Portal:Current events/2025 January 9

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War, War against the Islamic State
  • Islamic State insurgency in Puntland
    • Puntland forces carry out drone strikes on Islamic State targets in the Cal Miskaad mountains near Balidhidhin District, Bari, Puntland, Somalia, killing several militants. (Idil News) (VOA)
    • Puntland counterterrorism forces capture four foreign Islamic State fighters from Ethiopia, Yemen, and Tanzania, while intercepting and destroying multiple explosive-carrying drones in Bari, Puntland. (Idil News) (VOA) (Garowe Online)
• Gaza war
  • Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
    • Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip kill at least 22 people. (Al Jazeera)
  • A study published in The Lancet claims that around 3% of the Gaza Strip population has died from traumatic injury due to the conflict with Israel, with the death toll from other causes due to the military campaign likely higher. (CNN)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • Russian artillery strikes kill two people in Siversk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, according to the region's governor. In the Russian-controlled area of Kamianka-Dniprovska, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, the region's Russia-appointed governor says that two people were killed by Ukrainian artillery strikes. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2025 California wildfires
  • January 2025 Southern California wildfires
    • At least six people are killed due to spreading wildfires in Los Angeles County, United States.
    • The Kenneth Fire ignites in Woodland Hills, adding to the 179,000 people placed under evacuation orders. (NBC News)
• 2024–25 European winter
  • Two people are killed and 20 others are injured in a snowstorm in northern France. (AP)
• Twelve miners are trapped in a collapsed coal mine in Balochistan, Pakistan, following a methane gas explosion. (AP)

International relations

• Armenia–European Union relations
  • The Armenian government approves a bill to launch a bid for the country to join the European Union. (Reuters)
• Azerbaijan–Russia relations
  • Russia declines to confirm whether Russian forces accidentally shot down Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, despite calls by Azerbaijan to do so. (The Straits Times)
• Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute
  • Guyana says that it will resort to the United Nations to deter Venezuela from unilaterally appointing a governor for the Essequibo, a region under Guyanese control but claimed by Venezuela. (AP)

Law and crime

• International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli leaders
  • Poland's government confirms that it will not comply with an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes if he chooses to attend a ceremony at Auschwitz concentration camp later this month. (Times of Israel) (Notes from Poland)
  • The U.S. House of Representatives votes 243 to 140 to sanction the ICC for issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Reuters) (Middle East Eye) (Haaretz)
  • U.S. Senate majority leader John Thune promises swift consideration of the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act so President-elect Donald Trump can sign it into law shortly after taking office. Under the act, any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes U.S. citizens or those of an allied country, including Israel, not under ICC jurisdiction would be sanctioned along with their family members. (Reuters) (The New York Times)
• 2024 Venezuelan political crisis
  • Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado makes her first public appearance in 133 days and is briefly arrested when her convoy is intercepted by security forces as it departs an anti-government protest in Caracas. The incident occurs the day before the ruling party-controlled National Assembly is scheduled to swear in Nicolás Maduro for a third term as president. (AP) (The Guardian)
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo bans Al Jazeera from operating in the country and revokes its press credentials, citing the network's interview with M23 rebel leader Bertrand Bisimwa as an endorsement of terrorism. Authorities warn against reporting on the group, with the justice minister threatening to invoke the death penalty, although no formal law bans such coverage. (AP)
• The Kuwaiti public prosecution detains media personality Fajer Al-Saeed for 21 days and after investigating charges related to "calling for normalization with the Israeli occupation and harming the state's interests". (Al Jazeera)

Politics and elections

• 2024 Mozambican general election
  • 2024 Mozambican protests
    • PODEMOS presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who alleges that the October election was rigged, returns to Mozambique from exile in South Africa amid protests. (Reuters)
• 2022–2025 Lebanese presidential election
  • Military commander Joseph Aoun is elected as President of Lebanon, ending the power vacuum that began in October 2022. (AP)
• Death and state funeral of Jimmy Carter
  • The state funeral for former U.S. president Jimmy Carter is held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. All five living presidents, including incumbent president Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump, attend the funeral. (CBS News)
• President of São Tomé and Príncipe Carlos Vila Nova rejects a proposal by his Independent Democratic Action party to elect Hélio Vaz de Almeida as prime minister. Vila Nova instead appoints Ilza Amado Vaz. (RFI), (Xinhua)