30/05/2025

FRIDAY | MAY 30, 2025

9

WEF founder files complaint against whistleblowers

BRITAIN CHARGES AIRCRAFT PARTS BOSS WITH FRAUD LONDON: Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Wednesday it had charged a company director with fraudulent trading in an international investigation into the sale of suspected non-certified aircraft parts to leading airlines. The SFO said it had charged Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, who it accuses “of operating UK based AOG Technics for a fraudulent purpose”. It said planes in the UK and abroad were grounded in 2023 after British, US and EU aviation regulators issued safety alerts to airlines that may have bought or installed AOG parts. Zamora Yrala will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday, charged with an offence that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, the SFO added in a statement. The UK body has conducted a joint investigation with Portuguese authorities into the supply of suspected fraudulent safety certification and parts. – AFP CRUMBLING PEAK TRIGGERS GLACIER COLLAPSE GENEVA: A large part of a glacier above the Swiss village of Blatten has broken off. Along with massive amounts of debris, the glacier has reached the village, which had already been evacuated. Parts of the village were likely buried, a regional command staff said on Wednesday. A photographer from the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA reported gigantic masses of debris rolling into the valley. Large quantities of ice, rock, snow and water already tumbled down the valley earlier in the week. The trigger for these events in the southern Swiss region of Valais is a relatively slow moving landslide at the Kleines Nesthorn peak, above the now-collapsed Birch Glacier. – Bernama The Schwab family denied all the allegations to the Journal. Schwab also denied all allegations against him to FT. – Reuters GENEVA: World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab has filed a criminal complaint against the whistleblowers who anonymously alleged misconduct by him, the Financial Times (FT) reported yesterday. The forum launched an investigation in April following a whistleblower letter alleging misconduct by him, only a day after the 87 year-old Schwab said he was resigning as chairman without stating a reason. Schwab told FT that he would fight the “stupid and constructed” allegations, adding that his lawyers had filed a complaint for defamation and coercion with the public prosecutor in Geneva. WEF, whose annual gathering of business and political leaders in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos has become a symbol of globalisation, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Schwab could not be immediately reached. There was no immediate response from the Geneva prosecutor’s office. The FT report said the WEF had declined to comment on Schwab’s legal action, saying it was “a matter apparently directed privately against unknown whistleblowers”. “We will have this public prosecutor investigation. If they find a systemic attempt to undermine my reputation, this won’t be comfortable for the board,” Schwab said. The Wall Street Journal , which reported the investigation in April, had said the anonymous letter raised concerns about WEF’s governance and workplace culture, including allegations that the Schwab family mixed their personal affairs with the forum’s resources without proper oversight.

A displaced Palestinian supports his back as he

carries a bag of food aid while others rush for a share in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. – AFPPIC

Deadly warehouse break-in as aid trickles into Gaza o Israel continues airstrikes, killing 30 residents

UN Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag told the Security Council that the amount of aid Israel had so far allowed the UN to deliver was “comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk” when everyone in Gaza was facing the risk of famine. The United States has been trying to broker a ceasefire. Israel, which resumed its military operation in Gaza in March after a brief truce, continued strikes on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people, Palestinian health officials said. “We are on the precipice of sending out a new term sheet that hopefully will be delivered later on today,” President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday. “The president is going to review it.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel’s killing of Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar marked a turn towards the “complete defeat of Hamas”, adding that Israel was “taking control of food distribution” in Gaza. Israel has accused Hamas of diverting and seizing aid supplies. Hamas has denied stealing aid. settlements, 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlements in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said, using the Israeli term for the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967. “Next step, sovereignty!” he said. Katz said the initiative “changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come”. In a statement on Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a “once-in-a generation decision”, saying the initiative had been led by Smotrich and Katz.

Slovenia’s UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar said some members are working on a draft resolution to demand unimpeded aid access. “Remaining silent is not an option,” he told the council. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the Security Council that Israel would allow aid deliveries “for the immediate future” via the UN and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began deliveries on Monday. However, Israel ultimately wants the UN to work through the GHF, which is using private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution by civilian teams at secure distribution sites. The UN and other international aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say the plan is not neutral. “This new scheme is surveillance-based rationing that legitimises a policy of deprivation by design,” said senior UN aid official for the occupied Palestinian territories, Jonathan Whittall. “The UN has refused to participate in this scheme, warning that it is logistically unworkable and violates humanitarian principles by using aid as a tool in Israel’s broader efforts to depopulate areas of Gaza,” he said. – Reuters the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel’s eastern backbone, national security and strategic grip on the area,” it said. The party published a map showing the 22 sites spread across the territory. Two of the settlements, Homesh and Sa-Nur are particularly symbolic. Located in the north of the West Bank, they are actually re-settlements, having been evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, promoted by then-prime minister Ariel Sharon. – AFP “The decision also includes

CAIRO: A UN warehouse in war-torn Gaza was broken into by “hordes of hungry people” on Wednesday as aid trickled into the Palestinian enclave on the brink of famine and the United States readies new terms for a possible truce between Israel and Hamas. The World Food Programme said initial reports indicated two people had died and several more were injured at the central Gaza warehouse. The UN agency appealed for an immediate scale-up of food aid “to reassure people that they will not starve”. An eyewitness video independently verified by Reuters showed large crowds of people pushing into the warehouse and removing bags and boxes as gunfire can be heard. It was not immediately clear how the people may have been killed or injured in the incident. Under growing international pressure, Israel ended an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza 10 days ago. It has allowed a limited amount of relief to be delivered via two avenues – the United Nations or the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). TEL AVIV: Israel announced yesterday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, risking further strain on relations with the international community. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law, and are seen as one of the main obstacles to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The decision was made by the country’s security Cabinet, announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, and Defence Minister Israel Katz, who is in charge of managing the communities. “We made a decision for the development of

BR I E F S

At the United Nations, more than half the Security Council called on Wednesday for the 15-member body to act on Gaza. Israel announces creation of 22 West Bank settlements