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President Donald Trump has slashed US aid and vowed a major rethink on helping the world. A controversial effort to bring food to Gaza may offer clues on what’s to come.Administered by contracted US security with Israeli troops at the perimeter, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is distributing food through several hubs in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for over two months, sparking warnings of mass famine.The organization said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday. The initiative excludes the United Nations, which has long coordinated aid distribution in the war-ravaged territory and has infrastructure and systems in place to deliver assistance on a large scale.The UN and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF, saying it violates basic humanitarian principles, and appears crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives.  “What we have seen is chaotic, it’s tragic and it’s resulted in hundreds of thousands of people scrambling in an incredibly undignified and unsafe way to access a tiny trickle of aid,” said Ciaran Donnelly, senior vice president of international programs at the International Rescue Committee (IRC).Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said his aid group stopped work in Gaza in 2015 when Hamas militants invaded its office and that it refused to cooperate in Syria when former strongman Bashar al-Assad was pressuring opposition-held areas by withholding food.”Why on earth would we be willing to let the Israeli military decide how, where and to whom we give our aid as part of their military strategy to herd people around Gaza?” said Egeland.”It’s a violation of everything we stand for. It is the biggest and reddest line there is that we cannot cross.” – Sidelining UN -The UN said that 47 people were injured Tuesday when hungry and desperate crowds rushed a GHF site — most of them by Israeli gunfire — while a Palestinian medical source said at least one person had died.The Israeli military denied its soldiers fired on civilians and the GHF denied any injuries or deaths. Israel has relentlessly attacked Gaza since Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.Israel has vowed to sideline the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, accusing it of bias and of harboring Hamas militants.UNRWA said that nine out of thousands of staff may have been involved in the October 7 attack and dismissed them, but accuses Israel of trying to throw a distraction.John Hannah, a former senior US policymaker who led a study last year that gave birth to the concepts behind the GHF, said the UN seemed to be “completely lacking in self-reflection” on the need for a new approach to aid after Hamas built a “terror kingdom.””I fear that people could be on the brink of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good instead of figuring out how do we take part in this effort, improve it, make it better, scale it up,” said Hannah, who is not involved in implementing the GHF.Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, defended the use of private contractors, saying that many had extensive Middle East experience from the US-led “war on terror.””We would have been happy if there were volunteers from (other) capable and trusted national forces… but the fact is, nobody’s volunteering,” he said.He said he would rather that aid workers coordinate with Israel than Hamas.”Inevitably, any humanitarian effort in a war zone has to make some compromises with a ruling authority that carries the guns,” he said.- Legitimacy issue -Hannah’s study had discouraged a major Israeli role in humanitarian work in Gaza, urging instead involvement by Arab states to bring greater legitimacy.Arab states have balked at supporting US efforts as Israel pounds Gaza and after Trump mused about forcibly displacing the whole Gaza population and constructing luxury hotels.Israel and Hamas are negotiating a new Gaza ceasefire that could see a resumption of UN-backed efforts.Aid groups say they have vast amounts of aid ready for Gaza that remain blocked.Donnelly said the IRC had 27 tons of supplies waiting to enter Gaza, faulting the GHF for distributing items like pasta and tinned fish that require cooking supplies — not therapeutic food and treatment for malnourished children.He called for distributing relief in communities where people need it, instead of through militarized hubs.”If anyone really cares about distributing aid in a transparent, accountable, effective way, the way to do that is to use the expertise and infrastructure of aid organizations that have been doing this for decades,” Donnelly said.

Global stocks finished mixed on Friday after President Donald Trump put US-China trade tensions back on the boil by claiming Beijing had “totally violated” an agreement with Washington.His social media post came hours after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade talks with China aimed at putting to bed sky-high mutual tariffs — currently suspended …

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US President Donald Trump signaled renewed trade tensions with China Friday, arguing that Beijing had “totally violated” a tariff de-escalation deal, while saying he expects to eventually speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Trump’s comments came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade talks with China were “a bit stalled,” in an interview with …

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The United Nations condemned Friday a group of “armed individuals” for raiding warehouses in the Palestinian territory of Gaza and looting large amounts of medical supplies.The group “stormed the warehouses at a field hospital in Deir al-Balah, looting large quantities of medical equipment, supplies, medicines, nutritional supplements that was intended for malnourished children,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.The stolen aid had been brought into war-ravaged Gaza just a day earlier, he said.”As conditions on the ground further deteriorate and public order and safety breaks down, looting incidents continue to be reported,” he said.But Dujarric highlighted the difference between Friday’s event and the looting two days earlier of a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse by “starving” Palestinians, desperate for aid.”This appeared to be much more organized and much different from the looting we’d seen… in the past days,” he said.”This was an organized operation with armed men.” Since the beginning of last week, Israel has begun to allow a trickle of aid into the Palestinian territory, after a total blockade imposed on March 2.The UN has warned that the aid allowed through so far was “a drop in the ocean” of the towering needs in Gaza, after the blockade created dramatic shortages of food and medicine.The UN humanitarian agency warned Friday that “100 percent of the population (are) at risk of famine.”Gaza has been decimated by Israel’s punishing military offensive on the territory, which has killed at least 54,321 people, mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures the UN considers reliable.It has also reduced much of the territory to rubble, destroying hospitals, schools, residential areas and basic road and sewage infrastructure.Israel launched its offensive in response to an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.- Only five trucks -On Thursday, “we and our humanitarian partners only managed to collect five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing,” Dujarric said.”Another 60 trucks had to return to the crossing due to intense hostilities in the area.”He rejected Israeli allegations that the UN was not collecting available aid.”It was no longer safe to use that road,” which Israel’s military had asked aid organizations to use, he said, stressing that there are “a lot of armed gangs” operating there.The five trucks that did make it through on Thursday were carrying medical supplies for the Deir al-Balah field hospital.And most of those supplies “were looted today, very sadly and tragically,” Dujarric said.

Egypt and Greece sought to ease tensions over the historic St Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai peninsula on Friday after a controversial court ruling said it sat on state-owned land.Cairo has denied that the ruling threatens the UNESCO world heritage landmark, a pilgrimage and tourism site, after Greek and church authorities warned the sacred site’s status was at risk.St Catherine’s monastery was established in the sixth century at the biblical site of the burning bush in the southern mountains of the Sinai peninsula, and is the world’s oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery.A court in Sinai ruled on Wednesday in a land dispute between the monastery and the South Sinai governorate that the monastery “is entitled to use” the land and the archaeological religious sites dotting the area, all of which “the state owns as public property”.The ruling comes with a government development project underway to boost visitor numbers to the area, which is popular with pilgrims and adventure tourists looking to climb Mount Sinai.But on Friday, in a phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo was “fully committed to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherine’s monastery, and ensuring it is not violated”.The Greek premier’s office said Mitsotakis emphasised the importance of “preserving the pilgrimage and Greek Orthodox character of the monastery and resolving the issue in an institutional manner”, based on an agreement between the two countries.A Greek delegation is due to visit Egypt next week, the government in Athens said.Sisi’s office has defended the court ruling, saying that it “consolidates” the site’s sacred status, after the head of the Greek Orthodox church in Athens denounced it.Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens called the court ruling “scandalous” and an infringement by Egyptian judicial authorities on religious freedoms.- Tourism development -The Saint Catherine area, which includes the eponymous town and a nature reserve, already a popular tourist site, is undergoing major development under a controversial government project aimed at ramping up visitor numbers.Observers say the project has harmed the reserve’s ecosystem and threatened both the monastery and the local community.Archbishop Ieronymos warned that the monastery’s property would now be “seized and confiscated”, despite “recent pledges to the contrary by the Egyptian president to the Greek prime minister”.The ruling has drawn the condemnation of the region’s other Greek Orthodox patriarchates in Jerusalem and Istanbul.The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement on Friday that it was “deeply troubled” and asserted its jurisdiction over and protection of the monastery.It said the monastery was granted a letter of protection from the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century which was reaffirmed by the Ottoman Sultan Selim II in the 16th century.The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople said it was “disappointed and saddened” by the ruling and called on the Egyptian government to respect longstanding tradition and agreements with the monastery.In a statement to Egypt’s state news agency, the foreign ministry in Cairo later said rumours of confiscation were “unfounded”, and that the ruling “does not infringe at all” on the monastery’s sites or its religious and spiritual significance.Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said “Greece will express its official position … when the official and complete content of the court decision is known and evaluated”.He confirmed both countries’ commitment to “maintaining the Greek Orthodox religious character of the monastery”. 

The mother of jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah is close to death after 242 days on hunger strike, her daughter warned Friday.Laila Soueif, 69, was hospitalised Thursday in London with “critically low” blood sugar, having resumed her full hunger strike last week.Doctors gave “her proteins that help the body produce glucose”, her anxious daughter Sanaa Seif said outside St Thomas hospital in London.”It worked for a couple of hours” but the “bottom line is, we’re losing her, and… there is no time,” Seif added, saying her mother was still refusing to accept glucose.UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer “needs to act now, not tomorrow, not Monday. Now, right now,” she said.”It’s a miracle that we still have her, I’m really proud of her, and I want to remind Keir Starmer (of) his promise to us.”Soueif’s son Abdel Fattah was arrested in Egypt in September 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false news” after sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.The 43-year-old writer and activist has become a symbol of the plight of thousands of political prisoners languishing in Egyptian jails.A United Nations panel of experts on Wednesday determined his detention was arbitrary and illegal and called for his immediate release.Soueif has been on hunger strike since September 29, 2024, the day her son was expected to be released after completing his five-year prison sentence.Abdel Fattah, who has spent most of the past decade behind bars, has also been on hunger strike himself since March 1 after learning his mother had been hospitalised with dangerously low blood sugar and blood pressure.Following her February hospitalisation, Soueif decided to ease her strike after Starmer said he had pressed for her son’s release in a call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.She began consuming 300 calories a day through a liquid nutritional supplement, still going without food until last week, when she returned to consuming only rehydration salts, tea without sugar and vitamins.Her family says she has lost over 40 percent of her bodyweight since September.Last week, Starmer’s office again said the prime minister had pressed for Abdel Fattah’s release in a call with Sisi.A key figure in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, he has been detained under successive administrations since.Soueif’s daughter said she had been in contact with the UK foreign ministry. “They know she’s dying. They know in detail how she’s dying,” she said, visibly upset.A foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP they were “concerned to hear of Laila’s hospitalisation” and continued to press for Abdel Fattah’s release.

The UN warned on Friday that the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine, as Israel vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the occupied West Bank.Israel has faced mounting international pressure over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the UN says only a trickle of aid has been allowed in after a more than two-month blockade.Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in March following a short-lived truce.Israel has meanwhile doubled down on its settlement expansion in the West Bank, while defying calls from French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders for a two-state solution.Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, on Friday called Gaza “the hungriest place on earth”.”It’s the only defined area — a country or defined territory within a country — where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred percent of the population at risk of famine,” he said.Recent AFPTV footage has shown chaotic scenes as large crowds of Palestinians desperate for food rushed to a limited number of aid distribution centres to pick up supplies. Israel recently intensified its Gaza offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, drawing sharp international criticism, including from allies such as Britain and Germany.- ‘Crusade’ against Israel -This week Israel announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the West Bank.London called the move a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood, and UN chief Antonio Guterres’ spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution “in the wrong direction”.On Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the Palestinian territory which Israel has occupied since 1967.”This is a decisive response to the terrorist organisations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land,” Katz said in a video published by his office. Israeli settlements in the West Bank — considered illegal under international law — are seen as a major obstacle to a lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Katz framed the move as a direct rebuke to Macron and others pushing for recognition of a Palestinian state.Macron has recently stepped up his statements in support of the Palestinians, asserting on Friday that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity”.Macron confirmed he would personally attend a conference France is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia at the UN in June aimed at reviving the two-state solution.Israel on Friday accused the French president of undertaking a “crusade against the Jewish state”.The foreign ministry said that “instead of applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state”.- ‘Go in with full force’ -Negotiations aimed at halting the fighting in Gaza have continued, meanwhile, with the White House announcing Thursday that Israel had “signed off” on a new ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas.The Palestinian militant group, however, said the deal failed to satisfy its demands, stopping short of rejecting it outright. Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Telegram that “after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again — there are no more excuses”.”It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one,” he said.Israel has not confirmed that it approved the new proposal.Gaza’s civil defence agency told AFP that at least 45 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Friday, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the north.Palestinians sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike, AFPTV footage showed.”These were civilians and were sleeping at their homes,” said neighbour Mahmud al-Ghaf, describing “children in pieces”.”Stop the war!” said Mahmud Nasr, who lost relatives. “We do not want anything from you, just stop the war.”The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Jabalia strike, but said separately that the air force had hit “dozens of targets” across Gaza over the past day.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that at least 4,058 people had been killed since Israel resumed major operations on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,321, mostly civilians. Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The United Arab Emirates, a major oil exporter, began mandatory emissions monitoring for companies on Friday under a new law targeting climate change.Greenpeace hailed the move, a first for the Middle East but already in place in dozens of countries worldwide, as a “bold leap toward regional climate leadership”.The UAE, one of the world’s top oil exporters, neighbours several oil-rich countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran along with Qatar, a leading gas producer.Under the new law, companies are required to report and reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.Ghiwa Nakat, executive director of Greenpeace MENA, called it a “progressive move”.”By institutionalising emissions monitoring and climate adaptation, the UAE is setting a compelling example for countries across the region,” she said in a statement.Public and private companies now have to regularly monitor emissions and take steps to reduce them, or risk fines of up to two million dirhams ($545,000).However, Greenpeace said the UAE also needed to set clear reduction targets, especially for major sectors such as energy and transport.The UAE, which hosted the United Nations’ COP28 climate talks in 2023, is targeting net-zero domestic carbon emissions by 2050.In its latest climate roadmap submitted to the UN, the Gulf monarchy committed to reducing emissions by 47 percent of 2019 levels by 2035.