Portal:Current events/2026 January 17

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian conflict
  • SDF–Syrian transitional government clashes
    • 2026 northeastern Syria offensive
      • Syrian government forces capture many towns in Aleppo Governorate, including Dayr Hafir and Maskanah, after Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) units withdraw from their positions. The Syrian Army also reportedly expelled the SDF from Al-Tabqah. (Al Jazeera)
• Iraqi conflict, Iraq–United States relations
  • The United States Armed Forces formally withdraws from Iraq's Al-Asad Airbase, handing over full operational control of the airbase to the Iraqi Armed Forces for the first time since 2014. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• EU–Mercosur Association Agreement
  • The European Union and Mercosur formally sign the free trade agreement between the two blocs after 25 years of negotiations. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2026 Binaliw landslide
  • The death toll from the landslide in the Binaliw landfill in Cebu City, Philippines, rises to 35. Search operations are ongoing for the last victim. (ABS-CBN News)
• 2026 Biobío wildfires
  • At least 16 people are killed, more than 50,000 are evacuated and a state of emergency is declared due to wildfires in Ñuble Region and Biobío Region, Chile. (France 24) (BBC News)
• 2026 Indonesia Air Transport ATR 42 crash
  • An Indonesia Air Transport ATR 42-512 aircraft operated by the marine affairs ministry carrying eleven people loses contact in Maros Regency, South Sulawesi, while flying to Makassar and crashes. A search and rescue effort is underway. (Detikcom in Indonesian) (ANTARA)
• 2026 Gul Plaza Shopping Mall fire
  • At least six people are killed, 22 others are injured and 50 are reported missing in a massive fire at a multi-story shopping mall in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. (Dawn) (AP)
• At least 24 people are killed and 45 others are injured in two separate road crashes in Pakistan when a truck plunges into a canal in Sargodha, Punjab, and a passenger bus overturns on a highway in Balochistan. (AP)
• Eight skiers are killed and another is seriously injured in separate avalanches on the Alps in Austria. (AFP via The Straits Times)

Health and environment

• The High Seas Treaty enters into force in 60 United Nations member states. (Reuters)

International relations

• Greenland crisis
  • Hands off Greenland protests
    • Thousands of demonstrators attend rallies in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Nuuk, Greenland, to protest the proposed takeover by U.S. president Donald Trump. (BBC News)

Law and crime

• FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
  • American fugitive Alejandro Castillo is arrested in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico. (WCNC)
• Coordinated riots erupt in three prisons in Guatemala, where inmates hold at least 46 officers and staff hostage as security forces secure the perimeters and the interior minister refuses to negotiate. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2026 Beninese parliamentary election
  • Provisional results in Benin reveal that the Progressive Union Renewal won 60 out of 109 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Republican Bloc with 49 seats. Both parties in the National Assembly are part of a coalition supportive of President Patrice Talon. (Benin Web TV)
• 2026 Ugandan general election
  • Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is re-elected to a seventh term with 71.65% of the vote, while opposition leader Bobi Wine comes second with 24.72% of the vote. (France 24)