WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 2-17-26 (1/3)

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

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With World Radio News, I'm Kent Covington. Officials from the United States and Iran are holding a second round of nuclear talks today in Geneva with Oman mediating. That comes as President Trump continues to employ so-called gunboat diplomacy, ordering another aircraft carrier to the Middle East. His message to Tehran is clear, strike a deal to curb your nuclear program or else. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, I'm not going to prejudge those talks. I'm certainly not going to negotiate with Iran. here in front of the press and on the stage. Our negotiators are on their way there now.

They'll have meetings. We'll see what happens. We're hopeful as a deal. The president always prefers peaceful outcomes and negotiated outcomes to things. Iranian State TV reports that Iran on Monday launched its second naval drill in recent weeks. Iran's top diplomat met with the UN's nuclear watchdog in Geneva on Monday.

Iran's foreign minister of Osirakchi sat down with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi ahead of today's talks. And the U.S. Iran meeting is not the only negotiation happening in Geneva today. The U.S. was also set to broker peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. There again, Secretary Rubio said President Trump wants to see a peaceful solution, adding that the U.S. is doing all it can. We're the only nation on earth that apparently can get both sides to the table to talk. I'm not here to insult anybody, but the United Nations hasn't been able to do it.

and there's no other country in Europe that's been able to do it. But no one seems particularly optimistic about a breakthrough today with both sides sticking to their non-negotiable demands on key issues. Secretary Rubio on Monday also said that the U.S. government has no reason to doubt a new report about the death of Russian opposition leader Alexin-Lvolny. Five European countries say he was poisoned with a rare toxin from poison dart frogs. The UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands say European lab testing confirmed that the toxin epibodododine was found in his body, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Only the Russian government had the means, the motive and the opportunity to use that toxin against Alexei Navalny in prison.

And that is why we are here today to shine a spotlight on the Kremlin's barbaric attempt to silence. Alexei Navalny's voice. And Navalny's widow, Julia Navalnya, reacted to the findings. The scientific proof that my husband, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned. The late Russian opposition leader and prominent critic of Vladimir Putin died in a Russian Arctic penal colony in 2024. Moscow claims he died of natural causes. For World Radio, I'm Kent Covington.

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