Portal:Current events/2025 January 8

January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Boko Haram insurgency
- 2025 N'Djamena attack
  - Gunfire and military vehicles are reported near the Presidential Palace in N'Djamena, Chad, with the Chadian government accusing Boko Haram of being behind the attack. The Chad National Army has reportedly regained stable control of the capital, with 18 insurgents and one security force member being killed in the attack. (Devdiscourse) (Deutsche Welle)
Gaza war
- Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
  - Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip kill at least 27 people. (Arab News)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Zaporizhzhia strikes, Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  - Russian forces attack an industrial facility in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, killing 13 people and injuring 18 others. Further strikes on Zaporizhzhia with guided aerial bombs kill 13 more people and injure 32 others. (Ukrainska Pravda) (Ukrainska Pravda 2)
Insurgency in the Maghreb
- 2025 Point Triple attack
  - Twenty-eight soldiers are killed during a mass shooting in northern Benin near the border with Burkina Faso. (Punch)
Myanmar civil war
- At least 40 people are killed and 12 others are injured in Tatmadaw airstrikes on Ramree, Rakhine State, Myanmar. (Al Jazeera) (India Today)

Disasters and accidents

2025 California wildfires
- January 2025 Southern California wildfires
  - Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, Hurst Fire
    - More than 100,000 people are evacuated from approaching wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Hollywood neighborhoods of Los Angeles and Altadena, California, United States, that have burnt more than 3,000 acres, aggravated by an ongoing extreme windstorm and drought conditions. Five people are killed, dozens of others are injured, and around 1,000 structures are destroyed. (AP) (The Independent) (NBC News) (Reuters)
  - The CALNEV Pipeline connecting oil refineries in southern California to Clark County, Nevada, shuts down due to power outages, temporarily cutting off the gasoline supply to Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base. The Kinder Morgan SFPP Pipeline connecting southern California to Phoenix, Arizona, also shuts down. (KTNV) (Reuters)
Deadly human stampedes in Hindu temples
- Six people are killed and over forty others are injured in a stampede at the Hindu Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. (AP) (Business Today)

International relations

Iran–Italy relations
- The Iranian government releases Italian journalist Cecilia Sala from prison, with Sala arriving back in Rome later that day. (Euronews) (Yahoo! News)
Lithuania–Russia relations
- Lithuanian prime minister Gintautas Paluckas deploys the police to secure the country's electricity link with Poland in response to reported attempts to disrupt the planned decoupling of the Baltic states' power systems from the grid shared with Belarus and Russia. (Reuters)
Azerbaijan protests Eritrea's detention of three Azerbaijani-flagged vessels and 18 crew members since November 2024, stating the ships entered Eritrean waters due to adverse weather en route to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Reuters)

Law and crime

The British government freezes the assets of neo-Nazi music network Blood & Honour, becoming the first far-right group in the UK to be sanctioned by the government. (BBC News)

Politics and elections