Spain to airdrop 12 tonnes of food into Gaza Strip
Spain to airdrop 12 tonnes of food into Gaza Strip/node/2609794/world
Spain to airdrop 12 tonnes of food into Gaza Strip
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks at a press conference before summer break, at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, July 28, 2025. (REUTERS)
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Updated 28 July 2025
AFP
Spain to airdrop 12 tonnes of food into Gaza Strip
The Defense Ministry said the 12 tonnes would be delivered in an operation similar to another carried out in March 2024, when Spain delivered 26 tonnes of food
Updated 28 July 2025
AFP
MADRID: Spain said on Monday it would airdrop 12 tonnes of food into Gaza this week as the threat of famine stalks the Palestinian territory after 21 months of war.
The operation is a rare example of a European nation joining Middle Eastern countries in sending aid by air.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, one of the most virulent critics of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, told a news conference the delivery would take place from Jordan on Friday using Spanish air force planes.
“The famine in Gaza is a shame for all of humanity and stopping it, therefore, is a moral imperative,” he said.
The Defense Ministry said the 12 tonnes would be delivered in an operation similar to another carried out in March 2024, when Spain delivered 26 tonnes of food.
The World Health Organization has warned malnutrition in the occupied territory has reached “alarming levels” since Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza.
After diplomatic blitz on Ukraine and Gaza, Trump moves to passenger seat
European diplomats, once heartened by Trump’s engagement with NATO, now worry
Trump’s reaction to recent Russian air incursions muted
Updated 21 sec ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON: Pentagon officials sat down with a group of European diplomats in late August and delivered a stern message: The US planned to cut off some security assistance to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all NATO members bordering Russia. More broadly, Pentagon official David Baker told the group, according to an official with direct knowledge of the comments, Europe needed to be less dependent on the US Under President Donald Trump, the US military would be shifting its attention to other priorities, like defense of the homeland. Some European diplomats fretted that the move, first reported earlier this month, could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Friday, they may have been proven right. Russian MiG-31 jets entered Estonian airspace for roughly 10 minutes, Estonia said, before being chased away by Italian F-35s. Russia denied violating Estonian airspace, saying its jets flew over neutral waters. Hours later, Russian jets buzzed a Polish oil platform, Warsaw said. Last week, Russian drones were downed in Poland. The US response to those incidents has so far been muted. Trump did not address the latest incursion for several hours, before saying it could be “big trouble.” After last week’s Polish incident, he posted cryptically on his Truth Social app: “Here we go!“
His responses appear to fit an emerging pattern.
After months of proposing both ideas to solve or intermediate some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, Trump has largely withdrawn from diplomacy in recent weeks. Instead, he has allowed and in some cases pressed allies to take the lead, with only distant promises of US help. He has increasingly turned his attention to domestic issues, like tackling crime, confronting what he calls violent left-wing extremism and overhauling a major visa program.
Caption
Returning to form
After an intense summer of diplomacy, including hosting Putin in Alaska, Trump has told Europeans they must impose punishing sanctions on buyers of Russian oil if they expect Washington to tighten the financial screws on Moscow over its war in Ukraine. After the US president spent the first several months of his term trying to secure a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, he has lately shrugged off moves by Israel that would seem to undermine the possibility of a deal to end the war in Gaza. White House officials protested when Israel bombed a Hamas office located in the territory of US ally Qatar but took no action. When Israel launched a controversial military advance on Gaza City, Trump did not object, even as European and Arab allies condemned the move, which seemed likely to doom peace talks.
That Trump would be wary of US involvement in major conflicts is in some ways unsurprising. He spent two years on the campaign trail arguing the nation was militarily overstretched. Political opponents called him an isolationist. But over the summer, a different Trump emerged. To the chagrin of some conservative political allies, he bombed Iran’s key nuclear sites in support of Israel’s air war in June. At a NATO conference in the Netherlands later that month, he indicated he would send fresh Patriot defense systems to Ukraine. In July, he intensified his threats of sanctions and tariffs targeting Moscow.
Now, analysts say, Trump is returning to form.
Aaron David Miller, a veteran US diplomat and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Trump may have simply realized the conflicts are far more intractable than he had imagined.
“He’s not interested in doing anything unless he sees that the expenditure of effort and political capital will be worth the return,” Miller said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mercurial president, exhausted diplomats
The president’s latest zig could easily be followed by a zag. In April and May, he publicly floated walking away from the war in Ukraine, only to re-engage heavily on the issue. Moreover, the White House’s disengagement has not been absolute. In recent weeks, some US weapons have begun flowing into Ukraine as part of a US-NATO security assistance initiative called the PURL program.
Still, analysts expressed concern that the mild US reaction to Russia’s latest provocations will only encourage more aggressive steps by Putin.
Further US disengagement “would lead us to more provocative actions from Putin as he sees Europe as weaker because it can be divided — especially without the US there to back it up,” said Alex Plitsas, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
A Russian MIG-31 fighter jet flies above the Baltic sea after violating Estonian air space. Three Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland on Friday, Estonia said, triggering complaints of a dangerous new provocation from the EU and NATO. (AFP)
Several European diplomats in Washington privately expressed exhaustion at Trump’s changeable attitude on Russia — and suggested another hardening of his stance toward Moscow could lack credibility.
Over the summer, those diplomats said, the mood was notably different.
At a NATO summit in June, Trump heaped praise on European leaders and the next month repeatedly threatened Russia with direct and secondary sanctions and agreed to set up PURL. But the anti-climactic summit with Putin produced no breakthroughs and a major setback for Kyiv: Trump left the meeting saying a ceasefire in Ukraine was not a precondition of lasting peace — a position held by Putin, but not European allies.
In a testy September 4 call with European partners, Trump argued that European nations were expecting the US to bail them out when Europeans were still themselves supporting Russia’s war machine by purchasing Russian oil, according to two officials briefed on the call.
The next week, Trump told European Union officials they should hit China and India with 100 percent tariffs to punish them for their purchases of Russian oil. He portrayed such a move as a precondition for US action, one official said.
Trump’s supporters say he is only demanding that Europe stand up for its own security. But some diplomats sense a trap. Such measures would be hard to get through the EU’s bureaucracy promptly, particularly as the bloc prefers sanctions to tariffs. Two senior European diplomats in Washington also noted that Trump has recently spoken of lowering trade barriers with India.
It is unclear if Friday’s Estonia incursion will alter Trump’s calculus toward Russia. His government appeared unmoved by a letter from lawmakers in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia last week calling for reconsideration of Trump’s plan to eliminate some security assistance.
“Many of our European allies are among the world’s wealthiest countries,” a White House official said. “They are fully capable of funding these programs if they choose.”
British couple held for months in Afghanistan arrive back in UK, say they feared execution
Peter and Barbie Reynolds had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and chose to remain in the country after the Taliban seized power in 2021
Taliban authorities arrested them in February, freeing them only on Friday under a Qatar-brokered prisoner swap deal with US envoys
Updated 34 min 23 sec ago
AP AFP
LONDON: A British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges arrived in the UK on Saturday after being released by the Taliban.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 76, respectively, who were freed on Friday, were pictured smiling and looking to be in good health as they arrived at Heathrow Airport.
The couple walked out of the arrivals area accompanied by their daughter and British special representative to Afghanistan Richard Lindsay.
The couple had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and ran an education and training organization in the country’s central province of Bamiyan, choosing to remain in the country after the Taliban seized power.
They had been held for nearly eight months following their arrest as they traveled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan, in February. They had been held in a maximum security prison, and faced long periods of separation.
Their plight underlined the concerns of the West over the actions of the Taliban since they overthrew the country’s US-backed government in a 2021 lightning offensive.
Analysts say the move by the Taliban, which was facilitated by Qatar, could be part of a broader effort to gain international recognition.
Earlier this month, the Taliban said they had reached an agreement with US envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalize relations. The meeting came after the Taliban in March released US citizen George Glezmann, who was abducted while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist.
It remains unclear what, if anything, the Taliban had been promised for the Reynolds’ release. However, Afghanistan’s list of needs is long.
The Western aid money that flowed into it after the 2001 US-led invasion has been severely cut as needs continue to mount, particularly after a magnitude 6 quake on Aug. 31. Its economy remains on shaky ground.
But Western nations remain hesitant to provide money to the Taliban government, citing their restrictions on women and personal freedoms.
‘Bewildered’ with arrest
After their return, Peter Reynolds told The Times that the and his wife had “begun to think that we would never be released, or that we were even being held until we were executed.”
“We are bewildered as to why any of this happened and are very happy that this ordeal is over,” he said.
Barbie said the toughest thing about the affair was “seeing my 80-year-old husband struggling to get into the back of a police truck with his hands and ankles chained.”
Their family has spoken of their “immense joy” on hearing that the Reynolds were released, and there were emotional scenes when they arrived in Doha on a flight from Kabul to be met by their daughter.
“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy and international cooperation,” their four children said in a joint statement on Friday.
“While the road to recovery will be long as our parents regain their health and spend time with their family, today is a day of tremendous joy and relief.”
Qatar played a key role in helping to free the couple after mounting fears about their health.
During their arrest last February, the couple were first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, UN experts have said.
The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programs for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens.
The Taliban authorities have not explained why the pair were detained.
‘We are Afghan citizens’
Speaking at Kabul airport on Friday before they left, Barbie Reynolds said the couple had been treated well.
“We are looking forward to returning to Afghanistan if we can. We are Afghan citizens,” she added.
Their son, Jonathan, echoed to the BBC that his parents were hoping to return to the country they love.
“They have not just a heart for the people of Afghanistan, but they have strategy as well, and the work they’ve been doing has been very fruitful and has a massively positive impact,” he said.
In July, independent UN human rights experts called on the Taliban government to free the couple, warning that they risked “irreparable harm or even death” as their health deteriorated.
Their family had made repeated pleas for their release, citing their failing health.
Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Friday the couple “had violated the laws of Afghanistan” and were released from custody “following the judicial process.”
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “long-awaited news will come as a huge relief” to the family.
The British government advises against traveling to Afghanistan, warning that its ability to offer consular assistance is “extremely limited.”
Russia is the only country to have officially recognized the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and been accused of sweeping rights violations.
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces.
Trump’s economic promises to Black voters fall short after a modest shift in support for him in 2024
Black Americans are the dominant core of the Democratic base, though Trump has improved his standing with them
Updated 21 September 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: At one of his final rallies before the 2024 election, then-candidate Donald Trump warned that Black Americans were losing their jobs in droves and that things would get even worse if he did not return to the White House.
“You should demand that they give you the numbers of how many Black people are going to lose their job,” Trump said. “The African American population, they’re getting fired at numbers that we have never seen before.”
But with Trump back in office since January, an already fragile financial situation for Black Americans has worsened. Upset by inflation and affordability issues, Black voters had shifted modestly toward the Republican last year on the promise that he could boost the economy by stopping border crossings and challenging foreign factories with tariffs. Yet a recent spate of economic data instead shows a widening racial wealth gap.
Black unemployment has climbed from 6.2 percent to 7.5 percent so far in 2025, the highest level since October 2021. Black homeownership has fallen to the lowest level since 2021, according to an analysis by the real estate brokerage Redfin. Earlier this month, the Census Bureau said the median Black household income fell 3.3 percent last year to $56,020, which is roughly $36,000 less than what a white household earns and evidence of a bad situation becoming worse.
That creates a major political risk for the president as well as an economic danger for the nation because job losses for Black Americans have historically foreshadowed a wider set of layoffs across other groups.
“Black Americans are often the canary in the coal mine,” said Angela Hanks, a former official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Labor Department who is now at The Century Foundation, a liberal think tank.
The Trump White House stressed that some of these downward trends, such as a relative decline in Black wealth, began under Democratic President Joe Biden. It emphasized that the “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies pushed by Democrats failed to deliver economic gains.
“Despite his lunatic obsession with DEI, Joe Biden’s disastrous economic agenda reduced the Black share of household wealth by nearly 25 percent,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “His inflationary policies caused interest rate hikes that froze Americans out of homeownership, and his open borders policies flooded the country with tens of millions of illegals who drove down wages.” Some Black voters see Trump’s policies as doing more to hurt than help
Some Black voters who stayed on the sidelines in 2024 feel they need to be more engaged politically.
Josh Garrett, a 30-year-old salesperson in Florida, said he could not find a candidate last year with whom he agreed. He is frustrated by Trump’s layoffs of federal workers and sees a government more geared toward billionaires than the middle class.
“I don’t understand how you could be for the American people and have Americans lose their jobs when they have families, have bills,” Garrett said.
While the financial outlook for Black Americans is deteriorating, the net worth of white households is largely holding steady or increasing, largely due to stock market performance.
Hanks notes that the “chaotic effects” of Trump’s tariffs and spending cuts are hitting more vulnerable populations right now but that the damage could soon spread beyond. Black leaders see Trump’s policies as discriminatory based on race
The federal layoffs appear to have disproportionately hit Black Americans because they make up a meaningful share of the government workforce. The administration maintains that its income tax cuts, tariffs and deportations of immigrants who are in the United States illegally will help Black Americans, but there is little evidence so far in the data of that.
At the same time, Trump has said that he would like to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore and Memphis, Tennessee — cities led by Black mayors. The president has called for redrawing congressional districts to favor Republicans, which could dilute the ability of Black voters to shape elections. He has sought to diminish the legacy of slavery and segregation from the Smithsonian museums.
“The message that they are sending is very clear: In these places, these people are incapable of governing themselves,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said. “They are incapable of helping to solve their own issues. And make no mistake about it, it’s partly due to how we look.”
The Democrat warned that the mounting economic challenges could contribute to crime in the future, reversing progress that cities have made in recent years to lower homicide rates. Trump might not be able to afford alienating Black voters
Black Americans are the dominant core of the Democratic base, though Trump has improved his standing with them. In 2024, Trump won 16 percent of Black voters, doubling his 2020 share, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. One of the key differences appeared to be frustration over inflation and affordability.
Roughly one-third of Black voters (36 percent) in the 2024 presidential election said the economy and jobs was the most important issue facing the country, up from 11 percent in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was the top issue.
In a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about half of Black adults (52 percent) said the amount of money they get paid was a “major” source of stress in their life right now, slightly higher than for US adults overall (43 percent) and significantly higher than for white adults (37 percent).
When it comes to incomes, some associated with the conservative movement suggest that Black households are more vulnerable because fewer of them are in married families, which generally tend to have higher incomes.
Delano Squires, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the “connection between family structure and financial stability is one that is fairly consistent across time.”
The immediate political reality is that Trump had a mandate to improve the economy for the middle class, including Black voters. But many of those voters now see an administration more focused on deporting immigrants and expanding its own grip on power, possibly threatening Republicans’ chances of holding onto the House and key Senate seats in next year’s elections.
“We’re in a new era,” said Alexsis Rodgers, political director at the Black to the Future Action Fund. “There are people who obviously believed his promises, that Trump was going to do something about the cost of eggs, the cost of housing. They’ve seen the focus instead is on ICE raids and downsizing the government.”
Trump issues vague threat to Afghanistan over Bagram air base
The vague threat comes just days after he raised the idea of the United States retaking control of the base while on a state visit to the United Kingdom
Updated 21 September 2025
AFP
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Afghanistan with unspecified punishment if the Taliban-controlled country did not “give Bagram Airbase back.”
“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The vague threat comes just days after he raised the idea of the United States retaking control of the base while on a state visit to the United Kingdom.
Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, was a linchpin of the US-led war effort against the Taliban, whose government Washington toppled following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
A massive, sprawling facility, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly raised allegations of systematic human rights abuses by US forces at Bagram, especially pertaining to detainees in Washington’s murky “War on Terror.”
Trump has often lamented the loss of access to Bagram, noting its proximity to China, but Thursday was the first time he has made public that he was working on the matter.
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way, that could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Trump said at a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
US and NATO troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021 as part of a Trump-brokered peace deal, as the resurgent Taliban took over swaths of Afghanistan before finally taking control of the entire country.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the loss of the base since returning to power, linking it to his attacks on his predecessor Joe Biden’s handling of the US pullout from Afghanistan.
Trump has also complained about China’s growing influence in Afghanistan.
Trump’s peace efforts falter as conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza escalate
In Europe, Trump has frustrated his critics with his equivocal approach to Putin, sometimes suggesting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is just as responsible for the war that Moscow started with its 2022 invasion
Updated 21 September 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: A month after an Alaskan summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump still seems surprised that his gambit did not pay off with peace in Ukraine.
“He’s let me down,” Trump said this week. “He really let me down.”
There has been no more progress in the Middle East, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is beginning a new offensive in Gaza City and lashing out across the region.
“They have to be very, very careful,” Trump said after Israel targeted Hamas inside Qatar, a US ally that has been hosting diplomatic negotiations.
Trump’s disappointment and frustration is much different from the confidence and dominance he tries to project on the international stage, especially as he trumpets his diplomatic efforts and campaigns for the Nobel Peace Prize. Asked about his goals for the upcoming UN General Assembly, the president said “world peace.” But the most high-profile conflicts appear to be escalating instead of winding down.
“This whole last nine months of peace efforts was just a merry-go-round,” said Max Bergmann, a State Department official under Democratic President Barack Obama who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Bold gestures, but reaching peace deals is hard
Although Trump prizes bold gestures — a stealth bomber strike in Iran, a sweeping tariff announcement — solving a global jigsaw puzzle is a far bigger struggle.
The fundamental truth, Bergmann said, is “trying to reach peace agreements is very hard,” and that Trump has not surrounded himself with experienced diplomats and foreign policy experts.
“It’s like if you were to tell me, ‘Go do a hotel deal,’” Bergmann said. “It would be a terrible deal. I would lose a lot of money.”
In Trump’s defense, the White House has pointed to comments from European leaders who have praised his efforts working to forge peace agreements. Trump often notes that he hires “only the best people.”
Matt Kroenig, a senior policy adviser at the Pentagon during Trump’s first term, said the president’s brashness can get results, such as when he demanded increased defense spending from European allies.
Trump, however, can end up spinning his wheels on more challenging issues and eventually give up, such as when he tried to persuade Kim Jong Un to end North Korea’s nuclear program.
When it comes to making peace in Ukraine and Gaza, Kroenig wondered, “At what point does he say, ‘This is too hard, let’s move on to other issues.’”
Foreign policy is usually a team sport for presidential administrations, requiring extensive coordination among agencies through the National Security Council. But Trump has dramatically slashed the council’s staff, and Marco Rubio serves as both secretary of state and national security adviser.
“It’s one person setting the strategy and everyone else is waiting to see,” Kroenig said.
Mideast is increasingly in turmoil
In the Middle East, Trump is getting caught in the middle of an increasingly combustible situation. He has visited Arab nations, including Qatar, this year to strengthen ties, and he has backed Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Iran.
But now Israel, emboldened by its battlefield success, is striking more widely throughout the region, including the recent attack targeting Hamas officials in Qatar. That jeopardized negotiations that the United States has been trying to push along and rattled Arab leaders’ faith in Trump’s ability to influence, let alone rein in, Netanyahu.
Some of them now view Israel, not Iran, as their primary security threat, according to three Arab diplomats familiar with conversations at the last summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Doha. It’s a noticeable shift after Israel and Arab nations grew closer during Trump’s first term, when the Republican president championed the Abraham Accords. The diplomats were not authorized to publicly discuss the private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.
US officials have tried to assuage doubts by pointing to Trump’s expressions of displeasure with Netanyahu’s latest moves, to recent meetings held with Qatar’s prime minister and to discussions of enhanced security arrangements.
During next week’s annual high-level gathering at the General Assembly, Rubio and Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff can expect to hear a chorus of criticism, with Arab nations seeking a more fundamental shift in how the US approaches the region.
For example, the US has tried to ensure that Israel has a military edge over its Arab neighbors. But now that Israel has attacked Qatar with US-supplied weapons — a strike that Qatar was unable to counter with its own US-supplied defenses — Arab diplomats are considering demanding stronger support.
Such a move would likely be politically untenable, at least for now, with support for Israel strong among Republicans who control Congress.
Trump’s equivocal approach to Putin
In Europe, Trump has frustrated his critics with his equivocal approach to Putin, sometimes suggesting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is just as responsible for the war that Moscow started with its 2022 invasion.
Trump recently insisted that his meeting with Putin “accomplished a lot,” but “it takes two to tango.”
“You know those are two people, Zelensky and Putin, that hate each other,” he said.
Fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over have been heightened by recent Russian military incursions into the airspace of NATO members Poland and Estonia. After three Russian fighter jets entered Estonian airspace on Friday, Trump said it could signal “big trouble.”
During a news conference in the United Kingdom on his state visit, Trump said he was dedicated to stopping the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. Then he turned philosophical.
“You never know in war. You know, war is a different thing,” he said. “Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought.”
