High-stakes talks between the US and Iran over the future of Tehran’s nuclear programme ended on Thursday without a deal, as the White House weighs a military operation that would mark its largest intervention in the Middle East in decades.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, claimed “good progress” had been made at the talks and Omani mediators predicted negotiations would reconvene at a technical level next week in Vienna. Araghchi later confirmed that further contacts would take place in less than a week.
But there was no immediate evidence to support suggestions that the two sides had drawn closer on the fundamental issues of Iran’s right to enrich uranium and the future of its highly enriched uranium stocks.
The indirect talks in Geneva were held in two sessions, with reports that the US team led by Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, had been disappointed by the proposals put forward by Iran.
The brevity of the second session of talks appeared ominous, observers said.
US-Iran nuclear talks end without a deal as threat of war grows
Nonetheless, the Iranian and Omani mediators sought to cast the talks in a hopeful light, likely seeking to avert a US threat to launch strikes from its fleet of aircraft and warships that have massed in the region.
Epstein files contain explicit but unsubstantiated claim that Trump abused minor
Three memos that describe four interviews conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 contain explicit but unsubstantiated claims that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman when she was a minor in the early 1980s with the assistance of Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Guardian review of those documents.
Democrats in four states seek to bar ICE employees from future civil service jobs
Supercharged by billions of dollars from Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has hired thousands of new officers to carry out Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign in an effort it has likened to “wartime recruitment”. In several states, Democratic lawmakers want applicants to think twice about taking part.
Detained Columbia student released after Mamdani talks with Trump
The Columbia University student arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday morning has been released, according to social media. The student, Elmina Aghayeva, confirmed her release on social media shortly after New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, confirmed that Donald Trump had agreed to release Aghayeva, following a previously unannounced meeting between the two leaders.
Hillary Clinton accuses Republicans of ‘fishing expedition’ in Epstein testimony
Hillary Clinton delivered a withering rebuke to a congressional committee investigating her supposed links to Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, accusing its Republican members of embarking on a “fishing expedition” intended to cover up and deflect attention from the actions of Donald Trump.
Cuba vows to fight ‘terrorist aggression’ after attack from US-registered boat
Cuba has vowed to defend itself against any “terrorist and mercenary aggression”, a day after border guards said they had killed four exiles on a Florida-registered speedboat that opened fire on a patrol.
‘Extremely low IQ and cries like a child’: Donald Trump renews attack on Robert De Niro
Donald Trump has responded to a recent podcast appearance by Robert De Niro, in which he called the president “an idiot”.
Speaking on Monday’s episode of The Best People with Nicole Wallace, De Niro, who has long criticised the politics, morals and competence of Trump, said: “He’s an idiot. We gotta get rid of him. He’s gonna ruin the country.”
What else happened today:
Workers at Whirlpool, the US’s largest appliance manufacturer and a champion of Donald Trump’s tariff policies, are criticizing the company for cutting jobs at an Iowa plant while bolstering production in Mexico.
Netflix has walked away from its planned takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, declining to raise its offer for the media conglomerate’s storied Hollywood studios and streaming business after it determined a sweetened rival offer from Paramount Skydance to be “superior”.
When Aliya Rahman accepted Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar’s invitation to attend the State of the Union address, she said, she had no intention of disrupting Donald Trump’s high-profile speech.
Melania Trump is set to lead a session of the United Nations security council on Monday, coinciding with the US assuming the body’s rotating monthly presidency, the White House announced.
US ice hockey star Brady Tkachuk has said he does not appreciate an AI video released by the White House that shows him insulting Canadians by saying:“They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup-eating fuckers a lesson.”
Catching up? Here’s what happened on Wednesday 25 February.
