Transcript
A (0:00)
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B (0:33)
From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, February 17th. Here's what we're covering. Today. Nuclear talks between the US And Iran will kick off, and tensions are high as both countries have been flexing their military power.
C (0:54)
I think they want to make a deal. I don't think they want the consequences of not making a deal. They want to make a deal.
B (1:01)
President Trump, who has sent what he's called an armada to the Middle east, has threatened airstrikes if Iran doesn't give up its nuclear ambitions.
C (1:11)
I hope they're going to be more reasonable.
B (1:13)
Iran, for its part, held live military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, a narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the ocean. Analysts say it was an apparent show of force meant to demonstrate that Iran would be willing to go as far as closing the strait, which which is a key shipping lane for oil and gas if it needed leverage. Last year, US And Iranian officials tried to negotiate a deal around nuclear facilities, but that was unsuccessful, and the US Joined an Israeli attack on Iran, sending stealth bombers to strike those nuclear sites. This time, Iranian officials have said they're willing to discuss their nuclear program but will not budge on some of Trump's other demands, like that they stop supporting militant groups in the region. Foreign. The Times has learned that the Trump administration secretly deported nine people to Cameroon last month, even though none of them are from the central African country. Several of the migrants told the Times they didn't know they were being sent there until they were chained, handcuffed and put on a deportation flight out of Louisiana. One man who had lived in the U S for 15 years, said they were dropped in Cameroon, quote, unquote, like UPS packages. Nearly all of the migrants had been granted court orders preventing them from being deported to their home countries because they said they were escaping war or persecution. For the Trump administration, sending them to Cameroon appears to be a kind of workaround. Since being deported there, most of them have been held in a compound and told they can't leave unless they agree to go back to their original countries. It's part of an increasingly common strategy by the White House to arrange third country deportation agreements. According to a recent Senate investigation, the US has paid upwards of $40 million to arrange these kinds of deals, sending people to countries like El Salvador and Equatorial guinea, even if they are not from there. Critics have said the administration is using the arrangements to get around court orders, with one former ICE official from the Biden administration calling the practice, quote, flatly illegal. Officials from Cameroon and the State Department declined to comment.