February 8, 2023 (Wednesday)
Business and economy
- Proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft
- The UK Competition and Markets Authority provisionally concludes that the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft will likely lead to a substantial loss of competition in the console market and could strengthen Microsoft's position in cloud gaming. (CNBC)
- The Supreme Court of Nigeria postpones the demonetization of the old naira banknotes initially scheduled for January 31, then later rescheduled to February 11, citing a supply shortage of the redesigned banknotes. (CNN)
International relations
- International presidential trips made by Volodymyr Zelenskyy
- 2023 visit by Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United Kingdom
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the United Kingdom in his second trip outside Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, meeting with King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and addressing Parliament at Westminster Hall. (Reuters)
- France–Ukraine relations, Germany–Ukraine relations
- Following his UK visit, Zelenskyy visits France to meet President Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AFP via RFI)
- 2023 visit by Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United Kingdom
Law and crime
- Munster Technological University ransomware attack
- Munster Technological University in the Republic of Ireland confirms that the incident affecting its computers is a ransomware attack. (The Journal)
- Laval daycare attack
- Two children are killed and six others are injured when a bus crashes into a daycare centre in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The driver is arrested and charged with homicide and dangerous driving. (La Presse)
- A court in Minsk, Belarus, sentences Polish–Belarusian activist Andrzej Poczobut to eight years in prison for criticising president Alexander Lukashenko. (RFE/RL)
Politics and elections
- Seoul Halloween crowd crush
- Lee Sang-min, the Minister of the Interior and Safety of South Korea, is impeached for his handling of the 2022 Seoul Halloween crowd crush. He is the first cabinet member of South Korea to be impeached. (AP)
Science and technology
- A data center outage leaves Twitter users in the United States and Canada unable to send messages and receiving an error message informing them that they have "exceeded the daily limit for sending tweets". (Fortune)