Here’s a rundown of all the news you need to start your Friday, including the Pentagon preparing to send a third carrier group and more Marines to the Middle East, Ethiopia closing embassy in Eritrea and expelling diplomats, US announcing a new round of sanctions against Iran, and Iraq’s prime minister setting a June 2027 deadline to disarm groups outside state control.
TOP STORIES
The Pentagon is preparing to deploy a third aircraft carrier strike group and additional Marine Corps ships to the Middle East, adding an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 troops as President Donald Trump considers resuming strikes on Iran after the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The ships, fighter jets, Marines and sailors are expected to arrive by the end of November, said officials, according to the newspaper.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego on Sunday for a scheduled deployment. The USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, carrying Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, departed Monday.
The additional forces would join more than 50,000 US troops already in the region. The USS George Washington could, however, return to its home port in Japan, leaving two carrier groups in the area.
Ethiopia on Thursday announced the closure of its embassy in Eritrea and declared 10 Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa persona non grata.
In a statement, Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry said it has decided to close its embassy in Asmara in response to Eritrea's “direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence” against Ethiopia.
According to the statement, 10 Eritrean diplomats had been involved in activities that posed a direct threat to Ethiopia's national security, in breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The diplomats were ordered to leave Ethiopia within 48 hours. The ministry called on the Eritrean government to cease what it described as acts contrary to the principles governing relations between sovereign states.
The US announced a new round of sanctions against Iran targeting its rail and automotive sectors as well as a Russia-linked alleged shadow banking network, according to the Treasury Department.
"Today's action directly targets Iran's enablers and lays the groundwork for the United States and our partners to drain the regime's revenue once and for all," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
The agency sanctioned Iran's two largest automakers, Iran Khodro and SAIPA, along with several subsidiaries as well as the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Railway Company and two other rail firms.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said his government will address weapons outside state control under a roadmap with agreed timelines, with the process to complete by June 30, 2027.
In a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency, Zaidi said the process would follow “a clear roadmap and agreed timelines.”
It will also uphold the constitutional principle that decisions on war and peace belong to the constitutional authorities, prohibiting military action outside their authority.
NEWS IN BRIEF
SPORTS
Argentine football star Lionel Messi completed the acquisition of Spanish second-division club CD Eldense, the club announced, in a deal that remains subject to regulatory approval.
Eldense said in a statement that Messi’s takeover marked the beginning of a “new and exciting stage” in the club’s more than 100-year history and would launch a long-term project aimed at strengthening its sporting, institutional and social development.
The transaction still requires approval from Spain’s Higher Sports Council under the country’s sports law. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Downing Street said there could be “no suggestion that anyone is above the rules” after Prime Minister Andy Burnham faced criticism over his comments about Manchester City and the club’s ongoing financial case.
A No 10 spokesperson told BBC that Burnham had made clear that “the initial judgement is serious” and stressed that the Premier League process must be allowed to continue independently.
“It is essential that it is allowed to run its course and the outcome respected,” the spokesperson said. “Wherever wrongdoing is established, those responsible should face the appropriate consequences.”
CULTURE AND LIFE
The Gaza documentary NAZA has extended its run in Italian cinemas after topping the country's box office throughout its planned three-day release, according to official figures.
The film earned €451,872 ($531,000) from 60,467 admissions when it opened Monday, data from Italian box-office tracker Cinetel showed.
Its cumulative earnings reached nearly €1.81 million by the end of Wednesday, with more than 243,000 admissions.
It remained the country's highest-grossing film Wednesday, ahead of the documentary The Bibi Files and the rerelease Avengers: Endgame Extra.
Two stadium concerts in Russia by US rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, have been canceled, Moscow-based organizer Say Agency announced Wednesday.
Ye had been scheduled to perform at the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg on Oct. 10 and 11 in what would have been one of the largest concert appearances by a Western music star in Russia since the country launched its war on Ukraine in 2022.
“With sincere regret,” Say Agency said on Telegram that the concerts would not be able to proceed on the scheduled dates.
BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), the agency announced Thursday, as the spacecraft completed a record-setting journey from Florida with four astronauts aboard.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11.10 am local time (1510GMT), said NASA.
The rocket passed through maximum dynamic pressure before its first and second stages separated. The first stage then completed a boostback maneuver and landed at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral.
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents attempted to hack US and Canadian government websites, according to a report released by the San Francisco-based nonprofit research lab Transluce.
The report said researchers found "two rudimentary and failed hacking attempts, one against the US Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection, and one against Library and Archives Canada, a Canadian federal agency."
The researchers said the failed attempts were linked to other activity in which agents “used an array of aggressive tactics short of hacking to probe US government websites, often using sites in unintended ways and sometimes violating explicit usage policies.”
Oil prices rose more than 2% as uncertainty over US-Iran negotiations clouded prospects for a sustained recovery in Middle East energy supplies.
International benchmark Brent crude futures gained 2.4% to $100.35 per barrel as of 0830GMT, reversing earlier losses, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 2.45% to $92.62.
Investors weighed signs of improving regional crude shipments against concerns that the recovery could falter without a lasting agreement to end the Iran war.
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