AFRICA - Locust swarms have invaded the Horn of Africa and the Middle East with millions of hungry insects breeding at alarming rates, the United Nations has warned. The swarm crossed northern Uganda on strong northeasterly winds, marking the first desert locust swarm since 1944. The desert locust is considered the most dangerous of locust species thanks to its voracious appetite and ability to devour entire fields in short periods of time.

USA - The World Health Organisation has said the world needs to prepare for a pandemic as the coronavirus epidemic continues to spread. So what is the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic? An epidemic generally refers to any event in which a disease is actively spreading out of control. Medically speaking, an epidemic is defined as “a widespread occurrence of a disease in a community at a particular time”. An epidemic is an event in which a disease is actively spreading. A pandemic, on the other hand, refers to geographic spread and is used to describe a disease that affects the entire planet. The WHO defines a pandemic as “the worldwide spread of a new disease”. Pandemics are more likely if a virus is brand new, able to infect people easily and can spread from person to person in an efficient and sustained way. While the coronavirus appears to tick these boxes, the WHO still says it’s not at pandemic-level yet.

USA - Many were hoping that this coronavirus outbreak would begin to subside, but instead we witnessed an explosion of newly confirmed cases over the weekend. In fact, the number of confirmed cases outside of China has doubled over the past five days. If that number continues to double very rapidly, authorities will be talking about a full-blown “global pandemic” in no time. When I watched a victim suddenly collapse and start to twitch on a subway in Hong Kong, I thought about the sort of panic that would set off if that happened in New York.

GERMANY - Following multiple high-profile attacks by far-right nationalists, German officials are ramping up their efforts against extremists in a move that Jewish leaders in Germany are carefully watching. This was underlined as federal prosecutors said Thursday they were taking charge of the investigation into a mass shooting in the German city of Hanau a day earlier that left 11 people dead, including the suspect, amid reports that he may have had a far-right motive.

GERMANY - Far-right terrorism is more of a danger than Islamism in the eyes of nearly a half of Germans, while almost the same number blamed the AfD party for fueling extremism – and authorities for sitting idly as the threat grows. Days after the deadly shooting spree in Hanau, where a hate-motivated gunman killed ten people before taking his own life, Bild am Sonntag newspaper came up with an eye-catching survey, carried out by pollster, Kantar, revealing Germans’ attitudes toward extremism. It found that 49 percent of Germans consider far-right extremists to be the greatest terrorist threat in the country, whereas only 27 percent of their compatriots said they feel the same danger from Islamist fundamentalists.

GERMANY- A bungled telegram marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, coming on the heels of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, puts some Jewish groups on edge. At the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on January 23 marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier declared: “Germany’s responsibility does not expire. We want to live up to our responsibility. By this, you should measure us.” On February 5, his office sent, by mistake, a congratulatory telegram to the Iranian regime on the occasion of “Islamic Revolution’s Victory Day” on February 11.

CHINA - Whoever came up with the idea of the global village clearly never thought about how a disaster in one part of the village would affect all the other residents. The 2008 global financial crisis is a prime example of why interconnecting the entire planet’s financial health is a seriously bad idea. Depreciation in the subprime mortgage market in the United States resulted in the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, and like a series of dominoes, one bank after the other around the world started failing.

USA - John McEntee, the new head of President Donald Trump’s Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), asked White House staff to list “anti-Trump” political appointees in the administration. McEntee met with White House cabinet liaisons on Thursday to request a list, according to three sources familiar with the meeting who spoke to Axios reporter Jonathan Swan. Trump enters the next phase of his presidency determined to root out disloyalty in the administration, and McEntee’s return demonstrates his commitment to the task. Entee is now in charge of political appointments to the administration, and the president has empowered him to remove the Trump appointees who are blocking his agenda and even working against him.

EUROPE - Facing a 75 billion euro shortfall due to Brexit, the remaining EU members have been unable to agree on a 2021-2027 budget, with differences between two rival blocs coalescing around France and Germany too big to overcome. France’s desire to preserve the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) matched the demands for continued development aid by the EU’s less wealthy members, but ran into determined opposition by Germany and the “frugal quartet” of Denmark, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands. “Unfortunately, today… it was not possible to reach an agreement,” said Charles Michel, president of the European Council. “We need more time.” Unable to reach a deal, the summit in Brussels fell apart on Friday evening, with no one knowing if and when the next one might take place.

GERMANY - Monday will see the embattled CDU lay out a timetable for candidates seeking to take the party forward post-Merkel but also address strategy for Thuringia, both issues deeply entwined. With Angela Merkel in the twilight of her tenure as chancellor, her party is struggling to assert its identify in the face of growing far right violence and work out how to deal with the anti-migrant AfD. "We are going through a crisis of confidence," Health Minister and rising party star Jens Spahn said Saturday. "This is about the CDU's credibility in Germany," ahead of elections which must take place by next year, added party secretary general Paul Ziemiak.

CHINA - Coronavirus infections explode in South Korea as spread accelerates across Iran, Lebanon and Israel. Literally overnight, CoVid-19 coronavirus infections doubled in South Korea to 204, representing an alarming explosion of human-to-human transmission outside of China and indicating that China was just the first wave of an accelerating global pandemic. With the number of non-China infections more than doubling in the last week, we are now seeing exponential growth in infection numbers across Asia, even as China is desperately manipulating its own numbers to try to present an image that it has the coronavirus under control. Notably, China just brought in 40 new mobile incineration ovens to dispose of “animal corpses” in its fight against the virus. There is no conceivable scenario now where this stops spreading across Asia. Anyone telling you this is “contained” is either lying or ill-informed.

USA - With hardly a drop of rain in the entire month of February, 59 percent of California is now experiencing abnormally dry conditions according to the Federal Drought Monitor. At Calero Reservoir in South San Jose, it was a nice day to be out fishing for Steve Trimmer, but also something of a guilty pleasure. “I love the sunshine. Everything’s great out here. When you’re retired, it’s nice,” said Trimmer. “But about the lack of rain, that’s bad. That’s bad. We’re really going to need it.” “You know, it’s a dry year,” said Matt Keller of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Keller said above ground reservoir levels are down to 59 percent of average for this time of year.

USA - If you don’t want Alexa to record private conversations in your home then you shouldn’t have one. That’s the verdict from cyber-experts who say the only way to truly keep your audio out of Amazon’s hands is by ridding your home of Alexa. Amazon Echo speakers are an amazing gadget that can make your home life easier and more interesting. But the price you pay is privacy: Amazon stores your Alexa recordings, and sometimes sends those voice clips off to humans. “While it may seem like Alexa or Google Home is in your house, all of the data you share with that device is transmitted to the cloud, and specifically to Amazon or Google,” Paul Norris, a cyber-expert at Tripwire, told The Sun. “The easiest way to avoid these risks is simply not to buy the devices.”

USA - Kevin Shipp, who is an expert in the Shadow Government and Deep State, says, “Having been in there, especially between the FBI and CIA, I saw internal wars. They are brutal between agencies and the FBI, CIA and DOJ. There is a brutal war going on within the government, and ruthless stuff going on in terms of actions… The one investigation I think is going to happen, and then one investigation that will lead to indictments, is the investigation into Hunter Biden and his role in Ukraine and not just Ukraine, but his role in China and the $1.5 billion given to Hunter Biden’s company. We will see some indictments there, but there is a war within the Deep State. This has been going on since Trump was elected. The Deep State is going crazy, and the rats are jumping off the ship. This is what I love about President Trump… No President has confronted the Deep State in history like Donald Trump with the exception of JFK, and that did not work out well for him.”

AUSTRALIA - Australia's bushfire crisis drew worldwide attention, but it wasn’t the only extreme weather event to plague the nation in recent months. Drought, dust storms, fires and floods are normal during an Australian summer. But the severity and duration of these events made this season one of the worst people can remember. People around the country told the BBC what it was like to live through these events, and how they feel about this becoming their "new normal".