Armed conflicts and attacks

• Turkish–Kurdish conflict
  • PKK fighters kill three Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq, before Turkish fighter jets reportedly kill six PKK fighters during airstrikes. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

• Mexico–United States border crisis
  • Chiapas truck crash
    • A tractor-trailer transporting more than 180 illegal migrants, mostly Guatemalans and Hondurans, crashes in Chiapas, Mexico, killing 55 people and injuring 105 others. (The Washington Post)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, COVID-19 apps
      • Hong Kong mandates usage of its COVID-19 tracing app for all adults under the age of 65. The app logs a person's presence at 18 types of premises, including bars and restaurants, and enables tracing of infections if an outbreak is reported. (CNA)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan
      • Jordan reports its first two cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in a citizen who had travelled from South Africa and another who had no travel history. (Petra News Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
      • Singapore reports its first locally transmitted case of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in a 24-year-old airport employee with no recent travel history. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in North America
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba
      • Cuba reports its first case of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in a person who travelled from Mozambique. (The Straits Times)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, COVID-19 vaccination in the United States
      • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people as young as 16 years receive a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This comes after the FDA authorized the usage of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose for people in that age group. (CBS News)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Austria
    • The government announces plans to make COVID-19 vaccination compulsory for the general population, setting a minimum age of 14 years and requiring unvaccinated persons to pay fines of up to 3,600 euros every three months. The rules will be in effect from February 1 until January 2024. (Reuters)
  • COVID-19 vaccine
    • The World Health Organization recommends that people who are immunocompromised or received an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine should get their COVID-19 booster dose due to reducement of vaccine effectiveness against virus variants. (The Hill)
• HIV vaccine development
  • An mRNA vaccine candidate against the human immunodeficiency virus, developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Moderna and other institutes, shows a 79% efficacy rate and no major side effects in animal trials on rhesus macaques, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature Medicine. (France 24)

Law and crime

• Smoking in New Zealand
  • The government announces that it will begin increasing the legal age by one year for purchasing tobacco every year beginning in 2025, effectively preventing future generations from legally purchasing tobacco products. The plan also involves decreasing the nicotine content of tobacco, limiting licenses for the sale of tobacco, and increasing funding for anti-addiction services. Electronic cigarettes, which are more popular among younger generations in New Zealand, will not be subject to the ban. (The Guardian)
• Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, Human rights in the Philippines
  • The Supreme Court of the Philippines partially upholds provisions of the contentious Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 while declaring unconstitutional the designation of terrorists on the request of foreign jurisdictions as well as the qualifier on harmful dissent. (Rappler)