March 31

Disasters and accidents

A large tornado causes major damage to the Little Rock, Arkansas metropolitan area, killing at least three people and injuring 24 others.

Tornado outbreak of March 31, 2023 Storm Prediction Center List of Storm Prediction Center high risk days Tornado outbreak sequence of March 24–28, 2021 Mississippi River United States

Source: KTHV-TV

At least one person is killed and 28 others are injured when a tornado causes the roof of a theater in Belvidere, Illinois, to collapse during a concert.

Tornado outbreak of March 31, 2023 Storm Prediction Center List of Storm Prediction Center high risk days Tornado outbreak sequence of March 24–28, 2021 Mississippi River United States

Source: WIFR-TV

At least 35 people are killed and 18 others are injured when a stepwell collapses during prayers at a Hindu temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Indore stepwell collapse

Source: BBC News

Eleven people are killed when hundreds of people panic and started pushing each other to collect food outside a factory in Karachi, Pakistan.

Source: Al Jazeera

Four people are killed by avalanches in Northern Norway.

Source: Barron's

More than a dozen people are injured in separate incidents after two trains derail during a storm in Switzerland.

Source: AP

Science and technology

Italy's Data Protection Authority blocks ChatGPT for allegedly breaching data protection rules and failing to verify that its users are at least 13 years old.

Censorship in Italy

Source: Reuters

Armed conflicts and attacks

Pirates kidnap some crew members of a Danish-owned ship which they later abandon near São Tomé and Príncipe.

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea

Source: Al Arabiya

March 30

Disasters and accidents

Two Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters collide over Fort Campbell in Kentucky, United States, killing all nine people on board.

2023 Fort Campbell mid-air collision

Source: BBC News

A collision between a Pwani University bus and a minibus in Naivasha, Kenya, kills 14 people.

Source: AA

Fourteen people are killed and dozens of others are injured by a mine collapses in Northern state, Sudan.

Source: Reuters

International relations

The Turkish Parliament unanimously votes to accept Finland's NATO application, becoming the last member to do so.

Enlargement of NATO Finland–NATO relations Finland–Turkey relations

Source: Al Jazeera

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules that the United States violated its 1955 friendship treaty with Iran when it allowed its domestic courts to freeze assets held by Iranian companies, but said that the ICJ does not have jurisdiction over the US$1.75 billion worth of frozen assets held by the Central Bank of Iran. Both countries claimed victory in the ruling.

Iran–United States relations

Source: Reuters

The Vatican officially repudiates the discovery doctrine, writing that the 15th-century papal bulls which promoted it were "manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesiastical authorities".

European colonization of the Americas

Source: Al Jazeera

Lawmakers from the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria walkout from the lower house of Austria's parliament during a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a protest against the violation of Austria's national principle of neutrality.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Source: Al Jazeera

Law and crime

A grand jury in Manhattan, New York City, indicts former U.S. President Donald Trump regarding a hush payment he made while he was a candidate in 2016.

Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal Indictment of Donald Trump

Source: NBC News

The Lahore High Court rules that Pakistan's sedition law is unconstitutional, on the grounds that the law violates free speech.

Source: Al Jazeera

Armed conflicts and attacks

Eight people are killed by a bombing in a village in Chin State, Myanmar.

Internal conflict in Myanmar

Source: AP

Four people are killed and six others are injured by two roadside bombings targeting police in Lakki Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Source: AP

Health and environment

New Zealand records its first case of rabies in a human. A patient who had been in hospital since early March died from the disease, which did not spread further.

Source: News24

March 29

Health and environment

Chile detects its first case of H5N1 bird flu in a 53-year-old man.

2020–2023 H5N1 outbreak

Source: Reuters

Politics and elections

The U.S. Senate passes a bill to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs) that allowed the past wars in Iraq, with a bipartisan majority of 66–30 votes.

Repeal of the 2002 AUMF

Source: Reuters

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reshuffles the government's cabinet amid an increase in prices and shortages of food due to the severe economic situation the country, which was worsened by the recent earthquake.

Source: The Washington Post

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announces that he has named his son Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan as the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince. City Football Group owner Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is also appointed as Vice President.

Source: Al Jazeera

International relations

Brazil and China sign an agreement to trade in their own currencies, ceasing the usage of the United States dollar as an intermediary.

Brazil–China relations

Source: The Straits Times

Burkina Faso formally resumes diplomatic relations with North Korea after suspending them in 2017 over the country's nuclear weapons program.

Burkina Faso–North Korea relations

Source: Andolu Agency

Armed conflicts and attacks

ELN rebels launch homemade mortar shells at a military base in El Carmen, Norte de Santander, Colombia, killing nine soldiers and injuring nine others.

Colombian conflict

Source: ABC News

Sports

FIFA strips Indonesia of hosting this year's FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament after the Governor of Bali I Wayan Koster refused to host the Israel national under-19 football team.

2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup

Source: The Guardian

In basketball, the Sacramento Kings make the NBA playoffs for the first time since 2006, ending their 17-year playoff drought, the longest in NBA history.

2022–23 NBA season

Source: KTXL

Law and crime

Two people are shot dead in "targeted attacks" in Bluntisham and Sutton-in-the-Isle, Cambridgeshire. Three suspects are later arrested by Cambridgeshire Constabulary on suspicion of murder.

Crime in the United Kingdom

Source: BBC News

Myanmar's ruling military junta dissolves the National League for Democracy, the political party of former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Source: NHK

Prime Minister of Fiji Sitiveni Rabuka announces that the Media Industry Development Authority will repeal a controversial 2010 law which strictly controlled media in the country.

Source: RNZ

Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter at , was arrested in Yekaterinburg by Russia's Federal Security Service under charges of espionage.

Source: RFE/RL

Disasters and accidents

Thirty-one people are killed and more than 200 others are rescued after a sea vessel catches fire near an island in Basilan, Philippines. At least seven are still missing.

Source: AP

Four people are killed after a deadly storm passes through Syria.

Source: AP