UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations released $125 million from its emergency relief fund Tuesday to boost underfunded humanitarian operations in 14 countries around the world, saying needs are skyrocketing.
Afghanistan and Yemen top the list of recipients, with each getting $20 million, followed by Burkina Faso and Myanmar at $9 million each and Mali, Haiti and Venezuela at $8 million each.
The UN Central Emergency Relief Fund known will also provide $6.5 million to both Central African Republic and Mozambique, $6 million to both Cameroon and the Palestinian territories and $4 million to Malawi.
The fund will also provide $8 million to support refugee operations in Bangladesh and $6 million for refugees in Uganda.
“It is a cruel reality that in many humanitarian operations, aid agencies are scraping along with very little funding right at a time when people’s needs compel them to scale up,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in announcing the new allocations:
He said the Central Emergency Relief Fund can fill some gaps and save lives thanks to the generosity of a wide range of donors, “but we need individual donors to step up as well — this is a fund by all and for all.”
This year, the UN has appealed for more than $55 billion — a record — to help 250 million people affected by conflict, climate, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, displacement and other crises. But so far, its appeal has received about $16 billion, under 30 percent of the funds needed.
The $125 million from the Central Emergency Relief Fund brings the total amount allocated to underfunded emergencies this year to more than $270 million, the largest amount since the fund was established in 2005.
The UN humanitarian office said this reflects “skyrocketing humanitarian needs and the fact that regular donor funding is not keeping pace.”
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said millions of people will go hungry this year unless donors provide the nearly $39 billion still needed to meet the UN’s appeal.
He pointed to Tuesday’s announcement from the UN World Food Program that it is being forced to cut an additional 2 million hungry people in Afghanistan from food assistance this month because of a lack of funding. That brings the total number of Afghans who have lost aid this year to 10 million.
In the coming months, the World Food Program said, it can provide food to only 3 million people. The Rome-based agency said $1 billion would be required for it to reach the 21 million people in need for the next six months.
UN releases $125 million for 14 underfunded humanitarian crises around the world
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UN releases $125 million for 14 underfunded humanitarian crises around the world
- Afghanistan and Yemen top the list of recipients, with each getting $20 million, followed by Burkina Faso and Myanmar at $9 million each and Mali, Haiti and Venezuela at $8 million each
Trump taking steps toward installing a Columbus statue near the White House
- Trump endorses a traditional view of Columbus as leader of the 1492 mission that marked the unofficial beginning of European colonization in the Americas
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland: President Donald Trump is taking steps toward installing near the White House a replica of a statue of famed explorer Christopher Columbus that had been tossed into Baltimore’s harbor during his first term amid protests against institutional racism.
John Pica, a Maryland lobbyist and president of the Italian American Organizations United, said his group owns the statue and agreed to loan it to the federal government for placement at or near the White House.
Pica told The Associated Press in an interview that he was contacted about the statue around Columbus Day last year by an intermediary who said the White House was looking for a statue of the explorer. Pica says his organization took a straw vote and unanimously decided to send the statue to the White House. They signed the loan agreement Wednesday.
Asked if he was optimistic the statue would make it to the White House, Pica said, “Cautiously optimistic, yes.” The exact timing for any planned installation was unclear, he said, though he added, “possibly within two weeks.”
Maryland state Delaware Nino Mangione, a Republican who has worked with the Italian American group to find the statue a new home after it was pulled from the harbor, also confirmed the plans for the statue, which were first reported earlier Wednesday by The Washington Post.
The White House declined to comment to the AP on plans for the statue but reaffirmed Trump’s affinity for Columbus, whose legacy has shifted as historians and educators amplify how white European figures and their descendants treated Native Americans and enslaved Africans to develop the New World.
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” said Trump spokesman David Ingle. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.”
Trump wants to put his own stamp on American history ahead of big anniversary celebration
For Pica and his group, the statue’s Washington placement would celebrate a famous Italian who holds iconic status among Italian Americans. For Trump, it would be another move to reshape the telling of US history as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump endorses a traditional view of Columbus as leader of the 1492 mission that marked the unofficial beginning of European colonization in the Americas and the development of the modern economic and political order. But in recent years, Columbus also been recognized as a primary example of Western Europe’s conquest of the New World, its resources and its native people.
The statue now headed to Washington is a replica of one toppled by protesters on July 4, 2020, and thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor after anger boiled over following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. It was one of many statues of Columbus that were vandalized around the same time, with protesters saying the Italian explorer was responsible for the genocide and exploitation of native peoples in the Americas.
“I was there when we got it out of the harbor,” Mangione said, adding that artist Will Hemsley used parts of the old statue, first unveiled during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, “to build and restore a beautiful, brand new statue.”
In recent years, some individuals, institutions and government entities have displaced Columbus Day with recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day. President Joe Biden in 2021 became the first US president to mark Indigenous Peoples Day with a proclamation.
The statue may not be permanent
Pica emphasized that his group is lending the statue and would reclaim it if a future administration wanted it taken down.
Trump dismisses the shift on Columbus as “left-wing arsonists” bending history and twisting Americans’ collective memory. “I’m bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes.,” he declared last April. Echoing his 2024 campaign rhetoric, he complained that “Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.”
Trump issued a Columbus Day proclamation last October and ignored Indigenous Peoples Day. He praised Columbus as “the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth.”
That tribute reflected Trump’s broader take on history. Last spring, he signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which bemoaned “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” in a way that misrepresents the US “as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
Since the order, the administration has demanded a comprehensive review of exhibits across all Smithsonian museums and pushed Executive Branch agencies and state and local entities — especially colleges, universities and schools — that receive federal funding to roll back their diversity initiatives.
