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A drone view shows a flooded area in the city of Bahia Blanca, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Hard Numbers: Deadly Argentinian floods, Palestinian protester arrested, Mexico’s grim discovery, DRC sets rebel bounties, America losing its butterflies, Internet shutdowns imperil democracy
13: The port city of Bahia Blanca, Argentina, was devastated by a massive rainstorm this weekend that dumped a year’s worth of rain in just a few hours, killing 13 people and displacing hundreds. A similarly devastating rainstorm in December 2023 also claimed 13 lives in Bahia Blanca.
200: A grim discovery was made in a clandestine crematorium in Jalisco, Mexico: 200 pairs of shoes. The footwear is believed to belong to people killed by organized criminal gangs. It was uncovered by relatives of some of Jalisco’s 15,000 missing people, the most of any state in Mexico, where over 100,000 people are registered as “disappeared.”
5 million: The Democratic Republic of Congo has announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of three M23 rebel leaders, and a $4 million reward for the arrest of two journalists in exile deemed as “accomplices.” But with the DRC’s army increasingly outmatched by rebel forces, the chances of capture are considered slim.
22: A new study reveals that America’s butterfly population has declined by 22% since 2000, with the Southwest hardest hit with a drop of over 50%. The change is primarily attributed to insecticides, climate change, and habitat loss, and it could imperil certain crops, including Texas cotton, of which half is pollinated by butterflies.
296: The latest twist in cyber warfare? Internet shutdowns. In 2024, 296 shutdowns were reported across 54 countries, compared with 283 shutdowns in 39 countries the previous year. Shutdowns were used for political control, to suppress dissent, and to disrupt elections, and they were particularly acute in Africa, where at least five have been in place for over a year.
Governor of California Gavin Newsom speaks next to U.S. President Donald Trump upon Trump's arrival to tour areas impacted or destroyed by the southern California wildfires, at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 24, 2025.
Hard Numbers: California calls for help, Kenyan killed in Haiti, Trump tariffs to hit Canada soon, Apple to invest big, DRC casualties, An exit from Brexit
40 billion: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked Congress to approve nearly$40 billion in aid to help the Los Angeles area recover from January’s wildfires. Total economic losses from the firestorm have been estimated above $250 billion.
1: A Kenyan police officer was killed on Sunday in Haiti, north of Port-au-Prince. This is thefirst casualty since the Kenyan-led security mission arrived on a mission to stabilize Haiti in June 2024.
25: Been wondering what happened to Donald Trump’s threat to impose huge tariffs on Canada? Well, the US president said Monday the plan for 25% tariffs on most Canadian goods is still very much alive and will start next week. Trump said work on their implementation was “moving along very rapidly.”
500 billion: Apple said Monday it willinvest $500 billion to expand its US facilities over the next four years, a move the company says will create 20,000 jobs. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced tariffs of 10% on all imports from China, from which Apple imports many products. Trump attributed the investment to his tariffs.
7,000: Judith Suminwa, prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, told a meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that about7,000 people have died since January in fighting in the eastern part of the country. That figure includes both combatants and civilians.
15: Applications by Britons for Irish citizenship hit a post-Brexit high last year as a growing number of workers and pensioners tried to gain “backdoor” access into the EU. British applications to the Foreign Births Register, a citizenship route for people with Irish grandparents or parents,jumped 15% in 2024 to 23,456.
Police officers stand guard as Congolese youngsters jostle to receive relief food, after fleeing from renewed clashes between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. February 18, 2025.
Hard Numbers: M23 expands territory in DRC, Brazil charges Bolsonaro with coup plot, US housing authority layoffs loom,Turkey arrests hundreds, judge clears DOGE access to student loan info
100: M23 rebels – a Rwanda-backed militia – took control of a second major city, Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday. The city’s capture comes on the heels of M23’s occupation of the capital Goma last month. The expansion of rebel territory is escalating the risks of a full-blown regional war – M23 is just one of over 100 armed groups fighting over the mineral-rich region.
5: Brazil's top prosecutor on Tuesday hit former president Jair Bolsonaro with five charges of trying to orchestrate a coup after losing his 2022 re-election bid to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is accused, among other things, of planning to poison Lula and assassinate a Supreme Court Justice. In January of 2023, thousands of supporters of Bolsonaro, a far right firebrand who was in power from 2018 to 2022, ransacked government buildings in the capital, Brasilia, in a bid to interrupt the handover of power. Bolsonaro has already been banned from political office for questioning the election results. If he is convicted of these latest charges he could face up to 40 years in prison.
40: Officials are planning to lay off at least 40% of the Federal Housing Administration’s staff as part of President Donald Trump’s government overhaul. The FHA, one of the world’s biggest mortgage insurers, provides mortgage insurance on loans for those who otherwise wouldn’t qualify and is key to many first-time home purchases, especially for low-income Americans.
282: In Turkey, the police have detained 282 suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, aka PKK, in raids stretching across 51 provinces over the last five days. The raids were justified as counter-terrorism operations, and suspects were arrested on accusations of spreading PKK propaganda, financing the group, or joining in protests. They come as Turkey continues to remove pro-Kurdish mayors from their elected positions.
42.7 million: A federal judge has refused to block DOGE’s access to the Department of Education’s data on student loan borrowers. The judge ruled that the case brought by the University of California Student Association did not prove the agency posed irreparable harm to the privacy protections of the 42.7 million student loan borrowers if DOGE was not preemptively stopped.Congolese civilians who fled from Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, following clashes between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, carry their belongings as they gather at the Rusizi border crossing point to return home, in Rusizi district, Rwanda, on Feb. 17, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Rebels advance in DRC, Yuge trade corridor, Tragic flooding strikes US, UN seeks billions for Sudan, Taliban visits Japan, Plane crashes in Toronto
350,000: M23 rebels are meeting little resistance in their advance on Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, further challenging Kinshasa’s rule. This move comes after the Rwandan-backed rebels seized control of Goma late last month and just two days after the UN warned that unrest in the country has displaced 350,000 people.
600: Israel and India are working on a free trade agreement they hope to announce as early as 2025. Israeli and Indian business leaders held over 600 meetings in New Delhi last week, on cybersecurity, smart agriculture, renewable energy, digital health, and water technologies, AI, and big data. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump continues to push for the rail and shipping corridor advocated by his predecessor, Joe Biden, to connect India to the Middle East, Europe, and the US, which he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi call “one of the greatest trade routes in all of history.”
10: Severe flooding claimed the lives of at least 10 people in the United States over the weekend, including nine in Kentucky and one in Georgia. Storms walloped Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear saying that nearly 1,000 people had to be rescued.
6 billion: The United Nations announced on Monday that it wants to raise $6 billion for Sudan to help alleviate one of the world’s worst hunger crises caused by nearly two years of civil war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The need, the agency says, has increased 40% from last year’s appeal.
1: While Afghanistan’s Taliban government makes regular visits to countries close to home, such as Russia, China, and parts of Central Asia, this weekend it went further afield. The Taliban sent its first-ever delegation to Japan on Sunday to seek humanitarian support and to discuss establishing diplomatic ties with Japanese leaders. One Afghan leader said that the Taliban seeks “dignified interaction with the world for a strong, united, advanced, prosperous, developed Afghanistan.” Japan’s foreign ministry has not commented yet on the visit.
18: A Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis crash-landed at Toronto's Pearson airport on Monday, injuring at least 18 people, three critically. The plane crashed and flipped upon landing at the airport, which is located just outside Toronto. All 80 passengers and crew are accounted for, and crews are on hand to investigate what happened.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk addresses a stadium audience in Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day.
Hard Numbers: DOGE cuts boost Palantir stocks, Shooter rampages at Swedish school, Trump makes “rare” demand of Ukraine, Rebels in DRC announce ceasefire
10: At least 10 people were believed to be dead following a shooting at an adult education center in central Sweden on Tuesday. As of this writing, police have not released information about the shooter’s identity or motive, except to say that it was a man who is believed to have acted alone.
500,000: What does Donald Trump want in exchange for continuing to support Ukraine? Something rare. The US president suggested on Monday he wanted US access to Ukraine’s rare earths and critical minerals – those used in batteries, microchips, and other advanced technologies. China currently dominates the global supply. Ukraine has at least 15,000 hectares worth of deposits already mapped out, and 500,000 tons of Lithium which could be worth tens of trillions of dollars. Kyiv said it was “ready to work with America.”
900: After more than 900 people were killed last week in the battle for Goma, a key city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have wrested control of the city from the Congolese army announced a unilateral ceasefire on Tuesday. The move is meant to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid. DRC and Kenyan leaders are to meet next week in a fresh attempt to end the more than three-year-old conflict.Health workers bring a patient for surgery, at the CBCA Ndosho Hospital, a few days after the M23 rebel group seized the town of Goma, in Goma, North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Feb. 1, 2025.
Rebels advance, diplomacy stalls in the DRC
Is diplomacy an option at all? On Friday, the 16-nation South African Development Community called for a summit with eight member countries of the East African Community to “deliberate on the way forward regarding the security situation in the DRC. Rwandan leader Paul Kagame skipped the virtual meeting but was present at an earlier one on Wednesday, which DRC President Felix Tshisekedi did not attend. While Kigali expressed support for a summit, other states accuse it of backing M23 – something it denies.
How is the international community reacting? Germany has canceled aid discussions with Rwanda, and the United Kingdom is reevaluating its assistance as well. US President Donald Trump described the crisis this week as a “very serious problem,” and the State Department has advised US citizens to evacuate. But Western governments’ long-running support for Rwanda is tempering their response – creating the potential for China and Russia to gain more regional influence.
Protesters clash with riot police forces in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Jan. 28, 2025.
Goma falls as embassies attacked in Kinshasa
M23 rebels have seized the airport in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and overrun the city in the worst sectarian violence since 2012. Streets are strewn with bodies, and there are reports of heavy gunfire, rape, and looting. Hospitals are under attack, and an Ebola research lab lost power, putting samples at risk, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Should the virus be released among the local population, the agency said the impact would be “unimaginable.”
Rwandan President Paul Kagame denies funding M23 or that Rwandan troops have entered Congo. But in the capital of Kinshasa, protests against alleged Rwandan interference turned violent on Tuesday, as crowds attacked the embassies of Rwanda, Uganda, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the US, accusing them of “complicity” in M23’s assault. Demonstrators also looted the Kenyan Embassy as well as local supermarkets, and set buildings on fire in a scene described as “total chaos.”
What’s the role of the West? The EU signed a strategic minerals deal with Rwanda in 2024 and the country has taken in asylum-seekers from Europe, making sanctions a complicated prospect and fueling accusations that the West is enabling the conflict to continue. France and the European Union condemned the attacks, as did US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a call with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday, but we’ll be watching what further action Western governments are prepared to take if the violence escalates.Internally displaced civilians from the camps in Munigi and Kibati carry their belongings as they flee following the fight between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Jan. 26, 2025.
Goma under siege as DRC cuts ties with Rwanda
Keita made the remarks at a special meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday, called after three peacekeepers from South Africa and Uruguay were killed in standoffs with M23. On Saturday, South African authorities reported that rebels had also killed nine more peacekeepers, from South Africa and Malawi, who were attempting to prevent the rebel advance.
What is the root of the conflict? M23, a Tutsi-led rebel movement, claims to defend Congo’s ethnic Tutsi population, but Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of using the group as a proxy for its territorial ambitions. After three years of hostilities, fighting ramped up in January and reached a breaking point on Saturday, when the DRC severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda. Over 400,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of the year, and the latest rebel advance has now sparked fears of a regional war.