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First Post
18 hours ago
- Politics
- First Post
Radio silence: Trump's fund cuts gift Kim Jong-un a tighter grip on North Korea's ‘mind apartheid'
As US-funded broadcasts are slashed, millions of North Koreans are left more isolated than ever cut off from the outside world and solely at the mercy of the regime's propaganda read more In the world's hermit kingdom, the rulers appear anything but hermits — the face allegations of relentlessly hounding their hapless citizens in a, what many describe as, barbaric fashion, crushing human rights as a hippopotamus crushes a watermelon: with brute force and no second thought. While the rest of the world thrives fighting for greater and unrestricted access to information, those in North Korea are understood to live under an apartheid of the mind, cut off from realities of the world, deliberately by a regime that distorts or blocks information to suit its grip on power. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD For many in North Korea, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia stood as rare lifelines — vital sources of uncensored news for the bold few willing to risk everything to tune in. But that's now a thing of the past. In a Maga move, US President Donald Trump — who once claimed he 'developed a very good relationship' with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — pulled the plug from these radio services. A switch in DC, silence in Pyongyang When the US Senate passed a funding cut earlier this month, it effectively ended decades of American support for independent media channels that had managed to pierce North Korea's ironclad information barrier. The decision prompted widespread alarm as it became obvious that this move could plunge North Korea's 26 million citizens into even deeper informational darkness, a report in South China Morning Post said. Broadcasts from the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia — two long-standing American-backed radio channels — had served as vital channels, providing North Koreans with unfiltered insights into global affairs, human rights and life beyond their tightly controlled borders. The radio programmes reportedly saw their broadcasts reduced by as much as 80 per cent after an executive order issued by Trump in March called for the dismantling of their parent agency, the United States Agency for Global Media, the Hing Kong-based newspaper reported. Silence after the signal North Korea experts, including Human Rights Watch's Teppei Kasai, expressed concern that this informational blackout would hinder international awareness of North Korea's worsening human rights situation. According to Martyn Williams, a senior fellow at the Stimson Centre, the timing could not have been better for Pyongyang's censors. In his analysis for 38 North, he observed that North Korean propagandists had been battling the flow of foreign broadcasts for decades. Suddenly, with no effort on their part, the playing field had tilted decisively in their favour, the South China Morning Post reported. From unity to discord The blow to North Korea-focussed media and human rights efforts didn't occur in a vacuum. For nearly two decades, the North Korean Human Rights Act had anchored America's engagement with the country on a bipartisan basis. Passed in 2004 and renewed in subsequent years, the legislation ensured funding for radio broadcasts, satellite analysis and human rights documentation. These efforts informed everything from US sanctions policy to United Nations reports on crimes against humanity. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, that act quietly expired in 2022. Though funding had temporarily continued through the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (DRL), recent cuts proposed by the Trump administration aim to all but eliminate DRL's global funding. Human rights advocates have warned that this move will not only gut existing projects but destroy the infrastructure and institutional expertise necessary to rebuild them later, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch Lina Yoon wrote in Foreign Policy in Focus. Real-world consequences The stakes go far beyond theoretical policy losses. Civil society organisations once supported by the act are now struggling to survive. Groups like the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, which had previously traced illicit financial networks tied to North Korea's cyber theft operations, are at risk of shuttering. The DailyNK, a Seoul-based newsroom that reports using sources inside North Korea, may soon fall silent. Similarly, the Transitional Justice Working Group, known for its geocoding of execution and burial sites using scapee testimony and satellite imagery, may no longer be able to continue its work, Lina wrote. She feared that cutting off these data sources would severely compromise the US government's ability to make informed policy decisions. A regional reversal Compounding the problem, the recently elected South Korean administration under President Lee Jae-myung has reportedly taken a softer stance toward Pyongyang. In addition to ending government-led broadcasts into the North, Seoul has banned activists from launching balloons containing leaflets, rice, medicine and cash across the demilitarised zone. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Human rights observers noted that while this strategy may aim for diplomatic rapprochement, it simultaneously weakens the already scarce flow of outside information into North Korea. Williams from the Stimson Centre told South China Morning Post that the reduced broadcasts would leave North Koreans even more cut off from both local and global events. In a deteriorating security climate, such isolation could come at a high price, not only for North Koreans but for neighbouring countries and allies relying on accurate, timely intelligence. Why the world should pay attention The broader message from policy analysts and human rights organisations is clear: supporting independent media in North Korea is not charity — it's strategy, said Lina. And yet, the Trump administration's broad-stroke cuts threaten to erase years of painstaking progress. Organisations holding DRL grants, including the Unification Media Group and the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, may soon have no funds left to continue. Radio Free Asia has already ceased its Korean-language broadcasts, a move that could embolden Pyongyang's censors and silence dissident voices before they ever reach the airwaves. A future in the dark? Unless the US Congress takes urgent action to renew the North Korean Human Rights Act and protect funding for programmes that monitor and expose the regime's abuses, the world could lose its last windows into the country. As one expert put it, North Korea thrives in the dark. And with Washington now dimming the light, the shadows are growing longer.
The Star
20 hours ago
- Business
- The Star
The hidden hurdles behind building South-East Asia's US$100bil supergrid
VIENTIANE: The hardest part of building a wind farm along the misty ridges of southern Laos wasn't hauling 25-tonne blades up mountain roads or laying 71 kilometers of cables in thick vegetation. It wasn't even removing unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam War. Instead, it was bureaucracy that kept engineering veteran Nat Hutanuwatr up at night - the delicate diplomacy and seemingly endless paperwork required for neighboring South-East Asian nations to share clean electricity. It was, he says, like "climbing a series of Everests.' After more than a decade of government talks, biodiversity surveys and financial negotiations, Hutanuwatr's Monsoon Wind started exporting power to Vietnam this month. Its 133 turbines bring a heterogeneous region of 700 million people one step closer to a long-awaited supergrid - a vast, interconnected power network that will eventually carry clean energy from the expansive north to densely populated islands to the south. Part of the ambition behind the grid is fueled by environmental concerns. South-East Asia is a major driver of coal growth and breaking that dependence on fossil fuels - vital for the world to avoid the worst climate-change scenarios - requires a single network that allows inexpensive, clean power to flow. Reliable green electricity is also critical for a region that aims to succeed China as the factory of the world, attracting billions from major manufacturers with weighty climate commitments, from Apple Inc. to Samsung Electronics Co. An interconnected grid could boost the GDP of every South-East Asian country by between 0.8 and 4.6 percentage points, according to a US-funded study. Yet executing that vision has proved complex. Asean has long struggled with diverging priorities and tends to avoid bold decisions. It has no framework for cross-border energy deals, leaving developers alone to navigate a matrix of varying technical specifications and local political hurdles. And that's before considering the outlay, an investment that would require at least US$100 billion by 2045, according to the Asian Development Bank, roughly a quarter of Malaysia's gross domestic product. All of this makes Monsoon Wind an encouraging milestone, and evidence that a push is finally in motion to connect countries from Myanmar to the scattered islands of the Philippines and Indonesia. "We want this to be a role model for cross-border renewable energy exchange,' said Hutanuwatr, the chief operating officer of Bangkok-based renewables developer Impact Electrons Siam. "If we start with bilateral deals like our project, we can showcase how to make it work." There is heartening movement elsewhere too, with a 30-kilometere cable due to connect Malaysia's hydropower-rich Sarawak state to neighboring Sabah by October. That will eventually link up with the rest of the island of Borneo, including Indonesia's provinces and Brunei, and then with peninsular Malaysia across the South China Sea. These are small wins, but the industry is celebrating. Hutanuwatr still spends his days poring over paperwork in a makeshift office or driving over rough terrain to inspect wind turbines, but he hosted a team party in June to mark the completion of the Monsoon Wind farm. With a bottle of beer in hand, dressed in jeans and a hoodie emblazoned with the project name, he addressed a cheerful crowd of workers, recalling the first visit to pitch the idea of importing power to Vietnam's state utility. "They looked at us like we were crazy,' the 56-year-old said, smiling. The utility insisted he secure approvals from both Vietnam's prime minister and the Laos National Assembly - no small feat in countries where decisions are not always transparent or swift. He ultimately did as asked. "We now have expertise in negotiating with a range of difficult stakeholders,' he declared, before joining a round of karaoke. Leaders in South-East Asia, a region of political, geographic and economic diversity, first floated the idea of a supergrid in the late 1990s, but progress stalled for years due to the absence of a single vision and a patchwork of protectionist energy policies. "Asean doesn't have the institutional set-up to support this kind of ambitious infrastructure project,' said Hans Vriens of Singapore-based political risk advisory firm Vriens & Partners. "The supergrid is the perfect excuse to keep going to meetings and talking, while actually doing nothing.' Connections remained limited until a breakthrough 2018 pilot project linked Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. That proved regional power trading was viable. Since then, progress has been tentative at best. In 2021, Malaysia banned sending solar power to neighbours to protect its local industry. It reversed the halt two years later, hoping to take advantage of demand from Singapore. Exporting renewable energy also became a hot political issue in Indonesia, but its projects have recently signed clean power deals with Singapore. The efforts that have succeeded are far too limited to cope with the rapid growth of power demand. Electricity consumption is set to grow four per cent annually through 2035, but annual investment in grid infrastructure needs to more than double to around US$22 billion just to keep pace, according to the International Energy Agency. Without interconnected networks, a much-needed rapid scale-up of renewables will stall. Bureaucracies haven't helped. While Asean has identified 18 priority grid connection projects that it aims to complete by 2045 - formally known as the Asean Power Grid - more than half of these supergrid projects are still in early planning stages, with timelines ranging from two years to indefinite. The lack of an integrated regional power market, plus the absence of harmonised grid codes of the kind seen in the European Union, are a "major barrier' to scaling up connectivity projects, according to Nadhilah Shani of the Asean Centre for Energy, a hub that tries to connect utilities, governments and developers. The Asean Secretariat did not respond to emailed requests for comment. But there is growing official enthusiasm, not least in Singapore - the wealthy financial hub eager to bolster both energy security and green credentials. The island is aiming to import six gigawatts of low-carbon power from neighbours by 2035, up from nearly zero today. Since 2021, it has backed a series of headline-grabbing projects through public tenders: a subsea cable to carry solar power from Indonesia, another to import hydro from Malaysia, and a hybrid land-and-sea transmission line to wheel offshore wind from Vietnam. The country began importing a limited amount of power from Laos in 2022. The splashiest of all, the SunCable project to bring Australian solar power thousands of kilometres across the sea to Singapore, is estimated at over US$20 billion. Singapore has set up a dedicated state-linked firm to manage such complex cross-border city-state's objectives are clear: a country less than half the size of Rhode Island doesn't have space for renewables, so it has no other option than to use its vast wealth to fund projects elsewhere and import the power. Currently dependent on natural gas, it also needs greener energy to support its tech, financial and climate leadership ambitions. "Singapore has contributed directly to regional integration efforts," said a spokesperson for the country's Energy Market Authority. It's studying how to enable efficient long-distance transmission and "establish a framework that will facilitate the development of subsea power cables needed to realise the Asean Power Grid." The South-East Asian country has become a "champion' of the supergrid, said Dinita Setyawati, a senior energy analyst at think tank Ember - and its ambitions could help the region make meaningful advances. "We're seeing more progress in the past two years alone than in the past 20 years,' she said. "If we can have other Asean countries on board and take a more active role," then the 2045 target should be realised. Back on the Laos border, Hutanuwatr and his team have started sending power to the "backbone' of Vietnam's grid. At its full capacity of 600 megawatts, the project will generate enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes and factories. "These bilateral trades are actually stepping stones that are essential. Then you replicate," said Pablo Hevia-Koch, head of the International Energy Agency's renewables integration. "It allows Asean to benefit incrementally from early-stage trading, while building the foundation for future.' Hutanuwatr credits the project's completion to his team's pragmatism. But Monsoon Wind's success lays bare the difficulties still ahead for those eager to repeat the feat. Every approval, every connection, every agreement was hard-fought, and one of a kind. A playbook would make it far easier for others to follow, Hutanuwatr argues. For now, "there are no given solutions,' he said, shrugging. "You just have to figure it out as you go.' - Bloomberg
Straits Times
a day ago
- Business
- Straits Times
The hidden hurdles behind building South-east Asia's $129b supergrid
Singapore is aiming to import 6 gigawatts of low-carbon power from neighbors by 2035, up from nearly zero today. VIENTIANE – The hardest part of building a wind farm along the misty ridges of southern Laos wasn't hauling 25-ton blades up mountain roads or laying 71km of cables in thick vegetation. It wasn't even removing unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam War. Instead, it was bureaucracy that kept engineering veteran Nat Hutanuwatr up at night – the delicate diplomacy and seemingly endless paperwork required for neighbouring South-east Asian nations to share clean electricity. It was, he says, like 'climbing a series of Everests'. After more than a decade of government talks, biodiversity surveys and financial negotiations, Mr Hutanuwatr's Monsoon Wind started exporting power to Vietnam in July. Its 133 turbines bring a heterogeneous region of 700 million people one step closer to a long-awaited supergrid – a vast, interconnected power network that will eventually carry clean energy from the expansive north to densely populated islands to the south. Part of the ambition behind the grid is fuelled by environmental concerns. South-east Asia is a major driver of coal growth and breaking that dependence on fossil fuels – vital for the world to avoid the worst climate-change scenarios – requires a single network that allows inexpensive, clean power to flow. Reliable green electricity is also critical for a region that aims to succeed China as the factory of the world, attracting billions from major manufacturers with weighty climate commitments, from Apple to Samsung. An interconnected grid could boost the GDP of every South-east Asian country by between 0.8 and 4.6 percentage points, according to a US-funded study. Yet executing that vision has proved complex. Asean – the grouping of ten nations that is the region's main political organization and a key proponent of the supergrid – has long struggled with diverging priorities and tends to avoid bold decisions. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Thirty dead, over 80,000 evacuated, following heavy rain in Beijing World Trump says many are starving in Gaza, vows to set up food centres Business BYD tops Singapore car sales in first half of 2025 with almost one-fifth of the market Asia Giant algal bloom off South Australia devastates marine life, threatens seafood exports Asia Cambodia, Thailand agree to 'immediate and unconditional ceasefire' to de-escalate border row Singapore ST Explains: What we know about the Tanjong Katong sinkhole so far Sport Dare to dream, urges Singapore's first International Swimming Hall of Famer Joseph Schooling Singapore 44 suspects under probe for involvement in SIM card fraud It has no framework for cross-border energy deals, leaving developers alone to navigate a matrix of varying technical specifications and local political hurdles. And that's before considering the outlay, an investment that would require at least US$100 billion (S$129 billion) by 2045, according to the Asian Development Bank, roughly a quarter of Malaysia's gross domestic product. All of this makes Monsoon Wind an encouraging milestone, and evidence that a push is finally in motion to connect countries from Myanmar to the scattered islands of the Philippines and Indonesia. 'We want this to be a role model for cross-border renewable energy exchange,' said Mr Hutanuwatr, the chief operating officer of Bangkok-based renewables developer Impact Electrons Siam. 'If we start with bilateral deals like our project, we can showcase how to make it work.' There is heartening movement elsewhere too, with a 30km cable due to connect Malaysia's hydropower-rich Sarawak state to neighboring Sabah by October. That will eventually link up with the rest of the island of Borneo, including Indonesia's provinces and Brunei, and then with peninsular Malaysia across the South China Sea. These are small wins, but the industry is celebrating. Mr Hutanuwatr still spends his days poring over paperwork in a makeshift office or driving over rough terrain to inspect wind turbines, but he hosted a team party in June to mark the completion of the Monsoon Wind farm. With a bottle of beer in hand, dressed in jeans and a hoodie emblazoned with the project name, he addressed a cheerful crowd of workers, recalling the first visit to pitch the idea of importing power to Vietnam's state utility. 'They looked at us like we were crazy,' the 56-year-old said, smiling. The utility insisted he secure approvals from both Vietnam's prime minister and the Laos National Assembly – no small feat in countries where decisions are not always transparent or swift. He ultimately did as asked. 'We now have expertise in negotiating with a range of difficult stakeholders,' he declared, before joining a round of karaoke. Patchy progress Leaders in South-east Asia, a region of political, geographic and economic diversity, first floated the idea of a supergrid in the late 1990s, but progress stalled for years due to the absence of a single vision and a patchwork of protectionist energy policies. 'Asean doesn't have the institutional set-up to support this kind of ambitious infrastructure project,' said Mr Hans Vriens of Singapore-based political risk advisory firm Vriens & Partners. 'The supergrid is the perfect excuse to keep going to meetings and talking, while actually doing nothing.' Connections remained limited until a breakthrough 2018 pilot project linked Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. That proved regional power trading was viable. Since then, progress has been tentative at best. In 2021, Malaysia banned sending solar power to neighbours to protect its local industry. It reversed the halt two years later, hoping to take advantage of demand from Singapore. Exporting renewable energy also became a hot political issue in Indonesia, but its projects have recently signed clean power deals with Singapore. The efforts that have succeeded are far too limited to cope with the rapid growth of power demand. Electricity consumption is set to grow 4 per cent annually through 2035, but annual investment in grid infrastructure needs to more than double to around US$22 billion just to keep pace, according to the International Energy Agency. Without interconnected networks, a much-needed rapid scale-up of renewables will stall. Bureaucracies haven't helped. While Asean has identified 18 priority grid connection projects that it aims to complete by 2045 – formally known as the Asean Power Grid – more than half of these supergrid projects are still in early planning stages, with timelines ranging from two years to indefinite. The lack of an integrated regional power market, plus the absence of harmonised grid codes of the kind seen in the European Union, are a 'major barrier' to scaling up connectivity projects, according to Ms Nadhilah Shani of the Asean Centre for Energy, a hub that tries to connect utilities, governments and developers. The ASEAN Secretariat did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Singapore and the supergrid But there is growing official enthusiasm, not least in Singapore – the wealthy financial hub eager to bolster both energy security and green credentials. The island is aiming to import 6 gigawatts of low-carbon power from neighbors by 2035, up from nearly zero today. Since 2021, it has backed a series of headline-grabbing projects through public tenders: a subsea cable to carry solar power from Indonesia, another to import hydro from Malaysia, and a hybrid land-and-sea transmission line to wheel offshore wind from Vietnam. The country began importing a limited amount of power from Laos in 2022. The splashiest of all, the SunCable project to bring Australian solar power thousands of kilometers across the sea to Singapore, is estimated at over US$20 billion. Singapore has set up a dedicated state-linked firm to manage such complex cross-border city-state's objectives are clear: a country less than half the size of Rhode Island doesn't have space for renewables, so it has no other option than to use its vast wealth to fund projects elsewhere and import the power. Currently dependent on natural gas, it also needs greener energy to support its tech, financial and climate leadership ambitions. 'Singapore has contributed directly to regional integration efforts,' said a spokesperson for the country's Energy Market Authority. It's studying how to enable efficient long-distance transmission and 'establish a framework that will facilitate the development of subsea power cables needed to realise the Asean Power Grid.' The South-east Asian country has become a 'champion' of the supergrid, said Ms Dinita Setyawati, a senior energy analyst at think tank Ember – and its ambitions could help the region make meaningful advances. 'We're seeing more progress in the past two years alone than in the past 20 years,' she said. 'If we can have other Asean countries on board and take a more active role,' then the 2045 target should be realised. Back on the Laos border, Mr Hutanuwatr and his team have started sending power to the 'backbone' of Vietnam's grid. At its full capacity of 600 megawatts, the project will generate enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes and factories. 'These bilateral trades are actually stepping stones that are essential. Then you replicate,' said Mr Pablo Hevia-Koch, head of the International Energy Agency's renewables integration. 'It allows Asean to benefit incrementally from early-stage trading, while building the foundation for future.' Mr Hutanuwatr credits the project's completion to his team's pragmatism. But Monsoon Wind's success lays bare the difficulties still ahead for those eager to repeat the feat. Every approval, every connection, every agreement was hard-fought, and one of a kind. A playbook would make it far easier for others to follow, Mr Hutanuwatr argues. For now, 'there are no given solutions,' he said, shrugging. 'You just have to figure it out as you go.' Bloomberg
New York Post
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Post
What to know about Israel's claim that UN has tons of food in Gaza that it won't distribute
Israel is blaming the UN for the lack of vital food deliveries to Gaza — as harrowing video captured hundreds of desperate Palestinians swarming aid trucks over the weekend. Israel officials are hitting back at claims that they have have delayed aid from coming into Gaza — sharing images of tons of aid piled up inside the Gaza Strip, which they said is just waiting to be delivered to hungry Palestinians. Col. Abdullah Halabi, from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), told reporters last week that around 1,000 truckloads of aid remain undelivered 'due to a lack of cooperation from the international community and international organizations.' Advertisement But, a former US aid official called Israel's claims 'disingenuous — knowingly false.' The UN has for months accused Israel of refusing to coordinate with aid workers to get food and medicine to Gazans — making it too dangerous to widely distribute aid. 4 A war of words has broken out between the UN and Israel over aid deliveries to Gaza. Getty Images Former Israeli spokesman Eylon Levy ultimately accused the UN of 'unforgivable negligence' in its actions preventing food from reaching Gaza. Advertisement 'The failure of the UN aid mechanism in Gaza is truly catastrophic. 600 trucks' worth of food the IDF is urging the UN to pick up. I saw mountains of pasta, lentils, hummus, cooking oil, sugar, and flour,' he wrote on X, accompanying a video of him walking among aid supplies. 4 The UN warns all 2 million Gaza residents are at risk of starvation. REUTERS For its part, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said trucks traversing Gaza have to contend with traveling though an active war zone, along with hoards of desperate people rushing to get the supplies, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Advertisement Criminal gangs have also previously attempted to ransack the vehicles as they enter the Strip. 'Taken together, these factors have put people and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from crossings controlled by the Israeli authorities,' OCHA said in a statement last week. Grim video footage from Saturday, shot by a reporter on the ground, captured scores of people clamoring on top of two moving trucks in southern Gaza — just days after images of starving Palestinian children alarmed the world. As the trucks inched along, hundreds of people could be seen shoving each other as they tried to rush toward the vehicles, the clip shows. Advertisement The UN has also accused Israel of repeatedly rejecting requests to allow the trucks to enter Gaza, with Israel claiming it imposes no limits on the aid trucks seeking permission to enter. Since Israel lifted its aid blockade in late May, the US-funded non-profit the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has started to deliver aid — overseen by armed Israel Defense Forces soldiers. 4 The UN has accused Israel of failing to create a safe path for aid. Getty Images The group has come under fire for its handling of food deliveries, with humanitarian aid groups refusing to work with the GHF over the armed distribution points. The UN's human rights office said that 1,000 Palestinians have been killed trying to reach the GHF food distribution sites in recent weeks. A group of Democratic senators have since called on President Trump to suspend American financial support for the GHF, expressing 'grave' concerns. 'We urge you to immediately cease all U.S. funding for GHF and resume support for the existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms with enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need,' they wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 4 Palestinians walks away with sacks of flour after humanitarian aid was allowed to enter northern Gaza on Sunday. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement The UN has also blamed the IDF for damaging roads in and out of Gaza and failing to guarantee safety for aid workers in the territory. 'It is disingenuous — knowingly false — for any party to assert that it is failure, lack of courage, or deliberate conspiratorial withholding of aid by the UN or international organizations that is responsible for the humanitarian suffering in Gaza,' David Satterfield, a former US humanitarian envoy in Gaza, told the Times of Israel. The UN warned of 'catastrophic hunger' in Gaza as it said all 2 million residents are severely food insecure in a statement on Sunday following Israel's pledge to implement daily pauses in the fighting to allow aid through. 'This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,' Tom Fletcher from the OCHA said in a statement. Advertisement On Monday, Trump said there was 'real starvation' in Gaza. Just under 30 aid packages carrying food were airdropped over Gaza on Sunday, COGAT said in a statement. Israel has continued to blame Hamas for diverting aid from civilians throughout the war. Advertisement However, an internal US government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft of aid supplies by the group, according to the report presented to State Department officials, which the IDF branded 'biased.' The World Food Program said on Sunday it has enough food heading to the region to feed Gaza's entire population 'for almost three months,' but warned that a 'third of the population' is still 'not eating for days.'
Euronews
2 days ago
- Health
- Euronews
More aid dropped by plane over Gaza Strip amid worsening hunger crisis
Airdrops of food aid resumed in parts of Gaza on Sunday following Israel's opening of humanitarian corridors and a limited pause in fighting in the Palestinian enclave. Jordan announced it had conducted three airdrops over the skies of Gaza on Sunday, including one in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It said its cargo planes had dropped 25 tons of food and supplies on several locations in Gaza. According to media reports, some Palestinians lamented their struggle to access the humanitarian aid once it had fallen to the ground, sometimes in militarised zones. The airdrop of food aid comes after Israel opened the humanitarian corridor to the besieged Palestinian enclave on Saturday night, and its military announced on Sunday it had begun a limited pause in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day. The pause, the Israeli army said, was part of a series of steps to secure routes for aid delivery in Gaza as concerns over surging hunger in the territory mount. It also said it carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar, and canned food. The situation in Gaza has drawn a wave of international criticism over Israel's conduct in the 21-month war, especially as images of emaciated Palestinian children in the territory emerged and hunger deaths began to circulate widely. UN welcomes steps to ease blockade but warns risks remain Meanwhile, the United Nations on Sunday welcomed the steps to ease aid restrictions but said a broader ceasefire was needed to ensure goods reached everyone in need in Gaza. UNICEF called it 'an opportunity to save lives,' and amid a fresh warning from the World Health Organization (WHO) that malnutrition rates in Gaza are on a "dangerous trajectory," marked by a spike in deaths in July. Experts have long warned of the risk of famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid because it says Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule, without providing evidence for that claim. That claim was also repeated on Sunday by US President Donald Trump while answering questions from reporters in Scotland about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Trump claims Hamas steals food aid Trump said, 'We're giving a lot of money and a lot of food and a lot of everything. If we weren't there, I think people would have starved, frankly. They would have starved, and it's not like they're eating well, but a lot of that food is getting stolen by Hamas.' His remarks and position contradict that of an internal US government review, which recently found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza, managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group. Alongside the controversial blame on Hamas, Israel also accuses the UN of not getting the food aid and delivering it to those in need, a claim that UN aid agencies rebuff, saying they often need permission from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) to use travel routes for obvious safety reasons.
