current Events/2022 March 31

• Russo-Ukrainian War
  • 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Battle of Chernobyl
      • Energoatom confirms that the Russian forces who occupied the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl have left the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. (Ukrinform)
      • The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Russian forces have handed over control of the former nuclear power plant back to Ukraine. Russian troops also withdraw from the city of Slavutych, returning to Belarus. (CNBC)
    • Siege of Mariupol
      • Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says that Ukraine has sent buses to Mariupol in an effort to evacuate citizens from the city. (BBC News)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict, 2022 Bnei Brak shootings
  • Two people are killed and 14 more injured as the Israeli Defense Forces raid the city of Jenin in the West Bank in order to capture a suspect linked to Tuesday's shooting in Bnei Brak. (Times of Israel) (Haaretz)
  • A Palestinian militant uses a screwdriver to stab and seriously injure an Israeli civilian on a bus in Neve Daniel, before being shot dead by another passenger. (Haaretz)
  • Rock throwing causes a bus to crash into a car in Halhul, West Bank, injuring two people. (Times of Israel)

Arts and culture

• Expo 2020
  • The world expo in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which was delayed to October 1, 2021, closes after six months. (AP)

Business and economy

• Economic impact of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • 2022 boycott of Russia and Belarus
    • Australia revokes the most favoured nation status for Russia and Belarus, and will impose 35% tariffs on produce coming from these countries beginning on April 25. (The Guardian)
• 2021–2022 global energy crisis
  • U.S. President Joe Biden orders the release of up to one million barrels of crude oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months in an attempt to contain inflation. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• Wildfires in 2022
  • Evacuations and school closures are issued in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States, after a wildfire, known as the Hatcher Mountain Road/Indigo Lane Fire, breaks out near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and grows to 1,000 acres. (CNN)
• A chartered helicopter travelling to Ulupna Island, Victoria, Australia, crashes into Mount Disappointment, killing all five people onboard. (ABC News Australia)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
    • Pakistan disbands ll the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), which was overseeing the COVID-19 response in the country, as the infection’s numbers were at the lowest since the start of the outbreak early in 2020. (Reuters)

International relations

• Georgia–Russia relations
  • Georgia says plans by the breakaway state of South Ossetia, which is internationally recognized as occupied Georgian territory, to hold a referendum on becoming a part of Russia are "unacceptable". (Reuters)
• Micronesian president David Panuelo urges Solomon Islands to not sign a security pact with China, citing "grave security concerns" and arguing that the Pacific islands would be "the epicenter of major confrontation" between major powers. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Russia investigation origins counter-narrative
  • The U.S. Federal Election Commission fines the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign for violating rules by funding the Steele dossier, a dossier which made accusations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Both the DNC and Clinton's campaign have agreed not to contest the fines and to pay civil penalties of US$105,000 and US$8,000 respectively. (The Washington Post) (Business Insider)
• Sri Lankan economic crisis
  • Sri Lanka Police impose an indefinite curfew in the city of Colombo after protesters attempted to storm president Gotabaya Rajapaksa's private residence amid anger over worsening economic conditions and power outages in the country. (Al Jazeera)

Politics and elections

• The acting Australian Information Commissioner orders the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to comply with a request by The Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, which the PMO had previously rejected, and search the mobile phone of Prime Minister Scott Morrison for correspondence with Morrison's friend and QAnon conspiracy theorist Tim Stewart. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has alleged that Stewart influenced Morrison's use of the term "ritual abuse" in a speech to survivors of child sexual abuse in 2019. (The Guardian)

Science and technology

• Censorship of Wiki, Media freedom in Russia
  • Russian media censorship agency Roskomnadzor threatens to fine Wiki up to 4 million rubles (about US$49,000) if it does not delete information that contradicts the Kremlin's official narrative on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Forbes)
• Scientists sequence the complete human genome for the first time, more than three decades after the Human Genome Project was first commenced. (CNN)