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The case in Bangladesh, where Nipah cases are reported almost every year, follows two Nipah virus cases identified in neighbouring IndiaThe World Health Organization said on Friday that a woman had died in northern Bangladesh in January after contracting the deadly Nipah virus infection.The case in Bangladesh, where Nipah cases are reported almost every year, follows two Nipah virus cases identified in neighbouring India, which has already prompted stepped-up airport screenings across Asia. Continue reading...

The FBI and Pima County Sheriff's Department were investigating a "new message" Friday in connection with the abduction of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, according to reports. The message was sent to KOLD via email and is under review by investigators. KOLD had originally received the original alleged ransom note, anchor Mary Coleman wrote in a post on X. The station had apparently received the message at 11:45 a.m. Friday and immediately sent it to the FBI and sheriff's department, who were trying to determine its authenticity, Briana Whitney reported via X. It was sent through a service that cannot be traced back. Guthrie, the mother of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie, vanished sometime overnight between Saturday and Sunday from her home in Tucson, Arizona. The family previously released two video messages asking for the abductors to give them a sign that Nancy was OK and telling her captors that they were ready to talk. Pima County sheriff's officials released the following statement: "The FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department are aware of a new message regarding Nancy Guthrie. Investigators are actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity. While this is one new piece of information, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department are still asking anyone with tips to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. The FBI continues to offer a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance."BREAKING: A second note has been sent to our sister station from Nancy Guthrie’s alleged abductor. Here’s what we know.#nancyguthrie #abduction #truecrime #investigation #ransom pic.twitter.com/SkLHBRpQmY— Briana Whitney (@BrianaWhitney) February 6, 2026

Vice President JD Vance was reportedly booed at the Milan Cortina Winter Games as U.S. Olympians denounced President Donald Trump's administration.A video shared on social media showed the audience booing Vance as the camera panned by him during the Opening Ceremony on Friday."Those are a lot of boos for him," one announcer noted.At a press conference, members of the U.S. figure skating team were asked about the Trump administration's use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to crack down on migrants."I feel heartbroken about what's happened in the United States when, you know, I'm pretty sure you're referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that," freestyle skater Chris Lillis told reporters. "I think that as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect.""It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It's a little hard," skater Hunter Hess agreed. "There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't.""Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.," he added. "So yeah, I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here."

Mockery erupted online Friday over Attorney General Pam Bondi's comment that "Donald Trump never forgets."Bondi was speaking at a press conference where the Department of Justice announced an arrest of a suspect in the 2012 Benghazi attack when she made the remark. The internet was quick to point out a few times when the president had a mix up over his memory."Two weeks ago he forgot the name of the territory - Greenland - that he was threatening to annex during his rambling speech at Davos. Three times," Jimmy Rushton, a foreign policy and security analyst based in Ukraine, wrote on X."The same guy who thinks airports existed during the Revolutionary War doesn’t 'forget' lmao ok," user John Brown wrote on X."He can barely remember things from one hour to the next these days," user Bill the Beaver wrote on X."In truth, Trump can’t recall if there’s a conflict between Azerbaijan, Albania, or Armenia," user Anna Baxter wrote on X."Neither do we," user Dianne McKenna wrote on X.Bondi: "Donald Trump never forgets" pic.twitter.com/kvZ2hBfUiX— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 6, 2026

Donald Trump has set his sights on a post-Greenland target and may use tariffs as a way of hindering the country in question. The president's administration carried out an operation in Venezuela and then shifted tact to Greenland earlier this month. While Trump confirmed the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, his campaign in Greenland was far less successful. The president was met with strong resistance from European nations at the time, and it seems he has not yet given up in subsuming the country into US territory. For now though, The Hill columnist Jose Chalhoub believes the president has already shifted his attention to a European nation which could offer oil reserves like Venezuela. Chalhoub wrote, "In Venezuela, enforcement actions continued, even as headlines faded, disrupting supply to Asia and exposing billions in Chinese investments. Cuba, heavily dependent on those flows, was warned that oil would move only on Washington’s terms. The region became a testing ground for how much pressure energy leverage can exert before governments cave."The Americas, then, are a rehearsal. The real audience is Europe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine abruptly ended decades of European dependence on its energy. "A costly divorce — roughly $1,500 per person — was unavoidable. American suppliers surged in, such that the U.S. now rivals Norway as the European Union’s main source of oil, and it is also the source of nearly 60 percent of its liquified natural gas."Despite European countries considering the US an ally, it may not stop Trump from using the economy to his advantage, freezing out some nations who do not give in to his demands. Chalhoub added, "Europe reassured itself that America is an ally, bound by mutual restraint and shared values. But that assumption deserves scrutiny. "Trump’s tariffs demonstrated how readily economic ties can be weaponized. As tensions with Denmark and Greenland escalated, Europeans faced a sobering question: If energy becomes leverage, will Trump take a page from Putin’s playbook?"Europe’s vulnerability is structural. Energy is purchased nationally, not collectively. Pressure applied to a few can fracture solidarity among many. Matching coercion with coercion would invite escalation and play to Washington’s strengths."The gravest mistake would be to continue with the delusion that the U.S. will always be a benign partner. Even an imperfect rules-based order is infinitely preferable to a world governed by oil. Should international restraint dissolve, Venezuela will not be an anomaly, but a warning — the opening of chapter of an era in which power is measured by who controls the tap."

A vital peace pact which prevents escalations in creating nuclear arms is set to end tomorrow (February 5). Donald Trump's administration has not reportedly worked on finding a solution to the treaty, with negotiations stalling last month and not picked up from there. According to those familiar with the peace treaty developments, the president and his advisers are yet to even hold a conversation about what to do about the impending deadline, let alone how to resolve it. Writing in Slate, Fred Kaplan claimed those who knew of the New SMART expiry date were not in a position to bend to Trump's demand that China be included in the next treaty arrangement. Such a suggestion could take years, according to Kaplan. He wrote, "If past is precedent, a new treaty would take at least a year to negotiate; if China takes part, something that has never happened before, it would take many years."In the meantime, we may well see the renewal of a nuclear arms race, reversing a trend of the past half-century. The stunning thing is that, by all accounts, Trump and his advisers haven’t so much as held a conversation about the possibility or its implications for U.S. policy or the safety of the world."Trump was flippant when asked about the treaty last month, saying, "If it expires, it expires. We'll do a better agreement."It’s worth recalling that when Trump scuttled the Iran nuclear deal back during his first term as president, he said that he—master of the “art of the deal”—would goad Tehran into accepting a 'better' deal. "This never happened. There is no reason to believe, especially given Washington’s tense relations with both Moscow and Beijing, that he’ll bring about a superior substitute for New START either."An ex-Pentagon official had previously warned the expiration of the treaty may bolster Russia and its allies. Kingston Reiff warned the new START deal had offered valuable insight into what Russia had been doing with its military.He wrote, "So, my net assessment is the treaty reduced uncertainty about Russian strategic nuclear forces and provided us with greater confidence in our own nuclear plans and capabilities."Since New START's entry into force, there has been no real progress on further arms control measures. Moscow and Beijing deserve most of the blame for this. Charting a course to the next chapter will not be easy, but remains a necessary pursuit."

The Roman diocese, led by Pope Leo XIV, has ordered a church to alter an angel's face painted on a fresco that bears a close resemblance to one of President Donald Trump's closest European allies. An Italian newspaper reported over the weekend that a newly restored fresco at Rome's Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina included an angel whose updated face appeared to resemble Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, although artist Bruno Valentinetti denied that was his intention and the parish priest defended the work, reported The Daily Beast.“It doesn’t mean we’re Meloni supporters,” parish priest Daniele Micheletti told La Repubblica on Saturday. “Maybe we are Meloni supporters, but we don’t say so. The face of King Umberto II is also there, does that mean we’re monarchists?”Technicians from the Roman diocese, which is headed by the America-born pope, told the priest the painting needed to be altered to remove Meloni's likeness, and Cardinal Vicar Baldassare Reina, a close ally of Leo's, issued a "firm" statement.“Images of sacred art and the Christian tradition can be misused or exploited, as they are intended exclusively to support liturgical life," the cardinal vicar said.Micheletti agreed to have the 13th-century basilica's fresco, which Valentinetti himself had originally painted in 2000, modified after speaking to diocese officials.Pope Leo has spoken out against Trump's immigration policies and expansionist threats and shared some of those disagreements directly with Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism as an adult, during a face-to-face meeting in May.

A treaty between Russia and the U.S. could expire shortly because of a standstill over country membership. An ex-Pentagon official said the potential expiry is a frustrating one, and it appears Donald Trump is caught up in a detail that, to the former official, makes little difference. Kingston Reiff warned the new START deal, which will expire on February 5, had offered valuable insight into what Russia had been doing with its military. He wrote, "So, my net assessment is the treaty reduced uncertainty about Russian strategic nuclear forces and provided us with greater confidence in our own nuclear plans and capabilities."But Reiff has since suggested the deal may lapse because Trump wants to include China in the agreement, something which has puzzled the former Pentagon worker. He wrote, "It was never clear to me why we should jettison all limits on Russian strategic forces because New START wasn’t a panacea that captured all nuclear weapons — which of course it was never intended to be."Same goes for the argument the treaty didn’t include China. During the treaty’s 15-year existence, the limits have been sufficient to meet U.S. deterrence objectives against both Russia and China. (Whether this remains the case is a topic of significant debate.)"In the end, factors outside the scope of the treaty ultimately became too much for it to overcome. These included the onset of the COVID pandemic in early 2020, which put the treaty inspections on ice, and Russia’s unconscionable invasion of Ukraine. "Since New START's entry into force, there has been no real progress on further arms control measures. Moscow and Beijing deserve most of the blame for this. Charting a course to the next chapter will not be easy, but remains a necessary pursuit."Democratic Party representatives are equally concerned, with John Garamendi (CA) suggesting the deal must not collapse. He told Politico, "If we allow New START to lapse without a replacement or an extension, we will be entering a new terrifying world we haven’t seen in decades: a world without limits on the nuclear arsenals of the two largest nuclear powers."