Portal:Current events/2020 January 22

January 22, 2020 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Second Libyan Civil War
- Mitiga International Airport, the only functioning airport in Libya's capital Tripoli, closes and a flight from Tunisia is diverted after forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar fire rockets toward the airport. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Elliott Management, a prominent hedge fund, has sold all its shares in the Hyundai Motor Group of South Korea. It had long quarreled with Hyundai's management, demanding more generous dividend pay-outs. Their departure from the shareholder ranks is likely welcomed by Hyundai executives. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Police in the Solomon Islands launch search operations to find nine people from a capsized boat near Isabel Province. Five men, two women and two children were on board. (RNZ)
A small plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Corona Municipal Airport in California, killing all four on board. (CNN)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Mainland China
  - Chinese authorities quarantine the entire city of Wuhan to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus as the death toll rises to 17. Nobody in the city will be able to leave starting from 10 a.m. local time on January 23, and all public transport in the city is suspended. (The Guardian)

International relations

UN special rapporteurs Agnès Callamard and David Kaye demand an investigation into claims made by The Guardian yesterday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the 2018 hacking of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's phone. The hack was allegedly done months before the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, who was employed at Bezos's newspaper The Washington Post and was a fierce critic of the Saudi government. The Saudi Foreign Ministry dismisses the allegations as "absurd". (Reuters)
Libyan peace process
- Algeria announces it will host a meeting with foreign ministers from six North and sub-Saharan African nations, all of whom share a border with Libya, following the Berlin peace summit to help strengthen support for a tentative peace deal to end the Second Libyan Civil War. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

List of mass shootings in the United States in 2020
- Eight people are shot, one fatally, following a dispute outside a McDonald's in downtown Seattle, Washington. (The Seattle Times)
LGBT rights in South Korea
- A South Korean transgender soldier says she will sue the armed forces after it discharged her. The soldier, Byun Hui-su, says she will take her claim "until the end, to the Supreme Court". (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Science and technology

The Seattle metropolitan area becomes the first place in the United States to allow vote by smartphone, which they authorized for a board of supervisors election in King County, Washington on February 11. (NPR)

Sports