UN warns US aid cuts threaten millions of Afghans with famine

Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Programme. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 12 April 2025
Follow

UN warns US aid cuts threaten millions of Afghans with famine

  • Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Programme

KABUL: Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Programme, which warned it can support just half the people in need — and only with half rations.
In an interview with AFP, WFP’s acting country director Mutinta Chimuka urged donors to step up to support Afghanistan, which faces the world’s second-largest humanitarian crisis.
A third of the population of around 45 million people needs food assistance, with 3.1 million people on the brink of famine, the UN says.
“With what resources we have now barely eight million people will get assistance across the year and that’s only if we get everything else that we are expecting from other donors,” Chimuka said.
The agency already has been “giving a half ration to stretch the resources that we have,” she added.
In the coming months, WFP usually would be assisting two million people “to prevent famine, so that’s already a huge number that we’re really worried about,” Chimuka said.
Already grappling with a 40 percent drop in funding for this year globally, and seeing a decline in funding for Afghanistan in recent years, WFP has had to split the standard ration — designed to meet the daily minimum recommended 2,100 kilocalories per person.
“It’s a basic package, but it’s really life-saving,” said Chimuka. “And we should, as a global community, be able to provide that.”
WFP, like other aid agencies, has been caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts by US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid for three months shortly after his inauguration in January.
Emergency food aid was meant to be exempt, but this week WFP said the United States had announced it was cutting emergency food aid for 14 countries, including Afghanistan, amounting to “a death sentence for millions of people” if implemented.
Washington quickly backtracked on the cuts for six countries, but Afghanistan — run by Taliban authorities who fought US-led troops for decades — was not one of them.
If additional funding doesn’t come through, “Then there’s the possibility that we may have to go to communities and tell them we’re not able to support them. And how do they survive?“
She highlighted the high levels of unemployment and poverty in the country, one of the world’s poorest where thousands of Afghans are currently being repatriated from Pakistan, many without most of their belongings or homes to go to.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, this week urged international donors to keep supporting Afghanistan, saying 22.9 million needed assistance this year.
“If we want to help the Afghan people escape the vicious cycle of poverty and suffering, we must continue to have the means to address urgent needs while simultaneously laying the groundwork for long-term resilience and stability,” said Indrika Ratwatte, the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, in a statement.
The statement warned that lack of international aid in Afghanistan could lead to increased migration and strain on the broader region.
The call for funding comes as other countries including Germany and Britain have also made large cuts to overseas aid.
But the Trump administration cut has been the deepest. The United Sates was traditionally the world’s largest donor, with the biggest portion in Afghanistan — $280 million — going to WFP last fiscal year, according to US State Department figures.
But other UN agencies, as well as local and international NGOs are being squeezed or having to shut down completely, straining the network of organizations providing aid in Afghanistan.
The Trump administration also ended two programs — one in Afghanistan — with the UN Population Fund, an agency dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive health, the agency said Monday.
And other organizations working on agriculture — on which some 80 percent of Afghans depend to survive — and malnutrition are impacted.
“We all need to work together,” said Chimuka. “And if all of us are cut at the knees... it doesn’t work.”


How Biden cancer diagnosis could have gone undetected

Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

How Biden cancer diagnosis could have gone undetected

  • Republicans shared conspiratorial posts to the effect that Biden and his White House medical team had long concealed his illness for political purposes

WASHINGTON: Joe Biden’s diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer has spurred some prominent conservatives to accuse the former president of a cover-up, but oncologists told AFP that screening limitations could very well have left his condition undetected until now.
The 82-year-old received the diagnosis last week after he experienced urinary issues and a prostate nodule was found, his office said Sunday.
While President Donald Trump said he was “saddened” to learn of his rival’s condition, a chorus of Republicans led by Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr said or shared conspiratorial posts to the effect that Biden and his White House medical team had long concealed his illness for political purposes.
Questions over Biden’s health dogged him throughout the waning months of his presidency and his short-lived reelection campaign. And they have been renewed in recent weeks ahead of the expected release of a book detailing what it calls his declining physical condition.
Prostate cancer, the most common among men, is typically diagnosed much sooner than other kinds of cancer. It can be caught in its early stages using blood tests that measure for a protein called PSA.
Medical experts interviewed by AFP said the late identification of an advanced cancer would not be unheard of, even for a former president receiving top-of-the-line medical care.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that it was an aggressive form that developed quickly,” said Natacha Naoun, an oncologist with France’s Gustave-Roussy Institute.
Annual PSA screening after the age of 70 is not universally recommended.
The US Preventive Services Task Force advises against it, reasoning that the risk of false positives and the harms from biopsies and treatment outweigh the benefits.
“It could be they decided to stop checking PSA annually, and then he had urinary symptoms,” said Russell Pachynski, an oncologist with Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who told AFP that prostate cancer patients do not always experience telltale pains or signs.
It is also possible that Biden was undergoing routine screenings, but that those checks failed to turn up indications of cancer, Pachynski said.
“Maybe it was just unlucky that his particular cancer didn’t express a lot of PSA and he still had a normal PSA. In that setting, you would not go checking the prostate or do a biopsy, etcetera, unless it was driven by symptoms.”
Otis Brawley, an oncologist and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, said studies have shown both PSA testing and rectal exams are imperfect.
“It is not unusual for a man to be diagnosed with metastatic prostate disease despite normal annual screening,” he told AFP. “This is part of the limitations of prostate screening.”


Philippines’ Marcos says open to reconciling with Dutertes

Updated 39 min 14 sec ago
Follow

Philippines’ Marcos says open to reconciling with Dutertes

  • Marcos has distanced himself from the impeachment process, and on Monday said it was in the hands of the Senate

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he was open to reconciling with the Duterte family, one week after allies of his estranged Vice President, Sara Duterte, outperformed expectations in a fiercely contested and pivotal Senate race.
In a podcast shared on his Facebook page on Monday, Marcos said he needed friends rather than enemies as he seeks to use the remaining three years of his term to deliver on his agenda.
Philippine presidents are limited to a single six-year term.
“Yes,” Marcos said when asked if he would be open to mending fences, after a bitter and very public falling-out between Marcos and the Duterte camps, which has fractured the once-powerful alliance that swept both to victory in 2022.
“As much as possible, what I am after is stability... so that we can do our jobs. That is why I am always open to things like that,” he told the podcast.
Duterte’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Marcos’ remarks.
Sara Duterte is facing a Senate impeachment trial that could see her removed from office and permanently barred from holding public office again, denying her a presidential run in 2028.
Her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, was elected mayor of Davao last week, even as he is detained at the International Criminal Court on charges of murder as a crime against humanity.
Despite surveys predicting a Senate sweep by the president’s allies in the May 12 midterm polls, some victories by Duterte-aligned candidates have given Sara Duterte an important foothold in the Senate that could prove pivotal in an impeachment trial.
All 24 Senators will serve as jurors in the trial, with two-thirds required to vote for the impeachment for it to succeed.
Marcos has distanced himself from the impeachment process, and on Monday said it was in the hands of the Senate.
“There’s a process for that, let’s allow the process to take its course,” he said.


Spanish PM: Israel should be excluded from Eurovision

Updated 19 May 2025
Follow

Spanish PM: Israel should be excluded from Eurovision

  • Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine 'who are experiencing the injustice of war'
  • Russia has not been allowed to participate in Eurovision since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine

MADRID: The Eurovision song contest should exclude Israel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, expressing solidarity with “the people of Palestine who are experiencing the injustice of war and bombardment.”
The intervention by Sanchez, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, comes after protests against Israeli participation marked last weekend’s extravaganza in Switzerland.
Russia has not been allowed to participate in Eurovision since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Therefore Israel shouldn’t either, because what we cannot allow is double standards in culture,” Sanchez said at an event in Madrid.
“Spain’s commitment to international law and human rights must be constant and must be coherent. Europe’s should be too,” added the Socialist leader.
Ahead of the Eurovision final on Saturday, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE aired a message in support of Palestinians — despite being warned to avoid references to Gaza by Eurovision organizers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
In April, RTVE wrote to the EBU requesting a “debate” over Israeli participation amid civil society “concerns” about the situation in Gaza, where the risk of famine is rising.
Sanchez, who last year recognized a Palestinian state, also expressed on Monday “a supportive embrace for the people of Ukraine and the people of Palestine who are experiencing the injustice of war and bombardment.”
At an Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, the Socialist leader called for more international pressure on Israel to stop the “massacre in Gaza.”
The occupied Palestinian territory has been under a complete aid blockade by Israel since March 2.
Spain will submit a proposal to the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to rule on Israel’s compliance with international obligations on humanitarian aid access to Gaza, Sanchez added.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Hamas also took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 53,339 people in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The UN considers the ministry’s figures to be reliable.


First Filipino pilgrims depart Manila for Hajj

Updated 19 May 2025
Follow

First Filipino pilgrims depart Manila for Hajj

  • 5,000 Filipino Muslims are expected to perform the pilgrimage this year
  • Special Hajj flights from the Philippines will operate through May 29

MANILA: Philippine officials and Saudi Arabia’s ambassador saw off on Monday the first group of Filipino pilgrims departing from Manila to Madinah to take part in this year’s Hajj.

A total of 5,000 Filipino Muslims are set to undertake the spiritual journey that is one of the tenets of Islam.

Saudi Ambassador Faisal bin Ibrahim Al-Ghamdi accompanied hundreds of them as they prepared to board flights operated by Saudia, the Kingdom’s national flag carrier, at the Manila airport.

“As you embark on this sacred journey, I pray that your Hajj is accepted, your efforts are rewarded, and your deeds are righteous,” he told the pilgrims.

“I wish to assure you, dear brothers and sisters, that the relevant authorities in the Kingdom have completed all preparations to receive the pilgrims in line with the leadership’s clear commitment to making the Hajj experience smooth and spiritually fulfilling for all.”

Saudi Ambassador Faisal bin Ibrahim Al-Ghamdi, center, sees off the first group of Filipino pilgrims departing Manila for this year’s Hajj on May 19, 2025. (AN photo) 


Muslims constitute roughly 10 percent of the country’s 110 million predominantly Catholic population. The majority of them live on the southern island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, as well as in the central-western province of Palawan.

The last of the special Hajj flights carrying Philippine Muslims to Saudi Arabia will depart on May 29 as the annual pilgrimage is expected to begin on June 4.

“As you embark on this sacred journey to the blessed place … may your hearts be filled with peace, prosperity and gratitude,” National Commission on Muslim Filipinos chairman Sabuddin Abdurahim said during the sendoff ceremony.

“Hajj is not only a physical journey, but it is a profound spiritual transformation where you will be going to reflect, to purify your souls, and renew your commitment to a new life of compassion, humility, and righteousness.”

Sahawi Mua, a pilgrim from Marawi, said he waited almost 10 years to be able to save money and take part in the pilgrimage.

“(With) the help of the Almighty … I prepared for this not only financially but also physically and health-wise, and hopefully I’ll be successful,” he told Arab News.

“I’ve prepared myself my whole life.”

For Marion Gandawali and his wife, the wait was even longer. Farmers from Lanao del Norte, they will be visiting Makkah and Madinah for the first time.

“We waited for 40 years … Whatever we earned from farming corn, coconut, we saved it all, our whole life, to get this chance to perform the Hajj,” Gandawali said.

“Even though we waited a long time, it was all worth it as my wife and I are doing this together.”


Pope Leo XIV and JD Vance meet ahead of US-led diplomatic flurry to reach ceasefire in Ukraine

Updated 19 May 2025
Follow

Pope Leo XIV and JD Vance meet ahead of US-led diplomatic flurry to reach ceasefire in Ukraine

  • Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the US delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope

ROME: Pope Leo XIV and US Vice President JD Vance met at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of US-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the US delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope. Joining him at the meeting on Monday was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said.

“There was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” according to a Vatican statement after their meeting.

The Vatican listed Vance’s delegation as the first of several private audiences Leo was having Monday with people who had come to Rome for his inaugural Mass, including other Christian leaders and a group of faithful from his old diocese in Chiclayo, Peru.

The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has offered to host any peace talks while continuing humanitarian efforts to facilitate prisoner swaps and reunite Ukrainian children taken by Russia.

After greeting Leo briefly at the end of Sunday’s Mass, Vance spent the rest of the day in separate meetings, including with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He also met with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni, who said she hoped the trialateral meeting could be a “new beginning.”

In the evening, Meloni spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump and several other European leaders ahead of Trump’s expected call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to a statement from Meloni’s office.
‘Every Effort’

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, is a Chicago-born Augustinian missionary who spent the bulk of his ministry in Chiclayo, a commercial city of around 800,000 on Peru’s northern Pacific coast.

In the days since his May 8 election, Leo has vowed “every effort” to help bring peace to Ukraine. He also has emphasized his continuity with Pope Francis, who made caring for migrants and the poor a priority of his pontificate.

Before his election, Prevost shared news articles on X that were critical of the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants.

Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the Argentine pope’s April 21 death. The two had tangled over migration, with Francis publicly rebuking the Trump administration’s deportation plan and correcting Vance’s theological justification for it.