Public Health and Safety

Officials warned of an approaching winter storm while the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission detailed heightened home-heating fire and carbon-monoxide risks, noting electric space heaters are involved in about 1,600 fires a year and fireplaces and chimneys in roughly 15,400 fires annually. The CPSC advises keeping space heaters three feet from flammables and plugged directly into wall outlets (and turned off when sleeping), using gasoline generators only outdoors at least 20 feet from the home, installing and testing smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms on every level and in each bedroom, and having furnaces, boilers, fireplaces, wood stoves and chimneys professionally inspected and maintained.

In January 2026 NASA ordered the early return of four Crew‑11 members after a serious medical condition affecting one astronaut — which led to the cancellation of a planned spacewalk — prompting what officials and observers called the agency’s first medically driven evacuation of a long‑duration mission; the astronaut is reported stable, with identity and diagnosis withheld. Crew members said the ISS’s portable ultrasound, a tool they routinely train with, was used extensively during the Jan. 7 incident and proved critical to on‑orbit assessment before the crew’s splashdown and transfer to hospital care.