February 4, 2026, 10:43 pm Iranian 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, jailed since her latest arrest in December, has gone on a hunger strike to demand her right to phone calls, her family’s Paris-based lawyer says. Mohammadi, who was arrested at a protest in the eastern city of Mashhad on December 12, “has been on hunger strike for the last three days,” lawyer Chirinne Ardakani tells AFP. “She is demanding her right to make a phone call, have access to her lawyers in Iran and to be visited,” Ardakani says. She adds that Mohammadi’s last phone call to her family dated back to December 14 and that they had been informed of the hunger strike by a detainee who was released from prison. Mohammadi remains in solitary confinement in prison in Mashhad, where she was arrested while speaking out against the authorities at a funeral ceremony for a lawyer whose death activists regard as suspicious, Ardakani says.

February 4, 2026 Today, 6:12 pm US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference at the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting at the Sate Department in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2026. The United States is ready to meet Iran this week, but discussions need to cover its missile and nuclear programs, its support for terror groups in the region and its treatment of its population, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says. Rubio confirms Iran’s opposition to Washington’s plan to hold Friday nuclear talks in Istanbul. “We thought we had an established forum that had been agreed to in Turkey that was put together by a number of partners who wanted to attend and be a part of it. I saw conflicting reports yesterday from the Iranian side saying that they had not agreed to that, so that’s still being worked through,” Rubio tells reporters during an event in Washington. Keep Watching The sides are now reportedly planning to hold the nuclear talks in Oman. “At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage, and has always been prepared to engage with Iran,” he says. “For talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles,” he says. “That includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region. That includes the nuclear program. And that includes the treatment of their own people.” Iran has only shown willingness to discuss its nuclear program, albeit not on the terms demanded by the US — for the Islamic Republic to agree not to enrich uranium on its own territory and export all of its already enriched stockpiles out of the country. “The fundamental problem Iran faces is that what people are on the streets complaining about, this regime cannot address… because it’s economic,” Rubio says. “One of the reasons why the Iranian regime cannot provide the people of Iran the quality of life that they deserve is because they’re spending all their money and resources… sponsoring terrorism.”

February 3, 2026 Today, 10:12 am Screen capture from an undated video of Israeli influencer Max Veifer during a conversation with two nurses from a hospital in Sydney, Australia. Two Sydney nurses accused of threatening to kill Israeli patients in a viral video last year pleaded not guilty, local media reports. Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 27, and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 28, were seen in a viral video last February, allegedly showing them making threats against Israeli patients during a chat with Israeli influencer Max Veifer. The video sparked outrage across Australia and the Jewish world after it was released. The pair were later barred from working as nurses nationwide. At the Downing Centre District Court, both entered not-guilty pleas when asked by Judge Stephen Hanley to respond to charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend. Abu Lebdeh also faces a charge of threatening violence against a group. Their trial is scheduled to begin on August 31, and is expected to run for five days. A pretrial hearing on the issue is scheduled for June 1. Nadir’s lawyer said he will challenge whether the video can legally be used in court as evidence.

By AFP Today, 8:36 pm Talks between US and Iranian officials are “still scheduled” this week, the White House says, even after a US warplane shot down an Iranian drone that approached an American aircraft in the Arabian Sea. US envoy Steve Witkoff “is set to have conversations with the Iranians later this week, those are still scheduled as of right now,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says on Fox News.

February 3, 2026 Today, 1:07 pm An investigation has identified 890 accounts at Swiss lender Credit Suisse with potential Nazi links, US Senator Chuck Grassley says before a Judiciary Committee hearing on banks’ facilitation of the Holocaust. The accounts included previously undisclosed wartime accounts for the German Foreign Office, a German arms manufacturing company, and the German Red Cross, adds the lawmaker, who chairs the committee and has followed the investigation into Credit Suisse for years. UBS, which acquired Credit Suisse in an emergency takeover in 2023, said last year it was working with former US prosecutor Neil Barofsky to shed light on Nazi-linked accounts held at its former competitor.