Demonstrators blocked roads across Lebanon for the seventh consecutive day as part of the “largest coordinated protest against [Lebanon’s] deteriorating economic condition” in many months, The Daily Star reported March 8.
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez asked his entire cabinet to resign following a surge of anti-government protests over the failings of the country’s healthcare system amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Deutsche Welle reported March 7.
U.S. officials said the United States will conduct a series of clandestine cyber actions against Russian networks in the coming weeks in response to the December 2020 SolarWinds cyberattack, paired with unspecified economic sanctions and an executive order to improve the U.S. government’s cyber defenses, The New York Times reported March 7.
The United States sent Afghan President Ashraf Ghani a draft plan for a transitional government and cease-fire that recognizes Islam as Afghanistan’s official religion, grants immunity to all citizens and outlines requirements for a presidential election, Khaama Press reported March 8.
China’s exports in January-February were up by 60.6% (y-o-y) in U.S. dollar terms compared with a year earlier, with shipments of medical-related products and integrated circuits rising by 75.3% and 30.8%, respectively, Bloomberg reported March 6.
Italy’s Economy Minister Daniele Franco said the government will unveil a plan to spend the money from the EU Recovery Fund in April, and that Italy should start receiving those funds by the summer, Ansa reported March 8.
Protests and demonstrations have occurred across Senegal since the March 3 arrest of opposition member of parliament Ousmane Sonko for "disturbing the public order" before a court appearance related to a rape charge, AFP reported March 4.
The United States, in conjunction with European partners, is considering sanctioning the head of Lebanon’s central bank, Riad Salame, Bloomberg reported March 4.
The U.S. State Department has barred Ukraine’s most powerful oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky, and his immediate family from entering the United States due to Kolomoisky’s “involvement in significant corruption” while he was the governor of eastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region in 2014 and 2015, Reuters reported March 5.
44,000 volunteers in Havana have begun participating in late-stage trials for Cuba’s most advanced COVID-19 vaccine, Soberana (Sovereignty) 2, Reuters reported March 4.
