GENEVA: The United Nations said Monday that it needed $46.4 billion next year to bring life-saving help to around 180 million people in desperate circumstances around the world.
The UN said the global humanitarian outlook for 2024 was “bleak,” with conflicts, climate emergencies and collapsing economies “wreaking havoc” on the most vulnerable.
While global attention focuses on the conflict raging in the Gaza Strip, the UN said the wider Middle East, Sudan and Afghanistan were among the hotspots that also needed major international aid operations.
But the size of the annual appeal and the number of people it aims to reach were scaled back compared to 2023, following a decrease in donations.
“Humanitarians are saving lives, fighting hunger, protecting children, pushing back epidemics, and providing shelter and sanitation in many of the world’s most inhumane contexts,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement.
“But the necessary support from the international community is not keeping pace with the needs,” he said.
The 2023 appeal was for $56.7 billion but received just 35 percent of that amount, one of the worst funding shortfall in years. It allowed UN agencies to deliver assistance and protection to 128 million people.
With a few weeks left to go, 2023 is likely to be the first year since 2010 when humanitarian donations declined compared to the previous year.
The UN therefore scaled down its appeal to $46.4 billion this time around, and will focus on those in the gravest need.
Launching the 2024 Global Humanitarian Overview, Griffiths said the sum was nonetheless a “massive ask” and would be tough to raise, with many donor countries facing their own cost of living crises.
“Without adequate funding, we cannot provide life-saving assistance. And if we cannot provide that assistance, people will pay with their lives,” he said.
The appeal covers aid for 72 countries: 26 states in crisis and 46 neighboring nations dealing with the knock-on effects, such as an influx of refugees.
The five largest single-country appeals are for Syria ($4.4 billion), Ukraine ($3.1 billion), Afghanistan ($3 billion), Ethiopia ($2.9 billion) and Yemen ($2.8 billion).
Griffiths said there would be 300 million people in need around the world next year — a figure down from 363 million last year.
But the UN aims to reach only 180.5 million of those, with NGOs and aid agencies targeting the remainder — not to mention front-line countries and communities themselves who provide the first help.
The Middle East and North Africa require $13.9 billion, the largest total for any region in 2024.
Beyond Syria, the Palestinian territories and Yemen, Griffiths also pointed to Sudan and its neighbors, and to Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Myanmar as hotspots that needed sustained global attention.
Ukraine is going through a “desperate winter” with the prospect of more warfare on the other side, he said.
With the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, plus Russia’s war in Ukraine, Griffiths said it was hard for the Sudan crisis to get the attention it deserved in foreign capitals.
More broadly, Griffiths said climate change would increasingly impact the work of humanitarian aid workers, who would have to learn how to better use climate data to focus aid resources.
“There is no doubt about the climate confronting and competing with conflict as the driver of need,” he said.
“Climate displaces more children now than conflict. It was never thus before,” he said.
UN needs $46.4 billion for aid in ‘bleak’ 2024
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UN needs $46.4 billion for aid in ‘bleak’ 2024
- UN: Wider Middle East, Sudan and Afghanistan among the hotspots that also need major international aid operations
Doctor deported to Lebanon had photos ‘sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on phone, US says
BOSTON: US authorities on Monday said they deported a Rhode Island doctor to Lebanon last week after discovering “sympathetic photos and videos” of the former longtime leader of Hezbollah and militants in her cell phone’s deleted items folder.
Alawieh had also told agents that while in Lebanon, she attended the funeral last month of Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, whom she supported from a “religious perspective.”
The US Department of Justice provided those details as it sought to assure a federal judge in Boston that US Customs and Border Protection did not willfully disobey an order he issued on Friday that should have halted Dr. Rasha Alawieh’s immediate removal.
The 34-year-old Lebanese citizen, who held an H-1B visa, was detained on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston after returning from a trip to Lebanon to see family.
Her cousin then filed a lawsuit seeking to halt her deportation.
In its first public explanation for her removal, the Justice Department said Alawieh, a kidney specialist and assistant professor at Brown University, was denied re-entry to the US based on what CBP found on her phone and statements she made during an airport interview.
“It’s a purely religious thing,” she said about the funeral, according to a transcript of that interview reviewed by Reuters.
“He’s a very big figure in our community. For me it’s not political.”
Western governments including the US designate Hezbollah a terrorist group.
Malaysian rice porridge a ‘trademark’ Ramadan tradition
- Mosque volunteers use 140 kilogrammes (308 pounds) of rice daily to cook the porridge, which is served in bowls to prayer attendees or packed into 1,000 large plastic packets to be distributed to the public
KUALA LUMPUR: As dusk fell, hundreds of Muslims at a mosque in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur feast on bowls of fragrant rice porridge known locally as “bubur lambuk,” part of a Ramadan tradition dating back decades.
Slow-cooked with various spices in giant pots and stirred with oversized ladles, bubur lambuk is traditionally prepared by volunteers in mosque courtyards before being distributed to the public for iftar, the fast-breaking meal in the largely Islamic nation.
But the broth, specially prepared at Masjid India, a well-known Kuala Lumpur mosque, serves a unique version of the porridge using a recipe originating from India.
The recipe is known as Nombu Kanji, according to the mosque’s imam, Muhammad Nasrul Haq Abdul Latif.
“This tradition has been passed down from generation to generation, from the 60s to the 70,” he told AFP.
“So it has become a trademark. If it (Nombu Kanji) wasn’t there, it wouldn’t be complete.”
Mosque volunteers use 140 kilogrammes (308 pounds) of rice daily to cook the porridge, which is served in bowls to prayer attendees or packed into 1,000 large plastic packets to be distributed to the public.
Each packet is enough to feed a family of four.
“From the perspective of making things easier for the people in this area, sometimes the homeless who struggle to get food, low-income workers, and office workers who sometimes don’t have time to go home and cook benefit from this,” he said.
“So, the preparation of iftar meals by mosques helps make their daily lives more convenient (during Ramadan).”
Mohaiyadin Sahulhameed, a local resident originally from India, said the porridge served at the mosque reminded him of home.
“Back in our village, the way we cook is using large woks, with curry leaves, mustard seeds, cinnamon, and all sorts of ingredients mixed together. When combined with rice, it creates a rich aroma, quite similar to how it’s done here,” he said.
The mosque’s cook, Sathakkathullah Hameed, said he saw preparing the large pots of porridge daily as a religious calling.
“During this fasting month, I want to help others. Allah grants rewards, mercy, and blessings, and, God willing, He will provide sustenance,” he said.
“And when people eat the porridge I cook, they say ‘Bismillah,’ (in the name of God) and I respond with ‘Alhamdulillah’ (praise be to God).”
EU warns Trump’s freeze of US-funded media risks aiding enemies
- The US-funded media have since focused on countries like Russia, China, Iran and Belarus
- Trump has already eviscerated the United States’ aid agency and its education department
BRUSSELS, Belgium: The EU on Monday warned that President Donald Trump’s freeze on US-funded media outlets, including Radio Free Europe, risked “benefitting our common adversaries.”
Trump’s administration at the weekend started laying off staff at Voice of America and other broadcasters including Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) after freezing their funding.
“We see these media outlets really as beacons of truth, of democracy, and of hope for millions of people around the world,” said European Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho.
“Freedom of the press... is critical for democracy. And this decision risks benefitting our common adversaries,” she said without naming countries, groups or individuals.
Founded by the United States during the Cold War to counter Soviet propaganda, RFE/RL was banned across the communist bloc, where regimes regularly jammed its signal.
The US-funded media have since focused on countries like Russia, China, Iran and Belarus.
EU foreign ministers discussed the freeze and ways to make up for it in Brussels on Monday.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the EU would not “automatically... fill the void that the US is leaving.”
“We have a lot of organizations who are coming with the same request to us,” Kallas told reporters.
“But there was really a push from the foreign ministers to discuss this and find the way, so this is the tasking to our side to see what can we do,” she added.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, whose country has been the home of RFE/RL since its 1995 move from Munich, said after the talks Europe should take care of the radio.
“I raised this question to see whether our partners see value in keeping RFE/RL running. We certainly do, and if we see value in it, then it makes sense to consider ways to secure its future, including the possibility of buying it,” he told AFP.
Lipavsky said earlier that the costs of running RFE/RL would reach up to $120 million a year.
His Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski said Monday the EU could raise the budget of the European Endowment for Democracy, an NGO founded to boost democracy in the bloc’s neighbors, and thus help finance the radio.
Trump has already eviscerated the United States’ aid agency and its education department.
Iran, China and Russia have all invested heavily in state media outlets created to compete with Western narratives and to push out government lines to foreign audiences.
Trump and Putin to discuss power plants, land in talks to end Ukraine war
- Trump said: “We’ll be talking about land. We’ll be talking about power plants ... We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets”
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about ending the Ukraine war, with territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant likely to feature prominently in the talks.
“We want to see if we can bring that war to an end,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to the Washington area from Florida. “Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.
“I’ll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work’s been done over the weekend.”
Trump is trying to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, as both sides continued trading heavy aerial strikes early on Monday and Russia moved closer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.
Asked what concessions were being considered in ceasefire negotiations, Trump said: “We’ll be talking about land. We’ll be talking about power plants ... We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”
Trump gave no details but he appeared to be referring to the Russian-occupied facility in Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of risking an accident at the plant with their actions.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a regular briefing on Monday that “there’s a power plant that is on the border of Russia and Ukraine that was up for discussion with the Ukrainians, and he (Trump) will address it in his call with Putin tomorrow.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Monday that Putin would speak with Trump by phone but declined to comment on Trump’s remarks about land and power plants.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin had sent Trump a message about his ceasefire plan via US envoy Steve Witkoff, who held talks in Moscow, expressing “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached to end the three-year conflict.
In separate appearances on Sunday TV shows in the United States, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump’s National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, emphasized there were still challenges to be worked out before Russia agrees to a ceasefire, much less a final peaceful resolution to the war.
Asked on ABC whether the US would accept a peace deal in which Russia was allowed to keep Ukrainian territory that it has seized, Waltz replied: “We have to ask ourselves, is it in our national interest? Is it realistic? ... Are we going to drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil?“
“We can talk about what is right or wrong but also have to talk about the reality of the situation on the ground,” he said, adding that the alternative to finding compromises on land and other issues was “endless warfare” and even World War Three.
“Ironclad guarantees”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he sees a good chance to end the war after Kyiv accepted the US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire.
However, Zelensky has consistently said the sovereignty of his country is not negotiable and that Russia must surrender the territory it has seized. Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and now controls most of four eastern Ukrainian regions since it invaded the country in 2022.
Zelensky has not responded publicly to Waltz’s remarks.
Russia will seek “ironclad” guarantees in any peace deal that NATO nations exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian media outlet Izvestia in remarks published on Monday that made no reference to the ceasefire proposal.
“We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement,” Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
Putin says his actions in Ukraine are aimed at protecting Russia’s national security against what he casts as an aggressive and hostile West, in particular NATO’s eastward expansion. Ukraine and its Western partners say Russia is waging an unprovoked war of aggression and an imperial-style land grab.
Moscow has demanded that Ukraine drop its NATO ambitions, that Russia keep control of all Ukrainian territory seized, and that the size of the Ukrainian army be limited. It also wants Western sanctions eased and a presidential election in Ukraine, which Kyiv says is premature while martial law is in force.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Monday that the conditions demanded by Russia to agree to a ceasefire showed that Moscow does not really want peace.
Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said the onus should be on Russia as the invading country, not Ukraine, to make concessions “because otherwise you would be compromising international law.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that “a significant number” of nations — including Britain and France — were willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia. Defense chiefs will meet this week to firm up plans.
Russia has ruled out peacekeepers until the war has ended.
“If they appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict,” Russia’s Grushko said.
“We can talk about unarmed observers, a civilian mission that would monitor the implementation of individual aspects of this agreement, or guarantee mechanisms. In the meantime, it’s just hot air.”
Major search underway off Cyprus after migrant boat capsizes
- Cypriot media reported that the authorities had recovered seven bodies and two survivors from among the estimated 20 Syrians who were on board
NICOSIA: A major search involving naval helicopters and police boats was underway on Monday for the passengers of a migrant boat that capsized off the coast of Cyprus, officials said.
Cypriot media reported that the authorities had recovered seven bodies and two survivors from among the estimated 20 Syrians who were on board.
A large-scale search and rescue operation was launched in open waters by the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) in Larnaca.
In an official statement, it said a search and rescue operation was “ongoing to locate missing persons after a migrant boat capsized 30 nautical miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Cape Greco,” referring to the southeasternmost point of the Mediterranean island.
It said the incident occurred within the country’s area of search and rescue responsibility but outside its territorial waters.
The authorities had yet to confirm the recovery of any bodies and when contacted by AFP, the JRCC only referred to the statement, saying the operation was ongoing.
Police also referred inquiries to the JRCC who are coordinating the rescue.
Several naval helicopters and police patrol boats were involved in the search for survivors, the center said.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, one survivor told authorities that the roughly 20 passengers on board were Syrians who had departed from the port of Tartus in Syria.
The Philenews website reported that seven bodies were recovered and two survivors rescued.
In the past, Cyprus had seen a four-fold spike in irregular arrivals by boat, almost all of them Syrians.
The eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the Syrian and Lebanese coasts and has long been a route for refugees seeking a better life in Europe.
Nicosia has said it has the highest number of new asylum seeker applicants in the European Union per capita but has managed to significantly reduce the figure.
Last month, the interior ministry said asylum applications dropped 69 percent between 2022 and 2024, while irregular maritime arrivals had stopped since May 2024 due to tougher government policies.
The overthrow of President Bashar Assad in December has prompted some Syrians to return home, with the government reporting that an average of 40 Syrians per day have requested to return home since then.
The government also said that more assylum seekers were leaving Cyprus than arriving for the first time in its independent history.
