Russia: Ukrainian attack on Belgorod killed dozens
NewsFeed Russia has begun retaliating for what it says was an indiscriminate Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of Belgorod on Saturday which killed dozens of people, including children, according to local officials. It followed some of the heaviest Russian strikes on Ukraine which resulted in the deaths of more than 41 people. Both sides deny intentionally targeting civilians. Published On 1 Jan 20241 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Injured Palestinian boy in Gaza no longer recognises his own face
NewsFeed “I hope my face comes back as it used to be.” 11-year-old Palestinian boy Ali Mushtaha was injured in an Israeli attack on his family’s home in Gaza which left his face burnt and disfigured. He says the sight of his face, now unrecognisable, makes him cry. 12 of his relatives were killed in the attack. His wish is to one day meet the goalkeeper for the Egyptian football club Al Ahly FC, Mohamed El Shenawy. Published On 1 Jan 20241 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Family, freedom and unity: House lawmakers reveal their 2024 New Year’s resolutions
The start of a new year brings a fresh start and new optimism to everyone, and there’s often no better way to channel that momentum than through a New Year’s resolution. The same is true everywhere, including on Capitol Hill, where several lawmakers told Fox News Digital they already had their resolutions in mind. “My New Year’s resolution going into 2024 is to stay organized,” Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, said in late December. HOUSE LEAVES FOR THE YEAR WITH CRITICAL BATTLES STILL ON HORIZON She explained that keeping her family home in shape will take on a new significance given the hectic schedule the House has in the first few months of next year, with government funding and other deadlines looming on the horizon. “I travel back and forth from Iowa pretty frequently, so it’s important for me to make sure everything is in its place at home because I have a feeling we have a pretty busy January on deck,” Hinson said. 10 FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PREDICTIONS FOR 2024, ACCORDING TO A DOCTOR AND A WELLNESS EXPERT Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., told Fox News Digital that his resolution was simply “to spend more time with the people I love.” Rep. Greg Pence, R-Texas, suggested he was wishing for some reprieve from the chaotic legislative year Congress went through in 2023 amid a highly fractured – and narrow – House GOP majority. “Unity next year,” he simply told Fox News Digital on the Capitol steps ahead of the last House votes of 2023. Like Moulton, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., focused his resolution on his loved ones. FORGET THAT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION — TRY THE ‘MONDAY RESET’ INSTEAD “Try to be a better husband and a better man,” Burchett said when asked about his 2024 goal. “I’m very fortunate. I’ve got a cool wife, and I’ve got a cool daughter, kind of got a package deal.” He gushed over his teenage daughter, “She’s like, crazy smart. She’s very intuitive. And she’s, she’s good.” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital two different resolutions – one for the country and one for his home. “Wishing all my family stays healthy,” he said when asked his resolution. “And then for the country, you know, hopefully, you know we get on the right track, and we keep America free.” He continued, “Freedom is not free, so we have to fight for it every day. And so my wish for this country is that it remains the greatest country in the world.”
‘Complete inaction’: Congressional ethics violators of 2023 have yet to be held accountable, watchdog says
A conservative government watchdog is alleging that the office tasked with investigating ethics allegations against members of Congress with violating its own mission. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) named the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) the top ethics violator of 2023, accusing the group of failing to protect the interests of taxpayers by not speedily investigating members of Congress for allegations like using public funds for political fundraising. “The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) has failed in its duty to hold Members of Congress accountable,” said Kendra Arnold, FACT’s executive director, in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “Its complete inaction in numerous cases of Members abusing official taxpayer funded resources for political purposes functions as an endorsement of violating basic ethics rules–and it’s simply not too much to ask for enforcement when violations openly appear in places as public as social media platforms.” HOUSE DEMOCRAT HIT WITH ETHICS PROBE OVER ALLEGED CAMPAIGN FINANCE VIOLATIONS Among the members of Congress accused by FACT of misusing official resources are Reps. Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and Eric Swalwell, all Democrats. FACT filed a complaint against Omar in March for a “TikTok account that she is clearly using for both official House and political purposes,” according to the watchdog group. Congressional members are barred from using official resources for campaign purposes. Lawmakers are also similarly prohibited from using campaign funds for official purposes. Many of the allegations that FACT says OCE has not acted swiftly on revolve around TikTok, whose parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, has come under fire from critics who allege it’s a spy app. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Chinese government could use TikTok for data operations, and the House of Representatives banned its use on official devices, citing security risks. Bowman was similarly accused of posting campaign content to his official TikTok account, despite having a dedicated TikTok account for political purposes, according to FACT. WATCHDOG DEMANDS ETHICS OFFICE INVESTIGATE JAMAAL BOWMAN’S FIRE ALARM STUNT: ‘INTENTIONAL ACT’ Bush and fellow Rep. Maxwell Frost both allegedly posted political content with official accounts on X, formerly Twitter, according to FACT. The OCE receives thousands of communications each quarter, but it’s unclear how many of those are complaints of alleged violations of ethics rules. From July to September, for instance, the OCE reported receiving 3,624 communications for requests for information and allegations of misconduct. It’s unclear whether OCE opened preliminary investigations into the alleged violations of social media policy. The OCE did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. FACT says the alleged violations are easy to prove because the posts are public. The OCE has reprimanded similar violations in the past, according to FACT. A member of Congress using official accounts and resources to ask for donations or promote reelection appears to violate rules aimed at preventing taxpayer funds from supporting an incumbent in partisan elections. “The OCE’s continued failure to act will only result in further erosion of public trust in Congress and those bodies intended to hold them accountable,” Arnold said in the statement.
Top lawmaker on AI working group says privacy regs should be a priority for Congress
The vice chair of Congress’ artificial intelligence caucus says privacy regulations need to be a top short-term priority for Congress as Washington looks to get to grips with the rapidly emerging technology – which he says poses risks, but could be a catalyst for the next expansion of the U.S. economy. Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital in an interview that he is an optimist when it comes to the potential for artificial intelligence, but Congress needs to make sure it is protecting Americans from the potential negatives and disruption that AI brings. “I think in the short term, the ability of AI to pierce through digital data privacy and to re-aggregate data that has supposedly been disaggregated and use it to create behavioral models that could be used to influence behavior, that’s very concerning, and that’s something that the government definitely needs to play a role in mitigating,” Obernolte said. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS SHARE 6 OF THE BIGGEST AI INNOVATIONS OF 2023: ‘A LANDMARK YEAR’ He warned that privacy regulations are currently in a patchwork state across the U.S. “Right now, the federal government has done almost no regulation of digital data privacy, and it’s all been left up to the states. So some states have quite comprehensive data regulation, such as California, some states haven’t created any regulations at all,” he said. More broadly, he said Congress’ role involves setting guardrails in which the states work on the issue. He also stressed that Congress needs to do work to prevent the formation of monopolies on the issue, saying lawmakers need to create a pool of resources that academic institutions can use to do research and development on AI – something he says isn’t happening currently. “The cutting-edge research is done behind closed doors by companies,” he warned. Obernolte and other lawmakers in the caucus have introduced the CREATE AI Act, which would establish a National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource – a shared national research infrastructure for researchers and students to use. It’s an issue close to Obernolte’s heart. A former computer engineer and video game developer, Obernolte also has a graduate degree in AI, making him a rare expert on the matter among congressional lawmakers. He says he understands the concerns some share about the technology, but warns that Congress can’t just “regulate for the sake of regulating” and warned against too much of a heavy hand from Washington D.C. He said the U.S. should not follow the approach the European Union is taking, in which he says AI is viewed as something completely new and requiring whole new agencies to regulate it. Instead, he believes that existing agencies should be given the resources to regulate AI within their own sectors. RITE AID BANNED FROM USING AI FACIAL RECOGNITION OVER LACK OF CONSUMER PROTECTIONS He also stressed that the threats from AI are real, but are not those often painted by science-fiction movies, instead pointing to concerns about privacy, monopolies and the potential for malicious actors to use AI to spread mis- and disinformation. “AI is not going to lead to an army of evil robots rising to take over the world,” he said. “But if we’re not careful, it could have very negative consequences for society. So those are the things you have to focus on as we come to craft regulation around it.” Ultimately though, he believes that AI has the potential to benefit the U.S. enormously. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I’m an AI optimist, but there are definitely some risks associated with AI. It will undeniably bring a lot of disruption. Every new technology in human history has been disruptive, starting with the printing press, and most recently with the Internet. But if we manage the disruption appropriately, then I think AI could be extremely beneficial,” he said. “Think about the fact that throughout the history of the United States, every major expansion of our economy has been heralded by an increase in the productivity of American workers. And yet, over the last six years, you’ve seen a gradual decline in worker productivity. AI has the potential to reverse that and be a catalyst for the next huge expansion not only of our economy, but also of American prosperity. So those are the upsides. So that’s why we have to be so careful and so appropriate when we devise regulation around it.”
Left-wing climate group is quietly training judges how to handle global warming cases
A little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits is quietly training judges nationwide on how to handle cases related to climate change, according to a Fox News Digital review. The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Law Institute (ELI) created the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) in 2018, establishing a first-of-its-kind resource to provide “reliable, up-to-date information” about climate change litigation, according to the group. The project’s reach has extended to various state and federal courts, including powerful appellate courts, and comes as various cities and states pursue high-profile litigation against the oil industry. “As the body of climate litigation grows, judges must consider complex scientific and legal questions, many of which are developing rapidly,” CJP states on its website. “To address these issues, the Climate Judiciary Project of the Environmental Law Institute is collaborating with leading national judicial education institutions to meet judges’ need for basic familiarity with climate science methods and concepts.” “We are developing and disseminating a climate science and law curriculum and are conducting seminars and educational programs, in collaboration with leading climate scientists and legal experts,” it adds. “The goal of our project is to provide neutral, objective information to the judiciary about the science of climate change as it is understood by the expert scientific community and relevant to current and future litigation.” JUDGE PRESIDING OVER BIG OIL CLIMATE CHANGE LAWSUIT REVEALS CONNECTION TO PLAINTIFF’S ECO LAWYERS Since it was founded more than five years ago, the project has crafted 13 curriculum modules and hosted 42 events while more than 1,700 judges have participated in its activities. And multiple judges serve as advisers at CJP, potentially having an impact on its curriculum and modules. For example, Ronald Robie, an associate justice for the Third District of the California Courts of Appeal, Judge Michael Simon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, and David Tatel, the recently retired former senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, have all acted as advisers for the project. And a review of an Environmental Law Institute policy brief summarizing past events indicates CJP has reached judges from across the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th federal circuits, some of which are based in New York City, Boston and Puerto Rico. The group further boasts that it hosted a plenary session with approximately 100 judges in attendance at the annual mid-winter meeting of the Ninth Federal Circuit in 2019. DARK-MONEY GROUP WIRED MILLIONS TO LAW FIRM SUING BIG OIL WITH DEM STATES “Spurred by government actions and court decisions — and accompanied by a drumbeat of growing impacts — a rule of law of climate change is emerging,” the brief states. “ELI’s Climate Judiciary Project is preparing the bench to understand the science and ensure justice in the new legal environment.” In 2022, the Environmental Law Institute said it led 80 events, ranging from conferences, policy forums and boot camps on topics that included climate change, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, decarbonization, the Endangered Species Act, energy law, environmental criminal enforcement, environmental justice and ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance). CJP’s various curricula indicate that the group’s courses and seminars blame climate change on fossil fuel production and use. According to the documents, if carbon emissions continue at their current rate, the global average temperature will rise to as much as 4.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100, far surpassing the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set by the United Nations. “The only factor that can clearly explain the rising temperatures of the two centuries is the increasing level of atmospheric greenhouse gases, modulated by land cover change and increases in atmospheric aerosols (pollutants) from human activities,” one of the modules states. “Climate change poses economic and financial risks, which emerge from impacts on infrastructure and the built environment and consequences for markets and other instruments that manage and are affected by such risks,” another adds. “Economic and financial impacts and damages from climate change are already occurring, and the potential costs and losses in the future are substantial, increasing non-linearly with the amount of global warming that occurs.” MAJOR ‘CLIMATE DECEPTION’ LAWSUIT AGAINST BIG OIL VOLUNTARILY DISMISSED Another module is dedicated to discussing “climate justice,” which states that low-income communities have historically been exposed to more environmental harms like “elevated exposure to heat, flooding, vehicular traffic, hazardous materials and pollutants, decaying civic infrastructure, poverty, and crime.” Overall, according to its most recent tax filings, the Environmental Law Institute reported a total of $8.6 million in revenue — the vast majority of which came from outside funding sources and program revenue — and $14.6 million in total assets last year. In recent years, the group has raised millions of dollars from left-wing nonprofits like the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Oak Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. REPUBLICANS INTRODUCE RESOLUTION CONDEMNING UN AGREEMENT TO SHUT DOWN FOSSIL FUELS The Environmental Law Institute, meanwhile, boasts numerous connections to Sher Edling, an eco law firm representing a number of jurisdictions, including Minnesota, New Jersey, New York City and San Francisco, in climate nuisance cases against oil corporations in which plaintiffs argue that the fossil fuel industry has spearheaded a decades-long campaign of deception about global warming risks. Sher Edling — founded in 2017 specifically to represent “states, cities, public agencies, and businesses in high-impact, high-value environmental cases,” according to its website — has also received funding from left-wing groups like the MacArthur Foundation and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which have both funded ELI. “A grant to the Environmental Law Institute will support the Climate Judiciary Project, which was launched in 2019,” the MacArthur Foundation explains as the rationale for a $500,000 contribution to the ELI in 2020. “The goal of the project is to increase judges’ understanding of the objective facts of climate science as it is understood by the expert scientific community, and how the lack of information
‘Invitations only to…’: Ayodhya Ram Temple chief priest on Uddhav Thackeray’s ‘no invite’ remark ahead of inauguration
Acharya Satyendra Das said, “Invitations are only extended to those who are devotees of Lord Ram. It is totally wrong to say that BJP is fighting in the name of Lord Ram, our PM is respected everywhere. He has done immense work under his tenure. This is not politics. This is his devotion.”
Whole pond ‘stolen’ in Bihar following 60-Foot bridge and train engine
A pond in the Darbhanga district was “stolen” over night
Kim Jong Un tells army to ‘annihilate’ South Korea, US if provoked
North Korean leader echoes earlier bellicose rhetoric after promising to launch new satellites and further expand arsenal. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his military to “thoroughly annihilate” South Korea and the United States if they initiate a military confrontation in another round of bellicose rhetoric targeting Seoul and Washington. The two allies ramped up military and political cooperation in 2023 as North Korea conducted a record number of weapons tests, including of a new solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and put its first spy satellite into orbit. At a meeting with North Korea’s top commanding officers in Pyongyang on New Year’s Eve, Kim said his military should “annihilate” the enemy if provoked, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Monday. Kim has already indicated he plans to put three more satellites into space and further develop his country’s weapons arsenal this year. “If the enemy opts for military confrontation and provocation against the DPRK, our army should deal a deadly blow to thoroughly annihilate them by mobilising all the toughest means and potentialities without [a] moment’s hesitation,” Kim said, using the abbreviation of North Korea’s official name. Kim’s comments echo the rhetoric of last week’s yearend party meetings. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un acknowledges the crowd at the 2024 New Year’s Grand Performance at the May 1st Stadium in Pyongyang [KCNA via Reuters] During the five-day event to set the policy agenda for 2024, the North Korean leader accused the US of posing “various forms of military threat”. Kim told the meeting he would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, noting the “uncontrollable crisis” that he said was triggered by Seoul and Washington. In his New Year’s Day address on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said he would strengthen his military’s preemptive strike, missile defence and retaliatory capabilities in response to the North Korean nuclear threat. “The Republic of Korea is building genuine, lasting peace through strength, not a submissive peace that is dependent on the goodwill of the adversary,” Yoon said, using South Korea’s official name. Pyongyang declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power in 2022 and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons programme, which it views as essential for its survival. The United Nations Security Council UNSC) has adopted many resolutions calling on North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes since Pyongyang first conducted a nuclear test in 2006. With the US holding a presidential election in November, and Donald Trump once again in the running, analysts have suggested Kim may be hoping his expanded nuclear arsenal will give him leverage against the US should Trump be re-elected. In 2018-19, Kim met Trump on three occasions but the flurry of diplomacy collapsed after the US rejected Kim’s offer to dismantle his main nuclear complex, a limited step, in exchange for extensive reductions in US-led sanctions. Since 2022, North Korea has conducted more than 100 missile tests, prompting the US and South Korea to expand their joint military drills. North Korea has also tried to strengthen its relationships with longtime allies China and Russia, which blocked efforts by the US and its partners in the UNSC to toughen UN sanctions on North Korea over its weapons tests. KCNA said Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged New Year’s Day messages on Monday on bolstering bilateral ties. North Korea faces suspicions that it has supplied conventional arms for Russia’s war in Ukraine in return for sophisticated Russian technologies to enhance the North’s weapons programmes. The successful launch of the spy satellite came two months after Kim travelled to Russia where he held a summit with President Vladimir Putin and toured Russian weapons factories. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Turbulence’ hits India-US ties after Sikh separatist murder plot
New Delhi, India — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not known to give interviews to the media. In late December he made an exception and spoke to the London-based Financial Times, which had first reported on how the United States government had thwarted an alleged plot hatched by an Indian agent to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil. New York-based Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US-Canada dual citizen, has been branded a “terrorist” by India for issuing threats of violence against New Delhi and for his call for a separate Sikh homeland carved out of India, called Khalistan. In the interview, Modi made light of suggestions that the US allegations of Indian involvement in an attempted extraterritorial and extrajudicial killing had hurt bilateral ties between the world’s two largest democracies. “I don’t think it is appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he said while committing — as his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had done earlier as well — to an internal Indian investigation into the allegations. Yet a series of visits — and one key decision to avoid a visit — point to a strain in ties at a time when both nations are headed towards elections, shrinking the political space available to their leaders to make moves that could attract domestic criticism. On December 11, FBI chief Christopher Wray visited New Delhi for talks that are believed to have included a conversation on the Pannun case — it was the first visit by an FBI director to India in 12 years. The US Congress-appointed watchdog on religious freedom also released its annual report early, demanding that the Biden administration declare India a “country of particular concern”. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom linked the allegations of a hit ordered against Pannun to the broader concerns about attacks on religious minorities in India. It said it was “alarmed” by India’s increased transnational “targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf”. Then, US President Joe Biden turned down Modi’s invitation to attend India’s January 26 Republic Day celebrations as chief guest. No formal reason has been made public, but Biden’s refusal to come to New Delhi has also forced India to postpone a meeting of the Quad grouping — which also includes Australia and Japan — it was hoping to hold during the US leader’s visit. These are among a series of “signs” of the tensions in ties, said Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research. “June was the high peak of India-US ties and they have cooled down since,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to Modi’s visit that month to Washington, during which he became a rare leader to address the US Congress for a second time. “The Pannun murder plot has had a definite role to play in this.” That doesn’t mean that India-US relations are in any serious trouble, said Christopher Clary, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Albany and a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Stimson enter. Besides the Pannun episode, he told Al Jazeera, relations between the two countries were fine. “This is like a commercial airliner that encounters turbulence,” he said. “It can be unpleasant for those aboard but does not endanger the aircraft. We will keep flying even if we encounter bumpy air sometimes.” Clary said that “shared US and Indian concerns about a rising China can paper over many potential US-India differences.” Still, in India, a refrain — from influential voices in the strategic community to people on the street — has gained ground that New Delhi did no wrong if it indeed tried to assassinate Pannun. “If the US can kill Osama bin Laden on foreign soil, then what stops us,” asked an analyst who requested anonymity because of concerns that his candid comments might affect his ability to work on bilateral relations. “Why different yardsticks? Yet India too has deployed different responses to the US allegations, and similarly dramatic assertions by Canada that New Delhi might have been behind the assassination of another Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in the town of Surrey near Vancouver. After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau levelled accusations against India in his parliament in October, New Delhi retaliated hard. It accused Canada of sheltering and supporting individuals and entities it describes as “terrorists” and put a halt to trade talks. New Delhi asked the High Commission of Canada to reduce its staff and temporarily froze visas for those trying to visit India. India was a lot more circumspect in its response to the US allegations — there were no public protestations, and New Delhi instead promised its own investigation into the accusations. The Modi government has explained that difference in its response to the nature of Washington’s approach. While Canada, according to India, is yet to offer concrete proof linking New Delhi to the Nijjar assassination, the US has revealed much more of what its investigation has shown. The indictment against an Indian businessman, Nikhil Gupta, who is now incarcerated in Prague jail at Washington’s request, says that he was in contact with an Indian intelligence operative identified in the legal paperwork as “C1”. C1, the indictment claims, paid Gupta $15,000 and promised a total of $100,000 for the assassination of Pannun. But the hitman Gupta tried to hire turned out to be an informant of the US government who blew the lid on the plot. While the Indian government has tried to suggest that it knew nothing of the alleged plan to kill Pannun, AS Dulat, the former head of India’s external intelligence agency — the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — has said that any such plot would have been known to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Whatever the truth may be, other reports have suggested that India has withdrawn many RAW operatives from North America in recent months. Meanwhile, progress on defence deals over the purchase of Predator drones by