CharlieH

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

Depends how he paid you ? Credit card and it may be charged back and that will cost you more.

A car full of fireworks exploded in the Netherlands after the driver smoked a cigarette and threw it out the window only for the wind to blow it back inside. A 21-year-old man called Gerben, from the Dutch town of Nieuwleusen, bought 75kg of fireworks in Germany on Friday for New Year's Eve. He was only a few miles away from his house when he smoked a cigarette and attempted to throw it out the window - but the wind blew it right back in, causing a fire inside his black Volvo V70. 'We saw red flashes and heard a bang. It went dark inside the car because of all the smoke. We thought: we have to get out of the car,' Gerben told Dutch outlet Hart van Nederland.

To All Our Members, Happy New Year! 🎉 As we stand on the threshold of 2024, it's time to look back at the wild ride that was 2023 – a year of shared tales, problems, cultural exchanges, and, of course, that notorious November outage. If life were a sitcom, that month would be our very special episode, complete with unexpected plot twists and a few behind-the-scenes bloopers. Now, let's address the elephant in the server room – the Great November Outage of 2023. It gave us a moment to reflect, reconnect with the real world (gasp!), and discover that life beyond the digital realm does exist. A shout-out to everyone who weathered that storm with patience, tolerance and a sense of humour. Lets give a thank you to our tireless Moderators, their dedication is the reason we've sailed through many rocky seas of cyberspace and emerged stronger than ever. Moderators – the unsung guardians of our virtual realm!- Thank you for all you do. Now, to you, our members – the heartbeat of Asean Now. Your witty anecdotes, heartfelt advice, and shared experiences, even the heated debates, make this community a vibrant mosaic. Thank you for your valued and continued contributions. Your resilience during the outage and ongoing support truly make Asean Now feel like a virtual home, no matter where in the world you are. As we embrace 2024, let's leave the glitches behind, but not the memories – especially the ones that made us laugh, groan, moan and appreciate the unique experiences we share on this forum. Here's to a year of exciting discoveries, cultural mishaps turned into epic tales, and the unwavering support of the Asean Now family. May 2024 bring you new friendships, enriching experiences, and a surplus of laughter. Happy New Year, to everyone ! Admin/Management

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