BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA |
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‘Emmanuellllll’ … ‘Donaldddddd’”
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Starvation is stalking Gaza. Donald Trump suddenly seemed to notice... but will he do something about it?
- President Donald Trump has frequently waved away questions about widespread hunger in Gaza caused by the Israeli military blockade. On Friday, as he embarked for five days of golf and political dealmaking in Scotland, he insisted U.S. food was being delivered. When French President Emmanuel Macron announced a few days earlier that looming famine in Gaza convinced him to recognize a Palestinian state, Trump sniffed: “What he says doesn’t matter.”
- Today, Trump’s view suddenly changed. He finally acknowledged what aid groups have long been saying. “There is real starvation in Gaza, you can't fake that,” Trump told reporters in Scotland, appearing to react to the viral photos of emaciated kids that have recently made the horrors of Israel’s war impossible for many American politicians to ignore. “Based on television … those children look very hungry,” Trump said.
- Trump said he didn’t agree with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared today that “there is no starvation in Gaza.” Meanwhile, 14 Palestinians — including an infant — died from starvation, according to local health officials. In Ohio, Vice President JD Vance also chimed in: “You’ve got little kids who are clearly starving to death. Israel’s gotta do more to let that aid in.”
- The reality is, however, that Washington’s “help” so far has been dismal: Just think of the $230 million humanitarian aid pier, which broke apart and accomplished little. The Biden administration stopped funding UNRWA — the largest aid organization in Gaza, which is run by the United Nations — after Israel accused 12 of the group’s 13,000 members of participating in Hamas’s October 7 attack. Israel’s military has also blocked most food from entering the territory since the early days of the war, which Human Rights Watch has called a war crime.
Trump’s about-face on this issue surprised aid workers. But they remain skeptical that it signals a new U.S. policy.
- “These words are empty. They're absolutely empty,” Chessa Latifi, deputy director of emergency preparedness and response at Project HOPE, told What A Day. An Israeli airstrike struck near a clinic run by her organization last month, killing 10 children. “It means nothing until there is unified pressure on the Israeli government to open these borders, to allow food and medical supplies and other aid in, to ensure the safety of health facilities, and to stop this war.”
- Israel’s blockade has caused food prices to skyrocket during the conflict. A $3 bottle of olive oil costs about $30 in Gaza, said Hani Al-Madhoun, senior director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA, a nonprofit that supports the organization. Butter can cost up to $25, and eggs might run you $40. A big bag of flour? That could be hundreds of dollars.
- “People I know and care about are … being starved,” Al-Madhoun told What A Day. He co-founded the Gaza Soup Kitchen alongside his brother, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike. His elderly parents are still in Gaza. “I’m grateful the president of the United States finally acknowledged the obvious."
- Trump’s comment is an “incredibly important, but very small step” toward boosting humanitarian aid into the territory, Ciarán Donnelly, a top official at the International Rescue Committee, told me. “What we need is a complete change of approach in Gaza from the U.S.”
The Israeli military declined What A Day’s request for comment.
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Donald Trump is miffed at his Russian BFF. Trump said he wants Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine by next week — or else. Specifically, Trump wants a ceasefire in 10 to 12 days, or he’s threatening hefty tariffs. Trump said he’s “very disappointed” with his former buddy. That faint, gruff chortling sound you hear is Vladimir Putin laughing into his borsht.
European officials absolutely hate their bloc’s new 15 percent tariff trade deal with Trump — and they’re not shy about saying so! “It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples … resolves to submit,” French Prime Minister François Bayrou tweeted. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban put it this way: “Donald Trump ate Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast,” he said, referring to the EU Commission president.
More than 130 million Americans are baking in a brutal summer heat wave. Heat advisories and warnings have been issued in 29 states, covering 38 percent of the U.S. population. Reminder: The Trump administration is literally drafting a plan to stop the EPA from being able to fight climate change. And if we don’t fight climate change, this might be the coolest summer of the rest of our lives!
JD Vance wants you to believe the Trump administration has nothing to hide when it comes to child predator Jeffrey Epstein. “We’re not shielding anything,” Vance told reporters. [Trump] has been incredibly transparent about that stuff, but some of the stuff takes time … He wants full transparency.” If you’re being so transparent, then why is Trump musing about pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein confidant now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking???
What's with the shortage of air traffic controllers? One reason: Apparently, the Federal Aviation Administration’s trainee program is so grueling that many people drop out. One trainee described witnessing his peers being cursed out by more experienced controllers. They have to interpret confusing pilot communications on outdated technology. Trainees’ starting pay can be as low as $55,000. I think I’d wanna quit too!
Just when you thought HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had stopped doing weird things with wildlife… he delivers another banger. This time, he let a parasitic sea vampire — better known as a lamprey — bite his arm and give him a “hickey” while visiting an Idaho reservation. This is his second (known) encounter with a parasitic animal, after a worm ate part of his brain and died there.
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THERE'S MORE IN STORE
Great news: What A Day has new merch! A new What A Day t-shirt and bottle opener just dropped. Wearing a soft t-shirt and cracking open a cold drink are two of the things that make even the roughest days better, and we’re all about that at WAD. The designs are really colorful and fun, and I know the WAD Squad is gonna love them. Grab them now at crooked.com/store.
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Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “unconditional ceasefire” after five days of fighting. Those ceasefire talks came after Trump called both countries’ leaders — and threatened to stop negotiating lower tariffs if they didn’t end the fighting, which killed 35 people. So… did Trump actually do something good? We’ll wait to see the details. But in the meantime, we’re here for peace, however it comes.
Some properties in the Eastern Caribbean are offering passports along with beach-front porches. For $200,000, you can take advantage of “citizenship by investment” in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia.
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