US deploys

carrier

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says a change in power in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen” as the U.S. administration weighs whether to take military action against Tehran. Trump made the comments shortly after visiting with troops at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, on Friday and after he confirmed earlier in the day that he’s deploying a second aircraft carrier group to the Mideast for potential military action against Iran.

Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the U.S. has built up in the region.

Lemon pleads

not guilty

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former CNN host Don Lemon has pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights charges in Minnesota. The veteran journalist is among several people accused in a Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor.

Four other people pleaded not guilty in the case Friday, including civil rights attorney and prominent local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. Lemon says he was chronicling the protest as an independent journalist. Prosecutors have accused him of joining a “mob.” Lemon says he will fight to defend his First Amendment rights. Nine people have been indicted in the case.

Au pair

sentenced

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Brazilian au pair got the maximum 10-year sentence after confessing to scheming with her lover to kill his wife and another man. Juliana Peres Magalhães pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the February 2023 killing of Joseph Ryan.

She testified that she fired the shot that killed Ryan as Brendan Banfield was fatally stabbing his wife Christine. Brendan Banfield will likely remain behind bars for life after a jury found him guilty in both killings.

Prosecutors recommended her immediate release in exchange for her cooperation, but the judge rejected that deal, sentencing her to the maximum for the downgraded charge.