Portal:Current events/2022 January 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Nigerian bandit conflict
  • Dankade massacre
    • Authorities say that gunmen have killed more than 50 people, including two soldiers and a police officer, in a raid on a village in Kebbi State, northwestern Nigeria. Security forces were forced to flee the area, leaving the militants to burn down shops and kidnap women and children. (Reuters)
• Somali Civil War
  • Somali government spokesperson Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu is injured in a suicide bombing in Mogadishu. (Al Jazeera)
• Sweden-Russia relations, 2021-2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis
  • Military personnel from the Swedish Armed Forces are deployed to the island of Gotland in response to fears that Russia may attempt an invasion of Swedish territory amidst tensions between NATO and Russia over their intention to invade Ukraine. (Euronews)

Business and economy

• Television licensing in the United Kingdom
  • Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announces that the United Kingdom's state broadcaster BBC will be reformed, with the television licence fee being abolished in 2027. Funding of the BBC will also be frozen for the next two years. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption and tsunami
  • Satellite imagery of Hunga Tonga shows that most of the volcanic island was destroyed by the eruption. (BBC News)
  • The Australian Defence Force and New Zealand Defence Force send aircraft to assess the damage in Tonga as communications continue to be disrupted in the Pacific islands. (ABC News Australia)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark
    • Denmark reopens cinemas, zoos, museums and theatres as well as allowing limited number of spectators in indoor and outdoor sports despite the rising number of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant cases in the country. (AP)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand
    • Thailand reports its first confirmed death related to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in a 86-year-old woman who died last month in Songkhla Province. (Bangkok Post)

Law and crime

• COVID-19 pandemic in France, Vaccine passports during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • The French National Assembly votes 215–58 to give a final approval of mandatory vaccine pass that will require people aged above 16 years to be fully vaccinated in order to enter public places and long-distance public transport. The new law regarding vaccine pass will take effect in coming days once the law gets approved from the Constitutional Council. (Voice of America)

Politics and elections

• 2022 Serbian constitutional referendum
  • Serbians vote in a referendum on whether to approve a constitutional reform that would bring the Serbian judicial system closer to the model required for the country to join the European Union. (ABC News)

Sports

• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports
  • 2022 Australian Open
    • The Federal Court of Australia confirms the lawfulness and legality of the visa cancellation and deportation order against Novak Djokovic issued by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Alex Hawke. Djokovic's lawyers are considering legal recourse while Djokovic himself has said that he is disappointed with the decision but will cooperate with Australian authorities. (ABC News Australia)
    • Djokovic is deported from Australia, and disqualified from the Australian Open. He is replaced with Salvatore Caruso from Italy. (ABC News Australia)