Trump envoy to inspect Gaza aid as pressure mounts on Israel
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RTHK
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US envoy meets Israeli hostage families
US envoy meets Israeli hostage families Steve Witkoff (centre) is in Tel Aviv to meet the families of the hostages and inspect aid delivery efforts in Gaza. Photo: Reuters US envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday met the anguished families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, as fears for the captives' survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack. Witkoff was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the families. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting was underway and videos shared online showed Witkoff arriving as families chanted "Bring them home!" and "We need your help." The visit came one day after Witkoff visited a US-backed aid station in Gaza, to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory. After the meeting, the Forum released a statement saying that Witkoff had given them a personal commitment that he and US President Donald Trump would work to return the remaining hostages. The US, along with Egypt and Qatar, had been mediating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel that would allow the hostages to be released and humanitarian aid to flow more freely. But talks broke down last month and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under increasing domestic pressure to come up with another way to secure the missing hostages, alive or dead. Netanyahu is also facing international calls to open Gaza's borders to more food aid, after UN and humanitarian agencies warned that more than two million Palestinian civilians are facing starvation. Witkoff visited a food distribution point in Gaza run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Friday, promising that Trump would come up with a plan to better feed civilians. (AFP)
South China Morning Post
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Hong Kong's policy change for children of non-local talent ‘to ensure fairness'
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Those enabling genocide rub it in by attending Nagasaki memorial
The mayor of Nagasaki has great moral fibre, he is also a clever man. Shiro Suzuki showed courage last year by disinviting Israel to the annual peace ceremony commemorating the 1945 atomic bombing of the city – for obvious reasons. Advertisement Suzuki also disinvited Russia and Belarus last year and the previous two. He recognises atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity wherever he sees them, unlike the highly selective vision of most Western leaders. That brave act last year earned him the animus of the ambassadors of the Group of Seven (G7) – or rather the G6 – and the European Union, so they boycotted the event in solidarity with Israel. Instead, they sent low-level functionaries in their places. Western leaders then applied intense pressure on Tokyo to make sure Israel is invited to this year's 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city on August 9. So Suzuki personally invited Israel and everyone else, including Russia and Belarus. Between Israel and Russia, one has as much moral authority as the other. Advertisement All this comes as US politicians have been busy helping Israel to unleash the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which frankly defeats the spirit of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Washington is going ahead with a US$675 million arms deal with Israel. This week, US Republican senator Lindsey Graham said on NBC's Meet the Press that Israel should destroy Gaza like Allied forces did with German and Japanese cities towards the end of the second world war.
