USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier headed from Caribbean to Middle East: Officials
U.S. Navy, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), F/A-18E/F, November 13, 2025. (Photo by Paige Brown/US Navy via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group is expected to leave the Caribbean and head towards the Middle East in the coming days, according to three U.S. officials.
The deployment of the Ford and the three destroyers accompanying it will mean that there will be two aircraft carriers in the Middle East as it joins the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.
The deployment comes after President Donald Trump said earlier this week in an interview with Axios that he was considering sending a second carrier to the Middle East if talks with Iran about its nuclear program did not succeed.
The crew of the carrier and the supporting ships were told on Thursday about the new deployment to the Middle East, according to the officials.
The New York Times first reported the Ford’s new deployment to the Middle East.
The Ford is now expected to return to its home port in Norfolk around late April or early May, according to one U.S. official. The carrier had left Norfolk in late June for what was to be a seven-month deployment to Europe, but in late October it was redirected towards the Caribbean as part of the Trump administration’s large buildup of military forces to counter South American drug cartels.
A U.S. Southern Command spokesperson has issued provided a statement to ABC News saying that “While force posture evolves, our operational capability does not.” It adds that “SOUTHCOM forces remain fully ready to project power, defend themselves, and protect U.S. interests in the region.”
The carrier strike group will once again cross the Atlantic and the Mediterranean for a deployment that could now last as long as 10 months.
The Ford is the world’s largest carrier and its presence in the Caribbean was seen as putting pressure on then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government.
Some of the aircraft aboard the carrier participated in the Jan. 3 raid in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas that led to Maduro’s capture.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Schloss Bellevue on December 15, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Kay Nietfeld – Pool/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Wednesday that Russia is preparing “the coming year as a year of war,” despite ongoing U.S.-brokered peace talks to end Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin sent “signals” of Moscow’s aggressive intent in remarks made on Wednesday, saying the bellicose comments were intended “not only for us.”
“It is important that partners see this,” Zelenskyy added. “And it is important that they not only see it, but also respond, in particular partners in the United States of America, who often say that Russia supposedly wants to end the war. But entirely different rhetoric and different signals are coming from Russia.”
Zelenskyy said an upcoming summit in Brussels to discuss the use of some $250 billion worth of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine was “important,” and that the outcome of the talks “must be such that Russia feels that its desire to continue the war next year makes no sense, because Ukraine will have support. This depends one hundred percent on Europe, it is Europe that must make this choice.”
Zelenskyy arrived in Brussels on Thursday morning.
European leader stressed the significance of Thursday’s meeting.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that either the European Union would agree on “money [for Ukraine] today or blood tomorrow.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post to X, “We have one ultimate goal: peace for Ukraine through strength.”
Zelenskyy later said Ukraine would use any funds “mostly for weapons.” He added, “We can’t afford that Ukraine remains without the answer as for the funding for the next year, it’s a big threat.”
“It’s not just about the frontline but about Ukraine’s overall ability to fight,” Zelenskyy said. “If Ukraine doesn’t receive the money in spring the scale of drone production will decrease several-fold.”
Zelenskyy also said that more talks are expected between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators in the coming week.
Zelenskyy’s comments were prompted by remarks made by Putin at the Russian Defense Ministry’s annual meeting on Wednesday, where the Russian leader claimed that his forces had “gained and firmly holds the strategic initiative across the entire front line.”
Putina added that Russian troops were “confidently advancing and ‘grinding down’ the enemy, its groups and reserves, including the so-called elite units and formations trained in Western military centers and equipped with modern foreign technology and weapons.”
Putin said the objectives of what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” will be achieved either through diplomacy or through military force.
“We preferred to do this and eliminate the root causes of the conflict through diplomacy,” Putin said. “If the opposing side and their foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive talks, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means.”
The Russian president again sought to frame Ukraine’s European partners as being responsible for the elongation of the war, which Moscow launched in February 2022. The Kremlin has continued to wage its war despite multiple rounds of diplomacy aimed at securing a ceasefire.
“We welcome the progress that has been made in the dialogue with the new U.S. administration,” Putin said. “Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the current leadership of most European countries.”
Putin even referred to European leaders as “little pigs” in his Wednesday comments, and was also critical of the pro-Ukraine policies of former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Meanwhile, both Kyiv and Moscow continued their long-range strikes overnight into Thursday.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 82 drones into the country in its latest barrage, of which 63 were shot down or suppressed. Nineteen strike drones impacted across 12 locations, the air force said.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said six people were injured by a drone strike in the ️Cherkasy region, as were three people in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 77 Ukrainian drones from Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Othon Leyva, Tom Soufi Burridge, Guy Davies and Yulia Drozd contributed to this report.
Emergency services work at the site of a train collision on January 19, 2026 after yesterday’s train collision in Adamuz, Spain. Authorities say at least 39 were killed and more than 150 were injured when a train collided with a derailed train on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 18. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)
(ADAMUZ, Spain) — At least 39 people were killed and about 152 others were injured after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday, according to officials.
A train traveling from Málaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, crossing over to the adjacent track where it hit another train coming from Madrid to Huelva, according to the Spanish Interior Minister.
The number of confirmed dead rose to 39 from the previously reported 21 and was “not final,” Oscar Puente, the Spanish transport minister, said in a statement early on Monday.
“I want to express all my gratitude for the huge effort of the rescue teams during the night, under very difficult circumstances, and my condolences to the victims and their families in these terribly painful moments,” he said in Spanish on social media.
Spain’s prime minister is expected to visit the crash site this morning.
Officials had earlier said that of those injured, 75 were hospitalized, with 15 in very serious condition and five in life-threatening condition.
Rescue crews are on the scene, and all trains between Madrid and the Andalusia region are suspended, according to officials.
The cause of the train derailment has not yet been released.
Iryo, the company operating the train that initially derailed, released a statement, saying the company “deeply regrets what has happened and has activated all emergency protocols, working closely with the competent authorities to manage the situation.”
The company said there were 300 passengers on the train at the time.
Puente, the transport minister, spoke to reporters late Sunday night and the high-speed Iryo train was “relatively new.”
Puente said the derailment of the Iryo train bound for Madrid and its subsequent collision with the second train happened on a straight stretch of track, which had undergone extensive renovation work that was only finished in May.
The Spanish minister called the accident “extremely strange.”
“It’s very difficult at this moment to explain,” Puente added, and said he hoped the investigation would help clear up what has happened.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
A large flash is seen in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. (ABC News)
(LONDON) — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran is in a “full-scale” war with the U.S., Israel and Europe, describing the country’s diplomatic situation as “complicated and difficult.”
“In my opinion, we are in a full-scale war with America, Israel, and Europe; they do not want our country to stand on its feet,” Pezeshkian said in a lengthy interview posted to the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
“This war is worse than the war in Iraq with us; if one understands well, this war is much more complicated and difficult,” Pezeshkian added, referring to the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Pezeshkian said that despite sanctions and foreign pressure, Iran remains steadfast and capable of defending its national interests.
The interview was published ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S., where he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Iran is among the topics expected to be under discussion.
The meeting is expected to be on advancing the Gaza peace plan, disarming Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza and the fate of the last hostage still remaining in the Strip, a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry said before the Israeli delegation departed on Sunday for the U.S. The spokesperson added that Netanyahu’s agenda is expected to include the “danger Iran poses” to both the Middle East and United States.
The U.S. and Israel combined to attack Iran in June during a 12-day conflict that killed some 1,100 Iranians and saw strikes against Iran’s key nuclear facilities, its air defense network and prominent military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sites around the country.
Senior military, IRGC and nuclear research personnel were among those killed. Retaliatory missile attacks by Iran killed 28 people in Israel.
In the lead up to and during the June conflict, Netanyahu repeatedly hinted that Israel may pursue a regime change strategy in Iran, seeking to topple the Khamenei-led theocracy there. “This is your opportunity to stand up,” Netanyahu said in an address to Iranians during the war.
Trump even raised the prospect of killing Khamenei in the days before the U.S. joined Israel’s campaign. “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump wrote on social media. “He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”
The months since the conflict have seen little progress on a new deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear program or cap its ballistic missile arsenal — two goals long expressed by Trump.
Earlier this month, Trump said that Iran “can try” to rebuild its ballistic missile program, but “it’s going to take them a long time to come back.”
“But if they do want to come back without a deal, then we’re going to obliterate that one, too,” Trump said. “You know, we can knock out their missiles very quickly, we have great power.”
Netanyahu will meet with Trump on Monday shortly after Iran conducted a major military exercise involving ballistic missiles. Referring to recent Iranian activity, Netanyahu warned last week that “any action against Israel will be met with a very severe response.”
At home, the Iranian regime faces serious economic challenges as the country’s currency — the rial — edged lower over recent weeks, causing widespread dissatisfaction and protests.
Over the weekend, groups of shop-owners closed their businesses in two large malls in downtown Tehran protesting the rapid drop in the value of the rial.
Pezeshkian was elected to replace late President Ebrahim Raisi — who died in a helicopter crash in 2024 — with the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s presidential election history. He was widely seen as a moderate alternative to hardliners aligned with the IRGC.
