AnewZ Morning Brief - 22 January, 2026
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 22nd of January, covering the latest developments you need to ...
Taiwan issued a land warning on Tuesday and evacuated more than 3,000 people from their homes ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Fung-wong which, while weakening, is expected to dump large amounts of rain on the island's mountainous east coast.
Fung-wong is forecast to make landfall on Taiwan's southwestern coast around the major port city of Kaohsiung on Wednesday, after powering through the Philippines as a much stronger system and killing at least 18 people according to officials.
It is then expected to cross the bottom part of Taiwan and enter the Pacific Ocean along the coast of the sparsely populated eastern counties of Taitung and Hualien.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, writing on his Facebook page, said people should not head into the mountains or go to the coast or other potentially dangerous areas.
In September, 18 people died in Hualien in flooding unleashed by an earlier typhoon.
The government has already ordered evacuations in the town of Guangfu, the scene of those deadly floods, and said a total of 3,337 people in four counties and cities had been moved to safer areas.
Hualien closed schools and offices on Tuesday, as did the neighbouring county of Yilan.
The typhoon will not directly affect the northern city of Hsinchu, home to TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker.
Most deaths in the Philippines were caused by landslides in its mountainous northern Cordilleras, Senior Civil Defence Official Raffy Alejandro told a briefing, with two people reported missing and 28 injured.
Several locally-developed instant messaging applications were reportedly restored in Iran on Tuesday (20 January), partially easing communications restrictions imposed after recent unrest.
There was a common theme in speeches at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday (20 January). China’s Vice-Premier, He Lifeng, warned that "tariffs and trade wars have no winners," while France's Emmanuel Macron, labelled "endless accumulation of new tariffs" from the U.S. "fundamentally unacceptable."
Dozens of beaches along Australia's east coast, including in Sydney, closed on Tuesday (20 January) after four shark attacks in two days, as heavy rains left waters murky and more likely to attract the animals.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would “work something out” with NATO allies on Tuesday, defending his approach to the alliance while renewing his push for U.S. control of Greenland amid rising tensions with Europe.
At the World Economic Forum’s “Defining Eurasia’s Economic Identity” panel on 20 January 2026, leaders from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Serbia discussed how the South Caucasus and wider Eurasian region can strengthen economic ties, peace and geopolitical stability amid shifting global influence.
Several people, including children, were reported missing in New Zealand's north island on Thursday after a landslide struck a coastal campsite amid heavy rain that caused evacuations of people to safety, road closures and widespread power outages.
At least four people were killed on Tuesday as floods swept across Tunisia during the worst torrential rain for more than 70 years in some regions, and there were fears the death toll could rise, authorities said.
The world has already entered an era of global water bankruptcy, with irreversible damage to rivers, aquifers, lakes and glaciers pushing billions of people into long-term water insecurity, according to a major United Nations report released on Tuesday.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in two southern regions of country on Sunday as raging wildfires forced at least 20,000 people to evacuate and left at least 19 people dead.
A landmark global treaty to safeguard biodiversity in the high seas came into effect on Saturday, providing countries with a legally binding framework to tackle threats and meet a target to protect 30% of the ocean environment by 2030.
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