Category World News

Three European foreign ministers have stated in a statement that the blockade of aid to the Gaza Strip could be considered a violation of international humanitarian law.

The governments of Israel must abide by its international obligations, according to the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, in a joint statement released on Wednesday to “ensure full, rapid, safe, and unhinged provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in Gaza.”

Israel thwarted Gaza’s aid shipment on Sunday, just after the first phase of its ceasefire with the Palestinian group Hamas expired, causing fears of hunger and additional hardships during the holy month of Ramadan, which started over the weekend.

According to the three ministers, “a halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, such as that announced by the Government of Israel, would risk violating international humanitarian law.”

Calling on all parties to support the ceasefire, “humanitarian aid should never be dependent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool,” the statement continued.

Five European members of the UN Security Council, including the UK and France, also urged parties to “find a way forward to the next phases of the ceasefire agreement and hostage release agreement.”

Israel has allegedly harmed Palestinians by blocking aid, violating international law, and by committing crimes against humanity. After 15 months of relentless Israeli bombardment, nearly 50 000 Palestinians have died and 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings and roads have been damaged.

Israel violated the ceasefire that brought the Gaza War to an end, according to Hamas. Instead of going through the second phase as originally agreed, Israel now wants to extend the first phase by 50 days. At the conclusion of the first phase on March 1, Israel was scheduled to leave the Philadelphi Corridor, but it has since refrained. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, is reportedly scheduled to visit the area in the coming days to break the deadlock.

desperate need for assistance

The Palestinian enclave will receive food supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP), which announced on Wednesday that it had received them.

Hani Mahmoud, a journalist from Gaza, reported on how the aid embargo had “a significant negative impact across the Gaza Strip.”

He claimed that the market is declining and that people have been starving here.

“We see that many of the items that were once available and common, such as flour, medicine, and other basic necessities, are now either expensive or unavailable.”

The UN’s Children’s Agency’s Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for the organization, predicted that the block of humanitarian aid, including ventilators and vaccines, “will have devastating real-life consequences” for both children and their parents.

She said, “Rutine vaccination will come to a standstill if we’re unable to do that.” This is a real-life consequence that we will have to deal with very quickly if we are unable to resume the aid supplies coming in because neonatal units won’t be able to care for preterm babies.

Existing supplies have already been largely distributed throughout the enclave, according to Bollen, who is in Gaza.

Russia may once more be accessible to American businesses after three years of Western sanctions, but only if the Ukraine war is resolved.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims that there are “extraordinary” opportunities there, while US President Trump claims that he wants to see significant economic agreements with Russia.

Moscow claims to be open to economic cooperation, but its war-driven economy, high interest rates, and unpredictable business climate are all factors.

By 2025, the European Union and India hope to have reached a free trade agreement.

Germany intends to ease debt in order to boost defense spending.

Jason Gillespie, the former Pakistan Test cricket coach, accused Aaqib Javed of undermining him and former white ball coach Gary Kirsten in an effort to lead the nation’s team in all formats and compared him to his successor as a “clown.”

A few days after hosts Pakistan had crashed out of the ICC Champions Trophy without a victory, Gillespie responded to a social media post with quotes from Aaqib.

Any team would struggle under such circumstances, according to Aaqib, who told reporters on Tuesday. Pakistan changed 16 coaches and 26 selectors in less than two years.

Australian Gillespie declared on social media, “This is hilarious.

“Gary and I were clearly undermining each other behind the scenes as we campaigned for the coach in all capacities.”

He is a clown, they say.

Gillespie left as red-ball coach in December amid media reports of a board-to-coach relationship breaking up. He had already signed a two-year contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in April. Aaqib took his place.

Gillespie replaced Kirsten in an overs-tour of Australia in October, with Gillespie taking the place of him.

Javed was then appointed Pakistan’s interim white ball coach until the Champions Trophy, and his contract has now been extended to their five-twenty-one-day international tour of New Zealand, which will begin on March 16.

Before transitioning into coaching, Gillespie, a former Australian fast bowler, played 71 Test matches and 97 one-day internationals between 1996 and 2006.

The Champions Trophy returned after an eight-year break, but Pakistan hosted its first major ICC event of its kind, with a humiliating defeat to the defending champions in two group games and one washed out.

Salman Ali Agha was appointed as the T20 captain and Babar Azam, the white ball player, Mohammad Rizwan, the star batter, and Pakistan’s T20 squad were soon removed from the country.

Aaqib, who also serves as Pakistan’s national selector, acknowledged that the national team’s chopping and changing has been unsuccessful.

He announced the most recent revisions to Pakistan’s limited-overs squads at a press conference, “We have changed nearly 16 coaches and 26 selectors in the last two years or so.” Any team in the world will likely follow that formula, in my opinion, if you apply it to them.

Your team won’t advance until you find consistency from the top to the bottom, from the chairman to the chairman.

Starting on March 16, Pakistan will play three ODI matches and five T20 matches in New Zealand.

On Thursday, March 6, 2018, this is the situation:

Fighting

• According to DTEK, the energy company for the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, Russian forces attacked an energy facility. This is the fourth time in less than two weeks that the company claims it is attacking the region’s energy infrastructure.
• According to regional authorities, “critical infrastructure” was damaged by attacks in the Odesa region and the Black Sea territory experienced power, water, and heat outages. Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of Kherson, confirmed a 55-year-old was killed in Kherson city in a separate attack, while Oleh Kiper, the governor of Odesa, reported a 77-year-old man was killed by shrapnel in a village outside of Odesa.
• In an overnight attack, Ukraine’s Air Force reported shooting down 115 of the 181 Russian drones that were targeting Ukraine. An additional 55 drones were lost and failed to reach their targets, according to a military statement. The remaining 11 drones’ fate was not made public.
• Moscow’s defense ministry claimed that Kremlin forces had taken control of the village of Pryvilne in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region.

• After being found guilty of a “terrorist act” and acting as a mercenary when he was captured while fighting for Ukraine, Scott Rhys Anderson, a citizen of the United Kingdom, was sentenced to 19 years in prison, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
• In Kryvyi Rih city, central Ukraine’s regional governor Serhiy Lysak reported that a Kremlin missile struck a building, killing two people and injuring 28 others.

Politics andamp; diplomacy

• In order to achieve “lasting and robust peace” in Kyiv, France, along with Europe, are attempting to re-establish ties between the United States and Ukraine, according to French spokeswoman Sophie Primas.
• According to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s letter to US President Donald Trump’s willingness to negotiate is a “generally positive” sign. Peskov, who cited a 2022 presidential decree that forbids negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, questioned the viability of the negotiations.
• Putin made the announcement that Russia has finished issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens living in the Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Moscow’s control. 3. 5 million people have been naturalized, according to internal minister Valdimir Kolokoltsev. This is a alleged illegal attempt to remove Ukrainian identity from the area, according to Kyiv.
• According to The Financial Times, the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv, which could limit Ukraine’s military might.

• CIA Director John Ratcliffe claimed that Trump had halted intelligence cooperation but that he now believes the pause will be over and that the US will continue to “work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine.”
• Trump may reconsider halting US aid to Ukraine, according to White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, according to Waltz to Fox News.
• In a post on X, Zelenskyy claimed that coordinated efforts under US leadership could bring about lasting peace in Ukraine.
• Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, reported on X on the phone, discussed the next steps in achieving peace in Ukraine, exchanged views on security and positional alignment, and scheduled a meeting with US and Ukrainian officials in the near future.
• After signing a peace agreement, French President Emmanuel Macron stated in a national address that the country’s military might be deployed there to “provide it is fully respected” rather than to fight. He added that the heads of Europe’s staffs would meet in Paris the following week to discuss Ukraine’s support for the peace deal.
• According to Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, the Netherlands has committed $3.8 billion to Ukraine in support of the country until 2026, adding that additional funds may be used in 2025.