Arts and culture

• The Australian Government announces that it has purchased the intellectual property rights to the Australian Aboriginal Flag from its designer Harold Thomas for over $20 million (US$14m), allowing for the public use of the flag. (BBC News) (AFP via France 24)

Disasters and accidents

• Millions of people are left without electricity after a major power outage affects Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan's energy ministry reports that the power outage had been triggered by an "energy imbalance" in Kazakhstan's power grid. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
      • The Japanese government announces that the quasi-state of emergency measures will be expanded to 18 more prefectures including Hokkaido, Osaka, and Fukuoka from January 27 to February 20 amid the spread of the Omicron variant. (The Japan News)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
      • South Korea reports a record 8,571 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 749,979. (Yonhap News Agency)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria
      • Bulgaria reports a record 12,399 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 903,676. (Bulgarian News Agency)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic
      • The Czech Republic reports a record 30,350 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours. (Reuters)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in France
      • France reports a record 501,635 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours. (The Connexion)
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
      • Russia reduces the mandatory isolation period for close-contact COVID-19 patients to seven days amid an unprecedented increase in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant cases with the country reporting a record for the fifth consecutive day of 67,509 new COVID-19 cases. (AP)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina
    • Argentina surpasses 8 million cases of COVID-19. (Perfil)
  • History of COVID-19 vaccine development
    • Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech begin a clinical trial to test the safety and immune response of their Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine for adults under the age of 55 years. (NPR)

Law and crime

• Canadian Indian residential school gravesites
  • The Williams Lake First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, discovers 93 potential unmarked graves around the former Saint Joseph's Mission residential school near Williams Lake, British Columbia. (Vancouver Sun)
• A prison riot in the Mexican state of Colima results in the deaths of nine inmates and seven others being injured. (ABC News)
• Four victims of a shooting are found dead inside a home in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The shooting is believed to have happened the night before, and the victims are believed to have known each other. (CTV News)