Portal:Current events/2021 March 5

March 5, 2021 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Somali Civil War
- 2021 Mogadishu suicide car bombing
  - At least 20 people are killed and 30 others are wounded by a suicide car bombing outside a restaurant near the port in Mogadishu. (Al Jazeera)
- At least seven soldiers are killed after al-Shabaab militants storm a jail in Bosaso, Puntland, Somalia. More than 400 prisoners are freed during the assault, the majority of whom are Al-Shabaab fighters. (Reuters)
War in Afghanistan
- 2021 Afghanistan attacks
  - A female doctor is killed and a child is wounded in Jalalabad, Nangarhar, when a bomb attached to the doctor's rickshaw explodes, while seven workers at a Hazara plaster factory are shot dead in Surkh-Rōd District, Nangarhar. ISIL is suspected to be behind the attacks. (Al Jazeera)
Aftermath of the assassination of Luca Attanasio
- Mwilanya Asani William, the attorney investigating the murder of Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio and two other people in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, is murdered by unknown gunmen during an ambush. (Il Mattino)
Syrian civil war
- One person is killed and 11 others are wounded when rockets strike oil refineries near al-Bab and Jarablus, Syria. (Al Jazeera)
2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest
- The number of farmers who died during the protests, which began in August 2020, increases to 248. (Al Jazeera)
2021 Myanmar protests
- A man is killed after police open fire on a group of protesters in Mandalay. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on The Walt Disney Company, COVID-19 pandemic in California
  - California health officials say that stadiums, Disneyland, and other theme parks can reopen beginning on April 1 with limited capacity. (CNBC)
- Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
  - The United States Senate, in a 58–42 vote, rejects an amendment introduced by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders that would raise the minimum wage to $15 after he made efforts to include it in President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package. (The Independent)
The German government reaches an agreement with energy providers to compensate them up to €2.4 billion for loss in income attributed to the phase-out of nuclear power, ending years of litigation. (DW)

Disasters and accidents

2021 Kermadec Islands earthquake
- An 8.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of New Zealand's North Island, initially prompting a tsunami warning. The earthquake was preceded by a 7.4 magnitude foreshock and followed by a 6.1 magnitude aftershock. (Stuff.co.nz)
A minibus and a trailer-truck collide on a highway near Atfih, Middle Egypt, killing 18 people and injuring five others. The truck driver has since been arrested. (AP)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in North America
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois, Lineage P.1
      - Illinois reports its first case of the Lineage P.1 variant first detected in Brazil in a person from Chicago. (WMAQ-TV)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Tennessee, 501.V2 variant
      - Tennessee reports its first case of the 501.V2 variant first detected in South Africa. (WSMV-TV)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, 501.V2 variant
      - Wisconsin reports its first case of the 501.V2 variant first detected in South Africa. (WEAU-TV)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba, 501.V2 variant
      - Manitoba reports its first confirmed case of the 501.V2 variant first detected in South Africa in a person from Winnipeg. (Global News)
    - Health Canada approves the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. (CBC)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - COVID-19 vaccination in India
      - India administers 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the last 24 hours, which is the highest number of daily vaccinations since the program began on January 16. (Livemint)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
    - The government extends the COVID-19 state of emergency in the Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the capital Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, for the next two weeks until March 21 as the number of new cases have not fallen sufficiently in order to lift the emergency. (The Mainichi Shimbun)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
    - Malaysia reports their first two cases of the B.1.525 variant in two people who travelled from Dubai. (CodeBlue)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
    - The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan grants emergency use authorisation of the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine for people over 60 years of age. (DAWN)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
    - South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approves the use of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine following separate evaluations of the vaccine's safety and efficacy. (Yonhap News Agency)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
    - Italy surpasses three million cases of COVID-19. (ANSA)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Moldova
    - Moldova becomes the first country in Europe to receive a COVAX initiative shipment of 14,400 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine. (Daily Sabah)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Romania, 501.V2 variant
    - Romania reports its first two cases of the 501.V2 variant first detected in South Africa in people from Bucharest and Pitești. (Europa FM)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
    - The fatality count from COVID-19 surpasses 200,000. (Bloomberg)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria
    - Nigeria officially launches a vaccination campaign against COVID-19, with a doctor who has spent the past year treating COVID-19 patients becoming the first person to be vaccinated. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Rwanda
    - Rwanda begins a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 using 392,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines. (The East African)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda
    - Uganda receives their first shipment of 864,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine supplied through the COVAX initiative. (The Independent Uganda)
- COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
  - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces that Auckland will move to alert level 2 and rest of the country to alert level one beginning March 7 at 6:00 p.m. NZT after no new community cases have been reported. (The Guardian)

International relations

Australia–China relations
- Australia's Special Broadcasting Service suspends China Global Television Network and China Central Television from broadcasting in the country following a human rights complaint from pan-Asian human rights organization Safeguard Defenders. (The Straits Times)
Myanmar–United States relations, 2021 Myanmar coup d'état
- The Biden administration sanctions Myanmar's Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs in response to the coup and the military junta's crackdown on protesters. (Reuters)
Pastoral visits of Pope Francis
- Pope Francis arrives in Baghdad in the first ever Papal visit to Iraq. (Washington Post)

Law and crime

Aftermath of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol
- Criminal charges brought in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol
  - A former U.S. State Department official during the Trump administration is arrested and charged for assault and other crimes in relation to the storming of the United States Capitol, thereby making him the first known Trump administration official to be tried in relation to the events of January 6. (CNN)
Protests continue in Senegal against the arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, with three more people confirmed dead, bringing the death toll to 4. (BBC News)
A call for a specific law against honour killings begins in India, after a father in Uttar Pradesh beheaded his daughter two days ago, after opposing her relationship with a man. (Al Jazeera)
The Cologne administrative court temporarily bars the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) from placing the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) under surveillance, ruling that BfV's announcement two days ago that it was surveying the party violated an agreement to keep the surveillance classified. The court said that the BfV will have to wait until a lawsuit brought by the AfD on the matter is settled before it can proceed. (DW)

Science and technology

2021 Myanmar protests
- YouTube suspends channels run by Myanmar's military and removes junta propaganda videos for "violating its community guidelines and terms of service". (AP)