January 6, 2019 (Sunday)
Arts and culture
- 2018 Moscow–Constantinople schism
- The chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) describes the granting of autocephaly on January 5 to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as "a secular event." (Kyiv Post)
Disasters and accidents
- At least 30 people are killed after a gold mine collapses in north-eastern Afghanistan. (BBC News)
- The death toll from a storm that devastated the Philippines shortly after Christmas rises to 126. (News24)
Politics and elections
- Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia) Muhammad V of Kelantan unexpectedly resigns. (Belga via Het Laatste Nieuws) (The Star Online)
- Taliban officials say that they will not attend peace talks scheduled for next week in Saudi Arabia because they "cannot afford" to meet the Afghan government delegation at present. (Reuters)
- Supreme Court Justice Christian Zerpa of Venezuela defects to the United States and denounces the Government of Venezuela for rigging the election. (Reuters)
Science and technology
- Atira asteroid
- The Zwicky Transient Facility in California discovers a large Atira asteroid, 2019 AQ3, an asteroid with a diameter of 1.4 kilometres (0.87 miles) that stays closer to the Sun during its orbit than any other known asteroid, passing from inside the orbit of Mercury to just outside the orbit of Venus. (Minor Planet Center)