5,000: Belarus has cleared its migrant camps at the Polish border, but the crisis ain't over yet. Minsk has offered to return 5,000 migrants to their home countries, but there's a catch — in exchange, the EU must take in another two thousand migrants, something EU member states are unlikely to agree to.
30: The UN wants Somalia to hurry up with electing all the members of its federal parliament so that a long-delayed presidential vote can happen before the end of the year. Once the chamber is filled, 30 percent of lawmakers must be women.
3: Despite sky-high inflation, Turkey's central bank has taken the odd step of cutting interest rates for the third time since September, as demanded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to boost economic growth. Economists have warned this will only make prices surge even more, but he has other ideas.
1,960: A beef noodle soup vendor was arrested in Vietnam for mocking authorities with a parody of the famous steak impresario Salt Bae. The man posted on Facebook a viral video of himself throwing chopped green onions into tasty pho broth... just days after the real Salt Bae hand-fed a Vietnamese government minister a $1,960 gold-encrusted tomahawk steak in London.In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer weighs in on the politicization of the Olympics after comments by Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess sparked backlash about patriotism and national representation.
100 million: The number of people expected to watch the Super Bowl halftime performance with Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar and newly minted Album of the Year winner at the Grammys.
Brazilian skiers, American ICE agents, Israeli bobsledders – this is just a smattering of the fascinating characters that will be present at this year’s Winter Olympics. Yet the focus will be a different country, one that isn’t formally competing: Russia.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), appeals for a candidate during a street speech of the House of Representatives Election Campaign in Shintomi Town, Miyazaki Prefecture on February 6, 2026. The Lower House election will feature voting and counting on February 8th.
Japanese voters head to the polls on Sunday in a snap election for the national legislature’s lower house, called just three months into Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s tenure.