Another top donor says it will resume funding the UN agency for Palestinians as Gaza hunger grows

Mourners watch as medical personnel transport the bodies of 47 Palestinians, that were taken and later released by Israel, during a mass funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 7, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Mourners watch as medical personnel transport the bodies of 47 Palestinians, that were taken and later released by Israel, during a mass funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 7, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 10 March 2024
Follow

Another top donor says it will resume funding the UN agency for Palestinians as Gaza hunger grows

Another top donor says it will resume funding the UN agency for Palestinians as Gaza hunger grows
  • Overall, the ministry said, at least 30,878 Palestinians have been killed since the war began

JERUSALEM: Another top donor to the UN agency aiding Palestinians said Saturday that it would resume funding, weeks after more than a dozen countries halted hundreds of millions of dollars in support in response to Israeli allegations against the organization.
Sweden’s reversal came as a ship bearing tons of humanitarian aid was making preparations to leave Cyprus for Gaza after international donors launched a sea corridor to supply the besieged territory facing widespread hunger after five months of war.
Sweden’s decision followed similar ones by the European Union and Canada as the UN agency known as UNRWA warns that it could collapse and leave Gaza’s already desperate population of more than 2 million people with even less medical and other assistance.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating and the needs are acute,” development minister Johan Forssell said in Sweden’s announcement, adding that UNRWA had agreed to increased transparency and stricter oversight and controls. Sweden will give UNRWA half of the $38 million funding it promised for this year, with more to come.
Israel had accused 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of employees of participating in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. Countries including the United States quickly suspended funding to UNRWA worth about $450 million, almost half its budget for the year. The UN has launched investigations, and UNRWA has been agreeing to outside audits to win back donor support.
On the eve of Ramadan, hungry Gaza residents scrambled for packages of food supplies dropped by US and Jordanian military planes — a method of delivery that humanitarian groups have called deeply inadequate compared to deliveries by ground. But the daily number of aid trucks entering Gaza since the war has been far below the 500 that entered before Oct. 7 because of Israeli restrictions and security issues.
People dashed through devastated neighborhoods of Gaza City as the parachuting aid descended. “I have orphans, I want to feed them!” one woman cried.
“The issue of aid is brutal and no one accepts it,” said another resident, Momen Mahra, claiming that most of the airdropped aid falls into the sea. “We want better methods.”
The US military said that its planes on Saturday airdropped more than 41,000 “meal equivalents” and 23,000 bottles of water into northern Gaza, the hardest part of the enclave to access.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said that two more people, including a 2-month-old infant, had died as a result of malnutrition, raising the total number of people who died from hunger to 25. Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said the toll included only people brought to hospitals.
Overall, the ministry said, at least 30,878 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tallies, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and its figures from previous wars have largely matched those of the UN and independent experts.
The opening of the sea delivery corridor, along with the airdrops, showed increasing frustration with Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and a new international willingness to work around Israeli restrictions. The sea corridor is backed by the EU together with the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other involved countries, and the European Commission has said that UN agencies and the Red Cross will also play a role.
The ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms aid group was expected to make a pilot voyage to test the corridor as early as this weekend. The ship has been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission. Israel has said it welcomed the maritime corridor, but cautioned that it would need security checks.
Open Arms founder Oscar Camps told The Associated Press that the ship pulling a barge with 200 tons of rice and flour would take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location where the group World Central Kitchen was constructing a pier to receive it. The group has 60 food kitchens throughout Gaza to distribute aid, he said.
US President Joe Biden has announced a plan to build a temporary pier in Gaza to help deliver aid, underscoring how the US has to go around Israel, its main Middle East ally and the top recipient of US military aid. Israel accuses Hamas of commandeering some aid deliveries.
United States officials said it will likely be weeks before the Gaza pier is operational. The executive director of the US arm of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, Avril Benoit, in a statement criticized the US plan as a “glaring distraction from the real problem: Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate military campaign and punishing siege.”
Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, has said air and sea deliveries can’t make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach a ceasefire before Ramadan appeared stalled. Hamas said Thursday that its delegation had left Cairo until next week.
International mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis with a six-week ceasefire, which would have seen Hamas release some of the Israeli hostages it’s holding, Israel release some Palestinian prisoners and aid groups be given access for a major influx of assistance into Gaza.
Palestinian militants are believed to be holding around 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others captured during the Oct. 7 attack. Several dozen hostages were freed in a weeklong November truce.
 

 


Trump aims wrecking ball at Department of Education for being 'ineffective, wasteful and dominated by radical leftists'

Trump aims wrecking ball at Department of Education for being 'ineffective, wasteful and dominated by radical leftists'
Updated 5 sec ago
Follow

Trump aims wrecking ball at Department of Education for being 'ineffective, wasteful and dominated by radical leftists'

Trump aims wrecking ball at Department of Education for being 'ineffective, wasteful and dominated by radical leftists'
  • Democratic politicians, teachers’ unions and many parents are in an uproar, calling Trump’s plan to shut down the agency an assault on public education
  • By law, the Education Department can be shut down only by an act of Congress, and most experts agree Trump lacks the votes to do that

WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump has taken a wrecking ball to Washington — and his latest target is the US Department of Education.
Trump has described it as ineffective, wasteful and dominated by radical leftists, and in an interview airing Sunday told Fox News he would order Elon Musk, the man leading his cost-cutting efforts, to turn his sights next on the Education Department.
Underscoring his intention, the Republican president had earlier directed Linda McMahon, his education secretary nominee, to “put herself out of a job.”
Democratic politicians, teachers’ unions and many parents are in an uproar, calling Trump’s plan to shut down the agency an assault on public education.
Conservative groups, on the other hand, hail it as a long-overdue measure to reassert local control over American classrooms. But they acknowledge that the task of winding down the vast department will not be easy.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the country’s largest labor union, said closing down the Education Department would be devastating for students with disabilities, low-income students and other children at risk.
“If it became a reality, Trump’s power grab would steal resources for our most vulnerable students... and gut student civil rights protections,” Pringle said, adding that the union will oppose the plan.

Gutting the Education Department is part of a broader effort by Trump and his tech billionaire adviser Musk to radically trim the US federal government.
The administration has already attempted to close down the US humanitarian agency and to put thousands of federal workers on leave. It has also offered buyouts to tens of thousands — efforts that sent shock waves around Washington and that are now being challenged in courts.
Traditionally, the federal government has had a limited role in education in the United States, with only about 13 percent of funding for primary and secondary schools coming from federal coffers, according to the NEA, the rest being funded by states and local communities.
But federal funding is invaluable for low-income schools and students with special needs.
And the federal government has been essential in enforcing key civil rights protections for students, such as the historic 1954 Supreme Court ruling that ended racial segregation in public schools, or a 1990 federal law guaranteeing access to education for students with disabilities.
“There’s been a traditional federal role in trying to make sure that the most disadvantaged kids get what they need. And the civil rights enforcement is important,” said Mike Petrilli, president of the Thomas Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank.

US President Donald Trump has indicated that he is seeking to abolish the Department of Education by executive order in the coming weeks. (Getty Images/AFP)

Trump has shown a willingness to use federal power to regulate school policy. Earlier this week he issued an executive order to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports in schools and universities.
Lindsey Burke, head of education policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, hailed Trump’s plan to get rid of the federal department, saying it has failed to improve academic standards, with American students continuing to lag behind their international peers.
Burke argues that education decisions must be made at the local level.
“Kids in South Carolina are different than kids in California, right? I mean, this is the United States, it’s a vast and diverse country,” said Burke.
“It is no service to families to put those dollars in the hands of distant federal bureaucrats who do not know these children’s names or their hopes or dreams or aspirations.”

But putting the education secretary out of a job might be easier said than done.
By law, the Education Department can be shut down only by an act of Congress, and most experts agree Trump lacks the votes to do that.
“This is mostly a talking point, it’s not going to happen,” said Petrilli. “A few weeks from now, I think this will be in the rearview mirror.”
It’s unclear how the Trump administration will proceed with its efforts to dismantle the department. Burke said it might seek to move some of its key units — civil rights enforcement, student loan servicing, statistics — to other agencies.
But Kevin Carey, head of education policy at the liberal New America think tank, fears the administration is now in a “strange territory of extralegality” and will not be shy about dismantling the agency one way or another.
“I think the question isn’t, ‘Will Congress abolish the Department of Education?’ It won’t. The question is, ‘Will Trump destroy the Department of Education on his own?” Carey told AFP.
Trump’s education secretary pick, McMahon, is a former professional wrestling executive with little experience in education — and known for once slapping her daughter during a televised wrestling match.
McMahon’s US Senate confirmation hearing is set for Thursday.
 


Germany’s Scholz describes Trump’s Gaza proposal as a ‘scandal’ in election debate

Germany’s Scholz describes Trump’s Gaza proposal as a ‘scandal’ in election debate
Updated 10 February 2025
Follow

Germany’s Scholz describes Trump’s Gaza proposal as a ‘scandal’ in election debate

Germany’s Scholz describes Trump’s Gaza proposal as a ‘scandal’ in election debate
  • “The relocation of populations is unacceptable and against international law,” he added in the debate on ARD and ZDF public television

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US could take ownership of the Gaza Strip, relocate its population and redevelop it as a “scandal” in a pre-election debate Sunday. His main challenger also voiced unease but suggested there’s “a lot of rhetoric” coming from Washington.
The center-left Scholz and center-right challenger Friedrich Merz, the front-runner in the Feb. 23 election, discussed top domestic issues such as Germany’s struggling economy and migration, and also addressed foreign policy three weeks into Trump’s new term.
Asked what he made of Trump’s proposal to redevelop Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East,” Scholz replied: “A scandal. Besides that, a really terrible expression,” given the extent of the destruction that is now visible there.
“The relocation of populations is unacceptable and against international law,” he added in the debate on ARD and ZDF public television. He pointed to the position of Egypt and Jordan.
“I share this assessment,” Merz said. “But it is one of a whole series of proposals coming from the American administration that are certainly disconcerting, but one has to wait and see what is really meant seriously and how it is implemented — there’s probably a lot of rhetoric in this.”
The two candidates differed in their assessment of a Trump order directing the federal government to recognize only two sexes — male and female. Merz said it “is a decision I can understand.”
“I think it’s inappropriate,” Scholz said. “Every person should be happy the way they want to be happy.”
Merz said the new US president is “predictably unpredictable.” He said that “there are significant concerns on this side of the Atlantic about what else is coming; so it’s all the more important that we on this side of the Atlantic are as united as possible.”
He said that, if elected, he would put a great deal of effort into ensuring such European unity.
Scholz said that his strategy for dealing with Trump is “clear words and friendly conversations.” He pointed to his public statements after Trump said he wouldn’t rule out the use of military force to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland that all countries must respect existing borders.
He also pointed to the importance of European unity and said he and other countries are working on proposals to increase NATO’s presence in Greenland.
Asked about a response to possible US tariffs against the EU, Scholz said: “We are prepared ... We can act in an hour as the European Union.”

 


Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties

Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties
Updated 10 February 2025
Follow

Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties

Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties
  • It is designed to integrate the three Baltic nations more closely with the European Union and to boost the region’s energy security

VILNIUS: The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania completed a switch from Russia’s electricity grid to the EU’s system on Sunday, severing Soviet-era ties amid heightened security after the suspected sabotage of several subsea cables and pipelines.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the move, years in the planning, as marking a new era of freedom for the region, in a speech at a ceremony in Vilnius alongside the leaders of the three countries and the Polish president.
“These chains of power lines linking you to hostile neighbors will be a thing of the past,” von der Leyen said.
Debated for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord gained momentum following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It is designed to integrate the three Baltic nations more closely with the European Union and to boost the region’s energy security.
“This is freedom, freedom from threats, freedom from blackmail,” von der Leyen said, adding that the wider European continent was also liberating itself from the use of Russian natural gas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address that Kyiv had taken the same step in 2022 “and the Baltic states are also ridding themselves of this dependence.
“Moscow will no longer be able to use energy as a weapon against the Baltic states.”
After disconnecting on Saturday from the IPS/UPS network, established by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and now run by Russia, the Baltic nations cut cross-border high-voltage transmission lines in eastern Latvia, some 100 meters from the Russian border, handing out pieces of chopped wire to enthusiastic bystanders as keepsakes.

HIGH ALERT
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert following power cable, telecom and gas pipeline outages between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland. All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has denied any involvement.
Poland and the Baltics deployed navy assets, elite police units and helicopters to monitor the area after an undersea power link from Finland to Estonia was damaged in December, while Lithuania’s military began drills to protect the overland connection to Poland.
Analysts say any further damage to links could push power prices in the Baltics to levels not seen since the invasion of Ukraine, when energy prices soared.
The IPS/UPS grid was the final remaining link to Russia for the three countries, which re-emerged as independent nations in the early 1990s at the fall of the Soviet Union, and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.
The three staunch supporters of Kyiv stopped purchases of power from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but have relied on the Russian grid to control frequencies and stabilize networks to avoid outages.
Analysts say that maintaining a constant power supply requires a stable grid frequency, which can more easily be obtained over time in a large synchronized area such as Russia or continental Europe, compared to what the Baltics can do on their own.
For Russia, the decoupling means its Kaliningrad exclave, located between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea, is cut off from Russia’s main grid, leaving it to maintain its power system alone.
The Kremlin said it has taken all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted, reliable operation in its electricity system, including the construction of several gas-fired power plants in Kaliningrad.


Niger’s military to hold ‘national convention’ on transition charter

Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by militant groups.
Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by militant groups.
Updated 09 February 2025
Follow

Niger’s military to hold ‘national convention’ on transition charter

Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by militant groups.
  • Sahel country is one of several nations in the region where army has seized power

NIAMEY: Niger’s military regime will organize a “national convention” from Feb. 15 to 19, notably intended to set the duration of the transition period that began with the 2023 overthrow of civilian President Mohamed Bazoum, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry unveiled the dates in a press release broadcast on state television, adding that the gathering would take place in the capital Niamey.
In August 2023, shortly after taking power in a coup, General Abdourahamane Tiani announced the organization of an “inclusive national dialogue” to outline the priority areas of governance and lay down the duration of the transition.
At the time, he mentioned a maximum duration of three years, but he has not addressed the issue since.
Early last year consultations were held across the country’s eight regions to lay out a working basis for next week’s meetings, with a national commission also created by presidential decree to oversee the work of the four-day conference set to produce a “preliminary draft of the transition charter.”
Following the gathering there will be a three-week period in which to draft a “final report” to General Tiani.
The commission, headed by Mamoudou Harouna Djingareye, a traditional leader, also comprises former ministers, academics, lawyers, soldiers, advisers to General Tiani, religious leaders and figures drawn from civil society.
It is made up of five sub-committees whose themes are “peace, security, national reconciliation and social cohesion,” “political and institutional overhaul” and “justice and human rights.”
Niger is one of several countries in Africa’s Sahel region where the military has seized power in coups in recent years, amid persistent attacks by insurgencies.
A few days earlier, armed assailants in the country killed at least 10 soldiers in an ambush on a military unit that had been sent to hunt cattle rustlers in a border region near Burkina Faso.
The military unit was deployed to catch criminals who had been stealing the cattle in the western village of Takzat, the military said in a statement broadcast Wednesday night.
“It was during the operation that a group of criminals ambushed the detachment of the internal security forces which resulted in the loss of 10 of our soldiers,” the statement said. It did not identify the attackers.
The attackers managed to flee, but the military caught and neutralized 15 “terrorists” on Tuesday, the statement added.
Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by militant groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance. The three countries have vowed to strengthen their cooperation by establishing a new security alliance, the Alliance of Sahel States.
But the security situation in the Sahel, a vast region on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, has significantly worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed both by militants and government forces.

 


25 civilians killed in an attack by gunmen in Mali

Troops of the Malian army patrol the ancient town of Djenne in central Mali on February 28, 2020. (AFP)
Troops of the Malian army patrol the ancient town of Djenne in central Mali on February 28, 2020. (AFP)
Updated 09 February 2025
Follow

25 civilians killed in an attack by gunmen in Mali

Troops of the Malian army patrol the ancient town of Djenne in central Mali on February 28, 2020. (AFP)
  • The military seized power in 2020, capitalizing on the unpopularity of the former democratically elected government, but the new rulers have struggled with deadly militant attacks

BAMAKO: Gunmen have attacked a convoy of vehicles escorted by Mali’s army, killing 25 civilians mostly gold miners, a military spokesman said Sunday.
The attack took place Friday about 30 kilometers from Gao, the largest city in the country’s northeast where armed groups hostile to the ruling junta operate. It was the deadliest attack on civilians this year.
The assailants targeted a convoy of some 60 vehicles escorted by the army, military spokesman Col. Maj. Souleymane Dembele said. He said soldiers assisted the victims and transferred 13 wounded to the Gao hospital.
He said four of the attackers were wounded and declined to comment on any army casualties.
“My sister survived the attack, but she’s in a state of mental shock. She saw a lot of dead and wounded, a whole scene of horror. It was the first time she had seen dead people,” said a Gao resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for his own safety.
Several groups operate in the area, including Daesh, the Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM, and others from the Azawad region hostile to Mali’s military regime.
Mali has been in a crisis for more than 10 years.
The military seized power in 2020, capitalizing on the unpopularity of the former democratically elected government, but the new rulers have struggled with deadly militant attacks.