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Tag: national security

  • Biden: Israeli Hostages Released By Hamas “Proof That This Is Working”

    Biden: Israeli Hostages Released By Hamas “Proof That This Is Working”

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    President Joe Biden confirmed that four-year-old Israeli-American Abigail Edan, held hostage by Hamas since its October 7 attack on Israel, was released Sunday morning.

    “She’s now safely in Israel,” the president said in a press conference. “And we continue to press and expect for additional Americans to be released as well. We will not stop working until every hostage has been returned to their loved ones.”

    On the third day of a fragile cease-fire, 17 hostages were released on Sunday–14 Israelis and three foreigners—according to a list from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office. In exchange, Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners, all minors, according to a Qatari spokesman.

    Red Cross officials confirmed the transfer of some of the hostages out of Gaza according to The Associated Press. Some hostages were handed over directly to Israel, while others left via Egypt. One of the hostages was airlifted directly to an Israeli hospital, according to Israel Defense Forces.

    Earlier in the day, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reported that the U.S. has “reason to believe” that an American held hostage by Hamas will be released sometime during the day, but declined to say whether Edan was scheduled to be released. 

    Sullivan was asked about Israel’s stated commitment to extending the temporary ceasefire an extra day for every additional ten hostages freed. “The ball is in Hamas’ court on that,” the Biden diplomat said. “If the pause stops, the responsibility for that rests on the shoulders of Hamas, not on the shoulders of Israel.” 

    Biden has said that he believes the “chances are real” that a truce will be extended. On Sunday, he reiterated that his goal is “to keep this pause extended beyond tomorrow so we can keep seeing hostages come out and surge more humanitarian receive to those in need in Gaza.”

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    Jack McCordick

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  • Michael Chertoff Fast Facts | CNN

    Michael Chertoff Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of Michael Chertoff, former secretary of Homeland Security.

    Birth date: November 28, 1953

    Birth place: Elizabeth, New Jersey

    Birth name: Michael Chertoff

    Father: Gershon Chertoff, rabbi

    Mother: Livia Chertoff

    Marriage: Meryl (Justin) Chertoff (1988-present)

    Children: Two

    Education: Harvard University, BA, 1975; Harvard University, JD, 1978

    Religion: Jewish

    Helped write the Patriot Act after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

    Played a key role in the government investigations of WorldCom, Enron and Arthur Andersen.

    Prosecuted the former boss of the Genovese crime family, Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno; the founder of Crazy Eddie electronics, Eddie Antar; and Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann.

    1978-1979 – Law clerk to Judge Murray Gurfein, US Court of Appeals Second Circuit, New York.

    1979-1980 – Serves as a law clerk to Justice William Brennan, US Supreme Court.

    1980-1983 – Associate at Latham & Watkins in Washington, DC.

    1983-1987 – Assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

    1987 – Recipient of the John Marshall award from the US Department of Justice.

    1987-1990 – First assistant US attorney for the District of New Jersey.

    1990-1994 – US attorney for the District of New Jersey.

    1994-1996 – Special counsel for Senate Whitewater Committee.

    2001-2003 – Assistant US attorney general, the criminal division.

    2003-2005 – Judge for the US Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

    January 11, 2005 – Is nominated as secretary of Homeland Security by President George W. Bush.

    February 15, 2005-January 21, 2009 – Serves as the second secretary of Homeland Security.

    March 26, 2009-present – Senior counsel at the DC law firm Covington & Burling LLP.

    2009-present – Chairman and co-founder of the Chertoff Group, a global security advisory firm.

    May 1, 2012-December 2021 – Chairman of the board of directors of BAE Systems, Inc.

    April 27, 2022 – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says that DHS has established a Disinformation Governance Board, with the intention of coordinating department activities related to disinformation aimed at the US population and infrastructure. In May, the disinformation board initiative is halted after weeks of attacks, and Chertoff is named co-chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council subcommittee which later issues a set of recommendations to the secretary, including its assessment that there is “no need for a separate Disinformation Governance Board.” The disinformation board is formally terminated on August 24, 2022.

    January 2023 – CNN reports that the Supreme Court did not disclose its longstanding financial relationship with Chertoff, even as it touted him as an expert who independently validated its investigation into who leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

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  • Secret Warnings About Wuhan Research Predated the Pandemic

    Secret Warnings About Wuhan Research Predated the Pandemic

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    “Delete That Comment”

    In late October 2017, a US health official from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology for a glimpse of an eagerly anticipated work in progress. The WIV, a leading research institute, was putting the finishing touches on China’s first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory. Operating with the highest safeguards, the lab would enable scientists to study some of the world’s most lethal pathogens.

    The project had support from Western governments seeking a more robust partnership with China’s top scientists. France had helped design the facility. Canada, before long, would send virus samples. And in the US, NIAID was channeling grant dollars through an American organization called EcoHealth Alliance to help fund the WIV’s cutting-edge coronavirus research.

    That funding allowed the NIAID official, who worked out of the US embassy in Beijing, to become one of the first Americans to tour the lab. Her goal was to facilitate cooperation between American and Chinese scientists. Nevertheless, says Asha M. George, executive director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, a nonprofit that advises the US government on biodefense policy, “If you want to know what’s going on in a closed country, one of the things the US has done is give them grant money.”

    In emails obtained by Vanity Fair, the NIAID official told her superiors what she’d gleaned from the technician who’d served as her guide. The lab, which was not yet fully operational, was struggling to develop enough expertise among its staff—a concern in a setting that had no tolerance for errors. “According to [the technician], being the first P4 [or BSL-4] lab in the country, they have to learn everything from zero,” she wrote. “They rely on those scientists who have worked in P4 labs outside China to train the other scientists how to operate.”

    She’d also learned something else “alarming” from the technician, she wrote. Researchers at the WIV intended to study Ebola, but Chinese government restrictions prevented them from importing samples. As a result, they were considering using a technique called reverse genetics to engineer Ebola in the lab. Anticipating that this information would set off alarm bells in the US, the official cautioned, “I don’t want the information particularly using reverse genetics to create viruses to get out, which would affect the ability for our future information gain,” meaning it would impair the collaboration between NIAID and the WIV.

    There was good reason to fear that such a revelation could derail the fledgling partnership. One year earlier, the US Department of Energy had warned other agencies, including NIAID’s parent entity, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that advanced genetic engineering techniques could be misused for malign ends. The Energy Department had developed a classified proposal, reported on here for the first time, to ramp up safeguards against that possibility and develop tools to better detect evidence of genetic engineering. The proposal, which was not implemented in its suggested form, prompted a heated interagency battle, six people with knowledge of the debate tell Vanity Fair.

    On January 10, 2018, as the NIAID official prepared her official trip report for the US embassy in Beijing, she wrote to colleagues, “I was shocked to hear what he said [about reverse engineering Ebola]. I also worry the reaction of people in Washington when they read this. The technician is only a worker, not a decision maker nor a [principal investigator]. So how much we should believe what he said?” She concluded, “I don’t feel comfortable for broader audience within the government circle. It could be very sensitive.”

    Among the recipients of that email was F. Gray Handley, then NIAID’s associate director for international research affairs. Handley agreed with the official’s assessment and advised her: “As we discussed. Delete that comment.”

    On January 19, the US embassy in Beijing issued a sensitive but unclassified cable that included concerning details from the NIAID official’s tour. It said that WIV scientists themselves had noted the “serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate” the lab, according to an unredacted copy obtained by Vanity Fair. But the cable did not include the information that her NIAID colleagues apparently found most worrying.

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    Katherine Eban

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  • Public workers may receive reduced Social Security benefits. There’s growing support in Congress to change that

    Public workers may receive reduced Social Security benefits. There’s growing support in Congress to change that

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    Araya Doheny | Getty Images

    When Dave Bernstein, 87, started working at the U.S. Postal Service in February 1970, he was making $2.35 an hour.

    To supplement his income, he also took on other work. Years later, Bernstein decided in 1992 to take a voluntary retirement.

    “We knew there was going to be a reduced pension because of the early out,” said Phyllis Bernstein, Dave’s wife, who is 84.

    But what came next was something the couple did not expect.

    While Dave was expecting a monthly Social Security check of around $800, it ended up being just about half that amount – around $415 – even though he had earned the required 40 credits to be fully insured by the program. The benefits were adjusted based on rules for workers who earn both pension and Social Security benefits.

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    The couple, who reside in Tampa, Florida, have had a different retirement than they envisioned due to the lower income.

    Phyllis kept working until she was 82. They have also turned to family for financial support.

    Their lifestyle is frugal, with home-cooked meals and cars they kept for 20 years, or “until the wheels were falling off,” the couple jokes.

    But their limited resources have made traveling to Australia and New Zealand – Phyllis’ dream – out of reach.

    “When he retired, I was working,” Phyllis said. “We just couldn’t do the travel.”

    Today, Dave is pushing for the Social Security rules that reduced his benefits to be changed.

    His union, the American Postal Workers Union, has endorsed the Social Security Fairness Act, a bill proposed in Congress that would repeal Social Security rules known as the Windfall Elimination Provision, or WEP, and Government Pension Offset, or GPO, that reduce benefits for workers had positions where they did not pay Social Security taxes, also called non-covered earnings.

    The legislation has support from other organizations that represent public workers, including teachers, firefighters and police.

    The bill has overwhelming bipartisan support in the House of Representatives – 300 co-sponsors – at a time when that chamber has been politically divided. That support recently prompted House lawmakers to send a letter to leaders of the Ways and Means Committee to request a hearing.

    The Social Security Fairness Act has also been introduced in the Senate, with support from 49 leaders from both sides of the aisle.

    Yet some experts say just getting rid of the rules may not be the most effective way of making the system fairer.

    How the WEP, GPO rules work

    The WEP applies to how retirement or disability benefits are calculated if a worker earned a retirement or disability pension from an employer who did not withhold Social Security taxes and qualifies for Social Security from work in other jobs where they did pay taxes into the program.

    Social Security benefits are calculated using a worker’s average indexed monthly earnings, and then using a formula to calculate a worker’s basic benefit amount. For workers affected by the WEP, part of the replacement rate for the average indexed monthly earnings is brought down to 40% from 90%.

    The GPO, meanwhile, reduces benefits for spouses and widows or widowers of recipients of retirement or disability pensions from local, state or federal governments.

    It affects hundreds of thousands, if not millions of public employees that paid into Social Security and essentially are being penalized because they also happen to be public servants.

    Edward Kelly

    general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters

    Under the GPO, Social Security benefits are reduced by two-thirds of the government pension. If two-thirds of the government pension is more than the Social Security benefit, the Social Security benefit may be zero.

    The impact of the rules is far reaching, according to Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Many firefighters work in second jobs in the private sector as cab drivers, bar tenders or truck drivers, where they earn credits toward Social Security.

    “They steal their money, because they’re also public employees,” said Kelly, who describes his union members as “passionately angry” about the issue.

    “It affects hundreds of thousands, if not millions of public employees that paid into Social Security and essentially are being penalized because they also happen to be public servants, whether they are teachers, cops and, obviously, firefighters,” Kelly said.

    Why experts say another fix may be better

    The WEP and GPO rules were intended to make it so workers who pay Social Security taxes for their entire careers are treated the same as those who do not.

    But under those current rules, some beneficiaries receive lower benefits than they would have if they paid into Social Security for all of their careers, while others receive higher benefits, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

    Yet repealing the WEP and GPO rules would result in Social Security benefits that are “overly generous” for non-covered workers, research has found.

    Part of what may create that advantage is that Social Security benefits are progressive, and therefore replace a larger share of income for lower earners. So someone who only has part of their salary history in Social Security may get a higher replacement rate without considering their pension income.

    Fully repealing the WEP and GPO rules may also come with higher costs at a time when the program facing a funding shortfall. The change would add an estimated $150 billion to the program’s costs in the next 10 years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    Another way of handling the disparity may be to create a proportional approach to income replacement. Instead of the WEP, workers’ benefits would be calculated based on all of their earnings and then adjusted to reflect the share of their careers that were in jobs covered by Social Security. A similar approach may be taken with the GPO.

    Certain bills on Capitol Hill propose a proportional approach.

    However, a proportional formula may not solve all the inequities in the current system, according to Emerson Sprick, senior economic analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which has prompted to think tank to work on refining its proposal.

    ‘Extremely complex’ to understand

    An important advantage to reforming the current formulas would be making it easier for workers to understand and plan for their retirements.

    “It is definitely extremely complex, and very hard for folks preparing for retirement or in retirement, to understand what it means for their benefits,” Sprick said.

    Social Security statements that provide retirement benefit estimates do not take these rules into account.

    Consequently, many workers find out their benefits are adjusted when they are about to retire.

    shapecharge | E+ | Getty Images

    “The young guys don’t pay attention to it because it’s too far out; they’re not worried about it,” Kelly said of the firefighters.

    “It’s not until you’re ready to go out the door that you actually start paying attention to what you’re going to have to live off when you actually retire,” he added.

    The reductions to their Social Security benefits can be a shock.

    For beneficiaries like the Bernsteins who start out with lower benefits, it can be difficult to catch up, even after a record 8.7% Social Security cost-of-living adjustmentw went into effect this year.

    “Gas this summer and in the spring at $4 a gallon ate that money up like it wasn’t even there,” Dave Bernstein said.

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  • Yellen says the US economic relationship with China must consider human rights and national security

    Yellen says the US economic relationship with China must consider human rights and national security

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    WASHINGTON — Washington wants to build an economic relationship with Beijing that takes into account national security and human rights and is fair to both sides, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday.

    In laying out the Biden administration’s economic approach toward the Indo-Pacific region, the country’s top financial official said Washington does not seek to decouple from China, the region’s largest economy and the world’s second largest next to the United States. But it wants to diversify by investing at home and boosting links with trusted countries in the region.

    “We’ve put forward a vision of the world grounded in values we share with these allies and partners and in which there is also a healthy and stable economic relationship between the United States and China,” Yellen said in a speech hosted by the Asia Society less than two weeks before leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries will gather in San Francisco for an annual meeting.

    President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping plan to hold talks on the sidelines of the meeting to stabilize U.S.-China relations, which have unraveled over a range of issues, including trade, technology, security and human rights issues. In the South China Sea, tensions have escalated between Beijing and Manila over a contested shoal. In the Taiwan Strait, China regularly flies warplanes near the self-governed island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims to be Chinese territory.

    As Washington shifts its China policy through a string of economic measures that include tariffs and restrictions on technology exports and outbound investments, the Chinese government responds by accusing the United States of stifling its growth and curbing its rise. In her speech, Yellen said Washington will not cut its economic ties with Beijing but pursue a “serious and clear-eyed” approach.

    “When we take national security actions using economic tools, we do so in narrowly targeted ways, such as with President Biden’s executive order on outbound investments, aimed at accomplishing our national security goals, not choking off growth in China,” she said.

    “As I’ve said, the United States does not seek to decouple from China. A full separation of our economies, or an approach in which countries including those in the Indo-Pacific are forced to take sides, would have significant negative global repercussions,” Yellen said. “We have no interest in such a divided world and its disastrous effects.”

    To achieve Washington’s goals, the U.S. will continue to engage China to “prevent misunderstanding and clarify our areas of agreement and disagreement,” said Yellen, who in July traveled to Beijing to meet her Chinese counterparts.

    The U.S. also is rebuilding and strengthening partnerships in the region with allies such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India, Yellen said.

    Yellen made it clear that the U.S. will deepen its engagement in the region, at a time China seeks to unseat the U.S. as the regional leader.

    “The United States has long been a Pacific nation, and it is abundantly clear we remain one today,” she said.

    “Claims that America is turning away from the Indo-Pacific are wholly unfounded,” Yellen said. “We are deepening our economic ties across the region, with tremendous potential benefits for the U.S. economy and for the Indo-Pacific.”

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  • Israel’s history suggests the clock is ticking for Netanyahu after Hamas attack failures | CNN

    Israel’s history suggests the clock is ticking for Netanyahu after Hamas attack failures | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    In his more than three decades in politics, Benjamin Netanyahu has accrued almost as many nicknames as he has election wins.

    There’s “The Magician” for his uncanny ability to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. “King Bibi” for staying atop Israeli politics longer than anyone else. And, universally, though not necessarily affectionately: plain old “Bibi.” But there is another one he revelled in, and which now appears in tatters: “Mr Security.” How did it all go so wrong?

    It remains unclear as to how more than 1,000 Hamas militants managed to take Israel by such devastatingly deadly surprise, murdering – as President Isaac Herzog wrote – more Jews in one day than at any time since the Holocaust.

    And for now, Netanyahu’s opponents are not calling for Netanyahu to step down. “I’m not dealing now with who is to blame or why we were surprised,” said former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, now leader of the opposition. “It’s not the time, it’s not the place.”

    But that time and place will come. Indeed, according to Amit Segal, chief political commentator for Israel’s Channel 12, the surprise would be if Bibi’s prime ministership survives this war. “It would set a national precedent,” he told CNN. “Israeli history has taught us that each and every surprise and crisis led to the collapse of the government. That was the case in 1973 [after the Yom Kippur War] with Golda Meir, in 1982 with Menachem Begin in the first Lebanon war, and in 2006, with Ehud Olmert, in the second Lebanon War. The clock is ticking.”

    History certainly provides a useful comparison: the last time Israeli intelligence failed to anything like this degree – and with so many casualties – was almost 50 years ago to the day, when Egypt and Syria invaded Israel on Yom Kippur.

    That, though, was a war “that followed some kind of logic of norms and rules”, said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute. “We negotiated peace with [Egyptian] President Sadat a few years later, with majority support of the Knesset. We’re not going to negotiate any peace with Hamas. It’s a different ballgame altogether.”

    Some kind of negotiation – probably through intermediaries, such as Egypt – is inevitable. Even as Israel pummels Gaza with airstrikes, imposes a “complete siege” on the enclave, and prepares for a possible ground invasion to decimate Hamas, Netanyahu also needs to find a way to free the 150 or so hostages being held by the militants inside Gaza.

    This would have been a tall order in Netanyahu’s prime. But after 10 months of facing down protests against his controversial and divisive judicial overhaul, his corruption case – and a near-death experience – this is battered and beaten Bibi, not the vintage version.

    It may come as scant consolation to him that Hamas has managed to reunite Israel. “The last thing Israelis care about right now is Netanyahu’s political career,” said Plesner, who also serves in the reserves of the Israeli special forces, where he is a major.

    It’s also worth remembering that Bibi has been written off countless times before – only for him to return, Terminator-like, to trounce his opponents. This time, though, feels different. This time, he’s been forced into a war he didn’t choose when he may have been distracted by other things.

    Focusing on the judicial overhaul “didn’t help”, said Channel 12’s Segal. But this invasion by Hamas, he said, would have been planned 12 to 18 months ago – when Netanyahu was in opposition. The miscalculation, he said, was that Hamas was after economic concessions, and a softening of Israel’s blockade on Gaza. “At the end of the day it’s a Nazi regime looking to destroy us all. And you can’t live with a monster in your backyard.”

    Whether Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces are able to slay the monster may become clearer in the coming days and weeks. He might succeed in forming a national unity “emergency” government that would insulate him from any calls to step down. In the short term, this could marginalise what Lapid describes as the more “extreme” and “dysfunctional” elements of Netanyahu’s coalition. But even if they do move to the sidelines, their ideas may live on.

    Such has been the shock and anger over Hamas’ spectacular assault that Israeli voters may be open to more extreme ideas. “A certain portion of the population will expect a very, very harsh response,” said Plesner, “and it will be based on a zero-sum game: it’s either us or them.” And this time, “Mr Security” may fail to deliver.

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  • Israel Must “Rein In” Settler Violence, Distinguish Between Hamas and Palestinian People: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

    Israel Must “Rein In” Settler Violence, Distinguish Between Hamas and Palestinian People: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

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    Israel needs to “distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians and to protect the lives of innocent civilians,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas.

    Sullivan’s comments to CBS News’s Margaret Brennan came as the war reached a new stage this weekend, as Israel expanded its ground forces in Gaza while ratcheting up its aerial bombardment of the territory.

    In multiple U.S. television interviews on Sunday morning, Sullivan said the U.S. is continuing to ask “hard questions” of Israel as it conducts its military operations, which so far have killed over 7,000 Palestinians, including nearly 3,000 children, according to the Gazan health ministry, which Hamas controls. Sullivan called the deaths of Palestinian civilians a “tragedy.”

    “Every hour, every day of this military operation, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], the Israeli government should be taking every possible means available to them to distinguish between Hamas terrorists who are legitimate military targets and civilians who are not,” Sullivan said on CNN. He added that President Joe Biden will reiterate this position in a call Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Sullivan also said Sunday that Netanyahu must “rein in” extremist Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence against Palestinians has erupted in the three weeks since the October 7 Hamas attack, in which more than 1,400 Israelis were killed. “It is totally unacceptable to have extremist settler violence against innocent people in the West Bank,” Sullivan said. Last week, President Biden described the settler attacks as “pouring gasoline on the fire” of the conflict.

    But Sullivan also said that when it comes to Israel’s specific military milestones in the unfolding conflict in Gaza, “that is something that ultimately is up to Israel. This is their military operation [and] they will make that decision.”

    In response to Sullivan’s call for “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict to get hostages out of Gaza, Brennan noted that the U.S. was one of just 14 countries that voted on Friday against a U.N. resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between the IDF and Hamas militants.

    “What a lot of people are calling for is just a stop to Israeli military action against terrorists, period. Just stop, no more. ‘Israel cannot go after terrorists who conducted this largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,’” Sullivan responded. “We have taken the position that Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorist attacks.”

    “There are a lot of complicated realities,” he added. “A humanitarian pause would be a good thing to get hostages out, but you can bet that Hamas will try to use that time to their advantage as well.”

    Sullivan also dismissed calls for a ceasefire, which grew louder this weekend when both Pope Francis and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez issued demands for what the latter called “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” citing a “humanitarian catastrophe” that is “unfolding in front of our eyes.”

    “From the point of view of a ceasefire, what Israel suffered on October 7 was the equivalent of fifteen 9/11s,” Sullivan said. “After 9/11, if the terrorists had simply said, ‘We want a ceasefire,’ I don’t think the United States would have said, ‘We’re gonna stop going after terrorists.’”

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    Jack McCordick

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  • David Petraeus Fast Facts | CNN

    David Petraeus Fast Facts | CNN

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    Here is a look at the life of David Petraeus, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    Birth date: November 7, 1952

    Birth place: Cornwall, New York

    Birth name: David Howell Petraeus

    Father: Sixtus Petraeus, Danish-born sea captain

    Mother: Miriam (Howell) Petraeus

    Marriage: Hollister “Holly” Knowlton (July 6, 1974-present)

    Children: Anne and Stephen

    Education: US Military Academy – West Point, B.S., 1974; Princeton University, M.P.A., International Relations, 1985; Princeton University, Ph.D., International Relations, 1987

    Military: US Army, 1974-2011, four-star general

    Growing up in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, friends nicknamed Petraeus “Peaches.”

    1974 – Is commissioned as an infantry officer in the US Army upon graduation from West Point.

    1975-1979 – Platoon leader, adjutant, 1st Battalion, 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy.

    1979-1982 – Commander, then aide de camp, 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

    1985-1987 – Instructor, then Assistant Professor of Social Sciences, US Military Academy at West Point.

    1987-1988 – Military Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO, Brussels, Belgium.

    1989 – Serves as aide to the Army’s chief of staff.

    1991 – Is shot in the chest during a training exercise at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

    1991-1993 – Commander, 3rd Battalion of the 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

    1995-1997 – Commander, 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division.

    2000 – Breaks his pelvis during a parachute jump.

    2000-2001 – Chief of staff, XVIII Airborne Corps., US Army, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

    2000 – Is promoted to brigadier (one star) general.

    2001-2002 – Serves in Bosnia as the assistant chief of staff for military operations of the NATO Stabilization Force.

    2002-2004 – Commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division US Army, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

    March 2003 – Leads troops into battle as commander of the 101st Airborne Division during the US-led invasion of Iraq.

    June 2004-September 2005 – Commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command in Iraq.

    October 2005-2007 – Commanding general of the Combined Arms Center, US Army, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    February 2007-September 2008 – Commander of all coalition forces in Iraq.

    October 31, 2008-July 4, 2010 – Commander in Chief of Central Command.

    October 6, 2009 – Announces that he was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer and underwent two months of radiation treatment.

    June 15, 2010 – Becomes “a little lightheaded” and faints while testifying at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

    July 4, 2010-July 18, 2011 – Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

    April 28, 2011 – Nominated by President Barack Obama to replace Leon Panetta as CIA director.

    June 30, 2011 – Unanimously confirmed by the US Senate as the next director of the CIA.

    July 18, 2011 – Petraeus turns over command of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan to Gen. John R. Allen.

    August 31, 2011 – Retires from the Army.

    September 6, 2011 – Petraeus is sworn in as the new director of the CIA.

    November 9, 2012 – Petraeus submits his resignation to President Obama, citing personal reasons and admits he had an extramarital affair.

    March 27, 2013 – Publicly apologizes for his extramarital affair during a speech at the University of Southern California.

    May 30, 2013 – It is announced that Petraeus has joined private equity firm KKR as the chairman of a new global institute.

    July 1, 2013 – Joins the University of Southern California faculty as a Judge Widney Professor, “a title reserved for eminent individuals from the arts, sciences, professions, business, and community and national leadership.”

    January 9, 2015 – A federal law enforcement official tells CNN that Justice Department prosecutors are recommending charges be filed against Petraeus for disclosure of classified information to his former lover Paula Broadwell who was working on a book with Petraeus at the time.

    March 3, 2015 – Pleads guilty to one federal charge of removing and retaining classified information as part of a plea deal. According to court documents, Petraeus admitted removing several so-called black books – notebooks in which he kept classified and non-classified information from his tenure as the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan – and giving them to Broadwell.

    March 16, 2015 – White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirms that the National Security Council and the Obama administration have consulted with Petraeus on matters related to Iraq and ISIS.

    April 23, 2015 – Petraeus is sentenced to serve two years probation and fined $100,000 for sharing classified information with his biographer and lover, Broadwell. Prosecutors agree to not send him to jail because the classified information was never released to the public or published in the biography.

    September 22, 2015 – Petraeus speaks before the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding the US’s Middle East policy. He begins this, his first public hearing since his resignation, with a formal apology for the indiscretions that led to his resignation.

    June 10, 2016 – Along with retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, announces that they are launching Veterans Coalition for Common Sense to encourage elected leaders to “do more to prevent gun tragedies.”

    June 12, 2019 – The University of Birmingham announces that Petraeus has accepted an honorary professorship in the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security. The three-year position begins immediately.

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  • What to Know About the Attacks on U.S. Military Bases

    What to Know About the Attacks on U.S. Military Bases

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    In a series of videos posted on Telegram by a shadowy organization known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, drones belonging to Iranian-backed militias can be seen taking off from the desert floor and streaking into the distance. The videos are paired with ominous texts threatening further strikes and warning Iraqis to stay away from U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria, the targets of the attacks. The location of the videos could not be independently verified by TIME, but metadata from the videos indicates that the videos were taken on days of confirmed attacks on U.S. military bases.

    For more than six months, Iranian-backed groups have refrained from launching drones or rockets against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. But in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on Israel which left more than 1,400 people dead, this period of relative calm has come to a sudden halt. In just the past week, U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked 13 times, Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said at a press conference on Oct. 24. While the attacks have been largely intercepted by U.S. missile defenses, 24 U.S. troops have been injured, Ryder said. One U.S. contractor also died from cardiac arrest during a false alarm at an air base in Iraq.

    While the U.S. has long sought to reduce its military forces in the Middle East, the repeated attacks by Iranian-backed groups complicate the U.S.’s presence in the region and underscores the risks of further escalation. 

    Here’s what to know about the groups threatening or attacking U.S. forces in the region.

    Who Are the Groups Attacking U.S. Military Bases?

    Pentagon spokesperson Ryder said on Oct. 23 that the U.S. does not have any intelligence proving that Iran “explicitly ordered” the recent attacks. Even so, administration officials have not been shying away from pointing to Iran’s role in encouraging its proxies. One senior defense official told reporters on Oct. 23, “it’s fair to say when you see this uptick in activity and attacks by many of these groups, there’s Iranian fingerprints all over it.”

    Across the Middle East, Iran has a network of proxy forces in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gaza and Bahrain. While many of the groups also have their own local agendas, they receive training, weapons and funds from Iran and bolster Tehran’s influence in the region.

    Read more: Militant Group Hezbollah Is on the Sidelines of the Israel-Hamas War. Here’s What to Know

    One network in particular, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has taken credit for at least 11 attacks on U.S. troops so far, according to the Washington Institute. The group first appeared in the aftermath of Hamas’s attacks on Israel, and is an umbrella organization for a number of key Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, says Michael Knights, an expert in militias in Iraq and Syria at the Washington Institute. The groups have come together under this banner “to signal unity but also to hide individual culpability for attacks” if they happen to kill an American, he says.

    It is unclear precisely how many Iranian-backed groups operate in Iraq and Syria, experts say. “There’s at least 10 or 20, if not many more groups between the Iraq-Syria border alone,” says Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. These groups pose a threat primarily to the 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and the 900 in Syria. But at least one Iranian-backed group in Iraq, the Righteous Promise Brigades, has threatened to attack U.S. forces in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

    What Happens if the Attacks Escalate?

    The militia groups have been clear in linking their latest escalations to the U.S’s support for Israel. “The Americans are essential partners in killing the people of Gaza and therefore they must bear the consequences,” Jaafar al Hussein, spokesman of Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s largest militia groups, wrote on Telegram on Oct. 18.

    The attacks on U.S. military bases so far are the largest barrage of attacks since the Iranian response to the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, experts say. So far, the attacks have been small-scale rocket or drone strikes at military bases designed to withstand these kinds of attacks, says Knights, rather than large-scale attacks aimed at overwhelming air defenses and killing large numbers of U.S. forces.

    Even so, experts say that if the attacks were to kill U.S. forces, the situation may escalate dramatically. “You don’t launch rockets and missiles and armed drones into populated areas such as bases without a willingness to kill,” says Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. “And if you’re going to commit lethal attacks, the escalatory ladder or dynamic that follows is never a sure thing.”

    Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Sunday Oct. 22 that “what we’re seeing is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region.”

    If the groups decide to intensify the attacks on U.S. forces further, experts say that attacks on U.S. helicopters flying over Iraq or a return to the widespread usage of roadside bombs that killed thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could be likely strategies. 

    The Houthi Threat

    In the Red Sea, the USS Carney shot down several missiles and drones that were fired by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Oct. 19. U.S. officials say they were not fired at the American navy destroyer, but may have been aimed for Israel. Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi warned shortly after Hamas’s attack on Israel that if the U.S. were to get directly involved in Gaza, that his group would respond with missiles and drones.

    While the Houthi army is more than 1,400 miles from the Israel-Hamas war, they possess some of the most advanced capabilities of any of the Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East. “They are significantly ramping up their long range strike capabilities,” says Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “which allows them to be a more effective press against international shipping and American power in the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb,” the narrow strait separating Yemen from East Africa.

    In response to the rising threats, the U.S. is rushing air defense systems to its Middle Eastern military facilities and has tightened security around its bases. The U.S. has also sent a number of ships, including two aircraft carriers, and additional fighter jets to the region as it seeks to deter Iran and its allies from getting involved further.

    “The United States does not seek conflict with Iran,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a tense meeting of the UN Security Council on Oct. 24. “But if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake: We will defend our people, we will defend our security—swiftly and decisively.”

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  • Israel warns Gaza airstrikes will intensify and hits West Bank ahead of war’s ‘next stage’ | CNN

    Israel warns Gaza airstrikes will intensify and hits West Bank ahead of war’s ‘next stage’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Israel’s military vowed to increase airstrikes on Gaza and struck Hamas targets in the occupied West Bank as it signaled it was readying for a new phase of war against the Palestinian militant group, including a potential ground incursion.

    All eyes are now on the next move of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has amassed huge numbers of troops outside Gaza and pounded the densely populated enclave with near-constant airstrikes in its attempt to eradicate Hamas following its deadly October 7 attacks on Israel.

    “We will increase our strikes, minimize the risk to our troops in the next stages of the war, and we will intensify the strikes, starting from today,” IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Saturday, adding that a ground operation in Gaza would be launched when conditions are optimal.

    “We continue to destroy terror targets ahead of the next stage of the war, and are focusing on our readiness to the next stage,” he said.

    Meanwhile, on Sunday the IDF launched an airstrike on the Al-Ansar mosque in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, which it said was being used by militants to plan for “an imminent terror attack.”

    IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN it had new intelligence that “suggested there was an imminent attack coming from a joint Hamas and Islamic Jihad squad,” that was making preparations from an underground command center beneath the mosque.

    Three people were killed in the Israeli strike, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday.

    Violence has flared in the West Bank since the Gaza conflict erupted two weeks ago.

    Separately, two people were killed following clashes in Toubas and Nablus, bringing the death toll in the West Bank to at least 90 since October 7, the ministry said Sunday.

    In pictures: The deadly clashes in Israel and Gaza

    In Gaza City, the IDF dropped leaflets written in Arabic that warned residents to evacuate to the south or face the possibility of being considered “a partner for the terrorist organization,” according to a CNN translation.

    In a statement, the IDF confirmed it had dropped the flyers, but said there was “no intention to consider those who have not evacuated from the affected area of fighting as a member of the terrorist group.”

    The IDF “treats civilians as such, and does not target them,” the statement added.

    As of Saturday, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 4,300 people in Gaza, including hundreds of women and children, according to the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza.

    Israel has previously told the more than 1 million residents in northern Gaza to leave their homes and move to the south.

    Israel has offered no timeline for the possible ground offensive on Gaza, but military officials have repeatedly told troops an incursion is imminent.

    The Israeli Military Chief of Staff, Herzl Halevi, told IDF commanders Saturday that the military will initiate an operation to “destroy” Hamas.

    “We’ll enter the Gaza Strip. We’ll embark on an operational and professional task to destroy Hamas operatives and infrastructures,” the chief said in comments to the Golani Brigade of the IDF.

    Halevi said that when the IDF enters Gaza, they will “keep in mind” the images that occurred during Hamas’ deadly rampage in Israel.

    He acknowledged that Gaza is complicated and crowded, but said the IDF is preparing for the enemy.

    The United States and its allies have urged Israel to be strategic and clear about its goals during any ground invasion of Gaza, warning against a prolonged occupation and placing a particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties.

    During his visit to Israel last week, US President Joe Biden “asked some hard questions” about Israel’s ground invasion strategy, a senior US official told CNN, adding: “we’re not directing the Israelis, the timeline is theirs – their thinking, their planning.”

    Meanwhile, the US military is sending more missile defense systems to the Middle East and placing additional US troops on prepare-to-deploy orders in response to escalations throughout the region in recent days.

    US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday he had “activated the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as well as additional Patriot battalions to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for US forces.”

    The order for troops to prepare for deployment is meant “to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required,” he said.

    Both the THAAD and Patriots systems are air defense systems designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles.

    Conditions in Gaza have become increasingly dire following two weeks of bombardment and a complete siege by Israel, which was unleashed in response to a rampage by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.

    Hamas fighters have also abducted about 210 people into Gaza as hostages, according to an estimate released Saturday by the IDF. Two American hostages, a mother and her 17-year-old daughter, were released Friday.

    On Saturday, the first convoy of 20 trucks carrying food, water, medicine and medical supplies entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing after intense diplomatic efforts to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

    But aid workers and international leaders have warned that much more is needed to combat the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the enclave that is home to more than 2 million people.

    Citing an acute shortage of food, water, power, and medical supplies that is pushing civilian lives in Gaza “to the edge of catastrophe,” the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it urgently requires $74 million to sustain its emergency response in Gaza for the next 90 days.

    The appeal came in a Palestinian Territories situation report Saturday that said the coastal enclave’s stores have food reserves of less than a week and that the ability to replenish these stocks is “compromised by damaged roads, safety concerns, and fuel shortages.”

    Three WFP trucks were part of the convoy of that moved through the Rafah crossing into Gaza on Saturday. Another 40 WFP trucks are waiting at Al-Arish, Egypt, to enter Gaza, the report said.

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  • As a ground incursion looms, the big question remains: What is Israel’s plan for Gaza? | CNN

    As a ground incursion looms, the big question remains: What is Israel’s plan for Gaza? | CNN

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    Israel’s border with Gaza
    CNN
     — 

    Tal and Zak have no idea how long they’ll be deployed in what the Israelis call “the Gaza envelope,” the area in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas terrorists two weeks ago.

    It could be weeks, it could be months, they said. “It’s the same for everyone. No one knows,” Zak told CNN at a military camp not far from the Gaza border. The two young soldiers, whose surnames CNN isn’t revealing for security reasons, serve in an artillery unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that was moved into the area after Hamas militants killed 1,400 people and kidnapped about 200 on October 7.

    Their unit is part of a massive buildup of Israeli troops and military material on the Gaza border. On top of its regular force, the IDF has also called up 300,000 reservists who reported to their bases within hours. Across Israel, highways in the vicinity of major bases are lined with thousands and thousands of cars, abandoned by reservists rushing to take up arms.

    A ground incursion by Israel into Gaza now seems inevitable. On Thursday, the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, told troops gathered near the border that they would “soon see” the enclave “from the inside” and said Gaza will “never be the same.”

    But what that operation might look like remains unknown. The IDF could launch a full-scale invasion, or conduct more precise incursions aimed at recovering the hostages and targeting Hamas operatives.

    What will happen after that is an even bigger question. While the Israeli leadership speaks about the need to get rid of Hamas, the plan for the future of Gaza and its more than 2 million people people remains unknown.

    “There is a consensus that any other option than to totally eliminate Hamas would be terrible, not just for Israel, but for the entire area, and then even globally,” said Harel Chorev, senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at the Tel Aviv University.

    “What it means is basically to destroy the infrastructure there, the city under the city – what we call the Gaza City Metro,” Chorev told CNN, referring to the vast labyrinth of tunnels used to transport people and goods, store rockets and ammunition and house Hamas command and control centers. “It means breaking their backbone through any measure, and, of course, destroying the leadership, in Gaza and elsewhere,” he added.

    But Hasan Alhasan, a research fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the plan to annihilate Hamas could be dangerous and complicated – and may have unforeseen consequences.

    “Because Hamas is deeply rooted and embedded within Gaza, its society and geography, in order to defeat them, Israel would have to carry out permanent topographic and demographic change of the Gaza Strip – and that has already been happening,” he told CNN.

    The IDF has told all civilians in north Gaza to evacuate to the south as it continues pounding the enclave with airstrikes. That order has created a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.

    The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday that about 1.4 million people had been displaced in Gaza – more than 60% of the entire strip’s population. Gaza has been under blockade by Israel and Egypt for years, but after the Hamas attack, Israel also cut off its electricity, food, water and fuel supplies.

    Israel said it restored water supply on October 15, but without electricity to run pumping station, water authorities in Gaza say they cannot even tell if water has been restored, let alone pump it.

    “The concern, within Egypt especially, is that Israel’s strategy of making the humanitarian situation very difficult in Gaza is ultimately meant to force a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into the Egyptian Sinai,” Alhasan said, adding that Egypt has the backing of all of the Arab states in that it would not allow this.

    “The Jordanians are also concerned that if we see a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, that this would create a precedent and that Israel’s right wing government would attempt to solve the Palestinian issue once and for all by expelling them en masse from Gaza into Egypt and from the West Bank into Jordan,” he added.

    Israel has so far maintained it is waging a war on Hamas, not the civilians of Gaza. But a spokesman for the IDF told CNN on Saturday that while they try to avoid civilian casualties, they are inevitable in urban warfare.

    Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade with “the prospect of ground operation,” the IDF remained focused on defeating Hamas. “It is our role to make sure Hamas can never hold the power of government, of terrorism, that they did,” he said.

    A formation of Israeli tanks and other military is positioned near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel October 20, 2023.

    The huge military buildup around the Gaza Strip border is clearly visible – as is the high morale among the troops. Just down the road from the camp where Tal and Zak are staying, volunteers from across Israel have set up a makeshift pit stop for the soldiers passing by, serving food and handing out soft drinks, religious items, cigarettes and – most importantly, according to some of the soldiers – good coffee.

    Rabbi Yitzhak, a military rabbi, has been traveling around the Gaza border, visiting troops and offering his encouragement.

    “I am here to make the soldiers stronger, so they can focus on their job… as time goes by, they can get tired, I want to make sure they know we love them and appreciate them. They are nervous, but they are strong,” he said, adding that his main purpose is to boost the soldiers’ morale so that they can “finish the job.”

    Not that he needs to do much. The brutality of the terror attack by Hamas has shaken Israel to its core and the large number of its victims has made it personal to most.

    “I don’t think there’s one person in this country who doesn’t know someone who was killed,” Tal, the artillery unit soldier, told CNN.

    One young reservist, who was called back just a year after finishing his compulsory military service, said the war Israel was waging on Hamas was “the most just war one can imagine.”

    “There is nothing more just than this – they murdered innocent civilians. That’s why we are here,” he said, asking for his name to remain private as he is not officially allowed to speak to media.

    He and the other young men he served with have been reunited near the Gaza border, training for what’s to come next – whatever that may be. “We are ready, but we hope it will end soon,” he added.

    Rabbi Yitzhak, a military rabbi, has visited troops and offering his encouragement.

    What is clear is that for people in Gaza, it will not end soon. What happens to them after the operation ends is anyone’s guess. Most Israeli politicians have remained vague on their plans for the enclave, hinting it could look more like the West Bank in the future.

    Hamas, an Islamist organization with a military wing, has been in control of Gaza since it won a landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections – the last vote to be held in Gaza – and then violently expelled Fatah, the faction that makes up the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, in 2007.

    Unlike some other Palestinian factions, Hamas refuses to engage with Israel. It is also in a political war with the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank and engages in security coordination and talks with Israel.

    Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, but it also runs religious and social welfare programs in Gaza, which is partially how it maintains a tight grip on the population.

    So if Israel succeeds in removing Hamas, it will need to replace the group with an alternative government.

    Avi Dichter, a former head of the Israeli Security agency, or Shin Bet, and the current minister of agriculture, said that what Israel wants to achieve in Gaza is the same level of security control it currently has in the West Bank, where it maintains complete access on its own terms.

    “Today, whenever we have a military problem in every single place in the West Bank. We are there,” Dichter told CNN. “Remember in Gaza there is no administration, it has to be built – another administration,” Dichter said.

    Harel Chorev, the Middle East expert, told CNN that the only way to rebuild Gaza is by implementing a long-term plan, something like the Marshal Plan that helped rebuild the economy in post-war Europe with the goal of containing the spread of Communism.

    “It will be a post-Second World War like situation in the Gaza Strip in terms of destruction, so it will need to be taken care of,” he said. He said he believed there would be international cooperation on the rebuilding of Gaza, because international aid worth tens of millions of dollars has been flowing into the enclave for years – but much of it has been misused by Hamas, he said.

    “You have to understand how much damage is inflicted on all of the Palestinians by Hamas. I was talking to a Palestinian Authority official and their message is clear: ‘destroy them, destroy them, this time, Israel must destroy Hamas, otherwise we’re done,’” he said. “Of course, publicly, they condemn Israel,” he added.

    The Palestinian Authority is controlled by Fatah, Hamas’ political rival.

    A makeshift food fair has been created by volunteers from across Israel for soldiers deployed in the area.

    However, Alhasan said securing international help could be difficult if Israel proceeds with its plan to invade Gaza.

    “I think it would be very difficult to secure cooperation from the Arab states on the post-Israeli incursion-scenario, because they weren’t on board with it from the get go … I think it will hinge on whether Israel goes for a total annexation of Gaza, or whether it opts for for something else,” he said.

    He said the biggest risk is that Israel’s heavy-handed approach – which could lead to a high number of civilian casualties – will only lead to Hamas being replaced by another extremist group.

    “This is what militant groups do. They provoke an overreaction, and that overreaction helps further radicalization, and essentially allows them to continue recruiting people to continue to receive support because the further down we go the path of violence, the more it seems that the only answer is violence,” he said.

    The IDF campaign has so far left more than 4,000 people in Gaza dead.

    “I think this is why the mass expulsion scenario becomes suddenly not inconceivable in Israel, if the objective is to eliminate Hamas, but also to prevent Hamas from regenerating or some other potentially even more radical group from emerging,” Alhasan added.

    But Chorev said an international effort to rebuild Gaza economically could break this cycle of violence. “If all that international money that was invested into the (Hamas) projects could go to education, to welfare, to industry… you know, there are great people there (in Gaza) and the prospects would be better,” he said.

    As they help their unit fire more missiles towards Gaza, with the goal of taking out Hamas targets one by one, Tal and Zak are not thinking about the future, not beyond the next day or so.

    In fact, Zak told CNN, they try not to think much at all.

    “We try hard not to have off times. Because if you don’t do anything, your mind goes to places you don’t want to be. All of the friends we’ve lost, the family, many of us lost their close relatives and friends, some even their boyfriends and girlfriends,” he said.

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  • IOC hits back at Putin claim of ‘ethnic discrimination’ against Russia’s athletes

    IOC hits back at Putin claim of ‘ethnic discrimination’ against Russia’s athletes

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    The International Olympic Committee has dismissed claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin of “ethnic discrimination” against athletes who are excluded from international sport

    ByThe Associated Press

    October 20, 2023, 6:17 AM

    Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech during a plenary session of the Russia – Country of Sports International Sports Forum in Perm, Russia, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (Evgeny Biyatov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

    The Associated Press

    LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The International Olympic Committee dismissed on Friday claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin of “ethnic discrimination” against athletes who are excluded from international sport.

    The IOC has advised sports bodies this year to vet Russian athletes for returning to compete as neutral individuals without a national identity ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics while continuing to exclude teams.

    Neutral status can be approved for athletes who have not actively supported the war and are not contracted to military or state security agencies, though there have been inconsistencies in how dozens of different sports have applied rules.

    “We firmly reject the accusations being made that these measures are an ‘ethnic discrimination,’” the IOC said in a statement one day after Putin’s speech.

    “They are a reaction to the breach of the Olympic Charter by the Russian and Belarusian governments,” the Olympic body said, referring to the military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022 four days after the Beijing Winter Games closed. The United Nations-backed Olympic Truce was still in force.

    Putin also reportedly complained Thursday that invitations to the Olympics were not being given as a right for the best athletes.

    However, the Olympic Charter details: “Nobody is entitled as of right to participate in the Olympic Games.”

    “Any entry is subject to acceptance by the IOC, which may at its discretion, at any time, refuse any entry, without indication of grounds” is stated in article 44 of the book of rules and principles guiding Olympic sports.

    Though the IOC last year urged a blanket isolation of Russia and Belarus from international sport, that position eased to become an aim to avoid discrimination based on an individual’s passport once qualifying events for Paris approached.

    The IOC said Friday the “strict conditions” it has defined for evaluating “individual neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport” comply with the charter.

    The charter also states each national Olympic committee (NOC) “is obliged to participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes.”

    Though the IOC suspended the Russian NOC last week — for incorporating as members sports councils from occupied regions of eastern Ukraine — it can still directly invite athletes through the governing body of their sport.

    IOC president Thomas Bach also has consistently said it is empowered to take a decision that could exclude all Russians from Paris ahead of the July 26 opening ceremony.

    ___

    AP coverage of the Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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  • The Commerce Department updates its policies to stop China from getting advanced computer chips

    The Commerce Department updates its policies to stop China from getting advanced computer chips

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    The Commerce Department has updated and broadened its export controls to stop China from acquiring advanced computer chips and the equipment to manufacture them

    ByJOSH BOAK Associated Press

    October 17, 2023, 8:46 AM

    FILE – Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo testifies during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing Oct. 4, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Commerce Department on Oct. 17 updated and broadened its export controls to stop China from acquiring advanced computer chips and the equipment to manufacture them. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

    The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department on Tuesday updated and broadened its export controls to stop China from acquiring advanced computer chips and the equipment to manufacture them.

    The revisions come roughly a year after the export controls were first launched to counter the use of the chips for military applications that include the development of hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence.

    “These export controls are intended to protect technologies that have clear national security or human rights implications,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters. “The vast majority of semiconductors will remain unrestricted. But when we identify national security or human rights threats, we will act decisively and in concert with our allies.”

    The updates stemmed from consulting with industry and conducting technological analyses. There will now be a gray zone that will be monitored for chips that could still be used for military aims even if they might not meet the thresholds for trade limitations.

    Chip exports can also be restricted to companies headquartered in Macao or anywhere under a U.S. arms embargo, preventing countries of concern from circumventing the controls and providing chips to China.

    The updates also introduce new requirements that make it more difficult for China to manufacture advanced chips abroad. The list of manufacturing equipment that falls under the export controls has also been expanded, among other changes to the policy.

    The export controls announced last year were a source of frustration for the Chinese government, which viewed the design and manufacturing of high-level semiconductors as essential for its economic and geopolitical goals. Raimondo has said the limits on these chips are not designed to impair China’s economic growth.

    In an August meeting, Raimondo and her Chinese counterparts agreed to exchange information about the export controls. But a senior administration official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the policy, said the U.S. government did not discuss with China the parameters of the revised export controls. China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, appealed for “concrete actions” by Washington to improve relations, a reference to Chinese pressure for changes in U.S. policy on technology, Taiwan and other issues.

    Chinese government officials are scheduled to go to San Francisco in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

    President Joe Biden has suggested he could meet on the sidelines of the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though a meeting has yet to be confirmed. The two leaders met last year following the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, shortly after the export controls were announced.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show the spelling is Macao, not Macau.

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  • Biden interviewed in special counsel’s probe into classified documents found at his home, former office | CNN Politics

    Biden interviewed in special counsel’s probe into classified documents found at his home, former office | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden over the last two days participated in a voluntary interview with special counsel Robert Hur as a part of his classified documents investigation, the White House announced Monday.

    “The President has been interviewed as part of the investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur,” White House counsel’s office spokesperson Ian Sams wrote in a statement Monday. “The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday.”

    “As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” Sams continued, referring additional questions to the Justice Department.

    The interview marks the first major development in the case known to the public in months and stands in stark contrast to Biden’s predecessor. Former President Donald Trump never interviewed with special counsel Robert Mueller during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election despite extensive negotiations over a potential interview. Trump currently faces criminal charges in two separate special counsel investigations, including one regarding his own handling of classified documents after he left the presidency in January 2021.

    The interview comes months after Biden told CNN there had been “no such request and no such interest” for an interview with the special counsel in the investigation.

    A spokesperson for Hur, who oversees the Justice Department’s probe into classified documents found at Biden’s home and former private office, declined to comment to CNN.

    The interview was scheduled weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. It came as Biden spent the three-day holiday weekend in Washington, a rare occurrence.

    The decision to stay at the White House seemed fortuitous as war erupted in Israel but in reality, the choice to skip traveling to one of his Delaware homes was weeks in the making so the president could sit for the interview. Few people inside the White House were aware of the plans, and there was little indication to those who were working there this weekend that the interview was in the works.

    On Saturday morning, the president woke up to urgent news from his senior advisers: Israel was under attack. He convened a meeting of his national security team at 8:15 a.m ET.

    The hours that followed would be filled with a whirlwind of activity for Biden, as he received multiple briefings by his top national security advisers, got on the phone with world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, and addressed the nation from the State Dining Room.

    The president had a light public schedule Sunday and Monday with no public events, and reporters were given relatively early notice that Biden would not have any public appearances. On Monday, the president met with administration officials about the fighting in Israel in the morning and spoke with allies in the afternoon.

    Some of Biden’s closest advisers were spotted at the White House over the weekend, including chief of staff Jeff Zients and senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn, who is married to Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney. The group huddled in the Treaty Room of the White House residence on Saturday to go over Biden’s planned remarks on Israel.

    On Sunday, Biden remained out of public view, though he did speak with Netanyahu by telephone. His interview for the special counsel investigation went undetected by most of those in the building.

    That evening, he hosted a barbeque for White House residence staffers that included live music. On Monday, he continued the interview – even as events in Israel occupied his agenda. Biden stayed out of the public eye, with the White House calling a lid before noon Monday.

    Hur was appointed in January to investigate incidents of classified documents being found at Biden’s former Washington, DC, office and his Wilmington, Delaware, home. Upon announcing the investigation, Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out a timeline of the case that began with the Washington discovery in November 2022.

    The National Archives informed a DOJ prosecutor on November 4 that the White House had made the Archives aware of documents with classified markings that had been found at Biden’s think tank, which was not authorized to store classified materials, Garland said.

    The Archives told the prosecutor that the documents has been secured in an Archives facility. The FBI opened an initial assessment five days later, and on November 14, then-US Attorney John Lausch was tasked with leading that preliminary inquiry. The next month, on December 20, White House counsel informed Lausch of the second batch of apparently classified documents found at Biden’s Wilmington home, according to Garland’s account. Hours before the announcement of Hur’s appointment, a personal attorney for Biden called Lausch and informed him that an additional document marked as classified had been found at Biden’s home.

    The documents were found “among personal and political papers,” according to a statement from the president’s legal team. The FBI later searched Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home in February and found no additional documents.

    While Biden has not often commented on the case, he said in January that he was surprised to learn that classified documents were found in his former office.

    “I was surprised to learn there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question at a news conference in Mexico City, where he was attending a trilateral summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

    He emphasized at the time that he did not know what was in the documents. As CNN previously reported, US intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom were among them, according to a source familiar with the matter. Biden didn’t know the documents were there, and didn’t become aware they were there, until his personal lawyers informed the White House counsel’s office, one source familiar with the matter told CNN.

    The president said his attorneys “did what they should have done” by immediately calling the Archives.

    “People know I take classified documents, classified information seriously,” Biden added, saying that the documents were found in “a box, locked cabinet – or at least a closet.”

    After documents were found in his Wilmington home later in January, Biden said he was cooperating fully with the Justice Department. Biden added that the documents were in a “locked garage.”

    “It’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” he insisted when a reporter asked why he was storing classified material next to a sports car.

    This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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  • ‘Grief and anger.’ US business groups stand up for Israel after attack | CNN Business

    ‘Grief and anger.’ US business groups stand up for Israel after attack | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Business leaders across the United States have expressed outrage and solidarity with Israel after the deadly surprise attack by Hamas.

    JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Sunday the bank stands with Israel, instructing employees there to work remotely for the foreseeable future, a person familiar with the matter told CNN, as Dimon pledged support for the people of Israel.

    “This past weekend’s attack on Israel and its people and the resulting war and bloodshed are a terrible tragedy,” Dimon told all employees on Sunday in a memo obtained by CNN. “We stand with our employees, their families and the people of Israel during this time of great suffering and loss,” Dimon said.

    JPMorgan has about 230 to 240 employees in Israel and has asked staff there to work from home for the near future, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. News of JPMorgan’s plans were previously reported by Bloomberg News.

    Dimon said all of JPMorgan’s employees and all of those traveling in the region have been confirmed safe as of Sunday.

    “We pray for their safety and for their families and loved ones going forward,” Dimon said. “The human cost of wars and terrorism are enormous, with too many lives lost and changed forever. We join together in our hope to one day see the end of violence and for there to be peace throughout the Middle East.”

    Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, told CNN in a statement on Monday: “New York City’s business community is reacting with the same grief and anger at these senseless acts of terrorism that we felt in response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. For New Yorkers, this is personal.”

    The Partnership represents more than 300 of New York City’s business leaders and companies that employ more than 1 million New Yorkers.

    “Nothing can justify the premeditated violence that took place in Israel this weekend,” Wylde said.

    The Business Roundtable, a trade group representing leading US CEOs, said Monday in a statement to CNN: “We join the US government and global community in condemning the horrific attacks on Israel and stand in solidarity with the Israeli people.”

    The US Chamber of Commerce said in a statement on Sunday it “strongly condemns the heinous” attacks.

    “We extend our heartfelt condolences to the people of Israel and stand in solidarity with them as they battle the scourge of terrorism,” the Chamber said.

    The business group added that it’s in touch with partners from the Israeli government and the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce to explore ways to provide humanitarian assistance.

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  • 9 US citizens dead in Israel conflict, US National Security Council says | CNN Politics

    9 US citizens dead in Israel conflict, US National Security Council says | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Nine US citizens have died in the conflict in Israel, a US National Security Council spokesperson said Monday.

    “At this time, we can confirm the death of nine U.S. citizens. We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected, and wish those injured a speedy recovery. We continue to monitor the situation closely and remain in touch with our Israeli partners, particularly the local authorities,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

    The spokesperson added, “We continue to monitor the situation closely and remain in touch with our Israeli partners, particularly the local authorities.”

    US authorities have been scrambling to establish how many Americans have been killed or taken hostage in the conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” Sunday that the US was “working overtime” to verify reports of missing and dead Americans, and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer said Americans are among the “scores” of hostages being held in Gaza.

    State Department spokesman Matt Miller told CNN’s Phil Mattingly on Monday that US authorities are in close contact with Israel’s government and the families of those affected by the attack.

    This story is breaking and will be updated.

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  • Israeli leader warns of ‘long war’ as it faces unprecedented hostage crisis following Hamas attack | CNN

    Israeli leader warns of ‘long war’ as it faces unprecedented hostage crisis following Hamas attack | CNN

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    Jerusalem and Gaza
    CNN
     — 

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is “embarking on a long and difficult war” as it deals with an unprecedented hostage crisis after Palestinian militants launched a surprise land, sea and air attack from Gaza Saturday, killing hundreds and infiltrating into Israeli territory.

    The shock attacks by Hamas led to the deadliest day in decades for Israel and come after months of surging violence between Palestinians and Israelis with the decades-long conflict now heading into uncharted and dangerous new territory.

    Israel’s political-security cabinet convened late Saturday and made a “series of operational decisions aimed at bringing about the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, in a way that would negate their ability and desire to threaten and harm the citizens of Israel for many years to come,” according to a statement from the office of Israel’s Prime Minister.

    Netanyahu vowed “mighty vengeance” on the Palestinian militant group Hamas following its unprecedented assault on Israel that appeared to catch the entire Israeli military and intelligence apparatus off guard in one of the country’s worst security failures.

    Throughout Saturday and into Sunday, Hamas launched thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel – making direct hits on multiple locations inside the country including Tel Aviv – while armed terror groups entered Israel and infiltrated military bases, towns and farms, shooting at civilians and taking hostages.

    At least 300 Israelis have been killed, an Israeli official told CNN and more than 1,500 have been injured, Israeli media reported.

    Israel responded by launching air strikes on what it said were Hamas targets in Gaza, while its forces clashed on the ground with Hamas fighters in villages, army bases and border crossings.

    Israeli warplanes continued to pound Gaza on Sunday morning with the Israel Defense Forces saying it had struck 426 targets in Gaza, including 10 towers used by Hamas.

    In Gaza, at least 232 Palestinians have died and more than 1,600 are wounded, the Palestinian health ministry said.

    The Israeli leader said the “first phase” of the operation had ended with the “destruction of the majority of the enemy forces that penetrated our territory.”

    Netanyahu announced Israeli forces have started an “offensive formation” which will “continue without reservation and without respite until the objectives are achieved.” Among the decisions made by the cabinet is to stop the supply of electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza.

    In pictures: The deadly clashes in Israel and Gaza

    Complicating Israel’s response is that a “significant number” of Israeli nationals were taken by Hamas as hostages and are being held at locations across Gaza.

    “It is unprecedented in our history that we have so many Israeli nationals in the hands of a terrorist organization,” Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (Res) told CNN, without giving an exact number. “I can assure you that the IDF will be focused on getting each and every Israeli back.”

    “These are numbers that we have never, ever seen before,” he added.

    It has been more than 17 years since an Israeli soldier was taken as a prisoner of war in an assault on Israeli territory. And Israel has not seen this kind of infiltration of military bases, towns and kibbutzim since town-by-town fighting in the 1948 war of independence.

    In a statement Saturday, Palestinian militant group Hamas said the captured Israeli hostages are being held across Gaza and warned against attacks in the area.

    “Threatening Gaza and its people is a losing game and a broken record,” said Abu Obaida spokesman for the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas in a recorded audio message late Saturday. “What happens to the people of the Gaza Strip will happen to them and beware of miscalculation.”

    Earlier the group claimed to have captured “dozens” of Israelis, including soldiers, and were holding them in “safe places and resistance tunnels.”

    The IDF said Sunday that “many hundreds,” possibly as many as 1,000 Hamas fighters were involved in the attack, according to Conricus, who said fighting inside Israel was still ongoing as of 4.15 a.m. local time Sunday morning (9.15pET on Saturday).

    The priority for the Israeli military Sunday was to “make sure that we clear all Israel communities of terrorists that are still inside Israel,” he said, adding that the IDF was still “clearing the last houses and locations and communities and bases.”

    “Hopefully, at the break of dawn we will be able to declare that we have finally restored sovereignty and order in Israel. But that has not yet been achieved. And that will be our number one priority,” he said.

    Saturday’s attack prompted strong reactions from around the world. US President Joe Biden said his administration’s support of Israel’s security is “rock solid and unwavering” and many European leaders denounced the violence, while Brazil said it will call an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

    Air France said it is suspending its flights to Tel Aviv and US aviation officials issued a special bulletin to pilots and airlines urging “extreme caution.”

    The highly coordinated assault, which began Saturday morning, was unprecedented in its scale and scope and came on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 War in which Arab states blitzed Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

    “We had no warning of any kind, and it was a total surprise that the war broke out this morning,” Efraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad, Israel’s Intelligence Service, told CNN.

    The number of rockets fired by Palestinian militants was at a scale “never seen before,” Halevy said, and this was “the first time” that Gaza has been able to “penetrate deep into Israel and to take control of villages.”

    “This is beyond imagination from our point of view, and we didn’t know they had this quantity of [rockets], and we certainly didn’t expect that they would be as effective as they were today,” he said.

    Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon in southern Israel October 7, 2023

    Fighting carried on throughout the day and into the night, and a fresh round of rocket attacks hit Tecl Aviv and other areas on Saturday evening. The IDF urged civilians in Gaza to leave their residential areas as Israeli military operations continued.

    Air raid sirens and rockets could be heard in Israel throughout the night into Sunday.

    “You can hear the intercept missiles banging in the air,” said CNN’s International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson as he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.

    It is rare for Palestinian militants to be able to make it into Israel from Gaza which is sealed off and heavily watched by Israel’s military. Gaza is one of the most densely packed places in the world, an isolated coastal enclave of almost 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles.

    Governed by Hamas, the territory is largely cut off from the rest of the world by an Israeli blockade of Gaza’s land, air and sea dating back to 2007. Egypt controls Gaza’s southern border crossing, Rafah. Israel has placed heavy restrictions on the freedom of civilian movement and controls the importation of basic goods into the narrow coastal strip.

    Fighting between the two sides has surged in the last two years.

    The violence has been driven by frequent Israeli military raids in Palestinian towns and cities, which Israel has said are a necessary response to a rising number of attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis.

    They also come at a moment of deep division in Israel, months after the country’s right-wing government pushed through a contentious plan to reduce the power of the country’s courts, sparking a social and political crisis.

    Israelis are sharing photos of friends and family who they say have been kidnapped by Hamas militants and are urging the public to help spread the word in hopes of getting them back safely.

    Yoni Asher, a resident of Sharon region, told CNN he recognized his wife from a viral video that shows a group of people loaded into the back of a truck flanked by Hamas militants.

    Asher said his wife and young daughters were visiting his mother-in-law in Nir Oz, a kibbutz near the Gaza border. He said he contacted them on Saturday morning and suspected they may have been abducted. He tracked his wife’s phone and learned that it was located in Gaza, he said.

    Later that day, he saw the viral clip. In the video, a woman is seen in the truck as a militant puts a scarf on her head. Asher told CNN that the woman is his wife though CNN has not been able to independently verify the video.

    “The situation is not looking good,” Asher said, adding that his wife and mother-in-law have German citizenship and pleaded with the German government for help.

    A German foreign ministry source told CNN that, “the Federal Foreign Office and the German embassy in Tel Aviv are in close contact with the Israeli authorities in order to clarify whether and to what extent German citizens are affected.”

    An Israel Police spokesperson has told CNN that family members who wish to report their loved ones as missing to come to the nearest police station when it’s safe to leave their homes. The police suggested relatives bring photos and personal items from which DNA samples can be extracted to help with identification.

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  • Turkey launches airstrikes against Kurdish militants following deadly Ankara blast | CNN

    Turkey launches airstrikes against Kurdish militants following deadly Ankara blast | CNN

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    Istanbul
    CNN
     — 

    Turkey’s military carried out airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in northern Iraq on Sunday, just hours after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing in the capital in the latest attack of its nearly four-decade long insurgency.

    In a statement, the Turkish Defense Ministry said its warplanes destroyed 20 PKK targets including caves, bunkers, shelters and warehouses in the regions of Metina, Hakurk, Kandil, and Gara.

    “Many terrorists were neutralized by using the maximum amount of domestic and national ammunition,” said the statement, which cited self-defense rights from Article 51 of the United Nations Charter to justify the strikes.

    The PKK, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, earlier said it was behind the blast Sunday outside Turkey’s Interior Ministry building that left one dead and two injured, the pro-PKK Firat News Agency reported.

    The ministry said in a statement that two attackers murdered a civilian and stole his vehicle ahead of the opening of parliament in Ankara. Two police officers reportedly received non-life-threatening injuries.

    One assailant blew himself up and the other was “neutralized,” the ministry said.

    Investigators found four different types of guns, three hand grenades, one rocket launcher, and C-4 explosives at the scene.

    The ministry confirmed at least one of the two attackers is a PKK member. The second attacker has yet to be identified, it said.

    Kurds, who do not have an official homeland or country, are the biggest minority in Turkey, making up between 15% and 20% of the population, according to Minority Rights Group International.

    Portions of Kurdistan – a non-governmental region and one of the largest stateless nations in the world – are recognized by Iran, where the province of Kordestan lies; and Iraq, site of the northern autonomous region known as Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) or Iraqi Kurdistan.

    According to Ankara, the PKK trains separatist fighters and launches attacks against Turkey from its bases in northern Iraq and Syria, where a PKK-affiliated Kurdish group controls large swaths of territory.

    Terror attacks in Turkey were tragically common in the mid to late 2010s, when the insecurity from war-torn Syria crept north above the two countries’ shared border.

    And in November last year, Ankara blamed the PKK for a bomb attack on a central pedestrian boulevard in Istanbul that killed six and injured dozens.

    In recent years, Turkey has carried out a steady stream of operations against the PKK domestically as well as cross-border operations into Syria.

    In an address to lawmakers Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Turkey would continue its fight against terrorism “until the last terrorist is eliminated domestically and abroad.”

    Sunday’s attack marked the “final flutters of terrorism” in the country, he added.

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  • Exclusive: Philippine defense secretary vows to stand up to ‘bully’ China | CNN

    Exclusive: Philippine defense secretary vows to stand up to ‘bully’ China | CNN

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    Manila, Philippines
    CNN
     — 

    China is behaving like a schoolyard bully toward smaller countries, the Philippine defense secretary told CNN Friday during an exclusive interview in which he warned his nation, and the wider world, had to stand up to Beijing’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea.

    “I cannot think of any clearer case of bullying than this,” said Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr. “It’s not the question of stealing your lunch money, but it’s really a question of stealing your lunch bag, your chair and even enrollment in school.”

    His comments follow increasingly assertive moves by the Philippines to protect its claim to shoals in the South China Sea during more than a month of high-stakes maritime drama.

    While tensions between China and the Philippines over the highly-contested and strategic waterway have festered for years, confrontations have spiked this summer, renewing regional fears that a mistake or miscalculation at sea could trigger a wider conflict, including with the United States.

    The region is widely seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflagration and the recent confrontations have raised concerns among Western observers of potentially developing into an international incident if China, a global power, decides to act more forcefully against the Philippines, a US treaty ally.

    Recent incidents have involved stand offs between China’s coast guard, what Manila says are shadowy Chinese “maritime militia” boats and tiny wooden Philippine fishing vessels, Chinese water cannons blocking the resupply of a shipwrecked Philippine military outpost, and a lone Filipino diver cutting through a floating Chinese barrier.

    Teodoro characterized the Philippines’ refusal to back down in the waters within its 200 nautical-mile exclusive economic zone as a fight for the very existence of the Philippines.

    “We’re fighting for our fisherfolk, we’re fighting for our resources. We’re fighting for our integrity as an archipelagic state… Our existence as the Republic of the Philippines is vital to this fight,” Teodoro said in a sit down interview at the Department of National Defense in Manila. “It’s not for us, it’s for the future generations too.”

    Video purportedly shows Chinese ship firing water cannon at Filipino vessel in disputed waters

    “And if we don’t stop, China is going to creep and creep into what is within our sovereign jurisdiction, our sovereign rights and within our territory,” he said, adding that Beijing wont stop until it controls “the whole South China Sea.”

    Beijing says it is safeguarding its sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea and warned the Philippines this week “not to make provocations or seek troubles.” It accused Philippine fishing and coast guard vessels of illegal entry into the area.

    China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, and most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles from mainland China. Along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also hold competing claims.

    Over the past two decades China has occupied a number of reefs and atolls across the South China Sea, building up military installations, including runways and ports, which the Philippines says challenges its sovereignty and fishing rights as well as endangering marine biodiversity in the resource-rich waterway.

    In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.

    But Beijing has ignored the decision and continues to expand its presence in the waterway.

    Philippine Coast Guard removes Chinese floating barrier in disputed area of the South China Sea.

    Video released of diver cutting China’s floating sea barrier

    In his first sit-down TV interview with an international news outlet since he took the position in June, Teodoro was keen to stress whatever happens in the South China Sea impacts the globe.

    Crucially, the waterway is vital to international trade with trillions of dollars in global shipping passing through it each year. It’s also home to vast fertile fishing grounds upon which many lives and livelihoods depend, and beneath the waves lie huge reserves of natural gas and oil that competing claimants are vying for.

    With nations already suffering from inflation brought about by Russia’s war in Ukraine, there are concerns that any slow-down in travel and transporting of goods in the South China Sea would result in significant impact to the global economy.

    “It will choke one of the most vital supply chain waterways in the whole world, it will choke international trade, and it will subject the world economy, particularly in supply chains to their whim,” Teodoro said, adding that if this were to happen, “the whole world will react.”

    The defense secretary warned that smaller nations, including regional partners, rely on international law for their survival.

    “Though they need China, they need Russia, they see that they too may become a victim of bullying. If they (China) close off the South China Sea, perhaps the next target may be the Straits of Malacca and then the Indian Ocean,” Teodoro said.

    This photo taken on February 14, 2020 shows a Filipino fisherman sailing off at sunset from the coast of Bacnotan, La Union province, in northwestern Philippines facing the South China Sea. (Photo by Romeo GACAD / AFP) (Photo by ROMEO GACAD/AFP via Getty Images)

    Why it matters who owns the seas (April 2021)

    Only a few years ago the Philippines was treading a much more cautious path with its huge neighbor China.

    But since taking office last year, Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr has taken a stronger stance over the South China Sea than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

    Marcos has also strengthened US relations that had frayed under Duterte, with the two allies touting increased cooperation and joint patrols in the South China Sea in the future.

    In April, the Philippines identified the locations of four new military bases the US will gain access to, as part of an expanded defense agreement analysts say is aimed at combating China.

    Washington has condemned Beijing’s recent actions in the contested sea and threatened to intervene under its mutual defense treaty obligations if Philippine vessels came under armed attack there.

    US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Lindsey Ford reiterated Washington’s commitment to the mutual defense treaty in testimony before a US House subcommittee on Tuesday.

    She said the treaty covers not only the Philippine armed forces, but also its coast guard and civilian vessels and aircraft.

    “We have said repeatedly and continue to say that we stand by those commitments absolutely,” Ford said.

    A Philippine supply boat, center, maneuvers around Chinese coast guard ships as they tried to block its way near Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, at the disputed South China Sea on August 22.

    Defense secretary Teodoro has concerns about a possible escalation “because of the dangerous and reckless maneuvering of Chinese vessels” but he was clear that any incident – accidental or otherwise – the blame would lie with China “squarely on their shoulders.”

    And he called global powers to help pressure Beijing over its moves in the South China Sea.

    “Peace and stability in that one place in the world will generate some relief and comfort to everyone,” he said.

    As part of the Marcos administration’s commitment to boost the Philippines defense and monitoring capabilities in the South China Sea, Teodoro said further “air and naval assets” have been ordered.

    “There will be more patrol craft coming in, more rotary aircraft and we are studying the possibility to acquiring multi-role fighters,” he said, adding that would “make a difference in our air defense capabilities.”

    Preferring cooler heads to prevail, Teodoro said that diplomacy would provide a way forward providing Chinese leader Xi Jinping complies with international law.

    “Filipinos I believe are always willing to talk, just as long that talk does not mean whispers in a back room, or shouting at each other, meaning to say there must be substantial talks, open, transparent and on a rules-based basis,” he said, while also adding that talks cannot be used as a delaying tactic by Beijing.

    The Philippines, he said, has “no choice” but to stand up to China because otherwise “we lose our identity and integrity as a nation.”

    But conflict, he added, was not the answer or desired outcome.

    “Standing up doesn’t mean really going to war with China, heavens no. We don’t want that. But we have to stand our ground when our ground is intruded into.”

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  • Mexico makes agreement with US to deport migrants from its border cities amid ongoing surge in illegal migration | CNN

    Mexico makes agreement with US to deport migrants from its border cities amid ongoing surge in illegal migration | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Mexico has made an agreement with the United States to deport migrants from its border cities to their home countries and take several actions to deter migrants as part of a new effort to combat the recent surge in border crossings.

    Mexican officials met with US Customs and Border Protection officials on Friday in Ciudad Juárez,, Mexico, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas, following the recent spike in illegal crossings into the US, which temporarily closed an international bridge and paused Mexico’s main cargo train system.

    As part of the agreement, Mexico agreed to “depressurize” its northern cities, which border the El Paso, San Diego and Eagle Pass, Texas, where the mayor has declared a state of emergency. They will also implement more than a dozen actions to prevent migrants from risking their lives by using the railway system to reach the US-Mexico border, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.

    The US Department of Defense is ramping up resources at the US-Mexico border, sending at least 800 new active-duty personnel to the border, where 2,500 National Guard members are already servicing, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Wednesday night in a call with reporters.

    The move comes as migrant crossings along the border are rising, surpassing 8,600 over a 24-hour period this week, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. It is up from around 3,500 daily border arrests after the expiration in May of Title 42 triggered new consequences for those who cross the border illegally. There were more than 8,000 apprehensions on Monday.

    The busiest sectors are Del Rio, El Paso, Lower Rio Grande Valley and Tucson; each facing more than 1,000 encounters over the last 24 hours, according to the official. Eagle Pass is in the Del Rio sector.

    Friday’s meeting was attended by Customs and Border Protection’s Acting Commissioner Troy Miller, the commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration Institute, the governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, members of Mexico’s national defense and national guard and representatives of Ferromex, a Mexican railroad operator, according to the institute.

    Mexican officials vowed to carry out a series of 15 actions as part of the agreement, some in coordination with Customs and Border Protection and Ferromex, which includes deporting migrants to their home countries by land and air.

    The country said it will carry out negotiations with the governments of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba to confirm receipt of their citizens deported from the US-Mexico border. It will also allow US border patrol agents to expel migrants through the Ciudad Juárez international bridge, which connects to El Paso.

    Other terms of the agreement include submitting a daily report of the number of migrants on the train system to Customs and Border Protection’s El Paso sector, establishing checkpoints along the Ferromex rail route and conducting interventions on railways and highways, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.

    The institute said Mexico had deported more than 788,000 migrants to their home countries from January 1 to September.

    The agreed-upon actions by Mexican officials raise questions about the country doing work typically designated for the US – from the south of the border – to manage the influx of migrants in recent weeks, which have has strained federal resources and overwhelmed already-crowded facilities, CNN previously reported.

    Many who leave their homes for the United States face long and dangerous treks in hopes of finding better, safer lives. Some may flee violence, while others may immigrate for economic opportunities or to reunite with family, experts say. Deteriorating conditions in Latin America exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic also have contributed to the influx of migrants into the US.

    It is likely the number of border crossings will continue to increase, as more Mexican nationals are making plans to come to the US, Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told CNN.

    US government data show more Mexican families coming to the border, likely to seek asylum, Ruiz said. In July 2022, for example, Customs and Border Protection figures indicate 4,000 Mexican family encounters at the border. A year later, the number had more than quadrupled, reaching nearly 22,000.

    “These are the three levers that are in play right now. … And regardless of what the Biden administration does today or tomorrow,” he says, “the people that are on the way already are going to continue, unless something else happens in the region.”

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