CANCELLED: Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned under new accusations of plagiarism in her academic work and the fallout from her testimony before Congress.

  She is the second of three university presidents who resigned after what some deemed were unsatisfactory responses to questions about antisemitism on campus. The popular Gay survived the House appearance, but she had previously been cleared of plagiarism and the hearing resulted in renewed scrutiny of her background.

  New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who led the congressional questioning, took credit for the kill, saying in a statement that, “Our robust Congressional investigation will continue to move forward to expose the rot in out ‘prestigious’ higher educational institutions.”

  Gay wrote in her resignation, “It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”

  Gay had been under investigation for plagiarism when some influential alumni and donors complained that she had not sufficiently condemned the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7^th.  That opened the debate about whether it is the role of University presidents to take a stand on issues in the name of the university 

   Gay assumed the job only in July and her tenure as Harvard’s president is the shortest in the school’s history since its founding in 1636. She was also Harvard’s first Black president.

  Many of the roughly 40 academic complaints about Gay’s work have come from the same person. The passages cited as plagiarism are generally boilerplate descriptions of legislation or processes rather than a theft of someone else’s research. But much of the language is very similar or nearly identical.

INDICTMENT #2: Speaking of rot, a new federal indictment has charged New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez with taking bribes to help the government of Qatar. He was previously indicted on charges of taking bribes, including gold bars, to help the government of Egypt.

  The new indictment says the 70-year-old Menendez accepted money a from a prominent New Jersey developer in exchange for help securing financial backing from an investment fund with ties to the Qatari government.

 Menendez is scheduled to go on trial for the first indictment in May. He was tried for bribery in 2017, acquitted on some counts and had a hung jury on the rest, resulting in the case being dropped.

ISRAEL AT WAR: Hamas said Tuesday that Saleh Mohammed Suleiman Al-Arouri a prominent leader and founder of the organization’s military wing, was killed in an explosive attack in Beirut. Israel has not taken responsibility.

  Lebanon is accusing Israel of trying to ignite a wider war.

  In Gaza, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health says the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing and artillery strikes has risen to 22,215.

  US intelligence agencies now say that a major hospital complex in Gaza raided by Israeli soldiers was used by Hamas and another Palestinian militant groups to command forces and hold some hostages. Israel came under international criticism when its forces entered Al-Shifa Hospital. 

THE OTHER WAR: A barrage of as many as 100 Russian missiles and drones hit Ukraine yesterday morning in a wide-ranging attack on the capital of Kyiv and other cities that killed at least five people and injured nearly 130 more.

  The Ukrainian air force said the attack included hypersonic missiles that fly at several times the speed of sound as the war crosses the stalled front lines and both sides attack interior targets from the air. Moscow claimed that eight Ukrainian missiles hit the city of Belgorod, killing one civilian, and injuring four others. Another strike hit the nearby town of Shebekino. 

  As winter sets in, Russia appears to be hitting vital infrastructure including water and power facilities, to make life difficult in the cold for Ukraine citizens.

ORANGE ALERT: Donald Trump filed a legal appeal in Maine to the secretary of state’s decision to remove him from the Republican primary ballot because of his involvement in the January 6^thinsurrection.

  Trump’s filing denounced Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows as a “biased decisionmaker” and said she “failed to provide lawful due process” and “made multiple errors of law and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner.”

  Not put off by Trump or his legal problems, House majority leader Steve Scalise endorsed the former president for a second term. “I am proud to endorse Donald Trump for president in 2024, and I look forward to working with President Trump and a Republican House and Senate to fight for those families who are struggling under the weight of Biden’s failed policies,” Scalise posted on Twitter/X. 

THE SPIN RACK: The death toll from the earthquake that struck western Japan on Monday has risen to 55. — New York Mayor Eric Adams yesterday urged surrounding cities to restrict the flow of migrant buses into New York. 

BELOW THE FOLD: A “kidnapped” Chinese foreign exchange student was found alive, cold, and oddly alone in rural Utah after his parents had paid $80,000 in ransom. 

  The 17-year-old Kai Zhuang is believed to have been the target of a so-called “cyber kidnapping” in which he was convinced to take a tent and sleeping bag into the wild and was monitored by cellphone until his parents paid up. The FBI says an international student like Kai can be threatened with arrest, deportation, and even harsh punishment in their home country if they don’t cooperate.

  The police said that after his rescue Kai asked to speak to his family and for a hot cheeseburger.

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