Portal:Current events/2024 January 11

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Red Sea crisis
  • Operation Prosperity Guardian
    • The Cabinet of the United Kingdom formally authorises British military action against Houthi militants in Yemen. (Bloomberg)
• 2024 Ecuadorian conflict
  • Two people are killed and nine more injured during an arson attack at a nightclub in El Coca, Ecuador. (AP)
• The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy seizes control of the Marshall Islands-flagged and Greek-operated civilian oil tanker St Nikolas in the Gulf of Oman. The tanker had 19 crew members onboard, including 18 Filipinos and one Greek. It was carrying crude oil from Basra, Iraq, to Turkey. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Google lays off hundreds of employees in its core engineering team, and others working on Google Assistant and Google's hardware products. (The New York Times)
• The United States Labor Department reports that auto insurance premiums experienced a remarkable rise in 2023, their highest annual increase in nearly half a century. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• A chartered Air Côte d'Ivoire flight from The Gambia to the Ivory Coast, transporting the Gambia national football team to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, makes an emergency landing in Banjul, Gambia, due to a loss of cabin pressure lasting for more than nine minutes. All passengers suffer some degree of hypoxia including loss of consciousness. (Hindustan Times) (The Guardian)

Health and environment

• 2022–2024 Southern Africa cholera outbreak
  • Around 300 people are confirmed dead in an outbreak of cholera in Zambia. (BBC News)

Law and crime

• 2024 Papua New Guinean unrest
  • Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Marape declares a state of emergency and suspends some officials following yesterday's riots which killed 16 people. (Reuters)
• Smoking in Latvia
  • Latvia bans the sale and use of tobacco and nicotine products for those under the age of 20 years, beginning on January 1, 2025. (ERR)
• South Africa v. Israel
  • A two-day public hearing begins at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, regarding alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention and international law in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. (CNN)

Politics and elections

• 2023 Guatemalan general election
  • Former Minister of the Interior Napoleón Barrientos is arrested for failing to comply with his duties for not using force to evict the blockades and demonstrations that occurred in October, which called for the resignation of Attorney General María Consuelo Porras. (The Washington Post)
  • The Public Ministry orders the arrest of four magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal who have been living in exile since losing their immunity in November. (Prensa Libre)
  • Vice President-elect Karin Herrera presents a legal appeal before the Constitutional Court due to the risk of a possible arrest warrant against her which would violate her immunity. (Prensa Libre)