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March 30, 2021 (Tuesday)
3.3 minutes to read
Armed conflicts and attacks
A report by the United Nations mission in Mali concludes that an airstrike conducted by France in Mopti on January 3 killed 19 civilians at a wedding. The French military maintains that it had killed rebel fighters identified by aerial surveillance, and denies that a wedding had taken place in Bounti.
A 65-year-old woman from the Philippines is critically wounded after being assaulted by a man during a racist attack in New York City. The perpetrator, a man in his 30s who was previously in prison for murdering his mother, is charged with hate crime assault.
Following the fall of Palma to Islamist militants, Portugal announces it will be deploying 60 special forces troops to Mozambique in the coming weeks to train local forces amid an intensifying insurgency.
Business and economy
President Joe Biden signs the PPP Extension Act of 2021, a bill that would extend the Paycheck Protection Program deadline from March 31 to May 31.
Health and environment
Prime Minister Mario Draghi and his wife Maria Serenella Cappello receive their first doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine.
Trials for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine show that it is 90% effective against COVID-19 and the Lineage B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The Government of Italy will impose a mandatory five-day quarantine for all travelers from other European Union member states until April 6. These travelers must also take a COVID-19 test at the end of the quarantine period. The only exceptions are for reasons of "proven necessity and urgency".
German health authorities suspend the use of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine in people under the age of 60 after new data showing a rise in unusual blood clots in the head was released.
Brazil's health regulator Anvisa said Bharat Biotech's Covaxin did not meet its manufacturing standards. The Brazilian government previously signed a contract to buy 20 million doses. Bharat said in a statement that they would appeal the decision.
Papua New Guinea begins a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 using the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine supplied from Australia. Prime Minister James Marape is the first person to receive a dose of the vaccine.
Law and crime
An investigation is opened into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–FL) over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and violated federal sex trafficking laws by allegedly paying her to travel with him. Gaetz denied the allegations.
Politics and elections
China's National People's Congress Standing Committee members vote in favor of amendments of the Hong Kong Basic Law Annex I and II to overhaul the electoral system. The amendments are widely seen as a move to further reduce the influence of the opposition pro-democracy camp in the wake of the widespread anti-government protests of 2019 and the electoral landslide of the 2019 District Council election.
In a meeting with recently-appointed Defence Minister Walter Souza Braga Netto in the early hours of the day, the commanders of all three branches of the Brazilian Armed Forces – General Edson Leal Pujol (Army), Admiral Ilques Barbosa Junior (Navy), and Brigadier Antonio Carlos Moretti Bermudez (Air Force) – announce their intention to resign from their posts as soon as new successors are found. The collective resignation announcement comes less than a day after the dismissal of former Defence Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva and is allegedly a move to signal the Armed Forces' opposition to any military interference in politics.
Sports
In college basketball, the UCLA Bruins advance to the Final Four as an 11th seed after defeating the Michigan Wolverines, becoming the fifth team to do so after LSU in 1986, George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011, and Loyola–Chicago in 2018. They will also become the second team to reach the Final Four after starting in the First Four since the 2011 VCU Rams. They will play the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who defeated the USC Trojans.
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