• Tensions rise as second US aircraft carrier heads to Mideast.
• Iran holds military drill in Strait of Hormuz amid tensions.
• IAEA urges Iran to account for missing uranium stockpile.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would be involved “indirectly” in high-stakes talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme set for Tuesday in Geneva, adding he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal.

“I’ll be involved in those talks, indirectly. And they’ll be very important,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Tensions are soaring ahead of the talks, with the US deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East. The US military is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, US officials have told Reuters.

Asked about the prospects for a deal, Trump said Iran has long sought a tough posture in negotiations but learned the consequences of that approach last summer when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump suggested Tehran was motivated this time to negotiate.

“I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” Trump said.

Washington pushes Tehran to forgo enrichment

Prior to the US strikes in June, US-Iran nuclear talks had stalled over Washington’s demand that Tehran forgo enrichment on its soil, which the US views as a pathway to an Iranian nuclear weapon.

“We could have had a deal instead of sending the B-2s in to knock out their nuclear potential. And we had to send the B-2s,” Trump said, referring to the bat-winged US stealth bombers that carried out the bombings.

“I hope they’re going to be more reasonable.”

The remarks contrast with those by the US president on Friday, when he embraced potential regime change in Iran and lamented decades of failed talks.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met with the UN nuclear watchdog chief on Monday, saying in a post on X that he was in Geneva to “achieve a fair and equitable deal.”

“What is not on the table: submission before threats,” Araqchi said.

Questions about uranium stockpile

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been calling on Iran for months to say what happened to its stockpile of 440 kg (970 pounds) of highly enriched uranium following Israeli-US strikes and let inspections fully resume, including in three key sites that were bombed in June last year: Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation against any attack, which would choke a fifth of global oil flows and send crude prices sharply higher.

Iran held a military drill on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international waterway and oil export route from Gulf Arab states, which have been appealing for diplomacy to end the dispute.

Despite Trump’s comments about Iran seeking a deal, the talks face major potential stumbling blocks. 

Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues such as Iran’s missile stockpile. 

Tehran says it is only willing to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief and won’t accept zero uranium enrichment. It says its missile capabilities are off the table.

Speaking during a visit to Hungary on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said reaching a deal with Tehran would be hard.

“I think that there’s an opportunity here to diplomatically reach an agreement … but I don’t want to overstate it either,” Rubio said.

“It’s going to be hard. It’s been very difficult for anyone to do real deals with Iran, because we’re dealing with radical Shia clerics who are making theological decisions, not geopolitical ones.”

Sir Ian McKellen has shared a candid and gently humorous reflection on ageing, mortality and continuing to work at 86, admitting that recent health scares have changed how he views life, though not his desire to keep going.

In an interview with The Times, the veteran actor spoke openly about his outlook following a serious fall in June 2024, when he tumbled off the stage during a London theatre performance and was hospitalised with a fractured wrist and a chipped vertebra. 

Looking back on the experience, McKellen said: “I have accepted that I’m not immortal. Yet I still function.”

The The Lord of the Rings star explained that his thoughts about mortality now come as much from watching others as from his own physical changes. 

“Really the inevitability of mortality comes not just from what you are feeling about yourself, but the simple fact that your friends die — all the time,” he said. 

“When you are young, death is astonishing, a fascinating thing, but it’s a feature of getting older. Death becomes ever present.”

After spending three days in hospital, McKellen did not return to his role in the stage production Player Kings and later revealed he had been dealing with what he described as “agonising pain”. 

On medical advice, he also skipped the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of his upcoming film The Christophers, explaining in a pre-recorded message that it was “better safe than sorry”.

Now, however, McKellen is back at work in a different way. 

He is currently appearing in An Ark at New York City’s The Shed, an experimental production that uses virtual reality technology. 

Although he and his fellow actors are not physically present in the room, audiences see them through VR headsets. 

McKellen said the format felt like a sensible step after his accident. 

“I thought that was the safest way of getting back to work,” he told The Times, joking that filming allows for pauses that live theatre does not. “You can’t stop live theatre.”

Even so, he has since returned to the stage on a limited basis and said the experience reassured him. 

He noted with relief that he still enjoys performing, does not find it unsettling, and can remember his lines. “Considering my age, all is well,” he said.

Reflecting on the deaths of close friends, McKellen said he has found some comfort in how people approach the end of life. 

“Regrets? I’ve had a few,” he admitted. 

“It’s never satisfactory when someone dies, but I take comfort that when the people I’ve been close to are dying, they seem ready, even welcoming of it.”

Despite his reflections, McKellen made it clear he is not slowing down. “I feel that I’ve still got more to do,” he said.

His upcoming projects include The Christophers, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, which arrives in cinemas on 10 April, as well as Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, where he stars opposite Johnny Depp, due in November. 

He is also set to reprise his role as Magneto in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for release in December.

For McKellen, acknowledging mortality has not dimmed his enthusiasm, if anything, it seems to have sharpened his appreciation for still being able to do what he loves.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled sweeping new rules to keep children safe online.

On Monday, February 16, Starmer extended regulations to AI chatbots, paving the way for a potential social media ban for under-16s following the Grok AI scandal involving Elon Musk’s X platform.

With these new rules, the government plans to close a legal loophole that previously exempted AI chatbots from key provisions of the Online Safety ACT.

This means that AI chatbots such as Musk’s Grok and OpenAI’s ChatGPT must now prevent children from accessing harmful content or face fines of up to 10% of global revenue.

Starmer said: “These AI chatbots are forming friendships with children that can take them into all sorts of places they shouldn’t be going.”

Major key actions include:

• The government plans to amend the children’s well-being bill with “Henry VIII powers” to implement any future under 16s social media ban without any hinderance
• AI chatbots will follow illegal content duties similar to traditional social media platforms, curbing infinite scrolling and setting age limits on VPNs used to bypass restrictions
• Ministers will introduce “Jool’s law” needing platforms to preserve deceased children’s data within five days of a death being reported and make it accessible to coroners

Chief executive of the UK’s leading children’s charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, warned: “Social media has produced huge benefits but lots of harm. AI is going to be that on steroids if we’re not careful.”