Europe’s leaders and top officials are descending on Kyiv with pledges of fresh support as Russia continues its relentless air attacks against Ukraine.
Newly appointed French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said on Saturday in Kyiv that Ukraine will remain “France’s priority” despite “the multiplying crises” during his first foreign trip after his appointment last week. Séjourné hailed a “new phase” in joint weapons production with Ukraine during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.
Séjourné’s trip came on the heels of a visit Friday by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during which he announced a multi-year security pact with Ukraine. The British leader committed £2.5 billion (€2.9 billion) in military aid to Ukraine for 2024/2025, as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
France’s Séjourné pledged to boost joint cooperation with Ukraine and “reinforce Ukraine’s capacity to produce on its territory” with France’s top firms. France has also been negotiating a security pact with Ukraine but the details have yet to be announced.
Poland’s Donald Tusk is expected to visit Kyiv this week, possibly on Monday.
The visits by European leaders come in the wake of weeks of renewed Russian air strikes against Ukraine and amid fears that U.S. help has stalled due to a blocked Congress and this year’s American presidential election. On Saturday, Ukrainian air defenses recorded a total of 40 attacks.
Earlier this month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz issued an unusually stark call to other EU countries to deliver more weapons to Ukraine. The arms deliveries planned so far were “too small,” he said, despite Berlin’s pledge to double its military aid to Kyiv to €8 billion this year.
According to the Kiel Institute, which tallied up military aid to Ukraine in the public domain, Germany was the second-highest donor last year after the U.S., with €17.1 billion; it was followed by the U.K. with €6.6 billion and by Nordic and eastern EU countries. France, in comparison, has only contributed €0.54 billion, Italy €0.69 billion and Spain €0.34 billion.
It’s that time of year again: Leaders, business titans, philanthropists and celebs descend on the Swiss ski town of Davos to discuss the fate of the world and do deals/shots with the global elite at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
This year’s theme: “Rebuilding trust.” Prescient, given the dumpster fire the world seems to be turning into lately, both literally (climate change) and figuratively (where to even begin?).
As always, the Davos great and good will be rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s absolute top-drawer dirtbags. While there’s been a distinct dearth of Russian oligarchs in attendance at the WEF since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Donald Trump will be tied up with the Iowa caucus, there are still plenty of would-be autocrats, dictators, thugs, extortionists, misery merchants, spoilers and political pariahs on the Davos guest list.
1. Argentine President Javier Milei
Known as the Donald Trump of Argentina — and also as “The Madman” and “The Wig” — the chainsaw-wielding Javier Milei has it all: a fanatical supporter base, background as a TV shock jock, libertarian anarcho-capitalist policies (except when it comes to abortion), and a … memorable … hairdo.
A long-time Davos devotee (he’s been attending the WEF for years), Milei’s libertarian policies have turned from kooky thought bubbles to concerning reality after he was elected president of South America’s second-largest economy, riding a wave of discontent with the political establishment (sound familiar?). The question now is how far Milei will go in delivering on his campaign promises to hack back public service and state spending, close the Argentine central bank and drop the peso.
If you do get stuck talking to Milei in the congress center or on the slopes, here are some conversation starters …
Rumor has it that Mohammed bin Salman will make his first in-person WEF appearance at this year’s event, accompanied by a giant posse of top Saudi officials.
It’s the ultimate redemption arc for the repressive authoritarian ruler of a country with an appalling human rights record — who, according to United States intelligence, personally ordered the brutal assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Rumor has it that Mohammed bin Salman will make his first in-person WEF appearance at this year’s event | Leon Neal/Getty Images
Perhaps MBS would still be a WEF pariah — consigned to rubbing shoulders with mere B-listers at his own Davos in the desert — if it were not for that other one-time Davos-darling-turned-persona-non-grata: Russian President Vladimir Putin. By launching his invasion of Ukraine, which killed thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops, Putin managed to push the West back into MBS’ embrace. Guess it’s all just oil under the bridge now.
Here’s a piece of free advice: Try to avoid being caught getting a signature MBS fist-bump. Unless, of course, you’re the next person on our list …
3. Jared Kushner, founder of Affinity Partners
Jared Kushner is the closest anyone on the mountain is likely to come to Trump, the former — and possibly future — billionaire baron-cum-anti-elitist president of the United States of America.
On the one hand, a chat with The Donald’s son-in-law in the days just after the Iowa caucus would probably be quite a get for the Davos devotee. On other hand … it’s Jared Kushner.
The 43-year-old, who is married to Ivanka Trump and served as a senior adviser to the former president during his time in office, leveraged his stint in the White House to build up a lucrative consulting career, focused mainly on the Middle East.
Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, is largely funded through Gulf countries. That includes a $2 billion investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, led by bin Salman — which was, coincidentally, pushed through despite objections by the crown prince’s own advisers.
Kushner struck up a friendship and alliance with MBS during his father-in-law’s term in office, raising major conflict-of-interest suspicions for the Trump administration — especially when the then-U.S. president refused to condemn the Saudi leader in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, despite the CIA concluding he was directly involved.
Running Azerbaijan is something of a family business for the Aliyevs — Ilham assumed power after the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, an ex-Soviet KGB officer who ruled the country for decades. And the junior Aliyev changed Azerbaijan’s constitution to pave the path to power for the next generation of his family — and appointed his own wife as vice president to boot.
5. Chinese Premier Li Qiang
Li Qiang is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ultra-loyal right-hand man, and will represent his boss and his country at the World Economic Forum this year.
Li’s claim to infamy: imposing a brutal lockdown on the entirety of Shanghai for weeks during the coronavirus pandemic, which trapped its 25 million-plus inhabitants at home while many struggled to get food, tend to their animals or seek medical help — and tanking the city’s economy in the process.
Li’s also the guy selling (and whitewashing) China’s Uyghur policy in the Islamic world. In case you need a refresher, China has detained Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslim, in internment camps in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where there have been allegations of torture, slavery, forced sterilization, sexual abuse and brainwashing. China’s actions have been branded genocide by the U.S. State Department, and as potential crimes against humanity by the United Nations.
Li Qiang will represent his boss and his country at the World Economic Forum this year | Johannes Simon/Getty Images
Nicknamed “the Napoleon of Africa” in a nod to his campaign to seize power in 1994, Paul Kagame has ruled over the land of a thousand hills since. He’s often praised for overseeing what is probably the greatest development success story of modern Africa; he’s also a dictator.
Forced from office in 2018 by mass protests following the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, Fico rose from the political ashes to become Slovakian prime minister for the fourth time late last year. His Smer party ran a Putin-friendly campaign, pledging to end all military support for Ukraine.
Slovakian courts are still working through multiple organized crime cases stemming from the last time Smer was in power, involving oligarchs alleged to have profited from state contracts; former top police brass and senior military intelligence officers; and parliamentarians from all three parties in Fico’s new coalition government.
8. President of Hungary Katalin Novák
Katalin Novák, elected Hungarian president in 2022, must’ve pulled the short straw: she’s been sent to Davos to fly the flag for the EU’s pariah state. Luckily, the 46-year-old is used to being the odd one out at a shindig: She’s both the first woman and the youngest-ever Hungarian president.
It’s her thoughts on the gender pay gap, though, that ought to get attention at the famously male-dominated World Economic Forum: In an infamous video posted back in late 2020, Novák told the sisterhood: “Do not believe that women have to constantly compete with men. Do not believe that every waking moment of our lives must be spent with comparing ourselves to men, and that we should work in at least the same position, for at least the same pay they do.” That’s us told.
9. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet
You may be surprised to see Hun Manet on this list: The new, Western-educated Cambodian prime minister has been touted in some circles as a potential modernizer and reformer.
But Hun Manet is less a breath of fresh air and a lot more continuation of the same stale story. Having inherited his position from his father, the longtime autocrat Hun Sen, Hun Manet has shown no signs of wanting to reform or modernize Cambodia. While some say it’s too early to tell where he’ll land (given his dad’s still on the scene, along with his Communist loyalists), the fact is: Many hallmarks of autocracy are still present in Cambodia. Repression of the opposition? Check. Dodgy “elections”? Check. Widespread graft and clientelism? Check and check.
10. Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani
How has a small kingdom of 2.6 million inhabitants in the Persian Gulf managed to play a starring role in so many explosive scandals?
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani is the prime minister of Qatar, a country that’s played a starring role in many explosive scandals | Chris J. Ratcliffe/AFP via Getty Images
You’d think that sort of record would see Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani shunned by the world’s top brass. Nah! Just this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Qatari leader and told him the U.S. was “deeply grateful for your ongoing leadership in this effort, for the tireless work which you undertook and that continues, to try to free the remaining hostages.”
See you on the slopes, Mohammed!
11. Polish President Andrzej Duda
When you compare Polish President Andrzej Duda to some of the others on this list, he doesn’t seem to measure up. He’s not a dictator running a violent petro-state, hasn’t invaded any neighbors or even wielded a chainsaw on stage.
But Duda is yesterday’s man. As the last one standing from Poland’s nationalist Law and Justice party that was swept out of office last year, Duda’s holding on for dear life to his own relevance, doing his best to act as a spoiler against the Donald Tusk-led government by wielding his veto powers and harboring convicted lawmakers. All of which is to say: When you catch up with President Duda at Davos, don’t assume he’s speaking for Poland.
12. Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco
The Saudi Arabian state oil and gas company is Aramco — the world’s biggest energy firm — and Amin Nasser is its boss. If you read Aramco’s press releases, you’d be forgiven for assuming it is also the world’s biggest champion of the green energy transition. Spoiler alert: It’s far from it.
Exhibit A: Aramco is reportedly a top corporate polluter, with environment nongovernmental organization ClientEarth reporting that it accounts for more than 4 percent of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. Exhibit B: Bloomberg reported in 2021 that it understated its carbon footprint by as much as 50 percent.
Nasser, meanwhile, has criticized the idea that climate action should mean countries “either shut down or slow down big time” their fossil fuel production. Say that to Al Gore’s face!
This article has been updated to reflect the fact Shou Zi Chew is no longer going to attend the World Economic Forum.
Dionisios Sturis, Peter Snowdon, Suzanne Lynch and Paul de Villepin contributed reporting.
Warning in talks between Chinese and US military officials comes days before self-ruled island holds elections.
Chinese military officials have told their US counterparts that Beijing will “never compromise” on the issue of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own.
The United States and China wrapped up two days of military talks in Washington, DC on Tuesday, the Pentagon said, the latest round of discussions since the two countries agreed to resume military-to-military ties.
The two sides are at odds over a range of issues from Taiwan to Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea but agreed to resume talks after a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping last November.
China “stressed that it will never compromise or back down on the Taiwan issue”, China’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement on the talks on Wednesday, urging the United States to “stop arming” the island, which is holding elections on Saturday.
The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to secure territorial control.
The Chinese side also urged the United States to “reduce its military deployment and provocative actions in the South China Sea and stop supporting violations and provocations by individual countries”, the statement continued.
“The United States should fully understand the root causes of maritime and air security issues, strictly rein in its frontline troops, and stop with the exaggeration and hype,” it said.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea under its “nine-dash line“; a marker that an international court ruled in 2016 to be without legal basis.
In defiance of the ruling, Beijing has been expanding its activities in the South China Sea, building artificial islands and deploying its coastguard, fishing fleet and maritime militia to key areas.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim parts of the sea and Manila, in particular, has been involved in a number of confrontations with Chinese vessels at sea.
In its statement on the discussions, the Pentagon said Michael Chase, the deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, had met China’s Major General Song Yanchao, deputy director of the central military commission office for international military co-operation.
“The two sides discussed U.S.-PRC defense relations, and Chase highlighted the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication in order to prevent competition from veering into conflict,” the statement said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
Chase told the Chinese side the US would “continue to fly, sail, and operate safely and responsibly wherever international law allows”.
He stressed the “importance of respect for high seas freedom of navigation” in light of “repeated PRC harassment against lawfully operating Philippine vessels in the South China Sea”.
Chase also “reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Strait” of Taiwan, the Pentagon added.
US officials have cautioned that even with some restoration of military communications, forging truly functional dialogue between the two sides could take time.
NASHUA, N.H., January 9, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Kellen Giuda announces today the launch of KG Capital and the sale of his company American Military News (AMN). KG Capital will focus on quantitative and AI-driven strategies in equities and options markets, while supporting futurist startups.
AMN’s acquisition will accelerate its growth and impact, and marks a significant milestone for American Military News since Giuda founded AMN in 2015. AMN has been at the forefront of delivering comprehensive and unbiased reporting on military, defense, national security and geopolitical matters, both domestically and internationally, cementing its place as a trusted and respected news source, including:
Informing and educated 215 million readers ranging from the general public, White House, National Security Council, Pentagon, Hollywood, and governments and corporations worldwide
Maintaining a perfect 100/100 score by media watchdog NewsGuard for trust, unbiased reporting and accuracy for five years running
Creating top-ranking mobile apps and a popular chatbot
Reporting annually from the field of the Army/Navy football game
Breaking impactful, original reporting cited by all major news outlets
Significantly influencing America’s awareness of geopolitical and military affairs
“American Military News was born out of my commitment to bring unfiltered news about the rise of geopolitical challenges to America, particularly China’s Communist Party, terrorism and fiscal threats, to the American public,” said Kellen Giuda, AMN’s founder. “I can’t thank enough all the wonderful people who have helped build and lead AMN over the past eight years. I am particularly proud that AMN has served as a launching pad for so many in their careers and contributed to their success toward their own goals.
“In particular, Rob Abraham, a U.S. Navy MP veteran and AMN’s CTO/minority stakeholder, has been pivotal in maintaining AMN’s tech operations since inception. His innovative problem-solving and quick development of unique solutions have been key to AMN’s continual growth.
“AMN has fulfilled my initial vision of bringing critical issues to the forefront of Americans’ minds. As I build KG Capital, I look forward to staying involved in national security and defense related issues, helping to spur growth, innovation and entrepreneurship in ways that strengthen America’s competitiveness.”
Wylde Inc., an enterprising e-commerce business, is acquiring American Military News to expand its focus and is anticipating bringing AMN to the next level as the world experiences increased volatility and the public’s interest in this area grows.
KG Capital is poised to leverage Kellen Giuda’s experience, entrepreneurship and insights gained from 20 years across multiple sectors, including architecture, management consulting, the news media industry, a presidential campaign and non-profits. The launch of KG Capital underscores Giuda’s entrepreneurial spirit and his ongoing commitment to fostering growth and innovation.
For more information: info@kgcap.com.
About Kellen Giuda
Kellen Giuda is founder, CEO and CIO of KG Capital, a capital management firm focused on quantitative and AI-driven strategies in equities and options markets, while supporting futurist startups. Giuda previously built a management consulting company, helped lead a presidential campaign and was an architectural project manager. He has served on the board of multiple non-profit organizations.
Founded by Kellen Giuda, KG Capital is a private capital management firm focused on quantitative and AI-driven strategies in equities and options markets, while supporting futurist startups.
American Military News is a leading provider of news and information on the U.S. military, global foreign affairs, current events, and cultural topics.
Former President and current GOP presidential candidate front-runner Donald Trump took to Truth Social to weigh in on the scandal surrounding the secret hospitalization of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The United States and, by extension, the world first learned about Secretary Austin’s hospitalization days after he was admitted and placed in an intensive care unit.
Even more concerning is the revelations that the majority of the Biden administration, including the Commander-in-Chief himself, weren’t made aware of the Secretary’s medical condition or whereabouts until days later. Will anyone be held accountable for this apparent obfuscation of the truth?
Donald Trump and many others think someone should be. Still, it remains to be seen if accountability, let alone transparency, will be achieved.
You should be fired!
Former Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social:
“Failed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty.”
This latest attack on the Secretary of Defense comes after the Pentagon finally disclosed that the sixth person in the presidential line of succession and the second most important person in the military chain of command next to the President himself was hospitalized for an unknown reason without anyone being made aware.
This includes the military secretaries and the National Security Council, who weren’t made aware until days later. Even the Deputy Secretary of Defense, who assumed Secretary Austin’s duties on January 1st, wasn’t told why she was doing his job until days later.
I still can’t believe that our president lost our SECDEF for a week. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mr. Trump goes on to touch on the track record of senior military officials failures and lack of accountability by writing that Secretary Austin has:
“…performed poorly, and should have been dismissed long ago, along with “General” Mark Milley, for many reasons, but in particular the catastrophic surrender in Afghanistan, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our Country!”
It’s not just Donald Trump claiming Secretary Austin should be given his walking papers. Congressman Jim Banks pointed out that:
“…he has been a disaster since Day One and should be replaced by someone who will focus on making the military ready to fight and win wars instead of advancing woke political causes of the Biden administration.”
Mr. Trump’s former Vice President, Mike Pence, stated the following:
“To think that at a time when we have allies at war in Eastern Europe and here in Israel, that the leader of America’s military at the Pentagon would be out of commission for a number of days, and the President of the United States didn’t know about it. I think it was a dereliction of duty…”
While Secretary Austin is no longer in the United States military, he once was and is in every U.S. military member’s chain of command. If any soldier, sailor, Airman, or Marine were to become hospitalized and not inform their supervisor or those in their chain of command, they would have some very uncomfortable questions to answer including a possible Absent Without Leave (AWOL) charge.
It’s the National Security Adviser’s responsibility to communicate/coordinate w/ the SecDef. Yet from Jan 1-4, Jake Sullivan had no idea SecDef Austin was in ICU, even as US forces struck Iranian militia in Baghdad. Sullivan was vacationing in St. Croix. His head should also roll
A senior Pentagon official told CNN that they had received:
“…strict orders to not contact him and let him rest.”
It’s always good to allow those undergoing medical treatment the time to recover in peace. The point behind the above is that people did know about the Secretary’s condition and whereabouts, just not the people you’d think should know.
Those closest to the Secretary surely knew which would include his staff, an entire team of personnel whose sole job is to manage the Secretary’s life and movements. In fact, on January 2nd, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown, was notified that the Secretary was hospitalized.
Granted, General Brown technically isn’t in any chain of command, given his position. But certain questions come to mind:
Who told General Brown?
Did General Brown ask if the White House and military service secretaries were informed?
Was he told that no one else would be notified then, and if so, did he inquire why?
This incident has proven that the United States isn’t run by elected and appointed officials but by incompetent and self-serving bureaucrats and staffers who believe they know best what the American people and, worse yet, the President of the United States needs to know.
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USAF Retired, Bronze Star recipient, outspoken veteran advocate. Hot mess mom to two monsters and wife to equal parts Saint and Artist husband. Writer, lifelong conservative, lover of all things American History, and not-so-secret Ancient Aliens fanatic. Homeschool maven, Masters in Political Management, constitutionalist, and chock full of opinions.
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BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday urged other EU nations to deliver more military aid to Ukraine, saying Berlin has asked Brussels to check with countries on their planned support for Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters, Scholz warned that while his government is planning to double its military aid to Ukraine to €8 billion this year within a draft budget, “this alone will not be enough to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the long term.
“I therefore call on our allies in the European Union to also step up their efforts in support of Ukraine. The arms deliveries for Ukraine planned so far by the majority of EU member states are by all means too small,” he said. “We need higher contributions.”
The chancellor’s unusually frank remarks, delivered at a press conference with Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden, reflect the growing frustration and concern among German officials that other EU countries appear to be delivering insufficient military resources to Ukraine, about to enter its third year of full-scale invasion by Russia.
Scholz said other EU countries are “perhaps” planning further weapons deliveries, “but we are not aware of them” — and that, accordingly, Berlin has asked the EU to verify with member scountries what support they are planning. “At the latest” by the next summit of EU leaders on February 1, Scholz added, “we need an overview as precise as possible of what concrete contribution our European partners will make to support Ukraine this year.”
The chancellor also expressed optimism that EU countries can overcome Hungary’s objections to a €50 billion EU aid package for Ukraine, which is slated to be adopted during the February summit.
“I am confident that we will manage to get a decision by all 27 member states,” Scholz said. “That is what we are working on very intensively and where we are putting a lot of effort into actually making this possible.”
Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brittle governing coalition isn’t anywhere near resolving its internal splits over how the Gaza Strip should be governed once Hamas has been crushed, and the situation is testing the patience of the country’s Western allies — including an increasingly exasperated United States.
Judging by an ill-tempered security Cabinet meeting last week, which was an exceptionally rowdy affair even by the rambunctious standards of Israel’s politics, Netanyahu’s coalition — widely judged as the most right-wing in the country’s history — is fraying. And the sharp differences over Gaza’s fate aren’t helping.
Ministers rounded on each other for much of the acrimonious meeting, with religious nationalists and hard-right leaders excoriating the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Herzi Halevi, and taking potshots at a proposal offered by Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
Coming on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s arrival in Israel, where he’ll be pressing Netanyahu to start winding down military operations in Gaza and conform to U.S. expectations on the enclave’s postwar future, the brawl was especially poorly timed. It also augurs badly for any meeting of the minds on postwar Gaza governance between Israel and Washington — let alone with Israel’s Arab neighbors.
The sharp-tongued bickering was initially sparked by Halevi disclosing he’d set up an internal army inquiry headed by former defense officials, probing the failings of Israel’s security services before the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Led by ministers Miri Regev, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition partners complained that holding an internal inquiry while fighting rages in Gaza is inappropriate and would distract from what should be the real focus — winning the war.
But their anger was largely concentrated on the inclusion of former Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz — who oversaw the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — in the inquiry team. They see Israel’s Gaza disengagement as the original sin that allowed Hamas to grow and become the force it has, able to launch attacks as devastating as the ones on October 7. They want the 2005 withdrawal reversed and Israel to annex part, or all, of Gaza, even discussing the possibility of Gazans “voluntarily” being resettled elsewhere — including the DR Congo.
This clash, which saw some defense officials walk out in protest, merely added fuel to the fire over Gallant’s proposal that Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas administer the enclave after the war. Under Gallant’s plan, there would be no Israeli resettlement of Gaza — which infuriated religious nationalists like Smotrich — however, the IDF would retain military control on the borders, and have the right to mount military operations inside Gaza when deemed necessary.
“Gaza residents are Palestinian. Therefore, Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel,” Gallant said last week. But for Smotrich, “Gallant’s ‘day after’ plan is a re-run of the ‘day before’ October 7.”
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich walks with soldiers during a visit to Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the border with the Gaza Strip | Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images
Scorned by the government’s hard right, the defense minister’s proposal is unlikely to cut it with the U.S. or with Israel’s Arab and Gulf neighbors either, as there would be no role for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which oversees the West Bank. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration wants Gaza to be handed over to what it calls a “revitalized” PA, although it hasn’t detailed exactly what that means or the necessary steps for such a revamp.
Netanyahu eventually broke up the Cabinet meeting after three hours of confrontational exchanges, insults and ministers swearing at each other, once again leaving Gaza’s postwar future unresolved in Israeli minds. And all this, just as the Biden administration redoubles its insistence on a serious and credible postwar plan that Arab nations can accept.
The disastrous meeting also prompted three key centrists in the wartime government — Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Yechiel Tropper of the National Unity government’s Blue and White faction — to skip a full meeting on Sunday, highlighting the growing tensions and coalition rifts.
Tropper linked his boycott to the right-wing ministers assailing Halevi. He told national broadcaster Kan that he didn’t know “how long we will be in the government; I only know that we entered for the good of the country and our exit will also be related to the good of the country.”
Gantz, a former defense minister and onetime chief of the General Staff, had led his centrists into Netanyahu’s government after October 7 for the sake of national unity. “There is a time for peace and a time for war. Now is a time for war,” he had said when accepting Netanyahu’s offer to join the war Cabinet.
But Gantz’s popularity has risen dramatically since then, and he’s now seen as Netanyahu’s most likely challenger. So, if he chose to bolt from the government, it would increase the likelihood of an early election — and that’s something anti-Netanyahu activists are starting to demand once more. Until very recently, there was little appetite for demonstrations, with small turnouts of around just a few dozen to a few hundred people. However, rallies over the weekend saw several thousand participating, with protesters taking to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, calling for the prime minister’s removal.
So far, Netanyahu has been circumspect in outlining a postwar Gaza plan, mainly restricting himself to dismissing a role for the PA. And this has partly been due to his worry that disputes over Gaza’s postwar governance could prove fatal for his coalition. It looks like that may well turn out to be true.
The move follows US approval of $300m in military aid for the self-ruled island, which holds elections in a week.
China has announced sanctions against five US arms manufacturers over weapons sales to Taiwan.
Beijing claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its goals, while the United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
Last month, the US State Department approved a $300m arms package to strengthen Taipei’s joint battle command and control system, prompting Beijing to say it would take unspecified “countermeasures” against the companies involved.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday sanctioned the companies BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions.
“The countermeasures consist of freezing the properties of those companies in China, including their movable and immovable property, and prohibiting organisations and individuals in China from transactions and cooperation with them,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The US arms sales to China’s Taiwan region… seriously harm China’s sovereignty and security interests,” it added.
Beijing has increased pressure on Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen was first elected president in 2016, claiming she wants independence.
Her vice president, William Lai, is running for the top job against Hou Yu-ih of the more China-friendly KMT.
Taiwan has reported regular sightings of Chinese warplanes and balloons around the island in the weeks running up to the election and has warned Beijing against seeking to influence the outcome of the poll.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is under fire for allegedly attempting to avoid responsibility for his country’s plan to draft more soldiers.
During a press conference December 19, Zelensky expressed reluctance while announcing that the Ukrainian military was proposing to draft as many as 500,000 new troops to aid in the ongoing war effort against Russia.
“I would need more arguments to support this move,” Zelensky said, according to Reuters. “Because first of all, it’s a question of people, secondly, it’s a question of fairness, it’s a question of defense capability, and it’s a question of finances.”
Less than one week later, late on Christmas night, the text of a mobilization draft law that includes a provision to lower the age of conscription from 27 to 25 was posted to the website of the Ukrainian parliament.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pictured during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine on November 21, 2023. Zelensky has recently been accused of attempting to avoid “responsibility” for Ukraine’s plan to draft up to 500,000 more troops as the war against Russia continues. Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine
The law was reportedly submitted using the names of Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, while Zelensky’s name was conspicuously missing.
Lawyer and activist Hennadiy Druzenko said in a report published by the U.S.-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Wednesday that Zelensky was playing a game of “hot potato” to avoid responsibility for what could be an unpopular move.
“The president did not behave like a statesman,” Druzenko said. “[Zelensky] should come out and start taking responsibility for himself and explain why this [bill] is necessary.”
Ukrainian parliament member Solomia Bobrovska suggested during an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service that Zelensky’s government had adopted “Bolshevik” tactics by introducing the bill on Christmas so “no one would notice.”
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Wednesday.
During a televised address on December 26, Zelensky said that he was “waiting for the final text of the law.” He seemingly distanced himself from the proposal by arguing that it was “only right that the military, together with MPs, decide on the basis” of the bill.
The mobilization proposal has highlighted an escalating rift between Zelensky and General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a potential candidate in the country’s next presidential election, which is currently postponed.
Zaluzhnyi said during his own press conference on December 26 that the number of up to 500,000 requested conscripts “takes into account the coverage of the current shortfall that has arisen, the formation of new military units, as well as the projection of our losses that may occur next year.”
The general also reportedly said that more troops who are able to “carry out the assigned tasks” were needed in order for Ukraine “to continue military operations.”
In November, Zaluzhnyi said that Ukraine had reached a “stalemate” with Russia following a counteroffensive that many saw as a failure. The remarks were quickly rebuked by Zelensky, who has consistently painted a more positive picture of Ukraine’s war footing.
There have been some indications that Zelensky’s popularity is waning as the war nears its two-year anniversary. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko recently praised Zaluzhnyi for telling “the truth” while accusing Zelensky of “euphorically” lying about Ukraine’s standing in the war.
A poll released last month by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 62 percent of Ukrainians said they trusted Zelensky, down from 84 percent one year earlier. Only 26 percent said that they trusted the Ukrainian government, while 15 percent said they trusted Ukraine’s parliament.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
On October 7, Hamas fighters launched a bloody attack against Israel, using paragliders, speedboats and underground tunnels to carry out an offensive that killed almost 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken back to the Gaza Strip as prisoners.
Almost three months on, Israel’s massive military retaliation is reverberating around the region, with explosions in Lebanon and rebels from Yemen attacking shipping in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Western countries are pumping military aid into Israel while deploying fleets to protect commercial shipping — risking confrontation with the Iranian navy.
That’s in line with a grim prediction made last year by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who said that Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza meant an “expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable,” and that further escalation across the Middle East should be expected.
What’s happening?
The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting fierce battles for control of the Gaza Strip in what officials say is a mission to destroy Hamas. Troops have already occupied much of the north of the 365-square-kilometer territory, home to around 2.3 million Palestinians, and are now stepping up their assault in the south.
Entire neighborhoods of densely-populated Gaza City have been levelled by intense Israeli shelling, rocket attacks and air strikes, rendering them uninhabitable. Although independent observers have been largely shut out, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry claims more than 22,300 people have been killed, while the U.N. says 1.9 million people have been displaced.
On a visit to the front lines, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that his country is in the fight for the long haul. “The feeling that we will stop soon is incorrect. Without a clear victory, we will not be able to live in the Middle East,” he said.
As the Gaza ground war intensifies, Hamas and its allies are increasingly looking to take the conflict to a far broader arena in order to put pressure on Israel.
According to Seth Frantzman, a regional analyst with the Jerusalem Post and adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “Iran is certainly making a play here in terms of trying to isolate Israel [and] the U.S. and weaken U.S. influence, also showing that Israel doesn’t have the deterrence capabilities that it may have had in the past or at least thought it had.”
Northern front
On Tuesday a blast ripped through an office in Dahieh, a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut — 130 kilometers from the border with Israel. Hamas confirmed that one of its most senior leaders, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in the strike.
Government officials in Jerusalem have refused to confirm Israeli forces were behind the killing, while simultaneously presenting it as a “surgical strike against the Hamas leadership” and insisting it was not an attack against Lebanon itself, despite a warning from Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the incident risked dragging his country into a wider regional war.
Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have spiked in recent weeks, with fighters loyal to Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist militant group that controls the south of the country, firing hundreds of rockets across the frontier. Along with Hamas, Hezbollah is part of the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” that aims to destroy the state of Israel.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign ministry said the death of al-Arouri, the most senior Hamas official confirmed to have died since October 7, will only embolden resistance against Israel, not only in the Palestinian territories but also in the wider Middle East.
The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting fierce battles for control of the Gaza Strip in what officials say is a mission to destroy Hamas | Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
“We’re talking about the death of a senior Hamas leader, not from Hezbollah or the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards. Is it Iran who’s going to respond? Hezbollah? Hamas with rockets? Or will there be no response, with the various players waiting for the next assassination?” asked Héloïse Fayet, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations.
In a much-anticipated speech on Wednesday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned the killing but did not announce a military response.
Red Sea boils over
For months now, sailors navigating the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb Strait that links Europe to Asia have faced a growing threat of drone strikes, missile attacks and even hijackings by Iran-backed Houthi militants operating off the coast of Yemen.
The Houthi movement, a Shia militant group supported by Iran in the Yemeni civil war against Saudi Arabia and its local allies, insists it is only targeting shipping with links to Israel in a bid to pressure it to end the war in Gaza. However, the busy trade route from the Suez Canal through the Red Sea has seen dozens of commercial vessels targeted or delayed, forcing Western nations to intervene.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Navy said it had intercepted two anti-ship missiles and sunk three boats carrying Houthi fighters in what it said was a hijacking attempt against the Maersk Hangzhou, a container ship. Danish shipping giant Maersk said Tuesday that it would “pause all transits through the Red Sea until further notice,” following a number of other cargo liners; energy giant BP is also suspending travel through the region.
On Wednesday the Houthis targeted a CMA CGM Tage container ship bound for Israel, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea. “Any U.S. attack will not pass without a response or punishment,” he added.
“The sensible decision is one that the vast majority of shippers I think are now coming to, [which] is to transit through round the Cape of Good Hope,” said Marco Forgione, director general at the Institute of Export & International Trade. “But that in itself is not without heavy impact, it’s up to two weeks additional sailing time, adds over £1 million to the journey, and there are risks, particularly in West Africa, of piracy as well.”
However, John Stawpert, a senior manager at the International Chamber of Shipping, noted that while “there has been disruption” and an “understandable nervousness about transiting these routes … trade is continuing to flow.”
“A major contributory factor to that has been the presence of military assets committed to defending shipping from these attacks,” he said.
The impacts of the disruption, especially price hikes hitting consumers, will be seen “in the next couple of weeks,” according to Forgione. Oil and gas markets also risk taking a hit — the price of benchmark Brent crude rose by 3 percent to $78.22 a barrel on Wednesday. Almost 10 percent of the world’s oil and 7 percent of its gas flows through the Red Sea.
Western response
On Wednesday evening, the U.S., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom issued an ultimatum calling the Houthi attacks “illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing,” but with only vague threats of action.
“We call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews. The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” the statement said.
The Houthi movement insists it is only targeting shipping with links to Israel in a bid to pressure it to end the war in Gaza | Houthi Movement via Getty Images
Despite the tepid language, the U.S. has already struck back at militants from Iranian-backed groups such as Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria after they carried out drone attacks that injured U.S. personnel.
The assumption in London is that airstrikes against the Houthis — if it came to that — would be U.S.-led with the U.K. as a partner. Other nations might also chip in.
Two French officials said Paris is not considering air strikes. The country’s position is to stick to self-defense, and that hasn’t changed, one of them said. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed that assessment, saying on Tuesday that “we’re continuing to act in self-defense.”
“Would France, which is so proud of its third way and its position as a balancing power, be prepared to join an American-British coalition?” asked Fayet, the think tank researcher.
Iran looms large
Iran’s efforts to leverage its proxies in a below-the-radar battle against both Israel and the West appear to be well underway, and the conflict has already scuppered a long-awaited security deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“Since 1979, Iran has been conducting asymmetrical proxy terrorism where they try to advance their foreign policy objectives while displacing the consequences, the counterpunches, onto someone else — usually Arabs,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of Washington’s Center on Military and Political Power. “An increasingly effective regional security architecture, of the kind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are trying to build, is a nightmare for Iran which, like a bully on the playground, wants to keep all the other kids divided and distracted.”
Despite Iran’s fiery rhetoric, it has stopped short of declaring all-out war on its enemies or inflicting massive casualties on Western forces in the region — which experts say reflects the fact it would be outgunned in a conventional conflict.
“Neither Iran nor the U.S. nor Israel is ready for that big war,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Middle East Institute’s Iran program. “Israel is a nuclear state, Iran is a nuclear threshold state — and the U.S. speaks for itself on this front.”
Israel might be betting on a long fight in Gaza, but Iran is trying to make the conflict a global one, he added. “Nobody wants a war, so both sides have been gambling on the long term, hoping to kill the other guy through a thousand cuts.”
Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.
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Gabriel Gavin, Antonia Zimmermann and Laura Kayali
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, both on trips to the Mideast, warned on Saturday against the Israel-Hamas war escalating into a regional conflict as hostilities increased following the killing this week of a top Hamas official.
“It is absolutely imperative to ensure Lebanon is not drawn into a regional conflict,” Borrell told a press conference in Beirut, according to Reuters and Agence France-Presse. “I’m also sending this message to Israel: No one will win from a regional conflict,” he said,.
Blinken met on Saturday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan as part of a new diplomatic tour of the Middle East. Blinken “emphasized the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, secure the release of hostages, expand humanitarian assistance and reduce civilian casualties,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in comments to Reuters.
Borrell said he agreed with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati to work on “de-escalation and long-term stability,” during a meeting that touched on southern Lebanon, the Gaza war and Syria.
He also sounded the alarm about a “worrying intensification of exchange of fire” at the United Nations demarcation between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line.
“The priority is to avoid regional escalation and to advance diplomatic efforts with a view to creating the conditions to reach a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine and in the region,” said Borrell in a post on X.
Fears that the Israel-Hamas conflict will spread to neighboring countries have grown as the Gaza Strip death toll of nearly 23,000 keeps rising after three months of Israel’s heavy military retaliation to a Hamas massacre in early October that killed over 1,200 people and led to the hostage-taking of nearly 250 others.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Saturday fired dozens of rockets at Israel after a strike earlier this week killed Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri. Houthi militants, meanwhile, have increased their attacks of commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel on Saturday in retaliation for the targeted killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut this week amid mounting fears of a larger regional war, according to media reports.
Hezbollah said in a statement Saturday that it targeted an Israeli air surveillance base in northern Israel with 62 missiles as an “initial response” to the suspected Israeli strike on January 2 that killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. The Israeli military said around 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at its territory.
Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, said earlier this week that the killing of al-Arouri will “not go unpunished.”
Israel’s military said it responded to the Hezbollah rocket attacks with a drone strike on “the terrorist cell responsible for the launches toward the area of Metula.”
The escalation comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on his fourth diplomatic tour of the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war reaches its three-month mark and amid growing international criticism of Israel’s strategy. Yemen’s Houthi militants have also increased their attacks on cargo ships and fuel tankers in the Red Sea.
Blinken met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday. U.S. officials said Blinken was seeking Turkish buy-in, or at least consideration, of potential monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and some form of participation in a proposed multi-national force that could operate in or adjacent to the territory, the Associated Press reported.
Turkey has been harshly critical of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the prosecution of the war and the impact it has had on Palestinian civilians.
In addition, officials said, Blinken will stress the importance Washington places on Ankara ratifying Sweden’s membership in NATO, a long-delayed process that the Turks have said they will complete soon. Sweden’s accession to the defense alliance is seen as one critical response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was in Lebanon on Saturday, warned that it was imperative to avoid the Israel-Hamas war growing into a regional conflict.
Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, some of whom have been released.
Israel has for the last three months bombed the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, resulting in nearly 23,000 people dying and around 59,000 others being injured, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health authorities.
In another warning, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday that Gaza has become “uninhabitable” for its nearly 2.3 million inhabitants and repeated that “a public health disaster is unfolding” in the enclave.
Since Operation Prosperity Guardian was announced just over 10 days ago, 1,200 merchant ships have traveled through the Red Sea region, and none had been hit by drone or missile strikes, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said in an Associated Press interview, although the U.S. military said that one ship reported being struck by a missile late Saturday.
Cooper said earlier that day that additional countries are expected to sign on to the mission. Denmark was the latest, announcing Friday it plans to send a frigate to the mission that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced during a visit to Bahrain, where the Navy’s 5th Fleet is based, saying that “this is an international challenge that demands collective action.”
The narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and then the Suez Canal. The crucial trade route links markets in Asia and Europe. The seriousness of the attacks, several of which have damaged vessels, led multiple shipping companies to order their vessels to hold in place and not enter the strait until the security situation improved. Some major shippers were sending their ships around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, adding time and costs to the journeys.
Currently there are five warships from the United States, France, and the United Kingdom patrolling the waters of the southern Red Sea and the western Gulf of Aden, said Cooper, who heads the 5th Fleet. Since the operation started, the ships have shot down a total of 17 drones and four anti-ship ballistic missiles, he said.
The U.S. military said Saturday it shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired toward a Maersk container ship in the Red Sea after the ship reported it had been hit by a missile. Two Navy destroyers responded to the call for help, and the Denmark-owned vessel was reportedly seaworthy and no injuries were noted, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. Hours later, four Houthi boats fired at the same ship and tried to board, Central Command said. U.S. forces on two helicopters responded to the distress call and were also fired upon before they sank three of the Houthi vessels and killed the crews, Central Command said. The fourth boat fled the area. No damage to U.S. personnel or equipment was reported.
There have been about two dozen attacks on international shipping by the Houthis since Oct. 19.
Austin discussed the situation with the Dutch defense minister, Kajsa Ollongren, and they condemned the attacks as unacceptable and “profoundly destabilizing” to international order and global commerce, the Pentagon said Saturday.
The U.S. has said that more than 20 nations are participating in the security mission, but a number of those nations have not acknowledged it publicly.
“I expect in the coming weeks we’re going to get additional countries,” Cooper said, noting Denmark’s recent announcement.
Cooper said the coalition is in direct communication with commercial ships to provide guidance on “maneuvering and the best practices to avoid being attacked,” and working closely with the shipping industry to coordinate security.
An international task force had been set up in April 2022 to improve maritime security in the region. But Cooper said Operation Prosperity Guardian has more ships and a persistent presence to assist vessels.
Since the operation started, the Houthis have stepped up their use of anti-ship ballistic missiles, Cooper said. “We are cleareyed that the Houthi reckless attacks will likely continue,” he said.
The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014, launching a grinding war against a Saudi-led coalition that sought to restore the government. The militants have sporadically targeted ships in the region, but the attacks increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The Houthi threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel. That has escalated to apparently any vessel, with container ships and oil tankers flagged to countries such as Norway and Liberia being attacked or drawing missile fire.
The shipping company Maersk had announced earlier that it had decided to re-route its ships that have been paused for days outside the strait and Red Sea, and send them around Africa instead. Maersk announced Dec. 25 that it was going to resume sending ships through the strait, citing the operation. Cooper said another shipping company had also resumed using the route.
“Commerce is definitely flowing,” Cooper said.
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North Korea has said it will launch three more military spy satellites, build military drones and boost its nuclear arsenal in 2024, continuing a military modernisation programme that saw a record number of weapons tests this year.
Pyongyang put a spy satellite into orbit in November at its third attempt and this month, again launched its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which is seen as having the range to deliver a nuclear warhead to anywhere in the United States.
“The task of launching three additional reconnaissance satellites in 2024 was declared” as one of the key policy decisions for 2024 at the end of a five-day party meeting chaired by leader Kim Jong Un, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Kim wrapped up the meeting on Saturday, lashing out at the US, which he blamed for making war inevitable.
“Because of reckless moves by the enemies to invade us, it is a fait accompli that a war can break out at any time on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
He ordered the military to prepare to “pacify the entire territory of South Korea”, including with nuclear bombs if necessary, in response to any attack.
Experts say North Korea aims to continue its policy of military pressure to try and increase any leverage around November’s presidential elections in the US, where former President Donald Trump is bidding to return to power.
When Trump was last in office, he held two summits with Kim and met him at the demilitarised zone that divides the two Koreas, but while the events made lots of headlines, they failed to make any breakthrough.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has deepened political and military ties with South Korea and imposed new sanctions as Pyongyang has tested more weapons.
Washington has also deployed nuclear-powered submarines in South Korea as well as flown its long-range bombers in drills with Seoul and Tokyo.
“Pyongyang might be waiting out the US presidential election to see what its provocations can buy it with the next administration,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, wrote in an email.
Kim said he could not ignore such US deployments, claiming such weapons had completely transformed South Korea into a “forward military base and nuclear arsenal” of the US.
“If we look closely at the confrontational military actions by the enemy forces… the word ‘war’ has become a realistic reality and not an abstract concept,” Kim said.
Kim said he has no choice but to press forward with his nuclear ambitions and develop deeper relations with other countries that oppose the US. North Korea has deep ties with both China and Russia.
South Koreans will also go to the polls in April for a parliamentary election that could affect the domestic and foreign agenda of President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who has maintained a hawkish stance towards Pyongyang.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) warned on Thursday that there was a “high possibility that North Korea could unexpectedly conduct military provocations or stage a cyberattack in 2024, when fluid political situations are expected with the elections”.
Speaking at the end of the party meeting, Kim said he would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, noting the “persisting uncontrollable crisis situation”.
Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated sharply this year, with Pyongyang’s spy satellite launch prompting Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement that was supposed to help reduce tensions on the peninsula. In response, North Korea said it would move more troops and military equipment to the border and would not be constrained by the 2018 pact.
“I believe that it is a mistake that we should no longer make to consider the people who declare us as the ‘main enemy’… as a counterpart for reconciliation and unification,” KCNA cited Kim as saying.
‘Can’t match’ South Korea
Pyongyang declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear programme, which it views as essential for its survival.
The United Nations Security Council has adopted many resolutions calling on North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes since it first conducted a nuclear test in 2006. The last test was in 2017.
Kim promised to strengthen nuclear and missile forces, build unmanned drones, expand the submarine fleet and develop its capabilities in electronic warfare in 2024, but Easley said that even with such developments, it would remain far behind Seoul.
“The Kim regime may believe it can violate UN sanctions on its weapons programs with impunity, but even with the support of Moscow and Beijing, Pyongyang can’t match South Korea’s sophisticated defence acquisitions and training coordinated with the United States and Japan,” he said.
“Seoul is pushing ahead both in outer space and with aerial drones, so despite North Korea’s cyber hacking and efforts at launching spy satellites, it will likely fall further behind on military technology and intelligence in the New Year.”
North Korea’s successful launch of a spy satellite followed two high-profile failures and came a couple of months after Kim visited Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin who promised to help North Korea build satellites.
South Korean officials have said Russian assistance probably contributed to the success of the third mission. Seoul and Washington are also concerned that Pyongyang has been selling weapons to Russia in exchange for such technological know-how.
Here’s a look at the life of Sudan’s former leader, Omar al-Bashir.
Birth date: January 1, 1944
Birth place: Hosh Bannaga, Sudan
Birth name: Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir
Father: Name unavailable publicly
Mother: Name unavailable publicly
Marriages: Fatima Khalid; Widad Babiker Omer
Education: Sudan Military Academy, 1966
Military service: Sudanese Armed Forces
Religion: Islam
1960 – Joins the Sudanese Armed Forces.
1966 – Graduates from the Sudan Military Academy.
1973 – Serves with Egyptian forces during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
1973-1987 – Holds various military posts.
1989-1993 – Serves as Sudan’s defense minister.
June 30, 1989 – Leads a coup against Sudan’s Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. Establishes and proclaims himself chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. Dissolves the government, political parties and trade unions.
April 1990 – Survives a coup attempt. Orders the execution of over 30 army and police officers implicated in the coup attempt.
October 16, 1993 – Becomes president of Sudan when the Revolutionary Command Council is dissolved and Sudan is restored to civilian rule.
March 1996 – Is reelected president with more than 75% of the vote.
December 1999 – Dissolves the Parliament after National Congress Party chairman Hassan al-Turabi proposes laws limiting the president’s powers.
December 2000 – Is reelected president with over 85% of the vote.
February 2003 – Rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan rise up against the Sudanese government.
2004 – Is criticized for not cracking down on the Janjaweed militia, a pro-government militia accused of murdering and raping people in Darfur.
September 2007 – After meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Bashir agrees to peace talks with rebels. Peace talks begin in October, but are postponed indefinitely after most of the major players fail to attend.
March 4, 2009 – The ICC issues an arrest warrant for Bashir.
April 26, 2010 – Sudan’s National Election Commission certifies Bashir as the winner of recent presidential elections with 68% of the vote.
July 12, 2010 – The ICC issues a second arrest warrant for Bashir. Combined, the warrant lists 10 counts against Bashir.
December 12, 2014 – The ICC suspends its case against Bashir due to lack of support from the UN Security Council.
March 9, 2015 – The ICC asks the UN Security Council to take steps to force Sudan to extradite Bashir.
April 27, 2015 – Sudan’s Election Commission announces Bashir has been reelected president with more than 94% of the vote. Many major opposition groups boycott the election.
November 23, 2017 – Agence France Presse and other media outlets report that during a trip to Russia, Bashir asks Putin to protect Sudan from the United States, saying he wants closer military ties with Russia.
December 16, 2018 – Bashir visits Syria. This marks the first time an Arab League leader has visited Syria since war began there in 2011.
February 22, 2019 – Declares a year-long state of emergency in response to months of protests nationwide and calls for his resignation.
March 1, 2019 – Steps down as chairman of the National Congress Party.
April 11, 2019 – After three decades of rule, Bashir is arrested and is forced from power in a military coup. Bashir’s government is dissolved, and a military council assumes control for two years to oversee a transition of power, according to a televised statement by Sudanese Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf.
Former President Donald Trump said at a recent New Hampshire rally that President Joe Biden is imposing his climate agenda on the U.S. military.
“The worst thing is they want to make our Army tanks all electric,” Trump said Dec. 16 in Durham.
Trump said the vehicles will be used “as we blast our way through enemy territory in an environmentally friendly manner.” He added that Biden puts “environmental maniacs first.”
The U.S. Army has outlined a strategy to transition to electric vehicles, but it begins with the nontactical fleet — which includes commercially available vehicles such as sedans, station wagons, utility vehicles and trucks — and some goals are decades away. Army spokesperson Ellen Lovett told PolitiFact that the Army is focusing strategy on tactical wheeled vehicles, not tanks.
“There is no goal to fully electrify every single vehicle in the fleet by 2050,” said Fabian Villalobos, an engineer at the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan research organization that has an Army research division.
Strategy calls for electrical tactical vehicles by 2050
The U.S. Army released a 2022 climate strategy that says “fully electric tactical vehicles are still years into the future.” Villalobos said tactical vehicles carry troops or fuel and are different from combat vehicles such as tanks.
The strategy includes a timeline to add:
An all-electric light-duty nontactical vehicle fleet by 2027.
An all-electric nontactical vehicle fleet by 2035.
Hybrid-drive tactical vehicles by 2035.
Fully electric tactical vehicles by 2050, and the necessary charging infrastructure.
The strategy document doesn’t mention tanks.
Villalobos said he currently knows of no plans to introduce or prototype an electric tank.
“Tanks are simply too heavy to be fully electrified at this time, but hybrids may be possible,” as demonstrated by prototyping efforts, Villalobos said.
The strategy aims to maximize efficiency in warfighting logistics, Michael Knickerbocker, a U.S. Navy surface warfare officer, wrote in a 2022 op-ed when he was a federal executive fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin.
Military experts told us that electric vehicle advantages include:
Reducing dependency on foreign adversaries for fuel.
Fewer front-lines trips and less risk. If less fuel needs to be delivered to the new vehicles on front lines, soldiers make fewer delivery trips and reduce their risk of harm.
Stealthier travel without emissions, smoke or noise that alert adversaries.
The Modern War Institute at West Point published a 2022 article that said the Army successfully piloted electric light-duty nontactical vehicles. But generally “the technology is not ready for tactical vehicles because it requires incredibly heavy and bulky infrastructure for power generation and charging.”
The article said critics of electrifying military vehicles ignore telectrification’s benefits, which “will help make our forces more lethal and save the military money.”
The idea of introducing electric Army vehicles is not new or unique to the Biden administration. The Army entertained the idea of an electric “cannon-vehicle” as far back as 1995, Rand researchers wrote. In 2012, the Defense Department studied the possibility of adding nontactical electric vehicles.
When contacted for comment, a Trump campaign spokesperson sent newsarticles about the Biden administration’s goals for military electric vehicles, but none showed that the administration wants electric Army tanks.
The Trump campaign also cited a 2021 Military.com article that was published before the 2022 Army strategy. In it, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said tactical vehicles would first go to hybrid and nontactical vehicles on bases could transition directly to electric.
Our ruling
Trump said “they want to make our Army tanks all electric.”
A 2022 Army climate strategy document sets a timeline for transitioning certain types of vehicles to electric over decades, with a goal of having fully electric tactical vehicles by 2050. The strategy document doesn’t mention tanks, and tactical vehicles are different from combat vehicles such as tanks.
We rate this statement False.
PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this fact-check.
TAIPEI — 2024 will be a bumper year of elections around the world, but one of the first votes on the calendar will also be one of the most hotly contested and consequential: Taiwan, where there are vital strategic interests at play for both the U.S. and China on January 13.
If the campaign started with expectations in the U.S. that the ruling, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), whose top brass are frequent and welcome guests in Washington, would stroll to victory, the final stages of the presidential and legislative race have turned into a nail-biter.
Chinese President’s Xi Jinping’s Communist Party leadership, increasingly assertive in its claim that democratic Taiwan is part of China and keen to see the ruling party in Taipei ousted, is trying to swing the election through a disinformation campaign of hoaxes and outlandish claims on social media.
And the tactics may be working. The latest polls for the first-past-the-post presidential race on the My Formosa portal have DPP leader William Lai on 35.2 percent, only just keeping his nose out in front of his main challenger from the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT), Hou Yu-ih,on 30.6 percent. On Tuesday, the Beijing-leaning United Daily News put both candidates on 31 percent.
“This is not a walk in the park,” admitted Vincent Chao, a city councillor and prominent DPP personality, speaking to POLITICO’s Power Play podcast at a campaign event in New Taipei, a municipality surrounding the capital.
It could hardly be a more febrile period in terms of security fears over the Taiwan Strait, where insistent Chinese maneuvering has been matched by a high-stakes U.S.-backed boost to the island’s defenses. Only on December 15, the U.S. approved another $300 million of spending on defense kit, sparking a retort from China that the expenditure would harm “security interests and threaten peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Lai’s opponents are playing hard on these security implications of the vote, and are accusing him of bringing the island closer to conflict because of his past comments in favor of the island’s independence. China has, after all, continually warned that independence “means war” and Xi has said Beijing is willing to use “all necessary measures” to secure unification. Lai has hit back that his rivals “are parroting the [Chinese Communist Party line] as propaganda to score electoral benefits.”
For the global economy, open war over Taiwan would be a disaster, perhaps even outstripping the shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, due in particular to the island’s critical role in microchip supplies.
Head-to-head race
The specter of a DPP defeat has raised the temperature of the fevered last few weeks of the campaign.
Chao, the DPP councillor and a former political secretary in Taiwan’s Washington representation, admitted that the DPP ends the year in “a head-to-head race” in the final stretch. “I mean, it’s democracy and the party has been in power for eight years. Anything could change,” he said.
Wearing a jaunty white and green “Team Taiwan” tracksuit, the party’s signature colors, he talks above the backstage din of an evening event, held among the tower block estates of New Taipei. Volunteers hand out pork dumplings, the outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen gives a rousing speech about freedom and security, and there are ballads of national loyalty and singalong love songs. It feels heartfelt, but also very Taiwanese in its orderliness, the crowd sitting on stools in the evening heat, waving small flags in unison.
Chao is candid about the scale of China’s social media offensive.
The specter of a DPP defeat has raised the temperature of the fevered last few weeks of the campaign | Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
“What we’re seeing is a much more sophisticated China,” Chao reflected. “They’ve grown much more confident in their abilities to influence our elections, not through military coercion or other overt means, but through disinformation, through influencing public opinion, through controlling the information that people see … through social media organizations like TikTok.”
One of the many unfounded stories that gained currency on social posts was a claim the U.S. had asked Taiwan to develop biological weapons research, a rumor aimed at raising anxiety about an arms race. Another accused the DPP of covert surveillance of its rivals.
Trade and business links are another lever. According to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, some 300 executives from big Taiwanese businesses operating China were called to a meeting by by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao, a close ally of China’s President Xi, in early December and roundly encouraged to fly home to Taiwan support a pro-Beijing outcome in January.
A third concern is an international system buckling under new conflicts and crises, with less time to devote to Taiwan’s freedoms, all compounded by an uncertain outcome in the upcoming U.S. election. In the wake of Beijing’s ’s clampdown on freedoms in Hong Kong and with the backwash of the Ukraine crisis, anxieties run high among DPP supporters about Taiwan’s outlook and the need for high levels of deterrence.
“We really do not want to be the next Ukraine,” Chao added, with feeling.
Bending with Beijing
Opinion is strongly divided about the smartest tactical response toward China’s muscle flexing.
Opinion is strongly divided about the smartest tactical response toward China’s muscle flexing. | Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
Across town, at one of the opposition’s bases, where campaigners wear tracksuits in the white and blue of the Kuomintang party, International Relations Director Alexander Huang said his political troops were “within touching distance” of a possible victory.
Keen to shake off a reputation of being reflexively pro-China, as opposed to merely cautious about riling its powerful neighbour, the KMT hosted cocktails for foreign journalists in a trendy, Christmas-decorated bar, bringing together Chinese news-agency writers with Western reporters covering the election.
Huang, who hails from a military intelligence background and studied Chinese military and security doctrine in Washington, argued renewed Western support and commitments of defence expenditure by the U.S. administration increased the risk of something backfiring over Taiwan’s security. “We are under a great military threat [from China],” he told Power Play. “Our position is deterrence without provocation: assurance without appeasement.”
He also reckoned the current chilly relations between the governing DPP party and Beijing were widening distrust. “Our current government has no direct communication with the other side. If you are not able to communicate your view to your adversary, how can you change that?”
It’s less clear what reassurances the KMT expects from Beijing in return for a more accommodating relationship. Huang cites a possible decrease in trade tensions, which can hit Taiwanese agriculture and fishing when Beijing turns the screws, and further action on climate change and pollution (Taiwan is downwind of China’s emissions).
Colorful cast
The race certainly does not lack for colorful personalities.
The DPP’s presidential candidate, Lai, is a doctor and parliamentarian, while his KMT rival Hou is a former policeman and mayor in New Taipei. Mindful that the mood has become cynical about political elites, both sides have chosen frontmen who can claim humble roots: Hou hails from a family that scratched a living as food market traders, while Lai, the epitome of a slick Taiwanese professional, grew up with a widowed mother after his father died in a mining accident.
Hou is a former policeman and mayor in New Taipei | Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
The “Veep” contenders are flashier than the main candidates and more media-friendly. Hsiao Bi-khim, educated in the U.S. and until recently ambassador to Washington, is a pet-lover who styles herself as an agile “cat warrior” in stark contrast to China’s pugnacious “wolf-warrior” diplomats. Her KMT opponent is Jaw Shaw-kong, a formidable, populist-tinged debater and TV personality, who channels overt pro-Beijing sentiment, recently calling for more alignment in military planning with China’s leadership.
The billionaire Foxconn founder Terry Gou, who had run as a maverick, wafting pets as incentives to couples to have more babies to combat a worryingly low birthrate, quit the race after China’s tax authorities launched punitive investigations into his company, the builder of iPhones.
Russell Hsiao of the Global Taiwan Institute, a non-partisan research organization, reckoned that even if the DPP wins, its mandate will be less compelling than in the glory days of 2020, when it surged to a record level.
The guessing game of how likely an intervention — or even invasion — by China is helps explain the nervy tenor of this race.
The KMT’s Huang thought a “full-scale, kinetic invasion” is unlikely in the immediate future. How long does he think that guarantee would hold? “I would say not for the next five years, if we get our policy right.”
Hardly the most durable time-frame.
Taipei politics being a small world, Huang is a longstanding frenemy of the DPP’s Chao, who counters that Taiwan urgently needs to retain its defiant stance and deepen its strategic alliances with the West. They just disagree widely on the means to secure its future.
“The aim of [Beijing’s] engagements is unification … by force if necessary. Democracy, freedom, they are not just words. They represent what our people sincerely believe and hope to uphold.”
Stuart Lau contributed reporting.
Anne McElvoy is host of POLITICO’s weekly Power Play interview podcast, whose latest episode comes from the Taiwan election campaign.
The foreign affairs committee of the Turkish parliament on Tuesday gave its approval for Sweden to join NATO, reported Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.
This brings Sweden a step closer to joining the Western military alliance. It also comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delayed action on Sweden’s bid for a year, arguing the country is too friendly toward Kurdish activists regarded by Ankara as terrorists.
Erdoğan has also linked the approval of Sweden’s accession to the sale of F-16 fighter jets by the United States to Turkey — something that’s currently pending approval by the U.S. Congress.
The general assembly of the Turkish parliament now needs to give its final green light before Sweden can officially become a full NATO member. However, no date for this plenary vote has been set.
The unanimous approval of all current NATO member countries is required for any new state to join the military alliance.
Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has also been stalling Sweden’s accession bid, saying last week that there was no “great willingness” from Hungarian lawmakers to approve it. This makes Hungary the last NATO member country that hasn’t started the ratification process.
Sweden and Finland both dropped their neutrality and asked to join the alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland joined the alliance in April.
Israel will allow ships from several European countries to deliver aid directly to war-torn Gaza, the country’s top diplomat said Sunday, as the Israeli military ramped up large-scale air attacks across central Gaza.
Ships from countries including France, Greece, the Netherlands and the U.K. can “immediately” start shipping aid packages via a proposed sea corridor that goes through Cyprus, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told local radio on Sunday. The measure could mean a partial lifting of Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza, first imposed in 2007 after the Hamas militant group took control of the Palestinian enclave.
Under the plan, originally proposed by Nicosia last month, ships would travel to Cyprus for security checks before heading 370 kilometers to Gaza’s coast in a route that would avoid Egyptian or Israeli borders. Paris, Athens, Amsterdam and London have yet to officially comment on the plan, though the U.K. and Greece have previously indicated they would support the measure.
The announcement comes after the U.N. Security Council earlier this month demanded that Israel guarantee “immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale” to the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets stepped up air strikes on Maghazi and Bureij in the center of Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 35 people, including former Religious Affairs Minister for the Palestinian Authority Youssef Salama, according to local media and hospital officials.
Israel has said it would keep fighting until it eliminates Hamas after the militant group launched a surprise attack on the country in early October, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. Israel has said it has killed 8,000 Hamas fighters so far in its military offensive. Cohen said on Sunday that the “government bears responsibility” for failing to prevent the October 7 attack, and suggested an independent inquiry should be set up after the war.
Despite growing international pressure for a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said the war would continue for “many more months.” Israel argues that ending the conflict now would mean victory for Hamas, a stance shared by the Biden administration, which at the same time has urged Israel to do more to avoid harm to Palestinian civilians.
“We will not allow a situation in which two million people live there. If there are 100,000 to 200,000 Arabs living in Gaza, the discussion about the day after will be completely different,” Smotrich said. “They want to leave, they have been living in a ghetto and in suffering for 75 years,” he added.
Fearing a mass exodus, both Egypt and Jordan have refused to accept refugees from the embattled Gaza Strip. Netanyahu also said on Saturday that the border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should be under Israel’s control.
Almost 22,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military response, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, 70 percent of whom are women and children — while 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced.
Russia fired off a fresh barrage of strikes at Ukraine on New Year’s Eve, launching nearly 100 Shahed loitering munitions against cities across the country. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said their air defense forces had shot down 87 of the Iranian-made drones.
A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people were wounded after debris from one of the drones that was downed hit a residential building in Odesa, the head of the regional administration said according to the Associated Press.
The latest holiday launch came on the heels of an air attack on Friday, during which the Ukrainian Air Force brought down 114 of 158 projectiles fired by Russia. Kyiv said Friday’s bombardment, the biggest of the war, had killed at least 45 people.
National unity took center stage during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s New Year address to the nation, though the president only referenced the war obliquely. He praised Russian troops — but did not mention Ukraine by name, nor did he make direct reference to the so-called special military operation, Kremlin-speak for the war in Ukraine.
“What united us and unites us is the fate of the Fatherland, a deep understanding of the highest significance of the historical stage through which Russia is passing,” Putin said to the nation. Putin said Russia would never retreat and there was no force that could divide Russians and stop the country’s development, the AP reported citing state media.
On Saturday, Ukrainian strikes against Belgorod, a Russian city approximately 35 kilometers from the border, killed at least two dozen and wounded more than 100, according to regional Russian authorities — but the attack did not feature in Putin’s four-minute video message.
In his midnight address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked 676 days of war by commending the resilience of Ukraine’s citizens and soldiers and highlighting Ukraine’s invitation to join the European Union.
“We do not know for certain what the new year will bring us,” Zelenskyy said, with Ukraine’s counteroffensive largely stalled and the increasing likelihood of stalemate across the front. “But this year we can add: whatever it brings, we will be stronger.”
