Portal:Current events/2025 February 17

February 17, 2025 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Business and economy

American airline company Southwest Airlines announces it will lay off 1,750 jobs, 15% of its corporate workforce, for cost reduction. This is the company's first mass layoff since operating in 1971. (CNBC)

Disasters and accidents

2025 Kerdasa building collapse
- Ten people are killed and eight others are injured when a three-story residential building collapses in Cairo, Egypt. (Washington Post) (Voice of America)
Delta Connection Flight 4819
- Twenty-one people are injured, including three critically when a Delta Airlines Bombardier CRJ900LR, crashes after catching fire and flipping over at Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. (NPR) (CBS News) (Al Jazeera)
February 2025 North American storm complex
- Eight adults and one child are killed in flooding caused by heavy rains in the eastern United States. (DW)
2025 Yocalla bus crash
- A bus crashes and falls 800 m (2,600 ft) down a cliff in Yocalla Municipality, Bolivia, killing 31 people and injuring fourteen others. (Reuters)

International relations

Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Weimar+
- European leaders gather in France for a summit on Ukraine after the U.S. administration announced the opening of peace talks with Russia on ending the Ukrainian war without European participation. (CNN)
- Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov says that Europe has no role in any peace negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine. (BBC News)

Law and crime

Syrian security forces arrest three former Assad regime officers responsible for the Tadamon massacre, which occurred in south Damascus in 2013. (The New Arab)
Singaporean Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh is convicted of two counts of perjury to the Committee of Privileges and is fined S$7,000 per count, but is not disqualified as a member of parliament. (CNA)

Politics and elections