Photos show Gaza's deadliest day for Palestinians looking for food after more than 80 are killed
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Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
SM Lee: Electing more opposition MPs to check Govt is 'wrong direction'; More teen births in 2024, gradual increase from 2022: Singapore live news
Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged on 26 July that the opposition is now a permanent feature of Singapore politics. He said the growing number of opposition Members of Parliament (MP) reflects a growing public desire for alternative voices in Parliament, a sentiment he described as "quite natural" and "quite understandable." He cautioned that this shift could lower the quality of governance and jeopardise Singapore's future. SM Lee said, "You can elect more opposition MPs to check the Government... but once you are set on that path, you are heading in the wrong direction." More teenagers in Singapore are becoming mothers, marking a reversal of a steady decline in teen births in the past 20 years, according to the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths 2024 released by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. In 2024, 244 babies were born to teens aged 19 or younger, up 7 per cent from 228 in 2023. There were 218 teen births in 2022. The Health Ministry also noted that in the past five years, the average age of pregnant teens was 18. Read more in our live blog below, including the latest local and international news and updates. More teen births in 2024, gradual increase from 2022 More teenagers in Singapore are becoming mothers, marking a reversal of a steady decline in teen births in the past 20 years, according to the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths 2024 released by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. In 2024, 244 babies were born to teens aged 19 or younger, up 7 per cent from 228 in 2023. There were 218 teen births in 2022. The Health Ministry also noted that in the past five years, the average age of pregnant teens was 18. Ms Melisa Wong, executive director at Babes Pregnancy Crisis Support, cited multiple factors behind the rise. She said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, many teens felt isolated or struggled with other negative emotions, and some may have engaged in unprotected sex to seek connection or to cope with whatever they were going through. Ms Wong added that while teens are exploring relationships at younger age, some may not use contraceptives for various reasons. She also pointed out that part of the increase in teen births may also be due to a decline in abortions. For more on Singapore's teen pregnancy stats, read here. SM Lee: Electing more opposition MPs to check Govt is 'wrong direction' Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged on 26 July that the opposition is now a permanent feature of Singapore politics. He said the growing number of opposition Members of Parliament (MP) reflects a growing public desire for alternative voices in Parliament, a sentiment he described as "quite natural" and "quite understandable." Despite the rise in opposition presence, the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) must continue to perform well and earn voter support to ensure the country's continued success, he said at a National Day dinner in Serangoon. Following the 2025 General Election, the 15th Parliament will have 12 opposition MPs, including two Non-Constituency MPs – the same number as in the 2020 General Election. SM Lee stated, "The opposition is here to stay in Singapore politics. But in order for Singapore to keep on doing well, the Government has to continue to hold its own, and to win votes and to win seats in elections." If the ruling party weakens, it could become more difficult to form teams, govern well, and garner support for policies, he warned. He cautioned that this shift could lower the quality of governance and jeopardise Singapore's future. SM Lee said, "You can elect more opposition MPs to check the Government... but once you are set on that path, you are heading in the wrong direction." SM Lee urged called for striking the right balance between having stronger alternative voices in government, and supporting and electing an effective government that can make tough, long-term decisions in the nation's interest. He stressed that the country needs a capable government to maintain high standards and navigate challenges, especially given global uncertainties. SM Lee concluded by saying he was heartened that Singaporeans recognised the importance of strong leadership and had given the PAP a firm mandate in the May election, where it received 65.57 per cent of the popular vote – up from 61.24 per cent in 2020. For more on SM Lee's National Day dinner remarks, read here. More teen births in 2024, gradual increase from 2022 More teenagers in Singapore are becoming mothers, marking a reversal of a steady decline in teen births in the past 20 years, according to the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths 2024 released by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. In 2024, 244 babies were born to teens aged 19 or younger, up 7 per cent from 228 in 2023. There were 218 teen births in 2022. The Health Ministry also noted that in the past five years, the average age of pregnant teens was 18. Ms Melisa Wong, executive director at Babes Pregnancy Crisis Support, cited multiple factors behind the rise. She said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, many teens felt isolated or struggled with other negative emotions, and some may have engaged in unprotected sex to seek connection or to cope with whatever they were going through. Ms Wong added that while teens are exploring relationships at younger age, some may not use contraceptives for various reasons. She also pointed out that part of the increase in teen births may also be due to a decline in abortions. For more on Singapore's teen pregnancy stats, read here. More teenagers in Singapore are becoming mothers, marking a reversal of a steady decline in teen births in the past 20 years, according to the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths 2024 released by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. In 2024, 244 babies were born to teens aged 19 or younger, up 7 per cent from 228 in 2023. There were 218 teen births in 2022. The Health Ministry also noted that in the past five years, the average age of pregnant teens was 18. Ms Melisa Wong, executive director at Babes Pregnancy Crisis Support, cited multiple factors behind the rise. She said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, many teens felt isolated or struggled with other negative emotions, and some may have engaged in unprotected sex to seek connection or to cope with whatever they were going through. Ms Wong added that while teens are exploring relationships at younger age, some may not use contraceptives for various reasons. She also pointed out that part of the increase in teen births may also be due to a decline in abortions. For more on Singapore's teen pregnancy stats, read here. SM Lee: Electing more opposition MPs to check Govt is 'wrong direction' Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged on 26 July that the opposition is now a permanent feature of Singapore politics. He said the growing number of opposition Members of Parliament (MP) reflects a growing public desire for alternative voices in Parliament, a sentiment he described as "quite natural" and "quite understandable." Despite the rise in opposition presence, the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) must continue to perform well and earn voter support to ensure the country's continued success, he said at a National Day dinner in Serangoon. Following the 2025 General Election, the 15th Parliament will have 12 opposition MPs, including two Non-Constituency MPs – the same number as in the 2020 General Election. SM Lee stated, "The opposition is here to stay in Singapore politics. But in order for Singapore to keep on doing well, the Government has to continue to hold its own, and to win votes and to win seats in elections." If the ruling party weakens, it could become more difficult to form teams, govern well, and garner support for policies, he warned. He cautioned that this shift could lower the quality of governance and jeopardise Singapore's future. SM Lee said, "You can elect more opposition MPs to check the Government... but once you are set on that path, you are heading in the wrong direction." SM Lee urged called for striking the right balance between having stronger alternative voices in government, and supporting and electing an effective government that can make tough, long-term decisions in the nation's interest. He stressed that the country needs a capable government to maintain high standards and navigate challenges, especially given global uncertainties. SM Lee concluded by saying he was heartened that Singaporeans recognised the importance of strong leadership and had given the PAP a firm mandate in the May election, where it received 65.57 per cent of the popular vote – up from 61.24 per cent in 2020. For more on SM Lee's National Day dinner remarks, read here. Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged on 26 July that the opposition is now a permanent feature of Singapore politics. He said the growing number of opposition Members of Parliament (MP) reflects a growing public desire for alternative voices in Parliament, a sentiment he described as "quite natural" and "quite understandable." Despite the rise in opposition presence, the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) must continue to perform well and earn voter support to ensure the country's continued success, he said at a National Day dinner in Serangoon. Following the 2025 General Election, the 15th Parliament will have 12 opposition MPs, including two Non-Constituency MPs – the same number as in the 2020 General Election. SM Lee stated, "The opposition is here to stay in Singapore politics. But in order for Singapore to keep on doing well, the Government has to continue to hold its own, and to win votes and to win seats in elections." If the ruling party weakens, it could become more difficult to form teams, govern well, and garner support for policies, he warned. He cautioned that this shift could lower the quality of governance and jeopardise Singapore's future. SM Lee said, "You can elect more opposition MPs to check the Government... but once you are set on that path, you are heading in the wrong direction." SM Lee urged called for striking the right balance between having stronger alternative voices in government, and supporting and electing an effective government that can make tough, long-term decisions in the nation's interest. He stressed that the country needs a capable government to maintain high standards and navigate challenges, especially given global uncertainties. SM Lee concluded by saying he was heartened that Singaporeans recognised the importance of strong leadership and had given the PAP a firm mandate in the May election, where it received 65.57 per cent of the popular vote – up from 61.24 per cent in 2020. For more on SM Lee's National Day dinner remarks, read here.
Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Boston Globe
No meals, fainting nurses, dwindling baby formula: Starvation haunts Gaza hospitals
After months of warnings, international agencies, experts and doctors say starvation is now sweeping across Gaza amid restrictions on aid imposed by Israel for months. At least 56 Palestinians died this month of starvation in the territory, nearly half of the total of such deaths since the war began 22 months ago, according to data released Saturday by the Gaza Health Ministry. As starvation rises, medical institutions and staff, already struggling to treat war wounds and illness, are now grappling with rising cases of malnourishment. Advertisement Weak and dizzy, medics are passing out in the wards, where colleagues revive them with saline and glucose drips. Persistently short of basic tools such as antibiotics and painkillers, doctors are also running out of the special intravenous drips used to feed depleted patients. In all four hospitals, the doctors described how they are increasingly unable to save malnourished babies and are instead forced to simply manage their decline. The babies are too weak to be flooded with nutrients, which could overload their system and cause them to suffer 'refeeding syndrome,' which could kill them. Advertisement In some cases, the fluids that the doctors can safely give to the babies are not enough to prevent them from dying. 'I have seen ones that are imminently about to pass away,' said Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, an American surgeon who has been volunteering since early July at the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. The babies were brought to the hospital 'starving and malnourished,' Sleemi said in a phone interview Friday, 'and they haven't been able to get them back from the brink.' Dr. Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who volunteered at the same hospital until Wednesday, described the shock of seeing a skeletal infant who looked only days old, but was in fact 7 months. 'The expression 'skin and bones' doesn't do it justice,' Maynard said in a phone interview Friday. 'I saw the severity of malnutrition that I would not have thought possible in a civilized world. This is man-made starvation being used as a weapon of war and it will lead to many more deaths unless food and aid is let in immediately.' Asked for comment, COGAT, the Israeli military department that oversees aid to Gaza, said it 'continues to work in coordination with international actors to allow and facilitate the continued entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, in accordance with international law.' Late on Saturday night, the Israeli military began to drop airborne aid over northern Gaza, and said it would pause its military activity for several hours a day in key areas to make it easier to deliver aid by land. One-third of Palestinians in Gaza are forced to go without food for days in a row, the World Food Program said recently. Of the young children and pregnant women treated at clinics run by Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, roughly one-fourth are suffering from malnutrition, the medical aid group said last week. Advertisement Doctors say that many other people have likely died from different conditions and injuries that could have been cured or healed if the victims had not been so weakened by malnourishment. Starvation is causing more mothers to suffer miscarriages or give birth prematurely, to malnourished babies with weakened immune systems and medical abnormalities. 'The result is a rise in infections, dehydration and even immune collapse in infants,' said Dr. Hani al-Faleet, a pediatric consultant at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. 'The immediate cause of death in some of these cases is simple: The baby doesn't get enough to eat, and neither does the mother.' Starvation has risen sharply since Israel's total blockade on food aid to Gaza between early March and late May, doctors and rights groups say. While Israel has since allowed food in, it introduced a new method of distribution that is flawed and dangerous, making it almost impossible for Palestinians to find food safely or affordably. Before March, food handouts were mainly distributed under a U.N.-led system from hundreds of points close to where people lived. Now, they are supplied from a handful of sites run by Israeli-backed private American contractors that, for most Palestinians in Gaza, can be reached only by walking for miles through Israeli military lines. Israeli soldiers have killed hundreds of people walking these routes, turning the daily search for food into a deadly trap. Advertisement Some food is still available from shops in Palestinian-run areas, but only at astronomic prices that are unaffordable to the largely unemployed civilian population. A kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of flour costs up to $30, and a kilogram of tomatoes costs roughly $30; meat and rice are largely unavailable on the open market. That has forced many Palestinians to routinely choose between two often fatal options: risk death by starvation, or risk death by gunfire to reach food aid sites that are likely to have run out of supplies by the time many arrive. Israel publicly says the new aid system is necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing the aid. But Israeli military officials have acknowledged to The New York Times that they have no proof that Hamas has systematically stolen food supplied by the United Nations, the main provider of aid to Gaza during most of the war. Israel says that its soldiers have fired 'warning shots' to quell unrest along the roads leading to the aid sites. Maynard and Sleemi described injuries that indicated soldiers had systematically fired at people's torsos. Israel also blames the United Nations for failing to deliver enough food to alleviate the situation. Israel said Saturday that it had destroyed up to 100 truckloads of food in recent months because aid groups could not distribute the food before it passed its use-by date. U.N. officials say that Israeli restrictions have made it difficult to send convoys through an active war zone. The food shortages add another challenge to an already very difficult environment for doctors. 'Some staff members have collapsed in operating rooms. Others have fainted in emergency wards because they have not received any proper food,' said Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. 'The burden on them is immense.' Advertisement Salam Barghouth, a 3-month-old baby girl treated for malnutrition last week at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, is among the youngest Palestinians failed by the new aid distribution system. Her mother, Hanin Barghouth, 22, is too weak to walk to the new distribution sites. Her father, Akram Barghouth, 27, has never managed to reach the sites before the aid runs out, Hanin Barghouth said. Like most Palestinians, the parents are jobless, rely on donations from relatives and friends and said they survive mostly on falafel balls that cost roughly 10 times their prewar price. As a result, Barghouth regularly skips meals and says she has lost 29 pounds, a fifth of her body weight, since the start of the war. She cannot produce enough breast milk to feed Salam, who was born April 21, after Israel started the blockade. At Salam's birth, according to al-Faleet, her doctor, she weighed roughly 6.6 pounds. Three months later, she weighs only 8.8 -- at least 3 pounds underweight, the doctor said. 'I'm breastfeeding her as much as I can, and when I can't, I give her formula -- but that's only when I have it,' Barghouth said. She is reaching the end of a container of formula that she said cost roughly $120, approximately 2 1/2 times the amount it costs outside Gaza. 'She came into the world during a war,' Barghouth added, 'and I'm fighting every day to keep her alive in it.' While Salam Barghouth can still access medical support in central Gaza, other starving children farther to the north are struggling to find it because aid groups have found it harder to bring supplies to them. Advertisement One of them is Yazan Abu al-Foul, 2, a child living with his family in a damaged building beside a beach in Gaza City. His ribs, spine and hip bones jut from his body. An aunt, Riwaa Abu al-Foul, said Yazan's family cannot find enough food to feed him and hospital staff in his area have told them that they cannot provide him with inpatient care. 'They told us there is a shortage of materials and equipment,' Abu al-Foul said in a phone interview Saturday. Doctors at hospitals in northern, central and southern Gaza described similar hardships in interviews Friday and Saturday. 'There are no nutritional supplements, no vitamins, no premature infant formula, no amino acid intravenous solutions -- nothing,' Abu Salmiya said. 'Their bodies need these basics, and without them they will die.' This article originally appeared in
USA Today
16 hours ago
- USA Today
Israel pauses some military action in Gaza as starvation spreads: what to know
Israel will pause military action for hours each day in parts of Gaza and increase aid drops in the enclave, as the country has faced major international criticism over reports and images of starving Palestinians. Aid groups have criticized Israeli leaders for months over the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The country cut off supplies to the region at the start of March before reopening aid lines – with new restrictions – in May. "A third of the population (in Gaza) is not eating for days," the World Food Programme, led by Cindy McCain, said in a statement on X. "Some 470,000 people are enduring famine-like conditions. 90,000 women and children need urgent nutrition treatment. People are dying due to a lack of humanitarian assistance." More than 125 people have died due to malnutrition, including 85 children, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said over the weekend. A five-month-old baby, Zainab Abu Haleeb, died of malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on July 26. In recent weeks, more than 800 people have been killed while trying to reach food, according to the United Nations, mostly in shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers. Israeli officials have said they've allowed enough food into Gaza since war broke out in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel, blaming the terrorist group for suffering in a region of 2.2 million people. Meanwhile, ceasefire talks have stalled, with no permanent end to the fighting in sight. Here's what to know about the growing humanitarian crisis. What's going on in Gaza? Beginning July 27, Israel will pause military action in a humanitarian area along the coast of Gaza for 10 hours at a time, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time, each day. The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. Tom Fletcher, aid chief for the United Nations, called the move a "welcome announcement" in a post on X. "In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window," Fletcher wrote. What do human rights groups say? The U.N.'s World Food Program also welcomed the news, saying in a statement, "we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays." Israel's move comes after 111 groups signed a joint statement calling for governments to take action, as mass starvation spread and restrictions on humanitarian aid prevented resources from reaching Palestinians in Gaza. "The Government of Israel's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death," the groups, made up of mostly aid and human rights organizations, wrote. Why was aid restricted before? Hunger in Gaza escalated after Israel cut off supplies in March. Israel had said it was committed to allowing in aid – but needed to control it to prevent it from being diverted by Hamas. The country also accused the U.N. of failing to act in a timely fashion, saying 700 truckloads of aid were idling inside Gaza. "Responsibility for food distribution to the population in Gaza lies with the UN and international aid organizations," the Israeli military said in a July 26 statement. "Therefore, the UN and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas." An internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, Reuters reported last week. Where are ceasefire talks? President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on July 25 to abandon ceasefire negotiations, saying it was clear Hamas did not want a deal. "I think they want to die," Trump said of the militants. "And it's very bad. And it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job." Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to reach a deal, saying the only real solution to the suffering in Gaza is a complete end to the fighting. "An agreed ceasefire is the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner," the U.N. World Food Program said in their statement. Contributing: Reuters
