Mahmoud Abbas Fast Facts



CNN
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Here’s a look at the life of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Birth date: 1935

Birth place: Safed, Palestine

Marriage: Amina Abbas

Children: Three sons Mazen (died in 2002), Yasser and Tareq

Education: Damascus University, B.A.; Oriental College (in Moscow), Ph.D.

His family left the British Mandate area Safed, Palestine, to live in Syria as refugees in 1948.

Abbas laid floor tiles and taught elementary school before earning a law degree.

Played an integral role in the forging of the Declaration of Principles, the historic Oslo Accords signed in 1993 by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel.

Was the primary force behind the Palestine National Council’s decision to work with Israeli peace groups.

He is also known as Abu Mazen. (Abu is a slang term to describe the head of a family or father of children.)

1959 – Founding member of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), which became the largest political group of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

1964Fatah joins the PLO.

1967 Is appointed to Fatah’s Central Committee.

1968Joins the Palestinian National Council (PNC).

1980 Is elected to the PLO’s Executive Committee.

September 1993 – Accompanies Arafat to the White House to sign the Oslo Accords, or the Declaration of Principles.

1995Signs the Interim Peace Agreement with Israel.

March 19, 2003 Accepts the position of prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.

June 3, 2003 – Meets with US President George W. Bush and the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain, in Egypt, regarding peace efforts.

September 6, 2003 Resigns as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.

November 11, 2004 – Becomes the chairman of the PLO after Arafat’s death.

January 9, 2005Declares victory in Palestinian presidential elections.

May 26, 2005 – Meets with Bush; the first meeting with the Palestinian Authority in the White House since peace talks broke down in 2000. Bush pledges to give the Palestinian Authority $50 million in aid.

May 31, 2005Undergoes a successful, minor heart procedure in a hospital in Amman, Jordan.

February 21, 2006Asks Hamas leader Ismail Haniya to assemble a government. Haniya is sworn in in March.

June 14, 2007Dissolves the government and dismisses Haniya as prime minister. Haniya rejects this and remains the de facto leader in the Gaza Strip.

June 15, 2007Appoints economist Salam Fayyad as the new prime minister of an emergency Palestinian Cabinet.

November 27, 2007 Attends the Annapolis Middle East Peace Conference, the first formal peace conference sponsored by the US since 2000. Top diplomats and representatives from dozens of countries and organizations also attend, hoping to restart stalled Middle East peace negotiations.

April 24, 2008 – Meets with Bush at the White House.

January 2009Extends his term in office until 2010, citing a clause in the constitution.

December 16, 2009The PLO’s Central Council votes to extend Abbas’s term as president indefinitely.

May 4, 2011Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal formally adopt a reconciliation agreement during a ceremony in Egypt.

September 16, 2011Abbas announces during a speech in Ramallah that he will pursue a full United Nations membership bid for Palestine.

September 23, 2011 Abbas submits a statehood application letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

January 3, 2013Abbas issues a decree renaming the organization the “State of Palestine.”

December 31, 2014 – One day after the UN Security Council rejects a resolution calling for Palestinian statehood by 2017, and for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Abbas applies to join the International Criminal Court. This sets the stage for the Palestinian Authority to possibly pursue war crime complaints against Israel.

September 30, 2015 – Addresses the UN General Assembly before the historic raising of the Palestinian flag at the United Nations, saying the Palestinian Authority is no longer bound by the Oslo Accords.

September 8, 2016 – Once-secret Soviet documents, obtained by CNN from the Mitrokhin Archive at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, claim that Abbas, who completed graduate work in Moscow in 1982, was a KGB agent while he was a member of the PLO in Damascus. Palestinian leaders decry the report as a “smear campaign.”

September 30, 2016 – Attends the funeral of Israeli statesman Shimon Peres and shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

October 6, 2016 – Is hospitalized to have his heart tested.

May 3, 2017 – Meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

December 10, 2017 – Abbas cancels a meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence following Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

January 14, 2018 – Abbas calls on the PLO to “revise all the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel because Israel has brought these agreements to a dead end,” and accuses Israel of ending the Oslo agreement. This criticism comes six weeks after Trump announces recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

April 30, 2018 – Abbas speaks at the opening of the Palestinian National Council remarking that the Holocaust was driven not by antisemitism, but by the financial activities of European Jews. He apologizes a few days later.

May 28, 2018 – Is released from the hospital after being treated for pneumonia.

January 28, 2020 – Abbas rejects Trump’s Middle East “Peace to Prosperity” plan, unveiled alongside Netanyahu at the White House, saying at a news conference from Ramallah in the West Bank that “Jerusalem is not for sale. All our rights are not for sale or for compromise. Your deal is a conspiracy and it will not work.” Abbas, having cut diplomatic contact with the US in December 2017, did not attend the unveiling and had not been briefed in the plan.

April 29, 2021 – Abbas announces the postponement of planned parliamentary elections, saying Israel has failed to confirm it will allow voting in East Jerusalem.

August 16, 2022 – At a news conference in Berlin, Abbas says Israel has caused “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians, triggering outrage from world leaders and a social media storm.

November 5, 2023 – Abbas meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah amid escalating settler violence in the West Bank following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

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What should you expect from the economy in 2024?

The economy in 2023 reminds me of Rocky Balboa, the boxer with a strong chin from the Rocky films who, despite getting hit over and over, keeps moving forward.

A year ago, the consensus prediction among investors and professional forecasters was slower growth and higher unemployment. Inflation was still above 6%, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates to one of the highest rates in 40 years, and the stock market ended 2022 in the red. Many observers says a “soft landing” was a pipe dream and a recession inevitable.

The year 2023 brought its own set of challenges. To name a few, a debt ceiling standoff started in January and continued until May, bringing the government dizzyingly close to default and causing a ratings downgrade. In March, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank started a crisis that, had it not been contained by a historic expansion of deposit guarantees, would have spread through the system and taken down the economy. A war broke out in Gaza. A large-scale auto workers strike temporarily shut down large parts of the sector. And the economy of China, a major trading partner, decelerated.

Given all this, it is remarkable how good the numbers look right now. Inflation has steadily fallen to around 3% and is now within striking distance of the 2% target. The most recent gross domestic product, or GDP, report shows a robust 3% year-on-year growth rate, the unemployment rate remains at 3.7%, and the stock market has made a roaring comeback. The numbers look stronger than those of other major advanced economies, such as the eurozone, the United Kingdom, Japan, or Canada.

However, it is too early for a victory parade. The fight against inflation is not over, monetary policy has long and variable lags, and, even in a strong economy, many people are struggling. But, thus far, it is hard to imagine a softer landing than 2023.

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Trump team drops new nickname for GOP contender Nikki Haley: 'Nikki New Taxes'

Former President Trump’s campaign team released a new nickname for fellow Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley on Friday, calling her “Nikki New Taxes.”

In the missive entitled “KISS OF DEATH: Nikki New Taxes”, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the former South Carolina governor for allegedly having a “troublesome record.”

“The truth is finally coming out about Nikki Haley’s troublesome record showing her total disdain for the working-class and a willingness to sellout to lobbyist parasites,” the letter read. “She pushed for a WHOPPING 60% increase in the state gas tax in South Carolina after promising voters she would never do so.”

“She also voted for an unconscionable 20% increase in the state sales tax, making her the enemy of the working-class and an ally of lobbyist cronies taking advantage of impressionable politicians looking for their approval,” Cheung added.

MAINE GOP STATE LAWMAKER MOVES TO IMPEACH STATE SECRETARY OVER TRUMP BALLOT REMOVAL

Trump and Haley

Former President Trump and Nikki Haley in New Hampshire. (AP Photos/File)

Haley and Trump have often been at odds on the campaign trail, despite Haley serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under his watch.

During a sit-down interview on ABC’s “This Week” earlier in December, Haley criticized American media for being “obsessed” with Trump.

“The thing is, normal people aren’t obsessed with Trump like you guys are,” Haley said to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “The normal people care about the fact that they can’t afford things. They feel like their freedoms are being taken away. They think government is too big. I know you all want to talk about every single word he says and every single tweet he does.”

COLORADO TO INCLUDE TRUMP ON 2024 BALLOT AS STATE GOP APPEALS TO SUPREME COURT

Nikki Haley s

Former U.S. Ambassador and current presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks during a Fox News Republican debate. (Fox News)

Haley added that she and the former president have their disagreements, but said that she had “a good working relationship” with him.

“Anti-Trumpers want me to hate him, pro-Trumpers want me to love him, but this is where I stand. There are things I agree with the president on…I don’t agree with the fact that, yes, we had a good economy while he was there, but he put us $8 trillion in debt that our kids are never going to forgive us for,” she explained.

“I don’t agree with how he handles national security,” Haley added. “He focused on trade with China, but he did nothing about the fentanyl flow. He did nothing about the fact that fentanyl has killed so many of our Americans.”

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump (SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to Haley’s campaign team for a response, but has not heard back.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

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How to give your Christmas tree a second life after the holiday

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Greener newsletter. Our limited newsletter series guides you on how to minimize your personal role in the climate crisis — and reduce your eco-anxiety.



CNN
 — 

For weeks, your Christmas tree has sat twinkling quietly in a corner of your home, carefully decorated with the dazzling bits and baubles you so thoughtfully placed on its branches.

But now, the holiday has passed and the presents have disappeared, needles have begun to fall to the floor and the trunk has become a glorified cat-scratching post.

So what do you do with it now?

Here are a few things you can do to recycle, repurpose or dispose of your lovely tree.

Luckily, your tree is biodegradable, so it can easily be returned to nature. If you have a compost pile, go ahead and throw it in there.

Many places will also accept undecorated trees and put them through a wood chipper to be turned into mulch and compost.

And for goodness sake, do not send your tree through the mulcher with the string of lights still on.

Dream up some lovely landscaping ideas

If you’re a crafty creature, there are many creative ways to use an old tree in your landscaping.

Cut the trunk into slices and use them to line your flower beds or walkways. You can also create dynamic garden displays by cutting trunk pieces at different thicknesses and using them as pot risers.

Those with serious green thumbs may also use the branches of their tree to line perennial flower beds. The evergreen boughs will catch snowfall and insulate the patch of dirt from winter chills.

For plants that need a little extra support, the branches can also be used as natural stakes.

Dried branches and hunks of trunk will make fabulous firewood for an outdoor firepit or bonfire, but be sure to keep the fire outside.

When Christmas trees burn, they release creosote — a highly flammable, toxic substance consisting mainly of tar — into the fire smoke. Creosote may build up on the inside of your chimney, increasing your risk of a chimney fire.

Who would have thought you could use your tree as a tree? If you bought a potted Christmas tree or one that has its roots balled in burlap, you probably had this solution in mind already.

Buying a tree with its roots intact allows you to plant it after the holiday, giving you a gorgeous evergreen addition to your yard that can be enjoyed year-round.

The fragrant smell of evergreen needles can last long after the tree is gone.

Just remove the needles from the tree before you dispose of it and put them in sachets or bowls of water to continue basking in the festive smell for a little while longer.

Dispose of your tree and help your community

Many communities have figured out how to use old Christmas trees in creative ways.

In north-central New Jersey, the Somerset County Park Commission has a free annual Christmas tree recycling program. The trees are turned into wood chips and mulch that are used within the park system to protect and support plant life. New York City has a similar program.

The city of San Diego also offers a free program with 16 locations where residents can drop off trees that are converted into compost, mulch and wood chips that can be purchased throughout the year.

Check with your neighborhood, county, city or local groups to see if they have a need for the trees this season.

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Thousands accuse Serbia's ruling populists of election fraud at a Belgrade rally

Thousands of people have rallied in Serbia’s capital, chanting “Thieves!” and accusing the populist authorities of President Aleksandar Vucic of orchestrating a fraud during the recent general election.

The big rally in central Belgrade on Saturday capped nearly two weeks of street protests against reported widespread irregularities during the Dec. 17 parliamentary and local ballot that were also noted by international election observers.

The ruling Serbian Progressive Party was declared the election winner but the main opposition alliance, Serbia Against Violence, has claimed the election was stolen, particularly in the vote for the Belgrade city authorities.

EU WARNS SERBIA AND KOSOVO TO MAKE PEACE OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

Serbia Against Violence has led daily protests since Dec. 17 demanding that the vote be annulled and rerun. Tensions have soared following violent incidents and arrests of opposition supporters at a protest last weekend.

The crowd at the rally on Saturday roared in approval at the appearance of Marinika Tepic, a leading opposition politician who has been on a hunger strike since the ballot. Tepic’s health reportedly has been jeopardized and she was expected to be hospitalized after appearing at the rally.

“These elections must be rerun,” a frail-looking Tepic told the crowd, waving feebly from the stage and saying she doesn’t have the strength to make a longer speech.

Protesters shout slogans during a rally in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. Thousands of people gathered to protest what election observers said were widespread vote irregularities during a recent general election. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Another opposition politician, Radomir Lazovic, urged the international community “not to stay silent” and set up a commission to look into the irregularities and pressure authorities to hold a new election that’s free and fair.

After the speeches, participants marched by the headquarters of the state electoral commission toward Serbia’s Constitutional Court that will ultimately rule on electoral complaints.

A protester from Belgrade, Rajko Dimitrijevic, said he came to the rally because he felt “humiliation” and the “doctoring of the people’s will.”

KOSOVO ACCUSES SERBIA OF PLOTTING RECENT TERROR ATTACK, STOKING FEARS OF NEW BALKAN CONFLICT

Ivana Grobic, also from Belgrade, said she had always joined protests “because I want a better life, I want the institutions of this country to do their job.”

It was not immediately clear if or when opposition protests would resume. The rally on Saturday was organized by an independent civic initiative, ProGlas, or pro-vote, that had campaigned for high turnout ahead of the ballot.

Ruling party leader Milos Vucevic said the “small number of demonstrators” at the rally on Saturday showed that “people don’t want them (the opposition.)”

Protesters wave EU flags during a rally in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. Thousands of people gathered to protest what election observers said were widespread vote irregularities during a recent general election. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

The opposition has urged an international probe of the vote after representatives of several global watchdogs reported multiple irregularities, including cases of vote-buying and ballot box stuffing.

Local election monitors also alleged that voters from across Serbia and neighboring countries were registered and bused in to cast ballots in Belgrade. Vucic and his party have rejected the reports as “fabricated.”

Saturday’s gathering symbolically was organized at a central area in Belgrade that in the early 1990s was the scene of demonstrations against strongman Slobodan Milosevic’s warmongering and undemocratic policies.

Critics nowadays say that Vucic, who was an ultranationalist ally of Milosevic in the 1990s, has reinstated that autocracy in Serbia since coming to power in 2012, by taking full control over the media and all state institutions.

Protesters carry a bannera that reads: “We don’t agree” during a demonstration downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. Thousands of people gathered to protest what election observers said were widespread vote irregularities during a recent general election. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Vucic has said the elections were fair and his party won. He accused the opposition of inciting violence at protests with the aim of overthrowing the government under instructions from abroad, which opposition leaders have denied.

On Sunday evening, protesters tried to enter Belgrade city hall, breaking windows, before riot police pushed them back using tear gas, pepper spray and batons. Police detained at least 38 people.

Serbia is formally seeking membership in the European Union, but the Balkan nation has maintained close ties with Moscow and has refused to join Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Russian officials have extended full support to Vucic in the crackdown against the protesters and backed his claims that the vote was free and fair.

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December 29, 2023 – Russia launches largest air attack on Ukraine since full-scale invasion

A year after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky secured bipartisan support from the United States for its defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion, the outlook looks much more grim. A long-anticipated Ukrainian offensive in the south has made scant progress. Russia appears to have weathered international sanctions, for now, and has converted its economy into a war machine.

The mood in Moscow seems grimly determined: The goals of the “special military operation” will be achieved, and the fighting will continue until that happens.

As the long front line becomes ever more calcified, the Kremlin senses greater skepticism among Kyiv’s Western backers that Ukraine can recover the 17% of its territory still occupied by Russian forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is relishing the much more partisan atmosphere in Washington, where many in the Republican Party are questioning the purpose of sending Ukraine another $61 billion worth of aid as requested by President Joe Biden’s administration, assessing that it will achieve little on the battlefield.

At his first year-end news conference since the conflict began, Putin scoffed: “Ukraine produces almost nothing today, everything is coming from the West, but the free stuff is going to run out some day, and it seems it already is.”

Zelensky — who, by his own recent admission, is tired — has an ever-harder job as Ukraine’s chief salesman, with events in the Middle East diverting attention from Ukraine as the number-one international crisis.

On the first anniversary of the invasion, he predicted that “2023 will be the year of our victory!” He’s unlikely to make the same optimistic forecast for the coming year.

Read the full analysis here.


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Check out the top 10 Futurity posts of 2023

To end the year, we’re counting down the top 10 most popular Futurity posts of 2023.

Thank you so much for reading the site this year. We hope you found research that was useful, surprising, fun, or informative.

Here are the top 10 Futurity posts of 2023:

10. Survey: Half of Tinder users don’t want a date

“We call them dating apps, but they’re clearly serving other functions besides dating,” says Elias Aboujaoude, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.

9. Remembering events can trigger brain oscillations

“Being able to directly compare the oscillations that were present during the original experience, and during a later retrieval of that, is a huge step forward in the field in terms of designing new experiments and understanding the neural basis of memory,” says Sarah Seger, a graduate student in the neuroscience department at the University of Arizona.

8. 450M-year-old organism comes back to life in robot form

Using fossil evidence, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University engineered a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitids, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago.

7. Women around the world are avoiding marriage

A 2023 book chronicles the subtle ways in which women are “protagonists in moving the needle on marriage around the world,” says coeditor Joanna Davidson, associate professor of anthropology at Boston University. “It opens up the question, what are they opting out of, and what are they opting back into?”

6. Team finds sustainable alternative to air conditioning

“We found we could maintain air temperatures several degrees below the prevailing ambient temperature, and several degrees more below a reference ‘gold standard’ for passive cooling,” says Remy Fortin, PhD candidate at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University. “We did this without sacrificing healthy ventilation air changes.”

5. Chemical from common sweetener breaks up DNA

“In short, we found that sucralose-6-acetate is genotoxic, and that it effectively broke up DNA in cells that were exposed to the chemical,” says Susan Schiffman, an adjunct professor in the joint department of biomedical engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

4. Herbicide may be cause of kidney disease epidemic

Researchers from Texas A&M University may have solved the mystery of what’s behind a kidney disease epidemic occurring in Central America.

3. Wild turkey discovery upends conventional wisdom

Precipitation levels during nesting season are not related to reproductive success for wild turkeys, according to a study from North Carolina State University.

2. Newfound antibodies neutralize all COVID variants, other viruses

“This work provides encouraging evidence that pan-coronavirus vaccines are possible if they can ‘educate’ the human immune system in the right way,” says Wang Linfa, a bat virus expert from Duke-NUS.

1. Fragrance at night boosts older adults’ memory

When neuroscientists exposed older adults to a fragrance for two hours every night for six months, they reaped a 226% increase in cognitive capacity compared to the control group, according to a study from the University of California, Irvine.

Thank you again for reading Futurity. Come back in 2024 for more fascinating and useful research news!

-The Futurity Team

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Florida hikers rescued after being lost for hours in alligator-infested swamp, video shows

Two Florida hikers were rescued over Christmas weekend after they became lost for hours in a swamp infested with alligators, snakes and other creatures. 

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in west-central Florida said it responded to a call from the hikers who were in the Cypress Creek Wilderness Preserve near Tampa on the evening of Dec. 23. 

The sheriff’s office said it, “swiftly sprang into action to locate and rescue them. Our Aviation Unit, equipped with night vision goggles, guided our patrol deputies to a swampy area where the hikers were located and safely escorted back to the entrance of the preserve.” 

Video shared on Facebook by the office showed the deputies searching on the ground and by air until the hikers were discovered through the trees by the aviation unit’s night vision capabilities.  

‘UNPREPARED’ COLORADO HIKER IN HOODIE RESCUED FROM MOUNTAIN AFTER SEVERE SNOWSTORM STRANDS NEAR SUMMIT

Still of hikers in swamp

The hikers were escorted back to the entrance of the preserve, the sheriff’s office said.  (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)

OREGON HIKER RESCUED AFTER TUMBLING ‘SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET’ DOWN MT. HOOD

The office told the Miami Herald the hikers, “decided to call us as it got dark, and they found themselves in a swampy area.” 

At the end of the video, the hikers appeared to be unharmed as they walked out of the swamp, telling deputies cheerfully “How’re you doing?” 

They also said they were “good” and didn’t need an ambulance. 

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The office said the deputies safely escorted the hikers to the entrance of the preserve. 

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