* European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament concerning the signing of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement. The motion, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, was rejected with 390 votes against, 165 in favor and 10 abstentions.
* Polls opened across Uganda on Thursday morning for local and city council elections, with tight security deployed nationwide. Voters queued to cast ballots for thousands of candidates contesting positions in district, city, and village councils.
* Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo will pay an official visit to China from Jan. 25 to 28 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, a foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Thursday.
* Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reaffirmed her government's commitment to supporting Cuba on Wednesday, confirming oil shipments to the island will continue under a humanitarian aid policy designed to improve the living conditions of the Cuban people.
* Russian forces have struck energy infrastructure supporting Ukrainian military operations and Ukrainian military deployment areas over the past 24 hours, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
* Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday that Denmark's sovereignty is not negotiable, after Washington claimed "the framework of a future deal" concerning Greenland and the broader Arctic region had been produced.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte produced "the framework of a future deal" concerning Greenland and the broader Arctic region, and announced he would not proceed with tariffs on eight European countries that were scheduled to take effect on Feb. 1.
* Europe should draw lessons from its response to the United States over Greenland and strengthen unity, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday.
* Current developments in Greenland are entirely unrelated to Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. Peskov said that issues concerning Greenland have nothing to do with Russia, and that Russia has a great deal of its own affairs to attend to.
* The Greenland government has issued an emergency preparedness handbook advising households to stock at least five days' worth of basic supplies, including drinking water, food and sanitary products, in preparation for potential crises, local media reported on Wednesday.
* The European Parliament on Wednesday decided to put on hold approval of the trade deal between the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) following U.S. threats of tariffs linked to Greenland.
* U.S. President Donald Trump formally launched his so-called "Board of Peace" on Thursday at a charter-signing ceremony during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
* Russia is willing to allocate 1 billion USD from Russia's U.S.-frozen assets to the Board of Peace for Gaza, a move that would require the unblocking of the assets, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
* Britain will not sign U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace" treaty on Thursday, said British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Trump will launch his "Board of Peace" on Thursday in what has been billed as a signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland.
* Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday that Sweden will not join the so-called "Board of Peace" proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump based on its "current text," according to Sweden's public broadcaster Sveriges Radio.
* Norway will not join the U.S.-led Board of Peace or take part in a planned signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, the Norwegian Prime Minister's Office said on Tuesday.
* Europe needs to speed up its push for independence in a fast-changing world, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
* Hungary will not ratify the European Union (EU) free trade agreement with South America's Mercosur, Gergely Gulyas, minister heading the Prime Minister's Office, said Thursday.
* The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said on Thursday that it has already pre-planned military exercises in the Arctic in the near future.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that only the establishment of a fully functioning Palestinian state can bring a lasting resolution to the Middle East conflict.
* About 20,000 children in displacement camps and "rehabilitation facilities" in northeastern Syria face heightened risks as security deteriorates amid renewed fighting, Save the Children warned Thursday.
* Israel's cabinet will discuss reopening the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt "early next week," a senior Israeli official said on Thursday, after the interim Gaza administration declared the crossing would reopen next week.
* Iran's atomic chief on Thursday urged the UN nuclear watchdog to clarify its stance on the June attacks by Israel and the United States on Iranian nuclear facilities, state news agency IRNA reported.
* A senior Iranian military commander warned the United States and Israel on Thursday against what he described as any miscalculation, saying Iran's forces had their "finger on the trigger."
* The Security Council on Wednesday condemned Monday's terrorist attack in the Afghan capital of Kabul. In a press statement, the members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous terrorist attack claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan Province.
* The 9th World Investment Forum (WIF) will be held in Doha, Qatar, in October 2026, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced on Wednesday on the margins of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
* The U.S. military began transferring up to 7,000 Islamic State (IS) detainees from northeastern Syria to "secure detention facilities" in Iraq, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Wednesday.
* Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on Thursday decided to shut down a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant after an alarm went off during the withdrawal of control rods, only a day after the unit was restarted for the first time in about 14 years.
* Republic of Korea on Thursday formally enacted a comprehensive law regulating the safe use of artificial intelligence (AI), Yonhap News Agency reported.
* China's government-backed consumer goods trade-in programs benefited 366 million purchases in 2025, boosting product sales worth a total of 2.61 trillion yuan (about 373 billion USD) in value, government data shows.
* Republic of Koreans' rice consumption hit a record low last year amid changes in eating habits, official data showed Thursday. The per-capita rice consumption decreased 3.4 percent to 53.9 kg in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
* The Philippine central bank has projected a "modest" growth outlook for the economy through the first semester of 2026, before a "rebound" in 2027, according to the country's Presidential Communications Office. The World Bank's outlook for the Philippine economy anticipated a recovery in growth over the next two years.
* The death toll from a shopping mall fire in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi climbed to 60 after at least 30 bodies were recovered from a shop of the multi-storey building, officials said on Wednesday.
* Authorities in the Australian state of Victoria on Thursday issued a warning over a severe heatwave forecast to start on Saturday, with temperatures in rural areas expected to approach record-highs.
