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Iran signals headway in US negotiations, issues warning against strikes

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Iran signals headway in US negotiations, issues warning against strikes


Ali Larijani, former chairman of the Iranian Parliament, attends a press conference after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, Lebanon, on November 15, 2024. — Reuters
  • Trump confirms US–Iran talks, warns of possible military action.
  • US deploys warships, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, off Iran.
  • Qatar’s PM holds talks in Tehran to help ease regional tensions.

Iran’s top security official said Saturday that progress had been made towards negotiations with the United States, even as the Islamic Republic’s army chief warned Washington against launching military strikes.

US President Donald Trump confirmed the two sides were talking, while keeping the threat of an attack in the foreground.

Washington has deployed warships led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off Iran’s shores, after Trump threatened to intervene in the wake of Tehran’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

“Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing,” said Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

He was speaking a day after the Kremlin said he held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday a broader conflict would hurt both Iran and the United States.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has never sought, and in no way seeks, war and it is firmly convinced that a war would be in the interest of neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region,” he said in a call with Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, according to the Iranian presidency.

Later Saturday, Trump confirmed that there was a dialogue between Washington and Tehran.

“(Iran is) talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens… we have a big fleet heading out there,” he told Fox News.

“They are negotiating,” he added.

Qatar’s foreign ministry said its premier, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as foreign minister, held talks in Tehran with Larijani on Saturday to try to “de-escalate tensions in the region”.

Fears of conflict

The arrival of the US flotilla has raised fears of a confrontation with Iran, which has warned it would respond with missile strikes on US bases, ships and allies — notably Israel — in the event of an attack.

Trump has said he believes Iran will make a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face US military action.

Tehran has said it is ready for nuclear talks if its missiles and defence capabilities are not on the agenda.

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami has warned the United States and Israel against any attack, saying his forces were “at full defensive and military readiness”.

“If the enemy makes a mistake, without a doubt it will endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime,” Hatami said, official news agency IRNA reported.

Iran’s nuclear technology and expertise “cannot be eliminated”, he added.

With tensions heightened, Iranian authorities rushed to deny that several incidents on Saturday were linked to any attack or sabotage.

They included an explosion in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas that local firefighters said was caused by a gas leak.

Naval exercise

On Friday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would conduct “a two-day live-fire naval exercise” in the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit hub for global energy supplies.

CENTCOM warned the IRGC against “any unsafe and unprofessional behaviour near US forces”, drawing a sharp response from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“The US military is now attempting to dictate how our Powerful Armed Forces should conduct target practice in their own turf,” he wrote on X.

The United States designated the IRGC a terrorist organisation in 2019, a move the European Union followed on Thursday, prompting angry reactions from Tehran.

The United States carried out strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites in June when it briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against its regional foe.

Nationwide protests against the rising cost of living erupted on December 28, before turning into a broader anti-government movement that peaked on January 8 and 9 in what authorities called “riots” blamed on the United States and Israel.

‘Serve the people’

The official death toll from the authorities stands at 3,117.

However, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it has confirmed 6,713 deaths, including 137 children.

On Saturday, Pezeshkian urged his government to heed public grievances and “serve the people”.

Some Iranians at the Kapikoy border point separating Iran and Turkey, where a little over 100 people crossed on Saturday, said they wanted to be free of the clerical leaders in Tehran.

“They were shooting us in the back. We were even targeted through our windows,” said Shabnan, using a pseudonym. “Everyone has lost loved ones, friends, neighbours, acquaintances.”





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Why Barry Keoghan is stepping back from the spotlight?

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Why Barry Keoghan is stepping back from the spotlight?


Why Barry Keoghan is stepping back from the spotlight?

It’s not all red carpet and applause for Barry Keoghan – and he’s not pretending otherwise.

The 33-year-old actor got candid during a recent chat on SiriusXM’s The Morning Mash Up, revealing that the internet’s darker corners are starting to take a real toll.

“I think I removed myself from online, but I’m still a curious human being that wants to go on and, if I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. And it’s not nice,” Barry said in a clip shared by Elite Daily.

“There’s a lot of hate online. It’s a lot of abuse of how I look.”

And it’s not just a passing annoyance – it’s changing how he lives.

“And I say this being absolute pure and honest to you. It’s becoming a problem,” he admitted.

“So yeah, I don’t have to hide away because I am hiding away. I don’t have to go to places because I actually don’t go to places because of these things. But when that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem because then you don’t even want to be on screen anymore.”

That last part hits hard – because when an actor starts avoiding the screen, we all lose.

But the most gut-punch moment? It’s not even about him.

“It is disappointing for the fans, but it’s also disappointing that my little boy has to read all of this stuff when he gets older,” Barry shared.





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Justin Timberlake’s Hamptons DWI arrest video has been released

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Justin Timberlake’s Hamptons DWI arrest video has been released


Justin Timberlake’s Hamptons DWI arrest video has been released

Justin Timberlake’s attempt to keep his DWI arrest footage out of the public eye has failed and the video is now out, showing the singer stumbling during sobriety tests and telling officers, “These are, like, hard tests.”

Timberlake, 45, had filed a lawsuit against the Long Island town of Sag Harbor earlier this month in a bid to prevent the footage from being released. 

That effort was unsuccessful. 

The video shows the SexyBack singer being pulled over in his grey 2025 BMW before being put through a series of field sobriety tests by officers.

He appeared confused and unsteady throughout. When asked to walk a straight line, he stumbled a couple of times. As the pressure of the situation mounted, he told the officers, “My heart’s racing.” 

He was polite throughout the encounter, responding to officers with “yes, sir”, but declined to take a breathalyser test on multiple occasions. 

A female companion arrived at the scene after he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car, offering to drive his vehicle away.

Timberlake was arrested in June 2024 and charged with one count of driving while intoxicated, along with two traffic citations for failing to stop at a stop sign and failing to keep right. 

According to a source who spoke to Page Six at the time, he had been at the historic American Hotel in Sag Harbor for dinner with friends before being pulled over, with police reportedly stationed outside. 

Friends on the scene pleaded with officers to let him go.

One detail that emerged at the time painted a particularly awkward picture of how the night unfolded. 

“The cop didn’t know who he was at first,” a source told Page Six. “Justin said under his breath, ‘This is going to ruin the tour.’ The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.'” 

His mugshot, taken after he was brought into custody, showed visibly bloodshot eyes.

Timberlake subsequently took a plea deal, with his DWI charge reduced to a traffic violation rather than a criminal offence.





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‘General Hospital’ star Jacob Young makes major revelation

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‘General Hospital’ star Jacob Young makes major revelation


‘General Hospital’ star Jacob Young makes major revelation

Jacob Young has spoken publicly for the first time about a seven-year opioid addiction that began with a routine dental prescription and spiralled in secret, hidden even from his own wife.

The General Hospital actor, 46, made the revelation on the Imperfectly Perfect Podcast, tracing the roots of his substance use back to a difficult childhood and describing how addiction eventually took hold of a significant portion of his adult life. 

“I went through seven years of my life, wasted on opioids, still trying to figure out what was wrong with me, but I didn’t know,” he said. 

“It was just needing to numb… It was the only thing that made me feel normal.”

The opioids came into his life through an unexpected route. 

After he and his wife Christen Steward had bought a house and settled in together, Young underwent dental surgery and was prescribed Vicodin.

Apart from having his wisdom teeth out as a teenager, he had never taken opioids before. What followed was years of dependency that he kept entirely to himself.

Young’s history with substances had begun much earlier, though. 

He started smoking marijuana around the age of 14, and it wasn’t until his mid-20s, when fame from roles on All My Children, General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful brought him into the orbit of New York City’s nightlife, that drinking and cocaine use entered the picture. 

By the time he married, he had largely left those behind. The opioids were a different story.

He eventually sat his wife down and told her the truth, a conversation he credits as the turning point. From there, he sought counselling and medical support to work through his dependency.

Looking back, Young connects his substance use to a childhood defined by instability. 

His parents divorced and he was shuffled between them in a way that left him unsettled. The family relied on welfare and food stamps, and Young grew up alongside three older siblings in what he described as a humble upbringing. 

In his adolescence, he went to live with his father, which felt stable, until his stepmother, who had become like a second mother to him, died by suicide. 

His relationship with his father broke down in the aftermath, and a difficult relationship with his mother at the time left him without a reliable parental figure during some of his most formative years.

“I was going through stuff that I didn’t realise that I was ever going to go through, emotionally,” he said, a quiet acknowledgement of just how much had been buried, long before the prescriptions began.





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