March 31, 2023 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea
- Pirates kidnap some crew members of a Danish-owned ship which they later abandon near São Tomé and Príncipe. (Al Arabiya)
Disasters and accidents
- Tornado outbreak of March 31 – April 1, 2023
- The Storm Prediction Center issues a high risk convective outlook, the first high risk issued in over two years, ahead of an expected severe weather outbreak across the Mississippi River valley in the United States. (Storm Prediction Center)
- A large tornado causes major damage to the Little Rock, Arkansas metropolitan area, killing at least three people and injuring 24 others. (KTHV-TV)
- One person is killed and 28 others are injured when a tornado causes the roof of a theater in Belvidere, Illinois, to collapse during a concert. (WIFR-TV)
- Indore stepwell collapse
- Thirty-six people are killed and 17 others are injured when a stepwell collapses during prayers at a Hindu temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. (The Guardian)
- 2023 Pakistan ration distribution stampedes
- Eleven people die after being crushed in a crowd which gathered to collect food outside a factory in Karachi, Pakistan. (Al Jazeera)
- Four people are killed by avalanches in Northern Norway. (AFP via Barron's)
- More than a dozen people are injured in separate incidents after two trains derail during a storm in Switzerland. (AP)
Science and technology
- Italy's Data Protection Authority blocks ChatGPT for allegedly breaching data protection rules and failing to verify that its users are at least 13 years old. (Reuters)