Australian man dies skiing in Japan days after Queensland snowboarder killed in ski lift accident | Japan

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A 27-year-old Melbourne man has died at a ski resort in Japan, days after the death of Queensland snowboarder Brooke Day.

The man collapsed and suffered a heart attack while skiing with six others in Niseko, Hokkaido, on Monday, according to a spokesperson for a local ski lodge who asked not to be identified.

The Australian had been working at a local hotel while in Niseko and was skiing at the back of his group of seven when he collapsed and four other skiers saw him fall and began CPR, the spokesperson said.

“He was a talented, kind, gentle and wonderful man,” they said.

“There was no accident, collision or fall of any kind.”

The man was retrieved by the fire department and pronounced dead at hospital, with local police saying they would investigate, local outlet UHB reported.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to the man’s family.

“We send our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time,” a Dfat spokesperson said.

The Australian’s death came three days after 22-year-old Day died when her backpack was caught in a ski lift at Tsugaike resort in Otari, near Nagano.

The resort’s lift operator said it would fully cooperate with investigations and “take concrete measures to prevent recurrence, such as strengthening our safety management system”.

Japan has faced record-breaking snowfalls in recent weeks, with 30 deaths and more than 100 people suffering serious injury nationwide in snow-related incidents since 20 January, the disaster management agency has reported.

Niseko’s Annupuri ski resort, near where the man was reportedly found, recorded 290cm of snow near the mountain’s peak on Wednesday and 200cm at its base.

The daily Niseko avalanche bulletin noted the snowfall was “exceptionally good” on Monday while warning visitors to avoid skiing off-piste.

“The area outside the gates is not a ski resort,” the 2 February bulletin read.

Snowfall has delayed train services, forced highways to close and last week briefly shuttered the main airport of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, stranding hundreds of passengers.

With reporting by Reuters



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Lucy Letby: Inquests to open into deaths of five babies murdered by former nurse | UK News

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Lucy Letby: Inquests to open into deaths of five babies murdered by former nurse | UK News

Inquests into the deaths of five babies Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering are set to open today.

Proceedings at Cheshire Coroner’s Court will concern babies C, E, I, O and P, who all died at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016 when Letby was employed as a nurse in the neonatal unit.

Jacqueline Devonish, senior coroner for Cheshire, is expected to open, adjourn and then suspend the hearings until later this year.

Dates for the full inquests – should it reach that stage – have been provisionally set for September, pending the outcome of the Thirlwall Inquiry report, which is examining how Letby was able to commit her crimes and is due to be published after Easter.

Letby was sentenced to 15 whole-life terms
Image: Letby was sentenced to 15 whole-life terms

Letby, 36, was sentenced to 15 whole-life terms for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.

An inquest into the death of Baby A, held in October 2016, concluded that it could not be determined what caused the infant’s death.

In January 2016, an inquest into the death of Baby D was opened but later suspended once criminal proceedings got under way.

Last month, the Crown Prosecution Service announced Letby will not face criminal charges in relation to further allegations of deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies.

CPS: No further charges against Lucy Letby

Cheshire Constabulary had submitted evidence relating to alleged offences of murder and attempted murder of two infants who died and seven who survived.

However, prosecutors said the extra information it had received from police had not met “the evidential test”.

Read more from Sky News:
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor moves out of Royal Lodge
Burglars chased by ex-Aston Villa player jailed

Letby, who has always maintained her innocence, lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.

A group of campaigners have been backing the former nurse and have submitted reports to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in an attempt to overturn her convictions.



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Senator Mitch McConnell, 83, hospitalized

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Senator Mitch McConnell, 83, hospitalized

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Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was hospitalized Monday evening with flu-like symptoms, his office announced.

“In an abundance of caution, after experiencing flu-like symptoms over the weekend, Senator McConnell checked himself into a local hospital for evaluation last night,” a spokesperson for McConnell said in a statement.

“His prognosis is positive and he is grateful for the excellent care he is receiving,” the statement continued. “He is in regular contact with his staff and looks forward to returning to Senate business.”

The announcement comes after a number of health scares for McConnell, who has fallen multiple times and frozen during public remarks.

FORMER GOP SEN. JON KYL ANNOUNCES DEMENTIA DIAGNOSIS, STEPS AWAY FROM PUBLIC LIFE

Mitch McConnell walking in front of his assistants.

Senator Mitch McConnell was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, his office announced. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Last October, the 83-year-old Kentucky Republican suffered a fall on Capitol Hill.

Video captured him walking down a hallway when a woman approached him with a question about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. McConnell stumbled to the ground before being helped back up. He then waved at the person filming the video and walked away.

US Senator Mitch McConnell is helped up steps

US Senator Mitch McConnell is helped up steps as he enters the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on February 2, 2026.  (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly one year ago, McConnell fell on a set of stairs as he was exiting the Senate chamber.

The long-serving Republican announced last year that he would not seek re-election in 2026 and would retire at the end of his term.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell walks in Capitol Hill

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks at the Senate Subway heading to a vote on the ninth day of a partial shutdown of the federal government at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Oct. 9, 2025.  (Kent Nishimura/Reuters)

McConnell has served in the Senate for decades, including as Senate majority leader during President Donald Trump’s first administration.

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He is a survivor of childhood polio.



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Infosys, TCS, LTIMindtree lead IT stock slump as global AI fears hit sentiment

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Infosys, TCS, LTIMindtree lead IT stock slump as global AI fears hit sentiment

IT stocks came under intense pressure in early trade on Wednesday, with the Nifty IT index plunging more than 5 per cent, tracking a steep sell-off in global technology shares. Weak cues from the US markets weighed heavily on sentiment, where counterparts of Indian software majors fell sharply amid growing worries that rapid advances in artificial intelligence could intensify competition for traditional software companies.

Investor anxiety was sparked after new software updates linked to Anthropic-driven AI models suggested faster innovation cycles and the potential for greater disruption across enterprise software and services. The developments revived fears that AI-led automation and new platforms could squeeze margins for established IT services firms, prompting traders to cut exposure to the sector.

At 10.10 am, the Nifty IT index traded at 36,590.80 after falling nearly 6 per cent to 36,297.90 in early trade from the previous close of 38,611.75.

Heavy selling was visible across frontline counters. Persistent Systems, LTIMindtree, Coforge, InfosysTata Consultancy Services, Mphasis and HCL Technologies were among the worst hit stocks, dragging the broader technology index lower. Shares of these companies declined sharply in the opening sessions as institutional investors reacted to the negative global cues.

Heavyweight Infosys depreciated over 6 per cent to ₹1,551.20 against the previous close of ₹1,656. TCS also fell 6 percent to ₹3,031.20.

Market participants said the fall reflected both near-term nervousness over pricing power in IT services and concerns that clients in developed markets could reassess technology spending in an environment of rapidly evolving AI capabilities.

The sharp drop in US-listed tech stocks overnight further amplified risk-off sentiment at home, leading to a broad-based sell-off across IT names. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.4 per cent as software stocks extended losses. Anthropic’s launch of workplace productivity tools intensified worries, with the sector shedding approximately $300 billion in market value, Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research, HDFC Securities, said.

For now, volatility is expected to remain elevated as markets digest the implications of new AI-driven products and their potential impact on traditional software and outsourcing models.

Published on February 4, 2026

Google’s disruption rips millions out of devices out of malicious network

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Google’s disruption rips millions out of devices out of malicious network

Millions of devices used as proxies by cybercriminals, espionage groups and data thieves have been removed from circulation following Google’s disruption of IPIDEA, a China-based residential proxy network. The reduction in available proxy devices came after Google’s Threat Intelligence Group used legal action and intelligence sharing to target the company’s domain infrastructure, Google said in a blog post Wednesday. 

Google’s action, aided by Cloudflare, Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs and Spur, impaired some of IPIDEA’s proxy infrastructure, but not all of it. The coordinated strikes against malicious infrastructure underscore the back-and-forth struggle threat hunters confront when they take out pieces of cybercriminals’ vast and growing infrastructure. 

Initial data indicates IPIDEA’s proxy network was cut by about 40%.

“We have still seen around 5 million distinct bots communicating with the IPIDEA command and control servers, so as of now they are still able to operate with a large volume of proxies,” Chris Formosa, senior lead information security engineer at Lumen Technologies’ Black Lotus Labs, told CyberScoop Thursday.

Lumen was tracking a daily average of about 8.5 million proxies connecting to IPIDEA’s servers before some of its domains were taken offline this week. “The true population was likely closer to 10-11 million, but we could only see 8.5 million of them with our visibility,” Formosa said.

Google researchers discovered a cluster of seemingly independent proxy and virtual private network brands controlled by IPIDEA. Google found several domains also owned by IPIDEA supporting software development kits for residential proxies embedded into existing applications.

Developers who add these SDKs to their apps are paid by IPIDEA, typically on a per-download basis. “These SDKs are the key to any residential proxy network—the software they get embedded into provides the network operators with the millions of devices they need to maintain a healthy residential proxy network,” Google said in the report.

Residential proxy networks can serve a legitimate purpose, but researchers have been warning that unethical or outright criminal operators are abusing these networks to build and support botnets, cybercrime campaigns, espionage and other malicious activity.

“The residential proxy industry appears to be rapidly expanding, and GTIG’s research indicates that the vast majority of its growth is fueled by malicious use,” Charley Snyder, senior manager at GTIG, told CyberScoop. “GTIG found that these proxies are overwhelmingly misused by bad actors.”

Researchers said many service providers are packaging proxy malware in software that users are downloading, and unwittingly allowing proxy networks to hijack consumer bandwidth to obscure cybercrime.

Earlier this month, Google said it observed more than 550 distinct threat groups, including some from China, North Korea, Iran and Russia, using IP addresses tracked as IPIDEA exit notes during a seven-day period. These threat groups accessed victim cloud environments, on-premises infrastructure and initiated password-spray attacks, according to Google.

Security teams and cyber authorities are placing more attention on the systems and scaffolding that support cybercrime, effectively trying to squeeze resources and place additional pressure on their activities.

“By targeting the tools criminals use rather than just the criminals themselves, defenders can impose significant costs on the ecosystem in a way that can’t easily or quickly be regenerated,” Snyder said. 

Google’s actions severed the command-and-control links between operators and millions of devices, and took down storefronts, negating the investments IPIDEA made to gain brand awareness and traction, he added. 

While Google took a big bite out of IPIDEA’s infrastructure, the fight against the company and others continues. 

“This is a very complex ecosystem with dozens, if not hundreds, of brands and shell entities,” Snyder said. “While our disruption is significant, this ecosystem is built on anonymity and shared resources. They’ve survived takedowns before, so we are pleased by the progress we’ve made but know there is more to do.”

Matt Kapko

Written by Matt Kapko

Matt Kapko is a reporter at CyberScoop. His beat includes cybercrime, ransomware, software defects and vulnerability (mis)management. The lifelong Californian started his journalism career in 2001 with previous stops at Cybersecurity Dive, CIO, SDxCentral and RCR Wireless News. Matt has a degree in journalism and history from Humboldt State University.



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‘I don’t think this was a good decision’: Labor’s Ed Husic holds ‘deep concerns’ over Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit | Australia news

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Labor MP Ed Husic has “deep concerns” about the impending visit of Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, saying it is hard to reconcile concepts of social cohesion with the 2023 image of the leader signing an artillery shell about to be dropped on Gaza.

Husic said he did not believe it was a good decision for his Labor government to issue an invitation for Herzog to visit Australia, which was done in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.

He also said he backed the right of Australians to peacefully protest against the actions of the Israeli government over its bombardment of Gaza, calling it a “slur” to link major protests against the war to the Bondi shooting at a Jewish festival.

“I’m obviously very uncomfortable about this visit, largely because president Herzog has said some things that have attempted to sheet home responsibility for October 7 to an entire population,” Husic told Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast.

“This had attracted the attention of the international court of justice. And you’ve got, obviously, indictments from the international criminal court that are at play.

“It’s really hard for me to reconcile the vision of him signing bombs that went on to be dropped on Palestinian homes … with the notion of social cohesion. So from that perspective, I’ve obviously got deep concerns.”

A charge of genocide against Israel has been brought before the international court of justice by South Africa, but the court has yet to issue its judgment.

Separately, the international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former defence secretary Yoav Gallant over allegations of war crimes.

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No warrant has been issued for Herzog.

Herzog will visit Australia next week at the invitation of the governor general, Sam Mostyn, to meet Jewish communities after the Bondi terror attack, where 15 people were killed at a Hanukah festival in December 2025.

Herzog is Israel’s head of state, as opposed to Netanyahu, who wields executive power as the nation’s prime minister.

Asked whether it was a mistake for the government to invite Herzog to visit, Husic said: “I’m entitled to have a differing view and my view is I don’t think that this was a good decision, but it’s going to happen. Nothing I can say about that is going to stop that.”

Albanese has said it is “entirely appropriate for the head of state to visit” Australia after the Bondi attack, but Herzog’s visit will be met by protests from pro-Palestine groups as a growing number of politicians – both inside and outside Labor – raise concern about Israel’s war on Gaza and resulting civilian death toll.

Critics of Herzog’s visit have pointed to the United Nations commission of inquiry’s conclusion in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. That commission, which does not speak on behalf of the UN, stated Herzog, Netanyahu and Gallant “incited the commission of genocide”.

The report quoted Herzog in October 2023 saying about Gaza: “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware and not involved. It is absolutely not true.”

Israel’s foreign ministry has previously rejected the report, calling it “distorted and false” and claiming it “relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods”.

Herzog has denied the incitement allegations and has called the separate genocide case against Israel in the international court of justice a “form of blood libel”. He pushed back on criticism of his comments about the Gaza war, saying they were taken out of context and noting he had said Israel would respect international law and there was no excuse for the killing of innocent civilians.

The ICJ is yet to issue its final ruling.

Husic said he understood that Herzog had claimed to have been misrepresented by the criticisms against him, and suggested the president could use his visit to discuss a lasting peace in the Middle East and Palestinian statehood.

“But in the absence of that, I just don’t see how his visit would add, given the concerns that exist around his positioning,” Husic said. “He’s part of the leadership of a nation that has undertaken, or its conduct has failed to distinguish between civilian and combatants in devastating ways when you see the number of people that have been killed.

“The hardest thing for me has been the impact on children, that they should not be shouldering the burden for what happened on October 7. And we should have leaders be able to say, ‘that’s not the way to go’.”

Three state Labor MPs have said they would join demonstrations against Herzog, while concerns about the visit have been raised by federal MP Sophie Scamps and the federal Greens. The Labor Friends of Palestine group has also asked the government to rescind Herzog’s invitation.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Gaza war has surpassed 70,000, Gaza’s health ministry said in November, after 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas terror attack of 7 October 2023. Israel’s military recently accepted that death toll was broadly accurate.

Husic said international bodies should be allowed to investigate the conflict in Gaza, and that decisions made through that campaign required “accountability”. He went on to say that protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – one of which he attended at the Sydney Harbour Bridge – had been unfairly maligned.

“I do think it’s a massive slight against Australians who had genuine concern about what they were seeing in Gaza and who came out in record numbers, who have marched peacefully week in, week out to show the depth of their concern – that that be linked to that horrific event we saw in Bondi,” he said.



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21 Republicans break with Trump, Speaker Johnson on $1.2T spending bill

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21 Republicans break with Trump, Speaker Johnson on $1.2T spending bill

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Twenty-one Republicans broke with President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday evening in an attempt to derail a $1.2 trillion spending bill to end a government shutdown, citing concerns that the legislation didn’t do enough to advance GOP priorities.

Among a range of reasons, lawmakers argued the bill needed to include provisions shoring up election integrity, come with full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and eliminate Democrat-requested earmarks.

The lawmakers that voted against the measure included:

Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Eric Burlison, R-Mo., Kat Cammack, R-Fla., Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Randy Fine, R-Fla., Brandon Gill, R-Texas, Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Cory Mills, R-Fla., Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Scott Perry, R-Pa., Chip Roy, R-Texas, David Schweikert, R-Ariz., Keith Self, R-Texas, Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., Greg Steube, R-Fla., and William Timmons, R-S.C.

Rep. Thomas Massie

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., arrives for a news conference outside the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 3, 2025 (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY

Thomas Massie, R-Ky., condemned what he saw as a failure to shore up election integrity with the exclusion of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — a bill requiring photo ID for registering voters looking to participate in federal elections.

“And most importantly… BLOCKED: the inclusion of the SAVE Act to protect our elections from illegal aliens — a top priority for conservatives,” Massie said in a long list of reasons he posted to X on why he had voted against the package.

Massie alongside other Republicans like Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., had called for Republicans to tie the SAVE Act into the 2026 funding bill.

He wasn’t the only Republican to vent frustrations online.

Other lawmakers voted against the bill because of a distrust that Democrats would negotiate in good faith over outstanding considerations to fund DHS.

“The fact that Chuck Schumer is able to somehow get Republicans to pass a version that includes all of their stuff — but only a two-week funding measure for Homeland Security, I think, is a fool’s bet,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R- Mo. said.

The bill, which now heads to the desk of President Donald Trump for his signature, includes funding for the departments of War, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services.

REPUBLICANS, DEMS BREAK THROUGH RESISTANCE, MOVE FORWARD WITH TRUMP-BACKED FUNDING PACKAGE

Donald Trump speaking at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington.

President Donald Trump speaks during the launch of a program known as Trump Accounts at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, Jan. 28, 2026, in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

Despite the opposition from the 21 Republicans, the bill passed by a bipartisan 217-214 vote.

Tuesday marks the second time the House of Representatives has considered this legislation.

The bill hit roadblocks after the House passed it for the first time in January, when Democrats in the Senate balked at its lack of safeguards for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of two fatal confrontations in Minnesota between immigration enforcement and civilians.

Democrats across both chambers of Congress have demanded new restrictions on ICE’s operations, such as a prohibition against wearing masks, an elimination of ICE’s roaming patrols, body camera requirements, stronger warrant restrictions and visible law enforcement identification.

As a part of the package, lawmakers included a two-week extension to DHS funding, giving negotiators time to work through disagreements on provisions for ICE while avoiding a broader government shutdown.

Having passed that compromise bill, lawmakers have until the end of next week to hammer out an agreement on funding for DHS or else risk a lapse in its funding.

In addition to ICE, the DHS bill covers funding for the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Lawmakers concerned about that funding also voted against the bill on Tuesday, expressing disappointment Republicans hadn’t used the moment to push for DHS fundng. 

“I voted NO on the 5-bill minibus,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said in a post to X on Tuesday.

ICE-agents-garage

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Republicans have the trifecta and we should fund DHS at Trump levels for strong border security,” Boebert said.

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Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., blasted the bill for, in his view, not utilizing Republican negotiating power.

“We gotta start negotiating from power,” Burchett said in a video he posted. “Trump will tell you: negotiate from power.”

Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.



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Up: Order issued for cashless treatment for teachers, the cabinet had approved it recently; Know who will get the benefit – Up: Order Issued For Cashless Treatment For Teachers, Recently Approved By The Cabinet; Find Out Who Will Become

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Up: Order issued for cashless treatment for teachers, the cabinet had approved it recently; Know who will get the benefit – Up: Order Issued For Cashless Treatment For Teachers, Recently Approved By The Cabinet; Find Out Who Will Become

After the green signal from the state cabinet, the government on Wednesday issued a government order to provide cashless medical facilities to the teachers of the Secondary Education Department. A total of 2.97 lakh teachers and their dependent families including teachers of non-government aided schools, teachers of self-financed secondary schools, subject experts and honorarium teachers of vocational education, teachers of aided schools recognized by Sanskrit Shiksha Parishad will get its benefit.
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In the order issued by Additional Chief Secretary Partha Sarathi Sen Sharma, it has been said that apart from government hospitals, teachers and their dependent family members will get cashless treatment facility in private hospitals also. The estimated annual premium for teachers and their family members is Rs 3000 per teacher. The scheme will be implemented through Sachij. The nominated nodal officer of the Secondary Education Department will provide the complete details of the beneficiaries and their families to the Chief Executive Officer Sachij by 30th June every year.


Markets open cautiously after strong rally; IT stocks drag on global tech selloff

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Markets open cautiously after strong rally; IT stocks drag on global tech selloff

Benchmark indices opened cautiously on Wednesday morning after the previous session’s strong rally, with IT stocks dragging following a sharp selloff in technology shares on Wall Street amid concerns over artificial intelligence competition.

The Sensex opened at ₹83,252.06 against the previous close of ₹83,739.13 and was trading at ₹83,868.64, up 129.51 points or 0.15 per cent at 9.45 am. The Nifty opened at ₹25,675.05 compared to the previous close of ₹25,727.55 and was trading at ₹25,790.35, up 62.80 points or 0.24 per cent.

“AI Anxiety Hits Wall Street: Wall Street ended sharply lower on Tuesday as investors worried that AI could create more competition for software makers, keeping them on edge ahead of quarterly reports from Alphabet and Amazon later this week,” said Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research, HDFC Securities. “The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.4 per cent as software stocks extended losses, Anthropic’s launch of workplace productivity tools intensified worries, with the sector shedding approximately $300 billion in market value.”

IT stocks bore the brunt of the selloff with Infosys falling 5.97 per cent to ₹1,557.10, TCS declining 5.23 per cent to ₹3,056.60, HCL Technologies down 4.63 per cent at ₹1,616.80, Tech Mahindra losing 4.37 per cent to ₹1,641.50, and wipro dropping 3.70 per cent to ₹233.70.

Among the gainers, ONGC led with a surge of 4.01 per cent to ₹267.30, Coal India rose 2.34 per cent to ₹439.45, Mahindra & Mahindra gained 2.28 per cent to ₹3,608.20, NTPC advanced 2.22 per cent to ₹366.50, and Jio Financial Services climbed 1.99 per cent to ₹269.15.

“The rally fueled by the US-India trade deal will face hurdles to sustain. The IT selloff in the US yesterday will drag the Indian IT index, too, constraining the rally in the Indian market,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited. “Since valuations continue to be high there is no fundamental support for a sustained rally.”

On Tuesday, benchmark indices witnessed a strong rally with the Nifty ending 639 points higher at 25,727 while the Sensex surged 2,073 points to close at 83,729, driven by optimism over the India-US trade deal.

“Indian equity markets continue to draw support from positive progress in India–US trade discussions, which remains the key sentiment driver,” said Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money. “After the strong multi-day rally, some profit-booking and range-bound action cannot be ruled out.”

Shrikant Chouhan, Head – Equity Research at Kotak Securities, noted that “the short-term market outlook remains positive, but a strategy of buying on dips and selling on rallies would be ideal for traders.”

On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors turned net buyers on February 3, purchasing equities worth ₹5,236 crore after remaining net sellers for the previous two sessions. Domestic institutional investors extended their buying streak for a second consecutive day, investing over ₹1,000 crore.

Crude oil Futures traded higher on Wednesday morning as tensions re-emerged between the US and Iran. February crude oil futures were trading at ₹5,785 on Multi Commodity Exchange against the previous close of ₹5,709, up by 1.33 per cent, and March futures were trading at ₹5,770 against the previous close of ₹5,696, up by 1.30 per cent.

“Given persistent global uncertainties and elevated volatility, traders are advised to remain selective and disciplined, focusing on fundamentally strong stocks during market declines,” said Aakash Shah, Technical Research Analyst at Choice Equity Broking Private Limited.

Published on February 4, 2026

Thousands march in Venezuela to demand US frees President Maduro, wife | Nicolas Maduro News

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Thousands march in Venezuela to demand US frees President Maduro, wife | Nicolas Maduro News

Published On 4 Feb 2026

Thousands of people marched through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, demanding the release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, exactly one month since US forces abducted the couple in a bloody nighttime raid.

“Venezuela needs Nicolas!” the crowd chanted in Tuesday’s demonstration, titled “Gran Marcha” (The Great March).

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Thousands carried signs in support of the abducted president, and many wore shirts calling for the couple’s return from detention in a US prison.

“The empire kidnapped them. We want them back,” declared one banner carried by marchers.

Nicolas Maduro Guerra, the detained president’s son and a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, addressed the crowds from a stage, stating that the US military’s abduction of his father on January 3 “will remain marked like a scar on our face, forever”.

“Our homeland’s soil was desecrated by a foreign army”, Maduro Guerra said of the night US forces abducted his father.

The march, called by the government and involving many public sector workers, stretched for several hundred metres, accompanied by trucks blaring music.

A supporter of Venezuela's government holds placards during a rally to demand the release of ousted President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, one month after their capture by the U.S. during recent U.S. strikes on the country, in Caracas, Venezuela, February 3, 2026. REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno
A demonstrator holds a placard during a rally to demand the US releases abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas, Venezuela [Maxwell Briceno/Reuters]

Local media outlet Venezuela News said the march was part of a “global day of action” to demand the couple’s release. Protesters showed their solidarity around the world, demonstrating under banners with slogans like “Bring them back” and “Hands off Venezuela”.

The international event united voices “from diverse ideological trends”, who agreed “that the detention of President Maduro and Cilia Flores represents a flagrant violation of international law and a dangerous precedent for the sovereignty of nations”, the news outlet said.

“We feel confused, sad, angry. There are a lot of emotions,” said Jose Perdomo, a 58-year-old municipal employee, who marched in Caracas.

“Sooner or later, they will have to free our president”, he said, adding that he also backed Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has been walking a thin line since taking over as acting president, trying to appease Maduro’s supporters in government and accommodating the demands being placed on Caracas by US President Donald Trump.

Trump has said he is willing to work with Rodriguez, as long as Caracas falls in line with his demands, particularly on the US taking control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Striking a conciliatory tone with Washington, and promising reform and reconciliation at home, Rodriguez has already freed hundreds of political prisoners and opened Venezuela’s nationalised hydrocarbons sector to private investment.

Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of university students and relatives of political prisoners also marched in the capital, calling for the quick approval of an amnesty law promised by Rodriguez that would free prisoners from the country’s jails.

Legislation on the amnesty has not yet come before parliament.



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