Portal:Current events/2020 February 17
February 17, 2020 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian civil war, Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–present)
- 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)
- At least 10 people, including two police officers, 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
- Severe flooding from the storm continues across Wales and southern England, with dozens of flood warnings still in effect. (BBC)
- 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)
- In Worcestershire, police divers have recovered the body of a woman who died after her car was swept away from a flooded road. (BBC)
- At least 20 people, many among them women and children, are killed in a human stampede following a rush to collect aid supplies upon the opening of the gates to an aid facility in south-eastern Niger. (BBC)
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)