US, China military leaders hold highest-level call since before Pelosi’s Taiwan visit
Top-level U.S.-Chinese communications have been re-established after months of antagonism and pointed silence. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. spoke Thursday morning with General Liu Zhenli — chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission in the People’s Liberation Army. “We’ve been clear about the importance of opening lines of military to military communications with the PRC at the senior most levels. However, it’s just one step, an important step, but it’s not the last step,” a senior U.S. official told Fox News of the call. The U.S. official continued, “And that’s why we’re continuing to have working level discussions with the PRC about future engagements to make sure that we deliver on what President Biden and Chairman Xi agreed to in November.” CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY TURNING US COMMUNICATIONS ‘ON AND OFF LIKE A LIGHT SWITCH,’ DOD SAYS The two leaders “discussed a number of global and regional security issues,” a U.S. readout of the call said Thursday. “Gen. Brown discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication,” the U.S. said. “Gen. Brown reiterated the importance of the People’s Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings.” The re-establishment of high-level communications follows a collapse in goodwill between the two nations after then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited the island of Taiwan in August 2022. China, which aggressively claims sovereignty over Taiwan despite the island’s autonomous government, immediately ended a slew of diplomatic collaborations, including the types of phone calls re-established this week. BIDEN-XI MEETING TO SEAL DEALS ON FENTANYL, MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE SAYS The last phone call at this level was made by then-Chairman General Mark Milley to his counterpart in July 2022. The official speaking with Fox News attributed the change of heart to President Biden’s persistent appeals to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Biden met with Xi last month on the sidelines of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. This was a follow-up to their first in-person meeting in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia, where they agreed more direct communication between U.S. and Chinese leadership was desirable. “It’s important to reopen the communications,” the U.S. official told Fox News. “These are the kinds of discussions that we need to have to try to avoid misunderstanding or miscalculation. And having those open channels of communication obviously, is a key part of that.” He concluded, “We view the call tomorrow as an important step of this, but also not the only step. And we have more work that we’re that we’re continuing to do on this front.”
What explains the dramatic rise in armed attacks in Pakistan?
Islamabad, Pakistan – A recent deadly suicide attack on a military post in northwest Pakistan has raised fears of the return of armed rebellion in the country’s tribal regions that have seen a dramatic rise in armed attacks this year. A little-known group, Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), claimed the December 12 bombing in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. At least 23 soldiers were killed and another 34 injured in the car bomb attack. The attacks by the TJP have brought back memories of the series of deadly attacks carried out by armed groups led by the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, in late 2000. But why have attacks on security forces increased and how are the Pakistani government and the military planning to handle it? What explains the surge in the attacks? The first 11 months of the year witnessed 664 attacks of varying nature and size across the country, an increase of 67 percent from the corresponding duration in 2022, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based research organisation. But the bulk of the attacks have targeted two provinces – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest and Balochistan in the southwest. Almost 93 percent of the total attacks took place in these two provinces, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the worst affected province, witnessing 416 attacks since November 2022 when the TTP walked out of the ceasefire with the government. Pakistan Taliban’s ideology is aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which currently rules the war-torn country. However, the groups have different goals and they operate independently. Family members of the victims of a suicide bombing in Peshawar weep as they take part in a march on February 1 denouncing armed attacks. [Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo] In January, at least 100 people, mostly policemen, were killed in the worst attack of the year, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The attack was claimed by a TTP splinter group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. The genesis for the spike in the violence, analysts say, could be traced back to the unilateral decision by the Pakistan Taliban to end the ceasefire last year. The armed group has asserted that its attacks were in response to the renewed military operations in the region. Among their main demands include the release of its members and the reversal of the merger of the tribal region with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A stricter imposition of their interpretation of Islamic laws is also one of the demands. The Pakistani army has conducted multiple operations to eliminate the group since 2002 but struggled to achieve its goal as fighters have used the porous border to find safe haven in Afghanistan. Since its founding in 2007, the TTP has targeted both civilians as well as law enforcement personnel, resulting in thousands of deaths. Their deadliest attack came in December 2014, when they targeted the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar, killing more than 130 students. The TTP also claimed responsibility for shooting Malala Yousafzai in 2012. Yousafzai went on to win the Noble Prize for Peace in 2015 and is currently a globally renowned girls’ education activist. The most disconcerting aspect of TJP lies in its implementation of suicide attacks. by Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based researcher The group remains banned in Pakistan and has been designated a “terrorist” group by the United States. Formed to unify like-minded groups in the region, the TTP stepped up attacks in response to Pakistani military operations launched to flush out foreign fighters fleeing the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. In response to the APS attack, the Pakistani military launched a large-scale military operation, titled Zarb-e-Azb, against the armed groups. While the Pakistani army claimed it was able to achieve its objective, the military operation was harshly criticised by the local population as well as human rights organisations. The military was accused of adopting scorched earth tactics and carrying out enforced disappearances of individuals accused of having links with the TTP. Many of those arrested were tried in a military court, which is considered contrary to international law. Which groups have sought to claim responsibility for the recent attacks? With the return of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in August 2021, which has had historical links with the Pakistani security establishment, it was believed that managing the TTP would become easier. A month after the Taliban took over Kabul, it helped facilitate the meeting between the Pakistani military with the TTP for both sides to engage in a ceasefire talk, a decision endorsed and pushed by Imran Khan, Pakistan’s then-prime minister. Subsequently, over the next few months, a tentative ceasefire led to the release of senior TTP leaders imprisoned by Pakistan. It also facilitated the resettlement of hundreds of TTP fighters and their families back to Pakistan. Some of their leaders had been released as part of peace deals with previous Pakistani governments. However, low-scale skirmishes between the two sides continued well into 2022, with both sides accusing each other of violating the agreement. The January 31 suicide blast targeting a mosque inside a police facility was one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistani security forces in recent years. [Muhammad Zubair/AP Photo] Despite repeated meetings, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the growing distrust between the two sides increased. The removal of Khan as prime minister in April 2022, followed by the retirement of army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in November 2022, did not help the cause. The TTP announced a unilateral end to the ceasefire days after Bajwa retired. The emergence of an obscure TJP, believed to be affiliated with the TTP, has further raised concerns among policymakers. TJP has been behind at least seven major attacks this year, including the latest one in Dera Ismail Khan. The group targeted a Pakistani Air Force airbase in Mianwali city in November and in another attack this year in Zhob city of Balochistan it killed at least 14 army personnel. According
UN calls for probe as Israeli army accused of killing unarmed Palestinians
UN rights office calls for investigation into ‘possible war crime’ amid reports Israeli forces allegedly ‘executed’ 11 Palestinian men in Gaza. The United Nations human rights office has called for an independent inquiry into allegations that Israeli forces “summarily executed” at least 11 Palestinian men in Gaza in what it called “a possible war crime”. “The Israeli authorities must immediately institute an independent, thorough and effective investigation into these allegations, and if found to be substantiated, those responsible must be brought to justice and measures implemented to prevent any such serious violations from recurring,” said the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a statement on Wednesday. Disturbing information on summary killings of at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members in Al Remal neighbourhood.#Gaza #opt #IHL #humanrightshttps://t.co/Gf0GdyDPAZ — UN Human Rights OPT (@OHCHR_Palestine) December 20, 2023 Al Jazeera spoke to several witnesses to Tuesday’s raid during which Israeli troops allegedly surrounded and stormed a residential building, going floor to floor to separate the men from the women and children, and then shooting dead 11 of the men in front of their family members. The men were in their 20s and 30s, survivors said. “They saw us, men and their wives and children. My brother-in-law tried to speak and explain all in the house are civilians, but they shot him dead,” one survivor told Al Jazeera of the attack on families who were sheltering in al-Adwa building in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood. The soldiers “forced their way into every home, killed the men and detained the women and children. We do not know their whereabouts. They did the same on every floor. All women were rounded up in one room. By the time they reached us on the sixth floor, they started shooting all men,” a woman said, adding that her father-in-law and son were shot and killed instantly. Survivors also said that the Israeli soldiers also attacked the women and children after ordering them into a room in the residential block also known as Annan building. “The Israeli soldiers rounded up all the women in one room, then fired three mortar shells on us, then kept shooting their machine guns at us,” a wounded woman said. “I was hit with a bullet in my hand, my daughter in her head, my younger daughter was killed and my son is blind. My husband was executed in cold blood. All my other daughters suffered severe injuries, broken bones and flesh torn open. We were all hit by bullets or shrapnel,” she added. Analyst Tamer Qarmout, an assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, welcomed the UN call for an investigation into the “unlawful killings”, telling Al Jazeera that the key issue is how such probes are going to be conducted. None of the entities that could investigate alleged Israeli crimes against Palestinians is currently allowed into the Gaza Strip, Qarmout noted. Other witnesses recalled that the men were forced to strip before being shot, and one man said that “even young boys were not spared. They were all battered and bludgeoned. They suffered broken bones and are in hospital.” There has been no comment from the Israeli military on the attack. Adblock test (Why?)
Greece to join US-led coalition to protect Red Sea shipping from Houthis
The maritime alliance wants to counter threats that the Yemeni rebel group says are a response to Israeli ‘crimes’ in Gaza. Greece will send a warship to support a United States-led naval coalition in the Red Sea, becoming the latest country to join the alliance to counter threats from Yemen’s Houthis. Defence Minister Nikos Dendias announced the move in a televised address on Thursday, saying Greece, as a major shipping nation, has a “fundamental interest” in addressing the “massive threat” to maritime transport. The naval task force, announced by the US on Tuesday, initially listed 10 member nations to help patrol the waters to deter the Iran-aligned Houthis, who have attacked more than a dozen vessels they claim were linked to Israel amid the war on Gaza. The Houthis say they will halt their attacks only if Israel’s “crimes in Gaza stop”. The original members of the Red Sea task force – called Operation Prosperity Guardian – include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. Since then, Denmark has also joined the alliance, according to the Reuters news agency. Meanwhile, the European Union member states have agreed to contribute through the European Naval Force. Australia stopped short of committing its warships to the alliance but said on Thursday it would send 11 military personnel to support the mission. ‘Will not stand idly by’ Despite the Western show of force, the Houthis have promised to continue their attacks on vessels travelling to or from Israel for as long as the Gaza war goes on, saying operations will not cease even if the US mobilises “the entire world”. On Wednesday, Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi warned the group would not hesitate to strike US warships if Washington targeted it. “We will not stand idly by if the Americans are tempted to escalate further and commit foolishness by targeting our country or waging war against it,” al-Houthi said in a televised speech. “Any American targeting of our country will be targeted by us, and we will make American battleships, interests, and navigation a target for our missiles, drones, and military operations,” he added. In recent months, Houthi drone attacks and attempted hijackings have pushed more than a dozen shipping firms to suspend operations in the Red Sea, through which 12 percent of all global trade passes. On Thursday, the foreign minister of Egypt, which has not formally joined the maritime coalition, said countries on the Red Sea have a responsibility to protect the contentious waters and that Cairo would do its part to ensure “freedom of navigation”. “We continue to cooperate with many of our partners to provide suitable conditions for the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” said Sameh Shoukry at a news conference. Adblock test (Why?)
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Harvard admits more instances of ‘duplicative language’ found in President Gay’s work amid plagiarism claims
Harvard admitted it has found more instances of “duplicative language” in President Claudine Gay’s academic work on Wednesday, as the House also expanded its probe into the Ivy League school, demanding to know whether students and the university’s leader were held to the same standards on plagiarism. The Harvard Corporation, the university’s highest governing body, released a summary of a review Wednesday evening saying Gay will request three corrections from Harvard’s Office of the Provost regarding her 1997 Ph.D. dissertation, The Harvard Crimson reported. Through additional review, Harvard said it found two additional instances of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution.” This comes more than a week after the Harvard Corporation said that while “an independent review by distinguished political scientists” of Gay’s work found “no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct,” the university president would be “proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.” Last week, Gay submitted corrections to the two articles published in 2001 and 2017, but Wednesday’s additional findings regarding her 1997 dissertation deliver an embarrassing blow to the prestigious university. EMBATTLED HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY HIT WITH MORE PLAGIARISM CHARGES On Tuesday, Harvard’s research integrity officer Stacey Springs reportedly received a complaint detailing more than 40 allegations of plagiarism — ranging from missing quotation marks around a few phrases or sentences to entire paragraphs lifted verbatim – regarding Gay’s academic works, according to a document obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., sent a letter to Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker on Wednesday demanding more information about the university’s handling of plagiarism allegations against Gay and “the unequal application of Harvard’s Honor Code.” Foxx said the committee “has begun a review of Harvard University’s (Harvard) handling of credible allegations of plagiarism by President Claudine Gay over a period of 24 years. An allegation of plagiarism by a top school official at any university would be reason for concern, but Harvard is not just any university. It styles itself as one of the top educational institutions in the country.” “Our concern is that standards are not being applied consistently, resulting in different rules for different members of the academic community,” Foxx wrote. “If a university is willing to look the other way and not hold faculty accountable for engaging in academically dishonest behavior, it cheapens its mission and the value of its education. Students must be evaluated fairly, under known standards – and have a right to see that faculty are, too.” The letter cites the Harvard College Honor Code that states: “Members of the Harvard College community commit themselves to producing academic work of integrity – that is, work that adheres to the scholarly and intellectual standards of accurate attribution of sources, appropriate collection and use of data, and transparent acknowledgement of the contribution of others to their ideas, discoveries, interpretations, and conclusions. Cheating on exams or problem sets, plagiarizing or misrepresenting the ideas or language of someone else as one’s own, falsifying data, or any other instance of academic dishonesty violates the standards of our community, as well as the standards of the wider world of learning and affairs.” COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CONSULTANT IN ‘COMPLETE SHOCK’ AS MULTIPLE STUDENTS REJECT HARVARD EARLY ACCEPTANCE OFFERS “Does Harvard hold its faculty and academic leadership to the same standards?” Foxx demanded of Pritzker. The letter concluded by requesting Harvard hand over all documents and communications concerning the initial allegations of plagiarism and the “independent review” of Gay’s scholarship described in a Dec. 12, 2023, email to Harvard alumni and students; all documents and communications concerning allegations of plagiarism by Gay and the university’s public response to media inquiries about those allegations; and a list of any disciplinary actions taken against Harvard faculty or students on the basis of academic integrity violations, research misconduct, inadequate citation, or other forms of plagiarism, from January 1, 2019, to present. Foxx also asks for any non-public guidelines or policies governing the university’s process for reviewing and adjudicating allegations of plagiarism and any and all communications between Harvard and its regional accreditor regarding its academic dishonesty standard. The fellows of the Harvard Corporation released a Dec. 12 statement backing Gay despite widespread calls for her resignation following her testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to address the rise in antisemitism on American campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Pressed by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Gay failed to clearly state whether calls for intifada or the genocide of Jews would violate the university’s code of conduct or policies against bullying or harassment. Gay issued an apology after the hearing, and the board ultimately stood by her while also addressing allegations of plagiarism regarding Gay’s academic writing first flagged in October.
Small town elected officials resigning due to new Florida financial disclosure law
A new financial disclosure law going into effect in Florida Jan. 1 is causing many small town leaders to quit their positions, according to reports. The law, passed by the state legislature earlier this year, requires local elected officials to annually file a financial disclosure known as Form 6. It replaces a predecessor named Form 1, and lowers the reporting requirement of liabilities and assets in excess of $10,000 to $1,000, The Tampa Bay Times reports. The form is two pages to fill out, and asks lawmakers for their net worth, the dollar amounts of their income, assets and liabilities and interests in specified businesses. “Why did it suddenly have to become so invasive? We were already reporting our financial situation, but now they want it so granular that it almost looks like an attack on home rule and an attack on small municipalities,” Belleair Beach Mayor Dave Gattis said to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. “If we [are] unable to fulfill our charter, what’s going to happen? Are they trying to force us to dissolve? I don’t get what Tallahassee’s end game is here.” MIAMI FIREFIGHTER AIMS TO INSPIRE MORE FEMALE FIRST RESPONDERS WITH AUTHENTIC DOLLS The wave of resignations is being seen across the Sunshine State, impacting communities of North Palm Beach, St. Pete Beach, Indian Rocks Beach, Seminole, Fort Myers Beach and Naples, multiple media outlets state. Some elected officials who have not left yet say they plan to do so by Dec. 31. Those who choose not to comply face fines or impeachment, WPTV reported. FLORIDA MAN CLAIMS TO BE ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA’ WITH TOP SECRET INFO TO GET ONTO AIR FORCE BASE, DOJ SAYS “Look, when you serve in public office, it’s an honor but it also comes with a higher level of transparency and public scrutiny than you would otherwise,” State Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, told the TV station. “And you know, to borrow an old adage — if you can’t take the heat, don’t come in the kitchen.” Roach handled the bill in the Florida House, and mentioned the long list of officials already required to do Form 6 includes the governor, Florida Cabinet, school board members, sheriffs and the entire Florida Legislature. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Form 6 into law in May. Some in disagreement say they will take their fight up to the state’s capital in the coming months. “It’s just a complete invasion of privacy. For what we do in these small towns, we are volunteers; we’re not career politicians– we’re just doing what we think is best for our town and our city, trying to serve,” Belleair Mayor Mike Wilkinson told FOX 13. “We all have careers and families; it’s not a full-time position for any of us.”
Weather update: IMD predicts temperature drop, dense fog in several states as coldwave intensifies over North India
Over the next three days, there is a dense fog warning for certain areas in Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura, as per the weather agency.
‘Core issue remains space that is given….’: MEA on Hardeep Nijjar row
While addressing a press briefing on Thursday, Bagchi said that India also hoped that Canada will take action against the separatists and anti-India elements.
5 Reasons You Can’t Afford To Miss ‘Chamak’, The Biggest Musical Web Thriller of 2023
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