• Meeting set to begin at 11am local time in White House.
• Netanyahu making sixth visit to US since Trump took office.
• Tehran warns of “destructive influences” on diplomacy ahead of visit.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will push Donald Trump on Wednesday to take a tougher stance in nuclear talks with Iran, after rushing to Washington to stiffen the US president’s resolve.

Trump said on the eve of the hastily arranged White House meeting — set to begin at 11am local time (1600 GMT) — that he was weighing sending a second US “armada” to the Middle East to pressure Tehran to reach a nuclear deal.

But Netanyahu, making his sixth visit to the United States since Trump took office, will also be urging the US leader to take a harder line on arch-foe Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, warned Monday of “destructive influences” on diplomacy ahead of the Israeli premier’s visit.

Netanyahu had been expected to come to Washington for a February 19 meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza, but reportedly brought forward his visit as the US-Iran talks proceeded.

What does Trump think?

While talking up hopes of a nuclear deal, Trump warned in an interview with the Axios news outlet on Tuesday that he was “thinking” of sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region.

“Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time,” Trump told Axios. “We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going.”

Trump, who ordered US strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last June, separately told Fox Business that any deal would have to involve “no nuclear weapons, no missiles.”

He added that Iran’s leaders “want to make a deal” but “it’s got to be a good deal”, saying Tehran had been “very dishonest with us over the years.”

What are Netanyahu’s goals?

Netanyahu said as he left for Washington his talks would “first and foremost” be about the Iran negotiations, while adding that they would also discuss Gaza and other regional issues.

“I will present to the president our views regarding the principles for the negotiations,” he said in a video statement before his departure. Netanyahu’s office said he would will highlight Iran’s missile arsenal.

Israel’s concerns came to a head during their unprecedented war last year, during which Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles and other projectiles at Israeli territory, striking military targets.

So far, Iran has rejected expanding the scope of its talks with the United States beyond the issue of its nuclear programme, though Washington also wants Tehran’s ballistic missile programme.

What about the West Bank?

The meeting will also come amid growing international outrage over Israeli measures to tighten control of the occupied West Bank by allowing settlers to buy land directly from Palestinian owners.

Israel’s security cabinet approved the move ahead Netanyahu’s Washington visit. It’s unclear whether the US president intends to bring them up.

A US official said on Monday that Trump “does not support Israel annexing the West Bank” and wants stability, while holding off from directly criticizing the Israeli government´s moves.

Reports have emerged alleging that Israel has used highly destructive thermobaric bombs in its military operations in Gaza, raising serious humanitarian and legal concerns.

According to Gulf media outlets, the alleged use of thermobaric weapons has resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 Palestinians, with claims that victims were incinerated by extreme heat generated during the strikes.

News agencies citing weapons experts say thermobaric bombs can produce temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Celsius, creating intense blast pressure and heat capable of instantly reducing human bodies to ash and causing the complete destruction of buildings.

Military analysts describe thermobaric weapons as among the most lethal conventional bombs due to their wide-area impact and oxygen-depleting explosion, which can be particularly devastating in densely populated urban environments.

Several experts quoted by regional media have characterised the alleged deployment of such weapons as a potential war crime, arguing that their use in civilian areas would violate international humanitarian law.

The reports further claim that the weapons were supplied to Israel by the United States and European countries, though no official confirmation has been issued by Israel or its allies regarding the use or transfer of thermobaric munitions.

Israeli authorities have not publicly responded to the specific allegations, while international human rights organisations have repeatedly called for independent investigations into the conduct of hostilities in Gaza.

The claims come amid growing global scrutiny of the Gaza conflict and renewed calls for accountability, transparency and adherence to international laws governing warfare.

• Six bodies are found inside a high school.
• Two more bodies are found at a residence.
• One person dies while being taken to hospital.
  

Ten people are dead including the shooter after a woman opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday before turning the gun on herself, police said.

The outburst, one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history, brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighbouring United States.

Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

At least two other people were hospitalised with serious or life-threatening injuries, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

A suspected shooter was also found dead from what appears to be a self‑inflicted injury, police said, adding they did not believe there were any more suspects or ongoing threat to the public.

Police described the shooter as a woman – an unusual development as mass shootings in North America are almost always carried out by men.

A police active shooter alert said the suspect was described “as female in a dress with brown hair.” Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later confirmed at a press conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school. Police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors.

One of Canada’s deadliest mass-casualty incidents

Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of around 2,400 people in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, approximately 1,155 km (717 miles) northeast of Vancouver. Images of the town show a snow-covered landscaped filled with pine trees.

“Multiple injuries and multiple deceased were inside the school as officers progressed through the scene,” Floyd told reporters.

“We’re still triaging other victims, and I don’t have updates on whether that number could rise. The scene was very dramatic, and there are multiple victims that are still being cared for,” Floyd said.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on X: “I am devastated by today’s horrific shootings in Tumbler Ridge, BC My prayers and deepest condolences are with the families and friends who have lost loved ones to these horrific acts of violence.”

In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform and driving a fake police car shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him at a gas station about 90 km (60 miles) from the site of his first killings.

In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before committing suicide.