Portal:Current events/2018 February 20

February 20, 2018 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Turkish military operation in Afrin
  - Pro-Syrian government forces are sent to help the Kurdish YPG fight against Turkey and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army in the Afrin Region. This action opens up a new front in the war. (The Independent)

Business and economy

Disasters and accidents

2017–18 South Pacific cyclone season
- Seven regions in New Zealand declare states of emergency as Cyclone Gita makes landfall. (Newshub)
Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704
- Iranian forces have spotted the wreckage of the missing Aseman Airliner 30 meters below a hilltop on mount Dena. Helicopters could not land yet at the crash site due to weather and topographical conditions. 65 people are feared dead. (PressTV)
2018 Mount Sinabung eruption
- Indonesia's Mount Sinabung has a massive eruption, completely destroying the volcano's peak, with ash reaching over 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) high. Much of the surrounding area is covered with ash. (Quartz)

Law and crime

Corruption in Latvia
- Latvia will ask the European Central Bank not to renew the mandate of ECB Governing Council member Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, the head of the central Bank of Latvia since 2001, amid an ECB payment moratorium and an U.S. graft investigation into Latvia's third-largest lender, ABLV. On 19 January, Rimšēvičs was released on bail. (Bloomberg)
Judiciary of Thailand
- A court in Thailand awards a Japanese man paternity rights over 13 of his children from Thai surrogate mothers. (BBC)
Gun politics in the United States
- U.S. President Donald Trump orders the Department of Justice to prepare regulations to ban devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to become fully automatic, such as the bump stocks used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. (The Hill)
U.S. Special Counsel investigation
- Attorney Alex van der Zwaan pleads guilty in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to making false statements to the FBI during the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Specifically, the charges are that he lied to investigators about his interactions with political consultant and lobbyist Rick Gates and an unidentified Ukrainian-based associate of Paul Manafort. (The New York Times)

Politics and elections

Aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
- Families and students from Parkland, Florida, begin arriving in Tallahassee, the Florida State Capitol, for advocacy meetings with lawmakers and other State officials. During Tuesday's legislative session, the Republican-controlled Florida House defeated, by a party-line vote, a motion to debate assault weapons ban legislation, 71–36. (Tallahassee Democrat) (Miami Herald)
2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
- Anna Gabriel, former member Parliament of Catalonia for Popular Unity Candidacy and Catalan independentism leader, flees to Switzerland before declaring before the Supreme Court of Spain amid rebellion and desobedience crime. (Independent)

Sports

2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball corruption scandal
- In college basketball, the NCAA denies an appeal of sanctions imposed on the University of Louisville stemming from a sex scandal first publicized in 2015. The most significant sanction requires Louisville to vacate its 2013 national title, making the Cardinals the first Division I men's or women's basketball team ever forced to vacate a national title. (ESPN)