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Author: AFP

  • Trump: Palestinians have no right of return under Gaza plan

    Trump: Palestinians have no right of return under Gaza plan

    President Donald Trump said Palestinians would have no right of return to Gaza under his US takeover plan, describing his proposal in excerpts of an interview released Monday as a “real estate development for the future.”

    Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier that “I would own it” and that there could be as many as six different sites for Palestinians to live outside Gaza under the plan, which the Arab world and others in the international community have rejected.

    “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing,” Trump said when Baier asked if the Palestinians would have the right to return to the enclave, most of which has been reduced to rubble by Israel’s military since October 2023.

    “In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable.”

    Trump first revealed the shock Gaza plan during a joint news conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, drawing outrage from Palestinians.

    The US president pressed his case for Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza, devastated by Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and for Egypt and Jordan to take them.

    Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty flew to Washington in the wake of Trump’s remarks. He met at the State Department on Monday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with neither speaking to the media.

    Jordan’s King Abdullah II was set to hold talks with Trump on Tuesday.

    In the Fox interview — which will be broadcast Monday after the first half was screened a day earlier — Trump said he would build “beautiful communities” for the more than two million Palestinians who live in Gaza.

    “Could be five, six, could be two. But we’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is,” added Trump.

    “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”

    ‘Unacceptable’

    Trump stunned the world when he announced out of the blue last week that the United States would “take over the Gaza Strip,” remove rubble and unexploded bombs and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

    But while he initially said that Palestinians could be among the “world people” allowed to live there, he has since appeared to harden his position to suggest that they could not.

    Netanyahu on Sunday praised Trump’s proposal as “revolutionary”, striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his cabinet following his return from Washington.

    “President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel,” said Netanyahu, who was reportedly only briefed on the plan shortly before Trump’s announcement.

    The reaction from much of the rest of the world has been one of outrage, with Egypt, Jordan, other Arab nations and the Palestinians all rejecting it out of hand.

    The criticism was not limited to the Arab world, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday labeling the plan “a scandal,” adding that the forced relocation of Palestinians would be “unacceptable and against international law.”

    Trump’s plan has also threatened to disrupt the fragile six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and the chances of it progressing to a second, more permanent phase.

    Trump, however, repeated his insistence that he could persuade Egypt and Jordan, both major recipients of US military aid, to come around.

    “I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year,” he told Fox.

    Last year, Trump described Gaza as being “like Monaco,” while his son-in-law Jared Kushner suggested that Israel could clear Gaza of civilians to unlock “waterfront property.”

  • Bangladesh protesters raze buildings linked to ousted leader

    Bangladesh protesters raze buildings linked to ousted leader

    Dhaka (AFP) – Hundreds of Bangladeshi protesters smashed down buildings connected to ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, hours after students with excavators began demolishing a museum to her father.

    The museum and former of home of Hasina’s late father, Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had been set on fire last year during the student-led revolution that ended her 15 years of autocratic rule.

    Late Wednesday, six months to the day since Hasina fled by helicopter to old ally India on August 5, crowds carrying hammers and metal rods began beating down the walls of the building in the capital Dhaka.

    Protests were triggered in response to reports that 77-year-old Hasina — who has defied an arrest warrant to face trial in Dhaka for massacres — would appear in a Facebook broadcast from exile.

    On Thursday morning, diggers were being used to knock down the remaining fire-blackened walls.

    Protesters also vandalised and torched other houses across the country linked to Hasina, including an arson attack on the Dhaka house of Hasina’s late husband.

    Prothom Alo, the largest Bengali daily, reported crowds used government-owned excavators to smash down a building owned by Hasina’s family in the city of Khulna.

     

    Vandalised homes

    In the western city of Kushtia, protesters vandalised the house of a leader of Hasina’s Awami League party, Mahbubul Alam Hanif.

    In Chittagong, protesters held a torch procession and smashed a mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

    There has been no formal comment on the wave of attacks from the interim government, and security forces stood by allowing protesters to storm the buildings.

    A private security guard in the neighbourhood said he had called the fire service more than a dozen times fearing that the flames would spread to nearby buildings crowded with families.

    “We cut off the electricity line ourselves,” Jamal Uddin said. “I don’t know when the situation will return to normal.”

    A shopkeeper living near Rahman’s former home said he was worried at the chaos.

    “This vandalism is not a good sign,” he said, asking not to be named as he was fearful of reprisal for speaking out.

  • Trump says to reinstate ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran

    Trump says to reinstate ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran

    US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was planning to reinstate what he called the “maximum pressure” policy against Iran over allegations that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

    However, Trump also said he hoped the policy will “hardly have to be used.”

    Trump made the comment as he signed a memorandum reimposing the tough policy of sanctions against Iran, similar to during his first term.

    The memorandum instructs every department in the US government to design sanctions on Iran, especially in relation to nuclear activities, a White House aide told Trump at the signing ceremony.

    This will give Trump “all of the possible tools” to prevent Iran from being a “malign actor,” the aide said.

    Trump expressed some regret for the severe measures, saying: “This is one that I’m torn about. Everybody wants me to sign it. I’ll do it. It’s very tough on Iran.”

    “Hopefully I’m not going to have to use it very much,” he said. “I’m unhappy to do it, but I really have not so much choice because we have to be strong.”

    “We will see whether or not we can arrange. We’ll work out a deal with Iran and everybody can live together,” he said.

    Trump also announced that if he were assassinated by Iran the country would be “obliterated.”

    “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left,” he said.

    Trump on Gaza

    US President Donald J. Trump has also set off an international diplomatic crisis by stating on Tuesday night that America will “take over” Gaza, suggesting that American troops might be deployed in the occupied Palestinian territory while Gazans are forced to leave. 

    “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said during a joint press conference alongside International Criminal Court’s wanted war criminal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said he envisioned Gaza as a new Riviera. 

    His statement was in sharp contrast to the stance taken by Arab nations, most of whom have repeatedly rejected any plans involving the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land. Egypt and Jordan, both strong allies of the US and Israel, publicly distanced themselves from Trump’s earlier statements that they will take in two million Gazans. 

    Saudi Arabia reacted with a fast rejection. Despite it being 4:00 am in Riyadh, the the Saudi Foreign Ministry released a statement stressing its long-held position that it will not commit to normalization of relations with Israel without guarantees of a Palestinian state.

  • Elon Musk says working to shut USAID down

    Elon Musk says working to shut USAID down

    Elon Musk has called for the closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as two senior security officials were reportedly placed on leave for blocking his team’s access to classified materials.

    Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX who has become the president’s most powerful backer, called USAID a “criminal organisation” after reports that his team was blocked from accessing restricted areas at the agency’s Washington, DC headquarters.

    “Time for it to die,” Musk posted on his social media platform X.


    President Trump claimed the agency was “run by radical lunatics” and said he was considering its future.

    The assault on the agency tasked with humanitarian relief overseas marks a significant new front in Trump’s move to give unprecedented power to Musk to upend government departments and counter what the pair consider wasteful official spending and overreach.


    “USAID is a criminal organization,” Musk wrote on his X platform, replying to a video alleging USAID involvement in “rogue CIA work.”


    In a subsequent post, Musk doubled down and, without giving evidence, asked his 215 million X followers, “Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including Covid-19, that killed millions of people?”


    He did not elaborate on the allegations, which officials in the previous administration linked to a Russian disinformation campaign.


    USAID has “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out… and then we’ll make a decision (on its future),” Trump said Sunday without elaborating.


    He underscored his support for the billionaire, telling reporters Sunday night he felt Musk was “doing a good job.”


    Trump initially froze all aid spending for three months. Though he subsequently issued waivers for food and other humanitarian aid to continue, aid workers say uncertainty reigns with the future of the organization as an independent agency far from assured.


    USAID, an independent agency established by an act of Congress, manages a budget of $42.8 billion meant for humanitarian relief and development assistance around the world.


    A senior official from a US-based organization feared the prioritization of “emergency” assistance was part of a broader plan in which Washington would discontinue funds for anything else.


    There have been reports Trump wants to roll USAID into the State Department. His team did not respond to AFP’s calls for comment.


    During a talk hosted on his X platform at midnight Washington time (0500 GMT Monday), Musk said Trump “agreed that we should shut it (USAID) down.”

    ‘Unelected billionaire’

    The X session — attended by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and two Republican senators — was on Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with slashing federal spending.


    Without providing details, Musk said “tremendous progress” had been made.


    “If we can get that deficit in half, from two trillion (dollars) to half, and we can get the economic growth to match… that means there will be no inflation,” Musk said, adding he would be focusing on “fraud and waste.”


    DOGE was founded as part of the so-called “executive office of the president,” as a temporary 18-month organization under the repurposed United States Digital Service.


    It does not enjoy full status as a government department, which would require Congress’s approval, and Musk is neither federal employee nor a government official. It is unclear to whom DOGE is accountable.


    CNN reported that two senior security officials at USAID were put on forced leave after they barred staff from Musk’s DOGE from accessing classified documents.


    PBS also reported DOGE staff attempted to gain access to “secure spaces.”


    Trump’s senior aide Steven Cheung posted on X that the PBS report was “not even remotely true at all.”


    USAID’s account on X had been disabled, AFP confirmed, and its website was still offline.


    Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has criticized the “total destruction” of the agency.


    “The people elected Donald Trump to be President — not Elon Musk,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.


    “Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security.”

  • Taliban govt-run corporation takes over luxury Kabul Serena hotel

    Taliban govt-run corporation takes over luxury Kabul Serena hotel

    Kabul (AFP) – Afghanistan’s Taliban government took over management of Kabul’s famed Serena hotel on Saturday, a hotel statement said, a luxury property targeted by Taliban attacks during their insurgency.

    The Kabul Serena Hotel was run for nearly 20 years by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development in the Afghan capital and was popular with business travellers and foreign guests.

    “Kabul Serena Hotel shall be closing its operations effective February 01, 2025,” a statement from Serena on Friday night said.

    Hotel operations are now handled by the Hotel State Owned Corporation (HSOC), the statement added.

    “Since opening in 2005, Kabul Serena Hotel has been an integral part of Kabul’s social fabric, an iconic presence in the city, and a symbol of our unwavering commitment to the people of Afghanistan,” the statement said.

    Taliban government spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment and AFP journalists were not allowed onto the property on Saturday morning.

    On Saturday, the hotel’s website only showed the statement about the handover and Kabul has been removed from the Serena brand’s list of destinations.

    The Switzerland-based organisation also did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

    The Serena has been the target of multiple deadly attacks by the Taliban before they swept to power in 2021, ousting the foreign-backed government.

    In 2014, just weeks before a presidential election, four teenage gunmen with pistols hidden in their socks managed to penetrate several layers of security, killing nine people, including an AFP journalist and members of his family.

    In 2008, a suicide bombing left six dead, in an attack blamed on the current Taliban interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

    In 2021, the United States and Britain warned their citizens to avoid hotels in Afghanistan, singling out the Serena, underlining the shaky security situation in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover.

    In the years since their return to power, however, the Taliban authorities have worked to attract tourism to Afghanistan, touting a return to security.

    Calls for aid not to be politicised

    Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities on Wednesday said humanitarian aid should not be politicised, saying around 30 non-governmental groups had suspended activities in the country since the United States froze virtually all foreign assistance.

    The United States is the largest aid donor in dollar terms globally and in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries, which is reliant on foreign aid in multiple sectors, including emergency food assistance and healthcare.

    After taking office on January 20, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause to reassess the country’s global assistance funding.

     

    “Aid groups or countries should not use humanitarian aid for political gains,” economy ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib told AFP.

    “Around 31 local and foreign NGOs funded by USAID (US Agency for International Development) have seen operations supported by America suspended,” he said, adding that operations funded by other donors were ongoing.

  • Hamas frees two Israeli hostages as next ceasefire swap begins

    Hamas frees two Israeli hostages as next ceasefire swap begins

    Hamas on Saturday released two out of three Israeli hostages in the fourth exchange of the ceasefire deal, ahead of the expected release of 183 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

    Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas were paraded on a stage before being released to the Red Cross in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, AFP journalists reported, while Keith Siegel is set to be freed in a similar ceremony at Gaza City’s port in the north.

    Israel’s military later confirmed that Bibas and Kalderon were back on Israeli territory.

    After holding them hostage for more than 15 months, Gaza began releasing captives on January 19, as the first phase of a ceasefire with Israel took effect.

     
     

    Hamas have so far handed over 18 hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them women and minors.

    Later Saturday, Israel will free 183 prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said.

    “The updated number of prisoners to be released tomorrow is 183,” the Club’s spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh said Friday, after previously announcing that 90 prisoners would be freed.

    During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, after which Israel began genocide in Gaza, American-Israeli Siegel from the Kfar Aza kibbutz community, and Bibas and French-Israeli Kalderon from kibbutz Nir Oz were taken hostage by Hamas.

    They took a total of 251 people hostage that day. Of those, 76 remain in Gaza, including at least 34 the military says are dead.

    Those seized include Bibas’s wife and two children, whom Hamas has declared dead, although Israeli officials have not confirmed that.

    The two Bibas boys — Kfir, the youngest hostage whose second birthday was earlier this month, and his older brother Ariel whose fifth birthday was in August — have become symbols of the hostages’ ordeal.

    The children were taken along with their mother, Shiri. Hamas says an Israeli air strike in November 2023 killed all three.

    “Our Yarden is supposed to return tomorrow and we are so excited but Shiri and the children still haven’t returned,” the Bibas family said on Instagram Friday.

    “We have such mixed emotions and we are facing extremely complex days.”

    “Hamas, where are the Bibas babies?” Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X.

    “483 days have passed. Where are they?”

     

    Crowds mostly absent

    Ahead of both exchanges in Khan Yunis Gaza and Gaza City, scores of masked Hamas fighters stood sentry, apparently to control onlookers.

    In contrast to Thursday’s frenzied exchange which drew Israeli condemnation, large crowds were mostly absent.

    Green Hamas and Palestinian flags flew at the Gaza port in a strong breeze.

    Ranks of heavily armed Hamas fighters held portraits of the group’s slain leaders, including military chief Mohammed Deif, accused by Israel of being a mastermind of the October 7 attack and whose death was confirmed on Thursday.

    The arrangements for hostage handovers in Gaza have sometimes been chaotic, particularly Thursday’s release in Khan Yunis.

    Israel briefly delayed its prisoner release on Thursday in protest, and the ICRC urged all parties to improve security.

     

    When Saturday’s hostage release is completed, Gaza’s key Rafah border crossing with Egypt is expected to reopen, a Hamas official and a source with knowledge of discussions told AFP.

    “The mediators informed Hamas of Israel’s approval to open Rafah crossing tomorrow, Saturday, after the completion of the fourth batch of prisoner exchange,” the Hamas official said.

    Rafah was a vital entry point for aid into Gaza before the Israeli military seized the Palestinian side of the crossing in May.

    The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Friday the bloc has deployed a monitoring mission at the crossing “to support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care”.

    ‘Where’s Dad?’

    On Thursday, Israeli authorities released 110 inmates from Ofer prison, including high-profile former commander Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, who received a hero’s welcome in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

    On Friday, he called for “all our Palestinian people” to be freed from Israeli jails.

    “The situation of the prisoners is very difficult and we hope for their urgent release,” Zubeidi told AFP.

    Also freed was Hussein Nasser, who received little attention from the crowd but was at the centre of his daughter’s world.

    “Where’s Dad?” Raghda Nasser, 21, asked tearfully as she moved through the crowd, an AFP correspondent reported.

    Her mother was pregnant with her when he was jailed 22 years ago.

    “I just visited him behind the glass in Israeli prisons. I cannot express my feelings,” Raghda said.

    The fragile ceasefire’s 42-day first phase hinges on the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,900 people, mostly Palestinians, in Israeli jails.

    Negotiations for a second phase of the deal are set to start on Monday, according to a timeline provided by an Israeli official.

    This phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.

  • France detainee escapes during museum outing

    France detainee escapes during museum outing

    A detainee this week took advantage of a trip to a Paris museum to escape, a French prosecutor’s office said Friday, adding it had objected to him taking part in the first place.

    The 28-year-old, who had been placed in detention for violence, managed to run off at the busy Gare du Nord train and metro station on Wednesday during a day out to visit the Musee de l’Homme anthropological museum in Paris, it said.

    It was not immediately clear when he had been originally arrested or what he was doing at the train station.

    Prison guard union FO Justice said he had been on his way back to his detention centre in the Paris suburb of Villepinte at the time.

    He and five other inmates had been accompanied by five probation officers and a detention centre guard, who ran after the fugitive but failed to catch him, it said.

    The man is still on the run.

  • Key nominees for the Grammy Awards

    Key nominees for the Grammy Awards

    Here is a list of nominees in the major categories for the 67th annual Grammy Awards, which will be handed out on Sunday in Los Angeles.

    Beyonce leads all nominees with 11 on the strength of her groundbreaking country album “Cowboy Carter”:

    – Album of the Year –

    “New Blue Sun” – Andre 3000

     

    “Cowboy Carter” – Beyonce

    “Short n’ Sweet” – Sabrina Carpenter

    “Brat” – Charli XCX

    “Djesse Vol. 4” – Jacob Collier

    “Hit Me Hard and Soft” – Billie Eilish

    “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” – Chappell Roan

    “The Tortured Poets Department” – Taylor Swift

    – Record of the Year, recognizing overall performance on a song –

    “Now and Then” – The Beatles

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    “Texas Hold ‘Em” – Beyonce

    “Espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter

    “360” – Charli XCX

    “Birds of a Feather” – Billie Eilish

    “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar

    “Good Luck, Babe!” – Chappell Roan

    “Fortnight” – Taylor Swift, featuring Post Malone

    – Song of the Year, recognizing songwriting –

    “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Shaboozey, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey)

    “Birds of a Feather” – Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)

    “Die with a Smile” – Dernst ‘D’Mile’ Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars)

    “Fortnight” – Jack Antonoff, Post Malone & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone)

    “Good Luck, Babe!” – Chappell Roan, Daniel Nigro & Justin Tranter, songwriters (Chappell Roan)

    “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar)

    “Please Please Please” – Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter)

    “Texas Hold ‘Em” – Brian Bates, Beyonce, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bulow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyonce)

    – Best New Artist –

    Benson Boone

    Sabrina Carpenter

    Doechii

    Khruangbin

    Raye

    Chappell Roan

    Shaboozey

    Teddy Swims

    – Best Pop Solo Performance –

    “Bodyguard” – Beyonce

    “Espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter

    “Apple” – Charli XCX

    “Birds of a Feather” – Billie Eilish

    “Good Luck, Babe!” – Chappell Roan

    – Best Pop Vocal Album –

    “Short n’ Sweet” – Sabrina Carpenter

    “Hit Me Hard and Soft” – Billie Eilish

    “Eternal Sunshine” – Ariana Grande

    “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” – Chappell Roan

    “The Tortured Poets Department” – Taylor Swift

    – Best Music Video –

    “Tailor Swif” – A$AP Rocky

    “360” – Charli XCX

    “Houdini” – Eminem

    “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar

    “Fortnight” – Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone

    – Best Rap Album –

    “Might Delete Later” – J. Cole

    “The Auditorium, Vol. 1” – Common and Pete Rock

    “Alligator Bites Never Heal” – Doechii

    “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace) – Eminem

    “We Don’t Trust You” – Future and Metro Boomin

    – Best Rock Album –

    “Happiness Bastards” – The Black Crowes

    “Romance” – Fontaines DC

    “Saviors” – Green Day

    “Tangk” – Idles

    “Dark Matter” – Pearl Jam

    “Hackney Diamonds” – The Rolling Stones

    “No Name” – Jack White

    – Best Country Album –

    “Cowboy Carter” – Beyonce

    “F-1 Trillion” – Post Malone

    “Deeper Well” – Kacey Musgraves

    “Higher” – Chris Stapleton

    “Whirlwind” – Lainey Wilson

    – Best Country Solo Performance –

    “16 Carriages” – Beyonce

    “I Am Not Okay” – Jelly Roll

    “The Architect” – Kacey Musgraves

    “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey

    “It Takes a Woman” – Chris Stapleton

    – Best Global Music Album –

    “Alkebulan II” – Matt B featuring Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

    “Paisajes” – Ciro Hurtado

    “Heis” – Rema

    “Historias de un Flamenco” – Antonio Rey

    “Born in the Wild” – Tems

    – Artists with Most Nominations –

    Beyonce (11)

    Charli XCX (8)

    Post Malone (8)

    Billie Eilish (7)

    Kendrick Lamar (7)

    Sabrina Carpenter (6)

    Chappell Roan (6)

    Taylor Swift (6)

  • Aid experts dismiss Trump’s ‘Gaza condoms’ spending claim

    Aid experts dismiss Trump’s ‘Gaza condoms’ spending claim

    US aid experts on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s claim that the United States had spent $50 million to fund condoms for the genocide-battered Gaza Strip, which the president has sought to make a poster child for wasteful spending.

    “We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas,” Trump told reporters, referring to the group that has ruled the Palestinian territory for nearly two decades.

    “And do you know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs.”

    Trump offered no evidence to back his claim, which prompted both vehement rejections and ridicule from relief agencies and experts.

    The United States sent no condoms to any part of the Middle East since 2019, according to a detailed report last year from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

    Its only family planning contribution to the region was a small shipment of injectable and oral contraceptives worth $45,680 that was sent to Jordan in 2023, the report said.

    International Medical Corps, a humanitarian aid organisation, said it received about $68 million from USAID for its Gaza operations since October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas launched a major attack on Israel –- which paid for two field hospitals providing lifesaving care.

    “No US government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms,” the organisation said in a statement.

    ‘Dangerous’

    On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the $50 million expenditure was discovered in Trump’s first week by the budget office and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

    She called it a “preposterous waste of taxpayer money.”

    “The White House claim that DOGE uncovered $50 million in funding for condoms in Gaza is quite obviously untrue,” Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, told AFP.

    “It does not even make sense.”

    A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests $50 million would buy over a billion condoms for Gaza’s adult population.

    “What’s going is here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza,” Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, wrote on X, the Musk-owned site formerly called Twitter.

    “What’s going on is that the bros at DOGE apparently can’t read (government) spreadsheets.”

    Jesse Watters, host of a conservative-leaning talk show on Fox News, said that Hamas were using the non-existent US shipments to make “condom bombs,” floating explosives-laden balloons into Israel — a claim echoed by Trump.

    Soon after returning to office for a second term on January 20, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze in foreign assistance.

    He has vowed a review to ensure that aid conforms with policies of his administration, which opposes abortion, transgender rights and diversity programs.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a memo that the United States was freezing nearly all aid disbursement except for emergency food and military aid to Egypt and Israel.

    “What seems clear is the administration is taking a large grant to support healthcare infrastructure in Gaza and mischaracterising it in order to justify the dangerous halt to lifesaving aid programs around the world,” Kavanagh said.

  • America says Lebanon-Israel deal extended to 18 Feb

    America says Lebanon-Israel deal extended to 18 Feb

    The White House said Sunday that a deal between Lebanon and Israel had been extended until February 18, as Israel missed a previous deadline to pull troops.

    “The arrangement between Lebanon and Israel, monitored by the United States, will continue to be in effect until February 18, 2025,” the White House said in a brief statement.

    Donald Trump’s White House also said that the United States would negotiate with Israel and Lebanon for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which brought parallel fighting, at first on a small scale, between Israel and Lebanon’s resistance group Hezbollah.

    The statement did not explicitly mention a ceasefire, which has been increasingly in doubt as Israeli forces killed 22 people on Sunday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

    The White House also did not make any reference to France, which worked alongside the United States under former president Joe Biden to reach the ceasefire on November 27.

    The deal ended Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Under the 60-day deal, the Lebanese army was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew.

    Israel made clear in recent days it had no intention to meet the deadline, saying Lebanon’s fledgling army had not fulfilled its side of the deal.

    On Sunday, Israeli forces opened fire and killed 22 people, including six women, as they returned to their villages, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

    The Israeli military said it targeted suspects who posed an “imminent threat” to its troops.

    Lebanon said Monday it would extend the implementation of a ceasefire agreement with Israel until February 18 after Israel failed to meet the deadline for withdrawing troops from the country’s south.

    “The Lebanese government reaffirms its commitment… to continue implementing the ceasefire agreement until February 18, 2025,” Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement after consulting with the country’s president and parliamentary leader following “contacts with the American party responsible for supervising the agreement”.