Law and crime

• Resurfaced videos show the current Syrian Minister of Justice Shadi al-Waisi executing two women in 2015 on prostitution charges according to Islamic sharia law. (Annahar)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Eastern Ukraine campaign, Killing of journalists during the Russo-Ukrainian War
    • A war correspondent for the Russian newspaper Izvestia is killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Reuters)
  • Moscow claims to have shot down eight American ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine and vows retaliation. (CNN)
• Israel–Hamas war
  • Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
    • At least 27 Palestinians are killed and 14 others are missing in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. (Middle East Monitor)
• Kivu conflict
  • M23 offensive
    • M23 rebels capture the strategic town of Katale in Masisi Territory, North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Chimp Reports)
• Anglophone Crisis
  • Gunmen from Nigeria kill at least five Cameroonian soldiers and injure several others in Bakinjaw, Southwest Region, Cameroon. (Reuters)

Business and economy

• Syrian authorities announce that international flights will resume at Damascus International Airport on January 7 for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• At least eight people are killed and 15 others are injured in a fire at a market in Zhangjiakou, Hebei, China. (Al Jazeera)
• The Taiwanese Coast Guard intercepts the Cameroon-registered container ship Shunxin39 after it was suspected of damaging an undersea cable north of Taiwan yesterday. (Taiwan News)

Law and crime

• Myanmar state media reports that the ruling military junta will release 5,864 prisoners, including 180 foreigners, under an amnesty marking the country's national independence day. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• 2024–2025 Georgian protests, 2024–2025 Georgian constitutional crisis
  • Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs announces the expulsion of 91 foreign citizens, including 25 who participated in anti-Georgian Dream and pro-EU protests. (TVP World)
• Federal Chancellor of Austria Karl Nehammer announces his resignation after talks on forming the new post-election coalition government collapsed. (Euronews)

January 5: Twelfth Night (Western Christianity)

• 1757 – King Louis XV survived an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who later became the last person in France to be executed by drawing and quartering.
• 1869 – Te Kooti's War: After surviving a five-day siege in the pā at Ngātapa, Māori leader Te Kooti escaped from New Zealand's Armed Constabulary.
• 1919 – The German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party, was founded by Anton Drexler.
• 1949 – In his State of the Union speech, U.S. president Harry S. Truman (pictured) announced: "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal."
• 2003 – The Metropolitan Police arrested six people in conjunction with an alleged terrorist plot to release ricin on the London Underground, although no toxin was found.