Business and economy

• Argentine debt restructuring
  • Argentine minister of economy Martín Guzmán warns that the International Monetary Fund will "lose legitimacy" if it fails in negotiations with the country, with Guzmán citing his country's growth of nearly 10 percent as an argument. (Ámbito)
• Puerto Rican government-debt crisis
  • A federal judge signs a plan to restructure Puerto Rico's economy, allowing it to start repaying debt to creditors and lifting it out of bankruptcy. (AP News)
• Microsoft announces that it will acquire gaming company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. If the acquisition is successful, Activision Blizzard will become part of Xbox Game Studios, which will become the world's third-largest gaming company behind Tencent and Sony Interactive Entertainment. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2022 Antananarivo floods
  • At least ten people are killed by floods in Antananarivo, Madagascar. (Africanews)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong
      • Hong Kong orders the culling of 2,000 small animals, such as hamsters, chinchillas and rabbits, closes pet shops, and sends 100 people to a quarantine camp after nearly a dozen hamsters imported from the Netherlands and sold at Little Boss pet shop were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant which also spread to two people. (Bloomberg)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
      • Japan reports a record 32,197 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (The Mainichi)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal
      • Nepal reports a record 10,258 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 972,198. (La Prensa Latina)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria
      • Bulgaria reports a record 9,996 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 830,604. (Bulgarian Press Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in France
      • France reports a record 464,769 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (Anadolu Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Vatican City
      • The Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and his deputy Edgar Peña Parra both test positive for COVID-19. (The New York Times)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in South America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
      • Brazil reports a record 137,102 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 23,211,894 million. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Paraguay
      • Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez tests positive for COVID-19. (Yahoo! News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • Australia reports a record 77 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (SBS News)
  • COVID-19 drug development
    • Merck & Co. and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics sign an agreement with UNICEF to distribute up to 3 million courses of their COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir to 100 low and middle-income countries in the first half of the year. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russo-Ukrainian War
  • 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, Russia–NATO relations
    • Canada deploys a small contingent of special forces to Ukraine as part of a NATO response to deter Russian aggression. The unit is also being tasked with evacuating diplomatic personnel from the Canadian embassy in Kyiv in the event of a full-scale invasion. (Reuters)
    • The United Kingdom begins supplying anti-tank guided missiles to Ukraine amid tensions with Russia, according to a statement from Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace. A small number of British military personnel will also be deployed to help train Ukrainian troops. (Reuters)
    • Royal Air Force C-17 transport aircraft arrive in Ukraine with "light anti-armour weapons" as part of British military support for Ukraine. (UK Defence Journal)
• Spillover of the Yemeni Civil War
  • 2022 Abu Dhabi attack
    • Three people are killed in a suspected drone attack on petrol tanks at a major oil storage facility near Abu Dhabi International Airport, United Arab Emirates. The Yemen-based Houthis claims responsibility for the attack, saying that they launched "five ballistic missiles and a large number of drones". (Hindustan Times) (CNN)

Arts and culture

• Capital of Indonesia
  • The Minister of National Development Planning Suharso Monoarfa reveals that the name of the new Indonesian capital will be Nusantara. Nusantara is a term that has been used to describe the Indonesian Archipelago. (VOI)
• An independent investigation team identifies Arnold van den Bergh, a member of Amsterdam's Jewish Council, as the most likely person responsible for reporting The Diary of a Young Girl author Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis in 1944, leading to their deaths in a concentration camp. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2022 Afghanistan earthquake
  • At least 26 people are killed by a magnitude 5.3 earthquake in Qadis, Badghis Province, Afghanistan. (France 24)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark
      • Denmark reports a record 28,780 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours as the country eases many of its pandemic restrictions. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Greece, COVID-19 vaccination in Greece
      • Greece begins to introduce monthly fines for people over the age of 60 who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 amid an increase in the number of new cases in the country. The monthly fine will initially be €50 this month and will be €100 per month thereafter. (NPR)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands
      • The Netherlands reports a record 42,472 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (NL Times)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, COVID-19 drug development
    • Health Canada approves the use of Pfizer's anti-COVID-19 viral drug Paxlovid for people over the age of 18 years who are at risk of severe disease and death. (CBC)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, COVID-19 vaccination in the Philippines
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Metro Manila
      • The Philippines begins to ban people who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 from riding public transport and entering commercial planes despite protests from labour and human rights groups. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

• Canada–China relations, COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China
  • The South China Morning Post reports that Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, stated that the first patient infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Beijing received a letter mailed from Canada on January 7 and does not rule out the possibility that the patient was infected via contact with the letter. (South China Morning Post) (CBC)
  • Leader of the Official Opposition of Canada Erin O'Toole responds to the report, calling it "comical". (National Post)

Law and crime

• A Parisian court fines far-right French television pundit and presidential candidate Éric Zemmour €10,000 for calling unaccompanied migrant children "rapists" and "murderers" during a September 2020 television broadcast. (BBC News)