US imposes sanctions on alleged sham Palestinian charities
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on five people and five entities across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, accusing them of being prominent financial supporters of Hamas' military wing under the pretense of conducting humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip and around the world.
Those sanctioned include the Gaza-based charity Al Weam Charitable Society, which is accused of being controlled by Hamas, along with its executive director Muhammad Sami Muhammad Abu Marei.
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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Israeli PM says bodies of 2 more hostages recovered from Gaza
Social Sharing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the bodies of two hostages have been recovered from Gaza by the military and the domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet. One body was identified as belonging to Yair Yaakov, Netanyahu said, but the identity of the other has not been cleared for publication. The Israeli military said militants from the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad abducted and killed Yaakov during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Militants also took Yaakov's partner, Meirav Tal, and two of his children, Or and Yagil, hostage but later released them, the military said. Yaakov was 59 at the time of his death. It said it notified the family of the second hostage whose body it recovered. Thy were found in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. There are 53 hostages still being held in Gaza, with fewer than half believed to be alive. Israeli forces have recovered five hostages' bodies so far this month. Airstrikes, gunfire leave 60 dead, officials say In Gaza on Wednesday, Israeli gunfire and airstrikes killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them near an aid site operated by the U.S- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the centre of the enclave, local health officials said. Medical officials at Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre near the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim before dawn. Israel's military, which has been at war with Hamas militants since October 2023, said its forces fired warning shots overnight toward a group of suspects as they posed a threat to troops in the area of the Netzarim Corridor. "This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone. The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured; the details are under review," it said. Later Wednesday, health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip said at least 14 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire as they approached another GHF site in Rafah. The foundation said it was unaware of Wednesday's incidents but added that it was working closely with Israeli authorities to ensure safe passage routes are maintained, and that it was essential for Palestinians to closely follow instructions. "Ultimately, the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency among the population," it said by email in response to Reuters questions. "There is not yet enough food to feed everyone in need in Gaza. Our current focus is to feed as many people as is safely possible within the constraints of a highly volatile environment." In a statement, GHF said it distributed 2.5 million meals on Wednesday, the largest single-day delivery since it began operations, bringing to more than 16 million the number of meals provided since its operations started in late May. Gaza's Health Ministry says that since then, 163 Palestinians had been killed and over 1,000 wounded trying to obtain the food boxes. The United Nations has condemned the killings and has refused to supply aid via the foundation, which uses private contractors with Israeli military backup in what they say is a breach of humanitarian standards. Elsewhere in Gaza on Wednesday, its health ministry said at least 11 other people were killed by separate Israeli gunfire and strikes across the coastal enclave. The war erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed some 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli authorities say, in what was the country's single deadliest day.
Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: Ignoring contracting rules costs taxpayers billions: auditor general
Auditor General of Canada, Karen Hogan, holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS Federal auditor general Karen Hogan on Tuesday reported widespread incompetence in the awarding of government contracts by the public service, resulting in billions of dollars of taxpayers' money being wasted. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account What's even more alarming is that everyone in the system knows it and no one is doing anything about it. Given that, what is the point of having an auditor general if every time she exposes incompetence and waste, the government pays lip service to implementing her recommendations and then goes back to doing the same things that led to the issue being investigated by the auditor general in the first place? In her latest report, this concern arises from Hogan's deep dive into federal contracts awarded to Ottawa-based GCStrategies Inc. a two-person Ottawa-based IT staffing firm — meaning it doesn't do the work but contracts it out to other companies — to develop the infamous ArriveCan app. That was supposed to cost $80,000. As far as Hogan could determine — because the record keeping was so bad — it ended up costing almost $60 million. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This time Hogan, at the request of the House of Commons, examined a near-decade of 106 professional services contracts awarded to GCStrategies from 2015 to 2024 by 29 federal departments and agencies, one Crown corporation and one agent of Parliament, valued at up to $92.7 million with $64.5 million actually paid out. Among her findings: — in 58% of the contracts examined that were awarded without tendering, federal departments failed to assess whether doing so would have resulted in lower costs to taxpayers. –in more than 80% of the contracts examined that were awarded without competition or with only one valid bid, government departments failed to verify that the fees paid did not exceed market rates. — in almost 50% of the contracts examined, federal departments couldn't show the work was delivered, even though payments were made. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. — in 33% of the contracts examined, federal departments couldn't show the firms contracted were capable of completing the work. –in 21% of the contracts examined, federal departments lacked documentation showing valid security clearances for contractors working on government networks containing sensitive information. The most alarming conclusion by Hogan was her observation that she has no reason to believe these government failures were confined to this one vendor. She noted the same thing happened last year when she examined 97 contracts awarded by 10 federal departments and agencies and 10 Crown corporations valued at $209 million with $200 million paid out, to McKinsey & Company for consulting services from 2011 to 2023. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hogan — who didn't make any recommendations to improve procurement policies saying the problem isn't a lack of policies but failure to follow them — said she believes the same thing is happening throughout the federal government. Writ large, that's why, to cite just one of countless examples, the estimated cost to taxpayers for Canada acquiring 88 F-35 fighter jets — another issue Hogan examined in her report — increased by almost 50% from $19 billion in 2022 to $27.7 billion in 2024, with at least another $5.5 billion needed to make the purchases fully operational. Read More Without drawing conclusions from these specific examples, the fact the same failures keep happening over and over again year after year across the federal government, raises the question of whether beyond incompetence, political corruption is involved, which is beyond the auditor general's purview. Whether, for example, political pressure is being put on public servants to ignore procurement rules in favour of handing contracts to favoured companies and if so, why? RECOMMENDED VIDEO Celebrity NHL Editorial Cartoons Columnists Toronto Maple Leafs
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump's plan to begin ‘phasing out' FEMA after hurricane season burdens states, experts warn
SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Donald Trump's plan to begin 'phasing out' the federal agency that responds to disasters after the 2025 hurricane season is likely to put more responsibilities on states to provide services following increasingly frequent and expensive climate disasters, experts said. 'We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,' Trump said Tuesday in an Oval Office appearance with administration officials about preparations for summer wildfires. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly signaled their desire to overhaul, if not completely eliminate, the 46-year-old Federal Emergency Management Agency. While there has been bipartisan support for reforming the agency, experts say dismantling it completely would leave gaps in crucial services and funding. 'It just causes more concern on how states should be planning for the future if the federal government's not going to be there for them,' said Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations. Disaster response is already locally led and state-managed, but FEMA supports by coordinating resources from federal agencies, providing direct assistance programs for households and moving money to states for repairing public infrastructure. Trump said Tuesday he wants to 'give out less money,' and to 'give it out directly,' sidestepping FEMA programs. He said he did not know who would distribute the funds, saying they could come 'from the president's office' or DHS. 'I was left with the impression that he doesn't really understand the scale of what FEMA manages on a yearly basis with a budget of over $30 billion,' said Coen. Dismantling FEMA, or even changing how much of the costs it shares with states in the event of a major disaster declaration, would require action from Congress, including amending the 1988 Stafford Act, which outlines FEMA's roles and responsibilities and the cost share between the feds and the states. Declaring fewer major disasters or giving less federal support could put an untenable financial burden on states, said Sara McTarnaghan, principal research associate at the Urban Institute. 'Very few of them would have had enough funds set aside to anticipate the federal government stepping back from its historic role in disaster recovery for major events,' McTarnaghan said. A recent Urban Institute analysis found that between 2008-2024, quadrupling the economic threshold of when major disasters are declared would have shifted $41 billion in public assistance costs alone to state and local governments. 'I think the trade off for states and communities is going to be, do we accept a less full recovery or do states draw on other resources to meet these goals and needs, perhaps at the cost of investments in other kinds of social programs or functions of the state,' said McTarnaghan. Not all states will be able to generate much more revenue, she added. 'The confluence of states that have really high disaster exposure and states that have relatively limited fiscal capacity are overlapping in many ways,' she said. 'That's the case for a lot of states along the Gulf Coast that we're concerned about going into hurricane season but also the case for some Midwestern states that face issues with severe convective storms.' Trump dismissed the idea that states can't handle the bulk of disasters on their own. 'The governor should be able to handle it and frankly if they can't handle the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn't be governor,' he said. He suggested that some of the gaps could be filled by more collaboration among states. Noem said FEMA is building communication and mutual aid agreements among states 'to respond to each other so that they can stand on their own two feet.' A national mutual-aid structure called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact already exists, but its operations are typically reimbursed by the federal government, said Coen. 'There's already robust communication between states. The confusion is what they can expect from the federal government.' Regarding the current hurricane season, which began June 1, Noem said FEMA 'stands prepared.' But there have already been changes to how the agency operates. It suspended its door-to-door canvassing program that helped enroll survivors for assistance. More than 2,000 FEMA staff, around one-third of the full-time workforce, have left or been fired since January. After severe weather this spring, some states waited as long as eight weeks for their disaster declaration requests, and several requests are still pending. Trump has not approved any requests for hazard mitigation assistance since February, a typical add-on to individual and public assistance that helps states build back in more resilient ways. A FEMA review council established by Trump and co-chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will submit suggestions for reforms in the next few months, according to Noem. In its first meeting in May, Noem told the group of governors, emergency managers, and other officials primarily from Republican states that Trump is seeking drastic change. 'I don't want you to go into this thinking we're going to make a little tweak here,' she said. 'No, FEMA should no longer exist as it is.' ___
