Zelenskiy pleads for more arms as troops pull out of Avdiivka; Biden promises he will 'fight' to get Ukraine 'the ammunition they need' — The Guardian UK ● — 18 February 2024 (LINK)

Navalny's spokeswoman confirms his death and demands body returned to family — ground.news: 264 media reports — 18 February 2024 (LINK)

Brazil court fines executives, firms $48 million for metro cave-in that killed 7 — ground.news main report: AFP, 4 media reports — 18 February 2024 (LINK)

David Cameron to visit Falkland Islands amid renewed calls in Argentina for talks on their future — ground.news: 28 media reports — 18 February 2024 (LINK)

The head of the UN's lead agency helping Palestinians accuses Israel of seeking to destroy it — ground.news main source: AP, 22 media reports — 17 February 2024 (LINK)

Israel arrests 100 'terror suspects' in Nasser hospital — The Guardian UK ● — 17 February 2024 (LINK)

Ukrainian Armed Forces announce withdrawal from key town of Avdiivka — ground.news: 113 media reports — 17 February 2024 (LINK)

US envoy says Israel has not presented evidence that Hamas diverted U.N. aid deliveries in Gaza — ground.news: 8 media reports — 17 February 2024 (LINK)

Top UN court rejects South African request for urgent measures to safeguard Rafah — ground.news: 48 media reports — 17 February 2024 (LINK)

Moroccan navy rescues 141 African migrants en route to Canary Islands — ground.news main source: MAP, 13 media reports — 18 February 2024 (LINK)

Biden administration considering delaying switch to electric vehicles until after 2030: Report — ground.news: 25 media reports — 17 February 2024 (LINK)

US man sues Powerball lottery after being told his apparent $340m win was error — ground.news main source: The Guardian UK ●, 14 media reports — 18 February 2024 (LINK)

Oppenheimer's Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr scoop Bafta Film Awards — BBC — 18 February 2024 (LINK)

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison — ground.news: 270 media reports — 16 February 2024 (LINK)

Navalny appears in court by video the day before he died: video: Russia's penitentiary service said that Navalny had "felt unwell" after a walk on Friday and "almost immediately lost consciousness." Medical staff were unable to resuscitate him. — nbcnews — 16 February 2024 (LINK)

Donald Trump handed $355 million penalty in New York civil fraud case: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were each ordered to pay $4 million and barred them from being officers of New York corporations for two years — 30 media reports — 16 February 2024 (LINK)

Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: Hamas not a terrorist organization, it's a 'political movement' — see_link — 16 February 2024 (see_link — 16 February 2024 (LINK)

— To defend himself later, Griffiths tweeted: "Just to clarify: Hamas is not on the list of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council. This doesn't make their acts of terror on 7 October any less horrific and reprehensible, as I've been saying all along."

The German Foreign Office X feed took issue with Griffiths, noting: "To make it crystal clear: The EU has listed Hamas as a terrorist organization and so have many others."

— To defend himself later, Griffiths tweeted: "Just to clarify: Hamas is not on the list of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council. This doesn't make their acts of terror on 7 October any less horrific and reprehensible, as I've been saying all along."

The German Foreign Office X feed took issue with Griffiths, noting: "To make it crystal clear: The EU has listed Hamas as a terrorist organization and so have many others."

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan blasted Griffiths, calling OCHA “a terror-excusing, Hamas-promoting, victim-blaming organization.” — timesofisrael — (LINK)

Hong Kong customs arrests 7 in a $1.8 billion money laundering case linked to transnational crime: The operation revealed links to a mobile app scam and two jewelry companies in India, handling about $371 million of the funds: the territory's largest ever money laundering case — ground.news: 28 media reports — 16 February 2024 (LINK)

Hot seawater killed most of cultivated coral in Florida Keys in setback for restoration effort — AP — 16 February 2024 (LINK)

Venezuela orders UN office on human rights to close and its staff to leave in 3 days — ground.news: 90 media reports — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

5 people are killed, 18 injured by a missile strike in the Russian city of Belgorod, officials say — ground.news: 60 media reports — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

Israel can compete at 2024 Eurovision song contest, say organizers — The Guardian UK ● — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

— "The Eurovision song contest is a non-political music event and a competition between public service broadcasters who are members of the EBU. It is not a contest between governments," the EBU director general, Noel Curran, said in a statement.

JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock drop out of massive UN climate alliance in stunning move — foxbusiness.com — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

— JPMorgan Chase explained that it would exit the so-called Climate Action 100+ investor group because of the expansion of its in-house sustainability team and the establishment of its climate risk framework in recent years. BlackRock and State Street, which both manage trillions of dollars in assets, said the alliance's climate initiatives had gone too far, expressing concern about potential legal issues as well.

Justice Department watchdog issues blistering report on hundreds of inmate deaths in federal prisons — cbsnews.com — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

Senegal court rules government's postponement of Feb. 25 presidential vote was illegal — ground.news main source: AP, 62 media reports — 16 February 2024 (LINK)

First ever iOS trojan discovered — and it's stealing Face ID data to break into bank accounts — see_link — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

Hardly any plastics can be truly recycled, and producers have known for decades: Report — ground.news: 7 media reports — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

15 best free AI courses — lifewire — 15 February 2024 (LINK)

Ukraine says it has sunk another warship, disabling a third of Russia's Black Sea Fleet — CNN — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

'Military operations in Rafah could lead to a slaughter in Gaza' and a 'humanitarian operation at death's door', warns UN's Martin Griffiths — The Guardian UK ● — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

South Africa has launched an 'urgent request' with top UN court over Israel's targeting of Rafah — ground.news: 42 media reports — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

EU lawmakers back hefty fines for companies making false green claims — euractiv — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

Two Seoul police officers convicted of destroying evidence over deadly 2022 Halloween crowd crush — ground.news: 8 media reports — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

— The officers were given jail time for ordering the deletion of reports that highlighted safety concerns and overcrowding in the area.

Pakistan's former leader Nawaz Sharif and his allies agree to form a coalition after jailing of Imran Khan — ground.news: 38 media reports — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

Indonesia's Defense Minister Prabowo leads in early unofficial presidential vote count — ground.news: 38 media reports — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

House Republicans impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in historic vote: in the Senate, a two-thirds majority is needed to convict and remove him from office, which is unlikely to happen given the Democrats' control — ground.news: 224 media reports — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

Bitcoin regains $1 trillion market cap as the cryptocurrency hits over two-year high — ground.news: 8 media reports — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

French court confirms Sarkozy guilty verdict, cuts sentence — dw — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

New U.N. Advisory Group wants to transform AI governance: "Whatever we do must be binding, otherwise it makes no sense." — time — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

Revolutionary new solar panels are 1000x more powerful than traditional panels — thebrighterside.news — 14 February 2024 (LINK)

From chatterbox to archive: Google's Gemini chatbot will hold on to your conversations for years — techradar — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

South Africa has launched an 'urgent request' with top UN court over Israel's targeting of Rafah — ground.news: 42 media reports — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

Senate passes aid $96bn package for Ukraine and Israel, but its future is uncertain in House — ground.news: 259 media reports — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

The head of UN's nuclear watchdog warns Iran is 'not entirely transparent' on its atomic program — ground.news: 9 media reports — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to be freed — see_link — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

— Thaksin, 74, returned to Thailand last August following more than 14 years in exile, and was taken immediately to court where he was jailed for eight years for abuse of power. Thaksin was transferred to hospital after a single night in prison when his blood pressure soared. Soon afterwards, the king gave him a royal pardon, reducing the sentence to one year.

Global warming is making Greenland 20% more green: Parts of Greenland's ice sheet and glaciers that melted over the past three decades have been replaced by wetlands, shrub vegetation and areas of barren rock, according to a new study that used satellite images to track changes since the 1980s — ground.news: 8 media reports — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

CERN Council reviews progress of feasibility study for a next-generation collider — cern — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

Joking around common among young chimps — and across ape family, study finds — ground.news: 13 media reports — 13 February 2024 (LINK)

Nearly half of the world's migratory species are in decline — first-ever State of the World's Migratory Species report launched by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), a UN biodiversity treaty — phys.org — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

Biden says US is working on new hostage deal that would pause fighting in Gaza for 6 weeks — ground.news: 51 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for targeting a United States-owned ship with naval missiles in the Red Sea, disrupting trade between Europe and Asia — ground.news: 34 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

A bulk carrier was hit by the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, south-west of Yemen's port city of Mokha, British maritime security company Ambrey reported on Monday, marking the first such attack in five days. — thenationalnews — (LINK)

Palestinians report 67 deaths — The Guardian UK ● — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

Bitcoin hits $50,000 for first time since 2021 — ground.news: 43 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

2 Afghans who were detained at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years have been released from house arrest since 2017 in Oman, the Taliban say — ground.news: 18 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

Iran sentences man to death over killing prominent filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui and director's wife, over financial issues — ground.news: 14 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

New ChatGPT-like model identifies promising drug candidates for treating cancer & more — cryptopolitan — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

'Existential catastrophe' may loom as no proof AI is controllable — expert — newsweek — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

Study shows salt substitutes help to maintain healthy blood pressure in older adults — ground.news: 8 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

Proteins in blood can predict dementia 15 years before diagnosis — ground.news: 27 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)

Central African Republic says 10,000 children are still fighting alongside armed groups there — ground.news: 14 media reports — 12 February 2024 (LINK)