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Exclusive: US to give $30 million to Gaza aid operation despite violence concerns
Exclusive: US to give $30 million to Gaza aid operation despite violence concerns

Reuters

time24-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Reuters

Exclusive: US to give $30 million to Gaza aid operation despite violence concerns

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - The United States is giving $30 million to a controversial humanitarian group delivering aid in war-torn Gaza despite concern among some U.S. officials about the month-old operation and the killing of Palestinians near food distribution sites, according to four sources and a document seen by Reuters. Washington has long backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation diplomatically, but this is the first known U.S. government financial contribution to the organization, which uses private U.S. military and logistics firms to transport aid into the Palestinian enclave for distribution at so-called secure sites. A document reviewed by Reuters showed that the $30 million U.S. Agency for International Development grant to GHF was authorized on Friday under a "priority directive" from the White House and State Department. The document showed an initial $7 million disbursement had been made. The United States could approve additional monthly grants of $30 million for the GHF, said two of the sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House referred questions about the matter to the State Department. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation declined to comment on the U.S. funding or the concerns of some U.S. officials about the operation. Israel's embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the $30 million U.S. grant. In approving the U.S. funding for the GHF, the sources said the State Department exempted the foundation, which has not publicly disclosed its finances, from an audit usually required for groups receiving USAID grants for the first time. Such an audit "would normally take many, many weeks if not months," said one source, who is a former senior U.S. official. The GHF also was exempted from additional vetting required for groups supplying aid to Gaza - ruled by Iran-backed Hamas militants - to ensure that there are no links to extremism, the sources said. The GHF is working in Gaza with a for-profit logistics firm, Safe Reach Solutions, headed by a former CIA officer, and its security contractor, UG Solutions, which employs armed U.S. military veterans. Reuters reported this month that U.S. ally Israel had asked President Donald Trump's administration to give $500 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Sources said the money would come from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is being folded into the State Department. Some U.S. officials opposed giving any U.S. funds to the foundation over concerns about violence near aid distribution sites, the GHF's inexperience and the involvement of the for-profit U.S. logistics and private military firms, said the four sources. Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19, allowing limited U.N. deliveries to resume, the United Nations says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid from both the U.N. and GHF operations. "The majority of the casualties have been shot or shelled trying to reach U.S.-Israeli distribution sites purposefully set up in militarized zones," said senior U.N. aid official for the occupied Palestinian territories, Jonathan Whittall, on Sunday. "Others have been killed when Israeli forces have fired on Palestinian crowds waiting for food along routes," he said. "Some people have also been killed or injured by armed gangs." In response, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Tuesday that it had so far delivered 40 million meals in Gaza but that the U.N. and other groups were having difficulty distributing aid due to looting of their trucks and warehouses. A GHF spokesperson said none of the group's trucks had been looted. "Bottom-line, our aid is getting securely delivered. Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome the U.N. and other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza. We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need," a GHF spokesperson said. Earlier this month it halted aid deliveries for a day as it pressed Israel to boost civilian safety near its distribution sites after dozens of Palestinians seeking aid were killed. It says there have been no incidents at its sites. The U.N. has long described its aid operation in Gaza as opportunistic - hindered by Israel's military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza, and looting by armed gangs. The U.N. has stressed that when people know there is a steady flow of aid, the looting subsides.

Stunning first images released by Vera Rubin Observatory
Stunning first images released by Vera Rubin Observatory

Times of Oman

time23-06-2025

  • Science
  • Times of Oman

Stunning first images released by Vera Rubin Observatory

Cerro Pachón: The Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile has released first images of scenes within our Milky Way as well as of remote galaxies, showing distant objects with unprecedented clarity. The US-funded observatory, located on the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where the night sky is particularly clear and pollution-free, is equipped with the world's largest digital camera and an 8.4 metre (27.5 foot) telescope. Images of unprecedented clarity According to the observatory's website, the telescope and camera "will take detailed images of the southern hemisphere sky for 10 years, covering the entire sky every few nights and creating an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse record — the largest astronomical movie of all time." Among the first images released was a composite photo of the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula taken over seven hours. Both nebulae, which are birthplaces of stars, are within our Milky Way galaxy but several thousand light-years away, and the image shows details never before seen. Another image showed the Virgo Cluster, which comprises up to 2,000 galaxies. A decade scanning the night sky The observatory, which was two decades in the making, will begin its flagship project — the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) — later this year. In the course of this, it will carry out highly precise scans of the night sky every day for a decade. Among other things, the observatory is being hailed for its capacity for tracking asteroids and for spotting interstellar objects passing through the solar system. The observatory, a joint initiative of the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, is named after pioneering American astronomer Vera C. Rubin (1928-2016). Rubin's research on galaxy rotation rates provided the first persuasive evidence for the existence of so-called dark matter, which some think could be a factor holding galaxies together despite their rapidly spinning motion, which would otherwise cause them to disintegrate.

Concern Worldwide faces shutdown in some countries amid budget cuts, lost US funding
Concern Worldwide faces shutdown in some countries amid budget cuts, lost US funding

Irish Times

time09-06-2025

  • Business
  • Irish Times

Concern Worldwide faces shutdown in some countries amid budget cuts, lost US funding

Irish international aid agency Concern Worldwide has said that it will have to close its operations in some countries and introduce more staff redundancies as a result of budget cuts. But it has said while international donations are reducing, the Irish public is digging deeper to contribute more. Concern chief executive Dominic Crowley indicated that about 400 personnel across the world would lose their jobs. He said in its office in Dublin the organisation was coming to the end of a redundancy programme which would see it shed about 55 or 56 posts. In Dublin the organisation employs 330 people and globally about 4,000. READ MORE [ 'Not viable' for Government to provide funds to replace US aid programme cuts, says Minister Opens in new window ] Some of the job losses in Ireland will be compulsory. The closure of aid programmes in a number of countries will mean that further jobs will be lost. 'We know that our budget is going to be less than it was, so we know that we're going to be doing less than we were. So that's going to mean closing country programmes. It's going to mean more redundancies for staff, and it's going to mean that the level of what we can deliver in terms of essential life-saving programmes and our longer-term development programmes are going to be reduced in many places, not just in the countries that we close.' He told The Irish Times that Concern had lost about €20 million in funding from the US which accounted for about one third of its global budget. Mr Crowley said Concern Worldwide had anticipated securing contracts worth just under €60 million from the US Government this year but cuts in Washington will see that reduced by about one third. 'The whole programme that we had with USAid for the Democratic Republic of Congo – a huge country in the centre of Africa – and for Afghanistan, that funding has been completely cut.' [ Concern Worldwide lays off almost 400 staff citing 'aid funding cuts' Opens in new window ] 'Other funding, particularly for the longer-term programmes in places like Kenya has also been cut.' He said the conflict in Congo meant that the organisation had planned to go back to delivering water by truck to displaced and at risk communities. However, the funding cuts now meant that this had been reduced significantly, although the UK had stepped in to fill some of the gap. He also said UK budget cuts were already starting to happen. He described the scale of funding reductions being envisaged as 'catastrophic'. However Mr Crowley said while international donors were cutting back, the Irish public was 'digging deeper' in its contributions. He said there had been a marked upturn in contributions from the Irish public which last year provided about €27 million in funding. He suggested the level of public donations could increase by €1 million or €2 million. 'The public support is incredibly important to us, and the generosity of the Irish public is well known, and we are deeply grateful for it. We have seen sort of modest growth over the last couple of years, but the results for this year are much better than we anticipated.' 'And we do get the sense that people are reacting to the reality of what they're seeing and hearing, and they are digging deeper into their pockets and being incredibly generous. So in the year to date, it's a very positive outlook in terms of the additional level of income.' He said the Irish Government was 'almost singular' in the fact that it was retaining its commitment of allocating 0.7 per cent of gross national income to official development assistance and keeping its funding to NGOs, the UN and international organisations. Mr Crowley said the issue of potential mergers or amalgamations of agencies in the sector had been discussed internally – and that Concern would be open to such a development. However, the opportunities for such a development were limited. 'If you look outside at the nature of the organisations in Ireland, most are members of big international families. So world Vision, Christian Aid, Plan, International, all these ones. So there's no real likelihood or expectation of an opportunity to merge with those.' 'So the other organisations that are here, are very few and far between. The number of organisations with whom there would be the potential for a merger is very, very small. We're open to the possibility of it. We've looked at this before. We've talked to agencies before. We've gone through a process. It hasn't worked out. If it becomes an option again, we'll certainly look at it again. Concern Worldwide will this week release its annual report for 2024. The report says last year it supported 27.3 million people in 27 of the world's fragile and conflict-affected countries. The report says the organisation is working on a new five-year plan but difficult decisions will have to be made. 'These are challenging times, but the Concern has been through challenging times before, and the importance of what we're doing in delivering support to poor and vulnerable people living in circumstances of poverty and vulnerability, we need to continue we need to continue working. We need to maintain the hope that what we deliver will be sustained and we'll be able to continue delivering it. '

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