As the United States assembles its greatest military firepower in decades in the Middle East, Iranians are warily awaiting the next round of talks with the U.S. in Geneva this week — negotiations that many see as a last chance for their ruling theocracy to strike a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Some say the situation feels hopeless. Battered by decades of sanctions, heightened by Trump’s 2018 decision to withdraw from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, Iranians also just suffered through the bloodiest crackdown on dissent in the country’s modern history as security forces in January killed thousands of people and detained tens of thousands more.
For weeks, Trump has talked about an “armada” now largely in place off the coast of Iran, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. He has also sent the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, from the Caribbean toward the Mideast. Overall, there are at least 16 U.S. Navy ships assembled, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
—The Associated Press
Smoke rise from an air defense base in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
4 years into war, Ukrainians face challenges as they seek to stay in U.S., advocates say
Four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of Ukrainians in the U.S. are commemorating the somber milestone in the ongoing war. Some are also grappling with uncertainty over whether they will be able to remain in the United States –– following changes to a program aimed at providing humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians displaced by the war, advocacy groups say.
Welcome.US, a nonprofit that coordinates support for those seeking refuge in the U.S., said it has worked with nearly 15,000 Ukrainian newcomers to the United States and has provided resources for many thousands more.
“What we’re seeing is a situation in which many Ukrainians, who came into the country following all the rules, doing everything right from A to Z, continued to do everything right from A to Z, are now in communities where they’re contributing economically, but they’re falling out of status,” said Anya McMurray, president of Welcome.US.
—Spectrum News’ Christina Santucci
Hegseth warns Anthropic to let the military use company’s AI tech as it sees fit, AP source says
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic’s CEO a Friday deadline to open the company’s artificial intelligence technology for unrestricted military use or risk losing its government contract, according to a person familiar with their meeting.
Hegseth met Tuesday with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, whose company makes the chatbot Claude and remains the last of its peers to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.
Besides canceling the contract, Pentagon officials warned they could designate Anthropic a supply chain risk or use the Defense Production Act to essentially give the military more authority to use its products even if it doesn’t approve of how they are used, according to the person. Amodei has repeatedly made clear his ethical concerns about unchecked government use of AI, including the dangers of fully autonomous armed drones and of AI-assisted mass surveillance that could track dissent.
—The Associated Press
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference rising suicide rates at Border Patrol, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, file)
Texas Rep. Gonzales resists calls to resign over allegations of an affair with an ex-staffer
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas resisted growing calls Tuesday from fellow congressional Republicans to resign over a report of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky joined Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Nancy Mace of South Carolina in demanding that Gonzales step down immediately. Mace also announced that she has introduced a resolution to force the House Ethics Commission to publicly release its reports and records of allegations of sexual harassment against members of Congress.
Gonzales told reporters he will not resign. “There will be opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out,” he said. “What you’ve seen is not all the facts.”
—The Associated Press
More Tuesday reads
• Live Updates: State of the Union
• U.S. military boards third oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from the Caribbean