UN agencies tremble as Trump term nears

UN agencies tremble as Trump term nears
With just days to go before Donald Trump again enters the White House, anxiety is rising across UN agencies fearful he could wreak even more havoc than last time. (AP)
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Updated 16 January 2025
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UN agencies tremble as Trump term nears

UN agencies tremble as Trump term nears
  • With just days to go before Donald Trump again enters the White House, anxiety is rising across UN agencies fearful he could wreak even more havoc than last time

GENEVA: With just days to go before Donald Trump again enters the White House, anxiety is rising across UN agencies fearful he could wreak even more havoc than last time.
During Trump's first term in office, Washington slashed its contributions to United Nations operations and agencies, stormed out of the UN Human Rights Council, exited the Paris climate accord and the education agency UNESCO, and began withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
But while Trump's first administration did not get to the harshest measures until later in the term, experts warn things could move faster this time.
"I don't think Trump is going to hang about so long this time," Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group told AFP.
"He's likely to walk away from those UN mechanisms and arrangements that he boycotted before without much ceremony."
The United States remains the largest donor to the UN, which is already facing significant budget pressures, spurring palpable anxiety over the prospect of funding cuts.
UN officials have scrambled to emphasise the value of US partnership.
"The cooperation between the United States and the United Nations is a critical pillar of international relations, and the UN system," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, told AFP.
But the love is not always mutual.
Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has tapped to become his UN ambassador, has described the organisation as "a corrupt, defunct and paralysed institution".
And fears abound that Republicans in Congress could push ahead with a bill calling to defund the organisation completely.

Jussi Hanhimaki, an international history professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, played down that threat.
"The total exit is unlikely," he told AFP, suggesting that Washington would not want to cede the leverage it has within the UN system.
"The best argument against the US wholesale withdrawal is (that) China will... become more and more influential," he said.
During Trump's first term, China and its allies clearly expanded their influence in the bodies he left in Geneva, like the Human Rights Council.
Outgoing US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Sheba Crocker, highlighted that "some of our strategic rivals are heavily invested in promoting their interests in Geneva".
That, she told AFP in an email, "is why I believe the United States will remain engaged, and why I believe it is in our interest to do so".
The exiting administration of Joe Biden has protected against another high-profile walk-out from the Human Rights Council, by opting not to re-apply for membership.
Hanhimaki suggested that the World Trade Organization might face "the most challenging times" to start with, pointing to Trump's focus on imposing tariffs on traditional foes and allies alike.

There is particular concern about funding for reproductive rights-linked programmes.
During Trump's first term, Washington cut funding to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which works to improve reproductive and maternal health worldwide.
"We're very worried," said Rachel Moynihan, deputy director of UNFPA's Washington office.
But the agency, which says US contributions allowed it to prevent 3,800 likely deaths during pregnancy in 2023 alone, is accustomed to seeing its funding cut during Republican administrations.
"We are a resilient agency," Moynihan told AFP.
Other agencies may be less prepared, with UN Women expected to be in the firing line, as was the UN rights office.
And word on the street in Geneva is that the new Trump administration aims to withdraw from the WHO on day one.
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said that would be a mistake.
"Having a well-functioning, impartial WHO is very much in the US national interest," she told AFP.
Another withdrawal would certainly leave Washington with "a less influential voice", she warned.
The WHO has been seeking to broaden its funding base since the last debacle, but Washington remains its largest donor.
Asked last month about the threat, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters he believed the new administration would "do the right thing".
Moon said the WHO could clearly survive a US withdrawal.
"But it would be painful... The real question is, which priorities get downgraded, which programmes?"
And "what do other countries do on the finances?"
Last time Trump was in power, European countries rallied to keep targeted UN agencies afloat.
But the Europeans now have "made it clear that they do not have spare cash lying around... to ride to the rescue of the UN", said Gowan, of the International Crisis Group.
Agencies likely to see funding slashed are already mulling alternatives and cost cuts, observers say.
Hanhimaki said reflections on alternative sources of funding were healthy.
"It's quite foolhardy to rely upon a country that is politically volatile as your long-term source of funding."


Daesh group claims suicide bombing of Afghan bank

Daesh group claims suicide bombing of Afghan bank
Updated 11 sec ago
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Daesh group claims suicide bombing of Afghan bank

Daesh group claims suicide bombing of Afghan bank
  • Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the Taliban surged back to power and ended their insurgency in 2021
  • But the Daesh group frequently stages gun and bomb attacks challenging their rule
KABUL: The Daesh group claimed Wednesday a suicide bombing of a bank in north Afghanistan which killed five people a day earlier, saying it was targeting Taliban government employees collecting salaries.
Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the Taliban surged back to power and ended their insurgency in 2021, but the Daesh group frequently stages gun and bomb attacks challenging their rule.
On Tuesday police in the northern city of Kunduz said a suicide attack in front of a bank killed five people — including civil servants — and wounded seven others.
The Daesh propaganda wing said Wednesday a “suicide bomber” had “detonated his explosive vest” as “Taliban militia members gathered outside a public bank to collect their salaries.”
The group previously claimed responsibility for a similar bombing in March 2024, outside a bank in the southern city of Kandahar — considered the spiritual heartland of the Taliban movement.
Daesh said it had targeted “Taliban militia” members outside the bank. Taliban authorities said only three people had been killed in last year’s incident, but a hospital source put fatalities far higher at 20.
The Taliban government has declared security its highest priority since returning to power and analysts say they have had some success quashing Daesh with a sweeping crackdown.
But the group remains active — targeting Taliban officials, visitors from abroad, and foreign diplomats.
There are frequently discrepancies between the casualty tolls given by Taliban authorities and those reported by officials on the ground, and attack sites are routinely shut down by security forces.
In December, Daesh claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing which killed the Taliban’s government minister for refugees, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, in the capital Kabul.

Ten million Indians take holy dip on key day of Kumbh Mela festival

Ten million Indians take holy dip on key day of Kumbh Mela festival
Updated 58 min 50 sec ago
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Ten million Indians take holy dip on key day of Kumbh Mela festival

Ten million Indians take holy dip on key day of Kumbh Mela festival
  • Authorities stepped up the numbers of police officers and put air ambulances on standby in the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state
  • The full moon on Wednesday, known as Magh Poornima, makes it one of the holiest days in the six-week-long festival

LUCKNOW: More than 10 million devout Hindus seeking absolution from their sins took a dip in holy waters in northern India during a span of four hours on Wednesday, authorities said, as they braced for millions more to swarm the site of the Kumbh Mela.
Authorities stepped up the numbers of police officers and put air ambulances on standby in the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state on one of the holiest days of the Hindu festival, considered the world’s largest gathering of humanity.
“There are more people in this city in one day than the population of many countries, and the numbers are swelling by the minute,” Prashant Kumar, the state’s chief of police, said.
The numbers arriving had pushed infrastructure arrangements to the brink, making delays and traffic jams inevitable, he added. Media said vehicles were backed up for hundreds of kilometers from the edges of the city.
More than 10 million people had bathed by 8 a.m., authorities said, with more expected.
The full moon on Wednesday, known as Magh Poornima, makes it one of the holiest days in the six-week-long festival, held at the confluence of India’s three holiest rivers.
Maintaining safety can prove a challenge at the festival, despite stringent precautions.
More than 30 people were killed in a stampede on Jan. 29, officials said, as over 76 million flocked to the river for a ‘royal dip’, but did not deter a stream of notables, from India’s president to ministers, film stars and the wealthy.
Hindus believe that a plunge in the waters where the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati meet will absolve them of sin but they consider this year’s event even more significant as having the power to free them of the cycle of rebirth.


First US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait since Trump inauguration

First US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait since Trump inauguration
Updated 12 February 2025
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First US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait since Trump inauguration

First US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait since Trump inauguration
  • The US Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month
  • China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it

BEIJING/TAIPEI: Two US Navy ships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait this week in the first such mission since President Donald Trump took office last month, drawing an angry reaction from China, which said the mission increased security risks.
The US Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.
The US Navy said the vessels were the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and Pathfinder-class survey ship, USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit February 10-12, it said.
“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,” said Navy Commander Matthew Comer, a spokesperson at the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command. “Within this corridor all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms.”
China’s military said that Chinese forces had been dispatched to keep watch.
“The US action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement early Wednesday.
China considers Taiwan its most important diplomatic issue and it is regularly a stumbling block in Sino-US relations.
China this week complained to Japan over “negative” references to China in a statement issued after a meeting between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
That statement called for “maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” and voiced support for “Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.”
Asked in Beijing on Wednesday about the US warships, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said that Taiwan was a “core interest” for the country and that the United States should act with caution.
“We are resolutely opposed to this and will never allow any outside interference, and have the firm will, full confidence and capability to uphold the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said its forces had also kept watch but noted the “situation was as normal.”
The last publicly acknowledged US Navy mission in the strait was in late November, when a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew over the waterway.
The last time a US Navy ship was confirmed to have sailed through the strait was in October, a joint mission with a Canadian warship.
China’s military operates daily in the strait as part of what Taiwan’s government views as part of Beijing’s pressure campaign.
On Wednesday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said that it had detected 30 Chinese military aircraft and seven navy ships operating around the island in the previous 24 hour period.
“I really don’t need to explain further who is the so-called troublemaker around the Taiwan Strait. All other countries in the neighborhood have a deep appreciation of this,” ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang told reporters in Taipei.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.


Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv kills one, sparks fires, Ukraine says

Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv kills one, sparks fires, Ukraine says
Updated 12 February 2025
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Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv kills one, sparks fires, Ukraine says

Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv kills one, sparks fires, Ukraine says
  • Prospects for renewed peace negotiations increased after US President Donald Trump said that he had been in contact with Kyiv and Vladimir Putin

KYIV: Russia’s early morning missile attack on Kyiv killed at least one civilian, injured three, and sparked several fires throughout the city, Ukrainian officials said.
“Russia carried out a missile strike on Kyiv and the Kyiv region,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“This is how (Vladimir) wants the war to end.”
Prospects for renewed peace negotiations to end the war that Russia launched on Ukraine nearly three years ago have increased after US President Donald Trump said that he had been in contact with Kyiv and Putin. Zelensky also said on Tuesday that Kyiv will soon hold talks with US officials.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that at least one person was killed and three injured, including a 9-year-old child, as a result of the attack and emergency services were called to at least four districts of the Ukrainian capital.
The military administration said that fires broke out at several residential and non-residential buildings.
Air raid alerts were imposed only at the start of the attack at around 0227 GMT. It was not immediately clear what missiles were used, but the late launch of air raid alerts suggests they were difficult to detect by radar.
Reuters’ witnesses reported hearing a series of explosions in what sounded like air defense systems in operation.


White House correspondents protest access denial over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ naming issue

White House correspondents protest access denial over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ naming issue
Updated 12 February 2025
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White House correspondents protest access denial over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ naming issue

White House correspondents protest access denial over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ naming issue
  • AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement earlier that its reporter had been blocked from attending an Oval Office event after being informed by the White House it would be barred unless it aligned its editorial standards with Trump’s order

WASHINGTON: The White House Correspondents’ Association protested a decision by the White House on Tuesday to bar an Associated Press reporter from an event with President Donald Trump over the news agency’s decision to continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump signed an executive order in January directing the Interior Secretary to change the name to the Gulf of America.
“The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions,” Eugene Daniels, president of the association, said on Tuesday in a statement posted on X.
“The move by the administration to bar a reporter from the Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable,” Daniels said.
AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement earlier that its reporter had been blocked from attending an Oval Office event after being informed by the White House it would be barred unless it aligned its editorial standards with Trump’s order.
“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Pace said, adding that limiting access violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press.
The AP says in its stylebook that the Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years and, as a global news agency, the AP will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the statements by the WHCA and the AP. Mexico’s foreign ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Like the US, Mexico has a long coastline circling the body of water. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in January jokingly suggested North America, including the United States, be renamed “Mexican America” — a historic name used on an early map of the region.
Most news organizations, including Reuters, call it the Gulf of Mexico although, where relevant, Reuters style is to include the context about Trump’s executive order.