Month: May 2025

Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – Jehad Al-Assar left his tent in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah early in the morning on a new and exhausting journey to get food for his family.

His destination on Wednesday: an aid distribution point in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, run by the United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Jehad walked a “gruelling” 10km (6.2 miles) to reach the site, driven along primarily by the weight of responsibility for his pregnant wife and two hungry daughters.

With starvation spreading throughout Gaza, a direct result of Israel’s months-long blockade on the territory, the GHF site was Jehad’s only hope.

This is despite the controversy surrounding the organisation, whose own head resigned on Sunday, saying that the GHF could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

The GHF’s lack of experience in dealing with aid distribution was highlighted on Tuesday, when at least three Palestinians were killed in the chaos that surrounded the relief effort.

But in Gaza, people are hungry and desperate. Jehad is among them.

After walking for 90 minutes, the 31-year-old reached the iron gates of the distribution centre, alongside thousands of others, before they suddenly opened.

“Crowds surged in – thousands of people. There was no order at all,” Jehad told Al Jazeera. “People rushed towards the yard where aid boxes were stacked and moved into the inner hall, where there were more supplies.”

“It was chaos – a real struggle. Men, women, children, all crammed together, pushing to grab whatever they could. No queues, no system – just hunger and disorder,” Jehad added.

Inside the hall, people snatched whatever they could carry. “Anyone who could lift two boxes took them. Sugar and cooking oil were the priorities. They grabbed what they wanted and rushed out.”

“There was no trace of humanity in what happened,” he said. “I was nearly crushed by the crowd.”

Just a short distance away, armed foreign forces stood watching without intervening. Jehad said he approached one of them and confronted him.

“I told them, ‘You’re not helping – you’re overseeing a famine. You should leave. You’re not needed here.’”

Jehad managed to retrieve only a few items: cans of tuna, a small bag of sugar, some pasta and a packet of biscuits scattered on the ground. He carried them in a plastic bag slung over his shoulder and made the long journey back home.

“I only got a little. I was afraid to stay longer and get trampled in the stampede – but I had to bring back something. My girls need to eat. I have no choice,” he said.

When he returned to the tent, his daughters greeted him joyfully – even for the little he had brought.

“My wife and I divide the food we bring home so the kids can eat over several days. We often skip meals. The children can’t endure this… and I bear the full responsibility for feeding them,” he said.

Apocalyptic

Awad Abu Khalil was also among the desperate crowds on Wednesday. The 23-year-old described the crowds rushing to get to the food as “apocalyptic”.

“Everyone was running. It was chaos. The aid was piled up and everyone just attacked it, grabbing what they could.”

Awad said he heard gunfire in the distance, likely targeting young men trying to bypass the designated routes.

He expressed deep frustration with the staff. “I expected the American staff to distribute aid at tables, handing each person their share – not this madness.”

The images that emerged on Tuesday and Wednesday have added fuel to international criticism of the GHF, with representatives from several countries denouncing Israel’s decision to prevent the United Nations and international humanitarian organisations from bringing aid into Gaza.

Israel stopped the entry of aid into Gaza in early March, while a ceasefire was still ongoing. It has since unilaterally broken the ceasefire, and doubled down in its war on Gaza, with the official death toll now more than 54,000 Palestinians.

“We used to receive aid from international agencies and the UN,” said Jehad. “It was delivered by name, in an organised way – no chaos, no humiliation.”

By the end of Wednesday, Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that at least 10 Palestinians desperately seeking aid had been killed by Israeli forces in the previous 48 hours.

Humiliation

Awad and Jehad were both able to return home with some food.

Jehad said that his wife and mother made bread from the pasta, soaking it and then kneading it into dough. His wife used the sugar to make a simple pudding for the children. He will return on Thursday, he said.

Even that is better than it is for most people in Gaza.

Walaa Abu Sa’da has three children. Her youngest is only 10 months old.

The 35-year-old could not bear watching people return to the displacement camp in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis carrying food while her children starved, so she decided to go to Rafah by herself.

“I fought with my husband who refused to go out of fear of the [Israeli] army. I swore I would go myself,” Walaa told Al Jazeera.

Entrusting her children to her sister, she joined the crowd heading towards the distribution site.

“My children were on the verge of starving. No milk, no food, not even baby formula. They cried day and night, and I had to beg neighbours for scraps,” she said. “So I went, regardless of what my husband thought.”

But by the time Walaa made it to Rafah, it was too late.

“People were fighting over what little remained. Some were carrying torn parcels,” she said.

Walaa left the distribution site empty-handed. On the way back, she saw a man drop a bag of flour from his torn parcel.

“I picked it up and asked if I could have it,” she said. “He shouted, ‘I came all the way from Beit Lahiya in the far north [of Gaza] to get this. I have nine children who are all starving. I’m sorry, sister, I can’t give it away,’ and he walked off.

“I understood, but his words broke me. I wept for what we’ve become.”

Walaa described the experience as deeply humiliating. She was filled with shame and inferiority.

“I covered my face with my scarf the whole time. I didn’t want anyone to recognise me going to get a food parcel,” Walaa, who is a teacher with a bachelor’s degree in geography, said.

Despite her sorrow, Walaa says she will do it again if needed.

“There’s no dignity left when your children are crying from hunger. We won’t forgive those who allowed us to reach this point.”

A woman has shared her anger after being confronted by a tall man who told her she should give up her extra legroom seat because it’s ‘not her fault he is tall’

A woman who booked a premium seat for a 12-hour flight took to Reddit to share her experience after she was asked to swap seats mid-flight. The passenger, who had reserved her plane seats ‘months in advance’, recounted: “At the time of booking I paid extra to choose my seats.

“The seat I chose was $55 extra and right at the front of the plane (trying to arrive somewhere on time upon landing). The seat also happened to be an extra legroom seat and I am a 4’11 female.” Initially, everything went smoothly as she checked in, boarded, and settled into her seat, but things took a turn when “the seatbelt sign was switched off” and a man approached her requesting to “change seats”.

READ MORE: Natalie Portman’s makeup artist takes anti-ageing gadget ‘on every job’ to shrink wrinkles

Although initially open to the idea, she quickly declined upon realising his seat “was way in the back of the plane”. She firmly “told him no sorry” and justified her refusal by stating that she’d paid extra to “sit up front”.

The situation escalated as the man grew increasingly agitated and refused to leave, arguing that “there’s no reason someone of my height needs extra legroom (I told him I paid to be upfront).

“I suggested that he ask the other people in those seats if they could swap but he refused saying that he wouldn’t want to bother other men or split up couples.”

The woman recounted how the man turned “rude and angry”, prompting her to summon a flight attendant who instructed him to take his seat. She said: “For the rest of the flight he would walk past for no reason slamming into me (I was sitting aisle).”

She finished her tale by seeking opinions from fellow Reddit users on whether she was at fault and if she should have conceded her seat to him.

Reddit users didn’t hesitate to weigh in on her story, with a number of commenters affirming that she had done nothing wrong and was entitled to stay in her pre-paid seat.

One commenter explained: “So my brother is 6’6″. You know what he does when he has to fly? He makes sure to get an emergency exit row or whatever row has the extra leg room.”

He usually has to pay for it. Any tall person with an ounce of common sense knows they have to do this for flights.

“This tall guy knows he needs more leg room but tried to dodge the extra fee by asking someone to switch. OP was completely justified in refusing ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY PAID EXTRA and the tall person has no right to be a nuisance about it.”

A second chimed in, saying: “Tall person here. If I want more leg room, I can pay for it like everyone else. I don’t pay for the cheapest seat possible and then try to get someone shorter to give me the more expensive seat that they purchased for free.”

And a third added their thoughts: “He is tall, he’s been tall all of his life. He knew flying was a hardship on him and he didn’t wanna spend the extra money and he became an abusive bully to a single female when he didn’t get his way.

“You should’ve reported him and he should’ve been removed from the flight or you should’ve been compensated for your seat. A grown man felt he was entitled for you to give him what he wanted. You were an easy target because you were alone and he didn’t get his way and he harassed you the entire flight.”

Reaction to the news Loose Women will air only 30 weeks of the year from January irked Jane Moore, who said she was “immensely disappointed” to see pundits’ “lazy misogyny”

ITV has insisted it is not planning “radical changes” to the Loose Women line-up after it emerged some panelists were “in a state of panic and up in arms” amid the cuts bombshell.

The popular daytime programme will air for just 30 weeks each year from January, one of several changes ITV is making to “reinvest across the programme budget in other genres.” It reportedly left some Loose Women stars worried for their future, particularly Coleen Nolan, who a source had said was “shocked and blindsided” at the decision.

Her colleague Jane Moore was also furious, albeit more so at the “snooty reaction” by commentators in the media. The journalist said she felt the programme has received unfair criticism, and reminded pundits the panel regularly hold key political figures, such as Nigel Farage, held to account.

ITV has also stressed Loose Women plays an important part in its daytime schedule, and told the Mirror today that wholesale changes to the panel are unlikely. The ITV source said: “We are not planning any radical changes to the panel. All of our Loose Women are hugely valued and we celebrate each and every one and the experience and opinions they bring to the show every day.

“Many of our long standing panellists have appeared on the show for the majority of its 25 year run on screens and those stalwart, Loose legends are at the core of the show’s success and hugely popular with the audience. The show remains a big priority within our daytime slate, having secured a BAFTA nomination, launched a podcast and celebrated a milestone anniversary in the last year alone.”

READ MORE: Loose Women panellist hints at co-star rivalry as both covet role on iconic BBC show

It is thought this stance has been shared with the stars themselves, some of whom “reached out to the production team in a panic” following the announcement of the shake-up last week. Ruth Langsford and Kaye Adams were among those particularly concerned, the Mirror reported in the wake of the bombshell.

Coleen, whose sister Linda died in January, “has always really relied on Loose Women… her main income,” a source had told us. They added: “She was one of the first Loose Women and she’s always thought it would go on forever. The Loose Women ladies are all gutted. They love the show and are really dedicated to it.”

The programme, which first aired in 2000, won a Royal Television Society award earlier this year for its Facing It Together campaign against domestic violence. However, writing for The Sun this week, Jane said: “One male commentator for a broadsheet casually dismissed Loose Women — on air for 25 years — as a ‘gabfest’… The snooty reaction from some quarters was immensely disappointing.”

The journalist, in her second stint on Loose Women, reminded critics Janet Street Porter confronted then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the show, asking him: “Why do you hate pensioners?” The iconic moment in May 2024 led to his fall from power, as Labour thrashed the Conservatives in a landslide election just weeks later.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

The US will also ‘enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications’ from China and Hong Kong, the State Department said.

The United States will “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students studying in the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced, as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on foreign students enrolled at higher education institutions in the country.

Rubio announced the shock move both in a post on X, as well as a statement published late on Wednesday titled “New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China”.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the US State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” the statement said.

“We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” it added.

Rubio’s announcement added to the uncertainty for international students in the US, who have faced intensifying scrutiny over recent months amid the administration’s wider assault on higher education institutions.

On Tuesday, the White House also temporarily suspended the processing of visas for foreign students, ordering embassies and consulates not to allow any additional student or exchange visas “until further guidance is issued”.

The State Department also said it plans to “issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applications”.

THE NATIONAL Lottery results are in and it’s time to find out who has won a life-changing amount of money tonight (May 28, 2025).

Could tonight’s jackpot see you handing in your notice, jetting off to the Bahamas or driving a new Porsche off a garage forecourt?

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You can find out by checking your ticket against tonight’s numbers below. Good luck!

Tonight’s National Lottery Lotto winning numbers are: 08, 28, 31, 33, 49, 55 and the Bonus Ball is 13.

Tonight’s National Lottery Thunderball winning numbers are: 03, 07, 08, 18, 28 and the Thunderball is 09.

The first National Lottery draw was held on November 19 1994 when seven winners shared a jackpot of £5,874,778.

The largest amount ever to be won by a single ticket holder was £42million, won in 1996.

Gareth Bull, a 49-year-old builder, won £41million in November, 2020 and ended up knocking down his bungalow to make way for a luxury manor house with a pool.

Sue Davies, 64, bought a lottery ticket to celebrate ending five months of shielding during the pandemic — and won £500,000.

Sandra Devine, 36, accidentally won £300k – she intended to buy her usual £100 National Lottery Scratchcard, but came home with a much bigger prize.

The biggest jackpot ever to be up for grabs was £66million in January last year, which was won by two lucky ticket holders.

Another winner, Karl managed to bag £11million aged just 23 in 1996.

The odds of winning the lottery are estimated to be about one in 14million – BUT you’ve got to be in it to win it.

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WASHINGTON — A federal trade court on Wednesday blocked President Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law.

The ruling from a three-judge panel at the New York-based Court of International Trade came after several lawsuits arguing Trump has exceeded his authority, left U.S. trade policy dependent on his whims and unleashed economic chaos.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Trump administration is expected to appeal.

At least seven lawsuits are challenging the levies, the centerpiece of Trump’s trade policy.

Tariffs must typically be approved by Congress, but Trump has says he has the power to act because the country’s trade deficits amount to a national emergency. He imposed tariffs on most of the countries in the world at one point, sending markets reeling.

The plaintiffs argue that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the use of tariffs.

Even if it did, they say, the trade deficit does not meet the law’s requirement that an emergency be triggered only by an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” The U.S. has run a trade deficit with the rest of the world for 49 consecutive years.

Trump’s tendency to levy extremely high import taxes and then retreat has created what’s known as the “TACO” trade, an acronym coined by the Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong that stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” Markets generally sell off when Trump makes his tariff threats and then recover after he backs down.

Trump was visibly offended when asked about the phrase Wednesday and rejected the idea that he’s “chickening out,” saying that the reporter’s inquiry was “nasty.”

“You call that chickening out?” Trump said. “It’s called negotiation,” adding that he sets a “ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit” until the figure is more reasonable.

Trump defended his approach of jacking up tariff rates to 145% on Chinese goods, only to pull back to 30% for 90 days of negotiations. He similarly last week threatened to impose a 50% tax on goods from the European Union starting in June, only to delay the tariff hike until July 9 so that negotiations can occur while the baseline 10% tariff continues to be charged. Similar dramas have played out over autos, electronics and the universal tariffs that Trump announced on April 2 that were based in part on individual trade deficits with other countries.

Trump imposed tariffs on most of the countries in the world in an effort to reverse America’s massive and longstanding trade deficits. He earlier plastered levies on imports from Canada, China and Mexico to combat the illegal flow of immigrants and the synthetic opioids across the U.S. border.

His administration argues that courts approved then-President Richard Nixon’s emergency use of tariffs in 1971, and that only Congress, and not the courts, can determine the “political” question of whether the president’s rationale for declaring an emergency complies with the law.

Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs shook global financial markets and led many economists to downgrade the outlook for U.S. economic growth. So far, though, the tariffs appear to have had little impact on the world’s largest economy.

A lawsuit was filed by a group of small businesses, including a wine importer, V.O.S. Selections, whose owner has said the tariffs are having a major impact and his company may not survive.

A dozen states also filed suit, led by Oregon. “This ruling reaffirms that our laws matter, and that trade decisions can’t be made on the president’s whim,” Atty. Gen. Dan Rayfield said.

Whitehurst and Boak write for the Associated Press. A.P. writers Zeke Miller and Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.

As the Rams went through organized-team activities on Wednesday, the players on the field were not the most compelling storyline.

The distinction belongs to a certain NFL star player who potentially could be on the roster by training camp.

Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI, remains in play as a possible addition to a Rams team regarded as a Super Bowl contender, coach Sean McVay acknowledged after practice.

The Dolphins have made it known that they were open to trading Ramsey, who signed an extension in 2024 and is due to earn $24.2 million this season, according to Overthecap.com.

“We certainly haven’t closed the door on that,” McVay said when asked about Ramsey. “But there hasn’t been a whole lot of dialogue as of late…. We’ll see if that changes, but these things can happen quickly.”

The Dolphins were not expected to trade Ramsey until after June 1 — which falls on Sunday — when their cap hit would decrease from $25.2 million to $6.7 million, according to Overthecap.com.

McVay reiterated that there remains “a lot of layers” that would have to be worked out in terms of compensation the Dolphins might be seeking and how they would handle money due to Ramsey.

Ramsey, 30, intercepted two passes last season, increasing his career total to 24. The three-time All-Pro, however, affects the game beyond his statistics.

“Obviously, we love Jalen,” McVay said. “We know him intimately. There would be some things that we would need to be able to do if that was the direction we went.”

With an offense led by quarterback Matthew Stafford, receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams and running back Kyren Williams, and a defense anchored by lineman Kobie Turner and edge rusher Jared Verse, the Rams are expected to make another deep playoff run.

But the Rams did nothing in free agency or the draft to upgrade the secondary.

Veterans Darious Williams and Ahkello Witherspoon return as the starting cornerbacks, with Cobie Durant, Emmanuel Forbes Jr., Derion Kendrick and Charles Wallace competing for playing time.

Quentin Lake, Kam Curl, Jaylen McCollough and Kam Kinchens are returning safeties.

“I feel good about where we’re at,” McVay said.

Darious Williams is confident in the group as well.

“I love that,” he said of the Rams not making changes. “I feel like everybody in the building kind of knows what they have, and I think they’re dead right on it. … They’ve got the right guys in the room that are going to hold it down.”

But Darious Williams also recounted how Ramsey brought out the best in him when they played opposite each other in 2021, when the Rams won the Super Bowl.

“I knew absolutely, when he was on the other side, you know, I better lock up because it’s not going to be a lot of times that people are going to want to try him,” Williams said. “That was a big thing for me, and I took it as a challenge and I took it as something I loved.

“Whatever is best for this organization is what’s going to happen.”

Etc.

Rookie tight end Terrance Ferguson, a second-round draft pick, said his experience so far exceeded his expectations. “Everyone’s poured into me, so it’s been an amazing experience,” he said. … Nacua was absent because he was returning from a family trip that was planned months ago, McVay said. … Stafford connected with Adams on several plays. “It’s fun just trying to communicate as much as I can with him,” Stafford said, adding, “It’s fun to work with guys that understand the game and still have a lot left in the tank.” Stafford also connected with Tutu Atwell for a long touchdown. … Running back Kyren Williams, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract, is participating in workouts while the Rams and his agent attempt to work out a new deal. “Kyren has been the same stud that we know,” McVay said. “Great demeanor, great willingness to come out here to work to be able to get better. … We’ll see where this goes. But I think it’s been really healthy and positive progress for sure.” … Lakers coach JJ Redick attended practice.

May 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is a strong ally for the growing cryptocurrency industry, Vice President JD Vance told attendees at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

“Crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House,” Vance said while delivering the event’s keynote address, CBS News reported.

“We want our fellow Americans to know that crypto and digital assets, and particularly bitcoin, are part of the mainstream economy and are here to stay,” he said.

Vance was this year’s featured speaker at the annual bitcoin conference, which President Donald Trump headlined last year while campaigning for the presidency.

Stablecoins stabilize the dollar

He said the Trump administration does not view so-called stablecoins as destabilizing the U.S. dollar and instead strengthens it, CNBC reported.

“We view them as a force multiplier for our economic might,” Vance told the audience at The Venetian Resort.

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency whose value is derived from another asset, such as gold or the U.S. dollar, according to coinbase.

Vance said cryptocurrency has transformed how people and businesses conduct transactions, and its decentralized nature makes it a good way to protect personal and business finances against bad policies.

“Crypto is a hedge against bad policymaking from Washington, no matter what party’s in control,” he said.

Political advocacy for crypto progress

Vance encouraged those who are involved in cryptocurrency to increase their political advocacy.

He said $200 million in campaign support for candidates who supported cryptocurrency had a positive effect during the 2024 general election, The Hill reported.

Such financial support enabled Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, to beat Democratic Party incumbent Sherrod Brown in the 2024 Senate election in Ohio.

“Part of the reason that I’m standing here, part of the reason that Bernie Moreno defeated Sherrod Brown in the Senate campaign last year, is because you guys got organized and got involved in American politics,” Vance said.

Brown chaired the Senate Banking Committee, but his election defeat removed him as an obstacle to crypto-friendly legislation.

“There’s a lesson to take from that experience,” Vance said. “Unless you guys get involved in politics, politics is going to ignore this industry.”

Strong support for the GENIUS Act

The Trump administration is advocating for the GENIUS Act, which officially is called the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation in U.S. Stablecoins Act.

Vance said the proposed act’s enabling legislation is poised to be approved in the Senate and likely would fare well in the House of Representatives.

President Trump’s lead crypto adviser, David Sacks, last week told CNBC that U.S. investors have more than $200 billion in unregulated stablecoins.

Sacks said that amount could reach trillions of dollars “if we provide the legal clarity and legal framework for this.”

A United States federal judge has said that an effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to deport pro-Palestine student activist Mahmoud Khalil is likely unconstitutional.

District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey wrote on Wednesday that the government’s claim that Khalil constituted a threat to US national security and foreign policy was not likely to succeed.

“Would an ordinary person have a sense that he could be removed from the United States because he ‘compromise[d]’ American ‘foreign policy interests’ — that is, because he compromised US relations with other countries — when the Secretary has not determined that his actions impacted US relations with a foreign country?” Farbiarz wrote. “Probably not.”

Farbiarz did not immediately rule on the question of whether Khalil’s First Amendment rights to free speech were violated. He also did not order Khalil’s immediate release, citing unanswered questions about his permanent residency application.

The judge is expected to order further steps in the coming days.

A ruling against the government would be the latest legal setback for the Trump administration’s controversial efforts to crack down on pro-Palestine activism across the US in the name of national security and combating anti-Semitism.

But critics have accused the Trump administration of violating basic constitutional rights in its efforts to do so.

Khalil, a lawful permanent resident of the US, was the first high-profile arrest made in the Trump administration’s push to expel student protesters involved in demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.

A former graduate student, Khalil had served as a spokesperson for the antiwar protests at Columbia University. But on March 8, the 30-year-old was arrested in the hall of his student housing building in New York City, while his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, filmed the incident.

He was then transferred from a detention centre in New Jersey to one in Jena, Louisiana, while his lawyers struggled to ascertain his location. He remains imprisoned in the Jena facility while the US government seeks his deportation.

In public statements, Khalil has said that his detention is part of an effort to chill dissent over US support for Israel’s war, which has been described as a genocide by human rights groups and United Nations experts.

Civil liberties organisations have also expressed alarm that Khalil’s detention appears premised on his political views, rather than any criminal acts. Khalil has not been charged with any crime.

In Louisiana, Khalil continues to face an immigration court weighing his deportation. But in a separate case before the US federal court in Newark, New Jersey, Khalil’s lawyers are arguing a habeas corpus petition: in other words, a case that argues their client has been unlawfully detained.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting on behalf of the Trump administration, has cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 as the legal basis for Khalil’s detention.

That Cold War-era law stipulates that the secretary of state can deport a foreign national if that person is deemed to pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences”.

But that law has been rarely used and raises concerns about conflicts with the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to free speech regardless of citizenship.

Judge Farbiarz appeared to echo that concern, warning that the Trump administration’s rationale appeared to meet the standards for “constitutional vagueness”.

That, in turn, means Khalil’s petition is “likely to succeed on the merits of his claim” that the government’s actions were unconstitutional, the judge wrote on Wednesday.

Khalil’s legal team applauded the judge’s order, writing in a statement afterwards, “The district court held what we already knew: Secretary Rubio’s weaponization of immigration law to punish Mahmoud and others like him is likely unconstitutional.”

Khalil is one of several high-profile students whose cases have tested the constitutional bounds of the Trump administration’s actions.

Other international students detained for their involvement in pro-Palestine politics, such as Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk and Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, have been released from detention after legal challenges.

But Khalil remains in detention. The government denied a request for Khalil’s temporary release that would have allowed him to witness the birth of his son in April.

It also sought to prevent him from holding his newborn son during visitation sessions at a Louisiana detention centre.

“I am furious at the cruelty and inhumanity of this system that dares to call itself just,” Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, said in a statement.

She noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had denied the family “this most basic human right” after she flew more than 1,000 miles to visit him in Louisiana with their newborn son.

A judge blocked those efforts by ICE last week, allowing Khalil to hold his son for the first time more than one month after he was born.

GREGGS’ sausage roll is being honoured with its own wax figure at Madame Tussauds. 

The iconic savoury treat’s effigy will be unveiled at the attraction for National Sausage Roll day next week. 

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It will be displayed on a regal blue velvet cushion, sitting on a plinth and accompanied by a plaque, which salutes the “significant contribution it delivers to Britain’s culinary heritage”. 

For a limited time, it will take its place alongside the likes of William Shakespeare, Sir David Attenborough and Stormzy at the London wax museum’s Culture Capital zone, dedicated to those who have shaped Britain. 

Greggs chief exec Roisin Currie said: “Seeing our sausage roll receive the celebrity treatment is a proud and slightly surreal moment for all of us at Greggs.” 

The model snack was crafted at Madame Tussauds’ London studio following the same process used for human figures. 

Artists spent hours ensuring it was correct in every detail. 

The plaque notes Greggs was founded in 1951 — and that 365million of its sausage rolls, each with 96 layers of flaky pastry, are bought every year. 

It is the first time that an individual food item has been so honoured at the attraction. 

Jo Kinsey, studio manager at Madame Tussauds London, said: “The Greggs sausage roll is synonymous with British culture — we just had to put it in our Culture Zone. 

“Our artists have put in numerous hours to capture every detail. The pressure was on to capture it perfectly because we know how passionate Brits are about their favourite pastry.” 

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FIVE protesters have been arrested after they allegedly targeted the filming of Gal Gadot’s new movie.

The demonstrators disrupted production at several locations across London in recent weeks, the Metropolitan Police said.

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The force said the protestors targeted sets “solely because an actress involved in the production is Israeli”.

Gadot, 40, who served in the Israel Defense Forces, previously showed support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attacks.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (Pacbi) has since argued people who support their group should boycott Gadot films.

Gadot is understood to currently be filming an action thriller called The Runner in the capital.

Police were called to a set location in Westminster on Wednesday.

Officers detained five people on suspicion of harassment and offences under Section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.

Two of the arrests were in relation to previous protests, while three were in response to incidents that unfolded on Wednesday.

All five remain in custody.

Supt Neil Holyoak said: “While we absolutely acknowledge the importance of peaceful protest, we have a duty to intervene where it crosses the line into serious disruption or criminality.

“We have been in discussions with the production company to understand the impact of the protests on their work and on any individuals involved.

“I hope today’s operation shows we will not tolerate the harassment of or unlawful interference with those trying to go about their legitimate professional work in London.”

The Runner, produced by David Kosse, stars Gadot as a lawyer on a mission to rescue her kidnapped son.

Gadot has been pictured back on set this week, despite the protests.

Demonstrations also followed the actress to her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony after her role in the latest Snow White movie.

A Pro-Palestine group stood outside the ceremony carrying signs reading: “Viva Viva Palestina”.

In a Variety interview earlier this week, Gadot said: “After October 7th [2023], I don’t talk politics — because who cares about the celebrity talking about politics?

“I’m an artist. I want to entertain people. I want to bring hope and be a beacon of light whenever I say anything about the world.

“But on October 7th, when people were abducted from their homes, from their beds, men, women, children, elderly, Holocaust survivors, were going through the horrors of what happened that day, I could not be silent.

“I’m not a hater. I’m a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor who came to Israel and established his family from scratch after his entire family was erased in Auschwitz.

“And on the other side of my family, I’m eighth generation Israeli. I’m an indigenous person of Israel.

“I am all about humanity and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages. I am praying for better days for all.

“I want everybody to have good life and prosperity, and the ability to raise their children in a safe environment.”

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US electronic design automation software makers were told via letters to stop supplies to China, the FT reported.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered US firms that offer software used to design semiconductors to stop selling their services to Chinese groups, the Financial Times has reported, citing people familiar with the move.

Electronic design automation software makers, which include Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens EDA, were told via letters from the US Commerce Department to stop supplying their tech, the report, which was published on Wednesday, said.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Department declined to comment on the letters but said it is reviewing exports of strategic significance to China, while noting that, “in some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements while the review is pending”.

Shares of Cadence, which declined to comment, closed down by 10.7 percent, while shares of Synopsys fell by 9.6 percent.

Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi said in a call with analysts that the company had not received a letter, nor had it heard from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry (BIS) and Security, which enforces export controls.

“We are aware of the reporting and speculations, but Synopsys has not received a notice from BIS. So, our guidance that we are reiterating for the full year, reflects our current understanding of BIS export restrictions as well as our expectations for year-over-year decline in China. We have not received a letter,” Ghazi said.

After the market closed, Synopsys reaffirmed its revenue forecast for 2025. Its shares and those of Cadence bounced back 3.5 percent in trading after the close.

Siemens EDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The software of these firms is used to design both high-end processors as well as simpler products.

While the scope of the policy change described in the report was not immediately clear, any move to strip the software makers of their Chinese customers could deal a blow to their bottom line and to their Chinese chip design customers, which heavily rely on top-of-the-line US software.

“They are the true choke point,” said a former Commerce Department official, who added that rules restricting the export of EDA tools to China have been under consideration since the first Trump administration, but were ruled out as too aggressive.

Synopsys relies on China for about 16 percent of its annual revenue, while China accounts for about 12 percent of annual revenue for Cadence.

Synopsys, which partners with chip companies such as Nvidia, Qualcomm and Intel, provides software and hardware used for designing advanced processors.

The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether California, its interscholastic sports federation and the Jurupa Unified School District are violating the civil rights of cisgender girls by allowing transgender students to compete in school sports, federal officials announced Wednesday.

The Justice Department is also throwing its support behind a pending lawsuit alleging similar violations of girls’ rights in the Riverside Unified School District, said U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who oversees much of the Los Angeles region, and Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Transgender track athletes have come under intense scrutiny in recent months in both Jurupa Valley and Riverside, with anti-LGBTQ+ activists attacking them on social media and screaming opposition to their competing at school meets.

Essayli and Dhillon, both Californians appointed under President Trump, have long fought against transgender rights in the state. Their announcements came one day after Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing transgender youth to participate in sports.

The legal actions are just the latest attempts by the Trump administration to scale back transgender rights nationwide, including by bringing the fight to California — which has the nation’s largest queer population and some of its most robust LGBTQ+ legal protections — and targeting individual student athletes in the state.

Both Trump in his threats Tuesday and Essayli and Dhillon in their announcement of the investigation Wednesday appeared to reference the recent success of a 16-year-old transgender track athlete at Jurupa Valley High School named AB Hernandez. Trump wrongly suggested that Hernandez had won “everything” at a recent meet — which Hernandez didn’t do.

In a comment to The Times on Wednesday, Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, said it was heartbreaking to see her child being attacked “simply for being who they are,” and despite following all California laws and policies for competing.

“My child is a transgender student-athlete, a hardworking, disciplined, and passionate young person who just wants to play sports, continue to build friendships, and grow into their fullest potential like any other child,” her mother said.

The mother of another transgender high school track athlete in Riverside County who is the subject of the pending lawsuit the Justice Department is now backing declined to comment Wednesday.

The Justice Department said it had sent letters of legal notice to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the California Interscholastic Federation and Jurupa Unified.

The U.S. Department of Education had previously announced in February that it was investigating the CIF for allowing transgender athletes to compete. Dhillon said the two federal departments would coordinate their investigations.

Bonta has defended state laws protecting transgender youth, students and athletes, and advised school systems and other institutions in the state, such as hospitals, to adhere to state LGBTQ+ laws — even in the face of various Trump executive orders aimed at curtailing the rights of and healthcare for transgender youth. On Wednesday, his office said it remained “committed to defending and upholding California laws.”

Scott Roark, a spokesman for the California Department of Education, said his agency could not comment. Jacquie Paul, a spokesperson for Jurupa Unified, said the school system had yet to receive the letter Wednesday, and “without further information” could not comment. A spokesperson for the Riverside Unified School District also declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

The CIF, in a statement, said it “values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law and Education Code.”

However, the sports federation also changed its rules for the upcoming 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, saying a cisgender girl who is bumped from qualifying for event finals by a transgender athlete would still be allowed to compete and would also be awarded the medal for whichever place they would have claimed were the transgender athlete not competing.

The changes brought renewed criticism from advocates on both sides of the political issue, including Chino Valley Unified school board President Sonja Shaw. Shaw is a Trump supporter running for state schools superintendent who has challenged pro-LGBTQ+ laws statewide and supports the latest investigation. She said that, in making the changes, CIF was “admitting” that girls “are being pushed out of their own sports.”

Dhillon said her office’s “pattern or practice” investigation will consider whether California’s laws and the CIF policies violate Title IX, a 1972 federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding.

Title IX has been used in the past to win rights for transgender people, but the Trump administration has taken a strikingly different view of the law — and cited it as a reason transgender rights must be rolled back.

Dhillon said the law “exists to protect women and girls in education,” that it is “perverse to allow males to compete against girls, invade their private spaces, and take their trophies,” and that her division would “aggressively defend women’s hard-fought rights to equal educational opportunities.”

Essayli said in a statement that his office would “work tirelessly to protect girls’ sports and stop anyone — public officials included — from violating women’s civil rights.”

LGBTQ+ advocates, civic institutions in California and many Democratic lawmakers in the state have denounced the framing of transgender inclusion in sports as diminishing the rights of women and girls and accused Trump and other Republicans of attacking transgender people — about 1% of the U.S. population — simply because they make for an easy and vulnerable political target.

Kristi Hirst, co-founder of the public education advocacy group Our Schools USA, said the Justice Department’s actions amounted to “bullying minors and using taxpayer resources to do so,” and that a “better use of public dollars would be for the Justice Department to affirm that all kids possess civil rights, and protect the very students being targeted today.”

The “pattern or practice” investigation is the second such investigation that Dhillon’s office has launched in the L.A. region in as many months. It’s also investigating Los Angeles County over its process for issuing gun permits.

Essayli’s separate decision to back the Riverside lawsuit adds another wrinkle to an already complicated case.

The group Save Girls’ Sports is suing over the inclusion of a transgender athlete in a girls’ track meet in October, a decision they allege unfairly bumped a cisgender girl from competition, and over a decision by high school officials to block students from wearing shirts that read, “IT’S COMMON SENSE. XX [does not equal] XY,” a reference to the different chromosome pairings of biological females and males.

Julianne Fleischer, an attorney with Advocates for Faith & Freedom who is representing Save Girls’ Sports, said Wednesday that Essayli’s decision to weigh in on behalf of the group was welcome.

“This case has always been about common sense, fairness, and the plain meaning of the law,” Fleischer said in a statement. “Girls’ sports were never meant to be a social experiment. They exist so that girls can win, lead and thrive on a level playing field.”

It was unclear how the case would be affected by Essayli’s interest.

The state and school district are asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed. A hearing is scheduled next month.

Essayli, formerly a state Assembly member from Riverside County, made his name in politics in part by attacking what he has called the “woke” policies of California’s liberal majority in Sacramento. Shortly before he was appointed as U.S. attorney last month, other California lawmakers blocked a bill he introduced that would have banned transgender athletes from female sports.

Hernandez, the mother of the targeted Jurupa Valley athlete, said Trump and other officials were bullying children by “weaponizing misinformation and fear instead of embracing truth, compassion and respect,” and asked Trump to reconsider.

“I respectfully request you to open your heart and mind to learn about the LGBTQ+ community,” she said, “not from the voices of fear or division, but from the people living these lives with courage, love and dignity.”

Rotating and resting players in secondary cups is not a new phenomenon – but Chelsea took it to a new level in the Conference League this season.

They averaged 8.5 changes per European game, based on their previous Premier League line-up.

In the league stage there was a recognised Premier League team and a Conference League XI – with very little overlap. They were much changed in the domestic cups too, although fell at the second hurdle in both.

England forward Palmer, their star player, was not even registered in Europe until the knockout games.

As the Blues started playing in knockout games they started using more first-team players, like Palmer, Caicedo and Marc Cucurella.

But even through that they never made fewer than five changes from their last league game, including the final.

As the season ends, well, until next month’s Fifa Club World Cup, 18 Chelsea players featured in more Conference League than Premier League games this season.

That includes five players who left the club in January.

Midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who played all 15 European games, featured 13 times in the league.

Marc Guiu, whose six goals were two shy of the Conference League Golden Boot, has yet to start a league game.

However, the final saw a stronger XI, with only four outfield changes from the side that beat Nottingham Forest last Sunday to clinch a Champions League spot.

“Chelsea have got so much more money than anyone else competing in this competition,” said ex-Blues winger Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“But they have respected the competition by saying, ‘we’re not going to put out the softest of teams but we’ll put out enough to make sure we’ll get through’.

“I have to say, looking back on it all now, Enzo Maresca has done a great job.”

Praise follows conflict of interest concerns after Trump launches his own coin and hosts a dinner for his investors.

United States Vice President JD Vance has urged the domestic cryptocurrency industry to remain involved in US politics, highlighting the close ties of President Donald Trump’s administration to a deep-pocketed industry.

Speaking at a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday, Vance urged cryptocurrency executives and enthusiasts to keep pressure on the US Congress to pass pro-crypto legislation supported by the White House

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unleash innovation and use it to improve the lives of countless American citizens,” Vance said in his address. “But if we fail to create regulatory clarity now, we risk chasing this $3 trillion industry offshore in search of a friendly jurisdiction.”

Vance made the speech after Trump promised to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” when he addressed the same Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last year in the middle of the presidential campaign. The crypto industry, which felt unfairly attacked by former President Joe Biden’s administration, spent heavily to help Trump and pro-cryptocurrency lawmakers win election.

Vance praised how quickly the crypto industry was able to organise and influence US politics during last year’s elections, giving special credit to Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the billionaire founders of the crypto exchange Gemini.

“You chose to speak up, and you chose to get involved, and I believe you changed the direct trajectory of our country because of it,” Vance told the crowd gathered at the Venetian Hotel.

Vance hailed cryptocurrencies as a hedge that can help conservative populists protect themselves against what he called bad politicians, overly aggressive regulators and unethical elites. He predicted continued assimilation of the digital currencies into the financial mainstream and said it was strategically important for the US to be a world leader in the industry, noting that the Chinese government is hostile to crypto.

As president, Trump has established a Bitcoin reserve for the federal government and pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, a black market website that was key to the early growth of Bitcoin.

Trump has also put outspoken crypto backers in his administration, which has undone or paused several enforcement actions taken against large cryptocurrency companies

Several other Trump officials are speakers at the Bitcoin conference, as are his sons Don Jr and Eric.

Conflict of interest

The president and his family’s use of cryptocurrencies as a platform to make money has drawn criticism from Democrats and even crypto enthusiasts as corrupt and unseemly.

The Trump family holds about a 60 percent stake in a crypto project called World Liberty Financial, which recently launched its own stablecoin, a fast-growing form of cryptocurrency whose value is often tied to the US dollar. This month, the US Senate advanced legislation that would create a federal framework to regulate stablecoins, a bill that Vance said the Trump administration wants passed into law quickly.

Trump’s media company announced on Tuesday that it was raising $2.5bn to buy Bitcoin, the world’s oldest and most popular cryptocurrency.

The president and first lady Melania Trump have also launched their own meme coins. Last week, Donald Trump rewarded investors in his coin. About 220 of the biggest investors in the $TRUMP were invited to Trump’s luxury golf club in northern Virginia.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) will spend more than £1bn to develop technology to speed up decisions on the battlefield.

The funding will be one of the results of the government’s long-awaited strategic defence review which is due to be published in full on Monday.

The government has committed to raising defence spending to 2.5% GDP from April 2027 with an ambition to increase that to 3% in the next parliament.

In February, the prime minister said cuts to the foreign aid budget would be used to fund the military boost.

Announcing the results of the review, the MoD said a new Digital Targeting Web would better connect soldiers on the ground with key information provided by satellites, aircraft and drones helping them target enemy threats faster.

Defence Secretary John Healey said the technology announced in the review – which will harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) and software – also highlights lessons being learnt from the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine is already using AI and software to speed up the process of identifying, and then hitting, Russian military targets.

The review had been commissioned by the newly formed Labour government shortly after last year’s election with Healey describing it as the “first of its kind”.

The government said the findings would be published in the first half of 2025, but did not give an exact date.

Healey made the announcement on a visit to the MoD’s cyber headquarters in Corsham, Wiltshire.

The headquarters is where the UK military co-ordinates their cyber activities to both prevent and to carry out cyber-attacks.

Defence officials said over the last two years the UK’s military had faced more than 90,000 cyber-attacks by potential adversaries.

Attacks have been on the rise, as has their level of sophistication, they added.

Staff at Corsham said they had recently helped identify and block malware sent to UK military personnel who recently returned from working abroad.

They said the source of the malware was from a “known Russian actor”.

Both Russia and China have been linked to the increase in cyber-attacks.

Defence officials have confirmed that the UK military has also been conducting its own offensive cyber-attacks.

Healey said it showed the nature of warfare was changing.

“The keyboard is now a weapon of war and we are responding to that,” he said.

He said the UK needed to be the fastest-innovating military within the Nato alliance.

As part of the strategic defence review, the UK’s military cyber operations will be overseen by a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command.

The MoD said the Command would also take the lead in electronic warfare, from co-ordinating efforts to intercept any adversaries communications, to jamming drones.

Healey said the extra investment being made was possible because of the government’s “historic commitment” to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027.

However, the Nato Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, is calling on allies to increase defence spending by more than 3.5% of GDP.

After an extensive search, HBO has officially found young wizards Harry, Ron and Hermione for its upcoming “Harry Potter” series.

Newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton are the chosen ones to play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively, of the more than 30,000 children who auditioned during the open casting call.

Filming begins this summer and the show premieres next year.

“The talent of these three unique actors is wonderful to behold, and we cannot wait for the world to witness their magic together onscreen,” executive producers Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod said in a statement. “We would like to thank all the tens of thousands of children who auditioned. It’s been a real pleasure to discover the plethora of young talent out there.” Gardiner will serve as showrunner and Mylod will direct multiple episodes of the series.

Author J.K. Rowling, Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film & TV, and David Heyman of Heyday Films will also executive produce.

Here’s everything we know about the reimagining of the classic franchise.

Who is Dominic McLaughlin?

Prior to nabbing the titular role in “Harry Potter,” McLaughlin studied at the Performance Academy Scotland for five years. He is set to appear in BBC’s upcoming series “Gifted,” about Scottish teens who discover they have superpowers, and the Sky film “Grow,” about a grumpy pumpkin farmer and her orphaned niece.

“The news is out and this one is MAGICAL!!” wrote the Performance Academy Scotland on Instagram. “We are not sure that this will ever feel real but we said from the start that Dominic was the perfect Harry & we are thrilled for everyone else to see this soon too.”

Who is Alastair Stout?

“Harry Potter” is Stout’s first major role. His only other credited appearance is a commercial for Albert Bartlett potatoes.

Who is Arabella Stanton?

Stanton starred as Matilda Wormwood in “Matilda the Musical” in London’s West End from 2023 to 2024. The English actress also played the narrator Control in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s play “Starlight Express” in 2024.

Who else is in the cast?

Previously announced cast members include John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch.

How will the show differ from the movies?

HBO has said the show will span a decade and remain faithful to Rowling’s books. The original films starred Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. In addition to the seven bestsellers and eight hit films, the franchise also spawned the “Fantastic Beasts” movie prequels, starring Eddie Redmayne, the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and themed areas at Universal parks.

At least 10 Palestinians desperately seeking aid from a contentious and heavily criticised United States-backed organisation have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the last 48 hours, according to the besieged enclave’s Government Media Office.

The updated toll on Wednesday comes a day after a harrowing video showed thousands of starving Palestinians rushing to get aid, with many of them herded into cage-like lines, from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution point in Rafah in southern Gaza.

In a statement, the Government Media Office said Israeli forces “opened direct fire on hungry Palestinian civilians who had gathered to receive aid” at the distribution site, wounding at least 62 people.

It was not immediately clear exactly how many incidents of gunfire occurred or on which days the 10 Palestinians were fatally shot, but there were deaths on both days.

“These locations were transformed into death traps under the occupation’s gunfire,” the media office said, decrying the killings as a “heinous crime”.

For its part, the GHF said it had opened a second of a planned four aid distribution sites in Gaza on Wednesday.

The centres are part of an aid delivery scheme that has been roundly condemned by United Nations officials and the humanitarian community, who have repeatedly said that life-saving aid could be adequately and safely scaled up in Gaza if Israel would allow access to aid and let those organisations that have decades of experience handle the flow.

Speaking earlier in the day, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, decried the US-backed delivery model as a “distraction from atrocities” and called on Israel to allow the UN-backed humanitarian system to “do its life-saving work now”.

The message was echoed by several members of the UN Security Council during a meeting in New York discussing the conflict, with Algeria, France and the United Kingdom among those appealing for Israel to allow unfettered aid deliveries.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, said Israel was using “aid as a weapon of war”.

Reporting from UN headquarters, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said that Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s special coordinator for Middle East peace, and Feroze Sidhwa, a surgeon who recently went on a humanitarian mission to Gaza, were among those who addressed the council.

“The message from both of these experts was again calling for a ceasefire and the full resumption of aid into the Gaza Strip,” she said.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, criticised the UN for what he said were “attempts to block access to aid” and demanded a retraction from Tom Fletcher, the UN’s humanitarian chief, for accusing Israel of committing genocide.

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the attacks levied by Danon should come as no surprise.

“They are on the defensive, knowing all too well that they lost their public relations campaign and that their reputation around the world is in the mud,” he said, referring to Israel’s near-daily bombardment and siege of Gaza.

The alternate US representative at the UN, John Kelley, said that the UN should “work with the GHF and Israel to reach an agreement on how to operationalise this system in a way that works for all”.

He maintained that the GHF was “independent” and developed to “provide a secure mechanism for the delivery of aid to those in need”.

Relentless Israeli attacks

As the debate over aid access raged, Israel’s punishing attacks continued across Gaza, with rights observers warning of an even worsening humanitarian situation.

At least 63 people were killed in Israeli attacks since the early hours of Wednesday, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic, bringing the death toll since October 7, 2023, to at least 54,084 Palestinians, with more than 123,308 wounded.

The ministry added that only 17 hospitals in Gaza remained partially functioning, with critical shortages of essential medicines and oxygen supplies.

Separately, the Red Cross reported that its field hospital in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area came under Israeli fire early on Wednesday, causing panic and injuries among patients there.

In an open letter, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Oxfam and other nonprofit groups called for “full, independent and international investigations into the attacks on healthcare in Gaza as violations of international humanitarian law”.

The UN’s World Food Programme, meanwhile, reported that its warehouse in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah had been broken into by hungry people “in search of food supplies”. Preliminary reports indicate that at least four people were killed amid the stampede and gunfire, though the cause of the latter was not immediately clear.

The agency said that increasing aid was “the only way to reassure people that they will not starve”.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Gaza City that the search for food has proven deadly, even away from crowded distribution areas.

“For example, in the past couple of hours, two people were reported killed in the Shujayea neighbourhood [of Gaza City]. They were killed trying to get to their homes,” he said.

“They were forced to evacuate in the past few weeks. They left everything behind. All of their belongings, all of their food supplies that they managed to get … [were] inside the house.”

Ceasefire remains elusive

As the attacks have continued, a breakthrough for a more lasting agreement to end the fighting has remained elusive.

Still, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, on Wednesday said he had “very good feelings” about soon reaching a long-term solution.

That came shortly after Hamas said it had reached an agreement with Witkoff on a general framework for a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid.

The framework appears at odds with the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said the Israeli military would remain in Gaza indefinitely, continuing to control aid access and pursuing the complete defeat of Hamas.

Speaking to Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, Netanyahu listed top Hamas officials killed throughout the war. The list included Mohammed Sinwar, the brother and successor of killed Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar.

Hamas has not yet confirmed Mohammed Sinwar’s death.

CAR boot sales can be a treasure trove for bargain hunters, if you know what to look for.

Among the mountains of used toys, mismatched mugs, and bric-a-brac, there are hidden gems that are worth serious cash.

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And nobody knows that better than thrifty Mary Hagan, from North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

She picked up her love for car boot sales from her parents, visiting Paddy’s Market in Glasgow every week as a family before it was closed down by the city council in 2009.

She said: “I loved it and was very sad to see it close, as were loads of others.

“It was a big talking point in Glasgow years ago and families and friends would meet to show their bargains off.

“I even got my prom dress there for high school. It was a £5 bargain but I felt amazing in it.

“Times were hard then and although my mum worked, my dad didn’t due to his health but it didn’t stop us ever looking good.”

Now, the 48-year-old loves nothing more than scouring car boot sales and charity shops in her local area.

“I’ve had loads of bargains over the years”, she told Fabulous.

“I hardly ever buy anything new. But I love it as it saves things going to the landfill, and it’s better for your pocket.

“Also, with the way things are going, you need every penny you can get to survive.”

If she’s at her caravan holiday home, Mary ventures through to the Silloth boot sale in Cumbria – which she hails as a “money town where you’re guaranteed the best”.

And it’s here that she bagged a £600 designer gem for just £8.

The tan Mulberry Alexa satchel was wrapped in a dust bag when Mary stumbled across it towards the end of the day.

After sharing her find on TikTok (@mazzah77), she said: “I asked if I could have a look. The seller said ‘of course’ and I knew instantly I was onto a winner.

“I could tell it was genuine right away. It’s real leather, and the insides, the emblems, and condition are all spot on.

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“I asked how much and the seller had said because it was the end of day £10.

“Inside I was like ‘wow I’m definitely taking it anyway’ but the Glaswegian in me knew to haggle. I mean, who goes to a car boot and doesn’t haggle? It’s part of the excitement.

“So we agreed on £8. I was delighted and walked away Googling it straight away to realise a pre-loved Mulberry bag the exact same was fetching £600.

“I don’t know if I will resell or keep it, it’s not my usual style so who knows – if the price is right!”

She adds: “It’s always worthwhile going to car boots and charity shops as you just never know what you will find.

“Just remember to rummage and haggle.”