Saturday, February 8th, 2025 

A new government is formed in Lebanon, with former International Court of Justice president Nawaf Salam as the new prime minister, following two years of the country under a caretaker government. (AP) 

Four people are killed in border clashes between Syrian Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Lebanese clans. (Al-Monitor) 

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz are announced to be in charge of a potential TikTok sale. (The Hill) 

Seventy-nine countries jointly speak out in a statement against the sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on the International Criminal Court officials. (NOS) 

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan becomes the first person to have economic and travel sanctions placed on him by the U.S. government following an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump intended to target the war crimes tribunal over investigations of U.S. citizens or allies. (The Times of Israel) 

Two tourists die in Colombo, Sri Lanka, when their hostel room is fumigated with a pesticide for bedbugs. (CNN) 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that influenza in the United States is at its highest peak since the 2009 swine flu pandemic. (CBS News) 

Officials in New York City, United States, order the closure of all live poultry markets in the city as well as in the surrounding suburban counties of Westchester, Suffolk, and Nassau due to an increase in cases of avian influenza. (DW) 

At least 41 people are killed when a bus collides with a semi-trailer truck in Escárcega, Campeche, Mexico. (Reuters) 

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania disconnect from the IPS/UPS synchronous transmission grid in order to synchronize with the Continental Europe grid. (BBC News) 

Three more Israeli hostages are freed by Hamas as part of the January 19 ceasefire deal. (Saudi Gazette) 

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 strikes the Caribbean Sea southwest of the Cayman Islands. (CNN) 

A crisis summit is held involving the regional blocs SADC and the EAC, along with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. DR Congo is represented by Prime Minister Judith Suminwa, while President Félix Tshisekedi attends virtually. The blocs call for a ceasefire and negotiations involving the M23 movement, while the Congolese do not comment. (BBC)

Friday,  February 7th, 2025 

In an operation led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the U.S. formally seizes a Venezuelan government airplane in the Dominican Republic. (CNN) 

The United Nations and the Democratic Republic of the Congo communications minister Patrick Muyaya recognize that most of the 165 female prisoners of the Goma prison in North Kivu who were raped by escaping male inmates a week ago died in the ensuing fire. ((The Guardian) 

Russia says its forces have taken full control of Toretsk, Donetsk Oblast, after months of urban warfare. (Reuters) 

Between 45 to 60 civilians are killed after an ambush by Islamic State gunmen against a convoy of buses in Kobe, Mali. (Xinhua) 

The Somali National Army, supported by local Ma’awisley clan militias, kills dozens of al-Shabaab insurgents during heavy clashes which erupted after allied forces launch an offensive targeting al-Shabaab stronghold positions in the Jicibow area of Shebelle River, Hiiraan, Somalia. (Hiiraan Online) 

The wreckage of the Bering Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan that went missing while flying over the Norton Sound in Alaska, United States, yesterday is found crashed 34 miles (55 km) from Nome with no survivors. (ABC News Australia) 

A Beechcraft King Air F90 crashes in Barra Funda, São Paulo, Brazil, killing the two people on board and wounding six on the ground. (CNN) 

U.S. President Donald Trump orders a freeze on all foreign aid to South Africa citing a South African law that allegedly allows land to be forcibly seized from white farmers. Trump also calls for the U.S. to accept Afrikaner refugees to protect them from “government-sponsored race-based discrimination”. (NDTV) 

A person is killed as a fourth shooting takes place in Brussels, Belgium, within a few days. The murder is related to the other three non-fatal shootings. As a result, the six separate police zones in Brussels will start working under one command. (AP) 

German Federal Police detains 16 Indian nationals found in a van in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, including 15 passengers and the driver, as they attempt to enter the country without valid documents. (DW) 

Three people, including the perpetrator, are killed and three others are injured in a mass shooting familicide when a military police officer opens fire at a house in Prey Ampok Commune, Cambodia. (Khmer Times) 

United States federal judge of the D.C. District Court Carl J. Nichols temporarily blocks President Donald Trump’s executive order to place over 2,200 USAID employees on paid leave. (AP) 

FIFA suspends the Republic of the Congo and Pakistan from official international competitions for violations of its statutes, citing third-party interference in the Congolese Football Federation and the Pakistan Football Federation‘s failure to implement constitutional reforms ensuring fair elections. (Reuters) 

Moldova Prime Minister Dorin Recean calls for the breakaway state of Transnistria to take steps to avoid a new gas crisis. (Reuters) 

Azerbaijan authorities announce that they will close their local Rossotrudnichestvo (House of Russia) branch in Baku. (Trend) 

The End