Portal:Current events

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Ukraine launches a massive drone attack on Moscow, the largest inside Russia since the start of the war. At least three people are killed and 18 others are injured. Multiple fires are reported throughout the city and flights from Sheremetyevo International Airport are suspended. (BBC News) (Reuters)
    • Russia claims its air defences have shot down at least 337 Ukrainian drones overnight across 10 oblasts. (The Journal)
  • Kursk offensive
    • Russia announces that the Russian military in the previous several days retook multiple villages in Kursk Oblast up to the outskirts of Sudzha, the main town occupied by the Ukrainian military, as Ukrainian forces withdraw to avoid encirclement. (Reuters) (Al Arabiya)
• Insurgency in Balochistan
  • 2025 Jaffar Express hijacking
    • A Jaffar Express passenger train traveling from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan is hijacked by the Balochistan Liberation Army, with 182 people being taken hostage. The BLA claims it killed 20 Pakistan Army personnel. (Reuters)
• Somali civil war
  • 2025 Shabelle offensive
    • Cairo hotel attack
      • At least ten people are killed after five Al-Shabaab militants detonate a car bomb and attack a hotel in Beledweyne, Hiran, Somalia. (BBC News) (First Post)

Business and economy

• 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico
  • U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he will raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium imports from 25% to 50%. (BBC News)
  • Stock market indices in Asia fall after a similar selloff in the United States is triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump not ruling out that his tariffs could potentially lead to a recession. The Nikkei 225 falls 1.7%, the KOSPI falls 1.3%, and the Hang Seng Index falls 1%. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• A bus overturns on a highway in Johannesburg, South Africa, killing twelve people and injuring 45 others. (AP)

International relations

• Coalition of the willing (Russo-Ukrainian War)
  • The military chiefs of all European NATO countries meet in Paris, France, to discuss a potential European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, alongside Ukrainian representatives. The U.S. was not involved in the meeting. (RFE/RL

Law and crime

• International Criminal Court investigation in the Philippines, Philippine drug war
  • Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
    • Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is arrested by the Philippine National Police through the Interpol at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila after being served an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court upon arriving from Hong Kong. (The New York Times)

Politics and election

• 2024–present Serbian anti-corruption protests
  • As protests against the Serbian government continue across Serbia, hundreds of students form a blockade around the headquarters of the Radio Television of Serbia in Belgrade, accusing the state television station of being biased towards President Aleksandar Vučić. At least one police officer is injured in clashes with students. (DW)
• 2025 Greenlandic general election
  • Greenlanders and other citizens of Greenland vote to elect the 31 members of the Inatsisartut between 213 candidates from six parties. (DW)
• United States District Judge for the District Court of the District of Columbia Amir Ali orders the Trump administration to pay nearly $2 billion (€1.84 billion) in unpaid funds for promised USAID programs that the administration ended. (DW)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • The number of reported civilians killed by extrajudicial massacres in western Syria rises to 1,068, the majority of whom are Alawites in addition to several Christians. (France 24)

Business and economy

• 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico
  • Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces that the province will charge 25% more for electricity supplied to the United States, which includes the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. (AP)
  • British Columbia Premier David Eby announces that the province will ban all U.S.-imported alcohol within government-operated liquor stores. (CBC News)
• Economy of the United States
  • U.S. stocks experience a relatively steep drop as the Nasdaq Composite falls 4% and the S&P 500 falls 2.7%. Economists attribute the drop to recent all-time highs, recession fears, and concerns about a potential U.S. government shutdown and the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 North Sea ship collision
  • An oil tanker is reportedly on fire in the North Sea off the coast of Kingston upon Hull, England, after colliding with a cargo ship. Thirty-seven crew members are rescued by search and rescue boats, with 32 injured and one hospitalized when brought to shore. (BBC News) (DW)
• Three people, including two hospital workers, are killed when a medical transport helicopter crashes in a forested area near Tupelo, Mississippi, United States. (Irish Star)

International relations

• 2025 Organization of American States Secretary General election
  • The Organization of American States elects Albert Ramdin of Suriname to serve as its secretary general for the 2025–2030 period. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2024 Spanish floods
  • A court charges the dismissed Valencian regional minister Salomé Pradas [es] and the former regional secretary of Emergencies for the management of emergency warnings during the floods that caused 228 deaths in October 2024 in the Valencian Community. (El País)

Politics and elections

• Syrian peace process
  • The Syrian transitional government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) sign a ceasefire and a deal to integrate the SDF into state institutions and bring the Rojava region under government control. (Al Jazeera) (France24)

Science and technology

• Twitter under Elon Musk
  • X suffers from multiple global system outages, as owner Elon Musk claims that the site is being targeted in a "massive cyberattack". (AP)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • Over 1,300 Syrians are killed within 72 hours amid ongoing clashes between the transitional government and pro-Assad forces. At least 973 Alawites, Christians, and civilians of other religious minorities are killed in reprisal massacres by alleged transitional government-associated armed forces. (NPR) (BBC) (SOHR)
• Gaza war
  • Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip
    • The Israeli military cuts off the electric power distribution supply for the Gaza Strip, affecting over 2 million Palestinians and causing a desalination plant that supplies drinking water to reduce its water output. (AP)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Military aid to Ukraine, France–Ukraine relations, France–Russia relations
    • French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu says that France will use €195 million in interest from Russian assets to fund a military aid package to Ukraine. (Reuters)
• War against the Islamic State
  • Kivu conflict, 2025 Democratic Republic of the Congo attacks
    • Nine people are killed by Islamic State-aligned Allied Democratic Forces rebels in Lubero Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (AP)

Business and economy

• More than 40,000 passengers at Hamburg Airport in Hamburg, Germany, are affected and flights are cancelled after a worker protest organized by the trade union ver.di. (CTV News)

Disasters and accidents

• A Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft carrying five people crashes in a retirement community in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania, United States, shortly after taking off from Lancaster Airport. (CNN) (LNP)
• The death toll from floods in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, increases to 16. (La Nación)

Law and crime

• Reactions to the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses
  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student who played a prominent role during pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, and revoke his green card and student visa. (BBC News)
• The United States Secret Service shoots and arrests an armed man outside the White House in Washington, D.C. following a confrontation with law enforcement. (NBC News)

Politics and elections

• 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election
  • Mark Carney wins a landslide victory in the Liberal Party leadership election, with 86.85% of the vote, becoming prime minister–designate of Canada, replacing Justin Trudeau. (CBC)
• 2025 Romanian presidential election
  • Nationalist candidate Călin Georgescu, the first-round winner in the 2024 election, is barred from running in the 2025 election by the Central Electoral Bureau. (G4 Media)
  • In Bucharest, Romania, protests erupt in front of the Electoral Bureau with clashes with the police. (AP)

Sports

• In American football, Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett becomes the highest paid non-quarterback in the National Football League after agreeing to a deal with the Browns that totals his salary at $40 million per year. (ESPN)
• In international cricket, India wins the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy by defeating New Zealand in the final. (AP)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that groups attributed to the Syrian Ministry of Defense have killed over 750 Alawite civilians across several massacres in western Syria. (SOHR) (CTV News)
• Gaza war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • Three Palestinians are killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, two by a drone strike in Rafah and one by gunfire in al-Tannour, Rafah Governorate, which violates the 2025 ceasefire. (Al Jazeera)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • A Russian ballistic missile strike on Dobropillia, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, kills at least eleven people and injures 37 others. (Reuters)
    • A Russian Shahed drone strike on a business park in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv Oblast, kills three people and wounds seven others. (Ukrinform)
• Somali Civil War
  • 2025 Shabelle offensive
    • Al Shabaab seizes the town of Cadale and some villages including Bushra Sheekh, Ceel Xarar and Xaruur, around 70 km (43 mi) of Mogadishu. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asks Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for help. Ethiopia sends ten thousand ENDF troops near the Ethiopia–Somalia border. (Idil News)
    • Dozens of people are killed, including a senior police commander, as heavy fighting breaks out after Al-Shabaab fighters attack the Police Force. Al-Shabaab claims to have taken over new areas of Al-Kawthar and Boos-Hareeri in Middle Shabelle region, Hirshabelle State, Somalia. (Idil News)

Business and economy

• Canada–China trade war
  • China announces that it will implement 100% tariffs on several Canadian agricultural exports, including rapeseed and peas, and 25% tariffs on pork and aquacultural products will be implemented on March 20 in retaliation against earlier tariffs instituted by Canada on Chinese electric vehicles and metal exports. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–25 Australian region cyclone season
  • Cyclone Alfred
    • One person is confirmed killed and thirteen others are injured in floods caused by Cyclone Alfred as it passes through Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. (AP)

Law and crime

• Eight people are injured, including two critically, in a vehicle-ramming attack at a CarMax car dealership in Inglewood, California, United States. (NBC News)

Sports

• FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2025
  • Two ski jumpers from the Norwegian ski jumping team, Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, are disqualified for cheating and Lindvik loses the silver in the men's individual normal hill in Granåsen, Trondheim. (Kronen Zeitung)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • A Syrian war monitor reports that Syrian security forces executed 52 Alawite men in Latakia province after clashes broke out the day prior against the new Syrian regime. (AFP via Al Arabiya) (AP)
• Islamic State insurgency in Puntland
  • Puntland counter-terrorism operations, American military intervention in Puntland
    • The United States Army stationed in Puntland maintains its operations and declare will not pull out of the region in response to double ongoing operations in the fight against ISIL in Puntland's Bari Region. (Garowe Online)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
    • Russia launches an overnight missile and drone attack across Ukraine, damaging energy and gas infrastructure. Ukraine says that it shot down 34 of 67 missiles and 100 of 194 drones. (Reuters)
  • Ukraine deploys its Dassault Mirage 2000 jets against Russian forces for the first time, with the jets intercepting several Russian cruise missiles with air-to-air missiles. (BBC News) (Politico)
• South Sudanese Civil War
  • 2025 Nasir clashes
    • A UNMISS helicopter operator and approximently 27 South Sudanese soldiers are killed after being fired on by a local militia group while evacuating Nasir, South Sudan. (Reuters)
• Somali Civil War
  • Al Shabaab militants carry out several attacks in Middle Shabelle, Hiiraan regions of Hirshabelle and Lower Shabelle region from South West State of Somalia. The group's main goal is to capture Mogadishu. (Mepa News)
  • The Federal Government of Somalia bans most weapons and armored vehicles at Mogadishu Airport following U.S. warnings of Al-Shabaab threats to Mogadishu. (Garowe Online)
  • Egyptair joins Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines in suspending flights to Mogadishu's Aden Adde airport following a U.S. warning about a potential imminent terrorist attack on the airport. (Mustaqbal Media)
• War on drugs in Ecuador
  • At least 22 people are killed after rival factions of the Los Tiguerones drug trafficking syndicate shoot at each other in Guyaquil, Ecuador. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

• Hudson's Bay, Canada's oldest department store, files for creditor protection and intends to restructure. (CBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• All trains running through the Gare du Nord railway station in Paris, France, including Eurostar trains from London and Brussels, are canceled due to the discovery of a World War II-era unexploded ordnance containing 200 kg (440 lb) of explosives near the rail tracks near the station. (The Independent) (DW)
• At least ten people are killed in floods caused by heavy rain in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. (Reuters)

Health and environment

• Stand Up for Science 2025
  • Organized demonstrations and walkouts of scientists take place across 30 cities in the United States and France in protest of the Donald Trump administration's grant budget and employment cuts to several government scientific agencies. (AP)

International relations

• Canada–Philippines relations
  • Canada and the Philippines conclude negotiations on a visiting forces agreement. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• 2025 United States federal mass layoffs
  • The Native American Rights Fund, on behalf of five Indigenous American students and three tribes, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and the Pueblo of Isleta, file a lawsuit against the United States Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) for alleged wrongful dismissals of BIE schoolteachers. (AP)
• Arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol
  • The Seoul Central District Court lifts the arrest warrant for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol after his initial detention period expired. (DW)
• Capital punishment in the United States
  • Convicted murderer Brad Sigmon is executed by firing squad at Broad River Correctional Institution in South Carolina, United States. He is the first inmate to be executed via firing squad since June 2010. (Sky News)
• Proposed secession of Republika Srpska
  • Bosnian Serb police begin removing state police from their posts in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a move aimed at implementing separatist legislation signed into law by Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik. (Reuters)
• Twelve people are injured in a mass shooting at a pub in Toronto, Canada. Three suspects are at large. (BBC News)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • At least 16 members of the security forces and 28 Assad loyalists are killed in a series of ambushes and shootouts in Latakia Governorate, Syria. (Al Arabiya) (France 24)
  • Four smuggling suspects are killed in clashes between Jordanian border forces and armed groups attempting to cross from Syria. (The New Arab)
  • Save the Children says that landmines and unexploded ordnance in Syria have killed or injured at least 188 children since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. (Al Arabiya)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian war
    • Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announces US$3.8 billion in national military funding for Ukraine in 2026, including $700 million in Dutch drone manufacturing. Norwegian and Polish leaders also announce increases in military aid for Ukraine. (ABC News)
• Rohingya genocide
  • The United Nations World Food Programme announces that it will reduce the emergency food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from US$12.50 to $6 per person. (Al Jazeera)
• Somali civil war
  • Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways temporarily suspend flights to Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, following security warnings from the United States embassy about potential terrorist attacks targeting the airport. (AeroTime) (Hiiraan Online)

Business and economy

• Second Trump tariffs
  • 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico
    • Following phone calls between United States President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump announces a pause on some tariffs on both Canada and Mexico until April 2. Sheinbaum states that Mexico will collaborate with the United States on migration and security issues, including controlling cross-border fentanyl smuggling. (ABC News) (DW) (CBC)
• 2020s European re-armament
  • Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces that Spain will accelerate defense spending to 2% of its GDP in four years. (El Mundo)
• U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded exclusively with bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases. (CNBC)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Pocheon bombing
  • Two South Korean Air Force KF-16 jets erroneously release eight MK82 bombs over home territory in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, striking a residential area and multiple homes, injuring at least 15 people, four of them seriously. (Reuters)
• At least two people are killed and 186 others are missing after four boats carrying African migrants heading towards the Arab Gulf states capsize off the coast of Yemen and Djibouti. Two Yemeni crew members are rescued by the International Organization for Migration. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• According to a report in the academic journal Science, the population of the 554 recorded species of butterflies in the U.S. have declined by 22% since 2000. (NPR)

International relations

• France–Ukraine relations
  • French defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu says France will continue sharing military intelligence to Ukraine regarding the Russian invasion. (AP)
• The United States withdraws from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, a program that helps emerging countries transition away from non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels. (DW) (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Sudanese civil war
  • The government of Sudan files a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice against the United Arab Emirates for its alleged support of the Rapid Support Forces and its complicity in genocide against the Masalit people in Darfur, Sudan. The UAE denies its involvement in Sudan and calls the lawsuit a "publicity stunt". (Middle East Eye) (Al Jazeera)
• The European Court of Justice fines Germany €34 million (US$36.7 million) for failing to implement a European Union law to protect whistleblowers by 2021. The Court also fines Czechia €2.3 million, Hungary €1.5 million, and Luxembourg and Estonia €500,000 each for the same reason. (DW)
• Six individuals, including retired general and far-right politician Radu Theodoru, are arrested on accusations of being involved in a Russian-backed coup d'état plot in Romania. (The Financial Times) (Politico)

Science and technology

• 2025 in spaceflight
  • Starship flight test 8
    • SpaceX launches its eighth test flight of the Starship launch vehicle from Starbase in Texas, United States. The first stage was caught by the launch tower despite Raptor engine failures during landing, but the second stage failed during its burn, mirroring the last flight test in January. (Reuters)
  • Intuitive Machines' space probe IM-2 Athena lands on Mons Mouton near the lunar south pole after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S., on February 27. (BBC News)
  • An Ariane 6 rocket launches French military satellite CSO-3 from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. It is the first commercial launch of the Ariane 6 expendable launch system. (AP)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Kryvyi Rih strikes
    • A Russian missile strikes a hotel in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, killing four people and injuring seven others. (Reuters)
  • United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe announces that the United States has suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
• Gaza war
  • 2025 Gaza war ceasefire
    • The United States begins direct negotiations with Hamas over the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. President of the United States Donald Trump later threatens on Truth Social and X that the people of Gaza "are dead" unless they return the hostages "immediately". (Sky News) (Al Jazeera) (NBC News)
• South Sudanese Civil War
  • 2025 Nasir clashes
    • Security forces in South Sudan arrest Puot Kang Chol, a senior member of the parliamentary opposition, minister of petroleum and mining, and army general, as well as multiple other opposition-aligned military officers. South Sudanese soldiers also surround vice president Riek Machar's house overnight before later withdrawing. (Reuters) (BBC News)
• Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus
  • Russia's Federal Security Service says that it killed four Islamic State militants in Dagestan during a counterterrorism operation. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Second Trump tariffs
  • 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico
    • United States president Donald Trump announces a one-month temporary reprieve from tariffs for American automakers after receiving complaints from the Big Three: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. (NPR)
• 2025 United States federal mass layoffs
  • The United States Department of Veteran Affairs announces it will lay off over 80,000 jobs to comply with the Trump administration's plans under the Department of Government Efficiency. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–25 Australian region cyclone season
  • Tropical Cyclone Alfred
    • Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announces the suspension of public transport services and the closure of 640 schools in South East Queensland, Australia, as Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall early Friday morning local time. (ABC News Australia)
• 2025 Chugach Mountains avalanche
  • Three skiers are suspected to be killed after an avalanche trapped them under more than 30 feet of snow in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, United States. (CTV News) (USA Today)
• One person is killed and sixteen others are injured when a bridge collapses on the E42 highway in La Louvière, Hainaut Province, Belgium. (Reuters) (RTBF)

International relations

• Somalia–United States relations
  • The U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu warns of imminent attack threats in Somalia, including at Aden Adde International Airport. Embassy personnel movements are suspended. (ABC News)
  • Somali military officials confirm that the Trump administration has halted all funding for Somalia's Danab Brigade special forces and cut billions in USAID grants to the country. (Hiiraan Online)
• Russia–United States relations
  • The United States Department of Defense denies previous media reports that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had ordered a halt to offensive cyber operations and information operations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command. (The Hill)

Law and crime

• 2025 California wildfires
  • January 2025 Southern California wildfires
    • In the U.S., Los Angeles County files a lawsuit against Southern California Edison, the electric utility company servicing most of Southern California, and alleges that the company's power system started the Eaton Fire, seeking to recover costs and damages sustained from the fire that damaged over 9,400 buildings and killed 17 people. (AP)
• Mexican drug war
  • Mexican law enforcement announces they have seized 275,000 pills of fentanyl stored in boxes of nopales in Sonora. A man is arrested in connection to the seizure. (AP)
• The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District Court of Vermont indicts and charges 25 Canadians for conspiracy to defraud elderly people in the United States out of US$21 million and charges five of those 25 with conspiracy to commit money laundering. (NPR)