February 22, 2017 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War, Raqqa offensive
- Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- A Houthi missile attack on a Yemeni military camp near the port city of Mocha kills Major General Ahmed Saif al-Yafei, Yemen's deputy chief of staff, and several others. (Reuters)
Arts and culture
- Amnesty International releases a report criticizing the rise of populist leaders such as Donald Trump of the United States, Viktor Orbán of Hungary, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey. (The Washington Post)
- Headscarf controversy in Turkey
- The Turkish government lifts the ban prohibiting female army officers from wearing a Hijab. The military is the last Turkish institution to end the ban. (BBC)
International relations
- 2017 Mexico–United States diplomatic crisis
- Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso rejects and condemns the United States's new plan on deporting undocumented immigrants, stating that Mexico cannot "accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another." (BBC)
Law and crime
- South Africa's North Gauteng High Court rules the government's decision last October to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was unconstitutional, and instructs the government to revoke its notice of withdrawal. (AP) (NPR)
- Former Chief Executive of Hong Kong Donald Tsang is sentenced to 20 months in prison for corruption, becoming the highest officeholder in Hong Kong's history to be convicted. (BBC)
- 2017 Olathe, Kansas shooting
- In an apparent hate crime, an Indian engineer is shot dead and another injured in Olathe, Kansas. (The New York Times)
Politics and elections
- Transgender rights in the United States
- The Trump administration revokes Obama-era orders on protection of gender identity under Title IX. (BBC) (CNN)
- French presidential election, 2017
- François Bayrou drops out in an effort to boost Emmanuel Macron. (The Guardian)
Science and technology
- NASA and the European Southern Observatory announce the discovery of four new Earth-like planets in the Goldilocks zone of the star TRAPPIST-1, in addition to the three discovered there last year. (The Atlantic) (NBC News)
Sports
- Eastern Sports Club's manager Chan Yuen-ting becomes the first woman to coach a male football club in a top-flight continental competition with managing team against Guangzhou Evergrande in the AFC Champions League. (Sky Sports)
- 2024 Summer Olympics
- Budapest withdraws its bid, leaving Paris and Los Angeles as the two candidate cities for hosting the 2024 competition. (Reuters)