Portal:Current events/2018 March 5
March 5, 2018 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Tongo Tongo ambush
- ISIL releases purported footage of the October 2017 attack on American special forces in Tongo Tongo, Niger. (BBC)
- Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
- Seven people are killed in an attack on the city of Beni, North Kivu, DR Congo by the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group, which crossed the border from Uganda. (Xinhua News Agency)
Health and environment
- Global warming
- NIWA declares that the previous summer, which had an average temperature of 18.8 °C (65.8 °F), was the hottest in New Zealand history. (The New Zealand Herald)
- Children's rights
- A UNICEF report says that 20% of girls under 18 are married, compared to 25% ten years ago, with an estimated 25 million marriages having been prevented in the past decade. (BBC) (Voice of America)
International relations
- Egypt–Saudi Arabia relations
- United States–Vietnam relations
- The USS Carl Vinson enters Vietnam's Da Nang Port, becoming the first U.S. aircraft carrier to visit a Vietnamese port since the Vietnam War in 1975. The visit comes amid tensions in the region with China. (NPR)
Law and crime
- Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
- Former Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are taken to a hospital in critical condition after being exposed to an unknown substance in Wiltshire, United Kingdom. Skripal was granted refugee status in the UK following a "spy swap" deal between the UK and Russia in 2010. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- Italian general election, 2018
- Italy faces a period of political instability after the results of the general election are almost complete. The populist Five Star Movement (M5S) is projected to be the largest party in the Italian Parliament with 32% of the vote. The party has long stated its hostility towards forming a coalition government. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Former Prime Minister and candidate to the elections, Matteo Renzi, resigns as Secretary of the Democratic Party. (Politico)
- 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
- The Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, proposes Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol as a candidate for President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, but he has been preventively jailed since 16 October 2017, accused of sedition. This happens after Carles Puigdemont resigns as a possible candidate, who, if elected, would have been a symbolic president with a symbolic government in Brussels. The candidacy of Sànchez also reportedly lacks one seat for a majority. (El País)
- Politics of New Zealand
- National Party politician and former Minister of Finance Steven Joyce resigns from parliament. (Newshub) (The New Zealand Herald)
- Politics of the United States
- Republicans raise concern about U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs on metal imports. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says he is "extremely worried" about the impact of a trade war, adding that it could "undermine economic gains". (BBC via RNZ) (Vox)
- Fighting breaks out between anti-fascist protesters and supporters of white nationalist Richard B. Spencer when he gives a speech at Michigan State University, before they are separated by police. (Chicago Tribune)
- Politics of China
- China's "two sessions" - the annual meetings of the national legislature and the top political advisory body - opens in Beijing; major announcements include an 8% rise in its military budget and a GDP growth target of around 6.5%. (BBC 1), (BBC 2), (Reuters)
Science and technology
- Cyberethics
- Facebook apologizes after including a question in a user survey on the acceptability of soliciting sexual pictures from minors on its platform. (The Verge)
- Maritime archaeology
- A search team led by Paul Allen's company Vulcan, Inc., using his research vessel Petrel, announces the discovery of the wreck of the USS Lexington (CV-2) about 800 kilometres (500 mi) off the eastern coast of Australia at a depth of around 3 km (2 mi). The aircraft carrier was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea during World War II. (United States Naval Institute) (BBC)