Trump envoy to visit Gaza aid sites as Israel accused of starvation policy
US envoy Steve Witkoff to visit aid distribution sites in Gaza to assess ‘dire situation on the ground’: White House United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on Israel over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory. Witkoff will travel to Gaza on Friday with US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to inspect aid distribution as condemnation of Israel grows over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 desperately hungry Palestinians have been killed since May at food distribution sites operated by the notorious US- and Israeli-backed GHF. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Witkoff would visit “distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”. “The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” Leavitt said. The visit by the top US envoy comes a day after more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory and health officials reported the deaths of two more children from starvation, adding to the Gaza Health Ministry’s confirmed death toll of 154 people who have died from “famine and malnutrition” – including 89 children – in recent weeks. Witkoff met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday, the Israeli leader’s office said. Earlier this week, President Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were untrue, with the US leader saying the enclave was experiencing “real starvation”. Advertisement The United Nations and independent experts had warned for months that starvation was taking hold in Gaza due to the Israeli military blockade on humanitarian relief, and this week, they said that “famine is now unfolding”. Angered by Israel’s denial of aid and ongoing attacks on Gaza’s population, the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal this week became the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, following Spain, Norway and Ireland’s lead. Some 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state. Following a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination”. “Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality,” he said. “I have the impression that this has been understood today.” Once a vibrant centre of Palestinian life, much of Gaza has been pulverised by Israeli bombardments and more than 60,000 Palestinians killed, and almost 150,000 wounded, since October 2023, after the Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,254
Here are the key events on day 1,254 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is how things stand on Friday, August 1: Fighting Russia launched waves of missiles and drones at Kyiv before dawn on Thursday, killing 16 people, including two children, and wounding more than 100 others, officials in the Ukrainian capital said. Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it targeted and hit Ukrainian military airfields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv’s military-industrial complex. Russia claimed to have taken full control of the shattered town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting, an assertion which Kyiv dismissed as “propaganda”. Ukrainian drones, operated by the state security agency SBU, struck an electronics plant which produces combat control systems for the Russian military in the western Russian city of Penza. Military aid A powerful United States Senate committee has approved a military spending bill that includes about $1bn to support Ukraine, despite US President Donald Trump’s administration having asked Congress to eliminate such funding in its budget request. Ceasefire US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia after his current trip to Israel, President Trump said. Trump did not provide an itinerary for Witkoff, who has held extensive ceasefire talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past. Trump has sharply criticised Russia’s “disgusting” behaviour against Ukraine and said he plans to impose sanctions on Moscow if no agreement can be reached on a ceasefire. The US president has given Putin until August 8 to reach a deal to halt the fighting. The US reiterated its Ukraine war ceasefire deadline to the United Nations Security Council, with senior US diplomat John Kelley telling the 15-member council that “both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace”. Kelley said: “It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace”. Trump also told Dmitry Medvedev to “watch his words” after the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council said Washington’s threats of hitting Moscow and buyers of its oil with punitive tariffs were “a game of ultimatums” and a step closer towards a war between Russia and the US. In response, the former Russian president said Trump should remember that Moscow possessed Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort. Advertisement Ukrainian affairs Ukraine’s parliament voted to restore the independence of two key anticorruption agencies, moving to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis since Russia’s invasion. Lawmakers voted 331 to 0 in favour of the bill, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted last week following pressure from thousands of protesters and top European officials to reverse course on the issue. Regional developments Chinese naval vessels have steamed into Russia’s far eastern port of Vladivostok in advance of joint drills scheduled from August 1-5. Adblock test (Why?)
Who’s included in Trump’s latest round of adjusted tariffs?
US President Donald Trump set the following rates by region in his executive order on Thursday, titled “Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates”: Africa Algeria 30% Angola 15% Botswana 15% Cameroon 15% Chad 15% Ivory Coast 15% Democratic Republic of the Congo 15% Equatorial Guinea 15% Ghana 15% Guyana 15% Lesotho 15% Libya 30% Madagascar 15% Malawi 15% Mauritius 15% Mozambique 15% Namibia 15% South Africa 30% Tunisia 25% Uganda 15% Zambia 15% Zimbabwe 15% Asia Pacific Bangladesh 20% Cambodia 19% Fiji 15% India 25% Indonesia 19% Japan 15% Laos 40% Malaysia 19% Myanmar (Burma) 40% Nauru 15% New Zealand 15% Pakistan 19% Papua New Guinea 15% Philippines 19% South Korea 15% Sri Lanka 20% Taiwan 20% Thailand 19% Vanuatu 15% Vietnam 20% Europe Bosnia and Herzegovina 30% European Union: 15% for most goods Iceland 15% Liechtenstein 15% Moldova 25% North Macedonia 15% Norway 15% Serbia 35% Switzerland 39% United Kingdom 10% Middle East and Central Asia Afghanistan 15% Brunei 25% Iraq 35% Israel 15% Jordan 15% Kazakhstan 25% Syria 41% Turkiye 15% North and South America Bolivia 15% Brazil 10% Canada 35% Costa Rica 15% Ecuador 15% Falkland Islands 10% Nicaragua 18% Trinidad and Tobago 15% Venezuela 15% Adblock test (Why?)
Election Commission issues BIG statement on Maharashtra elections, says, ‘EVMs are…’
The Election Commission of India has reaffirmed the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines, declaring them tamper-proof after a comprehensive checking and verification exercise conducted in Maharashtra. Read on to know more on this.
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Top two Kerr County emergency officials say they were asleep as July 4 floods struck
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