Portal Current events 2021 March 28

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • 2021 Afghanistan attacks
    • Two guards are killed at a water dam near the Pashtun Kot, Faryab, by the Taliban. (Hindustan Times)
    • Over 20 civilians are killed in an operation launched by Afghan security forces against the Taliban. (Anadolu Agency)
    • Three police officers are killed in a roadside bomb blast in Laghman. (Xinhuanet)
    • Five pro-government militia men are killed in an overnight attack in the Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. (The News International)
• Terrorism in Indonesia
  • 2021 Makassar cathedral bombing
    • Twenty people are wounded in a double suicide bombing outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. (CNA)
• 2021 Myanmar protests
  • Myanmar's security forces open fire on a funeral being held for a person killed in Yangon, with no casualties reported. The Kachin Independence Army also attacks a police station, prompting the military to conduct airstrikes. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Tencent Music announces that, starting tomorrow, it will repurchase up to US$1 billion of its own stock over the next year in response to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tightening its auditing standards for foreign firms listed on American stock exchanges. (Reuters)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in India
      • COVID-19 pandemic in Maharashtra
        • Maharashtra reports a record 40,414 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours despite a nightly curfew, thereby bringing the total of confirmed cases to 2.71 million. (Hindustan Times)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Mongolia
      • Mongolia surpasses 7,000 cases of COVID-19. (Marketwatch)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
      • The National Command and Operation Centre announces an immediate ban on all indoor and outdoor gatherings across Pakistan as well as weddings beginning April 5 due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. (Tribune)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia
      • North Macedonia receives their first shipment of 24,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative. (UNICEF)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia
      • Prime Minister Janez Jansa announces a circuit-breaker lockdown from April 1 to 12, which will close all non-essential businesses and in-person cultural and religious venues, ban gatherings of more than 10 people, and shift schools to remote learning. (STA)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
      • COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom
        • The number of people who have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United Kingdom surpasses 30 million. (Sky News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Chile
    • A lockdown begins across the entirety of Chile, despite its successful vaccination programme, as the hospital occupancy rate reaches 95%. (The Guardian)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico
    • Mexico publishes revised figures, indicating that the number of deaths caused by COVID-19 is 60% higher than previously reported. The revised total is 321,000, thereby making it the country with the world's second-highest number of deaths. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera)

Politics and elections

• 2019–2022 Sudanese transition to democracy
  • The Sudanese transitional government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North sign an agreement in the South Sudanese capital of Juba, holding that the new government will maintain the separation of church and state and uphold the right to worship for all religions. (VOA)
• Janikhel incident
  • Thousands of protesters in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province break through police barricades and attempt to march to Bannu, and eventually reach Islamabad, in order to demand a government probe into the deaths of four youths near Janikhel. The protesters allege that the youths were tortured and killed by security forces. (Reuters)
• Dianne Feinstein becomes the longest serving U.S. Senator from California, surpassing Hiram Johnson. (Los Angeles Times)