The European Union on _____ cut seven Russian banks from the Swift payment system.

Three people, including two Indian nationals and one Pakistani national, were kill as three fuel trucks exploded and a fire broke out near Abu Dhabi airport on Monday in what Yemen’s Houthis claimed was an attack deep inside the United Arab Emirates. Three people were killed and six wounded when the three fuel tanker trucks exploded in the industrial Musaffah area near storage facilities of oil firm ADNOC, state news agency WAM said.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 15 member countries account for about 30% of the world’s populations (2.2 billion people) and 30% of global GDP ($26.2 trillion), making it the largest trade bloc in history. It is the first free trade agreement among the East Asian countries of China, Japan, and South Korea, three of the four largest economies in Asia.

Nine people died after Indonesia’s capital was hit by its deadliest flooding in years, authorities said Wednesday, as torrential rains on New Year´s Eve left vast swathes of the megalopolis submerged. Thousands were evacuated to temporary shelters as electricity was switched off in scores of waterlogged neighbourhoods across greater Jakarta, home to about 30 million people, with some train lines and one of the city´s airports also shut. Indonesia´s National Disaster Mitigation Agency called on residents to leave flood-hit areas.

Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen created a unique feat when he won both the World Rapid and World Blitz chess titles in Almaty. The 32-year-old became the holder of all three world chess championship titles – in Classical, Rapid and Blitz – for the third time in his career. As of 2022, no other player has ever won both the Rapid and Blitz titles in the same year.