UN declares famine over in Gaza, says ‘situation remains critical’

A famine declared in Gaza in August is now over thanks to improved access for humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Friday, but warned the food situation in the Palestinian territory remained dire.More than 70 percent of the population is living in makeshift shelters, it said, with hunger exacerbated by winter floods and an increasing risk of hypothermia as temperatures plummet.Although a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas that took effect in October has partially eased restrictions on goods and aid, delivery fluctuates daily and is limited and uneven across the territory, it said.”No areas are classified in Famine,” said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises.But it stressed that “the situation remains critical: the entire Gaza Strip is classified in Emergency”.The US-sponsored ceasefire halted two years of fighting, sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.Yet the deal remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of violations.”Following the ceasefire… the latest IPC analysis indicates notable improvements in food security and nutrition compared to the August 2025 analysis, which detected famine,” the IPC said.However, around 1.6 million people are still forecast to face “crisis” levels of food insecurity in the period running to April 15, it said.And under a worst-case scenario involving renewed hostilities and a halt in humanitarian aid and commercial goods, the territories of North Gaza, Gaza Governorate, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis risk famine, it said.’Alarmingly high’ -The UN’s agencies said that despite the roll-back of famine, hunger, malnutrition, disease and the scale of agricultural destruction remains “alarmingly high”.”Humanitarian needs remain staggering, with current assistance addressing only the most basic survival requirements,” the food, agriculture, health, and childrens’ agencies said in a joint statement.”Only access, supplies and funding at scale can prevent famine from returning,” they said.The UN’s declaration of famine in August — the first time it has done so in the Middle East — infuriated Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming the IPC report as “an outright lie”.On Friday, foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said on X that faced with “overwhelming and unequivocal evidence, even the IPC had to admit that there is no famine in Gaza”.But he also accused the IPC of continuing to present a “distorted” picture by relying “primarily on data related to UN trucks, which account for only 20 percent of all aid trucks”.Oxfam said that despite the end of the famine, the levels of hunger in Gaza remain “appalling and preventable”, and accused Israel of blocking aid requests from dozens of well-established humanitarian agencies.”Oxfam alone has $2.5m worth of aid including 4,000 food parcels, sitting in warehouses just across the border. Israeli authorities refuse it all,” said Nicolas Vercken, Campaigns and Advocacy Director at Oxfam France.- ‘Rapidly deteriorating’ -The IPC said hunger was not the only challenge to those in the Palestinian territory.Access to water, sanitation and hygiene is severely limited, it said, with open defecation and overcrowded living conditions increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.Over 96 percent of cropland in the Gaza Strip is either damaged, inaccessible, or both, it said, while livestock has been decimated.”It breaks my heart to see the ongoing scale of human suffering in Gaza,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday.”We need more crossings, the lifting of restrictions on critical items, the removal of red tape, safe routes inside Gaza, sustained funding, and unimpeded access — including for NGOs,” he said.Guterres also urged the world “not lose sight of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the West Bank”, where Palestinians “face escalating Israeli settler violence, land seizures, demolitions and intensified movement restrictions.”

Nigerian president vows security reset in budget speechFri, 19 Dec 2025 17:34:43 GMT

Nigeria’s president vowed a national security revamp as he presented the government budget on Friday, allocating the biggest the chunk of spending to defence after criticism over the handling of the country’s myriad conflicts.Africa’s most populous country faces a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast, while armed “bandit” gangs commit mass kidnappings and loot villages …

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US halts green card lottery after MIT professor, Brown University killings

The Trump administration will suspend a green card lottery that allowed a man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor into the United States.Investigators said late Thursday that Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese man was the gunman who burst into a building at the Ivy League school and opening fire on students, killing two and wounding nine at the weekend. He also killed a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with whom he had previously studied, two days later, according to police.Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media on Thursday that Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program in 2017 and was granted a green card.The US green card lottery grants up to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to people “from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the State Department.Noem described Neves Valente, who police said Thursday was found dead by suicide after a days-long manhunt, was a “heinous individual” who “should never have been allowed in our country.””At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem said.In 2017, during Donald Trump’s first term, the Republican leader vowed a battery of tough measures to curb immigration, including terminating the green card lottery, after a deadly terror attack in New York. Noem pointed to this incident in her post Thursday.US attorney Leah Foley said at a press briefing on Thursday that Neves Valente studied at Brown University “on an F1 (student) visa around 2000 to 2021” and that “he eventually obtained legal permanent resident status,” but did not go into further detail.Foley added that Neves Valente had also attended the “same academic program…  in Portugal between 1995 and 2000” as the MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, who was shot down in his home in Brookline, in the greater Boston metro area.There is no immediate indication of a motive in the shootings that rattled the elite New England campuses.Neves Valente’s body was found at a storage unit in New Hampshire along with two guns. He killed himself, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said Thursday and is believed to have acted alone.Portugal’s Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said “it is with great dismay we learned the chief suspect, who was found dead is a Portuguese citizen.”Portuguese police said there were cooperating with US investigators.The two student victims from Brown were Ella Cook, vice president of the university’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan.Six of the wounded were still in hospital in stable condition, and three have been released, university president Christina Paxson said in a statement Thursday.For days, officials voiced their mounting frustration with the manhunt. The case finally blew open thanks to a trail of financial data and video surveillance footage gathered at both crime scenes.- ‘Hiding his tracks’ -“The groundwork that started in the city of Providence… led us to that connection,” Perez said. In Boston, Foley said Neves Valente had been “sophisticated in hiding his tracks.”He switched the license plates on his rental vehicle at one point and was using a phone that investigators had difficulty tracking.The US has suffered more than 300 incidents in which more than four or more people were shot this year. Attempts to restrict access to firearms still face political deadlock.

UN closing bases in S.Sudan despite tense security concernsFri, 19 Dec 2025 17:20:49 GMT

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has begun closing several of its bases in the country, AFP saw on Friday, citing a budget shortfall, despite the precarious security situation in the impoverished nation.After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan disintegrated into a bloody civil war between 2013 and 2018 that claimed …

UN closing bases in S.Sudan despite tense security concernsFri, 19 Dec 2025 17:20:49 GMT Read More »

Epstein files due as US confronts long-delayed reckoning

The US Justice Department will release several hundred thousand documents Friday from the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a top official said, with more files in the politically explosive case to be published over coming weeks.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview with “Fox and Friends,” also said that no new charges were imminent in a scandal that continues to convulse America.Prosecutors have the latitude to withhold material related to active investigations and Blanche said the documents will also be painstakingly redacted to protect the identities of Epstein’s hundreds of victims.Epstein, a wealthy financier with ties to global elites, died in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.His death — ruled a suicide — fueled conspiracy theories and demands for accountability in a case that sits at the crossroads of immense wealth, political influence and perceived impunity.President Donald Trump, once a close friend of Epstein, fought for months to prevent the release of the Epstein files held by the Justice Department.However, on November 19 he caved to pressure from Congress, including from his Republican Party, and signed a law compelling publication of the materials within 30 days.Friday is the deadline for the release of the long-awaited records.”I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today,” Blanche said. “So today, several hundred thousand and then over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”As of today, there’s no new charges coming, but we are investigating,” he added.- ‘Cover up’ -Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the partial release, saying “the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some.””People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files,” Schumer said in a statement. “This is nothing more than a cover up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.”For Trump, the moment carries enormous personal and political sensitivity.Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that prominent Democrats and Hollywood figures were protected from accountability, framing the Epstein scandal as proof that money and influence can subvert the justice system.But the president himself once counted Epstein among his social companions, moving in the same Palm Beach and New York milieus in the 1990s and appearing together at parties for years.The president severed ties with Epstein years before the 2019 arrest and is not accused of wrongdoing in the case.After returning to office, and acquiring the unilateral authority to publish the files, Trump dismissed the years-long push for transparency that he had once encouraged as a “Democrat hoax.”He fought Congress over its drive to get the records out in public, but relented and signed the Epstein files act once a sweeping bipartisan consensus made opposition untenable.For the public and for survivors, the release of the files marks the clearest opportunity yet to shed light on the scandal.The newly released records could clarify how Epstein operated, who assisted him and whether prominent individuals benefited from institutional restraint.The law requires the unsealing of extensive internal correspondence, investigative files and court documents that have previously remained sealed or inaccessible.They may reveal new associates and clarify why prosecutors stalled for years, but expectations of a “client list” are likely misplaced, with the Justice Department saying no such roster exists.Trump recently ordered investigations into Democrats linked to Epstein, prompting speculation that those inquiries could be cited as justification for withholding records.Epstein amassed powerful allies, maintained luxury properties where abuse allegedly occurred and secured a hugely contentious 2008 plea deal in a separate case that critics say may have protected unnamed coconspirators.Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is the only person to have been charged in connection with his activities. The former British socialite is serving a 20-year prison sentence for offenses including sex trafficking a minor.

Fin du procès de Lafarge pour financement du terrorisme, jugement le 13 avril 2026

Le tribunal correctionnel de Paris rendra le 13 avril son jugement dans le procès de la société Lafarge et de huit anciens responsables, soupçonnés d’avoir payé des groupes jihadistes en Syrie jusqu’en 2014 pour y maintenir l’activité d’une cimenterie, en dépit de la guerre civile qui y faisait rage.Avec Lafarge, avalé en 2015 par le groupe suisse Holcim, ont été jugés pendant cinq semaines pour financement du terrorisme l’ancien PDG du cimentier français Bruno Lafont, cinq ex-responsables de la chaîne opérationnelle ou de la chaîne de sûreté de l’entreprise et deux intermédiaires syriens, dont l’un, central dans le dossier, ne s’est pas présenté au procès. Le groupe et certains prévenus devaient aussi répondre de violation d’embargo.Lafarge est soupçonné d’avoir versé en 2013 et 2014, via sa filiale syrienne Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), plusieurs millions d’euros à des groupes rebelles jihadistes – dont certains, comme l’EI et Jabhat al-Nosra, ont été classés comme “terroristes” – afin de maintenir l’activité d’une cimenterie à Jalabiya, dans le nord de la Syrie, alors que les autres entreprises étrangères avaient plié bagage. Sur les trois derniers jours du procès, les avocats de la défense ont plaidé la relaxe.Mardi, dans leurs réquisitions, les deux représentantes du parquet national antiterroriste avaient insisté sur l'”extrême gravité des faits” et requis jusqu’à huit ans de prison ferme pour les personnes physiques.En particulier, elles ont réclamé à l’encontre de l’ex-PDG du groupe, Bruno Lafont, qui a réfuté tout au long de la procédure avoir été au courant des versements illicites, six ans d’emprisonnement, 225.000 euros d’amende et une interdiction d’exercer une fonction commerciale ou industrielle ou de gérer une entreprise pendant 10 ans. Selon le Pnat, il était bien informé et a “donné des directives claires” pour maintenir l’activité de l’usine, “un choix purement économique, ahurissant de cynisme”.- “Histoire hors du commun” -Dans ses derniers mots, M. Lafont a répété avoir “dit la vérité” et être “innocent”. “Si j’avais été informé plus tôt (…), j’aurais décidé de fermer l’usine plus tôt et j’aurais pu épargner toutes ces souffrances”, a-t-il déclaré.”Bruno Lafont est le patron, c’est ce grand capitaine d’industrie, et je sais bien que dans l’imaginaire collectif, on préfère que le capitaine coule avec le navire”, a plaidé une de ses conseils, Me Jacqueline Laffont.”Depuis le début, on a cherché à inscrire cette histoire hors du commun dans un schéma des plus communs: une entreprise et son chef qui voudraient tout sacrifier à l’échelle du profit, parce que c’est un schéma rassurant, qui donne sens à ce désastre économique, moral et judiciaire”, a-t-elle déploré.Les avocates de l’ancien directeur général adjoint Christian Herrault et l’ancien directeur de la filiale syrienne Bruno Pescheux, contre qui le parquet a requis cinq ans de prison, se sont employées à démontrer qu’à l’époque des faits, il était bien difficile de s’y retrouver dans le chaos syrien et la multitude de factions armées, dans un contexte où la France n’a eu pendant longtemps qu’une seule obsession, la chute de Bachar al-Assad.”Je défends quelqu’un qui dit +on s’est lourdement trompés+”, a déclaré Me Solange Doumic, conseil de M. Herrault. Mais “il a fait au mieux de ce qu’il savait, de ce qu’il pouvait”, a-t-elle ajouté, appelant à “quitter la simplicité de la caricature”.Contre la société, le ministère public a requis une amende de 1,125 million d’euros et la confiscation de son patrimoine à hauteur de 30 millions d’euros. En 2022, Lafarge, qui avait mené une enquête interne ayant servi de base à l’enquête judiciaire, avait déjà accepté de payer une amende de 778 millions de dollars aux États-Unis dans le cadre d’un accord de plaider-coupable.Selon le Pnat, “Lafarge SA n’aurait pas pris la bonne mesure, aurait fait le choix de l’esquive”, a observé mercredi Christophe Ingrain, un des deux avocats de la société. Or, “toute l’histoire de Lafarge depuis la révélation des faits dans la presse dit le contraire”, a-t-il plaidé, énumérant l'”enquête interne”, le “changement complet de management”, “une refonte totale des règles internes” ou encore l’accord de plaider coupable.

Stocks advance as markets cheer weak inflation

Stock markets pushed higher on Friday as expectations for lower US interest rates continued to cheer investors.”Stock markets around the globe saw another day of strong gains on the back of Thursday’s post soft US inflation rally,” said IG analyst Axel Rudolph.US consumer inflation slowed unexpectedly in November, climbing 2.7 percent from a year ago, fuelling investor hopes that the US Federal Reserve will have room to cut rates further next year.”Equity traders were desperate for a trigger to ‘buy the dip’ and they got it from the latest CPI release,” said Trade Nation analyst David Morrison.The data “sparked the bounce-back as traders decided that the better data would give the Fed room to cut rates sooner and further than previously forecast”.Morrison called this reasoning “complete garbage” as the data was partial in November due to the US government shutdown and completely lacked October.New York Federal Reserve President John Williams told CNBC that Thursday’s reading showing lower inflation was likely “distorted” due to data-collection problems during the government shutdown.Equity markets, particularly on Wall Street, have come under pressure in recent weeks as concerns mount about stubborn US inflation even as the jobs market weakens.Moreover investors have also started worrying about when, if ever, investors will see returns on the colossal amounts of cash pumped into artificial intelligence.But blockbuster earnings from chip firm Micron Technology, released after the market closed on Wednesday, helped soothe nerves over a tech bubble and helped the tech-heavy Nasdaq close with a gain of 1.4 percent on Thursday.The Nasdaq gained another 1.1 percent on Friday. Shares in Micron Technology surged by 5.5  percent, after gaining more than 10 percent on Thursday.Shares in the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks, which includes AI chip maker Nvidia and Google parent company Alphabet, gained 0.6 percent overall.”Stocks in the tech sector have been boosted by yesterday’s bumper earnings from Micron,” noted Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at trading group Scope Markets.- Russia cuts key interest rate -The yen fell against the dollar on profit-taking after the Bank of Japan on Friday hiked, as expected, its own borrowing costs to a three-decade high, hours after data showed prices had held steady.Russia’s central bank said it was cutting its benchmark interest rate to 16 percent as the country’s economy sags under the financial burden of the Ukraine offensive and Western sanctions.The Bank of England cut rates Thursday, when the European Central Bank left eurozone borrowing costs unchanged.Germany’s central bank on Friday predicted a slower recovery for Europe’s biggest economy following three years of stagnation.Shares in Oracle jumped nearly seven percent after TikTok said it had signed a joint venture deal with investors that would allow the company to maintain operations in the United States.The deal will see Oracle take a 15-percent stake in the joint venture with private equity fund Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX, an Emirati state-owned investment fund for artificial intelligence technologies.- Key figures at around 1630 GMT – New York – Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 48,264.98 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP 0.9 percent at 6,832.26New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.1 percent at 23,254.82London – FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 9,897.92 (close) Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 8,171.30 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 24,295.95 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 49,507.21 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.8 percent at 25,690.53 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 3,890.45 (close)Dollar/yen: UP at 157.48 yen from 155.63 yen on ThursdayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1718 from $1.1721Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3374 from $1.3378Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.61 pence from 87.62 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.5 percent at $60.10 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $56.32 per barrelburs-rl/sbk

Vidéo visant Nicolas Sarkozy tournée à la Santé: deux détenus relaxés des “menaces”

Deux hommes qui étaient détenus à la prison parisienne de la Santé lors de l’incarcération de Nicolas Sarkozy et qui avaient été poursuivis pour avoir tourné et diffusé une vidéo le visant, ont été relaxés vendredi de “menaces” contre l’ex-président.”Le tribunal a estimé que les termes +M. Nicolas Sarkozy va passer une mauvaise détention+ ne constitue pas une menace de mort. +On va venger Kadhafi+, non plus, en tout cas pas de manière certaine. Et ça ne constitue nullement une menace réitérée”, condition pour que l’infraction soit constituée, a expliqué la présidente du tribunal correctionnel de Paris lors de la lecture de son jugement.Sur une vidéo diffusée sur TikTok le 21 octobre, dont une minutieuse enquête était parvenue à identifier la cellule de la Santé dans laquelle elle avait été tournée, on entendait un individu proférer: “(Nicolas Sarkozy) va passer une mauvaise détention, on va venger Kadhafi, on est au courant de tout, Sarko”. L’ancien chef de l’Etat avait été écroué dans l’établissement quelques heures plus tôt.Une “expertise comparative de voix” avait désigné le “plus probablement” Ilies B., 28 ans, comme l’auteur de la saillie.”Je reconnais les faits: je suis l’auteur de la vidéo qui a été postée sur TikTok”, a concédé dans le box des prévenus le jeune homme.”Je m’ennuyais dans ma cellule. C’était pour faire le buzz, avoir des contacts avec les gens”, a-t-il expliqué.Son ancien compagnon de cellule a pour sa part rappelé lors de l’audience que “toute la Santé était euphorique quand Nicolas Sarkozy est arrivé”.Dans son réquisitoire, le procureur a justifié “la réponse extrêmement sévère de la part du parquet”, autant dans sa célérité que dans les moyens alloués à l’enquête, observant qu'”on ne peut laisser impunément un individu continuer à menacer”. Il a également soutenu que l’ampleur des investigations n’avait “absolument rien de politique”.Face aux aveux du premier, le procureur avait toutefois demandé la relaxe du second pour “complicité de menaces”, mais la condamnation des deux pour détention de téléphones portables, retrouvés dans leur cellule: il avait réclamé un an ferme pour l’auteur des propos, quatre mois pour l’autre suspect. Pour ce seul délit de détention de téléphone, le tribunal les a condamnés respectivement à six et quatre mois d’emprisonnement.Nicolas Sarkozy, qui s’était constitué partie civile et réclamait 100 euros de dommages et intérêts, a en revanche été débouté en raison de la relaxe concernant les menaces.

Vidéo visant Nicolas Sarkozy tournée à la Santé: deux détenus relaxés des “menaces”

Deux hommes qui étaient détenus à la prison parisienne de la Santé lors de l’incarcération de Nicolas Sarkozy et qui avaient été poursuivis pour avoir tourné et diffusé une vidéo le visant, ont été relaxés vendredi de “menaces” contre l’ex-président.”Le tribunal a estimé que les termes +M. Nicolas Sarkozy va passer une mauvaise détention+ ne constitue pas une menace de mort. +On va venger Kadhafi+, non plus, en tout cas pas de manière certaine. Et ça ne constitue nullement une menace réitérée”, condition pour que l’infraction soit constituée, a expliqué la présidente du tribunal correctionnel de Paris lors de la lecture de son jugement.Sur une vidéo diffusée sur TikTok le 21 octobre, dont une minutieuse enquête était parvenue à identifier la cellule de la Santé dans laquelle elle avait été tournée, on entendait un individu proférer: “(Nicolas Sarkozy) va passer une mauvaise détention, on va venger Kadhafi, on est au courant de tout, Sarko”. L’ancien chef de l’Etat avait été écroué dans l’établissement quelques heures plus tôt.Une “expertise comparative de voix” avait désigné le “plus probablement” Ilies B., 28 ans, comme l’auteur de la saillie.”Je reconnais les faits: je suis l’auteur de la vidéo qui a été postée sur TikTok”, a concédé dans le box des prévenus le jeune homme.”Je m’ennuyais dans ma cellule. C’était pour faire le buzz, avoir des contacts avec les gens”, a-t-il expliqué.Son ancien compagnon de cellule a pour sa part rappelé lors de l’audience que “toute la Santé était euphorique quand Nicolas Sarkozy est arrivé”.Dans son réquisitoire, le procureur a justifié “la réponse extrêmement sévère de la part du parquet”, autant dans sa célérité que dans les moyens alloués à l’enquête, observant qu'”on ne peut laisser impunément un individu continuer à menacer”. Il a également soutenu que l’ampleur des investigations n’avait “absolument rien de politique”.Face aux aveux du premier, le procureur avait toutefois demandé la relaxe du second pour “complicité de menaces”, mais la condamnation des deux pour détention de téléphones portables, retrouvés dans leur cellule: il avait réclamé un an ferme pour l’auteur des propos, quatre mois pour l’autre suspect. Pour ce seul délit de détention de téléphone, le tribunal les a condamnés respectivement à six et quatre mois d’emprisonnement.Nicolas Sarkozy, qui s’était constitué partie civile et réclamait 100 euros de dommages et intérêts, a en revanche été débouté en raison de la relaxe concernant les menaces.