Current events: 2026-01-15

[Wikipedia Current Events]

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 US. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• 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)
• At least four people are injured and several buildings collapse following an explosion in the Utrecht city centre in the Netherlands. (NOS in Dutch) (Al Arabiya)

International relations

• Denmark–France relations
  • French president Emmanuel Macron announces the deployment of additional military forces to Greenland after a Defense Council meeting. (France 24)
• 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) Law and crime
• Sexual deepfake and illegal content generation on X
  • The "Get Grok Gone" campaign delivers letters to Apple and Google demanding they remove Grok from their app stores because of non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material being generated by Grok. (The Register)

Politics and elections

• 2026 Ugandan general election
  • Ugandans vote to elect the President of Uganda 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)
• Salem Saleh bin Braik, prime minister of Yemen, resigns. President Rashad al-Alimi appoints Shaea Muhssin as the next prime minister. (Jerusalem Post)

Science and technology

• The members of NASA commercial Crew-11, who were docked at the International Space Station since August 2025, land on Earth one month early following the first ever medical evacuation from the ISS. (Space) (NPR)
• Frigidaire issues a recall for 330,000 mini-fridges for fire risks, after previously recalling 634,000 last year. (AP)

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