Portal:Current events/2025 March 6

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Western Syria clashes
    • March 2025 Western Syria clashes
      • At least 16 members of the security forces and 28 Assad loyalists are killed in a series of ambushes and shootouts in Latakia Governorate, Syria. (Al Arabiya) (France 24)
  • Four smuggling suspects are killed in clashes between Jordanian border forces and armed groups attempting to cross from Syria. (The New Arab)
  • Save the Children says that landmines and unexploded ordnance in Syria have killed or injured at least 188 children since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. (Al Arabiya)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian war
    • Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announces US$3.8 billion in national military funding for Ukraine in 2026, including $700 million in Dutch drone manufacturing. Norwegian and Polish leaders also announce increases in military aid for Ukraine. (ABC News)
• Rohingya genocide
  • The United Nations World Food Programme announces that it will reduce the emergency food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from US$12.50 to $6 per person. (Al Jazeera)
• Somali civil war
  • Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways temporarily suspend flights to Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, following security warnings from the United States embassy about potential terrorist attacks targeting the airport. (AeroTime) (Hiiraan Online)

Business and economy

• Second Trump tariffs
  • 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico
    • Following phone calls between United States President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump announces a pause on some tariffs on both Canada and Mexico until April 2. Sheinbaum states that Mexico will collaborate with the United States on migration and security issues, including controlling cross-border fentanyl smuggling. (ABC News) (DW) (CBC)
• 2020s European re-armament
  • Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces that Spain will accelerate defense spending to 2% of its GDP in four years. (El Mundo)
• U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded exclusively with bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases. (CNBC)
• NBCUniversal ends broadcasting for Universal Kids [1]

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Pocheon bombing
  • Two South Korean Air Force KF-16 jets erroneously release eight MK82 bombs over home territory in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, striking a residential area and multiple homes, injuring at least 15 people, four of them seriously. (Reuters)
• At least two people are killed and 186 others are missing after four boats carrying African migrants heading towards the Arab Gulf states capsize off the coast of Yemen and Djibouti. Two Yemeni crew members are rescued by the International Organization for Migration. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• According to a report in the academic journal Science, the population of the 554 recorded species of butterflies in the U.S. have declined by 22% since 2000. (NPR)

International relations

• France–Ukraine relations
  • French defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu says France will continue sharing military intelligence to Ukraine regarding the Russian invasion. (AP)
• The United States withdraws from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, a program that helps emerging countries transition away from non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels. (DW) (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• North Korea halts foreign tourism weeks after reopening to Western visitors. (NBC News)

Law and crime

• Sudanese civil war
  • The government of Sudan files a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice against the United Arab Emirates for its alleged support of the Rapid Support Forces and its complicity in genocide against the Masalit people in Darfur, Sudan. The UAE denies its involvement in Sudan and calls the lawsuit a "publicity stunt". (Middle East Eye) (Al Jazeera)
• The European Court of Justice fines Germany €34 million (US$36.7 million) for failing to implement a European Union law to protect whistleblowers by 2021. The Court also fines Czechia €2.3 million, Hungary €1.5 million, and Luxembourg and Estonia €500,000 each for the same reason. (DW)
• Six individuals, including retired general and far-right politician Radu Theodoru, are arrested on accusations of being involved in a Russian-backed coup d'état plot in Romania. (The Financial Times) (Politico)

Science and technology

• 2025 in spaceflight
  • Starship flight test 8
    • SpaceX launches its eighth test flight of the Starship launch vehicle from Starbase in Texas, United States. The first stage was caught by the launch tower despite Raptor engine failures during landing, but the second stage failed during its burn, mirroring the last flight test in January. (Reuters)
  • Intuitive Machines' space probe IM-2 Athena lands on Mons Mouton near the lunar south pole after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S., on February 27. (BBC News)
  • An Ariane 6 rocket launches French military satellite CSO-3 from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. It is the first commercial launch of the Ariane 6 expendable launch system. (AP)