World
Israel resumes airdrop aid to Gaza, military says
The Israeli military stressed that despite the humanitarian steps, “combat operations have not ceased” in the Gaza Strip.
Israel said it resumed aid airdrops to Gaza on Saturday and was taking several other steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, amid mounting international pressure and warnings from relief agencies of starvation spreading there, Reuters reported.
The Israeli military said “humanitarian corridors” would be established for safe movement of United Nations convoys delivering aid to Gazans and that “humanitarian pauses” would be implemented in densely populated areas.
The announcement came after indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas were broken off with no deal in sight.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the airdrops would be conducted in coordination with international aid organizations and would include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food.
Palestinian sources confirmed that aid has begun dropping in northern Gaza, read the report.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the military would “apply a ‘humanitarian pause’ in civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors” on Sunday morning. It provided no further details.
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.
Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it. The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.
“The IDF emphasizes that there is no starvation in the Gaza Strip; this is a false campaign promoted by Hamas,” the Israeli military said in its Saturday statement.
“Responsibility for food distribution to the population in Gaza lies with the UN and international aid organizations. Therefore, the UN and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas.”
The Israeli military stressed that despite the humanitarian steps, “combat operations have not ceased” in the Gaza Strip.
Separately, international activists aboard an aid ship that set sail from Italy en route to Gaza said in a post on X that the vessel had been intercepted.
The Israeli foreign ministry said on X that naval forces “stopped the vessel from illegally entering the maritime zone of the coast of Gaza,” that it was being taken to Israeli shores and all passengers were safe.
The UN said Thursday that humanitarian pauses in Gaza would allow “the scale up of humanitarian assistance” and said Israel hadn’t provided ample route alternatives for its convoys which has hindered aid access.
Dozens of Gazans have died of malnutrition in the past few weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry while 127 people have died due to malnutrition, including 85 children, since the start of the war, which began nearly two years ago.
On Wednesday, more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave, Reuters reported.
The military also said Saturday that it had connected a power line to a desalination plant, expected to supply daily water needs for about 900,000 Gazans.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns near the border, killing some 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages on October 7, 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.
World
Israeli attacks kill 31 Palestinians in Gaza, including children
At least 31 Palestinians, including six children, were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis since early Saturday, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera.
The strikes came a day before Israel is scheduled to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday, marking the first reopening of the border crossing since May 2024.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said that more than 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since a United States-brokered ceasefire came into effect on October 10.
According to local health authorities, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 71,769 Palestinians and wounded 171,483 others since it began in October 2023. In Israel, at least 1,139 people were killed during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, with approximately 250 people taken captive.
World
Guterres warns of UN’s ‘imminent financial collapse’
In his letter, Guterres said “decisions not to honour assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced.”
The U.N. chief has told member states the organisation is at risk of “imminent financial collapse,” citing unpaid fees and a budget rule that forces the global body to return unspent money, a letter seen by Reuters on Friday showed.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly spoken about the organisation’s worsening liquidity crisis but this is his starkest warning yet, and it comes as its main contributor the U.S. is retreating from multilateralism on numerous fronts.
“The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse. And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future,” Guterres wrote in a letter to ambassadors dated January 28.
The U.S. has slashed voluntary funding to U.N. agencies and refused to make mandatory payments to its regular and peacekeeping budgets.
U.S. President Donald Trump has described the U.N. as having “great potential” but said it is not fulfilling that, and he has launched a Board of Peace which some fear could undermine the older international body.
Founded in 1945, the U.N. has 193 member states and works to maintain international peace and security, promote human rights, foster social and economic development, and coordinate humanitarian aid.
In his letter, Guterres said “decisions not to honour assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced.”
He did not say which state or states he was referring to, and a U.N. spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Under U.N. rules, contributions depend on the size of the economy of each member state. The U.S. accounts for 22% of the core budget followed by China with 20%.
But by the end of 2025 there was a record $1.57 billion in outstanding dues, Guterres said, without naming the nations that owed them.
“Either all Member States honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” he said.
U.N. officials say the U.S. currently owes $2.19 billion to the regular U.N. budget, another $1.88 billion for active peace-keeping missions and $528 million for past peace-keeping missions.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Guterres letter.
Guterres launched a reform task force last year, known as UN80, which seeks to cut costs and improve efficiency. To that end, states agreed to cut the 2026 budget by around 7% to $3.45 billion.
Still, Guterres warned in the letter that the organisation could run out of cash by July.
One of the problems is a rule now seen as antiquated whereby the global body has to credit back hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent dues to states each year.
“In other words, we are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle expected to give back cash that does not exist,” said Guterres, referring to author Franz Kafka who wrote about oppressive bureaucratic processes.
World
Man sprays U.S. lawmaker Ilhan Omar with liquid, disrupting Minnesota event
Police arrested a man who sprayed Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar with a foul-smelling liquid in Minneapolis on Tuesday as she condemned the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minnesota.
Omar, the frequent target of political insults from President Donald Trump, was uninjured. A security guard immediately grabbed the man and took him to the ground, according to a Reuters witness and video of the town hall event, Reuters reported.
Police said they arrested the man for third-degree assault.
In her remarks, Omar was criticizing ICE and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, demanding that Noem resign after the recent shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during Trump’s immigration enforcement surge.
“ICE cannot be reformed, it cannot be rehabilitated, we must abolish ICE for good, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment,” Omar said, to applause.
Moments later, a man seated in a front row stepped toward her and sprayed her with the contents of what police described as a syringe, telling Omar, “You must resign.”
Omar defiantly took a few steps toward him, with her hand raised, before he was subdued.
She continued her remarks after a short break, resisting associates’ urging to seek medical attention, saying she just needed a napkin. Her office later issued a statement saying she was OK.
Forensic scientists were gathering evidence at the scene, Minneapolis police said in a statement.
A Reuters witness said the liquid smelled of ammonia and caused minor throat irritation.
“I learned at a young age, you don’t give in to threats,” Omar told the audience, after refusing to suspend the event. “You look them in the face and you stand strong.”
Trump has repeatedly targeted Omar in public remarks and social media posts, also taking aim at her Somali nationality.
“Ilhan Omar is garbage,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting in December. “She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.”
Omar, 43, came to the United States as a 12-year-old girl and became a U.S. citizen in 2000.
On Tuesday, U.S. Capitol Police said its threat assessment cases rose in 2025 for the third year in a row, spiking nearly 58% from 2024.
In 2025, it investigated 14,938 instances of statements, behavior, and communications directed against members of Congress, their families, staff, and the Capitol complex, it added, up from 9,474 in 2024.
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