Portal:Current events/2018 February 19

February 19, 2018 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Rif Dimashq offensive
  - Ahead of an expected ground offensive, Syrian Air Force strikes on rebel-held eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, kill at least 44 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (France 24)
An attacker stabs three people at a Tim Hortons in Montreal, Canada. (CTV news)

Disasters and accidents

2018 Oaxaca earthquake
- Three days after the previous, stronger earthquake, a 5.9-magnitude possible aftershock strikes again near the coast of Oaxaca and is widely felt across Southern and Central Mexico. No victims are reported so far. (Reuters)
A collapse at a garbage dump in Mozambique kills at least 17 people. (BBC)
Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, erupts. There are no reports of injuries or fatalities. (Evening Standard)

Law and crime

United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal
- Former coach Barry Bennell is sentenced to 31 years in prison for 50 offences against 12 boys between 1979 and 1990. (The Guardian)
Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom
- A court sentences Matthew Falder, convicted on 137 charges, to 32 years in jail after confessing to blackmailing numerous teenagers into performing sexual acts. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

Science and technology

Human impact on the environment
- In a Scientific Reports publication, researchers propose 1965 as the start of the Anthropocene era. In that year, human nuclear weapons testing caused a noticeable spike in radiocarbon in the heartwood of the world's remotest tree, a Sitka spruce on Campbell Island, New Zealand. The general scientific community has already been using 1950 as the year "Before Present", when nuclear weapons began to significantly affect the reliability of radiocarbon dating of objects whose organic matter content formed after that epoch. (The Conversation)