Portal:Current events/2021 January 2

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Insurgency in the Maghreb
  • 2021 Tillabéri attacks
    • At least 79 civilians are killed and 20 others are injured when Islamist militants attack two villages simultaneously in Tillabéri, Niger, near the border with Mali. (Reuters)
  • Two Algerian People's National Army personnel and four militants are killed during a gunfight in Messelmoun, Algeria. (Xinhua)
• Insurgency in Balochistan
  • Machh attack
    • Eleven Hazara coal miners are kidnapped near their mine and then killed nearby by Khorasan Daesh militants in Machh, Pakistan. (BBC News)
• Mali War, Operation Barkhane
  • Two French Army personnel are killed when their armoured personnel carrier hit a roadside bomb in Ménaka, Mali. It is the second attack in the past few days that targeted French military personnel, the first being the December 28 JNIM-claimed bombing that killed three French military personnel. (Al Jazeera)
• Somali Civil War
  • Five people are killed, including two Turkish nationals, after an al-Shabaab suicide bomber blew himself up near the Mogadishu-Afgooye road construction work. Fourteen people are injured, including four other Turkish citizens. (The Guardian)

Arts and culture

• Pope Francis accepts the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Richard Brendan Higgins, the episcopal vicar for veterans affairs of the Archdiocese for the Military Services. During his career, Bishop Higgins’ is vicar for veterans affairs and responsible for more than 200 chaplains serving at over 150 veterans' affairs hospitals in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam. His retirement at age 75 is announced in Washington, D.C. by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States. (Catholic News Service)

Disasters and accidents

• 2020 Gjerdrum landslide
  • Rescue workers find the bodies of four people who went missing during a landslide in Gjerdrum, Viken, Norway, on December 30. Six people are still missing. (Al Jazeera)
• Three people are killed when a small plane crashes into a house in Lyon Township, Michigan, United States. (WDIV-TV)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
      • The United Kingdom reports a record 57,725 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the highest daily total since the beginning of the pandemic. Another 445 deaths are also reported, bringing the country's death toll to 74,570. (Sky News)
      • The United Kingdom reactivates emergency critical-care COVID-19 hospitals amid a surge in both cases and hospitalizations. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, COVID-19 vaccine
      • Over 800,000 people in Russia have received the Sputnik V vaccine. (The Hill)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Gibraltar
      • Gibraltar imposes a second lockdown for the next 14 days beginning at 10:00 p.m. local time (21:00 GMT) today, in order to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases. (Barron's)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Greece
      • The Government of Greece announces a one-week closure of all shops that were allowed to reopen during the holiday season, as well as all places of worship beginning tomorrow in order to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases ahead of the reopening of schools on January 11. A curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time will also be imposed. (Ekathimerini)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia
      • Indonesia reports a record 7,582 recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total of recoveries to 625,518. (Kompas)
      • East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa tests positive for COVID-19. (Kompas)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
      • Malaysia reports a record 3,321 recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total of recoveries to 94,492. (The Edge Markets MY)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, 501.V2 variant
      • South Korea reports their first case of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 when a person who traveled from South Africa on December 26 later tested positive for COVID-19. (Dong-A Ilbo)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam, Variant of Concern 202012/01
      • Vietnam reports their first case of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 when a 44-year-old woman who traveled from the United Kingdom later tested positive for COVID-19 while in quarantine on December 24. (The Straits Times)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
      • Victoria closes its land border with New South Wales due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, after several months of open borders. Meanwhile, New South Wales makes wearing masks in public mandatory, while also easing restrictions for southern suburbs of the Northern Beaches as the number of cases in those areas decrease. (The Guardian)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Palau, COVID-19 vaccine
      • Palau receives 2,800 doses of the Moderna vaccine in a special contribution from the United States. The government announced that it will vaccinate healthcare workers first and then vaccinate seniors and people with medical conditions. (RNZ)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    • COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)
      • New York surpasses one million cases of COVID-19, becoming the fourth state to do so after Texas, California and Florida. (Bloomberg)

Law and crime

• Capital punishment in Kazakhstan
  • Kazakhstan formally abolishes the death penalty, making a two-decade freeze on executions permanent, according to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. (VOA)
• Killing of Dolal Idd
  • The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office releases footage of deputies executing a search warrant on the last known address of Dolal Idd, as well as a raid on his family's house. (WCCO-TV)
• Authorities in Pakistan arrest Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, alleged leader of the Lashker-e-Taiba group, which is blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. (ABC)
• The homes of United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are vandalized after the government failed to pass the CASH Act, a bill that would increase direct payments from $600 to $2,000. (ABC) (Business Insider)
• Saïd Bouteflika, the brother and special advisor of former Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, is cleared of conspiracy charges following a retrial. Saïd Bouteflika had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2019 for "undermining the authority of the armed forces" and "conspiring against the authority of the state" following his brother's resignation in the context of the 2019–20 Algerian protests. (Arab News)

Politics and elections

• 2020–21 Nigerien general election
  • The electoral commission of Niger declares that a second round of the presidential election will take place on February 21 after no candidate received a majority of the vote. The two candidates will be former minister Mohamed Bazoum, the leader of the ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, who won the first round with 39.33% of the votes; and former president Mahamane Ousmane, who won 16.99% of votes. (Al-Ahram)