The Latest: Trump’s entourage stocked with people who promoted election loss falsehoods

President Donald Trump has long spread conspiracy theories about voting that are designed to explain away his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Now that he’s president again, Trump has stocked his administration with many people who have promoted his falsehoods and in some cases helped him try to overturn his loss.

The first concrete action from Trump’s mandate to investigate the 2020 election was the seizure in late January of ballots and election records from Fulton County in Georgia, a Democratic stronghold that includes Atlanta. The county has long been a target of election conspiracy theorists aligned with Trump.

The latest:

Iran holds military drills with Russia

Iran held annual military drills with Russia as a second American aircraft carrier drew closer to the Middle East.

Both the United States and Iran are signaling they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran’s nuclear program fizzle out. Trump said Thursday he believes 10 to 15 days is enough time for Iran to reach a deal.

But talks on its nuclear program have been deadlocked for years, and Iran has refused to discuss wider U.S. and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups. Indirect talks held in recent weeks made little visible progress, and one or both sides could be buying time for final war preparations.

U.S. military presence in the region is mounting.