Friday morning news: April 10, 2026

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Iran peace talks » Vice President JD Vance and a team of U.S. diplomats are expected to meet face to face with Iranian officials tonight in an effort to negotiate a lasting peace.

That is tonight on Washington time, it will be Saturday morning locally.

Vance and other officials arriving in Islamabad today. Pakistan is hosting and mediating the talks.

This will be the highest level direct negotiation between the two governments since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett:

HASSETT:  We fully expect that we've got so much on the table that we're willing to give to help the Iranian people if they just act normally. That hopefully there'll be cooler heads and sounder minds, uh, at the Iranian side, and that we'll come to a final agreement this weekend.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will head Tehran's delegation.

Ceasefire latest, Strait of Hormuz » Meantime, Iran continues to accuse the United States and Israel of violating the current two-week ceasefire. Ghalibaf made claims of a U.S. drone incursion, and he says Israel's ongoing airstrikes in Lebanon violate the agreement. The U.S. and Israel both say it does not.

And all eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz to see if Iran will keep up its end of the bargain. Iranian officials say the strait is open for business but civilian vessels must coordinate with the Iranian government to secure safe passage.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK stands ready to assist:

STARMER: And to make sure that this ceasefire is a permanent ceasefire, and that the Strait of Hormuz is open. And that takes more than just words, it takes a lot of action.

That of course comes after President Trump repeatedly criticized the UK and other NATO allies for not doing more already to help secure the strait.

Rutte speech » And speaking of NATO, Secretary General Mark Rutte is aiming to calm worries about the future of the alliance after meeting with President Trump this week. 

WORLD’s Harrison Watters has more now from the nation’s capital:

HARRISON WATTERS: Rutte told the audience at a think tank in Washington that the NATO Alliance is in a season of profound change.

RUTTE: Europe is assuming a greater and fairer share of the task of providing for its conventional defense, and from that, there will be no going back...

Back in March, Rutte announced that all 32 members of the Alliance are now meeting their 2% defense spending obligations, and several are making strides towards new 5% levels set by the United States.

More recently, President Trump has blasted NATO members for not doing more to help reopen and secure the Strait of Hormuz. But Rutte says some NATO members are stepping up to help.

RUTTE: United Kingdom is leading a coalition of countries that are aligning the military, the political, and economic tools that will be required to ensure free passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

When asked if President Trump wants to pull the U.S out of NATO, Rutte sidestepped the question, saying the conversation was frank and between friends. But he conceded that the President was disappointed in NATO.

The next NATO Summit is scheduled for July in Ankara, Turkey.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters.

Artemis II splashdown expected Friday » The crew of the Artemis II is set to splash down off the coast of San Diego today. They'll plunge into the Pacific, closing out the first crewed voyage to the moon since Apollo 17 more than 50 years ago.

NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya:

KSHATRIYA: The Orion spacecraft will enter the Earth's atmosphere at approximately 25,000 miles per hour. That heat shield—the thermal protection system designed to withstand temperatures that approach the surface of the sun—will bear the full force of that reentry.

Artemis II Lead Flight Director Jeff Radigan adds that the first parachutes will deploy at 7:03 pm Central Time.

RADIGAN: … and then the main chutes will be right behind them a minute later, 7:04. And we'll see those three main parachutes come out, leading down to splash down at 7:07.

Commander Reid Wiseman, along with Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen have spent 10 days in deep space. And they made history, rounding the moon and traveling deeper into space than any human has ever gone before.

Kshatriya says of the Artemis crew:

KSHATRIYA:. They will have traveled 400,000 miles, they will have seen what no living person has seen. They'll have tested every system on the spacecraft and the environment it was built for...

And he says that data will help shape every mission that comes after.

First lady refutes Epstein rumors » First Lady Melania Trump stepped before cameras at the White House Thursday and came out swinging, taking aim at rumors and online claims trying to connect her to Jeffrey Epstein.

MELANIA: I am not Epstein's victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband by chance at a New York City party in 1998.

The first lady acknowledged moving in overlapping social circles with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in New York and in Florida, but insisted they were not friends.

She described a brief email exchange with Maxwell as nothing more than trivial correspondence.

A British publisher last year retracted claims that Epstein had introduced the couple and issued an apology. 

Melania also called on Congress to hold public hearings so that Epstein survivors can testify on the record. Both Democrats and some Republicans quickly welcomed the idea.

Philippines opens base in disputed South China Sea » More tension in the South China Sea.

The Philippine government has opened a major new coast guard base on a disputed island in a direct show of sovereignty in waters that Beijing claims it owns. 

WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The base on Thitu Island—known locally as Pag-asa , meaning "hope" —sits roughly 15 miles from a major Chinese-built island base.

Philippine officials say the facility will support patrol ships, aircraft, and law enforcement operations in the contested region.

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea. That, despite a 2016 international ruling rejecting those claims—a decision Beijing has refused to accept.

The new base opened as China's coast guard fired flares at Philippine patrol aircraft Thursday, which Philippine officials called “a clear act of bullying.”

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

And I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: a college student says she lost her job after being asked to talk about her faith. Plus, Collin Garbarino reviews a morally nuanced new installment in the Star Wars saga.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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