Friday 6th February 2026. Italy Olympics. Mexico tequila arrest. Ukraine Russia talks. Iran US talks. Spain Telegram lies. Newborn rhythm...

Good morning. This is Send 7 World News in 7 minutes. I'm Stephen Devon Chienzi. Today is Friday the 6th of February, 2026. Starting in Europe today, in Italy the Winter Olympics officially opens today, although there have been a few events that started earlier this week. Events are taking place in Milan and across other sites in Northern Italy. In the curling competition, which started on Wednesday, the mixed doubles teams from Norway, Canada and Switzerland are all husband and wife pairs. Ukraine and Russia exchanged 157 prisoners of war each yesterday. Talks between Ukraine and Russia have continued in the United Arab Emirates. In Ukraine, at least 7 civilians were killed on Wednesday when Russia used cluster munitions in a market place in the town of Drushkivka in Donetsk region. Ukrainian officials have said, "Cluster munitions are bombs that release many smaller bombs, and many countries have signed agreements never to use them." Ukraine's military has said that drones are used for more than 80% of Russian targets that they destroy, with most of these drones made in Ukraine. At an event to award the most effective drone units, the Ministry of Defense also said that Ukrainian forces recorded almost 820,000 video confirmed drone hits in 2025, and over 30,000 of those drone strikes were against Russian drones. Spain has accused the founder of the app Telegram, Pavl Dudov, of spreading lies after he sent a personal message to all users of Telegram, criticizing Spain's plans to ban social media for children under 16 and hold company executives responsible for material published on their platforms. Asia. In Oman, Iran and the United States have agreed to holding talks today. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said only that the talks will be about Iran's nuclear program. However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the talks would include other topics such as Iran's ballistic missiles. As far as the topic of those discussions and what the agenda needs to be, look, I think in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things. And that includes the range of their ballistic missiles. That includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region. That includes a nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people. Palestinian health authorities have said that 24 people, including seven children, were killed by Israeli air strikes on Wednesday, making it probably one of the deadliest days in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire in October. According to Al-Jazeera, Israel has killed 520 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect. Israel generally says that it is responding to Hamas breaking the ceasefire and attacks on Israeli soldiers. Japan has a general election on Sunday. Opinion polls are generally showing the Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sanayet Takayichi winning far more votes and seats than any other party. Nigeria, the singer and star of TV show The Voice, Ifunyaña Nguyenni, has died after being bitten by a snake. Nguyenni's friends and fans have complained about the lack of appropriate anti-venom and drugs available in hospitals to combat snake bites. Also in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has said that an army battalion has been sent to Kayama District where Islamist G-Hardist militants are reported to have killed 170 people earlier this week. In Uganda, activist and presidential candidate Bobby Wein is still in hiding, three weeks after police attempted to arrest him after the most recent election. America's, in Mexico, the mayor of Tequila has been arrested. Tequila is a town of around 50,000 people, best known as the origin of the alcohol made from the agave plant. Mexican authorities have said that Mayor Diego Riviera and other top politicians have been arrested for extorting money from Tequila and beer producers in the area in connection with the Heliskot New Generation cartel. In the Caribbean, France's military has said that it has intercepted a boat carrying cocaine. The French Navy also said that it had seized more than four tons of cocaine in French Polynesia. In the United States, the newspaper The Washington Post is sacking about one-third of its employees, Amazon founder, the billionaire Jeff Bezos, bought the newspaper in 2013. Some journalists have complained about some of Bezos' decisions. Newborn babies can anticipate the rhythm of music, according to research from the Italian Institute of Technology in Rome. The research showed that even before being born, babies responded to music by moving and through changes to their heart rate. In this study, newborn babies were played rhythmic music. When unusual changes were made to the music's rhythm, babies showed brain activity, suggesting that the babies knew that the rhythm had been changed. Dr. Roberta Bianco said that rhythm may be part of our biological toolkit. A big thank you to Alba in Spain, Satoco in Japan and Diego in Italy for becoming our newest supporters. Our incredible supporters keep this podcast running and have access to our transcripts for tabulari lists, worksheets and world news quizzes. And we give 10% of our profit to highly effective charities. You can become a supporter at send7.org. Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.