Portal:Current events/2026 January 23

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Operation Southern Spear
  • United States strikes on alleged drug traffickers during Operation Southern Spear
    • Two people are killed and a survivor is later captured following an American airstrike on a boat in the Pacific Ocean, according to the U.S. Southern Command. (CNN)
• Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
  • Seven people are killed and 25 more injured in a suicide bombing at a wedding in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• 2026 Indonesia Air Transport ATR 42 crash
  • Indonesian search and rescue teams discover the remaining bodies from the January 17 crash of a Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries ATR 42-500 aircraft on a mountain near Maros Regency, South Sulawesi. (ABC News Australia)
• Nine people are killed in an avalanche in Chitral District, Pakistan, while eleven people are killed in a snowstorm in six provinces of Afghanistan. (AP)
• Six people are killed, 12 others are injured and dozens are reported missing when a gold mine collapses in Abu Jubaiha, South Kordofan, Sudan. (News.Az)
• The Singapore-flagged cargo ship MV Devon Bay crewed by 21 Filipinos capsizes in the South China Sea, leaving two dead and two others missing. The China Coast Guard rescues 17 crew members, while search and rescue operations for the remaining crew are ongoing. (AP via ABC News) (RTHK)

International relations

• Scam centers in Cambodia, Cambodia–South Korea relations
  • South Korea repatriates 73 nationals suspected of participating in fraud operations in scam centers in Cambodia. (DW)
• California Governor Gavin Newsom announces that California will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, becoming the first U.S. state to do so. The move comes after the United States' formal withdrawal from the World Health Organization took effect. (Politico)

Politics and elections

• 2026 Ugandan general election
  • 2026 Ugandan protests
    • At least 30 people from the opposition National Unity Platform are killed and 2,000 other people are arrested in protests disputing the results of the general election in Uganda last week. (Hallmark News)
• Protests against Donald Trump
  • Protests against mass deportation during the second Trump administration, 2026 Minnesota general strike
    • Thousands of workers and hundreds of businesses go on general strike in Minnesota, United States, to protest the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's deployment in the state. (The Guardian)
• 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam
  • Vietnam's top leader, Tô Lâm, is re-elected as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the most powerful position in the one-party state. (AP)
• 2026 Japanese general election
  • The Japanese House of Representatives is dissolved on the first day of the plenary session ahead of the general election. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
• December 2025 Kosovan parliamentary election
  • Kosovan prosecutors detain 109 election commissioners over alleged vote manipulation in the recent parliamentary election, prompting a nationwide recount that could delay government formation. (Reuters)
• Haitian conflict
  • A majority of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council votes to remove acting prime minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, two weeks before the council is set to dissolve. Council members Edgard Leblanc Fils and Leslie Voltaire announce that a replacement will be found within 30 days. (AP) (Miami Herald)
• Iliana Iotova becomes the first female president of Bulgaria following the resignation of Rumen Radev. (Reuters)