February 4, 2026 – Global Headlines

Story gist: A mother instructed her 13-year-old son to swim four hours to rescue the family from water distress. The boy completed the swim and said he does not consider himself a hero.

Bias summary: Left-leaning Guardian emphasizes the mother’s anguish, framing the story around her ‘hardest decision’ to protect the family. Center BBC highlights the boy’s modest heroism in his ‘superhuman’ swim. Right-leaning outlets absent, omitting any conservative perspective on individual bravery, family resilience, or parental responsibility.

Story gist: Police raided X offices in France as prosecutors summoned Elon Musk. The UK opened a new investigation into Grok.

Bias summary: Left-leaning outlets like NYT emphasize police searches and Musk summons, focusing on enforcement actions. Center outlets like BBC provide neutral, balanced coverage of both French raid and UK probe without emphasis. Right-leaning Fox Business leads with Musk’s ‘political attack’ claim, portraying the raid as targeted persecution amid a criminal probe, omitting neutral procedural details.

Story gist: An emergent count shows Iran’s authorities killed protesters at levels rarely seen during recent demonstrations. Witnesses described violence and chaos, and leaked documents revealed Ayatollah Khamenei’s plan to crush the protests.

Bias summary: Left-leaning Washington Post frames with data on unprecedented protester death tolls, neutral and quantitative tone. Center DW emphasizes eyewitness reports of violence and chaos, omitting death counts or leadership specifics for descriptive focus. Right-leaning Fox stresses leaked documents exposing Khamenei’s ‘secret deadly blueprint,’ using dramatic, personalized language to highlight regime conspiracy and culpability.

Story gist: Donald Trump proposes using Venezuelan oil as part of a strategy involving Russia. The plan faces significant hurdles.

Bias summary: Left-leaning CNN frames the story skeptically, emphasizing problems with Trump’s Russia plan and Venezuelan oil dependency. Center outlet Newser uses a neutral title highlighting factual hurdles without deeper context. Right-leaning coverage is absent, omitting any defense of Trump’s strategy or criticism of Venezuelan obstacles.

Story gist: Italian authorities launched an investigation into a newly restored angel fresco in a Rome church. The fresco now resembles Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Bias summary: Left-leaning outlets like The Guardian directly highlight the angel’s likeness to Meloni, emphasizing her personal resemblance as triggering investigations. Center outlets like BBC neutrally report the resemblance to the Italian PM sparking an official probe. Right-leaning Fox News omits Meloni entirely, framing it as a mysterious cherub face appearing at a sacred tourist site with officials investigating.