Portal:Current events/2026 January 15

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Operation Southern Spear
  • United States oil blockade during Operation Southern Spear
    • The United States Coast Guard boards and seizes a Guyanese-flagged tanker in the Caribbean Sea that had been sanctioned by the U.S. government. (The Guardian)

Business and economy

• Frigidaire issues a recall for 330,000 mini-fridges for fire risks, after previously recalling 634,000 last year. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2026 Utrecht explosions
  • At least four people are injured and several buildings collapse following an explosion in the Utrecht city centre in the Netherlands. Authorities suspect it to be a gas explosion. (NOS in Dutch) (AFP via Al Arabiya) (BBC News)
• At least 19 people are killed and hundreds are evacuated across South Africa in flooding caused by torrential rains in several provinces, including Limpopo and Mpumalanga. (AP)
• Two people are killed when a construction crane collapses onto the Rama II Road in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, while the Thai government moves to cancel contracts, blacklist the same contractor, and suspend about a dozen of its state projects following a separate crane accident the previous day. (BBC News) (Reuters)

International relations

• Greenland crisis, Denmark–France relations
  • French president Emmanuel Macron announces the deployment of additional military forces to Greenland after a Defense Council meeting. (France 24 in French)
• Japan–Philippines relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
  • Japan and the Philippines sign a defense pact to mutually allow tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food, and other forms of aid. (AP)
• United Arab Emirates–Yemen relations
  • Faraj Al-Bahsani is dismissed from Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, becoming the last United Arab Emirates-backed member to leave the body. (The New Arab)

Politics and elections

• 2026 Ugandan general election
  • Ugandans vote to elect their president and 529 members of parliament. (AP)
• Singaporean prime minister Lawrence Wong rescinds Workers' Party MP Pritam Singh's position as the de jure Leader of the Opposition. (CNA)
• Yemeni prime minister Salem Saleh bin Braik resigns, and president Rashad al-Alimi appoints Shaea Muhssin to be the new prime minister. (Jerusalem Post)

Science and technology

• The members of NASA commercial Crew-11, who had been docked at the International Space Station (ISS) since August 2025, land on Earth one month early following the first-ever medical evacuation from the ISS. (Space) (NPR)