{"id":200988,"date":"2026-02-20T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-president-weighs-ordering-bad-things-against-iran-as-nuclear-deal-sits-in-limbo-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:15:08","slug":"trump-news-at-a-glance-president-weighs-ordering-bad-things-against-iran-as-nuclear-deal-sits-in-limbo-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-president-weighs-ordering-bad-things-against-iran-as-nuclear-deal-sits-in-limbo-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump news at a glance: president weighs ordering \u2018bad things\u2019 against Iran as nuclear deal sits in limbo – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts say there are already sufficient US military assets in the Middle East to begin aerial bombing \u2013 key US politics stories from Thursday 19 February at a glance
Donald Trump has said it will be clear within \u201cprobably 10 days\u201d whether he can reach a nuclear deal with Iran<\/a>, as the US military buildup in the Middle East intensifies.
The US president, speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace<\/a> in Washington DC, insisted Iran could not have a nuclear weapon and emphasised that \u201cbad things will happen\u201d if the country continued \u201cto threaten regional stability\u201d.
The White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Iranian officials in Geneva to discuss Iran\u2019s nuclear enrichment programme, set back but not eliminated<\/a> after US and Israeli bombing during the 12-day war last June.
After the diplomatic meeting, Iran<\/a> promised to respond within two weeks to US demands that it abandon enrichment altogether in return for sanctions relief \u2013 roughly consistent with Trump\u2019s mooted timeline.
However, last summer Trump gave himself two weeks to decide whether he would bomb Iran\u2019s underground nuclear enrichment facility at Fordow, only to strike it with B-2 stealth bombers<\/a> within a few days.
A second carrier strike group, led by the USS Gerald R Ford, is en route to the region. But experts say there are already sufficient US military assets in the Middle East to begin an aerial bombing campaign against Iran, potentially in conjunction with Israel, though it is less clear what this would achieve.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The Trump administration<\/a> is planning to build a 5,000-person military base in Gaza<\/a>, sprawling more than 350 acres, according to Board of Peace contracting records reviewed by the Guardian.
The site is envisioned as a military operating base for a future International Stabilization Force (ISF), planned as a multinational military force composed of pledged troops. The ISF is part of the newly created Board of Peace which is meant to govern Gaza. The Board of Peace<\/a> is chaired by Donald Trump<\/a> and led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Federal investigators examined Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s relationship with a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer who worked at the St Thomas airport to which Epstein regularly flew on his private planes before traveling by boat or helicopter to his private island, newly released documents reveal.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The Trump administration<\/a> is moving to arrest thousands of people already legally admitted to the US as refugees and detain them indefinitely for aggressive \u201crescreening\u201d, a report published on Thursday said.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Dozens of world leaders and national delegations will meet in Washington DC on Thursday for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump\u2019s Board of Peace<\/a>, as major European allies declined to join the group and criticised the organisation\u2019s murky funding and political mandate.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Donald Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands<\/a> deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran, the Guardian has been told.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
A large banner featuring Donald Trump\u2019s face was hung on the exterior of justice department headquarters<\/a><\/strong> on Thursday in a physical display of the president\u2019s efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him.
Billionaires are \u201ctreading on very, very thin ice<\/a><\/strong>\u201d, Bernie Sanders warned on Wednesday during a fiery speech in Los Angeles<\/a><\/strong>, imploring California voters to fight \u201cgrotesque\u201d levels of economic inequality by approving a proposed tax<\/a> on the state\u2019s richest residents.
For nearly two decades, the US quietly funded a global effort to keep the internet from splintering into fiefdoms run by authoritarian governments. Now that money is seriously threatened<\/a><\/strong> and a large part of it is already gone, putting into jeopardy internet freedoms around the world.
Trump signed an executive order<\/a> protecting production of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which some bodies and studies have linked to cancer and which are the subject of widespread US litigation<\/a><\/strong>.
An army veteran detained by federal immigration agents in southern California during his work commute in July has filed a lawsuit against the federal government<\/a><\/strong>.
Catching up? Here\u2019s what happened on Wednesday 18 February 2026<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts say there are already sufficient US military assets in the Middle East to begin aerial bombing \u2013 key US politics stories from Thursday 19 February at a glanceDonald Trump has said it will be clear within \u201cprobably 10 days\u201d whether he can reach a nuclear deal with Iran, as the US military buildup in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-200988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}