• Facebook faced a worldwide backlash from publishers and politicians on Thursday after blocking news feeds in Australia in a surprise escalation of a dispute with the government over a law to require it to share revenue from news.

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Myanmar, COVID-19, climate and Indo-Pacific territorial and navigation issues with his counterparts from India, Japan and Australia on Thursday, the State Department said.

• NATO defence ministers made no decision on whether or when to pull out of Afghanistan at a meeting on Thursday, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that the allies faced a dilemma as violence increases again.

• Statistics released by the British government's Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) have revealed that the number of EU citizens applying to study in the United Kingdom has dropped by 40% since Brexit.

• Prices rose 2.0% in Hamilton, 1.0% in Montreal and 0.6% in Victoria, but the index was down 0.1% in Toronto, 0.2% in Calgary, and 0.4% in both Edmonton and Winnipeg.
• Ottawa-Gatineau continued to lead year-over-year gains, up 19.6% from January 2020, followed by Halifax at 16.9% and Hamilton at 16.5%. Calgary home prices are down 0.5% on the year.

• Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 861,000 for the week ended Feb. 13, compared to 848,000 in the prior week.
• Ford Motor has reduced shifts at its Dearborn truck plant and Kansas City assembly plant.

• December data was revised to show 338,200 jobs were gained rather than a decline of 28,800.
• The report, which is derived from ADP's payrolls data, measures the change in total nonfarm payroll employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

• Nigeria was grappling with low growth before the pandemic triggered recession and created large financing gaps including dollar shortages.
• The World Bank had estimated a 4% contraction in 2020 while the IMF had forecast a 3.2% contraction.

• Among those from South Asian backgrounds, 73% of people aged 70-79 had been vaccinated by Feb. 11.
• Simon Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service in England, on Monday said this hesitancy was a "real concern" and that a huge effort was being made to overcome it.

• EU eager to send tough response after envoys expelled.
• Unclear if oligarchs will be targeted by sanctions.

• "We will be very focused on trying to understand how climate related risks but also the potential transition pathways might effect our economic growth over the medium to long term," Brainard said.
• The focus on investments in a sustainable economy that are pro-growth, that are pro-jobs, those are the kinds of priorities that square very well with our overall framework.

• Housing starts decreased 6.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.580 million units last month, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.
• Permits for future homebuilding shot up 10.4% to a rate of 1.881 million units in January. Permits typically lead starts by one to two months.

• Egypt has welcomed the announcement of a new interim government - the latest UN-brokered effort to unite rival camps in east and west Libya - and is planning to reopen its embassy in the capital Tripoli.
• After the meeting, Dbeibeh tweeted: "We look forward to a strategic relationship between the two brotherly countries."

• He also served as the bank's vice president for Africa for six years, where he oversaw a record-breaking $70 billion in commitments.
• "Makhtar's skills at IFC will help the World Bank Group continue our rapid response to the global crisis and help build a green, resilient, inclusive recovery," Malpass said.

• The Labor Department said on Thursday import prices jumped 1.4% last month, the biggest gain since March 2012, after increasing 1.0% in December.
• Imported fuel prices increased 7.4% last month after soaring 8.1% in December. Imported food prices surged 2.1%.

China, aiming to cultivate goodwill through so-called vaccine diplomacy, has already donated vaccines to a number of African nations as they struggle to obtain doses. * "This fully reflects the high-level bilateral relations between our two countries," he said, adding that the two countries were coordinating closely to deliver the vaccine to Namibia as early as possible.

• Myanmar's military has arrested civilian leaders, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and announced a year-long state of emergency, alleging that November's election was beset by fraud.
• The electoral commission dismissed the army's complaints.

• "Once the vaccines are here in Guinea on Sunday, the vaccination campaign can start from Monday," said Mohamed Lamine Yansane.
• "We think it's not likely at all that we will have a similar situation in Guinea and the neighbouring West African countries as happened in the past because capacities have been built up," Moeti said.

• According to a preliminary survey, "78 villages suffered serious damage with some houses completely destroyed", it said.

• Officially, South Africa has recorded close to 1.5 million coronavirus cases, of which just under 48,500 have been fatal.

• BioNTech has struck a deal with the Shanghai-based Fosun Pharmaceutical Group to bring the vaccine to China, including Taiwan.

• A court in Tbilisi on Wednesday ordered Melia placed in pre-trial detention after he refused to pay an increased bail fee ahead of hearings.

• That was "down to the lowest levels since 2013, largely as a result of emergency travel restrictions" imposed by governments to slow the spread of the coronavirus across borders, it said.

• Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya praised the two journalists for their defiance following the verdict.

• "The practice is detrimental to public safety and incites confusion, fear and distress in difficult times," NetBlocks tweeted.

• The bill aims to create a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants who can prove they were in the United States on January 1, 2021.

• In all, 218 companies had moved to the Netherlands from Britain since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, the agency said.

• At least 109,857,920 cases of coronavirus have been registered. Of these, at least 67,422,400 are now considered recovered.

• A study released on Wednesday, showed reduced neutralization of the South Africa-like virus by blood from people who had been immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

• Researchers made the finding by analyzing 99 percent of all US deaths, as well as provisional birth records, between January and June 2020
• Evidence suggests that not all US COVID-19 deaths in 2020 were correctly tied to their cause

• Despite the government’s desire to showcase normalcy, several roads were deserted and markets were partially shut because of a security clampdown
• Tens of thousands of people have been killed in an uprising against Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir that started in 1989, but violence has slowed in recent months.

• Manav Bharti University in the state of Himachal Pradesh, had sold over 36,000 fake degrees over the span of almost a decade.
• It was revealed that out of a total of 41,000 degrees issued by the Manav Bharti University, a mere 5000 were found to be verified and legitimate.

• The government will work with suppliers to manage a phased roll-out of the scheme, she said.

• "However, the number of employed people who worked zero hours in early January in the capital cities also reflects some ongoing effects of recent lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne," Jarvis noted.

• The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

• The Mexican government has agreed to purchase 24 million doses of the vaccine, he added.

• US President Joe Biden has promised to undo many of former President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies.

• The new infections took the overall total to 25,111 cases while fatalities remained at 82.

• In its response, Pfizer said that alternative dosing regimens of its vaccine had not yet been evaluated and that the decision to do that resides with the health authorities.

• Conditional permission has been granted to the Chinese vaccine for its emergency use in Nepal.

• Dwarfs the $76 million Google will split between 121 publishers in France over three years, which averages $209,000 a year per publisher
• The Australian deals come days before the government plans to pass laws that would allow it to appoint an arbitrator to set Google’s content fees if it can’t strike a deal privately

• The companies will develop a subscription platform, share advertising revenue through Google’s ad technology services, build out audio journalism and develop video journalism by YouTube
• The deal comes after years of public feuding between Murdoch and Google, most recently in Australia, where Google has threatened to shut down its search engine to avoid “unworkable” content laws

• Blinken said the United States would pay up its more than $200 million in obligations to the UN body by the end of the month and make a "significant" contribution to Covax.

• Israel has surged ahead in its vaccination drive against Covid-19.

• UNSMIL said it "calls on authorities to ensure an independent, impartial and prompt investigation into this heinous attack on civilians and calls for perpetrators to be brought to justice."

• "There is a real limit, legally, that we have, to make it mandatory for our troops and their families."

• They allegedly robbed digital currency exchanges in Slovenia and Indonesia and extorted a New York exchange of $11.8 million.

• Secondly, said Arguello, US companies cannot sell their masks at the retail level because they cannot advertise them online, due to the ban imposed by companies such as Google and Facebook.

• In a second speech on Wednesday evening, he also pleaded for a revival of a failed policy: forcing EU countries to each take a share of the migrants arriving from across the Mediterranean, after years of Italy shouldering much of the burden.

• The 56-year-old has been running a French-language website since 2003 called "Building an outdoor rink is easy."

• During the pandemic he has made few public or private appearances.

• "My car got stranded and I was trying to sleep in the car but it was just too cold," Hernandez said. "Liquids in my car were actually turning to ice so it was like sleeping in an ice box.

• Scientists say that massive drops in some pollutants due to lockdowns are bound to have prevented deaths.

• "Let's say somebody gets impeached, typically your numbers would go down, they would go down like a dead balloon. But the numbers are very good, they're very high," he said.

• Residents of riverside towns like Puerto Berrio in years past would pick up bodies found in the river and bury them as unidentified people.

• Najib, who is free on bail as he appeals his conviction, turned up at court to show support for his wife.

• There has been no comment on Chen's remarks in China during the annual lunar new year break. Foson has also not responded to requests for comment.

• Dozens of police patrolled the vicinity of Myaynigone junction as motorists also blocked roads.

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• The Australian federal government has said it plans to put the legislation, which effectively force Google and Facebook to strike deals with media companies or have fees set for them, to a vote in the coming weeks.
• The move, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, represents a divergence in responses among the big tech giants under attack by news publishers, which have blamed the companies for destroying their advertising business.