February 3 – North America: UNITED STATES
Politics: primary elections
The United States begins its Democratic Party primary elections, also called primaries, the process of choosing by voters their party’s candidate in the presidential elections scheduled for November 2020. Iowa is the first state to hold the primaries. Although it awards only 49 delegates towards the national convention (out of the total of 3979 delegates nationwide), the Iowa caucuses are considered an important indicator of a candidate’s likely success.[1] Unlike a traditional primary in most states, in which voters cast ballots on individual basis, Iowa’s primaries are caucuses, local party gatherings that decide who to support. Their selected delegates then go on to county, district, and state conventions. These ultimately determine the delegates that go to the national convention where they indirectly cast their vote for a presidential candidate in the name of their state.[2]
An illustrated guide to the Iowa caucus
February 5 – North America: UNITED STATES
Impeachment acquittal
After a two-week trial, the Republican-controlled Senate acquits President Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment that was approved by the House of Representatives in December. Trump is acquitted on Article I (abuse of power) by 52 Senators against 48 and acquitted on Article II (obstruction of Congress) by 53 Senators against 47 who supported a guilty verdict. The Senate needed 67 votes to convict President Trump on either article. The Republican Senators voted against including witnesses in the trial. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah is the only Republican Senator to break party lines and votes to convict the president on abuse of power.[3]
The Impeachment from beginning to end (video 4:46 min)
Sen. Mitt Romney’s full statement on Trump’s impeachment trial
Full transcript of Sen. Mitt Romney’s speech during impeachment trial
February 7 – Global / East Asia / Europe / Middle East / Latin America / North America:
CHINA / SOUTH KOREA / ITALY / IRAN / BRAZIL / UNITED STATES
Global health – Coronavirus, or Covid-19
Dr. Li Wenliang, a Chinese doctor who issued the first warning about the deadly new coronavirus outbreak contracts the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital and dies. He had sent out a warning to other doctors on December 30, but the Chinese authorities ordered him to stop “making false comments”.[4]
(Feb 26): The novel coronavirus, now named Covid-19, has been spreading quickly from China to other parts of the world raising fears of global pandemic. China is still the country affected the most, with 77,000 infections and 2,600 deaths. It has built several new hospitals and quarantine centers for infected patients. But the virus has now spread to 30 other countries infecting 1,200 people and killing 20. The worst affected countries right now are South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Italy, where authorities resort to drastic measures to contain and limit the speed of spread of the virus. Around 7,700 troops have been quarantined in South Korea after 11 service members were infected. In Italy, where confirmed cases surged from three to more than 200 in just three days, the government put several small towns on lock-down with their residents not allowed to leave without special permission. It also cancelled many activities, sporting events, and festivals even outside the zone.[5] The United States has 14 confirmed cases so far, some of them unexplained, which raises concerns about the virus spreading within communities.[6] Stock markets fall sharply amid fears of economic impact of the virus. Also, Brazil confirms its first coronavirus case, becoming the first country in Latin America with the outbreak.
(Feb 28): Within just a few days, Iran reports 388 new cases of the illness and 34 deaths, which makes it the country with the highest number of deaths outside China.[7]
More about coronavirus from CDC: source and spread, risk assessment, illness severity Coronavirus and Economic Impact (video: 11:04)
February 8 – Europe: IRELAND
Politics: Irish elections
The Irish people vote in a special election to the Dáil (the Irish parliament) after Prime Minister Leo Varadkar asked the country’s president to dissolve the parliament in January.
Background: Fina Gael party has been leading a minority government since 2016, with Varadkar as prime minister since 2017. With one of the fastest growing economies and good performance in Brexit negotiations, he is looking for a stronger mandate for his party to govern.[8] The main opposition party, Fianna Fáil, attacks the governing party that it has failed to tackle Ireland’s most pressing issues, such as poor-quality health services, growing homelessness due to unaffordable housing, spike in costs of living, and crime.[9]
Results: Each of the three largest parties win between 20 to 25 percent of the total vote. After losing 12 seats, governing Fine Gael finishes third with 35 seats, while the main opposition Fianna Fáil finishes first with 38 seats (both centrist parties). The biggest win is for the Left-leaning Irish Republican Party, Sinn Féin, which managed to position itself as an anti-establishment party taking advantage of people’s frustration with social problems unresolved for years by the governing party. Brexit – the main focus of Leo Varadkar while in power – was barely an issue in the campaign. Sinn Féin gains the most seats – 37 (from 22 before), finishing second and breaking the two-party system. To secure a majority, a government needs the support of at least 80 parliamentarians. After the last election in 2016, it took 70 days to negotiate and form a government. Before the election, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had ruled out a coalition with Sinn Féin, citing its tax policies and IRA past as deterrents.[10]
Profile of Irish political parties
February 26 – South Asia: INDIA
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act
Widespread and violent protests across India that later turned into communal violence between Hindu and Muslim mobs subside after several months. As a result of the riots, 50 people were killed, hundreds wounded, thousands detained, and public and private property destroyed. The protests were sparked by the Citizenship Amendment Act passed by India’s Parliament on 12 December 2019 and are seen as a major display of opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling nationalist BJP party that has long been accused of inciting communal hatred for political gains.[11]
Background: India’s new citizenship law
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for illegal migrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014. Muslims, however, have been excluded from this list. The act is the first time religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law and has been widely criticized as undermining India’s historic ideals, such as pluralism and secular values.[12] The critics of the law also say that the nationalist BJP’s policies are meant to turn India’s Muslims into second-class citizens. Opponents of the law will challenge its legality in India’s Supreme Court.
February 29 – South Asia / North America:
AFGHANISTAN / UNITED STATES
Peace agreement
The United States signs a conditional peace agreement with Afghanistan’s Taliban to put an end to the conflict that has lasted 18 years and has cost tens of thousands of lives. Despite almost two decades of efforts to oust the Taliban, the group is back and in control of almost half of Afghanistan. The Taliban is an Islamic fundamentalist political movement and military organization in Afghanistan currently waging war with the Afghan government and other militant groups to dominate the country.
The main provisions of the deal: (1) the full withdrawal of American and coalition troops from Afghanistan within 14 months. Currently, there are about 13,000 U.S. troops there, who advise Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) militant group; (2) the Taliban guarantees that Afghan territory will not harbor terrorists who aim to attack the U.S. or its allies; (3) the Taliban and the Afghan government will work to reduce violence. The UN has counted more than 100,000 civilians killed since it began documenting in 2009. In 2019 alone, almost 7,000 civilians were killed; (4) the U.S. pledges to work with both sides to secure the release of up to 5,000 prisoners held by the Afghan government and 1,000 prisoners held by the Taliban.
The agreement has been criticized as legitimizing the Taliban, which sends the wrong message to other terrorist groups. Also, because the Taliban does not control all of the Afghan territory, a complete withdrawal of the U.S. troops might strengthen other terrorist groups.[13]
Afghanistan: who controls what