Four people have died after eating poisonous Death Cap mushrooms in California, which have spread after a rainy winter.
A further three have also been left needing liver transplants after consuming the mushrooms, as the state’s public health department has urged people to avoid foraging altogether.
In a health warning, the body said at least three dozen cases of mushroom poisoning have been reported since 18 November, which “greatly exceeds the typical report of less than 5 cases” per year.
The health department added that many who ate the Death Cap mushrooms suffered from rapidly evolving acute liver injury and liver failure, and that the victims have ranged in age from 19 months to 67 years old.
The mushrooms have been seen in local and national parks across Northern Californiaand the Central Coast, and clusters have also been identified in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas.
Named amanita phalloides, the mushrooms look similar to safe and edible varieties such as the Caesar’s and Paddy Straw. They typically spread in the autumn and winter.
Image:Pic: iStock
According to foraging website Wild Food UK, the symptoms of eating a Death Cap can start several hours after ingestion, and include severe vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pains.
In serious cases, symptoms can return after several days and end in death from kidney and liver failure.
Craig Smollin, a medical director at the California Poison Control System, told the Associated Press that Death Cap mushrooms tend to flourish in the state between November and March, though not usually to this extent.
Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, Laura Marcelino said that her family in the Northern California town of Salinas gathered mushrooms that looked like the ones she and her husband used to forage in their native Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico.
“We thought it was safe,” Ms Marcelino, 36, told the outlet in Spanish. The next day, her husband was dizzy and tired, but Marcelino felt fine, and they ate the mushrooms again.
YouTuber Shadab Jakati, who went viral on social media by asking ‘How much is a packet of 10 biscuits’, is currently in the news for a serious allegation. A woman has lodged an FIR against Shadab Jakati, accusing him of rape. After the matter came to light, the stir on social media has intensified.
YouTuber Shadab Jakati gave clarification
After the allegations made by the woman, YouTuber Shadab Jakati has released an emotional video and given his clarification. In the video, Shadab said that the woman who had accused him had herself come to him one day asking for help. While seeking help from Shadab, the woman had said that she works as a laborer, has a child and due to financial constraints, she is not able to get her child educated. After which Shadab helped him out of humanity and arranged for six months’ fees, courses and books for his child.
Shadab Jakati told in the video that there are about eight people in his team, which include both Hindus and Muslims, and he has been helping the poor for a long time. He said that this woman was also provided financial help many times. Like sometimes 5 thousand, sometimes 2 thousand and sometimes 1 thousand rupees and he never refused to help. The woman has also worked with his team in many videos. Shadab also told that the village shopkeeper and his team members are also witnesses to the fact that how many times the ration for the month was given to the woman making the allegation.
‘I have never touched that woman till date’
In his video, Shadab Jakati called the allegations a conspiracy and said, ‘I swear that I have never even touched a woman till date’. There are cameras installed in my house and there are always eight to ten people present there and the woman has never even stayed at my house. Demanding an investigation, Shadab said that if even the slightest evidence is found against me, I will cut my own neck.
At the end of the video, Shadab said emotionally that he has achieved this position with a lot of hard work. What hurts them is that they became famous by working hard and whatever money they are earning today, they help people. At present the police is investigating the matter and the truth will come out only after investigation.
Lahore, Pakistan – As the clock struck midnight between Thursday and Friday, Lahore’s sky erupted in fireworks as the crowds that gathered along one of the city’s main avenues cheered in jubilation.
Amid the commotion, Aamer Iqbal, a 50-year-old banker, took a deep breath and asked his daughter to let go of the kite she was helping to launch. It was the first time in nearly two decades that Iqbal was able to engage in an activity that had defined his childhood: the simple act of flying a kite.
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Rooftops across Lahore blared music as thousands shouted in joy, sending kites soaring into the night sky, marking the return of the centuries-old spring festival of Basant to the city it calls home.
“Kite flying is a whole experience, and the moment I let it go, my entire childhood came flooding back in my mind like a vivid reel, about the times I spent with my brother and my parents flying kites,” he told Al Jazeera from his home in Lahore’s Shah Jamal neighbourhood.
Iqbal says kite flying creates the illusion of controlling something high in the air, forging a link between “heaven and Earth”.
“You just want to have that feeling, even for the most fleeting moment, to be able to beat the gravitational force and break free,” he said.
He was not alone.
Six kilometres (3.7 miles) away, Muhammad Mubashir, a 41-year-old businessman, stood on the rooftop of a friend’s house in Lahore’s historical Gawalmandi neighbourhood. He said it took him a few minutes to fully absorb that the hobby on which he had spent his childhood and pocket money had finally returned.
But what struck him most was watching a young boy struggle to tie the central knot that gives a kite balance.
People gather on their decorated rooftops to celebrate the Basant kite-flying festival in Lahore, Pakistan, late on Friday, February 6, 2026 [K M Chaudhary/AP Photo]
“He was completely out of his depth and had no idea what he was doing. It was at that moment when I realised that the ban on Basant in Lahore had been on for so long that people growing up in last two decades have no clue at all about an activity that we learnt about in our childhood more rigorously than even doing our homework,” he told Al Jazeera.
Origins of Basant
The origins of Basant stretch back centuries and are deeply embedded in the cultural fabric of Punjab, the region that straddles the India-Pakistan border.
The word “Basant” derives from the Sanskrit “Vasant,” meaning spring, and traditionally marks the transition from harsh winter to the blooming of spring.
The seasonal shift coincides with the harvest in Punjab’s agricultural heartland, when mustard fields turn brilliant yellow, giving the festival its distinctive colour.
Among several origin stories, one of the most popular links the festival to the 13th-century Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, who fell into deep depression after the death of his nephew.
According to this account, his disciple, the legendary poet and musician Amir Khusro, dressed in yellow women’s clothing and danced before his master while singing, lifting his spirits. Basant thereafter became an annual celebration at Sufi shrines across Delhi and beyond.
But it was during the 19th-century Sikh Empire that Basant became inseparable from Lahore.
According to research by Amjad Parvez, a former professor at the University of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled Punjab from 1801 to 1839, institutionalised the festival at the imperial level.
“Lahore is considered as the main hub of celebrations associated with Basant,” Parvez, a veteran kite flyer who has studied the festival’s history and kite design, wrote in his 2018 research paper.
Partition and transformation
Before the 1947 British colonial partition that created Pakistan and India, Basant was celebrated across religious lines in undivided Punjab.
According to Parvez, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities alike participated, flying kites from “elaborately decorated rooftops, wearing yellow clothing and sharing traditional foods”.
Mian Yousaf Salahuddin in his Haveli Barood Khana, days before the Basant festival kicked off [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]
Mian Yousaf Salahuddin, 74, grandson of Pakistan’s national poet Muhammad Iqbal and a prominent patron of arts and culture, vividly recalls the post-partition era. Speaking to Al Jazeera at his Haveli Barood Khana (traditional residence) in Old Lahore days before Basant, he said the festival was always tied to the city’s walled quarters.
“For us residents of the “Androon Lahore”, or inner city, it was a dynamic festival, celebrated by community here, before its mass popularity,” he said.
Salahuddin remembers Basant primarily as a daytime celebration.
But the transformation of Basant from a localised walled-city tradition into an internationally recognised festival has a remarkable origin story, one which involved Salahuddin and Imran Khan.
Khan, a former prime minister and World Cup-winning cricket captain, has been in jail since August 2023 on convictions he says are politically motivated.
Salahuddin, who has known Khan since their school days at Lahore’s Aitchison College, and has old family ties, said he received a call from him in the early 1980s while Khan was playing county cricket in England.
“He rang and said he wanted to bring some of his friends from England to my haveli on the occasion of Basant that year,” Salahuddin recalls. “Khan himself was fond of kite flying, and at my invitation, he brought the Duke and Duchess of Somerset, who had studied with him at Oxford,” he said.
“When the Duke and Duchess of Somerset climbed onto the roof, they expressed their delight as well as shock [to] what kind of festival this was, where the entire city is on rooftops and the sky is filled with colourful kites,” he said.
The duke asked Salahuddin why this festival was not promoted and not well-known globally.
Fortunately, Salahuddin was also friends with Mir Shakil ur Rehman, the owner of the country’s largest media group and convinced him to publish Basant photos in his Urdu newspaper the following year, and soon after, the festival became the most sought-after event in the country.
At its peak, Parvez recalls, Basant resembled a “great party,” with large rooftops rented out, food stalls set up and music blaring.
“When I was young and in school, my heart used to beat with Basant festival. Our teachers would forbid us from skipping school and yet we still did it, just because of our fanatic love for kite flying,” the 66-year-old said.
By the 1980s, organised teams had formed under masters known as ustads, who founded “Gharana” schools of kite flying. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Basant had evolved into a major tourist attraction drawing visitors from around the world.
The art of ‘patang’
Basant’s rituals extend beyond a single day. The sport has its own vocabulary, customs and precise rules of construction.
Traditional Punjabi kites follow specific patterns, most commonly rhombus-shaped designs known as “gudda” or “guddi”. The colloquial term “patang”, often used generically, actually refers to a “curvilinear shape,” Parvez said.
“The kite design is based on a cross which is made up by two bamboo sticks placed, and tied up with thread, over each other,” he explained.
Even the size of the kite mattered for flying and had its naming convention according to the size of the paper sheet that was used to make a kite.
For Mubashir, much of this specialised knowledge is missing today. Strict government regulations on kite size and string safety mean veteran flyers must adapt.
Workers prepare and arrange kite strings during preparations for the upcoming Basant festival in Lahore, Pakistan, on January 17, 2026 [Murtaza Ali/Nur Photo via Getty Images]
Festival under watch
Amid the celebrations, following a suicide bomb attack on Friday at a Shia mosque in Islamabad’s suburbs that killed at least 31 people, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif announced she would “cancel” her official Basant engagements on Saturday, the second day of the festival.
The public, however, was allowed to continue kite flying, with the government closely monitoring events before deciding future policy.
Marriyum Aurangzeb, a senior provincial minister, said authorities would conduct a detailed post-event evaluation based on safety outcomes, compliance levels and overall impact.
“The priority is to first demonstrate that Basant can be celebrated responsibly under strict regulations. Future policy decisions will follow a comprehensive review,” she told Al Jazeera.
Some say the government is seeking political gain from the revival. Parvez argues that the reopening was not necessarily political, though any government taking such a risk could benefit.
“I have seen Maryam Nawaz’s father, Nawaz Sharif, fly kites, and he was a proper participant, who was very good at kite fighting, and was not just an amateur at it. I am sure he would have approved of this decision,” he said.
Mubashir believes this compliance reflects public enthusiasm despite high kite prices driven by demand.
“There is a whole sense of excitement and joy in people. This is such a great feeling in the city where for the past one week, I have not seen people on street losing their cool, or getting into fights, when otherwise it is a norm here. The whole atmosphere is transformed and there is a lot of cheerfulness,” he said.
But perhaps most significantly, the revival of Basant has allowed the older generation to reconnect with the newer one, based on nostalgia and lived experience.
For Iqbal, the banker, teaching his kids how to fly a kite was akin to training them how to walk, how to ride a bicycle or how to swim.
“This was something which my parents gave to me, encouraging me to play sports and fly kites, and to me it is equally important now that the festival is allowed, that I should pass on the knowledge to my children,” he said.
Police investigating the disappearance of a US TV host’s mother are searching for a vehicle or vehicles that may be connected to her case.
Nancy Guthrie, the daughter of NBC’s Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie, is feared to have been kidnapped.
She was last seen at her own home near Tucson, Arizona, on the evening of 31 January, with a local TV station since receiving two messages that appear to be connected to the case.
One demanded money in exchange for the 84-year-old’s return and contained information about her Apple watch and floodlights on her property.
Image:Nancy Guthrie and her daughter, Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie. Pic: Savannah Guthrie/Instagram
On Friday, a spokesperson for the convenience store chain Circle K told NBC News, Sky News’s US partner, that officers visited one of their stores after “receiving a tip regarding a vehicle of interest, and our team has provided them access to the store’s surveillance video”.
Officials have not said whether the vehicle or vehicles are connected to any part of the crime.
It comes as the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department said they were aware of a “new message regarding Nancy Guthrie”.
It was not clear what the message was or if it was connected to previously reported notes.
The message was sent to Tucson TV station KOLD, three officials briefed on the meeting told NBC News.
The FBI is working to confirm if it came from the same sender as the first reported ransom note, the sources said.
They stressed that the FBI has not yet verified if the first note came from someone who may have taken Ms Guthrie from her home.
NBC host’s emotional plea to mum’s kidnapper
Ms Guthrie’s children have released two videos appealing to her apparent kidnappers.
On Wednesday, Savannah Guthrie posted a video in which she tearfully pleaded for her mother’s safe return and appealed to the presumed kidnappers to open a line of communication with the family.
On Thursday evening, her son Cameron Guthrie said in a video posted to his sister’s Instagram account: “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you.”
Image:Nancy Guthrie. Pic: Pima County Sheriff’s Department
US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, said late on Friday that the investigation into Ms Guthrie’s disappearance was going “very well”.
“We have some clues that I think are very strong,” he added. “We have some things that may be coming out reasonably soon.”
Pam Bondi reacts to Nancy Guthrie disappearance
US attorney general Pam Bondi told reporters earlier on Friday that federal authorities were assisting Arizona officials, but she declined to offer details.
“It breaks my heart for Savannah and for her family,” she added.
Meanwhile, the sheriff investigating Ms Guthrie’s disappearance said concern about her condition is growing because authorities say she needs daily medicine.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said: “Her conditions, I would imagine, are worsening day by day.
“She requires medication. And I have no way of knowing whether they’re getting that medication to her.”
Ms Guthrie was said to have a pacemaker and dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to the sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.
Pressure is mounting for Lang to resign as head of a French cultural institute over his ties to the convicted sex offender.
France’s foreign minister has said he summoned ex-Culture Minister Jack Lang to a meeting on Sunday, as the country’s financial crimes prosecutors reportedly opened a probe into Lang and his daughter Caroline after revelations in the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s files.
Calls mounted Friday for Lang to resign as head of a leading French cultural institute over his ties to the convicted United States paedophile.
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Lang, 86, is the highest-profile French figure caught up in the latest US release of documents linked to the financier who killed himself in 2019 while in prison facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
French media reports said Lang, who heads the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris, repeatedly appealed to Epstein for funds or favours, while his daughter’s name appears in the company files of an offshore company co-owned with the disgraced US financier.
His daughter Caroline Lang, a film producer, resigned on Monday from her role as head of the Independent Production Union.
Lang, who spent nearly 20 years as culture minister and education minister in different governments, has denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes despite his conviction in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Lang’s name appears more than 600 times in the Epstein files, the Reuters news agency reported.
A mere mention in the files does not imply wrongdoing.
Lang is an eminent figure in French politics and cultural life, who is known for, among other cultural projects, creating France’s annual Festival of Music.
On Wednesday, he refused to step down as president of the cultural hub focused on the Arabic-speaking world.
Pressure has increased, however, and the foreign ministry – which provides half of the institute’s budget – has ordered him to a meeting.
“He has been summoned by the ministry and will be received on Sunday,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency on a visit to Erbil in Iraq.
Speaking later from Beirut, Barrot added: “The first elements emerging from these files are new and extremely serious” and would require in-depth examination.
But his priority, he said, was to ensure the proper running of the IMA.
The 12.3 million euros ($14.5m) the IMA receives annually from the foreign ministry accounts for half of the institute’s budget.
France’s financial crimes prosecutors told AFP on Friday they had started a preliminary investigation into Lang and his daughter.
The pair will be investigated for “laundering of aggravated tax-fraud proceeds” over their suspected financial ties with the late US financier, the office said.
“I fear nothing, and I am clean as a whistle,” Lang told French radio RTL on Wednesday.
Storms in European capitals
The release of the Epstein files has rippled across Europe.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologised to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein for appointing Peter Mandelson as the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the US despite the diplomat’s close ties to the late sex offender.
Mandelson is being investigated over documents suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago.
Members of Norway’s elite, too, are under pressure. Public figures including Crown Princess Mette-Marit and former prime minister and foreign minister Thorbjoern Jagland are all under scrutiny. Norway’s economic crime police unit said on Thursday it was investigating Jagland on suspicion of aggravated corruption.
The crown princess said on Friday she “deeply regretted” her friendship with Epstein and the embarrassment it has caused the royal family.
Other Norwegians facing questions include former foreign minister Boerge Brende, now CEO of the World Economic Forum; Mona Juul, ambassador to Jordan and Iraq; and her husband Terje Roed-Larsen.
In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico’s national security adviser Miroslav Lajcak has resigned after emails were revealed in which he discussed young women with Epstein.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi slammed the double standard allowing Israel to expand its military while other countries in the region are demanded to reduce their defensive capabilities. Araghchi spoke at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, a three-day event focusing on geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.
T20 World Cup India Likely XI vs USA: The illness of India’s star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah in the T20 World Cup has brought concern for India. He is finding it difficult to play in the first match of the tournament. Mohammad Siraj, who was included in the T20 World Cup team a day earlier, may be given a chance in his place.
Mohammad Siraj may get a chance in the playing eleven in place of Jasprit Bumrah.
New Delhi. The ICC T20 World Cup can be fate-changing for a player. Team India’s fast bowler Mohammad Siraj, who was planning to sit at home for a day and watch the tournament match, is now preparing to play the first match. The Indian team may be forced to play without experienced bowler Jasprit Bumrah in its first match against America in the T20 World Cup. According to the information, he fell ill on the morning of the match. India’s worries have increased due to Bumrah’s illness, but the good thing is that the selectors have included Mohammad Siraj in the team a day before.
The coaching staff is definitely confused about the opening pair. Considering the recent performance of Sanju Samson, the management is now considering fielding Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma in the opening. After Tilak Verma is fully fit, he remains a strong contender for number 3, due to which Samson can be dropped from the playing eleven. The good thing is that experienced Siraj like Bumrah is present in bowling.
Will Siraj get a chance in the playing eleven in place of Bumrah?
If Bumrah fails in the fitness test, then Mohammed Siraj, who has come into the team in place of Harshit Rana, can join the playing eleven. In the year 2024, he played his last T20 match against Sri Lanka. Siraj has taken only 14 wickets in 16 T20 matches. There is no possibility of any major change in the Indian team. The ‘Men in Blue’ will take the field in the first match of the action-packed opening day at the Wankhede Stadium.
India has been placed in Group A along with Namibia, Netherlands and Pakistan. Pakistan is unlikely to play its scheduled match against India on February 15 in Colombo. In such a situation, the path to reach Super 8 seems quite easy for India. Having won the first T20 World Cup in 2007 and becoming champions again in 2024, India is one of only three countries, along with England and West Indies, to have won the trophy twice.
India’s probable playing XI vs America: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dubey, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakraborty.
Active in sports journalism for more than 15 years. Worked in cricket website of Etv Bharat, ZEE News. Was the sports head of Dainik Jagran website. Covered the Olympics, Commonwealth, Cricket and Football World Cups. October…read more
President Donald Trump told reporters that the US had ‘very good’ talks with Iran in Oman on Friday, but maintained his threats that the US military was positioned in the region should Iran not make a deal over its nuclear programme.
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Investigators say the alleged ransom note received by a media outlet contains a specific reference to missing floodlights at Nancy Guthrie’s home, one of which is broken.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Tucson, Arizona, home at around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
Officials didn’t initially comment on the circumstances of her disappearance, but Sheriff Chris Nanos said Monday that “we do, in fact, have a crime.” A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told Fox News Digital it’s believed Nancy Guthrie was either kidnapped or abducted.
The FBI said a possible ransom note in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance sent to a news outlet mentioned a “floodlight.” Fox News Digital found two possible floodlights outside her house, and the Fox Flight team also found another two floodlights in Nancy Guthrie’s backyard, one of which is broken.
Two broken floodlights could be seen dangling from a wire in the back of the house. During a press conference Thursday afternoon, Heith Janke, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix field office, said the possible ransom note contained the mention of a floodlight at Nancy Guthrie’s house.
“Yeah, the ransom itself. One talked about an Apple Watch and one talked about a floodlight,” he said. “And we’re not going to go into specifics. It’s very important that we keep this investigation moving forward.”
In an interview Thursday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on “Hannity,” TMZ’s Harvey Levin spoke about the possible ransom note his outlet received.
This map indicates where various floodlights are broken or remaining intact at Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz.(Google Earth and Fox News)
“The letter begins by saying she is safe, but scared, and they go on to say she knows exactly what the demand is,” he said. “And so they are, you know, through us, telling the family — and obviously the sheriff’s department gave the family the letter we received — exactly what they’re demanding, and they’re saying that Nancy is aware of it.”
He believes the person who wrote the note is in the Tucson, Arizona, area.
An undated photo of Nancy Guthrie and Savannah Guthrie was provided by NBC in response to the disappearance of the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” show host.(Courtesy of NBC)
“There is a phrase in this email that absolutely makes me believe this person who wrote this, and if they’re telling the truth, that Nancy is within a radius of the Tucson area — not in Tucson right now, but in a radius. It could be New Mexico. I don’t know how far, but I think at least what the authorities have is they’ve got a radius, and that’s something,” Levin said.
The TMZ host said there was a demand for payment in the form of bitcoin in the note.
Adam Sabes is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Adam.Sabes@fox.com and on Twitter @asabes10.
