Donald Trump wants everyone to stop talking about the Epstein files. Here's why we must keep talking about them
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12 minutes ago
By acknowledging 'starvation' in Gaza, Trump sharpens Western pressure on Netanyahu
In what humanitarians are calling a make-or-break week for saving Palestinians from famine, Donald Trump's I see it moment may be a tipping point. Humanitarian organizations have for months warned that Israel's restrictions on the flow of aid were bringing Gaza to the brink of famine. The latest warning from a UN-backed hunger monitor said Tuesday that famine was now unfolding across the enclave. Yet as recently as last weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly stated there is no starvation in Gaza. He accuses Hamas of stealing available aid. Trump himself seemed indifferent until Monday when, while in Scotland, he publicly disagreed with Netanyahu, saying he'd seen the images of starving children. That's real starvation, he said. I see it — and you can't fake that. With the conflict in Gaza at a stalemate — and the civilian population paying an increasingly steeper price, including the Israeli hostages still in Hamas's hands — what Israel's allies, especially Trump, do or say is key to bringing the bloodshed to an end. Enlarge image (new window) Palestinians, mostly children, push to receive food at a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22. Photo: AFP / Getty Images The growing chorus of calls this past week, sharpened by voices from G7 countries including Canada, for Israel to open the crossings into Gaza had already started to lead to change on the ground. Israel, which had insisted on its own controversial means of distributing aid, was forced at least to resume air drops and to slightly ease the movement of aid trucks into Gaza. It also paused the fighting in three areas daily to allow the flow of aid. Trump's public acknowledgement gave an urgency to those calls that could only come from Israel's staunchest ally, and which could help nudge Netanyahu to do more to ease Gaza's humanitarian crisis. Within hours, Netanyahu's office had issued a statement that Israel would continue to work with international agencies and other countries to ensure large flows of aid into Gaza. More West Bank settlements How Trump plans to persuade Netanyahu to pursue what the president described as a different way to bring home the 50 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza is going to be much harder. Trump was keen on making a deal that would see all the hostages released, and Israel's attacks on Gaza ended. But the U.S. and Israel withdrew their teams from the latest talks in Rome, accusing Hamas of negotiating in bad faith. WATCH | UN group warns of 'worst-case scenario' in Gaza: Those familiar with the talks suggest one of the biggest obstacles to a lasting ceasefire is that Hamas wants a permanent one, while Israel refuses to leave Gaza with Hamas still in charge. Another is Netanyahu's opposition to a two-state solution. Settlements have multiplied in the West Bank under Netanyahu, and in a non-binding vote in the Israeli Knesset last week a majority called for the annexation of the West Bank altogether. It is why Israel's closest Western allies have recently reaffirmed their support for a two-state solution — also a longtime cornerstone of Canada's Mideast policy — with some promising to recognize a Palestinian state this fall. France announced last week it intends to recognize such a state at the UN General Assembly in September. Enlarge image (new window) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is no starvation in Gaza, while claiming Hamas has been stealing food aid. Photo: Reuters / Jack Guez/Pool Under pressure from within his own government, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday also said he would recognize a Palestinian state in September — unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire, takes steps to make clear there is to be no annexation of the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution. The U.S. is far from doing the same. But if other Western allies, maybe even Canada, join the chorus (147 other countries already recognize a Palestinian state) Trump may be forced to at least acknowledge the shift. Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to the latest developments. Netanyahu condemned France's declaration and is likely to receive the British decision similarly, arguing that they reward terror, in the wake of Hamas's killing of about 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, and abducting 250 others. But Britain preempted such accusations and again called on Hamas to release the 50 remaining hostages. Hamas are not the Palestinian people, and there is no contradiction between support for Israel's security and support for Palestinian statehood, said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Possible sanctions Some critics however are skeptical that such declarations will do anything to meaningfully move the needle on solving either the immediate or the larger conflict. Such gestures alone are not going to do any lasting change to Israeli behaviour, said Michael Lynk, a former UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories. Enlarge image (new window) Palestinians collect aid that landed in the Mediterranean Sea after being airdropped over central Gaza, at the shore of Zawaida, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. Photo: Associated Press / Abdel Kareem Hana Countries in the global north are going to have to take a significant step forward by looking at sanctions on Israel in order to make any lasting progress on achieving a Palestinian state. France, Canada and the U.K. signed a joint statement in May promising to not "stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response. It was not made clear what those actions might be, but Lynk says they could include sanctions. Only sanctions with respect to military sales and economic relationships with Israel are likely to have any chance of changing Israel's behavior, he said. Trump did not immediately comment on the British decision, but last week he belittled Emmanuel Macron's statement. What he says doesn't matter, he said of the French president. It's not going to change anything. How this all plays out now that Starmer has added his voice may largely depend on how Trump sees it. Nahlah Ayed (new window) · Host of CBC Ideas Nahlah Ayed is the host of the nightly CBC Radio program Ideas. A veteran of foreign reportage, she's spent nearly a decade covering major world events from London, and another decade covering upheaval across the Middle East. Ayed was previously a parliamentary reporter for The Canadian Press. Video by Nahlah Ayed (new window)
Winnipeg Free Press
12 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump says US will partner with Israel to run additional food centers in Gaza, but details are scant
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will partner with Israel to run new food centers in Gaza to address the worsening humanitarian crisis there, but he and U.S. officials offered few additional details about the plan or how it would differ from existing food distribution centers. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a trip to Scotland that Israel would preside over the new food centers 'to make sure the distribution is proper.' 'We're going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it,' Trump said. The opaque details come as the Trump administration is facing calls at home and abroad to do more to address the hunger crisis in Gaza. The U.S.'s close ally, Israel, is at the center of an international outcry as more images of emaciated children continue to emerge. That pressure comes after the U.S. pulled out of talks last week to try to broker a ceasefire in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, accusing Hamas of acting in bad faith. But Trump this week broke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, disagreeing publicly with him about starvation in Gaza and citing the pictures of hungry people. The White House described it as 'a new aid plan' to help people in Gaza obtain access to food and promised that details would emerge. It did not elaborate. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that she didn't know 'the framework' of how the new aid distribution would work. 'I'm waiting for the president to return. I don't want to get ahead of him,' Bruce said. Democrats in Congress have implored the Trump administration to step up its role in addressing the suffering and starvation in Gaza. More than 40 senators signed a letter Tuesday urging the Trump administration to resume ceasefire talks and sharply criticizing the Israeli-backed American organization that had already been created to distribute food aid. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned why the U.S. was not allowing long-standing aid groups to run food centers. 'I'm glad that the president is saying that this is a problem. But if we want to solve the problem, turn to the folks who have been doing this for decades,' Kaine said. The few details Trump provided about the new food centers appeared similar to a program that was already rolled out in May, after Israel had blocked all food, medicine and other imports for 2 1/2 months. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor, opened four food distribution sites that month. Israel and GHF said that system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid. The United Nations, which has been distributing food in Gaza throughout the war when allowed, denies any significant diversion of aid by Hamas. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while heading to the GHF sites, according to witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office. Israel says its forces have only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired occasional shots in the air to prevent dangerous crowding. The aid sites are in Israeli military zones, which is off limits to independent media. The U.N. refuses to cooperate with GHF, saying its model violates humanitarian principles by forcing Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food and because it allows Israel to control aid and use it to further mass displacement. Trump said Tuesday that he last spoke to Netanyahu two days earlier and that the Israeli leader wants to distribute food 'in a proper manner.' 'I think Israel wants to do it,' Trump said. 'And they'll be good at doing it.' The president, for the second day in a row, remarked on the images of starving people and kids in Gaza, which seemed to prompt him this week to announce the new plan and his break with Netanyahu. Trump said Tuesday that everyone who saw the images coming out of Gaza would declare it terrible 'unless they're pretty cold-hearted or, worse than that, nuts.' 'Those are kids that are starving. They are starving,' Trump said. 'They've got to get them food. And we're going to get them food.' The shift brings Trump closer to some in his MAGA base, who have rejected the Republican Party's long-standing, unequivocal support for Israel and see aid money flowing to the country as yet another misguided foreign intervention. They include Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump ally, who has echoed the rhetoric of progressive Democrats in recent days. 'I can unequivocally say that what happened to innocent people in Israel on Oct. 7th was horrific. Just as I can unequivocally say that what has been happening to innocent people and children in Gaza is horrific. This war and humanitarian crisis must end!' she wrote on Sunday on X. On Monday night, she went further, calling what is happening in Gaza 'genocide.' But Greene's comments do not represent MAGA as a whole. On Monday, podcaster Charlie Kirk, who leads the powerful Turning Point network, railed against what he deemed a 'propaganda campaign trying to make it seem as if Israel is intentionally starving the people of Gaza.' ___ Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and Joey Cappelletti in Washington, Jill Colvin in New York and Joseph Krauss in Ottawa, Ontario, contributed to this report.
Toronto Star
42 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
New whistleblower emerges against Trump lawyer ahead of confirmation vote
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set to vote as soon as Tuesday evening to confirm former Trump lawyer Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge despite vocal Democratic opposition and a new whistleblower complaint against him. The whistleblower provided Congress with an audio recording of Bove that runs contrary to some of his testimony at his confirmation hearing last month, according to two people familiar with the recording. The audio is from a private video conference call at the Department of Justice in February in which Bove, a top official at the department, discussed his handling of the dismissed corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to transcribed quotes from the audio reviewed by The Associated Press.
