January 12, 2017 (Thursday)
Arts and culture
- Two members of funk band Tower of Power are seriously injured after being struck by a train near Jack London Square in Oakland, California.(SF Gate)
International relations
- Cuba–United States relations
- President Barack Obama announces the end of the wet feet, dry feet policy, which previously allowed undocumented immigrants from Cuba to become permanent residents. (CNN)
- Operation Atlantic Resolve
- 3,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Poland as part of NATO's Operation Atlantic Resolve. Poland says that the deployment is a necessary response to Russian military exercises near its border and its intervention in Ukraine while Russia condemns the move as a "threat to national interests and security". (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- European migrant crisis
- Germany announces plans to start deporting newly-arrived migrants to Greece starting in March. According to EU's Dublin Regulation, asylum seekers must file for asylum in the member state they arrived in. (Al Jazeera)
Law and crime
- Robert Xie is found guilty of the Lin family murders seven years after their bodies were found in the Australian city of Sydney. (9 News)
- Cellebrite, a data extraction company used by U.S. law enforcement, is hacked, leaking 900 GB of confidential data from its servers.(Motherboard Vice)
Politics and elections
- The President of the United States Barack Obama awards his Vice President Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, the only time the president has awarded this particular honor during his tenure. (CNN)
Sports
- The NFL's Chargers franchise officially announce plans to move from San Diego to Los Angeles and rename itself the Los Angeles Chargers. The team intends to play its next two seasons at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. (ESPN)