Health and environment

• 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak
  • Nigeria, Belarus, New Zealand and Lithuania confirm their first case of coronavirus. (BNO News)

International relations

• Syrian Civil War, Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–present), European migrant crisis
  • Nearly 300 migrants including Syrians arrived in Edirne province, Turkey on the border with Greece in a bid to go to Europe. Another group of migrants arrived on the coast of Ayvacik in Canakkale, western Turkey, and wanted to go to the Greek island of Lesbos by boats. Turkish officials announced that the security forces will not intervene to prevent the crossing of any migrants, including those from Syria and other countries like Afghanistan and Iran.(France 24)(Daily Sabah)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war, Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–present), Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  • Syrian opposition groups backed by Turkey recapture the strategic city of Saraqib, lift the siege on four Turkish observation points and cut the M5 highway. (SOHR) (Xinhua)
  • A Turkish sniper kills a Syrian lieutenant colonel in Syria's Tell Abyad countryside. (SOHR)
  • Three Turkish soldiers are killed in Syrian Army attacks in Idlib, bringing the number of Turkish soldiers killed in Syria to 21. (The Jerusalem Post)
  • 36 Syrian Army troops and 25 Turkish-backed rebels are killed bringing the total death toll in Idlib since December to 1,186 opposition fighters and 1,136 Syrian Goverment soldiers. (SOHR)
  • An airstrike kills at least 33 Turkish troops and injures 39 others in Jabal Zawiya, Idlib Governorate. (Daily Sabah) (BBC)
  • Turkey says it has neutralized 1,709 Syrian Government elements in Idlib since 10 February 2020 and that it has destroyed 55 tanks, 3 helicopters, 18 armored vehicles, 29 howitzers, 21 military vehicles, 4 Docka anti-aircraft guns, 6 ammunition depots, and 7 mortars in the operations.(Anadolu Agency)
  • Turkey opens its border with Syria and allows Syrian refugees free passage to Europe effective immediately for the next 72 hours.(Middle East Eye)
  • Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hold talks amid the escalation in Idlib with Syria and Russia. (AP)
  • Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are blocked in Turkey, while YouTube and WhatsApp are partially restricted. It is understood that the measures are intended to protect details surrounding troop and equipment deployments. (Netblocks)
  • US republican senator and ally of US President Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham calls for an establishment of a no-fly zone over Idlib.(The Guardian)
• A cyber attack in Australia forces the cancellation of wool sales across the country. (ABC AU)

Business and economy

• Socio-economic impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average enters correction territory after plunging 700 points at opening. (USA Today)
  • Markets are on pace for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. (Market Watch)

Health and environment

• 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak
  • 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Iran
    • Vice President for Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar is infected with the novel coronavirus. (Washington Post)
  • 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Italy
    • 236 more coronavirus cases are confirmed in Italy, bringing the number to 655. Five more virus-related deaths are confirmed, bringing the death toll in the country to seventeen. Forty-five people recovered from the disease. (La Repubblica)
  • 2020 coronavirus outbreak in the United States
    • A woman is diagnosed with the coronavirus after a possible person-to-person transmission. It would be the first case of transmission in the United States with no known contacts to overseas cases. (NBC)
  • Saudi Arabia temporarily suspends entry to the kingdom for the Umrah Islamic pilgrimage and visits to al Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina due to fears over the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. (Reuters)
  • Saudi Arabia blocks all foreign pilgrims from entering the country. This block happens just before the Ramadan fasting. (ABC AU)
  • Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe announces that all junior and high schools will be asked to close from March 2 until their upcoming spring break to help fight the coronavirus outbreak. (Reuters)
  • Estonia confirms their first case. (Al Jazeera)
  • Greece confirms its second and third cases and cancels all carnival-related events.(Reuters)
• The decision to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport is found to be unlawful by the Court of Appeal because the British government did not take into account its commitments under the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. (BBC)

International relations

• European migrant crisis
  • A senior Turkish official tells Reuters that Turkey "will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe". (Reuters)

Science and technology

• Astronomers discover the largest known explosion ever in the history of the Universe, which occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. It replaces MS 0735.6+7421. As space and ground telescopes that study radio emissions improve (which are better than X-ray observations for detecting these), more similar explosions, or "giant radio fossils", may be found. (Phys) (CNN) (Astrophysics via arXiv at Cornell University)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• North East Delhi riots
  • Violent clashes between Hindu and Muslim protesters over the Citizenship Amendment Act continue in North East Delhi, India, leaving 27 people dead and at least 180 injured. (NDTV)
• Syrian civil war, Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–present), Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  • Turkey's MoD says two Turkish troops were killed in an airstrike in Syria's Idlib Governorate. (Middle East Monitor)
  • Turkey's MoD claims 114 Syrian Army troops were "neutralized" in retaliation, and an air defense system, a ZU-23-2 AA gun, an antitank weapon, 3 Tanks, an ammunition vehicle and 2 engineering vehicles were destroyed, and that 3 tanks were captured. (Aksam)

Arts and culture

• Bob Weighton, aged 111, of Alton, Hampshire, England, is named the oldest living man in the world after the death of Chitetsu Watanabe of Japan at the age of 112. (The Guardian)

Health and environment

• 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak
  • 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Italy
    • 102 more coronavirus cases are confirmed in Italy, bringing the number to 424. Another virus-related death is confirmed, bringing the death toll in the country to 12. (Sky Tg24)
  • 2020 coronavirus outbreak in the United States
    • In California, San Francisco declares a public emergency. Santa Clara and San Diego counties have made similar declarations. (News AU)
  • The first case in Latin America is confirmed by the Ministry of Health of Brazil in São Paulo. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Greece
    • Greece confirms its first case in Thessaloniki. (Reuters)
  • Romania and Georgia reports their first cases. (Reuters) (Reuters)
  • A 62-year-old man in Seville becomes the first non imported infected case of coronavirus in Spain. (La Vanguardia)

Law and crime

• Six prisoners are shot dead by Papua New Guinea Police as they escape from prison in Western Highlands Province. They were among 100 inmates who escaped during a mass breakout. Scores of others are captured. (RNZ)
• Germany repeals its 2015 ban on advertisements for professional assisted suicide practices, after finding that its prohibition violated the German Constitution. Passive human euthanasia itself has been legal in the republic since 2014. (BBC)
• Milwaukee brewery shooting
  • Six people, including the shooter, are killed in a mass shooting at the Molson Coors Beverage Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The perpetrator, who committed suicide, was an employee who was fired earlier in the day. (USA Today) (WGN-TV)
• The re-election campaign of U.S. President Donald Trump files a libel suit against The New York Times over a 2019 editorial piece that accused the Trump campaign of striking a deal with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • The Spanish and Catalan government meets for the first time after breaking the talks one year ago in the named "Dialogue Board" as a way to solve the constitutional and political crisis between both governments that erupted in 2017. (La Vanguardia)
• Lynching in the United States
  • The U.S. House of Representatives votes 410–4 to pass the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which designates lynching a federal crime. This is the first time that anti-lynching legislation has ever passed Congress. (NPR)

Science and technology

• Astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, United States, say an object known as has been captured by Earth's gravitational field and has been in orbit since 2017, becoming a temporary natural satellite of Earth. The Minor Planet Center confirms the findings and says "no link to a known artificial object has been found", implying the object is an asteroid. (New Scientist)