Portal:Current events/2019 March 30
March 30, 2019 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan
- First Vice President of Afghanistan Abdul Rashid Dostum survives an assassination attempt on his convoy while traveling to the Jowzjan Province in Afghanistan. The attack killed one bodyguard and injured two others. (Reuters) (The Jerusalem Post)
Arts and culture
- Pope Francis and Moroccan King Mohammed VI call for the protection of Jerusalem's multi-religious character, saying the city's sacred sites must be accessible to worshipers of all faiths. (Reuters)
- Brunei defends its decision, despite global criticism, to implement laws that can punish homosexuality, adultery and rape with the death penalty, including by stoning, and theft with amputation, as of Wednesday, April 3, 2019. (Reuters)
- Pope Francis says the plight of migrants was "a wound that cries out to heaven". He added, "The issue of migration will never be resolved by raising barriers, fomenting fear of others or denying assistance to those who legitimately aspire to a better life for themselves and their families". (Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
- Flash floods kill at least 32 people in western Afghanistan, destroying homes and sweeping through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families. (Reuters)
- 2019 Midwestern U.S. floods
- This month, at least 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) of U.S. farmland were flooded from the early March blizzard storm that affected nine major grain-producing states, according to Israel Cleantech Ventures' Gro Intelligence. (Reuters)
- Earthquakes in 2019
- A 5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes northwest of Athens, Greece, near the seaside town of Itea at 1046 GMT. (The Washington Post)
- A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits Papua New Guinea's New Britain island, east of Kandrian at 1120 GMT. (Reuters)
International relations
- Northern Triangle of Central America
- President Donald Trump directs the United States Department of State to cease aid for El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. This apparently reverses the regional compact agreement Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen signed on Wednesday with these countries and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's congressional testimony of the same day. (The Hill) (Reuters) (ABC News) (CNN)
- Tunisian authorities acknowledge they are detaining Tunisian national Moncef Kartas, a UN Libyan arms embargo monitor who has diplomatic immunity. Tunisia says Mr. Kartas had traveled in a private capacity on his Tunisian passport. The United Nations has called for his release and for Tunisia to clarify the reason for his arrest. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
Law and crime
- Terrorism in Egypt
- Thirty men are sentenced in Egypt for planning an attack on a church in Alexandria, with eighteen men receiving life sentences and twelve men receiving between ten to fifteen years in prison. (The New York Times)
- Offshore oil and gas in the United States, Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
- Federal Judge Sharon L. Gleason for the District of Alaska rules that President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order allowing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and parts of the North Atlantic coast exceeds presidential power because it requires congressional action. (BBC News) (The New York Times)
Politics and elections
- 2019 Slovak presidential election
- Slovak citizens vote for a new president, with front runner Zuzana Čaputová facing Maroš Šefčovič. (BBC News)
- 2018 Gaza border protests, Gaza–Israel conflict
- On the one year anniversary of the Gaza border protests, tens of thousands of Palestinians gather on the border to commemorate the weekly gatherings. Four Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 300 injured according to Palestinian health officials. (BBC News) (Sky News)
- Algerian protests
- Algerian Army Chief of Staff Ahmed Gaid Salah renews his call for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, be declared unfit for office. He also told opponents not to seek to undermine the military. (Reuters)