Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel is sold at auction for $92.2 million at Sotheby's in New York City, making it the second most expensive painting by an old master ever sold at public auction.
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January 28, 2021 (Thursday)
3.6 minutes to read
Arts and culture
Business and economy
The United States's GDP contracts 3.5% in 2020, its first annual contraction since 2009 following the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the country's worst economic performance since 1946.
The World Tourism Organization reports that the global tourism sector lost $1.3 trillion in revenue in 2020, calling it "the worst year in tourism history". The organization attributes the loss to COVID-19.
Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, and Webull restrict the trade of heavily shorted stocks such as GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Koss on their platforms.
A class action lawsuit was filed against Robinhood in response to shutting down the buying of stocks at the center of the short squeeze. US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has called for an investigation into the ban on stock sales.
The Philippines' GDP contracts 9.5% in 2020, its first annual contraction since 1998 following the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the country's worst economic performance since records began in 1947.
Disasters and accidents
Six people are killed and nine others hospitalized due to a leak of liquid nitrogen at a poultry plant in Gainesville, Georgia, United States.
Health and environment
The number of deaths from COVID-19 in Andorra reaches 100.
The government announces the closure of its border with Spain for two weeks beginning January 31.
Spain reports their first case of the 501.V2 variant in a 30-year-old man who travelled from South Africa to Vigo.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I receives the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Japan reports a record 113 deaths in the past 24 hours.
The Food and Drug Administration approves the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use in the Philippines.
Vietnam reports their first two locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in 55 days in Hải Dương and Quảng Ninh provinces, with one of them linked to the B.1.1.7 variant.
Australia extends the suspension of their travel bubble with New Zealand for another 72 hours due to concerns about new variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Brazil surpasses nine million cases of COVID-19, becoming the third country to do so after India and the United States.
The Navajo Nation surpasses 1,000 deaths from COVID-19.
Vaccine developer Novavax announces that their vaccine candidate is 89% effective in preventing severe COVID-19, based on trial data from the United Kingdom; their vaccine was less effective against new variants of the virus, based on data from South Africa.
South Carolina reports the United States' first two cases of the 501.V2 variant first detected in South Africa in people with no known travel history.
Senegal reports their first case of a more contagious variant of SARS-CoV-2 that originated in the United Kingdom.
International relations
The United Nations' International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea rules that the United Kingdom has no legal sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, and must return control of the islands back to Mauritius. The British Foreign Office rejects the ruling, saying that "Mauritius has never held sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory and the UK does not recognise its claim".
Law and crime
New York Attorney General Letitia James releases a report accusing the state of undercounting the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
Politics and elections
Science and technology
Google removes major Australian news sites from some of its search results in an "experiment" in reaction to the Australian government's calls for Google to pay these sites for their content.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission releases a report accusing Google of misusing its advertisement system to promote Alphabet Inc.'s own financial interests.
Sports
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