Portal:Current events/2020 February 16
February 16, 2020 (Sunday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- South Sudanese Civil War
- SPLM-IO leader and former Vice President Riek Machar rejects a peace proposal by President Salva Kiir Mayardit. While Machar welcomes the provision to reduce the number of states from 32 to 10, he opposes the creation of three administrative areas. (Al Jazeera)
- Syrian civil war, Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–present)
- Backed by Russian airstrikes, Syrian Army troops take control of most of the Aleppo countryside, including the towns of Anadan, Haritan and Kafr Hamrah and over 30 villages amid a collapse in rebel defences. Much of the area has been under rebel control since 2012. (Reuters) (NBC News)
- Pansi church shooting
- Islamist gunmen kill at least 24 people, including a pastor, in a mass shooting on a church during mass in Pansi, Yagha Province, Sahel Region, Burkina Faso. (Deutsche Welle)
Business and economy
- The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri rules that chemical companies Bayer and BASF are accountable for the adverse effects of their Dicamba-based herbicides on American farmlands, and awards the plaintiff, a peach farmer, US$265 million in damages. Bayer announces it will appeal. (Reuters)
- A German court orders Tesla, Inc. to temporarily halt construction of new manufacturing plant Giga Berlin in Grünheide, Brandenburg, due to the threat it poses to the local wildlife and water supplies. (BBC News)
Disasters and accidents
- Storm Dennis
- The bomb cyclone claims another victim, bringing the death toll to three. 198 flood warnings have been placed across England. (CNN)
Law and crime
- Azerbaijani police detain three opposition party leaders and more than 100 activists for attempting to protest the results of last week's parliamentary election. (Reuters)
- Nine homeless drug users are shot dead while sleeping rough in the Afghan capital Kabul. (Al Jazeera)
Politics and elections
- 2020 Paris municipal election
- French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn announces she will run for the Parisian mayoral position on the La République En Marche! ticket, after the party's original candidate Benjamin Griveaux withdrew yesterday due to a sexting scandal. (Reuters)
- 2020 North Macedonian parliamentary election
- The Assembly of North Macedonia votes 108–12 to dissolve itself after the country failed to start accession talks with the European Union, and sets the parliamentary election date for April 12. (Reuters)