Beijing seeks to mediate between Islamabad and Tehran in their border battles

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Beijing seeks to mediate between Islamabad and Tehran in their border battles;  Trump allies stump in the Granite State ahead of Jan. 23 primaries;  U.S. State Dept. reclassifies Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels as terrorists

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00:00 Nightly greetings one and all. Monique Tuzon here, homegrown and happy to bring you major

00:05 events unfolding here at home and abroad and tops in tonight's Late Breakers.

00:11 And Beijing seeking to up its image and expand its newfound role as peacemaker amidst its

00:17 contentious moves in the South China Sea and even more aggressive actions in the Taiwan

00:22 Strait. In a statement, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson offered China's intercession

00:27 to mediate between Pakistan and Iran in the wake of the latest tit-for-tat exchange of

00:33 airstrikes that began Wednesday when Iran hit Syria, Iraq and Pakistan with pre-emptive

00:40 drone hits on allegedly anti-Iran militant or terrorist groups which Pakistan expectedly

00:46 responded to earlier today with jet fighter missile hits that killed seven civilians in

00:51 border regions of the two countries. For its part, the U.S. State Department condemned

00:57 the three sets of Iranian strikes on Wednesday, stressing how Tehran had violated the sovereign

01:03 borders of those three countries. Oddly enough, hours before the strike, Pakistan's caretaker,

01:09 Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Qaqer met in post for photos with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein

01:16 Amir Abdullahi on the sidelines of the WEF summit in Davos, Switzerland.

01:25 Former and 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump, whose walk in the park win

01:30 in the Iowa caucus earlier this week cements him as the prohibited favorite to win the

01:35 Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential polls in November, is not taking the GOP primaries

01:41 in the Granite State as a cakewalk. Recent polls show rival Nikki Haley, former South

01:47 Carolina governor who served as Trump's U.N. ambassador, has cut down his lead to single

01:52 digits and could pull off a surprise even more with the endorsement of New Hampshire

01:57 Governor Chris Sununu on her side. Still, supporters of the former president are brimming

02:03 with confidence as they waited out in the cold and snow in Atkinson, where Trump is

02:08 holding a campaign rally. One of his rabid and staunch supporters, who drove all the

02:13 way from Vermont on an 11-hour trip, urged to cancel Tuesday's primaries and declare

02:19 Trump the Republican presidential standard-bearer. The United States is fed up with weeks of

02:25 attacks on international cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Yemen's

02:30 Iranian-backed Houthi insurgents sympathetic to the Palestinian cause in Gaza City. Hence,

02:36 after a series of retaliatory tit-for-tat hits against Houthi-held locations in Yemen,

02:41 the United States government has officially declared the Houthis as "bad guys" and

02:46 "no good terrorists." However, the State Department also stressed the tag or label

02:51 could be formally stripped if the Houthis cease their attacks completely, as VOA's

02:56 Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports. The U.S. on Wednesday called Houthi militants

03:03 a terror group after about 30 attacks on international shipping lanes since mid-November. "If the

03:09 Houthis cease the attacks, we can certainly reconsider this designation." If not, the

03:16 United States and Britain could launch more attacks against Houthi radar sites, launch

03:22 sites and drone and missile facilities inside Yemen. "The Houthis need to ask themselves

03:27 how much of their capability do they want degraded and disrupted in light of these illegal,

03:35 reckless and dangerous attacks." "It is exceptionally long overdue and it's still not even a complete

03:41 restoration." Critics of the administration, like FDD's Betnam Ben Taliblu, say more

03:47 needs to be done against the Houthis, who serve as proxies for their military supplier,

03:53 Iran. "This is a neo-colonial project the Islamic Republic is engaging in to establish

03:59 proxies and footholds across the Arab heartland of the Middle East to be able to have them

04:04 fight the ideological adversary of the Islamic Republic, which is the Jewish state of the

04:09 Middle East." Iran supplies illicit weapons to violent proxies across the Middle East

04:14 in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. This month, U.S. forces boarded this small boat

04:20 off the coast of Somalia and confiscated several advanced conventional weapons bound for Yemen

04:27 and made by Iran. Iran denies supplying the Houthis with missiles, despite repeated evidence

04:33 to the contrary. "Iran has this proxy strategy which aims to put distance between it and

04:39 threats and to create deniability. But with this newfound missile power, the regime is

04:44 actually quite content in showcasing this itself." Tehran carried out deadly missile

04:48 strikes inside Iraq and Pakistan this week, angering its neighbors. Islamabad recalled

04:55 its Iranian ambassador as Iraqis in the northern Kurdish region launched massive protests.

05:01 Carla Bab, VOA News, the Pentagon.

05:08 At this juncture, let's turn to our colleague in PTV's Pine City Studios for the latest

05:12 developments in the Cordilleras.

05:14 "Good evening, Philippines. We are working to protect and improve the system and agriculture

05:23 of the Philippines. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are

05:30 working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

05:37 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

05:44 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

05:51 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

05:58 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

06:05 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

06:12 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

06:19 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

06:26 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

06:33 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

06:40 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

06:47 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

06:54 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

07:01 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

07:08 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

07:15 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

07:22 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

07:29 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

07:36 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

07:43 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

07:50 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

07:57 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

08:04 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

08:11 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

08:18 We are working to improve the quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the

08:25 quality of life of our people. We are working to improve the quality of life of our people.

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