Taiwan has seen a “significant rise” in the number of individuals charged with spying for China in recent years, according to new data released by the island’s security bureau, amid escalating intimidation by Beijing.

In a report released Sunday, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB) said the number of individuals prosecuted for Chinese espionage had increased threefold in recent years, rising from 16 in 2021 to 64 in 2024.

Of those 64 charged, 15 were military veterans and 28 were active service members, according to the report, which said targets of Chinese infiltration included military units, government agencies and local associations.

Beijing claims the self-governing democracy as its own territory and has vowed to take control of it, by force if necessary, despite having never controlled it.

The Taiwanese government has repeatedly rejected China’s sovereignty claims and emphasized that Taiwan’s future can only be decided by its 23.5 million people.

“The Chinese Communist Party continues to use diverse channels and means to infiltrate all walks of life in order to absorb citizens to help them develop networks or gather sensitive government information,” the report said.

In recent years, Beijing has stepped up its pressure on the island, launching large-scale military drills more frequently and raising alarm over the possible deployment of “gray zone” tactics – acts that fall below the threshold of war.

Taiwan officials’ suspicions earlier this month that a Chinese vessel may have been responsible for damage to an undersea internet cable underscored concerns on the island about vulnerabilities that could be exploited by Beijing in so-called “gray zone operations.”

In December, China also fielded its largest regional maritime deployment in decades – including multiple formations of Chinese naval and coast guard vessels – in regional waters and around the Taiwan Strait, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry.

For years, Taiwan’s security agencies have warned about Beijing’s growing attempts to infiltrate its armed forces and their espionage activities, particularly efforts to bribe military officers in exchange for national secrets.

The latest report said that improved counter-intelligence capabilities has allowed authorities in Taiwan to uncover more cases of suspected Chinese espionage.

It said Chinese agents allegedly attempted to establish contacts with criminal gangs and local temples, as well as setting up underground banks to recruit military personnel and China-friendly groups in Taiwan.

The report added, without specifying details of the cases, that some of the suspected spies were tasked to serve as agents of “sabotage” and raise China’s flag in the event of a Chinese invasion. Some were also asked to gather intelligence in a move to build a “sniper team” for an “assassination assignment.”

China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), which oversees intelligence and counterintelligence both within China and overseas, has also previously accused Taiwan of conducting spying activities.

Last August, the ministry said it had uncovered over a thousand Taiwanese espionage cases in recent years and dismantled a number of espionage networks.

China’s MSS has also launched a high-profile campaign against what it says is a surge in espionage activities by foreign nationals at a time when relations with western powers, especially the United States, have cratered.

Chao Yu-hsiang, a resident search officer at Taiwan’s Institute of National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), said he hopes the recent surge in prosecutions by Taiwan would prompt the Taiwanese military to enhance security measures.

“Both our military and civilians should maintain a high level of vigilance in our words and deeds, develop good confidentiality habits, and use social media with caution to prevent those with ulterior motives from infiltrating, absorbing and exploiting us,” he wrote in a column published by INDSR on Monday.

The top judge at the International Court of Justice Nawaf Salam has been designated Lebanon’s next prime minister in a surprising turnaround for the crisis-ridden country.

On Monday, the office of newly minted President Joseph Aoun asked Salam to form a government, after the judge was endorsed by a large majority of lawmakers during consultations with Aoun.

Aoun’s election and Salam’s designation mark the end of a more than two-year long stalemate with a presidential vacuum and a cabinet operating in a day-to-day caretaker capacity.

The consultations over the country’s next prime minister were triggered by Aoun’s election in parliament on Thursday, following a robust push from Saudi Arabia.

Salam is widely viewed as a reformist. He is a Sunni Muslim – the only sect allowed the position of prime minister – and was a candidate for the premiership twice before in recent years.

The judge rose to international prominence last year after he was elected head of the ICJ, presiding over South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide and other tribunals.

Some media outlets likened Salam’s designation to a “tsunami.” He put himself forward as a candidate on Sunday morning, according to local media reports. Prior to that, incumbent caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati was widely viewed as the most likely contender for the post.

Salam’s designation is a blow to Hezbollah and its allies Amal, known as the Shia duo, who are believed to have supported Mikati. Speaking to reporters, Hezbollah parliamentary bloc leader Mohammad Raad said the move to designate Salam sowed “division” in the country, and said he hoped the cabinet would respect the country’s confessional power-sharing “pact.”

Unofficially, Lebanon’s major sects – Muslims from Sunni and Shia sects as well as Christians – must all be represented in cabinet.

No Shia lawmakers endorsed the prime minister designate, putting Nawaf on a potential collision course as he tries to form a government in the next few weeks.

Items belonging to missing British hiker Aziz Ziriat have been found in the Italian Alps, close to where the body of his hiking partner Samuel Harris was discovered last week, rescue teams said Sunday.

More than 100 rescuers took part in Sunday’s operation, using shovels to dig into the snow across an area of around 5,500 square meters (18,000 square feet) at an altitude of around 2,400 meters (7,800 feet), according to a statement from Italy’s alpine rescue service.

“Snow depth varied from 50 centimeters (20 inches) to nearly two meters (6.6 feet) in wind-drifted accumulations,” the statement said.

The rescue service said more than 500 people, including seven dog units, were involved in the “complex” search operation.

Search operations will now be “temporarily suspended” to allow for changes in the environmental and snow conditions, adds the statement.

Ziriat, 36 and Harris, 35, were experienced hikers who had planned an excursion in the Adamello mountain range near Trento in northern Italy but went missing on January 1, reported the Associated Press.

Rescue services said they only received an alert about the pair on January 6 after they failed to check in for their flight home and relatives alerted the authorities, according to the Associated Press.

The search operation was complicated by snowfall, fog and avalanche warnings, but on January 8, Harris’ body, as well as the men’s backpacks and equipment, was found by rescuers guided by their phone records.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami advisory after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of southwest Japan.

The quake struck shortly after 9:19 p.m. local time (7:19 a.m. ET), the agency said, triggering an advisory for Miyazaki province, in the island of Kyushu, as well as Japan’s southern Kochi prefecture.

Authorities have urged locals not to enter the sea or approach the coast until the advisory is lifted, the country’s meteorological agency said on X.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday signed a bill restricting the use of smartphones at school, following a global trend for such limitations.

The move will impact students at elementary and high schools across the South American nation starting in February. It provides a legal framework to ensure students only use such devices in cases of emergency and danger, for educational purposes, or if they have disabilities and require them.

Education minister Camilo Santana told journalists in the capital Brasilia on Monday that children are going online at early ages, making it harder for parents to keep track of what they do, and that restricting smartphones at school will help them.

“We want those devices, as in many other countries, to only be used in class for pedagogical purposes and with a teacher’s guidance,” Santana said.

The bill had rare support across the political spectrum, both from allies of leftist Lula and his far-right foe, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Many parents and students also approved the move. A survey released in October by Brazilian pollster Datafolha said that almost two-thirds of respondents supported banning the use of smartphones by children and teenagers at schools. More than three-quarters said those devices do more harm than good to their children.

“(Restricting cell phones) is tough, but necessary. It is useful for them to do searches for school, but to use it socially isn’t good,” said Ricardo Martins Ramos, 43, father of two girls and the owner of a hamburger restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. “Kids will interact more.”

His 13-year-old daughter Isabela said her classmates struggled to focus during class because of their smartphones. She approved the move, but doesn’t see it as enough to improve the learning environment for everyone.

“When the teacher lets you use the cell phone, it is because he wants you to do searches,” she said. “There’s still a lot of things that schools can’t solve, such as bullying and harassment.”

As of 2023, about two-thirds of Brazilian schools imposed some restriction on cellphone use, while 28% banned them entirely, according to a survey released in August by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee.

The Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Maranhao and Goias have already passed local bills to ban such devices at schools. However, authorities have struggled to enforce these laws.

Authorities in Sao Paulo, the most populous state in Brazil, are discussing whether smartphones should be banned both in public and private schools.

Gabriele Alexandra Henriques Pinheiro, 25, works at a beauty parlor and is the mother of a boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. She also agrees with the restrictions, but says adults will continue to be as a bad example of smartphone use for children.

“It is tough,” she said. “I try to restrict the time my son watches any screens, but whenever I have a task to perform I have to use the smartphone to be able to do it all,” she said.

Institutions, governments, parents and others have for years associated smartphone use by children with bullying, suicidal ideation, anxiety and loss of concentration necessary for learning. China moved last year to limit children’s use of smartphones, while France has in place a ban on smartphones in schools for kids aged six to 15.

Cell phone bans have gained traction across the United States, where eight states have passed laws or policies that ban or restrict cellphone use to try to curb student phone access and minimize distractions in classrooms.

An increasing number of parents across Europe who are concerned by evidence that smartphone use among young kids jeopardizes their safety and mental health.

A report published in September by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said one in four countries has already restricted the use of such devices at schools.

Last year in a US Senate hearing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents of children exploited, bullied or driven to self harm via social media. He also noted Meta’s continued investments in “industrywide” efforts to protect children.

While they continued to emphasize that officials will remain cautious until the negotiations produce a final deal to end the Gaza conflict, as of Monday, the sources said US officials believe a ceasefire agreement could very well be announced in the forthcoming last days of President Joe Biden’s time in office.

Another source said that “all the big blocks (to a deal) have been resolved.”

“I am not going to sit here and make predictions – this has been a long time coming,” Finer said. “Fundamentally, we believe there is progress being made. There is a deal on the table that Hamas should accept.”

It comes as a Hamas official said Monday morning that the group is “very close to an agreement” with Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also announced some progress, saying Monday that Israel is working hard to reach a deal in the ongoing negotiations being hosted in the Qatari capital of Doha, and that “progress was made.”

“Israel wants a hostage deal. Israel is working with our American friends in order to achieve a hostage deal, and soon we will know whether the other side wants the same thing,” Saar said in a news conference in Jerusalem.

They include Hamas’ demands that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow strip of land along the Egypt-Gaza border, and commit to a permanent ceasefire rather than a temporary halt to the military operations launched in the wake of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

Disagreement also remains over an Israeli-proposed buffer zone inside Gaza to run along the strip’s eastern and northern borders with Israel. The official said that Hamas wants the buffer zone to return to the pre-October 7 size of 300-500 meters (330-545 yards) from the border line, while Israel is requesting a much larger 2,000-meter depth.

“We believe this means that 60 km (37 miles) of the Gaza Strip will remain under their control, and displaced people will not return to their homes,” the official said.

Beyond those key demands, the Hamas official said that negotiators were hammering out specific details of the release of Palestinian prisoners and maps covering the areas from which Israeli forces would withdraw.

The optimistic tone was tempered though by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said Monday that the potential ceasefire-hostage deal would be a “catastrophe” for Israel’s national security. In a post on X, Smotrich described it as a “surrender deal” that would include releasing “terrorists” and “dissolving” the war’s achievements.

On Monday, 10 members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party sent a letter to the Israeli prime minister expressing concern about a potential agreement and reiterating three “red lines” should not be crossed. The Knesset members argued that Israel should not have to rely on others for security, all hostages must be returned and a mass return to northern Gaza should be prevented in any framework for a deal.

Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on Sunday, their first publicly announced call since October, about the progress in negotiations.

Netanyahu, who met with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Saturday, is facing pressure from both the current and incoming US administrations to reach a deal.

Meanwhile, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been in close consultation with top Israeli officials, including David Barnea, and Qatar’s prime minister, on Monday, per sources.

“There’s a bigger picture here that he (Netanyahu) wants to achieve. And you know, remaining on track with Trump is important. That’s the thing,” the source added. They said that even if there is no deal by January 20, when Trump will be sworn in as president, then “we have to get to a framework” by that date.

On Monday US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan struck an optimistic tone, saying the two sides were inching closer to a potential deal and that it could “get done this week.”

“I’m not making a promise or a prediction, but it is there for the taking, and we are going to work to make it happen,” he told reporters at the White House Monday.

Finer said Monday that some remaining differences that were present in recent weeks “have been resolved or narrowed.”

Gazans hope for a ceasefire

Since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the death toll from Israeli military action in Gaza has risen to 46,584, with 109,731 people injured, according to the latest daily report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The report added that a number of victims are still under the rubble and on roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.

Meanwhile, a peer-reviewed study by researchers from a leading health research university in the UK found the number of people killed in Gaza is significantly higher than the figure reported by authorities in the enclave.

Ahmad Salama, another man displaced from Khan Younis, said: “My family hopes that the negotiations will succeed so the war will end, and we can return to safety, and the fear and terror will stop, and we won’t have to flee from one place to another with the children and my mother again.”

The war in Gaza has also exacted a heavy toll on Israeli forces. At least 15 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Gaza in the past week, according to the Israeli military.