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“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few metres from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X. He added that he and UN colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he said. UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the UN Humanitarian Air Service. Our mission to negotiate the release of @UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in #Yemen concluded today. We continue to call for the detainees' immediate release. As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport... pic.twitter.com/riZayWHkvf — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 26, 2024 Israel’s army later told The Associated Press it was not aware that the WHO chief was at the location in Yemen. The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military in a statement said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. Israel’s military added it had “capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively”. The strikes, carried out over 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned” as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran. The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings and a bloodstained floor and vehicle. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes. The US military has also targeted the Houthis in recent days. The UN has said the targeted ports are important entry points for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014. Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, while other missiles and drones have been shot down. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor in what it says is an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The UN Security Council has an emergency meeting on Monday in response to an Israeli request that it condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying them with weapons.None
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Donald Trump is returning to the world stage. So is his trollingUnlike scores of people who for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. For Griffin, the hardest part of using the new drugs wasn’t access. It was finding out that the didn’t really work for her. “I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half and have only lost 13 pounds,” said Griffin, who watches her diet, drinks plenty of water and exercises regularly. “I’ve done everything right with no success. It’s discouraging.” In clinical trials, most participants taking Wegovy or Mounjaro to treat obesity lost an average of 15% to 22% of their body weight — up to 50 pounds or more in many cases. But roughly 10% to 15% of patients in those trials were “nonresponders” who lost less than 5% of their body weight. Now that millions of people have used the drugs, several obesity experts told The Associated Press that perhaps 20% of patients — as many as 1 in 5 — may not respond well to the medications. It’s a little-known consequence of the obesity drug boom, according to doctors who caution eager patients not to expect one-size-fits-all results. “It’s all about explaining that different people have different responses,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity expert at Massachusetts General Hospital The drugs are known as GLP-1 receptor agonists because they mimic a hormone in the body known as glucagon-like peptide 1. Genetics, hormones and variability in how the brain regulates energy can all influence weight — and a person’s response to the drugs, Stanford said. Medical conditions such as sleep apnea can prevent weight loss, as can certain common medications, such as antidepressants, steroids and contraceptives. “This is a disease that stems from the brain,” said Stanford. “The dysfunction may not be the same” from patient to patient. Despite such cautions, patients are often upset when they start getting the weekly injections but the numbers on the scale barely budge. “It can be devastating,” said Dr. Katherine Saunders, an obesity expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of the obesity treatment company FlyteHealth. “With such high expectations, there’s so much room for disappointment.” That was the case for Griffin, who has battled obesity since childhood and hoped to shed 70 pounds using Wegovy. The drug helped reduce her appetite and lowered her risk of diabetes, but she saw little change in weight. “It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she said. “You want it to work like it does for everybody else.” The medications are along with eating behavior and lifestyle changes. It’s usually clear within weeks whether someone will respond to the drugs, said Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrine specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Weight loss typically begins right away and continues as the dosage increases. For some patients, that just doesn’t happen. For others, side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea force them to halt the medications, Dushay said. In such situations, patients who were counting on the new drugs to pare pounds may think they’re out of options. “I tell them: It’s not game over,” Dushay said. Trying a different version of the new class of drugs may help. Griffin, who didn’t respond well to Wegovy, has started using Zepbound, which targets an additional hormone pathway in the body. After three months of using the drug, she has lost 7 pounds. “I’m hoping it’s slow and steady,” she said. Other people respond well to older drugs, the experts said. Changing diet, exercise, sleep and stress habits can also have profound effects. Figuring out what works typically requires a doctor trained to treat obesity, Saunders noted. “Obesity is such a complex disease that really needs to be treated very comprehensively,” she said. “If what we’re prescribing doesn’t work, we always have a backup plan.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Jonel Aleccia, The Associated PressNATO head and Trump meet in Florida for talks on global security
DALLAS (AP) — More than 60 years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated , conspiracy theories still swirl and any new glimpse into the fateful day of Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas continues to fascinate . President-elect Donald Trump promised during his reelection campaign that he would declassify all of the remaining government records surrounding the assassination if he returned to office. He made a similar pledge during his first term, but ultimately bended to appeals from the CIA and FBI to keep some documents withheld. At this point, only a few thousand of the millions of governmental records related to the assassination have yet to be fully released, and those who have studied the records released so far say that even if the remaining files are declassified, the public shouldn't anticipate any earth-shattering revelations. “Anybody waiting for a smoking gun that’s going to turn this case upside down will be sorely disappointed,” said Gerald Posner, author of “Case Closed,” which concludes that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Friday's 61st anniversary is expected to be marked with a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. in Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy's motorcade was passing through when he was fatally shot. And throughout this week there have been events marking the anniversary. When Air Force One carrying Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy touched down in Dallas , they were greeted by a clear sky and enthusiastic crowds. With a reelection campaign on the horizon the next year, they had gone to Texas on political fence-mending trip. But as the motorcade was finishing its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested 24-year-old Oswald and, two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer. A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, which President Lyndon B. Johnson established to investigate the assassination, concluded that Oswald acted alone and there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that hasn't quelled a web of alternative theories over the decades. In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of over 5 million records was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president. Trump, who took office for his first term in 2017, had boasted that he'd allow the release of all of the remaining records but ended up holding some back because of what he called the potential harm to national security. And while files have continued to be released during President Joe Biden's administration, some still remain unseen. The documents released over the last few years offer details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas. Mark S. Zaid, a national security attorney in Washington, said what's been released so far has contributed to the understanding of the time period, giving “a great picture” of what was happening during the Cold War and the activities of the CIA. Posner estimates that there are still about 3,000 to 4,000 documents in the collection that haven’t yet been fully released. Of those documents, some are still completely redacted while others just have small redactions, like someone's Social Security number. There are about 500 documents where all the information is redacted, Posner said, and those include Oswald's and Ruby’s tax returns. “If you have been following it, as I have and others have, you sort of are zeroed in on the pages you think might provide some additional information for history,” Posner said. Trump's transition team hasn’t responded to questions this week about his plans when he takes office. From the start, there were those who believed there had to be more to the story than just Oswald acting alone, said Stephen Fagin, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which tells the story of the assassination from the building where Oswald made his sniper's perch. “People want to make sense of this and they want to find the solution that fits the crime," said Fagin, who said that while there are lingering questions, law enforcement made “a pretty compelling case” against Oswald. Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said his interest in the assassination dates back to the event itself, when he was a child. “It just seemed so fantastical that one very disturbed individual could end up pulling off the crime of the century," Sabato said. “But the more I studied it, the more I realized that is a very possible, maybe even probable in my view, hypothesis.”
Unlike scores of people who scrambled for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. For Griffin, the hardest part of using the new drugs wasn’t access. It was finding out that the didn’t really work for her. “I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half and have only lost 13 pounds,” said Griffin, who watches her diet, drinks plenty of water and exercises regularly. “I’ve done everything right with no success. It’s discouraging.” In clinical trials, most participants taking Wegovy or Mounjaro to treat obesity lost an average of 15% to 22% of their body weight — up to 50 pounds or more in many cases. But roughly 10% to 15% of patients in those trials were “nonresponders” who lost less than 5% of their body weight. Now that millions of people have used the drugs, several obesity experts told The Associated Press that perhaps 20% of patients — as many as 1 in 5 — may not respond well to the medications. It’s a little-known consequence of the obesity drug boom, according to doctors who caution eager patients not to expect one-size-fits-all results. “It’s all about explaining that different people have different responses,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity expert at Massachusetts General Hospital The drugs are known as GLP-1 receptor agonists because they mimic a hormone in the body known as glucagon-like peptide 1. Genetics, hormones and variability in how the brain regulates energy can all influence weight — and a person’s response to the drugs, Stanford said. Medical conditions such as sleep apnea can prevent weight loss, as can certain common medications, such as antidepressants, steroids and contraceptives. “This is a disease that stems from the brain,” said Stanford. “The dysfunction may not be the same” from patient to patient. Despite such cautions, patients are often upset when they start getting the weekly injections but the numbers on the scale barely budge. “It can be devastating,” said Dr. Katherine Saunders, an obesity expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of the obesity treatment company FlyteHealth. “With such high expectations, there’s so much room for disappointment.” That was the case for Griffin, who has battled obesity since childhood and hoped to shed 70 pounds using Wegovy. The drug helped reduce her appetite and lowered her risk of diabetes, but she saw little change in weight. “It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she said. “You want it to work like it does for everybody else.” The medications are along with eating behavior and lifestyle changes. It’s usually clear within weeks whether someone will respond to the drugs, said Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrine specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Weight loss typically begins right away and continues as the dosage increases. For some patients, that just doesn’t happen. For others, side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea force them to halt the medications, Dushay said. In such situations, patients who were counting on the new drugs to pare pounds may think they’re out of options. “I tell them: It’s not game over,” Dushay said. Trying a different version of the new class of drugs may help. Griffin, who didn’t respond well to Wegovy, has started using Zepbound, which targets an additional hormone pathway in the body. After three months of using the drug, she has lost 7 pounds. “I’m hoping it’s slow and steady,” she said. Other people respond well to older drugs, the experts said. Changing diet, exercise, sleep and stress habits can also have profound effects. Figuring out what works typically requires a doctor trained to treat obesity, Saunders noted. “Obesity is such a complex disease that really needs to be treated very comprehensively,” she said. “If what we’re prescribing doesn’t work, we always have a backup plan.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.None
Former Regina high school teacher accused of sexual exploitation of student acquitted on all chargesMutual of America Capital Management LLC cut its stake in Ryder System, Inc. ( NYSE:R – Free Report ) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,394 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 1,701 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ryder System were worth $3,411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of R. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ryder System by 15.2% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 102,756 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $14,982,000 after buying an additional 13,586 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Ryder System by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,232 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $180,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in Ryder System during the 3rd quarter valued at about $396,000. Sigma Planning Corp bought a new stake in Ryder System during the 3rd quarter valued at about $208,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc raised its holdings in Ryder System by 3.5% in the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 3,759 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $548,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. 87.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth R has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Ryder System from $148.00 to $144.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Ryder System from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ryder System from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.57. Ryder System Price Performance NYSE R opened at $165.72 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.50 and a beta of 1.28. Ryder System, Inc. has a 1-year low of $105.09 and a 1-year high of $170.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $150.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.42. Ryder System ( NYSE:R – Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The transportation company reported $3.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.39 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $3.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.29 billion. Ryder System had a return on equity of 16.78% and a net margin of 3.83%. Ryder System’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.58 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Ryder System, Inc. will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current year. Ryder System Announces Dividend The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. Ryder System’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.31%. Insider Buying and Selling at Ryder System In other news, insider Thomas M. Havens sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.44, for a total transaction of $629,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,228,149.76. The trade was a 16.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link . 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. Ryder System Profile ( Free Report ) Ryder System, Inc operates as a logistics and transportation company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Fleet Management Solutions (FMS), Supply Chain Solutions (SCS), and Dedicated Transportation Solutions (DTS). The FMS segment offers full-service leasing and leasing with flexible maintenance options; commercial vehicle rental services; and contract or transactional maintenance services of trucks, tractors, and trailers; access to diesel fuel; and fuel planning and tax reporting, cards, and monitoring services, and centralized billing, as well as sells used vehicles through its retail sales centers and www.ryder.com/used-trucks website, as well as digital and technology support services. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding R? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Ryder System, Inc. ( NYSE:R – Free Report ). 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NoneNSW Premier Chris Minns has rejected the comments of Foreign Minister Penny Wong after she equated the democratic state of Israel with the authoritarian regime in Russia. The Foreign Minister put Israel in the same basket as Russia and China during her recent address to the University of South Australia for the Bob Hawke Lecture. When asked about Ms Wong’s comments on Wednesday, Mr Minns told Sky News he did not accept the comparison but admitted he had not read the speech. “If you're asking me directly, would I equate the actions of Russia with the democratic actions of the state of Israel? The answer is no,” Mr Minns said. “I'm not going to... equate the democratic state of Israel with the actions of Russia. I'm not going to do that. And I don't believe that's the case. “It's difficult for me to comment about a speech that I haven't read.” The Foreign Minister has been criticised by Jewish leaders for a supposed campaign against Israel amid Australia’s spiralling relationship with Jerusalem. “We expect Russia to abide by international law and end its illegal full-scale war on Ukraine,” Ms Wong said in her speech on Monday night. “We expect China to abide by international legal decisions in the South China Sea. We also expect Israel to abide by international law.” The Foreign Minister also said it was “not antisemitic to expect that Israel should comply with the international law”. The comment appeared to be in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has blamed the Albanese government for enforcing antisemitic policies. “Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism,” Mr Netanyahu said on Saturday after Australia voted against Israeli’s occupation of Palestine at the United Nations. The Israeli Prime Minister also accused the Albanese government of an “extreme anti-Israeli position”. Ms Wong used her Hawke Lecture to defend Labor's stance on Israel as the Coalition has blamed the Prime Minister for “ emboldening and enabling ” antisemitic crime. “Australia and Israel are democracies where our citizens can agree or disagree with individual policies or actions of their governments,” Ms Wong said. “The fact that we are both democracies should mean that there is respect for disagreement. Respect and tolerance.” Asked at a press conference whether it was appropriate to compare Israel with Russia and China on Tuesday, Ms Wong defended her remarks. “The point I was making in this speech is that international law applies to all of us. It applies to Australia, it applies to all nations,” Ms Wong said. Despite this, the opposition has condemned the Labor for failing to repair ties with the Israeli government. “For the Foreign Minister to compare Israel, a friendly liberal democracy, to two authoritarian states, is an outrageous slur,” shadow home affairs minister James Paterson told Sky News. “It continues Labor’s campaign of vilification against the Jewish state and contributes to the climate of fear Jewish Australians are feeling right now. “The Foreign Minister should tone down her attacks on Israel before it gets even worse.” The Jewish community has endured a devastating rise in antisemitism, including a terrorist attack in Melbourne on Friday and a hate crime in Sydney on Wednesday .
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Man drugged and raped 10 victims he met on dating sites, Pennsylvania officials sayBRASILIA, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro plotted a coup to overturn the 2022 election along with dozens of ex-ministers and senior aides, federal police said in a formal accusation filed on Thursday with the country's Supreme Court. The final police report caps a nearly two-year investigation into Bolsonaro's role in the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that swept the capital Brasilia in January 2023, just a week after his rival President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office. Many protesters at the time said they wanted to create chaos to justify a military coup, which they considered imminent. Earlier this week, police arrested five conspirators suspected of planning to assassinate Lula before he took office. Investigators found evidence Bolsonaro knew of that alleged plan, according to a police source familiar with the probe. Bolsonaro said on social media that investigators and the Supreme Court judge overseeing the case had been "creative" and done "everything the law does not say," adding that he would have to look closer at the formal police accusation. His lawyer told Reuters he would wait to see the report before commenting. The formal police accusations against Bolsonaro are a fresh blow to his plan to run for president in 2026 . U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's recent victory had buoyed Bolsonaro allies trying to overturn a court decision that has blocked him from public office for attacking the legitimacy of the 2022 vote. With the police report now filed with the Supreme Court, the country's prosecutor general will decide whether to press charges against Bolsonaro and 36 others accused of criminal organization to violently overthrow the democratic order. Among the accused are two of Bolsonaro's former defense ministers, including his 2022 running mate, retired General Walter Braga Netto; his former national security adviser, retired General Augusto Heleno; former navy commander Almir Garnier Santos; and former Justice Minister Anderson Torres. Lawmaker Alexandre Ramagem, who ran the Brazilian spy agency ABIN, and the head of Bolsonaro's right-wing Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, were also among the accused named in a federal police statement. Lawyers for Heleno and Torres and aides to Ramagem and Braga Netto declined to comment. Representatives for Garnier Santos and Costa Neto did not immediately respond to questions. Brazil's Defense Ministry, army and navy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. ARRESTS THIS WEEK Police on Tuesday arrested five people suspected of involvement in the assassination plot targeting Lula, then president-elect, and his running mate Geraldo Alckmin, days before they took office. Lula, speaking at the presidential palace on Thursday, said he was lucky to be alive. "The attempt to poison me and Alckmin didn't work and here we are," he said. Tuesday's arrests included retired Brigadier General Mario Fernandes, who was a deputy minister in Bolsonaro's cabinet. Police said they found in his possession a document outlining the plan that had been printed at the presidential palace. A police source said investigators had confirmed Bolsonaro was at the presidential palace when the document was printed, and they had identified conversations between his associates suggesting the former president was aware of the plot. Three active duty officers arrested on Tuesday had special forces training. Bolsonaro, a hard-right politician who had been an army captain, filled the top tiers of his government with military officers. Bolsonaro never recognized his October 2022 electoral defeat and he left Brazil days before Lula's inauguration for Florida. He eventually returned to Brazil and surrendered his passport to police investigating his role in the January 2023 capital riots, when supporters stormed and vandalized the Supreme Court, Congress and the executive presidential palace. Earlier this year, federal police finished separate criminal probes of Bolsonaro and his associates, formally accusing them of tampering with COVID-19 vaccination cards while in office and of embezzling jewelry gifted by the Saudi government. He denied wrongdoing in both cases. A person close to Brazil's Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet said he is likely to consider the result of all three probes targeting the former president before making a decision on presenting charges, without any clear deadline. (Reporting by Ricardo Brito in BrasiliaAdditional reporting by Andre Romani, Luana Maria Benedito, Eduardo Simoes and Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo, and Lisandra Paraguassu in BrasiliaWriting by Anthony BoadleEditing by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O'Brien)Akufo-Addo gov’t shockingly paid Busy Internet GHS56m for non-existing free Wi-Fi for SHSsWar-torn Sudan is on a “countdown to famine” ignored by world leaders while humanitarian aid is only “delaying deaths”, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) chief Jan Egeland told AFP on Saturday. “We have the biggest humanitarian crisis on the planet in Sudan, the biggest hunger crisis, the biggest displacement crisis... and the world is giving it a shrug,” he said in an interview from neighbouring Chad after a visit to Sudan this week. Since April 2023, war has pitted Sudan’s regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands of people and uprooting more than 11 million. The United Nations says that nearly 26 million people inside Sudan are suffering acute hunger. “I met women barely surviving, eating one meal of boiled leaves a day,” Egeland said. One of few organisations to have maintained operations in Sudan, the NRC says some 1.5 million people are “on the edge of famine”. “The violence is tearing apart communities much faster than we can come in with aid,” Egeland said. “As we struggle to keep up, our current resources are merely delaying deaths instead of preventing them.” – ‘Me first’ politics – Two decades ago, allegations of genocide brought world attention to Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur where the then government in Khartoum unleashed Arab tribal militias against non-Arab minorities suspected of supporting a rebellion. “It is beyond belief that we have a fraction of the interest now for Sudan’s crisis than we had 20 years ago for Darfur, when the crisis was actually much smaller,” Egeland said. He said Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon and Russia’s war with Ukraine had been allowed to overshadow the conflict in Sudan. But he said he detected a shift in the “international mood”, away from the kind of celebrity-driven campaigns that brought Hollywood star George Clooney to Darfur in the 2000s. “More nationalistic tendencies, more inward-looking,” he said of Western governments led by politicians compelled to “put my nation first, me first, not humanity first.” “It will come to haunt” these “short-sighted” leaders, when those they failed to assist in their homeland join the tide of refugees and migrants headed north. In Chad, he said he had met young people who just barely survived ethnic cleansing in Darfur, and had made the decision to brave the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe even though they had friends who had drowned. – ‘Freefall into starvation’ – Inside Sudan, one in every five people has been displaced by this or previous conflicts, according to UN figures. Most of those displaced are in Darfur, where Egeland says the situation is “horrific and getting worse”. The North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher has been under siege by the RSF for months, nearly disabling all aid operations in the region and pushing the nearby Zamzam displacement camp into famine. But even areas spared the devastation of war “are bursting at the seams,” Egeland said. Across the army-controlled east, camps, schools and other public buildings are filled with displaced people left to fend for themselves. On the outskirts of Port Sudan — the Red Sea city where the army-backed government and UN agencies are now based — Egeland said he visited a school sheltering more than 3,700 displaced people where mothers were unable to feed their children. “How come next door to the easiest accessible part of Sudan... there is starvation?” he asked. According to the UN, both sides are using hunger as a weapon of war. Authorities routinely impede access with bureaucratic hurdles, while paramilitary fighters have threatened and attacked aid workers. “The ongoing starvation is a man-made tragedy... Each delay, every blocked truck, every authorisation delayed is a death sentence for families who can’t wait another day for food, water and shelter,” Egeland said. But in spite of all the obstacles, “it is possible to reach all corners of Sudan,” he said, calling on donors to increase funding and aid organisations to have more “guts”. “Parties to conflicts specialise in scaring us and we specialise in being scared,” he said, urging UN and other agencies to “be tougher and demand access”. With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.
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