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    U.N. Orders Agencies to Find Budget Cuts, Including via Staff Moves From N.Y.

    The instructions from the office of Secretary General António Guterres were reviewed by The New York Times and came after President Trump ordered a review of U.S. funding to the agency.The United Nations, anticipating that President Trump will slash U.S. contributions to the global body, has told its departments to draw up plans for budget cuts, including through staff relocations from New York and Geneva to less-expensive cities.The instructions — outlined in a two-page memo dated April 25 that was reviewed by The New York Times — were sent from Secretary General António Guterres’s office to the heads of all agencies that report directly to him. The memo set a May 15 deadline for all proposals so that they could be added to the 2026 budget.“Your objective is to identify as many functions as possible that could be relocated to existing lower-cost locations,” the memo reads, “or otherwise reduced or abolished if they are duplicative or no longer viable.”In February, President Trump signed an executive order calling for a review of the overall U.S. funding and ties to the U.N. He withdrew the United States from several U.N. organizations, including those dealing with human rights, women’s reproductive rights, climate change, Palestinian aid and global health. In his first term, he also reduced U.S. contributions to peacekeeping efforts.Three senior U.N. officials said on Tuesday that the drastic, cost-cutting measures laid out in the memo had caught the agency’s departments by surprise and went beyond what they had expected. The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the directive was largely viewed as a way for the U.N. to brace for potential additional cuts by Mr. Trump and to proactively insulate it from the financial blow.But the U.N. officials said the budget cuts were ordered only partly in response to Mr. Trump’s moves. The directive comes as the U.N. is adjusting to a host of financial problems, they said, from the withdrawal and reduction in financial contributions by major donors like the United States and Europe to a cash-flow crisis caused by member states’ not paying their annual dues on time and in full.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    U.S. Says Deadly Blast in Yemen Was Caused by Houthi Missile

    An explosion near a UNESCO world heritage site in Yemen’s capital on Sunday killed 12 people, according to health authorities tied to the Houthi-led government.A deadly blast on Sunday near a UNESCO world heritage site in Yemen’s capital was caused by a Houthi missile, not a U.S. airstrike, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command said on Thursday.The health ministry of the Houthi-led government said earlier this week that an American airstrike had hit a densely populated neighborhood of Sana, the Yemeni capital, killing 12 people and injuring 30 others. The blast struck an area adjacent to Sana’s Old City, a UNESCO world heritage site filled with ancient towers.Dave Eastburn, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, said in a statement that while the damage and casualties described by local health officials most “likely did occur,” they were not the result of an American attack. While the United States had conducted military operations over Sana that night, the closest American strike was more than three miles away, he added.The Pentagon’s assessment that the damage was caused by a “Houthi Air Defense missile” was based in part on a review of “local reporting, including videos documenting Arabic writing on the missile’s fragments at the market,” Mr. Eastburn said. The Pentagon did not provide those videos or evidence of its claims in its statements.An initial review by The New York Times of local reporting and open-source material in Yemen found a video showing a missile fragment with Arabic writing posted to social media, however it was from a different location from the market in Sana’s Old City. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ Politburo, said in a phone interview that the American denial was an attempt to smear the Houthis. He reiterated that the group believed that the United States targeted the neighborhood on Sunday, “just as it previously targeted ports, cemeteries and citizens’ homes, resulting in the deaths of hundreds.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Israel’s Military Cites ‘Professional Failures’ in Killings of Gaza Medics

    In a statement summarizing its investigation into the deadly episode, the military said a deputy commander would be dismissed.The Israeli military said Sunday that an investigation into its soldiers’ deadly attack on medics in Gaza last month had identified “several professional failures” and that a commander would be dismissed.The military had previously acknowledged carrying out the attack in Rafah, southern Gaza, that killed 14 rescue workers and a United Nations employee who drove by after the others were shot. But it had offered shifting explanations for why its troops fired on the emergency vehicles and said it was investigating the episode, one that prompted international condemnation and that experts described as a war crime.On Sunday — nearly a month after the attack — the military released a statement summarizing its investigation.“The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident,” it said.The deadly shootings of the rescue workers resulted from “an operational misunderstanding” by troops on the ground “who believed they faced a tangible threat from enemy forces.” Firing on a U.N. vehicle, the statement added, involved “a breach of orders” in a combat setting.Israeli troops fired on ambulances and a fire truck sent by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the Civil Defense, as well as the United Nations vehicle that passed by separately, according to witness accounts, video and audio of the attack.The military said on Sunday that “due to poor night visibility,” the deputy commander on the ground “did not initially recognize the vehicles as ambulances.”Palestinians in Khan Younis, Gaza, mourned medics on March 31 who were killed by Israeli fire while on a rescue mission.Hatem Khaled/ReutersTwo weeks ago, the Israeli military acknowledged that some of its early assertions, based on accounts from troops involved in the killing, were partly mistaken.Military officials had initially asserted, repeatedly and erroneously, that the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” toward the troops “without headlights or emergency signals.”The military backtracked on that assertion a day after The New York Times published a video, discovered on the cellphone of one of the dead paramedics, that showed the clearly marked vehicles flashing their lights and coming to a halt before the attack.Israeli soldiers later buried most of the bodies in a mass grave, crushed the ambulances, fire truck and a U.N. vehicle, and buried those as well.In the statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said that “removing the bodies was reasonable under the circumstances, but the decision to crush the vehicles was wrong.”The commander of the brigade involved will receive a reprimand “for his overall responsibility for the incident,” it said, while the battalion’s deputy commander will be dismissed because of his responsibilities “and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief.”Bilal Shbair More

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    Battling ‘Eat and Flee’ Tourists, Venice Brings Its Entrance Fee Back

    A measure to limit day tourism on peak days began for the second year on Friday, charging day trippers five euros (or 10 for the spontaneous traveler).Early Venetians battled the waves of seawater around them by building sea walls of stone and adapting their lagoon to fit their needs.Now Venetians are battling waves of what officials call “eat and flee” tourists, who throng to the city’s landmarks with packed lunches, dump their garbage and leave without spending much money in Venice.Day trippers will have to start paying an entrance fee to visit the city starting Friday, a controversial levy meant to dissuade people from going during peak periods.This year, city officials have nearly doubled the number of days in which the fee will be enforced, up to 54 days. (It was enforced for 30 days last year.) And a new wrinkle will punish the unorganized: Visitors who wait until the last minute to get their entry permits will pay 10 euros instead of five.The entrance fee was introduced last year with the aim of reducing what city officials call “mordi e fuggi” tourism, or “eat and flee,” referring to visitors who crowd places like the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square for brief visits that do not benefit the local economy much, if at all.The fee has been a good tool to “explain to the world that Venice is unique and fragile and that tourism to Venice must be more respectful,” Simone Venturini, Venice’s municipal councilor in charge of tourism, said in an interview.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    R.S.F. in Sudan Declare Parallel Government Amid Assault on Zamzam Camp

    The United Nations said that at least 300 people were killed when the armed group, the Rapid Support Forces, stormed a camp in Darfur.A Sudanese paramilitary group declared its own government on Wednesday, even as its fighters pressed an all-out offensive on a city in the western Darfur region that has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing from a famine-stricken camp.The announcement of a parallel government by the Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., stoked fears that Sudan’s two-year civil war is rapidly pushing the country toward a potentially disastrous territorial split. The R.S.F. controls much of western and southern Sudan, while the military holds the north and east, including the capital Khartoum. Both sides have been accused of atrocities.The R.S.F. leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, gave few details about the composition of what he called his “government of peace and unity,” other than to say it would include a wide range of ethnic groups reflecting “the true face of Sudan.”Such calls for inclusivity echo longstanding demands by Sudanese pro democracy activists, who oppose the military’s tightfisted grip on power. But as often in Sudan’s brutal conflict, the R.S.F.’s high-minded rhetoric was at odds with the actions of its troops.The paramilitaries launched a large-scale offensive on Friday, storming the Zamzam camp in El Fasher, the last major city in Darfur that the R.S.F. does not control, as part of a broader assault. On Tuesday, the United Nations said that at least 300 people had been killed and as many as 400,000 others forced to flee the camp in a matter of days.Zamzam, which housed at least 500,000 people and where a famine was declared last August, is now largely empty, according to aid workers. They say that at least 30,000 people have fled to Tawila, 50 miles by road to the west — with many arriving dehydrated, malnourished and traumatized by the scenes they witnessed in the camp.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Eyewitnesses Recount Deadly Israeli Attack on Medics in Gaza

    The New York Times interviewed two people who described being detained by Israeli soldiers and looking on as they opened fire on ambulances and a fire truck, killing 15.It was still dark out when a group of ambulances and a fire truck dispatched by Palestinian emergency response services slowed to a halt in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, early on March 23. They had been sent to find their paramedic colleagues, who had headed out in an ambulance on a rescue mission earlier that morning before disappearing.Now the convoy stopped next to the missing ambulance, which stood by the side of the road near some U.N. warehouses. When paramedics got out to look, Israeli soldiers about 50 meters away opened fire on them, according to two men who said they had witnessed the shootings.The two men saw what happened, they said, because they were being held by the same Israeli troops.One of the two, Munther Abed, 27, a volunteer paramedic, said he had been detained after surviving an earlier attack on the missing ambulance that killed two other crew members. The other man, Dr. Saeed al-Bardawil, 55, a physician, said he had been detained alongside Mr. Abed when he and his son were stopped by Israeli troops on their way to go fishing about 4:45 a.m.The New York Times interviewed the two men separately in Gaza days after the United Nations said it had found the bodies of 15 rescue workers — eight from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, six from Gaza’s Civil Defense and one from the United Nations — in a mass grave. Their ambulances, their fire truck and a U.N. vehicle, which had been crushed, were half-buried nearby. The United Nations has accused Israel of killing the 15 workers, discarding their bodies and destroying the vehicles.The two men’s accounts appear to support those accusations. Although their stories could not be independently confirmed, the details they gave also matched the sequence of events in a video obtained and verified by The New York Times, discovered on the cellphone of one of the dead paramedics. That video shows an intense barrage of gunfire hitting the convoy just as dawn breaks.A video captures the moment Israeli troops opened fire on a group of medics in Gaza in late March.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Video Shows Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Under Gunfire Barrage, With Ambulance Lights On

    The U.N. has said Israel killed the workers. The video appears to contradict Israel’s version of events, which said the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.A video captured the moment Israeli troops opened fire on a group of medics in Gaza in late March.A video, discovered on the cellphone of a paramedic who was found along with 14 other aid workers in a mass grave in the Gaza in late March, shows that the ambulances and fire truck that they were traveling in were clearly marked and had their emergency signal lights on when Israeli troops hit them with a barrage of gunfire.Officials from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a news conference on Friday at the United Nations moderated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that they had presented the nearly seven-minute recording, which was obtained by The New York Times, to the U.N. Security Council.An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said earlier this week that Israeli forces did not “randomly attack” an ambulance, but that several vehicles “were identified advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops, prompting them to shoot. Colonel Shoshani said earlier in the week that nine of those killed were Palestinian militants. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video.The Times obtained the video from a senior diplomat at the United Nations who asked not to be identified to be able to share sensitive information.The Times verified the location and timing of the video, which was taken in the city of southern city of Rafah early on March 23. Filmed from what appears to be the front interior of a moving vehicle, it shows a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, clearly marked, with headlights and flashing lights turned on, driving south on a road to the north of Rafah in the early morning. The first rays of sun can be seen, and birds are chirping.The convoy stops when it encounters a vehicle that had veered onto the side of the road — one ambulance had been sent earlier to aid wounded civilians and had come under attack. The new rescue vehicles detour to the side of the road.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Some Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Were Shot Multiple Times, Officials Say

    The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that nearly all of the 15 bodies recovered had gunshot wounds.Days after the United Nations accused Israel of killing 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza, officials who recovered the bodies or carried out the autopsies said some of the rescue workers were shot multiple times before being buried in a mass grave.The Palestine Red Crescent Society, which had eight of its members killed and carried out the recovery mission, said that nearly all 15 bodies showed gunshot wounds, according to a spokeswoman, Nebal Farsakh. One paramedic was found with his hands and feet tied toward his body, Ms. Farsakh said.“My colleagues were shot; the bodies who were retrieved, many of them have multiple gun shots. We found all of them thrown in a mass grave, the bodies were put next to each other and covered with sand,” said Ms. Farsakh in a telephone interview from Ramallah.The deaths of the aid workers, who first went missing on March 23, have drawn international condemnation in recent days.On that day, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, ambulances and a U.N. vehicle came under attack from Israel’s military, then went silent. On Sunday, rescue teams found 15 bodies, most in a shallow mass grave along with their crushed ambulances and the vehicle marked with the U.N. logo. The United Nations, which is typically cautious about assigning blame, accused Israel of killing them.An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said on X on Monday that nine of those killed were Palestinian militants. He said Israeli forces “did not randomly attack” an ambulance, but that several vehicles “were identified advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops, prompting them to shoot.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More