04/08/2025

MONDAY | AUG 4, 2025

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Assange joins Sydney march for Palestine

Ukraine breaks up ‘defence graft scheme’ KYIV: Ukrainian authorities said they had arrested several politicians in connection with a “large-scale corruption scheme” in the defence sector, shortly after an uproar over the independence of anti-graft bodies. A law passed at the end of July stripped the National Anti-Corruption Agency (Nabu) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) of their independence and placed them under the supervision of the prosecutor general, himself appointed by the head of state. President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday backtracked and restored the bodies’ independence following an outcry from foreign allies and the first anti-government street demonstrations since the Russian invasion in 2022. Nabu said on Saturday that it and the SAP had exposed “a scheme for the systematic misappropriation of budget funds allocated by local authorities for the needs of the defence forces, as well as the receipt and provision of unlawful benefits on an especially large scale”. It said the scheme involved inflating prices for electronic warfare and drone equipment and then funnelling 30% of the contract amounts. The suspects include a member of parliament, heads of district and city administrations, members of the National Guard and executives at defence companies. Nabu said it has made four arrests but did not identify those detained. The Interior Ministry said it had suspended the suspected members of the National Guard. – AFP ATTEMPT TO REPLACE UN AID AGENCY NEW YORK: Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said on Saturday that the famine in Gaza is the outcome of a deliberate attempt by Israel to dismantle the UN-led humanitarian system and replace it with a “politically motivated” alternative, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). He warned that Gaza’s man-made famine has been “largely shaped by the attempts to replace the UN-coordinated humanitarian system through the politically motivated ‘GHF. He said the situation has worsened severely since UNRWA was banned from delivering aid to Gaza on March 2. He called for urgent international action. – Bernama RUSSIA CANCELS TSUNAMI WARNING MOSCOW: Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services lifted a tsunami warning for the Kamchatka Peninsula yesterday after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. The ministry had said earlier that expected wave heights were low, but warned people to move away from the shore. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov Volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, scientists reported. Both incidents could be connected to the huge earthquake that rocked Russia’s Far East last week. – Reuters

should not go ahead. Dozens of marchers held up banners listing the names of thousands of Palestinian children killed since the Gaza war broke out on Oct 27, 2023. Labor backbench MP Ed Husic attended the march and called for his ruling party, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to recognise a Palestinian state. Assange did not address the crowd or talk to the media. Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Peter McKenna said more than a thousand police were deployed and the size of the crowd had led to fears of a crush. “No one was hurt,” he told a press conference. “But gee whiz, I wouldn’t like try and do this every Sunday at that short notice.” Police were also present in Melbourne, where a similar protest march took place. The Harbour Bridge is over a kilometre long and was opened in 1932. Since then its twin parabolic arcs have become world famous, a symbol of both Sydney and of Australia. – AFP/Reuters

towards the two-State solution”. The pro-Palestinian crowd braved heavy winds and rain to march across the bridge, chanting “ceasefire now” and “free Palestine”. New South Wales police said it had deployed hundreds of extra staff across Sydney for the march. Mehreen Faruqi, the New South Wales senator for the left-wing Greens party, told the crowd gathered at central Sydney’s Lang Park that the march would “make history”. She called for the “harshest sanctions on Israel”, accusing its forces of “massacring” Gazans, and criticised New South Wales premier Chris Minns for saying the protest

o Marchers call for recognition and ceasefire

SYDNEY: Tens of thousands of pro Palestinian protesters including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge yesterday, closing the world famous landmark. Assange, who returned to Australia last year after his release from a high-security British prison, was pictured surrounded by family and marching alongside former Australian foreign minister and New South Wales premier Bob Carr. France, Britain and Canada have in recent weeks voiced, in some

cases qualified, intentions to diplomatically recognise a Palestinian state as international concern and criticism have grown over malnutrition in Gaza. Australia has called for an end to the war in Gaza but has so far stopped short of a decision to recognise a Palestinian state. But in a joint statement with more than a dozen other nations on Tuesday it expressed the “willingness or the positive consideration ... to recognise the state of Palestine as an essential step

BR I E F S

Fuel trucks set to enter Gaza Assange (with red necktie) marches with protesters in Sydney. – AFPPIC

CAIRO: Egypt’s Al Qahera News TV said yesterday that two fuel trucks carrying 107 tonnes of diesel were set to enter Gaza, months after Israel severely restricted aid access to the enclave before easing it somewhat as starvation began to spread. Gaza’s Health Ministry has said fuel shortages have severely impaired hospital services, forcing doctors to focus on treating only critically ill or injured patients. There was no immediate confirmation whether the fuel trucks had indeed entered Gaza. Fuel shipments have been rare since March, when Israel restricted the flow of aid and goods into the

enclave in what it said was pressure on Hamas to free the remaining hostages. The ministry said yesterday that six more people had died of starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, raising the toll of those dying of such causes to 175, including 93 children, since the war began. Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza but, in response to a rising international outcry, it announced steps last week to let more aid reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected

have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs. Palestinian local health authorities said at least 18 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes across the coastal enclave yesterday. Deaths included persons trying to make their way to aid distribution points in southern and central areas of Gaza, Palestinian medics said. Among those killed was a staff member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which said an Israeli strike at their headquarters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza ignited a fire on the first floor of the building. – Reuters

routes for aid convoys. United Nations agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and open up access to the war-devastated territory where starvation has been spreading. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said 35 trucks have entered Gaza since June, nearly all of them last month. The Gaza government media office said nearly 1,600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions late last month. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks