Among the many challenges NATO soldiers face in the unforgiving Arctic environment, frozen weapons pose a serious risk. Extreme cold can cause firearms to malfunction, leaving soldiers vulnerable. At the same time, overheating weapons can create additional complications, forcing troops to carefully manage their equipment in harsh conditions.
US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Cesar Zavala
A US Navy F-35 stealth fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone on Tuesday that was flying toward an American aircraft carrier with “unclear intent,” the US military told Business Insider.
The incident, which occurred over the Arabian Sea, comes as the US has positioned nearly a dozen warships in the Middle East and amid heightened tensions between the Trump administration and Iran.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was transiting international waters roughly 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast “when an Iranian Shahed-139 drone unnecessarily maneuvered toward the ship,” said US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins.
“The Iranian drone continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by US forces operating in international waters,” Hawkins said in a statement.
An F-35C fighter jet attached to the Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone “in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board,” Hawkins said, adding that no US service members were harmed and no American equipment was damaged.
It’s unclear if the Iranian drone was armed.
Several hours later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces “harassed” an American-flagged merchant vessel transiting international waters in the Strait of Hormuz, Hawkins said.
“Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached M/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” Hawkins said.
A Navy destroyer operating in the area immediately responded to the incident to escort the Stena with support from the US Air Force. “The situation de-escalated as a result,” Hawkins said, “and the US-flagged tanker is proceeding safely.”
US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Christian Kibler
The US has surged various military assets into the Middle East in recent weeks, including air defense systems, combat aircraft, and warships, with President Donald Trump threatening to strike Iran again if it does not agree to negotiate a new nuclear deal.
Iranian leadership warned that any US military action, which Trump initially suggested in response to Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month, would trigger a regional war.
Among the forces that have entered the Middle East is the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which consists of the aircraft carrier and dozens of embarked fighter jets, as well as three destroyers carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles, among other weapons.
At least six other Navy warships are operating in the region, with two more in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
“A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose,” Trump said last week, calling it a “larger fleet” than the one he sent to Venezuela ahead of the raid to capture Nicolás Maduro.
The two incidents on Tuesday occurred just several days after the US military urged the IRGC to avoid any “unsafe and unprofessional behavior” near American forces during a series of naval drills that were set to begin on Sunday but appear to have been called off.
Central Command forces “are operating at the highest levels of professionalism and ensuring the safety of US personnel, ships, and aircraft in the Middle East,” Hawkins said.
“Continued Iranian harassment and threats in international waters and airspace will not be tolerated. Iran’s unnecessary aggression near US forces, regional partners, and commercial vessels increases risks of collision, miscalculation, and regional destabilization,” he added.
US and Iranian officials are scheduled to meet later this week for negotiations, though it’s unclear whether Tuesday’s incidents will disrupt the diplomacy.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Outdoor apparel chain Eddie Bauer’s nearly 200 stores in the United States and Canada may soon be on the chopping block.
An entity of retail holding company Catalyst Brands, which owns the license rights to operate Eddie Bauer stores across North America, is prepping a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, sources familiar with the situation told Business Insider.
Eddie Bauer’s roughly 180 stores in the US and Canada would be at risk of closure in the potential Chapter 11 restructuring.
The brand, best known for its durable outdoor apparel, is 106 years old. It was founded in Seattle in 1920 by outdoorsman Eddie Bauer, who later patented the first quilted goose down jacket in the country, dubbed the “Skyliner.”
In addition to outerwear, Eddie Bauer also sells hiking and travel gear, including luggage.
Sources told Business Insider that a Chapter 11 filing for the Catalyst Brands entity would not affect Eddie Bauer’s manufacturing, wholesale, or e-commerce operations, nor its retail business outside the US and Canada. Japan is home to several Eddie Bauer stores.
There are multiple parties interested in a portion of the existing North American store fleet, the sources familiar with the matter said.
In a Chapter 11 scenario, those interested parties could bid on all or part of the store operating business, according to the sources.
Any winning bidder would then acquire the operating business out of bankruptcy and license the rights from Authentic Brands Group — which owns the Eddie Bauer brand and IP worldwide — to operate any remaining Eddie Bauer stores.
Representatives for Authentic Brands Group declined to comment, while Catalyst Brands — the operator also behind JCPenney, Nautica, Brooks Brothers, and others — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Eddie Bauer has filed for bankruptcy twice before, once in 2003 and again in 2009. In 2021, the brand was acquired by Authentic Brands Group in partnership with SPARC Group, which later became Catalyst Brands.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
To the casual Hollywood observer, “Melania,” Amazon MGM Studios’ documentary on first lady Melania Trump, looks like a hit. But looks can be deceiving.
Brett Ratner‘s all-access glimpse at the first lady in the days leading up to the 2025 inauguration of President Donald Trump took in $7 million at the box office this weekend despite dismal reviews (it currently holds a 10% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes). The $7 million take is the biggest opening for a non-concert, non-fiction movie in a decade.
But delving deeper into the numbers, it’s clear that “Melania” faces an uphill battle to profitability.
At first glance, the $7 million opening looks impressive in the context of how other popular docs have fared at the box office.
Questlove’s 2021 Oscar-winning documentary “Summer of Soul,” for example, broke the record for the biggest Sundance buy ever for a doc when it was sold to Searchlight/Hulu for $15 million. And that film only has a lifetime gross of $3.7 million.
However, Amazon bought “Melania” for $40 million ($28 million of which was pocketed by the first lady, according to The Wall Street Journal) and spent an additional $35 million on marketing the film, meaning it’s $75 million in the hole and could face a long road to profitability.
This is an astronomical amount, according to veteran documentary film producers and industry insiders, who told Business Insider that documentaries released by streamers typically get between about $500,000 and $2 million on marketing to spend off-platform (this doesn’t count award-season contenders — those get spends in the tens of millions).
“Spending upwards of $75 million on ‘Melania’ is not about art, it’s about positioning,” Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Jeff Bock told Business Insider. “It certainly feeds news cycles and gets viral discourse, but ‘Melania’ is really a corporate chess move with a human brand as the piece. This is access and leverage for Amazon, plain and simple.”
In a statement to Business Insider, an Amazon MGM Studios spokesperson said, “We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it.”
Amazon MGM Studios
“Melania” found its box office dollars in the areas of the country that are pro-Trump.
Going into the weekend, industry projections had the doc earning between $3 million and $5 million in a release over 1,700 theaters. But theaters in Texas and Florida ended up overperforming, with cities like Fort Myers, Dallas/Fort Worth, Tampa, Orlando, and Houston all cracking the top ten box-office earners for “Melania,” according to Deadline.
Essentially, Amazon went the path of the faith-based titles of the past: focus on your base to come out, and the rest is gravy.
Take, for example, The Cañon, a four-screen theater in Cañon City, Colorado. “Melania” was the theater’s biggest draw this weekend, according to Luke Parker Bowles, whose Cinema Lab owns The Cañon.
“Exit poll interviews indicated that audience motivation was relatively evenly divided between political alignment and personal curiosity, with a smaller contingent citing a lack of alternative new releases as their primary reason for attendance,” Bowles said.
But the film’s future in theaters is a murky one.
“Melania” is up against the Super Bowl this coming weekend; after that, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi steam up the screen in the latest big-screen adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” which is certain to attract the female demo. (Comscore PostTrak exit polling showed 72% of the “Melania” audience was over 55, and 72% was female.)
The general consensus in the industry is that Amazon is using the “Melania” theatrical release to generate interest for when it becomes available to stream on Prime Video, though that’s an expensive ploy.
“It’s just outrageous,” one documentary producer told Business Insider about the amount of money Amazon put into “Melania.”
But Amazon’s deep pockets mean it can take gambles others in Hollywood can only dream of.
Only $68 million left to profitability!
Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi
At first glance, it seemed like Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi stopped the faint possibility of breast cancer in its tracks.
At 48, the Los Angeles-based celebrity OB-GYN of clients like the Kardashians and Rihanna went in for a routine mammogram. The doctor spotted and ordered a biopsy of a lesion of atypical cells in her left breast that could become cancerous over time. Aliabadi was told that everything was fine and to come back in six months.
Still, Aliabadi wanted to be cautious. She was a proponent of the lifetime risk assessment score, a two-minute online test that she recommended to her patients (among them, Olivia Munn, who credits the test with helping her get diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer).
Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi
Taking the test herself for the first time, Aliabadi learned that her risk was surprisingly high. According to the test, anyone scoring above 20% is advised to get a breast cancer screening. Aliabadi scored 37.5%.
“I remember I almost fell off my chair,” Aliabadi, now 55, told Business Insider. “I couldn’t believe that someone with no family history of cancer, no genetic mutations, no smoking, no alcohol, healthy, would ever have a lifetime risk of 37.5%.”
Wanting to be safe, Aliabadi sought out a preventive double-mastectomy. But she said she was met with resistance by multiple doctors, who thought she was being overly worried and pushing too aggressively for a complex surgery given her medical history.
“The dismissal was the hardest part for me,” Aliabadi said. After a year of seeking other opinions, she eventually got her surgery. A week later, when the pathology report came back on her breast issue, she learned she had stage 1 breast cancer, proving her instincts were right all along.
As Aliabadi sought out her double-mastectomy, she also underwent several more breast cancer screenings.
“My cancer was missed on all imaging,” Aliabadi said. After that first biopsy, she had a benign mammogram, ultrasound, and MRI.
From her work as an OB-GYN, Aliabadi knew that she wasn’t necessarily out of the woods. For one, she had extremely dense breast tissue, which affects 40 to 50% of patients and makes it harder to spot potential tumors in routine mammograms.
Tom Werner/Getty Images
Knowing her lifetime risk assessment score, which took into account factors like her breast density measure and prior biopsy history, helped her better understand how proactive she should be.
The assessment is still an estimation. As a result, some doctors have noted that it can sometimes overestimate cancer risk and cause undue anxiety in patients.
Aliabadi said she would rather patients — and herself — “be safe than grieve the loss of someone who could have been saved.”
Aliabadi asked her doctor for a double-mastectomy right after she learned her lifetime risk assessment score. The surgery would reduce her risk of developing breast cancer by almost 100% (it’s rare, but possible, to still develop it in the surrounding tissue).
“I was very worried, I had three little kids at home,” Aliabadi said. “I had a busy practice, a beautiful life, beautiful children, and I didn’t want to risk it.”
The doctor turned her down. So did a few more. As a doctor, she knew they likely saw a double-mastectomy, a serious surgery with a long recovery time and possible side effects like scarring and long-term numbness, as too intensive given Aliabadi’s clear tests and lack of family history.
She MD
“That’s when I started noticing the resistance,” she said. “I was told that I was too healthy to get breast cancer, that I was paranoid, that I was too anxious.” Her colleagues also thought she was going a step too far, she told Business Insider.
Over a year later, Aliabadi found a doctor willing to perform the double-mastectomy. Even she advised against it initially.
“I was adamant about it and argued for a long time before she finally agreed,” Aliabadi said.
A week after her surgery, Aliabadi’s suspicions about her risk were vindicated: she was diagnosed with “invasive” stage 1 breast cancer from the pathology of her removed breast tissue.
“I was angry that I had to fight for so long to be taken seriously,” Aliabadi said. “I was called crazy, anxious, paranoid, among other things.”
Presley Ann/Getty Images for Hello Sunshine
Aliabadi has hope for future cancer screenings. The advancement of AI imaging has shown promising signs of spotting “early cancer details we simply can’t see with the naked eye,” she said, which is predicted to become more available to patients in the future. Increased awareness around breast density has also led to broader coverage of alternative screening options for affected patients.
Still, Aliabadi said her experience changed her. In 2024, she started “She MD,” a medical podcast she co-hosts with influencer Mary Alice Haney on topics surrounding women’s health.
“That’s what has sparked this passion in me,” she said. “If I had to fight this hard, other women really have no chance in this current healthcare system.”
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
The biggest hedge funds in the $5 trillion industry started 2026 in the black, for the most part.
Ken Griffin’s $65 billion Citadel returned 1% in its flagship Wellington fund in January, a person close to the Miami-based firm told Business Insider. Schonfeld also returned 1% in its flagship Partners fund last month, a person close to the firm said. Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint, which had the best year in its history in 2025, was up 1.8% in January, a person close to the manager said.
Multistrategy funds place bets across a diversified set of strategies to generate strong returns for investors. However, a trend started in 2025 seems to be continuing for some bit names: several firms’ smaller funds outperformed their broader flagship offerings.
Citadel’s Tactical Trading fund, which blends its fundamental stockpicking strategies with its computer-run ones, was up 2% in January, a strong showing given the choppy start to the year quant funds have faced. The firm’s fixed-income-only fund was up 1.3%, the person close to the manager said.
Schonfeld’s Fundamental Equity fund was up 2.4% in January, and LMR’s convertibles-focused fund posted a 2.5% gain last month, people close to the two managers told Business Insider.
The S&P 500 index was up 1.4% last month, hitting all-time highs in the middle of January, before dipping slightly before the month’s end.
A bright spot in the industry was strategies focused on Asian markets. Two Asia-based multistrategy managers, $5 billion Dymon Asia and $3 billion Pinpoint Asset Management, had banner months, returning 5% and 4.8%, respectively.
For Pinpoint, it was the best monthly return since July 2020, a person close to the manager told Business Insider. Dymon Asia’s returns were driven by Asian equities and FX strategies, a senior executive at the firm told Business Insider.
The firms mentioned declined to comment.
(Editor’s note: This story was originally published on February 2 at 12:33 p.m. New figures have been added to the table below as they have been learned.)
| Fund | January performance | 2025 performance |
| Dymon Asia | 5% | 18% |
| Pinpoint Asset Management | 4.8% | 11.6% |
| ExodusPoint | 1.8% | 18% |
| Verition | 1.5% | 7.5% |
| Schonfeld Partners | 1% | 12.5% |
| Citadel Wellington | 1% | 10.2% |
| LMR | 0.7% | 12.7% |