The U.S. military has bolstered its presence across the Middle East amid escalating tensions with Iran, as nuclear talks were thrown into uncertainty Wednesday before being moved to Oman.

U.S. and Iranian officials had been expected to meet Friday in Istanbul, with several Middle Eastern countries participating as observers.

A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital that the talks, focused on restarting negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, will now take place in Oman.

“The agreement to move forward with this happened only after several Arab country leaders lobbied the Trump administration today – making the case the U.S. should not walk away,” the source said.

US MILITARY WARNS IRAN IT WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY ‘UNSAFE’ ACTIONS AHEAD OF LIVE-FIRE DRILLS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ

Satellite imagery from Plant Labs shows U.S. aircraft, naval vessels and logistical platforms positioned throughout the region at the end of January.

“The military buildup is consistent with a force preparing for a variety of potential strike options,” Philip Sheers, a research associate with the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, told Fox News Digital.

Sheers cautioned that visible movements alone do not indicate a strike is imminent, saying “positioning of platforms is not the only precondition to preparedness for a strike.”

“Additional maintenance equipment, munitions and intelligence, among other elements, may still be needed before a desired strike can be executed,” he said, adding that “operational details will be classified and are difficult to discern based on aircraft and ship movements alone.”

U.S. naval assets in the region include the aircraft carrier strike group centered on the USS Abraham Lincoln, operating in the Arabian Sea, as well as destroyers deployed throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea region.

USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN AIRCRAFT CARRIER STRIKE GROUP MAKES MOVE AMID THREAT FROM IRAN

The images of Duqm Airport in Oman appear to show a U.S. V-22 Osprey aircraft, which Sheers, who viewed the images, said could support “search-and-rescue missions to recover personnel after a mission.”

Images from Muwaffaq Salti Airbase in Azraq, Jordan, appear to show C-130 aircraft, which Sheers said could be used for “search and rescue at sea or for other logistics operations.”

“It’s clear that there are multirole combat aircraft stationed here, which would support ground strikes and defensive counterair operations,” Sheers added while stating that helicopters were also visible, though their type, he said, could not be determined from the available imagery.

Sheers also cited the presence of Iran’s Shahid Bagheri drone carrier, saying its potential role could be to “harass, fatigue or distract U.S. surface ships in the area” and force U.S. forces to expend time and munitions defending themselves.

IRAN RESPONDS TO TRUMP PRESSURE WITH WARNING OF RETALIATION: ‘FINGERS ON THE TRIGGER’

Wednesday also saw Secretary of State Marco Rubio say the U.S. would only engage in meaningful talks if they addressed Iran’s ballistic missile program, support for militant groups across the Middle East and its treatment of its own people, in addition to its nuclear activities.

“If the Iranians want to meet, we’re ready. They’ve expressed an interest in meeting and talking. If they changed their mind, we’re fine with that, too. We prefer to meet and talk,” Rubio told reporters at the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting at the State Department.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, U.S. Central Command warned Iran against what it called “escalatory behavior” in international waters, vowing the United States would protect its personnel and assets.

On Tuesday, U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln in international waters, according to U.S. Central Command, underscoring rising tensions.

“What is clear is the United States is moving a variety of intelligence, logistics, search and rescue, strike and air defense platforms into the region,” Sheers added.

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“Those are clear signals to Iran of increasing U.S. strike capability, but the potential timing and targets of a possible strike are not clear and may not become clear,” he said.

Fox News’ Gillian Turner contributed to this report.

Published on
04/02/2026 – 20:30 GMT+1

With a dangerous spike in cyberbullying and self-harm content to addictive algorithms, concerns about children’s online lives are mounting across Europe.

Should social media be banned for under-16s across the EU? Could that be the answer?

This week on The Ring, Euronews’ weekly debate show broadcast from the European Parliament in Brussels, MEPs Axel Voss and Christel Schaldemose dive into this very question.

This week, Spain’s Prime Minister announced plans to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s. Speaking in Dubai, Pedro Sánchez compared online platforms to the “digital wild west” where laws are ignored, and harm goes unchecked.

France, Denmark, Greece, and Ireland are also exploring restrictions raising the potentiality of a fragmented legal landscape unless the EU steps in.

MEPs voted recently on a non-binding report calling for more ambitious EU action. Most want a minimum age of 16 for social media access. Christel Schaldemose of the Socialists and Democrats group, a vice-president of the Parliament and the lead rapporteur behind the EU’s landmark Digital Services Act is in favour.

Speaking on The Ring, Schaldemose argues that today’s platforms are simply not designed for children. Young users, she feels, are exposed to violence, suicide, bullying, and relentless commercial pressure, while addictive design features keep them online for hours every day.

“What is illegal offline must also be illegal online,” she has repeatedly insisted adding that platforms have failed to act voluntarily. In her view, a ban would send a clear signal — both to tech companies and to society — that children deserve stronger protection.

German MEP Axel Voss of the European People’s Party, a long-time digital policymaker best known for his work on EU copyright rules opposes a blanket ban. Voss agrees that social media can be harmful, not just to minors but to society as a whole. But he warns that banning young people from platforms does not equal protection.

Instead, Voss argues that the focus should be on regulating content, algorithms, and so-called “dark patterns” that drive addiction. Age bans, he says, are easy to bypass and risk ignoring the real problem: business models that profit from attention at any cost. He also raises concerns about freedom of expression and the difficulty of defining “good” and “bad” content in a politically divided Europe.

This episode of The Ring is anchored by Méabh Mc Mahon, produced by Luis Albertos and Amaia Echevarria, and edited by Vassilis Glynos.

Watch The Ring on Euronews TV or in the player above and send us your views by writing to thering@euronews.com

Iran is losing an estimated $1.56 million every hour because of its state-imposed internet blackout, draining its struggling economy and disrupting life for more than 90 million people, according to an internet privacy analyst.

The prolonged disruptions originated amid spiraling protests through January with losses he claimed were continuing even after partial connectivity was restored.

“The current blackout is costing Iran an estimated $37.4 million per day, or $1.56 million every hour,” Simon Migliano, head of research at PrivacyCo, told Fox News Digital. “The full internet blackout itself cost Iran more than $780 million, and the subsequent strict filtering continues to have a significant additional economic impact.”

“Iran has already drained $215 million from its economy in 2025 by disrupting internet access,” the internet privacy and security analyst added.

IRAN WILL RETALIATE ‘WITH EVERYTHING WE HAVE’ IF US ATTACKS, SENIOR DIPLOMAT WARNS

Migliano said his estimates were calculated using the NetBlocks COST tool, an economic model that measures the immediate impact on a nation’s gross domestic product when its digital economy is forced offline.

The model assesses direct losses to productivity, online transactions and remote work, drawing on data from the World Bank, the International Telecommunication Union, Eurostat and the U.S. Census Bureau.

IRAN PUSHES FOR FAST TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS OF SUSPECTS DETAINED IN PROTESTS DESPITE TRUMP’S WARNING: REPORT

Iranian authorities abruptly cut off communications on the night of Jan. 8 amid widespread protests against the clerical regime.

While officials later restored much of the country’s domestic bandwidth, as well as local and international phone calls and SMS messaging, the population is largely unable to freely access the internet because of heavy state filtering.

“The recent 579% surge in VPN demand reflects a scramble for digital survival,” Migliano said before describing how even when access is briefly restored, the internet remains “heavily censored and effectively unusable without circumvention tools such as VPNs.”

“We can see spikes showing that as soon as connectivity returned, users immediately sought VPNs to reach sites and services outside the state-controlled network, including global platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram that remain otherwise inaccessible,” he added.

IRAN REGIME OPENED FIRE WITH LIVE AMMUNITION ON PROTESTERS, DOCTOR SAYS: ‘SHOOT-TO-KILL’

“Sustained demand — averaging 427% above normal levels — indicates Iranians are stockpiling circumvention tools in anticipation of further blackouts,” Migliano said.

“The usual strategy is to download as many free tools as possible and cycle between them. It becomes a cat-and-mouse game, as the government blocks individual VPN servers and providers rotate IP addresses to stay ahead of the censors,” he added.

Iran’s minister of information and communications technology, Sattar Hashemi, acknowledged the economic toll caused by the blackout tactics.

He said recent outages were inflicting roughly “5,000 billion rials” a day in losses to the digital economy and nearly 50 trillion rials on the wider economy, according to Iran International.

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“Iran’s three-week internet blackout may have been lifted, but connectivity remains severely disrupted still,” Migliano claimed.

“Access is still heavily filtered. It is restricted to a government-approved ‘whitelist’ of sites and apps and the connection itself remains highly unstable throughout the day,” he added.