March 2, 2018 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2018 Ouagadougou attacks
- A terrorist attack at the French embassy and military headquarters in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, leaves 28 people dead and at least 50 others injured. (BBC)
- Ituri conflict
- An attack on a village, part of the unrest between ethnic Lendu and Hema communities, leaves 49 people dead in the Ituri Province of DR Congo. (News18)
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- A suicide car bomber kills one person and injures fourteen others near the Australian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Reuters via Newshub)
Disasters and accidents
- 2017–18 European windstorm season
- March 1–3, 2018 nor'easter
- A massive winter storm occurs in the East Coast of the United States, leaving millions without power and cancelling thousands of airplane flights. (CNN via MSN)
- 2018 Baku fire
- At least 25 people are killed in a fire at a drug-rehabilitation clinic in Baku, Azerbaijan. (RFE/RL)
International relations
- Russia–United States relations
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denies White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders' claim that Russia breached any international arms control pacts, after President Vladimir Putin's March 1 speech on nuclear weapons. (Reuters)
- Cuba–United States relations
- The United States permanently downgrades their embassy in Havana, making its status 'unaccompanied', meaning a post at which no family members are permitted to reside. The status change comes after alleged health attacks. (Miami Herald)
Law and crime
- 2016–2018 investigations involving Benjamin Netanyahu
- An Israel Police anti-corruption unit questions Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara. (Reuters)
- Cannabis in Greece
- The Hellenic Parliament passes a bill legalising the use of medical cannabis in Greece. New Democracy, Communist Party, Golden Dawn and the Union of Centrists voted against the government-sponsored bill. (Greek Reporter)
- Central Michigan University shooting
- A student shoots his parents dead in a dorm at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, United States. (NBC), (BBC)
Politics and elections
- Italian general election, 2018
- Antonio Tajani, the current President of the European Parliament, accepts the offer of Silvio Berlusconi to stand as a candidate for Prime Minister of Italy for Forza Italia. (The Local)
- Politics of the European Union
- European Union lawmakers strike a deal on opening up the 3.6 and 26 GHz bandwidths by 2020 to make room for the new 5G network. (Reuters)
- Politics of Germany, SPD party member vote on the 2018 coalition agreement of Germany
- Postal ballots of the 2018 SPD coalition party member vote are due. The vote will determine if the SPD is allowed to form a coalition with Angela Merkel's CDU. (Reuters)
Sports
- Long-distance swimming
- The Dutch swimmer Maarten van der Weijden sets the 24-hour swimming record in a 25-meter pool at 102.8 kilometres (63.9 mi). (SwimSwam)