This roundup summarises the most important news stories around the world in the last month (February 2026).

Subscribe to the monthly socialservice.sg newsletter and check out the socialservice.sg podcast!

In the United Kingdom (UK), the chief of staff to the prime minister as well as the prime minister’s communications director resigned amid controversial fallout over the appointment of the former UK ambassador to the US, who had very close ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The former ambassador was later arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Relatedly, and similarly, the former prince Andrew was also arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office linked to his ties to Epstein, in an arrest (of the brother of a monarch) without modern precedent.

Decisive electoral victories

In Bangladesh, in the country’s first election since the 2024 student-led protests against the country’s longest-serving prime minister, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party secured two-thirds of the seats in parliament. In Japan, the prime minister’s party, alongside a partner party, secured a large majority in the lower house following a snap election. It was the biggest win in her party’s history too, and the supermajority in a landslide win is likely to ease her legislative agenda. Separately, heavy snowfall killed at least 46 people.

In Portugal, a leftist candidate won a presidential runoff poll in a landslide. And in Thailand, its prime minister became the first to be voted back into office in two decades, after voters embraced nationalism and the monarchy as well as rejected a recent progressive movement.

In other political and country-wide developments:

• Hong Kong: Former media tycoon and billionaire Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison, after being found guilty of two national security charges and a sedition charge.
• Mexico: The country’s most-wanted drug leader was killed in a military operation, leading to violence in multiple states.
• South Korea: The former president, who was impeached after his brief imposition of martial law in 2024, was sentenced to life in prison.
• Peru’s president was impeached after only four months in office.

And in other news…

• Canada: The country’s worst school shooting since 1989 resulted in the death of at least 10 people.
• Lebanon: A building collapse killed 15.
• Libya: The capsizing of a boat left at least 53 migrants dead or missing.
• Nigeria: An attack by armed men thought to be jihadists killed at least 170.
• Pakistan: A suicide bomber killed at least 12 people during Friday prayers.