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Topics in the news

Bong Joon-ho

The Irish general election concludes with no party holding a majority of seats in Dáil Éireann.
South Korean film Parasite wins four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bong Joon-ho (pictured).
A mass shooting in Korat, Thailand, leaves 30 people dead and more than 50 others injured.
Two avalanches near the Turkish town of Bahçesaray kill at least 41 people.

February 13, 2020 (Thursday)

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Disasters and accidents

Tropical Cyclone Usei heads toward Lord Howe Island and then New Zealand. (AU News) (News Hub NZ)

February 12, 2020 (Wednesday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- United States Armed Forces open fire and kill a Syrian after a group of government supporters attempted to block a U.S. convoy in protest at a checkpoint near Qamishli, Al-Hasakah Governorate. (MSN) (BBC)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis rules against ordaining married men as priests, a possible measure to counter the shortage of Catholic priests. He also ruled against allowing women to be ordained as deacons. (BBC)
The Ministry of Culture of Colombia designates the Spanish galleon San José as an asset of cultural interest, thus protecting it from commercial exploitation. (RCN)

Business and economy

Climate change mitigation
- BP CEO Bernard Looney announces the oil company will aim for zero carbon emissions by 2050. (Reuters)
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights publishes a list of 112 companies linked to activities related to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak
- The United States Postal Service suspends time guarantees for all shipments to China and Hong Kong. (South China Morning Post)
- Tonga refuses entry to four cruise ships due to health warnings following the global coronavirus outbreak. (RNZ)
- The GSM Association decides to cancel this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, amid coronavirus concerns. The event would have been held between February 24 and 27. This is the first time that the mobile communications trade show was cancelled. (CNBC)

Law and crime

Nissan begins a US$90 million lawsuit against its former chairman Carlos Ghosn. (The Guardian)
More than half of Malta’s traffic police officers, including its chief, are arrested for overtime fraud and misuse of public resources. (Reuters)
Trial of Maesaiah Thabane
- Lesotho begins a murder investigation of First Lady Maesiah Thabane for the murder of former first lady Lipolelo Thabane and ex-wife of Prime Minister Tom Thabane. (CNN)
The U.S. Department of Education launches an investigation into Harvard and Yale for allegedly accepting billions of dollars in undisclosed gifts from numerous foreign governments, including those from Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia. (BBC)

Politics and elections

2020 U.S. Democratic Party presidential primaries
- Former Massachussetts governor Deval Patrick suspends his presidential campaign. (ABC News)
- Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price resigns for his handling of this year’s Iowa caucuses. (CNN)
The Italian Senate allows former Minister of the Interior and current senator Matteo Salvini to be tried in a criminal case for illegally detaining migrants last summer. (BBC)

Science and technology

Brazilian scientists announce the discovery of a new amoebic "Yaravirus" in Lake Pampulha. The strain was found to be significantly smaller than any known amoebic virus, and 90% of its genome appears to be genes that have never been seen before in any life-form. (The Independent)(bioRxiv)(Science magazine)
WhatsApp hits two billion users, becoming the second largest social media platform in terms of userbase behind Facebook. (Reuters)

February 11, 2020 (Tuesday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war, Northwestern Syria offensive (November 2019–present)
- The Syrian Army and allied militia groups secure the entire length of the strategic M5 Motorway, connecting Damascus and Aleppo, for the first time since 2012. (Reuters)
- A Syrian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter is shot down by Turkish-backed rebel forces near the village of Nayrab in Idlib Governorate, killing both pilots. (Haaretz)
2020 Kabul bombing
- A suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital Kabul kills six people and injures twelve others. (The Guardian)
2020 Iranian attack on U.S. forces in Iraq
- The Pentagon confirms that the number of U.S. troops who suffered traumatic brain injuries from the Iranian attacks in January is higher than previously stated, now being at 109. (DW)
2019–20 Lebanese protests
- Lebanese protesters attempt to block a confidence vote, and 400 people are injured. The Lebanese Cabinet wins the vote. (MSN) (NBC)

Arts and culture

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
- Siba, a standard Poodle, wins Best in Show Award. (Fox News) (ESPN) (The Guardian)

Business and economy

New York v. Deutsche Telekom
- Victor Marrero, a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, approves the $26 billion USD merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint Corporation. (NBC)
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson approves the High Speed 2 railway project, after many delays and the project going billions of pounds overbudget. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak
- The death toll of the coronavirus outbreak in China has surpassed 1,000. Hubei province reported 103 deaths in a single day, the highest single-day toll of the outbreak. (DW)
Storm Ciara kills six people in Europe. (MSN)
A boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsizes in the Bay of Bengal while trying to reach Malaysia. Fifteen are confirmed dead and dozens are missing, a Bangladesh Coast Guard official says. (Reuters)

International relations

Philippines–United States relations
- The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte terminates the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. confirms that the Embassy of the United States, Manila, has been formally notified. The termination will take effect after 180 days. (Reuters) (The Guardian)
Aftermath of the Sudanese Revolution
- Sudan's ruling military council agrees to hand over ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

Love v Commonwealth
- The High Court of Australia finds that Aboriginal Australian people are not "aliens" under the Australian Constitution, even if they were not born in Australia and do not have Australian citizenship, and they cannot be deported. (ABC News)(SBS News)
Venezuela makes its civilian militia a new branch of the armed forces. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2020 New Hampshire Democratic primary
- Registered Democrats and independents in the U.S. state of New Hampshire vote in the first official Democratic presidential primary of the election year. It comes after the controversial Iowa caucuses that occurred a week earlier. (CBS News)
- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly defeats former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg to win the primary. (Vox)
- Entrepreneur Andrew Yang suspends his presidential campaign. (PBS)
- Colorado Senator Michael Bennet suspends his presidential campaign. (NBC News)

February 10, 2020 (Monday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Auno attack
- Boko Haram militants kill at least 30 people, burning them to death while they were sleeping in their vehicles in Borno State, Nigeria. Women and children are kidnapped. (BBC)
Syrian civil war, Northwestern Syria offensive (November 2019–present)
- Turkey says Syrian shelling killed five of its troops at an observation post at Taftanaz Military Airbase in Idlib Governorate. The Turkish government says it "retaliated against the attack to destroy all enemy targets and avenging our fallen troops". (AP News) (BBC)
- Pro-opposition groups say Russian and Syrian Air Force warplanes carry out airstrikes on civilian settlements in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, killing at least 17 to 25 civilians. (AA) (MSN)
- A car bomb kills four people and wounds 15 others in the Turkish-occupied city Afrin, in Aleppo Governorate. (France 24)

Business and economy

Climate change mitigation, Individual and political action on climate change
- Dozens of climate activists surround the offices of American investment management company BlackRock in central Paris and vandalize the building, demanding they disinvest from the fossil fuel industry. (Reuters)
Brexit
- UK government minister Michael Gove says an IT system for the prospective "smart" border will not be ready before 2025. (The Independent) (Financial Times)

Disasters and accidents

2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, warns that overseas cases of the virus could be the "tip of the iceberg". (Yahoo! News)
- In a rare public appearance and wearing a mask, Xi Jinping visits a hospital in Beijing, and urges "more decisive measures" to combat the virus. (BBC)

Law and crime

A court in Israel sentences Sheikh Raed Salah to 28 months in prison for "inciting to terror". (Al Jazeera)
Chinese cyberwarfare
- A federal grand jury in the United States charges four members of China’s People's Liberation Army with the 2017 Equifax hack. (CNN)
Mohiussunnath Chowdhury is convicted of planning terrorist attacks in London. (BBC)
The U.S. Justice Department files lawsuits against King County, Washington and the state of New Jersey over their use of sanctuary cities. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

The president of Germany's CDU party, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, announces that she will resign as the party's president and not be a candidate for the federal chancellorship in the next election. (Der Spiegel) (The Guardian)
The administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte moves to cancel the franchise of ABS-CBN, the Philippines' largest broadcast media network, by lodging a complaint against it to the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Members of the Philippine press condemn the actions in moving for the cancellation of the franchise of ABS-CBN. (The New York Times) (Rappler) (GMA News Online)

February 9, 2020 (Sunday)

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Arts and culture

92nd Academy Awards
- At this year's Oscars, South Korean film Parasite wins the most awards, including Best Picture and Best International Film. It becomes the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Health and environment

2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak
- The death toll of the coronavirus outbreak surpasses the death toll of the 2002–03 SARS outbreak, at 910 deaths. (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera)

International relations

Cross-Strait relations
- Taiwan scrambles its air force to intercept Chinese jets after they circled the island during a combat drill. The drill is denounced by the Taiwanese Defense Ministry as a violation of its sovereignty. (Reuters)
Israel–Palestine relations
- Israel blocks all Palestinian export of agricultural products from the occupied West Bank following Palestinian limitations on imports of Israeli cattle. (Al Jazeera) (Haaretz)

Politics and elections

2020 Azerbaijani parliamentary election
- Azerbaijan holds a snap election after President Ilham Aliyev dissolved the National Assembly last December. The opposition accuses Aliyev of limiting their ability to campaign, and calls for boycotts against the election. (Reuters) (France24)
2020 Cameroonian parliamentary election
- After having been postponed twice, parliamentary elections are held in Cameroon. The ongoing Anglophone Crisis overshadows the process, with supporters of Ambazonia calling for a boycott of the election. (DW)
2020 Irish general election
- Counting of the first preference votes show Sinn Féin leading with 24.1% of the vote, ahead of ruling party Fine Gael and main opposition party Fianna Fáil, each with 22.1%. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald claims victory, declaring that Ireland "is no longer a two-party system", and hopes to form a coalition government. (The Guardian)
2020 Swiss referendums, LGBT rights in Switzerland
- Swiss voters head to the polls to vote on a proposal to mandate quotas for affordable housing in new residential development projects, and whether to criminalize discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. (BBC) (Irish Times)
- The proposal to mandate quotas is rejected, the proposal to criminalize discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation passes. (BBC)
President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele breaks into the Legislative Assembly with the Army and occupies the chair of the Speaker to demand the approval of a financial measure which couldn't pass earlier as there was no quorum. In a public release, the Presidency department calls for calm after a "demand of insurrection". The opposition accuses the president and the army of intimidation and a "self-coup". (El País) (BBC) (The Washington Post) (The New York Times)

Science and technology

The United Launch Alliance successfully launches the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter (SolO) satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The probe will study the Sun, and in particular its inner heliosphere. (BBC)

February 8, 2020 (Saturday)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Nakhon Ratchasima shooting
- A soldier opens fire in a military camp and a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, killing 29 people and injuring 58 others before being shot dead by police the next day. It is considered the deadliest mass shooting in the country's history. (Bangkok Post) (USA Today)
At least ten people have been killed and dozens have been injured in ethnic clashes in Kazakhstan between Kazakhs and Dungans. About 30 houses and 15 commercial properties were destroyed during the clash. (BBC)
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
- A shootout during joint exercises with U.S. and Afghan soldiers in Nangarhar Province leaves between four and six Americans, and six Afghans dead. It is unknown if the Taliban or rogue Afghan forces were responsible. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner declares that the government will not pay back its US$57 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund until the country exits its recession. (Reuters)

Health and environment

2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak
- Two people – one Japanese and one American – die from coronavirus in Wuhan. They are the first foreigners (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) to die from it. (NBC News)

International relations