Portal:Current events/2021 March 3

March 3, 2021 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2021 Myanmar protests
- Thirty-eight protesters are shot dead and 30 more are wounded by the military and police as protests against the February 1 coup continue across the country. A meeting of ASEAN nations called for restraint of the security forces but failed to unanimously call for the release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (BBC News)
Vetlanda stabbing attack
- Seven people are wounded, three of them critically, after being attacked by a man with an axe in Vetlanda, Sweden. Authorities are treating the incident as a terrorist attack. The perpetrator, a man in his 20s, is shot by police and arrested. (Euronews)
Colombian conflict
- Ten FARC dissidents are killed and three others are wounded when the Colombian Army bombs a base housing them in Calamar, Guaviare. (Al Jazeera)
Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
- Suspected ADF militants kill eight civilians during a shooting attack at a market in Mambelenga, Democratic Republic of the Congo. ADF attacks have increased, with more than 140 people killed by the group since the beginning of the year. (Reuters)
Second Libyan Civil War
- The bodies of four Filipinos, an Austrian, and a Czech, all oil workers who were kidnapped and then murdered in Libya in 2015 by Islamic State terrorists, are found at a cemetery. (Arab News)
Aftermath of the Zamfara kidnapping
- Three people are shot after armed forces open fire at a reunion of students, kidnapped in Zamfara a week ago, and their parents in Jangebe, Nigeria, while the parents protest the kidnapping. (BBC News)
Ten rockets hit the al Asad Airbase hosting US-led coalition forces in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. No one is directly killed or wounded by the strikes, but an American civilian contractor dies of a heart attack during the impact. (BBC News)
Tigray War
- Following pressure from the international community, Ethiopia releases three reporters working for the BBC, AFP, and Financial Times, alongside two local news reporters and two translators, without charge. No reason was given for their arrest, and it is still unclear if four other journalists have been released. (BBC News)

Businesses and economy

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, Economy of Australia
  - The Australian GDP contracted 1.1% in 2020 amid restrictions related to the pandemic. (The Guardian)
- Economy of Brazil
  - The Brazilian GDP contracts 4.1% in 2020 amid disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the country's third worst economic performance after 1981 (-4.25%) and 1990 (-4.35%). (France 24)
2021 United Kingdom budget
- Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak delivers the 2021 Spring budget to the House of Commons, announcing the government's tax and spending plans for the year ahead, as well as further COVID-19 support measures, including extending the furlough until the end of September and increasing the minimum wage beginning in April. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

Ten people are killed in a plane crash in Jonglei State, South Sudan. (Al Jazeera)
A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes central Greece and is felt in neighbouring countries. Most of the damage is reported in the Greek region of Thessaly. (AP News)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - COVID-19 vaccination in India
      - President Ram Nath Kovind receives his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. (Hindustan Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan
    - Taiwan receives their first shipment of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative. (Focus Taiwan)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Uzbekistan
    - Uzbekistan surpasses 80,000 cases of COVID-19. (AKIPress)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Andorra
    - The government announces that they will receive 3,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from France. (Diari d'Andorra)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark, Lineage P.1
    - Denmark reports its first case of the Lineage P.1 variant first detected in Brazil in a person from the Capital Region. (CPH Post)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Montenegro
    - Montenegro receives 30,000 doses of the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine donated by China. (See News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Poland
    - Polish biotechnology company Mabion S.A. signs an agreement with Novavax to begin commercial-scale production trials for Novavax's future vaccine. (Bloomberg)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia
    - Slovakia imposes an overnight curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time, in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The curfew will last until at least March 19. (MedicalXpress)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Spain
    - The Government of Catalonia announces that 79,000 vaccinated persons were mistakenly recorded as COVID-19 cases. (El Periódico)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Rwanda
    - Rwanda receives its first shipment of 240,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India through the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative. (New Times)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Senegal
    - Senegal receives 324,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Sudan
    - Sudan receives over 800,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative, becoming the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to receive it. (UNICEF)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey, variants of SARS-CoV-2
    - New Jersey reports its first two cases of the Lineage P.1 variant in Hudson County and 34 cases of a New York variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the northeastern part of the state. (NJ.com)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
  - São Paulo governor João Doria announces that the entire state will revert to "red phase" restrictions, which means that all malls and non-essential businesses will be closed for two weeks beginning March 6 in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. (The Rio Times)
China confirms an outbreak of African swine fever in domestic pigs being illegally transported through Funing County in Yunnan province. (The Straits Times)

Law and crime

2021 Australian Parliament rape scandals
- Attorney-General, House Leader, and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter comes forward as the minister accused of raping a woman in 1988, who has since committed suicide, in an anonymous letter sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week. Porter denies the allegations and announces that he will be taking a mental health leave. (ABC Australia)
2018 Toronto van attack
- Alek Minassian is found guilty of murdering 10 people, and attempting to kill 16 more, in a vehicle-ramming attack. (Reuters)
Aftermath of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol
- The United States Capitol Police announces that it has obtained intelligence on a "possible plot" by an identified militia group to breach the United States Capitol building on the following day, March 4, which has recently been the subject of QAnon conspiracy theories. In response to the intelligence, the United States House of Representatives announces that it has ended its work for the week. (AP)
A pipe bomb explodes outside a COVID-19 test centre in Bovenkarspel, Netherlands, causing minor damage. No one is wounded in the explosion. (Al Jazeera)
France bans far-right Identitarian nationalist group Génération Identitaire. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin says the movement incites "discrimination, hatred and violence". (France 24)
German intelligence agency Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution formally places far-right oppositional party Alternative for Germany under surveillance, accusing it of aiming to subvert the constitution. It is the first time that a major political party has been placed under surveillance since the end of World War II. (The New York Times)

Politics and elections

Freedom House, in its annual Freedom in the World report, downgrades India from "free" to "partially free". The report cites the rise in mob violence against Muslims, increased government interference in the judiciary, increased intimidation against journalists and activists, and the government's heavy-handed approach to COVID-19 lockdowns that left millions of migrants stranded as the main reasons for the downgrade. (France 24) (BBC News)
Hungary's ruling party Fidesz withdraws from the conservative European Parliament bloc European People's Party (EPP), after the EPP changed its rules to allow it to expel a party's entire delegation. Fidesz's membership had been suspended since 2019 after it accused then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and philanthropist George Soros of conspiring to "flood" Europe with migrants during a national campaign. (DW)