Friday,  March 31st, 2023 

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. (NBC News) 

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

Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter at The Wall Street Journal, is arrested in Yekaterinburg by Russia’s Federal Security Service under charges of espionage. (RFE/RL) 

The Turkish Parliament unanimously votes to accept Finland’s NATO application, becoming the last member to do so. (Al Jazeera) 

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. (AP via The Washington Post) 

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

The Storm Prediction Center issues a high risk convective outlook, the first high risk issued in over two years, ahead of an expected severe weather outbreak across the Mississippi River valley in the United States. (Storm Prediction Center) 

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

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. (WIFR-TV) 

Thirty-six people are killed and 17 others are injured when a stepwell collapses during prayers at a Hindu temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. (The Guardian) 

Four people are killed by avalanches in Northern Norway. (AFP via Barron’s) 

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

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. (Reuters) 

Thursday, March 30th, 2023 

The Scottish Parliament votes to elect Scottish National Party leader Humza Yousaf as First Minister of Scotland, becoming the first non-white and first Muslim to hold the position since it was created in 1999. (STV) 

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. (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”. (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. (Al Jazeera) 

The Lahore High Court rules that Pakistan’s sedition law is unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violates free speech. (Al Jazeera) 

 

Thursday, March 30th, 2023 

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. (Reuters) 

Ukrainian air defences shoot down a Russian Air Force Su-24M jet with a surface-to-air missile near Bakhmut. (Ukrinform) 

Two Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters collide mid-air over Fort Campbell in Kentucky. Up to 9 people may have been killed. (BBC) 

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. (Al Jazeera) 

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

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

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. (BBC News) 

New Zealand confirms its first-ever case of rabies in humans in the country. The patient, who was in hospital since early March, died from the disease, though authorities dismissed any further risks to the population. (News24) 

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. (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. (USA Today) 

The End