Portal:Current events/2020 February 17
February 17, 2020 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian civil war, Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–March 2020)
- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gives a televised speech on the military offensives in north-western Syria, saying the offensives in Aleppo Governorate and Idlib Governorate will continue regardless of Turkey's threats while adding that the recent Syrian Army victories are a prelude to the opposition's "final defeat, sooner or later". (Al Masdar News) (Reuters)
- February 2020 Quetta bombing
- At least 10 people are killed by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. (Reuters)
Business and economy
- General Motors pulls out of right-hand drive markets, ending the Holden brand in Australia. (9 News)
- Emirati port operating firm DP World returns to being wholly state-owned by the Dubai government, after its sovereign wealth fund Dubai World buys back the company's remaining stakes. DP World is subsequently delisted from the NASDAQ Dubai exchange. (Reuters)
- The Aleppo International Airport in Aleppo, Syria, opens to the public for the first time since 2013. Syrian Transport Minister Ali Hammoud says regular commercial flights will begin within days, starting with Cairo, Egypt. (Reuters) (Al Masdar News)
Disasters and accidents
- Storm Dennis
- The lower reaches of many rivers, including the Severn at Shrewsbury, continue to rise as a result of excess runoff from upstream. The River Wye in Hereford has now reached its highest level in recorded history. (BBC News)
- At least 20 people, mostly women and children, are killed in a stampede during a rush to collect aid supplies upon the opening of the gates to an aid facility in Diffa, south-eastern Niger. (BBC News)
Law and crime
- Sagamihara stabbings
- Prosecutors in Japan announce they are officially seeking the death penalty against Satoshi Uematsu for stabbing 19 disabled people to death in 2016. (CNA)
- Terrorism in Germany
- Investigations into a far-right organization whose members were arrested in Germany three days earlier reveal a plot, inspired by the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019, to carry out simultaneous, large-scale attacks on mosques across the country during prayers. (The Guardian)
Politics and elections
- Andrew Sabisky, an advisor to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, resigns after the resurfacing of racist, sexist, and pro-eugenics comments, allegedly attributed to him. (BBC News)
Sports
- 2020 Daytona 500
- Denny Hamlin wins his second consecutive Daytona 500, and his third overall, becoming the first driver to win the race consecutively since Sterling Marlin did so between 1994 and 1995. Ryan Newman is hospitalized with serious but non-life threatening injuries after an airborne crash coming to the finish. (WESH)