Security forces in Pakistan say they have killed all 33 separatist fighters behind a deadly attack on a train carrying soldiers and civilians. Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder says the security services are facing questions about how it happened.
On Thursday, the Geneva-based Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a new report that Israel “intentionally attacked and destroyed” Gaza’s main fertility centre while simultaneously blocking medicine for pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care from entering the enclave.
In its report, the commission found that Israeli authorities “have destroyed … the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare”, it said in a statement.
It added that this amounted to “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched after the attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
For its part, “Israel categorically rejects the unfounded allegations”, its mission in Geneva said in a statement.
Israel has also accused the commission, which was established in May 2021, of advancing a “predetermined and biased political agenda … to incriminate the Israel Defense Forces”.
The report said maternity hospitals and wards had been systematically destroyed in Gaza, along with the Al-Basma IVF Centre, the territory’s main in-vitro fertility clinic.
It said Al-Basma was intentionally shelled in December 2023, destroying about 4, 000 embryos at a clinic that served 2, 000-3, 000 patients a month.
The commission found no credible evidence that the building was used for military purposes.
It said the destruction “was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, the former UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator Martin Griffiths said “it’s good that the UN is now talking about genocide, because up to now it’s been very careful about that word”.
And while he said that the evidence for genocide was “incontrovertible” and that the findings were “long overdue”, he steered clear of saying that either the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court would bring those accountable to justice.
“Will it be a legally enforced claim? I don’t think so”, he said of the report’s findings.
The report came after the commission conducted public hearings in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, hearing from victims and witnesses of sexual violence.
It concluded that Israel had targeted civilian women and girls directly, “acts that constitute the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing”.
Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te says China is deepening its espionage and infiltration campaign against the island, and that his government will propose various measures to counter Beijing’s efforts to “absorb” Taiwan.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with security officials on Thursday, Lai said Beijing is trying to cultivate relationships with members of Taiwanese society, including organised crime groups, media personalities and police officers.
“They]China] are carrying out activities such as division, destruction and subversion from within us”, Lai said.
He added that tougher measures are needed to counter Chinese efforts to weaken the island’s defences, citing recent incidents that fall into a “grey area” of psychological warfare, short of open-armed conflict.
Lai said that according to government data, 64 people were charged for Chinese espionage last year, three times more than in 2021. He said the majority were current or former military officials.
“Many are worried that our country, hard-earned freedom and democracy and prosperity will be lost bit by bit due to these influence campaigns and manipulation”, he said.
The president proposed 17 legal and economic countermeasures, including a strict review of Taiwan visits or residency applications by Chinese citizens, and proposals to resume the work of the military court.
Lai also said his government would make “necessary adjustments” to the flows of money, people and technology across the strait. He did not elaborate.
Beijing considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, but the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party favours continued de facto independence from the mainland.
China has refused almost all official contact with the DPP since Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, was elected eight years ago. The two sides split amid a civil war in 1949.
Taiwan recently expelled the Chinese wife of a Taiwanese citizen after she posted several clips on social media saying that China would conquer Taiwan in half an hour and praising Chinese leadership.
Such acts are illegal under Taiwan’s laws on abetting the enemy. The woman, who also held official Chinese titles as a consultant, can apply for residency again in five years.
Other recent incidents have included Taiwanese artists and influencers living in China reposting statements from Chinese state media asserting Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan – something Taipei sees as an ongoing campaign to pressure pop stars to make pro-Beijing comments.
Lai said his government would issue “reminders” to Taiwanese actors and singers performing in China on their “statements and actions”.
“We have no choice but to take more active actions”, he said.
Retired Taiwanese service members have also passed information about the island’s weapons systems to Chinese agents and sought to recruit serving military members as spies, he said.
On January 20, President Donald Trump sanctioned a 90-day halt on foreign aid, a decision that affected all financial support distributed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The decision has had a profound impact and generated widespread alarm worldwide, none more so than in Africa.
In 2023, USAID had allocated a total of $12.1bn to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with the objective of improving healthcare, delivering food assistance, and promoting security. Critically, USAID distributes funds for the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the global fund to fight AIDS.
The 90-day funding freeze has caused considerable distress across Africa, as millions of people dependent on services supported by the US government now face a daunting and uncertain future.
On February 6, in a comprehensive briefing to Parliament, South Africa’s Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi outlined the widespread effect of PEPFAR on the country’s HIV response. He revealed that PEPFAR contributes 17 percent of the total funding, which surpasses 7.5 billion rand ($407m), and supports various programmes for the 7.8 million South Africans living with HIV/AIDS, the highest figure in the world. He also pointed out that more than 15, 000 healthcare personnel, including nurses, pharmacists, and directors, are remunerated through PEPFAR.
South Africa’s HIV/AIDS response is certainly in a precarious state now, subject to the Trump administration’s whimsical, aggressive and vindictive political agenda. Nevertheless, the truth is that this “USAID crisis” might have been averted if the Southern African nation had assumed responsibility for its socioeconomic issues in the first place, instead of delegating them to a foreign nation that has now become hostile.
As the most advanced, diversified, and productive economy in Africa, South Africa should not have relied excessively on PEPFAR, particularly to the extent that USAID funding becomes a fundamental component of its health budget.
This dependence on USAID funding is actually a symptom of a more critical problem within the healthcare system and the government as a whole: widespread, high-level mismanagement and corruption. Each year, due to gross maladministration and unchecked corruption, South Africa loses billions of rand, funds that are essential for addressing vital service delivery needs, including those related to HIV/AIDS healthcare.
Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital (TPTH), a public facility under the auspices of the Gauteng Department of Health, serves as a prominent example of the extensive deprivation caused by corrupt practices. In August 2024, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), an independent agency of the South African government responsible for investigating malfeasance in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), reported that corruption networks had caused financial losses exceeding 3 billion rand at the institution, with evidence pointing to the involvement of senior hospital staff in these illicit operations.
For several years now, the hospital has struggled to meet its service delivery obligations and faced substantial resource limitations, including critical shortages of specialised staff and equipment, which have, in certain instances, resulted in preventable deaths.
The overspending, wasteful expenditure, and fraud seen at TPTH is, unfortunately, representative of a widespread trend.
Last year, the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) found that the Gauteng provincial government – just one of the nine provincial authorities in South Africa – incurred 9.879 billion rand in irregular expenditure in the 2023-24 financial year. Moreover, irregular expenditure in 2024 reached 50.65 billion rand across 38 government departments, while 27 SOEs recorded a total of 69.35 billion rand.
When contextualised, such high figures demonstrate that the $7.5bn in yearly assistance from the US to South Africa is minor in comparison to the substantial billions that are lost as a result of fraud, mismanagement, and corruption.
By fostering a culture of clean and accountable governance, South Africa can substantially lessen or wholly eliminate its problematic dependency on assistance from the US in healthcare and beyond. A similar situation exists in Kenya, where the US has committed to providing $207m , in assistance for the year 2024.
The suspension of aid from Washington has, in one instance, endangered the health of HIV-positive orphans residing at Nyumbani Children’s Home in Nairobi. Between 1999 and 2023, USAID and PEPFAR contributed more than $16m to the orphanage, allowing it to support approximately 50, 000 children through its rescue centre and two outreach initiatives, Lea Toto and Nyumbani Village.
Without the requisite funding in place, thousands of vulnerable children could fall seriously ill or die. Many more youths might be deprived of vital HIV/AIDS counselling services.
Kenya, like South Africa, has the opportunity to extricate itself from the grip of the US aid industry and to support orphanages such as Nyumbani Children’s Home through its own funding. This, however, can occur only if the Kenyan government adopts a strong position against corruption, re-evaluates government expenditure, and focuses on enhancing effective governance
According to the findings of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, corruption is costing an estimated 608 billion Kenyan shillings annually ($4.7bn) to Kenya, equivalent to 7.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
Nairobi has a responsibility to care for its most disadvantaged citizens. The children of Nyumbani Children’s Home should not have to rely on Washington for HIV/AIDS services. The primary reason these orphans are in such a challenging situation is the indifference of Kenya’s self-serving politicians towards their wellbeing and the overall welfare of the nation.
About 37.5 percent of the Kenyan population is regarded as multidimensionally poor, signifying they experience deprivation in multiple facets of life, including health, education, and living standards, as measured by the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). However, Kenyan President William Ruto, on March 16, 2023, appointed the most bloated administration in the East African nation’s recent history.
Ruto, a veteran politician, was also ranked second in the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’s (OCCRP) 2024 Corrupt Person of the Year award, after Syria’s former strongman Bashar al-Assad. This award, embarrassingly, honours leaders who are believed to be actively promoting global organised crime and corruption.
Meanwhile, in West , Africa, Nigeria presents an even more compelling case than Kenya.
On February 14, Nigeria approved a funding allocation of $200m to mitigate an anticipated deficit in 2025, resulting from cuts in US health aid. In 2023, the US provided more than $600m in health support to Nigeria, accounting for over 21 percent of the nation’s annual health budget, primarily towards malaria prevention, HIV eradication, and vaccine distribution.
Nonetheless, many of Nigeria’s socioeconomic challenges are largely self-imposed. It must strive for greater self-sufficiency rather than relying on US assistance. The country has vast economic potential – a potential that cannot be fulfilled due to, among other things, significant corruption and waste. Nigeria loses approximately $18bn each year to financial misconduct and corrupt procurement processes. Corruption, according to a study compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Nigeria in 2016, may well reach 37 percent of the country’s GDP by 2030.
The report identified three main ramifications of corruption, notably a decline in governance effectiveness, which is primarily attributed to a reduced tax base and the ineffective distribution of government resources.
Nigeria – which experienced a wave of #EndBadGovernance protests in 2024 – certainly possesses the resources and capabilities to liberate itself from US aid permanently. To achieve this, the country must prioritise the implementation of strong, progressive, and principled governance.
From Zimbabwe to Uganda and Tanzania, gaining independence from the so-called benevolence of the West must be seen as a crucial element of Africa’s postcolonial success.
The painful and often humiliating contradiction of Western countries providing billions in aid to inefficient and sleazy African governments that preside over resource-rich countries should not remain the norm.
African nations must immediately shoulder full and unqualified responsibility for the persistent challenges faced by so many of their underprivileged communities.
The lives of everyday Africans should not be contingent upon US aid and the whims of Western politicians. Africa can and must look after its people.
Australia is reviewing the visa status of an American content creator who posted a video of herself taking a baby wombat away from its mother.
In the now-deleted video, Sam Jones is seen picking up the marsupial and running across a road as its mother follows from behind.
“I caught a baby wombat,” Jones, who describes herself as an “outdoor enthusiast” and “hunter” on social media, is heard saying in the video.
“OK, momma’s right there and she is pissed, let’s let him go,” Jones then says, before putting the animal back on the other side of the road.
It is not clear when or where the video was shot.
On Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said that his department was reviewing the incident to determine if Jones had breached the conditions of her stay.
“I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return,” Burke said in a statement.
Al Jazeera was unable to reach Jones, who set her Instagram account to private following the controversy, for comment.
The video prompted a swift backlash in Australia, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong among those joining the condemnation.
“They’re not kangaroos. They don’t run fast. They are gentle, lovely creatures,” Albanese told reporters.
“To take a baby wombat from its mother, and clearly causing distress from the mother, is just an outrage.
Manila, Philippines – It has been almost eight years since brothers Crisanto and Juan Carlos disappeared one morning in Quezon City, a sprawling northern district of Metro Manila.
Within a day, their lifeless bodies were discovered riddled with bullets. But the pain of their brutal killing has continued to haunt their mother, Llore Pasco, over all these years.
On that morning in May 2017, Crisanto, a 34-year-old father of four, had left home early to pick up a licence to work as a private security guard. Not long after, Juan Carlos, 31, a part-time utility bill collector, would follow his brother out of their home.
They would never come back.
The day after their disappearance, their mother told Al Jazeera how she and other relatives were shocked to learn from a television news report that her two sons had been killed, accused by police of robbery. It took a full week and a hefty $1, 500 fee for Pasco to recover their bodies from the morgue.
Their funerals were followed by years of agony as Pasco lived without hope for justice ever being done.
So on hearing the news this week of the arrest of the country’s former President Rodrigo Duterte over his brutal war on drugs, she was overcome with emotion.
“I felt so nervous and scared, but also excited”, said Pasco, a part-time food vendor and massage therapist.
“My eyes were filled with tears. At long last, after so many years of waiting, it’s happening. This is it”, she told Al Jazeera.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued the arrest warrant for Duterte, was her one last hope for justice, said Pasco, a leading member of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a group of mothers and wives of those killed in the country’s drug war.
Pasco told how she had “little to no hope” of finding justice for the killing of her sons in the Philippines.
On Tuesday, the international police organisation (Interpol) served the ICC’s warrant against Duterte at Manila airport, on charges of “crimes against humanity” related to thousands of killings of suspected drug users and dealers during his time in power.
Later the same day, the government of the Philippines allowed Duterte to be flown to The Hague-based international court.
According to police records, more than 7, 000 people were killed in official antidrug operations ordered by Duterte while he was in office from 2016 to 2022.
Human rights groups say the actual number of killings could be closer to 30, 000, including those who were killed by gunmen, some of whom later turned out to be undercover police officers.
Duterte arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday afternoon, where he was officially handed over to the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Amid criticism and protest from Duterte’s supporters, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the surprise arrest was in compliance with his country’s “commitments to Interpol”.
Christine Pascual was at work in a hair salon when she heard the news about Duterte’s arrest.
“My client was asking me why I was crying while I was doing her hair”, Pascual told Al Jazeera, adding that memories of her late son, 17-year-old Joshua Pascual Laxamana, came rushing back at that moment.
“I went through so much anguish and pain from the time Joshua was killed until the time I started demanding justice for his death”, she said.
Laxamana, a professional online gamer, was on his way home from a tournament in the northern Philippines when he was shot and killed by police.
Records showed that he allegedly fired shots at officers and tried to flee on a motorcycle. But Laxamana did not know how to drive a motorcycle and his family have always maintained that he never used drugs or handled weapons, as the police claimed.
“For years, we’ve been very disappointed that nothing’s happening about my son’s case and other cases of extrajudicial killings”, Pascual said.
“So we were very surprised to hear the news about Duterte’s arrest. We are very happy that now he will have to face us in court”, she said, while also acknowledging that the two police officers involved in her son’s death would likely never be prosecuted.
“My family will never be the same because Joshua is now gone”, she added.
Luzviminda Siapo, the mother of another victim of the war on drugs, said she felt a sense of relief after learning that Duterte has been taken to The Hague.
“Seeing Duterte being arrested and taken to prison at The Hague, I feel like I have already attained a little amount of justice”, Siapo told Al Jazeera.
“For all that he has done, and for all the deaths that he caused, I wonder what he will reap in return”?
Duterte should also be thankful that he has only been arrested and will be accorded due process at the ICC – something that was denied to her slain son, Siapo said.
Her son, Raymart Siapo, was just 19 when he was abducted and shot twice in the head by several masked gunmen. His body was left in a village near Manila Bay.
According to news reports at the time, Raymart had a dispute with a neighbour that resulted in false accusations being made to authorities that the teenager was involved in selling marijuana.
A day after the damning accusation was made, unknown suspects came looking for Raymart, forcing him onto a motorcycle and taking him to an adjacent neighbourhood, where he was ordered to get off and run for his life.
Born with deformed feet, the teenager did not get far when the gunmen proceeded to shoot him dead.
“I feel an unbearable pain losing a child to the drug war”, Siapo told Al Jazeera.
Family members of others killed in the drug war came together on Wednesday, during a news conference organised by the Rise Up group and the National Union of People’s Lawyers.
At the event, Emily Soriano, the mother of a slain 15-year-old son, Angelito, said that while she welcomed Duterte’s arrest, she wanted others prosecuted and jailed, including those who gave direct orders to carry out the police operation that resulted in the death of her child.
Soriano singled out Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who once served as the chief police enforcer during Duterte’s drug war.
Dela Rosa has repeatedly defended the legality of Duterte’s war on drugs. He once famously quipped that children killed in the crossfire during police operations were “collateral damage”, adding that “sh** happens”.
Soriano said that dela Rosa and other police officers are just as guilty as Duterte.
“Good for Duterte that he is being accorded due process. He’s still enjoying his bed”, she said between tears.
“What about my son who was killed? My son’s remains have been rotting in the cemetery for more than eight years now”.
Soriano insisted that her son was not a drug user and that he happened to be at a house targeted by authorities, which led to his killing.
During that operation, six other people were killed, including two other teenagers and a pregnant woman.
“It’s been a very painful experience to lose a son who is not really a drug addict. There have been so many who jumped to conclusions that they were addicted to drugs. But they do not know the truth”, Soriano said.
Duterte’s antidrug policy was also a war against the poor, she added.
Late on Wednesday at The Hague, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan hailed the arrest of Duterte, noting that it “means a lot to the victims” and proves that “international law is not as weak as some may think”.
“When we come together and build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail, warrants can be executed”, Khan said.
Khan also said that his office has been investigating the situation in the Philippines for some years, adding that the allegations of crimes against humanity also cover those cases committed before Duterte was elected president in 2016 and while he was still the mayor of the southern city of Davao.
Khan also stressed that despite his arrest, “Mister Duterte is presumed innocent”.
