Dec 27 Chinese hacking campaign hit a 9th U.S. telecom firm, White House says By Eric Tucker, Associated Press A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said… Continue reading
Dec 27 Chinese court sentences man to death for driving into a crowd and killing 35 people By Ken Moritsugu, Associated Press The attack was one of several in China in late October and November and spurred Chinese leader Xi Jinping to order local governments to take steps to prevent future “extreme cases.”… Continue reading
Dec 27 Azerbaijani minister says downed plane was hit from the outside, possibly by weapon By Associated Press Officials in Moscow have said a drone attack was underway in the region that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was destined for but have not addressed statements from aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defenses responding to a… Continue reading
Dec 27 Israeli troops burn northern Gaza hospital after forcibly removing staff and patients, officials say By Wafaa Shurafa, Fatma Khaled, Lee Keath, Associated Press Staff say it has been hit multiple times in the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods. Continue reading
Dec 26 Watch 9:57 Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed Azerbaijani plane, U.S. official says By Stephanie Sy, Zeba Warsi, William Brangham, Dan Sagalyn There are early indications a Russian air defense system may have hit the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, a U.S. official says. Some of the speculation focuses on damage to the plane's tail section that could have been… Continue watching
Dec 26 Watch 4:38 News Wrap: 5 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on TV broadcast van In our news wrap Thursday, five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a TV broadcast van, Israel escalated attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen, authorities in Finland detained a ship with suspected Russian ties to investigate whether it… Continue watching
Dec 26 Watch 8:31 How the Assad regime made billions producing and exporting party drugs By Leila Molana-Allen, Abdul Razzaq Al-Shami Now that the Assad regime in Syria has fallen, the full scale of that government’s production and distribution of illicit drugs is coming to light. Leila Molana-Allen reports from the drug factories in Syria. Continue watching
Dec 26 Uneasy calm, heightened security after flare-up of violence in Syrian city of Homs By Abby Sewell, Associated Press Syria's new security forces checked IDs and searched cars in the central city of Homs on Thursday, a day after protests by members of the Alawite minority erupted in gunfire and stirred fears that the country's fragile peace could break down. Continue reading
Dec 26 Watch 3:57 As Arctic warms, Indigenous communities there face dramatic changes to their way of life By Casey Kuhn Since the 1980s, temperatures in the Arctic have risen at nearly triple the global rate. This past summer was the wettest on record, while a heatwave in August set records in northern Alaska and Canada. Digital producer Casey Kuhn explains… Continue watching
Dec 26 Israeli attorney general orders probe into allegations that Sara Netanyahu harassed opponents By Josef Federman, Associated Press Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife on suspicion of harassing political opponents and a witness in the Israeli leader’s corruption trial. Continue reading