprising in Iran, in which protests — initially sparked by the deteriorating economic conditions inside the country — spread nationwide. Trump offered his support to the demonstrators, telling them to “keep protesting”, saying “help is on its way.”
Security forces violently suppressed the demonstrations, killing at least 7,000 people according to data published by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier docks at Souda Bay on Crete Island, Greece on February 24, 2026. (Stefanos Rapanis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Officials from Iran and the United States opened high-stakes negotiations in Geneva on Thursday, a third round of nuclear talks that are arriving amid heightened tensions and that could prove pivotal in President Donald Trump’s decision about whether to order a military intervention.
The White House previously said it would accept nothing short of a full stop for Tehran’s uranium enrichment efforts. Trump in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night warned that Iran sought to restart that program after the United States “obliterated” it in strikes on the nation in June.
The White House in recent weeks ordered a major U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, as Trump has weighed options for possible strikes against Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Iran poses a “very great threat” to the United States, but added that the president would prefer to deal with Tehran through diplomacy. He also said Tehran appeared to be attempting to restart its nuclear program.
“You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it,” Rubio told reporters during his trip to St. Kitts and Nevis. “They’re not enriching right now, but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”
Officials from Oman are facilitating the indirect talks in Switzerland. The White House’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are representing the United States.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said early on Thursday that Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday evening and met with Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, his Omani counterpart.
Araghchi during that meeting “stressed that the success of the negotiations depends on the seriousness of the other side and its avoidance of contradictory behavior and positions,” according to Iran.
Questions remained about the current state of Iran’s nuclear program, despite Trump saying it had been “obliterated” in June. Senior Israeli officials told ABC News in July that some enriched uranium may have survived the powerful U.S. strikes. Washington maintains that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, a claim that Tehran has denied.
Araghchi on Tuesday appeared to agree with the White House’s efforts to stop it from building a nuclear weapon, but stopped short of saying there would be no future enrichment of any kind.
“Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon; neither will we Iranians ever forgo our right to harness the dividends of peaceful nuclear technology for our people,” Araghchi said in a social media post.
Witkoff in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News said that Tehran was “probably a week away from having industrial-grade, bomb-making material, and that’s really dangerous.”
Witkoff and Kushner have been given an extensive remit by the White House, which has also tapped them as lead negotiators for other high-stakes talks, including those related to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
That approach has drawn some criticism, including from Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, who said on Wednesday that it was “suspect” that “the same two people” would have the time to effectively manage the workload.
“It’s just not the way to project steady, strong leadership which the world needs from the United States on these very dangerous hot spots,” Tillis said.
Iran has a “positive outlook” on the talks and hopes to “move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in public remarks in Farsi on Wednesday in Sari, Iran.
“Hopefully, we can move beyond this ‘neither war nor peace’ situation,” he added. “If that happens, we will then be able to remove obstacles from our path much more easily.”
Former Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol speaks to declare his bid for presidency at a memorial dedicated to the noble sacrifice of independence fighter Yun Bong-gil on June 29, 2021 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Kim Min-Hee – Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — South Korean prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is standing trial on charges of leading an insurrection.
During a 17-hour closing hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors argued that Yoon’s alleged actions posed a grave threat to the constitutional order and warranted the maximum punishment allowed under South Korean law. The former president has been on trial since he was impeached last April on charges that he led an insurrection by attempting to impose martial law in December 2024. Insurrection is one of the few crimes still punishable by death in the country.
“The fact that prosecutors sought the death penalty may be because former President Yoon continues to maintain that his actions were justified and has shown no remorse or acknowledgment of wrongdoing,” Jungkun Seo, a professor at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University, told ABC News Wednesday.
“It was widely expected that the outcome would be either the death penalty or life imprisonment,” Seo said.
South Korea has not carried out an execution in nearly 30 years, and legal observers said the prosecution’s request was consistent with past practice in cases involving former leaders accused of insurrection, even if the likelihood of an execution remains low.
Many lawmakers from the Democratic Party welcomed the call for the death penalty following the hearing.
“Calling for the death penalty for Yoon is not a matter of choice but a necessity and cannot be considered excessive,” Moon Geum-ju, a Democratic Party floor spokesperson, said in a statement Wednesday.
Moon said suggesting a lesser sentence for someone accused of undermining the Constitution and plunging the country into crisis would be an affront to justice and common sense.
Meanwhile, lawmakers from the conservative People Power Party appeared to distance themselves from the former president, declining to issue an official statement on the case.
Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk told reporters Wednesday that the special prosecutor’s sentencing request was not an issue he should comment on, adding that he expects the court to conduct a fair trial.
The presidential office said it expects the judiciary to rule in accordance with the law and public expectations.
Two former South Korean presidents were convicted of insurrection in the 1990s for their roles in a 1979 military coup. Prosecutors at the time sought the death penalty for former President Chun Doo-hwan and a life sentence for his successor, Roh Tae-woo.
Chun was initially sentenced to death, though the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. Roh was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Both men were released after serving about two years following a presidential pardon, which the government at the time described as necessary for national reconciliation.
The court is scheduled to deliver a final verdict on Feb. 19 at the Seoul Central District Court.
