Portal:Current events/2021 March 30

March 30, 2021 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Mali War
- Mali wedding airstrike
  - A report by the United Nations mission in Mali concludes that an airstrike conducted by France in Mopti on January 3 killed 19 civilians at a wedding. The French military maintains that it had killed rebel fighters identified by aerial surveillance, and denies that a wedding had taken place in Bounti. (Al Jazeera)
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- 2021 Afghanistan attacks
  - Gunmen kill three female polio vaccination health workers in Jalalabad, Nangarhar. (Al Jazeera)
2021–2022 Myanmar protests
- The death toll since the protests began officially surpasses 500. Pro-democracy activists launch a "garbage strike" in Yangon as rebel groups demand that the military stop the bloodshed or face retaliation. (DW)
Insurgency in Cabo Delgado
- Following the fall of Palma to Islamist militants, Portugal announces it will be deploying 60 special forces troops to Mozambique in the coming weeks to train local forces amid an intensifying insurgency. (France 24)
A 65-year-old woman from the Philippines is critically wounded after being assaulted by a man during a racist attack in New York City. The perpetrator, a man in his 30s who was previously in prison for murdering his mother, is charged with hate crime assault. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - President Joe Biden signs the PPP Extension Act of 2021, a bill that would extend the Paycheck Protection Program deadline from March 31 to May 31. (CBS News)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
    - COVID-19 vaccination in Italy
      - Prime Minister Mario Draghi and his wife Maria Serenella Cappello receive their first doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine. (ANSA)
    - The Government of Italy will impose a mandatory five-day quarantine for all travelers from other European Union member states until April 6. These travelers must also take a COVID-19 test at the end of the quarantine period. The only exceptions are for reasons of "proven necessity and urgency". (France 24)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Germany
    - German health authorities suspend the use of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine in people under the age of 60 after new data showing a rise in unusual blood clots in the head was released. (ABC News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Greece
    - Greece reports a record 4,340 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 260,077. (Ekathimerini)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
    - Turkey reports a record 37,303 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 3.27 million. (Anadolu Agency)
- COVID-19 pandemic in South America
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
    - Brazil reports a record 3,780 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thus bringing the nationwide death toll to 317,646. (Anadolu Agency)
    - Brazil's health regulator Anvisa said Bharat Biotech's Covaxin did not meet its manufacturing standards. The Brazilian government previously signed a contract to buy 20 million doses. Bharat said in a statement that they would appeal the decision. (The Rio Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela
    - Venezuela receives more than 115,000 doses of the EpiVacCorona vaccine as part of trials of the Russian vaccine candidate. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia
  - Ethiopia receives 300,000 doses of the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine. (The National Herald)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Papua New Guinea
  - Papua New Guinea begins a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 using the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine supplied from Australia. Prime Minister James Marape is the first person to receive a dose of the vaccine. (The Guardian)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
  - Pakistan reports 100 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the highest recorded in a single day of the year so far, thus bringing the nationwide death toll to 14,434. The number of patients in critical care with COVID-19 also reaches an all-time high of 3,749. (Dawn)
- COVID-19 vaccine, Lineage B.1.1.7
  - Trials for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine show that it is 90% effective against COVID-19 and the Lineage B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2. (UrduPoint)

Law and crime

Sex trafficking in the United States
- An investigation is opened into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–FL) over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and violated federal sex trafficking laws by allegedly paying her to travel with him. Gaetz denied the allegations. (The New York Times)

Politics and elections

2021 Hong Kong electoral reform
- China's National People's Congress Standing Committee members vote in favor of amendments of the Hong Kong Basic Law Annex I and II to overhaul the electoral system. The amendments are widely seen as a move to further reduce the influence of the opposition pro-democracy camp in the wake of the widespread anti-government protests of 2019 and the electoral landslide of the 2019 District Council election. (Hong Kong Free Press)
Presidency of Jair Bolsonaro
- In a meeting with recently-appointed Defence Minister Walter Souza Braga Netto in the early hours of the day, the commanders of all three branches of the Brazilian Armed Forces – General Edson Leal Pujol (Army), Admiral Ilques Barbosa Junior (Navy), and Brigadier Antonio Carlos Moretti Bermudez (Air Force) – announce their intention to resign from their posts as soon as new successors are found. The collective resignation announcement comes less than a day after the dismissal of former Defence Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva and is allegedly a move to signal the Armed Forces' opposition to any military interference in politics. (O Estado de S. Paulo)

Sports

2021 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
- In college basketball, the UCLA Bruins advance to the Final Four as an 11th seed after defeating the Michigan Wolverines, becoming the fifth team to do so after LSU in 1986, George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011, and Loyola–Chicago in 2018. They will also become the second team to reach the Final Four after starting in the First Four since the 2011 VCU Rams. They will play the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who defeated the USC Trojans. (Sports Illustrated)