Armed conflicts and attacks
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Iraqi protests (2019–present)
- At least two people are killed and dozens injured after Iraqi security forces fire upon protesters at Sinak bridge in central Baghdad. (Al Jazeera)
Arts and culture
- Foreign Minister of the Maldives Abdulla Shahid says that his country could lose entire islands unless it can access cheap financing to fight climate change. (Reuters)
Law and crime
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Crime in China
- A man is sentenced to death for murdering a doctor in Beijing on New Year's Eve. The murder was the latest in a string of attacks on medical staff in China by angry relatives blaming them for the lack of medical resources and services. (Asia One)
Politics and elections
- Brazilian federal government secretary of culture, Roberto Alvim, is dismissed after the broadcast of a video where he announces a new national prize on culture. During the speech Alvim paraphrases a speech by Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's Reichsminister of Propaganda. (the guardian)
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk submits his resignation after an audio clip of him allegedly criticizing President Volodymyr Zelensky’s economic policies was leaked earlier this week. Zelensky subsequently announces that Honcharuk is allowed to keep his position. (Reuters)
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Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 protests
- At a Friday sermon by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his first in eight years, he defends the Revolutionary Guards’ accidental killing of passengers onboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 and praises Operation Martyr Soleimani for giving a “slap on the face” to the United States. His sermon comes as public anger mounts against the government for their handling of Flight 752. (Al Jazeera)
- Protesters squat an oil terminal in the eastern Libyan town of Zuwetina at the request of tribal leaders, who claim that Libyan National Army Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar is using oil revenue to pay for foreign fighters. The protesters are swiftly condemned by the state-owned National Oil Corporation. (Reuters)