UN agencies tremble as Trump term nears

With just days to go before Donald Trump again enters the White House, anxiety is rising across UN agencies fearful he could wreak even more havoc than last time. (AP)
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Updated 16 January 2025
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UN agencies tremble as Trump term nears

  • With just days to go before Donald Trump again enters the White House, anxiety is rising across UN agencies fearful he could wreak even more havoc than last time

GENEVA: With just days to go before Donald Trump again enters the White House, anxiety is rising across UN agencies fearful he could wreak even more havoc than last time.
During Trump's first term in office, Washington slashed its contributions to United Nations operations and agencies, stormed out of the UN Human Rights Council, exited the Paris climate accord and the education agency UNESCO, and began withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
But while Trump's first administration did not get to the harshest measures until later in the term, experts warn things could move faster this time.
"I don't think Trump is going to hang about so long this time," Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group told AFP.
"He's likely to walk away from those UN mechanisms and arrangements that he boycotted before without much ceremony."
The United States remains the largest donor to the UN, which is already facing significant budget pressures, spurring palpable anxiety over the prospect of funding cuts.
UN officials have scrambled to emphasise the value of US partnership.
"The cooperation between the United States and the United Nations is a critical pillar of international relations, and the UN system," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, told AFP.
But the love is not always mutual.
Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has tapped to become his UN ambassador, has described the organisation as "a corrupt, defunct and paralysed institution".
And fears abound that Republicans in Congress could push ahead with a bill calling to defund the organisation completely.

Jussi Hanhimaki, an international history professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, played down that threat.
"The total exit is unlikely," he told AFP, suggesting that Washington would not want to cede the leverage it has within the UN system.
"The best argument against the US wholesale withdrawal is (that) China will... become more and more influential," he said.
During Trump's first term, China and its allies clearly expanded their influence in the bodies he left in Geneva, like the Human Rights Council.
Outgoing US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Sheba Crocker, highlighted that "some of our strategic rivals are heavily invested in promoting their interests in Geneva".
That, she told AFP in an email, "is why I believe the United States will remain engaged, and why I believe it is in our interest to do so".
The exiting administration of Joe Biden has protected against another high-profile walk-out from the Human Rights Council, by opting not to re-apply for membership.
Hanhimaki suggested that the World Trade Organization might face "the most challenging times" to start with, pointing to Trump's focus on imposing tariffs on traditional foes and allies alike.

There is particular concern about funding for reproductive rights-linked programmes.
During Trump's first term, Washington cut funding to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which works to improve reproductive and maternal health worldwide.
"We're very worried," said Rachel Moynihan, deputy director of UNFPA's Washington office.
But the agency, which says US contributions allowed it to prevent 3,800 likely deaths during pregnancy in 2023 alone, is accustomed to seeing its funding cut during Republican administrations.
"We are a resilient agency," Moynihan told AFP.
Other agencies may be less prepared, with UN Women expected to be in the firing line, as was the UN rights office.
And word on the street in Geneva is that the new Trump administration aims to withdraw from the WHO on day one.
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said that would be a mistake.
"Having a well-functioning, impartial WHO is very much in the US national interest," she told AFP.
Another withdrawal would certainly leave Washington with "a less influential voice", she warned.
The WHO has been seeking to broaden its funding base since the last debacle, but Washington remains its largest donor.
Asked last month about the threat, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters he believed the new administration would "do the right thing".
Moon said the WHO could clearly survive a US withdrawal.
"But it would be painful... The real question is, which priorities get downgraded, which programmes?"
And "what do other countries do on the finances?"
Last time Trump was in power, European countries rallied to keep targeted UN agencies afloat.
But the Europeans now have "made it clear that they do not have spare cash lying around... to ride to the rescue of the UN", said Gowan, of the International Crisis Group.
Agencies likely to see funding slashed are already mulling alternatives and cost cuts, observers say.
Hanhimaki said reflections on alternative sources of funding were healthy.
"It's quite foolhardy to rely upon a country that is politically volatile as your long-term source of funding."


Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia

Updated 2 sec ago
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Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia

  • The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary
  • The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military
THESSALONIKI: Greek authorities have arrested a man in the strategic port city of Alexandroupolis on suspicion of photographing supply convoys on behalf of Russia, police said.
The suspect, a 59-year-old Greek citizen of Georgian descent, was arrested in the northeastern city on Tuesday and on Friday was taken before an investigating magistrate, according to police and media reports.
The man “confessed to taking photos and video of military material, acting on behalf of another person to whom he sent the footage via an encrypted application,” the police statement said in a statement released on Tuesday.
A police source told AFP this week that the man, who has identified himself as a house painter, was targeting military convoys to Ukraine, according to footage retrieved from his cellphone.
The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary.
Greek media have reported that this intermediary was a Georgian man with organized crime links living in Lithuania.
Despite historic ties to Russia, Greece has supported Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military, used to transport supplies into Europe under a mutual defense pact.

Thailand reports first anthrax death, hundreds potentially exposed 

Updated 13 min 15 sec ago
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Thailand reports first anthrax death, hundreds potentially exposed 

  • A 53-year-old man in Mukdahan province, in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos, died on Wednesday after contracting anthrax
  • There are plans to vaccinate 1,222 cattle, though no animals have shown signs of illness or unexplained death, it added

BANGKOK: Thailand has reported its first anthrax-related death with two infections nationwide, prompting a public health alert after authorities identified hundreds potentially exposed to the deadly bacteria, officials said on Thursday.
A 53-year-old man in Mukdahan province, in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos, died on Wednesday after contracting anthrax, the government said, with a second case confirmed in the same province and three additional suspected cases under investigation.
Authorities have identified at least 638 people as being potentially exposed after eating raw meat. Among them, 36 had participated in butchering livestock while the rest had consumed raw or undercooked beef, health officials said. All are receiving antibiotics as part of containment measures.
“All individuals who may have been in contact with infected meat are being monitored,” the health ministry said.
The Livestock Department is overseeing containment efforts in the affected area, including a 5-km (3.2-mile) quarantine zone around the infection site, the agriculture ministry said.
There are plans to vaccinate 1,222 cattle, though no animals have shown signs of illness or unexplained death, it added.
Anthrax is a rare but serious disease caused by bacteria often transmitted through contact with infected animals or consumption of contaminated meat. It is not spread person-to-person.
Thailand last reported human anthrax cases in 2017, when two people were infected without fatalities. In 2000, 15 cases were recorded, also without deaths.
Wednesday’s death, the first fatality from anthrax in Thailand, follows a rise in regional infections. Laos reported 129 anthrax infections last year, including one death, while Vietnam confirmed 13 cases in May 2023.
Thai authorities are continuing investigations into the source of the infection and said they would maintain heightened surveillance in border areas.


Australian PM says battle ahead to win election

Updated 44 min 43 sec ago
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Australian PM says battle ahead to win election

  • Polls have suggested 10 or more unaligned crossbenchers could yet hold the balance of power
  • Albanese is promising modest tax cuts, cheaper health care and new homes for first-time buyers

SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has a “mountain to climb” in elections Saturday, despite leading the opinion polls, in a contest swayed by living costs and Trump tariffs.
Surveys give Albanese’s left-leaning Labour Party a narrow lead over the conservative opposition on a two-party preferred basis.
If they are right, Albanese, 62, could lead his party to a majority in the 150-seat parliament.
“On polls there’s a lot of undecided voters. We have a mountain to climb,” Albanese said Friday.
“My job is to maximize Labor’s vote in the next 48 hours. That’s what I’m intending to do.”
Albanese has promised to embrace renewable energy, tackle a worsening housing crisis and pour money into a creaking health care system.
He warned of “cuts and chaos” under a right-leaning coalition led by former police officer Peter Dutton, 54, who wants to slash immigration, crack down on crime and ditch a longstanding ban on nuclear power.
Dutton, leader of the Liberal Party, has predicted “a lot of surprises, seat by seat” on Saturday night.
“I haven’t met an Australian on this campaign who said that they’re better off today than they were three years ago,” he said.
A result could come as soon as Saturday night, unless the vote is very tight.
A total 18.1 million voters have enrolled for the election. More than a third of them have cast an early ballot, the election authority says.
Voting is compulsory, enforced with fines of Aus$20 ($13), leading to turnouts that top 90 percent.
Sizzling snags (sausages) cooked by local fundraisers also entice voters at more than 1,000 polling sites, searchable at democracysausage.org.
High prices are the top voter concern, polls show.
Albanese is promising modest tax cuts, cheaper health care and new homes for first-time buyers.
Dutton says he would slash fuel tax, curb gas prices and invest in infrastructure for half a million homes.
Both sides have had to grapple with US politics too.
The six-week election campaign had barely started when US President Donald Trump unveiled his trade tariffs, with a 10-percent levy on Australia.
Some polls showed Dutton leaking support because of Trump, who he praised earlier this year as a “big thinker” with “gravitas” on the global stage.
As Australians soured on the US president, both Dutton and Albanese took on a tougher tone, promising to stand up for Australia’s interests.
Coal mining superpower Australia will choose between two leaders with sharply contrasting ideas on climate change and emissions reduction.
Albanese’s government has embraced the global push toward decarbonization, warning of a future in which iron ore and polluting coal exports no longer prop up the economy.
Dutton’s signature policy is a $200 billion scheme to construct seven industrial-scale nuclear reactors, doing away with the need to ramp up renewables.
Growing disenchantment among voters has emboldened independents pushing for greater transparency and climate progress.
Polls have suggested 10 or more unaligned crossbenchers could yet hold the balance of power — making a rare minority government a possibility.


Hard right wins local UK election in blow to PM Starmer

Updated 51 min 22 sec ago
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Hard right wins local UK election in blow to PM Starmer

  • The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics
  • Labour won Runcorn with 53 percent of the vote last year, meaning it was one of its safest seats, while Reform got just 18 percent

RUNCORN: Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour party on Friday in local elections that dealt a blow to Britain’s two establishment parties.
Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities including one mayoralty.
The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics.
“For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big moment indeed,” Brexit champion Farage said of Reform’s first-ever by-election win and Starmer’s first electoral loss since he took office last July.
Reform also picked up dozens of council seats from both Labour and the Conservatives as Britain’s political landscape shows signs of splintering.
In the fight for six mayoralties, Reform won Greater Lincolnshire with Labour holding three. Labour, however, only narrowly held the North Tyneside mayoralty after a 26-percent swing to Reform.
New Greater Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns said the “fightback to save the heart and soul of our great country has now begun.”
“Now that Reform is in a place of power, we can help start rebuilding Britain. Inch by inch,” she said.
The polls were the first since Starmer became prime minister and Kemi Badenoch took over the reins of the struggling opposition Conservatives last year.
Just 1,641 seats across 23 local authorities were up for grabs — only a fraction of England’s 17,000 councillors — but early results suggested Reform was transferring leads in national polls into tangible results at the ballot box.
“The big question we wanted to know after these results was are the polls right in suggesting that Reform now pose a significant challenge to both the Conservatives and the Labour party? The answer to that question so far is quite clearly yes,” political scientist John Curtice told the BBC.
The centrist Liberal Democrats and left-wing Greens also expected to make gains, as surveys show Britons are increasingly disillusioned with the two main parties amid anaemic economic growth, high levels of irregular immigration and flagging public services.
Reform, which has vowed to “stop the boats” of irregular migrants crossing the English Channel, is hoping that winning mayoralties and gaining hundreds of councillors will help it build its grassroots activism before the next general election — likely in 2029.
British politics have been dominated by the center-left Labour party and center-right Tories since the early 20th century.
But “British politics appears to be fragmenting,” Curtice wrote in the Telegraph this week.
He said Thursday’s polls were “likely be the first in which as many as five parties are serious players.”
Labour won a huge parliamentary majority in July with just 33.7 percent of the vote, the lowest share for any party winning a general election since World War II.
The Conservatives won just 24 percent of the vote, securing only 121 seats in the 650-seat parliament as the party endured its worst election defeat.
Reform picked up five seats, an unprecedented haul for a British hard-right party, although one of those now sits as an independent. After Friday’s win, their tally now stands at five again.
The Liberal Democrats in July won 61 more MPs than at the previous election and the Greens quadrupled their representation to four.
Labour won Runcorn with 53 percent of the vote last year, meaning it was one of its safest seats, while Reform got just 18 percent.
At a result declared shortly before 6:00 am (0500 GMT) Friday, election officials said Reform’s Sarah Pochin secured 12,645 votes to 12,639 for Labour candidate Karen Shore. Turnout was 46 percent.
The vote was sparked after sitting Labour MP Mike Amesbury was convicted of assault for punching a man in the street.
Labour spokesperson said by-elections are “always difficult for the party in government” and the events surrounding the Runcorn vote made it “even harder.”
On Tuesday, Reform UK topped a YouGov poll of voting intentions in Britain with 26 percent, three points ahead of Labour and six up on the Conservatives.
Labour has endured criticism over welfare cuts and tax rises that it claims is necessary to stabilize the economy.
As Labour edges rightwards it is facing a growing challenge from the Greens on the left.
Under threat from Reform on the right, the Tories are also being squeezed on the left by the Liberal Democrats, the traditional third party, which was eyeing gains in the wealthy south.


Donald Trump to rename world war anniversaries as ‘Victory Day’

Updated 51 min 45 sec ago
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Donald Trump to rename world war anniversaries as ‘Victory Day’

  • ‘I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I’
  • No executive order or proclamation enumerating the holiday name changes has been formally issued yet by the White House

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed his intent to rename both May 8 and November 11 “Victory Day” in his latest attempt to alter the country’s nomenclature.
“I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Victory Day, observed by the European Union on May 8 and in former Soviet countries on May 9, marks the anniversary of the formal acceptance of Germany’s unconditional surrender.
The war continued in Asia until the surrender of Japan in early September 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Though some in the United States mark the occasion, May 8 is not a public holiday or celebrated as widely as in Europe.
“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” Trump’s post said.
November 11 was originally named “Armistice Day” by former US president Woodrow Wilson to mark the anniversary of 1918 armistice ending the armed conflict in World War I.
It is now a public holiday celebrated in the United States as “Veterans Day” and meant to honor Americans who have served in the US armed forces.
“We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything – That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so!” Trump continued. “We are going to start celebrating our victories again!”
During World War II the Soviet Union, in which Russia was the largest of 15 republics, was allied with Britain and the United States against Nazi Germany.
The USSR suffered the greatest number of casualties in the war, with more than 20 million killed.
No executive order or proclamation enumerating the holiday name changes has been formally issued yet by the White House.
Trump in his second term has repeatedly sought to rename parts of US public life, whether it be a national holiday – such as changing “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” back to “Columbus Day” – or a geographical feature, like renaming the “Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America.”