
US announces its withdrawal from UNESCO
This departure carries financial consequences. The United States − as the largest contributor to the UN agency dedicated to education, science and culture − had been providing $75 million annually, which constituted about 8% of its $900 million budget. In anticipation of the US withdrawal, UNESCO had exercised caution in recent months by setting aside the US contribution for this year and reducing programs to prevent a funding shortfall. At this time, there are no planned layoffs among the organization's approximately 1,000 employees.
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Euronews
5 hours ago
- Euronews
Palestinians in Gaza say aid efforts not enough to reach those in need
Palestinians in Gaza said aid packages dropped by Israel and other nations on Sunday and the dozens of aid trucks that entered the enclave are not enough and have not reached the population of more than two million people. 'We haven't seen aid from land, air or anywhere else,' said Maryam Yahya, a displaced woman from Rafah living in Zawaida. 'Here we are, sitting by the road, receiving nothing and nothing is reaching us. We sit in tents like beggars, waiting for a kilo of flour, and no one bring it to us.' Israel has implemented daily 10-hour 'tactical pauses' in three areas of Gaza to allow for limited humanitarian access amid rising international concern over worsening hunger. However, the United Nations (UN) said the temporary pauses remain insufficient as risks of looting persists. The World Food Programme (WFP) has called for reliable corridors and consistent access to deliver aid at scale. 'We used to receive aid from UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). They no longer give it to us. If they had handed it over to UNRWA, they would have brought it to us. When UNRWA delivered (aid), we never lacked anything,' Yahya said. 'Aid is delivered by air. The person fears leaving the tent and having a box fall on their children,' said Ahmed Al-Sumairi, a man from Khan Younis now displaced in Central Gaza. 'Many have died due to drop (aid) on the tents. On the ground, there is no ceasefire... The situation remains the same: a siege, no food or drink.' 'They call it a "temporary ceasefire", we don't see it as a temporary ceasefire. We see bombing everywhere,' said Mohammed Al-Sumairi, displaced from Khan Younis living now in a tent in Zawaida. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would allow 'minimal' aid to enter Gaza after images of emaciated children fanned criticism of Israel and urged its allies to call for the war to end. Israel claims it has restricted the level of aid which can enter Gaza because Hamas siphons it off to bolster its rule, though it does provide evidence. The Israeli Defence Forces said 28 aid packages containing food were airdropped into Gaza on Sunday and that further measures would be put in place to establish secure routs. The UN World Food Program said it had enough food in, or on its way, to feed all of Gaza for nearly three months. It has said a third of the territory's population were not eating for days and hundreds of thousands were suffering from famine-like conditions.

LeMonde
8 hours ago
- LeMonde
North Korea rejects outreach by South Korea's new president
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rebuffed overtures by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday, July 28, that North Korea has no interest in talks with South Korea, no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo-jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the US anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. "We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with" South Korea, Kim Yo-jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. 'Sincere efforts' Kim Yo-jong called such steps "sincere efforts" by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls "their blind trust" to the military alliance with the US and attempt to "stand in confrontation" with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-US military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the US since leader Kim Jong-un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the US and others say Russia may even give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong-un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong-un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an "invariable principal enemy." That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.


France 24
9 hours ago
- France 24
France and Saudi Arabia to lead UN push for two-state solution
France and Saudi Arabia will lead the charge starting Monday to revive the moribund push for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians at a UN conference in New York. Days before the July 28-30 conference, to be co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would formally recognise the State of Palestine in September. Paris's decision "will breathe new life into a conference that seemed destined to irrelevance," said Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. "Macron's announcement changes the game. Other participants will be scrabbling to decide if they should also declare an intent to recognize Palestine." In an interview with French weekly La Tribune Dimanche, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that other European countries will confirm "their intention to recognise the State of Palestine" during the conference, without detailing which ones. France is hoping that Britain will take this step, and more than 200 British MPs on Friday pushed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to do so, but he reiterated that recognition of a Palestinian state "must be part of a wider plan." 05:32 According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states -- including France -- now recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988. In 1947, a resolution of the UN General Assembly decided on the partition of Palestine, then under a British mandate, into two independent states -- one Jewish and the other Arab. The following year, the state of Israel was proclaimed. For several decades, the vast majority of UN member states have supported the idea of a two-state solution, Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side peacefully and securely. But after more than 21 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex occupied territory, it is feared a Palestinian state could be geographically impossible. The war in Gaza started following a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel, which responded with a large-scale military response that has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives. The conference is a response to the crisis, with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and several dozen ministers from around the world expected to attend. It is coming at a moment when "the prospect of a Palestinian state has never been so threatened, or so necessary," Barrot said. 02:09 Call for courage Beyond facilitating conditions for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the meeting will have three other focusses -- reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalisation of relations with Israel by Arab states that have not yet done so. No new normalisation deals are expected to be announced at the meeting, according to a French diplomatic source. But "for the first time, Arab countries will condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament," Barrot said. The conference "offers a unique opportunity to transform international law and the international consensus into an achievable plan and to demonstrate resolve to end the occupation and conflict once and for all, for the benefit of all peoples," said Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, calling for "courage" from participants. Israel and the United States will not take part in the meeting, while international pressure continues to mount on Israel to end nearly two years of war in Gaza. Despite "tactical pauses" in some military operations announced by Israel, the humanitarian catastrophe in the ravaged coastal territory is expected to dominate speeches by representatives of more than 100 countries as they take the podium from Monday to Wednesday.