Israel indefinitely delays Palestinian prisoner release as hostages freed: Israeli prime minister called the ceremonies Hamas has put on each week degrading. — 23 February 2025 (LINK)

— Only one more handover — of the bodies of four hostages who died in captivity — is due to take place in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is due to end on 1 March.

Russia launched 'record' 267 drones on Ukraine overnight — Ukrainian army. — 23 February 2025 (LINK)

Hamas hands over six hostages but Israel delays release of 600 Palestinians. Ceasefire in jeopardy as Israel waits for meeting of security cabinet under pressure from right wingers — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's bid to deprive federal funding from programmes that incorporate "diversity, equity and inclusion" initiatives. U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson ruled that Trump's policy likely violates the First Amendment because it penalizes private organizations based on their viewpoints. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

— And the judge said the policy is written so vaguely that it chills the free speech of federal contractors concerned they will be punished if they don't eliminate programmes meant to encourage a diverse workforce.

— Abelson, a Baltimore-based appointee of former President Joe Biden, said longstanding court precedent bars the federal government from "leveraging its funding to restrict federal contractors and grantees from otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights."

US offers UN resolution on war in Ukraine that's far short of rival European statement. — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

Trump says US wants return on Ukraine aid money. — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

Heather Cox Richardson: Trump's purging of U.S. military leadership. — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

france24.com: Trump's pick for top US military role. — (LINK)

Fox News: Elon Musk says 'bar is very low' after ordering federal employees to fill out productivity reports or resign: 'Should take less than 5 mins to write.' — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

Motley Fool: 1 cryptocurrency to buy right now with $1,000 (XRP), and 1 to avoid forever (TRUMP). — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

ZachXBT identifies Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacker group, as behind Bybit $1.4B hack "the largest crypto exchange hack in history". — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

Cholera kills 58 and sickens about 1,300 others over 3 days in southern Sudanese city of Kosti after sabotage. — 22 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 30 media reports (LINK)

— The outbreak was attributed to contaminated drinking water caused by an attack on the city's water plant by a notorious paramilitary group, according to the health ministry.

Sudan's RSF, allied groups to sign charter to form 'parallel government' : sources. — 23 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 15 media reports (LINK)

Botswana flash floods kill seven, displace thousands. — 22 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 10 media reports (LINK)

One dead, 5 police wounded in 'Islamist' knife attack by 37-year-old suspect who is on a terror prevention watchlist in Mulhouse, eastern France. The suspect is in custody. — 22 February 2025 (LINK)

Catchup: CERN's ambitious mega-collider faces growing opposition amid rising costs — 22 March 2025 (LINK)

— The Future Circular Collider (FCC), envisioned to open in 2070, would stretch across a 91-kilometer tunnel — more than three times the size of the LHC — and would operate at energies eight times greater than those achievable by the current collider. The FCC is expected to cost a staggering $30 billion, and it is hoped that it will unlock new particles and insights into some of the biggest mysteries in physics, including the elusive nature of dark matter.

To achieve this, CERN plans a two-stage process. The first phase, starting in 2045, would involve a "Higgs factory", a simpler machine designed to produce and study Higgs bosons. The second phase would ramp up the scale of the collider to its full potential, ultimately leading to a proton collider capable of discovering new, massive particles. The project has been endorsed by many, including CERN's Director-General Fabiola Gianotti, who described the FCC as "the most powerful instrument ever built to study the laws of nature at the most fundamental level".

— The controversy surrounding the FCC was highlighted in an article published by Nature, which conducted extensive interviews with more than two dozen researchers, many of whom raised concerns about the lack of adequate consultation with the global physics community before backing such an ambitious plan. Critics argue that CERN's leadership has focused too heavily on the FCC, without fully considering other collider models or accelerator technologies that could achieve similar outcomes at a fraction of the cost.

CERN's financial situation also complicates the situation. Germany has already signaled that it will not increase its budget contribution, while the possibility of competition from other countries, such as China, which is considering its own massive collider project, looms large.

A Trump-appointed judge greenlighted the administration's plans to place thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave and recall many from field offices around the world. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

FoxNews: Judge grants 19 AGs preliminary injunction against DOGE access to Treasury payment system. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

Trump administration fires top US general and Navy chief in unprecedented purge of military leadership. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

Elon Musk is flagrantly gutting an agency in charge of regulating Tesla. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio arrested near U.S. Capitol on charge that he assaulted a woman protesting a gathering attended by Tarrio and others who received presidential pardons for crimes stemming from the 6 Jan 2021 riot in the nation's capital. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

— Tarrio, of Miami, was serving a 22-year sentence — the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot cases — when President Trump granted clemency last month to all 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6 attack. A jury convicted Tarrio and three of his lieutenants of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Mr. Trump to then-President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

Danish ex-astronaut accuses Elon Musk over 'lie' about stranded astronauts. Musk replies with slur. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

US stocks post worst slide in two months, 1.7%, on gloomy economic data. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

Collectively, Wall Street analysts have issued more than 12,000 individual ratings on stocks in the S&P 500. By aggregating the median fair value estimates on every company, FactSet Research gives the S&P 500 a one-year target, implying gains of nearly 13% from its current level. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

UN Security Council urges Rwanda to withdraw troops from eastern DR Congo. — 21 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 22 media reports (LINK)

Einstein wins again! Quarks obey relativity laws, Large Hadron Collider finds: Top quarks follow the rules of special relativity day and night. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

How four major newsrooms are using AI. — 21 February 2025 (LINK)

— According to Semafor, NYT management is now supplying AI training to its journalists, debuting an internal AI tool called "Echo", and approving usage of external AI tools including Google's Vertex AI, a few Amazon AI products, and ironically, Microsoft's Copilot and a non-ChatGPT tool from OpenAI.

— Quartz: G/O Media has become a major proponent of AI in the newsroom.

— AP: it uses AI for translation, transcription, headlines, research, and even some automated articles, but general blogs are still left to human hands.

— The Washington Post: bot called "Ask the Post AI" takes questions, spits out a brief AI-generated response trained on Washington Post content, and then lists relevant articles below in a Google-like manner.

Israel defence minister orders military to 'intensify operations' in West Bank after three empty buses explode in Israel in 'suspected terror attack'. — 20 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 49 media reports (LINK)

The United States sanctioning two individuals and two entities linked to violence and human rights abuses in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Rwanda's Minister of State for Regional Integration James Kabarebe and the M23 and the Congo River Alliance spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, alongside two of Kanyuka's companies, Kingston Fresh and Kingston Holding. — 20 February 2025 (LINK)

Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy party takes initial step toward disbanding. — 20 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 12 media reports (LINK)

Hamas releases the bodies of four Israeli hostages killed in Gaza, including mother and young sons, in latest ceasefire exchange. — 20 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 342 media reports (LINK)

20 Mexican cities (including Colima, Manzanillo, Acapulco, Tijuana and Ciudad Obregón below Port-au-Prince, Haiti), 4 in US (Baltimore, New Orleans, Detroit, Cleveland) among 50 most dangerous in the world. — 20 February 2025 (LINK)

— The list was compiled in accordance with the number of homicides for every 100,000 residents.

Climate change is shrinking glaciers faster than ever, with 7 trillion tons lost since 2000. — 20 February 2025 (LINK)

— Glaciers in Alaska are melting at the fastest rate of any of the 19 regions studied, losing about 67 billion tons (61 billion metric tons) of ice a year, producing the biggest net ice loss, the study found.

Swiss nomadic people, the Sinti and Yenish travellers in Switzerland, were victims of crimes against humanity in the 20th century, says government. — 20 February 2025 (LINK)

— Around 2,000 children of the Swiss Traveller community are believed to have been taken away from their families. Between 1926 and 1973, Pro Juventute's Hilfswerk für die Kinder der Landstrasse (Charity for Countryroad Children) took around 600 Yenish children away from their families. They were forcibly placed in homes or in foster families. "In disregard of the principles of the rule of law," the federal government wrote on Thursday.

Trump freezes immigration benefits for Ukrainians who fled to US and sponsored migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. — 19 February 2025 (LINK)

US propagandist paid by Kremlin targets German election with network of fake news sites. — 19 February 2025 (LINK)

Gunmen kill police officer assigned to guard polio vaccination workers in northwestern Pakistan, former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban. — 19 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 8 media reports (LINK)

— Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio has not been eradicated. Pakistan reported at least 74 cases in 2024 and two cases since January. Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

EU accused of leaving 'devastating' copyright loophole in AI Act. — 19 February 2025 (LINK)

— Axel Voss, a German centre-right member of the European parliament, who played a key role in writing the EU's 2019 copyright directive, said that law was not conceived to deal with generative AI models: systems that can generate text, images or music with a simple text prompt.

Turkey to export 15,000 tonnes of eggs to US amid bird flu disruptions. — 19 February 2025 (LINK)

Prospects grim for 157 false killer whales stranded in Tasmania — the most in 50 years. — 19 February 2025 (LINK)

Fossils and genetics are starting to point to life emerging surprisingly soon after Earth formed, when the planet was hellishly hot and seemingly uninhabitable. — 19 February 2025 (LINK: limited)

CNBC: White House posts video of immigrants in shackles, calls deportation footage 'ASMR' — "Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response", referring to a pleasant, tingling feeling some people experience when watching videos featuring unusual sounds. — 19 February 2025 (LINK)

Liam Payne death charges against friend and two hotel workers dropped in Argentina: the singer died after falling from a hotel balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. — 19 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 41 media reports (LINK)

— A court ruled they couldn’t have done anything to prevent the singer from plunging to his death in October 2024. Two individuals remain charged with supplying drugs to Payne, facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Toxicology tests revealed that Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and antidepressants in his system prior to his death.

Hamas said offering to release all remaining hostages in one big phase two exchange. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

AP: Russia and the US agree to work towards improving ties and ending the Ukraine war in landmark talks. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

— The meeting was meant to pave the way for a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. After the talks wrapped, Putin's foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, told Russia's Channel One that no date has been set yet for that summit but that it was "unlikely" to take place next week.

— In an interview with The Associated Press, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the two side agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks, and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.

No, Zelenskyy doesn't have 4% approval as Trump claims; it's over 50%. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

United Nations Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk accused Rwanda-backed M23 rebels of killing children and attacking humanitarian aid facilities in eastern Congo's Bukavu. — 18 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 63 media reports (LINK)

Pope Francis diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs and faces prolonged hospitalization, Vatican Confirms. — 18 February 2025 (LINK) — ground.news: 630 media reports (LINK)

— This is Pope Francis' fourth hospital stay in four years, raising concerns about his overall health. The Vatican reports that Pope Francis is being treated for a polymicrobial respiratory tract infection.

Elon Musk is not a DOGE employee and has no decision-making authority, White House filing reveals. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

— Trump loyalist Peter Navarro, senior counselor to the president for trade and manufacturing, is meanwhile becoming an increasingly influential figure within the administration and guiding much of Trump's policies on trade, which are threatening rifts with America's allies, according to a new report.

DOGE reportedly fired the FDA employees who were reviewing clinical trials for Elon Musk’s Neuralink. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

Southwest Airlines to cut 1,750 corporate positions in first nonvoluntary layoffs in 53-year history. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

The secret behind Temu's rock-bottom prices: Critics claim Temu's ultra-competitive pricing relies on unfair practices. Yet its success stems from the powerful—and proven—business model of its parent company, Pinduoduo. Its approach utilizes reverse auctions, where Temu solicits bids from manufacturers, forcing suppliers to compete by offering the lowest possible prices. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

— PDD Holdings sets final product prices and profit margins, and manufacturers deliver products directly to Pinduoduo’s warehouses in China, eliminating the need for Temu to purchase or hold stock. Instead, manufacturers bear storage costs and must take back any unsold items. Payments are typically made quarterly, further easing Temu’s financial burden. In essence, Pinduoduo operates a consigned inventory model.

Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset will pay an official visit to Geneva, Switzerland, from 24 to 26 February as part of the process of stepping up co-operation between the Council of Europe and the international institutions based there. — 18 February 2025 (LINK)

WHO chief urges pandemic accord action after US withdrawal. — 17 February 2025 (LINK)

FDA staff were reviewing Elon Musk's brain implant company. DOGE just fired them: At least 20 staffers reviewing Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain implant company, were fired in an ongoing DOGE purge of federal workers. — 17 February 2025 (LINK)

Trump Media says it lost more than $400 million last year while revenue dropped 12%. — 17 February 2025 (LINK)

X is blocking links to Signal, a secure messaging platform used by federal workers. — 17 February 2025 (LINK)

China urged the United States to "correct its mistakes" after the U.S. State Department removed previous wording on its website about not supporting Taiwan independence, which it said was part of a routine update. — 17 February 2025 (LINK)

— The fact sheet on Taiwan, updated last week, retains Washington's opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own. But as well as dropping the phrase "we do not support Taiwan independence", the page added a reference to Taiwan's cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project and says the U.S. will support Taiwan's membership in international organisations "where applicable".

$2 million per dose gene therapy and drug pricing. — 17 February 2025 (LINK)

— Drug rooted, like many, in seed money from the U.S. government — that is, American taxpayers — and spurred by the grassroots fundraising of desperate parents, end up with such a price tag? Support came with no conditions — financial or otherwise — for the for-profit companies that brought the drug over the finish line, particularly when it came to pricing. Top executives and venture-capital backers made tens or hundreds of millions of dollars apiece when the startup was swallowed by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG in 2018.

— "Zolgensma is consistently priced based on the value it provides to patients, caregivers and health systems," the company said, adding that the drug may reduce the burden of SMA by replacing "repeat, lifelong therapies with a single treatment."

— Zolgensma's price quickly became the standard for gene therapies. Nine of them cost more than $2 million. A tenth, approved in November, is predicted to run about $3.8 million, just shy of the most expensive, also approved last year, which costs $4.25 million a dose.

Tesla hit by a wave of protests over Musk, sales are crashing, insiders are waking up. — 17 February 2025 (LINK)