February 5, 2020 (Wednesday)
Disasters and accidents
- 2020 Van avalanches
- Avalanches in Van Province, eastern Turkey, kill at least 38 people, leaving more trapped. (BBC News)
- Winter Storm Kade brings heavy snowfall to much of the United States, with 14 inches of snow recorded as far south as Texas. Dozens of car accidents are reported in Oklahoma City as a result of difficult driving conditions due to the storm. (Weather.com)
- Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193
- A plane crashes after overrunning the runway at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Istanbul, Turkey, killing 3 people and injuring 155 others. (BBC News)
Health and environment
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Around 3,700 people aboard a cruise ship named Diamond Princess are quarantined after ten passengers test positive for the illness at the port of Yokohama, Japan. (Reuters)
- A baby is diagnosed with the virus 30 hours after birth, in the first recorded case of the virus in a newborn. (New Straits Times)
International relations
- Mexico establishes diplomatic relations with the Central African Republic, resulting in Mexico having diplomatic relations with all African states. (Government of Mexico)
Law and crime
- The United Kingdom's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport begins a public consultation on decriminalizing the failure to pay the television licence fee. Currently, failure to pay the fee while using a television can result in fines and imprisonment. (BBC News)
- Bayard Rustin, a black and gay African American civil rights activist who worked with Martin Luther King Jr., is posthumously pardoned by California Governor Gavin Newsom for anti-gay charges. (NBC News)
- Denmark jails three men for potentially spying for Saudi Arabia. (ABC News)
- LGBT rights in Nigeria
- A court in Nigeria grants 47 men another delay in their trial over homosexuality and public displays of affection with members of the same sex. Judge Rilwan Aikawa says it is the last accepted delay at the Lagos court. The men face up to 10-year imprisonment if convicted in a closely watched trial. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- Impeachment trial of Donald Trump
- The United States Senate votes on whether to acquit U.S. President Donald Trump. By a vote of 52–48 almost entirely along party lines, the Republican-majority Senate acquits Trump on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, and acquits him on the second charge, obstruction of Congress, in a separate 53–47 vote. Utah Senator Mitt Romney casts the sole Republican guilty vote, against party lines, on the first article. (The New York Times)
- The Romanian minority government led by Ludovic Orban is toppled by a vote of no confidence. The event could lead to an early election. (DW)
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