Mexico heat wave melts temperature records in 10 cities, including Mexico City (www.nbcnews.com)
In San Luis Potosí at least four people died due to heat stroke and six more deaths are under investigation, according to local health services....
Spy scandal: Why did a Polish judge 'defect' to Belarus? (www.dw.com)
Polish prosecutors will likely file espionage charges against a Polish judge who fled to Belarus, where he is now seeking asylum....
Terrified families flee Rafah as Israel set to open all-out assault (www.theguardian.com)
Tens of thousands of Palestinians were fleeing Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, on Saturday, after Israeli warnings to evacuate before an imminent military assault that will open a bloody new phase of the seven-month-long conflict....
Georgia: Thousands rally in protest at 'foreign influence' bill (www.bbc.com)
Tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets of the capital Tbilisi on Saturday evening to protest a controversial “foreign influence” bill backed by the government....
India's Hindu nationalist regime is a threat to Muslims — and bad news for the U.S. (www.salon.com)
How dirty Russian money taught Latvia to get serious on sanctions (www.politico.eu)
Centralizing the policing of sanctions could serve as a model for other EU countries....
Canada: Quebec warns of 'humanitarian crisis' amid surge in asylum requests (www.france24.com)
Sudan conflict: Two children killed as bomb falls near Darfur hospital (www.bbc.co.uk)
34 dead in floods, cold lava from Indonesia's Mount Marapi; 16 missing (www.channelnewsasia.com)
Protesters lay mock coffins in Milan over workplace safety in Italy (www.euronews.com)
One of Milan’s iconic squares, was filled with symbolic coffins by Italy’s second-largest union to highlight the issue of workplace fatalities....
The Long, Tortured Road to Biden’s Clash With Netanyahu Over Gaza War (www.nytimes.com)
President Biden laid it out for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel long before letting the public know. In a conversation bristling with tension on Feb. 11, the president warned the prime minister against a major assault on the Gaza city of Rafah — and suggested that continued U.S. support would depend on how Israel...
Berlin museum pokes fun at German bureaucracy (www.dw.com)
The capital’s Bureaucracy Museum takes a wry look at one of Germany’s most serious challenges.
China is still harassing dissidents who fled in the 1990s (www.bbc.com)
Three decades ago, Chinese dissidents were being smuggled out of the country in a secret operation called Yellow Bird - but as one of them tells the BBC, Beijing is still pursuing them....
Switzerland's Nemo wins 68th Eurovision Song Contest after event roiled by protests over war in Gaza (www.thestar.com)
Eurovision 2024 : one country got booed by the crowd ! Croatian rocker Baby Lasagna got 2nd place.
The risky task of investigating corruption in wartime Ukraine (english.elpais.com)
The Ukrainian branch of the NGO Transparency International issued a statement on January 17 warning that ‘attacks on journalists are becoming systematic’...
Name and shame: Pro-Israel website ramps up attacks on pro-Palestinian student protesters (www.reuters.com)
Fire at Volgograd oil refinery as Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s energy sector intensify (novayagazeta.eu)
A Palestinian teen was standing on the street when Israeli troops shot him dead (www.haaretz.com)
A boy stands on a Tul Karm street watching as Israeli troops move toward the city's refugee camp. Soldiers fire shots from hundreds of meters away and one of their bullets slams into the boy's chest. Qais Nasrallah was 14 at his death
Russia launches major assault in Kharkiv region (www.euronews.com)
Russia targets the border city of Vovchansk with intense airstrikes and rocket attacks as part of its major new assault on eastern Ukraine....
A parliamentary election runoff puts hard-liners firmly in charge of Iran's parliament (apnews.com)
Iran’s hard-liners won most of the remaining seats in an election run-off to give them full control over the country’s parliament, authorities said Saturday, while not sharing any details on the turnout....
Chinese woman jailed for reporting on Covid in Wuhan to be freed after four years (www.theguardian.com)
Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan’s search for the truth during the early days of the pandemic was seen as a threat by the authorities...
Pope tells Italians they need to have more babies (www.euronews.com)
Italy’s birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been falling steadily for about 15 years and reached a record low last year....
Joost Klein from the Netherlands disqualified from Eurovision 2024 (eurovisionworld.com)
Russia mounts surprise assault on northern Ukraine in most serious cross-border offensive in two years (www.cnn.com)
Russian forces have made two cross-border assaults inside northern Ukraine, according to information from Ukrainian sources and officials, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling a “new wave of counteroffensive actions” by Russia....