🌐 World News for February 19, 2021

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

Crime and Punishment

🇹🇹 Trinidad police ask public for help in fighting fake cops

🇿🇦 South Africa: Two court cases start unraveling the tangled web of Cape Town’s criminal underworld

🇫🇷 Top French TV presenter accused of rape

🇬🇾🇸🇷 Guyana: Female murder suspect who escaped from police custody nabbed in Suriname

🇿🇲 Zambia: 46 foreigners arrested for various immigration offenses

🇲🇾 Malaysia: Sugarbook founder remanded for seven days

🇨🇫 Defense lawyer for Ex-CAR football official says ‘client is a victim of a rush to justice’

🇩🇿 Algeria: Man sentenced to death for the murder of French hiker Hervé Gourdel

Guns

🇨🇫 210,000 people are newly displaced due to the escalating conflict in Central African Republic

🇸🇦🇦🇪🇾🇪 Saudi coalition sends troops to reinforce Yemen’s Marib as Houthis close in on last stronghold

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Troops in pursuit of abductors of Kagara school students, staff

🇳🇬 Nigeria kidnapping: Devastated families appeal to the government for help

🇺🇬 Uganda: Six children killed while playing with an old bomb

🇨🇴 Colombia: The army’s extrajudicial killings are grossly underestimated

🇪🇹 Ethiopia: TPLF forces claim to have killed 502 government troops

Un/Diplomacy

🇨🇳🇩🇪 Has Germany given China too much leeway?

🇲🇷🇴🇲🇸🇪 Mauritania and Sweden seek to bolster cooperation with Oman

🇩🇪🇮🇷 Iran ‘playing with fire’ says German Foreign Minister

🇪🇺🇮🇷 Readout of the telephone conversation between President Charles Michel and President of Iran Hassan Rouhani

🇮🇱🇸🇾 Two Syrian captives Muhammad Hussein and Tariq al-Obeidan released from Israeli occupation prisons

🇮🇱🇸🇾 In release of woman held in Syria, Israel narrowly misses diplomatic bungle

🇪🇬🇱🇾 Libyan interim PM meets Egypt’s dictator in Cairo

🇹🇷 Turkey’s President Erdogan: Chance for peace in Libya shouldn’t be wasted

🇷🇺 Russia expects OPCW to respond to doctor’s letter on Navalny incident

🇰🇵🇰🇷 South Korea exploring ways to help ease food shortage in North Korea

🇪🇹 Ethiopia: Sudanese army seeks war against us to serve a third country

🇷🇺🇿🇼 Russia-Zimbabwe: Time-proven friendship

Politics

🇪🇹 Ethiopia: PM Abiy urges everyone to join the Rebuild Tigray Solidarity Initiative

🇬🇪 Georgia: Ruling party says repeat elections are not on the agenda

🇬🇪 Georgia in crisis as PM resigns following court ruling to detain opposition leader

🇹🇹 Trinidad: Pepper spray legislation going to Cabinet

🇪🇺🇭🇺 EU gives Hungary two months to change NGO law or face fines

🇫🇯 Fiji: “PM Bainimarama needs to grow up” — MP Tikoduadua

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland: Alex Salmond inquiry has evidence retrospective policy was ‘unlawful’

🇨🇩 DR Congo: New prime minister, new era?

🇵🇾 Paraguay: Opposition leader Alegre is released from prison

🇮🇳 India: Farmers block thousands of train tracks for 4 hours

🇩🇿 Algeria: President Abdelmadjid Tebboune dissolves parliament

🇭🇹 Haiti: Opposition-appointed president pledges elections

🇳🇨 Change in the New Caledonia government brings hope to Kanak people

🇮🇳 How India’s economic liberalization enabled strongman nationalism

Tyranny

🇧🇳 Brunei: High-tea reception for royal birthday

🔴 Third night of protests in Catalonia over rap artist Pablo Hasél’s jailing

🔴 Catalan MEPs furious after leaked report suggests they may lose immunity

🇹🇭 Thailand: 12,000 cops on standby for protests

🇬🇹 Guatemala: Police shut down protest against President Giammattei

🇮🇳 Loss of autonomy in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir threatens minorities’ rights

🇲🇲 Police rampage targets striking railway workers in Myanmar

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The fantasy of English freedom

Abuse

🇭🇺 One-fifth of Hungary under the poverty line

🇨🇭 Poverty is rising in Switzerland

🇰🇷 Pandemic deepens income disparity in South Korea

🇰🇷 South Korea: Gay couple sues state health insurer over canceled coverage

🇨🇩 DR Congo using Covid to exploit the environment and indigenous people

🇦🇷 Argentina: Thousands march to demand action against GBV

🇮🇪 Ireland: Abuse by former teacher and coach John McClean a ‘dark hour’ for Terenure

🇮🇪 Ireland: ‘I think the dogs on the street knew this guy wasn’t quite right’

🇯🇵 Japan: How a 22-year-old woman helped bring down sexist Olympics chief Mori

🇯🇵 Sponsors, volunteers welcome Hashimoto as new Tokyo Olympics head

Herders vs. Farmers

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Arrest killers of our monarch, not killers of cows, Ondo community tells police

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Miyetti Allah accuses Akerodolu of creating Amotekun to kill Fulani

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Edo residents take corpse of farmer to Obaseki’s office

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Your failure to stop herdsmen impunities may lead to full-blown ethnic conflicts — Moghalu tells Buhari

Plants and Animals

🐍 Man helps out a thirsty snake in India

🐳 Baby whale found dead on a beach south of Tel Aviv

🔎 Did Vikings really keep bears as pets?

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka saves world’s only zeylanica tree from expressway ax

🇿🇦 South Africa: Legalization of horn trade is the only option to protect our population of southern white rhino

🇰🇾 Rarely seen Chilean devil ray makes a splash in the Cayman Islands

🇲🇾 Malaysia: PM says “hard no” to cannabis

🇧🇲 Bermuda: The regulatory and licensing system for cannabis

🐧 Wildlife photographer captures ‘never before seen’ yellow penguin

Climate

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Finally, Shell can no longer shirk responsibility for Delta oil spills

Silicon Overlords

📱🇨🇦 Canada vows to be the next country to go after Facebook to pay for news

📱🇦🇺 Australia commits to media law despite Facebook news ban

📱 WhatsApp to move ahead with privacy update despite backlash

📱 Facebook has pulled the trigger on news content — and possibly shot itself in the foot

📱🇨🇳 How Oracle sells repression in China

Propaganda

🇧🇷 Brazil: Lawmaker arrested for video insulting Supreme Court

🇨🇳🇬🇧 BBC World News ban reasonable, says China’s FM after CGTN ban in the UK

🇧🇾 Belarus jails journalists for two years over protest coverage

🇲🇾 Malaysian news site hit with massive fine amid press freedom fears

Discovery

🔭 Famous black hole gets a massive update

🔬 Ancient relic points to a turning point in Earth’s history 42,000 years ago

🚀 Perseverance lands safely on Mars and sends back its first images of the surface

Digital Money

🇬🇩 First cashless transaction completed in Grenada

🇳🇬 Nigeria: CBN’s concern with cryptocurrency in order, says IMF

Other

🇳🇬 Nigeria: Can this grandmother save the world?

🇨🇩 DR Congo confirms two new Ebola cases

🇬🇾 Search for the boat with dead bodies continues beyond Guyana’s EEZ

🇪🇺 Around 30% fewer people applied for asylum in the EU last year

🇩🇪 German prince sued by father after selling family castle to the government for one euro

🇰🇭 Proposed resort and water park threaten ancient heritage of Angkor Wat in Cambodia

🇸🇧 Solomon Islands: Recruitment freeze big blow to recent graduates

🇵🇰 Pakistan: GI of Himalayan pink salt to be registered

🇳🇿 New Zealand will offer free menstrual products at schools

📖 I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

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