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'Not something to celebrate': As it turns 80 and faces dwindling global clout, can the UN survive?

'Not something to celebrate': As it turns 80 and faces dwindling global clout, can the UN survive?

Washington Post3 days ago

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations, a collaborative global dream built into reality out of the ashes of World War II, marks its 80th anniversary this month. There's little to celebrate.
Its clout on the world stage is diminished. Facing major funding cuts from the United States and others, it has been forced to shed jobs and start tackling long-delayed reforms. Its longtime credo of 'multilateralism' is under siege. Its most powerful body, the Security Council, has been blocked from taking action to end the two major wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

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At least 81 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says
At least 81 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

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  • Yahoo

At least 81 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

At least 81 Palestinians have been killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the 24 hours until midday on Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said. In one incident, at least 11 people, including children, were killed after a strike near a stadium in Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital staff and witnesses told news agencies. The stadium was being used to house displaced people, living in tents. Footage verified by the BBC shows people digging through the sand with their bare hands and spades to find bodies. The BBC has contacted the Israeli military for comment. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful a ceasefire could be agreed in the next week. Qatari mediators said they hoped US pressure could achieve a deal, following a truce between Israel and Iran that ended the 12-day conflict between the countries. In March, a two-month ceasefire collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The ceasefire deal - which started on 19 January - was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage. Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. On Thursday, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have intensified their efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled. A rally was organised on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv calling for a deal to free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Organisers said "the time has come to end the fighting and bring everyone home in one phase". Meanwhile, Israeli attacks in Gaza continue. Friday evening's strike near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City killed at least 11 people, hospital staff and witnesses said. One witness said they were sitting when they "suddenly heard a huge explosion" after a road was hit. "This area was packed with tents - now the tents are under the sand. We spent hours digging with our bare hands," Ahmed Qishawi told the Reuters news agency. He said there are "no wanted people here, nor any terrorists as they [Israelis] claim... [there are] only civilian residents, children, who were targeted with no mercy," he said. The BBC has verified footage showing civilians and emergency services digging through the sandy ground with their hands and spades to find bodies. Fourteen more people were reported killed, some of them children, in strikes on an apartment block and a tent in the al-Mawasi area. The strike in al-Mawasi killed three children and their parents, who died while they were asleep, relatives told the Associated Press. "What did these children do to them? What is their fault?" the children's grandmother, Suad Abu Teima, told the news agency. More people were reported killed on Saturday afternoon after an air strike on the Tuffah neighbourhood near Jaffa School, where hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering. The strike killed at least eight people, including five children, the Palestinian health ministry said. One witness Mohammed Haboub told Reuters that his nephews, father and the children of his neighbours were killed in the strike. "We didn't do anything to them, why do they harm us? Did we harm them? We are civilians," he told the news agency. The health ministry said ambulance and civil defence crews were facing difficulties in reaching a number of victims trapped under the rubble and on the roads, due to the impossibility of movement in some of the affected areas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet commented on these reported strikes. The IDF released a statement on Saturday evening saying it had killed Hakham Muhammad Issa al-Issa, a senior figure in Hamas's military wing, in the area of Sabra in Gaza City on Friday. The IDF said he was one of the founding members of Hamas's military wing, a member of Hamas's general security council, and played a "significant role in the planning and execution" of Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. The Israeli military launched its bombardment of Gaza in response to the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. More than 56,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Gaza mediators intensifying ceasefire efforts, Hamas official says UN condemns Gaza aid 'death trap' as dozens reported killed by Israeli fire GHF boss defends Gaza aid operation after hundreds of Palestinians killed near sites

Top Ukrainian commander sees new assault on key eastern city
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Nikki Haley hails Trump for US strikes but warns ‘Iran is not done'
Nikki Haley hails Trump for US strikes but warns ‘Iran is not done'

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Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley offered her first praise for President Trump in several months in a Monday op-ed in Israel Hayom, an Israeli right-wing newspaper. She congratulated his decision to strike three Iranian nuclear sites but warned of further retaliation from Iran. 'Those in America that worry about why these strikes took place should understand that those strikes were a move to keep Americans safer. That was a move to take out one of the threats that Iran has used against Americans for years,' Haley wrote in the outlet owned by Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson. Israel Hayom is distributed in Hebrew and is also available online in English. The op-ed is a rare public appearance for Haley, who has largely faded from public view since the 2024 election. When she has spoken on Trump's foreign policy decisions in recent months, she has often criticized them, panning him for a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and slamming his acceptance of a Qatari jet. In the opinion piece, however, Haley praised Trump's decision as 'very well done' while arguing that the United States should continue to be hawkish on Iran for the sake of both America and Israel. 'A safe and secure Israel helps us have a safe and secure America,' she wrote, arguing that the chance of diplomacy with Tehran was thin. 'They always say they want to talk, but the action doesn't match what they want to do,' she wrote. 'Trump was right that while you could kick this can down the road if you wanted, the threat would only get bigger.' She also took aim at the United Nations after Secretary-General António Guterres said he was 'gravely alarmed' by the strikes, accusing the international arbiter of failing to condemn Iran's moves on ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. Haley finished by warning that America and Israel both needed to remain on guard. 'Americans need to be vigilant of our military bases in the region. We need to be vigilant of cyber attacks that could come our way through Iran. Iran is not done,' she wrote. As Trump's ambassador to the United Nations during his first term, Haley made the case both to him and to the global stage that the United States should back out of its 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. In the 2024 Republican presidential primary, during which she attempted to criticize the president, she also positioned herself as both a staunch defender of Israel and a Middle East hawk. After being the last of Trump's primary challengers to bow out, Haley failed to secure a place in his administration (she claimed she wanted no part in it). She is currently at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, and making her way around the speaker circuit.

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