CharlieH

Israel has insisted the assassination of a Hamas leader in Beirut was not an attack on Lebanon, as its enemies warned of "punishment" for his death. An Israeli spokesman said Saleh al-Arouri had died in a "surgical strike against the Hamas leadership". Hamas condemned the death, while its ally Hezbollah said it was an assault on Lebanese sovereignty. Lebanon's prime minister, meanwhile, accused Israel of trying "to drag Lebanon into... confrontation". Lebanese media report that Arouri, a deputy political leader of Hamas, was killed in a drone strike in southern Beirut along with six others - two Hamas military commanders and four other members. He was a key figure in the Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, and a close ally of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader. He had been in Lebanon acting as a connection between his group and Hezbollah. Israeli spokesman Mark Regev stopped short of confirming Israel had carried out the assassination, a standard position for Israeli officials, but he told MSNBC: "Whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state. "It was not an attack even on Hezbollah, the terrorist organisation. "Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership. Whoever did this has a gripe with Hamas. That is very clear." Arouri, 57, is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since Israel went to war with the group after its 7 October attack. On that day, waves of Hamas gunmen invaded Israel and attacked communities around the border, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a military offensive in response, with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. Since then, more than 22,000 Palestinians - mostly women and children - have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Hezbollah has fired scores of rockets into Israel and fought several skirmishes with Israeli forces during the Gaza war. Lebanon's state news agency said Arouri had been killed by an Israeli drone attack on a Hamas office in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. FULL STORY

Rescue efforts continue in Japan after at least 57 people were killed in a powerful earthquake that hit the country on New Year's Day. Homes collapsed, buildings caught fire and roads were extensively damaged, hindering the work of rescue services. The epicentre of the 7.6 quake was the Noto peninsula, in central Japan. The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said emergency services were locked in a "race against time" to rescue survivors. On Tuesday, Mr Kishida also said some 3,000 rescuers were trying to reach parts of the Noto peninsula. Helicopter surveys showed many fires and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. The city of Wajima, on the northern tip of Noto, has been cut off from land routes. The Japanese military has been handing out supplies including food, water and blankets for those who have had to vacate their homes. The country's government has said that 57,360 people had to be evacuated. Tens of thousands of meals are being delivered across the affected region. Aftershocks continued throughout Monday and Tuesday. Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi warned people to "be alert" for more earthquakes "of an intensity of up to 7" in the coming week. Ishikawa, 155km (96.3 miles) south of the Noto peninsula, experienced a 4.9 quake on Tuesday afternoon. The major tsunami warnings put out by the Japanese government on Monday were later downgraded. By Tuesday, all tsunami advisories were lifted along the Sea of Japan, meaning there was no longer a risk of such an event. Residents of the affected area of Japan have been sharing their experiences of the quake, which lasted several minutes. An 82-year-old resident of Nanao, Toshio Iwahama, told the BBC that his wooden home had partially collapsed. He said that despite living through multiple earthquakes, he had never experienced tremors of this magnitude. FULL STORY

Donald Trump has appealed the decision by Maine's top election official to remove him from the ballot in the 2024 presidential election. Mr Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, asked that a state court overturn the move by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. Ms Bellows has previously defended her decision by saying she has a "sacred obligation" to uphold the law. The former US president has also been removed from the ballot in Colorado. Mr Trump was removed from the Maine and Colorado ballots by challenges that cited the US constitution's insurrection clause and his alleged incitement of the 2021 US Capitol riot. The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution bans anyone whom has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding federal office. In Monday's court filing regarding the Maine decision, Mr Trump's attorneys write that Ms Bellows - a Democrat - was a "biased decision maker" without the legal authority to remove him from the ballot. What is the 14th Amendment? Voter panel: What it means that Trump got kicked off the ballot Additionally, the filing accuses Ms Bellows of making "multiple errors of law" and acting "in an arbitrary and capricious manner". "President Trump will be illegally excluded from the ballot as a result of the Secretary's actions," the filing says. Ms Bellows, a former state senator and executive director of Maine's American Civil Liberties Union, was elected to serve as Maine's Secretary of State in December 2020. A group of current and former state lawmakers challenged Mr Trump's place on the ballot, which Maine law required Ms Bellows to rule on. Several lawsuits in other states - such as Michigan and Minnesota - that are similar to the Maine objection have been rejected in court. FULL STORY

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Clean up on aisle 4 completed.

Summary Five people aboard a Japanese coastguard plane have died after their aircraft collided with a passenger plane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport The coastguard plane was due to deliver aid to areas hit by Monday's deadly earthquake All 379 people on board the burning Japan Airlines plane were evacuated, the airline said Dramatic footage showed passengers fleeing the Airbus A350 on inflatable slides and running across the tarmac Fire ripped through the Japan Airlines flight 516 which had taken off from Hokkaido in northern Japan nearly two hours earlier

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Financial Times’ Predictions for 2024: A Glimpse into the Future The Financial Times (FT), renowned for its rigorous analysis and forecasts, has unveiled its predictions for the world in 2024. Reflecting on their previous forecasts for 2023, the FT has managed to hit several bullseyes, with only three misses. Notably, they did not anticipate the surge of the S&P 500 by over 20%, the absence of blackouts across Europe, and the fact that Africa, save for Ethiopia, avoided a string of defaults. Shaping the Future: FT’s Predictions for 2024 Breaking new ground, the FT’s predictions for 2024 encompass a broad spectrum of global issues, ranging from potential military conflicts and climate change to economic trends and political outcomes. The American political landscape, highly volatile and unpredictable, is a significant point of discussion. The FT predicts that Donald Trump will not reclaim the presidential seat. However, his campaign promises to be a hotbed of contention. In terms of climate change, the FT forecasts that 2024 will surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record, fueled by the relentless march of climate change and the influence of the El Niño phenomenon. FULL ARTICLE Published: December 30, 2023 at 1:21 am EST | Updated: Jan 1, 2024 at 3:39 am EST

S&P 500 Forecast & Predictions One of the most popular stock exchange indexes is the S&P 500. This is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices, and many consider it to be one of the best representations of the U.S. stock market. Because of this, the S&P 500 is often followed to determine the health of the stock markets in the USA, but globally as well seeing as many of the companies in the 500 have a strong influence over the global markets. The reason why this index is such a powerful one is that the companies involved have a huge sway on the market, but it is usually in an upward trend, which is positive for investors. https://primexbt.com/for-traders/s-p-500-price-prediction-forecast/

As we enter 2024 what lies ahead on the global stage may seem more uncertain than it has in years. To help you make sense of it, here are some key themes to watch. 1. Israel-Hamas war threatens to spill over The new year begins with Israel pushing its offensive further into the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ October 7 attacks.International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit the duration and intensity of its war amid global outcry over Gazans being trapped in mortal danger, without critical supplies or access to healthcare, as disease spreads through crowded humanitarian camps. Despite this, Israel has doubled down on its efforts and vowed its war on Hamas will rage for many months. The risk of a wider Middle East conflict is escalating. There are increasing cross-border exchanges between the Iran-backed, Islamist paramilitary group Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on the Lebanon-Israel border. 2. Stalemate as Russia-Ukraine conflict enters third year In February, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will enter its third year. Neither Russia nor Ukraine shows any signs of achieving victory or a willingness to compromise on their incompatible objectives. Ukraine is fighting for its survival, territorial integrity and sovereignty, while Russia is intent on what it calls the “denazification” and demilitarization of Ukraine, and the prevention of its aspiration to join NATO and other Western bodies. The Russian framing of its unprovoked invasion as “denazification” has been dismissed by historians and political observers. Putin starts the year more confidently than he did the year before. 3. Elections, certain and uncertain Elections are always significant, never more so than when so many key players are on the ballots at a moment of global instability. In 2024 2 billion people will go to the polls in a bumper year for voting. The United States’ elections on November 5 could potentially see Trump return to the White House. Trump has a commanding lead over his Republican rivals for their party’s nomination, but the Colorado Supreme Court judgment that he cannot run in the state due to the 2021 insurrection case, followed by a similar decision in Maine, may foreshadow the obstacles he will face. 4. Territorial disputes As the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East show, we are at in inflection point in geopolitics. The tilt toward authoritarianism and long-predicted fracturing of Western hegemony has finally come home to roost. There has been a definitive shift away from American unipolarity, with China and Russia taking advantage of this retreat. The geopolitical axes of power are loosely realigning, with the US and EU on one side and an anti-US axis of China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea on the other. This is leading to bolder, less predictable actions and a more dangerous and uncertain global environment. We will continue to witness this shift, which could be exacerbated by the posturing of non-aligned countries and the rise of competitive blocs such as BRICS. Territorial disputes and revanchism are on the rise. Azerbaijan’s lightning seizure of the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region is just one instance. 5. AI comes of age 2024 looks set to see a tension between exponential artificial intelligence (AI) growth and attempts to regulate it, from governing institutions notoriously lacking in tech savvy. Generative AI – which generates new data, like text, images or designs, by learning from existing data – dates back to the 1950s (we have to give Alan Turing his props here.) But it is only now that we are truly witnessing the paradigm shift as AI technology is widely available and impacting all aspects of our lives. What does that mean in practice? Huge progress in image generation, design, speech synthesis, translation and automation. The rise of AI assistants and personalizing your tech interactions. Instead of text models like ChatGPT, image-generating models like DALL-E 2, and speech models being separate, they will be combined for a more holistic interface. FULL STORY

Nearly 200 names connected to the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking conspiracy could be released by a New York judge as soon as Tuesday, exposing or confirming the identities of dozens of associates of the disgraced financier that until now have only been known as John and Jane Does in court papers. A deadline for objections to the unsealing of the names passes at midnight on Monday, nearly nine years after victim Virginia Giuffre filed a single defamation claim against Maxwell, daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, in 2015, that in turn produced the names in legal depositions. A year later, in 2016, US district court judge Robert Sweet rejected Maxwell’s motion to dismiss the case, finding that “the veracity of a contextual world of facts more broad than the allegedly defamatory statements” and that Guiffre “was a victim of sustained underage sexual abuse between 1999 and 2002”. The parties settled out of court in 2017. From that wellspring came not only the names now set to be released, but a series of civil lawsuits including Guiffre’s action against Britain’s Prince Andrew for “sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress” that was settled out of court without admission of liability for a reported $12m. The prince has always strenuously denied any wrongdoing. The defamation suit also set the stage for a federal sex trafficking case against Maxwell, who was found guilty on five of six charges, and sentenced to a 20-year prison sentence in December 2021. But expectations that the release of the names from the ageing defamation suit could transfer to criminal charges are likely overblown. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019, and after Maxwell’s conviction federal prosecutors made it clear that they considered their work done. Still, US district judge Loretta Preska’s 51-page order explaining her reasoning on whether to unseal or continue to redact the names of about 180 John and Jane Does offers will probably be a serious embarrassment to many high-profile figures . FULL STORY

Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza but preparing for an intense campaign to continue there for “six months at least” as well as expanding preparations for a Lebanon war, a senior official has said. There is growing international pressure to curb an offensive that has so far killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, which rejects calls for a ceasefire, has started pushing the government to scale back the ferocity of its attacks. Plans to send some reservists home from Gaza, confirmed on New Year’s Eve, mark the start of a new stage in the war, a senior official told Reuters, and may be presented as a partial response to those demands. But Israel still expects heavy fighting in Gaza for much of 2024 as it hunts for senior Hamas leaders, even if there are fewer troops on the ground. “This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shejaiya,” the official said, referring to a Gaza district that has been the scene of heavy battles. Reuters did not identify him by name. Not all of those returned from Gaza will go home. Some would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, amid fears of a wider escalation of the conflict, the official told Reuters. “The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment,” the official said, adding that Israel would convey a similar message to a US envoy conducting shuttle missions to Beirut. Even as tensions appeared to be escalating, the US said the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier strike group, sent to the region in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks to deter actors such as Iran from entering the conflict, would return home. FULL STORY

Israel’s supreme court has overturned a law at the heart of Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul project, potentially plunging the country into political crisis as it fights a war in Gaza and faces the spectre of regional escalation. The judges ruled on Monday by a slim majority of eight to seven to throw out a law that curtailed the court’s own powers, saying it would severely damage Israel’s democracy. In July, after seven months of debate, the government passed a law scrapping the “reasonableness” clause that allows Israel’s unelected supreme court to overrule government decisions. The ruling to throw out that legislation, made in a historic first full sitting of the 15-member court, could reignite tensions that roiled Israel over the summer and split the unity government in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attacks. The judicial overhaul project led to months of mass protests that brought Netanyahu’s government under domestic and international pressure. It widened already deep religious, ethnic and class divides in Israel, threw the military into chaos and damaged both its currency – the shekel – and relations with allies. The US president, Joe Biden, at the time was critical of the plans. Attorney Gil Gan-Mor, who represented 38 human rights organisations in a joint petition challenging the law, welcomed the ruling, saying it had thrown out “an attempt to infringe upon the human rights of every Israeli citizen and thwart judicial oversight of government decisions”. Activists had argued that “in the absence of a robust constitution safeguarding human rights”, the supreme court’s ability to throw out legislation was “indispensable for the preservation of democratic governance and human rights”. FULL STORY

It began like any other Danish New Year’s Eve. Martin Ebmark, a hotelier from the central town of Billund, was, “like everyone”, sitting watching the queen’s annual address on the television with his family. He and his wife raised a toast to the queen, resplendent in a Cadbury-purple frock, “when she started talking about ‘the right time’. My wife turned to me and said, ‘she’s not doing what I think she’s doing! Is she?’ Then, she did it.” When Queen Margrethe of Denmark announced she would step down as monarch after 52 years, leaving the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik, jaws hit the floor countrywide. “It was a real shock,” said Ebmark. “She’s been there since 1972. Since I was born. She’s taken care of us for so long, it was … emotional.” Morten Pelch, who works in PR in the Jutland city of Vejle, went even further: “I cried. And then I watched it back and cried again. We Danes have the 1992 Uefa European Football Championship and now we have yesterday: we’ll always remember where we were. She’s the mother of our country, she tells us when we should be doing better. And she’s been there since I was little. So today, all of Denmark is crying.” The Danish monarchy is a more modest affair than most: there will be no formal coronation for King Frederik X when his mother abdicates on 14 January. Instead, he will be pronounced king during an extraordinary cabinet meeting, after which the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, who on Sunday hailed Margrethe as the “epitome of Denmark”, will present the new monarch from a balcony. “Instead of regalia, it [the monarchy] is a driving force for business and diplomacy,” said Pelch. “The Danish media has never been as ‘tabloid’ as the UK’s and the average Danish person hasn’t had much call to question the monarchy. So Margrethe has always just been celebrated.” FULL STORY

A host of new state laws came into effect across the country Monday, reflecting a national rift on key issues and how to address them that doesn’t seem to be shifting course anytime soon. Many of the measures are sure to attract criticism and even mockery from their opponents. For instance, California now mandates large toy stores to include a gender-neutral aisle, regardless of how individual toys are marketed. Meanwhile, Texas followed Florida in banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices on college campuses. But some new state laws are in direct opposition to each other, widening the differences in how people in the United States live from state to state. The minimum wage is rising primarily in 25 states, only seven of which are politically dominated by the GOP. The highest minimum wages, at $16.28 and $16 respectively, are now in Washington state and California. The lowest, the federally-mandated $7.25 an hour, is still the law in 20 states, a majority of them controlled by Republicans. The partisan split is also visible in new laws on reproductive rights and gender-affirming care. Idaho’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, enacted in April, is in effect as of Monday, threatening doctors and practitioners with $5,000 fines and felony charges for providing minors with medications or procedures like puberty blockers or sex-reassigning surgeries. Similar laws came into effect Monday in Louisiana and West Virginia, though West Virginia’s law has significant carve-outs for parental consent, concurring medical opinions, or danger of self-harm. California, on the other hand, will now offer protections to doctors who provide abortions, contraception or gender-affirming care to out-of-state patients, and Maryland will require Medicaid to cover gender-affirming care. STORY

Democrats are sounding off: President Biden is being underestimated. The president’s poor approval numbers, and polling showing him trailing former President Trump, his likely opponent in 2024, have created frustration and anxiety within the party, with some wondering if Biden is leading Democrats into a disastrous election that could cost them the White House and Senate. But a number of Democrats are criticizing the critics, arguing Biden should get more credit for an improving economy and positing his fortunes are likely to brighten in the months leading up to the election. “Biden faces challenges going into 2024, but I’m baffled by seemingly smart political people writing his chances off,” said Jim Kessler, co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way. Those defending the president’s chances argue that the choice will be clear once voters are actually faced with Trump on the general election ballot — a long 10 months away. “I’m very bullish on President Biden’s reelection in 2024. The economy is strong, we’ve recovered from COVID, and we are once again respected in the world. Most importantly, he’s restored a sense of normalcy after four years of President Trump’s chaos,” said David Thomas, a former aide to Vice President Al Gore. “Does work remain? You bet,” added Thomas, a partner at Mehlman Consulting. “But if you ask the question in November: ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ I believe a majority of Americans will answer a resounding yes.” FULL STORY

Bit

Weren't you ever taught "2 wrongs don't make a right" The laws on assault are pretty much universal as I think you well know.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday pushed back against claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, calling such accusations “false” after South Africa filed a case against Israel at the U.N.’s top court. “I would like to say a word about South Africa’s false accusation that Israel is committing genocide. No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,” Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, according to an English translation reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Hamas would kill us all if it only could,” Netanyahu added, referring to the Palestinian militant group that Israel has vowed to eliminate following its Oct. 7 surprise attack. Netanyahu’s remarks were in response to South Africa’s launching a case at the U.N.’s International Court of Justice last week that accuses Israel of carrying out genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Netanyahu argued that Israel’s military is “acting as morally as possible” and doing “everything to avoid harming civilians” as it wages an offensive against Hamas in Gaza. More than 21,500 Palestinians, including many women and children, have been killed since October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The Biden administration has strongly supported Israel following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, but in recent weeks U.S. officials have upped their calls for Israel to be more mindful of protecting civilian lives in the coastal enclave. Several White House officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Llyod Austin and Gen. CQ Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Israel earlier this month, where they encouraged the country to transition to a “lower-intensity” phase of the war. FULL STORY

The Israeli military has said it expects the conflict in Gaza to continue throughout 2024. In a new year's message, Israel Defence Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said troop deployments were being adjusted to prepare for "prolonged fighting". He said some troops - especially reservists - would be withdrawn to allow them to regroup. "These adaptations are intended to ensure the planning and preparation for continuing the war in 2024," he said. "The IDF must plan ahead out of an understanding that there will be additional missions and the fighting will continue the rest of the year." He said that some reservists would leave Gaza "as soon as this week" to allow them to "re-energise ahead of the coming operations". More than 21,800 people have been killed in Gaza - mostly children and women - during 11 weeks of fighting, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The latest war was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which 1,200 people were killed - most of them civilians - and about 240 others taken hostage. Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza? What Gaza's death toll says about the war Israel continued its bombardment of Gaza up until the end of what has been dark year in the region. At least 48 Palestinians were killed in overnight bombing in Gaza City on Sunday, the health ministry in Gaza said, with many still buried under the rubble. Another strike killed 20 people sheltering at Al-Aqsa University in the west of Gaza City, witnesses told the AFP news agency. The BBC has not been able to verify the latest reports. FULL STORY

Japan has urged residents to "evacuate immediately" after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the central region. A major tsunami warning was issued for the coastal Noto area in Ishikawa, warning of waves as high as 5m (16ft). Authorities also issued tsunami warnings for the neighbouring Niigata and Toyama prefectures, where they said waves could reach 3m. Public television flashed "EVACUATE" in big letters, urging residents to flee to higher ground despite the cold. An NHK presenter urged affected viewers: "We realise your home, your belongings are all precious to you, but your lives are important above everything else. Run to the highest ground possible." People have also posted videos of their homes and subway trains shaking during the earthquake on Monday, New Year's Day. FOLLOW LIVE: Tsunami warning in Japan after strong earthquake A succession of 21 earthquakes registering 4.0 magnitude or stronger struck central Japan in just over 90 minutes on Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. The strongest tremor hit at 16:10 local time (07:10 GMT), measuring 7.6. Several local media reports said this was the first time a "major tsunami warning" was issued since 2011, when a powerful earthquake tore through north-eastern Japan and unleashed waves of up to 40m high. Japan is one of the most seismically active nations on Earth, owing to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where many tectonic plates meet. The constant threat of earthquakes has led Japan to develop one of the world's most sophisticated tsunami warning systems. FULL STORY

It's all recordedi n the app, the watch and app are connected. You can look and review everything the watch monitors. You can see its continous 24 hrs a day.......and no I dont do anything but wear it.

Seems they are a bit cheaper now..... https://s.lazada.co.th/s.OnSJj