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Get you up to speed: Trump says U.S. is “getting a lot closer” to agreement with Iran
Negotiators for the United States and Iran are reportedly “getting a lot closer” to finalising an agreement, according to President Trump. The discussions are ongoing, with additional consultation set to occur with Gulf leaders on Saturday afternoon regarding the progress of these negotiations.
Negotiators are considering a proposal that involves reopening the Strait of Hormuz and unfreezing some Iranian assets. Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that progress is ongoing and a potential announcement regarding negotiations could occur within the next few days.
President Trump stated that negotiators for the United States and Iran are “getting a lot closer” to finalising an agreement, with a proposal that may include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and unfreezing some Iranian assets. Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that there “may be news later today” regarding the negotiations, emphasising the urgency of resolving the issue.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain what specific proposals Mr. Trump is considering regarding the Iran negotiations.
Trump indicates U.S. and Iran are nearing agreement on nuclear negotiations
President Trump told WTX US News that negotiators for United States and Iran are “getting a lot closer” to finalizing an agreement between the two countries.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told WTX US News that the latest proposal includes a process to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the unfreezing of some Iranian assets held in foreign banks, and a continuation of negotiations.
Mr. Trump declined to provide specifics about the agreement, but said that “every day it gets better and better.”
“I can’t tell you before I tell them, right?” Mr. Trump told WTX US News in a phone interview.
Mr. Trump did say that he believes the final agreement will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, adding that he “wouldn’t even be talking about it” otherwise. Mr. Trump added that the agreement would also result in Iran’s enriched uranium being “satisfactorily handled.”
“I will only sign a deal where we get everything we want,” he said.
Sources told WTX US News that Mr. Trump is still mulling proposals and has not made up his mind yet. The sources said he is consulting with advisers and talking to foreign leaders, including leaders from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
Three sources told WTX US News that Mr. Trump is scheduled to speak by phone with leaders of Gulf countries and other nations on Saturday afternoon. The conference call is set to discuss the Iran negotiations, according to U.S. officials familiar with the situation. One regional official told WTX US News that some of the leaders don’t know what option Mr. Trump is leaning toward.
Mr. Trump said that if the U.S. and Iran do not come to an agreement, “we’re going to have a situation where no country will ever be hit as hard as they’re about to be hit.”
Mr. Trump has previously threatened Iran, saying before the start of a ceasefire that began in April that “a whole civilization will die” without a deal, and recently warning the country that “the Clock is Ticking.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said Saturday that there “may be news later today” about where negotiations between Iran and the U.S. stand.
“There’s been some progress done, some progress made, even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done,” Rubio said, ahead of a formal dinner at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India. “There is a chance that, whether it’s later today, tomorrow, in a couple days, we may have something to say, but this issue needs to be solved, as the president said, one way or another.”
Margaret Brennan
contributed to this report.
In:
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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