Portal:Current events/2022 January 2

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war
    • The rebel-held city of Idlib loses its supply of water after Russian Air Force jets bombed a nearby water station. Airstrikes have increased in the past 24 hours with attacks also reported on farms near the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing, and on IDP camps near Jisr al-Shughur which killed three people. (Reuters)
• Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports that Mossad was responsible for three bombings of German and Swiss firms in 1981 to try to halt Iranian and Pakistani development of nuclear weapons. (The Jerusalem Post)

Disasters and accidents

• 2022 Parliament of South Africa fire
  • A fire breaks out in the South African parliament building in Cape Town, destroying its roof and the wing housing the National Council of Provinces. A man has been arrested in connection with the incident. (France 24)
• February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm, 2021 Texas power crisis
  • The death toll from a destructive winter storm that triggered statewide blackouts in Texas, U.S., last year is updated to 246. (The Texas Tribune)
• A magnitude 5.4 earthquake strikes on the border between Yunnan and Sichuan, China, injuring 22 people. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria
    • Bulgaria reports its first 12 cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in five vaccinated people and seven unvaccinated people, most of whom had not travelled abroad. (Metro)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    • United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announces that he has tested positive for COVID-19. (Politico)
  • COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships
    • AIDAnova, a cruise ship operated by German cruise line AIDA Cruises and carrying 4,197 people, has docked in Lisbon, Portugal, after 52 crew members tested positive for COVID-19 and isolated at various hotels. (The New York Times)

International relations

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • A South Korean citizen crosses the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone in a rare case of defection to North Korea from the South. (BBC News)
• Ethiopia–United States relations, Guinea–United States relations, Mali–United States relations
  • The United States cuts off Ethiopia, Guinea and Mali from the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade preference program citing their human rights abuses and anti-democratic actions. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• An Azerbaijani State Border Service guard kills three fellow servicemen at his post and escapes. A manhunt is underway. (Trend News Agency)

Politics and elections

• 2019–2024 Sudanese transition to democracy
  • 2019–2022 Sudanese protests
    • Interim Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns in response to security forces killing three anti-coup protestors in Omdurman earlier that day. (CNN)

Science and technology

• COVID-19 misinformation
  • Twitter announces that they have permanently suspended U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for allegedly violating the company's policies about COVID-19 misinformation. (The New York Times)