January 21, 2015 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- A Palestinian man from the West Bank, Hamza Muhammad Hassan Matrouk, illegally crosses into Israel for the express purpose to stab people attacking over a dozen Israelis on a bus in central Tel Aviv. Security forces capture the assailant as he continued to indiscriminately stab people in the street. (The New York Times)
- 2014–15 Russian military intervention in Ukraine:
- The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko accuses Russia of sending 9,000 soldiers to help separatists in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
Arts and culture
- Lutz Bachmann resigns as a leader of PEGIDA, a German anti-Islamist organisation, after controversy was sparked by a headshot photo of himself posing as Adolf Hitler. (Christian Science Monitor)
Business and economy
- eBay announces plans to spin off its PayPal business and fire 2,400 employees during 2015. (CNBC)
- American Express plans to cut more than 4,000 jobs. (Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
- Mexico's Volcán de Colima erupts. (ABC News Australia)
- For the second time (previous was August 2000) the Avalon at Edgewater apartments in Edgewater, New Jersey burn down. Among the 400 people evacuated, New York Yankees announcer John Sterling is one of the victims. (CBS) (NJ.com)
Health
- The government-installed pollution gauges that were set up along roadside stations to monitor Hong Kong reach the maximum level of their ranges. (Bloomberg)
- The New England Journal of Medicine publishes research from Portland State University that implies the presence of formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical, may occur in limited situations of e-cigarette vapor. (AP) (The New England Journal of Medicine)
International relations
- Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom announces a plan to shift its European natural gas pipeline from Ukraine to Turkey, through a proposed link under the Black Sea to Turkey. (Bloomberg) (The New York Times)
Law and crime
- Italian police seize 5,361 ancient artifacts worth $64 million from a Swiss-Italian trafficking ring. The discoveries come after various raids on warehouses against Italian art dealer Gianfranco Becchina, who owns an art gallery in Switzerland. (AFP via ABC.Net.AU)
Science and technology
- Microsoft announces Windows Holographic as part of the Windows 10 operating system which is expected to be released in late 2015. (Forbes)