Tank Man.
A casino in your pocket.
Reminder: News Items will be distributed tomorrow. It will be off the grid for the remainder of the week. It will return on Monday, 5 January, and resume its “regular” distribution schedule (Monday-Sunday, but not Saturdays).
1. Strikes and protests in Iran spread nationwide yesterday, turning violent in several cities as nighttime crowds chanted against the ruling state and bazaar merchants vowed to continue their shutdowns and demonstrations into Tuesday. What began as anger over the surging price of the US dollar and the collapse of the rial has widened into a broader wave of unrest, moving beyond market corridors and into streets, squares and university campuses across multiple provinces. In Tehran, major sections of the bazaar were shuttered, including major commercial centers in the Grand Bazaar as well as the Alaeddin mall. Crowds poured into streets in several parts of central Tehran, where security forces deployed tear gas and clashes were reported. One widely shared video shows a protester sitting on the ground in front of security forces. Many viewers compared the scene to the “Tank Man” moment during China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, a symbol of solitary defiance in the face of state power. The protester was quickly beaten and removed. (Source: iranintl.com/en)
2. President Trump has threatened to launch fresh strikes against Iran if it is found to be rebuilding its nuclear program, as he held talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump also said Hamas has a “very short period of time to disarm” in Gaza, where a US-brokered ceasefire has largely held since October, or the Palestinian militants would have “hell to pay”. The warnings come as the US president’s efforts to broker peace across the Middle East have faltered. The implementation of the US peace plan in Gaza has stalled and tension with Iran appears to be rising. (Source: ft.com)
3. China launched major military exercises in the waters and airspace around Taiwan yesterday in what it called a “stern warning” against outside interference in Chinese affairs, as tensions grow with the U.S. and Japan over the security of the island. The drills follow the Trump administration’s mid-December approval of one of the largest packages of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. The approvals, valued at over $11 billion, led Beijing to impose sanctions on Friday targeting 20 U.S. defense companies and 10 executives. Beijing is also immersed in a weeks-long pressure campaign against U.S. security partner Japan, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that her country’s military could get drawn in if China tried to seize Taiwan by force. (Source: wsj.com)
4. Chinese research submarines for the first time traveled thousands of feet beneath the Arctic ice this summer, a technical feat with chilling military and commercial implications for America and its allies. U.S. national-security officials say the Chinese undersea expeditions offer fresh evidence of a growing threat from China in the Arctic region, known as the High North. This year, Chinese military and research vessels have operated around Alaska’s Arctic waters in unprecedented numbers, the Dept. of Homeland Security reported in November. For China, mastery of Arctic travel could yield valuable data about the natural resources awaiting below melting ice caps, significantly reduce travel time for commercial shipping and position nuclear-armed submarines closer to potential targets, including the U.S., say Western marine strategists and military officials. (Source: wsj.com)
5. The US has offered Ukraine a 15-year security guarantee, but Kyiv wants a period three times as long to deter future Russian aggression, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday. Ukraine’s president called for a guarantee lasting as much as 50 years the day after a Florida summit with Donald Trump that both leaders said was significant but which failed to make a decisive breakthrough. In a WhatsApp exchange with reporters as he returned to Europe on Monday, Zelenskyy said he had told the US president that 15 years would be too short to deter Russia in a conflict that began with the 2014 annexation of Crimea. “I also told him that we would like to consider the possibility of 30, 40 or 50 years,” he added. A 20-point draft peace plan that Kyiv revealed earlier this month mentioned a security guarantee that would “mirror” the Nato alliance’s Article 5 commitment to mutual defense. (Source: ft.com)
