Why Sonny Bill Williams wore Johor flag on his strip in Paul Gallen fight
One was a Palestine flag, while the other was navy blue with a red section in the upper left
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RNZ News
13 hours ago
- RNZ News
Netanyahu, Trump appear to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas
US President Donald Trump (R) and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take questions during a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on 4 February, 2025. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump appeared to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, both saying it had become clear that the Palestinian militants did not want a deal. Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling "alternative" options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave, where starvation is spreading and most of the population is homeless amid widespread ruin. Trump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be "hunted down", telling reporters: "Hamas really didn't want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it's very bad. And it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job." The remarks appeared to leave little to no room, at least in the short term, to resume negotiations for a break in the fighting, at a time when international concern is mounting over worsening hunger in war-shattered Gaza. French President Emmanuel Macron, responding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, announced that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognise an independent Palestinian state . Britain and Germany said they were not yet ready to do so but later joined France in calling for an immediate ceasefire. British Prime Minister Keith Starmer said his government would recognise a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal. Trump dismissed Macron's move. "What he says doesn't matter," he said. "He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight." Israel and the United States withdrew their delegations on Thursday from the ceasefire talks in Qatar, hours after Hamas submitted its response to a truce proposal. Sources initially said on Thursday (local time) that the Israeli withdrawal was only for consultations and did not necessarily mean the talks had reached a crisis. But Netanyahu's remarks suggested Israel's position had hardened overnight. US envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas was to blame for the impasse, and Netanyahu said Witkoff had got it right. Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said on Facebook that the talks had been constructive, and criticised Witkoff's remarks as aimed at exerting pressure on Israel's behalf. "What we have presented - with full awareness and understanding of the complexity of the situation - we believe could lead to a deal if the enemy had the will to reach one," he said. Mediators Qatar and Egypt said there had been some progress in the latest round of talks. They said suspensions were a normal part of the process and they were committed to continuing to try to reach a ceasefire in partnership with the US. The proposed ceasefire would suspend fighting for 60 days, allow more aid into Gaza, and free some of the 50 remaining hostages held by militants in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel. It has been held up by disagreement over how far Israel should withdraw its troops and the future beyond the 60 days if no permanent agreement is reached. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister in Netanyahu's coalition, welcomed Netanyahu's step, calling for a total halt of aid to Gaza and complete conquest of the enclave, adding in a post on X: "Total annihilation of Hamas, encourage emigration, (Jewish) settlement." International aid organisations say mass hunger has now arrived among Gaza's 2.2 million people , with stocks running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, then reopened it in May but with new restrictions. The Israeli military said on Friday (local time) it had agreed to let countries airdrop aid into Gaza. Hamas dismissed this as a stunt. "The Gaza Strip does not need flying aerobatics, it needs an open humanitarian corridor and a steady daily flow of aid trucks to save what remains of the lives of besieged, starving civilians," Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters. Gaza medical authorities said nine more Palestinians had died over the past 24 hours from malnutrition or starvation. Dozens have died in the past few weeks as hunger worsens. Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it, in what the Israeli foreign ministry called on Friday "a deliberate ploy to defame Israel". The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions. United Nations agencies said on Friday that supplies were running out in Gaza of specialised therapeutic food to save the lives of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher also has demanded that Israel provide evidence for its accusations that staff with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were affiliated with Hamas, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The ceasefire talks have been accompanied by continuing Israeli offensives. Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes and gunfire had killed at least 21 people across the enclave on Friday, including five killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City. In the city, residents carried the body of journalist Adam Abu Harbid through the streets wrapped in a white shroud, his blue flak jacket marked PRESS draped across his body. He was killed overnight in a strike on tents housing displaced people. Mahmoud Awadia, another journalist attending the funeral, said the Israelis were deliberately trying to kill reporters. Israel denies intentionally targeting journalists. Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns near the border, killing some 1200 people and capturing 251 hostages on 7 October, 2023. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, health officials there say, and reduced much of the enclave to ruins. - Reuters
RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
Aid agencies warning mass starvation spreading in Gaza
aid and development conflict 19 minutes ago More than 100 aid agencies warn that "mass starvation" is spreading across Gaza. UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
Dunedin councillors flooded with 'highly orchestrated' emails after supporting Green Party bill
Each elected member of the Dunedin City Council has received more than 2200 emails. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Dunedin's mayor and councillors have been flooded with thousands of emails after declaring their support for the Green Party's proposal to sanction Israeli politicians. Each elected member of the Dunedin City Council has received more than 2200 emails in what has been described as an orchestrated backlash to their support for the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill. Chlöe Swarbrick's members' bill would direct sanctions at Israeli ministers and Knesset members as well as military leaders who support the occupation of Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem - similar to sanctions imposed on Russian leadership for its illegal war on Ukraine. Dunedin councillor Christine Garey said the emails, which arrived over several hours on 7 July, appeared to be a campaign from a group based in the United States. The broad, impersonal emails - seen by RNZ - criticised "anti-Israel resolutions that unjustly vilify Israel", and asked recipients not to call for a "financial and military aid boycott of Israel". They began flooding in from about 1:30am, each with a slightly different subject line, Garey said. While only sent to the mayor and councillors, they also featured a CC list of New Zealand and United States leaders. "They were all quite carefully crafted - it was highly orchestrated," Garey said. She reported the emails to the council's IT staff, who she said blocked the senders later that morning. Two and a half weeks earlier, Dunedin City Council's Community Services Committee voted in favour of Mayor Jules Radich writing to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters asking government MPs to back Swarbrick's bill. Half of those around the council table were opposed, but a casting vote from chair Marie Laufiso broke the tie. Garey, who introduced the motion, said the bizarre email response had galvanized her to keep using her voice and influence on behalf of Dunedin's Palestinian community. "It says to me that we have made an impact... we touched a nerve and, to be honest, it's a badge of courage because it attracted this attention. It just reminds us how important this issue is.... the plight of our Palestinian community in Ōtepoti Dunedin," she said. The council previously called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for special humanitarian visas for the families of New Zealand's Palestinian community. Those resolutions had triggered some email traffic but nothing like the most recent onslaught, Garey said. In a statement, Dunedin City Council chief information officer Graeme Riley confirmed each councillor received a total of 2284 emails between 4 and 14 July, relating to the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill. The council was not taking any further action, he said. "It is not uncommon for council to receive bulk emails when considering contentious issues, but this example would be at the extreme end of the spectrum in terms of volume." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
