President Trump told the New York Post that U.S. warships are being reloaded with “the best ammunition” to resume strikes on Iran if peace talks in Pakistan fail.

He added: “We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made — even better than what we did previously and we blew them apart.”

Washington Post: “Through the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, tensions between his administration and the Vatican — now with the first U.S.-born pope — had simmered.”

“Days after the one-year mark of Trump returning to office, an unusual meeting between the two sides took place that has now turned up the temperature of the public discussion about the relationship. Following expressions of concern by Pope Leo XIV and Vatican officials over the administration’s actions in Venezuela, Minneapolis and elsewhere, Pentagon officials on Jan. 22 hosted a top Vatican diplomat, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, then the Holy See’s ambassador to the United States, for a rare visit.”

“It is not typical for a church official to meet with the Defense Department instead of the State Department or White House.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke to Kristen Welker of NBC News:

WELKER: Are you afraid for yourself, for your family? Or are you prepared to, as you say, make the ultimate sacrifice if you are attacked?

DIAZ-CANEL: I have no fear. I am willing to give my life for the revolution. Of course, I wouldn’t like that to be the attitude of the U.S. government. I think the American people is a sensitive people. And they wouldn’t allow or they wouldn’t see with good eyes that their government, the country would invade a very small island that does not pose any concern in terms of national security for the United States.

Washington Post: “The Trump administration intends to request the release of Americans detained in Iran as part of upcoming negotiations aimed at ending the U.S.-Israeli war there.”