Portal:Current events/2020 February 18

• Syrian civil war
  • The UNHCHR Michelle Bachelet says she is "horrified" by the deliberate targeting of civilians in the recent offensive in northwestern Syria and accuses the parties involved. (Al Jazeera)

• An empty sarcophagus is discovered by archeologists while excavating the Roman Forum. It appears to be dedicated to Romulus, the founder of Rome. (Fox News)

• The Boy Scouts of America file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the result of multiple sex abuse lawsuits. (The Wall Street Journal) (Scouting Newsroom)
• American retailer Macy's announces it will close 125 stores over the next three years, citing competition from online sellers, including Amazon. (USA Today)
• International sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis
  • The U.S. State Department adds Russian oil company Rosneft Trading S.A. to its financial blacklist for helping facilitate the sale of Venezuelan oil. (ABC News)

• A fire at a library in Porterville, California leaves one firefighter dead and another missing. (NBC News)

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • Chinese state media reports that the director of the central Wuhan Wuchang Hospital has died from the virus. (Reuters)
  • Russia says it will temporarily block Chinese citizens beginning on February 20 from entering its territory as authorities look to stem the spread of the pandemic. (Radio Free Europe)

• Russian espionage in the United States
  • U.S. federal officials charge Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, a Mexican citizen, in Miami for allegedly acting on behalf of a Russian agent who recruited him to collect information about the U.S. government and met repeatedly with him in Moscow. (The New York Times) (Politico)

• Yukos shareholders v. Russia
  • A Dutch appeal court reinstates order for Russia to pay $50 billion over Yukos. (NBC)
• A court in Denmark sentences a former public employee to six-and-a-half years in prison for embezzling $17 million in Danish government funds intended for the poor. She will not appeal the sentence, according to her lawyer. (Reuters)
• U.S. President Donald Trump grants clemency to former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich for attempting to sell former president Barack Obama's Senate seat in 2008, and pardons former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, junk bond salesman Michael Milken, and former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. for their numerous felonies and frauds. (CNN)
• A shooting in Flint, Michigan leaves three people dead. (WJRT-TV)

• 2019 Afghan presidential election
  • Almost five months after the vote, Afghanistan's electoral institution declares incumbent President Ashraf Ghani as the winner of the election. (Reuters)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a presidential order sacking senior adviser Vladislav Surkov. Surkov was in charge of the Kremlin's policy on the Ukrainian crisis and its relations with the separatist "people's republics" in the Donbass. (Voice of America)

• Archeologists announce an articulated Neanderthal skeleton was unearthed in Shanidar Cave, Iraq, the first discovery of its type in over a decade. They argue the find provided further proof that Neanderthals buried their dead, as it was next to a site where similar bodies were found surrounded by pollen clumps. (BBC News)