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2025 January 19

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Colombian conflict
  • Catatumbo campaign
    • 2025 Catatumbo attacks
      • The National Liberation Army (ELN) and FARC dissidents exchange heavy fire across the Catatumbo region, Colombia, killing at least 80 people and injuring hundreds of others, with an unknown number of people also reportedly being kidnapped, after the ELN accused the FARC dissidents of killing civilians in the area. Thousands of people have fled their homes due to the fighting. The Colombian Army says that it has rescued dozens of people, while the government calls on the ELN to cease their attacks immediately. (CBS News)
• Gaza war
  • Gaza war hostage crisis
    • The Gaza ceasefire agreement formally goes into effect, with the first hostages and prisoners freed as part of the deal. (CNN)
  • Israel announces that its troops have recovered the body of staff sergeant Oron Shaul, who was captured and killed by Hamas in 2014. (The Times of Israel)

Disasters and accidents

• The Washington Post reports that there is an “emerging consensus” among U.S. and European intelligence officials that maritime accidents, rather than Russian sabotage, was the cause of damage to Baltic seabed energy and communications lines. (Washington Post)
• 2025 California wildfires
  • January 2025 Southern California wildfires
    • Cal Fire reports that the Palisades Fire is more than 50% contained, while the Eaton Fire is more than 80% contained. (Forbes)

Law and crime

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol
    • Yoon Suk Yeol becomes the first sitting president of South Korea to be formally arrested, following his declaration of martial law in December. (Yonhap)
    • Following Yoon’s arrest, pro-Yoon protesters raid the Seoul Western District Court, resulting in 41 injuries and property damage. (Yonhap)
• Capital punishment in Iran, Islam and blasphemy
  • An Iranian court sentences singer Amir Tataloo to death on appeal after Tataloo was convicted of insulting the prophet Muhammad. (Al Arabiya)

Politics and elections

• Gaza war
  • Three ministers of the Government of Israel belonging to the Otzma Yehudit party resign in protest of the approved Gaza ceasefire agreement. (The Times of Israel)

Science and technology

• Restrictions on TikTok in the United States
  • Social media platform TikTok temporarily suspends most of its services in the United States as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act goes into effect. TikTok restores these services, but its app remains unavailable in U.S. markets on the App Store and Google Play. (People) (AP)

2025 January 18

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Kryvyi Rih strikes
    • Four people are killed and 14 others are injured in a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, according to the Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Serhiy Lysak. (Euronews)
  • Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
    • At least four people are killed in Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Gaza war
    • The Government of Israel approves the proposed Gaza ceasefire agreement, which had previously been approved by the Security Cabinet of Israel. (CNN)
  • A Palestinian man from Tulkarm in the West Bank stabs and seriously injures a man in central Tel Aviv after illegally entering Israel. An armed civilian subsequently shoots and kills the perpetrator. (The Times of Israel)
• 2025 assassination of Iranian Supreme Court judges
  • Two judges are killed and a third judge and a bodyguard are injured in a mass shooting at the Supreme Court of Iran in Tehran, Iran. The perpetrator subsequently kills himself. (DW)
• Ghanian soldiers open fire on illegal miners at a gold mine in Ashanti Region, killing seven people. Ghanian president John Mahama calls for an investigation into the incident. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Suleja fuel tanker explosion
  • At least 86 people are killed and several others are injured when a fuel tanker overturns on a highway in Suleja, Niger State, Nigeria, and later explodes when people gather to collect the spilled fuel. (Vanguard) (The Straits Times)
• Ten people are injured, including two seriously, when a chairlift collapses at the Astún ski resort in Aragon, Spain. (BBC News)

Health and environment

• 2023–2024 mpox epidemic
  • Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Healthcare reports the country’s first case of mpox in a 22-year-old patient who had recently travelled abroad. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Internet censorship in the United States
  • Apple and Google remove apps by the Chinese company ByteDance, including TikTok, Lemon8, and CapCut, from their app stores in the United States to comply with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. (Reuters) (CNBC)

Politics and elections

• Gaza war protests
  • Gaza war protests in the United Kingdom
    • More than 70 people are arrested at a pro-Palestine protest in London, England, United Kingdom for violating protest regulations. (BBC News)
• Protests against Donald Trump
  • In Washington, D.C., the Women’s March holds a protest rebranded as the People’s March against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration on Monday. Women’s March protests are also held in several cities in the United Kingdom. (Reuters) (WRC-TV) (BBC News)

2025 January 17

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • The Security Cabinet of Israel approves the proposed Gaza ceasefire agreement, which is expected to take effect on Sunday. (The Guardian)
• Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
  • Twelve Naxalites are killed in a police raid in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh, India. (Al Jazeera)
• Colombian conflict
  • Nine people are killed during a shootout between Gulf Cartel gunmen and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Montelibano, Córdoba Department, Colombia. (Barron’s)
• Three people are killed and seven others are injured in clashes with security forces in Juba and Aweil, South Sudan, with three Sudanese-owned houses set on fire in Aweil. This comes after videos emerged allegedly showing Sudanese soldiers killing South Sudanese civilians in Wad Madani, Sudan. (BBC News)

Business and economy

• British oil and gas company BP announces that it will lay off 4,700 employees and 3,000 contractors globally to reduce costs. (AP)

Health and environment

• The Zimbabwean Ministry of Health reports that a new cholera outbreak that started in December 2024 has reached eight districts and infected nearly 300 people, causing one death. (DW)

International relations

• 2024 United States telecommunications hack
  • The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions a cybersecurity company and hacker, both with ties to China’s Ministry of State Security, for their alleged roles in hacking American telecommunications companies. (Reuters)
• Iran–Russia relations
  • Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian president Vladimir Putin sign the Iranian–Russian Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The 20-year deal will see cooperation between the two countries in multiple areas, including nuclear energy, counterterrorism, and environmental issues. (Middle East Eye)

Law and crime

• TikTok v. Garland
  • The United States Supreme Court upholds a law that could ban TikTok in the United States on January 19 unless the social media platform is sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance. (AP)
• A judge in Bolivia orders the arrest of former Bolivian President Evo Morales on statutory rape charges. (The Guardian)
• Brazilian police raid a ranch in Ponta Grossa, South Region, Brazil, in an operation to dismantle a gang planning large-scale bank heists, killing six suspects and seizing weapons, including a .50-caliber machine gun and explosives. (AP)

Politics and elections

• Colombian conflict
  • Colombian President Gustavo Petro suspends dialogue with the National Liberation Army following accusations of war crimes against the group. (Reuters)
• Second inauguration of Donald Trump
  • U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announces that his upcoming second inauguration will be held indoors at the United States Capitol rotunda due to cold temperatures forecasts. Trump also announces that the inaugural parade will be held indoors at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. (Reuters)
• Didier Guillaume, the head of government of Monaco, dies suddenly at the age of 65. Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre is appointed acting Minister of State by Prince Albert II. (Monaco Tribune)

Science and technology

• Censorship of TikTok
  • TikTok warns that it could “go dark” on Sunday without assistance from outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration. (Politico)

2025 January 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
    • Israeli airstrikes kill at least 82 people across the Gaza Strip, including 30 in Gaza City, hours after the announcement of a ceasefire agreement. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2025 Gaza war ceasefire
    • The Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams sign the hostage release and ceasefire deal in Doha, Qatar. (The Times of Israel)
• Somali Civil War, War against the Islamic State
  • Islamic State insurgency in Puntland
    • The Puntland Security Force claims to have captured a training facility used by ISIL militants, with over forty ISIL fighters killed following heavy fighting. (The Eastleigh Voice)
    • Thousands of families are displaced as the military campaign intensifies, forcing locals to flee their homes in Bari region of Puntland, Somalia. (Idil News) (Horn Observer)
• Red Sea crisis
  • The leader of the Houthis Abdul-Malik al-Houthi announces that the group will monitor the implementation of the Israel–Hamas ceasefire agreement and continue its attacks on vessels and on Israel if the ceasefire is breached. (Middle East Monitor)
• Sudanese civil war
  • The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for “destabilizing Sudan and undermining the goal of a democratic transition” to a civilian-led government. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 California wildfires
  • January 2025 Southern California wildfires
    • It is reported that the Eaton Fire, which has burned over 14,000 acres and has killed 17 people, is 65% contained. (CBS News)
• Stilfontein mine deaths
  • The bodies of nine illegal miners trapped inside a gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, are recovered by police. (CTV News)
• Two deminers are killed in an explosion while attempting to remove a Cambodian Civil War-era anti-tank mine from a rice field in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia. (AP)

International relations

• Ukraine–United Kingdom relations
  • British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Kyiv, Ukraine, to sign a 100-year agreement with Ukraine that will formalize British economic and military support for Ukraine. (Sky News) (BBC News)

Law and crime

• Capital punishment in Taiwan
  • Taiwan carries out its first execution in five years on a man who was convicted of the 2013 murder of his former girlfriend and her mother. (Yahoo! News)
• Spišská Stará Ves school stabbing
  • Two women are killed and a third is injured in a mass stabbing at a school in Spišská Stará Ves, Slovakia. The perpetrator is arrested. (BBC News) (Devdiscourse)
• Two homeless people are killed and two others are injured in a mass stabbing attack in Miami, Florida, United States. A 30-year-old suspect is arrested. (NBC News)
• The Government of Cuba releases dissident and human rights activist José Daniel Ferrer from jail. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2021–present Bulgarian political crisis
  • The Parliament of Bulgaria approves a coalition government consisting of the GERB-SDS, BSP – United Left, and There is Such a People parties, with GERB’s Rosen Zhelyazkov becoming Prime Minister. (Euronews)
• 2024 French political crisis
  • The government of French Prime Minister François Bayrou survives a no-confidence motion by the opposition New Popular Front electoral alliance. (Euronews)
• 2025 Vanuatuan general election
  • Citizens of Vanuatu vote for the 52 members of Parliament. (RNZ)

Science and technology

• 2025 in spaceflight
  • Blue Origin launches its New Glenn rocket for the first time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States. The rocket’s second stage, carrying a prototype Blue Ring spacecraft, successfully reaches a geocentric orbit, but its reusable first stage is lost during landing. (CNN)
  • The twin satellites SDX01 and SDX02 of the SpaDeX mission, launched in December by the Indian Space Research Organisation, successfully conduct India’s first spacecraft docking, with India becoming the fourth country to successfully dock a spacecraft after the United States, Russia, and China. (BBC News)
  • SpaceX launches its seventh test flight of the Starship launch vehicle, with an improved second stage, at Starbase in Texas, United States. The first stage is successfully caught by the launch tower but the second stage breaks up shortly before engine shutdown. (CNBC)
• Nintendo officially reveals the Nintendo Switch 2 video game console, the successor to the Nintendo Switch. (Nintendo)

Sports

• 2025 in sumo
  • Shortly after withdrawing from the January 2025 Grand Sumo Tournament due to injuries, the 73rd yokozuna Terunofuji Haruo announces his retirement. If no other wrestler is promoted this tournament, his retirement leaves sumo without a yokozuna for the first time since 1993. Terunofuji also announced his intention to remain in the Japan Sumo Association as an oyakata. (Kyodo News) (Nikkan Sports)

2025 January 15

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
  • Kivu conflict
    • Allied Democratic Forces militants kill ten people in an attack on a village in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (AP)
• Gaza war
  • 2025 Gaza war ceasefire
    • Israel and Hamas reach a diplomatic agreement mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the U.S. to initiate a ceasefire and an end to military operations in the Gaza Strip, as well as to facilitate the exchange of hostages and prisoners, marking the first major cessation of hostilities since November 2023. (CNN)
• Syrian civil war
  • Israeli invasion of Syria
    • The Israeli Air Force strikes a Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) vehicle convoy in Quneitra Governorate, Syria, killing two HTS personnel and the mayor of a local village. It is the first time that Israel has targeted HTS forces since the fall of the Assad regime. (Al Arabiya)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
    • Russia launches a major ballistic and cruise missile attack on regions across Ukraine, targeting energy production and compelling authorities to shut down the power grid. (AP)
• Red Sea crisis
  • Yemen’s Houthi movement claims that it launched a missile attack targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and accompanying warships of the United States Navy in the Red Sea. (Anadolu Agency)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 Istanbul alcohol poisonings
  • Bootleg alcohol kills 37 people and leaves 80 others hospitalized over the last 48 hours in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkish health officials say many of those in hospital are in intensive care. (ABC News)
• Stilfontein mine deaths
  • Seventy-eight bodies of workers are retrieved from a closed illegal gold mine in Stilfontein, North West Province, South Africa following a months-long siege by police. Over 200 survivors are arrested as they exit the mine. (Reuters)

Health and environment

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration bans the usage of Red No. 3 artificial food coloring, due to research showing that the food coloring is carcinogenic. (NBC News)

International relations

• Poland–Russia relations
  • Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin and his country of plotting terror attacks on airliners around the world. (The Independent)

Law and crime

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol
    • Anti-corruption officials and police attempt to breach the residence of impeached South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol for a second time in order to execute an arrest warrant, while facing resistance from the Presidential Security Service, People Power Party lawmakers, and pro-Yoon protesters. Following a five-hour standoff, Yoon is arrested, becoming South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested. (Yonhap) (Yonhap 2) (AP)
• 2024 drone sightings
  • The German government authorises the Bundeswehr to shoot down suspicious drones seen near military sites or other critical infrastructure with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stating that Russia is suspected of being behind the drone activity. (BBC News)

Politics and elections

• 2024–2025 Georgian protests
  • A general strike takes place in Georgia with hundreds of Georgian firms urging the government to release all political prisoners and hold new elections amid nationwide protests. Former Prime Minister and opposition leader Giorgi Gakharia is hospitalized after being assaulted, allegedly by members of the ruling Georgian Dream party. (Civil Georgia) (BBC News)
• 2024–2025 Mozambican protests
  • Daniel Chapo is sworn in as President of Mozambique, succeeding Filipe Nyusi. The inauguration takes place amid ongoing political unrest in Mozambique, with opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane continuing to insist that the October 2024 election was rigged. Since then, over 300 people have died in clashes with Police. (France 24) (Reuters)
  • Maria Benvinda Levy is appointed Prime Minister.(Club of Mozambique)
• Rosen Zhelyazkov of the GERB–SDS coalition is tasked by Bulgarian President Rumen Radev with forming the new government, following the parliamentary election in October 2024. (Fakti.bg)

Science and technology

• Exploration of the Moon, Commercial Lunar Payload Services
  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, carrying the American Blue Ghost M1 moon lander from Firefly Aerospace and the Japanese Hakuto-R Mission 2 moon lander from ispace. (BBC News)

2025 January 14

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Gaza war
  • Gaza war hostage crisis, Calls for a ceasefire during the Gaza war
    • Hamas officials say that they have accepted a draft agreement for a potential ceasefire as well as the release of hostages. Mediators in the United States and Qatar also state that this is the closest that both sides have been to a ceasefire agreement so far. (AP)
  • Israeli incursions in the West Bank
    • Four Al-Qassam Brigades militants and two civilians are killed during an Israeli airstrike in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. (Al Jazeera)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Ukraine strikes targets in the Republic of Tatarstan and Bryansk, Saratov, and Tula oblasts, Russia, with more than 200 drones and five ATACMS ballistic missiles, hitting ammunition depots, industrial plants and a refinery, in what Ukraine says is its “most massive” and “deepest” attack inside Russia so far. (CNN) (BBC News)
• North Korean missile tests
  • North Korea launches multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. (Reuters)
• Red Sea crisis
  • Yemen’s Houthi forces fire a missile at Israel, triggering sirens in several areas, including Tel Aviv and some Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to the Israeli military, the missile was “likely intercepted” with no injuries reported. (Xinhua)

Health and environment

• The World Health Organization reports a suspected Marburg virus outbreak in Kagera, Tanzania, with nine cases and eight deaths. (Reuters)

International relations

• 2024 Baltic Sea submarine cable disruptions, NATO operations
  • At the Summit of Baltic Sea Allies in Helsinki, Finland, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announces the establishment of the Baltic Sentry military mission, which will strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure in the region, such as energy and communication cables, from “destabilizing acts”. (NATO News)
• Armenia–United States relations
  • The Armenian Foreign Minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, and the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, sign in Washington, DC a Strategic Partnership Charter between Armenia and the United States. (The Defense Post)
• Cuba–United States relations
  • U.S. President Joe Biden announces that the United States will remove Cuba from its state sponsors of terrorism list as part of a prisoner release deal. (BBC News)

Law and crime

• 2024 South Korean martial law crisis
  • Arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol
    • A military unit assigned to guard the presidential residence of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol approves the entry of anti-corruption officials and police, which is contested by the Presidential Security Service. (Yonhap)
  • The Constitutional Court of South Korea adjourns the opening session of Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial after Yoon failed to attend the session due to alleged safety concerns. (NBC News) (Xinhua)
• Moldova detains former Kyrgyzstan presidential advisor Aidar Khalikov, who has accused Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov of corruption and election rigging. (OCCRP)

Politics and elections

• British Treasury Economic Secretary Tulip Siddiq resigns amid an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh involving her family. (BBC News)
• The new Government of Prime Minister Américo Ramos is sworn in São Tomé and Príncipe. (Xinhua)

Science and technology

• The government of Venezuela lifts its ban on the social media and instant messaging app Telegram. (TechRadar)

2025 January 13

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War
  • War against the Islamic State
    • Islamic State insurgency in Puntland
      • Twenty-six Islamic State militants are allegedly killed, including a female combatant and two soldiers, and several others are injured when Puntland forces capture eight Islamic State bases during ongoing offensive military operations in Bari, Puntland, Somalia. (Idil News) (AFP)
• Gaza war
  • Gaza war hostage crisis, Calls for a ceasefire during the Gaza war
    • According to two Israeli officials, Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages during the first phase of an emerging ceasefire agreement being finalized by negotiators in Doha, Qatar. (CNN)
• Israeli invasion of Lebanon
  • 2024 Israel–Lebanon ceasefire agreement
    • The Israel Defense Forces strike several Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, alleging that the targets violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement. (The Times of Israel)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Russia accuses Ukraine of targeting the Russkaya compressor station in the Krasnodar Krai, which feeds gas for the TurkStream pipeline, in a failed drone attack two days ago. (S&P Global)
• Sudanese Civil War
  • Battle of Khartoum
    • The shelling of an area of Omdurman, Khartoum State, Sudan, results in the death of at least 120 civilians, according to volunteer rescuers. (Al Arabiya News)

Business and economy

• A general strike by Belgian unions to protest against government plans for pension reform occurs, with the work stoppages severely disrupting public transport in Brussels as well as rail and air travel throughout the country. (Politico)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 California wildfires
  • January 2025 Southern California wildfires
    • AccuWeather releases a preliminary estimate of the total physical and economic losses caused by the ongoing wildfires in Southern California of between $250–275 billion, a figure attributed to exceptionally high property values in and near Santa Monica, which would surpass their estimates of the costs of the entire 2020 United States wildfire season as well as Hurricane Helene in 2024. (NBC News)
• Twelve people are killed and many others are missing in a landslide in Hpakant, Kachin State, Myanmar. (AP)

Law and crime

• Venezuelan attorney general Tarek Saab asks for an arrest warrant and a red notice from Interpol against opposition figure Leopoldo López, who is currently in exile. Venezuela accuses López of instigating the use of arms against the state and treason, among other charges. (Reuters)
• A judge in Peru dismisses charges of money laundering against Popular Force leader and former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• Impeachment of Sara Duterte
  • Members of the Iglesia ni Cristo hold a nationwide National Rally for Peace in the Philippines to express their disapproval of impeachment efforts against Vice President Sara Duterte. (Rappler)
• International Court of Justice President Nawaf Salam becomes the prime minister-designate of Lebanon after winning an absolute majority of votes from parliament, while stepping down from the ICJ. (TVN24)(CNN)

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