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Evangelical Christians are fierce Israel supporters. Now they are visiting as war-time volunteers
When Shawn Landis, an evangelical Christian from Pennsylvania, heard about the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, he knew he would come to Israel to volunteer as soon as it was safe.
Five months later, he was chopping vegetables in a Tel Aviv kitchen, preparing meals for Israeli soldiers.
Evangelicals have been among Israel’s fiercest foreign supporters for years, particularly in the United States, where their significant political influence has helped shape the Israel policy of recent Republican administrations.
They believe Israel is key to an end-times prophecy that will bring about the return of the Christian Messiah. Many of these Christians support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland.
“In the Scripture it instructs us to support Israel, and sometimes the best time to support someone is when they’re grieving,” said Landis, who has been on four previous faith-based trips to Israel. “Friendship is not just about being there for the good times, it’s also about the rough times.”
Landis is part of a wave of religious “voluntourism” to Israel, organized trips that include some kind of volunteering aspect connected to the war in Gaza.
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Israel’s Tourism Ministry estimates around one-third to half of the approximately 3,000 daily visitors expected to arrive in March are part of faith-based volunteer trips. Before the fighting, around 15,000 visitors arrived in Israel per day, about half of whom were Christian, according to Tourism Ministry statistics. In 2019, the latest tourism statistics available that were not impacted by COVID-19, about 25% of visitors arrived on organized trips, according to the Tourism Ministry.
A study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that almost half of Israelis volunteered in some capacity during the early weeks of the war. But many Israeli volunteers have returned to work and school, and now international visitors are filling the gaps.
In the U.S., support for Israel has become a top priority for evangelical Christians during a presidential election year. They are among the most outspoken backers of Israel’s handling of the conflict, and Republicans have faced pressure to hew not just to traditional Republican support for Israel but to beliefs rooted in the Bible.
The war began with Hamas’ attack in southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with an invasion of the Gaza Strip that so far has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians.
On Oct. 11, dozens of leading evangelicals signed a statement of support for Israel organized by the public policy wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest evangelical faith group in the U.S.
One of the key pro-Israel groups in the U.S. is Christians United for Israel, founded and led by evangelical pastor John Hagee. CUFI says it has raised and dispersed more than $3 million to support Israeli first responders, health care workers, and survivors of the Oct. 7 attack.
Landis was part of a two-week volunteer trip organized by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. The evangelical group has put together five volunteer trips since January and expects to bring half a dozen more in the coming month. Normally, ICEJ brings about 6,000 Christian visitors to Israel annually.
Like Landis, Claudio Pichardo, a 37-year-old from Colombia studying business in Holland, was inspired by Scripture to join the ICEJ trip. “This is the best way I can help, because posting on Facebook doesn’t help,” he said.
When the war started, many international airlines suspended flights and tourism stopped, aside from a handful of Jewish and Christian solidarity missions. Some major airlines resumed flights to Israel in recent weeks, and others plan to soon.
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Peleg Lewi, the foreign affairs adviser to the Tourism Ministry, said the faith-based solidarity missions boost morale. The can also kick-start overall tourism to Israel after a cycle of war or violence, he said.
With the war in its sixth month, Israel is under growing international pressure to do more to end the suffering of civilians in Gaza, including allowing in more aid. Aid groups say the fighting has displaced most of the territory’s population and pushed a quarter of the population to the brink of famine. Hospitals have reported that some children have died of hunger.
Many Israelis fear the world is forgetting about Oct. 7.
Elizabeth Ødegaard, a trip participant from Norway, said she was surprised by how emotional Israelis get when they meet international visitors who have come to support them.
“Many people tell us, `The whole world hates us. Everyone is against us,’ so I want to say to them, `You’re not alone,’” she said. “I know the people of Israel are important to God. These are my brothers and sisters, and when they attack Israel, they attack me too.”
ICEJ trip participants visited hard-hit communities in southern Israel, including the site where the shells of hundreds of burned-out cars are being stored, many from the Tribe of Nova music festival, where 364 people were killed.
“It was humbling and sobering to be there, to know what happened a few months ago and to see Israeli resilience,” said Landis.
During such trips, visitors join volunteer initiatives that sprang up in Israel over the past five months, providing extra hands for farmers struggling to harvest crops, cooking meals for families who have a parent serving in the reserves or sorting donations for evacuees still living in hotels.
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One initiative is Citrus & Salt, which previously hosted cooking classes and tours of Tel Aviv’s markets for tourists. When the war started, it pivoted to making more than 35,000 donated meals.
“It really helps boost morale for people to come from abroad to Israel in a time of conflict, to physically say, ‘I’m here to help. What do you need?’” said Aliya Fastman, a native of Berkeley, California, who has lived in Israel for over a decade and runs Citrus & Salt with her sister. “Chopping onions is no small thing when you fly across the world to do it.”
4 million people face 'acute food insecurity' in troubled Haiti, says UN food agency official
Four million people face “acute food insecurity” and one million of them are one step away from famine, the U.N. food agency’s director in the conflict-wracked Caribbean nation said Tuesday.
Jean-Martin Bauer told a virtual press conference that he’s “ringing the alarm bell” because the recent increase in gang violence has made a very bad situation even worse and displaced an additional 15,000 people — just over the first weekend in March in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
That brings the total number of displaced people in Haiti to over 360,000, he said, and the U.N. says half of them are children. The country has more than 11 million inhabitants.
Bauer said, there were 4 million food insecure and hungry Haitians during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and that number hasn't gone down, but the number on the brink of famine has escalated to one million.
Port-au-Prince has been turned into “a bubble” where gangs control the roads, the port and airport are closed, and no one can get in or get out, Bauer said.
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The World Food Program director said the agency and its partners started a hot meal service for newly displaced people in the capital, starting with 2,000 meals a day and now up to nearly 14,000 meals a day.
But he said the WFP warehouse will run out of supplies in a few weeks unless the port is reopened to replenish the agency's stocks.
Haiti depends on food imports for 50% of its food supply, and Bauer said WFP can confirm that the cost of a food basket is rising in Port-au-Prince as well as elsewhere in Haiti.
There were disturbances in January and food prices jumped 25% in the south where roadblocks came up and trucks weren’t able to get to Port-au-Prince with basic necessities, he said, and there was a scarcity of propane which is the basic fuel, including for cooking.
In recent days, because of the gang violence, food prices have jumped at least 10%, Bauer said.
The economy in rural areas outside the capital depends on links to Port-au-Prince, he said, and food prices have also risen elsewhere in the country because of disrupted trade.
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A WFP survey found that as prices go up household incomes are going down because people can’t go to work, are “sheltering in place,” and aren’t earning money, Bauer said.
Asked about the impact of Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation, which will take effect once a transitional presidential council is created, Bauer said he isn’t good at reading political dynamics “but we certainly hope that there will be an improvement in security.”
Insecurity is hampering people from doing very simple things right now like taking their children to school, or going to the supermarket or work which are “extremely risky,” he said.
Speaking from Cap Haitien in northern Haiti, Bauer stressed, however, that the focus can’t just be on security,
“We also need a robust humanitarian response,” he said.
But the U.N.’s $674 million humanitarian appeal for Haiti this year is just 2.6% funded.
On a positive note, Bauer said thanks to supplies WFP can purchase from local farmers, it was able to feed about 160,000 school children on Monday in north and south Haiti and other calm areas, part of an ongoing program.
He said despite difficulties of access because of the violence, WFP has been able to deliver money to some of Haiti’s poorest on their mobile phones.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that many health facilities have been forced to shut down because of the gang violence.
Blood shortages persist at the National Blood Transfusion Center and efforts are underway to bring in blood from the neighboring Dominican Republic, he said.
UN envoy: Finding that some hostages were victims of sexual violence doesn’t justify Israeli attacks
The U.N. envoy focusing on sexual violence in conflict warned Israel on Monday that the finding of “clear and convincing information” that some hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel were subjected to sexual violence “does not in any way legitimize further hostilities.”
“In fact, it creates a moral imperative for a humanitarian cease-fire to end the unspeakable suffering imposed on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and bring about the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” Pramila Patten told the U.N. Security Council where Israel’s foreign minister was also sitting and listening.
“Continuation of hostilities can, in no way, protect them,” she said. “It can only expose them to further risk of violence, including sexual violence.”
Patten was speaking at a council meeting sought by Israel and called by the United States, United Kingdom and France to focus on her recent report, which also found “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape, sexualized torture, and other cruel and inhumane acts against women during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people and led to 250 others being taken hostage.
She told the council that the 134 hostages still in captivity and the more than 2 million civilians in Gaza “share a common fate. For their common sake, there must be a humanitarian cease-fire now.” Israel’s ongoing offensive against Hamas has killed over 30,000 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
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Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he came to the council “to protest as loud as I can against the crimes against humanity” committed by Hamas in order to deter and scare Israeli society.
He strongly criticized the Security Council’s failure in over 40 meetings since Oct. 7 to condemn Hamas’ actions, saying the U.N.'s most powerful body should declare the extremist group a terrorist organization and pressure it to immediately release the hostages.
In a statement that surprised some diplomats, Katz noted that Monday was the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and said: “Let me take this opportunity to bless our Muslim brothers: Ramadan Kareem.” That means have a blessed or generous Ramadan.
“Hamas is not speaking on behalf of the Muslim world,” Katz said, “and we are asking you to condemn the sexual violence crimes that these barbarians committed in the name of the Muslim religion.”
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the council that Muslims around the world are celebrating Ramadan but “in Gaza, death and suffering can be found everywhere. Food and hope can be found nowhere.”
He told the council that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want a cease-fire because his “political survival requires for the onslaught to continue.”
Israel’s objective, Mansour said, “remains the forcible displacement of our people by making Gaza unlivable.”
He expressed hope that the Security Council, which showed an “unprecedented” reaction to Patten’s report by convening a meeting within a week, would respond equally to reports of sexual assault against Palestinian women and girls, men and boys.
Patten’s key recommendation is to encourage Israel to grant access to the U.N. human rights chief and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian territories and Israel “to carry out full-fledged investigations into the alleged violations” by Hamas.
Mansour said the Palestinians would welcome these investigations and challenged Israel “to make a similar declaration of welcome.” He also invited Patten to visit Gaza and see for herself the plight of Palestinians.
Patten told the council that when she visited the West Bank she didn’t receive any reports of rape, but instances of sexual violence during the detention of both Palestinian men and women were raised.
These included invasive body searches, unwanted touching of intimate areas, beatings in the genital areas, threats to men of rape against their women family members, “and inappropriate strip searches and prolonged forced nudity of detainees,” she said.
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Patten said she raised these reports with Israeli authorities, who provided her with information on their protocols to prevent such acts and “indicated willingness to investigate any alleged breaches.”
She expressed disappointment “that the immediate reaction to my report by some political actors was not to open inquiries into those alleged incidents, but rather to reject them outright via social media.” She did not name any of these “political actors.”
50 injured in ‘strong movement’ on plane traveling from Australia to New Zealand
At least 50 people were injured Monday by what officials described as a “strong movement” on a Chilean plane traveling from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand.
LATAM Airlines said in a statement that there was "a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement.” It did not elaborate on what happened.
Passengers were met by paramedics and more than 10 emergency vehicles when the flight touched down in Auckland.
About 50 people were treated at the scene for mostly mild injuries, with 13 taken to a hospital, an ambulance spokesperson said.
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One patient was believed to be in serious condition.
Passengers said a number of people were not wearing seatbelts when flight LA800 suddenly dropped.
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landed at Auckland Airport as scheduled and was due to continue on to Santiago, Chile.
“LATAM regrets the inconvenience and injury this situation may have caused its passengers, and reiterates its commitment to safety as a priority within the framework of its operational standards,” the airline said.
Protests drove Nepal’s king off the throne 16 years ago. Now, protests are trying to bring him back
Sixteen years ago, mass protests in Nepal forced then-King Gyanendra Shah to give up the throne and clear the way for a republic. Now, a new wave of protest is trying to bring him back.
The capital of the Himalayan country is again teeming with demonstrators, this time demanding that Shah be reinstated as king and Hinduism brought back as a state religion. Royalist groups accuse the country’s major political parties of corruption and failed governance and say people are frustrated with politicians.
“Come back king, save the country. Long live our beloved king. We want a monarchy,” the crowd chanted at a rally last month in Kathmandu.
Growing frustration with the present system has led to calls for radical change. Pro-monarchy rallies have been growing larger, and an increasing number of homes and businesses are displaying portraits of the ex-king and his ancestors.
Gyanendra was a constitutional head of state without executive or political powers until 2005, when he seized absolute power. He disbanded the government and parliament, jailed politicians and journalists and cut off communications, declaring a state of emergency and using the army to rule the country.
Protests that drew hundreds of thousands of people forced him to give up power to the parliament in 2006, and two years later parliament voted to abolish the monarchy and Gyanendra left the Royal Palace to live the life of a commoner.
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But many Nepalis have grown frustrated with the republic, saying it has failed to bring about political stability and blaming it for a struggling economy and widespread corruption. Nepal has had 13 governments since the monarchy was abolished in 2008.
Many Nepalis believe elected politicians are more interested in power and patronage than addressing their problems, said Dhruba Hari Adhikary, an independent analyst based in Kathmandu. “That’s why some people started to think that, well, it was far better under the monarchy,” he said.
In November, tens of thousands rallied in support of the king in Kathmandu, where riot police officers used batons and tear gas to halt them from marching to the center of the capital.
Kings were long considered reincarnations of the god Vishnu in the majority-Hindu nation.
“The king is the umbrella that is really needed to block and protect (the country) from all the pressure and influence that is being put on Nepal by countries like India, China or America,” said Rudra Raj Pandey, who was among the protesters at last month’s rally.
“Our country will retain its values and identity only if it is turned back to a monarchy and the king is reinstated to the throne,” he said.
But the movement is too small to prevail any time soon, Adhikary said.
With polls and surveys rarely conducted in Nepal, it’s not clear how many people support the monarchy. Gyanendra was an unpopular king, but the monarchy remained broadly popular before he seized absolute power.
The country’s major political parties have rejected the possibility of the king returning to power.
“Nepal is a republic and the monarchy will never be reinstated,” said Narayan Prakash Saud of Nepali Congress, which led the revolt against the kind in 2006 and is currently the largest party in parliament. “The only way it would be possible would be through changing the constitution, but there is no possibility of that happening at all.”
The most powerful group supporting restoration of the monarchy is the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, or national democratic party, which was founded in the 1990s by allies of the monarchy. It has 14 seats in parliament — around 5% — but wields outsize influence as a representative of the protest movement.
Party leaders met with the prime minister in February and presented their demands.
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“I think it is very possible and the environment throughout the country has never been so congenial for this agenda,” said Rabindra Mishra, deputy chairman of the party.
“If we can’t restore the institution of the monarchy in this country, there is no future for the youth in this country and the existence of this country itself could be at risk,” he said.
Gyanendra himself hasn’t commented on the movement. He has stayed out of open involvement in politics since his abdication, and only rarely makes public appearances.
Other groups supporting the king have sprung up.
“We need a monarchy. Without a king, we have no identity as Nepalese and all of us might as well just declare ourselves as refugees,” said Pasupathi Khadga, who leads a youth organization that supports the reinstatement of the monarchy.
Nepal’s monarchy did not allow political parties to form until 1990, when a pro-democracy movement brought in elections and reduced the monarchy to a ceremonial role. Gyanendra became king after his elder brother, then-King Birendra, and his family were killed in a massacre at the royal palace in 2001.
UN chief calls for Ramadan truce in Gaza, Sudan
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for ceasefires in Gaza and Sudan during the holy month of Ramadan.
As Monday marks the start of the holy month of Ramadan, it is a period when Muslims around the world celebrate and spread the values of peace, reconciliation and solidarity. Yet the killing, bombing and bloodshed continue in Gaza, he said.
"My strongest appeal today is to honor the spirit of Ramadan by silencing the guns -- and removing all obstacles to ensure the delivery of life-saving aid at the speed and massive scale required," he told reporters.
The civilian killing and destruction have been at a level that is unprecedented in his years as UN secretary-general. Meanwhile, life-saving relief for Palestinians in Gaza is coming in trickles -- if it comes at all, said Guterres.
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International humanitarian law lies in tatters. And a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah could plummet the people of Gaza into an even deeper circle of hell, he warned.
Guterres also called for a Ramadan cessation of hostilities in Sudan.
"The fighting there must end for the sake of the Sudanese people who face hunger, horrors and untold hardships," he said.
"In Gaza, in Sudan, and beyond, it is time for peace. I call on political, religious and community leaders everywhere to do everything in their power to make this holy period a time for empathy, action and peace," said Guterres.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the press outside the Security Council Chamber at the UN headquarters in New York on March 11, 2024.
Guterres on Monday called for ceasefires in Gaza and Sudan during the holy month of Ramadan.
'The Zone of Interest' wins Oscar award for best international film
The harrowing Holocaust drama “ The Zone of Interest,” which explores questions of complicity while depicting the mundane lives of a Nazi family in their home adjacent to the Auschwitz death camp, won the Academy Award for best international film.
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads, at its worst,” writer-director Jonathan Glazer said. “Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this humanization, how do we resist?"
Glazer's reference to Israel’s war in Gaza came after pro-Palestinian protesters snarled traffic around the Dolby Theater as the Oscars kicked off.
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In her review, The Associated Press’ Jocelyn Noveck wrote that Glazer “has found a way to convey the evil of Nazism without ever depicting the horror itself. But though it escapes our eyes, the horror assaults our senses in other, deeper ways.”
Glazer said he hopes the film will draw attention to current conflicts in the world. “All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather 'look what we do now," he said.
Sandra Hüller, one of the film's stars, wept as Glazer's hands shook while reading his acceptance speech.
Hüller plays Hedwig, the wife of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the bloodthirsty commandant of Auschwitz. The film was the United Kingdom's submission to the Oscars.
In the film, the couple and their children go about their daily routines — living in a home just on the other side of a stone wall from the gas chambers. Höss spends his work days overseeing the “processing” of trainloads of people, most sent directly to their deaths. Then he comes home, where he and Hedwig share meals, celebrate birthdays, read their kids bedtime stories and make vacation plans.
Glazer adapted the screenplay loosely from the 2014 Martin Amis novel of the same name, but chose to depict the real-life commandant. Aiming for a chilling meticulousness, the director pieced together the Höss family history and built the set for their home some 200 yards (183 meters) from where the real one once stood.
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“The Zone of Interest” is also up for best picture, which made it the favorite to win in the international category. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best sound, which it won; best director, which Christopher Nolan received for “Oppenheimer;” and adapted screenplay, which went to Cord Jefferson for “American Fiction." Hüller was nominated for best actress for “Anatomy of a Fall,” but the award went to Emma Stone for “Poor Things.”
Last year the winner of best international film was “ All Quiet on the Western Front,” a German-language film set in World War I.
Also nominated for best international feature were “Society of the Snow” (Spain), “The Teachers’ Lounge” (Germany), “Io Capitano” (Italy) and “Perfect Days” (Japan).
UN Women's deputy chief urges action to invest in women for societal progress
The deputy chief of United Nations (UN) Women on Friday called for investing in women and girls to drive societal advancement while reiterating the agency's dedication to fostering gender equality and enhancing women's participation in decision-making roles.
"Our first message is: Let's invest in women and girls, let's create opportunities for them to be socially empowered, to be economically empowered, to be in positions of decision-making," Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, deputy executive director of UN Women, the world body's entity dedicated to promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women globally, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in the UN Women's office in New York.
"The importance of investing in women is that when women at the household level are educated and have income, they are able to also send their children to school," Gumbonzvanda said.
Without investment in women, the world is short-changing itself in economic terms, she added.
"By investing in little girls to elderly women, we witness dividends across families, societies, and nations," Gumbonzvanda said, underscoring the broad spectrum of benefits stemming from supporting women and girls.
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"On International Women's Day and beyond, we implore our member states to intensify their efforts" in "creating economic opportunities for women and fostering violence-free environments in our families and communities," she said.
Meanwhile, investing in women encompasses not just economic aspects but also "empowering their voice and perspective to shape policies," Gumbonzvanda said, as "having women at the decision-making table enables them to address societal inequalities and elevate issues that are often overlooked."
"Political participation and women in decision-making have been priorities since the 1995 Beijing conference," she said.
Gumbonzvanda, from Zimbabwe, assumed her duties as UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination, and Programme Results on Feb. 6.
Noting that currently elections are taking place in over 60 countries, Gumbonzvanda said: "With 1.3 billion women voting, this becomes a critical moment for them to influence governments to prioritize gender equality."
She urged both men and women in these countries to "support female candidates to achieve the 50-50 parity agreed upon by member states."
Gumbonzvanda also emphasized the critical contributions of women and girls to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by saying, "We cannot fulfill the SDGs without addressing the challenges faced by women and girls, including exclusion and violence, and without expanding their opportunities in society."
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She also highlighted the need for "broader fiscal space and the implementation of gender-responsive budgeting" as critical elements in this effort.
Talking about the upcoming 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), she noted, "The meeting is timely in its focus on poverty, institutional strengthening, and financing for gender equality, alongside social protection concerns, given the current global context."
Addressing the alarming prediction that over 300 million people could still be living in poverty by 2030, she stressed the need for governmental commitment to prioritize resources for poverty alleviation programs and called for "reform of the global financial architecture to address inequalities and enhance support for gender equality programs, including education and healthcare for women."
Gumbonzvanda expressed pride in UN Women's current initiatives with China, particularly the projects in Wuhan, which focus on "bringing our technical expertise to support efforts in the country" and "creating policies and employment capacities" targeting women.
She also revisited the pivotal moment of the 1995 Beijing conference, highlighting its significance in setting the agenda for women's political participation and decision-making globally.
Biden: Netanyahu 'hurting Israel' by not preventing more civilian deaths in Gaza
President Joe Biden said Saturday that he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "hurting Israel more than helping Israel" in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza.
The U.S. leader expressed support for Israel's right to pursue Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack, but said of Netanyahu that "he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken." Biden has for months warned that Israel risks losing international support over mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, and the latest remarks in an interview with MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart pointed to the increasingly strained relationship between the two leaders.
Biden said of the death toll in Gaza, "it's contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it's a big mistake."
Biden said a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering, is "a red line" for him, but said he would not cut off weapons like the Iron Dome missile interceptors which protect the Israeli civilian populace from rocket attacks in the region.
"It is a red line," he said, when asked about Rafah, "but I'm never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical, so there's no red line I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them."
Biden said he was willing to make his case directly to the Israeli Knesset, its parliament, including by making another trip to the country. He traveled to Israel weeks after the Oct. 7. attack. He declined to elaborate on how or whether such a trip might materialize.
The U.S. leader had hoped to secure a temporary ceasefire before Ramadan begins next week, though that appears increasingly unlikely as Hamas has balked at a deal pushed by the U.S. and its allies that would have seen fighting pause for about six weeks, the release of additional hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel remains committed to continuing its invasion and annihilating Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages on Oct. 7. The militant group freed dozens of hostages during a November truce, but it refuses to release more without guarantees of a complete end of hostilities.
Meanwhile, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza according to the Hamas-run health ministry, with the majority being women and children, and hundreds of thousands going hungry.
Biden noted CIA Director Bill Burns is in the region currently trying to resurrect the deal.
Biden's comments came after he was captured on a hot mic following Thursday night's State of the Union address telling Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. that he and the Israeli leader will need to have a "come to Jesus meeting."
In the exchange, Bennet congratulated Biden on his speech and urged the president to keep pressing Netanyahu on growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were also part of the brief conversation.
Biden then responds using Netanyahu's nickname, saying, "I told him, Bibi, and don't repeat this, but you and I are going to have a 'come to Jesus' meeting."
An aide to the president standing nearby then speaks quietly into the president's ear, appearing to alert Biden that microphones remained on as he worked the room.
"I'm on a hot mic here," Biden says after being alerted. "Good. That's good."
NATO's biggest drills since the Cold War send a signal to Russia and aim for a real-life feel
Large NATO drills in the frigid fjords of northern Norway may be just war games meant to hone the fighting skills of the newly expanded 32-nation military alliance. But for troops taking part, they are very real.
And that's the whole point.
With drills underway now, NATO is baring its fangs in its biggest exercises since the Cold War, sending an unmistakable message to Russia that alliance members are ready to defend each other if needed.
Having watched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, the NATO training aims to cover all eventualities. That can include trying to catch troops off guard.
This week, crew members aboard the French frigate Normandie, one of France's most modern warships, were roused from sleep and scrambled to hunt down and destroy a submarine that snuck into cold Norwegian waters.
The submarine belongs to Germany, also a NATO member. But for the purpose of the war games dubbed Nordic Response 2024, it was acting as an enemy vessel.
The Normandie crew spotted its periscope poking through the waves and sprang into action. The submarine had already "attacked" a nearby Italian ship, the aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi, scoring an imaginary torpedo hit.
The crew were determined not to let Normandie — a top-of-the-line vessel, in service only since 2020 — suffer the indignity of also being struck.
An urgent 7 a.m. call got Normandie's commander, Capt. Thomas Vuong, up from his bunk. He ordered the frigate's submarine-hunting helicopter to be readied for flight, waking its pilot.
"We spotted its attack periscope," Vuong told The Associated Press on board Normandie in an exclusive interview.
"Then it dived again," he said. "We were asked to hunt for it. We succeeded."
Once airborne, the Normandie's NH90 helicopter hovered over the waves and lowered its submarine-detecting sonar into the sea. The frigate also used its sonar, and together, they zeroed in on the sub's position and "attacked" it in turn.
"Intelligence confirmed to us that there were no friendly submarines in the sector, so we were certain that it was an enemy submarine," the helicopter pilot, Lt. Olivier, recounted. The French navy withheld his last name for security reasons.
"So the frigate was able to fire a torpedo and destroy the submarine," he added — but not for real, of course.
The frigate and its helicopter pinpointed the submarine with sufficient accuracy to be sure that it wouldn't have survived had actual torpedoes been fired.
The Normandie crew of 146 mariners got no advance warning of the German sub "attack," to test their readiness in the inhospitable environment above the Arctic Circle, Vuong said.
As of this week, NATO nations now also include Sweden. It formally joined on Thursday as the 32nd member, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality. Finland had already joined NATO in April 2023 in a historic move after decades of its military nonalignment.
In both countries, Russia's aggression in Ukraine triggered a dramatic shift in public opinion, leading to their May 2022 applications to join the trans-Atlantic alliance.
The Nordic drill in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden involves more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 nations and kicked off on Monday. It is part of wider exercises called Steadfast Defender 24. They are NATO's biggest in decades, with up to 90,000 troops involved over several months. They're aimed at showing the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its borders with Russia.
German submariners are more familiar than Normandie with Norway's deep and narrow fjords and the cold Arctic waters that can complicate submarine detection, Vuong said.
The drill was "extremely beneficial, because we reach a very high degree of realism and so we better prepare our teams," he said. "The fjords are a special environment, with a temperature profile different to what we know in the Atlantic."
"To be able to train our teams here, against this threat, is extremely valuable and extremely stimulating," he added. "This is their playing field. So they know the hiding places."