NPR News: 02-19-2026 4AM EST
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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. The U.S. and Iran have now held two rounds of indirect talks over Iran's disputed nuclear program, the latest this week in Geneva. There's been no sign of a breakthrough, and as tensions mount, the Trump administration is ramping up military forces in the region. Here's NPR's Greg Myhre.
What recent developments have occurred in U.S.-Iran nuclear talks?
President Trump has confirmed a second aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is going from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. And each carrier usually has somewhere around 75 planes aboard. So this is becoming a very large force with a concentration of planes and ships that can carry out airstrikes. We should note there's no buildup of U.S. ground troops anywhere in the region. These pieces are all still moving into place, but it's well beyond what's needed for leverage against Iran.
There's also no sign of a breakthrough in the latest U.S. broker talks over the war in Ukraine. Wednesday's talks in Geneva were the third round organized by the U.S. after meetings earlier this year in Abu Dhabi. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing Russia of trying to drag out the negotiations while it presses its invasion. Meanwhile, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee led a group of Democratic lawmakers to Odessa, a key Ukrainian port that's been hard hit in Russia's war, as Empire's Michelle Kellerman reports.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen says she and her colleagues met with American business leaders in Odessa who have faced Russian attacks. Richard Blumenthal, another Senate Democrat, puts it this way.
It's open season on American business. There are about 600 major businesses here. Nearly half of them have been directly and purposefully attacked.
How is the U.S. military responding to tensions in the Middle East?
The American people deserve to know. that Putin is targeting American businesses.
He's also pushing for more sanctions, saying countries that are buying Russian gas should be given, quote, strong incentives to stop. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department.
At the Winter Olympics, double drama, men's ice hockey as the two favorites, the U.S. and Canada, were both forced into overtime at knockout quarterfinal games. Steve Fetterman reports.
The dream gold medal match of the U.S. versus Canada was on the brink twice on Wednesday. In the end, both the Americans and Canadians survived, but each had to do it in overtime. In the U.S.-Sweden game, the Americans were 91 seconds away from victory when Sweden tied the game 1-1. In the overtime, Quinn Hughes, who plays for the Minnesota Wild, was able to get the winning goal to keep the Americans alive. The Canada-Czechia game was even more dramatic. The Czechs took a 3-2 lead with less than eight minutes left in regulation. Canada, minutes away from elimination, was able to tie the game and then, like the U.S., win in overtime. The two teams now advance to Friday's semifinals. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Milan.
This is NPR. Authorities in Northern California say the bodies of eight backcountry skiers have been found. They say the eight were found fairly close together and that three of them were discovered by the skiers who survived Tuesday's avalanche near Lake Tahoe. One skier remains missing. French authorities have arrested 11 suspects over the killing last week of a far-right activist by members of a far-left group, among them an assistant to a hard-left member of parliament. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports the incident is becoming a political crisis that some are calling France's Charlie Kirk moment.
Quentin Durand died of his injuries after being attacked by several people while far-left and far-right groups clashed in the southern city of Lyon. The killing is being blamed on a left-wing anti-fascist youth group. Macron's centrist government and even mainstream left socialists are blaming rhetoric from the hard-left France Unbowed Party for fueling the violence that led to the 23-year-old's death. Three-time presidential contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon is head of France Unbowed and says those who attacked Deranque have, quote, dishonored themselves.
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