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
- Venezuela launches its Petro cryptocurrency, which it claims is the world's first sovereign cryptocurrency. (BBC)
Disasters and accidents
- 2017–18 South Pacific cyclone season
- Seven provinces in New Zealand declare states of emergency as Cyclone Gita makes landfall. (Newshub)
- Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704
- Indonesia's Mount Sinabung has a massive eruption, completely destroying the volcano's peak, with ash reaching over 7 km (4 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)
Politics and elections
- Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
- 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 meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Specifically, the charges were 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)
- Presidency of Donald Trump
- U.S. President Donald Trump directs 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)
Sports
- 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)