Portal:Current events

• Boko Haram insurgency
  • In the town of Dangdala, Chad, 23 National Army soldiers are killed in an overnight attack by Boko Haram militants. (Reuters)

• The giant money manager BlackRock says that it is buying eFront, the leading provider of management software for alternative investments, for $1.3 billion in cash. (MarketWatch)

• Two buses collide head-on in a village near Kintampo, Ghana, killing at least 50 people. Almost all casualties are a result of a fire on one of the buses. (BBC) (GhanaWeb)
• 2018–19 Australian region cyclone season
  • Thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes as two potentially devastating cyclones are expected to hit the country this weekend. Cyclone Trevor will make landfall in the north near Numbulwar and Borroloola, while Cyclone Veronica, a Category 4 storm, will strike Pilbara on Australia's west coast. (BBC)
• 2019 Yancheng chemical plant explosion
  • Officials report the death toll is now 62 from Thursday's chemical plant explosion in Chenjiagang Industrial Park in northeastern Jiangsu province with 94 others seriously injured and 28 people still missing. (BBC) (The Straits Times)

• North Korea–United States relations, China–United States relations
  • U.S. President Donald Trump removes sanctions targeting North Korea that were imposed Thursday by the Treasury Department on two Chinese companies. (Fox News)
• The Inter-American Development Bank, Latin America’s largest development lender, cancels its scheduled annual 48-country meeting next week following China's refusal to allow a representative of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to attend what would have been the first IADB meeting held in China. (Reuters)

• Zaoyang car attack
  • A man is shot dead in the city of Zaoyang, China, after ramming his vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians, killing at least six and injuring seven others. (MSN)
• Special Counsel investigation, Links between Trump associates and Russian officials
  • Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivers a report on his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 elections to Attorney General William Barr, who is expected to summarize the findings for congressional lawmakers in the coming days. (CBS News) (ABC News) (NBC News) (CNN)

• 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis
  • More than 24 hours after the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) detain attorney Roberto Marrero—Juan Guaidó's chief of staff—there has been no contact with him and lawmakers are denied access to him at El Helicoide. (Tal Cual Digital)
  • Just hours after Marrero's detention, the United States Department of the Treasury responds by placing sanctions on BANDES, the Venezuelan Economic and Social Development Bank and four of its subsidiaries. (France 24)
• 2019 Algerian protests
  • Hundreds of thousands of Algerians again rally, this week in heavy rain and cold weather, against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika demanding his immediate resignation. Bouteflika is fighting for his political survival in the face of unrelenting protests and the desertion of long-time allies. (Reuters)

• The English Football League is to deduct Birmingham City F.C. nine points for breaching profitability and sustainability rules. Birmingham City are the first club to be deducted points since the EFL introduced its new profitability and sustainability regulations in 2016. (BBC)

• War in Afghanistan
  • Six people are killed and 23 others wounded in three bomb explosions during Nowruz celebration in Kabul, Afghanistan. (BBC)

• 2019 Mosul ferry sinking
  • At least 94 people are killed when a Tigris River ferry, carrying families celebrating the Nowruz new year holiday, sinks near the Iraqi city of Mosul. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• 2019 Yancheng chemical plant explosion
  • A fire and explosion at a chemical plant that makes fertilizer in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China, kills 47 people and injures 640 others. (BBC)

• Israel–United States relations
  • U.S. President Donald Trump announces his intentions to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a move welcomed by Israel. (CNN)
  • Syria has not publicly responded to President Trump's decision. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the Arab League, declares this action irrelevant and illegal. (The Times of Israel) (Ynet)
• North Korea–United States relations, China–United States relations
  • The United States sanctions two Chinese shipping companies suspected of helping North Korea evade sanctions. These are the first actions targeting Pyongyang since last month's Hanoi Summit ended without agreement. (Time)

• Operation Car Wash
  • Former President of Brazil Michel Temer is arrested as part of an investigation into corruption. Former Governor of Rio de Janeiro Moreira Franco is also arrested. (BBC)
• October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts
  • Cesar Sayoc pleads guilty to 65 felony counts, including using weapons of mass destruction, in last year's attempted mail bomb domestic terrorist attacks. (CNN)

• Brexit negotiations
  • The European Union confirms that UK Prime Minister Theresa May's requested short extension date of 30 June is too late due to pending EU elections. After lengthy discussions, EU leaders agree that if the Prime Minister's deal is passed next week a short extension until 22 May is available to pass the necessary legislation. If that deal is not passed, the UK is given until 12 April to define whether it will participate in EU elections. (The Guardian), (The Guardian₂)
• Gun laws in New Zealand
  • New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces a ban of all military-style semi-automatic weapons, assault rifles and high-capacity magazines following the Christchurch mosque shootings. An amnesty is in effect for people who return their guns. (CNN)
• 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis
  • Venezuela's intelligence unit, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), detains attorney Roberto Marrero, Juan Guaidó's chief of staff. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio says this is "a significant escalation of repression and could signal the beginning of efforts to arrest Guaidó himself". (Haaretz), (Infobae)

• Ichiro Suzuki retires from baseball after 28 years following the Seattle Mariners/Oakland Athletics game in the Tokyo Dome. (ESPN)

• Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney
  • The Walt Disney Company completes its $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox. (The Hollywood Reporter)
• European Union competition law
  • European Union regulators fine Google €1.49 billion for bundling Google Custom Search with its AdSense program which the regulators find as illegal under EU antitrust rules. (Ars Technica)

• The European People's Party votes to suspend Hungary's ruling Fidesz party citing its anti-immigration stance, and personal attacks on Jean-Claude Juncker and George Soros. Hungarian Prime Minister and Fidesz leader Viktor Orbán had threatened to pull out of the EPP if it was suspended. (BBC)

• Politics of Kazakhstan
  • The second President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is sworn into office, after the resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev. (The National)
  • Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, is renamed Nursultan, after the former President. (BBC)
• Brexit negotiations
  • UK Prime Minister Theresa May formally writes a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk requesting for a delay of Brexit until June 30. (The Guardian)

• Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels finalize a record-breaking 12-year, $430 million contract, the largest in the history of Major League Baseball. (Sporting News)

• Syrian Civil War, International military intervention against ISIL, Battle of Baghuz Fawqani
  • Syrian Democratic Forces declares progress in Syria after an ISIL camp on the outskirts of Baghuz is captured. (NPR) (Fox News)

• The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters awards this year's Abel Prize to Karen Uhlenbeck for "her pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems." Uhlenbeck is the first woman to win this prize. (The New York Times via MSN.com)

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves Sage Therapeutics' Zulresso, also known as allopregnanolone or brexanolone, for treatment of postpartum depression. It is the first drug approved to specifically target the disease, which is the most common complication of childbirth. (STAT News)(US FDA)

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • North Korea and South Korea express interest in jointly hosting the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. (Reuters UK) (Yonhap News Agency)

• The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, announces his resignation after 29 years in office. (Reuters)
• 2019 Guatemalan general election
  • A judge issues an arrest warrant against presidential candidate Thelma Aldana; however, as the Supreme Electoral Tribunal registered Aldana as a presidential candidate, she enjoys immunity and can not be arrested. (Arab News)

• 2019 Utrecht shooting
  • A man opens fire in a tram in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands, killing three people and injuring nine others, before fleeing. Terrorism is suspected by authorities. A 37-year-old Turkish man is arrested. (Fox News)
• Christchurch mosque shootings, Internet censorship in Australia
  • Telstra blocks access to several websites in Australia for hosting footage of the recent mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, which were livestreamed on Facebook, including LiveLeak, 4chan, 8chan, Voat and the blog Zero Hedge. Optus and Vodafone took similar actions but did not list which sites had been blocked. (9news)

• Kamchatka superbolide
  • NASA reports that it has detected a huge meteor explosion in Earth's atmosphere on December 18, 2018, above Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The explosion went largely unnoticed due to its location. The explosion, which was ten times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, was the second largest of its kind in 30 years. (BBC)

• At least 73 people have been killed in flash floods in the province of Papua, Indonesia. (BBC)
• President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi suggests the death toll of Cyclone Idai could reach over one thousand. The current official toll stands at 84. (BBC)

• 2019 Slovak presidential election
  • Progressive Slovakia candidate Zuzana Čaputová, who ran on an anti-corruption campaign against the backdrop of Ján Kuciak's murder, wins the first round of Slovakia's presidential election with 40.5% of the vote while the ruling Direction – Social Democracy Party's candidate Maroš Šefčovič receives 18.6% of the vote. As no candidate reached 50%+1 votes in the first round, Čaputová and Šefčovič will take part in a second round on March 30, 2019. The ruling Direction – Social Democracy Party suffers its worst result since its founding in 1999. (Reuters) (The Guardian) (BBC) (Slovakia's Election Commission)
• 2020 United States presidential election, 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
  • Kirsten Gillibrand 2020 presidential campaign
    • U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York formally announces she is officially running for the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 election. (The New York Times)