Portal:Current events/2016 March 26

March 26, 2016 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Palmyra offensive (March 2016)
  - Syrian troops advance into Palmyra on multiple fronts with the help of Russian airstrikes and take several neighbourhoods, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. However they were unable to encircle the city. (BBC)

Arts and culture

British rock band The Rolling Stones performs in Havana, Cuba, playing an open-air free concert in the country, in what has been called a "historic moment." Western music used to be banned in Cuba as being "ideologically divergent." (The Guardian)
Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro announces the film, Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, will not be screened at the 2016 Festival as previously announced. “Grace [Hightower] and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined," Mr. De Niro said. "... (our) Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community ... do not believe (this film) contributes to or furthers the discussion (about autism) I hoped for," the actor/producer said. (USA Today)

Business and economics

British newspaper The Independent publishes its last print edition. (Sky News)
Reuters reports, based on an unnamed "person familiar with the situation," that Microsoft executives are lining up financing for a possible acquisition of troubled dotcom pioneer Yahoo. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

All four on board are killed when a medical services helicopter, transporting a patient from a car accident, crashes in a wooded area in Coffee County, Alabama. The helicopter pilot, a nurse, a medic, and the patient were killed. (Reuters)

Health and medicine

Zika virus outbreak
- Chile confirms its first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. The case involves a 46-year-old woman whose partner was infected while in Haiti. (Reuters)
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises women exposed to Zika, which means traveling to South American (or other) countries where the disease is rampant, have protected sex for at least two months before attempting to get pregnant. Men exposed should not have unprotected sex for at least six months. (UPI)
Flint water crisis
- The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency extends the federal disaster declaration for Flint, Michigan, so water deliveries can continue through mid-August. (UPI)
A study, published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, finds high school athletes who focus on a single sport may be at increased risk for knee and hip injuries. (UPI)

International relations

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford makes a proposal to President Barack Obama to increase the number of American troops in Iraq, so as to help the Iraqi Army with advisors closer to the front lines and to recapture Mosul, which fell to ISIL in June 2014. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Politics and elections