🌐 World News for February 18, 2021

English-language news from every country on the planet EXCEPT for the United States

Crime and Punishment

🇳🇬 Nigeria: How bandits killed a student and abducted 42 people from Kagara school

🇳🇬 Why are kidnappings becoming increasingly frequent in Nigeria?

🇮🇱 Israel: Man arrested for murdering his 76-year-old mother

🇮🇳 Who is arrested India ‘toolkit’ activist Disha Ravi?

🇩🇪 Germany: Letter bomb injures three at Lidl’s headquarters

🇲🇾 Malaysia: Foreigner arrested over claims of killing men and drinking their blood in Indonesia

🇬🇾 Guyana: Two men remanded for murder of an elderly priest

🇯🇵 Japan: 29-year-old police sergeant commits suicide in police station bathroom

🇵🇾 Three men beheaded during prison riot in Paraguay

Guns

🇺🇦 Why is Ukraine still not in NATO?

🇦🇿🇬🇧 Azerbaijani, British military experts hold a meeting

🇳🇦 Namibia: War orphans demand restitution from South Africa

🇳🇬 Government to begin repatriation of Nigerian refugees from Cameroon, Niger, Chad

🇦🇫 Afghanistan: Special forces free 24 prisoners from the Taliban in a rescue operation

🇰🇷 South Korea: Defense Minister apologizes over the border security breach

🇦🇿🇬🇪🇹🇷 Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey: a new military alliance on the horizon?

🇨🇴 Colombia: A new massacre leaves 5 people dead and one injured

🇪🇹 Ethiopia’s Tigray region hit by a power blackout

Un/Diplomacy

🇩🇪🇵🇱 Germany is concerned about Poland’s nuclear energy plans

🇧🇳🇮🇩 Sultan of Brunei received Indonesian Foreign Minister

🇯🇴🇵🇹 Jordan FM and Portugal FM holds talks

🇬🇱 Greenland: Icelandic company violating the terms of its fishing license

🇵🇭 The Philippines installs more sovereign markers on uninhabited islands

🇪🇹🇸🇩 Sudan recalls ambassador to Ethiopia amid rising tensions

Politics

🇩🇪 Germany: New head of CDU misfires with comments about “helpless children”

🇩🇪 When will Germany grow up?

🇰🇪 Kenya: Raila faults MPs’ plan to outlaw ‘hustler’ tag

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Niger Governor visited Kagara school hours after the abduction

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Buhari, Bello meet over Kagara school kidnapping

🇳🇬 Nigeria may be heading for disintegration, says former president

🇬🇪 Georgia: Court approves arrest warrant for opposition leader

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 1 in 12 people in Scotland have experienced homelessness

🇨🇾 Cyprus must increase renewable energy or face fines

🇲🇲 Anti-coup hackers target Myanmar government as protesters jam Yangon roads

🇫🇯 Fiji: Ali calls on PM Bainimarama to retract statement against Dr. Chand

🇫🇯 Fiji: PM Bainimarama calls on Dr. Chand to resign from USP

🇫🇯 Fiji: Government acted like a ‘thief in the night’ in USP deportation

🇱🇸 Lesotho: ABC implodes

🇪🇨 Ecuador’s electoral authorities refuse vote recount

🇳🇪 Niger: Mahamane Ousmane hopes for a second chance at the presidency

Tyranny

🇨🇳 Why did we all copy China?

🔴 Lockdown fatigue and fear of far-right catalyze Catalonia protests

🔴 Barricades burn in Catalan streets amid protests over jailed rapper

🇲🇽 Mexico: Opium poppy farmers in Guerrero accuse soldiers of theft and violence

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland: Free speech on trial? Glasgow man pleads not guilty to ‘offensive’ tweet about Captain Tom

🇳🇬 Nigeria: How SARS tortured my brother to death

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka: Government suffocating dissent and obstructing justice for historic crimes

🇨🇲 Lockdowns exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Cameroon

🇺🇬 Uganda: Families plead for release of abducted relatives

🇺🇬 Uganda: Police say they know nothing about abductions

🇬🇧 UK university students wasted £1bn in a year on empty accommodation

Abuse

🇮🇪 Ireland: Destruction of Mother and Baby Home tapes represents ‘an imbalance of power’

🇮🇪 Ireland: Mother and baby homes: Some witnesses were not told recordings would be destroyed

🇯🇵🇰🇷 Harvard professor faces backlash over WWII sex slave claims

Plants and Animals

🐝 Great Yellow bumblebee discovered in Scotland

🇳🇴 Norway: 49-year-old man sentenced for illegal pig castration

🦋 Monarch butterflies arrive in Mexico

🇵🇰 Pakistan: Imported food prices up 52%

🐸 Unusual breeding behavior reported in treefrogs for the first time

🇲🇩 Are Moldova’s farmers finally set for a shot at EU markets?

🌺 Once-in-a-lifetime pink flowers bloom from burned landscapes in Australia

Silicon Overlords

🇱🇨 St. Lucia: Free Wi-Fi for residents of Basseterre

📱🇮🇳 Amazon documents reveal the company’s secret strategy to dodge India’s regulators

📱🇦🇺 Facebook news goes dark in Australia

📱🇳🇿 Facebook blackout could happen in New Zealand

Propaganda

🇲🇿 Mozambique deports British journalist Tom Bowker

🇰🇭 Cambodia sets up a China-style internet firewall

🇲🇾 Malaysia: Founder of Sugarbook app arrested

🇿🇲 Zambia: Press freedom is indeed a muddy and sometimes bloody business

Discovery

🔎 Egypt autopsy offers new clues 3,600 years after a pharaoh’s murder

🔬 Quantum collaboration gives new gravity to the mysteries of the universe

🔬 New images of DNA reveal it is surprisingly jiggly

Other

🇧🇯 The fight to save Benin’s colonial mansions

🇱🇾 Eight bodies of missing Sudanese family found in the deserts of Libya

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Three dead, 3,600 displaced as fire ravages IDP camp in Maiduguri

🇿🇦 South Africa: No water, no sanitation, no electricity, but for these families, this is ‘paradise’

🇹🇭 There are one million unregistered people in Thailand

🇬🇾 Guyana: Boat with decomposed bodies still not found

🇬🇾 Guyana: Mysterious death of police constable being investigated

🇰🇷 All migrant births in South Korea to be registered

🇲🇿 Mozambique’s health system is under triple threat

🇧🇴 Bolivia: Central Bank returns coup leader’s IMF loan

🇵🇰 Pakistan: External debt servicing cost $7 billion in first half of year

🇳🇿 New Zealand: Police yet to determine the cause of death for the person found on Murdering Beach

🇳🇿 Record low number of births in New Zealand

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