What contrasting Western responses to Ukraine and Gaza crises mean for future conflicts

Left: Palestinian refugees flee Gaza City amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas in late 2023. Right: Ukrainian refugees cross the border into Poland following Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022. (AFP photos)
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Updated 03 March 2024
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What contrasting Western responses to Ukraine and Gaza crises mean for future conflicts

  • West seen failing to punish Israel for not respecting laws of war while hitting Russia hard for the same reasons in Ukraine
  • Unequal treatment could make it harder to hold perpetrators accountable and deter war crimes going forward, experts warn

LONDON: Two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and six months since the Hamas-led attacks that provoked Israel’s assault on Gaza, critics say the responses to these parallel crises are indicative of a double standard at play in the international order.

Following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022, the US and European nations were united in their response as they condemned Moscow’s actions as a breach of international law, imposed sanctions, sent weapons and funding to Kyiv, and offered sanctuary to refugees.




A rescuer walks past buildings destroyed by Russian shelling on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on April 16, 2022. (AFP)

After the Oct. 7 attacks last year, in contrast, there was a grim sense of inevitability in the West about what would come next: That Israel would respond ferociously against the Palestinian enclave from which the attack was launched, exacting a heavy toll on civilians in the process.

As the body count rose in Gaza as a result of the Israeli bombardment, one might have expected the international community to respond with a similar chorus of condemnation against the aggressor as it did to the situation in Ukraine, and equivalent expressions of solidarity with the injured party.




This picture taken on January 3, 2024 shows a view of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment in the central Gaza Strip. (AFP)

One might also have expected the similar demands within the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire, sanctions and the diplomatic isolation of Israel, along with a generous package of aid for Palestinians.

A glance at the recent foreign aid package approved by the US Senate is perhaps indicative of Washington’s priorities. About $60 billion is to be allocated to Ukraine, $14 billion to Israel and just $10 billion to global humanitarian efforts, including those in Gaza.

IN NUMBERS

30k Palestinian civilians killed since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Gaza Health Ministry.

31k Ukrainian soldiers killed since Feb. 24, 2022, according to President Zelensky.

$14bn US aid package to support Israel and military operations in the region.

$60bn Package allocated to Ukraine.

Sarah Yager, the Washington director at Human Rights Watch, believes the effects of this perceived Western double standard might be felt far beyond the duration of these two crises, eroding whatever faith remains in international humanitarian law.

“Russia’s indiscriminate airstrikes on hospitals and schools have, rightly, drawn condemnation from (US) administration officials,” Yager wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine. “But Israel has carried out attacks striking hospitals and schools without eliciting much protest from the White House.

“Some might argue that the United States can afford a little hypocrisy in order to support its long-time ally, Israel. But playing a part in the erosion of international law will have harmful consequences for the United States far beyond Gaza.




Emergency responders bring wounded children at al-Shifa hospital following Israeli strikes in Gaza City on October 10, 2023. (AFP)

“Future declarations by the State Department concerning atrocities will ring hollow, making it harder to hold perpetrators accountable and deter international crimes. Pressure on warring parties to abide by the law — for example, Azerbaijan or Sudan — will carry less weight.”

Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, has similarly condemned the West for the contrast between its support for Ukraine and its relative silence over the Israeli army’s assault on Gaza.

She recently said these differing standards were evident in the “demand that we all rush to the defense of Ukraine, as we should, because Ukraine has been aggressed by Russia and they are unbelievably suffering in Ukraine.

“At the same time (the West) tells us not to act on the bombings and suffering of the people of Gaza. The double standard of those governments is the bigger threat to human rights right now.”

Israel denies accusations that its military deliberately targets health workers and civilian infrastructure. Instead, it has accused Hamas of using tunnel networks beneath Gaza’s hospitals to direct attacks, store weapons and conceal hostages.




Israeli troops inspect what they said was an entrance to a tunnel dug by Hamas militants inside the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on November 22, 2023. (AFP)

Any damage to medical facilities, therefore, is the fault of Hamas, Israeli authorities say, accusing the group of using patients and doctors as human shields.

Jamie Shea, an associate fellow with the International Security Program at Chatham House, said it is important to recognize that while the situations in Ukraine and Gaza might appear broadly comparable, viewing the two conflicts as “subsets of the same basic political confrontation” is wrongheaded.

“There will always be some similarities (in wars), such as the terrible impact of war on the civilian populations or the desire of the Western powers to avoid regional escalation,” Shea told Arab News.

“But Ukraine and Gaza are not subsets of the same basic political confrontation in the way that the Ukraine-Georgia conflicts are linked through Russia, or the pro-Iranian militias in the Middle East, like the Houthis, are being mobilized because of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.”

Another counterargument to the double-standards accusation is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lacks the moral clarity of the Russia-Ukraine war. 

In comments to the Wall Street Journal in December, British lawmaker Alex Sobel, a Labour co-chair of the UK parliament’s all-party group on Ukraine, said: “There is no moral justification for the Russian invasion. Zero.

“But in Israel and Palestine, it’s about the fact that there are two peoples on a very small amount of land, and political and military elites on both sides are unwilling to settle for what’s on offer.”

Furthermore, as Yager noted in her article for Foreign Affairs, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was arguably unprovoked, unlike Israel’s retaliation for the cross-border attack by Hamas.




People view the portraits of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas are displayed at a site in Tel Aviv on February 3, 2024. The captives were seized by the Palestinian militants during their surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, provoking an Israeli offensive that has so far killed more than 30,000 Palestinians. (AFP)

Nevertheless, Yager stressed that when “a country decides to use military force, it must fully adhere to the laws that govern conduct in war.”

Eugenie Duss, a research fellow at the Geneva Academy who specializes in the laws of armed conflict, told Arab News that such laws, which apply to state and non-state actors alike, are designed to protect civilians.

Yet it seems that in the view of many Western governments, these rules do not apply to civilians in Gaza. For example, 12 million Ukrainian refugees who fled the Russian offensive have been welcomed by host countries and their rights duly respected.

“I knew a lot of Ukrainians who came (to Britain) about two years ago,” Alla Sirenko, the president and founder of the Ukrainian Cultural Association in the UK, told Arab News.

“They have mostly been women with children and the elderly, and in most cases they have been hard-working people.

“The majority of them have been admired for their resilience, intelligence, hard work and good nature, and (while) most of them are looking forward to returning to Ukraine when it is safe to do so, there has been a lot of goodwill from the British people toward them.”




Refugees from Ukraine (left) are welcomed by volunteers in San Ysidro, California on April 8, 2022. Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion had been welcomed in Western countries. On the other hand, Palestinian refugees remain stranded at the severely damaged Maghazi camp as they have nowhere to go. (AFP photos)

This welcoming environment was encouraged by the UK government, which offered British citizens financial incentives to offer their spare rooms to house Ukrainian refugees.

Similar schemes generally do not exist in the West for refugees who flee conflicts in the Middle East, including the war in Gaza.

One exception is Canada, which offers a temporary visa-extension scheme for Gazans with relatives who are already resident in the country.

Shea acknowledged the perception of a Western double standard in this, which appears to value the lives of Ukrainians over their counterparts in Palestine. However, he believes the West is trying to inhibit a mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza because it is concerned about what would happen next.

“In Gaza, the West is trying to prevent a mass exodus of the Palestinian population (including to the West Bank) as this would allow Israel to reoccupy the territory and diminish further the amount of land available to the Palestinians for a viable two-state solution,” he said.

“Once forced to leave, Palestinians are unlikely to be able to return, given the likelihood of more Israeli settlements. And in contrast to the Ukrainians in Europe, they are unlikely to be welcomed by countries like Egypt and Jordan, already experiencing severe economic stress.”

Of course, even the Western support for Ukraine is not limitless. As the war increasingly appears to be mired in a stalemate, politicking in Washington is hampering the allocation of further US aid and, as Western populations grow weary of concurrent crises, goodwill could quickly evaporate.

Colin Alexander, a senior lecturer in political communications at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, said it is “well-trodden ground … that publics become overwhelmed by news of more than one conflict at a time.”

Journalism relies on the “evocation of emotions to create traction” even if the reality is “much more complicated,” he told Arab News, and with multiple victims in multiple conflicts, the attempts to elicit empathy could prove “overwhelming” for some audiences.

“Herein, the world edges toward a difficult scenario, diplomatically as well as militarily,” Alexander said. “The Middle East, Ukraine, North Korea, Taiwan — suddenly there are too many crises to comprehend for even the most avid newsreader.”

So far, however, the Ukrainian Cultural Association’s Sirenko said there is no sign that either a sense of “news fatigue” or any perceived double standards in policies on Gaza has reduced the level of sympathy among the British public for the Ukrainians who have found sanctuary in the UK.

“They don’t feel harassed or diminished because of the war in Palestine,” she said. “We are all sorry about it, but it’s not affecting life for Ukrainians in the UK nor the goodwill of the British people towards them.”

 


Muslim candidate Mamdani leads Cuomo in New York City mayoral contest

Updated 6 sec ago
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Muslim candidate Mamdani leads Cuomo in New York City mayoral contest

  • Mamdani top choice of 43.6 percent, Cuomo at 36.2% with 87% preliminary votes counted
  • Born to family of Indian descent, 33-year-old Mamdani has history of Palestinian activism

NEW YORK: Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker and self-described democratic socialist, held an early lead over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic mayoral contest on Tuesday, though the final outcome is unlikely to be known until at least next week.

With an estimated 87 percent of the preliminary ballots counted, Mamdani was the top choice of 43.6 percent of voters, according to the Associated Press. Cuomo, a 67-year-old political veteran who is attempting a comeback four years after resigning as governor amid sexual harassment allegations, was at 36.2 percent, with nine other candidates trailing.

New York uses ranked-choice voting that allows citizens to pick up to five candidates in order of preference, a system that calls for multiple rounds of vote counting if no candidate reaches 50 percent in the initial tally.

The first results of those additional rounds are not expected until July 1, when absentee and late-arriving mail ballots will also be included, according to election officials.

Polls suggested the race had become a two-man competition between Cuomo, who served 10 years as governor before stepping down in 2021, and Mamdani, a relative unknown who has been in the state assembly only since 2021.

The victor will become the favorite to take the general election in a city where Democrats dominate. Their differences were clear: Cuomo, a moderate backed by the establishment, or Mamdani, a progressive newcomer who promised a break with the past.

The current mayor, Eric Adams, will also appear on the November ballot as an independent, but a series of corruption scandals and his perceived ties to Republican President Donald Trump have weakened his standing.

The Republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa, a radio host best known as the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol who lost to Adams in 2021.

Five months into Trump’s tumultuous second term, the election result offers an early read on the direction Democrats believe the party should take.

“The outcome of this race could show whether NYC voters feel that more centrist policies ... or a broader socio-political movement is the path forward for Democrats nationally,” Basil Smikle, a political analyst and professor at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, told Reuters.

For some voters, Mamdani represented a chance to usher in a new era for the party.

“I think it’s time for somebody young, a person of color, something different,” Ignacio Tambunting, a 28-year-old actor, told a Reuters reporter outside a polling station in Manhattan after putting Mamdani atop his ballot.

Other voters were willing to overlook, if not forgive, the misconduct accusations against Cuomo, as well as allegations that he misled the public during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, in favor of choosing an experienced hand.

“Cuomo has a track record of showing a consistent ability to get things passed,” Nicolas G. Baldwin, a 27-year-old teacher at a private school, told a Reuters reporter outside a poll site at the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Tuesday, when voters endured temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

Cuomo was the only name he marked on his ballot.

“I’m judging them for their job, not necessarily for their ethics,” he said.

Cuomo has denied the harassment accusations, which he has characterized as ill-conceived attempts to be affectionate or humorous.

SELF-DESCRIBED DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST

Cuomo has accused Mamdani of lacking the experience required, while Mamdani has attacked Cuomo over the harassment allegations.

Cuomo, who emerged as a vocal critic of Trump during his first term as president, has won the endorsements of former President Bill Clinton and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Born in Uganda to a family of Indian descent, Mamdani, a Muslim, has a history of pro-Palestinian activism.

A self-described democratic socialist, Mamdani was elected to a state assembly seat in New York’s Queens borough and has garnered the support of US Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two prominent progressives.

In ranked voting, the last-place candidate is eliminated after each round, and their votes are redistributed to the second choice marked on the ballots of their supporters. The process is repeated until one candidate achieves 50 percent of the total.

The system could give the biggest boost to Mamdani, who cross-endorsed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Both progressives urged their supporters to rank the other as second choice.

Lander, who was third on Tuesday with 11.6 percent of ballots, caught the public’s eye last week when he was briefly detained while escorting a defendant out of an immigration court.


Cuomo is trying a comeback in New York’s mayoral primary, but Zohran Mamdani stands in his way

Updated 25 June 2025
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Cuomo is trying a comeback in New York’s mayoral primary, but Zohran Mamdani stands in his way

  • The vote takes place about four years after Cuomo, 67, resigned as governor following a sexual harassment scandal

NEW YORK: New York City Democrats will decide Tuesday whether to reboot Andrew Cuomo’s political career, elevate liberal upstart Zohran Mamdani, or turn to a crowded field of lesser-known but maybe less-polarizing candidates in the party’s mayoral primary.
Their choice could say something about what kind of leader Democrats are looking for during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The vote takes place about four years after Cuomo, 67, resigned as governor following a sexual harassment scandal. Yet he has been the favorite throughout the race, with his deep experience, nearly universal name recognition, strong political connections and juggernaut fundraising apparatus.
The party’s progressive wing, meanwhile, has coalesced behind Mamdani, 33, a self-described democratic socialist. A relatively unknown state legislator when the contest began, Mamdani gained momentum by running a sharp campaign laser-focused on the city’s high cost of living and secured endorsements from two of the country’s foremost progressives, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
As results from early and mail-in voting began to roll in Tuesday, they showed a majority of voters had made Mamdani or Cuomo their top choice, with the rest of the field trailing.
The candidates made a final push out in the city earlier in the day, sweating it out with voters on a sizzling summer day in which temperatures reached the triple digits. While initial returns were being released after the polls closed at 9 p.m. Tuesday, a winner might not emerge for a week because of the city’s ranked choice voting system, which allows voters to list up to five candidates in order of preference. If a candidate is the first choice of a majority of voters, they win outright. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the tabulation of the rankings wouldn’t begin until July 1.
The primary winner will go on to face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who decided to run as an independent amid a public uproar over his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent abandonment of the case by Trump’s Justice Department. Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, will be on the ballot in the fall’s general election. There is also a possibility that Cuomo runs on the November ballot as an independent candidate if he loses the primary.
The mayoral primary’s two leading candidates — one a fresh-faced progressive and the other an older moderate — could be stand-ins for the larger Democratic Party’s ideological divide, though Cuomo’s scandal-scarred past adds a unique tinge to the narrative.
The rest of the pack has struggled to gain recognition in a race where nearly every candidate has cast themselves as the person best positioned to challenge Trump’s Republican agenda.
Comptroller Brad Lander, a liberal city government stalwart, made a splash last week when he was arrested after linking arms with a man federal agents were trying to detain at an immigration court in Manhattan. It was unclear if that episode was enough to jump-start a campaign that had been failing to pick up speed behind Lander.
Among the other candidates are City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, hedge fund executive Whitney Tilson and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Mamdani’s energetic run has been hard not to notice.
His army of young canvassers relentlessly knocked on doors throughout the city seeking support. Posters of his grinning mug were up on shop windows. You couldn’t get on social media without seeing one of his well-produced videos pitching his vision — free buses, free child care, new apartments, a higher minimum wage and more, paid for by new taxes on rich people. He would be the city’s first Indian American and first Muslim mayor.
That youthful energy was apparent Tuesday evening, as both cautiously optimistic canvassers and ecstatic supporters lined the streets of Central Brooklyn, creating a party-like atmosphere that spread from poll sites into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Outside his family’s Caribbean apothecary, Amani Kojo, a 23-year-old first-time voter, passed out iced tea to Mamdani canvassers, encouraging them to stay hydrated.
“It’s 100 degrees outside and it’s a vibe. New York City feels alive again,” Kojo said, raising a pile of Mamdani pamphlets. “It feels very electric seeing all the people around, the flyers, all the posts on my Instagram all day.”
Cuomo and some other Democrats have cast Mamdani as unqualified. They say he doesn’t have the management chops to wrangle the city’s sprawling bureaucracy or handle crises. Critics have also taken aim at Mamdani’s support for Palestinian human rights.
In response, Mamdani has slammed Cuomo over his sexual harassment scandal and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
In one heated debate exchange, Cuomo rattled off a long list of what he saw as Mamdani’s managerial shortcomings, arguing that his opponent, who has been in the state Assembly since 2021, has never dealt with Congress or unions and never overseen an infrastructure project. He added that Mamdani couldn’t be relied upon to go toe-to-toe with Trump.
Mamdani had a counter ready.
“To Mr. Cuomo, I have never had to resign in disgrace,” he said.
Cuomo resigned in 2021 after a report commissioned by the state attorney general concluded that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women. He has always maintained that he didn’t intentionally harass the women, saying he had simply fallen behind what was considered appropriate workplace conduct.
During the campaign, he has become more aggressive in defending himself, framing the situation as a political hit job orchestrated by his enemies.
The fresh scandal at City Hall involving Mayor Eric Adams, though, gave Cuomo a path to end his exile.


Trump rattles NATO allies as he descends on summit

Updated 25 June 2025
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Trump rattles NATO allies as he descends on summit

  • The alliance hopes to keep Trump bound to its mutual defense vow by meeting his demand for a headline figure of five percent of GDP on defense spending

THE HAGUE: US President Donald Trump swept into NATO’s Hague summit Tuesday, with allies hoping a pledge to ramp up defense spending will keep the mercurial leader of the military superpower committed to protecting them.
Trump joined leaders from NATO’s 31 other members to kick off the two-day gathering with a dinner hosted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander in the ornate Orange Hall at his royal residence.
The alliance hopes to keep Trump bound to its mutual defense vow by meeting his demand for a headline figure of five percent of GDP on defense spending.
But Trump refused to say he was committed to NATO’s Article Five clause and protecting Europe in comments that will likely rattle his counterparts on the continent.
“Depends on your definition. There’s numerous definitions of Article Five,” Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One. “I’m committed to being their friend.”
To keep Trump on board, NATO members have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate 3.5 percent to core military needs by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader security-related areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.
NATO says the military build-up is crucial to deter Russia, which officials warn is rapidly rebuilding its forces depleted by the war in Ukraine and could be ready to attack the alliance in five years.
But it is just as important for keeping Trump engaged as Washington warns it may shift forces from Europe to face the threat from China.
“They’re going to be lifting it to five percent, that’s good,” Trump said. “It gives them much more power.”
But while the promise of more spending could win Trump over, deep divisions remain over the approach to Europe’s key security issue: Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump said he would probably meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky while in The Hague, with Kyiv hoping it can avoid a repeat of the pair’s infamous Oval Office bust-up.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told an audience in The Hague that NATO’s “historic” spending pledge showed that “the Europe of defense has finally awakened.”
Alliance leaders meanwhile — many of whom are struggling to find the money that will be required — lined up to argue that the threats facing the continent required bold steps.
“We must navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in announcing the UK’s commitment to meet the target.
Starmer on Wednesday will formally announce that his country is buying a dozen F-35A fighters, capable of carrying atomic weapons to support NATO’s nuclear mission.
The purchase marks an expansion of Britain’s nuclear deterrence, which is currently limited to submarine-launched missiles.
A statement late Tuesday from Starmer’s office quoted Rutte as saying: “I strongly welcome today’s announcement,” calling it “yet another robust British contribution to NATO.”
Separately, powerhouse Germany announced plans to hit the 3.5-percent figure for core defense needs by 2029 — six years before the timeline.
At the other end of the scale, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has risked Trump’s ire by insisting his country doesn’t have to meet the five percent target.
For its part, the Kremlin attacked NATO for its “rampant militarization,” with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: “This is the reality that surrounds us.”
Since storming back to power, Trump has upended the West’s approach to the three-year conflict by turning his back on Kyiv and opening the door to closer ties with Moscow.
Zelensky was set to play less of a central role than at recent NATO gatherings and will not attend the main working session.
But Ukraine’s president said he would discuss with Trump buying a package of weapons made up mainly of air defenses.
Zelensky would also push Trump on imposing new sanctions on Russia as Moscow has stalled peace efforts being pressed by Washington, Kyiv said.
“There are no signs that Putin wants to stop this war. Russia rejects all peace proposals including those from the US. Putin only thinks about war,” the Ukrainian leader told a defense forum held alongside the summit.
Trump did briefly meet on the sidelines of the summit late Tuesday with Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who urged “close dialogue” to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Rutte said allies would send the message that support for Kyiv was “unwavering and will persist.”
But despite his insistence that Ukraine’s bid for membership remains “irreversible,” NATO will avoid any mention of Kyiv’s push to join after Trump ruled it out.


Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts

Updated 25 June 2025
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Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts

  • The lawsuit argues the Trump administration has used the clause for the basis of a “slash-and-burn campaign” to cut federal grants

BOSTON: Attorneys general from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging billions of dollars in funding cuts made by the Trump administration that would fund everything from crime prevention to food security to scientific research.
The lawsuit filed in Boston is asking a judge to limit the Trump administration from relying on an obscure clause in the federal regulation to cut grants that don’t align with its priorities. Since January, the lawsuit argues that the administration has used that clause to cancel entire programs and thousands of grants that had been previously awarded to states and grantees.
“Defendants’ decision to invoke the Clause to terminate grants based on changed agency priorities is unlawful several times over,” the plaintiffs argued. “The rulemaking history of the Clause makes plain that the (Office of Management and Budget) intended for the Clause to permit terminations in only limited circumstances and provides no support for a broad power to terminate grants on a whim based on newly identified agency priorities.”
The lawsuit argues the Trump administration has used the clause for the basis of a “slash-and-burn campaign” to cut federal grants.
“Defendants have terminated thousands of grant awards made to Plaintiffs, pulling the rug out from under the States, and taking away critical federal funding on which States and their residents rely for essential programs,” the lawsuit added.
Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha said this lawsuit was just one of several the coalition of mostly Democratic states have filed over funding cuts. For the most part, they have largely succeeded in a string of legal victories to temporarily halt cuts.
This one, though, may be the broadest challenge to those funding cuts.
“It’s no secret that this President has gone to great lengths to intercept federal funding to the states, but what may be lesser known is how the Trump Administration is attempting to justify their unlawful actions,” Neronha said in a statement. “Nearly every lawsuit this coalition of Democratic attorneys general has filed against the Administration is related to its unlawful and flagrant attempts to rob Americans of basic programs and services upon which they rely. Most often, this comes in the form of illegal federal funding cuts, which the Administration attempts to justify via a so-called ‘agency priorities clause.”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the lawsuit aimed to stop funding cuts he described as indiscriminate and illegal.
“There is no ‘because I don’t like you’ or ‘because I don’t feel like it anymore’ defunding clause in federal law that allows the President to bypass Congress on a whim,” Tong said in a statement. “Since his first minutes in office, Trump has unilaterally defunded our police, our schools, our health care, and more. He can’t do that, and that’s why over and over again we have blocked him in court and won back our funding.”
In Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Campbell said the US Department of Agriculture terminated a $11 million agreement with the state Department of Agricultural Resources connecting hundreds of farmers to hundreds of food distribution sites while the US Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $1 million grant to the state Department of Public Health to reduce asthma triggers in low-income communities.
“We cannot stand idly by while this President continues to launch unprecedented, unlawful attacks on Massachusetts’ residents, institutions, and economy,” Campbell said in a statement.
The lawsuit argues that the OMB promulgated the use of the clause in question to justify the cuts. The clause in question, according to the lawsuit, refers to five words that say federal agents can terminate grants if the award “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
“The Trump Administration has claimed that five words in this Clause— ‘no longer effectuates . . . agency priorities’— provide federal agencies with virtually unfettered authority to withhold federal funding any time they no longer wish to support the programs for which Congress has appropriated funding,” the lawsuit said.


US intel says strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program

This picture shows a general view of an Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan on November 20, 2004. (AFP file photo)
Updated 25 June 2025
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US intel says strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program

  • White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the assessment but said it was “flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked”
  • Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to set back Tehran’s nuclear efforts

WASHINGTON: A classified preliminary US intelligence report has concluded that American strikes on Iran set back Tehran’s nuclear program by just a few months — rather than destroying it as claimed by President Donald Trump.
US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency findings as saying the weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran’s centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.
The strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.
White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the assessment but said it was “flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked.”
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” Leavitt posted on X.
“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” she added.
US B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and said they had “obliterated” the nuclear sites, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington’s forces had “devastated the Iranian nuclear program.”
General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, has struck a more cautious tone, saying the strikes caused “extremely severe damage” to the Iranian facilities.
Iran’s government said Tuesday that it had “taken the necessary measures” to ensure the continuation of its nuclear program.
“Plans for restarting (the facilities) have been prepared in advance, and our strategy is to ensure that production and services are not disrupted,” the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said in a statement aired on state television.
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile said his country still had stocks of enriched uranium and that “the game is not over.”
Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to set back Tehran’s nuclear efforts.
Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to take military action.
The US operation was massive, with Caine saying it involved more than 125 US aircraft including stealth bombers, fighters, aerial refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.