Category: 2. World

WHO condemns in the strongest terms the attacks on a building housing WHO staff in Deir al Balah in Gaza, the mistreatment of those sheltering there, and the destruction of its main warehouse.

Following intensified hostilities in Deir al Balah after the latest evacuation order issued by Israeli military, the WHO staff residence was attacked three times today. Staff and their families, including children, were exposed to grave danger and traumatized after airstrikes caused a fire and significant damage. Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward Al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint. Two WHO staff and two family members were detained. Three were later released, while one staff member remains in detention. Thirty-two people, including women and children, were collected and evacuated to the WHO office in a high-risk mission, once access became possible. The office itself is close to the evacuation zone and active conflict.

WHO demands continuous protection of its staff and the immediate release of the remaining detained staff member.

The latest evacuation order has affected several WHO premises. As the United Nations’s (UN) lead health agency, WHO’s operational presence in Gaza is now compromised, crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system and pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people. 

Most of WHO’s staff housing is now inaccessible. Last night, due to intensified hostilities, 43 staff and their families were already relocated from several staff residences to the WHO office, under darkness and at significant risk.

WHO’s main warehouse located in Deir al Balah is within the evacuation zone, and was damaged yesterday after an attack caused explosions and fire inside – part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities. It was later looted by desperate crowds.

With the main warehouse nonfunctional and the majority of medical supplies in Gaza depleted, WHO is severely constrained in adequately supporting hospitals, emergency medical teams and health partners, already critically short on medicines, fuel, and equipment. WHO urgently calls on Member States to help ensure a sustained and regular flow of medical supplies into Gaza.

The geographical coordinates of all WHO premises, including offices, warehouses, and staff housing, are shared with the relevant parties. These facilities are the backbone of WHO’s operations in Gaza and must always be protected, regardless of evacuation or displacement orders. Any threat to these premises is a threat to the entire humanitarian health response in Gaza.  

In line with the UN’s decision, WHO will remain in Deir al Balah, deliver and expand its operations.

With 88% of Gaza now under evacuation orders or within Israeli-militarized zones, there is no safe place to go.

WHO is appalled by the dangerous conditions under which humanitarians and health workers are forced to operate. As the security situation and access continue to deteriorate, red lines are repeatedly crossed, and humanitarian operations pushed into an ever-shrinking space to respond. 

WHO calls for the immediate release of the WHO staff member detained today, and the protection of all our staff and premises. We reiterate our call for the active protection of civilians, health care and health-care premises and for rapid and unimpeded flow of aid, including food, fuel and health supplies, at scale into and across Gaza. WHO also calls for the unconditional release of hostages. 

Life in Gaza is being relentlessly squeezed, and the chance to prevent loss of lives and reverse immense damage to the health system slips further out of reach each day. A ceasefire is not just necessary, it is overdue. 

The United States will require international visitors to pay a new “visa integrity fee” of at least $250, added to existing visa application costs, according to a provision in the Trump administration’s recently enacted domestic policy bill.

The fee will apply to all visitors who are required to obtain nonimmigrant visas to enter the United States. This includes many leisure and business travelers, international students and other temporary visitors. In fiscal year 2024, the US issued nearly 11 million nonimmigrant visas, according to State Department figures.

Tourists and business travelers from countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program, including Australia and many European countries, aren’t required to obtain visas for stays of 90 days or less.

Payment will be required at the time visas are issued, and there will be no fee waivers. Travelers who comply with their visa conditions can have their fees reimbursed after the trip is over, according to the provision.

Immigration attorney Steven A. Brown, a partner at Houston-based Reddy Neumann Brown PC, characterized the fee as a “refundable security deposit,” in a recent post about the new policy. The mechanism for obtaining a refund is still unclear, Brown pointed out.

“In terms of the purpose of the fee, it’s hard to say,” Brown said in an email to CNN. “Generally, immigration fees are to cover the expense of adjudication or issuance,” but he noted that the reimbursement provision could mean refunding all of the fees gained. “In a perfect world, there would be no overstays or visa violations.”

The Department of Homeland Security, the agency instituting the new fee, has not yet offered specifics about the refund process or any other aspects of the policy’s rollout.

“The visa integrity fee requires cross-agency coordination before implementation,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

A State Department spokesperson said the fee was established “to support the administration’s priorities of strengthening immigration enforcement, deterring visa overstays, and funding border security.”

Fees that aren’t reimbursed will be “deposited into the general fund of the Treasury,” the provision in the bill says.

The initial fee, for fiscal year 2025, is outlined as the greater of either $250 or “such amount as the Secretary of Homeland Security may establish, by rule.”

Brown suggested that the rule is likely to be implemented through a rulemaking process involving its publication in the Federal Register.

The fee is subject to annual adjustments for inflation.

The State Department spokesperson said details related to the change, implemented by DHS, will be posted on the State Department’s visa information page.

The U.S. Travel Association, a national nonprofit organization aimed at increasing travel to and within the United States, praised other parts of the domestic policy bill that would invest in modernizing customs and air traffic control, but called the new visa fee “a giant leap backwards.”

“This fee, which will be at least $250 and comes on top of existing visa fees, adds an unnecessary financial barrier for international visitors,” said Erik Hansen, senior vice president of government relations for the association, in a statement.

According to U.S. Travel’s calculation, the fee would boost the “upfront costs” of visiting the US by 144%. “Even if it is technically reimbursable, the added complexity and cost will discourage visitors,” Hansen said.

The UK has joined 27 other countries in condemning Israel for depriving Palestinians of “human dignity” as they issued a call for an immediate end to the war in Gaza.

David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, joined ministers from Australia, Canada and France in urging the Israeli government to lift restrictions on the flow of aid, arguing that the suffering of civilians had “reached new depths”.

They also described proposals from the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, to move 600,000 Palestinians to a so-called “humanitarian city” in Rafah, an area that has been heavily damaged by Israeli bombs, as “completely unacceptable”.

At the Commons liaison committee, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the situation in Gaza was “intolerable” as he repeated the UK’s commitment to recognising a Palestinian state “at a time most conducive to the prospects of peace” in the region.

On Monday, Israel launched substantial air raids and a ground operation in Gaza, targeting Deir al-Balah, the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated Palestinian territory, amid warnings of widening starvation.

The latest assault began a day after the highest death toll in 21 months inflicted by the Israeli military on desperate Palestinians seeking food aid, with at least 85 killed in what has become a grim and almost daily slaughter.

The UN food agency, the World Food Programme, said the majority of those killed on Sunday had gathered near the border fence with Israel in the hope of getting flour from a UN aid convoy when they were fired on by Israeli tanks and snipers.

Starmer said: “The situation on the ground in Gaza is intolerable on so many levels and we make that absolutely clear in all our exchanges with Israel and with other countries. Whether that’s the deaths of those that are queueing for aid, whether it’s the plans to force Palestinians to live in certain areas or be excluded from certain areas, they are all intolerable and absolutely wrong in principle.”

Starmer has come under pressure from MPs, including Emily Thornberry, who chairs the foreign affairs committee, to recognise a Palestinian state. Some western countries are due to do so this month.

In a statement on Monday, the foreign ministers called for Israel to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their work. After a two-month blockade on most aid entering Gaza that has pushed the territory’s 2.1 million residents to the verge of famine, the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has overseen a chaotic, and often deadly, operation.

“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the foreign ministers said. “The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.”

They said it was “horrifying” that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed while seeking aid, and that the Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population was unacceptable. “We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Further bloodshed serves no purpose,” they said.

Speaking in the Commons, Lammy told MPs he “utterly condemned” the killing of civilians who were seeking to meet their basic needs. “The Israeli government must answer: what possible military justification can there be for strikes that have killed desperate, starving children?”

He criticised Katz’s plan to move the entire population of Gaza to Rafah, saying it was a “cruel vision which must never come to pass” and would be a violation of international humanitarian law. He told MPs there should be a “viable pathway” to a Palestinian state that would have “no role” for Hamas, which he said would use it as a “launch pad” for terrorism.

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli foreign ministry rejected the joint statement, saying it was “disconnected from reality”.

“The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognise Hamas’s role and responsibility for the situation,” the ministry said. “Hamas is the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering on both sides. At these sensitive moments in the ongoing negotiations, it is better to avoid statements of this kind.”

The Labour MP Andy Slaughter asked Lammy how a ceasefire could be reached, given how swiftly Israel had dismissed the statement. In response, Lammy said the Israeli government “can see the strength of feeling in the house”.

“That ignoring of the international community is tarnishing greatly the reputation of Israel. We continue, of course, to look at what further we may need to do.”

Construction of the world’s biggest hydropower megadam has begun, China’s premier has said, calling it the “project of the century”.

The huge structure is being built on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, in Tibetan territory.

Li Qiang made the comments on Saturday, at a ceremony in the region to mark the start of the build, leading Chinese markets to rise on the expectation of the long-planned megaproject, first announced in 2020 as part of China’s 14th five-year plan.

The dam has drawn criticism from India and Bangladesh, through which the river runs, as well as Tibetan groups and environmentalists.

The project announced by Li is planned for the lower reaches of the river, according to the official state news outlet, Xinhua. Xinhua reported that the project would consist of five cascade hydropower stations, producing an estimated 300 million megawatt hours of electricity annually at a cost of about 1.2tn yuan (£124bn).

In comparison, the Three Gorges dam cost 254.2bn yuan and generates 88.2m MWh.

No further details were given about timing or scope of construction, but the figures reported by Xinhua exceed estimates from 2020.

China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, is operating a huge renewable energy expansion as it seeks to reach emissions reduction goals and stabilise its power supply. It has tens of thousands of hydropower projects, far more than any other country.

The Yarlung Tsangpo megadam will reportedly harness the power created by the river dropping 2km in about 50km as it winds through a canyon on a U-shaped bend.

India and Bangladesh have voiced concerns over the project, fearing the water could be held or diverted away from them.

The Yarlung Tsangpo becomes the Brahmaputra river as it flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states and finally into Bangladesh as the Jamuna river. Damming it could affect millions of people downstream.

“China can always weaponise this water in terms of blocking it or diverting it,” Neeraj Singh Manhas, special adviser for South Asia at the Parley Policy Initiative, told the BBC in January.

The Indian government formally registered its concerns with Beijing over the project in December, and during bilateral meetings between the two countries’ foreign ministers in January.

In response, officials have said China does not seek “water hegemony” and never pursues “benefits for itself at the expense of its neighbours”.

“China will continue to maintain current exchange channels with downstream nations and step up cooperation on disaster prevention and mitigation,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said in December.

Tibetan groups have also noted the presence of sacred sites along the river, and the lack of information about potential population displacement.

Other hydropower projects in Tibet have inspired rare protests, resulting in brutal crackdowns from authorities, according to activists. Last year hundreds of people were arrested while protesting against the Kamtok dam on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river, which they said threatened to displace thousands of residents and submerge ancient Buddhist monasteries. The Three Gorges Dam is estimated to have displaced about 1.5 million people.

Environmentalists have also expressed concern about wildlife in the region, as well as the significant tectonic shifting, severe landslides and extreme geography where the dam is expected to go.

The Chinese government rejects the criticism, and says the project will stimulate jobs in the region, increase domestic energy supplies and spur on development in the renewables sector. “Special emphasis must be placed on ecological conservation to prevent environmental damage,” Li said.

NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday condemned Israel’s killing of civilians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza over the weekend, calling it “an atrocious and inhumane act,” and demanded an immediate ceasefire along with the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and unimpeded aid access to the starving enclave.

“These were people seeking UN assistance for their families,” Guterres said in remarks opening the High-Level Political Forum in New York.

“We need an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of all hostages, and full humanitarian access as a first step toward achieving a two-state solution,” he added.

Guterres also called for the fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel to hold and reiterated his call for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, rooted in the UN Charter, international law, and UN resolutions. He urged an end to the conflict in Sudan and pointed to continued violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, the Sahel and Myanmar, warning that war and instability are “pushing the Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach.”

The secretary-general linked these conflicts directly to the core development agenda, stressing that “sustainable peace requires sustainable development.” He warned that the world is far off track to meet the SDGs by 2030 and said the erosion of peace and rising geopolitical tensions are among the biggest threats to that progress.

The UN chief’s address came at a time of growing frustration among developing nations and civil society groups over the lack of progress toward the SDGs, a set of 17 global targets adopted in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet, and promote peace and prosperity by 2030.

While the world has seen gains, such as increased access to electricity, internet, and education, only 35 percent of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress, according to UN data. Nearly half are moving too slowly, and 18 percent are regressing.

“We cannot sugarcoat these facts,” Guterres said. “But we must not surrender to them either.”

He linked peace and development, arguing that sustainable peace is impossible without sustainable development. Despite multiple setbacks, Guterres pointed to recent multilateral breakthroughs as evidence that international cooperation can still deliver results.

He cited three key achievements: the adoption of a Pandemic Agreement in Geneva aimed at building a fairer global health system; new ocean protection commitments made in Nice to fight pollution and illegal fishing; and the so-called Seville Commitment, a financial pact aimed at expanding fiscal space for developing countries, improving access to capital, and reforming the global financial architecture.

“This shows that transformation is not only necessary — it is possible,” he said.

The HLPF, held annually at UN headquarters, is the central platform for reviewing progress toward the SDGs. This year’s forum spotlights five interconnected goals: health, gender equality, decent work, marine ecosystems, and global partnerships.

On health, Guterres urged governments to invest in universal care and prevention, particularly for the most vulnerable. On gender equality, he acknowledged persistent barriers but noted growing grassroots momentum, and called for real financing, accountability, and rights-based policies to drive systemic change.

On decent work, he warned that over 2 billion people remain in informal employment and youth joblessness is high. But he cited the UN’s Global Accelerator initiative as helping countries create jobs and expand social protections, especially in green industries.

Guterres also emphasized the need to reform the global financial system, which he said no longer reflects current geopolitical or economic realities. The Seville Commitment, he said, sets out concrete steps: strengthening domestic resource mobilization through tax reform, improving debt relief frameworks, and tripling the lending capacity of multilateral development banks.

Guterres urged greater investment in science, data, and digital tools, including artificial intelligence, as well as deeper partnerships with civil society, the private sector, and local governments.

With five years remaining to meet the 2030 deadline, he called on nations to transform “sparks of progress into a blaze of transformation,” saying: “Let’s deliver on development — for people and for the planet.”