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The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will be heading home following a record-setting deployment of more than 300 days that included participating in the war against Iran and capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, two US officials said Wednesday.

The Ford will be leaving the Middle East in the coming days and returning to its home port in Virginia in mid-May, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements. The Washington Post reported the development earlier.

The arrival of the USS George HW Bush to the region last week meant three American aircraft carriers were deployed to the Middle East – a number not seen since 2003 – during a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war. The USS Abraham Lincoln also has been in the region since January as tensions with Tehran ramped up.

This month, the Ford broke the US record for the longest post Vietnam-war deployment, a nearly 10-month span after leaving Naval Station Norfolk in June.

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The U.S. has seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz after firing on its engine room, President Trump said in a post on social media.

Trump wrote that the U.S. Navy Guided Missile Destroyer USS Spruance intercepted the Touska in the Gulf of Oman.

The U.S. Navy "gave them fair warning to stop. The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

He said U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel and that it is "under U.S. Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity."

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, to step down from the post and retire immediately, a Pentagon official told The Hill on Thursday.

The Army did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The Pentagon confirmed George’s retirement, who served as the Army’s 41st chief of staff.

“The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement,” Pentagon chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement.

The Army’s current vice chief of staff is Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who was previously Hegseth’s military aide, will serve as the acting chief of staff, a Pentagon official told The Hill.

“General LaNeve — a generational leader — will help ensure the Army revives the warrior ethos, rebuilds for the modern battlefield and deters our enemies around the world,” Hegseth said of LaNeve in January.

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Britain was an active participant in some Israeli war crimes in Gaza, a tribunal chaired by Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and two international law specialists has found.

The highly publicised Gaza Tribunal was held last September and its findings were published in a report on Monday.

It was held after the Labour government blocked a bill put forward by former Labour leader Corbyn for a public Chilcot-style inquiry into Britain's military cooperation with Ihttps://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-was-active-participant-israeli-war-crimes-corbyn-tribunal-findssrael.

The Gaza Tribunal took evidence from eyewitnesses, UN rapporteurs, journalists, medics and academics.

Monday's report concludes that Britain has "failed in its fundamental obligation to prevent genocide, has been complicit in atrocity crimes, and in some instances has even been an active participant in these crimes".

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Retired four-star U.S. Army Gen. Jack Keane said he believes President Trump is inching closer to a decision on using military force against Iran as the president escalates pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

“Obviously, the president has yet to make the decision about that military option, but obviously, we can see what’s taking place. And in my mind, I believe that decision will eventually be made,” Keane told John Catsimatidis in a radio interview on “The Cats Roundtable” show that aired on Sunday.

The U.S. began building up its military presence in the region several weeks ago in response to the bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s forces. Trump had repeatedly warned that the U.S. may intervene if the regime did not stop killing demonstrators.

Iranian officials have engaged in indirect talks with the U.S. in Oman, addressing its nuclear program in an attempt to avert potential military action — negotiations that began in early February.

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A Washington DC grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers who were denounced by Donald Trump after they made a video urging troops to refuse illegal orders.

Federal prosecutors had sought an indictment against the Democrats who participated in the video, including Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, who all have military and intelligence backgrounds.

Slotkin, a former CIA officer, organized the video in which the lawmakers said officers can resist unlawful commands. Trump was outraged by the clip, and described it “seditious behavior by traitors” that was “punishable by death”.

Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, formally censured Kelly, a retired Nasa astronaut and decorated navy captain, over the incident and attempted to reduce his rank and pension. Kelly filed a lawsuit against Hegseth last month arguing the video he and other Democrats made was protected free speech, and that the secretary had undertaken an “unconstitutional crusade” against him.

In response to news of the failed indictment, Kelly described it as an “outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies”.

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