Farmers in India began protesting the new farming regulations instituted under the Modi government in early November. Protests escalated in both size and scale in the months that followed, culminating in violent confrontations with police at Red Fort in New Delhi on January 26. Reuters reports that the protests continued February 5, with thousands of farmers across India blocking off roads with their tractors, tents, and boulders.
Read MoreTo protest a newly proposed media tax, dozens of independent media outlets in Poland decided to suspend new coverage and other programming on Wednesday, February 10, with various television screens, web portals, and front pages blank or blacked out for over 24 hours.
Read More
After a turbulent take-off, the South African government has finally started vaccinating its people against the COVID-19 virus. The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was among the first six people to receive the jab, according to VOA. Earlier in the month, the South African government halted the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on frontline workers after a study found it not to be effective enough against the variant prevalent in that country.
Read More
Somalia failed to pick a new president by the February 8 deadline after negotiations between the central government and the federal states broke down in the days leading up to the election, states Africa News.
Read MoreCNBC reports that Russian opposition leader and Putin critic, Alexei Navalny, has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison following his return to Russia in January. Navalny has been on a wanted list since 2014 for allegedly violating the terms of a suspended sentence. Upon his arrival at the airport in Moscow, Russian authorities arrested him before he could even get his passport stamped.
Read More
On February 7, 2021, a massive glacier in the Himalayan mountain range collapsed, leaving at least 32 dead and almost 200 missing in the state of Uttarakhand. Part of a glacier near the Nanda Devi mountain broke off into a river, breaking dams, sweeping away bridges, and destroying hydroelectric projects in the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers. Numerous towns had to be evacuated, and 13 villages are still being resupplied by air after being cut off by the flood waters, according to Reuters.
Read More
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest serving prime minister, has been charged with three counts of corruption. According to BBC News, Netanyahu is accused of fraud and a breach of trust. His opponents allege that he accepted expensive gifts, such as cigars and wines, from billionaire businessmen.
Read More
Haitian President Jovenel Moise announced on January 31 that he and his government had foiled an attempted coup by the opposition party. France 24 reports that the Moise government arrested 23 people, including one of Haiti’s three supreme court judges, whom they claim were all involved with the conspiracy to oust President Moise and replace him with a new interim president.
Read More
The World Food Programme recently won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for its contributions in combating global food insecurity, writes Al Jazeera. Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said “In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Programme has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts,” according to The New York Times.
Read More