By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will send the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar with the plans said Friday, putting more American firepower behind President Donald Trump’s efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.

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The USS Gerald R. Ford’s planned deployment to the Mideast comes after Trump only days earlier suggested another round of talks with the Iranians was at hand. Those negotiations didn’t materialize as one of Tehran’s top security officials visited Oman and Qatar this week and exchanged messages with the U.S. intermediaries.

Already, Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Iranians are beginning to hold 40-day mourning ceremonies for the thousands killed in Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month, adding to the internal pressure faced by the sanctions-battered Islamic Republic.

The Ford’s deployment, first reported by The New York Times, will put two carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. Already, the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers are in the Arabian Sea.

The person who spoke to The Associated Press on the deployment did so on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements.

Ford had been part of Venezuela strike force

It marks a quick turnaround for the Ford, which Trump sent from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean last October as the administration built up a huge military presence in the lead-up to the surprise raid last month that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

It also appears to be at odds with Trump’s national security strategy, which put an emphasis on the Western Hemisphere over other parts of the world.

Trump on Thursday warned Iran that failure to reach a deal with his administration would be “very traumatic.” Iran and the United States held indirect talks in Oman last week.

“I guess over the next month, something like that,” Trump said in response to a question about his timeline for striking a deal with Iran on its nuclear program. “It should happen quickly. They should agree very quickly.”

Trump told Axios earlier this week that he was considering sending a second carrier strike group to the Middle East.

Trump held lengthy talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and said he insisted to Israel’s leader that negotiations with Iran needed to continue. Netanyahu is urging the administration to press Tehran to scale back its ballistic missile program and end its support for militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as part of any deal.

The USS Ford set out on deployment in late June 2025, which means the crew will have been deployed for eight months in two weeks time. While it is unclear how long the ship will remain in the Middle East, the move sets the crew up for an unusually long deployment.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ford’s deployment comes as Iran mourns

Iran at home faces still-simmering anger over its wide-ranging suppression of all dissent in the Islamic Republic. That rage may intensify in the coming days as families of the dead begin marking the traditional 40-day mourning for the loved ones. Already, online videos have shown mourners gathering in different parts of the country, holding portraits of their dead.

One video purported to show mourners at a graveyard in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province on Thursday. There, with a large portable speaker, people sang the patriotic song “Ey Iran,” which dates to 1940s Iran under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. While initially banned after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s theocratic government has played it to drum up support.

“Oh Iran, a land of full of jewels, your soil is full of art,” they sang. “May evil wishes be far from you. May you live eternal. Oh enemy, if you are a piece of granite, I am iron.”

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

By DAVE SKRETTA, Associated Press Sports Writer

MILAN (AP) — The International Skating Union says it stands by the judging of ice dance at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, where the scores from the French judge earlier this week played a big role in the French couple of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron beating the American team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

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The judge, Jezabel Dabouis, favored Beaudry and Cizeron by nearly eight points over the three-time world champions in the free dance, a margin so large that if her score was removed from the equation entirely, Chock and Bates would have won gold.

“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judge in any panel and a number of mechanism are used to mitigate these variations,” the ISU said, adding it has “full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”

There is little recourse for the U.S. team if the global governing body is unwilling to investigate the scoring discrepancy.

This is not the first time Dabouis has turned in questionable scores for Beaudry and Cizeron. At the Grand Prix Final in December, when Chock and Bates beat them in their only other head-to-head matchup, the judge had the Americans narrowly beating them in the free dance despite two deductions, including an egregious fall. The French team wound up with a silver medal.

Dabouis also had a wide margin favoring the French couple in the Olympic rhythm dance, when they also beat the U.S. team.

“Any time the public is confused by results, it does a disservice to our sport,” said Chock, who along with Bates won a second straight team gold medal earlier in the Games. “I think it’s hard to retain fans when it’s difficult to understand what is happening on the ice.

“People need to understand what they’re cheering for and be able to feel confident in the sport that they’re supporting.”

The most famous judging controversy in Olympic figure skating also involved a French judge.

During the 2002 Salt Lake Games, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia won gold over the Canadian pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. But allegations of vote-swapping and selling of votes by French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne led to an investigation by the ISU and the International Olympic Committee, and she was ultimately found guilty of misconduct and suspended.

Sale and Pelletier ultimately were elevated to gold while the Russian pair was allowed to keep their medals.

Two years later, the ISU eliminated its 6.0 judging system due to its inherent subjectivity. The replacement system, which has been tweaked over the years but remains in place, features two scores added together: one where each element is graded off a base value to establish a technical score and another where judges provide a component score for overall skating skill and performance.

Many critics have called the system overly confusing and still too subjective, and more than 10,000 people had signed a Change.org petition by Friday asking the ISU and IOC to investigate the latest scoring controversy.

“We did speak to our coach, and we did talk to each other, and we know how we felt on center ice after we skated,” Bates said. “We felt like we delivered our absolute best performance that we could have. It was our Olympic moment. It felt like a winning skate to us and that’s what we’re going to hold on to.”

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press

TESERO, Italy (AP) — Friday the 13th will be remembered as a lucky day for Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. Norway’s cross-country skiing star won an eighth gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics Friday, tying an all‑time Winter Games record. The 29‑year‑old claimed victory in the men’s 10 kilometer interval‑start race, for his third gold at the 2026 games.

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, of Norway, competes in the cross country skiing men’s 10km interval start free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Will three races still ahead of him, Klaebo now shares the record with three other Norwegian athletes who have all retired: Marit Bjoergen and Bjoern Daehlie in cross-country skiing and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in the biathlon. Klaebo again gained vital ground in the final hill and clocked 20 minutes, 36.2 seconds, showing rare signs of fatigue as he collapsed at the finish line of the race considered to be his toughest challenge.

He was 4.9 seconds head of Frances’s Mathis Desloges and 14 in front of his main challenger Einar Hedegart also of Norway who lost momentum on the last hill.

“It’s a special day,” Klaebo said. “This one means a lot for sure … I’m lost for words.”

The Norwegian said he was happy with his tactics, racing the first half of the course with a controlled pace, saving energy for a burst up the last hill and home stretch.

“It was really hard out there today so I’m very proud,” he said.

Over at the French camp, athletes and team officials celebrated as if they had one the race, linking arms and dancing on the snow after underdog Mathis Desloges won his second silver medal, competing at his first Olympics at Milan Cortina. “I trained incredibly hard for these races,” Desloges said. “I told people I was at this level — and now we are delivering.” The 23-year-old Frenchman, like many other top racers in the interval start, was mostly unaware of his position during the race.

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“I don’t really pay attention to what’s being shouted from the sidelines,” he said. “Honestly, I don’t listen to them. I just focus on my race. I know what I have to do and I give it everything.” On a blue-sky day in northern Italy, with the race track surrounded by the snow-capped Dolomite mountains, temperatures hovered around 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit). A few racers chose to compete wearing only their race bibs.

Organizers had treated the course with salt Thursday to harden the surface but left it untouched Friday — a decision that favored Klaebo, who started early among the seeded skiers. Celebrations were led by Norwegian fans: national flags — red with a blue cross outlined in white — were draped over athletes and the railing on the spectators’ area. Klaebo’s grandfather, Kare Hoesflot, who helped launch his career traveled to northern Italy to watch the race, while messages of congratulations poured in from back home, where cross-country skiing is a prime time sport.

“Another show of strength from Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. What a performance in a thriller of a race! Congratulations on gold number three in these Olympics!,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere wrote on social media. Finn Dahl, a retired marketing manager from Norway, watched Klaebo win, and credited his success to relentless hard work.

“He’s so dedicated. He sacrificed everything in terms of training, how he eats, how he sleeps and calms down after races,” he said.

“It’s fantastic … he’s up to eight now,” Dahl said. “I hope he’ll be the biggest winner ever.”

Another round of U.S.-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine will take place next week in Geneva, days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbor, officials in Moscow and Kyiv said on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, centre, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, centre left, attend their visit of drone producing company Quantum Frontline Industries near Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

The meeting will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, confirmed the new round of negotiations.

The talks take place against a backdrop of continued fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line, relentless Russian bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine and the country’s power grid, and Kyiv’s almost daily long-range drone attacks on war-related assets on Russian soil.

Previous U.S.-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.

Zelenskyy said last week that the United States has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal. Previous deadlines given by U.S. President Donald Trump have passed largely without consequence.

Zelenskyy was in Munich, Germany, on Friday and visited the first joint Ukrainian-German company for the production of drones. Germany has been a major backer of Ukraine in the war.

He was also due to hold bilateral and multilateral meetings at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of top international security figures.

The negotiators heading to Geneva have the tough task of finding compromises that are palatable to both Moscow and Kyiv.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser Vladimir Medinsky, who headed Moscow’s team of negotiators in the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022, is returning to lead Moscow’s delegation.

The previous two rounds of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi reportedly focused on military issues, such as a possible buffer zone and ceasefire monitoring. The return of Medinsky, who has pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s maximalist conditions for peace, could mark a shift toward political issues in the next round of talks.

Ukraine’s delegation will again be led by Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief.

The grim war of attrition is continuing while the two sides negotiate.

Overnight from Thursday to Friday, a Russian strike killed three brothers between 8 and 19 years of age in eastern Ukraine, authorities said. Their mother and grandmother survived but sustained multiple injuries, the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office said.

In Odesa, one person was killed and six more injured in a Russian strike at the city’s port and energy infrastructure, officials said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday its air defenses shot down 58 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions and annexed Crimea during the night.

Of those, 43 were brought down in the Volgograd region of southwestern Russia, where three people, including a 12-year-old boy, were injured by drone debris, according to the local governor. Ukraine has recently targeted the Volgograd oil refinery.